"Keep a eye out for the space deer," John reminded. "We don't want a rerun of that."
"Me neither." Will replied.
"We'll keep a eye out for the space deer, daddy." Penny assured.
John grinned, broadly, then went into his cabin to retire for the night joining their mother. Penny and will went into the elevator car then will pressed the up button. The elevator rolled up as will grasped the barrier of the car looking aside, miserable. The elevator rolled to the bridge then rolled to a stop. Penny rolled the barrier aside and walked on ahead of grabbed Penny by the arm then paused and gestured on. Figures were appearing and disappearing before their eyes.
"Well." came a young deep voice that sounded of someone a year older than Will. "What do we do?"
The source of the voice became apparent and his companion became solidified bobbing up his transparent helm with orange lights and his antenna sensors spun.
"Danger, Will Robinson." Robot said. "Danger!"
"Robot!" Will shouted then ran after the robot with a grin then Penny followed behind him.
Will was not a hundred feet away when Robot and his companion vanished then he came to a halt staring off toward the view screen five feet away from the conn. Penny joined his side then put a hand on his shoulder. He faced her with tears in his eyes full of anguish shaking his head. Silently, she was the one to start the hug and Will cried. She looked toward the conn reflectively. The time spatial anomaly had brought a cruel form of agony to her family. The cruel kind in the which they could see two members of their own and be unable to make them rejoin.
It was a full shift later did Maureen and Don come up for their role in the navigation observation. John was busy making dinner for the family down stairs setting in the necessary ingredients into the crock pot with Judy's help. Penny and Will explained what had happened with little fanfare about what had happened after that. Little notes asides to asteroids passing by them according to the radar and staring on toward the view screen with the same view ahead of them.
"Is that what happened, Penny?" Maureen asked.
"Yes," Penny said.
Will was quiet compared to his sister.
"Penny, thank you for bringing this to my attention." John's eyes shifted toward his son. "Will. . ."
"I am okay, mom." Will said.
"You're welcome." Penny said. "Will, want to play chess?"
"Sure," Will said then they walked off.
Maureen and Don exchanged a glance.
"It is not just the planet." Maureen said. "It is the Jupiter 2."
"What else is going to happen?" Don asked. "It is like. . . it is as if. . . Someone used a time fluxator and it is making the entire ship phase through time."
"Like the multiphasic barrier doesn't exist between our worlds." Maureen said.
"Yeah," Don said. "And it is really doing a number on making us be helpless."
"Not helpless, Don." Maureen said. "Hurt. I will get John."
Maureen went to the lower deck through the doorway then Don sensed that he were not a lone. He turned in the direction of the conn finding it shrunk. It was the exact way it had been when Smith entered their lives as a younger man but quite different and even more stranger than before. He was paralyzed where he sat noticing what appeared to be himself, but younger. Twenty-three, sitting alongside a man who bore a stark resemblance to John with features that were different, subtle, yet uncannily familiar in every way.
"Why would someone abandon a craft like this in the middle of a barren planet, Colonel Robinson?"
"Her crew may have had no choice, Major West."
"I never seen consoles like these before. Makes the Jupiter 2 pod more advanced by several miles."
The older man grinned, broadly, facing the younger man.
"We're from the tail end of the 21st century. It was advanced with touch screens and remote control for every function."
"Least we don't need to float like a leaf to a planet."
The younger man paused then frowned, unsure, facing the older man.
". . . Does this need to float down?"
Don stared, with a occasional blink, as the anomaly was happening before his eyes.
"We'll answer it as soon as we learn how to fly this disaster and what every function of it does."
The men laughed then the anomaly was over. It was replaced by the two empty chairs facing a moon that the Jupiter 2 was cruising past. Don's mind jumped, moon? There wasn't a moon in the view screen last he checked. Judy's started gasp made him turn toward her as the woman got up from her chair bolting toward him.
"Don!" Judy came toward Don and John got up from the passenger seat with widened eyes. "Where have you been?"
"Right here." Don said as he noted the concern on her features.
"You have been gone for days." Judy said.
"What happened?" John asked. "We have searched from top to bottom for you."
"It was like I was a ghost looking in on to another time." Don said. "I. . . I . . . It was odd. I saw; me. But, I was younger and I saw you, but . . ."
"But, what?"
