They warped back to the system Maya lived in. She had explained the mysterious transmission to Jacob and the coordinates her computer gave her without her asking for them. They decided it best to figure out what that was all about after they found Jacob a way into the station. Maya still had things to sort out before she would leave the station for a more extended period.

Jacob grabbed ahold of his controls, "Stay as far from the front of the station as possible. Yep, got that."

"We don't want anyone to see you until you are inside of the station," Maya said to him. Her voice in his ears. Far louder than it should be. "I'll come around front. They won't suspect me being back earlier in the day. I'll meet you in the back hangar. Just stay put until I find you. Alright?"

Jacob nodded even though Maya didn't have a way to see him. He caught himself before his silence was noted, "Yep- uh- yes. Loud and clear."

The transmission cut and Maya's ship flew past his with a bright blue trail of light following after it. He watched the ship spiral towards the space station and finally into the bright blue opening of light. He could see the ship jolt as the station took control of it and guided it to an empty pad.

Jacob sighed and turned his ship to the space behind the station. Then, he activated his ship's PulseEngine. The ship lurched forwards and quickly accelerated to the speed of light. The space station that was once in front of him was long gone in only splits of a second.

Once he had traveled for only three seconds, Jacob disengaged the PulseEngine and slowly turned the heavy hauler towards the backside of the space station which was now a small, gray, hexagonal prism just the size of his thumb. It amazed him how fast he was traveling during a jump.

He loved the feeling of acceleration. The feeling of that unknown force pushing you back in your seat as you slowly moved faster and faster and faster. But, he knew that same feeling would kill him at these speeds. He would be squished like a small grape when you throw it with all your strength at a wall.

He activated the PulseEngine again and flew back towards the station. The ship automatically pulled out of the jump when it got close to the station because of 'space station disturbances'. He knew that was just a way the manufacturers of starships stopped people from crashing into the space station at light speed just because they had a little bit too much to drink the night before.

He scanned the backside of the station, looking for some kind of hole. An opening for him to pilot his ship in. The small holographic projection of the station at his left showed a small red dot at the bottom right of the station but he couldn't see anything. Usually they're big enough to see at this distance.

He piloted his ship closer to the station as he flew towards that section of it. The gray paneling didn't change at all. There was no sign of an entryway. Still, he kept moving closer and closer towards the station.

"There has to be some kind of shielding," Jacob said out loud. "Or maybe a holographic door. That would be cool. Not sure why a station like this would need one though."

But Jacob was right. Right before he considered turning away because of how close his ship was from the hull of the station, he passed through an invisible bubble that revealed the small, triangular-shaped, dark opening.

The station didn't take control of his ship as he flew in and there weren't any landing pads for him to park his ship on but that was normal for him. Most stations didn't have a holographically protected cargo hangar but they all were the same on the inside. He landed his massive blue Hauler next to a large stack of metal boxes on top of a shipping container. He thought that it would be big enough to hide his ship. He hoped he was right.

Maya shouldn't be long, he thought as he made his way out of his ship and found the doorway leading out of the mostly empty hangar. It was her home station after all.


Maya couldn't believe how unfamiliar she was with her own home. Although she didn't use much of the station, no more than the two balconies, the runway, and her rooms, she thought she would've been more familiar with the endless white and black metal corridors all tucked away behind the gray metal outer shell of the station.

She recognized the station of course. If someone showed her a picture of it outside she would know which station it was, where it was located, even how many people lived on it. But if they showed her a picture of the inside. She would be completely lost.

She roamed around the long corridors, searching for the cargo hangar until she decided it best to just use her AI to its full potential.

"Computer, voice command" she whispered, just in case someone was listening. What she was attempting to do was not allowed. She knew that but yet for some reason decided to do it anyway. To risk her's, and her sister's future. It was something she did not do often. She didn't even know why she was risking it.

"Awaiting command."

"Locate local station's cargo hangar," she said.

"Local station's cargo hangar is off-limits to the common employee."

"Common employee?" She whispered to herself. She had never heard that term before. Was that all she was? A common employee?

"Accurate. Common employee."

"I'm not talking to you," Maya snapped at her AI. "Bring me there anyway."

"Not possible. Common employees are not allowed."

A sharp flash of anger burst across Maya's face but quickly disappeared. "If you don't tell me how to get there. I will take you apart piece by piece while you're still active."

The AI didn't reply for a total of 25 seconds before it slowly said, "Discovering route to cargo hangar."

Maya couldn't help but snicker as the AI led her down the corridors. Taking a left turn and then a right turn. Then another right and then left. She honestly didn't expect that to work. Maybe the AI was more sentient than she gave it credit for.

Eventually, she saw the round metal door with a black ViewScreen mounted next to it. There were white and red letters displayed on it.

Cargo Hangar

Employees NOT allowed

Maya completely ignored the warning and stepped up to the door. She almost ran into the door expecting it to open by itself, her nose coming just inches away from it. She slowly stepped back and noticed a keypad on the inside of the doorway.

