By Sambrea
The morning after, Jason rolled over and slammed his hand down on the alarm as it went off at three and groaned.
"Come on," Neri said as she bounced out of bed.
"How can you be so enthusiastic Neri? It's 3 am," Jason said with a groan as she turned on the light.
"I will be glad to start this journey," she said.
"I wish we could see Mom before we go," Jason said as he sat up and rubbed his eyes.
"Brett and Mera have our note. Let's go," Neri said, pulling him off the bed.
"All right, all right. You start the systems up, I'm going to replicate some coffee," Jason said as he followed her out of their small bedroom at the back of the Eagle toward the front, past the little sitting area and to the kitchen, where he stopped and she kept going to the front.
"You want anything?" he asked as he heard her start warming up the systems.
"A glass of water please," she called back.
"Are the sensors working yet?" he asked as he sat down next to her.
"Yes, we are back on Earth," she said, taking the glass of water from him.
"Great," Jason said with a sigh. "Do you want to take off, or do you want me to?" he asked as he set down his drink in the holder they had asked be installed in the modified dashboard.
"You can," Neri said, pushing back her chair and going back to the sitting area where Jason assumed she wanted to get her last view of the island for a couple of years.
One minute later they were in orbit, taking one full rotation around the Earth for fun and Jason joined Neri in the sitting area.
"I've got it programmed to do a full orbit and then head out towards PO, all right?" he said as he sat down across from Neri and picked up a book from the table.
Neri nodded as she picked up her own book. "It is a wonderful view."
++++++++++
Later that morning, Kathryn woke up to her communicator beeping.
"Kathryn here," she said sleepily as she pushed it.
"Hey, I know you wanted to find out what happened to the island as soon as possible," Harry said as she glanced over at the clock, which said 6 am.
"So what happened last night?"
"Well, seventeen familiar life signs disappeared about one o'clock last night, and two new ones showed up in their place."
"Oh no," Kathryn said, understanding the significance of that, covering her eyes with one hand as Chakotay started waking up.
"Yeah, it looks like what you thought might happen did, unfortunately."
"We'll head over there later this morning. It's still a little early to wake those poor people up with something like this."
"All right, that makes sense. Let us know how it goes, all right?"
"Of course. Thanks for the update, Harry."
"Did I hear right? Their parents are here now?" Chakotay asked, wrapping his wife in a hug.
"God, I hoped that wouldn't happen to that poor family. They're such wonderful people and they certainly don't deserve to be separated like that."
"I couldn't agree with you more. Unfortunately, it didn't happen that way."
"Let's go in a couple hours. It's far too early," Kathryn said, closing her eyes again.
++++++++++
Two hours later, Kathryn, Tom, Phoebe, Wade and Rachel touched the Phoenix down on the island, on top of the cliff, just like the first day they had met the Bates kids.
"Wow, this looks exactly like the other island," Tom said, shaking his head.
"I know," Kathryn said. "Do you have a fix on those two life signs?"
"Yep. Follow me."
A minute later, they were standing in front of a one story, light blue house with white trim.
"What a cute little house," Wade said with a smile.
"Yeah, it's great. Come on," Kathryn said walking up the two stairs to the porch
Kathryn knocked on the door after opening the screen door.
There was a couple of barks before a lady said "Annette, stop it."
"Umm, hello," the lady said after slipping onto the porch. "Sorry about that. Can I help you?"
"Umm, it's more like, can we help you," Kathryn said, realizing she had no clue what to say.
"Please tell me your not some religious fanatics who came all the way out here to try to convert us," Dianne said rolling her eyes.
"Not at all."
"Ok. Then why are you here?"
"We know your children," Wade said softly.
Dianne's jaw dropped. "Do you want to come in?" she finally asked. I'll get my husband and you can explain what you mean."
"That would be great," Kathryn said with a sigh of relief.
"Please sit down. My name is Dianne. We don't have much but would you guys like some coffee or water?"
"Coffee, please," Kathryn said and everyone else agreed.
"I'll tell my husband to come down and then get a pot going," Dianne said as their Labrador puppy found courage to come check out the newcomers.
"What now?" Tom asked
"Now we explain what the heck has been going on for the last year," Kathryn said, taking out the letter and their copy of the picture taken the night before.
