Along the Way
by Rob Morris

"Sharing Horizons That Are New To Us -- Watching The Signs Along The Way"
The Carpenters, 'We've Only Just Begun'

Prologue - Adopted Homes

ANOTHER UNIVERSE, CIRCA 1986

THE PLANET LATER TO BE KNOWN AS ALPHA CENTAURI FOUR

The two were away. The last two. The only two. He wished two siblings could have been sent, so to spread their genes further, even allowing for dilution. But those two were all that were left, and surely they would turn to each other. The great beast had not noticed them.

*How stupid*, thought the lead scientist. *How much hubris did we all possess, to try and open a gateway to a dying universe?* What had they hoped to do? The creature had been driven back to the poor cosmos it called home. But the cost had been their entire civilization, and all but two of its children. With his dying breaths, he deleted any and all images of the three-skulled monstrosity with the chromatic scales and wings. He cared not a whit for what the people in the other cosmos called it, because unless someone extraordinary arose to stop it, that universe was not just dying, it was dead.

"The children..."

SAME UNIVERSE, EARTH, 1987

NASA TECHNOLOGY TESTING CENTER, FLORIDA

Doctor Maureen Robinson stared again at a picture of a woman she had trained to become an astronaut. A woman who had also become a dear friend. Her name had been Christa McAuliffe.

In her mind's eye, she again saw Space Shuttle Challenger going up, and up--and
then turning back abruptly. At least she and John knew that it wasn't the O-Rings. They'd checked all that. No, it was a cosmic level event of some kind that spiked background radiation all over that portion of the galaxy. But in the eyes of most, NASA had failed to get a Shuttle up, and seven people died a perhaps horrible death as a result. Most were content to make crude jokes, or speak of how NASA scientists 'Broke Faith' with the American people. She quietly had sworn to break the jaw of the next person who used that particular phrase on her. Raised as they were, she and John couldn't break faith if they tried.

When John failed to return with Judy on time, she picked up a Playbill, which celebrated Broadway's newest Annie, 7-year old Judith Robinson. The Big Stage was a wonderful place, and her little girl was a star in it. But Maureen knew that the protection she was given would eventually slip, and the drugs and alcohol and casual attitudes about everything would strongly tempt her little girl. But she sang so well, and was so happy doing it, that the couple nearly forgot the sting that accompanied her birth. The proud, brilliant, and deeply religious Robinsons would never have another child. Their work around radiation had assured that, despite massive precautions.

But life has its wonders, especially for those who sought to embrace the cosmos. Because certain parts of the cosmos needed more embracing than others. John burst in, a delighted Judy in tow.

"Maureen--get packed! We have a confirmed touchdown of a non-native technology, somewhere near Stallion's Gate, New Mexico. It's under Admiral Calavicci's jurisdiction, so we won't be bothered by the usual crew. Al threatened to shoot Steele between the legs, if he sees so much as one cigarette on the grounds. This--may be it. Heat sigs say life signs!"

Judy was jumping for joy, partly because this side of her life was usually so dull and restrictive on the surface.

"It's a UFO with aliens!!!"

STALLION'S GATE, NEW MEXICO

With hellos said to the top-secret crew and tweaking performed on a nascent supercomputer that Judy suggested naming after a comic strip, The Robinsons proceeded to the crash site. With rad levels nearly nil, they approached it gingerly. John and Maureen brought Judy along for two reasons. One was that they spent so little time together, of late. The other was the girl's inheritance of her parents' brilliant scientific minds. She had never needed a tutor, whizzing past grades right up to Junior High.

"Wow, Daddy--it's really saucer-shaped. They must really be advanced, cause saucer-shapes only work in old movies."

John smiled at the analogy.

"That's very astute, honey."

"Thanks. The lady who plays Audrey in 'Little Shop Of Horrors' showed me all them, last Halloween. That weird Mister Allen was there,
too. He's always so nervous."

"Uhhh---yeah."

Maureen deciphered what appeared to be a landing emergency jettison.

"Here goes---nothing!"

The pod/saucer opened. And a little visitor did indeed come out. But not a little green man. Instead, it was a small human child, a brunette girl with longish hair of 3 or perhaps 4 years. She had been crying, and she was holding a small bundle, a human male infant. It was holding her, and she was holding it, each for dear life.

"Clelhdyhhjuwskh779q900-?"

Her speech was just coherent enough to show that her seeming gibberish was in fact another language--from another world, as the tech also attested. Gently, Maureen walked up, and squatted beside the frightened girl.

"You're very pretty. But you must be scared. Is that your baby brother? He looks very nice. Can I hold him, to see if he's alright?"

The girl almost seemed to acquiesce, but then pulled herself and the baby boy back. John tried now.

"We really don't want to hurt either of you. We want to help you. Babies need more help than big girls like you do."

Tone seemed to be accomplishing what language could not. But if they started to gain her trust, it was not deep enough to make her relinquish her grip on her little companion. She had been told, before the three-head killed everyone, that she was to take care of the baby always. In a way, she always would.

