Chapter No.50. Back to Oblivion.

We really had no choice but to go back to Earth to see if it conformed to what we would expect in our original timeline. The trip through hyperspace required six days, and it gave us time to work out what we would do if Earth was as we expected it to be in our timeline.

This important discussion usually occurred during the communal supper.

"Are we going to live on a planet, sir?" Natale asked.

"I don't think we're going to be able to live on a planet," I said. "But we could go down on habitable planets that are safe to enjoy being in a normal environment."

"How about going down on Earth?" Natale asked.

"That would be okay as long as there's no threat from people. The last think I would want to do is have to kill."

"What will our roles be in this post mission life?" Janet asked.

"I think it would be pretty much the same as it is now, with some exceptions."

"What exceptions, sir?"

"Well, I think that you should be in charge of astronomical decisions, and Bridget should be in charge of advanced technology. Kali would be in charge of discipline."

"Are we going to get higher pay for those advancements, sir?" Bridget asked with a sly grin.

"We don't get paid, but it could be in the form of extra privileges."

"What about rules and regulations, sir?"

"We really don't have any of them," I replied. "I think that you should come up with some . . . if you wish."

"What about a dress code?" Natale asked.

"The idiots that organized our original mission didn't allow for that. They provided us with minimal clothing."

"If we're going to live on this vessel, why do we need clothing?" Natale asked.

"I believe that wearing clothing is just one of the more important means to remind us that we are human. However, I will leave that up to you ladies."

"You're our leader, sir. You should decide on rules and regulations."

I pointed at myself. "I make the big decisions."

They giggled.

The discussions didn't end there. As we suffered the boredom of hyperspace, discussions concerning our status occurred in small groups or individual encounters. I considered it a normal reaction to being confined to a life on a space vessel that really wasn't designed to be all that comfortable.

Based on everything that I had heard about the women's origins and their supposed roles on the original missions to a new Earth-like planet, I decided that they were not what I had thought they originally were. Obviously, they had been groomed to be institutional whores. Their science backgrounds were real but only for show. I had a suspicion that they were only teasing me about sex. They really didn't need me to find release.

However, I think that Kali was the exception. She was definitely not like the others.

I was able to discuss more delicate issues with her while I enjoyed the pool on the engineering deck. Kali manned the water flow control while I attempted to keep up with the water flow as she kept increasing its velocity. I think she enjoyed testing me.

After she wore me out, I was able to discuss my thoughts with her while I was still in the water.

"I think the other gals are not what I thought they were."

Kali smiled. "It took you this long to figure that out?"

"I'm slow when it comes to women," I said with a sly grin.

"They are a product of a demented organization that considered women as sex toys. It's no wonder they're like they are. I had to suffer the same abuse, but I decided to show my strength and they soon accepted it."

"I'm glad that I have you to talk to."

"I'm glad that I've hooked up with someone like you. My former commanders were egotistic misogynists."

I gave her a more serious expression. "Can we trust them?"

"I believe we can. They seem to like you, and they'll respect me."

"I suppose that's all we can expect under these conditions."

"Believe me, these conditions, as you call them, are orders of magnitude more tolerable than what I've been through."

I really didn't want to push her into relating what she had gone through. It's better to bury the past and leave it at that.

I smiled. "We had better get back to the crew deck before they get suspicious." I extended my hand. "I can dress here."

She held my clothes back from me. "I need a favor."

I gave her a solicitous look. "What sort of favor?"

"I want you to ignore my efforts to discipline our crew members."

"What did you have in mind?"

"I'd rather not say. Let's just say that it will be personal."

"I suppose I have no other choice."

She slapped my bare behind. "That's right!"

"Are you going to give me my clothes?"

"You can dress before we go back to the crew deck."

I shook my head. "I am at your mercy."

She laughed.

The morning of the next day we came out of hyperspace a billion kilometers from Earth, it didn't take Janet and Sharon too long to determine its status.

"Earth is much the same as when we last saw it, sir," Sharon said. "Maybe even better."

"I'm not picking up any signals from there," Natale said. "We might be too far out to receive a communications ping."

"There's no sign of vessels, sir," Janet said. "I'm doing a spectral scan of the Sun to attempt to determine its approximate age."

I turned to her. "Do you think it could have changed enough to detect it in its spectrum?"

"You never know. We could be hundreds of thousands of years in the future or past if we're in another timeline."

I shook my head. "Perish the thought."

