The Aftermath 5

Jim had been pacing for an hour now, after destroying their invasion fleet, they'd set out after the

only remaining ship of the Krang fleet. Mary and Amber had watched him almost the whole time "Jim if you don't

sit I am going to knock the shit out of you, I can't take much more of your pacing," Mary almost snarled.

Jim quickly sat in the command chair trying not to look at Mary, "sorry Mary I hate this waiting, I have

nothing on tap to do nothing to work on, you know I hate being idle."

"I realise that Jim, but driving me crazy isn't going to help you either," Mary said not feeling any remorse

for Jim.

A low steady beeping caused Jim to glance at the control panel, ah good they were finally starting to

make head way after almost a week. Even as he went over the readings he could see that they were gaining on the

Krang ship. Adjusting their speed Jim was only following the ship, he had to see where it had originated. A day

later they were approaching an odd grey colored planet, odd in the fact that there appeared to be no clouds in

the atmosphere. Staying well back Jim started to scan the planet looking for signs of prisoners or anything

that might aid him in his new quest. He was only a few hours into his search when every proximity alert on

board went off.

Looking out behind the planet he saw another swarm of small ships not too unlike the Krong ships. They

weren't really a worry but the 4 world ships that slipped out with them put him more on edge.

"Mary charge the planet killers, activate all rail plasma guns. Amber I need you here to monitor all their

reactions to our tactics, what they do at first will determine which strategy they are using." Jim said issuing

orders. Both women were rushing to get what he'd said done, Jim was adjusting every piece of hardware on the

station with almost blinding speed. After an hour the swarm was still between them and the planet, hmmm this

was a most unusual development, as a matter of fact it was the first time he'd ever seen them hesitate.

The space link began to crackle, a bug like creature with hug eyes appeared on the screen.

"Human, we Krang, no death, wish us," it said as it stumbled over it's imperial speech.

In the back ground Jim heard others issuing orders to surround and destroy the intruder.

Smirking Jim grabbed the mike and snarled out in the Krang language, "you piss ants! You claim to not

want to be destroyed or to destroy us? Yet I hear others saying to surround and destroy," the look of shock on

the bugs (he guessed it was) face was almost comical.

"You! We heard that a human had rediscovered the Creca's mind touch talk, when we take you, your essence will

be added to ours then no one will be able to resist us!" with that the bug leader started to laugh till Jim

pressed a few buttons and half the fleet and two of the world ships exploded in a brilliant light.

"Now then before I destroy the rest of you and I will, tell me exactly where the brain hold is!" Jim was

shouting, Mary and Amber had back away from Jim his clicking and hissing starting to worry them.

Starting to laugh again the bug leader stared straight at Jim, "As your people say good luck finding it!"

Jim, though seething, snarled at the Krang, "You obviously don't realize just how much more powerful this

station is. I have increased the power and weapons many times, you are nothing to me compared to the long ass

kicking I gave the Krong!" With that the other 2 world ships and the rest of the fleet disappeared in another

brilliant flash of light.

Entering orbit Jim began to scan the planet for signs of the brain hold, though he got promising

readings there was nothing like he'd seen in the records they'd taken from the defeated Krong fleet. Sighing

Jim activated one of the first 2 planet killers he'd used, almost fully charged he readied it then struck

watching the planet shudder, then slowly crack, explosions appearing all over the planet. With a smile he

watched as the atmosphere went from gray to nothing, already having pulled the station to a safe distance,

watched as finally the planet literally ripped it's self apart then exploded leaving a huge field of debris.

Feeling no remorse Jim powered up and headed deeper into the Krang space. From all reports he'd gotten they

were still a few weeks away from the old Krong main home world, though he could probably be there in a day he

wanted to clear all of these warmongering bastards before they reached it.

They had only gone 2 days deeper when they encountered another Krang fleet this one with 6 world ships,

Jim knew they were too stupid to realize that they were already dead when they approached his station.

"Human conquerors," came a raspy voice from the screen, "We Krang not be killed, strong! Not asleep like Krong,

you soon die!"

The Krang immediately began to dive bomb the station, almost all of the small ships eliminated within a mile of

the stations shields. Jim's hands were flying across the control panel Amber was almost dizzy watching him, the

bad thing was Mary's hands were almost as fast. "Activate the planet killers those world ships are going to try

and ram us!" Jim yelled from across the room, huh? Amber hadn't even seen him move.

"We've only got the 4!" Mary yelled back.

"It's ok they won't risk all of them at the same time," Jim said now next to Amber, causing her to jump

slightly.

"What the hell is going on?" Amber asked, "how are you moving so damn fast?"

