by Richard Leru
The lift reached level 5 but the doors refused to open. Alex hit the opening button, attempting to override the controls. What’s going on? The ship automatically sealed the elevator doors on only two conditions, if the shuttles were landing or if there was breach in the hull of the Erebus. God, please let it be the ship returning. The doors opened just as the shuttle returning from the Erebus II touched down on the landing deck. Alex fought his instincts to run for the ship. He had to know what was going on, but wanted to carry a slightly more professional demeanor. It was only hours ago that he was a prisoner on this ship, rushing into anything could be bad for his freedom.
As the doors of the shuttle opened, Alex was shocked, not by the fact that the crew had returned safely, but by the look on their faces. Dr. Titus seemed overwhelmed almost comatose from what ever had occurred on that ship. Commander Birch, Arenta and Jones all had a sadly stoic look to them. The rigid bodies and lack of emotion reminded Alex of a military funeral he had witnessed, here were Arenta, Birch, and Jones with that same look, it didn’t bode well. Despite the disconcerting appearance of the three officers, Jo’s appearance was worse. She was disparaging. As Alex approached the crew warily, Jo simply walked past him and straight into the elevator. Commander Birch walked straight to Alex. “You better come with us, Mr. Runner. We need to tell you something, something that can’t be explained here around other crew. Follow us to the command center.”
Alex watched the back of Commander Birch as he headed for the elevator doors. His entire back was tensed muscle, he was clearly not happy with whatever duty he had been given. Alex reached out for Dr. Titus, grabbing his arm. “Hey, what’s going on?”
“Alex, it’s all, well, everything around us, the stars, the galaxies, they are, I, I can’t explain here. Please, just come with us.” It was only after Dr. Titus’ rambling attempt to answer his question that Alex noticed the other general crewmembers that had gathered around the landing bay. They seemed to be pouring out of every crevice and doorway. Word of the shuttle’s return had thrown imaginations wild. This ship was a nest of bees; any dramatic stir could cause them all to grow crazy.
JO WANTED TO escape. She didn’t want to be in the command room right now. All that they had learned had hurt her more than she could fathom. She wished she hadn’t been part of the “privileged” group that had been invited to the Erebus II. From now on, she wanted to act as a normal member of the crew, and threw herself into her work.
Jo, eyes red and dry from crying over the loss of Dr. Yuen, was in the lab. In an attempt to keep her mind occupied, she was looking at the samples from Solar System 313. She wanted to know why the planets were cooked. Many of them should not have been. The outlying planets were far enough from the sun’s energy, and its cosmic radiation, to not have contained the levels that the samples had showed under initial inspection. There was something else, a feeling Jo had, the radiation seemed wrong.
The samples all showed some level of carbon and radiation, the two components needed for a viable dating sequence. Jo was not only a biology genius but had grown up studying evolution and evolutionary dating techniques. She decided she would figure out when the planets died. It was one of the questions the Erebus II captain, Captain Hill, could not answer. Hill had told them that there were no more unanswered questions, but she still had some, when and why? Using a form of carbon dating, she first found the relative age of the solar system. The results showed conclusively that it was much older than their own. It seemed that Captain Hill was right about that fact.
Next, she wanted to look at the radiation. Something didn’t seem right. The way the readings showed was not consistent of her knowledge of how carbon reacts to cosmic or solar radiation. So, Jo began comparing other samples in the computers database for similar profiles. The software soon found one. Jo spoke aloud to the computer screen, in confusion, “What? It’s nuclear? How can that be?”
It was true, the samples matched nearly identically to ash samples collected from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “So Earth was not destroyed by the sun. We did this to it. Humans killed the Solar System.” The answer left Jo asking, “Why? When?”
THE ANNOUNCEMENT over the ship wide communications system, informing the crew the Erebus was returning home, had barely just finished when Jo came running from the elevators. She was panting heavily as she flew through the command center’s conference room doors. In her hand was her tablet, on it, the results of her tests in the lab.
The commander had just finished the brief and was passing out further duties to the mission leaders around the conference table. The decision had been made to not tell the crew about the death of the solar system. That information would lead to anarchy and after landing, a rush of crew attempting to stow family members away on the Erebus to save them. This couldn’t happen. It would risk everything if only one extra person avoided the impending tragedy. Instead, the crew had been instructed that their return trip would take longer as a result of the damage caused by the enemy ship and that upon arrival, every person would be kept in quarantine longer than originally planned. The reason given was for security and safety of the ones they love from space diseases and contaminants, but they were really going to be keeping them close so that when the time to leave came, they could be saved with minimal effort. Alex sat, still trying to wrap his head around what he had heard. He hated this information, wished he could poke a hole in Captain Hill’s reasoning, but it all seemed strangely right. Somehow, though, he felt it wasn’t right. The decision that was being forced on them was not in a logical manner, but by the use of fear. Return home or kill everyone, it didn’t seem like a choice and that angered Alex. He had lived in fear before, and he hated that life. The only thing that had saved him before was his love for Angela. She had inspired him to connect with the world again. His love for her had driven him to make a better life for her to return to from her two-year trip. She was his muse. Alex needed her now more than ever. He felt the pressure to go home and save her, to find a way to protect the woman he loved. This thought of love for Angela was all Alex could focus on, until Jo burst into the room waving her tablet computer wildly.
