“Easy, James,” said Fitch calmly, “I completely agree, I just need to be sure that we're on the same page here.”

Cowan took a deep breath. “Okay. Sorry, I got a bit excited. I kinda feel like an overprotective parent when it comes to this project. In my opinion, there were far fewer issues than I'd expected. Though we've yet to wake any of the others.”

“True, and I know how eager we all are to do that. With all that's happened today, I think we should hold off until tomorrow to begin the wake-up. Do you agree?” asked Fitch.

Cowan glanced at his watch, surprised to see that it was already 1645". Usually, he would be heading home now, and the whole wake up procedure could easily take four hours. Reluctantly, Cowan admitted to himself that waiting would be best. Especially since, if problems arose, he would need everyone quick and alert.

“Well, I'm quite eager to begin, and I know the whole team will be unhappy about waiting. But considering how late it is now, that would be the best decision,” admitted Cowan.

“Good,” said the Colonel, “I'm eager to see this through, too. But there's no reason we can't wait until morning. Do you want to make the announcement?”

“Yeah, I'll take care of it and then head out,” said Cowan, and he turned to leave.

Chapter Five

DAY 1074

Several weeks before anyone outside the Sleeper Team knew of the unfortunate fate of Rhonda Miller, and over a thousand miles away, the Hubble Space Telescope was just completing a study of a distant comet. The Hubble and several land-based radio telescopes had been assigned this task after West Coast University requested the government to confirm the results of studies they'd recently completed. The results of those studies had been so shocking and unbelievable, they wanted confirmation from agencies with more powerful equipment available.

The data had been collected over time, and sophisticated computer algorithms applied. After years of testing, these methods have proven their ability to accurately chart the path and determine many attributes of objects that moved through space.

Thomas Williams was the current Administrator of NASA, a position he'd held for the last six years and a role he took great pride in. Having come from an unstable family background, Thomas was not only the first person in his family to graduate college, but also the first to graduate high school. No one was sure who his father was. The best answer he'd ever gotten from his mother was that he was 'gone'.

His mother had worked as a waitress in a dark, dingy bar for many years. When Thomas was a freshman in high school, she'd met Darryl, a drummer in a small band. Not long after meeting him, Thomas' mother went on the road with the band and she never returned.