Jim stopped a moment looking at Amber, it was then she saw that he was a little out of phase! What the

fuck?!

"Sorry Amber, something Mary and I worked on since the last attack by the Krong," Jim said momentarily

solidifying, "we can move and react 20 times faster than normal but we can't stay in it that long, excuse me."

Phasing again Amber watched as Jim flew to the control panel activating 4 sets of switches. Almost immediately

3 of the world ships exploded in a huge myriad of colors the resulting shock wave rocked the station more

violently than it should have. Both Mary and Jim looked at each other.

"It's a trap!" Mary yelled.

Jim was across the room activating a bank of controls next to the star drive, within seconds they were entering

another tunnel the strange hum of the tunnel drive straining to maintain the gravity well.

10 minutes later they were dropping out of the tunnel, "Damn it! I was afraid this might happen!" Jim cursed,

"the planet's gravity disrupted the tunnel! The tunnel drive has over heated! We won't be able to use it for a

few days, son of a bitch I was afraid this was going to happen!" Stomping out Mary and Amber could hear him

cursing as he went down the hall way.

Mary checked all the equipment everything looked fine as far as she could see, overheated? What the

hell was Jim talking about? Looking at Amber, Mary was as confused as she was, an hour later Jim came back

relief apparent on his face.

"Ok, ok, so I over reacted," Jim said a little red faced, "I have been working on this a long time and when it

cut out like that I thought I had burned up the drive. Dickie reminded me about the safety relay we had put in

after I had checked the entire system."

Mary calmly stood, walked to Jim and slugged him in the face, picking his self up off the floor Jim just

watched as Mary re-sat at the control panel.

In a somewhat strained voice she stated, "I estimate we are about a day from the planet we left, the readings I

am getting indicate that over half the fleet was destroyed along with all 6 of the world planets. Had we not

have left when we did, the resulting shock wave of the other 3 would have probably crippled our shields, they'd

have had a chance."

Amber grabbed Jim's face kissing him, then she leaned over and whispered, "Jim you need to get ahold of

this anger, you're going to get us killed, you'd never fallen for a trap like that before you found out what

you did. Go rest and rethink all this ok?"

Jim looked at her strangely then nodded before he went out door to the bunk room.

"Mary? Are we far enough away to be safe for a while?" Amber asked.

Mary's features softened, looking over the readouts she turned back to Amber, "I believe we shocked them for

the moment. I don't see any pursuit but knowing those bastards it won't be long before they are after us. You

want me to knock some sense back into Jim? If he keeps up like this we're all dead, that man has a great

strategical mind but a child could beat him right now."

"I know Mary, I hope what I said gets through this wall he's erected around his good sense," Amber replied.

"I hope so too, I don't want to kill him but I just might if he keeps this up," Mary spit out.

Jim had been asleep about 2 hours when the dream started. A strange but familiar voice started to talk

to him.

<Jimmy, it's been a long time.> The voice said.

<Who the hell is this? I am far too strong for the aliens to invade my mind. You sound familiar, almost

like...>

<I'm glad you remember my voice, though in here it's just what you would 'hear' from me. They are using my

knowledge Jimmy I can't keep them from it but I can let you know that you have shocked the hell out of them.

The Krong were only 1 of 2 races that had the tunnel travel as they put it, their trying to destroy you, hurt

them more then they think. They have used a massive amount of their resources to build the fake world planet

bombs. This is the only time I will be able to 'talk' to you remember almost everything you know I know

almost.>

<Father! NO! DAMN IT!!> Jim searched but couldn't find the voice or anything else.

The next day Jim emerged from the bunk room feeling completely different. "Dickie are all preparations

ready?" Jim asked, Mary and Amber's heads snapping up at the sound of his voice.

"Everything is proceeding as you requested, everything should be ready within 2 hours," Dickie responded.

"All what preparations?" Mary asked.

"We're going back but this time I have a few surprises for them," Jim replied, Mary saw the cold calculating

look in his eyes the same she remembered him having when he first recruited her, good she thought bought time

the ass kicker was back.

Departing they were a few hours from the planet when a new fleet met them. Though not nearly as big as the

Krong fleet it was still quite sizeable, coming to a complete stop Jim began to scan the whole fleet looking

for desperate measures by the enemy ships.

Sighing after he found nothing out of the ordinary he started to issue orders, "alright Dickie I want a line of

vapor drops a mile wide in the path of the enemy advance keep producing and deploying as fast as you can. Mary

activate ALL the planet killers, bring all plasma rail guns on line, check all the reactors and shield

generators. Amber watch all the readings let me know when they start to move."

Mary was getting everything ready when Amber yelled that they were on the move. Within minutes the

first few thousand were nothing but debris and still they kept coming and dying.

