Maureen, Don, and Locksmith surveyed the totalled shuttle discarded on the ground. Across from them set below was the encampment.
"How are we going to lift the craft down?" Don asked. "Because I am not going to make this long of a trek up and down the hill every day for spare parts."
"B-9 can lift the tug the shuttle." Locksmith suggested.
"Can not." Robot said.
"Can too!" Locksmith said.
"Not unless it has been emptied." B-9 replied.
"We can do that." Maureen said.
"Where do you wish for the shuttle to be left?" B-9 asked.
"Beneath the cliff, B-9." Maureen said. "We will have the shelter ready in a little over a hour."
"Affirmative." B-9 said.
"Don, get Penny and Will. We are going to get this emptied. Judy can be left with her patient."
A hour after the team bound effort was started, the family was standing around gathered from the shuttle. Maureen was observing in the damage of the craft from top to bottom with B-9's help in lifting the craft up from the ground then it was slid back down where it landed with a thud. Maureen walked away from the shuttle then looked toward it.
"If we use the 3-D printer to generate most of the equipment needed to repair the hulls, we could be out of here in a few months. And we need to do some mining."
"Mining?" Penny asked. "Why?"
"We are out of the material to generate the necessary pieces." Maureen said.
"Mining. Makes us sound that we are in the wild west." Don said. "Now, we are really in the space wild west."
"Do we have material to make protective suits for the mining process?" Judy asked.
"I made sure to stock up the space van for that direct purpose." Maureen replied with a smile. "Before we launched."
"That is a lot of preparation," Don said. "Are you sure that you are not psychic?"
"You have to expect the unexpected when it comes to colonizing the stars," Maureen said. "We will start mining tomorrow afternoon."
Much, much, much later, Don, Judy, and Maureen went out to the nearest lake while John was still recovering from the wounds. John had decided that he rather go swimming when he was well and whole again. Their companion, the older doctor, was playing a game of chess against the younger boy staring at the chess set and glancing back up toward the older man. The family laughed then let them be.
Maureen was the first of the group, after testing it with the equipment, to jump in off a cliff and do a cannonball. Water splattered on the group. Judy came to the edge looking over the edge staring down at the water. She looked back to what happened months ago. Taking Will's place to get the necessary equipment. A part of her screamed not to jump in without thinking. Don joined her side then put a hand on the side of her arm then she looked toward him.
"Want to jump together? I heard working over trauma starts with doing things with other people or making a better memory over it."
"Not bad of a idea, Don."
Penny did a pencil post as she dived into the water and inexplicably left little of a splash.
"How did she do that?"
Penny bobbed back into the surface then waved back at them.
"She was on the water track before we went to Alpha Centauri."
"It's cool here!" Penny said.
"Are you sure that she doesn't secretly have a cone head?" Don asked.
"I am sure." Judy replied. "How do-how do we start?"
"Well, Prince Robinson, we take five steps back, run to the edge, and take each other's hand then jump."
"Princess West, that is scandalous!"
"Scandelous as lifting a skirt?" He grinned. "I am all in if you are."
"I am in." Judy said.
They walked back five feet from the edge of the cliff then they started running and leaped off. Judy outreached her hand and took Don's hand. They crashed into the water then bobbed back up to the surface. Don squirted Judy at the face with water. Judy squirted back at him then they began to splash back at each other in a fit of cackling and laughter. Maureen looked on, brightly, with a smile.
It was three weeks later did Penny and Will go fishing with the older man at a lake while B-9 was taken along by the adults to find a place to begin the mining. Locksmith was uncharacteristically silent, only coming to a pause every so often, leaning against a tree, clenching at his stomach, lowering himself briefly as the siblings were walking on ahead of him.
He resumed following after them with a considerable lag.
The children paused at the edge of the lake then looked at the gap and turned toward him.
"Uh, Doctor Locksmith?" Penny was by his side in a moment's notice as he started to fall. "Are you feeling okay?"
"Horrible." Locksmith shook his head.
"Will, come over here and help me," Penny said.
"Easy there," Will worm holed over to Locksmith's side then put a hand on the man's back as he helped him further toward a boulder.
"Ah, thank you, dear Will, dear Penny," Locksmith said.
The older man sighed.
"Is your stomach still aching?" Penny asked.
"It's worse than it was yesterday." Locksmith replied.
"How worse?" Will asked.
"I can feel the knots in my stomach." Locksmith asked.
"How does it feel sitting down?" Will asked.
