Sam watched on the video screen the huge jagged chunks of ice hanging down from the behemoth icepack above. He knew from past experiences that going under an icepack was dangerous. Once slip up and thousands upon thousands of tons of ice could come crashing down on their heads.
“Slow ahead,” he ordered. “Find us the deepest part of this icepack and take us down below it, then hold us steady.”
AJ stood next to sonar control watching the depth of the ice above them. The bridge was deathly quiet as they slowly proceeded deeper into the dangerous field ahead. Suddenly Sam turned to AJ.
“How long have you been without sleep?” he asked. “This is your off duty time isn’t it?”
“Yes Captain, but I figured you’d need the extra hand as we went under the icepack,” AJ said turning to him with a little surprise.
“Why don’t you go get some sleep Commander then relieve me at 0600,” Sam said looking at his watch.
“But Sir…”
“No debate Commander, now go,” Sam ordered. “Ginny and I can handle anything that comes up.”
AJ looked at him wide eyed; he was shocked to see the familiarity between the submarine's entity and his Captain. Something also told him there was more going on than he knew. Reluctantly he left the bridge. When he reached his cabin he went inside, stretched and yawned. He was tired, the lights were out but he knew exactly where he was as he removed his clothes. Heading into the bathroom he quickly showered, dried, and then headed for bed. Pulling back the covers he slipped into the bed. His thigh touched something warm and he jumped back out of bed turning the light on.
Blinking, Jenna rolled over squinting in the sudden light that shone in the room.
“Turn that off and climb back in here,” she said softly.
“How…why…are you sure?” he asked surprised.
“Would I be laying here naked in your bed if I wasn’t?” she asked smiling.
AJ slipped beneath the covers feeling her warm body slide up against him igniting the fires deep within. Their lips touched softly at first then with a greater intense passion. His hand ran through her hair then slowly moved down across her breast, then down her belly. She whimpered softly as she felt him slid on top of her. She wanted him, wanted him more than any man she had ever known, and she could just feel…he felt the same. She wrapped herself around him drawing him deeper their passion growing. They clawed and growled at each other their animal instincts taking over. For the first time in her life she felt complete…and happy.
Lomkin drained the last of his coffee. He and Adoria had been up for nearly two days working on the module. When they thought they had it, something would prevent them from accessing the information.
“Look, we both need sleep. We’re not going to figure this out with our eyelids closed,” he said sighing.
“The answer is here we just haven’t found it,” she said continuing to work.
“We need rest…you need rest, the answer might be clearer if we get some sleep,” he said lightly touching her arm.
Adoria looked at his hand upon her arm, then to his face. Lomkin withdrew his hand and looked away. There was no doubt that this woman intimidated him.
“We must keep working, if the Zeallions learn where we are they will try to come after us,” she said.
“We’re over 800 feet below an icepack…I thought they hated the cold,” he asked irritated that she didn’t take his suggestion.
“They have ships too, ships that can navigate these waters easily. The cold only affects them directly…not their equipment.”
Suddenly the computer screen lit up and numeric numbers began to scroll across it. Lomkin dropped his cup sliding his chair up next to Adoria.
“We’re in!” he breathed.
“It would seem so,” she said.
“Can you translate this?” he asked.
“I can not but one of our translators might be able to,” she said drawing Kern’s from her pocket.
Delicately she began to take apart the translator then began to hook it up to the hybrid computer databank that they had created. They waited patiently as the translator studied the Zeallion language. Suddenly the screen began to fill with English words.
“That’s it!” Lomkin yelled bounding from his chair. “Keep recording everything there, we need to get rid of that module before…”
The sub reverberated, the shock driving them both to the floor. Struggling to his feet he grabbed the mike off the wall.
“Captain this is Lomkin…”
“Not now Mr. Lomkin…later,” Sam shot back.
“But we broke into the module! We’re downloading the information now!” he said as another shock knocked him to his knees.
“Get that information and get rid of that module!” Sam barked then hung up the mike.
Sam watched on the view screen as huge chunks of ice began to fall all around them some impacting with the hull bouncing off.
Above the icepack wave after wave of Zeallion ships bombarded the ice. Huge explosions shattered the thick ice spraying house size boulders out into the water. In the distance a tiny black speck grew larger and larger. A huge coin shaped spacecraft came into view dwarfing the smaller ships that continued to bombard the icepack.
