Sorry short one ran out of time had to go to work its kind of one chapter split into two enjoy anyway.

The haunting of deck 10

The Dauntless had been right where Beth said it was going to be, Mickie admired the ship as she looked at it out of the viewing widows. It seemed more modern than the other ships and she almost seemed to glint in the sunshine as they sailed around her.

Cody pulled Legacy to a stop beside the Dauntless as Beth almost ran off the bridge and in to the lift.

"I guess someone is keen." Randy chuckled following the blonde, and he couldn't hold back his own smile as Beth's good mood was infectious.

Melina and Kofi met them on the jetty as they walked alongside the Dauntless and Melina had to admire the design.

She rode low in the water, her nose was sharp and rose higher than the main deck. She had a curved bridge wall as the glass sloped away from the front edge up to a point where she levelled off to drop down vertical on to lower decking and to the aft torpedo bays.

"Wow she is beautiful." Kofi said as he climbed the ramp behind a happy looking Beth who was beckoning them all inside.

Once inside they could tell however the ship was far from finished. There were no chairs on the bridge for a start, all the consoles had been fitted though which would save them hours of wiring. The stairways were lacking in hand rails but they could all live with that and the engine room was a mess of cables and parts.

"I guess we had better get cracking." Melina said going first to one of the engines and placing her tool kit beside the littered parts.

Beth came and joined her while Kofi and Randy got to work on the power couplings.

"Orton to Legacy, we could use several more bodies down here." Randy said after an hours of clearing the worst of the mess and making enough room for everyone to work in it was time for the rest of the Legacy crew to help get the Dauntless sea worthy.

Beth looked around her ship to see the crew of Legacy work just like they did on their own ship, she could see the Dauntless coming together right before her eyes and she felt nothing but pride in her new found family.

Cody finally brought her out of her thoughts by tapping her on the shoulder with a concerned look in his eyes.

"I can't gain access to deck 10." He said as Beth spun round to face him and she smiled at him immediately.

"What do you need to go in there for, that deck doesn't matter there is nothing down there anyway." Beth said and Cody thought the woman looked decidedly nervous.

"I wanted to check that the power cables were ok all the way through the decks, they have been dormant a long time and they could have eroded anywhere." Cody said slightly defensively but suddenly feeling bad at Beth's distraught look.

"Umm ok I will go, I know where they all are it will be quicker." She said snatching the testing pliers from Cody's hand and taking off up the stairs towards deck 10.

Mickie was left almost alone on her bridge, the only other person who was there was Chris Jericho, he had remained on board in case they had to leave in a hurry. Now that the Dauntless was sea worthy if they did have to make a quick exit at least the small yet fast ship would be able to run from any attacker. Sitting staring out of the window, Mickie decided that she was board enough to think about just how she was going to split the crew up. She knew in her heart of hearts Randy had to go over to the Dauntless, not only did he know her best, he would be able to read her movements and support her without communication, Beth had little to no command experience and they would need a calm head over there. But Mickie didn't want to be without her first officer, she wanted him standing beside her while they tackled the UAN, but she knew she couldn't be selfish, if this plan was to work they would have to have the best crews they could come up with. That meant Randy was going over to commander the Dauntless whether he liked it or not, Mickie suspected he may put up a small fight but he would see sense in the end.

Ted would stay with her, he knew these systems better than anyone and would be able to give them warning minutes before anyone else it could provide vital time to be ready. She smiled Ted would be a perfect replacement for Randy as Ted knew Mickie better than anybody and he would keep her grounded when she wanted to blow the UAN to kingdom come.

Cody was an issue, although Chris was a great helm's man he was not Cody, but did tat mean Beth would need Cody to sail the unfamiliar ship to get the best out of it, or would Chris be able to manage leaving Legacy at full strength in that department. Mickie was unsure of what to do in that case and she for the first time that day wished Randy was here to discuss this with.

Sighing louder than she should Chris turned around to face her and raised his eyebrows.

"Are you ok Ma'am?" He asked and Mickie allowed herself a small smile on his behalf but before she could tell him she was fine a call came over the radio.

"Perez to Legacy."

"Go ahead Melina what's you status over there?" Mickie said standing up it was the first time in three hours they had heard anything from the other ship and Mickie was starting to think they wouldn't be ready on time.

