Hooker ushered the star fleet crew as well as most of his remaining group inside before he shut the door. The group stood in disbelief, processing everything that they had just seen. Through the closed doors they could here brief shouts of warning coming from outside, where Romano and the thin man who had originally sounded the alarm still were.

The Enterprise crew watched on as Hooker busied himself, talking to each of his people in turn, occasionally stopping to check the battle scars that they had received.

When McCoy saw this he said to Kirk "I'm going over to help those people Jim"

"Of course doctor. Do anything you can..." Kirk said in agreement.

After a few moments Hooker came over to them. "Your man...McCoy...he seems to know what he's doing over there...". He motioned over to where Bones was kneeling over an injured man.

"He's a fine doctor, Hooker...but you never answered my questions outside..."

Hooker smiled. "We were kind of busy out there. Time isn't on our side when those things show up."

"But we have time now, so I'm asking again. What's going on here ?" repeated Kirk, " and what has happened to our man Thompson? Is he alright ?...we have medical equipment with us, a device you might call it, that we got a certain reading from. But apparently it cannot be working correctly. It must have gotten damaged."

"I'm sorry. What did your friend call you earlier...Jim , was it?". Hooker had a serious look on his face. "It seems we both have questions for each other. You act as if it's your first day here..."

Hooker regarded his look-a-like for a moment, carefully considering his next words.

"...and we haven't even began to address why we look like twins. Look Jim, you people have proven to be useful but you've just shown up here, and in these times we don't often run into friendly folk."

Kirk rubbed his chin, before holding his hands up as he spoke "I assure you, we mean you no harm. We're just trying to figure out what's going on here..."

Hooker looked at each man in turn. "I don't know why, but I believe you. OK. Jim, I presume you are in charge of these people, as they all seem to look up to you", he motioned at the remaining Enterprise crew, "they also all follow your orders so I'm guessing you're their ranking officer. On top of this you're all dressed alike. Navy is it ? the uniform is not something I've seen before. ", he didn't stop for a response. "Listen, there is no easy was to say this. I'm sorry but whatever your device is, it is most definitely working as it should." Hooker looked suddenly sad. "Your man out there, he is definitely dead...now, at last, anyway."

"What? No ! That's impossible...we just saw him get up...what has Romano just done to him ?" countered Kirk.

"He did the only kind thing we can do to people such as him. You really do act like you've just gotten here. Where have you men been ? Surely you know, you must have seen it before now ?" Hooker looked at the confused faces incredulously.

When he got no response he looked at each of them in turn, pausing before he elaborated.

"Once bitten, that's it. There's no way back. He was a zombie, friend"

"Zombie ?" was all Kirk could say.