The two of them floated off the bridge and toward Captain Cook's office. Once in the office they gathered around her desk. She pressed a button and connected to the transmission. There was a few second delay as the computer translated the message.

"Greetings Earth ship!" The voice said, still no image. "It's good to know that my race has made it deep enough into space to find one of the wormholes. Now, I'm sure you all want to go home as soon as possible and trust me, I understand but I'm going to have to ask you not to leave until we meet. I'm afraid you've stumbled into something big, something that I don't have the words to explain. A ship should be there in a few days. You'll just need to follow that ship back to me. I look forward to seeing a human face other than my own. Take care."

Captain Cook looked around the room. They were both silent, lost in their own thoughts. It was Professor Ricter who spoke first, "We can't leave."

"A few months ago you told me you didn't want to see what was outside this wormhole. You were scared of the aliens who had this kind of technology, now you want to meet them?"

"I was afraid then but I've come to my senses. It's a matter of needing to know, maybe even needing to understand the enemy. Mostly, it's a matter of me needing to know how they built this wormhole and this zero-gravity zone. If we leave without me understanding it, it will destroy me from the inside out."

"I need more than that. I can't risk the lives of my crew just for your curiosity."

"Know the enemy?"

"We don't even know they are the enemy."

"No, we don't. I'm simply trying to make my case that we need to see what is going on."

She sighed, unwilling to play devil's advocate anymore. "There are many reasons for us to leave but only a few for us to stay. The few are compelling. What does Captain Ruzoto want us to see? Where has he been all these years and yes, even your question about how this place came about. I have a lot of reservations about staying, but if we leave without getting as much information as can then I wouldn't be doing my duty." Marjorie and the Professor knew what this delay would mean. "Okay, we'll wait. But I'd like to see you tonight to discuss how this man might be alive."

Chapter fourteen.

Sensor office Juliet Monrow noticed the ship on her screen. She turned to tell the Commander only to find he was no longer on the bridge. "Again," she said, "both the Captain and the Commander aren't here. That has to be some sort of protocol breach."

"We've been in space almost eight months" Communication Officer Derek Windor replied. "I don't think they're going to stick with strict protocol all time. I'll contact the Captain. What do you see?"

"It's a ship, probably the one they kept talking about. It looks like it's about a day out."

"Okay, I'll pass that along." He swiped his fingers gracefully across the computer screen to bring up a menu which paged the Captain.

"Go ahead," Captain Cook said.

"We're seeing the ship on the sensors. It'll be here in about a day."

"Understood," She replied. "Captain Cook, out."

"You know," Juliet said, "there's something going on."

"Forget about it."

"I can't forget about it. We're the ones down here in the trenches making things happen."

Derek leaned back in his chair and placed his hands behind his head. "We work the trenches. Everyone does before moving up, it's how you learn about the ship."

"I think I've gotten to know more about this ship than I cared too," she replied looking back at her computer screen. She had several dozen readings going at once, one on the wormhole set to alert her if anything came though. Another flagging a massive gravity well she wanted to do a thorough scan of when she had the time.

Juliet felt someone standing over her. It was the navigation officer; she couldn't remember his name at the moment. They had rotating shifts, 12 on, 12 off. She was in the middle of a 14 hour shift. She promised the other sensor officer, Robert that she would cover for him while he celebrated his birthday. She knew the truth. He had celebrated hard the night before and just needed time to recover. It didn't matter. She enjoyed the bridge duty and was simply too bored in her room when she wasn't working. He leaned over her, could smell he hadn't showered in a while. She wondered how long he had been on his shift. "Do you have any idea where we are?"

"Excuse me?"

"Captain Cook asked me to figure out where we are. The computer can't figure it out and I was hoping maybe there was something in you scans that would help me."

"Well, aside from a strange gravity reading I haven't picked up anything useful, sorry."

"Okay," he yawned, then walked away. She watched as he sat down and looked at his screen, rubbing a stubby beard growing from his chin.

He did ask a good question, where were they? And, more importantly, why didn't the computer recognize where they were? As she tried to think through the problem, she heard the door to the bridge open. Robert walked in, chipper and awake. "I'm ready to start my shift. Thanks for covering."

Juliet, distracted by her thoughts, said in a distance voice, "Sure, no problem." She stood over Derek. "Derek, can you get me in touch with Commander Pippleton or Captain Cook?"

