A Long Way From Home

A LONG WAY FROM HOME
My heart was pounding; rightfully so, as I was about to start covering
1400 meters per second. Vertically. A voice in the headphones counted
my last ten seconds on Earth, solid propellant burned, and man beat
nature again. Space Shuttle Patriot ripped her way through the
atmosphere. 45 kilometers above the ground, I felt the two boosters
separate. A confirmation came from the Mission Control; we’ve had a
successful lift-off. Patriot carried a crew of four: mission specialist
Herrard Braun, pilot Allie Summers, captain Gergory Nikolaev and
myself, mission specialist Adam Worth.
“Altitude five-ten kilometers,” hummed Allie into her microphone
“We’re catching a steady orbit around the marble.”
I removed the safety belts and sighed as I floated off the chair in free
fall. I had missed the feeling of no gravity. It’s impossible to be
uncomfortable in zero gee, little energy is needed to move around and
the body just doesn’t get tired. After Allie confirmed no anomalies in
the shuttle ventilation and pressure system, I took a deep breath and
removed my helmet. A kick against the chair launched me towards the
round window. Ah, the clouds. The detail in them surpassed the river
thorn west Europe, the perfect white color of the Polar Regions, and
even the insanely large piece of machinery that was showing up from
above: The Explorer. The largest and most sophisticated machine man
has ever put together. What started some 70-odd years ago as
‘International Space Station’, served today as man’s most precise and
powerful tool for looking into space, scanning stellar bodies of far
away, and performing experiments that would just cost too much time
and money if the samples were to be shipped back to Earth.
I waited for Allie to finish docking to the station, and then followed
Nikolaev through the hatch where a cheerful American greeted us. We
floated through a tight corridor, towards the living quarters.
“Welcome back, gentlemen! We’re glad to have you with us. The
briefing is in an hour, you should rest.”
Nikolaev nodded and said, “Thank you. Good to be back. I’ll see you at
the briefing.”
Eric Dwight sealed the door and pulled himself down the corridor.
“It’s like a splinter in my damn brain.” I said. “This is going to be a long
hour.”
”I hate to admit it, but I’m either scared or really nervous. Not sure
yet.”
”You’re shattering your Alpha male image, Nick,” I said with a smirk.
Nick chuckled and pushed himself towards the window. He stared at
the planet.

Gregory Nikolaev was a tall Russian, in his mid thirties. He had facial
lines of a man of experience. A quiet but charismatic person. My
captain was born to lead. He had made a name for himself by
completing a fiery descend some years ago, after their pilot fell
unconscious. If he could perform tasks he wasn’t properly trained for,
he was the perfect man to be giving orders. His crew, and just about
everyone else knew that. Gregory Nikolaev was a legend among
astronauts.
The briefing room was big enough to hold the whole crew. Dwight was
welcoming the new scientists officially. He stood in front of a screen
that displayed the space station’s logo. I opened my notebook and
realized that my palms were sweaty.
“…I’m sure you can’t wait to hear why you’re here, so I’ll just go ahead
and say it. Don’t worry, though. You don’t have to blow up any
asteroids, the world is not ending,” Dwight said and smiled. We didn’t
laugh, but only because we were busy thanking God. Dwight
continued, “In the late 1990’s, ESO La Silla observatory monitored Iota
Horologii, a star much like Sol, roughly 55 light years away. They
noticed the star was wobbling, and after measuring the light it emitted,
the team figured Iota Horologii homed a planet. The research
uncovered a gas giant, twice the size of Jupiter. The planet’s orbital
radius is nearly the same as Earths, and it completes a full orbit around
the star in about three hundred-twenty days. Later came theories of
another planet in the system, but they were never backed up. Six
months ago we scanned that system as part of the routine and found a
terrestrial planet behind the gas giant. The suits were thrilled and
decided that we should make this planet our top priority. Most of our
experiments and station activity was put on hold. Planet c orbits at
around one point three AU and completes its orbit in eighteen months.
