Crash
Chapter 2
~oo0oo~
Flashback
~oo0oo~
"I have a system on my scans," a voice announced.
Rick's head whipped around as he tried to figure out where the voice was coming from. "Who are you?" he questioned the air.
"My name is Lucile. I was the ship's AI. I downloaded myself into this computer. I had to sacrifice part of myself so that I would fit, but it was worth it. I wanted to live, and I saw your shuttles launch and reached a conclusion."
"Babe, there's a computer program talking to me!"
"You too? I have one as well. She says her name is Lucile, and she was the ship's AI."
Kate frowned. "That's what mine says, too. How does that work? We can't both have the same program, can we?"
"Search me. Mine says it has a system in scans," Rick said and looked for himself.
"It's some distance from us," Kate remarked.
"Yeah, we're going to need to FTL jump it. It'll use up most of our fuel, so it better have a habitable planet, or we'll be trapped there," Rick said grimly.
Kate had decided, though. "I'm willing to risk it if you are."
"Let me do the calculations first, Kate."
"I've already done those," Lucile announced. "You can make it and have fuel left over if you come out of FTL in orbit of the gas giant I have on my scans. I can't scan any other planets from this range."
"Rick, did yours just tell you it's done the calculations for us?"
"Yes, it did," he replied. "I'm verifying the calculations, however. Give me a minute."
Kate waited for him to finish, though she thought they should do it, so she put it into her navigation.
"It works out. We orbit the gas giant and go from there," Rick told her as he put it into his navigation. "We jump together."
"Ready when you are," Kate responded.
"We jump on three. One… Two… Three." They both jumped into FTL. Now, they waited for it to finish. They couldn't contact each other while in FTL, which was the downside.
Kate's stomach rumbled, so she opened a packet of emergency rations and ate it. It tasted like cardboard, but at least it was healthy. "After all this time, you would think they could make these things taste like something decent."
~oo0oo~
End Flashback
~oo0oo~
Kate stretched as she got up in the morning. She showered, dried herself, and dressed in everyday clothes for a change. She walked into the kitchen, where she saw Rick was already hard at work making breakfast.
Rick held up a mug. "Coffee?"
"As if you have to ask." Kate quickly kissed him as she took her coffee from him and sipped it. "What are you making?" She couldn't figure it out. He was mixing something.
"Pancakes. Alexis loves them, especially when she can make them float using syrup."
"See, that's why I quit. I didn't know that. Well, I'm going to get to do something else I rarely get to do, which is to get Alexis out of bed and into the tub." Kate put down her mug and went upstairs to get her daughter up and into the tub.
She played with her while she was in the tub. Then she dried her off and dressed her for the day.
"Look who's ready for her pancake," Kate told her husband. She sat Alexis on her chair at the breakfast bar and picked up her now cold mug of coffee. She dumped it out and poured herself a new one.
"Tell me when to stop," Rick told Alexis, slowly pouring maple syrup on her pancake. He kept pouring it on, sure she would never say stop.
"STOP!" Alexis picked up her fork, cut the pancake herself, and took a bite. "Yum!"
"I don't see how you can even taste the pancake with that much syrup," Kate remarked. Alexis only grinned as she ate her pancake.
"Two or three for you?" Rick asked his wife.
"I think three will do," she replied. "I'll wait for Alexis to finish and pour the syrup off her plate." That got Rick to chuckle. He cooked four for himself and used up what was left in the syrup bottle after Kate got hers. He used Alexis' plate of syrup as well.
"Go wash those sticky fingers, honey." Kate watched her get down and head for the stairs to go to her bathroom. "And don't touch anything along the way!" Kate smiled as Alexis went up the stairs as fast as she could.
Kate looked at Rick. "She's a good kid."
"Yes, she is. Takes after her daddy," Rick boasted. That got Kate to snort out a response. Though she feared he was right since she had missed so much. She was glad she had quit her job.
Alexis came back downstairs using the handrail to guide her. "You's stayin' here wif me, Mommy?" Alexis came up to her. She wasn't used to seeing her like this. It wasn't a weekend, not that that seemed to matter. Mommy worked on weekends, too.
"Yes, I'm still here, honey. I'm not going anywhere." Kate leaned down to kiss her. "Tell you what. You go get one of your books, and I'll let you read it to me."
Alexis smiled wide as she headed for the bookcase separating the living room from the study and got down on the floor to go through her books. She selected one and met Kate on the sofa, where she climbed up, snuggled in close, and handed her mother the book.
Kate read the title, The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat,opened the book, and held it where Alexis could read it. Alexis started reading her book.
"Good job, sweetheart. You're a great reader." Kate was proud of her. She had gotten all of the words right. "You want to read another one or do something else?"
"Poker, Mommy."
Kate turned her head to glare at her husband. "How about we do something else?" she asked her.
Alexis looked dejected and thought about it. "Go Fish?"
