Post Mortem

[Rebecca Talon]

Rebecca glanced at Nick and then to John, and shrugged. "Doing the right thing is rarely easy, and neither satisfying, but in the long run well worth it. You see I have lost many myself. Friends, colleagues, and a man who was ss much a father as my own. It would be easy to give into the anger. To strike down anything and everything that represents the Ajem and Dominus, but it should never be easy to kill, and every time a bit of you dies as well."

[Clint Cross]

"Well, I've always liked the term sin eater." Clint said with a sigh. "I know it's not the 'same' thing as the Native American thing, but basically, people like Selene and I take it on so others don't have to. We're master assassins. We have more blood on our hands than most, but for each life we take, we save dozens, hundreds more. This is a case in point. And this bastard knows we're going to take the moral high ground."

[Aimee Sandoval]

"Now is not the time or the place," Aimee interrupted. "Hey mom."

Rebecca smiled and hugged her daughter. There was still a bit of awkwardness between them, but it was slowly evaporating as they had started to forgive. "You look fantastic."

"I look like a killer whale, but thank you," Aimee replied.

"Well, I see you are following in my footsteps," Rebecca said with a smirk. "Well, it is the 25th century. We don't need to be married, but it does make it easier. Either way I'm proud of you kid."

Amiee blushed, "Thanks I guess."

[Olivia Ryder]

"I don't even mind her waking up at 3am with the munchies." Olivia said as she walked over with Kirby and Lana. "We could tell the mood was getting a wee tense."

"About to come to bloody blows I'd say." Kirby said with a smirk. "Although then again, about par for the course with some of the funerals I've been to in Australia. Remember Aunt Marge's?"

"Don't remind me..." Nick pointed to a scar on his neck. "I don't even remember who threw that bottle."

"Her brother. I was there." Olivia reminded him and sighed. "So... with all this talk... am I being pulled back into the world of Black Ops?"

"I'm not going to pull you into anything other than your band. And that Walker Class you just bought." Nick cleared his throat. "You buy a classic starship and you didn't have me look at her first?"

Olivia pointed to Aimee. "I'm also best friends with her, she vouched for it, besides, I kinda owed her something better than her old one. And... I am pretty sure that sooner than later we're going to be called in to do more than play a gig."

Lana looked at Aimee and rolled her eyes. "I think you two are way over thinking things... besides, there are like hundreds of people that can do what you all do."

[Aimee Sandoval]

"I'm not overthinking anything," Aimee said. "Look at me! I'm as big as a refrigerator. My thoughts are limited to, 'what food I'm craving next', and 'will there be a toilet close by?'" She shrugged, "But, yeah it's a good ship. It even has a few modern upgrades, but I would like to update to computer cores, but that's going to have to wait. I'm not going to crawl through Jefferies tubes right now."

[Jena Tana]

"You do know you live with an engineer..." Jena teased as she approached the little party. "Just because your bestie and I aren't sharing a bed doesn't mean I'm not down for squeezing my muscular tush into a tube to upgrade a computer core."

"Says the chick who's trying to get pregnant." Olivia said with a nudge of her elbow.

"Or you could ask me to help." Nick cleared his throat. "Anything for my girls. That includes you too Aimee. And you Jena." he gave her a smirk. "So... you and Riddic huh?"

"Care too much about Liv to get in the way of her and Kirby and besides... big Ethan is sorta my type. It's a weird family we've got but we make it work." Jena said and pointed to AImee. "And we're going to have a couple of great kids comin' out of her. So no matter how fucked up I think we are... it'll work out."

[Tess Ryder]

"Our family has always been a bit weird Jena." Tess said with a half smile. "Yet it keeps getting larger, even when we lose parts of it, we seem to gain." she glanced at her younger counterpart "Even if now I'm starting to understand what some of you have been going through with a younger or older or different version of yourself. I can't believe I was ever that tiny. Of course I did have five kids... and I ran a starship, stress eating, not eating, living on replicated crap... and not having a working thyroid since I was in my thirties..."

"You are still amazing Dr Tess." Jena said and gave her a hug. "And we are all here for you, say the word and we'll come running."

"Whatever you need, just let someone know it'll come." Kirby added.

"So how many old boyfriends have come out of the woodwork?" Olivia raised an eyebrow.

"Four." Tess said with a roll of her eyes. "Although I wouldn't really call them 'boyfriends', more like ah... " she bit her lower lip. "Dates. They didn't last long enough to reach boyfriend status. Leo was pretty much the only one I had more than like two dates with and actually introduced to anyone as 'my boyfriend'. Although it's weird... it's hardly like I'm a young thing and let's be entirely honest, I've been married for over sixty years. That means these guys have been waiting for sixty years to ask me out. Thirsty much?"

[Roger May]

"Oh it wasn't quite that long for us Tess... " a tall, older gentleman with long curly white and grey hair said as he walked up to her. A rather thick English accent and a scholarly tweed blazer over a simple white shirt and grey slacks. "Not that I would ever have come between you and Leo."

