Graham had just checked in with Utopia and found out his guest was still asleep and doing fine. He went on making some adjustments to his experiments, when he was just about finished he herd a sonic boom. Looking up to fine what had caused it, at first you he could not see anything. Then his eyes picked up a small silver object in the sky. He watched it as it got bigger and he realized it was a ship. It looked to be coming in very fast. Graham could see the flames around the front of the ship from the friction with the air. It looked like a comet coming down all flame and smoke. The ship was obviously in trouble and Graham said,

"Utopia, do you have that ship on your sensors?"

"Yes, it is coming in to steep and will hit very hard. It will land about 50 Kilometers from our position."

"Utopia start a slow turn and plot a course to the landing site of the ship. Once you are on course make the best speed possible. They may need our help, we seem to be the Dione rescue squad."

"Should I ready the launch?"

"Not yet maybe when we get closer."

Graham then made his way to the Sickbay. He got there just in time to see his guest wake up. Moving to the side of her bed he said,

"Lay still you are still weak from your ordeal." She looked at him with defiance in her eyes and tried to sit up. She could not do it and Graham had to help her so she would not fall off the bed. When she looked up at him again the defiance was gone and all that remained was gratitude. She said,

"Thank you." Then paused for a moment, "I always seem to be thanking you. I would really like to know the name of my benefactor."

"Yes how rude of me, my name is Dr. Graham Winegarden. I am a biologist trying to develop a way to grow food on this planet, so it can be colonized. You are on my floating research station called Utopia. May I ask you a question?"

"Yes of course anything."

"Who are you?"

"Oh my god I am so sorry, my name is Martine Iopetet and I was here on a survey mission for my father. We found them but they were far more advanced then us. They are Xerophytes to the point of militant. They caused us to crash somehow. I don't really know what happened after that, Jack could probably tell you more, by the way where is Jack?"

"I am sorry to have to tell you this but Jack did not make it. He was to far gone by the time I got to your pod." To Graham's despair Martine started to cry. He had never been good with strong displays of emotions, both his own or others. Doing what he thought was best he put his arm around her and rested her head on his shoulder. She cried for about half an hour then seemed to get back under control.

She looked up at Graham and said,

"Do you know anything about my ship?"

"I am not sure, but just before I came down here I saw a ship coming into the atmosphere. It might have been yours but I do not know."

"It couldn't be my ship, it was not in orbit, we had some sort of power outage and the orbit deteriorated. That was when Jack got me into the Pod. If my ship did survive it would be on the surface."

"I have not seen anything, but I can have Utopia do a scan to see if we can find it. Utopia did you hear that?" She looked around trying to see if there was anyone else around. Then she said,

"Who is Utopia?"

"That is my AI, Utopia start scanning for Martine's ship maybe it survived coming down." Utopia said,

"I will do my best but it is a big planet and being on the surface does not help."

"Just do your best."

Graham was a little concerned, if the ship he saw was not Martine's then it could be pirates. If that were the case they could be sailing into big trouble. He thought, 'How could he find out before he sailed into a trap.' Graham could see that Martine needed more rest and so he said,

"I have to check on a few things and it looks like you could use some more sleep. I will be back in a couple of hours and we will have something to eat, so get some rest." Martine nodded and laid back on the bed. Her eyes were closed and she was asleep before Graham had left the room.

Making his way to the control room Graham told Utopia to try and contact the Sol Union Base on Telemachus. He was probably going to need help and they were the most likely to supply it. The only problem was by the time they got the message he would be at the crash site. It would still take them the better part of three days to get here, but what else could he do? Graham sat there thinking about the whole problem for the next two hours, but did not really come up with any answers. He finally gave up and went to the galley. There he made two dinners and put them on a tray. Carrying them into Sickbay he found that Martine was awake and waiting for him. He said,

"How long have you been awake?"

"Not long, maybe ten minutes. Is that dinner?"

"Yes, now eat up and maybe you will be of some help to me tomorrow." She smiled and it lit up her whole face. She then said,

"You are going to put me to work?"

"Well you have to earn your keep until we can get you back where you belong. I will probably need your help when we find that ship I was telling you about." They ate there dinner in relative silence and after it was done Martine fell back asleep. Graham went back to the galley and cleaned up. Then pouring himself a liquor he went back up on deck and sat looking at the stars. The mist faded at night when it cooled down and the sky was full of stars. Graham knew that his home system was not visible from here but that did not stop him from thinking about it. He finished his drink and then went to bed.

Graham woke up to a load and obnoxious selection of classical music. It was not even human classical music, it was Fraal Classical music. He said,

"Utopia, how many times must I tell you. I hate Fraal music and I especially hate Fraal classical music."

"You have told me 1,374 times."

"So why do you keep playing it?"

"I am hoping you would learn to appreciate it."

"I will not, I hate it, do you understand the word hate?"

"I know it's meaning of course, but I do not know what you mean by understanding?"

"Oh forget it, how far are we from the ship?"

"About a kilometer. I have slowed us to half speed and readied the launch." Graham moved up on to the deck to see if he could see the ship, but the mist was to thick. He kept looking and eventually he saw the ship rise up out of the mist. The ship was in bad shape, something had hit it and taken the whole top of the ship off. It was reminiscent of the old ghost ship tails of ancient earth.

Utopia maneuvered the research station up beside the ship and Graham tied the two together. After he had the ship Secured he noticed that Martine was watching him. He said,

"You could help, after all you are suppose to earn your keep," then he laughed.

"Yah, I know, but I know nothing about such things." She paused, but Graham did not answer. She then asked,

"So is there anyone alive in there?"