Space Ghost
Chapter 42
Epilogue
"Any minute now if I'm right," Alexis announced.
"Be ready to drop invisibility and raise our shields. We fire on the engineering section Alexis scouted the first time," Rick ordered.
An alert sounded as a massive size ship dropped out of FTL. "Now, before they can respond," Rick called out.
"Invisibility down, shields are up. Powering up weapon. Fifteen seconds," Lais reported.
"Targeting and…firing." Rick pressed a panel to fire their main weapon.
"Hit them! They never did have shields. We just blew a huge hole where their engineering used to be," Alexis crowed after the emergency lights came on.
"Power is at 10% just like last time," Kate called out.
"Scan the next target area." Rick wanted to get rid of this ship as fast as possible then move on to the next Xindi ship that was going to show up soon.
"Fifteen seconds. Power is now at 95%," Kate said after the main lights were back on again.
"Target acquired," Alexis reported.
"Locking on target and…firing." Rick pressed the panel and the lights blinked out out yet again.
Just as before they saw a bright lance erupt and reach out to touch the Xindi ship.
"They're launching fighters. Another hit. One more huge hole. Fighters on an intercept course." This ship wasn't going down easy.
"Power is at 10% again," Kate called out.
"I have all greens," Ador added.
So far they had two good solid hits and no damage for them.
"Fifteen seconds. Power is at 92.7% and holding." It wasn't what Kate was used to seeing after they fired their weapon.
"Another target, please, then we move to intercept the next ship," Rick asked and waited.
"Target acquired." Alexis sent it to her dad.
"Targeting…firing." Once again a bright lance reached out to what was left of the Xindi ship and the lights went out until the emergency lights came on.
"Here come the fighters," Alexis warned.
"Routing available power to the shields," Lais said.
"Fifteen seconds. Power is at 91.6% and holding." It was looking like their main weapon really was a power hog.
"Fighters are impacting on our shields," Alexis informed them.
"Applying power to the engines." Rick needed to move to meet the next Xindi ship.
| 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 |
"I have a ship on scanner. It's in FTL and headed this way. Two hours out and closing," Alexis reported.
Rick somehow remembered it arriving a little sooner than this. It had actually caught them by surprise last time. Maybe it was because, for the most part, they'd finished off the first Xindi ship so it just seemed wrong.
| 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 |
"Here it comes," Alexis announced. "Remember this one can divide itself into smaller ships."
"That I'll never forget," Lais shuddered and Alexandre nodded.
"Scanning. It's hard to tell. Each ship has an engine so I'm just going to pick one." Alexis sent the target to her dad.
"Targeting and…firing." Rick pressed a panel.
Just like the other three times, a bright white lance reached out and touched the Xindi ship and the lights went out.
"We hit it. Part of it has a really big hole." Alexis was willing to admit that this weapon was way better than the ones on their old ship.
"Power is at 10% again." Kate calls out.
Ador saw something different. "I have a single red light."
That had Alexis moving to his station. She reached past him to press a series of panels. "One of our three power conduits to the weapon has developed a crack in one of the seals. I've sealed it off and routed all power to one of the other two." They were still in business. Alexis moved back to her scanner table.
"Guess what?" Alexis asked.
Alexandre offered his guess. "They're separating into three ships."
"Likely to get away from the one with a hole in it.
"Twenty-five seconds. Power is at 90% and holding." It took longer this time and they had less power.
"Each ship is firing at us. Target acquired." Alexis sent it to her dad.
They all felt their ship move. Then Rafael finally let them know that he'd had enough and began to wail. "I've got him." Alexandre moved over to pick him up and talked to him in a low, soothing voice to help calm him.
"Power is down to 88%," Kate announced.
"Targeting and…firing." Just like all the other times a bright lance reached out to touch the Xindi ship and the lights went out.
"Routing all secondary power to the shields," Lais called out.
"Power is at 9% this time," Kate reported.
"I'm reading a power surge in the remaining ship." Alexis wasn't just sure what that meant.
