CH20
It is now 8 months earlier:
Jim and Johanna had found a ledge to hide out on in the canyon and watched as the Hunter ship landed just above the location of the ship the girls were in, far below.
The second the engines started to shut down, Johanna raced for one of the landing gear. With the Proton bomb in one hand Johanna set the timer just as her husband had shown her and then jumped up to grab hold of something.
Johanna shoved the ball into a cavity inside the hold of the landing gear and dropped back down and then raced back to where Jim was still hiding.
"We wait for them to step outside and then we run." Jim tells her getting Johanna to nod her head.
Not long after a door opened and a ramp fell out from the bottom of the Hunter ship. As soon as both of them started walking for the edge of the canyon Jim tapped his wife on the shoulder and they both took off running.
Just before they did, Jim pulled out a communicator and signaled his daughter to take off.
They were both hoping that they would chase them, but knew chasing the ship was more likely.
Jim and Johanna stopped a few miles away and looked back. They could see the Hunter ship rising up into the sky. Knowing they were after their girls. "This better work Jim, this damn well better work." Johanna could feel her heart beating faster.
Those two were after the heart of their family and they were both in no position to help.
"It'll work. …. That proton bomb would overcome even a Hunters shielding and blow it to pieces. Since it is already inside their ship, their precious shielding isn't going to help them. They're going to need a microscope to find the pieces it is about to become." Jim knew the bomb would work. He just hoped the timing was to the girls benefit and they didn't get caught up in the blast.
"Come on, our ship is a long ways from here." Jim takes off running with his wife right behind him.
They ran and they ran, it was a long ways to where Jim had hidden their ship. The girl's ship was in a desert while theirs was in the snow, far to the North.
Jim stayed on the rocks and jumped from one to another, anything to avoid put foot prints in the snow. "Down there." Jim points.
Johanna had stopped next to him; however she didn't see a thing. "You sure it hasn't been stolen?" Johanna didn't see anything.
Jim just grinned and kept jumping until he stopped with his wife right next to him, and then Jim just stepped over the side and landed literally on the ship. It was only now that Johanna saw the camouflage cover that was over it.
Johanna waited for her husband to go over the side and start removing the cover, before she jumped down to join him and help.
Once inside Jim headed for the bridge and started powering up the systems. As soon as the section Johanna was interested in had power she checked the refrigerator.
Unlike the girls, theirs was not filled to overflowing.
It wasn't long before Johanna could smell fresh air, meaning the environmental systems were operational.
Stepping up behind her husband who was still bringing the ship to life. "How are we doing?"
"So far everything is operational, the fuel system is full, and the engines are warming up and are on stand-by. The air should be clean soon and I've got nothing on the scanner so far. Likely there is someone out there somewhere." Jim doubted they were going to get away scott free.
"And if there is another ship up there I take it you have a plan?" Johanna hoped he had a plan, since dying wasn't a plan.
"I've got an idea of one, but you're not going to like it." Jim tells her.
Johanna glared at her husband. "You need to get suited up and in the airlock with a tether to secure yourself. I plan of going past their thrust tubes with the outside air lock door open, with you in the air lock holding one of the proton bombs."
Johanna didn't have words for this plan of his. "And what am I going to do with this bomb of yours?" It was a dumb question since she was pretty sure she didn't want to know.
"You're going to activate the magnetics of it and throw it into one of the thrust tubes. When they fire up their thrusters it will slowly burn away the outer shell, and when it gets weak enough it'll explode.
Their engines will explode taking their fuel core with them, leaving nothing bit itsy bitsy pieces of their precious Hunter ship." Jim states his plan.
Johanna was right, she hated this plan. "And how are we going to survive the blast wave?"
"We are going to dive for the planet, letting the magnetics of the planet help shield us. That and the mountain range." Jim adds.
Johanna was shaking her head. They had spent all these years running from Hunters, not fighting back. Though having them lose 2 ships in this sector of space did have its appeal.
"Fine, but if I end up going for a spacewalk, it will be all your fault." Johanna states and heads for one of the space suits located on the ship.
Johanna was suited up and standing in the air lock with the outer door open just after they exited the planet's atmosphere. Sure enough just as they feared there was a second Hunter ship already on its way into the atmosphere and even Johanna could see it through the open doorway.
