Chapter 28 - The Peace Ends

For the next week, every citizen had concubines hovering around him or her. If a citizen showed any fatigue, they were dragged back to their pods and forced to sleep. James and Yvette grumbled a bit about the concubines taking over, but the rest was definitely doing them good. Once again, gathering in our large recreation room became a popular pastime. Tyson, Terrence and Brad even came up with rules for three-person hockey. Teams were formed from a citizen and his concubines. Janice and Tina, who wanted James to start playing, coaxed me onto the ice. We struggled quite a bit at first, as none of us had much experience, but I have to admit it was great fun.

Tamara and Tiffany were probably the most affected. Paula and Jillian had been horrified when the twins slept for almost twenty hours after being dragged to bed by Claire and Whitney. After that, any attempt by the twins to go to the command post was fought by their own concubines, who insisted that the twins needed to be at their best the next time there was a real crisis. Eventually a compromise was set up where one twin would be at the command post with two concubines.

Everyone still worried. Borneo Command could provide no information regarding Chief Scientist Colonel Clint Johanes, and Central Command could only confirm that he had embarked on Sir Paridell as planned, and was in transit.

Candi and Randi proved their value to the colony over the next week. The duo acted like ditzy teenage cheerleaders most of the time. However, now that all the concubines were united in keeping the citizens from overworking, it was these two who scheduled everyone's duties. They even got with Bren and Rene to come up with a training plan to get more concubines trained for duties in the medical bay and laser pods. They even coaxed me into training in teleport operation. I spent four hours in sleep training learning the basics before passing a test administered by the AI.

We still had time to relax. I had two shifts where I helped in the medical bay during our first week, but otherwise I spent my time watching James or working on my first tapestry.

For my sister concubines and I, we also worked out a plan where every afternoon two of us took James back to the pod for a little cuddling and lovemaking. This had served to strengthen our bonds.

The final day of that week, we had our first crisis. Kitty and Brittany were serving in the command post. I had joined them while James napped with Tina and Janice. Kitty was talking about her child. We knew that she should be having her baby in about two weeks, and she was excited. Brittany was a bit more nervous, but it was clear she was looking forward to giving birth.

They had been asking me about my experience with giving birth to Madoka. I was trying to figure out a way to describe the combination of embarrassment, excitement and discomfort I had felt while lying on the maternity bed when the tracking display in front of Kitty lit up.

"Damn!" Kitty said as she spun in her chair to look at the lights. "One moment!"

She started hitting some switches to adjust the signal. At one point she paused, while looking at the small informational display directly in front of her. Then she glanced over her shoulder at Brittany.

"Jump point opening. Based on the location and vector, the ship probably came from the Wolf system. Do we have any communications?"

"We had no scheduled ships," Brittany replied as she checked her displays. "I've got repeaters in the area, but they aren't picking up a signal."

Kitty sighed. "Better make a call. We've got a visitor."

I could see Brittany's shoulders slump. She reached out and touched a control. "We have an unscheduled arrival. It appears to have jumped in from the Wolf system. As soon as more information is available, I'll update the announcement. Currently the ship has not emerged from the jump point."

I walked over to look over Kitty's shoulder. She was intently viewing a small display. Words and numbers scrolled across the display when I glanced at it.

"You understand that?" I asked.

"It's not easy," Kitty said. "I'm guessing that the design for this display came from one of the alien races. There are a number of elements that take some getting used to. Wait, the ship just emerged and I have a reading."

She leaned forward to look at a new display. Her left hand turned a dial, but then she nodded. "It's a Confederacy design. Brit, do we have any communications?"

"Not yet," Brit replied testily. "There is a bit of a lag at first. I should be able to read any IFF signal in a minute."

Kitty nodded. "No other jump points opening. It looks like we just have one ship. From the energy signature, it's more powerful than a corvette. I'd guess either a destroyer, or a damaged battle cruiser."

"Destroyer," Brit replied. "Their IFF is working. It's the Sahara. The computer reports that she's an African class."

"We should let the colony know," I reminded Brittany.