Then, Judy remembered a cast trip to a children's hospital. Some of the girls had been older than her, but all girls and boys had been enthralled by what she was able to do with her voice. Actually sitting her chair by the younger child, she nodded to her parents as she began.

"Maybe Far Away--And Maybe Real Nearby--She May Be Fetching Him Coffee--He May Be Straightening His Tie;"

The space-child began to cry, and so did the baby. John came to a startling conclusion.

"Judy--that's a sad song, because Annie's parents were gone, and we know it. So do they--understand?"

Judy understood, and changed to a far more upbeat--and well-known--song.

The one that all Annies knew by heart.

"The Sun'll Come Out--Tomorrow--Bet Your Bottom Dollar That Tomorrow-
-There'll Be Sun; Just Thinking About Tomorrow; Clears Away The Cobwebs And The Sorrow--Till There's None--"

The littler girl then shocked them all.

"Tomorrow--Tomorrow--I Love You, Tomorrow, You're Always A Day Away."

The baby was still crying, but this time the girl handed him over to a stunned Maureen.

"Mommy--is he going to be all right?"

The infant male was ill, but recovered quickly, to the delight of his fierce protector, who now no longer remembered not being a part of the family that found and now loved them. A simple defense mechanism against ultimate tragedy.

"Mommy, does the new baby have a name, yet?"

Thorough and fervent in her desire to forget, the girl now 'remembered' being told of her mother's pregnancy. Judy was happy to be an older sister, and was also asked to keep her silence. Maureen answered the cosmic foundling's question.

"Well, Penny--we thought we'd name him William."

That night, John and Maureen looked over the recovered pod.

"John--I'd swear this technology, however advanced it may seem, was developed by people not very different from ourselves. Humans, even."

"You're right, darling. It's like skipping to the end of a science history, only to find there are lots of extra pages to be read. You know what this means, don't you?"

"It means--that those yahoos in Congress can cut our R+D budget down to the nub. Because now--we can produce the first colonial spaceship in the history of our civilization."

Maureen then turned deadly somber.

"John--we all love those two, and we are all they know, here. Will we be permitted to keep them?"

Doctor John Robinson nodded.

"Thanks to the efforts of a certain MIT classmate of mine named Beckett, Penny and Will Robinson are already being registered as our birth-children, retroactively. I am going to show those two all my love--and how to fish, when they're old enough."

Not only did the two new Robinsons stay with the family they thought certain was always theirs, but they showed the same intelligence as the others, if not greater.

By hook or by crook, the Jupiter 2 was built over the next nine years. Its goal was to colonize the planets surrounding Earth's closest neighbor--Alpha Centauri. The space-children Robinson were headed for home. Or were they?

MAIN UNIVERSE, DELTA QUADRANT

Captain Janeway stared at the rift.

"Tom, are you certain that space corresponds to another Delta Quadrant? If it is another universe, those stars could be from any section of our galaxy."

Paris nodded.

"All taken into account, Ma'am. I ran about seventeen different checks, and everything says that's someone else's DQ."

Janeway was both pleased with Tom's thoroughness and intrigued by another notion.

"Alright then. Harry--scan for another Voyager. It's been a while since we said hello to ourselves."

The smile on her face was becoming rare, so all on The Bridge were grateful to see it. Tom saw the sign she wanted, but not how she wanted it.

"Okay--I think we have another voyager, but small-v. That isn't an us. What--is it?"

Janeway turned to Tactical.

"Tuvok, can you get a better reading?"

"I believe so, Captain. Mister Paris is correct; This ship is no alternate of ours. Nor is it any Starfleet or other known technology. It is fully comprehensible, but oddly configured. What you, Mister Paris, would call a retro-fit. A technology much higher than the base that is used to construct from it."

Janeway saw the visitor in the screen-amplified distance. The explorer in her smiled broadly, and she realized that was becoming too rare on her part.

"Move to meet them, full impulse."

Chakotay joined her at the screen, and hated the thought that smile must needs vanish so often.

"You, Captain--are looking forward to this."

She nodded.

"And why not? Chakotay, let's face it. It's not every day you run into an actual flying saucer!"

HOURS EARLIER, THE OTHER UNIVERSE, JUPITER 2, RELATIVE TIME 2002

With a huff, the reluctant stowaway pulled the hydride-batteries out of the nav-computer's balancer mechanism.

"Thooose blasted computers have never gotten us back to dear, sweet Urth! Besides, how am I to abide these insipid power restrictions and properly dry my hair? The idea--telling ME I had used up my allotment. And William and Penny barely said a word in my defense. Hmmph--I fear those dear sweet children are becoming spoiled brats."

He looked at deactivated Robot B-9.

"And its allll yuir fault--Booby!"

The crew of the Jupiter 2 was about to meet the crew of The USS Voyager- -largely thanks to the lack of efforts of Doctor Zachary Smith.