Chapter 9: Engagement

The next morning when Richard woke up he felt the soft breath of Crystal on his neck and as he opened his eyes he looked around to see that the sky had a pinky-blue overcast and thought to himself "What a nice sky, well best I get up and look for some breakfast," As he went to get up he felt Crystal clutch onto him as she said "Hey Richeypoo don't get up yet, it's too early we deserve a long sleep in thanks to all the hard work we did," she paused for a moment and sighed before saying "h...hey, you do realise that what I said was a joke right?" Richard looked at her confused and said "What are you talking about?" She then got a bit worried and said "Y'know about punishing you, I... I didn't mean it okay I was just kidding." Richard sighed at her and said "Look Crystal why have you brought this up now honey? Is there something wrong?" To which Crystal just got up, walked over and then embraced him feeling a little bit down and said "It's just that you seemed really depressed last night and I thought I was responsible for it, you know I would never punish you unless you did something really bad to someone who didn't deserve it," Richard rolled his eyes before wrapping his arm around Crystal's slim waist and aid "Don't worry Crystal, I know what you were up to and what you said is true, I will one day have to make a choice and someone will end up getting heartbroken." Seeing how depressed Richard was Crystal sighed before saying "Look honey, I know how bad things seem right now but hey who knows? Maybe something will come up and you may not have to break anyone's heart," Richard looked at Crystal and said "Hey Sweetheart, what are you talking about? Of course I'm going to have to make a decision like this," Crystal sighed and said "Richard, what I am trying to get at is this, you could still marry those two and remain married to me; sort of like a harem and I don't mind sharing you with those other girls because right now, given what has been done to them they will need all the support and love they can get and it is YOU who can give that to them. Now I will leave you to think on that while I go and clean my body jewellery my piercings feel kind of uncomfortable and this has never happened before but remember what I said huh? I love you and I always will, no matter what." she then kissed him and walked off to sort out her body jewellery while Richard thought about what she just said.

Meanwhile back at the Habitat that housed Amythyst and Sapphire...

"Hey big sister, where is Richard? He's been gone for at least a week now; do you think he's okay because I am worried." Sapphire said as Amythyst looked out of the habitat window longingly for a while before turning to Sapphire and saying "Sapphire my dear, I'm sure he's okay; he just needed to get away from us as we are currently a danger to him with our Implants malfunctioning, those Alterra bastards got us good this time; we have been literally fucked up by our systems doing this and it's not fair, why did it have to happen now when we were getting so close to Richard and so close to what gave us hope, if we have lost Richard then I see no point in going on, he was he first man to make me feel human although I wasn't, he made me feel like I meant something to someone, the same goes for you right?" Amythyst then broke down crying and called out for Richard in a sorrowful tone before burying her head in her hands and sobbing bitterly as Sapphire struggled to remain strong. After that the communications relay sounded off and said "Captain a new message has arrived" before the light once again flashed and the relay once again chimed, as Sapphire clicked on the relay it played the new message, "Attention any nearby survivors this is captain Isajin Ryokuto of the recon vessel Argentinian, our short range scouting party has picked up a large landmass about 750 meters south west of the Aurora, it is advised that any survivors still alive in this area evacuate to the landmass immediately as the radiation levels around the Aurora have climbed up to a critically dangerous level and there is a high chance of a major explosion that could wipe out anything or anyone within a radius of 1 KM; we have a team inbound in a drop ship ready to provide supplies for anyone that may need them, it has also come to our attention that certain employees of the Alterra corp have been performing both illegal mining operations in the area and also illegal Cyber-genetic experimentation; as a result; any Alterra mined resources will be confiscated, any experiments will be examined by our doctors to see if we can help them and the command crews of both ships arrested, this is Captain Isajin Ryokuto of the vespertillio corp signing off." The communications relay then went silent causing Sapphire to worry, after a while Sapphire fell asleep trying to rest when yet another communication came through, "captain a new message has arrived," as the light flashed and the relay chimed again Amythyst woke up and played the message "Sapphire, Amythyst this is Richard, it has been a while hasn't it? Listen; I am currently in a bit of a bind right now, I am in the process of building a new vehicle to come and pick you both up but it will be a while before it is completed and for what it's worth I'm sorry, you will see the reason why I am apologising when I come to pick you up, Richard Out." the communications relay then went silent once more as Amythyst sighed and smiled a happy smile before saying "Whatever it is Richard that is making you apologise, I am sure that we can resolve it." she then went to bed and removed her bandages from her belly before messing with her navel piercings and once again sighing an affectionate sigh as she remembered the time Richard surprised her with a lovely diamond ring on her birthday and it made her heart feel warm.

