CH31 (110)
It was now 7 months later:
They had adapted to living on an island nicely. Emily and Kali were having fun and still growing like weeds.
Elena had found out about Kate's childhood with her friends Madison and Kali. Elena had hugged and cried in Kate's arms listening to the pain Kate had gone thru. By the end of 7 months Elena had just started calling Kate mom since she had been here so long.
Elena had hugged Kate yet again when Kate confided that she thought Elena was a lot like Kali, the first Kali.
Elena had talked to her parents weekly.
Both Alexis and Elena were presently in school at the moment. Alexis was using the shuttle to fly them onto the mainland where they would take a GETS train to get to school and back.
Elena on the GETS train home had found out that her parents were going to come out to Ariel to see her along with Rick and Kate for the first face on face meeting in person. They had talked using the real time communication system.
It was actually Kate's idea to get them to come out on one of the cruise ships. The other three were being used to transport Earth personnel to Cyliene. Elena was only just now finding out about their trip to Ariel.
Lanie and Jenny had gone on ahead to Athos and found them each a place to live while they waited for the boys. The boys meanwhile were still on Tellus undergoing phsyc evaluations and training to make sure they were not homicidal in nature. While Javi would explain the training course he was planning using Kevin as observer help.
When they were cleared they would be traveling to Athos to arrange construction of their school. Once complete weapons would be shipped to them.
Madison, Shawn and Matt were already on Athos and had been there for about 3 months now. Lanie had met her and was now working with Madison. It wasn't the ME position she was used to at the NYPD. It reminded her more of her residency. Still it was nice to be working again.
Alexis had landed the shuttle at their home and Elena went flying into the house and found Kate in the kitchen just starting an early dinner. "MOM, my parents are going to come here for a visit. They're going to let me stay here thru the next school year." Elena yells out and runs into the kitchen to hug Kate.
"That's great honey." Kate hugs her back. "You're always welcome here. What did they say about a couple of years from now when we all go to Athos to spend summer on our ship?"
"They said they wanted to talk to you about that. I can still go, right?" Elena was looking forward to it.
"If your parents say yes, then yes you will be going with us. You'll love Madison and Shawn. Their son is approaching his terrible two's at the moment. He'll be 2 years older by the time we get there." Kate had been talking with Madison every other day after Athos got their satellite upgrade.
"I take it she told you the good news." Alexis mentions as she enters the kitchen. "Have you finished your latest case yet?" Alexis knew Kate was doing her detective stuff since arriving on Ariel.
"I did. He had gotten separated from the rest of his group and gotten himself lost. He was a little cold and very hungry but no serious damage. None of the sabertooth's had found him yet. Or at least he hadn't seen any." Kate's latest project was a missing persons case.
"Where are the girls?" Elena asks letting go of Kate.
"Rick has them out on the boat. He is towing them around on an inner tube." Kate answers.
"And you left 12 year old dad to his own devices?" Alexis was shocked. She loved him dearly, but also knew what her dad was capable of.
"He promised that the girls would be wearing their life vests and promised he wouldn't go very fast." Kate had gotten him to listen to her. Or so she hoped.
"Meaning ¾ throttle instead of full throttle." Alexis deciphered the message.
"Probably." Kate chuckled. Kate however did trust Rick not to put their children in direct danger.
Fifteen minutes later a wet, tired and extremely happy Emily and Kali enter the house with Rick dragging himself into the house behind them. Dead tired.
Emily ran for Alexis to get a hug, since she was still attached to her older sister. Kali ran for Elena and gave her the same treatment.
"My parents are coming here for a visit." Elena tells the newest arrivals.
"Really!" Kali had only ever seen them on one of the monitors that were all over the island it seemed.
"Yup, really."
"Cool!"
"They have fun?" Kate asks Rick as she steps up close and gives him a kiss.
"They had a blast. I can still hear their screams over the roar of the engine." Rick was grinning while he held Kate close.
"Elena's parents agreed to come for a visit." Kate tells Rick stealing another kiss.
"Excellent! I'm sure she is excited. … How do you feel about her calling you mom?" Rick was curious since she didn't call Rick dad, just yet.
"Actually it feels nice. She's a great kid. She seems to know when she can push and when she has to back off. …. Alexis has helped her to relax while she has helped bring out the more adventurous side of our daughter.
