Henry went to talk as he turned toward the view screen, however what he saw paused his lips. Instead of a red planet like mars or the familiar blue of earth, there was a massive violet planet that seemed looked unlike anything he had seen before. “That…is not any planet in the milky way.”
“No.” Basta replied. “No, it is definitely not.”
“I think the reason we cannot reach the earth coms is because we are too far away.” Nari replied. “We are literally in a different galaxy.”
“It seems the machine works too well.” Henry admitted, still partially in awe of what he saw. “It can make great distances but it is a little hard to control.”
“Well we have much more work ahead of us than we thought.” Basta admitted. “First we focus on getting the ship back to a hundred percent. Then we figure out where this is and what we do about it.”
“Agreed.” Henry replied. “All of the technology of the wave drive works, we just have to find out how to make it do what we want.”
“Well I have nothing but the utmost faith in you.” Basta replied. “You have gotten us this far…I have no doubt you can take us further.”
-
Five
The unknown planet loomed ahead of them, a giant of colour that looked both very like earth and not at all. There were clouds, land water, but the colours were different and nothing upon it looked at all familiar. Henry looked at the planet, not knowing whether he should feel fear or excitement. He admitted it looked to be one of the most earth like planets that he had ever seen, having found the proverbial needle in the haystack among the stars. However, this also meant that they might be literally anywhere in the universe and there indeed might not be any way home.
“Alright.” Basta said, taking a deep breath, his mind undoubtedly filled with as much uncertainty as Henry’s…or anyone else on the ship for that matter. “We need to focus on one step at a time. Crews that are needed to get the ship the rest of the way online need to focus on doing so. We will first see what we can see about this planet. It is both a monumental discovery and potentially an option should things get worse.”
“You mean we might need to live on it?” Nari asked. “As a final resort.”
“It is far too early to talk about final resorts to be honest.” Basta replied. “Henry, I think your first task is to see if we can figure out what happened and if we can jump back? Can we reverse it if we need to?”
“Yes and no.” Henry replied. “The first issue is that if we returned to exactly where we left we would still be within attack distance of the raider installation. We would be literally jumping from the fire back into the frying pan. Also…this is the first jump ever made. It will take the gravitational computer hours to calculate just the co-ordinates of where we jumped from.”
“Well that should be step one.” Basta replied. “We might have to jump precisely back there…it’s not a great option…but it is one we might have to consider.”
“It might not be that easy.” Nari added. “This is three-dimensional space we’re are talking about here. We can’t just back up.”
“What do you mean?” Basta asked. “Can’t we just punch in the numbers of where we were and jump back there?
“It doesn’t work like that.” Henry replied. “In any three-dimensional environment, there is not just forward or backwards, there’s up and down, side to side. Also, we do not know where this is, we would need a point of origin as well to be able to program in or we’d just end somewhere random again.”
“Well what if we just start jumping?” Basta suggested. “The wave generator makes near unlimited power. We just jump and jump again until we are in familiar space.”
“That is a really bad idea.” Nari admitted. “First of all, the chances of jumping anywhere we would recognise is infinitesimally small.”
“Think of it like you are at the edge of a lake.” Henry began. You take a rock and skip it out into the lake and it sinks to the bottom. That is our solar system. Now close your eyes and try to skip another stone to where that one is…what are the chances you would get close to it? For what we would have to do we would have to land the stone within two inches of the first stone.”
“Yeah that does not sound likely.” Basta replied.
“I know.” Henry nodded. “And I am being generous. The lake would be a million miles across, the stone anywhere within it and the size of a single molecule.”
“I get it.” Basta replied. “Jumping blindly might take thousands of years.”
“Also, we were lucky.” Nari added. “This one random jump put us NEAR a planet. What if the jump had let us out inside the core…or inside other matter. Heck, what if it had put us inside the gravitational pull of a star.”
“Then we need to figure this out.” Basta added. “Can you configure the computer to determine our point of origin?”
“Yes.” Henry replied. “It will take a few hours; the system is still pretty raw from the reset.”
“Can we configure it so it wont fry our systems again?” Basta asked. “Because if we need to ump again…we wont want to be dead in the water.”
“It will take time but it is definitely doable.” Henry assured. “It was not that we cannot protect the systems from the magnetic resonance…it was simply that we did not know we had to.”
“Well we likely have a lot of scared crewmembers.” Basta commented. “I am sure they would benefit from the diversion to make the necessary alterations.”
“I will submit some work orders after I set the waveform computer to calculate our point of origin.” Henry replied.
“Good.” Basta said before turning to Nari. “Do we have any telemetry on this planet?”
“Lots.” Nari replied. “With the magnetic wave scans we have been able to tell a lot about it. It is roughly eighty five percent the size of earth so it’s gravity is comparable to what we are used to…just a tough lighter. The surface is mostly water like earth and there are plants converting carbon dioxide to breathable oxygen. I would imagine that at sea level it is comparable to earth. Temperatures seem nominal as well.”
