Chapter No. 49. Revelation-2

What did you see down there?" Janet asked us when Kali and I sat down at the command station.

"Oh, nothing special," I said. "Just an amphibian monster and what looked like a mermaid."

Janet's eyes widened, "Are you kidding us?"

"Nope," I said. "The monster almost got Kali."

"Yeah," Kali said. "Old sure shot here drilled it in the head before it got to me."

"You guys get to have all the fun," Sharon said.

We laughed. Although, I didn't consider what happened to us as fun.

Bridget walked up holding the astrolabe and sat down. "I think I figured out what this thing does. It's not just an astronomical device. It's able to predict where active nodes are in hyperspace."

"Nodes?" I reacted. "What sort of nodes?"

"Nodes are where timeline changes occur," she replied.

"No kidding! Can we use it to go back to our timeline?"

"I don't know for sure, but I can get us to the node that we were at when we slipped into a different timeline. If we go back to that location, we might be able to slip back to our timeline."

I smiled. "How in the hell did we get this lucky!"

Kali replied. "It's a stretch to believe that we just happened to find a planet where the aliens, who just happened to be extinct, developed an astrolabe that just happened to be able to predict where timeline nodes are located in hyperspace."

"Yeah, it sounds too good to be true, but I'll take it any way I can get it," I said. "I think we had better go to that node and see if we can get back to our timeline."

"It should only take a thee days in hyperspace, sir," Janet said after consulting her computer station.

"Good, let's do it!"

We strapped into the G-chairs and waited for COMA to do the burn to put us in hyperspace. Our time in that quantum soup would be timed by Bridget's knowledge of the alien astrolabe. Hopefully, it would be precise enough to put us in the timeline node that would send us back where we belonged.

When the burn was complete and COMA had started the wheels back up, we got out of the G-chairs and went to the command station.

"Everything is working as expected," I said after reviewing the engineering data. I stood up. "I'll go check out the agricultural deck."

That was a signal for Kali to follow me, but she didn't. I assumed she was tired and needed some shut eye.

When I got to the agricultural deck, I went to the robot charging station and sat down in one of the fancy chairs.

After some time of contemplating nature alone, Kali walked up au natural and sat down in the chair near me.

"You're out of uniform," I said with a subtle grin.

"Sorry, but I'm dressed for a run through the crops, sir."

I chuckled. "You certainly are!"

She smiled. "Did you know that that there's a room on the agricultural deck that has sporting accouterments?"

"What sort of accouterments?"

She stood up and gestured. "Let's go down there and you can check it out."

I followed her up the ladder to the axel tube and then floated in zero gravity down to the engineering deck. Two robots were at the command station, but they ignored us. Kali led me back beyond the pool chamber to a fairly large room that had baskets and a net. The simulated wood floor was polished and gleamed from ceiling lamps. Wall racks contained tennis racquets and balls, basket balls, racquetball racquets and balls.

"I don't believe this!" I reacted. "I didn't realize that this was here."

"It makes sense," she said. "It's physical training equipment to help keep crewmembers in shape."

"Yeah, that makes sense," I walked over to the equipment rack and retrieved a basketball.  After dribbling it a few times, I shot it at a basket at the other end of the room. It went in.

"Wow!" Kali reacted, smiling. "Looks like you know how to play."

I chuckled. "Not really. I just got lucky."

She went over to retrieve the ball and then dribbled it out to where I was standing before shooting it into the basked.

"I guess you're as lucky as I am."

She laughed.

It was bizarre things like this that happened when we were in hyperspace.

We arrived at the node location that Bridget had determined from the alien astrolabe. After waiting and watching the screen we saw a flash of light and what looked like an alien craft that only appeared for a few seconds. Then everything went back to totally black.

"Well, I guess you were right about the node," I told Bridger. "Although, I don't know how we can determine if we are in our original timeline."

"We could go to the planet that we visited right after the node event that had humans from Earth," Bridger said. "If they aren't there, it would be consistent with our original timeline."

"Yes, that's a great idea. Let's do it."

"Ah, we'll have to drop out of hyperspace after we duplicate the original journey, sir," Janet said.

"Yes, you're right." I stood ups. "Let me know when we have to change course."

That took a drop out of hyperspace, a course change and then another trip through hyperspace.

I decided to go down to the sports room on the engineering deck and shoot some basketballs. Kali joined me.

"If we do get back to our original timeline, what are we going to do then?" she asked me.

"I don't know. I suppose we should go back to Earth and see if it's what we would expect."
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"I mean after all of that?"

I lowered my eyes. "Oh, you mean what are we going to do for the rest of our lives."

"Yes."

I looked back up at her. "I think we have no other choice but to go on exploring the galaxy. There's no way we could live with humans that never traveled through hyperspace. They would eventually consider us as alien. If we try to live on a planet alone, we would have to face the biological and climatic problems associated with it. I believe our only choice is to continue on this vessel, which has also been altered by hyperspace."

She sighed. "I agree, but we are in an awkward situation."

"Yes, but it's better than adapting to a completely alien agenda. We can work out our problems and learn to live with one another. We've had some practice."

She chuckled. "Yeah, that's for sure."

The next day, we strapped into our G-chairs to drop out of hyperspace near the planet in question. After the burn, we literally ran to the command station to see what the planet could tell us.

"I don't see any evidence of a colony, sir," Sharon said. "However, we're too far away to verify that."

"I agree but it looks encouraging."

Later that day, we made a slight correction burn to put us in orbit around the planet.

"There is no evidence of a human colony on the planet," Sharon said. "In fact, there isn't any evidence of intelligent life."

"That's great, but it's no guarantee that we're in our original timeline."

"Does it really matter if we're in our original timeline, sir?" Natale asked.

"I suppose in the scheme of things it doesn't matter, but why not strive to be consistent."

"What are we going to do now, sir?" Bridget asked.

"Are you speaking about the current moment or about a generalization?"

"I'm thinking about what we're going to do now that we know we can't live with humans."

"Yes, you're right. Living with humans who haven't been screwed up from hyperspace would be dangerous. They would consider us as a danger and probably kill us. What's even more serious is the fact that we may be the only humans that have suffered from hyperspace. If there were no more missions after the original ones, we are the only ones to survive." I paused to collect my thoughts. "I realize how awkward our present situation is. You have been robbed of having a normal life."

"We were never destined to have a normal life, sir," Natale said. "We were recruited to be used for amusement purposes by the male crew members."

"I assume that means that you're not virgins," I said.

She grinned. "Yeah, that was a big fib, sir."

They laughed,

I turned to Janet and Sharon. "Is that the case for you two?"

"Yes, sir," Janet replied. "That's why the crew consisted of two males and four females."

"Why would they recruit women that had advanced degrees for that purpose?"

"They expected us to do double duty, sir."

I sighed. "That's ridiculous."

"We like how you value our expertise," Sharon said.

"We are committed to following you no matter where you take us, sir," Janet said. "We will obey you without question."

"That goes for us too, sir," Natale said.

I turned to Kali and she smiled. "I'm with them . . . sir."

"Okay, I understand where you're coming from, but I respect your opinions about everything. You deserve to have a role in deciding what we do."

They just stared at me with expressions that bordered on worship. Despite the rather pleasurable notion that went with their willingness to obey me, I was not about to use them like the bastards that organized the original missions.