"Jim, vapor drop supplies almost depleted they are coming faster than I can produce them." Dickie said

"Thank you Dickie, now deploy the phasic missiles," Jim ordered.

Mary turned her mouth wide, "you realize those can turn on us right?"

Jim nodded though he wasn't that worried as thickly situated as they were, he still had high hopes that the

tracking system he'd added to them made them more reliable. "Jim I hope you got something up your sleeve,"

Amber said, "those things have always been uncontrollable the micro AI'S aren't powerful enough to discern

between an enemy or an ally."

"I added a new type of tracking system, almost as simple as a heat seeking system," Jim replied, drawing a few

hard looks from Mary.

"Again Jim you realize that they CAN turn on us," Mary repeated.

Jim again nodded as he watched the track of the missiles, at first the Krang ships started to disappear

that is till 3 then 4 more world ships appeared. Immediately all the missiles converged on the seven massive

ships, the first 2 were obliterated within seconds. The next 2 were hit hard blown in half, each half taking

out even more of the fighter ships. The final three had started to build speed when 2 of them were hit and

crippled slowing to a stop, the last had drawn closer cursing Jim armed the planet killer and fired.

Staring Jim watched as the massive charge hit the ship and a shield far stronger than he knew the Krang had.

Cursing Jim armed 2 more and fired this time the ship shuddered rolling away from the station, Jim watched as

it's systems overloaded then exploded taking even more of the fleet with it.

"How long till the PK's are recharged?" Jim questioned Mary.

"The first is at half power at least 20 minutes for full charge, the other 2 at least 45 minutes with the last

2 of the reactors coming online now." Mary shouted back.

Jim started to slowly move closer to the debris field scanning he wasn't detecting much of anything

left. They'd just entered the debris field when he started to get readings from well on the other side of the

field, it appeared that a few of his missiles were still active. Shit! slowing to a stop Jim had started to

activate the self destruct in each missile when there was another proximity alert. Looking up he saw the

largest world ship he'd ever seen, clearly twice the size of the one that had nearly destroyed the station at

the end of his and Mary's battle with the Krang.

"Dickie I need everything you can make vapor drops, phasic missiles I want as wide a path as you can make as

thick as you can make it," Jim said hoping Dickie had a large supply ready to go.

"Compliance Captain, everything is ready for deployment," replied Dickie.

Jim had Amber and Mary move to the anti-grav room he was afraid that this might fry a lot on the station. They

had both protested till he promised to run for the room at the earliest moment. Watching, Dickie rambled off

the distance to Jim crossing his fingers he hoped what they had was enough.

The massive ship started to break up slowly as the thousands of vapor drops started to explode against

it's hull. Jim could only worry now, true it was damaged but it wasn't enough damage, not yet. Still advancing

with hardly a let up in speed, Jim next had Dickie deploy the missiles. As they streaked toward the massive

ship Jim got a charge warning that 3 of the 4 PK's were ready, Jim just hoped he didn't have to use them they

were only good within a few miles they tended to dissipate any further than 5 miles. Almost being useless any

further than Jim knew at that range it was almost a death toll for the station. The track of the missiles were

better than he hoped for at least half striking the engines and damaging much of the exterior, finally slowing

the ship to less than half it's previous speed. At 10 miles the ship encountered the rest of the vapor drops

ripping into the ship it started to explode. Jim was down the hall at a full run this time, he was within sight

of the anti grav room when the shock wave hit the station. Leaping for the doorway he'd almost made it when the

full force of the wave ripped into the station. Desperately clawing his way to the door way debris started to

fall all around him reaching out he managed to grab the entrance way when something struck him across the back

of his head.

Again as the world went red then black Mary was screaming damn! He was right it had been her before

shit she was hurting his head again. Neither woman could feel the station shake, they had kept their eyes glued

to the opening to the room, when they saw Jim running down the corridor Mary got as close to leaving the room

as she could. That was when they saw the debris that started to rain down on Jim. Reaching out Mary grabbed

Jim's arm when he reached out to the opening, she'd just started to pull him in when a support beam broke loose

striking Jim a glancing blow to the back of the head. Mary was horrified to be reliving this scene again she

hadn't been fast enough last time and he'd almost died, she actually had a hand on him but had hesitated for a

moment before pulling him in. Finally getting him into the safety of the anti grav room Mary started to scream

when she saw the blood coming from his head. Amber had moved closer to help when she also saw the blood both

screaming called Dickie.

"Dickie status," Mary said between sobs.

It was a moment before Dickie answered, "Compliance, the station has sustained major structural damage.

