by Richard Leru
“Uh, well, if you ask me, I don’t care. Whether the planet was “seeded” or not doesn’t matter. That planet had life on it, but now it’s dead.”
Dr. Yuen, who had clearly been shaken by the possibility of intelligent life, jumped in on the conversation. “We should go home!”
Alex quickly snapped back, “And do what? Tell them we found a planet with life on it but it’s gone now so we can’t prove it? Face the settler’s families without evidence of what happened to them? Report we found a strange satellite dish? We wouldn’t have accomplished anything. They may even think us liars and murderers.” Clearly, Alex’s emotions were beginning to drift toward a dark area. “We continue on.”
“Well, you heard our genius. Everyone report to your cabins for sleep serum injection. As per mission guidelines, we will continue to journey toward the center of the galaxy. Prepare for travel to Solar System 314.” Commander Birch dismissed everyone.
This time, Dr. Yuen and Alex shared no talk. Instead, he simply put Alex to sleep, too afraid to ask any more questions about aliens or the prospect of going home.
11.Solar System 314
The Erebus had come out of the slipstream just outside the reaches of Solar System 314. All crew waited for the announcement from Commander Birch. Nothing came. The screens all remained blank. Even after the clear sound of the probes being launched, Commander Birch never came on the comm.
After nearly an hour, there was a knock on Alex’s door. Outside stood Jones, dressed in full gear with his hand on his sidearm. Something was wrong. Alex could instantly see that Jones was not his usual self. Jones was never a really happy individual and, in recent days, had become quite reserved. The loss of the settlers was weighing heavily on his mind, but there was a new look about him now. This was pure animalistic anger.
“Come with me, NOW.”
He led Alex to the elevator and up to the ninth floor. When the doors opened, two men grabbed Alex and took him into the security briefing room. This room had no windows like the beautiful conference room, instead, it had only hard metal chairs bolted to the floor. They were arranged in two rows, divided by a center aisle with a pulpit for addresses to be made. Commander Birch and Arenta were standing at the front of the room with Dr. Titus. Dr. Titus had a worried look on his face, when he turned and saw Alex. Commander Birch was the first to speak.
“Mr. Runner, am I correct in saying that you recommended continuing our mission?”
“Yes.”
“Am I also correct in saying that you programmed into the computer the profile for Solar System 314?”
“Yeah. What’s this all about?”
“Then why, Mr. Runner, are we currently sitting just outside our own solar system?”
The screen behind Commander Birch lit up with the scan that Dr. Titus had just finished running. It was true. There was the Earth and the other known planets orbiting the sun.
Alex slowly walked toward the scan, trying to wrap his head around what he was looking at. No, that couldn’t be. Did he make a mistake? He thought back, tracing his steps. Did he do the calculations right? Yes, he absolutely did. Okay, then, is it possible that he put the wrong formula into the system? No, that wasn’t possible. The computer had a system that would have caught a duplicate formula being entered. Alex had not made a mistake. The navigation he put in should have taken them to Solar System 314. He looked on in amazement, then realized he better start pleading his case.
“This doesn’t make sense. The programming I put in should have taken us to 314, not home. I double-checked the numbers myself. This shouldn’t be.”
“If there was no mistake in the numbers, Mr. Runner, then we have no choice but to assume the other possibility is correct. Jones, take him to his room and lock him up there. When we return to Earth, he will face charges of sabotaging the mission.”
“Wait a second! You can’t lock me up! We need to figure this out! I need to understand why the PEMG Engine has taken us here when it shouldn’t have.”
“We already know what happened, Mr. Runner. Jones, take him away.”
“No, you don’t know, and I’m not going anywhere.”
“Jones.”
ALEX AWOKE IN his room with a massive headache. He reached back, feeling the lump that was beginning to grow at the back of his skull. Jones, that mountain of a man, that order following soldier, had cold-clocked him. Raising himself from the bed, Alex walked to the door, testing the opening mechanism. Nothing. He sat back on the bed, head throbbing.
Why would the PEMG engine take them home? Was it a malfunction in the engine? No, before locking him up, they would have checked with engineering. So had he really made a mistake with the formula? Alex reached for his tablet. Great, it was still connected to the math lab. He pulled up two formulas and began comparing them. The first formula was for Solar System 314, the second for home. He had programmed it into the computer, in case he had happened to be killed during the trek. Just as he thought, they were indeed different. Yet, somehow, they ended up here. He could feel the Erebus begin moving and the view out the window went dark as they entered the slipstream at partial speed. They were going back to Earth.
