Victoria's Challenge

  Approaching the Dignitary’s Quarters, Lucas can feel the tension building in Victoria. He knows she’s worried about what she’s done.

  “It will be fine.”

  “I hope so.” Keying in the code, she pushes open the hatch. The living quarters are empty as they enter, the door to the private area partially open but dark.

  “Tori, where’s mom and dad?”

  “I think they might be sleeping. Why don’t you two stay here and I’ll go check on them.” Taking a deep breath, Victoria heads into the private quarters.

  Lucas lowers Brett to a couch, his worried eyes following Victoria. Turning to Brett, he smiles. “How are you feeling?”

  “Good, but I’m hungry.”

  “Let me contact Kip, we’ll get third meal brought in, any special requests?”

  “Chicken nuggets?” Brett says hopefully.

  “Nuggets it is. Come over here and I’ll show you how to contact Kip.”

  “Who’s Kip?”

  “Kip is the man who will cook all your meals. He is the only one trusted to cook your meals. He’ll make sure they are done right.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Let’s get it ordered first then I’ll explain.” Sitting down, he pulls Brett up into his lap. “This button will connect you to Kip. I’m going to put it on speaker, that’s this button. Normally, you’d put on this headset.” Picking up the headset, he shows him how to put it on.

  “Why aren’t we using it now?”

  “Because only one person can hear then, I want you to be able to hear too. Push the button.” Within seconds, Kip answers.

  “Kip, this is Lucas.”

  “Yes, Major.”

  “The Chamberlains are ready for third meal, Victoria and I will also be eating but Brett has a special request.”

  “Yes, Master Chamberlain?”

  “Tell him what you want Brett.”

  “Ummm…. could I have chicken nuggets?”

  “That won’t be a problem Master Chamberlain, how many would you like?” Confused eyes look to Lucas.

  “Just fill a plate Kip, he can have what’s left as a snack later.”

  “Yes sir. Any other special requests?”

  “Victoria and I will have Zebu. Peter and Cyndy will have whatever Magnes is recommending.”

  “Yes sir, Major. It will be thirty minutes.”

  “Thank you, Kip.”

  “Yeah, thank you Kip.” Brett mimics.

  Entering the private quarters, Victoria finds the lights on low and her parents asleep in each other’s arms. Looking in the bathroom, she sees the shower gel on the floor, the towels still on the counter. Turning back to her parents, she sees her father’s wet clothes lying on the floor.

  Quietly she moves, picking up the dripping clothes, putting them in the bathroom. Returning, she finds her father’s eyes watching her.

  “Thank you, Tori.” He says quietly and watches the tears fill her eyes.

  “Everything’s okay?”

  “It is now.”

  “Peter?” Cyndy asks sleepily.

  “Shh. Sleep, Cyndy.”

  “There are dry clothes in the closet.” Victoria whispers after Cyndy settles. “We’ll be in the living area. Brett is fine. I’ll take care of third meal. Take your time.” Leaving them alone, she retreats, shutting the hatch.

  “Tori…. where are mom and dad?” Brett questions as she enters the room.

  “They’re resting, Brett. We need to let them. How are you doing?”

  “Okay. Lucas showed me how to call Kip and order meals. I’m having chicken nuggets.”

  “Oh you are, are you?”

  “Yep, it’s time to try them again.”

  “I think you're right but take it slow, okay? You need to be able to keep it down.”

  “Okay.”

  While the two are talking, Lucas walks over to stand in front of her. Tipping her chin up to look into her eyes. “Okay?”

  “Yeah. It seems to be okay.” Rising up, she kisses him. “I love you.”

  “Love you too.” Wrapping his arms around her, he pulls her close. Looking behind her, he sees the hatch to the private area open and Peter steps through.

  “Dad….”

  “Your mother will be out in a few minutes, she’s getting dressed.”

  “You could have slept longer.”

  “Your mother’s worried about Brett and she’s hungry.”

  “Kip will be here in a little bit with third meal.” Lucas informs them.

  “Good, she needs to eat more… she will eat more, she’s lost too much weight.”

  “Peter stop.” Cyndy enters the room in clothes too large and her head wrapped in Victoria’s green nightgown.