Lomkin pounded on the desk as the computer continued to download the information. He was going on his last optical disk, after that there was no more storage space unless he tapped into the ships computer and wiped out all the computers programming…including Ginny. It was the only way to ensure that they got every morsel of information. Grabbing a cable he connected it to the back of the computer then to the ships computer interface. Grabbing another laptop he connected it inline with the other one and booted it up. He then began to wipe the ship’s computer clean.
 “S…Sam, someone is trying to wipe my memory clean!” Ginny yelled out startling everyone on the bridge.
“Who?” Sam shot to his feet.
 “Lomkin…Lomkin is erasing the ships memory…”she said her voice frantic.
 “ Lomkin…this is the Captain, stop what you’re doing this minute! You’re erasing Ginny,” Sam snapped into the mike.
“It’s necessary Captain…it’s the only way to get all the information from the module. We don’t have the room, it’s the only answer,” he shot back.
“Adoria…stop him…stop him now!” Sam shot out.
Adoria moved forward grabbing the cable and yanking it out of the connection with the ship. Lomkin grabbed it then her wrist struggling to wrench it out of her hand.
“Give it back to me it’s the only way!” he snapped.
“Calm yourself before you are hurt,” she said keeping a tight grip on the cable.
Lomkin continued to struggle, Adoria, finally having enough slammed her fist across his face. Lomkin toppled back blood gushing from his nose. The look on his face was one of sheer amazement.
“Get control of yourself,” she said as she unhooked the cable from the other end of the computer.
Lomkin staggered to his feet staring at her, then rushed from the room. Adoria shook her head then grabbed the mike from the wall. At first she studied it then pressed the button on the side.
“The cable has been disconnected Captain,” she said then let the mike drop from her hand. She then grabbed the module prying it from the computer it was embedded into then she rushed from the room.
Sam continued to watch the ice drop down around them. Some of the chunks that hit were massive enough to knock the ship sideways it’s ballast automatically righting it again. Sam grabbed the mike again.
“Adoria, get rid of that module!” he said into the mike.
Adoria rushed down the hallway colliding with AJ and Jenna.
“This needs to be expelled from here,” she said handing him the module. AJ turned and headed down to engineering. Once there he placed the module in one of the stern tubes then wheeled the door shut.
“Ginny open the outer doors!” he called out then rushed over to the weapons control area where Bob Burt sat. “Blow that tube!”
Outside the submarine a huge gush of bubbles spewed out along with the module that instantly sunk.
“It’s gone Captain,” AJ said into the mike.
“Good check and see how Brooks and Pops are doing, then report back here,” Sam ordered.
“Ginny move us ahead standard, use the hydro drive we don’t want them detecting our screws.” he barked out.
The submarine began to move forward propelled by the sheer force of the ocean water around them.
 Above, the huge spacecraft hovered. Then, crackling energy began to surge from the outer edge of the craft to the middle, where it began to arc. Suddenly there was a brilliant flash of amber light that shot down from the middle to the ice below. The blast was immense the beam penetrating clean through shattering the whole icepack for miles. The blast went through striking the ocean floor hundreds of feet below shattering enormous chunks of rock and tossing them. Even at over 800 feet down they could feel the shockwave
 “Captain!” Ginny yelled.
On the view screen they watched a chunk of ice strike them. It was so large it dwarfed the submarine. Everyone was tossed about and sparks flew as systems shorted out. The submarine was pushed down, the conning tower hooking on the massive berg as it plummeted down in the water. Then, unknown to any of them a huge rock slammed into the sub ripping them from the bergs grasp. The submarine plunged.
Sam struggled to climb back in his chair, the downward motion of the submarine making it nearly impossible to stand.
“Emergency power now! Damage control teams on station!” he yelled as general quarters sounded. “Sonar, how deep is it here?”
“Sonar reading before the impact say we’ve got at least 17,000 feet sir!” the sonar operator yelled struggling to get back to his post.
“Ginny!” Sam yelled.
 “I’ve lost control…we are going to the bottom!”
The submarine plunged through the cold murky depths gaining speed as it went. Sam managed to brace himself in his chair. Grabbing the mike he quickly pressed the button sending it through the whole ship.
“Everyone…we’re going to the bottom brace yourself for impact. Damage control teams stand ready!” he shouted. “All engines full reverse!”
Everyone braced for the inevitable collision with the seabed. Sam prayed that the hull would hold and that the engines might slow them down enough to stop the hull from fracturing into pieces.
