The Orthogonal Galaxy
Chapter 27

“There she is again,” exclaimed Blade, “justcomin’ over the horizon.”

“Yeah, I see her,” Paol’s jaw dropped. “What a show!”

Paol Joonter and Blade Slater had already spentseveral days hugging the surface of Jupiter while waiting out for their ride toEarth2, and yet they certainly had not tired from the celestial show they wereenjoying. They found Jupiter to besimply mind-boggling as they closed in on it. The radiant colors, and turbulent cloud patterns provided an eerie,almost frightening backdrop, as if the planet was trying to swallow the tinyStar Transport into its violent atmosphere. They had also been able to see all four of the Galilean moons, each sovastly different in appearance. Now,while they hovered above the wavy equatorial clouds of Jupiter, they could seetwo of Jupiter’s moons simultaneously.

They had already been enjoying the view ofCallisto directly overhead. When hefirst saw the moon up close as the vehicle approached Jupiter, Paol was stunnedto replace that it looked like an inhabited planet due to the appearance of citylights scattered all over the otherwise dark and ruddy surface of thesatellite. Even after Blade hadexplained to him that the bright white spots on Callisto were nothing more thanfields of ice at relatively higher elevations, he still found it eerie to lookupon and imagine civilization on such a small, remote, and frozen moon.

With Callisto perched high above the domedceiling of Star Transport, Europa now began its rise above the Jovianhorizon. In stark contrast to the darkregions of Callisto, Europa is covered by a light, deep permafrost. With the appearance of dirty snow the surfaceis mingled with a dusty brown crust and watery ice. What really distinguishes Europa, however, isthe deep brown lines scattering along the face of the planet in all differentdirections, as if the surface had been clawed by a very large cat. Neither Paol nor Blade could conceive of theviolent geologic forces at work to cause this vast scarring all over the faceof the moon.

“You know, Blade,” said Paol in awestruck wonder,“We’ve seen four pretty amazing and starkly different moons here around Jupiter. After we travel the circumference of theMilky Way on this mission, I can’t help but think that it would be a walk inthe park to come explore the moons of Jupiter after we get back home.”

“Ah that would be somethin’, Paol. I don’t know if they’d let us have a go at itthough. They’ve been talkin’ up theMagellan mission fo’ years, where they send off astronauts to explore and mapthe Solar System. It always comes back toa price tag that Washington won’t pay fo’.”

“It seems likely,” Paol mused, “that if thismission succeeds, it will open up a whole world of possibilities. It would prove that if interstellar travel ispossible, then intrastellar exploration would certainly be a safe proposition,and would look like pocket change compared to the costs of this mission.”

“Well,” Blade snorted. “I thinks we first need to cross this bridgebefo’ we can comes to the next one.”

“Agreed. Iguess I’ll just sit back and enjoy the show.” Paol reclined his seat and clasped his hands behind his head, enjoyingthe view of Callisto overhead with Europa straight ahead and the dominatingsurface of Jupiter to the left.

A series of chimes pulled the astronauts back tothe mission at hand.

“Message from: Mission Control,” Blade read thedisplay. “Let’s haves a looksy shall we,Partna’?”

Paol remained in his position of repose. “What’s it say, Blade?”

Blade read the display. “It says, ‘Show time, boys! The superluminal comet passed by at oh-eighthundred six hours. While its approach waslater and nearer to Jupiter than anticipated, we have ascertained that themission is a ‘Go’ for hyper-warp phase. Please ensure that data set 13009 is uploaded, configured, andoperational before proceeding to rendezvous with the yellow beam. This is the final communication from MissionControl until you emerge from superluminal speed on your return to Earth1. Please confirm message and proceed withmission. Godspeed, gentlemen!’”

Paol quickly pulled out of his dreamy enjoymentof the celestial view around him, and became austere and business-like. “Navigator, please respond affirmatively tothe message from Mission Control. I willwork on installing the 13009 patch to the computer for correct navigation tothe comet tail.”

Paol worked the control panel in front of him furiouslyand efficiently as Blade typed and sent his response to Earth1. As Blade sat back in his seat, Paol alsopaused briefly and turned to his partner.

“This is the moment we’ve been waiting for,Blade. Are you ready for this?”

“There’s no backin’ out now, Cap’n.”

The two reached out and clasped each other by theright hand in a tight grip. Withintensity, they stared deeply into each other’s faces, both attempting toassess the readiness of the other. Without further need for words, the moment sealed their intent to doeverything possible to proceed with the mission and succeed. They could read the expression on eachother’s face and realized that they could strictly rely on the loyalty of theother from this precise moment in time to the day they step back onto Earth1,over twelve years in the future.

Turning back to the display, Paol and Bladesilently read, “13009: Installed & Functional!”

“Full speed ahead, Cap’n,” Blade confirmed. “Full speed ahead.”

In an instant, the Star Transport acceleratedthrough its final orbit of Jupiter. Thecomputer had assumed full navigational control via the 13009 data set, and as aresult, Paol and Blade only needed to sit back and enjoy the ride.

After about a half hour of travel, Star Transporthad locked its course directly for the path of the superluminal comet. Paol squinted at the video display for signsof anything out of the ordinary.

“Ain’t gonna work, ya’ know,” Blade guessedPaol’s thoughts.

“What’s that?” Paol inquired.

“You tryin’ to stare down the path of thecomet. You know that thing has left thesolar system already.”

“Yes.”

“And ya’ also know that our ride is currentlytravelin’ faster than the speed of light, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well, there ain’t no use tryin’ to see it. It’s out there alright, but we ain’t gonna beseein’ it. It's gonna be a few Earth1days befo’ any of the dust from that thing slows down enough to be seen.”