  “Mom, you should be resting.”

  “Shush, I’m fine, I’m with my family.” Walking over, Peter pulls her close, before walking her to a couch and helping her sit. “Brett, did you have fun, baby?”

  “Yeah.” Walking over he sits down sliding close to his mother. “I got to sit in the Admiral’s chair, and then we went to the flight deck, and then Lucas showed me how to call Kip and order meals.”

  “Really, all that?”

  “Yeah and Tori promised me I could learn it all.”

  “Of course you can, you’re the smartest little boy I know.”

  “Mom…. I’m the only little boy you know.”

  “Oh yeah, that’s right.” Kissing the top of his head, she pulls him close. Looking up, her eyes meet Lucas. “Thank you.”

  “None needed, he’s family.” A knock at the hatch stops any further conversation. Lucas looks at Peter who nods. Turning, he opens the hatch to Kip. After he sets down the tray, he rechecks all the plates.

  “Thank you, Kip.”

  “No problem, Tori.”

  “Kip, have you met my family?”

  “Your father.” He nods to Peter.

  “This is my mother, Cyndy and my brother, Brett. Brett, mom this is Kip, he’ll be cooking all your meals. Not only is he a friend but his uncle is the private chef for Aunt Cassie and Uncle William.” As Cyndy goes to stand, Kip waves her off.

  “Please, Madame Chamberlain, sit. It is truly an honor to be cooking for you and rest assured, I will personally double check all your meals. If there is anything special you would like, I will attempt to make it for you.” With a quick nod, he leaves the room.

  Peter looks from Victoria to Lucas. “What does he mean by that? That’s the second time he’s said that, about checking our meals?”

  “Let’s eat first.” Lucas tells him. “Then we’ll talk.” Nodding, Peter walks over to the plates only to find Brett there first pulling off the lids.

  “Yes!” He snatches up the plate full of nuggets and returns to sit by Cyndy.

  “Remember what I said, Brett.”

  “I will.” He tells her as he quickly devours one nugget.

  Shaking his head, Peter looks at the remaining plates. While two seem to contain a thicker soup then they’ve been having, the other two have what seem to be steaks.

  “It’s called Zebu. Would you like to try some?” Lucas asks.

  “Zebu?” Peter questions.

  “It’s a lot like beef, dad.” Tori walks over to them. “Have you been able to keep everything down? No nausea?”

  “No. Cyndy?”

  “No, I have only got sick that one time.”

  “I don’t see a problem with you having some, just go slow but you still need the soup, it’s fortified with extra nutrients your bodies need.” As the Zebu is divided, Victoria and Lucas settle onto the other couch. The silence is comfortable as they eat. Carefully watching her family, Victoria chews.

  “Eat.” Lucas tells her tapping her plate.

  “I am.”

  “Not enough. Eat more,” he orders.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Victoria Lynn….”

  “Tori. Listen to Lucas, eat,” Peter tells her.

  “Now wait a minute, that’s
two against one.” She smiles at her father then her life mate. It felt good to be teased by the men in her life. It doesn’t take long for the plates to be cleaned. Only Brett, has any left but then he had a triple serving. Picking them up, she puts them back on the tray.

  “Tori, what did Kip mean?” Peter isn’t going to let it go. Sighing, she looks at Lucas then walks over to the comm center and picks up a portable keyboard. As she does, Lucas starts to explain to her family.

  “Victoria and Cassie had been on the Retribution for almost three weeks when Victoria was poisoned.”

  “What!” Both Cyndy and Peter sit up. Victoria says nothing as she walks back over to sit next to Lucas.

  “Senior Chief Delondra Falco. She was the chief navigator for the Retribution under Admiral Zafar. She had an attachment disorder and fixated on my father. When he and Cassie became…..involved…” He pauses, looking at Brett. “She went off the deep end. She tried to poison Cassie, instead Victoria got it.”

  “I was eating chicken nuggets.” Tori looks to her parents. “On Aunt Cassie’s plate was a bowl of what I thought was ranch.” She sees her parents nod, remembering how she used to drown everything in ranch. “I took it, dipped a nugget in it and almost immediately spit it out, but it was enough, within fifteen minutes I was vomiting.” There’s silence as Peter watches Victoria. “That’s about all I remember.”

