Out Of Space And Time

Agnes Goes Into Space

Two days later, 6 months after Agnes arrived in the 26th century, a shuttle came to take the Steeles and Tepesches to the station.

“Before we leave, I have some things I should like to present to you all. 'Tis my way of saying thank you for accepting me, and for welcoming me into your family the day I arrived here, even before I had met and married Alkhor.

”Indeed, I...I cannot put into words the love and gratitude I feel towards all of you. Please accept these small tokens of that which I cannot truly, properly, express.“

She'd made Mrs. Tepesch, Khasidhi, and Tara all kitchen ensembles of a table runner, tablecloth, placemats, towels, pot holders, and napkins, all cloth and all hand-sewn.

The tablerunner, towels, placemats and tablecloth were trimmed with lace and had different flowers native to Cardistan embroidered onto them.

The potholders had been embroidered with native Cardistanian flowers as well.

She'd also made quilts and toys for the kids, including miniature quilts for their daughters' new doll beds.

For Marty, she'd made a large blanket commemorating his favorite sports teams that he could cover up with while watching his games. She'd also crocheted him a set of beer can cozies, each one lined with leftover material from his new blanket.

They all thanked her profusely, totally overwhelmed by the deeply personal gifts.

After putting their belongings into the shuttle, they were ready to start their trip to their new home.

Agnes was nervous. Despite having flown in the pod these last few months, she had never gone into space. Alkhor assured her everything would be alright.

Agnes, Mrs. Tepesch, Tara, Khasidhi, and MJ packed snacks, sandwiches, and drinks for the trip. They packed their food as well as their pots and pans, even though the station supplied those as well as groceries.

Marty sold their pod to one of his coworkers. The man picked it up early that morning.

At last it was time to leave. The family boarded the shuttle for their flight to the freighter that would take them to the station. Alkhor sat next to Agnes, holding her hand.

“The freighter is a few hours past the solar system.”, Alkhor told her.

Agnes wore her favorite blue floral print dress with the royal blue petticoat she'd made. It was one of the dresses she had considered wearing for their Life Binding.

She'd set the outfit aside for the trip, as well as the new cap she'd made and had decorated with a ribbon that very closely matched the blue in her dress.

The dress had sleeves that ended just above her elbows, as well as lace on the sleeve bottoms that extended the sleeves to just below her elbows.

She also wore her new straw bonnet. It had a matching blue ribbon which she tied loosely under her chin.

She kept her favorite short cloak and wool shawl out instead of packing them, just in case anyone got chilly in the shuttle or on the freighter during their trip.

The others all wore casual clothes.

Agnes still disliked flying, specifically takeoff, mainly due to her being terrified of the extreme speed. To calm herself, she chatted with the family before working on blocks for the quilt she was making for her and Alkhor's bed.

They had a 3-hour flight to the freighter that would take them through 2 star portals over fifteen hours. After passing through the second portal, they'd then travel another 3 hours in the freighter before exiting the ship in the shuttlecraft for another 2-hour flight to the space station. It would all make for a very long day.

"Alright everybody,", the pilot said, "it's time to go. Next stop, 3 hours from now, is the freighter.

“Agnes, as we go past the planets I'll point them out to you, especially the ones that were discovered after your time.

”Goodbye Earth. It's on to our new home!", Alkhor said, holding her hand.

The copilot then started the shuttle's engines. Agnes held her breath, trying to remain calm since she especially disliked this part of flying.

Within five minutes they were in space. She slowly let out her breath as she looked through the front window of the craft. She was amazed at seeing Earth from space for the first time.

Ten minutes later they passed the moon as she looked out the window. Twelve minutes later Mars came into view.

As terrified as she was at that very moment, the absolute beauty of space she was seeing simply amazed her, and she started to relax.

*********************************************

As they approached Mars, the pilots debated whether to fly above, into or below the asteroid field between Mars and Jupiter.