AJ grabbed onto Jenna and braced himself against the nearest bulkhead. Bob Burt watched them, he was strapped in his chair the sweat dripping off his brow. Adoria wedged herself against Bob’s control panel. Reaching out he grasped her hand holding onto it tightly.
The doctor managed with the help of Rollins to strap Wil tightly into his bed then slid against the forward bulkhead.
The submarine slammed nose first into the seabed floor. The impact was so great it ripped consoles and terminals from their walls crushing some, injuring others. Sparks flew plunging the whole submarine into darkness. Pipes ruptured spewing tons of water inside.
For a long moment the submarine hung there then the tail of the vessel began to lower until it rested on the bottom. The whole ship lurched slightly to the left before coming to rest.
Above the spacecraft continued to fire it’s weapon moving back and forth along the icepack. Below it tore up millions of tons of rock and debris from the ocean floor. The energy beam came closer and closer to the submarine tearing up the seabed as it went, then it veered off. Huge boulders and debris rained down on the already stricken submarine burying it further.
Inside Sam blinked and struggled to regain consciousness, hearing the thunderous racket outside against the hull. The air was dank and smoldering electronics sparked and shorted providing a little light to the room. Pushing a dead body off him he staggered to his feet then fell when he realized that the submarine was tilted on its side. Climbing back to his feet he reached for his command chair feeling for the console on the arm. His fingers felt along then finally touched what he was looking for. Pressing the large round button the emergency lighting came on bathing the whole room in a dim white light. Some of the units were broken, but enough functioned where he could see. Checking the pulse of his helmsman he found none. Quickly he moved to each of the others. Quite a few were dead; others though were alive.
“Neil, are you OK?” Sam asked coughing.
“I think so Captain, give me a hand will you?” he said reaching out to him.
Sam helped him up knocking some debris off him. Together they looked around; the bridge was in a shambles. Many of the consoles were destroyed others shorted. Neil grabbed a fire extinguisher and began putting out the many fires that sprung up from the panels. Sam grabbed the mike and keyed it a few times; there was no power. Tossing the mike he headed for the hatchway.
“Neil do what you can here, get anyone who’s injured down to sickbay. I’m going forward to inspect the hull,” he said stepping through the hatchway.
Smoke curled along the upper hallway as he went the dim lighting making it look like something from a horror movie. When he met others, most were dazed. He directed them to the mess hall or damage control depending on how injured they were. When he reached the forward torpedo room he noticed the door was closed. Peering though the small window he watched as the water was slowly rising. Two bodies floated motionlessly in the dark cold water. Wheeling the hatch open water poured in knocking him to onto his back. He knew it was against regulations to open a hatch when the hull appeared to have been compromised but he also knew that if there was any chance of those men being alive he couldn’t leave them. He also realized the horrible truth, they were dead the shock and concussion of the impact killing them instantly. Grabbing their bodies he hauled them out through the hatchway then struggled to seal the hatch again. Wheeling the door closed he leaned heavily against it. The air was becoming stale which meant the air handling systems were off line. Reaching down he checked them both for a pulse and found none.
Jenna had slammed into AJ knocking the wind out of him and clobbering his head against the bulkhead wall. A trickle of blood ran down the back of his neck soaking his shirt. Adoria was torn loose from Bob Burt’s grasp and was hurled across the room slamming into the corner of a panel headfirst. AJ glanced over; she grasped her head the blood running between her fingers. Bob unhooked his harness and moved quickly towards Adoria’s side.
“AJ…” Jenna began to say.
“Not now Jenna, we have to pick up the pieces and see who is alive and how bad of shape the ship is in.
Pops had managed to strap himself into his chair just before the ship had hit. Brooks hadn’t been so lucky and was thrown against the nearest table. The many tools they were using had become deadly projectiles sailing through the air slamming into them. Pops had only gotten a few cuts and bruises; Brooks hadn’t been so lucky. The force of his body striking the table had broken him, but he was then tossed head over heels only to become impaled on a broken pipe. Blood oozed out splattering onto the floor. Pops unhooked the seatbelt and moved over to Brooks who stared wide-eyed at him, then blinked looking down at him.
“I…I don’t want to die…” he said the panic clear on his face.
“Keep yourself focused on me, here…” Pops said making sure he heard him by pointing into his own eyes.
“I’m so cold….” Brooks said as blood oozed form the corner of his mouth and nose. “I sure know how to build them don’t I?” he chuckled coughing up blood.
