After the meeting, Ebony didn't feel like going back to her lab. She was still numbed by the knowledge that just about her entire lab had been demolished by the accident. She knew that going back and seeing the devastation for a second time would only cement the feeling of hopelessness and grief that was threatening to engulf her at the edge of her consciousness. However, she did have an order to carry out, and as much as she didn't want to confront the devastation that was waiting for her behind her lab doors, she deeply cared for the life forms that were under her care and wanted to do everything she could to save what was left. Besides, she didn't know where else to go.

It didn't take long for her to get back to her lab. Pretty soon she was facing the door that would allow her into her workspace, which she had locked to prevent anybody wandering about from getting in and making things worse. She'd lost many of her assistants to the accident, and so she had taken on the role of caring for her lab on her own. After the moment it took for all of this to cross her memory, she took in a deep breath and entered the passcodes that would unlock the door. What met her sight was exactly what she had remembered and had been expecting; strewn all over the floor was equipment, shattered beakers and acrylic glass cabinets which had toppled over during the ship's surge into light speed. Remnants from some bio specimens which had been knocked out of their holding containers also covered the floor in slippery puddles of fluids or had shattered on contact with the floor from their frozen, cryostasis states. The place was a mess and Ebony felt her heart sink at the sight of the wreckage. But then she snapped out of her sad stupor when one notable difference in the scene before her caught her eye.

She blinked in shock and stood stock still for a moment, before she was able to find her voice. When she did, she shouted in a harsher tone than what she actually intended. "Amal?! What... what are you doing?"

The man, who was standing beside a clear-topped table with the lid to its inside container opened and who had been inspecting the specimens inside, looked up in mild surprise. He held up his hand and revealed to Ebony some kind of egg that he had cupped in his palm. "I think this one's dead," he said frankly.

Ebony could only stare for several seconds, opening and closing her mouth as she tried to figure out how to respond. "But, how..." she then said and glanced behind her at the door that was supposed to have been locked. She looked back at Amal, who hadn't even flinched during the last few seconds, and shook her head vigorously. "Never mind, I don't care. What are you doing here?"

"I thought you would be here, but you weren't," Amal responded. He then glanced down as he lowered the egg back into the container where he had found it.

Ebony finally registered what exactly Amal had been holding, and with a deep frown and a faint growl, she hustled over to where the man was standing. She shoved him to the side before slamming the lid shut over the remaining eggs inside. "These are fragile, Amal! If you killed any one of them, I'm going to..."

"Relax they were already dead," Amal cut the biologist short from where he now stood several feet away. "And I'd like to know why you care so much more for a bunch of dead eggs than you do for me."

Ebony glared over at the man menacingly. "What?!"

"It's been two days since the accident. I would have thought that by now you would have come looking for me to see if I was alive or dead."

"I have a job to do!" Ebony retorted. "Do you think I was just sitting on my butt all this time? Besides, you never came looking for me until now!"

"I was in the medical wing."

Ebony scowled and glanced away. Of course he had a legitimate excuse, not saying that her excuse was any less legitimate. But she was one of the very lucky few who had come out of the accident fairly unscathed. It made her feel guilty that Amal had been stuck in the medical bay with who knows what kind of injury while she had been busy tending to a lab full of specimens that were mostly all dead already.

Amal looked away and back towards the table in front of them, feeling slightly guilty himself. He hadn't told Ebony that he'd actually been in the medical bay searching for any of the children that he had once looked after during his time as a babysitter. Children who he knew had all perished during the accident and who none of which were even remotely his. Not like that wasn't a reasonable explanation, but he couldn't deny that he'd left that piece of information out on purpose so that Ebony would feel just a little bit more guilty than he.

Amal cleared his throat and waved his hand towards the lab in general. "So did anything in here survive?"

Ebony blinked up at him, and then glanced morosely around the room. "Yeah a few did. Adam diverted some of the emergency power back into my lab, so they're still being kept on life support."

A moment of silence passed between the two as each contemplated the situation at hand. Finally Amal spoke up. "Is there anything I can do to he..."

He cut his words short when the all the lights in the room suddenly shut themselves off. Ebony gasped in the darkness, and when the lights never came back on she grabbed Amal by the arm. A power outage, especially at a time like this, could only be a bad thing.

o~o~o

When the lights flickered off all across The Ark, panic quickly spread. The entire ship had somehow lost power, and most people feared the worst. When everybody discovered that in addition to the black out, the automatic doors had all somehow become locked (which meant nearly every door onboard), that panic only intensified. People were trapped inside whatever room they happened to be in when the power outage occurred, which included most of the officers.

