Posted by Civilian Jessa Novar (Child) in Where is Vela Astria when the past doesn’t match the present of the future

Ian entered sickbay with a murderous look on his face heading directly for Kelly’s room. The only thing that stopped him from demanding his wife transfer the Orion off of the ship was passing Jessa’s room. The past two hours had been nothing but damage control. Interviews and discussions with O’Neill, the security detail, the brig officers, and Lucky McDevitt on top of bringing Rinker up to speed with the events of the observation deck had occupied every minute; however, Ian’s stomach knotted watching Jessa sit motionless on her bed with her legs limply dangling over the edge. Seeing Jessa, Ian realized his first stop should have been checking in with the kid. Taking a few steps backward, his anger was replaced by guilt. Guilt was a funny emotion. Even when something was not technically your fault, it could produce the same physiological reaction as if one was the culprit. Ian did not force Jessa to the brig. He did not force her to interact with Mardusk, yet he also did not intervene when she needed it. “Damn it Damn it,” Ian cursed knowing Kelly would have to wait to come home tonight. This suddenly generated a thought. Tapping his badge he contacted his best friend.

Ten minutes later, as the levels descended on the turbo, Christopher Robins was lost in his thoughts. His mind was locked in a debate about how he felt at the moment and how he would feel if he were in Ian’s place. The hushed voices and stray glances as Chris moved past people talking in the halls, offices, and corridors were unsettling. The medical staff said Kelly would be fine however until she was walking, talking, and slinging back drinks at the bar no one would really believe that which is why gossip tore through the decks like an uncontrolled wildfire about the fourth person in sickbay. Half the crew wanted to vilify the senior staff for not blowing the four people out of the nearest airlock. The other half vilified the senior staff for not working on negotiations. Only about ten people knew Jessa and Ian were related but this was Christopher Robin’s focus.

For Chris, the idea that Ian could have a kid he did not know about wasn’t odd. Hell Ruth existed for almost eighteen months before Chris ever knew of her and this did not make Chris a bad man or deadbeat father. It just made him a guy that one night left a puck past the goalie as Kelly called it. There was never a doubt in Chris’ mind once he found out Ruth was his that Ruth would be his. In any other situation, Chris knew Ian would not blink in becoming a fixture in Jessa’s life just like he had with Ruth; however, Ruth also didn’t try to kill Lexi or board the ship with a group of suspect people who might be trying to kill everyone.

Entering sickbay, Chris took a deep breath seeing Ian talking to Lauren by the nurse’s station. “Ian,” he called, waiting for his cobber to come to meet him. There were few secrets between the two. Ian and Chris pretty much told each other everything as much as men talked about their personal affairs; however, right now the amount of personal information coming out made Chris feel like he needed a stylus and PaDD to keep it all straight.

Abruptly ending his conversation with Lauren, Ian moved across the room. “Hey thanks for coming,” he replied knowing nothing would have kept Chris away. “Just be cool when you meet her and try to have patience,” he started to walk to Jessa’s room.

“Aww come on mate. I have a three-year-old that thinks she is sixteen,” he laughed. The laughing however stopped the second he saw Jessa Novar. Two things struck him immediately after passing the two security officers stationed at her door. The first was how strong the resemblance was between his best friend and the kid on the bed. They had the same eyes both in shape and deep greenish-blue color. Physically they also shared the same mouth shape. The second thing that stood out was how young she actually was. She looked barely out of pigtails and so innocent yet the circumstances of the past twenty-four hours spoke otherwise. So did the look she gave Chris when he approached her bed. The gaze was one of someone far older than twelve. “Hello, Jessa. I am Chris,” he introduced himself.

“Hi Chris I am Hostage four,” she shot back, never missing a beat, settling a heavy gaze on the tall, blonde officer.