"That's a great game! You go find the cards, and I'll play Go Fish with you." Kate watched her climb off the sofa, go to the bookcase again, find Go Fish, and come right back.
Kate sat on the floor at the coffee table and dealt the cards. "Do you have any Sea Turtles?" Kate asked.
It took her a moment. "Go fish," Alexis told her, and Kate drew a card.
"Does you has a Sea Horse?" Alexis asked.
Kate shook her head. "Go fish." And Alexis drew a card.
"Do you have any Dolphins?" Kate asked, and Alexis had to hand over her card.
"Gots Sharks?" Alexis was happy when her mother handed over a card.
~oo0oo~
"I wins!" Alexis crowed and laid her cards down on the table.
Kate looked through her cards, checking to make sure she won. "You sure did win." Kate put down her cards. "You're good at this game," she told Alexis and gathered all the cards.
Alexis just beamed. She got to play with her mommy, which made her happy.
"How about a snack?" Kate inquired and watched her daughter nod enthusiastically. So Kate moved into the kitchen and looked to see what was available. "Do you want a cheese stick?" Kate saw her nod. "One cheese stick it is." She handed it over and watched her nibble at it. Nibble on it, not take huge bites out of it. Kate made note and stored it for later. She selected a Gala apple for herself.
Kate looked for her husband and found him stripping their bed and putting the sheets in the wash. Deciding he didn't need any help, she returned to her daughter.
"So what should we do now?" Kate asked her.
Rick happened to walk in just then. "Take her to the park and let her play."
"The park it is." Kate headed for the bedroom, where she gathered her ID and some money and came back out. "Let's go, sweetie." Kate took her hand and escorted her to the park.
The closest park wasn't all that big, but it did have a play set that Alexis could use. Kate sat down and watched her like a hawk.
~oo0oo~
"Did you make a new friend?" Kate asked her daughter since she seemed to spend some time with her.
Alexis nodded excitedly. "Yep. Daphne. I says that right?"
"Sounds right to me. Come on, let's go home. Maybe Daddy has lunch ready." Kate took her hand and walked her home.
"DADDY, I maked a new friend, Daphne!" Alexis announced the second they entered the door.
Rick smiled at her excitement. "That's good. Ready for lunch? Go wash your hands, Pumpkin."
"'Kay." Alexis raced to the stairs, hurrying to her bathroom, taking the steps one at a time.
Rick chuckled. "I take it she had fun."
"That she did. What's for lunch?" Kate was curious since she never got to eat lunch at home.
"Grilled cheese and tomato soup." Rick swatted at her hand as she reached for a sandwich. "And go wash your hands."
"Sir, yes, sir," Kate told him and headed to the en suite to wash her hands.
Amazingly, they were back both at the same time. Kate set up Alexis at the dining room table and then helped herself. Rick joined them after a moment. "So, bored yet?" he asked his wife.
"No, I'm enjoying my time, so there." She stuck her tongue out at him, causing Alexis to break into peals of laughter.
"Wan down now. I done," Alexis proclaimed.
Kate frowned. "But you only ate half your sandwich."
"Alexis, you're excused," Rick told the little girl. And they watched her go upstairs to her room. "That's normal for her, Kate."
"I see." She picked up Alexis' plate with her half-eaten sandwich and half a bowl of soup and carried them into the kitchen. Not really sure what to do with them, she set them down and left them for her husband to deal with.
"I think I'll go read," Kate said. She went to the bookshelf and looked for a book to read. Satisfied with her selection, she sat down on the sofa to read.
Rick cleaned up from lunch and retreated to his study to do some writing. However, he got sidetracked with one of his toys.
~oo0oo~
"DINNER!" Rick yelled. Then he yelled for his wife. "KATE, DINNER!"
"What? Oh." She marked her place and put her book down.
"Got lost in your book, I see."
Kate nodded. "Yeah, it's good. Of course, not as good as one of your books, but it's a decent read."
"Nice save." And Rick gave her a quick kiss.
~oo0oo~
Later that night, Rick and Kate were in bed naked with the door closed and locked. "You want another one?" Kate asked.
He wasn't following her. "Another one what?"
"Child. Do you want another child?"
Rick turned the question back onto her. "Do you?"
"I've been thinking about it," she admitted. "Alexis was an accident, a very happy accident, to be sure, but still an accident."
"There's no time like the present to try for one." Rick rolled over on top of her, and Kate automatically spread her legs.
~oo0oo~
Flashback
~oo0oo~
"'ach jImejbe' jIHchugh, vaj jIvItpu'," Kate said hesitantly. ("Babe, I think I'm pregnant.")
While sitting in a shuttle on the far side of the moon, there really wasn't much to do. Kate had put on a space suit and gone over to Rick's shuttle to spend time with him. Together, they learned to speak English. Of course, with Lucile's help.
They had landed on the far side of the moon to hide while they made plans. Lucile discovered something called the internet and found she could download and hack into nearly everything.
