Welcome to Hel

[Jack Ryder]

Jack woke up in a dark, canned air smelling cell. He was knocked out for the duration of his trip to... wherever he was now. Groggily looking up at the ceiling he blinked a few times and tried to activate the scanning contact lens but it was offline.

'He's certainly careful...' Jack thought to himself as he picked himself off the floor. He was hoping the contact lens would still be functional, but he had a feeling that any implanted tech would be disabled somehow, especially if Dominus knew about his father's mechanical hand implants. He could tell by the smell of the air and the slight buzz that he was on a space station, not a ship. So wherever he was, he was in his final place... which was good and bad, good because if he could figure out a way to get word to Kinsey, they could find him. Bad because there was no telling how large a force secured his position.

"About time y'woke up mate." A female voice with a slight Australian accent said from the top bunk. "Been out for nearly two days since they brought you here."

"Kirby?" Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Well it's not Nicole Kidman that's for sure." Kirby said with a slight chuckle. "Dominus thought he'd be be nice by giving you to me, since he lost Ethan. As if I'll be any more compliant with another brother in law sharing the cell."

"Oh, he was with you then?" Jack said as he rolled his shoulder and stretched his neck. "So where are we?"

"Starbase Hel. With one L... like the Norse land of the dead." Kirby replied and sighed heavily. "Wish I was in the real one now honestly... he's cloned me at least twice. Sick fuck even had Ethan and I eat my last body." she made a face. "I am not as tasty as I look." she closed her eyes. "I have to ask... how's my son... my husband?"

"Your son is a remarkable young man. You would be incredibly proud of him, as I am of the lad. I'm not sure if you remember my adoptive daughter Kiera, Kinsey's little half sister. Zeke and her got married a couple years ago. Bloody Xenexian tradition says that he's an adult at like 14... but I suspect he's already gotten my girl pregnant." Jack replied

"Like father like son. Marcus got me pregnant when I was about 15... your father took care of me and the baby the whole time." Kirby said with a sigh. "I miss them. You certainly bulked up since I saw you. Kinsey was good for ya eh?"

"Indeed. We're on our third child." Jack said with a smile and closed his eyes. "Among others. Long story short, we had future versions of our children... and your Zeke come back to save our asses during a battle. They fixed the future and got pretty well stuck here."

"So there's two Zekes? I'll bet Marcus is thrilled... always wanted another boy." Kirby mused. "How is he?"

"I... don't know how to say this but... he died in battle. About three and a half years ago." Jack said as he closed his eyes. "I took Zeke in, but he and Kiera got pretty close and they moved to the Xenexian settlement. She's actually the head of the Condacian clan and by marriage they kind of help run Xenex now that we got the Imperium off it."

"You know your mum has been Imperium... for like... ever." Kirby said, still processing what he told her. "Did... did he suffer?"

"I like to think it was fast." Jack said with a heavy sigh. "My... Kinsey's alternate... K'n'zy... she did it."

"I hope you took the bitch's head for that."

"In a sense." Jack replied, not quite telling her that the two women merged as well. "So... what is Dominus up to?'

"Besides trying to collapse every thing... usual super villain shit." Kirby replied and lifted up her shirt. "I'm his Thursday girl..." she pointed to the bruises and electroshock burns on her skin. "He is not your father in the least... and he knows I was close to him, so he does it to make me want to turn. I haven't... at least not entirely. He likes how I kill people. I don't like doing it but... I have no choice, I refuse, I die, I get cloned. And I am not eating my own meat again."

[Ashley Walker]

The door opened with a heavy clunk, bathing to cell in light from the outside corridor. There was scuffling, and female squeals, and a body was tossed awkwardly into the cell with skirts, hair, and legs flailing about.

A gruff male voice complained, "The fucking bitch bit me!"

His friend laughed, "That's what you get for sticking your hand in her mouth."

"Yeah, like I fucking planned that. Bitch, probably has rabies or some shit." He slammed the door shut, and there was a heavy clunk as the lock fell into place.


The woman rolled into a ball, her hands cupping her battered face. You could tell she had been pretty at one time, but the youth and vigor had long ago faded. Her skin was scarred, and there was little fat on her body.

After a moment she looked around and saw Jack and Kerby. "Oh, they put me in here with you two?" She had a cultured London accent, one that was often referred to as the Queen's English.

She drug herself to her bare feet. "A mistake this is," she concluded. "Lieutenant Ashley Walker of the Federation Starship East Kilbride. So you weren't stuck here when the bloody rifts tore this sector apart I gather?"

[Jack Ryder]

"Professor Jack Ryder." He said politely, his Oxford accent coming through as he spoke. "Actually Dominus captured me... he was going to make a bloody mess of things and I let him take me... my wife is quite upset by the whole matter, but better me than him killing random people." Jack sighed and shook his head. "East Killbride... one of the 'lost' ships. Seems my sister in law here isn't the only loss that is alive..."

[Ashley Walker]

"A fellow countryman," Ashley said with a grim smile. "About a dozen ships, plus Starbase Python, and Station Vella Cava. Bloody came on us out of know where. We were getting by, if you can call it that, until Dominus showed. He destroyed the Kilbride, and the Growler. I don't know about the others. I was his personal sex slave for a year or so until he got bored with me and passed me off to his goons. They haven't touched me in that way in ten years though. I guess once you get into your forties men aren't so excited about raping you when there's another pretty young thing to have their way with. What part of England did you say you were from Mr. Ryder? Oxfordshire?"

[Jack Ryder]

"Spent most of my youth there, I went to Oxford while I was going through Starfleet Academy." Jack replied. "First time I've been in Pythus since I was born here."

[Ashley Walker]

"Lucky you," she said dryly. "So is rescue coming?"

[Jack Ryder]

"Bloody well hope so. Been my wife's rescue party more than once." Jack replied and shrugged his shoulders. "Of course no clue where exactly we are, even within Pythus, given that from what my father told me of this Sector, things change often. That's if we're even in our own dimension." he sat up on the cot and looked around. "For all I know, I'm in a simulation. Would not be the first time that's happened. Raised my twins in a holodeck inside a time dilation field. Six years passed for us, about three weeks for everyone else."

"That's just being a Ryder." Kirby said with a smirk. "Weird is part of life. So Walker... you've been here since the sector was lost?"

[Ashley Walker]

"Ryder? Any relation to that bloke on the Tigris?" She asked.

[Jack Ryder]

"My father." Jack nodded his head. "Headed up the Exploration and Colonization division, not that he does much exploring of late, but he was President of a planet near the Beta Quadrant." he took a deep breath. "And helped form a new Alliance in the Alpha and parts of the Beta Quadrant when the Federation fell nearly six years ago."

[Ashley Walker]

"The Federation fell?" She shook her head, "Yeah, I've been here the whole time. Sounds like you didn't have it much better."