“We kill the Earth!”
Alex turned toward Jo and took the tablet from her hands. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that we kill the Solar System. Not just humans but the Erebus is the reason for the destruction. I looked at the samples for Solar System 313. Using a combination of carbon dating and the half-life profile of their radiations, I found that humans kill the Earth, only seven years Earth time from now. That means that nukes fly only one year after we arrive home!”
“Are you sure?” Commander Birch grabbed the tablet from Alex’s hands.
Alex was putting the pieces together. “That makes sense. Think about it. When we return, we will shatter every concept of freedom of choice. Think about the space race that will come. Countries trying to go back in time and kill each other in the past, it will be anarchy. Not to mention the arms race for this ship and its tech. It will be a free for all. The ability to travel in time is the most powerful tool a person can have. One launch and everything goes up in flames. We can’t go back to that. We can’t be the reason for a mass genocide of the human race.”
“Yes, we can, and we will.” Commander Birch said from the head of the table. “It doesn’t matter how the world meets its end, we have our mission and will follow it. Now we know our time table to acquire the people on the list.” He picked up the comm next to him. “Engineer Franks, are we charged and ready to go? Good, then begin your preparations, we head for home.”
Again, it was Alex and Commander Birch head to head. “What!? We can’t go back!”
“We can, we must, and we will, Mr. Runner!” Commander Birch had tired of Alex’s lack of respect for the chain of command.
“Commander Birch, by not returning, there is a chance that the entire nuclear disaster wouldn’t happen!”
“But, there is no guarantee! All we can do is save those we
can. Remember, if we don’t do this exactly as told, we kill everything, not just humans, but all life. If you think of this all as a loop, as it is, Mr. Runner, we’ve had this argument before. This talk is pointless. We know what happens because we’ve seen the future. This ship is returning home.” Commander Birch finished with a pronounced slam of his fist on the conference table.
“Well, I won’t do it! I’m not telling you the navigation profile. I can’t help you kill them.”
“We aren’t going back to kill anyone, Mr. Runner. You’re intelligent, you should understand that we are going back to save them. The Erebus is returning to Earth and you don’t have to help us, Mr. Runner. You already gave us Earth’s navigation. I’m thinking of the species here. Sorry, to tell you this, but many are destined to die, so that we can all live. See for yourself.”
Birch motioned at Jones, who produced the piece of paper with the list of rescues to be done. Angela’s name was not on the list. This was the first time Alex had seen the list of names. He hadn’t even thought that Angela wouldn’t survive. The shock of what the Commander was planning now fully set in. Alex took a seat to keep from falling. Not just the fate of the world was at stake but also Angela’s. In spite of it all, he still loved her. “How can you be okay with erasing the life of nearly an entire species?”
“We aren’t, Mr. Runner. We are saving them all. By ensuring the survival of the loop, every one of those people get a chance to live again and again. If we don’t, then we are erasing them. Never to have experienced life, no matter how short it may have been. Remember everything, every small detail must remain the same or all is lost. “
“How do you know that? There is no way to say with certainty that the universe would cease to exist. If we don’t go back, the Earth won’t fry. We can’t trust, without a doubt, that the Erebus II captain was right.”
“Can you say with certainty, Mr. Runner, that it wouldn’t?
“No, I can’t, but, still, can we trust them? How do we know they aren’t just going to follow us home?”
“The Erebus II is headed back down to the planet to paint some cave black and drop off a talisman, then they are heading to their own doom. I only know what I saw with my own eyes. They may have hid their emotions, but I’ve seen men who knew their mission was going to be their last. The Erebus II is going to kill themselves to complete the loop. If they are that dedicated, years more advanced than us, and we can’t guarantee that their beliefs are wrong, then is it really worth the risk?”
“We have to try.”
“No, Mr. Runner, we don’t. Even if you don’t believe that those people were future humans, you have to think with your logical mind. Why would they not just kill us if they wanted us dead? They easily demonstrated their superior technology. What purpose could they possibly have but the mission they have told us? There isn’t another explanation but to trust them. Because of that, I believe that if we don’t go home on the time schedule the Erebus II demanded, we offer all life’s extinction up to random chance. We are taking option A. We are going home.”