Jett had been warily working on his report when he had been rendered unable to do so by the sudden black out. He slammed his pen down onto the table and stood up, growling unhappily. He's had enough to deal with in one day already. Storming out from behind his desk, he soon found his path blocked by the locked door. He pounded on the door, trying to get somebody's attention. One of his assistants was clearly trying to open the door from the other side, but after a minute of attempting and useless shouting, it was clear he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. That's when he pulled out his communication device and called his Captain.

"Captain, what is going on?!" Jett yelled when the other man accepted the hail.

::It's seems there's been a blackout,:: came Christopher's voice through the device.

Jett let out an irritated snort. "That's obvious. But my door's jammed, I can't reach my patients!"

On the other side of the conversation, Christopher rubbed his face in weariness. He was trapped inside his own office as well. He was just about to communicate this to the medical officer, when his device beeped, indicating that somebody else was hailing him. "Hold on, Jett. I'm talking to Adam right now," he said before switching frequencies. "Adam, what's going on?"

::It appears the ship is experiencing a power outage,:: came Adam's reply.

Christopher frowned. "I've surmised that much. But what's causing it?"

::I have yet to determine the cause, Captain. Don't worry, Nicolas and I are on our way to the electrical room right now.::

"Is it possible we've already run out of power?" Christopher asked anxiously.

::Oh no, I highly doubt that, Captain,:: Adam reassured. ::I'm sure there was just a glitch in the system. Nic and I will do our best to get things up and running again.::

Christopher was about to reply when he received a third hail on his comm. device. "Please do so, Adam," he said briefly before cutting the link and accepting the other hail.

::Captain, I'm locked inside the friggin' bathroom! What is going on?!:: Mack's voice barreled out of the device.

Christopher had to restrain himself from shaking his head. "And I am locked inside my office. There's been a power outage, calm down Mack. Adam's on it."

::And how long will it take for him to fix this?:: Mack growled.

"I don't know. But be patient, he'll fix it I'm sure."

A snort came through the connection. ::This has to be sabotage again! The traitor's still among us. Captain, where's that Amal kid! Imagine the kind of destruction he can do when the ship's in a state like this!::

Christopher nearly banged his head against the table. "Not this again, Mack. This can't be more than a glitch. Relax, and don't be so quick to jump to conclusions!"

::Don't be so quick to jump to conclusions yourself, Captain,:: Mack retorted.

Christopher frowned at the biting tone in his security officer's voice. But with this new development, he couldn't help but entertain the possibility that Mack was right. He was still skeptical, but with the way Mack was pressing him, soon he'll have no choice but to allow an investigation.

Seeing that Mack had cut the connection, Christopher opened up a new channel. A moment passed, and when the man on the other end didn't accept the hail, Christopher went straight for an immediate connection. Perhaps he hadn't heard the hailing tone.

"Xerxes, where are you?" Christopher said into the device.

Still no response. Concerned, the Captain's frown deepened. He just hoped Adam would be able to restore the power quickly.

o~o~o

"So do you really think this is just a glitch?" Nicolas asked, a little hesitant as he shone his flashlight down a dark corridor. He and Adam, who was walking alongside him with his own flashlight, were the only ones in the hallway. The both of them had been working together in one of the ship's hallways when the power outage took place. They were now on their way to the electrical room.

Adam didn't appear nervous at all. "Yes, we have to believe that's what this is."

Nicolas looked sidelong at the head scientist. "Because if it's not a glitch...?" he trailed off, implying a more sinister scenario than what had been suggested.

Adam shook his head. "Don't be ridiculous. The explosion in the engine room must have knocked something haywire. We just need to find out what happened and fix it."

Nicolas grunted a laugh. "Easier said than done, Dr. Trío. If only Victor were with us, he'd know exactly what to do."

"Well he's not dead, Nic. If worse comes to worst, we can always get him."

"Again, easier said than done," the chemical engineer replied. And then, as they passed several doors in the hallway. "Why do you think all the doors locked?"

Adam glanced at the doors as well before giving his reply. "It must have been some kind of side-effect of the glitch, or perhaps a failsafe. We won't know until we take a look."

