Chapter No.13.

Life on the space station returned to normal. Josh and Alicia were happy as larks that they had their mother back. Ellie was still shaken by her ordeal, but she was an astrophysicist and anxious to get back to work.

Janet and Margaret went back to trying to detect any life on Earth, and they incorporated Ellie into their effort.

Carl spent time researching neutrinos. He concluded that they should not have been detected on Ellie but were coming from space, perhaps in more quantities from some distant cosmic event.

However, there was still the possibility that the phenomenon was the result of a neutrino blast from the Moon. Normally, the Moon would not be a source of neutrinos but it could have been the result of alien interference. He realized that neutrinos are fermions with a spin of one-half, are electrically neutral and interact via weak interaction and gravity. Even worse, a neutrino's mass is so low it's almost massless.

On the other hand, cosmic rays, which are high-energy protons or atomic nuclei, can produce neutrinos when they collide at nearly the speed of light with other atoms, like those in a planet's atmosphere. He was beginning to think that cosmic rays would be a better candidate source of the phenomenon. However, most of the danger from cosmic rays are mitigated by the ionosphere and Earth's magnetic field, but it's possible that some more exotic gamma rays produce antimatter, which would be more dangerous. The main problem with this idea is the fact that cosmic rays are more destructive in space, which would be the case on the space station and in our space craft. This would suggest that astronauts in space would have been affected more than the people on Earth. A second hole in this idea is the fact that animals didn't vanish, only humans.

It all comes down to figuring out how a human could simply vanish with their clothing intact.

Carl went to the scanning lab. He assumed that a scan of the moon had already been done, but he couldn't find any evidence of that. He set up the radiation antenna to slowly scan the Moon, an operation that would take an hour. He decided to go take a shower.

The shower facility was wedged into the main quarters section. He liked that fact that the women were busy in the astronomy lab and wouldn't interrupt him. He removed his clothing and entered the shower unit, basically a large cylinder that could accommodate at least five people.

As he soaped up and then moved under a shower head, he thought about his idea that cosmic rays might have played a role in making people disappear. Again, he ran into the problem of cosmic rays being much more dangerous to astronauts than to people on Earth. The only possible way that that this could be reversed is if the cosmic rays were not of the usual variety, which would suggest that they were artificially generated.

On his way out of the shower unit, he felt a tingling sensation that made him stop and look around. That's when he saw something he had never expected. A figure appeared in the shower unit, a ghostly image that was mostly an outline with a foggy interior. For just a few seconds he realized it was a woman who was trying to appear out of thin air like Ellie.

The ghost vanished and he tried to relax, but his lip quivered, and the effect bothered his eyelids. He felt as if he had been electrically shocked. Obviously, this was another clue to what was going on, but it would have to be investigated. He got dressed and was about to leave the shower when it happened. The woman appeared and stood in shock staring at him. She was a blond with vivid eyes and large lips. Her spectacular figure suggested that she kept in good shape.

"What happened?" she cried out while holding her head with her hands as if she was suffering a bad migraine.

"You have returned from the unknown, madam," Carl said.

She tilted her head and squinted at him. "I don't understand. I was . . . I was taking a shower when I felt lightheaded, and my flesh was tingling all over. I thought it was from an electrical shock, but . . . who are you?"

"I'm Carl Walker. Two scientists and I went on a mission to update the Chandra radio telescope. While returning to Earth, something happened that made all humans on Earth disappear along with most of the people on this space station except for two children. Ellie Watson, their mother reappeared.

She stared at him for several seconds before replying. "I'm Ginny Samson, Station Administrator. What day is it?"

"July 30,"

She looked around as if lost. "Oh my! It was July 6 when I . . . I lost consciousness." She turned back to him. "Do you know what happened?"

"So far, we're clueless. We've translated an alien transmission from Teagarden's star b, a habitable planet twelve light years from Earth, that transmission suggests a warning about some event connected with the Moon. On July 6, one of the scientists on our mission saw a brilliant light flash. Alicia, Ellie's daughter, saw the same flash. We returned to Earth and found no sign of human activity. We came to this space station and found the two children. Then, their mother appeared out of thin air. Now, you have. Do you recall anything about where you were after you vanished?"

She blinked several times and sighed. "Nothing. The last thing I remember is being in this shower."

"How did you feel right before you vanished?"

"I felt like my skin was crawling with electricity, like it was burning." She ran her hands down her sides as if trying to demonstrate the effect. "What would cause that?"

"We're not sure, we think it's related to a possible cosmic ray burst."

She looked down at her body and then turned around to display her backside. "Do I have any burns on my skin?"

"No," Carl answered. "Your skin is perfectly unblemished."

She turned around to face him. "I'm relieved. Dealing with injuries on a space station is less than adequate." She sighed. "I'm sad that there are only a few of us that reappeared."

"Well, maybe more of the people that were on this station will reappear," Carl said.

She smiled. "I had better get dressed. I'm not exactly decent for company."

Carl repressed a smirk, simply nodding his approval. He watched her stroll out of the shower chamber while exhibiting no signs of being embarrassed.

He realized that he had another important clue to add to his list. So far, only females have reappeared. Even though it's only two examples, it's still significant. However, he could only scratch his head trying to understand why only women would reappear.

Of course, the shower incident exploded among the women, and he was subjected to teasing.

"So, you just happened to be in the shower unit and dressed before Mrs. Samson appeared out of thin air in the shower," Janet said with a grin. "Talk about amazing luck."

"Hey! I had no idea she was going to reappear."

They laughed.

When they settled down, the conversation became more serious.

"Why haven't any men reappeared?" Margaret asked.

"That's a very good question," Carl replied. "It's possible that female bodies are less affected by whatever it is that causes this phenomenon, which would make them reappear under the right conditions."

"We're still in the dark when it comes to this nonsense," Janet said. "I have detected a strange looking circular dark area on the Moon in the Albategnius crater. I don't recall that being there prior to this event."

"Can we get some radiation scans on it?" Carl asked.

"We can. What are we looking for?"

"Evidence of cosmic rays."

"They come from the Sun, not the Moon."

"Exactly," he said with a smirk.

They realized that he might have come up with something, something that would change everything.