“I know, Iknow,” Paol sighed. “It’s just that it’shard to have confidence in something you can’t see.”

Blade attempted to convince his counter-part,“But Earth-based astronomy could sees the comet path through non-visualradiation, right? We don’t have to seeit with our own two eyes if somethin’ else detected it with certainty.”

“But what if the calculation of the path waswrong? I mean, space is so vast out herethat we’re trying to replace a very thin line of the comet’s path. If the calculations are off at all, we won’tbe able to intersect such a thin object. It would be like replaceing a needle in a haystack.”

Paol stared blankly at his companion.

“At night.”

Still no response.

“Blindfolded.”

“So,” Blade replied, “You’re sayin’ ya’ don’tbelieve NASA? They’s confident that theycaught the path, and they’s given us data set 13009 to make sure that weintersect it.”

“I understand that they are confident,” Paol responded. “All I’m saying is that if I could see thedarned object, I’d be able to know for myself.”

Blade sighed and spoke softly, “Therefore we are always confident, for wewalk by faith, not by sight.”

“What?” Paol asked looking directly over at hisnavigator, to see a contemplative look on his face.

Blade turned to gain eye contact with Paol. “It’s from the apostle Paul. The very same who said ‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things notseen.’ Ya’ see, Paol, what theapostle understood is that you can actually believe in things without seein’‘em. There’s been billions who believedthat God was their Creator, and they ain’t seen Him either.”

“You see, I just don’t understand that… why dothey believe something they can’t see?”

“Didn’t I just answer that question?” Bladeresponded waving his hands in great animation. “It’s faith, man… faith.”

Paol was clearly unimpressed.

“Look, Paol, faith’s really the drivin’motivation fer everythin’ in life. Whenthe Sun sets in the evenin’, you don’t worry ‘bout it gettin’ darkfo’ever. Ya’ have faith the Sun willrise in the mornin’. When you see thatSun, ya’ get outta bed, and go into the office, ‘cuz ya’ have faith that you’llclose that big business deal that will provide fo’ yer family.”

“But, that’s different, Blade. I have faith in those things, because I knowthey will work. They worked in the past,they can work again in the future. Religious faith is so much different.”

“Is it, now?” Blade raised his eyebrows as hestared piercingly at his companion. “Thefaith you talk ‘bout is based on evidence of yer experiences in life. Religious faith ain’t so different. In fact, Paul used the word evidence—evidencethat there’s a supreme Creator who guides and directs yer life—evidence thatmiracles happen even today. We may notread ‘bout lepers gettin’ healed, or people walkin’ on water, or water turnin’to wine, but in the day to day life of millions who’s developed faith, they’lltell ya’ that they’ve seen miracles in their lives.”

“Have you, Blade?” Paol inquired softly. “Have you seen miracles in your life?”

“Why—of all the people to ask the question, I’dexpect you to be the last, Paol. Youknow more ‘bout my life than any other person on Earth1, but let’s reviewanyway. A black boy’s born in an innercity ghetto, gets no decent education, has little support of family, and littlefuture to speak of. He robs a bank,shoots an officer, and replaces himself servin’ hard time, all befo’ becomin’ anadult. Where’s that black boytoday? He’s a world famous astronautwith a well-rounded, self-taught education on the most historic and audaciousspace mission ever attempted. Some maylook on that as a coincidence, but as fo’ that black boy himself, he sees it asa true miracle, Paol—a true miracle.”

Paol sat for a moment in silence, contemplatingthese last words, but persisted in his skepticism. “What about my life, Blade? What miracles have there been in my life? I was wrongly accused of a crime I did notcommit, separated from my family, sentenced to life in prison, and as a resultmy life was ruined due to a legal technicality.”

Blade turned his head away from Paol and staredout at the vast collection of stars. Paol could see focused concentration on his face during the intentsilence. At last, he spoke softly, yetconfidently. “Purpose—,” he hung on theword to make sure Paol would understand, “isn’t always seen through the windshield, but often through the rear view mirror.”

Paol squinted and drew his lips into a tightline. He laid his head on the back ofhis seat and closed his eyes. He wasn’tsure what to think. Could there be apurpose in all of this? Purpose to theinjustices he and his family had suffered? The only purpose he could see in being separated from his family andrisking his life was to appease the curiosity of his fellow man, who had beenseeking extra-terrestrial intelligence for many generations. It all seemed so unnecessary.

…

“Cap’n, we’ve reached maximum velocity.” Small beads of sweat betrayed Blade’sanxiety. Wide eyes formed large whitecircles, as Blade focused on the navigational display ahead of him.

“Well, Blade, here we go, then,” Paol stated witha deep breath. “Proceed to ease us intothe path of the comet.”

The Star Transport was traveling at maximumvelocity in the direction of the comet’s path exactly parallel to itsorbit. Astronauts Joonter and Slater hadofficially begun the ‘suicide’ part of their mission. All knew that the most dangerous aspect ofthe mission was to insert themselves into the path of the comet, where debrisshed from the superluminal rock was traveling at tens of thousands of timesfaster than the speed of light. Althoughmicroscopic is size, these tiny particles would soon slam into the back of theStar Transport and propel the vehicle on its course towards Earth2—if all wentwell. If it didn’t go so well, thesetiny particles would penetrate the Star Shield, the Star Transport, and thepair of defenseless astronauts.

Their hearts were racing in quiet apprehension asthe displays ahead of them showed a model of Star Transport easing closer to ayellow line, representing the path of travel of the comet. In due course, they received their firstimpact sensor detection.

