Well in keeping with the spirit of not giving this story up, I'm back with chapter 24. This chapter will contain quite a bit of Alvittany. Not much else to say here except kindly read and review!
Chapter 24: The Time Has Come
Alvin's POV
The whole cockpit erupted into a loud cheer from both joy and relief. How the hell did that work? I didn't really care. All that mattered to me was that Brittany was safe, and that I had just watched that disgusting creature get sucked into the endless vortex of space.
I couldn't help myself any longer. Without wasting another second, I took off for the engine room. I flew through every hallway, every hatch at top speed without any real concern for my own safety. I ducked and dodged my way down to the lower deck of the engine room, following the aluminum shaft all the way to the door to the air lock where Brittany still rested, clutching her belly warmly with a giant smile on her face.
"Brittany!" I called to her, rushing over to where she was floating.
She looked up at me and embraced me in a strong, grateful hug as I carefully bumped into her, softly knocking us both back into the giant air lock door.
"Are you ok?" I struggled to ask her as I tried to catch.
She giggled, "I'm fine. That thing's gone now. For good."
"I know," I replied. "I can't believe it."
Without warning she grabbed my hand and pulled it onto her stomach. "Ooh! Do you feel it babe?"
My eyes widened, filled with hope as I held her belly. Suddenly there it was; a little bump coming from inside, almost like the kid was high fiving us. I gasped. "Oh thank God!"
Brittany started laughing through tears of joy, choking herself up as she spoke, "it's still alive in there!"
"Tough little son of a bitch, huh?" I chuckled. "He really gave us quite the scare."
Brittany grabbed and held me even tighter, pressing her forehead to mine as we continued to float in the middle of the humming engine room. "I couldn't think of anyone better to raise this baby with," she whispered to me.
"I'll try my best," I said nervously.
She wrapped her fingers around my chin and pulled my lips into hers. We held the kiss for a few seconds before she pulled away. "You'll do great," she assured me.
I sighed and pulled her closer once again. And I cradled her like that for what must have been half an hour. Truth be told, I could've stayed in that moment until we arrived back on Earth.
Eleanor's POV
Honestly as far as I was concerned, Theodore's cut was the easiest injury that I had had to deal with on this trip.
After examining him, I confirmed in my mind that it wasn't that serious but if I let it go untreated it could go infected. First thing I did was pull out a pain number. All of my equipment was human- sized, as we weren't able to salvage anything from the Marine base or the rover or anything before we took off. And that only multiplied the difficulty of my job along with the zero-gravity. But I still had to try my best.
I inserted morphaline into the syringe and pressed down a bit, watching as a few drops slid through the long, sharp needle and float aimlessly in the middle of the infirmary.
Satisfied, I pulled myself right next to where he was buckled into bed.
He sighed and then tensed up as I brought the shot close to his chest. "Relax your muscles, silly. This will just be a quick pinch."
"You know I hate shots," he protested.
"Well you're going to really hate these stitches if I don't get some morphaline in your system first," I retorted impatiently.
"What?" he exclaimed. "You didn't say anything about stitches!"
I rolled my eyes at him. "Look, if you don't let me do my job and treat this cut then it could get infected."
"I don't care if it gets infected," he huffed.
"If it gets infected," I explained to him, beginning to lose my cool, "then the infection could get into your blood stream. And that could be fatal."
He sighed. "Fine, just please be gentle."
I smiled at him and giggled at his cowardice. "Just relax and look away."
He did as I told him.
"I'll count down from three. Three…" but before I said two I slid the needle into his chest, squirted out the morphaline, and pulled it out.
He gasped and looked at me with a shocked expression on his face. "What the hell, Ellie?"
"Hey now that wasn't so bad, was it?" I laughed at him.
He rolled his eyes. "Whatever."
"I'll wait a couple minutes for the pain drugs to take effect before I start giving you the stitches," I said as I began digging through the cabinet for stitch wire.
"Thank you," he said as he stared at the spot where I had pricked him, watching a drop of blood float out of it.
"You know," I said to him, finally finding the supplies I needed, "you're pretty lucky that that cut isn't worse. You've seen what those things can do."
"Nah," he said with a grimace on his face. "She wasn't so tough."
I giggled and winked at him. "And you are, Mr. 'I don't like shots'?"
He chuckled. "Oh shush."
I carefully threaded the stitch wire through the loop end of the needle and tied it. "Ok," I said, "it's about time. Brace yourself 'cause this isn't gonna be pleasant."
"Hey baby," he said to me as I floated over to his bedside. "Thanks for taking care of me."
I smiled at him playfully. "You're welcome hun. Now stop procrastinating. You need these stitches."
"Fine," he sighed. "Do your worst."
