Topic: A Good Start

[Starfox1701]

It probably will bite them, it's Star Trek after all. It is probably also a man made super bug. My money is on Kain's peps having made it. Khan didn't like that kind of stuff.

[Lieutenant_Q]

12 February 2014

"Captain, I understand that you think you can handle the crisis, but from what we're seeing here on the ground, I don't know if even you can."  The elderly man on the screen looked away as if someone was trying to get his attention.  "We've got people getting Tamiflu administered within minutes of showing symptoms, and they're lucky to make it through alive.  Some don't."  He returned his attention fully, "Your request to lift the Quarantine is denied.  Please respect it."

James nodded, "I will.  Good luck."

The screen went blank, James stood up and looked out the window.  He really had no choice but to respect the Quarantine, the way it was raging across the planet, it was too dangerous.  And that was the main reason behind the quarantine...

"It is interesting to watch them scurry around for a solution, isn't it James?"

He spun around to see a grinning bald man with a jet black goatee on the screen.  "Kane?"

"Khan tells me your a reasonable man.  I hope that's the case."  He grinned wider, "My medics have isolated the strain of influenza.  They've already begun distributing the necessary drugs to my population.  I'd like to help out the rest of the world.  But, the world doesn't seem to want my help.  I've been snubbed at every turn."

"What do you want me to do?"  James placed his hands behind his back and awaited the response.

"Your words carry a lot of weight, even though you don't realize it.  Get the Western Powers to lift the embargo on my nation, and I'll get the drugs as far and wide as I can."

James thought about that for a moment, "That would require them recognizing your nation.  A lot of them aren't willing to do that."

His grin grew even wider, somehow, "Then hundreds of thousands more will die.  My terms are simple, I'm not asking for anything more than recognition, and the respect I believe I have earned."

James nodded, "I'll pass the note along.  And speak to them on your behalf.  I can't promise they'll act on it, but I promise they will listen."

Kane fixed James with a deep stare, "That is enough."  His grin returned, "By the way, Captain.  I greatly admire what you've been able to accomplish up there so far.  If I am in any way able to help you, I hope that you'll consider it."  The screen went blank before James could formulate a reply.

James leaned forward on his desk, even in weightlessness he felt heavy.  He knew what he had to do, and pressed the call button to Ops.  He looked out the office doors to see who was answering the call, it was Ammanda.  "Ops."

He sighed, "I need you to put me through, secure, to Camp David, please."

"Aye, sir.  Just a mo..." She trailed off, "Oh my god."

"What?"  James felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck.

"We just got a priority flash from Washington, The Vice-President died moments ago at Walter Reed.  Cause of death, Respiratory failure related to Influenza."

James stopped, speechless.  It took him a moment to regroup, "Put the call through now, please."

"It's coming through now, sir."

James set his face to a mask of concern, he knew who was likely to answer the call, so it surprised him little when he appeared on his screen, "Axelrod."

Axelrod made no attempt to hide his feelings, "Atkinson.  What do you want?  We're busy here."

"I need to speak to them."

He snorted, "We're not interested in anything you have to say."

"I would think that stopping the Influenza outbreak would be interesting enough."

"I don't care if you were going to be telling us of an alien..."  He was pushed aside by a second man.

"Sorry about that, Captain."

"Thank you, Secretary Kerry."

John Kerry looked to the side as if David Axelrod was still fuming about something before turning his attention back to the video screen, "Just what is it between you and David anyways?"

James shrugged, "We don't like each other.  One of those, 'hatred at first sights', I suppose."  He took a breath before he began, "Time is short, so let's cut right to the chase.  Kane claims that his people have isolated the Influenza Strain, and are working at synthesizing counter-agents to it.  He wants to share it with the world, but the embargo that's on his nation is preventing him from doing so."

"Well that's a load of bull.  There's nothing stopping him from giving us the information."

"I agree.  But at the same time, I understand where he's coming from.  He thinks he due some respect for being able to carve a small empire out Eastern Europe.  Quite honestly, what he's accomplished is remarkable.  In the span of a couple of days he captured a fifth of Europe, through some of the worst terrain in Europe."  James sighed, "My thought is that if you don't have plans to take him out this year, take what he's offering.  At the end of the day the Embargo isn't going to accomplish anything because Khan is just going to ignore it."

"You see our problem."  Kerry looked over towards the room that James assumed the rest of the leaders were in, then turned back to the screen, "We've made some progress on a tighter alliance.  A definite replacement for NATO.  Perhaps even a successor to the United Nations."

James arched an eyebrow, "What wrong with the United Nations?", he asked half-seriously.

