Title: Journey Across the Stars

Author: ST

Email: Taylor1036@msn.com

Pairing: Sam/Brooke

Rating: R

Synopsis: A group of robotic aliens called the Narcs, have invaded Earth causing most of humanity to abandon it on a giant spaceship called a ‘worldship’. Now eleven years later, in the year 2030, Sam and Brooke will embark on an adventure that will take them to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. And it shall be through them, and their love for each other that the human race will finally be able to find their new home.

Disclaimer: No I don’t own the characters of Popular. They belong to Touchstone Television.

Author’s Note: Okay…this is a little different from the other story that I’m working on…Okay it’s a LOT different from the other story. This is what you’d call Popular Alt. It’s set in a different timeline, with a different storyline, but the characters are all still the same. I hope you enjoy it. Let me know if you want me to continue it J

In the beginning…

Location- Quiet corner of the space fighter hangar.

“Ah shit!” Sam cried out as she dropped the small handheld laser that she had been using to weld the underside of her A-Class space fighter.

“Don’t tell me burnt yourself again?” a highly amused male voice called out as it slowly drew closer to where Sam lay.

“Shut it Harrison. I haven’t got the time to mess around with you today. Don’t you see that I’m busy fixing the hole that those Narcs put into my fighter,” Sam said in irritation as she sucked on the thumb that had gotten burnt.

“Oh…In a bad mood I see,” Harrison chuckled as he came even with Sam’s feet, which were sticking out from beneath the space fighter.

“Bad mood my ass,” Sam muttered sarcastically as she reached out once again for her laser tool, her voice slightly muffled by the fighter above her. “We’ll just see how funny you are when the next group of Narcs come flying in, and you need the top space fighter around to come and save your butt,” she finished as she went back to work on her space fighter.

“Oh right. I almost forgot,” Harrison said still chuckling as he bent down to look beneath the space fighter for his friend. “You’re the ‘Top Dog’ around here. No. 1 Ace fighter pilot, first in your class at the Space Fighter Academy, and the pilot with the highest Narc takeout ratio around. All of this and you’re only sixteen. I haven’t done half of what you’ve done in the same amount of time,” Harrison said as he got down on his back, and squirmed under the fighter to come up shoulder to shoulder with Sam.

“Ugh,” Sam grunted ignoring Harrison, as she welded a thick piece of plastisteel to the hole that a lucky Narc had put into her fighter.

“Ah, come on Sam,” Harrison said as he looked over at his friend, trying to see her features in the dim light that the laser provided. “I was just teasing you,” he continued, his voice taking on a slightly whiny tone as Sam continued to ignore him.

Seeing as how Sam wasn’t going to talk to him, Harrison decided to take matters into his own hands. Reaching out he grabbed her around the waist, and quickly began to tickle her.

Sam shouted in objection, and quickly shut off her laser. She turned to Harrison and with a low growl grabbed him by the shoulders, and pushed him from beneath the fighter.

Harrison let out a little surprised shout, but then he smiled as he realized he had gotten what he wanted. And that was for Sam to come out and play.

In his opinion Sam didn’t do this nearly enough. He was content to go to his classes, pass his tests, and to spend the rest of his time in the VR room. To him Sam spent way too much time tinkering around with that fighter of hers. She didn’t spend enough time having fun.

Harrison let out a happy shout, and with renewed vigor proceeded to tickle Sam mercilessly.

Sam laughed out loud as she tried to keep Harrison’s hands away from her more ticklish areas.

It felt good to laugh.

No one on the worldship had had much opportunity to laugh in the last few months. The Narcs had begun to step up their attacks, taking more chances with the worldship’s elite fighter force, The Wildcats. Evidence of their new daring was present in the brand new hole that her space fighter was now sporting.

The Narc that had gotten her never would have if it hadn’t all but committed suicide, doing a barrel roll and coming up on the inside of her fighter.

The Narc opened fire before she had time to avoid it. In that brief moment when she had to turn and take aim, the Narc put a hole in the bottom of her fighter. Luckily it only hit the cooling system and nothing vital. But by taking that shot the Narc left itself open for attack.

It had been a risky move, one that it must have realized it might not make it out of, but the Narc had done it anyway, and Sam had taken the opportunity to shoot it down. This behavior just proved to Sam that the same aliens that had destroyed her home planet, and that had been pursuing them across the Galaxy ever since, were getting desperate.

Because of their coordinated attack on Earth, all of the countries of the world had had to band together. They pooled all their resources into stocking the most technologically advanced ship ever created. It was a giant, circular spaceship called the ‘worldship’ that had been created by NASA and the Germans.

The creation of the ship was thanks to the discovery of a new form of metal called plastisteel, that was found deep within the earth’s surface.

