Heart of the Fury Chapter 26: The Old Girl Enters the Fray, a kim possible fanfic

The Trinity Sitch - Book 4: Heart of the Fury

Chapter 26

The Old Girl Enters the Fray

A petite woman with long, strawberry blonde hair pulled back in a loose ponytail sat at her console, absently chewing on a plastic disposable pen. Some of the crew of the destroyer, USS Delilah would tease he about buying the things by the dozen so she could just chew on them. That might be true. Her duties on the slender vessel rarely required exhaustive note taking like her previous civilian career did, and even when she did need to make some kind of report, it could be quickly read into her personal data link on her wrist.

Over a year earlier she had gotten a call from somebody she never expected to hear from, ever again. Jason Marsh had been her commanding officer when she was part of a tank crew during the Arkonian War. When that ended, they had a brief, very physical relationship. It was that time that caused the split between them. They simply wanted different things. She wanted an independent career, with a steady man to come home to at the end of the day. He wanted a partner by his side at all times as he ran his fathers multi-trillion credit corporation.

He was the last person in the galaxy she expected would call her back to active duty in the Unified Federal Starforce. But there he was at her apartment one fine day, his long hair chopped off into an old-fashioned 'high and tight' and his gray and black uniform all crisp and neat. He looked like the last five years had melted off him overnight.

Jolene "Jo" Stommble was out of her element. During the war she had been pretty much a glorified driver with a commission. She was part of a ten-man crew of a 'Ground Effect Mobile Weapons Emplacement," or, as most of the grunts would call them, a Hover-Tank. Because of her age she came into the decades-long war near the end, when most of the fighting had gone planet-side. Gone were the days of massive starships duking it out in open space. The Arkonians swept through the United Accord planets, grabbing territory quickly when hostilities broke out. The UA was basically caught with their pants down on that one. What good were huge fleets of glittering starships that couldn't even land when the enemy already held the surface? Sure they could bombard them out of existence, but the point was winning back what was rightfully theirs.

The war itself dragged on nearly forty years, claiming more lives in its course than most planets even had people. In the end, the UA ships prevailed over the smaller, cruder Arkonian fleet, but it took sending in ground troops to finally root them out.

It was what Jo did after the war that landed her on a fifty year old destroyer, wearing captain's bars on that blasted gray and black uniform. Since she was cashiered at the end of the war, she still had a reserve status. Sophisticated computers determined there was a need and she had the necessary skills, so she was reactivated.

The fact she didn't know what the mission was bothered her. All she was told to do was man a special sensor station and report any unusual findings to the commanding officer of the ship, Colonel Renton.

She had enough military discipline left in her not to bother pointing out how silly it was to have a deep-space exploration expert manning a station designed for uneducated enlisted personnel.

The Delilah may have been old, but she was like a legendary Irishman's hammer that had been given a few new heads and a few new handles in its storied life. There was likely very little left in the long, boat-like hull that had come off the space-docks many years before Jo was even born. The bridge itself was probably only a couple years old, being a module mounted above where the original, war-time control center had been located. The ship had a fully up-to-date ion power plant and even had telewarp capability, though they had not done any of the galaxy hopping jumps since she had been aboard.

It was very likely her experience on a telewarp capable starship that got her flagged for the mission.

At least her relatively light work-load left her plenty of time for a hobby that was bordering on obsession. About three years earlier she made an exciting discovery about her ancestors…

…she was a descendant of the legendary Twenty-First century hero, Kim Possible.

It all started when the exploration team she had been on made a very strange discovery on a lonely, sunless planet on the far side of the galaxy. There had been two ancient skeletons on that world. One was clearly some creature not yet known to science. The other was quite human, where no homo-sapiens had any right to be until they arrived there.

The most shocking thing about the skeleton was the fact the remaining traces of DNA showed it was clearly related to her.

The other discovery they made was an ornate sword, similar to a Japanese katana buried in the skull of the giant creature. Her curiosity surging, she went digging through the records of her ancestors trying to figure out whose remains were lying on that dark world. That's when she stumbled onto data about her flame-haired forebear.

What's more, she found a photograph of her with her husband and another dark haired woman. What was most interesting was the sword handle peaking over the blonde-haired man's shoulder.

It was the very same sword.

That sword was transported back to UA space on board the ship that first discovered the dark world. Thinking it might be her only link to her mysterious past, Jo hid the sword in a crawlspace of the small vessel. Unfortunately, before she could recover it, the ship was sold to her former lover's company and converted into a luxury yacht. Nothing was ever said about the weapon being found and before anyone could actually stumble onto it, the ship disappeared without a trace.

