Maureen wakes up, more questions are raised than answered, and Judy is perpetually annoyed with her sister. Business as usual really.

Waking Up

Maureen woke up to the sound of her oldest daughter grumbling to herself. It was hard to make out at first, but by the time she was blurrily blinking at the ceiling she could make out the words 'Penny' and 'reckless.'

"What did Penny do now?" Maureen groaned as she shifted her head.

"Mom!" Judy was hovering over, flashing a pen light in her eyes. Maureen winced, pushing at the table beneath her to sit up. Judy held her shoulders, "Hold on. You were in a nasty fall. I need to make sure you don't have a concussion."

Lying back down, Maureen submitted to the tests - answering questions mostly - and waited till Judy was satisfied before repeating her question, "What's Penny done now?"

"Nothing new…" Judy sighed, eyes flicking towards the door, "That I'm aware of anyway." Maureen chuckled and pushed herself to sit up.

Judy was sat at her desk, lab reports on her screen as she frowned at it. Maureen hummed, "Bad news then?"

"There's a bacteria in their blood stream, from the water. It's… it's completely different than anything I've ever seen before, but I'm fairly positive it's impacted the nervous system." Judy bit her lip, head shaking.

Maureen arched a brow, "That sounds very bad."

Shaking her head, Judy sighed, "It's not attacking the nerves. It's… attaching itself. I think."

"Still bad." Maureen dropped her feet to the floor and leaned over to squeeze Judy's shoulder, "Any idea if you can reverse it?"

"I'm not even sure what's it's doing yet," Judy groaned, pulling her hands down her face.

"What do you need?" Maureen asked.

Judy nodded, blowing out a breath, "Penny's mentioned static shock when they touch-"

"Like when I touched her, the night of," Maureen hummed, brow furrowing.

"Yeah, well, she didn't call it painful with Vijay," Judy huffed, head shaking. "There's some tests I can do, to check electrical pulses. And more blood samples, to see how the bacteria is spreading or changing."

"Alright then," Maureen flashed a smile and stood up, "Let's get them in here, then you can update me on the other situation."

The laugh on Judy's lips evaporated before she made a sound as they stepped out of the med bay to find the jupiter quiet and empty.

"Well," Maureen breathed out through her nose as she reviewed the screens in the control room. She pursed her lips as she looked up at Judy, "At least they left us a map to where they went."

She pointed at the screen with two sensor maps overlayed on one another other. Another quick scan and a chariot transponder blipped into existence right beside the markers that Vijay had tagged as Robot possibilities.

"Are they just incapable of not sneaking off?" Judy squeezed her eyes shut as she seethed. Maureen squeezed her shoulder as she passed by her to reach for the radio.

Neither Penny nor Vijay picked up. Maureen frowned. She tried Will and the chariot with similar results.

"Looks like you'll be giving me that update enroute…" Maureen hung up the radio and headed for the ladder. With all the back and forth, this round of musical chariots had left them without one.

Luckily, assembling the ATV wasn't difficult or time consuming. They reached the ridge where the chariot was parked in decent time.

Decent enough anyway.

"Radio your dad, let him know where we are," Maureen pointed towards the chariot and Judy headed over. The crash site was as quiet as the jupiter had been. A shiver ran up Maureen's spine as she surveyed the area.

"Radio's down," Judy returned with hands on her hips, frowning, "There must be something blocking the signal."

-.-.-

There were voices. Very soft, muffled. A whirring noise followed after.

Penny's forehead wrinkled as she tried to parse the voices, identify the words. Her own eyelids wouldn't even listen to her though.

"Vijay?" Penny managed to croak. A groan answered her. The voices went quiet. Then she heard her name, quiet, a whisper. "Will?"

The whirring returned. And then shushing. Then silence.

Swallowing, Penny heaved a breath. Her whole body ached and her head was pounding as her eyes fluttered. The eyelids still wouldn't budge though.

Everything was dark. A sinking feeling pulled at her senses as she tried to move.

Footsteps. Shouting.

