CH12

Epilogue

It is now 1.45 months later:

Rick and Kate who were by now extremely tanned with hair that was a number of shades lighter, were in Hood River, Oregon. They were dressed as nicely as they could be with scavenged clothing that was still in good shape and fit them. Only Kate was sitting far up front and was looking at Paul Stills, who was dressed quite nicely and looked ready to throw up from the tension. Kate was grinning while watching him nervously fiddle with his fingers, check his jacket, run his hand through his hair; he just couldn't stand still.

Then everyone heard Mendelssohn's Wedding March and all heads turned to look. It took a moment but Ann stepped into view with her arm linked with Rick's. Ann's parents were like her own, both long since gone. She was gorgeous and Rick looked so handsome. By the time he was handing off Ann to Paul, Kate was wiping away tears.

Rick sat down next to her and Kate kissed his cheek. She was so happy for Ann, she deserved this and more. Everyone listened to their vows to each other. They slid rings that neither Kate nor Rick had any idea of where they'd gotten them from, and finally kissed. Then they were presented as Mr. and Mrs. Stills for the first time. Kate stood up and clapped then put her fingers in her mouth and gave out a loud whistle before going back to clapping hard and loud.

She couldn't take it any longer. She wrapped her arms around her friend and let her joyful tears fall. "I'm so happy for you. Just don't lose him." She watched Ann wipe her own tears away and shake her head. However, Ann reached into her little bouquet and pulled out yet another ring and handed it to her then curled her hand closed with it tucked in her palm.

"Your turn." Ann pushed Kate closer to the minister that had just done Ann and Paul's wedding. She now noticed that Paul was handing Rick something and spinning him in place to face her. "What!?" She tried to turn to look at Ann who simply and with force, held her in place and turned her back around to face Rick.

"Dearly beloved, we are all gathered here today to witness our second marriage of this new year between Katherine Houghton Beckett and Richard Edgar Castle." Kate's eyes went wide and her tears only increased as she stared at Rick. She mouthed, 'I'm going to kill you.'

They had talked about marrying but hadn't done anything about it. Apparently Rick had gone behind her back and gotten her best friend and her fiancé now husband, to surprise her. Ann knew how much she hated surprises.

Kate soon heard Rick speaking and did her best to listen to every word. "Katherine Beckett, I've lived and thought that I had known love. However, once I met you I realized that I had never really known what love truly was. I love you with every part of my soul and I will love you till the end of time itself. 'Which is going to be a really long time,' he added while leaning far forward so that only she could hear. With this small token of my love we will show all who see us that we are bound to each other, forever." He winked and reached out to take her hand and placed a ring that she still wasn't really looking at, on her ring finger.

"Rick, I was broken and only existing till I met you. You've shown me what life is like and worth living when it's with the person you love more than any other or anything. I don't want to imagine my life without you in it ...forever. This small token will show just how much of my soul loves you and always will." Kate slid the ring Ann had given her on his finger and then wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly. "I love you, Rick," she whispered after breaking from the long and heartfelt kiss. "And I love you, Kate," he whispered back.

"It is my privilege to present to everyone present for the first time Mr. and Mrs. Castle." They all started clapping as Kate began to blush when Ann whistled just as loud as Kate had done.

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Kate had finally made it over to Ann almost two hours later while Paul and Rick were talking to each other. "I am so going to get you for this." However, the tone of her voice said otherwise. "You can thank me now," Ann answered and found herself being hugged tightly. "You three planned this didn't you?" she asked since these two had rings waiting for them.

"Actually it was Paul's idea and I jumped at the chance. Knowing you, you two would have remained single for years to come and we both know you love him more than life itself," Ann told her which made Kate chuckle. "You're still my best friend and you're right, I owe you."

"I have something to tell you. ...I'm pregnant," Ann whispered so only Kate could hear. "YOU'RE WHAT!?" She was shocked and her raised voice got the attention of everyone still in the room. "Keep it down, I haven't had a chance to tell Paul yet. I only took the test yesterday." Pregnancy test kits didn't get stolen by gangs much and Hood River didn't have any of those anyway so finding one had turned out to be easy.

Ann was soon being crushed in Kate's arms. "You two are going to be great. Just so you know I intend to spoil him or her mercilessly." That made Ann giggle. Then she said, "Only if I get to retaliate with yours." Her eyes downcast, Kate was silent.

