Space Ghost
Chapter 39
It is now 6 months later
Everyone had settled in nicely into their new ship. They were all wonderfully tanned and had found that if they didn't want to be seen yet still enjoy the places on the ship they could do this easily.
While Rick and Lais had been busy raising their young son the other two couples had found that with just a little care they could have sex just about anywhere out in the open.
Kate was still the leader in go-kart races much to Rick's chagrin. He hated the idea that a woman could beat him at pretty much anything. Not that he was going to say anything about that out loud.
They also still had ice cream and alcohol. Arthur had found that he had the entire space to take care of now instead of just the back side of his bar. He was even serving drinks to someone who sat down in one of the sofas to be comfortable instead of sitting on a stool.
Ador shuffled into the ice cream bar and sat down in one of the stools. "Mr. Ador, what can I do for you?" He didn't usually come in alone.
"Arthur, what have you got that has alcohol with ice cream that can improve a person's mood?" He was down in the dumps. He'd just had his first major fight with Kate. Little ones were basically meaningless, but not this one.
"Let me think. …Give me a minute." He moved over to the ice cream and then back to the alcohol section. "Margarita Pop. Lime juice, condensed milk, orange liqueur, frozen mango, frozen strawberries, 4 limes and of course, tequila," Arthur announced and served Ador with a flourish. It certainly looked interesting and it even had a little, flat, wooden spoon stuck in the middle of it.
Ador taste tested it and opened his eyes wide. "You're welcome," Arthur said. "And I still accept tips." Arthur moved away to clean up his mess.
Okay there was one big problem with having a big ship. It was a big ship.
"Alexis, have you seen my husband?" Kate needed to find him. All Alexis did was point and kept walking. That at least cut down the size of the ship she needed to search.
"BABE!" Kate had found him. She hurried over to him and tried to kiss him but he'd have none of it.
"Please." Only instead of talking to her he got up and walked away. However, he didn't go far. He sat down on one of the sofas and kept working on his drink. Arthur put a little something extra in it because he was feeling it.
Kate sighed. "Vodka, Arthur, lots and lots of vodka." She followed her husband and sat down next to him but not so close that they were touching.
"Babe, I didn't say no." Okay, maybe she kind of had but he hadn't stayed to listen. He'd walked away in anger. "Please understand. A man murdered my mother and I know who it is. I also know who ordered him to kill her. I need for this time machine to work so I can arrest them and send them to prison. We have another six months to reach Earth." Kate looked at the large glass that was left for her.
"Thanks, Arthur. …I don't need to be pregnant when I do this. Please understand. I'm a cop, it's who I am and it's what I do. Now after I arrest them…" They could talk about it again.
"I'm not saying no. I'm saying I want us to wait." Kate still wasn't sure she wanted to be pregnant and have children. Even if she did like Rafael. Having her own was different.
"We'll wait until after you arrest them. Then wait until after the trial and after that until they die of old age in prison. I love you. I do, but I should have stayed at home." Ador got up to leave. "By the way you've put your coat back on," he informed her and walked away.
"My coat?" For a moment Kate didn't understand. "My walls?" Had she really rebuilt all her walls since they'd left? Why would she do that? She was finally happy. She was in love and she was married. Granted she had always feared that she would screw up any relationship she ever got into. Surely she hadn't screwed this one up!
There was only one person who could answer her questions.
Problem was she was back to her most recent one. This was a big ship when you were looking for just one person. But she got lucky. "Alex." Kate stopped him. "Have you seen Rick?"
"Bridge. I'm pretty sure Alexis went there as well. …Why?" He was curious and watched Kate run off toward the bridge. He really wanted to know but didn't think it was any of his business.
She found him on the bridge, all right. Right next to Alexis. "Rick, can we talk…alone? No offense." She didn't need for Alexis to start not liking her again.
"I need some ice cream anyway." Alexis left them.
Rick gave her all of his attention. "What's up?"
"When we reach Earth and we use the time machine, just how far are we going to go back?" She had entertained the idea that they could go back to before her mother was killed. But didn't think that was going to work. Too much time had passed. She wasn't 19 years old any longer and going back in time wasn't going to make her younger.
