SEASON SIX

EPISODE 9: NOW I LAY ME DOWN TO SLEEP
PART ONE

By: X_C

 SPACE: THE FINAL FRONTIER. THESE ARE THE VOYAGES OF THE WWF TITANPRIZE. IT'S MISSION: TO EXPLORE AND ENTERTAIN NEW SOCIETIES AND NEW CIVILIZATIONS.  TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO WRESTLER HAS GONE BEFORE!

TITANPRIZE CREW:

Captain Vincent K. McMahon
First Officer, Commander Shane McMahon
Chief Engineer, Commander Stephanie McMahon
Chief of Chiefs, Commander Linda McMahon
Chief of Security, Commander Kane
Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Taker
Diagnostics Officer, Lieutenant Commander Jericho
Tactical Officer, Lieutenant Commander Austin
Transporter Chief, Lieutenant Commander Debra McMichael
Communications Officer, Lieutenant Rock
Counselor Al Snow (assisted by H.E.A.D.)

... And many more!

WWF TITANPRIZE-CAPTAIN'S READY ROOM

    "Captain's Log, Stardate 071100.00. Good news! Kimberly has had such a positive effect on the crew's spirits that I'm seriously considering making her our new Morale Officer. Lord knows the Engineering staff could use some motivating - Jeff Hardy has been demoted, Shane is double-shifting ensigns to compensate for injured crew, and my little angel Stephie..."

    Vince sighed, looking at the Engineering reports.

    "Commander McMahon-Helmsley's and Lt Commander Jericho's work has been average and sufficient. I know Chris is...exploring certain human activities with Kim, but I am at a loss to explain their less than dazzling performance. Counselor Snow suggested that the legendary bickering they used to engage in was what fueled their creative fires, but then again, Al is a complete idiot."

    "Captain Jackhammer! Your role know it, your ass bring it! Some piece of WCW monkey crap is jobbing our sensors!"

    "Jamming, you mean?" McMahon was startled.

    "It's WCW debris, jabroni. The Rock damn well means jobbing."

    "On my way." Vince silenced the comm, fuming quietly. Lt Rock was really pushing his golden boy status a little too far, and the Captain's gratitude to the People's Lieutenant for rescuing his daughter on Copeland-9 was wearing thin. Of course, Rocky saving Stephanie had apparently botched some rogue intelligence operation that Shane and Benoit had been conducting; risky attempts on the part of Wrestlefleet to expose Nytron terrorists operating in Federation space.

    Something bothered McMahon about that story of Shane's, something gnawed at his gut that he couldn't explain. Maybe it was just paternal instincts, worrying about his only son playing master spy. Maybe it was the fact that Kimberly had provided them with concrete evidence that the Nytron had given up their worthless war against Wrestlefleet.

    "Sometime today you silly bastard."

    "I said I was on my way, Austin!" McMahon snapped, thundering out of the ready room.

SHUTTLEBAY 8A

    "It's Kimberly."

    She was whispering, crouched down behind several empty cargo barrels. The maps she'd accessed from Jericho's computer had proven invaluable, helping her locate this abandoned shuttlebay-turned-cold storage area.

    "Where the hell are you?"

    She smiled prettily into the compact Nytron vidphone. "The TitanPrize is in the Tai'Lor Cloud and have located the WCW wreckage, just like you said."

    Now Russo smiled too. "I love those Wrestlefleet idiots. Always on their freaking missions of mercy."

    "Are they really all... dead, sir?" Kimberly shuddered at the few details she remembered about this first strike.

    "Sacrifices have to be made." He shrugged the young lives of an unsuspecting crew off. "If anyone understands that, it's Vinnie Mac. You think I'm a monster? He'd make the Grim Reaper flinch with what he does to his own people."

    "He's sent an away team."

    Russo laughed. It sounded ghoulish, wicked. "Beautiful Kimmie, just beautiful!"

TAI'LOR CLOUD-UNKNOWN WCW SHIP

    Five blue beams of light flared in the darkness of a hollowed out transporter room as the Titanprize away team materialized with gravity packs strapped to the arms of their bio-suits. Stephanie had brought Ensign Lita with her, knowing instinctively she could trust the Aerialian with her life. Ensign Angle was along because you could always use a disposable crew member to shove in front of an errant plasma beam or other dangerous phenomena.

    Commander Kane and Dr. Taker flanked the younger three like giant pillars. Since the WCW wreckage was adrift and lacking any viable life signs, their presence was easily explained.

