Chapter 7: Reunion

Previously on Subnautica Ghosts of the past...

"Why did this have to happen? If the captain listened to me I'd be living with Crystal happily in a habitat that we would build together but no, he decided to save someone he didn't even know, just to get a hero badge, it sickens me! So many lives lost just because of one man's selfish fucking desires, god damn it..." he then turned onto his side facing the wall and saw some drawings on it, it was drawings of three stick people, two obviously female with the writing "mommy, daddy and me." underneath it and it broke his heart even more as he thought it was an illusion, he then turned to face the door only to see a little girl staring at him with big watery green eyes and hope in her expression to which she said "Are you my daddy?"
After a while staring at her Richard said "is this some kind of sick joke? How could you do such a heartless thing to me huh? I bet you aren't even real; you're just an illusion caused by my grief! Begone!" as he said that he threw his PDA at the little girl who dodged out of the way and said, "Please daddy, don't do this I'm real I swear I'm real! You... you can scan me if you want! Please just listen to me!" Richard grew angry and said "Don't give me that crap! I am so sick of this stagnant air on this ship... I'm leaving!" he then went to leave by barging past the girl but she latched onto him and begged him to stay, this surprised him to which the little girl said "If... If I'm an illusion how can I do this huh? How can I do this daddy?" to which Richard said "Okay, if you are truly my daughter then answer me this, what is the name of your mother?" to which the little girl said "mommy's name is Crystal, she was a first technician on this ship before it exploded and she told me she threw you through the bulkhead doors before they slammed shut and you were separated." Listening to her Richard thought for a minute before saying "how would you know that if you were an illusion? But still, Crystal died when the bulkheads closed between us... she was crushed by the falling support beams while she was carrying you so how did she survive?" To which the little girl said "well that's complicated, she was warped by three pink haired, blue eyed girls; warped out of the way from the beams and down into the infirmary, as far as she is concerned you died when the energy field hit the pods as they went down but then, then she gave birth to me and after I was born she saw your pod flotation devices trigger with the help of the three girls; she then named me Jade and told me that one day we would all be reunited as a family if I was a good girl and here we are... M... Mommy is down in the infirmary eagerly awaiting your return daddy." Doubting her words Richard started to get depressed and as soon as Jade noticed this she tried to cheer him up by saying "you still doubt me daddy? Why's that so?" Richard looked into her affectionate eyes and said in a sad tone "I heard her screaming as the beams came down around her ears kid, and after the disaster of the Aurora, my PDA stated that there were no human life signs within a one-hundred kilometre range, that's why." Jade's eyes twinkled with a smile after hearing this and said "father, have you forgotten? Mommy, you and I are not human, remember?" After Jade mentioned that fact Richard paused for a moment before it dawned on him, he was part Precursor and so was Crystal and if what this little girl said was true then she truly was his daughter and there was a good chance that Crystal was alive too! This gave him back his smile and he said "well I guess what you say is true then Jade, it's nice to finally meet you my dear," he then opened his arms to which after picking up his PDA Jade ran into his arms sobbing and saying "I love you Daddy!" They then embraced as she sobbed into his chest.

Meanwhile down in the infirmary...

"Attention, new life signs detected, scanning ID Imprint... ID confirmed name Richard Scepton" hearing this a weak and weary Crystal sits up and stretches her arms while yawning before saying "It's about time Richard came back, I hope he's okay; tell me... Is Jade with him at all?" as she said that the AI said "Confirmed... Richard Scepton is with Jade, searching for safe route... None found." Fed up Crystal sighed and said "well thanks for nothing you stupid heap of silicone, damn it; hurry up Richard I need your help." she then checked her injuries and found that they had grown worse so finding this out Crystal decided to treat her wounds as best as she could while she had a flashback to their wedding day

Six years ago...

