Firefly

Chapter 21

It is now 3 months later

Everyone was in the cafeteria. Everyone save for the two female androids in the Command Center monitoring everything they needed to.

They were there to celebrate a birthday for Kateryn and Caleb since today they were one year old. Liz had baked the best cake she'd ever made in her life. However, given that there were only four people going to be eating much of it, it was also a little small.

"So who cuts the cake?" Liz held the knife for someone to cut it.

"Liara does," Kate said suddenly.

"We do not eat," Liara pointed out.

"Means more for us," Rick grinned and then endured the look Kate sent his way.

"Liara delivered the babies so she should cut the cake. She's perfect!" Kate said stubbornly as she took the knife from Liz and held it out for Liara to take. "Please. You're as much a member of our families as anyone. Maybe more." Kate wouldn't have gotten pregnant without her. She would still be a slave without her. Who better was there than Liara?

Liara looked at the other androids, took the knife and decides on the size of slices of cake, and began cutting.

What they didn't have were balloons, banners, whistles, hats, or even confetti. "They're too young to remember all that stuff anyway. It would have been all for us anyway" Rick remarked.

"We have overheard your concerns about this outpost not being a good place for children to grow up. We are androids so being here does not present us with a problem. With that in mind we got you something for the children or future children." Nassana presented it to Kate.

"It is technically for both of the children." Nassana made it plain that they weren't singling out one child over the other.

It had a little bit of weight to it and Kate carefully began to open it, which stretched Rick's patience. He wanted her to rip it open and get it over with.

Finally opening it Kate didn't get what they were, so she handed it to Liz to tell her what they were.

"HOLY SHIT!" Liz knew exactly what they were and what they were worth. She lifted one of them out and held it up. Frankie held out his hand with his mouth hanging open and watched Liz place it in his hand. Then she reached in to lift up another one.

"What is it?" Kate had no idea since to her it looked like a vial made of diamonds filled with a glowing substance.

"You call it Tritium. That is one liter using your measurement." Nassana informed them.

"A liter!? Total?" Frankie was shocked as he looked at his one little container.

"Thirty thousand dollars per gram." Liz looked at hers in astonishment.

"In English, please." Kate didn't understand though Rick was whistling.

"One thousand grams in a liter times thirty thousand dollars per gram means this box holds thirty million dollars of Tritium." The only trick was finding someone to buy it.

"Is it enough? We have several liters of this material," Nassana questioned them. "We manufactured extra for our power conduit and didn't need to use all of it."

"You have several liters of this stuff? As in real liters?" Frankie kept staring at the stuff.

"Several, yes. We can provide two more liters easily if you require more." Nassana knew it was valuable. At least to them in the construction of the power conduit. Beyond that it was worthless.

"Ninety million dollars!?" Frankie was still in shock. As was Liz, Rick and even Kate since she could understand that amount of money.

"We'll take them, all of them you can spare," Rick said.

"We will deliver them tomorrow," Nassana told them.

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Everyone had gone back to trying to celebrate the birthday. Though Kate caught up to Nassana before she could leave. "Thank you for whatever that stuff is. But I have a question. Are you trying to get rid of us? Because we all like it here."

"No, we are not. Actually your being here has been very beneficial. We have been alone here for 200,000 years. Once you are gone we will be alone here for another 200,000 years. We have enjoyed your company. However, we also recognize that living here for you will require sacrifices that you do not have to make. Once you are gone no matter when that is, we will miss you. You and the others have brought…excitement to our lives. For that we will be forever thankful," Nassana assured her.

Kate hugged her and eventually felt her hug her back. "You and the others have been amazing. Even if we ever do leave here, you're definitely going to have to visit us. You and the others are family now."

"We will discuss your offer. We are glad you like the gift. I will get you the other two liters tomorrow." Nassana left her to return to the others.

"What are we going to do with ninety million dollars?" Frankie couldn't imagine ever spending that amount of money.

"Depends on where we move, if we move, and if we want to stay together," Liz noted.

"You don't want to stay together? You're the only friends I have and we can't find my parents." Kate felt hurt.

"Yet!" Rick said since he hadn't given up.

"I was just saying. We can talk when or if that time comes." Liz walked over to her and put an arm around her.

"I can think of one place right off. Ogem, for example," Frankie offered.

"The outer most western reaches of The Rim. I've heard of it but don't know anything about it," Rick said since he hadn't gotten around as much as these two.

"Ogem is a trading partner with Jakku and Ponemah Terminal. Those two are closer in though just barely on The Rim. It's possible we could have anything we wanted shipped in including a contractor to build what we want." Liz had heard of the place.