As the night progressed Amythyst started to feel uneasy, something was coming and she could feel it, this made her feel depressed so she decided to go out and investigate the island that was mentioned in the message, as she tried to escape from the sealed habitat she got an error tone showing that she could not get out; annoyed at this she decided to jerry-rig the door and opened it up by tampering with the electronic locking system, being a first technician this job was easy, one of her training scenarios that she came up with was should she get locked out of the command panel due to some malfunction she would open up the panel and fiddle with the wires, essentially hotwiring the lock and releasing it. Doing this she managed to escape the habitat and began searching for some components to build her own Seamoth, after an hour of resource gathering and a few narrow escapes from the local predators she collected everything to construct a Seamoth submersible, once it was constructed she climbed aboard and went to the island. When she got there she saw how beautiful it was and it brought a tear to her eye, she climbed onto the island and began to investigate it only to find smouldering wreckage and human remains around the area, it devastated her but regardless of this she removed the human remains and game them a proper burial before salvaging whatever she could from the destroyed vehicle, before saying "Why did this have to happen? This planet is starting to feel like a slaughterhouse, so many lives lost due to the greed of one company... Please hurry home Richard I don't want you to die here," with that she continued to explore the island and climbed the hills that had observatories on and cast her eye towards the final resting place of the Aurora and bowed her head in respect before scanning and salvaging what she could.

Back at Akémi's base

As the sisters returned to the cannon with the supplies required, Richard started to construct a Cyclops and watched as the hulking vehicle was levitated against the sunset, it was an interesting site to behold as the mini-robots of the mobile vehicle bay flew around using the raw materials given to Richard and built the Cyclops, as it finished building it splashed down into the water and Richard decided to check it out, as he boarded the Cyclops via the front diving chamber the CPU announced "Welcome aboard captain" in what sounded like a deep British voice and as he walked around it making sure everything was in the right place he examined the power cells to see that they were all okay. Once that was done he exited the engine room and accessed the Cyclops' CPU and used his PDA to enter the DNA profiles of his wife, his daughter, Amythyst, Sapphire, his sisters and himself; allowing them access to the vehicle and once that was all done he exited the Cyclops and gave the all clear to which Crystal and Jade climbed aboard as his sisters secured the area. After everything was secured Richard added a few things to the interior of the Cyclops, things like a fabricator, a power cell charger, a battery charger and a communications relay, he also added a few beds so he and his family and indeed the other crew members could sleep, with the six of them on board they could swap out should one lot of crew members get tired. With that they made their way back to the habitat that held Sapphire and was meant to be holding Amythyst who had decided to explore away from it. As Richard grew closer to the habitat he felt a bit strange, he could feel tension in the air and as he approached the habitat he saw a fireball in the sky with Crystal shouting down the radio "Oh shit Richard! The cannon, the cannon has just fired! it hit a ship dead centre and I can see it crashing down towards your position, get out of there right..." *kzzt* The radio malfunctioned and went offline as debris hit the Cyclops and caused multiple hull breaches "ATTENTION! HULL BREACHES DETECTED!" as that announcement repeated the Cyclops' emergency alarm sounded and the submarine began to sink to the very depths of the ocean to which Richard bailed out of the Cyclops and began to search for his welder, after a while of swimming around the flooded Cyclops, Richard found his welder and began to weld the breaches shut then sighed when the CPU announced "Hull integrity restored, draining systems initiated." and as the water drained from the cyclops amid the sounds of pumps whirring and bulkheads releasing, he smiled as the Cyclops resurfaced and he said "ah that never gets old, hey wait a sec; I see a landmass there, I wonder what's going on?" Once the Cyclops was up and running again, Richard headed towards the island while scanning the area and when he got about two-hundred meters from the island he released the Seamoth and headed towards the island.

