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Side note: sorry I took so long for this chapter. Computer was busted and still kind of is.

Chapter 10: For the Greater Good

Eleanor's POV

Brittany sat on the medical bed with her back and head propped up on the wall behind her, with only a small pillow providing cushion for her lower back.

I stood at the other end of the bed, studying her closely.

She lifted the cup bottoms-up into her mouth and pretended to take the final sip of water, even though she had drank the last of it several minutes ago. "I told you I'm fine, Ellie," she insisted again.

"This is just so unusual," I said, ignoring her. "You never displayed any of these symptoms while we were going through training."

"We had a long journey and I fainted. I'm dehydrated, that's all."

That's the thing, though. She shouldn't have been dehydrated. She had had the same water rations as everyone else. Suddenly, everything made sense to me. Her hunger, her cravings, her nausea, her need for extra water.

"Brit…" I whispered in as comforting a way as I could. "I'm asking you this as a supportive sister." I put my paw softly on her leg and looked her in her eyes. I could see them widen as she probably knew what I was about to ask her. "Did you and Alvin… do anything before we lifted off?"

She chuckled nervously. "Do anything? What do you mean?"

I raised an eyebrow at her. She looked away to avoid my stare. "Did you guys have sex is what I mean."

She snapped her head right back in my directions. "Ellie, I'm not pregnant," she said bluntly.

"You didn't answer my question," I pressed. "Did you and Alvin have sex?"

She took a deep breath and once again looked the other way, as if trying to comprehend everything. Tears began swelling in her eyes as she said, "it wasn't my proudest moment."

"When?" I gasped.

"After the last day of training," she muttered. "With the double shower tokens."

I covered my mouth with one hand and rested my other hand on her stomach.

"Don't touch me there!" she snapped, swiping my hand off of her. "I told you, I'm not pregnant!"

"How can you be so sure?" I questioned her, getting annoyed with her denial.

"B-b…" she stuttered. "We were careful."

"Careful?" I scoffed in disbelief. "How could you even say that? You had sex right before our mission!"

Tears began to flow down her eyes. "I wasn't trying to hurt anyone, I swear it."

"Well, I don't have any pregnancy tests on board. But if I did, and you tested positive, then you and I both know what would happen according to protocol."

She avoided my eyes once again, as I could tell that she knew something that I didn't know.

"What is it?" I questioned her.

"Nothing."

I sighed and decided I'd give her space. She needed to really think about everything that was going on.

Jeanette's POV

The screen was still static. The headset still blared annoying static. I worried for their safety, especially Simon's. Who knows what was happening?

Theodore sat with me, determined to stay until we got a signal.

"What do you think they're up to?" he asked me.

I sighed. "Hopefully driving back."

"True," he said, nodding. "I'm sure they're fine."

I stared out the cockpit windshield, desperately hoping to see the rover casually rolling back towards the ship. "These things always work out," I said, if no other reason to assure myself.

Suddenly, I could see dust being kicked up on the horizon. A muffled, high pitched voice managed to escape through the static in the headset. The rover poked its nose up over a hill in the distance.

"Simon?" I said emphatically. "Do you read me?" No answer. "Simon? Alvin?"

"Jeanette?" I could just barely make out as Simon's voice.

"Yes! It's me!"

"Jeanette!" This was Alvin's excited voice. "God damn am I happy to hear you voice!"

"I can only imagine," I chuckled. "What happened? What did you guys find."

"Nothing really," Simon said. "No survivors."

The camera feed inside the rover was starting to come back into focus as the rover got closer in a hurry. "What was the movement that Alvin was picking up?" I asked as the vehicle pulled up to the Caesar.

"Couldn't confirm," Simon said. "Could you open the cargo bay ramp please, Jeannie?"

I was now looking at the crystal clear security video feed coming in from inside the rover. I could see Alvin in the driver's seat with Simon standing behind him, holding onto the chair. But all the way back in the cargo section was a small round object partially hidden by a sheet. I could tell they were purposely covering something in so I zoomed in closer. What I could see of the object was transparent lime green and eerily smooth.

