Chapter 12
I was sitting in sick bay, eating breakfast with Cyclops, Jean, and Storm. Cyke and Jean had their baby with them, though she was sound asleep in the carrier that was placed next to the table. All of us sudden, we hear Rogue shouting, "I KILLED HIM! I KILLED HIM!"
As we exchanged looks of shock, the door to sickbay slid aside. Rogue was carrying Gambit in her arms. Her hair was disheveled; it looked as if she'd been sleeping. Gambit was unconscious. Rogue's eyes looked insane, her skin had gone pale.
We leapt up off our seats as soon as we assessed the situation. Rogue handed Gambit to Cyclops, as if she couldn't wait to get him out of her arms. Cyclops carried the tall, lanky man to the nearest bed. Rogue continued screaming, "I KILLED HIM!" as Cyke reached for one of Gambit's wrists.
"He's alive," Jean said, her eyes closed. "I sense it."
Scott confirmed it. "There is a pulse."
As Storm spoke into her communicator to summon Hank, Rogue slumped against a shelf, obviously stunned with relief. The shelf lit up as she inadvertently charged it, the way Gambit can charge objects. "Stand back!" she called.
Jean grabbed Charlotte in time to move her far away from the shelf before it exploded.
"Rogue, be careful! Don't touch anything. You don't know how to control the charging like Gambit does." Jean said. I don't think Jean intended for her voice to sound as harsh as it did. She clutched her baby, who was now crying from the explosion and chaos in the room. Jean then spoke baby talk to Charlotte, trying to calm her down. Scott joined her.
Rogue stood, hugging her arms to herself. I noticed tears streaming down her face, and her body seemed to shake. I wanted to go over and give her a hug, but she didn't look like she'd be all that receptive to one.
Hank rushed into the room, and directly over to Gambit. He pushed a few buttons, bringing the medical equipment on-line. "He's in a coma," Hank reported after scanning Gambit with the equipment. "Do not panic," he added, as his fingers worked away, pressing buttons on various pieces of equipment. "I think it is possible that he can recover from this," he said, his eyes fixed to a monitor. "At this point, it is too early to say with certainty though."
Rogue sobbed openly. I again felt an urge to comfort her, but her appearance scared me and she looked as if she would lash out at anyone who approached her. Storm, however, was undaunted. She approached Rogue with her arms outstretched.
"Get away from me!" Rogue screamed. "I'm dangerous!"
"No, Rogue," Storm said, her voice soothing. "You are not dangerous. Everything will be alright." She continued to say words to those effect. She advised Rogue to take a few deep breaths. I noticed Rogue starting to calm down a bit. The two women left the infirmary, Storm with her arm around her younger teammate.
Hank continued to tend to Gambit. I stayed in the infirmary for most of the day, but I hung back to give Hank the room he needed. We all did. By the end of the day, the prognosis was that Gambit probably could recover, but we did not know when. The medical equipment on the ship was good and we kept Gambit under constant supervision.
"I'm poison," Rogue said, in between sobs. "I'm disgusting."
"Don't ever say such words," Storm said, holding her friend in her arms. They sat in Storm's room. As Rogue shed more tears, Storm reached for a box of tissues. "You are a beautiful, wonderful person and I will not hear you say otherwise about yourself! We all love you and cherish you. I will not hear a loved one of mine call herself `poison.'"
Storm paused, and then added, "You heard what Beast said. Gambit is alive."
"He's in a coma! My god, he's in a coma and I put him there!"
"The medical equipment this ship is excellent, and Hank is a wonderful doctor. Gambit could not be in better hands."
"But I can't believe that I put him in a coma!"
"It was an accident, Rogue."
"Of course it was an accident. But I let my guard down." Rogue looked down at her hands. They had ceased shaking. Rogue had gotten a hold of the power she absorbed from Gambit; she now knew how to refrain from charging every item she touched. "How could I have let my guard down like that?" She shook her head. "We usually sleep with the collar on. I have been taking it off on colder nights when we sleep fully dressed since we figure we ain't gonna be touching skin to skin then. It was freezing cold on the ship last night. Gambit and I both planned to sleep fully dressed since we were so cold, and I thought I'd be safe. But when we woke up this morning….I just forgot. The collar has become like a second skin to me and I been forgetting when I have it on or not."