John chuckled, "I know, you've been a strong opponent of the UN for as long as I've known you.  Colonel Liao has China's Security Council vote, the UN is increasingly having difficulties doing even basic humanitarian missions.  Liao has become a stone wall, and is demanding that Persia get a permanent seat on the Security Council, at the expense of France.  We and Britain have vetoed every one of those calls, so she, or she and Russia have vetoed everything else, just out of spite."

James nodded, "Well, I can't say I'd miss the UN.  Oh, John.  I'm sorry.  I know you and Joe were good friends.  And please, pass my condolences on to the President as well."

John closed his eyes, "Thank you.  Teresa caught it too, but fortunately it wasn't as bad as the one that got Joe."  He re-opened his eyes, "I need to get back in there, I'll pass along your message, and Kane's.  Good day, James."

"Good day."  The screen went blank and left James with his thoughts.  NATO's dissolution was a forgone conclusion, after Turkey, a NATO member, joined the Persian Empire, and then Turkey, still a NATO member, launched the unsanctioned attack on Greece and the Balkans.  NATO's response wasn't swift or decisive enough for some of the minor partners in the alliance, they withdrew, leaving the US, Germany, France, Britain, and Canada holding the bag.  If Secretary of State John Kerry was willing to admit that the UN was having issues, then it must be bad at the UN.  Of that James had no doubt, which lead him to wonder just what kind of an alliance could they be forging that would replace the UN, surely China, Persia, and Russia would not consent to a new United Nations that didn't have them in a position of authority, or at least as equals with the United States, and Great Britain.  James stood up and made his way into Ops.  He stopped on the railing overlooking the pit and pulled himself towards it.  He looked around a couple of times before fixing his gaze on Ammanda, "Where's Sam?"

She shrugged, "We got all of her parts offloaded from the Freighter an hour ago, she's in Cargo Bay two.  I imagine we won't be seeing much of her for a while now."

James smirked, "I guess someone is going to have to make sure that she showers and eats at least once a day."

She grinned, "I nominate you."

He faked a shocked expression, "Why me?"

"You've been sleeping with her, if you get in her way she'll be less likely to hurt you."

He shook his head, "Are we going to get into that again?"

She smiled, "Nope, in this case, I'm glad that you can be the one to get the wrench thrown at you."

[Grim Reaper]

MMMmm, quite a switch from the GDI origins, but definitly a hint to something similar. And dealing with Kane, that's quite the dangerous man to be dealing with!

So keep writing, and I'm loving the pace. Some others can learn from that right mates?

[Lieutenant_Q]

14 February 2014
16:01 Zulu

Services have been announced for Vice-President Joe Biden.  He will be laid to rest next weekend, at a Cemetery in his home town of Wilmington, Delaware.  Services will be closed to the Public, although several members of Congress in both parties are expected to be in attendance.  Congress remains in recess for all of next week.  James dug through the mess of cables that was in the compartment in front of him, inspecting each one, before binding them together and bolting them to the compartment wall.  There was a short in here somewhere, and it was holding up completion of the rotation mechanism for the Grav Deck.  The Walkers were examining the lines outside, while he and a few off-duty Walkers were going through the interior lines.  James' earpiece was relaying the news feed from AP. 

Expedition 39 blasted off from Kazakhstan early yesterday morning, en route for a 2 PM Eastern docking Today with the International Space Station, but there will be no homecoming immediately for Expedition 38.  Russian Cosmonauts Oleg Kotov, and Sergey Ryazansky along with American Astronaut Micheal Hopkins, will instead take a docked shuttlecraft to Space Station L-1, the massive Space Station currently under construction at the Lunar Lagrange point.  This will mark the first time that NASA or their Russian Counterparts have sent an Astronaut to that station.  The three of them are leaving the station immediately, rather than staying on until March as originally planned, to prevent them from getting any contamination from the Influenza Virus that is currently sweeping the globe.  Expedition 39, will also mark the last manned flight of the Soyuz rocket.  As the RSA announced today that they have phased out the Soyuz, and are replacing them with the Shuttles being used by the L-1 Station, joining NASA and the Japanese Space Agency, who made the same announcements late last year.  The Soyuz will still be used to move cargo to the station, until the end of the year, when the last Soyuz constructed will be placed in a Museum.  James smiled at that last bit, knowing that every little bit of income helps, even the miniscule amount they'd get from the sale of the shuttlecrafts.

"Found it sir."  Elise flashed him a thumbs up as he pulled his head out of the compartment.

James nodded, "Alright, that doesn't mean we can't finish cleaning up these compartments."  He looked at all six of the Walkers that were here with him, "Get every one of these cables secured and labeled, we'll worry about coding the labels later."  France and Germany have announced the formal recognition of The Byzantine Empire.  Joining the United States and Britain, who recognized them yesterday.  That recognition formally ends the hostilities that began earlier this year between Turkey and the European Union, a conflict that resulted in the dissolution of NATO.  James put his head back into the compartment and continued to separate and fasten the cables to the walls.