Chris shot Ian a side glance realizing the stories Ian related about her sarcasm were not understated. Pushing past her quip, Chris tried to continue. “You’re” he stated but left off dad. Chris wasn’t sure not telling Jessa was a good idea. He remembered back in that hotel in California when he found out Ruth was his and there wasn’t a force in the world that would stop him from being with his kid. Still, Rinker said wait, and Chris wasn’t going to make more problems for his friend. “Friend here,”

“He is not my friend,” Jessa snapped immediately, slicing the conversation to an end laying down on the bed, and rolling over to not face the two men in the room. After the events of the observation deck, Jessa knew any attempt at using words like friend, colleague, or associate were false. Everyone on this ship was just her enemy. “What does the love and wisdom of a friend give one? Friends do not lift one up but keep them stagnant in their pursuit of enlightenment. Be indomitable of their sweet platitudes. Scrutinize every word they offer. Instead, embrace your enemy for they see your true potential and force you to live up to it.”

Chris had thought Ian might have been exaggerating last night when he passed out on the couch but maybe his friend was actually being too gentle with the bible revival view of Jessa Novar. Avoiding a debate, Chris restarted the conversation. “Okay then my friend Ian then asked me ta come help ya find yah way home,” Chris said in a firm but soft tone giving his best friend a side glance. There was more than one way to reach a person.

“For what purpose? To find our homeworld and destroy it?” Jessa instantly was on the defensive. Her body was rigid as she stared at the wall and not the two men in the room. “Because you never will and I will die before I let you.” She silently cursed Evrilla and her promise of confidentiality like she had Rinker on the observation deck. Every time she tried to open up, even a little, these people used it against her.

Ian sighed deeply and moved from the entrance of her room to the edge of Jessa’s bed. “No, because I believe someone somewhere is looking for you and worried sick .” Ian felt all his diplomatic skills evaporating as fast as a breath on a winter’s day. Rinker had told Ian not to push, but also to try and build some repertoire with Jessa. Ian thought this would be a step, yet Jessa appeared to want nothing to do with him.

“Don’t pretend you give two trifing bishwags about what I need. Ever,” Jessa snapped, rolling over to lock eyes with Ian. It was clear she blamed Ian for everything that had happened that day and was not ready to talk it out.

Chris knew his friend well enough to see another disaster looming on the horizon. “Hey mate,” Chris cut his friend off, stepping between them. “Why don’t you go get Hostage number four here a coke and me a cuppa huh,” he winked at Jessa with a half-grin as he clapped Ian on the back. Ian looked at Chris and then Jessa before standing up and walking out.

Turning his attention back to Jessa, Chris decided to have a chat with the little ankle biter. “Okay, ankle biter ya ‘n I need ta come ta an understandin’. That bloke,” Chris hooked a thumb back in Ian’s direction, “is my best cobber ‘n he is tryin’ his best right now so no mah piss fahrtin’ ahround. Ya give him a fair go. Ya heahr me.” Chris was not angry or aggressive in his statement but he also left little room for interpretation. Rinker was right when he told Ian all kids need the rules and consequences upfront. It was about time for Jessa to be told this also. Seeing her nod, Chris held out his hand to hold her to her agreement.

Jessa shook it albeit unenthusiastically. “So he is your life partner,” Jessa asked, interested to find out more about Ian Bordeaux and trying to make some small conversation. Oddly enough for all her rhetoric on social topics, she did not give the impression that Chris and Ian being a couple was a negative thing. Her tone and manner indicated she was more curious on the why did you pick him over any objection to it.

Her comment threw Chris into a bout of laughter. “Life pahrtners?” Leaning in slightly “Well my misses says that sometimes but no. Ian ‘n I go way back. We weah school buddies. He is my best mate though ‘n he asked me ta come down heahr ‘n help ya.”

Chris Robins Stellar Cartography

“And how are you possibly going to do that,” she countered Chris’ friendly banter with thick sarcasm.

“Because I am the ship’s chief stellahr cahrtographah. it’s my job ta know weah everythin’ in the galaxy is so if I can’t find it, it doesn’t bloody well exist. So let’s see if we can’t find the way ta get ya back to yah mum huh. I know she has to be missin’ ya.” Patting her leg, Chris moved to the wall PaDD and tapped the console. “Computer bring up coordinates 009.463.”

“Ian wants to help me get back to my mom?” The icy walls broke like a glacier in warm water as she hyperfocused on Chris’ comment. Jessa pushed the thought from her mind that maybe these people could help in that arena although stealing one of their light slides would make getting her free a lot easier. She didn’t need their help though for that. She would just steal one before she left.

