Evil Eyes 39

Epilogue

52 Years Later

Kate was sitting on their front porch watching everything and nothing at all. Her mind was actually far away at that moment. Life hadn't been quite as hard as she had imagined. Still it wasn't as easy as it had been either.

Just like Ava had explained, they stepped into the vertical sleeping pod and went to sleep. The next thing she knew, someone was standing in front of her as she blinked open her eyes. It felt like it was just the very next day and not forty plus years later. The system itself had been designed so that it worked on shifters and Fae. What Ava didn't say was that it only worked on shifters and Fae.

They had decided on a planet and plans had been already well underway to start sending people and material down to the planet. At first everyone lived in simple two room buildings until something more permanent could be built.

It had only taken a little time actually, before everyone who had come had a true home to live in. Between the shuttles they had and all of the robots, they had cut trees from far and wide with which to build log homes. They established a quarry to get stone for the fireplaces and other things.

What none of them had was individual transportation, not that it really mattered at the moment.

Their home wasn't nearly as large as their home in Wyoming had been. Where they had decided to build on this world would have all four seasons and likely get a great deal of snow during winter. The island had been nice but Kate had found that she missed having seasons.

She had cried softly and wiped at her tears as all of her daughters had obviously conspired together and had gotten married at the same time in the same location. It was a sight not to be missed as she watched her five girls get married all dressed in different white gowns. Kate had helped each of them through all of it. Finding a dress, planning the meal, flowers, invitations, and everything else.

It had only made her cry harder when she was told that the mass wedding would take place at Devils Tower. It was the same location where both her mother and her best friend had gotten married all those centuries ago. She had hugged and kissed each of them for the thought.

Their house might not be as big but it wasn't small by any measure, either. Kate had been made the matriarch of all of them. She was the oldest living Dragon and as a result she had grown in size and power. She was the de facto person to go to when there was any dispute that required a decision. There was no one who stood a chance of standing up to her, not that she thought about it that way.

A sudden movement had her laying a hand on her extended belly. She had been informed that she was pregnant yet again shortly after they arrived. The only hospital was actually in Dr. Michaela Quinn's log home. It had a small area off to one side that everyone went to when needed. However, shifters, and Fae to a lesser extent, were a healthy bunch so the doctor wasn't very busy in that capacity.

It was there that she learned that the hibernation concoction that had been used had cleaned out any human drugs that she had taken. And even after all those years, neither she or Rick could go for very long without making love to the other. In fact they had inaugurated the planet on their very first night there. Outside under the stars.

Kate was already in her second trimester and was in the 'I like being pregnant' phase along with a desire to make love to her husband almost constantly. Even thinking about it was getting her interested.

'I'll be right there, love, just as soon and Jared and I finish our little project,' Rick said eagerly, which had her chuckling. Then a Dragon flying her way caught her interest. It was obviously a Chinese dragon as its flight was filled with twists and turns. It always appeared to her that her daughter was falling all over herself when she flew. Still she was glad that Aileen could actually fly even if it was without wings. Kate watched her glide in, land with a heavy thud, and start walking her direction. When she was close enough she shifted into her human form. Aileen had come to visit.

"Hi, Mom, be right back." Aileen stepped inside to retrieve a robe from the coat closet and came back outside to sit next to her. "You looked lost in thought." Leena had come to learn the looks her mother had.

"Just thinking back over the last number of years. How things have changed and how some things haven't, or have simply been reinvented," Kate said. Not really wanting to dwell on the past, she quickly changed the subject.

Kate inquired about her grandson. "How's Jason?" Aileen began chuckling that almost turned into a real laugh. "The little monster has found out that he has a breath weapon." She laughed at her own expense.

"Oh, no." Kate sat up straight and her daughter now had 100% of her attention.

"We're now the proud owner of a frosted chair, frosted coffee table, and a very chilly Dexter. It's a good thing that dog has so much fur. He actually took it all in stride and still loves him." Aileen was happy to have a Newfoundland for a dog. He was such a laid-back dog and was perfect for her rambunctious little monster.

"I'm still so sorry. My Dragon genes were passed on to you and your sisters." Kate felt like she was responsible for her daughter having given birth to a White Dragon. One of the two evil dragons that were in her family history.

"We'll manage fine, Mom, honest. Besides we have a giant Amethyst Dragon who can instill the fear of god into him to keep him in place. He isn't truly evil; he just doesn't know any better yet." Aileen and her husband still had their hands full with him.

