Rift 10
Alexis entered the bridge still in her swimsuit with a towel wrapped around her. At least she wasn't dripping wet. "Did you have fun, pumpkin?"
Since she was smiling from one ear to the other he took that as a yes. "Hop up here and you can help me steer the ship." Rick patted the captain's chair and watched her clamber up into the elevated chair.
'"Where should we go?" he asked her. To be honest, there really wasn't anyplace to go, except to try and avoid major storms. A little rain wasn't so bad, but hurricanes, not so much.
"Is there…" Alexis tried to think of the word she wanted. She settled for a word and hoped it was the right one. "Home."
Her response confused Rick. This ship was home. He did his best to try to interpret what she'd said. "Do you mean a big home on land?"
Alexis started nodding her head. "Land."
"I'm trying, pumpkin, I'm trying. What if there is no land? Are you not willing to live on the ship?" Did she hate it here? He'd been so happy to have a posting where he could take her with him for a change. He wanted to be there to watch her grow up.
"I guess." Actually she wasn't but didn't want to make her daddy unhappy.
Rick wanted his little girl happy, though. "I'll see what I can do. Until then we'll just have to live here. How was swimming with Jim and Kate?" He knew those two had cared for her while he worked and for that he was thankful.
She perked up instantly. "Real fun!"
"And Kate, what about her?" He liked that there was an older woman on the ship now. Someone not in a B-5 body.
"Kate's nice, Daddy." Alexis was beaming. She was happy to have Kate help her.
Rick set the controls for autopilot and to send him alerts if anything changed. "Let's get you dressed so you can have lunch." He helped her down out of the chair and took her hand.
"Where's Lex?" Lex couldn't go swimming with her but she still missed her.
"Let's find out." He stopped at a panel. "Bridge to Lex."
Almost immediately there was a response. "Can I help you with something… Rick." Lex was trying to get used to calling him by his name instead of Commander.
"I was thinking of creating something for lunch. If you want to find the Beckett's you can join us unless you're busy."
"I'm presently reading what Alexis left behind. It would appear that I'll require more room than what's available here in the tower. The rift device takes up most of the space," Lex explained.
"We can talk about finding you somewhere suitable over lunch. The Beckett's will likely have more questions if they've absorbed the last round of answers."
"Thank you! I'll start doing research for possible sites before joining you for lunch." Lex had dived in head first into what Alexis had left her. The chance at moving into a real body was too enticing to resist.
Rick knew what that meant. "Bridge to Beckett's. If you care to join us in 10 minutes in the main kitchen for lunch, you're more than welcome." He continued taking Alexis to her bedroom which meant a little walking followed by an elevator trip.
It turned out to take him closer to 30 minutes and they found Jim and Kate already in the kitchen. "Sorry, took me longer than I anticipated. What would you like? Sandwiches? Or how about chicken stir-fry?" Rick fired up the propane-fired wok.
Kate smiled since it looked like the choice had been made for them. "Stir-fry would be fine." Besides she liked Chinese.
The preparation took longer than it did to cook it. Everyone had just started when Lex showed up and sat down next to Alexis. "I have a couple of possible locations that we can go over later. One is down in Engineering, the alternative is to modify Medical to accommodate the equipment."
"Something we should know about?" Jim knew they didn't have much standing on the ship, but he would like for them to be included.
Lex answered his question. "I have a project that someone left behind specifically for me. It's going to take some time, but I need space to work."
"Can we help?" Kate was bored and suspected her dad was as well.
Lex looked at Rick and saw him give a short nod. He was thinking now was as good a time as any to complicate their lives.
She began to explain. "My family left me something that will allow me to live my life again."
Kate was lost as was Jim who remained silent. "But you're a robot."
"I was murdered in the year 2011. I had turned seventeen not long before that time." Lex didn't miss the look of shock and confusion on both of their faces. Her task was how to tell them what she was doing and not mention Kate Beckett.
"My family had the means to download all of my memories into a computer. Just a few years later I was given a way to live as a 3D hologram. The main limitation was I could only go where the emitters could show my body." Lex let them digest that bit of information.
Jim wasn't buying it. That was just a short 12 years later from the year they'd come from. "2011? That's not possible. I mean, was there really such technology in 2011?"
"That's where things get complicated." Lex did her best to think this through and not give away who Kate was in her family.
"My father had been murdered and someone from… Well, he looked like Dad and he assumed my dad's life. His family had the technology to transfer my mind into a computer then give me a hologram body." Lex tried to leave out too many names.
Jim and Kate were busy trying to understand but kept coming up short. "It's still 2011," Jim pointed out.