“Right topside wing impact,” Bladeindicated. “Zero point six seven fivewarp. Sensor function normal. No aberrations in systems.”

“Looks like your faith in NASA’s faith waswell-founded after all, Mr. Slater. Weare certainly in the neighborhood of our ride.”

Whether Blade actually heard this or not, Paolcould not know. Certainly, Blade didn’tacknowledge the statement, either because of his intense focus, or because hesimply had nothing to say in response to being right on his belief that dataset 13009 would provide the correct coordinates for their rendezvous.

“Another right topside wing. Zero point six sevenfive warp.”

“Where are we to the galactic plane, Blade?”

“Pretty much dead center.”

“Hmmm… let’s stay the course. We’ve received two topside impacts. Makes me suspect that the comet tail may beslightly above the galactic plane, but we need more details to extrapolatecorrectly.”

“How ‘bout this one: right topside… uh… make that two right wingtopsides. Zero point six seven sixwarp.”

“Ease us up out of the galactic plane,Blade. We need the particles to hit usstraight on, or we may get pushed right out of the path. Let’s correct the heading for direct paralleltravel as well. I want to get enough ofthese rare impact events to help us stabilize a more parallel entry to thebeam.”

“Yes, sir… I’m correctin’ the headin’ by pluszero zero three five. I also have twomore topside wing impacts, and one topside fuselage. All sensors and systems still functional.”

Blade and Paol worked on course correction for anhour—longer than they had hoped to, but they eventually found the orbital planeof the comet to be slightly elevated above the plane of the Milky Way, by aboutfourteen thousand miles. While NASA wasable to detect the radiation impact of the comet’s fly-by, all they could useto calculate the trajectory was the single event as registered around theworld’s ground-spaced telescopes as well as the instruments orbiting the Earth,Moon and Mars. They quickly calculatedan estimated trajectory, which proved accurate enough to ballpark, but notprecise enough to give an exact orbit. Rough calculations of the comet’s orbit were calculated at four thousandmiles above the galactic plane, plus or minus twenty thousand miles. The calculation proved to be about tenthousand miles off, but was close enough to give Star Transport enoughhigh-speed particle impact data to allow it to correct its course.

Once they had received a direct particle impactrate of 98%, they began to steer the ship once again towards the center of thebeam, where the extremely high-speed particles would propel them towards theirdestination. Soon, the spaceship wasbeing peppered by particles of comet powder at the rate of several hundred perminute. They watched the dataeagerly: rate of impact, averagedirection of impact, maximum speed of impact, sensor health. No detail was missed by the pair, as theybegan to immerse themselves into the comet’s path. Their minds raced, and both thoughtfrequently about the last time NASA attempted to inject man-made objects intothe yellow beam several years ago. Atthe end of the experiment, the comet tail managed to pulverize all twelvepaddles that were injected into the stream. Now, these two clung to the hope that NASA got it right in creating anexperiment which would not prove to be the thirteenth fatal failure against theviolent nature of the comet. Paol andBlade had to admit that so far, everything was going according to plan. The Star Transport had made its way deeperinto the beam than before, although the tension was only growing greater asthey watched the speed of impact grow.

Blade broke a rather tense moment of silence,pointing to the display. “Looks like themaximum impact speed is nearin’ the speed of light, Paol.”

Paol swallowed hard. “Zero point nine two warp.”

The astronauts stared at the display watchingthis rate increase slowly and steadily: 0.93… 0.94… 0.95.

“How you feeling, Buddy?” Paol looked over at his companion, who waslooking a bit pale.

“So far, so good, Partna’, but we’ve got a longway to go to reach our ultimate velocity, and this tin can is shakin’ more thanI’d like it to. If it continues to rattlelike this, I don’t think the thing’s gonna stay together at twenty-seventhousand times the speed of light.”

“You know—”, Paol began.

When Blade discerned that Paol would not finishthe sentence, he quipped, “Nope… can’t say I do know… especially since I don’tknow what you’re thinkin’ I know.”

Paol gave a slight smile of appreciation forBlade’s attempted wisecrack in this most tense of situations.

“I was just thinking out loud—it’s nothingreally.”

“Now, go on… tell me whatcha thinkin’ ‘bout.”

“I was just wondering if we should turn this shiparound. I really agree with you—thisthing can’t take the beating it’s going to receive, can it?”

“Paol!” Blade exclaimed in disappointment. “Don’t even tell me you’re serious ‘boutthat. Why, just exactly whatcha thinkNASA is goin’ to say when we tell them that we’ve done chickened out on theirmulti-billion dollar mission. D’ya thinkthe President’ll pardon us still? Besides… how would ya’ be able to live with ya’self, knowin’ that ya’backed out.”

“I’d livewith myself better if I were alive,Blade.”

“You really believe that? C’mon, Paol. You know we gotta do this. Wecan’t back out fo’ no reason. Weaccepted it. We trained fer it. We live by it… and maybe—but hopefully not—wedie by it.”

Paol grew agitated. “You fool!” He shouted. “You’d rather killyourself over a principle than accept defeat?”

