Crash
Chapter 6
They landed on the cruiser and were sent to Decontamination immediately. They found themselves isolated in Medical after that. They were fed, given water, and asked a few questions. But for the most part, they were left alone. Then they had a visitor. "jIHeghbej. qaStaHvIS yInwIj." He was wearing a uniform much like everyone else around here wore. ("I am Captain Korg, and I have a few questions for you.")
"nuHmey mIw wIqelchu'," Rick responded. ("We'll answer any question we can.")
He asked them a number of questions, most dealing with how many people from the doomed colony ship still lived. Rick told him the two of them were all that remained of the colony ship, at least, that he knew of.
Then Korg told them he had the ship's AI, Lucile. She knew as much as they did. He arranged to have Lucile transferred from Quarantine in order to access her and left them once she was available to him.
Confused, Alexis looked at her mommy. She had questions like why weren't they speaking English? "Mommy?"
Kate hugged her. "You're going to have to switch to our language, honey. We're going home, and no one there speaks English."
"Home?" Alexis thought she was home until they got on this ship.
"Our home, sweetie. Where daddy and mommy were born."
"It's nice?" Alexis asked.
"Yes, it's very nice. But you have to switch to speaking our language. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is."
"lu'," Alexis replied. ("Okay.")
"ghaH ngeHjaj qeylIS ngeH," Kate said, smiling. ("That's my girl.") She was proud of her, and she kissed her.
~oo0oo~
Eventually, they were no longer quarantined and were assigned space in the crew's quarters since cabins were only for officers. They were given a three-bunk high with a storage unit next to it. There was one just like theirs that was opposite them and others down the hallway.
They were able to unpack their carry-on bags in peace. "I think Alexis has to have the bottom bunk," Kate suggested in their language. They needed to get used to it, so they might as well start now.
A crew member stopped by and handed them a list of times when they had meals and when they could shower. Showering was limited to two minutes per person, and the meals were three a day, cafeteria-style, with the crew. They were also restricted as to where they could go. Engineering was off-limits to them. Then they were handed a map of this ship. "jISaH," he told them and left. ("Memorize it.")
"It's bigger than I thought." Kate looked the map over and handed it to Rick. They would each memorize it at their leisure.
"That's a lot of decks," Rick commented. "Let's see, where is the closest Cafeteria? Only so I know where to go when it's our turn." He gave Kate the map back when he was satisfied with where the Cafeteria was.
"Since there's no observation deck on this ship and we aren't due in the Cafeteria yet, I might as well get some rest." Rick yawned, stretched, climbed to the top bunk, and settled into place, relieved that the bed was comfortable.
Kate studied the map and looked for the Cafeteria and Medical. Satisfied, she got into her bunk and settled in. Then she heard a small voice say, "Mommy, I'm bored."
Kate looked over the side of her bunk. "Take your crayons out of your backpack and color, Alexis."
"'Kay." Alexis sat up, took out her crayons and a piece of paper, and started drawing while sitting on the floor.
~oo0oo~
Alexis noticed someone was standing there looking down at her. Alexis looked up at her and asked her a question. "nuq 'oH ponglIj'e'? qeylIS chunqu'." ("Hi, what's your name? Mine's Alexis.")
"ghaHvaD jatlhlaH'a' nuq?" She asked anyone who would listen to her. ("A little young to be a member of the crew, aren't you?")
"jISaHbe'. HISlaH," Alexis replied. ("I'm not crew, I'm Alexis.")
Kate cracked open an eye. "She's with us. We're from the doomed colony ship."
"Oh, that explains it. I'm Corporal Kolana."
"If she's in the way, just tell her to move, Corporal."
"No, she's not in the way. It's that there aren't children on this ship. This is a military ship, not a cruise ship," Kolana explained. She hopped into the middle bunk and lay on her side.
Kate closed her eyes again since it looked like the conversation was over.
Kolana crooked her arm, rested her head on her hand, and asked Alexis a question. "nuq Davang?" ("What are you drawing?")
"It's a… butterfly." Alexis didn't know the word in the language, so she used English instead.
Kate spoke up and said in her language, "It's a butterfly."
"jlba'laH'a'?" Kolana asked her. ("Can I see?")
Alexis held up her paper for the lady to see even though she wasn't finished. "I'm not done yet."
"naDev ghu'vam. ben 'ar bIbogh?" Kolana said and asked her another question.
Alexis held up five fingers. "I'm almost five."
"jIHvaD molqu' 'e' vIHar." She laid back down and closed her eyes. ("Oh, to be that age again.")
~oo0oo~
Another woman showed up. "Who's the kid?"
"Her name's Alexis and she's from the doomed colony ship, so be nice," Kolana told her.
Inara climbed into the upper bunk. "I didn't mean anything. I just asked who she was. So, a colony ship, huh? Just the three of them. There were thousands on that ship, weren't there?" Inara asked anyone who would listen to her.
Kate opened one eye and looked at the new person. "Yes, just the three of us. As sad as that sounds."
"Welcome aboard the Batlh," Inara said and smiled.
