Space Family Robinson

2

Nova awoke to a feeling she couldn't describe. It was something like floating, even though she was lying on the floor.

She struggled to her feet, not liking this sensation at all. Then she saw something out of the corner of her eye and gasped. She wasn't on Luna any more. She was in space! And headed towards a spaceship!

This fact - and the fact that the ship was called Aquarius, according to the name on the side - scarcely had time to register before the supply ship was pulled towards the spaceship and mechanically "locked" into place beneath it. Nova swallowed and started trying to think of a reasonable excuse for her presence. Somehow, she didn't think "I was curious about what this thing was so I sneaked inside it when no one was looking and no, I shouldn't have been around the station to begin with" would go down well.

The door opened.

~~~~

"Supply ship locked in securely," Jayddyn Maciver called across the control room.

"Glad to hear it," Daniels shouted back.

"Well, what do we do now, Captain?" Zephyr, a skinny man of about twenty-one with grey eyes and unruly blonde hair, asked mockingly from where he was sprawled across one of the command chairs, head hanging over one side, legs over the other, and looking uncommonly like a humanoid cat. "Do we continue to drift around just outside Luna's orbit? Or do we actually start on our mission?"

Daniels shot him a murderous look, wondering again how that idiot had ever gotten on this mission. "I suppose you think you're clever, don't you? Just a pity I don't." 

A fight was averted, but only just, by the arrival of Sveinn Jakobsen, accompanied by... a girl?!

 "Who's that?" Daniels said, staring.

"Damned if I know, sir. I just went to check on the supplies and found her there."

Conrad sighed. Could nothing be easy? "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"I'm Nova Robinson, and I'm here because I got shut inside the supply ship," the girl said, her eyes moving all 'round the control room, presumably in search of some way of escape.

"What were you doing in the supply ship?" Zephyr asked.

Daniels gave him a murderous look. "Who's captain of this ship: you, or me?"

"You."

"So who asks the questions?"

"I think everyone has a right to."

Daniels was rather annoyed to realise he couldn't argue with that. So, he decided as he turned back to Miss Robinson, the best way to deal with this and keep his sanity was to pretend Zephyr wasn't there.

"Yes, what were you doing in the supply ship? And for that matter, what were you doing in the space station at all?"

"Oh, I always hang around there, and no one says anything," she said casually.

"You didn't answer the first part of that question," Jakobsen reminded her after a moment's silence.

"I... I just wanted to look around. I didn't know the door would close."

The captain shut his eyes. "Maciver, turn us around. We can't proceed with an unauthorized passenger on board."

~~~~

"We've searched everywhere and there is still no sign of your daughter," the policeman said emotionlessly. "It seems increasingly likely that she stowed away on a spaceship."

Jashaun and Aydele gave him incredulous looks.

"Are you asking us to believe that a fourteen-year-old could sneak on board a spaceship and not be noticed?" Jashaun asked.

"I said that is likely. However, whether she is found or not, you are liable for charges of negligence to be brought against you."

"Us?" Aydele said in the sort of voice one would use if beholding the impossible. "We have no control over her! How could we be responsible -"

"That is what the law says," the police interrupted. "Good day."

He walked away, leaving two very shocked and indignant parents staring after him.

~~~~

"Something seems to have gone wrong with Aquarius, sir," Sergeant Blake reported.

General Vector sighed. "What do you mean?"

"It's attempted to turn around."

"Use the remote to send it into a hyperdrive."

"Yes, sir."

~~~~

At the Robinson home, Jashaun and Aydele were in a state of shock. This meant that they were irritable, which meant that they lashed out at each other for next to no reason, and not just at each other.

"What use is your praying, anyway?" Jashaun shouted at his mother-in-law. "When your god answers your prayers and brings Nova home safely, then I'll believe in him. Until then, go carry out your superstitious rites somewhere else!"

Noya gave him the look a parent would give a rebellious child. "You should be ashamed of yourself, young man, for shouting at an old lady in such a manner."

With that, she left the living room, leaving Jashaun to pace back and forth across the room, biting his nails, while Aydele did the same in the kitchen.

~~~~

"Sir, the ship isn't turning," the man called Maciver shouted across the room.

For some reason, that made Nova feel very uneasy. Very uneasy indeed. The captain groaned and went to see what was the matter. She considered making a bolt for the door, but decided against it. There was nowhere for her to run to, and even if there was the man who had found her had not left. With nothing better to do, she settled for staring at the other side of the room, which meant she became locked in a staring contest with the blonde man the captain seemed to dislike.

She hardly heard the shout of "We're going out of control!", and it took a moment for the full implications of those words to sink in. By the time they did, it was too late to react, for the ship was accelerating to beyond the speed of light.

There was no way out, now.