38.

In its very short history, The Pathfinder has experienced quite a bit. There have been five deaths, one of which is actually worthy of celebration. Aside from death, brought about by illness, murder, or revenge, the ship has experienced an attempt of sabotage, an attack on two chief staff members, two off ship missions which included mining a planetoid which is a rather large asteroid and a trip to a planet with rain that burns and on top of all of this ... Maria can see and hear the ghost of the ships original commanding officer.

Spread through the odd unexplainable occurrence or two, the murderous and captive behaviour, some off ship activity there are the makings of quite the excursion ... excursion indeed. Take in on top of all this, some unspoken activity and add all of what yet still is to come ... well ...

If it hadn't been for the threat posed by an electrical storm in space, there may have been a second planet worthy of investigation though it is unknown as to if there was a planet in the vicinity at all, worthy of investigation or not, but the ships mantra is to keep going forward while never looking back. Onwards and upwards, time to continue moving forwards.

Friday the thirteenth of December 2097, with all that has gone before, this is not a day for the naturally superstitious to get involved with anything other than hiding somewhere for the day. For Murphy's Law always states, 'if it can go wrong, it usually will'. With Cindy, the way the day began for her definitely fit the calendar date. Upon waking she spent the first ten minutes in the bathroom feeling as sick as she has ever felt at any time in her life. Maria had only just got up at the same moment Cindy came out of the bathroom.

'Are you alright honey? You are as pale as a ghost'. Maria rubbed her hand through her daughter's hair.

'I am a ghost; do I look pale to you?' asks Brandon.

Maria tries not to let him distract her as her daughter speaks.

'Yeah, I am fine; it is just a stomach bug or something.'

'Do you feel up to going to class today?'

'Yeah, I have missed out on a few classes with all that has happened lately; I don't want to fall too far behind.'

'Ok sweetheart, go back to bed if it doesn't improve any, or go to the medical center if you think you need to.'

'What about you, mum? Shouldn't you be resting?'

'Nah, we're strong, right? Best to keep busy I think.'

Cindy forces herself to smile and Maria kisses her daughter's forehead then the two begin to get themselves ready for the day ahead. Maria would also ask Brandon if he would mind keeping an eye on Cindy for a little while. Brandon is perfectly fine with that. It has been rough of late for Maria and Cindy, kinda like mother like daughter however neither want to sit around and mope or recover or be tagged with whatever label that could be placed upon them so keep moving on it is, personalizing the ship's mantra.

Sitting in class, Cindy no longer feels anywhere near as bad as she did when she awoke a couple of hours earlier. Even with all that has gone before Cindy manages a smile, and a proper smile at that, at a humorous moment in class. This smile soon vanishes with the appearance in the class of someone Cindy had come across once before.

A guy stood at the front of the class dressed in a military uniform. His sudden appearance in the class made Cindy sit up straight. She looked around in amazement with the fact that no one else in the class was paying any attention to this man in uniform standing by the classroom blackboard.

Fear begins to sink into Cindy's heart when a recurrence of what happened the first time round began. The man, who had called himself Cormack last time the two met, reaches out his right hand towards Cindy. That right hand starts to ooze blood. Cindy's heart begins to pound so hard that she could hear that pounding as if it was on the inside of her ears and her insides feel as if they have been dropped into a bottomless pit.

Why can't anyone else see this?

Like before blood begins to trickle from Cormack's nose and from both of his eyes too. With tears welling in her eyes, Cindy stands and leaves the classroom without saying anything to anyone. Cormack's head turns in unison with Cindy's movements as he watches her leave the room. Brandon had stood at the back of the classroom, himself going completely unnoticed and he had observed all of what had happened. No one else in the class seemed to know what to make of Cindy's sudden departure.

Brandon appears in the command center with a sudden troubled kind of jitter which startles Maria at the moment he arrives for to Maria, Brandon just pinged in out of nowhere and right close to her too. She takes a second or two then looks into his eyes and moves passed him to check a nearby monitor, signaling him to come with her as of course no one else in the command center, or anywhere else on the ship for that matter, can see or hear Brandon.

'We need to talk' speaks Brandon in a tone which makes Maria's own heart beat at a quickened pace.

Maria nods in a direction and Brandon vanishes having interpreted and understood the nod, reappearing to meet her in the strategy room, the very place she directly heads for.