The mess hall was nicely decorated and the tables were set out individually for the reception by Crystal's team who begrudgingly accepted that she was unobtainable now, causing them to not be bothered about making the place look nice due to their jealousy, to which Captain Hollister took them all to one side and did a group disciplinary saying "Just because you are jealous of the fact that your superior officer is marrying someone below your station; does NOT give you the right to sabotage their big day so get over you petty selfishness and redecorate the mess hall PROPERLY or I will demote you all to lavatory cleaners! Now get out of my sight unless you want to say something to me." To which one of the technicians decided to open their mouth and said "why should that loser marry someone as great as Crystal? What makes him so special huh?" This pissed off the captain and he said "Right you little shit! I am done with your attitude; the next port we dock at I want you off my ship because as of now, your contract is terminated effective immediately; that means you selfish little shit that you are fired! As for the rest of you; If I ever see you sulking or trying to sabotage this great day again you will meet with the same fate, security; take this scumbag to the brig, DISMISSED!" no sooner had the captain said that Crystal walked in after overhearing what the captain had said and looked at the members of her team with disappointment before saying "So it's true then, you hate the idea of me and Richard getting married; well tough shit! He is worth the time and effort because well, he was not so accommodating with me at first, he actually played hard to get and instead of slobbering over pictures of me in a bikini with all my body jewellery in like you perverts did and probably still do, he got on with his work and increased the efficiency of the Pressure Re-Active Waterproof Nano suits by one hundred and twenty percent and what did you guys do? No forget I asked that; I shudder to think what you did over my bikini pictures and knowing what you have actually been doing to destroy this day for me and Richard I don't even what you guys on my team anymore, Richard and I can manage the maintenance jobs on the pressure Re-Acti..." Captain Hollister just raised his hand up politely with a smile and said "Please Crystal my dear; just call them Prawn suits, because that's what I know them as," Crystal then nodded and continued by saying "Richard and I can easily manage the maintenance jobs on the PRAWN suits ourselves; In fact when it was just me and Richard doing the jobs we got more done in one hour than we did in the whole day normally so please Captain, reassign these slackers to another area and leave me and Richard to do the PRAWN suit maintenance jobs, alone." she then saluted and added "After mine and Richard's honeymoon that is!" she then smiled and walked off to prepare for her wedding to Richard as Captain Hollister smiled at her and before she left the room she turned around to the captain and said "h... hey, regarding my body jewellery captain, do I have your permission to wear it at all time, even while I am on duty? I kinda miss wearing it when I take it out." to which the captain said "It is up to you Crystal, as long as you protect it properly while on duty I have no problem with you wearing your jewellery, it kind of makes you look more distinguished so I guess I can overlook protocol on this ship since you are one of the few women who were part of Project Eden Frontier, we have a lot of women on board but none of them are as efficient as you when you are with Richard and one other thing about him, Richard was also part of Project Eden Frontier and I am sure he knows this, when I have the time I will brief you both on what the project was designed for now hurry up Crystal, you have a wedding to attend," with that both Crystal and the Captain Saluted each other and Crystal left the captain's office as she headed to the reception hall.

About an hour later...

After her meeting with the captain, Crystal headed to her quarters and looked around them picking up a few things before walking over to her stuffed teddy bear and said "Well from today I will be Mrs Crystal Scepton and you know what Mr Wubbles, I'm happy so sadly I won't be needing you anymore; now what to do, what to do, Ah! I know, I will save you for my first child when he or she is born, that is if I have one Oh I hope to the spirits that I become a mommy; That's all I ever want from life, I want someone or something to nurture and protect; well it's nearly time for my wedding now so I will just drop these things off at Richard's quarters if he doesn't mind, that is at least until we get moved into bigger quarters." With that she headed to Richard's place and struggled to carry her stuff into it to which she heard a familiar sound and a familiar voice saying "Hello my fair lady, would you like me to carry your stuff for you?" she smiled and turned around to see Richard in his wedding tuxedo piloting the PRAWN suit they were working on to which she said "Y'know Richeypoo, isn't it bad luck to see the bride before the wedding takes place?" Both Richard and Crystal stared into each other's eyes longingly for a few seconds before laughing out loud, to which Crystal said "yeah, If we were superstitious which we aren't," Richard then jumped out of the PRAWN suit and they both embraced for a while before Richard picked up Crystal's stuff and said "Come this way, we have been moved into bigger quarters already, heh big enough to use this big guy to transport your stuff to it," he then patted the PRAWN suit lightly making it emit a small clank, he then got into the suit and picked up all of Crystal's things as she clambered onto the PRAWN suit shoulders and said "well at least it beats a wedding car, Let's go Richeypoo!" they then headed to their new home and dropped Crystal's belongings off before heading to the wedding reception.

