{ breathe }
unedited
1.7k words
— — — — —
Everyone was immediately put into action and separated into groups.
Will had dragged (y/n) everywhere he went, insisting that she needed to be close to him if she were to begin to feel unwell. The walked hand in hand out of the engine room with robot carrying the engine.
"I really don't think robot needs both of us to accompany him in and out of the engine room Will." (y/n) groaned, tugging the boy foreword so they would walk quicker.
"I know but what if you start to feel sick. The so called small conscious might not be so small. And you haven't even slept yet!"
(y/n) sighed but in a blissful manner. She couldn't help but find the boy even cuter. "I'll be fine, and once this is all over, I promise I'll get some sleep. Okay?" The boy rapidly nodded his head. They soon entered the room where they were planning to trap the robots.
"Bring the engine right up to my mom." Will told the robot, walking towards his parents in the center of the room.
John looked up from what he was working on and muttered to Maureen. "And here comes the bait."
The two stood up as Maureen shouted over the talking. "Okay, let's keep the hallways cleared. As long as nobody's in their way, nobody's going to get hurt." Robot placed the engine in the middle. "These things are singularly focused, they're gonna come right here for this engine, once they get in this room-"
"We'll crush them like tinfoil." John finished for her.
"That's the plan. Come on."
A beep on the PA system caught everyone's attention. It was Captain Kamal and she was warning everyone. "Attention Resolute crew, ten minutes to contact with the alien hostiles."
"Okay, come one, let's hurry up." Maureen ordered everyone. She crouched down to see that Will wasn't paying attention. "What's the matter?"
Will looked to his mother, than to (y/n)—whom was helping a survivor—and back to his mother. "Adler just died trying to save Scarecrow and here we are, trying to destroy a hundred Scarecrows. A hundred of him." Will pointed to robot.
"There's only one of him. He's special." Maureen smiled at her son before walking away.
"Maybe Scarecrow was special too." Will tried to reason.
"Maybe, but we don't know what happened to Scarecrow after you left. For all we know, he's on that ship coming to attack us."
"I'm not sure this is the right thing to do." Will stood up, arguing against his mother's ways.
Maureen looked at the boy with sad eyes. "We have to protect ourselves." She gave him a quick squeeze o the shoulder before walking away to Angela. "Hey, we're gonna work until the last second, so I need eyes on the security office camera feed. Once the robots board, I want to know when they're 500 meters from this spot."
Penny—who was listening in on their conversation—intervened. "Mom, I can do it. Angela needs to stay here."
"Okay, great. Good idea." Maureen praised her daughter.
"Okay. Will come on." Penny ordered her brother.
"But, uh, okay." Will walked over to (y/n) and the survivor she was helping. "I'm gonna have to borrow her." He put his hands into hers and began dragging her away, but not before calling to robot. "Robot, come on."
A few minutes passed before Maureen got comms from her son. "Okay, mom. We're in the surveillance room. How's it going?"
"We're still not ready."
"You said "we" but you mean "Don"." Don said before speed walking to his position.
"I can but you some time." John told the man while signaling his oldest daughter. "Judy, I'm gonna need your help. The girl nodded as she helped her father lift the engine to the hallway.
Once they reached it, they crouched down and began to prepare. "Make sure you haven't got any metal in your pockets." John reminded the girl. "Any metal caught in the EMF field will get crushed."
John noticed that his daughter's gaze was somewhere else and quickly glanced over. She was staring at a plaque with her biological's father name on it. Gran Kelly. "He'd be proud of you."
Judy smiled at her father before scooting closer and holding the strap to a bad that had the engine inside. "You know, it's been almost two years since we went missing. I wonder if there's a wall with out name on it on Alpha Centauri."
"What do you say we give them one hell of a surprise." He said seriously, as they stood up and prepared for the incoming visitors.
It wasn't long before the robots broke into the halls, scampering on the walls to travel quicker.
-----
Back in the camera room, the camera feed began to turn static, showing nothing on the screens.
"No, where'd they go?" Penny asked the other two."
Will got a closer look. "They must be jamming the cameras."
Penny sat down on a chair. "That's not fair."
"I'm surprised we didn't see this coming." (y/n) mumbled, attempting to connect back to the camera feed.
"Penny, talk to me. How closer are they? Penny?" Maureen radioed them.
"Let me call you back." Penny turned off her comms and straightened her face. "I have one job."