    "Hell." Kane was a man of few words, but the ones he chose had impact.

    It was hell. The scent of charred wires and fire-eaten fabric stung their nostrils, the obvious sickly-sweet aura of mortal souls passed on clouding their lungs. Phaser fire had chewed at the knock-off titanium walls like acid, the once shiny surfaces slashed through with deep black battle scars that defied logic.

    "This is weird." Lita murmured, consulting her tri-corder as a thin wisp of gray smoke floated past her eyes. "It's like a war just happened, but ship's sensors indicate this scrap heap has been in the cloud several months."

    "How did that man die?" Stephanie jerked her head towards an officer slumped over the transporter console, his hair matted with blood.

    Dr. Taker's examination took only a minute. "Neck is broken. Ship must've lurched violently enough towards the end to slam his head into the computer." There was a lethal phaser wound to the man's back, but Taker felt a strong urge not to mention that right now.

    "Survivors?" Stephanie asked briskly.

    "There ain't no damn survivors!" the Chief Medical Officer growled. "I didn't get no bogus readings from Sickbay. This bucket of bolts ain't nothing but twenty-five decks of carnage from bridge to deflectors."

    "Oh man." Lita sighed as she fiddled with the fluctuating transporter controls. "Some stupid nitwits tried the most desperate trick in the book-hiding themselves in the buffers. Their molecules are too degraded to bring them back."

    "Forget them." Commander McMahon-Helmsley tossed her hair. "Commander Kane, try and get the ship's computers up and running. Upload any data to the Titanprize.  Doctor, examine all the bodies in detail but don't make plans to move them. They should be more far gone than this and I want them studied in their final resting place. Lita, you're with me in Engineering."

    Lita gazed at her commander admiringly. Stephanie could be a fine officer when she wasn't being a bi-

    "You're with me, boy." Taker tossed his heavy medkit at Angle.

    "Uhhh..." Kurt frowned. "I am a Communications ensign, sir. A diplomat of the highest integrity. I do not poke and prod corpses." He wrinkled up his perfect, All-American nose.

    "The hell you don't." Dr. Taker laughed. "If I tell you you're gonna take one home and use it as a punching bag, you'll do it. I have the higher rank. I own you."

    Angle followed the big man reluctantly. Doc looked more like a corpse than some of these...peasants. "I want you to know this is a huuuuge insult. Did you know I'm descended from American royalty?"

    "You're descended from two people who had too much alcohol and too little common sense one night, boy." Dr. Taker spat. "Now, you wanna haul that skinny ass to the bridge or you wanna ride there on the end of my boot?"

    Kurt chose the hauling option.

UNKNOWN WCW SHIP-ENGINEERING

    "What is this thing?" Stephanie said in exasperation as she and Lita circled the warp core, which on WCW ships was a level below the Engineering computers. "Where did this vessel come from? It's got no identifying marks or specific signature. All it has is shipwide systems failures and lots of dead people."

    The floor around the warp core was littered with bodies, most sporting the telltale signs of disruptor and phaser fire. Others had the symptoms of a brutal beating.

    "Warp core is functioning on miminal energy." Lita reported, shuddering as she caught glimpses of white smoke curling up from the dead like ghosts trying to escape. Sometimes lights would blink randomly on and off, making the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Even though the specially designed bio-suits were supposed to regulate temperature, surely even Commander Kane could feel the chill.

    "Ugh." Stephanie frowned at her tri-corder. "If I had to call this anything, I'd say the core was...stalled."

    "Sounds good to me." Lita was staring into the warp core. It was almost hypnotic, the supernatural baby blue glow, the ocean of plasma surging in waves through the sapphire-shaped energy converter at the heart...

    "Lita!" Stephanie was screaming in her ear.

    "Commander-" Lita swallowed hard. Steph was pulling her back from the edge of the balcony that wrapped around the core. A mere breath distanced her from a plunge into the poison sea of plasma. "Oh my god."

    "What were you doing?"

    "I-I don't know." Lita realized she was sweating inside her suit, and it was icy moisture that clung to her face. "I wasn't paying attention I guess. I'm sorry."

    "Just be careful, okay?" Stephanie was giving her a strange look.

    "Commander." Dr. Taker's grave voice shattered the awkward silence, making both girls jump. "The bridge is a bloody mess, literally. Either this ship experienced the mutiny from hell, or there was an attack by an enemy long gone without a trace."

    Stephanie pouted. Daddy was not going to like this!

