Chapter 32

Dreams and the Launching of the attack

Richard grabbed the tail of the creature they had killed. With it still stuck in the hole, he braced his feet and tried to pull it free, or turn it. He heard another click as it turned in the other direction. The hum disappeared as a loud snap came from behind him. Looking over his shoulder, he saw a huge bed, with piles of human skulls around it. A computer console stood next to the bed.

"Damn it! It wasn't the tail that took out the gravity, it was something else. Kyo, see if you can get to that computer console."

Ensign Nakamura felt herself spinning in the air, and saw the console when she came around.

"Yes, Sir."

Grabbing one of the pillars as she floated by it she pushed off towards the console. Flying towards the console, she passed through the field that surrounded the bedroom area and slammed onto the deck as gravity that was inside the field grabbed hold of her.

Shaking her head as she stood up, she said, "Son of a bitch that hurt."

Looking over her shoulder, she saw, Lieutenant Driscoll trying to turn around, and losing his grip on the tail.

Feeling his fingers slip from the tail as he turned around. Richard went flying off in another direction and slammed into a wall.

"Kyo get that gravity back."

"Yes, Sir."

Turning she rushed over to console and examined it. "Damn it, we need a language lesson here."

Pressing symbols on the keypad, a voice came over the com.

"Sha'Karia val jant jahstmei I ajrl."

Quickly pressing the icon again, she shuts the voice off.

"Damn that wasn't it."

Sammy's eyes flashed open and she looked around. Seeing Kevin on another stretcher, she reached out and touched his face.

"Kalnu, vau bekn."

Sitting up she saw the guards watching down the hallway, and she heard a voice asking Sha'Karia what she needed. Getting up she walked towards the corpse of her queen, and knelt beside it.

"Sha'Karia maci falutic ne walim vau kialb."

Pain flared through her head and she shook it until the pain went away.

"What's going on?"

Standing up she walked towards her axes and picked them up. Slipping them into her belt, she then turned and walked towards the throne room and entered. As she stepped into the room, she started floating, as the gravity was still off.

Grabbing the edge of the door, she braced her feet, and angled herself towards Sha'Karia's bed and pushed with her enhanced strength. Staying close to the floor, she slid into the normal gravity, fell the three inches to the deck, and scrambled to her feet. Gathering her feet under her, she walked over to the Japanese ensign and pushed her aside.

After a quick glance at the board, she said, "Pardon me Ensign but you want this button."

She pressed the gravity button, and they heard a thud behind them. When they look, they see Lieutenant Driscoll on the floor.

"Ow! Warn me next time," Richard said as he shook his head, and stood up.

"Lieutenant O'Rourke it looks like you are feeling better," he asked.

"Yes, Sir. I don't know what happened. Last thing I remember I was fighting the creature, and then I woke up in the hallway."

"Well it seems you can read the T'Lari language, so can you shut down the interference for our..."

The ship healed over to starboard and everyone suddenly felt the massive explosions as they vibrate throughout the ship.

"Damn it what the hell is going on?" Richard said.

"I don't know, Sir. Let me try and bring up the sensors."

Sammie went to work on the board and she activated the external sensors. A holographic image of the ship came up in a battle with the USS Washington, several destroyer and Mechs descending all over the ship. On the planet, one of the assault carriers lay in a broken ruin while the medical ships ran for their lives.

"Good God! It looks like the Vaskat is taking on the whole fleet."

"Vaskat?" asked Ensign Nakamura

"That's the name of this ship, Ensign..."

"Ensign Kyo, Ma'am, and it sure looks like it. Can you get rid of the jamming device?"

"Trying now, Ensign, and..." pressing several more buttons she grinned as she continued, "I got it. Go ahead, Sir."

Activating his com, Richard turned on his data link so they can be located. "This is Lieutenant Driscoll to all units, the com jammer is down. We need medical extraction. I am sending our location through our data link.

"This is Major Tillman, we have you located, and we are three decks down from you. I have several squads moving in your location. Get your people ready for extraction, and we will get you out of there as soon ... son of a bitch, have to go."

The sounds of heavy machinegun fire came over the com system.

Richard looked at his fellow officers as he picked up his Tarbeam assault rifle.

"Let's get to a place where we can defend ourselves."

"Sir, we can defend right here. I can raise the shield. No one will see us, but we can see anyone who enters the room," Sammy said.

"Okay, sounds good to me. Ensign Kyo, go get the rest of the men."

