In her return of consciousness Lawrence heard alarms sound. It did not bode anytning good. Slowly she got up from already opened cryotube and then saw chaos around her. Everyone was screaming and Lawrence couldn't understand anything, till she heard Daniels groan of despair and noticed that all of the crew stood near Branson's hibernation pod. She felt stomach in her throat while she was thinking what could have happened. Fighting the temptation to went back to cryosleep, she approached to the rest of the crew and looked at Branson's pod.

She regreted it immediatelly, the pod was still closed, Daniels tried to open it with force, because inside still was her husband, or what was left of him - pod burned Jacob almost to the bones. Lawrence lost her balance and would collapse if Ledward wasn't behind her.

"What happened?" she asked, leaning on him.

"No idea, I have just woken up... Come on, we should find Walter, I don't think we will be helpful here now..."

"Why that fucking cryotube burned Branson? Was he... was he still alive?" asked Ledward, when they were going to the bridge.

"I'm not sure, something like this sould never happen. The pod apparently was defective or damaged... Branson for sure still lived when ... that happened." explanied Lawrence.

They reached the bridge and saw Walter extinguished the fire.

"What is happening?! Are all that fucking ship's going to burn?!"

"Do not bother yourself with that Ledward." answered Walter calmly. "Is everyone awake?"

"Except Branson. Something happened with his pod and it burned him." said Lawrence.

There was couple minutes of awkward silence between them.

"How is Daniels?" asked Walter then.

"She is distraught, her husband is dead ! Please do not pretend being compassionate human now, and tell us what happened?"

"I guess we have not arrived yet?" interjected Lawrence.

"No. We haven't. It's still seven years of travel ahead till we will reach Origae-6. Neutrino blast from a nearby stellar ignition damage solar sails and causes failures of the subsystems. Forty seven colonist and sixteen embyos are dead. To go further we need to fix the malfunction."

♡♡♡

Repairs of the ship lasted more than twenty four hours. In the meantime symbolic funeral of Branson took place. New capitan whom, after Daniels husband death, became Oram, didn't allow the crew to do this immediately, becouse he didn't want to waste the time. Another neutrio blast in this condition of ship would destroy it completely. But part of the crew (and Walter of course), do what they wanted and gave him last farewell. Every one of them said some warm words, drank a glass of Branson's favourite alcohol and they sent his body into space.

♡♡♡

Daniels was really cold when she was walking to the canteen to make herself a coffee. She wraped up tightly in Jake's shirt, but it didn't help much. The cold she felt wasn't coming from outside but inside of her, and any warm clothes couldn't heat her.

"Daniels..." she heard quiet voice of Walter behind. Slowly turning around, she was surprised that the robot stood so close to her, he was programmed for keeping distance, so humans wouldn't feel uncomfortable. "I am deeply sorry..."

Again she felt her eyes becoming wet, but she promised herself, she won't be crying. Why it had happend to her? It was supossed to be the greatest adventure in their lives, but Jake will never got where they planned to build their wooden home, near the lake...

"I know, Walter... It means so much for me that you were there during the ... funeral..." her arms shook form the muffled sob, when she reminded body of her husband drifting in the midst of nothingness. Then Walter did something, what quite surprised her. He covered her with his arms and huged tightly. The surprise was soon over, Daniels clinged to him and started to cry desperately. Walter didn't say anything, actually he didn't move, leting her cry her fill.

"I'm sorry..." said Daniels, when she calmed down a bit. "And thanks, it was helpful..."

"You don't have to thank, I'm here to serve all humans... to serve you..."

"So, thank you for being here, Walter."

♡♡♡

Lawrence was dreaming about lying down and just resting for a while. When she came to her cabin and threw herself on a bunk immediately Ledward came in.

"Are you lazy already?"

"I deserve! I rewrote a half control program..."

"Allright, alright, I don't want to listen it anyway," he sat next to her and took a teddy bear which was lying on the bunk. "Looks quite old."

"It is, almost as old as me. I got it on my first birthday."

"Lawrence ..." Ledward suddenly turned serious. "I don't want to go back to that fucknig cryopod."

"No one does, but we can't wait seven years... We would kill ourselves afer few months. We have to hibernate again, there in no other way."

At that moment Tennessee voice spoke from intercom:

"Everyone at the bridge now! We got some signal... "

♡♡♡

Very weak signal was decoded by Tennessee. If he wasn't wrong it was song of John Denvers Take Me Home, Country Roads. It came from a planet which was incerdibly perfect, almost like Earth twin sister.

