The infinity constellations: chapter 9.

Recap:

I'll try to break into the main controls of the Destiny and see if the ship contains anything similar in data or perhaps the thing draining Danny's power. I need one of you to stay with Danny. Keep me informed if his situation changes." He threw a smaller PDA to me. "Try to measure the remaining energy in his body. Tell me exactly whenever there's a spike in energy or a significant drain of it. That's the most we can do to find the cause."

Sam's pov:

Jazz and I nodded to confirm his request. He ran off, almost tripping over his own feet. I could almost taste the fear that Jazz was giving off. Back at square one it is. The small PDA-device was made by Tucker. When placed over Danny's core it would react like a heart-monitor or the fit-bracelets that just got popular before our town was blown to bits. It showed three health gauges. Very game-like, a.k.a. Tucker. They were shaped like the battery-picture on a phone. Tucker had made this a few years back. Back when Danny had to fight Pariah a second time and needed to truly end him. The first bar was the thickest and largest, measuring Danny's ectoplasmic energy. Being full meant that his cores maximum output was fully rested and ready to go. It was however utterly empty, only one/twentieth of it was left. Which should be enough to power the specter speeder and his regeneration. I attached a small sensor above his heart and another one on the side of his ribcage.

The second bar lit up, almost as empty as the first one. After Danny gained his inner-core, controlling the weather wasn't just a fluke from Vortex the weather ghost anymore. It had its own core supply and could be measured by its electricity output. Danny had literally and figuratively become a 'powerhouse'. This one being empty wasn't that much of a shock. The Stargate in the realms had been gathering power, it wouldn't have distinguished Danny's from the surrounding energy. The requirements needed to dial a stargate were large, if she could belief Rush statements. The third bar was worrisome. "Jazz, do you see w…" Jazz frowned, taking a closer look. "That can't be? Put Tucker on the comm, this is bad!" I stared at the red flashing bar, warning about danger. The third bar stood for Danny's regeneration of his core energy, by measuring the input and output. Unlike the weaker ghosts in the realms, the stronger ghosts could generate their own amount of core-energy. Allowing them to leave the realms.

Danny's regenerations but many ancients to shame. Danny's life had been hectic on a dayly-base. He pushed his core to its limits several times a day, increasing his regeneration to the max. He was a clean 'energy source' without … no with an increased appetite, but not enough to worry about resources. There was also the fact that ghosts could charge themselves by fulfilling their obsessions. Normally speaking Danny's regeneration would be full to let his wounds heal. Danny, who had a hero-complex, would however never rest when needed. Thus Tucker stuck a second bar beneath it with colour-codes. The second bar had ten evenly placed lines. The further into the bar, the redder the colour. It his wounds were bad, his regenerations would go in overdrive. The second bar would fill. The further it goes up, the faster they needed to put Danny down and let him rest. There's a reason they made their own 'maximus plasmius'. I would however never in my life call it the 'Tuckers Maximus'.

"Tuck, do you read?" His voice sounded startled. "Yes, anything?" I glanced at Jazz, before responding. "Check the data of his energy-monitor. It's bad! You need to find whatever it is that's draining him and shut it down." My voice hitched. "Before he loses his energy to live!" Tucker cursed in his favourite dead language, which he leeched of Danny. "This is no joke, for Danny to produce this much is disturbing. It's even draining the small bit necessary for the specter speeder. It wouldn't surprise me if the comms give out in a few hours. Danny's core is protecting itself from whatever's attacking him. Start feeding him nutrients, ectoplasm or whatever. Make sure that he can continue to produce energy or his live may just give out, before we find the source." I clenched my fist in frustration. Once if find out the source, it will tremble before me as I slash or shoot it too pieces! How dare it take advantage of Danny while he's down. White mist, you are so dead!

I stood up, signalling Jazz to stay. I ran to the specter speeder, getting stopped by Scott before stepping in. I hissed. "What do you want? My friend is in need of an anti-allergic injection. I'm running out of time here!" He glanced at me with conviction. He wasn't a green soldier, that would budge. "Do you have any supplies that we can add to our current provisions?" I knew it. They want our supplies. Their own was rather meagre after all. However, I wouldn't give it to them. Not with that attitude. "No and the amount we have, can't be accessed right now. When the power supply went offline, so did the biolocks on those compartments. As long as the power is our, we can't get to them. Excuse me for having to disappoint you." I wanted to walk right past him, but he still held me back. "Inform me as soon as those compartment come back online. Your team falls under our jurisdiction until proven otherwise." I sneered at him. "Good luck waiting then, since it only runs on 'rare'energy." Government and military, always believing that they are better than others. Telling others to listen to them and then utterly fail when you need their help. Where were they when our town went up in flames? Oh right, they were responsible for its destruction! The world is doomed once again.

