Death Becomes Her

Chapter 20

Amelia had hold of Jo because Jim had asked it of her. It felt a little weird but Amelia could guess the reason as they were getting ready to exit their private shuttle thanks to Jim being an admiral. Up in the military section of the Habitat ring she was going to see a lot of races.

Amelia had her arm hooked into Jo's as they began to exit. Very first thing was a Krogan dressed in combat armor and carrying a big weapon complete with a helmet so no one actually saw what he looked like. And beyond him was a lot of action and that included aliens.

Jo had her temporary only-for-today pass that was looked at just to get on the shuttle, but now it was examined a lot more closely. She kept having to place her palm on pads so far.

"Who was that?" Jo whispered as they passed the Marine by.

"Marine. Everything in this section is guarded," Jim told her but didn't tell her anything else. Right behind them were men carrying all of her suitcases and everything Jim and Amelia were bringing with them.

Amelia heard Jo squeak as a squad of Marines without helmets crossed their path though far enough away not to be a concern for them.

"Those my dear, are Krogan," Amelia explained since she had long since met all of them, thanks to Jim being an admiral.

Jim kept walking. "They're the very best Marines in all of the Alliance."

Moments later Jo was squeezing Amelia's arm when someone or something came running their direction and stopped in front of Jim. "Admiral." He, she, or it saluted and handed over a pad. "The latest on the Sagan, sir."

Jim read it, signed it, and handed it back. "Thank you, carry on." He saluted as he, she, or it walked away.

"What was that?" Jo hadn't seen anything like it before and she had watched all of the Star Wars movies.

"An Asari. They all look female to us and we think most of them are, but even the males who think of themselves as being male all look the same," Amelia said.

"It was blue with sections of purple and that hair." Though Jo wasn't sure it was hair.

"You'll get used to it," Amelia assured her.

"You're not going to have a choice if you stay on the Sagan. Half the crew are aliens," Jim informed her. "Somewhere around three thousand people."

"Oh, boy. And Katie's in the middle of this?" Jo questioned.

"Pretty much. As big as the ship is, it's still a ship. There are only just so many places to go," Jim added.

They hadn't made it to the other next destination yet and Jo grabbed Amelia's arm again. "That one is a Geth. They're a construct that has gained sentience. They are self aware and come in two colors."

"Gold are Marines while gray are laborers that have a multitude of uses. Geth don't have the strength that Krogan do, though they're a lot faster and maybe a lot smarter as well," Jim said.

"This is us. Just place your palm on the pad," Jim told her and Amelia.

oOo

Jo found herself sitting toward the front, right behind a pilot who had all glass in front of him. She was sitting next to Jim.

"That is a Mass Relay." Jim was watching as Jo only had eyes for this monstrous thing. It had taken them some time to reach it even in the blackness of space. SHE WAS IN SPACE! She could see ships surrounding it.

"We're going with all of the supply ships, troop transport ships, and military ships to keep the Relay in Alliance hands. When we go, we all go," Jim advised her.

It was hard to see them all in all the blackness of space. Still she was trying to wrap her mind around being out in space. "Katie has done this?" Jo questioned since they were going to her.

"What we're about to do? No, it took her a year to get to where she is now. It's only going to take the blink of an eye for us to get to where she is," Jim explained.

"Five minutes, Admiral," the man up front informed them and now thanks to engines glowing to get into position she saw some of them and she was thinking it was a lot of ships even if theirs was small.

"One minute until we start jumping. Combat ships are first, we're last," the pilot announced.

"Keep your eyes open or close them but this could be a once in a lifetime experience," Jim advised her.

Jo made out by looking forward as ship after ship made its way to the rotating rings then seemingly vanished. She could swear she saw a streak of light going down the side of the Relay.

"We're next," the pilot called out and headed right for the spinning rings.

Watching it was one thing but it looked like those rings were going to chop them into itsy bitsy pieces. Then suddenly the rings were gone and she saw glow after glow of all the ships in front of them.

"That was it." Jim smiled at her.