Sammy watched the ensign leave, and looked at the back of Lieutenant Driscoll. Silently, she pulled her axes out as she licked her dry lips. She could smell his blood racing through his veins as she moved up behind him. Inhaling deeply she caught the scent of his life. She brought the axe around and took the young man's head off with one swing.

Holding the bloody axe to her face, she licked the blood off the blade and moaned in pleasure, as she whispered, "Oh, that tastes so good."

Ian pulled out the wad of C-4, and one of the spare ammo clips for the .380. Pressing the bullets into the plastique, he made a miniature claymore. Holding the detonator as Beth and Charity pull the grate free, "Beth, can you bring me the grate please?"

Picking up the grate, Beth carried it over to Ian and set it down, and asked, "What now, Ian?"

Smiling at the young woman, he finished pressing the last bullet and the magazine into the putty. "Now I need you all to get in the air-duct and wait for me."

"Okay, Ian," looking at her sisters and cousins she smiled, "You heard him. Let's get in there."

Ian watched the five girls enter the duct and then he placed the plastique against the wall. Taking the motion detonator, he pulled the filament for the sensor, and pressed its base into the putty. Leaning the grate against the wall and covering the explosive, he aligned the motion sensor towards the door.

"Walla! One instant claymore mine! Eat metal you fuckin' shellheads."

Scrambling for the duct, he moved up behind the girls. He could not help but examining Beth's naked flesh.

'Damn that's nice.'

Reaching out, he touched her leg.

"We have to move silently, but swiftly. When you see an air vent, peek in and see if it is occupied, if it's not occupied, keep moving. If it is, back off until we can decide what to do."

Beth looked over her shoulder and nodded her head.

"We understand," Judy said.

Looking ahead, Beth said, "Judy, you heard Ian, so get moving."

"I am on it, Sis," replied Judy as she scrambled down the duct.

She stopped at the first vent and peeked in. She saw a storage room. Moving further on, she came to an intersection, and waited for the rest to catch up. She looked up into the new passageway and saw the ladder attached to the side. As the group arrived, she turned and looked at Ian, and asked, "Ian, do we go up, straight ahead, to the left, or to the right?"

Stopping with the rest, he looked at each passageway.

"Go up ... and hurry. I want to get away from this area a fast as we can. No telling how long until they open the door to our former cell."

The five girls started climbing, and Ian stood up. He then followed behind them. Keeping his eyes directly ahead, and not up, so he would not embarrass himself or them, he followed closely behind them as they climbed the ladder.

"If you can, skip the next level, and climb to the one above it," he said.

Turning on his internal com, he was glad Amy had insisted all assault Marines have two of them installed.

'Thank you, Sir. See you soon.'

Ian looked up and saw the girls looking down at him.

"Climb two levels, we get out on that level and join up with some Marines."

Beth looked up at the new ladder and started climbing.

"Okay, Ian, were going.

Ken looked at the door and stood up. Walking towards the door, it opened for him as he neared it. Stopping for a second, he looked at the bloody corpse, and walked into the room. Behind him, the door snapped shut. With his attention focused on the corpse he was walking towards, he did not notice that there was no dust on the floor, nor covering the furniture. When he stepped into the clean area, everything came to a stop.

Lieutenant Richard Driscoll looked over at Sammy O'Rourke and saw a weird look in her eyes.

"Sammy, we'd better go help. There are a lot of them to move, plus I want all the equipment and weapons brought in. We may need them."

Standing there, Richard watched her blink, and then she nodded her head at him.

"Yes, Sir," Sammy said as she shook her head.

She went out into the hallway, passing Ensign Kyo and another private as they carried one of the wounded in. Going over to Kevin, she picked him up and carried him into the room. Behind her, Kyo stopped as he started using his internal com system.

Kyo reached down, picked up several of the weapons and carried them into the throne room. Coming to a stop in front of Lieutenant Driscoll as he set the weapons down, he made his report.

"Sir, I have heard from a Corporal McGregor, he's on his way here with five survivors."

"Good, we need the help. How are the wounded?"

Everyone seems to be Okay, but I will be glad when we can get out of here, this ship gives me--"

"—the creeps too. It's like we are being watched," interrupted Richard. Looking around the bedchamber, Richard got up, and started checking out the walls, and found several doors behind the Tapestries on the walls depicting other species being consumed in massive feasts.