It was something else Kate and Rick had talked about so that Kate would understand. "Don't be angry but I've had sex with a number of women in my past," Rick told her. "I know and for the record I'm not a virgin either," she replied. "What I'm trying to say is that I can't have children...I'm infertile. There just aren't enough little guys to get you or anyone else pregnant." That had Kate shocked into silence.

She'd never really thought much about having her own children, though to be honest she hadn't thought she would ever find anyone to want to have children with. She still felt the loss of the chance but it didn't prevent her from loving him, all of him.

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It is now 60 plus years later:

Kate stepped out of the door looking exactly like she had sixty or more years ago. She wasted no time in walking across the bedroom to the person lying on the bed. The sun through the bay windows was starting to set, a fitting display for what she feared was going to happen today. The twilight of a life that was ending.

She got down on her knees and stroked the old and wrinkled face of Ann Hastings, or Ann Stills. The sense that her friend was close had Ann opening her eyes slowly till they focused on Kate's face. "Hi," Ann managed to whisper. "Hi," Kate replied as her tears started.

She and Rick had made it a weekly occurrence to show up and have dinner with Ann and Paul. Every Sunday they would bring things that they had found for her first son and then the second. They had become Aunt Kate and Uncle Rick. This had lasted for a lot of years. It wasn't until the boys got older, into their late teens and started asking too many pointed questions that it went from weekly to bi-weekly to monthly then bi-monthly and finally yearly till their last time here was about 3 years ago to attend Paul's funeral. She almost thought of both of Ann's sons as hers since she was never going to have children of her own.

"You're going to have to tell me how you do that one of these days." Ann was too tired to raise a hand to stroke Kate's face though the movement had Kate taking her hand and holding it to her face. "How about today?" she offered quietly and watched Ann smile.

"Rick is over 5,000 years old. He was born in what we call northeastern Syria in an ancient city that became part of Mesopotamia. He was in a battle defending his city and was struck in the heart and did not die. We both have been calling him an Immortal. You remember those worms that are in my body thanks to this ring?" She held up her hand to show it to her again.

"We think the two halves of the ring and your worms have made me just as immortal." Ann smiled at her. "You get to keep him forever." To never lose the man you love, she would like that. "I'm so sorry," Ann said with a sudden feeling of sadness. "For what?" Kate didn't understand. "I'm going to die on you." She could almost feel it.

Those words allowed the tears that Kate had been holding back release and travel down her cheek. "You're going to get to go on an adventure, one I may never get to have. You're going to find out what's next. Besides, I envy you." Kate saw the look of confusion on Ann's face. "I may be immortal, but I'm also sterile. Neither of us came have children. You have something that I never will. Two beautiful sons who love you."

That explained why Kate and to a lesser extent Rick, doted on her two sons when they were little. Gave them birthday presents each and every year. Celebrated Christmas and Thanksgiving with them. Went boating and even helped teach them when they were young, how to windsurf. "That thing?" Ann asked since she had Kate talking.

"Rick's been around a long time and knows a lot. You remember that Star Trek teleporter? This is a little different, it's a metal cylinder with computers and controls all around it. It creates its own out of phase tunnel that allows you to travel through the ground anywhere you want to go. It usually only takes seconds. You've seen how small it is. You just need a wall, any wall. Rick has tried to explain the power source but it was over my head. Actually we've spent the last sixty years naked on an island near Queensland, Australia."

"Naked huh!?" Ann tried to smile widely which made Kate chuckle. Both she and Rick were well tanned all over and had no use for sunscreen anymore. "What about Jasmine?" Ann asked so softly that she barely heard her. She could only shake her head. Jaz had passed away almost fifty years ago. Kate was forced to assume that she had forgotten since she already knew the answer to that question. They had brought Jasmine with them several times. Her boys had gotten to grow up with a dog in their lives.

Kate could still remember breaking down and sobbing after burying her on Turtle Island, the place Jasmine had clearly loved most. Rick had lifted her up off of Jasmine's grave and carried her inside and just laid with her till she cried herself to sleep. They had both done a lot of searching but never found another dog let alone a puppy. "She was a good dog," Kate told her then saw that her eyes were closed and the spark of her life had gone out. "Have a pleasant journey Ann Hastings, say hello to your parents for me. If you see mine, tell them I love them."