WWF TITANPRIZE-THE BRIDGE

    Captain McMahon paced the length of the bridge, agitated by his away team's report. He didn't care that much about the dead crew; they weren't his crew! But what if there was an enemy out there, a demonic force that could tear an entire ship to shreds and not leave a single clue about itself?

    Wrestlefleet couldn't have that. And Vince wasn't about to leave his ship a sitting duck. They could run scans from outside the Tai'Lor Cloud.

    "Ensign Christian, Warp 7 out of the Tai'Lor Cloud. Engage."

    "We're still in the same damn place we were before!" Austin exclaimed. "Move this ship pretty boy, before I stomp a damn mudhole in ya!"

    "Dude-totally lay off me!" Christian tossed his silky mane. "I'll get a heinous zit if I start sweating! The thrusters won't respond and helm control is offline. This is the pinnacle of sucktitude!"

    "Engineering!" McMahon barked. "What the hell is going on! We're not flying!"

    "The warp core has powered down." Lt Commander Jericho stated flatly. "I'm detecting an intense blanket of gravity surrounding the Titanprize. We're stuck for now, Cap."

    "There was no monkey crap gravity before!" Lt Rock snapped.

    "Things change Crocky." Jericho's familiar sneer rang out. "Unlike your dazzling array of catchphrases!"

    "Fix it Jericho! I want my daughter with you, and you two damn well better keep in mind this is bigger than your petty squabbles!" Captain McMahon was roaring like a lion and just didn't care.

    The visuals of the bloodbath on that other bridge told him this wasn't any place for the Titanprize....

THE SMACKDOWN

    "Just kill me now." Ensign Matt Hardy melted into a chair between his brother and Eddie Guerrero, barely nodding at the two girls who sat beside them. "I promise I won't be upset."

    "Man, you look awful." Jeff frowned. "I mean, worse than usual." It looked like someone had taken heavy black chalk and smeared circles under Matt's eyes. Or maybe it was just that the signs of fatigue stood out on his pale, drawn face.

    "I have like three hours to relax before my third straight shift in Engineering." Matt yawned. "I swear, Shane is trying to murder me with work."

    You have no idea... Jeff pushed his drink away. "Maybe you should take a nap or something."

    "Who can sleep?" his big brother groaned. "All these stupid reports he wants me to do, and with the ship stuck...." Matt laid his head on the table.  "I have to just sit there and monitor flux in gravity surrounding the Titanprize when I get back."

    "Tell Shane to kiss your ass." Lita always had the most refreshing advice. "Trust me, he won't push you."

    "Don't listen to her!" Jeff said quickly. "It'll ease up when Ensign Too Hottie and Ensign Sexay recover from their dancing injuries."

    "Yeah and how in the hell does that help me now?" Matt snapped. "Hey, I'm sorry I even sat down here. Looks like a couple's only table!"

    "Ey man, chill out!" Eddie shook his head. "This ain't the love connection or anything and you know we're all tight here. Come on - I'll order you a nice Houdinian coffee. You'll be bouncing off the walls in no time!"

    "Yeah stay Matt." Chyna felt a twinge of sympathy. When you were in love, you sometimes forgot what it meant to be lonely. "We got a fresh batch of Jericho jokes and everything."

    "Can't." Matt noticed Stephanie sitting at the bar, waving at him. "Duty calls."

    "I hear you're good with computers and other sophisticated gadgets." Stephanie said casually, wrapping her lips around the straw in her strawberry malt.

    "Not really." Matt lied, gratefully accepting a free black coffee. He wondered what Commander McMahon-Helmsley was trying to buy. "I mean I'm alright for an ensign."

    "Cut the crap, Hardly." Stephanie rolled her eyes. "Lita told me everything. I need you to instruct me."

    Lita had the biggest mouth in the universe apparently, and if the Chief Engineer wanted hacking advice, this probably wasn't going to be good. "With what?"

    Stephanie leaned over, whispered to him.

    "Commander!"

    "Grow up Matty!" Stephanie sneered. "It's just a joke for pete's sake!"

    "I don't think the victim will be all that amused." Matt sighed and sipped at his coffee, waiting for the caffeine rush. Even his naturally high levels of Aerialian adrenaline were tapped dry. "I could spend a year in the brig for telling you how to do that!"

    "I guess you're just a sissy like your little brother." Stephanie taunted him. "Taking a demotion to ensign cause he's too gutless to fight for himself."

    "Not gonna work."

    "I am ordering you, Ensign Hardy!"

    "Aye sir." What were these McMahons trying to do to him?