A small craft like theirs could encounter trouble flying through the field, possibly taking hours for rescue to get to them if their comms were knocked out in a collision.

Flying below the asteroids, they might not see one, or one of many mining ships, coming near them from above in time so, in the end, the decision was made to fly above them.

Agnes marveled at what she was seeing. The others had been used to space travel since childhood, and didn't give much thought to what they were seeing.

They all thought it was beautiful, but that was it. After about 45 minutes of careful piloting, just in case a rogue asteroid or mining ship ended up in their path, they were safely past the asteroid field.

“Saturn has at least 82 moons, Agnes. Hundreds of years ago, only 53 had been formally identified. We've identified many more since. There are hundreds of moonlets in its rings as well.

”Titan, the largest moon, is the second-largest in the Solar System, and is larger than Mercury.

“It's the only moon in the Solar System to have a substantial atmosphere.”, Alkhor told her as they passed the planet.

Up ahead was Uranus, the first planet discovered after Agnes traveled through time. Next was Neptune, a planet discovered around 130 years after Agnes' time jump.

"What a pretty blue planet!", exclaimed Agnes.

When the Kuiper Belt came into view, once again the decision was made to fly above it as they'd done when traveling past the asteroid field.

Once safely past the Kuiper Belt, Pluto soon came into view.

"Pluto was discovered in 1930, 175 years after your journey", Alynx said.

They flew past smaller planetoid bodies before leaving the solar system for the expanse of space.

"Agnes, if we turn towards our right, there's a star portal about an hour away. That takes people to Lambda Quadrant and the Lambdan planetary system, along with other systems. However, we're not going that way.

“We're going towards our left, towards the Tertiar Quadrant and Cardistanian Empire territory.“

"In about 40 minutes or so, give or take, we'll meet up with the freighter. We'll message them in 20 minutes to get their coordinates so we don't fly past them. How's everybody doing back there?", the pilot said.

"We're all doing well.", Tara said.

"So far so good!", Mrs. Tepesch replied.

"I am enjoying this flight ever so much more than I thought I would. 'Tis truly an exceeding agreeable flight!", Agnes said as she looked out the window.

"So many stars, yet so much blackness in the void as well! I confess I could never have imagined it would, or even could, look like this! 'Tis beyond words! Simply beyond comprehension or description!"

They smiled at Agnes' excitement and exuberance over seeing, and being in, deep space for the very first time.

When they remembered, however, that she had been born 827 years earlier, 148 years before the Wright Brothers made the first flight at Kitty Hawk, and 214 years before Terrans landed on the moon for the first time, her exuberance made sense to them, and put her life before her time jump into perspective for them.

Many times over the last several months, they hadn't thought all that much about the numbers involved when thinking about where she fit into Earth's history.

She was just ”Agnes” to them, their dear friend whom they not only considered to be family, and who was now family. Now, it was dawning on them all just how many centuries ago she'd been born.

They also realized how her life had changed since Agnes made her journey through time, a journey she'd started 804 years ago, in 1755, in a peaceful field under the shade of a tree before, in the blink of an eye, ending up on the couch in the Steele family's Gathering Room in the year 2559.

*********************************************

After contacting the freighter and receiving coordinates to the ship, the co-pilot punched the information into the control panel.

The two men then leaned back to relax abit after putting the shuttle on autopilot control to let the craft do the flying for the last 15 minutes or so of their flight.

They would turn autopilot control off and fly the shuttle into the ship on final approach, but took this opportunity to relax abit.

Alkhor looked at Agnes and saw her embroidering one of the blocks for their new quilt. The blocks would have embroidered flowers native to both Cardistan and Earth.

Eventually, the freighter came into view. Agnes put down her needlework to look at the freighter.

"Good Lord!", she exclaimed, her eyes wide with surprise. "Tis HUGE!"

"Actually, it's quite small compared to the space station. But it's definitely bigger than our shuttle, that's for sure!", Alkhor said.

