Allison was so excited to see a fellow human from the System’s Alliance she wasted no time getting herself on deck she was sorely disappointed to realize the cargo ship was piloted by a VI. She quickly input her security code and accessed the cargo bay to see what had been delivered to her. She bounced when she saw a canister of antimatter. Rebecca had followed her in and was looking around at the metal crates. Allison knelt down and tapped in her security code to access the antimatter storage unit. It had enough for several wormholes and to open up a wormhole comms repeatedly. In another crate was a full resupply of power-interlinks. There was also enough fusion reactant to refill her reactor to full capacity. Finally, there were several crates of nanite injectors. Only five hundred. Not even close to enough but she could ask for more when she could use more words.

  Allison pulled the crates of nanite injectors down and slid them out onto the deck. They had sent more conventional antivirals from Earth, a thousand doses. She looked at Rebecca and pointed at the nanite antivirals.

  “The sickest get those, those that are stable can take those. I’ll get more I just need to explain how many people are here.”

  Allison grabbed the antimatter storage unit and fusion reactant canisters.

  “Agent North, the rest of the stuff in there is food, and medicine. The ones with the pink symbols are nanite injectors, they will destroy the viruses and act as an enhanced immune system. The other ones that are sort of in English, are more conventional antivirals. They should work but the relief will be temporary because they just kill the viruses present. I need to refuel my fighter and ask for more and work out a rescue plan. Once we have a good supply of antivirals, I can do a patrol around the local systems make sure the area is secure for them to send a rescue fleet.”

  Rebecca pointed to the antimatter containment unit, she didn’t love the danger, flashing red lights and other warning symbols, including the radioactive symbol, that were oddly similar to the WHIMS symbology used in the twenty-first century.

  “What is that exactly?”

  Allison looked down at the antimatter canister.

  “Five grams of antimatter. It’s fine, it’s in magnetic containment. We’re fine.”

  Rebecca stepped away.

  “How… big of an explosion would that cause?”

  Allison shrugged.

  “Ten mega-tons of TNT. Not that bad.”

  Allison continued on her way. Dealing with antimatter was pretty commonplace for her now especially after her encounter with the antimatter dump on the rogue planet. Rebecca followed at a distance.

  “If it is so dangerous, should you really be carrying it by hand?”

  Allison giggled.

  “Don’t worry these are built to withstand reentry and hitting a planet at sixty thousand kilometers per hour. Me dropping it will do nothing. Trust me, it works, after how hard I crashed that cargo ship into Saroid prime I know we’re safe. You need to get that medicine to the people who need it. I’ll take care of this and get us more.”

  Allison rushed off leaving Rebecca staring after her.

  *****

  Admiral Birken was standing with his arms crossed in the makeshift medical bay that they’d turned the mess into. Several dozen of the Japanese sailors and pilots were already starting to stand up and look around themselves in confusion. Rebecca was standing beside him he glanced down at her he was a bit shocked.

  “Ten minutes ago, those men were on death’s door, now they’re up and walking around. I’ll be damned she did it. Do we have enough?”

  Rebecca shook her head.

  “No, sir, we do not. Allison is going to ask for more. I had some of the men investigate the cargo ship, it is the same tech as her starfighter. Holographic controls, thick armor, completely automated. The AI seems limited though, it seems to have a function and performs it. It also seems scheduled to return to wherever it came from. The shuttle doesn’t seem to have any life support.”

  The admiral nodded.

  “Makes sense, if its completely automated, why waste money or resources on air? You seem, concerned still, what is wrong?”

  Rebecca nodded.

  “Sir, they sent Allison the equivalent of a ten megaton nuclear bomb. I am concerned she might make a mistake.”

  The admiral frowned slightly but then shook his head.

  “Do you trust my crew to maintain the nuclear reactors?”

  Rebecca nodded.

  “Then we have to trust that her command trusts her with maintaining her reactors. So far she has delivered on everything she promised.”

  Rebecca frowned.

  “There is one last thing, if I understand how her starfighter works, she now has enough fuel to get home and leave us here.”

  The admiral frowned at Rebecca.

  “Do you honestly think after all she has done, she is just going to do that?”

  Rebecca shrugged.

  “Sir, she might not have a choice. If she is who she says she is, then she could be ordered home. Neither of us could fault her for following that order.”