It had been nearly an hour spent orbiting the Earth. What were they waiting for? He sat looking out the window, rubbing the engagement ring he had never had the chance to give Angela in between his right index finger and thumb, feeling the smooth band and the small square diamond. “Unanswered questions are what drive us forward.” Soon he would be able to answer the biggest question that had been haunting him the entire trip. He would find Angela and ask why she had chosen to abandon him.
Another hour went by. What could they possibly be waiting for?
The comm screen in Alex’s room flickered on. Commander Birch came over the communications making his ship wide announcement. “Attention all crew. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we have not arrived at Solar System 314. As many of you have noticed, we are currently in geo-synchronous orbit around Earth. We are home.”
Through the walls of his room, Alex could hear a mixture of cheers and boos. To the people on that ship, it had only felt like a month of the years they had signed up for, but since the death of the settlers, emotions were running high and some questioned their choice to join the mission. The attempted “coup” had been successful in sowing a seed of doubt into a great many of the remaining crew.
“We have not landed, because in spite of our best efforts, we cannot contact anyone on the ground. There is no reply. The decision has been made. We are sending down two landing groups to ascertain the cause of their non-response. Landing Team Alpha and Landing Team Bravo prepare your shuttlecraft immediately. This is Commander Birch, welcome home.”
People stared in confusion as Alex was escorted in handcuffs the entire way from his room to the shuttlecraft. The commander had not told the ship that Alex was the reason the Erebus was at Earth. That was probably a good thing not to do. Half the ship would have loved him and half would have wanted him punished. Civil War One in space could ensue. He was taken onto the shuttle with the rest of landing team Bravo. Jo sat down next to him, looking at his restrained hands. She looked up with a caring concern. Alex shook his head and looked away. Jo reached over and took his hand in hers. He didn’t admit it or show any response, but he was glad to have a friend and some support in that moment.
As soon as the shuttles broke the atmosphere and began their descent, it was clear that something was wrong. They were flying over what should be southern California but there was nothing there. No cities, no boats, no twisting highways, there was only desert. They flew south along the coast, expecting to find Los Angeles or San Diego but there was nothing. The only sign of life was a trail leading east into the mainland. They followed the trail for a long distance until they found a small encampment and set the ship down.
It was late afternoon when they approached the circle of small mud homes. The roofs were some kind of thatch and the walls were brown mud, clearly hand mad
e. Each house was about ten feet by ten feet and had small openings for doors. Their construction was clearly handmade with flat walls, looking like little cubes, dotting the landscape. Inside were blankets and woven baskets filled with a variety of grain. As they moved closer to the center of the village, a noise began to rise. Singing, chanting of some kind became louder with each step they took. The two landing teams entered the town square, where nearly a hundred men and women were dancing in a circle around a great fire. Alex had seen these people before. He had seen their elaborate headpieces of feather and wood. He recognized the bead-laden vests and holy walking sticks. These were Anasazi.
“What’s this then? Some kind of reenactment?” Captain Ratchet asked over the raucous noise of the crowd. Instantly, everything stopped. The entire group that was chanting stopped dancing and turned to face the group of strange visitors, wearing strange clothes and carrying strange weapons. Both groups stood face to face, not saying a word, waiting to see what the other would do. It was then that Alex figured it out, the puzzle that had been challenging his mind. He took a quick glance around and confirmed where they were, Alex knew these mountains; this had been his home. Could it be possible?
Alex looked closely at the now approaching group of men, women, and children. Some wore masks painted with black and red; others were nearly naked, covered mainly in painted symbols. The leader carried a staff and wore a vest of polished rock and bead. It had to be, although what did that mean? Alex knew what to do next. It was almost as if a sixth sense triggered inside him.
He reached to the ground with his hands still cuffed and picked up a stick. He drew in the ground a series of strange symbols and took a step back. The native people looked at the writing, then the landing teams, and fell to their knees bowing their heads. The natives then rose and walked past the landing groups, straight into their homes. Within minutes, the entire town had packed all the belongings they had in small sacks and on carts. They were leaving, and in a hurry. The leader of the natives came over and gave Alex a small golden amulet and walked to some of the younger native men. After a few words, they ran off into the distance. The leader made one more bow then joined the mass exodus of his people.
“What the hell just happened? What did you write?” Jo was as perplexed as everyone else there.
“I’ll explain later, we need to survey the planet more.” Alex turned and began to walk back toward the ship. His head was running at a thousand miles an hour, working to put together a massive puzzle.
Partially out of confusion, and partially out of fear, everyone followed his lead. This time, Dr. Titus came onto shuttlecraft Bravo. He wanted to hear the explanation.