“Defeat! Who says we’ve been defeated? Nothin’ but yer cowardice, Joonter. Fo’ someone who knows so much ‘bout science and business, please tell mehow you missed so much ‘bout principles and life. This thing, Paol—it’s bigger than you orme. We were born, and someday we’lldie. After you’re long gone, who’s gonnacare ‘bout yer pittance of a life and the successful business ya’ builtup. Earth1 will keep on spinnin’, peoplewill keep on livin’, and you’ll just be six feet under the ground. What purpose will yer life have if ya’selfishly live it fo’ yerself. You havethe opportunity to do somethin’ great—somethin’ very, very few people get thechance to do. Whether ya’ live to returnto Earth1 or not, yer legacy will be better served by yer tryin’ this missioninstead of slinkin’ back home to some prison cell, while ya’ hope that yerlawyer comes up with some way of gettin’ ya’ back to yer no-purpose existenceof closin’ business deals and inventin’ stuff that nobody really needs in thefirst place. Big deal. Others would do it if you’s never bornanyway. This here—this is what I calllivin’. And if I die doin’ it? So be it. At least people will remember Blade Slater as the first person toattempt warp-speed travel. Others willbe inspired, follow perhaps in my footsteps, until they succeed at it. Now that is livin’ to me.”

Paol grew sullen, but undeterred. He spoke quietly, but firmly. “Blade, listen to reason. The Star Transport is getting a very violenttreatment. You can feel the pounding weare getting.” Paol pointed to the sensorimpact display. “Zero point nine eightwarp. We’re only facing the beginning ofthe storm with particles hitting us at zero point nine eight warp. The vehicle will not be able to hold togetherwhen we get bombarded with particles traveling five orders of magnitudegreater. Don’t you think we can providemore data to NASA if we return the ship in one piece? The engineers will be able to analyze thedata and beef up the ship for a more successful run at it.”

Blade bowed his head and closed his eyes. Remaining in this position, he finallyanswered his partner. “I’m hearin’ ya’loud and clear, Paol. And, what I’mhearin’ and realizin’ is that yer heart’s just not in this thing.” He looked up into Paol’s face. “I do think the mission is a failure, butmainly because the mission can’t affo’d doubt—it can’t affo’d self-absorbedfear. If this was goin’ to work, it wasgonna do it by an unflinchin’ resolve on both our parts. Do I feel the ship heavin’? Do I feel it shakin’? Yeah, I do. But, I also look at the data in front of me, and I see that we ain’tlost a single system yet. Not a singlesensor failed. I think we don’t knowexactly what this ship is capable of. We’re almost in the portion of the tail that is strictly goin’ fasterthan the speed of light. I say if wereally want NASA to have the data it will need to make the next mission asuccess, then we need to wait until the max—no—until the average impact is onepoint zero zero warp. At that pointwe’ll—”

Blade stopped dead in his tracks. He lifted his head up, whirled it around tothe right, to the left. His eyeswidened. He glanced back over at Paol,and saw Paol clutching his seat with a dead-ahead stare that sent chills downhis spine.

“Paol, d’ya see it too?!”

“Red… everything… is red.”

“Yeah, I know, but why?” Blade blinked rapidly. Red still. He squinted. Red. He rubbed his eyes briskly with the palms ofhis hands. Red. Everything was still visible, but it was allcast in a deep red. The video displays,the cockpit lights, his pilot. Everything was red.

Finally, a bright red flash took both astronautsby surprised, forcing their eyes shut. Both men held their hands tightly over their eyes. Blade laid his head back against his seat,while Paol had leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and hands stillcovering his eyes.

They remained in this position, not daring topeek, not daring to move. The violentheaving of the Star Transport and the bright red glare left them helpless. They were now at the mercy of the debris thatwas propelling them forward. For acouple of minutes, both astronauts had resigned themselves to certain calamity,when suddenly, the violent shaking ceased, and a quiet calm overcame thecockpit.

Paol was the first to move a muscle. Lifting his head slowly, he removed his righthand from his face and opened his eyelid to just a thin slit. He saw no red and risked opening his eye allthe way. Everything looked normal. He opened both eyes and looked all aroundhim. He saw Blade with his head back andhis eyes covered.

“Uh, Blade… I think it’s safe to open your eyesagain.”

Blade slowly pulled his hands away from his eyesbut left them against his temple to form a small tunnel through which he couldlook while keeping his eyes shielded.

“Well that was strange,” he admitted whilefolding his hands in his lap. His headstill lay back against the seat, as he dared not move, fearing that it woulddisrupt the delicate equilibrium between normality and redness. While sitting in this repose for quite sometime, he heard a gasp from Paol.

“I don’t believe it!” Paol exclaimed.

“What is it, Cap’n,” Blade looked over.

“If the data is to be believed, we are beingimpacted by particles traveling twelve hundred times the speed of light. And Star Transport herself is now travelingat zero point nine seven warp.”

“Look here, Paol. Take a look at this chart. Itshows our velocity relative to our time. Right here—about one minute ago, ya’ see our acceleration had beenpretty linear, but then ya’ see this sharp turn, and our speed increasedseverely in just a few seconds. I’mguessin’ this was around the time everythin’ went red. After the sharp rise, there’s anothersignificant bend in the curve right here, where the acceleration settled backdown. It looks like the ship wanted to belaunched into superluminal velocity, but hit the ceilin’ just below the speedof light.”

“Can you overlay that with the particle impactspeed?”

Both astronauts gasped when they recognized thecorrelation. The moment where theacceleration curve turned sharply upward was the precise moment the impactsensors measured their first 1.0 warp particle impact.

“Whatcha make of it, Paol?” Blade inquired.

“I don’t know, but it looks like even the tiniestof warp-speed particles packs a real big punch, don’t you think? For us to be vaulted from just over zeropoint five warp to zero point nine seven warp in a heartbeat indicates that thepower of the warp speed particles is something far greater than we canimagine.”

“If that’s so,” thought Blade, “then why’d thepropulsion seem to end at zero point nine seven.”

