Chapter 3

Clarke stood in front of the window and looked down at the planet. She and Bellamy had been awake now for two days with Jordan. He was a pleasant mix of Harper and Monty. He was quirky and sweet. He was athletic and he knew how to grow things. He learned from Monty before he was put in Cryo.

Clarke was upset that she'd lost another two friends, but she couldn't blame them for their choices. They were happy. They had a life. They had a son to carry on their legacy. Monty had even found them somewhere to go. Jordan seemed proud of his father. And, Clarke was proud that he'd managed to grow some food on the ship. They had rations, but they also had other things. It was something else nice to wake up to, but Clarke was still worried about how they were going to survive. Monty had given them a solution. Now they had to find a way to make it work and honor Monty and Harper's lives even more. Clarke took the transmission so that she could draw pictures of an older Monty and Harper for Jordan and the rest of Wonkru to have.

Every day, she found herself in front of the window looking down. She knew that they needed to find somewhere to land, but she wanted to make sure that they had a good chance of surviving wherever it was. Also, she wanted know if there were actual survivors from the Eligius III mission. She wasn't sure that she'd want to start another "Grounder" war upon landing. So, for now, they would orbit and scan the planet below, hoping to find the answers that they were so desperate to find.

"We need to wake Raven and Shaw," Bellamy said as he walked up behind her.

She nodded, but she didn't break her stare at the ground.

"It'll be different this time, Clarke."

"It has to be. I don't want Madi to grow up like we did in those first years back on Earth. I can't let it happen."

"She is the Heda, now, Clarke. You can't stop that. She is the leader of most of the people. They will follow her. Will you?"

She turned to look into his dark eyes. She knew that she would. She also knew that it would be hard. But, she knew that together, as a family, as the Heda and Wanheda, that they could make sure that everyone survived and thrived in this new world. This was their time to get it right.

Earth had been a failed experiment. They weren't prepared. They didn't know what they were getting into when she was sent down on the drop ship as part of the hundred. But, there weren't just a hundred souls on board the ship. There were close to four hundred. And, out of the original hundred, Clarke could only count four. Out of the hundred skaikru that had lived in the bunker, Clarke couldn't really say. Was it less than twenty? It didn't matter. They were all that was left of Earth and she was determined that they weren't going to die in Space. They would survive.

"From the ashes, we will rise..." Clarke said.

Jordan found her like he did every morning. Clarke was staring down at the planet below them trying to will something to make sense to her. Raven and Shaw had been awake for two days. Clarke didn't say much. She just kept staring. Finally, Raven had enough of it and decided that she needed to get her friend back. Maybe sleeping for so long wasn't a good idea in Clarke's case. She'd just seen and done too much.

"Hey, Princess," Raven said as she joined her by the window.

"Hey."

"Shaw is trying to look through the logs to see if we can get any more information on Eligius III."

"That's good."

"We'll find somewhere down there, Clarke. We'll make it home. We'll thrive there. We'll survive."

"There is more to life than just surviving, Raven. I want us to be worthy of this. Monty sacrificed his life for us to get this. We owe him."

"Then, let's find a place to land and start building."

"It won't be that easy."

"Sure it will. I'll just start working with the mining sensors. I'll recalibrate them to see what kinds of structures and stuff are down there. If Eligius III survived, they must know by now that there was no one else coming. It's probably all ruins and stuff. They probably packed up ship and headed back for Earth."

"No, it won't, Raven. They were sent there to colonize, to find oil and start a second Earth. I'm sure you'll find ruins, but we need to make sure that we aren't stepping into someone else's territory. We don't need to make another mistake by landing on the planet and starting a war. I don't know how many more we can survive. There are only four hundred and eleven souls aboard, Raven. And, I'm responsible for them all," Clarke told her.

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yes."

"Because I am pretty sure that Little Bit has that title there, Mama Bear," Raven stated.

Clarke spun on her in a flash. Wanheda was back. She wouldn't let Madi do this alone. And, she knew that Madi had the other commanders in her head, but the one that spoke the loudest always seemed to be Lexa. Clarke didn't even realize that she had Raven against the glass until she blinked and saw the fear in her eyes.

"I'm sorry," she said as she backed up and let Raven go.

"No, worries, Clarke. But, your Mom had the same problem. She needed to back up and let you lead. You figured out Grounder policy way before anyone else did because you wanted to, you wanted peace and you were always looking for an out. It is what you do. You survey, you plan and then you attack. Madi is smart. She'll default to you, but I also get that is why you haven't woken her yet."

"I'll wake her when I know that we have a plan, somewhere to go and I can assure her that we won't be attacked upon landing."

"You're going to go down in the drop ship first aren't you?"

"If we can find somewhere, yes. But, I'd rather communicate with them first. Hopefully, there is still a radio down that works and that someone is listening to."

"What language to do we broadcast in? Eligius was a European company. We don't even know the ethnicity of the officers aboard."

"Actually, I found one," Shaw said as he walked up on them.

"Who?" Clarke asked, raising her chin and looking to him for answers.

"Looks like his name was Jacob Griffin. He was the first officer. Any relation?"

"I don't know. Maybe. He would be like a crazily distant uncle or something, but what does it mean that he was the first officer?" Clarke asked him.