Will turned on the other systems to see that they were faulty. "Motions sensors aren't working either."
"Don't the computers always want to tell you when something's broken in a really friendly voice?" Penny started to type. "Computer, what are the robots breaking?"
"Bulkhead door G22 breached."
"Bulkhead door G223breached."
"Bulkhead door G24 breached."
Penny radioed back her mother. "Mom, they just passed the junction G24, you have to get out of there."
"Got it thanks."
The plan had worked. With the help of Don watching out for the last of the robots, Maureen was able to trap them. The only problem was that the power level only reached to 83%, not enough to crush them into pieces.
And to make matters even worse, there were multiple incoming ships that would be at the Resolute in order two hours.
The Robinson family, plus (y/n) and robot, met back at Jupiter 2 where Maureen told them their situation.
"Okay, if we can't leave with he robots already on board, why don't we just blow off the part of the spaceship that the robots are trapped in?" Penny asked.
"It's structurally critical." Maureen said, fidgeting with her hands.
"Than do we have any more of those anti-robot magnetic disk things?" Penny asked again.
"EMFs." Will worded but the idea got shot down with Maureen saying no.
"Okay, then how else are we gonna generate a magnetic field?"
"The Amber planet." Will pointed out. "It has an atmosphere which means it has an ionosphere, which we can use to magnetize the hull."
"We don't have the time to try anything like that." Maureen sighed.
"I don't think we have time to try anything at all." (y/n) said, leaning on the table and holding her chin with her hand.
Judy—who had been aggressively writing on a whiteboard—called to her mother and showed her the contents. "Mom."
"What's this?" Maureen asked.
"The alien engine can go on any ship, right? This is the maximum number of people that can safely breathe inside a transport Jupiter."
"Judy." John said to his daughter. "I appreciate you trying to help, but who's gonna choose which 97 people go?"
"Plus, this number seems low. There's some error in your calculation." Maureen pointed out.
Judy ignored her mothers words and stared at them with dead eyes. "There are 97 children aboard the Resolute." Everyone looked at the girl in shock. "Kids breath about 50 percent more air than adults. My math's correct."
"You're not actually suggesting..." Penny trailed off.
"We're not discussing this anymore, this isn't an answer." Maureen told her.
"This is the only answer." She argued.
"No."
"When dad was locked up and Hastings was threatening us, he told us what you traded to get Will approved." Will stiffened up in his chair. "For the first time in my life, I was disappointed in you."
Maureen stuttered. "Judy, I-If I'd know that-that-"
"It's okay, mom." Judy's voice softened. "Now I understand that sometimes an imperfect solution is all we have."
"No, that was different." Maureen teared up. "I did that so that we could all be together."
"You did what was best for your children."
Everyone in the room shifted as John looked towards his wife. "Maureen, Judy's right. "
Penny stood up from her spot and looked around. "No, this is not happening. Do you actually not care at all about leaving them behind."
Judy's gaze shifted to the floor as she huffed. "I'm not going with you, I'm 19."
"Nineteen? What are you talking about? Do you think that you are grown-up now and the only grown-up thing to do is to tear this family apart? And who would even fly the thing?!"
"We can't all go and (y/n)'s more than qualified to fly the transports." Judy said in a sympathetic tone.
"Don't talk to me in a tone that makes me feel like I'm irrational or like I don't understand the logic. You are not mom. And we are not a math problem."
Judy looked at her siblings sadly when Will spoke up. "You always say that Robinsons are supposed to stick together."
It was silent, a heartbreaking silence.
John looked at everyone before deciding for the entire family. "Will, (y/n), the robot won't have any trouble attaching the engine to a Jupiter transport, right?" Will's eyes began to tear up as he didn't dare say. (y/n) looked at the boy sadly before responding for him.
"No trouble."
John nodded to her in appreciation. "Get this started. We're gonna have to talk to the other parents. This is a decision that every family will have to make for themselves."
Penny slammed her hands on the table before slightly walking away. Maureen took this as an opportunity to speak with John. "Can I talk to you for a second." John agreed as they walked out in the hall, leaving an uncomfortable silence between the kids.
"I'm sorry." Judy whispered out.
"This is wrong." Will admitted.
"No. This is not happening." Penny denied the idea. "Someone is gonna find a solution that's not this. We always do."
Judy said nothing, and everyone knew—even Penny—that there was no other solution.
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