CH7 (88)
Jim was helping Rick and Kate pack for themselves along with Emily and Kali. While the Quellers were helping Shawn and their daughter.
"I'm going to miss you Katie." Jim wraps his arms around his daughter. Knowing they were leaving even before the sun came up tomorrow.
"I know dad, I'm going to miss you too." Kate answers back.
They had both hoped for more time together after being separated for so long.
Jim moved over to hug Emily and then Kali. "You two behave yourselves. You're going to need to be careful." Directed mostly at Kali.
"Good luck Rick, I think with a house full of girls you're going to need it." Jim teases while shaking his hand then hugging him and patting him on the back.
"And you young lady." As Jim wraps his arms around Alexis. He still owed her big time for what she had done, and still had no idea how he was going to repay her.
"Bye Gramps. …. I love you." Alexis whispers the last part.
"I love you too honey." Jim whispers back. "You take care of everyone."
"We're going to miss you Madison." Mrs. Queller has her arms around her daughter.
"I'm going to miss you too mom." Madison answers back adding her tears to her mothers.
"You take care of each other son." Mr. Queller takes Shawn's hand and then hugs him and pats his back.
"We'll do our best sir." Shawn answers back.
Mr. Queller moves over to his daughter and hugs her. "I'm glad you found yourself again baby." He was convinced she was gone forever.
"Yea, me too dad. Though I think Alexis had more to do with it than I did." Madison was convinced she wouldn't be here without Alexis.
"That may be, but you still had to recognize you had another chance and take it." Mr. Queller knew he owed Alexis big too.
Everyone was settling into their quarters onboard the Sun Rises. Knowing their next trip was to the medical area before they could eat anything.
Rick, Kate and the girls all got one room while Shawn, Madison and Alexis got another.
They had all noticed that the flight bay was packed with strapped down cargo. On their way to medical they found even more cargo boxes stacked in the halls. This ship was bursting at the seams.
The Castle's, except for Alexis hadn't seen the others since that morning. They entered the dining area for lunch. "Mom, Dad!" Alexis calls out.
They all spot her sitting with Madison and Shawn.
Rick and Kate take Emily and Kali thru the food dispenser and join them at their table. "How are you doing pumpkin?" Rick asks as he sits across from her.
Emily settles in next to Kate while Kate sits next to Emily and Kali sits next to Madison.
"I'm fine dad, honest." As Alexis plays with her food.
"I don't know if I can eat this stuff. It makes me want to hurl." Madison moans. This was going to be a long month.
Alexis eats a few spoon fulls while Emily and Kali have theirs gone in no time.
Madison pushes her bowl over. "Here sweetie, you can share mine with your sister."
"Mags, they're supposed to eat what they are given. That's part of why we all had to go to medical." Kate reminds her. But doesn't take the bowl away from Emily who is dishing out about half of it to Kali across the table.
Madison leans across. "Please tell me you smuggled some real food up here." She whispers a prayer to Rick.
Rick looks left and right first. "I did actually." Rick whispers back.
"I'll do anything if you share." Madison whispers back.
"Rick!?" Kate cautions.
"I don't mean sex Becks. …. I just don't want to starve to death." Madison counters thinking that was what she meant.
"I know that. …. But you're supposed to eat this stuff. I ate it for a year to get out here the first time." Kate counters.
"You know where our room is." Rick tells her. Madison smiles and mouths 'Thank you'.
Kate just moans.
When they were all done Emily and Kali wanted a tour. They had never been on a ship before.
Kate with Alexis took them on a tour with Shawn tagging along. Shawn wanted to see if the ship had changed any from the last time he was on it.
Madison however followed Rick to his room.
The room had bunk beds on each side and the far end was packed with boxes and suitcases.
"I don't have much and without refrigeration what I do have isn't going to last long." Rick warns her.
"I know I'll have to eat that, ….. stuff eventually. … I should have thought this thru better." Madison moans about leaving Athos to go to this one.
Rick hands over a sealed bag that has a couple of items separated in their own bags.
"Thanks Rick." And Madison rips them open and dives in.
"You know until the kitchen is up and operational and Kate and I have gone hunting, ship food is all any of us are going to eat." Rick cautions her.
