35.

One near disaster may have been adverted, that being a confrontation with an electrical storm so large that it actually blocked the path through the vastness of what is outer space, though with it and getting past it hasn't been without problem as a few more disasters and potential disasters have been created.

With having to go to light speed so quickly, and with the ships systems being at the slightly dampened level they were, along with interference which had been created due to that spatial electrical storm, quite a number of accidents have occurred around the ship. Ordinarily the booster system works without causing any kind of a jolt as the bubble usually generates protection from the sudden change in speed though the bubble had not formed to one hundred percent of capacity so on this occasion a slight jolt did occur and despite how slight a jolt it was it was enough to throw many of ship's occupants off balance.

Under normal circumstances everyone on board would have time to secure themselves just in case the worst may occur though on this occasion things got more than a little out of control and with no full-on procedures set aside for certain emergencies ... not everyone aboard the ship got themselves into secure positions.

The whole medical crew came on duty quickly and without having to be asked; to tackle and treat all who may need assistance, and this would take almost all of those medical personnel to various locations depending on, of course, what would be needed.

So momentarily, Stanley and two nurses would be the only ones in the medical facility. They would remain here and not elsewhere so they could wait for those coming in with injuries severe enough to seek more attention than what could be offered to them on location. Unfortunately, too, those in need of medical center related attention would either have to make their own way to the facility or would have to wait for assistance in being brought to where they need to be by others in a position to aid with transport to the medical facility.

This wait in itself and in the current circumstances is certainly a situation worthy of tempting fate for if something else were to go wrong then this would be the worst possible time and maybe the worst possible location for it to happen and right now is also the most likely time for the worst to occur as is such a thing called Murphy's Law.

When the medical bay's automated doors opened for the first time after the booster system had been used, Stanley had been waiting for the first wave of injuries to arrive. He was ready to go into action, but he would need to go into a different kind of action to what he had been anticipating, for it was not a probable patient or patients with physical wounds needing to be treated coming through those doors but more a someone with a mental wound, a psychological disorder, a man looking for the kind of help to which the doctor would at no time be willing to offer.

Philippe Bateman, a man who has murdered twice since coming aboard The Pathfinder and who surely would have done so again for a third time if things had gone his way, has entered the medical bay. Of course, he had been caught and incarcerated in light of his actions and electrical problems created by the storm saw to his escape. The medical facility was and is his first port and only port of call upon completing his escape.

Wasting no time, he tells the two on duty nurses to leave for Philippe has unfinished business with the doctor. They did not need to be told twice; they both leave as quickly as they could despite knowing they would be leaving the doctor in a dangerous position.

Now Philippe is in the prime of his life, he is tall and strong. The same however cannot be said about the doctor. Doc is a slim man and even though he still is only just forty-seven years old, Stanley was or is most definitely not as strong as he may have been in his own youth. In fact, life has been tough and cruel; a certain frailty has made him a shell of the man he may have once been and this also makes him appear to be a fair bit older than what he actually is.

Yeah, Stanley Holmes never really had had things easy. He has had more than his fair share of adversary in his life, and this sadly has taken more from him than what it gave back and as it is, being as frail as he is before what should be his time, his life has continued in the same vein as his past in the here and now.

The doctor, given his current circumstances, would be able to put up somewhat of a fight if needs be but at that he would be expected to easily be on the losing end of any battle which does not involve him making an attempt to save someone's life and a battle with one in the kind of condition Philippe is in would not last long. Looking at the doctor, Philippe begins to smile and that smile quickly turns to laughter, a frightening kind of laugher, a kind of laughter which suggests Philippe is very much so looking forward to what is about to happen.

'So glad you are here doctor. I need you to do something for me.'

36.

By 2050 all hospitals are just that, hospitals. There is hope for survival, hope for the future though still, people still do not listen. Signs more than exist that the world is feeling rather poorly and only a few are willing to listen. Things aren't quite disastrous just yet and yet little is being done to prevent a slight flu outbreak so to speak from turning over and becoming an outright epidemic.