"It's okay, Rogue," Storm said, placing one arm around her friend. "We all forget things on occasion."
"But Storm, it ain't alright! This ain't like forgettin' your manners or where you put your car keys! I could have killed Remy. My god, I could have killed him," she repeated. New, hot tears appeared on her cheeks.
"But you didn't. He is alive. This will simply remind you to be more cautious next time."
"If there is a next time. If he ever wakes from this coma." Rogue reached for another tissue and blew her nose. "Storm, sometimes I feel like I got passed feelin sorry for myself and angry at the world over this. Over being born with….this way. But now I just feel that all over again."
"I am confident that you will recover from feeling this way. Our special powers are gifts, not curses. I know that deep down you understand this." Storm paused. "Gambit will recover and in no time you will forget ever feeling this way."
We sat down for dinner together in the infirmary. First thing, Hank was asked for an update on Gambit. It had been the only thing on our minds since it happened, of course and we'd all been in and out of sick bay to check up on him all day. Hank said there was not much to update on. Gambit remained in a coma. He thought Remy had a good chance of recovering. "Medical literature indicates that people in comas do recover faster when someone sits with them, holds their hand and talks to them," Hank added.
Rogue got up from the table and sat next to Gambit's prone form. I think she had spent the day crying with Storm, but whatever Storm said, it got her to take action. She held his hand (with her gloves on, of course) and talked to him. I do not think Rogue left his side because when I went to the infirmary for breakfast the next morning, she was still there and she looked as if she hadn't slept a wink.
My admiration of Storm, by the way, just continued to grow all the time. I know whatever Storm had said to Rogue that morning had kept Rogue from totally losing it.
Once we got an update on Gambit, we discussed the course of the ship and our journey. "We are heading back towards earth, as you all know," the Professor said. "We decided to take a slightly different course, however." I knew the 'we' he spoke of was himself, Cyclops and Storm. They had met shortly after our successful take-off to discuss the particulars of our journey.
Cyclops continued for him, "We set our course so that we'll travel through different solar systems than the ones we passed on our way here. We plan to continue to search for dilithium. Even though we have enough to power us for nearly seven years, we could always use more. We thought that made the most sense, since in all likelihood we will continue to need this ship after we return to earth."
"Just to make sure I get it," Jubilee began, "when you say `return to earth', we're not talking about like landing there or going back to live there, are we?"
"Not at all," Storm said. "We know we will need to be very cautious. We plan to fly near earth-remaining cloaked, of course. Once we get close enough that we can monitor the news, we will take a look at the situation for mutants."
"A lot can change in 15 months," Cyclops said. "Life for mutants might be better and it might be worse. FOH's power on earth might have increased, or-for all we know-they've been discredited and are losing support. However, we are preparing for the worst, which would mean that we would need to continue to make this ship our home and we'll be unable to live on earth."
Nods were exchanged. We all knew and understood what Cyke and Storm were saying; it had been discussed by the group before and wasn't surprising to anyone.
"If, by some chance, things have gotten better for mutants-then what?" Jubilee asked. "I mean, I really doubt they have gotten better. But you never know."
"If that is the case," the Professor said, "we will all sit down together and discuss where to go from here."
"We do have plenty of time before we will know," Storm said. "We're travelling at one of the slower speeds now, to save dilithium. Given that our route back to earth is somewhat roundabout, we do not expect to be back near earth until 7 months at the earliest."
"I would love to be able to learn how my family back on earth is doing," Jean mused.
"I wonder about Alpha Flight," I said. "I sure hope there might be some way we can find out what happened to Jeanne Marie, Northstar and Shaman. If they're still alive," I added, glumly. I knew that everyone had considered their mission to return to their loved ones a suicide mission. My logical side knew the chances of them having made it back to earth alive and in one piece were slim to none. But I thought of the three of them often and hoped against hope that they were well. Marie's report, I think, will always haunt me, and I suspect I'm not the only X-man who feels that way.