I just hope her parents don't get mad." Kate liked having Elena around. It was weird. Kate had spent so long alone, now she wanted her family to get bigger.
"You can talk to her about it. Ask her to not call you mom while her parents are here. They may not see it the same way the Queller's or Walker's did when you were young." Rick suggested.
It was now one month later:
Turned out Elena's parents already knew Elena was calling Kate mom, and why. They didn't have a problem with it. Elena had explained she knew who her parents were. It was just that she loved the Castle's and everyone else called Kate mom. It was natural for her to start.
Rick had all the girls out on the boat again. They had two inner tubes now and more than one tow attachment. Alexis had Emily with her and Elena had Kali with her.
"Kate I have a cruise ship approaching the planet." Lucy informs Kate who was running nowhere on a tread mill getting in a little exercise. Kate had found that if she did this little bits at a time her leg felt stronger.
Kate stopped since it was about to time to stop anyway. "Rick and the girls might be back by the time they start their trip down." Kate answers back. Kate heads for the shower in the master bedroom.
"Kate there is a problem." Lucy calls out, forcing Kate to go to the nearest monitor since there were no monitors in any of the bedrooms.
"Problem, what kind of problem?" Kate didn't like Lucy telling her that.
"It is not on an acceptable heading to make orbit of Ariel. It also is not an acceptable heading for an orbit of the gas giant." Lucy informs her.
"Where are they? …. Are they on the wrong side headed out into space?" Kate asks now sounding worried.
"They are approaching from the correct direction but they are not making an course corrections. It they don't start soon they will plunge into the gas giant." Lucy explains their location.
"Show me." Kate wants to see. So Lucy replaces herself with a diagram of the course the cruise ship is making.
Kate had been watching for a maybe a minute, though it felt a lot longer. "Come on guys. Course change. … Can you contact them?" Kate finally asks.
"I have been trying for the last minute, they are not responding." Lucy answers, having already tried that.
Kate watched for a few seconds more. They were starting to go past Ariel and plunge into the gas giant.
"Can you hack into their system? Find out what is going on? …. I need my phone." Kate ran for the master bedroom to get her phone off the charger.
Kate was soon back in front of the monitor and was calling Rick.
"I'm unable to connect to any of their main systems." Lucy explains.
"Come on Rick, pick up. Pick up babe. …. Try some of the sub systems." Kate offers.
Kate get's nothing from Rick so she tries Alexis's phone.
"I have access to a few of the secondary systems. …. Main power is down. Main computer is down. Environmental systems are only functioning on the escape deck. … I can not gain access to the bridge." Lucy explains.
"ALEXIS!" Someone answered her phone. "Rick I need you to come home babe. NOW!" Kate's voice was cracking.
"PLEASE Rick, just come home." Kate hangs up on him. Not talking to him would get him moving faster she hoped.
"Without main engines on-line they are going to plunge into the gas giant." Lucy informs her.
"Do you have access to anything?" Kate asks.
"I have access to only a few of their sub systems. Not enough to alter their course." Lucy is forced to inform her. "It is starting to tumble due to the gravity of the gas giant."
"Damn it!" Elena's parents are suppose to be on this ship. Kate was starting to panic and she knew it, so started one of the mental exercises.
"Can you gain access to the evacuation alarm? Maybe at least some of them will make it." Kate offers.
"I don't have access to the main computer. … Trying something else." Lucy starts searching. "Their tumble is becoming more severe."
"Come on guys, don't wait for the alarm. …. Are some of the lifepod's already missing? Maybe they had abandoned ship before they even got here. Can Ariel launch some shuttles to look for them?" There had to be something.
"I'm trying to find a way to use the battery back-up going thru engineering to, …. got it. Sounding the evacuation alarm. …. Without the main computer I have no access to the life pods. I don't know if any or even all of them are missing." Lucy is forced to tell her.
"I'm contacting now for shuttle launch and a search of the area using our shuttles." Lucy tells her.
"We have a shuttle. … Come on Rick, hurry up." Kate knew she needed to be here for the girls when they got back.
A minute later. "The cruise ship is beyond hope even with main engines on-line. … Oh no." Lucy's face was back up on the monitor and she was crying.
"What Lucy, …. what?" Kate knew it had to be bad, but how bad?
"I'm monitoring some life pod launches. …. Several are launching directly into the gas giant due to the tumbling of the ship." Lucy actually whispers out.