Nic nodded in understanding. The two then continued to walk in silence. With the power out, they were forced to use the stairs to get down to deck two, where the electrical room was located. The silence stretched on as they entered the stairwell and began their descent, their footsteps echoing around the walls. Just as they had made it to deck three and turned to go down the last flight, something caught Nicolas's eye and he turned to look down the hallway. Suddenly he jumped and gasped, grabbing Adam by the arm. When the scientist turned around, he quickly spotted what had caused the chemist's alarm.

A shadowy figure stood at the other end of the hall, but was rapidly approaching. That alone wouldn't be so alarming, but the fact that the figure appeared to be carrying some kind of axe or sharp tool over one shoulder made the scene all the worse. Nic and Adam stood in shock, imaginations running wild, while they watched the figure draw closer. Their alarm spiked when the figure suddenly pointed its axe at them, but when it spoke Nic and Adam started out of their stupors.

"Hey you two! What the heck is going on?!"

Nic finally shone his flashlight on the figure and was relieved to see it was none other than Sonia Forge. He barked out a laugh. "Sonia! Oh man, you really had us going! Ha I thought you were like an axe murderer or something!"

Adam grinned alongside Nic, but Sonia wasn't so amused. Placing her axe back over her shoulder, she frowned at the two men. "I had to hack my way out of my room with this here axe! I hope there's a reasonable explanation for why my door is now destroyed?"

"She keeps an axe in her room?" Nicolas murmured towards Adam, but the scientist was focused on responding to Sonia.

"Yes, the blackout's affected the entire ship. Nic and I were just heading to the electrical room to figure out what's wrong."

"Then I'm coming, move aside," Sonia said defiantly as she barreled past the two men, starting down the stairs without missing a beat.

Nic and Adam looked at each other. The chemist shrugged, "At least we have an axe murderer on our side now!" he grinned.

Adam returned the smile and the two turned to follow the woman down the stairs.

The ship was even darker and gloomier on deck two, with very little windows to filter in the light from the stars. The darkness pressed in around the three companions as they made their way through the deserted hallways. Sonia confidently led the way ahead while Adam and Nicolas followed behind. Occasionally they heard murmuring voices from behind doors of people who were trapped inside their rooms, but that only added to the eeriness of the blacked out ship.

Finally, the three came upon the door that led to the electrical room. Of course, it was jammed shut and assuming it was locked there was no way they were going to get it open on their own.

"So, what do we do now?" Nic asked as they examined the door.

Sonia waved the two men away as she hefted her axe off her shoulder. "This is where I come in. Stand back, boys!"

Nic and Adam hurried to get out of the way as the woman swung her weapon. Her first strike glanced off of the door's surface, but by her second swing she was able to jam the head of the axe into the space between the door and the frame. With a few heaves, she was able to crack the door open.

"Huh," she said, slightly bemused. "This one's unlocked."

Nic and Adam looked at each other speculatively.

Sonia glanced back at the two men. "Well don't just stand there gawking at each other! One of you grab ahold of that door edge and heave ho," she said as she held the door open with her axe. Nicolas hustled over and did as he had been asked, and with their combined effort the two were able to shove open the door. Once they had created a gap big enough for them to fit through they stopped. With no power to drive it, the door stayed open.

Entering the room, Adam and Nic shone their flashlights around. The beams of light flashed across rows of large, grey metal cabinets that housed the ship's main electrical equipment. Adam led Nic into the dark space while Sonia hung back by the door, leaning on the handle of her axe.

"What are we looking for?" Nic asked as he glanced around the room.

"Well, I thought we'd start with the circuit breaker panel," Adam responded.

After some searching, the two finally found what they had been looking for. It had been a good place to start. When Adam opened up the cabinet that housed the breaker panel, the both of them started back at the scene that met their eyes.

"Woah," Nic breathed. The main panel that housed all of the switches had been forcibly ripped off the wall. When the door opened, it slumped out of the cabinet, hanging only from a few wires. The rest of the wires all hung limply in thick bundles, unattached and useless.

Upon hearing the two men's exclamations of surprise, Sonia walked over to take a look herself. She was equally shocked to see the destroyed circuit breaker. "I'd say that'd be our problem," she said.

Nicolas reached out to touch the circuit board, but his hand was swatted away by Adam. "Don't touch it, the wires might still be live," the scientists reprimanded.

"Might be?" Nicolas asked after he snatched his hand away. "Do you even know how to fix this?"