Finally, the most important discovery we’ve made, is water.”
“Water?” confused Nikolaev asked.
“No images yet, but we have solid proof”.
“That’s... Interesting. Where does my team fit in?”
“There will be another meeting about that. I’m not allowed to talk
about it before I get the green light from Houston.”
“When?”
”Should be hearing from them in a couple of hours. That’s about it.
Meet me at the cafeteria if you have any other questions, but I’d
suggest you use the time to sleep.”
Nikolaev turned towards me and whispered, “I don’t think they flew us
here because they think an exoplanet has water. All this confidential
shit is killing me. I hate getting information in pieces.”

The second meeting was held in a smaller room, with four Patriot
crewmembers and Commander Dwight. The station commander
looked... excited. After he had made sure that the doors are sealed and
the crew was ready, he began explaining our mission.
“What I am about to tell you must stay between us. If you share this
information with anyone, you will be considered a threat to the
mission, and you will be prosecuted. I’ve mentioned earlier that we
scanned the Horologii system by mistake. I lied. In 1999, the
observatory that found the star didn’t actually discover it on their own.
They received a signal, which they tracked back to Iota Horologii. Of
course, they first saw the big planet, and later the smaller, rocky one.”
“What kind of signal?”
“That’s confidential.”
“I thought you discovered the terrestrial planet.”
“Yeah… I lied. As soon as the observatory made the star discovery
public, the government acted and NASA was put in charge. It was topsecret, but the agency focused on planet c. NASA needed help after
the discovery of water. It was too much work for just one agency and
one government. So it began expanding and changing, and the result
is today’s Space, Time and Beyond. Now, enough with the boring stuff.
Since the early 1960’s, American and Russian governments have
worked on a project so secret, that the hired scientists had to agree to
be deleted from society. They were actually pronounced dead upon
joining. The project they were working on was completed eight years
ago. It’s common knowledge that traveling faster than light is
impossible. Your energy increases with speed. By the time you reach
light speed, you have infinite mass.”
Why is he talking about this?
“I assume you’re familiar with Star Trek.”
Time froze in the room. I wanted to ask something, I just didn’t know
what. Or scream. Nikolaev’s eyes were eerily locked with Dwight’s.
After an eternity of silence, the Russian began to talk.
“Warp drive. Eight years ago. How in the world did they keep this a
secret for five decades?”
That’s what I wanted to ask.
“The research was done on Earth, parts were made there too. The
assembling of the craft and additional tests happened here, and later
on Mars, where more advanced tests could be done. You brought us
some of the machinery yourself.”
Finally, I regained control of my body.
”Where is it? The ship.”
“The test flight was done above the solar plane. It was a short ride,
considering what these engines can do. The ship orbits around Mars,
hidden behind Phobos.”

And that was when both Nikolaev and I connected all loose ends and
answered the question of why he’s here.
“You want me to fly it.” he said quietly. And probably hoped.
“Yes.”
Cold sweat, goose bumps.
“Where?”
“Planet c of the Iota Horologii system. We can’t equip satellites and
probes with this technology, because we can’t control them that far
away. We need a human touch on this one. If you agree to take the
mission, you will be allowed to pick 3 crewmembers. We assume you’d
want your own team to go with you, that’s why they’re here. Then you
will be transported to Mars and trained to fly the ship.”
“What about the crew that completed the test flight?”
“Well, they never actually flew it. It was a short flight, which we could
program. We wanted to learn about the effects of a warp bubble on a
human body.”
“Alright, but why don’t you have them fly it to your planet?”
“On their way back, life support failed and the crew was lost.”
“What!? You want me to sit on a ship with flawed life support?”
“It’s been fixed; I assure you there’ll be no problems.”
It took a few moments to swallow this horrific information.
“What would we do when… or if we reach Iota Horologii?”
