Previously…. After talking with Larek and getting his permission for Ava to return with them and to live on Athos they were off to the ship. As the car turned the last corner and the Crashdown Cafe went out of view Liz let a few tears run down her cheeks in farewell.
Half an hour later, Brody walked back in with two bags packed for each of them. "Hey hunny we are gonna go for a drive and see some friends of Maria's, does that sound like fun?" Sydney nodded and jumped up to put on her shoes. Maria smiled at Brody and headed out to her car. Once Brody and Sydney were in their car Maria turned hers on and headed back to the ship.
Chapter 14
As Maria pulled up to the ship, Brody pulled up beside her as the two cars stopped there was a flash of light and both cars were transported into the cargo bay of Larek's Ship. Maria climbed out of her car and walked over to wait for Brody and Sydney to join her. Brody was shocked and a bit weary, but Sydney thought it was fun and a great adventure. Maria smiled at Brody. "Follow me." Maria walked into the transporter and waited for Brody and Sydney once they were inside Maria stated, "Informal lounge." "Destination approved." Came the transporter voice. Stepping out of the transporter Maria and Brody were met by Jim Valenti and Larek.
"Brody and Sydney, welcome aboard the Royal Diplomatic ship of His Majesty King Larek of Athos. I am King Larek and I wish to say to you Brody I am sorry for the times you have been missing, but I will explain more on that soon. Please follow me to the informal lounge." Not giving anyone a chance to speak, Larek turned and walked down the hallway to the informal lounge. "Enter, enter we are just awaiting Liz, Ava, and my mother Larina to return."
"Wait, what? Ava, did you say Ava? How is that possible?" Maria spoke up wondering what was going on and when did Ava suddenly come into their plans. Larek nodded to Maria. "Yes. She was waiting in Liz's room when she went back to pick up her stuff; as she was checking up on you all. When Liz told her about the past year, she has decided to come with us, as she does not want to stay here by herself without anyone around who can relate to her. I, of course, approved her coming with us. The more the merrier; as the saying is on Earth."
As they were sitting a young woman came in, sat down by Sydney, and showed her a child's game on the tablet to keep her entertained. Once Sydney was happily engrossed in the game, the same young lady stood up and walked around asking if they would like a hot drink or something to eat. Jim, Larek and Maria all asked for a hot coffee and some finger sandwiches.
Just after the coffee and sandwiches arrived Larina, Ava and Liz returned. Walking in they sat down and looked at everyone sitting around on the couches and chairs. Larina asked the same young lady for hot drinks for the three who had just arrived and then looked at Larek, with a quick unspoken communication Larina spoke up. "Hello, my name is Larina the Queen mother, I wish to add my welcome to this ship and to Athos. Brody, I would like to apologise as it was I who unknowingly selected you to host my son while he was on Earth. Both for the Summits and while looking for King Zan of Antar also known as Max Evans to you." Brody looked a little shocked at the apology from Larina. "I assure you I was not trying to make you feel like you had missing hours or like you may have done something unforgivable, I did try to arrange it for times when you would be sleeping but alas time differences do not really help."
Larek took over from his mother explaining to Brody what was happening. "Brody as Maria may or may not have told you when Max healed Sydney he accidentally changed her DNA. We do not wish for her to become a laboratory experiment and wish to offer both yourself and Sydney a home with us on Athos. If you wish to accept this tonight, we will take a small sample of your DNA and grow a shell body, that will be put in your car tomorrow and the car will be involved in a head-on collision with Sheriff Valenti's vehicle which will kill Jim here, his son Kyle, Maria, Liz, Sydney, and yourself. Once the accident happens we will be leaving to collect the other four children that Max healed the night he visited Sydney, we just must make up our collective minds if we will be taking just the children or their families as well. By families, I mean a mother, father, brothers and sisters who live together." Watching everyone around, the room Larek continued, "We will put it to a vote for everyone to say what they think and why." Larek sat down and waited for everyone to think about what he had said and to wait for them to gather their thoughts.
A few minutes later when Larek believed everyone was ready, he started. "Jim, what are your thoughts?" Thinking for a few minutes more Jim spoke, "I want to say to take just the children but thinking how I would feel in that situation and the thought of Kyle going missing with no explanation, makes me as a father want to make sure that families are kept together. So, for me, the choice is to take the whole family. " Larek nodded, "Kyle, your thoughts?"
Looking at his dad, he spoke up, "I agree with my father; I would not want to separate young children from their parents, and I don't think they should be. So, like my dad, I believe we should take the whole family." "That is two for the whole family, Maria your thoughts?"
Maria was at a crossroad with her thoughts, "I don't know. I do not think we should separate families, but I do not know if all the families will be understanding and what would happen if the parents do not agree? My thoughts are we should just take the children and help them adjust to their new environment." "That is two for the whole family and one for just the children, Brody?"
"I think we should take the whole family, as I would be upset if I was left behind and Sydney was taken I would have started a manhunt for her. So, for me the whole family." "That is three for the whole family and one against, Ava?".
