Rift 11
Kate was back in Medical watching the robot fill the "bed" with some kind of liquid. "And this is what?" She bent over the bed that was starting to look more like an aquarium.
"It's the nutrient gel that the body will feed on as it develops from an embryo to adult. In this case an 19 year old adult." Lex poured in another measured amount of liquid.
"Doesn't look like a gel," Kate commented; it looked more like a liquid to her.
"That's because the process is not yet complete. Would you ask Alexis to come down to Medical to see you? I need to obtain a sample of her DNA so that I can grow the body."
"Alexis? Won't that mean when it finishes growing it will be her at 19 years of age?" Kate thought she understood.
"Correct, Alexis is the only living female relative that I have. It was also her DNA that allowed me to open the box which my family left for me to use so that I could do this." Lex prepared another batch.
Kate wanted answers and it looked like this robot had them. "Okay, enough already. Who are you, really?"
"You know who I am. We talked about this yesterday," Lex countered as an answer.
"No, we discussed you dying in 2011, being turned into a hologram, and then finally a robot. Not who you are. So… who are you?" Kate decided on a threat. "Or should I pour something into your pool of goo?"
That had Lex stopping in mid-pour to look at her. "You wouldn't. The Kate Beckett I know wouldn't." Actually the Kate Beckett she remembered wouldn't even threaten such an action. Lex finished that pour then went to make the final batch.
"Just answer the question. Something's going on and my dad and I are a part of it somehow." Kate felt that much for sure.
Lex was soon pouring the last of it. "It's too early, you need additional information or you won't understand. For example when you start a book and read the first few chapters then suddenly jump several chapters ahead. Something has happened that makes no sense to you because you skipped that part." She finished pouring.
"Alexis, please." Lex needed to get ready for her.
Kate loved reading and somehow that explanation made sense to her. She wondered how this robot knew that that example would reach her. She shook her head. "Fine." She moved over to the panel to ask Alexis to come to Medical.
A happy and smiling Alexis came running into Medical moments later to find Kate and Lex and a tank filled with water. "Whatcha doin'?"
Lex patted the bed she wanted her to lie down on. "Hop up here, Alexis, I need your help."
Alexis looked up at the bed wondering how she was going to do that. "Here, Alexis." Kate lifted her up onto the bed and sat her down. Kate had every intention of watching every move this robot made. There was no way she was letting this robot hurt this precious little girl who was so trusting.
"Lie down, Alexis, I need something from you so I can live again. It won't hurt but it will feel funny." Lex moved to pick up a device that to Kate looked like a really large syringe, just without the needle.
"What is that thing and what does it do?" Kate wanted answers before she would let this happen.
"It's a DNA extractor. It works by cooling and vibrating the penetration. Then a thin rod is extended into her abdominal area to extract interstitial undifferentiated cells. It will only take a moment. And it's intended to be painless." Lex may want a body, but not if it meant hurting anyone. Especially someone that was a blood relative.
Kate didn't nod nor did she object. She watched Lex apply the end to Alexis's exposed stomach. "Just hold still. It'll feel a little cold then it'll start to tingle. If it starts to hurt, tell me and I'll stop." Lex activated the device Alexis had left her.
Seconds later Lex was done and pulled the device away. "All done. Did it hurt?"
Alexis shook her head. "Feeleded funny." She didn't know how to describe it.
"It'll go away and if it doesn't you tell someone. That's very important, Alexis. If it ever hurts, you tell someone. Understand?" Alexis nodded her head. "Good girl." Lex leaned down and gave her head a soft kiss.
"Why don't you go play with Kate while I work."
Kate knew when she was being dismissed. "Come on, sweetie, maybe we can find a game to play." She helped her up off the bed and onto the floor.
"Bye, Lex." Alexis waved to her friend. She felt fine.
"Thank you, Alexis. Have fun." Lex began the transfer of the DNA material she would need.
O{}O{}O
Kate ran through the amenities that she knew of. "There are two pools, a weight room, places to sit and relax. I think I also saw a game room." Except the game room looked like it was meant for older kids or adults. "Is there a way to watch a movie?" She thought she remembered seeing a movie room but this ship was big. And she was on information overload. She could easily be mixing things up.
"So what do we watch?" Kate asked. She found a panel just inside the room that when activated showed an extensive list of possibilities. She needed to winnow down the choices.
"Animated, maybe?" That reduced the number by a lot. "What about this one? I've never seen it. It's called Inside Out and it looks nice." She had no idea what year it had been released.
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"Good morning Jim, what can I help you with?" Rick saw him enter the bridge before turning back to his screen for a moment.
