Hello everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic holiday season.

I hope you enjoy this chapter of Lost in the Stars! Please remember to leave a review once you've finished reading, no matter what you wish to tell me. Reviews are a huge motivating factor towards writing.

Chapter 26: The Threat

Brittany's POV

No matter what I tried, I was not able to get Russell to stop crying. He had been alive for over 150 hours now, and rarely had he slept or even been content. I was never able to interpret what he was crying for, when he cried - which, again, was often. Was he hungry? Was he sleepy? Did he just want to be consoled, or was it the zero gravity he had lived his entire life in that chipmunks just simply were not naturally accustomed to? The only thing it was easy to determine was when he needed a diaper change. Despite the circumstances of his birth and his life so far, and our lack of resources that a baby normally needed and deserved, I had never felt so inadequate at anything than being his mother.

Alvin seemingly felt similar. He let it be known much easier than I did that he was confused. Truth be told, there was rarely anything he could do to help besides simply be there with us and help change his diaper, which were simply pieces of gauze that we ripped up and wrapped around his lower section. For hist part, Alvin had been excellent in his role.

It didn't really matter the time of day back on Earth or on Mars at this point - I was always tired. I was sure that we all felt that way, but me especially. I had not gotten more than two consecutive hours of sleep since Russell had been born, even with Alvin taking his turn waking up whenever he could.

At this particular time, I was trying to catch some shut eye with my son strapped in to my right. This couldn't have been helpful for him staying down, along with the makeshift diapers, just the constant discomfort for him. Alvin was on watch in the cockpit. I stared at Russell next to me as I dozed off, nothing but adoration and love filling my heart. I had never felt this way about any human being or chipmunk before in my life. Not even Alvin. It was surreal to think about this little guy being inside of me - developing inside of me - ever since that night in the shower with his father.

Suddenly, as if my thinking silently about him magically summoned him from his slumber, he blurted out a sloppy, blubbery wail.

"Dammit," I groaned.

His whining persisted, intrusively loud, never opening his eyes. "Waah!" Theodore, the one other chipmunk in the room who was asleep, began to stir.

Feeling bad, I embraced Russell against my chest in both arms. "Shh, hush little one," I tried to calm him, making sure to put his head against my breasts to see if he would open his eyes and start bobbing his head around looking for a meal.

No such luck, as my body seemed not to consol him in the slightest. This movement of his body only seemed to increase his frustration. His cries became louder.

"Shhh! It's alright, Russ. I'm here… I'm here," I pleaded with him.

I heard Theodore continue to grumble back to life while I did my best to rock my baby back to sleep without the help of gravity. But he did not quiet, and I was unable to save Theo's sleep. I watched him unclipped himself from his bed, allowing himself to float upwards as he stretched, grumbled, rubbed his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Theo… I-"

"It's fine," he managed to interject drowsilly blinking back into consciousness. "My alarm was going off soon anyways. I'm relieving Alvin from watch in a bit."

"...oh," I said, not fully shaking the feeling of guilt.

As he got dressed, I brought my attention back to my screaming baby. I checked his diaper, little bit of pee but nothing else. Probably not the issue. I sighed, continuing to rock him and humming him a lullaby. I felt so useless.

Theodore finished getting ready, glanced at me sympathetically, and said, "I'll just go tap him out now."

"You don't need to do that," I insisted. "I've got this handled. Go be with Eleanor for the thirty minutes you have left."

"Twenty," he said. "And besides… he needs the time off more than I do. He needs to be with his son.

I sighed. "Ok. But at least say hi to Ellie on your way up. You two barely get any time with each other nowadays."

"If I see her I will," he promised.

I nodded in a melancholy way, trying not to make too much sudden movement as Russell was just beginning to calm down.

Theodore's POV

On my way to the cockpit, I peeked into the mess hall. Jeanette and Eleanor both sat there, sipping stale black coffee through squeeze bottles that were just a bit bigger than they were. They were clinging to the metal mess table with their free hands in order to not float about. They were not speaking a word. Dark bags under their eyes, fur messed up beyond repair. Both of them, all of us, in fact, had begun to show the physical toll that this trip had taken on us. We had all lost a significant amount of weight in body fat. Myself and Ellie moreso than the others, although it was not possible to know for sure how much.

Ellie looked happy to see me. "Theo!" she exclaimed. "You're up!"

I smiled and nodded sheepishly at her.

"Do you want some coffee?" Jeanette offered.

Shaking my head, I replied, "no thanks. I'm not sticking around. I'm on my way to the cockpit."

"So early?" Eleanor asked me, disappointment obvious in her voice and on her face.

"Yeah," I said, "he needs to get to Brittany and their son."

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

"No, not really," I replied. "They just… need a father's touch."

Eleanor sighed. "Ok. I'll come visit you while you're up there. Bring you coffee, keep you company."

"Thanks but I really don't need coffee. I'd love your company though."

She nodded at me with an understanding smile. "Ok. Have fun. Go get Alvin out of there."