“Yep ‘n if ya spent one quahrder of yah time listenin’ instead of pitchin’ a wobbly ya might get somethin’ accomplished.”
The star chart that appeared immediately altered Jessa’s attitude. Throwing the blankets off her, she moved off her bed and next to Chris’ side. If there was even a chance of this not being a ruse, Jessa had to take it. Looking down, Chris did a double-take at her clothes.

“What,” she snapped looking at him. “Why does everyone think I am joking about being called prisoner number four. I had clothes but when I took my shower they were gone. Seems Mardusk is moving me into prison blue for the transfer,” Jessa explained off hand.

“Prison blue huh,” Chris tried not to laugh at Jessa’s description of the medical scrubs she was wearing. The levity of the moment however soon became more somber as Jessa seemed to look at the map like she had never seen the galaxy before. Tapping the screen he blew up a section of the map used by the kindergarten classes in primary school. It lacked everything but the large most common worlds. He hoped this would help Jessa get her bearings but seemed to only confuse her more.

Staring at all the worlds felt overwhelming. The strange graphemes of their language were not helping her find a point of reference. “Can you put this in the Galactic Standard,” she asked politely, touching a world and inspecting it as if searching for a landmark. One by one she thumbed through the large worlds of Earth, Vulcan, Andoria, and Quonos. The facts that filled the screen were meaningless to Jessa. Even if they contained detailed military information, she could not read it.

“Wadaya mean,” Chris said, wrinkling his brow. “This is the standahrd maps of the galaxy.”

“Never mind,” she snapped, feeling her heart start to race. If she wasn’t going to get any help in reading it, Jessa would have to find another way. “Can you instead make it bigger? Like, let me see all of it and not just parsecs or sectors?”

“Sure,” Chris, said not exactly understanding how less detail on the map was going to help her point out where she needed to go. “Okay so these are the alpha, beta, delta, and gamma quadrants,” he began, waiting for her to identify something. When she didn’t he started naming the most familiar worlds.

Nothing was even remotely familiar to her. Jessa looked for the familiar stellar landmarks like the Solar Chasm, Nihility expanse, and the Holy Vacuity, but none of it was there. “Bigger. I need it bigger. How do I do that,” she asked, tuning out anything Chris was trying to point out or explain. “Make it bigger like you did,” she bit her lip anxiously but patiently waited for his instructions.

“Put your hand like this,” Chris placed his fingertips on the screen then pinched them together which showed her how to increase and decrease the size of the image. In the corner of his eye, he saw Ian had arrived back and stood at the doorway. “Be back in one-second Roo,”
“How’s it going,” Ian asked Chris, handing him the drink.

“Well she hasn’t chucked a wobbly like with you and I don’t think she is piss farting around but I am lost on what the bloody hell she is trying to do now,” Chris admitted while taking a sip of the coffee as both men watched her.

Jessa decreased the star charts until it was a view of the entire known universe with the galaxies reduced to barely perceptible pinpricks. Biting her lip, Jessa finally realized something important: They were a lot farther from home than she ever thought. Cracking her knuckles, Jessa felt anger mixing with her fears. Zala Tsu had lied to her again. They were not on the fringes of Vela Asteria which explained why no one knew about the Galactic Union or the Elders. “Can you make this picture,” she pointed to the map of the galaxy, swirling her hands miming what she needed, “bigger so that I can get more details but still see the entire map? Vela Asteria is just hard to find.” Jessa bit her nail feeling on edge. She was so close to finding what she needed to get off this ship and get home. All missions had an escape plan. She had no idea which direction to escape to.