"Ah, calmer." Locksmith said. "I am sorry, children, to be a downer during your activity."
"You are not such a downer, Doctor Locksmith." Penny replied. "In fact, you are bringing some good spice to this adventure."
"It would be very boring with nothing to stimulate us." Will agreed. "So you are not a spoil sport."
"You are the opposite of that." Penny said then pointed toward the empty space. "You are just here."
"Don't apologize." Will said. "It's not your fault."
Penny and Will put their backpacks down then unfolded their fishing poles. They helped the other man into the set up chair then sat beside him in their chairs, put the worms on the fishing hooks, then prepared the large box beside them by pressing a button and it expanded. Locksmith stared in awe then looked up toward them in curiosity. They flung their fishing lines away then waited for fish to bite. There was some groans from the older man several minutes in as he leaned forward, wincing, grasping on his stomach.
"You are getting worse." Penny said.
"I will be fine." Locksmith replied. "It is only a stomach ache. It will go away."
"That's the longest stomach ache I have seen," Will noted.
"Why were you separated from your family, Doctor Locksmith?" Penny asked.
"A desperate man made a deal with the Devil and made a entire station break apart. Explode, most exactly." Locksmith corrected. "I tried to stop him. I failed."
"What happened back there?" Penny asked.
"The others were at the ship while Pellie, Billy, Debbie and B-9 and I went into escape pods." Locksmith explained. "My dear friend wanted to go after me, to join me, against everything that was being thrown at him. When he is determined, everything goes his way, it bends to his every whim."
"You mean, he fights for it." Penny said.
"I was afraid it would hurt him this time around." Locksmith admitted.
"You do care about him." Penny said.
The older man nodded, his gaze fixated on the surface of the lake, slowly.
"He is the only person in the galaxy who makes me think that I am wrong about people." Locksmith replied.
"Never really happens back on your home planet?" Penny asked.
"Hardly." Locksmith explained. "So I made the decision for him to stay and us to go."
"How did he take it?" Penny asked.
Will looked over from his perch beside the older man toward him.
"I didn't get a chance to see." Locksmith admitted.
"If he cared about you just as you did for him; he must be really upset that you're gone." Will said.
"I don't know how I could have lived with myself if I had taken him from his family." Locksmith asked. "Billy wouldn't be happy and neither would I. We had a sample of that experience in a space pod to Earth because of Mr Zalto."
"A alien that looks like a devil?" Will asked.
"No, THE Devil!" He turned toward the boy.
"Oh." Was all Will said.
"I sensed him," Locksmith said. "First time I knew I was feet away from the Devil."
"Did you get to talk to him?" Penny asked.
"No." Locksmith replied. "I did not."
"I got a fish!" Will cried.
"This alien fish must be attracted to noise!" Locksmith announced. "Reel it in, my dear boy! Reel it in!"
The duo watched in anticipation as the teenager reeled in the flopping fish out of the lake then watched it frantically swing back and forth in a desperate bid to escape. A bid that went for nothing as it was dropped into the box then the fishing line was thrown back out into the lake over the laughter of the group. Afar, Don and Judy were seated side by side fishing in their part of the lake and Don was glaring, incredulously, toward the children's direction as they got fish after fish.
"Don, did you say anything to Smith before you landed with him?" John asked.
It was nightfall on the planet that they were stranded on. Judy and Don froze staring back at the marine. Judy looked toward don. And the rest of the family had retired for the night after having a good meal of fish.
"About what?" Don asked. "Why are you looking at me like I did something wrong?"
The couple stared at him.
"About his identity." Maureen said. "Anything, that could give him the idea that admitting his identity would be a bad one?"
"I did-" Don said. "Well, oh. . . No wonder he is so determined on staying under that persona."
"Don," John said. "what did you say to him?"
Don puckered his lips.
"Don." Maureen said.
"I may have said I would have voted him out to be airlocked out." Don said
They groaned at once, Maureen dropping her head into her hands, John leaned back into his chair rubbing his forehead.
"He is never going to admit." John said
"I didn't know at the time that he was a alternate version!" Don protested.
"None of us did." Maureen said. "We can play along until he realizes that we know."
"Make him think that we still don't know?" Judy asked. "That is kind of cruel."
"That is actually kind of funny." John said. "Grandkids will get a kick out of this. If we ever do have any."
"Good point." Don said then started to chuckle. "It would."
The Robinsons burst into laughter that eased away the tension in the air.