She turned to look at Kitty. "Any idea of the damage?"

"I can see at least three holes through her armor, and it looks like she's missing most of her port side anti-missile stations," Kitty replied. "The power readings are fairly steady though. It looks like minor damage."

"Got it," Brittany said before reaching out to hit a switch. "We have a positive identification on our visitor. It's Sahara, an African class Destroyer based at Borneo. No communications from her, but Kitty says her scans show mostly minor damage."

"Sounds good," a voice said from the door. I turned to look to see Candi and Randi entering. The door to the hallway remained open as Candi move to stand behind Kitty.

"May I?" she asked Kitty. When my sister concubine nodded, Candi bent over and began to hit several of the switches.

Randi had grabbed a chair from one of the combat stations and was sitting next to Brittany. She was asking questions as she walked Brittany though a procedure.

I was thinking I should get out of the way when Candi stood up straight. "I've refined the scan. It looks like Sahara has taken five or six hits on her port side. The engines don't appear to be damaged, but her defenses are definitely compromised. We can also expect her to have casualties. Several point defense stations took hits."

Before anyone could respond a voice came in over the loudspeaker. "Sahara to Ishtar Control, please respond. This is Captain Thomas Narvaza. Repeat, Sahara to Ishtar Control, please respond." The voice sounded extremely worried.

I glanced over at Randi, but she merely pointed to a couple of switches. Brittany hesitantly reached out and activated one of the switches. "This is Ishtar Control. We see you Sahara. What are your current needs?"

"Current needs?" Candy said quietly. "You trying to sound professional?"

"I'm sorry," Brittany replied. "I don't know what to say."

"You did fine," Terrence's voice called out. I whirled around to find him standing in the doorway. He entered followed by Veronica.

Veronica dashed past everyone and claimed the station were Louis usually modeled repairs. She sat down and started activating some of the systems. Several moments passed in silence.

"We're getting communications lag," Randi said. "It looks like Sahara has lost her more powerful antennae."

"How bad will it be?" Terrence asked.

Kitty shook her head. "Sahara is out near the orbit of Kali. If we have to trust to light speed communications we will have a lag of nearly thirty minutes in each direction. If they can transmit in the higher frequencies it will be a one way lag."

Terrence nodded. "Veronica?"

"She's definitely still space worthy," Veronica replied. "But she made the jump here, so that was expected. If we want the ship to survive another combat we'll have to replace the broken armor and point defense. You really need Louis or Tim here for the final estimate, but I think we can turn her in fifteen hours or so. It will depend on how deep the damage goes."

"I've been trying to refine the scans more," Candi said. "It looks like most of the damage was kinetic. I'm not seeing deep penetration in the holes I've scanned."

Terrence looked over at Candi. "Any idea why we have the communications lag?"

Candi whispered in Kitty's ears. I watched as Kitty entered a series of commands. Candi knelt next to her watching a display. "Stop!" she suddenly cried out.

She pointed at the screen. "Kitty, what does that say?"

Kitty looked at the screen. "It looks like the primary and secondary antennae for the in-system communications system run down the port side of the ship."

"Right where the ship has taken the worst damage," Terrence finished. "We really need to create a report about the design flaws we discover. So we can hear Sahara quickly, but they have to wait until their back-up communication systems pick up a transmission."

Brittany turned to her console. "Sahara, our scans suggest that you have lost a lot of your communications systems. Can you confirm?"

"And now we have to wait for Sahara to receive," Randi said.

We waited in silence. James and Yvette burst into the room. "Terrence," James called out. "What do we know?"

Terrence smiled. "That Kitty and Brittany will be very successful in the command post," he replied flippantly. My sister concubines giggled as he looked over at the display Veronica was using. He watched the display for a moment and then shook his head.

"Actually, that is about all we know," he admitted. "The ship is Sahara. She's an African Class Destroyer. Our scans show considerable damage on her port side, and it appears that most of her ability to receive communications was destroyed. The commander, a Captain Thomas Narvaza, did call out, but if their communications are as bad as we think, it will be five more minutes before they receive our response."

