Saboteurs - Roadrunnerz - Lost in Space (TV 2018) [Archive of Our Own] (2024)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Saboteurs

“There is some base programming in these things, all intelligences have it, the primal lizard part of our brains. In humans it’s tied to survival...and we have kids, so life can continue on after we die. These things aren’t alive…they don’t know what life is. They’re killers. You strip away all the paintings and high-fives, that’s all you’re left with.” - Ben Adler

Chapter One

Solidarity Construction Site

Orbiting Alpha Centauri

Maureen Robinson stares out into space from the enormous floor-to-ceiling window of what will be the future bridge of the new colonist ship, the Solidarity, and watches as the Jupiter transport lands less than gracefully in Docking Bay 3.

It takes three tries before the ship connects with the bay.

Pilot trainee, she thinks with a smirk before a more sombre expression clouds her face again.

That transport is the last one going back to Alpha Centauri for the next twelve hours. Trainee pilot or not, if she doesn’t get on it, she’ll be spending another night here.

She should have been home two nights ago, but here she is. Very definitely not at home.

Because three nights ago, a fuel oxidizer explosion – the latest in a series of construction mishaps – resulted in several workers being rushed to the only on-planet hospital. Two of them are still in critical condition.

The ensuing chaos brought on an investigation. There was extensive damage that had to be repaired and progress was put on halt. For weeks they’d been ahead of schedule, and now they’d soon fall behind.

Maureen feels a pang of guilt at the thought of leaving, even now, because so much of this is her responsibility and rests on her shoulders. But being in charge also means she needs – no, wants - to visit the injured crew members in the hospital and she can’t be in two places at once.

Selfishly, she also misses her family. She’s gotten so used to leaning on John in challenging times and, aside from evening video chats, she’s been on her own with this.

It’s been almost three weeks since she’s seen him or the kids in the flesh. Three weeks isn’t long, she knows that. But still, it reminds her that it was these kinds of constant absences that almost ended her marriage.

Maureen stretches her neck because the build-up of stress and tension in her shoulders has left them tight. For a moment she closes her eyes and imagines John’s hands slowly undoing the painful knots.

“Maureen…”

Don’s voice lifts her eyelids and brings her back into the present. To the bridge where she’s standing.

The two of them are the only ones here.

“We’re gonna get on this shuttle, right?”

“Yeah…” She nods. She needs to get off this massive construction site, even if only for a couple of days.

“Good,” Don responds. He’s been up here for a stretch almost as long as hers. As much as his hyper self can drive her crazy, Maureen’s been grateful to have him around. Because she trusts him and she can be honest with him. She knows she’ll get honesty in return – too much of it sometimes. Unlike some of the other engineers on board, Don West doesn’t care about trying to impress her.

He’s not a yes-man and, like any good leader, she values that.

“Bronski wants us to take the robot down to the planet,” he tells her. “Some AI doc wants to have a look at it.”

“I assume the robot you’re talking about is Taron.”

“Who else?”

Maureen frowns at the thought. “Taron was okay with it?”

Technically the robots aren’t employed by them and they don’t take orders from humans. They have no need for wages or compensation. They don’t require food or sleep or housing and they have no bills to pay. The ones that are here are working on the Solidarity site for the sole reason that they want to. They have a desire to share their technology with the humans who freed them from their programming. They can leave whenever they want. Some of them already have, and have since come back. Others left and never returned. Some explained themselves when they left, others never bothered.

Some of the robots work non-stop – 24 hours a day, weeks at a time. Taking the place of half a dozen human workers. Others work as they please, a few hours here and there.

It definitely isn't a typical labour force, and Maureen is still getting used to it. But one thing is certain, their extraordinary skills and knowledge far outweighs their unconventional methods. So, she’s determined to make it work.

Maureen suspects that some of the robots are here because they want to teach the human race a lesson in aerospace engineering. Not to brag, but to share their knowledge – the way it should be in an ideal world.

So much of who these robots are and what motivates them is still a mystery to her. She knows that as far as humans go, she’s smart. Probably smarter than most. But understanding artificially constructed beings that can think and possibly feel? That’s not in her league.

She’d also be lying if she said she trusts them completely.

But one thing she’s learned, is that the robots are much like humans in the sense that no two are alike. None of the ones that she’s worked with on the Solidarity are like Will’s robot.

She’s still convinced that Will’s robot is special, in more ways than one.

“Apparently he was.”

“Hmm…interesting.” She turns to Don, her mind back in the present. “Is it Dr. Zhang who’s seeing him?”

“Think so,” Don answers. “Some Chinese guy.”

She chuckles. There’s something about Don West that always makes the load on her shoulders feel a little lighter. “Helpful.”

Don takes a step towards her, so he can lower his voice. Not that he needs to with no one within earshot. “Do you ever think that those accidents that Taron had weren’t actually accidents?”

Maureen exhales. Yes. Often.

It’s part of the reason her shoulders are so tight and why she hasn’t slept well the last two nights.

But the rational part of her has also spent the last few days telling herself that it makes no sense that any of these robots would intentionally sabotage the build. If the robots wanted to hurt them there were far more destructive ways to do it.

If they didn’t want to be here, they were free to leave.

The days of a robot being chained to an engine, forced to take humans where it didn’t want to go, were long gone and Maureen would never tolerate it happening again. Definitely not on her project, and hopefully nowhere else either.

“It doesn’t make sense…” She repeats what she’s been telling herself. “If they wanted to harm us this would be a hell of a tedious way of doing it. They’re too smart for that.”

“Making us believe they’re helping us while doing the opposite so that we’d argue over whether or not to keep them on sounds pretty smart to me. It would divide us and turn more of them against us. If I was one lone saboteur, maybe I’d want that.”

“It was a glitch, that’s all,” she insists. “These robots, maybe they’re more technologically advanced than we are, but they’re not perfect or infallible. We’ve seen that more than once, with Will’s Robot, with Scarecrow…”

“All right…” Don concedes, even though he doesn’t look convinced. “You packed? The transports leaving in twenty minutes.”

“Yes…I just have to meet Martinez for the hand over. I’ll see you at the docking bay in fifteen.”

“All right. See you.”

Maureen exhales as she watches him leave.

She’s in charge when she’s onboard, and whenever she leaves the Solidarity, she hands over the command to Dr. Angel Martinez, a brilliant and sometimes hot-tempered Chilean aerospace engineer. One of the first colonists to settle on Alpha Centauri.

Maureen knows he holds her responsible for the latest batch of accidents because they happened on her watch.

“Because he doesn’t think I should be in charge in the first place…” she mumbles to herself under her breath.

She straightens her back and shrugs off her annoyance. He’s not the first person during the course of her career who questioned her decisions, or her abilities, and she’s certain he won’t be the last.

She’s always been too focused on getting the job done to worry about what others think, and she’ll keep doing that here too.

We find out what’s wrong with this one robot, then we put these accidents behind us and keep pushing forward. Build the ship and take it back to Earth.

Every problem has a solution.

It’s always been her mantra and she repeats it to herself now as she makes her way to Martinez’s office.

Fifteen minutes later Maureen is strapped into a seat inside a near-empty Jupiter transport shuttle, with an overnight duffle bag secured inside a mesh net, above her head.

Don West, the only other human passenger, is strapped in next to her, while the robot, Taron, is seated across from them.

“This isn’t right,” Don whispers to her, under his breath. “There should be a guard here with an EMF.”

“You told me he’s here voluntarily. That means Martinez didn’t think it was necessary.”

“Martinez is a dick. That should have been your call.”

Maureen rolls her eyes and watches as Don undoes his strap. “I’m gonna go find him. Tell him to get a guard.”

Maureen grabs his elbow. “Don…c’mon. It’s fine. It’s barely a fifteen-minute trip. I don’t wanna delay it.”

He looks at her and sighs. Then sits back down. “I’m guessing John has dinner in the oven.”

Her eyes crinkle. It’s true. Don sees through her way too easily. In fact, her husband sent her a picture of it going in ten minutes ago. Making her salivate.

Not so much for the food as for him. John sent her another photo too, of him wearing the Kiss-the-Chef apron she bought him a few weeks ago. One of the first gifts she’s bought him in ages. It was such a silly impulse purchase, because she’d teased him about his newfound love of gardening and cooking. But of course, he loved it and now rarely stepped into the kitchen without it.

He also likes to point to the inscription, just to remind her not to forget. To kiss the chef.

She grins at the thought.

She missed him these past two weeks. It’s literally a physical ache now, the need to have his arms around her and his lips on her mouth. To recharge and absorb some of that quiet strength of his, which she’s gotten so used to drawing on these past two years. She needs it after everything that happened onboard the Solidarity. Hasn’t even realized just how much he’s become her anchor again since leaving Earth.

Don sighs and glares at the robot, while Maureen mumbles a silent thank you.

If Don held up the departure, Martinez might have found an excuse to cancel it altogether. Keep them onboard another night and she selfishly doesn’t want to wait another minute to see John.

Maureen’s gaze is on the robot too.

Taron.

Some of the robots didn’t want names. Others wanted the humans they worked with to give them one, and some, like this one sitting across from them, chose one for himself and told them what it was.

Blue and white lights flicker on his face when he raises his head to look at her. Staring.

She turns her gaze away from him, hoping he’ll do the same. But he doesn’t.

What’s going on inside that metallic head of yours?

“Departure in sixty seconds,” the co-pilot announces from the co*ckpit. The voice is coming from the young Asian man, about Judy’s age, who stepped into the Hub earlier and told them he’s doing these training runs alongside a seasoned pilot, in order to clock some needed flying time. As Maureen suspected after seeing the bumpy landing.

A minute later, Maureen feels a moment of weightlessness as the ship drops from the docking bay, before the engines come alive and push it out into space. They’ll briefly lose the gravity that they had on the Solidarity, thanks to the alien engine, but they’ll regain it as soon as they enter Alpha Centauri’s atmosphere.

Space flights always send a jolt of excitement through her veins, no matter how many times she’s flown in these ships. Or how brief of a trip it is.

“You’re joining us for dinner tonight, right?” she asks Don, once they’re in flight.

“You haven’t seen your husband in over two weeks, Maureen. So no, I’m not joining you for dinner. Trust me, I’m the last guy John wants to see on his doorstep tonight.”

“Two weeks is nothing. We used to be separated for months at a time when he was on tour. Besides, what do you think I’m going to do? Jump his bones the second I get home?”

“Yes.”

She rolls her eyes again. “No. But maybe afterwards…and then we’ll need you there. Who else is going to film our sex tape? I can’t ask the kids.”

Don West chokes a little and it makes Maureen chuckle.

Gotcha.

“Seriously, come for dinner. The kids miss you too and John made a giant roast.” She’s about to scan the photo of it over to Don's wrist comm. “You don’t have to stay long if you don’t want to….”

She doesn’t finish her sentence because Taron has suddenly undone the strap keeping him in his seat.

“Hey!” Don yells at the robot, “You need to get back in there before you go flying all over the place.”

They’re close to entering the planet’s atmosphere and they’ll have gravity on the ship again any minute, meaning the ship’s maneuvers could send any of them crashing against its walls if they’re not strapped in.

The robot either doesn’t register Don’s order or decides to ignore it.

Maureen’s heart starts to race. Taron moves towards a console near the doors of the co*ckpit and rips it open – sending its cover flying right by her head, missing it by a centimetre.

The ship’s flight recorder is inside that console and Taron is in the process of destroying it. Violently.

He literally yanks it out of its container and uses his hands to tear it apart and crush its components.

And he’s changing his form at the same time. Ditching the humanoid form the robots use when working on the Solidarity and reverting to his natural spider-like body, that reminds her of SAR.

His multiple limbs now help to keep him balanced.

“What the hell….” Don watches in shock as Taron flings what’s left of the FDR onto the floor and stomps on one of the most indestructible components of the ship as if it were a soda can. Reminding them of his superhuman strength.

Instinctively, Maureen pushes the transmit button on her comm and locks it in. If the FDR is destroyed, a comm transmission might be their only record of what’s happening here. Especially if no one survives what’s coming next…

She pushes the dark thought away and watches in horror as the robot swirls around. His face lingers on hers and she’s sure he’s coming for her. Don’s about to jump in front of the robot, but Taron doesn’t move any closer.

Instead, he jumps towards the co*ckpit.

It’s all happening so fast.

“Shut the co*ckpit door!“ Maureen yells to the pilots. “Now!”

Meanwhile, Don’s frantically searching the storage bins for an EMF, while trying to keep his balance. Neither of them know if there's one on board, but an electro-magnetic weapon is their only hope of containing the robot. They have no other defenses against them.

Maureen unstraps herself and attempts to do the same, but she’s paralysed by what’s happening in front of her eyes.

Taron is wedging himself into the gap of the closing co*ckpit door. Using brute force to yank the door back open and when he does, he stomps towards the pilots, who are transmitting frantic mayday signals.

A pair of thick syringe-like metal rods have emerged from one of Taron’s limbs and Maureen gasps as he simultaneously plunges them into the necks of the two pilots. Then he rips out their safety belts and their agonizing screams fill the ship until their bodies slump to the ground. Lifeless.

“Oh God….” Maureen knees feel weak just as something else suddenly occurs to her.

The pilot was a trainee which means he was most likely flying manually.

He may not have switched to auto pilot in time.

As if to confirm her suspicion, the ship suddenly plunges into a death spiral, hurting towards the surface of Alpha Centauri. Throwing the bodies of the dead pilots into the air.

They were going to crash.

Maureen tries to hold on. Tries to find a way to move towards the controls in the co*ckpit. Because the only chance they have of surviving this, if Taron doesn’t kill them first, is to regain control of the ship.

But all her efforts are futile.

They have gravity now and the ship is spinning out of control. Hurling towards the planet like a missile. Even Taron, with all his powerful limbs, can’t maintain his balance.

The robot crashes into one of the consoles of the co*ckpit and, simultaneously, Maureen can see that Don’s airborne too. At first, he’s yelling and then groaning in pain as he collides with something hard.

Maureen loses her own iron grip and is thrown against something metallic. It’s impossible to tell whether it’s the floor or the ceiling or a wall. The G-force is a monster and they’re powerless against. She’s in her landing spot only for a second before she’s airborne again, her body whipped against something else.

Something sharp and jagged rams against her head.

After that, she can barely feel or see anything anymore.

Darkness blankets her first. And then, silence.

Chapter 2

Chapter Text

Chapter Two

Jupiter Transport Base

Grant Kelly runs one last check on the Jupiter transport ship. Literally.

In his world that means a walk around the hull, not a computerized systems check.

The young crews he works with all make light-hearted fun of him for still needing to see, touch and feel things that are easily checked and verified by a plethora of electronic systems.

“A computer isn’t gonna tell you if there’s a scratch on the rocket boosters…”

“Of course it will,” one of his baby-faced Nigerian colleagues corrected him. “Use the external hull sensor. It will tell you exactly that, about every scratch on the rocket boosters.” He flashed him a co*cky grin then. “Even the ones that your aging eyes will miss.”

Funny.

Grant doesn’t care. Maybe it’s old-school and ridiculous, but he still trusts his senses and instincts more than these machines, which he knows can fly these ships better than he can. (Maureen’s auto-pilot already won that contest).

So here he is, running his non-calloused hands (thanks to sleeping for twenty years) along a chipped piece of paint on the transport ship’s ID plate, wondering if the external hull sensor would have picked that up too.

Probably.

When he’s all done, Grant turns off the overhead lights, manually, on his parking pod, knowing he’ll be the one to turn them back on tomorrow morning.

This is what he’s been doing the last few months on Alpha Centauri; flying transport Jupiters, as well as a couple of the larger Ventana supply ships, to and from various construction sites and scientific outposts on the planet, while trying to find his place on this strange new world.

Sometimes he does the crew runs between the town (there’s only one) and the Solidarity construction site. It gives him a chance to see Maureen and grab an occasional coffee with her. He’s made a genuine effort to regain some sort of…whatever it was that he once had with her.

What that was, he’s no longer exactly sure. A friendship? A common dream? A love affair? It wasn’t a relationship really, was it? Now he’s ashamed to admit it, but he never really thought of her as his girlfriend back then. Truth is, he was a popular guy back in the day, and there’d been a lot of women before Maureen and he always, arrogantly, assumed that there’d be quite a few more after her. It doesn’t matter that they had fun together and that he genuinely enjoyed being around her.

He definitely never imagined that she’d end up being the mother of his only child.

His entire life, the only thing he’d ever really focused on, the only thing he’d been truly passionate about, was going into space. Not just going into space, but going further than any man had ever gone. Making history and leaving a legacy.

Look how well that turned out.

He’d gone to sleep in a cryo-chamber a young, brash, clueless astronaut and woken up a middle-aged, equally clueless father.

But at least he did wake up, which is more than one of his crew members could say. They’d tried to slowly revive both of his sleeping crew members inside the only medical facility on Alpha Centauri once the battle against the robots was over, but only one of them was revived successfully. The other one is still in a coma today and the doctors don't know if she'll ever wake up.

He visits her sometimes. Talks to her at length in the hope that maybe she can hear him.

That could’ve been me, he thinks. If Judy hadn’t found him.

Speaking of whom, he’s been trying really hard to connect with his daughter and he’s grateful that she’s been receptive to it, but he still feels like she’s keeping her guard up around him.

Judy doesn’t call him Dad, and he knows that she never will. He doesn’t expect it because John Robinson’s earned that title long before Grant even knew about her. John, who happily and eagerly filled his shoes. John’s the one who truly wanted the people (and things) that Grant had always considered an afterthought.

And now? Now he envies John. Not because he wants what John has – although a part of him does – but because, unlike himself, that man is utterly content and comfortable in his skin. It seems like he’s always known what he wanted and now – after an epic struggle to get it - he finally has it all. A quiet, peaceful life on a new world and a wonderful family that adores him.

The Robinsons have been welcoming, but Grant knows that he’s a third wheel. Don West is a bigger part of that family than he’ll ever be.

So, what exactly does he have?

What do I even want?

For now, he has a job doing what he loves – flying – and he has a beautiful daughter that’s willing to give him a chance, even though he has to work at it. For now, it’s enough.

Grant takes the elevator down to the control room, where he’ll clock out before heading home to the staff quarters. Home is nothing more than a single room with a bed, a bathroom and a tiny kitchenette. It doesn’t bother him. Astronauts are used to living in small spaces.

The elevator pings, letting him know that he’s at ground level. The massive control room is a hub of both human and electronic activity. Pilots mingle and meet to go over tomorrow’s flight plans, swap routes, talk shop and a dozen or so air traffic controllers and operators keep tabs on the flight activities taking place across the planet. With less than a hundred-thousand colonists on the planet, there’s only one transport hub needed, and this is it.

Grant loves to watch the blinking dots on the massive screen – to see where the ships are going so that he knows which routes he wants to request next, because he plans to fly them all – whether it’s to remote icefields or uncharted deserts, rain forests and island, or exploratory trips into orbit.

There are at least fifty blinking dots on the screen now, which is normal, but something else feels off.

Grant sensed it the second he walked into the giant room. There’s am odd, collective silence and the usual easy-going chatter has been replaced with serious faces. It’s like they’re all in on a terrible secret and they’re keeping it from him. One of the operators has a hand over his face, his eyes glued to the electronic screen, as if in shock.

“What’s going on?”

A couple of faces turn in his direction, but there’s no answer.

“Guys…”

Mobo, his Nigerian buddy, mumbles, his eyes still on the screen. “We, uh… we lost contact with a transport Jupiter coming back from the Solidarity.”

“Lost contact?”

“The pilots transmitted a mayday signal just before entering our atmosphere and then…nothing.”

Grant feels a sudden chill running up his spine. “What do you mean nothing?”

“Nothing.”

“Did the mayday call specify anything?”

“No.”

“FDR?”

“No signal.”

Flight data recorder boxes were as close to indestructible as it got. Wrapped in protective layers of aluminum, titanium and extreme temperature insulation, they could withstand even severe impacts. On top of it, they were sealed in a storage unit inside the Hubs of the Jupiters, inaccessible to anyone on board. Even if the ship itself crashed and burned, the FDR would still record a signal, allowing them to at least trace the wreckage.

No signal could mean only one thing. A catastrophic event that was so powerful and destructive that it wouldn’t leave behind even a square inch of wreckage.

A meteor collision. A rocket fuel explosion.

“How many passengers…” Grant asks, his mouth suddenly unbearably dry. He knows that none of them stood a chance.

Please…not Maureen….anyone but her…

“Four humans and a robot….” Mobo answers. “Two crew from the Solidarity and two of ours. Sharon and Binh.”

Grant sees several operators crying. Everyone in this room knew the two pilots. Sharon Whitehorse was a Navajo Air Force veteran with a big smile and an equally big personality and Binh, a young pilot-in-training from Vietnam, who was on the Resolute and arrived on Alpha Centauri only a few months ago, after surviving a harrowing year on the same ring of Jupiters as John and Maureen. Grant did a few training runs with him. Everyone loved that kid.

One of the operators is sobbing loudly and Grant understands. They’re a tight-knit group and losing two of our their own is an unfathomable loss.

“Who were….” He swallows hard. “Who were the crew from the Solidarity?”

Only two passengers – Grant knows it could have been so much worse, because sometimes these transport shuttles carry up to fifty passengers. Only two passengers means that the odds that she was one of them are small…really small.

One of the operators is about to answer his question when suddenly another shakes their head. As if warning them against it.

It sends a fresh batch of shivers up Grant's spine. “Who were the Solidarity passengers?” he repeats. One of them is gonna have to answer.

“Grant…” Melanie, a soft-spoken French woman, takes him aside. “Maybe you should sit down.”

Oh God no…

His heart is already plummeting straight into his gut.

“Tell me. Now.”

“The Solidarity is still confirming the passenger manifest…maybe you should wait and…”

“Maybe you should tell me who the unconfirmed passengers are.”

Melanie toys with her ID badge, her fingers fidgety. “The….unconfirmed passengers are Don West and Maureen Robinson.”

Grant does want to sit down, but he doesn’t. Because Maureen wouldn’t either. She’d find a way to stay strong. She always has. “Thank you,” he whispers.

There’s only one person who matters now. His daughter.

He has to tell Judy before she hears It from someone else.

Robinson Residence, Alpha Centauri

John Robinson takes out this massive roast and eyes it with pride. On a colony with limited livestock and increasingly limited supplies of all sorts - because there hasn’t been a colonist arrival from Earth in over two years – this is a rare treat. And judging from the smell of it, he got everything right. Which is no small feat, because using the genetically modified, hybrid crops and herbs that are grown here, has meant re-learning how to cook. Nothing reacts quite the same when it’s heated.

But John doesn’t mind. It’s the kind of challenge he enjoys. It also doesn’t hurt that his kids aren’t fussy. Even when things are over-seasoned or bland or dry, it’s still better than what they had in space for two years. Granted, the only child who’s been having dinner with him this week is Penny.

Judy now lives in a medical dorm and only comes home on weekends and Will’s on an interplanetary field trip this week, not due back for another four days.

John was reluctant to let him go, thinking it was too soon. It's been a while now, since he's received his artificial heart but it still - always - feels too soon. But Will wanted to go so badly and he got a clean bill of health from he only cardiologist in town. Plus Will’s teacher was willing to let the robot go along and Maureen insisted that would make all the difference.

“I trust him to look out for Will.”

John would be lying if he said he had the same trust in those machines that she does, but in the end he agreed. After everything they’d been through, surely a supervised field trip, even one that left the planet, would be a piece of cake.

He places the steaming roast on the table and eyes the perfect carrots and potatoes with pride. He pulled those out of the soil himself this morning. He’s grown a lot of the food that they’re eating tonight and that brings him joy too. It wasn’t until he was forced to grow food by necessity on the water planet that he realized how much he enjoyed it. After a lifetime of too much destruction in too many war zones, John likes the contrast of doing something that nourishes people. In the most literal sense.

“Oh wow….that smells good,” Penny’s voice announces from the hallway.

He’s been so immersed in his cooking that he didn’t hear the door open.

His middle child strides into the living room, her school backpack still on her shoulders. “Are Mom and Don here yet?”

“Not yet,” John checks the time on his wrist comm. They should be any minute, now that he thinks about it. According to what Maureen told him, they should have landed twenty minutes ago, and the trip from the transport base to their home took less than ten minutes.

There’s no traffic on Alpha Centauri yet. Not enough people or vehicles.

Maybe they ran into Grant at the base and stopped for a chat.

Maybe you should have invited Grant for dinner, he thinks. Especially since Judy might be joining them tonight. But he selfishly wants Maureen to himself tonight. It’s been over two weeks since he’s seen her and he’s not in the mood for sharing her company with anyone except the kids and Don.

The last two years, they’ve rarely been apart more than a few days, and even though they chat every night via computer, this two-week absence was starting to feel unbearably long. Video calls aren't the same and he doesn’t’ want to go back to the days when they spent half their marriage apart – and almost ended up divorced because of it. John wants to feel her skin against his and hear her laugh at his bad jokes. To look into her eyes as they share a glass of wine over a good conversation and later on have the kind of sex that will take her mind off the mess that she’s dealt with this past week on the construction site.

A pleasant tingle runs from his head down to his toes, knowing she’ll walk through that door soon and give him one of those full-body kisses that always make him feel like he’s the center of her universe.

He doesn’t notice that Penny’s watching him. “What are you grinning about, Dad?”

John doesn’t try to downplay it. It’s probably futile anyway, ‘cause his happiness is written all over his face. It’ll be so good to have most of his family under one roof again.

There’s an incoming call on his wrist unit from the Jupiter transport base.

His grin widens. “I bet that’s your mother, calling to tell us she’s running late. Don probably had to make a pit stop to see Debbie.”

Alpha Centauri General Hospital and Medical Training Facility

Judy’s face has greyish tint to it and Grant notices that she’s quietly steadying herself by putting a hand on the window sill in the empty patient room. Those two small things are the only outward signs that betray her calm exterior.

He's always been in awe of her quiet, inner strength.

She definitely didn't get that from him.

“What do you mean the flight data recorder is gone?”

“Whatever happened to the ship destroyed it.”

“Just because it stopped transmitting doesn’t mean it’s destroyed…maybe it just…stopped working.”

“No….” Grant shakes his head. “They don’t just stop working.”

“Everything that’s man-made has the potential to stop working.”

She’s so soft-spoken but there’s steel in her voice, even if now there’s a hitch in it.

“Judy…I’m so sorry.”

“No,” she shakes her head and takes a deep breath. It’s a gesture that he recognizes. It’s Maureen taking a step back and regrouping after hitting a wall.

Judy’s fighting back tears and it breaks his heart, but Grant will not give her false hope. Not when he knows that there’s no chance in hell that they’re going to find a survivor. Not after a catastrophic impact or explosion at that altitude.

“I’m sorry, Judy…” he repeats, taking a step towards her and hoping she might let him give her some sort of comfort. That she’ll let him take her in his arms.

But instead, she puts her hands in the pockets of her lab coats and wraps it tightly around her small frame, as if she’s suddenly chilled. Before she slowly steps away from the window sill.

Away from him and his useless embrace.

“I don’t want your apologies, Grant,” she tells him. “I want you to tell me what to do. How do we find out what happened?”

“There’s no way…not without a functioning FDR.” Not with wreckage so small and scattered over thousands of square miles that they’ll likely never find any of it. But he doesn’t add that.

Judy stares at him and it’s the first time he’s seen her angry.

“Why did you come here if you don’t want to help?”

“Judy…I….that’s not what I meant.”

“Excuse me….” She brushes past him and now he can see the tears pooling in her eyes. Before she storms out of the room. “I need to find my Dad.”

Robinson Residence

“Dad?” Penny slowly sets down her backpack and looks at him, terrified. Because she’s way too good at reading people and she can tell that he’s trying to digest something horrible. “What was that about?”

Or maybe it’s because he got so nauseous after that phone call that he had to sit down and put his head in his hands to fight back the bile that was rising in his throat.

It takes all the strength in the world to find his voice. To drown out the blood that’s pounding in his ears and to look at his daughter.

“They…uh…they lost the transport Jupiter that Don and your Mom were on.”

“Lost?” Penny’s voice is shaky. “What do you mean ‘lost’?”

“Lost contact.”

“Lost contact…what does that mean lost contact?” She sounds far-away and hysterical.

“They, uh…they said the ship sent out a mayday signal and that it might have hit something or had a catastrophic system failure.”

She looks ghostly pale. “What does that mean, Dad?”

He gets up on unsteady legs and pulls his daughter in for a hug. Kisses the top of her head and pulls her close as she starts to cry. “I’m not sure…but I…I need to go to that transport base and find out.”

“I want to come…” Penny says, wiping away her tears. “Please, Dad.”

He doesn’t want her to come because he’s not sure he can keep it together. And if he can’t, he doesn’t want her to see.

But there’s no way he’s leaving her alone after that kind of devastating news.

He’ll have to find a way.

Plus, there’s Judy. He needs to tell Judy.

Needs to do something, anything, to make this right.

He’s not sure he’s capable of much of anything at the moment but he has no choice. Has to push it into a box, like he did so many times as a Navy SEAL, as impossibly difficult as it is.

“Okay, come….”

“Are they gone, Dad? Mom? Don?” A fresh batch of tears starts pouring down her face.

He puts an arm around Penny’s shoulders and nudges her out the door, forgetting about everything else. The fresh roast on the table. Locking the door. Taking off the apron that he’s wearing.

It’s all irrelevant. The only thing that matter is getting to the base and finding out what happened. Finding a way to get to her, because he is not ready to accept what he’s been told.

He’s not ready to lose her.

Chapter 3

Chapter Text

Chapter Three

Alpha Centauri – Southern Tropics

Both sensations hit him at the same time when he regains consciousness. The agonizing pain that radiates up his arm – shoots up into his neck, shoulders and back down to his chest - and the wall of smoke that makes it nearly impossible to breathe.

So, he doesn’t. Don West coughs instead of breathing. A violent, rasping, heaving reaction that only increases the unbearable pain along his arm and shoulder.

All of it desperately makes him long for oblivion again.

If you pass out again, you’ll die, a quiet, rational voice in his head tells him.

It’s a fact. Even in this breathless, agonizing state, he’s aware of it.

His lungs are on fire trying to get in air and Don can barely see a thing. He’s engulfed by smoke.

Get out or die.

Get out.

Or die.

Part of him wants to give in to it. The pull of forever darkness.Because the alternative is just way too damn hard. Too painful.

He can’t keep doing this. His nine lives are probably up anyway.

Of all the insane, improbable and super-human feats he’s somehow pulled off (and survived) during his last two years lost in space, trying to drag his ailing ass out of a burning shipwreck is too much.

His fuzzy brain can only vaguely remember the robot yanking out the flight recorder. Going into the co*ckpit. Killing the pilots. Sending the Jupiter plunging into the planet.

How the hell is he even alive?

Because his body was thrown around in the Hub of this ship and Maureen designed these things to be damn near indestructible…

Maureen.

sh*t.

An unexpected dose of adrenaline shoots into his veins, jolts his body upright, so that now he’s sitting, even though he’s still coughing wildly.

If he’s alive, as impossible as that seems, then maybe she is too. And if she is then…f*ck.

It doesn’t really matter if he’s given up. If by some miracle she’s alive, he needs to keep it that way. She’s got three kids and a husband who’ll never forgive him if he doesn’t.

And that…that’s worse than dying.

“Maureen…” he calls out her name between coughing fits, his voice hoarse and raspy.

His left arm hangs limply and Don’s certain that it’s broken, possibly in multiple places, but his right arm seems fine and he uses it to push himself up on his legs, which seem fine and pain-free and each of them in one piece.

He’s so lightheaded when he gets up that he almost falls right back down.

No, no, no.

He shakes his head and fights it off.

Don remains upright but he’s wobbling like a drunk and almost trips over something on the floor – is it the floor or is it the ceiling? He’s not sure because he can’t see anything.

He stumbles a second time because there’s still something under his legs. He steps on it and gets a groan in response.

f*ck.

Not something. Someone.

Maureen.

He’s tripped over one of her legs.

Don yanks out his t-shirt from under his space suit to cover his mouth and lessen the smoke that his lungs are still rebelling against, and then he squats down.

“Maureen!” He’s no doctor, but she’s groaning and he’s pretty sure that means she’s not dead.

That said, she’s not moving either and the first thing he notices when he squats down is that one side of her face is covered in blood.

Why does everything have to keep getting worse?

Not that any of it matters. How hurt they are, how much blood there is…if he doesn’t get them out of here, they’ll both die of smoke inhalation. Sooner rather than later.

He slaps the non-bloody side of her face, ‘cause he needs her to wake up. He can’t carry her, not with one arm completely useless. But he’s not leaving her either. Nope. No way. She’s the heart of the only family he’s ever had and she is definitely not dying on his watch.

He’s either going to get her out or die trying.

One or the other.

All his slap gets out of her is another groan. So he does it again, harder, and then he pulls her up. Watches as her eyes open and she starts to cough. As violently as he did.

“That’s it…you got this. You see why we need to get out. This smoke’s gonna kill us. But I need your help. Can’t do it…” Another coughing fit hits him hard and he has no idea how he finds the strength to yank her up.

Please let her legs be in one piece too.

“Don…” She’s listing into him so hard that he has to throw her arm over his shoulder, and, oh God, it kills to do that. Hurts so bad that he thinks he’s gonna black out again.

Nope. You do not get to do that. Not yet.

Maybe he’s not carrying her out but he’s most definitely dragging her.

The only ways out of the ship are the bottom ramp or one of the three escape hatches. There’s no way he’s gonna do a hatch with her in this state.

Pieces of the ship are on fire all and he can’t see any further than an arm’s length, but suddenly a gust of wind blows away some of the smoke.

It’s coming from the co*ckpit.

Or more precisely, what used to be the co*ckpit. Half of it has been shaved off and there’s a gaping hole where the other half used to be.

Maybe it was merciful that the robot killed the pilots instantly and that thought suddenly makes him wonder….where is the robot?

He pushes it from his mind.

He has enough to worry about. Like getting himself and Maureen out of this wreckage alive. The gaping hole in the co*ckpit is a blessing in disguise.

Maureen has another coughing fit and her legs aren’t moving much anymore.

He drags them both over wires and half-destroyed pieces of equipment, some of it on fire, in order to get to that damn opening.

Please don’t let me step over a body….

He doesn’t see the bodies of the pilots but he’s not looking for them either.

All his focus on the opening ahead of them. The co*ckpit isn’t completely shaved off, Don notices as he gets closer, dragging Maureen along. He’s not sure if she’s conscious anymore.

Doesn’t matter. He’s still gonna get her out. If it’s the last thing he does.

But in order to get them through the opening, they need to climb over what’s left of the bottom hull. It’s been torn apart leaving behind a jagged metal edge that won’t be easy to crawl over.

But it’s the only way out.

If he extends his arm, Don can reach a giant leaf that’s blowing in the wind outside. The smoke in this part of the ship isn’t quite as thick anymore.

But he’s now holding Maureen up with sheer willpower. If he lets go, she’ll sink to the floor and he won’t be able to hoist her back up.

f*ck.

He can’t go first and then lift her, so he pushes her out instead. Like a sack of flour. It’s awkward, and messy, there’s a pointy piece of metal that tears her suit and leaves behind a fresh trail of blood.

But it gets her out of the wreckage.

He even manages to lift his legs high enough to follow suit. But he also cuts his hand on a piece of metal. More blood.

The vegetation on the outside is so heavy and thick that it’s almost impossible to walk away from the wreckage. Smooth, moist, sinewy branches, giant green leaves, entire felled trees and dense foliage surrounds them. It’s like the ground is covered in a slippery two-foot-tall tropical rug. One that would be hard to navigate on a good day, never mind in their current state.

It hot and humid and raining hard.

It might be ne of the reasons the entire wreckage hasn’t blown up or lit up in flames, although either one of those might still happen.

So he needs to get them further away from it.

But Maureen is lying on the ground unconscious and with the last iota of strength he manages to drag her about ten, maybe twelve, meters away. It’s not far enough.

He knows that.

But he can’t go any further. His arm is on fire and he can feel the darkness dancing at the edge of his vision.

The two of them are nestled between two fallen trees and there is a giant leafy bush, covering parts of their bodies. It’s not shielding them from the downpour but it might help hide them from an intruder.

Where the hell is that psycho killer robot?

Even though the crash turned them off automatically, Don removes the batteries from his wrist comm and does the same for Maureen’s. Slides them into his waterproof pockets as he watches the rain slowly wash the blood off her face.

He has no idea whether they’re going to survive the next few hours, but at least they won’t burn alive. Or die of smoke inhalation.

He did what he could.

It’s his last conscious thought before he passes out again.

Jupiter Transport Base

John pulls Judy in for a hug when he sees her at the transport base, and, although there are no tears, she holds on to him just as tight.

Grant Kelly is there too.

“What’s your course of action?” John wants to know. “To find the Jupiter?”

A fellow dark-haired American, apparently the man who’s in charge of ground operations, looks at him as though he hasn’t heard right. “Course of action?”

“Yeah…” John repeats. “What are we doing to get to the ship, the…” He swallows, weighing his words because Penny is within earshot and her eyes are still rimmed with tears. Her older sister has one arm draped around her now. “Wreckage?”

“Without the FDR there is no way of knowing where the wreckage is…”

“But you have math, don’t you? Trajectory calculations given where the ship was during the last transmission?”

“Given the altitude of the transport Jupiter at the time, even using trajectory calculations, pieces of wreckage could be scattered over an area of over five hundred thousand square miles! That’s the size of California! It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack!”

John steps into the man’s space and looks at him incredulously. “Well, then what are you waiting for? Why aren’t you deploying search teams?”

“Search teams?” The American eyes him in disbelief. “Look, Mr. Robinson…I am so sorry for your loss, but there is no way anyone survived what happened on board that ship.”

John can hear Penny sobbing and it makes him want to throttle this man. He steps right into his face. “So let me get this straight…you have no idea what happened to this ship but the same time you do know with certainty that there are no survivors?”

“It isn’t just the FDR going out, we had a mayday signal that was cut off mid-transmission, which can only indicate one thing.” The man takes a step back and John can see the fear in his eyes. “You can be assured that there will be a full investigation into…”

“You can investigate all you want, after I find the wreckage.” John bites the inside of his mouth so hard that he can taste blood. Doesn’t hear the rest of what the man is saying. “Give me a map of the trajectory calculations,” he orders him. “Can you muster that much effort?”

“Look, I understand you’re upset, Mr. Robinson, but what do you think you’re going to do? Comb an uncharted area the size of most nations, for crumbs of wreckage, from a lone Jupiter?”

“I was hoping it wouldn’t be a lone Jupiter that’s looking for it, but yes…” John fists his hand. Can feel the blinding anger building inside him. It’s a part of him that the military once enjoyed using for its gains and John's always been able to put it in a box. He doesn't like it and he has no desire to tap into that part of himself anymore. But the thought of something destroying the one thing he loves more than anything – his family – brings it out instantly. It takes all his self-control not to give in to it. To remind himself that his kids are here. “If that’s what it takes, that’s exactly what I’m gonna do.”

“John…” A familiar voice comes up behind him and he can feel a hand on his shoulder. “Can I talk to you for a sec?”

It’s Grant. Looking at him with a world of sympathy and a trace of pity.

“Fine…” His ears are starting to ring and he’s not sure he can keep it together. He casts a quick glance at Penny, still quietly sobbing and it gives him the strength he needs. He has to, for them. He knows Maureen would. But then, she’s always been stronger than him.

“I can’t begin to imagine how you’re feeling,” Grant starts and already it’s pissing him off. Fuelling that bubbling anger.

“I don’t need or want platitudes, Grant,” he cuts him off.

“I know you need to do something…but you have to let these guys assess what happened before you run off on a wild goose chase.” Grant exhales. Lowers his voice. “Think about how much more it’s gonna hurt if you give Judy and Penny false hope…”

John’s nostrils flare. It’s been a while since he punched a man. “Excuse me? False hope?”

“They’re saying that there’s no chance of…”

“Look….I know it’s always been easy for you to give up on Maureen, but that’s not the case for me.” Grant flinches and it leaves John cold. “Please get out of my way.”

“Dad…”

“If you’re going to look for Mom and Don, we’re coming with you.”

He looks at his daughters and makes a decision as quickly as Maureen would have done in his place.

“Penny…you stay here. Try to get a hold of Will. Be here when he gets back. He’s gonna need someone here.”

“Dad, no, no…” Penny shakes her head, upset. “I can do that when I’m with you!”

“Penny…” He put his hands on her shoulders. “I can’t worry about you too, sweetheart. Taking you to an uncharted part of the planet…I can’t. I need to know that you’re safe here.”

“No…” She’s wiping away fresh tears. “This is not right, Dad. I'm not a kid and we always said Robinsons stick together!”

“Robinsons look out for each other too,” he says softly. “I need to do that for you, and your brother and you’re not gonna be alone.”

He steps away from all of them and dials Victor Dhar on his comm. To ask him if he can take in his daughter while he searches for the lost Jupiter. He knows that Penny is dating Victor’s son, and even if can’t quite wrap his head around his middle child dating anyone, now or anytime soon, John figures she could use the comfort of a good friend.

Even if that friend happens to be boyfriend.

Dhar doesn’t hesitate and John’s grateful. Considering that he got off on the wrong foot with him, Victor has since become one of his most trusted friends.

Penny, being Penny, doesn’t give up so easily. Keeps arguing and appealing to her older sister for help pleading her case. But Judy agrees with him and in the end, Penny gives in. Especially after she gets a call from Vijay on her comm, one that manages to finally stop the flow of her tears.

“Jude…” John turns to his eldest. “Can you get the Jupiter 2 ready? Make sure it’s fully fueled and stocked.”

Because they were lucky enough to be given a house as accommodation, they’ve turned in their ship, to be used by the colony as needed. But they still have dibs on the J2. It’s theirs when they need it.

She nods. Cool and calm, but shell-shocked too. “Yeah.”

Judy can help pilot the ship and she’s a doctor. One they might need. Because he still believes, deep down, that finding them alive is not beyond the realm of possibility.

“John….” It’s Grant Kelly again and John wishes the guy would just get out of his way.

“What?”

“Let me come.”

“No.” He doesn’t have to think about it.

“Three pairs of eyes are better than two, two ships better than one…”

John takes a step towards him. “Three pairs of eyes are no more value than two, if one pair of doesn’t believe we’ll find anything. If they won’t actually be looking.” When he’s close enough to Judy’s biological father, he lowers his voice to a whisper. “I do not need you to come along so you can try and convince my daughter that it’s a waste of time.”

“Look, I’m sorry about what I said earlier. I wanna come because I want to help,” Grant repeats. “I’ll take a separate ship. I won’t be convincing anyone to do anything.”

But John isn’t capable of objectivity. “No.”

“Dad…” Judy inches herself between them. “Stop it, please. Let him come. He’s right. Three heads working together are better than two. Two ships better than one.”

John frowns, not wanting it, but knowing he can’t deny her this request. And of course, she’s right. “Fine.” He makes eye contact with Grant, letting him know this isn’t up for discussion. “But you take a separate ship.”

Chapter 4

Chapter Text

Chapter Four

Alpha Centauri – Southern Tropics

Water and blood.

She can taste them both. One is a warm, wet liquid running over her lips making her want more and the other leaves an unpleasant metallic taste that she wants to spit out. Both of them are mixing with the smell of smoke in her nostrils and all of it is making her feel sick.

Maureen opens her eyes and the colour green floods her vision. A dozen shades of green envelop her. Giant, lush emerald leaves hanging over her face and beyond them, an endless blur of jade-coloured tree tops, visible through the gaps.

Why is she lying on a forest floor? And how long has she been here? Minutes? Hours? Days?

Maybe she’s dreaming.

But dreams don’t hurt and she is hurting. It feels like her skull is about to crack, which doesn’t make sense either. She doesn’t get headaches often. Definitely not ones like this.

Maureen pushes herself up, digging her palms into the soft, moist earth and noticing for the first time that another body is nestled into hers.

“John…?”

She blinks hard, willing her eyes to focus. Since when did that take effort?

No, not John. Don.

Don?

Why does nothing make sense?

“Don…” Her voice sounds hoarse and her throat hurts too. It’s dry and rough, in spite of the unrelenting moisture. Not just moisture – rain. A warm, soft rain. Water is running down her hair and face and it slowly trickles underneath her clothes, penetrating every gap between fabric and skin.

She’s soaked and sitting upright now. But the movement makes her so nauseous that she has to put her head down or throw up. Maureen attempts the former and takes several deep breaths before giving it another try.

“Don…” She says it again, louder, and squeezes his bicep, not that it has much force.

But it’s enough to get him to flutter open his eyelids and it floods her with relief.

“Hey….” He gives a pained smile and Maureen notices that something about the colour of his skin is off. There’s a greyish pallor to it. “Look who woke up.”

“Don…what happened? How did…how did we get here?”

The sound of her own voice is amplifying her headache.

He’s making no effort to sit up. “You don’t remember?”

She tries to. If only her head wasn’t pounding so hard maybe she could string two thoughts together. It’s not a dream, she’s aware of that much. “Trying…”

“We took a transport Jupiter from the Solidarity with that psycho robot, Taron. He ripped out the FDR and then killed the pilots. Sent the ship crashing onto the planet.”

It starts to come back to her. Yelling to the pilots. The ship spiralling out of control.

“How…how did we survive? Did we eject? I don’t…”

“We crashed,” he explains. “To be honest I’ve been wondering about the survival part too.”

“The entire ship? Where’s the wreckage?”

“If you stand up you can probably see it. The Hub’s the only part that’s intact. Even I can’t make it flightworthy again, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“I don’t remember getting out of the wreckage.”

“You were out of it.”

Maureen focuses on him as much as her fuzzy brain allows and it frightens her, how uncomfortable he looks. “How hurt are you?”

He tightens his lips. “Pretty sure my arm’s broken.”

“Let me see.” She hovers over him, notices that one of his arms is twisted unnaturally. “I think you’re right.”

But it’s more than that. Parts of his sleeve are charred and black. Burned off.

Her fingers run along the fabric and it starts to peel, like ashy bits of cloth that’s been tossed into a campfire.

Don yelps. “Can you not…touch that!”

“Sorry…” Maureen frowns when she sees the burn wounds on his skin underneath. “But this is bad. It’ll get infected real fast out here in the forest.” She puts a hand on his forehead and it’s emanating heat already.

It probably already is, she realizes, as a shiver of fear runs up her spine.

His good arm reaches up to her temple. “You’re one to talk. You’re still bleeding.”

She shirks back and winces as his fingers probe the side of her head. “Stop that.”

“You need stitches…”

“Burns?”

Don shakes his head. “No.”

“Okay…then.” Maureen exhales. “You win the injury contest.”

“Didn’t know it was a competition. What about this?” His hand pokes into her side, sending a shot of pain through her midsection.

“What the hell, Don?” Maureen glances downward with a hiss and sees the bloody tear in her suit just above her hip-bone. Hopes it’s just a cut, but it makes her realize that they both need to get patched up. Don more so than her. She pushes herself up onto her knees and then tests her legs. The forest spins around her like a carousel of giant leaves, blurring her vision.

She’s so dizzy that she’s afraid of falling right back down, but after a wobbly two steps, the carousel slows down.

“What are you doing?” Don looks up at her. His voice sounds far away.

Maureen’s eyes search for the wreckage and spot it easily. It’s hard to miss the smoldering remains of the massive beige-white hull nestled among the foliage.

“How extensive is the damage inside the ship?” she asks Don.

“You’re not asking me if I can fix it, are you?”

“Don…”

“co*ckpit’s almost completely shaved off. But the Hub’s pretty much intact, thanks to some mom who designed it to be indestructible to keep her kids safe.”

“I’ll tell her you said thanks.” A wry smile lifts her lips. “There should be a medical kit in that Hub. We need it.” They needed other things too, but that was the first priority. They had to patch themselves up before they could do anything else. Like get away from here and figure out how to get rescued.

Surely a team was on its way, wasn’t it? All they had to do was stay alive until it got here.

“Are you crazy?” Don’s grabs hold of one of her legs, almost toppling her over. “I did not drag your ass out of that ship so you could walk right back in and get yourself killed.”

“We have to treat your burns, Don.”

“He’s out there,” Don whispers. “Taron. If we survived, you can bet he did and you saw what he did to those pilots. He’s gonna do the same to us…”

Another chill runs up her spine. “I’ll be careful.”

Maureen hopes that Taron is in pieces so she can zap the rest of him with whatever live wires she finds. What they really need is an EMF, but there’s no way of knowing if there is one on board. The chances are small.

She rests a palm against the nearest tree trunk. “You turned off the comms, right?”

“They’re both off.” He grunts. “But these guys can see as well as we can. Only thing we have on them is peripheral vision.”

“I know…” she whispers. At least the rain would give her some camouflage. “Wish me luck.”

“I swear, Maureen….” She can vaguely hear Don mumbling as she heads towards the wreckage. “You know John’s gonna kill me if I let you die.”

She slowly, carefully inches through the dense foliage.

Pretty sure he wouldn’t want you to die either.

She doesn’t spot any movement and the only sound is that of the falling rain as she nears the downed Jupiter. There’s a distinct odour of burnt electronics once she’s close enough to touch what’s left of the hull. It’s probably the rain that’s kept the fires from burning out of control. However, she’s well aware that there are enough highly combustible compounds on that ship that there’s still a possibility of the whole thing exploding into a giant ball of fire.

A psycho-killer robot isn’t the only risk that comes with re-entering the wreckage.

There’s a rustle of leaves to her right and Maureen swears she saw a shadow moving between the trees. It makes her heart pound wildly in her chest and she ducks down, allowing the enormous leaves to give her cover. One of them drapes itself right over her head and she can hear the patter of the raindrops on her leafy hat. She stays absolutely still and scans her surroundings for a couple of minutes. Until her legs start to cramp.

It was nothing, she repeats to herself. It was the rain and the trees playing tricks on you. If Taron had spotted you, you’d be dead.

She gets up on shaky legs and the movement makes everything spin again. The cut on her side is throbbing and she finds herself holding it.

Blinking it off, Maureen climbs into the ship from where the co*ckpit used to be, still unsteady but staying upright. She spots a dark bloodstain on the torn metal. Probably hers.

The floor inside is wet from the rain seeping through the holes and it muffles her footsteps.

It’ll muffle his too.

Slowly and quietly, she makes her way into the Hub, until the lingering smoke makes her cough.

sh*t.

She cups her palms until there’s enough rainwater for her to drink and cool her throat. Then she makes a beeline for the storage unit where the med kit should be, exhaling a sigh of relief when she finds it intact, her eyes still darting around for any sign of movement.

The fact that she can’t find the robot pinned underneath any wreckage means he’s out there.

Where are you?

She needs to get out, because every additional second inside the wreckage increases her chances of getting killed, and if she dies, she’s taking Don with her, because he is in no shape to patch himself up.

From the corner of her eye, Maureen sees the remains of the now useless flight data recorder and it makes her realize that, without it, there’s no way to track the ship.

Maybe there’s no rescue team coming…they’ll assume the ship suffered a catastrophic event and entered the atmosphere in pieces.

I would do the same.

It’s a sobering realization, one that makes her more nauseous than she already is.

Stop panicking. Think.

If they have to find their own way out of this, they’ll need more than a medical kit.

They’ll need food. Water. Shelter.

The tropical climate will allow them to stay outside and the ample rain means all they need is something to collect it. Food is another matter. Maureen vaguely remembers reading something about how toxic the plants were in Alpha Centauri’s tropical zones. That there was virtually no animal life because of it. A lack of predators is a good thing, but a lack of edible vegetation isn't.

There wouldn’t be much food on a transport Jupiter either, because these ships were basically space taxis, making twenty-minute runs between the town and the Solidarity construction site.

Maureen remembers a pilot joking with her once, that they always had snacks in the co*ckpit because they never had enough time to grab food at the base or on the Solidarity between runs.

Except this particular co*ckpit is in ruins.

Still, it’s the only place in the ship that might have something edible.

Carrying the medical kit, Maureen makes her way back to what’s left of the co*ckpit, coughs again because the smoke is relentless. She tires to imagine where a pilot might keep his shuttle run snacks.

There’s a console to the right of the co-pilot’s seat…

On her own Jupiter she used to put markers, a dry eraser and hair elastics in there.

On this particular ship, the entire console is crushed. It’s a heap of burnt metal and as she inches towards its remains, Maureen can see something else too. Something she purposely avoided looking for when she entered the ship’s wreckage.

A dead body.

Or at least a part of it.

There’s a head and torso and that’s all that’s left of him. His lower body is crushed beneath the console and even his head is a mangled, bloody mess, one side of it partially scraped off. A piece of an ear is lying about six inches away from the rest of his body.

She stares at him for too long – remembers the young Asian trainee pilot talking – and smiling- to her before they took of from the Solidarity - and this time she can’t fight the nausea that overcomes her.

Holding on to a still-hot section of the control console, Maureen heaves as her body tries to expel something that isn’t there. She can’t remember when she last ate. Nothing comes up but the mere act of trying intensifies her headache ten-fold.

She can see stars dancing on the edge of her vision.

She holds out a pair of shaky hands and cups more rainwater in them. Drinks from it to stop the bitter taste in her mouth from making her heave all over again.

Forget about the food. Food is useless if you’re dead. Get out.

“No…”

Now that she’s here, she has to at least try.

Maureen drops to her knees and starts rifling through the chest pockets of the dead man’s suit. Starts to gag as she does it, but there’s nothing to come up. Deep inside the upper pocket, her fingers brush against something that feels like a foil wrapper and they dig up a granola bar and then a second one.

She stuffs them into her own pockets and then continues her search. Rummages through every nook and cranny that isn’t completely mangled or missing altogether. It nets her a small bag of already opened peanuts, two thermos bottles, a candy bar and pack of gum that has only two sticks left inside.

She opens one of them and pops it into her mouth, grateful for the explosion of peppermint that masks the odor of smoke, death and destruction.

Deciding that there’s nothing else to be found she finally makes her way back out of the wreckage. The forest is considerably darker than it was when she entered it.

It’s still raining but lighter now. It's more of a mist that drapes the landscape, making it look otherworldly. Dreamy, even. Even though it’s anything but.

Nor is it quite dark enough to hide the sudden movement she catches in her peripheral vision.

Maureen ducks down and lets the foliage cover her again as she slowly turns her eyes in the direction of the movement. Watches as it becomes clear that, this time, she wasn’t imagining it.

The distinctive spider-like shape of the robot comes into view as it nears the wreckage.

Her heart races and she’s shaking so hard that she’s afraid that she’s rustling the giant leaves above her head.

Taron nears the wreckage but he doesn’t enter it. Instead, he slowly moves around to the other side of the hull, out of her line of sight.

But then she sees something else, something big and metallic, moving behind him. Maureen blinks hard in case her muddled brain is playing tricks on her, until she realizes it’s not.

There’s second robot.

Aboard the Jupiter 2

“What exactly are we going to search for once we get within the parameters that they gave us?” Judy asks him, getting up from the co-pilot’s seat to stand behind him. It’s a smooth flight and they won’t be leaving the planet’s atmosphere, so there’s no need to put on their space suits.

Grant Kelly’s Jupiter is about a mile behind them.

John’s face is sombre as he stares out at the darkening skies. They’ll reach their destination in about ten minutes and lose the last vestiges of daylight at about the same time.

“We can program the Jupiter to search for almost anything. Dogs. Carrots. Gold. Specific minerals or heat sources, even specific temperature ranges, you name it. A Jupiter’s Hull primarily consists of aluminum alloys, silica glass and titanium composites. A mix of materials you won’t find naturally out in this tropical environment.”

“So that’s what you’re asking the ship to search for?”

John nods. “Pretty much. As soon as we enter the area of the approximate trajectory calculations, I’ll program the search parameters and it’ll run automatically. We cover as much land as we can for as long as we can, until the computers pick something up.”

“Or until we run out of fuel.”

“We’ll be flying slowly enough that we should be able to last two days before having to go back to refuel.” It’s the kind of calculation Maureen could do in her head, but he had to plug them into a computer a few minutes ago.

“Then we refuel and come back…” Judy says softly.

“I’m hoping we find something before then,” John adds, still staring out into the evening skies. They’d already lost nearly a day putting this measly search party together. Two ships, three humans. Everyone else thought it was an exercise in futility. “But yeah…if not, we refuel, and do it all over.” He doesn’t want to think of how much time the people on that transport have if, by some miracle, they survived. “I need to make a call,” he tells Judy. “You want to pilot it or should I put it on auto?”

She eyes him, obviously curious about who he needs to call. “I’ll fly,” she tells him. “It’ll help me focus on something besides Mom and Don.”

John nods and leaves the co*ckpit while his eldest slips into the pilot’s seat, not wanting her to hear this conversation.

Once he’s in the Hub he finds the number on his comm for the man who’s in charge of the Solidarity build now that his wife is…missing.

Dr. Angel Martinez.

John knows that Maureen has had a frosty work relationship with him since day one. But he sure as hell hopes that none of that matters now.

“Martinez…” John is surprised that the doc answers right away.

“John.” John vaguely knows him from a social event that Maureen dragged him to a few weeks ago. “I’m very sorry for your loss.”

He grits his teeth. This isn’t the conversation he wants to have and he cuts it off right away. “We don’t know what happened to that transport Jupiter.”

There’s a pause on the other end and then finally, “You’re right. We don’t.”

“It’s why I’m calling,” John adds. “Because I’m hoping you can give me some more information. I want to ask you about the robot who was on the ship with them. My wife mentioned the incident to me…the one where it was suspected that a robot sabotaged parts of a fuel oxidizer, sending two men to the hospital.”

“Suspected is the key word, John.”

“Was that the robot who was on the transport Jupiter?”

Another pause. John starts to wonder if he’s reading from a teleprompter.

“Taron. Yes. That was the robot. We’d asked him to be analyzed by Dr. Zhang before allowing him to continue working on the Solidarity.”

“You put him on that transport unaccompanied?”

“No…he was accompanied. By Maureen and Don West.”

“Did they have an EMF?” There’s another silence and John’s patience is wearing thin. “Did they?”

“No,” Martinez finally responds. “There was nothing to suggest there was a need for one. We’ve never used one on any robot on the Solidarity. Taron was cooperative and there was no resistance when he was asked to see Zhang back on the planet. There’s no record of Taron causing any harm to any humans on the build, The entire incident is still under investigation…”

“Maureen suspected him! Not just in relation to last incident but for several others as well.”

“I know she did. We all had our share of different suspicions. All of them off the record and unsubstantiated.”

“She shared her suspicions with you but you didn’t take any action until the latest incident caused injuries and you had no choice but to investigate that damn robot.”

There’s a sharp intake of breath on the other end that John can hear through the comm. “She had no right to share these confidential conversations with you. In fact, I find it shockingly unprofessional if she did.”

“Oh for f*ck’s sake, Martinez. She’s my wife. Of course, she’s going to tell me if she thinks a robot might be sabotaging the ship she’s trying to build. She’s telling her husband in confidence, not broadcasting it to the media. And now I want to know if there’s any chance that same robot could have done something to that transport ship.”

“I’m not going to speculate…”

John fights back the same anger he felt back at the base. Martinez should be thankful he’s not in the same room as him right now. “You’re not going to help me, are you? It doesn’t matter if four lives are at stake when it comes to making sure you keep any blame away from your ass.”

“I understand you’re grieving and upset, John but there’s no need...”

“You’re wrong,” he says calmly. “I’m not grieving or giving up on Maureen, or anyone on that ship. I’m trying to find out what happened to it. I thought I might get some answers from the guy in charge.”

“John…”

He’s heard enough. John ends the call without another word, afraid if he does keep talking it won’t end well. Besides, Martinez gave him what he needed. Increasing confirmation of his suspicions that the robot might have been involved somehow.

He takes a seat on one of the benches in the Hub and dials Grant Kelly’s Jupiter, remembering that their last conversation had gone about as well as the one he just had with Martinez.

But he needs something from Grant too, in order to start putting the pieces together.

Judy’s other Dad picks up right away. “John?”

“Anything yet?” he asks, already knowing the answer. Knowing Grant would have called them if his Jupiter had picked up anything on the search.

“Not yet. Just entered the search parameters a minute ago.”

“I know that aside from one brief mayday signal, there was no official communication between the transport Jupiter and the base right before the ship disappeared, but I was thinking if one of the four people on that ship had their comms on, there’s a way to track their comm transmissions, right?”

It wasn’t legal for anyone on Alpha Centauri to monitor a private comm unless…there was a crime committed or there was reason to suspect a transmission could endanger the colony.

John knew it was a long shot that any of their comms were actually turned on. There’s no reception on a shuttle run. But if they were on and recording, it was possible to obtain that recording. The same way texts and conversations on a cell phone registered with a telecom provider could be tracked and retrieved by law enforcement agencies on Earth.

Turning it on after the FDR was destroyed was something Maureen might have done.

And if the transport base could get something off a private comm, then Grant Kelly had a much better chance of getting them to do that than he would.

“I was thinking the same thing actually,” Grant replies. “The base requires permission from the chief admin office but, yeah, they can do it. In fact, I’ve already asked.”

He'd underestimated Grant. “And?”

“They got the permission about an hour ago. Turns out Maureen did turn hers on. You know if anyone would, she would think that quick. I should have the results of the recording soon.”

John swallows. He wants to hear it. Whatever her comm transmitted might help them figure out what happened on board that ship.

But he knows that recording could also contain Maureen’s last words – or screams - and hearing it would break Judy’s heart, as much as his own. It would haunt her forever.

“Dad…?” As if summoned by his morbid thoughts, Judy’s in the Hub too now, staring at him. “What’s going on?”

Chapter 5

Chapter Text

Chapter Five

Southern Tropics, Alpha Centauri

“You were gone a long time.” Don West stares up at her when she gets back. His brows are furrowed deeper than usual, which is what they do every time she proposes an idea that he thinks is insane. After two perilous years in space together, she’s become familiar with his many different skeptical faces.

He’s still lying on the moist ground, underneath the giant leaves that are providing them with some cover.

It’s not enough cover, she thinks, especially now that the rain has stopped.

“We need to get out of here,” she tells him.

“Go where?”

“Away,” she mumbles under her breath. If they don’t turn on their comms, they have no way of mapping their surroundings. No way of checking if there’s a river or a valley or a mountain nearby. Or whether it’s just an endless expanse of this same dense forest. “Can you walk?”

He’s still staring at her with glazed eyes. Not a single quip or smart-ass remark and that scares her too. Never mind that he looks bad. Really bad.

Maureen winces, wishing John were here. It’s not that she needs him to take charge. She’s used to with making decisions. But that’s also because most of the time she knows what she’s doing.

Which is not the case now.

It doesn’t help that her head is still fuzzy and she can’t seem to keep her thoughts in order but she's also out of her element. Wilderness survival is John’s thing, not hers. And she’s afraid that one wrong decision could cost them both their lives.

Don wanted to get a guard to join them on the transport Jupiter, but Maureen convinced him to let it go. A decision that probably cost the pilots their lives and now the guilt is gnawing at her.

Don pushes himself upright and Maureen can see that the burns on his arm are an ugly, angry red. They must hurt like hell.

“My arm’s broken, not my legs…” he mumbles, as he slowly gets up on his unbroken, albeit shaky, legs. “You gonna tell me why we have to leave in such a hurry?”

Maureen’s eyes meet his and the answer dawns on him. She’s not the only one who’s good at reading him. He knows her worried looks just as well.

“You saw him, didn’t you? Taron.”

“Him and another robot.”

“What?”

“I know…and I don’t know how, or why. I can’t explain it.”

“How the hell is that possible? Where did it come from?”

“I don’t know!”

“sh*t.”

“We have to be quiet, use the trees as cover….”

She really has no idea what she’s doing. She just knows they’re too close to the wreckage that Taron seems to be obsessed with. That if he spots them, they’re dead.

They start walking. Slowly and quietly. The medical kit is heavy and it cuts into her shoulders. Don plods along sluggishly and the cut on her side starts to throb.

They manage maybe five-hundred metres, Maureen guesses. They both trip a couple of times because of all the undergrowth and their clumsiness exacerbates the pain of their injuries.

Then it starts to rain again and Don literally cannot take another step.

“Sorry…” he mumbles as he sinks to his knees, next to a fallen tree. It’s another enclave of toppled branches and unnaturally large leaves, not unlike their original hiding spot.

“No…don’t be.” Maureen shakes her head. “You did good. Really good.” Half a kilometre is still too close to turn on the comms, but it’s better than nothing. She sits down on the ground as well, wanting to patch him up before the rainwater soaks through everything again. “Lemme fix up your arm.”

She opens the medical kit and takes out a syringe. Waits until Don’s lying down before she injects him with it. Because there’s no way he can stand the pain of what she’s about to do without screaming, unless she knocks him out.

Maureen squeezes his hand and it suddenly takes her back in time. To an icy planet when Penny did the same for her. “It’s okay. You’re gonna be okay.”

He’s breathing heavily and raises his good hand to the cut on her side. Bleeding again as his fingers brush against it. “What’s about you?”

“I’m gonna be okay too.” She musters a smile. It reminds her of all the times she’s tried to reassure her kids the last two years. “Promise. Go to sleep and when you wake up, I’ve got a candy bar for you.”

He chuckles. “Must be loopy already…I swear you said candy bar…”

“I did,” she whispers, watching as his eyes close and the painful tension on his face finally eases.

Then she gets to work. Sets his arm using the splints in the kit. She unseals the anti-burn foam from its vacuum-packed pouch and applies it to his forearm. Waits until it sets before following the instructions on how to bandage it, above the splints with three centimetres of room for the translucent foam to expand. It’s a recently invented burn treatment, one which allows the necessary flow of oxygen for the burns to heal, while giving the foam the chance to protect the damaged, inflamed tissue and repair the skin cells.

Knowing they only have enough to apply two dressings, Maureen takes her time and does it with slow, meticulous care.

By the time she’s done, her vision is swimming and she needs to lie down too.

She knows she has to tend to her own injury too, but first she needs to close her eyes.

Only a few minutes.

No sleeping, she reminds herself, not until Don’s anaesthesia wears off. One of them needs to stay awake. Alert.

Five minutes, she repeats. Nestling her forehead against Don’s bicep as her eyelids close. She allows herself to pretend that it’s John. Just for a second.

Don’t give up on us, babe. Please. I’m gonna fight to get back to you and the kids….I swear…I’ll do whatever it takes to keep us alive, but I don’t think we can get out of here alone. We need help.

Aboard Jupiter 2

“Dad? What’s going on?’

John exhales when he sees Judy stepping into the Hub.

“Dad?” she repeats, her dark, intelligent eyes boring into his, trying to syphon the truth out of him. “Is it something to do with Mom and Don?”

“Your mother…she turned on her comm on the Jupiter after the FDR stopped working.”

He can see his daughter thinking. “Of course she did. She would, wouldn’t she?” She acknowledges, fidgeting with the empty coffee cup she’s holding in her hand. “Was there…anything on it?”

“Don’t know. Grant hasn’t got it yet.”

“Oh…”

“Jude…” He already knows this will be a battle. “I don’t want you listening to it when we get it.”

“Why?”

It might contain your mother’s last words. He doesn’t say it. “It might haunt you.”

“I’m not a child.”

How many times has he heard that refrain from her? Too many to count.

It doesn’t matter that she’s absolutely right. She’s not. But she’s always going to be his child, no matter how old she gets, and he’ll be damned if he doesn’t keep trying to shield her from all the horrible things that keep coming her way.

“You can’t make that decision for me,” she adds, with the kind of steely determination that he’s all too familiar with. Maureen always points out how much their eldest is like him, but there’s an awful lot of her mother in her too.

Judy’s right about that too, but he wishes he could.

“All right,” he concedes, still hoping she’ll change her mind if and when they do get it.

When Grant does call to let them know that he has it, John tries to talk her out of it once more. But Judy’s not having it. She’s gentle in her insistence, but she doesn’t back down.

‘You can’t protect me from awful things, Dad.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m not gonna try.”

“Play it.” She insists. “We’re gonna listen together.”

“Grant, play it for us,” John tells him over the comm. Then he motions Judy over to the bench. “At least sit down.” And for once she does as he asks.

Grant transmits the audio and all three of them listen to it – on two separate ships.

It’s Maureen’s voice that comes on first.

“Shut the co*ckpit door! Now!”

There’s a host of background noise that sounds like the opening and closing of storage bins.

And a loud scratching sound of metal scraping against metal.

Human voices also, but too distant to make out what they’re saying.

“It’s the pilots, transmitting the mayday signals that were heard at the base,” Grant explains through the comm.

Then there’s a gasp, Maureen’s voice again, and John feels his gut clench, just before the screams start. Ear piercing screams of agony.

Judy flinches and then eyes him with what looks like guilty relief.

Because it’s not her mother’s voice. It’s the pilots who were screaming.

It’s followed by the sound of objects crashing into each other. Containers and supplies banging into walls. There are cries and groans - Don’s voice cuts through and John sees Judy flinch.

Maureen grunts, as if hit by something.

The sound of objects – metal, plastic, human bodies, anything that isn’t fastened down – crashing against each other- continues for another fifteen seconds.

And then nothing.

Judy’s staring at his comm in silence.

“It could mean something hit her comm, destroyed it…”

John closes his eyes, grateful for that small mercy. That there wasn’t an ear shattering explosion marking the last audible sound, killing their final vestiges of hope.

“John…” It’s Grant’s voice over the comm. “Judy?”

“We’re okay,” John responds, barely a whisper.

Chills run up his spine even thought they don’t know much more than they did ten minutes ago. Something catastrophic happened and it came from inside the ship. It could have been mechanical failure or a fire. Something destroyed the flight data recorder before the ship disappeared.

It’s an odd anomaly that gives him hope. It could have been the robot. It might be strong enough.

But there was no audible mention of it. All they knew was that something caused Maureen to instruct the pilots to close the door of the co*ckpit. Something made them transmit a mayday signal.

Something made them scream – death curdling sounds followed by silence.

“If there was a fire or an explosion in the Hub and that was the reason Mom told them to close the door, they would have done it. Or they would have headed there too and we’d have heard the auto-extinguishers come on,” Judy points out. “But something stopped the doors from closing. The sound we heard…of metal scraping against metal. Dad, I think…it was the robot.”

It’s not exactly proof, but it makes sense, John realizes. “I agree.”

“Could the robot have piloted the ship?” Judy asks.

“I don’t know…” John responds. Like humans, the robots don’t all possess the same skills. Will’s robot couldn’t fly a Jupiter, but maybe others could. It didn’t seem likely in this scenario, even if he could. If the robot wasn’t strapped in, he’d have been tossed all over the ship too, like everyone and everything else. The G-force would have been immense.

How foolish am I for hoping against hope that either of them are still alive?

“Dad?” There’s desperation on Judy’s face when she turns to him.

“Yeah…” he whispers, not ready to say the inevitable out loud. “It’s possible.”

“We’re nearing forty-eight hours since the crash, Grant…there’s been no activity from either comm since. There’s no reason to think there ever will be.”

It isn’t Grant’s voice making that announcement. It's the Jupiter Base that he’s in touch with on his ship, but he’s set the volume high enough that both John and Judy can hear it.

“John…I’m gonna sign off,” he tells them, and he can hear the man kicking himself for it.

Thirty seconds too late.

“Dad…” Judy suddenly sounds so young.

“Their comms might be wrecked,” he tells her. “Or they could be keeping them off on purpose. We know they’re homing beacons for the robots.”

“You’re right,” she agrees softly.

“We keep looking,” he tells her, before he pulls her in for a hug.

Southern Tropical Region

“Maureen?”

Don’s surprised to find her asleep when comes to. The throbbing in his injured arm is back, now that the contents of the syringe have worn off and it’s definitely painful but no longer unbearable.

His eyes scan her handiwork. His arm’s been set and there’s a thick, protective layer of foam covering the burns – allowing it to breathe and heal. In a proper medical setting, he’d get another half dozen treatments at least. But he knows that this isn’t an option here. In fact, he’s damn lucky he’s getting one, or maybe two.

“Maureen?” He pokes her shoulder with his good hand, not wanting to raise his voice any higher and that finally gets a groan from her.

“Don?” Maureen props herself up as soon as she’s awake but she looks lost, as if it’s taking a moment to get her bearings. To remember where they are. “How are you doing?” she asks once her eyes regain their focus.

“Better,” he admits. His arm still hurts, a lot, but he’s been in enough scrapes to know the difference between bearable pain and something worse. If she hadn’t gotten the medical kit and put on the foam, he probably wouldn’t be conscious now.

He notices a bloodstain the size of his hand on the side of her suit and points an index finger at it. “Please tell me you patched that up…”

Maureen exhales. Slowly. “Was gonna. I fell asleep.”

Tendrils of fear crawl up his spine. For f*ck’s sake. He’s gotta keep her in one piece. For her. For him. For John and the kids. “You have to patch that up. Now.”

“Yes, yes…I know.”

“Take off your suit.” He needs to remove his too, Don realizes. It’s too hot for it here. Even though it protects them from the elements and probably saved from all sorts of scrapes. All the suits will do now is dehydrate them faster. Besides, they’re both wearing a base layer of clothing underneath them. It’s usually t-shirt and tights, or a t-shirt and shorts. It’s all they need here in this tropical sauna. Oddly enough, unlike on Earth, where there would be things crawling all over them in a jungle like this, there are very few insects here.

Aside from a few, tiny brown-coloured things, the size of fruit flies, there isn’t much.

Maureen follows his instructions and he watches her wince and grit her teeth as she starts to bandage up the wound on her side. Applies all sorts of antiseptic paste on it, even as it makes her hiss in pain.

He doesn’t like the look of the cut. It’s too big for starters. Raw and swollen and it bleeds when she tends to it, staining the bandage she wraps around her waist.

Don wishes he could help her, but he’s not much use with only one good arm. All he does is hold the bandage in place, as she wraps it tight, until it’s hooked in.

When it’s all done, Maureen sits back down, leans against a tree trunk, and closes her eyes. Wiped out by her efforts.

Don rummages through the medical kit with his one hand. “Don’t they have some basic painkillers in here?” He pulls out a bottle of tiny white pills. “What’s this?”

Maureen eyes it. “Yeah…that’ll do. It’s basic stuff. Nothing that’ll knock you out. Take one. Or two.”

“No, for you.” He pours one into the palm of her hand and watches as she swallows it without water before taking one himself.

Maureen’s gaze meets his and even though she looks a couple of notches paler than yesterday, she fakes a determined smile. “I’m okay. We’re gonna make it.”

He knows better than to doubt her. After all, he’s seen her triumph against impossible odds more often than not. Every problem has a solution. It’s her mantra and she doesn’t just preach it, she lives it.

He half expects her to remind him of it now.

But she doesn’t. Instead, Maureen reaches into the pocket of her space suit that’s now lying on the damp forest floor. Pulls out a candy bar. “I promised you one before I knocked you out.”

Don stares at the colourful wrapper. “Coulda sworn I imagined that.”

She smirks. “You did not.” She opens it and hands him half of the melting chocolate.

He bites into it and it reminds him that he’s starving. They both are. “You had that on you?”

A sombre look clouds her face. “No…from the dead pilots.”

The sweet, nutty chocolate suddenly tastes bitter inside his mouth.

Maureen’s eyes are focused on the ground. “I should have listened to you….to wait for a guard with an EMF. If I did…” She pinches the bridge of her nose. “That pilot..he was a kid, Don. Barely older than Judy.”

“Hey…” He puts a hand on her knee. “Don’t do this. You didn’t kill those pilots and who’s to say Martinez would’ve given us a guard if I asked for one? Or if it woulda made a difference if he did? What ifs and guilt trips aren’t gonna bring them back.”

Her eyes are moist, not entirely convinced. “How the hell are we alive, Don?”

“I don’t know…but I plan to keep it that way.”

“I don’t suppose you know what’s edible and what isn’t in this jungle, do you?”

“No clue.” Don admits. But they couldn’t risk eating something that might make them sick. It would leave them in worse shape than they are now. Better to go without food. “So what’s the plan?”

“We need to move further away…if we’re far enough away from the robots, we can turn on our comms.”

“Even if they still work, we’re too far out of range to reach anyone here.”

‘But there’s a small chance that someone’s monitoring their activity – that way at least they might think we’re alive. Plus, once the comms are on, they can guide us to a food source.”

If there is one, Don wants to add.

All of it is a long shot. Never mind that there’s probably no one looking for them.

“John and the kids aren’t just gonna give up,” Maureen says softly, reading his mind. “And if anyone can get to us…”

“It’s your husband and kids.”

She’s right. The Robinsons aren’t going to give up on them, especially on Maureen, that easily. It buoys him with a sudden flurry of hope, until a familiar, eerie electronic hum suddenly fills the sky.

Maureen looks up and Don’s gaze follows hers, gasping at what he sees, peeking through the leaves and trees.

It’s a robot ship.

It hovers almost directly above them before making an approach to land not far from the downed Jupiter.

“What the hell?”

“How is this possible? What are they planning?” Maureen’s eyes are wide and terrified. Her voice shaky. “We need to get further away from here.”

Don nods. “Ya think?”

Getting up takes more effort than he’d like, but he does and holds out his good arm to her. Yanks her up as well.

They’re in no shape to hike through a jungle with no supplies.

But it’s not like they have a choice.

Chapter 6

Chapter Text

Chapter Six

Alpha Centauri, Main Settlement

He went away on a school trip for a week and came back to a different world.

Will Robinson’s only been back on Alpha Centauri for a few hours but everything has changed.

He’s not in his own house – that chaotic but love-filled place he now calls home-, but instead a tearful Penny picked him up from the Jupiter base and brought him here. To Victor Dhar’s home, where the stark impact of his new reality hits him even harder.

He doesn’t say it out loud, because he’s supposed to be the strong one. The one who doesn’t show it when he’s scared. If he does, that’ll upset Penny even more and he loves her too much for that.

But the truth is, he wants to go home. Wants to be out in their own yard and look into Mom’s telescope. Because she loved it there – loved exploring new galaxies right from their backyard.

Maybe if he’s there and looks into it, he’ll be inspired with some brilliant idea. Something – anything – that’ll help them find her and Don.

He hears a clang of dishes coming from the kitchen – not-his-kitchen – and it shakes him out of his thoughts. Makes him realize he used the past tense.

Because she loved it there

Why did he do that? Loves. She loves it there.

“Will….?”

Vijay sits down at the table across from him and pushes a bowl in Will’s direction. “My Mom made these for you. Gulab jamun. They’re sweet…and…you know, like comfort food.”

Will stares at the little balls of dough floating in a shallow base of amber liquid. Wondering if he can swallow them, and keep them down, if he tries one.

Penny’s words still echo in his head.

“Mom and Don’s transport Jupiter disappeared when they were coming back from the Solidarity….” Words that were cut off by sobs. “They think it exploded in space but Dad and Judy…and Grant, are looking for the wreckage.”

At first she said wreckage but then she added that Dad believed there’s a chance they survived.

Is there?

Will’s the one who used to believe in impossible odds. He’s the one who proved everyone wrong when it turned out that Dad and Don did survive when their Jupiter exploded.

Where’s his unshakeable belief this time?

I’m not a kid a kid who believes in miracles anymore. Because now I know how unlikely the odds are.

Because I don’t have a real heart anymore.

He’s always been more like his mother than his sisters. Or at least that’s what he thought – because he shared her love of science and math. He’s good at it like she was.

Is not was!

Why does he keep doing that? Keep thinking of her in the past tense?

Because I know there’s virtually no chance that she’s still alive….

Robot is sitting next to him, his lights moving slower than usual, reflecting his sombre mood.

Most people don’t believe the robots are capable of feeling anything, but Will knows that’s not true. He’s been connected to his robot since the day they first met and he’s always been able to share the things that Robot feels. His mother used to say that they probably have a connection of shared experiences – like two people watching the same movie, even if they watched it at different times - rather than emotions, but Will knows that it’s more than that.

He felt Robot’s grief when Gypsy and Scarecrow died.

He feels it now too. Robot’s sadness is as heavy and suffocating as his own.

The only thing he doesn’t know is why.

Is Robot sad because he’s mourning Mom and Don like he is? Or is he sad because Will’s sad?

Or is he sad because of the rumours that it was a robot who caused the ship to crash?

“Did you see this?” Vijay holds up his comm for Will to look at. “There’s been an accident at that high school construction site and they say it could be sabotage from a robot.”