Several at the table expressed agreement with me. The Professor added, "I wonder about those X-men who were not staying at the mansion with us at the time of attack. Psylocke and Angel were in England." He paused, "And of course I am eager to hear anything about Moira and her family."
We continued to muse about these people who had touched our lives. We segued into talking about some of the X-men who had died in the final battle with FOH. I didn't know all of these people well, but during the past 15 months, I had heard so much about such X-men as Nightcrawler and Shadowcat. I wish I had known them better.
"How's she doing, darlin'?" Wolverine asked Storm. Storm was entering his room, having just returned from the infirmary to check in on Rogue and Gambit.
"I believe she will be alright," Storm said, walking up to where Wolverine sat on the bed. "Once she got over the original shock, she reached a stage where I could get through to her." Storm sat next to Wolverine. "Rogue has come a long way, emotionally, over the last few years." She sighed. "I just pray that Gambit will recover."
"He's tough," Wolverine said. "He's survived much worse than this. He'll make it."
"I dearly hope you are right." Storm had always been close to Gambit.
Wolverine reached a hand towards his lover and stroked one of her shoulders. Storm closed her eyes, sighing comfortably. She then verbalized her thoughts. "You have wonderful hands. Such talented hands." She then turned her head towards him and asked, "Shall we?"
He pulled her towards him. "It won't be the same as making love outdoors, darlin.'" This would be their first time sleeping together on board the ship, as they had not done so the previous night.
"It will still be good, Logan. Don't you agree?"
"Of course." Wolverine pulled Storm into a kiss. She no longer had to fight feelings that she and Wolverine were committing incest. Her lips hungrily met his, eagerly thrusting her tongue inside his mouth.
After enjoying the delicious sensations for a while, Storm broke off the kiss. She reached her hands around to touch his shoulders and upper arms. His muscular, toned body excited her so. Storm's fingers crept slowly down towards his chest. She played with the hair on his chest, running her fingers through it. "My wild man," she murmured. He smiled, content to allow her to take the lead this time. She had a magical touch which never failed to rouse him. Her fingers traveled over Wolverine's nipples, pausing to tweak one and then squeeze the other. When they first had become lovers, she had been stunned to learn how sensitive his nipples were. He let out a deep moan of appreciation.
Storm smiled. "I know you wish to go faster, my wild man," she said. It had, after all, been over 48 hours now. She knew that generally he liked to go at it quickly, and then afterwards slow down to tenderly and slowly make love to Storm.
He shook his head. "I'm enjoyin' this, darlin. If you wanna go slow, then we go slow."
"There is something I would really like to do, Logan," she whispered. "Would you lay back a little?"
Storm coaxed Wolverine into a prone position. She kissed her way down to his groin, nuzzling against her cheek the coarse hair that adorned his body. She then reached his already rigid cock. Storm licked and sucked his hard length. She delighted in his masculine taste and scent, as she took him inside her mouth. One of her hands was at the base of his cock, the other still playing with his chest hair as her mouth drove him wild.
After some time, Wolverine stopped his thrusting. "Time we change places, darlin. I want to taste you."
Storm looked up. "We can do that another time, my lover. I do see the wisdom in going quickly at times. I want you inside of me right now."
She mounted Wolverine, straddling his form. She noted that his eyes were half-lidded with undisguised pleasure. Storm smiled, looked up, and said, "Thank you, Mother Goddess for this moment and for giving us this wondrous gift."
Wolverine groaned loudly. Storm looked back down at him and slowly lowered herself. She began to thrust up and down. He filled her so well, and she loved the view of his chest and shoulders, and his face which was plastered with sweat.
He thrust his hips, meeting her each time she plunged down. Wolverine grabbed her full breasts, which hung above him like tempting fruit. He lightly squeezed the soft flesh. He then pinched her nipples, gently at first, but then more vigorously when her cries told him to do so. Wolverine then cupped both her breasts and craned his head up so he could suckle the flesh. Pressing her erect breasts together, he inserted both of her nipples into his mouth and drew on both of the hard nubs at once. Storm's thrusting grew more vigorous. "Oh Goddess…." she breathed.
