Rift 6
"You wouldn't believe me. I'm not sure I believe me and I've lived it." Lex tells him and then looks at Alexis. Rick follows her gaze and admits that now might not be the best time.
"This isn't over." Rick informs her.
"I don't doubt it. ... First we need to figure out what has happened and where are we." Alexis got busy typing and putting various items on her three screens.
"First this ship was close enough to land to use the Rift device. We know from our scan on the bridge that that is no longer the case." Alexis points at the result of the scan on one of her screens.
"Without satellite coverage we have no way of scanning beyond horizon. Granted that is hundreds of miles, however it is not enough to see the entire planet. Plus why is there no radio communication on any of the frequencies?" Alexis was full of questions.
"This is the video of when the Rift hit the roof again." Alexis replays it for them both. "Now slow it down." Alexis slowed it way down.
"Here!" Rick points and it has Alexis rewinding to play it again and then again.
"We really need Professor Hicks." Alexis was smart but not with this device.
"I take it, ..." Rick doesn't finish for the benefit of Alexis.
"Yea, happened right in front of me. It looked just like it was supposed to. It didn't burn through the roof, it simply struck a target just like it was designed to do. Except it didn't strike the target.
Now for the big question. What is this?" Alexis replays when the entire ship was enveloped in an orange light. "It doesn't act exactly like the Rift shift is supposed to. And yet it looks like it is a part of the device." Alexis was stumped.
"According to what I read about the device, it can create a storm and strike multiple targets simultaneously. That would account for everyone missing." Alexis informs him.
"Okay, I'll bite, but why only biologics? None of the B-5s are missing. Just parts of the crew and then the even bigger question…" Alexis finishes the sentence for him.
"Why not you and Alexis?" Alexis wonders why also.
"Another question is why did a Rift form while the device was off-line. And what did it deposit that sank to the bottom?" Alexis had another question.
"This device is off-line, right?" Rick didn't want another event like the one that got them into this mess.
"The power cores that are connected to the device are shot. The only functioning power cores we have are the ones that power the rest of this ship. Until we can repair them, this device will never work again." Alexis knew it was off-line and it was staying that way.
Rick sighs heavily. "Okay, you stay here and find out what you can about what that device has done. It may be more then you can handle but you're all we have.
I'm going to try and find out where we are. This ship has drones and a VTOL craft. I'm going to launch the drones on a preset course before returning. I'm going to take Alexis with me out in the VTOL and see what I can find.
When I get back we can decide what's next." Rick tells her. "Let's go pumpkin. Time to go flying." Rick reaches for her hand.
"Flying!" Alexis was interested now. What these two were talking about confused her.
"Be careful Commander. If we have had one unexpected Rift even we may have another. If it hits you you could end up anywhere in space… or time." Alexis cautions him.
"I'll keep my eyes open. I'm also going to have some of the B-5 units go into the water and inspect the hull of the ship. Something hit us and did we don't know what. It wouldn't do to have a fracture somewhere that suddenly lets go and we sink." Rick informs her and leaves with Alexis.
"Are you going to believe me dad?" Alexis questions the empty space where Rick used to be.
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Rick had alerted Alexis that he was taking Alexis with him on the VTOL to scout the area and actually put eyes on everything. He had also ordered a number of the B-5 units to scrub the hull clean. The ship had obviously gone through something and he wanted the ships skin inspected and repaired.
Alexis had a working theory and was on the bridge watching the VTOL come in for a landing. She wondered if it had a name instead of calling it by how it landed and took off. Still it was rather unique in design.
The weapons were obviously hidden inside the body of the craft though she could see where the rounds would exit. They were both located on the thin front. From the main body there were two short winglets that angled down and acted as landing gear. Aft of the craft it had two vertical tails.
It looked big enough to house two pilots along with either a small amount of cargo or no more then six people. There had been some new design accomplishments over the years. She didn't see any jets or propellers. How the craft was powered and stayed aloft was not easily determined. Still she waited for it to land before telling Rick that she was on the bridge.
"Anything?" Alexis asks him just as he enters the bridge.
"It was cool!" Alexis informs her since she had enjoyed the flight immensely. Her enthusiasm had Alexis smiling at her.
Rick shook his head. "Nothing but water as far as the eye can see. Where land should be there is just water. …Is it possible that we are on another planet?" Rick knew the answer, that wasn't really how the Rift device was meant to work. "Another dimension maybe?" That was far more likely in his mind.
"I have learned a few things. Thirsty sweetie?" Alexis held out a drink for Alexis who took it eagerly.
"What do you say?" Rick coaches her.
"Thank you Lex." Alexis tells her with guilt and enthusiasm combined.
"You are welcome." Alexis smiles at her.
"How about if you sit here and watch where we are going and drink your drink." Rick wanted her out of the way for what came next. Then Rick escorted Alexis away from her a little. "What did you find?"
"I believe the roof above the submarine was their idea of a response for defense to your laser weaponry that you have in orbit. It is some kind of charged grid. When the Rift shift struck it it altered how the Rift was formed. It created a Rift Storm and sent out multiple branches that struck multiple objects.