That photo now served as the default screen of her personal data pad. She sometimes found herself studying it, trying to fathom the mystery of her great, great, great (many times over) grandparents and the raven-haired woman with them. There was much written about Kimberly Anne Possible, but most of it appeared to be utter fantasy. The intervening centuries had turned fact into legend, making her more of a Robin Hood-like figure than actual history. Of her husband, she only really knew his name, and the name of their son that carried on their line until the name Stoppable had morphed into Stommble.

That the blonde-haired man with the sword was Kim Possible's husband, she had little doubt. Yet there was very little written about Ronald Eugene Stoppable, or his son, Eugene James Stoppable. The only hint she ever found was a reference to the elder Stoppable in a restaurant guide and a copy of an invitation to the son's wedding to a lady named Amethyst Lipsky.

She never found any pictures of the son or his wife, though she somehow imagined her looking like the current Prime Minister of Arkonia, Amethyst Arkon, a beautiful but tiny woman in her late sixties who assumed the mantle of leadership of that world when the old reign of the Masters ended at the close of the war. From what she understood, she was born on Earth but at least one of her parents had some sort of Arkonian heritage.

Jo's notion of her appearance was bolstered by the resemblance Prime Minister Arkon bore to the unnamed woman in the photo. They had the same narrow, tapering facial structure, but where the Prime Minister had glittering blue eyes, this woman's appeared brown, though it was hard to tell in the picture.

Everything was quiet on the ship. In fact, it had been that way ever since they left the main shipping lanes. Normally very few ships would venture far from such courses. There wasn't much need. Most of the surrounding space had been thoroughly mapped by that point and where there was supposed to be nothing, there was a ton of the stuff.

If there was one benefit of having a crew made up of 'old pros' it was the more relaxed approach to discipline. Everyone knew their jobs well enough they didn't have to spend a lot of time drilling and training on their equipment. In fact, despite bumping up against her thirtieth birthday, Jo was one of the younger members of the crew. That, and her petite stature pretty much meant she got called 'kid' by a large part of the crew. At least that was better than that one "Earth-born" from old Texas who insisted on calling her "little Missy."

Bored, she picked up her data pad and flipped through some of her documents. They were too far out to tie into the government mainframe, at least without dropping out of warp and setting up a tight-beam transmission, so she had to make do with what was recorded on her pad or in the ship's computer core. Basically that meant there wasn't much new she would be able to glean, so she simply amused herself by re-reading the better known historical accounts of her famous ancestor. Her particular favorite was the story of how she single-handedly stopped a horde of robots from taking over the whole planet.

That one always struck her as strange. Just how much was a single woman, who by all accounts (and many photographs) was almost as petite as she was. Sure, she had done her share of heroic things on the battlefield, but that was as part of a team, with scores of other people backing her up behind the lines. That made her wonder at just how much of the account was simple fabrication. Her going up against an army of killer robots alone seemed suicidal. It was far more likely she was part of a team. That was something that was drilled into her head from the day she joined the UFS at sixteen. Anything was possible for a team.

The other thing that struck her as odd was her age. Kim Possible's birth date was a matter of record. The attack occurred in May of two thousand and five, which means she would have been sixteen at the time. Yet, there were pictures of a younger hero with a boy who looked for all the world like her future husband. Where in the world was he during her adventures? Yet, every image she could find, there was Kim, all by herself in some sort of white combat suit.

She shrugged and let the recordings play. Old still photos of the robots, each looking strikingly similar to a Torellian Combat Bot of the era, scrolled by, along with pictures of the evil overlord who built them. The only shot that wasn't a still was grainy footage of Kim fighting what looked like a woman with very long, very dark hair. Jo knew every frame of the recording, though she read it word for word every time it played.

Jo was just getting to the good part, where her ancestor took on the lead robot when a muted tone indicated a new contact on her sensor. The pad was set aside, instantly forgotten as she switched into what she liked to think of as her 'mission mode.'

"Colonel Renton, I've got five contacts bearing oh six four eight. I'm reading large mass and heavy energy build-up readings."

The Colonel, a grizzled older soldier who had once made the rank of Commander during the war but had accepted a lower peace-time rank rather than being cashiered was at her side almost instantly. He wasn't like other ship commanders she had known. He very rarely sat at his control center at the rear of the bridge, preferring walking among his crew and looking over their stations.

