A/N: Here's the next instalment. I hope you enjoy it. I've not updated much as I've hit a slight snag with part 3, and didn't want to have this one all posted before I finished it. My writer's block is gone, plot bunnies are very hard to find in Queensland, and I hope to have part three fully written in a couple of weeks. Part 4 might see the introduction of yet another series that I love as well as our favourite brothers.
Wow, that's a long A/N, so without further ado, read on for chapter 7 and a view change.
A/N2: Oh, and points to those who can name the episode references! PM me an idea, and I'll see if I can fit it in the next story.
Jim nodded to Spock as his First Officer joined him for lunch later that day. He hadn't seen either Winchester or Spock leave the night before, but when he had noticed them gone, he hadn't been able to find them. He had seen the look they had passed between them, she wanted to talk to him about something, and he had a feeling it was something Vulcan related. He hadn't been able to ask about it that morning, so set about doing so then.
"Everything ok, Spock?" He asked as they collected food. "You both disappeared pretty quick last night."
"Yes, Captain. The Lt had a few things she wished to discuss with me." Jim could have guessed that.
"Anything you wish to share?"
"Only that I may need your help once this is over to convince Leonard that she was only doing what she has done to keep him safe."
Well, that was cryptic. He thought. Though, it may have something to do with the fact the Bones has been angrier than ever. He'd had three nurses complain to him that morning, one in tears.
They ate in silence as Winchester and her brother arrived. She spoke to the Hunters there; they had kept to the same tables at the far end of the mess hall. Getting her reports from them, the siblings headed over to them.
"Winchester, Campbell, how's everything?" He asked. "Any idea on who this is, was?" He decided that he would ask about what happened that morning another time.
"Nothing yet, but it popped back up near engineering, lights went off a couple of hours ago." She said as she sat, her brother beside her. "Unfortunately, there's now a missing female Ensign from that area."
"How can she be missing? Aren't the ship's sensors picking her up?" He asked, pausing with a forkful of egg half-way to his mouth. He ate as Spoke answered.
"Lt Winchester did say that ghosts have the ability to disrupt electronic equipment." Spock spoke up.
"I thought the ship was shielded from that sort of stuff." He realised that he had spoken around a mouthful of egg as Winchester giggled.
"It is, but spirits and other supernatural beings don't exactly follow the rules of normal. They can disrupt even Baby, and she doesn't have a single thing that's digital in her." Campbell said as he indicated that he had egg stuck to the side of his mouth.
"So, the Ensign?" He asked as he wiped it away, going slightly pink in the cheeks.
"The only thing for it is to look in the crawl spaces in that area. Failing that, the majority of the ship is fair game for it. It could have hidden her anywhere. Ghosts, especially older, angrier ones have some major power. They can take someone through solid walls, even underground." Campbell said, his voice tinged with experience.
"The brothers took on a ghost that was still taking women decades after his death. Took a female Hunter they had teamed up with to un underground dungeon that hadn't been discovered when he was alive." Winchester said, sharing a look with Spock.
Whatever they had spoken about, she was a little more open with them now then she had been the day before. However, whatever she had said to McCoy had kept him away from her.
"I'm going to ask if I can have a few of the crew to look for her. Scotty's got Keenser looking in areas that are too small for the rest of us."
"Take whoever you need. Find this thing."
"Planning on it. Care to accompany me, Captain? I need to look up a few things." She said as she stood. Jim nodded and followed her as she deposited her plate and issued orders to the Hunters on her 'cell phone'. As she typed away on the device, he saw that Spock had gone to sit with Leonard, who had walked in just as Winchester left. Wondering what they were discussing, he caught up with her.
"So, what's the plan for the day?" He asked, having a feeling that she wouldn't be wanting to discuss what was going on with Bones.
"Something is still periodically setting the EMFs off around medbay 4, I've sent Dean and John back to see if they can figure it out. I'm heading back to the office, see if I can't do some research on this thing."
"How do you mean?"
"It's angry, as Zinar said. And powerful. To take and hide someone less than 24 hours after being hit with the type of spell it was caught in yesterday and being hit with iron; it has some serious age to it. Hopefully that and what it's done to those it's already gone after will narrow it down." By this point they had reached the Office.