  The admiral frowned.

  “That is a possibility, but they can obviously make deliveries without her here, perhaps it is best if she did go home, she’s a child there is a lot of death here.”

  Rebecca nodded.

  “I, do have more information on that, while she was a sleep I spoke to her AI, Bit. It truly is sentient or appears so. When I asked about Allison specifically and help confirming she is who she says she is, the AI showed me… some holographic videos? She is a decorated hero. She has saved thousands of lives and did defeat a vast number of dangerous aliens who were about to invade her galaxy. Sir, if she were from the US, she’d be a medal of honor winner, three times over easily.”

  He uncrossed his arms.

  “At seventeen?”

  Rebecca nodded again.

  “Aye, sir. In fact, she single handedly saved one of their fleets and several hundred million people by taking her fighter wing into a battle with little to no armaments left. She turned a complete loss into a victory. All while dealing with knowing her grandfather had died on the flagship. She lost over half her squadron in that action. This was after rescuing all the patients and medical crew of a medical station.”

  The admiral smiled.

  “Then I have a feeling she will get us home. Did her computer tell you about her grandfather?”

  “Yes, sir, he was the commander of the entire space arm of their military.”

  The admiral gave a soft laugh.

  “I hope my granddaughters are like her. You know there was a time I didn’t agree with women in active combat roles. Sarah O’Connor changed my opinion on that. It looks like in the future it’s a good thing we started this change.”

  *****

  Allison patted Bit’s armored frame.

  “Hey Bit, that storm knocked out life support because I compromised the hull, I’ll need you to go into orbit and open wormhole comms and link up with the satellite communications on the ship here.”

  “Of course, Allison, you should request more liquid metal when we are speaking with the president.”

  Allison stepped back and radioed the tower from her holo-phone.

  “My fighter needs to launch. Give us a window please.”

  The cargo ship had left on its own thirty minutes before and gone back through a wormhole. That left the deck clear at least. Allison rushed on deck to see Bit launch. She waved at her friend as she vanished into the sky. She headed to see the lieutenant in comms, it was the same one, mostly because the other watch officers were still recovering or hadn’t received an antiviral yet. Admiral Birken had been very adamant that the sickest got treatment first, no matter what crew they were part of. The lieutenant had help now. A few comms non-commissioned members were up and about after the antivirals.

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  “Ma’am, I need satellite communications so we can talk to my command.”

  The lieutenant had been warned about this, and motioned towards the back of the comms area, where the Admiral was standing with Rebecca. Allison moved towards the pair she nodded to Rebecca and spoke to the Admiral.

  “Sir, thanks for letting us use the satellite communications. I’d just be up there myself, but the lightning damaged the armor and my radiation and thermal protection are shot.”

  He chewed on the end of his cigar and nodded.

  “Of course, lieutenant, I wanted to be here to thank them for the supplies.”

  Bit’s voice came through the communications array.

  “Allison, I’ve initiated wormhole comms. I’ll patch them through once I’ve gotten to command.”

  Allison wasn’t shocked to hear Maria’s voice, she was a bit surprised, Eyre was on the call too. Maria tried to speak but was interrupted by Eyre.

  “Allison, what the hell are you doing so far away?”

  Allison blushed and wanted to vanish.

  “Umm, long story, and I’m not in Bit, life support was compromised when I charged the energy weave capacitors, so she’s in orbit and I’m on the U.S.S. George Washington with Admiral Birken of the US Navy, and Agent North from NCIS, I think its NCIS.”

  Eyre didn’t say anything else. Maria spoke.

  “Allison, are you alright?”

  Allison kept blushing.

  “I’m fine, Auntie Maria, just fine. I could use some more liquid metal so Bit is fully functional. Also, we’ll need a lot more nanite antivirals. There are four aircraft carriers and two battleships there are a lot of people dead already and more will follow. There were about ten thousand people, almost two thousand dead, six thousand sick, about forty percent of them are terminal without nanite antivirals, seems to be hurting the youngest the worst. I’m fine so far, my t-cell injection is fighting them off. We’ll need enough t-cell enhancers for the survivors, we’ll need food supplies on the older ships are running low and we need to arrange a rescue.”

  Maria didn’t answer right away. Allison was afraid they’d lost comms so she spoke.

  “Are you still there?”