A chill runs down Will’s spine and he looks at Robot.

“They’re saying that as of today, robots are gonna be removed from all work sites,” Vijay adds. “Until they figure out what’s going on.”

Will swallows a piece of gulab jamun and its pleasant sweetness is a soothing contrast to all the bleak news.

As if a Jupiter crashing with his Mom and Don inside it wasn’t bad enough, there’s a strange sense of fear and unease in town. It makes him feel like things are about to get even worse. A lot worse. Especially for Robot.

He’s going to talk to Penny as soon as he catches her alone and tell her that he’s going home.

The Dhars have been really good to them but Will knows what people do once they’re scared. They don’t act rationally and if people become scared of the robots, that means it’s going to affect his robot. He needs to talk to Dad and Judy and join them on their search.

Besides, it’s not like they’re kids anymore who need babysitters. They spent almost a year on an alien planet without any adults – Smith doesn’t really count – so they can definitely go back to their own home without any adults around.

Being around his parents’ space will also help him clear his head and make sense of things that are making no sense at all right now.

Every problem has a solution, his mother’s words ring through his ears and they give him goosebumps because he can hear them in her voice.

Except there’s no solution for losing her. There never will be.

“Hey….” Vijay looks at him funny. “You okay?”

“Yeah….” Will nods and he can hear how shaky he sounds. “Fine.”

Home.

He needs to go home.

Southern Tropics

They manage to walk almost an entire day.

Although walking is a generous description of the tedious slogging, stumbling, tripping, and frequent resting that they’re doing.

The undergrowth is a beast and it hampers their progress.

In spite of all their efforts, they don’t cover much ground. Maureen doubts they even managed three kilometres. It’s hard to tell without their comms to let them know and she doesn’t have John’s innate sense of distance and direction. She’s too used to relying on technology for these things.

It ‘s also hot as hell, her head is pounding and her brain is still a little fuzzy.

Now it’s dark outside and Don’s breathing so hard that Maureen knows they’re done for the day.

They’re still not far enough away from the robots that they can turn on the comms without risk of being spotted. But they’ll do it tomorrow morning anyway, she suggests to Don. At least then they can start moving right afterwards.

Their comms will be able to indicate what’s edible in the forest that surrounds them.

They desperately need a food source to keep going. The handful of snacks she was able to scavenge from the wreck of the Jupiter are already long gone. They planned to ration themselves to half a granola bar today but they exerted so much energy on their hike through this sauna of a forest, that they couldn’t do it. They were starving and wolfed down a whole one each, as well as several peanuts.

Now they’re still hungry and there’s nothing left.

Maureen figures they can keep going another three, maybe four days, without any nutrients. They’re already dropping weight from the heat and the exertion. At least they have water. If nothing else, the constant rain keeps their thermoses full.

The comms will also give them a map - let them know if they’re anywhere close to a research outpost.

Maureen’s aware that the chances are slim. The Alpha Centauri colonists have focused all their energy on setting up an urban centre – and the destruction of the Resolute – her doing - meant they had no new supplies that came in. No new colonists to go exploring.

Instead, they had to prioritize their limited manpower and supplies on building a new colonist ship.

There was also a small chance that turning on their comms might alert someone. But the odds of that were even slimmer than being near a research outpost. It would mean that someone had to be intentionally tracking them, and why would they? Everyone probably thinks they’re dead.

Don lowers himself into the softest bit of soil he finds and now he’s partially hidden by a massive, leafy bush. “So you wanna turn ‘em on at the first crack of dawn and then make for the hills?”

Maureen sinks down next to him, exhausted. “Yeah…great plan, right?”

“Wish I could say had a better one.”

“How are you feeling?” she asks.

“Like sh*t.”

Maureen reaches over to touch his forehead and frowns. “Tell me that’s ‘cause it’s hot…”

“Sure.” Don winces. “It’s ‘cause it’s hot.”

She stares at him and notices a thin sheen of sweat along his hairline. Not good.

Not that any of this was good but did things have to keep getting worse? If only they had some sort of technology on hand, she could figure out a way to get them out of this mess. But they have nothing. No food, no transportation, no maps. And a ship full of killer robots just landed nearby, ready to finish them off.

Don and Maureen talked about the robot ship during their day-long hike. Wondered if anyone at the Jupiter base was monitoring the skies and had seen it come in. Wondered what the hell it was doing here.

“Maybe it’s here to pick up Taron and that other robot and then it’ll go off to harass some other alien planet?” Don suggested.

Wishful thinking, Maureen thought.

Either way, they need help getting out of this jungle.

Don’s tired eyes meet hers. “You really think anyone’s looking for us?”

“Yes.” She knows that with certainty. Whether or not they’ll find them is a different story, but she has no doubt that John and the kids are looking.

“How come you’re so sure?” Don questions with a groan. “I see a ship disappear in space, I sure as hell am not gonna place a bet on survivors.”

“Because John and the kids, they’ll want answers. They won’t give up, especially Will…Will never stops believing.”

“For our sake….I hope you’re right. I hope they’re persistent as hell and convinced all their pals to join them.”

Maureen exhales as she rummages through their diminished medical kit. She’s not so sure about the latter. Because who else but family would care enough to defy all logic and search for them?

She hands him two pills. “Take these.”

“Thought we were splitting those?”

“You have a fever. I don’t.”

“Says who? Your manual thermometer?”

“Christ, Don…take them. I’m your boss – so just do it.”

For a second, amusem*nt flickers on his pained face, “Pretty sure I clocked out after that transport blew up.”

That makes her chuckle and it sharpens the throb in her side, “Don’t gimme a hard time…I’m fine. You’re not.”

“Like hell you are.”

But he finally shuts up and swallows them. Then she applies what’s left of the anti-burn foam on his arm and hopes it’s enough to curb the infection. When she’s done, it doesn’t take long for him to fade on her. That scares her too because when Don stops talking, he’s in bad shape.

She drinks more water and then lies down too, staring at the endless leaves dancing above her head. It won’t be long before she’s asleep. They don’t bother keeping guard anymore. They don’t have the energy for it.

The dark leaves blur in her vision. There are so many that they block the sky and it makes her melancholy, to not be able to see the stars. Because even on her worst days, looking up at them always gave her hope.

Closing her eyes, Maureen thinks of him instead. That warm, familiar face that she misses even more now. Every beautiful line on it is etched into her memory.

John, you have to find a way. Because I’m not sure how much longer we can hold on.

Aboard the Jupiter 2, Southern Tropics

John…you have to find a way.

He jolts back into wakefulness and stares at the instruments in front of him. Shivering.

He could have sworn he heard her voice.

“Dad…” It’s Judy’s voice he hears now. “You need to get some rest.”

“No, I’m good.”

“You’re not. You’ve been awake, what, three days now?”

“I’ was awake longer than that back when I was….”

“Dad….” She groans. “You’re no good to anyone if you can’t focus. The search is running on its own and the ship’s on autopilot. There’s no need for you to sit here. We won’t find them if you keel over….”

John presses his eyes shut. She’s always been so damn stubborn. “Fine…” He pushes himself off the pilot’s seat and makes his way through the Hub and into his former bedroom.

After splashing cold water on his face, he brushes his teeth in the en-suite bathroom and collapses into bed. Their bed.

Judy’s not wrong. He is running on fumes and he knows he needs rest, even if only a short-power nap.

And he hopes oblivion takes over soon, because there are too many memories dancing at the edge of his tired thoughts. Memories of nights spent in this room with her. Nights giving and taking pleasure. Watching the silhouette of her naked body get up in the darkness of the room when she thought he was asleep.

He curls into himself and tries to push her out of his mind. As if.

A life spent in the military means he’s good at falling asleep when he needs to. Good at compartmentalizing. Focusing only on the task at hand and shoving everything else out of the way.

So he does. He sleeps.

But it doesn’t last.

Seems like he’s only just closed his eyes when he’s back on his feet, inside the wreckage of a Jupiter. It’s still burning and there’s debris everywhere. Smoke hits his nostrils and he can barely breathe. The stench of fuel and burning metal is strong. Not just metal.

Flesh.

Burning flesh.

He almost trips over his own feet. No. Not his own. Someone else’s feet.

Foot. Singular.

A lone, severed foot is on the floor of the shattered ship and it almost makes him lose his balance. Makes him shudder.

What is this? Where is he?

And then he sees it, a torso hidden behind the wreckage of what used to be a control panel. Part of a body, missing at least two limbs. Maybe more…

Red-brown hair coming from a head that’s been cut open. As if a chainsaw sliced through the skull allowing him to see the grey-pink folds of human brain tissue underneath.

That hair. He knows that colour. Intimately. It’s been all over his face at night and he’s run his fingers through it so many times.

Maureen…

Oh, God. He’s gonna be sick.

He’s seen every imaginable horror on too many battlefields but never this.

This is his wife. The woman he loves.

Mangled, almost beyond recognition.

“Maureen…” he can barely say her name. Can barely make himself move towards the body. And that’s all it is now. A body. Broken into macabre bit and pieces as if someone had torn apart a marionette in a fit of rage.

He’s gonna be sick.

And then her head turns and her eyes open. Which is not possible because she can’t be alive. Not like this.

“John…”

He’s kneeling beside her now, trying to cradle her in his arms, his lap…but half of her is gone. Her legs are gone. Nowhere in sight.

He wants to pull her close but when he lifts her head, his fingers slide right into her brain, thick., moist and bloody.

She’s staring up at him. Blue eyes piercing into his with bitter accusation. “I waited for you…why didn’t you come?”

He can’t extract his fingers from her brain. They’re stuck.

Sick.

He’s gonna be sick. Violently, uncontrollably sick.

His stomach heaves and suddenly everything is gone.

The wreckage of the Jupiter, Maureen’s remains. The stench that entered his lungs only moments ago.

It’s all gone and he’s back inside his old, neat, bedroom….and he can barely make it to the toilet in time to empty his guts.

It’s loud and messy and when it’s over he sinks to the floor, his hands shaking. Searching for the blood that had covered them only seconds ago.

A dream.

It was a dream. A nightmare.

A horrible, bone-chilling nightmare.

But that’s all. Not real.

Not real. Not real.

He has to repeat it to himself. Because he’s so cold and he can’t stop his hands from shaking.

“Dad….” Judy’s voice sounds far away. “Are you okay?”

He nods and pushes himself off the floor. His daughter’s in the bathroom too.

“Lemme help you. Let’s get you back into bed….”

“No…” He’s not going back there. To their bed. Their space. To those dying blue eyes wanting to know why he didn’t get to her in time.

Once he’s on his feet he turns on the tap and splashes his face with water. Rinses his mouth with a green-coloured mouth-wash that's sitting on the rim.

Judy’s eyeing him like a hawk. “Were you sick?”

“Yeah…” He splashes another handful of water on his face. “But I’m okay now.”

“From what, Dad? Did you eat something?”

“Dream,” he explains and of course she understands.

“Lemme give you something. A sedative…so you can actually sleep.”

“No,” he scoffs, shooting down her offer. Who's the parent here?

“Dad, you need sleep.”

“She was dead….” He tells her. “In my dream. She was dead, Jude. Not just dead but….” This he can’t and won’t put into words. “It was….horrible.”

“It wasn’t real.”

“I’m starting to think this is madness. It’s been over three days…if they were alive…”

“If they’re alive they might not have a way of letting us know…”

“The chances of them surviving this are so impossibly small…this isn’t fair to you. To make you believe that…”

“Stop it!” Judy cuts him off this time and there’s anger in her voice. “I don’t care about fair…I’m not some kid who can’t handle the truth and I’m not giving up. I will not give up until we find something concrete…until we have real, solid evidence of what happened. Because that’s exactly what Mom would do.” She exhales, her lower lip trembling. “No matter what we find.”

John let’s his shoulders sag. He’s not sure he can handle the truth. Not if the truth is anything like his dream.

And he sure as hell isn’t letting Judy see anything like that. It would haunt her for the rest of her life.

“Get some rest, Dad. A few solid hours, not thirty nightmare-filled minutes. Lemme give you something…”

“No…” He stays firm on that, because the last thing he wants is to be drugged if the Jupiter’s sensors pick up on anything.

Judy sighs as she watches him push himself off the seat and head into the Hub.

Later

Maybe he wouldn’t let her give him something to sleep but at least he didn’t go back into the co*ckpit to stare at the readings of the Jupiter’s search parameters until his eyes glazed over.

He went to lie down on a bench in the Hub and that’s where he is now. Seemingly asleep, even though his face doesn’t look relaxed. Even in sleep, his brows are furrowed and one of his hands is curled into a fist, as if he’ll be battle ready the second he wakes up.

He would be, she thinks with a lop-sided smile. He always is. Willing to move mountains and battle anyone and everyone to keep them all safe.

He’s been her hero as long as she can remember. Her invincible Dad who always made everything better and always made her feel safe. He helped her with her school projects, taught her how to ride a bike and build a campfire, and he made her hot chocolate when she was sick.

That is, until he left them for three years and it hurt so bad that Judy was afraid that she’d never be able to forgive him. How could she forgive him for making her doubt everything she thought she knew about him?

Maybe his leaving hurt her more than her siblings because she’s always been closer to him than they were. Or maybe that was an arrogant assumption on her part.

For a while she even wondered whether he still loved any of them.

But then they went into space and he proved how much he did. Every single day. And Judy, she was happy to be proven wrong when it came to her father. To learn that sometimes in life, things weren’t black and white, and that sometimes love is complicated.

Seeing her parent’s relationship cemented that realization. Because there was a time that she wasn’t sure they’d stay together, even if they did still love each other.

Judy always liked to observe them, at the way they communicate with nothing more than a glance and how their bodies always gravitate towards each other wordlessly. It gave her goosebumps sometimes, because she’s never had that kind of intimacy with another person and she often wonders what it’s like. To be loved like that.

Just thinking about it floods with her with a strange yearning that she can’t put into words.

Judy Robinson knows that she’s smart and mature and capable, but when it comes to matters of the heart, she’s embarrassed to admit that she knows very little. Even her little sister has more experience on that front, and she can’t talk to Penny about it because she’s ashamed to admit it.

Judy knows that she’s always been serious. Serious, driven and responsible.

Too serious, probably.

She wanted to be a doctor for as long as she could remember, and she poured her heart and soul into that dream. She skipped parties and dating because she was too busy studying. And when Dad left to go on tour and didn’t come back for three years, suddenly, on top of pre-med, she felt responsible for helping Mom hold the family together. She loved her family and it wasn’t fair to her mother to have to do everything single-handedly. And because Judy was the eldest, she knew it was up to her to step up.

Who had time for boys when she had all that on her plate?

Penny. That’s who.

Penny was always the fun one. The bubbly people-magnet who wears her heart on her sleeve and isn’t afraid to follow it and act on impulse. Or to skip a class to go watch a movie with friends. Penny has the kind of vulnerability and openness that draws people in. Makes them want to love her.

Even now, Penny calls Judy several times a day, in tears, because she can’t bear the thought of losing their mother.

But me, I can’t even cry. I feel like I have to be strong, as usual.

Someone has to be strong when everyone else is falling apart, right?

Usually that someone is Mom. Or Dad.

But Mom….Mom’s gone.

And Dad – tough, strong, invincible Dad – seems to be hanging on by a very fine thread.

Judy stares out into the darkness of the night sky surrounding the Jupiter. Wondering if by some miracle, they’re out there…Mom and Don.

She bites her lip to fight back the sudden of emotions that wash over her. Not letting them get the upper hand.

She’s good at that.

The truth is, she’s been dreaming too, these last three days. Every time she shuts her eyes for a couple of hours of sleep, she starts to dream.

But her dreams are not about her mother.

They’re about him.

Don.

The first one was so random and simple. A dream about the silly arguments they used to have when they were stranded on that tiny strip of beach, on the water planet. Squabbles and banter over nothing that somehow lightened the load she always seemed to carry on her shoulders.

The second was about Debbie, of all things. That crazy chicken. Of Don chasing after her on the streets of Alpha Centauri, because that chicken loved to run away from him. Judy suspects that at this point, Debbie’s doing it on purpose, just to piss him off. Because she’s sassy like that.

Judy remembers laughing in that dream, and when she woke up all she could think about was how good it felt. To laugh. To have something lift the darkness that’s hanging over all of them.

Don’s always been able to do that for her. To make things lighter. Easier.

Happier.

Just the thought of him not being around to do that anymore tightens the vice around her heart.

It’s the last dream though, that she can’t shake from her mind, because it was so vivid.

And so unexpected.

Or was it?

He was in her bedroom, standing impossibly close to her and slowly taking off her clothes, and, oh god, it was stupid how much she wanted it. Wanted his hands – those warm calloused, expert hands – touching every part of her. She wanted his mouth on hers so bad that even in her dream she leaned into him to give him easier access. She could feel her frustration bubbling over because he wouldn’t kiss her. Not yet.

“Don…” It was a moan and an ache and a plea.

Don. Don. Don.

He slid off her top slowly, taking his time as he smiled at her and when she inched closer and closer she could feel him against her. So big, hard and ready, it thrilled her to the core.

She’s so very familiar with male anatomy. Knows where everything is and exactly what function it has. Penis. Urethra. Vas Deferens. Testis. Scrotum.

But she’s only ever seen them in books and cadavers and a few times during rounds, including on a seventy-five-year-old, suffering from testicular cancer.

This…this was so different. It was warm and real and she wanted to feel this part of him as a woman, not a doctor.

Her top was down and a soft, warm breeze caressed her breasts before his mouth made its way onto one of her nipples. His tongue and teeth they were doing things….things that felt so good that she never wanted it to stop.

Yes, please. Oh, yes.

She closed her eyes and gave in to the pleasure.

Until she realized that she wasn’t doing anything in return. Wasn’t even undressing him.

God, she was bad at this. Even in her dreams. He’d probably leave and never come back again.

But instead his fingers wrapped around her wrist. Pulling her hand up to his lips to kiss it. “Don’t worry about that…Judy, just lemme…just be. Enjoy it. Lemme savour you. Worship every beautiful inch.”

She trembled a little. Cold and hot all at once. So ready but also so unsure. “I wanna…I want it to be good for you too…”

“Oh, this is…” He ginned and cupped the back of her neck. “It’s good. Trust me…you have no idea.”

The thing was, she did trust him. Like she never trusted anyone before.

She let him undress her. Completely. Slide her panties off her legs and run his index finger up along the inside of her thighs and glide inside of her.

She gasped.

But there was nothing awkward about it. Not when he slipped out of his own shirt and pants and pulled her down on his lap before he led her down to her bed, moving alongside her body and running his hands along every inch of her, making her feel as if she might drown in him and if she did, she’d welcome it.

She wanted it so bad.

“You sure?” he whispered into her ear.

Yes, yes, yes.

And then he finally kissed her mouth, after every other part of her was already on fire. Hot and moist and…

Then she woke up, breathing hard, heart racing. Desperately shutting her eyes again, because she wanted to sink back into the dream. Into him. She wanted more.

Her hand roamed across her belly and then lower, because that was part wasn’t a dream. That was real, that wet, warmth that needed to be satiated. That part that was so aroused that it wouldn’t take more than a few strokes before her back arched and she cried out when the release came.

She covered her head with a blanket to muffle the sounds, because amidst all the carnal pleasure a wave of guilt washed over her after that dream.

What the hell was wrong with her?

Her mother might be dead and she was dreaming about having sex with Don?

She could imagine Dad and Penny shaking their heads in disappointment if they knew.

Don West, who probably saw her as his little sister. Who would probably never even entertain the endless crazy thoughts running through her mind. Who probably has zero interest in her...

Judy keeps staring into that unfamiliar starlit sky, as she sits in the co*ckpit of the Jupiter 2 pulling her knees up towards her chest, her eyes darting between the endless expanse outside the ship and the screen of the Jupiter’s search monitor.

Please find them. Let them be okay.

Even if he doesn’t want her the way she wants him, she can’t imagine her life without him in it any more than she can imagine a life without her mother.

They have to be okay. Have to, Judy thinks as she hugs herself to ward off the sudden chill that runs up her spine.

Because anything else is unbearable.

Chapter 7

Chapter Text

Chapter Seven

Southern Tropics

“Is this possible?” Don looks at her in disbelief.

“I don’t know….” Maureen has trouble believing it herself. “It’s possible the feature’s malfunctioning. We’ve had the comms off for a while. The batteries are low….they might be damaged from the crash.” She’s trying to rationalize something that makes no sense – because that’s what she does - but she knows none of it is likely.

They turned on their comms this morning to help them identify a food source in the forest, and the results have shown absolutely nothing. It’s warning them against consuming everything in sight. In fact, several of the plants in their midst aren’t just inedible, they’re highly poisonous.

“You think it’s a malfunction?”

Maureen shakes her head. “No. I don’t. Especially since yours is telling us the same thing. In fact, it would explain the lack of animal life around us.”

“sh*t.”

“Yeah…” She watches him struggle to get up and holds out her hand. Winces when the strain of pulling him up pulls at her side and intensifies the constant throb.

“We gotta move,” he tells her. “Now that we turned them on…the robots….” Talking takes effort and Don’s not entirely steady on his feet, holding on to her shoulder for a long moment before letting go.

“I know…”

“We turned them on for nothing,” he adds.

Maureen transmits several Mayday signals and decides to leave it on for another minute or two, noticing that Don’s already turned his off.

There’s no response. Not that she expects one. Unless there’s a research station nearby – and, according to the map on her comm, there isn’t - they’re too far out of range for anyone to receive their signal.

Except the robots.

“We had to turn them on, to find out.”

At least turning them gave them a vague idea of where they are. They’re even further south, further away from any sort of civilization, than Maureen thought, but the map also showed a river about ten kilometres west. It’s gruelling a hike in this terrain and in their condition, but it was in the opposite direction of the wreckage and would give them a goal. Maybe if they could swim or float instead of walk. Maybe there’d be some aquatic life they could eat.

They need food. Badly.

“We turn ‘em on only to find out that eating anything around is either gonna make us sick or die…while at the same time not eating is gonna kill us too…”

“Stop it,” Maureen sighs. “Not helping.”

Don’s teeth are chattering and suddenly he’s scaring her again. He keeps looking worse and she’s not sure he’ll be able to keep going much longer. Not sure she can either. She’s weak and hurting, and although her headache has eased, the pain in her side keeps getting worse. It kept her awake most of the night and she figures it has to be infected by now – what are the chances that it wasn’t? Slim, she thinks.

But Don…he’s worse. He’s running a fever and his arm…she tries not to look at it, because there’s nothing she can do anymore, not without any new supplies, and that kills her. If he doesn’t get medical care soon, she’s sure he’ll lose his arm.

“I’m sorry…” Don mumbles. “I’m just…”

“I know…it’s okay.” Maureen pours out two more pills from their container and hands them to him along with the water bottle. Notices that there are only four left. “Take these.”

This time he doesn’t protest.

The rain has resumed and soon they’ll be soaked again.

Water. If nothing else at least they have a steady supply of drinkable water. It keeps them reasonably clean, cool and alive.

But even that wouldn’t be enough. Not for much longer.

Maureen gives Don a gentle push and finally turns off her comm. “We have to move.”

Alpha Centauri, Robinson Residence

“Hey….”

Will turns around to see his sister slinking out of their parents’ bedroom, rubbing her sleepy eyes. He gives her what he hopes is an encouraging look. It probably isn’t. “Morning.”

Penny slides into a chair across from him at their dinner table. “How long have you been up?”

He shrugs, because he really isn’t sure. Going off planet last week kind of made him lose all sense of time. It didn’t help that the planet they visited had no sunlight and was shrouded in near-constant darkness.

On top of everything else, he also has inter-planetary jet-lag.

“You want some breakfast?” he asks.

She makes a rueful face. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”

He shrugs again. “No…why?”

“I’m seriously the worst older sister in the world. Actually, worlds. All of the ones we've been on. Plural.”

“You’re not,” Will reassures her, because she looks like she’s close to tears again. Her red-rimmed eyes are moist. Since getting back from his trip he’s wanted to wrap her up in a hug and not let go, because he doesn’t like to see her upset.

But there’s nothing he can do.

Except find Mom.

And when we know for sure, it’s gonna hurt even more….

“I’ll get some cereal after,” she mumbles, wiping at the trace of a tear with the back of her hand.

Penny slept in their parents’ bedroom last night. Will didn’t ask why and she didn’t offer an explanation but he figures it’s because she wanted to feel close to Mom.

Of the three of them, Penny’s always had the most complicated relationship with their mother. Will never really understood why Penny always felt she had to try harder to be loved by her, but maybe that’s because for a long time he was oblivious to the fact that Mom always did lavish a bit of extra care and attention on him.

It was clearer to him now, now that he was getting older and wiser, that Mom was over-protective of him for a lot of reasons. Because he was the youngest, because he was born premature while Dad was away on tour, and apparently, he almost didn’t make it. Almost died in the NICU.

Dad also happened to be away a lot more than when he was a kid than when Judy and Penny were young, so Mom tried extra hard to make up for it – tried to give him enough love and attention for two parents.

At least that’s what he was beginning to understand now. That sometimes family dynamics were weird not everything was as equal as parents pretended it was.

But he’s sure about one thing – Mom and Penny loved each other. A lot.

Love, not loved. He’s doing it again and he’s angry at himself for it. Angry that he can’t bring himself to hope that she’s still alive.

Even though Penny often feels like the odd one out, she’s so much more like Mom than she realizes.

For instance, Will knows she didn’t want to come back here, to their house. Knows she wanted to stay with Vijay and the Dhars, but when Will said he wanted to go home, she insisted on going with him, even though he told her she didn’t have to. Not that he was on his own anyway, since Robot was here too. But Penny wouldn’t have it, and that protectiveness that Penny has over all of them, that’s very Mom.

“I talked to Grant this morning. He’s coming back to refuel.”

“Just Grant?” Penny questions. “What about Dad and Judy?”

“Grant’s gonna bring them fuel.”

“Oh…”

“Robot and I are going to go back with Grant.”

“What?” Penny straightens her back. “Aren’t you’re supposed to go to school.”

“Are you gonna be able to concentrate on anything at school?”

“No, of course not.”

“Well, then.”

“But Dad said…”

“I’m not going with Dad, I’m going with Grant.”

“Because of course he’ll be totally fine with it and not ask Dad if it’s okay for him to take you…”

“I’m not asking for permission, Penny! I’m going!” Will exclaims. “We’re not kids anymore. We lived on our own for a year and rescued our parents and we have to help them out now. Besides, what happened to Robinsons sticking together?”

Penny blows her nose. “You’re right. We do have to help them.” She pushes her chair back. “I’m getting changed and I’m coming with you.”

Jupiter Transport Base

Penny can tell that Grant doesn’t know what to do with their insistence on coming along. That he’s torn between not wanting to deny them this desperate request and also not wanting to deal with her father’s wrath.

“This is our Mom we’re talking about. We want to help,” she pleads. “Besides, you need help!”

“We’re coming,” Will repeats and listening to him makes Penny wonder when exactly he’d changed from the little kid who was scared of everything, to this force of nature who didn’t seem to be afraid of anything anymore.

They’re all standing outside the Jupiter’s entry ramp as it gets refuelled and Grant sighs.

Penny can sense that he’s about to give in and she doesn’t hesitate to give him an extra push. Even though she doesn’t know Grant Kelly all that well, she’s good at reading people. She feels her eyes moisten again and this time she doesn’t fight it. “Please…” she pleads as a tear rolls down her cheek. “We have to do something.”

She’s also a pretty good actress who can fake a few tears when needed, but there’s no need now. They come naturally every time she thinks that Mom might be gone.

Because no matter how hard she tries to be brave like, Will and Judy, she can’t do it. Can’t imagine a world without her mother in it. Not yet, and not anytime soon.

Maybe it’s stupid and naïve to keep hoping that she’s alive, but the alternative, accepting the unacceptable, is even worse.

“Fine,” Grant finally concedes, his dark eyes darting around the busy space ship terminal, as if checking to see whether anyone is watching them. As if there aren’t cameras all over the place anyway. “But the robot has to stay here.”

“What?” Will’s doesn’t accept that either. “Why? He can help.”

“Look,” Grant takes a step towards them because he’s lowering his voice. “He’s not even supposed to be in this building. Haven’t you noticed everyone staring at him? They’re turning a blind eye because …” He pauses. “Because they know what you two are going through.”

“I don’t understand,” Will asks. “Why wouldn’t he be allowed here?”

“None of the robots are allowed at workplaces or on any human transport anymore.”

“Since when?”

Grant holds up his comm to show them an alert scrolling by. “New rule. Since about five hours ago.”

Penny is as shocked as Will. “Why?”

“There was another…accident early this morning. A family Jupiter crashed and they think it was sabotage.”

“Are they….?”

“The pilots ejected and three others were able to seal the Hub and survive the crash.”

“Mom designed the Hub that way mainly to keep us safe.” Penny mentions, thinking out loud.

“I didn’t know,” Grant turns to her.

“If it’s saving other people’s lives….it could have kept her and Don safe too, right?”

Grant doesn’t quite meet her gaze. “Yeah….it could.”

“Why do they think it was sabotage?” Will wants to know.

“Look, I don’t know,” Grant tells him. “I just read the alerts and try to make sure I’m not breaking any laws. A lot’s been going on with the robots since you were away.”

“My robot would never hurt…”

Grants notices that the refuelling procedure is done and motions for them to get on board. “Get in….and let’s go, before someone decides that none of us are leaving.”

Southern Tropics

When they all met up with Dad and Judy, after landing both their Jupiters to refuel, there were some brief reunion hugs, followed by their father letting them know how unimpressed he was by what they did.

“There’s a reason I told you to stay back in town,” he told them.

“You told me I had to stay and be there for Will when he got back, which I did,” Penny points out. “Now he’s back and we can both help you.”

But he wasn’t swayed by that at all. “It’s more than that…”

Their father didn’t elaborate and he didn’t keep arguing now that they were here, but he wasn’t happy about it and Will had a good idea of what he was hinting at. That he didn’t want them to see what they might find.

Afterwards, they ate a quick meal together before they were airborne again.

But not before Will was told to board Grant’s ship along with Robot, while Penny stayed on the Jupiter 2 with their father and Judy.

So that’s where Will is now, in Grant’s Jupiter along with his best friend. To provide Grant with an extra two sets of eyes.

Of course it made sense for one of them to join Grant on his ship, rather than have all of them stay with his father, but Will wondered why it had to be him. Why it couldn’t have been Penny or Judy?

Sometimes it seemed like his Dad was always okay to be away from him. But not Penny or Judy.

He feels a flush of shame in his cheeks, because having these thoughts makes him feel selfish. To feel jealousy, especially now, when the only thing that mattered was finding Mom and Don.

Of course he’ll help Grant, he thinks, pushing the petty thoughts away.

He also feels guilty because, unlike his sisters, he has a hard time believing that Don and Mom are still alive.

Could it be that Dad sensed this? That this was why he didn’t want him on the Jupiter 2?

“You okay?” Grant Kelly asks him when Will enters the co*ckpit of his ship.

No, he thinks without answering.

“I guess that’s a dumb question…isn’t it? I’m sorry.”

Will looks at Grant, grateful that at least he doesn’t expect an answer. Not an honest one anyway, so he still doesn’t say anything. What is there to say?

Part of him wonders why Grant is even here. Is it for Judy? Judy who’s on their ship with their Dad, not here with Grant.

Or is it because he still cares about Mom?

Did it matter? At least he was here. No one else in the colony seemed to believe that there was a point to this search party.

“Do you wanna see what our search parameters are on the scanner?”

Will slides into the co-pilot seat and watches as the Jupiter’s scanner is analysing the landscape beneath them, searching for metals unique to these ships. “Sure.”

“If you think there are any elements we should add, let me know,” Grant adds. “I heard geology’s your thing.”

Can it search for human remains? He wants to ask even as goosebumps line his arms and guilt floods him.

Stop it, stop it, stop it.

Will catches Robot looking at him from the doorway of the co*ckpit. It’s like he knows what Will’s thinking. He probably does, because they’re connected in ways he can’t even begin to explain and he whispers a silent apology to his friend. I didn’t mean it.

He’s going to sit by the scanner for the rest of the day, to make up for it.

Because Mom and Don deserve better than his dark, morbid thoughts.

Southern Tropics

The sun hasn’t set yet but Maureen knows they’re done for the day.

If she pushes herself to the absolute limit, she could maybe manage another kilometer, but Don…Don’s done. He hasn’t said a word for the past hour or so – she’s never too sure of time anymore. The only thing she’s been using to measure time is the sun and it’s not the most accurate gauge.

Don’s already on his back, lying on the soft, moist forest bed beneath him and she follows suit, even though she’s increasingly afraid now – afraid that every time she lies down, she might not find the strength to get back up.

“How much further to the river do you think?” Don asks.

Leaves are dancing above her, swaying in the light breeze and looking up at them amplifies her dizziness.

“Maureen?” It’s a croak, his breathing hard and laboured.

She can’t bring herself to look at his arm anymore. It’s so bad and she has absolutely no tools to help him anymore. They’ve used up nearly all the supplies in their medical kit.

She changed her bandage for the last time this morning and he’s down to four pills, two of which she’ll make him take now.

It’s like putting a band-aid on a gunshot wound.

She figures they covered about three and a half kilometres today and she bites her lip in disappointment. She was hoping for at least five, but the terrain is so bad and the heat is nearly unbearable during certain times of the day. The vegetation so dense that they keep having to push through foliage, climb over fallen tree trunks and they keep tripping all over the place. It’s impeding their progress and depleting them of the little energy they have left.

“We’re almost halfway there,” she lies. At their current rate of progress, it was another two-day walk and she’s not sure they still have two days of walking left in them.

She debates sending another Mayday signal but decides against it. She wants to think they’re far enough away from the robots that turning the comms on is a minor risk now, but at the same time, they have no way of recharging them, so they might as well leave them off and save the battery. Besides, it’s not like their transmissions are going to be heard by anyone.

“Maureen….”

“Yeah…?” She still staring up into the leaves.

“This is it,” Don mumbles. “For me.”

“What?” She doesn’t understand.

“Can’t walk anymore.”

“Don…” Maureen rolls onto her good side and tries to push herself back up, and, f*ck, it hurts. But she makes it onto her knees and looks down at him, at the frightening, greyish tint on his face. She grabs his thermos and two of the last four pills. Slides her arm under his neck to lift him up. “Drink.”

He drinks the water but doesn’t take the pills. “No…useless for me. You take them.”

“Don…” she groans. God, she does not have the energy for an argument.

“Maureen,” he hisses and grabs her arm. “I’m done…this is it.”

She shakes her head and feels the tears well up in her eyes. “No…no, no, no.”

“I’m only slowing you down.”

“Right, because I’d be sprinting across this forest without your slow ass holding me back.”

He grins. A big feverish grin spreads across his pained face. “You know it.”

“Don…” She wipes away the tears that rolling down freely. She’s so exhausted. To the point where she can’t handle one more thing. This cannot be the end for him…not this. Not dying injured and starving in some remote jungle, because no one knows they’re still alive. Not after surviving that Jupiter crash against impossible odds. “Come on….please, Don. Don’t give up yet.”

“You find a way out, you have a family, they need you.”

“You’re part of that family.”

“So I need you too…need you to think….” He’s struggling. “Like a damn scientist. Rational. You keep going, without me. Get help. Save us both.”

She nods. “Fine. I keep going but only if you promise not to die on me in the meantime.”

He gives her another smile. “’Kay. Deal.”

“You better hold up your end, Don West, I swear.”

“You’ll get me a nice plaque, right? If I don’t.”

“No. I won’t.”

He laughs and it’s a pitiful sound. “Yeah….you will. We both know it. You’re not as cold as you pretend.”

“Yes, I am.” But Maureen squeezes his hand. “How about you hang on…then you can have whatever you want.”

“Gonna hold you to that….”

She swallows the two pills in her hand with some water, because they’re starting to dissolve in the palm of her hand and lies back down, right next to him. Can feel the heat of his fever coming off his body.

She knows she has one too. The warmth she’s felt under her skin all day is more than just the humid heat of this jungle. Time isn’t on their side anymore. “I’ll rest a bit then keep going,” she tells him. She won’t sleep much anyway. Everything hurts too much.

“In the dark?”

“Yeah…it’l be cooler and I can use the flashlight from the comm. But you leave yours off. You'll be a sitting duck if you can't move.”

He’s still holding on to her hand. “Don’t look back and don’t think about me…do what you can to survive.”

She blinks back another round of tears. “Shut up and sleep.”

She can’t see the smile on his face, but she knows it’s there.

“Yes, boss.”

She drifts in and out for a while and when she sees that Don’s passed out, she slips her hand out of his and starts the painful process of getting back on her feet. Grits her teeth to stop from making any noise that might wake him.

And then she starts to walk.

No goodbye, because that would really mean that this is the end of the road for them and she refuses to believe that.

Southern Tropics

“It’s hypnotic, isn’t it?” Grant Kelly interrupts Will’s fixation on the scanner screen and hands him something that looks like a square piece of pastry. “Here…have a beignet.”

“A what?” Will’s eyes have started to glaze over. It’s dark outside and he’s tired but he’s not ready to leave the scanner and go to bed.

“Your mother never got you any beignets when you were growing up?”

Will shakes his head and there’s amused disappointment on Grant’s face. “My mama used to make them for us…” He pauses as if weighing his words. “For me and your mom. Back when we were dating, we’d go over to my mama’s place for dinner sometimes. Maureen used to love them, or if she didn’t, she sure did a great job pretending. My mama used to make them just for her. She adored your mom.”

Will smiles. It’s funny. Even though he’s always known about Grant, he still has a hard time picturing his mother being with someone other than Dad. Of her having had a life before she become their mother.

“We'll have to rectify that,” Grant says, leaning against the armrest of the flight engineer’s chair. “You should really have them warm.”

“Where’d you get this one?” Will asks and he’s oddly grateful that just for a moment there’s no heaviness in the air. Or in his mechanical heart.

“My buddy, Andre, at the Jupiter base in town. He’s from New Orleans and he makes them at home. He gave me a bag before you and your sister crashed my refuelling.”

“Sorry,” Wills mouths before taking a bite of the square-shaped pastry. There’s some flattened icing sugar on it.

The Jupiter’s long-range radio pings.

“Well, look at that,” Grant says, grabbing a mic. “Speak of the devil. They must have him doing the nightshift on base. He’s been doing all sorts of cross training.” He answers the call. “Hey, Andre…did you know we were biting into one of your beignets? Your ears ring or something?”

But the man on the other end ignores the question and he sounds serious. “You know how you asked me to keep an eye on any activity on Don and Maureen’s comms? Even though it’s not exactly something we do.”

“Yes,” Grant is all business now too. “Except, I didn’t ask. I bribed you with my only bottle of rum.”

“Right. I did some periodic checks, but then I had to go on a supply run to some northern mines. So I haven’t been able to check much. I just got back.”

Will swallows and Grant’s face is sombre. “Will you cut to the chase?”

“Maureen and Don’s comms were activated about twelve hours ago.”

Twelve f*cking hours ago? Even with the lag time in transmission, how did once in twelve hours constitute a periodic check? Grant wants to swear at the guy but he holds it in.

“What?” Grant clutches the receiver he’s holding. “Are you serious?”

“I was thinking the same thing. It’s why I double-checked everything before calling you.”

Will’s is watching the shock on Grant’s face. “What…”

“Was there a transmission?” Grant wants to know.

“A Mayday signal. That’s all.”

“Holy sh*t,” Grant’s eyes are wide with disbelief when he looks at Will. “Do you have the coordinates of where it was transmitted?”

“Not yet…it’s a bit of a process, but I can get them.”

“Get them. As soon as you can. Putting everything else aside.”

“Working on it. Give me five minutes.”

“Call me as soon as you have them….or no, just, stay on the line.”

Goosebumps line Will’s arms and suddenly he’s flooded with all sorts of impossible hope. “Does that…does that mean what I think it means?”

Grant grips his shoulders. Giddy with shock and disbelief. “It does. It means their comms survived that crash and Maureen and Don, or someone, turned them on this morning.”

Chapter 8

Chapter Text

Chapter Eight

Southern Tropics

The hope and excitement that are flowing through the Jupiter 2 now are so strong that it’s electric. A fresh surge of power coursing through the entire ship.

Everyone is wide-awake and alert after Grant’s phone call, even though it’s very early and still another couple of hours before the first rays of sun will break through on the horizon. Hardly anyone slept more than two hours.

The location where the transmission came from is considerably further south of where they are now and had they continued on their current scanning path it would have been a couple of weeks before they reached that region. Aside from sparse information gathered via satellites and drones, the area is largely unmapped and unexplored – no one on the planet knows much about it. The nearest research outpost is almost 1200 kilometres away from where the transmission was made.

But with an increase in altitude and with the Jupiter’s engines on full power, they’ could be there in seven minutes.

“This means they’re alive, right?”

It was the first thing Penny asked and John wanted so badly to say yes. Wanted to believe it even more.

“It means….there’s a chance. A good chance.” Is what he said instead and now they were biting their nails as they set a course for the remote coordinates. Judy hasn’t stopped pacing since Grant called and Penny keeps biting her nails.

The Jupiter base, who’d given the news not to him, but to Grant, who in turn radioed them, told them to proceed with caution. Warned them that, if the ship and its occupants did survive, it could well be the robot who turned on the comms.

“Why would the robot send a mayday signal on Mom’s comm?” Judy questioned.

To lure us into a trap, John thought. But he didn’t say that. The last thing he was going to do put a dent into their hope. Into the best news they could have asked for: a sign of life.

If any of their comms was working, it meant the ship didn’t disintegrate. It meant at least some of it was intact after impact.

It meant there was a chance, a reasonable chance, that she was alive….

Two days ago, John thought he was insane to believe it and now…now it seemed possible. Plausible. And he’d be damned if he was going to diminish that possibility in any way.

“We’re almost there,” John hears Grant’s voice on the intercom while sitting in the pilot’s chair. Grant’s ship is about 45 seconds ahead of his.

“Finding a place to land is gonna be difficult,” Grant tells them. “The vegetation is ridiculously dense here.”

John can feel his two daughters’ eyes on him, sitting in the two remaining chairs in the co*ckpit.

“It’s okay….”

Difficult was not the same as impossible. He’ll find a way.

Land this bird on a tree top if need be.

Southern Tropics

It’s still dark when she drifts back into consciousness. Turns her head to look for Don and notices that he’s not there.

“Don?”

Panic hits her, because for a moment Maureen has no idea where she is but then her memory comes back.

She left Don to walk to the river alone. Because he could no longer go on.

But she doesn’t remember deciding to rest.

The pain in her side is so bad that the mere act of turning over brings tears to her eyes. Pushing herself up on one arm, she realizes that she’s lying on a fallen branch and it’s cutting into her wound.

What the hell…why would I…?

Then she notices that her body’s twisted awkwardly on the ground and….she’s missing her bag. The small pouch filled with her precious thermos and the last roll of bandage.

It dawns on her then. That she didn’t stop to rest.

She passed out.

And she must have dropped her bag in the process.

Not good.

Maureen checks her comm and it either turned off on its own or – did she ever turn it on? She doesn’t remember using the flashlight.

Hot. God, she’s so hot, it feels like her skin is on fire.

Maureen digs her palms into the moist soil in the hopes that it might cool her burning skin. When that offers no relief, she rips a large leaf from a bush and runs it over her face.

It’s not raining right at the moment, but the moisture that clings to these plants is constant. It’s like pressing a wet, rubbery facecloth over her cheeks and it seems to cool them just a little.

Or maybe it’s her imagination.

She needs to find her water bottle.

Maureen blinks and looks up into the snippets of sky that are visible beyond the endless mosaic of leaves dancing above her.

It’ll be morning very soon and she’ll have light then. She’ll be able to look for it without turning the flashlight on.

Pushing her body off the branch, Maureen stays on the ground for now, lying on her back and pulling up her knees, as if that’ll take some pressure off the pain in her side. But nothing’s helping anymore.

Just a few more minutes…’til it’s light out….

A few more minutes.

It’s her last thought before she drifts back into oblivion. She fights it, but not for long.

It’s becoming too inviting now.

Southern Tropics

It takes some time, but they eventually find two small clearings – nearly two kilometres apart and several kilometres from where the transmission was made – where they can land the ships.

It was either that or consider the option of rappelling from at least one Jupiter, but John wanted to avoid that.

Truthfully, the second clearing is more of a rocky ledge, dangling over a river, and John wouldn’t risk landing his ship there. But Grant was convinced it was possible and he pulled it off.

John still thinks there’s a good possibility the whole ship will end up in the river. He’s starting to understand where Grant got his reputation as a maverick.

“Where the hell is the back up?” John asks Grant over the radio.

“Not much point if they can’t land anywhere…” Grant mentions.

“They can search while they’re airborne. If Don and Maureen have flares, they’ll use them if they see a ship.”

“That’s a big if.”

“Otherwise, Judy will share her clearing so they can land and drop a search party, if they ever get here.”

They better, John thinks. Maureen and Don deserve better than an entire colony not giving a damn.

They debate amongst themselves, whether they should all leave the ships together and then decide against it. If this is a trap, they needed a way to get out.

Taron likely already destroyed one Jupiter, they couldn’t risk him taking down another ship. Or two. Plus, they can only contact the transport base from their ships. Once they left them, their comms would be out of range.

And if Don and Maureen were hurt, they’d need help getting out.

“Jude….stay with our Jupiter and stay in contact with Grant. He’ll stay with his ship and both of you stay in contact with the base.” There were two people at the base monitoring the activity on Don and Maureen’s comms now. If there are any updates, they’ll need to reach someone on a Jupiter here.

“Penny, Will…you’re coming with me.”

“And Robot,” Will adds. His kids are already packing supplies for the hike through the forest.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea…”

John doesn’t trust them anymore, not with what’s been going on. Their robot hasn’t given them any indication that he’s not on their side, but John is all too aware of how their programming can change on a dime. He’d even once been under Smith’s control…

“If Mom or Don are hurt…he can help!” Will insists. Adamantly.

Since when did his kids constantly challenge his decisions?

Since they’ve been on their own for a year…

John doesn’t argue. There’s no time to waste. Besides, Will has a point. In this dense vegetation, the robot’s strength will come in handy, especially if there’s another robot out there.

“Fine.” He hoists up the backpack that Penny hands him. “Let’s go.”

The first thing that hits them when they open the ramp and walk into the jungle is the humidity. It’s so damp and hot that breathing suddenly takes effort.

After only a few minutes of arduous hiking through the dense foliage, John’s clothes are clinging to his skin.

Penny and Will are sweating too. He can see the perspiration run down their faces and all three of them are grateful when it starts to drizzle and cool their skin.

The lack of noise and insect life is strange and unexpected. John hiked through more than one jungle during his time in the military and the ones on Earth were always thrumming with life. The sound of birds and the rustle of snakes and lizards along with the ever-present hum of insects. Millions of them. He remembers a constant white noise of jungle life that’s oddly absent here. Replaced by an eerie silence instead. The only sounds they hear are the leaves swaying in the occasional breeze, the falling rain and their own footsteps and heavy breathing.

They’re mostly silent too – even Penny, his smart-ass chatterbox, is uncharacteristically quiet - partly because they’re too anxious and also because the walk demands so much of their energy.

John tries his comm every few minutes to see if he’ll get a response from either Don or Maureen, but there’s nothing and it makes him uneasy.

Makes him wonder if maybe this is a trap after all.

He almost wishes he’d forced the kids to stay on the ship.

Judy and Grant radio them often, asking for updates. John doesn’t have any to give them.

They reach the spot where the transmission was made, in just under three hours, wet and out of breath, but there’s no one there. No sign of life.

“Grant…” John touches base with him over the comm. “Can you confirm that I’m transmitting from the same location as the one we received from the Jupiter Base?”

“Affirmative.”

“What now?” Penny asks, taking a seat on a fallen branch. Her long hair is clinging to the side of her neck in the rain.

John’s senses are on full alert because if this is a trap. they could get ambushed any moment. “We know the transmission was made some time ago. That there was always a good possibility that they’re no longer in the same spot.”

He wonders how much ground they could cover. Assuming they’re in good shape and not hurt.

And what about food? Water wouldn’t be a problem with the constant rain. But according to a quick scan on his comm, nothing around them is edible and they wouldn’t have had much food on the Jupiter transport, meaning they may have been without food for almost five days now.

In which case they’d no longer be in the kind of shape to cover as much ground as the four of them just did.

He watches Penny eat a granola bar to refuel and shudders at the thought of Maureen and Don stranded here in this strange, dense, lifeless forest without food or even the possibility of it…. No plants or animals to consume.

Would they hunker down to conserve their energy and hope for rescue?

Not if they’re fleeing a killer robot….

“We should split up,” Will suggest. “We could cover more ground.”

He’s right of course, but John doesn’t trust the situation enough to want to risk it. “No.”

“I’m safe with him, Dad,” Will protests.

But this time he stands firm. “I said no.” For a split second he sees his son straighten his back and John wonders whether this marks a turning point between them. One where they’ve changed dynamic from leader and follower to one of equals, neither in charge of the other anymore. But Will doesn’t say anything else. Gives his father a brief pout and it reminds John that in spite of everything they’ve gone through, he’s still a teenager. One that occasionallysulks and needs to test his parental boundaries.

It almost reassures him a little. That there’s a bit of child left in him. That they haven’t completely robbed him of it all.

“If you’re so convinced that he’ll keep you safe, then let’s hope he keeps all of us safe.”

But there’s another part of him that can only think of the fact that a mayday signal came from Maureen’s comm. That the woman he loves, the mother of his children, is out here somewhere, desperate. Maybe alone. Maybe hurt. Or worse.

It gives him goosebumps and makes him willing to take risks. Risks that Maureen might not want him to take.

“So what do we do?” Penny presses.

“We keep searching for them….” John answers. “If Mom or Don are the ones who turned on that comm yesterday then that means they’re nearby, likely on foot. It means they couldn’t have gotten far.” He takes another look at his children and then tuns his gaze to the Robot. To that blue swirling pool that is his face, letting him know that he expects him to keep his son and daughter safe. For a split second he feels an electric jolt in his spine – an acknowledgment just as the Robot’s face turns in his direction.

It's your imagination, John. He can hear Maureen reminding him that Robot is a machine. Not a mind reader.

“We leave on our comms,” he tells his kids. “Stay in touch with Grant and Judy who are in touch with the base and we keep transmitting to your mom and Don in the hopes of getting a response. We comb this wall of tress for a sign of life.”

Penny’s face looks sombre and she wraps up the rest of her granola bar, as though she’s lost her appetite. “If we leave them on, that means a robot could hear us, right?”

“If he’s nearby and in one piece,” John points out. “But we don’t know that.”

“We have to risk it,” Will adds, and suddenly he’s an adult again. It frightens John sometimes, when he makes that transition because they happen so quickly and randomly these days. “Without them we can’t transmit to Mom and Don and we need to stay in touch with Grant and Judy in case there’s news from the base.” His lips curl into a reassuring smile for his big sister. “It’s okay, don’t worry. Robot will make sure nothing happens to any of us.”

But his daughter is fierce too. “I’m not scared. I’m just scared for Mom and Don.”

Me too, John wants to add.

“Come on,” he turns towards the endless forest. “Let’s go. Keep your eyes open for anything. Anyone.”

Southern Tropics

It’s no longer night when he comes to, but sometimes it’s hard to tell because the vegetation is so dense that the sun struggles to pierce through the small cracks between the giant leaves.

‘At least sunburn is one thing we didn’t have to worry about…we’re dirty and bloody and every inch of skin has a scratch on it, but at least we don’t look like dying lobsters.” Don says it out loud and starts to laugh.

His brain is fried and he knows it. Delirious with fever. Incoherent with pain.

That makes him laugh too. The fact that he’s gonna die laughing.

He turns to his side and sees that Maureen is gone. There’s no we anymore, it’s just him.

He wonder how far she’ll make it before she can’t take another step and ends up as messed up as he is. Even now, he knows her well enough to know that it’s nothing more than sheer willpower that’s keeping her going.

Funny. How that doesn’t make him laugh.

He can laugh about himself dying but not her. He’s a replaceable mechanic, a cog in the wheel, but Maureen…Maureen’s a rocket scientist. She’s a freaking genius and she has a family – and a colony - that needs her. Loves her.

Family.

The word takes him back a few months. Back to a time when a different set of robots tried to do them in, inside a giant dam. When he was ready to dive into a pool to face them.

“You’re allowed to risk death for family.”

“Don…”

“What?”

“What do you think you are?”

Judy’s words ring through his delirious brain. Her soft, determined voice brings her face back into his thoughts. Those dark, beautiful, intelligent eyes that always somehow convince him to take all sorts of crazy risks and give up all sorts of financial rewards. No one else has ever been able to make him do that.

That memory puts a smile on his face. Knowing that he’s gonna die belonging to a family for the first time in his life.

Even though deep down he doesn’t want to think of Judy Robinson as family. Because if she’s family that means she’s his little sister and that means….

He laughs again. Hysterically.

No matter how hard it’s always been for him to not stare at her, and how often she’s crept into his dreams and how many cold showers he’s had to take on that water planet because of her, she’s always been off limits and he respects that unwritten rule. Not just because she’s family now.

Because she’s Maureen’s kid. Because she is a kid.

Because surely, she has no interest in mechanic who went to community college and smuggled cigars for extra income.

“Don’t forget the biggest reason of all…because soon you’re gonna be dead….” He giggles, gritting his teeth against the wave of pain that shoots up from his burned arm, reminding him that by some miracle, it’s still attached. That the rotten flesh hasn’t fallen off yet.

“No regrets,” he grunts.

He’s seen and done more than most men twice his age and these last two years, he’ll never admit it to anyone but himself and his maker, but they were the best. He was part of a family that needed him – needed him to make sure they survived Maureen’s crazy ideas – and he needed them. For the first time in his entire life, he was part of something bigger than him and he belonged.

It was nice. Really nice.

So, yeah. No regrets. Not a one.

Don West lifts his good arm and with the last bit of strength and lucidity he has left, he turns on his comm, against Maureen’s wishes.

Because he figures a robot goring him alive will be a better, quicker death than dying of pain and thirst.

Chapter 9

Chapter Text

Chapter Nine

Southern Tropics

She’s not sure how she managed to get back on her feet – and not just that, but find her water cannister amid the undergrowth, and keep it upright until it was full of fresh rainwater – but she did and she’s forced herself to keep going even though it’s getting harder with every step.

Maureen knows she’s getting closer. Close enough that the river feels within reach and the thought of immersing herself in a torrent of water, finally something cold enough to cool her burning skin, is so inviting that it dulls the unbearable pain in her side.

Everything is starting to blur, but she does what she’s always done.

She keeps going.

Aboard the Jupiter 13

Grant Kelly’s in the bathroom when the call from the Jupiter base comes through on his comm.

“Andre?” He zips up his pants and then raises his comm to his lips so that the connection is clearer. “Tell me you got some news.”

“I do,” Andre’s voice doesn’t bother hiding his excitement. “There’s been activity on Don West’s comm about ten minutes ago. That’s the lag time from when it registers at our end from when they’re turned on.”

“You have coordinates?”

“I do. You ready?”

sh*t. “Yes, yes…gimme a sec.” He stumbles out into the Hub and finds a pen and paper. He could just hit the record button on his comm, but he still doesn’t trust the infallibility of technology as much as everyone else on this colony.

He writes them down and repeats them back to Andre.

“Yup…that’s it.”

“Thanks.”

“The comm’s still on. It hasn’t been turned off. You should be able to transmit to them from where you are. Keep us posted.”

“Will do.” Where the hell is our back up? Grant wants to ask, but instead, he ends the call and radios John.

First John. Then Judy.

Southern Tropics

“Don, come in! Maureen, come in!” John tries to radio them repeatedly, but there’s no answer and that sends another round of goosebumps up his arms. The word ”trap” keeps bouncing around his brain.

“The comm’s still on and the coordinates haven’t changed,” Grant tells him, his voice static over the comm.

That means they might just find the comm there and nothing else.

Or a comm and a body….

But then someone had to have turned it on. Dead bodies don’t turn on comms and he hasn’t spotted a trace of wildlife bigger than an ant in this jungle yet.

It’s a trap.

Trap. Trap. Trap.

“Dad?”

Penny’s voice snaps him out of it.

“Yeah?”

“How far to the coordinates?”

“Just over three kilometres,” John tells her. In this terrain it would take hours and both his kids are already exhausted.

“Let’s go,” Will tells him.

“Grant’s airborne and he’s gonna fly over them, to see if he can spot anything. We’re gonna hang tight ‘til we hear from him. Shouldn’t be more than a couple of minutes.”

“John….” Grant’s voice is already coming through on the comm. Of course it is – the guy’s an insane pilot.

“Come in."

“Nothing. I’m hovering right over the spot and can’t see a damn thing except for tree tops. There could be a fully stocked cabin underneath ‘em, for all I know. Don’s comm is on and I’m transmitting but there’s no response.”

It’s not the news John was hoping for. “Can you land nearby?”

There’s a pause before Grant’s voice booms back on. “Not a square inch for me to set down this thing and I’ve landed in some pretty tight spots.”

John sighs. “Guess there’s no choice but to go on foot. What about back up?”

“The Jupiter base sent three ships. Judy went airborne for a bit to allow two of them to land in her spot and each of them disembarked a search team of twelve. The third ship found a landing spot of its own, but it’s further away. I offered my landing spot too, but apparently there’s no one else crazy enough to land a Jupiter on that slanted rock. What the hell kind of pilots are they training these days?”

John can’t help a grin. “Ones that wanna stay alive? Keep their ships in one piece?”

“So yeah…there’s a team of over thirty on the ground now, scattered all over the place, but the three of you are much closer to the location of the transmission than they are.”

“It’s up to us to get there,” Penny points out.

John nods, hoping it’ll start to rain again, because at least that’ll refill their water supply which is already starting to run out. “Yeah. It is.” He looks at both his kids. “You okay to keep going? I want an honest answer.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

There’s not a moment’s hesitation on their tired faces. They really aren’t kids anymore. Neither of them.

“Okay,” he nods. “Let’s go.”

They hike for over three hours until they reach the coordinates, until they see him.

Penny’s hawk-eyes spot him first. They catch the brown, torn t-shirt that just barely stands out in the sea of green – barely because he’s also partially covered by leafy vegetation.

“Oh my God,…it’s Don! Don!” Penny yells as soon as she spots him lying on the ground. “Dad…he’s here.”

It takes John only a second to realize that Don is unconscious or… worse.

He runs to where he is and kneels down next to him, with Will and Penny right by his side and checks for a pulse, noticing Don’s burned, and obviously broken arm when he does. It’s been set and tended to, but whatever he (they?) had on hand wasn’t enough. He’s seen injuries like it on a half-dozen battlefields and there usually wasn’t much to salvage from the damaged limb.

sh*t. That has to hurt like hell.

A shot of relief jolts up his spine when he feels a weak, thready pulse beating against his index finger.

He lifts Don’s good arm and notices that the comm is still turned on and he checks his friend’s vitals on it, wincing when he sees the numbers.

“Dad….” Penny face is full of worry. “Is he…?”

“Not good,” John admits. “We need to get him to a hospital.” Judging from his vitals and from what he knows from experience, he figures Don doesn’t have much time.His arm will most likely have to be amputated.

Finding him alive is nothing short of a miracle, John knows that, but seeing his condition makes it hard to rejoice.

Will’s already on the radio with Grant and Penny touches base with Judy, letting them know that they found Don.

“I can come get you,” Grant suggests. “If he can handle being roped up into the ship.”

John ponders it and then shakes his head. “I don’t think so…we have no idea if he has other, internal injuries, and there’s not much on the ship to transport him up. Do our rescue teams have something better?”

“I can have them come here but most of them are on the ground…”

“Forget it.”

If Don were able to hold on to it, they could lower the harpoon, but he can’t. They could tie him in somehow, but…damn, he doesn’t want to risk it. Doesn’t want to finish him off.

Judy’s voice comes on, through Penny’s comm. “My ship’s closer…can you make it to our Jupiter?”

“Robot can carry him,” Wills suggests. “He’ll be much faster than us, if he goes on his own.”

John debates it. If Robot takes off with Don, they’ll lose their bodyguard.

But Don’s in bad shape and time is not on his side. Whatever they decide will involve risks. “Okay, okay….” He pulls out the medical kit that he has in bag along and opens a pouch with a syringe.

“Dad?” Penny questions.

“Gonna make sure his ride’s a little more comfortable.”

“Isn’t he already unconscious?” Wills asks.

“Doesn’t mean he can’t feel any pain,” he bites his lip as he injects the contents of the syringe into Don’s uninjured arm. He also doesn’t tell them that he’s guiltily doing it in the hopes that it might jostle Don awake.

All of them are too shocked at seeing their friend like this to talk about the elephant in the room.

How come he’s alone? Where’s the wreckage?

Where’s Maureen?

Don groans in response to the injection.

John squeezes his hand, knowing full well that hearing is often the last sense to go. “Hey, buddy. It’s okay…you’re gonna be okay.”

Don’s eyes flutter open and for a second John is certain that there’s some recognition there. He tries to say something but doesn’t succeed. Instead, his eyes roll back and he’s unconscious once again.

John doesn't let his disappointment show. Not with Will and Penny watching him. “S’okay, buddy. Just hang on, that’s all you gotta do now.”

Robot is now crouching down next to Don’s lifeless body and turning to Will, waiting for instructions.

Wills nods and the robot slowly changes into his natural form, giving him an extra set of limbs to pick Don up from the ground, an act that he does with surprising care and gentleness. Until he’s standing erect, cradling Don West in two of his giant, metallic arms.

“Take him to Judy, to our Jupiter,” Will tells him. “Keep him safe, okay?”

“Safe Don West.”

Wills nods in agreement. “Yeah…safe but go as fast as you can without hurting him.”

“Yes, Will Robinson.”

John still can’t quite wrap his head around the way they communicate, his son and this strange machine. But there’s no doubt that they’re connected in way that he'll never understand.

“Judy’s gonna make sure you’re okay.” Penny gives Don’s shoulder a squeeze before the robot takes off into the forest, and once he’s out of sight all three of them look at each other.

It’s Penny who asks what all of them are thinking. “What about Mom? Where’s Mom? If Don…if Don made it that means there’s a good chance she did too, right?”

John agrees. It’s not false, delusional hope anymore. If Don West survived the crash, then there was a good chance Maureen did too. And if she did, there’s a good chance she’s alive. She’s smart, resourceful and tough.

So where is she?

“If Mom’s alive and she’s down here…why would they split up?”

“I don’t know,” John answers. “Maybe she wasn’t hurt and she tried to get help on her own.”

“What are the chances that she’s not hurt?” Will questions.

“I don’t know, but there’s no point in speculating. We still don’t know what happened.” John answers, sitting down next to a tree truck. Will and Penny plop down on the moist ground too. As bizarre as it is, John is glad that there’s no wildlife here.

it's one less danger to contend with.

“What we do know is that the comm transmissions came from this general vicinity and if that first transmission came from your Mom's comm. It suggests that she’s on the move.”

Penny’s eye light up. Hopeful. “So we should be too!”

If it were up to him he would keep going, but John knows better. “We’re gonna rest for a bit. Wait ‘til we hear from Grant and Judy. Make sure Don made it to the Jupiter okay and wait for the robot to come back. See if the base gets another transmission from Mom’s comm. There are other people out here looking for her now, we’re not the only ones.”

Will’s stretching his long legs and digging for a protein shake in their pack. “Why wouldn’t Mom turn on her comm?”

“Could be several reasons….she might be trying to conserve the battery.”

“Or make sure the robot can’t find her,” Penny adds.

“Or that.”

John reaches for a protein shake as well and doesn’t point out that one of the things that worries him the most is the fact that they found Don with absolutely no supplies. He had no pack on him, no food. Nothing except a near empty water bottle, and he didn’t just look bad because of his injuries, he also looked drawn and gaunt.

They might not have had any food for days.

The thought makes him wince and he doesn’t share it with Will and Penny. No matter how mature they are at any given moment.

Wherever you are, love. Hang on a little longer. We’re coming.

“So we just wait now?”

“Yeah…try to get some rest. Take a nap and recharge until the robot gets back here.”

“How can I sleep knowing Mom’s out here and….”

“Because that’s what she needs from us now, to be able to keep going ‘til we find her. You can’t do that if you’re too exhausted to walk through this terrain.”

“Okay, okay…” His daughter accepts that and makes herself comfortable. Takes the jacket that’s tied around her waist and turns it into a pillow on the ground.

“What about you?” Will asks, stifling a yawn.

“I slept on the Jupiter and I’m a Navy SEAL….I’ve trained for this. I know exactly how hard I can push myself.”

But Will’s not convinced. “Mom’s gonna need you too.” His eyes darken. “Or maybe we all will when we find her.”

John’s not entirely sure what Will means by that and he’s not sure he wants to know. Because the words alone send an inexplicable chill down his spine.

Southern Tropics - Aboard the Jupiter 2

Judy hasn’t been able to stop pacing since the call came through that they found Don. Alive but in bad shape.

What does that mean?

She’s a doctor. She wants and needs details. She wants to know his vitals. What were they talking about? Fractures? Contusions? Punctures? Concussion? Blood loss? Dehydration? All of the above?

Penny mentioned something about his arm being burned and broken. That he’s unconscious and has a fever. That could mean an infection. Or a viral illness. Or…

She keeps pacing, her eyes on her comm as she tracks the one that Will gave his robot.

He’s less than a kilometer away now and Judy’s lowered the ramp, making it easy for him to come on board. As soon as he does, she’ll take off for the town centre. The hospital’s already expecting them and they’ll be there in minutes.

Please, please be okay.

It’s a mantra that’s been running through her head since she got the news, because she doesn’t want to imagine life without him. She’s ashamed to admit that she was so shaken by the news of finding Don that she almost forgot to ask whether her mother was there, but it’s another thing that keeps her pacing.

Why wasn’t she there with him?

She checks her comm again – just over 700 metres.

Robot will be here soon.

“C’mon…” Judy bites her nails. “Hurry up.”

“Hey, Judy….” It’s Grant’s voice coming in from the comm that stops her from pacing. “How you holding up? You must be going stir crazy.”

That’s an understatement. “I’m okay.” Her default answer. Always.

“Your Mom’s gonna be okay. If anyone can find her it’s John.”

“Yeah,” she agrees. “I know.” It comes off sounding like an accusation but it’s also true. Her Dad is not Grant Kelly. He’ll move mountains to get Mom back and he will not give up and not back down until he finds her.

There’s a pause on the other end. “You gonna be okay taking Don back on your own?”

“I will. I’ll stay in the garage with him after I set the autopilot.”

“I can fly back with you, have another ship take my place here.”

“They’re already getting my spot when I leave…and besides, I thought you said no one else was crazy enough to land in your spot?”

She can hear a chuckle on the other end. ”Maybe they’ll find someone.”

“No…stay here. Please. Help them find Mom.”

“I will…but you keep us posted. Let us know as soon as Don wakes up and see if he can tell us anything.” Grant pauses. “Listen, I gotta go. I’ve got an incoming transmission from the Jupiter Base.”

“Keep me posted.”

“And you let me know when Don gets there.”

Southern Tropics

When John sees the incoming transmission from Grant he jumps up and steps away from the spot where both his kids are sleeping. Penny’s been asleep for a while, but Will fought it until about twenty minutes ago, and he doesn’t want to wake him up yet.

It’s been an emotionally and physically gruelling day, hiking through the kind of terrain that might have even challenged some of his Navy SEAL buddies. He needs them to rest and refuel.

“John…?”

He holds the comm close to his ear. “Yeah?”

“There’s a new problem…”

“New problem?” John winces. He doesn’t need new problems. He needs good news.

“You know that Jupiter that came from the base and landed about ten kilometres away from me? Their search party found the wreckage of Don and Maureen’s transport Jupiter.”

John feels his stomach twist, not sure he wants to know what they found. “They did?”

“They transmitted the news to their Jupiter, who communicated it to the base. They also found the…remains of the pilots inside the ship.”

John swallows back the bitter bile that’s rising in his throat. “Grant…”

“They didn’t find Maureen,” Grant adds, quickly. Knowing it’s the only thing John needs to know right now.

John closes his eyes and murmurs a quiet thank you.

“But that’s not it…” Grant adds. “They were attacked, shortly after they got to the wreckage. By robots.”

“Robots?” John’s eyes snap back open. “As in more than one?”

“Not just robots, a ship. A robot ship.”

“Jesus…” John’s jaw drops. “How is that possible? I thought there was only one robot ship on this planet? The one that barely made it through our defense shield and got destroyed on its way in.”

“Looks like there’s a lot we don’t know.”

John struggles to make sense of it. To understand what this means. “But….how?”

“Our defense system’s been down since the robot battle,” Grant reminds him. “With one of our turbines down and half of the Jupiter engines fried, it barely remained activated long enough for us to deactivate that engine they might have used to nuke the planet. It hasn’t been up since. We’ve prioritized our power sources for other things, like the Solidarity build. No one thought there was a need to keep our defense shield up.”

“Yes, but we still monitor our skies from the transport base. Whether or not we could stop it from coming here, wouldn’t we have spottedit at least?”

“I don’t think that’s the issue right now, the fact that we didn’t spot it. But this is no longer about a couple of rogue robots doing sh*t we don’t understand. This is turning into something much bigger.”

John doesn’t want to think about any more wars. He’d planned to never see another battlefield for the rest of his life. “What happened to the searchers?” He’s almost afraid of the answer.

“Multiple casualties.”

“sh*t…”

“Three of them got back to the ship, one of them badly injured…the rest, apparently they’ve lost contact with them and the assumption is that they didn’t make it.”

John’s knees feel weak. It explains why they Don and Maureen left off their comms. To hide from the robots. Don probably only turned his on because he thought he was a dead man.

“What’s….what’s the plan now?”

“Orders have come in from town to get out.”

“Get out?”

“I’ve been ordered to return to base too, so has Judy and the other ships who’ve come to help.”

“Whose orders?”

“The vice-councillor….”

“That’s Victor Dhar,” John says it loud enough that both Penny and Will wake up. He sees his kids pushing themselves off the leafy ground, staring at him. Trying to make sense of what this conversation is about. “Victor Dhar took that position two weeks ago.”

There’s another pause, as if Grant’s weighing his words. “He knows, John. Victor’s been getting the updates. He knows Maureen could be out here on her own.”

“This….this robot attack means we need help even more than we did an hour ago! We have to find her now.”

“Look….I’m sorry, John. His position is that we can’t put any more lives at risk if to save one life. Even Maureen’s. Especially since we don’t even know if she is alive.”

John watches the reaction on his children’s faces. Hating Grant for saying it out loud. “We’re not giving up and we’re not going back without her….”

Judy will fly back to get them out, John is certain about that. Much as she’s the most rule abiding of his three kids, she’ll defy this one without a second thought.

“I expected you to say that.”

“Judy will come back for us.”

“Judy doesn’t have to come back. I’m staying.”

John’s taken aback. Not just by his announcement but that it came without hesitation. He knows that a disobeying a directive from the chief councillor’s office, could cost Grant his job and his pilot’s license. But he’s also the last person who’ll talk him out of it.

They need all the help they can get, and besides, John figures the guy owes Maureen one. Or two or three.

“Okay. Thank you.”

“I know this isn’t the news you were hoping for. But I figure you need to know what you’re up against out there.”

“Got it.” John exhales, releasing a breath he didn’t realize he was holding in, trying to digest it all. “Keep me posted.”

He ends the call and immediately gets peppered by questions from Will and Penny, and he tries to relay the information from Grant without making it sound as terrifying as it is. Failing miserably.

Penny cuts to the chase. As always. “So basically, there’s a ship full of robots out here that hate us, next the wreckage of the Jupiter transport, ready to kill anyone who’s getting close to it?”

“Something like that, according to what Grant’s been told.”

“Why?” Will wants to know. “It makes no sense. If they want to attack us, why hide out here? Why crash a Jupiter?”

“I don’t know why…maybe they’re hunkering down and waiting for reinforcements?” He regrets saying it as soon as he sees the terror in Penny’s eyes. “Look…I don’t know what’s going on here or what the reasons are, what their motives are…I’m just trying to find your mother.”

“Yeah….” Penny nods. “We can’t worry about the other stuff, can we? It’ll make us crazy and scared.”

“When Robot comes back, I want him to take you to Grant’s ship. I want you to stay there…”

“What?” Will looks at him in disbelief. “No!”

“I can’t have anything happen to you to. Maureen would never forgive me if I didn’t at least try and protect you.”

“I’m totally okay to worry about her being angry with us later if that means we find her first,” Penny points out.

“That is not the point….”

“We’re not leaving you alone to look for Mom!” Will insists.

“We’re Robinsons,” Penny adds, with the kind of conviction that reminds him all too much of her mother. “Robinsons stick together.”

John knows that if he really wanted to, he could put his foot down. But he doesn’t have the energy to fight his kids on top of everything else.

His maddening, frustrating, amazing kids.

“Fine,” he concedes, hoping desperately that this isn’t something he’ll regret later on. “Stay. But we’re waiting for Robot to get back before doing anything else.”

Chapter 10

Chapter Text

Chapter Ten

Southern Tropics

This time when she comes to, she’s face down – her cheek pressed against a fallen tree branch- and it makes her realize right away that she’s lying on the ground not because she’s waking up in the morning but because she passed out. Again.

This is bad.

The only good news is, that she’s well aware of it. Which probably means there’s no lingering cognitive damage from that initial blow to her head.

My brain will be in great shape when I die.

Maureen wants to laugh at the irony and tries to push herself up from the ground with shaky arms.

But she doesn’t succeed. It hurts too much. Takes more strength than she has left.

Just turning onto her back brings tears to her eyes and has darkness dancing at the edge of her vision. If she tries to get up, she’ll probably pass out again. Likely for the last time.

Maureen knows she’s tough and resilient – she can handle most things that are thrown her way. Pain, setbacks, challenges. But she’s human and rational enough to know that there are limits and that she’s reached hers.

She pushed as hard and as far as she could in these circ*mstances.

This is it.

There’s no river. No rescue. No happy ending.

The darkness is all too inviting now, because it brings with it the promise of oblivion. She’s ready to give in to it because everything has become impossibly hard and painful. Even breathing.

But the knowledge that this is the end still fills her with an unbearable sadness. It hurts almost as much as everything else and it’s strong enough to keep her fighting it.

Rage against the dying of the light…

The familiar words echo in her head.

It’s not dying that makes her sad. Death doesn’t scare her. It’s a natural culmination of life, and as far as lives go, she’s had a good one. She’s loved and been loved in return. Used her skills to create scientific advances that will outlive her long after she’s gone, and she’s fulfilled most of her biggest dreams.

Maureen doesn’t believe in an afterlife and she has no need for one.

It’s not having a chance to say goodbye that kills her.

Not having a chance to tell John and the kids one last time how much she loves them. Because she didn’t do it often enough and she desperately wants them to know.

She’d give everything just to hold them one more time.

Maybe there is a way to at least tell them…

Her comm will stay intact long after her body decomposes and sinks into the moist earth beneath her.

Maureen unstraps the comm from her wrist and uses both hands to bring it close to her lips. Because talking takes so much effort.

She turns it on and presses “record”. Uses the last of her energy to clear her voice. To not make it sound like she’s in agony. Even though she is.

She pictures his face. The way he always looks at her as though she makes him happy. As though he’s still crazy about her.

I hope you know how happy you made me. Hope I told you and showed you often enough…

“John, babe, you kept me going these last few days, ‘cause I so badly wanted to come back to you…because these last few years, being back with you….” A smile lifts her lips. “It was so good. I love you. Judy, my beloved first born, I’m so proud of you, so in awe of your heart and your quiet strength and Penny, my perfect, brilliant ray of sunshine, I love and admire your spirit so much, and Will, my baby, my beautiful dreamer, I love that you never give up. Never lose hope. Don’t ever change, okay? And, Don. I know promised to get help…sorry ‘bout that. But I know you get a kick out of it when I’m wrong, so I guess that’s my last gift to you.” She smiles.” You’re welcome.” A tear runs down her cheek because it hurts to let them go. Every single one of them.

“How lucky am I to have been loved by all of you?” her last words are a whisper. There’s more she wants to say but she can’t.

The pull of darkness is overwhelming.

She doesn’t feel the comm slipping out of her hands.

Jupiter 2

Judy Is standing in the garage of the Jupiter 2, gazing out into the thick, tropical forest from the lowered ramp. Something shiny and metallic glistens between the rays of sun that are fighting to pierce the forest cover.

“Robot!”

Throwing caution to the wind, Judy runs towards him, unprepared for the wave of emotion that hits her when she sees him carrying a lifeless Don West in his arms.

“Don?” There’s no response and Judy struggles to keep up with Robot’s giant strides. He keeps going until he’s reached the Jupiter’s garage and sets Don down on the floor.

“Thank, you, thank you….” Judy mumbles to the Robot, kneeling down next to Don, shocked at what she sees. The cuts and bruises all over his skin. How pronounced his cheeks are underneath the five-day stubble.

But it’s the state of his arm that almost makes her gasp. The infected burns and the dead skin and flesh that, as a physician, tells her only one thing. That there’s virtually no chance of saving it.

“Back. Family.”

Judy looks up at the robot, nearly forgetting that he’s here.

He’s turning to leave.

“Yes…please. Go back to them. Help them find Mom.”

Judy watches him walk back down the ramp and closes it as soon as he’s clear. Then she tears her attention away from Don as she races up to the ship’s main floor. Runs into the co*ckpit and sets the autopilot. She’s almost halfway out of the co*ckpit again, when she turns around and remembers to radio the base. “Jupiter Base come in, this is Judy Robinson. I have Don West with me and he’s in critical condition….we’ll need a medical transport on standby, estimated landing time is…” Her eyes dart to the co*ckpit console as the ship initiates take off procedure. “Seven minutes and twenty-eight seconds.” She really should strap in but all she can think of is Don.

Don lying in the garage unconscious.

She wants so badly to rush back to his side, against all her better instincts.

Is this what it’s like? She wonders. When you start to feel for someone? Does it make you crazy? Irrational?

The Jupiter banks to the right as the full force of its rocket engines come to life and that brings her back to her senses. Judy straps herself into the pilot’s chair.

Just for a minute, until we’re in flight. Hang on, Don. Please hang on….

As soon as the ship reaches a stable flight pattern, Judy yanks off the strap and runs down to the med bay to grab as much as she can carry down to the garage.

Don’s still unconscious when she hooks him up to an IV and a monitor. Keeps him as stable and comfortable as she can.

By the time she’s done, they’re less than three minutes until landing.

She’s sitting cross-legged on the ground next to him and slides her fingers between his. Cups his hand in both of hers and holds it tight.

Don’t leave me yet.

They’re the longest three minutes of her life.

Southern Tropics

It seems to take forever for the robot to get back to them and it’s raining hard by the time he does. Will and Penny have taken cover underneath two massive leaves, but they’re still soaked.

And soon they’ll lose daylight.

John’s heart skips a beat when he spots something metallic in the rain. His eyes follow the movement as he holds a finger to his lips, telling his kids to be quiet.

But Will’s already on his feet, recognizing his best friend, long before John does. “Robot!”

Rainwater is running down his metal body. “Don West safe.”

Penny’s on her feet too. “Thank you,” she tells him, giving the robot a hug. “Thank you for taking him to the ship and coming back for us.”

“John…”

Grant’s voice comes through on his comm and John raises it to hear better.

Don’t give us any more bad news.

“Yeah?”

“Maureen’s comm is on. Given the delay by the time the base receives the tracking information, it was turned on about an hour ago. And it’s still on.”

“What? Where?”

“About two kilometres from you.”

“Dad!” Penny exclaims. “Mom’s so close!”

“That’s close enough to transmit,” John points out. He puts Grant’s transmission on hold and tries to get a hold of her. “Maureen, come in! It’s John…come in, sweetheart, c’mon. Maureen, come in! Can you hear me?”

“Mom?” Penny’s leaning over his comm too, and so is Will, hoping that all three of their voices combined might get them a response. But there’s nothing.

He keeps trying but there’s no response and he puts Grants back on, while both Penny and Will try to hide the fear and disappointment that’s written all over their faces.

“Can you fly over the location?” John asks him.

“Doin’ that right now…”

“And?”

“Trees. Lots and lots of really dense trees. Nothing that I can see underneath, no response on the comm….”