"What's that under the blanket, Simon?" I asked in a stern tone.

I saw him bite his lip. "It's nothing. Just a rock that we brought back for experimentation."

"That doesn't look like just a rock," I scolded.

"Just drop the ramp," Simon said.

"You know I can't do that, Simon," I retorted. "NASA code has it written that any possible discovery of alien life must be given a 24 hour quarantine period before it is allowed on board a ship."

"Jeanette, whatever is in this egg could die in 24 hours if we don't get it inside the environment chamber." Simon was pleading with me.

"I'm not risking the lives of our family for what you think is an alien egg," I responded.

"Jeanette let us in right now. That's an order," Simon said impatiently.

"Perhaps you've forgotten, Simon," I said, kind of enjoying my position of power, "but when you're not on board the Caesar it is actually me who is in command."

"I'm not playing around Jean. This is your last chance to open up the cargo bay before there are repercussions for disobeying orders."

Sweat was beginning to form all over my body as I didn't say a word, deep in thought.

"Jeanette? Do you read me?" Simon repeated.

"Yes," I replied blankly, "I read you. But the answer is no."

I had totally forgot Theodore was in the cockpit, listening to our conversation. So much so that as he leaned over, unlocked the bridge to the cargo bay and pressed the button to begin dropping it, all I did was stare at him in shock. By the time I had snapped out of it and tried to stop him, it was too late. The ramp touched down in front of the rover and Alvin wasted no time gassing the bulky vehicle on board.

I abruptly rose to my feet to look Theo eye to eye. We were within a foot of each others' faces. I glared down at him with contempt for going behind my back, disobeying an acting-captain's orders. He stared up at me with a little bit of fear but obviously assuring himself he had done the right thing. He was trying to come across as confident.

Knowing he'd probably never face consequences for what he did with Simon back in charge, I turned my back to him and stormed off out of the cockpit.

Simon's POV

Alvin quickly parked the rover and shut down the engine. Before we had even come to a complete stop, however, I was rushing to the back of the vehicle to find the egg.

It rested where I had left it and where Jeanette had noticed it, in the back corner covered by a thin sheet. The green glowy slime glowed through to it was still noticeable.

"The cargo bay is depressurizing," Alvin informed me.

"Good," I said. "We're running out of time."

I picked the egg up as best I could with how heavy it was, keeping it covered, and carried it off of the rover with Alvin following closely behind. Without being asked, Alvin pressed the button to open each door for me when necessary.

When we arrived at the hallway leading to the medical room, we saw that Jeanette and Eleanor had beaten us there. Ellie was wiping her hands with a paper towel, nervously looking at Alvin and I. Jeanette stood tall and firm, staring me down from across the hallway.

I approached them and tried to shuffle around them, but Jeanette stubbornly stepped in my way.

"Simon, we have no idea what's inside of that egg," Jeanette pleaded with me.

I ignored her and finally managed to get inside the infirmary, where Brittany was laying down on the bed watching us. "That's precisely why we need to try to hatch it," I said.

Jeanette crossed her arms in frustration and watched, along with the others, as I opened the hatch to the environment chamber, gently placed the egg inside in an upright position, and closed it like a microwave.

I input the conditions from the cave: 99% humidity, 0.9% Oxygen, 70 degrees fahrenheit. The chamber buzzed as it started up, and I watched as the conditions inside changed. All of the others stared intently along with me, until it was finished replicating the environment that I had told it to.

Finally, Alvin broke the silence. "Brit, what happened to ya?"

"Oh," she murmured from her position in her bed. "I… fainted."

Alvin's eyes grew wide. "Are you ok?" he asked in a genuinely concerned voice.

"She's going to be fine," Eleanor answered for her, grabbing Alvin by the arm. "But she should get some rest. Come on, let's give her space."