She rose and stumbled to the wall, then placed a hand on it, stepped inside, and just missed one of her sons stepping into the room. Kate staggered back out of the door and fell into her beloved's arms and broke down crying again. Her best friend was gone and now all she had was Rick.

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It is now 1,583 years later:

Kate had ended her shift a few hours ago and was expecting Rick home soon after finishing his shift though he said he had somewhere to go first. "He better hurry up. I'm almost done." She was talking to herself in their minute kitchen that had just two heating units, a minuscule oven, a tiny dishwasher, an mini-fridge, and an even smaller freezer. She had, however, stopped at Hydroponics to pick up their weekly supply of fresh vegetables and fruit. Everything was rationed with good reason.

She heard their front door cycle and watched Rick step into their equally tiny apartment. It was a studio apartment just like all of the others. Theirs was one of the few that actually had a window in it that was more large pothole of a ship. It looked out onto a barren red landscape. "Your timing's perfect, dinner will be ready in a minute." She spun to give him a quick kiss. "What's that?" She saw an official tablet in his hands. When he didn't immediately answer, she began dishing out their dinner onto plates to take to their space-saving table.

"There's something we need to read over and fill out so we can be considered for selection," he answered cryptically. "Considered for what?" she asked as she carried both plates over to the table and set them down. She returned to get the silverware and glasses of water. He finally dropped his bombshell. "The colony ship that's leaving next year." She dropped the silverware and stared at him in utter surprise.

"Seriously!?" Kate turned to look at him. "I mean I like Mars, I really do and I like my job, but to stand on green grass and smell fresh air instead of recycled air..." She was already dreaming and closed her eyes to picture it. She snapped them open again. "Think we stand a chance of being selected?" It was their second hurdle with just getting the application being the first.

She knew both of their jobs were a necessity and only a handful actually knew anything about hydroponics where Kate worked. Rick worked in the mining industry which is what got both of them out to Mars and off of Earth in the first place. He was an engineer in the industry not an actual miner working in the mines. "We fill out the forms, turn in the tablet, and wait." Her shoulders slumped as poof, her dream disappeared into nothingness. He took her in his arms. "We both have skills that an early colony will need. We don't have kids or family that we're leaving behind and you're not pregnant, which is an automatic disqualification. We have a good chance, love."

The colony ship was actually a sleeper ship that ran on full automatics till they reached the system that had been selected. The sleeper system had a number of requirements, not being pregnant was one of them. "What about my...worms?" One of those requirements was to undergo a complete and invasive physical. "You remember what happened when you broke your arm? Their scans found the fracture but not any of your worms as you call them," he reminded her. "Actually Ann called them worms, you called them tendrils if memory serves," she replied, sighing.

Rick tightened his arms around her. "I'm still sorry you lost your best friend, but you're going to lose still more friends in the future." He had lost his fair share of them. Kate leaned her head on his chest. "I hope she's enjoying her next adventure and that it isn't as hard for her as the last one was." She rested in his arms for a moment. "Where's a stylus?" she suddenly asked and moved in his arms only he didn't release her. "Dinner first. We have a month to fill out all of the forms and return the tablet."

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It is now one year and 2.25 months later:

Kate was sliding into her suit that would be plugged into the hibernation system and found the damn thing to be skin tight. It was giving her trouble. "Stupid suit!" his frustrated voice rang out. She turned her head and started laughing. He reminded her of a vegetable that was partially peeled. His family jewels were extremely prominent and he just couldn't seem to get the thing closed across his broad chest. A chest that she still adored and had lost herself in countless times.

She walked over to him completely topless since the suit was the only thing they were allowed to wear. Kate placed her hands on his chest and simply smiled up at him. "Breathe out babe, let all the air out of your lungs." She grabbed both sides. "I'll pass out," he complained. "Do you want to go or not?" She tried sealing the suit over his chest. "Now exhale completely you big baby." She was too busy looking at his chest and thinking of all the things she could do to it.

Suddenly Rick expelled all the air from his lungs and it wasn't until he was almost blue in the face that she finally got him into his suit. She took a step back to watch him suck in some much-needed air. "How's that?" she asked him. "I can barely breathe," he complained. "Now you know what it felt like wearing that merry widow corset you got me that one time," she informed him tartly as she remembered squeezing herself into that thing. "But you looked so damn sexy wearing it," he countered with a far-off look on his face. She smiled as she remembered the hours of sex that had followed. "Help me with mine?" She spread her arms wide. It had taken a lot of work to just get it past her hips and skinny butt; she was afraid the top would be as tight as his was.

