Space Ghost
Chapter 29
Just over 2 months later
"Have a seat, little Miss Nonbeliever." Rick wanted Kate to take the seat Alexis was usually in. He and Alexis had decided to show her something.
"Thanks." She wasn't the nonbeliever she used to be. She sat down and looked everything over. There were panels to press and various screens all over the place, even on both sides of her. And there was what looked like glass in front of her.
"How are your language skills coming?" Rick asked since all of this was going to be in the local language and not English.
"We're into high school now so not too bad. I can only translate Russian into English if I hear it. I can't read it or write it. I know Enthosian better than that." She thought she was making progress.
"Good because unless we say something in English you're never going to hear it again for about three years," Rick warned her.
"Here we go, dropping out of FTL…now." Rick killed FTL and suddenly they exited into normal space. Kate saw a planet and something huge in orbit that wasn't a moon. There were also dots or something bigger flying all over.
Rick spoke to someone. "Timber Control this is Phantom Cruiser, tag125XX returning. Request clearance to planet landing in sector 2019 space number 98."
"That's where we made this ship and I should still own it," Rick told Kate.
"Standby for clearance, 125XX."
"We don't want to get shot to pieces so they're checking my clearance," Rick explained.
"125XX, you are cleared to holding GEL orbit 224 and hold for planetary clearance."
"GEL 224, 125XX is moving," Rick answered.
"We have a space in orbit for now until we can get clearance to enter the lower atmosphere and then land on the planet," Rick said and moved the ship closer. Rick and Kate saw everything getting bigger and bigger the closer they got.
"What's that thing?" It looked like a big sea urchin hanging in space. Though as they got closer she saw that a lot of the spines had ships on the end of them and none of them looked like this one.
"It's a military station. If I even try to go that way without a military security clearance, we won't be long for this world, but we're going that way." Rick pointed toward a different direction.
Kate watched as he slid into orbit and she saw different ships all around them. Most of them weren't their size but a few were. "Can you tell what each of these are just by looking at them?" She was curious about them all.
"Well let's see. That big one out in front that looks like four big balls stuck together in line. That's a cargo ship. Probably carrying gases."
"Gases?" Where would they get gases?
"They travel out to one of the big gas giants, draw some of the gases off, and then store them. What they use them for I have no idea. Gas giants are great places to get various gases. Some are just harder to get than others or are farther out. See that really big guy way out in front? That one goes to a different system get gasses from a gas giant. See the scans?" Rick indicated a screen next to her.
Kate looked and saw both ships show up side by side. The one was four times bigger than the other. "If you're going to go that far you need to go there to get a lot."
She was busy looking at all the ships. "How long is this going to take?" She wasn't even sure how long it had been.
"Depends. There are other ships that want to go to the planet and land. Some like that gas cargo ship aren't headed where we're going and he needs more clearance than we do. We're headed for a desert area that isn't well developed. Some are headed for one or more cities so it should take them longer to get clearance.
"I chose the place because it was cheap and it was close to a train station. Easy to have parts shipped out and then store them. One of the things I need to do is rent two really big bots again. The little ones build pieces then the big ones put those pieces together. After that more bots will interconnect all the little things," Rick explained as they waited.
"I see. Like wiring and plumbing and stuff." Kate was catching on.
"Exactly. What we still need to work out is where everyone will stay. We had a home but it was tiny and only had two bedrooms and a single bathroom," Rick cautioned.
"Sofa. Did it before I can do it again." Kate wasn't afraid.
"Keep that good thought until you see it." It wasn't pretty.
| 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 |
Kate had heard them get clearance to travel down to the planet and land where requested.
As she watched she learned Rick wasn't kidding. They were out in a desert though as they got closer she saw the train line and the station. "Interesting trains." It looked like a train clearly enough however the engine and how they traveled was different.
"That's just the ground trains. Wait until you see the flying trains. They don't carry cargo, though, only the ground trains do that." Rick thought she was in for a shock.