As he got onto the beach of the island he heard a ruckus and went to investigate, as he got closer he saw a fairly young looking woman getting attacked brutally and stabbed multiple times; he then sprinted over to the attacker and saw a familiar emblem on his wetsuit, it read Alterra to which Richard grew angry and ran right up to the man to which the man said "oh good evening sir, I see you work for Alterra too; could you help me retire this subject?" To which Richard just punched the man in the face and said "Let me see... How about NO!" And the man got all rude and said "You work for Alterra and it is your JOB to do this now help me and we will discipline you later for your actions." to which Richard just ripped the Alterra badge from his suit and said "I am no longer working for Alterra and you are in my way." He then stabbed the man in the arm and the leg and threw him into the water leaving the local fauna to finish him off. After that he approached the completely naked and wounded woman who cowered in front of him and begged for her life to be spared, "Please don't kill me! I don't want to die; I just want to see my daughters again! Please look at these images!" she then held her PDA up in a bloody hand to which Richard took it from her gently and saw images of Sapphire and Amythyst when they were younger to which he said "wait a minute, are you... Are you their mother? Nah, you can't be; she is dead, I saw the images myself, so who are you?" To which the young woman said "M... My name is Serena, Serena Triton; please, if you don't believe me scan me, you can; can't you?" Richard scanned her and her story checked out so he sighed and said "Okay then Serena, I will take you to your daughters but first I need to treat your injuries and yes you heard me right earlier, I no longer work for the Alterra corporation." After saying that Richard wrapped her up in a foil blanket to cover her up and carried her somewhere safe before building a habitat up and treating her wounds in the warmth and finished her treatment before making her a wetsuit and dressed her into it before carrying her to the Seamoth and placing her inside it before grabbing the Seaglide and escorted her to the cyclops. As they returned to the Cyclops, both Richard and Serena headed towards the base that supposedly held Amythyst and Sapphire, as they approached Richard saw a Seamoth approaching and as he zoomed in on the cockpit of the approaching submarine and saw a very upset looking Sapphire on an intercept course much to the point he used the emergency stop of his Cyclops when the Seamoth scraped against the cyclops' hull to which he sighed and turned everything off while releasing all the hatches so Sapphire could get to him "Finally I got back to you, Richard you asshole! Why did you seal us in that Habitat? No wait I... I understand now, it was our fault wasn't it? Oh by the way Amythyst has headed to the energy signal we detected near you she should be returning momentarily, erm by the way who is that woman wrapped up in a blanket behind you? Wait, is that my mo... Mother? I... Is that her? No it can't be, you died I heard them say they killed her." Richard sighed and said "It's the truth Sapphire, she IS your mother but she is in a critical condition, some bastard stabbed her brutally in the stomach and chest, I barely managed to stabilise her and now she is in a critical but stable condition, we need to get her to our habitat where I can properly administer treatment to her or she will die." with that Sapphire returned to her Seamoth and followed the Cyclops back to their home in the grassy plateaus with the low roar of a distant Reaper leviathan echoing through the ocean. While all of this was going on Amythyst found herself approaching the precursor canon and looked at it in shock and awe, this very weapon was what shot her ship the sunbeam out of the sky and ripped the hull of the Aurora apart "so you were the bastard that caused all of our problems?! I am going to destroy you!" to which a feminine voice said "Oh? And just who are you gonna destroy sweetie?" To which Amythyst looked up and saw this familiar woman standing in front of her with her hands on her hips and a little girl on her shoulder, and as the light brightened up Amythyst's eyes were fixated on a very curvaceous and buxom woman with beautiful green eyes and a fantastic figure to which she stammered "Wh...Who are you?" The woman just looked at her for a few minutes before sighing and said "You of all people should know this Amythyst Triton, My name is Crystal, the WIFE of Richard Scepton and this is his daughter Jade, oh and not forgetting this other fact, Both my daughter and I, and not forgetting Richard are the last precursors alive and this is OUR canon, however; it's original intent was not to kill or destroy, if I were to describe it's proper function I'd refer to it as a planet sized repulsion canon, its original idea was to repulse any ships away from this planet in an effort to reinforce quarantine, This planet has been infected with a disease called 'carar' and it is a very volatile illness that will kill slowly and painfully. When the disease manifested most of the precursors where wiped out and those who were immune like my family where sealed away in cryogenic chambers below the planetary surface and at the last moment one of our science team sabotaged the canon to turn it into a weapon of destruction and I am not going to let you destroy such a thing after I just fixed and redecorated it, of course though it has two firing modes now, my daughter and I see to that along with Richard's sisters Akémi, Kari and Sakura, speaking of which here they are now," no sooner had Crystal said that three girls that looked alike appeared out of nowhere and surrounded Amythyst to which Akémi said "Look here miss Triton, just because you and our brother are bonded together like Crystal is bonded to him does not mean we won't hurt you if you attempt to destroy the property of the precursors, in fact there is something you really need to know and you will learn it in time but right now you have someone waiting for you back at the habitat you came from; there you will find someone who really wants to see you, Crystal and Jade will be escorting you back there and will be staying with you, Richard, Sapphire and your MOTHER... so go now and do not doubt our words." With that Crystal found herself warped onto another Cyclops submarine with Crystal and Jade who set a course for their habitat.
After hearing Crystal say that Amythyst looked at her and said "Wait are you really Richard's wife and daughter? Oh damn it, I guess that the dreams of my sister and I will be shattered now that you have come back into his life but that's okay, I'm just happy to have him as a friend…" Hearing this Crystal let out a disgruntled sigh and gave Amythyst a thump on the head before saying "Stop being such a wimp, if you want to be part of this family you have got to stop feeling sorry for yourself; just because I am here does NOT mean that you won't get chance with Richard, If Richard is the man I think he is then he will consent to this idea I have, do you know what a harem is?" Amythyst looked at Crystal and said "No I don't know what a harem is, could you please tell me?" to which Crystal smiled and said "A Harem is a group of women who marry the same man, Sultans and sheikhs have these, some guys have a new wife for every day of the week and if you really want to get with Richard then you and your sister have to accept that so what this means is that of you choose to be in a harem with your sister and I, that means that I will have to write up a wife rota and you know what, I don't mind sharing Richard with you so when we get to the habitat you can do what you want with him, Kiss him, hug him or even sleep with him, it is all fine with me oh and haven't you realised yet?" Amythyst looked at Crystal and said "Realised what?" Crystal sighed and shook her head before saying "Sit down, Shut up, listen to this and think," to which Crystal sat Amythyst down and got out her PDA before replaying the last thing Akémi said

