2.

Three days after agreeing to take charge of The Pathfinder, Brandon Michaels prepares himself to leave his home for the final time. His bags are packed, and he stands in front of a full-length mirror in his upstairs bedroom, half in amazement that his old military uniform still fits him while he also wonders as to what the hell he has let himself in for.

To look outside his window, it is difficult to imagine that the world is in such disarray. The sun is shining bright. The breeze is light and cool. Even the birds perched out on the garden tree and surrounding trees are chirping away. Things couldn't appear to be more peaceful.

An armoured car pulls up outside the house and Brandon watches as two men exit the vehicle and begin to make their way up the garden path to the front of his house. A knock comes to the door, but Brandon doesn't hear it having had his attention distracted and caught by a family photo sitting on his dresser and this dresser stands not all that far away from where he currently stands.

The photo is an old one, taken many years earlier with Brandon standing proud and happy in the center while his wife Florence stands to his right and their son Andre standing to Brandon's left. Brandon takes the photo and holds it close as if it is the most important thing that he possesses for it may actually be just that. He smiles before packing it to bring along with him. A knock comes to the front door once more thus ending the brief distraction the photo had brought. Brandon makes his way downstairs.

The two men introduce themselves and inform Brandon that the sooner they leave the better. One of the two men motions towards the vehicle outside and suggests that the former Colonel should make his way to it while the other asks if the near-by baggage is to accompany them on their road journey.

Brandon takes in a deep breath before having one last look around his home then heads outside closing his front door behind him. He briefly considers locking it almost forgetting the fact that he will never be coming back to this place. From here on in it does not matter one iota to Brandon as to what happens to his home or to anything being left within it for as soon as he had stepped outside it no longer is his home.

All three men spend the next two hours together within that armoured Humvee as it travels to where it is they need to be. Brandon can't help but take notice of the strong security escort on motorcycles which has come to accompany the Humvee along its current journey.

'Is all this necessary?' asks Brandon.

'All what sir?' responds one of the two men.

'This armoured Humvee and the escort too.'

'Yes sir. We cannot be too careful with the AEEG around; they will do whatever they can to prevent this mission from going ahead.'

'The AEEG huh?' This doesn't particularly mean very much to Brandon, so he decides not to question it any further.

'Yes sir.'

Hardly another word would be spoken as the journey continues on.

With the journey nearing an end, Brandon has yet to be instructed as to what exactly was about to happen. Truth is that he does not know quite what to expect. Obviously, he knew he was, at some stage, to board a vessel that will traverse the stars, other than that he knows nothing. How he boards that ship, if it's still on Earth or already out in space, how he gets to it if it indeed is already in space, he has absolutely no idea.

The Humvee comes to a halt at a small air strip. A strange craft rests ready and waiting to take Brandon up among the stars and strange craft just may be the right words for such a thing. The waiting vessel definitely looks strange to Brandon with it not being all that much larger than any average sized road vehicle, and this strange craft not being much larger than any average sized road vehicle does not have any wheels. Of course, it would not need wheels of any sort for where it intended to go. Still, it is very odd, this whole situation is very odd.

To Brandon it seemed too small a vehicle to not only be able to take flight but also be able to make a journey into space. It has no wings and no obvious propellers though how something like it can make such trip does not really worry Brandon. Its intricacies may provide some concern though no other interest. If it does the job then it does the job.

So there really is no hanging around, Brandon is to go directly into space. There is to be no kind of training, no instruction to be given, no discussion of any kind. It is full steam ahead, throw yourself in the deep end and teach yourself to swim. He feels as if the point of no return has long since been reached and all he can do now is go with the flow. Surely all that is to come is doomed to fail, hopefully not.

Brandon indeed has been caught by surprise by so many things in this particular moment. The fact he was indeed going straight into space with no hanging around was one thing and the fact that such a small aircraft which so happened to be in a very remote area and would be the means of getting up into space was another.

With there being no space training or anything of the sorts offered to Brandon prior to this moment, he is simply being expected to take everything in his stride as it happens. The calm weather that he had observed a little while earlier now too was becoming quite changeable and the small aircraft is working against time to make it space bound before a forecasted thunder storm would make its way towards the take-off area, a storm which has been predicted to last quite some time and would be expected to create plenty of havoc.

