Call Girl
Chapter 38
Epilogue
Since their ship had no windows anywhere no one but Rick, Kate, and Lucile saw Martha and Jackson's ship sitting there waiting for them after they exited FTL.
With a little communicating Lucile was able to dock next to them and secure them to the ship. This allowed them to open airlocks and permitted people from either ship to enter the other.
Rick was one of these people moving to the other ship. "Mother, where's Father?" He had some questions for him.
"On the bridge." Jackson was doing all the piloting for this ship.
"Are we all set, Father?" Rick had seen a lot of the passengers along the way. The main areas looked a lot like bedrooms to him. He had expected to see this but actually seeing it was another.
"Just checking with Lucile to make sure your ship is secured to ours properly. We don't want to lose it. We're going here." Jackson tapped the location on his screen so Rick could see it.
"We're going in just a bit." He meant toward the center of the galaxy.
"That's our destination. Pray we're not late or that they can't make it. Or we'll have to come up with a new plan. Your mother has us all down to eating two meals per day. With you we have nintey-four guests to feed and house. I never really thought her eleven bedrooms would ever be put to use." Jackson had never dreamed of using their ship like this.
"Our ship is almost overloaded. We're really heavy so be careful where you take us." Gravity out there might be nothing but if they passed too close to a sun the gravity might be enough to rip his ship right off this one. If that damaged the airlock they had trouble. Possibly big trouble.
"That's the beauty of this location. It's between systems. So we're much less likely to encounter unwanted company. Especially armed company," Jackson assured him.
Jackson pressed a panel. "Everyone prepare for entrance to FTL. Make sure the airlocks between ships are closed. Five minutes." Jackson ended his announcement.
"This ship's overloaded as well. I'm not sure if the cleaning droids are going to keep up," Jackson joked.
Rick nodded. "We only have two and they've been busy."
"One minute," Jackson alerted everyone then entered FTL on schedule. "This is one month, son, so we have a lot of work to do. How to keep ninety-four people plus our mates happy till we get there." Jackson grinned at him. That had Rick laughing out loud. He knew keeping Kate happy was going to be a challenge with no where to go.
o- [:] -o
Ninety-eight people in total was a lot of people to feed. Thankfully the children tended to eat less than the adults. However, neither kitchen was large enough to feed all ninety-eight people at the same time. So it was necessary to create a schedule.
After just a couple of weeks of this Kate was getting really tired of spending her life in the kitchen cooking. Being told she was the best stroked her ego but it didn't lessen her time in the kitchen any. She did inform Rick, Jackson, and Tao'a'Tell that they had just volunteered to do all the cleaning after she was done cooking. That left her with time to spend with TiPhar.
Actually being alone was also a problem so that only those with actual bedrooms had any real alone time. Worse it only took a week for the older kids to get bored and begin taking out their boredom on everyone. This was where Lucile shone. The only emitters were on just one ship so all the kids tended to gravitate to that ship after they learned just what Lucile could do. Granted it was all just 3D projections but it kept them entertained.
o- [:] -o
Rick found Kate sitting mostly alone on his parents' ship just sitting there watching. He sat down next to her and looked where she was looking. "Your eggs are still perfectly frozen. I checked on them just yesterday." Kate was watching one or more of the babies being held.
"I know." Kate knew where they were and what condition they were in. She had questioned Lucile just yesterday herself.
"I hear a but in there somewhere." Rick gently moved a lock of hair off of her face.
Kate chose not to say anything but leaned into him and just rested and watched.
"It's not impossible, my love. We just need to wait for the technology to catch up to us. Perhaps the City Ship will have something." Rick slipped his arm around her and pulled her into him.
Kate had no idea just when exactly it had happened. But suddenly she wanted a baby. She wanted a piece of both of them. Now just what a half alien and half human baby was going to look like or be capable of hadn't yet entered her mind. She just wanted a baby.
o- [:] -o
It was the day before and Jackson had thought he was doing the right thing by telling everyone that they would be dropping out of FTL tomorrow so they could join with the City Ship. Now at first he got the reaction he had expected. Everyone was happy to hear that. Their ship might be big but it wasn't that big.