"…you will learn it in time but right now you have someone waiting for you back at the habitat you came from; there you will find someone who really wants to see you, Crystal and Jade will be escorting you back there and will be staying with you, Richard, Sapphire and your MOTHER..."

It then sank in, her mother who she thought was dead was actually alive, with that in mind Amythyst's eyes grew all watery and she began to cry before saying "Is it true? Is my mommy alive?"

To which Crystal said "yes sweetheart, your mother is alive, I can sense her; a part of my precursor abilities is sensing the life of other beings, no matter how feint it is but right now if you want to see your mother we need to get to the habitat so you need to get some rest while you think about your future with Richard and don't you worry, everything will be fine so sleep." After hearing that Amythyst got herself comfortable and fell asleep for the journey back to the habitat.

Five hours later at the Habitat…

As Richard continued the work on his future mother in-law he noticed how similar to her daughters she was, she had the same peircings as they did and the same personality that they had, This made him want to save her even more as it would make the girls happy and that was all he wanted to do, once they returned to the habitat Richard immediately rushed Serena into the infirmary and told Sapphire to go into the observation room while he operated on her mother who looked really young, in fact she looked about as old as Crystal and as he scanned her he found out that she had stopped aging at the age of twenty-five and kept her youthful good looks and full body, then he realised that she was another precursor, Serena Triton was one of his own people! So that meant that beyond a shadow of a doubt Amythyst and her sister were originally part precursor but the tampering of their genetic structure by the Alterra scientists made them FULL Precursor, he could finally start to revive the precursor civilisation and after he finished healing Serena he left her some clothes to get dressed into and brought her out of the general anaesthetic that she was under.

