Hello! I recently binge-watched this show with my family (again). While the main characters and adventures are great, I started to notice that I really loved Victor's development - from the classic British-accented antagonist who wears dark colors and makes some bad choices, to the calm and steady friend (who wears lighter colors) and encourages John with that whole forgiveness speech. And so, after paying more attention to the Dhars in this most recent binge, I decided my three-year fanfic hiatus was over and I needed to write some of these scenes.
*The only one actually taken from the show is the scene from "Pressurized," where Victor greets Prisha and Vijay with bad news about the fuel. I obviously don't own any of that scene, but I enjoyed adding thoughts in between the family's dramatic dialogue.
As for the rest of these little one-shots, please enjoy!
Part I ~ Vijay ~ Things to Worry About
How many alarms could sound at once? It seemed as if everything on the Jupiter Four was screaming at the top of its lungs.
Possibly including the three humans fastened inside.
Vijay tucked his final poem inside the pocket of his suit. It was a good thing he had finished because the turbulence was getting worse every second. His handwriting had already been shaky, but now...
There was no time to write more or worry about writing. They were entering the atmosphere.
Most likely seconds away from burning up.
"I think that was one of the engines!" Vijay's mother hollered, glancing around the hub. The clunking noise continued for a moment, then halted abruptly.
Vijay's father yelled back, equally panicked, "There's nothing we can do about it now. The autopilot's locked!"
Vijay was shaking so hard in his seat that he could barely see the round table in front of him. Out the skylight window, it looked like they were flying into an inferno of red, orange, and blinding white light.
Vijay jerked his head back to his parents. It didn't help that they looked as scared as he did.
"Is the Jupiter going to burn up in the atmosphere?" he heard himself asking. He wasn't sure he really wanted the answer.
Neither of his parents responded. They exchanged worried looks as alarms continued to warn about each new failing system. It was already obvious the Jupiter Four was on fire. And that it was crashing. None of the built-in safety measures were functioning and there was nothing they could do.
Vijay swallowed back a sob.
"We have to be...almost through...the atmosphere!" Vijay's mom had to shout to be heard over the rattling turbulence -and those persistent alarms.
"We just need to hang on!" Vijay's dad still sounded panicked.
The fiery light out the window faded in a heartbeat - and then Vijay's heart did skip several beats as the Jupiter Four began free-falling. His stomach shot into his head and oxygen seemed far out of reach.
The alarms became a background noise. Vijay still couldn't seem to breathe. The stress test hadn't prepared him for any situation this extreme.
There was a whirring noise in the heart of the ship. The second engine had come back on! The descent seemed to slow. But only a little. They were still crashing.
Vijay closed his eyes and clung to his mom's hand as the ground neared. With his other hand, he fingered the slip of paper in his pocket, wondering if anyone would ever find it, or if it- along with his body- would burn up in the wreckage.
He hadn't gotten to rhyme very well. Maybe it was better if the paper did burn...
The Jupiter Four slammed into a tree-filled forest. Vijay's head hit the back of his seat and everything went black.
~ Eighty-eight hours later ~
"I can't believe it," Vijay mumbled to himself. He'd survived a crash landing on an alien planet, only to be blackmailed by a teenage girl. And what was he more busy fretting about? The blackmail.
"I need to get my priorities straight," he told himself again.
One of the other colonists they'd found glanced back at him. Vijay clamped his lips together and trudged through the forest a little faster. He also needed to stop talking to himself.
After crashing through the tree-tops, the Jupiter Four had been damaged. Badly. However, the trees had slowed the final landing and it hasn't been nearly as rough as it could've been. They'd all regained consciousness soon enough to put out the fires on the hull, and then Vijay's parents had set to work diagnosing the ship. Though his father's background was mainly communications, and his mother was involved in project management and logistics, they both knew enough about the Jupiters to do basic repair work. Vijay's mother was actually a very good engineer when she tried to be, and so she had elected to stay behind and do some system rewiring while Vijay went on an expedition with his dad.
"Other Jupiters had to have crashed nearby. There may be survivors, and if so, it's my responsibility to find them," Vijay's dad had proclaimed. He took his job as colony representative quite seriously.
And so, Vijay and his father had ventured into the woods and located two surviving Jupiters - and one that hadn't been so lucky.
That could have been us, Vijay had thought.
But of course now, his thoughts had moved onto other problems. Like the pretty red-head who currently had his dramatic-death poem in her possession. Or the fact that her family apparently had a giant robot?
Vijay was struggling to keep up with everything.
He continued following the line of colonists they'd found, forcing his brain to pay attention to their jungle-like surroundings.
They didn't really know where they were going. They could still be in danger. Or on the verge of running into more robots.
If those kids knew about the robots... Who were they, anyway? He hadn't gotten their names, but they had seemed so confident and composed. Did they have a plan to get back to the Resolute? With the robot?