“Vela Asteria?” Ian looked at Chris who shook his head almost imperceptiably. His brow wrinkled slightly in concern that Chris had no knowledge of such a star system.
His interest was piqued at Jessa obviously searching for something no one had ever heard of. If there was a literally lost galaxy, finding it would be akin to discovering the lost cities of Atlantis or El Dorado just in space. “Okay let’s narrow this to something manageable to analyze. What’s the shape of Vela Asteria? Spiral, elliptical, or irregular,” Chris handed his coffee off to Ian. There was no way they were going to do anything but frustrate the kid with a search method of staring at the entire universe.
“Ugh, this is useless. Your computers are worthless. You’re worthless. How have you even managed to achieve spaceflight when you can’t find a galaxy? It’s not like Vela is little. I might as well go grab a pair of ocular goggles and stand on the bow saying more to the left.” Jessa began to pace feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. This should be so easy yet their backwater section of the universe seemed to have no tools to get her home. Walking by the bedside table, Jessa knocked off the glass of water letting it spill all over the floor. She would have preferred something more satisfying than a paper cup yet beggars could not be choosers. “You know what,” she glared hotly at Chris.

“I know you are gonna knock it off right now. Pick it up. Now,” he said barked out in the tone he only used to get control of his kid or the crew which at times were one in the same. His tone made Jessa close her mouth and rethink her next statement which was exactly what he wanted. She did not perform the action as quickly as Chris thought she should have but she did comply.

in a friendly but firm tone snapping his finger and pointing it at her and then back to his side. “Hey ankle biter, fair suck of the bloody sav; wat about shuttin’ up ‘n listening. No mawah wobbly’s. You want to hava blue with me. I will rack off. Understand!”

Jessa had no clue what fifty percent of the man just said but she definitely got the other half loud and clear. Nodding she glanced at Ian who, as irritated as he was with the kid, concentrated hard not to smile. This was not the first time someone stood there was a dumb look on their face trying to figure out what Chris just said to them.
Noting he grabbed her attention, he brought the conversation back to civilized ground. “Fair Dinkum mate.” Chris side glanced at her with a raised eyebrow. It wasn’t her fault that Jessa didn’t immediately respond in agreement. No one outside of someone Downunder used the slang. “Say fair dinkum mate,” he fed her the required response with half a smirk out of the side of his mouth.

“Fair Dinkum mate,” Jessa repeated, blowing some hair out of her eyes. She had no idea what it meant but if it meant this guy would help her, Jessa would have said anything.

“Now spiral, elliptical, awr irregulahr,” he repeated as Chris began to run the stellar search program.

Chris Robins

“I’m not sure. It’s like a squiggle,” she drew a shape in the air with her finger. Jessa’s tone was far more calm and a lot more passive. Her head was still slightly reeling trying to figure out what just happened. She had no idea if she and Chris had made up or were still fighting.

“Irregulahr it is,” Chris placed the commands into the coordinators. Luckily this was not a common shape so seventy five percent of the galaxies were immediately ruled out. Thinking about what she said, Chris brought up the images of the most iconic squiggles: Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall, the Sloan Great Wall, the Boss Great Wall and labeled them.

Seeing the images, Jessa moved closer to the map. The shapes were similar but not a match. Blowing each one up, she cocked her head staring at them. “You know I am starting to think we just have different names for things or are looking at something from a different angle. You know like when you are on your knees praying and the only thing you see is eye level but when you look up you see the mosaics on the ceiling. It’s not that they weren’t there. You were just not looking at the whole cathedral.” Jessa continued to twist and turn the images, increasing their size, and scrutinizing each star. Twisting the Hercules-Cornona Borealis, a light bulb went off. “I know this,” she said excitedly to Chris. “I know this. Its the Solar Chasm.” Pure excitement radiated off of Jessa. It was time to no longer care about keeping information from them but sharing it.

“Of course you do, that’s the Hercules-Cornona Borealis one of the largest objects in space,” Chris took a sip of his coffee.

“Here,” she blew up a section of the map that made Chris’ expression go blank. “This is Vela Astria. We need to go here.” For the first time since she arrived, Jessa didn’t feel the sick feeling in her tummy. She felt hopeful and light. The blank look from Chris concerned her though. Everything about his body language made Jessa feel on edge. “What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?” Looking between the two men, Jessa knew there was a problem.

“What’s wrong is that we ahah here” Chris pulled out a stylus and drew a line across the screen, “n ya want ta go heah. It ayyn’t possible. You have just gotten mixed up.”