Aileen changed topics. "And how's my new brother coming along?"

Kate placed a hand on her stomach; he had been and still was active. "Perfectly healthy, so far. You know I can't shift until after he's born and I'm finding that I really miss that, flying high and swimming deep in our ocean. We won't find out what he is till possibly long after he's born." Kate had been late in even knowing that she was a shifter, much less shifting. Thankfully none of her children had been.

"We'll manage without our matriarch Dragon putting her foot down. Besides we still have Dad." Rick was still the biggest Kodiak Bear on the planet. A few of the Bears from the Kodiak Community had chosen to come with them on this trip. How many others would follow? They would just have to wait and see.

"And how's your Sammie? Please tell me she's past morning sickness finally." Kate had been concerned about Sam. So far her pregnancy had been very hard on her. She could barely eat anything and when she was pregnant, she always looked to be getting thinner not bigger.

"In medical right now, actually. I just came from there. She's undergoing another treatment that helped some last time. She was told to expect to feel this way for at least a couple of more weeks. Bed rest has been the order of the day.

Sam takes to not being able to shift much like you do." Aileen chuckled at that. Sammie saw herself as a Dragon, not just Fae. As such, not being able to shift was pissing her off and having an unpleasant pregnancy only made things worse.

"I'll get your sister to take me over to see her later. Not sure what I can do, but I can try." Sam was her daughter in every way but blood. Amber may be gone but she wasn't forgotten, not by her or Sam. "Maybe Ziriadne can come up with something to help her. She or her mother." Kate was happy that Serena, with Sarah's help, had found Ziri's mom. How she ended up in Japan when her daughter ended up in Newcastle was still a mystery. Still a simple airline ticket had taken care of everything.

"Already taken care of," Aileen told her. Kate nodded her approval.

"Have you seen Ava's latest creation?" Aileen had taken pictures of it for Kate since she couldn't fly out there to see it herself. "It looks so much like that ship in that movie." Leena couldn't help but laugh at what it looked like or even how it was going to fly.

The saucer has a lenticular profile. Above there is a dome, approximately a third of the diameter of the lens. Below there is a very shallow cylinder of about the same diameter, and a somewhat smaller dome that ostensibly houses the starship's faster-than-light drive engine and central gyroscopic landing pedestal.

Kate laughed with her. "The C-57 D." She couldn't help but wonder where her daughter had gotten the idea.

It had a central circular "navigation center," with a transparent globe centered on a small model of the starship. Around this central space were a number of wedge-shaped rooms, including:

• A room with a curved table, chairs, and a space for books (presumably a galley and recreation room).

• A room with the "communications center," a chart table, and the "main viewscope."

• A room with sixteen bunk beds, with a pit and crane between it and the central area.

• A room with nine "decelerator platforms." These were used to protect the crew from the granitic affects from the transition to and from faster than light.

"She actually thinks this thing will work?" Kate knew Ava and Lexi were smart, but that smart?

"It's just a small prototype that will only accommodate just three people. But if it works, she's thinking of going back to Earth and giving the designs to New Horizon so they can build their own ship and get people here faster or wherever they want to go," Aileen said, canceling out what her mother was likely thinking. That it was bigger than what the picture showed.

The overall plan was to begin building a larger version much like the one in the movie Forbidden Planet and get shifters and Fae out into space. Find out what was out there.

"So what's next?" Kate was convinced that her daughter was simply making the rounds since she herself couldn't. Transportation was mostly by shifting and moving around unless you were part of a project.

"Trying to get rid of me already?" Aileen teased and got one of her glares. "Alexis is next actually. I'm going to take one last shot at getting her to move over here with you and Dad. She really shouldn't be alone. Her son's are married and they both have their first little Bear to take care of. She needs to find someone to take care of her. You and Dad have the room and she needs someone." Aileen actually had no intention of taking no for an answer from her this time. So much so that her husband was off rounding up help even now so they could move her things over there.

"And your father and I would be so happy to have her." Kate was sure her husband would jump at the chance. Why he had been so silent on the topic still confused her.

'My baby is all grown up, Kate. ...She's turned into a grandma right in front of my eyes. I have to let her decide what to do.' Kate had heard his words but also felt his heart hurting. No parent wanted to see their child die before them. She and Rick had hundreds of years to go still. Eventually even Sam would be gone, too.

