'What about Jarreck? You're forgetting that he's still in there!' said Helen anxiously, as she began to enter her stasis pod.

She looked up at her uncle, analyzing his face for the tiniest fragments of emotion – anything that would give away his feelings. But it remained relentlessly bland.

'Please get in, sweetie. You let us worry about Jarreck – we need to get you in first.'

'Oh my God! You're going to kill him!'

'Don't be silly – I wouldn't allow them to do that.' Reuban immediately bit his lip and reprimanded himself for letting this slip out.

'They wanted to kill him?' asked Helen incredulously.

'No...well, yeah – it wasn't a solid decision...nobody, I mean... Helen, look, can we talk about this later?' His bland expression soon crumbled, giving way to the real anxiety he was experiencing. How could he explain it to her? He wasn't even sure if Barnaby's suggestions even implied termination. But he sure as hell knew that it would've been terribly convenient for Barnaby if were Jarreck who became infected instead of Regan.

Helen swallowed, scrunched up her face and turned away.

Reuban wanted to hold the girl, even if it was for a few seconds, but his mind wanted to push her – the closest person to him at the time – as far away as possible. 'Just get in, Helen.' he said, finally – becoming exasperated. 'You know we're in a very stressful situation here – don't worsen it. In the past couple days I've had to deal with things thatone person wouldn't have to deal with in a lifetime. This isn't time to get all judgmental and moralistic on me, okay?'

Helen didn't turn to look at him; instead she continued to climb into the chamber. Reuban shut his eyes guiltily and sighed. 'Oh Jeez...kiddo, I'm sorry. I-'

'Just do what you have to do and get this over with.' said Helen in a voice that sounded remarkably like his sister's.

Reuban made as if to comfort the girl, but the changed his mind and began to set the chamber's stasis settings. He watched in silence as the girl lay back against the soft padding and deliberately shut her eyes – as if she could so easily shut out every event that had taken place in the past few days. Reuban continued to watch her still form as the lid closed with a soft click.

Moments later he felt a hand on his shoulder, but didn't turn around.

'Ready?' said Lexington's voice as he held a hypodermic needle in his left hand.

'All I'm saying is that you should probably go in first – lower his guard. He's more familiar with you than any of us,' said Barnaby, coming up behind Reuban.

Reuban ignored Barnaby and turned to Lexington on his left. He nodded towards the syringe Lexington was holding and spoke. 'I hope you got the proper dosage in there – we don't want to kill him. If this gets rough-'

'Trust me,' interrupted Barnaby, 'it's gonna get rough.'

'If this gets rough,' repeated Reuban, giving Barnaby a look, 'there's always a chance we might shoot him up with too much. I don't want to kill the kid.'

'We won't kill him. We're just knocking him out. Cutting his lights out for a while – he's getting the better end of the deal than we are.' said Barnaby.

'I have to agree with that.' responded Lexington. 'Don't worry, Reuban...he'll be fine. I've done this before.'

'With whom?' asked Barnaby.

'My ex-wife.'

Reuban didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He didn't have the time to decide. They soon arrived at the room where Jarreck was locked up in and all three paused at the entrance. Barnaby gestured for Reuban to go in first. Reuban took a step forward and punched in the six digit code to open the door.

The door slid open with a slight hiss to reveal a darkened room. The fluorescent lighting overhead was living through its last hours. All that was remaining of the light cast its glow on a shelf that housed tools and such, leaving part of the room bathed in darkness.

'Fox?' said Reuban, cautiously stepping in.

A voice spoke calmly from the darkness. 'In all the years we've known each other, the only time you've called me by my first name is when I was in trouble.'

Reuban bit his lip. 'I'm not going to lie to you, Jarreck,' began Reuban.

Barnaby opened his mouth to speak. They weren't supposed to inform Jarreck of what they were about to do to him! This wasn't a medical check-up! The man was a multiple murderer capable of just about anything in high stress situations. This extra bit of information could just be enough to send him off the edge. Barnaby stepped up behind Reuban to warn him when he saw Lexington shake his head slightly out of the corner of his eye. Now wasn't the time to do so, was what that look implied.

'We've...reached a decision, Jarreck.' continued Reuban.

'Yeah?' replied the man calmly, so much so that it was almost eerie. 'So what's the verdict? Has the court deemed him sane?'

Reuban continued to finger the hypodermic needle. He held it up in the light for all to see. 'I guess I don't need to tell you what this means.'

A beat.

'Should've seen it coming, really.' said Jarreck, almost to himself. 'All my actions...everything pointed towards my instability. I mean that's what I am, right? Unstable?'

'I'm not judging you. I don't think any of us here are capable of judging you considering the situation we're facing. This simply seems like the most rational step to make at this point. We have...other problems.I don't know how else to put it.'

'I suppose you're not at liberty to tell the local lunatic what has been going on during the past couple hours...'

'No Jarreck, I'm not.'

'Then at least grant me the favor of treating me like a human being. I'll let you...tranquilize me as long as you don't treat me like an animal.'

With that, he emerged into the light and rolled up his sleeve. He walked towards Reuban and held his arm out. Reuban avoided looking him in the eyes and tentatively inserted the needle in. As it pierced the skin, he heard Jarreck speak softly so that only Reuban could hear him.

'I'm not crazy, Reuban.'

'I know, Jarreck. I know.' he replied as he felt the younger man's form go limp and caught him in his arms.