"And there's home." Rick pointed as he began to land.
"Home? I don't see a thing." She didn't see any buildings at all. Just a few bumps on the ground.
Rick rotated the ship just before they landed so they were facing their home's entrance. "There," he pointed.
Kate stared where he pointed and finally saw a glass wall on the side of a large dimple on the ground.
"That's home. It can get hot out here in the summer and really cool at night so building underground was the perfect choice," Rick explained.
Kate saw mostly sand, brush, and a few trees with mountains in the distance.
"No place like home. Let's get started." Rick shut everything down and got out of his seat with Kate right behind him.
| 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 |
"Cozy." Lais wasn't impressed as she brushed some dust away.
"It has been a while. There was only the two of us and Alexis was…younger then." Rick tried to defend it even if that was impossible.
"I remember it being bigger. And cleaner." Alexis ran a finger through the dust.
"You and Alexandre can get the bots out and start cleaning. Lais and I are going into town to find a doctor. For now I'm thinking we need to live in the ship but that will have to change once we start taking it apart. See if you can find out how your investments went. We'll be back." Rick took Lais to the train station.
"What do you want me to do?" Kate was feeling left out.
"You can help us get the bots out of the cargo holds. We need to clean and start making parts for the new ship," Alexis said and headed toward the ship.
| 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 |
"Where are we going now?" They weren't headed for the train station; they had stopped to get to the doctor who had told her everything was perfect. Even if she hadn't asked for him to do anything, though it was mostly too late anyway.
"We only have two beds and Alexis's bed is a twin. There's no way I'm asking Kate to sleep on the sofa for roughly two years. So we're going to go see someone who can build another bedroom and bathroom. Then find out how much money we have," Rick said.
"And get Alexis a bigger bed," Lais added.
"Why would I do that? She doesn't need a bigger bed." Lais glared at him and then curled her hand into a fist. "Fine, we can find her a bigger bed. If she ends up pregnant I'm killing him," Rick warned her.
"Not while I'm around." They were both far too young. "We also need to figure out where we're going to get married."
"We have lots of time for that." Rick waved his hand at her and saw her looking at him. "Do you want to get married while pregnant or after?" He was betting after.
"Good point. But we're still looking." Lais shook her finger at him.
| 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 |
Rick and Lais weren't back yet but at least the place was clear of dust now. "I want at least two of these guys when we get back," Kate informed Alexis and Alexandre. There had been a number of them and they were done in no time at all. Kate would clean but that didn't mean she liked it.
"I'm hungry and the only food we have is in the ship. Can you cook?" Alexis didn't know how. She could possibly feed herself but it wouldn't be anything special.
"Yes, but I haven't had much practice," Kate replied.
"Well unless we want to starve it's either your cooking or we wait for Dad or Lais to come back." Alexis went into the ship.
| 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 |
Kate stopped Lais. "How's the baby?"
She smiled. "We're both doing fine and we're both healthy. I'm going to get even bigger." Lais placed both hands on her belly. Granted she'd done this before but she was approaching the harder part of being pregnant.
They were both interrupted when Rick spotted Alexis. "So what did you learn?" If they didn't have the money then their plans were going to have to change.
Alexis walked over to a pad and handed it to him. "NO WAY!" They didn't have more than they'd had the first time but this was far more than he had anticipated. However, he was convinced they were going to have to strip their ship and keep as much as they could to build the new one.
"You're genius, pumpkin. Pure genius." Rick wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight. Alexis hugged him back. She loved him in way that was hard to describe. Though she also loved Alexandre just in a different way. Being in either of their arms felt really good.
"I take it we have enough?" Lais hadn't done what Alexis had done so while she had money left over, it wasn't that much and it was in a different galaxy.
"We still need to strip the ship of all that we can, but yes, I think it's enough." It might be close but it should work. "We'll take out what we need when we need it and let what's left continue to make us money. Speaking of which, we need money now," Rick admitted.