Rick gave her a hint. "Do you remember the very first time we met?"
Kate had to think for a moment. "Coonan. He came to my apartment to kill me."
"We have to do all that all over again," Rick said, "but technically our first meeting was with you unconscious and dying on a roof with a taxi laying on you."
She frowned. "I was kind of hoping to skip that part. Can I stop him from being killed?" She wanted him in prison, not dead.
"If you do you change the time line. Things will change. Maybe you catch the guy that kills him, maybe you don't. Maybe he kills Coonan and you if you try and stop him. Say you do catch the guy that kills him. Things will change even more. Think about it. What came next for you?" Rick asked her.
"You helped me with Bracken," the man who'd ordered her mother's murder.
"You may not get him this time if you change things. Do you think he'll sit still after you get that close?" Rick inquired.
"He'll have me killed." If Bracken had two killers he had more.
"A possibility. If we change too much something big will change. I don't think it will involve the Xindi. At least not directly. But what if I'm on the planet trying to help you when the Xindi show up? Does that mean we don't stop them? We lose again and that's it for Earth and everyone on it," he warned her. If they lost the entire system was lost. Right down to the sun itself eventually.
"Does that help?" Not that he understood why she was asking him questions. He thought they had done this already.
"Yeah, it does. Thanks." Kate turned to leave.
"Where are you going?" She didn't have more questions?
"To find Lais so I can get pregnant," Kate called over her shoulder.
"PREGNANT?" What did her questions have to do with her getting pregnant? He was so confused. "Women." He shook his head. If he lived to be a thousand years old he was never going to understand them.
| 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 |
Kate never found Ador. She didn't see him again until he walked into their room where she was waiting for him.
Ador saw her sitting on the edge of their bed totally naked. Kate didn't say a thing and used her finger to motion him closer to her. Once he was within reach she worked on removing his pants. "I got Lais to remove my stem. It'll take up to a month to clear the drugs from my system but that doesn't mean we can't try. Make love to me." Kate looked up at him. "We can practice making a baby until I'm pregnant. Though we can still keep making love even after that."
Kate had figured out that if it took a month to clear the drugs, another month to actually get pregnant. They would have four months until they reached Earth. She would be just barely showing when she arrested Bracken. She just had to make sure a car didn't land on her and possibly kill the baby.
| 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 |
One week later they all quickly scrambled when suddenly a shipwide alarm blared.
Lais, Rick, and Rafael were on the beach while Rick was actually having a little fun with the wave machine.
Kate and Ador were in the park recreating one of their picnic in a park dates. Alexis and Alexandre were putting on helmets so they could use the go-karts.
Everyone ran, dressed like they were, but no one really paid any attention. Kate and Ador were last since they had the farthest to go. They both sat down in their seats.
"Got 'em, Dad." She had them on her screen on the scanner table. "It's huge and I've never seen anything like it. It's even bigger than we are." And that was saying something. "They're in FTL." Alexis sent a copy to everyone so they could see.
"Their present course suggests they're headed here." She made that system blink. "Two away from Earth." It was possible that it was from that system. Though it was also possible that it was Xindi.
"If we follow it will add weeks to our arrival at Earth. Which means nothing since after we arrive we use the time machine to go back in time," Alexis pointed out.
"What can you tell me?" Rick was willing to follow them if they were Xindi. A dead Xindi was a dead Xindi.
"It's shaped like a ring. It's a mile in diameter, more or less. I would guess that it's four or five floors tall. I'm not finding any engines like we understand them. If I had to hazard a guess I'd say it could have twenty thousand or more onboard." Alexis tried to keep scanning it.
"Ooo, this is interesting. It looks like all four or five levels have fighter bay doors completely around the ring. That could be hundreds if not thousands of them," Alexis said.
"That sounds like Xindi to me." Even if they were they couldn't attack another ship with either of them in FTL. All combat had to occur in normal space.
"We're being scanned. Looks like we've been noticed," Alexis announced. "They haven't changed course yet. Just scanning, like we are."