Kate was trying to blow every breath of air out of her lungs as Rick closed the upper part of the suit over her breasts which were compressed onto her chest to the point where she felt like she didn't even have breasts anymore. It was like she was a fifteen-year-old flat-chested teenager again. Except this time she had a husband standing next to her that knew just how to make her come unglued so many times that she was still amazed at what he could do to her.

They were ready and stepped outside into a hallway filled with other people dressed just like them. They all looked just as uncomfortable as they were. From there they walked down to the transfer deck where everyone was forced to grab a handhold to keep from floating away.

Next came floating across the enclosed gangway over to the enormous and incredibly long colony ship. Everyone was broken up into the sections of who they were and what their job was onboard the ship. In their case, along with several others, they were in the middle of the ship near the flight deck. It was already filled with a number of shuttles that already had cargo in their holds strapped into place. The flight crew were in pods near what was considered the bridge. Others were in pods near engineering.

Spread out from the flight deck were the almost countless cargo holds that held all of their supplies which was several tons worth, which meant almost nothing out in space, except for the space that it used.

Kate and Rick got in line and watched a team place people into pod, after pod, after pod. Hook them up, close the Plexiglas front and activate the unit. "See you on the other side." He stepped/floated into his pod. "I'll be waiting babe, don't disappoint me." She watched them hook him up and close his door. Then it was her turn. She had wires routed to the cap on her head, tubes that were routed to her arms and feet, and was told to close her eyes, so she missed seeing the door being closed. In only seconds she started to feel sleepy.

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She opened her eyes and watched as her Plexiglas door opened. Kate fell out onto the floor barely catching herself on her hands and knees. She felt like shit and her wires and tubes disconnected after being stretched too far. That was followed by her vomiting whatever was or wasn't in her stomach. Breathing in deeply, she tried to take in her surroundings. The sound of someone else vomiting caused her to turn her head to see who was being sick. It was Rick. He was on his hands and knees vomiting on the floor.

Countless others past him were doing the same thing. Her mind was a little foggy, but she didn't remember this part during the countless orientation meetings they'd had to take. Then the pod next to her opened and out fell a guy who didn't catch himself and literally fell to the floor and threw up while laying there. The next thing she noticed were the shining red lights blinking everywhere. It gave the place an eerie glow like they were in the bowels of Hell. "Babe?" she rasped and then went into a coughing fit.

Rick was able to help her to her feet. "Alarms?" Kate tried to remember what would set them off. Emergency evacuation was the first thing that came to mind. "Escape pods." She thought about those first which were on another deck. However, he shook his head. "Flight deck." He took her arm and pushed her toward a ladder.

"Why is there gravity?" Kate caught on as they ran. They didn't have artificial gravity so being out in space meant floating everywhere. She headed for an elevator only to have Rick stop her. "Too dangerous." He started sliding down the ladder to reach the flight deck. She placed her feet on the outside of the ladder, used her hands and feet to slide down the outer rail, and then use them to slow herself down.

Down on this deck they found people running around all over while they had to fight and push their way to the flight bay. Along the way they saw a woman huddled on the floor crying while on her knees. Rick stopped, lifted her up, and got her moving. Kate grabbed a man who looked totally lost while everyone else was jumping into escape pods, ejecting themselves outside before the pod was completely full. That meant someone or several someones would have no way off the ship.

Rick cycled the door after making sure the flight deck was still enclosed from the outside. "Pick a shuttle and hook up the skids to the back," he told them. Kate chose the next shuttle over, grabbed the tow cables, and attached them to her shuttle. "Pick a shuttle you two. Now go, we probably don't have much time." He could only think of one reason why they had gravity and that meant trouble.

"I don't know how to fly one," the man called out. "Learn by doing or stay here and die," Rick yelled as he secured his two tow cables and headed for his shuttle door. "You're first Kate, we'll follow you. Give these two a minute then open the outer door." He stepped inside.

There were actually six shuttles along with twelve skids, all of which were packed with material they would need to build a colony, and that was just in this bay. There was another bay just like it. Kate powered up everything and waited a moment before pressing the code that would open the outer door after cycling the air out of the bay.

