Chapter 21

Rick watched as the screen flickered and a human looking female appeared. Her fire red hair was done up in a tight braid. A cloak covered her shoulders, held together in the front by a clasp with a strange embalm on it. The marking on her shoulder was clearly a display of rank, but Rick had never seen it before.

Rick spoke before the woman, "This is the ADF vessel Atlantis. We're on a medical emergency mission bound for Ghost Station. Please allow us to pass."

The woman's Emerald eyes flicked to the screen, "Jonathan Hunter."

Rick raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"

"Jonathan Hunter, I must speak to the man you call Jonathan Hunter," The woman said.

"Admiral Hunter is indisposed right now, is there something I can do for you?" Rick asked.

"Jonathan Hunter," was all the woman said.

Rick sighed, why is everyone always so difficult? Can't anything be simple and easy? He couldn't afford this time delay, Jon had ordered him to get them to Ghost Station as soon as possible.

"Sir, main engines are back on line," the con officer said.

"Hyper drive?" Rick asked.

"Spun up and ready, fold engine is still offline," Con reported.

Rick nodded, "Considering we got yanked out of fold, I would prefer we don't try that again. Plot course to Ghost Station and engage hyper drive."

"Course already plotted, engaging hyper drive now," con said.

A hyperspace portal formed in front of Atlantis briefly as her engines flared. Atlantis shook violently as she tried to move and the portal collapsed.

"What the hell was that?" Rick said as he picked himself up from the floor.

"No idea Sir, the portal formed but collapsed before we could enter it. Damn, hyper drive engines are offline again," Con reported.

The woman's face, still displayed on the main screen, showed no hint that she even knew they had tried to escape.

"Sir, I have Admiral Hunter..." Com reported.

"Jonathan Hunter," the woman said.

" ... asking to speak to you," Com finished.

"Mute her, she's beginning to piss me off. Prepare all weapon batteries and fire on my orders only. Put the Admiral through," Rick said.

"Muted," Com replied.

"What the hell is going on up there Rick?" Jon voice said.

"We're stuck and they keep asking to speak to you. All they have said for the past five minutes in your name," Rick said.

A low sigh came from the com, "Rick, I really need to be here with my sister. This situation is not helping her any. She has arrested three times and Kayla has been able to revive her each time. But, she says if she can't get her back to the advanced medical ward on Ghost Station she doesn't know how much longer she can keep her alive."

The Medical Ward on Atlantis was slated for upgrade before the trip to Eutharan. However, the recent events had delayed the upgrade of several systems.

Rick paled at the mention of Terri's arrests and responded in a broken voice, "Yes Admiral, I'll get us to Ghost Station if I have to go over there in a shuttle and rip their ship apart with my bare hands."

"Rick, you can always call me Jon. I don't blame you for the situation. Just do whatever it takes to get us moving again. Please hurry." Jon's voice replied.

Atlantis stood next to Ghost at a station in engineering. Text scrolled across the screen too fast for anyone human to read. Atlantis reached out and touched the holo display, stopping the text.

"Here," Atlantis said to no one in particular.

Ghost leaned in for a second and scanned the code displayed, "Yes, I see it. But, how did that happen?"

Several parts in the code was rewritten in such away to disable the nanobots that all the ADF's personnel carried. It was done in such away that it was almost undetectable.

Atlantis looked over at Ghost, "One guess who did it sister."

They both spoke at once, "Atlanta."

Ghost nodded, "Evil little bitch, I'm so glad she's gone."

Atlantis turned her attention back to the display and started typing on the holographic keyboard. "This code should be easy enough to repair. I'll, access my back up code base and double check my fixes. Can you contact Rick and Jon and let them know what we have found and that we're attempting to fix the problem?"

Ghost nodded, "I'll contact them once I'm in main engineering. Seems the hyper drives are offline again and they're having problems bringing the fold engine back online."

Atlantis nodded as Ghost disappeared.

Rick had just finished listening to the report from Ghost as Deatra and Opellissa stepped off the lift. Rick bowed as he called out that the Queen had arrived. The entire bridge stood and bowed briefly as Royal Guards and the female guards spread out around the bridge.

"Your highness," Rick said as he resumed looking at the tactical display in front of him. "What brings you to the bridge?"

Deatra glanced over the situation that was displayed on the screens before she spoke, "Why have we stop..."

Deatra's voice caught short as her gaze fell on the screen that displayed the strange woman. Opellissa followed her sister's gaze and her eyes widened in surprise.

Deatra whispered just loud enough for Rick to hear, "The Vejaas..."

Rick frowned as he followed Deatra's gaze, "The who?"

The woman was clearly speaking, although nothing was coming through.

"Why can I not hear her?" Deatra asked as she took a step towards the screen.

"I have her muted," Rick replied.

As Deatra stared at the screen she spoke softly, "Unmute her."

A puzzled look appeared on Rick's face, "Your highness?"

"Was I unclear?" Deatra asked as she turned her head towards Rick.

"No, ma'am," Rick replied. "Com restore audio."

" ... Hunter. I must speak to Jonathan hunter," the female on the screen said.

"That's all she has been saying for the past half hour. I have tried to explain to her we're on a medical emergency and that the Admiral is indisposed but all she does is keep repeating herself," Rick explained.

Deatra turned back to face the screen, "High Admiral, I'm Jonathan Hunter's Bonded and this is Queen Opellissa, Jonathan's Bonded. Is there something we can do for you?"

Rick's jaw hit the floor as every eye on the bridge shifted to Opellissa. Deatra held up her hand to ward off the forth coming questions.

The woman's head turned to look in Deatra's direction as she spoke, "Queens Deatra and Opellissa, I'm High Admiral Nataleo we're here..."