'You have this gift Maria, whereby you can hear and see me. I am dead but I can be here with you. I can't even begin to explain why this is so, but it would seem that Cindy has a similar but different ability. With your daughter it is something a little darker.'

Brandon paces a straight line about ten feet in length as he speaks. He comes to a halt when he finishes speaking then turns his head to look directly at Maria.

'Cindy, what is wrong with Cindy?'

At this moment Maria very much wants to go and be with Cindy but she also wants to hear what Brandon had to say so she sits against the long metallic table which takes up most of the room in an attempt to control her urge to leave.

'Don't worry; Cindy is quite alright, for the moment anyhow. We have a connection with one another ... you and I. Cindy has her own connection, so it would appear. What she has is a bit darker than what it is that you have.'

'So, you have told me already, please get to the point Brandon.'

'You know my son followed in my footsteps and went into the military, unfortunately he did not make it out alive, however a friend of his while on leave came to see me some time after my son had died. I thought at that time that this friend was done with the Military but as it turned out he was only on leave as I said, and he went back in on another tour of duty and it also appears that he was not so lucky on that time around.'

'While all this is in itself quite interesting, what has all this got to do with Cindy?'

'This man I am telling you about, his name is Cormack or maybe I should say was Cormack. I was unaware until only moments ago that he has passed on. He has paid a visit to Cindy, and it may not be the first time he has visited her either.'

'Wait a minute, Cindy is seeing ghosts?'

'Not ghosts, just one ghost in particular. Kind of just like you, are you aware of having seen any other ghosts besides me?'

'You are the only one, I think.'

'Well, this one that Cindy can see is a bit different to me.'

'Different, how?'

'I am dead as I have said before and I know I am dead; I am not so sure about what Cormack knows or thinks or even if he is capable of thinking.'

'What does that mean?'

'What Cindy saw upset her. It was quite disturbing actually. Cormack did not seem to be aware of me, he may not even have been aware of anyone else around Cindy at the time he came to her. It has me a little puzzled as to why he has come here; there must be some connection via me through my son then some other connection too that involves you and your daughter.'

'Why Cindy? Could he not haunt someone else? Me perhaps, since you say there is an ability or connection.'

'I don't know how any of this works. Maybe it is all connected somehow, we are all connected somehow. Him being my son's friend, Cindy being your daughter, and the workings we have on this ship, I don't know. It is all new to me. Add Stanley to all this too, he was the medic who treated my son in the moments before my son died and Stanley so happed to have come to The Pathfinder too. And as we know too well, Stanley, like me, is dead.'

'You know what happened to Stanley, don't you?'

'Unfortunately, I do.'

'Right, I need to go and see my daughter.'

When Maria got to her daughter Cindy was crying and sitting on the couch in the main room of their living quarters. Maria moves to sat next to Cindy and to put her arms around her daughter.

'Mom ...' says Cindy continuing to cry.

'I know. I know all about it and it is alright. I am here with you now.'

Brandon pings into the room and stands next to the sofa; Maria didn't realize he was there until he speaks.

'He is here.'

'Who is here?' asks Maria looking upwards and over towards Brandon.

'Cormack.'

'Who are you speaking to?' Cindy asked her mum just prior to noticing for herself that the man in military uniform is back and standing no more than twenty feet away from and in front of her.

Cindy begins to curl up on the couch in fear and grips her mother tightly. Odd as it is, Maria can see Brandon but not Cormack, Cindy can see Cormack but not Brandon and Brandon can see all of what is occurring. Cormack only pays attention to Cindy. Now is not a time to consider what this Cormack fellow may or may not be aware of.

'What is he doing? What does he want?' asks Maria referring to Cormack.

'I don't know, I cannot tell' replies Brandon.

Cormack begins to walk towards Cindy and picks up speed the closer he gets to her, and he vanishes as soon as he does get to her. Being so close as he had been to Cindy, his movement only takes a couple of seconds at most. A sudden breeze accompanies Cormack's disappearance and this breeze hit Maria full on in the face.

'What just happened?' she asks.

'Not quite sure, though he is gone' replies Brandon.

Cindy has passed out. Once the initial panic of Cindy being unconscious passes Maria picks up her daughter and brings her to the medical bay as quickly as she could. Cindy would stay in the medical bay until the following Monday.