Chapter Text
Wednesday sat on the bridge, watching the fore-screen as it showed the stars of the Milky Way galaxy spinning into view. Thing had jauntily put a marker in the galactic spur they were swinging towards, marking the Sol system. Given that it was hidden in a mass of other stars Wednesday did not know how accurate it was but it showed how relatively close to home they were.
How long had it been since she saw her family? Not as videos sent in data packages with days or weeks of delay, but sat and spoke with them in the same room? Three years? Her mother had somehow arranged the family vacation on a Uranus outpost where Wednesday was making a pick up.
Enid thought Wednesday was a psychic of some flavour, which Wednesday was coming around on, but her mother had at least an equal measure of predictive flair. Or base manipulation.
Probably bribery too.
The Addams had always had more money than sense. And they were quite sensible, at least to Wednesday’s mind.
Enid was on the bridge too, nervously bouncing her leg. In the interest of honesty Wednesday had explained all the risks their current re-entry posed and how she was mitigating what she could.
Enid’s faith in good outcomes sometimes bordered on the blissfully ignorant, but her faith in Wednesday had proved faulty only a rare few times. They could only hope this was not one of those times.
Triangle, flutes tick tick tick.
‘I’m good Thing’ Enid grinned glancing at the ceiling. The blonde girl had added blue and pink streaks to her hair in a rare use of her limited hair dye. For luck she said. Wednesday did not like to rely on such but she would not deny the girl her vices today.
They could use any luck available.
Their jump target was one of the stars in the southern periphery of the galaxy, an edge star. They could have shot deeper but the calculations would be more stable once they were near that star. Or at least should be.
Their stability until this point would not lull Wednesday into a false sense of security. She would stack the deck with every advantage available.
Thing fired some positioning thrusters, bringing their spin to a slow and then a seeming stop. On screens by Wednesday’s elbow, calculations started streaming. Confirming their position by the stars in a way humans had done since before they started moving through them.
Finally, things lit up green across the board.
‘Ready?’ Wednesday asked.
Enid looked at the galaxy on screen before standing up. In a burst of speed she ran over to Wednesday and gave the captain a tight hug. Before Wednesday could formulate any response other than sitting frozen the other girl was back in her chair and giving a steady nod.
‘Ready.’
Ping, cloth-snap.
Well, if everyone was ready.
‘Initiate the launch’ Wednesday gestured. The screens showing the stars outside fell to black as the ship thrummed beneath them. Wednesday felt the shift to faster-than-light as something akin to the floor falling out beneath her. Others had different reactions. On stable ships, they might feel nothing. Others felt the energy of the FTL drives discharging around them until they arrived.
All of it was minor enough that you could get up and wander around comfortably for the entire duration of the jump.
Not so for Wednesday and Enid this time.
They sat rigidly still for minutes, as time ticked by on a small clock that Thing had put up on screen for them. Their jump should last, for them, a soft eight minutes and seventeen seconds.
For that entire duration they held their breath, because the closer they got to the galaxy the more likely they encountered something with the mass to throw them off from the projections or destroy their ship in an impossibly powerful collision.
08:00:0124 They had almost made it.
08:04:9576 They would be approaching the star.
08:11:2438 Was time slowing down?
08:15:6318 Wednesday turned her eyes to meet Enid’s, the two of them staring at each other as the universe rushed towards them.
Wednesday felt stability return around them as the screens flickered to show them facing a cluster of stars, very similar to before they had jumped. Her brain quickly scanned them, comparing it to the before and triangulating the astronomical distances until, on one of Enid’s screens, Thing showed their position relative to their target star.
Stupid machine showing off he was faster than her.
‘A perfect landing’ Enid giggled, the tension flowing out of her. She turned to look at Wednesday and tilted her head to the side. ‘You’re amazing.’
‘I know’ Wednesday preened.
Overhead Thing gave a disconsolate whine.
‘You too Thing’ Enid grinned, patting the console behind her.
Wednesday pushed down on the strange feeling of jealousy that rose in her even as Thing preened. She had never used to be so affected by the opinions of others but Enid was special.
‘How soon before we can make our next jump?’ Wednesday asked. Thing displayed the number in hours at her side. The charge time required could be anything between twenty minutes and three days depending on distance. For the next jump Wednesday had planned out they were launching in seventeen hours.
‘Why the rush?’ Enid perked up, apparently detecting some eagerness to Wednesday. The girl always seemed to notice more than she should and now was no longer distracted by their impending deaths.
‘After our next jump, we should be in range of a perimeter comms array’ Wednesday answered. ‘We’ll be able to get an update on the galaxy and see what happened while our back was turned.’
Enid watched Wednesday work with a sort of lazy comfortableness. After the last jump the two of them had had a simple dinner and gone to bed. The past day Wednesday had been hiding her nervousness about the blind jump but all that stress had Wednesday collapsing into unconsciousness as soon as the danger was passed.
Wednesday never seemed to realise how hard she pushed herself, so Enid had taken it on herself to make sure that Wednesday took some time to relax.