“I don’t know the specifics, but you would just orbit planet c and
perform experiments. On your way back, you’d observe planet b and
the star, but not in detail.”
“Wait a minute. How long would the mission be?”
”Twenty-eight to thirty years. You will be cryogenically frozen, meaning
you will barely age.”
“Uh,” the excitement suddenly faded in all of us, “When do I have to
make the decision?”
“Two days. You and the crew you pick can communicate with family
and relatives, but you can’t tell them anything about the mission. They
will be taken care of while you are away. You’re our prime candidate;
any additional crew would have to be sent here, in which case we
would have to wait another three to five months.”
“Okay… Okay.”
I was screaming inside. This was bigger than anything any man has
ever done before. If I agreed to go, we would be the first human beings
to visit another system! Warp drive! But… thirty years? Not like there
were kids and women waiting for Nick and me, but the rest of the crew
had families.
“I think we’ve covered everything, you can return to your chambers
and discuss this. If you have any questions, you know where I am.
Please contact me as soon as you make the decision. Off the record,
commander? The magnitude and importance of this mission is…”

Dwight shook his head “Ah, I envy you.”
Nikolaev accepted, we said goodbye to everyone we knew, and after
completing basic training on The Explorer, went to Mars. I knew that he
was happy everyone on his team agreed to go.
The Red Planet looked simple and quiet. I liked Earth more. We were
hoping to see the ship, but it was on the other side of the rocky world.
We spent most of the time on the space station orbiting Mars, The
Offspring. People in charge wouldn’t reveal the details about the
mission, and after a while Nikolaev gave up on asking. He and Allie
focused on completing their tests in the simulator. The faster they
learn, the sooner they’ll get to see the ship. We, mission specialists,
were being taught to take samples and operate probes and ship’s life
support system. Oxygen tanks will hold enough O2 for four adults to
breathe about a year long. In hibernation, bodies use little to no air.
That would mean, of course, that we’d lose some years of our lives.
This whole mission looked like death row, but it was worth it.
Months passed and it was time for a test ride. Nine thousand
kilometers above the heart of Mars, the fastest set of engines rested in
the shadow of a tiny moon. The ship was named The Pilgrim. I knew
that the engines took a lot of space, but seeing and comparing them to
the living chambers made the craft look beyond threatening and
powerful. Sort of how I felt when I first saw the space shuttle. Hydrogen
scooping pumps on The Pilgrim looked like denticles, and the electromagnetic field generator reminded me of a fin. The craft had two
means of propulsion. Inside the solar system, a few molecules thick
solar sail would erect out of the ship and encircle it like a... tutu. Solar
particles would then push the ship outside of the system and into
empty space. This is the old fashioned “move from A to B” type of
travel. It’s slow. Too slow for an interstellar trip. That’s where warp
drive comes in. The ship creates a humongous magnetic field which
traps antimatter concentrated around stellar bodies. Gas giants like
Jupiter will be our fueling stations. What our scientists could never
figure out is how to collect enough antimatter, and how to contain it
once it’s in the ship. Apparently, that problem has been solved.
According to Einstein, nothing can travel faster than light. What is
possible, though, is generating a warp bubble around the ship, by
expanding the space itself behind you, and contracting the space in
front of you. That way you would not move through space. You would
not move at all. Rather, the space would move for you. After the
wanted distance has been covered, the ship would hop back into
normal space. It only requires the path to be clear of great gravity

wells like stars. The Pilgrim’s engine could push the craft to speeds
that would equal four times the speed of light.
After boarding The Pilgrim, we got familiarized with the interior.
Recreation rooms, personal chambers, gathering hall, oxygen pumps,
food and water storage, hibernation units, cargo bay and the cockpit.
These would be the only places the four of us will be able to move in
for the next three decades.