First, she hacked the DMV and printed out driver's licenses for the couple, then hacked a bank and opened accounts in their names. After that, she added ten million dollars to each of their accounts and printed debit cards for those accounts. Once done doing that, she hacked the U.S. Government and printed a passport for each of them. She downloaded just about everything she could, given the size of her computer on the shuttle. She deleted what she no longer wanted.
"yatlh! bIpIv'a'?" Rick asked to make sure he heard her right. ("Pregnant! You think you're pregnant?")
"va, Qapla'," Kate confirmed. ("I think so, yeah.")
Stunned, Rick just sat there, not sure what to think.
"Toh, jatlh vay'!" Kate demanded. She wanted to know if he was happy or not. ("Well, say something!")
"yatlh." Rick kissed her. ("Pregnant.")
Kate instantly felt better about it. They were going to have a baby. It was just that they were still living onboard the shuttles, and she didn't want to have the baby here. Still, she had nine months before the baby came. They would surely be out of the shuttle and on the planet by then. Maybe better to make that seven months.
~oo0oo~
End Flashback
~oo0oo~
In the morning, Kate woke up to find herself alone in their bed. Still, she got up and went into the shower. When she finished, she dried herself and put on some clothes.
Since the door was closed but unlocked, she assumed her husband had gotten up early. Sure enough, she saw him in the kitchen, working on breakfast. "Morning," Kate murmured and gave him a quick kiss. She went to the coffeemaker, where she saw a pot of coffee waiting for her. So she poured herself a cup.
Rick grinned. "Morning, sleepy head."
"It's this staying at home. It's got me all out of wack." She wasn't used to it. But she thought she would learn to like it. "Is Alexis up yet?"
"Not yet, no," Rick replied.
"I guess I'll go get her up and into the tub. We got so lucky with her." She may have been an accident, but she was such a sweet accident.
"That we did. That we did," Rick agreed. "You think the next one will be just like her?"
Kate let out a "Ha!" before answering him. "No, I'm sure he'll be different. He'll be a monster and have us running ourselves ragged."
"You're forgetting the terrible twos where the answer to everything was NO," Rick reminded her.
"Ah yes, the good old days. I'm glad they're gone." Kate put down her coffee cup and headed upstairs to get their daughter out of bed and into the tub.
"lu'," Rick added softly. ("Amen.")
~oo0oo~
"A bowl of cereal for the young lady." Rick set it in front of her, handed her a spoon, then added a glass of milk. "And a plate of eggs for the other young lady." With a flourish, Rick put a plate in front of Kate and handed her a fork.
"Thanks, babe." Kate started eating while watching Alexis eat her cereal. She wasn't making a mess. Which was a far cry from when she was a year and a half and decided everything should go on the floor.
Rick joined them. "I'm going to go grocery shopping again today. I'm missing a few things."
Alexis thought about it and decided to stay home since her mommy was there.
"Well, I'm off. Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Rick said to them both and kissed his wife.
Kate raised an eyebrow. "What wouldn't you do?"
"Ha, ha, very funny."
"I thought so." Kate watched him leave, then turned her focus on Alexis. "Now, let's make a fort. I'll get the blankets and sheets while you see if you can push the furniture around."
Alexis smiled wide. She had done this with Daddy a few times. This time, she would get to do it with Mommy.
~oo0oo~
"Not bad if I do say so myself." Kate stood there and looked over their fort. "Now we need flashlights and pillows. Lots and lots of pillows. I'll get the flashlights while you get the pillows."
They were soon all snuggled in their fort when Rick came home. "A fort!" He looked for the opening. "Is there room for me in there?"
"Nope, this fort is just for us girls. No boys allowed."
Alexis backed up her mother. "Yeah, no boys!"
"I see." Rick sighed, backed up, went into his study, and played with one of his toys. He wasn't in the mood to write.
"Books, we need books to read," Kate told Alexis.
Alexis exited their fort and returned with one of her books she could read. Together, they lay there, and Alexis read her book to her.
~oo0oo~
"Lunch!" Rick called out.
"You hungry?" Kate asked her daughter, who nodded. "Me too, let's go." Together, they exited their fort.
"What's for lunch, big guy?"
"Chicken salad sandwich and sliced apples," Rick replied. "Oh, and freshly squeezed lemonade."
"Sounds great!"
~oo0oo~
They returned to their fort after lunch, and Alexis fell asleep, allowing Kate to escape. She went into the study where Rick was writing for a change.
"She's asleep. What are you doing?"
"Writing, actually. I've got one whole chapter finished."
"A whole chapter? That's good!" Kate kissed his cheek. "I was thinking maybe we should go on vacation somewhere. Before Alexis starts her homeschooling."
He didn't say anything for a couple of minutes. "Where do we go?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. I was hoping you had an idea."
"Leave it to me, I'll think of something." Rick got kissed for it. Kate retreated to the kitchen, where she looked for something to drink.