The Influenza outbreak continues unchecked.  World Health Officials report that every country has reported a case of Influenza, the death toll currently stands at just under one-hundred thousand, with several hundred thousand more taken ill.  The World Quarantine is having little affect.  All Commercial Airlines remain grounded while the Quarantine is in effect, and travelers every where are starting to show their frustration with the Quarantine, already riots have broken out at Hethrow, JFK, and LAX.  That sparked James' attention, he hadn't realized to up until now that the Quarantine was not only the planet itself, but all the nations of the planet as well.  "Wow."

He felt a tap on his shoulder, Elise was standing over him with a concerned look on her face, "Sir?"

James smiled and pointed at his ear piece, "News.  Apparently the Quarantine was more comprehensive than I thought."

Elections are scheduled to be held for the first time in South America as the Southern Hegemony votes Monday to elect their First Minister and Legislature.  The Southern Hegemony officially comes into being next month following these elections.  Nicolas Maduro is the odds on favorite to win the position of First Minister, with Cristina Fernandez and newcomer Saul Paz expected to compete for second place, with the second place finisher becoming the Vice-Minister, per the Hegemony Constitution.   James pulled his head out of the compartment and closed it behind him.  "Earth is an interesting place to be right now, I'm quite glad to be up here, away from it all."

Elections of a different kind are being held in Central Africa today.  A number of different warlords from the war-torn region are banding together to form a united front against the Persian Empire.  Afraid that the predominantly Muslim empire will snuff out their religion, six Christian Warlords had aligned with two Tribal Warlords to annihilate the three Muslim Warlords in their midst.  Now they decide amongst themselves who is to be their voice on the World Stage.  "Ammanda, are your boys getting power out there now?"

"Affirmative, Rotational Mechanism is now operational.  We're back on task now."

Finally, Representatives from all across the East, including Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, are meeting in Taiwan this weekend for what has been described as tense talks.  No news is leaking from the conference, but China's absence from the discussion can only mean that the meeting is regarding Colonel Liao's coup.  Former Chinese Priemier Hu Jintao is believed to be in attendance.  James shook his head, "A lot of good that's going to do them..."  he looked up at the Walker crew, "Alright, job's complete here, thank you all for your help.  You all are supposed to be off duty... so... go enjoy yourselves!"

[Grim Reaper]

The world has become a violent cesspool. I wonder where you are going with it....

[Lieutenant_Q]

15 February 2014
12:16 Zulu

"The three of them check out just fine.  Just the usual microgravity symptoms that we have to deal with here."

James nodded as he kept his attention focused on the monitor showing the three visitors doing their exercises on the freighter's Grav Deck.  He tensed ever so slightly when he felt the pinch on his arm.

Kelly frowned, "Stop that."

"I'm sorry, you know I don't particularly care for needles."

"And you've been putting off this physical for a week now."

James shook his head, "It's been a busy month."

She smiled as she pulled the needle out of his arm and handed it to her nurse, "That's why I gave you the week."  She reached over for a blood pressure cuff, "Anyways, this week seems to be all about the medical quarantine, so what better place to keep up on it than the Infirmary?"  She winked at him as she slid his arm through the cuff.

He looked back at her with a smile, "WHO is already stating that they plan to lift the quarantine in Europe by the middle of next week.  Kane's drugs seem to be quite effective."  She inflated the cuff and began measuring his pulse while he continued, "Pharmaceutical companies in Canada and the States are working overtime trying to produce it as well, by the end of the week, early part of next week, most of the quarantine should be lifted.  Micheal can take them back to Earth."

She pulled the stethoscope off of her neck and placed the receivers into her ears, she then placed the cold sensor onto his chest, "Breathe for me."  He took a deep breath, she moved the scope, "Again."  Another breath, another move, "One more time."  He took an even deeper breath, and let it all out.  She pulled the receivers out of her ears and wrote something into her PDA.  "Looks like your doing alright, so far, your X-rays show a little more decalcification than what seems to be baseline, I'll have to adjust your supplements.  Your muscles and tendons are holding up well, so there's no need to adjust your exercise routine."  She began rubbing her fingers under his jawline and down his throat.  "I think we may want to consider getting a shipment of the drug and administering it here, or at the very least keeping it in my inventory."

"I'm fine with keeping it in the inventory, but if we don't need it, there's no point in administering it."

She went down each of his arms, "I know you don't like over-medicating, but this is a very dangerous virus we're dealing with."

He shook his head as she starting rubbing down his torso, "It's not a vaccine, it's an anti-viral drug.  It doesn't do anything to the virus until we come in contact with the virus."  He pointed around the station, "We're not coming in contact with the virus."  He paused out of shock as she reached his scrotum, but relaxed again when he remembered what she was doing, "The three of them," he said as he pointed back to the monitor showing the cosmonauts and astronaut, "They probably do need it."

