Chapter No.60. Nirvana

What Kali wanted to show me was in the pool chamber. She walked over to the back wall.

"I noticed that this wall has a very fine line that outlines a door."

I looked it over. "That's interesting."

"It's more than interesting. It explains a lot about what the purpose of the women included in the original crews really was."

She pressed on a small oval that was hard to see. The door opened to a room with a king-sized bed. Shower and toilet modules occupied the wall to the left. A food delivery module occupied the wall to the right.

"What the hell?"

"This is the secret love room, or some might label it a pleasure palace."

"Oh, I get it. This is where the men could enjoy the women crew members in private. This is definitely not in the engineering drawings. "

"I'm not surprised," she reacted.

"This would make a nice stateroom."

She flashed an ornery grin. "It's where you and I are going to get it on."

I returned a surprised look. "I assume that's why you're showing me this."

"That's right. We may as well try it out." She removed her top.

I watched her strip and smiled. "Oh well, let's do it." I undressed and jumped next to her on the bed.

And, we did do it.

When we got back to the crew deck and sat down at the command station, Janet smiled at us. "You two were enjoying the hidden room, weren't you?"

"You know about that?" I asked with a surprised expression.

"We found that room while you were down on Mars," Sharon said.

"Yeah," Natale said. "We want to have our turns."

I blew out an exhausted breath. "I guess I'm going to be busy."

They laughed.

It was inevitable that they would come around. I'm not sure why they played hard to get games with me. Maybe they were afraid I would reject them, but Kali made sure that I wouldn't do that. Whatever it took, I was not going to complain.

The next day we began our journey to the angelic alien planet.

We strapped into the G-chairs and waited for the burn that would take us into hyperspace. No one said anything about the love room. It was as if it was just another aspect of the being on a space voyage.

We gathered at the command station after the engine burn had been completed. It would only require a day to go to a planet around Alpha Centauri B. When we arrived, we settled into orbit around a planet that is 1.5 times the size of Earth and has a breathable atmosphere.

"This is odd," Sharon said. "The last time we were here there was small colony of humans living next to a metropolis that had been abandoned. Now, I don't see any evidence of a human colony and the metropolis appears to be active."

"That would suggest that the aliens didn't abduct people from Earth, but we'll have to verify that."

"Are we going down there?" Bridget asked.

"Yes, unless there is a noticeable threat." I turned to Natale. "Are you detecting any radio or quantum signals?"

"No, sir. I believe they're employing collimated light."

"Maybe that's a good thing. They probably didn't receive Earth's old TV signals."

"They would think we were a bunch of insane people if they had," Kali said.

I smiled. "Exactly."

"I'm not detecting any concentrated energy sources that would signify some sort of energy weapon, sir," Janet said.

"I'll take Kali and Bridget with me. Hopefully, they won't try anything."

The trip down was uncontested. I flew over the metropolis several times to locate a good landing spot, and it didn't cause a panic even when I sat the shuttle down in large open area.

We waited to see if anyone would come out to see us, but they didn't. We decided to get out and stand near the shuttle. Surprisingly, only two aliens came out to meet us, and they looked a lot like the two we saw in the picture when we last came here.

The male had green hair and was dressed in a red shirt and gray pants with blue shoes. The female had purple hair tied up on each side with ribbons. She was dressed in a short dress with a red ribbon at the bodice. She also had purple shoes.

The male had a cylindrical rod in his hand, but it didn't appear to be a weapon.

I raised my right hand, palm out. "We come in peace."

He looked at the rod for a moment before speaking. There was a delay from when he spoke and when we heard what he said. I assumed he was using a translator device.

"You are from what you call Earth," he said. "Why did you come here?"

"We are curious. We were here before but in a different timeline. In that timeline your species had abducted many humans to be food, but your kind had become extinct. The fact that you are not proves that we are in a different timeline."

"We are aware of the timeline conundrum. It is the reason we no longer space voyage."

"A wise choice. We are essentially unable to determine what timeline we're in except by reference to what we saw before."

"It is illogical that we would eat the flesh of any other species. Our digestive enzymes are not correct to digest them."

"I understand. I am not accusing you. I realize that the timeline we are presently in is not that timeline."

"There in an infinite number of timelines," he said. "Many possibilities may occur."

"Yes, and that makes it even more difficult to find the one we want,"

"Choose one that suits you and stay in it."

"That's what we've done," I said. "We will go now." I held my hand up again with the Vulcan peace sign. "Live long and prosper."

They didn't react and we got back in the shuttle and returned to the ship."

"How'd it go?" Natale asked when we gathered at the command station.

"They appear to be peaceful. They no longer engage in space travel to avoid the perils of hyperspace."

"We can mark them off the list of dangerous alien species," Janet said.

"Yes, but there might be other unfriendly aliens out there."

"Maybe the aliens in this timeline are not dangerous," Natale offered.

"That would be great, but we really don't know what's happening out there."

"What's next, sir?" Bridget asked.

I didn't get to answer her question.

"Sir, there's a vessel on intercept," Janet revealed.

"What configuration?"

"It appears to be saucer shaped."

"Put it on the main screen."

I stared at the image for a moment before offering an opinion. "That might be a Grey's vessel." I turned to Natale. "See if you could establish a communications link."

"I got one, sir."

The main screen exhibited a Grey alien.

"Why are you here?" he asked in perfect English.

"We're trying to determine what timeline we're in. We had come here in a different timeline to find that this species had abducted humans. In this timeline they hadn't."

"Are you staying in this timeline?"

"Yes. It appears to present fewer threats."

"There are no belligerent species within a thousand light years of your home world."

"We're happy to hear that. Thank you."

The alien did something I hadn't expected. He nodded."

"The communications link is broken, sir," Natale said.

"I think we may as well return to Earth and see if we can help the remaining humans prosper."

"We still have plenty of tree seeds, sir," Bridget said.

"Good. We can plant more of them. Maybe it will help to repair the climate damage."

"Maybe we could help the people on Mars," Natale suggested.

"That's a great idea. We will become the guardians of the galaxy."

They laughed, and that was a good thing.

We had finally achieved a modicum of normalcy. I wasn't sure where that would take us, but it was a good feeling.

Thank you for reading this. My main purpose was to explain how difficult it would be for humans to colonize exo-planets. Even if they were Earth like, it would be daunting for humans to adjust to an alien climate and biosphere. Even worse is the distances to these new Earth planets are beyond our capability to reach in any reasonable time. The universe has conspired against us. It will require a new Einstein to determine a way to go these cosmic distances. Maybe in the far future it will happen.