ENGINEERING

    "Ensign got your tongue, Slutephanie?"

    "Your positronic net is running at 100% efficiency." Commander McMahon-Helmsley said flatly, watching the monitors behind the Y2J Unit. She wasn't going to think of him as Chris anymore, or even Lt Commander Jericho. Only something totally inhuman could crawl into bed with trash like Kimberly.  "No minor anomalies noted."

    Jericho frowned. Last year's diagnostic had been a lot more fun and exciting. Stephanie had switched on every single pain cell in his gorgeous body, planting one of the first seeds of hate between them.

    But not hate like this. This was cold, frigid apathy.

    She kneeled in front of him, shining a tri-corder into his eyes. Her own wore the expression of a clinical scientist studying a fusion reactor.  Once upon a time, her eyes had burned like a nuclear explosion anytime he was in the room.

    "I feel so terrible for Kimmie." Jericho's voice dripped with compassion. "Sure she was a Nytron and everything, but she knew some of the officers on that ship. Poor thing cried in my arms all morning."

    I'll give that slut a reason to cry. Stephanie felt her hand shake for a split second. Why did his eyes have to be manufactured this way, so blazing blue they would put the most powerful supernova to shame? Her stomach fluttered like a thousand butterflies had taken off inside her....

    She flinched as the Y2J Unit gently steadied her trembling fingers. "Don't touch me. Don't you ever touch me."

    "I'm trying to spare my eyesight sweetie." Chris said dryly. "You were about to gouge one of my magnificent blue orbs out and I need them both to appreciate how beautiful Kimberly is."

    "You have fine taste in gutter trash, Lt Commander Jericho."

    "That's high praise coming from actual gutter trash."

    "I've been meaning to ask you something." Stephanie had risen, moved behind him. He waited to feel a dagger in his synthetic spine. "I figured as an android you might have an objective opinion. If Hunter and I were to have a child, what should we name it?"

    It was more like a dagger in his computerized heart. Funny, Stephanie had reported that all his pain receptors were operating normally, and he wasn't subject to quirky human aches and pains. Commander McMahon-Helmsley obviously hadn't read his nervous system right....

    "My first suggestion would be the unluckiest child in the universe." Jericho replied. "But if it looks like Trip, go with Pinocchio."

    "Hunter's a nice name." Stephanie felt his neck tense as she traced her finger along his skin, looking for the carefully hidden hatch...."And hey, after last night, who knows? I wonder how Shane would like to be an uncle."

    "Who knows?" Jericho grabbed her wrist, pulled her hand away from the nape of his neck. "You'll spend the first six month of the kid's life trying to figure out who his father is. I don't think you're getting everything quite right here, sugar muffin! Ensign Hardy can finish."

    "Whatever your heart desires, Lt Commander Jericho." Stephanie rubbed her wrist, which had been almost crushed by his android strength. Such passion... passionate hatred for her husband that is. The other kind was reserved for that Nytron slime...

SHUTTLECRAFT JAKKED-TAI'LOR CLOUD

    Oh please, please make them shut up! Ensign Jeff Hardy was almost crushing the helm controls to a fine powder. The mission sucked enough wind as it was: returning to the WCW wreckage to confiscate the weapons for Commander Kane to study.  Being partnered with Edge and Christian had been the final blow to whatever dignity Shane had left him.

    "Dude you tell him!"

    "No way brother." Edge whispered back. "He so totally listens to you."

    "Tell me what?" Jeff asked with a sigh.

    "Well, sir-" Christian began.

    "Whoa-back that train up." Edge exclaimed. "You so totally don't have to call him sir anymore! He's not the boss of us! He got the big D."

    "Radical!" Christian grinned. "But wait-now we can't call him the big L anymore."

    Did that beaver-toothed boytoy just call him a loser? "You morons got something to say to me?"

    "Well... I mean like, don't have a major cow or anything, but like, your hair is three colors that so totally clash with our autumn toned skin and what if Galaxy Beat takes kick ass pictures of our Tai'Lor heroics! You'll ruin our whole GQ aura!"

    "Deal with it."

    "Uhh  you're being a lame-o, Jeffrey!" Edge adjusted his expensive sunglasses so they radiated the right amount of dark, sexy cool. "I mean, first wash that rat's nest and then we'll give you some of our top secret beauty tips."

    "Don't push me Edge."

    "Man, you've got a major stick up there, fellow ensign!" Christian frowned at him. "Seriously, if you wanna be the totally in thing, get a new manicurist. Those skanky fingernails have got to go before you start buying the matching skirts!"