Ava had to think a bit more finally speaking up, "I am new to this group and even though I would not want to be separated from family. I have been there, and I can say I have matured well from my time away from my family, and even planet. These older adults do not know of us, they may put us at risk or may become another Kivar. So, for me, I do not think we should even be taking the children. But I do not want to see them become science experiments in the white room, so I say just the children." "That is three for the whole family and two against, Liz?"
"I think we should take the whole family. We are talking about children; they have already been through the hell of cancer, and now we are talking about taking them to a whole new world; we should not be putting more stress on the kids and give them a new world with their loved ones. So, I say we take the whole family. "Larek nodded to Liz. "That is four for the whole family and two just the children, Mother your thoughts."
"I do not know really how things are done here on Earth but on Athos family is everything and children are surrounded by their families, so for me, I believe we should take the whole family." Larek smiled at his mother "That is five for the whole family and two for just the children." Looking around the room Larek smiled to himself, he knew these people were good people and this has just proved it. "Well, my vote is not really needed but just so you all would know I agree the children need to be with their families."
"With the vote out of the way, Ava could you please help us, as we create the clones for the car crash tomorrow we need human DNA for Liz, Maria, Kyle, Jim, Brody and Sydney. For most of them, we can create a small cut which will give us live blood and skin to be used and can be healed quickly." Nodding Ava went and stood with Larina, remembering past times when she would play with Larek as a child and spend time with Larina learning how to be a princess and a future queen.
"Liz could you please show Brody and Sydney to a suite of rooms, in the guest quarters on deck 5A please, and then bring them down to deck 4C to the Labs for the DNA sample to be taken. The room set up is the same as all decks for the doors." Liz nodded and walked over and took Sydney's hand, with Brody following Liz left to help them sort out their suite of rooms.
"Kyle, Jim, Maria if you would like to come with us, we will head down and get the DNA sample now, so we can start on your clones for tomorrow." With that Larek turned and walked to the transporter as the remaining guests and Larina stepped in Larek commented about them about to see parts of the ship they had not yet.
Walking down a hallway they came to a room that had the nameplate Bio-lab Three in English and something else in Athonian, walking in Larek waved for the three from Earth to take a seat on the beds. After picking up a few scalpels, Larek first walked to Jim. "What I am going to do is cut a small patch of skin off with blood veins in it, I will then quickly heal the sight for you, then I will set the skin and blood vessels in a special tube over there that will make a clone of your body but that is all it will be. A simulacrum which is an image or representation of someone or something with your blood and DNA. A by-product of this is that as I will be healing you for those of you who I heal who have not been healed by Max, Athonian DNA will be introduced, and you will also start to change like Liz and Kyle."
Maria was worried about this but after seeing Kyle and Jim have their blood and skin sample taken and instantly healed, Maria was still nervous but not as much. When her turn came having her DNA taken, Larek like with the others gave her an injection on her arm waited a few seconds then cut the patch out of her arm, then healed her again.
Just then Brody and Sydney arrived, after checking that their DNA had not changed enough to be picked up by Earth testing, Larek also took their DNA samples, placing them in two long tubes each and used Liz's hair from a locket from when she was a baby and some of her blood from an old blood donation they had found. The Earth group watched as Larek, Larina and Ava were working on two tubes each, they had one hand on each pod and their power was flowing through and you could see a small baby start to grow and mature. The tubes were six feet long and about thirty-eight inches in width and forty inches in height, they have a solid base, with a rounded opaque top.
Liz looked at the rest of them. "Let us head up to the dining room for dinner, then we can get settled in for the night," as the group left Larek thanked the stars for Ava, for without her they would have been here at least another day.
Hours later and Liz was in her room and fooling around with the personal tablet for her room and had her favourite band playing around her sitting room, while also watching what was happening in bio-lab. As she watched she saw that Larina had finished with one tube it was the pod holding Sydney's clone, Larina had moved to stand between the tubes that held Brody and Jim's Clones and was helping Larek grow Jim's clone while finishing of Brody's clone.
Ava was working slower on Liz and Kyle's clones as she was still only half human and did not have the power reserves that Larek and Larina had. Looking at the tubes Liz could see that Jim's clone was about done and that Larek had left it to Larina as he had moved to help Ava with Kyle's clone.
Brody and Sydney were enjoying their rooms that Liz had helped them set up and shown them around, as Brody was putting Sydney to be she started to talk. "Daddy we are going to go somewhere new and on the way, you are going to meet a lady who will understand everything we have been through and are going through and she will love you and me like a mummy should."
A/N Well this chapter was fun me and Beta AJCorbie ended up arguing over the ages of the characters lol now I am telling her to hurry up and read over it and stop moving my bed lol keeps making me think there is an earthquake… Damn shaky New Zealand. Please review and let us know what you think and PM me if you would like to be part of the story as part of the royal family or even as a parent/brother/ sister of the children max healed. (2,403 words)
B/N For the record at the time I wasn't shaking the bed, although I have kicked the boyfriend out :P