“We’re heading towards the coordinates now.”

“John…you’re gonna lose daylight soon and this place is swarming with robots. If you leave your comms on, it’ll make you a target.”

“If we turn them off, we lose our map.”

“I’m just sayin, be careful.”

“Yeah…” John eyes his kids, knowing they’d insist on it too, even if it’s not what their mother would want. “We will. Penny, Will…turn yours off. I’ll be the only one to have one on.” He pauses before hitting transmit and asking Grant a final question. “Any word from Judy?”

“She landed and they had a medical transport waiting for her. I’ll let you know when I hear more.”

“Okay,” John nods. They have no time to waste. “Stay close and in touch.”

“You bet.”

“Come on, Dad. Let’s go.” Will is on pins and needles and all their earlier fatigue is gone as a fresh surge of adrenaline hits them hard.

Alpha Centauri Town Center

Judy watches him being wheeled into the operating room and every fibre of her being wants to scrub her hands and suit up and join them, even if only to watch, but an insistent resident blocks her at the door.

“You’ve done what you could,” the young Asian woman tells her. Judy’s met her before but she can’t remember her name. “Leave it up to us now.”

“His arm…” Judy points out, blurting out what she can’t get out of her mind. “Can you try and save it? Give him a chance to respond to treatment first? Please.”

The young doc is perplexed. “It’s not my decision but I’m sure you can see for yourself, it doesn’t look….good. Amputation seems likely in his case.”

Judy knows that artificial limbs have come a long way. That they look deceptively real and can perform virtually all functions of the limb it replaced. That it’s rare that those who get them don’t lead the same full, physical lives they led before.

But in spite of all the advances, they’re cool to touch. It may look like flesh and skin, but it’s not. She also knows that their sensors sometimes malfunction, either making the wearer hypersensitive to even the slightest breeze or unable to feel the sensation of touch at all.

Don would hate it.

Judy swallows guiltily. And if we ever…

“Do you have the authority to make this decision?” The resident asks her. “Is he family?”

Judy nods. “Yes. Yes, he is. Family.”

“He is?”

“We’re…cousins. He has no other family here on Alpha Centauri.” Judy’s not sure how that blatant lie escaped her mouth. But it did and now she can’t unspeak it.

The resident locks her eyes with Judy’s, as if that would verify it. Judy doesn’t blink.

“You’re absolutely sure that’s the course of action that he’d want?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll let the surgeon know. That it has to be done as a last resort.”

Judy exhales as her heart pounds wildly. Already questioning her decision and wondering if she’s playing God with his life.

Nodding because she’s unable to croak out a simple thank you.

Southern Tropics

Grant was right. Daylight is not on their side, but even as a blanket of darkness descends on them, they keep going with John leading the way and Penny and Will behind him in a single file and Robot at the tail end, illuminating them all with his powerful overhead lights.

Even so, it’s still too dark. They’re tripping over fallen branches every few minutes – especially Will, who still doesn’t seem entirely at ease in his long, gangly limbs, thanks to whom he now towers over everyone in the family except John and the robot.

And it won’t be long before he’ll be taller than his father.

“Ugh…”

John hears a groan and this time it’s Penny, right behind him, who goes down.

He stops and swivels around, pulling her back onto her legs.

“You okay?” he asks her again. It’s the fourth time she’s taken a nose dive and she has a series of ugly scratches and cuts running along her arms and a couple on the side of her face.

Under normal circ*mstances, he’d make her stop. Patch her up. But there’s nothing normal about any of this.

“I’m fine, Dad.”

Same answer she gave him the last three times.

He takes a quick look at her, just in case she’s wincing hard enough to hide something broken or sprained. But, aside from the obvious bumps and bruises and exhaustion she seems all right.

“Okay.” He can feel the sweat running down his back. “Keep the routine I told you. Alternate your focus between the ground and the trees ahead.” Ideally, they’d focus mostly on the ground to stop from tripping, but that’ll leave them dizzy and nauseous.

“Trying,” she sighs. “I think my eyes have stopped listening to my brain…”

“S’okay,” he mumbles. “You’re doing great.”

Will’s using the temporary break to drink some water, while Robot keeps shining his high-beam over their heads, forging an imaginary path of light ahead of them.

Between that and my comm being on, it makes us a walking target

There’s a rustle in the trees towards two o’clock and for a second John thinks he sees the glint of metal among the leaves. His pulse races as his eyes focus on that spot.

They don’t see anything else and he hopes it was his imagination.

“Let’s go…” he leads them forward and only a few minutes later, it’s the robot who trips, making a loud crashing noise as his metal scrapes against a fallen tree trunk. He’s twisted on the ground awkwardly and it takes all three of them to roll him over and untangle him from a mess of vine-like branches.

When the Robot is in a sitting position, Will looks at him and nods his head at that expressionless blue face. “It’s okay…you can change.”

The Robot’s face turns in John’s direction, as if asking for permission, even though John has no idea what’s going on.

“It’s okay,” Will reiterates as Penny watches on. “It’ll be easier for you. The less we trip the faster we move ahead.”

The Robot doesn’t respond right away, but then he slowly begins to change his form. Extra metallic limbs appear and he no longer needs their help in standing erect. He’s assuming his natural shape. He looks larger and more intimidating like this and it reminds John that the robots change into a more human-shape for the sake of the humans. Not for their own benefit, but to adapt to the people they’re living with and make the humans more comfortable.

He understands why – because in his natural form the robot looks infinitely more menacing. It reminds him of SAR and how that monster drove a spiky metal limb into Will’s heart.

Goosebumps run along his arm for a moment but he ignores them. “All right, let’s go.”

The robot keeps shining his bright beam over their heads and periodically John lifts up his comm to try and reach Maureen. But there’s still no response even though they’re almost at the coordinates now.

He does it again, “Maureen…come in, love. Please…if you’re there, answer me.”

And this time he hears an echo of his own voice respond.

It startles all of them.

“What the hell?”

“Maureen, come in…”

“Maureen, come in…” His voice responds with a half second delay.

John takes three steps forward and transmits again until he realizes the response is coming from her comm, and it’s clearer now.

He raises his hands, “Stop.”

“Maureen….”

“Maureen…” his voice echoes.

The robot’s light scans the ground in front of them and then he sees her, lying on the forest floor. Sees the blinking light of her comm next to Maureen’s unconscious body.

“Oh, God.” John drops to his knees next to her and his kids are right behind him.

“Mom!”

“Mom?”

She’s pale and unresponsive underneath the robot’s light, but after sliding an index finger onto her neck, he finds a faint pulse. His relief is so enormous that he can hear himself exhale.

“Mom…” Penny’s kneeling on the ground next to him, squeezing her hand.

“Take it easy….” He cautions her. “We don’t know what her injuries are. Why she’s unconscious.”

Will hands him his mother’s comm and it take John a second to register the reason, because right now, he can’t stop staring at her. At the countless cuts and scratches running along her arms, the purplish bruising on one side of her head.

Then he takes the comm from his son and puts it around Maureen’s wrist to check her vitals. Winces when he sees them. He doesn’t have to be a medic to know that they’re bad. Blood pressure too low, heart rate too high, temperature too high…

“John…” Grants voice comes in on the comm. “You should be right at the coordinates now.”

“I am…” His voice sounds far away. “We found her.”

There’s a pause. “John…”

“Mom’s alive,” Will chimes in. “But not in good shape.”

“Do you want me to fly back to Judy’s landing spot?” Grant asks. “Is the robot gonna bring her to the ship?”

“Wait…” John runs his hands along her body, trying to see if there are other obvious injuries that made her lose consciousness. The fever seems to indicate some sort of infection.

He lifts her dirty t-shirt and sees the bandage underneath, wrapped all around her midsection and parts of it are heavily bloodstained.

sh*t.

“Dad…” It’s a whimper, coming from Penny. “What happened to her?”

John presses his hand against the darkest parts of the dressing and that elicits an unexpected groan from his unconscious wife.

He wants to know how badly injured she is, but he can’t risk undoing it here. Not with his minimal supplies. Not if she starts bleeding…

He squeezes her arm. “Sorry, sweetheart. Just hang on a little longer. You’re gonna be okay. Promise.”

“John…?” It’s Grant again.

John sees both of his children staring at him, looking for a plan of action, as afraid as he is.

His mind flashes back to the robot tripping over the branches. “I’m not sure she can handle the robot trekking across the forest to get to your Jupiter. Never mind that we’re further away from it now.”

“All right,” Grant’s voice is calmer than it has any right to be and he can see the bright lights of the Jupiter hovering above them. “Then we’ll just have to find a way to get her up into the ship from right here.”

Chapter 11

Chapter Text

Chapter Eleven

Southern Tropics

John’s mind in racing. Trying to think of the safest, fastest way to get Maureen out of here. “Can you find a board in the med bay? Then lower it and I’ll try and strap her in.”

He catches it again, from the corner of his eye – a quick movement between the light illuminating them and the darkness of the forest. Something unmistakably metallic.

John turns off his comm. “Get down!” he hisses to Will and Penny.

Meanwhile, Robot is scanning their surroundings by moving his beam of light across the forest.

Raising his head, John catches a glimpse of two pairs of metal limbs slithering among the tree trunks. There’s a least one robot out there, dangerously close.

f*ck.

“Dad?” Penny whispers, looking up at him.

“There’s a robot in the forest.” Possibly more than one, but most definitely one.

“Not good,” she adds, still holding on to one of her mother’s hands.

“No. Not good.”

“Dad…” Wil inches closer to him. “What if Grant lowers down the harpoon?”

“We could hang on to it,” John agrees. But it would be a rough way to get on board. “But we can’t grab it and hang on to your mother at the same time.”

“No, but Robot can.”

John stares at the six-limbed creature. Will has a point.

It was the kind of insane idea that normally only Maureen would consider.

And that, normally, he would try and talk her out of.

But there’s nothing normal about any of this. and there’s more movement in the forest.

It feels like something’s encroaching them. Stalking them like hunters.

To hell with it.

John turns on his comm. “Grant! Lower the harpoon!”

“What?”

“Just do it. Right here, from where you’re getting the signal.”

John turns back to Will. “You sure your robot can do this?”

“I think so.”

“You think so?”

He looks up and sees the harpoon coming down from the Jupiter that’s hovering over them. The last time he used that thing to board a ship was when he was in space. It’s an easier feat when there’s no gravity.

John grabs the harpoon as soon as it’s within arm’s reach and steadies it. “All right…get the robot on it.”

John watches as Will explains to Robot what he needs him to do. “You gotta hold on to the harpoon and to Mom…as gentle as you can, ‘cause she’s hurt. Do you understand? But you cannot let go of her until you’re both inside the Jupiter. No matter what, you have to hang on to the harpoon and to Mom.”

“Yes, Will Robinson.”

John can’t believe he’s really going to do this. It’s insane. Trusting these machines with her life when they’re the reason she’s here to begin with.

The robot already latches on to the metal. Throws his lower limbs over the hooks and curls one limb around the steel wire that lowered it.

John bends down and dusts a kiss on Maureen’s forehead, feels the heat of her fever against his lips. “You’re gonna be okay,” he repeats as he slides his arms underneath her and picks her up. Maybe if he says it often enough it’ll be true. She feels shockingly light in his arms as he hands her to the robot, who immediately wraps two of his limbs around her body and secures her into his frame.

“Hold on tight!” Will reminds Robot.

“This is completely bonkers crazy, isn’t it?” Penny questions, finally letting go of her mother’s hand.

Yes, it is.

The pain of the sudden movement makes Maureen groan again but it’s not enough to bring her back into full consciousness.

“Now! Bring it in!” John orders into his comm before turning it back off. Before he changes his mind.

Both of them, Robot and Maureen, are lifted up off the ground up towards the tree cover and then higher, hovering above them, as they’re being pulled up into the Jupiter.

And then suddenly something is firing at them, from the jungle…

What the hell?

“Dad?” It's a single syllable of high-pitched terror.

Robots from the jungle are firing electric bolts at their Robot and Maureen, who are still dangling in the air.

Move the damn Jupiter, Grant, John wants to shout into his comm but he cannot risk turning it on. Not now.

“Where did all those robots come from?” Will whispers.

The noise of the Jupiter. Maureen leaving her comm on for hours. Their comms. All of it would have been like a magnet to them.

“Dad…?”

“Stay down,” he tells his daughter. “If we leave our comms off they’ll have a hard time finding us.” Finally, the lack of light was working in their favour. Although it was leaving them blind too.

“What about Mom? They’re shooting at her!”

“Shhh….” John turns upwards into the sky and finally sees the Jupiter moving away. It’s hard to see the robot and Maureen dangling below the ship, in the night sky, but the firing continues and as the electric bolts fly towards them, it illuminates them both. John notices that Robot has changed shape again…there’s a round, protective casing covering the front of his body, the part that’s holding on to Maureen.

Will notices it too. “He’s gonna do everything he can to keep her safe, Dad.”

“Wow…”

“Trust him.”

John’s still not sure that he does, but right now he’s grateful.

He co*cks his head and tell his kids to move. To slink away from their hiding place on all fours. As far away from the firing robots as they can get.

He doubts Grant will head for the town now. Even with Maureen on board.

He’s going to hang around and try to extract them too.

If he was alone, he’d tell Grant to forget it. To get Maureen to a hospital as quickly as possible and worry about him later.

But he’s not alone.

Once they’ve crawled to a quieter spot, with no robot in sight, John turns his comm back on. “Grant…you close?”

“John. I got ‘em. Maureen and the robot are on board.”

Thank God.

“Can you see where I am?”

“Yeah…”

“I’m gonna turn off the comm and then head about five hundred metres north-east. Away from these monsters…I need you to toss the harpoon back down to get me and the kids.”

“Got it… see you there.”

“Keep moving,” John tells his kids, egging them along ahead of him as they crawl through the dense forest on their hands and knees, scrapes and bruises be damned.

He has no idea how the hell he’ll get all three of them out on that harpoon without any straps, but he’ll figure it out. Find a way.

Hang on, Maureen. Just a little longer. Hang on.

Alpha Centauri, Town Center

“He’s not responding to the burn treatment,” the short, squat surgeon with the thinning hair, informs her.

He doesn’t really need to. Judy can see it herself by looking at the machines in front of her, and at his vitals.

“One more hour,” she says softly. “Please give him one more hour.”

Judy can see that he’s debating it. Thinking of trying to convince her otherwise.

But he doesn’t.

The doctor exits the room as quietly as he entered it, leaving Judy alone with Don and the half dozen machines around his bed. Beeping reassuringly to let her know he’s alive.

With no one watching, she takes his uninjured hand in hers and squeezes it. “I won’t wait longer,” she says softly. “I promise. I won’t risk your life.” It means too much too me, she wants to add, but doesn’t. Just in case he can hear her. “You have one hour to fight this thing, to improve. One hour,” she repeats. “You can do it.”

Judy observes his face, strangely peaceful and still. Don is always such a whirlwind of motion. Moving. Talking. Doing. So much so that it feels unnatural to see him so still. Part of her wishes he’d come out of the sedation, even though the physician in her doesn’t want it. The burn treatment would hurt too much. Put too much strain on his already overtaxed body.

It’s better for him to remain sedated.

But she has so many questions for him. Even more so since her last two calls to Grant went unanswered.

Focusing on the rise and fall of his chest while holding on to his hand is the only thing that stops her from pacing the room.

She can hear her mother’s calm, rational voice echoing in the room. “It’s gonna be okay, sweetheart. Just focus on one thing at a time and control your breathing. Like I showed you when you got nervous before your exams.”

So she does.

Southern Tropics

“What’s the plan, Dad?” Penny asks, her hands and knees are caked with the moist earth of the forest floor.

“Get as far away from these things as we can before Grant pulls us up in the ship.”

Will stops moving and turns around. “He didn’t fly into town with Mom?”

“No,” John answers.

“But she needs…”

John gives him a little push. “Keep quiet and keep moving….”

“But Dad…”

“Your mom needs you to stay alive,” he tells him. We both do.

“How far do we go?” Penny asks.

They’ve been crawling for almost twenty minutes and John hasn’t spotted any metallic sign of movement around them for almost as long. It’s time that Maureen doesn’t have. But he knows she’d have done the exact same thing if the tables were turned.

In the darkness, without electronics, they have an advantage. It’s next to impossible for the robots to spot them. But without the comm to guide him, John’s been measuring the distance in his head. “Not much further.”

As if on cue, he can hear the Jupiter’s engines. Can see the ship’s lights come into view.

Once it’s hovering over them, they’ll have to move fast, because it’s a beacon for the robots. It won’t take long for them to get here.

“How are we getting on?”

“Same way your mom did.”

“With Robot?” Wills questions. There’s mud on his forehead.

“No, with the harpoon.”

Penny’s eyes widen. “You’re kidding, right?”

Grant’s already lowered the harpoon, but he’s doing it blindly because he doesn’t know exactly where they are. At first attempt it gets tangled in a tree top, so he has to pull it back up.

Again on the second attempt.

On the third one, it finally cuts through the foliage but it settles down about twenty meters from where they are.

“Let’s go!” John yells.

They run towards it, but the Jupiter's presence has brought the robots back too and they're blasting at the ship. Grant banks left and then right to avoid any damage and all John can think about is the robot and Maureen being tossed around the garage. About how much bumpier their own ride up into the ship will get.

They’ve almost reached the harpoon when John sees Will going down in front of him. Tripping again. f*ck. John jumps towards him and yanks him back up before Will can do it himself.

“Got it,” Penny yells, reaching the harpoon first. “Who’s going first?”

John’s about to answer her question, when he sees a robot less than ten metres from them, raising an arm to fire. “Duck!” he yells and for once Penny listens as she drops to ground.

The harpoon is swaying in front of her.

John grabs it and throws his legs over it. “Penny, get on in the front!”

“What?”

“Now!” John yells. “Jump on my lap. Face me and wrap your legs over mine. Hook them together if you can.”

“What about Will?”

“Will, get on behind me! Piggy-back.”

“Uhm , okay…okay.”

Penny’s already on his lap, her legs wrapped around his waist and now Will is climbing on his back. John is banking on the fact that his son’s long legs will be able to wrap around both of them and they do. “You have to hold on to me and to each other, got it? I’m gonna hold on to the harpoon…all you gotta do is hold on to me and not let go. No matter what. I’ll do the rest.”

“Uh huh…” Penny’s face is white with terror just as another electronic blast misses them by an inch. “Oh my God…we’re never gonna make it. There are robots everywhere!”

“Will? You on?”

“Yes. On.”

John can feel the weight of both of his kids, his almost-adult kids, pulling him down. He turns on the comm. “Grant, we’re on! Pull us up now!”

They’re lifted off the ground almost instantly and Penny screams at the speed of which it’s happening, while burrowing her face in his chest. Leaves are whipping at them and suddenly John feels a searing heat in one of his legs. It’s so strong that it makes him jolt, but it’s not enough to make him lose his iron grip. Nothing is.

“Dad!” Will screams as they’re being whacked against a tree top. “Did you get hit?”

“Just hang on!”

The Jupiter banks again and suddenly they’re swaying wildly, back and forth in the night sky, but they're also moving away from the robots.

John can hear shots still being fired, in spite of the roar of the engines, but they’re disappearing in the distance.

The pull of the harpoon gets stronger as it approaches the ship. He can also hear the sound of the ramp being lowered, just enough to allow them to get in.

They’re still swaying madly and John does what he can to wrap his legs, one of which has now gone numb, around Penny, wishing he had a protective shell like the robot.

Once they’re within arms reach of the garage door, Will’s the one who recklessly reaches for it.

John wants to yell at him. Tell him to forget about a smooth landing and let themselves be dragged in. No matter how much skin they scrape off in the process.

But as soon as Will gets a hold of the ramp, it steadies them. Allows his son to get a firm hold and roll his body into the ship.

“I got it,” Will yells, pulling in his sister as soon as he’s inside. It’s messy and clumsy and Penny rolls in like a sack of potatoes, banging against the ramp several times before she’s inside.

And then both his kids yank him up, until he too rolls into the garage unceremoniously.

“Grant…we’re in,” John orders into his comm. “Close the ramp.”

“Everyone okay down there?”

“I don’t know..” John looks up at his son and daughter, who are both kneeling on the floor, looking down at him. “Are you?” he asks them. “Both of you in one piece?”

Penny looks rough, her face and hands scratched and dirty, wet hair clinging to her neck. “Yeah…sure, I mean, I keep forgetting that you and Mom have a different definition of okay than the rest of us. But sure. Great. Fabulous.”

John grins. “I take it that’s a yes?”

Will grins back at him, as much as of a mess as his sister. “Yeah…we’re good.”

“We’re fine, Grant. Get us out of here.”

“Happy to oblige,” is the reply on the comm. “Looking forward to going where no one’s shooting at us.”

John pushes himself off the floor and hisses as a searing pain shoots up his leg. He’s taken a bullet before but these things that the robots shoot at them are different. They’re electronic heat blasters of some sort, not unlike laser weapons. They burn flesh instead of tearing it apart by blasting a projectile into it.

He’s not sure which is worse.

“Dad…” Penny gasps. “You’re hurt!”

“One of those blasters caught my leg.” He pushes himself to his feet. It’s painful but not fatal and it’s the last thing on his mind. Especially knowing they’ll have access to a hospital soon. “It’s fine.”

His eyes scan the room for Maureen and the robot, and he spies them huddled in a corner. The Robot’s protective shell is still wrapped around her.

John rushes over to them, followed by Will and Penny. “Hey…buddy,” he nudges the Robot. “You can release her now.”

But the robot waits for Will.

“It’s okay…” Will reiterates. “You were amazing. But it’s okay now, she’s safe. We’re all safe.”

The robot’s shell slowly opens up and slides back, one metallic tile at a time and he changes back into his humanoid form at the same time, sliding Maureen onto the floor.

She’s still unconscious.

John holds up her comm and frowns. The numbers flashing back at him are worse than they were back down in the jungle – highlighted by a bright red screen. “Will, Penny… can one of you grab me a kit from the med bay?”

He has to do something to stabilize her. Otherwise…

Penny’s already on her feet. “I’ll go.”

“A few more minutes, Maureen…I know that was rough, but this is it. Promise you a smooth landing next. All you gotta do is hang on a little bit longer.”

Penny’s making her way back down the ladder just as Maureen’s comm starts to beep.

Will’s crouched down next to him. “Dad…what’s happening? Why is it beeping?”

John’s index and middle fingers press into Maureen’s neck. There’s no pulse this time.

She’s not breathing and her comm’s sounding the alarm.

f*ck. This can’t be happening. Not now. Not when we’re so close.

“She’s going into cardiac arrest…”

“Mom!” Penny runs back towards them and John’s ready to pull out the defibrillator when suddenly the robot joins them and puts one of his metal hands over Maureen’s heart.

“Will, tell him he needs to get out the way!”

If he doesn’t John will push him away.

But Robot doesn’t budge.

“Help Maureen Robinson,” the robot announces, leaving his hand on her heart, while grabbing Will with his other hand.

“Listen you gotta get out…”

“Wait…” Will raises his hand. “Wait, Dad! Let him help.”

“Help how?”

“I don’t know…”

“Help Maureen Robinson,” the Robot turns to Will. “Yes?”

“Yes, yes!” Will shouts back. “Do whatever you can! Whatever you need to do. Help her!”

“What the hell…” John can’t figure out what’s going on. Penny starts to sob.

The robot bends down and he spreads one of his huge palms over Maureen’s heart and then pulls Will towards him with his other hand. Gives him a hard enough nudge to let him know he needs to lie down on the floor next to his mother, and Will does as he’s told.

Once he’s lying down, the robot places his other palm on Will’s heart, linking the two of them.

As soon as he does, a surge of electricity hits them both. Will gasps and arches his back, his chest rising up.

“Ahh…” The force of the surge makes Will curl onto his side and gasp in pain. He cradles his side, as if someone struck him in the same spot where Maureen’s wound is bleeding.

Will’s in agony and John sees his son’s eyes rolling into the back of his head.

“Stop!” John yells to the robot.

“No…don’t…” A semi-conscious Will groans. “Keep…going…do it…”

There’s a brightness, a light of sorts, that suddenly glows from Will’s chest, from his mechanical heart. It moves from his body into the robot, a thin trail of bright energy coursing from Will’s heart into the robot’s spiky fingers, along one arm and then into the other, until it reaches the hand that’s resting on Maureen’s heart.

John’s eyes follow the trail of light in disbelief. Watches it bring his wife back to life.

It sends a jolt of…something into her heart.

Maureen gasps as soon as it hits her and she starts to breathe again.

Just as Will loses consciousness.

Maureen’s eyes open and she turns her head towards her son. “Will…no., Don’t.”

And then the robot releases his palms, first from Maureen’s heart and then from Will’s

“Will? Mom? What’s happening?” Penny’s hovering over them and John doesn’t know who to tend to. Checks his son for a pulse first, relieved to find one. Even more relieved to see him slowly open his eyes.

“Mom?” Will blinks

John turns away from him to check on Maureen. The comm’s stopped beeping. Her heart rate is nearly normal and for a long moment her blue eyes look up at him. Dazed and confused. Before they close again.

“Maureen?”

What the hell just happened?

“Will?” Penny’s helping him sit up.”Are you okay?”

“Hey, buddy…what happened?”

“Mom’s okay?”

“Yeah…thanks to you, I think.”

Will shakes his head weakly and turns to the robot. His son is pale and looks as though he’s been hit by a chariot. “Not me…him.”

John leans against the wall, drained. He’s not sure he agrees. From what he saw just now, it seemed more like the Robot was a conduit between them. That he was able to take something from Will’s heart and give it to his mother.

He connected them somehow. The robot took something from Will’s heart and gave it to Maureen but in exchange he gave Will all her pain.

And judging from the way Maureen looked at her son and told him not to…she knew what was happening.

Penny’s wiping away tears and holding on to her brother, who still looks weak. “You scared us…”

Grant’s voice comes through John’s comm. “Try and strap in. We’re landing in two minutes.”

John sighs. They’re already on the floor. All of them. Utterly spent. “Probably not gonna happen…just make it as smooth as you can.”

“Aye, aye.”

John watches over all of them. His family – his whole world- in various states of disarray. Bruised, banged up, and barely holding on.

Those two minutes can’t come soon enough.

Chapter 12

Chapter Text

Chapter Twelve

Alpha Centauri Town Center

In typical Don West fashion, because he clearly likes stressing her out even when unconscious, he begins to respond to the treatment just as the surgeon is getting ready to prep him for amputation.

His fever finally goes down and Judy can literally see the start of a dozen tiny, subtle changes as the healing process begins on his flesh, thanks to the layers of clear foam wrapped around it. It’ll be changed every six hours, up to a dozen times, depending on his progress.

He even briefly comes out of sedation to give her a loopy, medicated smile. “Heaven?”

She grins at him. “Not yet.”

“Maureen?”

“They found her…they’re bringing her in now, on Grant’s ship.”

Judy watches him close his eyes. “Sweet…”

“Yeah, it is.”

Truth is, she’s not entirely sure yet, whether or not they are coming back with good news. Grant’s message was brief, telling her that they found her mom and that she’s hurt and he was planning to get her out on the spot. Judy tried to reach him twice since she got that message but he hasn’t responded.

She hopes it’s not because there’s more bad news.

“Dr. Robinson,” a resident is peeking her head into Don’s room. “Your family’s here.”

The announcement brings Judy her to her feet. “Thank you, thank you.”

“They’re taking your mom into surgery.”

“Oh…”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know much more.”

“it’s okay..” Judy bites her lip. “Thanks.”

The resident leaves and Judy follows her, after whispering an inaudible. “I’ll be back,” in Don’s direction.

She takes the main elevator down to the lobby where she sees the rest of her family, shocked at their appearance. Their clothes are torn and dirty and there are cuts and scratches all over them.

She runs to give her father a hug, but then stops when she sees the gash in his leg. “Dad…what happened?”

“It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine!”

“Your mother’s the one who’s hurt!”

“There are doctors taking care of her!”

“Dad…” Penny chimes in. “She’s right. Can you please not make us worry about both of you simultaneously?”

John raises his hands in defeat. “All right, all right… “

Judy gives him a gentle shove towards an empty room. Watches him limp in there against his will, after she takes another glance at her siblings. “When I’m done with Dad…I’m gonna patch you two up as well.”

She makes him sit down and winces when she sees the extent of the damage. It’s treatable and, with the technology they have, it might not even leave a scar, but she can’t believe he couldn’t see the urgency of it. This was the kind of injury people rushed to the ER for.

The kind that could cause all sorts of damage if left untreated.

She gives him a local anesthetic first, followed by a second shot, and begins the slow, careful process of cleaning it up and applying some of the same treatment they used on Don’s arms.

“Tell me about Mom…” she says softly, without taking her eyes of her work.

He’s watching her patch him up. “I don’t know what to say, Jude…she wasn’t in good shape. She was hurt but I don’t know exactly how badly. Unconscious.” He’s gripping the chair. “Her heart stopped on the way here.”

That makes her pause and look up. Makes her own heart skip a beat. “What?”

“Jude, I can’t sit here and chat. I gotta find out what’s going on with her.”

But Judy grabs him. “Stay put. You hurting yourself isn’t gonna help anyone, and they’re not gonna tell you anything until they’re done.”

Her father sighs. He looks even more exhausted than he did when he was on the Jupiter with her. “Find out what you can for me, will you?”

“I will.”

“How’s Don?”

“He’s a mess but he’ll recover.”

“His arm?”

“His arm too.”

“Wow. When I saw it, I didn’t think…”

“I wasn’t so sure either, but I told them to try, and you know, he’s like you, stubborn. Tough.”

“Did he tell you what happened to them?”

“No.” Judy finishes cleaning the wound and unwraps a gel pack of the burn foam. “He only woke up for a moment, just before you got here.”

Her father leans back and Judy observes him as he closes his eyes, the slightest smile on her lips. She figures it’ll be another minute or so before he’s out cold.

True enough, two minutes of quiet conversation later and he’s leaning back in the chair, finally getting some much-needed sleep.

I’ll deal with your irritation later, she thinks, draping a light blanket over him.

He won’t be out long. The sedative she gave him is mild. But strong enough to allow him to rest instead of driving the nurses and doctors crazy.

She cleans up her work and goes to check on her siblings, who are camped out in the waiting room. Penny’s the one who first steps towards her and gives her an overdue hug, and Will follows suit almost right after.

“Is Dad okay?” Penny wants to know.

“He will be. He’s napping.”

Will is surprised. “Really?”

Judy smirks. “I might have helped make that happen.”

Penny’s eyes widen. “Oh, he’s gonna kill you.”

“Nah…” Will adds. “It’s Judy.”

Judy wonders what exactly he means by that. “Let me take a look at you two now.”

Will shakes his head. “It’s just scratches.”

“Okay, Dad.”

Will rolls his eyes. But Judy can tell that he takes it as a compliment.

Penny holds out her arm, full of tiny cuts, some of which are still bleeding. “I’m totally okay for you to put something cool and soothing on me. Go for it. Actually, I wouldn’t mind bathing in it.”

“You guys do look like you could use a bath.”

Penny makes a face. “Some of us hiked through a jungle to get Mom and Don, while others just sat in a comfy Jupiter…”

“You’re such a hater,” Judy laughs. It feels so good to have them here, along with Don and their parents, after everything that happened. In spite of everything that’s still happening…

“Dr. Robinson,” A middle-aged man wearing a lab coat sticks his head into the room. “We’ve had three more injured colonists come in. If your family’s okay, we could use your help.”

Judy jumps up. “Okay, I’m coming.” She turns to her siblings. “Go home. Wash up and get some rest. I’ll grab an ointment for you. It’s the middle of the night. You don’t want Mom to see you like this when she wakes up, do you?”

Later

The first rays of sunlight are starting to cut through the blinds of the hospital room window when he sees her stirring.

John's been sitting here a while, after waking up from his unrequested nap. Taking over for his kids and sending them home to shower and rest.

The room he's in has been a hive of activity all night, as two other colonists were brought in. One with fractured ribs and a broken hip. Another one is unconscious with a chest tube and a heavily bandaged head, as well as minor burns. Several docs and nurses have been by to check on her all night.

John was surprised that none of it woke Maureen up, even after the surgical anaesthesia wore off. But Judy did pop in more than once to reassure him that it was normal. Tried to coax him into going home as well, but he wanted to be here when she woke, and now that her blue eyes are looking up at him and struggling to focus, he’s glad that he is.

“Hey…”

Her gaze lingers on him and he can see the recognition dawning in her eyes.

“Don?”

“No, John. The other guy in your life.”

She smiles weakly.

“He’s fine,” he answers. Knowing that’s what she’s asking. “I heard you were the first person he asked about when he woke up. Should I be jealous?”

“Sure.” Her voice is low, hoarse. “Maybe it’s time you got jealous, John Robinson.”

“You think?” He’s grinning and at the same time his eyes water. Hearing the sound of her voice after thinking he’d never hear it again, is doing a number on him.

“Yeah…” Her fingers slide over his, her touch light and soft. It’s as unexpected as the smile that stays on her lips as she closes her eyes again.

He weaves his own fingers through hers. “S’okay. Sleep. I’m here.’

He doesn’t hear Grant Kelly enter the room.

“John?”

“Grant.” John turns to him. “Hi.”

He points to a chair. “Mind if grab a seat?”

“No. Go ahead.”

“How is she?” Grant asks, nodding towards Maureen, who’s no longer awake.

“She’ll be okay. I don’t know if she got injured during the crash or afterwards. Puncture wound that became infected. Concussion. There’s some kidney damage that they had to patch up in surgery. But…” He eyes the IVs going into her arms. A mix of medication and nutrients. ”She’s expected to make a full recovery.”

Grant exhales. “Glad to hear it…and you?”

John looks at his bandaged leg. “Same.” He takes a moment to look at Judy’s father and can see the exhaustion written all over his face. “You just get in?”

“Yeah, I flew back down there. Did four runs to pick up stranded, wounded colonists.”

“Four? I thought the directive was abandon everything and everyone.” He still hasn’t forgiven Victor Dhar for that one.

“They changed their minds.”

“Good.” He wants to ask what’s happening down there, in the southern tropics. Whether this is the start of something akin to a war. But at the same time, he doesn’t want to think about it, at least for a couple of hours. He needs to be with his family now, before he deals with another world that’s falling apart.

“I brought the robot back to your house.” Grant tells him. “The kids were happy about that.”

“Thanks.”

“Not sure how long you’re gonna be able to keep him there. There’s talk about expelling all of them from the town.”

John frowns. “Not surprising.”

“I know.”

“Grant, listen…thanks. For everything. I couldn’t have done this without you there. That was some insane flying you did the last twenty-four hours.”

“It’s the one thing I’m good at.”

“Judy needed you there and you came even though I was an ass about it. You’re not just a good pilot. You’re a good Dad too.”

Grant’s taken aback. “I, uh…don’t know what to say. Thanks. That means a lot coming from you.”

“It’s true.”

Grant’s eyes roam back to Maureen. “And you’re a helluva husband. Not gonna lie, man. But I didn’t think there was a chance in hell we’d ever see her again.” There’s grudging admiration in his grin. “But you, you don’t give up. She’s here, alive, because of you.”

John watches the subtle rise and fall of her chest and for a split second he’s back in the garage on the ship. Hearing the alarm go off on her comm, feeling for a pulse and finding none. It sends a chill down his spine. “I think you give me too much credit. She’s alive because she doesn’t give up.”

“You’re a good match then.”

John smiles. “We’ve had our moments, but yes, I wanna believe we are.”

“Tell me something, how’d you two meet?” Grants asks. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

John toys with his wedding band, as his thoughts go back two decades. “I was stationed at San Diego at the time – on a destroyer. One afternoon they flew in a couple of engineers from NASA to give us the low-down on these new high-tech rocket launchers they installed on the ship. To make sure we knew how to use them properly without blowing up the ship.”

Grant has his full attention and it’s lifting some of the exhaustion on his face.

“One of them was a balding middle-aged guy with a bunch of pens sticking out of his lab coat and the other one was Maureen. She was… what can I say? She was hot. I think I had a crush on her the second she stepped on the podium, wearing this tight skirt and ridiculously high heels.”

Grant laughed. “Good to know you have a shallow side, John.”

“I was too distracted to absorb a single thing she was saying. Afterwards, I requested a hard copy of their presentation, because I had to go over it again…and when I saw that it had her contact info on it, I used it as an excuse to reach out. Told her I had some questions and asked if she’d mind going over them with me. I spent hours reading about that stupid rocket launcher so she wouldn’t see through my charade.”

“You had it bad, man.”

“I did. I convinced her to meet me for a coffee and of course she saw right through me and when she realized what I was doing. She tried to scare me off. Told me she had a little girl, that she wasn’t interested in dating. That her job took up all her time and what was left was for Judy. But It just made me more persistent.”

“You? No way.”

“I wanted to convince her – and myself - that I wasn’t some jerk who was just after a good time.” He grins. “Mind you, I wanted that too.” He smiles at the memory. “But when I saw her with Judy…the way she loved that girl. The way Maureen gives a hundred and ten percent to everything she does. It made me want her even more, because this drive she has, it’s contagious. I decided to try and win her over through your daughter…but of course the joke was on me, ‘cause I ended up falling in love with Judy just as much as her mother.”

“I’m guessing your strategy worked?”

John laughs. “Eventually. I wore her down. Not gonna lie, when I found out that you were Judy’s Dad, I got a little intimidated. I mean, how do I compete with a national hero?”

“That’s easy,” he says softly, staring at his sleeping ex-girlfriend. Seems like a lifetime ago since he last watched her sleep. “All you had to was love them and stay. If you did that, you were already miles ahead of me.”

“Loving them was easy,” John admits. “I wasn’t so good at the staying part. But every time I left, I had a reason to come back. Two really beautiful reasons. Later on, two become three and then four.”

“You did good by them.”

“Not always,” he admits. “Haven’t always been a good father or even a good husband. I had to come close to losing them all before I realized what I had.”

Pushing himself up from his chair, Grant stifles a yawn. “I hope you never do. Lose them.”

“Me too.”

His gaze drifts to Maureen. “Give her my love when she wakes up, okay?”

John nods. “I will. You get some sleep.”

“That’s the plan. You should try it too.”

“I will,” he tells him. “But not yet.”

She doesn’t manage to stay awake more than a couple of minutes in those first twenty-four hours.

And it seems like every time she does wake up, it’s a different face that’s greeting her. As if they’re taking turns watching over her. If she had the energy for it, she’d tell them to stop, that she’s gonna be okay. But it’s getting harder and harder to get the kids to listen to her these days, and John, well, he never did to begin with.

“Hey, Mom.” It’s Penny’s bright, bubbly smile she sees one time. “You ever gonna stop napping?”

There’s a jagged cut right across her cheek and Maureen lifts her hand so she can trail it with her index finger. An act that takes way more effort than it should. “What happened to you?”

“Says the woman lying in a hospital bed with a giant bump on her head and half a dozen stitches in her side.”

Smart ass.

There’s a smile on her lips as her eyes close again, completely against her will. “Fine. Don’t tell me. I’ll ask your dad.”

Later, it’s Don West, looking slightly less deathly grey than last time she saw him.

He’s sitting in a chair next to her, his injured arm wrapped in a giant clear protective bubble. An IV running out of his other arm.

“Look who’s alive,” he smirks when her eyes meet his.

“I could say the same. Your arm?”

“Still mine.”

“Wow…”

“My cousin told the docs to hold off amputating.”

“Your cousin? You have a cousin here?”

“I had no idea either. You should meet her. She’s a lot like you.”

“Don?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m glad you made it.”

“Me too.”

“Now I don’t have to build you that stupid plaque.”

“Just for that, I’m gonna go back to my room and die.”

Maureen laughs, and it makes her side throb, but it also feels good. To laugh and to see her friend’s face. Looking so much better.

His eyes light up too, but when the lighthearted moment is over they look at each other with the kind of sombre connection that only two people who’ve faced death together understand.

“Let’s never do that again,” he says quietly.

“No. Let’s not.”

Next time she wakes up, it’s Judy and Will whom she sees. Judy’s asleep on a chair, one of her skinny legs dangling over the armrest and Will, Will’s reading a book that he sets down on his lap as soon as he sees her looking at him. He gives her a big, beautiful, dorky smile that makes her heart melt. “Hey, Mom…” he whispers, so as not to wake his sister, who no doubt came here after working who knows how many hours.

“Hey back,” she smiles at him. “Tell your sister to go home and sleep,” she whispers.

“As if she’ll listen to me.”

She’s still so weak that she can never stay above the pull of sleep for more than a few minutes, and it scares her a little, how little energy she has. Makes her wonder just how close she came to not being here at all.

But after two days, she’s finally able to stay awake long enough to have a conversation. It’s mostly dark outside again and it’s John’s face that’s softly illuminated in the first light of day.

She asks him to raise her bed so that she’s not lying down. Maureen hopes it’ll help her to stay awake. Hopes it’ll allow her to go home sooner rather than later.

He’s also lowered a tray across her bed and he’s placed a bowl on it and he’s pushing it in her direction. “Doctor said you should try and eat something.”

Maureen eyes it. It looks like apple sauce. It’s not enough that they’re babying her, they’re also giving her baby food.

John hands her a spoon. “Go for it. Dig in.”

She does. Even though she’d love some real food, this is a start. The sweet tartness of it feels heavenly on her tongue.

“When’s the last time you ate?”

Maureen isn’t sure. The days have blurred in her memory and she isn’t even sure how long exactly she’s been in this room.

So she doesn’t answer. But she also doesn’t want to think about it. It’s still too close and raw.

One of John’s hands slides over hers. His fingers brushing against the IV line. “Hey, sweetheart. Slow down. It’ll make you sick.”

The small bowl is almost empty. Maureen doesn’t realize how quickly she scooped it up. Wants more even though she already feels full.

“Do you want some more?” John asks after she finishes the last bite.

“Yes…”

His eyes are on her but he pushes his chair back. “I’ll see if I can find you another one.”

He’s about to head out of the room when a sudden panic grips her. Makes it feel like she can’t get any air into her lungs.

What if he doesn’t come back? She still hasn’t told him.

“John…”

He turns around. “Yes?”

“Don’t go.”

He exhales. “Okay, okay. I won’t.”

She can feel the warm tears pooling in her eyes, starting to roll down her cheeks. “I was so sure, John…”

He’s back at her bedside. “Sure of what?” he asks gently.

“I was so sure it was over. I was dying.”

His hand is back in hers. “You didn’t.”

“It was close. I know it was.” She knows she’s arrogant in her certainty sometimes, but she also knows she’s rarely wrong.

For a second, she can feel him shudder, remembering something himself. “Yes, it was.” He doesn’t try to coddle her. He never has and it’s one of the things she loves most about him.

The tears keep falling and the unbearable weight of it all threatens to drown her. The things still left unsaid and undone.

“Hey, ” His thumb wipes some of them away. “You didn’t. That’s all that matters.”

“You know I love you, right?”

"Yeah." He smirks. “I know.”

“I don’t say it enough.”

“I don’t either,” he admits. “But you show me. All the time.”

She, who’s always been so much less sentimental than him, can’t seem to stop her tears. “You’re not just saying that ‘cause I’m a mess, are you?”

“No.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t,” he reassures her. “I’d be worried if you went through what you did…without it messing you up. Trust me, I’ve seen soldiers go through less and end up in bad shape. The ones who end up coping the best, the most resilient ones, are the ones who lose it sooner rather than later. Who don’t bottle it t up for months, or years before they break down. They’re the ones who heal the fastest.”

“I don’t want to be a mess.”

“You are the strongest person I know.”

“Not anymore.”

“Now more than ever.” He corrects her.

“Don’t baby me.”

He laughs. “As if I could.”

“I love you.”

“Is this a good time for a confession?”

She’s instinctively expecting bad news. Funny, how they’re almost conditioned to it after the last three years.

“Since I found you lying unconscious in that forest floor, I’ve wanted to hold you so bad.” He can’t help the emotion that overcomes him again. “It’s stupid, but I need to hear your heart beat. Feel your skin on mine. To make sure it’s warm, to know this is real and that I have you back.”

Her gaze falls to the metal bars on the bed, silently telling him to lower it. “Come in.”

He does and it’s clumsy and awkward and, between his bandaged leg and her inability to lie on one side it takes a couple of minutes for them to figure out a way for him to squeeze into the too-small bed and somehow wrap a couple of limbs around her.

But, like always, they come up with a solution – with Maureen lying on her uninjured side and John squeezing a pillow between his legs – one that lets him wrap his arms around her, and God, it feels so good. Like he’s finally home and whole again.

She’s lost so much weight that he can feel bones where there used to be flesh, when he slides his hand under her flimsy hospital gown. But he can also feel her heart is beating, strong and steady, and it calms him.

She’ll get her strength back. He’ll make sure, even if the world is collapsing around them.

“You okay?” he whispers into the back of her neck. Her hair is brushing against his lips. It smells like earth and fever and rain and antiseptics.

“I’m okay.” She reaches for his hand and holds it tight in her own. Brings it up to her lips.

It doesn’t take long for her to fall asleep and when she does, he follows suit.

Judy comes in about a half hour later.

The physician in her wants to roll her eyes, wake him up and let him know how silly this is. That he’s probably making both their injuries worse.

But it’s the first time in a week that that the tension in his face is gone and her mother’s holding on to him in her sleep.

It makes her heart swell.

Judy shakes her head. “Are you two even real?”

Then she quietly closes the curtain around her mother’s bed and makes her way out of the room.

Chapter 13

Chapter Text

Chapter Thirteen

Alpha Centauri, Town Centre

They hold an emergency town hall meeting the next day for all the colonists who are in leadership positions.

The colony's council hall is too small so instead, they moved several hundred chairs into a massive hangar at the Jupiter base.

John Robinson was invited after receiving a call from the defence councillor’s office, letting him know that he’d be asked, ordered actually, to take part in the colony’s military operations against a potential robot attack.

Military. John wanted to roll his eyes at the use of the word. Alpha Centauri was more of a scientific outpost than anything else – founded by a bunch of pacifists like Maureen - and because of it, it’s woefully unequipped against any invading forces. The ‘military’ amounts to little more than the equivalent of the police force of a medium-sized town.

But it’s too late to point that out.

So here he is, sitting about ten rows back as he watches the planet’s councillors take their seats at a long table in front of the room. There are still empty seats next to him as people slowly start to pour in. He recognizes a lot of familiar faces.

The chief councillor – a tall, regal Haitian woman, who currently holds the highest position in the colony. Victor Dhar, vice-councillor, who takes his seat next to her. Amir Muhammad, the Malaysian commander who’s currently in charge of the colony’s defense.

He recognizes a handful of faces in the chairs around him too. Men and women he got to know during the year he spent on that overheated ring of Jupiters. He also sees Dr. Martinez grabbing a seat in the first row.

Shouldn’t you be on the Solidarity given the possibility of an imminent robot invasion?

What he doesn’t expect to see among the crowd is his wife and Don West entering the cavernous room.

He sees Maureen wince as she sits down two rows ahead of him. Don, cradling his arm, next to her.

John stares at them in disbelief, before he gets up and makes his way towards them. “What the hell are you two doing here?”

“John?” Maureen looks up at him, not particularly surprised to see him here. After all, he told her that Muhammad invited him.

She’s wearing a turquoise dress with long sleeves, thats hide all the cuts and bruises on her arms. It has a thin, ribbon-like belt and he instinctively eyes her mid-section, scanning it for blood stains. (Which is ridiculous, but he can’t help himself).

I swear to God, Maureen….

The soldier in him does realize that as irrational and paranoid it is, it’s also normal for his brain to have these thoughts after what they’ve just been through.

“They’re going to discuss the future of the Solidarity build. The build that I’m in charge of!”

He should’ve known she’d wrangle her way in here. “They discharged you two?”

“Yeah. Of course.” Don makes a pitiful, unsuccessful effort to raise his injured arm. “They needed the beds for actual sick people.”

“You checked each other out, didn’t you?”

Maureen averts his gaze just long enough to know he’s right. He wants to glare at Don, but he knows his wife well enough to know that this isn’t Don’s doing. That even if Don tried to talk her out of it, he would have gotten nowhere.

Don moves over to free up the seat next to Maureen, “You gonna join us or just stand there and pout?”

John scoots past Don and sit down next to his wife, who’s checking him out.

“You look nice,” she says with an approving smile, as one of her hands squeezes his thigh. “Sexy.”

Her teeth bite into her lower lip when her blue eyes lock with his, and of course it has exactly the effect she’s going for. Makes him forget his irritation as his stomach does a little flip. He always wants to drown in those gorgeous eyes of hers.

Grant was right. Because twenty years later, there are still moments like this where she looks at him as though he’s the only person in a crowded room and it makes him feel all sorts of things he can’t quite control.

In fairness, she looks so much better than she has in the hospital. Her long hair falls off her shoulders and she’s wearing some beautiful, subtle make-up that covers up the bruises near her temple and the shadows that still linger under her eyes.

He won’t give her the satisfaction of saying it, but he’s glad she’s here. Along with Don. The three of them have been a team for so long and he's missed it.

“Please take your seats as soon as you arrive,” the chief councillor’s voice announces through a microphone. “Given the urgency of the situation, we’d like to start as soon as possible.”

Fifteen minutes later, nearly all seats are full and some people are standing along the back wall.

The room quiets down immediately when the chief councillor taps into her microphone. She has the attention of every sombre face in the room.

“I’ll get right to the point,” she begins. “We all know why we’re here. Because for the first time since settling on the planet, we have reason to believe that our very existence here is threatened. Since the crash of the Jupiter transport from the Solidarity, we’ve monitored three robot ships landing in the southern tropics of the planet and there is a very real possibility that they are preparing an imminent, large-scale offensive against us.”

There’s a collective, anxious murmur in response. John’s expression doesn’t change but he feels a chill rise in his spine. This is news to him. That there are two additional ships.

Her soft, steely voice cuts across the murmurs. “We’ve had six incidents of what we believe were robot sabotage occur in the last eight days. Two Jupiter crashes, two construction incidents, one Chariot crash and a solo robot rampage in the town shopping centre, causing a total of nine fatalities, not counting the sixteen fatalities we suffered in the southern tropics when a gang of robots attacked a search party for one of the crashed Jupiters.”

The room is eerily quiet.

“We also need to share some unfortunate news coming from Earth.” She clears her throat. “As you all know, construction was underway on our former home planet, to build a replacement ship for the Resolute. A project that was taking place in tandem with our own construction of the Solidarity here, due to the global unrest sparked by an increasingly uninhabitable climate on Earth. It was our hope that we would double the number of colonists coming here.” She pauses again, weighing her words. “It is with deep regret that I have to inform you that, following an unexpected Russian offensive against central Europe, the Salvation project, taking place south of Paris, has been destroyed.”

Maureen’s hand moves to her lips and there’s a massive, collective gasp in the room, followed by a fresh wave of murmurs.

The chief councillor continues. “It means the Solidarity is currently – and likely will be for some time - the only link between us and our former home. The only possibility for new colonists to come here.”

“’Cause I’m sure people on Earth are gonna line up to come to a planet that’s about to be invaded by killer robots, ” Don mumbles.

Dr. Angel Martinez, seated in the first row, stands up. “It’s why we will make every effort to speed up the build. To send the ship back to Earth, and bring back a desperately needed military presence on Alpha Centauri…”

“What the hell…” Maureen mumbles under her breath, before pushing her chair back to stand up too. “Doctor Martinez is right about prioritizing and protecting the build, especially in light of this news…after which we’ll consult with all necessary parties to decide on the best course of action…”

Martinez’s head whips around at the sound of her voice and he looks at her as though he’s seen a ghost. “Maureen?”

The chief councillor cuts in and prevents Maureen from having to respond.

“Thank you, Dr. Robinson for the reminder. We didn’t expect you here tonight, but…” The woman offers her a rare, knowing smile. “It’s good to see you back on your feet, back…": She pauses and turns to Martinez. “Back to leading the build. We’ll be reaching out to you directly to discuss possibilities of how to best move forward, given our new circ*mstances.”

Martinez glares at both the chief councillor and then at Maureen. John smirks, understanding now why Maureen knew that she had to be here. Nice try, asshole.

Both Martinez and Maureen take their seats again and John can see that she's fuming.

“Feels like I’m facing a mutiny instead of leading one this time,” she whispers into his ear.

“What exactly did you do to piss him off?”

“Wish I knew.”

Th e town hall continues as the planetary council announces a number of steps they’ll be taking to prepare for the threat.

A repositioning of the defense shield to cover only the town centre. With one turbine still unreplaced in their hydro-electricity plant, they no longer have sufficient energy to maintain the shield across the planet. It’s why they robot ships have been able to enter in the first place.

A recalling of everyone currently involved in research activities across the planet, back to the town centre.

A team dedicated to monitoring the situation in the southern tropics. Including the possible arrival of more alien ships.

Artificial intelligence experts working to find ways of communicating with cooperative robots to find out what the motives of those in the Southern Tropics are.

Recruitment – effective tomorrow - of all current and former military colonists, under the command of defense councillor, Muhammad.

The banning of all robots from the town centre.

Immediate defense of the Solidarity build, with a small fleet of modified Jupiters.

Questions are fired at the councillors afterwards. Some of which had already been answered.

“Do we know with certainty that they want to invade us?”

“Won’t the defense shield trap us inside the town?”

“What about the robots we’re still working with? Will they be kicked out too?”

“Without a miliary, do we stand a chance if they do launch an attack?”

No, we don’t, John thinks as he listens to the barrage of questions that the councillors try to answer best as they can, even though no one has the answers to all of them.

The chief councillor closes the town hall by reminding them that this whole colonisation project was never meant to be military in nature. That it was about science and exploration and that they had no reason to suspect that they needed an armed force here to keep them safe.

Not an excuse, John thinks.

“We came here to start a better life – one without wars and pollution and all the other terrible reasons that made us leave our home planet. I will continue to do everything we can to avoid an armed conflict, but if our very existence is at stake, we’ll have no choice but to fight, and if it comes to that, we will fight. For us. For you.”

True to human nature, there’s a mix of applause and shouts of agreement alongside murmurs of doubt and discontent.

“Well, that was fun,” Don grumbles as he gets up from his chair and they watch the room start to empty.

Maureen looks deflated. “It’s as though everything we tried to escape on Earth is coming here now…”

She’s not wrong. Everything about this evening leaves John with a profound sense of unease. Worst of all is the knowledge that within days they’ll be separated. Again.

For the first time in a while, he wishes they’d never left the water planet. Because no matter how many natural disasters they had to face there, at least they were together.

Even Don’s expression is grim.

“I’m gonna head home,” he tells them. “Looking forward to spending a night or two in my own bed, before they ship me off to the Solidarity for the foreseeable future.”

“Don’t you have another burn treatment to do tonight?” Maureen asks him.

“It can wait a day,” Don shrugs and John understands. The last thing he'd want to do after this meeting was head back to the hospital.

“We should head home too,” he says to Maureen.

But Maureen spies Martinez speaking to one of the councilors. “Not yet,” she tells him, her focus on the man who was gleefully ready to throw her under the bus tonight. “Give me a minute with him.”

Resolute Crew Residences

Judy Robinson can feel her irritation building with every minute that his co*cky ass doesn’t appear in this boring, beige. non-descript hallway. She’s been sitting here, on the floor no less, for over an hour.

She’s starting to feel like a stalker. A sad, pathetic stalker.

A bunch of other former Resolute crew members, who now live in this make-shift dorm, already gave her weird looks tonight as they went in and out of their apartments.

Maybe it’s a blessing that the colony has bigger problems on their hands right now. Big enough not to call security on a loitering intern, who’s a little too concerned about the welfare of one of her patients.

Judy scowls as she sets a twenty-minute alarm on her comm. Telling herself that if he doesn’t show up by the time it beeps that he can lose his arm for all she cares. Even though she knows she’s fooling herself, that she’ll probably just set the timer for another twenty minutes when the alarm pings and that knowledge only increases her irritation.

What the hell is wrong with her?

This is the kind of irrational, emotional thing her boy-crazy little sister would do. Not her. Not cool, calm and collected Judy.

“Whoa…what’s this?” Don’s voice almost makes her jump out of her skin. How had she not seen him enter the hallway? “You do house calls now, Dr. Robinson?”

Judy jumps to her feet, grabbing the medical bag that was sitting next to her at the same time. “Where have you been?”

Don looks at her quizzically. “I’m sorry, did we have something planned that I forgot about?”

As if she needs attitude on top of everything else. “Your arm,” she shoots back. “You had a date with a burn treatment that you just decided to brush off because clearly you don’t care if it falls off.”

“Whoa, whoa!” He raises his good arm in defense. “Harsh.”

“True.”

“No, not true,” he tells her. “I just…you know, needed to get out, breathe some non-hospital, non-jungle air for half a day, before I get shipped back up to the Solidarity.”

Judy’s heart skips a beat. “Is that what they’re doing That’s crazy! You can’t work yet with your arm in this shape!”

“Are we gonna have this conversation out here in the hallway?” he asks, tapping the key box with a fob. “Come on in,” he says, pushing open his door, trying to hold it open for her with one hand. “Although I gotta warn you, I haven’t been here in over three weeks. It’s probably full of dead plants.”

“You have plants?” she asks, raising a skeptical eye-brow.

He smirks. “I guess it’s a good thing I don’t.”

She steps into his studio-apartment and it’s true, the air’s a little stale and the room could stand to have a window opened for a few hours.

Her dark eyes scan the room with curiosity. Even though Don’s often over at her parent’s house, she’s never been here. Never stepped inside his private space. Not that there’s much here that feels personal. There’s just a bed and a desk. A small closet and a kitchenette with a single frying pan sitting on the stove-top. Plus there’s a small, separate bathroom with a stand-up shower that she can glimpse through the half-open bathroom door.

What does surprise her is that the bed is neatly made up.

The only man she knows who makes his bed in the morning, is her dad. If it was up to her mom, it would probably never get made. But Judy always figured that was a miliary thing. Granted, she doesn’t know that many men. Having her younger brother, or her father, be the standard-bearers for the male sex probably isn’t fair.

His desk is messy, though. There are various electronics scattered all over it. Tools, wires and what looks like the disassembled parts of a small engine.

“It’s not the Ritz,” Don points out, when he catches her soaking it all in.

It’s not the lack of luxury that stands out to her. It’s that it doesn’t feel like a home.

“Do you feel at home here?”

Don shrugs. “No. I don’t think I’m supposed to. We’re not colonists like you. The plan’s for us to get back on the Solidarity once she’s operational. Do the colony runs and live on Earth between them.”

Judy swallows and feels a sudden wave of guilt wash over her. For the subtle reminder that he doesn’t have the same privileges here that she does. For the fact that she’s never even thought about it.

He doesn’t say it with any bitterness, but she’s angry for him.

“After everything that’s happened the last two years, they’re not gonna let you stay here? That’s messed up.”

Don’s eyes meet hers. “It is what it is. Besides, who’s gonna work on the ship if not the old crew? The way things are shaping up here, maybe going back to Earth is not such a bad thing. Although I hear there’s a couple of new wars there too.”

Judy sighs and sets down her medical bag on his neatly made bed. Makes a mental note to ask her parents what they can do to make sure he gets to stay here.

Her gaze drifts back to his messy desk. There’s a small frame half-hidden behind an engine part that suddenly catches her eye. She steps towards it and picks it up with a grin. There’s a photo inside it that Don took while they were on the water planet. She remembers the day he took it – there’d been a terrible storm raging outside and they’d been stuck inside the Jupiter for the third day in a row. All of them were going stir crazy, getting cabin fever until Will came into the Hub with five jars of paint he made himself, egging them on to start a silly truth or dare game, where the winners got to paint the faces of the losers.

Or something ridiculous like that. It was Will and Dad who made up the game on the spot.

Judy doesn’t remember all the details, but she remembers how much they laughed that night. And now that she looks at the selfie that Don took at the end of it, she remembers Will’s efforts to turn her into a creature from some old movie called Avatar, a movie that she’s never even seen.

Looking at the picture now makes her smile. Her mom has a moustache. Penny has a third eye. Her dad’s got bright red lips. Will has big orange cheeks and dozens of freckles, and Don…Don has a fake, bloody gash on his temple.

“Oh my God…” Judy can’t stop staring at the photo. “I can’t believe you kept that photo. Never mind put it in a frame. It reminds me of when my parents made us go to this fake Western saloon and dress up in costumes for a picture. It was so cringe.”

But Don’s grinning. “This…this was an awesome night. You’re just bitter ‘cause you lost. ‘Cause you’re the only one whose entire face is covered in paint.”

“This…” Her index finger points to the silly photograph. “Was us losing our minds and getting cabin fever.”

Don’s staring at it too now. “It was fun. Made me wonder if that’s what real families do. Play stupid games with their kids just to entertain them and make them laugh.”

Judy swallows. Whenever he says stuff like this, so casually, he breaks her heart a little.

Never mind that this is the absolute only picture he has in his apartment. One of him and her crazy family, covered in face paint.

Don turns to her medical bag. “I’m guessing this contains my date with a burn treatment?”

“That’s right.”

He sits down on the rim of the bed. “You do this for all your patients?”

“Of course,” Judy smirks as she opens her bag and takes out a pack of the magic foam, as she likes to call it. “You don’t think you’re special, do you?”

“Ouch.”

She grabs a pillow and tells him to rest his injured arm on it, while she gets to work. She deftly unwraps the old layer using a tweezer-like device that the now hardened foam automatically clings to. The woman who invented this was a freaking genius. When it’s removed, she examines the flesh underneath, impressed at how well it’s healing. To a layman’s eye, his arm probably still looks terrible, at first glance it really does, but she’s seen the way it was a few days ago and the progress is remarkable.

“Nice,” she mumbles.

“So it probably wouldn’t have fallen off if I waited ‘til tomorrow?”

Judy makes a face. “Do you have any idea how important it is to continue this series of treatments? To make sure you don’t look like you have the arm of a lizard for the rest of your life?”

“All right, all right. Noted.”

“Now raise your arm for me, as much as you can without it hurting.”

He does and she can tell he’s trying to impress her, because he’s starting to wince.

Judy squats down so she can see it from all angles. There’d be some scarring for sure and it wasn’t perfectly aligned but all things considered…it looked good. “Mom set the splint, right?”

“Yup.”

“She did a pretty good job.”

“Engineers are gonna engineer.”

“Thanks by the way, for what you did for her. She told me you pulled her out of the wreckage.”

“Then about five minutes later she went right back in.”

Judy laughs. “Sounds like Mom.”

Don’s face is serious now. “Maybe she’d be dead if it wasn’t for me, but I’d also be dead if it wasn’t for her.”

Goosebumps line Judy’s arm at the thought. “I’m glad you had each other out there.”

“Hoping not to do anything like that ever again.”

“No…” she says softly. “Please don’t.”

Judy’s sort of hovering over him now as she applies the foam, her legs scissored between his as he’s seated on the rim of the bed. It’s a task that requires concentration on her part and stillness on his. Something that Don West is utterly incapable of.

“Can you stop fidgeting for five seconds?” Judy groans as a bit of foam almost drops to his thigh instead.

“Do I get a treat?”

“No. You get me not sedating you. That’s what you get.”

“Your mother gave me a candy bar after she did this.”

“She did not.”

“Swear to God.”

One of his legs rubs against hers and it’s only then that Judy becomes aware of just how close her body is up against his. That his mouth is at level with one of her breasts…

Oh how she wishes it would…

Her brain tells her to take half a step back. That she’s a doctor treating a patient.

But her body suddenly has a will of its own and does the exact opposite. It inches even closer. Teasing him.

Don coughs a little and suddenly his one good hand is on her hip. Steadying her, as his thumb dips along the edge of her pants – just far enough to brush against skin instead of fabric.

Her eyes meet his for a split second, to see his reaction. To see whether it was accidental or intentional.

He answers her unspoken question without a word, when instead of pulling back, his thumb slides deeper and draws a slow circle around her hip bone, to which her body responds by gravitating ever closer into his sphere, wanting to give him easier access. And for the first time in her life, she understands what it’s like. To communicate without a word. The way she’s seen her parents do a thousand times.

She also understands now what’s it like to need someone’s touch, desperately. As much as her lungs need oxygen.

She. who thought she wouldn’t know what to do, doesn’t hesitate. Her body seems to know exactly what it wants and Judy lets it take the lead.

Everything feels strangely natural.

Her hands caress his cheeks, that rough, messy, week-old beard, and suddenly he’s no longer steadying her – instead he pulls her onto his lap, one hand cupping the back of her neck.

Oh yes.

He definitely wants this as much as she does.

When he starts to kiss her, a moan escapes her throat because this…this is even better than her dreams. The way he’s claiming her mouth as if it had always belonged to him. Tender and tentative at first – an index finger that trails along her bottom lip before his tongue starts to explore and hers does the same, instinctively knowing what to do.

Leaning her head back when his lips run a trail of kisses along her neck.

“God…you’re breathtaking.”

When she raises her head again, Judy can feel all the blood rushing in, just as Don’s hands slide underneath her t-shirt. It’s dizzying and exhilarating and her whole body feels like it’s on fire.

“Take it off…” she moans.

It’s agony. Every second that he doesn’t touch her…

Then suddenly it ends.

He stops.

“f*ck.” Don presses his eyes shut and winces before he stands up, leaving her to slide off his lap and onto his bed. If she hadn’t used her arms to prop herself up, she’d be lying on her back, staring up at him.

“Don?” At first, Judy’s afraid that he’s hurt, but then she sees that it isn’t that.

“I’m sorry….” He’s already taken a step away from the bed and can barely look at her. “This is wrong. I can’t…we can’t do this…”

Judy pushes herself off the bed. It’s as though someone poured a bucket of cold water over her and she suddenly feels unbearably cold. “What do you mean?”

“I’m sorry. I should never have…gone along.”

“Why?” Judy doesn’t understand. How can he say that after he kissed her the way he did?

He’s shaking his head. “You. Me…this! We can’t!”

“Why not?”

“Why?” He’s finally looking at her. Incredulous. “Because…you’re…you’re a kid! Not jus that…you’re my boss’s kid! You’re a Robinson and you’re better than this. You can do better than this. The list of whys is endless!”

Oh, f*ck, this hurts.

How was it possible to go from ecstasy to agony in a handful of seconds?

“A kid?” Judy stares up at him and she can feel the tears well up in her eyes, completely against her will. “Is that what I am to you?”

He cringes. “Okay, not a kid. Wrong word. What I mean is you’re…young. Too young! You don’t want this with me.”

“A kid, huh?” She gets up on shaky legs. “That’s funny because I haven’t felt like a kid in about six years. I didn’t feel like a kid when my Dad left and I had to help Mom run the house. I didn’t feel like a kid when I had to take care of ninety-seven actual kids for an entire year…” She’s crying now. “Honestly? I don’t even remember the last time I felt like a kid. Sometimes I feel like I’m a hundred years old. That I’ve lived half a dozen lifetimes already, and at the same time, I haven’t really lived at all.”

She sees guilt and remorse on his tired face.

“Judy…that’s not what I mean…”

“So what is it then? You’re scared Mom’s gonna fire you if you make out with me?”

He scrunches his nose. “Well, yes…she will. But, no…that’s not it! Don’t you get it?”

“f*ck you, Don West,” She wants to do more than curse. Wants to hit him. Channel all that fire and explosive desire that coursed through her being a moment ago, into the rage and fury that’s brewing inside her now.

She wants to kick and punch and lash out. Because she never imagined that being rejected could hurt so much.

It takes all her willpower not to push him into the wall. Takes all her willpower to remind herself how hurt he is and that she did take an oath to do no harm.

“Judy…look, I don’t want…”

She’s heard enough patronizing bullsh*t and cuts him off with an ice-cold glare. “I know you’re a lot of things, but I had no idea that you’re such a f*cking coward.”

After that, Judy can’t bring herself to look at him at all anymore and storms out of his apartment.

Slamming the door behind her.

Chapter 14

Chapter Text

Chapter Fourteen

Jupiter Base, Town Centre

“Martinez!” Maureen can see him chatting with Li Fang, another lead engineer on the Solidarity build.

“Maureen,” her Chinese colleague smiles when he sees her, a smile that isn’t shared by his colleague. “It’s so good to see you back on your feet. The only good news this evening.”

“Thanks.” She beams back at him. “Would you mind if I had a word alone with Dr. Martinez?”

“No, of course not.” He gives her a curt nod before stepping away from the conversation. “We will see you back on the ship very soon, I hope.”

Maureen nods and turns to Martinez. “You want to tell me what that was about during the town hall?”

“No more small talk, Maureen? We're beyond that?”

“You tell me.” She exhales. Irritated already and trying to tamp it down. “Why are you doing this? Undermining me at every turn. Thinking you can make wild, executive decisions about this build when we both know you can’t.”

He takes a slow, menacing step into her space. “You know what I think is wild?”

Maureen doesn’t answer. Figuring he’s about to tell her anyway.

“Isn’t it insane that the person in charge of the Solidarity build is same person who blew up the last colonist ship?” Martinez scowls. “You’d think that in a sane society, they’d imprison her instead.”

Well, then, Maureen meets his gaze, unable to completely hide her shock. She always knew he didn’t like her, but is far beyond that. “Sometimes…” she pauses, remembering her daughter’s words. “An imperfect solution is all we have.”

“Some of us only care about our families. To hell with everyone else.”

“It wasn’t just my children on that Jupiter,” she reminds him icily. “It was every child from the Resolute. It was the future of this colony, and I was willing to do whatever it took to make sure they had a chance. If that makes me selfish, then you’re right, I am.”

“My sister died last week,” he adds quietly. Not moving an inch. He’s so close to her, she can feel his breath on her face. But she doesn’t move an inch.

Maureen’s brows narrow. Thrown by the sombre change of topic. “I’m sorry…”

“Her name was Luz. Light. She was a chemist. She had severe asthma. The pollution in Santiago was hell on her lungs. She was supposed to have been on the twenty-fifth colonist group.” He exhales. “She would have been here on Alpha Centauri two years ago if you hadn’t destroyed the Resolute. Would be alive today.”

Maureen stares at him in disbelief. Tries to make sense of his distorted logic. “Or maybe this colony would no longer exist at all, if the robots had killed our children and then come here before we deployed the defense shield.” She pauses. “I’m sorry for your loss…I truly am but….”

“You and I have very different ideals when it comes to the Solidarity.”

“We do?” The more he says, the less she understands. “We may not like each other, or have different methods, but I want to believe we have the same goal in the end. To get that ship built.”

“That ship is a life line. A last resort for humanity on Earth.”

“I agree.”

“You wouldn’t hesitate to take that entire ship further out into the universe to escape the robots, if it meant saving your children. To hell with everyone else left on Earth.”

“That’s not true.”

He takes another half step towards her and this time, she does hold out her arm to stop him. Gives him a little push back and that only serves to amuse him. “We both know that’s true and I’m going to do whatever I can to make sure that your selfish recklessness doesn’t endanger the purpose of this build.”

“You can save your energy,” she shoots back. “Because we both have the same goal. You’re the one who suddenly seems to see it only as a military transport.”

“It needs to be that too, if we’re to have any chance of surviving here. You’d think that someone as smart as you would have learned that lesson this week, after, literally, being hit on the head with it.”

She needs to sit down soon, because this whole evening is starting to take its toll. It’s reminding her that she probably shouldn’t be on her feet yet. “I didn’t leave Earth in order to start wars in new galaxies.”

“Not wars. Self defense. Maybe your military husband can teach you the difference.”

“We need to work together,” she says softly. “And I don’t care if we have different motives for getting this ship ready, because this is not the time for internal sabotage. We already have robots doing that for us.”

“We do, don’t we? Robots that we’re powerless against because this whole colony is built by a bunch of pacifists like you.”

“I will get that ship built, with or without you, Martinez. Do I make myself clear?”

“You look a little pale, Maureen.” He smirks before finally, thankfully, taking a step back. “Why don’t you do all of us a favour and take some time off to recover from your unfortunate accident.”

You wish, she thinks as she watches him on his heels and walk away, leaving her staring at his backside.

On a night full of mounting problems, Martinez is creating new ones. This is so stupid.

There are still a few dozen colonists lingering about, chatting in clusters, inside the cavernous Jupiter base hangar. But they're starting to clear out. Most people have left to go home, not knowing how many more nights they’ll get to spend in their own homes.

She wants to go home too, but first she needs to sit down, because her head is starting to spin.

Maureen spies a storage container pushed up against a wall and walks towards it before taking a seat, giving herself a moment to close her eyes.

“Hey…” John appeared out of nowhere and now he’s crouched down in front of her. Looking all sorts of concerned. “You okay?”

She nods. “Just need a minute.”

He scoots up to sit down next to her. “You need more than a minute.”

Maureen sighs and leans her head against his shoulder.

“What’d that bastard say to you?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

John’s unconvinced. “Want me to kick his ass?”

“Punching someone isn’t always the answer.”

“It’s not?”

She smirks. Martinez was right about one thing. She doesn’t believe in turning this colony into a military outpost, or the Solidarity into a troop transport. Even if John would disagree. “No. Not even tonight.”

“Let’s agree to disagree on that.” He puts an arm around her shoulders and dusts a kiss into her hair. “Let’s also go home.”

“Know what I’m craving? A beer and a slice of pizza.”

He turns to her with a single raised brow. “You really are determined to get sick tonight.”

“Determined to have adult food again.”

“Pizza. Very adult.” John slides off the storage bin, and holds out his hand to her. “I might be able to make that pizza happen. The chief councilor did go on about how life was supposed to go on as normal. For now. To not panic everyone.”

She lets him pull her up. Bites her lip when it sends a jolt of pain along her side. “Don’t forget the beer.”

“Pizza and beer.” John’s arm is back around her shoulders as they slowly walk out of the base, back to their chariot. “You’re a cheap date.”

“Lucky you.”

“Lucky me.”

She smiles, feeling the encounter with Martinez already sliding off her shoulders. John has that effect on her. Maybe they’re about to watch another world fall apart, but at least this time, she’s not facing it alone.

It makes all the difference in the world.

Hospital Residence

For the first twenty minutes or so, Judy gives in to the hurt and lets herself have a pity party.

She curls into herself on her bed and lets the tears fall until there are none left. Until her eyes are red and blotchy and she feels more exhausted than she did after running across that desert planet to save her injured father.

Then she pushes herself back up against the wall on her bed, pulling up her legs, grateful that her roommate is working tonight and that no one can see her falling apart.

It doesn’t take long for all the hurt to be replaced with a beating of a different kind.

The one where she wants to shake herself for what just happened. For foolishly thinking that this pipe dream of her and Don could be more than a childish, deluded fantasy. That there was a chance in hell of making this work.

Worst of all, the friendship that even now still means something to her, in spite of everything, is probably ruined as well.

Every moment between her and Don, from here on in, was going to be painfully awkward.

Judy bangs the palm of her hand into her forehead. “What the hell were you thinking?”

She wasn’t thinking. That was the crux of it, wasn’t it? She let her body think instead of her brain. Her fickle, shallow body, who, even now, still wants it so badly.

How was she – the smart, perfect child – so unbelievably bad at this? At this rate Penny was going to be married with kids before Judy ever went on a real date.

A fresh batch of tears is threatening to pool in her eyes.

She never imagined this would be so hard. Yearning for someone who didn’t feel the same way.

She wants to crawl into a hole and not come out for days. Weeks.

Months, maybe.

Town Center

He’s on the road for less than two minutes before Maureen falls asleep.

John catches her head roll to the side and her hand slide off the armrest, from the corner of his eye.

“Beer and pizza, huh?” he whispers aloud, while pressing a button on the chariot’s console to lower her seat.

But then again, she’s always been ambitious. How many mid-western farm kids look up into the stars and decide then and there that they’re going to see them up close? And then actually do it?

He decides to drive a little longer. Aimlessly. Go around the town center and then do it all over again. Give her the chance to wake up. Because the truth is, he was looking forward to it too. Just the two of them, on a date for maybe an hour. An hour of gazing into her eyes and forgetting about the chaos around them. An hour of bliss before they part ways again.

She was right to want it. Was it really too much to ask for? A slice of pizza? One date every five years? God, he wants to give her so much more, and he can’t even give her this.

But at the same time, he doesn’t have the heart to wake her. Even if she doesn’t admit it, he knows she hasn’t recovered from the hell she went through this week. Neither physically nor mentally.

Plus, he’s well aware that neither of them will get the luxury of recovery time. That as of tomorrow, they’ll both be back in the thick of it. Whether or not they’re ready, doesn’t matter. It hasn’t mattered for the last two years.

So he’ll be damned if he deprives her of an extra twenty minutes of sleep.

Thirty minutes later, she's still out, so he finally makes a turn for home. When stopping the chariot in the driveway doesn’t make her stir, he runs a hand over her thigh. Squeezes her knee.

That finally nets a reaction. John watches her blink a couple of times before her pupils focus on him. “Hey…”

“Hey back…” Her sleep-drunk voice is kind of turning him on. “How was our pizza date?”

“Great. I always take you on the best dates.”

Her lips curl up into a smile as she raises her seat back up. “Tell me about it.”

“Well for starters, I had to get two separate pies. ‘Cause you know I can’t stand that stuff you put on yours. Olives, artichokes, that soft, mushy Italian cheese.”

“Burrata? You don’t know what’s good, John. You’ve had too many MREs.”

“I know that’s gross.”

“So what’d you get?”

“Extra sausage and pepperoni.”

She makes a face. “Talk about gross.”

“So good.” He sighs. “For the beers, we went to this little local craft brewery. None of that watered-down stuff from some big corporation. A strong, bitter IPA. Beer for adults. To go with your adult food.”

“I like it,” She purrs. “Did we have dessert too?”

“You bet. Vanilla gelato with a shot of limoncello poured over it.”

“Mmm….you do take me on the best dates.”

“Right?”

“Did you get lucky after?”

He laughs. “Dunno yet. But she decided to come home with me. Spend the rest of my life with me.”

“You did get lucky.”

“Yeah…” He agrees, holding her gaze. She, who’s rarely wrong to begin with, has never more right than on this count. “You have no idea.”

“Don’t think I made out too badly either.” Her fingers weave through the hand that’s resting on her knee.

“Ready to go home?”

Maureen nods.

“Hang tight.” To John’s surprise she stays put until he opens the door for her and helps her out. Maybe she’s hurting more than she’s letting on. He hates that it’s one of the few things she’s so good at hiding from him.

She lets him help her out and he’s about to slide an arm around her waist but she beats him to it. Gives him a little push against the chariot and glides her arm around his neck. Stands on her toes to kiss him. It’s one of those full-body kisses that always remind him that she’s as much of a physical creature as he is. That she enjoys letting him know that he’s hers.

“What’s that for?”

“Do I need a reason?”

“No.” He kisses her back. Deeply.

“For the pizza.” She grins when her lips part from his. “Best one I’ve had in long time.”

Resolute Crew Residence

It takes Don a while after Judy Robinson stormed out of his apartment to try and fully digest what happened.

How she was patching up his arm one minute and sitting on his lap the next.

Just thinking about her perfect body pressed up against his is making him hard. Again.

f*ck.

Judy Robinson. Who is so impossibly gorgeous and captivating and always makes him feel all sorts of things that he can’t put into words, kissed him as though she wanted him as badly as he wants her.

And then you told her she’s a kid and practically shoved her off your lap…

f*ck, f*ck, f*ck.

Don groans.

He needs to see her. Needs to fix this somehow.

“And tell her what?” he asks himself out loud. God, he wishes Debbie were here. Because he needs advice. Or at the very least someone to talk to, even if they won’t talk back. “Are you gonna tell her that you do want her? That you’d gladly give this broken arm to kiss her like that one more time? Just because I handled this terribly, doesn’t mean I didn’t do the right thing…”

The truth is, she is too good for him. She’ll probably come to her senses sooner or later.

It was wrong.

Wasn’t it?

Never mind that she has not one father, but two who’ll line up to kill him if they knew what he did tonight. Then there’s Maureen…

He’s gonna lose the only family he ever had.

“No…” he corrects himself aloud, wishing there was a rewind button for the last hour. “The worst thing is none of that. The worst thing was the look on Judy’s face when I pushed her away…”

Or maybe the worst thing was that even if he had a rewind button, he wouldn’t undo anything except for his reaction. Because she felt so good in his arms.

“Arm. Singular.”