"Batlh means Honor, doesn't it?" Kate asked her.
She nodded. "It does. We're the latest build in the fleet, and this is our first assignment."
Kate settled back down again. It was going to be a long flight back home. She would have plenty of chances to ask them questions later.
~oo0oo~
Their other bunkmate turned out to be a guy, but they ignored him. It was time for them to go to the Cafeteria assuming they could find it.
In true cafeteria style, they got in line and pointed at what they wanted. Whatever it was was placed on their trays. Alexis was too short see what the food was, so Kate carried two trays, pointing at things twice.
They found a table where they could sit, and Kate put Alexis' tray in front of her and made sure she had silverware while Rick got them all something to drink.
"Mommy, what is this?" To Alexis, nothing looked at all familiar.
"This one is…" Kate tried reverse psychology on her to get her to eat it. "Just eat it. It's bad for you."
Except Alexis wasn't having any of it, so she just sat there.
"You're not eating," Rick commented. Alexis shook her head and didn't say anything.
"She doesn't know what any of it is, so she's not eating," Kate told her husband.
He tried his best to reason with her. "It's good for you. It'll help you grow strong, Alexis."
Alexis ratted out her mother. "But Mommy said it's bad for me."
Rick raised an eyebrow and glared at Kate. "Oh, she did, did she?"
"Oh, boy," was all Kate said.
"I tell you what. I want you to close your eyes," Rick told Alexis. "Close them." She obediently closed her eyes. "Now think what pizza tastes like and try this." Rick used his fork to spear a piece of her food and fed it to her.
Alexis actually chewed it while thinking of pizza. It didn't taste like pizza to her, but it wasn't bad either. So she opened her eyes and kept chewing until she swallowed it. "That wasn't pizza, Daddy."
"No, it wasn't, but it got you to eat it, yeah? And it didn't taste bad, right? Now eat your dinner and think of pizza," Rick instructed, and Alexis slowly but surely ate her dinner.
Kate mouthed the words, Thank you. Rick just smiled back at her.
~oo0oo~
They eventually found that this ship had a game room of sorts. Kate took Alexis and her GO FISH deck of cards and played cards with her.
They got asked a lot questions since Alexis was the only child on the ship but otherwise they were left mostly alone.
Kate and Alexis returned to their bunks just in time for an alert to sound.
"Stay here," Kolana ordered, and she ran off to her station.
After a while, she came back. "It was just a drill."
"Does that happen often? We don't know where to go," Kate said anxiously.
"It happens. The timing varies," Kolana replied with a shrug. "As for where you should go, you should stay right wherever you are at the time and don't move. You're not crew, so you don't have an assigned space. So you should stay right where you are."
"We can do that," Kate said. "Thanks." And Kolana hopped up into her bunk and settled down.
"Mommy, I'm bored," Alexis complained. She really didn't have anywhere to go. There was nothing to do except in the game room, and even there, she didn't know what any of the games were nor how to play them. She was out of her element.
"Use your pad and play something," Kate told her.
So Alexis dug into her little backpack, pulled out her pad, and turned it on. Now this she knew, and it had many games she could play.
Even Kate got bored by just laying there, so she got up and went down to Alexis, and together, they played a game on Alexis' pad.
~oo0oo~
"Castle, party of three. Castle, party of three." A man was walking down the aisle, calling their name since he didn't know exactly where they were.
Kate waved her hand. "That's us."
"I'm here to escort you to Captain Widdler's quarters. He wants to talk to you." So Kate climbed out, Rick climbed down while Alexis got up, and they followed him. The Aide seemed to go on forever until he stopped at a door, knocked, and entered. "Castle, party of three, sir. Will there be anything else?"
"No, you can wait outside," the Captain told him.
"I wanted to talk to you. Drink?" He offered them a sparkling blue liquid in a crystal glass. "Alcohol isn't permitted on this ship."
"No, thank you, sir," Rick replied, and Kate shook her head.
"I'll get right to the point then. This ship and the two destroyer escorts were assigned to determine what happened to you. At this point, all that we know is somehow, the ship was destroyed. We found evidence of that not too far from this system. We're analyzing it as we speak, trying to ascertain what caused it. However, as to you three..." Widdler paused for effect. "We've been in contact with Command and made a decision. We will travel to the colony world, and you will go down to the planet."
"I don't understand, sir. The colony world? But there won't be anything there," Rick told him.
"Oh, but there is. During the last five years, we built another colony ship, which has just arrived on that planet," Widdler explained. "It'll be like you were going there before all this happened. The lone exception is that you'll be going with a child."
Kate tried to wrap her mind around that. "Let me get this straight. We're going to the colony planet, and a colony ship only just arrived there. So it'll be like we were on our way there before. We'll get our old jobs back and live there?"
"That's correct. Now it'll take us some time to reach that system. In the meantime, you'll remain on this ship. I trust you've been able to settle in somewhat?" Widdler inquired.
"Some. There's not much to do, though, especially with a child," Kate replied.