Paol’s voice grew more excited as he brainstormedthrough ideas about what they were experiencing. “It actually looks like it stopped aroundzero point nine six. We’re stillaccelerating, just more slowly. I’mthinking that we’ve hit some physical barrier that is making it difficult onthe particles to push us past the speed of light, even with all of theirmight.”

Blade’s hands typed quickly on a pair of touchscreen panels. Another graphemerged. “And how d’ya account fo’this?”

Paol frowned and wrinkled up his forehead. “This graph is curious. If I’m reading this correctly, then right upto the point where we had our first warp-speed impact, we were slowly goingdeeper into the tail of the comet. As wedid so, the particle speed increased pretty linearly. But right when we reach the warp speedboundary, the particle impact speed quickly jumped from one point zero zero to1203 warp almost instantaneously. Whereare all of the particles in between?”

“Could there be some dead zone where particlescan’t travel? Perhaps once ya’ hit thespeed of light, there’s a quantum step up to twelve hundred?”

“I don’t know, Blade. I just don’t know.”

“Well, this superluminal physics is all newscience, Paol. The next generation ofscientists are gonna eat up this data. Shall we head back and give it to them? What are yer orders, Cap’n?” Blade stared eagerly into Paol’s face.

Paol’s fear was replaced with renewed enthusiasmat these fascinating discoveries. “Whatare you talking about, Slater! Goback? Now? And miss out on all of the scientificdiscoveries we’re about to become famous for? Besides, can’t you feel our ride? It’s never been smoother. I don’thave a clue as to why we aren’t being ripped apart by the violence of theparticles, but I’m not one to be ungrateful for not being pulverized. Hold the course steady, Navigator. This mission is just getting started.”

Blade’s heart leapt and a broad smile grew on hisface, as he leaned back and watched the Star Transport on its path towardsEarth2.

…

“Zero point nine nine, Cap’n,” was the reportfrom the navigator.

“It looks like we’re going to get there afterall, Blade. I just zoomed in on thevehicle velocity chart, and it’s definitely not asymptotic to warp speed. The projections indicate that we’ll reach thespeed of light in about two minutes.”

“Paol?”

“Yes, Blade.”

“D’ya think we’ll be makin’ that leap from 1.00warp to twelve hundred warp?”

“I don’t know… it’s as possible as anything, Isuppose.”

“D’ya think the Star Transport will be able tohandle that sort of velocity transfo’mation? I mean a particle of dust is already… well… a particle of dust. What if warp speed only pertains to the realmof atomics? Couldn’t we also betransfo’med into independent dust molecules when we make the leap?”

“Maybe so, but if I know you, you won’t becontent not knowing, right?” Paol had atwinkle in his eye as he smiled at Blade.

“Oh, the lost sleep!” Blade blurtedplayfully. “I thinks we’ve just gottaforge ahead, come what may, or I’ll never rest again wonderin’ what could’ahappened.”

“That’s what I thought,” Paol nodded. “Zero point nine nine five. We’re only traveling about one thousand milesper second, or about three and a half million miles per hour less than thespeed of light now.”

“When ya’ say it that way, it doesn’t exactlyseem imminent, does it?” Blade shook hishead.

“And yet the computer calculates that we’re lessthan a minute away now.”

Both astronauts held their breath, as heartspounded relentlessly, knees bounced nervously, and remaining bits of fingernail chattered noisily through teeth. Their eyes barely blinked as they focused on the display: 0.995… 0.996… 0.997. Mercilessly, it seemed that the anxiety wouldnever end, as the display hung onto 0.999, until long after the anticipatedevent should’ve happened.

“Ya’ thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’, Partna’?” Blade spoke softly.

“Now, let’s be patient, Blade. I know we had expected to be at one pointzero zero warp by now, but maybe it’ll just take a little longer.”

“I don’t think there’s gonna be a one point zerozero, Paol. I thinks we’ve reached ourphysical maximum.”

Paol slammed his right fist into his leftpalm. “No! I don’t accept it. Just a little longer, Blade. It would be too anti-climactic to not hitwarp speed. Besides, if the comet tailparticles can do it, then there’s no reason why Star Transport can’t.”

“I don’t know, Paol… maybe it’s entirelydifferent material all together. Anti-matter? Dark energy? Who knows? Maybe the subatomic makeup of that stuff out there’s ever so differentthan the raw material found on Earth, from which you and I and this ship’s madeup of.”

Paol’s fist pounded on the display in fury. “No, No, NO!”

Zero point nine nine eight.

“Blade, steer us farther into the beam, willyou? We need to get to the deepest part,where the fastest material will certainly push us over the threshold. We’re only getting pushed at 10K warp. We know that the fastest stuff will be goingnearly 30K, so I think we just need to push deeper in.”

Blade feverishly worked the navigational controlsfor a couple of minutes, and eventually confessed. “Can’t do it, Cap’n.”

“What?! Why not?”

“All nav systems are on automatic control, and Ican’t get it into manual?”

“Why not? Is the manual control system damaged?”

“Dontcha remember, Paol? Once we start comin’ outta the beam, thecomputer takes over. It’s a failsafemechanism that NASA employed, in case the effects of superluminal travelincapacitated us to the degree of not bein’ able to fly the ship properly.”

“Ugh! Stupid engineers! Did they notthink that perhaps we would be lucid enough to need to fly the blasted ship onour own? What idiots! We’ve got to override the system somehow,Blade. When we come out of the beam,we’re going to be nowhere near Earth2 for the computer to recognize thecelestial signature. What will thecomputer do to try to get us to Earth2?”