"It's mostly desert but not all of it. We could use this place to scan it and find the right spot to build if we wanted," Frankie suggested. "Starting immediately, actually. Sell some of this stuff and hire a contractor to build what we want. Right after we find an architect and engineers."

"You'll come with us if we leave?" Kate was hearing a lot of us in this conversation.

"If you're going to let us pick the spot, you have a deal," Frankie said to her with a smile.

"Sounds like you have a job, husband," Liz said.

"I knew my big mouth was going to get me into trouble," Frankie moaned. "At least we know where to get the moisture farms from."

"Our old place." Liz pointed at him. "Kate and I can start on the compound we want while you look. But first we have another target to hit."

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"So what are we doing today?" Frankie inquired as he settled into his chair and warmed up all of the fighters systems.

"Today might be a test of your quick jumping skills. There are three major food and material spaceports with warehouses nearby. However, I'm betting the first shot you get off will get fighters headed your way. So be ready to jump to the next one before jumping home," Liz cautioned him.

"Won't that just get them to steal from the outer planets even more?" Frankie didn't want to make this harder on the outer planets than it already was.

"That's why the scanners that exist on this planet are military now after we destroyed the others earlier. For civilian cargo ships to gain access to the system they need that scanner system. Fortunately for us the two don't talk. Military are coded while the civilian is not. Unless the military wants to share their codes no more civilian cargo ships," Liz informed him.

"I'm glad you're on our side," Frankie commented since in his mind his wife was the devil.

"I'll be happy to quit this, do something else, and never have to do this again." To go back to being just his wife and a mother.

Frankie got off two shots before fighters in the area started to show up. Granted none of them knew exactly where he was but one might get lucky and crash into him. If one did that it would verify to the military what was happening and how.

In fact he only got two shots off at each site before jumping for home and stopping for a few days.

Granted the military had their own cargo ships except the number they had was a fraction of the ones the civilian companies had. They stood no chance of getting in enough food to feed the entire planet.

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Rick had been doing research while Liz and Frankie did their attack until he was happy and had something to show everyone else. Since he doubted that Kate and the kids were in their new room he started with the cafeteria thinking Kate was stealing snacks for the kids.

However, he was wrong so he headed for the park since that was the only other real place this outpost had. As modern as it was, it was tiny and you could feel trapped really fast.

Opening the door all he heard was laughter which he was certain included Kate. Following the laughter he saw them all on the lying on the ground laughing which didn't make any sense so he just watched.

Then Kate was up and going up the barely there hill that was in the park. He watched as happy smiling kids chase her up the hill then they all lay down again. Head to toe, head to toe, and head to toe.

"Ready? …GO!" Kate yelled and proceeded to roll down the hill. Right behind her were both kids. Naturally none of them went exactly straight and while reaching the bottom didn't seem to matter since they were all laughing all the way down.

It only took a few seconds and when they reached the bottom Kate was up and trying to tickle both of them at the same time. All the kids did was laugh and not try to get away. Though Kate stopped after a few seconds.

That was when Rick showed himself and instantly heard, "Daddy!" He scooped up his son and sat down next to Kate who in turn scooped up Kateryn, placed her in her lap, and scooted closer to her husband.

"You're amazingly good at this," Rick mentioned since he was really proud of her.

"I love them, both of them. Don't I, little monkey?" Kate tickled Kateryn for a second getting her to squirm and laugh. "So did you find anything?" Kate knew Rick had stopped looking for her invisible parents for now and had gone looking for a place on the planet Frankie had talked about.

"I did and we can go over it after the other two show up. Maybe after dinner when these two are in bed." Rick hugged his son. He would ask his son if he wanted to live in a desert but he was only a year old so he went where his parents went.

Rick told her what she already knew since they'd previously talked about it. "Preschool starts at 3 or 4 years old, so we need to buy, create a plan, and start construction in a few months if we are going to do this."

"I don't think we have a choice, babe. These two need friends. We can all survive here but can we live here?" It was all about the kids for Kate.

"Which is why we're doing this." Rick knew they didn't have a choice. "We just need to decide where and have it ready for us when we get there after we win." That was what tonight was going to be for.

"Mama!" Liz had been spotted after entering the park in search of her daughter.

Kate held onto her since she didn't want her running to reach her mommy and falling on her face and ruining everything.

Liz plucked her daughter out of Kate's arms and kissed her a couple of times. "Are you having fun with Kate?"

"How did it go?" Rick questioned her since he might have had the idea, but it was Liz who was implementing it.

"We just put an end to one planet getting food and other things easily. They can still get supplies but those ships are going to have to find a new way to land and a new place to unload it." Liz was happy with the results so far.