The Xindi weren't the only race that used fighters for space combat. Their ship or ships, since he was including Lais's old ship in this, were the norm. Unless your technology was less. Then you still built destroyers, cruisers and the like and built fighters. Some didn't even have shields. They relied on thick and dense armor to protect themselves.
"They just dropped out of FTL!" Alexis suddenly yelled. "We'll go past them in…two hours at this speed."
"Comments?" It wasn't just his ship this time. This involved all of them.
"We drop from FTL and we can talk," Kate suggested.
Alexis beat Rick to it. "I hate to break it to you, Kate, but a lot of races are just like the humans from Earth: violent. Most shoot first and don't bother to ask questions later. Very, very few are nice. Simple explorers unless they are seriously advanced over everyone else. Then they talk. Everyone else is homicidal."
"So they want to attack us? Why even bother?" Kate didn't see the point.
"Technology. The same way the Xindi get theirs. You conquer someone and steal their technology," Alexis replied.
"I'm sorry, Kate, but that's how the Universe works. …Mostly. There are a few exceptions," Lais told her.
"Like my people," Ador said, defending his people and his planet.
Alexis fought back. "That's why they have all those military ships. Same as the planet Lais was taken to. Maybe they talk first and maybe they don't. But they didn't build all those military ships simply because they could."
"We're not killers!" Ador didn't want to think of himself or his people like that.
"How many races have you encountered? How many of them had space flight? How many of them had combat ships even close to yours? How easy was it to get them to do what you wanted?" Alexis argued.
"ENOUGH!" Lais was fed up with the arguing. "This isn't about what the Enthosians did or would do. This is about what we're going to do. If we drop out of FTL and talk to them, what do we ask them? What do they know about the Xindi, for example? They aren't going to tell them where they're from."
"Why wouldn't they if they're willing to talk?" Kate questioned.
"Security. Do you tell the people you arrest where you live?" Lais asked. "No matter how nice you are you automatically assume the other guy isn't until they prove otherwise."
Kate remained silent since she had a point. "So what do we do? We know we aren't going to just kill them." She wouldn't allow them to do that and didn't think they would even consider it anyway. Otherwise they wouldn't be her friends.
"We can stop and talk to them," Lais responded. "It doesn't matter if we delay a few hours. We have the food and we're going to go back in time anyway."
"Alexis, plot us a course. Keep us far away. I don't want to scare them," Rick said. "We'll activate invisibility and check to see if it's worth it first. Then we decide what comes next."
| 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 |
"I have all green," Kate told everyone.
"Same here," Ador announced.
"Thirty seconds, Dad," Alexis warned.
"Okay, we exit FTL and you raise our shields and the invisibility," Rick said to Lais.
"Ten seconds," Alexis declared.
"Check list complete. Exiting FTL…now." In an instant what they saw in FTL out the glass turned into darkness with stars in the distance. Thanks to the darkness they didn't see the other ship.
"Shields up, invisibility active," Lais reported.
"Move the ship along the Z axis." Rick dropped them like a rock until he was far enough away and then stopped.
"Scanning," Alexis stated. "Ship is unchanged though they do have shields up. Primary shields only. Their power usage is a little high. Looks like they've been expecting us." Alexis kept scanning.
"THEY'RE XINDI!" Alexis shouted. "I'm reading 21,337 of them. They're launching fighters. I'm guessing they saw us drop out of FTL." That got all of them to sit up straighter.
"Looks like we get to test our new weapon a little earlier than planned," Rick commented. "Warm up our main weapon." He looked at Lais. "I'm going to move us a little more."
"Better move us more than a little. Looks like their fighters are planning on doing a sweep of this area," Alexis cautioned.
Rick responded to her warning. "Increasing speed and adjusting course."
"We need to drop our invisibility to fire," Lais reminded him.
"Try and put all the power you can to the shields after we fire," Rick asked her.
"Kate, give us a readout of power after we fire. Ador, if we get hit you're going to be busy. Assign bots to each area. The highest priorities are the protostar, shield emitters, and engines," Lais called out.