Yvette sighed and looked at me. "Meiko, you took teleporter training, correct?"

"Yes," I admitted.

Yvette nodded. "Get to our new teleport station. I'm going to send Michael and Lindsay to the medical station now."

I glanced at James. He nodded at me. "Right now, Terrence, Brad and you are the only ones to pass the teleporter training.

"What about Maggie and Claire?" I asked. "I thought they'd been involved with the teleport pods we use for crippled ships."

"Moving them into position only," Terrence said. "They don't activate the teleporters once they are in position."

I nodded, but turned and started rushing towards the door. As I departed I heard James speaking. "Kitty, Candi, keep refining the scans. Yvette, we probably need Maggie here. I'm guessing that Sahara will have some critically wounded that need to be teleported to our Medical Bay."

I missed the reply as I dashed out of the door. Once in the corridor I could hear rapid footfalls echoing up and down the passages. I had to dodge a couple of others as they hurried through the passages until I arrived at the first of the heavy doors separating our homes from the area we planned on using for guests.

The door was closed and I looked up at the ceiling. "AI? I need to get to the visitor teleporter. Can the doors be opened?"

There was a pause and then James replied. "Meiko, the doors will be opening now. We received a reply from Thomas, they have three critically wounded crew. Maggie is guiding a teleport pod to the ship."

The doors started to open. "Who will be in medical?" I asked.

"Me," I heard Lindsay say from behind me.

I turned to look. The former supermodel was wearing a lab coat and wearing glasses. She looked proficient and sexy at the same time. I wanted to say more, but the door had finished opening, so after nodding to acknowledge Lindsay's comment, I dashed through the doorway.

Lindsay ran alongside me. She had no trouble keeping up with me as we passed the other two now-open doors and headed to the old colony center.

"Jacques should be here shortly, to handle gurneys," Lindsay said as we ran. "Nathan is supposed to come as well, but he might be a few minutes."

I nodded again. The pace Lindsay was setting left me with no breath to spare for speaking.

A moment later we entered the teleport room. Lindsay looked confused. "What about medical?" she asked.

I was making my way to the control station. My right side had cramped up once we reached the colony center. I kept inhaling deeply, trying to get my breath back. Finally, I stopped to lean against the control panel.

Lindsay was looking around the small room. Confusion was evident on her face. She looked ready to leave the room to head down the hallway and the entrance to the medical bay. Then as she started to turn away from the teleporter pad, the wall directly to the left of the pad started to open up. As we watched in silence a new doorway appeared as the wall slowly slid upward. Behind the wall we could see several medical units.

"It's close," I said needlessly. My side had stopped hurting. I pushed away from the controls and started working on powering up the pads.

Lindsay giggled. "Well, it makes sense. We've had too many times where we had to rush people from the teleporter to our medical bay back home. This will definitely minimize the distance

She started walking to the now revealed medical stations when Jacques and Michael burst into the room. "Donna will be heading this way," Jacques said. "Or she will once she escapes Tanya."

Lindsay giggled. "Hopefully my sister can keep her busy. Will Ed be coming?"

Jacques nodded. "He's at the command post. One of the injured needs immediate attention and he's going to try to talk them through triage while Maggie navigates the teleport unit."

I felt three sets of eyes turn towards me. Quickly, I scanned the displays on the control unit. I had a clear and strong connection with the mobile teleport unit. "I have a strong signal. Ready to teleport."

Lindsay nodded. "Michael, Jacques, see if we can get some gurneys ready."

They walked past her and into the medical bay. Lindsay looked over at me. "And now we wait."

I nodded. Michael and Jacques soon returned with four gurneys. They lined the gurneys up near the teleport pads and then walked over to a wall and leaned against it.

None of us appeared interested in talking. Lindsay hovered by the doorway to the medical bay. I watched the displays, checking the signal to the mobile teleport unit constantly. Outside, the hallways on this side of the colony were silent. We stood in this stillness for what seemed like an hour or more.