Losing one and then both was going to hurt mightily. Kate put her foot down. "Get her to move, whatever it takes. Pick her up and carry her if you have to." The smile on Leena's face told Kate that might be why she'd come by in the first place.

Aileen finally caved and told her mother everything. "Actually Rod's already working on moving her. He's gathered a few friends to help him. She should be here along with everything she owns and needs in a couple of hours."

Kate glared at her, annoyed that she would think that she and Rick would fight her on this decision. Aileen shrank under her glare. "I'm going to move on to my next stop. I'll be back after Alexis has been moved. I'll try and talk Ava into letting us use one of the shuttles and get Alexis over to see her little toy in person."

Kate watched her daughter run off and shift into her Dragon. 'It'll be good to have Alexis home again.' Kate knew that when it came time to lose one of her daughters it was going to shatter her heart. It didn't help that Serena, Joanne and the others were also long gone.

First her dad, then her mother, followed by Oscar, and then her brother. Outliving everyone she loved was devastating with the hopeful exceptions being the daughters and son she had given birth to. "You'd better be a Dragon." Kate rested a hand on her unborn son.

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Kate was standing next to her husband who in turn was standing right behind Alexis. Alexis looked older than she had ever seen her. It was breaking her heart already. Her Lexi was an old woman. She deserved better. Kodiak Bears had long lives, longer than any other shifter that Sarah knew about, but even they didn't have the life expectancy that a Dragon did.

All of her family was there. Daughters, husbands, her son and his girlfriend, and all of her grandchildren. The entire Rodgers clan was there to watch Ava's newest toy make its first flight. Kate had been told that it was going to be simple. Lift up off the ground and fly around a little. Nothing really. However, if it did actually work as advertised, it wasn't nothing. It was everything.

It was sitting on its central core that was extended down to the ground. Unlike the next design it doubled as the only entrance and exit out of the craft. Soon the blue lights around the core started to glow which was followed by watching the light start to spin. They weren't actually spinning, the sequence in which lights were blinking gave the illusion that they were.

Soon the lights were blinking so fast that it was a blur and looked like a solid light. There was a feeling of a rush of air as it suddenly lifted off the ground just a little. It seemed to hover for a moment and then it started moving higher as the landing column rose up into the ship.

Kate was smiling and she could feel just what her husband was feeling. A spaceship from a movie was actually flying. A movie that Kate knew was one of Rick's favorites.

They watched it rise slowly when it seemed like it was gone, just gone. "What happened? Where did it go?" Kate all but screamed. Ava better not have just died in front of her eyes or she was going to lose it.

She turned to look at Aileen who had a finger over her earpiece while she conveyed what she heard. "Ava says they're in space and already on their way to our sister planet. The power systems and flight controls are a little more powerful and touchy than she had planned for. She's heading back now."

Kate sagged in relief against her husband. Then she started laughing. "It worked, it actually worked." She had faith in her daughter but what she was trying to do was literally science fiction. She thought them just getting there in the first place had been science fiction.

"Way to go, Ava!" Alexis looked up to see if she could see it returning. "Where is she?" Alexis asked worriedly. She should be back by now. She turned to look at her sister and saw her place a finger against her earpiece.

Aileen looked exasperated. "She's circling the planet first before landing back here." Leena was definitely going to give her sister a piece of her mind for that stunt.

"So one more year of testing and then build a bigger version," Kate murmured. Life was changing yet again. It was a moment in history and they were living it and seeing it. If the testing went well and the drive worked, they could reach other systems.

"You think Serena and the others ever dreamed of this?" Kate questioned softly.

"If she was here she would be up there fighting Ava for the pilot's seat," Sam replied with conviction. Serena had done so much for her. Her last gift had been Sarah and she was still a big part of all of this. "Her great grandchildren are just over there." Sam nodded to a small group that Kate knew were Mountain Lions.

They weren't related by blood to either her or Joanne, still her friends had had children who in turn had had children and had helped them get there. They were even part of the tree cutting crew that gave them the logs for their homes.

"Yeah, I think she knows," Sam said quietly. Then she heard a voice that she hadn't heard in untold years. Not since she was trying to get to that fishing pole to kill the monster that was trying to kill her mother.

'I'm proud of you, honey. I'll always be proud of you.'