Back to the present...

As Crystal laid there remembering that moment, her heart warmed up and overflowed with joy as she saw Richard carrying Jade on his shoulders on their way to the Infirmary as she used her PDA to access the internal Camera systems of the Aurora so she could watch their progress and said "Ah I really love that man, I am so glad I decided to marry him, but what has he been doing for five years? Well no doubt he will tell me about what has gone on but no matter what happens I will always love him and never ever leave his side so be honest with me Mizuki; what has happened with Richard over these past five years?" As she said that, a young woman looked up at her and said, "as your Spirit guide I have to be honest with you and I cannot lie either, so what I am about to say is true; within those five years he has ended up engaged to another woman and has looked after both her and her little sister; to make things worse they have both fallen in love with him and they have actually become a danger due to their enhancements going all funny," hearing these words from her spirit guide she sighed and said "Well it's hardly surprising that he is going to remarry, he thought I'd died when those beams crashed around me, so how could he have known that I was still alive after being so overcome with grief and turning into a bitter Bertie? Regardless of this, I will still remain his wife and still love him, heh; who knows, maybe a harem of three women all looking out for his safety will set him right again," Mizuki looked at her and said "Y'know Crystal, are you SURE that you don't have the ability to see into the future? Because that is exactly what I see." To which Crystal just smiled and said "Who knows Mizuki, who knows." with that Crystal fell asleep awaiting the arrival of Richard and Jade.

After a few hours of sleep Crystal was awakened by her PDA speaking up "Caution! Dark Matter Drive Core Containment field unstable, Anomalous readings detected within the Aurora Drive core, estimated time to Dark Matter Containment field failure three days, seven hours," hearing this worried crystal so in a panic she tried to contact Richard via PDA to PDA communication, a little programme she designed for both her and Richard and she said "Richard I hope you can hear me, the DMDCCF is going to fail in just over three days and I am detecting unknown signals from within the drive core that appear to be precursor in origin so get your handsome ass here and help me!" Unfortunately Crystal was met with static and she said "God damn it, why now of all times does this have to happen? I'm badly injured and apart from the only man who can help and heal me properly, hurry up for fucks sake or we are all dead, this explosion won't be like the original, with it being supercharged by Precursor energy this whole fucking ship will crater and the planet rendered uninhabitable!" so she kept on trying to get in touch with Richard in an effort to direct him to the drive core but to no avail.

Meanwhile in maintenance corridor B of the Aurora...

