Lucy Tracy smiled as she entered the room, her youngest son snuggled in her arms, still somewhat sleepy having just woken up from his nap. At two, he was probably getting a bit too big for her to carry like that, but she didn't care. He was the last of her babies, and she didn't want to lose that too soon. Her little Allie – the one she and Jeff had never expected to have. The one they nicknamed their "billionaire baby" – conceived on this very Island when they had bought it. After the company Lucy had started, and she and Jeff – along with Val Casey and Lee Taylor – had nurtured and developed to become a multi-billion dollar concern.
And their first big purchase had been this tropical paradise to become their home, and the place where another secret dream could come to fruition.
The other four were around the big table, working on their assigned schoolwork. It had been hard when they moved here a year ago. The jump from formal school to home-schooling – even via the Australian School of the Air – had been a huge change on top of all the others. But now, they had all settled down more or less.
But her heart ached for the day when she knew that they would have to leave for University.
"How are you all going boys?" she asked, putting her melancholy thoughts behind her. "I think let me check what you've been working on and then let's call it a day for school."
"But Momma…."
"No John. You have to have breaks from studying. Even if it is something you like." She walked over and fondly ran her fingers through the red hair he had inherited from her. "Your brain needs to rest and absorb what you've learned to make sure it sticks, sweetie."
She bent down and kissed the top of his head as Alan start to wriggle. "Cott! Sotty!" the little boy called, holding out his hands.
Fourteen year old Scott laughed and reached out, easily transferring the baby from his mother to him. "Hey Allie! Have a good sleep buddy?"
"Cookie time!"
Lucy laughed. "That it is sweetie. Virgil, please be a dear and get the cookies out. John, will you arrange for some milk for you all."
Her three oldest sons - Val and Lee laughingly called them "the first batch" because of how close they were in age – busied themselves in organisisng a snack for the family.
All of her sons, Lucy thought, signified a milestone in her and Jeff's married life. Scott – her wedding baby. Conceived during a hurried goodbye hour before Val had hauled her away for a hens weekend in Hawaii two weeks before her wedding. Lucy had confirmed for herself on her wedding day (via a sneakily procured pregnancy kit) that she was pregnant, and couldn't have been happier.
John – fitting that her space loving child was conceived when she and Jeff had "celebrated" his being accepted into NASA. Scott had been just over two when John was born. It had been hard, because by that time the Global Conflict had started and Jeff and hardly been home.
On the other hand, her own business had boomed but she hated the reason why her designs were needed.
She pulled Virgil's tablet to her and rapidly checked his work. Her Virgil. Two and a half years between him and John. During that pregnancy, a horrible three months when both Jeff and Lee had been missing. Followed by a further two whilst plans were made to rescue them from the far side of the moon where their ship had had to land and been unable to take off.
A time when Lucy and met Colonel Lord Hugh Creighton-Ward (though Val who was working as part of a Special Forces team with him) and come into her own with her design of the propulsion system that would go into the ship to rescue the lunar castaways.
Virgil had arrived late. Placidly taking his own time, almost seeming to wait until his father could be there, and then making his own considered appearance. Solid, placid and (although almost two weeks late) arriving safely and giving nobody any concerns whatsoever.
"Gordon don't even think of it," she said, not even needing to see what her fourth son was doing. Her "Gordon sense" had honed to the point where she could almost feel him thinking about making mischief.
Gordon. Her glorious sunshine boy. Always smiling, a laugh never far from his lips, a twinkle in his eyes. All of his father's charm. Her baby she almost didn't have. She still had nightmares about her fourth pregnancy. Jeff was on his way to Mars with Lee Taylor, and even Val Casey had not been around as she had with the other three.
Well, not until she had arrived on a flying visit and discovered the dire straits Lucy was in. Lucy smiled and she checked Gordon's work. Hopefully his handwriting would improve, but Gordon was so like his father in many ways, she had a horrible feeling it would remain the scrawl it currently was.
Jeff had missed Gordon's birth. It was a bit hard to rush home from Mars. And he didn't know until he returned how close he had been to not having a fourth son. Or a wife.
Her Gordy – four years younger than Virgil. Two months premature, the smallest and most fragile of her babies. Though he had lost the fragility quickly, he was never going to have the height of his brothers or father.
He let his personality make up for it though. "Gordon, you will need to do that sum again. Think carefully about how you add up and try it again. I'm sure John will help you if you need." She smiled lovingly at Gordon. "And I don't think 'eleventy-one' is a number".
Seven year old Gordon pouted. "It should be. Where's daddy? I wanna show daddy."
"Daddy's with Brains in the hangars. He's doing a final check of the TV-21 before the test flight tomorrow. He'll be back soon."
That caught all the boys' attention. "Tomorrow? So soon?" Scott leaned forward and Lucy rescued her baby before he fell out of Scott's arms.
"Not really soon, Scott. She's been built and ready to go for a month or so. But before any shakedown flight, you need to make sure that all the systems are operational, and the safety measures work." She hadn't ever been a test pilot herself, but with a husband and two best friends who were, Lucy always thought that she could have aced the theoretical tests herself if she had sat them.
Besides, it was all part of her own job. She designed these beautiful craft. She knew everything that was needed to get her babies into the air and into operation. To see them soaring in their element, flying free, dancing on the clouds.
The three oldest boys closed around her, asking questions about the TV-21 and the flight tomorrow. She never even saw Gordon slip down from his seat and vanish towards the hangers.
Gordon was standing on the gantry way gazing in adoration at the huge silver rocket shaped craft.
He loved the TV-21. Almost as much as he loved the water and the ocean life around their Island home.
This ship, silver, and the lights glinting off it like the sunlight caught the scales of a fish under water, seemed in his very blood. One day, he was determined, he would fly her.
"What are you doing here, son? Does your mother know?"
A strong hand closed on his shoulder and Gordon looked up into his father's face. Daddy wasn't smiling, but he wasn't angry either.
Gordon looked down. "Ummm… forgot to tell her," he said. "I'm sorry. But I wanted to see." He looked up. "Is she really going to fly tomorrow? Are you going to fly her? How fast will she go? Have you worked out the problem with the…"
"Woah! Hold on there, Gordy! First of all, what have we told you about running off?"
"Not to go anywhere without telling you or Momma first. But Dad….."
"But nothing, Son. Remember that there are places here that are dangerous, so it's for your own safety. I should make you go back and apologise to your mother."
"I'm sorry Dad. I won't do it again."
Jeff had walked to the intercom on the wall and pressed the button. "Lucy, Gordon's down in the hangar with me. We'll be up soon, when he will apologise to you for running off."
Lucy's relief was evident even to Gordon who hung his head even lower. "Thanks Jeff. I only just discovered he'd slipped off when the others were all talking at once." Her voice was raised. "Gordon Tracy, when your father brings you back up, you are to go straight to your room and stay there. I'll come and see you there. Understand?"
Gordon moved to the intercom. "Yes Momma," he said sadly. "I'm sorry. I just couldn't wait to see."
Jeff looked down at him. "Well, I have the final cockpit check to do. Want to come with me?"
Gordon beamed and tucked his hand into his father's broad one. "Yes please. Will you show me how it flies? How it all works?"
Jeff laughed and activated the gantry extension that would take them to the entrance of the ship. As they stepped into the cockpit he reached out and took a hat off the wall and popped it on Gordon's head.
"Come and sit on my lap, Gordon, and we'll go through it all together," he said.