Don’s gaze shifts to the medical bag sitting on the floor of his apartment. The bag that Judy forgot in her haste to get away from him.

He stares at it for a good, long moment and then he gets up and grabs it.

He’s bone-weary tired and ridiculously weak, and he has no idea how he’s going to fix this.

Or what he’s going to say.

But he knows he has to try.

Has to.

Hospital Residences

She’s drifted off into a restless sleep when she’s jarred back awake by a pounding on her door.

Judy pushes herself off the bed and realizes she’s still wearing her jeans and t-shirt.

She rubs her eyes and wonders if her roommate, Agnieszka forgot her keys. Again.

Judy keeps hearing from everyone that the young Polish woman is a supposed genius, a surgical wunderkind of sorts who was the youngest woman in her country to go to med school. But at the same time, she constantly forget the most basic things – like having breakfast, brushing her hair or the key fob that she needs to get into their dorm.

Judy’s still half asleep when she opens the door, wishing she hadn’t as soon as she sees who’s standing on the other side.

“Go away,” she tells him with a frown.

Even though she’s wide-awake now, she’s not ready for this conversation.

Not yet.

So she slams the door on Don West for the second time tonight.

Chapter 15

Chapter Text

Chapter Fifteen

Hospital Residence.

“Judy! Let me in…please!”

“I said go away!”

“I’m not leaving.”

I don’t care, she thinks. You can sit out in the hallway all night for all I care.

He knocks again. “Judy, please. I just wanna talk.”

Yeah, I got the message that that’s all you want. Loud and clear. Maybe go find yourself another adult that you can have adult conversations with, seeing as I’m just a kid.

Judy doesn’t realize that she’s pacing until she accidentally stubs her toe on the bed post. It sends a jolt of pain through her foot and she curses Don for it. For the fact that she wouldn’t be pacing to start with if he wasn’t being a jerk and hanging out outside her door instead of getting lost like she told him to.

“You left your medical bag at my place.”

I did?

Judy’s eyes dart to the corner where she usually dumps it, only to see an empty space

Of course I did.

“Leave it outside at the door!”

“I can’t do that.”

Yes you can. You just need an excuse to make me feel even sh*ttier than I already do…

God, she hates him so much right now.

“Owww….Judy! My arm…”

What the hell? Judy stops pacing when she hears him groan in pain through the door. It’s such a heartbreaking, guttural moan that she reacts on instinct. As a doctor, as a human, as someone who loves…

Her first instinct isn’t to think that she’s being played, because she wasn’t raised that way.

So of course, she opens the door.

Only to find Don, perfectly-fine-and-not-in-pain, or at least not in agonizing pain. Ready to wedge himself against her door so she can’t slam it shut on him a third time tonight.

“Asshole,” she hisses.

“Judy, please…” He’s raising his good hand, the one that’s holding her bag, in surrender. “Can I just come in for five minutes?”

“Fine,” she glares at him. Maybe it was a good idea to get this over with after all. Like ripping off a band-aid. A massive, fabric band-aid covering an entire leg that she hasn’t shaved for six months.

“Where do you want me to put this?” He’s still holding her medical bag, looking around the messy space and inadvertently reminding her that his own apartment was shockingly neat.

“Why don’t you drop it on your toes?”

He looks a bit like a guilty puppy. Like someone just killed his chicken. “Besides that?”

“I don’t care.”

He sets it down next to Agnieszka’s bed. Maybe because it’s messy enough that he thinks it’s her bed.

Judy eyes the black leather bag and it suddenly makes her realize something else. Something that, in all her angry, emotional turmoil tonight, she completely overlooked.

She went to see him as a doctor. To treat an injury that he still hasn’t recovered from.

That coming on to him wasn’t just a really bad call on a personal level, but it was also incredibly, unbelievably unprofessional.

If he wanted to, Don could file a complaint, which could get her kicked out of her internship.

Not that Judy thinks he will, but it makes her cheeks burn. Makes her want to crawl into a hole and die all over again. Because now she realizes she owes him an apology on top of everything. That she needs to stop being a heartbroken fool long enough to remind herself she’s supposed to be a professional.

An adult. Not a kid.

Oh, the irony.

Of being exactly what he accused her of.

“Judy,” he’s still looking at her with those puppy-dog eyes. “I’m sorry.”

Their eyes meet for a split second, before she forces herself to focus on something else. On his broken, arm, resting in a sling and covered in the mucous-like anti-burn foam. On how gaunt his cheeks are now, because of everything he went through.

He went through hell, alongside her mother, last week, and now she’s adding to his stress. Jumping his bones like the hormonal teenager he accused her of being.

Judy bites the inside of her cheek, flooded with guilt.

“I’m the one who’s sorry,” she says softly, somehow mustering whatever’s left of her dignity to face him. “What I did. It was uncalled for…and I hope you can…forgive me. Forget it ever happened.”

“What?” He co*cks his head, as if trying to make sense of her change in demeanour. Of her, in general.

Judy slides down against the wall and sits on the floor, because exhaustion suddenly hits her like a brick. It’s as if the culmination of this entire godawful week is finally too much to bear.

Besides, it’s not like she’s gonna sit on the bed again.

Nope. She is not making that mistake twice.

“Hey…” Don sits down on the floor next to her. It takes effort because he’s still a little off-balance with his one arm in the sling. Still a bit unsteady on his legs, like her mother, whom she hasn’t checked in on all day.

She really is the worst daughter-friend-physician ever.

Now that she’s started beating up on herself, it feels like her list of offences today is endless. It’s an avalanche, about to bury her alive.

“You have nothing to be sorry about,” Don says. She can tell he’s turned to look at her even though she’s not up for meeting his gaze. Keeping her eyes on her knees. She’s pulled them up towards her, two small summits of bone, flesh and cartilage.

“Yeah, I do,” she responds, slowly finding her voice. Winning the battle against the tears that threaten to pour out again. Does she really still have tears left to cry? She's not a crier and probably shed more tears tonight than in the last five years combined. “What I did tonight…it was stupid. Unprofessional and unfair to you. I promise it’ll never happen again.”

“Whoa…what are you doing?” Don looks confused. “I came here to apologize, not the other way around.”

“You were right. I acted like an immature teenager.”

“You’re not a kid…” he sighs. “I didn’t mean that. It slipped out of my mouth, like a lot of stupid things do.”

Judy shrugs. “Doesn’t matter. Maybe we can both forget tonight ever happened. Swear to never say a word to anyone.”

“You’re more grown up, more mature and rational, than most people twice your age. I want you to know that.”

Judy leans her head against the wall, still staring at her knees. None of this unnecessary flattery is making her feel any less awful.

“Also, I don’t give a damn about losing my job or anything like that…it’s not that.”

It’s getting harder to hold back her tears. Now she's just waiting for the inevitable, ‘it’s not you, it’s me.’ She’s watched enough silly romcoms (they’re one of her few guilty pleasures), that she figures it’s what’s coming next.

“So what is it then?” she asks, not really wanting an answer.

For a long moment, he doesn’t.

Answer, that is.

Which is unusual, because Don doesn’t usually do introspective pauses.

“You know, when I was dying…or thought I was dying in the jungle, one of my last coherent thoughts was that at least I got to be part of a family these last two years. If it’s gotta end here, at least I was part of something nice…before I died. I never had that before.”

Judy swallows and finally turns to him.

Everything makes sense now and she wants to kick herself for not seeing it sooner.

The lone photograph he has in his apartment is one of her family. The family who may not accept him having a relationship with her.

She didn’t even think about what he was risking, because she’s always known that her parents and siblings will love her no matter what. No matter how many mistakes she makes or even if she dates someone they don’t approve of. They’ll never disown her.

But Don…

“It’s stupid, I know…” he confesses. “But when we kissed, I thought I was betraying them somehow. Letting them down. Disappointing them all because they wouldn’t want this for you.”

Judy blinks hard, unable to stop a couple of errant tears that escape.

Because he’s kind of breaking her heart right now.

“I’m sorry,” she says it again. Because she is. “I didn’t think about any of that. What it might cost you. I feel like a spoiled, selfish brat.”

“What?” Don chuckles. “No, no…trust me. You’re a lot of things, but that? Nah. I’ve been around your parents long enough to know they run a tight ship. Also, talk about high expectations. You Robinsons aren’t spoiled.”

“There’s so many things I didn’t consider.”

“Jude…” He’s looking at her as serious as she’s ever seen him. “Can I ask you something?”

No. Please don’t.

“Sure.” She steels herself for another stab to the heart.

“Why did you wanna kiss me? Besides the obvious. Being hot and irresistible and all that.”

“Isn’t that reason enough?”

He looks at her as if disappointed that she’s so willing to play along. To make light of it and turn it all into a joke. Like he does with so many things in life. Even though they both know it’s a coping mechanism.

“Why not you?” she pushes back. If he wants honesty, she’ll give it to him. “Because you’re a crew member and I’m a colonist? Because you’re 34 and I’m 20? Because I’m too good for you or some bullsh*t like that? I didn’t think we still lived in 2020.”

He exhales hard. “Okay, I deserved that.”

“Yeah, you did.” She says softly. “Why you?” She repeats the question with a sigh. Is it even possible to put into words all the things he makes her feel? “Because you make me happy? Because when I’m around you…things feel lighter. Like all the stuff I have to do and deal with, it’s not so heavy.” She manages a lop-sided smile. “And because you’re hot.”

She lets her shoulders fall. “But you know, it’s okay if you don’t feel that way. Or because being part of our family means too much to risk losing that. Really. I get it now.” She even manages to give him what she hopes is some sort of a smile. The way she used to see her mother fake being okay whenever Dad left to go on tour. Because she wouldn’t let him see that it hurt. “Just don’t pretend it’s ‘cause of something stupid like you not being good enough for me.”

“Since we’re being honest,” Don adds. “I have another confession to make. Thinking it was nice to be part of my family wasn’t my only dying thought. I also selfishly wished that you weren’t part of that family so that…maybe we stood a chance.”

Judy looks into his eyes, as a shiver runs up her spine as the realization of what he says hits home.

Because I am, we don’t? Even through she understands what he’s saying, she doesn’t agree aloud, not willing to let him off the hook this easily.

“You know…I dreamt about you too, when we were out in that jungle. Sometimes, I’d wake up, all hot and bothered. Literally, in every sense…and sometimes I’d hear your mother mumble your dad’s name in her sleep and I thought to myself that I envied her, ‘cause it was okay for her to do it but I was terrified I’d do the same. ‘Cause she had someone waiting for her if we made it out alive and I didn’t. I haven’t kissed anyone in over two years.”

Judy snorts. “Well, same. I guess we’re equally pathetic.”

“And then tonight…I go to this meeting where they tell us that there are escalating wars on Earth and dozens of robots possibly assembling an army getting ready to obliterate us all and I’m thinking…what the hell is wrong with me? Why would I push away the best thing that’s happened to me in a long, long time?”

Judy’s heart skips a beat. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying….if you want me as much I want you, for the right reasons…not because you’re lonely or bored or curious, then I’m willing to risk everything for you, Judy Robinson. Because I can’t remember the last time I wanted something as much as I want you. You’re worth it.”

And just like that, he turns her whole world upside down again.

Every crazy emotion she felt tonight – they’re all tumbling through her heart again. Joy. Fear. Hope. Desire.

“You make me happy too,” he adds. “Like unbelievably happy,” he says with a grin, just before he does the most unexpected thing of all and leans in to kiss her.

Robinson Residence

Penny’s on her comm, chatting with Vijay (Or so Maureen guesses), when they walk through the door.

Her daughter jumps up from the couch. “Mom? Weren’t you supposed to come home tomorrow?”

“Yes, she was,” John pipes in.

Penny gives her a hug after telling whoever she was chatting with that she’s gotta go. “That must mean you’re doing good.”

“Yes.”

“Or it means she signed herself out early.”

Maureen turns around to glare at her husband. “Stop it.”

Will makes his way into the living room in response to hearing their voices. “Mom, Dad…were you at that meeting?”

“Meeting?” Maureen takes a seat at the dining table. “You know about the meeting?”

“You know, the Doomsday Meeting,” Penny chimes in, sliding into a seat across from her mother. “Vijay told me his Dad was there too, chairing it with the chief councillor.”

“Doomsday Meeting? Is that what people are calling it?”

“Is it true?” Will asks. “That they’re gonna ban all robots from being in the town center?”

He’s understandably distraught by that and Maureen hesitates before she nods. “Yes.”

“People are okay with that? You’re okay with that?” Will questions in disbelief. “Like…it doesn’t even matter that most robots would never hurt us?”

“It wasn’t a vote,” John points out, his hand resting on the back of Maureen’s chair. “It was an order from the governing councillors.”

“So everyone just has to follow orders, like it’s a military state or something?” Penny questions. “Nobody gets a say? Isn’t this a democracy?”

“Not really, no. Not yet. The colonists have a say in who governs on the council, but once they’re in, they make the executive decisions. Especially now that they’ve declared a state of emergency, they have executive powers.”

“So we’re basically living in a fascist state?” Penny adds.

“Not quite,” John responds. “Let’s just say there’s no voting on anything right now.”

“So what happens with Robot?” Will wants to know.

“He’ll have to head out of town for a bit, along with all the other robots,” John tells him.

“What? That’s crazy!”

“We haven’t decided anything yet,” Maureen adds. “We still take votes in this family.”

“It’s a decree, Maureen,” John reminds her. “We don’t have a choice.”

Will looks at Penny. “What if they decide to kick out everyone with red hair? Would you be okay with that? Or maybe all black people? Or all Hungarians?”

Maureen watches the exchange between father and son and can literally see it escalate in front of her eyes.

“That is an unfair comparison,” John shoots back. “Robot is a machine, not a human. There’s a difference.”

“He saved our lives in that jungle!” Will raises his voice. “Did you forget that already? Doesn’t it count for anything?”

“He’s right, Dad,” Penny backs her brother. “We can’t exile him after everything he’s done for us. Never mind that it’s just wrong.”

“Everything he does for us is because you tell him to!” John points out, raising his voice. “There was a time he used to do what Dr. Smith told him to do too! What if he starts obeying Taron next?”

“That is not true!” Will’s gripping his chair. “I didn’t tell him to help Mom….he did that all on his own!”

“Will has a point.”

Maureen’s heard enough from all of them. Part of her wishes the kids were small again so she could give them a time-out. Including John. “Guys…stop it!” She gets up to prove her point, to be at almost-eye-level with her bull-headed husband. “All of you! Calm down. Robot isn’t going anywhere yet. Not today, or tomorrow…” She turns to John. “Decree or no decree.”

Maybe she got up too fast, because suddenly the room is blurry and everyone’s voices sounds far away. Her legs feel like rubber.

“Mom?”

“Mom!”

She can feel John’s arms around her, helping her back into the chair and suddenly she’s sitting back down, and John’s hand is under her chin. “Maureen…look at me. Take a deep breath.”

She blinks a few times until his face is no longer blurry. Until the lightheadedness passes. “I’m okay…” Her eyes meet his. “Honestly.”

He doesn’t look convinced. “You should lie down.”

“It’s fine. I got up too fast. That’s all.”

Will’s already brought her a glass of water and he’s looking at her with all sorts of concern. “Here, Mom.”

John’s partly concerned too, but mostly irritated. “Do you think you two can let your mother breathe and recover for five minutes before you bombard her with all your personal grievances?”

He says it to both of them, but he’s looking at Will and the remorse on her son’s face makes Maureen wince. “John, come on....”

Things have always been more strained between her husband and his son than his other two children and she hates it. Wants to fix it. Will wants to be like his father so much, and she knows John’s love for his son runs deep. But it’s as though he can never find the right way to connect with him.

Maybe it’s because he never spent as much time with him as he did with his daughters, and she wishes that there was a way to undo that. To turn back the clock.

Will gives her a guilt-ridden look. One that makes her feel worse than him.

“I’m so sorry, Mom.”

“Will, I’m fine.” She squeezes his hand and takes a deep breath. “I wouldn’t mind some food though.”

John’s eyes are still on her. Making sure. “Good idea.” He finally turns around to look at his kids. “Have you two had dinner already?”

“I had some cereal,” Penny answers.

“So that’s a no then.”

“It’s a yes, but I’ll totally have something else.”

John turns back to Maureen. “What can I get you?”

She looks up at him with a victory smile. “Pizza?”

Chapter 16

Chapter Text

Chapter 16

Hospital Residence

It’s all they do for a while.

Kiss.

It’s different from their earlier kiss. Not as intense. And not quite so urgent and desperate.

Although she liked their first kiss, Judy decides that this one is nicer. The way his mouth is getting familiar with hers and the way hers is exploring his. They take their time, which is a weird concept for her, but she’s enjoying it.

She’s allowing herself to feel every sensation that goes along with kissing him. The warmth of his breath on her skin. The way his week-old stubble scratches her chin. How her lips swell in response to kissing and being kissed. The scent of him – musky and masculine and aroused. (It’s her new favourite scent) How the palm of his hand cups her neck in an impossibly perfect fit. The way her tongue snakes into his mouth, running along the ridges of his teeth, getting to know every single part of him. Intimately.

Most of all, she loves the way her body responds to his touch. How good and natural it feels to have his hands on her.

How the hell did they live together for so long before doing this? How will she ever be able to be in the same space as him again without automatically gravitating towards him?

She’s straddling him and they’re moving in a slow, almost imperceptible rhythm. Breathing. Rising. Falling.

She wants to take his clothes off, because this exploration is only just beginning.

Wants to tear off her own as well. Wants to show him – give him – everything. Wants his mouth on more than just her lips.

Just the thought it is making her all…

But then a knock on the door startles them both.

Don’s breathing is heavy when he stops kissing her, reminding her once again that he’s still hurt. That anything more is just not gonna happen tonight, no matter how much they both want it.

“You expecting someone?” Don asks her.

For a second Judy panics and thinks it might be Penny. Or Will. Although neither of them have been here more than once or twice since she moved in.

She swallows and remembers that she has a room mate. One who always forgets her key fob.

The knocking continues. “Judy? Are you home?”

“It’s my roommate,” she tells Don, getting up on her feet and holding out her hand to help him up too. “Agnieszka. She’s a surgical intern.”

“Oh….” Don’s still a little breathless and Judy gives them both a second to collect themselves. To try and make it look like they weren’t….doing what they were doing, because she’s not ready for the world to know. Or, anyone for that matter.

Her eyes meet Don’s once more before she steps to the door, wondering if it’s futile to try and hide anything. Whether her face is radiating a giddy, unexpected, happiness.

She opens the door and in steps her scatter-brained, genius roommate. “I’m so sorry. I forgot my keys again.”

Judy gives her a lop-sided smile. “I’m gonna get you a necklace for them, for Secret Santa.”

The young Polish woman co*cks her head. “Secret Santa? Is this American thing? Like, pretend Saint Nicolas? Like he is not already fake but more fake?”

Judy eyes her quizzically, marvelling at how her roommate’s brain functions. Sometimes it’s enough to make her want to study neurology.

“Oh hi, Don!” Agnieszka beams, her short attention span already focused on someone else. “I am glad you are okay.”

Judy eyes them both. “You two know each other?”

“You’re Ava’s friend,” Don points out.

“Girlfriend,” Agnieszka corrects him.

“You have a girlfriend?” Judy asks her roommate. It strikes her then, that she really knows next to nothing about the woman who shares her living space. Mostly because they’re both buried in work and see so little of each other, and partly because she’s never asked.

“You two are together also?”

“What? Us? No!”

“No….” Don eyes Judy’s face for cues. Following along. “No, no, of course not. We’re…cousins.”

“He’s here because…I needed to check on his arm.”

“Okay.” Agnieszka’s eyes dart from Judy to Don and back again. Not believing any of it. “I will take shower now because I’m tired. Is okay?”

“Yes…yes…go ahead.”

“I was just, uh…leaving,” Don tells them and then gives her one last grin. “Thanks, Doc…for you know, the medical…stuff, treatment.”

“You’re…welcome.”

He looks so flustered that Judy doubts they’ll be able to keep this a secret for very long at all.

She exhales and wraps her arms around herself, trying to hold on to the warmth and electricity that coursed through her body a minute ago, because suddenly she’s alone again as her room mate heads for the shower and Don closes the door behind him.

They have to get better at hiding it, she thinks.

Because telling their messed-up world is the last thing she wants to do right now.

For now, she wants him all to herself.

Robinson Residence

Maureen doesn’t remember falling asleep - but she knows exactly when she woke up.

It was when the young woman in her dream told her that he was gone. Told her that John hadn’t come back from the battle front because a robot killed him. Gored him in the neck in a surprise attack, just like Taron did to the pilots on her ill-fated transport Jupiter.

That they haven’t been able to retrieve his body yet. It’s rotting in the jungle somewhere.

That’s the exact moment when she jolted awake, tears staining her cheeks, heart racing and stomach lurching.

She barely bolted out of the bed in time to make it to the toilet to throw up that second slice of pizza that she ate against John’s advice.

Now she’s holding on to the bathroom sink with clammy hands after brushing her teeth and splashing cold water on her face. Giving herself a moment to allow the panic to recede before she climbs back into bed.

There’s a knock on the door.

“Maureen, you okay?”

“Yeah,” she whispers. “Great.” Her side hurts from the efforts of throwing up, but all the post-surgical pain is minor compared to what she went through in the jungle.

She doesn’t expect John to still be standing outside the door when she makes her way back out a few minutes later.

“Hey…” He slides an arm around her waist.

“You were right about the pizza. Second slice was a bad idea.”

He gives her a sideways glance to make sure she’s not lying about being okay. “If you looked a little less green, I’d get some joy out of being right.”

“Don’t let that stop you.” Maureen lets him guide her back to their bed and prop up a few pillows for her.

“I’ll make you some mint tea.”

“John…it’s fine.”

He grins. “Are you kidding? You’re finally giving me an excuse to show off the batch I’ve been growing.”

Maureen sighs and leans back into the three pillows he’s stacked for her, wishing he’d just join her in bed instead, because she's still pathetically desperate to have him around.

She's needy. Which is a strange, foreign feeling for her, because that is one thing she’s never been.

But John’s already in the kitchen. He’s always been hard to stop once he’s set his mind on something, and when he comes back with a steaming mug of hot water that smells of citrus, mint and a hint of lemongrass, she does love it. Even more so because, a few minutes later, she’s nestled between his legs, the back of her head leaning against his chest while she’s holding her mug.

One of his hands has made it’s way underneath her oversized t-shirt – his fingers drawing gentle circles. Feels almost as good as the tea. Almost.

“I can feel all your ribs,” he points out with a yawn. “You need to start keeping some food down.”

“I know. Martinez will have a field day if I get up too fast after a meeting and keel over.”

“If he does, I’m gonna punch him. You don’t get a say.”

“Noted.”

Maureen turns around, sets down her half empty mug of and pushes herself up on her knees, even if it hurts. Because she wants to kiss him. Needs to after that nightmare. To feel his flesh, warm and alive on hers. “Let’s stop talking and make out.”

“Can we do that without ending back up in the hospital?”

“We were pretty banged up after we escaped that tar pit, remember? Didn’t stop us that night.”

Her mind briefly drifts back to that exhilarating night, where they put their wedding rings back on (funny, how they both brought them along, despite the perilous state of their marriage) and reclaimed their union. It had been so long and they couldn’t keep their hands off each other that night. He was inside her as soon as the door of their bedroom shut. And again in the shower.

And then -mostly - on the bed, Maureen remembers her hands clutching the bedframe when he made her come for the third time. The perspiration trailing down curve of his back. The way he laughed – that gorgeous smile of his still makes her a little weak, even after all these years – when she turned around too fast and one of her boobs whacked his cheek. “Best slap ever.”

Or that raw longing in his eyes when he started to tie up her ankles with the bedsheet.

Like any married couple, they’ve had sex for a number of reasons. Need, love, anger, desire, procreation. It wasn’t always great, but it was always enjoyable. Nearly always made her forget the constant weight she carried on her shoulders.

Maureen slides off her panties and climbs on to him, a little awkwardly, but then he steadies her by holding on to her hipbones. “That was a fun night…” she thinks back with a grin.

“It was the first time in….”

“Years.” She finishes. It makes her melancholy every time she thinks of the many months they wasted, apart and angry.

I swear I won’t let that happen again.

It only takes a few strokes before she’s ready for him and he’s inside her as soon as she is.

It doesn’t last long, but it feels nice. That warm, familiar weight of him and judging from contentment on his face afterwards, he needed it too.

They haven’t been able to give each other much of anything these last few years, so it makes her happy to be able to give him at least this much. A brief release from everything that keeps threatening to tear them apart.

“What are we gonna do about the robot?” he asks her later, when she’s lying back in his arms.

Maureen already started to drift off but the sound of his voice brings her back.

“We keep him here.”

“We can’t.”

“Yeah, we can.”

“Maureen…” He’s back up on one elbow, her soldier, about to hover and prepare for battle. But she’s not having it.

“This colony has bigger things on its plate than worrying about one hidden robot in the home of one family and if they threaten to take him away, then we both go on strike.” Maureen turns to him. Defiant. “They can’t force you to fight, or me to build that damn ship.”

“They can actually.” He raises a single eyebrow. “Plus, you want to build that ship.”

“I do, but I’m not going to let the councillors manipulate us like this. Will’s right, Robot is part of this family. As much as Don and Debbie are.”

John sighs. They might never see eye-to-eye on this one. “Robot is a machine. Big difference.”

“He’s Will’s best friend!”

“You don’t have a problem with that?” He is hovering now. Looking down at her and it’s hard to focus on what he’s saying, because the way he looks at her is too distracting sometimes.

‘Should I?”

“Shouldn’t he have real friends? Human ones? I worry about him. He never brings kids over, the way Penny does.”

“Judy doesn’t bring anyone over. You don’t worry about her.”

“Judy’s an adult. She’s good.”

“Is she?” Maureen looks up at him, not breaking eye contact. “Are any of our kids good after everything we’ve put them through and keep putting them through?”

“We didn’t put them through this, we tried to keep them alive.”

“The why doesn’t matter, what does is that Penny and Will are not adults, even though we’ve asked them to be. Will towers over the rest of us and he’s often the most mature person in the room…he makes it so easy for us to forget that he’s barely a teenager. He needs us, John, and most of the time we’re not there for him. Can you blame him for getting attached to a robot? And now we want to take that away from him too?” Maureen shakes her head. “I won’t.”

“Okay…” John exhales, in agreement this time. “The robot stays.”

“Stop being so tough on Will,” she adds.

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

“Maybe I’m tough on him because I’m afraid if I'm not, he won’t be tough enough for this world.”

“He is.” One of her hands reaches up to his face, her thumb stroking his cheek. “He loves you so much. Wants to be like you so badly.”

John looks perplexed. “Why would he want that? He’s already better than I am.”

She smirks. “He is, isn’t he?”

“You didn’t have to agree that fast.”

“Tell me something, John…what happened on that Jupiter?”

“What Jupiter?”

“After you found me in the jungle. What happened on the way here with Will and the robot?”

John finally stops hovering and lies back down, staring up at the ceiling. “I’m not sure,” he admits. “What do you remember?”

“Not much. I remember waking up, looking up at the robot, feeling this….sudden lightness where before it was just…pain and darkness. But then I saw Will and I could see how much he was hurting and I just wanted it to stop.” She turns to look at him, even though it hurts. “It felt like he was taking on my pain, like he was gonna die instead of me.”

“I don’t think that’s what happened….”

”Don’t let him do anything like that again, okay? Ever.”

John’s eyes meet hers and for the longest moment he says nothing. Until finally he lets her know they’re absolutely on the same side this time. “Okay.”

Maureen closes her eyes, feeling a sudden chill. “I don’t think I’ve even asked him yet how his off-planet trip went.”

“You were pretty busy trying to stay alive the last couple of weeks.”

“I’m scared, John. That if this family breaks up again, we won’t recognize our kids anymore. They’ll have been forced to grow up without us. Will already changed so much. He’s so withdrawn sometimes.”

‘This family’s not gonna break up.”

She wants to believe it. So bad. “I won’t let it, John. This time, I’ll figure out a way for us to stay together.”

He gives her a gentle nudge, so that she’s lying on her other side, allowing him to spoon into her. “We’ll figure it out.”

She can feel herself drifting off again. Now that the pain is easing. “Thanks by the way…”

“For what?”

“Finding me. In that jungle.”

He dusts a kiss on her shoulders. “I’ll always find you.”

Next morning

The message lights up his comm just after 6am.

-Commander Robinson - The planetary council requests you report for duty at 08:00 at the Jupiter Base, Hall C

Commander Robinson.

He can barely remember the last time someone addressed him by his military rank – and the implications it holds sends chills downs his spine. He’s being called back to active duty. Maybe even back to the frontlines. To war and to all the horrors that come with it.

Goosebumps rise along his arms at the thought and he has to push the darkness aside, before it hits him too hard. Constricts his chest and makes it hard to breathe. War is something he thought he’d left behind for good.

He throws off the bedcover and gets up to shower, taking a glance at Maureen first, who’s still fast asleep.

Focus on her. On the here and the now.

He’s glad that she’s still sleeping. They both had a restless night, unable to really get comfortable or fall into a deep slumber until he made her – and himself – take some pain meds.

He can see that she set an alarm on the comm that’s lying on her bedside table. John picks it up and turns it off.

Truth is, he hasn’t slept deeply in years – he’s not sure he ever will again - so he doesn’t need an alarm. His slightly vibrating comm woke him up right away this morning.

It hurts to put his full weight on his injured leg and it’s the kind of injury that he’d normally ground a man for – but this isn’t Earth and there isn’t a massive army to replace him up if he decides to sit this out.

Not that I get to make that decision anyway.

Maureen’s still asleep when he gets out of the shower to dress. He doesn’t wake her when he’s done. Scribbles a note on the bedside table instead.

-Got called in to Jupiter base. Will message you. Love. J.

John closes the bedroom door behind him and then takes a peek into Penny’s room, only because the door’s half open. She’s asleep too. Sprawled diagonally across the bed with her face squished into her pillow and one arm dangling off the side.

It makes him smile. His feisty, free-spirited, middle-child. Don’t ever change.

He quietly moves up to her and plants a kiss on her hair.

Penny doesn’t stir and he leaves her room as quietly as he entered it and when he gets to Will’s room he notices that the door is closed.

He’s disappointed, but doesn’t open it.

Then he leaves the house and closes the door behind him.

There’s no lock. Because there’s no theft or crime on Alpha Centauri.

Please don’t let there be a war here either.

It’s still dark outside when he turns on the chariot and makes his way to the Jupiter base.

Robinson Residence

Maureen frowns when she sees the time after waking up – nearly 10am.

She could have sworn she set an alarm for 7am.

Or did she?

After all, she was pretty out of it last night, after that town hall meeting, followed by the encounter with Martinez and the robot drama. And pizza.

That last one puts a smile on her face. It was damn good pizza, even if it did make her sick. Or was it the nightmare that made her sick?

She groans as she pushes herself out of bed, stiff and achy. Grits her teeth against the throb in her side. Push through it.

Running a hand through her hair, Maureen makes her way into the living room, surprised to see her son sitting on the couch, plotting what looks like a graph of sorts on a computer tablet. Robot is standing in the hallway, quietly watching over him. As always.

“Hey, Will.”

His gives her a lop-sided smile. “Hi, Mom.”

“Don’t you have school?”

His eyes dart back to the tablet. “I, uh…no.”

“No?” she questions. “So, Penny’s home too?”

“She, uh, she has class.”

Maureen tries to catch his gaze with no success, before she, gingerly, sits down next to him. “She has class but you don’t?”

He wrinkles his nose and she can all but see the wheels in his brain spinning. He’s such a terrible liar.

“I wasn’t feeling so good, so I stayed home.”

“What’s wrong?” Her hand moves to his forehead, which doesn’t feel any warmer than it should.

He finally looks at her. “Just…an upset stomach.”

She keeps her eyes on him, trying to syphon the truth out of his mysterious teenage brain. Hating that she can hardly read him anymore, not like she used to be able to do with such ease. She’s pretty certain he’s not actually sick mostly because he’d never let an upset stomach keep him from class. His endlessly curious mind loves learning too much for that. Although, he did used to get sick so much more than his sisters. Every cold and virus and ear infection that went around, Will Robinson was always the first – and often the only one – of her three kids to catch it. One of the dozens of reasons she’d always been overprotective of him. “Don’t you need a parent or guardian to call in sick for you?”

“Judy did. I asked her, ‘cause Dad wasn’t here when I woke up.”

“I was here.”

“You need to rest, Mom.”

She bites her tongue, her gaze still on him, while he’s still avoiding hers. “How are you feeling now?”

“Better,” he finally turns to her with what’s supposed to be a reassuring smile. “I’ll be good tomorrow.”

“I see.”

“Do you want some breakfast? I’ll make you something.”

Maureen bites her lip, wondering if this is why he’s home. Because he feels the need to check on her. Nurse her. Or whether it’s because he’s afraid for his robot. “No…I’m okay.”

“Mom…”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry about last night. For arguing, stressing you…”

Maureen’s not sure what he’s talking about. “What?”

“You almost passed out because we were arguing…I’m sorry.”

“Will, no….” She stops him, marvelling at how big his heart is. How attune he’s always been to the way others feel. Only Will would remember – and feel guilty – about something she’s already forgotten. “First of all, I am fine, okay? Truly. Don’t you ever feel bad for standing up for the things you believe in. For defending your friends.”

He doesn’t look convinced but mumbles an ‘okay’.

“You wanna tell me why you’re really at home?”

“I told you…”

Maureen sighs. Fine. She’ll drop it. For now. But she’ll try to get the truth out of him before the end of the day. “Can I ask you something else?”

“Sure,” he looks relieved to change the topic.

“What happened on the Jupiter, after you rescued me? With me and you and Robot?”

Will finally sets down the tablet. “What do you remember?”

Funny, that this was exactly what John asked her too. It kills her sometimes, how alike they are, without realizing it. “Not much.”

“It’s like he knew,” Will starts. “That you were dying and needed help. He knew before we did.”

“What did he do?”

“I’m not sure,” Will admits. “He put his hand on your heart and then he grabbed me, told me to lie down next to you.”

Maureen knows the robot has a very limited vocabulary. “By told, you mean psychically communicated?”

Will smirks and he finally looks relaxed. “Yeah…”

“Then what?”

“He put his hand on my heart too. Connecting the three of us. You, me and him.”

“How did it feel when he did that?” Maureen eyes Will as he remembers.

Will pauses and it looks like he’s trying to shield her again and it drives Maureen crazy because it’s wrong and she needs it to stop.

Will weighs his words. “It hurt.”

I know, she wants to tell him. It’s what she remembers most from that moment. Not the relief she felt when her own pain finally receded and she could breathe again, but the terror that followed when she realized it was only because Will, her son, had taken it on. It’s true then, she thinks. The robot was a conduit. “How bad?” she asks. “I want an honest answer, Will.”

“A lot,” he admits. “But it didn’t last. I was fine after.”

“Did you pass out?”

“I, no…I don’t think so.”

“Christ, Will, if I was dying, then it could’ve killed you! You have to swear to me not to do anything like that ever again.”

“I’m not making that promise. I won’t watch you die if I can do something.”

Maureen exhales. She needs to make him understand. “I’m not saying don’t do anything…but you cannot ever trade your life for mine, do you understand?”

“Mom…”

“No,” she cuts him off and takes one of his hands into both of hers. “This is not negotiable or debatable. If I knew you died trying to save me, I’d never forgive myself. Losing you…” Her voice catches. “…it would be so much worse than dying.” Just the thought of it makes her feel sick. Brings her back to that night when he went off to find SAR and she watched it drive a stake into Will’s heart. Felt her own heart crumble and break in that moment. “When, or if, you have kids…you’ll understand.”

He sighs.

“Will…” Maureen cups his chin in her hand and forces him to look at her. “Swear to me.”

His beautiful eyes meet hers. “Okay. I promise.”

“Okay…” She accepts it. Exhales. “Enough… no more heavy talk. Tell me about your trip to the Night Planet.”

“Can I ask you something else first?”

He looks so serious and she wants to badly to lighten that load he always carries on his shoulders. Because he cares so much about everyone and everything. “Do you think there’s gonna be a war? Between us and the robots?”

She stares out the window of their home, at the beautiful yard and the forest beyond it. The little slice of paradise they’ve carved out for themselves here. “I don’t know…” she answers truthfully. “I hope not. But I do think the robots are up to something and we have every reason to monitor their activities.”

“I hear there’s an AI team that’s gonna go down to where they are in the southern tropics…to try and communicate with them, is that true?”

Maureen raises her brows, wondering how he knew about that, but deciding not to question it. “It is.”

“You think they’ll find out what they want?”

“I hope so.”

Will doesn’t look convinced.

“Hey…” She squeezes his thigh. “There are a lot of brilliant people on this colony. We’ll figure out what’s going on and find a way to deal with it.”

“Every problem has a solution?”

She smirks. “Something like that.”

“I just want things to be okay, Mom. I want Judy to have fun being the medical genius that she is, I want Penny to be her sarcastic, annoying self going on cheesy dates with Vijay, I want you and Dad to be together and happy, I want to study this universe and explore it with Robot…I don’t wanna think about robots attacking us or Dad going to war, or…”

“Hey…” she pulls him close and kisses the top of his head. “I don’t want you to think about any of that either.”

“How can I not?”

“Because thinking about it, isn’t gonna change a single thing. Except make you anxious and sad.”

“I guess…”

“Are you gonna tell me about the Night Planet or do I have to drag it out of you?”

“What do you wanna know?”

“Everything! Hiroki’s been there several times already and he’s told me about the lizard-like animals in the Great Valley. Did you see any?”

“We did actually,” his face finally lights up and for the first time since she sat down next to him, he reminds her that he’s only fourteen.

“Tell me about it.”

“It was our fourth night there. They’re blind ‘cause of the lack of sunlight but they have chromatophores, like chameleons, and, oh my God, Mom, they’re insanely cool. They don’t just change colour but they sparkle…like diamonds. Even Robot was obsessed with them. But they’re hard to find, ‘cause they live in these meta-igneous like rocks…I mean, kind of but not really, ‘cause they’re made of minerals we haven’t even classified yet. They let me take some back after the lab scanned them. Wanna see?”

“I do.”

He jumps off the couch to grab them from his room and Maureen watches him with a grin. She has no interest in rocks or geology. But she’s a capable pretender.

Part of her is even glad that he decided to skip school, for whatever misconstrued reason, because for the first time in ages, she’ll get to spend a day with him. That hasn’t happened since they got stranded on the water planet for seven months, and even then, it was never just the two of them. The only time before then was when he got sick on Earth, and she’d stay home from work because John was away, on the other side of the planet.

He brings her a bunch of rocks and when he starts to tell her all about them, she doesn’t have to feign interest. His enthusiasm makes it easy to get absorbed in his geology lesson. (“It’s not actually geology, Mom.” He corrects her. “Because geo refers to the study of rocks on Earth and these rocks have mineral compositions unlike anything on Earth.”). Of all her kids, Will’s the only one who’s always shared her insatiable curiosity about the world around them. While she’s always been more interested in how things work – particularly mechanical things – Will’s always been more curious about why things are the way they are. He’s interested in digging below the surface – literally – and questioning why something makes it the way it is.

Maybe that’s why he’s been able to connect with the robots better than anyone else.

He’s a science nerd as much as she is, and it’s fun to pick his brain about a nearby planet that’s still on her wish list to explore.

Eventually she coaxes him into the kitchen to make pancakes together. Overly-sweet and misshapen chocolate-chip-substitute pancakes that turn out pretty damn delicious.

And while they’re making them, she bugs him about the things that do interest her. About the habitability of the Night Planet. How the researchers there have dealt with a gravitational pull that’s much stronger than that of Earth or Alpha Centauri. How they’ve coped with the salinity of the water and the endless darkness, due to its unique orbit.

They talk and reconnect and in the late afternoon she makes some lemonade – with real sugar and real lemons – and they sit out in the yard, soaking in the afternoon suns. At which point, her body reminds her that she's still recovering, so she does something wildly unusual. She has a nap. And later, over a cup of coffee, Will even lets her beat him at a game of chess.

It’s a good day.

Chapter 17

Chapter Text

Chapter 17

Resolute Crew Residence

Judy goes to see Don after her shift, even though she’s tired and starving – who has time for lunch when they’re down three people because they’ve been called in to help out with this new defense task force?

But all of it evaporates when he opens the door and takes her in her arms.

For a while they just kiss and it’s nice. Really nice. But it’s not enough.

His eyes ask for permission – which she grants instantly and wordlessly- before he starts to lift up her t-shirt. Starts to slowly undress her as though she’s a Christmas gift that he’s been waiting a lifetime to open.

“Do you, uh, wanna go out…grab some food?”

He says it even as his mouth starts to devour one of her now-very-hard nipples.

“What? Yes, sure…but, no…first this….”

“We should take it slow….” He mumbles, while doing the exact opposite.

“Hell, no.”

Judy does not want slow.

She knows all too well just how quickly things can turn on a dime. How lives can alter in the span of a few seconds.

She does not want to waste another single second. What she wants is to catch up on everything she’s missed out on the last three years.

Wow. Those calloused mechanic’s hands know exactly what spots to massage and caress.

Catching up is fun.

She takes off his comm, noticing that shortly after she puts it on the night stand it starts to beep.

“Ahhh…” she gasps when his index finger worms his way into her panties. Circles and presses that most sensitive part of her. How does he know exactly where…?

“Yes?” his eyes ask her, his pupils so very dark and so very dilated.

“Yes, yes….” She’s breathing heavily, her mind drifting back to her senses for a moment. “Wait…your arm…”

“I’ll make it work, damn it…”

She giggles, “Okay…yes….we will.” She’s a doctor after all. She can figure this out.

His comm is still beeping.

Judy wants to throw it out the window.

She slides off her pants because he can’t do it with his one good arm.

“Come here,” he says as he says pulls her towards him, towards the bed.

“Your clothes,” she groans. “They need to come off. Just want you…nothing else.”

He doesn’t resist when she undoes his shirt and pulls down his jeans.

“Lie down,” he says, now that they’re half naked. God, is it always going to be this urgent? This desperate need to have him kiss her, touch her…

“Ow…ow!”

f*ck. She’s directly on top of his injured arm. Forgot that he can’t move it aside.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry….” Judy slides off it and meanwhile his comm keeps beeping.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

She’s kinda straddling him now. Can feel all of him rubbing against her. Oh…it feels nice and she wants more. Makes it clear by sliding down his legs and letting her fingers explore. Cupping and stroking and finding out how he reacts to her touch. Seeing what he likes and what he doesn’t.

“Oh yeah…”

She’s holding the glorious length of him in her hands, her eyes widening as he gets harder with every stroke.

“Judy…slow down…”

Maybe the cheesy romance novels she used to read under her bedcovers while touching herself were good for something and maybe, just maybe, she’s not so bad at this after all. “f*ck me….please.”

He’s groaning. “Wait. Protection?”

sh*t. Judy wants to kick herself. The love haze she’s in right now is seriously killing her brain cells. She’s not on any birth control. She’s had no reason. “Do you have…?”

“Yeah….bathroom cabinet. Bottom shelf.”

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Judy jumps off the bed, her eyes darting toward his comm.

“Turn the damn thing off…” Don tells her and she’s about to do it when she sees the message on the front screen. It makes her heart drop into her gut.

“Don…”

She’s can’t stop staring at it, wanting to think it’s a dream. No, a nightmare…

“Hey…” Don pushes himself off the bed and now he’s hovering over her. “What is it?”

“You’ve been dispatched,” she says softly. “To go back to the Solidarity.”

He swallows. “When?”

“Tomorrow.” Judy turns to him. “That is crazy…you can’t go back to work! You have to rest your arm at least another week before you can even begin physio and then…”

“Jude…”

“I’ll call them as your doctor and tell them they can’t…”

“Jude…Judy.” His fingers are trailing her jaw, gently turning her head. “Don’t. We’re in a war now…none of that matters. Just turn it off…I don’t wanna think about it tonight. All I wanna think about is you.”

Goosebumps line her arms and she wants to bang her fists into the wall at the unfairness of it all.

One night. That’s all they’re gonna get before they have to part ways again. One f*cking night.

She can feel her eyes welling up. But then he kisses her again.

“It’s okay,” he whispers into her ear. “This war crap, it’s gonna pass. Only thing that matters is that you’re here tonight. I feel like I won the lottery, Jude…like I’m the luckiest guy in the world. All the worlds.”

She snorts as she wipes away a tear. “Don’t let go of me,” she says softly. “I want you to hold on to me all night.”

“Trust me, there’s no robot army big enough to tear you away from me tonight.”

He keeps his word.

They keep undressing each other, kissing every bare inch of skin uncovered in the process.

Time flies and stands still all at once. When he’s hard again and she’s so wet and warm, so ready that it hurts, suddenly he’s inside her. Judy knows that he’s being slow and gentle but it still makes her gasp in pain. Feels like a knife is cutting into her. It’s a strange sensation – it leaves her feeling sore and oddly full and when yet when it subsides, there’s a part of her that wants to feel it all over again.

“You okay?” he asks.

“Yeah…” she breathes and darts a glance at his arm. “You?”

“Yes…yes.” He pulls her towards him, kisses her again, as though he missed a spot along the way. “It’s like I shouldn’t be allowed to be this happy, considering everything that’s happening around us.”

Judy nestles into him, knowing exactly how he feels. Wanting to tell him but not sure how to put it into words. “Don…”

“Yeah?”

“I feel like…this is the first time I’m doing something not because I should or because it’s the right thing to do but because I want to. Not for my family or the colony, but for me…like I get to have something that’s just me and separate from everything else.”

He understands. It’s been almost three years since he stopped putting his own interests first. “Same. I want hold on to it…so bad.”

“Me too.” It scares her a little, how much she wants this. So she doesn’t say it out loud for fear of jinxing it.

She tells herself she won’t fall asleep tonight because if he really does leave tomorrow, she wants to be awake for every second of it. Wants to memorize every part of him, in case they don’t get to do this again anytime soon.

But her body has other ideas. Because eventually she does fall asleep, no matter how hard she fights it. She burrows into him and for the first time in her life, she falls asleep naked, her limbs entwined with someone else’s.

The reassuring rhythmic sounds of his heartbeat, lull her to sleep and it leads her into a marvellous dream where this beautiful thing…is something real and lasting.

Next day

Robinson Residence

“Any lingering headaches?”

“No…not really.”

‘Dizziness?”

Maureen shakes her head. It’s barely 8am and Judy’s here, shining a bright light right into her eyes. Examining them with her usual laser-like focus. It’s so bright that it is starting to give her a headache.

“How about bright lights?” her daughter asks now, as if reading her mind. “Do they bother you?”

“It’s…fine.”

Judy flips off the penlight with the tip of her index finger, not hiding her irritation. “Do you think you could stop placating me and trying to shield me like a kid? Show me a little respect as a doctor and maybe give me a single straight answer?”

Maureen flinches, surprised by the sudden outburst.

Even Judy seems taken aback by the force it, because she winces a little too.

“Okay…uhm….” Maureen clears her throat. “Yes.”

Judy’s eyes meet hers. “Yes what?”

“Bright lights. They still bother me.”

“’Kay…” Judy mumbles, making a note of it on her comm. “Thanks.”

“Hey…” Maureen’s hand slides over her daughter’s. “What’s going on? Something’s bothering you and I don’t think it’s me not being the world’s best patient.”

“That’s an understatement….” Judy grumbles.

Maureen fights the urge to roll her eyes. “Or at least not only that.”

“What could possibly be bothering me, Mom?” She shoots back, not holding back her anger anymore. “I mean…aside from the fact that we’re on the brink of a war? Or that they’re shipping you and Don back to the Solidarity when neither of you are physically ready to be in orbit! When we have no idea when you’ll be allowed back down…”

Maureen squeezes her hand. It’s even more obvious now that something else is eating at her eldest. “We’re not gonna be prisoners up there, Judy. We’ll have Jupiter transports going between town and the ship, like they always have.”

“Not if they put up the defence shield.”

“We’ll still need supplies. They’ll figure something out.” Maureen observes her daughter. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“It’s nothing….”

Maureen bites her lip. Hating that the bond they used to have feels like it’s slipping away. Ever since Judy’s tearful confession after they crashed on that swamp planet, she’s realized that there’s so much that Judy’s been holding back and keeping from her. So much she hasn’t picked up on because she’s always been too busy. Because Judy did too good of a job pretending she was always fine.

It’s as though Judy doesn’t feel comfortable confiding in her anymore. “Sweetheart, you know you can talk to me…about anything. I love you…” She smirks. “Even when you’re annoyed with me.”

Judy sighs and gives her a rueful look. “I’m sorry, Mom…I’m not irritated with you.”

“So, who or what are you irritated with?”

“It’s everything else.” Judy puts her penlight back into her medical bag with deliberate care, as if debating whether to confide in her mother. Then she leans back in her chair and slumps her shoulders. “What if I told you I was seeing someone?”

Maureen is taken aback. This isn’t at all what she was expecting and it reminds her all over again how much she’s lost touch with the day-to- day lives of her children. She also doesn’t understand why this would upset her. “Is this a bad thing? Are you not happy with this person?”

“No, no…” She shakes her head. “But I think maybe you won’t be.”

“What?” Maureen doesn’t understand. “Judy, why would you think that? Of course I’d be happy for you!”

“I think you wouldn’t be if you knew who it was…” Judy’s toying with the coffee mug that Maureen left sitting on the dining room table. Running her nimble fingers along the handle. “Or maybe you’d be okay…but Dad wouldn’t…”

Judy’s distress is starting to leap across the table as half a dozen morbid thoughts run through her head all at once. Morbid, irrational thoughts of her daughter dating Doctor Smith. Or Angel Martinez. Maureen bites her lip and staves them off. Remembers how much she loves her baby girl. “Judy…as long as it’s legal and consensual and you’re happy….”

“It’s Don.”

“Don?” Maureen’s not sure she heard right. “As in our Don? Don West?”

“Yeah…” Her voice is a whisper. “That Don.”

Maureen exhales. Gives herself a moment to digest the news. It’s definitely not what she was expecting but after the crazy possibilities that swirled through her mind, this is almost a relief. “Don, huh?” She takes a deep breath. “Okay.” Suddenly another thought hits her. “How long?”

“Two days.”

“Oh…”

“We, uh…” Judy’s fidgeting with her coffee mug. “We both felt it way before but he didn’t want it because he was afraid of how you and Dad would react. He loves this family so much, Mom, he’s scared that this….this will make him lose it.” She gets up and starts to pace now. “Is Dad gonna be okay with it?”

I don’t know. Good question, Maureen thinks.

Judy’s pacing is driving her crazy. Makes her want to jump out of her chair and force her to sit down.

“Well?” The fact that she doesn’t answer right away makes her daughter panic.

“I don’t know, Judy. But you might have to give him five minutes to digest this.”

“Don’s a good man, Mom!”

“I know that…” She nods in agreement. “Trust me. I wouldn’t be sitting here if it wasn’t for Don West. But…”

“But what?”

Her daughter’s brows are furrowed so deeply that Maureen thinks she might end up with permanent pre-mature wrinkles. Never mind that she can’t take the pacing anymore.

Maureen gets up and stands in her path, grabbing her daughter's shoulders. “But…nothing! It’s just…unexpected. That’s all.” She pulls her into a hug. “All I want is for you to be happy. If he makes you happy, I am more than okay with it.”

Maybe that’s a stretch, because I’m still not sure what to think about it. But feeling the tension ease out of her daughter as she holds on to her, makes her realize that it really doesn’t matter what she thinks.

She holds on to her tightly. Funny, that her eldest is the only one who’s still shorter than her.

“Grab that happiness and hold on to it, ‘kay? You don’t have to hide this from me, or your father.”

Judy hugs her back. Gently. “’Kay.”

“I love you,” she repeats. Needing Judy to know that at the end of the day that’s all that matters.

“I know.” She gives her a sheepish look. “Now just promise me you’ll take it easy and stop getting hit on the head. I don’t want to have to spoon feed you when you’re seventy because your brilliant brain is fried.”

“That’s a delightful scenario.” Maureen makes a face. “I can see the Don West influence already.”

Judy laughs but then she’s serious again, the weight of their impending separation written all over her pretty face. “Have a coffee with me before I go to work?”

Maureen nods, feeling some tension ease out of her own shoulders too. “I’d like that.”

Later

Penny can feel Vijay’s hand slipping into hers once they’re far away enough from the school crowds.

They try to tone down the PDAs when they’re around their other friends, but she likes that he’s a hand-holding and kissing-in-public kinda guy. Just like her dad.

He doesn’t mind showing the world that he’s crazy about her.

“Your Dad’s still pissed off at mine,” Vijay points out as they cross the street together, hand in hand. Traffic here on Alpha Centauri is nothing like on Earth. You could easily go twenty minutes between chariots driving through.

“Can you blame him?” Penny replies. “He called off the search party that was looking for my Mom.”

Vijay stops walking but still holds on to her. “Because killer robots were going after them!”

“Well, they were coming after us and Mom and Don too!”

Vijay sighs. He’s an overthinker, like herself. “I know…but it’s different for my dad. He’s responsible for the lives of everyone on this colony. Not just his family.”

“I get that.” Penny wonders why he had to bring this up. She doesn’t really want to think about their time in the jungle. All of it gives her chills. The oppressive humidity. The robots lurking in the trees, stalking them. Being airlifted onto the Jupiter on a freaking harpoon. Finding Mom and Don…barely alive. “But you get why my dad might not see it like that, right? Maybe if it was your mom, you’d understand.”

“I know…” Vijay admits. “I just want our parents to not hate each other. Like…I don’t want it to be weird next time I come over to your place.”

Is there gonna be a next time? She wonders. How much longer were they gonna pretend that everything’s normal? How much longer would they go to school? How much longer before the robots attacked and everything went to sh*t?

That’s kind of what she wants to say, but instead she gives Vijay a lop-sided smile. Play Go Fish instead of freaking out about the Jupiter that’s about to crash. “My dad’s grumpy and he says what he thinks.” Kind of like I do. “You know that. He gets like, super-overprotective when it comes to his family. He doesn’t hate your dad and he definitely doesn’t hate you.”

The relief on his face makes her feel better too. “Okay.”

“Besides, we’re not our parents, are we?”

He grins. “Nope. Thankfully.”

They keep walking, passing by Vijay’s house before they get to hers. He always does that. Walk past his place to hers, and then loop back to his. It’s not a super-far detour or anything but Penny loves him for it. Loves that he does it just so he gets to spend extra time with her. It’s a small thing but it always makes her feel special.

They kiss – in the middle of the street – before he gives her a wave good-bye.

She stands there for a few seconds, watching him for a bit, before turning towards her house.

He’s a good guy. She’s even trusted him enough to let him know that Robot was still at their house, even though it was against the council’s decree. If he told his dad they’d all be in trouble.

“Mom? Will?” Penny calls out when she steps inside.

They’re the only ones who might be home right now. But then Will sometimes stays after class because he’s a nerd who’s into all these weird clubs. Science Club. Geology Club. Hiking Club. Baseball.

But there’s no answer.

Maybe they’re both out.

She sees Robot standing in the hallway in silence. It’s usually where he stays all day long. Aside from standing outside Will’s bedroom at night, he doesn’t move around the house much.

Penny gives him a nod of acknowledgment, plops her school backpack down on the couch and then makes her way into the kitchen, because she’s craving a snack. There’s a bowl with some corn chips in it and she reaches for a handful.

Food is so different here than on Earth. There’s no fancy packaging. No ads and no competition among brands and there’s so much less selection because there’s so much less of everything. Even more so now that it’s been almost three years since the last ship colonist came from Earth, needed to replenish the supplies that they’re still unable to produce here.

A lot of things – random things like certain seasonings and ingredients – have already run out or were close to running out.

She pops a corn chip into her mouth, wishing it had as much salt as the ones on Earth.

“Mom? Will?” She calls out their names again and then hears the sound of running water coming from the bathroom. She figures it’s her mother who’s in there, ‘cause God knows Will wasn’t likely to be taking a shower in the late afternoon.

Or anytime, really.

Penny notices her mother’s comm sitting on a kitchen counter – verifying her assumption -and she sees that there’s a notification that’s popped up on the main screen. It’s telling her that there’s a recording that will automatically be re-saved unless she chooses to delete it.

Penny holds up her mother’s comm, curious what the recording could be.

The comms are set up to automatically save everything, but there are weekly reminders to delete larger files, and of all her family members, Penny’s the only one who hardly deletes anything. She saves it all. Snap shots, recipes, entire books, stupid jokes and videos.

But her mom’s too practical for that. Penny’s convinced she doesn’t have anything saved on hers at all.

She wonders if it’s a sappy message from her father. When they’re not squabbling, her parents can be a big cheesefest. Not that she’d ever admit it, but it’s kinda cute.

Her eyes dart to the bathroom door, where she can still hear the sound of water running.

So she gives in to her curiosity. Because she’s nosy and can’t help herself.

And because a small part of her still wants so badly to feel closer to her mother. To have the kind of bond with her that her siblings do, because Will and Judy, they think like her. They’re mini-science geniuses. Unlike me, who’s definitely not a genius in anything.

But the good thing about me is that I never back down from a dare…

Right now, she’s daring herself to snoop.

So she hits ‘play’ and hears her mother’s voice come on. It’s not a video, just a recording.

“John, babe, you kept me going these last few days, ‘cause I so badly wanted to come back to you…because these last few years, being back with you….it was so good. I love you.”

Penny’s brows narrow. Puzzled and not quite understanding what she’s listening to. This isn’t what she expected.

Her Mom sounds like she’s in pain. Like it’s taking an incredible amount of effort to say what she wants to say.

Penny notices the date of the recording. Seven days ago.

Almost a day before they found her in the jungle.

Her hand moves to her lips. “Oh my God. You’re saying good-bye. To us.”

“Judy, my beloved first born, I’m so proud of you, so in awe of your heart and your quiet strength and Penny, my perfect, brilliant ray of sunshine, I love and admire your spirit so much, and Will, my baby, my beautiful dreamer, I love that you never give up. Never lose hope”

She stops the recording and rewinds the last few seconds.

“Penny, my perfect, brilliant ray of sunshine, I love and admire your spirit so much…”

Tears well up in her eyes and she doesn’t hear the sound of bare footsteps padding into the kitchen.

“Penny…?”

She lets the comm slide out of her hand and drop onto the counter with a metallic clang. “Mom?”

Maureen’s in a bathrobe, wet hair dripping over her shoulders. “What’s wrong?”

Penny throws her arms around her mother. Buries her face in the thick fabric of her bathrobe and feels wet strands of hair brush against her cheek. The smell of cheap glycerine soap – the only kind available - drifts into her nostrils.

“I’m sorry…” she mumbles, her words swallowed up by the white terry cloth.

“Hey…” Maureen hugs her back and holds her tight. “Sorry for what?”

Penny wipes her eyes. “I saw a message on your comm about a recording. I was curious…”

“A recording?”

“You made a good-bye message.” Just saying it creates a fresh pool of tears in her eyes. Brings her back to that humid, impassable jungle. To all the awful things that came with it.

“Oh…” Maureen picks up the comm from the table and hits ‘play’. “I forgot about this.”

But now she listens to it again and when it’s done, Maureen sets it back down and pulls Penny into another hug. “You weren’t supposed to hear this unless…” Her voice falters and they both stare at the comm in silence, before sitting down. It’s a long moment before mother’s eyes meet hers. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”

Penny nods. Hating that she’s so emotional sometimes. That, unlike her siblings, she wears her heart on her sleeve. All the time, for all the world to see. “You really think I’m brilliant? It’s not true, Mom, it’s…”

“Think?” Maureen interrupts her. “I don’t think. I know.”

Penny chuckles amidst her tears. God, will she ever have that kind of self-confidence? Probably not. “I’m not.”

“You…you are so good with people, Penny. You can read them, you sense what they need…and you let them read you. That takes a lot of courage. To not be afraid to be yourself. I admire that about you so much.”

“Really?” It seems wrong to need to hear it. Especially now, in light of that recording. But she does.

“Really.”

Penny wipes her nose. “Do Dad and Judy and Will…do they know about this?”

Her mother shakes her head. Picks up the comm again and toys with it. “No.”

“Do you want…?”

“No.” Maureen cuts her off. Her voice is still shaky and it gives Penny goosebumps. She’s not used to seeing her mother vulnerable.

“I thought that was it…I was sure.” Maureen wipes away an errant tear. “And when I’m sure, I’m usually right.”

“Well, I’m glad for once you were wrong.”

“I’ve been a wrong a lot these last few years.”

“Are you mad that I listened to it?”

Her mom co*cks her head with a lop-sided smile. “No. But let’s keep it between us, okay?”

Penny heart constricts. Torn by too many emotions.

“I will,” she says solemnly. She’s not always so great at keeping secrets, but this is one she’ll take to her grave.

“I don’t ever want to listen to it again…” Maureen confesses, her words a whisper. “It hurts to go back there.”

Penny nods, understanding, because going back there hurts her too. She also knows that this wasn't wasn't an admission that came easily for her mother. One she only made because she trusts Penny to keep this between them.

It makes her shudder for a second, the weight of it all. But then she straightens her back, takes a deep breath and meets her mother's uncertain gaze, letting her know it's okay. That she can handle it. She's strong enough to help her carry this.

No one else will ever know about it.

Maureen hits the delete button and Penny’s eyes widen – a part of her wants to stop her. Because she selfishly wishes that she could hear the words one more time.

Penny, my perfect, brilliant ray of sunshine, I love and admire your spirit so much.

Penny doesn’t notice her mother’s eyes on her. Seeing all the things that Penny wishes she couldn’t.

When her mom’s wrapped up in her work, there’s a lot she doesn’t see, but then when she focuses, there’s very little that she misses.

Penny forgets that sometimes.

Maureen smiles. “I love you, my smart, funny, amazing daughter.”

“Don’t make me cry again.”

“Just call me whenever you want me to remind you, okay? You don’t need a recording.”

She seriously is going to make her cry again. But happy tears this time. “I love you too.”

And then Penny wraps her arms around her one more time, because she can feel that it’s what her mom needs. Apparently, she’s good at that, at sensing what other people need.

According to the smartest person she knows.

Later

Maureen’s asleep when the beeping on her comm wakes her up.

She kept it close because she’s been waiting for John to call. Worried because he hadn’t called all day.

Now that she sees his ID, she picks it up right away even though she’s still in a sleep haze – bleary eyes and half awake.

“Hey…” her voice sounds rough to her own ears.

“Hey…”

John on the other hand, looks rough.

Maureen pushes herself up against the bedpost, wincing at the movement and realizing she fell asleep with her clothes on. “What’s going on?”

John doesn’t answer right away. He stares at the screen as though he’s shell-shocked.

“Babe,” she says softly. Wide-awake now. “Talk to me. Are you okay?”

“You know they sent an AI team to meet with the robots, right?”

“Down to the southern tropics,” she nods. “Where we crashed, where the robots are congregating.”

“I was there today.”

“You went down there again?”

“Military back-up,” John explains, rubbing one of his eyes. He looks spent. Exhausted.

It makes her wish she was there to wrap her arms around him. Take on some of whatever’s weighing so heavily on him. The way her daughter did for her this afternoon.

“Damn it, John. You’re not ready to be on the front line.”

“I was airborne. In a Jupiter. Coordinating a back-up team that was on the ground.”

Maureen exhales a selfish sigh of relief. “What happened?”

“The robots had only one thing to say to them; ‘no more humans’…and then they attacked.”

“Oh no…”

“The AI guys had EMFs and an armed team protecting them, they even tried to use the automated commands that Will used against them before. But the robots…it’s like they were immune to them this time. They had no effect.”

Maybe it’s ‘cause they have a new leader, she thinks. Taron. “What happened?” She’s almost afraid to ask.

“We lost five, multiple wounded.”

“Damn…”

“They’re gonna raise the defense shield as soon as they can redirect the surface coverage. Means they’re gonna send you up to the Solidarity within hours.”

“I know…” Maureen figures as much, wide-awake now.

“I won’t make it back in time to say bye in person,” he says softly.

Maureen nods and fights back the goosebumps that line her arms. Why does this feel so final?

It’s nerves, she tells herself. Nerves she still hasn’t quite gotten under control since almost dying in the jungle.

“Hey…” John’s face inches closer to the screen and his eyes lock with hers and they help her calm down. “It’s gonna be okay.”

“Yeah…” she exhales. “Of course it is.”

“You’ll tell the kids?”

“I’ll tell the kids.”

There’s a sudden commotion behind him and John turns around, mumbling something that sounds like justaminute. Then he turns back to her, looking even more exhausted than he did five minutes ago.

“Go,” she says softly. “I love you. I’ll be in touch.”

His grim expression finally relaxes. “I sure hope so.”

Another man enters the room he’s in, and John gives her a quick wave along with a silent “Love you” before ending the transmission.

There’s a new message waiting on her comm. URGENT - Dr. Robinson – report to Jupiter Base for return transport to Solidarity build between 02:00-03:00. Bring supplies for extended stay.

She has just over an hour to wake her kids and tell them goodbye.

Again.

Chapter 18

Chapter Text

Chapter 18

Solidarity build

Ten days later

There are various ways to determine a planet’s potential for sustaining life.

It begins with the basics, like making sure the planet is in the so-called “habitable zone” – in that sweet spot around a star’s belt where temperatures can sustain the liquid water required for life. Ideally, this Goldilocks planet is Earth-like in size. Slightly bigger works too, but not too much bigger. The gravitational pull on huge planets is usually too strong, and on very-small ones, it’s too weak.

There’s a powerful infrared telescope on Alpha Centauri – one that’s more advanced than the once revolutionary James Webb Space telescope that was inaugurated on Earth in 2021. Long gone are the days of Doppler spectroscopy that Maureen still remembers learning about as an undergrad.

But even their new technology has its limitations. It still can’t pick up water signatures, or methane, oxygen or carbon dioxide ones, and those are essential. As advanced as it is, it doesn’t give her a complete enough picture of the planet’s atmosphere needed to determine not just its potential for any life form to exist but whether it’s suitable for human life.

Kastor 2 is too far away for that.

Maureen figures it would take just over two months to get there with an alien engine. (Sixty-eight days actually - she’s done the math). Much less than that, if they risk going through a rift. But that comes with its own dangers.

It also doesn’t help that, at the moment, their very-advanced telescope is on-planet and Maureen is not.

Still….

She stares at the images on her laptop – at the far away galaxies that never fail to captivate her – for the umpteenth time and plugs in one more series of formulas – ones that she hopes will bring her a little closer to finding out how much radiation its closest star is emitting - before the numbers start to swim in her vision.

The clock on her small, utilitarian desk is letting her know that she’s been up for twenty-one hours. Sixteen of which she spent at various stations on the ship, two of them in meetings…all which left her barely three hours to spend on this. Not enough time. Not enough hours in the Alpha Centauri day.

It frustrates her that she can’t push through the fatigue like she could twenty years ago. That her eyes won’t cooperate, no matter how much she wills them to focus.

Maureen slides her glasses over her forehead and presses four fingers into her eyes, hoping that’ll ease the steady throb that’s been bubbling behind them for the past few hours.

She hasn’t been following Judy’s advice – getting enough rest or staying away from bright lights. Not because she doesn’t want to, but because it hasn’t been an option.

Not with the near-impossible build schedule the council has imposed on them.

Nor with this side-project that she’s been working on after hours.

Her secret Plan B in case everything falls apart.

A knock on the door lifts the fingers from her eyes and forces them to re-open. “Come in,” she mumbles, not meaning it. She’s not in the mood for company.

Especially not the blunt Russian woman - her Siberian counterpart – a Roscosmos aerospace engineer from Irkutsk- who was on the 16^th colonist group and now shares her two-bunk room, because, with the robots gone, they now have so many people working on the build that no one, not even Maureen or Martinez, have their own rooms anymore.

Not that Irina would knock anyway. She’d just barge right in.

“Hey….”

It’s Don West, whom she hasn’t seen in a couple of days now. Both of them too busy with their own work.

“Hey…” she greets him back. He looks rough. There are sweat and grease stains on his brown cotton shirt and massive bags under his eyes. It’s everyone’s standard look these days.

“You look awful,” he points out, taking a seat on the lower bunk. Her bunk.

Look who’s talking. “You came here tell me that?”

“I didn’t know that until I came here.”

Maureen fails to stop a determined yawn. Annoyed. She’s not in the mood for games either. “What is it?”

“I sent you about five messages today.”

“You did?” Truth is, if he didn’t red flag them, she would have ignored them. If she didn’t ignore a good chunk of her comm messages, she’d never get any work done. “About?”

“I was hoping we could meet in the staff caf for a chat.” Don’s eyeing her. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in there.”

“I don’t have time for lunch breaks.” Eating meant grabbing whatever she could find and having it at a work station, or during a meeting.

“You think that’s a good idea?” he chides her.

Maureen frowns, most definitely not in the mood for this. “You think because you’re dating my daughter you get to come in here and lecture me? Last I checked I’m still your boss.”

Don flinches at the sting of her words, making her regret them instantly.

f*ck.

She badly wants to take them back. “Sorry…” she exhales.

Don pushes himself off the bed and the hurt on his face makes her wince. “Understood, Boss.”

“Don, please…” Maureen groans.

He’s already halfway across the room. Not that it takes more than a full step for that.

“Sorry I bothered you.”

Maureen grabs his wrist. His good wrist. “Don, c’mon…” she pleads. “I didn’t mean it.”

He doesn’t try to escape her grasp, but he does look at her with all sorts of doubt. “You don’t like that I’m with Judy, do you? You and John. You both hate it.”

“What?” Maureen blinks. Where did that come from? “No! That is not true…I…I’m just so tired, Don. Frustrated. I snapped.” She exhales, more annoyed with herself than anything else now. “I was ready to snap at anyone who came in…” She gives him an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry it was you.”

His expression finally relaxes, and he acknowledges her apology with a nod. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not…” she adds.

“Stop,” he puts up his hand. “We’re good.”

“Okay…” she nods. Relieved. This man dragged her unconscious ass out of burning Jupiter with a broken arm. They’ve just been through hell together. He's more than a friend. “For what it’s worth…Judy’s been happier than I’ve seen her in a long, long time. It’s been nice to observe that change in her.”

He grins. “She makes me happy too.”

Maureen nods. “Good.”

“She’s asked me to keep an eye on you. Make sure you’re not overdoing it and I’ve done a lousy job of it.”

Maureen shrugs. “That’s funny, because she’s asked me to keep an eye on you too, to make sure you don’t put too much strain on your arm, and I’ve done an equally sh*tty job. So, I think you’re off the hook.”

“I won’t tell.”

“How is your arm?”

“Better. Cast is coming off in four days.”

“Good.” Maureen’s fingers slowly move over the hard shell covering one of his arms. “Any pain?”

“You a doctor now?”

“I am.”

“That kind?”

She smirks. “Maybe not.”

“It’s more of an itch now.” He stares at the star systems on her laptop. “Where’s that?”

“Parceon constellation.”

Judging from the look on his face, the name doesn’t help. “Should I know it?”

“Opposite direction from where we’ll take the Solidarity.”

“Is there a reason you’re looking at it like it’s a vacation destination?”

Maureen points to her Goldilocks planet. She hasn’t shared this with anyone. It’s part thrilling and part nerve-wracking. “This planet here, Kastor 2, has all the hallmarks of being another Earth.”

Don raises his eyes as he starts to put two and two together. “Tell me you’re not thinking of what I think you’re thinking of…because if you are thinking that then I’m thinking this might top all your other wild ideas and that’s sayin’ something.”

Maureen sighs as she massages her temples. “Did you know that another twelve robot ships landed on Alpha Centauri today?”

“What…?”

“John told me…” This latest devastating bit of news probably hasn’t made the gossip rounds on the build yet. John told her in confidence, but she trusts Don.

“sh*t…” Don mouths.

“That’s right. sh*t. If they start attacking our shield relentlessly in those numbers, eventually it’ll break down, and then what?”

“Then we’re screwed. Well, not us, but everyone left on the planet.”

“We’re already racing to finish this build. Doing away with every comfort and frill to turn her into a bare-bones cargo ship. One that’s meant to transport as many colonists back to Earth as possible. But those that will stay behind under the shield? They’re sitting ducks, hoping we’ll make it back in time with military reinforcements before the robots destroy the shield.” Maureen pauses to look at him. “When those are our options, then this…” She points to her Plan B on the screen. “This is starting to look good.”

“It wouldn’t be like coming here,” he reminds here. “To a colony with an infrastructure. It would be, literally, starting from scratch and with how many people? Your family of five?”

“Six?”

That gets her a loopy smile instead of the sarcasm she expected.

“With whoever would want to come,” Maureen adds. “And however many supplies we could cram into their Jupiters.”

“But?” Don lets it hang in the air. “There’s a but, isn’t there? Like do we even have an extra alien engine.”

“We do. The one from the first crashed ship. That’s not the but.”

“So what is?”

“There’s no way for me to confirm if Kastor 2 can, in fact, support human life. It’s too far away. There are too many unkown variables. Not just unknown water signatures, but others too – methane, carbon…”

“Well…” Don raises his brows. “That’s a big but.”

“It is.” she agrees softly.

“Is going back to Earth that bad?”

Yes.

“Is it?” he repeats when she doesn’t answer.

“When we left Pasadena three years ago, we had maybe one or two days a week when you go outside without a respirator because the air was so bad. Now they’re probably lucky to have weeks where they get one.:” She swivels her chair around. “You were at the town hall, Don. They’ve launched nuclear weapons against France. We don’t even know exactly how bad it is…”

“We lived for seven months on a spit of sand where we couldn’t go outside without our helmets at all,” he reminds her. “Humans always adapt.”

We adapt too well, she thinks. “I so badly wanted a better life for my kids.” She swallows bitterly. “I can’t imagine going back after coming so far.”

“That’s the difference between us. I’ll always pick the devil I know over the one I don’t.” He eyes her. “Does John know about this plan of yours?”

Maureen shakes her head. It’s only an idea for now. A last-ditch option that’s been fermenting in her brain. It’s like when she was thinking of ways to get them off the water planet. She toyed with a lot of crazy possibilities before confiding one of them to John.

Who then shot it down right away.

“It’s a huge risk,” she admits. She knows John well enough to know he won’t go for this one either. John’s number one priority has always been to keep them safe and in one piece. Even if that puts them on a planet where they can’t breathe the air. “John won’t like it. Even I won’t go for it until I get more data about this planet. I’m not completely reckless.”

He grins. “Really?”

“So what did you come here for? If not to tell me I look awful.”

That takes the smile off his face, and he’s serious again. “You know I get to share a room with five guys, right?”

“You came to complain about your accommodations?”

“Happy to do that too, but…no. One of my bunk mates works in security and he starts spouting sh*t he shouldn’t when he’s drunk.”

“There’s no alcohol on the build.”

Don gives her a look. A you-can’t-be-this-naïve look. “Officially there’s no alcohol on the build.”

Maureen frowns. “Please tell me you’re not still smuggling that stuff….”

“Hey…” The suggestion offends him. “No way in hell am I ruining what I have with Judy for a few extra bucks that I can’t spend anywhere. I wasn’t the only smuggler around, and you’d be surprised that it’s not just crew that does it. It’s your squeaky-clean colonists too.”

That doesn’t actually surprise her. Besides, it’s not like she should be judging anyone considering what she did to get Will on board the Resolute. “Okay, tell me more.”

“One night, this guy, he starts blabbing. About Martinez.”

“Oh..”

“You know how we kept saying that Taron turning on us didn’t make sense? Because why would he come up here and work on the build when he doesn’t have to, only to turn around and destroy it.”

“Right.”

“I might have found out the reason.” Don looks at her. “My inebriated bunk mate starts telling me about how after one accident, Martinez took Taron into a security room and had him restrained before he started poking him with EMFs.”

“What?” Maureen’s suddenly wide-awake again.

“The guy kept rambling, so I turned on my comm.” Don takes it off and holds it in his hands, close enough so she can hear. “Listen to it.”

“…wasn’t the first time he did it, either. He got a kick out of it, seeing how high he could zap them without killin’ em. You know that danger section on the dial? He liked testin’ it…every time a robot screwed up. Most of ‘em toppled over for a few minutes, lights out, and then they rebooted or somethin’ and went back to work. But not this one robot…that Taron guy…he broke one of the restraints….probably woulda killed Martinez if I didn’t zap him hard. Those f*ckers all deserve to die…never shoulda been brought on the build. Martinez says if it was up to him, he’d have made it illegal, but then they put that bitch in charge….”

Maureen’s hand moves over her mouth. “Jesus…” She stares at Don. “Do you think it’s true?”

“In vino veritas?”

“Or the crazed ramblings of a drunk?”

“Look…” Don pushes himself off her bunk bed. “It’s not like I trust or like this guy. But you don’t make sh*t like this up. Especially ‘cause he’d never admit it sober.”

“There are cameras in those security rooms. This is something that can easily be verified or debunked. Plus, we can confront this guy with the recording.”

“He’d rather admit to being drunk than stand by his words. Also, don’t you think Martinez would have deleted the footage?”

“It can still be retrieved directly from the central hard drive.”

“Except no one on board has the authority to go over Martinez’s head and request a hard drive retrieval from security.” Don’s lips curl into a smile. “No one…. except you.”

Robinson Residence

Penny Robinson stares out the window and it’s eerie to see the utter darkness outside, now that the suns have gone down. Even though the area where they live was never particularly bright and noisy – there are only twelve houses on their street – this is a different kind of dark and quiet.

Okay, maybe not quiet. Because she can hear the popping sounds of blasters hitting the shield. It sounds a bit like fireworks that are very far away. The first time she heard them they’d scared her but then she had a comm conversation with her dad and he calmed her down. At least a bit.

“It’s like when we’re driving and pebbles hit the window of a chariot. They make a bit of noise but they don’t break the window.”

“Large ones can put a crack in it…”

There’d been a pause from her father.

“They don’t have large ones to spit at us.”

Yet, Penny thinks as she stares back out into her neighbourhood. Pop, pop, pop in the distance.

The sound of robots trying to kill them.

Half the people living on their street aren’t home because they’ve either been called up to the Solidarity build or to help out with the colony’s defense operations.

Their electrical grid went down almost a week ago when the robots destroyed the town’s dam just before the defense shield went up.

There was a lot of panic when that happened and it didn’t help that neither of her parents were there at the time. Mom, along with Don, was already on the Solidarity and Dad was still away. None of them knew exactly where he was.

As usual, Will was the one who managed to stop her from freaking out. Penny has no idea how he went from a scared little kid to the bravest guy she knows in the span of three years.

Sometimes Will’s bravery scares her too, because she’s not sure it’s normal and she wonders if he’s just really, really good at hiding how afraid he actually is.

“The town won’t flood, don’t worry,” he told her, because that was her worst fear. “The water will spill out into a valley that’s south-west of it, the town center’s south-east.”

“Okay, that’s the good news. So what’s the bad news? ‘Cause I know it’s never a good news-good news situation.”

Will kinda smiled at that and it raised her spirits a little. Maybe she wasn’t the brightest Robinson but at least she was good at something. At making people smile.

“The bad news is that we’re gonna have very limited sources of power and they’ll be used to power only essential services and, you know… the defense shield.”

He was right about that and that’s why she’s sitting in the dark now, with only a candle burning on the window sill. Residential homes are not exactly an essential service.

People were worried about the defense shield now, because the lack of power meant that the amount of surface they wanted it to cover had to be reduced even more. Basically just the core of town.

Before it went up, everyone had only a few hours to get under the covered area. If they didn’t make it, they’d be left outside to fend for themselves.

It’s one of the few good things about having a population of just over fifty-thousand colonists. It doesn’t take long to get people organized.

But it also means, there’s never enough people to do all the jobs that need to be done.

As far as Penny knows, everyone got under the shield in time, but there’s another problem too. A lot of things they need are outside of the shield. Like the fields and greenhouses where they’re growing their food. Research stations and water sources. Forests and rivers. The Solidarity.

Although the build is supposedly being protected by modified Jupiters. Whatever that means.

There’s talk of building tunnels to access areas outside of the defense shield but the fact is they’re going to be running out of things real fast. It was already bad before, but now they’re going to be really low on even essential things. Not having enough salt on her corn chips is going to be the least of her problems.

“Isn’t Dad supposed to come home tonight?”

