CH53
It was amazing what they had to go through to just reach their ship. Everything was searched, even them from the top of their heads to the tips of their toes. NAKED! "What were they afraid of anyway?" Kate questioned Rick as they walked up to the front of the ship where they found Vincent and AMEE waiting for them. "Vincent!" Alexis was happy to see him and actually hugged his metal body. "I didn't see you get in a shuttle, I was afraid you'd been left behind." Alexis blinked back her tears. "Commander Castle loaded us in one of his storage containers. It was a little cramped, but we left the planet safely. It is good to see all of you." Vincent would have smiled if he could. "This is my mother, Claire. Mother, Vincent. Vincent, Claire." Rick introduced them.
The ramp was at the very front of the ship. The landing strut was actually behind the ramp this time. The very edge of the front of the ship was also the front edge of the ramp. Kate noted that it wasn't nearly as big as their ship, the Jupiter II, and she was introduced to how military sailors were housed. "Bunk beds?" She groaned. One bunk bed with upper and lower beds on one side, a small desk and a vertical locker for their clothes on the other.
Rick stuck his head in. "We need to learn this ship before we leave. It shouldn't be too hard." He was hoping it wasn't anyway. As they searched the various bunk rooms for the crew Kate gathered up pillows, sheets and blankets, and dropped them in her room. She used them to encase her son so that he couldn't wiggle around and fall on the floor.
They found the showers which were open and next to the open toilets. "So much for privacy." Claire wasn't a fan, that was until they reached what they were guessing was the captain's room. It had a single twin-size bed on one side, the same desk and locker on the other, however, there was a door that led to a private restroom with a shower. "My room." Claire was ready to move in right then but they still had to look around. They found the kitchen which was sized to feed twenty along with the small dining room that could only seat eight people. "They starve?" Claire questioned. "They rotate Mother. Who's running the ship if they're all eating or cooking?" Rick said.
Kate searched the kitchen and found the dry goods storage as well as the walk-in cooler and freezer. "We have supplies and I'm betting these are your eggs." Kate wrinkled her nose which earned her a kiss from Rick in compensation. They also found a conference room before finding the engineering section. "Well, this looks familiar," Kate remarked, pleased. "Except it's completely cold, meaning we won't be going anywhere immediately," Alexis countered. "You three go find the bridge. If you want me this is where I'll be." Kate headed for a panel to find out what she had to work with.
Along the way they found Medical. It only had one bed but had a wall of three medical pods on one side. "You two go on, I'm going to look around." Alexis got a hug and a quick kiss to her cheek from Rick.
"Those two are perfect for each other. I can see what you see in Katherine, Richard. She's good for you." Claire was quite pleased that he'd chosen so well. "They're both the best." Rick finally found the bridge which had a command chair, one for engineering, and one for weapons. "Have a seat Mother." He patted the command chair before sitting down at engineering. "Let's see what we've got." He logged into the system and started checking things out. "Shields ...dark. Weapons ...dark. Power levels ...zero. We're on batteries." He pressed a button. "It's dark up here Kate. Everything's down; we're on battery power," Rick informed her. "Tell me something I don't know," she countered then told him, "Give me fifteen or twenty minutes and I'll have something for you."
Eventually Rick's panels lit up as did Alexis's which told both of them that Kate was waking up their sleeping ship. Suddenly Rick and Claire heard Kate's voice. "Full power available, the system is up and stable. Diagnostics show everything green. We're good to go babe." She liked Coruscant but she really wanted to see Earth and show them her planet.
Rick moved to the pilot's seat and contacted Control for clearance to launch and then again to reach orbit followed by permission to break orbit and enter FTL. Kate was watching everything on her screens. "FTL is available, ready when you are," she called out. Rick's voice came over the intercom. "FTL in three ...two ...one." Everyone felt the familiar surge of speed instead of the feeling of being ripped apart and put back together again and vomiting into a paper bag.
Rick stayed on the bridge with Vincent after his mother left in search of Kate and Alexis. They searched the ship a little more closely. They found that save for plenty of fuel, medical supplies, and food and water, the ship was empty. "It looks like it's just completed construction Mom. We might be the first to use it after its shakedown cruise," Alexis hazarded.
"I think I like the ambassador's ship better," Kate commented as Alexis nodded. "I can watch my brother if you and Dad want some time," Alexis suddenly said. Kate blushed a brilliant red. She'd just been given approval from her daughter to have sex with her husband. "Um, thanks Alexis," she squeaked. "Maybe you and Claire can decide who gets to watch him." She knew Alexis wasn't her only option. "Oh! I've gotten so use to it being just us." Alexis was ashamed that she had forgotten her grandmother.