  “Lucas…” Peter prompts.

  “Dad walked in as Cassie’s trying to lift Victoria from the bathroom floor. He immediately realized something was seriously wrong and rushed her to medical. Bliant discovered she had been poisoned with Xyphrine.” Seeing they don’t understand, he elaborates. “It is a seriously strong drug that’s lethal even in small doses. The sauce was tested at a thousand times the lethal limit.”

  “A thousand…..” Cyndy pales.

  “Yes. Bliant gave her a double dose of the antidote but there was no guarantee. She was so small and there was no way of knowing how much she’d ingested.” His arm tightens around Victoria as she sits down, pulling her closer as he remembers. “It was nearly two days before she woke up.”

  “Aunt Cassie was singing to me.” Victoria’s eyes meet her mother’s, seeing she understood. “She sang it wrong.”

  “She always did that just to get a rise out of you.”

  “It worked. Victoria woke up and had no side effects from the poison.” Lucas informs her.

  “And you caught this woman?” Peter demanded.

  “No, not then, not until she almost killed Cassie.”

  “What the fuck was the problem!” Peter rages.

  “Dad…. there was a lot of other things going on. Uncle William thought the poisoning was related to the Regulians. They’d only just removed the thread from my arm the week before….”

  “Tori I told your dad about the thread.”

  “Thread? What thread? What’s a thread?” Cyndy demands.

  “Mom, it doesn’t matter.”

  “Don’t tell me it doesn’t matter!” Lucas sees where Victoria gets it. “My daughter is poisoned! She has something called a thread removed from her body, and she tells me it doesn’t matter! And you knew about this and didn’t tell me!” Cyndy turns to her husband.

  “Cyndy calm down.”

  “Don’t tell me to calm down Peter Matthew Chamberlain! She’s my daughter, my first-born. I have every right to know what’s going on!” Suddenly she starts to cough. Victoria’s immediately off the couch. “I’m fine!” She says between coughs. The attack is quickly over and produces nothing. “Sit back down young lady and explain!”

  Backing up Victoria sits. “Isn’t she amazing?” Looking at Victoria, Lucas sees her eyes are full of tears.

  “She’s her daughter’s mother.” Wrapping his arm back around her, Lucas pulls her close.

  “Stop stalling Victoria Lynn Chamberlain and explain!” Laughing through her tears, she looks at her mother. “What’s so funny young lady!” If Cyndy had been standing, she would have stomped her foot.

  “Nothing… I’m just really enjoying my mother chewing my butt… sorry mom… but it’s been so long…” Tears fill Cyndy’s eyes as she looks at her daughter, understanding.

  “Be that as it may, you still haven’t answered my question.”

  “True.” Taking a deep breath, Victoria settles. “When I was abducted in Kayseri, the Regulians implanted what is called a ‘thread’ in my arm. It is a tracking device so they could find me again. That’s how they found the cabin.”

  “Victoria….” Lucas kisses her head.

  “It’s true Lucas, you thought I didn’t realize it, but I did, once the Challenge was over and I had time to think about it.”

  “It wasn’t just you Victoria.”

  “What? What are you talking about?” Turning she faces him.

  “Hot Dog and I were tracking four Strikers that day. We weren’t close enough to stop them from destroying Chester. They changed course and we took them out when the last one was able to disable my Blade.”

  “They destroyed Chester? Why?” Victoria sees Lucas’ eyes look to her father. “Lucas!”

  “Because of your Great Grams.”

  “What?”

  “Tori…. when the Regulians abducted you… they weren’t looking for you. They were looking for her.”

  “What?”

  “Do you do remember what Audric said? He told the Regulians they were stupid. They didn’t understand how much time had passed, that there was no way a two cycle child could possibly be the woman they were looking for.”

  “So they didn’t want Tori.” Cyndy’s voice breaks through.

  “No. They were searching for your Gram. But they were really looking for Cassie.” Lucas lets that sink in.

  “Cassie knows this?” Cyndy asks.