Jeanette's POV
The ship was mostly devoid of food. Or at least food that was still edible after sitting in this dusty ship for God-knows-how-long. If we stretched the provisions thin we maybe had enough to last us the whole trip, which was supposed to be another 19 days. It was tough to be sure, but any extra grub that I could find would go a long way. Even a single human sized granola bar would be a whole meal for the five of us that could last us a day at least.
So, I had made it my mission starting about 20 hours ago to search the Omortson inch by inch to see what vittles I could find. And so far, I was shit out of luck. Eventually, I found myself tearing through the old Marine sleeping quarters. Checking inside of hard steel drawers, lockers, and underneath disgusting cum-stained mattresses. And after all of that, I still had discovered nothing useful. At least not until I floated up to the bunk labelled "Vasquez".
I touched her nameplate longfully. "Please have something for me here, Taylor," I whispered. "Something more useful than whiskey. Or hell, I'd take some whiskey at this point. Just… anything."
I paused for a moment as if I was waiting for her spirit to answer me, before I sighed and began digging under her mattress. My eyes flew wide open as I felt my fingertips brush against something that felt like wrapper. "No way," I said under my breath as I dug my shoulder deeper under the spring-filled bed. Finally, I was able to get a grip on it. I carefully pulled it out, trying to make sure that I didn't tear whatever it was.
As soon as I had, my face went from hopeful to disappointed. It was a folded up piece of paper. I sighed and began to unfold it out of curiosity more than anything.
"Huh," I said. It was a poster. But not just any poster; it was a poster with all of us on it. All six of the Chipmunks and Chipettes were featured. I looked at the caption at the bottom and realized it was an advertisement for a tour that we had done years ago. Right after us girls had met the guys in fact. "So Velaquez was a fan. An OG fan." My god, we were only 14 years old in this poster. Still at the top of our game, at the height of our careers, youthful, having no clue what would become of us years later.
I touched the picture of Simon longfully, standing with his arms crossed and a smile on his face at the far left of the poster. I wanted him back more than anything.
Finally, an idea popped into my head. I used both of my hands and my teeth to put a tear into the poster, just above my lost love's head. I carefully guided the tear around his body, below his feet, until his whole likeness was ripped out of the rest of the poster.
And with that I pushed off of Vasquez' bed towards the door.
Alvin's POV
Being on cockpit watch on the Omortson was easily a million times worse than on the Caesar. On the Caesar, you could let the autopilot coast, sit down, bullshit, do zero-gravity flips and tricks, whatever you want. Since NASA had disabled our autopilot, we had to be pretty on top of our controls otherwise we would go off-course. Which wouldn't have been so bad if the controls were still chipmunk-sized, but of course they weren't. And the massive rudder control stick was not easy by any means for us to maneuver.
I was only 7 minutes into my watch, and I wasn't sure if I could make it the rest of the way.
Suddenly, the cockpit doors slid open with a woosh. I looked behind me to see Jeanette float inside. "Hey Jean," I said softly. "How you doing?"
"I'm alright," she sighed. "Can you do me a favor?"
I raised an eyebrow her. "Yeah of course. What's up?"
"I need you to call everyone into the cockpit."
"Why?" I questioned her.
"Just do it please," she responded as she floated over to the motherboard screen.
I watched her closely to figure out what the hell she was doing. She flipped to the engine room camera feed and then promptly opened to the door to the air lock.
Without disputing it any further, I pushed myself over to the 1MC phone, pressed the button, and spoke into it, "all crew members to the cockpit, per Captain Jeannie. Please and thank you."
Jeanette's POV
Theodore was the last one inside of the cockpit, sporting fresh new stitches going across the left side of his chest. Once everyone was here, looking to me to explain what was going on, I dug out the poster of Simon and held it up from for everyone to see. There was a collective gasp around the room.
"Turns out that Marine Taylor Vasquez was a fan of ours," I sighed. "I… I thought it would only be right to give Si a proper memorial. We can't have his body, obviously, so this will have to do."
No one moved, or knew where to begin.
"Does anyone have anything they want so say?"
Theodore sighed before coming forward as the first person to speak. He touched the piece of paper in my hand longfully, staring at it for a few seconds. He finally broke his silence: "Simon you were a better brother than I ever could have asked for. Whenever things seemed dark, and Dave couldn't be there for me, you always knew exactly how to calm me down. Whether it was lightning storms, or Ian Hawke, or deserted islands, you were my crutch in hard times. I am so thankful that I got to grow up with you."
He finished and backed off just as Eleanor took his place in front of me. "Simon," she said, as if speaking to him through the picture, "you were always the sensible one. Always the one who knew how to get out of trouble. If you had told me months ago that we'd all be trapped on Mars, I would have bet you a hundred dollars that you'd be the one to get us out of there…" she trailed off as tears began to form in her eyes. "And in many ways, you were the one who got us out of there. No one here would be alive right now if it weren't for you and your sacrifice. We owe you our lives, and you will never be forgotten in our hearts."
