Fragments of Decay

2. A Wild Baby Alice Appeared

April 18 2003

Carol blows a stray strand of hair out of her face and sighs as she re-enters her coordinates for the sixth time in the last hour. A nearby white dwarf star had exploded less than a week ago, and the surrounding galaxy was still reeling with the impact.

Hell, forget the galaxy Goose was reeling with the impact. Her not-cat had not stopped moving ever since she picked up on the supernova's energy spike. She'd been restlessly searching every little corner of the ship, barely taking the time to eat or sleep.

It was unusual, to say the least. Goose was not a tame animal, not by any means but they had seen enough stars explode for the flerken to at least be used to it by now. She looks over just in time to see the little menace swallow one of her many plants in its entirety, sniffling at the empty space it once occupied before spitting it back out.

"What do you say," she says despite still not being entirely sure whether or not Goose even understands a word she says, "We take a break and wait out the aftermath somewhere nearby." Goose makes it abundantly clear that she is not listening by eating another plant. Carol shakes her head with a fond smile. "It's no use trying to move through this anyway," she continues, at this point more to herself than the flerken.

Meanwhile Goose, continuing her path of destruction, has her sights set on the controls panel. Carol watches as if in slow-motion as her literal demonspawn picks a point to focus on and then jumps, pressing a multitude of keys all at once and sending the hoopty hurtling through space at lightning speed.

Carol lets out a string of curses as she jumps forward to snatch the flerken away before any more damage can occur. She starts pressing buttons in a random order, still muttering under her breath when Goose cries out, long and utterly devastated.

"You did this," she tells the furry monster, not looking up from the control pad, "don't blame me for the consequences of your actions." Goose cries again, somehow louder, more urgent. Out of interest in not being swallowed by her own damn tentacle cat, Carol looks up. "Yes, Goose what do-" She stops dead in her tracks, any traces of annoyance long gone. Goose has sent them straight to the outskirts of the nebula but somehow that's not what got her attention.

Right outside the ship, floating barely a few feet away is something that looks almost human, it's small but- Carol drops Goose down onto the floor, blindly smacking the button to open the hatch. She's hesitant as she makes her way over. There's something about this thing this- baby. Human infants aren't made to survive space, let alone the dust and gases of a newly formed nebula.

Carol reaches out a tentative hand to grab the baby, bringing it closer to her. The child is covered head to toe in stardust - they don't seem to mind it much - and staring curiously at her with big brown sparkly eyes.

Holding the precious little cargo close to her she slowly flies the short distance back to her ship. The infant gurgles, one tiny arm stretching out to flop against her chest. Carol smiles down at them. "Hello there," she coos softly.

The baby, because it's a baby, doesn't respond. It stretches out that tiny arm again as if trying to grab her face. Carol touches down back on her impromptu landing pad, taking care not to come barreling into the nearest couch like she usually would. Goose is at her legs before her feet fully touch the ground, standing on her back legs in an attempt to look at the child.

It hits Carol then, she's holding a child. Maybe it's not human - it's probably not human - but it's a human shaped infant. She looks down from the not-human in her arms at the not-cat scratching at her thighs.

"Goose, what do I do?" She asks. Goose, because she is a flerken, does not respond. "Right, okay yeah- I've got this," she looks back at the baby, feeling any resolve she may have had crumble. "We got this, kiddo."

__________________

Carol Danvers has no idea how to take care of a child. Furthermore she also has little to none of the supplies she needs in order to take care of her child. She thinks she may also really need to stop calling the little girl 'the child' in her head.

"I don't suppose you have any suggestions do you?" She asks out loud. She doesn't know if she's talking to the child or Goose. The baby gurgles again, a small hand escaping from its swaddle to start swinging free through the air. "Right." She doesn't know what she was expecting.

She starts bouncing the baby up and down softly as she looks around for any potential suggestions. Could she call her baby plant? Would anyone be around to judge her if she did? - the answer to both is no, she realises this - She glances over at her, admittedly scarcely filled bookshelf. Many people named their kids after books, right? "Alice, how's that sound huh? You wanna be Alice?"

The baby - Alice - doesn't respond which Carol takes to mean there's no objections from her part. Carol stares down at her for what is probably too long, trying to think of what else babies need, maybe more accurately, trying to think of where to get her baby whatever she needs. Did this classify as an emergency? Would Fury know how to care for a non-human baby? Did she trust Fury to know how to care for her baby?

If not Fury then someone on earth would know, she decides. She glances around, trying to find anything that could act as a makeshift crib for the journey to earth. Her gaze settles on a wooden crate, filled to the brim with all kinds of canned foods. She quickly makes her way over to it, dumping its contents on top of the ever steadily growing pile of stuff she'll clean later she swears. She grabs one of her fluffiest blankets off her bed and stuffs it along the edges of her crate - Alice will not get a splinter on her watch - and carefully places the baby in her new crib.

"Alright," she mutters, "let's go to earth then. Are you ready Alice?"

Alice, because she is a baby, doesn't respond.