She launched her shuttle and prayed the others were right behind her. "OH, SHIT!" She resisted the urge to bank hard because if she did she would either lose her skid or the skid would force her to crash.

There was a mountain range right in front of them and Kate really wanted to miss it. She watched her radar display show the other three shuttle were right behind her like train cars on tracks following the locomotive. The mountains had snow on them. "Too far north, we'll freeze and so will our crops." They also needed water, lots and lots of fresh water. She turned on her ground terrain scanner. It quickly showed her that the land mass she was over was ending soon. She was on the wrong side of the mountain range and didn't trust being able to get over it so she went out over the ocean.

She was starting to think going out over the ocean was a bad idea and they just didn't have the fuel for a long flight, and where she was taking them was a big risk and might get them all killed. Then she saw a series of three good-sized islands show up on her radar. Kate slowly banked that way while looking at her ground radar display. The largest of the three had volcanic activity so she skipped that island and moved on to the next one. It was the smallest of the three and looked a little too dry, especially on the west side.

The next island had a pair of mountain ranges with a massive deep valley in-between them. On the east side she saw a pair of rivers join and flow toward the ocean. She decided this was a good spot and went downstream till she found a large, empty, flat space near the coast that looked like it had a really nice beach that lasted for miles.

Kate tried to come in slow. She fired her thrusters, felt the thrusters on her skid also fire, and did her best to land carefully and slowly. She watched her radar and saw the shuttle and skid behind her land precisely next to her. Next came a shuttle without a skid that landed a lot heavier than either of them had but it was down. The last one blew over their heads. She was thinking he finally found the thruster controls but by then it was too late. He hit the ground really hard and tumbled out onto the beach, splitting himself open and throwing the contents of his cargo hold everywhere.

She ran outside, found Rick, and wrapped her arms around him. Next came the woman he'd picked up who looked a little green. Kate attributed it to what had just happened. "What happened to the other shuttle?" he asked. "He crashed out there near the beach." She pointed to what was likely a mile away from where they were. "What happened to the ship?"

He shook his head. "It crashed into that mountain range we ourselves almost hit." He'd left where they were going to Kate while he watched what their ship did. They heard the woman moan over this news. "I'm sorry, did you lose someone back there?" Kate took her into her arms, only to feel her shake her head.

She let go of her and looked her over. "You don't look well." Kate could sort of relate since they were supposed to receive a drink after being brought out of hibernation. It was meant to help their systems get back into balance. She was guessing that her worms were working overtime to counter the affect. Then suddenly the woman doubled over and her hibernation suit started to ooze blood between her legs. "RICK!" He had mentioned he had been a doctor once. He laid her on the ground. "Knife, check your shuttle." He began trying to open her suit with the intent of taking it off her. Kate came running back out with what looked like a box cutter. "Her period?" she questioned since she hadn't had a period in hundreds of years.

Rick shook his head. "The blood's brown." Kate looked as he cut the suit exposing her breasts that sprang free. He continued cutting, exposing her core. That only released still more blood. "Oh, god! ...Babe?" Kate didn't know what it meant, but Rick asked the woman a question that shocked her. "Were you pregnant when you went in?" The woman nodded. Kate clapped her hands over her mouth and sucked in a deep breath. "SHIT!" He sat backward on his ass. "Why would you do that, you know what that means," he said sadly. He could only guess how she had managed to sneak being pregnant past everyone and end up onboard. "He's dead and the baby was all I had left of him," she cried, and then became silent. Rick scrambled up on his knees and checked for a pulse. He sat back and shook his head. "OH, NO!" She fell to her knees. Her long time dead baby had killed her thanks to hibernation and she wept over still another loss of life.

Rick just sat there for a moment. "We need to get to the other shuttle and see if he survived. Maybe we can do something for him. Then we'll come back and bury her." Kate nodded and felt herself being lifted up.

It was a long walk to reach the fourth shuttle. When they found it, it was broken into pieces with the contents of the cargo hold spread out all over, some of it was floating in the water as the waves came onto the shore line. Kate pointed to the piece that looked most like the cockpit and walked that way. It was ripped open. She looked away while Rick checked inside before carefully crawling his way inside.

A few minutes later he was back, shaking his head. Kate buried her head in his chest. They were all that was left out of a colony ship that held thousands. "Escape pods!" She suddenly grasped for a silver lining. "They all ejected over that main land mass where the ship crashed. If the reactors breached..." Rick let his voice trail off. She knew what that meant. The location would be heavily radioactive for years to come. Any people whose pods landed even close would be irradiated and would die slowly.