People had to get off first but the Sagan docking bay was only just so big so they had to wait their turn. The Sagan was crowded and Rick wanted to resolve that first.

oOo

Kate had Alexis standing right in front of her, holding her in place, and Rick was right next to her. Kate could barely believe it. Her dead mother was almost here. Rick had warned her yet again that she was coming from Second Chance so she wasn't going to look like she used to. She was going to be different and yet the same.

That didn't stop Kate from being anxious. "If you don't calm down you're going to spontaneously combust," Rick declared.

"Shush. It's my mother." Her dead and gone but not quite mother.

oOo

They watched shuttles and small ships come and go and another one landed and the doors opened. First one out was Jim. "Here we go," Rick warned her and watched as Amelia was next followed by someone else; then out came suitcase after suitcase.

"Admiral!" Rick stood at attention and saluted him. Jim smiled and returned his salute then they were hugging and slapping each others backs.

"It's good to see you, Rick. Two down and several more to go. I was surprised it was all Krogan." Jim had been expecting something else based on Intelligence.

"You and me both, sir." Rick was convinced it was going to be someone else as well.

"You've met Amelia and this is Johanna Beckett as requested." Jim stepped aside and watched as the two women kept looking the other over from head to toe.

"You're Katie?" Jo had been warned but she looked nothing like her daughter and what was worse was she had her hands over half her face and she was crying.

Kate lowered her hands. "Mom!?" Kate had equally been warned but this woman was maybe only a little older than she was and naturally didn't look anything like her mother.

Kate stepped around Alexis to get closer and look a little closer. "You've changed," Kate told her as in really changed.

"I've changed? Have you looked in the mirror lately?" Jo asked her.

"For over a year now. It's taken me about that long to adjust, too." Kate kept looking her over then she hugged her and let the tears flow. "MOM!"

"Our quarters? We still have a lot of Krogan off this ship," Rick offered and picked up Alexis to get her moving as she only had eyes for the new woman who had her arms around her mommy.

oOo

Kate and Jo walked with an arm around each other and even if they did have a lot of questions, Kate let her take it all in since they had to take the train to get to their quarters.

"WOW! You live here?" Jo was thinking this place was huge.

"Rick is the captain so it's big and we have windows. The Bridge is right across the hall," Kate mentioned.

"And who is this?" Jo bent down to see Alexis.

Kate picked her up and let her wrap her arms around her neck. "This is Alexis, my daughter. Adopted daughter, obviously." Alexis was far too old for Kate to have given birth to her. "Say hi, sweetie. This is my mommy." Kate looked at her.

"Hi," Alexis whispered and buried her face in Kate's neck.

"She's never been this shy before. You should see what she does when Kurn's around." Kate rolled her eyes and for the first time since she had been there Jo saw a touch of Kate in this woman.

"Admiral, if you would care to join me on the Bridge?" Rick asked him. "We still have a lot of work ahead of us. The Krogan have filled all of the available space and the planet."

"Let's get to work, Captain. Have fun, my love." Jim kissed Amelia.

"She's still your mother even if she doesn't look like it. Question her and get used to her. And you, you listen to your mother." Rick kissed Alexis and headed for the door right behind Jim.

Their absence left the women behind and one little girl who was growing up way too fast.

"Pretty strange, isn't it?" Kate questioned Jo.

"You're telling me." What Jo had gone through was really something else.

"You were dead, Mom. Stabbed and left to bleed out. You have no idea how much that hurt." She had literally no idea.

"I know I was stabbed but I don't really remember it. Never even saw him or remember him," Jo told her.

"I dropped out of college, became a cop, and finally a homicide detective to try and solve who killed you," Kate said.

"Katie, no." College was where she should have stayed. "Being a lawyer was your dream."

"I changed my dream. Then I got shot, three times I think. I was stupid. I was running around without backup which was against protocol and it cost me." Kate put her hand on her chest which she was sure where the final shot had entered her body.

"I'm so sorry, Katie. I even had a plan. Right after dinner we were all going to go into witness protection while they went after the man behind it all. I made one little side trip and ruined it all." Jo knew it was all her fault.

"Dad turned himself into a drunk for a long time," Kate told her.

"HE WHAT!? I'll kill him! He's as good as dead. Stupid idiot!" Jo was furious with him.