Suddenly the bridge went dark as red emergency lights came to life. Atlantis' voice spoke through out the ship, "Warning, Main power failure. Secondary power systems online. Life support operating at 50%, All systems offline."

"Jesus Christ!" Rick exclaimed. "What the hell is going on now and can it get any worse?"

All the guards on the bridge switched their suit lights on, which illuminated most of the bridge. They closed the gap between them and the Queens and took up defensive positions, weapons at ready.

Atlantis appeared next to Rick and spoke, "Traps in the code..." then faded out.

Rick's brow furrowed, "Atlantis?"

A few more times trying to call to either of the AI's with no response Rick gave up. "Get me some power restored, someone find out what the blue hell is going on here!"

Kayla moved to exit Terri's room to retrieve the portable equipment she needed to keep Terri alive. As she stepped up to the door, it didn't move.

"Not good," Kayla said.

Terri started to convulse once more to make matters worse. Jon reached out to keep her on the bed as Kayla raced back to the bed. Kayla picked up a hypo and gave Terri a shot which immediately started to reduce Terri's spasms.

"I need to get the portable breather or she's going to suffocate," Kayla said as she once again walked back to the door.

Once Terri stopped convulsing Jon joined Kayla at the door and tried to force it open.

"You can't force it open," Kayla said as she sighed. "The doors are designed to keep people in."

"Great," Jon mutter as he started to pick up a chair.

"That won't work either, this glass is carbon fibered it's probably as strong as steel," Kayla said stepping back.

Jon ignored her and swung the chair anyway, which bounced off the door and shook violently in his hands, "Just great, didn't anyone think about putting in a system to open the doors incase of a power failure?" Jon said as he set the chair back down.

Kayla nodded her head, "Of course there is."

"Well?" Jon said.

"Well..." Kayla echoed. "They system isn't completely in, we were in the middle of the revamp when we left the shipyards in the other universe."

"Oh, well that's just great..." Jon muttered mainly to himself.

From the other side of the door came Oojoung's voice, "Admiral Jon, I am here."

Jon leaned close to the door, "Oojoung we need to get this door open or Terri will die. Go get help quickly."

"Friend Terri die?" Oojoung replied in a sorrow filled voice.

Jon sighed, "No Oojoung Terri is not dead yet. But, we need to get this door open or she will die. Do you understand? Go get help and get this door open."

A low groan came from the other side, which turned in to a drawn out grunt. The door shuddered briefly as Jon took a step back. Slowly the door slid open as Oojoung's hands appeared through the crack between the door and the frame. The fingers were white with pressure as a small trickle of blood seeped from under each hand. Once there was enough space between the book and the frame Oojoung's body slid into the small space. His face beet red he gave one final howl as he shoved the door completely open.

Kayla gasped, "That's impossible."

"Strange what love will do for some people," Jon said as he stepped up to check on Oojoung.

Oojoung waved him off as he coughed, "Help Princess Terri, Oojoung is ok."

Jon nodded and stepped past Oojoung and Kayla followed, quickly retrieving the needed equipment while Jon checked on the children. Unseen to both of them was Oojoung wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. Zeus and Hera both walked over as though to check on Oojoung as he got to his feet.

"Oojoung, go lay down and I'll be in to check on you as soon as I stabilize Terri," Kayla said as she looked over at him.

Oojoung nodded as another round of coughing fits racked him.

Once he was done checking on the children, Jon returned to check on the status of his sister. He glanced over at Oojoung as he passed to make sure he had made it to a bed.

The main holo screen on the bridge flickered briefly then stabilized, once again showing the woman. She wasn't looking at her screen and seemed to be saying something to someone off screen.

"Audio?" Rick asked.

"Rerouting power there now Sir," one of the bridge engineers said. "I can't keep this online for long so make whatever you're going to say fast and to the point. The emergency beacon and viewer is draining the power fast."

" ... do you mean their power has failed? We're they attacked?" Nataleo said.

"No, we weren't attacked, there was a trap in our data core that caused all our systems to shutdown," Rick said.

Nataleo's head spun back to the screen, "We must protect the one from the prophecies."

"Yes, I understand," Rick replied. "We require your assistance."

"How may we help you?" Nataleo said.

"Simple," Rick said. "Shutdown whatever is holding us here and lock on to us and pull us through space."

Nataleo's brow furrowed, "I'm sorry..."

"Look I don't have a lot of time and I'm sorry if I'm being blunt," Rick said. "I'm transmitting our transponder code now. After you get us moving, I'll be more than happy to have you escort us back to Ghost Station and then you can continue your conversation with Admiral Hunter there. If you don't do as I ask everyone onboard this vessel will die..."

The Viewer faded as new klaxons flared to life and started reporting backup power systems were at 10% and falling.

"Do you think they will do it?" Deatra asked.

Rick looked over at her as he replied, "If they don't we're all dead."

Kayla did a once over on the monitors that were now online. She adjusted a few readings as Jon stood watching.

"Well?" Jon asked impatiently.

Kayla finally nodded, "She stable for now. But, we really need to get her to Ghost Station for her to have a chance."

Jon nodded as his body visibly relaxed and a tear rolled down his cheek.

Kayla moved over to comfort him, "Don't worry Jon, Rick is doing everything he can and I'm sure we will be on our way in no time."

"I hope so; I really can't loose her..." Jon let the sentence hang unfinished.

The room shuddered around them then started vibrating before it suddenly stopped.

"What was that?" Kayla asked.

Jon shook his head, "I don't know, an attack?"

Lights and holopanels started to come to life as Jon finished. But, before Jon or Kayla could smile or say anything and eerie tone filled the room. Kayla turned pale as she spun around to look at Terri's monitors.