"Great, a forced diet. None of my clothes are going to fit me." Madison laughs at herself.
Madison had finished, thanked Rick again and left for her room to wait for Shawn.
Rick waited for the others to return and knew that their two little girls were not going to sit still for long, and there just wasn't that much to do on a ship. These ships had never been made with families in mind.
"Daddy!" Emily rushes in after her tour.
"Did you enjoy your tour honey?" Rick picks her up and sits her in his lap.
Emily nods her head enthusiastically. "It's cool daddy." Rick however knew that wasn't going to last long.
"You want to read with me?" Rick asks picking up a pad.
Kate does the same with Kali, however Kate has to do most of the reading while Emily was doing most of the reading.
They got Kali to lie down and take a nap. Emily however was another problem. Kate decided to take her out into the corridors to take her for a run and maybe wear her out a bit. Which wasn't easy since all the corridors were packed with supplies, making all of them one way corridors.
Still by the time they were back Emily was tired and sweaty, so off to the showers they both went before Emily managed to lie down and sleep.
The group didn't see each other again until dinner. "How are you doing girls? Having fun on board ship?" Madison asks Emily and Kali.
"It's cool Mags." Emily was enjoying it so far.
Madison finally forced the baby food down, not that she didn't make a face during the entire meal.
For the entire trip the colonists and crew got used to Kate running up and down corridors trying to wear out Emily or Kali so they would sleep.
Kate had found that a lot of the food Rick had smuggled on board had been finger fruits for Emily.
Kate had thanked him by getting Alexis to take the girls down to the recreation deck while Kate thanked her husband, personally. Which isn't easy when the beds are made just for one.
"Kate, babe, are you wearing one of those stems?" Rick asks her while she is lying on top of him, resting.
"Yes, why?" What was Rick thinking? "Are you thinking of another child?"
"I'm asking if you are. Alexis may be yours but you didn't give birth to her." Rick explains.
Kate thinks about it for a moment while she doodles a finger over Rick's chest. "When I was growing up I never even considered having children at all. And with our population control laws, it really looked like I never would.
Now I have three girls. More than I ever dreamed of having. There are times when I wonder how I'm coping with three when I was sure I would never have any at all.
I worry constantly that I'm doing the right thing with them." Kate was convinced she was way in over her head.
"You're doing great Kate, you really are. …. Alexis is beyond happy to have a mother who cares about her. She has the family she's been quietly dreaming about.
Emily and Kali are happy and healthy. They call you mom because you are, and they love you." Rick assures her. "Trust me, when I divorced Meredith, I was left all alone with Alexis. I'd never been a parent either. I simply did what I thought was right and tried to make her happy.
As long as we're there for all of them when they need us and try to do what we think is right, we'll both do fine." Rick rubs her arm.
Kate grins, having Rick in her life had been amazing. The mere thought of having to raise all three girls on her own was frightening. Skip that, even the thought of raising Alexis all alone was down right scary.
"We're not going to see a cargo ship for months after this. I don't want to think about being pregnant when all we have is what's on these four ships. With no help coming for months to come and even then it might only be the Moon Shines and what it can carry." Kate tells him thinking ahead.
Rick however was smiling. Kate hadn't shut him down about having another child. Just not now. He could live with that. So he stroked what part of her he could reach and kissed what he could reach.
"I love you." Rick whispers.
Rick wasn't pushing for her to be pregnant, Kate thinking he probably wanted a son. "I love you too." Kate responds and kisses his chest since her head was laying on it.
One month later Kate, Alexis, Madison, Shawn and three others of the colony were down in the recreation room going over imagery of the planet, looking for a site to build on.
"We know based on the previous colonies that we need a location that doesn't have major climatic changes. We are not likely to have time to endure a harsh winter." Kate starts off.
"And all the others have rivers or large streams nearby with good gardening space." A colonist points out.
"All this area appears to be desert." Another colonist points out.
"Pumpkin?" Kate asks knowing she is still a child and silent. Not having learned to trust herself and fight for her thoughts or ideas.
Alexis has however been studying the images closely. "Here?" Alexis offers.