"There's nothing showing up on the main scanners." He nodded toward the main station, where three other officers were scrambling to pick up the same contacts she had.

"Nevertheless, sir, I'm picking up energy readings on the particular bandwidth this console was designed to detect. The mass readings indicate at least five capitol ships, each generating a power field of some sort."

"Red alert!" The moment the words left his lips the lights dimmed, reducing the possibility of glare on the consoles. His preference was overridden by procedure at that point. Combat helmets were pulled from compartments in their seats and they hooked their harnesses. Regulations were clear in this matter. They were approaching five vessels large enough to be combat ships that were at least using some sort of electronic countermeasures to keep them from being detected. It may have been peace-time, but this was still UA space. As a soldier, Jo agreed fully with their orders. It was far preferable to approach an unknown vessel with weapons charged and armor shielding in place.

Nobody had any business having five cloaked ships that size without the military knowing about it. That was a good way end up on the wrong end of a pair of Ion Lock-in cannons.

"Colonel, we have long range visual acquisition of the targets." The senior sensor operator reported.

"Weapons report full charge available on both ILCs. Main combat turret is online and operational, as are all secondary weapons. Missile room reports ready, clear for all weapon types."

Colonel Renton had his helmet on and was strapped into his own harness. "Communications, prepare a standard signal."

"Ready, Sir."

"Unidentified vessels. This is the United Accord destroyer U.S.S. Delilah. You are in controlled space without displaying proper transponder frequencies." He turned to the radio operator. "Anything?"

"Nothing, sir."

"Still no sensor readings except for visual and the special array." Jo reported.

"Link your scanner with the targeting computer. Weapons, I want a firing solution on the closest target. Don't be subtle about it, I want them to know we have a weapons lock on them."

"Firing solution ready sir. We have a full spread capability with a bow shot pre-programmed."

"Very well. Repeat message."

"No response, sir."

The indicators on Jo's console starting jumping upwards. "I'm reading a large power surge, sir."

"Is it a weapon?"

"Unknown. It doesn't appear to be. It's like…" She stared at the readings. "That can't be right."

"What is it, Captain?"

"Sir, if I am reading this correctly, it looks as if they are trying to open a transit lens."

"What?"

Back during the war the Arkonians had somehow discovered how to open a small 'gateway,' allowing ships to basically 'skip' huge tracts of space. It was never learned exactly how they did this, but it came too late for the enemy. The UA fleet already had their Stargates, huge rings of rock floating in space that generated static transit lenses. Depending on the angle and speed a starship entered the gate, they could transit clear across space. Some of the greatest space battles occurred around those gates as the Arkonians tried to wrest them from their grasp.

The fact that this may very well be why they were out there in the first place tickled the back of Jo's mind. However, if that were the case, certainly Colonel Renton would have known about it.

"Colonel, I'm starting to get some strange readings. It still looks like a transit lens, but something is wrong."

The sensor crew finally reported. "We've got them sir. They are now in secondary sensor range. Bearing matches Captain Stommble's reading. Five Andrea Markus class Arkonian battleships."

"Range to target?"

"They are now in ILC range. We have a shooting solution. Hyperwarp missiles are also available with multiple solutions."

"What is the weapon status of the contacts."

"Inconclusive. Main energy weapons ports seem to be inactive. We do not have any indication of targeting scanners being directed against us."

Jo took that moment to look at the main tactical screen. Huge metal plates had extended over the forward windows, though any combat spacer far preferred more complete synthetic views of their situation. The Delilah was one of the few ships still commissioned that actually had its bridge in a more traditional location instead of buried deep inside the hull.

"Holy…" she muttered.

The five battleships were distinctly visible by then. They looked like whales pointed the wrong direction, with large dorsal fins extending up and over their bulbous drive sections. They were only called battleships because of their size and weapons capabilities. They bore no other resemblance to the classic designs of the UA ships of the same designation.

The ships were arrayed like five points of an invisible star, as if they were forming an ancient mystical pentagram. Between them space was seemingly being bent. At first it was just a point of light. Then it started spreading, forming a huge disk of light in the dark heavens. Jo had never seen this up close before. She forced her attention away from the main tactical, turning back to her console. It was lit up like the Christmas tree she left set up in her apartment back on Earth.

The disk shimmered, turning darker until it looked like a pool of mercury suspended in the night.

"I'm reading a new energy buildup in the ships." The sensor operator reported. "Their drives are active."

"We are in full spread weapons range sir."

"Drop us out of warp. Prepare to fire on my mark."