Kala scrambled to the door, trying to open it, with her sister wives right behind her. The plassteel door refused to open, and Kala started banging on it. Amy knelt beside the control panel, along with Tammy. They start entering codes into the lock mechanism.

Jessica appeared and looked at her three sisters. "What's wrong my loves?" Looking around she failed to see or sense their husband. "Where is our love?"

Kala pounded on the door one more time, and turned to face Jessica.

"He is in that room. As soon as the door closed, I could not feel him anymore."

Jessica looked at the door, commanded it to open and was surprised when it refused, and cried out, "It won't open for me."

Amy peeled the faceplate off and examined the circuits, reaching in she pressed the reset and the doors started to open. "Somehow the door went into standby mode. I had to reset the doors." Standing up she watched as Kala rushed into the room.

"Kala stop!"

Kala watched the doors open, and she saw Ken standing there in mid-step.

Rushing through the open doors even as Amy shouted for her to stop, she yelled, "Ken, what's wrong?"

Reaching out for him, her hand was almost to him when Amy yelled once more. Hurrying into the room, Amy saw Ken standing there, and that Kala was about to touch him.

"KALA, STOP RIGHT THERE!" she shouted and was relieved when Kala did as she was told.

Kala's hand froze just before it touched Ken's motionless body and she looked over at Amy, and asked, "Why?"

"Because he is in a stasis field and if you had touched it, you would have been dragged in," replied Amy as she walked up to her sister. "We need to shut it off so we can rescue him and Doctor Wild."

Looking over her shoulder at Jessica, she continued with what she was saying, "Jessica, see if you can access this decks power system, and shut the room down."

"Accessing the mainframe to shut down the stasis generators."

Closing her eyes, Jessica 'stepped' into the computer, 'Washington.'

Around the hidden deck, the stasis generators went down. Ken dropped to the floor, stunned, along with the bloody man in front of him. The man started gasping for breath from his broken bones, and tried to roll over.

The three women rushed forward and knelt beside Ken and the other man.

"Jessica, we need a medical doctor routed to us ASAP," Tammy ordered as she checked the man over. Tammy said, "Sir, please do not move, I have summoned a medical team."

"Doctor Wild, please stay still. I have summoned a medical team for you." Jessica said as well.

Marcus focused his eyes on the young woman above him and with a gasp he asks, "How ... Cough ... how lo..." another seizure of coughing attacked his body.

Tammy checked the wounds on the man, "Sir, you have been in stasis for twelve hundred years, the year is 2004. No don't talk, let me continue checking your wounds."

Tammy continued to examine the doctor and found his left arm and leg has been broken, besides possible internal injuries.

Marcus looked at the woman that was flickering in the light, and said, "I don't know you?"

Doctor Holly Jameson walked down the hallway and stepped into the transport tube. Leaning against the wall, she groaned in exhaustion and rubbed her sore neck.

"Deck nine, room 3476."

As the transport took off to deliver her to her quarters, her mind digested the scenes of the wounded and maimed she had worked on for the last nine hours. Suddenly a dry eerie voice interrupts her thoughts.

"I am sorry, Doctor Jameson. You are needed on Sierra deck for a critically wounded person. I am diverting the transport now."

With a gut wrenching turn, the transport tube came to a stop and hurled her across the tube as the transport took off in another direction.

"Fuck! What the hell is going on?" asked Holly as she picked herself up off the floor. "Amy, Jessica what is going on?"

Jessica appeared in her misty form and a second later, her hologram appeared solid.

"I am sorry, Doctor Jameson. Admiral Thompson wants you on Sierra deck for a critically wounded man."

"Condition of patient, types of injuries?" asked Holly as her mind went into overdrive.

"Doctor Wild has a broken leg, broken arm, three cracked ribs and a nicked lung, head trauma, loss of blood and he has been in stasis for twelve hundred years."

"What? Is that even possible with wounds like you describe?" Holly asked as she gathered her thoughts.

"Yes, Ma'am. The stasis field literally froze his body in time. We must save him. Doctor Marcus Wild was the chief Federation expert on cybernetic AI/interface technology."

Holly looked at Jessica in shock at who the man was. Just the night before she had been studying about his achievements.

"I agree, he is definitely a man we need to save," she said as the doors opened onto the deck.

Stepping out she saw a nameplate on the wall that said, 'Dr. Marcus Wild.' Looking at the nameplate, she glanced at Jessica. "Which way?"