Finally she woke up to an empty room with a load of clothes next to her including some underwear with a note that read "Greetings Serena Triton, since you are reading this then I'll assume that you have woken up from your sleep, I have left you some clothes to wear and once you are dressed you can wander around the habitat freely, but don't worry; I haven't left you alone, I'm just in my workshop fixing a few things, if you want to talk then follow the signs, the code to my workshop is 1786, you can input that code on the panel next to the door, I will be waiting for you there along with Sapphire and Amythyst, that is if she gets here on time,

Regards Richard Scepton"

After reading that letter Serena felt her heart swell up with joy so she eagerly got dressed and began to look for the workshop where Richard was waiting. When she got there she put in the code and the door opened revealing just Sapphire and Richard but she didn't care; she was glad to have her life and her daughters back, as she looked around the room she locked her beautiful eyes on Richard and jumped at him arms open in a hug to which as soon as she made contact poor Richard was knocked against the wall as Serena smothered him with her ample chest by accident, to which Sapphire panicked and pulled her mother off Richard and said "hey mother you nearly killed him, please be careful in the future…" As her mother stared at her with the eyes of a mother who longed to hold her children again Sapphire started to weaken and before she knew it she was bawling like a little baby who had lost its mother and found her again, she then dashed into Serena and hugged her tightly, barely managing to get any words out to which Serena just gave a loving smile and said "There, there Sapphire, Mommy is here now and I will NEVER leave you or your sister again, I love you two so much that it hurt me when I thought I'd never see you again." With that even Serena started to sob and as both of the women cried as they embraced Richard gave a smile and looked to his left before saying "so Minori, have I done the right thing?" to which a young lady said "yes Richard you have and I am proud of you for doing so, as your spirit guide you have made me happy that I chose to guide you. It was you who reunited them beyond all hope, if Serena hadn't bumped into you, she would be dead and her daughters would be devastated after hearing that their mother was actually alive all this time." Richard nodded and got up to let the mother and daughter get reacquainted but no sooner had he left the workshop he found himself being jumped on by Jade and hugged tightly and forced back into the workshop with his daughter clinging onto his neck as Crystal and Amythyst walked in, looking around expectantly Amythyst searched for her mother to which as her eyes locked onto Richard's he pointed to his right and sure enough there was Serena and Sapphire sat there hugging each other. As he looked at them all he quietly counted backwards from three and as soon as he hit zero, Amythyst dived into the hug and both her sister and mother gave her a loving embrace to which they all started crying; witnessing this emotional reunion between mother and daughters, both Crystal and Jade began to cry as they witnessed this beautiful moment brought about by Richard who looked absolutely tired. About an hour later Richard recovered and went to go to bed, only to be stopped by Amythyst who said, "Oh by the way there was someone named Isajin Ryokuto who has crash landed on the planet and I hope he's friendly," to which Richard said "Isajin Ryokuto? He's an okay guy although a bit serious, don't worry he's friendly." With that Richard headed to the command centre of the base and activated a beacon and transmitted a message to Isajin Ryokuto "Isajin Ryokuto, this is Richard Scepton, If you are still alive head to the beacon; I need to discuss something with you."

Four hours later...