Alex motioned his hands toward Captain Jones. “Can I be freed now? Clearly, I didn’t sabotage the mission and take us home. Well, at least, not to our home.” Reluctantly, he removed the handcuffs from Alex’s wrists.
“Thank you. Pilot, tell Landing Team Alpha to head to Asia start in Japan, then go to India and then Egypt. We are, well, landing team Bravo is, heading south to the Andes then across the ocean to Northern Europe. Welcome to the Ancient World. We are currently on the Earth but not at our time. What I wrote in the sand was the ancient Star Language used by the Zuni peoples of the Southwest. I’d seen it before in the caves where my parents worked. Roughly translated, I told them we were from the stars and they were not to fear us, we came with information. The last line was never translated so I don’t know what it meant but clearly it was important and made them get up and leave. Huh, my parents studied for years trying to figure out why the Anasazi left. Well, all along, the answer was living in their home, it was me.”
Alex sat for a brief moment, thinking about the irony.
“Also that last line was the same set of symbols on the satellite dish, or at least part of it. I assume the rest is other languages.”
“Alex, how is that possible?”
“Well, Dr. Titus, I can only assume that we may have accidently encountered a wormhole during our slipstream travel. If the Erebus had accidently travelled into one, we could have warped anywhere along the time stream. Einstein himself theorized that as a possibility.”
“Impossible, my scanners would have detected a wormhole in our path. That kind of gravitational anomaly is not something I would miss.” Dr. Titus was clearly slighted by the accusation.
“Okay, maybe we didn’t. But it still seems like we somehow jumped backward in time.”
“No, not necessarily. You’re forgetting the possibility of population seeding or interstellar travel. If we are a seeded population and they “planted” us on more than one planet, and then groomed our history to repeat, we could easily find similar cultures. We have found dinosaurs, seeding could be possible. That being said, if we are accepting other than human forces, then there could be another possibility. If I remember correctly, the Anasazi disappeared for no clear reason, right?”
Alex nodded his head in agreement.
“Then who’s to say they couldn’t have been… relocated? There are many possibilities. I don’t think jumping straight to time travel is the smartest way to go about things.”
“You’re right. Look, let’s test the theories. We are scientists, after all. We fly around the planet, surveying where major civilizations should be in this time period and if they aren’t there, then relocation fits best. If they are, then let’s test each civilization with known events and monuments from our history and check to see if they are the same. If they are, then maybe we did travel in time somehow.” He ended this sentence looking up at Captain Jones. Jones thought about it for a moment then turned to the pilot. “Do what he says.”
“It’s settled then, but I’m not going with you.”
Jones grabbed the grip of his sidearm tighter, testing his hand’s strength. “What do you mean?”
“There is something I need to do here.” Alex took a step toward the door of the shuttle, only to find Jones holding his upper arm.
“You aren’t leaving my sight.”
“Look, Jones, I know you want to protect me and keep the mission going, and I respect that. This is where I grew up. We are in the New Mexico Mountains or what will one day be. I spent years here watching my parents dig, and work, to unearth even the smallest artifacts from the Anasazi culture. Right now, if I’m right, I can see an actual intact civilization. They may be currently leaving but their homes and possessions are still there. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for myself and for science. I have to go and take more in depth observations. This is what my family has lived for.”
Jones released Alex’s arm. “Mr. Runner, I know that you believe we travelled back in time, and whether we did or not, I can’t let you leave the mission. We need your expertise and I can’t provide security for two split mission teams. Captain Ratchet and I didn’t bring enough men to spare for your personal whims.”
“You don’t have to. I know these mountains and the people are leaving. There won’t be a risk to me. Even if the worst-case scenario happened, you have the formula for the return trip home already. More importantly though, if we are in the past, there is something I have to do. There was something I found in a cave near here that helped me change my life. Without that find, I don’t know if I would have ever came up with the PEMG formula. If that hadn’t happened, we couldn’t have made this trip. There is a much greater risk to our mission by not having me go explore this area.”
“How would you exploring the area help our mission?”
“Because I found this.” Alex held up the small gold amulet the native leader had handed him. “If we have impacted the past, then maybe I already have gone and explored or maybe we weren’t supposed to be here. Either way, I need to make sure this amulet is there for me to find.”
“Pilot, get me a line with the Erebus.”
“Yes, sir. Erebus, this is shuttle one. Erebus, are you there? Erebus, I repeat, this is shuttle one come in. Sir, we have no answer from up top.”
“Jones, please,
you need to let me go.”
Jones and the rest of the team stood there quietly.