She quietly swore to herself and spun around, hoping that no one was around to see her trying to get somewhere she wasn't allowed.

"Open communication to Jacob's AI," Maya said told her AI.

"[140,424,213,231,421] [Jacobs] on record," the AI replied. "Please specify the subject's full name.

"Damn it," Maya managed to scream and whisper at the same time. He hadn't told her his last name. "Give me the last 'Jacob' I talked to. Can you do that?"

"Unable to comply with request."

"What-," Maya said but caught herself. "What requests can you comply with?"

"Your personal artificial intelligent assistant is able to-," The AI started but Maya interrupted.

"You don't seem to be very intelligent right now," Maya said as she rubbed her forehead with the palm of her hand. "I'm not either."

She dropped her hand from her head and looked towards the very locked door.

"How are we going to do this Jacob?"


Jacob leaned against the stack of metal crates. If he had a watch on, he would have checked it. Maya had been gone for around twenty minutes he guessed. Maybe 30. What was holding her up?

He would have assumed that she knew the station she lived in like the back of her hand but his own unfamiliarity with his station proved that most of the bulk and extra rooms and corridors, just weren't necessary for a single person. That's why the stations were so big in the first place because it needed to house a lot of people. And the longer it took Maya to get in here, the longer it would take for them to get on to more important matters. Like that strange transmission she had received.

Another ten minutes later, he came to the conclusion that something was wrong. It should not be taking her this long. He could tell that she was someone who worked hard and got the job done as quickly as she could.

"AI, voice command," Jacob said as he pushed himself off of the crates and slowly walked towards his ship. "Open transmission to Maya- uh Amayaris."

His AI's computerized voice with a hint of a British accent returned to him.

"[1] [Amayaris] on record. Opening transmission."

"Well that makes it easy," Jacob replied as the transmission connected to Maya's AI.

Her voice filled his ears in a whisper seconds later, "Jacob? How to did you get in contact?"

"There's not that many Maya's out there I guess," Jacob said. He shook his head getting focused. "You have been taking a long time. What's wrong? Did anything happen?"

"I'm currently-," Maya started. It sounded like she tried either move something but or squeeze in between something. "-hiding in a storage closet. The door to the hangar is locked behind a password. I had to hide when a group of people walked by. I can't get in."

"I'll see what I can do on my side," Jacob said as he briskly walked from the stack of crates to the round metal door.

He found the keypad mounted to the wall and grabbed each side of its plastic casing. With a quick pull, the casing detached along with the numbered keys revealing wiring and small computer chips behind it as well as the small LED that displayed the numbers being entered. He managed to slip the ends of some of the wires out of their chips and reroute them. After a few tries, the door split into three sections and slid into the wall. Maya was standing on the other side.

She waved him towards her, "Come on. Let's go. We've wasted a lot of time already."

Then she broke off into a run in the opposite direction. Jacob followed down the long, seemingly endless corridor.


Maya lightly tapped the base of her metal door with the toe of her boot and it slid open. She walked through and Jacob followed her in. The door slid back closed behind him.

"Nice place," Jacob said as he slowly turned in a circle, scanning the room.

The room he had just stepped into was nice. A lot nicer than he expected. The first room he stepped into was like three rooms in one. There was a white leather couch to his left which was across from a brown wooden (wooden being metal made to look like wood) stand with an ultra-wide ViewScreen mounted to the wall above it.

PhotoPanels were propped up on makeshift stands made from actual wood and were sitting on a coffee table in between the ViewScreen and the couch. Various photos of what Jacob would have assumed to be Maya's family. He didn't have time to really get a look at them before Maya switched them all off using the ViewScreen mounted next to the door. She needed to be very private about her life. Although he had just met her so he didn't have any right to blame her.

The opposite side of the room was a small kitchen which looked completely unused. There was no stain or mark in sight. But it was well decorated with potted plants and flowers that sat in front of a large window that displayed the purple-colored space that surrounded the station. Jacob knew—based on the size of the station—that Maya's room wasn't anywhere near the edge of the station. He also knew that much like the holographic that hid the cargo hangar's entrance from him, these windows were just as fake. But they looked just like the real thing so Jacob couldn't complain. He liked the view.

There was also another "wooden" desk with a chair in front of it. Other than that, the room was mostly empty. It was empty but felt more like a home than other rooms he'd been in. Maybe even his own, when he had one. Then, he lived in his starship. It wasn't comfortable but it worked well enough for him.

"Don't look at it too hard," Maya said as she walked past the living section of the room and pulled open the wooden door. Behind it, Jacob could see what looked like a bedroom. "Make yourself comfortable. I'll be out in a second."


Maya closed the door and slowly walked over to her bed. She sat down at the foot of the bed and squeezed her hands together. She was getting ready to call her sister. Hopefully, she would pick up even though she was calling at a different time than usual. Back on Earth, Sarah would be at school.

