Chapter 3: One Little Girl and Many Soldiers

Ted walked down the hallway, passing people who were being guided out of the medical bays, and were being lead back down to the shuttles.

Passing a side passageway, he started to head into medical when he heard the crying. Turning around, he saw a brown haired girl sitting against the wall. Her dress was slightly dirty, and her knees were pressed tightly to her chest as she rocked. Walking over, he saw she was about eight years old.

Kneeling beside her, he said, "Hi, I'm Ted. Are you okay?"

Autumn looked up at the man talking to her, tears streaked her face and she shook her head.

"Do you want to talk? Would you like me to summon someone for you? Are you hungry?"

Autumn shrugged her shoulders, and said, "A little."

Reaching out his hand, he said, "Okay let's get you some food."

Taking Ted's hand as she stood up, she asked, "What can I have?"

Ted looked down at her, "You can have anything you want. What's your name?"

"Can I have blueberry pancakes? And my name is Autumn ... Autumn Louise Malone"

Stopping he looked at her and solemnly shook her hand, and said, "Hello, Autumn Louise Malone, I am Commander Ted White."

Autumn giggled as he shook her hand, and said, "You're silly. Where are my pancakes?"

Ted smiled down at her, and led her into a room labeled M-79, he asked, "How many can you eat, and what kind of syrup?"

Autumn looked around for a stove and did not see one, and said, "I am really hungry, and blueberry syrup what else? Oh, and whipped cream. But where's the kitchen?"

Ted smiled, and said as he walked up to the replicator, "Four blueberry pancakes, with blueberry syrup with whipped cream on them. One glass of milk on the side."

The machine sparkled and a tray formed, holding a plate with four perfectly shaped pancakes with whipped cream on them, a syrup dispenser, and a glass of milk. Picking up the tray, he turned and saw Autumn standing there with her eyes as big as saucers.

Walking over to her, he set the tray down on the table, and said, "Eat up, before it gets cold."

Autumn moved over to the table and sat down looking at the food, and asked, "Was that magic?"

She took the syrup, covered the pancakes, and picked up her fork.

Ted chuckled at her words, and said, "No it's a machine called a replicator. Have you ever seen Star Trek?"

Autumn thought for a second as she ate the pancakes, and said, "Yes, I have. These are good."

"Well, in Star Trek they have replicators that can make things, these are just like them," Ted said.

"Oh, okay," Autumn said as she as she took a drink of her milk.

Ted walked over to the replicator, and said, "Large milk please." As the machine formed the glass, he said to Autumn, "So Autumn can you tell me what happened to you?"

With a mouthful of food, she responded, "My school fell over on me, then a big robot came and lifted it off me like magic."

Ted smiled, and said, "What school was that Autumn? So you like magic?"

Autumn nodded her head, and said, "Elmcrest and yes I do like magic. Specially Harry Potter."

"Then you will like this, Amy can you come here?" when nothing happened he said, "Jessica can you come here?"

Suddenly Jessica appeared and said, "You called, Commander?"

"Well I called Amy, but she didn't appear. So I called you."

Autumn scooted away from the magical woman and squeaked, "Who are you."

"Amy is trying to help the Admiral. Hello my name is Jessica, who are you?"

Ted looked over at Autumn, and said, "Autumn its okay, this is Jessica, and she is my friend."

Autumn looked at the figure, and said, "Your friend?"

Jessica walked over and knelt on the floor, and said, "Yes I am his friend. How were your pancakes?"

"They were good. How come I can see through you, are you a ghost?"

Jessica snickered and said, "No, I am not a ghost I am one of the ship's holograms. I am very glad you liked your breakfast."

While they were talking, Ted contacted Tammy on the bridge, 'Tammy have search and rescue get a phone book. Look up 'Malone' and do a search near McDonald road and Elmcrest elementary. We have a survivor of the school here and no family.'

'I will get right on it, bro.'

Ted looked over at Autumn and Jessica talking, and said, "Autumn, what are your mother and father's names?"

Autumn thought for a second, and said, "My mommy's name is Marion and daddy's name is Tony."

"Jessica can you do a search for Autumn's parents, and see if they have been rescued."

