Chapter 12

If it were possible for sound to travel in the vacuum of space, the collected shrieks and screams of horror over what they had just witnessed in Garth's camera would have traveled around the Orbit Stations and back again.

Rosie's emotion circuits kicked in causing her distress at what just happened to her precious Garth. At the same time her nurturing program was also active when seeing her young charges so upset and the two emotions fought for dominance. Within nano-seconds the needs of the young ones in front of her won out. Her inner circuits were in severe turmoil as she had no idea what was happening to Garth and Red. Would Red see to their survival? Would Garth ever come back to see her? Her motherly programming made her keep a brave face on. She had too. Rosie looked to Alex, who was again, trying to keep everybody calm. He was succeeding.

"Okay, okay. Now listen up," Alex was speaking to everyone, but looked over to see Tasha off in the corner, upset and by herself. He walked over to her. "Tash. Come on. It's gonna be all right," he put his hands on her shoulders.

She spun around and threw her arms around him, crying. "Oh Alex, I'm so scared. What's going to happen to us?"

Alex was caught off guard by her response, feeling uncomfortable he was conscious of everyone else's eyes on them. He kept his arms away from her for a few seconds before returning the gesture. It was strange for him to see her act scared. She usually brushed things off so quickly, he wondered if anything ever got to her. "Tash, Tash. We're gonna be okay. You got that?" he held her at arms length. "Come on. We're gonna put our heads together and figure this one out. And everyone here needs you. Got that?"

She nodded her head in agreement, a weepy, vulnerable kind of smile on her face.

Mavis glared at Tasha, wondering what she was trying to do to Alex. Who did she think she was anyway? She nudged Yavi in the side.

"Did you see that, Yavi?" Mavis leaned over and whispered in her ear.

"Yeah, I did. What happened to her back there? She never would have done anything like that before."

"I know. It's like one second she's never with us and the next she's our best friend."

"And what's up with Alex?" Farhad leaned into the conversation. "She treats him like dirt and then he coddles her like some fragile egg."

Jody overheard them talking and also leaned in to them.

"You know guys, maybe she is really scared. Maybe something happened to her back there that changed her and she's a little more vulnerable now. Cut her some slack."

"Look who's talking, the king-of-being-cut-slack. Everyone here is always cutting you slack..." Mavis shut up when she saw Alex coming back over toward them.

Alex brought Tasha back over to the rest of the group, "Okay everyone. Garth and Red need us. And we're going to help them out."

"What do you mean, Alex? How can we help them," Jody spoke from a crossed-legged position on the floor, "We're stranded here, remember?"

Mavis chimed in, "And besides, Garth said he called the K-P."

"He said he sent a signal to the K-P." Jody interrupted her, "and we don't even know if that got through."

Rosie's power consumption was reduced so she again projected her image into the room. Everyone looked over as her holo-image formed and stood next to them. "Children, I would like to offer an opinion on the matter."