“Yeah, you sure do, you sure do Mr. Brooks, no submarine on Earth could have survived what this one just did,” Pops said smiling back. “You stay here I need to go get you some help,” he said turning and heading for the bulkhead.
“No…no…don’t go, I don’t want to die alone…stay with me,” Brooks pleaded.
Pops turned and walked back up to him. He felt awkward, he didn’t know what to say to try and comfort him. He had been here before as he had watched the cancer eat his beloved wife Clara away. In the end she didn’t want him to leave either. There was something about being with someone when you breathed your last breath. He couldn’t understand it; all he knew was that when it was his turn he wanted to be alone. He wanted to face death head on…and by himself.
Reaching out Brooks grabbed onto Pop’s hand. “I’m scared,” he said.
“Scared of what?” Pops asked feeling Brooks blood drip down onto his hand.
“Scared of what is on the other side,” Brooks said his voice but a whisper.
“There is nothing to be scared of, nothing,” Pops said drawing himself closer to him.
“How…how do you know?” Brooks breathed laboriously.
“Because my wife is there now…and anyplace she is must be nice,” he said softly.
Brooks smiled. “I’ll tell her you love her,” he said is voice so faint Pops had to strain to hear it.
“Goodbye Mr. Brooks, I’ll be seeing you soon I think,” Pops said patting his hand.
Looking up he watched as his head lolled to the side and his eyes opened in a blank stare, Brooks was dead. Turning he headed for the hatchway, he need to be in engineering to check on the reactors. Turning he looked back at Brooks, he felt pity for the man. He had feared death so greatly that when his time had come he couldn’t embrace it and accept what card fate had dealt him. He hoped that when it was his time he would meet death differently.
Rollins helped Doctor McCormick to his feet. The doctor had a broken arm and he clutched it to his side protecting it. Wil was still strapped into bed unaffected by the chaos around him. Rollins had gotten a nasty gash on his forehead the blood had run down his face. He blinked his eyes repeatedly.
“Damn it! God damn it! Doesn’t anyone know how to run an infirmary?” McCormick bellowed as he looked at he mess around him.
At that moment the injured began to come in blood dripping on the floor.
“I’m only one…only one damn doctor!” he ranted.
“Doctor, get a grip on yourself,” one of the crewmen said watching him rant.
“Get a grip? Get a grip on what? I see blood and guts day in and day out, what are you telling me to get a grip on?” he snarled.
The crewman backed off. Something was wrong. Maybe the doctor had received a blow to the head. Placing the crewman down on a bunk he turned only to get backhanded by McCormick’s good hand. At that moment Neil came into the room helping two others.
“Doctor!” he said as he watched him strike the crewman. Putting down the injured person he quickly went up to the doctor grabbing his good arm before he could strike the crewman again.
“What’s gotten into you doc?” Neil asked.
“Get away from me…get away from me!” McCormick yelled.
He was out of control; Neil lashed out with his fist striking his jaw. McCormick reeled then stood there for a moment dazed. He then looked up at Neil his eyes wide.
“W…what is happening here?” he said struggling to compose himself.
“I don’t know Doc, you were acting like a wild man for a moment there,” Neil said walking up to him. “Doc we have injured people.”
“Yes…yes injured…have to stay focused,” he said talking to himself, then went to work.
Rollins sat against the wall, he wiped the blood from his face but his eyes still blinked rapidly. Neil noticed this and walked up to him.
“Are you OK?” he asked crouching down.
“I don’t know, I feel like I’m losing control of myself. I don’t know what’s causing it, it’s like a strong feeling I have,” Rollins explained softly.
“You hang in there, focus yourself draw strength from that,”
Neil looked around sickbay; it was beginning to fill up. Motioning to two guards he told them to help the doctor anyway they could. He then headed out to find the Captain or the XO and coordinate damage control parties.
Pops entered engineering only to find it in shambles. The emergency shutdown procedure had enabled shutting the two reactors down before containment was lost. Emergency power was enabled and most of it was allocated to engineering allowing him to have the power necessary to get the rest of the ship functioning. Checking the console it blinked with warning lights and sounded with buzzers. Before he could reset most of them he had to do a manual walk through of the reactor section to make sure there were no problems. Grabbing his flashlight he grabbed a protective suit, hesitating, he put it back, at this point in his life he really didn’t care. Grabbing a CBA unit he donned the tank and slipped the mask over his face then adjusted the airflow until he was comfortable. Opening the containment door he stepped in and closed it behind him. Dull white lights and revolving red ones made the room appear threatening. Steam filled the lower portion of the room creating a ground fog. Pops shined his light around checking each pipe…every corner and every inch of the first reactor. All seemed in order, the reactor was in better shape than he had expected. Moving to the second hatchway he hesitated before opening it. Something was wrong, he could feel it.