"Everyone ready?" Rick inquired but didn't wait for anyone to say no. "Targeting, routing power to the weapon. Drop the invisibility and try and keep the shields up. …Firing."
Since everyone was watching out the glass they all saw a really bright lance leave them and head straight for the Xindi ship. It was a lot like a crossbow bolt only longer. It was larger and fatter at the tip and then thinned out toward the rear.
A large explosion happened in the distance. It was also really dark inside until the emergency lights came on.
"We hit them! We destroyed about a quarter of their ship in one shot. Their shields are down," Alexis proclaimed gleefully.
"Power is at 10%," Kate reported. "30%." Everyone noticed that the main lights came back on. "50%, 70%, 90%. Holding at 97.6%" Kate smiled widely. "Elapsed time was 15 seconds."
"Locking onto target. …And firing," Rick announced and everyone that looked saw the same thing as last time.
"We hit them again. We destroyed another quarter of the ship. The two remaining rings are tumbling through space. I'm reading a few secondary explosions on the two remaining parts." Alexis was actually impressed. "Uh-oh. All those fighters are headed our way now."
"Adjusting course. Increasing thrust." Rick was planning on getting as far away as he could. "Do we fire again?" They had two pieces left.
"Suggest reactivating invisibility and using our secondary weapons on the two remaining sections. Without shields they're easy targets. Plus our secondary weapons don't require the same amount of power," Lais recommended.
"Power's up to 97.8% now," Kate said.
"No damage to report," Ador added.
"I'm adjusting course. Prepare secondary weapons. Let's finish this." Rick moved in close to the first section.
"Fighters are still headed this way," Alexis reported.
"Activating our invisibility. …Secondary weapons ready," Lais reported.
"Acquiring target. …And firing." This time it was like watching a Gatling gun firing as round after round stuck the target. Rick then moved them to the other section and fired on it as well.
"Ship destroyed. I'm only reading debris, dead bodies, and fighters that are still trying to find us," Alexis announced.
"Power's down to 93.2% and holding. Make that 95% and climbing," Kate said.
"Plotting course for Earth. Checklist for FTL, please." Rick was ready to leave.
"What about the remaining fighters?" Alexis inquired.
"Where are they going to go? Where can they go? We're done here." Rick didn't care what happened to them.
"Checklist complete. Entering FTL…now." Suddenly what they saw out the glass changed back to what they always saw when in FTL.
| 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 |
"Arthur, we just destroyed a Xindi ship so we're celebrating. What have you got? Preferably something with alcohol," Rick asked him.
"A celebration. Let me think. Something different. I have just the thing." Arthur got busy.
"That weapon is amazing!" In just two shots they'd all but destroyed a Xindi ship. Alexis was smiling widely and thinking that they just might stand a chance when they got to Earth.
"Destroyed a ship in two shots!" Rick was exultant.
At that point Alexandre brought up a potential problem. "And it reduced our power to 10%. It drained us dry."
"Even the lights went out," Kate added.
"So we need to be careful. Good thing the second ship shows up a little after the first one. If we can do to it what we did to this one in two shots we might stand a chance," Rick was thinking.
"Except that first ship can repair itself and it's a whole lot larger than this one. And it carries a lot more fighters." Alexis wasn't sure it was going to be as easy.
"Try and think good thoughts, pumpkin. As Lais has been trying to teach me, have a little faith," Rick said which earned him a kiss from Lais.
"And you, young man. You were really good during all that." Lais kissed Rafael's head. He had just sat on the floor and kept quiet.
"Celebration drinks." Arthur placed one in front of each of them.
"Heavy cream, whole milk, sugar, egg yokes, brownie chunks, and Irish cream. Enjoy." Arthur left them to clean up his mess. "Oh, and for you, young man, one scoop of peppermint ice cream." He set a cup with a spoon in front of Lais.
Rick raised his glass. "To victory over the Xindi!"
"To victory!" Everyone clinked their glass against the others.
One less Xindi ship was always a good thing. Roughly three more months to Earth.