°°° Chart Your Own Course °°°

by Cri86

Chapter four introduces another OC of mine, a child who will play an important role in the future course of the story. This is also the chapter of Pixar homages, from Finding Nemo and Up (no, I haven't seen the movie yet, so it's not a spoilery homage, just a minor character reference). And, meanwhile, the grounded Axiom keeps resurfacing in everyone's thoughts, almost a character itself.
I'm immensely grateful to YAY from the Up Forum for letting me borrow his theory that Russell (from Up) may have been an ancestor of Captain McCrea. Until then I was totally in the dark about what name I'd give to my OC, but when I read it, I knew that he would be called Russell too and become a homage to this film (as well as to Monsters Inc - yes, he's basically Boo as a boy, though that will become more clear in the next chapters.)
The other two named characters (aside for the Captain, of course) are not original creations. Their names are mine, but the faces come from random Axiom passengers that I decided to move around and use in my fanfic.
Jeff - he's the man who is first seen standing after Auto is deactivated.

Karen - a blonde woman with her hair in a bun who can be glimpsed to the left of Captain McCrea when the humans land on Earth.

°°°°° Chapter 4 °°°°°

"How's the harvest going so far, Jeff?" Captain McCrea asked, glancing at the human and robot workers on their way back from the fields.

The man in charge of overseeing the harvest was slightly taller and darker than the Captain. Though he had once been confined to a hoverchair, his physique had been improved considerably by those twenty years of hard labor. He was not the only one, though – they had all changed, those human settlers from outer space.

"Good enough, sir. But I doubt we'll accomplish much today." He nodded meaningfully toward the darkening sky above. "By the looks of it – we're due for some rough weather, if you ask me."

"I see. Make sure that everyone turns in for shelter in time."

"Yes, Captain."

Jeff turned back toward the workers, pleased to see them in such high spirits. Everyone seemed only too eager to do their share of the work. It was a good thing, he pondered, that the enthusiasm which pervaded them after landing had never faded, and was still living on within their hearts.

"This year's gonna be even better than the last" he commented. "The way things are going, I wouldn't be one bit surprised if…"

Suddenly, he realized that the Captain was only barely paying him attention, as though he was lost in thoughts. Jeff followed his stare curiously. At first, he failed to notice what had caught McCrea's attention. Then, with a look of dawning comprehension, he realized that it was the Axiom - towering above them, even taller than the highest trees.

"Thinking about the old times, Captain?" he asked.

Brian McCrea nodded quietly.

"Yes. It's strange, come to think of it… We landed twenty years ago, but every time I look at the Axiom, it feels like a lifetime ago. Like someone else's lifetime." He glanced at Jeff. "Do you know what I mean?"

The man hesitated before answering.

"Sometimes," he said slowly, "I forget to think about it for hours – even for days. Sometimes I must remind myself of its existence."

"Yes, that's what I mean." The Captain shook his head. "And only twenty years ago, we couldn't even think outside of the Axiom's hull. You know – I've been wondering for a long time how our ancestors were able to forget their homeworld so easily. How was that possible." He paused. "I think I know the answer, now."

Jeff gave him a puzzled glance.

"I see what you're getting at" he finally replied, uncertainly. "Spend so much time away from a place – move out of it and on with your life – and in the end, it becomes unfamiliar, even though…"

But the Captain shook his head.

"I'm not talking about time. Twenty years – it's not that long. It's the feeling of distance, the – separation. On the long run… it makes people forget things that might have once been important for them. It's not right – but it's human."

The two men were abruptly interrupted by a sudden outburst of shrill laughter. At some distance from where they were standing, a toddler boy – perhaps two years old – was hugging a rather perplexed PR-T unit who, until a few moments ago, had been busy cropping some fresh corn.

"Ink botty!" the boy beamed, twisting one of the robot's arms.

Alarmed, the PR-T unit tried to untangle her arm from his grip. ::J-just a trim?:: she stammered, picking up a cob half-defensively, half-pleadingly – in the hope, maybe, that he would find that more interesting.

"Russell, leave that poor robot alone!" the Captain called out.

Hearing his name, the kid turned around and wobbled toward the two men. For the moment, he seemed to have forgotten the PR-T unit, who immediately seized her chance to put as much distance as possible between them.

"What did I tell you about robots?" Brian McCrea asked gently. Russell blabbered something unintelligible, save for the words 'botty' and 'frends'.

The Captain could not refrain himself from chuckling. Russell reminded him of himself as a kid; he was hyperactive and curious, with haphazard dark hair and laughing brown eyes. Not surprisingly, his father and Brian McCrea were genetically related – cousins, as their ancestors would have said. Russell himself had been named after a common forefather who, according to the historic records of the Axiom computer, had lived to become a famous air pilot way back in the twenty-first century.

"I also told you to be nice to robots and not bother them while they're at work, remember?" he asked.

"Botty!" Russell squealed. It wasn't difficult to guess what had distracted him. Predictably, a moment later he had wobbled away after a startled VN-GO unit, who sped off like a frightened horse.

"Russell! Can't I leave you alone for a minute?" a distressed female voice cried out. A plump woman with blonde hair strode toward Jeff and the Captain, glancing worriedly after Russell and the paint bot. She had a kind face, but was obviously concerned. "Captain McCrea… I'm sorry, I got distracted for a moment and when I turned back, Russell was nowhere to be seen."

The Captain quickly reassured her. "Don't worry, Karen. He doesn't really do any harm."

"I know. It's just that – I fear he could get himself in troubles. He has his father's spirit…" Tears filled her eyes as she spoke. Embarrassed, she glanced away.

Glancing at each other, McCrea and Jeff were lost for words. It had only been a year since Russell's father had died in a sandstorm, and the loss was still fresh in the hearts of his friends and family. Karen, of course, was the one who had had it rougher, and not just because she and Ronald had been exceptionally close – even by human standards – ever since the Axiom had landed. She was haunted by the fear of losing her child as well as her husband.

"Karen," the Captain spoke again, quietly. "There's nothing wrong with worrying, after everything you've been through. But Russell will be all right. You know that we'd never let anything happen to him, none of us."

Karen, however, smiled sadly.

"You can't never let anything happen to him" she pointed out. "Then nothing would ever happen to him." She turned toward the grounded starliner which the two men had been discussing until moments before. "And how different would that be from the life we had aboard the Axiom, Captain?"