He felt his climax approaching as Storm's moans increased in volume. She bounced on top of him with increasing vigor, the movement of her hips becoming more and more frantic. Her body then was overcome with the divine sensations and she felt waves and waves of pleasure overtake her. Wolverine followed her, his cock spurting his salty load inside her.
Moments later, Storm was resting, laying on top of her lover's chest. She felt her breathing return to normal. She then looked over at Logan….and her eyes traveled downwards to his member. He was becoming stiff again. Storm smiled.
"Again, Logan?" she asked.
"God, yes. Anytime."
Storm fought to keep from grinning like a schoolgirl. He could go all night, as she well knew. Usually, that suited her just fine-she could go all night too.
Wolverine shifted their positions, so that he now was on top of her. His heart rate sped up, liking the fact that he would be in charge for this bout. His hands caressed her body, traveling down towards her very warm and very wet core. "You said I'd get a turn to take a taste you, Ororo," he reminded Storm as his fingers brushed over her public hair.
She smiled invitingly. She spread her legs wide, prepared to welcome the attentions of his lips and tongue. He was so incredibly good. As she had many times now, Storm silently thanked the Goddess for giving her the courage she had needed to invite Logan to her bed.
Gambit was still in sick bay, a week after the incident. He remained in a coma. Rogue maintained her vigil over him constantly. Whenever I looked in, she was there. She was always there. I'm guessing she took breaks to take a shower, and I did see her eat a few times, but she basically slept, ate, and lived at his side. She held his hand and talked to him non-stop.
There's one thing that I really wonder about. I assume that when Rogue absorbed Gambit's powers, she also absorbed a lot of (all of?) his memories. At least, that's how I heard it works. And we all kinda knew Gambit didn't exactly have the most pristine past. I kept wondering if she'd learned any of his deep, dark secrets or if she now knew something that changed how she felt about Gambit. But if that were the case, it sure wasn't detectable, at least not by me. She remained by his side, tenderly stroking his face and arm. Who knows-maybe what she learned about him made her love him even more?
I also noticed that she now tended to always have a deck of cards in her hands and she habitually shuffled and reshuffled them.
Anyway, we all joined Rogue in keeping Gambit company. Each and every member of the team spent some time sitting with and talking to Gambit every day.
The Professor and Jean discussed using their powers on him. They told us that basically Gambit was in a deep coma-his mind was fine, but "locked away", so to speak. It was his physical body that was causing the problem. I know the Professor and Jean both had several intense sessions with Gambit, hoping to draw forth his consciousness to expedite his physical healing. Unfortunately, it did not seem to do any good.
We all wished Shaman were here to help.
Although Gambit's situation was not improving, at least we had good news on another front. Less than a week after we began our journey back towards earth, we encountered an uninhabited moon that had tons of dilithium. The moon was completely barren and lifeless, so we had no qualms about taking the dilithium. Using our transporter for the better part of a day, we filled engineering with the substance. By the end of the day, our total dilithium supply jumped to enough to last us over 12 years! We made sure that we wrote down the address of that moon so we could return as need be.
I think we would have celebrated this, except that everyone was depressed about Gambit. I sat in the rec room with Jean, Wolverine, and Jubilee one day, shortly after we acquired our dilithium.
"Poor Rogue," Jubilee said. "She never leaves sick bay." Aurora was in her baby carrier, sleeping soundly at her mother's feet and oblivious to the turmoil that was occurring on board the ship. Charlotte was with her father and grandfather.
"She did yesterday," Wolverine said. "I got her to fight with me in the Danger Room. She did a damn fine job too."
"She is holding up better than I thought," Jean said. "Storm has been talking to her, as well, which is helping." Jean paused, "Storm is so good with this kind of thing."
After a lull in the conversation, I spoke up. "I dunno if I'm being too optimistic," I began, "but I just haven't thought of….of the fact that we might not get him back. What I'm saying, I mean, is that I think he's going to recover." I didn't say it out loud, but there was something influencing why I felt that way. I really had felt anxiety that over Jubilee's pregnancy-I feared she wasn't going to survive the actual birth. It had been long and painful, but Jubilee had come out of it just fine. Besides, look at everything else we survived on board this ship. Heck, look at everything the X-men had survived over the years. Could something as small as this really kill Gambit? I just didn't believe it could be.