She got down on her knees as she continued working her way down his legs, "Anyone on the freighter going down to the surface will likely need it to."

"That's fine, people that need it, should get it, but those of us that are staying on the station, don't need it.  Not this time around."

She smiled at him as she stood back up and entered another note into her PDA, "No skin, or lymph cancers."  Her smile broke into a wicked grin, "Bend over."

James did so, "Wait... are you going to..."  His question was cut off by the unmistakable sound of a snapping latex glove.

"Of course... it wouldn't be a complete physical if I didn't tickle your prostate..."

[Vipre]

If the flu virus was genetically engineered by Kane in order to create a crisis that he could then step in and offer the solution to thereby securing the official recognition he wanted to begin with it was quite the brilliant move.

[Lieutenant_Q]

If the flu virus was genetically engineered by Kane in order to create a crisis that he could then step in and offer the solution to thereby securing the official recognition he wanted to begin with it was quite the brilliant move.

hmmm... I know... but I think I'm keeping that one to myself.

The world has become a violent cesspool. I wonder where you are going with it....

Will be revealed shortly.  Besides the Eugenics War of course. 

MMMmm, quite a switch from the GDI origins, but definitly a hint to something similar. And dealing with Kane, that's quite the dangerous man to be dealing with!

So keep writing, and I'm loving the pace. Some others can learn from that right mates?

Yeah, I had to diverge a bit from the C&C origins, in C&C Kane is supposedly supposed to be the biblical Cain.  But regardless, yes he is quite a dangerous man.

As for the pace, I have two more entries that are just awaiting final edits (I say two now, but I may wind up cutting one up into two separate entries), and that is the end of this chapter.  I wanted to have them up by the end of the year, but my schedule didn't quite allow it.  We all do this in our free time, and the holidays don't allow for much of that.  I'm going to get the next entry done this week, and hope to have it finished by the end of next week.  After that, I'm out for a month or two while my schedule gets even more packed than it was at Christmas time.  Look for an intermission Coast-to-Coast story in February if I have the time, with Chapter 3 starting sometime in March.

[Grim Reaper]

Nice, I hope you'll make that schedule. And hopefully you have nice things to be busy with!

[Lieutenant_Q]

15 April 2014
05:30 Zulu

A murmur spread through the promenade, all eighty people that crewed the station were assembled, staring at the Earth.  They were all awaiting the first event of its kind to be observed on the station.  Every 28 days the Sun set behind the Earth for upwards of an hour.  This time, however, the Sun was setting, and it wasn't coming back for four hours.  The first Lunar Eclipse of the station's history was of the total variety.  In just a few minutes it would begin, and four hours of darkness would flood the station.  Even Sam got out of her cargo bay to witness the event.  James and Sam were situated on the railing in front of an empty storefront on Promenade level 3, from there, they could see the sixty-five people that filled the Promenade level 2 observation area.  The other thirteen were up on level 3 with them.  Besides Earth and the Sun, Docking Arm 2, which was completed back in March, was visible off to the left.  In six hours, there would be another event occurring on that arm, the Persian supply ship would be arriving.  A gift from the Persian People, as Khan had put it.  Strangely enough it didn't put James on edge like it did everyone else on the station.  Whether he was being naive, or just pulling himself away from the nationalist trappings that everyone else was caught up in, he couldn't tell.

Darkness enveloped the end of the docking arm, and slowly, like a blanket being pulled over, began to spread towards the promenade.  Gasps and awes escaped the lips of the crew.  A minute into the eclipse and the entire arm was shrouded, James looked down to the promenade floor and began to watch the line of darkness march across it.  Of course, darkness being relative, the area was still illuminated by the station lighting, just as the docking arm's navigational light would blink every five seconds, but the difference between station lighting and natural sunlight was very much obvious as the first crew members were swallowed by the darkness.  He felt a chill run through his body as the line of darkness overwhelmed him, "Was it my imagination, or did it get colder in here?"

Sam smiled at him, "It's your imagination, the temperature didn't budge even a tenth of a degree."  She winked at him, and lowered her voice, "But if you're cold, I can show you what I've done with my Fusion Reactor so far, and we can cuddle for bit."

He grinned back at her, "Tempting, but no.  I've got to prepare for the Persian supply ship arriving in a few of hours."

She frowned, "What's to prepare for?"

"Apparently half the crew are convinced that Khan is going to be using the supply ship to take control of the station.  The other half think that he's going to try to kill us all with it."

"And you?"

He shrugged, "I think everyone is paranoid.  Since Micheal left three weeks ago, everyone's been on edge with this ship coming."