That robot though... It looked like it had been thinking? Was it alive?
The questions continued to pile up, unanswered.
Vijay glanced back over his shoulder, hoping he'd get to see those siblings again.
Part II ~ Prisha ~ Life on the Nameless Rock
Keeping up with each new day was an adventure. A terrifying adventure that Prisha Dhar would have preferred not to have experienced.
First it had been the crash, then the eels in the fuel, then the panicked dumping of said fuel, then the communications issue, then the failed light tower and that Robinson family's robot...
It was a lot to keep up with. Especially when Victor was stressed and sulking about the tower failure, and Vijay seemed to be in another world, shirking chores and disappearing. Neither of them were themselves - and so, it seemed it was up to her to hold everything together.
"Let's set up another tent here," she suggested to a group of the colonists. "If we set them back-to-back, we can use the tarp from the southern side of the meal tent. We can have people working on recycling the materials from the tower -without getting scorched."
The weather did seem to be getting warmer. Spring was fast on its way to summer. A hot summer, it looked like.
"And don't forget to take a water break," she told the workers. "I'll be right back." She spied her husband across the clearing. He looked deep in thought- which usually meant he was pulling together an idea.
And some of those ideas were better than others.
"How's the progress coming on the tower clean-up?" she asked as she neared. "And what was the consensus on the robot?"
"The clean-up is progressing on pace and the robot can stay- as long as the Robinsons are careful." Victor set down his notes and sighed. "Prisha...how much would we be willing to pay for a reserve tank of fuel?" He shoved his hands in his pockets while she frowned.
"Considering the circumstances...fuel is worth more to us than gold. We'd give almost everything for fuel."
"My thoughts too," said Victor, pressing his mouth into a thin line.
The previous night, they'd had a conversation about their lack of options. Quite frankly, they could end up on the planet...forever. The air was fresh, the water drinkable... The wildlife was another story, but over time, the group could find ways to stay safe.
"But what about a future for Vijay?" she'd whispered. "We've come this far for his sake... What sort of future is here?"
They both knew the answer. They would have to be pioneers. Everything...from scratch. Jobs, money, homes, food, rules of society. There were other teenagers around- one day Vijay could still have a family of his own if he so chose, but options for potential spouses were limited. He would spend the rest of his life just setting up a colony - which still wouldn't have the opportunities Alpha Centauri did.
Though, Prisha had seen him talking to the younger Robinson girl quite a bit... Maybe he wouldn't mind being stranded?
"You...you said something about fuel?" Prisha circled back to the question at hand.
Victor nodded. "That smuggler who hangs around with the Robinsons... He might know of a place to get fuel from a crashed Jupiter. For a price. Which I told him I'm willing to pay." Victor glanced around the clearing, then said quietly, "I don't trust him. Why hasn't he already told the Robinsons about this? They have a robot on their side and hold far more sway with everyone than I do."
At the moment, Prisha didn't care if the Robinsons had declared they were royalty. The idea of fuel...of getting back to the Resolute safely was far more exciting than one family's mysteries.
"Victor, what's the worse that could happen...? The smuggler tries to embarrass you? But best case scenario..."
"He's telling the truth and we'll be in Alpha Centauri before the end of the week," finished Victor, nodding again. "I'm going to get a team together and we'll set out within the hour. I don't know when we'll be back, but make sure Vijay helps out around here." Victor lowered his voice. "And watch out for that robot. It may have helped last night, but I still have some questions for that family." He narrowed his eyes and Prisha smiled, giving him a quick hug.
"It'll be fine. You'll be back with the fuel before you know it and we'll be on our way. The Robinsons will have to leave the robot behind- it would cause chaos in the colonies- and so everything will work out."
"I hope you're right," mumbled Victor, still looking pensive. But he nodded and hurried off, purpose in his steps.
Prisha returned to her work, feeling far more encouraged than earlier. She'd have to tell Vijay the good news too. In a matter of days, they could all be home on Alpha Centauri, laughing about their wild adventures on such a strange, faraway planet.
Part III ~ Victor ~ The Fuel Fiasco
Somehow, losing so much fuel felt worse than crashing on the alien planet in the first place.
Victor knew that such feelings were ridiculous- as long as they had enough fuel for one Jupiter there was still hope that the Resolute could send back help. But yet knowing that not everyone would be leaving together, knowing that Evan had died and it all had been a waste...
And what if it was his fault? He had made the call not to help Evan, though granted, if that Robinson girl hadn't protested, maybe they could have done something to save the fuel...
But still. He, Victor, had made a choice between a man's life and resources...and gotten neither. It felt like everything he did lately led to failure. The fuel mission, the light tower, maybe even the decision to lead the twenty-fourth colonist group. He had been the one who wanted to run for representative; it had been he who had talked Prisha and Vijay into leaving Earth...