“No, it is possible if you use the celestial labyrinth,” Jessa pulled his stylus and circled several dots on the map. “Sigalis, Draconis, Maelstrom, Aquarii, or Perileos Cloud,” she said each one as confidently as a Federation officer naming off the major worlds; however she was not naming planets but galaxies.

“Yes but this,” he drew a line rapidly back and forth across the screen is one point fah billion light yeahrs. Billion,” he emphasized. “Our closest galaxy is this,” Chris circled the Andromeda galaxy, “and in our fastest ship it would take three hundred years to get there.”

“Not if you use the celestial labyrinth,” used her fist to erase circles. “God see this is why I call you all backwater. How can you possibly think you are technically superior when you can’t even traverse to neighboring galaxies!”

Chris cared less how much of a wobbly she pitched right now. His mind was not in the room but trying to make sense of what Jessa was going on about. It took about two minutes but then Chris married together the bits and pieces into a cohesive thought.

“Are you calling the Cosmic Web the Celestial Labyrinth?” His mind raced with the possibilities of the theoretical concepts this twelve-year-old in scrubs seemed to know as fact.

“No I am the Celestial Labyrinth, the Celestial Labyrinth like all civilized places do,” Jessa shrugged defiantly picking something off the sleeve of her scrub shirt. “You are the one that is…calling…it the wrong….name,” she let her voice trail off as Chris immediately began to shut down the screens and rapidly called out names into this comm badge. “Where is he going,” Jessa walked up to Ian seeing Chris about ready to leave.

“Dunno, hang on.” Ian was almost as confused as Jessa at Chris’ behavior. “Dude, what is going on?”

“And here comes the wobbly,” Jessa said looking up at Chris. It might have been more comical if both adults weren’t focused on something else.

“Ian, she is sayin’ she is from the bloody Caelum supercluster which is a one-point fah billion miles from Eahrth. It’s the bloody lahrgest supercluster with a collection of ovah 550,000 galaxies. I mean this thin’ is so distant it defines the bloody very boundahry of the observable universe ” Chris protested signaling to the map. “What she is sayin’ is impossible but she is hearh. So that means she got heah somehow ‘n if i understand her right they ahah usin’ the bloody cosmic web ta pop up like gophers in a meadow on a grand scale. We av only stahrted ta explain wawrmholes ‘n our wawrmholes only function inside the milky way. This is like a netwawrk of interstellahr wawrmholes. It would take ya anywheah in the known universe in seconds” The excitement and doubt laced Chris’ words and face.
“Yeah but the cosmic web is just a hypothesis,” Ian looked at the map starting to wonder if there was any truth to what they were discussing. If it was, it would completely rewrite the physics of space travel.

“That is why I am garn down ta the lab but it would explain a helluvah lot like the anomaly wen they exited wahrp,” Chris did not need to add more. Ian was already thinking along the same lines.

Jessa walked to the bed behind her, sinking against it, her head was spinning. Seeing Chris leave she walked up to Ian. “Take me to them,” Jessa’s voice starts off weak but gets stronger. “They have lied to both of us.”

“No,” Ian says softly. Too many things happened today for Ian to just march her down even if he was willing to ignore that Jessa’s companions were turning out to be psychotic killers.

Jessa tried to stay calm but the more about what Chris said was starting to concern her. “You want answers…they have them,” she pointed out of her room.

Jessa

“Fine, tell me what to say and I will talk to them for you,” Ian offered, waffling between his need to keep her away from the crazies and the need for information. He and the crew of the Atlantis however would not use or manipulate a kid to find out when they needed to know. The crew were all adults and did not need her to figure out the situation.

“But they are never going to talk to you. You are an unbeliever. They won’t tell you about why we came or answer any questions. They don’t trust you,” she looked at him with a simmering anger in her eyes as she crawled up to sit on her bed. “I don’t trust you.”

“Then I will just keep asking them questions until they do tell me the truth,” he countered in a firm tone, “and keep coming around until you start to trust me.” Ian had no reason to feel any attachment to Jessa but his tone was becoming less neutral, more confident that one day she might find a way to trust him. Ian knew Jessa needed someone on her side even if she didn’t.

