A Case of Extortion:

Sleeping arrangements on the Jupiter 2 seemed as if they were going to be problematic, with the additional crew member, that is, until Doctor Smith offered the spare bunk in his cabin.

"I'm grateful that you offered, Doctor Smith," John said to him privately. "I know that you value your privacy…"

"There was really no choice in the matter, Professor Robinson," Smith interjected. "With their upcoming nuptials, Miss Judy will no doubt, be moving in with Major West, and Penny and Will both need their own space. As you can see, there is little alternative."

Besides, I can keep a closer watch on him this way, Smith thought to himself.

...

In their cabin, while Penny was reading, Judy was going through her nightly ritual of combing out her hair. Knowing that she was going to see Don again tonight, she spent more time than normal fussing with herself.

When she had finished, Judy pulled back the blanket and slid into her bed.

"Good night, Penny. You can kill the light when you're finished."

Penny closed her book and placed it on her nightstand. She reached up to switch off her cabin lights.

"Good night, Judy. You don't have to wait for me to fall asleep to go see Don. I won't say anything."

Judy sat up in bed and reached for the night light, "I didn't realize you knew," she said. "How did you find out?"

Penny too, sat up and gazed at her sister sheepishly.

"I woke up from a dream last night and you weren't in your bed. When you didn't come back in a few minutes, I checked the lavatory and the flight deck. The Robot told me that no one had come up on deck, or left the ship, so I assumed that you were with Don."

"Why did you go searching for me?"

"I wanted to talk to you about my dream," said Penny.

"Well, you can talk to me now, if you still want to. Was it a bad dream?"

"Oh no, it was…it was beautiful. T'lan and I were…well…you know."

Penny began to turn bright red.

"Oh, I see," said Judy, "that kind of a dream. In your dream, did you actually…"

"No," Penny said quickly. "But I think we were going to."

Judy remembered back to the first time she had been awakened by an erotic dream. She had just turned seventeen and her lack of experience with such matters made the event disconcerting. As the oldest, Judy had only her mother to discuss her dream with, and considering that it was about Don, she wasn't going to breach the subject with her, knowing full well, that at the time, Don was not on her list of favorite people.

By circumstance, Penny was making the journey through adolescence much quicker than she did, and it didn't surprise her that her sister's subconscious was leading her in this direction.

"Penny, how do you feel about T'lan?"

"You mean do I love him?"

"Is it love that you are feeling?" asked Judy.

Penny leaned back against the wall. "I don't know, I enjoy being with him, and I miss him when he isn't here, but I'm afraid at the same time. It's so confusing. In my dream, when he was passionately kissing me, part of me wanted more, and part of me wanted to run away and hide."

This sounds serious, thought Judy.

"Penny, you've only known T'lan for a very short time. I can only tell you this. If it's real, the feelings will get stronger with time, and the anxiety will become anticipation. That's how it was with Don and me."

"I thought it was love at first sight, with the two of you, just like Mom and Dad," said Penny.

"I'm not saying that it wasn't. But I didn't recognize it for what it was until a while later, neither did Mom."

"I see. I guess I have a lot to think about."

"Life isn't a race, Penny," Judy added. "Enjoy the time that you and T'lan are spending together. If it is true love, you will know it soon enough."

"I do know that if Mom and Dad had not decided to settle here, I would be faced with a very hard decision to make when they left."

Judy didn't know how to respond to that, thinking about what she would have done had Don not been named as the pilot for their mission.

"Judy, may I ask you a personal question?"

"Of course, I'll answer it if I can."

"I know you were with him last night. Have you and Don, well…already been together?"

"Not in the sense that you're asking. I still have my virginity. I want that to be a gift to my husband on our wedding night."

Judy paused before continuing her thoughts. "For Don and I to find ourselves in those freezing tubes was a shock to both of us. The only way we are dealing with it is staying connected with each other. We are both having nightmares and waking up in each other's arms to comfort each other is the only thing that is helping us get through it."

"I can't even imagine how the two of you must feel," said Penny. "Don is probably waiting for you. You should go to him."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure, and thank you for talking with me, Judy."

"Hey, what are big sisters for? Good night, Penny. Sweet dreams."

"Good night, Judy. Give Don a hug for me."

"All right, I will."

...

Outside the ship, the Robot was making his rounds when he came upon Lt. Colonel Tyler.

"Good evening, Colonel Tyler. It's very late, should you not be asleep?"

"The Professor told me that you had developed a sense of self awareness, incredible. To answer your question, I couldn't sleep."

Before the Robot could react, Tyler removed his power pack. He was about to open his tape drive door when Doctor Smith strode down the ramp.

"You can forget trying to reprogram him," said Smith. "Professor Robinson and his son installed a new encryption algorithm in his memory banks some years ago. Without the keys, you are wasting your time. Believe me, I've tried."

"Zachary Smith. I've been waiting to talk with you in private. It's been a very long time. Have you told the others who I really work for?"

"Not yet, I thought I would inquire as to your intentions, now that you seem to be marooned, just as we are."