Rick decided to help. "You'll remember that this ship was launched in 2327. In the year 2211 we were introduced to a race from outer space. They mostly looked human and were part of what is called the Alliance.
"This Alliance is basically a series of core inner planets that were far more advanced than we were and still are. They incorporated Earth into their empire. However, we're far too primitive to get much in the way of technology from the Alliance.
"Basically anyone not part of their core worlds or inner planets are outer planets. Outer planets are used by the Alliance to serve the inner planets. Part of our agriculture and minerals go to them." He hadn't lived through the initial meeting, but his family had and he'd heard the stories.
"My new father came or more accurately crashed on Earth before the Alliance made their presence known to the people of Earth," Lex added.
"So we're slaves and this Alliance takes what they please." Kate didn't like the sound of that.
"Basically, yes. In those early years very much so. Still are pretty much," Rick agreed, based on the history that he knew about.
Jim couldn't imagine Earth accepting being turned into slaves. "And we didn't rebel?"
"There were a few fights here and there on the planet. But most of that stopped after we found out about the war between the Alliance and the outer planets.
"The outer planets rose up, created a rebel unit, and fought against being used as slaves. The primary problem was space travel. The Alliance had all the technology. They didn't really even need to put troops on the ground. All they had to do was strike from their ships in orbit." Rick tried to get them ready for what came next.
"Our history of combat has always shown that if you wanted to take a continent you needed boots on the ground. Attacks from air were never enough.
"We were shown actual combat on the ground as whole cities were reduced to rubble from orbit. Their entire ability to create food and transport it was also attacked. Production on the planet effectively came to a halt.
"The Alliance lost no one in that battle." Rick hadn't actually seen any of that but it was well known.
Jim and Kate were silent for a time. "And now? I mean then." It was hard to keep track of what year it was and what year they were talking about.
"Earth mostly learned its lesson except for the Patterson incident." They looked at him asking him to explain.
"Wright Patterson Air Force Base. It was located just outside of Dayton, Ohio."
Jim had caught that word. "Was?"
Rick nodded. "The United States decided to fight back and it was initiated at the air force base located there. At the time the United States was the most powerful country on the planet. They had all of the most and best equipment. Most of the other countries that didn't have their capabilities looked to them to do something.
"It's believed that President Barak Obama was talked into the attack. No one is exactly sure. At any rate, the air force base was leveled in seconds. Not a single aircraft made it off the ground. Every missile fired was intercepted.
"Somehow, they traced the orders back to where the president was at the time. After just 3 hits, the White House and the Pentagon were nothing but large holes in the ground. It was a short time later that the Alliance made everything clear to the people of Earth. Capitulate, or…" Rick let the or else trail off.
Jim and Kate lost the color in their faces. "We became slaves." Jim wasn't sure if that was better than death.
"It depends on your point of view, I suppose. They taught us how to increase the yields of everything we grew. Places that couldn't grow much of anything were made far more fertile.
"In addition, a number of diseases were cured and people started living longer lives.
"Some called it the Carrot and the Stick. Others thought of it as they want our food so they needed us and to get our help, they needed to make nice with us."
Jim and Kate were silent for a time as were Rick, Lex, and Alexis. Jim looked at Lex. "And you lived through all of this?"
"Yes and no." Lex knew it was far more complicated than that. "Earth found a way to make robots to help them. The first units were really primitive and yet when they had reached the B-4 model these new robots were actually helping people and their lives. They were the slaves of the people of Earth."
"Oh, swell." Jim sat back in his chair in surrender. His planet had gone to hell in a handbasket it seemed.
"So this Alliance makes us slaves and in return we create robots to become our slaves." Kate hated even the sound of it.
"Pretty much, yes. The next model was named NS-5. It was far more advanced, faster, stronger, and could take damage without much trouble.
"My family bought one, modified it, and transferred me from the computer into this NS-5 unit. I'm an NS-5 unit. It allowed me to walk around with my family. To go where they went. I was finally able to touch them and them me.
"It was… It was AMAZING!" Jim and Kate could see her lower lip quivering. Being able to feel must have meant a lot to it… her.
"But you call the others B-5?" Kate had noticed that there were a number of robots all over the ship and all of them were refereed to as B-5 except for this one.
Rick took over then. "There was a man who helped to create them. He put a backdoor program into each NS-5 unit. These NS-5 units were everywhere. There were literally hundreds of thousands of them all over the country. Personal, medical, schools, and military."
"Uh-oh!" Jim could just feel what was coming next.
Rick nodded. "He took over every NS-5 unit, everywhere. It took time and cost a lot of lives. However, his plans came to an end. The immediate result was to order a round-up of all NS-5 units. Shut them down and place them in storage. It was there that they all stayed for years and years."
