Robert Jackson sat drifting soundly off to sleep in his overstuffed chair while watching television on a nice and quiet Wednesday evening in Milwaukee Wisconsin on the twenty sixth day of March in the year two thousand and three. Ten minutes or so later a video communications system that had been installed into the wall of his living room began chirping. It was the first time that it had audibly chirped in thirteen years. He shut the television off with the remote and arose up and out of his chair to walk over and sit down the desk that sat below the chirping unit. He then activated the vid-com screen above him. Sleep would evade him one more time.

"Jackson here." he said yawning, as a visual of his long time friend, Donald April appeared on the viewer.

"Jay, I really do hate to bother you this evening, but as you can see I'm back aboard the Orion, in the orbit of Mars." April informed him.

"Alright Donald, I can see that." Jackson said, yawning again. "Why are you there?"

"A very old friend of ours has decided to repay us a visit. A Zaleen battle cruiser destroyer has crossed the Uorexuan-Zaleen neutral zone and is en-route to the Glammadren star system." April answered.

"There should be enough ships in the fleet to take care of things and make it change its course. I'm watching---

"Jay, it's Valakadria Tawn's flag ship, the Kalaketvia Tawn." April said, cutting Jackson off before he could finish.

"Okay. What does she want other than to make a social call after all these years?" Jackson asked.

"Well Jay, for starters, Empress Kalaketvia has just recently passed away. And secondly and most importantly, there has been a shift in power, if you catch my drift." April replied, as Jackson watched Donald's eyebrows raise.

"What's Valakadria's reason for not wanting to meet with us in Martian orbit?" Jackson asked as he reached over to grab a cup of hot steaming coffee that he had just poured.

"There ah ... wasn't one, Jay." April answered.

"Donald, can't you handle this problem? There's a real good television show on right now."

"We, and that includes you Jay, have got to go meet with her in the orbit of the planet Glammadren, Captain sir." April replied as his face loomed larger on the viewer.

"I would rather that she was en-route to Mars, Commander!" Jackson said, heatedly.

"Get yourself ready for immediate transport, First Officer April out." he said, and seconds later the screen turned pitch black.

"What a minute!" Jackson thundered. "You're going to owe me one Donald!" he yelled as he stood and nearly spilled coffee on himself, while the deafening noise of the engines on his transport shuttle rattled and broke windows throughout the house and caused lamps to slide off of tables and books to shake from shelves, along with everything else that wasn't glued or nailed down. The thirty foot long silver gray and lavender shuttle craft was attempting to land in his driveway, it's forward floods filled his living room with their ultra bright blinding light. When Jackson saw the first of these shuttles seventeen years ago they reminded him of a lava lamp turned on its side with lava lamp engine nacelles.

"Well there goes my house, the neighborhood, and my sleep." he said to himself as he headed for the front door while covering his eyes

"Kill those lights!" he yelled. "And the pilot too!"

Dogs barked from one neighborhood to the other and cats meowed and hissed as they ran for cover anywhere that they were able to find it, along with a few of their owners as well.

"Great grandma's goblin goose, Jackson!" yelled one of his next door neighbors. "Why can't you go to the airport like the rest of us?"

"What in the world is that thing that just landed in your driveway?" yelled another.

"Someone is going to pay for my broken windows!" yelled yet another one of his neighbors.

"Your windows any better than mine!" Robert Jackson yelled back. "Like yours was the only---

"Hurry up Bro, before they call the Air Force on us! We don't have all night you know!" yelled the voice of David Jackson as he motioned for his older and practically blinded brother to hurry up and board the shuttle, while at the same time a police cruiser tore down the street and squealed to a stop in front of his house.

"Gotta go officer. I'll explain later!" Jackson yelled as the officer and her passenger got out of the still running automobile and made haste up the driveway and onto the shuttles ramp.

"Not without us your not!" Amber Jackson yelled as she and her brother Eric raced to enter the shuttle before David closed the hatches to deaden the sound of the noisy engines.

"Sis, shouldn't you have at least killed the motor on the patrol car?" Eric yelled as he picked out their seats.

"Backup can take care of it!" Amber yelled as she dropped down into the vacant seat beside her brother. "There goes my career with the Milwaukee police."

"Come on every body, take your seats so we can get under way!" yelled Steven Davis, from the front of the shuttle.

"Alright, we can all stop yelling at one another!" Robert Jackson yelled as he dropped into a seat across from his children.

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"Are you sober this time Steve?" Candice Jackson Simmons asked as they all began buckling up.

"He had better be. I'm not going into space with a drunken shuttle pilot." Amber Jackson said as she tried to strap herself in.

"Amber, we'll throw him in the brig if he's been drinking." her father told her as the shuttle lifted off and away from the not so nice and quiet neighborhood. "I should throw him in the brig any way for wreaking my house."

"If we should just happen by chance to make it that far." David Jackson said, having put in his two cents worth.

"For your information, I haven't been drinking," Davis told them.

"Though however, after tonight, that's liable to change. But for now, you'll all make it to the mama ship safe and sound." he said as he gently nudged the shuttle forward and upwards into the evening sky while Amber desperately struggled to strap herself in.

"Hello to the rest of the Jackson family." Jim Jackson said as he leaned back in his seat.

"Donald was able to make contact with us us on our vid-com systems, Dad." Eric Jackson said as he gazed over at his father.