“I think the abort sequence’ll kick in. The computer will not recognize the starsignature fer Earth2, so it will look fo’ the signature fer Earth1, at whichpoint it will calculate our trajectory back home.”

Paol’s face grew red with anger. “We were this close, Blade!”

“Yes, but there’s no shame in goin’ home now,Paol. The ship aborted the sequence, notus. And we will have lots of data toprovide. I’m guessin’ if it’s at allpossible, another mission will launch durin’ the next pass of the comet.”

“Geez… that’s another six years to wait, Blade.”

“A small moment in time, compared to the historyof man.”

After a brief pause, Blade saw Paol’s face groweven more red.

“Blade! Close your eyes.”

Instantly, Blade realized that everything wasgrowing red as before. Both astronautstightly closed their eyes and covered their hands over them to avoid anotherred flash.

“Paol… d’ya think we’re makin’ the leap to warp afterall?”

“Alas, no… I think we’re coming back out of thequiet zone of the comet tail. As soon aswe feel the choppiness return, I think it will be safe to open our eyes, atwhich point we’ll see the current impact speed will be something less than onepoint zero warp.”

Shortly, both astronauts felt a sharp jolt and areturn to the violent shaking of the vehicle that had been a concernbefore. Slowly, they both opened theireyes, and saw the current average impact speed at 0.99 warp. As expected, they were leaving the path ofthe beam, and would shortly be on their way back to Earth1.

“Well, buddy, looks like a fairly anti-climacticmission, huh?” Paol reached over andplaced his right hand on Blade’s left arm.

“Yeah. There goes any hope of this story bein’ written down fo’ the ages.”

“I don’t know,” Paol said wryly. “Authors can replace ways to write aboutanything. I suppose there’ll be somebodyout there desperate enough for a gig to write our tale.”

Blade chuckled. “I feel fo’ the poor sap who gives up his day job to write ‘bout us.”

The pair laughed nervously about their situation,but deep down, the disappointment could not be assuaged.

…

Paol and Blade sat sullen and reflective. Since Star Transport’s computerizednavigation system had full control of the vehicle, there wasn’t much elseeither could do, except wait out the ride. Their thoughts went a million miles a minute, as they reflected back onthe many experiences they shared together: the prison cell, the astronaut training, the sublime views of Earth andJupiter along with their moons as well as the stars and asteroids.

Neither could help feeling the depressiveanti-climax of the situation, but they also felt the privilege of theopportunity, and yet both felt guilt and shame for secretly contemplating theirfuture. How would they be integratedback into Earth life, and what directions would their lives lead there? Wouldn’t this provide them the easiest wayout of the difficult situation? Ofcourse, Blade’s prison sentence had long since past, but would Paol still bepardoned, or would he return to penitentiary? Would they be anticipated with the same heroic fanfare with which theyleft Earth just a few weeks earlier, or would they be ostracized and seen asthe symbols of failure for a mission that cost too much and never should havebeen attempted? Would they continue topursue their new careers as astronauts, and perhaps even attempt another STmission to explore and map the solar system, or perhaps to even make another goat Earth2 six years from now?

Paol tried to distract himself by studying thestars overhead. He had become so used tothe sky above him when they journeyed from the Moon to Jupiter, but everythinglooked so differently now that they were heading in the oppositedirection. Frankly, he didn’t knowexactly how far away they were now either, considering that they had beenpropelled quite a way down the beam before they were ejected from the stream ofparticles.

Through this train of thought, his stomachdropped. How far had they comeindeed? How long would it take them toreturn to Earth? For some time, theyhad been traveling nearly the speed of light, and this was taking them veryquickly away from their home. Certainly,they must first send a communication to Earth. Once they received a response, they would be able to time their distanceto the Earth by the round trip time of the communication. That way, they could calculate whether theywould have enough fuel to race straight to Earth at full speed, or whether anemergency mission would need to be launched to reclaim the Star Transport in areasonable timeframe.

As he began to turn to Blade to ask him to relaya message to Earth, he was interrupted by the voice of his companion.

“Cap’n,” started Blade softly. “I’m not sure I understand what I’m seein’here.”

Paol looked down at the display to which Bladewas pointing. It read: “Celestial reading locked, trajectory toEarth2 calculated.”

“Blade, when did you first see this?” Paol askedin dismay. “Something must be wrong.”

“Just now, Paol. Why I’s just starin’ off into space, and I saw this displayflashin’. When I touched it toacknowledge the message, well… this is what it said. Whatcha make of it, Partna’?”

“Somehow, this hunk of junk thinks it has found apattern in the stars that matches the Earth2 region of the Milky Way. But, it should’ve found Earth1 instead.”

Paol started typing on one of the displays. Instantly, it provided a map of thegalaxy. It pinpointed Earth1 and Earth2on far extremes of the display. The StarTransport was represented by a green dot extremely close to Earth2!

“Oh, my... oh, my!” Blade exclaimednervously. “Why didn’t I thinks of thisbefo’? Stupid, stupid!”

Joonter looked over to see his navigator takinghis seat harness off and leaning towards the edge of his seat. His hands trembled violently as they fumbledon the touchscreen panel ahead of him.

“What is it, Blade?” Paol spoke quietly, almost daring not to askfor fear of the answer.

Paol stared intently at his companion as he threwhimself back in his seat and started laughing uncontrollably.

“What are you laughing at?!” Paol exclaimed. “Star Transport is thoroughly confused aboutour location, and you’re laughing? I’mnot sure you understand the gravity of our situation, Blade. Unless this thing can be convinced of itserror, we might just float in space forever!”

