We were stepping out the surface when I heard Kensi's voice in my ear. "Deeks, you there."
"I'm here." I said, opening the line.
"Send up a flare, and we'll come get you." Callen said.
I pulled the gun out of my pocket and shot it into the sky. Two minutes later, I saw the ship coming in hot. I saw off in the distance that they were being followed by a pack of those monsters.
"Going to do a combat retrieval, huh?" I asked.
"You see that we have company, so you know that question is irrelevant." Sam said.
"Mr. Deeks, what's going on?" Roisin asked.
"We're making an emergency withdrawal. That ship coming towards isn't going to stop and land. It's going to get as low to ground as possible and lower the landing ramp for us to jump on." I said.
"What?" Roisin asked.
"Just follow my lead." I said.
In a matter of moments, Callen piloted the ship so that the landing ramp was facing us. I didn't hesitate and jumped on. Kensi was waiting for me with an outreached hand. After I got off the ramp, Lady Rothais was the next to board, followed by Corbin, and Roisin was the last to board.
"Everyone is on board, Callen." Kensi said, as she was raising the landing ramp
Callen turned the ship towards the sky, and then gunned the engine. As we were walking away from the landing ramp, we heard Sam over the P.A. "Meet us in the mess hall."
"Who said that?" Corbin asked.
"You get used to it." I said.
"Follow us." Kensi said.
We were in the mess hall for a good thirty minutes before we heard the hyperdrive engine engaged.
"What was that?" Roisin asked.
"That was the hyperdrive engine." Kensi said.
"What's a hyperdrive engine?" Corbin asked.
"It's what allows humans to travel from one end of the galaxy to the other end with relative easy." Callen said, as he and Sam entered the mess hall.
This was a lot for them to take in, but Lady Rothais didn't seem put off by any of this.
"What's your real name Rothais?" I asked.
Sam, Callen and Kensi cocked their heads to the side ever so slightly by this turn of events. Roisin and Corbin were shocked by my bluntness.
"What kind of question is that?" Corbin asked.
I waved Corbin off but pressed my point. There was a moment of silence as we waited for Rothais to speak, but I prompted her again. "I ask again, what is your—"
"Kavra Payne. My name is Kavra Payne." Kavra said, correcting the record.
"Kavra?" Corbin said.
"Corbin, a word if you would please." Roisin said.
Corbin looked lost but nodded his head. The pair stepped into the hall and spoke candidly.
"Not only did you have a relationship with Corbin, but you didn't even tell him you real name and why you were even on the planet." Kensi berated Kavra.
"What?" Sam asked.
"Before they left to go north, Deeks removed an arrow from Corbin's chest. At this time, Kavra let on to the fact that she was dating Corbin." Kensi said.
"What was the purpose of that planet even?" Callen asked.
"It's going to be better coming from you, but don't even think about lying to them." I warned Kavra.
"The planet we just left back in the day was a penal colony that was designated a death row colony." Kavra said.
"Death row colony, what are those?" Callen asked.
"That was a death row colony? I thought those were a myth." Sam said.
"Oh, just wait it gets better." I said.
"What could make it worse?" Sam asked.
"If I had to guess, it involved off the books procedures." Kensi said.
"What does that even mean?" Sam asked.
"Experimentation." Kavra said.
"Let us be clear, I willing to give you the benefit of the doubt because you were most likely not on the board of directors." I said.
"No, don't do that. She's complicit, even if she didn't agree with the events." Sam said.
"What are you talking about?" Roisin asked.
"Kavra was sent to your planet a long time ago—"
"To clean up the mess of the previous administration." Kavra corrected.
"Oh, one of those deals." I said.
"Kavra." Kensi said.
"Yes, Kensi." Kavra said.
"What is Kénosi Protocol?" Kensi asked.
"It's an evacuation protocol." I said.
"How do you know that?" Sam asked.
"Hetty gave me an extensive language library when she put my brain in this body, but the actually phrase is Ekkenosi protocol or something to that effect to that effect." I said.
"Because of the failed experiments, which led to the creation the Aeons, the planet paid a very, very heavy price." Kavra said.
"How heavy?" Callen asked.
"All women failed to deliver their babies to term." Kavra said.
"Okay." Kensi said.
There was a moment of silence, and then I asked. "Are you saying that Roisin, and Corbin are the last children to be born on the planet?"