However, by dinner that day everyone had gone from happy to being anxious. The word City suggested huge which in turn meant space. And it meant proper beds for everyone. They could stop eating anywhere they could since the dining room table only held just so many people. Lucile might be great but by now even the kids were anxious.
"I have a big mouth," Jackson lamented and Martha laughed. She'd been doing her motherly duty in an attempt to keep all the kids happy. She had made up contests for them. Thankfully they did have a gym everyone could use. So while the adults had put it to use, Martha had all of them down there and if being nice didn't work she was now their task master. "Keep going! Just one more! …Why are you stopping?" It was enough that by the end of the day their muscles hurt and instead of complaining about that they simply rested and left everyone alone.
Martha herself wasn't immune to what was going to be tomorrow. They had only talked to that scout ship. They didn't really know just what to expect except for the fact that the city could hold three hundred eight thousand four hundred six people in total. Now they also knew that their own race wasn't the only race on this ship but their race was the predominate race on the ship.
They were about to go from being all alone to being surrounded. "They better be there, Jackson. They better be there," Martha told her mate. Now what Martha didn't know was that Jackson had come up with a plan B just in case the City Ship never showed up. It would stretch their food to the breaking point but he did have a plan. But he was keeping it to himself.
o- [:] -o
Jackson was at the controls with Martha, Rick, Kate, TiPhar, and Tao'a'Tell standing behind him, looking out through the glass. One could see the ship itself reaching out in front of them showing just how big this ship really was.
"Everyone prepare for exiting FTL," Jackson announced over the intercom. "Here we go." Jackson reverted the ships to normal space.
Just for this event Rick had transferred one of the emitters to the bridge so Lucile popped up just as they exited FTL. "Scanning," Lucile informed them. "Scan complete. No ships within scanning range at this time."
Thankfully only the people on the bridge knew this fact. Everyone else was waiting to be told. "They're late!" Kate was furious. She'd been forced to leave her home. Okay it was an alien planet but it had become home. Even more to the point she had built a home. She had plans then some alien robot race just had to come along and ruin it.
Rick put an arm around her. "Maybe we're early."
"Actually we're late," Jackson told them.
"Damn it, Jackson!" Martha hissed at her mate for that comment.
"I have a signal. It was a burst. It is coded and will take time to break," Lucile announced. "It was not universal. It was directed somewhere."
That had Jackson pressing panels. "She's right. I'm trying to locate the source." Jackson got to work.
"FTL EVENT!" Lucile almost yelled. Suddenly this massive ship that did have lights everywhere showed up just far enough away that they could see all of it. Thanks to being in space it was impossible to judge size so it might be huge and it might not.
It was a disc with a large bubble on top. Over this were five arched beams that met at the top. Below the disc was a large structure that reached out into space. On one side was a series of spikes reaching out and each one glowed.
All over the thing were lights. The lights were rather golden in color while the dome looked maybe a little green in color with some blue.
"Is it the City Ship?" Kate questioned anxiously.
Then suddenly there was someone that looked nothing like Rick, Jackson, or Martha, standing next to Lucile who looked more like Kate at the moment.
"My name is Rena Tsgr. I am the Administrator of this city. My apologies for our arrival. We left a drone behind in case it was someone else. Please follow the signal. We have a landing bay ready for you. I do request that you detach the ship attached to yours. It can land in the same bay. There will be a team waiting for you.
"You are all welcome." She stood there for a moment then vanished.
"She looked different." TiPhar pointed out the obvious. She did not look like Richard or his parents. She was white and was dressed in all white. Her eyes were a rich blue color. Even her hair and lips were white in color. She did however have a tattoo with a design on her forehead that was more gray in color though just barely. "She was lovely."
"How did she do that?" Kate knew how Lucile did it so how did she do it?
"I will detach the ship and fly it. I have their signal," Lucile advised them. She first checked to make sure the airlocks were all closed and flew next to Jackson as he guided them closer.