“NO! We can’t do that.”
Dr. Titus had a massive headache. He had watched and listened to Alex and Commander Birch fight, and just wanted a moment of peace. In this weakness, he spoke without thinking, divulging his darkest secret. It had been eating him up inside. Now, it found a way out. “Alex, let it go. Go home, enjoy the year you have with Angela and your child.”
Alex turned slowly. The words had come from directly across the table, where Dr. Titus was sitting. Alex looked him straight in the eyes, burning a hole through his skull. Alex’s heart was barely beating. Through the fog of his anger, Dr. Titus’ words cut like a knife through butter, gaining his attention. “What did you just say? My child? What child?”
Dr. Titus looked at him, face turning white. He had been caught in his lie, let the convicting words slip, and it was time to tell Alex the truth. “It had to be done, Alex, I’m sorry.”
Alex looked up and down at Dr. Titus, his friend. What did he do? How great were the lengths of his betrayal? “What had to be done?”
“Angela, a day before the launch, showed up at the office. She was pregnant. Going into space and using the sleep serum would have killed the baby. She wasn’t going on the mission. You had been working deep in the ship and didn’t have reception so she had come to talk to you. She, she wanted you to stay. I couldn’t let that happen, so I took steps to ensure it didn’t.”
“What did you do? Did you hurt her?”
“No, of course not. I love Angela and you, but I had to make sure you came on this mission. I knew you’d be mad at me but it doesn’t matter. I did this for you.”
Alex threw himself across the table and landed on Dr. Titus, sending chairs tumbling. Jones grabbed him and pulled him off of Dr. Titus. Alex was a mixture of screaming and crying, salvia and spit flying in the air as he yelled, “How could you?! You were my friend! I’ll kill you!” Alex looked like a rabid dog, arms flailing, trying to grab Dr. Titus, in futility, thanks to the strong arms of Captain Jones.
Dr. Titus picked himself off the floor and answered back, at the top of his voice, “I DID THIS FOR YOU! THIS WAS YOUR DREAM! I COULDN’T LET YOU THROW THAT AWAY! IF YOU HAD KNOWN, YOU WOULDN’T HAVE COME! I DID YOU A FAVOR! YOU’LL SEE THAT SOON!”
“GO TO HELL!” Alex spat hatefully back at him.
Commander Birch stood from his seat. “Jones, take him to his room. Use whatever force is necessary. Everyone else, prepare for travel back home.”
ALEX NOW SAT huddled in the corner of his room, wanting to cry but completely emotionally drained from the encounter in the conference room. The door opened and in stepped Jo with the sleeping serum injection. She slowly walked over and crouched in front of Alex, reached one hand out and grabbed his forearm. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. At least now we know why.”
He looked up at her. Jo’s eyes were filled to the brim with tears. It was taking almost all her strength to keep from crying. It was true. He had been focusing so much on his hatred for Dr. Titus, he hadn’t realized he had received the answer to the question that had been haunting him. Standing up, he gave her a hug and whispered, “Thank you.”
“That’s enough.” Jones was standing watch in the doorway.
Alex laid down on the bed and waited for the needle to put him into a cold sleep. As she injected the serum, Jo leaned down and whispered quietly into his ear, “You still have some real friends on this ship. Think back to the list.”
THE NEXT THING Alex knew, he was waking up, but something was different.
14.Broken Loop
What’s going on? Where am I?
Alex was awake, not awake, but conscious. He could feel his body lying in the small bed of his room, the sheets gently vibrating against his back, with the stimulation circuits that kept the crews’ bodies from bruising or atrophying during sleep. He could feel the soft cotton sheets lying across his chest. Feelings of sleep and comfort folded over his entire being, but all he saw was light. His mind was awake.
Where was he?
Was this a dream? No, it couldn’t be, the sleep serum was supposed to prevent that from occurring. It had been a design mechanism to ensure crew didn’t go crazy. Spending a year in a dream could create a cognitive break with reality. If this wasn’t a dream, what was this then?
“Alex.”
A shudder ran down Alex’s spine. The voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. It was if the white light that surrounding him had a life of its own.
“Alex.”
The voice was gaining strength. The first time he had heard his name called, and it definitely was called, it had come from a vast distance. Someone or something was searching for him in this white expanse, and it was coming closer.
“Alex. Don’t be afraid.”
“Am I dead?” Alex began to feel a sense of stark fear.
“No, you’re not dead. You’re now, in this moment, more alive than you’ve ever been.”
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br /> That voice, it was so calm, so even toned, and so familiar. Alex swore he had heard it before. Where had he heard this man? “Who are you?”