"Wait, back up. Do you know who was behind all this?" Kate had no idea who it was.

"Of course I know," Jo exclaimed. "I even have a recording of him ordering my murder. Even got my source to get him talking to incriminate himself. Then I hid the tape where he would never find it. I thought sure one of you two would find it. I'm guessing you didn't."

Kate shook her head. She had no idea about a tape. "You knew and you still had us go to dinner?" She shouldn't have done that. That was stupid.

"I thought I had time, Katie. He had only just sent out the order. I hid the tape and was on my way to the restaurant. After dinner we weren't even going to go home, just disappear. It was all arranged."

"You knew? You knew! Who, Mom? Tell me who!" Not that she could do anything about it since none of them were ever going to be on Earth ever again.

"Does it matter now?" Jo asked her quietly.

"OF COURSE IT MATTERS! You were dead. It ruined me and turned Dad into a drunk. A bad drunk, too." Kate had gone through hell.

"Fine. His name is William H. Bracken. At the time he was an NYC assistant DA. Now he's a US Senator with designs on being President."

"A senator?" She knew who but that didn't explain why.

"Mommy?" a little voice called and that had Kate looking and saw Alexis sitting with Amelia in the living room while these two hadn't even left the front door yet.

"I'm sorry, sweetie." She had been so hung up on her mother that she was neglecting Alexis. She hurried to her, sat down next to her, and pulled her in close. That was followed by a number of soft kisses on her head.

"What?" Her mother was looking at her funny.

"You! You even refused to do any babysitting," Jo recalled.

"Times have changed." Like getting shot, dying, then ending up here.

"You're telling me! I'm still not sure how this Second Chance works. I was one place and now I'm another. AND I'M IN SPACE!" Jo could even see out the glass and see ships and the Relay.

"Amazing, huh?" Kate agreed. "I'm sorry, we're ignoring you." Kate looked at Amelia.

"I'm enjoying just watching. You two still have a lot to work out together but that can wait until after the wedding," Amelia suggested as she enjoyed watching these two and how close little Alexis had gotten to Kate.

"That's right. You're getting married. We even found you a dress to wear." Jo had brought it with her.

"A dress?" Kate wasn't sure what she was going to be wearing to her wedding.

"You haven't seen anything until you've seen this dress. I've never seen anything like it. Certainly doesn't look like my wedding dress." That immediately made Jo sad. Her wedding dress was long gone.

"So just how far away from Earth are we?" Jo queried since they were somewhere else now.

"According to Rick, very, very far. And to reach all the other Relays we're going to get even farther and farther away. Neither of us will ever see it again," Kate said.

"And you live here?" Jo meant on a spaceship not just this big room.

"This ship is amazingly large. It's like living in a small town. They even have parks! And you can walk on the ceiling." Kate still hadn't adapted to that yet.

Alexis finally spoke up. "It's cool!"

"You walk in, walk up the wall, then walk across the ceiling. They're these big round balls. One even has a pond on the ceiling. Rick and I have had dates there. I'm still not used to walking on a ceiling, though. It's hard to know just where you are." She couldn't figure out where the door to get home was.

"So have you two decided just where to have the wedding?" Jo was curious since she had seen next to nothing of this ship.

"That wasn't easy. Using the Relay to go to the planet was out. We couldn't get everyone on this ship there or even a fraction of them. The planet here doesn't have any space. So we settled on one of the biospheres. It was all we really have to work with. So get ready to walk on the ceiling." Kate grinned at her.

"For your wedding, I'd even go outside," Jo told her. Kate burst out laughing.

"Mommy, can we go eat now?" Alexis was hungry.

"Go ask your father if he can join us," Kate said and the three of them watched her run to a console and showed them that she knew how to use it.

Alexis got him but he was too busy. She tried again. "Please?" A disappointed Alexis walked back and ended up in Kate's lap. "Daddy said no."

"He really is busy, sweetie. We have a lot of Krogan on this ship. We're overflowing with Krogan and it hasn't gone smoothly. None of these Krogan have ever seen an alien and we have lots of those since even I'm an alien now," Kate explained.