The closer they got the bigger it got till all the could see was a part of the disc. "Jeez, how big is it? Do I see water? And why is the dome dark on one side?" The dome itself was gone now. They were too close to see it.
What they did see was an opening in the disc that was bigger than they were. They all watched with bated breath as Jackson maneuvered slowly into place. He extended the landing struts and settled down. "Shutting down. It looks like we're committed. There's no going back now."
Maybe disc was the wrong word given how thick it was. Maybe ring was a better term.
"I am in place and powering down. I am reading a door closing behind us," Lucile informed them since she was still here.
"Shall we go see? We've come a long ways for this." Jackson got up, gently took Martha's hand, and began walking.
o- [:] -o
This ship had a ramp at the front of the ship to disembark. Jackson with Martha was out front with literally everyone on this ship right behind them.
They did indeed find a team waiting for them. It was a mix of races. They saw someone like Rena Tsgr and a couple more just like her. A few of their race and a different race that neither of them recognized.
She was tall, thin, and bald but had a metal plate on the back of her head. She was topless save that she had a black band covering parts of her breasts and nipples. Her pants looked sprayed on. Save for these differences she looked almost human.
"Welcome, we are here to divide you up into groups so that we can begin to see to your needs and get you settled," one of the ones that was all white assured them.
"Jackson?" One of his race of this group sounded shocked. Jackson looked where that voice came from.
"Will!?" Jackson left his mate and walked toward him. Soon the two were hugging and slapping each others back. "How, when, where?" Jackson had nothing but questions.
"My thoughts exactly. It's been a long time. We can talk later. First we have a few things to take care of." Will knew the drill and it was for everyone's protection.
"What is that thing?" Kate's wrist was being taken and she watched as something was wrapped around it.
"This is mandatory. It is part communication and part security. If you know the person's name just touch here and ask for him or her. Or simply ask for an area like hydroponics, for example. It also allows Security to know where everyone is all the time." She finished putting it on Kate's wrist.
"I'm not wearing one of those," one of the teenagers declared stubbornly.
"You have no choice. This ship is in space and will be in space forever. Fires are a danger as is the potential for hull rupture. We have emergency measures for each of those situations and others. If you are in a room with a fire and the security doors close and all the oxygen is removed, you will die. If Security knows there is someone in that room they can try and delay the doors allowing you time to escape.
"Unless you prefer to burn to death or be sucked out into space?" Her gaze was blank as she looked at him. He swallowed hard then allowed his device to be attached. "A security expert will need a key and a code to remove it."
Kate looked at hers. It was white, very narrow and light weight, and even now she barely felt it. It was mostly bland. "Anyone? Anywhere? Cool!" She liked it even if one of the teenagers didn't.
"We have three races on this ship. Now we have four. …My apologies, five." Kate was all alone so she had already forgotten about her. "And your race is?" she asked Kate.
"Human, from the planet Earth," Kate responded.
"I do not believe I have heard of either of those." She was immediately began wondering if their medical section was up to the task.
"My mate," Rick said proudly.
"You know this race." She swept her hand at Rick, his parents, and others. "Mine is Daro and this is TX." She motioned to the woman with the black band over her breasts and a metal cap on the back of her head.
TX used her introduction to explain. "My race is part android. I have had my brain augmented with a computer. A few of us have had our legs replaced as well, based on wants and needs."
"To process all of you we are going to break you up into smaller groups. You will be assigned quarters based on your needs and availability. If you ever get lost simply use your communicator and receive directions." She proceeded to divide them up into groups.
Kate made sure Rick, TiPhar, Tao'a'Tell, and Rick's parents were part of her group.
o- [:] -o
They each had their assignments. "So what is in this city?" Kate asked her.
"Basically everything any city has. Stores for anything, restaurants, parks," she replied. "We use fish farms for some of our food. We have a large lake for private boating and swimming. Theaters for movies, places to purchase groceries. Close to anything you can think of."
"So we need currency." Kate knew Lucile produced most if not all of their money. Just how she did that Kate hadn't asked much. "So how do we earn it?"