"I've been out of the loop."  Sam looked down as everyone started to disperse, nothing to see now until the sun rose on the other side of the planet.  "What all is on this supply ship?"

"Consumables mostly.  Food, Water, Medicines."  James turned towards the lift, "They have a couple of experiments they want us to set up, somewhere."

"Do we have room for it?"  She turned to follow him.

"Of course we do."  He pressed the call button and waited for the lift, "Even with you taking up all of Cargo Bay 2, Cargo Bay 3 was just recently installed."  The lift doors opened, "Plus if any of those experiments are here to kill us, a quick flip of the switch jettisons the entire Cargo Bay." He paused when she didn't follow him in, "You coming?"

She shook her head, "You're going to Ops, I'm going back to Bay 2."

****

11:45 Zulu

"Docking complete.  Pressure Equalizing."  James pulled his emergency helmet from its storage space behind his neck, he secured it to his collar and made sure his internal air supply was activated.  Just because he felt fine over the Persians docking here, didn't mean he was going to be careless.  The light above the airlock turned green.

"You can open the airlock, Ammanda."

"Opening it now. Good luck, Sir."

James stepped through the opening hatch.  The lettering on the wall in front of him was written in both Farsi and English.  To his left was the computer control rooms, to the right was access to the cargo bays.  His first inclination was to head to the left and make sure the computer was secured and not going to rip the docking arm off by accident.  He came across a door not far down the corridor, one that opened without him even touching anything.  "That's never good on a space ship."

"I'm sorry, sir?"  Ammanda came in over his comm system.

"The door opened with an auto-sensor.  Hopefully the sensor was smart enough to check the pressure on both sides before opening it."  He looked around the bridge.  There was a chair in the center of it, but no other places for crew.  Odd that there was even a chair on what was supposed to be a drone ship, although James supposed that there had to be a place for the programmer to sit while he was making the final preparations.  As he looked at the chair longer though, he decided that it looked way too comfortable for a programmer or an engineer.  It almost looked like a throne.  He took his eyes off the throne and scanned the computer system, it looked like it was locked down, but James had asked Khan for a direct shutdown, to prevent an accident, and he said he'd provide one.  He just never said where it would be.

"It's the console on the left side, James."  Khan's voice boomed through the speakers in the room.

James turned to face the console, "Khan?"

"This is a recording, in case you were wondering.  I knew you'd come in here first to make sure there were no accidents.  The buttons you'll need to lock it down are labeled in English."

James scanned the console, and found the buttons, four of them out of twenty, that were labeled in English.  It was a such a simple sequence that he didn't need to ask for instructions, he pressed the buttons in order and the room's computers went dark.  "Much obliged, Your Excellency."

"You'll be able to restart the computer using the same sequence."

James turned away and headed back towards the cargo bay, he spared one last glance at the throne, wondering if Khan had insisted it be there while he was making the recordings.  After he stepped through the door Kelly's voice came over his speaker, "No sign of any infectious organisms in the air that was in the freighter, we'll have our own air in there in about ten minutes."

"Thank you, Doctor.  I'm making my way to the Cargo section."  He walked down the corridor and took the left turn to go deeper into the ship, he was joined by a Ammanda and Carl a few steps down the hall.  "Everything looks good, we can take our helmets off."  He unfastened his helmet and let it roll back up into its pouch.

"We don't have a cargo transfer boom ready yet.  Anything that isn't vacuum tolerant is going to be slow in getting off."  Carl winced as the doors to the cargo section slid open.

"We've got some vacuum containers we can move stuff into for easier off-loading.  It shouldn't be too difficult."  Ammanda stared at the pistol on James' hip, "I didn't realize you even had one of those up here."

He patted it, "As much as some people panicked about this being a Trojan Horse, I thought you'd be happy to see it."

Ammanda shook her head, "I'm not an anti-gun zealot, but, I'm not too keen on you putting a hole in the bulkhead."

Carl smiled as he showed her his, "We're both using hollow cavity bullets.  There's a reason they're illegal in most civilized countries, but they won't go through a bulkhead."

They stopped at the railing that overlooked the cargo bay.  James surveyed it,  "Looks like we have a lot of stuff here."

Ammanda nodded, "In...."  she was interrupted by a tapping noise behind them.  James and Carl pulled their pistols and leveled them at the closet off to their right.  Ammanda pressed a button on the side of the door to open the closet, and a young girl floated out of the closet, coughing and panting.  She began crying and screaming at them with her hands in the air, and panicked even more when her frantic movements pushed her towards the ceiling,  Ammanda reached up and grabbed one of her wrists, then looked back at them, "She's speaking Farsi, do we have anyone on board that speaks Farsi?"

The girl struggled against Ammanda's grasp and screamed louder, Ammanda hushed her and pulled her down to the deck floor.  She didn't stop screaming, but stopped thrashing when Ammanda released her.