Reuban sat in front of the stasis pods, waiting. Occasionally he would glance at his watch, the time not really registering in his mind. The others were all in already, except for Yuya and himself. Perhaps he ought to be grateful that all of them hadcome out of the situation as well as they had. Nobody was dead. If that's the silver lining, thought Reuban abandoning optimism, then this must all be a bad dream and I must be getting a sun tan in the Bahamas. This entire mess was layered with one problem after another. Regan's comatose state was perturbing him increasingly. If it was a case of trauma to the head or something that could have been diagnosed, then perhaps Reuban's mind could have been more at ease. Yes, it would still have been an unfortunate incident, but it that case, it would have been a known, unfortunate incident. Whatever was infecting the man's body was unidentifiable and therefore, untreatable until they got back to earth. And carrying around an additional "guest" did nothing to steady his ragged nerves.

He jerked his head up at the sound of approaching footsteps. Yuya rounded the corner and gave Reuban a wan smile.

'Any luck?' asked Reuban hopefully.

'None. Our communication link seems to be down. I've tried patching it up using several of the emergency codes, but I can't seem to log on to any frequency.'

Reuban's face fell. 'You did all you could.' He turned his attention towards one of the chambers that contained Jarreck's drugged form.

'So did you.' said Yuya. 'I hate to see it go down this way. But...it's happened. So let's let it be and hope we get home soon.'

'You think Regan will make it?'

Yuya hesitated, remembering thehorrific image of the creature embracing the man's face.

Reuban shook his head. 'Don't answer that. We'll find out soon enough.'

With that, the two men got into their respective cryo-tubes. Minutes later, the light in the room hummed down to a lower level as all animate life on board grew still.

He was awakened to the sound of an alarm. At first, he groggily thought of the annoying buzzer that sat on his bedside table and instinctively reached out to turn it off. But his hand hit a wall and he opened his eyes in confusion. There was no doubt that he was no longer at home, let alone in his own room. The alarm, too, was much louder now and more seemed to grow more insistent with each passing minute. He wrestled for a few seconds with his heavy eyelids and thought hard. Aurelius – he was aboard the Aurelius. And something had gone wrong with their mission. His mind was sluggish and slow – trying to pinpoint recent events unsuccessfully. He had vague images of being in a room, the little girl – what was her name? Up. He needed to get up.

Jarreck felt around his chamber for the panel that opened the cryo-tube lid. But lying down on his back and looking up from his position, he noticed that the lid was already open. Were they home already? He felt a happy surge of hope rush through his body and tried to prop himself up onto one elbow. He fell back with a slight groan. What the hell was wrong with him?

And then slowly, like one awaking from a nasty operation, the scattered images began to fall into place. He'd been drugged. How long ago was that? He wasn't sure...but it could not have been too far off if he was still feeling the after-effects. Which would subsequently mean that they weren't home. So why has stasis been interrupted? Think, he forced himself. The system was always pre-set to last until the vessel had reached its given locale. It could only be stopped by a command from an outsider control – like NASA headquarters – or by an unforeseen and thereby, emergency situation within the confines of the ship itself.

Was there a fire on board?

Jarreck's pulse began to pick up, the last remaining effects of the drug gradually wearing away. He managed to call out – not as loud as he wanted; 'Hey! Reuban...?'

Silence. Then suddenly voices speaking all at once. They grew louder.

'Take him out. Let's get everyone into the main lounge-'

'No, I want everyone in the large bunker room. I don't think we should be wandering around with it loose.'

Jarreck, swallowed, trying to remain calm. He managed to sit up on his elbows and watch as Reuban walked hurriedly towards him. 'Fox...c'mon, kid – let's go.'

'Where?' asked Jarreck. 'Where're we going?' his words were slurred.

'Damn. I forgot – you're probably feeling woozy. Alright,' Reuban quickly slipped an arm around the other man's, and helped him out of the pod. Jarreck sat slumped against the cryo-tube on the cold floor.

'Think you can walk?' asked Reuban.

'Help me.' said Jarreck, when what he wanted to say was, yes – I can walk, but I need your support.

Reuban nodded and beckoned for Lexington to come to his aid. Between the two men, Jarreck managed to half-limp and be half-dragged to wherever it was he was going. He turned to look around him and saw something that made his stare long and hard. One of the lids of the cryo-tubes had been smashed open. From the inside, it seemed. But that wasn't what had caught his eye. The striking contrast of crimson on the lid and the subsequent streaks on the white floor caused his thoughts to come to an abrupt halt. Now he was seeing things. Now he'd lost it – gone completely over the edge.

The images gathered together to form pressure, which suddenly triggered an immense release of memories – memories that were still quite fresh in his mind. He remembered the bludgeoned bodies of his comrades aboard the Romulus. The simultaneously ridiculous and frightening game of cat and mouse he played, for which the prize was survival itself. This was more than a year ago. Was he having nightmares, or was he back there again?

Jarreck needed to see. He needed to make sure. He struggled with all his might to get out of Lexington's and Reuban's grip, but he was too weak to do so. He managed to let out a garbled curse.

'Easy...' said Reuban. 'One thing at a time,' his words implied that everything would settle down, but his tone rang hollow – betraying anxiety. And fear.

'Whassa – what happened?' asked Jarreck.

Reuban looked over at Lexington and didn't reply.