Wheeling the hatch open he peered inside, suddenly his radiation meter went off scale. Quickly backing out he slammed the heavy hatch shut, glancing down at his radiation badge he noticed it had instantly changed color. There was a massive leak in the second reactor, how bad he could only guess. Rushing back out he grabbed the protective suit and quickly donned it. It wouldn’t stop a lethal dose of radiation but it would protect him enough so that it wouldn’t kill him in a few minutes.
Wheeling the heavy door open he entered then quickly closed it. Cooling water sloshed around his boots as he scanned the reactor. The core looked to be in fairly good shape. There were cracks in the massive unit but nothing that would have caused the leak. Shining his light up he looked at where the containment rods where housed. A huge steel beam had broken loose and hit the outer casing denting it in. When the emergency containment had enabled and the rods began to slid back in shutting down the reactor the huge beam had fallen snapping one rod completely from its housing. When it snapped off it broke the outer casing to the reactor allowing some of the containment water to leak out.
Pops studied the whole reactor, never in all his days had he seen such damage. He knew he had to provide the cooling water to the reactor or it would go critical destroying them all. Shining the lights over the piping along the sides of the walls he made sure that the ocean water inlet was free and clear. Moving quickly he left he reactor room. Pulling the helmet off he breathed deeply and leaned heavily against the bulkhead wall. Pulling piece by piece of the suit off he tossed it to the side. Dropping the CBA he headed back to the control console. Flopping down in his chair he began resetting all the equipment. Then he reset the emergency containment for the first reactor. Slowly the rods began to pull out enabling the reactor to generate power. He watched the gauges carefully making sure that nothing abnormal occurred. Once he was satisfied that the reactor was on-line he began transferring power to the second one pulling the containment rods that were left while simultaneously pumping fresh sea water into the containment room. Setting the level he wanted pumps began to pump water from the room overboard.
Sam worked his way along the inner hull checking to make sure there were no leaks. What he did find was a huge amount of sweating which meant that the outer hull had been breached. They were deep, and that meant that if the outer hull had been compromised then the inner hull was supporting all the ocean pressure beyond. He needed to find Brooks and ask him how the rest of the ship was constructed, if they used that unique metal throughout or just on the hull.
Suddenly the lights came back on and the emergency lighting went off. Looking up he watched a few of the lights blink then come on. Pops had gotten the reactors back on line. Moving swiftly back to the bridge he found AJ and Jenna standing amongst the clutter and chaos.
“Captain!” Jenna said as she watched him come into the room.
“Glad to see you’re both alive,” he said giving them a ghostly smile.
“Communications have just come back on line. Pops got the reactors back on line but there is a problem with #2, Bob is checking the missiles, I haven’t heard back from him yet. We have many casualties from all points on the ship,” AJ quickly explained.
“The hull has been breached in the forward torpedo room and there is sweating along the bulkheads on D, E and F decks. We need to find Mr. Brooks; he’s the only one who knows how this ship was constructed. We have to find out if that metal they used on the hull was used throughout the ship, especially on the inner hull,” Sam explained.
“Well your guess is as good as mine Captain. Pops told me Brooks is dead,” AJ said solemnly. “Sickbay is pretty full too, they’re running out of room. I’ve ordered the spill over to the mess hall.”
“Good, now let’s get this ship back in order,” Sam said moving up to sonar.
“We’ve got bigger problems than that!” Neil said entering the bridge.
Sam shot a glance to AJ then to Neil. “What now?”
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed it or not but some of the crew are acting strange. They’re becoming aggressive or forgetful,” Neil explained.
“We have bigger problems than that right now if you haven’t noticed the ship is falling apart around us and we’re over 17,000 feet down!” AJ explained.
“Look, something is wrong here, I just caught the doctor backhanding a crewman for no reason at all, so yes, I do think that this is important!” Neil snapped angrily at AJ.
“You will forget about this and concentrate on your job…is that understood?” AJ yelled drawing himself closer to Neil.