“Doncha see?” Blade looked at his partner incredulously. “Wasn’t we supposed to fall asleep when wehit warp speed?”

“Yes, but we didn’t.” Paol answered simply. “Instead, we fell out of the beam at zeropoint nine—” He stopped short. “Wait... are you thinking what I think you’rethinking?”

“How would ya’ know if ya’ fall asleep if you’reasleep the whole time?”

“Blade, don’t be so ridiculous. When I wake up in the morning, I know that Ifell asleep the night before.” Paol’svoice hinted of agitation.

“Sure enough. But that’s sleep sleep. This wasn’t exactly the same. Instead of sleeping, we were in some sort ofsuspended animation. Dontcharemember? They told us that everythin’was supposed to just stop?”

Paol grew wide-eyed. “Blade! If that’s so, then the only way we came out of the beam, was when thenuclear expulsion device propelled us away from the beam. What’s the status of the nuclear systems?”

Blade turned his head towards Paol with ajubilant look on his face. Pointing tothe screen ahead of him, he said, “Looks fo’ ya’self, Partna’.”

Joonter read the display. “Nuclear Expulsion System #1: Detonated. Nuclear Expulsion System #2: Pending. This means the system to get us to Earth2 has gone off, and the system to get us back to Earth1 is stillwaiting for our return trip!”

“So we really have been out of it for a yearnow?” Paul asked.

Denial turned to disbelief and disbelief todoubt. As the situation slowly dawned onthe two space travelers, they began to realize that they had just come throughthe beam, twenty-seven thousand light years away from Earth1 after all, and nevereven realized it until now. They hadslept through the whole thing, and not a thing had gone wrong with the missionas they had supposed.

“Can you look at the rest of the list for anysystem abnormalities, Blade? How’s thegeneral health of the ship after coming through the heart of the beam?”

“It looks like we got three impact sensorfailures: two on the right wing and one on the tail stabilizers. All other systems are reportin’ normalstatus.”

“Not bad,” Paol smiled. “This thing really held up better thananybody could’ve hoped for. We will needto inspect those three failures and any other body damage in general. We may need to patch some holes in the StarShield before heading back to Earth1, but with just three failures out ofthousands of sensors, I’m feeling pretty good about our trip home.”

“What’s our ETA to Earth2, Cap’n.” Blade asked.

Paol looked at a display to his left and reportedhis replaceings. “About 137 hours. We’ll be there in less than 6 days, since thebeam gave us such a nice boost. We’restill traveling at warp zero point eight three.”

Blade leaned forward and stared into the videodisplay looking for any indication of a blue-green planet in the distance. He saw two red circles flash on the display.

“Is that what you were looking for?” Paolasked. “There’s Earth2, although we onlysee a sliver of light, since we’re largely on its dark side, but over here isSun2, already the brightest object in the sky.”

“We’re really doin’ this, ain’t we Paol? We’re really on our way now.”

They continued the journey with full smiles,giddy laughter, and more than a few tears of relief. Having survived the jump to hyper-warp speedand seeing their main target now almost plainly in sight, their confidence inthe mission grew by leaps and bounds.

...

Six days later, as measured by their forced sleepcycles, they neared the planet and descended into orbit. Their eyes hurt as they strained to seedetails on Earth2. They wanted to pickup any clues as to the nature of this new planet. While it certainly looked exactly like theplanet they had left so far away, their apprehensions grew as they wonderedwhether they would be entering a friendly or a hostile environment. Thoughts wandered through their minds. Would there be dinosaurs? Cavemen? Or was an advanced civilizationready to meet them? From this altitude,they could discern no signs of civilization, but this did not concern them,because they knew they were still too far away to recognize much of anything man made. The fact that they only had occasionalglimpses through cloud layers complicated their observations.

They orbited several times as they tried to piecetogether the topography of the planet. StarTransport was continuously taking photos and mapping unclouded images to a mapdisplay on the main console of the cockpit. As shapes began to form, the astronauts were stunned at what theyappeared to be discovering. Shapes thatlooked remarkably like the Horn of Africa, the Aleutian Islands, and thearchipelago of Japan formed on the screen.

“I can’t believe it!” Paol responded increasingvehemence as the map grew to be more and more convincing of an exact copy ofEarth.

“It doesn’t make no sense,” agreed Blade. “I mean with plate tectonics and all, whosegonna think that this planet would be in the same geographic phase asEarth? All the continents could be intotally different positions.”

“Well,” replied the captain shaking his head indisbelief, “the researchers did tell us that all indications was that Earth2was as identical as possible to Earth1 in every way: distance from Sun, axial tilt, time ofrevolution and rotation, mass, temperature and composition. I still would not have imagined the sameexact geographic makeup.”

“Looks like Florida just came into view,” Slaterpointed to the map as both astronauts looked at the real-time imagery and noticedthat the iconic North American feature was clearly outlined below them.

It took quite some time for the astronauts toadjust to the shocking reality that in almost every way, the geography ofEarth2 was identical to Earth1. Eventually, it occurred to them that their mission was not to orbit forthe next six years.

“So, where do you think we should land?” askedPaol. “Mission control gave usguidelines to land in a temperate zone, but even they did not know thecontinents would line up like this.”

Blade stroked his chin. He pondered the question seriously, knowingthat in all likelihood, the decision would change the entire course of themission. Thinking out loud, he said, “Wedon’t ‘xactly know how advanced this planet is. Could be, we’re just showin’ up at the dawn of civilization.”

“Um… I don’t think so, Partner,” Johannsen’svoice cracked with anticipation. “Justlook for yourself.”

