The Mission of No Return

by Frank Cereo

  The trip home is quiet one as the crew members sit in despair because the trip was cut short with the loss of Dr James Edwards. As Evolution approaches, the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter the ship began to shake.

  “What’s going on commander?” Captain Laird says from his seat.

  “From what I can see nothing is wrong. Wait a minute for some reason the third hydrowarp engine has been ignited.” Commander Rescott replies.

  “How long has it been lit and how far has it taken off course.” Captain Laird says in a worried voice.

  “I don’t know if we’re even off course. I will check.” Commander Rescott answers.

  Commander Rescott and Captain Laird work hard to see what has gone wrong by going over the numbers with the computer.

  “What the hell is that?” Jennifer yells from her seat.

  As everyone looked up they saw a long wavy lightening cloud that hovered just beyond the asteroid belt. It seemed to be moving like a fast moving mist and the ship was moving rapidly towards it.

  “It looks like a worm hole.” Commander Rescott says.

  “No way is that a worm hole this close to the asteroid belt. With the wrong speed in conjunction with an erratic trajectory I think we may have opened some type of portal.” Captain Laird says with a concerned voice.

  The ship passed through the asteroid belt within seconds as they began to approach this strange white misty lightening cloud. Flashes of light could be seen flashing inside the strange cloud.

  “How long do you think we have before we enter it?” Captain Laird asks Commander Rescott.

  “Fifteen maybe twenty seconds. Is there anything we can do?” Commander Rescott asks.

  “Nothing at this point we’re going to have to ride through it.” Captain Laird replies.

  As the ship enters the strange cloud everything begins to appear as if they were in slow motion. The crew members began to hallucinate like their brains were being starved for oxygen or as if they were tripping on LSD.

  “Hey look there is Dr Edwards outside the ship on the windshield.” Josef say as he begins to laugh.

  “Commander what are the oxygen levels in the ship?” Captain Laird asks.

  “It shouldn’t matter captain we are in hard suits.” Commander Rescott responds as he begins to start giggling.

  One by one the crew begins to pass out. Jennifer was first followed by Amanda, Josef, and Stephanie. Within another minute Commander Rescott passes out followed by Huey and Michael. Captain Laird tries to fight through it but he soon quickly follows the path of least resistance as he passes out too.

  Chapter 6 - Home

  As the crew members begin to awaken they are groggy from the after affects of the ordeal they went through. The first to awaken is Huey and being the smart man that he is he his hard suit on, not knows if the atmosphere inside the ship is safe to breathe. So Huey unhooks his safety belt and walks over to the captain who is still unconscious in his chair.

  “Captain, wake up.” Huey says as he taps the left side of the captain’s helmet.

  The captain begins to rustle as he begins to come around.

  “Where are we?” Captain Laird asks.

  Huey looks out the window and sees the blue atmosphere and white clouds of Earth.

  “I think we made it home safely. Earth is right outside the window and she sure is a beautiful sight.” Huey replies.

  “Excellent, please go around to everyone else and see if they are all right or if they need help.” Captain Laird asks Huey.

  Captain Laird aided Commander Rescott as the remaining five crew members slowly came around with assistance from Huey.

  “Wow that was one hell of a trip.” Amanda says.

  “Amen sister.” Jennifer adds.

  With the space ship Evolution orbiting Earth, the crew members slowly get reacquainted with their surroundings. Captain Laird and Commander Rescott start examining all the instruments to retrieve the data.

  “Man, this is weird. The computers logs have not documented any anomalies.” Commander Rescott says.

  “Nothing makes sense. The clock is blank. It’s not showing the time or date.” Captain Laird adds.

  The two astronauts continue to examine the data as the other six crew members go to the galley for coffee. Huey and Jennifer return with a cup of coffee for both Captain Laird and Commander Rescott. Both officers continue and try to figure out what had just occurred.

  “Boy the Earth’s atmosphere seems to be so clean.” Jennifer says as she looks out the bridge window.

  “It’s just your imagination Jennifer. You’re just happy to be home.” Commander Rescott says as he begins to laugh.

  “Holy shit!” Huey says as he looks out the window at Jennifer’s side.

  “What now?” Captain Laird asks angrily.

  “There is no space debris.” Jennifer says in a surprised voice.

  “What the hell have you two been smoking?” Captain Laird says as he approaches the window.

  As all three look into Earth’s orbit there are no signs of space debris and no space station. Captain Laird goes over to the ship’s radio and hails Houston Control and the space station. The only thing he receives back is static.

  “Houston’s not receiving us.” Captain Laird says just as the remaining four members return from the galley.

  “And from what I can see they won’t be responding.” Huey says as he gazes down at Earth’s surface.

  “What do you mean?” Captain Laird responds.

  “This is unbelievable. We have either traveled into the past or way ahead into the future.” Huey says.

  “How can you tell that?” Captain Laird asks.

  “Look down at the surface. All the continents are together as one giant land mass. That took place back in the cretaceous period and it won’t happen again until about fifty or sixty million years from now.” Huey says as all the crew members gather at the front of the ship to look at the surface.

  “So what does that mean for us?” Commander Rescott asks.

