Chapter No.5

Despite what Margaret experienced, the journey back to Earth was boring, even more boring than the journey to the telescope. However, the tension that the crew suffered was intense especially since they were unable to contact Mission Control or see any evidence that Mission Control was still alive.

"This is ridiculous!" Margaret complained. "We don't know what the hell's going on. For all we know, NASA is underground at the Utah Complex."

"Even if they were, they could still make contact with us," Janet said.

"Maybe their connections to the communication antennas have been cut."

"There's no use speculating," Carl said. "We aren't close enough to determine what's going on there."

"If they did get hit by a gamma ray burst from that close, people would have to be living in caves to escape the consequences of it," Margaret said. "The destruction to the ionosphere would result in ultraviolet light destroying crops and most life."

Carl was even more dubious. "If that were the case, I would like to know how an alien species on a planet twelve light years away knew that a rogue white dwarf star would end up in the Centauri system, or why they would try to warn us."

"Not all extraterrestrial aliens are ass holes," Margaret said. "Maybe they managed to intercept some of the transmissions we sent out and realized that we are vulnerable to cosmic events like this."

"If that were the case, why didn't they compose the warning in our protocol?" Carl asked.

"The proton quantum spin method is more protected from signal decay," Janet said. "They evidently assumed we were intelligent enough to interpret it."

"It doesn't really matter now," Carl said. "The warning came too late. All we can do is go back and see how bad it was."

"When we do get back to Earth, how are we going to get to the surface?" Janet asked.

"I can land the rocket back onto a gantry platform," Carl replied. "It'll be tricky, but the second stage rocket is capable of doing that. I'll have to manually orient the rocket on a course that will be the reverse of our launch."

"That sounds risky," she said.

"Yes, but it's possible. I've only done it once, but that was with the assistance of Launch Control."

"We don't even know that the Guiana launch complex is still there," Janet said. "For all we know, the gamma ray burst caused fierce storms that wiped out vulnerable shore locations."

"I'm sure there will be some launch site unharmed," Carl replied. "All I need is a flat base to land on."

"How can you land something that's shaped like a big stovepipe?" Margaret asked.

"The second stage rocket has landing braces that are folded inside the outer skin. When deployed they act like struts."

"Even if you can land this thing, what will we be able to do on a planet that's doomed to extinction?" Janet asked.

Carl shrugged. "I don't know, but I do know that we cannot survive for more than a couple of months in this capsule."

They realized that it was a waste of time arguing about their situation. It was equivalent to prisoners fanaticizing about freedom.

Days later, they were close enough to Earth to begin examining its surface using the capsule's telescopic system.

"I don't see any sign of activity," Margaret said after spending hours trying to focus on land areas on Earth. "It appears that the cities survived whatever happened, but I don't see any movement."

"Maybe the survivors are still hiding underground," Janet commented.

"Interesting," Carl said. "There is no evidence that the forests have died off. I would have expected to see vegetation bleached or at least looking bad."

"Actually, Earth doesn't look at all like it was blasted with a gamma ray burst," Margaret said. "I don't understand why there are no signs of movement."

"We're still not getting any indication of radio signals from Earth," Carl said. "I'm also not seeing any evidence of power generation. None of the satellites are generating signals."

"Maybe that was the full extent of the gamma ray burst," Margaret said. "However, that wouldn't be consistent with the other things we're seeing."

"At this point, we have no idea if anyone survived," Carl said. "We'll have to wait until we arrive to determine that."

"I've done some measurements on the atmosphere," Margaret said. "I'm not seeing any destruction of the ionosphere or excess Ultraviolet penetration. That's not consistent with a strong gamma ray burst."

Carl sighed. "It seems that we don't have any idea about what happened. Hopefully, when we get closer, we'll discover more. At least we'll be closer to Earth which will enable us to make more precise observations. Maybe we'll be able to contact Mission Control when we're that close."

His statement was a combination of hope and dread. There was no way to speed up the process of getting back to Earth All they could do was wait and hope.

Author's Note
Gamma rays are not rays. They're protons or atomic nuclei moving at near the speed of light. They come from our Sun and locations in our galaxy and galaxies beyond, usually from supernovae. Most are deflected by our atmosphere, but the higher energy cosmic rays can hit us.

A gamma ray burst is much more dangerous because even though gamma rays are photons like normal light they are at a much higher energy level. A gamma ray burst from a nearby supernova could damage the Earth badly.