Jim slipped right past them just off of their 6-o'clock and flipped the ship allowing Johanna to activate and throw her bomb, watching it disappear into one of the thrust tubes.
Jim went out into space a little to try and draw the Hunter ship back away from the planet.
Jim was soon grinning as the idiots wasted the speed they had built up so they could turn around and chase their ship. Just as his screens showed this Jim dove for the planet and raced for the mountain range with his engines set at 120%.
Jim had just reached the mountain range when the Hunter ship blew into countless tiny pieces, giving everyone on the planet looking that direction a spectacular light show as those pieces burned up in the atmosphere.
Jim dove behind the mountain range and headed for the deck, letting the mountains shield them from the blast wave.
After loitering at the bottom of the mountain range to let the blast wave go past them far above, Jim headed for space.
Two days later Jim and Johanna were sitting in the lounge kitchen area discussing what to do next. "How much blood do we have?" Jim asks, since he had left that to his wife.
"Just a little over 2 months." Johanna was forced to tell him. "And that's using the scanner to find out how long each of us can go without."
Seeing the look on her husband's face. "I gave almost all of it to the girls." Johanna defended herself. Getting Jim's look to soften greatly.
"We're going to have to find the closest system we can reach then, even if it is in the wrong direction." Jim is forced to tell her.
Johanna could only nod her head. She had anticipated that when she gave the girls almost everything they had. "We need basic medical supplies in addition to the blood."
"Is the EMH working?" Jim asks. Getting Johanna to nod her head.
"The girls EMH should be operational too, if they find and download the update I left them. Their system is operational, just that the EMH program was corrupted. Cleaning the system of that one and downloading what I left them should work." Johanna tells him.
It was 2 months later now:
Just like the Talyn the girls were using, their ship was just way too big to land of some building and landing it on such a habitable planet as this one was just out of the question.
Jim parked their ship right in the middle of the North Pole magnetic field of the planet to help mask their presence. Now Jim was just landing their shuttle on the roof of a building next to the hospital they were going to enter.
With large duffel bags in tow they both jumped across and down a little to the roof of the hospital. Finding the roof access and forcing it open. This one was just a roof hatch that lead down to a mechanical room located on the top floor.
Hoping that the night shift was lighter than the day shift, they stepped out into the hallway of the top floor. "Stairs." Jim pointed to the exit sign.
Johanna took them down to the second floor thinking that would be where the operating rooms would be located. Unless there was an emergency, this floor should be lightly manned.
Jim hoped over the counter at the nurses' station and bit the lone nurse that was on duty, while Johanna started looking for the blood bank.
Unlike their daughters, Jim had no problem stopping without having to have his wife whack him in the head. "Down here." Johanna calls to him.
The door was locked but a little twist of the door knob had that taken care of. Inside was a large supply room filled with a large refrigerated unit filled with blood. On the opposite side was the drug cabinet, both locked.
Johanna tossed her bag to her husband and let him start filling them with blood bags while she found a metal case that she emptied and opened the drug cabinet and started searching for bottle that had names she wanted on them.
Jim had one bag full when someone opened the door to the room they were in. It got Johanna to stop doing everything to grab her arm and yank her inside and immediately bite her arm.
Letting the lady gently fall to the floor Johanna re-closes the door and gets back to work, this time taking a cloth bag and filling it with first aid supplies.
"Done." Jim tells her hefting up both bags.
They stopped at the door and smelled. "Damn, not alone. … They find that nurse and they'll call security." Jim tells Johanna.
It got Johanna to put her bag and case down on the floor followed by Jim, and then they stepped out and ran for the nurses' station. Jim reached the nurse just as she was reaching for the phone, while Johanna made it to the other one.
After biting both of them, they left them in the nurses' station and went back for their bags.
After racing up the stairs and up the ladder to the roof, Jim kicked the door closed and stepped over to the edge of the roof and looked across and up. "You first and I'll throw the bags to you." Jim offers.
A few minutes later Jim had jumped and picked up the blood bags while Johanna took the others and they got into their shuttle. It was really cramped with three bags and a case in their little 2 seat shuttle. Jim could only just make out his wife hidden under all of it.
After landing Jim let Johanna put the blood away while he piloted the ship to leave the system.
"How much blood did we get?" Jim knew how far it was to where they wanted to go.
"We've got about 6 months, maybe a little more." Johanna answers his question.