Penny whips her head around to see her brother slinking into the room. He’s holding a bowl of something or other. He’s always hungry ‘cause he grows like a foot every night. Soon he’ll tower over their father. Probably in a week or so at this rate, Penny figures. “That’s what he said, but he was also supposed to come home last night too and that never happened.”

Will kneels on the sofa next to her and plops his elbows on the window sill, curious to see what she’s staring it. “He’ll come.”

“I hope so…” she sighs. No matter how brave Will is, she always feels safer when Dad’s around. “I mean, he’s gotta be in town at least, right? They did say everyone has to get under the shield.”

“I don’t know if that includes the military,” Will speculates until he sees her shocked expression and backtracks. “Yeah…yeah, I’m sure he is.”

Too late.

But then they hear the door opening and both their heads turn towards it.

“Dad!” Penny jumps off the couch and runs towards him. Hugs him hard before taking a good look at him.

It’s been four days since they’ve seen him and there’s a prickly new beard growing on his face.

He looks exhausted. Like he hasn’t slept much at all in those four days. But at least he’s not limping anymore. There’s that.

“Hey, Dad…” Will’s standing up too, giving Dad a grin and a more reserved welcome back. Things are still a little odd between her brother and father, and Penny’s convinced that this robot mess hasn’t helped.

That if it were solely up to her dad, Robot wouldn’t be under their roof anymore.

“Hey, guys.” He’s smiling, happy to see them, and it seems to shake off his tiredness. “I’m sorry I couldn’t make it home yesterday.”

“It’s okay,” Will tells him.

“How are you two holding up?”

“We’re okay,” Will answers. “We’re doing school from home.”

“You know it’s safe with the shield up, right? I don’t want you to be afraid to go out of the house.”

“They cancelled in-person classes this week but maybe they’ll start up again next week,” Penny points out, although she has a feeling Will’s staying home because that’s where Robot is.

After he sets down his duffel bag, John ducks into the bathroom.

Penny heats up some leftover rice pasta with tomato sauce for him while he showers and gets changed. They sit at the kitchen table with him and give him time to eat but less than a second after he swallows the last bite, they pepper him with questions.

What’s going on with the robots?

What’s happening next?

Are the rumours true, are they sending colonists back to Earth as soon as the Solidarity is built?

John’s cupping a mug of tea – that mint tea he always brags about growing himself – as if debating how much he wants to tell them. “You know…your mother thinks there’s things about our situation I shouldn’t tell you because it’ll just make you sad and afraid.” He looks at both of them. “But I think you’re too smart, too grown up, for me to pull the wool over your eyes.”

“I agree,” Penny pipes in. “With you, that is.”

“Me too,” Will adds.

“We’re monitoring the skies as much as we can now. More so than we did a few months ago, and we spotted twelve new robot ships enter the atmosphere the last twenty-four hours.”

“What?” Penny feels a sudden chill run up her spine. “That’s bad, right?”

John nods. “Yeah.”

“Where are these ships coming from?” Will asks, he’s perched on the edge of his seat, his long legs bunched up awkwardly.

“We’re not sure. Most of them seemingly appear out of nowhere.”

“They came through a rift?”

“Probably.”

“But why?” Penny asks. “Why are they all coming here now? How do they know to come here?”

“Our AI guys seem to think that Taron’s communicating with them. Manipulating or controlling other robots, kind of like SAR did. Like a queen bee. They think that certain robots are dominant and they control others. That he’s one such robot.” John sighs. “But it’s just a theory…because we still don’t know a whole lot about them. About how they organize as a society.”

“They’re communicating across different galaxies?” Will questions.

“We think. We do know that some robots can be used as conduits, we’ve seen happen more than once ourselves. We’ve seen Robot communicate through Scarecrow across great distances.”

“What about the other robots that worked on the build? The robots we kicked out of town.” Will wants to know. “Are they all joining Taron’s army?”

“We’re not sure…we didn’t track them after they left town.”

“So, uhm…if this Taron can control the robots what about our robot?” Penny asks. It seems like a very legit question since he’s under their roof.

“Good question.”

A flash of anger courses across Will’s face. “He’s not some zombie who’s gonna turn on us because some other robots are.”

“But that’s exactly what he did when Smith got control of him,” their father reminds them.

“That was a long time ago, He’s different now.”

Penny can sense a brewing argument between her dad and Will and it’s the last thing they need right now. “What does it all mean for us?”

John sets down his near empty mug of tea. “As soon as the Solidarity’s flight worthy, we’re gonna send as many colonists as possible back to Earth.”

“What?” Both Penny and Will exclaim it together.

“How many is that?” Penny gulps. “And when?”

“They’re hoping she’s ready to go in three weeks. They’re starting to send up colonists as early as tomorrow.”

“Wow…” Will mouths.

“They need to get started because they’re hoping to put up to thirty-thousand colonists on board. Including you two.”

“Do we get any say in this?”

“That’s crazy!” Penny jumps up from her seat. “Don’t those ships usually carry a thousand people?”

“The Solidarity’s a lot bigger than the Resolute and she’s being stripped into a pure cargo ship. There won’t be family rooms. There’ll be bunks and mattresses in hallways.”

“How do they decide who’s going and who’s staying?”

“Children and minors will all go. After that, it depends on who’s best fit to stay behind, who’s needed to keep our essential services running. In some cases, names will be drawn…the two of you will go. Judy will as well. So will your mom and Don.”

“Dad?” Penny can already feel a clench in her gut. “What about you?”

His strong hands curl around the still-warm mug again. “I’ll be staying. Anyone with a military background will be ordered to stay.”

“No!” It’s Will who objects first, but Penny’s voice chimes in even louder.

“Robinson’s stick together!”

“It won’t be a permanent separation,” John tells her. “You go back, the Solidarity turns around with arms and picks us up.”

“Isn’t it like a four-month trip each way?”

“It is. But we’ve been apart longer than that.”

“Mom’s okay with that?”

“No, Penny.” Frustration mounts on her father’s face. “None of us are okay with this. But we don’t have a lot of choices right now.”

“Can you survive an army of robots that long? For eight months?” Penny can feel the blood draining from her head. Can feel herself getting light-headed.

Maybe her mom was right, about them not being able to handle the harsh truth. Because, this…this thought of breaking them up again, feels unbearable. She’s not sure she can handle it.

“I believe the shield will hold, yes.”

“No, you don’t,” Will cuts in and that sends chills up Penny’s spine.

“Yes, I do.” Her father shoots back quietly. But Penny’s not so sure that he’s just trying to assure them. It’s what he always does, thinking they can’t see right through it.

“What if it doesn’t?” she asks quietly.

“Then we scatter across the planet and hide until the Solidarity comes back.”

“Why don’t we just do that now?” Will questions. “That way we’ll stay together.”

“Because you’re not soldiers,” he growls. “Because I won’t have you living that kind of life, being hunted across the planet by killer robots. Not if there’s an alternative, and there is.”

“What about Robot?”

“He won’t be allowed to board the Solidarity,” John tells him. “He’s not even supposed to be here.”

“Don’t they need a robot to fly the alien engine?”

“They have one.”

“They do? Who?”

“It doesn’t matter Will. It’s a robot from the build and you won’t like it, but they’ve chained him up, just like Scarecrow, because they can’t risk trusting any of them right now.”

Will shakes his head in disbelief. “We haven’t learned anything.”

“We have,” John argues. “We’ve learned that we know nothing about them or how they’ll act That they can turn into killers in the span of seconds.”

“I’m not leaving without Robot,” Will stands up next to his father and suddenly goosebumps line Penny’s arms. They’re almost the same height.

“Yes, you are.” There’s a finality in her father’s voice that tells him this isn’t up for debate.

Dad doesn’t put his foot down that often, in a way that makes them realize that he’s not budging. But this time, he is. Even Penny wouldn’t try to argue.

But Will does.

“No,” he repeats. “I won’t.”

“You know, Will, you can’t expect me to treat you like an adult, if you’re going to react to things you don’t agree with, like a child.”

Penny glares at her dad, not agreeing with that accusation. But her father’s eyes are glued to her brother, who, strangely enough, reacts a lot calmer than she would in his place.

“Is that what adults do, leave others behind to save themselves?”

“No…” Her dad shakes his head. “But they sometimes have to make really tough choices. Leave things behind no matter how hard it is.”

“He’s not a thing,” Will corrects him. His voice calm and measured and in that moment, Penny can’t help the pride that swells in her heart. “He’s my best friend.”

“Will…”

“I’m not leaving without him and I won’t change my mind,” Will repeats without blinking and then turns around and heads out of the living room. Done with this conversation.

Her dad sighs and there’s a part of Penny that feels for him too. Because she knows he just wants to keep them all safe and alive. It’s pretty much all he ever wants to do. That and grow his weird herbs in their little garden plots and it’s so damn unfair that he can’t have that. Her Dad, who’s a really good guy with a huge heart, who doesn’t ever ask for much of anything.

“I hate this,” she says softly, feeling the tears well up. Because, unlike Will’s, her emotions never stay below the surface. “All of it.”

She can’t even begin to digest it all. A robot army assembling to wipe them out. Going back to Earth in three weeks. Their family being separated. Again.

Her Dad pulls her in for hug, kisses the top of her head. “Me too, sweetheart. Me too.” he says so quietly that she can barely hear.

Solidarity Build

Next morning

“Look who’s here!”

Maureen’s head turns around at the sound of the familiar and unexpected voice, stunned to see Grant Kelly pull up chair next to her in the cafeteria.

“Grant?”

“Don’t think I’ve ever seen you in here,” he says with a grin, holding a bowl of oats in his hands that he sets down on the table.

“It’s my first time,” she admits. Her face lights up. “Don was right, I really was missing out.”

“You look good.”

“Six hours of solid sleep will do wonders.”

“I dunno about that. I slept for twenty years and it didn’t save my babyface. Sleep’s overrated.”

“It’s nice in moderation.” She watches him dig into his oatmeal. “But seriously, what are you doing up here? How long have you been here?”

“Just a couple of days,” he tells her. “Was doing the shuttle runs the first ten days, but now I’m up here patrolling the build.”

“Ah…of course,” she nods. For some reason she thought he’d be needed on planet, but it made sense that he’d be doing this instead, knowing this is exactly what he does best. Fly and take risks.

God knows what the Jupiter pilots are doing right now is risky as hell.

Because of the defense shield, the town is literally sealed off and the Jupiters can no longer land at the base. So bringing supplies and people to and from the planet meant landing outside of the shield, unprotected, in different spots every time so it would be harder for the robots to target them.

Goods and people brought back and forth by the Jupiters were protected by military men and woman, like John. Taken to the nearest tunnel that would bring them back into town. Tunnels that were guarded with EMFs, but which were still vulnerable spots, where the robots could attack and gain entry into the town. John explained to her that the tunnels were small and narrow and they were covered up after a day or two, as they dug new ones.

How the hell are we gonna bring half the colony onboard like this? she wonders.

“You know I’ve been wondering about the Jupiter modifications,” she asks him, toying with her own oatmeal. It’s bland and mushy and she has to choke it down. “I’m surprised, I wasn’t called in to take part in them. Those ships were my babies, more so than the colony transport.”

“I thought this planet was full of over-qualified engineers?”

She smirks. “Is that what you think I am?”

“Just messing with you.”

“You used to do that a lot. It’s coming back to me now.”

He laughs and it reminds her of how he’d won her over, a lifetime ago, with all that easy-going charm. He’d always been one of the few people who could call her out on it when her workplace certainty leaned towards arrogance, without turning it into a reprimand. Because for Grant, it was never about taking her down a notch. He just liked to remind her to stay grounded.

And she needed occasional reminders.

“Mostly I was curious how they did it,” she admits. Maybe she was a little offended at being kept out of loop, but she also has too much on her plate to give it a second thought. “Because I’m having trouble figuring out how they turned a handful of Jupiters into fighter jets.”

“Really?” Grant raises a single eyebrow. “I heard a rumour you turned one of them into a sailboat. That seems crazier.”

“Hmmm…” Her lips curl into a smile. “You shouldn’t listen to rumours.”

“Judy might’ve confirmed it for me.”

“Hate to break it to you, but kids lie all the time.”

He laughs again. It’s a deep, rich sound and it takes her back in time. To Earth and ice cream dates on California beaches. Rocky Road…you always got Rocky Road and you made fun of me because I always got vanilla. Because apparently that’s nobody’s favourite flavour. Because nobody’s taste in ice cream can possibly be that boring. You even apologized to the ice cream vendor on my behalf.

“Tell me, “She prods. “How’d they attach the projectiles?” Attaching a missile to a Jupiter was a whole other structural ballgame than attaching a sail.

Grant’s easy smile fades and he leans in towards her as he lowers his voice. “What if I told you they’re not modified at all?”

“What?” She takes a bite of oatmeal and it almost gets caught in her throat. If he’s kidding why does he look so serious?

“We don’t have missiles to modify them with, Maureen,” he reminds her. “It’s not something a 3D printer will spit out.”

“But we have weapons on the planet…”

“Not those kinds of weapons.”

She sets down her spoon. Appetite gone for good. “I don’t understand…”

“The Jupiters are the missiles.”

Understanding dawns on her. Makes her jaw drop. “Jesus…”

“There’s a structural weakness on the belly of the robot ships. All we gotta do is plow a Jupiter into that sweet spot and we take them out. The whole ship.”

“Along with yourself…” She closes her eyes, not wanting to conjure up the possibility. “Christ, Grant, that’s not necessary. They can fly themselves. If you’re gonna use them as missiles, use the auto pilot.”

He laughs. “The auto-pilot is literally designed to do everything it can to protect the ship and its passengers.”

“It can be re-programmed!”

“Maureen…” He gives her a ‘c’mon’ look. They both know it’s not a viable option.

She sighs.

“They council wanted to keep it mum,” Grant tells her. “Because it’s…”

“What…morbid? Insane? Wrong on every level?”

“Depressing,” he whispers. Not that anyone can hear them in the constant din of noise that’s happening in the crowded room. ”It would detract from the build. Make people look at us…differently. Pity us. We don’t want that.”

Maureen doesn’t know what to say. She already knew the pilots were brave to take on this task but this, this was a whole other level of unfair, asking them to sign on for a suicide job. To turn themselves into missiles in the event of an attack from robot ships.

“Hey…” Grant coaxes her out of her dark thoughts. “Jupiters have been patrolling the build for ten days and we’re all still alive. These robots may have zero interest in attacking this ship. Maybe they want us off this planet. Maybe that’s why they helped build it to begin with.”

Maureen swallows bitterly, not willing to bank on that kind of wishful thinking. “I swear, Grant, Judy just got you back. She can’t lose you.”

“I have no plans to die,” he says, scooping up the last of his oatmeal. He ate it with the kind of enthusiasm he used to reserve for his Rocky Road ice-cream. “I have every intention of making up for all the time I lost with our beautiful daughter.”

“I sure hope so.”

The grin is back on his face. “Get this thing ready as soon as you can, and we’ll be good to go. Back to Mother Earth. Hopefully she’s still in one piece.”

“Okay, captain. I’ll get on it.” Maureen pushes her chair back and slides the rest of her oatmeal over to him. “You seemed to enjoy this a lot more than I did. Have the rest.”

“I was waiting for you to do that. You used to always give me your leftovers. Except for my Mama’s beignets.”

“They were damn good beignets.”

Maureen exhales and tries to shake off her sudden fear for him. The pressures to get this ship ready kept mounting.

“Yes, they were,” he agrees, digging into her bowl. “My sister got the recipe from her. I’ll have her make you some when we get back.”

She nods, her eyes not leaving his. She still hates the idea of going back, especially without John, but at least there was one thing to look forward to. “Gonna hold you to that.”

Chapter 19

Chapter Text

Chapter 19

Alpha Centauri General Hospital

There are about fifty doctors, nurses and other medical professionals – some standing, some seated - in the crowded conference room. Most of them have their eyes riveted to the screen at the front of the room.

Judy spies her room mate in the crowded space and walks over to her.

Agnieszka’s hair is tied up into two pig-tails. She’s wearing the kind of hair elastics that Judy vaguely remembers wearing when she was in first grade. The kind with marble-sized plastic baubles attached to them.

“What’s going on?” Judy asks her.

“They’re doing the draw,” Agnieszka explains. “To see who has to stay behind. It will be almost a quarter of us.” The Polish woman’s head turns around, sending her pig-tails flying back and forth. She grins at Judy. “It is good odds for us. Most of us will go.”

“I thought they’d already decided who was going and who was staying?”

Agnieszka shrugs. “I guess they want to make it like this instead. Like lottery. More fair.”

“Do you want to go back?” Judy asks her as the room keeps filling up.

“No,” she says with her usual blunt honesty. “But I want to stay even less. Also, my girlfriend, she is crew. She has to go and I want to be with her.”

Judy nods. Understanding that part more than anything. A part of her feels so guilty to leave her father behind, but the thought of being separated from Don after they only just got together is downright unbearable.

She’s embarrassed to admit how much she wants to be with him.

It’s already been almost two weeks since their one and only night together, and she wants to be back in his arms so bad that it’s a physical ache. Even their nightly video calls aren’t doing enough to tamp her desire anymore.

It’s so bad that she’s hoping she’ll be among the first to be called up to board the ship. Even though she has no desire to go back to Earth.

It’s the thought of the journey that thrills her.

Four months on the ship with him.

“It will be a completely random, electronic draw,” a voice at the front of the room drones on, pulling her back into the present. “Twenty-two out of every hundred will be chosen to stay behind, to aid the military and the remaining colonists. It’s the barest skeleton staff needed to keep this hospital from shutting down.” The voice pauses and Judy recognizes it as that of the hospital director, whom she’s only met a handful of times. “I will be one of those people because it’s my duty and I’ll be honoured to share it with those who join me. In the next ten seconds, a number will be sent to your comm. If the number is 22 or less, you’ll be staying behind. If your number is 23 or higher, you’ll be boarding the Solidarity in the next twelve days. You’ll then receive a second number – a number ranging from one to twelve – and that will inform you of your boarding schedule. If that number is a one, it means you’ll board tomorrow. Understood?” The directors pauses. “Good-bye parties start tonight!”

There’s a communal chuckle in the room when someone shouts out. “With real alcohol?”

“Hell, yes.”

It’s followed by an electronic din as the draw begins.

Agnieszka is the first one to have a number pop-up on her comm.

It’s followed by the number 8.

Agnieszka’s going in eight days.

Judy gives her roommate a smile. In spite of the fact that she never really got to know her, she’s going to miss having this enigma of a free-spirit in her life. Wonders if they’ll part ways and never see each other again once they’re back on Earth. Where they’ll have to go back to their home countries.

Judy’s comm beeps next.

Fourteen?

What?

That’s not possible, is it?

Agnieszka reacts before it even sinks in.

“I’m sorry,” her roommate whispers.

Judy swallows. Can feel the blood draining from her head.

She’s not going.

She has to stay behind.

I might never see him again.

Voices grow louder in the crowded room as everyone receives their numbers. She hears some groans. Mostly relieved sighs. A couple of people crying.

“Judy…” Agnieszka’s voice sounds so far away all of a sudden. “Are you okay?”

No.

She shakes her head and turns around, desperately needing to get out of this room.

Before everyone can see her breaking down.

Robinson Residence

John Robinson comes home to silence and cold.

The heat’s still off because it’s non-essential.

It’s late and dark and he knows that Penny’s spending the night with the Dhars.

John’s not sure how he feels about that. About the thought that his middle child might not be as innocent as he wants to foolishly believe that she is. Even though he trusts the Dhars and adores their son. He’s a good kid, and Maureen’s okay with it, and truthfully, he’s not willing to deny his kids much of anything these days.

In fact, he’s less bothered by Penny spending the night at Vijay's place than with Judy dating Don West.

That one he still hasn’t quite reconciled with.

Sure, he likes the guy. No - more, than that. He practically thinks of Don West as a brother.

But that’s exactly what bothers him about it. Brothers didn’t sleep with their nieces, did they?

When he vented to his wife about it, Maureen made it crystal-clear that it didn’t matter what he thought. That if he alienated their daughter over this, she was going to kill him.

“He’s not actually your brother,” she reminded him with that annoying logic of hers. “There’s nothing disturbing about this.”

Since then, he’s grudgingly kept his thoughts to himself.

Part of him even wonders if he’s to blame for it.

If he hadn’t been away for three years before they went into space, maybe Judy wouldn’t have been forced to step up and grow up too soon. Maybe she’d have had time to date boys her age. If they hadn’t been stranded on a water planet for seven-months, maybe she wouldn’t have fallen for the only unrelated man on board . Maybe if he hadn’t forced her to take care of a hundred kids for a year, she’d have been allowed to be a teenager for five minutes.

They’ve always asked her to act so much older than she was. Of course, she was going to fall for a much older man.

Maybe, maybe, maybe…

John’s hands start to shake as he pours some water into a kettle.

If feels like his entire family is slipping out of his grasp.

Judy. Penny.

Maureen.

He’d come so terrifyingly close to losing his wife only two weeks ago and now she’s out of his grasp again. He didn’t even get to say good-bye. Didn’t kiss her the last time he stepped out of the house…

His hands shake harder and the kettle rattles when he sets it down.

While Maureen’s mantra is that every problem has a solution, his has always been to accept the unexpected. Because he knows all too well, that life rarely goes according to plans. Curveballs and meteors always came flying out of left field, and if you can’t accept that and adapt - you’ll lose your mind.

But what if he’s wrong? How can you live a life where you always accept the ground falling out under your feet? Is that normal?

If everything goes well and the Solidarity makes it to Earth and back. If the shield holds until then and they leave for Earth with the remaining colonists, if all that falls into place, then he’ll see his family again in about a year.

One year.

If all goes well.

If the robots don’t kill them first.

Maureen’s words ring in his ears.

“I’m scared, John. That if this family breaks up again, we won’t recognize our kids anymore.”

How many more separations can they go through before no one recognizes anyone anymore? Before there’s no marriage left to save?

He feels sick. Literally.

The water is still running and he cups his hands to fill them with ice-cold liquid and then splashes his face with it.

It makes him shiver but it quells his nausea.

Part of him wants to call Maureen because he knows that hearing her voice will ease the panic. Pull him back from the ledge. She’s always been his anchor. His calm voice of reason.

But he doesn’t want her to see him like this. She’s still dealing with the aftermath of her own ordeal and has enough to worry about on that build.

Instead, he splashes a second handful of ice-cold water on his face and this time the shock of it is almost enough to snap him out of it.

John grabs a dishtowel and dries his face as he waits for the water to boil. When it does, he adds a homemade tea bag, full of herbs he grew himself, into a cup, and pours the boiling water into it.

Then he sits down at the table in the kitchen and turns off the light.

Does the breathing exercises that he knows will tame his panic into something manageable. Something that’s he’s learned to live with.

It takes a little longer to get there tonight, but eventually he does. And when he does, John finishes the last of his herbal tea – luke-warm now- and sets the empty mug down with steadier hands and reminds himself that he has one more battle to fight tonight.

Will.

His youngest and only son, whom he loves with all his heart but who still feels like an enigma some days. Will is the child who often makes him feel like he dropped the ball as a father.

Unlike Penny, Will wasn’t planned. He was the result of too much alcohol and pent-up desire and an uncharacteristic carelessness on both their parts.

It was Maureen’s most difficult pregnancy by far. Not just because she was older (‘a geriatric pregnancy’ is what they called it back then), but she also had her hands full with the Jupiter program while trying to keep their two rambunctious young daughters from turning the house into a zoo.

She struggled with fatigue and morning sickness and halfway through it, John left to go on tour again, thinking he’d be back in time to see his son come into the world.

But, Will had other ideas. Arriving more than two months early, his lungs not fully developed yet. He had health conditions that John had never heard of before. Initials like BPD and NEC suddenly became familiar lingo. Plus, there was an infection of sorts too. He still remembers Maureen’s frantic calls from the other side of the Earth.

It was the first time he’d ever seen his fearless wife scared.

She was terrified that no matter what she did, their son might not make it. That this was one problem with no solution. She, who was used to being in control, was utterly powerless for the first time in her life.

John tried everything he could to rush home and be at her side, but at the time he’d been hiding out in rural caves in Afghanistan, surrounded by Pashtun rebels. Simple things like a phone call weren’t so simple.

Will was almost two months old – and no longer at risk of dying – by the time he finally made it home and held his son for the first time. It felt like he was like holding a precious, fragile miracle.

Growing up, Will seemed so different from his sisters. Quiet and serious and scared of things that Judy and Penny would tackle without a second thought. He didn’t make friends easily and he was sick a lot. All of it served to make Maureen overprotective of him in a way that she’d never been with their other children.

Their son was only five-years old when the first strains starting showing in their marriage.

The world was crashing and burning and there were so many new conflicts and environmental disasters that John was always urgently needed in some godforsaken part of the world.

Sometimes it was violent conflicts on the other side of globe but he also served in his own country. In parts of it that felt just as foreign to him. Violence-ridden ghettos. Dying small-towns plagued by flood and draught and fire.

He kept putting band-aids on festering wounds, trying to fix things, while his wife was working hard to escape it all.

Even his own quiet suburban enclave went through a streak of violent incidents. Home invasions where entire families were gunned down for a handful of cash and electronics.

It angered him that Maureen refused to have a gun in the house and it fuelled one of their increasingly heated arguments. One which ended in the reluctant compromise of John building a perimeter fence around their house instead.

And in those rare times that he was at home and had a stretch of time to reconnect with his kids, he struggled the most when it came to connecting with his son.

Ironically, it was Judy who’d always been the most like him. As athletic and stubbornly focused as he was. She loved the outdoors. Loved to run and camp and swim, and he loved seeing her race at Track and Field championships, where he was always the dad that cheered the loudest, because he was so damn proud of her.

Penny never failed to make him laugh because there was nothing she wouldn’t do or try even if she’d end up flat on her face. It’s one of the things he loved most about her. Unlike his other kids, Penny failed more often than she succeeded, but she had no fear of failure, and it was a beautiful thing. It made him proud too. Plus, she always gave him way more lip than the other two ever did.

But with Will there was never a connection that came naturally or easily.

He’d take him to football games and sensed that Will’s favourite thing about them was the popcorn he got to eat (which John didn’t care for at all).

“No, his favourite thing about them is that he gets to spend time with you,” Maureen corrected him over a glass of wine after dinner one night.

“So, it's true? He really doesn’t like football?”

“No. He doesn’t.”

“How can you not like football?”

“Oh I don’t know…” She’d taken a deep sip of wine to go with her eye-roll. “He likes baseball. Take him to a Dodgers game.”

“Baseball?”

“Yes.”

“Of course. A game of strategy. Lemme guess, he has one of those old-fashioned scorebooks – along with a lead pencil and eraser?”

“Good guess.”

He’d sighed and it made Maureen co*ck her head at him defensively. “What’s wrong with baseball? It’s not macho enough? All-American enough? There’s not enough crashing into other players?”

“It’s not just football, Maureen…it’s everything! All the things I liked as a kid, my own son has no interest in.”

“That’s not true…”

“He’s a Navy SEAL’s kid who’s scared of swimming. He likes to read and study rocks and build models! Who still builds models?”

“Your son does. He’s good at it.”

“Sometimes I feel like I don’t know him at all. That he’s nothing like me and we have nothing in common.” John remembers running his index finger along the rim of the wine glass. “He doesn’t even look like me.” Remembers that he looked at his wife and thiought it would be a good idea to lighten the mood. “Okay, be honest…is he the mailman’s kid?”

Funny. How that hadn’t lightened the mood at all.

Maybe his Navy buddies would’ve been amused. His wife? Not so much.

Instead, Maureen had looked at him in icy shock. The hurt on her face so obvious that even he, who could be oblivious to a lot of things back then, would have been hard-pressed to miss.

“You think that’s funny?”

“Babe, it was a joke.”

Tears pooled in her eyes. “You really think that’s what I do when you’re off saving the world? Screw around? You think I have time for that when I’m working twelve-hour days while raising our kids by myself?”

“C’mon, you know I didn’t mean it.”

“They say people like to accuse others of the things they’re guilty of themselves.”

That felt like a slap. Especially since, unlike so many of his Navy buddies, he’d never even entertained the thought. “Maureen, I wouldn’t…”.

Couldn’t…he wanted to add, because he loved her way too much for that.

“f*ck you, John.”

Of all their many fights, this was one he’d most loved to have erased from their history. Because making her cry always hurt him worse than anything else.

Maureen didn’t say anything else after that. She got up and left behind her half-full glass of wine and went out into the back-yard to nurse her anger. Even though the air had been atrocious that evening and she shouldn’t have been out without a mask at all.

She was already coughing when he went out to apologize and eventually coaxed her back inside.

In spite of how deep it cut, it hadn’t been a long fight and it ended in some of the best sex they had in some time. Her residual anger combined with his need to make up for the sting of his words.

Marks were left behind because he needed to show her that he fully intended to be the only man in her bed for the rest of her life. That he was willing – and able - to give her everything she wanted and needed.

At least for one heated night.

They were both spent and bruised when it was over.

Maureen’s fingernails scraped across his chest when she looked up at him. “I don’t think it’s true…what you said about Will having nothing in common with you. Because every day his big heart, the way he cares too much about everyone and everything, reminds me of the man I fell in love with.”

Her words took him by surprise. “What do you mean?”

“The man who spent hours learning how to style black hair for his daughter. The man who’d grab the baby carrier at night when Penny was teething and spend the entire night walking through the neighbourhood with her so that I could get some sleep. The man who drove two hours to get me those almond-pineapple cookies when I was pregnant with Will…”

“Considering that it was one of the few things you kept down those first two months, I’d say it was worth it.”

“Considering the cost of gas back then, it came to eighteen dollars a cookie.”

He laughed. “Only you would calculate that.”

She pushed herself up on one elbow and thanks to the single ray of light that shone into the room from a cracked blind, John could see every freckle on her skin, making him want to kiss them all. He often wondered why she covered them up with make-up, because she was most beautiful exactly like this. Naked and natural. Her long hair tickled his biceps and that moment was etched into his memory. John’s not sure if he ever told her, but he loved her hair long. (A week later, after he left, Maureen cut it short again and kept it that way for a long time)

“When I drove home with Will after his dentist appointment last week, I took a back road near Bailey Canyon, because the freeway construction was driving me insane.” She dusted a random kiss on his shoulder. “Anyway…there’s this turn in the valley and right after it, we saw an animal on the shoulder. It was obviously hit by a car, probably ran across the road right after the turn. I was going to keep driving but Will saw it moving, so he made me stop.” Maureen sighed. “It was a dog. It was scrawny and dirty, probably wild and it was in bad shape, John. I was going to make Will go back in the car and tell him to look away so I could kill it to put it out of its misery.”

“Kill it with what?”

“I dunno…a whack on the side of its head with the wrench we have in the trunk?”

“Right.”

Sometimes his wife ran a fine line between terrifying and impressing him.

Maureen gave him a wry smile. “But Will…he was so upset. He was crying and inconsolable and begged me to try and save it.”

“Oh…” For a second he wondered how he’d have reacted in the same situation. Would he have listened to his son? He wants to think so.

“I tried to talk him out of it, but Will wouldn’t have it. So I took the blanket from the back seat and put the dog in the trunk. Drove it to the nearest emergency vet clinic.”

“And?”

“She was too badly injured to save. They tried a couple of things but then they put her down.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Me too.” Her eyes met his. “Thought I’d tell you in case you saw the five-hundred and fifty dollar vet bill on our credit card and wondered about it. Seeing as we have no pets.”

“Five-hundred and fifty? Ouch.” He’d smirked. “Will?”

“We went for a beach walk and ice-cream afterwards, ‘cause I needed to console him. We held a little ocean-side eulogy for Emma.”

“Emma?”

“He named her.”

John smiled. Of course Will named the dying dog.

He took Maureen’s hand in his and kissed it. “You’re a good mom.”

“I’m telling you all this because I want you to realize that he has your giant heart, John. Deep down, he’s a big softie, like you.”

He remembered wishing she’d told him no matter what. Because it made him feel closer to both of them. But Maureen was never much of a sharer.

“Tell me something…am I still that man?”

He thought he saw melancholy flash across her eyes. Just for a split second, but it was there.

“I think…you’re more distant now. Harsher. Cynical. These long tours you do, they chip away at your heart.” She weighed her words. As if that made them sting any less. “I’m scared, John. That maybe one day you’ll come back and it’ll all be gone.”

He should have recognized it as the reluctant confession that it was, but back then it sounded far too much like an accusation.

“I can’t be kind and gentle when I’m out in a war zone, Maureen. I have to put up a wall. I have to stop caring about everything and everyone or else it’ll eat me alive.”

“I know that, babe. I know.” she whispered and tucked a strand of hair behind her ears before she leaned down to kiss him on the lips. It was a whisp of a kiss, impossibly tender. The kind that made him want to be the man she fell in love with. “But you have to take down that wall when you’re home. When you’re with us we need a father and a husband. Not a soldier.”

“It’s not that easy…”

“Stop worrying about having things in common with Will and just spend time with him. He’ll show you how to take down that wall. He loves you so much.” Her hand cupped his face and a soft smile spread across her lips. “We all do.”

John took her advice after that night.

He stopped trying so hard and just spent time with his son. He scrapped football off the list and took him to baseball games instead, and funny enough, it reminded him that he used to love the sport too, before his own dad steered him towards football.

Once they got closer he discovered other things too. That his son had a fabulous sense of humour that he only shared with those he trusted deeply. That he liked gadgets as much as the rest of the family (well, okay, except for Penny). So, John got him a radio and taught him Morse code.

But then, when Will was eight years old, there was a massive escalation in the conflict between India and Pakistan, in a year with record heat and famine. There was an invasion and a war on the ground and many feared it would lead to an international war.

John went back on tour. Into a hell on Earth.

Eight months turned into eighteen and then eighteen turned into thirty-six.

His marriage was in shambles and even Judy no longer talked to him. And Will….Will was eleven when he came back – more of a stranger than ever – just before they all left for Alpha Centauri, a broken mess of a family.

“He loves you. We all do.” Maureen’s words echo in head now as he gets up and approaches the staircase to make his way to Will’s room.

He takes his time climbing it, feels the lingering pain from the blaster wound in his leg that makes itself known every time he places an extra bit of weight on it.

John sees Robot standing outside his son’s room. Keeping guard as he does every night and as always, the sight of the imposing machine leaves him with mixed emotions. Maureen and Will make a lot of arguments for the number of times Robot has saved their lives, and they’re not wrong, but John also likes to remind them that if Robot hadn’t attacked the Resolute to begin with none of their lives would have ever needed saving.

They would have landed without incident on Alpha Centauri and wouldn’t have crashed on that dying planet. Judy wouldn’t have been trapped underneath the ice. All the events that happened in the two years afterwards would never have happened.

His son wouldn’t have a mechanical heart if Robot hadn’t set this chain of events into motion.

But then, it was also the last two years that brought them all back together.

Maybe if they’d landed on Alpha Centauri as planned, he’d be divorced now and Judy still wouldn’t be talking to him.

Maybe his son would still be a stranger.

Instead, they got seven months together on a water planet. It wasn’t easy living there, but it allowed him to reconnect with his wife and kids and it was the best seven months of his life in a long, long time.

John stares at the robot whose lights are swirling in his featureless face.

So many what ifs.

“Excuse me,” he mumbles to the robot, who steps aside in response, and knocks on his son’s. door. “Will?”

No answer.

“Will?” he knocks a little harder. “Can I come in?”

Still no answer.

But that doesn’t deter him. He’s going to have this conversation tonight, whether or not Will wants it.

John opens the door slowly and can see why Will didn’t hear him. He’s sitting at his desk , staring at a computer with his headphones on.

He doesn’t even know what kind of music his son likes these days.

“Will!”

His son jumps around, startled. “Dad?” He takes off his headphones.

“I knocked,” John explains.

“It’s okay. Hi, Dad.”

“Can we talk?”

Will swings around his swivel chair. “I’m not going without Robot.”

John sits down on the rim of the bed. “That is what I want to talk about.”

“I won’t change my mind.”

“You do know that you’re a minor, right? That, in theory, you don’t get to make that decision.”

Will’s face hardens. “What are you gonna do? Knock me out? Drag me on board the Solidarity against my will?”

John smirks. “Don’t give me any ideas.”

“I’ll run away…”

“Will…” John raises his hand. “Stop it. Let me explain.”

His son blushes. “Okay…”

“I know this hurts, the idea of leaving him. I know you love him. But what’s the alternative, Will? You leave your mother and your sisters? Who’s gonna take care of them?”

“Mom and Judy, they’re pretty good at taking care of themselves and they have Don too.”

“Mom and Don, they’d be dead right now if it wasn’t for us. How much do you think this is going to hurt your mother, leaving you behind?”

Will bites his lip and he can see the conflict on his son’s face. The guilt.

“That’s not fair, Dad.”

John doesn’t like doing this, but then again, not all fights are fair. He’s been in enough wars to know how to hit where it hurts. “Is what you’re doing fair? Choosing a machine over your family?”

“Stop calling him that!”

“It’s what he is,” he says gently.

“No.” Will shakes his head. “If that’s what he is to you, maybe that’s what I am too.” He moves his hand to his heart. “Because there’s a part of him inside of me. I have a mechanical heart too. Just like he does.”

John looks at him in disbelief. “Having a mechanical oxygen pump doesn’t make you a machine.” He taps Will’s forehead with his index finger. “This is what makes you who you are.” Then he moves his hand to his son’s heart. “This just keeps you alive, and I’m grateful for it. I hope it’ll help you outlive us all.”

Will sighs. Pensive, as always. “I don’t wanna live, if I’m the only Robinson left.”

“There’ll hopefully be a few others around by then. Maybe yours or Judy’s or Penny’s.” For some reason he always suspected that Penny might be the first, or even the only one of his kids to have kids of her own. ”That’s how this works. You’re supposed to outlive your parents and create your own families. It’s what makes us different from the robots.”

“Ben Adler used to say that.”

“He was right.”

“I’m sorry, Dad. I don’t wanna hurt Mom or Judy or Penny.” Will’s blue eyes look up at him, full of torn emotions. “But I’m not changing my mind. I won’t leave Robot behind.”

A part of him, the life-long soldier part, wants to put an end to this nonsense. To tell his son that this is an order, not a choice. That keeping him alive is the only thing that matters now.

“When you’re with us we need a father and a husband. Not a solider.”

What will ordering him around accomplish, except push him away? Will wasn’t the scared little kid who left Earth. He’s spent the last year taking care of almost a hundred kids. Then figured out a way to save everyone, including his parents, on that dying ring of Jupiters, and as if that wasn’t enough, he then decided he was willing to sacrifice himself if it meant stopping SAR.

Maybe Will was a minor on paper, but in reality he was more of an adult than most people John knew.

It was time to treat him like it. Like an equal.

“You know you were right yesterday, when you said I didn’t actually believe the shield would hold. I don’t. It’s why we’re sending the colonists back to Earth, because we don’t think we can protect them here for very long.”

Will’s gaze is sombre, but he doesn’t say anything. He’s already aware.

“What we went through in the jungle, trying to find Mom and Don, that’s what life is gonna be like here when the shield no longer holds up. We’re gonna scatter and flee, maybe some Jupiters will head to the Night Planet and try their luck there, although the conditions for human life there aren't good." He pauses and looks at his son, willing him to come to his senses and make the right choice. “Are you ready to live like that? To try and survive long enough for the Solidarity to come back? I don’t want that for you, Will. None of us do.”

“I know…” he acknowledges. “I’m sorry, Dad. But I can’t go.”

“Okay…” he nods in reluctant acceptance. “Okay.”

Part of being a soldier was knowing which battles couldn’t be won and weren’t worth fighting.

“You’re not angry?”

“I am…” He searches for the right word. Anger isn’t it. “Frustrated. Sad.” he admits. “Because this is not what I want and I think you’re making a mistake. But you’re right, you’re not a kid anymore and I won’t drag you up there kicking and screaming.” He takes a deep breath. This isn’t easy. “I guess it’ll be you and me…” He turns to the doorway where a glimpse of metal meets his gaze. “And this guy, down here.”

He can see the relief on his son’s face even though there’s nothing to be relieved about.

“Come here,” John gets up and pulls his son into a hug. Lets him know that he loves him no matter what, because that’s what fathers do.

They’ll figure something out. Every problem has a solution and all that.

“Thanks, Dad.”

John doesn’t expect Will, his fourteen-year-old adult-kid, to hold on to him quite so tight.

Or for quite such a long time.

Later

John finishes a call with the head of the newly formed Alpha Centauri Defense Force and is about to call it night when he sees an incoming call from Judy and he grabs it before it drops from his comm.

“Hey, Jude,” he wants to hit the video option because he misses seeing her face but he knows his kids always get annoyed when he does that. Maureen’s the only one who doesn’t mind – who often beats him to it.

“Dad…” her voice is soft and hesitant and his internal alarm is already raised.

Nothing else, please…

His constant panic, thrumming just below the surface of his skin, goes up a notch again.

“What’s going on?”

“We had a draw today…at the hospital. Of who’s going on the Solidarity and who’s…not.”

“Judy…” John turns on the video feature. Screw being the cool dad. He needs to see her face.

“Dad?” Her pretty face comes into view. “They’re keeping back almost a quarter of us. I’m one of them.”

“No….” He clenches his teeth. This wasn’t happening, was it? First Will, now Judy? “I’ll talk to your mother. She’s in charge of building that damn ship, I’m sure she can use some pull to get you on board.”

“Dad, no!” Judy’s face is indignant. “I’m not cheating to get a spot! We already did that with Will to get him on the Resolute!”

“That was different!”

“No, it’s not,” Judy shakes her head. “It’s exactly the same. What kind of shady deals would Mom have to make this time in exchange for getting me on? No, Dad…I won’t.”

“But….Don…” He can’t believe he’s using this card. But he will. “He’s going. He’s crew. He has no choice.”

Judy bites her lip. “I know.”

“Judy, you’re getting on that ship!”

But Judy’s resolve is as firm as Will’s was only an hour ago. “No, I’m not. As much as I wanna go, I’m not. I’m not cheating or bumping off someone else.” Her face softens. “You didn’t raise me like that.”

John groans. How the hell was he supposed to argue with that?

“It’s gonna be okay,” she adds. Another child of his reminding him that she’s an equal too. Has been for some time.

“Yeah…” he nods, feeling the panic rise again. Bursting up from beneath the surface. “It will.”

Except it isn’t.

None of it is.

Later

It’s very late and John’s already asleep when the ringing of the doorbell jars him back awake.

As soon as he is awake – he’s fully alert. As always.

John bolts out of his bed and barges down the stairs, wondering who it could be. Trying to reach the door before they ring again and wake up Will.

Who would come for an unannounced visit in the middle of the night? He’s reassured by the fact that a thief wouldn’t ring the bell.

Not that they had thieves – or crime - on Alpha Centauri.

Someone who needs to give you bad news in person?

“Please no…” John mumbles as he reaches for the door, a fresh surge of panic already hitting him hard.

He swings the unlocked door open.

Granted, he wasn’t expecting anyone, but this…this is definitely not who he was expecting.

John stares at his nighttime visitor.

“Smith?”

Chapter 20

Chapter Text

Chapter 20

Robinson residence, Alpha Centauri

“Smith?”

Their former stowaway-prisoner looks at him with amusem*nt and it makes John aware of the fact that he’s wearing only his boxer shorts.

“Sorry I woke you,” she says after her eyes stop roaming across his bare chest. Her tone of voice almost apologetic.

Almost.

John’s not convinced she’s capable of genuine regret. Or empathy.

“Aren’t you in jail?” he asks. It's probably rude, but it's the first thing that comes to his mind.

“I was,” she replies. Unoffended. “But apparently, we’re in a war now and they don’t have the resources to keep us behind bars. So, they let us all go. All three of us. Alpha Centauri isn’t exactly a criminal hotbed.”

“Oh…” John stares at her, still standing on his doorstep. Normally, he’d have asked a visitor inside by now. But not much about this woman and her odd relationship with his family is normal.

“Can I come inside?” she asks, rubbing her hands together dramatically. The air is brisk tonight, but it’s not freezing.

“Sure,” he opens the door for her to step in. Guides her into the kitchen. “Do you, uh…want some tea?”

She sits down at the table, still rubbing her hands together after setting down a large back-pack next to her chair on the floor. He assumes it contains her belongings. “That’d be nice.”

She’s wearing a loose, multi-layered outfit along with a thin, almost-translucent, purple scarf around her neck.

There’s always been something feline about her and the way she moves. The way she slinks in and out of rooms, quietly and stealthily, in flowing, layered outfits that are so different from the simple, functional clothes that his family wears.

Nothing about Smith ever suggests that she came here with the idealistic intent of colonizing a new planet.

When it’s ready, John hands her a steaming mug of mint tea and sits down across from her.

“Thank you,” she drawls, her eyes still fixed on him. His bare chest anyway.

“So, what brings you here in the middle of the night?”

She smiles. “Cut right to the chase. How very John Robinson.”

He smiles back at her. God, he’s too tired for games. Especially her games. “If you were hoping for someone other than John Robinson, you came to the wrong house.”

“Touché.” She takes a tiny sip of tea. Even though it’s still too hot to drink. “I was hoping maybe Maureen would be home.”

“She’s on the Solidarity.”

“Oh….”

“I can relay a message if you want.”

“She came to see me in prison. Told me to look her up when I got out.”

John raises a brow. “She did?”

“Only once, but I assumed she meant it. Maureen’s too no-nonsense not to mean it when she says something. Will, on the other hand, he came to see me several times.”

John’s even more surprised by that. “He did?”

Will would have needed an adult to sign off on those visits. Meaning either Maureen or Judy would have known about them.

Smith cups her steaming mug of tea in her hands. “I think we bonded. When we were stuck on that planet with all those kids, and then afterwards, when I took him to the amber planet. He was my only visitor and it was….nice. It was the one thing I looked forward to every month. I want to think we’re friends.”

John swallows. He’s still not sure what exactly happened on that amber planet, except that somehow robot infused his son’s heart with….something. That Will came back from it fully recovered after his heart transplant, which made no sense.

“You still haven’t answered my question,” John presses.

“Right.” Smith toys with her cup and John can see her mind spinning. Working out the right words, concocting the right story, or the perfect lie. “Why am I here?”

“Yes.”

“You see, when I was released from prison yesterday, I went back to my home. Or what I thought was my home, but it turns out that this Doctor Smith…” She clears her throat. “This Zachary Smith. He’s back on his feet now, and they gave him my home.”

“They gave him the home that was originally meant for him,” John clarifies.

“I suppose you could put it that way.”

“And you have nowhere else to go,” John finishes.

Smith shrugs. “Sadly, there are no hotels or motels on Alpha Centauri.” She sighs and for a minute she looks genuinely sad. “The thing is, I don’t know anyone else on this planet. Only you and your family.”

“Right.” For once John believes her. “So, you want to stay here.”

“Not for long. Only until the council finds me a new place but it seems like they’re preoccupied with other things lately.”

“There’ll be lots of empty housing once half the colony leaves to go back to Earth.”

Smith certainly won’t be chosen to join them. They’ll prioritize everyone else before putting a newly released criminal on board the Solidarity.

“I figured,” she tells him. “But I don’t want to squat in an empty home until then.” She smirks. “I’m not a criminal anymore.”

“Good to know.”

“I can help around the house,” she adds. “I’m not just a good sailor. I’m a good cook too. I could have shown you if you hadn’t kept me locked up for seven months on that water planet.”

“We kept you locked up because you lied to us about everything. Then you tied up my son, knocked out my wife and almost killed me and Don in the process.”

She shudders at the reminder and for a second he thinks he sees genuine remorse on her face. He half expected her to defend her actions. But she doesn’t.

“You’re right. You had good reason to lock me up.”

“Not that you actually stayed locked up, or so Maureen tells me.”

Smith tightens her lips. “I’ve changed, John. I hope you’ll give me a chance to show you.”

He exhales and stares at the old-fashioned ticking clock that’s hanging on his wall. It’s his lone souvenir from the Seattle town-house he grew up in. A reminder of his parents and his childhood home.

It’s almost 4am and he knows he won’t go back to sleep now.

He still doesn’t trust this woman. She’s been a con artist her whole life and her finest skill is manipulation. But she’s also not lying when she says she’s changed. That much is true and he’s seen it first hand.

She could have continued living a comfortable lie under her stolen identity as Doctor Smith but instead she confessed to her crimes and was willing to pay the price.

John’s always been a big believer in second chances, or in her case, third and fourth chances. Plus, he trusts Maureen. If she was ready to extend Smith an olive branch, then so is he. And, oddly enough, he has a feeling that Will might actually enjoy having her around.

Maybe, she can talk some faux-therapist sense into his son.

“You can stay,” he tells her. “As long as you want. There’s extra space here.”

They already have a spare bedroom that Judy doesn’t use and now with Penny leaving in a matter of days, he’ll soon have another one.

“Thank you,” she nods solemnly, and again John wants to believe it’s sincere. That she means it.

But it could also be an act.

“One question,” he wants to know. “What do you I call you? Your name, is it really Jessica Harris?” He vaguely remembers it when Maureen looked up the Resolute passenger manifest, after Smith told them that was her name. That there was a Jessica Harris on it. A physicist.

“Jessica was my sister,” Smith answers. “She’s the one who should have been here.” She chuckles. “Although in hindsight, it was probably a blessing that I stopped her from getting on board.”

John doesn’t say anything.

“It’s June,” she adds. “June Harris is my real name.”

“June.”

She clears her throat. “I have a hard time thinking of myself by that name. I didn’t like myself when I was her.”

“So…?”

“You know I’m not a doctor, but if you don’t mind, Smith suits me.”

John nods. She’s right, it does suit her. It’s such a common name that it blends in anywhere. Like the chameleon that she is.

“Smith it is.”

Solidarity Build

The ship is filling up and it’s noticeable.

People.

More and more people everywhere. The cafeteria is packed, day and night - not that there’s a difference here - and the hallways are filling up. Living quarters are nearly full and now every empty square meter is being converted into living space. What used to be long, deserted corridors are now full of life. Maureen can no longer walk through them without hearing the din of conversation and bumping into an increasing number of familiar faces.

They brought another two thousand colonists on board today, in a series of risky Jupiter runs that John is helping to coordinate. Corralling people through small, hastily-built dirt tunnels, into unsecure areas outside the shield and then piling them onto a Jupiter that’s trying not to stay on the ground a second longer than it has to.

It’s a conveyer belt of human traffic that will continue until the ship is packed to the rim with as many colonists as it can carry. Thirty-thousand in total, including her children.

Then we take off for Earth. It's like building a plane and then taking an entire city on our test flight.

The thought still gives Maureen goosebumps. As an engineer, she’s used to endless testing and adhering to rigorous safety standards before anything is sanctioned for human use. It was in testing that you always, inevitably, discovered flaws and weaknesses that needed to be corrected.

Sure, they ran daily tests here too, on every system they had in place, and took the ship for spins around the planet, but an interstellar journey is a different beast.

It's lunacy, really. Recklessness on a scale that boggles her mind, even though she’s been accused of recklessness plenty of times herself. This is the kind of desperate recklessness that demands absolute perfection from everyone involved in the build.

As if…

That said, today was a good day because, on paper, they had an all-systems go check for the first time since they started the build. It meant they could actually take the ship around the Night Planet before they took off for Earth, which she has every intention of doing.

“Maureen…”

Someone is grabbing her arm from behind as she’s walking down C Block and she turns around to see who it is.

“Martinez…”

“I need to talk to you.”

She stops walking and a man pushing a cart full of MREs almost crashes into her. “Sorry, sorry…” he mumbles in accented English and then keeps going.

“In private,” Martinez adds.

“Fine,” she steps aside and uses her master key to open an electrical room connected to the corridor. She turns on the light when they’re inside, suddenly wondering if it’s a good idea. If she’d really put it past him to harm her if he got the chance.

But their offices are on the other side of the ship – and in the opposite direction of the ops meeting she’s headed to. Never mind that those offices are full of people. Privacy is an increasingly rare commodity on the Solidarity.

Martinez steps into the room with her. “You requested a hard drive look up today.”

Maureen swallows. Funny, how her instincts figured this was what this was about. Martinez never did waste time on pleasantries with her.

“That was a confidential request.”

“I have more friends here than you do.”

“Friends or spies?”

Martinez’s face looks pinched. Drawn and tired, like everyone else’s. No matter how much she hates his guts on a personal level, she knows he’s determined to get this ship fully operational.

Sometimes it kills her, thinking of how much more they could accomplish if they weren’t at each other’s throats half the time.

Like now.

“Do you have nothing better to do?”

“We ran a series of successful system tests this morning. All coolants are fully operational. Not just the ones on C and D deck.”

“They are?” He’s impressed for a split second, before it’s gone and he’s irritated again.

“So I guess I have nothing better to do.”

“What do you hope to accomplish?” he asks her and there’s a weariness in his voice that she’s not used to.

Maureen shrugs. “To find out the truth?”

“You think it will make a difference? If you see something….unsavoury on these videos?”

It was a good question. Given that they were under attack by these machines, would anyone fault a lead engineer for zapping one of them? He’d get a slap on the wrist for sure, a likely demotion to go with it, but at the same time they currently had a robot tied up in their engine room. In chains that zapped him every time he tried to break free of them.

It was something she swore she’d never do again, and in fairness, she had been against it – vocally- but she’d been outvoted by everyone else that made up the core group leading the build, three women and five men, including Martinez. “I don’t know, if it will,” she admits. “But it’ll make a difference to me.”

“I would think that you of all people, after what you went through recently, might not be a fan of these machines. Might understand that we can’t fool ourselves into thinking we can trust them or treat them like humans.”

She glares at him. “Me, of all people, would love to know if it’s something that you did, that turned that particular machine into a raging psychopath that almost killed me.”

“If that’s all it took, maybe we have no business trusting them in the first place.”

“What I’ve experienced with them tells me otherwise. It’s like saying we should give up on humanity because there are a handful of psychopaths among us.” Like yourself.

“Don’t do this, Maureen.” It sounds more like a plea than the orders she’s used to hearing from him. “Don’t divide us when we need to be united more than ever.”

“That’s rich, coming from you.”

Martinez takes an unexpected step back and winces. “I haven’t made things easy for you. I know that.”

Maureen doesn’t say anything. As if that deserved a response.

“I couldn’t forgive you for destroying the Resolute,” he confesses. “I’ve let it blind me.”

“Do you think I wanted to destroy that ship?”

“No…” He shakes his head. “I don’t. But I do think you were blinded too. You acted like a mother, not a scientist or a colony leader. It’s why I don’t believe you deserve to lead this project. Because you’ll always be a mother first.”

It isn’t the first time she’s heard this argument. It rolls off her shoulders. “Do you have a point? We have an ops meeting to get to. I don’t have time for this.”

“I’m trying to apologize.”

“Really?”

“I’m not very good at it.”

No kidding.

“You’re good at what you do,” he adds. His lips twitch. This is obviously painful for him. “Maybe even the best. Not many engineers I’ve worked with can think out-of the-box and on-their-feet the way you can. Big picture, on-the-spot, seven steps ahead – all the time.”

Maureen holds up her hand. “Spare me.”

He flinches. “Let’s put this robot business behind us and work together. We can’t have scandals and in-fighting now.”

Maureen straightens her back. “I have no desire for either of those but I don’t believe that those who abuse their power have any business leading this build.” She opens the door. “I’ll decide what to do after seeing the footage I asked for. Footage that never should have been removed to begin with.”

“I see…”

She steps aside and motions for him to head out first. “In the meantime, we have a meeting to attend,” she smiles icily. “I'm happy to put up a united front and walk into it together.”

Solidarity

Don West climbs up into one of the maintenance pods, sits down inside the conductor’s seat and pulls down the artificial blinds, making it impossible to see inside. Then he lights up the red “out-of-commission” strip on the side of the door, indicating that it’s not meant to be used.

Just in case one of the too-many mechanics on board get any funny ideas.

People were all looking for tiny private places lately where they could make out.

He’s guilty of it too, even if it’s only for comm-sex.

Don turns on his comm and calls her, licking his lips and crossing his fingers that she’s free and alone.

It’s ridiculous how crazy he is about Judy. How she infiltrates his thoughts ninety-nine percent of every waking moment.

At the very latest she’ll be here in twelve days. That is, if she’s one of the very last to board the ship. Hopefully, that won’t be the case and he’ll see her sooner than that.

“Hey, beautiful…” He turns the camera on his comm and feels a tingle of joy when her face comes into view almost immediately.

She really is. Beautiful.

“Hi…” Her gorgeous face lights up.

“Miss you.”

“Miss you too.”

“Are you alone?”

“Yeah…but I’m still at the hospital.”

“Ah…” It means that unlike last night, she’ll leave her clothes on for this conversation.

She wrinkles her nose. “Sorry.”

He grins. “Don’t be.”

Two weeks ago, this alone, Judy Robinson – beaming and radiant - looking at him the way she is - would have been more than enough. No. Actually, it would’ve been more than he dared to hope for.

But of course now that’s had even more, he’s greedy. He wants it all.

It’s human nature.

Because those breasts of hers are the most perfect breasts in the entire universe. He’s absolutely certain of it. He’s convinced that his mouth was created for the sole purpose of worshipping them.

“How are things on the build?” she asks, forcing him to focus. But he’s too distracted by her lips. By his newfound knowledge of how they feel when they’re sucking on his…

“Don?”

He shakes his head. Hard. Focus. On her questions, not her anatomy. “Crazy. Hectic. Non-stop. You know…the usual.”

“Your arm?”

Wants to be wrapped around your waist…snaked between your legs…

“It’s fine.”

“Good…” There’s something sad in her voice, now that he’s forcing himself to actively listen to her. Something’s off.

“How’s Mom?”

“You haven’t talked to her?”

“She doesn’t answer my messages.”

Guess I’m not the only one.

“Tell her you’re getting a face tattoo. She’ll answer so fast, you’ll get whiplash.”

That makes her giggle and it’s a great sound. What he wouldn’t give to hear it when she’s naked in his arms.

“Don…”

The way she says his name makes him pay attention for real now. “What is it?” Something’s definitely wrong. He can feel it.

“I’m not coming. I have to stay behind.”

“What?”

“They picked almost a quarter of us at the hospital to stay behind. They did this random draw and…” Her voice hitches. “It’s stupid…but I just figured my chances were so slim of being picked that I was coming for sure. But I got picked to stay.”

“No…” Don shakes his head. “You can’t stay! You have to come. Get your mother to pull some strings.”

“Funny, that’s exactly what my dad said.”

“You know I don’t always agree with him, but this time, your dad and I, we are definitely in full agreement!”

“Don, I can’t. Mom already did that with Will and it came at a high price.”

“Worth it.”

“Don…”

“You can’t stay behind, Jude!” He wishes he were in the same space as her, as if physical proximity could knock some sense into her. “You’re gonna be sitting ducks!”

“I know…” she says softly. Of course she knows.

“Maureen’s okay with this?”

“I don’t think she knows yet, unless Dad told her. I haven’t said anything.” Judy sighs. “I wanted to tell you first.”

“She’ll make you get on this ship.”

“No,” Judy shakes her head. “She won’t. I won’t let her.”

“Jude…” He wants to bang his fist into the control panel in front of him. Send sparks that match his anger flying through the pod. “This is crazy. I’m not leaving you behind! We just…”

We had one f*cking night and now this? No, I won’t accept it.

He wants to say it, but she looks so miserable, it seems monumentally unfair to add to her burden.

Her voice trembles. “Just…go to Earth and hurry back.”

“No!” Don shakes his head. There has to be another way. “I’ll stay.”

“You can’t,” she says softly. “You’re crew.”

“I’ll sneak on a Jupiter shuttle...”

“So you can get arrested for desertion?”

“I don’t care,” he mumbles.

“I do.”

Don sinks bank into his chair, shoulders slumped. Defeated. In what kind of a life were you not allowed more than five minutes of happiness before everything came crashing back down? This one apparently. “What am I supposed to do?”

Judy’s made her way into a staff lounge and she curls into a sofa there. “I don’t know…just come back to me and I’ll try to stay alive…”

’Try to stay alive?’

f*ck.

“No,” he shakes his head. “You gotta more than try. You gotta promise.”

“Okay…” she sighs. “Fine. I promise.”

“Judy….” He’d give up his entire salary for the trip if he could be with her now. Hold her. Kiss her. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

“I don’t either,” she admits. “But please promise me you’ll try. I want you to come back.”

“I’ll come back.” He tells her. It’s true. He will. He’ll do whatever it takes. Fight an army of robots if need be.

But it doesn’t mean he’s given up getting her on board the ship yet.

He has twelve days to make it happen.

Solidarity

“You’re kidding, right?” Maureen stares at her laptop, or more precisely, her husband’s face on the screen. She’s been trying hard to keep her voice down because her roommate, Irina is sleeping – and snoring – on the top bunk.

But after this news, it’s next to impossible.

“I know it’s a lot to take in….”

“I…I don’t even know what to say.” She fists a bunch of hair in one of her hands, the one that’s cradling her head, ready to yank it out in frustration. “Let me get this straight - Will refuses to come up here without the robot, Judy, by some freak odds, was drawn to stay in town and….Smith got out of prison and moved into our house? What the hell, John?”

“When you put it like that…”

“Is there another way to put it?” Maureen shoots back. “If I’m wrong, please tell me, ‘cause you have no idea how much I wanna be wrong right now.”

“Not wrong, per se…”

“John!”

Maureen turns around when she hears yelling, In Russian.

Then English.

“Quiet! I’m trying to sleep!” Irina, her now-awake roommate shouts.

“Sorry,” Maureen mumbles, as John gives her a questioning look through the laptop screen. “I’m turning this off and I’ll call you back on the comm…’cause this…this conversation isn’t over.”

She debates heading into the bathroom, closing the door and sitting on the toilet cover but then decides against it and heads outside into the hallway instead.

It’s too busy for her liking, but at least no one will have a fit out here if she raises her voice.

Maureen sits down on the floor, leaning her back against the wall and takes a deep breath before she flicks a button on her comm. One that brings John’s face back into view.

“Babe, this is madness,” she reiterates.

“I know.” John doesn’t argue.

“I’ll talk to Will, and Judy…I don’t care if she’s disappointed in me again, but I’ll find a way to bring her on board. Whatever it takes.”

“It’s not up to you. She’s an adult and she won’t accept any special favours. Maureen, you know how she is and Will…Will is just as stubborn. He will not leave that robot behind.”

“He’s fourteen, John! He doesn’t…” Her words are cut off by a sudden jolt and a loud bang, one that shakes the entire ship and makes her slide forward an inch on the floor. Several people that were walking in the hallway lose their footing and fall down.

It feels as though the Solidarity collided with something.

Or something hit it.

sh*t.

Ear-shattering alarms suddenly blare in the hallways.

“Maureen?” John’s staring at her in shock. “What’s happening?”

She pushes herself off the floor, onto her feet. “I’m not sure…I gotta go.”

“Don’t hang up!”

“You know I have to,” she tells him. She has to assess the damage. See how bad this is. The Solidarity is built to withstand a lot but depending on the extent of the damage, or in the event that their essential systems go down, the captains may suggest to either take-off or evacuate.

Technically, the engineers, led by herself, are in still charge, before the ship takes flight, but Maureen is ready and willing to listen to those who’ll take over the reins in a matter of days.

An evacuation will be utter chaos given how many people are on board. Even if they fill every available Jupiter to capacity, they likely won’t have enough spots.

It’s an intergalactic Titanic without enough life boats.

Maureen’s eyes meet John’s. Lock with them for a long second. This time she won’t miss the chance to let him know. Just in case. “I love you.”

“Maureen! Keep the line open!”

She shakes her head. “I can't, babe. I'll be okay.” He’s thinking like her husband, not a soldier.

With those words, Maureen ends the call and radios Martinez, just as another bang tilts the hallway and knocks her off her feet.

The fall sends a jolt of pain along her side, but it’s not bad enough to stop her from pushing herself back up when the floor steadies again.

“Maureen,” it’s Don’s voice who comes in on her comm. “You okay? Where are you?” It’s hard to hear him over the blaring of the alarms.

“Fine. Heading to the bridge.”

“Ten-four. Keep your lines open.”

She tries Martinez again but he doesn’t answer. “Screw that…” She has a perimeter scan option of the Solidarity on her comm and turns it on, just as another blast rocks the hallway and sends her crashing into a wall. It makes her wince but at least this time she hits her good side.

Maureen raises her comm as she pushes herself off the wall and starts to run, one eye on the comm.

The perimeter scan shows her what’s happening.

There are three robot ships hovering around the Solidarity and one of them is firing at it.

sh*t, sh*t, sh*t.

The alarm stops blaring and an announcement comes on.

She recognizes the security director’s voice immediately.

“The Solidarity is under attack from hostile robot ships. All non-operational passengers return to your living quarters immediately, suit up and wait for further instructions. All operational personnel follow emergency procedures and report to your stations. Stay calm and follow instructions. There are no immediate plans for evacuation. The ship is designed to withstand this kind of attack.”

The announcement is repeated twice and then the alarms start back up.

Maureen does a systems check on her comm and notices that the shield is up – it’s a miniature version of what’s covering the town centre – and it should protect them from the worst of the blasts. Until she sees that it’s only covering eighty percent of the ship’s surface.

“Don…come in! What’s going on with the shield?”

He answers right away. “Workin’ on that….it’s at eighty percent.”

“I see that. There's an unprotected spot where our thrusters are. They cannot get hit, Don! Redirect the shield if you have to.”

“Redirect?”

“Yes! Do it.”

She’s in a hallway with a clear ceiling now and can see one of the robot ships hovering directly above her.

It’s as terrifying a sight as it was in the jungle below on Alpha Centauri.

Maybe even more so up here. Because there's nowhere to run.

And what she sees next is even worse.

It’s a Jupiter and it’s coming up into view underneath the robot ship, racing right towards its belly at a forty-five degree angle.

No, no, no, no.

The Jupiter hits the robot ship like the missile it’s pretending to be and the fireball that erupts is so bright that it blinds her. There's a giant burning mass of debris that rains down on the Solidarity and Maureen already suspects that parts of it will penetrate the shield.

There are about ten people in this section of the ship – which she knows will be sealed off in seconds.

She can hear the ceiling crack above her.

“Run!” she yells, trying to figure out where to run herself.

She chooses to turn around.

There’s so much noise – structural cracks, blaring alarms, people screaming, debris crashing into the ship, the outside atmosphere seeping in with hissing sounds – that she sees the steel bulkheads closing before she can hear them.

Maureen has to dive to the floor in order to make it underneath the steel doors that will automatically seal off the damaged sections. She makes it but her lungs are burning from the contaminated air and her side is throbbing. She turns onto her back with a groan before raising the comm to her lips.

Because he’s the only thing on her mind right now.

“Grant, come in.”

“That one got way too close. I think those bastards are ready to crash their entire ships into us,” his voice answers and the relief that floods her is immeasurable. "Shield won't hold if they do."

Wasn’t him in the Jupiter.

He’s okay.

It wasn’t him.

“Maureen…”

“Yeah?”

“We’re gonna make sure the other two don’t get as close.”

“Grant?” Maureen pushes herself back up on her knees. f*ck no. Please no.

“Tell Judy I love her. Please. Tell her that getting to know her was worth staying alive for. That she’s absolutely amazing. And thank you…for giving me the best thing in my life.”

“No, Grant…please don’t…” The words get caught in her throat. “Don’t do it!”

The connection’s gone and although she can’t see it this time, Maureen hears another bang and catches a brief flash of light from a much smaller window in this corridor.

“Grant! Don’t! Please. Don’t…”

She’s sobbing now. Sitting on the floor and sobbing with the realization of what he just did.

Because even though she should be thinking of the ship, all she can think about is Judy.

Judy – who once again lost a father she only just regained.

Martinez was right about one thing. She’s always going to be a mother first.

She raises her comm and dials John. Notices that there’s blood on her elbow from the skin she scraped off diving under the bulkhead.

“Maureen…” He comes on right away. Frantic with worry. “You okay?”

“I’m okay.” She wipes aways a fresh batch of tears.

“You’re hurt.”

“No…I’m fine.”

“Babe…talk to me. What’s going on? What happened up there?”

She still crying as she tells him about the attack. The three robot ships and the Jupiters that took them out.

About Grant.

“I need you tell, Judy. Please. Tell her before she hears it from someone else. She needs one of us there with her and you’re the only…” Her words get caught again and she pulls out a tissue from her pocket. “John…?”

“I will,” John assures her. “I’ll go right now. Take care of yourself, ‘kay? I’ll take care of Judy. Promise.”

Chapter 21

Chapter Text

Chapter 21

Alpha Centauri, General Hospital

John goes to see her at the hospital. He call her first, letting her know he's stopping in because he's nearby. It takes all his acting skills to keep his voice light. Casual.

Judy smirks when she spots him in the hallway.

Maureen was right. Their daughter is in love and it shows.

Maybe she hasn't admitted it yet. To Don or even herself. But it’s written all over her face.

It’s a glow that John remembers well.

He used to see it in the mirror when he first started dating Maureen and then slowly it appeared on her face too and it made him feel both arrogantly invincible and painfully vulnerable. It's what love does.

She’s so happy. John swallows. And now I’m gonna break her heart.

Judy’s perched on a stool at a near-empty nursing station. “Don’t think I can’t see through what you’re doing,” she says before he can even say hello. “You think I’m gonna change my mind if you come see me face-to-face. Dad, I won’t…”

“Jude…” He approaches the work area. “It’s not that.”

She leans forward, elbows on the counter, catching something in his face. “Dad, what is it?”

“There was an attack on the Solidarity about an hour ago. Three robot ships.”

“Oh my God…” Her eyes widen in shock. “Are Mom and Don…?”

“They’re fine. Both of them.”

She exhales nervously. “Okay, good, good…”

“Judy, it was three Jupiters that took down the robot ships.” He’s the one who tries to take a deep breath now, wishing the ground would open up. That he wouldn’t have to say this – that it didn’t happen.

“Dad?” She slides off her stool and stands next to him.

“Grant was flying one of them.”

She shakes her head, not ready – or willing - to connect the unspoken dots.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers. “I’m so sorry.”

“Dad…no…” Judy doesn’t cry. Unlike Maureen and Penny, she’s not much of a crier. At least not in front of other people.

But she is human and she does falter. When she does, Judy stumbles over her words. Like now. When things become too hard to handle, even for her, who can handle almost anything.

“I didn’t even know he was up there, Dad! I didn’t say…I didn’t do anything and when he came to help us search for Mom and Don…I wasn’t…I don’t know if I even said thank you! I still need to!”

John pulls her into his arms.

“Dad, I should have told him.”

“Shhh….” Her distress is palpable and he wants so badly to soothe it. “He knew, Jude. He loved you exactly the way you were and he knew.”

“This isn’t possible. I didn’t…”

“He knew, Judy. Knew you risked your life to find him on that planet. Knew how much he meant to you. He knew.”

He holds her tight and keeps saying it, because he won’t have her feeling guilt for this.

Holds her until she finally lets go, her grief-stricken face staring right past him.

“Your mom asked me to call her when I’m with you. She wants to see you too. Are you okay if I do?”

Judy nods.

When Maureen comes on the screen on his comm, it looks like she’s in a mechanical room. She walks out of it, while removing her noise-cancelling headphones.

“Judy….”

“Mom…” It’s such a plaintive sound. The way she says it.

Much as Judy’s always been a Daddy’s girl, John knows that it’s her mother whom she needs now.

Maureen hears it too because suddenly her eyes are moist. “Hey, sweetheart…”

“Is it true?”

“Yes.” Maureen nods. “He’s a hero. To me and everyone up here.”

Judy bites her lip and John can tell that it’s a struggle for her to hold back her tears. He wishes she wouldn’t try so hard. “He was when we were looking for you too…I don’t know if I told you….if I told him.”

“You did, sweetheart. You did and he knew how much it meant to you.”

“He did?”

“He did…” Maureen’s eyes meet John’s and it makes him wonder if she’s making this up. Saying it because she senses how desperately Judy needs to hear it.

He responds with the subtlest of approving nods.

“When we last chatted…he told me how happy it made him to be able to do this for you. Knew it meant a lot to you.”

“I didn’t act like it…”

Maureen smiles through her tears. “Trust me, he wasn’t that easily offended.”

A lump forms in John’s throat too. It’s surreal to have her speak about Grant in the past tense, when it seemed like only yesterday that John chatted with him about their shared past, in a quiet hospital room.

“He called me,” Maureen adds. “Before…” She wipes away a tear. “Before he made the decision to do what he did. He wanted me to tell you how much he loved you. To let you know that you were the best thing in his life.”

“I loved him too.” Judy’s words are barely a whisper and John puts his arms around her again.

“I know you did.”

“Thanks, Mom, for telling me.”

“I’m gonna go now, okay. Leave you with your dad. Call me anytime. I promise to answer.”

Judy gives her a lop-sided smile. “Right.”

Afterwards, Judy tells him that she’ll be okay.

John knows she will at some point, but not tonight. So, he makes her put away the lab coat and come home with him and he’s grateful that she doesn’t argue.

For one night, this new war on Alpha Centauri will have to do without him and his daughter. Tonight, he’s just going to be a father. A father who needs to take his daughter home to her family. Give her a home-cooked meal with her siblings.

They’ll light a candle for Grant Kelly and celebrate his extraordinary life.

They’ll talk about his courage and his heart.

About the legacy he left behind, and the daughter who’ll carry it on.

Solidarity Build

One day later

The mood on board the ship is an strange mix of frantic energy and sombre anxiety.

The Jupiter shuttle runs from the planet have been put on hold for 24-hours, until the full extent of the damage is assessed and anyone on board that’s not involved in the build has been ordered to stay in their quarters in the event of further attacks.

There’s a memorial service being planned for the three pilots who gave their lives to destroy the attacking robot ships.

And meanwhile, the Solidarity's engineers and mechanics are furiously patching up the ship while putting its final operating systems in place. Testing them on the go.

Aside from the section that Maureen got out of in the nick of time, most of the damage is minimal. Even that section was affected only because Maureen told Don to divert the shield to the thrusters. If this had been a scheduled attack to test the ship's resilience, she passed with flying colours.

Even so, the sense of urgency to get out of here is ten-fold what it was before the attack.

What if next time they came back with six ships? Or nine? Or eighteen?

Don West has a to-do list that’s three pages long, which he’s grateful for because it stops him from going insane thinking about Judy.

He called her the night it happened but she was too shell-shocked to have much of a conversation. She told him her dad was taking her home and Don was glad to hear it. It didn’t make him any less upset that he couldn’t be with her, but it consoled him to know that she wasn’t alone.

John, Will and Penny would shower her with love and that’s exactly what she needed right now.

After his conversation with Judy, Don went to check on Maureen. Forced her to sit down long enough so he could patch up the bloody scrapes on her arm and made her change out of the blood-stained shirt she wore. He also made her drink something warm while he did it, because he knew she was still reeling from what happened to Grant.

At the time, everyone had been on Maureen’s case to get the damage assessed and contained as fast as possible – as if she could singlehandedly fix the ship. As if she hadn’t just lost the father of her child.

It still pisses him off – the fact that no one else seems to give a damn about her and take into account that she's human too.

Don sighs. For someone who used to only care about saving his own skin, he’s gotten way more protective over these Robinsons than he ever thought possible. In fact, if Maureen wasn’t up here with no one else to have her back, he’d probably have hijacked a Jupiter by now and made a run for the planet. Because not being able to see Judy is making him want to crawl out of his skin.

Worst of all, it’s not temporary separation.

He might not ever see her again.

Don clenches his teeth and focuses his frustration on piece of metal that he bangs into place with his bare hands.

Then he wipes the sweat off his brows and ticks another box on his to-do list.

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the ship, Maureen is thinking about taking the Solidarity around the Night Planet. On paper it seems crazy to do it while they were in the midst of repairs and damage assessment, but the more she thinks about it, the more it makes sense to her.

You conducted tests in real-life situations like this precisely to see whether the systems could handle being compromised.

If wouldn’t affect their repairs because they could be done while travelling at optimal speed. It's exactly how they’d be conducting repairs if something happened en route to Earth. Maureen figures it’s the best way to test just how ready the ship is for interstellar travel. Testing her while she’s bruised and battered.

It’s reckless, she can hear John’s voice in her head.

No, her own drowns it out. It’s the opposite. Better we find out now how much she can handle than when we’re a month into the trip to Earth.

Or maybe her brain’s fried from being on her feet the last fourteen hours while still unable to come to terms with what happened to Grant. Maybe she’s trying too hard to think of anything but him, that her resulting ideas really are insane.

But she’ll still propose it to the lead team tonight. It not as though the decision is hers alone anyway.

Just as that thought runs through her mind, she sees an incoming file on her comm.

It’s the hard drive retrieval she requested. A single video file that’s almost eight minutes long.

Maureen exhales and checks the time on her comm. 19:24.

She’s only a five-minute walk away from her quarters and the next ops meeting isn’t until 20h.

When she gets to her dorm, she’s relieved to find that her roommate isn’t there.

Maureen double locks the doors, so that Irina can’t come barging in.

She settles into her desk chair, wincing when her body reminds her how sore it is from landing on her ass twice during the robot attack. Exhales slowly before plugging the video feed into her laptop.

It starts off innocuously enough, with Martinez questioning Taron, who’s seated across from him in one of the security offices.

“You know what I think? I don’t think you were entirely honest when Dr. Patel questioned you about that accident.”

The robot’s blue lights swirl frantically in his face. It’s one of many things that make him different from Will’s robot. Taron’s lights always moved so much faster and with greater intensity.

“I was honest.”

His communication skills were always better than Robot’s too. In the rare times when Taron bothered to talk to them, that is. He picked up English grammar with far greater ease than most robots. Could master tenses, unlike most others.

The conversational cat and mouse goes back and forth for a couple of minutes, until Maureen sees Martinez’s patience run out. He raises his comm and orders a guard by the name of Rodney to come in.

The man is carrying what she recognizes as a portable EMF and Maureen can see the writing on the wall.

Martinez asks the same questions again but now he prods Taron with the EMF every time he gets the same answer.

The first prod jolts the robot.

The second makes him stand up and changes the colour of his lights from blue to red.

The third sends Taron flying into the wall behind him and knocks the machine to the ground, leaving him lying there, immobile, for a full ten seconds before he ignites back to life.

And when he comes to, he lunges at Martinez who holds the robot back with another blast from the EMF. The sheer force of it knocks both Taron and Martinez to the ground.

Taron recovers faster and it makes Maureen gasp.

Taron is about to pummel Martinez, who’s lost his grip on the EMF, but Rodney, the security guard, grabs it and zaps the robot just before he can ram into Martinez.

The dial is on the danger zone and this last jab knocks Taron out once more.

The robot is lying on the ground and a shaky Martinez slowly gets back on his feet and watches as the security guard keeps blasting the EMF at the unmoving robot. He keeps going until Martinez orders him to stop.

Taron’s lights are almost extinguished.

Both men leave the room and the last three minutes of footage are of Taron lying on the ground. Inert.

Until the robot’s lights finally come back on and he gets back up like a drunk. He stumbles and falls back down. Gets up and falls down again. Twice more, until he finally, slowly, crawls out of the now open interrogation room.

Maureen’s hand covers her mouth in shock and she closes the file in disgust.

You are an even bigger piece of sh*t than I imagined.

She wants to crawl into her bunk bed and erase that footage from her mind.

No, more than that, she wants to leave this ship and go back down to the planet to be with Judy. To hold her daughter tight and then have John return the favour for her. Never leave any of them again.

If it wasn’t for Penny coming onboard soon, she’d do it. But she can’t send Penny back to Earth alone.

She can’t seem to keep anyone safe these days, so she’ll be damned if she doesn’t try to get at least one of her kids away from this war.

Maureen closes her computer, locks it and goes to the ops meeting.

The meeting runs late, which doesn’t surprise her, but what does surprise her is that when they vote on her proposal, the lead team agrees to take the ship around the Night Planet before resuming the Jupiter shuttle runs.

Martinez votes against it, of course.

She expected nothing less.

When it’s done, she returns to her quarters, and crashes. Literally. Dropping all her clothes on the floor beside the bed and crawling under the bedcovers, still undecided about what to with the footage on her computer.

She was going to mull over it in bed, but she’s not awake long enough for a single coherent thought.