"What have you done, Dad?" Alexis knew him and feared that he'd bought something they didn't need.
"We have only two bedrooms and one bathroom so I arranged for a contractor to come out next week to build another bedroom and one more bathroom. Kate might think she can sleep on the sofa for roughly two years but she's going to tire of that very quickly," Rick told them all.
"Thanks." Kate was still sure she would have managed but having her own room did sound nice.
"And we bought a bigger bed for you two," Lais said which had Alexis turning to look at Alexandre since he had seen their room. "It'll show up in a couple of days."
"You two hungry? Kate inquired.
"You cooked?" Rick was shocked.
"I know how to cook," Kate said defensively. "I just don't. Mom taught me." She took a breath to calm her nerves and steeled herself. "Rick, what's going to happen when we go back?" She had Bracken right where she wanted him and now she was here and Earth was screwed.
"That's going to be complicated. We need to go back then use the time machine to go back in time to the point where we showed up the first time. If we wait and go back to just before the first Xindi ship shows up, that rhino-thing will have destroyed the city," Rick warned.
"So Coonan and Bracken will still be free." Did she really have to go through all that again?
Rick nodded. "Yes, though some things are going to be different. For example, you know about both men but we'll have to go through everything all over again. If we don't things will change. The future we all know will change to something different."
"Great, do I have to have a car fall on me again?" Couldn't she just skip that part?
"If you don't you'll be back at work with the knowledge that you know about those two men. If you act on any of what you know the future will change, Kate. Coonan may succeed in killing you. Someone else may be sent instead and he may succeed. Bracken may choose to not come to New York and do that interview," Rick explained patiently.
"Wonderful," Kate groaned. It wasn't what she wanted to hear.
"Then we don't show up and have a second ship to fight the Xindi and their two ships." Lais commented since that would change the fight.
"If two show up," Alexis added.
"One sounds better." Alexandre liked the sound of that.
"Or three will show up," Alexis countered. "We left after losing. For all we know another Xindi ship showed up after we left and entered FTL and got too far away to see it."
Lais frowned. "Three against one. Not the best odds."
"Possibly five or more against one. Your ship splits into three again and if another ship shows up it may split into three as well. Even if it doesn't that makes five against one." Rick shook his head; those odds were pretty overwhelming.
"What we know of the future ends when we left Earth. If we wait until just before the first Xindi ship shows up everything changes. You'll be gone from your work for months," Alexis said.
"I might lose my job. Definitely lose my apartment and have everything I own sold." Kate moaned but gave in. "Fine, we show up when you showed up the first time and go through all of that again. Maybe if I jump the car won't crush all of me. And thanks again for the bedroom." Maybe she could avoid being crushed by the car at all and just wait with them for the next step.
"Yeah, Dad can step out in front of that rhino again and get shot…again." Alexis smiled as she teased him.
"You're never going to let go of that, are you?" Rick was thinking of skipping that part.
"Nope!" Alexis kept on smiling at him.
"Remind me why I love you?" Rick teased back.
"Because I'm your daughter. Even if I am presently your only daughter." That might change in a few months but she didn't mind. It simply meant a bigger family.
"So why did two ships show up instead of just the one? Let alone have a third show up?" Kate didn't understand.
| 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 |
They soon found themselves in the Astrodynamics section of the ship.
"The Milky Way." Alexis used the controls to show it. "This is where Earth is." Alexis made a light start to blink. "Now based on sharing information that Lais gave us and what we already knew this is how much of the Milky Way the Xindi have already reached." Alexis made the white dots that were stars turn red.
"GOOD GOD!" Kate instantly saw a lot of red. "That's…that's…almost a third." Kate kept looking to try and reduce that number.
"This is why a second ship showed up and why a third might or eventually will someday." Alexis was sure another ship would show up sooner or later.