I saluted at them and pushed off, floating back down the passageway.

This ship was eirie. It was old, dusty, rusty, sketchy, dark, gloomy, and depressing. The age and lack of upkeep had caught up with it. And it felt much more quiet and lonely, not just because of how much bigger it was compared to the ship we had trained for. Every time I touched a wall or a pipe, or the rung of a rusty metallic ladder I wanted to wash the filth off my paws. I accidentally made myself shudder thinking about all of the men and women who traveled on board this ship, unknowingly being sent to die. Some may have died on board this very vessell. No one at that point would have ever known.

I lazily floated into the cockpit, looked around, but failed to see Alvin. I checked the pilot's chair, where he was strapped in, fast asleep. I rolled my eyes, not blaming him for being tired, but frustrated at the fact that we still had to use him on this watch rotation. The only one who was exempt was Brittany. Myself, Ellie, Jean, and Alvin were all on 3 hours on, 9 hours off shifts. It would have been a really nice system as far as getting sleep was concerned, if not for the fact that his son woke up every hour or so. We all usually pretended to stay asleep so that Alvin and Brittany wouldn't feel guilty, but we definitely got a sense of what they were going through.

I cleared my throat. "Alvin," I whispered.

He didn't move. Not unusual for him, being long renowned as a heavy sleeper.

I tried again, this time with a bit more volume, "Alvin."

Nothing.

"Alvin! Get up!" I exclaimed.

He snorted as his eyes snapped open in surprise. He blinked at me as he remembered where he was. "Yep! Thanks bro! About time!"

I frowned at him. "You know, if you needed some shut eye, you could have called one of us and-"

"Shut eye?" he interrupted, feigning offense. "I wasn't sleeping, my eyes were just dry."

"Whatever," I said to him, sighing. "You should get to Brittany and Russell."

"Why?" he asked me with wide eyes. "Are they okay?"

"They're fine," I assured him. "Russell's awake, and I am sure Britt would love to have you around. You know how it's difficult for her to get around with… you know… her recovery and all."

He sighed. "Yeah, I know. Thanks." He peered at his watch. "Wait… you're like twenty minutes early!"

"It's fine, just go." Before he could protest, I said, "I'm serious, you're good. Go be with your family."

He thought for a moment, before unbuckling himself. "Well… thanks!"

"Don't mention it," I said to him.

He pushed himself towards the cockpit exit gratefully, seemingly in a hurry, as if he should leave before I changed my mind. But before he was out of sight, he grabbed the hatch leading to the exit and turned his head to look at me. "Do you need anything? Like from the mess or anything?"

I shook my head. "I'm good, thanks."

Without saying another word, he left me to my thoughts and I was alone.

I gritted my teeth. I hated being here by myself, where time seemed to be an endless, motionless, devoid loop. Only empty, creepy black space to stare at through a double layered window, some screens which never had new information to provide, some buttons on a panel that shall not be touched unless in the case of emergency. Over and over again. My life would be this for the next three and a half hours, as it had been countless times before, or so I thought.

I was about an hour in, flipping through the camera feeds throughout the ship, wondering why Ellie had not yet made good on her promise to visit me. I had become preoccupied watching Alvin and Brittany working together to change their son's dirty diaper with no gravity. Alvin accidentally pulled on the gauze a bit too hard and all of a sudden the contents went flying, scattering about our sleeping quarters along with the makeshift diaper itself. Brittany looked to be cussing him out as he frantically grabbed the gauze and began using it like a cup to try and corrall the bits of baby chipmunk droppings that were floating around the room. This amused me.

To my surprise, an alert, taking form of white text in a blue box, flashed onto the top right portion of the screen. It read, Incoming video message from "NASA HQ".

I gasped. What do I do? I thought to myself. Gritting my teeth and staring at the notification on the monitor screen, I was tempted to just click on it. But I was not going to be the only one to witness this, whatever it was.

I floated over to the ship-wide intercom button, pressed it down, and spoke into the microphone. "Everybody please come to the cockpit…urgently. Please."

I waited impatiently, darting my eyes between the hatch and the screen. Jeanette was the first one to enter. She immediately fixed her concerned gaze onto me and said, "Theo! What is it?"

I bit my lip and pointed to the alert on the motherboard screen without saying a word.

She pushed herself and floated over until her face was was right in front of the monitor. She squinted, clearly having a difficult time with her vision. She probably forgot to put her contacts in before rushing up here. Finally realizing what the words were, she gasped and wasted no time in pulling herself over to the intercom. "All hands," she ordered, her voice echoing throughout the ship, "expedite reporting to the cockpit."

Only a couple minutes later, all four of the remaining chipmunks entered through the hatch simultaneously, with Alvin cradling Russell and Brittany moving gingerly. She still had not fully recovered from labor. "What's going on?" she demanded.

"Come over here," Jeanette barked at everyone.

They obeyed, joining us expeditiously by the computer.