A minute later, Dianne came back into the room right in front of her a man Kathryn assumed was Winston.
I'm Winston," the man said as he sat down and Dianne went into the kitchen
"I'm Kathryn Janeway and these are Tom, Wade and Rachel."
"You said you know our children?" Dianne asked as she came back and sat down next to her husband. "Where are they?"
"Let me start at the beginning," Kathryn said. "Otherwise I think this is going to get too confusing for you."
"All right, that seems reasonable."
"Tom and I are a couple of the founders of a colony we call Luna. It is not on Earth and from here it takes about ten years to reach our Earth. We've lived here for seven or eight years and as time has passed we have attracted several groups of people who don't belong in our time but don't have any way to go home. Wade here is a member of the group that is the sole exception to that rule, but Rachel, we don't even really have a clue how her group got here in the first place so we can't send them back.
"A year ago, I got an early morning call to come check out an island that had suddenly become inhabited overnight. I found seventeen children living on the island, your children. As it turned out, they knew exactly how they had gotten here: the spaceship you guys buried on the island. There was a message waiting for them from Neri and Mera's father saying that he had programmed the ship to return to the Planet of the Oceans and then return to Earth one year later. They returned, we are assuming, to their Earth last night.
"Jason thought of this scenario yesterday evening, but none of us wanted to see it happen."
"What scenario?"
"When you realized that all of your kids were gone, did you move back onto the island?"
"Yes, of course we did. We were hoping they would return some day," Dianne answered.
"Dianne, when they returned, I think the two islands flip-flopped and you ended up here while they returned home."
"Oh god no," Dianne said, burying her head in Winston's shoulder.
"Is there any chance we'll ever see them again."
"With this place, there's always a chance, but I think it's pretty small," Kathryn said gently. "I know it's not much of a consolation, but I do have a couple things for you. We took this picture just yesterday. Your family is on the left, and the rest of those people are what makes up my family. You can have the picture, it'll mean so much more to you, I think."
Dianne hesitantly took the picture. "Thank you."
"There's something else. When we realized that this was a possibility, every single one of your children wrote the two of you a note," Wade said, handing the stack of paper to the woman.
"Thank you, it'll be nice to read that."
"You might want to spread them out and make them last for a while," Rachel suggested.
"You've got an adorable dog," Tom said, trying to lighten the atmosphere a little as he scratched Annette's head. "Your children never mentioned a dog."
"We didn't get her until after we were all separated," Dianne said with a bit of a smile, still leaning against Winston. "Our lives were so boring with only the two of us, we needed something to make it more interesting, and Annette certainly brings that into our lives."
"I think we'll let the two of you be alone for a little while," Kathryn said as she stood up, taking a communicator out of her pocket. "You can contact me with this, it's a direct line to my house. Just press the top and you should get somebody. If you feel up to it later, I can bring you over to the ranch so you can meet everyone, all right?"
"Thank you," Dianne said, taking the small device from her.
Author's note: I wrote this just as something to let you all know what happened with Dianne and Winston. They will be back later in the series, but that's all I'm going to say.
Chapter 1
Six months after leaving Earth, Jason and Neri reached orbit around PO.
They had met a few other space faring cultures along the way, including the Vulcans, even trading for fresh food when possible.
"Unidentified vessel. Remove yourself from this solar system. It is inhabited and we will shoot you if you come any closer."
Jason ran over to the pilot's seat as quick as he could to shut down the engines, with Neri right behind him.
"Wonderful," Jason muttered. "You want to do the honors, or should I?"
"You can," Neri said as she slipped into her seat.
"Eagle to Planet of the Oceans. Please come in."
There was a long moment of silence before a face popped up.
"Eagle you have already been warned about leaving this system. You better have a good reason for ignoring it."
Jason sighed. "My name is Jason Bates. I'm from a planet named Earth. My family knows fifteen of your people who were sent there."
The lady's eyebrows went up an inch. "You do? Do you have any proof?"
"Now that I think about it, we don't have much," Jason admitted before getting an idea. "Neri, we brought all that stuff with us from the island right?"
Neri caught on right away. "I will send it over," she said, pressing several buttons.
"We're transmitting some records to you right now. We found them inside the spacecraft that brought the children there."
"If you would stay in orbit, I will take this to my superiors."
"We won't go anywhere," Jason said, closing the line before setting the computer to take them into orbit.