Brittany was the next to volunteer. "Si, I- I always considered you my best friend, besides my own sisters. We always bonded over what annoyed us, mostly Alvin." Everyone in the room chuckled. "But then," she continued, "we also bonded over how much we truly loved him. You were always looking out for what was good for us. For all of us. You were sweet and you treated my sister well. And for those reasons, I'm extremely grateful we got to meet you."
Alvin followed her. He couldn't contain his tears even before he got a close-up look at the picture in my hand. He choked down his crying and spoke: "Simon… you and I didn't get along very much growing up." He smiled, obviously going through so many memories in his head. "It was pretty rare that we ever agreed on anything. I'm sorry now for all of the headaches that I definitely caused for you. I- I hope that you know that despite me always being a little shit, that I did love you and in a lot of ways I looked up to you. Just know that we still love you, bro. Wherever you're at right now, I'll see you there." And with that he wiped the tears from under his eyes and backed off to rejoin the others, who all stared at me with anticipation.
I was up, but honestly, I didn't even know where to begin. There was an awkward silence while I tried to find my words, but that only made me start to cry. Finally, I took a deep breath and decided to just speak from the heart. "Simon was a friend, a mentor, a lover, a confidant, and a partner to me. Whatever I needed from him, whenever… he was able to provide. I feel guilty now, looking back at it, cause I almost feel like I took him for granted. Why did it take me until he was gone to realize that he was the best man I'm ever going to meet?" I sighed. "I know you told me you'd always be with me. I just know that that was you, somehow. And you also told me to never stop fighting. So those words are going to stick with me, just like my fond memories with you baby… forever. I love you more than life itself, and I hope you rest easy." I stopped abruptly, having nothing else come to me to say. I stared at the floor, grieving our lost loved one in silence.
Suddenly, Brittany piped in with a soft melody, sweet-sounding but raspy through her tears:
"Amazing grace… how sweet… the sound
That saved a wretch… like me"
We all watched her, before Eleanor joined her:
"I once… was lost…
But now… I'm found…
Was blind… but now… I see"
Tears welling up in all of our eyes, Theo and Alvin began sing with them.
"'Twas grace… that taught
My heart… to fear
And grace… my fears… relieved"
I sighed, gulped down my crying, and joined in on the singing.
"How precious did
That grace… appear
The hour… I first… believed
Through many dangers…
Toils… and snares…
We have… already come…
'Twas grace… hath brought…
Us safe… thus far…
And grace… will lead… us home…
When we've… been there…
Ten thousand years…
Bright shining as… the sun
We'll have… no less… days to… sing God's praise
Than when… we first… begun
Amazing grace…
How sweet… the sound…
That saved… a wretch… like me…
I once… was lost…
But now… I'm found
Was blind… but now… I see…"
We all stopped singing, crying wholeheartedly. None of us could bear to go any longer, especially me. I clutched the picture tightly in my hand and flew off towards the exit of the cockpit.
Brittany's POV
We watched the motherboard screen as Jeanette floated through the engine room towards the air lock. She didn't look excited to do this, but we all hoped that it would help her move on. As shitty as it sounds coming from me, she needed to move on eventually. We all did.
She used a coolant pump to pull herself up to the open doors. She hovered in mid air, staring for a few seconds at the poster in her hands, unsure of if she could let it go. She held it in both hands close to her face, stroked Simon's face. Finally she looked away from it, pushed the picture into the air locked, a pushed herself away from the door.
As soon as she was a safe distance away, I closed the air lock door. She flew up to the window and pressed her face and hand against it. I let her say one last goodbye before opening the other end. Simon's picture zoomed out into the cold darkness of space forever. I bit my lip from sadness and closed the air shaft.
We saw Jeanette look at the floor, and then broke down and started crying.
"Here," Ellie said, pulling herself over the keyboard. "She needs some time." Eleanor quickly shut off the camera feed.
All of a sudden I felt a sharp pain in my stomach. I gasped and clutched myself, hunching over.
"Brittany?" Alvin said to me with concern all over his face. "What's going on?"
I was in so much pain that I couldn't even respond to him. All I could do was take deep, fast breaths, trying to calm myself down. Without warning, I felt a hot liquid trickling from my vagina down my leg.
"Oh my God," Theodore muttered in shock.
"Brit did your water just break?" Alvin gasped.
"I…" I tried to answer him but I couldn't even think of what to say. I think so?
Eleanor took a deep breath in and out before saying in a calming voice, "Brittany, we all knew this time was coming, and now it's come." She then turned to the two boys who looked like they both had no clue what the hell to do. "Help get her to the infirmary, stat!"
WOAH! Brittany's finally about to give birth!
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See you guys in chapter 25!