With that I stood up and followed Ellie, Alvin, and Jeanette out of the infirmary and closed the door behind us. Brittany watched us leave, then gently placed her head on the pillow once the door slid closed.

"Alvin," Eleanor said in a lower voice. "We need to talk."

"What is it?" Alvin said, raising an eyebrow.

Eleanor looked at Brittany through the clear infirmary window and, even though the room was soundproof, seemed to make certain that Brit wasn't paying attention to us. She already seemed to be asleep, so Eleanor continued. "I think Brittany may be pregnant."

Alvin bit his lip in embarrassment, looking around at the pairs of eyes who were staring at him. "W-why do you say that?"

Eleanor shrugged. "She's acted bipolar, had mood swings, cravings, has needed extra food and water rations. And now the nausea. But without a pregnancy test I can't be sure. Simon, Jeanette, could you guys make maybe like a makeshift test?"

"No need," Alvin sighed. "I think, based off of a lot of recent events, that it's time for me to show you guys something. Get Theodore too."

Brittany's POV

My dream began with a woosh that sounded like wind. It was a bright light blur, I couldn't see anything. Suddenly, everything around me began to come into focus. I was alone, in what appeared to be the cockpit. Outside was a deep red sunset over what looked like Mars' horizon.

I unbuckled the chair I was strapped to and looked around. "Hello?" I squeaked out, except my voice sounded hollow and echoey. I stood up and left the cockpit. The ship was completely normal, but I couldn't see or hear anyone.

I walked around cautiously, keeping my eye peeled for anyone. The infirmary was empty. So was the kitchen. Even the engine room and cargo bay. Everything was there that should have been, except for the crew. My family was gone.

Confused, I went back to the kitchen, fetched myself a bottle, and filled it with water. But when I went to take a sip, the water was gone. It had just, vanished. I sighed and set the bottle down on the table, more confused than ever.

Suddenly, I heard a faint high-pitched wailing noise. I stood up, eager to find someone. I walked out of the kitchen, trying to follow the source of the noise. It was definitely some sort of crying, with some blubbering thrown in every once in awhile. As I walked down the hall it got louder and louder, and I finally realized that it sounded like the desperate cry of a baby.

As I got closer, the sound was becoming more ominous and flat, and it echoed through my ears like a siren. I turned the corner into the sleeping quarters, where I could see a small round figure on my assigned bed, bundled in white blankets like a taco. It squirmed as much as it could being strapped onto the bed as it continued to moan and groan and wail.

I looked around. "Hello? Is this someone's baby?"

No one answered my muffled voice.

Hesitantly, I stepped towards the baby. Realization was starting to kick in. Constantly looking over my shoulder to make sure I wasn't mistaking, I shuffled towards my bed with my hands held tightly to my chest, as if I was afraid the thing would bite.

Once I was at the side of the bed, I looked down. It was completely covered by the blankets, tightly bundled up for its own comfort. Biting my lip from nervousness, I reached my hand over and tugged on the end of the blanket where I was pretty sure its head was at. It unwrapped itself, allowing my to see the back of its head.

It was furry, almost definitely a chipmunk.

Suddenly, it stopped crying and was perfectly still. I held my breath, thinking I might have killed it. But then it slowly began to twist around, turning its head to face me. I saw that it had my eyes but definitely Alvin's fur tone.

We stared at each other for several moments before it opened its mouth. In a muffled, eerily sweet and innocent voice it said, "mama, is that you?"

A lump formed in my throat, and I wasn't able to say anything in response.

"Mama, please help me," it squeaked.

I looked at it in confusion. "Wha…"

"Save me, mama!" It screamed, tears forming in its eyes again. "Why won't you save me!"

Suddenly, the window on the other side of the room shattered. A vacuum of air and oxygen formed, sucking everything loose out the open window. I grabbed onto my bed instinctively and held on tight as I could feel myself being pulled towards the void in the wall. The baby was screaming and wailing as the straps held it in place.

