Second Guesses:

While John and Jarrock went below to get power to the damaged ship, Don stood outside, holding his fiancée close. John was going to check the ship's manifest, but Don and Judy both knew that the first two tubes contained their future selves.

"Judy, are you okay?" he quietly asked her, as he lovingly stroked her hair.

"Just hold me, Don. Don't let me go."

She could have dealt with seeing herself, but the shock of seeing her future husband sharing the same fate, had pushed her over the edge. Knowing the two children in the other tubes were probably theirs, only added to her consternation.

Don was also having trouble holding things together. His tears flowed openly and the only thing keeping him from breaking down was Judy's presence. He held her tighter and she returned the gesture.

She gradually loosened her embrace and drew away just enough to look at him.

"It's not every day that you get to see your own end," she said, brushing the tears from his face.

"I'm glad that you decided to come," Don replied. "Are you all right?"

"I think so…Don, how did we get on that ship? We must have left, or will leave this planet at some point in the future, but why?"

"I wish I knew…maybe the mission logs will give us some answers. At least we were…together."

Judy pulled him back into her embrace, "Yeah, at least there is that."

The couple remained silent for a while, finding solace and strength in each other's arms.

"Don, I'm almost afraid to ask, but, do you think the other two…are they our children?"

"I…I don't know, Judy. I just don't know."

He looked over her shoulder and said, "It looks like your father got the power working…"

Judy turned and saw light coming from inside the spacecraft.

"Let's go see if we can give him a hand."

"Judy, you don't have to go back…"

"No, Don," she said, drawing from her own resolve as well as her fiancé's steadying support. "Regardless of anything else, that ship has equipment and supplies that we need. It will take all of us to get them back to camp."

Don had always felt that her parents had grossly underestimated her inner strength. He didn't realize just how much until now.

"All right."

...

When they walked back into the ship, they saw that John and Jarrock had covered the freezing tubes with blankets. Don noticed the ship's environmental control robot lying on the floor near the space suit storage locker.

Don checked the Astrogator and could see that the control panel had been damaged by something other than a short circuit.

"Judy, check the radio transmitter."

She went over to the radio console and looked at the radio controls. Like the Astrogator, the control panel had been physically smashed.

"Don, it looks like someone took a sledge hammer to the transmitter control panel."

Looking over at the Cabin Pressure control system, Don saw that it had also been subjected to physical damage.

"This is the same type of damage that our Robot did to the Jupiter," he said.

Jarrock and John ascended in the elevator. They each carried a case of deutronium fuel.

"Is that what I think it is, John?"

"Oh, yeah. There's enough deutronium here to fill our tanks with three canisters to spare."

"Well, we won't have to worry about power for about ten or so years."

John and Don made a list of vital equipment that they wanted to retrieve immediately. While Judy helped Jarrock, and his family, load the chariot, Robinson and West pulled the recording tapes and memory core from the computer. Don knew that one of the pieces of information in the memory core was the identity of his and Judy's two children.

Sensing what Don was thinking, John said, "We still don't know if that's you and Judy in those tubes, Don…"

"It's us," Don replied. "Did you see that chain around Judy's neck? I gave her that the night before we lifted off. It's a locket with our picture in it. She never takes it off."

"How in the world did you get back to Earth, and more importantly, why did you leave here?"

It was a rhetorical question and they both knew it.

"Something must have happened, John. Maybe these records will tell us something."

"Jarrock has offered to come back with us tomorrow to arrange burial for…"

"If they are our children, John, Judy and I should be there."

"If the two of you are up to it…"

"I'll talk with her about it, but I think I know what her answer will be.

Professor Robinson felt like he should say something else, but none of this seemed real to any of them.

"I found one other oddity," said the Professor. "The space pod is missing."

"The saboteur probably took it and bailed before the ship left orbit," said Don, somewhat perturbed. "I'd bet a year's salary that Aeolis Umbra is behind this. In fact, this whole thing has Smith written all over it."

"Let's not jump to conclusions. We still don't know that Smith was involved with the Robot going berserk. Speaking of the Robot, I pulled this one's programming cartridge. It might give us another clue as to what happened here."

Don looked over the data tape that the Professor had handed him.

"It looks like it's damaged, John. We might have trouble reading it."

"I'll let Will take a crack at it. He might be able to discover some useful information." The Professor slapped his friend on the arm. "Come on, Don Let's get the rest of this equipment loaded. I want to get back before dark."

...

Penny had come in from the field to help her mother with dinner as they were going to have guests. Behind the ship, Will, Doctor Smith and T'lan were laying the last section of pipeline for the artesian well. By nightfall they would have an unlimited water supply.