Spock had told him a little about what he had seen, in that expressionless Vulcan way of his, but he hadn't done it justice. Where Spock saw chaos, he saw a controlled, organised mess. Guns of all sizes were laid out on a table in relatively straight lines, with ammo boxes next to them. He saw the words witches, werewolves, demons and ghosts written on some of them. Rags and other items were piled on another table that was devoid of anything else but one gun that lay in pieces. It was currently in the process of being cleaned by another Hunter. He nodded in greeting before putting it back together again and telling Winchester that he was heading off to medbay 4. Jim realised that he was John Mills.
Knives of all kinds were sitting on the shelves opposite to where the books were. Bags of all sizes hung under them, some with words written beneath, others distinctive enough to not need anything. Jars filled more areas, the contents easy enough to see.
And there were books everywhere, of all shapes and sizes. Some were typed, some handwritten from what he could see of the open ones, and they looked old. Hundreds of them filled the room, if he had to guess. The room had a musty smell, despite the air being pumped in and out, and he realised that it was coming from the books. He took a deep breath and felt relaxed.
He wondered how they had managed to get them on board. He turned to Winchester to ask, only to see her pull a PADD from the mess.
"Thought you said that those were ineffective." He said as he came over to her.
"For looking over large areas and when the ghost decides to make itself known. For research, nothing else is better."
"But the books?" He asked, waving a hand over the vast number of them.
"We know what we're dealing with, not who. We've put on board a database of the most violent and well known deaths in Earth's history. If I type in what we know about the deaths and attacks, we should get a narrowed list. After that, we can start looking at things that have been brought on board that match them."
"That's … how did you manage to get all this on board?" He didn't have a comeback for that rather logical answer (he swore that Spock was rubbing of on her), so he asked his other question.
"Baby holds quite a bit. While the Enterprise was being rebuilt after Krall, we got as much to Yorktown as we could. Ghosts are the most likely thing to get on board, simply because everything else would be picked up in medicals. Snuck it up here gradually after we got her on board." She didn't look up from the PADD.
"You managed." He pointed out, coming to stand next to her and look at the PADD.
"Because I was taught how to work computers." She looked up then. "Captain,…" She sighed, "I'll explain things more once this is finished."
Nodding, he turned away from her. "Anything I can do to help?" He asked as he looked over the spines of the journals on the wall behind her. They spanned nearly thirty years, one set of handwriting showing up more than the other. His fingers ghosted along them; itching to pull one out and read it, but not knowing if he should.
"No, Hunters can read something and know instinctively if it's supernatural related on not. Normal people would just see it as 'Uh, that's weird' and not give it another thought. Same with what's happening now. I'll see something and know if it matches with what's going on here." Jim didn't see if she looked up, but she must have at her next words. "If you want, you're welcome to read them. Just put them back where you pull them from."
"They look old." He said as he pulled one down.
"They are the originals. The other ships have replicas, but they are the ones actually written by the brothers."
"How have they survived all this time?" He asked, awed at their age.
"A preservation spell. It's designed to keep them legible, just put the pages back if they fall out and let me know. I think I need to get Max to do it again."
"What happens if the ship gets destroyed, like with Krall?" He was running his hand over the cover, feeling the texture, taking in it's scent. He couldn't remember the last time he had held a book, let alone one this old. Paper books were extremely expensive, and were rarely printed. Everything was on PADDs and digital mainframes.
"This room has a spell on it tying it to a building back on Earth. It has enough supernatural energy to pull anything in here back there, though it might take a few years for them to show up. And before you ask, no, it can't do the entire ship. And I really wouldn't be in this room when that happens either, it's not designed for people."
Jim nodded and carefully opened the cover. It was like the others, well worn, stained and yellowed. Most of the covers ranged from black to tan to a pale brown, with a smattering of others mixed in. They must have simply gotten a book as needed and didn't much mind what they got. The one he had was a black soft leather cover, written by the brother whose journals didn't start until 2005. Next to it, written in the other hand, was another dated the same year with a hard cover. They were sitting above the fictional book called 'Woman in White'.
He spent the next hour reading it as Winchester poured over the PADD. He saw her take notes, and occasionally send out a message (called a text), to the others. It was mid-afternoon when she got a call from the medbay.
"Yeah." She answered, not looking up from her PADD.
"You'd better got down here, Sam." The voice Jim vaguely recognise as John Mills was coloured with worry.
"What's happened?" She said, standing and heading out, Jim quickly closing the journal and putting it back before hurrying after her.
"You'd better hear this for yourself. Sable's awake."