55.

Early evening Thursday January second, 2098, Simon comes off his shift and is finished his duties for the day so he begins to make his way back to his living quarters. His recent lack of sleep has more than caught up with him. He had hardly just left the command center when for a split second he thought he had seen Robert take a turn down the end of a long corridor right up ahead.

From the moment Simon did leave the command center the look he bore could stare holes into the floor beneath him. He is most definitely at this point is someone who can't get his own head together. What he has on his mind is consuming him, taking him over, and leaving little if any room for anything else.

Briefly he looks up and away from the floor before looking back down again and it was in that brief moment in which he was sure he could see Robert at the end of the hallway within which Simon so happens to be in. In that ever so brief moment it had appeared as if Robert had thrown a wave Simon's way but how can that be?

When Simon looks again, he discovers that he is alone in that particular corridor, but he is so sure about what he thought he had seen that he runs down to the end of the corridor and turns quickly. Instead of finding what he hoped to find, something or someone he was sure he would, he collides with a young lady knocking her over.

'Oh, please forgive me, are you alright?' asks Simon helping the lady up.

'You should work on your cornering' speaks the young lady trying to be nice about what had just happened.

'Anything hurt? Is everything fine?'

'Yes, yes, all fine and dandy.'

'Good, again I am so sorry. If you don't mind, can I ask as to if there been anyone else down here besides yourself just before I turned the corner?'

'No just me. I haven't seen anyone else besides you in at least a couple of minutes or so.'

'Okay thank you, once again I am so sorry.'

'Not a problem' says the lady being more than a little confused as she watches Simon go on his way.

Simon, as he moves on, thought about visiting the medical center in the hopes of getting some kind of a sedative to help him sleep but he decides to try sleep naturally and sleep naturally was exactly what he would do. As soon as he hit the pillow, he was not only out for the count, but he would soon feel a spinning sensation too.

When the spinning came to a halt Simon found himself standing alone in what would appear to him to be a darkened room, not the room he should be in but a room somewhere else. Seconds pass before a bright light shines down upon him as if someone had turned on a spotlight to highlight the area where Simon stands. A few more seconds pass, a few seconds which may just have Simon questioning his own sanity.

'Aren't you going to come find us?' asks Robert who appears suddenly only a few feet away to Simon's right just as if someone has just turned on a second spotlight, one which highlights Robert's presence.

'What the ... Robert? How ... how ...?'

'We could be anywhere or could be in any kind of danger and you are just well and fine with that?' asks Jeff and he too just suddenly appears as if someone turned on yet another spotlight and where Robert stood to Simon's right side, Jeff appears on Simon's left side.

Before Simon could offer any sort of answer or reply to these questions he would be interrupted.

'Does our friendship not mean anything?' Robert would ask.

Simon would open his mouth to answer only to be distracted by Jeff.

'Aren't you worried that we may be in some kind of pain, just laying somewhere waiting, hoping for you to come and find us?'

'Of course, I am ...' Simon would get to say but as soon as these words are spoken the three lights would each, one by one, go out leaving Simon to stand once more alone in a dark room.

He would call out for Robert and Jeff and continue to do so even upon waking in his own bed realizing what he had just experienced was only a dream. Only a dream? Nah, this felt like something more. Simon pulls back his blankets, sits up and moves to the side of his bed. Only two hours had passed since Simon had laid down to rest. It had felt like he had only laid down less than two minutes prior to waking. Maybe it was time after all to take a trip to the medical center. Simon needed a good night's sleep, and he needs it badly.

56.

The morning following Simon's peculiar night, he arrives late to the command center, but no one thinks anything of it, in fact the rest of the command team have been worried about Simon and when Maria suggests that Simon should take the rest of the day off, Simon responds by saying he would rather be at his post. He figured that the distraction of having something to do would be much more welcome than being left alone with his thoughts and without having anything to do.

If he could avoid having another dream like the one he has had, then he is all for it. This moment also offers the thought that maybe others do really care, of course they do and, in this moment, Simon feels horrible for ever having thought otherwise.

At this time there is nothing of any particular interest to Maria in the particular region of space the ship so happens to be in so Maria suggests that Simon should take the ship forward at his own discretion. He appreciates that. He does take the ship forward and at a steady pace. Maria would have preferred a faster speed but as it soon turns out, Simon's leisurely pace would lead to a discovery which would likely have been otherwise missed at much faster speeds.

'What is that? Is that some kind of space station?' asks Leo staring out the command center view port.

'All the way out here?' asks Maria.

It could be thought, how could you miss a structure like this whilst passing it by? Space is an extremely large place so travelling at speed and not paying attention a lot could be missed. As it is, this space station or whatever it is, happens to be has indeed been seen. Simon looks back and forward between Leo and Maria and those looks quickly begin to become more frantic. Restraint would normally be a strong suit of Simon's but not on this occasion. This could definitely be the distraction he so badly needs.

'We should go over there' he says.

'Now hold on a minute there Simon, no one is going anywhere, at least not just yet anyway, and especially with what happened the last time a crew left The Pathfinder' Maria says, stating the obvious.

If there was ever a time for the command team to come together for a discussion in the strategy room it would be this very moment. Leo asked if he could sit in too. George Jones and the Owens brothers are brought in too.

'How can such a thing exist?' asks Aaron.

'There is no way that this could be manmade' suggests Leo. 'By that I mean not made by any member or members of the human race, because when you think about it, we are at the furthest point in space away from Earth that any one has ever been. We are the lead ship, the biggest, strongest and the fastest ship, right? So, we are at a point in space where no other humans have ever been so therefore this thing is not manmade.'

Leo had a point and Simon was getting ever increasingly eager to get over there but did not want to show his eagerness. He wanted to find out if this space station could provide any answers to where or when Robert and Jeff might be. There must be a connection here and soon what everyone is thinking is spoken out loud.

'Could it have anything to do with what happened to Robert and Jeff?' asks Alison. 'Maybe this could be from the future just like the dark Pathfinder?'

'We could only find out by going over there' replies Simon. 'The main differences between this and the dark Pathfinder are that we do not know this structure in being we have never seen it before and there was no flash of light with which we are aware of that could have brought this structure to us from a future point or any other point in time, so I do not think that whatever that is, will be going anywhere either in time or space any time soon.'

'Alright, there may be some logic in there somewhere. So, are you up for the challenge of going over there?' Maria asks Simon.

His eyes opened wide as he looks back at Maria.

'Absolutely.'

'Alright then, choose your team to take with you and keep it limited to what you need.'

Simon asks Alison to join him while also asking if she could bring along a couple more engineers. It is information pertaining to Robert and Jeff that Simon would be hoping to retrieve and if he could retrieve any such information then he would do all that he can to ensure he could get it. Of course, that structure may not provide the answers Simon would like but if any kind of information could be retrieved then an engineering team still may prove essential.