"Tell us why pumpkin. It's ok all your other choices have worked out perfectly." Kate pushes her along. She was their resident expert after all.
"It looks like mountain lakes that feed these two major rivers that go out to sea. The mountain will keep the rain on this side and the snow melt will help keep them from drying up. If we build here we can plant gardens to the north and the south. There will be a winter but hopefully not too extreme.
It's hard to tell how far into summer we already are, but depending on what we plant we should get at least one harvest in before winter. Maybe.
The first city tower could probably go here, far to the south with the second here, far to the north.
We could build the train track between the two by going out to the East of the mountains. Especially if the desert area has a good mine location. City, city, mine and a train station here to go east. We need a better survey to select another location for dry docks, but this location here south of the city tower might be a good place to start." Alexis offers softly waiting for it to be picked apart.
"What about the dome for the submarine?" Shawn asks since it was his number one priority.
Alexis scrunched her face and started looking. "Here maybe? The tides may make it a bad location. It would be best to build it last after we have time to watch various locations and how the tides work." Alexis offers.
So long as he got his dome Shawn was happy. "Then we wait. Let's go, we have a lot of construction to get done." Shawn offers accepting Alexis's location.
The other colonists left with Shawn to get started loading the shuttles since all three cargo ships had already been here for two days waiting for them. Leaving Alexis, Kate and Madison.
"You're good honey, really good." Madison kisses Alexis and follows the others.
"Come on pumpkin we have a lot of work to do. You, me and your father are going to be in shuttles for days to come." Kate kisses Alexis and takes her back to Rick so Alexis can watch the girls so Rick and Kate can start their tour as shuttle pilots.
Rick and Kate have also been tagged to help load the shuttles.
Come morning of the next day they started transferring supplies to the surface along with colonists and ship's crew.
First to be constructed was the three large domes just like those on Athos. Before they had even started building they were clearing the area for the next set of domes.
The cargo ships were the first to be emptied and as each one was emptied it broke orbit and headed home for Tellus and its next cargo run to who knows where.
It took almost no time at all for Alexis to point out that all the plant life was exactly like the plants on Athos. Meaning exactly like those on Earth, Australia to be precise.
"What are the odds mom?" Alexis didn't understand.
Before the three main domes were done work started on the outer domes that were the residences.
As a matter of safety the medical dome was the first one that completed construction. Madison and the two nurses got started getting it set up.
The three main domes were completed and the second cargo ship broke orbit and headed home.
When all of the secondary domes had been completed the last cargo ship broke orbit and headed home.
Captain Montgomery had caught up with Rick and Kate. "My ship and my crew will remain until the final dome is constructed. After that you cannot expect to see another ship for a minimum of 4 months and possibly 6. Resources on Tellus are stretched thin, very thin.
This is why we have given you everything we can all at once. Compared to what you started with on Ariel, this place is a first class hotel.
Each cargo ship has left behind a shuttle as will my ship before we leave. Plus you have been given 4 quads, and as you requested all of your camping gear has been transferred from Athos.
Your water supply from the river is almost completed, the windmills are under construction, the construction spaces for the two barns has started, the server for Lucy is presently being installed. After that we can install all of the monitors. It's not as many as on Athos, however there are several.
When the windmills are complete and tested your power grid will be operational at 100%." Roy concludes. "Questions?"
"The walk-in's for the kitchen?" Rick asks, since he wanted to go hunting and start cooking. He had, had enough baby food.
"The dome itself is complete. Except for Medical all the other domes still need fitting out inside. If we start with the kitchen area next it should be ready in two or three days. Probably about 2 or 3 weeks after that all the secondary domes should be fitted out.
Yourselves, the Quellers and of course Miss Alexis are presently working on the interior's of the main domes. And the two other greenhouses that will be standing separate will be left for you and the colonists to construct. Fortunately those are easy to construct. If memory serves just you and Alexis alone managed to build one." Roy tells them.
"So in about 3 days we can go hunting." Rick was grinning. Real food here it comes.
"Let's start with something simple, like the Emu and Kangaroo. Then we can move on to the crocs that are around here somewhere." Kate offers, getting Rick to agree.