Jeanette made sure they could all see and then clicked on the notification. It took a few seconds to load, heightening the anticipation amongst our group. Finally, the entire screen snapped to a video feed taken in a dark room with no windows. The floors and walls were made of what looked to be concrete. A single light bulb hung low from the ceiling, barely illuminating the area. At the center of the screen was a relatively tall, dark haired man, tied by his hands and legs to a metal chair. He had reflective tape covering his mouth and most of the lower half of his face. The video was so pixilated it was hard for us to get a clear view of him.

Suddenly, the words, "IF YOU ENTER EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE HE DIES" appeared at the top of the screen.

We all had a confused, sickened look on our faces.

Whoever was carrying the camera began to walk it towards the man on the chair. The helpless tied up man began struggling and whimpering erratically. As the camera got closer it came more into focus and more detail was visible on his face, he had a bruised right eye and a cut over his left brow, and a trickle of blood coming down his forehead from the top of his head. And he looked an awful lot like…

We all gasped. "Is that… Dave?" I croaked in horror. It certainly looked like him. A lot like him.

The man holding the camera reached off screen and showed off to us and to Dave a long, jagged, serrated knife, causing Dave to start screaming through his gag and thrashing as much as his constraints would allow him too. He leaned back too hard, causing his chair to tip back. He fell backwards and hit his head on the wall behind him, earning a horrified yelp from Brittany and Eleanor. Alvin instinctively covered his baby's eyes, unable to look away from the evil that was being thrown at us by NASA. The person holding the camera let his knife hand down, almost seeming disappointed by Dave's cowardice, then chucked the knife in his direction, missing him and hitting the wall just about two feet above and to the right of him. The knife fell harmlessly to the concrete floor, and then the feed cut out and the screen went black.

You could hear a pin drop in the cockpit. Even Russell was silent.

Suddenly, another alert popped onto the screen. "Incoming message from: MEGS". I hesitated, but clicked on it. It read: "IT'S FAKE! DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM!"

Jeanette bit her lips, seeming to consider whether the person on the other end of this message was actually their former NASA trainer. Even if it were, how could we trust her? Jean finally pulled herself towards the keyboard and began typing. "Are you sure? How do you know? How is it fake? Is this really you?"

There was a brief pause, before the response came: "Can't talk now, they'll be tracing me down any moment. Good luck."

Jeanette reached her hand towards the keyboard to type a reply, pulled it back in reconsideration, then finally settled on what to say. "Please tell me how you know it's a fake."

We all stared at the screen for over five minutes, to the point where Russell had began to get restless. Brittany and Alvin did their best to calm him but as usual it didn't really work.

"Jean, what do you think?" Alvin asked.

Jeanette pondered for a moment, as she had been doing for the last several minutes. "I dont't know. There definitely is a possibility that this video we just saw was fake, and that Dave is currently safe, in his home. There is also a possibility that a government organization kidnapped our adoptive father and that they are holding him hostage to blackmail us into setting ourselves adrift into space. Beyond that, if the video is real, there is a chance that they are bluffing and that they won't harm him even if we attempt to return."

"I find that unlikely," I said.

"It would add to their list of liabilities if they killed him and we somehow came back and blew the whistle on the whole thing," Brittany interjected.

"The stuff we know would already theoretically be enough to put a lot of people at the top of NASA in jail," Jeanette said. "I agree with Theodore. It's more likely they're willing to take the chance and go for broke in order to get rid of us once and for all. If that video was real."

"So what do we do?" Eleanor asked.

Jeanette sighed. "We have some time before we near Earth. For now, every cockpit watch spends their entire shift scanning the video message from NASA, trying to find any clues that might help us validate what we just watched."

"Hell no," Alvin protested. "I am not watching that shit again!"

"I agree," I said, "I can't. It was so horrible, I can't watch my dad going through that on repeat! It would kill me."

Jeanette gritted her teeth. "Do you want to bring your wife and baby home safe, Alvin?"

He looked sheepishly away from her, uncharacteristic as it may have been. "Yes," he groaned.

"And do any of you want Dave to die because we decided to attempt to go home?"

"No," we all grumbled in unison.

"Then you're all going to have to trust me and do what I say. We need to get to the bottom of this. I know it will be hard, but it has to be done."

No one said a word.

"Good," Jeanette continued. "One more thing. No one opens or responds to any messages without at the very least myself being here from now on. Everyone clear on that?"

We all nodded. Jeanette nodded in return, then silently exited the cockpit. She was followed by Eleanor, Brittany and Alvin.

This was when I realized that I still had two hours to go of watch, and I was first in line to stare at this terrible, disgusting video until my eyes bled.

"Well," I grumbled to myself as I grabbed the mouse. "Time to get to work."

And that is the end of the chapter!

What did you think? Was the video a fake? Is Dave okay? Was that really Megs messaging them? Will they decide to press onto Earth? How do you think Alvin and Brittany are doing as parents so far? What do you think will happen in future chapters?

Let me know your answers as well as anything else you want in a review! It only takes a few seconds of your time and it means so much to me.

Until next time!