James regarded the amount of clothing on the young girl, "Unless it's in her, she's not armed."  He holstered his weapon, her clothing consisted of a few scraps of cloth covering her breasts and waist.  Only slightly more covering than a bikini.  He activated his communicator, "Kelly, get over here, we've got a patient for you."

"A patient?  What happened?!"

"There was apparently a stow-away on the Persian ship."

[Vipre]

Wonder what undetectable GM disease she's a carrier of, "Trojan Horse" indeed.

[Grim Reaper]

Or are we paranoid as well? With Kahn it can be a frightened stowaway as easily as a trojan house

[Vipre]

What better guise for a covert biological weapon than a poor frightened girl.

 Not saying I don't trust Khan, just that you need twelve layers of dagger resistant material covering the spot between your shoulder blades whenever he's involved...and perhaps an airlock to chuck this girl out of real quick.

[Lieutenant_Q]

Sam took advantage of the distraction of the stowaway to slip onto the supply ship, she wasn't concerned about anyone finding out what she was doing but the fewer questions asked the better off everyone involved is.  She stepped through the airlock and turned to the left, thanking James silently for insisting on a physical shutdown, otherwise it was likely that nothing but the cargo bay would have been labeled in English.  The door to the control room opened upon sensing her, it unnerved her that there was no manual switch, she thoroughly examined both sides of the doorway and found no manual override.  She took out a small screwdriver and pried open the cover of the motion sensor, looking through the wiring she found the wire that connected to what she hoped was the door mechanism.  Reaching into her shoulder pocket she pulled out a small device and attached it to the wire, the indicator light on it flashed red twice before turning a solid green.  "That should do it," she muttered to herself.

She backed away from the door, and kept her eye on the motion sensor as she did, when she reached the throne in the center of the room, she was satisfied that the door wasn't going to close on her.  She turned her attention to the computer consoles, examining just the buttons and their labels she noted that out of eighty buttons, switches and indicators, only eight of them were labeled in English.  All the other labels were in Farsi, a problem to be sure, but one that she was prepared for, she pulled her PDA out of her thigh pocket and activated the translation matrix.  It took a few seconds to load, but when it did, it displayed every word that the PDA "saw" on the panels and then placed the English translation next to them.  She looked over the translations, she had no intention of using the consoles, but knowing what each button did would allow her to make better sense of the wiring and what the consoles were meant to do.  She activated the voice dictation feature on her PDA and began speaking, "Nothing unusual about the control room, the engine control panel verifies my initial analysis that the rocket propelling the supply ship is consistent with an ICBM class rocket, it is similar in many regards to the Soyuz-FG, indicating that Persian Rocketry is only about 15 years behind the US and Russian equivalents.  However it should be noted that all variations of the Soyuz-FG rocket were designed to fall away after launch, this rocket stayed intact, and propelled the supply ship to the station."

An unlabeled light came on on a panel located on the wall to her right, she promptly turned off the dictation feature and moved over to that panel.  She pulled out her small screwdriver and opened the panel, nervous about what that light meant.  She traced the wire that connected to the indicator into a junction box.  The wire wasn't labeled, so she attached a probe to it, and ran a signal through the wire.  Unfortunately she couldn't get a determination on just what the light was for, but she did get a partial schematic of the wiring diagram from the probe.  The light on the panel turned off, and she decided that she had done enough poking at the wiring and went straight for the main computer interface.  Even though it is a drone, designed to be controlled by remote, there still has to be computer with its performance specifications.  She didn't expect there to be a detailed diagram, but she could get enough out of the performance profile to make educated guesses.

She opened an access panel underneath the central console, there was no keyboard to program with, so there either had to be a port for a portable keyboard, or a port to upload the programming for the computer.  A wireless upload may have been possible, but the time required to upload over a wireless network for such a large program as a remote guidance system wouldn't be efficient.  She found a USB connector attached to the main system bus, she had a USB adapter in her other thigh pocket, attached it to the end of her probe, and plugged it into the port.  Setting the PDA down while the computer did all the necessary handshakes and authentication hacking, she began cleaning up after herself, closing open panels and erasing any trace she had been here so far.  Her PDA gave off a short notification tone, and she floated back over to it.

The door slammed shut behind her, she turned and pushed herself at it, expecting, hoping, that it would open when she passed in front of the sensor.  It didn't.  She twisted herself to keep her head from hitting the door and slammed hard into it shoulder first.  The door didn't budge and she bounced off of it.  She floated back to the center of the room and caught herself on the throne.

"Good day, Captain Carter."

"Khan?"  She looked around the room, the light on the wall panel was illuminated again, along with another light next to it that was blinking rapidly, like a modem light.