"You want to talk to the Captain?" Derek replied, his voice emphasizing the word Captain.

"Yeah, it might be important."

"Okay, I'll page them. What do you need to ask them anyway?"

"I want to use the hologram room, maybe I can figure out where we are."

Captain Cook laid on her bed exhausted from her shift. It was easy to ignore the tiredness and the pain when she was busy giving orders but when things were dull it was much harder to ignore what happening to her. She imagined her nerves slowly shriveling up and dying. She pictured the white blood cells in her body dissolving into her blood, useless. These were images that would pop into her mind as she sat on the bridge looking at reports.

She closed her eyes. Just as sleep was about overtake her, there was a knocking on the door. She opened her eyes and looked over, maybe they would think she wasn't here if she ignored it. Realizing a Captain could never hide from the crew she sat up and asked, "Who is it?"

"Captain, we need to talk." The voice was from an unexpected source; it was Doctor Lipton. Marjorie wasn't purposefully trying to avoid her, at least she wouldn't admit that, but they hadn't talked outside of work since she boarded.

"Come on in," Captain Cook said while turning the lights on. She was still dressed in her uniform, the act of removing it was too much.

Fran walked in. The look on her face told the story. Marjorie saw the beautiful woman behind the weak eyes. She saw the confident woman Kel had fallen in love with. She saw that woman standing in front of her, but it was behind a look of fear, frustration, guilt and worry. "Fran, I'm sorry we haven't had a chance to talk about Kel. I wanted to but-"

She held up her hand to stop her. "Captain, thank you, but that's not why I'm here. I don't even know if I should say anything." She started pacing about the room, babbling. "I don't even know why he came to me, why he felt he needed to tell me this. I don't want anything to do with the politics of this ship, but I think what he said was right, but what he wants to do is wrong."

"Doctor Lipton," Marjorie said automatically falling into the pattern of calling by her title. She stopped and restated. "Fran, please take a seat, slow down and explain to me what you mean."

Fran stopped her pacing. She pulled up a chair and sat across from Captain Cook. "Captain, a few weeks ago Commander Pippleton came into my lab very angry and frustrated. He told me there were things going on that he didn't understand, he felt you were hiding something from him and that upset him."

"There are things he doesn't need to know," she replied. Her left hand felt as if it were starting to tremble, and she tried to will that away.

"I understand that. Heck, Kel used to tell me all the time. There were things he didn't know, and he trusted you enough not to tell him what he didn't need to know. However, this is different. Captain, he thinks you're having an affair with the Professor."

Marjorie didn't even try to hold back her laughter. She was relieved to see Fran smiling as well. "That was my reaction too."

"Thank you for bring that to my attention, I'll be sure to set the record straight with the Commander."

"That's not what I wanted to tell you. He also said something about taking over the ship if you weren't doing your duty."

"I see," Marjorie replied coldly. "I don't think it'll come to that."

"But, it might." Fran replied. "Captain, even I've noticed it. You're not the same. You spend all your time in your room and when we're at meetings, I can see you trying to stay awake and-" she pointed to Marjorie's hand, which was twitching. "I looked it up and I think you have Fullerton's dieses."

"I know," Marjorie pressed a button on her desktop. "Professor, the cats out of the bag, can you meet me in my office." She looked up at Fran. "The Professors been helping me."

"That's why you've been seeing him?"

"Yes. Thank you for coming to me with your concerns. I know we've drifted since Kel, but I always thought of you as a friend."

"We still need to talk about that," Fran replied. "I have questions only you can answer."

"I understand. It's hard." The door opened and Professor Ricter walked in.

"Took you long enough to notice," The Professor said to Fran. "I assume she figured it out just like I did?"

"She took it one step further; she told me what I had."

"I see," he said with a smile. "Well, how can I help you now?"

"I'd like you to take me to the doctor. I think I'll need someone there, or at least someone who'll be certain I make it there. I'm still not sure I like this idea."

"It's for the best," Professor Ricter said.

Her computer chirped. "Yes."

"Captain, this is the communication officer. The sensor officer would like permission to use the hologram room."

"For what?" Marjorie asked.

A female voice answered. "Captain, Ensign Monrow. I'd like to use my down time to see if I can figure out where we are."

"Isn't that the job of Navigation?"

"He told me the computer was having an issue pinpointing where we are. I know the Professor and his crew are busy so I figured I'd give it a shot. I'm off duty so it won't affect any of the bridge personnel."