Hospital Residence, Alpha Centauri

Next day

Judy Robinson is not okay.

She’s in her hospital dorm room, sitting on her bed, knees pulled up and arms wrapped around them, staring into space.

At least Agnieszka is at work so Judy doesn’t have to put up with her quixotic room mate trying to cheer her up in all the oddest ways. (Yesterday she made Judy a whole bowl of pierogi and dotted them with flower petals - and as sweet as it was - Judy had to literally choke down the doughy floral creation).

Her father and her siblings have been sweet too. Forcing her to take a day off work, smothering her with hugs and not letting her out of their sight the entire time she was back at the house. And as much as she loves them all, Judy had to get out of there, because all of it was suffocating.

Plus, she didn’t want to tell them that none of it had quelled the ache in her heart or the sadness that threatens to drown her, because the two people she needs the most – Mom and Don- aren’t here.

She also doesn’t want to admit that she can’t stop thinking about Grant.

She keeps thinking about all the things she still wanted to ask him. All the things she wanted to know about him and now will never know.

All the things she was so sure she had all the time in the world to ask.

Mostly, she wanted to tell him how much it meant to her that he risked his life to help them find Mom and Don and it absolutely guts her to know that she’ll never get the chance.

She needs Don to help her push away that crushing guilt, because he’s the only one who can always make her forget the world around her. Who can remind her to stop taking everything so seriously.

And she wants her mother, because Mom’s the only other person who loved Grant too. Who really knew him.

Judy so badly wants to talk with her about him. In person, not through a comm.

She pulls her knees closer to her chest. Closes her eyes as she buries her face in them.

She’s been so tempted to call her mother and tell her to do whatever it takes to get her aboard the Solidarity.

Judy knows her mom would find a way to make it happen. Without hesitation.

But just the thought of asking makes her feel ashamed.

So far, she hasn’t gone through with it, but there are still moments of weakness when she thinks she’ll do it.

Moments like now.

Judy knows she’ll go back to work tomorrow, even if she doesn’t get any sleep tonight.

Because she needs the distraction. Because she’ll do what needs to be done, like she always does.

Even if she’s not okay.

Next Day

Robinson Residence, Alpha Centauri

John doesn’t hide his relief when he finally sees his wife’s face come into view on his computer.

He tried to reach her several times yesterday and when he couldn’t, he tried Don, who also didn’t answer. In turn, that made him panic and reach out to Victor Dhar, to see what the hell was going on, aboard the Solidarity.

It was Victor who told him that the ship went on a classified test run around the Night Planet. That the comms of everyone on board were out of range. The only way to get a hold of anyone one the ship was to reach out to the bridge directly from the Jupiter base - which is exactly what John did.

Would it have killed Maureen and Don to let him know? Then again, given the robot attack and Grant’s death, John realizes it might have slipped their minds.

“Hey…” His eyes linger on her because he knows he has little more than a week left to talk to her. To see her. His gut clenches at the thought.

“Hey back…” She looks exhausted.

“How was the trial run around the Night Planet?”

“Good. She held up really well.”

“Guess they put the right person in charge of getting her built.”

“I don’t know…” She sighs and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and it lowers her sleeves enough that he can see her arm all bandaged up underneath.

It tightens the knot in his gut. “Hey…what happened to you?”

She raises her brows, unsure of what he’s talking about until she sees him point to his own arm in reference. “It’s nothing…it’s Don fussing over some scraped skin.”

Don.

John swallows guiltily. The guy keeps taking care of his family, whenever John can’t do it himself.

‘Cause he loves them too.

And here he was, annoyed at him for daring to date his daughter. He’s starting to feel like a jerk.

“Good,” he nods. “I’m glad he is.” His eyes meet hers. “I kinda panicked yesterday when I couldn’t get a hold of either of you.”

“Oh…” Maureen winces. “sh*t, John, I’m sorry. I didn’t think to call. I should’ve told you. It’s just…”

“Hey, it’s okay.” Last thing he wants is to make her feel bad. “I miss you, that’s all.”

“I miss you too.” Her eyes water as she says it.

God, he wants to hold her so bad. How the hell is he gonna say good-bye to her – for an entire year or more?

She wipes away a tear. “We had the memorial for Grant this afternoon. It was…hard, babe. I can’t believe he’s gone. It’s so unfair.”

“It is.”

“How’s Judy?”

He wants to say fine, so as to not pile one more thing on Maureen. But she’s too good at spotting his lies. “I don’t know,” he admits. “I made her take a day off work. Come home. To let us take care of her.”

“Good.”

“But then she went back yesterday. Said she needed to work to get her mind off it.”

“I get it,” Maureen says softly. She would.

“You talk to her since the night she found out?”

She shakes her head. Gives him a lop-sided smile. “I only just got back in range, and then you called.”

“Keep trying,” he suggests, gently. “I think you’re the one she needs.”

She wipes away another tear in frustration. “On a comm?”

No.

“Any way she can,” is what he says instead. “She knows you wanna be with her.”

“Does she?”

“Yeah…she does.” He’s trying hard to ease the weight on her shoulders but he’s not convinced that any of it is helping. “I, uh, I was thinking….I can send try and send Penny up with the next round of shuttles.”

“No. Hold off another few days.”

“Why?”

She runs a hand across her forehead, as if fighting a headache. “I just…the attack. I keep thinking, what if they come back with more ships? I mean, the Solidarity can withstand a lot. But not if they send a whole army of ships…and how many more men and women and Jupiters will we sacrifice if they do?”

“Maureen…”

“Hold off until we’re closer to the departure date. I know I’m being paranoid, but I don’t wanna risk her being up here if that happens.”

“If you think there’s another attack coming, you need to get off that ship.”

“I don’t think that, John. But I still want to wait.”

“I don’t like this.”

“I don’t know if I can do this…” she whispers. He’s not used to her sounding like this.

Unsure. Afraid.

“Do what?”

“Leave you all behind. You, Will, Judy…we’re splitting our family in half!”

“I know…but what other choice do we have? We all stay behind?” He won’t resign himself to that madness either. “If I know that a least you and Penny are safe, it gives me a reason to hold on. I can handle another separation if I know at least some of my family’s okay. It’s better than trying to keep all of you safe.”

“What about me, who won’t know if you’re okay? I’m supposed to take one daughter back to Earth while the rest of you are fighting a war? Without knowing whether any of you are okay?”

“It’s the not knowing that’s the worst.” Her words from a long time ago are haunting him.

Truth is, he's not sure he could stand it either if the tables were turned. Not knowing.

But he can’t admit that.

“There’s a good chance the shield will hold up and there won’t be a war. We’ll sit under a dome, leading a quiet, boring life until we wait for the Solidarity to come back.”

“You don’t believe that.”

No. I don’t.

“John….” Her voice is soft, low, but her gaze demands his attention. “What if…what if there was another choice. A third option.”

He raises his brows. Knowing Maureen, he’s almost afraid to ask.

But he does. Because he wants to keep them together just as badly.

“What third option?”

Chapter 22

Chapter Text

Chapter 22

Robinson Residence, Alpha Centauri

“Here…” Smith pushes two little bowls in front of him. One is full of corn chips, their simple go-to snack and the other contains a dip of sorts.

John isn’t hungry, not after the conversation he just had with his wife but Smith is persistent.

“I don’t have a double shot of tequila to offer you, so at least have this. Nothing like junk food to take all that weight off your shoulders.”

He reluctantly dips a single chip, surprised at how flavourful it is.

Smith actually told the truth. She’s not just a good sailor, she really is a good cook too. Everything she’s prepared for them so far has been delicious.

He finds himself dipping a second and third chip and suddenly half the bowl is empty and he’s answering her prying questions and telling her about Maureen’s craziest idea yet.

“As if the whole thing wasn’t sufficiently insane, at the end of the day it also doesn’t change the fact that Judy and I have to stay here. And that Don has to return to Earth. Our family wouldn’t be any less split up, than if half of them go back to Earth. No matter how screwed up that planet is, at least we know for sure that one’s habitable.”

“I assume you pointed all this out to her.”

“Of course I did,” John sighs. “She told me that we should forget our obligations to the colony. That we’ve paid our dues.”

“Oh, did she?” Smith smiles. Delighted. “I always figured she had it in her. She’s not a do-gooder like you and your eldest. Maureen’s always willing to cheat and lie when push comes to shove, isn’t she?” Smith snickers. “Plus, she’s right, you know. Haven’t you already spent half your life honoring your duties and ditching your family? Maybe try it the other way around for a change.”

John glares at her, wanting to kick himself for confiding in this woman. Even though he knows better than to let himself get riled up by her, he can’t help but feel the sting of her words.

That particular accusation is his Achilles Heel. Mostly because there’s so much truth in it.

It makes him defensive.

“Did you miss the part where I mentioned that this plan is crazy? Taking us halfway across the universe to a planet that may or may not be habitable.”

Smith shrugs. “Her crazy ideas got us off the water planet. Kept your kids alive.” Smith twirls her scarf around her index finger. “If Maureen’s willing to drag all of you over there, I’d bet there’s a really good chance that planet is very habitable.”

“I’m not saying I don’t trust Maureen’s science. But I know her…I know she’s panicking right now. Trying frantically to come up with something that’ll keep us together because the last time we were apart…”

It killed her.

“Yes?” Smith puts her elbows on the table, cradling her chin in her hands. She’s all ears.

John tightens his lips. “Nothing.”

Maybe he doesn’t hate this woman anymore, but that doesn’t mean she needs to know how precarious the state of their marriage was, after they blew up the Resolute and got separated from their kids for a year. How much Maureen struggled to cope and how she kept shutting him out.

How he was starting to think that maybe without the kids they really didn’t stand a chance anymore.

Although Maureen did end up proving him wrong. They found their way back to each other before they reunited with their kids.

Smith’s intelligent eyes are boring into him. “Hmmm…if you say so.”

“I can’t ditch all my responsibilities and drag our kids halfway across the universe again, to a planet they might not be able to live on.” He sighs, needing to rationalize it to himself more than Smith. “I can’t.”

“I see that.”

John’s eyes meet hers. “Would you?”

“Yes.” There’s no hesitation.

“Why?”

“What are the other options? Stay here trapped under a bubble and pray that it holds up? Go back to Earth where someone nuked a part of France and where you can’t breathe the air?” Disgust lines her face. “I’d take my chances with Maureen’s mystery planet.”

“Maybe I would too if it was just me and Maureen. But it’s not.”

“I bet your kids would do the same if they got a vote.”

He chuckles. “My kids have proven lately that they make some sh*tty choices when given a vote. Maybe there’s a reason that this colony isn’t a democracy yet.”

“Oh you’re such a military man, John. To the core.” She scoffs. “Oh well…you’ll figure something out. You and Maureen. You always do.”

John stares into his empty bowl, wishing he had that kind of faith.

Later

It’s very early in the morning, but Penny can’t sleep so she’s been reading for almost an hour while listening to the ever-present noises outside. The pfft-pfft sounds of pebbles hitting a windshield.

That’s what she pretends they are after her father used that analogy. It’s better than thinking of them as robots blasting at their shield.

The sounds terrified her at first, but now it’s become almost reassuring. It’s the sound of the shield holding up.

Pfft Pfft Pfft.

Nice try, robots. Keep wasting your blasters.

Hopefully you’ll run out soon, assholes.

Tonight it’s not a potential alien invasion that’s keeping her up but the book she’s reading. Tears rim her eyes because her life has become a part of the lives of Andrei, Gabriela, Rachel and Wolf. They’re not much older than she is, living in the hell that was the Warsaw Ghetto. Every day is a struggle for survival and they still find a way to live and love.

It breaks her heart.

Even though Penny’s always been the least serious, the least studious, of the three Robinson kids, when it comes to books, she’s always preferred a heavier read than the cheesy romance novels that her brilliant sister likes. Penny is plenty crazy about boys in real life. She doesn’t deny it. But literature? That’s for learning about worlds that are far away from her own.

She craves familiarity in her real life, but in books, she likes to explore.

It’s a much safer way of exploring foreign places than crashing into them with your own spaceship.

Penny hasn’t admitted this to anyone else yet, but she’s kind of looking forward to going back to Earth, no matter how crazy things are there. She’s definitely not looking forward to the leaving-Will-and-Dad-and-Judy behind part, but Earth is home. Unlike, Will and Judy, she had a big group of friends there. She still misses them, even now, three years later.

Penny has only a handful of pages left when she realizes that Andrei won’t make it. The foreshadowing is so clear that the earlier moisture in her eyes is a dam about to burst.

It’s not fair. He’s too young…too full of life…

It’s when she grabs a tissue to wipe her tears and blow her nose, that she realizes that something’s changed.

The sounds.

Pfft. Pfft. Pfft.

They’re gone.

Replaced by silence.

Penny slowly puts down her tablet and pushes herself up on her bed, leaning against the bedframe to look out the window behind it.

When she sees nothing unusual except darkness and stars, she yanks it open. A gust of cold air washes over her teary face and still – nothing. No noise. No pebbles hitting a windshield.

Silence.

Her heart starts to race.

This isn’t normal. Something’s off. The robots wouldn’t just blast at their shield relentlessly for days and then suddenly stop for no reason.

Penny jumps off her bed and runs into her brother’s room. Robot turns around and stares at her when she barges through his door in her pyjamas, but he doesn’t stop her.

Her brother’s fast asleep, one of his long, and increasingly hairy, legs, half dangling off the bed.

She shakes him. “Will! Wake up!”

He’s groggy and sleep-drunk. “Penny? What’s wrong?”

“The robots stopped blasting at the shield.”

He rubs his eyes. “What?”

“That’s not normal, is it?”

Will does the same thing she did. Opens his window and peeks outside, as surprised by the eerie silence as she is. Then he turns on his comm. “Dad….come in.”

Why didn’t she think of doing that?

Because you panic first and think later.

There’s no response, but that’s not unusual. He’s often on radio-silence when he’s digging his top-secret tunnels and rushing groups of people onto the Jupiters for the risky runs to the Solidarity.

She was supposed to be on one of them tomorrow too, but then Mom called to tell her to wait a little longer. Something about not having found a new room for the two of them on board the ship yet. Penny’s not convinced that was the real reason.

“Dad’s probably on radio-silence,” Penny tells him.

“Yeah…but we can check the…”

His words are cut off by the sound of an air-raid alarm that almost makes Penny jump out of her skin. “This is not good is it?”

“No,” Will shakes his head, fully-awake now. “Not good.”

Even the robot has stomped into Will’s room. “Danger, Will Robinson.”

“I’m guessing this is dangerous for all of us,” Penny mumbles. Her heart is thumping so hard, she can’t think straight.

“What’s going on?” Smith too, has appeared in the doorway.

“We’re trying to find out…”

Penny’s comm is blinking and she can see that it’s her Dad trying to call. She picks it up and all three of them – Smith, Robot and Will – are starting at her when she does.

“Dad, what’s happening?”

“The shield’s gone down, Penny.”

“How?”

“The robots got in through a tunnel that we thought we covered up. They destroyed one of the towers that was holding it up – from the inside”

Will’s hovering over her. “Dad…” he adds, grabbing her wrist and moving it towards him so he can speak into the comm. “Is there a way to put it back up?”

“It’s too late for that, the priority now is getting away from them. Scattering across the planet.”

“What?” Penny’s trembling. How could everything come crashing down so fast? “How, Dad?”

“I’m gonna head over to you as soon as I can. I’ll send you a list of supplies to get together. Gonna try and get Judy from the hospital on my way there.” There’s a pause and Penny can hear her dad breathing hard, as though he’s talking and running at the same time. “Smith – you there?”

Smith crowds in. “I’m here.”

“I’m sure Robot’s gonna do what he can to protect you all, but can I trust you to stay with the kids? Lock up the house and stay put ‘til I get there. Help them gather the supplies we need to go on the run.”

“On the run….” Penny’s eyes widen in disbelief. Was this really happening? “Can’t we take a Jupiter up to the Solidarity? Dad...I wanna go. We should all go.”

She’s embarrassed by how plaintive it sounds. How very not brave.

But it’s true.

She wants to escape to the Solidarity. Head back to Earth with her mom. With all of them.

She doesn’t want to fight in a war. Or live in fear.

Wars are horrific. People die in the most awful ways. Like Andrei in her book.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. Not anymore. Everyone’s spreading out. All shuttle runs have been called off. The Solidarity’s gonna have to leave with only those already on board. The sooner they get out of here, the better.”

“What?” Penny gasps. “Mom’s gonna go to Earth without any of us?”

She wouldn’t, would she?

“Penny….I need you to focus on getting ready, okay. It’s the only thing I want you to think of. Get dressed and get ready to leave!”

‘Come on,” Smith’s hand is on her shoulder. It’s oddly reassuring. “Listen to your dad. He knows what he’s doing.”

Even Will – Will’s who’s always so calm and collected – looks terrified.

“I have to go,” her father says. “But call me if anything changes. Don’t leave the house. I’ll be there soon. “

They stare at each other in silence, until their comms ping again.

It’s Dad’s list of supplies that he wants them to prepare for their evacuation.

Things like MREs, batteries, water filters, flashlights, blankets, water….

Penny stares at it, unable to move. Even breathing is impossibly hard.

“Come on.” It’s Will’s voice that pulls her out of her shock. “Let’s get it ready together.”

Solidarity

Beep beep beep beep beep.

Maureen groans. Why won’t it stop, that annoying sound, why?

Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep…

“sh*t…”

She jolts upright at her desk, suddenly awake enough to realize the sound is coming from her comm, That it’s been beeping in her ear because she slept on the arm that’s wearing it. An arm that’s now fast asleep and coming back to life with pins and needles. Maureen tries to shake it off.

There are six urgent messages from Martinez.

Emergency meeting at 05:30.

She checks the time. That’s in six minutes.

She calls him. “What’s going on?”

“Where have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you for the last ten minutes. I can’t get a hold of Wang and Gaudreau either.”

They’re probably trying to get a couple of hours of sleep too, jackass.

“What’s going on?” she repeats, stifling a yawn.

“The shield’s down.”

That makes her sit up straight. “Our shield?”

“No, the town’s shield.”

Chills run up her spine. “What did you say?”

“The shield’s down. The robots are attacking the town center. It’s a full-scale war now.”

Her heart skips a beat. “When?”

“Thirty minutes ago. Ops meeting in five. We’re handing the command of the ship over to the flight crew. They’re gonna prepare for departure within hours.” He sighs. “You should be telling me this, not the other way around.”

She’s so done with him. “Not if it happened on your goddamn watch, Martinez. Which it did.”

There’s a momentary silence on the other end. “I’ll see you in five.”

“If there’s a war…we have to get more people on board before we take off.”

“Shuttle runs are done. We go with the people we have.”

No….no…no.

Penny didn’t make it aboard….

She feels sick at the thought. “We have to get more people….”

“Stop being a f*cking panicked mother and think rationally for once,” he hisses and then repeats. ”I’ll see you in five.”

Maureen pushes herself off the chair, glad for once that she fell asleep in her clothes. She lifts her comm and calls Don, while struggling to catch her breath. “Don, come in.” There’s no answer. C’mon, Don, wake up.

She tries him again. And again.

And again, until finally a groggy, irritated voice responds.

“This better be important."

“The shield over the town is down. The flight crew’s prepping the ship for departure.”

“What?”

She tells him what Martinez told her.

“They’re not bringing anyone else on board? Penny? Will?”

“No…” She swallows, her nausea rising at the thought of what she’s about to do. “I’m not going back to Earth alone. If Penny was here…I’d go, but alone? I can’t…I have to get off this ship.”

“Is that an option?”

“No.”

“Then how? You gonna steal a Jupiter?”

“The Jupiters are life rafts. I won’t take one.” She catches her breath. “I’ll take a maintenance pod.”

“Have you lost your mind?”

“It’s risky, but possible. Don…I’ll need your help. To cover for me.”

“Cover for you? Hell no. I’m coming with you.”

“You can’t. You’re crew, you’ll be persecuted.”

“You think I give a damn about that?”

“Don…”

“You do realize that you and Penny were the only reason I didn’t ditch this ship as soon as Judy told me she’s staying behind, right?”

“What?”

“Meet me at Docking Bay 16 in ten. Let’s get off this ship.”

He disconnects the call before she can say anything else. Maybe she can change his mind when she gets there.

Then again, who is she kidding? The guy’s crazy about Judy. It’s a miracle he hasn’t already bolted. And she selfishly wants him to come. He’s family.

She does a mad dash to gather her things. Tosses her lap top and a handful of personal essentials into a bag. Splashes some water on her face, brushes her teeth and then races out the door.

There’s an electric buzz of activity in the hallways of the Solidarity and part of her feels a pang of regret for leaving behind this miraculous hulk of metal that she’s devoted so many months to. But the regret doesn’t come close to the unbearable panic that would do her in, if she stayed on board.

Her comm keeps beeping and she sees another slew of angry messages from Martinez.

-Where the hell are you?

-You need to be at this meeting

She’s out of breath by the time she reaches the docking bay. She raises her comm. “Don?”

“Coming!”

She exhales.

“Maureen?”

Maureen spins around.

“What are you doing here?”

It’s Lennox. One of the engineers tasked with the primary maintenance of the Jupiter docks. He always greets her with a giant, beaming smile. She’s never seen him even the least bit irritated or stressed. “I thought you would be at the handover on the bridge.”

“I, uh… yeah,” She smiles back at him. “I will. There’s something I needed to check here first. “

“Let me know how I can help.” Big smile.

f*ck.

“I, uh…I heard about the combustion oscillation issue on J36.”

“Jennifer thinks she knows what caused it. It shouldn’t happen…”

“I’d like you to run another check on the combustion chamber.”

“We did and….

“Again. Please.”

“Now?”

“Yes. Now.”

“Uhm…okay. Okay, sure, Maureen. I will.”

Bless your heart for not questioning the ridiculousness of it.

He turns around, but not before giving her one last smile, just as Don enters the docking bay.

“There’s too many people here…” he points out as soon as he’s within ear shot.

“No one except Lennox will question me taking out a maintenance pod and I got him out.”

“True. It’s good to be the boss.” Don steps in closer. “But we are not leaving in a maintenance pod. We’re taking a Jupiter.”

“Don, I won’t…” Now that they were in a war all the ships were considered part of the colony. No one had a right to their own Jupiters anymore.

“Yeah, you will. We will. ‘Cause you’re not gonna get us to that new planet of yours in a maintenance pod. Your family needs a life raft too.”

She’s starting to panic. Stealing a Jupiter is a crime, never mind that’s it wrong. Not just legally. In every way.

“Hey…” One of Don’s hands is on her shoulders. “Everyone on this ship is gonna be perfectly fine. She’s built to last. It’s time to think of your family.”

“Don….”

“Don't think about it. Just use whatever rank you need to pull and get us on a Jupiter and let’s go.”

She pushes her panic aside and does just that. Orders a maintenance crew to prep the J13 for take-off. Scans the pre-take off check-list and watches as Don opens the entry door for them to get on board.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

The voice coming from behind her makes her jump and whip her head around.

It’s Martinez and the Director of Security. There’s a third man there too. One she recognizes from the video she watched. Rodney. The security officer who almost zapped Taron for good in order to stop the robot from killing Martinez.

He’s smiling.

Chapter 23

Chapter Text

Chapter 23

Solidarity

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Maureen stares at Martinez and his buddies. “You tracked my comm.”

“Good thing I did, isn’t it?”

From the corner of her eye, she can see Don West taking a step towards them. Because he wants to listen in.

“I’m leaving,” she shoots back. “I have that right. Last I checked I'm not a prisoner on this ship.”

“Your window to leave closed when the shield went down. It’s too dangerous to fly a Jupiter into a war zone.”

“I’m still in charge here…”

A smile lifts his lips. “Actually, no. You’re not. Command of the Solidarity was handed over to the flight crew twenty minutes ago. Captains Radic and Kamal are in charge now.”

Maureen raises her comm. “Captain Kamal, come in. This is Maureen Robinson. It’s urgent.”

The smile on Martinez’s face fades. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Listen, you piece of sh*t, we are not prisoners here. If I reach Kamal, you know she will agree to let us depart. Not just me, but me and whoever else wants to get off this ship. There are others whose families didn’t make it onboard and who’ll want to be with them. War or no war.”

His nostrils flare, “Oh, I don’t think so.”

“Well, let’s call her and find out. I thought you’d be happy to get rid of me.”

He pauses, as if debating whether or not to call her bluff.

Truth is, she might not be bluffing. Maureen knows from personal experience that Kamal is willing to listen to reason.

“Fine,” Martinez hisses then turns to the security director. “Get a pilot to get Maureen Robinson off this ship. Dump her somewhere outside of town and bring the Jupiter back. ASAP.”

Maureen points to Don. “I already have a pilot.”

“How stupid do you think I am?” Martinez eyes her. “I know if we let your buddy join you, we’ll never see that ship or his ass again. West is crew. You’re free to leave, but he stays on board. Kamal won’t side with you on this one.”

Maureen’s eyes meet Don’s and she sees him flinch. Eyes him as he acknowledges the impossibility of getting off this ship and mouths a silent message to her.

It’s okay. You go.

Maureen shakes her head. No. Not okay.

She steps right up to Martinez’s face. “You’re gonna let West come with me or else the first thing I do when I leave this ship is send that video of you torturing Taron to the chief councillor and when I do your career is over.”

Martinez leans over her. “You’ll do that anyway.”

“No.” She shakes her head.

“How the hell do I know that?”

“Because unlike yours, my word means something. Because I’ll be so damn glad to never have anything else to do with you after today. Besides….” She exhales and gets close enough to whisper into his ear. “If I were you, I’d take my chances. ‘Cause one thing is certain…if you don’t let Don West go, I will take you down. Promise.”

“Sir,” Rodney, the security guard, approaches them. “We have a pilot. She’ll be here in five.”

Martinez raises his hand. “Wait.” Then he turns to Maureen. “Fine. Take that obnoxious side-kick with you. Good riddance to both of you.”

Martinez informs the director of security who in turn radios the bridge, letting them know about a Jupiter take off. Making no mention of its passengers.

Maureen races towards the doorway where Don is still standing. “Let’s go.”

“What?”

“We’re leaving.”

“What the hell did you tell him to let us go?”

“Doesn’t matter.” Maureen drops her bag and seals the door as soon as they’re on board the ship. “Suit up and strap in. We’re getting out of here.”

She gets into the pilot’s seat as soon as she’s ready, desperately needing to focus on something besides the looming war ahead. “You good?”

“Yeah.” Don’s suited and in the co-pilot seat and she’s grateful, because she has no idea what they’re flying into down there.

Maureen disconnects the spacecraft from the docking bay as soon as they receive permission from the Solidarity deck. There’s more she wanted to do before taking off. Like securing extra supplies. Extra fuel.

But this…this will have to do. At least they both got off the ship.

“Seriously,” Don pesters as soon as they’re in orbit. “What’d it take to get him to let me go?”

They’re back in Zero G. Surrounded by the darkness and silence of space. The planet below them is stunning, about to be bathed in light as the two suns slowly appear to cover the hemisphere they’re headed to. She wants to relish in in the beauty of it all – even if only for a minute.

Because this – soaring among the stars - no matter how many times she’s done it, is always an adrenaline rush. A high that’s better than any drug.

“Maureen?”

“What?”

“Tell me what you said to Martinez.”

“What do you think?”

Understanding dawns on him. “Tell me you didn’t use the video to blackmail him.”

“I used the video to blackmail him.”

“So he gets away with it?”

“I don’t care.”

“Since when?”

“Since now.” She turns to him. “Or do you want me to turn this ship around?”

He rolls his eyes. “I don’t like it.”

“I don’t like it either. But it’s done. I don’t wanna talk about it again. Ever.”

“’Kay,” he mumbles. “Maureen…”

“What?”

“Thanks.”

“Is this you still talking about it?”

“About what?”

It doesn’t take long before they enter Alpha Centauri’s atmosphere, before gravity and daylight hit them in full force. The first time in a long time for the latter. Her eyes aren’t used to the brightness at first and she needs to adjust the screen on her helmet.

It’s when they close in on the town center that she hears Don gasp.

“Holy sh*t…”

Maureen’s eyes widen at the sight below them. At the armada of robot ships that are hovering over their hometown. At the pillars of smoke rising from so many buildings below.

The destruction is massive and it breaks her heart. This intergalactic colony was supposed to be a paradise. A place that showcased only the best of humanity and now it’s a war zone.

She stops their descent. Landing at the Jupiter base is no longer an option. Nor is getting any closer to the attack taking place below them.

Panic grips her again as she worries that they might be too late.

“We can’t land anywhere near the town,” Don points out.

“I know,” she mutters under her breath.

“We gotta get outa here before one of those ships spots us.”

“Yeah…” She also needs to contact her family. Now that they’re no longer on the Solidarity – their comms will have reduced range. She lifts hers up to her wrist, “John – come in.” There’s no response. There’s a good chance he’ll have turned it off if he’s laying low and trying to avoid detection from the robots.

“Judy – come in,” Maureen hears Don trying to get a hold of her daughter. Her heart skips a beat when a response comes through.

She was about to change course to a much higher altitude, but holds off, because she doesn’t want to risk losing the transmission.

“Babe, where are you? Your mom and I are coming down to get you.”

“What?”

“Tell us where you are!”

“I’m at the hospital…we’re trying to put the patients we can’t move into cryo-tubes before we evacuate…Dad, told me to try and get to the house!”

“Judy…” Maureen cuts in. “We’re in a Jupiter and we can’t land near town. You’ve gotta get out of the city and send us the coordinates. Then we’ll come get you.”

“Okay…okay!” She’s breathing hard, as if she’s running. “We will. I’ll let Dad and the others know.”

“Maureen! You’ve got someone on your tail!”

“sh*t.” She sees the robot ship on her screen and banks hard to the right, just in time. She can literally see the trail of the laser attack that almost hits them.

They’ve been spotted.

The belt cuts into her injured side and it’s so painful that for a split second she sees stars flashing before her eyes. But thankfully it doesn’t last.

She pulls the ship up and gains altitude so fast that she can hear Don groaning. The G-force is a monster and it’s rough on her too.

She’s banking on the robot ship being more invested in the battle below than an air chase back into orbit. That it would be more of a hassle than its worth.

Because if the robot ship does choose to chase them, Maureen’s not sure they’ll be able to outrun them.

“The Jupiter can take this right…?” Don hisses.

“Yeah. Sure.” She won’t push it into blackout territory. Even if she connects to the autopilot in time, having them both pass out is a terrible plan.

Grant, you have no idea how much I wish you were sitting in this chair right now instead of me…channel me some of the bravado you had when you took me on that single engine Cesna over the Pacific on our first date...

She slows down their ascent to ease the strain on the hull and on their bodies.

The robot ship fires a few more shots at them – missing by miles now – before turning around.

Maureen keeps climbing until the robot ship is far gone, before turning the Jupiter around and plotting a new course back towards the planet. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Great. Glad I skipped breakfast.”

“I need to find us a spot to park. Close enough that we’re in range of the comms and so that John and the kids don’t have to go far to get to us, but far away enough so that the ships and robots won’t see us.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“The main roads leading out of the town are to the south…”

“Which means that’s where most people in Chariots will flee to…it’ll be under heavy attack…”

Maureen swallows. She doesn’t want to think of what kind of obstacles and attacks her family’s going to have to fend off to get to them. “Maybe I should risk flying into town, directly to our house…”

“No!” Don objects. Vehemently. “You don’t think I wanna get Judy out of there right now? But this ship is our life line...if it gets shot down, never mind with us in it, then we’re all screwed. If I were a betting man, which I am, I’d bet on John and the robot getting to us, no matter what kind of attacks the other robots are launching.”

Maureen nods. He’s right. For once in her life, she’s truly grateful that John’s a soldier. If anyone can get his family through a war zone alive, it’s her husband. “Okay…I’ll make a descent about a hundred kilometres north-west of the town centre. It’s the most rugged part of the area, the only trails are hiking trails.”

“A hundred kilometres is out of range.”

“I didn’t say that’s where we’ll park. We’ll head closer to town once we bring her down.”

“How? We drive? Are there wheels on this thing that I don’t know about?”

“No…but we’ll fly really really low.”

“Great.”

“Hang on.”

‘At least if we crash again we’ll be real close to the ground this time…”

“No offense, but I have no plans on going through a second Jupiter crash with you.”

“None taken.” Don groans whenshe makes another sharp descent. “None at all.”

As much as the scientist in her knows it’s ridiculous, she feels that Grant’s here with them. Guiding her. His imaginary touch hovering over her hands on the controls of this ship. Because she suddenly has the kind of instinctive feel for them that he used to have.

Once she reaches the one-hundred-kilometre radius, she maneuvers the Jupiter as close to the tree tops as possible. Can almost feel them graze the belly of the ship. Can see Don wincing from the corner of her eye.

It’ll be so much harder to be spotted at this altitude, and when she gets close enough to the town centre to be able to see the rising plumes of smoke in the distance, she sets the Jupiter down in the first clearing she sees. II’s not much open space, but it’ll have to do. In fact, the less open the better as they’ll need to camouflage themselves, it in case of ships passing by overhead.

It’s a pretty smooth landing, all things considered, and when they’re on the ground she finally turns around to her co-pilot. “See? No crashing.”

“Never been so happy to have you tell me ‘I told you so’.”

“Lemme try to reach John one more time. You try Judy before we turn everything off and run cold.”

This time it’s John who responds and Judy doesn’t.

“Maureen…the shield’s down. Robots are attacking us everywhere. I’m gonna try grab the kids and get us out of town. The Solidarity needs to take off now. I love you….but get the hell out of here, please.”

“Too late for that.”

“What do you mean?” He’s breathing hard, as if on the run. Like Judy was.

“Don and I…we left the Solidarity and came down in a Jupiter as soon as we heard. If you think I’m going back to Earth without any of you, you’re crazy.”

“What the hell?”

“Get our kids, John. Bring them to us. We’ll be waiting.” She transmits their coordinates. “I sent you our coordinates in case you have to go dark. We’re gonna do the same for the next little while.”

There’s a pause and Maureen flinches as she hears a blast of sorts in the background. “John?”

“I’m okay….I’ll get us there. Promise.”

“Do you have a Chariot?”

“If ours is intact when I get home…then yes.”

“Okay…” She doesn’t want to ask what he means by that. Whether her entire neighbourhood has been attacked yet.” She bites her lip. “Hurry. Please.”

“I will.” Another pause. “You’re crazy. But I love you.”

She smiles. “Same. On both counts.”

When their call ends, she finally allows herself to exhale. He’ll get them here. All we have to do is hang tight until he does…

“I can’t get a hold of Judy or Penny or Will.”

“They’ll only turn on the comms when they absolutely need to. If Will and Penny are still at home, John would have told them to turn them off.”

Don's already on his feet. Pacing.

Maureen unbuckles her safety belt and groans when the act of getting up sends another sharp pain along her injured side.

“What’s wrong?”

She holds her side and takes a slow careful breath. She’s pretty certain it’s not serious, just sore. “I think maybe I re-injured it when the Solidarity got attacked.”

Don eyes her. “You said you were fine.”

“I am.”

“Right.”

She takes a careful step. “We need to camouflage the roof. Drape it with leaves and branches.”

“I’ll do it,” he tells her. “You stay put….and see if you can find out what kind of supplies we have on board. We need food for starters.”

“Yeah…we do.” Her mind drifts back to their long days in the jungle without it and it sends goosebumps up her arms.

“I’ll see what I can do about finding us a bunch of leafy branches.”

“Be careful out there.” Just because they weren’t in town didn’t mean there couldn’t be robots lurking in the forest around them.

But Don’s already out of earshot. Making his way down to the garage to start the process of hiding the Jupiter.

Alpha Centauri Town Centre

There’s a little park and a kid’s play area about a block from the hospital. It has swings, a see-saw, a climbing pod full of thick ropes and a plastic, covered slide. Best of all, it’s surrounded by a bunch of bushes, meaning whoever goes there has some cover.

It’s where John told Judy to wait for him – at the playground. Or more precisely, inside the plastic slide.

He figures the robots have bigger targets in mind than an empty playground devoid of human life.

He scopes out his surroundings from behind a trash bin, and judging from the smoke that’s coming from the hospital, he’s right. The building is already under attack, like most of their main structures. Two robot ships are in view, hovering above him in the sky, but they too are focusing on destroying the hospital.

Please tell me you got out in time, Jude…

There’s a trio of robots prowling the street up ahead of him, co*cking their heads back and forth, looking for human targets. They don’t see him and he waits until they’re out of view before making a sprint towards the playground.

He’s carrying an EMF and it weighs him down, but at least it means he has some sort of weapon against them. If a robot attacks him, he has a way to fight back. Judy doesn’t.

“Jude…” he hisses under his breath as he approaches the playground and the slide. “You there?”

His eyes keep scanning his surroundings, because now he’s exposed and a much easier target.

“Dad…” he hears a voice coming from inside the slide. He’s close enough now to poke his head in there.

It’s not Judy but a young blonde woman with blue eyes and pigtails that stares back at him.

She raises her hand and gives him a little wave, and when she does, he can see Judy’s head emerge from behind her. There’s dirt and soot and a couple of scratches on her face, but she looks like she’s in one piece and she smiles at the sight of him. It floods him with relief.

“Dad…this is Agnieszka. My roommate…she should’ve gone up to the Solidarity two days ago, but they cancelled the runs, so she’s stuck here…like us. Can she come with us?”

“Yeah… of course.” He darts his eyes across their surroundings and then turns back to them. “You see those trees over there?”

“Yeah.”

“We’re gonna make a run for them.”

“Where are we going?” Judy asks.

“Home. To pick up Will, Penny and Smith…and the robot,” he adds.

“How are we getting there?”

“Walking.”

“That’s a long walk…”

“It’s gonna be even longer, ‘cause we’re going to have to go through the forest that surrounds our neighbourhood. It’s the safest route.”

“It’s okay,” Agnieszka pipes in. “I was always hiking in Poland. Even after the air got bad. I can walk a long time.”

John grins. He likes her already. “Good.”

He notices that each of them is carrying a backpack that’s stuffed to the rim.

“Medical supplies,” Judy explains when she sees him eyeing the bags.

“Good. I can take one of them,” he offers, but they both decline.

“We got it. Just lead us home safe, Dad.”

He nods. “Gonna try.” He catches a robot scurrying behind the apartments next to them. Waits until it’s well out of sight. “Okay…you see those bushes,” he tries again. “We make a run for them first. Then those garbage bins over there…and then the woods behind them…Judy you lead. Wait for us at each one, I’m covering you. If you hear me using the EMF…you do not look back. You keep going. Through the forest and home…you leave me and you get Will and Penny to Mom and Don, understood?”

“Dad….”

“Understood?” he repeats, making it clear that this is an order.

“Yes, Mr. Robinson.” Agnieszka nods rapidly and it makes her pigtails bob. “We understand.”

John sees no movement anywhere. The coast is clear.

“Judy, now!”

His daughter flings her backpack over her shoulders and takes off in a sprint and her roommate follows suit.

John knows that Judy will keep them going at a good pace. One that’ll probably test every bit of his fitness.

But that’s exactly what he wants. To get them home and out of there as quickly as possible.

All he has to do is keep up and cover them.

Piece of cake.

Robinson Residence

Smith and Will are gathering the last bunch of supplies that their father told them to pile into the Chariot, along with a few additional things that weren’t on his list.

They’ve closed the blinds but Penny can’t help wanting to see what’s going on outside. Alarms and sirens are blaring in the distance and every now and then, she can hear the eerie electrical hum of a robot ships hovering up in the sky above them – way too close for comfort.

She keeps trying to get a hold of Vijay, even though she knows she’s only supposed to turn on her comm if absolutely necessary. Trying to see if your boyfriend is still alive seems high on the necessary list.

Penny’s terrified for him because it’s not like him not to answer. He should have gone up to the Solidarity with her in the next few days. His family was going to split up too, just like hers. With his dad staying and taking over as chief councillor of the colony after the current chief councillor boarded the ship.

It’s one more giant reason why Penny wanted to go. Because Vijay was going too, but now…now she doesn’t even know if he’s alive or dead. All she knows is that he’s stuck here, along with her, in the middle of an alien war.

She kneels on a sofa next to the window and lifts a single slat with an index finger, allowing her to peek outside. It’s chilly but bright and sunny outside, giving her a clear view of her entire street.

And what she sees makes her gasp.

A small army of robots, all in their original multi-limbed form, is marching down her street, firing electrical blasts towards the houses on either side. One of the homes is already on fire and another one is being bombarded by blasts.

Penny hears the sound of glass shattering and then she sees someone running away from the first house. The one that’s burning down.

At first it looks like the robots don’t see him, but then one of them hears something and turns around. Leaps towards the man running away and fires at him until he’s struck down. Collapsed on the ground with limbs twisted awkwardly. “

Penny wants to scream, but no sound comes out.

She's shaking and closes her eyes, wishing she could unsee what she just witnessed.

She can barely breathe. But she digs her nails into the palm of her hand and the pain sends a gulp of air down her throat.

“Will!”

“Penny?” Her brother’s voice sounds far-away but she can see him racing into the living room. “What is it?”

She doesn’t notice that tears are staining her cheeks. “They’re coming…” she manages. “The robots….we have to…”

Will jumps up onto the couch and sees what she sees. The robots coming down the street, blasting at every house. “sh*t…”

“Dad’s not gonna make it to us on time….” Penny realizes. They have to escape on their own.

“Danger, Will Robinson!” The robot is in the room now and Smith is right behind him.

“What’s going on?” Smith asks. She’s bundled in even more layers than usual because it’s so cold inside the house.

“Robots are attacking the houses!”

Penny’s still too shook up by what she witnessed to say anything. To think straight. She’s just glad that Will didn’t see it too.

Suddenly their robot turns around and makes a beeline for the front door.

“Hey…what are you doing?” Will jumps off the couch and tries to stop him. As if he could stop that giant, hulking machine. “You can’t go out there! You can’t fight them all! There’s too many.”

Penny’s still kneeling on the couch, watching, unable to move, as the robots attack more houses. Some of them don’t burn completely, like the first one did and, thankfully, it looks like most of them are empty. Most of the people living in the them already gone – because they fled to somewhere safe outside of town or because they’re already up on the Solidarity.

Or maybe they were in town when the attack happened and now they’re dead… Penny can’t help the morbid thoughts that float through her brain.

“Will! Get back in here!” Smith yells, as Will is about to follow Robot outside.

Penny’s head turns around and she sees her brother stay put and then run back to her, still on the couch, staring out the window. They should probably run, shouldn’t they? Forget about the Chariot and grab whatever supplies they can and flee into the forest that borders their yard in the back. Before their house goes up in flames.

But her limbs are immobile.

Now she can see their robot standing just outside the front porch. He changes into his natural, six-limed state before her eyes.

Penny bristles. Truth be told, he always frightens her a little when he does that. It reminds her too much of SAR and Taron and all the other terrible robots that keep trying to kill them.

Like the ones that are currently setting her neighbourhood on fire and coming closer and closer….and suddenly… their robot does the same!

He fires at their home!

This time Penny does scream.

The sound sends Smith back into the living room.

“Come on, guys! What are you waiting for?” Smith yells, frantically waving her arms. “We have to get out of here! Through the back yard and into the forest!”

“Will!” Penny gasps. “What’s happening? Why is Robot doing that? Why is he on their side? Do they have some sort of mind control over him?”

“I don’t know…” Will peeking through a tiny opening in their blinds too, needing to know what's going on outside.

“Is he going to kill us? Is he one of them now?” Penny’s voice sounds hysterical to her own ears but it’s impossible to stay calm. She can see her life flashing in front of her. The robots are gonna come inside and kill them. She won’t finish her book. She’ll never see her mother again. Never kiss Vijay again.

“Guys! Come on!” Smith is trying hard to get their attention. “Your father’s going to kill me if I let you die in here!”

Another blast of electrical bursts hits their house and it makes Penny flinch. Why is she frozen in place? Why can’t she move?

“Why is Robot doing this?”

“Wait….” Will says softly. “I don’t think he’s trying to hurt us…”

“Really?” Penny looks at him incredulously. “Are we not watching the same thing?”

“He’s firing at the brick walls,” Will points out. “If he really wanted to do damage, he’d fire at the porch, break the windows, the roof…”

Penny coughs as she smells the smoke from outside wafting into the house.

Smith seems to have given up on trying to get them out of the house and she joins them on the couch, on her knees as well, face pressed against the blinds. “Will has a point…”

“Really?” Penny stares at her. “Like, he’s not trying hard enough to kill us? That’s your argument?”

“He wouldn’t hurt us,” Will says softly. “Maybe he’s firing at the house so the others won’t bother…maybe he’s pretending to be one of them.”

“But how will we know?”

“I still think we should get the hell out of here first and find out later….” Smith repeats and this time she grabs Penny’s hand and yanks her off the couch. “Come on!”

“She’s right. Come on, Will!” Penny yells at her brother, but he’s glued to the window. “Please!”

Meanwhile, Smith is pulling her away, trying to drag her through the living room and out the back. But Penny won’t have it.

“I’m not going without Will!”

Smith grits her teeth in annoyance, but she stays put. “God, you Robinsons are stubborn. I am not ready to die for this insanity! Not yet.”

“Then go!” Penny tells her, but Smith pouts and stays put.

“If they fire at this window, it’s going to break and probably kill you!”

Will and Penny watch as the robots keep coming closer. Keep firing at the houses down the road, setting one after another on fire. Their whole neighbourhood is burning now. Some of the robots are entering the burning homes and Penny thought she heard a scream coming from somewhere.

Another blast hits their house. Fired from their robot.

“Oh God, oh God…” Smith mumbles beside them. “It’s too late to run out now…they’ll see us….we’re going to die here, aren’t we?” She’s a bundle of nervous energy, pacing behind them. “This was not what I had in mind when I came here!”

“Just go!” Penny tells her.

“I’m not leaving you behind. Then I’ll die anyway ‘cause your parents will kill me.”

“You’re not our babysitter!”

“Guys, stop!” Will cuts in. “Look!”

They all stare out the window as Robot approaches the other robots. Communicates with them.

One of the other robots starts walking towards their house and fires at it.

Unlike their robot, this one does hit the wooden porch, setting it on fire.

“Are we really going to stay here and burn alive?” Smith groans before a coughing fit hits her.

Penny sees the other robots moving towards their house and her heart is racing so fast now that she’s certain that if she doesn’t die at the hands of these robots in the next few minutes, she’ll probably die of a heart attack.

“Look,” Will whispers. “He’s talking to them….they’re not coming towards us anymore…”

It’s true, Penny notices. Only one of the robots fired at their house and just as a second one was about to approach, their robot said something that stopped them. All the robots bounce around on their limbs and it looks like they’re having a heated conversation and when it’s over, they move away from their house, onto the next one. Blasting into their neighbours house.

They hear the windows breaking, while theirs are still intact.

And once their neighbours house starts to burn, the robots move on. To the next one.

Robot has joined the pack, but Penny’s no longer convinced that he’s on the robots’ side. She’s starting to think that Will is right. He’s pretending to be, in order to keep them safe.

“They’re leaving….” Smith says. “Are we finally going to do the same? Or do we try and put out the fire on the porch?”

The robots are still in view but not for long. There’s too much smoke to see very far.

“We have to get the Chariot out of the garage,” Will tells them. “We put all our supplies in it.”

“No,” Smith finally puts her foot down. “We’re going to put out the porch fire first. If we do that, maybe we can wait ‘til your Dad gets here to get the Chariot out.”

“What if the robots see us and come back?” Penny asks.

Smith makes a face. “Okay….let’s wait….like a minute. How fast do fires spread?”

“Depends on the amount of fuel and heat and oxygen it has…given the size of our patio, it’s getting a lot of fuel right now.” Will mumbles, his eyes trying to see through the smoke, to spot his robot.

Penny keeps trying to call Vijay. Still no answer. His house was just down the road from all the burning ones along her street. Please be okay, please be okay….

Smith comes running out of the kitchen with a bucket of water. “I’m not waiting anymore! I have a terrible feeling this war is going to kill us sooner or later but I vote for not being burned alive today.”

She opens the door of the house and a cloud of smoke blows inside making them all cough. It only increases after Smith douses the flames with the water. She does it again and the second time Penny helps her out until finally the fire on the patio fizzles into a few stubborn flames that they can stomp out.

It also clears the air around the house enough so that Penny can see something metallic moving towards them.

For a split second, it makes her nearly jump out of her skin, thinking the robots heard them and they’ve come back to finish the job, but as soon as the machine gets closer, she recognizes it. It’s Robot! Their robot, back in his human-like form.

Will rushes out towards him and wraps his arms around his metal waist, or at least as much of it as he can reach. “You came back!”

“Yes.”

“You led them away from us, didn’t you?” Will says. “You pretended to be one of them and stopped them from burning down our hose.”

Robot hangs his head, his blue lights darker than usual.

Penny observes him. It’s strange how someone with such a limited vocabulary and no face for expressions, can still convey so many emotions. Shame, is what’s she reading from his body language.

“Thank you,” Will tells him. “You saved our lives. Again.”

“Guys,” Smith is frantic. “We have to get out now! We can always go back.”

All four of them, including the robot, grab a stuffed backpack each from the Chariot that’s in the garage and run out the back of the house into the forest behind them.

It doesn’t take long before they’re doubled over, coughing, even though the air has cleared.

“I didn’t realize the smoke was so thick…”

“It could’ve killed us,” Smith points out, wheezing. “People die of that you know…smoke inhalation.”

“We’re out,” Will reminds her, but he’s struggling to breathe too.

“Will?” A familiar voice yells from behind the trees.

“Dad?” Penny pulls herself back up and squints, trying to make out the three figures that come into view. Please let it be Dad…

No one can make her feel safe like he does.

She runs to him when he comes into view. Lets him wrap his arms around her and kiss the top of her head. He’s sweaty and grimy and he sounds hoarse, like all of them.

It’s only when she reluctantly lets go, that Penny notices her sister and another young woman, whom she’s met once before and recognizes as Judy’s room mate. She can’t remember her name.

Will’s hugging Judy and her dad asks them what happened.

Smith is the one who tells them everything. About the horde of robots that attacked the homes on their street and set them on fire.

“Robot did something, or….said something to the others, to stop them from setting our house on fire,” Will adds. "I'm not sure what."

“Your house might not burn down,” Smith tells him. “But the heat and the smoke from the other burning homes, it’s bad…we had to get out.”

“What about the Chariot?”

“We didn’t want to risk the robots hearing us drive it out,” Penny explains.

Her father looks at all three of them. “Are they still there?”

“Don’t think so,” Will responds.

“Did you pack up the Chariot like I told you to?”

“Yeah…we did.”

“I’ll go get it.”

“Dad!” Judy protests. “Smoke inhalation can kill anyone…including you.”

“We need to get the Chariot to get to your Mom and Don…”

“Wait, what?” Penny stares at him. “Mom and Don?”

Judy’s soot-streaked face is grinning. “They’re here. They took a Jupiter from the Solidarity.”

Penny’s eyes light up. “They’re taking us up to the Solidarity?”

John shakes his head. “No…they’re here so we can stay together. The Solidarity’s probably already gone. But they couldn’t land near town, there are too many robot ships in the sky. So, we have to make our way out to them and it’s too far on foot.”

“I’ll get the Chariot…” Judy announces, as she makes a dash through the trees towards the house.

“Jude!” Penny’s father groans and then takes off after her.

Agnieszka eyes them all in silence, until Smith shrugs. “Get used to it.”

They wait for what feels like an eternity but John and Judy somehow manage to get the Chariot out and drive it back to them, and much to Penny’s surprise neither of them lose a lung in the process.

“C’mon on in,” her father wheezes when he pulls the vehicle up to them. “Let’s go and get out of here.”

With smoke starting to drift into the forest, they all pile into the Chariot – Penny, Will, Smith and Agnieszka, along with Judy, who’s in the front next to her dad – while Robot hops on the back, clinging to its rear rails.

“Maureen, Don…come in.” John radios them but there’s no answer.

“Are they still there?” Penny wonders, holding on to a side-rail with one hand.

“They’ve probably turned off the comms.”

“They’ll be there,” her father reiterates. “No matter what else happens…we’re gonna be back together in a few hours.” His eyes meet with hers through the rear-view mirror. “Promise.”

Chapter 24

Chapter Text

Chapter 24

Jupiter 13, Outside town center

Don West stands on the roof of the Jupiter 13 and eyes his handiwork with pride. It took him most of the day and it’s left him sweaty and tired, but it was worth it. No one could spot them now, even if a robot ship were to fly right over their heads.

The roof of the ship is covered in a thick patchwork of moss and leaves and branches. From above it would look like a clearing in the forest, a patchy spot of undergrowth, not a state-of-the-art space ship.

Given how far from town they are and that they’re still running cold, Don figures it’ll be safe here at least for the immediate future. Maybe they could stay here for a few days and work out a decent plan of what to do next.

But first the others have to get here.

In spite of the hours he’s spent hauling parts of the forest up here, Don still has a nervous energy racing through his veins that he knows won’t cease until he finally has her back in his arms.

C’mon, Jude. Where are you?

Don raises his binoculars up to his eyes and does a slow 360 turn on the roof of the ship, but there’s neither sound nor movement coming from anywhere within view.

With a sigh he lowers them again and decides to heed his growling stomach. Don climbs a ladder back down to re-enter the ship via the ramp. Hopefully Maureen found some food.

He climbs back up from inside the garage to find her in the Hub, pouring over a bunch of paper sprawled all over the table. She’s wearing a jacket and a turtle-neck, because it’s cold inside. That means she must’ve found some clothes on the ship. It’s not like they packed much in their rush to get off the Solidarity. “Hey…” he slides into a seat next to her. “Ship’s camouflaged. I think we’re safe from overhead threats.”

She leans back in her chair, stretches her neck and yawns. “That’s good. Thanks.”

Don grabs a cup and pours some water from a thermos and gulps it down. “Find any food?”

“Yeah…we lucked out. Ship’s well stocked. Lots of supplies. Two cabinets full of MREs over there,” she swivels and points behind her but it makes her grit her teeth.

She’s worrying him and Don observes her for a bit before getting up to grab a meal. “You had anything to eat yet?”

“Not yet.”

He opens the cabinet, salivating at the selections. “Tell me what you want.”

“Not hungry.”

“I’m making two meals. Tell me what you want.”

She sighs and bites down nervously on the pen she’s toying with. “It’s been all day, Don…they should be here, shouldn’t they? It’s gonna be dark in a couple of hours.”

Just because he’s been thinking the same thing doesn’t mean he’ll humour her fears. “Yeah, well, us not eating isn’t gonna bring them here any faster.”

Maureen sighs.

“John said he has to get Judy first, then get the others from the house. Then they have to drive the Chariot through a long stretch of forest terrain…it’s gonna take time.”

She swallows and bites her lip. “In a war zone…you forgot that part.”

Don yanks out two packs and adds water. “You think it’s safe to turn on the microwave or do I need to hunt for methanol gel?”

“A microwave inside the Hub, inside the Jupiter?” Maureen shrugs. “I can’t see the robots picking up on that. Unless you leave it on for an hour.”

“Not planning to literally nuke our dinner.”

Don sticks them in the microwave. The smells coming from it are tormenting his growling stomach. When they’re ready he pours them into two bowls and sticks two forks in them. “Beef ravioli or chicken fried rice?”

She wrinkles her nose at both of them. “Doesn’t matter. You pick.”

Don slides the fried rice over to her. Watches her pick at it as he shovels in his ravioli. “You don’t think I’m worried? ‘Course I am…since when are you?”

“It’s just….seeing the destruction we flew over. I can’t imagine John dragging our kids through that.”

“He’s not,” Don reminds her, mouth full. “He’s taking them from the house through woods and back country terrain.”

“I know but…”

She stops mid-sentence when suddenly a flashing light shines through the co*ckpit window, making both of them turn their heads in that direction. Don’s the first to drop his fork, grab the binoculars that he brought to the table and run towards the co*ckpit. Maureen’s right behind him.

They see the light flash again – three quick bursts – blinding them for a second before Don makes out their customized Chariot peeking through between trees. “It’s them! They made it!”

“Oh thank god…” Maureen exhales, before they both head for the garage and lower the ramp to allow the Chariot onboard.

They’re both on pins and needles – needing to know that they’re all okay, all in one piece with all limbs attached.

The Chariot drives into the garage and Maureen grins when she sees John smiling at her through the window. Once it's parked, their family slowly piles out of the vehicle, one by one, to verify that they're okay.

“Okay that was officially the longest and bumpiest road trip ever,” Penny points out before her face lights up into a grin and she runs over to hug her mother.

“I need to pee so bad,” Smith groans as she stumbles out of the Chariot.

“Smith?” Don stares at her. “Uhm…aren’t you supposed to be in jail?”

“Long story,” John grins when he sees them both, his eyes trailing Smith who makes a beeline for the ladder that leads to the main deck. “Nice to see you, buddy.”

Don wants to wrap Judy in his arms so bad but when she finally does come out of the vehicle, he lets Maureen get first dibs. Watches as she holds her eldest tight. “I’m so sorry about Grant, sweetheart. So sorry.”

“I know, Mom…me too.”

“Hey, Don…” Will’s grinning too and Don could swear the kid’s grown another three inches since he last saw him. “Guess you’re stuck with us now.”

When Maureen finally lets go of Judy to reunite with her youngest, Don catches Judy’s gaze and steps towards her. Pulls her into him and kisses her before he can say a word. Because the sheer relief and joy of having her back in his arms overwhelms him. Because less than 24-hours ago, he thought he wouldn’t see her again for at least a year.

“Judy…” It’s the only word he can utter. “Judy, Judy…” Her name and he keeps saying it.

Her hands are on his face, fingers stroking him. “I know…I know…me too.”

“Hey…” John finally gets his turn when it comes to Maureen and when she wraps her arms around him, it feels like he’s finally home. His port in a storm. A wave of relief washes over him because now he doesn't have to do this alone anymore.

“I missed you, babe,” she whispers into his ear. Kisses his cheek until her mouth inevitably gravitates towards his lips.

“Me too.”

“Let’s stick together from now on.”

“I wanna be angry…that you came back to a war zone when you could be safe on the Solidarity.”

“Angry?” She scoffs, as she runs an index finger along his lips, with a smile. “As if I could have left all of you behind. As if you would have…”

She’s right, of course, because the relief and joy of having her back outweighs everything else.

Penny leans against the wall and watches them both, her parents, and her sister and Don, and as happy as she is for them, it makes her miss Vijay even more.

“I guess you don’t have anyone to kiss,” Agnieszka joins her.

“I do,” Penny mumbles. “I just don’t know where he is.”

“Oh…I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Penny gives her a lop-sided smile. At least she’s surrounded by family, by people who love her. This must be so much weirder for Agnieszka, It puts her momentary self-pity in perspective. “How about you?”

“I know where my girlfriend is. She is on the Solidarity going back to Earth.”

“I’m sorry…that sucks.”

Agnieszka shrugs. “Nothing I can do. I guess it’s over because I will probably never see her again. I’m happy she is safe…” She looks at Penny with a wry smile. “But you are right…it sucks.”

Penny toys with her comm. She already sent him a message a day ago, back at the house, asking him to send her coordinates and now she wants to send him hers. So that when he does turn on his comm he’ll know where to find them. In case they need a refuge too. But in order to do that, she has to ask Mom or Dad if she can turn it on and she already knows what the answer to that question is going to be.

“I hope you find him,” Agnieszka adds, before she nods for Penny to head upstairs along with everyone else.

They head back up into the Hub and gather around the table. First to eat and drink, because they’re all starving. It’s a crowded fit with all of them – John, Maureen, Judy, Don, Penny, Will, Smith and Agnieszka - circled around it, but some of them are huddled closer than others.

Judy is practically on Don’s lap, Penny’s sharing a seat with her mother and Will’s pushed a storage container between two seats and he’s sitting on that.

The conversation is lively and boisterous as they catch up with each other. There’s an unspoken joy and gratitude in the air too, for having made it here. Together, all of them in one piece – with food on the table and a roof over their heads.

It’s when their meals are finished that the conversation takes a more serious turn.

“We need to decide what to do next,” John announces before everyone’s adrenaline from their reunion wears off and they all crash into a post-meal drowsiness.

“What are the options?” Penny wants to know.

Her father exchanges a glance with her mother before he exhales. “We stay here and hide out for the next few days. Don did an amazing job camouflaging the ship so we’re next to invisible from above. We have more than enough food and water to sustain us for a while and we’re far away enough from the town centre that there’s no reason to suspect robots will come here anytime soon.”

“Except we don’t know for sure,” Maureen adds. “There are hundreds, maybe thousands of them here now, and we have to assume they’re not just wanting to destroy what we built but also us.”

“We don’t know that, Mom…” Will points out. Penny can sense him getting defensive. As he always does when it comes to the robots. Even now.

“When we sent an AI team to communicate with them in the jungle, to ask them what they wanted…that was their response…” John reminds him. “ ‘No more humans’ so I’d say there’s a good chance your Mom’s right.”

“Do we have any weapons to fight them?”

“No. Nothing of the sort that’s required for a full-scale assault,” John answers Agnieszka’s question. “Our other option is to try and get further away on this planet. To find another habitable region on Alpha Centauri, where the robots might not look for us.”

“Just us? No one else?”

“We could try to and find others who want to join us.”

“If they really want to get rid of humans, they have the ability to destroy the entire planet,” Judy adds quietly.

“What?” Maureen turns to her. “What do you mean?”

“Their engines,” Will explains. “I think they can be used as a really powerful destructive device. We saw it on the planet where we were stranded for a year with the other kids. It was almost completely destroyed with only a small section of it being habitable.” He swallows. “I think SAR was ready to do the same to Alpha Centauri before Robot stopped him by turning off the engine.”

“If that’s the case we need to get off this planet!”

“But if that’s their plan, and if they have the ability to do it, why haven’t they done it already?”

“I don’t know…” Judy shrugs. “Maybe because there are still too many robots on the planet?”

“Or maybe they enjoy taking us down, one-by-one first,” Smith suggests. “Evil creatures don’t always think logically.”

“We don’t have many options for going off planet,” Maureen points out. “We can get to the Night Planet in a Jupiter, and a few others in the system, none of which are habitable for humans. But that’s it. Even with extra fuel, the Jupiter’s range is limited. It’s not meant for interstellar travel.”

“But we have used it for that,” Don points out.

“Yes…but only with an alien engine. Which we currently don’t have.”

“You said we had an extra alien engine in town from the first crashed alien ship.”

“It was an option to get that before the robots destroyed the city. Now…there’s no way we can risk retrieving it from the tech lab in the town center, if it’s even still there. The robots might have destroyed the lab and taken the engine by now. We know how possessive they get over them.”

“Can’t we try?”

“It’s too risky.”

“Who says it has to be that engine?” Don points out. “You just said it yourself, there are probably over a hundred robot ships here. Each of them has an engine, don’t they?”

“You want us to go into a robot ship and run out with an engine? Us and what army?”

“This guy,” Smith cuts in, pointing to the robot, with a smirk. “Our very own saboteur.”

“He can’t take on dozens of robots by himself.”

“Not by himself maybe, but with our help.”

“This is crazy,” John interjects.

“Finally, we agree,” Maureen mumbles. “Guys, we’re not discussing this.”

“If we have to leave the planet, we need an alien engine,” Judy says. “You said as much.”

“We don’t know for sure if we need to leave the planet…”

“But what if we do?”

“Then we’ll figure out how to do it with the Jupiter. Or we head to the Night Planet.”

“What about your Goldilocks planet?” Don asks her. “What’s it called again?”

“Kastor 2?” Maureen pauses. “It’s what I was doing while you were camouflaging the ship…trying to calculate if it’s somehow possible…to get there without an alien engine.”

“And?”

“It’s not.”

“Oh…”

Hardly anyone notices that the robot has moved from the entrance of the Hub towards the table, until he announces himself.

“Get engine.”

“What?” Will eyes him, not understanding. “Are you saying we should try and get an engine?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

“Get engine,” Robot repeats and this time he’s tapping his metallic chest.

“You’re saying you’ll get an engine?”

“Yes, Will Robinson. Get engine.”

“Oh look, he agreed with me. Maybe we are still connected,” Smith quips.

“No,” Will stands up next to his friend. “It’s too dangerous! There’s only one of you against…dozens, hundreds of them!”

“Wait,” John raises his hand. “Maybe he knows of a way to get an engine, that we don’t. Maybe we should listen to him.”

“Maybe he feels guilty for what the other robots are doing and feels like he has to do this!” Will protests. “But he doesn’t!”

“Hey…” Maureen gives him a look that tells him to sit down. “Give him a chance. If we have an engine, it changes everything, Will. It opens up the entire universe for us.”

“It means we could go to Earth,” Agnieszka adds softly.

“Or to your Goldilocks planet,” Don adds, looking at Maureen.

“Not just us,” Maureen points out. “If we have an alien engine, one ship can open a rift for multiple Jupiters. We could get others off this planet.”

“Oh right,” Smith sighs. “I forget I’m with a bunch of do-gooders.”

Maureen shoots her a look too, but Smith smirks, letting her know she took the bait way too easily, “Kidding.”

“Maureen’s right,” John says. “We couldn’t get nearly as many people up into the Solidarity as we wanted to. More than half the town’s population is now stuck here along with us.”

“But we don’t know where they are,” Penny reminds them. “Everyone’s scattered.”

“If we get an engine, we need to try and reach some others.”

“Get engine,” Robot repeats.

“If we do get an engine, we also need to get out of here fast, because it’s like painting a bull’s eye on this ship. Those things are magnets for the robots.”

“So, we need to try and contact others at the same time that Robot is getting an engine,” Judy suggests. “So that when we do have an engine, we’re all ready to go.”

Maureen sighs. “That’s a lot of variables…what if we drum up a bunch of people and he can’t get us an engine?”

“Is finding others such a bad thing?”

“A bunch of Jupiters in one spot?” John raises an eyebrow. “Yes, that’s a bad thing.”

“We can’t jeopardize our hiding spot here, so we can’t try and contact others from here…”

“So tomorrow, we head out in a Chariot, take the robot where he needs to go, and while we’re moving, we turn on our comms, try to reach as many others as we can…divide into two groups if necessary.”

“Don’t we only have one Chariot?” Don points out. “I didn’t see an extra one in the garage.”

Penny swallows. “And, uh, who’s going?”

“I’m going with Robot,” Will tells him.

“No.” Maureen shakes her head. “I don’t think so.”

“If we plan on travelling across galaxies, we’re gonna need more fuel too,” Don adds. “Regardless of whether or not we get an engine.”

“We’ll head out tomorrow,” John orders, taking charge, like he’s used to doing. “First thing.”

“I’m in.”

“Maureen, you and the kids stay here.”

“What?” Maureen looks at him incredulously.

“Someone needs to stay here. Someone who can fly this thing. Just in case…”

“I can fly it,” Smith points out. “Everyone keeps forgetting that.”

“Yeah, not like her,” Don tells Smith. “No offense.”

Smith makes a face. Offended.

“We can decide tomorrow who’s coming.” John exhales. “It’s late. We’re all exhausted and cold. There’s a stack of essentials in the hallway storage room – clothes, toiletries, take what works and what you need and let’s call it a night. We get up at sunrise.”

“Can we turn on our alarms?”

John shakes his head. “No. We stay cold. I’ll wake you.”

Later

After sliding off Don’s lap and planting another kiss on his lips, Judy manages to drag her mother to the Med Bay where she’s now dealing with more attitude than she’s used to from most of her patients.

Thankfully, Agnieszka’s there too, so she has reinforcements.

“Don, was right you know…to make me check on you.” She unwraps a special cooling bandage from a sealed bag. Carefully sticks it on her mother’s injured side, unimpressed with the red, angry swelling. “This I’ll help the pain, but you need to not move around for the next couple of days.”

“Judy, that’s not…”

“You know what’s not an option?” She cuts her off. “Me doing surgery on you, here on the Jupiter.”

“Of course not,” Agnieszka pipes in. “You are not surgeon. I am.”

Maureen chuckles and Judy turns around to glare at her roommate. “That is so not the point.”

Maureen slides off the exam bed and slowly, gingerly, puts her jacket back on. Shivering. “Judy, I got a few bumps and bruises when the Solidarity got hit. That’s all. I’m fine.”

“It's not all. Ruptures, inflammation, infection…are not fine. Never mind all the scrapes on your arm.”

Her mother’s hand moves to Judy’s cheek, trailing a cut with her index finger. “You’re one to talk.”

“It’s not a competition.”

“Okay…” Maureen exhales and puts her hands on Judy’s shoulders.

It annoys Judy sometimes, that while her siblings keep growing, she’s still the shortest in the family. Even her mother, who isn’t all that tall, is still tall enough to lower her head and plant a kiss on her forehead. Like she’s doing now. “Maybe you're right. I’m not a hundred percent. But I will be, once we get out of here.”

“You’re gonna need a new patch tomorrow. And the day after.”

“Fine,” her mother nods, agreeing for a change. “If that’s the incentive you need to come back from that suicide mission with your father, I’ll indulge you.”

Judy watches walk out and sees the smile on Agnieszka’s face. “What are you grinning about?”

“I like your mom. I hear she destroyed the Resolute. She’s crazy. I mean…good crazy.”

“If you say so.”

“I wish I had a mom.”

Judy looks at her with a sudden lump in her throat. She can’t even imagine a life without her mother in it. “You don’t?”

“No,” she tells her. Cleaning up the exam table. Wiping it down. “Of course…yes, somebody gave birth to me, but I don’t know her. She left me in hospital.”

I am so sorry, is what Judy wants to say. Because she is. Because that is so unfair. But is that what you say in this case?

“To be adopted?”

“Yes.” When Agnieszka’s done she washes her hands with the kind of vigour and thoroughness that only surgeons do. “But I was weird kid. Nobody adopted me.”

Judy kind of wants to wrap her arms around her now. Around this weird, brilliant human who always says what springs into her mind, but never with any malice, and who seems entirely incapable of self-pity.

“I stay in orphanage until I am eighteen and then I stay for free in university,” she’s grinning. “Because I’m genius. Don’t have to pay. I just have to go into space to make Poland proud.”

“I’m sure you did.”

She shrugs. “I hope so. But doesn’t matter now.”

Judy gives her friend a little nudge out of the Med Bay. “Says who? Maybe you’ll be their biggest hero if we help Robot get an engine tomorrow and take a whole bunch of people back to Earth?”

Agnieszka shrugs. Obviously unimpressed with accolades. “Maybe.”

Later

He offered to sleep in the storage room, because with so many of them here, space is getting tight. That way Penny and Agnieszka can share a room and Judy and Don, Mom and Dad, and Smith, well Smith apparently found herself a little private nook in the garage. Which makes sense, ‘cause she seems to prefer having her own space and being as far away from others as she can, while still remaining in their orbit.

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” he tells Robot. “Steal an engine ‘cause you feel bad.”

“Yes,” he tells Will. “Have to.”

“No, you don’t.”

Robot turns his face and all its swirling lights in Will’s direction and says nothing for a long moment – as if gathering patience. “Yes, Will Robinson.”

Will sighs. Is this what it was like being his father in moments when he was unequivocally defiant? “Okay…I get it. Obviously, I can’t stop you. But I just wanted you to know. None of what’s happening here is your fault. You’re not responsible for the other robots.” He thinks about it. “Most of them probably aren’t either. They’re being held hostage by Taron through some weird mind meld.”

He lies down and tries to make himself comfortable in the cramped space. He has an air mattress and a blanket and pillow and it fits nicely into the small space, with room to spare. But the problem is his legs are too long for the mattress. His feet dangle over the end unless he curls up. So he does. Knowing he should try and get some sleep because Robot will need him to be awake and alert tomorrow.

But it’s hard to sleep with so much on his mind.

Unlike everyone else, he still wants to believe that maybe they can end this war before it gets even worse. That maybe if they got to Taron and destroyed him it would be easier to convince the other robots not to fight them.

Maybe he’s being naïve. His parents would probably say that he is.

But they’ve done it before. There was a time, not so long ago, when the robots lived and worked alongside them.

Will refuses to believe that doing it again is impossible. That war and destruction are the only option.

His eyes close. Against his will.

At first, he dreams of a world where no creatures want to destroy anyone or anything. Ever again.

But then there’s a single creature with far more power and conviction than they should have that convinces them otherwise, and suddenly their peaceful life is gone.

Then there’s pain and fear again. Killing and devastation.

It makes Will startle awake in the middle of the night with a gasp, his artificial heart racing.

Judy runs her fingers along his arm, both curious as a doctor and as his lover.

“Does it still hurt?”

“Nah…” Don’s sitting on their bed, shirt off and wearing only a pair of boxers that she knows won’t be on that much longer. “It just…pulls sometimes when I’m working. Like the skin’s too tight.”

It feels rough and leathery. Reminds her of the rough skin of the snakes she used to touch in high school biology class.

But unlike that skin, his is warm and she can feel his hard muscles underneath. The muscles of a man who’s spent his whole life doing manual labour. Like her Dad. Even though she knows that today’s artificial limbs have come a long, long way, she’s still so damn grateful that he got to keep his arm. ‘Cause it’s just not the same.

She shivers in her t-shirt. “Aren’t you cold? It’s freezing on the ship.”

It’s not just cold, but dark as well. The only thing illuminating him and the room they’re in is a small battery-operated flashlight sitting on the bedside table. They should probably turn it off. Conserve the batteries.

But it’s been weeks since they’ve been together. She selfishly wants to see him. Even a dimly illuminated room is better than utter darkness.

There’s enough darkness all around them.

“Nope,” he grins. “Not even a little.” He gestures for her to come join him and she doesn’t need any coaxing. She glides onto the bed and straddles him. Gives him the chance to pull her close enough that their bodies are clinging to each other. Close enough to plant a trail of kisses along her neck. Close enough for him to run his hands underneath her t-shirt and stroke her breasts.

“Oh my God…your hands are freezing!” she squeals.

“Shhh….” He quiets her with a kiss on the lips. “Your parents are next door.”

“They haven’t seen each other in weeks either. Pretty sure that listening to us is the last thing they’re interested in.” She cups his face with her hands. There’s something about the feel of those tiny bristles of hair against her fingers that she can’t get enough of. It sends pinpricks of electricity into her fingertips. “By the way…thanks for telling me to look at my mom. She needed it. I told Dad and hopefully he can knock some sense into her.”

“Don’t be too hard on her. She had a rough time on the Solidarity. Martinez was a dick.”

“Should I be weirded out that you two are BFFs now?”

He laughs and it makes his eyes crinkle. “You’re my BFF.”

“Oh yeah?” His hands are back on her breasts and God, it’s making her wet. The way he caresses them. Toys with her nipples. His fingers are warm and soft now and her body is turning into mush. Melting into his touch.

“Tell me how you’ve been….I wanna know everything.”

He’s getting hard too. She can feel it. “I don’t wanna talk.”

“Oh, I wanna f*ck too…you have no idea.”

“So what are you waiting for?”

“But I don’t want just that. Want more.”

Her eyes lock with his. So dark, just like hers. There’s a part of her that’s like him and for some reason it’s important. No one else in her family has dark eyes like her, but Don…Don does.

He looks so serious tonight. Funny. How he’s not serious about all that much. But he’s serious about her.

“Okay….more. But after. First this.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Judy can’t help the sounds that come from her throat when he touches her like he does. Makes her whole body feel soft and moist and pliable. Until he’s so deep inside her, and makes her feel so full and impossibly whole that she forgets to breathe. Cries out instead and digs her nails into his flesh.

Later, when they’ve done it all over again from a very different angle, and she’s lying on her stomach next to him, one of his hands cupping her ass, he gets serious again. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there…after Grant…”

She burrows into him a little deeper. Doesn’t want to drown in that sadness again. Not tonight. “You were…you called me about sixteen times.”

“Not the same.”

“No…but it was nice. That you did.” It meant the world.

“Tell me about the attack on the hospital.”

“It was awful,” she says quietly. “It happened so fast. We, we were able to get some patients into a Jupiter, but we barely had time to put the rest in cryo-tubes before we had to get out. I don’t know if everyone made it…”

That hospital was going to be her future. The place where she’d finish her internship. Become a full-fledged doctor.

And now it’s gone.

“I don’t wanna talk about it tonight,” she tells him.

His lips graze her temple. “Okay. But I want you to know I’m here…you know, if and when you do wanna talk about it, or, you know, anything…”

Her eye-lids are getting heavier and she lets them close. She feels stupidly happy. Satiated.

Her lips rise into a smile before she gives in to the pull of sleep. “I know.”

John lit a candle on their bedside shelf and now she can see his silhouette in the sliver of light that illuminates their dark, chilly room.

She’s burrowed underneath their blanket, wearing his too-large t-shirt.

“Brought you something,” he tells her, holding a glass of water in his hand and setting it down on their bedside shelf before slipping under the covers with her. He’s not wearing anything but a pair of boxer shorts and she marvels that he’s not freezing. Her hot-blooded man.

He doesn’t even slide all the way. Leans against the bedrest, completely unbothered by the fact that it’s freezing.

“C’mon…” She tugs at his arm. “Lie down. You’ve had a hell of a day.” Hell of a week, month actually, now that she thinks of it.

“Judy gave me a couple of pills for you. Told me to make you a cup of tea and dissolve them in it, ‘cause she knows you won’t take them willingly.”

Maureen groans. “Since when do we let our kids boss us around?”

John smiles, his face catching a ray of candlelight when he turns towards her. It’s her weakness, him looking at her like that. “Oh they’ve all been trying to do that since they’ve been about five. Did I tell you Judy knocked me out after we got you to the hospital, without me knowing it? I didn’t appreciate it. So I wasn’t gonna do the same to you.”

“Thanks.”

“I was kinda hoping you’d listen to reason and take them willingly.”

Maureen closes her eyes, irritated. Not sure she can handle one more battle today. “John…”

He picks up the glass of water and it’s when he does that, she notices his hands are shaking. Enough so that it makes her sit up and take the glass from him.

“Hey….” She sees him clench his hands into fists after letting go of it. “You okay?”

“Yeah…” He’s taking a deep, controlled breath. Inhale. Exhale.

Maureen sets down the glass of water on her side of the bed and takes his fist into her hands. Runs a slow circle over it with her thumb until she feels him relax.

“What’s going on, John?”

He takes another deep, careful breath before turning to her. “You know I’ve always been on alert. It’s always there…under the surface.”

She nods. “I know.”

“But the last few months….I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like I can’t always keep it under the surface anymore. Can’t always control it the way I used to, or at least not as easily. Lately it boils over, turns into something more…”

“A panic?”

He gives her a barely perceptible nod. “Something like that.”

Maureen’s eyes meet his with understanding and she brings his hand up to her lips. Kisses it. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”

“What if I’m not?”

It hurts to twist around and pull herself up a little more, to cup his head and bring him into her embrace. But she does. Because she needs him to know he’s not alone, and that he doesn’t have to be strong all the time. She hold him tight and dusts a kiss on the side of his lips. “I’ll make sure.”

He wraps his arms around her and it’s all they do for a while. Hold each other. Until she can feel him relax. Until he’s ready to let go.

“For how long has this….?”

“A while. Since we settled on Alpha Centauri. It got worse after the Jupiter crash, after I thought I lost you.”

She exhales too. “You know after that, I had hard time too, suddenly I was feeling all these things I’d never felt before. Strange fears and anxieties. You’re the one who told me it was normal. Not to fight it.”

“It was….is.” She can see the rise and fall of his bare chest in the darkness. Slower and steadier now. “I’ve done all the mandatory PTSD training in the military. I know how to use the tools to deal with it…and I always knew I could handle almost anything as long as I know you and the kids are okay.”

“I am okay.”

He meets her gaze. “You’re my anchor, Maureen. You have been for a long time and I get that you’re smart and tough, and you’re not gonna let me hold you back, and I wouldn’t even want to. But sometimes… I don’t think you know how badly I need you. Need you to be be oaky, because I can’t do this without you…” His voice catches.

Maureen swallows as she feels her eyes well up. Gives him a lop-sided smile. “Is this your argument for making me take those stupid pills?”

He’s the one who pulls her closer now, wiping away a tear from her cheek as he returns her smile. “That wasn’t the plan. Promise.” He sighs. “But Judy’s right. You have to slow down. You’re wincing with every move you make.” He trails his fingers along her arm. “You’re definitely running a fever…I can tell just by touching your skin.”