The crew sat in the cockpit of a craft that half a year ago they
considered a thing of science fiction. Everyone was a little nervous, but
we were able to act as professionals and focus on our tasks. Three
hours of checking the systems passed. Life support was functioning
perfectly, but I still didn’t feel safe. Ramjets gave positive signals,
hyperdrives were checked only superficially; it would be insane to turn
them on inside the solar system, let alone in an orbit around a planet.
Allie brought Solar Sail systems online. A giant frame holding the
incredibly thin sail unfolded like an umbrella around the ship. We ran
more system checks while waiting for power to accumulate. After
about an hour, Allie brought the ship away from Phobos and took a
higher orbit around the Red Planet. Inside my helmet, I heard:
”This is Mission Control. All systems functioning perfectly, you may
proceed. Check coordinates and raise speed.”
Days passed, but it felt like hours. Telescopes observed the stellar
bodies as they passed. Of all optical instruments, eyes were most
impressed. Eventually, we reached the destination where the ship
would have to make a ninety-degree turn and rise above the solar
plane. Allie boosted the speed, and set the ramscoops on stand-by.
“We are moving at seven percent of the speed of light,” Nikolaev read,
“engage ramscoop system.”
“Engaged,” Allie responded, “All pumps operational. Electromagnetic
field working properly. So is the laser. Retrieving Solar Sail.” On the
monitors, we watched the frame lay back on the ship’s “roof”.
Ramscoops ignited, and the cockpit shook a little. Allie activated the
protective field. Suddenly, there was a strange taste in my mouth.
Everything worked as it was supposed to. The Pilgrim made its turn
and rose above the planets and the sun. It was lonely up there. There
were very few rocks orbiting the sun outside of the solar plane. This
was also the reason why we were testing hyperdrive here. Allie
programmed the engines to slow down after three minutes. Her heavy
breathing was the only sound over the quiet radio static.
”Did it start? Are we accelerating? I don’t feel a...” I watched my arm
become… long? Short? I wasn’t sure. The instruments in front rushed
at me, but never touched my supposedly extended hand. I was sure I

let out a groan, but nothing came out of my mouth. I couldn’t make out
the expression on Allies blurry face. Colors faded, and it got dark.
Hyperspace felt… great.
We were allowed to take one final trip to the Earth and say a proper
goodbye to the people we knew. It wasn’t so hard for me, personally. I
didn’t exactly have a busy social life. Herard had three kids, though. I
could not even imagine the amount of strenght in that man. All four of
us had to go through massive psychological preparations. Doctors
thought us how not to go crazy, locked in a room with three other
people, lightyears away from home, for a year. After an emotional halfyear, we flew to Mars once again. Everything went as planned, but I
kept waking up at night, always dreaming of an explosion that could
easily disintegrate a good chunk of Mars.
We were flying for a month before Nick put us to sleep. Once every five
years, we would wake up, to check up on the ship and move around a
bit, just to be sure that our muscles don’t stop working. Freezing
process scared the crap out of me. It felt like the night before major
surgery, I kept thinking I won’t wake up.
I struggled to open my eyes. Through iced glass, I saw Allie’s face. She
looked scared. Frightened. She made hand gestures for me to stay
calm, and kept saying “It’s OK. Don’t worry.” The reality kicked in. I
realized that I was waking up inside the hibernation chamber. I
wondered why I didn’t feel the cold. Either my brain was damaged, so I
didn’t feel my body, or low temperature just numbed it. Either way, I
knew I wouldn’t live longer than half an hour in this cold. I remembered
that the tube in my mouth was pumping oxygen, and that meant the
life support was online. At least I wouldn’t suffocate. The heating
should be activating soon. The ice on the glass melted, and I could see
Gregory working frantically on opening the chamber. Finally, the door
slid open, and I passed out.
I woke up in my bunk, my limbs aching. Vertigo welcomed me as I got
up. My brain was working overtime, trying to figure out what
happened.
“Hey, you!” Allie chirped.
”Ah, headshot.” I grimaced.
