Year three in the Voyage of Andromeda. The adventure that started in Among the Stars, and Beyond the Farthest Planet continues in Far From Home.
CHAPTER 20 A
"Now what?" Kacey stated, as she reached for her communicator but stopped. "Am I done here Doc?"
"You are. However," She handed her several pills. "This one is a pain pill in the event you need it. These are antibiotics. Two a day for the next three days. No flying at least for twenty four hours. Even though the injury was to your cheek it is still considered a head injury."
"Colonel O'Malley to the Bridge." The hail came again.
"On my way." Kacey replied. She took the pills from the Doctor and put them in her pocket before she quickly left Sick Bay for the closest stair well for her short trip to the Bridge. She sat in her chair. Kate looked at her.
"That looks a lot better."
"Feels a lot better also. What is going on?"
"Our friends are back." Kate stated.
"You have got to be kidding me."
"That is the way this day is going."
"Was that the large bang we heard?"
"No that was a very large rock. We had about thirty seconds of clearing. That is when we noticed them."
"Do you think they were waiting for us?"
"I don't think so. It looks like they are trying to get through the storm just like we are."
"How close are they?"
"Less than a thousand kilometers." Anya answered.
"Kate if they are using Trilithium, their hull could be weakened. If lightening strikes the weakened hull that ship could blow. At this distance Andromeda would be damaged." Kacey stated.
"We know. That is why we need your thoughts."
"How long before we are in the clear?"
"Another three hours at least."
"Any ideas?"
"Will you snap at me again when I start thinking out loud?"
"I will try not to."
"I accept that." Kacey stood up and started to walk around the Bridge as she talked out loud to herself. "So we need to not only get out of this storm, but also not give ourselves away to the Limari. The fastest way to do that is to increase our speed to put as much distance as possible between us and them." Kacey continued to pace as she talked to herself. Kate folded her arms and watched Kacey process the information in her own way. "The fastest way to get that distance is to speed up, but if we speed up that puts too much stress on the hull. What we need to do is temporarily reinforce the hull to handle the increase in speed. We have taken power from the forest, compactor and Hanger to reinforce the shields. Now we need to pull power to feed into strengthening the hull integrity."
The Bridge crew watched her pace. She stopped. "How much power would you need to convert into strengthening the hull?"
"Forty two amps. More if we can get it." Rhea stated.
"Forty two amps." Kacey repeated as she resumed pacing. "Forty two amps. If we kill the power in the Brig, and Cargo Bays how much does that give us?"
"Twelve amps."
"Did you kill the power in my office when you did the Hanger?"
"No ma'am."
"Do that and tell me where that brings us."
"Add in my ready room and the conference room." Kate ordered.
"That brings us to nineteen amps."
"What about the Virtual Reality rooms. Those things draw a lot of power."
"That brings us to twenty nine amps."
"Thirteen more amps." Kacey resumed pacing. "What about the bars, restaurants, auditoriums, and shops?"
"That would bring us to fifty six amps. More than enough."
"How long will it take you to convert the amps?"
"Just a couple minutes."
"Open channel." The chime sounded. "This is Captain Jensen. We are trying to get out of this storm. I know we are all tired of being tossed around. We need you help and cooperation. Please temporarily evacuate the following areas, Bars, Restaurants, Virtual Reality Rooms, Auditoriums and the Shop level. You have two minutes to evacuate those areas before the power is shut down. Power will be returned to those areas immediately after we leave this storm. I thank you all for your cooperation." She nodded and the chime sounded again. "Start pulling power from the unoccupied areas first and get them converted. Once the two minutes are up take that power."
The whole thought process and implementation took less than ten minutes. Kate sat in awe of Kacey's ability. Their eyes met. Kate nodded in approval. Liam smiled at how his head strong daughters dropped their disagreement and came together to come up with a solution to their problem.
"Captain the hull has been reinforced." Rhea stated.
"Rich, increase our speed to warp seven and get us the Hell out of here." Kate ordered.
"Aye Captain."
They felt the increase in their speed. They also started to feel less resistance from the wind.
"One hour thirty minutes until we are in the clear. The Limari ship is now five thousand kilometers from our position. The wind is lessening. Last gusts were one hundred fifty KPH.
"Kacey as soon as we are in the clear and the power restored, get as many stingers out as possible just in case there are more Limari out there."
"Not a problem. My pilots get antsy when they just sit around."
"Just like their commander." Anya stated. Kacey shrugged and blushed.
"Winds down to one hundred KPH." Natalia reported.