"There might be a few outside of that range," she suggested. "And without fuel that was on that ship, the best any of the three shuttles we have can do is search the island you selected for us." He told her what she already knew. Then he reminded her of their immediate issues. "We need to get back and get started on shelter, collect fresh water, and take inventory of what we do have. Then come down here and find a way to pick up all this stuff and get it back to camp."

They walked back the way they came. Kate went to one of the two skids and started the inventory while Rick buried the woman and then said a few words over her grave. "I think I may have found something!" She hurried back over to his skid, tapped the large box, and let him read. "We need to get this puppy open." He was excited and kissed her on her cheek.

It took a couple of hours; they finally had what was inside out and looked it over. "Batteries are dead." He sighed heavily only to see Kate move back over to his skid and pat another box. Two hours later they had the solar panels out and had it plugged in to power it up. "Shelter's next, we can collect water tomorrow and look to see what we have for food after that." The body could last without food longer than it could without water.

"KATE!" Rick called out which had her jogging to him. He pointed out what he'd found which made her grin. "Give me a hand?" They spent an hour taking crate after crate of various sizes off her skid which represented a third of what was on it, while what they had found earlier only represented a quarter of that skid.

"Now where do we put it?" He definitely wanted her opinion. "We need sunlight if we want to have power but we don't want to get flooded out." She tried to think about it while looking around. "That little hill over there maybe?" But it had a pair of drawbacks. One, it was on the wrong side of the river they were next to and second, it wasn't flat. "We wait for our friend here to get charged then." He agreed it was a good spot. "Where do we sleep tonight?" It looked like it was going to be dark in a couple of hours. "Shuttle seats?" he said with "Please don't shoot me" written all over his face. She bit back a laugh since she wanted to sound annoyed at his idea. "So much for getting any sleep," she groaned. "Could be worse, we could be in pieces that glow in the dark for the next few hundred years." That didn't really go over very well. "Too soon?" She nodded her head.

Come morning their helper was fully charged and Rick activated him after finding a tree to pee against while Kate found her own spot to do something similar. "Okay big guy, let's see what you've got." He was talking mostly to himself as he watched it unfurl and spread out. It looked a lot like a large metal bug since it had six legs, a head and a sort of body which was more like a flatbed truck to her thinking.

"Carry all of these crates to the other side of the river. Once that is complete you are to level the top of that little hill so that it will just barely allow the dome to be constructed on it. Begin now." Rick watched it pick up several of the crates and place them on its flatbed body and carry them across the river. It returned to get the rest of them, followed by starting to level the top of the hill.

"Clothes and then inventory?" Rick asked. Kate nodded, ready to get out of that very restrictive suit. "No clothes?" she asked hopefully. "We'll get sunburned without sunscreen and I'm not sure if we have any at all, let alone enough. Our tans are long gone." That didn't deter her at all as she began stripping with no intention of putting clothes back on. While searching and taking an inventory of everything they had, she watched a naked Rick doing the same. They just had to find the interior's package and put it all together. She was getting laid tonight, even if it was out on the grass again. This planet was getting inaugurated whether it liked it or not.

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Kate stepped out of their dome on top of their little hill. "RICK, BABE!?" she yelled. "In here," Rick called which had his naked wife walking to the second dome that they'd found. He had turned it into his workshop-garage space. "May I come in?" she asked loudly since he had been telling her to stay out. He was working on a project. "Give me about ten, maybe fifteen minutes."

She turned her back on the dome and looked around. They had a small garden and had started construction of a greenhouse-hydroponics building using another dome kit they had found. Not far away were plants that she'd dubbed bananas, papayas, and mangoes. They had found something that reminded her of pineapples, sugar cane, cucumbers, sprouts, avocados, peppers, tomatoes, and an assortment of herbs.

Where they were never appeared to get cold and most of the time when it rained it blew in and out the same day, just enough to give everything some much-needed water. They had built a pipe from the river up to their dome home to supply fresh running water. They still had a number of things to work out, chief among them was something other than an outhouse.

