CH5
"I need a drink." Kate tells everyone.
"Kinda early for that mom." Jenn questions.
Kate just smiles. "Not that kind of drink. Maybe later though. I just mean a drink of water." Kate explains with a smile.
"I'll get it mom." L tells her. Wanting something to do to take her mind off of it all for a second.
"I can get it sweetie. I'm not 100 years old yet." Kate tells her.
Emily can only laugh a little and let her mom go.
Once in the kitchen. "Lucile I need to talk with Natalie." Kate tells her.
"Communication ready." Lucile tells her.
"Natalie, it's Kate."
"Kate! How was your vacation?" She knew they went boating in the Caribbean and should have just gotten back yesterday.
"Are you and Jim busy?" Kate asks, whispering so the others did not overhear.
"We are both in my office going over boring paperwork, why?" Natalie is curious now.
"Tom and Don ran into trouble on their recent flight." Kate tells her.
"What kind of trouble?" Getting the attention of her husband.
"They were attacked by Honji Sinhindrea fighters. Natalie, Tom's ship was destroyed in the attack." Kate adds.
"NO!, … No." Kate can hear the anguish in her voice.
"Rick is out with Meg and Jenn in one of the shuttles from Evergreen looking for him." Kate concludes.
"Kate this is Jim. I'm sending Natalie to you. I'm headed for the space flight facility to find out what they know. I'll let you know what I learn." Jim tells her.
"I'm sending her now." Jim finishes.
Kate soon hears. "Mom?"
"Oh L sweetie, how are you doing?" Natalie is asking.
"I'm scared. I don't know what to do." Emily tells her.
"He'll be fine sweetie. He's a Marine, and he has your father looking for him. He'll be fine." He has to be goes left unsaid. As Natalie wraps her in her arms.
Kate chooses this time to re-enter the living room. "Kate, thanks for calling." Natalie tells her.
"Your family Natalie, you have a right to know. I'm actually surprised you didn't know." It is Natalie's base after all.
The Marine in Natalie raises it's head. "Yea so am I. Jim is probably already busting a few heads about that." Natalie informs her. "How did they get here so soon?" Natalie concludes who is could possibly have been that attacked.
"I don't know. I thought sure we would never see them in our lifetime. We don't have anything, do we?" Kate asks but already knows the answer.
Natalie just shakes her head. If they are here in force, they were doomed.
Kate moves in and wraps her arms around Natalie. "We are screwed, aren't we?" Kate whispers in her ear.
Natalie just whispers back. "I'm a Marine. We are screwed when I say we are."
Kate pulls back. "I knew there was a reason why I liked having you as part of the family." Kate tells her, standing a little straighter.
"We're Marines Kate. We don't back down to anyone. Honji Sinhindrea or not." Natalie tells them all. "I'm however going to kill my son when he gets home for scaring all of us like this."
This gets a chuckle out of all of them including the boys.
"Don I need you to come to a complete stop." Rick tells him.
"You spot him?" Don asks hopeful.
"His pod is right in front of us. I'm looking right at it." Rick tells him.
"How is he?"
"Can't tell from here. His pod is in sad shape. It is definitely exposed to space." Rick tells him.
"If his suit is not compromised he should be fine for a little while still, but not for long." Don tells him.
"You stay were you are. We're going EVA." Rick tells him.
Meg, Jenn and Rick reach the pod. "Tom can you hear me?" Rick calls out. "Tom?"
"We don't have time Richard. We need to get this thing attached, now." Meg is telling him.
"Yea, ok let's start pushing. The rest will have to wait." Rick agrees.
The three of them push the pod past the shuttle and over to Don's fighter.
"Don, Meg and Jenn are going to attache his pod to the top rear side of your ship." Rick tells him.
"ME? Why can't you take him?" Don is not sure this is a good idea.
"We can explain us being out here looking like your ship, but how do we explain when we land with four on board a ship that can only hold one?" Rick reasons with him.
"Getting us down with both of us still alive just got harder." Don tells him.
"You are a Marine. Get it done Marine." Rick yells at him.
"Yes sir. Piece of cake sir." Don tells him.
"Besides if you fail Jenn and L will kill both of us." Rick tells him.
"We are still going to take a pasting." Don is laughing.
"I warned you not to take them to the gym and teach them what your parents know how to do." Rick is laughing also. "Wasn't the four of you enough?" Rick finishes.
"The more Marines the better sir." Don tells him.
"Meg and Jenn tell me they are done. Take off Marine. Show us what you can do. You be careful in the atmosphere or you'll rip his pod right off." Rick tells him.
"Thank you Uncle Rick. I owe you one." Don tells him as he fires up the drive.
"I'll meet you on the ground and we can all get rip roaring drunk." Rick tells him as he watches him leave.
"You have a deal." Don finishes as he put his concentration on what he needs to do to get home.
Rick, Jenn and Meg are on their way back to Evergreen. "Kate?" Rick calls out.
"Rick?" Kate responds with all eyes on her.
"We found Tom. We've attached his pod to Don's ship and he is headed back now. We are headed back to Evergreen to find out what this little trip has cost us." Rick tells her.
"How is he?" Kate asks.
"His pod is heavily damaged. Tom was unresponsive. His suit did not appear to have been breached. Don is going to have to show some serious flying skills to get them both on the ground and in one piece. It's not over yet." Rick tells her.
"Thanks Rick, I'll wait for you to get home safely." Kate tells him. "They found Tom and attached his pod to Don's ship and is headed this way." Kate tells them.
"It's not meant to do that." Natalie tells them.
"Your son is a Marine." Kate tells her.
Natalie just smiles at having it thrown back at her. "Girls your with me. Jim, Don with Tom attached is headed your way. So are the girls and I." Natalie calls out.