Jean might have detected my thoughts. She nodded, "I know what you mean, Bobby. I, too, am having a hard time believing that Gambit might not recover. The X-men have survived so many impossible situations over the years. Who knows how many life-threatening situations Gambit escaped from before this. But," she paused, "we do need to keep in mind the worst….Some people remain in comas for months, or even years."
"Do we know how long she actually touched him before….before this happened?" Jubilee asked.
Jean nodded. "Rogue didn't quite remember herself, but the Professor searched her mind. It was only a matter of seconds."
"Didn't Rogue once say that the first boy she kissed was in a coma for three weeks? So maybe it will just be a few weeks for Gambit, too?" Jubilee asked, sounding hopeful.
Jean shrugged. "It's possible but we simply don't know. All I think we can do is hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Seriously. This could be a lot worse than it looks now."
Our conversation was doing nothing to uplift the mood. We all kinda sat there, exchanging looks. Even Wolverine looked concerned, and I knew he and Gambit were not exactly best friends. He was closer to Rogue though, and I knew he had to be worried for her.
After some time, Aurora woke from her nap and began to cry. It actually was a good tension breaker for those of us sitting in the rec room. Jean and Jubilee got to talking about different aspects of parenthood. Wolverine and I listened, though we didn't have much first hand experience to contribute.
Although I did know that Wolverine loved playing "Uncle" with Charlotte as much as he did with Aurora. I once saw him sitting in the rec room next to Cyclops and his baby. Wolverine had actually asked Scott if he could hold Charlotte for a bit (the fact that he asked surprised me some), and Scott gave her over to him. Wolverine had gotten that enchanted look in his eyes and I am sure he would've started cooing at the baby had Scott (and I) not been there. The two men had actually looked like two friends sitting there. I mused that they might never be best buddies, but it seemed like they had at least called a truce and were putting up with each other.
Anyway, back to that afternoon in the rec room, I do recall some interesting tidbits from Jean and Jubilee's conversation about babies and motherhood. Jean said that she and Scott had a scare one day, when Scott was holding the baby, and Charlotte grabbed his visor! "Fortunately," Jean said, "Scott is kind of used to being prepared to close his eyes, and he did so. But we have to be careful. Charlotte seems to want to grab everything."
Jubilee asked Jean if she and Cyclops wanted another baby.
"We're definitely having another one," Jean said. I noticed Wolverine's interest in the conversation seemed to have been rekindled; he was clearly listening at this point. "You know, for years and years we kept putting off having a baby until `things get better'. I think having Charlotte was one of the best things we ever did. We realized things may never get better and we can't wait forever. And we both love being parents. Scott and I do want a total of two children, and we're thinking to start trying to have another one when Charlotte is just a bit older." Jean paused. "Ideally, I'd like them to be no more than two years apart, but of course I realize that we need to take what we're given. We know that the best laid plans don't always work….but this is what we want."
"Do you want just two, or do you think maybe three?" I asked.
"Two is a good number," Jean said. "We agreed to stop at two, whether the second one is a boy or girl."
"I bet three babies would be a lot of work," I said. I quickly added, "Not that two isn't."
"I dunno if I ever want to go through childbirth again," Jubilee mused, shaking her head. "It was really painful and scary. To this day, I'd say it was way worse than I ever dreamed it would've been."
"You made it, though, kid," Wolverine said. "You're one tough kid."
"Woman!" Jubilee said. "I'm a woman, not a kid anymore. Sheesh, I must be twenty-one by now!"
Wolverine smiled, though he looked surprised too. "Twenty-one, huh? How the years have flown by. But you'll always be a kid to me, darlin.'"
Jubilee didn't reply, though I must say she didn't look to happy with his words. I think Wolverine was really trying to pay her a compliment by reminding her that she "toughed out" the childbirth experience, but his good intentions were lost as she only heard the "kid" part.