A loud thud broke the stillness. It was followed by several others. They were evenly spaced and appeared to be getting closer. Jacques ran to the door leading back to the colony and looked out. He quickly popped his head back in.

"Battle armor," he informed us. "I'm not sure who it is though."

I nodded and turned back to the controls. I found the one that would send a chime back to the command post and hit it.

"Ishtar Command," Brittany said. "What do you need Meiko?"

"I'm just checking in. We're ready to teleport," I replied.

"Have Tyson and Fred arrived?" Brittany asked.

"Is that who's in the battle armor?" I asked. "Jacques said he saw someone coming up the corridor, but wasn't sure who it was."

"That would be them," Brittany replied. "The communications with Sahara have been a bit strained, so James sent them to head off problems. They should be ready to start teleporting people in a moment; Maggie is attaching the pod to Sahara's forward airlock now."

"Just let me know when I should activate the system. We're all set up," I chirped as I turned to make a final check on the system connections.

The room seemed to tremble for a moment. I whirled to the left to see someone wearing battle armor enter the room. He glanced around and then reached up to remove the helmet. Tyson smiled as he put the helmet under an arm. "James wanted a bit of protection for you," he informed us.

Jacques shrugged. "From what I've heard, the last few times we teleported people to the planet, they are a bit too disoriented to cause much trouble immediately."

Tyson nodded. "We hope this group is the same way, but the commander is definitely on the arrogant side, and James doesn't want any problems."

Tyson put the helmet back on and walked over to stand by the teleport control panel. I was going to say something when the speaker crackled. "We have a good seal. Open the airlock. There will be an active teleport pad on the other side."

Immediately, I started to switch the controls to make the pad active. The AI noted that due to distance and the lack of a solid communications link, I would have to make constant adjustments to ensure the stability of the portal. Grimly I set about the process of keeping the field stable.

For the first five minutes nothing happened. Then with a flash, three people appeared on our side of the teleport pad. Two were obviously healthy, but they held a slumped figure between them. Michael dashed over, pointing to the nearest gurney.

"Don't carry him like that, I'll take his feet and we'll put him on the gurney," he shouted.

The men ignored him as they stepped away from the pad. They dragged the unconscious man between them as they approached one of the gurneys. As they approached the gurney, I noticed their shoulders tense. They threw the man over the gurney so he lay with his stomach on the gurney. His head and arms dangled on the other side as his legs remained pointed at the floor.

Michael ran up and put his arms under the head of the man. "What are you doing?" he screamed. "We need to be gentle. Get his feet and let's put him flat on the gurney."

The men said nothing, but one did bend down to pick up the man's legs and rotate them onto the gurney. Michael then got behind the gurney and started to push it towards the Medical Bay.

No other person had come through the teleporter. I glanced over at Tyson. He was looming over the two uninjured crewmembers from Sahara. The men had walked over by the entrance to the hallway and now stood with their arms crossed and a bitter expression on their faces "Is that all?" I asked in a whisper.

The two crewmen from Sahara ignored us. Then there was another flash and several people appeared on the teleport pad.

This time the first people to appear were walking side by side. They had their hands at their sides and at first I thought they were holding hands until they walked off the platforms and I could see the stretchers they were carrying.

Blankets covered the figures lying on the stretchers. Jacques jumped forward and waved to the entering crew. "Put them on the gurneys. We'll get them in pods right away."

Jacques watched as the crew of Sahara moved to the gurneys and carefully set the stretchers down on the gurneys. One of the two injured crewmembers was moaning and he tapped one of the crew who had carried them. "Push the gurney through there," Jacques said pointing to the Medical Bay.

The first gurney was pushed away as Jacques approached the second gurney. He paused when he reached the gurney. He put a hand up above the mouth of the injured crewman and then turned back towards the Medical Bay. "Lindsay! I need help!"

Lindsay came dashing out. "The first crewman is in a pod, I don't have a full report yet," she informed us. "I have another I need to get into a pod. Why did you shout?"

Jacques pointed to the gurney. "I'm not sure this man is still breathing."