After turning on the shuttle's comm, the pilot requested permission to enter the freighter's landing bay."

A voice answered back, "Permission granted. Welcome aboard! Take it slow, as we've got several ships coming aboard at the moment."

"Copy that.", the pilot said. "Will do."

Slowly, though far faster than Agnes thought the person on board the freighter had meant for them to go, the man piloted the craft onto the ship through the landing bay's forcefield protected entrance.

They followed the entrance curve into the landing bay, then pulled up to the space where a crewmember in a long-sleeved yellow and gold uniform with the Federation Directorate insignia had motioned for them to park their craft. The bay was huge.

Agnes was impressed but suddenly very nervous. This was much larger than she'd expected. She also realized that they were on a ship with nothing under them to catch it should it founder.

Alkhor saw her concern, and reassured her that they were flying just as they had been in the shuttlecraft. That seemed to relax her abit.

They were then greeted by the ship's Commander as they exited the shuttle.

"Welcome, everybody. Let's get you all some lunch before showing you the VIP suite for you to relax in!", he said, leading them to a lift that would take them to the floor containing the officer's dining hall.

After a nice, relaxing lunch of baked chicken breasts and chicken noodle soup, it was time to head to the VIP suite.

"We'll be going through the first star portal in about an hour if you'd like to join me on the bridge as we go through it.", an Ensign told them as he dropped them off at the suite. They all were interested.

"Great!", he replied. "I'll see you here in about 50 minutes."

The travelers went into the suite and were impressed with how nice it was, especially for a freighter ship.

They'd be on the freighter for a good 10 hours and decided they'd nap or, at the very least, rest after passing through the first portal.

Agnes put her purse and sewing basket down on the couch, then walked over to the porthole and looking out the window, gazing at the stars.

"This must be a dream.", she said to herself softly, not wanting to draw attention to herself or her thoughts.

"Tis too fantastical to actually be happening. 'Tis an impossibility that we are here in the depths of space, among the stars, traveling like this in a craft as big as this freighter is, with nothing below us in case we should founder. 'Tis impossible.

"This must be a dream! Yet, 'tis a dream I must confess I am not sure I wish to awaken from.", she admitted to herself, smiling slightly.

Alkhor saw her at the window and went over to her. He stood behind her with his arms around her while looking out the window with her.

"It's so beautiful out there isn't it?", he said, gently kissing her temple, cheek, neck and shoulder as she held onto his arms and squeezed them gently.

"Yes, it is.", she replied, nodding in agreement with him. "It seems like a dream, seeing all this. Indeed, I could never have imagined...", she said, her voice trailing off as she continued looking out the window while she struggled to find the right words to say to him to explain her true emotions without looking or sounding silly or culturally backwards to him.

She knew she was quite primitive compared to everyone else in this century, but she tried not to talk much about her feelings.

She knew that, no matter how much she adapted to or assimilated into the 26th century, she would still always be an 804+ year old woman from a much more ancient, backwards time on Earth.

She knew deep down in her heart that no matter how hard she tried, space travel would never feel the same, nor indeed as commonplace, as saddling up her horse to ride to wherever she was heading to.

Sensing what she was thinking, Alkhor squeezed her tightly and said softly, "I know that, deep down, this is all very frightening to you, Agnes.

"But I want you to know how very proud of you I am, facing your fears head-on and pushing past them like you've been doing all day. I know it's not been easy for you."

He squeezed her again as he tenderly kissed her neck and shoulder. Agnes turned around to face him.

"Alkhor, do you think I shall ever feel completely at ease in this century? Or shall I always feel like the backwards, out of time and place outsider that I am?", she said, putting her arms around his waist before snuggling her head against his chest.

"You've only been in this century six months.", he replied, putting his right hand to her muslin cap to cradle her head against him, kissing her head while keeping his left arm around her waist.

"Give yourself time, Agnes. If you rush yourself trying to adjust, you'll be even more overwhelmed at everything than you are right now.