Neil’s eyes darted back and forth as his rage surged forth. Moments later he slammed himself into AJ knocking him backwards onto the floor. His fist flailed and punched his uncontrolled rage surging forth unchecked. AJ brought his elbow up slamming it into the side of Neil’s head.
“Stop it…stop it both of you!” Jenna yelled.
Sam rushed forward grabbing Neil and hauling him off AJ. AJ bounded to his feet slamming his fist hard into Neil’s abdomen. Neil collapsed in Sam’s arms the wind knocked out of him. Sam let go of him and jumped onto AJ holding him back.
“What’s gotten into you! What!” Sam yelled as he pinned AJ to the floor. “Take deep breaths, get control of yourself….”
AJ breathed deep and slowly began to calm down. Even from where Jenna stood she could see terror in his eyes. Sam relaxed his grip allowing him to roll over. AJ lay there his arm draped over his eyes breathing heavily.
“AJ, are you OK…” Sam asked leaning down over his friend.
“Yeah…I think so, something…something washed over me. It was like I lost total control of who I was,” he said softly. “How’s Neil?”
“He’s fine…just got the wind knocked out of him,” Jenna said leaning over Neil.
“Do…do you…believe me now Commander?” Neil said taking in deep breaths.
“I’m sorry Neil, something came over us,” AJ said getting to his feet.
“Well something is wrong that’s for sure. Jenna could you please go down and assist the doctor, inform him of what we know now about this and have him get right on it. Unless the injuries are life threatening he should concentrate all his effort on finding out what’s wrong with all of us,” Sam said helping Neil to his feet. “AJ, you, Neil and I need to get this ship functional again. We need to get off the bottom,” Sam ordered.
Jenna left the bridge, she hadn’t told them but watching AJ and Neil fight excited her…excited her beyond belief. Never before had violence affected her the way it did now. Something was changing in her too, something she couldn’t put her finger on.
“AJ get down to engineering and see if you can help Pops get the air handling system back on line, we need to be able to breath. The air in here is becoming stagnant. Neil, help me get the main computer working, we need to get Ginny back so she can find out what’s above us,” Sam said moving to the main computer console.
 
Hours wore on, AJ and Pops worked feverishly on the air handling system. Most of the main circuits were destroyed and needed to be replaced. The air had become hot even though the water outside the hull was freezing. Pops had explained to AJ the problem with the reactor. AJ had agreed with Pops actions, there was no other way to contain the reactor. As it was if the pumps failed then within a short while the reactor would go critical destroying them all.
Sam and Neil had taken the whole computer console apart finding one damaged circuit board after another. Neil had brought a box load of them from storage and they began the feverish task of placing them all back in the right sequence. When they were done they put power to the unit only to have it short out again.
“Find Lomkin, he’s the only one who can fix this thing. We could spend days here chasing our tails,” Sam said leaning back against the console.
Neil nodded and headed sluggishly off the bridge. Sam with much effort went to his command chair. Grabbing the mike he tried to reach engineering.
“Engineering here,” AJ spoke.
“Status?” Sam said swallowing hard.
“We’re still…working…on it Captain, it will still be a short while longer,” AJ explained.
“Posthaste Commander…. Posthaste…” Sam said then hung up. Swallowing hard he again opened a channel to the rest of the ship. “This is the Captain, all none essential personnel report to your quarters, we need to conserve air. The less everyone moves around the better. We will have the air system on line shortly, Captain out,” he said then let the mike fall from his hand.
“I got him,” Neil said entering the room pushing Lomkin ahead of him. “He didn’t want to come…but I made him,” Neil smiled shaking his fist.
Sam looked at Lomkin; it was clearly apparent that Neil had roughed him up. He had dark bruises on his cheek and jaw and a trickle of blood leaked out from the corner of his mouth.
“Mr. Lomkin, the main computer is off line, we tried to replace many of the circuit boards that were burned out but for some reason we had no success in getting it going again.
“Why should I help you? You beat me then expect me to turn around and help you?” Lomkin said with a hint of anger.
Neil brought his hand up smacking him in the back of the head. “You’ll do what the Captain wants if you know what’s good for you,” Neil said threateningly.
“Mr. Sumner, that will be enough is that understood?” Sam said with authority.
“Yeah…yeah,” Neil said then turned and walked away.
Sam could clearly see whatever was affecting his crew was also causing the chain of authority to break down. Soon he worried he wouldn’t be able to control anyone…let alone himself.