"Yes." Kavra said.
"What you are saying: that every birth for the last thousand years has either been still birth, or they turned to Aeons after a certain point." Sam said.
"Yes." Roisin said, attempting to shield Kavra.
"Try as you might, you can't save Kavra." Callen said to Roisin.
"Kavra figured out a way to save us from be turned into Aeons." Corbin said.
"How? The birth rate fell to zero a millennia ago." Sam said.
There was a moment of silence tat stretched for quite some time, but I was the one to figure it out. "The prisoner from the mines." I said.
"He was one of the scientists that was outspoken about the experiments but knew how to counteract the transformation." Kavra said.
"So, you're telling us that you had the children dropped in your lap, and out of the goodness of your heart, you took them to the man in caves to save them?" Callen asked.
"I found them abandoned in a garbage heap, their transformation already starting." Kavra said.
Kavra just admitted that she raised Corbin, even though she admitted to dating him. She's old enough to be his mother and could have given birth to him. I said, sharing a look with Kensi.
"You want to correct the record." Kensi said.
"Which one?" Kavra asked.
"The one about dating Corbin." I said.
"Eww." Roisin said.
"Gross." Corbin said.
"I lied—"
"That's obvious." Callen said, cutting Kavra off.
"Clearly." Sam said.
"I lied because it was none of the villager's business to know that Roisin and Corbin are children that I saved from the fate they had abandoned them to. Allow though—"
"I know that look, so don't finish that sentence." Kensi said.
"Okay." Kavra said.
"How old are Roisin and Corbin?" Sam asked.
"Twenty-four." Roisin and Corbin said.
"Is that legit?" I asked.
"It is." Kavra admitted.
"Do you have any idea what has just happened?" Sam asked.
"What happened?" Kavra asked.
"She doesn't know." Kensi said.
"She doesn't know what?" Roisin asked.
"Kavra never considered what you two are about to be exposed to now that your home has been destroyed. You two are now forced to adjust to an environment that you have no idea how to contend with." I said.
"Well, yeah, when you put it that way, Lady—I'm mean Kavra didn't care for our future, but maybe you should do a little search yourself, Deeks." Corbin said.
There was a moment of silence, and I asked. "Search?"
"Scan both Roisin and Corbin." Kavra said.
I shrug my shoulders, and then scan the two from the underdeveloped planet.
"Oh my God!" I exclaimed.
Sam, Kensi, and Callen almost jumped out of their skin.
"Was that necessary?" Callen asked.
I could see Roisin and Corbin had been switched to different bodies that have the same technology as the rest of us.
"When did you do the switcheroo?" I asked.
"What?" Sam asked.
"Switcheroo?" Callen asked.
"Corbin and Roisin aren't in the bodies that they were born in." Kensi said, shaking her head.
"What's the play?" Callen asked.
"Get in touch with Hetty." Sam said.
"Is there a way to get in touch with her?" Kensi asked.
"We'll be back in known space in a few hours. We'll be able to reach her, or Turk at the very least." Sam said.
"Please don't separate them." Kavra said.
I could sense that Kavra was about to start crying at the fact that Corbin and Roisin might be separated.
"I'd be more worried about yourself. And before you say it, do you think that society is going to care that you were sent to clean up a mess, or that you perform a surgery on two children from an underdeveloped planet." I said.
"We know that you saved their lives, but society is fickle like that, they may not even accept the fact that they were saved from being turned into Aeons." Sam said.
"So, what do we do?" Kavra asked.
"First we give them new names." Callen said.
There was a moment of silence, before I spoke up. "Orion and Astrid Payne."
"Orion." Roisin said.
"Astrid." Corbin said.
"No, Corbin is Orion, and Roisin is Astid." Sam said.
Callen tilted his head to the side, and then glanced at me; all I did was raise my eyebrows. We all turned to hear Kavra start sobbing. Corbin and Roisin gathered around Kavra and attempted to console her.
"Astrid. Wasn't that girl who had Aspergers syndrome we worked with years ago." Callen asked.
"Yeah, it was." Sam said.
At that moment, we heard a beeping.
"We're heading up to the cockpit. You three need to figure out what needs to be done by the time we meet up with Hetty." Callen said, and then he and Sam exited the mess hall.