"This is a military ship, Ms. Castle, not a cruise ship. Just try to survive until we reach your planet." That said, Captain Widdler went to the door and opened it. "They're ready to go back," he told his aide.
Rick and Kate knew he was dismissing them. "Thank you, sir. For everything."
"Just think, babe, we're going to get to do what we originally intended and go to a colony world," Kate said excitedly.
Kate noticed that Alexis wasn't following and looked confused. "We're going to go home, little love," she tried to explain. "Our new home. Where we'll live, and there will be schools and other kids. We'll have jobs. I hope."
That didn't sound so bad to Alexis. Anything was better than where they were now.
~oo0oo~
Rick and Kate did the best possible for Alexis. But a military ship wasn't meant to handle children. Hell, not even civilians like Rick and Kate. But they did the best they could.
They realized they were spending most of their time in the game room even when there was an alert, which always turned out to be a drill. Their family just lived with it.
They went to the Cafeteria three times a day. Kate took Alexis with her into the showers, where they had two minutes to get cleaned up.
Rick and Kate found it interesting that the crew was a mix of male and female. While it was mostly male, there were females scattered in. The showers were no different. Males and females were using it. Kate, for her part, tried her best to keep her eyes off of the men. Since they only had two minutes, they didn't spend much time in the showers.
"The showers have both male and female," Kate blurted out after the first time. "Did you notice?"
"You bet I did. The women don't seem concerned. There was even some banter between them and the males," Rick remarked.
Kate sighed. "I'll be so glad once we're off this ship." Rick nodded his agreement.
~oo0oo~
Then the day finally came. Noaket, Captain Widdler's aide, came down to them. "You need to gather all of your belongings. I'll be taking you to the shuttle in about two hours."
"We'll be ready," Kate assured him as she watched him leave. "Let's get you packed, Alexis."
They were ready to leave when Noaket returned to escort them to the shuttle. Again, it looked like a flying saucer to them, an honest-to-god flying saucer. "I'll leave you here. Thank you for flying with us." The Aide saluted them and turned to leave.
"Thank you, Noaket, and please thank the Captain for everything." Kate smiled at him, and they went up the ramp and settled into their seats.
They could feel the shuttle taking off and then landing again. They left their seats, walked down the ramp, and found themselves outside for the first time in months. A sergeant met them at the bottom. "I was told you are survivors of the original colony ship."
Rick said, "Yes, we are," just as Kate nodded.
"If you will follow me, please. We have a few questions for you before taking you to your apartment. It's presently under construction, much like everything else around here."
"We'll help," Rick told him. "We were going to help build the first colony ship."
"Good, we'll take all the help we can get. And who's this?" He meant Alexis.
"This is our daughter, Alexis. She was born on another planet," Kate replied.
"We'll ask you about that and everything else in due time," he told them. "For now, we need to get inside." It was about to start raining.
~oo0oo~
The Castles endured numerous questions. Colonel Tayson, in charge there, had found out they'd lived on Earth for several years and asked about that. He and his staff were horrified by the rabies epidemic. Nor did they understand all the countless wars the people on Earth had, or how they fed themselves, given they were clearly overpopulated.
They asked what the Castles knew about the previous colony ship and what their plan for being on that ship was. By the time they left, Rick and Kate were each assigned a task in building the new place.
After all that, one of the men took them to their apartment, which was still under construction. They lived in it anyway.
~oo0oo~
Kate watched as Rick came home. "You're a mess, babe." Kate stepped up to him and patted at all the dust he had collected. Then she kissed him.
"I spent the day building a house. A real, honest-to-god house, Kate," he told her, and she could hear the excitement in his voice. "Not our house, unfortunately, but it was a house."
"Must be messy work. Go on and shower. Dinner will be ready soon." Kate pushed him toward the shower. "And make it a quick one. We're low on water." They got their water from a cistern that collected rainwater, though hadn't rained in days. While that was great for construction, it wasn't for everything else.
It wasn't long before Rick was back and in clean clothes. They had limited clothing, only what they packed when they left Earth. Rick wore the uniform given to him.
"How was your day?" Rick queried.
"It was fine. None of the kids gave me any trouble." Kate was a teacher. It was going to be her original job, teaching young children. Since they had so few children, her class was a mix of ages.
"So, what's for dinner tonight?" Rick knew the food that the colony ship arrived with was running low.
Kate looked up at him. "We're down to eating local food. It's grown here, raised here, and slaughtered here."
"Great, something Alexis won't eat," Rick muttered, getting Kate to chuckle. She knew Alexis wouldn't like it. They would have to be creative in getting her to eat.
Sure enough, Alexis wasn't interested in eating it. Rick tried to think of something since his ploy of using pizza wouldn't work. He had used that the last time and needed something else. But there wasn't anything he could think of. So, he said, "Just eat it, Alexis. It's all there is, so get used to it. It's not that bad. Watch me, I'm eating it." Rick took a bite and didn't make a face. Actually, he hummed since whatever Kate did to it made it taste pretty good.
Alexis ate slowly at first, but she sped up toward the end.