Austen fought for her, “Look, you two, I don’t think she did anything this time. Besides, she can control her abilities. This was something else, and I count on her council.” He didn’t blame Kirk for blaming Deana, but he knew better.
JR said, “Do you even hear what you’re saying?”
Kirk said, “Maybe she’s lying to you, Uncle.”
JR agreed, “She hoodooed him again.”
Austen ordered Noah to have Dale lock down the ship then and go to General Quarters, and to get Cadet Clark in there quick as he could. Noah took off, and Will grabbed Qworn to go hide in Derek’s room for a while. Will grabbed Kirk’s lap-top before they left.
Cadet Clark entered and handed Austen his lap-top and turned to leave, but Austen grabbed her arm and ordered, “As you are, Cadet." Austen set the screen up to his lap-top and they all stood around one empty bed watching what had happened earlier. Austen needed Clark there in case he needed help to restrain JR. He knew from experience he couldn’t take JR on by himself.
Austen hit "play" and turned the volume up. It showed a four way split screen to view the upper-bridge from every angle. It started with Derek entering the upper bridge and ended with "Marry … me," and Deana screaming for help.
Austen looked at JR and said, “See no ‘voodoo’. Nothing but love. She didn’t do anything wrong, and she didn’t lie.”
They argued for a while, and Clark closed the lap-top after unhooking it from the medical screen. She was trying to sneak out during the argument, but Austen caught her. Austen approached her face after grabbing her arm. She had her back to everyone else. He was going to ask her what her problem was, but her eyes were closed tight and her lips were trembling. She was standing at attention so rigid that a feather would have shattered her. She finally opened her eyes, but she avoided her captain’s eyes. Austen could tell she was about to lose it. He took a deep breath and let it out, and she jumped a little. He said, “Dismissed, Cadet,” and she ran out in haste and silence. Austen knew she had a crush on Derek and was taking this hard.
Dale was the only one on the lower bridge due to lock-down, and he saw her running from the upper bridge to the lower bridge. She fell, not catching the last step just right. She lost it getting up, and Dale thought she might have hurt herself. She made sure the lap-top didn’t go down and get damaged, but she was crying a river and slow to get up.
Dale was beside her asking her if she was all right. He could plainly see that she wasn’t. He wondered what the hell was going on with the lock-down, with the captains, and then with one of the toughest cadets he ever saw, crying.
She pulled out of his help and ran to the corner to put Austen’s lap-top away. She was shaking so badly that she was having trouble putting the lap-top back into the lockbox. She even almost dropped it once.
Dale said, “Here, let me help.”
She pushed him so hard that he landed on his backside. She finally got it in and grabbed the key around her neck, but she couldn’t see or hit the keyhole. She ended up ripping the chain from around her neck pulling some of her hair with it. She was shaking so hard she just couldn’t put the key in, so she started banging her head against the console.
Dale came back to her, risking life and limb. He grabbed her in a bear-hug and threw her back on the deck. She broke loose, and in an instant she was ready to pounce, but when he released her, he had locked the box without her seeing him do it. He was holding the key out in front of him for her to grab, “Here look! It’s locked up now. Look. You can check it out for yourself." He pointed to the lockbox.
She saw her hair dangling from the key chain and growled at Dale. Then she yanked it out of his hand and held it to her heart. She fell to her knees and started crying again. Her head had a gash on it, and the blood was running down into her tears. She looked a little scary, though Dale knew that this cadet was as tough as nails. What the hell could have caused a lock-down and made a rock cry? If she cracked, it was serious. He thought that there was never a dull moment around the ship.
He slowly put his arms around her and stood her back up with his help. All the while she was growling. At the end of the closest hallway was Faith and Tammy’s room. That was his destination. He would’ve taken her to the infirmary, but that was where her bloody breakdown had come from. She was fighting him the whole way, but he held her with one arm and knocked on the hatch with the other.
Clark finally collapsed as Tammy opened the hatch. She gasped, “What the heck happened?”
Dale said, “Can’t say. I don’t even know if she is allowed to say, but she is hurt."
He laid her down in a bunk and Tammy said, “Oh my, blood and tears. This is definitely about a man.”
As he was leaving the two naked women he said, “By the way, this is a lock-down; you shouldn’t have opened the door. And whatever you do, don’t touch the necklace around her neck. She will go off on you if you do.” The two nurses winked at him and blew him a kiss as he closed their door. He stood there for a second thinking, Space madness; sooner or later everybody catches it.
JR felt electricity in the air like major static. He told everybody to shut up. He quickly pulled a drawer open and pulled a mirror out. On it laid a razor, a needle, powder, a pipe, and a straw. As he started injecting himself, Austen screamed, “In front of the kids for crying out loud.”
JR said, “Bubba, if you ever trusted me in your life make it now. Take a line or smoke a bowl. I don’t care, but do it now or Kirk will get kidnapped by Skinnies. Deana was right, this is an attack, and it has happened before.”
Austen said, “You are out of your mind!”
JR said, “Kids, get my weapons out.” He was holding his arm as the kids ran to JR’s stash of weapons, but they never made it. They fell to the floor unconscious.
Austen said, “What the hell?” and he looked at JR with a questioning look.
JR said, “That’ll be you next if you don’t do a line off my mirror now!” Austen went to the mirror as JR went to his stash of weapons. He pulled two rifles out of their hiding place. He would rather use guns, but he didn’t know how many bullets he would need. Only he knew it was the second time this had happened, and he hoped the uglies didn’t have weapons like the first time.
Austen was blitzed with JR’s mixture of powder. He was high-ball-in’ on a low trip. His heart was beating out of his chest, and at the same time he was mellow with euphoria. He was definitely stoned. He said, “Bubba, what’s going on?” as he looked at the two boys lying on the infirmary deck.
JR handed him a loaded rifle and an extra magazine and said, “Last time the hair on the back of my neck stood on end, a bunch of little E.T.s opened up a portal in our ship and tried to take Kirk, even though we were hauling ass in space.”
He was loading a pump shotgun with as many shells as it would hold. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and said, “One minute everyone is talking, next minute I’m the only one walking around the old ship. I wasn’t affected due to just coming out of the false panel with a good fix. Don’t ask me why. I ain’t a doctor dammit. Anyways, these bug-ugly Skinnies never entered the ship. They just had Kirkie float up and towards them. I don’t mind telling you, I was screwed up and scared. I stayed on the bridge behind the door and picked up the android's remote to save Kirk via the android. Those sons of bitches jumped in our ship to grab Kirk from the android, but when they saw me they freaked and turned tail back into the portal.”
He grabbed another rifle and mag, and then he did another line off the mirror, coughed, and continued, “Austen, I never told you or Kirk’s dad because - well let’s face it - nobody would have believed me. You’d have thought I lost my mind, but I have a witness now, so lock and load, and lets rock and roll, because here they come!”