I ignored Tuckers questioning look when opening the medical compartment. I took out a few IV's and special iv-bags filled with supercharged ectoplasm. Along with a few extra bags, just in case, pushing them into a military-grade backpack. My own purple backpack, still full of medical supplies. It would expose them, but I didn't want to risk it getting stuck if the specter speeder really shut down. It wasn't a lie that the compartments would close without energy. I rushed out, ignoring Scotts shout to wait. Hopefully this would help. Back in the room, Jazz hadn't moved from her place, still hovering over Danny. I handed her the iv-bags. She made a makeshift iv-stand, while I prepared the needle. It was freezing cold, numbing my fingers. Made from a rare type of freezing stone of the far frozen. A normal needle couldn't penetrate Danny's blood vessels without dissolving. It was specially made by Frostbite to resist Danny's healing. We got lucky that Danny wasn't generating when Tamara was helping in stitching him up. His skin was broken enough to let the normal needle through. His bloodvessels were a case on their own. His blood could freeze, flash freezing any object stuck in it. Barely a touch was enough to freeze and break any type of needle, except the freezing stone.

I had a whole arrangement of different sizes of freezing stone needles, scissors, clippers… Yeti's were very throughout about medical appliances. I attached the needle by pulling a few bandages looser, before tidying them up. The IV full of supercharged ectoplasm was streaming into his blood. Hopefully he would be kicked awake by the shock to his system. The pace of the IV-drip was a lot faster than a humans. His body was starving for energy, it was literally dragging the nutrients into his body. Both of us glanced at the rapid depleting IV-bag. Even for Danny this was a bit rapid. Jazz waited patiently before attaching the second bag. I tapped the small PDA to enact another measurement. It had been going into sleeping mode. Another sign that power was depleting. The third flashing red bar had stopped flashing at least. It had dropped back to a dark red instead of deadly red. Nowhere near safe, but better than flashing. Thankfully there was no siren installed on the device…anymore. Sam had almost ripped Tucker apart, the first time the air-siren on the device went off. Worsening Danny's condition and sensitive hearing.

As Jazz attached the next bag, the bar went down another 10%. The bar was now a dull red. Less glaring to the eyes. At least the nutrition's did something right. The rate of consumption slowed down into a steadier pace. "Something is still draining him, but he can manage the massive burden on his body. Jazz, can you call me once his energy generating becomes life-threatening again? I'll leave these two bags here and get a few new bags just in case. I can't take too much each time. Those soldiers are eyeing our supplies." I placed the bags near Jazz. "Give it to him when he's in danger again. That will give me time to gather new ones." I heaved the backpack up and went on my way to Tamara. I would treat others with my medical supplies still in the backpack, to keep Scott appeased. Still ignoring him though. I couldn't wait to get a good night's sleep.

General Young pov:

This was the last group of people I had to inform. Rush's state of mind was disturbing. Had he slept at all? We needed his expertise more than ever. Sadly according to my soldiers he was getting aggressive and shouted at every person that came close. Rush is worried about the power issues and so was i. I had noticed the flickering of the lights. My soldiers had been reporting them as well. Rush had been jumping in anger when he noticed. The second problem was access. Rush was still unable to tap into the main controls of the ship. Could Foley perhaps find a way into the system? Their technology was different. Scott had informed me that they should have quite an amount of rations, in both consumptions and medical. However Manson was not cooperating at all, clearly wary of the military. She had all right to it if their story was completely truthful. Scott mentioned that the compartments however had been locked, because of the power issues. I had my doubts about that. Who would make a compartment without a manual lock?

Camilla Wray questioned my decision on choosing Tamara, but honestly I wasn't going to answer that. I drove her off. I'd rather have people helping me, that I could trust. As I limped through the hall an enthusiastic Riley showed me a plate that recharged a flashlight in a sec. Could we perhaps use this plate to open those 'closed' compartments in de hovercraft? No, first we need to conserve power. "Turn it off. Rush says we have power issues." Riley grumbled quite a few rude words, but I decided to ignore him. Riley seemed adamant in stopping. I placated him by telling him to go crazy after the power issues were solved. "Now help me pass the word to stop pushing buttons?" As my patrol continued, I thought back on my conversation with lieutenant general O'neill. Team Phantom hadn't lied about their hometown. That gave them credit, but I wasn't going to ease my suspicion. They operated like a special-forces, always keeping the others updated. When his soldiers asked Foley and even Jasmine Fenton about the compartments, they gave exactly the same answer as Manson. Could they have a communication device that allows them to reach each other, without us noticing?