"The Limari continue to move away from us." Anya stated.
They all felt the change in the wind's resistance and the ship moved faster. "Winds down to seventy KPH. Time until we are clear of this storm is fifty minutes."
"The hull integrity is holding Katie."
"That is good to hear."
Kacey stood behind Natalia as she watched the clouds begin to thin out. The lightening strikes were few and then finally after what seemed like an eternity, stopped. She pushed her communicator. "Attention all Alpha and Beta squads. As soon as we are clear of this storm power will be returned to the Hanger. Half of each squad will launch immediately. The second half thirty minutes after that. The Limari are still out there. Colonel Anderson take the first half of Alpha squad, Major Taggart the first half of Beta. Major William you have the second half of Alpha squad Lieutenant Chan the second half of Beta."
"You are not going out?" Kate asked.
"Nope." Kacey answered quickly.
"Power has been restored to the Hanger." Rhea stated.
"Pilots to your Stingers now." Kacey ordered.
"Is something wrong?"
"Nope. Just a precaution and only for today." Kacey stated. "Besides I have a headache."
"Truthfully?"
"Yes I have a headache from my fight with those cases. After we are out of this storm completely, I demand a rematch. I was sucker punched." Kacey joked.
Andromeda was finally through the storm. After four days of being tossed and battered the smooth flight drew sighs of relief from everyone on board. Now stars once again filled the view screen and surrounded them, the crew went about the necessary repairs.
Kate for one was very happy to be clear of the storm and the end of the lightening. Of all the storms they had encountered on their mission this storm scared her the most. Not even the white out on the planetoid they visited in their second year scared her as much. It was an irrational fear that held over from her childhood and one she had never been able to get rid of.
Liam placed a comforting hand on her arm. "Ye hid it well Katie. I am thinking no one other than the family was knowing." He said as if reading her mind.
"I hope so dad. I certainly hope so." Kate worried. "It is not good for a Captain to show fear." She continued and straightened in her chair. "Time to get back to business. Restore power to all areas."
"Transferring power, Kate." Rhea stated.
"Damage report."
"They are coming in now Captain."
"Send the list to my Ready Room." Kate ordered "Commander you have the Bridge. Kacey I need to talk to you."
"Kacey sighed. "Sure Kate." She replied and followed her off the Bridge.
"Coffee?"
"I would love one." Kacey took the offered cup. "What is on your mind?"
"I want the absolute truth. Are you really all right?"
"Almost completely. I do have a headache. Doc did a scan. There is nothing broken, sprained, chipped, scratched or even a little out of whack. No concussion."
"Then why did she say no flying?"
"Even though the damage was to my face, it is still considered a head injury, so no flying today. That is all it is. What about you?"
"I am so freaking happy we are finally out of that storm. I only hope no one noticed how scared I was."
"Those who do not know you were too busy trying to keep their stomach contents inside their bodies when we were being tossed around to notice your white knuckled grip on your chair arms. Why do you think dad and I tried to spend more time with you?
"I appreciate the moral support."
Kacey shrugged. "We are family Kate. That's what we do."
"I appreciate it anyway."
"How far off course are we?"
"We are about a day off course which is not as bad as it could have been."
"Is there also a but in there?"
"Unfortunately yes. We are back to being very close to Limari territory."
"Close? How close?"
"About a million kilometers."
"How can that be? We were..."
"Come here and look at the chart Jarel gave us." Kate pulled up the chart. "The territory is not a nice round circle it has many offshoots or arms. For want of a better word, it is shaggy."
"That is why you wanted the Stingers out so quickly."
"Guilty."
"I am going to say something and do not want you to get all worked up, but I certainly hope we have at least a week of quiet. More if we can get it."
"I will definitely drink to that." Kate said and raised her cup in salute.
CHAPTER 20 B
The path ahead was clear. No storms or raiders stood in their way. For the first time two weeks they were able to fully relax. The easy banter around the Bridge was back as their conversation turned to topics other than ship's business.
Kate sat in her Ready Room working on her stack of never ending reports that fell by the wayside when they faced crisis after crisis. She left the Bridge in Liam's capable hands while she concentrated on the tedium of her reports and updating her Captain's logs. She worked steadily without any interruptions for several hours, stopping only to refill her coffee cup.
Many of her crew were due for promotions. Some were overdue so she worked on those first. After several hours she had completed almost half of her evaluations when her stomach reminded her that breakfast was six hours ago. She locked her computer as her door chimed.
"Come in" She called out. The door opened allowing Anya to walk in.