"Cafeteria work for you?" Kate asked Alexis and the little girl shrugged. "Do you start school again soon?" Kate asked, thinking that might get her to perk up. Unlike when she was a little girl, Alexis loved school.

"Cafeteria it is. We have to take the train to get there," Kate warned them.

"I saw that thing. Those clear tubes with this little cars in them. That was different," Jo mentioned since they had used it to get to here.

"This ship is almost two miles long, it would take forever to walk it," Kate noted. "It's home. It's a little like living on a cruise ship back home except there's more."

oOo

"This really is a cafeteria," Jo commented as they entered.

"Only eat what I eat. Ignore what these two eat. We don't have cows, chickens, or even pigs," Kate warned her mother.

Alexis took exception to that comment. "Mommy!"

"Sorry sweetie, but some of what you and your dad eat is disgusting," Kate responded since Alexis knew that already.

oOo

"So anything you two really want to see? You're going to see one of the biospheres for the wedding. I'm told it's part Angoran and part Earth. It's why I have a diamond ring." Kate held out her hand for Jo to see.

"It's your ship. Um, where am I staying?" Jo inquired.

"With us for now. This ship is packed to the gills with Krogan. We did have available rooms meant for people to expand their families and get more crew. When they're gone you will get your own room somewhere. Where isn't up to me. You'll have to ask Rick about that." Kate's focus changed to Alexis.

"You doing okay?" Kate paid attention to Alexis who was still eating, though slowly. Alexis smiled and nodded.

"Katie is a mom." Jo still couldn't get over that.

"It took me a while, I assure you," Kate said. "Well, you're going to get your own room before we leave here so there's no reason to unpack. We've eaten and you've seen our space. Did you bring a swimsuit? We have a pool," Kate offered.

"Swimming? Can I go cycling, Mommy?" Alexis liked both but liked cycling better.

"Are you done eating? I still see food on your plate," Kate pointed out which had Alexis eating one more bite then she was done.

"Okay sweetie, just for you we'll go to the gym. You lead the way." The three of them watched as Alexis ran forward then back to them before running forward again and back again until they reached the gym.

"I've spent a lot of time here. I was seriously out of shape. Alexis usually finds a friend and they ride their tricycles around the track up there." Kate pointed as she watched Alexis climb the stairs to reach the track.

"And those big green lizard looking ones?" Jo tried not to point.

"Krogan. That one is wearing a uniform so he's a ship Marine. Those I trust. Our temporary guests, not so much. None of them have ever seen an alien before so there have been a few instances. A couple of fights but not too serious, or so Rick tells me." She was basically out of the loop.

"OH! Since you're here now keep this in mind. Never, ever back down to a Krogan. At least ones wearing a uniform. Those I trust. If he insults you, then you insult him right back. I called the first one I came across Toad Face. He's become a pretty good friend since then." Kate was willing to admit it. "Alexis loves him and she has him wrapped around her little finger. Pretty sure there isn't anything he wouldn't do for her including risking his own life."

"Aliens, real aliens." Jo shook her head.

"It was a bit of a shock after I got over being here at all. Imagine dying and ending up here instead." Kate was past that point now but she knew her mother had all of that in front of her.

"So why am I 30 years old?" Jo asked.

"Thirty? My own mother is three years older than I am." Kate shook her head. "You'll have to ask Rick. I simply asked if you were in Second Chance. I only learned you existed at all a short time ago."

"You seem to have less trouble than I'm having," Jo noticed.

"You forget I've had a year to get used to looking like someone else. Living on a ship way out in space. Give it a year and you'll see," Kate reminded her.

"So what do you do on this ship? Since you quit being a lawyer and became a cop instead. Not that I'm happy about that because I'm not," Jo tilted her head and stared at her.

"Rick wanted a nanny for Alexis and Alexis chose me. That's basically my job. That and keeping her safe. Now I'm called Mommy but the job is the same. Except I don't get paid any longer." Kate made a face since she hadn't thought about that lately. "Hmm, maybe I should talk to Rick about that. We're not actually married yet."

Jo looked into the gym and spotted Amelia messing around with one of the pieces of equipment and chuckled. Kate looked and started laughing.