Star Trek: Terra Alpha

It had been weeks of travel and quarantine but Nick and the rest of the family were finally allowed to return home. Nick's first stop was his home, holographic visits with his wife and son were not even close to enough. All he wanted to do was curl up in bed with Alice and as soon as their son got home from preschool, spend every waking moment with them. That was one thing he loved about their relationship, they always found ways of keeping the fires burning, literally and figuratively. The things she wore while they spent time together holographically in his quarters, it almost wasn't fair. And he knew that she enjoyed prancing around in the laciest and most provocative things just because he couldn't be there with her physically. He could always tell when she missed him and wanted him to be 'home', she wore a lot less and she used 'Nicholas' far more. Although there wouldn't be a ton of time for the two of them to spend together, they still had the official launch of the ALICECore system.

"Honey I'm home!" Nick called out as he walked into his residence. "Alice? Gale?" he looked around and hummed. "That's strange, thought for sure they'd be here." he cleared his throat. "Becki? Where's Alice?"

"Mrs. Ryder is at AlphaTek Tower. Your sister is having her child." Becki replied as she materialized. "And you would have known if you looked at your communicator."

Nick patted his pockets and groaned. "Left it on the Tigris... damn."

"Old school Comm badges on an old school ship... savages." Becki teased as she handed him a new communicator. "Don't lose this one."

"You let a computer talk back to you? The Narlin Emperor said grinning. He was wearing his official moss green robes of office. There was a sheathed sword on his hip and crown on his head. "Who would design such a thing?"

"Don't be rude my love," a nearly equally tall Narlin female chided Magus. She was dressed similarly, but instead of a sword on her hip was a baby who cooed genially at her mother.

"Huh? Oh of course!" He grinned, "Nicholas, my wife Meeria, and my daughter Drazel. Nicholas was the Alliance's first president."

"I am familiar with Alliance civics," she said flatly. She gave Nick her best court bow. "A pleasure to meet you. The Emperor speaks highly of you Mr. President."

"Your highness." Nick said with a polite bow and nod of his head. "And actually I developed her AI, well, my brother Tony and I, she originally was a school project for both of us, mine end was the tactile system of her holographic matrix and some of her personality, his was the adaptive learning AI. She's since evolved in the past... forty years or so since she went online. Becki... or Bioneural Engram Computer Kinetic Interface... and no she wasn't named after Sandoval, there was this girl that Tony and I both had a crush on, Becky Dean, she was killed in a shuttle accident Freshman year, so her original design resembled her, but she's evolved and after gaining her own sentience she's chosen a couple of new faces for herself, even had 'children' so to speak." he explained. "But yeah I keep writing that 'don't talk back to your creator' thing out of her program and she keeps writing it back in."

"And you'll notice I'm a 'she' not an 'it'..." Becki said with a smile and a bow. "We actually spoke quite a bit, I handle much of Nicholas' correspondence even when he had other assistants, I ensure that his communique's remain private and confidential on both sides." she cleared her throat. "And if he didn't forget his communicator on the Tigris, he would also have known you were coming. I think I need to develop a hard light holographic 'body' for his communicator so it can actually follow him around."

"So... Magnus... what brings you here?" Nick said, changing the subject. "I was about to head out, my sister is having her baby, but knowing Ryder women like I do, it'll be a while. My mom took 18 hours to have me, 23 when Natalia and Tony were born."

"My wife has never been to Terra Alpha, and we are touring the Narlin settlements here, and to my surprise I find out you have returned from your mission. You left without giving me a heads up, nor a chance to provide assistance. Now, that you are back what do I need to know?"

"Other than there are more evil versions of me out there." Nick said with a roll of his eyes. "Besides that... we had matters well in hand with the small strike team I assembled. Jack had already been working on his own rescue plans with the idea that we were on our way." he walked over to bookshelf and pulled out a silver and rose wood padd. "I think your wife would enjoy this... it has a constantly updated list of attractions, restaurants and events going on in Capitol City. Plus it gets you free food and drinks. Well not 'free', I pay for it, it just lets you order whatever you want. But we've got a really diverse downtown you should check out." he whispered to Magnus. "There are some things I'd like to discuss with you, but later... two weeks in quarantine and getting through the hundreds we rescued, I'm constantly changing my mind on a few things I want to work on. I may not be President, but I've still got pull and..." he looked around. "And I still have some executive power that I can use when I need to. Not that I'd end round Jon, but I built this and as long as I've got life in me, I'm not leaving it undefended. I also made a promise to you my friend, the Narlins are going to be a force to be reckoned with again."

"Of course," Magus stated. "We'll be staying at the Narlin consulate for a few days. If not by then I can return to Terra Alpha, or of course you are welcome to come the Royal Palace."

"Well given that my sister is more like my mom than she cares to admit, I'm pretty sure she won't take a day to have her baby." Nick said with a smile. "So we'll have plenty of time to talk... but I may take you up on your offer to visit the Palace. I WAS going to go there after the swearing in of my second term, it was on my schedule for the following Friday but... well... things happen." he shook his head. "If you like, I could have Tigris escort your ship back. I'm sure Alice would like the opportunity to go off world with me and Gale hasn't really left the planet since he was born. Be a good family trip. You brought your's to my world, only fair I bring mine to your's."

"I'd like that my friend. We'll have a feast for the ages!c

"A feast sounds great..." a young woman's voice said as she walked into the room. She was short, yet thin, leggy and had striking red hair spilling over an old Starfleet 'monster Maroon' uniform, her lipstick matched the shade of red of her uniform as did her nails. "Sorry... I'm hungry. You did promise to show me where the kitchen was."

Nick rolled his eyes and sighed. "One of the refugees... Magnus, meet... my mother. Well... an alternate form of my mother, in her twenties. Lieutenant Tereska Kellow. She only started going by 'Tess' when she married my dad, they saw the old Dick Tracy movie during one of their dates and it stuck.

"I'm still getting used to this... and the fact that I'd still be alive to have... what do you have? Great-grandchildren? Great-great-grandchildren?" Tereska said with a smile as she bowed gracefully. "Your highness. A pleasure to meet you. I've never encountered anyone of your race and I took a lot of xenobiology courses at the Academy." she took in his height and cocked her head to the side. "I would have a really hard time doing any kind of exam on your ear, nose and throat... I'd need a stool or hover boots. Wow you're tall. Seems like everything is bigger in the 25th Century huh?"

Magus bowed to her as if she was a queen, and in a way she was one of sorts. "It is a pleasure to meet you Milady, but you should know us Narlins have always been tall. The Hylons are more your stature, but that is because they are a hybrid species of Narlins and an extinct species known as the Asgrad."