Adam sighed as he shone his flashlight over the mess of wires. "Unfortunately I have no experience dealing with this sort of thing." He looked at the other two. "We need Victor."

o~o~o

In the medical bay, the pandemonium that had ensued at the beginning of the blackout had by now died out. Jett, still locked in his office, had been able to do nothing to help his assistants as they had scrambled to stabilize their patients who had been deprived of needed life support. Anyone with non-life threatening injuries was doing fine on their own, but those who were in comatose states were struggling. A few had already passed away, and the medical staff had somberly removed their bodies from the main floor of the room. Without power, there wasn't much else they could do for their patients except wait for the power to be restored.

It was quiet in the room when a sudden and loud noise behind the main double doors startled everybody. After only a few seconds it came again, it sounded like something hard was striking the metal. The sound repeated and when the doors began to shutter, everybody in the room who could scrambled to their feet, unsure of what was coming their way.

After a minute or two of the assault, the doors began to be pried apart. Once a gap had been formed, whoever was on the other side easily slid the doors open the rest of the way. Everybody in the room sighed in relief when it was Adam, Nicolas, and Sonia who stepped through the doors.

After taking in the scene that confronted them, Sonia was the first to speak up. "Well ain't this a sad sight."

"Hey, what the heck is going on out there?"

All heads turned towards the door to Jett's office when his muffled voice filtered through to their ears. Sonia sighed. "I'll go free the good doctor," she said as she hefted her axe and made her way towards the door.

While the mechanic began to work on the second door, Adam hustled over to where Victor was still lying on his bed. The engineer smiled at his colleague's approach. "Adam, I trust you've discovered the source of this blackout?" he said.

"Yes, but we need your help," Adam responded. "The circuit breaker's been..." here he stopped and glanced around the room, wary of all the listening ears nearby. "Well, we just need your help."

"I am more than willing to help, but as you know I am quite unable to do so," Victor responded as he sadly indicated his unmoving legs.

Adam frowned. But his response was cut off when Jett's voice filled the room as the officer was finally freed from his office. "What's going on?!"

"Jett, we need a wheelchair," Adam said.

The medical officer looked at where Adam was standing next to Victor and took the entire scene in with a glance. "Oh no," he said. "Victor's not going anywhere, he's still recovering!"

"This is important, he can restore power to the ship!" Adam protested.

Jett's eyes narrowed, but as he looked around the room he was reminded just how badly they needed their power. One of his assistants stepped up to him and spoke quietly, indicating the comatose patients nearby. Jett deflated as he realized he had no choice. He looked back at the scientist. "Fine, but he's coming right back after you're done, got it?"

Adam smiled in relief and nodded. Jett hurried over to a storage cabinet near a far wall and pulled a wheelchair out. Unfolding it, he brought it over to Victor's bed. It took several careful moments to get the engineer into the chair, but soon he was settled and they were ready to go.

Nic sighed and slumped his shoulders as he followed the others out the door. "Ugh, we have to go back down eight flights of stairs! Wait," he suddenly said as a realization came over him. Adam, Sonia, and Victor all turned to look at him. "How are we going to get him down all those stairs?" he finished, indicated the man in the wheelchair.

For a moment Adam and Sonia stared at Victor. Then Sonia spoke up, "It's called teamwork guys. Come on, let's get this over with." The woman then proceeded down the hallway, followed by the three other men.

o~o~o

After a half an hour of careful maneuvering down the stairs, the group finally made it back to the electrical room. Adam placed Victor as close to the destroyed panel as he could and the engineer immediately got to work inspecting the damage.

"So, do you think you can fix it?" Nic asked anxiously.

"I believe so," Victor answered, half-mindedly as he continued to examine the circuit breaker. "But I will need my tools. Nicolas, do you mind running up to my office to retrieve my toolkit?" When the man nodded, the engineer continued. "Be sure to grab some rubber gloves, electrical tape, and wire cutters."

"I'll go with ya," Sonia spoke up as Nicolas turned to leave. "Ya never know when ya might need an axe to get through a door."

"Thank you Sonia," Nicolas said, looking relieved to not have to go upstairs alone in the dark. And with that the two set off on their mission, leaving Victor and Adam behind in the electrical room.

Victor turned to his coworker when they were alone. "Adam, do you know how this happened?"

Adam frowned and shook his head with a heavy sigh. "Unfortunately we do not. However, I fear the evidence tells the story for itself."

"That's what I feared," Victor responded, frowning as well.

