The couple weaved through the streets unsure where to take refuge and Eli couldn’t sit back any longer and risk them being caught.

  We caught up to them and cut them off thanks to Eli’s knowledge of the towns streets. We steered them toward gates before we got out into the farmlands and back into the forest.

  Eli spoke with the unknown man while I dropped back to talk to the woman. I was all sorts of concerned with everything that was happing on Atlantis, but more importantly what was going on with the man.

  “Are you from Earth?”

  She nodded.

  “Yes. Transporter Effigium.”

  “How did you get onto this planet without being noticed?”

  “Better stealth tech I guess,” she sighed.

  Her body language and the way she answered, told me that I had to cut to the chase before completely losing her attention.

  “What’s wrong with him?”

  She let out another deep sigh.

  “I’m not sure. It’s been getting worse. That’s why we decided to settle here. I don’t think he could handle another jump.”

  Her voice was shaken and she was trying to hold back tears but I had to know more.

  “What do you mean, handle another jump?”

  “We took a ship from our Transporter and went out on our own to find the perfect place to spend the rest of our lives.”

  She paused and held me back to put more space between us and the two ahead.

  “The last few jumps. He started saying odd things. Remembering things different to how they happened. Each jump he got worse.”

  “Wait but you said you have been jumping together. You seem fine?”

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  “He’s jumped two more times than I have.”

  “How many times has he jumped?”

  “Ten times,” she answers, letting out a whimper.

  Shit. Is eight times the limit?

  ***

  Back at the research lab, the man had calmed from his delirious state and stared at me from across the large meeting room table.

  “Carter?” He asked.

  The man scrambled to his feet, at attention as soon as he saw me.

  “It’s me. Sergeant Hays. Sir.”

  “Do you… know each other?” Asked Eli.

  Eli was taken with curiosity and excitement, evident by the smile on his face at Sgt. Hays question, and my reaction.

  My eyebrows raised in utter confusion. In a way he did look familiar, but I had never met the guy before today.

  “Yes sir. We served together on Salvation, I was in the same squad with Sergeant Ro.”

  “Is that so,” said Eli, the smile on his face even larger now, even hidden under that beard of his.

  “Yes sir. Well until —“

  He gave me a somber glance before continuing.

  “Until Sergeant Ro was killed in action.”

  I felt a sudden hit of mourning. Like the words he spoke were true, but they weren’t. She was still alive when I jumped to the Atlantis system and I’m positive these two would have been here.

  “Where did she die?”

  “What? Biterra. When your— you know, vehicle exploded?

  I looked over to the woman who shook her head, visibly upset by his responses and watching him become confused again as memories intertwined. Hays had his head in his hands, rubbing his temples like he was trying to soothe a headache.

  I turned back to Eli and motioned him to another room to explain that what he was saying was true, well most of it besides Ro dying back on Biterra.

  “Have you seen this happen before?” I asked.

  “No. This is all new territory.

  “So many things we thought were impossible are ordinary now,” said Eli.

  “There’s something else,” I added before telling him everything that me and the woman talked about.

  I didn’t think that Eli’s eyes could widen any further in delight. A man was going crazy but he was having a scientist's wet dream—a new discovery.

  Eli briefly disappeared before returning. He had sent a message to the Space Station that we were returning, with two extra guests.

  “We’re not leaving here,” declared the woman.

  “You don’t have a choice.”

  “You either come, or die,” stated Eli calmly.

  He placed a pistol onto the table in front of him, a move that not even I would anticipate from Eli. Not only due to his old age, but also completely out of character from the Eli I remember back on Earth.

  “It’s protocol,” he added.

  “You’re illegally on this planet and threaten its progress in doing so.”

  Disrupting progress huh.

  I found it funny coming from a man who had been slipping technology notes to people in the local town to speed up their progress.