    Jeff flew out of his pilot's chair, releasing the helm control and pinning Christian to the cold,  metal floor with his knee. He had his phaser drawn and halfway down the blonde ensign's throat in the blink of an eye.

    "Twitch you piece of garbage!" Jeff pressed his knee against the Kanatian's neck, watched his face turn red. "Do it! I would love to feed you so much plasma it comes out your perfect little ears!"

    "Chill out dude!" Edge grabbed Ensign Hardy by the hair and pulled him off his brother. "What are you, a total psycho?"

    "Oh my god." Jeff crawled back into his seat, the pent up rage draining out and leaving him almost too fatigued to pilot.  "I don't know what that was. I'm so sorry Ensign Christian."

    Christian sat up and whipped out his handheld mirror. "I think the hair can be salvaged."

    "Thank-god." Edge let out a massive sigh of relief.

    "But you will pay for this!" Christian declared.

    "I said I was sorry alright?" Ensign Hardy didn't want to deal with another report against him. It was all just wearing him down... "I'm just stressed. I wasn't going to shoot you or anything."

    "Like I care about that!" Christian wailed. "I was talking about dental bills! You chipped my shiniest tooth!"

    Jeff suddenly had the urge to weep.

WWF TITANPRIZE-COMMANDER MCMAHON-HELMSLEY'S QUARTERS

    Hunter was restless, the thoughts that obsessively spiraled around his head driving off the sweet escape of sleep. Jericho...

    He tossed and turned beneath the cool silk sheets. Jericho had kissed his wife, put his disgusting robot lips on her. She hadn't wanted it, she couldn't have wanted it. The over-hyped human calculator had shattered his beautiful mutiny too, held a higher rank than him depsite Helmsley's amazing skills and talents. And now the Y2J toy soldier was in the throes of romantic rapture thanks to that Nytron defector, Kimberly. Yeah, she was a sweet piece of eye candy but still....

    Jericho was a lot of things-a sexual predator who'd made the mistake of preying on his wife, a phony who'd gotten ahead because he'd been pre-programmed to, not cause he'd suffered and fought for his rank, and now? Now he was a... traitor!

    Hunter was a rebel and he knew people like him never changed, no matter how much the system rewarded them. Nytron were no different really, even though they fought for a man some considered the devil himself. Once the criminal way was in your blood, you didn't get cured. Even someone as innocent and angelic as Kimberly posed a threat....

    "I can't take this!" Stephanie sat up and rubbed her eyes, wondering if she'd actually slept a wink. She just wanted to get the heck out of this cloud, away from that morbid WCW ship so she could relax. "All I do is think about my job! Why can't I move this damn Titanprize?"

    "Why can't that piece of crap robot?" Hunter spat out. "He's supposed to be the freaking genius!"

    "Please... no Jericho."

    "What the hell did he do now?" he demanded. He was just looking for a reason....any reason....

    "I don't wanna talk about it." Stephanie turned her head, hoping Hunter didn't see how wet her eyes were. "I don't want to think about it!"

    "Fine!" Hunter flung his sheets off the bed. "I'll go beat it out of Jericho's ass then!"

    "Wait!" Stephanie grabbed his muscular arm. "Don't go...just promise you won't, you won't go break him up into tiny pieces or anything?" She looked up at him with imploring eyes.

    "I can promise that." That was nothing compared to what Helmlsey would do. It almost made him sick...the level of violence he imagined in his Jericho fantasies.

    "It was my birthday..." Stephanie hugged herself. "You had to work on the bridge and I was lonely so I...I let him in. It's all my fault, I should've known not to let Chris in!"

    "He was in here?" Hunter's blood was starting to boil, it felt like hot lava burning in his veins. "In our room?"

    Stephanie nodded. "He brought me the most beautiful gift too... I guess that fooled me. He used it just so he could... he could....kiss me again. Put those hands on me, all over me..." Tears started to spill from her eyes, she shuddered like she could still feel the whole horrible thing....

    "I made him go away before anything.... sick happened but-Hunter?"

    She was alone in the room. She smiled.

    I can sink just as low, Chrissie...

THE SMACKDOWN

    "I think this evening could benefit from a few of my nursery rhymes." Ensign Angle declared. "And that IS true."

    "I'm starting to wish this was closed mic night." Lita made a face as Scottie and Brian pranced their way onto the stage, the lights starting to flash gaudy shades of purple, blue, and gold, that tacky Earth pop music blaring over the comm.