Existing hospitals are already nonspecific. There are no women's hospitals or children's hospitals. Most are generally ready to take on whatever comes through the doors whether it be man, woman, or child, whether it be sickness, disease, or injury. Natural disasters aren't quite an everyday occurrence at this point in time though they do occur often enough in most places that if a facility is equipped to deal with the effects of Mother Nature, then they must accept whatever comes through the doors.

As it happens and as much as it connects to his own situation, Thomas Holmes delivers supplies to hospitals and his occupation sometimes takes him away from home for a couple of days at a time.

The third day of April 2050 is an important one in the history of the Holmes family and for one future member of a starship to be named The Pathfinder. It is on this day that a certain Stanley Holmes is born. Thomas had been off on a delivery and due not to return home until the fourth. Given the fact that his wife Marlene is not due to give birth for another six weeks, neither Thomas nor Marlene saw problem with Thomas taking on his current delivery.

Rain had been falling lightly for a couple of hours prior to Thomas setting out on his latest run and a couple of hours into the journey the weather had taken a turn for the worst. Rain had become heavy, and a wind was gaining traction by the minute. The late morning sky was so dark it was clear that there would be no letup in the weather for some time to come.

Ahead of schedule Thomas thought it best to keep to a leisurely careful pace. With all being as is, there is no need to put himself, his van, and the contents of the van at the mercy of any unnecessary risk though things soon change when a call comes through on his mobile. With a press of a button, he puts the call on speaker.

'Marlene, is everything alright?'

'No, Thomas, my waters have broken.'

'What? You're early ...'

'Tell me something I don't know.'

'Hell, I'm hours out. Have you called for an ambulance?'

'They tell me there is nothing free until this afternoon. Weather being what it is and all.'

With that Marlene lets out a roar with a contraction taking a hold.

'Marlene ... Marlene. Right, hold tight, I'm turning round. I'll be home as quickly as I can.'

The call ends and Thomas does turn round. No longer airing on the side of caution, he picks up speed. The rain continues to fall hard; it feels as if it falls all the more with the increase in speed. A slight slide comes, and Thomas manages to keep control of his van. His delivery won't reach its destination on time, for the moment at least Thomas has a more pressing concern.

A second slide comes; a more difficult one to deal with that the first, still Thomas keeps control of his vehicle. Half an hour into his hurried journey he can feel that he has picked up a slow puncture. The front left tyre.

'Damn, this is all I need ...'

As he begins to slow down an animal moves out onto the road ahead of him, a deer, and Thomas sees it at the last possible second. He swerves, missing the animal, moving off to the left, and then to the right, just about managing to bring the van to a halt. That puncture made the stop all the more difficult and by the time the van has stopped the tyre is completely flat. How he managed to stop the van without turning it over he does not know, the first piece of good luck he has had among a barrage of bad luck.

The rain indeed is coming down heavy, in a matter of seconds Thomas is drenched and he still has that tyre to change. Out of his van, he looks back down the road he has travelled and there is no sign of that deer he missed, then again, he can't really see all that far ahead.

The changing of the tyre gets underway though never gets an opportunity to come complete for Thomas soon hears the sound of an incoming screech a couple hundred meters up the road. That deer must still be causing havoc along with its weather orientated partner in crime though Thomas can't know this for sure.

His flat tyre remains unchanged for the nearby screech makes itself known a split second before it takes the life of one Thomas Holmes. He never completes his delivery, this day or any other day; he never returns home, he never knows of the fact that he is a father of a healthy yet premature son.

Marlene waits and waits, dealing with her situation as best she can. Her husband never returns home, and it is some time before an ambulance does arrive, by such a time one does, a child has been born and born into disaster. Not only has a father's life been taken, so too has a mother's, for having given birth to her son alone she has bled and bled severely to the point she cannot and does not survive.

Not the greatest way to come into the world, six weeks premature, losing both parents individually on the day of his birth, both forever not knowing what their son will go on and become. Such as life is, and now in the present-day, Stanley Holmes has come face to face with the most difficult of circumstances, circumstance which in no way plays to his favour.

In a matter of seconds, he sees so much happen in his present-day moment. He sees many memories flash through his mind including the moment Andre Michaels dies in his care in Afghanistan and the moment when Stanley discovers Brandon Michaels laying lifeless in his bed ... moments which have been pivotal to his own.