"That depends on what you can do and what you know," she answered.
"Will?" Jackson grinned at him since he knew Will was a genius at computer programs. He couldn't fix them or make them but what he could do with them was magic.
Will grinned back at Jackson. "I have my uses."
"We'll find something," Rick told Kate. "Maybe you can finally open that Yule store you wanted."
"Maybe." Kate knew she hadn't even opened the droid factory kit yet. "I'll need a space to make the items and a place to sell them." She looked at her for an answer.
"We have space. We are only two thirds full at this time. We can find something for each of you," she assured her.
"School, I suppose." He didn't sound happy since he had overheard all this since his group was done and his parents were ready to go find their new home.
"Yes, one for all ages. You will get to learn a great many things that you likely know nothing about as of yet. Including new languages if you choose not to rely on your translator. We have a live theater group that does just that," she said.
"Each leader will now escort their group to their assigned location after we take you all to the observation deck. I think you will all enjoy this."
o- [:] -o
They hadn't seen much so far and now they were taking turns to get into one of two elevators. However, once out of the elevator everyone's jaws dropped.
"This observation deck goes all the way around the ring. The lake, the city, the mountain," she informed them. "Most of our parks are small and isolated, though we do have one large one. On the far side, if you look closely, you can see three very long buildings. Those three are our main source of meat. We breed and butcher. All of our produce is done in hydroponics. Those buildings are located all over the city."
"Fishing?" someone asked.
She nodded. "If you wish to try, yes. We have fish farms mostly, however, some are released into the lake. We also have a wave machine so once a week sailing and fishing is suspended so everyone can enjoy the waves. There are also droids that scoop up the washed away sand to replenish the beach on a regular basis."
"Birds!" one of the little kids said excitedly when she spotted them.
"Yes, we also have a very small zoo with a very select number of animals. There you will see the only dangerous animals on this ship. We do have one surprise you might not be expecting. Anyone care to take a guess?" She mostly looked at the children.
She did get a few guesses but so far everyone was wrong.
"We have a large cryo unit. We have DNA of every animal we have ever encountered all the way from your home planet." She motioned to Jackson and Martha.
"NO WAY!" Jackson began started thinking of all the animals he was sure he was never going to see ever again.
"We also have a seed bank holding seeds from different planets. Using any of this will be closely regulated naturally. We have learned several lessons the hard way," she mentioned.
"No natural predators." Kate understood that and watched her nod.
"Your quarters are next. You can unload your ship when you are ready. Just contact security to obtain any help you may require. Droids will be dispatched to help you." She walked toward the closest elevator bank. There was naturally more than one.
o- [:] -o
"What's this?" Kate queried before she stepped into it.
"It is one of our trains. We have three levels of trains. Given our present location this one goes all the way around the ring. It allows you access to any bank of elevators of your choice. It is also the fastest of the three with fewer stops.
"From here we will be changing trains at a station. The next level goes from the edge of the lake to the opposite side of the lake on the land side only. It is slower but still fast. The next level down is isolated to its own district.
"Our city is broken up into districts. Each district has its own décor. This is the only thing that makes each district different," she said. "One is beachfront. Another is full of parks. Yours is on the mountain. Most have amazing views of the city and lake in the distance." She held the door for Kate to enter.
o- [:] -o
Just as she had said they transferred from this train to another one, then another. "Powered walkway?" Kate stopped to look at it before stepping onto it. "No cars?"
"There are small individual scooters you can use. They are electric since we need to keep the pollution at a minimum. And this is you. Your scooters are there. One for each unit. This unit is yours." She motioned to TiPhar and Tao'a'Tell. "The one next one down is yours." She pointed to Rick and Kate. "The farthest one is yours." She indicated Jackson and Martha.
"Your security bands will allow access and keep everyone else out unless you instruct security to allow them access. I will be right here if you have questions," she assured them and watched them each enter their apartments.
Rick with Kate and TiPhar with Tao'a'Tell all found two full two bedroom, one bathroom apartments. Jackson and Martha's dwelling was a one bedroom and one bathroom apartment.