"An oasis in the middle of a desert," Kate whispered.
"Pretty much. However, we might not be the only oasis." Rick had a theory. "The Preservers selected me and Lais from Earth and took us to a planet that had the technology to build ships that could stop the Xindi from taking Earth."
"We possibly built the wrong ships," Lais said, given that even this new ship was untested. It could fail as well.
"Yes. Given that as best we know there are eleven billion planets similar to Earth that can sustain life within the Milky Way alone. Just how many have life forms as advanced as the human race is anyone's guess. But say a fraction of those do and these Preservers found even a minuscule number of those and sent them somewhere to build ships. There just might be more people like us out there than we think.
"Maybe they lost, really lost, and maybe they haven't even tried yet. In any case we might not be as alone as we think. Or maybe we are. I guess it depends on just how many Preservers there actually are and how many they found." Rick really had no idea.
"What I don't get is if these Preservers have time machines and can travel in time why have the Xindi conquered this much? Just go back prior to it getting this far and prevent it." Alexis didn't understand.
"Not enough of them. They don't fight; they only search. They don't live long enough. Mom said ours was an ass," Alexandre mentioned.
"Yeah, he was. It was like we were rats with the plague, almost. Like we didn't deserve it but he did it anyway. What if they stopped?" Lais questioned. "Or died out or found something else?"
"It doesn't matter, we handle what we can and don't worry about what we can't. Without the technology or the money this is the only ship we're going to have," Rick stated.
"Can't Earth make ships?" Earth had technology. Yes, they were far behind the people on this planet but that could change. Someday, maybe.
"Earth doesn't yet have the technology to make what we need to make other things, let alone a ship even as powerful as the ship we have now. And who's going to make it?" Earth was fractured into different countries. All of them wanted to control the planet.
Kate wanted to say that it was possible. Except Russia and the United States had just blown up the planet. Until that changed they would never be able to build a ship powerful enough to defend themselves.
"So where do we start?" If it was going to take three years they needed to get started.
Rick beamed at his daughter. "Thanks to Alexis we have the money and we already have the small bots we need. We need to purchase what we need to begin making another ship and having it shipped out here by train." They had to start somewhere.
| 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 |
Kate had watched in amazement when two men showed up in what she took to be a truck that floated across the sand towing a large trailer that also just glided across the sand.
They got right to work. Their two bots leveled the ground then they created footings. Followed by the bots unloading everything. Piece by piece they erected this building that was all white. It was insulated and even had electricity coming from its own power source.
They were done by noon and stopped for lunch. Afterward they started work on the second bathroom building. Thanks to the plumbing and the need to connect it into the existing system this building took a little longer.
Next they set up a series of lights and began work on an enclosed walkway to get from the main building to either of the two new buildings. Then they covered everything with lots and lots of sand and dirt.
Finally they were gone leaving them to look over everything. "No furniture." Kate was sleeping in the ship again since it was far more comfortable than the sofa.
"That arrives tomorrow with Alexis's new bed," Rick promised her.
Overall the one main building was the living room, kitchen, and dining area. Open hallways led to the two existing bedrooms and bathroom between them. Now they had a new open hallway that went to a tee with a new bathroom and the new bedroom. Each room had its own environmental system for cooling or heating.
The main room had just the sliding doors of glass. Each pod had just the one window including the bathrooms. All the walls were white on the inside with what to Kate looked like concrete floors. The kitchen was blue and looked a little plastic to her. At least it had everything.
Then there were the outbuildings where Rick had made his bracers and suit.
"Okay, ladies, we need to start decorating. This place has bachelor written all over it," Lais announced and ignored the moans from Rick and her own son.
"Coffee first," Kate pleaded.
"Um, this planet doesn't have coffee." Alexis gave Kate one of her best please don't shoot me looks.
"There better be enough on the ship or someone's going to die and it's not going to be me," Kate growled threateningly.