She closes her eyes. “So you want me to what? Go to sleep while you and the rest of the family go back into that war zone?”

“Yes.”

She shakes her head. “John, no…”

“I have a whole team now. Don, Judy, Judy’s friend, Robot. You stay back on the Jupiter.”

“If I stay back, I need to be alert if anything happens.”

“Why? Smith can fly this thing. Will and Penny will stay back too, that’s another two sets of eyes.”

“Smith read the flight manual, that doesn’t make her a pilot! There are robot ships everywhere and there’s no instructions in the manual for dealing with those.” She sighs as she leans on him. “What about me needing you to be okay? It’s not a one-way street, you know.”

“I can do this, if I know you’re okay.”

“All right…” She reaches for the glass of water on her side and holds out her free hand. “Give them to me.” Swallows all three tablets with a large sip and then finally coaxes him into lying down with her.

John drapes his arm over her when she turns over to her good side and she holds on to it. “Promise me you’ll be careful tomorrow.”

He kisses her bare shoulder because his t-shirt is so big that its top slid off. “Promise. We’ll be back by the time you wake up.”

“Holding you to that.”

His breathing steadies and she drifts off to the sound of his beating heart.

Next morning

John wakes up as soon as the first rays of sunlight pierce through the lone window. As he always does automatically, his body conditioned to it after years in the navy.

And always, he’s wide-awake right away and he notices that he hasn’t moved an inch since falling asleep. He’s still on his side, spooning his wife, his arm draped over her while she still has a grasp on him.

He extricates himself from her, relieved to find her skin not nearly as hot as it was last night. Whatever Judy’s given her is working.

She turns on her back without waking up and now one of her arms is spread over her head. It’s exactly how Penny sleeps. They’ve always been more alike than they think.

It makes him smile and he plants a soft kiss on the side of her head, before he slinks out of the bed and covers the window to darken the room.

Then he heads out and wakes up his family one by one. Knocks on Don and Judy’s door – still feeling a little strange when he gives it a moment to think of them sharing a room. But he pushes those thoughts out of his mind. And he steps away from it, without daring to open it when Don responds from inside with a sleepy. “Yeah, yeah…coming.”

Agnieszka’s already up and chatting with Penny.

Robot is standing guard outside the storage room where Will is sleeping, but he moves aside when John goes in to squeeze his son’s shoulders. The gangly teenager whose face still looks like a little kid when he’s sleeping but whose body is now as long as his own. “Hey, buddy. It’s time.”

Will gives him a sleepy smile. “’Hey, Dad.”

He’s gonna try his best to talk him out of coming along, but first he’ll let him wake up. “See you in the Hub in ten.”

He goes into the garage too, not surprised to see Smith already up as well. Reading something on her tablet. She seems to operate on as little sleep as he does. “I was starting to wonder if I had to wake you up.”

“Not yet.” He grins. “But I’ll let you know when I need a back up.”

“I’m sure you will.”

“In the Hub in ten,” he tells her.

When they’re all assembled, mostly awake with cups of barely drinkable coffee in their hands, John starts going over a game plan.

Chapter 25

Chapter Text

Chapter 25

Outskirts of Alpha Centauri town centre

Don’s the one sitting in the driver’s seat of the Chariot and he makes eye contact with John in back seat. “So, lemme get this straight. We drop you and Will and Robot where Robot says he needs to go. Then me, Judy and Agnieszka we zig zag around town while trying to reach others, and oh, we have grab us some fuel from somewhere along with a bunch of other supplies. All while trying to not get killed by attacking robots.”

John doesn’t look impressed with that over-simplification. Or the sarcasm. “Something like that.”

They’re nearing the outskirts of the city and all of them are starting to feel a little tense. Don’s effort to ease the tension seems to have had the opposite effect.

“Don….stop!” It’s Will’s voice from the very back seat. “Robot needs to get off here.”

This was how Will managed to convince John that he needed to come along. The fact that only Will had the ability to communicate wordlessly with the robot.

It’s a fair point, Don thinks.

As for getting off, the robot could just let go as he’s too big to fit inside the Chariot anyway and is currently holding on by clutching onto the back rails.

“Okay, then,” John opens the side door. “This is us. Keep moving, keep in touch when you can and good luck.”

Judy turns herself around, “You too, Dad. Stay safe, guys. Radio us when you need us.”

“They will follow Robot to help him out if he needs them?” Agnieszka questions.

“Pretty much,” Don answers. “On the surface, these Robinsons might look organized, but trust me, it’s all fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants improvisation.”

Judy slaps his thigh and he grins back at her. “I didn’t hear you come up with a better plan at the round table this morning.”

“At least we each have an EMF.” After their Jupiter crash, Maureen made it mandatory that every ship had one on board, so the one they took from the Solidarity had one, in addition to the one that John already had on him.

“Are we really going to the Jupiter Base to try to get fuel?” Agnieszka asks.

“Got a better idea?” Don increases the speed as soon as they reach a clearing. They’re less than ten kilometres out of the town centre now and he expects them to start seeing robots. They’ve already heard several ships passing by overhead.

“Yes. I have better idea.”

Judy looks at her roommate. “You do?”

“Ava, she took me to a repair shop near the dam once. There is fuel.”

“The Shack!” Don bangs the palm of his hand against the wheel with a grin. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

“What are you two talking about?”

“It’s a hang out for Resolute crew, or more specifically, for nerdy mechanics trying to refurbish old vehicles. The Shack is a nickname for the colony dumping ground for old vehicles and used parts. I haven’t gone there in a while, ‘cause, well, we did spend over two years lost in space. There’s a fuel storage facility there. Much smaller than the one at the Jupiter Base, but it’s also not in the middle of town where robots are currently destroying everything in sight.”

“I say we head there,” Judy agrees.

“Let’s do it.” It’s a longer loop around town, but Don’s relieved at not risking the trip into the town centre. Funny, how risking his own life never seemed to matter as much as risking Judy’s.

“We should start trying to contact others,” Judy says.

Don swallows. Turning on their comms is another risk, but he knows they have to try.

“Yeah…you and Aggie. Go for it. As soon as we see any robots, you turn them back off.”

The Chariot heads back into the forest and their ride suddenly gets rougher as they start to climb. Don tightens his grip on the steering wheel.

He’ll take all the bumps that come their way, if it means avoiding the robots.

They’ve been walking for almost an hour through some of the most rugged forest terrain that John’s ever seen. Rocky outcrops are everywhere and they have no choice but to climb over some of them.

He understands now why the robot told them to get off the Chariot. He doubts the vehicle would have been able to navigate through this landscape.

Knowing that Judy and Don won’t be able to pick them up once they get to their destination – wherever that may be – is making him uneasy. It means they’ll have to walk back the same way they came.

What if robot gets hold of an engine and is chased by a horde of angry robots? One lone EMF isn’t going to hold them back and if anything happens to Will…

Maureen will never forgive him.

Never mind that. I’ll never forgive myself.

John wipes a sheet of perspiration from his forehead. He’s sweating in spite of the cold. Robot has kept them going at a brisk pace and John’s impressed that Will has kept up without so much as a peep.

He really did grow up in that year away from them.

“Can you ask him how far away we are?”

Will turns around and then asks Robot, who’s still a few paces ahead of them.

“Get engine soon.” Is all the response they get.

“How does he know there’s an engine out here, in the middle of nowhere?”

Will shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t know.”

John sighs and pulls out his thermos of water. Takes a large sip without slowing down.

The fact that robot knows where to find an engine makes him uneasy too, because it makes him wonder whether he’s somehow psychically connected to the other robots. The ones who seem hell bent on wiping out humanity.

And if he is connected to them, is there a chance they can manipulate him too? Turn him against his new family?

John keeps those thoughts to himself as he watches Will climb a particularly rocky hill, his long limbs now taking larger strides than his father.

While Will is focused on his single-minded robot friend, John’s aware that they’re in a war zone and he’s on constant alert for any sounds and movements coming from the dense forest around them.

Grateful that so far he hasn’t spotted any.

They make it to the Shack and find five huge cannisters of fuel. It’s a windfall they weren’t really expecting and it buoys their spirits.

But the cannisters are heavy and they weigh down the Chariot, which now hovers considerably closer to the ground than it did when they left the Jupiter 13 this morning.

They also periodically turn on their comms and have managed to reach several colonists. Naoko, Hiroki and Aiko are in a Jupiter with six others, hiding outside of town and Judy gives them the coordinates of where her family’s Jupiter is hidden, tells them to wait for a message and prepare to join them if they want off the planet.

Judy has a hard time reaching her hospital colleagues but when she goes through Don’s contact list she gets a hold of another handful of colonists who’ve managed to get out of town not in a Jupiter but in a Chariot, and she gives them the same information she gave Hiroki. Tells them where to meet up.

She tries the Dhars too. Several times. But there’s no response.

Don gets a hold of a group of engineers that were working at the Jupiter base until it was destroyed and now they’re hiding in a Ventana supply ship, near the only mine that was built on the colony.

They see glimpses of robots in the distance, hear the occasional sounds of blasters, and see a few robot ships flying over their heads, but aside from that, their outing has been uneventful so far. Judy suspects it’s because they’ve never actually ventured into town.

“What do we do now?” Agnieszka asks after they’ve secured the fuel, along with several other tools and a generator, into the back of their Chariot. “Do we hide until your father and brother ask us to come get them?”

“I need to make one more stop,” Don mumbles.

“What?” Judy turns to him. This is news to her. “Where?”

“You’ll see.”

“Hey…” Her brows narrow in irritation. “You can’t…do that. Just take charge and leave us in the dark.”

“Jude,” he looks remorseful already. “I gotta do this and I know you’re probably not gonna agree.”

Judy stares at him and is suddenly at a loss of words. Feels a flush of unexpected anger. “So?”

Was this going to be their first argument? (Not counting all the little squabbles they had when they were still just friends, or that messy, volatile night that brought them together in the first place) Were they really going to have their first argument as a couple in a Chariot with an audience? Why was Don suddenly so unreasonable?

Truth is, she doesn’t even know how to handle an argument with him. Tries to think of how her parents resolved their arguments.

By Dad leaving and going halfway across the world.

By Mom shutting him out.

Come to think of it, maybe her parents aren’t the best example here, because even if they did always find a way back to each other, they sure took a lot of painful detours to get there.

“Okay, just because I’m gonna disagree, still doesn’t mean you can do that.”

“Sure, I can.”

“Don’t be an ass. Or I’ll pull the emergency brakes.”

“There’s a farm – about twenty kilometres from here. It’s where I left Debbie.”

“Oh…” Understanding dawns on Judy’s face.

Agnieszka leans in from the backside, her elbows on the armrest. “Who is Debbie?”

Don responds by increasing their speed, even though they’re still far from the nearest road.

“She’s a chicken,” Judy explains.

“She’s someone who is scared?”

“No, an actual chicken. You know…beak, feathers?”

“Oh…” Agnieszka’s face lights up. “I like chickens! Is good idea to get chicken.”

Judy rolls her eyes. Of course she’d say that.

“I have a squirrel friend in Poland. Poko. He died before I left. Stupid dog killed him.”

And of course her roommate, unlike anyone else on this colony, would automatically assume that Debbie is Don’s chicken friend. Not that he’s going there to collect some essential livestock.

Judy bites her lip and watches as Don can’t help a little grin.

“You could have just told me you know…” She says softly. “I might not agree that it’s a good idea…but I understand why you have to do it.”

“I’m sorry,” he replies, taking the Chariot on a tight turn to avoid running into a creek. It makes them all bounce in their seats and when their ride gets smoother again, she feels Don’s hand on her thigh again, giving it a squeeze.

And just like that, their first argument is over and done, before it really started.

Maybe she’s not so bad at this after all.

Judy turns her comm back on and goes back to trying to reach others.

“Okay, this is it,” John tells Will. “We can’t go any further.”

He’s breathing heavily now and his leg is throbbing. Reminding him that it's still not ready for this kind of hike. After all it's only been a few weeks since a robot tried to blast a hole through it.

What if Robot is leading them on a wild goose chase? Or worse, a trap?

Why was it so hard for him to trust that machine, no matter how many times it saved his family?

Because you’re a soldier and now we’re in a war. And those machines are the enemy…

Because one of them drove a stake through my son’s heart…

But the robot ignores his decision and keeps walking through the forest.

“Hey…wait! Stop!” Will yells after him before turning around to his father. “Dad, we can’t stop now.”

“We can’t risk going any further. We have to go back the same way. We haven’t seen a single ship or robot out here yet, explain to me how there’s an engine out here?”

Will shakes head. “Look, I don’t know…I just know that he knows what he’s doing.”

“Does he?” John questions.

“Yeah…”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I just am.”

“Robot hasn’t asked us to help him. If he really knows how to get an engine, then I’m sure he can get it himself. Bring it back to us.”

“I know…” Will acknowledges. “But I want to help him. Ten more minutes, Dad, please?”

“Will…”

His son’s eyes meet his, unafraid and determined. “Please, Dad. Ten more minutes.”

John nods, willing to give him that much, as he re-adjusts the pack that’s digging into his shoulders. But no more. “Fine. Ten more minutes. But that’s it.”

Ironically, those ten minutes turn out to be the most arduous part of their walk, as they’re forced to climb a massive rocky hill until they reach the top.

And it’s when they do and John takes out his binoculars to check out the incredible view that surrounds them, that he finally understands where they might get the engine from.

A lone column of smoke is rising in the distance and when he focuses his binoculars on that spot he make out what it is. Can see the familiar bat-shaped hull, carving a hole in the forest.

It’s a crashed robot ship.

“sh*t,” Don mutters as they approach the farm that he’s only been to a handful of times before. That he’s only gotten to know because he needed to make sure it was a good place to leave his avian friend.

“Robots,” Judy says softly.

There seems to be no ship nearby but, from inside their Chariot, which is parked at a distance, using the forest as cover, they can clearly see two multi-limbed robots, walking near the massive farm grounds, as if reconnoitering the area.

“Do you think they attacked the people living there?” Agnieszka asks.

“Possible,” Don answers. “Although I can’t imagine the people running it wouldn’t have fled days ago.”

“If they care about the animals and they can’t take them, they might have stayed,” Judy points out.

She might be right because Don can still see several animals on the grounds. Cows grazing. Sheep. Some chickens running around.

Please don’t let me be too late…

“At least they are not setting it on fire,” Agnieszka adds.

“It’s too dangerous to go in there with robots mulling around so close.”

“I have to try,” Don mumbles.

“For a chicken?” Judy looks at him, incredulously. “Babe, this is crazy.”

“It’s not just a chicken,” he tells her, knowing it sounds crazy. “It’s Debbie. She’s been with me since we crashed on that first planet. Through thick and thin. I can’t abandon her.”

“Don…”

“You stay here, I’ll head out on foot, get a closer look and see what’s going on. If things turn south you take the Chariot and get out.”

“No!”

“Both of you go,” Agnieszka tells them. “Is better two people go and take the EMF. Then if you still need, I will rescue both of you.”

Both of them stare at her and Judy rolls her eyes. “Unbelievable.”

“It’s important, if she is your friend.” Agnieszka reiterates solemnly. “You have to get Debbie.” Then she furrows her brows. Thinking. “Maybe bring other chickens too, so we have eggs for everyone.”

“Is that what it looks like?” Will asks him. There’s an icy wind whipping across the outcrop they’re standing on and it blows his son’s hair back and reddens his cheeks.

“I think so,” John replies, frowning at the site.

A crashed alien ship could definitely imply that there’s an engine there for the taking. But it could mean a lot of other things too. Like a horde of robots surrounding the crash site.

“How do you think it crashed?” Will questions.

“I don’t know,” he answers. It’s a mystery to him. Aside from their now-destroyed shield and plowing Jupiters into their underbellies, the colonists didn’t have any weapons to shoot down robot ships. “Maybe they have mechanical failures too…like our ships, although it seems unlikely. It’s possible that…” He lets the thought hang in the air, because it seems too good to be true.

“What’s possible?”

“When the shield was destroyed, the entire thing didn’t go down simultaneously. Before the shield was destroyed, parts of it stayed up. Initially only one tower was knocked down, so the robot ships could enter our air space through that opening only. If they didn’t they’d get zapped. It was only once they were on the ground that they knocked down the rest of our towers and brought down the whole shield.”

“So if they flew into our shield it could crash their ship?”

“Yeah…” John nods. “Definitely. It did before…remember when that first ship came through? It only touched the shield, with disastrous consequences.”

“So if it crashed right into the shield?”

“It would destroy the ship completely. It’s what it was meant to do but it should have also repelled the disintegrating parts back into the planet’s outer atmosphere, not send the ship crashing to the ground.”

“Do you think there are robots around the ship?”

“It’s likely.”

Will cover his head with the hook of his jacket and starts making his way down towards the ship.

Robot is already so far ahead of them that he’s no longer in view.

John tightens his hold on the straps of his backpack, ready to use the EMF inside it. Hoping he won’t have to.

He’s less curious about why that ship crashed than he is about how their robot knows about it.

They’ve climbed out of the Chariot and now they’re making their way towards the farm. Slowly and stealthily, trying to stay under some sort of cover as much as they can, hyper vigilant to any sounds or movements around them.

When they do spot a robot in the distance, they duck behind a tree right away, with Don pulling Judy in towards him.

“How many do you think there are?” she whispers, pressed against him behind the tree.

“Two at least.”

As if to confirm it, another robot springs into view, coming around the corner from one side of the farmhouse. He’s walking around it, as if patrolling the grounds.

Meanwhile, Agneiszka and the Chariot are hidden out of sight, nearly two hundred metres away.

“This is crazy, Don.”

“Let’s see how long before he swings around again.”

“You really think they’re on some sort of timed patrol?”

“Yes….no? Oh f*ck, who am I kidding? I really have no idea.”

They wait a few minutes, huddled against the tree and each other in the cold. Judy can see her breath. There’s no robot in sight for a while and suddenly two of them come back into view and now one of them is holding a blade of sorts and then walking off into the distance with it. The second robot heads back into the house and later comes out with a handful of pipes before disappearing from view.

“What the hell are they doing?” Don whispers. “Stealing parts? From a farm?”

“If we’re gonna go in, we should go now,” Judy tells him, her teeth chattering in the cold.

They make a run for it. Towards the house and go into it, through a door that’s half open. Judy gasps when she sees the bodies on the floor of the entry way. Two of them, a man and a woman, their bodies badly burned, from the robot blasters.

Don grabs her hand. “Don’t look at them.”

But of course she does.

“The chicken coop is behind the house.”

There’s another body on the floor of the kitchen. Its face is so badly burned that they can’t tell whether it’s a man or woman. The smell of charred flesh hangs in the air and she hears Don gag.

“Jesus…we shouldn’t have come here…”

“Keep going,” she tells him. Calm and determined. She’s seen dead bodies before. Tries her damndest to push her emotions aside. “Let’s find her and leave.”

There’s another door in the kitchen, leading to the field behind the house. There’s a barn there too, next to the grazing ground.

Judy pokes her head back outside slowly, looks in all directions before tentatively stepping out of the house.

Just as a robot comes around the corner and raises two metallic limbs to fire straight at her.

“sh*t!”

If Judy hadn’t dived sideways, he would have hit her.

Don is right behind her and zaps the robot with his EMF. The charge immobilizes it and sends the metal creature toppling to the ground.

Holding out his hand, Don yanks Judy back up. “You okay?”

“Yeah…” A couple of new scrapes aside, she’s pretty sure she’s good.

“Let’s get out of here,” Don hisses. “I’m sorry. We shouldn’t have come. It’s too risky.”

Judy can see the chicken pen, just a short distance away. “Wait…how long are these things out for after you zap them?”

“A few minutes.”

“I don’t see any other robots…” Judy tugs him towards the pen. “Let’s at least see if she’s there. If she’s not, we leave…”

“Judy, no!”

She starts walking towards it without him. “I’m going.”

“For chrissakes…”

“We’ve come this far!”

They keep scanning the grounds, before ducking into the chicken coop.

So far, no more robots.

“Debbie!” Don calls out as soon as they see a bunch of chickens squawking inside the pen.

Judy wrinkles her nose at the smell. It reminds her of her grandparent’s farm and how they’d have to help with the chores every time they visited them. Of course, she did, because she never shirked from any responsibility, but she’d be lying if she said she enjoyed it. The hard work, super early mornings and smells of farm life weren’t really her thing.

“Deborah Abigail West,” Don calls out, as if his chicken is a dog.

“Babe, she’s not gonna come running.” Judy chides him, until suddenly one of the chickens leaves the others and makes a beeline for Don.

“There’s my girl!” Don is beaming. “You remember Dad, don’t you? Of course you do.”

“Wow…” Judy stares at them in disbelief. At the ease with which Debbie allows herself to be picked up. “That is…wow.”

With Debbie in his arms, Don’s ready to head back out. “Let’s go.”

“No, wait.” Judy spies an empty carton up against the wooden walls. “Agnieszka was right. We should take as many as we can.”

“Judy, we don’t have time! That robot’s gonna wake up any moment, and we don’t know how many others are out…”

But she’s already grabbing the nearest chicken and setting it inside the container. It squawks and protests and tries to jump back out, but Judy’s too fast. She picks up a second one and sets it inside the box. “Help me. One more.”

Don grabs a third chicken and puts it in the container too, before he helps Judy lift it up. They’re holding on to it together. “That is it! Let’s go!”

They dash back towards the Chariot and stop dead in their tracks when they see a second robot in the distance. “Oh f*ck…”

The EMF is still draped over Don’s shoulder but he knows he won’t get to it nearly as quickly as he did the first time, not with Debbie in his arm, while also holding on to the box of three chickens.

“Shhh….” He gestures, although it seems pointless to try and be quiet when there are chickens yelping all over the coop.

The robot moves on and turns behind the farmhouse, out of sight, and they start running again as soon as he does. Towards the Chariot, away from the farm.

They’re forced to slow down once they’re in the forest but they still manage to reach the Chariot in an impressively short time.

Agnieszka opens the doors for them and they pile into it awkwardly. Don and Debbie into the front seat and Judy in the back, with the three chickens, who are still trying to jump out of the box. One of them succeeds and is now pecking at a fuel cannister.

“Go, go, go!” Don orders. “We don’t know how many robots are around here. We knocked one of them out. It might try and come after us.”

Thankfully, it doesn’t.

“Any news from Will or your dad?”

“Lemme turn on my comm and check.” There’s no new message from either of them when she does. “Not yet.”

“We should head back to where we dropped them off anyway.”

“Yeah…” Judy agrees. Her dad and brother might need a ride soon. The idea of Robot getting them an alien engine from God knows where is still kind of making her nervous.

“Since you have your comm on…try reaching some more colonists.”

Victor Dhar’s number is the first one she tries again. Not just because the Dhars have become their closest family friends, but Judy’s also thinking of her sister, who must be going crazy worrying about Vijay.

At first there’s no response but then she tries again and suddenly a voice comes on through a burst of static. “Victor?”

“Judy?” It’s not Victor’s voice on the other end but Vijay’s.

“Vijay! Where are you? We've been trying to reach you all day!”

His response is garbled and it’s nearly impossible to make out what he’s saying through all the static. “Judy…Dad’s hurt….hiding…robots…help please…bad….”

“Send me your coordinates!” They could track the comm too but that meant leaving them both on.

Vijay does as she told him to. Texts her the coordinates, along with a message.

“Dad’s hurt bad. We need help. Fast. Please.”

“Damn…” Judy mutters under her breath.

“Where are they?” Don wants to know as Agnieszka eyes Judy in the rear-view mirror.

Judy plugs the coordinates into her map and shows it to Don. A chicken plops into her lap just as she does it. “It’s kinda far out of town, looks like it’s pretty mountainous.”

“That’s where the mine used to be. Zoom in,” he says.

“Do you know it?”

“Haven’t been there. But I heard of it,”

Judy concentrates on the topography and frowns at what she’s seeing. “Getting up through that landscape in the Chariot is gonna take us forever.” Never mind that it’s located in the opposite direction of where they’re going.

“We have to go all the way around town to get there, and then basically drive halfway up a mountain….with a Chariot full of fuel…”

“And chickens…” Judy adds as the one on her laps flutters its wings wildly and sends a feather flying into her face. It sticks on her lips until Judy spits it out. “But Don, we have to.”

“Call your mother. Give her the coordinates and tell her to fly the Jupiter there. It’s the only way to get them out fast.”

“Flying anywhere right now is crazy dangerous! Besides, can they land there?” Judy bites her lip. It’s not just that she’s worried about Penny and her mom in a risky rescue mission, but that Jupiter is their lifeline. For a moment she debates trying to reach her father, because she doesn’t think he’d agree with Don’s decision.

He’d probably decide that the risk isn’t worth it.

Never mind her father, what if her mother decides the same thing?

“Maureen will figure out a way.” Don’s eyes meet Judy’s. He doesn’t look as convinced as he sounds. “According to Vijay they’re desperate, right?”

“Yeah…”

“Call her.”

John jumps back when he sees the first robot lying on the ground. Whips out his EMF in record speed. “Will! Stay close!”

He almost tripped over the metallic heap, because it was camouflaged by the undergrowth of the forest.

But there’s no reaction to the sound of his voice from the robot lying on the ground. Its six limbs are twisted awkwardly and when John takes a step closer towards it, he notices that its face looks burned. There are black-brown smudges where he’s used to seeing swirling lights. It kind of reminds him of the burnt out incandescent light bulbs he saw when he was a child, just before they phased them out for good.

“Is it dead?” Will asks, moving closer to both him and the robot.

It’s not alive to begin with, he wants to say. “I didn’t think they die.”

“Maybe they do.”

“Come on,” John nods towards the wreckage. “Let’s not wait around to find out.”

Their robot is already approaching the wreckage. Heading inside. It’s within easy view now, maybe thirty metres ahead of them. They can make out the giant chunks of torn-apart metal. One of the wings is lying a fair length away from the body of the ship.

And as they get closer, they also notice other robots lying on the ground. Not just one or two but dozens of them, lying on the forest floor, all still and immobile, with burnt out faces.

Maybe the ship did hit the shield at the worst possible moment, while patches of it were still up, allowing its tremendous electrical surge to fry all the robots inside.

At least that’s what he hopes. That there aren’t any functioning ones lurking around behind the trees.

“I think it’s why Robot wanted to get this engine here,” Will says. “Because he knew it was safe.”

“Even if all the robots on this ship are inert, we still have hundreds of active ones on the planet…and they will come for this engine. Sooner or later.”

“Yeah…” Will agrees. “They will.”

Both of them turn their heads when they see their robot leaving the wreckage with a giant, glowing blue sphere cradled in two of his limbs.

Will grins. “You did it.”

John grins too. This is a definite win, and he’ll take it.

If they got this thing on the Jupiter, it would, as Maureen said, open up the entire universe for them. They could go back to Earth. Or anywhere. “Well done,” he nods towards Robot. “Go…” he instructs him. “Get it to the Jupiter! Don’t wait for us. We’ll catch up.”

In hindsight, there really was no reason at all for them to have come along.

Although, seeing Robot emerge with an engine for them was a sight to behold. Worth the arduous hike.

They grab am energy bar from their pack and turn back to where they came from.

“Let’s hope your sister had as much luck as we did and can meet us back at the pick-up point.” John turns on his comm to call Judy and to his surprise she answers. He fully expected it to be off and to send a message instead.

“Hey…how you doin’?”

“Good…good, Dad. We got fuel and chickens. You?”

“Chickens?”

“Long story.”

“Looks like we got ourselves an engine.”

“Hey, that’s amazing!”

“Robot’s racing ahead of us. He’ll either meet us at the pick-up point or back at the Jupiter. Can you meet us in about two and a half hours?”

“Yeah…yeah, we can.” There’s a pause. “Although Dad, there’s something else…the Jupiter might not be there by the time we get back to it.”

"What?" John’s eyes widen and he stops dead in his tracks. “What did you say?”

Chapter 26

Chapter Text

Chapter 26

They’re in the garage where Smith has spent the last forty-five minutes doing yoga.

They had time to kill after finishing the half dozen tasks that John set out for them to do.

Penny came down to jump rope – because it’s freezing on the Jupiter and she’s not allowed to turn on the treadmill. So for the last ten minutes she’s been watching Smith do a myriad of poses instead, some of which look downright painful. Part of her is a little envious of the older woman’s flexibility.

Why am I always surrounded by overachievers?

When she nears the end of her workout, Smith lies on the floor, still like a corpse, while all sorts of guttural sounds flow out of her throat.

When she’s done, she gets up on her knees, eyes still closed, she bows her head and clasps her hands together, as Penny has sometimes seen her do in conversations too.

“Namaste.”

Smith’s eyes fly open and stare right at her. “I didn’t realize I had an audience.”

“What does that mean?” Penny asks her. “Namaste?”

“It’s Sanskrit. It means ‘I bow to you’. It’s a sign of respect, can be for another person, or for the practice.”

“Oh…okay. Thanks for telling me.”

“Yoga kept me sane in prison. It deserves some respect.”

Penny nods. She’s never too sure of what to say when Smith gets sincere.

Smith bounces up with ease. “We should probably eat something. It’s past lunch time.”

“I’m not really hungry,” Penny admits. Her stomach’s in knots worrying about all of them. Will, Judy, her dad. Taking a Chariot out into a war zone is pretty crazy. So is trying to steal an alien engine.

Smith wraps a purple shawl around her neck. Shivers dramatically after her work out. “Is your mother going to sleep all day?”

Penny shrugs. “I don’t know. Judy said to let her wake up on her own.” She went into her parents’ darkened room a couple of hours ago and she was still asleep, so Penny covered her with a second blanket because it’s so cold on the ship.

“Is she sick?”

“No,” Penny shakes her head, even though she’s not entirely sure. “Dad said shejust needed some extra rest and Judy gave her something to help her sleep.” Truth is, she wouldn’t mind if her mother did wake up soon. She needs some reassurance that it’s okay not to go out searching for the rest of the family.

“Hmmm…I see.” Smith doesn’t sound convinced and her gaze is a little too intense for Penny’s liking. As if she’s trying to suck the truth out of her brain. But then it softens and her eyes follow the little battery-operated alarm clock that Penny’s pulling out of her jacket pocket. “Is it time yet?”

“Two minutes,” Penny answers. In two minutes, she gets to turn on the comm again for sixty seconds. Gets to try and reach Vijay, whom she still hasn’t heard from, and to see if the others left her a message. She’s turned it on four times since they left and got three messages from her sister. So far they’re okay and they got fuel. No word from Will or her dad.

“Let’s have a look together,” Smith says, pointing to a supply chest and sitting down on it.

Penny joins her and turns on the comm as soon as it’s time. There’s only one message there, from her sister. “Victor’s badly hurt and stranded. Give mom these coordinates and tell her to try and take the Jupiter there. We can’t get there in the Chariot.”

“Oh sh*t…” Penny moves a hand over her mouth and checks the time when it was sent. Twenty-two minutes ago.

“That’s not good news, is it?” Smith frowns when she sees the message while looking over her shoulder.

“No…” Penny grabs the comm and heads for the ladder leading up to the main deck. “I’m gonna wake Mom.”

“Hang on, I’m coming.” Smith is right behind her.

Penny rushes into her parents’ bedroom where her mother is still dead to the world.

She squeezes her shoulder. “Mom…wake up!”

She reacts with a barely audible groan and buries her face in her pillow.

“Mom!” She squeezes her shoulder harder. “Wake up.”

“Slap her.”

“What?” Penny turns around and looks at Smith, standing in the doorway. “No.”

She does squeeze her shoulder again and this time her mother frowns in her sleep and turns her head the other way.

“Oh come on, Mom.”

“What kind of drugs is your sister doling out? And why aren’t we getting any?”

Penny glares at Smith, “Okay, that…is not helpful!”

“You want a bucket of ice-cold water to dump on her? Not that we have any other kind on board at the moment.”

“Stop it!”

“Okay, fine. You want helpful? Give me the coordinates.”

“What are you gonna do with them?”

“What do you think?” Smith rolls her eyes. “I’m gonna fly us there.”

“You can do that?”

“You know I can. Give me the comm…and come with me.”

Penny does what she asks, mostly because she’s terrified for Vijay. Because her annoying sister couldn’t be bothered to add an extra line in the message letting her know whether or not he’s okay.

She follows Smith into the co*ckpit and settles down in the co-pilot’s seat. Straps herself in. Not that’s she’ll be doing much actual co-piloting.

“It’s really very simple,” Smith says. “We turn this thing on, plug in the coordinates and let the autopilot guide us there via the safest route. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to do this.”

“Okay.” Penny swallows. Smith did take her brother halfway across a universe and back, so maybe this will be perfectly fine.

Leaves and branches are falling off the roof and rolling down the ship as Smith turns on the engines and lifts the Jupiter off the ground. It’s a bit of a shaky take-off but once they’re in the air, the ship takes a steady course towards their destination.

“What do we do when we get there?” Penny questions.

“Let’s cross that bridge when we get there.”

“We’re gonna get there really, really soon,” Penny points out. “Considering how fast this thing flies.”

“I assume you’ll hop out and help them get on the ship?”

Penny gulps. As if it was gonna be that simple. As if anything ever was. “Right.” Please be okay, Vijay, please be okay.

“Holy sh*t,” Smith curses.

“What…?” And then Penny sees it too. The two giant robot ships right in their path. “Oh God…”

The Jupiter starts climbing. Rapidly. Enough to press Penny into her seat as gravity fights the pull. “What are you doing?!”

“Nothing,” Smith shoots back. “It’s on auto. The auto-pilot automatically does whatever it can to protect the ship and its passengers.”

“We can’t…we can’t go into orbit, can we?” They weren’t even suited up.

The ships keeps climbing and Penny can see the robot ships firing at them. “We’re gonna die aren’t we?”

Even Smith looks a little panicked now. “Just hold on, okay?”

But Penny does the opposite.

She undoes her strap and makes a clumsy, mad dash for her parents’ room. The steep and bumpy climb sends her flying into a wall but Penny pushes herself off it. Somehow makes it into her parents bedroom and this time she slaps her mother’s cheek. Hard.

Sorry, Mom.

Not that you’re gonna care when we’re all dead.

“Huh….?” That finally gets a reaction and her mother’s eyes stare at her. Struggle to focus. “What the hell?”

“Mom, you have to get up!”

Her mother blinks hard. “Where…are we?”

Penny wants to cry. Of all the times for her mother to be completely out of it.

The ship does an unexpected dive and it knocks Penny off her feet.

That seems to jolt her mother awake. Maureen pushes herself off the bed. “Penny! Are you okay? Are we…airborne?”

Penny gets back up on her knees. “Yeah…and being attacked.”

“Who’s flying the ship?”

“Smith.”

Her mother blinks again and shakes her head. “You’re kidding, right? I’m dreaming?”

“I wish,” Penny holds out her hand. “Please, Mom! You gotta do something, like now!”

“Okay, okay….” Maureen nods and takes her hand. She lets Penny yank her out of bed and pull her into the hallway where they inch along the walls until they reach the co*ckpit.

Her mother’s jaw drops. “What the hell are you doing? We can’t go into orbit!”

“Look, in my defense, I wasn’t planning on running into robot ships…”

“Turn off the auto-pilot! Now!”

“But….”

“Out!” Maureen orders Smith, who jumps out of the pilot’s seat just before Maureen settles into it. “I swear to God, I’m never listening to your father again.”

“I didn’t think you did to begin with,” Smith mumbles.

“Strap in!” Maureen shouts. “Both of you.”

Penny’s already strapped in and she’s glad she is, because her mother sends the Jupiter on a dive as soon as her belt is on.

Smith isn’t quite as fast and she has to hold on for dear life. “Are you awake enough for this? You’re not even wearing pants.” She groans as her strap finally clicks into place in the co-pilot’s seat. “I guess it’s a good thing you don’t sleep naked like I do.”

“Holy TMI!” Penny exclaims.

There’s a blast coming from the robot ship and the Jupiter banks left hard, pressing Penny into her seat. Reminding her of the bruises she got a couple of minutes ago. “Mom, can we outrun them?”

“No.”

“Orbit suddenly doesn’t sound like such a bad idea, does it?” Smith quips.

“Quiet! Both of you.”

There’s another attack from one of the ships and this time they’re hit.

The Jupiter spins wildly. Careening towards the surface of the planet in a series of spirals.

“Mom!” Penny yells as she shuts her eyes. Braces for an inevitable crash.

Even Smith is screaming.

But there’s no crash.

Her mother regains control of the ship before it hits the ground. Steadies it and flies it low. Very low. Low enough that Penny swears she can hear the tops of trees brushing against the belly of the ship.

“Are we gonna crash?” Penny manages to croak out. Her voice sounds high-pitched and hysterical and far away to her own ears.

“No.”

“So this was all part of the plan?”

“None of this is according to any sort of plan! But this…helps. If we stay low it’s much easier to stay off their radar.”

She maneuvers the ship around a mountain side, sideways, barely skimming its edges and slows it down drastically before turning it around and flying back in the direction they came from.

One of the robot ships climbs high above them and keeps going, out of view, while the other one doesn’t climb fast enough. Its tail brushes against the mountainside and flips the ship over, sending it straight into the rockface where is explodes in a blinding flash of light.

Penny has to cover her eyes to shield them from the brightness. “Whoa…”

“Smooth move.” Smith grins. “Maybe that auto-pilot is overrated after all.”

Penny watches as her mother exhales, notices that her hands are shaky as she removes them from the controls.

“Are we safe?” Penny asks her as they keep hovering over the trees. Leaving the other robot ship further and further behind, as it seemingly lost interest in them. Or decided the effort wasn't worth it.

“For now…” She turns to Smith. Livid. “Can someone explain to me why the hell we’re airborne to begin with?”

“It’s not her fault,” Penny cuts in “I didn’t get around to explaining that part…” She does now. Tells her about Judy’s text and her mother’s anger fades as she checks for the original coordinates and plots them back in.

“Victor’s hurt?”

“Apparently. I don’t know about Vijay or his mom or if they’re even there with them.”

“Have you tried Judy again?”

“I did but no answer.”

“Okay….” Maureen takes a deep breath. And then another. “Fine. Let’s do what they asked and fly there. These coordinates are near the old mine. There’s an old landing pad there. Hopefully we can still use it, otherwise it’ll be hard to land anywhere in that area.”

They make it there in minutes and although robot ships pop up on their scanner and on the horizon, there are none in their immediate view and, more importantly, none currently firing at them.

Penny sees the landing pad come into view and exhales a sigh of relief, until they get closer and notice that parts of it are destroyed. Concrete cracks and chunks that mar the formerly smooth surface. As if someone bombed it.

“Can we land there?” Penny questions, although she can guess the answer.

Maureen shakes her head. “No.”

“So what do we do?” Smith asks.

Maureen’s eyes are fixed on what’s in front of them. “Land somewhere else.”

“But then how far will we have to go to get them?”

“One problem at a time, please.”

“Sorry,” Penny mumbles.

Just then her father’s voice comes on, through her comm. “Maureen? Penny? Are you there?”

“Dad?”

“Are you in still in the hiding spot?”

“We, uh, no…not really.”

“What do you mean? Penny, is your mother there?”

“Yeah…” It’s Maureen who answers. “I’m here.”

“Tell me you’re not taking the Jupiter to try and rescue the Dhars.”

“I could, but I’d be lying.”

“Dad, look Mom didn’t really…”

Maureen holds up a hand, signaling for her to stop talking.

“John….we’re just gonna do what we can.”

“Maureen, this is crazy, you know that ship is our lifeboat, right?”

“I know. Look, I have to concentrate. Land out lifeboat. I’ll head back to our hiding spot as soon as we can.” She signals for Penny to end the conversation and she does, ending the transmission without another word.

“Sorry, Mom,” she adds.

“Your father’s irritation is the least of my worries right now. Let’s find a landing spot.”

“There!” Smith points to the remains of a dirt road, jutting out from an abandoned mine entrance.

“I think that’ll work,” Maureen agrees and although it’s a tight fit, she programs the auto-pilot to set the Jupiter down on the relatively flat space. They're surrounded by barren foothills and rocky outcrops, at the base of three mountains. But at least their gravelly landing spot gets them within a feasible walk of the coordinates.

All three of them exhale and look at each other.

It’s Smith who says what they’re all thinking. “So we just go out there? Try and rescue them, without knowing if there are robots swarming around? Without an EMF because the rest of the group took both of them this morning?”

Penny swallows. “Judy said they’re desperate…that Victor’s hurt…”

“What choice do we have?” Maureen questions. “If we don’t try…what was the point of coming here? People also risked their lives to rescue me and Don.”

“But John’s right, your husband and son are risking their lives to get us an alien engine which is useless without a ship.”

“Well, then we better make it back.”

Smith sighs. “Does no one in this family have a self-preservation gene?”

“Says the woman who took off in the first place,” Maureen snickers.

“Fine.” Smith concedes. “I guess you better put on some clothes then.”

“I guess so…” Her mother still looks a little shell-shocked when she turns to her daughter. “Penny?”

“Yes?”

“I need a coffee.”

Penny grins as a load of tension is released from her bunched up shoulders. Relief that she doesn't have to plead for them to help her boyfriend. “Yeah, you do. I’ll make you one.”

Alpha Centauri

They can’t see the robot anymore – he’s too far ahead of them, but John insists they take a break anyway. They’re been hiking through forest terrain for several hours now.

Sitting on the moist ground, leaning against a tree trunk, John pulls two packets of macaroni and cheese out of his backpack. Adds some hot water from a thermos into both of them and hands one to Will along with a metal spoon. Will digs right into it, barely stirring it the requisite amount. Hungry as always because he never seems to stop growing.

“So Mom and Penny and Smith are taking the Jupiter to try and getting the Dhars?”

John moves his macaroni around, his appetite gone, even though he knows his body needs the fuel. He’ll force it down.

Taking the Jupiter out was reckless. Much as he likes Victor, he’s not sure he’d have done it. His family desperately needs that ship to stay alive. Risking it is madness.

He’s quite certain that even Victor would agree.

In spite of her pragmatism, Maureen’s not a soldier. She’s not someone who’s capable of accepting certain losses for the greater good.

“It's good that they’re going to help them.”

John frowns. No, it’s not.

But he doesn’t voice it.

“Do you think they’ll be back by the time we get there?”

“Hopefully.” He checks his watch. “We still have a couple of hours to go.”

“You think it’s safe for Robot to wait there alone with the engine?”

“I think…” John takes a heaping spoonful of macaroni and blows on it. “He’s gone ahead of us by himself to protect you. To put some distance between you and the engine.”

“He probably did.”

“Judy also said she was able to get a hold of some other colonists, including Hiroki and his daughter and grand-daughter. So even if Mom and Penny aren’t at the meeting spot, others might be.”

“Oh...that’s great.”

“Yeah,” John agrees. But it doesn’t lessen his need for his family’s Jupiter to be there as well.

Maureen zips up her jacket and then grabs a hair tie from the toiletry items she managed to pack in her mad dash from the Solidarity. It feels like it’s been ages since she was on the build but in reality, it was only yesterday early morning that she and Don took the Jupiter and left it.

Less than 48 hours ago.

She feels a definite pull at her side when she reaches up to tie her hair back but it’s so much less intense than it was last night. She might not have admitted it to her husband, but she was hurting and not feeling good in any way yesterday. Whether it was the pills, the patch that Judy stuck on her mid-section, or the ridiculous amount of sleep she got last night, she feels so much better today.

Fine, John. You were right. Just this once.

Her eyes dart to the empty cup of coffee on the bathroom counter. That helped too.

All three of them leaving the Jupiter is a really dumb strategy. Maureen’s fully aware of it. But if Victor and his family really are as badly hurt as Penny thinks they’ll need all the manpower they have.

She’s not John. She can’t hoist someone over her shoulders and carry them through a forest. Not on a good day, and definitely not at the moment.

“Ready?” Smith pokes her head into the bathroom because Maureen left the door open.

The other woman is wearing a thin, crimson wool hat that goes down to her eyebrows and matches her eye-shadow, as well as the emerald green wind-breaker she’s wearing over a turquoise turtle-neck. Only Smith could look like a Monet painting in the middle of an alien war.

Where in the world did you even get that make-up? Maureen wonders. Make up was a scarce luxury these days. She rations her own and misses having a variety of it. One of her few material indulgences.

“I’m ready.” Maureen sees Smith holding a metal rod in one hand. “What’s that?”

“Found a pipe in the garage,” Smith replies. “I’m pretty good at finding weapons when I need to.”

“You’re gonna whack a robot to death? With that? You do know how strong they are, right?”

“Look, it makes me feel better. Having it. It’s psychological. Besides, what are you gonna do? Science them to death?”

“I’m hoping not to run into any. That and I’m taking a plasma torch from the garage.”

Smith smirks. “I’ve always known that we’re more alike than you wanna admit. And you keep proving me right.”

“If you say so.” She takes a quick look in the mirror before turning around to Smith. “Can I ask you a favour?”

“Sure.” Smith replies without hesitation. It always struck Maureen as odd, how this woman who, on one hand is determined to weave a trail of chaos wherever she goes, has also always been extraordinarily eager to win their approval. “If anything happens to me out there….”

“Penny.”

“Yes, Penny. If things go south, promise you’ll forget about me and do what you can to get her out.”

“Not sure your daughter will agree but…” Smith gives her a solemn look. “Yes.”

“She has her whole life ahead of her.”

“I wanna think we have some life left in us too, but yes, I promise.”

“Thanks.”

Smith lowers her hat even further so now it covers her eye-brows. “Okay, let’s do this. Go out and save the day. Again. Because your family can’t seem to go a week without it.”

Maureen’s eyes trail Smith’s backside as she stomps out into the hallway. Watches her with a smirk. “Keep it up and you’ll be a Robinson soon.”

“You wish.”

Once outside, they slowly make their way towards the coordinates, single file, with Maureen leading the way, Penny in the middle and Smith in the rear. It’s considerably colder up here than it was in their original landing spot. Enough so that they can sometimes see their breath in the brisk air.

She’s carrying a First Aid pack and Smith is carrying a foldable stretcher, that Maureen hopes they won’t need. But if any of them do need to be carried back to the ship, they have the basic tools. As long as it’s only one of them.

They started off walking along barren foothills but now that they’re getting closer to the coordinates, they’ve entered a slightly forested area. It’s not nearly as dense as the forests closer to town. The trees here are shorter, spaced further apart and there’s little undergrowth.

Lurking robots will be much easier to spot here, but in turn it’s also easier for them to be spotted.

So far there’s no indication that there’s anyone else out here. No sign of robots or other human life.

Why would you come to hide out here, Victor? In this cold and inhospitable place? Maureen wonders.

So far they haven’t turned on their comms because Maureen figures there's no need to risk it. Not if there are robots near the coordinates.

Penny suddenly Penny nudges her back. “Mom…”

Maureen sees it as soon as she turns sideways. Centauri goats. A wild, goat-like animal that lives in the forests that surround the town. They’re scavengers and she sees three of them feasting on a carcass of sorts. They stop what they’re doing and stare at the human intruders. When Maureen takes a step towards them, they hesitate for a split second, as if trying to decide whether or not their meal is worth the risk of a confrontation before they scatter off into the woods.

“Stay here,” Maureen tells Penny.

“No, I’m coming…”

“No,” Maureen gives a look that lets her know it’s not up for debate. ”Stay here.”

Penny frowns but doesn’t protest when Smith grasps her shoulder, while Maureen slowly makes her way over to the spot where the animals were feasting.

A foul odour hits her nostrils as soon as she approaches the spot and when she sees the half-devoured bodies lying on the forest floor, she can’t help but gag.

She moves a hand to her mouth and it takes all the control she can muster not to throw up. Allows herself another look at them only when she has it under control.

One of the bodies is small. Young. A child maybe five or six years old. The other a woman – obvious only from her hair and the jewelry she’s wearing on her hands, because most of the flesh is gone from her face.

A part of the child’s lower body is seared and burnt.

Robot blasters.

Another wave of nausea hits her and Maureen shuts her eyes and leans against a tree trunk to stave it off. All of this reminds her too much of the Jupiter wreckage she walked into to get supplies after her crash. The mangled bodies of the dead pilots.

She takes a deep, ragged breath and turns away from the carnage.Presses a flat palm against her stomach and focusses on Penny and Smith standing far enough away not to have seen any of it.

Thank God.

She might not know who the victims were, but it’s obviously not Vijay, Victor or Prisha.

And maybe there were no robots here right now, but they were here not too long ago.

“What was it?” Smith asks when she gets back to them.

“Bodies,” Maureen whispers. Her voice sounds shaky to her ears.

“sh*t.”

Penny’s eyes widen. “Mom?”

“Not Vijay. Or his parents.” She adds. “But robots were here and might still be around.”

“Not good….”

“Come on, let’s go find the Dhars and get out of here.”

They’re not far from the coordinates now but the terrain suddenly gets rockier again as they near another mountainside.

They’re all breathing heavier and after they stop to have some water, Smith grabs Maureen’s pack. Slides her arms through the strap so that she now has one pack in front and the foldable stretcher on her back.

“What are you doing?” Maureen asks her, putting the cap back on her thermos.

“You’re hurt.” She answers, her voice low, so Penny doesn’t hear. “It’s why you slept half the day and why you’re holding your side when you walk.” She taps the foldable stretcher on her own back. “I don’t want to carry you back on this thing.”

“I’m fine.”

“Mom…” Penny interjects. Hearing everything she isn’t supposed to. As per usual. “Let her carry it. I’ve seen her support her entire body weight on one arm.”

Maureen sighs. “Fine. I’m not arguing.” She turns to Smith before resuming their single file march. “This really is very Robinson of you.”

“Shut up.”

Maureen chuckles and leads the way up the mountain side. It’s less than ten minutes before she spies an opening in the rockface and, on closer inspection, sees Vijay’s head peeking out of it.

“Mrs. Robinson?” The young man takes an unsteady step outside his hiding spot, holds a hand up to shield his eyes from a sudden glare of sunlight, and then he can see all of them. “Penny?”

“Vijay!” Penny bolts past Maureen and runs towards her boyfriend, throwing her arms around him.

Smith catches up to them and she looks at Maureen with a frown when she sees the bloody gash on the young man’s head.

“You’re hurt,” Penny says when they finally let go of each other.

“Yeah…” He looks grey and ashen and it makes Maureen wonder whether he has any other injuries. At least he’s on his feet.

“Where are your parents?” she asks.

“Inside,” he tells her without moving. He looks like he’s in some sort of shock.

“Can you take us to them?”

“There, uh….” His lip trembles. “There’s another guy…Scott…he’s military. He….helped us get away from the robots.”

“Okay,” Maureen takes a step towards him and puts a hand on his shoulder. “Is he hiding with your parents too?”

“Yeah….” He stares at her. “He is…was…but he, uh, he stopped breathing…”

Maureen catches a wince from Smith in the corner of her eyes. Squeezes Vijay’s shoulder and silently tells Penny to come over. “It’s okay, you’re gonna be okay. Show us where they are.”

Penny grabs Vijay’s hand and he leads them into the small, narrow tunnel, where Prisha is sitting on the cold ground, next to Victor who’s lying on a blanket, clearly hurt. Unconscious.

Another man is lying on the ground too. Still and pale. There’s a gaping blast wound across his chest.

Smith bends down and takes his pulse. Shakes her head with a frown.

“Maureen…” Prisha Dhar’s eyes are moist. “Thank God you found us.”

“Hey…” Maureen squats down next to her. “Can you tell me what happened? How hurt are you?”

“I can’t move one of my legs….” She grits her teeth. “We were in a convoy….in three Chariots. Heading to a bunker in a mine. We got attacked, Maureen. A robot ship and then several robots, they destroyed the Chariots. Scott…” She turns her head to the dead man in the cave with a sob. “He killed two of them. He dragged Victor to safety….brought us here to hide even though he was wounded too.”

“I’m sure he’d do it again,” Maureen says softly, trying to soothe her. “There’s nothing more you could have done here for him.”

She nods as she wipes away a tear from her dirt-stained face. Not quite believing it. “Maureen…I can’t walk.”

“It’s okay,” Maureen grabs her First Aid kit from the pack that Smith carried for her. Opens it up. “We’ll figure it out.”

“I love your optimism,” Smith mutters under her breath.

Maureen’s eyes meet hers and she shakes her head, before she co*cks her head in Penny’s direction.

Her daughter’s fussing over Vijay but every time she looks over to the dead man, she gets a little paler.

Fine, Smith mouths, before she takes off one of her scarves and drapes it over the dead soldier. Clasps her hands together and hums a short prayer in Sanskrit for him.

Thank you, Maureen acknowledges silently.

She opens a syringe and injects it into Prisha’s thigh. “This’ll help you feel a little more comfortable.”

She attempts to do a basic assessment of their injuries. To help her figure out how to best get them out of here.

Vijay will have to help. Even if he’s in bad shape himself. Hopefully the contents of the syringe will give him enough of a boost to get to the Jupiter.

It’s Victor that she’s most worried about. He’s unconscious and there are heavy bloodstains all over his clothes.

She kneels down next to him and lifts the jacket that’s covering his mid-section. Winces when she sees the burned flesh underneath. Blast wounds. She tries to hold her breath at the charred smell.

It reminds her too much of Don and his injuries after the Jupiter crash and she has to will herself to focus and not go back there. “Penny…can you hand me the kit and…”

“Mom….”

When Maureen turns around she notices that Penny’s been hovering over her, her eyes fixated on Victor’s wounds. She’s ghostly pale and suddenly moves a hand to her mouth, before she spins around and throws up.

“Well, then.” Smith raises her brows. “Things keep getting messier.”

“Penny?” Maureen stands back up and nudges her daughter away from Victor and the dead man. “Sweetheart, you okay?”

“I’m sorry….I just….”

“It’s okay.” She grabs a bottle of water from her backpack and hands it to her. Makes her drink it. Then she hands her a ginger candy from her pack. “Here, this’ll help. Don’t look at them. Get some air by the entrance….we need a look-out anyway.”

“I’m sorry, Mom…”

Vijay’s at her side too now. But he’s too dazed to register much of anything. “Penny?”

“Don’t apologize.” Maureen rubs her back. “You’re gonna be okay. All right? I need you to be okay because I’m gonna need you to help move them.”

“Yeah….I’m okay.”

“Good.”

Meanwhile, Smith has moved over to Victor. “Should we try and patch him up?”

“Here,” Maureen hands her a spray can of the same foam she used on Don. “Use this to cover the worst of it. We don’t know enough about his injuries to do much else. This’ll at least stop further damage ‘til we get him on the Jupiter.”

Maureen and Smith do their best to tend to them. They set Prisha’s leg between the break. Give them all an injection of the pain medication. Maureen suspects that Vijay has a concussion, but he also has a wrist that’s swollen to nearly twice its size.

“He can’t carry his dad on the stretcher with that arm,” Smith points out.

“I know…” Maureen agrees.

“It’s gonna have to be you and me.”

Maureen exhales. Her side already hurts after their hike and there are no more syringes left. She knows she could push herself to do it – no matter the cost - but John’s voice rings in her ears.

Sometimes I don’t think you know how badly I need you.

“I’m not sure I can…”

“Oh….right.” Smith frowns. “You think half-carrying her is gonna be any easier?” she asks Maureen, pointing to Prisha, whos’ staring at both of them.

“I can hear, you know.”

“I’m aware.” She mumbles, before ignoring her again and turning back to Maureen. ”You wanna do two runs? Penny and I take Victor down in the stretcher and then come back for her?”

“What?” Maureen looks at her incredulously. “No. It's too long. Penny can’t….”

“Yes, I can,” Penny cuts in.

“Okay, fine. But we’re not doing two runs,” Maureen insists. “I already don’t like that we left the Jupiter unattended. We need to get out of here before our ship is spotted. If it is, we’re all screwed.” She turns to Vijay. “If Smith and Penny carry your father, I’ll need your help with your mom.”

“Yeah….” He stares past her into space and it scares Maureen, how spaced out he is. As long as his muscles work for the next thirty minutes…

In the meantime, Smith’s already unfolded the stretcher and when she’s done, she puts her hands on her hips. Impatient. “Well…what are we waiting for? Let’s drag them off this sorry little mountain and back to the ship. It’s freezing in here.”

Don, Judy and Agnieszka pick up Will and John without incident, at nearly the exact same spot where they dropped them off, although it’s a tight fit now, with the added supplies and chickens.

Later when they return to the spot where Don and Maureen parked the Jupiter 13, they’re stunned to see two other Jupiters there as well as a larger Ventana supply ship.

The Watanabes are the first to come out of one of the Jupiters and greet their Chariot. Hiroki grins at the sight of them. “Your robot brought us an engine!”

Will leaps out of the Chariot, “He’s here?”

“Yes. He was already here when we arrived. We got here only a few minutes ago. He’s inside our ship,” Naoko tells him and Will runs up the ramp to see him.

“Where’s your ship?” Aiko asks them.

“We got a hold of the Dhars,” Judy explains. “Vijay said they were hurt and hiding. So we asked Mom to take the Jupiter and try and get them out.”

“If you know where they are, we can try and help them…” Naoko suggests.

“No,” another voice cuts in and John sees an older Caucasian man walk down the ramp of the Watanabe’s Jupiter. “Too risky.” He looks at John. “Your wife should have known better than to risk a ship. The base was completely destroyed before all the ships got out. We believe we have less than fifty Jupiters left on Alpha Centauri. Scattered across the planet.”

John recognizes him as one of the eight councillors that are in charge of the colony. The man has a German accent and John can’t remember his name or what department he leads.

He also suddenly realizes that if he’s the only councillor here, he’s technically the one in charge.

“Gerhard Schmidt,” the man says, holding out his hand. “You look like you don’t remember me Commander Robinson.”

John shakes his hand. “It’s John.”

“If we have an alien engine here, we need to leave as soon as possible. Because these creatures are drawn to them. It’ll lead them here. It’s incredible you were able to gather as many colonists as you have,” he says. “And I wish we could have gathered more. But if we can take at least this many of us back to Earth, it’s already a miracle.”

“Excuse me?” John stares at him. “If you think we’re going to take this engine and these ships back to Earth before my wife and daughter get back, you’ve lost your f*cking mind. Never mind that they’re trying to save our deputy councillor, who I’m quite certain wouldn’t approve of this decision either.”

“Victor Dhar has always placed the common interests of this colony above his own.”

“Is that what you think?”

Hiroki steps in between them. A pillar of calm. “There is no need to make a decision immediately. There are hundreds, maybe thousand of alien ships on the planet now. There is no reason to think the robots will focus immediately on one missing engine. We need to wait at least for a little while. I would think that Maureen and the Dhars deserve that much, don’t you?”

“You’d think,” John hisses.

The councillor purses his lips. “All right. We wait. For now.”

“For as long as it takes,” John corrects, until he feels Judy’s hand on his bicep.

“Dad…come on.” She motions for him to step away. “No one’s going anywhere without Mom and Penny.”

The councillor frowns. “I will assemble a team to camouflage the ships while we wait.”

“Good idea,” John grumbles. Don’s standing by his side now too.

“If it comes to a showdown between you two, I’d put my bets on you,” he observes. “Especially with me helping you beat his sanctimonious ass.” Then he turns to Judy. “Where did this guy even come from?”

“Don’t look at me. That entire Ventana supply ship. That was one of your contacts on the comm. Not mine.”

Don makes a face and then eyes the large supply ship, docked next to the two Jupiters. “Fine. Let’s see who else is on board it and what they need and have.”

“Excuse me.” Agnieszka’s joined them too now. “First we need to find a place for the chickens.”

They’re all winded and sore by the time the Jupiter finally – thankfully- comes into view.

Prisha is leaning heavily into both of them now even though she’s still trying desperately hard to put some weight on her one good leg. She gasps when Maureen steps over a rock and is forced to dig her hand into her shoulders to hold on.

“Sorry….”

“It’s okay. You did great,” Maureen tells her through clenched teeth. “We made it.”

Even without any threats it was an arduous trek back to the ship. One that took them three times as long as the hike to the Dhar’s hideout spot.

Maureen’s side is throbbing and she can feel the sweat trickling down her spine. Making her feel hot and chilled at the same time. The temperatures are starting to plunge even further with the approaching loss of daylight.

It’s okay, she keeps telling herself. It’ll be okay now. Home stretch.

All they have to do is fly back to their original spot and hopefully the others will have made it back by then – they’ll have doctors and an alien engine on hand.

All you have to do is get them inside the Jupiter and make it back.

She lowers the ramp of the ship and slowly, carefully, they hobble on board. Along with Vijay, she sets Prisha down on the floor. She’ll have to stay here. Maureen doesn’t want to attempt to take her up the ladder into the main deck.

“All right?”

“Yeah, I’m okay.”

“How’s your head, Vijay?’” Maureen asks. The young man’s been mostly silent through the entire trek. Walking through the forest with his mother leaning on one shoulder, like an automaton.

“Feels like….it’s full of cotton.”

“I bet.” Maureen nods. “Hurts?”

“Not…really. It’s like I can feel it trying to hurt but it’s not happening. Is that weird?”

“No,” Maureen smiles. “Means the syringe is working.”

Smith and Penny are slowly making their way up the ramp right behind them and Maureen closes it as soon as they’re inside.

They set the stretcher with Victor on it on the ground and Smith collapses onto her back next to him. “What the f*ck was I thinking when I showed up at your house two weeks ago?”

Maureen squats down and checks Victor’s vitals on the comm around his wrist. Not good.

“Hang in there, Victor. Please.” Then turns to Smith. “We need to get him some real medical care,” she mumbles.

“We tried to move him as gently as we could, Mom…” Penny says. She’s slumped on the floor as well and Maureen notices that her daughter’s hands are red and bleeding. The skin of her palms rubbed raw from carrying the stretcher for over an hour.

Maureen scoots over to her and takes one of her hands in her own. Sees the perspiration line her daughter’s face. Penny hadn’t so much as sighed or groaned the entire hike. Not a peep of complaint from her most unapologetically vocal child. “Hey….sweetheart. You were amazing.” She cups her beautiful, sweaty face and plants a kiss on her forehead. “I’m so proud of you. We’ll patch you up too when we get back, okay?”

“I’m okay, Mom.”

No one of us are okay, she thinks. She plants a second kiss on her forehead, before pushing herself back up onto her feet. A simple movement that takes way more effort than it should. “I know. Let’s get out of here. You two stay down here with them.”

“You should have a second pair of eyes in the co*ckpit, Mom.” Penny points out. “Vijay and I will take care of them….”

Smith whimpers as she pushes herself off the ground. “That’s your subtle way of saying I should be there even though you don’t trust me to fly this thing.”

“For good reason,” Maureen reminds her as she steps towards the ladder.

“One little accidental foray into orbit and I get banned from the co*ckpit?” Smith gripes. Maureen notices that her hands are bleeding too. God, they’re all such a mess. “I thought your husband was all about second chances.”

“John’s definitely more forgiving than I am,” she mumbles.

“I see that.”

The climb up the ladder is way more painful than she thought it could be. She’s doubled over when she gets to the top.

“Oh Christ…you’re in bad shape,” Smith points out.

Maureen sucks in a strained breath and manages to straighten her back. Just before Smith is about to lend her a hand. “I….am in great shape compared to those three downstairs.”

“That’s a lousy bar.”

Maureen settles into the pilot’s seat when they get to the co*ckpit, grateful to get off her feet. “Can you stop griping for ten minutes and keep an eye out on the horizon?”

“Oh now you do need a co-pilot.”

Maureen starts the engines, pleased at their healthy purr. Whatever damage the ship took on from the robot blast was superficial. At least that’s what she wants to believe. “Let’s get out of here.”

The Jupiter takes off and she keeps it low. Allowing their eyes to pick up anything their scanners might be slow to detect.

“f*ck….”

Maureen hears Smith’s stunned cursing before her eyes see the reason.

Not just one robot ship but an entire armada, slowly darkening the skies in front of them. Fifteen at least. Probably twenty or twenty-five. They’re coming into view, one after the other.

Staying low wasn’t going to be enough. They had to land again.

Right now.

Right here.

“Hang on!”

Chapter 27

Chapter Text

Chapter 27

Aboard the Jupiter 13

It was a rough landing. Even by her definition, and she’s redefined the concept of a rough landing several times since getting lost in space three years ago.

But there was no choice.

It was either land and hide, or be spotted.

And no matter how good a pilot she is - and she really doesn’t think she’s all that good, since her bar has always been Grant Kelly – it wasn’t possible to land smoothly in a forest.

Maureen took down several trees, one of which bounced off the windshield but thankfully didn’t crack it, before bringing the ship to a sudden, ungraceful stop.

Don’s going to kill me when he sees what I’ve done to her.

Funny, that this was her first thought.

“Jesus-f*cking-Christ,” Smith yelps when it’s all over. “Are you trying to kill us?”

Maureen grabs her strap to stop it from digging into her. Undoes it with a single click and takes a deep, ragged breath. “The opposite actually.”

“Mom!” she can hear Penny’s voice from the hallway outside before her daughter runs into the co*ckpit. “What happened? Did we crash?”

“Not…really. Just a rough landing.” She pauses. “Is everyone okay down there?”

“No! No one’s okay!”

Maureen winces. “I meant…not any worse?”

“Why did we crash-land?”

“Robot ships,” Smith answers for her. “A whole sky full of them.”

“Are they coming for us?”

Maureen gets up slowly and shakes her head. “No…I don’t think they saw us. They would have had we stayed in the air. I’m gonna power off and hope they’re high enough not to see us.”

“Great,” Smith groans. “Heaven forbid we should get five minutes to warm up.”

“What if they do see us?” Penny asks.

“If they do, there’s not much we can do. We either hole up in the Hub or we run.”

“Run out into the forest? But what about Vijay’s parents? They can’t….”

“They’d be the first to tell you the same thing.” Maureen sees that Penny’s hands are still raw and bleeding. It's hard to look at them without doing something about it. So she takes her daughter’s arm, “Come with me, to the Med Bay.”

“Ahem…” Smith clears her throat.

Maureen sighs. “Stay there for now and keep an eye on the skies. I’ll come get you after.”

Aboard the Watanabe’s Jupiter

They’re all sitting around the table in the Hub with a bowl of ramen in front of them.

Don and Agnieszka were the last to join, after setting up a temporary chicken coop in the Watanabe’s garage. There are four others down there. Humans that is, not chickens. A family from Brazil, with two teenagers, who’d narrowly escaped the town centre when the robots attacked.

There are forty-four other colonists gathered here now. Not including the Robinsons. Seven living on the Watanabe’s Jupiter. Eleven on the Jupiter parked next to theirs and another twenty-six in the Ventana supply ship.

The Watanabes are alone in the Hub with the Robinsons, giving them some time to catch up.

“You are not liking it, John?” Naoko asks him, because his bowl has been half-full for some time.

“No, no…it’s not that.”

“A man cannot eat when he is missing half his family,” Hiroki says.

Judy’s struggling too. For the same reason.

But Don and Will and Agnieszka, they’re making up for it.

“Where’d you get this stuff? ” Don wants to know between slurps. “It reminds me of this incredible noodle house on West Vernon. This is what I should’ve been smuggling instead of cigars.”

Aiko laughs. “I made the noodles myself. Mom made the miso.”

“It is delicious,” Agnieszka grins. “Best meal I eat in space. Almost as good as my favourite beet pierogi in Krakow.”

Will’s looking over at his bowl. “You don’t want it, Dad?”

John slides it over to his growing son. “Go for it. Really, Naoko, it’s not that…it’s wonderful.”

“Understood.” Naoko smiles at him and then leans in over the large round table. “John, if you want to take our Jupiter to help Maureen, let us know. We will do it. We will take the risk because we know she would do the same for us.”

John swallows, taken aback by the unexpected gesture. It’s a reminder that these are his wife’s friends not his. And they’re the real deal. It takes every ounce of willpower to say no. To remind himself that it’s about more than Maureen and Penny. Even though for him it isn’t. “Let’s wait a little longer,” he says, almost choking on the words. “Another hour.”

“Why Dad?” Will questions, setting down his spoon and chopsticks. “We should go and help them.”

“You heard what the councillor said,” John reminds him. “We have so few Jupiters left.”

“But Dad…it’s Mom and Penny, don’t you care about…”

“Will!” Judy shoots him a glare. “Stop.”

“I do,” John says softly. “I care about all of us.”

“It’s also a little insulting too, don’t you think?” Don points out. “To suggest that Smith, and your mom and Penny need rescuing from us.”

Will looks contrite but not entirely convinced. “Sorry, Dad,” he mumbles.”I didn’t mean it like that.”

John nods, knowing that it’s exactly what he meant but letting it go. Sometimes it feels like with every one step forward he makes with Will, he takes one step back. “One hour,” he adds. “We’ll give them another hour before we hit the panic button, ‘kay?”

Wills nods. “Okay.”

Jupiter 13

Smith stands in the doorway and watches as Maureen cleans up Penny’s bloodied hands. At the way the younger Robinson squeals when Maureen sprays them with some sort of antiseptic and then purrs with relief when she douses them in a cooling gel before bandaging them up neatly. In spite of their dire situation, Penny happily soaks in all of that unexpected care and attention from her mother and it makes Smith smirk.

Funny, how someone as brilliant as Maureen is mostly oblivious to just how much her middle child craves her attention and approval. Meanwhile her son yearns for those exact same things from his father, while Penny has a sweet, uncomplicated relationship with John.

Family dynamics are so strange, she thinks, wrinkling her nose. She used to be jealous of her younger sister. Madly, wildly jealous. Her sister, Jessica, was the perfect child. The beautiful, brilliant physicist who was the apple of her father’s eye, while she was the black sheep who never got much of anything right. Everything she touched became poisonous.

Young June Harris acted out on it in ways that the Robinson kids never would, even though they squabble with each other too.

The difference was that her father actually enjoyed the sisterly competition for his love, encouraged it even, whereas John and Maureen would never condone that kind of lunacy.

Maureen gives her daughter a smile. “Better?”

“Yeah. Thanks, Mom.”

“My turn!” Smith announces. It makes Maureen turn around too fast. It’s clearly painful and she takes a second to recover so as not to let her daughter see.

Oh, she knows you’re hurting. That’s another thing you often miss, Smith thinks. How much Penny picks up on. How incredibly intuitive she is.

“I thought I asked you to stay in the co*ckpit until I’m done with Penny? Keep an eye on the skies?”

Smith can hear the irritation in Maureen’s voice, but there’s no bite in it anymore. Occasional exasperation aside, the constant hostility she used to harbour towards her is long gone. They might not be quite friends yet, but they’re not exactly enemies anymore either. Smith is okay, with that, because, truth be told, she genuinely likes Maureen. She’s strong and capable and has none of that false humility that so many women suffer from. Maureen makes no apologies for nearly always being the smartest person in the room. That’s something that Smith appreciates.

She shrugs. “What’s the point? So I can watch the giant alien armada fly-over our heads, while crossing my fingers that they don’t drop any bombs on us?”

Maureen rolls her eyes. “Something like that.”

“As I was saying. Pointless.”

“I should check on the others first,” Maureen says. “The fact that Vijay hasn’t even come up to ask what’s going on is worrying me.”

“Stay here and help Smith,” Penny tells her. “I’ll go, Mom.”

See. She knows. She doesn’t’ want you going up and down that ladder. Smith realizes. Smart girl.

“Okay, fine,” Maureen agrees. “Then come back up and let us know.”

“I will.”

Smith hops up on the exam bed and holds out her hands. “Don’t take out any lingering anger towards me on my fingers, please.”

It’s Maureen who smirks this time. “That’d be pretty unethical, wouldn’t it?”

“And you’d never do anything unethical, would you?”

“Never.” She’s still smirking when her blue-green eyes meet Smith’s.

She really does enjoy this woman. One of the few equals she’s met in her lifetime.

Maureen doesn’t say much else. She concentrates on the task at hand with her customary laser-like focus. Takes her time and patches her up with surprising care, exhaling when she applies the final layer of dressing.

“Thanks.” Smith’s hands are tingling now instead of throbbing. It’s a nice change.

Penny’s back in the med bay by the time they're done, holding a piece of paper in her hands. “These are Victor’s vitals.” She shows them to Maureen who frowns.

“Damn it, those are not good numbers. I thought the IV might help more than that.”

“But what can we….” Penny’s question is cut short by a rumble so loud that it rocks the entire ship. Penny and Maureen are almost knocked off their feet, both grabbing the nearest fastened object to stay upright.

Smith grasps the exam bed with her freshly bandaged hands. “What the hell was that?”

Maureen runs towards the Hub and both women follow her and they all look up, through the giant window above them. There are so many alien ships that they can no longer see the skies. A giant, mechanical swarm of locusts has turned it black.

“Oh my God…”

Smith can only see Maureen's lips making out the words, because the noise drowns out her voice. She's holding on to her daughter.

The rumble continues for longer than seems possible, until suddenly the skies clear again.

The robot ships gone and out of view.

The three women stare at each other.

“How….” The word gets caught in Smith’s throat, speechless for the first time in a long time. “How…can there be so many of them?”

“I don’t know…” Maureen whispers.

“Mom?”

Tell me you have a plan, Maureen. Please.

Maureen holds Penny tighter. Her face pale. “We have to get out of here. Off this planet.”

“We should probably get off the ground first.”

“Can we take off?” Penny questions.

Maureen gets that faraway look she has when she’s thinking. “The engines….they’re too close to the trees right now. They’ll set them on fire.”

“So…we cause a forest fire on a planet that the robots are blowing apart anyway?” Smith queries. “Tell me that’s not the only thing holding us back.”

“It’s not just that.” Maureen points out. “Burning trees could set us on fire too and cause the fuel tanks to explode. You’ve seen footage of rocket launches where the entire launch pad blows up, right?” She pinches the bridge of her nose. “I don’t even know how much damage our landing caused. I haven’t assessed anything.”

Smith slumps into a seat in the Hub. “Why do we have to run into a new problem every five minutes?”

Maureen takes a seat too.

“What if….” Penny’s thinking, trying to compensate for her mother’s sudden look of defeat. “There’s no damage to the ship? Is a fire on take-off our only issue?”

“It won’t be an ideal take-off but the ship can do it. Yes.”

“I don’t like the exploding fuel tanks possibility,” Smith adds.

“It’s just a possibility, right, Mom?” Penny reminds her. “Victor doesn’t have time.”

“Look I wanna get out of here as much as anyone. But blowing up the entire ship isn’t gonna do anyone any good.”

“So how do we stop the trees from catching fire?” Penny wants to know and for a moment Smith is impressed with her calm determination. With her subtle efforts to prod her defeated mother back into offering them solutions.

“Chop them down? Move them away from the ship?” Maureen shuts her eyes. “Where’s our robot when you need him?”

“How else?” Penny insists.

Maureen looks at her and finally Smith can see the wheels turning. Well done, Penny.

“We could…douse them with water.”

“Can we do that?”

Maureen pushes herself back up from the chair. “There’s a hose in garage. We could hook up to the main water tank. Lower the ramp and douse the trees closest to the engines. It doesn’t mean they won’t catch fire but it will take longer. Give us a few extra seconds, which is all we need.” She looks at Penny with pride. “Good idea.”

“It was your idea.”

But Smith knows exactly what Maureen means. “What are we waiting for?”

They pull it off with surprising speed given all their bumps and bruises, with Penny and Smith doing most of the heavy lifting while Maureen tries to keep Victor and Prisha comfortable.

Once they’re surrounded by dripping wet trees, they’re ready. Frozen and exhausted and running on adrenaline.

“Let’s get out of here, before another fleet of robot ships comes at us.” Maureen blows air into her hands to warm them up. “I want you two to go into the Hub.”

Penny shakes her head. “No. We’re riding in the co*ckpit with you.”

“I wasn’t asking.”

“No, you didn’t,” Penny shoots back. “I’m not asking either.”

Smith raises her brows in response to Maureen’s irritation.

“Penny, I don’t have the time or patience for this right now…”

“Exactly,” Penny quips. Unflummoxed. “If the ship goes up in a ball of fire, I’d rather die a quick death, Mom.”

“You think that’s funny?”

“Not really.”

“Guess you have make sure we don’t catch fire,” Smith chimes in. Trying to diffuse the sudden tension between the two bull-headed Robinsons.

Maureen raises her hand, still annoyed, but conceding. “Fine…strap in. Both of you, do whatever the hell you want.” She slides into the pilot’s seat and then turns to Penny. “I want you to know that I love you, even though I want to strangle you right now.”

Penny grins. “Love you too.”

Smith exchanges a glance with Maureen too. “Get this bird in the air, please. No pressure.”

“Right. No pressure.”

If she’s feeling any, it doesn’t show. Maureen’s icily calm and focused only on a successful take-off as she does a final system check. “Okay, let’s do it.”

The thrust is fierce as branches fly all over the ship like matchsticks. Bouncing off its hull as they leave the fiery ground behind. Penny’s eyes are shut tight and when she re-opens them, she’s looking straight ahead at a darkening evening sky. One that’s finally devoid of robot ships.

There’s no trail of fire coming from the ship. No alarms letting them know that they’re about to blow up.

“Good job,” Smith mumbles.

The rest of their flight is calm and uneventful.

Watanabe’s Jupiter

They’ve been waiting over two hours.

During that time, they saw a giant fleet of robot ships in the sky. Thundering above them with a terrifying roar that lasted far too long. When it was over, the sentry stationed on the roof of the Ventana ship saw a wall of black smoke coming from the town.

It sent them all into a dark and sombre mood and Don was even more affectionate than usual as Judy sat and then paced and tried to do all sorts of mundane tasks to distract herself while waiting for news on her mother and sister.

“We shouldn’t have told them to do it. To try and rescue the Dhars.”

“No, we shouldn’t have.” Don usually doesn’t agree with her so quickly and when she sees the guilt etched on his face it makes her want to kick herself. He’s the one who thought of it. Who suggested she ask her mother to go.

“Don, I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to suggest…”

“No, you’re right. I shouldn’t have sent them off on some harebrained rescue mission. Your little sister, and your mother and….” He makes a face. “Smith? What the hell was I thinking?” Don's sitting on a storage bin in the hallway. Slumped over, head in his hand. “Of all the stupid idea I’ve had this has got to…”

Judy scoots over to his side, leans into him. “Would you stop it? My mom wouldn’t have done it if she thought it was crazy.”

“Are you kidding me? When’s the last time she backed down from a crazy idea?”

“Either way, she makes her own decisions and she wouldn’t put Penny in harms way if she didn’t think it was the only choice.” She co*cks her head and looks up at his big, brown guilty eyes. “As if you could make her do anything.”

“If they don’t make it back, Jude….” His face looks grey, ashen.

“Stop it!” she pulls back, angry now. Unwilling to even entertain the thought. Of losing half her family after she just lost Grant. “Do not go there.”

“Judy….” Her Dad approaches them, wearing the inner layer of his space suit. “It’s time. We’re gonna take Hiroki’s ship to the coordinates. Our councillor friend doesn’t agree of course. I compromised and told him we’d leave the engine behind with the others.”

“What?” Judy stares at him. “Are you crazy? They’re gonna use it and leave without us!

“They can’t – Robot won’t let them and they can’t use it without him.”

“Like they’ve never forced a robot to use it against his will…”

“I told Will to stay with Robot. Hiroki’s taking his family off his Jupiter. If you two want…”

”No.” Judy doesn’t let him finish. “We’re coming with you.”

“Yeah,” Don adds. “I mean, if they’re really in trouble they’re gonna need more than one measly Navy SEAL to come to the rescue.”

“John!” Naoko’s voice rings through the hallway. “We have a Jupiter incoming!”

“What? Is it them?”

All three of them rush to the co*ckpit where Naoko’s standing over the co-pilot’s console. “Incoming signal 900 metres out.”

“150 feet,” Don notices. “It’s gotta be them if they’re that low.”

“It is,” Naoko confirm once she identifies the craft. The ship is over their heads in less than a minute and she turns on the comms for them. “J13, come in.”

“Naoko?” Judy can hear her mother’s voice and it floods her with relief.

The Japanese woman smiles. “It’s good to hear your voice again, Maureen.”

“You too, Naoko. I have three injured passengers. One of them critical. I need a landing spot and medical assistance.”

“Sorry, we took yours. Judy and Agnieszka are both here…J27’s next to us. I’ll have them make room. Hang tight.”

Judy hugs Don and then her dad, who looks even more relieved than she does “They made it!”

“They made it. But it looks like you’re gonna be needed as soon as they set down.”