Rick clenched his hands. This had to work. "Transfer all power to the engines. We need to FTL before they ram us." If they'd done it last time, they would do it this time.
Lais didn't even blink and swiftly did as she was asked. "Ready."
"FTL…now." They watched out the glass and saw them enter FTL; then almost as fast they were back in normal space.
"Nice work, Dad! The Xindi ship's now where we used to be." Alexis was happy and impressed.
"Thirty seconds and power is at 88% and holding." This fight was using up their power.
"Target acquired," Alexis announced and forwarded coordinates.
"Let's see if we can put an end to this. Targeting and…firing." Yet again all the same things happened.
"Another hit. Scanning. All three ships now have huge holes in them and I'm reading very minimal power in each." The fight was basically almost over.
"Power is now 8% and holding." Kate was beginning to worry.
"Just that one red. All the others are green," Ador added.
Rick sat back. "Well that went much better." The main Xindi ships were now all out of action.
"There are still a number of fighters around and all of them are headed our way," Alexis reminded him.
"Routing secondary power to shields." Lais was pretty sure that would keep them out if they made it this far.
"Now what?" Ador asked. He knew they hadn't gotten this far last time.
"Now we regain power and use our secondary weapons to finish off what's left of each Xindi ship. We don't need them to repair them and send them crashing down to the planet." If they were willing to kill themselves to kill their enemy, they might do just that.
| 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 |
"Ready to go?" Rick watched as Kate and Ador were kissing just outside an airlock.
"I'll be back, babe. I promise. Just as soon as Bracken is officially arrested for all that he has done, I'll call. I can listen in from up here." Her life was here now. She could go down and visit her friends later. "Besides, you have all my coffee." Kate grinned at him.
Kate gave him one more kiss and joined Rick. "Let's go." She wanted to see the look on Bracken's face when he was more himself and knew that he was going to be convicted and spend his life in prison for what he had done.
| 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 |
It was weeks later and Kate had watched Bracken being processed and sent to jail to await his trial. The lead prosecutor was more than happy. He had all the video of Bracken's confession as well as several witnesses to his confession.
As a result police in two states had raided every place Bracken owned or that the PAC that supported him with money owned. The prosecutor not only had him arrested for murder, but he also had him for possession of illegal drugs with the intent of distribution.
Even Kate was surprised by just how much real money Bracken had access to. They were still searching for any offshore bank accounts he might have. A few of his computers had heavy encryption and the best in FBI were trying to gain access to them.
"Babe!" Kate ran into Ador's arms and kissed him senseless. Kate had what she wanted. Her mother was resting in peace and she was married and pregnant.
Kate left Ador and walked over to Rick who was standing next to Lais who had Rafael in her arms.
Kate felt tears running down her cheeks because she knew who she had to thank for all of this. Bracken, her husband, her future child. Hell, her future life was all because of him.
"Thank you!" Kate hoped Lais wouldn't be angry at her or Ador, but she grabbed his head with both hands and kissed him soundly. "I owe you…for everything."
"We're happy for you, Kate. You deserve it." Lais wasn't angry. She lowered her voice. "Just don't kiss my husband again." She smiled at her and Kate chuckled.
"What are you going to do now?" Rick asked.
Kate turned to look at her husband. "We still need to talk about that." They hadn't gotten this far.
"In that case if you and Ador will meet me at the usual airlock in say an hour." Rick had a plan.
"Okay." Kate couldn't think of why they would want to do that, but she owed him so she would be there.
| 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 |
Kate showed up with Ador hand in hand to find Rick and Alexis waiting for them; both were dressed in their Space Ghost suits again.
"What's going on?" She had no clue.
"You go with Alexis and Ador comes with me. You two follow us. Ador." Rick motioned for him to enter the airlock before him.
The two cycled out the airlock and they held onto each other. While invisible, since he couldn't see himself, they both went down toward the city. Looking up he didn't see the ship floating above the city.
Eventually they landed on a sidewalk that had several garage doors, one after the other side by side all the way down the street.
Rick saw Alexis and Kate join them. Rick killed his invisibility as did Alexis which allowed everyone to see them.
