Alexander counted his blessings as he was shooed out of the 'nursery' and sent on his way by the females, human and otherwise, of his large extended family. He honestly tried to help with the baby stuff, but as most of his extra memories involved avoiding 'domestic detail' his own apparent gift so far was champion burper.
He chuckled as he made his was toward what passed as he headed toward the spectacular bar for some kind of exotic drink, and once again found himself trying to figure out the nightmare logistics of their situation. Hell, even excluding the Tree-Cats and the Alaspinian Mini-Dragons, his complement of humans had become unwieldy. Luckily they tended to be fairly smart and straight-forward, so that very few real problems had arisen; he we even surprised to have become in the last couple months good enough friends with the general to where they could discuss the future and with their group abilities, what good might come of it.
The general, his daughter, John Connor, Maggie, and the 'Quiet Earthers' of the world that had technologically zapped itself, more than the others had formed a solid group; Anakin, his mother, Kirk, Scott, Harper, Dylan and Andromeda tended toward another, and the 'original crew' yet another. Xander thought it might be technology and comfort with certain levels of culture that did this, but as this was only starting to become noticeable in a slight way, he and the general thought it might actually create more stability in the long run.
'What to do when we get back?' he considered, sitting and ordering at a table in the lounge, giving his order, 'First, we go through Sunnydale and do some serous house-cleaning.' His thoughts diverged, wondering how much time if any had passed since the first used sliding to break their loop. Would they return on Halloween, or in as much time as had passed for the Travelers?
"Caprica and the SGC…" he voiced quietly to himself, considering the balance between 'home' and what would be best for the kids and the entire group.
"Good idea if you're planning homes for the children," Joyce nodded as she sat down next to him, "Is that what has you looking so broody, Alexander?"
"Broody? Not that bad, just thinking though, that while we have to go back and square things in our Sunnydale, I'm starting to agree with Dawn and Tara about stepping up so we can have and be in the best of worlds, Joyce."
"I admit, as our family as really grown, it does seem best, and my daughters would achieve more and my grandchildren be safer away from a world with demons and vampires."
"Yeah, I'm starting to get tired of travel, us not having a regular base and home to return to," Xander sighed, "I'm wondering if we have one more stop, or if we'll be back this time?"
"We've seen so much, and it hasn't even been a year has it?"
"No, but it's been amazing…I mean I can only think of two more universes I'd want to visit but home would be good."
Dawn sat down next to her mother, looking happy, "So which two?"
Xander leaned over and kissed his gal, "B5 and Humanx…"
"Wow, night and day, huh? I vote for Humanx…it'd be so cool to visit the tunneling super-bears."
Xander smiled and nodded, "I can see you with them…maybe we could trade stories for a Teacher…"
"Teacher?" Joyce asked, not as familiar with the Flinx stories by Alan Dean Foster as she'd like.
"Da Bears build him a ship that is sentient and seems to be able to do more than the average ship. For Flinx, it's a teacher as he searches the universe for family and a defense against pure evil. I'll lend you a copy when we get back home."
"That might be nice, but if we end up there first?"
"We'll figure something out; they seem friendly enough."
Earth had been fascinating and disappointing; not much actually remained of the world they knew, but the technological marvels on-planet and in space gave them a lot to think about for guiding their own worlds upon return. They visited and enjoyed the terraformed worlds of Mars, Luna, and Venus, and had managed to have very nice times. The new mothers took turns with the new dad, as Joyce and Beth helped watch the litter of little Xanders, so no one felt trapped or let out. And the lower gravity of Luna was fun…especially when practicing Jedi acrobatics.
The miracle worker status of Montgomery Scott proved absolutely true as he finally was able to use the replicator and scavenged tech to manage a transporter system and rather large buffer, which was immediately filled with trinkets, as well as important examples of technology, plants, foods, liquor and other trade goods. Information was kept on separate systems. The ship itself was fascinating, five hundred feet long and twenty-nine feet in diameter, the last hundred feet and half of the first fifty feet allowed for deployable extensions when not in 'star gate mode' while the central three hundred and fifty feet served as living quarters, though the spacing available was only twenty-feet wide and ten feet high. Scotty with help from the others, had managed to establish many wall-folding niceties, and with the replicator outfitted the interior as a large series of holodecks. Hopefully they wouldn't be reenacting submarine movies for long periods of time.