Save for the bedrooms and bathrooms it was all open and all of them gravitated to the wall of windows and out onto their own patio that looked out over the city beyond.
"TiPhar!" Kate waved at her then went back to looking at this view. Suddenly she had an idea. "Tao'a'Tell, do you think you and your dad can build us a walkway between our patios? Maybe all the way across to Jackson and Martha." Kate waved at them when they came out, too.
Tao studied each side. "Easily. We could maybe just turn it all into one big patio."
"Why is it getting darker?" TiPhar asked and watched as little by little the dome over their head got darker and darker. Yet way out by the lake it was still light. "Where is the sunlight coming from, babe?" TiPhar asked him which had him looking up and around.
Eventually he pointed out the superstructure that was five arms which arched over everything and ended at a central location in the middle. "Just how they are getting the dome itself to go dark I do not understand… Yet," he said. Since this was a construction question he was going to find out how they did that.
o- [:] -o
They had each looked over their own apartment and Kate had only one question or maybe questions. "Grocery store? Restaurant?" She was hungry. Her nanites keep her almost always eating and she had already gone too long without at least a snack.
Kate entered TiPhar's apartment since the door was open and stopped just inside the door.
"This pad holds a map of the entire city. Simply reduce it to your immediate area like this… Then use this side bar to either select what you are interested in or type it in. Like groceries." She pressed that panel and instantly the map showed various options in that area.
"Now press what you want like this. Press this panel here. This will transfer your choice into your security bracelet. Just go where it tells you. You can do this for any place in this city.
"If it is too complex for a simple word to be typed, then tell it what you want. You talked about a space to sell items. Tell it this is what you want. It in turn will send you to a city office that will have all this information and what each location will cost you." She showed her.
"What if you don't have any money? We just got here." Kate knew she didn't have any money.
"We know this. That has already been taken into account. I think you will be surprised at just what the cost is. You are not actually buying anything or renting it. The cost is to cover maintenance or replacement if something catastrophic happens. Anything that is too much for the droids to handle. Otherwise the space is yours. You will understand what things cost once you are here for a while.
"Each of your apartments has a cost but that cost is only used to cover any expense to replace a maintenance droid once they get too old. Each space also has a single cleaning droid. You'll understand it and get used to it.
"You want back to your ship so you can transfer items? Just use this panel and either type it or tell it. Your scooter is only for local use. Everything else is walking. If it's too heavy for you to manage use a panel just like this one near your ship to request a droid.
"Welcome to the City Ship, the Lindah. You are free to go anywhere you want. If you find a locked door or one that will not open for you use your bracelet to contact Security. There may be a reason." She left them to talk.
"OH!" She was back. "Over your bracelet there will be announcement each time we enter FTL for our jumps to where we want to go. Once we arrive there will be another announcement. If for some reason we need to have a city wide conference you will get another announcement and use the panel just inside your door to see who is in charge of that conference." This time she did leave them.
o- [:] -o
"You ready, babe?" Kate put on her newest combination shoe shin guard. She was in a hurry. Today was a really big day. She had even helped TiPhar plan for it. But there was one place they were going to stop at first and she really wanted to go there.
"Just grabbing my shoes." Rick was actually wearing his old tux. "Are you in a hurry or something?" Rick teased her and grinned at the glare she gave him. He, too, wanted to see but maybe just not quite as badly as Kate did. But he was excited.
It meant walking to a local train, changing trains to the next level of trains, then walking a little more.
The city had more than one hospital which was a good thing but there was only one capable of doing this.
"We're the Castle family," Rick told the female up front. She told them to wait a moment for a nurse to come escort them.
"Castle?" One of those all white Daro woman showed up to escort them. She took them down a long hallway and stopped at a door that required her to enter a code for them to enter. Inside was some monitoring equipment and one lone tank filled with a fluid. Inside it was a tiny baby.
"Baby!" Kate stroked the tank willing her to open her eyes, but she didn't. Meanwhile Rick went with her over to the equipment and looked at what she was looking at.