  Maria spoke.

  “Yes, just, kind of shocked. How did you all end up there?”

  Allison sighed.

  “Tesseract core for me, not sure how they ended up here, there’s four ships from World War Two, two carriers from the twenty-first century. I’m not sure how they ended up here and now.”

  Maria sighed audibly.

  “We’ll figure it out, Allison, you need to come home. I’ll sort out what we’ll do for the others.”

  Allison blinked a few times.

  “No, I’m not leaving them here.”

  Maria sounded more firm when she spoke next.

  “Allison, your pilots need you to train them and the League and Alliance need you to be here to respond to any Sal’nash attacks with your fleet. Let us worry about the survivors there.”

  Allison frowned.

  “I’m not done here yet… I can feel it. It brought me here for a reason. Why haven’t you sent medical ships yet?”

  Maria paused again but finally spoke plainly.

  “Allison, you’re fifteen billion light years away, I cannot send men and women out there, even on a rescue mission. We’ll do what we can with supplies but getting them here? It’s not home. With the Yellowstone refuges we do not have space for almost eight thousand people. We cannot spare the ships with the Sal’nash threat present and the Ratoan rebellion heating up. We just do not have the manpower.”

  The Admiral frowned but nodded he finally spoke up.

  “Madam President, we understand, any help you can provide will be invaluable. You’ve done more then we could have hoped for already.”

  Allison was shaking her head.

  “They’re human, we can’t just leave them here, they belong with us.”

  Maria sounded exasperated.

  “Allison, the logistics of it are untenable. Once we are sure the Sal’nash are dealt with I can put resources towards the rescue, but we need to be concerned about our citizens. If there is another attack and we needed to evacuate a colony I cannot have our ships on another rescue mission, it’s just not feasible and the board would never agree, nor would military command.”

  Allison leaned down and sounded adamant.

  “I’ll use my fleet then!”

  Allison could hear the frown in Maria’s voice.

  “You know you can’t do that; It is mostly League ships, and they are in the same position we are, they cannot have their military resources taken up by a rescue mission when there could be an attack. You need to get back here. I am sure the Admiral and the other flag staff on the other ships will understand that necessity. We’re at war and your place is with your fleet, Battlelord.”

  Allison scrunched her face.

  “I’ll head back once I’m sure the tesseract core won’t get in the way, it could take some time to analyze. Please tell my science teams to get in touch with me here so we can go over the scans.”

  Maria paused again.

  “That is… a good point. If it just drags you back there then you coming back would be pointless and we can’t just leave it there.”

  Allison nodded.

  “In the meantime, I’ll see what I can do for them.”

  Maria addressed the Admiral this time.

  “Admiral Birken, my niece will ensure comms remain open and are available to you, I’ll assign a supply officer to work with you to ensure your supply needs are met. Thank you for taking care of my niece. I am working with our allies in the League to provide further nanite antivirals to help your crews. I will also be assigning a disease specialist to assist you in diagnosing and treating the illnesses you’re encountering. If they could work with your doctor we can at least maintain, and possibly improve the conditions of your sick until I can get the antivirals you need.”

  The admiral smiled.

  “Thank you, Madam President. We all thank you; You and your niece have already saved a lot of lives.”

  Maria closed the communications channel. Allison spoke to Bit.

  “Hey Bit please keep the wormhole comms open, and maintain position, we’re waiting for more info.”

  *****

  Admiral Birken called together Admiral Yamamoto, Captain Zhao, Captain Tanner and Rear Admiral Harris. They were sitting in the ready room; Admiral Birken nodded to each before he began speaking, along with Allison who was translating for Admiral Yamamoto.

  “Hello, and thank you for coming. I just wanted to give you an update on our situation. I’ve been communicating with Lieutenant Wanjala’s government. She is being recalled; She is the commander of a rapid response battle group. They are at war with an alien species of insectoid called the Sal’nash. The Lieutenant also holds the rank of Battlelord, and apparently this makes her the point woman for their defense. Because of this war and a rebellion, they are helping suppress, they are unable to spare ships to rescue us. They have agreed to provide us with any supplies required, so I’ll need a list of your needs. Our medical staff are working with their doctors to come up with treatment plans until such time as they can get more of their miracle treatment. It is in limited supply as they have to purchase it from another government. I have been able to confirm all of the information Lieutenant Wanjala has provided. Any questions?”