Jessa wanted to throw him out of her room but the last hour with Chris Robins had her head spinning. She could ignore Ian’s baiting to engage in conversation but Jessa needed answers. “Do you promise to tell me the truth?” Jessa’s eyes darted back and forth between his as if begging him to say yes.
“Always,” Ian sat down on the edge of her bed. Reaching out he put his hand over hers and gave it a small squeeze like he did all the time with Ruth. Her hand felt so small and tiny in his. Ian felt his heart breaking. Not because he had formed some deep emotional attachment to her but he did empathize with what Jessa was going through. She was young, alone, and scared. Ian could not fix everything but he could fix two of those things. She didn’t need to be alone or scared at least tonight. Letting out a sigh he remembered Rinker’s words: Be honest…set expectations…do not lie. Ian felt her hand try to pull from his but he applied enough pressure to make sure it did not slip from his grasp. “What do you want to know?”

Jessa stopped fighting him to pull away her hand from his. She needed an ally to help her get the Elders out of the Brig. Know when to fight and when to lie in wait for the opportunity to destroy the unfaithful will always present itself for the righteous on the enlightened path, echoed in Jessa’s mind. She wasn’t interested in destroying these people but she was looking for an opportunity to return to the path the Order had chosen for her. “Do you really want to help me get home? Chris said you did so help me. I have the answers,” she pleaded. “You just won’t listen to me. Chris was wrong. We are not billions of miles away. You are just uneducated. I see that now.” Looking around the room, Jessa saw something that might help her try and explain the facts of what was going on. Grabbing the Coke on the small table beside her she held it up for him to see. “This is a Fizz but you call it a…”

“Coke,” Ian supplied the word, already feeling a knot forming in his stomach, wishing he could help her understand without crushing the last bit of hope she is holding. “Oh honey don’t do this. I see where you are going but you are wrong,* he thought but let her continue.

LIfting the drink she swallowed several large sips. “See, it’s the same thing but with a different name you don’t know.” Setting the drink back on the table, she looked at Ian begging for him to agree.

“I understand Jessa but,” he was cut off by a desperately spiraling Jessa.

The stoic and fiery persona she had shown for the past two days began to crumble as tears formed in her eyes. “So why can’t this be a small corner of Vela Astria and you don’t know it? Why can’t you just forget us? If you do, I won’t ever leave Vela Astria again. I promise,” she said and pulled her knees up to her chest pressing her eyes hard into knees.

Ian didn’t need to be a psychologist or therapist to know this was not a plea to him but more an apology to someone far away. Leaning forward he hugged her, not out of duty but because she was a kid that was lost, alone, and scared. Ian didn’t say a word nor did he move as she flinched several times trying to get him to let her go. In some ways Jessa reminded him of Kelly. Drawing attention to them when they were at their weakest wasn’t always the best method but leaving them alone also wasn’t the answer. So he let her cry until the sobs slowed and he felt her yawn. He didn’t need to be a doctor to know Jessa needed to sleep. “Time for bed kiddo,” he said, rubbing her back in slow circles. “You are spinning your wheels and not making a whole lot of sense.”

The face looking up at him was not one most of the crew saw. Red-rimmed eyes with long wet lashes blinked faster than normal trying to stop the unending cascade of tears. Jessa began to protest but Ian shook his head. “It’s been one hell of a day. We can talk about this tomorrow ‘kay and I will make you a promise,” his voice got soft and gentle. “If you close your eyes and try to get some sleep, I won’t leave here all night. No one will come through that door and we can figure things out in the morning.”
Jessa felt the weight of the day crushing her. All she wanted to do was sleep and forget what had happened with Rinker, Mardusk, and the Elders. “Promise,” she asked rolling over and pulling the blankets up around her shoulders. Jessa just needed him to lie to her. She would forgive him in the morning when she woke up and Mardusk had taken her away with the rest of the Elders. She just needed to hear the words.

“Forever and always,” Ian said, moving off the bed and getting comfortable in the chair in the room. The promise was easier than Jessa realized. Ian knew she was scared after today and didn’t understand. If sleeping in a chair would give her some peace of mind, he would do it. No one was going to take her off the ship without his consent or knowledge and if that meant sleeping in a chair for the next six months or until they found her mother, that is what Ian would do.

Jessa