The vessel coasted in and opened a slide vortex to the next world. Scotty scanned and the next world over seemed Earth-like enough, but little immediate human data had made itself available. Strapped in, they entered the vortex…spinning around but doing alright inside the compartment; reaching the other side. Dawn looked at Xander and nicked her thumb before activating the timer, and they noticed a bit of green flash over the timer, and then the vortex itself.
The ship of sliders scanned the world what would be their home for the next two weeks; it turned out not to be the world of Humanx bears, but
found themselves in the middle of an awe-inspiring temple complex under the canopy of huge trees, a vast web of vines and alien flowers. They themselves were on an outcrop of a large structure, amazed that the weight of the vessel wasn't unduly straining the building.
"You okay, Dawn?" Xander asked the girl beside him as they looked out the view screen and others manned their duty stations.
"Yeah, and I think there has to be something magical about my getting hurt and our choice of destinations." She pointed forward, to where an Alaspinian mini-drag seemed to be poking the outside of the ship with its tongue to determine the nature of the new arrival.
"I guess we're in the Humanx Commonwealth, huh?" he responded, "And if I remember we have to watch out more than usual for the plants and animals here."
Kirk came up and smiled with a half-salute, "Permission to take an away party out?"
"Yeah, pick four to go with you, and take a look around the immediate structure I guess. The rest of us will check the sensors and see what we can learn from them about the wider situation."
"Good idea, how bout I take Kevin, Maggie, Ash, and Andromeda with me. Just muscle for a look-see?"
"Sounds good, Jim," Xander smiled, still amazed that one of his childhood heroes was part of the team, "we'll keep an open comm."
Three hours later, and most of the group were outside taking in the sultry evening of the planet. Based on tapping the communications satellites orbiting around the world, Harper and Willow had pulled down coordinates and estimated that it would only take a month to reach Earth, and with four months until their second-to-last or final slide, they could even make stops at a few of the major worlds on the way.
"Any of them in particular?" Xander asked the duo as they reported, "It might not be a bad idea."
"Well, New Paris and Cachalot and New Riviera are a bit on the other side of Hivehom and Terra, but not much compared to getting there," Willow told him, "and it would let us keep moving while picking up whatever bits and pieces we want to take with us."
"Yeah," Harper agreed, "Some of the stuff I've come across in the databanks seems interesting enough, and could make us some good money when we get to your Earth."
They spent two days, and still hadn't encountered anything that required them to interfere; Xander hoped that whatever it was the Powers and such had lined up before had already been taken care of. They'd come across a few large rooms that held artifacts and while none of them had any real desire to loot, they'd found a half-dozen large gemstones that could be used in the future assembly of light sabers.
Finally, after venturing into town and doing a little trading, access to library resources gave them slightly better access to data that confirmed the hacking down upon arrival.
The next few months were enjoyable by the standards of those who'd made many of the previous slides; and while baby-watching consumed quite a bit of time, Alexander and his family had managed to enjoy many moments on different worlds as they collected many seeds, graftings, and other items that could be very desirable if they couldn't return, while others in the group made the most of the vacation cruise for which they'd been hoping.
Finally, approaching Earth, and not wanting to be noticed much by the tight security, the ship shifted into the next world and time and place.
"Mister Harper?" Alexander asked the man on sensor duty, "What do we have?"
"Well, Xan, it seems to match yer old twentieth century Earth descriptions, so we're at least close," the technical genius responded, "Give me a moment to tap into the satellites and see what I come up with?"
"Okay, and while you do that, Dylan, please take us off the California coast, cloaked, and see if we have a Sunnydale."
A few minutes later they came low over the Pacific, the Sunnydalers recognizing the coast, Willow, Tara and Dawn concentrating on the data pulled down from the Internet of the world. So far, things seemed promising, but no one wished to jinx their hopes by stating anything aloud. The vessel drew up into Breakers Woods near Sunnydale as Willow smiled and addressed the group tightly gathered on the 'bridge.'
"Guys, I think we're home."