  Captain Zhao looked at Allison instead of the Admiral.

  “You are the commander of a fleet?”

  Allison nodded.

  “Temporarily, it’s what you’d call a multinational battle group, I think. It is made up of League and Alliance ships.”

  Allison translated all of this for Admiral Yamamoto. The Admiral nodded. Captain Zhao asked another question.

  “So, your rank would be roughly equivalent to Admiral Birken’s?”

  Allison bit her lower lip.

  “Technically as Battlelord I answer only to the President and Primarch, I’m the highest rank the militaries have. They need me to be able to call in any resources I require to fight the Sal’nash without question.”

  Admiral Yamamoto motioned to Allison, he asked her a question.

  “Who or what are these Sal’nash?”

  Allison translated the question and her answer for everyone else.

  “They are a species of sentient insect that consume everything in their path. They swarm every few thousand years. The last swarm was only stopped by an artificially caused supernova that took out several star systems. It propagated through hyperspace. This time I detonated a massive antimatter bomb and wiped them out, we’re still dealing with stragglers, but even one of their hives is too much for our planetary defenses. Three hives nearly destroyed our entire Andromeda Fleet. They’ve destroyed one colony so far and killed several thousand people just because of a field they can project.”

  He asked another question.

  “How many lives do you protect with your fleet?”

  Allison wasn’t sure how to answer that.

  “Trillions upon trillions, the entire League and all of the Alliance colonies in Andromeda, including mine, with my family.”

  He stood up and bowed low.

  “Then you should return with haste. Many lives depend on you. My men and myself are honored to sacrifice ourselves for such a cause.”

  Allison shook her head.

  “No sir, I cannot. I was brought here for a reason and I’m afraid if I return, I’ll just get pulled back here and waste fuel doing it. I need to figure out how I got here and how you got here before I can return. If there is anything you can tell me about what happened, any of you, it would be extremely helpful.”

  She bowed to the Japanese Admiral. The various leaders discussed how they arrived in the vicinity with Allison translating as required. Everyone had determined there was a purple flash of light before they arrived. They had all been investigating radio, radar and other communication interference. Allison’s wrist buzzed and she excused herself and tapped the AR HUD to accept the incoming communication from Bit via radio from the George Washington, it was audio only of course.

  “Bit, what’s up, I don’t have long I’m translating for Admiral Yamamoto.”

  “I have your science team lead on for you.”

  Allison sighed and turned to the group of flag officers, she bowed to Admiral Yamamoto and explained to him, then translated for everyone else.

  “Sir, I need to go answer a call from my staff, I apologize.”

  Allison got up on deck and took a call and she heard her lead researcher’s voice.

  “Battlelord, I’m so glad you were not disintegrated! So, the device took you fifteen billion light years away and drained all your fighter’s energy?”

  Allison nodded but then realized it wasn’t a holo-call.

  “Yes, that is correct. I have six ships here from various times from our home world. They saw the same purple flash I did before transit. I think they’re linked, the problem is some arrived a couple of weeks ago and others just days before me. I think we need to scan for more tesseract cores, how can I do that?”

  The lead researcher didn’t respond right away, she assumed he was speaking to his team.

  “Battlelord, we have enough scans we can help you lock down on any similar energy signatures with sufficient scanners. If you were to use your starfighters enhanced sensor package it has the right equipment.”

  Allison frowned.

  “The problem with that is, I have a full load of missiles and did not load the sensor package, any other ideas?”

  The lead researcher quickly answered.

  “We could create one of your wormholes and send a modified probe through, then you could use your wrist device to narrow down the location.”

  Allison jumped on that idea.

  “That’s not a bad idea, we can use it to check for anyone else who got stranded on this end of the universe trash heap.”

  He paused briefly.

  “Trash heap? End of the universe?”

  Allison shrugged, it had no impact on the conversation because it was audio only, but she had her mannerisms.

  “How else do you explain six random ships from random times all in one place?”

  She could just picture the lead researcher rubbing his chin.

  “That is an interesting theory.”

  Allison heard her name being called across the hangar deck.

  “Get that probe ready and deployed send me the signature I’m looking for when you open the wormhole. Bit should be able to sync up as soon as it arrives. Shadow One, out.”