"Just think, Mom. No more navy showers."

"I know, I can hardly wait," said Maureen.

The Robinsons had been limiting water for all but potable use as even with the nearby water source, it was labor intensive to transport, filter, and fill the Jupiter 2's storage tanks.

Maureen was having trouble with the trash compactor and she sighed in frustration.

"I guess this is another item for your father's Honey Do list."

Penny opened the waste chute and pulled out the waste container and looked behind it.

"Here is the problem, Mom. A piece of trash landed behind the container."

Penny picked up the data cartridge and went to throw it out when her mother stopped her.

"Let me see that, Penny?" she asked.

"Sure, Mom, what is it?"

Maureen Robinson examined the data cartridge carefully. It had been slightly disfigured by the compactor but the interface pins seemed to be intact.

"I'm not sure, but it looks like one of the Robot's programming cartridges. Your father would never throw this away."

"Maybe it's burned out."

"Maybe, I'll ask him just to be safe."

Maureen walked to her cabin and placed the object on John's desk so he would notice it. She closed the door and walked back to the galley.

While they were preparing dinner, John had called in and told Maureen that they were on their way back. When she asked if everything was fine, he told her not to worry, but something in his voice told her all was not well.

"Did Dad say that anything was wrong?" asked Penny.

Maureen was caught off guard, "Why do you ask, dear?"

"It's just a feeling, Mom. Forget I said anything…"

"No, that's all right, Penny. Tell me what you're feeling."

"I feel like, they found something out there, something terrible."

Maureen looked into her daughter's eyes and could see genuine fear and her own intuition was telling her the same thing.

"Who was it that said we have nothing to fear, but fear itself?" she asked.

"Franklin Roosevelt, but he was never marooned on a strange planet," replied Penny.

"Well, whatever it is, we will all get through it. Now, let's get this stuff to the table, we are going to have some hungry people to feed tonight."

"Okay, Mom."

...

Outside the ship, Will and Brina were working on setting up his telescope. It was supposed to be another clear night and Will had spotted a star, the previous night, that he was sure would turn out to be Betelgeuse. Tonight, he planned on getting a spectrograph image and comparing it with the one he had on file. If he was correct, and he could identify at least two more stars, he would have enough information to calculate their exact position in relation to Earth.

"Brina, could you hand me the screwdriver, please?"

"Certainly," replied the young girl.

Much to Will's delight, he found that she shared his love for astronomy, and to his surprise, her people had developed a primitive, yet quite useful refractor telescope. Brina had brought a set of star maps with her and they had compared them to the charts that Will had brought from Earth.

"Will I be able to see through this as well as the one in the village?" she asked.

"You're not going to believe the difference," Will replied. "But many of Earth's greatest astronomers had equipment less sophisticated than the scope that your people are using."

"I hope my father will let me stay," she said. "He doesn't like to travel at dusk because of the Macktu."

"Don't worry, Brina. I'll take some live video and pictures for you."

The giant spiders, of the planet, known as the Macktu, had caused the clans many problems throughout the years. On Earth, agricultural specialists had been experimenting with high frequency sound waves to repel, rodents, insects, and arachnids.

"I might have an idea to solve the problem with the Macktu, Brina. I'll have to talk to my Dad about it."

"Our clan would be greatly in your debt, Will."

...

As Maureen and Penny set the table, the chariot rolled up to the campsite. Maureen needed only one glance from her husband to know that something was dreadfully wrong.

"Penny, would you finish this for me? I need to talk to your father."

"Okay, Mom."

"Will, would you and Brina help Penny with dinner?"

"Sure, Mom."

With the children safely out of earshot, Maureen ran to meet her husband.

"John, what's wrong?" she asked, as her took her in his arms and guided her away from the others.

"The ship we saw last night, well, we found it and it is from Earth."

"Survivors?"

"None, Don and I think the ship was sabotaged."

Maureen laid her head into his chest.

"I had hoped…"

"There's more, darling."

She looked up into his hazel eyes, and for the first time that she could remember, she could see genuine fear. Whatever was out there had shaken her husband to his core.

"Tell me…" he voice trailed off, afraid to ask.

"The ship is from the future, Maureen," he said, his voice cracking as he spoke. "…and…and on board…were…Judy…Don…and we believe their two children.

Maureen clung to her husband, having felt like she had been kicked in the gut.

"Oh, John…"

The reality of what he had seen had finally hit him. In the arms of his wife, his body quaking, he wept over the loss of his first born, his future son-in law, and the grandchildren that he may never know.