The two friends conversed off and on until Nicolas and Sonia returned. Nic handed the toolkit and supplies to Victor and the engineer got straight to work. Wearing the rubber gloves to protect himself from electrical shock, Victor made quick work of the seemingly destroyed electrical panel. As the others watched anxiously, he used the electrical tape to reattach wires and carefully replaced the panel covering. The procedure took a little less than half an hour to complete, but once he was done he closed the lid to his toolkit and sat back.

"Well, it's a temporary fix, but it should work until we can devise a more permanent solution," the engineer stated.

"Yeah but, the power's still off," Nicolas stated frankly.

"Oh yes, because the main switch is off." Victor responded. "Adam, would you do the honors?"

Adam nodded and reached for the switch, but was stopped by an exclamation from Nicolas. "Wait! How do we know it's not going to explode or something when he flips the power on?"

The other three turned to stare at Nic. After a moment of silence in which Victor cocked an eyebrow, Nic backed off. "Well, if Victor says its fixed then we have nothing to worry about, do we?"

"Indeed," Adam said and he turned back to the breaker panel. After a moment of hesitation, he closed the distance between himself and the panel and deftly flipped the switch to the 'on' position.

With a hum of power that surrounded the four comrades, electricity once again ran through the ship's systems. Sighs of relief were exhaled by all present and grins were shared as the lights slowly flickered on overhead.

"Hey, look at that!" Nicolas exclaimed enthusiastically.

Sonia punched Victor in the shoulder. "The doc knows his stuff," she said playfully.

Adam smiled at the others' antics, but it quickly faded. "It is good to have our power restored, but unfortunately we still have some serious matters to attend to." He then indicated the breaker panel that was now patched together with electric tape and screws.

Nicolas's smile faded as well. "Yeah, finding out whoever did this in the first place," he surmised.

o~o~o

When the power came back on, flooding the ship's rooms and hallways with dim artificial light once again, a collective sigh of relief could be felt nearly everywhere onboard The Ark. Once again people were able to unlock their doors and those who had been trapped in their rooms were glad to be able to move freely about the ship once again. Most people traveled up to decks eight and nine to congregate in the recreation rooms to find their friends and family and conjecture the reason behind the recent blackout.

Theories were running wild through the crowd of suspicious and paranoid people when the ship wide comm. system suddenly came online. ::Attention crew this is your Captain speaking,:: Christopher's voice filtered in through the speakers. ::Please remain in your quarters while any follow up problems are resolved. Power has been restored to the ship, there is no need to be concerned. Please remain in your quarters until there is an update. Again, please return to your quarters immediately. Captain Angle out.::

A hush had fallen over the crowd while Captain Angle had spoken, but now low murmurs broke out through the recreation rooms. However, as suspicious as the people still were, they slowly dispersed and made their way back to their quarters as they had been told to do.

Up in the Captain's office, Christopher released the button that allowed him to speak through the ship's intercom. As soon as the lights for his office flicked on, he knew there was going to be confusion and paranoia among the crew. Now having hopefully restored some order onboard, he reached for his personal communication device and hailed Adam. "Adam, report," he said.

::Well we've got the power back on,:: came the dry response from the scientist.

"That's obvious," Christopher returned, equally dry. "Any idea on what caused the blackout?" he then asked, hoping that the response would be some form of accident or glitch.

::Unfortunately, yes, painfully so. But I think you're going to have to come down to the electrical room to see the evidence for yourself.::

Christopher felt a sinking feeling in his gut when he heard that answer. However, he maintained a calm and level voice as he responded, "Very well, I'm on my way." And with that he immediately stood up and left his office.

Upon arriving at the electrical room, Christopher was mildly surprised to find not only Adam and Nicolas waiting for him, but an axe-wielding Sonia and a wheelchair-bound Victor. However he hid his surprise by giving the others a polite nod in greeting, before approaching the engineer and scientist. Without a word, Adam indicated the patched together breaker panel. The feeling of apprehension that had been building up within the Captain turned to icy dread when he saw the panel.

"The entire panel had been ripped out," Adam supplied after a moment of silence had passed.

"Is there any way this could have been an accident?" Christopher asked, already knowing the answer.

Victor shook his head. "Not that I can see," he answered.

Christopher compressed his lips somberly as he viewed the evidence in front of him. He stared at the breaker panel for a moment before suddenly turning to the others. "Thank you, all four of you, for returning power to the ship. I'll take it from here, you're relieved."

With the sudden dismissal, the four others glanced at each other a little uneasily. Sonia broke the silence when she grabbed the handles to Victor's wheelchair and started to push him towards the door. "Come on doc, Jett'll be wanting you back under his watchful eye," she said as she left the room.