Hearing Rick open the big doors on his dome brought her out of her thoughts and she turned in his direction. She clapped her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. Still she knew what it looked like. "What is that?" Kate got closer, watching him sitting on it with it between his legs. "It's a hover bike. I scavenged the parts and power plant amongst other things from the wrecked shuttle down on the beach. I mounted one of our weapons to the underside. And it has room for two." He patted the padded space behind him. "Did I ever tell you that I used to have a Harley Davidson Softail? I worked all summer long to pay for the thing," she said with a faraway look.

"So you know how to ride." He was impressed and surprised by his wife yet again. "Maybe better than you," she teased. "Well, we'll just have to see won't we?" he replied as he got off. She thought he was handing it over so she started to get on only to see him come back out riding another one that looked a lot like it. It also had a weapon attached to the bottom. She laughed with glee and wondered what else her husband would surprise her with next. "Put your money where your mouth is?" Rick arched and wiggled his eyebrows a couple of times. Kate was game and was thinking that they were going to have sex on these bikes, too.

"One more thing." He held up his hand. "K-9!" he called out and something she didn't have words for came hovering out of his workshop-garage. It had four legs that didn't look like they would bend but the space where there should have been paws glowed a soft blue from the hover capability. It had a body, a head that resembled a dog's head, its ears were fat brown antennae, it even had a nose and a tail. In place of its eyes was a single, large, red visor-looking thing. "You built a dog?" She got back off her bike and walked right up to him, her, it.

"Mistress." The dog had a mechanical voice that was a little high pitched. "And it talks!?" Kate's jaw dropped and she stared at Rick. "We're changing its name," she informed him in a no-nonsense voice while running a hand over its body and watching him, her, it wag its tail, its ears moving back and forth. "Affirmative Mistress." The dog agreed with her. "I kind of like K-9," Rick pouted. "We're changing the name," she told him again as she started to mount her bike, giving him a quick view of her slightly hairy core which had his cock twitching. Always had, likely always would.

"Affirmative Mistress." The dog agreed with her yet again. "Two against one, Castle." She grinned wide since she was going to spend all night thanking him for both of these items, not sure which she liked the most: having a bike again or having a dog again, even if it wasn't Jasmine.

"I don't suppose you're armed, too?" she inquired, turning her head to look at the mechanical dog. She had already begun thinking about a male dog's name, since it sounded like a guy more than a gal. "Affirmative Mistress. The Master has installed a high-powered laser." She watched his nose glow red before it shot out a high-energy laser beam that scorched the ground a number of yards away. She was now very, very impressed.

"I also have a hover trailer that we can tow behind one of the bikes," Rick added while smiling. GOD BUT SHE LOVED HER MAN!

"Think anyone survived the crash?" Kate questioned while she looked over the controls on the bike. She noticed it had foot pedals as well as hand levers that reminded her of her old Harley. "Possibly, but if they did they're on the mainland without what was stored in the shuttles or skids," he remarked. "There was a second flight bay," she reminded him. He thought about it. "Point taken. Either way, neither group has the capability at this time to reach the other." She knew he was right. For now they were alone and they were comfortable being alone with each other, naked as much as possible.

"How long do you think before they try that again?" Kate queried. "Make design changes, maybe they have found a new drive system or a new power source. We used a number of fusion reactors that detonated two hundred fifty pellets per second to create high-energy plasma which would then be directed by a magnetic nozzle to create thrust. Using this system it took us forty-eight years to get here. Hence the development of the hibernation system. Otherwise they would be launching kids out into space unless they found adults willing to spend the best years of their lives out in space for the benefit of others." Rick sighed and thought about it some more.

"There are other systems to go to instead of Bernard," he said. "Two hundred years minimum maybe, three hundred might be closer depending on that they find in another system. Thirty-six years one way just to send a probe to find out what happened to us and thirty-six years back. Yeah, three hundred years sounds like a good round number," he remarked. "And we'll be here waiting on our little island paradise," she confirmed. "When they do show up, this is our island, babe; I'm not interested in sharing it." She wanted to keep it and spend her time breathing fresh air, eating fresh food, and making love to her husband when the mood struck her which was a lot she had to admit.

"Let's explore our home." Kate fired up her bike after looking over all of the controls and getting used to reaching for them. "You coming Castle?" She smiled wide. "You too Mackenzie." Kate gave him his new name and took off giving Rick a nice view of her naked ass straddled on her bike causing his cock to start to harden. "That women is going to kill me."

"Negative Master." Mackenzie, Mac for short, contradicted his statement.