“Any life?” Basta asked. “Is inhabited?”
“Not by anything as complicated as man.” Nari replied. “There seems to be some mammalian life, like monkeys or dogs, but it’s is hard to tell much about them from up here.”
“Aren’t our scanners super precise do to the magnetic waves?” Basta asked. “We should know all about them.”
“Well yes and no.” Nari replied. “Though we can scan anything on the planet there is not much for the computers to refer them too. We are literally charting a new planet and it is doing it in some very broad strokes. The best way to get anything specific is for us to go down there.”
“Go down there?” Basta asked. “You mean to the planet?”
“Why not?’ Nari asked. “This is potentially the biggest discovery in human based science since Henry and Dr. Winter invented the magnetic wave generator.”
“Aside from the danger.” Henry added. “That planet is the best thing that we ever could have hoped to discover on purpose, and we did it quite by accident. This is the diamond hiding under the needle in the haystack.”
“Be that as it may we need to worry about the survival of the ship and the people on it before we worry about exploration or discovery.” Basta replied. “Though you are right. This is literally what we are looking for. Earth cannot sustain the amount of people that need to rely on it. Mars is a solution but it is time consuming, this might be the next big option. A world ready made and all we need to do is tame it.”
“Well that makes my work cut out for me then.” Henry admitted. “Not only do I have to pinpoint where we came from, how to get home…but also how to get back here.”
“We all have a lot of work to do.” Basta admitted. “We should all get to it.”
Henry worked for hours, compiling, repairing, reconfiguring. He thought back to times where any of the simplest tasks of what he was doing wo
uld be considered astronomically complicated. However, here and now, they seemed so simple, just simple steps toward a larger purpose. The computer seemed to be having a bit more issues. The gravitational co-ordinates were simply much more than any one human being could calculate, so the computer had to do it. The issue was, that even with the infinite computational capability of the ships computer, it had to calculate very specific equations and this is what took issue. It seemed that every time the computer got close to pinpointing a gravitational coordinate for the jump drive it would crash the query. When they were in the systems by earth it was easy. They had earths sun, a beacon for all points of calculation. It had its own very distinct gravitational and magnetic signature and all could be tied to it. It was like a life house and as long as you could see it’s light you could navigate perfectly.
Stars were another form of navigation. They had a distinct pattern and they were all mapped…from the perspective of where they came from. Hover in a distinctly different direction, with many more stars in view it made it nearly impossible to do it unless you were in a very specific part of space. Also…they just might be so far away that tall the stars from earths perspective might not be visible. If there was a solution to the problems that they faced, it was science and math that would solve it, not observation.
Henry leaned back in his chair, his quarters were quiet and whole the ship was mostly resting after a long day of work, he kept at it. His eyes stung and his head felt fuzzy, his body long having grown leaden. He drank some tea and took a deep breath, he was about to force himself back to work when he heard his door beep.
“Come in.” Henry said, not even looking up from his computer. Nari walked in, a tray of food in her hands.
“Have you eaten?” Nari asked. “We haven’t seen you for hours.”
“I ate something at some point I think.” Henry admitted. “At least I think I did.”
“You should probably get some rest.” Nari replied. “I know your genius is seemingly unlimited, but it does need to be recharged.”
“You might be right.” Henry replied, running his hands through his hair and sighing. “It is just so frustrating. Every time the computer gets like a thirty percent understanding of one of the ordinates it crashes. Something is knocking it out and it doesn’t make any sense.”
“Well we wont be any more lost in the morning.” Nari replied. “Well as much as morning makes sense in space.”
“We programed the intensity of all the lights to simulate it.” Henry replied. “It is not really noticeable unless you focus on it but the lights are more vivid and intense during “daytime” hours. It tricks the mind into thinking it is part of a system it recognises.”
“Did you come up with that?” Nari asked. “When we designed the ship?”
Henry laughed. “Not so much. People have been going into space for quite a lot longer than we built this ship. The idea of psychology in space has been debated since the idea of humanity going into space. It was mostly things to do with shift workers who went weeks without seeing the sun. They found ways to trick their bodies into not realising they were outside the normal schedule.”
Nari nodded. “We are an infinite way away from earth, and somehow you don’t seem at all scared.”
“Because I’m not.” Henry admitted. “I treat every situation as another challenge. As long as we are alive and as long as we have resources, there is always a way forward.”
“You have that much trust in your abilities?” Nari asked. “That no matter what happens you can figure out a way out of it?”
“I was kinda born with very little expectations on me.” Henry admitted. “My parents abandoned me in all ways but technically. I was faced with a choice…succumb to the world as it was, or do whatever I could to always move forward. I taught myself to code, I taught myself engineering…I got the notice of Dr. Winter through action and thought working hard we got here. I am not afraid not because I think there is nothing to fear…I am not afraid because I refuse to let fear affect me and what I have to do.”