And sometimes that meant a morning spent cuddling in bed with sweet kisses. The after effects of which Enid was still feeling. And she knew Wednesday was too even if the captain put on her serious mask.
‘You’re smirking’ Wednesday grumbled, shooting Enid a dark look.
‘Love you too’ Enid grinned, watching the miniscule change in colour that graced Wednesday’s cheeks.
Love you too Enid heard in her head.
Since Wednesday had started being able to project out her thoughts for Enid to hear, it seemed like Wednesday was more comfortable saying things that way. Grand gestures and whispered words were still very much a part of their love language but this sort of blunt declarations of feelings?
Wednesday was definitely more comfortable saying those words when she didn’t actually have to say them. But she said it aloud often enough.
The two of them were in hydroponics, Wednesday mixing a mineral broth together to feed the plants that gave them fresh produce on their long journey. The room was filled with the aroma of the plants but cut with the pheromones of their “pets.”
Enid tried to think of them affectionately but they were still some of the ugliest creatures to ever grace creation.
In the back of the room was a small mass of organic foam that had hardened into a shell. Within that foam were the unhatched eggs of an alien hive that saw Wednesday as it’s commander. Wednesday had outright rejected every attempt by Enid to call her the queen.
As Wednesday finished preparing the mixture and pouring it into a modified decanter, one of the horrifying bugs crawled out.
This one was an “egg-tender” as Enid had roughly taken to naming them. It looked like a raised horseshoe crab, minus the long tail and scuttled around with a sort of staccato clacking.
On it’s shell back was a crudely drawn six which Enid had placed there. Wednesday insisted there was no need to differentiate them but Enid thought otherwise. Still, it was a bit odd that it ran out and stood by Wednesday waiting to carry the jug she had just prepared.
‘You didn’t call for it did you?’ Enid checked as Wednesday turned and fixed the jug to the creature’s back. Enid could feel when either the arthropods or Wednesday sent a message. Even understand better than Wednesday could. Which spoke poorly to how “human” Enid remained.
‘No’ Wednesday answered, sealing the boxes of prepared minerals as the alien bug ran off. ‘They have learned how long it takes me to prepare the minerals and one of them normally exits when ready.’
‘Hmm...’ Enid nodded as the creature started climbing the hydroponic tanks and dipping a claw in the water. That didn’t feel sanitary but... ‘What’s it doing?’
‘The egg-tending arthropods have highly developed sensory organs for chemical analysis. Once I taught them what the right blend was it was easy enough to have them take on that work.’
That “easy” work was something Enid had never quite grasped so she just shot the bug a jealous look and shuffled closer to Wednesday. The bug had grabbed a little spigot from the front of it’s jar and was pouring some of the mineral concoction into the water tank.
In built chemical analysis? Useful, but was that really needed for something intended to take care of eggs? Maybe it was. They rubbed some sort of nutrient fluid on the surface so that was probably what it used to judge how much was needed.
As Wednesday cleaned up Enid examined the plants in the room. They were actually doing really well. When Wednesday first picked her up from deep space in an escape-pod going nowhere, there had been a relatively small crop for the relatively small crew (of one).
When Wednesday had decided to keep Enid around, she had expanded the number of hydroponics in use and now they had expanded again. And the plants looked great. Thick leaves and strong stems, with not a hint of rot or wither. It seemed like everything was getting exactly what it needed.
And their farm was mostly tended by alien creatures that had never encountered these plants before.
But... they were terraformers. So they had a bit of a green thumb. Or whatever their fingers were called.
This small hive was a break off group from a larger hive in the cargo hold, who had requested transport to earth either as diplomats or... well hopefully as diplomats.
As individuals, they weren’t that smart but there was a hive intelligence when enough of them gathered and the individuals could communicate. Enid actually had a far easier time intuiting their meaning than Wednesday, who brought Enid along if she needed a translator.
Enid grabbed the last crate of mineral crystals that were added into the hydroponic systems. From the looks of it, they were running low. A few more months at most. It was a good thing that they should be back in civilised space in mere days, and Earth in a couple weeks at most.
‘Thing’ Enid asked as she slipped the crate into it’s holding closet and latched the door. ‘What will you do while we’re on Earth? Borrow a drone again?’
Thing made a series of tapping noises like fingers running across a desk.
‘He’ll borrow a drone on the family estate if he doesn’t come down fully. But I imagine he’ll probably download fully.’
Enid blinked.
‘Is that safe?’ Enid’s understanding of AIs were that they were very tied to the systems they inhabited. Even a temporary transfer to a storage medium or movement between identical bodies could have traumatic consequences.
‘Thing is hardly a typical AI. He will be fine’ Wednesday answered with predictable confidence.
Enid shrugged as Wednesday started leading her from the room.
‘Now, we’re about due for our next jump. Keep me company?’
Enid didn’t even bother to answer, only keeping from skipping along because it would jar Wednesday’s arm.