6.

Doctor Stanley Holmes had been a military doctor for a little over twelve years prior to being invited to join The Pathfinder. He may be seventeen years younger than Brandon Michaels though both men have known of each other for quite some time even though they have never actually met one another prior to Brandon's arrival on the ship. With all the doctor has been through in his own life, he has aged a little quicker than most his age and the age gap between him and Brandon isn't so obvious or apparent. If anything, physically Brandon appears to be the stronger of the two.

Stanley shook hands with Brandon when Brandon arrived on The Pathfinder, and they shared a respective glancing nod during the arrival meal. Brandon, of course, had been eager for a decent chat with Stanley but still would wait for a more appropriate time. Brandon has lost his only son who, like his father, had also been a commanding officer in the Military. Stanley, as it so happened to be, had attended to and had been with Brandon's son Andre at the moment he passed away. Stanley had also treated Andre's good friend who had also been injured in the same attack that Andre was a victim of.

Cormack Rhodes, the man who Stanley had also treated on the day Andre died, had visited Brandon not so long after Andre's funeral with the intention of this visit being that he would beg forgiveness. Cormack had blamed himself for the death of Andre Michaels when in truth there had been nothing he could have done to save him or to prevent what had happened from happening. He had always felt so guilty for having asked Andre to make his way to that Afghanistan village.

Brandon never blamed anyone in particular for his son's death but such a thing as the death of a son is always very difficult to deal with and it became all the more difficult when his wife passed away late on during the following year. In such a short space of time his whole world fell apart disastrously.

Stanley, where he has now come to be and in his new position, was more than happy with his new spacious medical center as he was also more than happy with the fact that he had two other doctors to work with as well as three interns and five nurses. There was more than enough reason for Stanley to feel quite pleased with his new surroundings. There are many other medics about if needed as there are those with some sort of medical training. Further training and training of those inhabiting the ship seeking such training can easily be arranged.

Being equipped with state-of-the-art machinery, the medical center was and is completely ready to deal with whatever may come through its doors. The current moment of near silence in this facility really allows for a sufficient amount of time to fully take it all in. Still, it is fully operational and currently already in use.

The Pathfinder's physician in chief could afford to smile with the thoughts of the area he would take charge of, but his jovial feeling would quickly change to one a little more serious especially with the thoughts that he, along with everyone else, were and are getting ready to trek into the great unknown.

Out of the first two patients to spend a night in The Pathfinder's medical center, Robert would be the first to awake. He explained what he could remember. Not long after Robert had come to, Simon also awoke, and after what he told the doctor, blood would be taken from both men leading to the discovery that they both had hallucinogens in their respective systems, so not only where they attacked, they possibly were attacked for a reason.

There is a screening process for anyone to board a starship, especially one like The Pathfinder but still things do happen and do go wrong, with only a small percentage of those coming and going prior to the ships departure date actually being assigned to stay upon the ship. What had happened to Robert and Simon could be reasoned as being some sort of planned attack and if it were and no matter its intentions, it only resulted in the delay by a couple of days of the use of the ships speed of light booster system. Still. A delay could lend out time for something else to happen, it could allow for something more devastating to be set up.

The thought had crossed Stanley's mind that it may be possible that somehow, members of the elitist group the AEEG which stands for the Anti-Earth Evacuation Group had made their way onto The Pathfinder. With such thoughts, he would have to go and inform Brandon of his assumption. The AEEG believe that no one should be in too much of a hurry to leave planet Earth for a life in which they believed could only come to an end in space. They believe more should be done to aid the planet to a full recovery. Stanley knows this all too well as he had been forced to deal with certain circumstances in the past.

With people at this point in time still coming and going between The Pathfinder and Earth it would be impossible to know if those responsible for the attack on the chief engineer and chief pilot are still aboard and as to if they would continue to remain on the ship. At that then, would security measures need to be put into place? Even though things have been set in motion for some time prior to now, there was still a rush to get things properly going, therefore setting something up like having a security presence aboard this flag ship may have been something which has been overlooked.

There is of course security aboard the ship though the level and complete function of which just may need to be looked at and increased to work on situations not previously considered and the sooner this is outline and put into action the better. A start of sorts could already be made with the keeping an eye, or three, out for anything else that might come.

Radicals, terrorist or saviours, whatever members of the AEEG group are known as being, and whatever anyone thinks or believes, realistically planet Earth is way beyond help. If the whole world were to immediately give up use of all modern forms of transport, stop using fuels and kept energy levels at an absolute minimum it would take decades for the Earth to begin to improve if it could begin to improve at all.

With the extreme global temperature changes, people could not go without air conditioning and fans or electric heaters and coal fires, and all this is not even to mention the many natural disasters sweeping the world, rising water levels, ever decreasing availability of land, taking the lives of so many people along with them on their own natural paths of destruction. Staying on Earth the world's population would seriously struggle to survive a few more years, let alone try to survive decades.

Anyhow both Robert and Simon would spend the night in the medical facility. The ship would begin its journey the following day, moving slowly but surely away from Earth, though it would be Monday the 28th of October when the two men would report for duty finally allowing the speed of light booster to be used for the first time.

Early on that Monday, late on in October, Simon, definitely looking the worse for wear, took his place at the pilot's station taking the reins of the number one station on the ships bridge or command center as it would be referred to. He also chose who he believed to be the best pilot aboard The Pathfinder to accompany him at the second pilot's station and that would be Australian born Jeffery Wilson.

Growing up, Jeff always wanted to become an astronaut so when the opportunity came about to train for one of the available positions on The Pathfinder, he took it without hesitation. Having grown up in Perth, Jeff had been separated from his family and friends when he survived a powerful tsunami which devastated his hometown.

Being just nineteen at the time of his own personal disaster, recovering from his own injuries, Jeff soon found himself in Alice Springs with no idea if any of his immediate or extended family or indeed if any of his friends had survived. Flying would become a passion, an obsession, a way of moving forwards in his own life. It became something to focus upon. If a vehicle, any vehicle, has the capability to take flight then it is highly likely that Jeff could pilot it, even through the most severe of conditions.

How odd it is that the first night Jeffery Wilson spent in Alice Springs he would be cared for and given the once over in a hospital, a hospital Stanley Holmes so happened to be temporarily lending his skills to with Stanley himself being the one to give Jeff the once over. And you'd wonder as to if things happen by chance ...

Just four short years after that tsunami took him away from Perth, Jeff had become the number two pilot for the largest space craft man has ever built and he was about to aid in taking it to speeds with which no man-made craft had ever travelled at in the past.