Once we achieved a high orbit around Earth, it allowed Janet and Sharon to do a more thorough scan of its surface, but what they found was really disturbing.

"Earth appears to have recovered more from climate change than the last time we were here, sir," Sharon said. "The ocean levels have dropped appreciably and there is much more vegetation on all of the continents."

"The dome city is still there, sir," Janet said. "It appears to be abandoned, and it's surrounded by a forest of evergreens."

"That would be consistent with what one would expect."

"Unfortunately, there are some discrepancies," she said. "The Grey alien communication column is gone from Panama, and I can't detect the crashed saucer in Puerto Rica." She displayed the images on the main screen.

"I've detected something that doesn't make sense, sir," Sharon said. "I've been scanning cities, and this is what I've found in what's remaining of New York."

"Oh shit!" I reacted. "That's the twin towers."

"Yeah, those were destroyed on 9/11 way back in 2001," Sharon said. "Maybe they rebuilt them."

"As I recall, they replaced them with a memorial. I can't imagine them rebuilding them."

"That means we're not in our original timeline," Kali said.

I sighed. "Yeah, unfortunately. However, I don't see any reasonable method that we could use to enter our original timeline. If this nodal anomaly is based on quantum effects we're dealing with probability. It would be equivalent to trying to win a national lottery."

"Maybe this timeline is better than ours, sir," Bridget said.

"It could be," I said. "We'll know more after a thorough scan of Earth and habitable planets nearby."

Earth scan revealed something we were not sure made sense.

"I'm not detecting any movement or activity," Sharon said. "Are all the people dead?"

"Maybe in this timeline humans are extinct," Bridget said.

"They were here," Natale said. "The domed city is proof of that."

"I agree," I said. "It could be that the surviving humans are mostly feral."

"Are we going to go down there?" Natale asked.

"Eventually, but I would rather do as much scanning as we can to determine if there is any threat before we do go down."

It wasn't until late evening when everyone was supposed to be sleeping that I heard something that made me get up and go to the command station where I found both Janet and Sharon there out of uniform busy at their stations.

"We were wrong about the communication tower at Panama," Janet said. "It's lying on its side and covered with plant growth. We used x-ray scans to find it."

"It probably was blown down by a hurricane," I said.

"We also found that the saucer is still there," Sharon said. "It's just overgrown with plants."

"We also redid our previous scans of Earth and found that the twin towers were in them," Janet said.

"That pretty much seals the deal. We're in our original timeline or at least the timeline we woke up from hibernation in," I said. "I have a new task for you two. Go back in the records to when our vessel just entered hyperspace and see if there was a spectral scan of the gamma ray burst that hit the ship. Compare it with the two light flashes in our two recent hyperspace nodal encounters."

They went to work immediately. I think they realized what I was thinking.

After several minutes of work, COMA came up with a spectral scan for all three incidents.

"The scans indicate that our recent nodal event and the original event are similar. The one that put us into a different timeline was not the same."

I leaned back in my chair. "That means that we are not in the timeline that we were in before our mission launched. We were thrown into an alternate timeline right after we went into hyperspace originally, but now we're in the timeline that resulted in our present situation."

"We need Bridget and the astrolabe to see if there's a node in the course to Proxima-b from Earth."

"I agree." I was about to strand up when Bridget showed up out of uniform holding the astrolabe.

"At your service, sir." She said before sitting down and twisting and turning the pointers anf global spheres on the alien device.

After several adjustments, she had a verdict. "Yep, there is a node on the course to Proxima-b about three billion kilometers away from Earth's orbit."

"That explains what happened, and since all three missions launched on that course to Proxima-b, it explains why we're all together."

"So, we were never in our original timeline from the very beginning," Janet said.

"That's the way I see it."

"Are we still going to try and get into our correct timeline?" Sharon asked.

"I don't think that would be wise for a number of reasons, the most important being that we could have ended up dead in hibernation if we had stayed in the correct timeline."

"Natale and I would probably have died if it wasn't for you, sir," Bridget said.

"I vote for staying in this timeline, one that we're familiar with," Janet said.

"I agree," Sharon said.

"Me too, sir," Bridget said.

"Our staying in this timeline will depend upon you," I told Bridget. "If we go into hyperspace, you'll have to see that we don't pass through a node."

"You can count on me, sir," she replied.

I stood up. "Good!" I smiled. "I hope you ladies are not trying to change the dress code."

They giggled.

"Nah, we just got lazy . . . sir."

"Very well," I said. "Carry on."

I walked away not knowing how they took that quip.