Jim looked around. "I don't see Alexis." He thought Rick's daughter would be up here with him.
Rick explained his daughter's absence. "Kate has her at the moment. They're watching a movie in the movie theater room. She was kind enough to call and ask if that was okay."
Jim smiled. At least his daughter was doing something. He cleared his throat. "I, ah… I have a few more questions."
"I thought as much. If you're sure you're ready for the answers. It's a great deal more complicated than you think. But first… answer one of mine?" Rick left his screens to look at him; Jim acquiesced.
"How are you doing? I mean you personally." Rick was curious. He had been told what Lex knew of both of them when she was still Alexis and what had happened to his wife.
Jim motioned to the captain's chair, silently asking if he could sit; Rick waved his hand at it, giving his permission. "It's been tough lately but all right, I suppose." He hadn't had much time lately to miss his wife or brood over her loss.
"You've been kept rather busy since your arrival here. The Rift event, finding yourself here and learning who is here, likely thinking we are hiding secrets." Rick could see where that would be at the top of his list for now.
"Secrets…" He and Kate had talked about just that. Jim got to the point. "You seem to know things and aren't willing to share."
Rick reminded him of the difference in time. "Well it is 2327 and not 1999. Your present day is my history and old history at that."
"Granted, but you seem to know something. Something far more personal. I can't see where my family would have made the history books." A couple of lawyers with a daughter that was trying to follow in their footsteps. Surely not noteworthy.
"I think you'd be amazed at just how involved your family is in the history books." For a moment they were front and center and those repercussions were still going on up to 2327.
"Fine, you've explained who you are and who you were named after. Yes, your ancestor was a known author and was successful but there's something more, somehow. I know there is!"
Rick smiled. "My great, great, great… great grandfather. Though I might be missing one or more greats. I tend to get lost. At any rate, I can trace my family tree back to 1874 when my grandfather married my grandmother."
Jim knew that date but couldn't place it. "The Wild West. Cowboys and Indians. There's something about that date. I just can't…"
Rick gave him a clue. "Little Big Horn."
"Custer's Last Stand" Jim was a little proud of himself. "Except the date feels wrong."
"June 25, 1876. He died that day."
Jim nodded, but he had gotten off topic. Rick was good, really good. "You're named after your grandfather; who's your grandmother? And I don't mean a few years ago grandmother or grandfather." He was a lawyer for a reason.
"Well if we're right it's been a lot longer than a few years ago," Rick deflected; Jim glared at him.
Rick sighed. "You're not going to believe me. You don't know enough to believe me. It's like… like starting a movie in the middle and not being able to understand the end. You've missed too much."
Jim bristled in annoyance. "I've caught up to everything so far. You're from the future and now we all are far into the future. You knew about the house. It's your fault that we're all here now. You and your Rift device because America made so many mistakes in the past."
Rick thought it over and tried a different tack. "What do you know about quantum mechanics?"
Jim thought he knew. "You're talking about futures. Futures that haven't happened yet or may never happen or always happen. It just depends on where you are and in what time you are. Correct?"
"Pretty close actually." Rick made his decision and hoped for the best. "My grandfather in 1876 was Richard Edgar Castle and his wife, my grandmother was Katherine Houghton Beckett."
Jim sat there dumbfounded. "Our family doesn't date–" Rick interrupted him.
"Both died in 2011 and found themselves reborn in 1874. My grandfather was a writer. The Derrick Storm and Heat Wave series are his most well known works. My grandmother was a homicide detective for the 12th precinct of New York City. They were both killed by the same person for the same reason." He stopped to let that sink in.
"Died?" Jim croaked. He wasn't keeping up quite as well as he had hoped. "Time travel." He had thought he was ready, now he wasn't so sure.
"Do you still want to know or wait till you learn and understand more?" Rick wasn't sure what he wanted him to say.
"Just… one question and get a straight answer?" Jim had just one he was still willing to ask. Then suddenly he had two. "Or maybe make that two." Rick chuckled but Jim kept silent.
"We're talking about my Katie here, aren't we?" He didn't understand how but somehow it was his daughter they were talking about.
"Remember quantum mechanics? The answer is yes and no," Rick warned.
Jim's head was starting to hurt and he pressed his fingers to his temples. If Rick knew so much because he was from the future, what else did he know? "Do you know what happened to my wife?"
"Yes, as did my grandfather and grandmother back in 1876." If that didn't make Jim's head explode he didn't know what would. Or if anything could.
The look of utter confusion on Jim's face told him that it just might. "Died but didn't die." He remembered something. "I'm… explain, please." If he was right he'd just heard that his daughter was going to die. Wasn't losing his wife bad enough? Did he have to lose his only child, too?