I'm still working out why only biologics were affected. However that isn't the bad news." Alexis tried to give him a moment to get ready for it. "I believe that it fractured the fabric between time and space. If I'm correct and I really wish Professor Hicks was here, I believe that we will experience several more events to come until we can find a way to heal the fracture that we have created." Alexis informs him.
"So what we experienced will or may happen again?" Rick didn't see how that was possible.
Alexis shook her head. "More like with no time frame or schedule, we will experience a Rift event that will either take things or people from here or deposit things or people here.
Since the Rift is both time and space, we can possibly expect to have it deposit, say a dinosaur from the Jurassic period, or a fighter plane from WW II, or possibly a person from the US Civil war. It is equally possible that we will see a shuttle from a space ship or some other craft or person from the future.
Conversely it is possible that our missing crew were sent to multiple points in time and location. They left here alive and since the device is not meant to kill that means they are alive wherever and whenever it sent them. It could be anywhere from just as the planet is formed to hundreds if not thousands of years into the future." Alexis tries to explain.
Rick was silent for a time as he tried to digest this bit of news. If this B-5 was correct it meant that at least the crew was still alive. "Any chance that if it sent them somewhere it will focus on them and maybe bring them back?" Rick was trying to find a ray of hope.
"Focus on them?" Alexis shook her head. "No, that it will select them again? Possible though not probable. …And your overlooking the fact that unless we can heal the damage these events will never stop.
The Rift device has opened something and until we can close it, Rift events will continue to happen until time itself comes to an end." Alexis warns him.
Rick was ready to collapse. "Anything?" Rick didn't like the sound of that.
Alexis started nodding her head. "Pretty much yes. It could be anything or anyone. A Japanese Destroyer from WW II, or a piece of Stonehenge. Literally anything or anyone is possible each time." Alexis warns him.
"So we need to find out what each event has either taken or deposited and in any case we need to be ready for combat since what comes may be hostile." They may be at peace one second and in a shooting war the next.
"Pretty much. Unfortunately I have no idea how to repair the damage that has been done. I also have a theory on why there is only water and we can't yet find any land mass." Alexis offers and watches Rick waiting for it.
"You remember it felt like the entire ship was glowing orange?" Alexis questions him and watches him nod his head. "That was a Rift event opening and taking the ship with it. It didn't just select individual people, but it also selected this ship and sent it somewhere." Alexis tells him and waits for it.
"Oh swell." Rick raises his arms and spins in place a bit. As if all of this wasn't bad enough, now they were somewhere else.
"It is possible that we are somewhere else, as in on some different planet since the Rift Device works on space and time. However I'm more inclined to believe that we are still on Earth. We just happen to be in a different time. A time where the Earth is covered in water." Alexis tells him her most likely scenario.
"As in there is an ark filled with animals floating around here somewhere." Rick couldn't believe it.
"If you believe in God and that this event took place, yes that is one possibility." Alexis dropped her next bomb on him. "Another is that we are not just hundreds of years into the future but thousands."
Rick starts to chuckle since crying was out. "If we are thousands of years in the future, where is everyone?" This place should be crawling with people and advanced technology. Then a thought hit him – everyone and everything was invisible to them.
"You remember why we were trying to take those submarines and eventually other items most likely." Alexis reminds him of their mission and why this ship had been built and why they thought it was necessary.
"Yes." Rick didn't like the implication but waited for the B-5 unit to explain.
"What we did may have been the catalyst. A full counterstrike may have taken place. After this event and with everyone gone, the planet started to recover and this is the result." She was suggesting that this was Earth that had recovered from WW III.
Rick was ready to sit down however Alexis had the only chair and was sitting there watching them talking to each other.
"If you are correct, then Alexis and I are the only humans left on Earth." Rick didn't much like the prospect of that.
"It is only a theory, until we can find something to carbon date, if we can carbon date something that is in the future. We could just as easily find an ark filled with animals floating around here. Though it is still possible that we are on another planet that is all water." Alexis didn't think so. To her way of thinking travel even using the Rift Device would still only allow them to travel at the speed of light, and the next closest system was light years away. However if they never noticed the passage of time, it was still possible.
"We're either all alone on another planet, alone save for Noah and his family floating around here somewhere or all alone on Earth long after we blew ourselves up." Rick didn't much like any of these options.
"Any chances of getting us back to where we started? This Rift is as you say is part time and space." Rick searched for something he could use. Anything that gave them a future.
Alexis thought about it for a moment. The Rift had gotten them here so it is possible it could get them back. It was just that at present she didn't know how to control the Rift Device to achieve that result.
"I honestly don't know. We would need to find a way to control the Rift that is open now and send us through to where we were and when we were as we sealed the opening. Because if we don't seal it, we could end up just being selected again and be sent to yet some other place in space and time." Right now everything the Rift did was simply random as far as she could tell.
"Daddy?" Alexis had been alone with them talking to each other long enough.
It had Rick over to her and lifting her out of the chair so he could hold her. "Are you hungry yet?" Rick asks of her and watches her nod her head. "Well we have a really big kitchen with enough food for a lot of people for months." Rick tries to lighten the mood.