"I knew you would come, the NSA thought that I didn't know about you.  In truth I know a lot about all of you up there.  You thought your encryption protocols were so clever, but they were really quite simplistic."

Sam was speechless, she made her way back over to the door and tried to force it open, but there was no place to get her fingers in the track.

"I'm not angry, Captain.  No, but you have something I want.  If you are willing to give it to me, I will let you out, and forget this entire thing happened."

She turned her back to the door and looked up at the ceiling, where she assumed there was a camera and microphone of some sort, she took a breath to compose herself before responding, "What do you want?"

"You are a very intelligent woman, you would make a fine addition to my breeding program."

"I've heard about your breeding program, I will not become a human test tube for your selective breeding program."

A hidden compartment opened in the back of the throne, "We've moved beyond the need for a woman that needs to have her medical condition monitored on an hourly basis."  She reached into the compartment and pulled out a biopsy needle.  "The needle is sterile, use it to extract ova from your ovaries, then place the needle back into the compartment.  It will keep the ova stable until it arrives back here, where we will place it into our artificial wombs.  The second generation of my breeding program will be superior to even me."

She shook her head, "I don't know how to use this."

"If you would be so kind as to sit in the chair, the computer will show you where you need to stick yourself."

She looked at the chair, "And if I refuse?"

"I'm sure James has his hands full with that little wench that slipped on the ship, while it wasn't planned, I certainly wasn't going to turn away from her... generous... sacrifice for her people.  He won't know you are trapped in here for quite some time, and I can alter the life support system in the control room from here, without your cargo loaders noticing a thing.  Oh no, I won't kill you, but I can make it extremely uncomfortable for you in here, make you wish I would just kill you."

She placed her hand of the edge of the throne, but hesitated.

"I am willing to give you what you came here for, in exchange for your cooperation."

"My ova are that important to you?"

"Yes, and quite honestly, what you are here for is that unimportant to me.  Just sit in the chair, Captain, it won't take long, and you can get back to your Fusion Reactor."

*****

"Nicole, we're going to need you to go between on this.  We've got a girl, approximately fifteen, she's only speaking Farsi, and you're the only one we've got that's fluent in it."

She nodded from the monitor, "Understood, Captain."

James looked back to the girl, she was still in a panic mode, it had taken them twenty minutes just to coax her off the supply ship, "First things, first, can you get her to calm down?"

Nicole began speaking and the girl stopped her thrashing and stared at the screen, she then began talking softly, Nicole translated, "Her name is Yasaman, Jasmin is the English translation for it, she's the daughter of..."  she stopped, "the daughter of a man who was a member of the opposition forces in Iran.  Khan had ordered her entire family killed when he found them.  She slipped out the back door and away from the execution squad when her older brother threw himself at one of the guards, to cover her and her sister's escape.  She got separated from her sister, and doesn't know where she is now."

Kelly had begun a battery of tests on her, James noticed that the girl tensed when Kelly stuck her with the needle, but Kelly spoke a couple of words in Farsi to her to get her to relax.  James turned back to Nicole, "How did she get on the supply ship?"

Nicole frowned at the response she got from her question, "She said she slipped through the security fence and avoided the guards,"  The girl laughed, "She said she's very good at not being noticed."

James half shrugged, "She's certainly small enough to be missed.  But why did she come here?"

Nicole relayed his question, the girls response was short, Nicole shook her head, "She had no other place to go."

James raised an eyebrow at that statement, but Kelly stepped away from the exam table and vouched for it, "I can attest to that Captain.  She's severely undernourished, her feet and calves are consistent with someone who had been running on foot for a month, or more.  She's got signs that she hasn't slept more than a couple of hours a night for at least that long.  As it is, she's going to need a week here to recover.  I can't imagine she would have survived much longer on her own."

Ammanda stepped in from the other room, "If she was living in Tehran, the closest nation that she could get to is Turkmenistan, and they would be more likely to send her back than accept her.  Stowing away was probably her only chance."

Micheal slipped in over Nicole's shoulder, "That's quite a chance to be taking."

Ammanda placed her hand on the girl's shoulder, "But if Khan had a death decree on her, it was her only chance.  The question we have, is what are we going to do with her?"

[Grim Reaper]

Very nice, but I wonder if the choice Sam made was the right one.

[Vipre]

I still say flush her out an airlock just to be on the safe side.

[Lieutenant_Q]

Epilogue

17 April 2014

She poked at the bandages on her abdomen for what seemed like the fifteenth time in the last hour.  They didn't hurt anymore, but the violation was still there.  That she did it by her own hand meant nothing, it was still forced upon her.  She felt the anger, some of it, most of it, directed at Khan for doing it.  But there was some of it directed elsewhere, at the man that she was seconds away from talking to, so she hoped, anyways.  She'd kind of feel guilty if it was some innocent liaison that she would have to vent to.  Well, that's not quite accurate, no one in the NSA is innocent.  They may not have committed this particular act, but they are all responsible for something.  The monitor came to life, and there HE was.