"Professor May... you're still alive." Nick said with a smirk.

"Ah, but I may be dead in time and space somewhere." May chuckled and gave him a pat on the back. "Sorry that the rest of the clan wasn't able to make it, too bloody busy getting into trouble elsewhere I imagine. Course, your Admiral T'Ver offered me a teaching position and I could hardly refuse since I've been bored out of my bleedin' mind at Cambridge." he held onto Tess's hand. "I only come to you as a friend and a fellow scientist."

"Right." Tess said with a sideways glance at him. "Still is good to see you. Why must it be funerals that bring out the people we haven't seen in years?"

"The nature of the universe. Don't realize who you care about until there's someone missing from it." May replied and cleared his throat. "And all this alternate reality and time and space rift stuff is incredibly... fascinating. I'm looking forward to studying it."

"Just don't flirt with Tereska..." Tess said with a glance toward her younger self who was talking to a couple of Naval Captains. "Of course, as I recall at her age, I had a thing for older men." she blushed and shook her head. "I never thought I was such a flirt back then."

"Oh you were, but then again, she's not you, not with all the same experiences you've had. Seems like she's come from a bit less of a strict household... or maybe a stricter one, which does typically happen when one finally is away from that, they explore their newfound freedom. Still fascinating." Roger said as he whispered in her ear. "And you made the first pass at me back then, and the second... and third. You wore me down Miss Kellow."

Tess blushed furiously and gave him a playful slap on the arm. "Oh shush..."

[Kaikoa Lei]

"A shame we cannot lure you back Professor." Kaikoa said with a smile. "But unlike my late mother, I'm not trying to rule with an iron fist."

"Oh it was not your leadership that caused me to move, simply the science m'boy... and the opportunity to work with some of my favorite pupils again. Did you know I taught a young Nicholas Ryder how to play guitar in exchange for him setting up a computer system for me?" Roger said with a grin. "Music and science have long been a part of my family, going back to the late 20th Century."

"I watched one of your concerts, with my mother and the 'old band' as she called it." Kai said with a slight smile.

"Once upon a time, Julie Lei and Nicholas Ryder made beautiful music together, and some beautiful children. Things work until they don't. There isn't anything wrong with that, she was what he needed for a time as he was what she needed. I've had two wives, first one I thought I we would be together until death. But we simply changed and evolved and she is far happier with her new husband. My second... well she passed. As is the universe, things evolve, things die, it's how we treat that is what matters. Like Leo and Julie and the others... while they were taken from our lives far too soon, their impacts will continue to be felt for many many more years, generations even if we let it, so in essence, they are not gone. And speaking metaphysically they aren't. Just their physical bodies are gone, you cannot destroy their energy. It's all around us. And someday we will all join them eventually."

"Could not say it better myself." Kaikoa said with a nod of his head. "That's why I wanted to offer this..." he pulled out a padd from his pocket. "Mister and Mrs President Price... as the Emperor of the Terran Imperium, I wanted to formally say that Earth no longer has any ill will toward Terra Alpha and we join you in your fight to stop Dominus. We aren't joining the Alliance per se, but we will consider you allies if you consider us the same. I... saw something... Rumiko's vision. I fear if we are not united and work together to stop him and his allies, we will have far more deaths to mourn. If not the Earth itself." he knelt down next to Isabella's chair and put his hand on her's. "Mother thought very highly of you and valued your respect and friendship. I want to continue that. We've already named an orphanage on Earth after you. And... if there is anything you need, simply ask. Many in my government still trust you. And we trust your husband, but... you brokered the peace. We do not forget that. You also treated a former enemy with respect, we also do not forget that."

"See luv... told you that your time as President was fruitful." Jon said with a smile.

"Perhaps when you are both recovered, you would be able to visit Earth as our guests, not a political thing, simply as friends. I fear that someday... all the work I and others have done to rebuild... won't be seen." Kaikoa said and glanced at his aunt Rumiko. "And there are things I would like to talk with you about in private. Perhaps later."

[Rumiko Lei]

"I can share the vision with you as well." Rumiko said to Isabella and Jon. "I do have one question... has Noella St. James been acting... strange? I've seen her in my vision and she's not the same as the Noella I've known, even post divorce from Nicholas."

"How so?" Nick butted in and looked at her. "Hey, she was my wife for a while."

"Not sure, but... I saw some very dark things on her. Perhaps I should share the vision with you as well." Rumiko said and looked at the three. "Later this evening. It's a lot to process." she slipped Bella a small tube. "Ancient Chinese remedy for the pain, pop a few of those in your mouth, should help not like those horrible hyposprays. You look like how I felt after I broke my neck a few years ago. Dom said I looked like one of those Anime chicks with their tongues out half the time. Then I reminded him that was Hentai and what the fuck was he doing looking at that."

"No idea what you are talking about..." Jon teased.

"Good answer. Keep this one Isabella..." Ru said with a wink.