"These are yours." Rick held out a pair of keys and dropped them in Kate's open hand.
"And these." Alexis handed over a folder that was filled with papers.
"What's all this?" It wasn't making any sense to her.
"It's your new home. We're going to be close to Lais's parents and old friends and I'm betting you want to stay in this city. It's a good place for Ador to open a gallery," Rick explained.
"New home?" She had an apartment for them to live in. She also saw Alexis smiling wide.
"This place is now yours." Rick waved his hand at the place that was across the street. "This garage is also yours."
Kate and Ador looked at it. It was an unusual building to say the least. The ground floor was brick that also had a large loading dock just inside the building. The floors above had these long vertical metal slats all the way up to the roof. Behind them they could just barely make out windows.
"What are you two talking about?" Kate turned back to Rick and Alexis only to find them both gone. She immediately reached out to see if they were just invisible.
"What have they done? What's in the folder?" Kate handed Ador the keys and took the folder from him. Inside was the paperwork for the place. And the insurance for the place had been prepaid for the next 30 years. "What!?" Kate shuffled through the papers once again. It did give her an actual address. 500 Washington St, New York, NY 10013. 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms at 5,320 square feet.
The paperwork showed the sale price. "TWELVE MILLION DOLLARS! They've lost their minds."
"Is that a lot?" Ador had no idea.
"Yeah, it's a lot. A whole lot. I'll never make that much money in my whole life." Kate looked at the building again. It really didn't look all that appealing to her. It almost looked like a warehouse. Looking at the garage again suggested that it was a two car garage just like all the others; it had a metal door.
"They're gone. Shall we go see? We have keys." Ador held them up. What Kate really wanted to do was get them back down here and give them the keys back.
"Sure, what the hell." First they had to find a way in and then find theirs.
| 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 |
They found the front door and one of the keys opened the door with ease. Just inside was a long hallway. At the end they found two doors, a set of stairs going up and down. "An elevator!?" Opposite the stairs was an elevator. Based on the button it only went up.
One of the doors turned out to be an unfurnished bedroom that had its own bathroom. The other door was a laundry room that came with a washer and dryer.
"Up or down?" They had a choice.
Ador shrugged and went down with Kate following him.
Down here they found three more doors and one very large open room. It was two storage rooms and a mechanical room that held the A/C unit and water heater. The large room had shelves from floor to ceiling on one wall.
If they kept this place Kate wasn't really sure what to do with this space, but she did have an idea. "Can you paint down here? Maybe if we added more lights?" Ador smiled since the space was more than big enough.
Going up this time behind a closed pocket door was a kitchen and dining room. The kitchen had one wall that was all pantry from floor to ceiling and six doors. An island, a sink, dishwasher, and a range. The far wall was all glass that had those vertical metal slats on the outside.
Up to the next level through yet another pocket door was the living room. There was a small space that was open to below that they hadn't noticed downstairs. On the other side of the opening was a small wet bar. The far wall was all glass from floor to ceiling with those same vertical metal slats on the outside.
"What's with the metal slats?" Granted they didn't have much of a view unless you liked looking at garages, so maybe in that way they helped.
Next level up they found two small closets, a bathroom, and two small bedroom with small closets. They were both simple and nothing interesting so up the stairs they went.
Up there was the master bedroom. It had two large closets opposite from a bathroom that had two walk-in showers, a soaking tub, and two sinks. There was this wall in the bedroom that seemed out of place. Walking into it they found a walk-in closet. "OH-MY-GOD!?" One wall was full of these sloped shelves. Perfect for shoes. Lots and lots and lots of shoes and maybe some space for purses. The opposite wall was all closets some of which held drawers.
Kate tried to hug the shoe shelves. "MINE!" She was in love!
Ador liked what he saw save for the fact that the place was empty. "We have at least one more floor," Ador said since the stairs kept going up.
"Yeah, yeah." Kate didn't care. This was the closet of her dreams.