It is also in Brandon's best interest, as he is told, to wait until he reaches The Pathfinder before eating, not that he had anything at all with him to eat or any way of acquiring food. If he has very little in his stomach, then there would also be very little to come out on the way up to The Pathfinder if such a feeling should take him. Being questioned as to when he had last eaten Brandon found himself unable to give a direct answer.

There had been a breakfast before being picked up, Brandon is quite sure about that much at least though exact time of said meal and its contents are somewhat unclear. He is, however, assured though that once he arrives on board the main vessel, there would be a feast waiting for him and the main group of people he will be expected to directly work with.

Before take-off Brandon needed to strap himself into his seat aboard the strange little craft he had been brought to. With no gravity control aboard the shuttle, weightlessness may not sit too well once Earth's outer stratosphere is reached. This little gem of information comes as just a little unsettling but once again what the hell, right?

As with the car journey the aircraft had a couple escorts to ensure its safety and completion. Neither of these escorts were or are to fully board the ship they were to make their way to. It sure seemed to Brandon that the world council really wanted him to command that particular star ship. Again, why him? And why leave it so late?

The higher the shuttle got the more Brandon could feel the weightlessness. That lack of gravity control meant that the seat belt he wore would do its job to keep Brandon seated. Just as well that he did have an empty stomach, he felt so nauseous that he does dry heave at least a couple of times. Yeah, remembering to eat has been a slight problem of late as had one or two other things.

How odd, this small vessel just sets off for the stars, no rocket power jet propulsion system or anything of the likes, no attachment to another much more powerful vessel, nothing at all along that line, just a strap yourself in and off we go ... how odd indeed.

Time soon came where the shuttle pilot tells Brandon that if he looks out the window, or view port as he called it, next to him that he would be able to see The Pathfinder. Brandon needed a moment or two to compose himself and once he had done so he would look out that window. Right away, he is struck with great awe with the sight bestowed upon him while actually thinking out loud 'I am to command that?'

A very impressive sight, The Pathfinder, with twenty-three floors or decks, over eight thousand meters in length with a silver to brown metallic colour gracing its exterior, this enormity is in itself akin to a floating city in space. In this moment, the enormity of what lays ahead hits Brandon like a brick to the face.

The multitude of view ports throughout the ship would make it easy for anyone aboard to spend a few hours just staring out into an unending mass of stars and space dust especially out along one of the two wing like walkways which, in themselves, are five decks high and stretch out three hundred and fifty meters either side of the ship and these wings descend at a slight angle while also angling back slightly. The front of the ship is slightly rounded, and the rear of the ship tails off in regard to its width as it is slightly less than three quarters the width of the front of the ship.

The shuttle enters the main ship through the docking bay at the right-hand side of the ship close to its rear or 'stern' and the whole docking procedure takes a little more than a couple of minutes. Brandon needed to take a couple of moments to gather himself once more before exiting the shuttle. He only manages to move a few steps forward and onto The Pathfinder when, before he has any sort of opportunity to take in his new surroundings, Brandon had to retreat somewhat and move a couple of steps backwards.

The sight of an approaching lady catches him off guard and forces him to rub his eyes with an element of disbelief. The resemblance of this approaching lady to Brandon's late wife is more than a little disorientating and having this moment occur within the first few seconds on The Pathfinder is something that is very unsettling especially coming atop of all that came within the previous few hours.

'Hello, you must be Brandon. My name is Maria. It is an honour to finally have you aboard this fine ship' she speaks outstretching her right hand.

After a brief moment Brandon took Maria's hand and shook it. It took another moment before he would be able to respond verbally.

'Thank you kindly' ... her skin tone is darker, and she is a number of years younger, her hair is dark and short ... still.

This first introduction stumped him somewhat and it made him wonder as to what Maria meant by 'finally' though it would be something that he would not question. Maria introduced Brandon to the other senior members of the crew before leading him to where the feast he had been promised would be served.

There was one face with whom Brandon had been introduced to that bore some familiarity, other than that of Maria's, though Brandon would not directly get to speak with this other familiar person at any time during the meal. The name which belongs to that second recognizable face which bares quite a bit of familiarity to it holds quite a bit of importance to Brandon, though the familiarity with Maria, well that indeed is a strange thing for he had never met her or even knew of her prior to his arrival.

Maybe he is being looked after to some degree, maybe Brandon has always meant to come to this place and just maybe the world council's choice in choosing him has been influenced in some sort of divine way. In such a strange situation that now exists, things feel good, they feel right, they feel as if they were meant to be, are meant to be ...