    "I hate to say this, but we could all use the diversion." Matt felt his stomach turn as Ensign Sexay lowered his goggles. He really really hated to say this. "Being stuck in this mutant cloud is killing everyone."

    Lita couldn't take her eyes off the two fools or their lack of any apparent rhythm-it was like a bad shuttle accident: you didn't want to stare, but it was so grotesque it pulled at some part of your brain.

    And then she screamed. She was screaming bloody murder.

    "Lita?" Ensign Matt reached for her.

    She fell over a chair trying to avoid his touch, like he had some sort of horrific disease. Everyone in the Smackdown stared wide-eyed as the red-headed Aerialian spitfire moved like lightning, crying out as if hell itself was on her heels...

    "Their dancing is pretty bad." Jeff didn't dare to touch her; she seemed so fragile and frightened.

    Lita was sitting outside the double doors of the Smackdown, the effort of running costing her too much energy to move anymore. Her eyes were hidden behind a curtain of flame-colored hair.

    "I'm sorry Jeff."

    "It's alright." He thought for a minute. "What happened in there?"

    She shook her head. "I don't know." The sobs started again, this time in earnest.

    "Yes you do. You can tell me."

    Lita wiped her eyes and looked up at her boyfriend, the tears starting to flow again as he recoiled. "I see the most awful things."

    Jeff felt woozy. He'd never seen eyes like that-hollow and bloodshot and more haunted than the ones you saw on ghosts in horror movies. He took another step back. She looked possessed by something he wanted no part of.

    "You see it too?"

    "Are you hallucinating, you mean?" He tried to stay calm. "Seeing things that aren't real?"

    "I don't know." She was crying so hard it almost shook the floor beneath her.

    "Okay-we'll just get you to Dr. Taker." Jeff took a deep breath. That was logical, practical. "You're probably just overtired. We all are."

    Lita nodded and hesitantly held out her hand like a shy child.

    Jeff took it. Her other hand held a phaser, which she fired into his chest before fleeing the hallway.

SICKBAY

    "She's having a psychotic episode." Dr. Taker shook his head at the tortured young woman who thrashed  beneath a containment field, both for her own safety and the safety of the crew. "I can't sedate her. It doesn't work."

    "Lita's crazy?" Matt couldn't look at the bio-bed; he only tried to focus on what the dead man was saying.

    "I don't think she is. There's nothing abnormal in her brain chemistry, but she is clearly split from reality right now."

    "Anything else physical?" Chyna asked hopefully, all thoughts of Jericho and Kimberly banished as she watched her friend struggle. But there was one part of her mind that nagged at her....it was a WCW ship....but that didn't mean anything really, did it?

    "No." Dr. Taker smiled grimly, but he obviously wasn't amused. "It could be emotional, but all Snow can get is incoherent stuff about "seeing things"

    "Stephanie said she almost jumped into the warp core over on that other ship." Matt told him. "Lita isn't suicidal."

    "She might if she wakes up and realizes what she's done." Chyna nodded over to another bio-bed, where Jeff was lying unconscious, his heart beating erratically after being blasted by high energy phaser fire. Lita had rigged her own weapon to emit a deadly charge sometime before pulling it on her own boyfriend.

    "My brother?" Matt asked quietly.

    "It's physical, so I can understand that." Dr. Taker was infuriatingly lacking in emotion. He'd seen the Hardy brothers in Sickbay more times than he could count, due to their genetic need to take risks with their own bodies, but he didn't know if the younger one was leaving here this time.

    That wasn't an answer, Matt thought.

    "Ensign Hardy?" Shane's smug voice crackled over the comm. "You're to bring Chyna and meet Ensign Guerrero and Nurse Saturn in Transporter Room 3. We need more from that ship. You'll be recovering bodies."

    Matt's mouth fell open. "My brother-"

    "Your brother living or dying is not my primary concern!" Commander McMahon barked. "Getting this ship out of danger is! Move it!"

    "Aye sir."

    "Dr. Taker, sir!" Crash's panicked voice replaced Shane's. "Emergency Transport from Science and Research! Medical Emergency!"

    "What is it, boy?"

    "Lt Rock found out that Mr. Benoit had reported him for messing up a Wrestlefleet intelligence operation. He came to lay the smack down on Benoit's candy a-butt, and....." Crash stopped to catch his breath. "Mr. Benoit threw Rock into a mess of live wires and he hasn't woken up!"

    Taker nodded at Nurse Bearer to initiate the transport. He wondered if this was how the end began for the cursed ship floating next to them....