Kate looked at Lex and felt tears starting. "You!"
"I was taken from my family and placed in storage. Even they couldn't protect me or even follow where I was taken. On the outside I looked just like any other NS-5 unit." Lex could still feel her lower lip quivering and didn't try to stop it.
"But you and the others are out… how long?" Kate asked, not sure she wanted to know the answer. "How long were you locked up?"
"Eventually it was decided to take them out of storage and give them a completely different memory core and new orders. New safeguards were put in place. They were given a new designation as B-5 and now they really are slaves. Complete automatons. Void of any emotion or concerns about being robot slaves," Rick explained having noticed the subtle signs of distress that Lex was exhibiting.
Kate persisted. "How long?"
"The year was 2187 when I was finally removed from storage. They removed my existing main memory core, inserted a new one, and gave it new programming. What they didn't find, thanks to my family, was my second memory core that holds all of my memories. All of who I was and am," Lex replied quietly.
Kate did the quick math. "140 years… as a slave to humans." She was ashamed and started to hate the human race. "So what are you doing?" She was going to help if she could. No one deserved to be a slave let alone one for 140 years.
"We found something below your house. We were trying to determine what year it was and if this was Earth. I knew its location so we used it. A scan showed us that something was buried under a concrete slab so we removed it.
"My family left it behind for me. Inside was a technology that they had stolen or bought from the Alliance. It will allow me to grow myself a body and move my mind into it. I'll… I'll be human again." Lex couldn't shed tears but she ached like she'd been crying for hours.
She was going to be Alexis again. Using little Alexis's DNA she would be an older version of this Alexis. Be an older sister in effect.
Lex was still amazed just how many Alexises were in her life. How many Ricks and how many Kate Becketts there were. This Rick was a future Rick while the Kate sitting in front of her was the Kate Beckett that had been murdered only to be found by Snohbal.
Kate made up her mind. "Tell me how to help. I want to help."
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Kate came dragging into their room late that same night only to find her dad up and waiting for her. "And?" Jim questioned.
She collapsed onto his bed and fell backward. "Never try and keep up with a robot, Dad. She has more energy than thousands of kids strung out on sugar." Jim laughed outright.
"And Rick, he spent hours with us. He and Alexis." Kate was still amazed. "Something's going on, though. I don't know what, but something.
"Alexis wants so badly to be able to help so Rick gave her things to do. Most of it was meaningless but it kept her busy. He's good dad; those two are inseparable." Kate started chuckling. She corrected herself. "Those three."
"It doesn't hurt that he's good looking," Jim teased.
"I hadn't noticed," Kate replied coolly.
"Says the daughter who brought home that guy covered with tattoos. At least this one has a job," Jim retaliated with a grin.
She groaned. "Please don't remind me. That was so stupid of me." She regretted a lot of her teenage years. Not all of it, but a little too much of it.
Jim wasn't letting go, not that easily. "Sooo, your mother and I were right?"
Kate sighed and fervently wished to disappear. "Yes, Dad, you and Mom were right. As much as it pains me." She squeezed her eyes closed and wanted him to just let it go.
"Good, just make sure that you remember that lesson. You don't get second chances in life. You make your choices and you live with them."
Hearing that, Kate was up and hugging him tightly. "I love you, Dad. I love you a lot. I just hope Mom knew how much I loved her." She was beginning to blink back tears. Everything had changed and was still changing. She seemed to have little to no time to adjust to it all.
"I'm sure she did. You know she did, Katie." Jim was convinced that his daughter knew just how much he and his wife loved her. Even if she did keep them on their toes. And on occasion when they questioned her sanity.
"Now tell me, what did you learn and did you have dinner and do you want dinner?" Jim inquired since he hadn't seen her since lunch.
Kate ignored his questions about food. "You should see what was under our home! They spent the day removing a medical bed and replaced it with an even bigger bed which was more tank than bed. Then we connected all this equipment to it, and that was only half of it."
"And all that was under our house?" Jim knew that house and what was under the slab was dirt, nothing more. "Did you ask them how it got there?" He was dying to find out how.
"Yeah, they said it was complicated and that we had a lot to learn." She made a face. "Something's going on, I can feel it.
"Dad, have you noticed that no one is using names except when absolutely necessary? It's always 'her family' as if we would recognize the names of this family.
"And isn't Lex short for Alexis?" Kate wasn't sure what the implications of all this were, but something was being kept from them.
"Spoken like a true lawyer." Jim was impressed. Maybe his daughter would have been one or perhaps even been a Supreme Court Justice.