Kate hugged her. "We still have to figure out what we're going to do for the next two years before jumping to our new home, let alone what we're going to do after we reach it." Kate didn't have a clue. "We'll have a ship Mom. The ship that the ambassador spent a year in reaching Xerxes. We could keep exploring," Alexis suggested. "Plus it's lightly armed and has shields. Even Admiral Zandur's ships are no match for it."
Kate would think about it. "Help me with lunch?" she asked and they started walking to the kitchen.
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The trip was uneventful if not exactly comfortable. "And Father wants to know why I didn't want to join the military and be out in space," Rick commented dryly. "Your father wanted to continue the history of the Castles. You broke the history of a Castle being in the military. He simply lost sight of what was truly important. But he came around," Claire said defensively, a bit miffed at her son for bringing up a sore subject again.
"We'll be there tomorrow. So what's first or more importantly, where do we have to go first?" Rick asked. "This ship isn't invisible," he added. "We have to walk at least until I can get access to some of my cash. Basically downtown Manhattan." Kate saw blank faces looking back at her. "You don't know where Manhattan is?" Kate rolled her eyes. Of course they didn't know where Manhattan was. "Is it anywhere near where we found you?" Alexis tried using what little they knew to get an idea on where it was. Kate shook her head. "Wrong side of the river," she said. "We crossed a river didn't we Dad?" Alexis questioned. "You came from Manhattan to find me? Where did you land last time?"
"We landed in this big lake. We left the ship in hover mode and glided across the water in our little pod. Not likely we can do that this time." Rick was thinking that the ship was too big. "Big lake, ...big lake. The reservoir in Central Park? That wouldn't be too far away. It might be an easy walk for us. But where do we land?" Kate tried to think. "I've had an idea about that. We land in the same place as last time," Alexis replied.
"And it'll be surrounded by police and eventually the National Guard in no time, plus it would be all over the news worldwide." She shook her head shooting down Alexis's idea. "If we were still on the surface, yes." Alexis already had a notion of where to hide. "This is a spaceship Lex, not a submarine." Kate had no idea what she was thinking. "What if we just sink a few feet? We should be out of sight enough to not be noticed." Alexis explained her plan. "And how do we get off the ship without drowning?" Kate questioned. "We land at night right on the edge of the lake, open the ramp, and walk out. Vincent takes it out into the lake and submerges it and waits for our signal." Kate blinked at how easy it sounded. But was it that simple?
Come the next day they were in orbit and scanning the area of New York City till Kate pointed out the location of the reservoir. "We need to wait till it's dark and really late and move quickly," she suggested. "The bank is at 86th and Madison but it doesn't open until 9:00 in the morning so we need to wait somewhere. The Robert Goldwater Library isn't far, we could wait there," Kate said. "It's your city," Rick told her meaning that she was in charge. "It looks like it's cold there again." Alexis zoomed in a little and they could see people's breath as they walked plus everyone was in heavy coats. "Looks like we bundle up," he commented.
They had to wait. Rick descended much like he did last time then traveled toward New York from far out over the Atlantic Ocean just above the waves in total darkness. Kate was on the bridge in the command chair using its screens to direct Rick up the Hudson river till he could skirt across over to the reservoir and hover near an old building that they later learned was the South Gatehouse. They left moving the ship in close to Vincent while they grabbed a suitcase. They bundled up for the cold and hustled down the ramp. They stepped out onto a green space and ran for the running track that circled the reservoir before heading for 85th street. The walk to the library was easy enough and naturally it was early in the day so it was closed, but it gave them someplace to sit outside and wait.
"We can start walking for 87th and Lexington, there's a Starbucks there. Even if we don't buy anything we can get in out of the cold for an hour before moving on." A number of blocks later everyone but Kate was looking around at everything they could see. By the time they made it to Starbucks it was 6:00 am and they were just unlocking their doors.
"Can we get you something?" one of the ladies in the store inquired. "Nothing yet thanks, we're waiting for our friends to join us." Kate lied so that she didn't throw them out. Naturally she needed to use the restroom to nurse her son and change his diaper.
Kate and the others were waiting for Claire who was using the restroom. "Paper, seriously!?" she whispered in shock to Kate who started laughing. "Sorry, sorry. I'd forgotten about a lot of the little things my planet doesn't have. I'm going to miss your system, too, just so you know." Then they exited the coffee shop and headed for the bank.