She looked at the Professor who gave a casual shrug. "Okay," Captain Cook said. "Go, see what you can find out."

Juliet stood in the middle of the hologram room looking at the stars around her. It all looked familiar and yet she couldn't say she recognized everything. Almost like meeting someone you think you know, but you're not sure if they just look like someone you know, or whether they actually are someone you know. She stared at it, studying the star formation. It was right there. She knew it. There were thousands of stars all within the same section of the sky. Juliet placed her hand under her chin and squinted, trying to focus on the pattern, trying to see what was there. It was a star cluster. Star clusters were pretty common and mostly found within the arm of the galaxy, so she knew they were at least still within the Milky Way. Was it a Globular Cluster?

What do I remember about them? She thought and searched her memory trying to remember Astronomy class. Globular Clusters were very large collection of stars, from ten thousand, to a million. Most were concentrated in the hemisphere centered on Sagittarius, which would make them close to the center of the Milky Way and since she couldn't see the center of the galaxy this wasn't a Globular Cluster.

She couldn't help but notice most of the stars seemed blue and fuzzy, as if she were looking at them through a haze. "I probably am," she said to herself. The blue told her these stars were young, the haze told her they were still forming. That would make this an Open Cluster, fewer stars, spread out more than a Globular Cluster. Not really gravitationally bound to each other the cluster gradually drifted apart.

What open clusters did she how? "How about the closest?" she asked herself. "Computer, can you overlap an image of the Hydes Star Cluster over the stars in sector seven B?"

The cluster appeared and she could tell right away it wasn't a match. The stars were too far apart and didn't line up with what she was looking at. "Well, how about the most famous? Computer, do the same thing with the Pleiades."

There they were, Sterope, Taygeta, Maia, Caleano, Electra, Merope, Alcyone, Pleione and Atlas. Something was wrong. "Where's Atlas?" She asked. "Computer, can you match the sisters to the star cluster we're seeing in our scans?"

The computer labeled six of the stars. Atlas still wasn't there. It was gone. "Okay, that's interesting. Computer, can you zoom in on where Atlas is supposed to be?"

The computer zoomed. She saw something there. Atlas wasn't gone. It was covered by something. "Computer, max zoom."

The imaged moved closer. Juliet saw what it was. "It can't be," she said then had the computer send a page to Captain Cook to come down to the hologram room immediately.

"Now, keep in mind Captain, I'm not an astronomer," Juliet said. "But I did get a high grade in the astronomy and astronavigation class."

Captain Cook nodded. "I don't care what kind of education you have, if you know something important tell me and let me decide if it's credible or not. I never want my crew to think I'm judging them based on what they did in school."

"Okay. Computer, run the program."

The hologram turned on and floating over both of their heads was a large star cluster. "This is a live feed from outside the ship. What you're looking at is the Pleiades star cluster."

"I only see six sisters," Marjorie said. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I checked it against the background stars, and it's the Pleiades all right but as you noticed, one of the stars is missing."

"Atlas," Marjorie said.

"Right. That's probably why the computer was having a hard time determining where we were, when it didn't see all seven sisters it didn't know it was looking at the Pleiades."

"It still should have figured out based on the other stars in the cluster. Missing one star shouldn't have thrown the computer off by that much."

"Yes, I thought that too and if you look carefully you'll see that's not the only missing star. From what I can determine there are about fifteen to twenty missing stars from the cluster."

"Are you sure? I can't see all those stars going nova at the same time. If they did we'd still see them as nebulas."

"I'm 100% sure. We're about 10 light-years from Pleiades, which means we're about 430 light-years from Earth."

"That's pretty far." Captain Cook replied. She felt relieved to know they weren't so far away from Earth it would take years to return; she didn't know the exact math in her head, but she knew she would return within a relatively short amount of time. "So, what happen to Atlas and the other stars?"

"Computer, zoom in on where Atlas is supposed to be."

The image zoomed in and slowly Marjorie could make out why Juliet had called her down. It looked like a giant gray ball. White beads of barely discernable lights encircled the sphere. It took her a few seconds of study to realize how large this object actually was. There was only one thing she could think of that this object could be. "Is that a Dyson Sphere?"

"We won't know until we get closer but I think it is."

"Those can't exist. They're just a puzzle engineer think up to keep them busy. No one ever thought we'd found one."

"And yet there is it. I would really like someone else; someone more qualified, to look at this."