"Will you be stopping for lunch or will you just replicate something that is extremely bad for you?"
"I need a break so let's do lunch somewhere other than this room." Kate stated as she pushed away from her desk. She stood up causing her back to protest the many hours she had been seated behind her desk. Kate stretched and felt her spine pop.They walked out of the Ready Room and headed to the lift. "I will be in the Mess Hall if you need me." Kate said. The lift door closed behind them. "You know having to report where I am going is really a waste of time." She complained. "If something comes up they can easily reach me with a press of a button."
Anya laughed. "I think you are in need of a vacation, my Kate. You are getting testy."
" As soon as we get back to Earth I will schedule at least a month off."
"You forced Kacey to take a vacation. You should do the same." Anya pointed out. "So you will schedule some down time for yourself at the next stop we make." She stated. "I will go with you."
"You may be right darling."
"There is no may be about it, Kate. I am right. We can ask Kacey and Natalia to watch the girls." They walked to the family table where Kacey and Natalia had just started their lunch. "Just the people we need to talk to."
"That sound ominous." Kacey stated
"Not at all. But we do have a favor to ask of you."
"We do?" Kate asked. Anya gave her a cross look. "Oh right we do but not right now. We have three months before we..."
"Kate?" Anya interrupted. "Now."
"Very well." Kate sighed. "Our next stop will be the Brin world. While we are there would you both watch the girls for couple days?" Anya nudge her. "Correction for a week?"
"Of course we will. What is going on?" Natalia asked.
"Anya thinks I need a vacation." Kate answered.
"Another correction is needed. I not only think, I am demanding she take some time off. With the ship on the planet, you will be in charge so Kate can relax."
"That sounds fair to me. You forced me to take some vacation time."
"You were not cleared for duty yet." Kate argued.
"Yes and you made a point of pointing out how long ago my last vacation was. For the sake of argument, Kate when was the last time the two of you got away without the girls?"
"I can answer that." Anya responded. "We went away two weeks before the girls were born."
"We did take a vacation when they were three." Kate defended herself.
"And they are almost nine so that means almost six years ago. So if you take some much needed relaxation time, maybe you will be less, oh what is the word I am looking for? Oh yeah bitchy" Kacey joked which earned her a glare from Kate.
"Bitchy little sister? It is at least three months before we land on Brin. You have not seen the full court press bitch I can be." Kate threatened.
"All right both you. It is time to stop this before you start arguing." Anya ordered. Kate opened her mouth to speak but a look from her wife silenced her.
"Will you be going back out today?"
"No not today. Like you I am trying to get caught up on reports. I have everyone out in six hour shifts instead of the normal four. Unless you think it is safe to go back to our regular routine?"
"Give them a couple more days than go back to your normal shifts."
"In two days we will be at that frozen planet and we will all have some time off. How far are we from Limari Territory?"
"Thirty five million kilometers."
"Do you think we will have any more problems with them?" Natalia asked.
"We know they have raided planets as far away as Verna. Maybe even Gellary." Kacey stated. "Too bad there isn't a way to trick them to land on Hell planet and let the animals take care of them."
"Sounds like that would be too cruel to the animals." Natalia joked. They all laughed.
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The frozen planet was in sight. Andromeda passed by after taking as many reading as possible. The volcanic planet was a month away.
They had been unable to get any readings the last time they had passed it. They hoped the smoke and ash cloud was less so them could take some readings. As the month flew by they went into high orbit as the sensors and computers worked overtime to analyze and catalogue the chemical make up of the ash cloud. Unfortunately they were not able to take any readings on the planet itself.
Andromeda had been out of contact with Earth for six months. By the time they arrived on Brin, that time would be higher.
Personal Log of Captain Kate Jensen, one February twenty one seventy nine.
Christmas and New Years have come and gone for another year. Kacey and Natalia celebrated their second anniversary. Per their request we kept the celebration low keyed. This year will mark Anya's and my eleventh Anniversary and our daughters ninth birthday.
"We will land on Brin in three days to visit our friends there. At that time Anya and I will take a little week long pre anniversary vacation. We may remain here for a few weeks. I know dad wants to have a big party for his favorite day of the year. That day that is near and dear to every Irishman. Saint Patrick's day. The last two years had been busy for us at that time. I think it is time to let him really enjoy that day.
It will be interesting to see how Kacey balances the fact that she will be in charge and yet still follow her orders. I know I should not give her a hard time over this. She take those orders to protect me very seriously. I forced her to take Security guards with her and they were only gone for two days. She will be within her right to demand I do the same. Question is, what will I do?