Chapter Ten

Jupiter Station
In orbit around the planet Jupiter
Sol System, United Federation of Planets
Mid June, 2185

It had been two weeks since Phlox and the time travelers had come to Jupiter Station. During the first few days after Mason's unexpected termination from his suspended animation, (A/N: no intention for that to rhyme.....................okay very much intention) Alex had remained in a melancholy state of solitude and would not come out from her and Harper's bedroom except only to go to the bathroom. As for the others, they made do with what was available in the apartment to keep them entertained with Justin and Max using magic and Jim using a few of his bio technical enhancements for entertainment.

Phlox had began immediately working on reconstructing both Mason and Juliet's DNA using the equipment he had requested brought to the station from Denobula. Starting with Juliet, he took a sample of her DNA and input it into the computer allowing it to process through the various machines involved with DNA reconstruction. After about three days the computer finally worked out an equation where it would require Juliet to be connected directly to the main reconstruct equipment while it reworked each strand of her DNA to reverse the two thousand and one hundred plus years of her age. The process would take about a month to fully complete.

After a week on the station, Alex had rejoined the others during the waking hours of the day and had included her own style of magic in entertaining herself and the others. Everything was going great for the second week but all too soon the confinement of the apartment was beginning to take its toll on her. Late one night in the middle of the month, Jim was awakened by a sudden knock on his bedroom door. He got up to answer it to find Harper standing in the hallway with a worried expression on her face.

"Harper!! Jim sleepily exclaimed. "What's wrong?"

"There are two security guys at the main door." replied Harper. "What are they called? Andori........Andor............."

"Andorians." said Jim. "Did they say what they want?"

"They want to speak to whoever is in charge of Alex." replied Harper.

A look of utter confusion spread across Jim's now fully wide awake face.

"Whoever is in charge of Alex?" he asked. "What does she have to do with the Andorian guards?" he added as he began to walk to the main door.

"They said they found her in the bar and someone needs to be held accountable for a minor being illegally in an adult establishment." said Harper.

Phlox was already at the door looking out into the hall and speaking to the blue skinned guards. Justin and Max were standing in the hallway to their bedrooms looking confused themselves. Justin also had a look of anger as well. Jim approached the door and stood beside Phlox.

"Ah here's Mr. Alcorn." said Phlox. "He's the one in charge of young Ms. Russo. Well if you'll excuse me now, I'll just head back to the laboratory and continue my work then."

He turned away from the Andorians and spoke softly close to Jim's right ear the one furthest from the door.

"Good luck Jim." he said before walking back to the laboratory."

Jim looked out the door at the two guards both holding onto an angry Alex by both of her arms. As his eyes made contact with her own he instantly had an equal look of anger of his own.

"Mr. Alcorn we found this underage human girl violating Starfleet order number five hundred and fourteen." said the guard to Alex's left.

""Non Starfleet personnel wandering in an area other than their assigned quarters.'" said the guard to Alex's right.

"And for being a minor in an adult only establishment." added the left guard.

"Gentlemen, I'm sorry for her misconduct." said Jim. "I assure you it won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't pink skin." said the right guard with slight malice. "We'll let her go with a warning this time."

The two guards released Alex who continued to stand her ground between the two.

"But If she is caught again outside your quarters, she will be placed in the brig until the next transport shuttle for Earth arrives at the station." said the left guard.

A slight look of worry replaced Alex's look of anger for a split second before her angry look returned. She then abruptly rushed past Jim into the apartment.

"Sorry you were troubled." Jim said to the guards as he reached for the button to close the main door.

After the door was closed Jim turned to face Alex who was standing over by the window looking out into space toward the sun off in the distance. Harper was now standing by Justin and Max back in the hallway to their bedrooms. Jim paid them no attention as he walked over closer to Alex as she continued to stare out the window.

"Alex you're very lucky that Andorians are Starfleet Federation members." he began with a calm attitude." Twenty four or more years ago they would have thrown you in the brig and without your wand. The brig is what JAIL is called in Starfleet and they wouldn't have told anyone where you were until after a month or longer. You would have been lucky if they had fed you at all, but with their food you would have preferred to starve instead of eat it."

Alex remained silent.

"I can understand that you are bored with having to stay in this apartment day in and day out." Jim continued. "But I told you when we first arrived here that you are not allowed to go anywhere outside the apartment since you are not a part of Starfleet. How did you even get into the bar?"

Alex still remained silent and continued to stare out the window.

"Magic I suppose." said Jim. "Well it wasn't too long until the Andorians found you and brought you back here."

"Blue skinned freaks with antennas." Alex finally said breaking her silence. (pronounced an-ten-nahs)

Jim just looked at her for a few seconds before speaking again.

"Antennae." he simply said. (an-ten-neye)

Alex turned to look at him with slight confusion on her face.

"What?" she asked.

"The plural of antenna is antennae." Jim said.

"What the f#$% ever." said Alex.

"It was the first time Jim had ever heard her say a cuss word and to be honest he was a little amused by it.

"I'm sick and tired of this stupid apartment." Alex began with her voice raising more and more. "It's always the same thing everyday when I wake up. 'Eat, do a magic trick here, a magic trick there, eat again, and every time I check on doctor Phlox to see how is making progress with Mason it's always the same thing. He hasn't even started with reconstructing his DNA yet."