"Penny?!" Judy's shriek was loud and clear and very recognizable. Her eyelids finally gave way and her sister's panicked face swam above her in a hazy blur.

-.-.-

They found Penny and Vijay in the center of the rubble, sprawled out and unconscious a feet few from some sort of egg-shaped device that had electricity zipping around it in bright blue spurts.

Judy crouched by Penny, shouting her name as she checked for vitals. Penny groaned, head lulling to one side as she opened her eyes. She mumbled something and Judy frowned.

"What happened?" Maureen asked, head turned to look at Penny even as she crouched beside Vijay. His pulse was steady, fast, but steady.

"The box zapped us," Vijay grumbled, eyes still squeezed shut. His fingers twitched and his head shifted.

Maureen looked down at him, eyes narrowing, "What box?" His face scrunched up as his eyes opened.

"That one," Penny pointed at the device just past their feet as she started to sit up. The electricity surging around it was pulsing.

Judy pushed Penny back down, "What did you do? Did you press any buttons?"

"I tripped over it," Penny huffed, nose wrinkling as Vijay sat up. His eyes squeezed shut and his lips pursed as if he were holding his breath.

When he shook his head and opened his eyes again, Vijay groaned, "Pretty sure we connected with it."

He held up his hands. The web of marks on his skin from the river were no longer starting to fade. A faint blue tinge almost seem to glow around the edges.

"Of course," Judy took a deep breath in, head falling back as she clicked her tongue against her teeth, "Of course it did. What else would it do…"

"Fly the ship."

The words were out of Maureen's mouth before she could finish thinking them. Her mind spinning as the device filled in all of the gaps in development her bosses had never explained.

"What?" Vijay croaked, eyes wide as he stared at the device. It was quiet then. The blue haze fading from its shell. The color in the marks on Vijay's hands did the same.

"When John and I were here before, after Will first found Robot, this wasn't," Maureen stepped closer to the device, head shaking as she inspected the area, "It's an engine. A portable engine."

Penny raised a brow, pulling her legs underneath her as she sat up, "So... how did it get here if it wasn't here before...?"

"Robot," Vijay's brows scrunched together, "Has to be right?"

"Maybe he did try to fix his ship then?" Penny leaned heavily on Judy as she got to her feet.

Judy huffed, lips puckered, "Why would he move the engine then? Why leave it here?"

"...maybe he's not planning to use it on this ship?" Vijay offered, wrapping his arms around his knees.

Maureen hummed, stepping carefully around the device. Her head tilted to the side.

"Where's Will?" Judy asked and Penny looked around, eyes widening.

"He was outside, looking for Robot," Vijay scrambled to his feet. Maureen's eyes fluttered and she spun on her heels.

"Will?!"

A rumble and a thud preceded the appearance of the boy in question. He looked sheepishly down at the debris he'd knocked over, "Sorry. I... uh, I don't think Robot is here."

"Okay," Maureen blew out a breath, nodding slowly, "Let's see if we can't safely transport the engine back to the jupiters."

"What?" Judy asked, just as Penny scoffed, "Why?"

Maureen smiled at them both, "A portable engine is a horrible thing to waste girls." She nodded towards Vijay's hands before looking pointedly at the matching marks on Penny's arms, "It might come in handy for solving a *few* of our problems."

It turned out to be a fairly simple process. A metal box that blocked electromagnetic waves, some thick rubber gloves, and a dolly proved to be all that was needed. Even so, Maureen sent Vijay and Penny back with Judy in the ATV rather than risk them in the chariot.

"I'm sorry we haven't found Robot yet," Maureen squeezed Will's shoulder as settled into her seat.

He shrugged, eyes on his feet in the seat beside her, "He'll turn up." Maureen nodded.

A chill ran down her spine and she shook herself. Frowning, she glanced out the windows of the chariot.

There was no one around. Judy had already driven off. The crash site was below them, still, and the ridge was quiet. With a sigh, Maureen started the chariot. The tickle at her neck like someone was watching didn't abate till they were nearly a mile away.

Which was roughly when Smith put her binoculars down and started up her chariot.

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