  “Well if we went back in time, there are going to be a hell of a lot of ferocious dinosaurs on the planet’s surface. If we went into the future, I can’t answer that question until we land.” Huey replies.

  “Well if we went into the future wouldn’t there still be space debris floating around here.” Jennifer asks.

  “No their orbits would have eroded and decayed long ago.” Captain Laird replies.

  “Do we have enough fuel to try and fly back through the portal?” Michael asks.

  “That would be a negative. Remember this was the maiden or experimental voyage. We were testing the ship out for its durability. We could try it but I don’t recommend it with the damage to the hull of the space craft.” Captain Laird replies.

  “I guess the experimental or maiden flight failed. Especially when we didn’t return as scheduled.” Amanda adds.

  The crew members all contemplated what their options were. The damage to the hull eliminated the option of reentering the portal. a limited amount of food supply on the ship eliminated the possibility of remaining in orbit and waiting for help. The only option that remained was landing on Earth’s surface and dealing with the unexpected.

  “If there are dinosaurs, what species can we expect?” Captain Laird asks.

  “I will know more when we have landed and what time period we are in.” Huey replies.

  “Where would be a good place to land?” Commander Rescott asks.

  “During the cretaceous period there were a lot of swampy areas. The driest area would be northern America. I would say Montana, Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota or Alberta, Canada.” Huey says.

  “Will we be safe on the ship when we land?” Michael asks.

  “We are better off finding shelter in a cave that we can defend. If there is any type of super predators out there we won’t stand a chance living in this tin can.” Huey replies.

  The decision was made to land on Earth and the crew would take t
heir chances on the surface. Whether it was the future or the past it would be better than taking their chances with a faltering space craft. The crew decided to get out of their hard suits and eat a good meal and get a good night’s rest before they planned the landing.

  Chapter 7 – Landing on Earth

  As the alarms went off throughout the Evolution, they alerted the crew that it was breakfast time and one hour before returning to Earth. Breakfast was quiet as everyone anticipated the worst case scenario but prayed for a miracle. You could see a sense of nervousness in everyone’s eyes with the exception of Huey. Being a paleontologist this was his dream to see dinosaurs in the flesh and not just reviewing skeletal remains that were over sixty-five million years old. Perhaps now Huey could really distinguish and solve all the myths about how dinosaurs really lived. As they sat around the breakfast table, the crew looked emotionless because if they had gone into the past everyone they ever knew was not even born yet. The worst thing was they would never be able to return to the future.

  “What do you think our odds of survival are going to be on the surface?” Amanda asks Huey.

  “If we can find adequate shelter in a reasonable amount of time that we would be able to defend then I say fifty-fifty. If we cannot not find anything within twenty-four to forty-eight hours I don’t figure we would last to the forty eighth hour. We will be hunted and eaten one by one until we are all dead.” Huey replies.

  “Captain what type of supplies and armament do we have on board?” Josef asks.

  “One first aid kit, one pistol with about thirty rounds, two flash lights, one fifty foot rope, one box of tools, one flare gun with five flares, one five gallon pail of water, eight blankets, and what food is remaining in the galley.” Captain Laird responds.

  “I would advise you to get everything together now and put it all in an easy convenient place to grab and run when we land. When I’m telling you time will be of the essence I mean it. When you put this baby on the ground it will bring every predator in the area looking for a free meal.” Huey says with a serious look in his face.

  “Can’t we just stay here in space until our food is exhausted then take our chances on the planet?” Jennifer asks.

  “There are only eight days of food remaining on the ship and we could use that on the surface until we get settled.” Captain Laird adds.

  “I agree with the captain this way we have something to eat and drink until we find a safe haven to make camp.” Michael responds.

  The crew members proceeded to tear the fronts off all the vending units out and retrieve all the food and beverages. Everything was packaged for space travel so all the food was individually wrapped. They put all the supplies into the air supply tanks on their hard suits. This way they could be used as back packs as they hike through the wilderness. This task took about forty-five minutes to accomplish. All the supplies were neatly tied down and put into the air lock because that was their planned escape route. At that point the crew members then went to their assigned seats without their hard suits and strapped themselves in.

  “Shouldn’t we have our hard suits on for landing?” Amanda asks.

  “For safety reasons and NASA rules yes, but they don’t exist anymore so if we need to make a quick exit it would take us fifteen minutes to get out of the hard suits and according to Huey we don’t have that type of time. Look at it this way if the ship crashes we will die just a little quicker.” Captain Laird explains.

  “Okay everyone hold on as I take her down. It’s going to get a little hot inside the ship as we enter the Earth’s atmosphere. I don’t think the heat shields were damaged on Jupiter’s surface but we will soon find out.” Commander Rescott said as he uses the ship’s thrusters to take Evolution out of Earth’s orbit.

