Lone Stowaway

10

A/N: the automated computer voice will now be in a bold text format with brackets instead of quotation marks to avoid confusion!

Like this: [Pull up. Pull up. Pull up.]

_______________________________________________________________________________

[Approaching transport vehicle: Resolute. Identification 6-1-2-1-9-1-6]

"Alright everyone, wake up," called Maureen over comms. "Strap in..! We made it."

___

"No offense, but it'll be nice to hear other peoples' voices," murmured Judy. Penny sighed.

"I want ice cream. I want a lot of ice cream. Actually, no. I want any food that cannot be farmed or rehydrated."

Shadow huffed. All I want is to see Scarecrow again.

Judy chuckled. "Hey, what about you, Will? You excited to go back to school?" asked Judy lightly.

"Uh, yeah, sure."

"Excuse me? Who are you, and what did you do to my nerdy brother?" joked Penny.

"Hey, check it out," said Judy, pointing up. Shadow looked up and saw the docking rings of the Resolute looming above them.

Will sighed happily. "Wow."

"Wow indeed," murmured Shadow.

The Jupiter 2 glided through the area, ready to dock.

"Super happy for you guys," said Smith.

"Resolute, this is Jupiter 2, come in," said Maureen slowly. "Resolute, this is Jupiter 2. Come in."

"Maybe the radio got damaged during the lightning storm.

"Doesn't matter. They'll have seen us by now," grunted John.

"I just don't understand. What is the Resolute doing here?"

"They must've been pulled into the rift same as us," replied John.

"But they have power. They should have been on their way to Alpha Centauri by now," mused Maureen.

"You don't think they've been looking for us this whole time."

"Well, if so, we have a lot of thank-you cards to write."

John chuckled.

"Okay. On my signal, initiate docking procedure," said Maureen. "Three, two, one."

The Jupiter slowly raised, hovered and backed up, venting air and docking safely on their port with a clank of machinery.

_____

Penny carefully applied some lip balm.

"Hm. Look at you," cooed Judy teasingly. "You excited to see a certain sixteen-year-old of the male persuasion?"

"If you're talking about Vijay, the answer's no," said Penny, scowling. "He dumped me. Remember?"

"Yeah, but then you dumped him," said Will, joining the girls.

"Okay. In Penny's defense, we did a lot of dumping," said Shadow.

"I really hope you're not talking about what it sounds like," said John.

---

"Hey, wait up, I'm coming," yelled Don, as Debbie clucked indignantly.

"No! No! Hey, hey! You are on bed rest until the parenthesia wears off," scolded Judy.