The wind and force were so powerful that I was beginning to lose my grip. One hand slipped. I tried to pull myself back in but it was no use.

And suddenly, I woke up.

My eyes snapped open. My mouth was parched and I was panting heavily. Tears were welling in my eyes at the awful thing my brain had just come up with to show me during my sleep.

I sat myself up and looked around. There was no one directly outside the room, nor in the room. I turned until my feet were dangling off the bed and slid until they touched the cold floor. I walked over towards the cabinets to get myself some water. I had the worst headache I've had this whole voyage.

Suddenly, there was a sharp scratching sound behind me. I startled and turned my whole body around to see where the noise had come from. I couldn't see anything, as my eyes darted from corner to corner.

I peeked to my left, where the environment chamber happened to be. The glass hatch was shattered, with pieces of glass scattered on the floor directly under it. Inside, the green egg was in pieces. It had hatched.

I tried to slow down my breathing, even as my heart rate rose. I still couldn't see whatever had come out of that egg. It must have been hiding somewhere.

Without thinking twice, I sprinted for the door. It only took me like two seconds to slam into it uncontrollably, but it felt like two whole minutes. I pressed the button, but it didn't open. I looked behind me and still didn't see the Martian. Now panicking, I began to mash the button over and over again to no avail. Whoever had closed it behind them must have locked it without thinking.

"Shit," I muttered to myself. I turned my back to the glass door just in time to catch a glimpse of a small reddish-orange blur darting under the bed.

I held my breath with wide eyes. I could hear that thing panting around under there, squirming, making some kind of noise that sounded like a loud rumbling tummy. I wondered if he even knew I was in there or where he was. Probably not.

How was I supposed to get help? The room was soundproof. I wondered if anyone was watching the camera feed up in the cockpit. I slowly stepped towards where a pen was sitting on a counter, trying to not alert whatever was under my bed.

Now came the tricky part. The camera in the room hung from over the doorway, looking directly at the bed. In order to signal someone in the cockpit, that's where I needed to be. As carefully and quietly as possible, I shuffled my feet towards where I could hear that little thing dicking around. As I got closer I debated whether I should just jump onto the bed or get closer and try to climb on silently, but risk him popping his head out of under the bed and biting me or something.

I decided the first idea was better, as I jumped forward and landed as softly as I could on the mattress. The bed itself creaked in response, prompting a hiss-like threat coming from the creature underneath.

I waited to make sure it wasn't charging at me before beginning to scribble the three letters "SOS" as boldly as I could on my pillow. When I was finished I capped the pen and propped up the pillow as perfectly as I could in order for the camera to get as good of a view as possible.

But that wasn't good enough. An idea popped into my head, which was to somehow set off the fire alarm in my room. Holding myself in a ball as I could feel the Martian crawling around underneath me, I noted the smoke detector right above me. I knew some of the medicines in the cabinet were flammable, somehow. I just had to figure out which ones.

Alvin's POV

I twisted the key and pulled the cabinet doors wide open so everyone could see. The looks on their faces spelled complete shock, a lot like mine when I had first opened this thing up. Simon, Theodore, Jeanette, and Eleanor all looked as though they couldn't believe it. The cabinet was still racked to the top with heavy duty chipmunk-sized guns.

I crouched down, untaped the pregnancy test from the bottom of the cabinet, and held it up for Eleanor to see.

"That'll do it," she chuckled nervously.

"When were you planning on telling us about all this?" Simon scolded.

"When it became relevant," I retorted sarcastically. "Megs warned me to use them against a threat before we left… I think I just realized that you guys aren't that threat."

"Look," Jeanette said, butting in, "all that matters now is what we do with these now that we know."

"I'll tell you what," Simon responded. "We lock this cabinet up and make Alvin eat the key!"

"Are you crazy?" Theodore said at his brother in shock.

"Guns have no place in a peaceful NASA mission," Simon said, crossing his arms in his typical snooty way.