"Your baby girl is doing fine so far. We are still of the opinion that she will require a specific drug to prevent her from rejecting some of her organs. The human part of her is attempting to reject some of the alien of her. However, the doctor believes that over time each will adapt to the other and the drug may no longer be required.
"If we are correct, based on the information that your computer Lucile has provided us, she is six months and two weeks old as of yesterday. So just a few more weeks to go," she told Rick since Kate only had eyes and ears for her little baby in a tank full of liquid.
"The doctor has explained to you that your mate will not be able to breastfeed her," she questioned Rick since he was the only one still paying attention to her.
"Yes, we know. We're already all prepared. The second bedroom has more baby stuff than we can possibly need." Rick was sure they had overbought but Kate had wanted all of it.
"According to the readings she is perfectly healthy. All we need is a name so we can place her into the system." She waited for Rick to respond.
This was one Kate had heard and was paying attention to. "Alexis Johanna Castle." Kate wouldn't give up on Johanna while Rick had insisted on Alexis so they had compromised. "She's still bald." Kate had returned to looking her over.
"She may stay that way. Your mate has no hair at all," the nurse told them.
"My baby might be bald." Kate felt bad about that. However, she was still going to love her to pieces.
o- [:] -o
It took a lot to drag Kate away from her baby girl but she did have one more place to be that was almost as important.
"TiPhar!" Kate so wanted to hug her but she was all dressed up. "Have I seen this dress before?" It looked familiar.
TiPhar defended her choice of dresses. "It is the same dress I wore to your mating. I didn't have time to obtain a different dress."
"I'm honored." Kate didn't mind and thought it was an honor to her. "My best friend is getting married!" Kate was so giddy she was ready to burst. First her baby was closer to being born and now her best friend was getting married.
TiPhar had given up correcting Kate. She wasn't getting married. She was bonding to her mate, but it was basically the same thing so she let her keep saying it.
"How are your plans?" Kate knew they were both working on something.
"Tao's father has joined a construction crew. He, Tao, and their crew are helping with a redesign and remodel somewhere. It is earning us money." She was happy that one of them was. She was still in the design phase of a new Space Dock for when they found a planet they could colonize. All the droids were all still sitting in their crates waiting for that day.
"How is your store coming?" TiPhar inquired.
"Still on hold. Tao has some kind of problem with the back room where my factory's going to go. Something about air distribution that I didn't understand. But I have a space. He thinks another two weeks," Kate told her.
"We are just one jump complete. So many more jumps to go." How many jumps they needed almost gave TiPhar a headache.
"Yeah, almost more years on this ship than i can count plus time we need between each jump for the engines to cool down and time too find the right planet so maybe even more jumps. Rick tells me Jackson has volunteered the use of his ship and ours to do a more broad search for the right planet once we arrive." It might take them months after arriving to find the right place if they even could.
A quick knock got both of their attention. "Let's get you married. I want to be a godmother so badly. Our babies could grow up together and be best friends."
TiPhar slowed her down a little. "I am not pregnant yet."
"Oh pooh, you will be. I know personally just how much you love those muscles." Kate was sure she would be pregnant soon.
"Yes, I do," TiPhar finally admitted after all this time.
"Those are the correct words. Just do them one more time." Kate opened the door and escorted her best friend to her next phase in life.
Kate was no longer even paying attention to just how much her life had changed. Or even if some day she was the very last human in existence. She was going to live forever anyway so the human race would live with her.
o- [:] -o
Very far away this fleet of ships that looked like really long spikes with a ball in the middle were firing their main weapons out the tip and blowing alien ships to pieces. The empire that Rick had done a fair amount of research for was falling fast.
Eventually all alien life on the planet would be gone. An empire was falling today. It just wasn't falling where they were going. Only Rick, Kate, Jackson, Martha, and their race would ever have to worry whether the Movellans would ever reach them and decide what they could do about it when that time came.
Till then they would live and love and have babies. They would have lots of friends to try and save and take with them if they had to escape yet again.
This was just the beginning of their lives. They were immortal and would live a really long time.