There was a slight wrenching sensation in Jo's gut. Over the past several years she had gotten used to the smoother transition of commercial grade ships, but she found it was like coming home. She was still a soldier at heart and the rougher ride of a burly old starship like the "Del" made her feel like she was alive.

"Contacts are under way." The operator reported.

"Still no enemy weapons activity." Clearly somebody else was reverting to form. More properly, that operator should have still called them unknown contacts.

"They appear to be entering the lens." Jo could feel the surge of adrenaline. Space combat wasn't as personal as being on the ground in a thirty foot long hover-tank, but it still had her heart beating faster, burning the cobwebs from her brain.

"Contact number one has entered the lens. We no longer have a reading on contact one. Contact two, contact three, contact four. Colonel, all five contacts have now entered the lens and are no longer showing on any of our screens."

Jo watched her readings carefully, anticipating what she saw next. "The lens is starting to fade. I believe the ships were somehow generating it."

The colonel tugged at his harness, making sure it was secure. "Time to full lens collapse?"

"I estimate thirty seconds."

"Time to intercept?"

The helmsman responded. "At current speed, twenty seconds."

"Increase velocity. We're going in after them."

Another officer spoke up. "But we don't know where they're going."

"Wherever it is, we'll figure it out when we get there and report back." In war-time the Delilah would be hard-pressed to take on even one of the ships in a straight on slug-fest, but something was going on and the old veteran was going to find out what.

"Contact in five, four, three, two one"

What happened next was quite familiar to Jo. It wasn't like they were transiting one of the static gates. She had been through them at least a dozen times before and they never felt any different than jumping to Hyperwarp. This was different.

Everyone on the ship suddenly felt like they were being stretched to infinity. She had no idea how many of them had experienced that particular sensation before. Only a few ships were capable of the new super-jumps referred to as a Telewarp.

Moments later it was over. Her stomach felt like it was going to surge up through her throat, but she fought down the urge to heave, instead concentrating on her duty station. Unfortunately, it had gone completely black.

Slowly the main lights came back on, as did some of the monitors. Some of the crew were sagging in their harnesses, having blacked out from the experience. There were a few moans and even more of them actually did get sick. Jo couldn't blame them. The first time she telewarped out to the dark world she had been sent to explore she did the very same thing.

Colonel Renton was busily unsnapping his harness. Regulations be damned, he wanted to see what was going on first hand. He reached the main helm console and hit the switch opening the armored shutters. He wasn't willing to wait until the main tactical came back online. He wanted to see where they were.

To Jo's surprise they weren't in the blackness of deep space like she first suspected. No dark, sunless world awaited their eyes as the armor rolled back into its slots.

The globe before them was bright, swathed in white clouds much like the home worlds they all hailed from. What was most surprising was that it was a very familiar looking planet.

"Arkonia!" Colonel Renton muttered.

"Sir, main systems are coming back online."

"All stations, report." He leaned on the console, watching the tactical screen as it slowly came back to life.

"Sick bay is reporting a number of minor casualties. No major injuries."

"Sir, I'm getting nothing on broad-band communications. Nobody is responding."

His grizzled features scrunched up. "That can't be right. The bulk of the Third Fleet is supposed to be on station at Arkonia. Get me Commander Adams on the U.S.S. New York."

The radio operator just shook his head. "Nothing, Sir. It's like she's not even there."

"That's not possible. Get me fleet command. We should be in tight-beam range."

"Nothing. I'm not even reading anything except some minor, low-end transmissions."

Growling, he strode over to the communications console. "Are we getting anything from Earth?"

"Only some minor background transmissions. I have an audio signal, but at this strength it would have taken several years to reach here."

"Well, put it on anyway."

A faint voice could be heard. Was it…singing?

"…Lather Rinse and Obey, I'm a player just playing his play! My products in a rap song, come on get your wash on…With Doctor D's Brainwashing shampoo…and Cranium Rinse!...For Sheezy it's off the heezy!"

"What the hell?"

"I think it's some sort of entertainment transmission."

"Turn it off. Keep trying to raise command."

Another operator was trying to get his attention. "Sir, I don't think that is going to be possible."

"What? Why is that." He demanded.

"I don't know how this is possible, but the computer just made a stellar cartography plot, sir."

"Short version Lieutenant!"

"Colonel, it appears we have exited the lens in the year twenty-ten, Earth standard calendar."

Jo's jaw wasn't the only one that had to be picked up off the deck.

a/n – for more on Jo Stommble, she previously appeared in the early chapters of Blade of the Fury