Jean nodded in Wolverine's direction. "You are very strong, Jubilee. Thank goodness you and Aurora both came out of it healthy."
Jubilee smiled, "There was a point there where I feared it wasn't going to happen that way." She paused, looking at Jean. "Your childbirth went much smoother."
"It was. I used my powers to help dull some of the pain. But it wasn't just that….I felt empowered giving birth. I feel like after going through that, I can survive anything. Like I have a better handle on my abilities and my limits. It was the sort of challenge I liked. I do want to do it again." She paused. "I'm sorry you didn't have that experience, Jubilee."
Jubilee shrugged. "Hey, as you said, I came out of it ok and I have a healthy baby. That's good enough for me."
Storm carried a hot drink to Rogue. Rogue, as always, was sitting next to Gambit as she held his hand, spoke to him, and stroked his face through her gloved fingers.
"Some hot tea for you," Storm said. It was late in the evening; the rest of the group had finished dinner hours ago.
"Thank you, ma'am," Rogue said, accepting the drink. Storm was encouraged that her friend's expression had not been a monotone. She sounded alert and calm. "I think I'd prefer somethin' stronger than this, though."
Storm smiled. "Replicating unnecessary items is against our regulations, and alcohol falls into that category." Storm had been serious, but after she spoke the words, she paused and reconsidered. "However, if you want a cognac, I'd be more than happy to replicate it for you."
"Seriously?"
Storm stood up and headed for the food replicator. "We have enough dilithium to last us many years," she said, decisively. "One cognac is not going to make a difference."
Rogue grinned at her friend. Storm was such a good leader. Much as she liked and respected him, good old Cyke would never broken the regulations like this.
Storm replicated the drink and handed it to Rogue. "Much better. You're wonderful, Storm!" Rogue said.
Storm sat back down next to Rogue. She decided to drink the tea she brought for her friend.
"It's so weird lookin' at him like this," Rogue mused, her eyes on Gambit. "He looks so peaceful. I keep wantin' to tell myself that he's just sleepin and he'll be awake any minute. But I know it ain't true."
Storm nodded, though Rogue couldn't see it. She reached a hand up to Rogue's shoulder and lightly began to massage the area. "You should consider getting some sleep soon, my friend."
"I don't wanna sleep. Remy needs me here."
"Rogue. You've only been allowing yourself a few hours of sleep a night. That is not sufficient."
"But what if Remy should wake and he's all alone?" Rogue asked.
"He's a big boy," Storm smiled. "I am sure he can handle it. Hank can set up some monitoring so that if his patterns do change, someone is alerted. Or perhaps we need to set up some a guard duty schedule, to make sure someone's with him at all times."
Rogue nodded, still looking at her lover. "Well, I volunteer for the first shift, then."
"If you won't go to bed, then at least promise me you'll join either Wolverine or I in the Danger Room tomorrow for a while."
"That's a deal, Sugar!"
"And promise me you'll let Bobby or someone else give you a massage again?" Storm asked.
"I will. Mr. Drake did a damn fine job on my shoulders and back yesterday, I must say," Rogue remarked. "Though my butt is the area that I need to massage the most, since I been sittin on it all day."
"Well, who knows, perhaps he'd be willing to massage you there, too."
Rogue giggled. "Nah, though I'm sure if *Gambit* woke up and asked Bobby to do it, he'd be more than happy to!"
Both women giggled at the thought. Storm then added, "We should replicate a pillow for you to sit on, or at least get you a more comfortable chair than this one."
"Maybe tomorrow," Rogue said, taking another sip of her drink. She didn't attempt to stifle the yawn that escaped from her mouth. "It's not your company, Storm," she added hastily.
"I know," Storm said. "It is quite late and you have not been getting sufficient sleep."
"Are you going to go to bed now?" Rogue asked.
"I'll certainly finish my tea with you. And if you want to talk, I'll stay as late as you would like."
Rogue nodded, her eyes still fixated on Gambit. Terrifying thoughts swarmed through her mind. "Storm, what do I do if he never wakes up?" she finally blurted out.
Storm reached for Rogue's shoulder again and squeezed it. "We do not know what the future will bring," she said softly.