This new metal was durable enough to withstand the harsh environments of space, but pliable enough that you could bend it into any shape that you wanted.

Sam had only been five years old when the first Narcs had come, the beginning of an invasion force that has swept over the entire planet within a few days, causing terror and destruction everywhere they went.

The Narcs were an extremely highly advanced species of robots. No one knew where they had come from, or why they had come. All that anyone knew at the time was that the worldship, humanity’s only hope for survival, had to escape the planet surface before the Narcs destroyed it.

So those in charge of the worldship had loaded up as many people as they could from countries all over the world, and put them into the worldship. And in a break for freedom, using its newly created space fighters, the worldship broke through the Narcs invasion forces, and escaped planet Earth minutes before it was destroyed.

Samantha Jewel McPherson, whose mother had been, and still was one of the chief medical officers working on the worldship, had witnessed the entire thing. She had stood by an open window, and watched as the only home she had ever known was blown to pieces by an unknown enemy.

And in that moment Samantha McPherson swore to herself that this would never happen again. She would never again stand idly by as her home was destroyed.  She would fight the next time.

So for the next eleven years Sam trained and learned how to become the best fighter pilot around. And she had many opportunities to test out her many skills, as the Narcs kept up a continuous stream of attacks against the worldship. But despite how advanced the aliens were they could not compete with the fighting spirit a human society, which had just had its planet destroyed.

The Narcs were beaten back at every turn.

Sailing across the stars the worldship was a planet unto itself, carrying and protecting hundreds of thousands of lives from further attacks.

Soon, with the help of the many brilliant minds within the worldship, the human race began to create better ways of fighting the aliens. They designed and created better space fighters. They also created a revolutionary new cloaking system that allowed them to mask and hide from the Narcs for days at a time.

As they planned and worked out how to fight the Narcs, they also plotted a course across the Universe in the search of a new planet to call home.

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

Sam had worked hard over the last eleven years to be the best, and she had proven that she could be. At only sixteen she had taken out more Narcs than any other fighter in The Wildcats squadron.  She had a natural ability, and talent for flying the big, sleek space fighters.

As the number of her kills went up, Sam began to earn the name Top Dog, or T.D. And that’s how most people referred to her. Only her close friends or her mother called her Sam.

And one of those close friends was in for the tickle of his life, as Sam got the upper hand on Harrison, flipped him onto his back, and held him down as her hands went up and down his sides, seeking out his most ticklish spots.

They were so busy laughing and wrestling with each other that they almost bumped into a pair of legs that suddenly came up beside them.

Out of breathe Sam and Harrison followed the long legs up to a slim waist. They then saw a pair of slender arms that held a clipboard. And finally they saw an annoyed, blonde face looking down at them.

“Aguh hmm,” the blonde cleared her throat, while she looked down disapprovingly at the two troublemakers on the floor.

Brooke Sophie McQueen, at seventeen years old, was one of the youngest medical advisers on the worldship. At the time of Earth’s destruction, the then six-year-old Brooke and her father had already been present on the worldship. He was a military adviser in charge of security.

Brooke had watched with tears running down her face as her world had literally been taken away from her.

And as she had looked around and seen all the broken families and hurt people, it had touched something deep within her. She had decided then and there that she would dedicate her life to helping all the people whose lives had been destroyed by the attack of the Narcs.

As the years had gone by, Brooke had proven herself to be an invaluable asset to the medical staff of the worldship. Her quick wit and intelligence made her a fine medical adviser. She understood the needs of the people, and this understanding gave her the ability to give them the proper care needed.

But there was one person, who over the years had proven to be completely out of Brooke’s ability to help, or even to understand.

That person was Samantha McPherson.

She had proven to be a thorn in Brooke’s side ever since they had first met at the Preschool Academy. At that time, a five-year-old Sam was having major anger issues with the Narcs. And the way that she dealt with this anger was to take huge globs of paint into her little hands and throw it all over the classroom.

On more than one occasion Brooke had been the unwilling recipient of a huge glob of paint landing smack dab on her clothes. This annoyed her to no end, because she would then have to go home and explain to her father why there were yellow and blue splashes across the front of her dress, and bright pink paint in her hair.

And it would continue like that for the next few years.

Sam would do something to annoy Brooke.

And Brooke would do something equally or more annoying to get back at Sam.

Now it appeared to Brooke as if Sam was once again causing trouble.

And this time she was taking Harrison down with her.

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

“Now look Sam. I don’t care if you want to wreck the entire hangar with your horseplay. But you were supposed to be in for a physical this morning. And I don’t appreciate having to wait around for you. Now get up and come on so that we can get this over and done with,” Brooke said in an annoyed voice.