Richard and his daughter Jade are trying to reach the Infirmary when Richard's PDA started to Malfunction to which he started to get annoyed and went to destroy it only to have Jade stop him by saying "Hey Daddy, will you let me try to fix it? Because I know I can," she then snatched his PDA off him and began to tinker with it as he carried her on his shoulders while they were on the move, seeing his only daughter fiddle with his PDA in an effort to fix it made him smile but just as he went to take it off her she said "There! It's fixed," and no sooner had he took his PDA back it booted up and said "Greetings Survivor Great job not dying to assist you further in Survival instances you have been given this Personal Data assistant, software version has been updated to v2.67A," then it paused for a few seconds and said "Attention Survivor, a new message is being received..." after it said that Crystal's message came through as clear as a bell to which he stared at his daughter who was beaming with happiness and he said "Well... Well done Jade! You appear to have fixed my PDA, granted it is still as tactless as ever but wow, I am amazed that you have fixed such a complex device at such a young age, I am really proud of you!" he then cuddled his daughter who said "Thanks daddy, you can say nice things to me later, but right now mommy is trying to talk to you and I think it is something very important," Richard cleared his throat and said "ah yes, of course; I er... I best answer huh?" Jade nodded slowly to which he replied to the message only to have Crystal say in a bit of a disgruntled tone "Finally! I've been tryin' to reach you for at least two days now, what happened? Did you drop your PDA into a cave or something? No matter Richard I'm glad to hear from you again after so long, anyway what do you think of our little treasure, isn't she amazing? Listen... We have an issue here; the DMDCCF is once again at a critical level and in about three days it will go boom; you need to get here to the infirmary immediately and treat my injuries so we can both stabilise the Dark Matter Drive Core Containment field generators, now as you know we cannot permanently repair them; all we can do is fix then just enough to limit the explosion to a category one when compared to the category three explosion we will get f we don't do something about it and since you are a first technician like me you KNOW how bad a category three explosion is... so get down here to the infirmary ASAP, Crystal out, oh and one more thing Richeypoo... I love you and I always will now get your handsome ass down here and see me!" with that she ended the communications and full of hope for the first time in years Richard smiled and kissed his daughter on the forehead before giving her a piggyback and sprinting through the flaming halls of the Aurora towards the infirmary.

After running for about an hour Richard started to grow despondent, the direct route to the infirmary was cut off by some flaming debris of the Aurora and running around to try and find at least one way in he found that the Infirmary was completely cut off from the rest of the ship over flaming pits of fire and razor sharp metal fragments of the Aurora hull that would kill you should you fall on them; growing anxious, Richard tried to use his plasma cutter to make his way down to the level of the Infirmary only to find that the battery had ran out; to which he cursed in the language of the Precursors before trying to find a spare battery for his cutter but to no avail, and no sooner had he looked up from his inventory he saw a Warper looming over him with its razor sharp scythe-like arms raised in attack to which he shouted out "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" Then the Warper attacked him; he dodged out of the way protecting Jade while getting himself badly injured before saying "You fucking piece of shit! I am gonna kill you for trying to attack me! Come on then you freak, let me see you try that shit again!" The Warper obliged to which Richard responded by stabbing it in the side of the head with his survival knife only to have his knife warped away as the Warper in its death throes, brought in more of its kind to which Jade started to panic and said "Daddy I'm scared! I want to go to mommy with you! Please don't try and fight them or you'll die!" Seeing his daughter cry, Richard put his knife away and picked her up bridal style before sprinting off down the corridor, Warpers in pursuit then in a freak accident one of the Warpers got him with a teleport and shot him right into the Infirmary while he carried Jade to which he heard the sound of some repulsion field power up around them before hearing a familiar seductive voice saying "Well what took ya so long this time handsome? You stood me up for our date," he then looked up to see Crystal in her underwear cradling her right arm while she was covered in bandages to which Richard smiled and said "Yeah about that, I meant to call you but my phone was broken." Crystal pouted while folding her arms across her ample bosom and pouting in a very sultry manner before saying "No matter honey; I will punish you later, but right now we have a few jobs to do." She then walked over to him for a short while as her jewellery jingled off her swaying hips, before she started to run over to Richard and when she got a bit closer to him, she jumped into his arms, then she started to hug him so tightly that her chest pressed against his so much, that he could feel her heart pounding in synch with his just like it did during the night Jade was conceived.

Nine months before the Aurora incident...