“I should grab some stuff from the Med Bay, get Agnieszka. We’ll have to treat them on Mom’s ship.”

John can hear the engines coming to life from the ship that’s parked within striking distance of the Waranabe’s ship. Watches as it climbs and makes its way to a clearing about a kilometre away. Maureen sets down her Jupiter as soon as the space frees up.

“Come on,” Don nudges him. “Let’s go.”

All four of them, Judy, Don, John and Agnieszka lower the ramp of the Watanabe ship and run over to the Jupiter 13 which is lowering its ramp too.

The Dhar’s are all in the garage and Judy and Agnieszka focus all their attention on Victor when they see the shape he’s in. “We should be treating him in the Med Bay upstairs….” Judy points out when she sees the extent of his injuries.

“We cannot take him up the ladder.”

“The Ventana has a cryo-tube, can we hoist him up if we get him inside it?”

Agnieszka and Judy look at each other skeptically. “If the Ventana has a Med-Bay, it’d be easier to take him there in the stretcher.”

“It’s a transport ship, so, negative.”

“Can you get the cryo-tube?” Judy asks Don. “We might have to try.”

“Ten-four.” He nods and turns on his heels. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Or we will make a Med Bay in the garage,” Agnieszka adds.

“Dad?” Penny hops off the ladder and runs into John’s arms.

“Penny!” He scoops up his daughter and holds her tight. “What happened to your hands?”

“Blisters,” she says, holding up her bandaged hands. “Big, bloody, ugly ones.”

“How?”

“From carrying Victor down a mountain on a stretcher.”

“You did that?”

“Me and Smith.”

“Smith?” John raises his brows.

“I think she’s still upstairs with Mom. She has matching ones.”

“I’m gonna need the whole story.”

“It’s going in the next book for sure. But right now, I’m starving. We never got around to having lunch.”

He grins. “Pop over to the Watanabe’s Jupiter. There’s ramen soup leftover.”

He gives her another hug because his relief is overwhelming. “It’s so good to see you, sweetheart. I’m proud of you.”

“I left out the part where I almost puked on Vijay’s shoes in the cave….”

“Still proud of you.”

She grins. “Thanks.”

He watches her zip up the hoodie that she’s wearing and lower the ramp just enough so she can jump out of the ship.

There are enough sentries posted around their ships now that he’s not worried about her running over to the next ship.

He turns back to Agnieszka and Judy who are both tending to Victor. “Can I help?”

Judy pushes herself to her feet. “I need some stuff from the Med Bay but…it’s easier for me to go get it instead of trying to explain what I need. Apparently, there’s a nurse on one of the other ships and he’s coming over to help too.”

“Good…” John nods. “If I can be useful just yell, okay?”

“Yeah…” Judy replies, but her focus is already elsewhere, as she races up the ladder.

He follows suit but heads into the opposite direction, towards the co*ckpit. He bumps into Smith in the hallway. “Hey…”

“Oh hello, John Robinson,” she drawls. Her hands are thickly bandaged just like Penny’s and there’s dirt all over her clothes.

“Welcome back,” he tells her. “You okay?”

“I’m frozen and bruised and itchy and covered in blisters and willing to give ten years of my life for a hot shower.”

“That good, huh?” John gives her a lop-sided smile. “We had to power on for Judy and Aggie to treat Victor downstairs. Treat yourself to all the hot water while it lasts.”

“You’re serious?”

He’s pulled off the near-impossible feat of surprising her. “Yeah.”

“In that case, I’ll be locking myself in the bathroom for the foreseeable future.”

“Go for it.”

She slinks off down the corridor without another word and John makes his way to the co*ckpit where he finds Maureen still in the pilot’s seat. Staring out the window. There’s dirt on her clothes and face too.

“Hey…”

It takes a couple of seconds for her to register his presence. For her eyes to meet with his. It scares him a little, what he sees in them. The sense that she’s held it together for as long as she could.

“John…”

He extends his hand and she takes it. Gravitates towards him when he pulls her up.

John isn’t entirely surprised that the tears pour out as soon as she’s in his arms. But it still sends goosebumps up his arms. How many more close calls could they handle?

Maureen buries her face in him, sobbing.

John pulls her closer. Rubs her back. Kisses her temple. “Shhh…it’s okay. Let it go. It’s okay.”

He says it over and over, whispering the words into her hair.

“It’s okay.”

He’ll keep saying it.

Until it’s true.

Later

“No. You can’t come in.”

“Why not?”

Don West is standing at the entrance of the Jupiter 13’s garage and tries to remind himself that technically, this man, this councillor, is currently in charge of all of them – all the human occupants of the four ships, the three Jupiters and the Ventana transport, but it’s hard holding back. It’s hard not telling him to piss off. To not remind him that he wouldn’t even be in a position to leave this planet right now if him and Judy hadn’t invited him here.

“Because they’re doing surgery on Victor Dhar, your boss, in the garage. They’re trying to keep it as sterile as possible.”

“There doesn’t seem to be a problem with John Robinson going in and out.”

“He had to get something from the Watanabe’s ship.” Why am I explaining this to you? I don’t owe you an explanation.

“You powered up your ship.”

“We had to!”

“You’re running power and you have an alien engine on board,” the man’s ample cheeks keep getting redder. “Do you have any idea of how much of a target this makes you? A robot ship could show up any minute and attack us all. Then you will have gotten the engine for nothing!”

“Listen…” Don steps into his space. Done with this bullsh*t. “You need to calm the f*ck down.”

“Excuse me?” His cheeks are crimson. “I need to speak with John and Maureen Robinson! Devise a plan for getting off this planet as soon as possible!”

“Not now.” Don reiterates.

“Why not?” The councillor demands. “Why can’t I go in and speak to them?”

“Because I said so!”

He shakes his head in disgust. “Unbelievable.”

“They’re gonna reach out to you as soon as they’re ready. We can’t go into orbit with Victor in critical condition. Doctor’s orders. So until that changes, we’re gonna have to accept the risk and stay put.”

“You’re risking the lives of everyone here to save one man’s life.”

“It’s also the life of the man that’s currently in charge of this entire colony. So, yeah, you got that, right.” Don snarls. “It’s exactly what we’re doing. If you don’t like, you’re free to leave.”

The councillor put his hands on his hips and gives him one last irritated glare. “Tell John and Maureen that I’m waiting. We all are.”

“Uh huh…” Don nods. “I’ll get right on that.”

The man mumbles something in German before turning around to head back to his ship.

Good riddance.

Don stares after him before raising the ramp again.

The garage is a hub of activity.

Judy and Agnieszka and the French-Canadian nurse from the Ventana ship are doing surgery on Victor underneath a hastily-constructed half-tent of sorts. Two donors – an electrical engineer and a soil scientist from the third Jupiter - whose blood type matches Victor's, are lying on mats nearby. They’ve already donated blood and are ready to give more if need be.

Aiko is here too, to assist with whatever else they might need. So are Will and the Robot.

Penny and Smith are both upstairs in the main deck, and so are John and Maureen.

John told Don he needed some time alone with Maureen and although Don has no idea what exactly that’s about, he didn’t hesitate. The guy’s earned it.

Besides, this is his ship and his family now and he’s ready to fend off any and all intruders for them.

He also needs to get started on some repairs. Because of course Maureen brought the ship back with a blast hole in it and all sorts of scrapes that weren’t there when they took off from the Solidarity less than two days ago. “Sorry, baby,” he whispers to the giant, metallic hull. “I promise we’re gonna start taking better care of you.”

Main Deck, Jupiter 13

“This is good,” Maureen observes, as if only now realizing it, after devouring half the bowl. “I mean, really good.” She licks her lips, while her spoon and chopsticks are already diving back in.

“It is,” John agrees. Watching her enjoy it is giving him more pleasure than eating it did.

He got her some fresh clothes, a new cooling patch for that still-too-angry wound, the biggest bowl of ramen he could find and closed the door to their bedroom, wishing he had a Do Not Disturb sign to hang on the doorknob.

Let the world cope without them for an hour.

He needs her to be okay first.

Maureen’s eyes meet his between bites. Reading his mind. “I’m okay, you know.”

“I know.”

“It’s a little unnerving. The way you’re watching me. Like a hawk.”

“I like watching you.”

“Look,” She sets down her chopsticks. “I didn’t mean to worry you.”

John pushes himself closer to the edge of the bed, so he can lean forward and get closer. “I’m always gonna worry about you, because I love you. Don’t apologize for that. You know, the way you deal with traumatic events, it’s healthy. It’s when you hold it in or deny that it affected you that it starts to fester and grow into something bigger. Besides, you wouldn’t be human if all this wasn’t starting to overwhelm you.”

“When I saw you….I just...I knew it was okay to stop fighting it.” She sighs. “I know you’re strong enough for both of us. That you’ll pick up the pieces if I can’t.” She gives him a rueful smile. ”I’ll try to return the favour every now and then.”

He feels a lump in his throat. “You do. Even though you don’t have to.”

“No, I do.” She yawns and he can see her fading after the meal.

His eyes dart to her empty bowl. “You want some more?”

“No. This was perfect. Thanks.”

“It’s nice to have Hiroki and his family around again.”

“For the ramen or the company?”

He grins. “Both.”

She pushes herself off the chair. “We should go see the others. Check on Judy and Victor. Penny. Decide on an action plan.”

“Penny’s holed up in her room. Fussing over Vijay. And Judy said she’ll let me know as soon as she has an update on Victor. As for the others, let ‘em wait a little longer.”

“It’s dangerous…for us to have the power on. There are hundreds of alien ships in the air. Probably thousands of robots on the colony. Penny was pretty shaken when she saw that dead guy in Victor’s hiding spot.” Maureen frowns. “We need to get our kids out of here, John.”

John reaches for her hand. Weaves his fingers through hers. “Twenty minutes.”

“What?”

“Come sit with me for twenty minutes. That’s all. Let the others figure it out without us until then.”

“Fine,” she undoes the laces on her boots, slips out of them, takes off her jeans and climbs on the bed. Turns around to rest her head on his thigh, gritting her teeth after twisting her body around and pulling up her knees. “f*ck, that hurt.”

“You sure I can’t get you anything for…”

Her hand reaches up to grab his shirt and she fists it in her fingers. “No. It’s fine when I don’t move.”

“Reassuring.”

She looks up at him with a lazy smile before closing her eyes. “Talk to me.”

“About?”

“I don’t know….a happy memory?”

He can feel her breathing slowing. A happy memory? There are so many, he thinks. Granted his life and his marriage have had their share of dark moments and rough spots, but John is certain that the good memories far outweigh the bad.

That grand-slam he hit in grade seven, that catapulted his team to a 4-3 win in the 9^th inning.

The night he helped rescue a migrant family from a capsized boat in the Mediterranean and knew that this was what he was meant to do with his life.

The first time Judy fell asleep in his arms.

The indescribable joy when he got down on one knee and Maureen said yes with tears in her eyes.

But aside from those big, unforgettable moments, there are so many, countless little ones too. The way Will always giggled when he used to tickle him as a toddler. Watching a sunrise over the Persian Gulf from the bow of his ship. The first time he felt Penny kick in Maureen’s belly. Treating his parents to a meal at their favourite Seattle diner.

Where do I even start?

“Can’t think of any?” Maureen prods, jarring him out of his thoughts. He figured she was asleep already.

“Too many. Can’t choose.”

“Just pick one and tell me about it.”

“That gorgeous little bed and breakfast we stayed in on our honeymoon in Tuscany. The one with the stone walls, wooden floors and four-poster bed.”

“With the window that wouldn’t close and this bird that kept trying to get in at night?”

“Yeah, that one. The little co*ckblocker.”

Maureen laughs. “He tried. Unsuccessfully.”

“Then the next day, we went on the most amazing hike.”

She yawns again. “The one where we got lost and ended up having to sleep outside a church?”

“You mean in that field, under the stars.”

“Pretty sure it was a cemetery.”

He laughs. “Okay, clearly our memory of this is a little different.”

“Hey…” Her hand reaches up to caress his cheek. “Not in the way you think.” Maureen opens her eyes and looks up at him. “The air and the skies, they were so clear that night. Already back then those days were getting rare. It didn’t matter that all we had on us were the clothes on our back, a thermos of water and a couple of chocolate bars. It was warm enough to sleep outside and we were blanketed by a sea of stars that hadn’t been visible to the naked eye in years. No phones, no wars, no deadlines, just you and me, and about a million cicadas chirping among the tombstones.” She closes her eyes with a smile and he can feel her drifting off. “It was magical.”

Yeah, it was.

Even more so now, after seeing it through her eyes. Her memory’s not nearly as rose-coloured as his but Maureen always reminds him that reality is stunning enough.

He looks down to see his wife’s head lolled to the side, fast asleep.

John checks the time on his comm.

Fifteen minutes. He’ll give her fifteen minutes before they have no choice but to face the world and make some major decisions.

He watches her sleep.

One more memory to add to the list.

Jupiter 13

Later

Don West sees his girlfriend sitting on the floor of the garage, knees pulled up with her back against the wall. Drained.

He hands her a cup of herbal tea and sits down next to her. Cups one of her knees with his hands and gives it a squeeze. “How’d it go?”

Judy frowns. “We did what we could, with what we had. Our garage isn’t meant for surgery.”

“Is he gonne make it?”

She takes a sip of tea. “I hope so. The next twenty-four hours are gonna be critical.”

“Can we go into orbit during that time?”

“I wouldn’t suggest it….” Judy sighs. “But from what I hear we might not have a choice.”

Don leans his head back against the wall. “One of the newcomers who’s been stationed on the roof of the Ventana as a sentry is pretty certain that the fleet of robot ships we saw earlier basically obliterated the town. There’s nothing left.”

Judy’s face is a mix of anger and grief. “How did they end up turning on us so fast? So brutally?”

Don sighs. “I’m not convinced it’s all of them.”

“You think it’s Taron who’s leading an entire army through some mind-meld? If that’s true all we’d have to do is take him out.”

“I don’t know if it is,” Don admits. “True or not. Besides, we have no idea where he is and we have no army to speak of.”

“So we go back to Earth?”

“I guess.” He rests his chin on top of her head. The curls tickling his jaw. “At least we have that option now. What about the others? Vijay? Prisha?”

“Prisha has a broken leg. We set it and made her a cast. She’ll be able to use it to walk almost immediately. Like when Mom broke hers during our first crash landing. And Vijay, he has some contusions, a broken wrist and a concussion. They all got banged up when their convoy was attacked, but Vijay and Prisha will be fine.”

“Not if they lose Victor….”

“If I can’t do worst case scenarios, you’re not allowed either.”

Her lips curl into a smile. “ ‘Kay. Fair.”

“He’ll make it,” Don insists. “He gets too much pleasure bossing us around not to.”

“Hey….”

Judy sees her father climbing down the ladder. Followed by her mother, who takes nearly twice as long.

“Do you need to stay with Victor?” Her father asks. “We’re all gathering in the Watanabe’s ship to meet up and decide what to do next. It’d be good if you came too.”

“I don’t think they’ll want the opinion of a crew member,” Don quips.

“Pretty sure no one’s checking rank anymore,” John points out.

“Plus, you’re family,” Maureen adds.

“Someone tell that councillor…”

“We were able to move Victor into the cryo-tube,” Judy says. “Prisha won’t leave his side and she’ll call me if anything changes. So, we can come.”

The others are coming down the ladder too – Penny, Vijay and Smith, looking equal parts excited and apprehensive.

Will and the robot are already in the garage, ready to head out.

“Okay, let’s go.” John lowers the ramp and then reaches for Maureen’s hand, slides his fingers through hers, as he leads his family off the Jupiter 13 for what will likely be their last gathering on Alpha Centauri.

Chapter 28

Chapter Text

Chapter 28

Watanabe’s Jupiter

The Hub in the Watanabe’s Jupiter is packed.

It’s wall-to-wall people, most of them standing. Only a handful have a seat at the table and they include Gerhardt, their interim leader. As well as John and Maureen, Hiroki and Naoko and one of the engineers from the group on the Ventana.

Gerhardt wastes no time in getting to the point. Looking at Judy and Agnieszka when he asks the first question. “How soon can we go into orbit without risking Victor’s life?”

“I can’t give you a set time,” Judy answers. “It doesn’t work like that. We could take off now and he could be totally fine, or things could get worse and we’ll have to take him out of the cryo-tube and maybe do another surgery. I don’t know.”

“Alright, then,” A dark-haired woman that they don’t recognize, who’s standing behind the councillor, speaks up. “How long until you might know more?”

“The next twelve hours are critical,” Agnieszka answers for her. “Then we will know more.”

There’s an unsettled murmur that sweeps across the room.

“Twelve hours is a long time to wait and hope that no one sees us.”

“I don’t think we should risk everyone’s life here to increase the odds for one man,” a blonde woman standing near the wall points out. “I’m sure Victor Dhar would agree.”

“Yes,” Gerhardt agrees. “Victor Dhar was always on the side of the collective good.”

“That’s convenient to say when neither my mom or dad are in the room to stand up for themselves,” Vijay says, standing behind John, next to Penny, who’s holding on to his hand.

“Why don’t we compromise and wait a few hours, see if his condition changes?”

“Every minute we stay here longer puts us all at risk!”

“There is something else,” Gerhardt stands up and holds up his hand in a gesture to quiet them. “Something that most of us here don’t know. We received…some disturbing news from Earth, just before our last communication tower went down.”

The room falls silent as all eyes turn to him.

“We knew at the last Town Hall that Russia launched nuclear weapons against France, but we didn’t know what the retaliatory actions were. Now we do. NATO struck back at Moscow. Hard. India got involved too.”

Jaws drop and there are audible gasps.

John and Maureen look at each other. Stunned.

“You’re saying we’re going back to a planet that’s now in the midst of World War Three?”

“When exactly did you get this news?” Maureen wants to know. “Do the people aboard the Solidarity know what they’re coming home to?”

“We received our last communication from Earth about two hours after the Solidarity took off,” Gerhardt informs her. “Their command crew was told as soon as we knew and we don't believe they'll tell their passengers. It wouldn’t have changed anything. We don’t know of a better alternative. Every habitable planet we’ve discovered so far comes with dangers that outweigh those on Earth.”

Don turns to Maureen. “What about your Goldilocks planet?”

Maureen shifts in her seat as all eyes turn on her. “Kastor 2. It’s a planet in the….”

“Parceon constellation,” A young man with glasses finishes for her. “Lester Chung,” he adds. “I’m an astrophysicist.”

“It is. Yes.”

“Kastor 2 is too far away to determine with certainly whether or not it can even sustain microbial life,” Lester adds.

“Also true, but there are multiple strong indicators that go beyond its ideal location within the star system.”

“Can we go there with the alien engine and then go back to Earth if it's not habitable?” Aiko wants to know.

“It’s one and a half times the distance from Alpha Centauri to Earth, in the opposite direction,” Maureen answers.

“But if we use the alien engine to create a rift, the distance barely matters, right?” Don points out.

“In theory, sure, but it’s a technology that none of us really understand. We’re using it based on successful prior use, not based on any sort of knowledge or testing. Basically, we’re crossing our fingers and hoping it’ll work every time, no matter the destination.”

“Is there anyone in this room who worked on the Resolute build and knew about the alien engine?” Gerhardt asks.

No one responds.

“Hastings and Adler kept it within a very small circle,” Maureen points out. “Most people who worked on the original build had no idea.”

“So, you’re saying we shouldn’t risk it, going through a rift to this potentially habitable planet, because we might not get back to Earth with the same technology?” Gerhardt questions.

“No. That’s not what I was saying,” Maureen answers. “Personally, after the news you just gave us, I’d risk it.”

“Even if it is habitable,” John questions. “What are we going to do? Colonize a new world with just the people in this room? There’s nothing there, Maureen. We’d have to build everything from scratch and hope we could feed and house us in the process…”

“I know…” She doesn’t disagree. “But what’s the alternative? A dying planet in the middle of an apocalyptic war?”

The murmurs start up again as tense whispers spread through the room.

“We should vote,” someone pipes up from the back. “Earth or Kastor 2.”

“And those who don’t agree with the outcome can take their chances here. We’re not forcing anyone to go anywhere.”

“Staying here might not be safe either,” Smith joins the conversation. “We now know that the alien engines can be used as weapons of mass destruction. I’ve seen the damage they can do on the planet I was stranded on with the kids from the Resolute.”

“So, is that what we want?” Gerhardt questions. “A vote to decide on where to go?”

“Or what?” Don asks. “You decide?”

“I don’t think it should be our vote,” Hiroki speaks up for the first time.

“You think Gerhardt should decide?” Naoko questions.

“No,” Hiroki answers. “We’re here because the Robinsons reached out to us. They have a robot and they risked their lives to get the engine and supplies and a ship. It should be their decision.”

Another crescendo of murmurs. A bunch of nodding heads and whispers of “agree” alongside a few voices of dissent.

“Victor would agree….” Everyone’s head turns around to see Prisha taking a tentative step into the Hub. “It should be their decision.”

“Mom?” Vijay stares at her.

“Prisha….” Judy steps towards her. “Did you climb the ladder?”

“I did. Your mobile cast is perfect.”

“Not for that kind of activity….”

“I came here because I feel like Victor, as the deputy councillor in charge of what remains of this colony, should have a voice at this meeting.”

“If you’re certain that’s what he would want, then… I can accept that,” Gerhardt turns to John and Maureen. “Is your family willing to make this decision, with the knowledge that all of our lives might depend on it?”

“Not saying we want to, but, yes, we can,” John nods.

“Fine. It’s settled,” Gerhardt stands up to signal the end of their meeting. “We wait six hours to see whether there’s a change in Victor’s condition. Meanwhile, the Robinsons decide whether we head back to Earth or if it’s worth the risk to travel to another potential Alpha Centauri. We’ll do an inventory of our supplies to ensure we have enough to support our initial survival on a new planet…” He pauses, “If you decide on the latter. Meanwhile, we stay dark and cold. Sentries on the roofs and no power unless absolutely needed. Anyone not involved in any of those tasks….I suggest you get some rest.” He checks his comm. “In six hours, we reconvene. Here.”

The murmurs crescendo at first and then slowly die down as people leave the Hub, one after the other until only the Watanabes and the Robinsons are left.

“You didn’t have to do that.” Maureen tells Hiroki as soon as the others are gone.

“I’m not sure we want that responsibility,” John adds.

“It should be your decision,” Hiroki repeats.

“I agree,” Naoko adds. “I trust you will make the right one. It’s because of your family’s decisions that we’re all here now. That we even have a choice.”

“Okay,” John pushes himself off the chair and holds out a hand for his wife. It doesn't matter if he wants the responsibility or not, he's willing to accept it and face the consequences. “We’ll decide. And we’ll back be in six hours.”

It’s a short, quiet walk back to the Jupiter 13.

Agnieszka and Judy check on Victor, whose cryo-tube is still in the garage of their ship – the rest of their surgical theatre scrubbed up, with the materials still in place. Just in case.

But both doctors are pleased with what they’re reading on the screens.

Vijay’s there too, getting ready to settle in for the night, while the rest of the Robinsons make their way up into the Hub.

“Happy voting!” Smith grins. “Pick the lesser of two evils please.”

Maureen raises her brows. “You’re not getting off that easy. You’re joining us.”

“What?” Smith looks at her. “I’m not…”

“A Robinson,” Maureen cuts her off. “Yeah…I know. Stop protesting so hard. You helped look after our kids for a year while we were stranded, then you stuck around with them when our house was about to go up in flames, and now you helped us rescue the Dhars. You carried Victor down from an abandoned mine when I couldn’t….” Maureen’s eyes meet hers. “You don’t have to be a Robinson, but you do get a vote.”

Smith is taken aback. The notion of someone wanting them in their family is entirely alien to her. “Well, all right then…fine.”

“And you too, Agnieszka,” Judy nods to her former roommate. “You helped get our fuel, our supplies…”

“And Debbie and the chickens,” Don pipes in.

“Uhm, Debbie is also a chicken,” Judy reminds him with a smirk. “Plus, let’s be honest, you’re the one who did the surgery on Victor. I just handed you the tools.”

Agnieszka is grinning. Decidedly more excited about the prospect of joining their family than Smith. “Really? I am like a Polish Robinson?”

“Whatever kind you want to be.” Judy’s gaze turns towards her father after realizing she’d made an executive decision, that maybe wasn’t hers to make. “Right?”

He looks at Maureen who nods with the slightest smile. “Yes. Right.”

It’s John who brews a pot of tea as they all gather around the table in the Hub once more, but this time inside their own ship.

He’s also the one who starts the conversation as he takes a seat next to Maureen. “Do we want to discuss this first? Does anyone have questions or something to say, or is everyone ready to cast a vote?”

“Let’s go around the table, let us know what you think. No judgment. Everyone speak freely,” Maureen suggests and because Will is to her left, she gives him a nudge to start.

He looks at her. “You don’t know for sure that this new planet is habitable, do you, Mom?”

“No,” Maureen reiterates. “I don’t. There are strong indicators but we’ve had strong indicators before.”

“And you don’t know for sure if we can get back to Earth if it’s not?”

“No. Not for sure. But I have no reason to believe that it won’t be possible. Why this one time it wouldn’t work.”

“Okay,” he nods before turning his attention to the rest of the table. “I think…that we’re here now because we were always willing to take risks. It’s what we’ve done the last three years.”

“Yeah, because we had no choice.” Penny mumbles.

“Will….” Maureen gestures to him. “Do you have anything else you want to add?”

“No. Just that I’m still willing to take a risk. Even after everything.”

“Penny?”

“I want to stop running away,” she says softly. “I want normal. Boring. I want it so bad.” She sighs. “And sometimes I feel like I’m the only one in this family that does.”

“You’re not,” John assures her. “Trust me, you’re not.”

“Definitely, not,” Don agrees.

“Judy?”

“I want us to have a future. All of us, together. I want to be a doctor not a soldier. I don’t want to fight in wars or go into hiding. Or go back to another planet that’s in the middle of a war.”

“Don?”

“Yeah…same. I want that for you. But I also want quiet, boring. You have no idea.” He scratches his three-day stubble. “But I don’t think that’s gonna happen – no matter which decision we make. They’re both risky and dangerous.”

“Smith?”

“I don’t want to go back to Earth. Me and that planet did not get along.”

“To the point. As usual. Agnieszka?”

“I don’t know what I want,” the young surgeon confesses. “I wanted to stay here. That’s what I wanted.” She shrugs. “Earth is bad right now, but at least we know it. It’s home.”

“John?”

“Agnieszka’s right, Earth is a mess. But it has infrastructures ready to support life. We have no idea what might await us on another alien planet. It may look perfectly habitable on the surface but what if it’s not? What if…there’s another black hole lurking behind its sun too? At least on Earth we know what to expect and maybe….maybe we can make a difference there. Help out somehow.”

Maureen nods. “It’s a good point.”

“But you don’t agree.”

“I’ll go back if we have no other choice, but I think we do, and that we should at least give it a try. If we have an alien engine and a robot, it almost certainly means that it doesn’t have to be a one-way ticket.” Maureen pauses. “But I’d risk it, even if it was.”

“I don’t think any of us know what the right choice is,” Will adds. “But can we promise each other something?”

“What?”

“That no matter what we vote for, we stick together and we’ll be okay with the decision?”

Judy agrees. “Of course.”

Maureen reaches out her hand, links it with John’s who in turn links his other hand with Agnieszka, until everyone’s hands are joined. “That’s the one thing I can promise.”

“Robinson’s stick together.”

No one needs any more time to make their choice and they vote openly.

Agnieszka, Penny and John vote for Earth.

Judy, Don, Will, Maureen and Smith for Kastor 2.

John’s the one who gets up first. “I’ll go downstairs. Tell Prisha and Vijay.”

Judy follows suit. “I need to go check on Victor.”

“I will come with you,” Agnieszka says, grabbing her half empty mug of tea and setting it in the sink.

Don gets up too. “Guess I have six hours to get some repairs done.”

“I’ll help you,” Maureen offers. “Considering I’m responsible for the damage.”

“I gotta feeling she’d be in worse shape if I went to rescue the Dhars,” John admits. “How about you go over all your research on our new home planet, while I help Don?”

“Fine,” Maureen agrees. She is itching to go over her notes again to make sure there’s nothing she overlooked. Nothing major that she missed, because she never had enough time to spend researching it while on the Solidarity build.

“We can help with the repairs too,” Will offers pointing to the robot.

“Great,” John accepts the offer. “Let’s get her in top shape in six hours.”

In the six hours before reconvening in the Watanabe’s Jupiter, they hear several loud explosions in the distance and it makes everyone on the four ships increasingly eager to leave.

When they do meet up, Judy and Agnieszka announce that Victor Dhar’s vitals have remained stable and that if he remains in the cryo-tube, he should be able to weather the journey through the rift.

The Robinsons announce their decision and Gerhardt offers anyone unwilling to make the journey the option to remain behind.

No one takes it.

“The robot will set up the engine in our ship as soon as we finish this meeting,” John tells them. “It’s something that can be done in minutes. Those with suits should put them on, those without might want to travel aboard a Jupiter. You won’t need a suit unless there’s an emergency, but if there is we can also seal the Hubs for maximum protection. Once we’re in orbit and out of Alpha Centauri’s atmosphere, we’ll do a final radio transmission before opening the rift to make sure everyone on all ships is ready and to ensure that there are no robot ships nearby who might wanna piggy-back and catch a ride to our new home. One ship after the other will go through the rift. Starting with the Jupiter 13 and ending with the Ventana.”

“Once we enter Kastor 2’s solar system, we’ll orbit the planet for at least 24-hours.” Maureen adds. “To give us the chance to study it at close range. To find out with greater certainty, whether or not it can sustain human life. Or…if it already contains signs of life. If we decide it’s safe, we’ll choose an optimal landing spot. If it’s not, we’ll head for Earth the same way we got to Kastor 2.”

“You make it sound like a nice, simple good-old American road trip,” Gerhardt quips.

“It’s not. A million things could go wrong.” Maureen exhales and pauses, as if the weight of it all suddenly hits her hard. “I just…I hope it won’t.”

“All right, then,” the interim deputy councillor nods. “Let’s get ready to leave this planet. Before we get blown out of it.”

They have four space suits on the Jupiter 13.

John, Maureen and Don each put one on, as they plan to stay in the co*ckpit.

Prisha takes the fourth one, because she wants to stay in the garage, next to Victor. Because they can’t hoist the cryo-tube up into the Hub and she can’t bring herself to leave his side.

The rest of them – Judy, Penny, Will, Agnieszka, Smith and Vijay settle into the Hub. They strap in and huddle around the table. A couple of them flinch when the doors are sealed shut and they see the robot place his hands on the now circular engine apparatus.

They hear John’s voice through the intercom as he does the final pre-flight check from the pilot’s seat. Can feel the engines roar to life underneath them as the countdown to a new life begins.

Ten.

Nine.

Eight.

Will, Judy and Penny reach for each other’s hands amidst the thunderous, deafening roar of the rockets.

Three.

Two.

One.

They barely hear their father’s voice as their bodies are pressed into the seats and the ship begins its vertical ascent.

“Lift off.”

Chapter 29

Chapter Text

Chapter 29

Parceon Constellation

They’ve been orbiting Kastor 2 for almost twenty-four hours and, along with the three other ships circling the Earth-like planet, everyone on board the Jupiter 13 has been frantically collecting as much data about their new home as possible.

It's a much easier task now that the planet is close enough to see with the naked eye.

Maureen and Prisha have been doing most of the research while enlisting everyone else to help them sort it out, with Will being their most eager assistant.

So far all the results have exceeded their expectations.

The atmosphere contains breathable air. The gravity is near-identical to that on Earth. There are large bodies of liquid water.

“This planet isn’t just capable of sustaining life, I’m certain it already does,” Maureen told John a couple of hours ago.

“But there are no built-up settlements of any kind? No alien equivalent of human cities?”

“None that we’ve been able to identify from up here.”

“Meaning there might be hordes of killer alien species living under the ground in caves…”

“John…”

“Look, we haven’t had the best of luck with planets the last few years.”

“Can we be cautiously optimistic for five minutes?”

He’d planted a kiss on her forehead then, which succeeded in erasing some of the worried creases there.

Fine. He’ll give her all the cautious optimism in the world but he’s still a soldier and he’ll never not anticipate every possible thing that can go wrong. Accept the unexpected.

It was why they were orbiting the planet to begin with. To scope it out before deciding on the perfect spot to land – and hopefully settle.

In the meantime, the Jupiter 13 is lucky, because, thanks to their alien engine, it’s the only orbiting ship with gravity. It makes a lot of things easier and treating Victor Dhar is at the top of that list.

It’s where John is now, standing next to his friend whom he’s helped to lift out of the cryo-tube and into a regular makeshift bed in the garage.

Victor’s still looking rough, but he’s conscious again – drugged and out of it, but conscious.

“Hey…” John gives him a grin when he sees Victor’s eyes focusing in on him. “Welcome back.”

“John Robinson,” Victor croaks out his name. “Prisha tells me we’re relocating to another planet. Or did I dream that?”

John pulls up a chair. The one that Prisha sat in during her post-operation vigil while he was still in the cryo-tube. “It’s true.”

“Whose idea was that?”

“Who do you think?”

“Your wife.”

“Good guess.”

“Heard she’s the one who rescued me.”

“She had help.”

He exhales. Slowly. “I trust she made the right decision about this planet?”

“I’m not sold on it yet, but I do trust her. With my life.”

Victor closes his eyes. Exhausted from the effort of talking. “Thank you. For coming to get me and my family. I owe you one.”

John feels a jolt of sudden guilt. Don’t thank me…I would’ve considered your rescue too big a risk. “I’m glad… that you’re gonna be okay. None of us are too crazy about your replacement. So get well soon.”

Victor struggles to move his dry lips into a smile. “I’ll do my best.”

John gives himself a few minutes to sit with him. To not think about all the challenges that are waiting ahead for them. “I don’t doubt it.”

Judy’s bare limbs are entwined with Don’s for maximum skin-on-skin contact.

Funny, how she, who’s been so disciplined her whole life, seems to have absolutely no willpower when it comes to Don West. They tore off their clothes as soon as they locked the door of their room. Had urgent can’t-wait-a-second-longer sex and then giggled over a fair amount of after-play followed by more sex and then had a quick, ice-cold shower together before diving back into bed.

And now, she really wants him again.

But Judy bites her lip, fights back the urge, and wriggles her body into his a little more. Closer still because it’s never close enough.

He’s stroking her spine with an index finger and it’s sending goosebumps along her arms. Especially when it slides lower and then slowly hooks around into that still too-sensitive part of her.

She moans when that roving, pulsating finger reaches its desired destination.

“I thought you said you were wiped out.”

“I am,” he mumbles, teeth nibbling at her ear lobe while his finger continues driving her wild.

Mechanics are marvelous multi-taskers, she’s learned.

She whimpers as he gets her to climax again. Satiating her sufficiently that for now this is enough. Lying here like this, tangled up in his limbs.

“I’m scared,” he confesses out of nowhere. Staring at the ceiling instead of meeting her eyes.

It makes Judy prop up on her elbow to hover over him. “Of what?”

His eyes meet hers. “Losing this. You. Us.”

“You won’t.”

He doesn’t look convinced. “I never used to be scared of much of anything. I used to be willing to risk my job, risk landing my ass in jail to make some extra bucks. But things are different now. All of a sudden, I have so much I could lose…it’s f*cking terrifying.”

Judy rests her head on his chest. “It’s the opposite for me…I used to worry about stupid things. Like not getting the highest average in class, coming in second in a track and field event, not living up to Mom’s expectations, not being the best doctor…but now, for the first time in my life I’m not scared of failing.”

His fingers play with her hair. “You saying I dragged you down to my level of mediocrity?”

“No,” she snorts. “That’s not what I meant, you idiot. You are anything but mediocre.” She turns her head so that her chin is digging into his flesh. “I just needed to realize that being first on paper, it doesn’t mean anything. Doesn’t make you happy.”

“Are you happy now?”

“Yeah.”

“I know happiness…it’s gotta come from inside us and all that. But I still wanna make you happy, Jude.” His eyes are fixed on hers. “’Cause I love you.”

Her eyes widen.

“You don’t have to say it back,” he adds quickly. “I know it’s too soon. Maybe it’s too much. But it’s true. I do, I have for a while, and I wanted you to know, in case everything goes to sh*t when we land on this planet.”

She smirks. “And if it doesn’t, do you still want me to know?”

“Well, now you do, so it's too late for second thoughts.”

She giggles. “I don’t know much about love,” she confesses. “Just what I read about, watched in movies…and what I saw from my parents, and honestly, their love sometimes confused me, ‘cause it seemed like a lot of work most of the time and it didn’t always make them happy. But I’m starting to understand why they didn’t give up on it. I can’t imagine giving up on you.” She pushes herself back up. “I couldn’t do it when your Jupiter transport crashed. I was ready to spend the rest of my life looking for you.”

“Don’t do that. Not worth it.”

“Don’t say that,” she glares at him. “Ever. ‘Cause this, you and me…it goes both ways. You’re worth everything.”

He kisses the arm she’s since curled around his neck. He doesn’t look entirely convinced about that either, and it makes her want to shake him. That ridiculous, stubborn, sexy ass of his that still thinks she’s better than him somehow.

It drives her crazy. And it makes her understand how love isn’t always easy.

“I love you,” he keeps saying it and she doesn’t question it anymore.

Falls asleep to his words instead.

“Stand still,” he tells her for the second time.

“Sorry,” Maureen mumbles. She thought she was, but apparently not still enough.

It’s hard to stand still when it feels like her whole body is running on a nervous, excited buzz of adrenaline.

She spent the entire day analyzing their gorgeous new home planet – now up close and only two thousand three hundred kilometres below them – and nearly all her guesses have been confirmed. It’s not just habitable but downright Earth-like.

Minus the nuclear war…

There are still hundreds of potential hazards they won’t be able to identify until they actually touch down on its surface. But…it looks so very promising.

Maureen can’t wait to land down there.

“Seriously, how hard is it to stand still?”

“Okay, okay.”

John sighs and looks up at her.

“Sorry…” she whispers a second time, forcing her thoughts away from their upcoming descent down to the planet and concentrating on him now.

Thanks to the luxury of gravity, John is able to kneel on the floor of their dimly-lit bedroom as he changes the cooling bandage on her side. He’s taking his sweet time with it, slowly, gently, running his fingers along every square millimetre of adhesive to make sure it’s affixed perfectly and comfortably.

For a man who can kill with his bare hands, he’s so extraordinarily tender with her sometimes.

For a split second it reminds her of the time he helped her suit up when they were trapped inside a Chariot at the bottom of a tar pit. He took his time then too – meticulously inspecting every seal with great care, needing to do it right. Because her life depended on it.

And because he thought it was the last thing he’d ever do for her.

Thank God it wasn’t.

Her heart skips a beat just thinking about it.

“Ahh…”

John raises his head in her direction. “Hurts?”

“No. Tickles.”

He groans, steadies her with flat palm on the small of her back. “Hold still.”

“Christ, John, I am but how long can this take?”

He keeps tracing the adhesive strip until it’s firmly in place and when it is, he co*cks his head sideways and inspects it once more, for good measure. Then his iron concentration finally eases as his fingers migrate to her hip bones, tracing their hard curves and then hooking his fingers around them so he can pull her closer and enjoy a lingering kiss over her navel, before the fabric of her t-shirt falls back down, landing on the bridge of his nose.

“Mmm…” He sighs contentedly before he pushes himself back up onto his feet with a grunt.

Maureen leans into him, wanting more now. “Don’t stop…”

But he does. Goes so far as to hold up the palm of his hand and take half a step away from her.

It’s such an intentional denial that it makes it hard to hide her disappointment.

“No?” she questions softly.

John sits down on the rim of the bed. “Let’s wait ‘til you’re healed. Fully, this time.”

She raises a single brow. Wants to argue but doesn’t. She sits down next to him and suddenly everything about this moment reminds her too much of when they cleaned out their kids’ rooms on that ring of Jupiters. Back when they were barely speaking to each other.

It’s not a time she ever wants to go back to.

“Is that the only reason?” she prods, because there’s an unmistakable melancholy on his handsome face.

“Yeah. Of course.”

“John?” she presses.

“I was thinking about the vote last night.”

“You were?”

“About the fact that we didn’t agree on which planet we want to live on.”

“Oh…”

“Isn’t that crazy?”

“Is it?”

“You don’t think so? Even Don and Judy picked the same one.”

“Come on,” Maureen rolls her eyes. “Don and Judy have been together for five minutes. I see plenty of disagreements in their future. And he’s so crazy about her, he’d have agreed if she voted to fly right into the Sun. You know, the one in our old solar system.”

“Funny.”

She narrows her brows and frowns. His serious mood is contagious. “Am I supposed to be apologizing for my vote?”

“No…no, of course not. But doesn’t it make you wonder?”

A knot tightens in her stomach. “Wonder about what?”

“We have wildly different dreams, Maureen. We always have. You want to keep exploring the stars. I just want a boring, quiet life with you and the kids. God, you have no idea how much I want that…didn’t even realize myself until recently. But you don’t. You never will.”

“You think Earth would’ve been quiet and boring? Considering half the planet is at war?”

“Okay, maybe that was the wrong comparison.”

“You know, for what it’s worth, Grant and I, we had all the same dreams. We both wanted to explore the universe, to be astronauts, so bad. I never blamed him for jumping at the chance to helm the Fortuna without giving our relationship a second thought…’cause I would’ve done the same thing in his shoes.” She gives John a wistful smile. “We both loved space more than each other. For a long time, I thought it would always mean more to me than anything. But then I had Judy and realized I loved her so much more than my dreams.”

Maureen fidgets with the rim of her t-shirt before she meets his eyes. “What I’m trying to say, babe, is that sharing a dream…it’s not what keeps people together. I won't lie and say I want to go back to Earth…I don’t. But I was ready and willing to go back on the Solidarity even with only one child coming along. It was worth it, to keep just one of them safe and I’d have gone back with all of you if Earth won the vote last night. Maybe we don’t agree on which planet we want to live on, but I do know I want to be on the same one as you.” She slides her hand over his thigh. “I’ll always want our family, want you, more than anything else. More than the stars.”

He exhales, as if a weight’s been lifted off his broad shoulders.

“It’s why you’re here too, isn’t it?” She asks. “Because you feel the same way.”

“I’ll always follow you and our kids to the ends of the universe.”

Her eyes light up. “See? I win out over a boring life.”

He laughs. The melancholy gone. “Yeah…you do.”

“I don’t think our dreams are as different as you think they are. I want us as much as you do.”

He nods. “Thanks. For reminding me.”

“Anytime.” She grins. “Now can we make out?”

“No.” He pulls her into an embrace. Kisses her lips. “I love you too much. Besides, Judy would kill me.”

Maureen sighs after their lips part. “Fine then.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t give you what you want.” He growls. “Lie down.”

She doesn’t protest when he nudges her down on the bed. Unbuttons her jeans and slides them off her legs. Glides his calloused fingers underneath her panties and slowly pulls those off as well.

She fists the bedsheets when his head snakes in between her thighs and that glorious mouth of his expertly begins to release all her pent up tension.

Soaring among the stars always pales a little compared to the heights she reaches with him.

It’s been hard finding unoccupied spaces on the increasingly crowded Jupiter.

Smith used to think it was crowded back on the water planet, when it was just her and Don and the Robinsons. Even though she had her own little prison cell, it still felt crowded. But now they’ve added the Dhars – camped out in the garage -, the robot and that young Polish surgeon to the mix.

They’re practically bursting at the seams.

To think, she only went to see the Robinsons to have a place to sleep after getting out of prison, and here she was, stuck with them and headed to a new planet once again.

She frowns when she sees that her favourite spot on the ship is already occupied. That giant window ledge in the co*ckpit that’s big enough to lie on.

On which someone else is currently already lying and staring out into space.

Oh for f*ck’s sake.

“Hi,” the young Polish woman, Aggie, greets her. She has very, very blue eyes hidden behind a pair of oddly-shaped glasses that do absolutely no justice to her pretty face and high cheekbones. Her light blond hair is woven into a single braid and held together with a cartoonish hair clip that would look better on a five-year old.

Smith fights back a sudden urge to give her a make-over right then and there. Because with a little fashion guidance she’d be stunning.

Not everyone gives a damn about that, Smith reminds herself. Not everyone’s as shallow as I am.

Meanwhile, Agnieszka is looking at her as if she’s trying to figure her out. Like a math equation on a chalk board. She sits up and slides over to make room for Smith.

Smith frowns, because she planned to go look for another spot to be alone, but this unspoken invitation makes it hard. Plus, there’s something magnetic about the young woman that draws her in.

Smith reluctantly sits down.

Kastor 2 is showing off outside the window. White-brown masses of land sandwiched between giant Cerulean pools of water and occasional splashes of green.

“She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” Smith muses as she sits cross-legged on the ledge and stares at their new home.

“Yes,” Agnieszka agrees.

“Doesn’t it make you feel better about the outcome of the vote?”

“I think I wanted to go back to Earth to be with my girlfriend. Is stupid…because she would be in different country anyway.”

“Oh…” Smith doesn’t know what else to say. She struggles with expressing empathy. Especially when it comes to matters of the heart. She’s not sure she’s ever loved, or been loved, that way.

Agnieszka’s still studying her. “Are you excited to go down there?”

Smith has to think for a moment, trying to decide whether that’s the right word to describe what she’s feeling.

It is.

Her lips widen into a smile. “Yes. Yes, I am.”

“How would you have voted?” Penny asks him.

“I didn’t get a vote.”

It almost sounds bitter. “Hey it wasn’t me, or anyone in my family, who asked to make the decision for everyone else.”

“I know…” Vijay acknowledges. “But Agnieszka ended up getting one.”

“That was Judy’s idea!” Penny exclaims. “I think…she did it to let her know she could be part of our family if she wants. Because she doesn’t have any family of her own. That’s all.”

“I’m not angry or anything, just sayin’…”

She’s sitting on the floor next to Vijay, her back leaning against one of the wheels of the Chariot that’s parked in the garage.

“How’s your headache?”

“It’s okay,” he mumbles. “Like, it’s there but not terrible. Your sister gave me some pills.”

“That’s good.” Penny loops one of his dark curls around his ear. There’s a definite bump near the top of his head. He squirms when one of her fingers brushes against it.

“Sorry,” she murmurs and weaves her fingers into his hand instead. Her own hands are still blistered and bandaged.

They’re all banged up and bruised. Back on Earth they’d never be cleared for space travel in their current states, but here they are.

Vijay wants to lean in for a kiss but then pulls back when he sees his father’s head turn towards them while half sitting on his bed.

Both his parents are within view at the other corner of the garage and Penny’s never felt entirely comfortable being affectionate with Vijay around them, especially near Victor. Although they’re cool with the two of them dating, after all they even let her stay with them while her dad was looking for Mom and Don. But they’re definitely more strict about things like this than her own parents.

Funny, she used to think her parents were ridiculously strict but now she knows better.

His fingers toy with her bandaged hands when he finally answers her question about the vote. “I guess I’d pick whichever place my dad picked.”

“Seriously?” Penny groans. It’s another thing she doesn’t quite get about him. How he never questions the wisdom of his parents.

“He knows more about this stuff than I do,” he explains. “Don’t you trust your mom to make the right decision about these kinds of things?”

“Hell no,” Penny shoots back. “My mom blew up the Resolute, remember?”

“We probably wouldn’t be sitting here if she didn’t.”

Penny shrugs her shoulders. He might be right but she’s not entirely convinced. She doesn’t doubt that her mom’s super-smart – but she’s also confessed to her that she’s made her share of mistakes in the last few years.

What if this is one of them?

“We didn’t vote the same way.”

Vijay looks at her in disbelief. As if he couldn’t fathom doing the same in front of his parents. “Really? Wow.”

“Do you really think this is gonna work?” She asks him. “That we can just land down there and build a new colony?”

“Why not?”

“Because we’re not equipped for it. Not the way people were when they first started colonizing Alpha Centauri. I mean…they came to the planet in giant Resolute-sized space ships full of supplies! We’re like, not even sixty people, arriving in a bunch of flying motorhomes.”

Vijay laughs. “I never thought of it that way.”

“Doesn’t it terrify you? That we’re gonna be this tiny group of humans all alone out here?”

“No,” he says without hesitation. “After what happened to us on Alpha Centauri, I’d rather risk it here than stay there. I don’t ever want to go back there.” He holds her hand a little tighter. “And if we can’t make it on this planet, we can always use the alien engine to go back to Earth.”

“You make it sound like it’s so simple.”

Vijay shrugs. “Maybe it’s not, but we’ll figure it out.”

Then his glance darts over to where his parents are and when he sees that they’re not looking he plants a quick, chaste kiss on her cheek.

Next day

They’re back in the same place they were when they took off from Alpha Centauri.

John, Maureen and Don are in the co*ckpit, suited up.

Victor’s not mobile enough to head up to the main deck, so he’s in the basem*nt, along with Prisha, who won’t go to the Hub without him, even though they argued over it.

Vijay, Judy, Penny, Will, Smith and Agnieszka along with the robot are in the Hub, its doors sealed, just in case.

The Jupiter 13 will be the first ship to enter the planet’s atmosphere, followed by Hiroki’s Jupiter, then the Ventana supply ship, followed by the final Jupiter, J21.

“Preparing thrusters to move out of orbit,” Maureen’s voice echoes into the Hub from the co*ckpit through the intercom, allowing everyone to hear what’s going on.

She’s the one in the pilot’s seat this time because no one knows these ships better than she does and entering an alien planet’s atmosphere always comes with inherent risks. Drag and heat and the necessity of the perfect angle of attack. (Things they hadn’t exactly mastered in the last two planets they crash landed on). Most of it will be in the hands of the computer and it should get them to the surface without a hitch – if the numbers Maureen plugged into it were correct.

It means all her calculations about the planet’s atmosphere had to be correct.

They can start to feel the drag of gravity as they get closer to the surface. Feel the friction as the ship angles approximately forty degrees.

Everyone can feel the tension in the air.

John knows that Maureen is nervous, because he can spot the little tells that no one else would notice. Because no one else knows her the way he does. But he also knows that she’s got this. Knows there’s no one else he’d rather have at the helm of this ship. One look in her direction allows him to give her a silent reminder of that fact, just in case she needs one.

She does, and by the time the land below them is less than a kilometre away, they glide towards it. Smoothly and gracefully.

She sets the ship down in massive, snow-dusted field. There are tall grey, grassy blades blowing in the Kastorian wind and there's an endlessly long range of mountains visible in the distance, along with a wide, partially frozen river that runs about two kilometers from their landing site.

“Wow.” Even John can’t help but marvel at how beautiful it is.

The hard part is just beginning, but both John and Don allow themselves a moment to celebrate. Don high fives him as soon as he unbuckles his belt.

“Nice landing, Mom,” Penny’s voice cuts through the intercom into the co*ckpit.

Maureen turns around with a grin, the relief written all over her face as her eyes meet John’s. “We’re here, everyone. We made it.”

Chapter 30: Epilogue

Chapter Text

Epilogue

AKA Lost in Space (Part II)

by Penny Robinson

I’m not going to lie; the first three months were hard.

Like really hard.

Like we were this close to giving-up-and-going-back-to-Earth hard.

For starters it was cold. Much colder than we anticipated. It averaged -15C the first couple month and then went up to -10C in the second. (That’s about 5 degrees Fahrenheit for the Americans and Liberians reading this).

The only reason that giant river near us didn’t freeze completely is because its current is too strong.

It was dark too. The nights on Kastor 2 are longer than on most places on Earth. Our ships were crowded and, worst of all, we didn’t have enough winter gear to go around. We had two parkas on our ship and four space suits, so the maximum number of people that could go outside at a time was six. Other ships had even less.

We ended up settling about seventy kilometres north from where we originally landed, in an area that was a more sheltered and less windy. Our settlement is surrounded by foothills because now we’re much closer to that endlessly long mountain range. (A year later and we still haven’t named it). There’s more vegetation here too, knee-high grass and sections of forest with plants that look a lot like trees. Some of them barely taller than most humans, and others towering up to fifty feet tall. The main river’s a bit further away now but it’s still possible to walk to it and there’s a smaller creek that flows right by our settlement and provides us with all the fresh (or frozen) water we need.

The cold was hard but it wasn’t the only thing we struggled with in the beginning.

To be honest, I think all of us were still shell-shocked when we first landed on Kastor 2.

We’d just escaped a war and most of us left behind friends or family, and we had no idea if they were okay. We didn’t even know if the robots ended up destroying the entire planet.

We also didn’t know if the Solidarity made it back to Earth or how bad things were on Earth. .

We didn’t know back then and we still don’t know.

On top of it, most of us were hurt, either physically or psychologically or both.

In my family everyone was still mourning Grant.

Victor’s recovery was steady, but slow.

I had a lot of nightmares those first few weeks.

They were mostly about the man I saw killed in our neighbourhood, when the horde of robots came and tried to set our house on fire. I thought maybe it would be the dead man I saw in the mine where Vijay and his family were hiding that would haunt me, but it wasn’t.

It was the stranger killed in our cul-de-sac.

I have no idea who he was but at night he always crept into my subconscious brain. I wondered about him. Why did he run? Why did he die that day and I didn’t?

Worst of all I kept wondering, what if he wasn’t dead and we just left him there to die on our street?

What if I could have done something and didn’t?

I talked about it, with Mom, Dad and Will, and weirdly enough with Smith. Because she was there that day. She understood. All of them tried hard to convince me that there was nothing I could have done and it did help to talk about it, but it still didn’t make the nightmares go away.

I don’t dream about him that often anymore, but some nights he’ll be back and I wonder if he’ll ever go away.

That’s the thing about war that they don’t talk about in history class. How it keeps affecting you, even long after it’s over. Even once you’re far away from it.

Multiply that by fifty-eight, and you can understand why we struggled.

We also didn’t know each other very well and we suddenly had to live in very tight quarters. Fifty-eight people in four ships. From nine different countries on Earth. Of course everyone speaks English, but there are various other languages in our group.

I’m glad that on the Jupiter 13, at least, most of us were already family and had lived together before. But having Agnieszka and the Dhars join us definitely made it cozy. It was eleven people sharing one and a half bathrooms. (There’s a toilet and sink in the main bedroom, that Mom and Dad grudgingly shared with Judy and Don). And it’s not like we could go outside to get away from each other, or not for very long anyway, before we’d freeze our asses off.

We definitely got on each other’s nerves back then. We all had our good days and our bad days, thankfully not all at the same time.

Will and Smith were the biggest peacekeepers on the J13 during those first three months. They’d organize yoga classes and game nights (which were joined by half the colony in the end) and there was even a wild, completely inappropriate puppet show one night. We hadn’t laughed that hard in a long time.

But still – the first three months were hard.

Our biggest challenges – aside from trying to understand a whole new planet – was feeding and housing our group. In that order. In other words, the first thing we built was three greenhouses, because we couldn’t plant anything in the frozen soil and we weren’t all that sure how long this winter would last.

Lucky for us, Gerhardt is a whiz when it comes to growing food. He was actually the guy in charge of food production on Alpha Centauri – kind of like a Minister of Agriculture. That was his role on the council.

Who knew? (Not me).

We also have a soil specialist in the group and a couple of others who know what they’re doing when it came to planting crops. Including Dad, who’d become a bit of a crop expert while we were stranded on the water planet.

Given all that expertise, we were all confident that we’d have a steady supply of food in no time. So you can imagine how we all panicked when the first two crops failed to yield anything.

It had everyone scrambling to tweak what (and how) we were planting.

Two months in we started rationing our food supplies.

That was scary.

We weren’t just cold all the time, we were hungry too because the meals were never quite enough to really fill us up. Even though Mom and Dad would find ways to give us some of their rations. (Will and I swore we wouldn’t let them, but it’s so hard to stick to your guns and say no to food when you’re hungry). Plus, Will really needed it, because it seemed like he grew another inch every few weeks. He’s taller than all of us now, including Dad. We were so grateful for the chickens because at least they gave us a steady supply of eggs, which we all took turns sharing.

Of course, we searched for local food sources too, but that came with its own challenges. Everything had to be tested before anyone could consume it and we suspected that maybe, like on Earth, some animals migrated or hibernated during winter. (Although back then, we weren’t certain that there were warmer parts of the planet. In fact our research seemed to indicate that most other parts were even colder). Speaking of animal life, we did find some in those first three months and it was mostly aquatic.

Scaly creatures that seemed immune to the cold and lived in the large river that didn’t freeze. They looked like a mix of crustaceans and fish, with fins and elongated body shapes but also hard scales that covered parts of their bodies. They could move on land but mostly lived in the water. Needless to say, Hiroki was like a kid in a candy store – excitedly cataloguing all the new animal life around us, even though there wasn’t all that much. Until it got warmer, but more on that later.

Eventually we did end up eating some of the crish. (Hiroki gave them a fancier name, but most of us called them crish, because they looked like a mix of crab and fish). Some people in our colony were vehemently opposed to us eating any of the local wildlife, but a lot of them caved once we started rationing food.

And as if all that wasn’t enough drama, about seven weeks into our new life on Kastor 2, Judy realized she was pregnant. Or I should say, she suspected, and Agnieszka confirmed it with a blood test.

We were all…surprised. Okay, maybe shocked is a better word. At least for me it is. Because I was definitely shocked. Even Dad – who’s not surprised by much of anything – literally had to sit down when she told us.

It was the kind of “oops” that might be expected from me. Impulsive, careless me. But not from my super-smart, level-headed sister who never left anything to chance.

To be honest, I didn’t think she’d go through with the pregnancy. All things considered. But Judy surprised us all once more when she announced that she was planning to have the baby.

After that, everyone in the colony got a little protective of her. We all felt that we had to make sure that this was going to be okay. Because if my sister could have a baby here, it meant there could be a future here. For all of us.

It also gave us a big jolt of hope, something to look forward to, at a time when we needed it.

Smith joked that Judy did it on purpose, so she wouldn’t have to ration her food like the rest of us. But in reality she was just as excited and anxious about it as everyone else. Smith is part of the family now, whether she likes it or not. For what it’s worth, I think she does like it.

And after those three difficult months, thing slowly got better. They got a little easier and a lot warner.

Gerhardt’s third batch of crops survived and we all exhaled a collective sigh of relief.

To celebrate our first real harvest, we made a big bonfire outside and had a celebratory dinner, attended by everyone. It was now warm enough that we could be outside if we wore a couple of extra layers.

We had French fries, of all things. Mounds of little fried potato sticks! Naoko even made fresh ketchup from the tomatoes she grew on her ship to go with them.

It might’ve been the best meal I ever had. And for the first time in weeks, there was enough for everyone to have seconds and thirds.

We all stuffed our faces that night, and felt a little gross afterwards. But it was fun. There was music and dancing too and even some stuff that shouldn’t have been there – like a small bottle of liquor that got passed around and a couple of weird herb cigarettes.

I guess you could say we had our first Kastorian party that night.

I think humans are hard-wired with a need to celebrate their victories.

In the weeks the followed, the temperatures kept climbing and, although it wasn’t quite as warm as the California heat that I was once used to, it definitely felt like summer. You could go outside with short-sleeves and be comfortable.

A lot of things happened in the next two months.

Now that we could successfully grow our own crops, we could focus on other things, like housing and building an infrastructure for our small settlement.

Mom and Don, along with three other engineers were busy building turbines that would power our colony using the current of the massive river. We built a couple of wind turbines too.

Doing all of that stuff – building homes, power sources, plumbing – with a small number of people, is a lot of work.

Thankfully we have Robot, without whom everything would taken us so much longer.

Robot does the labour of about ten people and he never gets tired. Or, you know, needs sleep or pee breaks.

The Dhars were the first to move out of our Jupiter, into a little two-bedroom house built with the trunks of those tree-like plants that surrounded our colony. We decided our chief councillor should be the one to have the first house. We even had a little ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the occasion.

Smith and Agnieszka moved out next.

Together.

I know, right?

On paper (as if anyone still writes on paper), it might be a weird match but they seem happy.

I think Smith appreciates that Agnieszka never knew the old Doctor Smith. The one who ended a man’s life, who duped us and almost got Dad and Don killed. There’s not much of that Smith left, but I have a feeling that it wouldn’t even matter. Aggie’s the least judgmental person I know. She’s just endlessly curious and sees every new day as a blank slate to fill. Carpe diem.

Smith and Aggie share a small house near the creek. It’s a bit further away from the rest of the colony, but still close enough that they’re behind the perimeter fence we set up and close enough to always be in our orbit. Which is exactly how Smith likes it.

Jean-Luc and I often hang out with them in the evening at their place. Along with Don and Judy and Will. We’ve become a tight-knit group, the seven of us.

Here’s where I should probably mention that Vijay and I broke up around the time that Aggie and Smith moved out. Or, more accurately, I broke with him.

I felt bad about it, because he wanted us to stay together.

But I just didn’t feel the same way about him anymore. It’s like one morning I saw him as a friend instead of a boyfriend. It also scared me a little, how he started talking about our future, as if we were going to end up married and after seeing how quickly things got serious with Don and Judy, I was even more terrified.

I’m not ready for any of that. Not sure I’ll ever be.

It also didn’t help that I had a huge crush on Jean-Luc. (He’s the French-Canadian nurse who helped Aggie and Judy operate on Victor).

My feelings were all over the map that month, dominated mostly by guilt, because Vijay’s a truly nice guy.

I ended up having a long talk with Mom one morning, who, with her usual logic, reminded me that staying with someone out of guilt was a lousy reason to be with them. That it was even more unfair to him than breaking up. She also reminded me that it was perfectly normal for my feelings to change at my age. That I needed to be kind and honest, but that it was time to rip off the band-aid, as much as it might hurt.

She was right, of course, as usual. Even though she wasn’t exactly thrilled about my new romance, ‘cause Jean-Luc is twenty-five, six years older than me. But I’m almost nineteen now. An adult. I get to choose who I want to date – even if they’re six years older. Keep in mind, the dating pool here is very small.

I still listen to Mom and Dad’s advice, but I no longer have to follow it.

Being an adult means I’m old enough to make my own mistakes.

Not that I think Jean-Luc is a mistake! He’s amazing, A free spirit with a wicked sense of humour and a really wonderful way with people. And he’s gorgeous. My stomach still does a little flip-flop every time I’m near him.

It’s so different than how I felt with Vijay – I cared about him a lot and I loved being around him, but I’m crazy about Jean-Luc.

I know that level of infatuation won’t last.

Or maybe it will. Who knows. What do I know about anything?

Don and Judy were the last ones to move out and we all got a little teary that day, even though they’re literally about thirty metres away from us in their new dwelling.

After that, it was just the five of us left in the Jupiter 13. Mom, Dad, me, Will and Robot.

It would have been perfectly fine to keep using it as a house – it’s what it was meant to be once it’s stationary on new worlds - but the problem is we're not on Alpha Centauri. This colony needs our three Jupiters as a form of transportation. We have two Chariots too, but the Jupiters are our primary means of exploring the rest of Kastor 2. We’ve used them as exploratory ships ever since we found a means of making rocket fuel here. I’m not too sure about the details, but apparently there are bauxite and nitrate deposits nearby and that’s important. (Here’s where I point out that chemistry was always my worst subject).

Anyway, Mom would probably have been content to live on a spaceship forever, but Dad was itching to put down roots and get us all into a non-mobile home. One that didn’t end up airborne almost every day in the name of research and exploration. Dad spent every free moment he had working on getting it built, along with Robot, Will and Don’s help.

Other houses were going up at the same time, as we embarked on a ferocious building boom to create housing for everyone. Single-family units for the families and couples, and small a row of one-bedroom dwellings for the single people in our colony, of which there are quite a few.

The result of Dad’s efforts for us was a three-bedroom house with a fireplace, a wrap-around porch and a natural grass back-yard that stretches down to the creek, and is now home to several small garden plots.

I might be biased but I think it’s the most beautiful, little house in the colony. Even though I’m in a relationship, I have no intention of moving out anytime soon. Jean-Luc has his own single dwelling and I spend a lot of time there but I have no plans to move in.

Dad didn’t put all that effort into our house in order to show off. That’s not who he is. He just did it so that Mom would love it.

And she does, even though it doesn’t come with rocket engines.

Speaking of rocket engines, once we had a steady supply of fuel and started using the ships to explore the planet, the colony wanted to train more pilots and I was surprised that Mom suggested me as one of the trainees.

I didn’t think it was something I’d be any good at and I told her as much, but she kept insisting. In the end, she offered to train me herself. I think she did it because Dad had made it a habit to always take Will along on his exploratory land missions in the Chariot. Because they both knew that we enjoyed the one-on-one time with them.

It’s been nice to see Will and Dad getting closer. Although he’d never say it out loud, I know my brother missed having a father around when he was a kid. Dad was away on tour for much longer periods when Will was young than he was when Judy and I were growing up.

Of course eventually I caved, but I was certain that I’d be so bad at flying, that Mom would give up after a couple of lessons.

Now, six months later, I’ve never been happier to be wrong.

I couldn’t believe how much I loved flying!

Sure, learning all the technical stuff was hard and it didn’t come easily or naturally, but I was able to get it. I’ll never forget the adrenaline rush when during our fourth in-flight lesson, Mom told me to suit up and take the ship into orbit. Just me at the controls. No computer. No auto-pilot.

It was wild.

Another time I wanted to take the ship into orbit because we got caught in some crazy storm clouds (there are some wild storms on Kastor 2, unlike anything I’ve ever experienced on Earth) but Mom insisted I fly through it. Things got rough and patchy and I was so sure she’d take over the controls.

But she never did and I was able to fly through it. I landed us safely on some vast grasslands and we just stayed there and sat in the Hub. We had lunch together and then stared up through the glass ceiling and watched the clouds battle it out above us until the storm passed.

It was an incredible day.

Mom says I’m an intuitive pilot. Like Grant was. And honestly, having her compare my flying to Grant’s, who’s basically her gold standard for piloting skills, was the biggest compliment ever.

Anyway, for four months I spent every minute of the day cramming my brain and learning as much as I could and now I’m a Jupiter pilot, certified to fly our exploratory missions. I’m also learning to fly the Ventana, making me one of only seven people on the colony who can. (Thanks, Mom, for being pushy about this. For knowing me better than I know myself sometimes)

A lot of other things happened during those long summer months:

Well, for starters Judy got bigger. She was an adorable mom-to-be. At first, she was just this tiny little thing, with a cute little beach-ball belly, but as her pregnancy progressed, she kind of rounded out everywhere. She didn’t love that part – although Don did. He fussed over her even more than usual, which was no easy feat.

I think Judy, who’s always been such an active person, got a little frustrated that she had to slow down. That there were things she couldn’t do. Plus, I think she was a bit bored because there wasn’t much need for her medical skills. Aside from the battle scars we got on Alpha Centauri, we’re a very fit and healthy group. Good health in general, was mandatory for travel to Alpha Centauri. All of us get regular check ups from Judy and Aggie, because it’s important to discover any potential health issues early on, but aside from that there isn’t all that much for our two doctors and one nurse to do here. At least not when it comes to their chosen professions.

We did have one collective health scare when the weather first warmed up.

There’s this insect that breeds by the river that has poisonous stingers that come out right after they mate. They only live a few days once the stinger comes out (and apparently their breeding season barely lasts two weeks). But of course, none of us knew any of this, and nearly all of us got stung by them.

And then suddenly most of the colony was horribly sick.

I got stung too. I had a high fever and a rash and some wild hallucinations. I also threw up and couldn’t keep anything down.

But I don’t remember much else.

It didn’t last long for me. I was a mess for 24-hours and then felt like crap for another 24 but that was about it. Mom was the same.

Dad and Will got a lot sicker than we did and after his third night of hallucinations, Dad started to scare us. Mom pretty much stayed by his side the entire time and it reminded me that they’re not just our parents. They're also a couple that's in love with each other.

Eventually, his fever broke and Mom finally got some sleep.

But Dad, along with a few others, were sick enough that it made us realize these dying stingers were not to be trifled with.

Funny enough, that was the only time this past year that we really needed our medics, but everyone – especially Don - decided that it was too risky for Judy to get sick while pregnant. When we realized what was happening and that she hadn’t been stung yet, we basically stuck her behind the thickest insect netting we had and made her stay there. Completely against her will.

Aggie and Jean-Luc had to handle the entire crisis on their own.

Jean-Luc got sick too. He had a relatively mild case like me. But Aggie never did, even though she too was stung. Her and six others, including Don West and Hiroki (we were particularly glad about that, seeing as he’s the oldest member of our colony), had some sort of immunity that our biologist, Vinh, is now using to try and develop a vaccine.

Smith got super sick and it was the first time I saw Aggie get scared and flustered.

Love isn’t love until it’s vulnerable, someone once said, and I guess they’re right. It was obvious during that awful time. When we came a little too close to possibly losing some of our colonists.

Now we know that next time these insects breed, we either have to get out of town or hide under netting until that vaccine is ready.

We also discovered other animal life on the planet over the summer. Quite accidentally, when one of the Brazilian twins wandered off into the woods and came back with a big gash in his leg. Judy was all over that one, patching him up with the eagerness of a doctor who hadn’t practised in months.

Four colonists, including Dad, went back into the woods to try and find the predator, which they did. A giant, lizard-like creature that stood about four feet tall and had a sharp horn on its head, stained red with streaks of young Leandro’s blood. It tried to attack Dad and the others too, but they were armed with two rifles and one of them shot the creature dead before it had a chance to gore anyone else.

Its body was dragged back to our settlement, where Hiroki and Vinh had a field day dissecting and studying it. Aggie and Judy did a lot of observing and taking notes.

That creature is how we ended up with a perimeter fence and how Hiroki ended up speculating that this planet, with its lizard-like animal life, might be in an earlier stage of evolution than Earth. (I sure hope this doesn’t mean we’ll eventually run into dinosaurs). It doesn’t make sense, because on Earth lizards can’t survive cold climates. But then Don likes to remind us that we’re not on Earth and Earth rules don’t apply.

He might not be a scientist, but he has a point.

That said, our animal encounters have remained few and far between. Most creatures we’ve encountered are either insects or aquatic and amphibious vertebrae.

Later in the summer, when Judy was over six months along, we had a second pregnancy announcement. It came from Lucia, a former astronaut. It was a little scandalous because it turned out her husband isn’t the dad. Or at least that’s what he’s claiming. Still, once that drama slowly died down, we got just as excited about the notion of a second birth as we did about the first.

We’re a small group and we have no choice but to work things out amongst ourselves – whether we disagree with how to run the colony or when dealing with affairs and relationship crises. (We hold a lot of town halls to deal with the former).

We still don’t know who the baby’s father is, but as you can imagine, there’s a lot of guessing and gossip. (I’m betting on Vinh, our sweet, quiet biologist. ‘Cause we all know it’s always the quiet ones, right?).

Our summer lasted a good six months and it was wonderful.

But we knew it was coming to an end when the days got shorter and suddenly there was a definite chill in the air in the evenings and early mornings.

My niece came into the world along with the first frost.

Agnieszka and Jean-Luc helped Judy deliver her in her own home and, after twelve hours of labour, which my sister endured like the champ that she is, my niece made her very vocal appearance.

Kelly Robinson-West. Our first Kastorian baby.

Kelly’s two months old now and she doesn’t do all that much besides eat and sleep and poop, but she’s pretty damn cute. Her parents are mostly tired these days, but they’re also over the moon in love with her, like the rest of the colony.

We’ve been here almost a year now and winter is starting to settle in again. It’s not nearly as cold as when we first came here, so we know this is just the beginning. But we’re better equipped for it now and we’re no longer all crammed into four ships.

We’re slowly getting to know this planet and, more importantly, we’ve learned how to survive on it.

We’ve learned that huge parts of it are cold and frozen. Landscapes that look a lot like Greenland cover about two-thirds of the planet. But the remainder is land that looks a lot like where we live. Grass steppes and forests with reasonably fertile soil. Mountain ranges, foothills, and lakes and rivers where you can just cup your hands and drink the water. Like we used to be able to do on Earth, long before I was born.

It’s a wild and rough and beautiful planet, and I’m starting to love it. Starting to think of it as home.

Our colony had always planned to wait one year before attempting to go back to Earth and tell others about it. We had to make sure this planet could sustain human life.

As the year mark got closer and closer, we had to make a decision. Several decisions, actually.

Do we go back to Earth? Tell others about this planet and let them know it could be a new Alpha Centauri? Or do we go back to Alpha Centauri, and try to rescue anyone still stranded there? Or was the risk of doing that and bringing the robots here too great?

We had some lively town hall discussions about it.

Our town halls were always held in the Ventana ship, as it is the largest public space we have, although Victor has plans to build an actual town hall, a city council office so to speak. A handful of people felt that we shouldn’t tell anyone about this planet. That we have a beautiful thing here that would only be complicated with new arrivals.

But they were a small minority.

Most of the people chosen to go to Alpha Centauri are idealists by nature. Wanting a better future for everyone, not just themselves.

Going back to Earth and telling them about Kastor 2 is the right thing to do, in spite of the risks. And there are plenty of risks, because it’s been a year since we’ve heard about the nuclear strikes on Earth. Things were already bad when we first left to go to Alpha Centauri almost six years ago. How much worse are they now? No one knows.

What if the entire planet is at war and its power structure has changed? What if there’s martial law in the United States? The military could take our robot and engine and we’d be powerless to stop it. Aside from a few rifles, we have no real weapons to fight anyone.

But when it came down to a vote, most of us decided it was still worth the risk.

Besides, our colony isn’t large enough to be self-sustaining over the long run. Aside from Vijay, there’s no one else my age on the colony. There are a lot of people here with no one else in their age group. Like our twelve-year old Brazilian twins, who have no other kids for them to play with. To grow up with.

Sure, for me, there’s Judy, and I love her to death, but she’s always felt so much older than me. Even though there’s only three years between us. She’s a doctor and a mom. (I still can’t quite wrap my head around that last one). Unlike me, she’s always been mature beyond her years. An old soul.

I’m grateful for Will, who’s become my best friend and confidante.

What I’m saying is that, no matter how well we’ve done for ourselves, we need more people here. There are things we can’t grow or print from our 3D printer. We need more seeds so we can grow more diverse crops. We need new clothes – or at least the fibres to make our own. The list is endless, really.

Plus, why should others be trapped on a dying planet at war while we’re selfishly keeping this one all to ourselves? Others deserve a chance to come here too and with our alien engine we can take multiple ships.

And lastly, we all still have family and friends on Earth. We miss them and need to know if they’re okay. We need to know if the Solidarity made it back safely. If it did, that means it can also come here.

After deciding we would take a Jupiter to Earth, our next question was, who will go with it?

Victor is our colony representative, so it made sense for him to go. And his family didn’t want to stay behind without him, so it was decided Vijay and Prisha would go too.

Naoko would pilot the ship, while Hiroki and Aiko would stay behind.

They wanted a medical professional going too, just in case. As we all know, space travel can be hazardous and unpredictable. But Judy couldn’t go, not with Kelly still so young.

Agnieszka said she’d go, because of course she would. She’s always put her duties before her wants. But I knew she didn’t want to go. Didn’t want to leave yet another girlfriend behind.

Robot has to go, because he’s the only one who can pilot the alien engine and take us through a rift. And Will won’t let Robot go without him, so Will’s going too.

I heard Mom and Dad talk about in whispers, at our candle-lit dinner table, long after they thought I was asleep. (You’d think they’d know better by now). Trying to decide which one of them would go, because they didn’t want Will going alone. Even if he wasn’t really alone, he’s not eighteen yet. They talked about how it made the most sense for Mom to go, since no one knows the Jupiters better than she does. She kept trying to reassure herself – and Dad – that it wouldn’t be a long separation. But at the same time I could hear it in both their voices, how difficult this was for them. To separate. Again.

That’s when I stepped into the dimly lit room, in my well-worn pyjamas and reminded them that I’m an adult too now.

I’ll go instead, is what I suggested.

I’ll look after Will and make sure he gets back safe, just as Judy would have done a few years ago.

They both looked at me like I was one of those weird lizard-like animals that we periodically run into, out in the woods. But then they looked at each in other, did that weird, silent, mind-meld they do, and, much to my shock, they didn’t shoot the idea down. They said they’d sleep on it and let me know the next morning.

It wasn’t until I went back to bed that I realized the implications of what I had offered to do That I’d basically blurted it out on impulse only because I love them so much. But I was offering to go on a trip where we might not make our way back. Where we might discover a destroyed planet.

And then it hit me that I’d also be leaving Jean-Luc behind.

That’s when the tears started to well up and a debilitating panic suddenly gripped me. I started to shake and couldn’t breathe properly and I thought I was going to throw up.

I wanted to run straight into their bedroom and tell them that I changed my mind.

That I’m sorry I offered and don’t know what possessed me when I did. Surely, they know that I’m not nearly brave or strong enough for this kind of thing.

Maybe I’d have done it if my useless legs were capable of walking at that moment. But they weren’t, so I just curled up into a ball for a bit and allowed myself to cry. And then the panic slowly subsided, as panic always does.

I stayed awake for a while and wondered how in the world my parents were able to do this so often? To leave each other – especially knowing that Dad was going into war zones, where he might be killed. Just the thought of leaving Jean-Luc for a few weeks or months was tearing me apart.

Eventually, I fell asleep.

The next morning, the four of us had breakfast together and we talked about it some more.

Will was genuinely happy at the thought of me coming along and that stopped me from backing out. And much to my shock, Mom and Dad both agreed that if the two of us were fine with it, then so were they. They added that I’d be a valuable co-pilot for Naoko.

When I told Jean-Luc, he surprised me too. By insisting on taking Aggie’s place. Letting us know that he’d spent so much time studying this past year, that he was nearly a qualified nurse practitioner.

The colony agreed and after that I wasn’t so daunted by it anymore.

We now we have our Mission Earth crew. The Dhars, Will, Robot, Naoko, Jean-Luc, me and Milo, one of our mechanical engineers.

In fact, there was a part of me that started to get excited. The part of me that still misses Earth.

There are big things that I miss, like my grandparents and all the friends I had in high school. I often wonder about them and the idea of seeing them again fills me with joy.

But I miss a lot of little things too. Things we used to take for granted. Like stores and restaurants. Movies and plays.

The internet.

New clothes and make-up.

Oh God, I am going to buy as much of those two as I can get away with. (Not sure with what money exactly, as money hasn’t been something I’ve even thought about the last few years).

Also, some days I’d kill for a cheeseburger with a strawberry milkshake. Just the thought that this might be a reality soon is making me salivate.

All these thoughts are slowly turning my fears about this journey into excitement.

It also doesn’t hurt that I’ll be going with people that I know and love.

The launch will be tomorrow and tonight my family’s hosting a big farewell dinner at our house. Don, Judy and my niece, and Aggie and Smith, as well as Jean-Luc, have come over early to help us prepare. Soon the rest of the colony will be here too. I don’t think there’s anyone that’s going to sit this one out.

Dad even put up a covered, heated tent in the back-yard to make sure there’s enough room for everyone. Because it’s too cold now to eat outside.

There’s a joyful energy in the house tonight, even though I know there will definitely be some tears tomorrow when we say our good-byes.

Don jokes that we better hurry back, because he’s not okay with all the extra manual labour he’ll have to do with Robot gone, and my niece agrees with a voracious squeal. Smith makes a face when Kelly grabs a strand of her hair and tugs at it. But Mom catches the surprise attack and deftly unhooks my niece’s chubby little fingers from Smith’s hair. Then she plants a kiss on her grand-daughter’s head.

Agnieszka laughs and slides an arm around Smith’s waist, pointing out that my niece obviously loves Smith’s hair as much as she does.

Meanwhile, Dad’s pulling out a tray of fresh baked buns from our stone oven and Will grabs one but then drops it because it’s too hot. Dad rolls his eyes and Robot gives him a danger warning, albeit too late.

For a moment, I just step back and watch it all with a grin. The crazy chaos that is my family. Always moving, growing and changing. I think back to when we first applied to the Alpha Centauri program.

Back when it was just the three of us and Mom.

But then Dad came back and joined us.

And later, we met Robot.

Then Don and Smith.

Now we have Aggie and Kelly and Jean-Luc.

I have a feeling we’re not done growing and changing yet.

But one thing’s certain, no matter what happens after the launch tomorrow – even if we somehow get lost in space again – I know that we’ll always find our way back home. Back to each other.

Because Robinsons stick together.

The End (of Part II)