++++++++++
An hour later, the computer beeped. Jason was reading a book while they waited, sitting in his front seat.
"Jason here," he said, pushing a button.
"Our king is very much interested in meeting the two of you. I am sending you the coordinates right now. You can land your craft there."
"Thank you," Jason said before closing the channel.
He entered the coordinates into the computer and started it heading down to the planet before heading to the back of the Eagle.
"What is going on?" Neri asked as she stuck her head out of the bathroom.
"We've been invited to meet the king, I guess we've got to put on our good clothes."
Though neither of them were very comfortable in the clothes, they had both agreed that nice clothes would be necessary.
Jason's outfit was a pair of black dress pants and a light blue long-sleeved shirt with a black and white tie. Neri had a dark green, ankle length, short-sleeved dress and had learned to braid her hair back and had it tied with a white ribbon.
It took a couple of minutes for them to get ready and by that time the Eagle had landed and Jason could see people waiting for them outside.
"You look great," Jason said softly as Neri joined him
"Thank you. You do too," Neri said after they shared a quick kiss.
Jason grabbed the family photo off of the table where they had left it before exiting the Eagle.
"Jason?" a lady standing right at the door asked when they opened the door. "My name is Dasan and I am here to take care of any needs the two of you might have. Would you like a chance to get ready or would you like to meet with the king right away?"
"We would like to meet with the king right away, please," Jason said with a little smile. "We've been stuck in that thing for six months. That was more than enough time to get ready for this meeting."
"You spent six months getting here? In that thing?"
"There is enough room for two people to travel comfortably in there. Add another person and it would get crowded," Neri answered.
"She's right," Jason agreed. "We've got a bedroom in the back but its for two people and except for the bathroom, everything else is one big room."
"Why did you come?"
"Everyone wants to know who their families are. We don't have very much information."
"Well, here we are," Dasan said as she opened the door and followed the pair inside.
Two guards were standing to either side of another pair of doors right inside and Dasan led them inside the second pair.
"You're on your own from here," she said, before stepping out of the way.
"The large room had a throne at one end and was almost completely filled with people, making both Jason and Neri uncomfortable.
Jason sighed a little bit before he and Neri walked down the aisle.
They stopped a few feet from the throne and Jason bowed while Neri dropped a curtsey.
"Umm, I've got to be honest sir. I really don't know where to start," Jason said sheepishly to the man on the throne. "Neither of us have any experience with meeting with royalty."
"That is quite all right," the man said as he stood up and walked down the two steps to stand right in front of the pair. "I am King Dewei. Do you want to go somewhere where we can talk in private?"
"That would be great," Jason said with a sigh.
"That is the end of court for today," he said to a man standing silently behind him, obviously his seneschal.
"As you wish sire. Shall I have Acia join you?"
"Please. We will be in my office."
"Yes sir."
"Follow me."
A minute later, they reached a door and Dewei opened it.
Jason and Neri followed him inside and were surprised to find themselves
done in dark reds and woods.
"Please make yourselves comfortable," Dewei said, motioning for the pair to sit down. "Acia is my eldest daughter and also the heir to the throne. She should arrive in a minute."
Jason and Neri sat down next to each other and waited a moment before the inner door behind the desk Dewei was sitting at opened.
"You wanted to see me father?" a young woman asked as she entered the room.
"Acia, meet Jason and, I'm sorry, but I don't know your name."
"Neri."
"Neri?! Do you have a sister named Mera?"
"Yes."
"Well, that's a surprise. You look wonderful!"
Neri looked confusedly at Jason. "Thank you."
"Oh, I'm sorry. You wouldn't know who I am. Do you know why all of you were sent to Earth?"
"Not really."
"Ok. Well, let's start off with this. I'm your uncle. Your mother was queen before me. She got to the throne in a coup. She and several others had had it with the tradition of having Chosens be the ruling class. She basically started a reign of terror her first day, killing the senators and officials that were Chosen. Several died and a few were quick enough that they were able to get into hiding.
"A few years passed and as children were born, she would have soldiers check the child and if they were Chosen, the soldier would kill it.
"Finally there was such an outcry for this to end that your mother had to search for another way to get rid of them. Also by that time, she had gotten married to your father and was pregnant with you.
