54.

The first person Jeff would be introduced to once he had calmed down from having woken in a strange place among a group of strangers, is a young man by the name of Samar Olsen. To Jeff, Samar appeared to be in his early twenties. It took a couple of moments for it to click with Jeff but when it had, it did seriously surprise him.

'Wait a minute, Olsen as in Simon?' asks Jeff.

The similarity across Samar's eyes should have aided Jeff in making the connection. Samar may be a little darker in regard to skin tone but the similarity between Samar and Simon is really quite obvious to see.

'Yeah, Samar is Simon's grandson' says Robert.

'Grandson, I did not even know that Simon was seeing anyone.'

Jeff speaks in a manner as if he was having a serious problem with grasping onto anything about this moment that he finds himself in. The flash of light outside of the dark Pathfinder has taken Jeff, Robert, and Dan into another moment in time, to a moment in the future to be a little more precise. In all honesty this is the first moment Jeff has had in regard to having any kind of opportunity to consider what is actually happening.

'He isn't seeing anyone or at least he was not seeing anyone at the time we left to go to the dark Pathfinder.'

'What are you trying to say?' asks Jeff.

'What I am saying is that we did it or rather they did it. Don't you see? ...They will do it, have done it.'

'They who? Done what?'

'The Pathfinder that's who, our ship, the mission was a success, and this is the world they found.'

'The world they found? We only left The Pathfinder a little while ago. So, you are saying that the flash of light we witnessed has sent us into the future? And somehow it has sent us through space too?'

Jeff wondered as to if the crash landing has done some kind of damage to his own head. What he was experiencing couldn't be real. He must be suffering from a concussion of sorts.

'Yeah, sure when the ship we went to first appeared, it came after a flash of light, right? The original flash brought our future ship to our present. So, that second flash of light, it sent us at least fifty years forward through time and who knows how far through space, back from where it came. We kind of knew that there was an involvement with time before that second flash hit, yeah? The ship we went to was our ship from the future. It is a little difficult to pinpoint exactly just how far forward in time we have come as they measure time here differently to what we do, but as I said it is at least fifty of our years. Another thing, before you ask, Simon is no longer alive. Samar has told me that Simon did live a long life though.'

'So most everyone we know are gone? Hell ... what about Dan? Does anyone know where he is?'

'Ah, your alien friend' speaks Samar, 'Robert has told me about him.'

'Do all aliens speak English?' asks Jeff.

'You are not really getting this yet, are you? These people are not aliens Jeff; have you not been listening? Maybe you have been hit too hard on the head.'

Funny how Jeff had been thinking that exact thing. Still, he listens as Robert speaks.

'These people are descendants of our friends and those we did not get to know on The Pathfinder as well as others from Earth who made it here. Some of them may have been either born on the Pathfinder and other ships that followed or were born here on this world so being descendants of The Pathfinder it is obvious that they would be able to speak English.'

'That being hit on the head thing ...'

'Relax Jeff. It is alright. This is real and we are among friends here' Robert says, sounding quite reassuring.

'As for your friend however' continues Samar, 'if the imperialists have found him, then he is in a fair bit of trouble.'

'Who are the imperialists?' asks Jeff.

'Do you know Maria's daughter Cindy?'

'Yes Rob, of course I do but what has she got to do with anything?'

'Well, if you listen for a minute, I will tell you. Cindy had a son and she named him Cormack. This Cormack person is not such a nice guy, he has built a strong and loyal following on this world, and he has pretty much set up a dictatorship, and since when have I become Rob?'

'If the imperialists have Dan and if he is not dead yet then they are most likely torturing him, it would basically be a suicide mission to go and try to mount any sort of a rescue' speaks Samar.

'We have to go get him' says Jeff avoiding Robert's last question.

'Wow, you have really become attached to Dan.'

'First of all, Robert, Dan may be an alien, but he is not a pet despite any dislike I may have for him and secondly I'd like to think that if these imperialists, or whatever they are, had either one of us, then the other two of us would try to do something about it.'

'Yeah, Jeff you are right, and I am sorry, we should make an effort to go get him, if indeed these imperialists do actually have him.'

Samar does not like what he is hearing but he is however willing to help. For Samar is well aware of what his grandfather thought of both Robert and Jeff. It had become an obsession to Simon to find out what had happened to them both. He constantly looked for a reason as to what exactly happened as well as to why and how it happened. Some answers came, just not the ones Simon really wanted.

From Samar's point of view Simon had spent most of his life trying to figure what he could do about the disappearance and how he could fix it but of course fixing such a thing would prove to be something which would ultimately become a futile undertaking.

Since their arrival Robert and Jeff had become somewhat of a pair of superstars in Samar's community for everyone living there knew of The Pathfinder. In fact, everyone who ever lived on this world has known of The Pathfinder. It was what most everyone grew up hearing stories about so having two of the ships original crew members in their midst was of course something special so therefore finding volunteers to go on a rescue mission with two Pathfinder originals would definitely not be a problem, well apart from the fact that there would be too many willing to volunteer.

Not unlike Earth, this new world has a night and a day. Most of its bigger cities have an imperialist installation so it would be quite likely that Dan would be in the nearest installation if he were in one at all therefore once night had fallen a rescue attempt would begin with a journey towards that nearest installation, if Dan so happens to be somewhere else then such a thing can be worried about at another time.

Within just five hours from setting off on their rescue attempt Robert, Jeff, Samar and the rest of the volunteers had returned and not only that, but they had returned with Dan too. The imperialist installation had not been well guarded, and Dan had been exactly where he had been thought to have been. The layout of these installations, from city to city are generally similar if not identical so locating the exact location where Dan had been held was not all so difficult. Locals with previous dealing with that or other instillations had provided the necessary intel.

'That was too easy, almost too easy' speaks Samar upon return to the local community.

Jeff and Robert just look at one another. As far as they are concerned it was indeed all too easy. As for Dan the alien, he had indeed been tortured and tortured severely. What Dan needed in the here and now was to rest and of course to stay in darkness. Current nighttime darkness had made transport all the easier. Dan may have mostly been unconscious but at least did not have to deal with any kind of light.

In all likelihood there would be a risk of some kind of retaliation no matter the level of difficulty there had been with retrieving Dan. Everyone would need to be alert and ready for if and when that retaliation would come. With that difficulty, or lack of such, it is quite possible that there is a reason to why retrieving Dan was so easy. It's quite likely that something may have already been set in motion.