”Sorry, sir, just happy to see you. You sure took your time recovering.”
”Uhh... Sorry. On a regular morning, I’d be enjoying the sound of you
more than I do right now, she-pilot. Can you get Nick or Herard to help
me to the bathroom, please?”
I saw her eyes shift to the floor.
”Bad news, sir. Herard didn’t make it out of the chamber. He... Captain
says Herard wasn’t awake, so it didn’t...”

Gregory slid the door open and smiled at me.
”Do you always take this long beating a cold, Adam?”
”Nick, what happened? Why is Herard dead?”
He sat down next to me and let out a sigh.
”I woke up on schedule and checked everything. We were on course,
all systems were online. Allie woke up three days after, as usual.
Everything was fine. We were deccelerating for 6 years at a steady
rate, but a day after Allie woke up the ship just stopped responding.
The instruments kept saying we were slowing down with more force
than we should be. I was afraid we would stray off course, but so far
everything is okay, except the navigational systems. I don’t want to
sound like a bad episode of Star Trek, but it seems we’re in a tractor
beam. Anyway, when the ship stopped responding, hibernation
chambers lost power. Backup generators revived your unit, and we got
you out just in time. Herard was dead when I opened his. We froze the
body in his chamber.”
“Man... Dwight swore they fixed the chambers. Still no idea what’s
going on?”
”Well, I wanted you to see for yourself. I don’t wanna spoil it.”
”Spoil what?”
Nick helped me to the cockpit.
Pillars of plasma shot above the shielding disc covering a massive star.
”Tell me this isn’t Sol. Nick, am I looking at a different star?”
“This is the direct feed. Adam, Iota Horologii.”
”Holy...”
“Watch.”
Allie lowered the trasparency of our shields and removed the
protective disc that covered the alien sun. Now we were seeing the
whole body, and in the lower half of it, an eclipse was occuring.
”That’s the gas giant.”
”Are we being pulled to it?”
”Not exactly...”
Nick brought me to the window, and nodded for Allie to remove the
shields. The five meter thick metal barrier lifted.
Clouds.
Many clouds. They covered most of the... planet? This must be the
rocky one, I thought. I noticed the moisture on my cheaks. A moment
later I was bawling like a child.
”We couldn’t see much through the storm, but the rest of the planet
is... Heh, frozen water everywhere.”
Whatever was steering the ship, held it in orbit around the planet. For
five days, we scanned and measured everything we could think of. Air
composition, magnetic field, water – everything was perfect. Planet c
looked like a perfect Earth twin, except for the fact that there was a lot

more water here and the temperature was lower. Most of the land was
covered by a humongous storm.
Allie joined me at the window.
”You sure like your clouds, Adam. It looks amazing. I’d hate to be under
it, though. Minus eighty Celsius is the highest temperature Nick has
measured. If there’s life, I don’t think it would be highly evolved. Still,
someone sent a signal to us, and I’m willing to bet that they are the
ones who took control over our navigational systems. I really can’t
figure out what’s going on...”
I smiled,”Oh, there’s no doubt in my mind that intelligent life forms live
on this planet, Allie.”
”You’ve got it all figured out, scientist?” she teased.
”Heh. I’m working on the details, but I think I actually did figure it out.
Let’s go get Nick.”
We found him spaced out, sitting in the cafeteria. He twitched at my
call.
“Ah, you scared me. I was daydreaming.”
”Sorry.”
”What’s up?”
”I just wanted to try and work up a scenario. I have a possible one. It’s
the most obvious one, too, so I suppose you won’t be surprised by my
assumptions. Here’s what I think happened: we dropped by during an
ice age. I think the planet used to be warmer. When whatever
creatures that lived on it figured out an ice age was due, they sent out
signals in all directions. ESO La Silla caught one. I’m not sure what they
were expecting from whoever received the signal, though. Maybe they
were hoping for salvation. That would explain the tractor beam. We’re
just spinning around the planet, maybe they thought we’d be in trouble
if we landed. Anyway, I don’t think we’ll be in this position much
longer. Something has to happen... It’d be silly to set up a safety net
without a way out.”