"Just enjoy this new century, life and everything you see around you. Take it all in but, also, take deep breaths when necessary, and don't overwhelm yourself.

*********************************************

There was a knock at the door. "Colonel Tepesch," a voice called. "I'm here to escort you and your party to the bridge before we go through the portal."

"Come on in, Ensign.", Alkhor replied. The Ensign walked in the door.

Agnes turned from the window and, seeing him, curtsied deeply as she said,

"Tis an exceeding agreeable pleasure to meet you, Ensign. Thank you ever so kindly for escorting us this afternoon to your ship's bridge!"

"You're most welcome, Ma'am!", he politely replied, not exactly sure what to make of this young woman in a floor-length dress and cloth cap similar to what he'd read about in historical documentaries about ancient Earth, with her even more ancient speech and manners.

Agnes then put her bonnet on, even through Alkhor explained to her that it wasn't necessary since they wouldn't be going outside.

Putting a bonnet on when leaving a house or other quarters had been so ingrained in her since early childhood, she explained to him, that she'd feel she was dressed inappropriately if she left the cabin without it on.

Alkhor understood, smiled and offered her his right arm, as he usually did, and they, along with the others, followed the Ensign to the freighter's bridge. Once on the bridge, the Commander exclaimed, "Hello everybody!"

Agnes curtsied deeply and said,

"Thank you ever so kindly for inviting us to witness and experience this auspicious journey through the portal, Commander!"

"You're so very welcome, my dear Mrs. Tepesch!", he replied, ignoring the puzzled looks on his crew's faces at her ancient formal manners, dress and speech.

The Commander then said, "We're approximately five minutes from the first portal. Sometimes people can find going through them abit uncomfortable.

”You might experience some slight dizziness, nausea or a headache. If that happens, you're more than welcome to sit down in my chair here until you feel better.", he said to Agnes, motioning to the Command Chair where he usually sat.

"One minute to the portal, Sir."

The Commander said, "Thank you, Ensign. Okay everybody. Here we go. When we come out on the other side of the portal in 30 seconds, we'll be 200 light years away from where we are now." Agnes braced herself, holding on to Alkhor's arm.

As they entered the portal, it felt to her as if the ship was spinning over and over uncontrollably, even though nothing moved inside the ship.

She tightened her grip on his arm and took deep breaths as she tried to combat the wave of nausea she felt. After 30 seconds they were on the other side of the portal.

Agnes said, "Twas truly an exceeding disagreeable experience! I do confess, however, I much prefer it over takeoff in a ship!"

Alkhor burst out laughing, knowing full well how much she disliked taking off when flying.

"We'll be entering the next portal in about 5 hours,", the Commander said, "so feel free to relax before dinner in 3 hours."

Agnes curtsied once again to him and the other crewmembers and said,

"Thank you ever so kindly, Commander and crew, for inviting us! You have all been so very affable and welcoming to us. We are all exceeding grateful for your kindness!"

The Commander bowed a proper gentleman's bow to her.

Her demure, genuine smile showed her deep appreciation for his gentlemanly efforts.

*********************************************

After arriving back at the VIP suite, Mrs. Tepesch sat down in a recliner and, within minutes, was sound asleep. The kids sprawled on the floor.

Marty and Tara snuggled on one end of the couch while Alkhor and Agnes sat on the other end of the couch.

Alkhor leaned back into the corner of the couch and Agnes sat next to him getting ready to work on her embroidery.

He set the alarm on his small-screen for two and a half hours from then, plenty of time for everyone to get ready for dinner.

Taking the needlework out of Agnes' hands, he took her chin in his hand and gave her a gentle kiss before giving her another, much more passionate kiss and pulling her closer to him in a hug.

She leaned against him, her head resting on his chest and her right arm around his waist, while he put both arms around her and kissed her head. Within minutes they fell asleep like that until his alarm rang and woke them up.