"I know. But what am I gonna do without Gambit? I can't even imagine it." Her voice broke. "I love him so much. I never loved anyone like this before."
As Storm's tea got cold, she held Rogue, the younger woman sobbing for quite some time. When she was done crying, Storm maneuvered Rogue to one of the empty beds in sick bay, and Rogue fell asleep right away.
Another month passed for the X-men, with no change in Gambit's condition. Beast and the Professor tried everything. Medically, there was nothing more the machines in the infirmary could do. They kept him alive but could not wake him from his coma.
The Professor and Jean spent an intense afternoon with Gambit, trying to use their powers to reach his consciousness and use it to wake him. Their work was to no avail. It was as if Gambit was in a deep sleep, and neither of them could make him stir.
Rogue, of course, kept up her vigil at her lover's side. Although her teammates lured her away for periods of time to ensure that she was getting sleep, exercise and food, Rogue spent most of her days at Gambit's bedside, talking to and touching him. She regularly slept on a bed next to his in the infirmary. A few of her items of clothing and toiletries were now stashed in sick bay.
As they had a month ago, the X-men encountered an uninhabited moon with large supplies of dilithium. They decided again to increase their stores of dilithium as this moon also was completely lifeless.
As Colossus, Wolverine and Jubilee headed for engineering to work on retrieving the precious material from the moon, Scott and Jean were cuddled together in their room with Charlotte. The peacefully sleeping baby was snuggled between her parents.
"I wonder if I should be there, helping them with the dilithium," Scott wondered.
"Honey, I'm sure they have it under control. Having more than three people on it would just mean the others would be getting in the way," Jean said. "Just enjoy being here with us." He snuggled closer to her. She added, "I'm glad we're getting more dilithium though."
"Me too," Scott said.
They were silent for a few moments, just laying there and lightly caressing each other and the baby. "Storm is doing a wonderful job with Rogue," Jean mused.
"She's always been good at getting through to her," Scott said. "Rogue listens to her."
"Storm's kept her from falling into self-pity or self-hatred. She really has kept Rogue incredibly positive," Jean said, her admiration apparent.
"Rogue has come a long way in the last several years though," Scott remarked. Silently he mused that the female X-men always had such good rapport with each other. Back at the mansion, Storm and Jean basically served as mentors for Rogue, Shadowcat and Jubilee-especially when it came to emotional or personal issues, but on other things as well. The men didn't have any sort of support system like that. Scott reflected that he would actually love to serve in a mentor-type roll…..but the other guys either didn't need one or would never use one. Oh well. `I'm a dad, now,' he thought, `I'll get all the mentor-chances I want.'
Jean was picking up on his thoughts, but she also wanted to comment on what he spoke. "Rogue *has* reached a good level of emotional maturity," Jean admitted. "But I really worry about her if Gambit does not snap out of this….I fear he'll never come out of the coma."
"He's a tough guy, Jean. He'll make it."
"But Scott, people can stay in comas for….years. Some never wake up. It doesn't matter how mentally or physically strong you are when your brain is shut off like this."
Scott nodded. "I suppose you're right. We do need to be optimistic though, for Rogue's sake."
Jean shook her head. "It just would be so unfair to Rogue. She's waited all her life for a love like this….She and Remy are finally able to be together. I mean, not just physically, but she's finally opened her heart up to him too. And now this."
"I know. But worrying about it isn't going to help," Scott said softly, his hand reaching for Jean's. Jean reached her head over to be able to kiss her husband.
Moments later, Charlotte was floated onto her crib via her mom's telekinesis. Scott and Jean were now kissing with more vigor, their caresses slowly becoming more serious. Scott had a hand under Jean's shirt and was fondling a ripe breast when an alarm sounded.
Scott and Jean both gasped and sat up. The team had tested the ship's red alert system, but had not yet had occasion to use it. "Everyone report to the bridge!" the Professor spoke over the intercom. "This is not a drill."
On instinct, Jean grabbed Charlotte, and she and Scott raced to the bridge, baby in tow. Jean sensed an emotion akin to panic from the Professor. Very few times had she ever sensed him this alarmed.
