CHAPTER 30 D

"Would you show me the two areas the Gamma shift found. Please."

"Colonel they were found in the back near the engine room."

"Could you show it to me please?"

The scene shifted. Kacey studied the screen. The clouds surrounded the back of the ship. The view showed it was right over the engine room. That meant the hanger was involved also.

"Damn it. How the Hell could I have missed this yesterday. Shit." She berated herself.

"What is it?" Kate asked.

"The reasons why the engines will not start. I can not believe I missed this. Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn."

"Stop it, Kacey. This is not your fault." Kate argued. "Why won't the engines start?"

"Look at it Kate. The engine room is right in the middle of the cloud. The larger stronger field knocked out the engines and because the engine room is still in the field, they will not restart. It is not like when the Stingers were affected, gravity kept pulling them down. Up here there is no gravity, so we are just sitting here. As long as that cloud is there, the engines will not start and we will not be able to launch any other ships. I should have seen this yesterday."

"You can only do so much Kacey None of us saw that."

"Can we tow the ship out of the cloud." The pilot asked.

"No the clouds block the launch doors. It would just knock out their engines also."

"So what can we do about that?" Kate asked.

Kacey thought for a minute. "I have an idea. Work with me?"

"Of course."

"Open channel. This is the Chosen One. Would you shut off the force field in the rear of the ship? It is affecting the life support of the whole ship."

The field will remain.

"If one person on this ship dies because we have lost life support the deal is off and we will fight you. If you want me to lead you, you have to save the people on this ship. We will not try to escape."

They all held their breaths while waiting for a reply. Finally symbols appeared followed by the translation. We will lower the field in that section only. You have thirty six Earth hours to join us. Do not try to escape.

"Close channel." Kate ordered.

"They heard the engines rumble back to life. "Captain I do not know what happened, but the engines have all come back on line. Your orders?"

"Nothing over the communicators Kate." Kacey reminded her.

"Bella, hold our position and come up to the Bridge."

"On my way Captain.".

The Bridge crew broke into applause. Natalia threw her arms around Kacey and kissed her, which brought on more cheers.

"I have to tell you Colonel, you certainly have brass ones." Lieutenant Minor stated.

"Lieutenant remember you are speaking to a superior officer." Kate reprimanded him.

"Kate, that is all right. Thank you Lieutenant, I will take that as a compliment." She let out a long breath. "I honestly did not think they would go for it."

"You never stop impressing me little sister. How about taking a short break now that this immediate crises is taken care of?"

"Can't do that Kate. Now we need to figure out which weak areas we have to target to bring the whole thing down. What will give us the maximum escape potential."

Kacey stared at the screen. Her hand still clasped in Natalia's smaller one.

"Can you put up a view of Andromeda?"

"Yes ma'am."

A picture of Andromeda filled the screen. "Good. Now add the clouds. You can leave off the back section over Engineering."

A view of Andromeda enclosed in a horse shoe of clouds appeared. "That is exactly how it looks?"

"That is a real time view Colonel."

" Now add all the coordinates for the weak spots."

"That will take a couple minutes, Colonel."

"That all right. It will give me time to get another coffee. Natalia, I need you to do something for me."

"Of course."

"Go to the Hanger. Find Major Anderson, and Captains Taggart and Williams. Tell them I need them on the Bridge."

"Be back shortly." She stood on tip toes and kissed Kacey's cheek.

"Feel like filling me in on this latest idea?" Kate asked.

"Do you remember when the brass wanted to expand the Space Agency?" Kate nodded. " That old Federal building was in the way of that expansion. There were four people who the brass brought in to drop the building. Three are on their way up here now."

"Who was the fourth person?"

"For what it is worth, Kate, I was the team leader on that project. Bringing down that field will be like doing a precision drop on a building."

"I was there to see that. The building came straight down. I did not realize that you had a hand in that."

"You know me, I like to take things apart."