Ador kissed her head and went up the stairs. Up there he found an open-to-the-sky deck. There were plants along one side, a sink in a counter top, and something big and silver that he opened and saw these silver bars side by side inside. There were also nobs on the front. The floor was dark gray tiles.
That had him thinking. The bedroom he just came from was light colored wood floors. That wall was really dark wood and it had this black thing inserted into it on the opposite side. The kitchen floors had been the same floors with gray cabinets with white tops. The dining room had the same light wood floors and one wall had exposed bricks. There were also exposed wood beams in the ceiling. The living room had dark gray floors and one wall had exposed brick. The master bedroom bath was all white and he'd liked that room. The showers had frosted glass which he had also liked.
His gallery down in the basement was all white. White walls, white ceiling and white tile floors. It really was perfect if he could get enough light down there.
Since Kate hadn't joined him he went back downstairs and found her still in the closet, she had her hands over her mouth and was spinning in place.
"Are we keeping it?" He liked it and since he was thinking it was theirs now, he was willing to live here.
Kate looked at him and kept her hands over her mouth. "Yes. HELL, YES!" Kate found her voice, walked over to him, and kissed him with passion.
They only had one problem. Kate didn't have near enough furniture to even begin to fill a quarter of this place. Granted it was a little narrow like pretty much every row house she had ever seen in Manhattan, but it had six floors plus a roof deck.
"Six floors and a roof deck. Guess that explains the elevator." The kitchen was on the second floor so maybe that wasn't so bad.
"Let me see that folder again." She had handed it back to him. This time she laid each page on one of the shoe shelves and looked them over.
"This one is a bank statement." She recognized the bank's name and logo. "It has my name on it." It clearly said Katherine Beckett. "HOLY SHIT!" Kate had found the balance in the account. "I'm going to kill both of them." There was no way she deserved any of this.
"What's it say?" What was her problem now? They were their friends. Why would she suddenly want kill them?
"We have 12 million dollars. A 12 million dollar townhouse and 12 million dollars." Oh, those two were definitely getting a piece of her mind. A very big piece.
Kate had said that one 12 million dollars was a lot so he was guessing that 12 million dollars was even more. "We can spend it to find a gallery for me," Ador suggested.
Suddenly Kate wasn't nearly as upset. "Yeah, a nice big one right in the middle of Manhattan." What was left they could use to buy furniture and shoes. Lots and lots of shoes.
Then Kate grinned. "We have two spare bedrooms." Maybe a college fund instead or in addition to.
| 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 | 00 |
Rick, Lais, Alexis, Alexandre were standing in the cold looking out onto the Rainbow Mountains. Rafael was all bundled up and holding his mother's hand and looking out at lots of pretty colors.
"We have just one problem to solve," Rick commented and got their attention. "What to do with all the dirt and rock that we dig out." They had a plan but digging into the mountain meant dirt and what to do with what they removed.
"We'll think of something." Lais was living here. It was close enough to her family that they still had to go see. She needed to introduce them to her husband and their two children along with Alexis and her husband who just happened to be her older son.
"You ever figure out that window problem, Dad?" The excess wasn't their only problem.
"I've got an idea for one. If I build the wall using two layers of transparent aluminum and place a certain series of gasses in-between then send a charge through it I might be able to make it mimic the rock that we take out. So long as the electrical charge holds all anyone will see is rock. I need to build a mock-up to test it first, but it should work." Rick was hoping that it would.
"We'll think of something, babe." Lais leaned across and kissed him. "My family is going to love you." She loved him so how could they not?
"When do we start and how long do you think it will take?" Alexis asked.
"Tomorrow and about a year, more or less, provided none of the bots we brought with us break down. Even then no more than a couple of years," Rick guessed.
"Home." Alexis smiled wistfully and felt Alexandre put an arm around her and bring her in close; she went willingly.
"We have one more Xindi ship in a few years and who knows what after that," Lais reminded them since it wasn't over just yet.
"We'll win. We have just the ship to do it with." Rick put his arm around his wife and pulled her in. "We'll win. We have to."
Thank you everyone i have enjoyed the ride. I have no idea when the next story will be out. Till that time. Happy reading!