"Was he ok?" L asks.
"Your father couldn't tell exactly. He did say that his suit did not appear to have been compromised." Kate tells her.
"Let's go girls." Natalie tells them. "Kate I'll tell you and Rick everything I know as soon as I know it. And Kate, kiss that husband of yours for me. I owe him big time." Natalie tells her.
"I'll be only too happy to give him just what he deserves." Kate tells her. Getting a knowing smile from Natalie. And Natalie opens a Transmat wall back into her office.
This leaves Kate and the boys all alone in L's house. "Help me lock up boys (?) then we can go home and wait for your father to get home. We still need to eat lunch and the dogs are probably missing us." Kate tells them. James checks the back door, Levi checks the door to the garage, while Kate checks the front door and waits for her sons to join her.
Getting home. "You two want a sandwich and some chips with milk?" Kate asks.
The boys are kind of quiet and just sit at the counter waiting. Kate takes this as a yes and fix's sandwiches for all of them. And they eat in silence.
Don however is sweating bullets. To keep the atmosphere from ripping Tom's pod off him he is doing some really stupid things. He is almost coming down backwards he has his ass almost out in front.
"Come on baby hold it together. Just a little longer." Don is talking to himself.
"Whisper one you are coming in too steep, level out." Don hears. But he ignores them. He has to.
However the next time he hears from them. "Whisper one, the runway has been foamed, land when you can where you can. Copy?"
"Whisper two copies." One small favor answered. Now for a bigger one.
He was coming in way too steep. But he kept telling himself wait, wait. "Almost." He was seconds from crashing rear end first when he shoves the stick as far forward as it will go.
As it is the rear wheels hit hard and hold for a few seconds but the force is too much for them and they collapse under him. Leaving him with his nose sticking up in the air until he presses the button to retract the gear. This causes his front gear to immediately collapse and he slams on his belly and slides down the runway. It is trying desperately to spin on him and he pulls for the chute out the back to deploy.
This did two things for him. It helped slow him down and it straightened him out as he continued his slide since with no landing gear he had no brakes. Now that he was assured he was going to stay straight he deployed the air brakes.
Finally coming to a stop he blew the canopy and undid his harness and tried to get out and see if Tom was still with him. The rescue/fire crews were on him in a minute and they all headed for Tom's pod. This told Don that Rick had told someone down here what to expect. What he did not know yet was that it was his parents.
"Sir you need to come with me, sir." An EMT was telling him and trying to get him to an ambulance.
"I need to see Tom." He counters.
"Let them do their jobs and you let me do mine. Let's go sir." And he drags Don off to the ambulance and pushes him inside.
It is several hours later when he sees someone walk into his room at the base hospital. "Mom, hows Tom?"
"He's alive son. He was down to five minutes of on his suit. He definitely has a concussion. Other than that, they are still looking him over." Natalie tells him.
"We screwed up mom. We really screwed up." Don was really mad at himself. It was a bonehead rookie mistake.
"I'm just glad you're both alive son. As to what happened we'll talk about that later. First though you up for a couple of guests?" Natalie asks her.
Don looks at his mom puzzled. Then it hits him. "Jenn is here?" He's a dead man.
Natalie nods her head. "Kate and the boys have been with her the entire time. Go easy on her son. She's scared." Natalie warns him.
"She's going to kill me." Don is not looking forward to this.
Natalie just laughs. "She'll probably kiss you first, then kill you. I'll make sure you two are alone for a while." And Natalie leaves and tells her daughter in-law she can go in and that she'll make sure no one interrupts them for a while.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the base, "The doctors are still looking him over." Jim tells Emily. "He was conscious last I saw him. They are convinced he has a concussion." Jim finishes.
L falls into Jim's arms trembling. "He'll be fine L. I'll go find the doctors again in a few. As soon as I can get you in to see him I will." Jim assures her.
It was late and the boys had been in bed for a couple of hours already when Rick got home.
Kate spots him coming up the stairs and runs into his arms, then pulls back and kisses him as soundly as she can. Breaking from the kiss Kate just rests her head on his shoulder while wrapped up in his arms.
"Have you heard anything?" Rick asks since he has been out of contact for some time.
"Natalie says they are both alive. Tom just has a concussion. Otherwise he is fine." Kate tells him from his chest.
"And the girls?"
Kate lifts her head so she can look into his eyes. "They're scared Rick. It has hit them hard." Kate tells him.
"How about you?"
Kate puts her head back on his shoulder. "Yea, me too. …. How bad is it?" Kate asks the question she really doesn't want an answer to.
"How about a drink first. I could use something to calm my nerves." Rick tells her.
"Mind if I join you?" Kate looks up.
"I thought you'd never ask." As they head for the kitchen area.
Kate pulls out two shot glasses and a bottle of Tequila and fills them. They both put them down with one drink and Rick puts his glass down silently.
Kate takes his silence as a request to re-fill his glass and does hers too. And they put both down in one drink. Rick slowly puts his back down and does not say anything while Kate re-fills it waiting for her husband.
"I don't recommend doing a spacewalk. This was my first. It makes you feel extremely naked. I don't know how Meg and Jenn do it." Rick starts. And puts his glass down and waits for Kate to refill it.
"What did it cost?" Kate asks. Afraid of the answer.
Rick drinks down his drink then puts it back down upside down. And waits for Kate to drink hers.
"I'm not sure just how much it cost us, but, if the Honji Sinhindrea are here in force and the Evergreen has to leave none of us will be going with it. Natalie, Jim, Tom, Don, Alex, Us, the girls or the boys. All of us. We live here or we die here." Rick tells her.
Kate remains silent and re-fills her glass and drinks it down. It had cost them. Just how much remained to be seen.