"Sit here, take Ricky, and give me that." Kate traded with Alexis. She held her brother while Kate took the empty bag she was carrying. "I'll be back." Kate let a teller know that she wanted to see the branch manager and was eventually escorted to his office. His eyes opening wide showed his shock at seeing her again. "Hi, I need to transfer some funds and turn it into cash. You said you would help, well I still need a little help. After this I won't bother you again," she said. It all left him speechless. "I'll, ah, need your account number." Kate wrote it down for him and waited while Roberts began filling out forms and then had her sign them. The amount she was asking for was a bit of a shock, but he had done it once before so he knew she had the money.
Over an hour later he returned in his office with two bags that held the cash she had asked for. "Give me a minute?" she asked him. "Sure." He left her in his office while Kate quickly removed the cash from both bags, took another bag out of her bag, and loaded them both with all the cash. Once done she left his bags behind and headed for the exit signaling her friends to follow her.
Outside she flagged a taxi van and everyone climbed in. "Electronics store please." She snuggled her son and remained quiet during the trip. "We need one of our own, pick one you like Lex." It only took Alexis about thirty minutes to make her choice and Kate was paying in cash for a Sony VAIO VGN-TX27GP. It even had a red case. "What am I going to do with it?" Alexis questioned once outside. "We need a free Wi-fi spot so you can search for a hotel for us for a few days while we decide what to do," Kate explained.
Naturally the taxi driver knew right where to take them and soon Kate was paying for a two bedroom hotel suite in the Langham Hotel on 5th Ave. At that price she didn't want to stay there long. Still it was just what they needed. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, living room, full kitchen, stacked in-room washer and dryer unit, dining room table that seated four. It even had a view of the Empire State Building.
Alexis was holding her little brother while staring out the windows. "That's the Empire State Building. For a while it used to be the tallest building in the city. It's still an iconic building even if it is a little old now. Lex, we need a place to stay, this place is too expensive to be here long. We also need to find out what date it is." Kate took her son from her to allow her to start looking on the computer.
They were all sitting in the living room watching Alexis do some searches. "It says today is December 6, 2006." Kate's mouth fell open. "I've missed another birthday. I was twenty-five a few weeks ago on November 17." She wasn't sure if she was angry or just shocked. Where had the time gone? "We'll celebrate anyway Mom," Alexis assured her. Rick kissed her deeply and hugged her tightly while little Rick was in their room sleeping.
"We need a house to rent; the question is where do you all want to spend the first year? I need to go to a DMV tomorrow and see if I can renew my drivers license. We can buy or lease a car for two years and drive places. Florida has Disney and lots of nice beaches. Or we can buy airline tickets and go somewhere. London, Paris, Berlin, Rome maybe, after we figure out how to get all of you passports. Look up tour companies Lex, see what they're offering." They were interested in lunch by the time they had a list of tours they could take to see some of the planet.
First option - Fly into Budapest for a three day stay, move on to Vienna for a three day stay, then to Prague, Krakow, and Warsaw each for a three day stay followed by Berlin for a three day stay.
Second option - Twelve night Baltic Cruise. Start in Amsterdam, Netherlands; Skagen, Denmark; Tallinn, Estonia; St. Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki, Finland; Stockholm, Sweden; Copenhagen, Denmark; returning to Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Third option - Canada Coast to Coast by Train. Two nights Vancouver, one night Kamloops, two nights Banff, one night Lake Louise, one night Jasper, three nights via Rail, two nights Toronto, two nights Montreal, two nights Quebec City, one night via Rail, three nights Halifax.
"Have you been to any of these places Mom?" Alexis was curious and watched Kate shake her head. "All of them would be best if we waited to go until next summer which is months away but we need to make reservations now to reserve space," Kate told her.
"We still need a place to rent for the first year. We can get tickets to Disney now. It's after Thanksgiving and before Christmas so it's probably mostly empty meaning the lines for the rides won't be long and it won't be hot and muggy. We'll need a hotel room and stay on Disney property to avoid needing a car and we'll need airline tickets to fly there." Alexis began searching.
"How long do we stay?" Alexis asked. "Two weeks maybe?" Kate wasn't sure. "It says here that there's also something called Universal near Disney World; we could go to both. They also have hotels on their sites," Alexis suggested. "A week at both perhaps?" Kate wasn't certain.