"You were a colonel instead of a professor and you looked a little different." Don said.
"Don, go down to the lower decks and have some rest," John said. "You haven't been in the best place for the last two weeks."
"Two weeks!" Don said. "I have been gone for two weeks because of seeing something that happened for a few minutes?"
"Yes." John said. "The time spatial anomaly ended right after you left. Turned out that we were in the middle of the heart of it. We were in a anomaly storm of some kind according to the cosmic weather instruments."
Don turned away then went willingly with Judy to the elevator car.
"I was in a storm for two weeks! Two weeks! And I didn't get time sick not once! If you call seeing myself fresh as a cadet, yes, then maybe a little sick." Don said. "I need that rest!"
Judy laughed as John faced the window of the ship and sat down in the pilot's chair then they went into the elevator car that rolled down.
The flight resumed with little to no time spatial anomalys. They spent a month in space traveling for the next solar system. The constellations were familiar to the Robinsons crawling back the way they had came on a road trip back to Alpha Centauri. The Robinsons held their breath as the familiar solar system came up with a fairly familiar number of planets.
"Hey." Don said. "We have been here before."
"Hm?" John said.
"There is several moonmoons orbiting that planet. It is the one planet that has this large asteroid orbiting it and a facility covered in solar panels that shine." Don said. "It is the only way I remember this solar system asides to the fact that. . ."
"That what, Don?"
"This is the solar system where you almost exiled Smith for good."
"We need to lay down and get some more fuel for the trip back." John said. "We are nearly out."
"Go down and tell the family that we will be landing in about half a hour we are landing." Don said. "Yourself." Then he added in mirth. "Colonel."
"Mayor." John replied. "Not a soldier."
"Or a professor?" Don asked.
"That is in the past." John said. "Like you being a major."
"You're always going to be a professor to me, John." Don said.
John smiled, snickering, at the sentiment.
"I find that a very good thing to think about on odd nights." John got up from the chair then went down to the lower decks.
Judy looked toward the planet as it got closer with each passing day . Joshua was in her arms some of the day looking out the view of space. He wasn't going to spend his life in space knowing it was the only thing he was guaranteed to see from day in to day out, that part comforted Judy. The ship lowered down to the planet with every member of the Robinsons in their chairs including the newest member in a booster seat. The ship shook with the landing then everyone had a sigh of relief for a landing that was safe.
The Robinsons got out of their chairs then bolted down the steps once the door to the ship was open. Judy unbuckled the boy out of his booster seat then heard rolling from across. She looked up watching the elevator car slide down carrying a familiar passenger. Her eyes widened then she began to grin, tearfully, spotting a figure that she had seen only once a long time ago. The elevator car rolled down as she stood still staring toward the familiar figure.
It was Smith, the version native to this world, slowly walking toward the residential deck door. His steps were small as if on a path that he didn't wish to go on. His head was lowered toward the floor in defeat. He came to the exit, pressed the button, then looked around with his hands clasped in his lap. The door opened with a mechanical sound. His face was covered in facial burns peppering his face with a face of sorrow.
He scanned the area, regretfully, heartbroken taking one last look of the ship. He was in a gray jumpsuit over his normal uniform. Except, instead of purple and green as secondary colors; it was bright red and dark blue.
"I am sorr-ee." Were words that came and his shoulders sulked even more then he regretfully shook his head with his eyes squeezed shut. He opened his eyes then looked back in the direction of the comfort chairs then bitterly but sadly finished, "I should have never ran away."
He turned away then descended down the stairs.
"Doctor Smith!" Judy cried, beginning to reach her hand out.
Judy ran after him only to pause at the front doorway spotting her family looking around observing, taking in breaths, and enjoying the weather.
"Are you okay, Judy?" Don asked
Everyone faced Judy noticing how paled that she was with a notable tremble.
"He apologized for leaving then left." Judy began. "And he had all those burns." She began to sob, her head falling into her hands, heartbroken as Don came up the stairs then joined her side. "All those burns." as she began to cry. "And I tried to stop him."
"Honey," Don said. "Hug?"
"I like one." Judy said. "I really like one."
Don grasped her into a hug as she began to cry. One by one, each member of the expedition group came back inside the Jupiter 2 then fell into a warm and comforting group hug around Judy.