I was in the middle of a ping pong game with Storm when the red alert went off. Shocked, we ran down the hallway towards the elevator that would take us to the bridge. By the time we got there, we could feel the ship breaking orbit away from the moon. The Professor sat at the controls on the bridge, steering the ship away. Wolverine, Colossus and Jubilee had been in engineering, loading dilithium when the alert sounded, but they reached the bridge with the rest of us.
"I'm engaging the cloaking device and moving the ship at warp five," the Professor said as his fingers worked his control panel. "There are two FOH starships after us. They must have spotted us when we uncloaked to load the dilithium. They uncloaked and began to fire on us. They didn't hit us."
It all happened so fast. Wolverine took the weapons control station, and Cyclops sat at the other terminal, ready to back up the Professor. The consoles on the bridge showed us what was happening. There were indeed two FOH ships on our tail. However, as soon as we re-cloaked, they must have done the same. We couldn't see them.
"We've reached warp 5 now," Cyclops said, looking at one of the monitors. "That's the fastest speed this ship travels at."
"The FOH ships are cloaked again," Storm said. "How will-"
Her words were cut off as an explosion could be heard. "They're firing phasers at us," Cyclops said. "We've sustained moderate damage to our shields."
"We have to hope they don't damage our engines," Storm said.
I felt the adrenaline rushing and fear welling up inside me. I noticed that Jean and Jubilee both held their babies, and both babies were loudly wailing, as if they knew what was to come.
Whenever one of the FOH ships fired on us, they had to temporarily uncloak, which allowed us to track their position on the monitor. Unfortunately, whenever they successfully hit us, they could get a glimpse of our location too. Two, then three, phaser blasts rocked our ship. I fervently hoped our shields would hold.
It was a mad dash from there. As my heart pounded, I noticed that the Professor and Cyclops had traded places. Cyclops was our best pilot, and he used every maneuver he could to shake them. We had one serious drawback which was becoming more and more apparent as each second went by. The FOH ships were much faster.
"I'm firing back at them," Wolverine said, his fingers ready at his console.
"No, Logan," Storm said, "Every time a ship fires, it reveals their location."
"They can already track our location from the times they've managed to hit us," Cyclops said. He apparently decided to over-ride Storm's order. "Return their fire, Wolverine. Use phasers, not the photon torpedoes."
The FOH ships were avoiding using their photon torpedoes on us. I fleetingly wondered why they would chose to do so, as photons were more powerful than phasers. Then it hit me. Photons were more likely to destroy a ship, whereas phasers would simply disable it. They wanted to take us alive. A sick feeling turned over in my stomach. I felt helpless, watching the events play out. I forced myself to keep breathing.
We fired back on them. Our disadvantages were that our ship was slower, and there were two FOH vessels against our one.
"Shields down to 25%," the Professor said after another round of phasers hit us. Pretty soon, our cloaking device would be inoperable and soldiers would be able to transport aboard when our shields were destroyed. The Professor ordered Rogue and Hank to engineering, to work on repairing the shields. As the two of them dashed for the hallway, I wondered if we'd even survive the battle long enough for them to begin repairs.
"Prepare for hand to hand combat," Storm ordered. I changed into Iceman, Colossus changed into his indestructible form, and my fellow X-men all readied themselves.
"Wait a second," the Professor said, frantically cueing up something on his console. "Cyclops, change our heading to this one." He must have sent something to Cyclops's monitor. Cyclops frantically entered the coordinates and our ship veered in one direction.
The FOH vessels followed and continued to fire on us. I vaguely remembered that a damaged ship often "leaked" an ion trail, which revealed its location. At this point, we may as well not have had our cloaking device on. Their ships remained on our tail. It was clear that they could easily track our position.
As our ship sped towards its course, with Cyclops attempting to out-maneuver the FOH, one of the attacking starships broadcast a message. You can force another vessel to receive communications, especially when its shields were damaged. My heart stopped as I listened to the message and it suddenly got very quiet on the bridge.
"Mutant scum," the menacing voice sounded over the static-y transmission, "surrender to the Friends of Humanity and prepare to be boarded."
TO BE CONTINUED