Perhaps they would have been better off if they'd never left.
Victor sighed and headed up the ramp, back into the Jupiter Four. Home sweet home, he thought- except that it wasn't.
Home, at the moment, was no where. And if they couldn't get back to the Resolute, the Jupiter Four could end up being their permanent residence. Maureen had yet to have that conference about whether the planet was habitable longterm, but it was still an option, Victor supposed.
Just not a very good one.
There were footsteps across the garage. Prisha. "I knew you'd make it back safely," she said, smiling.
Victor wished he could smile too, but every flake of sand in his shoes reminded him of the fiasco he'd just been through. The wrong choices and failure after failure. If only she knew...
"I am so glad to see you," he said instead. And it was true. Prisha was the rock in their family. He needed her steadiness, her gentle touch, her familiar kiss...
Victor wrapped his arms around his wife, trying to momentarily forget everything in the past week. Even the scent of Prisha's hair helped. He lowered his face to her neck.
"Victor," she pulled back as Vijay entered the room behind them. She sounded worried - and not just because their son was there to watch the show of affection. Maybe, she just knew Victor too well- and despite his attempts to hide his fear...Maybe she could sense he'd failed.
He swallowed tightly and glanced at his son as well. "Everything's going to be okay," he said. He smoothed Prisha's hair and took another breath. "I promise."
That made Vijay look even more worried.
Victor probably owed an explanation. "We had it, son. More than enough."
"What happened?" Prisha asked. She had caught the past tense.
"There was an accident. We lost it all. Almost all," he corrected. "We're just going to have to stay here a little longer now. That's all."
Vijay looked like he'd been given a death sentence. "H-how much longer?"
"I don't know. We're stuck here until we figure it out."
Or until we decide that there are no options and that this planet will have to be the twenty-fourth colonist settlement, Victor thought. He didn't voice that though. Vijay already looked genuinely afraid.
"There's something I need to tell you," Vijay said quietly. "I spent yesterday with Penny Robinson."
Victor didn't know what he'd been expecting his son to say, but it hadn't been that.
Prisha smiled a little. "She's a very pretty girl, Vijay. As long as she doesn't get in the way of your responsibilities-"
"No, no... I just mean, I spent a lot of time with Penny and she told me something her mother had said. About the planet." Vijay swallowed. "There's a black hole nearby and the planet's going to die. That's why it's getting so much hotter every day."
Victor felt his blood chill. He knew Maureen had gone to research something to do with the planet... Obviously long-term habitation wouldn't be her recommendation then.
Prisha took a deep breath and suggested they all sit down in the hub to discuss how much longer they had. Vijay looked unsteady on his feet and so Victor agreed, taking the moment it took to go upstairs to mentally race through every possibility. He already knew of one solution...
Not a very good solution.
"Did she tell you how long we have before the planet dies?" he asked once they were seated.
"No," said Vijay. He sounded on the verge of tears.
Wonderful. Victor glanced at Prisha and saw her steadiness mixed with sheer terror.
He firmed his chin. If they only had days left...and there was a potential way off the planet...what sort of husband or father would he be if he didn't take the available option? Sure, he was a colonist representative. But Vijay and Prisha would always come first. And if the Resolute could help, he would do everything in his power to make sure every last person was rescued. They just had to make it to the Resolute.
It wasn't an ideal plan. But there wasn't time to consult with the colonists. He could hardly trust the Robinsons anymore and if there was to be a team meeting, the Robinsons would never agree to let Victor's family leave first. There would always be some reason why they had to do it themselves.
That family and the need to play hero...
But in the end, Victor had to think of his family. It really wasn't a choice...if they had the fuel ready, right outside, where Beckert was probably still putting away the auxiliary hoses...
Victor glanced at Prisha again and leaned back in his chair.
She would support him, whatever came next.
"Vijay...get the Jupiter ready."
Part IV ~ Prisha ~ The Demise of John Robinson
Prisha had listened to the Robinsons' calculations a hundred times. Each time, she felt a little more sick.
If Maureen and John hadn't stopped her and Victor...
Prisha always had to let her thoughts die off there. They owed their lives - and more importantly, Vijay's life- to the Robinsons' quick actions.
That made it bearable as Maureen ordered the Jupiter Four to be gutted, pieces of the Dhars' lives piled around outside.
"We have to make the Jupiter as light as possible," she kept telling the mechanics. "Tables, chairs, beds- everything goes."
Extra weight meant the Jupiter wouldn't make it through the planet's atmosphere. Prisha helped set out rations in the food tent nearby, trying not to think about what would have happened to her family if John had been a second late.