"The whole cotton picking crew was contacted by our illustrious Commander April!" David Jackson stormed aloud from his seat behind Robert's.

"I'm one of those that didn't want to make this---

"The Consortium of Inhabited Worlds went through the trouble of locating the entire ships complement from all over the planet, and every one of us are on our way to the Orion, like it or not." Davis cut in to inform us.

"Why couldn't Davadra and Donald go meet Valakadria and call it a day?" Robert Jackson asked.

"I'm just a lowly helmsman and shuttle pilot, how the heck should I know." Davis said as the shuttle made its quick departure for Earth orbit. "You're an agent for the government, so, you tell me?"

"The United States government, Davis." Jackson replied. "Not the United Galactic Consortium of---

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, can it you two!" Candice Simmons yelled from her seat.

"Will somebody help me buckle my seat belts, pleeeeeease!" Amber screamed.

"Holy Toledo!" David uttered nervously, as he watched his niece struggle with her harness from across the isle.

"Will she be ready to make the trip to Glammadren?" Robert Jackson asked as he watched, unable to help Amber with her straps because everyone was pinned back into their seats by the tremendous g-forces as the shuttle accelerated into space.

"She can't even get secured in her seat," David Jackson thundered. "How in the world can she be ready---

"Oh she's ready alright, Captain," Davis informed every one as within minutes the g-forces slowly began subsiding. "The Consortium has over seen the Orion's refit in Martian orbit from start to finish." he added.

"They won't like turning the reigns back over to---

"They don't have to turn anything back over to us if they don't want to David." Robert Jackson said, interrupting his brother as the shuttle's view port and starboard windows began sliding open after they had made it safely into orbit.

"Davis, I know that this shuttle has stabilizers, artificial gravity, and all of that other keep us in our seats stuff!" he blasted as he hurriedly unstrapped and darted across the isle in order to help his niece with her safety harness.

"Course set and locked in for the planet Mars." Steven Davis said, paying David Jackson little if no attention at all as he made preparations to leave the earth's orbit.

Other shuttles had taken off from different countries all around the planet’s surface, making their ascent in to earth orbit, following the captain’s personal shuttle now on its way to the Orion.

"Activating phase drive." Davis said and the shuttle began accelerating in speed, leaving their home world behind them.

"I'm not exactly sure as to how we're going to successfully, and yet once again, explained to the rest of humanity, about our mass exodus off the planet." Robert Jackson said, breathing a little easier now that his daughter was securely strapped in.

"Everyone's going to be teed off like they were seventeen years ago when this happened." he stated.

"Like I am right now!" James Jackson thundered. "Davis, either you, or April, are going to pay for all the damages done to my---

"A lot of people, including myself, are teed off for having been dragged back up here after thirteen years of shore leave." David Jackson said, now strapping himself back in just in time as we watched the view port and starboard windows close.

"--- house."Jim Jackson finished saying.

"He wreak yours too?" his brother Robert asked.

"I know I'm teed off right now." Darla Jackson said from her seat next to her husband Jim.

"Yes, he did." Jim Jackson answered.

"I'm teed too." Summer Dawn echoed.

"They had better have some Delindrian coffee waiting for me when I get there, or I'm gonna be teed off at somebody big time." said Candy Simmons, Robert's, David's, and Jim Jackson's baby sister.

"I don't know about the rest of you but I think I've wet my pants." Amber Jackson said as they whisked passed the moon.

"Going to phase zero point six. Phase zero point seven. Phase zero point eight. Phase zero point nine. Phase one. Phase one point one. Phase one point two. Phase one point three. Phase one point---

'Has it been thirteen years?" Robert Jackson asked.

"Just get us to Mars, in one piece Stephus! And count to your self, will you! I for one don't want to know how fast we're going!" David Jackson yelled to the front of the shuttle.

"And yes dear brother, for your information, it's been thirteen years." he added. "Phase one point five." Steve finished the count aloud any way.

"I'd say that we're going pretty fast. Wouldn't you say so, Mister Davy Crockett Jackson?" Steve asked aloud.

"If you weren't flying this heap, I'd be thumping your head, just as fast as we're going, too!" David yelled back. "You house wrecker!"

"That ought to about do it. Killing phase drive on behalf of David Jackson!" Steve yelled back as he took us out of phase drive.

"You just wait!" David replied.

"Okay you two!" Candy yelled at the top of her lungs. "Settle it! And I mean right now!"

"Some things will never change." Jim Jackson said as Darla and Summer both agreed while they waited for the red planet to appear out the view port windows once they had reopened.

"Just a slight course correction and we should be seeing the planet Mars at about any time." Steven said as the shuttle's speed continued to decelerate.

"This is Lieutenant Steven Davis, aboard the captain's shuttle, Patricia Gayle. Orion, do you acknowledge, over?" Davis asked, turning in his seat to face Robert Jackson.

"They've renamed a few of the shuttles after our deceased loved ones and crew mates, as memorials to them." He told us as we sat there in the near silence.

"Patricia Gayle, this is Commander April aboard the Orion. The captain's shuttle can dock when ready." said the voice of Donald April over the vid-com system.

"Steve, do you think that you can safely dock this shuttle without crashing us into one of the engine nacelles and killing us?" David asked as the Orion appeared in the orbit of Mars.

"Just like riding a bicycle," Steve answered as we neared the mother ship. "You never forget."