"Our scientists had already found Earth and realized that it was inhabitable, so we started sending Chosens and their parents to Earth in exile. When you were born, she tried to keep the fact that you were Chosen a secret, but when Mera was born a couple years later, she was forced to make a decision about whether to follow her own beliefs or go against them and send the two of you into exile. Your father offered to go with you, but she excluded herself from exile.
"That was the last straw. I headed a large group of citizens that were horrified that she would send her own daughters into exile and decided that it was time for a coup to get rid of her.
"We still don't have Chosens as a ruling class, but we don't persecute them any more and everyone is relatively happy. Your mother was given a choice of exile or being executed. I didn't want to do it, but she chose execution.
"We found out when she was overthrown that every ship sent to Earth had been rigged to fail upon starting the landing sequence. We figured that every soul had perished."
"Many did. As far back as I can remember, it was only me and my father on an island. He did tell me though that there had been others living there."
"We think that before the craft crashed they sent all of the children away in escape pods and that's why so many survived."
"What makes you think that?" Acia asked.
"When we went searching for everyone, we found them all over the world. Ten living together on one island, another one living on the same coast, but farther south, two living on the same continent, but the opposite coast, and Mera on the same continent as where the craft crashed," Neri answered.
"We brought a picture of everyone," Jason said, flipping the frame over and walking up to the desk, with Neri right behind him.
"This is your whole family?"
Jason laughed. "Only half of them are," he explained, pointing out the different people in the picture.
"Who are the rest?" Dewei asked.
"Friends of ours."
"I'm going to have my staff get some quarters ready for you. I'll be right back," Dewei said before leaving the room.
"So, how did you guys meet?" Acia asked.
Jason and Neri glanced at each other.
"Well, that's pretty complicated."
"How complicated can it be?"
"You have no idea," Neri answered with a smile.
"I'd love to hear it."
"When we have a couple hours, we'll tell you our whole story," Jason promised.
Dewei reentered the room then. "My people are setting the room up for you. Would you like to join my family for dinner? We usually have a pretty informal one with just the immediate family once a week, and tonight's the night."
"That would be wonderful," Neri said with a smile.
"Great. Do you want to return to your vehicle for a little while? Dinner's not going to be served for a little bit, and it doesn't look to me like you're very comfortable in those clothes."
"That would be great. Thank you," Jason said with a sigh of relief.
"I'll take you over there," Acia said. I'd love to see the inside of that thing.
"Sure," Jason said with a shrug. "There isn't a whole lot to see though."
Acia led the way out of the building and back across the courtyard to the Eagle.
"Go ahead and take a look around," Jason said as he unlocked and opened the door.
"Thanks," Acia said, walking up the steps as Jason and Neri followed her up.
"Do you want to change first?" Jason asked.
"Thank you," Neri said, heading to the bathroom.
Jason set the photo back onto the back end of the table before sitting down at it.
"What is that picture in your bedroom?" Acia asked as she walked back to the front.
"That would be our island."
"Really? It's beautiful."
"Thank you, we think so too."
"Good lord, is that what you normally wear?" Acia asked as Neri came out of the bathroom, her normal dress on.
Neri glanced down at herself. "Yes."
"Ok, then we need to get you a new outfit," Acia said.
"Why?"
"That kind of dress is only worn by the poor. I'll get something for you before dinner. Do you want me to find something for you too, Jason?"
"All right," Jason answered in surprise.
"Great, I'll be back in forty-five minutes."
Neri and Jason looked at each other as Acia left.
"Oh boy," Jason said with a sigh. "Just as long as she doesn't try to put me in a skirt."
Neri smiled "I do not want to see you in a skirt," she joked as she got a glass of water and sat down across from him.
"I think I'm grateful for that," Jason said with a smile of his own.
"You are not going to change?"
"Why bother. With my shoes off, this outfit isn't too bad and I'd have to change again in 45 minutes."
"True," Neri agreed, picking up her book.
++++++++++
Forty minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Jason and Neri had given up on reading and were playing chess, which they had found they both enjoyed and were both good enough to keep games going for a while.
"It's open," Jason called out.
Acia opened the door and walked up the stairs, carrying a couple of outfits in her arms.
"Hi, I found some stuff for you, if you don't mind going barefoot," she said, setting the clothes down on an extra chair.
