July 23, 1999

Julie Gage watched the other four members of the Starrunner walk up to the platform. Eric Anderson, with his blond hair and turquoise eyes, looked as if he had just stepped off of the front cover of Vogue magazine. Artie Scott, the only African-American on board, flashed her one of his 10,000-watt smiles. Julie smiled back, thinking of how fun it was going to be with Artie as the other ion specialist on board. That meant that she hoped they would have some fun together, outside of work. Then, as Mylene Arnold stepped up, Julie automatically stiffened. She and Mylene had never gotten along. Being Dr. Arnold's niece, Mylene was used to getting what she wanted. She just hoped that Mylene would stay out of her way. Then Jackson Perry stepped up. His goofy grin brought a smile to everyone's faces, even Mylene's.

As Dr. Arnold marched up to the microphone at the edge of the platform, everybody, including the press fell silent. All that could be heard was Dr. Arnold's speech on how the new ion engine would benefit mankind, and the soft clicking of the cameras. No one noticed the reflection of the two red eyes in the video camera's lens.

Artie Scott leaned back in his chair, and prepaired for take off.

<"T minus 10 and counting." Dr. Arnold's voice came through his commset, calm and reassuring. "9...8...7"

"Hey Julie," Artie said.

"Yes?" she replied.

"Do you think it's to late to back out of this mission?"

"Probally. What's the matter? Getting cold feet?" she teased.

"...6...5...4" Dr. Arnold's voice said.

He grinned. "No, not exactly. I just have the feeling that we're forgetting something."

"Such as what?" Julie asked.

"I don't know. I just don't know."

"...3...2...1. Ignition." said Dr. Arnold.

"Roger, wilco. We now have liftoff," Artie responded.

"Good luck. To all of you," Dr. Arnold said. "We're counting on you all to make this mission a sucess."

"We hear ya, Doc," Jackson's voice said. "And don't worry. We'll bring 'er back."

"That's a big ten-four, Starrunner. This is Alpha Base, signing off."

Eric Anderson rested his chin in his hand and studied Mylene. Her shrot, red hair set off her blue-gray eyes perfectly, and even if her personality needed work, he still admired her.

"Mylene to Eric. You still with us?"

With a start, he realized that she had been talking to him for some time now. "Yaw," he drawled in his deep southren accent. "I'm still here," he responded ruefully.

"I was asking you if you've entered our destination."

"Yeah, I have. Why? Are you afraid of getting lost?" he teased gently.

Mylene frowned. "No, I'm not. I just think you should pay more attetnion to what you're doing." she said angrily.

"Oh," he replied.

Mylene gave him a long, critical look. I only wish he wouldn't keep trying to pick me up. she thought. I don't want to hurt his feeling, but i don't know ho to tell him that I'm not the least bit interested in him. She sighed. He had always been nice to her, but she didn't have time for any kind of relationship. Espically not if she wanted to take over her uncle's position.

"Hey you two, wake up!"

With a start, she and Eric both looked up at Jackson, who was just standing here, looking at them. "Julie and Artie need an extra .50 milliwatts of power to start the engine," he said. "We need to be able to hit .75 past light by the time we pass Pluto."

"I'm right on it, Jackson," Eric said.

"Good. And make sure you two stay awake. We don't know what's out there, and we need to be ready for it."

"Don't worry," said Eric. "You can bet I'll keep my eyeballs peeled."

"Here comes that extra .50 milli. we need."

Artie looked up at the sound of Julie's voice. "All-right then, switch the power converter to level 3.5," he respoded.

"You got it," she answered.

As they started flippin switches, Artie looked over at Julie. With the two of them as the ship's ion specialists, they were the ones stuck down near the engine core. That ment that they were in the most danger. But even at that, he wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Julie may be serious, but she also loved a good joke outside work, and with his fun-loving nature, they got along really well.

"Hey you two! What's our condition?" Jackson's voice came over the comset.

"Hey yourself up there! We're almost ready for light-jump, so buckle up, and make sure your seats and trays are in their upright positions," Artie said with a grin.

Julie grinned back, "We'll be ready to jump in 10 minutes, Jackson," she said. "We need to make one final adjustment."

"All-right. We'll be ready. Just tell us when. Jackson out."

Eric buckled his last strap and started to fix his helmet. Please let this work! he thought to whatever gods might be listening. But if it didn't work, they'd be as good as dead anyways. He'd have at most 5 seconds to finish living out his life before his moleculses were scattered across space. "O.K., ya'll," he said. "Let's kick this baby into hyper-drive."

Mylene just gave him a cool look. "That's what we're doing."

"Hey Control Room," Artie's voice interjected before she could continue. "We're ready down here."

"And we're ready up here," Jackson said. "So hit the switch."

"Roger-Wilco and you bet!" Julie's voice answered.

Eric felt the ship leap foward, and saw the stars streak past in hazy, rainbowed flecks of light.

"Control Room!!" came an exclamation.

"What is it, Artie?" Jackson answerd back, with an underlay of worry in his voice.

"We made it! We're at .75 past light!" came the response, followed by wild cheers from the crew.

"Well done everybody." Jackson said with a grin. "Now, let's go celebrate!"

As Eric got up from his seat, he couldn't help looking out at the survey screen again. The picture they were getting was fuzzy at best, because no one had yet figured out how to clear up the distortation. But it was still a breathtaking sight, espically the two flecks that somehow resembled eyes.