"Six day park hopper?" Alexis offered and it sounded reasonable to Kate. "Hotel with two bedrooms." Alexis changed her search. "There's a two bedroom suite in something called the Grand Floridian." Alexis kept searching. "Four day park to park tickets for Universal?" Alexis questioned and Kate could only hope that was enough time for them. "Hotel with two bedrooms." Alexis changed her search again. "There's a two bedroom in Portofino Bay hotel." Alexis did her best to make reservations for airfare, hotel, and ticket purchase. "They want something called a credit card for all of this," Alexis told her.
"We can fix that tomorrow after a trip to the DMV," Kate said. "Be sure to bookmark everything so you don't have to search again."
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Rita pulled out her offending device that was making noise. "Yes?" she asked seeing it was Kevin that was calling her. "I've got a hit," Kevin informed her. "About time, what's he doing and where is he?" Rita inquired. "Not him, Kate." That had Rita shooting up off her chair. "Say that again?" As her heart started pounding in her chest, which was very unprofessional by the way. It had been something like six years. "Facial recognition has her here in New York City just outside of that bank where Roberts works at 9:30 am today. Looks like she spent an hour and took a taxi when she left. Get this – she left with two adults, what looks like a teenager, and she was carrying an infant in her arms. Plus the clothes she's wearing are like nothing I've ever seen."
"Get down there, find out what she did. If Roberts doesn't talk remind him we have a place in Poland that has his name on it. Get Javi to find out where that taxi took her. I'll call Jack and Mike. One of us will be there as fast as we can. We find her Kev and this time we don't lose her. Get on it." Rita hung up her phone and all but collapsed back into her chair.
She scrolled through her contacts till she got to her husband. He picked up after just one ring. "She's back babe, she's back. Kevin has her on facial rec outside of that bank where Roberts works. 9:30 am today Jack, today." Rita heard nothing on the other end. "Jack? ...It's Kate, Jack. She's in New York." Rita still couldn't believe it. After all this time she had a chance to redeem herself to Jim and Johanna. "Mike's closer, we'll both be there as fast as possible. Get Kevin and Javi on her tail. We don't tell Jim or Johanna until we have her in hand. Got it?" Jack was just as shocked as she was.
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Kevin pulled out his phone the second he left the bank after leaning on Roberts. "Talk to me!" Rita had answered after just one ring. "She made a bank transfer from an account in the Caymans. A hundred twenty grand in cash. She took the cash out of his bags and put it in her own," Kevin told her. "Damn it!" They had left him those bags years ago in case Kate ever came back and had planted trackers in them. "Okay, so she still doesn't want to be found. Find out what Javi has on that taxi and get over there." Rita hung up. She knew Kate could do a lot with $120 grand in cash and would be hard to follow.
Hours later Kevin pulled up just as Javi was stepping out of his car. "According to the taxi driver he took all of them to this location." Javi walked into the electronics store and they spoke with the employees.
An hour later they were walking out with a copy of their security footage. Kevin took out his phone. "What have you got?" Rita asked since they had dropped the case they were all working on. "They took a taxi to an electronics store where she paid cash for a brand new Sony VIAO laptop. After that they didn't know. We've got a copy of the security footage," Kevin informed her. "Please tell me you've watched it," Rita asked him. "We both have. It looked like she was with a white male, tall, long silver hair, maybe about thirty. Another was a white female, tall, long curly black hair, somewhere in her early forties maybe. The other is a white female, easily a teenager, long orangish hair. She selected the laptop and Kate paid for it," he told her "Great! Get on where she went next. I'm almost there, just reaching Jersey City now. Mike will be there tomorrow and Jack will be there the day after. Best he could do."
"There's one more thing. She was carrying a white baby in one of those wraps that holds the baby to her chest and she was carrying a diaper bag. The baby looks newborn. Based on Sarah Grace, I would guess less than a couple months. And she looked happy, she was smiling most of the time and even hugged and kissed the teenager with the orange hair," Kevin added.
Rita didn't know what to say. "Get that camera coverage home and study it. Make 100% sure that it's Kate and try and figure out where she went next. Keep looking using facial rec. Get Tori and her friends on it. We find her this time, end of story." Rita hung up and gripped the steering wheel a little tighter. She picked up the phone and scrolled till she had Kevin again. "A baby means she needs baby stuff; start searching baby stores in the area of the bank." She hung up and tossed the phone onto the passenger seat. "Please! ...Please, please, please." She needed it to be Kate, they all needed it to be Kate.