"That's quite all right. We mostly go without shoes anyways," Jason said, knocking down his king so they would know it was his turn and stood up.
"What are you guys doing?" Acia asked, looking at the board.
"Playing a game of chess."
"Chess?"
"If we had some time, I'd explain it to you. It's pretty complicated."
"All right. Here," Acia said, handing a knee-length dress to Neri, done in different shades of blue and green that seemed to flow across the surface.
"I love it," Neri said with a smile. "Thank you."
"Why don't you go change?" Jason suggested.
Neri nodded and headed to the back.
"Now for yours," Acia said, holding up a one-piece short set done in patches of black and white. "It's got a zipper down the front," Acia explained, opening a flap that ran down the length, exposing a zipper.
"Oh good, I wasn't sure how I was going to wear that thing," Jason admitted. "I'll go try this thing on."
"Oh wow," Acia said a minute later when Neri emerged from the bedroom, her hair loose and dressed in the new outfit. "You look amazing."
"Thank you," Neri said, blushing a little. "I love it."
"Wow," Jason said, emerging from the bathroom. "I like my outfit a lot but you look just incredible."
"Thank you," Neri said with a smile, stealing a kiss. "You look great too."
"That looks really great on you too," Acia commented to Jason with a grin.
"Can we keep these?" Neri asked.
"Of course. They look awesome on you guys."
"I think I may have to start wearing this instead of a wetsuit," Jason said with a smile.
"Are you ready for dinner?" Acia asked the pair, who were still holding hands.
"Dinner sounds great," Jason said. Let me just quickly do something," he said, walking over to the control and hitting a few buttons. "Ok."
Neri grabbed the family photo on the way out.
Chapter 2
The next few days were filled with meetings with different family members. The only person there wasn't any information on was Cade and while it wasn't a big surprise to either Jason or Neri since they had thought there was a good possibility that the youngest member of their family had been born on the long journey to Earth.
Of course, the question remained of which family she belonged to, but there wasn't any way of answering that question.
About a week after arriving Neri was awoken by a loud knock on the door.
She untangled herself from Jason's arms and got out of bed.
"Whoever it is, send them away. It's too darn early to talk to anyone," Jason muttered with a groan, turning over in bed.
Neri grinned and kissed Jason's forehead before entering the main area.
It was only just dawn when Neri glanced out the wall of windows that led out to a large balncony that had a pool dominating one end and a beautiful view of the city. The room they had been given was done in shades of white and gray and divided into a couple of areas: a sitting area right near the door and a bedroom farther back near the rear that was dominated by a large four-poster bed.
Neri was surprised to find Acia standing on the other side of the door with tears running down her face.
"Acia? What's wrong?"
"My father is dead."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Neri said softly, leading her to one of the chairs. "What happened?"
"They think he suffered a heart attack last night. I'm queen."
"Can I get you anything?" Neri asked.
"No, thank you," Acia said as Jason got out of bed and came over.
"I'm sorry to hear that," he said gently as he got a pot of coffee going. "What will happen now?"
"First there's a week-long mourning period and then I will be crowned queen a few days later."
"Do you think you are ready for this?" Neri asked as Jason sat down next to her.
"I don't know," Acia answered honestly. "I've been training for it my entire life, but…"
"No one is ever ready for the death of a parent. It's difficult to realize that you'll never see him again."
++++++++++
A week later, nearly everything was set for the coronation.
The week had culminated in Dewei's funeral, a massive undertaking with a long procession of several thousand people from the palace to the temple and graveyard where he was interred in a large mausoleum.
Neri and Jason had both been invited to stand with Acia's family during the coronation, but only Neri had taken them up on the offer, Jason had opted for a seat in the front row.
It started just fine, a small procession came up to the center aisle to a raised platform in the front of the temple, a priest in the lead, Acia dressed relatively plainly in a white dress not unlike Neri's original.
Acia's two sisters and brother came next, along with their mother and Neri and then a bunch of monks, all of whom were chanting.
Almost twenty minutes into the ceremony, which included a lot of prayer and song, the doors at the back of the temple banged open and several men filed in, armed to the teeth.
Jason knew that this was certainly not a part of the ceremony, having been to the dress rehersal the day before and seeing the way people were reacting.
After looking around, the group started walking up the aisle. Jason glanced at the people on the platform and realized that they were the targets, he quickly got to his feet.