"They're here for our protection," I protested, gripping my key tightly.

"They're nothing but trouble," Simon said, shaking his head. "Now I'm giving you an order to lock that cabinet. We'll talk about how to dispose of that key later."

Jeanette put a hand on Simon's shoulder. "No," she said. "Alvin's right."

"Yeah!" Eleanor agreed.

"Since when is this a democracy?" Simon scoffed at us. "Whether you guys like it or not, I am captain of this vessel. And I say we ditch the guns."

Suddenly, the lights in the room turned red and a loud siren blared out through the whole ship. Motherboard's computer voice announced, "FIRE IN… INFIRMARY!"

Without any more arguing, we all sprinted out of the bay towards the medical room where Brittany was staying.

The whole ship was lit red, including the hallways, as we charged up the stairs and towards the infirmary. I was leading the way, and I was the first one there. Through the glass window I could see Brittany curled up in a ball on top of the bed as sprinklers rained down on the whole room. She looked excited to see me but barely moved.

Eleanor hustled to unlock and open the door, and I was the first one to run in before it was even all the way open. "Brittany!" I exclaimed. I rushed to where she sat and jumped on the bed with her.

"Shh!" she scolded me.

"What is it?" I said in confusion as the others stood in the doorway, seeing no fire.

Brittany pointed down at the bed, I looked down to see what she meant just when I heard an angry screeching noise.

Then it began to charge. A red, round, bulky, furry creature about a fourth of the size of any of us flew out from underneath the bed and sprinted towards the doorway. The others jumped out of his way with a startle, and he ran right past them without stopping. He turned a corner and kept going the way we came from.

Without wasting time, we all sprinted up to the cockpit to see where our new passenger was headed. As soon as we were inside, Simon jumped into the navigator's seat and began flipping through the camera feeds one by one.

"There!" Jeanette pointed to the screen. Simon came to a stop on the camera in the engine room, where the Martian was walking around on all fours aimlessly. He seemed very confused and distraught.

Simon followed him as he climbed up on top of the circuit board, then on top of one of the motors, and then jumped inside of one of the relatively large pipes close to the ceiling.

"That's the air shaft!" Simon exclaimed. "He's in the air shaft. Jeanette! Lock it up!"

Jeanette wasted no time in flicking each air shaft switch into the "closed" position. On the screen we could see the entrance to the pipe pinch until it was almost shut. There was barely enough of a hole to peep through.

Simon took a deep sigh of relief. "Oh thank God," he said. "It can't last long in there, not with all of that oxygen."

Meanwhile, I turned my attention to Brittany, whose paws were on her knees and who was still panting from the running we had just done. I held the pregnancy test that was still in my hands up to her eye level. "You need to take this," I said. "As soon as possible."

Brittany's POV

Finally alone in the bathroom, I began to cry. I knew the others were just outside waiting for me, and waiting for the test results, but I didn't care. I already felt like I had messed up so much. What if this test came back positive? How was I supposed to take care of a kid? Especially with a father like Alvin. Don't get me wrong, I love him. But neither of us are ready for this.

"I think the three minutes are up now," Eleanor's muffled voice peeped up through the bathroom door.

"Coming!" I said, wiping away my tears.

I walked out of the bathroom with the test in my hands. Everyone stared at me intently. I didn't know what the results were yet, as I couldn't bear to look. Hesitantly, I put one hand over my eyes, and with the other lifted the test high up so everyone could see it.

The results… were…

CLIFFHANGER! I know I said I wouldn't do it to ya, but I honestly want my reader's opinion on what I should do hear. Should Brittany be pregnant or not?

Also sorry this took so long. I've been dealing with an illness and a buggy computer.

As always, if you enjoyed this chapter and/or you'd like to leave some constructive criticism for ya boy, a review is ALWAYS welcome as long as it is helpful.

I'll be getting the next chapter to ya'll ASAP! See ya next time!