"About another hour Captain, we are almost there, permission to bring the nuke over Ma'am." Melina said a slight hesitation in her voice. Mickie was glad she couldn't see her engineers expression because she knew what it would look like.

"Permission granted, this is only a last resort Chief I don't want to have to use them, but perhaps the threat will be enough alone and I don't want the Dauntless to not be able to defend herself." Mickie said knowing Randy would be on that ship and she had no intention of loosing him.

"Aye Ma'am I will send some guys over to get it." With that the transmission was cut off and all Mickie could do now was wait.

Randy was hot and sweaty but he was glad there were now chairs on the Dauntless's bridge. He slumped in one of them and thought he had better get used to this view. He had known from the time he set foot on this ship that he would not be rejoining Mickie on the legacy. It made the best sense, Dauntless needed a Captain and Legacy didn't need a first officer.

This was not the way he wanted his first command but he would be very proud to take on the responsibility if Beth allowed him to. Looking around now he could see the subtle beauty that Beth had brought to this ship. Her artistic flare for design was evident in the sweeping lines of the deck. All flowing out of the main viewing windows to the pint on the stern of the ship.

Standing up Randy walked around the deck and started switching on the systems, they booted up one at a time and so far he had found no problems. He watched as Melina's updates recorded as loaded in the Dauntless's systems. It had taken the longest amount of time but Melina and Beth had manage to upgrade the sensor systems and add sonar to the ships already impressive scanning systems.

The engines were relatively easy to fit, there was no way they could fit a turbo though it would take days if not a week and right now they did not have the time.

Randy checked his watch, it was ten to two in the afternoon. They hand only half a day left to get to Egypt before Sambo started to kill the rebels and they didn't want to have to loose and single person on this mission. Randy knew that it would be a lot to ask. They had been extraordinarily lucky to have kept everyone alive so far. Well some of it was luck, and some of it was sheer determination but Randy knew that luck always ran out and if they got out of this one in one peace he knew someone must be smiling down on them.

Turning and heading back for engineering Randy walked down the stairwell and passed the sign for deck 10. He remembered Cody had mentioned something earlier about that deck, but more specifically about the way Beth had acted when he had mentioned it. Pausing by the doorway now Randy decided it wouldn't hurt to take a quick look, if he was going to command this ship he had to know everything on it was working properly especially if they were going to be involved in a battle of some kind.

Pushing open the door Randy wondered if Beth was still on the deck as Cody had said he couldn't gain access to it earlier and Randy had been surprised that it was now open.

Walking down the dark and narrow corridor Randy ignored the chill than ran down his spine as he saw no one and heard no one on the deck.

Fighting the urge just to turn around and walk back to the main stairwell Randy pushed on and he decided he would just walk to the end and then go back, no harm in just having a look now was there.

Beth was sitting in the relative dark. She hated it down here, the deck always felt cold, like something was sapping the heat from the room, but she knew that was impossible. She looked down at the object in the centre of the room and shook her head.

She had forgotten about this until Cody had mentioned coming down to deck 10 and she knew she could not let him or anyone else from the Legacy crew see it. What would they think of her if they knew?

There was no way she could get rid of it now though, it would have to come with them, but what to do with it. Moving it was out of the question some one would see her, leaving on this deck was risky what if someone need to get to the access hatches down here to do repairs they would not miss the large object in the centre of the room.

Hiding it was the only choice, but where.

Beth looked around for inspiration as she heard a noise coming from down the corridor. She flinched as she heard the main door close and she knew she wasn't alone on this deck anymore.

With some effort she picked up the tubular shaped object and pulled open the storage cupboard in the corner, it was a pretty week hiding place but right now she didn't have a lot of choice. Going over to the access panels on the wall and getting started on checking the system all Beth could do was wait for the person to find her so they could then leave.

Sorry this one is short but I suppose anything is better than nothing right?

What is Beth up to, maybe she has a master plan of her own and she is just using Mickie and Legacy to help her carry it out?

Or is it something she now regrets doing and is ashamed of her creation, find out by hitting that review button and I will post the next chapter as quick as I am physically able.

Thanks for reading XxX