Richard and had been married for a year now, they had settled into their new home and had started on a personal project with the consent of the Captain, it was an effort to improve the performance of the PRAWN suit under hazardous conditions, what they wanted to do was create a programme that activated should the pilot of the PRAWN suit or even the Seamoth become incapacitated for some reason, what the programme would do was it'd link up with the pilot's biometrics and would constantly monitor their vital signs and brain activity, should any of that become erratic, the programme would take over the piloting of the vehicle in an effort to return them to base as it alerted the medical staff on board the nearest habitat of the patient's condition it would link up with the navigation computer and sonar system to transport the pilot back safely and it was a work in progress, during this time Crystal felt broody and wanted to be a mommy to which she turned to Richard and said "Hey Richard can I talk to you for a bit? I'd like to discuss something with you that is important for the both of us," Richard downed his tools and looked into Crystal's eyes before saying "What is it sweetie? Is there something on your mind?" Crystal let out a sigh before taking a deep breath and said "Richard, do you... do you like children?" Richard looked at her with love in his eyes and said "Of course I like Children sweetheart, I may be a workaholic but I do sometimes watch parents on board this ship interacting with their kids and I do often wonder what it's like to be a parent, why do you ask?" After hearing Richard say that, Crystal's eyes lit up with happiness and she said "I'm so happy that you feel that way Richard because... I... I wanna be a mommy, that is all I have wanted to be ever since I was a little girl; this is why I got over being enhanced against my will for project Eden Frontier so fast, so tonight shall we... shall we try for a baby?" Hearing Crystal say that Richard blushed and said "B... Baby? Look Crystal, I know I said I love the idea of being a parent but do you think that we can do that? I mean... I don't feel like I am ready for a child yet and Babies are very expensive!" looking into Richard's eyes Crystal went all watery eyed and began to make a pouty face as she made her bottom lip quiver before saying "Pleeeeeease Richeypoo, Please! I really want to be a mommy and we both earn enough to support a child so what's stopping us? After all we have been married for a year now and I feel more than ready to have a baby so please?" Richard looked at her face and smiled before saying "Ah damn it, I can't say no that cute face can I?" he then gave her a cuddle to which Crystal gave him a loving kiss on the lips before dancing around the PRAWN Bay smiling and saying "YAY!" before tripping over a loose cable and landing on her backside before saying "Owee that hurt!" To which Richard chuckled and said "You cute ditz..." he then walked over to Crystal whose eyes had teared up a little bit and helped her up before giving her a hug to which she sighed affectionately and said "So tonight we try right?" to which Richard smiled and patted her head gently before saying "If that is what you want Crystal then that is what we will do." they then embraced for a while then resumed their work as Crystal hummed a happy song.

At the infirmary...

As Richard perked up, so did Jade and Crystal to which Jade said "Mommy daddy and me are finally together, I'm so happy!" Crystal smiled and said "Jade sweetheart, you aren't the only one, I'm glad to have my hubby back after so long... Even if he has gotten engaged to another girl or two in my absence," she said with a mischievous smile to which Richard said "how... did you?" To which Crystal just said, "a little fox told me, but this is for another day, right now we need to sort out the DMDCCF just enough so it doesn't cause a category 3 explosion and with the three of us I am sure we can fix it; it can't have escaped your attention that our little girl is a genius and with her help we can keep the detonation to a category 1 explosion, so let's get to the core now!" with that Crystal climbed out of the infirmary with Richard and Jade in tow as they headed to seal the drive core, it took them about half an hour to get to the drive core and as soon as they got into it they started welding the Containment field generators, just as Richard did, three days after the drive core detonation that blew a big hole in the Aurora hull at the front. About an hour later the Drive core was reinforced and no sooner had they fixed it they were attacked by a lot of Warpers that chased them out of the drive room, while the others destroyed the containment field generators; causing a massive chain reaction of explosions behind them as they were running down the maintenance halls with fireballs erupting around them. After running for about an hour they came to the massive hole in front of the Aurora and as the final explosion went off, the three of them were thrown clear of the Aurora right down deep into the Koosh zone where a load of Ampeels and Bonesharks charged at them

To be continued...