Nicolas quickly followed Sonia's example as he gave his Captain a polite nod and left as well.

"I should check up on my son," Adam said. "He's been stuck in our room this entire time. But please call me if you need anything."

Christopher nodded. "I will."

And with that Adam left too, leaving a deep-in-thought Christopher alone in the electrical room.

o~o~o

Pryce was probably one of the most excited to see the power restored. He'd spent the entire blackout huddled by the door of the engine room, watching the darkness. After a while he had grown more easy about being in that dark, silent room, but that didn't mean he was okay with it. As soon as the emergency lights flickered on, he had jumped up and immediately tried putting in his passcodes to open the door. With a resounding click and whoosh of air, the door slid open for him. Pryce had never felt more relieved in his life.

But he wasted no time just standing there, after taking only a moment to thank the heavens for a door's ability to open, he quickly rushed out into the hallway. He didn't know what his Dad has been doing during this entire blackout, but he hoped he had time to make it back to their room before he noticed he had ever been gone.

Pryce had a hard time using the elevators since everybody onboard seemed to have the need to move about the ship now that they were free to do so, so he finally opted to just use the stairs. By the time he made it back to their room ten flights of stairs later, he was huffing with exhaustion. Nevertheless he quickly keyed in the code for entry into the room, but when the door opened for him, he was overcome with dismay at what he saw.

Adam turned around upon hearing the door open, and for a moment father and son just stared at each other at a loss for words. Then Adam cocked an eyebrow. "And where have you been? I thought I told you to stay here?"

Pryce could only stare back, still panting from his flight from the lower decks and at a loss for what to do. He could easily say that he had been stuck in their room this entire time and when the power had come back on, he had left in search for him. He wanted to say that, it was just a white lie, no big deal, but he wasn't used to disobeying his father, let alone lying to him, and so he just couldn't bring himself to tell the untruth.

After a moment more of silence, Pryce finally hunched his shoulders slightly in shame. "I'm sorry," he said.

Adam stared back. "When did you leave?"

"A couple of hours ago, before the blackout," Pryce confessed. "I went down to the engine room."

"And what were you doing down there?" Adam asked incredulously.

"I wanted to see the damage for myself, to see if I could figure out what happened," the boy admitted.

With a weary sigh Adam sat down on his bed. He wasn't necessarily mad at his son, because just as Pryce was unused to disobeying him, he was unused to being angry at Pryce. Upon hearing the confession, he understood that Pryce's curiosity had simply gotten the better of him. "Why couldn't you have just waited?" he then asked.

Pryce gave a sort of half shrug as his response.

"Are you hurt?"

"No."

Another pause as the two faced each other in a somewhat awkward moment. Then Adam's own curiosity got the better of him. "Did you discover anything?"

Pryce finally looked up at his father, surprised at the sudden turn in the conversation. Then he looked back down again in shame. "No," he said.

Adam nodded in understanding. "As I suspected. It's a mess down there, I know. We'll need Victor to take a look at it before we can come to some understanding about what happened. But for now, please rest. It's been a trying day, and we have many more of them ahead of us."

Pryce nodded, suddenly remembering that he did still have a slight headache. He gladly walked into the room and flopped down onto his bed. But just then he realized there was one last question he had and he sat up. "Hey, what was up with that blackout by the way?"

Adam froze from where he was now sitting at his desk. "It's nothing to be concerned about. Just a malfunction in the system, we've got it resolved," he said.

"Oh, okay," Pryce said before lying down again. However, it took him a while to fall asleep. He stared up at the ceiling, thinking about what his Dad had told him. A malfunction in the system, that was believable with the major engine failure and all. But something about it nagged at him, and he wasn't sure why. Perhaps the way his Dad had said it without turning around, or maybe it was just his tired brain still trying to find solutions to everything. Either way, he fell asleep feeling uneasy that night.

That night was restless for Adam as well. He had told his son a straight up lie. He knew very well that the blackout had not been a malfunction, and the problem was far from being resolved. He meant it, though, when he had said that there were going to be more trying days in the future. Many more, and he wasn't sure how it was all going to end. And it was that uncertainty that made him fear the most.

Author's Notes: I've gotta admit that I'm not an engineer, so I apologize for any engineering fumbles in this chapter (or any other in this story).

Hope you enjoyed, and hopefully more chapters coming soon!