"Robert."  The words nearly froze as they came out of her mouth.

The man looked unphased, he merely smiled that fake slimy smile she'd grown to despise over the last two days, "Captain Carter."  He furled his brow when he read a note that was passed to him, "Why are you calling on an unencrypted line?"

She laughed one of the most sarcastic laughs she could muster, "Like it's been doing us any good anyways."

His smile turned to a frown, "It's been most useful, Sam.  Now you are jeopardizing everything.  Activate the encryption now or this conversation is over."

"What good is it going to do?  Khan already broke the cypher, the only person who were hiding from now is James."

He didn't even blink.  Her head snapped up, she felt her blood pressure rise as the realization dawned on her, "You knew!  You bastard!  You knew!!  YOU KNEW THAT HE KNEW I WAS COMING AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME!"

He stared calmly at her, "Would it have changed anything?  You still had your orders to go in there."

"I WOULD HAVE TOLD SOMEONE!"  She was trembling with rage, at first she had tried to hide it, but all the pretense was gone now.

He didn't flinch as he weathered her storm, "That would have been a direct violation of your orders."

"Those orders said nothing about me being raped!"

He raised an eyebrow at that statement, "It's well understood that field agents risk death, dismemberment, torture, and rape in the performance of their duties.  You are a field agent.  Just because you thought you were safe up there knowing that Captain Atkinson wouldn't have resorted to any of those lengths had he found out about you, didn't mean that the risk still wasn't there."

She stopped, and raised an eyebrow, "That sounded rehearsed."

He shook his head, "Of course it is.  How many field agents do you think I've debriefed that have been through what you've been through?  Granted most of them that got to the point that you have, didn't come back at all, but I've had to give that reminder to more field agents than I can count."

"Or rather you want to tell.  Because I know you do know that count."

He changed the subject, "I still notice that you haven't encrypted this transmission.  Are you planning on doing it?"

She shook her head, "No.  Consider this my resignation.  I've included, encoded, everything you wanted from the Persians.  I want no further orders, or even conversations."

He nodded, "As you wish, Captain.  A shame really, you weren't in any more danger up there."

Her eyes flashed in anger, "I was locked in that room for almost two hours as he shocked, froze, suffocated, cooked, and burned me.  I was so delirious, I couldn't even poke myself correctly.  I BLED ALL THE WAY TO THE INFIRMARY!"

He showed no sympathy, "That was all your own doing, had you simply given him what he wanted, it would have been quick and painless."  He glared at her, "It also would have aroused less suspicion."

She resisted the urge to put her hand through the monitor to throttle him, "That's all you are concerned about isn't it?  That your little game of James Bond doesn't get found out about."

He spread his hands in front of him, "Whether you're going to help us or not, telling Captain Atkinson that we're planning on taking over his station is still treason, and we'll still court-martial you for it."

She scowled at him, "Thanks for letting me know what you really care about, if I had known that six months ago, I would have personally bent you over and shoved your job offer up your ass."  She slammed her hand down on the comm button, ending the transmission.

"That sounds painful."

Sam turned in her chair, "The whole damn thing was painful, to me, but not to that bastard."

James stepped out of the shadow, "A bastard he may be, but what does that make you?"

She let her head fall towards the floor, "Someone you can't trust anymore."

He nodded, "So what am I to do with you?  I can't just send you back, not until Micheal gets back here anyways."

She looked up at him, "Can I please keep working?  If there's anything you can trust about me still, it's that I am a scientist.  I do want to be here.  It had nothing to do with the NSA, Robert approached me after I had already put in my transfer."

James leaned back against the wall, but said nothing.

"I didn't even really know what he wanted in the first place.  He said it was just to keep tabs on you, make sure that what you sent Shawn was accurate.  Then it started getting more involved.  A little scouting mission, then it grew into another mission, then another. Each one seemed only a little bit worse than the last thing I had done, until it finally got to this."

James scratched his chin, "You're confined to quarters until the end of the week.  You can eat, exercise, and of course, report to the Infirmary.  No socializing, no work.  First thing Monday, I want a report on my desk detailing everything, and I do mean everything, you did for them.  After that, I'll let you out.  And I'll make my decision as to just what I'm going to do with you."



END BOOK 2

[Vipre]

A pleasure to read, looking forward to book 3.

[Grim Reaper]

Indeed looking forward to book three multiple reasons actually. One and foremost because book two was such an enjoyable read. But also the major trust issues that will have to be explored with an ending like this. And all the other loose ends in the world at large, the stowaway, etc.

[Captain Sharp]

Still not caught up, but I gotta say this. You need to be published.

--guv