"Doctor Phlox explained it to us that the equipment can only reconstruct one person's DNA at a time." said Jim. "And it's not his fault he had to start with Juliet first. Her condition required Phlox to chose her first because now that she's out of suspended animation the chance that she could die increased even though she was put back on life support."

"I don't care about Juliet anymore." said Alex.

Justin heard what his sister had said and an angry expression came to his face. He was about to step in to interject when he was grabbed by Max who was silently shaking his head to tell Justin to stay out of Alex and Jim's conversation.

"If she and Mason had never had a relationship three hundred years ago," Alex continued, "then we wouldn't even be here trying to restore their youth and humanity."

"You're probably right about that." said Jim. "Except the 'three hundred years' part. It's more like four hundred and seventy five years what you meant to say."

"What the f#$% ever." said Alex cussing again.

This time Jim was not amused.

"Alex watch your language." he said.

"You're not my father!" she yelled to him. "You can't tell me how to speak!"

Jim just stood staring at her for a few moments.

"You're right. I'm not your father." said Jim finally. "But while we're here in the future and on this space station I am responsible for the well being of you, Justin, Max, and Harper. And if you leave this apartment again you will get us expelled from this space station jeopardizing everything that we and Phlox have done to help Mason and Juliet."

Now it was Alex who was staring silently at Jim as he continued to speak.

"And keep this in mind." he continued. "The only other place in the Federation where we can help them is Denobula. A two week trip there and no telling how long to find a facility we can use followed by a two week trip back. Doctor Phlox probably won't be able to take more time off from his practice to help us. And time travel will definitely be out of the question meaning that there will be a very noticeable difference in y'all appearances once we return to 2010. So, young wizard, you best come down off your high horse and get used to this apartment for ever how long we're gonna be here or else it's back to Earth and we start all over at square one"

Jim turned and walked back to his bedroom catching a brief second of eye contact with Phlox who was standing in the doorway to the laboratory. After he was out of sight, Alex turned and walked briskly past her brothers and Harper to her and Harper's bedroom. After a few seconds Harper followed her. Max returned to his and Justin's bedroom and Justin, instead of following Max, decided to check in on Phlox to see the progress he had done with Juliet.

There wasn't much of a noticeable difference in Juliet's appearance over the past two weeks. She had a few less wrinkles in her skin and her hair was slowly fading from gray back into its beautiful blonde that Justin loved so much. Phlox had recently said that it was now as if she was less than one thousand five hundred years in age and decreasing gradually day by day and it would take another two weeks for her to reach the appearance of seventeen years in age. Justin couldn't wait for the days to pass by but for his girlfriend's sake he held his patience patiently.

"How's it coming, doc?" he asked as he entered the laboratory.

"Oh it's coming along rather smoothly." said Phlox. "Juliet's DNA reconstruction is happening more efficiently than I anticipated."

"That's good." said Justin.

He was silent for a few seconds before speaking again.

"Doctor Phlox I want to apologize for the way my sister has been acting here lately and for what she did tonight." he said.

"I don't see why you feel you need to apologize to me, Justin." Phlox said nonchalantly. "Alex's behavior has not bothered me nor has it interfered with my work while we've been here."

"I know." said Justin. "It's just that she has never been one to be patient when it comes to the situation we're all in right now."

"I understand completely." said Phlox. "My sixth daughter from my third wife is the same way." he added with a chuckle. "That girl. Never could wait for any amount of long periods of time for anything."

Justin smiled slightly.

"Even when she was pregnant with her first child she would always say 'I can't wait I want this baby now'." Phlox said with another chuckle. "But soon enough Juliet will be back to her old, or rather, young age and then I'll start on Alex's wolf boyfriend."

The smile faded from Justin's face into a slight angry one as he looked toward Mason still in a coma on the right gurney.

"Why even bother with him?" said Justin "After the way Alex has been the past two weeks and what she did tonight."

"Now now Justin." said Phlox. "Let's not go through this again, I'm still going to help Mason for your sister."

"Fine. Whatever." said Justin before he left the laboratory heading back to his and Max's bedroom.

Phlox chuckled yet again as he was left alone to continue his work.

"Teenagers." he said to himself. "Conflicting emotions and a severe lack of patience in everyone of them. No matter what species they may be."

Author's Note:

Happy Easter everyone. Hope you had a good one. Mine was okay. I ate an entire chocolate rabbit while typing out this chapter. I went back and re-read the first nine and I caught a few errors here and there but the one that I was most ashamed of was the conversation between Jim and Phlox in chapter seven. The part where Phlox speaks of owing a favor to Jim because Jim had saved Phlox's life during the Earth-Romulan war. That seems to conflict with what Jim is always speaking about not interfering with the natural course of the space-time continuum. Jim mentioned in chapter six where he never caused any interruptions in the continuum and Harper mention's the "Butterfly Effect" Well the way I see it this is one of those 'fixed events' in the continuum that happens no matter what. Not even a time traveler has to power to alter or prevent it from happening. After all Phlox was backstage with Archer at the signing of the Federation Charter in 2161. So if it hadn't been Jim who saved his life it would have been some other crew member of Enterprise who would have instead.

If you were offended by Alex's cussing, sorry bout that. She has been pretty p.o.'ed about having to stay confided to a small apartment and not being able to roam around like she's used to back home in New York on Earth. I based that scene off of how I would probably react if I were in the same situation. Though I would definitely use more than just two cuss words.

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