Lindsay ran over and held her hand above his mouth. She frowned for a moment. Then she ripped the blanket off and put an ear to the chest of the injured man.

The frown grew deeper. She stood back up and pulled something from a pocket of the lab coat she was wearing. It looked like a small pen. She held this device above the man's left eye for a moment, flicking it to the side a couple of times. The response must have been unsatisfactory, because she reached behind the man's head and neck to lift him up.

I gasped as the man's head rose above the cloth of the stretcher. His hair was matted to his skull with blood and other fluids. Lindsay looked at this and sighed. "What hit this man?"

"We took a hit from some weapon that sent tons of small spheres into our port side. Justin was serving in the portside missile defense center. One of the spheres got him," a male crewman said.

Several more crewmen had arrived. I noticed that Jacques had been quietly guiding them to the Medical Bay while Lindsay examined the one man. Lindsay took the blanket and covered the one crewman completely.

"Hey!" one of the first two Sahara crewmen to arrive screamed out. "Aren't you going to treat him?"

Lindsay shook her head. "Confederacy medical technology can't bring back the dead. This man has stopped breathing and from what I can tell, he's probably missing half of his brain. I'm sorry, but he's gone."

The crewman lunged toward Lindsay, only to run into Tyson. Tyson put his hands on the man's shoulders.

"You have to save him you bitch!" the man screamed. "He can't be dead! Put him in a pod!"

Lindsay turned away and ran back to the Medical Bay. As she did three more injured crewmen stepped through the portal. They were followed by a young blond haired woman wearing an intact uniform. She looked around the room.

"That's all of our injured crew. Captain Narvaza wants to keep the others at their stations while we head into dry dock, but he knows we need to report. Whom should I report to?" she asked.

I touched the communications signal on the controls. Brittany's voice immediately responded. "This is Ishtar Control. What do you need Meiko?"

"I have a crewmember from Sahara asking about making a report," I responded.

"Who is it?" James asked.

"Lieutenant Cassidy Crewshaw," the young woman replied. "I am the executive officer on Sahara. Captain Narvaza is staying with the ship to bring it in. With our communications out he thought I should come an make a report."

"Go ahead," James said. "We can record the report and send a ping to Borneo."

"Shouldn't this be in a briefing room?" the lieutenant said. She was looking about the room. Six healthy crewmen from Sahara were standing near the doorway leading to the halls. Fred and Tyson watched over them.

"Meiko," James asked. "What's the situation?"

"We have Lieutenant Cassidy and six other crew from Sahara here in the teleport room. Five crewmembers from Sahara are in medical pods. Lindsay did declare one of the casualties as dead. The body is on a gurney in the teleport room," I reported

"Tyson, take the healthy crewmembers other than the Lieutenant and show them where they can rest. That should give us sufficient privacy," James ordered

"Sir!" Tyson said. He turned to the crewmen who were standing by the wall. "I can show you a place to rest. Let's head out."

Tyson left the room. The crew of Sahara shuffled off after them. As soon as the last one left, Cassidy collapsed to the floor. I jumped to catch her.

The woman had her face in her hands. I could hear faint sobs coming from her. "James," I called out. "The lieutenant just collapsed."

She shook me off, waving an arm. But then covered her face with her hands. "I'm sorry. It's just we saw so many die."

I glanced up at Fred who was studying the wall. Carefully I put my arms around the woman and held her. "It isn't the end of everything," I whispered. "You survived. Take a deep breath. You can move on."

Lieutenant Cassidy nodded. Her hands came away from her face. She looked up at and I could see the tracks of tears tracing their way down her cheeks. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I saw our helmsman die right in front of me. I never thought I'd have to see that."

I helped her too her feet. "I can understand. It's never easy. You can make it though. Just give your report. That will help."

The lieutenant gave me a hug. "Very well. Are you ready for me to report?"

"Go ahead," James said.