"I can try but it's going to be hard to follow."
"I think you just told me that my daughter dies in the future and ends up in 1876… married. And you're a descendant from a Rick Castle and my Katie." Jim was trying to piece it all together. What he could really use was a drink.
"Your Kate Beckett didn't believe the homicide detectives that showed up and told you that it was a random gang event. So she left college and joined the police academy instead. Her plan was to try and find out who killed her mother." He paused to see if Jim was still with him.
Since Jim remained silent he kept going. "The person who had your wife killed decided that Kate and Rick were too close to finding out his identity so he had them both killed. It gets a little more complicated, however both find themselves in the same place after being killed.
"They'd been in love with each other before dying; they married and had kids. Alexis and I are direct descendants from that union. Kate, your Kate, became the town's sheriff while Rick became owner and operator of the town's restaurant and wrote pamphlets." He gave them a storybook ending. "They both lived happily ever after."
Jim wasn't sure what to believe. Someone he barely knew was talking about his daughter dying and yet not dying and that he was descended from his daughter who was on this ship right now. Trapped far into the future.
Rick reminded him about asking those questions too early before learning more first. "I did warn you."
Jim disputed his story. "But we're trapped here, now, far into the future. Unless you lied about the house."
"Like I said, quantum mechanics. We're presently living in one timeline mostly thanks to the Rift Device. Our futures and yours are now altered in ways none of us are going to understand. Your wife is still dead, but as long as you two stay in this time line your Kate will not die."
Jim tried to think it through. "But if my Katie is your grandmother and she doesn't die, how are you even born?"
Rick knew that just talking to him wasn't going to work so he picked up a pad and pulled out the stylus. "This is time." He drew a straight line. Then he drew a big black dot on that line. "This is the time of the Rift event." Then he drew several lines in different directions off of that dot. "One of these lines is now our timeline instead of this timeline." He pointed to the original line. "Everything we do going forward will be new for all of us. This is now our life, instead of what would have happened. We know what would have happened without the Rift Device because we were from 2327 and had a history. Actually we still have a history; it's just that our future is now different."
Jim wasn't catching on just yet. "So if we change anything it won't affect the past?"
Rick tried again. "Oh, it will, yes. But the past that we affect will be our past now and not an alternate past."
"So my Katie is not destined to be killed?" Jim hoped he had it right. No parent should outlive their child.
"Correct, her future is just that. Hers. Any choices she makes from here on out will affect her, not what someone else chose for her."
That brought Jim back to what Rick had said earlier. "If I heard right, you know who killed her and who killed my wife."
Rick sighed; he'd almost said too much already. "In that timeline, yes. As did that Rick and Kate in that timeline back in 1876." That was where things became still more complicated.
Jim skipped past that part for now and asked his question. He really wanted to know who had taken his wife from him and why she had to die. He asked the million dollar question. "Who?"
"Keep in mind that I don't know why she was killed. I just know who ordered to have her killed and don't know who actually did the deed." The two things were exclusive and he only had one answer.
Jim asked him yet again. "Who?"
Rick paused a moment before he answered. "His name was William H. Bracken. Senator William H. Bracken to be precise."
"A senator? Politics got my wife killed?" Jim couldn't believe it. When had his wife gotten that involved in politics? Hell, most of the time they both hated politics. Politics were unavoidable especially since they were both lawyers, but never in his wildest dreams did he think they would get either of them killed. Then he thought of something. "Why kill Katie?" God, did politics have to take everyone he loved? What was living worth if he had no family.
"Remember I said your daughter became a homicide detective for New York City."
Jim quickly ran through what he'd just learned in his head. "She learned something, or he thought she had. Was he really that big of a monster?"
"Keep in mind what I tell you is based on my and your timeline. Not this timeline. William H. Bracken went on to run for the presidency. He was assassinated just weeks before he would have been elected. Yes, he was winning." Rick had a theory on who had killed him, but he had nothing and Lex wasn't talking, if she even knew.
"At least the shit got what was coming to him. Maybe what goes around does come around." Jim wasn't sorry Bracken had been killed. If push came to shove he wasn't sure he wouldn't have been the one to do it. Especially after he had killed Katie.
"Karma can be a bitch," Rick agreed. "I'll leave it to you what and when you share with Kate. I'll ask Lex not to talk until you tell us we can." Jim nodded his head.
He really had no idea what to tell Katie. Jim had a feeling these two knew a lot more. "I suppose there's more?"
"I warned you it was complicated." Rick hadn't even talked about Richard Rodgers and Snohbal yet.