"He would have been in command if something happened to the Captain. He would be like the deputy commander. He would have recorded everything about their trip in a journal, on board and probably on paper. He wouldn't have been a junior officer. He would have rank, but they wouldn't have been using it because it wasn't a prisoner transport and mining operation. He would have been second in command even after they hit the ground. He would have stayed in that position until everything was settled and permanent government formed. And, even then, the people would have defaulted to him or the Captain to lead them."

"So, what your saying is that we need to find out more about this Jacob Griffin?" Clarke asked him.

"If possible, yeah, but if not..."

"If not?" Raven questioned.

"We start transmitting down to the Eligius IV. I found it's signature. It's weak and barely there. Probably on some sort of auxiliary power. I'll start trying to communicate with the the Eligius frequencies. Hopefully we'll get an answer," Shaw told her.

"I'll work with him to get the band wider. If we can broadcast on multiple frequencies, someone down there is bound to hear it. And, then we'll have our answers," Raven told her.

Clarke nodded. Jordan came up behind her. He was carrying a cup of algae. She heard him and turned to take it.

"I know it wasn't what you were hoping to have when you woke, but Mom and Dad ate most of the rations while he was getting the algae farm up and running."

"It's fine, Jordan. Thank you," Clarke told him as she turned back to the window and drank some of the green goo. "Have you seen anything that looks promising?"

"Not yet. Dad, showed me how to search the planet's surface for fresh water and such, but I'm not sure that it'll be the same down there as it was on Earth. The ground doesn't resonate the same way. I'll get with Raven once she's done with Shaw and the radio. We'll recalibrate it or something. We'll find something," Jordan told her before walking away.

"That's is exactly what I am afraid of," Clarke said. "But, maybe this time, we'll make it right. This time, we'll play by their rules."

"Echo, Emori, Octavia and Abby are awake," Raven told her.

"Good."

"Still no word from the surface, but Shaw found some more frequencies hidden in the officer's journal."

"Good."

"Abby wants to see you."

"I am sure she does."

"Clarke?"

"Yeah, Raven?"

"When you gonna wake up the little Queen?"

"When I know that we have somewhere to live in peace," Clarke told her.

Today, Clarke wasn't at the window. She was on the bridge. She watched as Raven and Shaw worked on the radio. She watched as Jordan and Bellamy made maps of the surface from their scans.

It had been a week and there was no answer. But, that didn't deter Clarke. No, she wondered if they were being cautious and rightfully so. They had no idea what hardships and heartbreaks that the Eligius IV had encountered. She couldn't imagine them, because she'd never been on that planet. All she had to reference it to was her time on the Ark and on Earth. And, she prayed to every deity that she'd ever read about and hoped that they wouldn't find themselves in a similar position.

"Wanheda," Echo stated as she came up behind her.

Their friendship was odd. And, it was something that no one saw coming except for the both of them. In the end, Echo served the Commander. And right now, the Commander was sleeping, so Clarke would have to do. Clarke actually liked it. She was someone that she knew that she could trust with her daughter's life. Echo would protect Madi until her dying breath. She'd sworn it to Clarke, in private, when Clarke asked her to be Madi's personal guard. It was a way title that Echo thought she'd never have. For member of Azgeda that had been to space, that survived Armageddon II, and was being given this position of power, it was a way to redeem herself in the eyes of those who were of Azgeda.

"You wanted to practice more?" Echo asked her.

"Yes. Swords. And, when Madi wakes. You train her with Octavia and Indra."

"Yes, Wanheda," Echo answered as they made their way to the small gym aboard.

Echo had already fashioned two practice swords out of some scrap metal that Raven said she could have. It had taken her a few days, but the blunt blades were of a good weight and would work well for training. They'd never hold for long in battle because they couldn't hold an edge long.

Abby stood in the doorway and watched as her daughter, slowly turned herself back into a warrior. It wasn't something that she wanted to see, but she understood Clarke's reasoning. Madi was her granddaughter now, but she was also the Commander of the Wonkru. They would both have to step back and let her lead, both in background supporting her. She knew that Echo had been tapped to be Madi's personal guard. And, it seemed that the Ice Nation spy took that job title very seriously.

After about twenty minutes, Octavia came into the gym.

"I've got next," she called as she pulled out her own practice sword.

"You've got now," Clarke answered her as she backed away from Echo's swing.

"Wanheda?"

"It's my turn to man the radio. We're starting a rotation. A few hours on the radio, a few hours training, a few hours mapping and then a few hours working a job. We're preparing to land. If we don't get a signal or confirmation by the end of the week, we're going down in a small party to actually scan for a place to live. We can't stay up here forever and I'm starting to agree with Murphy on the algae," Clarke stated.

"Yes, Wanheda," Echo answered.

Clarke moved across the gym and to her mother. She looked into her dark eyes and saw the worry. She didn't say anything and Clarke was grateful. She hugged her mother and hoped that it would be enough for now.

"Walk with me, Mom?"

"Sure, Clarke."

"How are all the sleepers?"

"Contained, well, and show no signs of any issues."

"Good."

"You should wake Madi and Indra," Abby told her.

"Once we have a place to go, Mom. I promise. They are next. But, now we need to find a place to call home," she said as she looked out one of the windows on the side of the ship looking down at the planet below. "I want to make sure that we are worthy of living there, Mom. I want to make sure that we are the good guys this time and that we do things right. I want to make sure that we don't just survive, that we thrive and actually live without the worry of war and death."

"When you find that place, Clarke, let me know," her mother scoffed. "Death is one thing that we cannot avoid. It is a part of life."

"But, this time we don't have to go seeking it..."