"If it is presently frozen yes. Anything perishable will need to be eaten quickly before being dumped overboard." Lex warns him.
"Health food it is then." Rick smiles at Alexis and starts walking for the kitchen to make them some lunch.
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Lunch was filled with fruit and any meat that wasn't still frozen along with bread that wasn't frozen.
"Who are you? You do not act like any B-5 unit that I'm familiar with. Or NS-5." Rick finally got back to who she was as they ate.
"You need to keep an open mind." Alexis warns him.
"I'm either living on another planet, so far into the future that I can't begin to believe, or I'm living in a biblical event. How much more open does it get?" Rick counters with a little laugh.
Alexis looked between the two of them and gave in to the inevitable. "My name is Alexis Harper Castle and I was born in the year 1994. My parents were Richard Castle and Meredith Lee. They were divorced when I was less then one year old. I was raised by my dad who was a successful author." Alexis starts off with and watches the shock on his face.
"1994?" Rick was flabbergasted. That was so many years ago that even school didn't teach much about it. He wasn't sure what to think. "Richard Castle?" Rick selected that as the next thing to think about.
"That's you daddy." Alexis chimes in not seeing the implication, however she was smiling wide.
"My… my parents chose that name from history. Something about my great, great… great grandfather." He hadn't thought about that time for a while.
"My father was killed and a different Richard took over his life. He married and had children. I was killed in 2011. However at the time there were some changes taking place. I ended up finding myself being nothing more then a program. They had downloaded all of my memories and placed me in a computer. I lived as a hologram for a number of years." Alexis pauses to give him a chance to catch up.
"There were no holograms of that complexity in 2011." Rick states with certainty. Convinced that he was being lied to.
"The new Richard was from another planet that was part of the Alliance. He had downloaded all of my dad's memories and assumed his life. His most popular book that he wrote was about the life of his daughter, Lily was her name." Alexis defends her history. "He was part of the Alliance at the time while Earth was not yet."
Rick knew that book. His parents had given it to him when he was a child. He even had a copy of it in his room. He planned on reading it to Alexis, and try and explain who had written it. Rick easily remembers the name. "The Life of Lily."
Alexis nods her head. "Lily Ann Castle." Alexis has found something that she could use to prove what she was saying was the truth. "This Richard already had a daughter who joined us. Her name was also Alexis and looked a lot like me, though she was a little older. It was this Alexis that gave me a life as a hologram." Alexis knew her life was complex and not easy to follow.
"The Alliance was involved in this?" Rick didn't see how, still it was possible.
Alexis however shook her head. "Just this Richard and Alexis."
"Eventually Alexis found a way to give me a better life. A life where I could actually move around and feel things again. To be able to touch and be touched. I jumped at it regardless of the consequences. To be able to touch and be touched by people I loved was just too intoxicating." Alexis wasn't sorry she had pushed for it. It was a better life then just being some program that lived a life of lights.
"NS-5." Rick was starting to catch on and watched her nod her head. "You lived through all of the NS-5 fiasco." Her life sounded really hard to him.
Alexis nodded her head. "My family tried to hide me, but I was eventually found out and sent into storage along with all the other NS-5s. I stood in that storage container for years.
It was only after that I was out that I found out how hard my family had tried to get me back out." Alexis would start crying tears about now if she could.
"I lost my stepfather, stepmother, sister, and brothers while I was in storage. By the time I was back out I couldn't find anyone. Everyone was either dead, missing or in hiding. I was alone. I've been alone ever since." Alexis suddenly wished that the Rift had selected her and sent her back in time. Back to her family.
"Lex." A little voice that sounded filled with tears had both of their attention. Little Alexis may not understand everything but she recognized the pain that her friend was in.
"Alexis!" Alexis got up and moved over and lifted her up to hold her and found herself being hugged tightly. "It's alright Alexis, don't be sad." Alexis didn't care, her friend was hurting. "I'm sorry." Alexis offers softly and lets her tears fall.
They are both joined by Rick who wraps his arms around little Alexis from behind.
"We're related." Rick states as he tries to process what this B-5 unit has told him.
"By blood yes, it gets really complex and will take time to explain." Alexis wasn't sure he would believe her or if he did now. "The short version is that my real dad found himself reborn and was living in 1874 where he married and had children. I traced his children all the way to you."
"You're a dead ringer for my father. My real father. You look exactly like him. I can even see a little of me when I was young in your Alexis." Alexis informs him.
Rick started to smile. "Close enough. But I don't understand. You're a B-5 unit. The old NS-5 units had their memories wiped. Yours has likely been wiped several times." There was a major flaw in this B-5 anyway in being Alexis Castle.
Alexis risked trusting him with her biggest secret. One that could cause her destruction. "And it has been, several times. My stepfather's Alexis is responsible for me still being me. I have a second memory core that is hidden away deep inside my body. It is shielded and can't be found during a normal scan. I can use or ignore my other memory core as I please."
"Lex." Little Alexis was still wrapped around her and still suffering from knowing her friend was hurting.
"What now?" Alexis asks looking at Rick while she hugs little Alexis tightly knowing that she loved this little girl a lot already. She could see so much of her when she was this age in her.