A little over three years had gone by and Destiny had lived in relative peace; no Nakai, no attacks, in fact there had been hardly any alien encounters what so ever. A way to get back to Earth still eluded Rush and the science team but everyone knew Rush and his children would crack it eventually, about a year and a half back Ezra thought he'd cracked it but it turned out he'd forgotten to carry the two.

Cressida had grown into a twelve years old, her hair had grown out to the point that she often wore it in a loose braid over her left shoulder. At only twelve Cress was stunningly beautiful and as she continued to grow she'd only become more so, her skin was purer than snow with full red lips. Ezra had gone through a growth spurt as of late and at only nine was practically the same height as his sister, seemed he got his height from Chloe's side of the family, all the men on her side were at least six foot. The boy with heterochromia eyes had also become something of a prankster much to Volker's and Brody's displeasure and Rush enjoyed cultivating his son's ability to annoy the engineer and scientist.

Destiny hadn't come cross a planet with a breathable atmosphere for about a month and since the crew was in no need of food or water – unusual but not unwelcome – and Rush was busy trying to build two new stasis chambers for Cress and Ezra to use during the next galaxy crossing so the new planet had gone pretty much unnoticed, or at least it had until Eli and Cressida had decided to take a look. It had taken a while to convince Colonel Young to let them go but they'd eventually been granted permission to take the shuttle down to the three mooned planet, they'd only be gone a few hours and Cressida had become a rather excellent pilot under the guidance of Lieutenant Scott.

Cress set the shuttled down softly and let the door fall open after about twenty minutes of flight and hopped out of her chair with a sense of glee.

"Come on, Eli." She beamed.

"Why are you all excited?" He asked as he unbuckled himself from his seat, her ability to constantly smile was beyond him.

"I haven't been on an Earth-like planet for months. Since I've never been to Earth so I like to live vicariously through these little trips." Cress peered down the ramp to the forest covered planet. "Come on, maybe there will be an ancient temple we can deface."

"Monster!" Eli said with mock outrage before joining the twelve year old.

It appeared they were in a glade about a mile wide, when they stepped out they could see the planet's three moons, two similar in size and one far larger. The trees were large and tall like oaks but the leaves were the color of plums, it was actually rather beautiful especially with the glade's purple grass. Fresh air was nice.

"Let's see if there's any fruit, we can never have too much on the ship."

He was right, even though they weren't running low it couldn't hurt to scrounge up what they could; still Cress decided to tease her friend.

"Do you ever stop thinking about food?"

"Oh, now you're just being evil." He grinned at her while they wandered further away from the shuttle. "I'll have you know I've thinned out a lot."

It was true, over the last three years Eli had shed his chubby layer, he would never be muscular like Greer or Varro but he certainly wasn't fat; healthy would be the best word to describe him. Rush sending him back and forth through the ship as well as playing Tag with Cress and Ezra had helped a lot.

The two friends went about the usual things after that, taking soil samples and searching for clean water, nothing seemed to be toxic and the stream water they found about forty feet into the forest actually tasted pretty good.

Eli reached his cupped hands into the cold water for another mouthful and reviled in its refreshing taste but felt his heart drop when he stood up and turned to find Cress was gone.

"Cress? Cressida?" His voice was panicked.

"Up here!" She called out and Eli looked up to see the girl a good two meters up one of the tall purple trees.

He watched her pulling something small and round like a tear free from the branches.

"What are you doing?" He shielded his eyes from the lowering sun with his hand. "And be careful, if something happens to you up there Rush is going to kill me."

"Catch!" She tossed a few of the brown objects down to him, to Eli they looked like kiwis but the size of coconuts.

Cress clambered back down slowly and the worry of Rush trying to kill him had almost left Eli until a branch suddenly snapped and Cressida came tumbling down like a bowling ball, thankfully Eli broke her fall.

"Ouch!"

Cress pushed herself up slightly, removing her face from his chest and looked at the older man apologetically.

"Sorry, Eli."

"That's okay, I didn't really need my spine anyway."

That made her chuckle and Eli could feel the sound echo through her chest, past the 'you are here' t-shirt and into his own. He pushed her gently off of himself until they were laying next to one another on the cold soil, neither said anything for a long moment just enjoying a quietude that was finally broken by Cressida.

"It's peaceful here. Gentle and quiet."

"Yeah it is. Nice to get some fresh air, I might actually fall asleep here if I'm not careful."

Cress laughed. "I wouldn't. I'm likely to make some kind of dye out of tree bark and leaves just so I can draw a moustache on you."

"Where did your parents go wrong? You really are a little monster."

"Yeah but I'm not as bad as Daddy."

Eli was about to shoot some sarcastic comment back but the suddenly appearance of meteors racing through the shy muted him.

"What the hell? How did Destiny miss meteors?" They both shot to their feet, eyes fixed on the sky.

"...Maybe they were behind one of the moons? Sensors wouldn't have been able to pick that up. Although, from the angle I'd say we're in no danger, still I don't want to fly back through that if I can help it. Guess we're sleeping here tonight."

"Oh goody." Eli didn't look too impressed.

"Quit your moaning, it'll be fun. I can build a camp fire." She beamed and started to head back to the glade.

"Cressida, what is it with you and pyrotechnics?"

She just shrugged leaving Eli to follow.

XXXX

Meanwhile back on the ship Chloe strode onto the bridge quickly to see her Nicky at the main terminal while Brody and Volker prattled on in a corner about gods knows what while Doctor Park had engrossed herself in quiet work in the left corner of the room.

"How bad are the meteors?" There was an aura concern in her voice and she was by Rush's side almost instantly.

"There's nothing to be worried about, the meteors aren't anything to worry about, tryst me I checked." Chloe relaxed. "It will prevent Cress from bringing the shuttle home until the shower has ended."

"But Eli is the only one with her."

"Don't worry, Cressida will protect him." He grinned and slumped down into the command chair pulling Chloe down after, his arms snugly around her waist in a loving gesture. "If anything was wrong she'd come straight back, you know she's a proficient enough pilot to get back if needed, Lieutenant Scott taught her well."

Once Chloe and Matt had started talking again Matt had found himself coming to terms with the end of Chloe and his relationship, with her being in love with Rush. Somewhere along the line he'd even managed to befriend Cress and Ezra; they were good kids. Cressida had shown an interest in the shuttle and before he knew it Matt had been teaching her to pilot the thing.

"Dad is right, Mom, Cress knows what she's doing." Chloe and Rush hadn't noticed Ezra had entered the bridge until he spoke. "And Eli won't let anything happen to her. Now, could you please get of Dad, it's gross!"

Good, thought Rush, nice to know we can creep out our kids.