“Makes sense.”
”Find anything interesting today?”
”Yeah. The unfrozen parts of the continents are green because of
vegetation. There’s a lot of it, too. What kind of plant grows at these
temperatures? We’re scanning for carbon based life forms later today.
Allie, how’s the ship doing?”
“Everything’s perfect, sir. Well, except for the navigational system.”
We went back to the cockpit, all eager to start scanning for life.
Gregory brought the instruments online, and began the search at the
Polar Regions, the boring parts. A sudden sensation of vertigo rushed
through me as my stomach turned.
”Did you feel that? What happened?” I asked, worried.
”We’re... God, we’re falling!” Allie panicked.

”Don’t worry; we’re still locked in a tractor beam. Better suit up and
prepare for landing.”
”This ship isn’t made for landing, Nick…” I said.
I received no answer.
We flew over the storm, and started descending towards a patch of
land, no bigger than Australia. Whoever was flying our ship, knew how
to do it. That was a good thing. I don’t think we’d be able to land this
behemoth, even with all that training. Anyway, I guessed that we were
probably being studied for those five days in orbit. Main screen above
us gave us direct feed from the camera on the craft’s belly. It was hard
to see, due to all the shaking, but I could’ve sworn to have seen grey
stains on a green and white carpet. Cities.
The landing was smooth. There was nothing around us but a crater,
scorched trees and endless green beyond it. A trail of smoke marked
the path of our descend.
“Adam? Got a scenario for this?”
”They took us to a remote location for safety measures, I guess. Now
what?”
”Sir!” Allie was pointing to the side-monitor.
Something was hovering in front of our cockpit. It looked like a deltawinged stealth fighter. The burnt trees below it were being blown away
like dust in a storm of biblical proportions.
“What the hell is that?”
“Looks like a plane,” I said. “Relax. If they wanted us dead, they
could’ve shut down our life support days ago.”
”What if they wanna run tests on us, or something?”
“I’d be honored to be the first victim.”
“Humor doesn’t work right now, Adam.”
”Sorry.”
The craft turned one-eighty degrees on the vertical axis, and zoomed
out of view. Not one tree in the forest beyond our crater was left
standing under its trajectory. I removed the safety belts and tried to
get out of the chair.
”Aaah, real gravity! It feels weird,” I laughed and tried to get up. It felt
like sitting in a chair after a fifteen year long train ride. Allie and Nick
removed their belts and helped eachother up. We stretched, then
checked the sensors.
”Yeah... The results from the scans we did in orbit seem to be good. We
could breathe the air and run around, if it weren’t freezing,” Nick read
the instruments.
“OK, as frightened as I am, I can’t wait any more. Let’s go out.”
”We should run more tests, Adam.”
”Why? Fresh air, no radiation, no biological dangers, why wait?”
”What if that thing gets back?”
”We’ll know.”

”What?”
”We’ll hear it. It flies on air. It floated for twenty seconds and killed half
the forest. I’d say it makes quite a ruckus. If our walls weren’t ten
meters thick, we’d probably be bleeding from our ears. Come on,
captain, don’t tell me you’d rather stay inhere. Besides, you get to be
the first to go out.”
”Oh, hell, alright. Let me just run the basic scans one more time.”
We waited in the airlock for the pressure to normalize. Nobody spoke.
Red lamp lit up, and the door began to open.
”Captains first,” I teased.
He turned to Allie, “Summers, go ahead.”
”M... me? Captain, the tractor beam did all the work, I only...”
”Go ahead, Allie,” He cut her off.
I was trully moved. He gave up his name in the books for the sake of
chivallery, decency and good manners. We watched Allie step out of
the airlock, and onto an elevator. Ater a short ride down, the elevator
stopped, and its door opened.