As he woke up Isajin Ryokuto looked around his crash site and heard the chiming of his Communications relay and as he approached it the relay said "Captain, a new message has arrived," and chimed as usual and he listened to the message before saying "Well I'll be damned Richard is still alive, I thought he was killed with the Aurora crash, I'm glad he isn't though; I needed him to communicate his report to me, now beacon, beacon ah yes there it is I will make my way to it." After saying that Isajin headed to the beacon but on his way there he felt a little uneasy, when he looked up he saw the sky darken in an eclipse to which he said in a low grumbling tone "Oh for god's sake of all the time to be without my flashlight; hey wait a second," as he rummaged around in his inventory he found his flashlight but it was broken so in a fit of anger he threw his destroyed flashlight across the path hitting a cave crawler and killing it to which he said "Oh damn it, no wait... hey that will teach you little four legged buggers a lesson; trying to sneak up on me." he looked around for a few minutes to admire the bio-luminescent beauty of the planet and sighed before saying "Well I guess I best try harder to find him." With that he took his knife and cut a few samples from the plants and used them to replenish his food and water, after about four hours of wandering around the floating island he saw a light coming from below the water so he decided to dive in and was met with a cyclops blowing it's horn at him to which he swam over and climbed on board to which the Cyclops announced "Isajin Ryokuto has boarded the Cyclops," to which a familiar face ran up to him and they gave each other a brotherly embrace "Hey Isajin what took you so long? I was getting old just waiting for you," to which Isajin laughed heartily and said "God damn it Richard, you never change and regarding your 'aging' I don't think so, given your biostructure I'd say that is an impossibility Mr precursor, so what are you doing on this godforsaken rock?" to which Richard said "Me? I'm getting married, to two other precursors; you've met them haven't you? Their names are Amythyst Triton and Sapphire Triton; I also learned that I have a wife by the name of Crystal and a six year old daughter by the name of Jade." To which Isajin said "My, my, my, you have been a busy boy haven't you? So what is your excuse for not communicating for all these years?" Richard frowned at Isajin, grabbed him by the ear and showed him the busted communications relay he took from his pod. "Do you mind not dragging me by my ear Richard, with your strength you will pull it off my head." Richard let out a sigh and released his ear before rolling his eyes and heading into the makeshift sleeping quarters where the girls were sleeping and said "Keep your mouth shut Isajin and don't wake up these women or we will be in for a world of hurt, they HATE being woke up prematurely so move quietly alright?" Isajin nodded at this as they headed into the main cockpit of the Cyclops and made some green tea. After a while Isajin looked at Richard and said "you have come a long way since we met last time Richard, don't get the wrong idea about what I'm saying but I can see that you have removed the Alterra patch from your uniform and not that I mind but what made you do that?"

Richard looked at Isajin and said "Come with me Ishi and I will show you." With that Richard escorted Isajin to the engine room where his future mother in law Serena was sat still shivering with shock and cold to which Isajin ran over to her and wrapped his coat around her shoulders before saying "I'm sorry if I surprised you ma'am but you seemed cold, are you okay?" Serena looked at Isajin and smiled sweetly before saying "Thank you mister Ryokuto, I appreciate the gesture; hey Richard how are my daughters, are they okay?" Richard looked at his PDA and said "Well aside from the fact that they are hungry, thirsty, tired and slightly injured, they will be fine and once we get back to our base we will need to have THAT discussion if you know what I mean." Serena nodded and with that Richard held his hand out to her to which she took hold of it and helped herself up with some difficulty to which Isajin wrapped her arm across his shoulders and supported her while she walked. Seeing this made Richard smile and with that he gestured to Isajin to tuck her into bed so she could recover, while they returned to the precursor canon that had detected a new aircraft approaching, as the alarm went off a propulsion volley was released in an effort to push the unknown ship away. Seeing that light, Isajin blinked and said "so that thing is operational? Good it needs to be so we can stop those Alterra fucks from coming here to colonise and pollute this beautiful place; does it have two firing modes like we discussed?" Richard nodded and drove the cyclops into the moonpool section of the base and climbed out before escorting him to the teleportation room and said "You know that theory we had about the way the canon operators moved from island to island undetected? Well that theory has been confirmed so let's head back to the main base shall we?" Isajin nodded and with that Richard pulled out a purple artefact and activated the lift up where he was met with his sisters, who had a mischievous look in their eyes and just as he blinked Richard found himself being swarmed by his sisters and getting dragged off into another room where Crystal, Jade, Amythyst and Sapphire were waiting to which he said "Can this not wait until I have debriefed..." before he could say another word he was silenced by Serena who said "there will be plenty of time for that but right now we need to have that discussion, we need to talk about you getting engaged to my two daughters." hearing those words uttered Richard sighed and said "Well I guess that IS more important than a few reports so when are we going to do this?" He then looked at Amythyst and Sapphire who had just recently got changed into their revealing wedding dresses, ran over to Richard, kissed him, and then embraced him tightly to which Serena said with motherly pride in her voice "Right now Mr Scepton..." With that he smiled and said "okay then." before hugging his blushing brides to be.

To be continued...

Author note:

Thank you for reading Subnautica Ghosts of the past this far, currently due to work and other things I am going to be taking a break from writing this fan fiction for a while; any suggestions that you may have for the next chapter feel free to PM me but with that comes ONE RULE which is:- No Lemons are to be requested, I said from Chapter 5 there will be No Lemons in this story, sorry about that :-\

Regards Vesper110