Oram considered this as a sign from god. After what happened with Branson, no one wanted to go back to cryopods, and this planet could be suitable to colonisation as well as Origae-6. Anyway it was necessary to check the signal - the people could be on that planet.

Changing the colonization site was risky. Only exploring the planet and making sure it is indeed safe and suitable for people will definitely last a few years. After all most of the crew admited it is worth a try. Daniels was the only one who had some doubts, but Oram didn't want to listen to her anyway.

The crew split into two parts; Tennessee, Upworth and Ricks stayed on the bridge and the rest, in lander, went to explore the planet. Daniels sat down in her place, next to Waltert. Under the influence of the impulse, the girl grasped his hand. The robot stared intently at their joined hands, then looked at Daniels with a sad smile. Unfortunately, during the flight they had to break this gesture of affection, because the lander trembled sharply so each limb was needed to hold on.

When they finally landed, Lawrence began to wonder if they were doing well not wearing suits. The expedition was about to reach a planet where they would not need them, so they were only equipped with massive and heavy space suits, needed for ship repairs. On a planet where gravity is so close to Earth, moving in it would be very difficult. After all, maybe they should have used them, eventually they had no idea if there was a substance harmful to humans in the atmosphere of this planet, and undetectable by the sensors of the Covenant. Now it was too late for such thoughts, but Lawrence shared them with Oram.

"Computer is sure that composition of air here is the same as on Earth. There is nothing to worry about, you can't fool it." he said and opened up the hatch and the air he was talking about blew everyone in the face.

Nothing happened. No one fell down dead, but Lawrence knew that it takes time to make sure that the atmosphere is not harmful.

During the landing, the communication system was damaged and the signal that was received by the Covenant was full of disturbances.

"I will stay here and try to fix this." said Faris. "Good luck. Be back before dark."

Crew went out into the unknow. Walter led, checking how to direct to reach the signal source. The others followed him, watching the virgin land with delight. They landed in the valley, on the edge of a large water area, they had to walk a few kilometers of a small hill. Startig to climb up and up, trough the gentle slope of the valley, they went out to the wheat field.

"Someone must have to planted it here... Maybe the one who sent the signal." said Lope.

"Perhaps one of ours ships was crashed here and someone survived." suggested Lawrence. "This is probably the most likely scenario."

"How far yet, Walter?" asked Oram.

"Two kilometers."

They went a little further, reaching the edge of the old forest on the slope when Karine (the captain's wife) exclaimed: "Chris! I think I'm gonna stay here. I'll take some samples. You'll pick me up when you come back"

"Are you sure?" asked Oram.

"Yeah."

"We should not split." said Lawrence.

"You're right." Oram nodded. "Ledward, stay with Karine."

"That's not what I meant!" sighed Lawrence. "Karine should go on with us, or we should all stay."

"Don't dramatize, they will be quite safe here." having said that, he turned to Ledward. "Behave yourself with my wife."

Lawrence did not calm down after the words of the captain, but she moved briskly for the rest of the group. They walked along the edge of a large forest while the signal was getting stronger.

"You hear that?"asked Daniels suddenly.

"What?"

"Nothing. No birds. No animals. Nothing. It's unnatural..."

Soon their saw a huge object that looked like a human rib and could only be a spaceship that apparently crashed here some time ago.

"The signal comes from the inside." said Walter.

They slowly walked in. Hallett became interested in the strange plants growing on the ground at the entrance.

"You shouldn't touch them..." warned Lawrence.

"I'm not going to, just looking."

In the devastated interior of the ship, looking like a tar-smeared interior of the large intestine, Daniels found an xeranthemum.

"Doctor E. Shaw?"

"Doctor Elizabeth Shaw. " Walter immediately picked up. "She was a chief science officer at the Prometheus, the ship which disappeard few years ago." he whispered so that Lawrence could not hear.

Moving hesitantly trough the dark corridors, they reached the room, which was probably the bridge. Walter pushed the button on the huge console in the center, and on one of the seats around it a woman's hologram appeared. Everyone held their breath when they heard they were humming Take Me Home, Country Roads.

"We have our source." Oram swallow.

"What the hell she was doing here?" wondered Rosenthal. However, no one even tried to answer her because at this moment Oram's communicator rang.

"Oram? It's Ledward. I'm taking Karine back to the lander, she... she's not feeling well..."