Slater focused his attention to the direction ofPaol’s finger, and what he saw caused his eyes to grow wide with concern. “That looks a whole lot like farmin’ goin’ ondown there.”

As Star Transport flew past the Mississippi Riverdelta and up into the Midwest, they could see tiny squares with differentshades of greens and browns.

“Well, that just solves it for us,” Bladeannounced firmly.

“What do you mean?”

“We should land in Kansas,” Blade pursed his lipsand nodded fervently. “We’re gonna belookin’ for hospitable. The Midwest isthe place fo’ sure.”

“Ok, then,” Paol agreed with the assessment. “Let’s get this thing down to Kansasthen. “Can you load the coordinates forus, Blade?”

“Yes, sir!” Blade zoomed in on the North America region of the map that was stillbeing constructed by the computer, and registered a location in the Midwestthat he believed would be close to the Heartland of Kansas.

It took several orbits of slow and turbulentdescent before the Star Transport dipped below the highest cloud layers. On their final approach to North America, itfelt like the Atlantic Ocean would go on forever. A stillness settled over the cabin, as bothastronauts held their breath in anticipation.

“Down there!” Blade exclaimed in excitement as aline of tiny islands running from North to South indicated that they hadreached the edge of the Caribbean Sea. At the speed they were traveling, Star Transport quickly passed byPuerto Rico, Hispaniola, and Cuba before the familiar Florida coastline cameinto view once again. This time, theywere low enough to spot something that convinced them of a modern society.

“Buildings,” Paol whistled lowly. “Looks like a pretty advanced civilizationdown there.”

Passing over the Gulf of Mexico and into theSouthern States, they continued to see widespread evidence of a large population. As coastal communities gave way to smalltowns and farming communities, they began to realize with some trepidation thatthey would have to engage with a society of beings and stay as safe as possiblefor the next six years.

“I s’ppose this really is a parallel Earth,”Blade stated hesitantly.

Joonter hadn’t even heard his companion’sreply. As his eyes grew wide inrecognition, he scanned the terrain below rapidly, almost frantically.

“Whatcha see, Paol?” Slater stared at hiscompanion with deep interest.

“It’s not what I see, Blade! It’s what I don’t see. Take a look, that should be Atlanta rightthere.”

As they passed by the city, Slater looked foranything out of the ordinary, without success. Eventually, Joonter pointed out what Blade was missing.

“No roads!”

Blade Slater was aghast. “You’re right! How could there be cities with no roadsconnectin’ them?”

Paol Joonter breathed heavily and responded inbetween gasps. “I don’t know,Blade. I do not know. Maybe these are ancient civilizations thathave no living intelligent life in them, and the roads have simply returned totheir natural state.”

“Wouldn’t we still see some asphalt or someindication of roads? Indentions in theterrain? Somethin’?” inquired Slaterdoubtfully.

“I don’t know, Blade,” replied Paol, “but Isuspect we’re about to replace out.”

“D’ya wanna land down there, Cap’n, and have alook at Atlanta... –ish?”

“No,” answered the pilot simply. “Let’s go land in Kansas just like yousuggested. I think you’re right that ifthere’s a civilization down there, our best bet for safety is in the Midwest.”

After plugging in the coordinates as best asSlater could estimate on the map, the Star Transport computer system calculatedtheir trajectory to a landing site that was an as flat and indiscernible asany. It could be Kansas, Oklahoma, orNebraska as far as either of them could tell. But it should be close enough for a hopefully successful start to theirmission.

As the vehicle began a sharp descent towards apatchwork of farmland, they could tell that there was a thriving and activefarming community. Their hearts leaptinto their throats as they felt both intense excitement and a healthy anxietyfor what they would discover. Regardlessof the fact that missing roads were a red flag as to the condition of thecivilization they were about to encounter, it was undeniable as they descendedthat these crops were being tended to. They were extremely well cultivated, and not the product of years ofneglect, let alone the decades or centuries that would be required to eraseroads from the ruins of cities.

Now more than ever, Paol and Blade worriedwhether these people would be friendly towards them or whether they would beadvanced enough to understand war, greed, and distrust.

After a long quiet period of contemplation, theyfelt the reverse thrusters kick in, and the vehicle decelerated until ittouched down with a vertical landing in the middle of a large field of drywheat. The descent was so rapid that theycould barely focus on their visual surroundings. Sentient beings were certainly engaged infarming, yet the complete lack of roads indicated a completely missinginfrastructure and certain isolation between the farmers and the city dwellersof Earth2. At long last, Star Transporttouched down softly, and everything came to a standstill, as the engines shutdown quickly.

In the still quiet of the cockpit, laboredbreathing accompanied the astronauts as they looked straight into a field ofwheat as tall as the Star Transport. Thewheat swayed in a gentle breeze.

Neither astronaut was lost by the fact that theywould eventually need to leave the vehicle and explore their surroundings, yetthey felt glued to their seats with fear and anxiety.

Eventually, the tension was broken bySlater. “Oh, no!”

“What’s wrong, Blade?” Johannsen leaned towardshis navigator with great concern.

Slapping his forehead, Blade replied, “I forgotto get a change of address form from the post office.”

The raucous laughter from Blade and a feignedsneer of disgust from his pilot bounced around the cockpit, while immediatelyoutside of the Star Transport, a quieter atmosphere persisted. Birds chirped in the strong sunlight, whilethe sound of wheat swaying in the gentle breeze suggested that the astronautshad touched down on a peaceful planet vastly resemebling their own homeworld. As the superluminal comet racedaway from them on its six-year orbit of the galaxy, they were optimistic thatthis would be a hospitable place to live as they waited for their ride backhome.