  The ship takes a deep dive as it starts its decent into Earth’s atmosphere. The ship starts to heat up inside to one hundred ten to one hundred twenty degrees. At this point flames can be seen from the window as the ship enters into Earth’s upper atmosphere called the Thermosphere. The descent rate is about four hundred feet per second or twenty-four thousand feet per minute as the ship reaches speeds of three hundred miles per hour. The ship begins to glide through the air as the four hundred and sixty five mile ceiling from outer space to Earth’s surface erodes. The turbulence is rough as the ship shakes and rattles like a toy. The noise inside the ship is deafening as the air outside the ship makes an ear piercing whistling sound. The six scientists grimace and grip their arm rests with no remorse. Jennifer and Amanda are so scared the ship will crash they had their eyes closed during the entire descent from space. Even though Commander Rescott never lost control of the ship, everyone on board had butterflies in their stomachs because of the steep descent. As the ship reached an altitude of about ten thousand feet, both Captain Laird and Commander Rescott looked for places to set the ship down.

  “Hey Albert look at the clearing at about ten o’clock.” Captain Laird says as he points to his left.

  “Yeah, I see it. Do you think we have enough room to set it down?” Commander Rescott asks.

  “With the fuel levels in our thrusters it is our only choice.” Captain Laird responds.

  “Alright everybody we’re going to bring the ship in. It’s going to be a rough landing considering my controls are sluggish and nonreactive. So brace yourselves and put your heads between your knees.” Commander Rescott yells.

  The ship reduces speed as Commander Rescott pulls the ship’s nose up. This cuts the speed in half as the ship cruises over tree tops. You could hear the top most branches of the underlying trees scratching the undersurface of the hull of the ship. The clearing was now straight ahead as Commander Rescott stalled the ship’s engines out on purpose.

  “Brace yourselves as we are going to hit ground within five seconds.” Commander Laird shouted out.

  The ship hit the ground and hopped and skipped across the grassy field. The crew members bounced up and down in their seats like pebbles on the back of a farm trailer. The ship came to a halt right at the tree line of a wooded area.

  “Is everyone alright, is there anyone hurt?” Captain Laird says as he unbuckles his safety belt.

  “I think we’re all okay.” Josef says as looks around the ship.

  Everyone seems to be alright just a little shaken up because of the rocky landing. The remaining crew members try to get their bearings as they unbuckle their safety belts.

  “Okay everyone let’s move quickly and orderly to the air lock to gather our supplies and equipment.” Captain Laird says.

  As soon as they entered the air lock, each person grabbed what used to be their oxygen tanks on their hard suits and put them over their backs as backpacks. Commander Rescott pushed the button and opened the outer air lock door. Everyone turned their heads and attention to look outside the open door. All that could be heard was the wind rustling through the branches of the trees and different sounds they had never heard before.

  “Did you see any life forms on the ground when you were landing the ship?” Huey asks.

  “No, but I wasn’t really looking for life. I was too busy looking for a place to land.” Commander Rescott replies.

  The first to exit the ship was Michael as he slowly went down the ladder. He was followed by Jennifer and Amanda. As the remaining crew departed the ship the quietness was alarming. They all gathered at the bottom of the ladder as they looked around and from side to side for any sign of life.

  “Huey, I’ve seen that movie Jurassic Park is there any chance of us being attacked by a Velociraptor?” Josef asks.

  “Anything is possible but raptors remains were mainly found in China. Commander did you land in northern America like I asked.” Huey answers.

  “From what I could tell when I was coming in for a landing, the Rocky Mountains were about five miles to our west. It looked like we landed in Montana but I can’t be one hundred percent sure since many of the landmarks I knew don’t exist yet or have been altered in the future.” Comma
nder Rescott responds.

  “Which way do we go from here?” Captain Laird asks Huey.

  “Our safest bet is in the mountains. We can find safety in a cave or on a ledge.” Huey replies.

  “Then west is the direction we go. Let’s take it as slowly and quietly as possible.” Captain Laird says.

  The group gathers their bearings as they enter into the dense wooded area. The forest is filled with a vast vegetation of evergreen trees and ferns. The temperature was very warm and humid and that was normal during the cretaceous period.

  “Hey I think we’re in the future and not the past. We have been walking for over twenty minutes and haven’t seen or heard a dinosaur.” Jennifer says jokingly.

  Then out of nowhere a loud thunderous roar was heard coming from the north. The noise was so loud that it scares the birds out of the trees. The group of eight halted in their tracks as vibrations could be felt from the ground. The vibrations and roars were getting closer, as everyone moved in close together for safety.

  “I’ll take back what I said.” Jennifer says as she begins to cry.

  “Alright everyone needs to hold back their emotions. We need to think our way through this. Commander Rescott, please come with me. Captain Laird, please find refuge for the rest of the crew and hide behind those huge pine trees.” Huey says as he and Commander Rescott slowly move towards a small opening in the wooded area.

  Both men go to the edge of the clearing using the trees for cover. Peeking out they see the tree just beyond the clearing moving as if something is moving towards them. Then all of a sudden a Corythosaurus breaks through the trees and into the opening. A Corythosaurus is a large duck-billed, plant eating dinosaur that stood about thirty feet long from head to tail. The dinosaur had a large bony crest that went across the top of his head. The bony crest kind of looked like a fin on its head. This dinosaur walked on two legs but under distress it would run on all fours by using its smaller arms to help build speed for escape. This dinosaur also had a very large, heavy tail that it used for balance.