July 24, 1999

After several hours of celebrating, Julie was on watch. She was in the process of shutting off the ion engine, which nobody wanted burned out, especially her. Besides, they were supposed to be charting outside the system, not streaking light-years beyond. She made one final adjustment and Starrunner dropped gracfully back into real space. Then, as she looked up, she saw something she hadn't seen before. It was an immense, blue-gray cloud of enegery. As she reached for her commest, the cloud seemd to waver, and two reddish-orange eyes blinked open and looked into hers. In a daze, she called Jackson into the Control Room. When he came in, all she could do was point at the cloud.

"Do you have any idea what that is??" he asked her.

"Nope. Not a clue." she answered. "When we dropped out of light, it was just there. Don't ask me how, because I don't know. I just know that it was there."

"This is too weird." Jackson muttered under he breath. "Are you awake, Eric?" he spoke into his commset.

"Yeah, I think so," came the groggy reply. "Why? Is something wrong?"

"I don't know, mabey you could tell us."

"All-right, Jackson. I'll be right there. Anderson out."

Within ten minutes, the whole crew was up and trying to figure out what was going on. Jackson looked around the room, carefully noting expressions. "Does anyone have any suggestions?" he asked.

"I do," said Eric. "Why don't we try and talk to it?"

"And just how are we supposed to do that?" Julie snorted.

"With a voice tracer," Artie answered.

"Could you do that?" Jackson asked.

"Sure. Our voice tracers have the ability to focus and enhance voices, right? Right. So all we need to do is record a message, hook a voice tracer to the scanner, trun the volume up, and play our message out throught the tracer. Then that cloud, or whatever it is, can hear the message and respond to it. If it can hear and if it wants to respond."

"That sounds good to me," Jackson said. "But first, we send a description and message back to Alpha. Agreed?" He looked around the group again waiting for their answers.

"Agreed." they said, with grim faces.

"Then lets's do it."

Mylene stared out at the cloud. They had sent out their message, and were waiting for a reply. Somehow, she felt if they did get a reply, it wouldn't be a good one. And that did not make her feel any better about this mission. Sure, the ion engine works, but what good does it do anyone if we don't get back to tell about it? she thought. Suddenly, a booming voice filled her head. Unable to help herself, she doubled over in her seat. She dimly saw the others doing the same, but the voice took over her thoughts before she could notice anything else. Then, just as suddenly, the voice dimmed, and the crew could hear on question being asked over and over: 'WHY?'

"Why what?" she asked, hoping for an explanation.

'WHY ARE YOU HERE IN MY SPACE?' the voice responded.

"Because we're explorers. We want to know more about all space." she answered.

'NOT MINE'

"But why not?"

'BECAUSE THIS IS MY SPACE.'

"We're sorry. We didn't mean to trespass."

'IT IS TOO LATE. YOU CANNOT GO BACK. YOU MUST STAY HERE.'

"But why?" Jackosn interjected.

'BECAUSE IT IS THE WAY OF THINGS. THERE IS NO TURNING BACK.'

"What do you intend to do with us?" Eric asked.

'I HAVE BEEN LONG WITHOUT COMPANY. I HAVE BEEN LONELY. YOU SHALL STAY AND.....ENTERTAIN ME.'

At those words, a dread silence fell on the crew, and a feeling of helplessness washed through each of them. At that moment, though, Artie was busy. He knew they would only have one chance, and he was going to fight back. Even if it meant killing everyone. He knew the crew would rather die fighting then to just surrender, so he was giving them that chance. He was going to push the ship past .75 light. This wasn't over yet.

Julie jumped as she felt Artie's hand fall on her shoulder.

"Prepare everyone for the jump to light-speed," he whispered in her ear.

She nodded, and spread the word to the rest of the crew, then followed Artie to the core. As she walked in, she noticed that some of the readings were off.

"Hey, Artie, why..." she starte to say when she was cut off by Artie placing his hand over her mouth.

"Shhhh!" he said. "I'm going to push the ship past .75"

"Are you crazy?!?" she whispered back. "You're going to blow us back to Earth!"

"Would you rather be a toy for that thing out there?" he said, with no trace of amusement on his face.

"Well, no."

"Good. Then just keep an eye on those readouts, and prepaire to blow back to Earth."

"Aye-aye, sir." she said, trying to keep it light.

He smiled back as the ship jumped into light-speed.

Jackson leaned back against his seat as the starts started to flicker by. That is going to be one angry alien. he thought smugly. But that thought vanished when Eric spoke up.

"It's following us, Jackson!"

"I see it, Eric." he responded. "Artie, can you give us more power?"

"I can try, Jackson, but this is a big risk. We're already at 1.3 light, and I don't know how much more I can give you, or how much more this ship can take." came Artie's reply.

"I understand. Just give us what you can."

"We'll sure try. Scott out."

But before Artie and Julie had time to squeeze anymore speed out of the engines, before Eric could announce that they were heading in the wrong direction, before any other thought could pass through Jackson's mind, it was over. The watcher envelope the ship, and Time slowed down for the crew. The last thing any of them heard was a wicked, gleeful laugh. A laugh that echoed in their minds and disappeared with them. Now, it was really over.

November 25, 1999

Back on Earth, many months later, the funeral began. It was to honor the lives and dedication of the five crew members. Dr. Arnold was there, but he didn't make a big speech. All he said was six lines:

These five names will live in our hears forever, and will always be remembered with honor."

No one would ever know that these five people would live for a long, long time. No one would ever know of the unspeakable torment and agony these five people would suffer from, all in the line of duty.