”I didn’t think of anything to say, Captain... I thought you’d be the one
with that burden,” Nick and I knew she was crying, even though her
voice was perfectly clear. She went through the door, and became the
first Earthling to step on extrasolar soil. “We’ve traveled faster than
light in a mammoth ship, left our cradle and came to a place where Sol
is only a dot in the sky. A damned big step for humanity. ”
The planet was about as big as Earth, and made of pretty much the
same stuff, so the gravity wasn’t much different either. The suits were
heavy, but also warm and that’s what mattered. We moved slowly for
an hour. We weren’t afraid of getting lost... It was impossible to get
lost, really. Our base was the size of a small mountain. The trees were
huge. Some rose up to ten meters in the air, and had trunks you could
carve a hut in. I felt like an insect in this dark and leafless forest. Ice
age...
“Vibrations, Nick,” I read.
”Ugh... They’re coming back.”
”Anything we can use as weapons?”
He remained still for a moment. I repeated the question.
”Oh, screw it. This could be an emergancy. We have an armoury
onboard. I wasn’t allowed to tell you,” he said. But I understood. We
hurried back and after a few steps, something pushed me to the
ground, face down. My ears were ringing so hard, I thought my skull
would split in two. I checked the status of Nick’s and Allie’s suits and
was glad to see they weren’t leaking air and heat. Trees left and right
of me lay on the ground. They all fell in the direction we were facing,
as if something had pushed them from behind. I lifted my head and
literally started shaking. A craft was blocking our path. It looked like a

bent delta wing with machinery hanging off of it. I guessed those were
air pumps that moved the craft. No visible weapons. A door opened in
the middle.
”...I guess we’re to go in?” said Allie.
“It looks damn scary, but I don’t see any weapons, Nick,” I responded.
”We don’t have a choice. If we run, they may get angry. However, I
don’t think we’d survive the manouvres this thing pulls. What do you
wanna do?”
I looked at the machine and thought about actually meeting the beings
that made it. It was hard to refuse, we all agreed. We got on, and
spread our body weight across the floor, preparing for the jump. The
sound, again. When the shock wore off, Nick looked at me, “That took
fifty years off my life! Why the hell aren’t we moving?”
I tried to think, but it’s hard to concentrate when your brain is turning
in your head. I felt a vibration, we lifted about a meter and everything
started to shake. The noise from the turbines was unbearable. Then we
strated moving, horizontally. We were escorted by many decibels of
turbine produced noise. I turned my sound off and flipped open a
keyboard on my arm. I typed.
“Got it. The craft took off, but left us on the ground in some sort of a
capsule. I think it’s also a ground vehicle. First its wheels popped out,
then lifted us. I see no controls.”
“We wait.” came a message from Nick.
Amy slept while we traveled. Gregory and I stopped communicating, to
conserve oxygen. I wasn’t sure how long we’d be inside the vehicle.
After a long ride, we stopped and a door opened. We carefully stepped
outside. There was a wall in front of us. We were in a building, I
guessed.
“Garage?” I asked.
Nobody answered. I turned around and saw Allie and Nick standing at
the entrance, looking out. I hopped over to them, glad to be able to
move around. When I joined them, my legs simply stopped answering.
Beyond a field in front of us lay a city of Gods. The grey, blunt edged
buildings soared kilometers high into the sky. The streets between
them were wide enough to land the Patriot on, with no problems. There
were vehicles covered in ice. Parked… or… abandoned. Most looked
like armadillo shells. Just like big, icy green bumps in the road. No
wheels…
”God, I feel like a fairy,” exclaimed Allie.
”Cheesy,” I said, “It’s huge… What do we do now?”
”Let’s check those things,” said Nick and pointed to the closest vehicle,
“The bodies may be still inside.”
We smashed through the ice with the suits’ tiny digging tools. Nothing.