"Come on," he said, herding the group of about ten to the door he knew was hidden at the rear of the platform.
Neri was right in front of Jason, who was the last person in line to leave the stage, when he head a strange, loud electrical charge and something slammed into his back.
He fell forward into Neri, taking them both to the ground.
Pain shot through his back worse than anything he had ever felt as a shadow fell over him and Neri.
"Stupid kid, you ruined our plans," a man said, lifting his arm and aiming for Jason's head.
"No," another man said, pulling the man's arm up and instead shooting Neri in the back. "Shoot to injure, you idiot, not kill," he said. "You know our orders."
"Sorry sir. I guess I'm overly annoyed."
"Sir, we're secure," a third voice said.
"Good. Are the heir and her family in custody?"
"No sir. There must be a back way out."
"Damn. All right you idiots…" the man said, addressing the crowd.
"Jason?" Neri whispered. "I…I can not feel my legs."
"I can't feel mine either," Jason admitted, feeling really scared.
"Are we going to die?"
"I don't know honey. At least we're together."
"I love you," Neri said, reaching back, searching for his hand.
With effort Jason was able to reach forward and take it.
"I love you too," Jason said, feeling himself fading our as more shots rang out.
++++++++++
Jason woke up slowly, realizing that he was still alive, and unable to feel anything below his navel.
He groaned as he tried to open his eyes, a light shining brightly, directly above him.
The light behind his eyelids dimmed almost immediately and he was able to open his eyes slightly.
"Sorry about that. We didn't know when you would wake up," a soft woman's voice said from his right.
"I can't feel my legs."
"When you were shot, it severed your spinal cord."
"Neri?"
"She's not in much better shape. Her spinal cord was severed too. She's alive though."
"What happened?"
There was an attempted coup. You're a hero for getting the queen and her family out of there."
"How long have I been unconscious?"
"Four days. Try and get some sleep, all right? Next time you wake up, we'll get some food and water into you."
Jason was so weak he was asleep within a couple minutes.
Chapter 3
Over the next year, Jason and Neri made up what they had lost that day. Jason was awarded one of the highest honors for Neri's people, the title of Calem.
They had been offered the chance to have the Eagle revamped to accommodate their new needs: widening the aisles, doubling the width, lowering all of the cabinets and counters, and putting a lift into the stairs so they wouldn't have to try and climb them.
Jason and Neri even designed their own wheelchairs to fit what they would need when they reached Earth: lightweight, collapsible chairs that had tires tough enough to handle to rough terrain of the island straps hidden along the sides so they could pull themselves up into them, and straps that went around their middle and ankles so they wouldn't be able to bounce out of them in rough terrain.
Meanwhile, they were gathering upper-body strength and figuring out how to live without leg power.
By the time rehabilitation finally ended, Neri and Jason were more than ready to go home.
Acia and her mother were a little reluctant to let the pair leave, but finally agreed after a three day test of doing everything for themselves.
"I'm sorry to see the two of you leave," Acia said before leaving the Eagle for the last time. "If you guys ever need anything, let us know."
"Of course. Thank you," Jason said.
"If anyone ever comes here, it'll probably be a big group," Neri added.
"You might see some of our people in a year or so. There's been some talk about sending an expedition over there."
Neri and Jason glanced at each other. "There are only a very few people on our planet that truly know that we are not alone in the universe. Let me just say that there's no way of telling how people would react."
"Thanks for the warning. Have a great trip," Acia said, hugging both Jason and Neri
"Thank you for helping us so much," Neri said in return.
"It was no problem. I hope you guys are all right getting home. Good luck."
"Thanks."
"I'll leave you now. Goodbye and good luck," Acia said before turning around and heading to the stairs to leave."
"Bye," Jason said, following her and looking down the stairwell until he saw the indicator next to I turn green, which showed that the door was securely closed.
He pressed the button next to it that sealed the entrance to the craft.
"You ready?" he asked as Neri rolled up and took her place at the console.
Neri had retained a lot ore flexibility in her hands than Jason and by mutual consent was taking on the more active role on the journey.
Neri grinned. "I can not wait to be home."
The End
Author's note: Feedback is always welcome. Hope you enjoyed it!
Not the end of the series though. Still quite a bit to go!!