Contact: Chapter 10

[Livvy Sandoval]

She shrugged, "At any rate not really an option for me... I was indisposed at the time... in the past." She wiped her bat'leth down and attached the shoulder strap and slung it diagonally across her back. "Though, I suppose I would have enjoyed myself had I been there."

She ducked under and collapsed beam, and sidestepped a pile of rubble with a conspicuous hand extended outward. "Not one of ours," Livvy assured. "An unfortunate/fortunate intentional EPS conduit overload courtesy of yours truly."

They rounded the curve and were deposited into main Engineering. Everywhere there were signs of combat. Gale was there wrapping a bandage around Astrid's arm. It hung limp, and blood covered the woman's right trouser leg and much of the side of her shirt. She was green with shock.

"Son of a..." Livvy hissed.

[Gale Ryder]

"Hey Liv... Di... sorry about the smell, had to cauterize some of the wounds." Gale said as he stood up and gave his father a curious look. "Playin' with the long range system again? Looks more stable, I actually heard your footstep pattern before you came in." he saluted Becca. "Ma'am. I take it you're here because we fucked up huh?"

"No and Gale... language. We talked about that." Nick cleared his throat. "And you didn't fuck up. We were just coming to check on you, see if you needed a hand, it's been weeks. Besides... Becca and i were bragging about our grandgirls and kids actually working together and we wanted to see how things were going. But it's clear you need some extra hands, hard light though they may be."

"Astrid may need a new one. She took a really bad hit." Gale said softly and gave her a glance. "I wish we had brought Teri..."

[Astrid Vogler]

Astrid smirked, "It's generally a bad idea to block a blade with your arm, but it was either that or my face. So, it was kinda a no brainer. I got the bastard though." She held up her phaser in her good hand. "Their armor does a crap job of protecting the face."

"Sometimes it doesn't matter," Livvy said glancing at Dianna. Entering commands into a nearby terminal a hologram shimmered into existence.

"Please state the nature of the medical emergency, " A balding middle-aged man stated. "This isn't sickbay."

"Very observant Doctor," Livvy said as she flung open a compartment door, and extracted an emergency med kit and shoved it into the EMH's hands. "Gale has done some triage," she said pointing at Astrid. "And Diana was nearly choked to death."

"I see," the EMH replied.

"Wait choked to death?" Rebecca exclaimed.

"I always knew these guys were nuts, but these guys are.... well, even crazier than the normal run of the mill lunitics," Astrid added.

"Thanks for letting us know," Livvy said bitterly.

Astrid shrugged, " I didn't know."

[Karina Morris]

"I told you guys they're nuts..." Karina said as she walked into engineering with a slight limp. "Those pulse wave generator gauntlets we developed really worked, but we lost deck 4. One of those crazies were trying to blow me up and took out one of the EPS conduits, there's no environmental controls at all, no oxygen and no gravity. I was crawling into a Jefferies tube when one of them used a cross to stab my leg."

[Astrid Vogler]

"We don't need deck four anyway," Livvy said with a shrug. "We might have to double up until we can get deck 6 habitable."

[Nick Ryder]

Hours later --

Nick was underneath a control panel, Karina was sitting cross legged, barefoot and in her bicycle shorts and a tank top handing tools to her grandfather.

"I NEVER imagined how much heat these old ships put out when environmental controls are out of whack. You'd think it'd be cold in space." Karina said as she wiped her forehead and handed a sonic decoupler to her grandfather's outstretched hand.

"Yeah shockin' ain't it?" Nick muttered. "You know you could just wear an EV undersuit. You didn't have to strip to skivvies." he said with a chuckle.

"I would if I could actually get to one of the lockers, which is on a deck with no power." Karina said and shrugged her shoulders. "Besides, I practically grew up wearing nothing but a swimsuit and cover up." she sighed and looked at the Maori tattoo on her ankle. "So Gran'pa... what if this whole mission is just a waste of time? We could die out here."

"Same as any other mission kiddo." Nick said as he slid out and glanced at a padd. "Although I didn't quite expect what happened... still, that's why all of you came together." he removed a broken piece from the console and inserted a new part which made it hum back to life. "And there we go... we now have internal sensors again."

"You're kind of amazing... you're just a nanotech projection and yet you just fixed the ship..." Karina shook her head in disbelief. "Guess the stories are true huh?"

"Most of them." Nick replied with a grin. "Now c'mon kid, let's get the rest of this bird back in fighting form before those religious nutjobs come back."

"Lead the way." Karina said as she picked up the tool bag and snapped it shut. "I wonder if Aunt Becca and Diana are getting anywhere with the propulsion?"

"Knowing Di's tech, I'm sure it's doing what she developed it to do, it's just frustrating her I'm sure... and Becca and Di are cut from the same cloth, they underestimate their own genius and creativeness." Nick said and put his hand on Kari's back. "There's a reason why Becca is my best friend and why it never worked out romantically with us. We drive each other crazy and I tend to push people to be creative even when they don't want to be. Not that it stopped you. Alice loves your new line by the way."

"I didn't think she wore casual wear..." Kari teased.

"That's all she wears around the house. What? You think she parades around in lingerie and couture outfits from the time she wakes up to the time she goes to bed?" Nick chuckled and shook his head. "Hardly, she's in comfy pants and that sweater you can wear in summer like most of the day. She finally hit her post 50 'I don't give a frak' phase." Which is scary since she's not much younger than I was when I first met her... "

"Aren't you like 90 now?"

"Close... but I'll be an old man when I cross the century mark." Nick wiggled his eyebrows. "Or when Vice President Riker finally kicks the bucket. If I knew he'd STILL be running the UFP all these years later, I may have run again. Still might. Not like I haven't multi-tasked before."

"1st and 7th President." Kari mused and shrugged her shoulders. "Stranger things have happened."

[Rebecca Talon]

"If you asked him, I'm sure Ethan would gladly give you the job. He almost refused the nomination, and I'm guessing he wishes he had now," Rebecca said.

[Nick Ryder]

"He's doing a fine job, it's not an easy gig... but hey I voted for him." Nick said and ran a hand through his hair. "After everything that happened, we're still all licking our wounds. We needed a President who advocated for an actual peacetime. We've been at war with some version of Earth for decades now, longer than these kids have been alive."

[Diana Talon]

Diana walked over and hugged Becca. "Well dad's just trying to live up to the example of you two. Although it would be nice if the galaxy was a bit more at peace... I mean you're right. We've been at war with Earth longer than most of us on this ship have been alive. Part of the reason I agreed to this whole quest. If we can actually bring Earth back from the brink, as well as those still left on that planet... it'll be worth it."

"From your lips to God's ears." Nick said with a smile and hugged her. "Kind of makes me happy to see you and Livvy makin' this old ship hum again. Glad to see the apples didn't fall far from the trees." he glanced at Becca. "By the way... this nanobot holographic system... shockingly useful, and I used to think my old LMDs were impressive tech."

"Well yeah... here you two are helping us out after we just got our butts kicked and you're both still on Terra Alpha. And actually so much of this system is actually really pretty old, I just adapted it to work with what we have now and actually be affordable enough to use." Diana said and wiped her forehead. "The drive coils are still being rebuilt... maybe another hour and we'll have FTL again. Phasers are still wonky but we can at least shoot in a wide spread so we'll hit something, even if it's not a nice delicate targeted strike."

[Arthur Talon]

"We have time," Arthur announced, "Lilith moved us into a Class 2 nebula, and that Earth ship was worse off than us. This is a tough little ship. Hey Grandma."

"Hello my dear," Rebecca said with a grin. "Still not great-grandma yet, unlike the Old man here."