So many things were flooding through Maya's mind at that moment. She needed to tell Sarah about what she was about to do. She wouldn't be back at the station for days. She didn't know. And a starship wasn't able to get a clear transmission all the way to Earth.

Maya rested her elbows on her knees and rubbed her temples with her fingertips. She didn't have much time left. Jacob was waiting for her. Maya sucked a deep breath of air into her lungs and pushed it slowly back out.

"Computer. Open a communication with Sarah Rea."


Thousands of miles away. Millions, billions, trillions of miles away. Almost on the other side of the galaxy. Tucked away in one of the four arms of what humanity once called the Milky Way—forced by alien races to call it Euclid—a small, almost insignificant planet compared to the vastness of the universe around it, orbited its star. Its surface shining a bright blue with the darkness behind it making it shine even brighter.

Almost just as insignificant as the planet it was found on, there was a small town located on the east side of where the United States once reigned. In that town was a young girl sitting in a cold, hard, plastic chair, in a cold, dimly lit classroom.

In front of her were a class of students learning the same, boring work she was. She didn't think that it would benefit her at all to know how to find the hypotenuse of a triangle or to learn when scientists thought the first Gek appeared in the galaxy. All she could think about was her sister that lived so many miles away.

She ran her hands through her long light brown hair as she traced the lines in the wooden desk below her with her eyes. Her sister hadn't returned her call the night before and that morning. She never had missed a call for the four years that it had been since she had left Earth. It felt so long ago but it had gone by so fast. Even the time she had with her sister when she was on Earth. Time she wished with everything that she had, that she could get back.

She was loosely paying attention to her teacher explaining hyper-physics when a quiet dinging rang in her ears. She reached into her pocket and pulled the small limited AI out of her pocket and tapped the screen. There was a message written on it.

Incoming Transmission / Amayaris Rea

She practically jumped out of her seat. She waved her hand trying to get her teacher's attention. When she did, the teacher's face didn't seem too pleased.

"You have a question Ms. Rea?" The teacher asked as she pulled the thinly framed glasses off of her nose.

"Uh- yeah," Sarah said. She was a lot more like her sister than she would care to admit. Her shyness defiantly was something that carried over. Sometimes, she couldn't believe that Maya was able to handle it.

She had just realized that she had managed to not only get her teacher's attention, but the entire class's attention. "My- my sister's calling. I really need to pick up."

The teacher's eyes widened, "Maya again?"

"It won't take long," she shot back trying her best to ignore the onlooking eyes of her classmates. "I promise."

Her teacher rolled her eyes and nodded towards the door, "Make it quick."

Sarah briskly made her way around the tables and chairs to the metal door and pushed it open. She stepped outside and closed the door behind herself.

"Answer transmission," she said straightening her back. She wanted to join her sister in the vacuum of space. Standing up straight and answering transmission through voice commands rather than buttons made her feel like a Starfleet cadet.

"Voice commands are prohibited," her AI returned to her with its slightly more higher pitched voice, ruining the moment.

Sarah sighed and pushed the pick up button on the physical AI in her pocket. Maya didn't have time to reply before Sarah spoke.

"What the hell Maya!" Sarah almost yelled. Even though she was really happy to finally hear from her sister, she was still angry.

"Sarah, I'm sorry," Maya's voice filled her ears a few long seconds later. "Lots of things have happened since we last talked."

"Which was yesterday morning," Sarah said. "That has never happened."

"Well, there's a first time for everything Sarah," Maya snapped. She sighed, "I'm sorry. Things have happened that I can't tell you about—things I don't understand. I called to tell you that I won't be at the station to pick up your calls. Probably for a few days."

"What happened?" Sarah asked, suddenly filled with regret from pushing her sister so hard. She could hear the stress in her sister's voice.

"I can't- I don't know," Maya replied. "Please. Just realize what I'm saying now so it doesn't hit you hard later."

"How many days?"

"I don't know, Sarah," her sister said again. Sarah could hear the tears in her eyes.

"I need to go, Maya," Sarah said. Her excitement was completely gone. It was simply that she didn't understand what was going on and because she had become so reliant on her sister that she almost didn't know what to do without her. That was why she felt anger turn her face red.

How could she do this to me? Four years and now nothing?

"No Sarah wait-," Maya started but Sarah cut the communication and stepped back into the classroom.


Maya listened to the static that signified the end of a transmission. Her head in her hands. She hated this. She hated what had just happened. She wanted to go back to Earth so badly. It tore her apart every single time she had to tell her sister that she didn't know when she would come back.

She wanted to step out of her room and explain to Jacob that after everything they had gone through all ready, that she wasn't the one to help him. Then she would fly back to Earth no matter what the outcome was and go to her sister.

She wiped the tears from her eyes and forced herself to stand up. There was a pull. Something was pulling on her. Numbing every other emotion except for one: curiosity. The need to know overwhelmed everything else and there was only one thing that she knew, that could explain the feeling. She had felt it many many times before.

The Atlas was calling to her.