"We were on a routine raid of the Wolf system. We jumped to a point outside the system. Captain Narvaza wanted us to sneak in. He hoped we could get closer and maybe catch a hive sphere. At first, everything worked perfectly. We coasted into the system with our engines at standby. The Sa'arm are very busy in the system, but all the activity is around the fourth planet. We drifted for another week as Lieutenant Mitchner took passive scans. Finally, we had drifted to attack range of a cluster of Volturnus transports."

"How many ships in the cluster?" James asked.

"I don't know," The Lieutenant responded. "At that time I noticed that we were seeing a lot of strange echoes in the scans. I had started trying to plot ways around the echoes when Captain Narvaza ordered the ship to make an attack run."

She shivered and started to slump back to the floor. Fred sprinted over and caught her before she fell. The Lieutenant gasped as she looked up at the mirrored helmet, but then leaned against him.

"Sorry," she whispered. "It's just when we charged we had to activate the engines at full power, so every sensor in the area must have noticed us. The transports were caught completely unaware. Lieutenant Mitchner let out a scream of victory as he commanded the guns to go into continuous fire. But just then, we discovered what the echoes were."

"Some kind of mine?" James asked.

"Yes," the Lieutenant replied. "When we charged I had seen three just to the left of our planned route. We had passed the first one before there was any reaction from the Sa'arm, but the second and third detonated, sending a cloud of projectiles our way. They shattered our armor. At that point Captain Narvaza ordered the ship to run. The engines were intact. I had the ship point the bow up thirty degrees and ran for the hyper limit. We escaped, but the two hits we took devastated the ship."

"It's not unrepairable," I heard Timothy reply. "We've been able to get a couple of clean scans. Sahara has lost a ton of armor, and the point defense stations on the port side will need to be replaced, but you'll be back in action in two days."

"It sounds like you did fairly well," James replied. "We'll put this into a preliminary package for Borneo. Later see if you can provide any records of the echoes. Knowing what they look like on scans could help other ships avoid what happened to you."

"I'll try," Lieutenant Cassidy replied. "I know that Captain Narvaza doesn't want me to talk too much about the echoes. Ensign Drucker and I both tried to alert him to their presence, but he insisted that we were worried about nothing. He insisted that we were perfectly safe."

"How many casualties did you suffer," James asked.

"Eight dead before we reached Ishtar," she replied. "And then Corporal Monk was declared dead by your medical staff. We had five injured, but I'm not sure how badly."

"Minor," Lindsay said. "Well, minor as far as a pod is concerned. Three have broken bones and should be out of the pods in four hours. One has some serious bleeding, but the pod can have that stopped in two, and repaired in six hours. The first crewman you brought in is the worst off, but I think part of that was the handling. He started with just a couple puncture wounds in his lower torso, but whoever was moving him managed to dislocate both of his shoulders and break his collarbone."

Lieutenant Cassidy gasped. "How long will it take?"

"About twenty hours," Lindsay sad. "None of the injuries would be that bad individually. It's the fact that he has so many injuries that will take the time. Only so much can be done at once. The system will get the torso injuries fixed first and then work on the damage caused by the way he was carried. Why didn't someone use a stretcher? I saw two others brought in that way."

"Captain Narvaza wanted him seen first and ordered Jack and Jim to carry him into the beam. He insisted that time was vital," the Lieutenant said.

The young woman slumped down again. Fred caught her as Lindsay dropped to a knee to look at her. She immediately looked up at Fred. "She's dead on her feet. I'm guessing she hasn't had any rest in quite some time. Take her to a room and lay her on a bed. We'll talk more once she's awake."

Fred picked up the girl in his armored arms. "Tyson took the others to the first set of barracks on the left. I'll put her in the suite that's just past there. You should let James know what's happening."

He walked out of the room. I dashed over to touch the communications link again. James immediately replied. "Don't worry Meiko. I heard it all. I was going to let you know that Sahara is going to be four more hours before it reaches orbit. Turn off the teleport and come back. Brad is going to handle the transfer once we start repairing the ship."

Lindsay touched my arm. "Let's go. I want to give Donna a kiss.

I giggled and gave the former supermodel a quick hug. Then as she turned and walked back to the medical bay I started the sequence to shut down the teleporter.