"Oh no! … No, no, no." They were killing themselves thinking they are saved. "You said several, what about the others?" Where were the others going?
"None of them have cleared the gravity of the gas giant. Trajectory suggests they are trapped in it and will begin a slow tumble down into it." Lucy is forced to explain.
Kate decided she couldn't wait for Rick to get here and take the shuttle. So she ran for the door that lead to the shuttle they had.
Just as Kate clears the door she slams into Rick who had run for the house. The sound of her voice had scared him.
Kate could see the girls slowly walking up from the boat dock. So Kate quickly explained the problem to Rick. Rick quickly kissed her and ran for the shuttle.
"Girls hurry up. Come on, RUN!" Kate wanted them away from the shuttle.
They all watched Rick take off at a speed they all knew they weren't suppose to do. Alexis especially.
"What's going on mom?" Alexis asks a little worried now.
"Come on inside girls." Kate had a lot to tell them and none of it was good.
Kate grabbed a hold of Elena and never did let go for hours. With Lucy's help she explained everything she or they knew.
Kate was forced to watch Elena fall apart on her while holding onto her. Watching her own daughters cry and hold onto Elena with her.
It was a hell Kate never wanted to go thru again.
It was only a few hours later when she got Alexis to take Elena to her room and had all three of her girls stay with her.
Kate had them get their sleeping bags out. They were all sleeping with Elena in her room tonight, and maybe for several nights to come. Elena was going to need them, while Kate watched what Lucy was following and waited for Rick to come back.
Kate knew no one had eaten anything for hours and was pretty sure no one was going to, so she didn't start cooking. However she did make some sandwiches and took them down to Elena's room. There she found Alexis and Emily lying side by side on sleeping bags making sure Elena had to get past them to get out of her own room. Kali however was in bed with Elena hanging on tight to her.
Kate left them and went back upstairs, asking Lucy an occasional question. But all it did was get Kate to start crying.
Kate was sitting outside at the dining room table when Lucy informed her that Rick's shuttle was in the atmosphere and was on his way down. Getting Kate to run for the landing pad.
As soon as Rick cleared the door Kate launched herself into his arms.
"There's nothing out there babe. Not even any wreckage." Rick was tired. Physically and mentally. "How are the girls?" Rick's next concern.
"Elena cried for hours. I've got all of them sleeping in her room. Alexis and Emily are guarding the door while Kali is sleeping with Elena. … I left them some sandwiches, but I doubt any of them will be eating." Kate buried her head in his chest. Feeling Rick's arms around her.
"You want something to eat?" Kate knew he hadn't eaten anything either.
Rick shakes his head. "No thanks." Rick didn't feel like eating.
They were sitting on the sofa a few minutes later. "Now what?" Kate didn't know what to do next.
"Lucy, inform Tellus. If this cruise ship had a problem, maybe the others do to." Rick started out with. He knew that was what the NTSB back on Earth would do.
"And we help Elena as best we can. We help all of them as best we can." Rick hugged Kate a little closer. He didn't know what else to do.
"She's lost her parents babe. Something like 1,800 people are gone." Kate buried herself a little further into Rick.
"We're her parents now. We're all she has left now, and we're going to help her all we can." Rick wasn't going to let Elena suffer alone if he had a choice. They help her, end of story.
"Elena is the same age as Alexis. Can we adopt her?" Kate didn't want to let go of her. Elena didn't deserve to be left alone. Kate already knew what being alone did to you. She had lived it.
Rick's first response was to kiss her. He was proud of her and loved her deeply. "Lucy?"
"I will start looking into the paperwork. Elena may have family that may decide otherwise." Lucy was forced to inform them.
"Look into it Lucy, she's better off with us than some long lost relative somewhere. We love her." Kate wanted Elena to stay.
"We need to talk with Elena, make sure she is good with this." Rick advises.
"You watch the girls, Alexis and I will talk with Elena. She stays Rick. She's ours now and we're going to help her." Kate had conviction. It was going to work, it had to work.
"You know I love you, right." Rick had never been more proud of her. Then he kissed her. Getting Kate to kiss him back.
Rick had never even questioned her decision, so she kissed him again. Convinced that she loved him for all the right reasons.
What neither of them saw was Lucy crying right along with them. Lucy had been matched with Kate when she became a detective. Lucy was still impressed that Kate had given her heart to the right people.