“That is a very envious way to look at things.” Nari admitted. “I am secretly terrified and I am doing my best to supress it.”
“You don’t have to.” Henry said as he looked to Nari. “You just have to rest your hopes on me. I will fix things and you can rely on that.”
“I don’t know why that works but it does.” Nari admitted. “I almost feel better already.”
“I understand uncertainty is not easy to face.” Henry replied. “Especially when surrounded by what we do not know in such an empty place.”
“There is a lot of empty out there.” Nari admitted. “It seems the only safe place is here…right here.”
“Well you can.” Henry admitted. “If you feel safe here then stay as long as you like.”
“It’s where you are silly.” Nari replied with a smile. “I feel safe where you are.”
“Why is that?” Henry asked. “I am just a scientist, it is the technology that provides safety and stability.”
“I was lost.” Nari admitted. “Part of a military protecting a world that was slowly unravelling. I would fly over cities and look down on how bad they were becoming. I would take so much comfort in being up and above them I used to have anxiety attacks about the idea of landing. I requested a transfer to your project because it posed the possibility of never having to land again. However not only id you give me what I wanted, you made the ground below less terrifying. I can never begin to thank you and you have become my stability. For now, and forever.”
“Well thank you.” Henry replied. “I don’t know how I did it but I am glad that I could do that for you. I will endeavor to be what you need.”
Nari nodded. “What about what you need?”
“My needs?” Henry asked. “I guess I don’t really think much of my needs. I became very rich after the invention of the wave generator. I had like the best apartment and could buy pretty much anything. None of it felt like it mattered…I always felt alone when not t work.”
“Then what is what I offer you.” Nari replied. “A way to not feel alone.”
Henry moved to his bed, Nari followed. There were no words, just two people drunk with the possibilities of the stars and exhausted by traversing it. They embraced and lay together in the bed.
“I suppose I have felt alone so long that I don’t remember how to feel anything else.” Henry admitted.
“Well let me be with you.” Nari requested. “A constant companion that wherever you go, no matter where in the universe you are…you can always find me.”
Henry began to drift into unconsciousness, his body and mind finally realising that it was indeed time to sleep. Henry dreamt of earth, his home, the apartment that was there that he never cared if he saw again. He saw the ship, mars and Dr. Winter. He saw the infinite sea of stars and the new planet. Central to them all he saw Nari, unmoving…constant and comforting. She was now the unmoving center of it all and everything made sense, including the vast infinity that stretched off in every direction. It was at this moment something occurred to Henry, that everything moved, and if there was something that didn’t all things were connected to it.
Henry awoke, not knowing how long he had been asleep but feeling better. He saw Nari still out and decided to leave her be. He began to type equations into the gravitational computer. He felt like a new man, the small point of inspiration reinvigorating him. Though it was still early, he knew he had cracked it, he knew that this was not only the next stage, not only the way home, but one of the biggest parts of his work so far.
A few hours later, Henry and Nari joined Basta on the bridge. He was confident and took his station eagerly.
“I take it things are going well?” Basta asked. “I don’t know about everyone else, but I could use some well myself.”
“Very well.” Henry replied. “I have done it…figured it out. Or…at the very least I am close.”
“So, you found a way home?” Basta asked.
“Almost.” Henry replied. “More like I have figured out how to make a map and it’s only a matter of time until I can use it.”
“Ok…” Basta replied. “I think you need to explain…and with as few metaphors as possible.”
Henry laughed. “Of course. I have been trying to get the computer to calculate complex gravitational co-ordinates to where we came from, earth, and where we are now. However whenever I put them in as a request to the computer…it would crash at thirty percent. I now realise that the issue was that the gravitational drive is trying to set exact points in a universe that seemingly has no exact points.”
“You mean because the planets are constantly moving?” Basta asked.
“More complicated than that!” Henry replied. “It is not just that but the universe itself is moving, expanding out at a constant race, since the beginning of the universe and the bog bang. Therefore if you try and calculate anything’s location it is not just moving where it is, it is moving out in an ever expanding universe.”
“And you have found a solution for this?” Basta asked. “A point of reference.”
“The only point of reference that truly exists.” Henry nodded. “The very center of the universe, the place where it all began. This point never changes, it is by definition the center of all that is. All I had to do is get the computer to calculate it as area zero. Everything out of there is then added coordinates over a five point access, using the zero as point of starting.”
“You found the very center of the universe?” Basta asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Well we kinda knew approximately where it might be.” Henry replied. “I just found out exactly where it is.”
“And where we came from?” Basta added. “Have you figured that out too?”
“The mapping is still running.” Henry replied. “We really have no accurate way to tell just how big our universe it. However, I have already the raider outpost on the map and added the entirety of our star maps to it. The mapping is still running and as soon as it finds where we are now we can jump freely to anywhere we have on this map.”
Waves: The Collapsing Universe Page 4