Auto seal and repair has stopped all leaks, the fleet has been destroyed along with the world ships. All 10

reactors are off line, auto restart has been started, at present there is no power or circulation. Suggest

repair to number 1 reactor as it is the closest."

"Dickie can you display schematics so I can effect repairs?" Mary asked. "Wait did you say 10 reactors?"

"Yes, I can display schematics, affirmative there are 10 reactors the last 2 were added a week ago while the

station was in orbit after it arrived back from this sector." Dickie replied.

"Alright Dickie display location and problem with reactor." Mary said.

For the next hour they worked on Jim getting the bleeding to stop, Mary glancing at the plans finally seeing

how Jim had reconfigured the reactors it was to say the least, genius. Mary and Amber finally got Jim to the

med bay Mary had once again hooked up her power packs but she knew it wasn't enough to save him they needed the

reactor.

Mary finally get the reactor cleared then came the actual restart about to give up Mary was surprised

when she found 1 simple switch that immediately started it. Damn it Jim! You could have told me this last year

before we went into the last battle. With the one going they had a better chance but Jim needed at least 2 of

them going. Dickie directed her to the least damaged reactor, looking it over she moved everything she could

with Dickie's help. She'd just gotten it going when there was a proximity alert, running she asked Dickie if

there was enough power for the shields, he said yes but they wouldn't be even half what they might need.

Going back to the med bay Mary asked about Jim,

"I have detected massive bruising to his brain, the bio bed has alleviated any pressure and is working to

repair all the damage, the bio bed is at 85% more than sufficient for full healing," Dickie replied.

"What is the status of the reactors?" Mary asked.

I am attempting to restart 4 of the others but appears that debris, like with the second one is preventing a

full restart on them. Mary rushed to the nearest of the reactors then was stopped by a wall of debris, pushing

on to another it was no where nearly as bad, with Dickie's help she had it cleared in 5 minutes the third

reactor started Dickie reported that they had almost half shields.

"Dickie can we move at all?" Amber asked.

"Yes your lordship, we have full sub-light engines, the hyper engines are at about 1/4, it would take us about

5 weeks to reach Imperial space. I am repairing the structural integrity, with 3 reactors I have it at 90%, now

commencing clean up on all levels. I will still require your aid in restarting other reactors as debris has

damaged remote restart on all others I need at least 2 more to get the tunnel drive on line. I suggest you rest

now, I have the station at 1/4 hyper speed, shields are at 45%." Dickie rattled off.

Mary checked Jim and Amber again then laid down damn it Jim you always did things the hard way. As sleep

claimed her she thought of all that her and Jim had been through, after this was over she was going to see if

she could become his sister she was tired of being alone and hell now that she had a mother maybe things were

going her way now.

Jim was floating again, damn it this was getting old he was finally starting to relax when he heard a

voice again.

<Jimmy you have a chance now you have to repair the station then you can come and say good bye to me and your

siblings.>

<No father, I won't say good bye I know I can save you I...> Jim responded.

<Save me? as a disembodied brain? no Jimmy I want peace I don't want to suffer any more not me or your brother

and sister, I know you've been working on a new theory of reconstituting bodies for us but son we wouldn't age

I don't want that, not for your mother she thinks I am dead let me stay that way ok?>

<I have seen technology the Krong had that I could make a new body for you, a normal body that could age and be

human I know I can do it, besides I have Mary to help me.> Jim said almost pleading

<We'll see Jimmy, but I won't hold my breath as the saying goes. We aren't far away no one has control of the

brain hold please release us one way or another.>

Jim was thrashing in his sleep Amber was trying to hold him down but was failing more by the second. Finally

she ordered Dickie to secure him for the time being.

Mary awoke a few hours later going to med bay she saw that Jim was awake finally! Though she wanted to

slap the shit out of him, she decided to wait till he was better.

"How is the station Mary?" Jim asked as soon as he saw her.

"We have 3 reactors online, structural integrity is at 90%, we have 45% shields and the hyper engines are at

1/4," Mary replied.

Jim was shaking his head touching his ear he called Dickie, "Dickie status of restart on the other 7 reactors."

"At present 2 are blocked off and have sustained damage to the inner reactor chamber walls, 1 has debris in the

inner chamber, 1 will not be operational till extensive repair is made the last 3 require manual restart

activation after removal of debris." Dickie quipped back

"Are your anti-grav units operating with enough power to clear the debris near the three reactors that can be

reactivated?" Jim asked.

"Affirmative," Dickie replied.

"Good commence clearing, the quicker we get them on line the quicker we can go home." Jim stated

Smirking Mary thought yeah right, easy for you to say Jim as she left to try and restart the reactors.

TO BE CONTINUED