Jessica started scanning the survivor's records, and got a hit, "Already am, Commander. I have a Tony Malone who was rescued from the Eldorado casino..."

Autumn got excited and shouted out, "That's Daddy! He is a security guard there."

"Sir, he was released from the ship yesterday and is in Fallon. I have contacted the guards at the camp and they are locating him as we speak... " Scanning the incoming records she said, Sir, a message has come in from the President of the United States."

"What's it say?"

"They are demanding we allow their doctors onboard to see to the wounded."

Ted thought for a minute of denying them permission, but they were doctors, so he said, "Tell them they can send five doctors aboard tomorrow morning at 8 am. But we want to know their names. Then hack into the AMA and get their profiles so we can see who is dangerous and who we need to watch."

Autumn continued to eat her food as she listened to them talk, and said, "I thought doctors were good guys?"

Ted looked over at Autumn and replied, "Some doctors are good, but some are not."

Autumn thought on it, and said, "Oh, okay."

Commander Hutcheson walked into his office and picked up the phone to issue a recall order for the teams. Waiting for the phone to be answered by someone in dispatch he examined the note the General gave him. 'Office bugged, use your own discretion, do not sacrifice your men, even if failure. Destroy this note.' As he finished reading the paper, he dropped it in the shredder as the phone was picked up.

"Dispatch, how may I help you? Sergeant Higgins speaking."

"This is Commander Hutcheson. I am issuing a recall notice for Seal teams ten, nineteen, twenty-six and twenty-nine for the East Coast. Report to the base. Also, activate Seal teams nine and thirty for the West Coast, in preparation for a combat insertion at North Island Naval base. Full combat mode HALO drop, we will be dropping from a C-5 Galaxy. This is to go out by secure landline to Coronado, California under scrambler mode delta."

"Right away, Sir."

Jimmy hung up the phone and grabbed his packed duffle bag, and headed over to the team's bunker for the briefing. As he entered the room, he was unsurprised that he was the first one to arrive and he went into the backroom to change.

Around the base and city, beepers went off calling the twenty-four men back to duty. An hour later, they were in the conference room waiting to see what was going on, when Commander Hutcheson walked into the room carrying a folder.

Going to the podium, he looked out at the men sitting there and then to the two Shore Patrol guards at the door and said, "Guards, outside, please."

As the guards left, he looked at the men, and said, "Gentlemen, we have a mission. We will be teaming up with two more seal teams out of California. Our orders are to capture these people."

Walking over to the chalkboard, he turned it around showing four-color photos. Taking the pointer, he set it on the first picture.

"Gentleman this is Admiral Kenneth Thompson, his sister Jenny, and his parents John and Martha Thompson. Our orders are to infiltrate one of the many medivac shuttles that have been rescuing survivors in Reno. We will take the shuttle, hold the crew hostage, fly up to the ship, and capture it. We are to arrest any officers we see on protective custody orders, and then turn the ship over to the military. This is a direct order from the president."

"Full combat mode, double up on C4 explosives, and silencers for all weapons. Tear gas and knock out grenades only," He said as he looked at his watch and continued, "We take off from Norfolk in ninety minutes, land in North Island Naval Base and pick up teams nine and thirty. Then we will be doing a HALO drop out over Lake Tahoe and drift into western Reno, the C-5 Galaxy will then carry out the diversion by airdropping several tons of water and MRE's at Stead Airport.

"Weapons are silenced MP-5s and Mark 23 mod 45's equipped with silencers. Gather your weapons, and let's go take a ship," Jimmy said.

The men stood up and file out towards the armory where they drew the equipment they needed. Ten minutes later, they were climbing into two Sikorsky Super Sea Stallions and flying towards Norfolk Naval base.

Tina felt a hand shake her shoulder, and a voice said, "Tina wake up, you have been here for nine hours. Now go get some sleep in your quarters."

Tina looked up into Kathleen O'Neil's face, and said, "No! Why did you wake me! I was talking to Ken. I was going to bring him out. I know it," she said as tears ran down her face.

Kathleen knelt beside the young woman, and asked, "Tina, what do you mean?"

Tina wiped her eyes, and said, "I found him! I was going to bring him out of his sleep, but you woke me up, and I lost him."

"How do you mean you found him ... You mean you were talking to his mind?"