Chapter 26. Change.

When Jack came to the command center in the morning he found his crew there, causing him to wonder what was going on.

"We've been doing close observations of Earth and just noticed that there are some cars parked at the Houston Command Center," Jessica said.

"That's interesting. Have you tried to make a connection?"

Jessica pointed to Tog. "He's working on that."

Just then the main screen lit up with a woman's image. Her young face suggested that she was a rookie like them. "Hey! Glad to see you guys! What's your status?"

"We were preparing to leave Earth and go find the alien that we encountered," Jack replied.

"Hmm," she replied twisting her mouth. "We could sure use your help down here."

That made Jack blink several times. "Ah, wouldn't that expose us to the pandemic virus that has decimated Earth?"

"It shouldn't. You were vaccinated for It before you left on your voyage."

That made Jack look at each of his crew with a confused expression before he turned back to the screen. "We weren't aware of that. We were under the impression that most of Earth's population had been infected with many deaths."

"Yeah, it was pretty serious. We only have a token staff here. We could use your help."

"You'll have to have someone come up here in a space shuttle."

"No problem. We'll send a shuttle up within a few hours."

"We'll get ready," Jack said before the signal dropped.

Jack shook his head. "This is not what I expected, but we'll go along with it."

His crew was much more enthused about this sudden change in plans than he was.

"I got the impression that what's left down there are rookies like us," Jack said. "Especially if this pandemic occurred several months ago."

"At least we can live on the planet we were born on," Lorrie said.

Jack stood up. "Well, Let's get ready for the shuttle trip."

They ran off to assemble clothing and other personal items. Jack decided that he would take his cat down there. If anything, the cat deserved to be treated with loving care for all the help it had provided.

The shuttle arrived two hours later. They boarded it from the hanger deck through a tube that maintained atmospheric integrity. The shuttle's robot pilot seemed to know what it was doing, and after boarding and strapping, Mog the robot used rockets to slow the shuttle and then fly in down with jet engines for a landing at Houston command's airdrome.

They walked to the main center and found what they expected. A few young cadets were manning the command center. Jack was happy to see a male among a dozen females.

"I thought I would never see another male again," Jack told Evan Wilson. "How has it been being immersed in female frivolity?"

Evan smiled. "It's been like being Ken"

Jack laughed. He realized the reference to the toy.

"How many deaths have been attributed to the virus?" He asked Evan.

"We don't have any data except by satellite. Based on estimates it killed more than half of the world's population, males more than five times females. We are still trying to determine where it came from."

"We were under the impression it was the aliens that introduced it."

Evan shook his head. "We have not detected any evidence that aliens were the source. We heard that you made contact with them. What are they like?"

"Weird, but we believe they left us alone because they have pets that resemble cats."

"Cats?"

Just then, Jack's cat came over and meowed.

"That's one of the cats from the ship, isn't it?" Evan asked.

Jack smiled. "Yes, and it has adopted me."

Evan smiled.

"Where can we stay?" Jack asked. "I doubt our rentals are still around."

"We have several dormitories here. They're not that great but still accommodating."

"I would assume that they're roomier than the closet quarters on the ship."

"Definitely!" Evan replied, smiling.

He realized that his journey into the outer limits of the solar system was something that he'd never forget. He doubted that a mission of that importance would ever again be made. It was as if human advances were now crippled for the foreseeable future. Maybe this was the alien's intention.

Jack and his crew entered the dorm unit that Evan and his female workers lived in. It was what one would call economically efficient. However, the rooms were much larger than the ship's compact quarters. That bad news was the open communal shower unit that had no privacy. Jack assumed that it was created by the same knuckle head that designed the shower unit on the ship.

Jack accepted the fact that life on a compromised planet Earth would be boring with little significance. He assumed that his future was dismal at best, that his role in the discovery of alien life was at an end.

However, it's not over till the fat lady sings.