Colonists wandered by the food tent and grabbed packages as they went. Prisha forced herself to smile; to be friendly. The Watanabes were some of the kindest people to ever exist, and they had offered Victor, Vijay, and herself, extra bedrooms on their Jupiter. The Robinsons seemed to have moved on as well; they were too busy tearing apart the Dhars' Jupiter to hold a grudge. But some of the other colonists... They didn't look at Prisha the same anymore. They felt betrayed - and they had a right to feel that way, she supposed. But she also knew it was killing Victor. In a way, she supposed he would always feel responsible for everyone. And losing the support of those he was fighting for... It was a lot to take in. Especially when combined with the news that they'd only have one shot at the Jupiter launching. If something else went wrong, there would be no second chances. The Resolute would leave orbit for its own safety and then...
There would never be a twenty-fourth colony on Alpha Centauri. Textbooks would talk about the dramatic crash and the fateful black hole that did everyone in. But as Victor always said, the textbooks were only written by the survivors. No one would know all the struggles of the past couple weeks. The genius plans and the unfortunate failures. Everything would be forgotten. Just like all of them.
Prisha realized her thoughts were getting a bit dismal, and she glanced across the clearing to see Vijay. He had gotten into a fight of some sort with Penny Robinson. Prisha could tell by the way the two kids were avoiding each other. She made a mental note to talk to Vijay later. Breakups happened every day - but usually not when the planet was on a collision course with a black hole. That was a lot for anyone to process, much less a sixteen-year-old boy with a heartache.
"Did we do the right thing?" Prisha whispered the question under her breath, the same question she'd been asking since the crash.
Of course, if the Jupiter launch failed later, she supposed she would get her answer.
And she did.
Later that night, standing beside Victor and Vijay, Prisha watched as the Jupiter Four exploded in the sky. The bright fiery light seared itself into her brain - and simultaneously took her breath away.
They were out of options. The death sentence was now official.
"No," whimpered Vijay. One pitiful word and that was that.
Victor just stared at the smoke, hands in his pockets, his expression unreadable. Finally, he sighed and turned toward the Watanabes' Jupiter. "John Robinson was a good man. But I suppose we'll all get to follow him soon enough."
There was no hope in her husband's tone. Just resignation. Prisha supposed her own voice would probably match. Nevertheless, he reached for her- and Vijay- and the three stood like that for a long time.
They had tried to make it. Tried their very best.
And in the end, that was all anyone could do.
Part V ~ Victor ~ Just Wait
Penny and Will were missing from the Watanabes' Jupiter. Hiroki had extended a travel invite, just as he'd done for the Dhars, but - almost predictably - the Robinson kids had their own plans on how to find their family.
"Should we go look for them?" Prisha whispered as the Watanabes began the pre-flight routine.
"They'll be okay," Victor replied, hoping he was right. "Maureen will find a way back, she always does."
Worst-case scenario, the children could switch their Jupiter on autopilot. As soon as they were in orbit, the Resolute could help them dock. The Robinsons had proven themselves plenty of times. And it was the children who had thought of the caves. Everyone owed a debt of gratitude to Will Robinson's love of geology.
"If...if Maureen can't be found, I invited the Robinson children to stay with us on Alpha Centauri." Victor told Prisha as they moved into the hub. Vijay was already there, strapped in. "I doubt they'll take us up on it; they enjoy doing their own thing, but still...we ought to help them in every way possible."
"Absolutely," said Prisha. "How many times now would we be dead if it wasn't for that family?" She reached for Victor's hand. "You did the right thing."
He just nodded, too relieved for words. For everytime he had failed, it seemed as if the Robinsons had succeeded. He could have been jealous of that, but at the moment, as they sat down with Vijay and let the Watanabes pilot them to the Resolute, Victor was quite content.
At least, until the Jupiter Two didn't show up as planned.
Captain Kamal continued to check the sensors, but there were no transport Jupiters approaching.
"We cannot endanger the Resolute much longer," the captain said. "You already warned them that they had sixty-three minutes and it's been sixty-five. We have to leave, as unpleasant as it may be."
"No, no. Please hold on just a little longer. We've almost orbited the planet. If they survived the launch, they'll show up on the scanners soon."
Victor didn't like to consider himself the begging type, but as he stared at the officials on the bridge, he knew that was exactly what he was doing.
"We owe that family out lives. All of us. Just wait. It's only a few more minutes until we've completed a full orbit. Then we'll know."
Captain Kamal was a strict woman, but she wasn't heartless. Which was fortunate for everyone.
"Very well. Keep checking the scanners."
"Ma'am?" An ensign looked up from her spot at a computer. "I've just spotted something on a long-range sensor. It could be a Jupiter. Or else debris from the Jupiter Four?"
"Move closer," Captain Kamal glanced at Victor. "Let's hope it's your friends."
Victor hoped so too. Because somehow, despite everything, that was what the strange and impossibly brilliant family had become: friends.