And then their age. These kids were barely 20 and 22, yet they showed no fear and panic beside worry for their teammate. Even my soldiers were showing signs of panic and frustration in the face of possible death. What had these kids experienced to make them so battle-hardened? They resemble veterans on the battle field. At ease, healthy paranoid, great skill in teamwork and ready for action. According to Tamara, Mansons knowledge on both western, eastern and modern medicine was baffling. Her experience in treatment was vast and solid. She easily stitched a wound or dealt with broken bones. Most doctors were starting their study at her age! Foley had shown strong skill in computers and handling alien energy sources. There was a lot that they weren't telling us. They had been strangely honest about the alien species, but that was just it. It felt like they tailored it specifically for us. Their mentions of time travel and dimensions didn't throw us of. If the Fenton couple really possessed an artificial stargate, it would lead to many difficult situations. Then there was Jasmine Fenton. I was considering to let her follow Wray. She showed enormous experience in handling panic attacks and emergency situations. Which brought me back to wonder what horrors those four had to handle, for them to remain calm in the face of possible death.

I arrived at the main control room where Rush was walking up and down. I calmly told him that I asked my people to stop using power. He was thankful, at least partly. Before he tried to pull the power of decision-making back to himself. I tried to get him to tell me all I needed to know, but he was snappy. He was talking back to me at every question and order. Rush leaned on the counsel with his white notebook. "Our time on the Destiny may be shorter than you think." Okay, that was not the answer I wanted. When I offered help, he declined so I send Valker in to help anyway. Rush was not happy when I left him, but he clearly needed supervision. Maybe I should ask Foley about a second opinion, but I couldn't fully trust him yet. I need to check him out first.

As I sat in my office, Valker came in. "You got to be kidding me! You were in there for 5 minutes!" He softly agreed, telling me he was 'kicked out'. I clasped my hands staring at him. "What's the matter? You're a grown man?" This conversation was going nowhere. The only thing he could tell me was that Rush was going crazy. I felt like a kinder garner teacher, taking a kid to solve their little play fight. "Alright, I'll take you there myself. For g*d sake, if you people can't stand up to this son of a b*tch." I had barely walked out of my room as all the lights flickered out. Sh*t. This wasn't happening. The ship fell out of FTL. I walked in on Rush, asking if he was the cause. He was frantic. "Is that what you think! No, no I didn't. But I have been standing here the past few minutes watching systems fail all over the ship! There is nothing I could do to stop that!" His whole body shook in anger. "The FTL-drive was one of the last to go!" Valker tried to appease him, but Rush just laughed. I was getting worried about his mental state right now. There should be reserves right?

Rush laughed again, sarcastically. "You don't seem to understand. Our reserves are gone! All of our power is gone!" That was disturbing. No gates, no countdown. The three of us walked down the hall. Rush told me that he had no access to any of the important systems. He felt like he was the only one qualified to be on this ship. Valker did not help by aggravating Rush even further. I only mentioned the word fact and Rush snapped, pointing at me. "I know many things for a fact!" He screeched about my team checking the weapon systems and other applications. He threw his arms up and down, to mimic his anger. In the end he blamed me for dialling Earth, telling me that it was the reason that he didn't have enough time. I called TJ seeing Rush rage while clutching his head, before he fainted. The ship was breaking down and my main scientist was out of count.

Jazz's pov: hours before lights out.

I didn't get much sleep. The frequency of having to attach a new IV-bag hastened. First it was once every two hours, then it was once an hour and now every half hour. This was bad. At this rate we'd either run out of IV-bags or worse energy. The spector speeder was still losing energy, barely functioning on 5%. Danny hadn't woken up even once. I stroke his hand. Our comms had given up two hours ago. I raised Danny's hand close to me, leaning on my knees. "Please wake up Danny, your scaring me…" I heard screeching on the side. Tucker had pulled the door slightly open. The door was getting worse. Tucker seemed tied as he sat down near the bed. "And?" Tucker shook his head. "Rush has gone insane… or sleep deprived. He makes Vlad seem like a nice person. A serious fruitloop I tell you. He almost punched someone for talking to him! He's yelling and shouting to stop using power on the sip. Hows…" I shook my head as well. Activating the measuring device, which had been falling into sleep mode every minute now. Danny had been taking the IV, yet the bar rested in dark red on 196% output.

"The IV's are seizing to work. His other reserves are getting drained as well. Haven't you found anything?" Tucker crunched his face into a bitter smile. "No, I can't find anything. Even worse, this ship is slowly running out of power as well…" A loud beeping warned us. We glanced at the measurements. Tucker cursed loudly. I shook Danny against his shoulders. "No, no Danny wake up. You have to stop generating energy, it's going to kill you!" Once again the device was flickering in bright flashing red, while the IV was still running. Why did it have to stop working now! "Tucker, you need to get Sam right now. We need more IV bags and…" I stared at his pained expression…no. No it couldn't be! "No, Tuck. Don't you dare say it…" Tucker shook his head. "The specter speeder gave in. We can't open the compartments anymore. We can't even open the specter speeders doors."