"I intend on completing my mission, the one that you botched. Did you know that Aeolis Umbra has placed a million dollar price tag on your head?"

"As far as they are concerned, this mission was lost with all hands, including me," said Smith, somewhat smugly.

"You are forgetting something, Smith. I'm from the future and my being here, is by design, not by accident."

"Then you are responsible for the murder of the crew. I intend to inform the Robinsons and Major West of your duplicity…"

"Not so fast, Smith," said Tyler. "You're just as guilty as I am. It's obvious to me that they don't know of your involvement with Aeolis Umbra otherwise, you would have informed them immediately who I work for. You're a coward, Smith loyal to no one but yourself."

"What is it that you want?" asked Smith.

"It's really quite simple, the Jupiter 2 mission was considered to be lost in space. My assignment is to make sure they stay that way. A month from now, Will Robinson fabricates a message drone, capable of FTL travel. The buoy reaches Earth, two years from now. The rescue ship from Earth arrives six months later. Thanks to the testimony of Donald and Judith West, the Jupiter Program is reestablished. You are going to help me stop them."

"I won't go along with this. I don't care if you expose me…"

"Oh, yes you will," said Tyler, as he pulled a vial out of his pocket. "Do you know what this is?"

"A vial of colored liquid, so what?" asked Smith, indigently.

"It's much more than a vial of colored liquid. Have you ever heard of the Ebola Virus?"

Doctor Smith blanched, "Good Heavens. What are you going to do with it?"

"Well now, that depends on you. This version of the virus has been weaponized. It spreads very quickly and it is one hundred percent lethal. One word from you about my mission and I'll release it."

Smith was paled and he sat in one of the chairs. Before returning to the ship, Tyler spun around to face him.

"One more thing, Smith, I've planted an automatic release device nearby, with enough of this virus to kill every human in this valley. So don't get any bright ideas about attacking me in my sleep."

"What if it is released by accident? Is there an antidote?"

"I do have the antidote, but it's not with me, and I don't have nearly enough for everyone. A lot of people will die, quite horribly I might add. Sweet dreams, Doctor Smith, and don't forget to plug the Robot back in."

A despondent Doctor Smith sat at the table, considering waking the Professor, but his fear of the virus and being exposed as an enemy agent himself was giving him pause. He picked up the Robot's power pack and trudged over to plug it in.

When the Robot was re-energized it straightened out and turned around.

"Doctor Smith, what are you doing here, and where is Colonel Tyler?"

"Asleep by now, as you seemed to have been. Have you no robotic pride, you clumsy clod."

"Tyler must have removed my power pack," said the Robot. "The last thing my memory banks recall, was conversing with him."

"Your power pack was loose. You obviously bumped into something and jarred it free. I reseated it, a moment ago."

"And Tyler was not here?"

"No, I spoke with him briefly, before he retired for the evening, which is what I intend to do."

"Good night, Doctor Smith."

"Good night, ninny. And try to be more careful next time.

The Robot dropped his sensor dome, seemingly embarrassed.

...

"I have to bring Tyler with us when we go back to the Jupiter 6 wreck, tomorrow," said Don, as they cuddled closely in his bed.

Beside him, Judy had rested her head on his chest, "I was hoping that we were going to be alone, for a change. Why does he have to come?"

"He said that he wants to inspect the freezing units, something about feeling guilty about being to only survivor."

"It's got to be hard for him, Don. I would probably feel guilty too…"

"Something else is bothering me, something that Smith said..."

"Remember, Don, we don't let Doctor Smith come between us," she admonished him ever so lightly.

"No, it's not like that. This time, I think Smith may be right."

Judy propped herself up on her elbow. Don almost never agrees with Doctor Smith.

"Tell me," she said.

"Remember when Tyler told us about his robot smashing the instruments?"

"Yeah, it was like déjà vu. I thought we were all going to die, right then and there. If it wasn't for you and Dad, we would have all been killed."

"We got lucky. What Smith said, was, Tyler had a laser pistol with him in the space pod. Why didn't he just shoot the robot?"

Judy wondered about it for a moment. When their robot had smashed the astrogator, the ship immediately went out of control, the propulsion system engaged at maximum thrust sending them into a hyper drive. The ship was pitching and rolling so bad that it had been next to impossible to stand. Even after Don had engaged the auto-stabilizers and tried to help her father disable the robot, it took several minutes for the ship to stop its gyrations.

"If he already had the gun, maybe he could have stopped the robot. I don't know."

"The thing that really bothers me, Judy, is it would be almost impossible to launch the space pod with the ship out of control like that. He has to be the luckiest pilot alive to have pulled that off."

"Hey," she said suggestively. "I thought you were the luckiest pilot alive?"

"Well, that goes without saying," he said as he brought her lips to his.

When they pulled apart, Judy glanced at the clock, "We should get some sleep, Don. I don't want you to be tired driving on that ridge tomorrow."

They kissed each other once more and soon dozed off in each other's arms.