Kate groaned and they both heard it.

"We're not killing anyone, Kate. We're just making their lives miserable. The military may do all the work, but it's the rich civilians that can change the way the Alliance leaders can think and react. Those are the people we are trying to reach," Liz explained yet again.

"They are going to start to think it's the Browns all over again and strike back," Rick mentioned.

"Actually, they already have. I've monitored that several people have been picked up for questioning. A few may be tortured for information since that's just how the Alliance does things. Most, though, simply use drugs to get the answers they want quickly.

"The need to find out what is going on and stopping it is now paramount in the military as best I can tell. This place can actually read encrypted communications so I have a good idea what's going on. They're starting to get desperate. Right where we want them to be." Liz knew they weren't ready to come to the table yet.

In fact they were nowhere near ready, but they were getting there. The Alliance still had the military to enforce its will and until that changed they weren't going to talk. The super rich would simply take what they want from where ever they can and to hell with everyone else.

"We're getting there. I just don't know how much longer. That isn't really up to us." How the Alliance reacted would tell Liz how much longer they had to keep doing this.

Frankie was cooking tonight while Liz stayed with Kate and Rick and had some fun with the kids.

Since they had plenty of dirt it was dig a hole hour. A little water later and it was now mud hour which turned out to be even more fun for the kids. Apparently getting dirty and muddy was incredibly fun.

Once that was over it was an hour of fun in the tub before going to bed after having a really light dinner of a mixture of new baby food.

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Everyone including Nassana was down in the Gateway room. Nassana used the device to show what Rick had found.

"This is Ogem," Nassnna announced. "This is the largest city on Ogem."

"Take us the spot I found," Rick asked her.

"Oooo." Kate liked the look of the place.

What they were all looking at was basically a lake that had an island in the middle. The island itself was too small to build on, however, it and the land around the lake had a number of palm trees, other trees, and green brush.

Everything around it was sand, but it sure looked nice. Plus not that far away was a mountain range.

"I don't remember reading anything about this place," Frankie pointed out.

"It gets better. Nassana here has done some research of her own for me. Some miles away is an untapped source of Hihi'irokane," Rick told them.

That had Frankie looking at Rick in shock. "That stuff is worth a fortune," Frankie said. "So what's the catch? It couldn't be just this simple."

"It's not. This far out in the sand are two things. Nassana?" He needed her to show them one and he didn't care which came first.

"This is something we've come to call a Thri-kreen. We believe that they're a nomadic group," Rick explained.

"What they are looking at looks vaguely like a large ant standing on two legs with four arms. This one was carrying a large spear that had a vicious looking metal tip and a blunt metal end on the other end. It was a little thin save for the forearms on two of the arms. It was easy to see its two big eyes.

At almost seven feet tall though its weight was hard to judge, it was sandy brown in color with a touch of green. "The group we saw consisted of two adults and four smaller ones. Where they live we have no clue," Rick informed them.

"One group means more than one group. Maybe several all over," Frankie speculated.

"What's the other one?" Liz asked since he had mentioned two.

"This one is a recording since I presently do not see one," Nassana said and brought it up on the Gateway screen.

Kate was ready to scream over this one.

It was really large. Its body was covered in thick, layered plates. Its head was bullet-shaped, similar to that of a shark, with a massive mouth filled with multiple rows of razor-sharp teeth.

"It erupted out of the sand and chased down this group of Thri-kreen," Rick said. "It's clearly a predator and fond of meat. Anyone's, it would seem. This one, we're thinking, finds a spot, burrows down, and stays there until something comes along."

"You want us to move there!?" Kate wasn't sure she even wanted to set foot on the planet, let alone live there.

"Not to worry, love. We already have some security all planned out. We'll know if anyone gets close and even this guy won't want to enter. We have designs in place," Rick tried to reassure her.

"So when do we start designing what we want to live in since where we could be building looks nice." Liz queried.

"We are taking care of that," Nassana stated. "We are trying to use available materials for the construction. We will be coordinating with you while we design. We have the initial design parameters. We will speak with each of you asking what you require."

"I do have a request, Nassana. I know there are ten of you here. The question I have for you is this: Are all ten required to man and maintain this station? I want to know if one or even two of you have any interest in joining us? You can have the others use the Gateway to check in on you and us," Rick asked her.

"YES! Please? You're family now." Kate added her voice.

"You could possibly switch out every year. You've lived here 200,000 plus years. You might like a change," Rick said.

"We will discuss your offer and let you know. Thank you, Commander." Nassana couldn't commit to anything without talking to the others.