"Two months to the next system, two months to the next one, followed my 2 months to the edge of tormented space, plus who knows how long in there." Jim points out.
Johanna visibly deflated, 6 months just to get to tormented space. "We need to stop at both of those systems and do the same thing all over again." Johanna states the obvious, getting Jim to nod his head.
Johanna dropped into the other bridge chair. "I hope the girls are alright." No way of contacting them. Not even knowing if they would ever make it to the tormented zone. Even if Jim and Johanna got there, they may end up searching in vain.
"The girls are in better shape than we are, and we've taught them everything we can. Plus they have each other. They'll be fine. Those two Hunter ships are likely the only ones anywhere near here. It'll take them months to get new ship(s) out here." Jim points out.
Johanna had to admit, attacking the Hunters this time likely bought them some time.
"I'll be happy when we are actually in tormented space. You sure this thing can handle that area?" Jim was the pilot, engineer and weapon specialist. Johanna was medical and computer programming.
Johanna wasn't as good as Lanie is, but she could handle what they were likely to need.
"That's the best part about having these old ships. The newer ships, like Hunter ships are going to have nothing but trouble in there. We'll be fine." Jim crossed his toes where his wife couldn't see.
Johanna however was eyeing him, which gave Jim the creeps. How does she know I'm crossing my toes?
Watching Johanna go from glaring at him with her "I know what you're doing" look to, now you know I know look. Which was even more creepy looking.
It was now 2 months later:
Jim and Johanna were flying back to their ship sitting above the pole after hitting another hospital.
There were two good things about hitting hospitals for blood. They got to bite people instead of using up their limited number of blood bags, and this time they came back with more than blood just like last time.
Instead of first aid or drugs, they came back with clothes. Granted they were all scrubs, but since all they had was what was in their go bags, and the paper suits that were more emergency clothes.
Granted they were better than nothing, even if Jim had argued that he didn't mind having his wife walking around the ship naked.
"This is not a clothing optional ship." Johanna had countered. Then hugging her husband, and then turned to go somewhere else with a big grin on her face. Johanna was silently happy that her husband was still interested in her. She had plans on proving just how happy tonight, since they had both just bitten someone getting their supplies.
Jim spotted a huge cargo ship of some giant conglomerate leaving orbit and he moved their ship so it was hugging it closely. "I recognize this one, it's going where we want to go. Staying in its FTL field will mask where we went next." Jim explains, making it harder for the Hunters to follow them.
Granted they were leaving hospitals with empty blood banks behind, so they weren't exactly invisible.
It was now 2 months later:
Jim and Johanna were on the run this time. A lot of things had gone wrong at the next hospital.
They had each bitten three different people and were just making it to the stairwell when they were spotted by a security guy. He had actually managed to get two shots off at them.
He had seen them too long for their bite to remove enough of his short term memory, so Jim and Johanna decided to run for the shuttle.
They were already in space headed for their ship when Jim's scans showed they had atmospheric fighters in the air in an attempt to intercept them.
A couple of days later and Jim jumped to FTL on their way to the border of the tormented zone.
"How are our supplies?" Jim asks his wife since she was in charge of keeping them alive.
"We've presently got just over 8 months' worth." Johanna answers her question.
"Meaning we have about 6 months to either find the girls or find someplace to get more." Jim notices. "I hope that's enough. We don't know where they went or if there is even anyplace in there to go to." Jim was shaking his head.
"Katie knows to go in there, or at least she should. We just have to find them." Johanna points out. Jim could only hope they found them. Space was vast and they were trying to find a needle.
It was now 2 months later:
Jim and Johanna had been sitting on the edge of the tormented zone for the last 3 days. There were no ships on his scanners, not overly surprising given no one goes here.
Jim spent those 3 days doing maintenance on everything he could think of. While Johanna downloaded a copy of the EMH onto a small drive, just in case it's electronics took a hit.
Johanna also did maintenance on the scanner. Like Kate and Lanie were no doubt doing, Jim and Johanna used it too, to make their blood supply last as long as possible.
"All strapped in?" Jim asks looking at his wife pulling her straps tight. "If we get a breech in the hull, patch it as fast as possible, or it may get too big for us to handle." Jim adds a warning.
"Here we go, FTL in 3, ...2, … 1, …." And they were off into the tormented zone in search of the girls.