  “Yes.”

  “God, how she must have suffered.” Cyndy whispers.

  “It’s hurt her for cycles,” Lucas agrees.

  “You never told me...” Victoria’s eyes drill into his. “All these cycles….”

  “Would it have changed anything? You were a child with enough to deal with, did it really matter how the Regulians found the cabin?”

  “Yes!”

  “Victoria…” Peter’s voice is firm and steady. “Lucas and I have talked about this.”

  “Oh really?”

  “Quiet!” Peter orders. “He told me about the meadow. Have you thought it through? That if you’d been with us in the shelter, where would that bomb have hit?”

  “The shelter wouldn’t have taken a direct hit.”

  “No, it wouldn’t have. Things happened the only way they could have for us all to survive.”

  “We didn’t all survive…..” Tears fill her eyes. “I’m sorry daddy…. Grandpa Jacob…..”

  “You have nothing to be sorry for, Victoria Lynn. Nothing. Dad made his choice and to be honest he never planned on living in that bunker. He was ready to see mom again.” Peter gives her a look only a father can. “He would be so proud of you.”

  Looking away from him, Victoria looks at Brett, who’s glued to his mother’s side, trying to understand everything that’s being said. “You look so much like Grandpa Jacob, Brett.”

  “Mom always says I look like dad.”

  “You do, but dad looks like grandpa. Don’t you think?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “What do you mean?” Victoria's eyes fly to her mom's. "He’s never seen a visual of Grandpa Jacob?”

  “No,” Cyndy tells her.

  “Well, we can take care of that.” Tapping a few keys on the keyboard in front of her she lowers the lights and brings up a visual

  “This is your grandfather, Brett. Grandpa Jacob.”

  “Tori… where did you get this?” Peter looks at her, tears in his eyes.

  “Aunt Cassie’s iPod. She had it in her jacket pocket. There’s more.”

  “He kind of looks like dad…” Brett whispers, looking from it to his father.

&nbs
p; “You want to see a visual of mom and dad?”

  “Yeah.”

  “This is mom and dad at their ten year anniversary.” Victoria pulls up the picture of Peter with his arms wrapped protectively around Cyndy, both smiling. “Dad surprised mom by making it back.”

  “Back from where?” Brett looks to his father. He’s never been ‘gone’.

  “I had a mission.”

  Brett’s eyes are drawn back to the screen.

  “That’s mom and dad?”

  Victoria’s eyes shoot to Brett. She hadn’t considered the fact that he’d never seen their parents before the Earth was destroyed, not even in a picture. He’d never seen them healthy and whole.

  “It’s my favorite picture,” she whispers. “I keep a duplicate with me all the time.” She hits a couple keys. “Do you want to see how dad proposed?” At Brett’s confused look, she smiles. “Asked mom to be his wife.”

  “Tori… you have that?” Cyndy whispers.

  “Yeah.” She presses a few more keys. “See Brett, there’s grandpa and that’s Aunt Cassie. Now look to the stage.”

  Lucas watches a recording he’d never seen before. Cassie is so young, younger than Victoria is now. Maybe fifteen, and on the stage is Peter, in some type of uniform, singing. The song, obviously directly to Cyndy, a Cyndy who looks exactly like her daughter is sitting in a chair crying. As the song continues, Peter approaches her and to Lucas’ amazement, kneels in front of her holding up a ring. Cyndy nods and launches herself into his arms.

  Looking across the room at the couple, it’s hard to believe they are the same people. So much has happened to them since that day, but he sees happy tears in both sets of eyes telling him that it is a good memory.

  “That’s mom and dad?” Brett’s amazement is easy to hear.

  “It is. Guess what?” Victoria waits until his eyes meet hers. “They had lives before us.”

  “Really?” Brett’s eyes are large.

  “Yeah. This is Aunt Cassie and Uncle William now.” Victoria pulls the official visual of the Queen in the royal robes of the House of Knowledge and the High Admiral in full dress uniform. Lucas watches Cyndy and Peter’s eyes widen.

  “Victoria….” Lucas turns her face to his. “They need to see the Challenge, to really be able to understand what happened. You can’t just show them the ending.”