“Now look here blondie,” Sam growled low in her throat as she slowly got to her feet.

“I don’t like being bossed around. Least of all by you. And for your information I was doing something much more important than whatever it is that you do in that lab of yours all day. I’m responsible for the safety of this worldship. And that means that my equipment has to be in tiptop shape. So if I decide that taking care of my space fighter is more important than some silly old physical, then you’re just going to have to deal with it,” Sam finished as she reached down and helped Harrison to his feet.

“Why you little…You do know that I can have you taken off the squadron if you don’t take this physical. You also know that this is a standard yearly requirement. You have to take it. And if you don’t come right now I’m going to report you to your commanding officer,” Brooke stated, her face getting red with anger.

“Now Brooke,” Harrison said as he raised his hands in a placating motion, and stepped between the two girls.

“There’s no need to get angry with each other,” he continued. “Sam will take the physical because she knows that it’s important.” Here Harrison gave Sam a pointed look.

“And Brooke, Sam WAS doing something that is important to the welfare of the entire worldship. So give her a little slack huh,” Harrison finished looking very proud himself. He was sure he had just averted what could have been a major fight.

“SHUT UP HARRISON!” both Brooke and Sam shouted at him.

“Okay…got it. Shutting up now,” Harrison said as he backed away from the two irate girls.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” a sarcastic voice called out.

Sam, Brooke, and Harrison all turned as one to see Nicole and Mary Cherry coming towards them.

Carmen and Lily were trailing closely behind them.

“Oh look the gangs all here,” Sam said with a weary sigh.

“Well hi y’all. What cha’ doing?” Mary Cherry called out in a sickly sweet tone. “Y’all look like yer mad at each other,” Mary Cherry continued, her voice fairly dripping with false concern.

“Yeah Sam,” Lily said as she came up beside Harrison. “Are you two fighting again?”

“Yeah…I mean you two are constantly at each other’s throats. It can’t be healthy for you,” Carmen piped up from beside Lily.

“Well eating all those sugar crystals from the ‘Galactic Cafeteria’ can’t be healthy for you either but you still do it,” Nicole said with a sneer in Carmen’s direction.

And with those words an argument broke out between Carmen, Nicole, Lily, Mary Cherry, and Harrison. And it came complete with insults and curses, that were flung back and forth between each other.

The only ones who are not taking part in the fight were Sam and Brooke.

They were used to their friends constant bickering so they just stood off to the side to wait it out.

Just as the argument was reaching a fevered pitch, a loud alarm went off and a bright red, flashing light lit up the hangar.

All the fighter pilots who had been working on their space fighters immediately finished making repairs, and began climbing into their cockpits.

Nicole, Lily, Carmen, Mary Cherry, and Harrison all stopped arguing with varying degrees of shock on their faces.

There was a Narc attack on the way!

Brooke looked over at Sam who quirked a grin in her direction.

“Well… Brooke. I guess that physical of yours will just have to wait,” Sam said before she broke eye contact with Brooke.

She then dived under her space fighter to finish welding the hole in it shut.

With a frustrated sigh Brooke turned to the others, and with an annoyed stare pointed at the hangar doors, and raised her eyebrow.

Getting the message they all turned around and started walking toward the hangar doors, as the sounds of dozens of space fighters gearing up to launch filled the air.

Being the last one out the hangar doors, Brooke paused briefly at them before she turned back around, and looked in the direction of Sam’s fighter.

She saw that Sam had finished repairing her fighter and was now getting ready to climb into the cockpit.

Almost as if she could feel eyes on her, Sam turned around and stared right back into Brooke’s eyes.

With a cocky grin and a wink of the eye for Brooke, Sam climbed the steps at the side of her fighter and got in. Once inside she strapped herself in, pulled down the hatch, and prepared to launch.

Brooke felt her heart give a quick beat, and her respiration speed up just a little when Sam gave her that little wink.

Lately, and without her conscious control, her body had been doing strange things whenever Sam was around.

Her pulse would race, her heart rate would go up, and her breathing would speed up. 

As a member of the medical staff Brooke could diagnose these symptoms if she wanted to. But a large part of her just refused to think about them at all.

And so the reason why her body reacted so strangely when Sam was around was locked away into a deep, dark part of Brooke’s mind.

So instead Brooke watched as Sam’s fighter began to taxi forward to join the rest of the squadron.

As she watched them ignite their engines, and begin to roll towards the launch doors Brooke took a quick moment to send out a silent thought to Sam.

(Please be careful Sam…Whether you believe it or not, I do care if you live or die.  And I don’t think that my heart could take it if something did happen to you. So please…please come back to me safely).

To be continued…?