Not a lock, not even a crack to indicate a door. I wasn’t sure if these
were vehicles anymore. Nick decided that we should go back into the

building. I turned and realized just then that we were on some sort of
an airfield. The monstrous building towered above it. It was filled with
holes. Some sort of landing bays, I thought, since the vehicle we came
in was parked in one of them, on the ground level. There were
markings above each cavity. It took us a while to find an entrance.
Inside, the halls and rooms were obviously built for human sized
residents – or in this case, workers. It didn’t look very different from a
regular building back on Earth. I noticed a thick pole, and a frame of
some sort, which reminded me of a metal detector. I stepped through it
and the pole started to move into the ground. It came from an opening
in the ceiling. Elevator? I kept my eye on it as we explored, and after a
few minutes it brought a platform to our level. Elevator. We stepped on
it, not sure what to expect. A console elevated from the middle of the
platform. The whole building was shown on its screen. There were
hundreds of levels.
“OK, how do we get there?” Nick asked, tapping the top floor.
The console sank back into the ground, and we launched upwards.
After a lengthy ride, we arrived at what I could only describe as a
Control Tower. Dozens of screens were hanging on the walls. Some
were showing diagrams and camera feeds from all around the building,
others weren’t operating. At the far side of the room, a single window
stood where there should’ve been a wall. There was a console in front
of it, bigger than the one in the elevator. It was still functional.
”Allie, do we have oxygen here?” asked Nick. She ran tests for about
fifteen minutes, while we explored the floor.
”Hmm… Looks like the ventilation and temperature regulating systems
are still online. It’s a bit chilly, but the air composition is… Air is
perfectly breathable, sir,” she cut it short.
”OK, Adam, I’d offer you to be the first to breathe, but there may be
dangers we’re not detecting. If something happens to me, try to
activate a signal or an alarm. Maybe someone comes. If it doesn’t
work, find a way back to the ship and-“
“Wait a second,” I interrupted, “Nothing’s gonna happen. We can stay
in our suits; they’re filtering the air, so we should have a near infinite
supply of oxygen.”
Nick hesitated a second.
”Screw that,” he said and removed his helmet. He stood there for a
moment, then inhaled through clenched teeth. His eyes shifted left to
right, as if he was expecting something to happen. Nothing did. Nick
flipped his arm computer open, removed a needle, pricked himself and
locked the blood sample inside the test chamber on the keyboard. I
could see his eyebrows relax above his eyes as he read the results. He
brought the helmet to his mouth and told us it’s safe. I was jealous.
Hours passed as we played with terminals, consoles and screens. We
discovered that the window in front of us is not a window at all, but a
direct, high-resolution feed from the camera on the other side of the

wall. It was the mainframe. On it, we brought up a map of the whole
city. It was humongous. No wonder I could see the cities from a falling
spaceship. The metropolis seemed to have been built around a central
gray area, with a giant tower rising out of it. It reminded me of a record
player. We decided to find a way back to our ship, stock up on supplies,
and visit the enormous Needle. Allie discovered a room packed with
electric cards of some sort. I noticed that the markings on them
resembled the ones above the docking bays. We grabbed a handful
and jumped back into our suits.
Looking for a vehicle with manual controls took little time. The
automated ones were covered in thick sheets of ice, while the others
didn’t look that bad, indicating that they still had heated cockpits. Does
the power ever run out in this place? I found a… a car, I guess, which
had a sign on its shell just like one of the cards in my hand. I rand my
glove over the vehicle, hoping to find an insertion point. I was proud of
myself when I did find one. The cards were the keys, like I assumed. I
slipped my keycard into the slot, and the door slid open. I was amazed
at the precision these creatures built with – there was not a single
crack to hint at the existence of a door. I could see through the shell
from the inside. Just like the mainframe window, I guessed, but I could
not find the camera on the outside of the shell. I decided to put that on
hold, and concentrate on learning how to drive the Armadillo. Yes, I
gave it a name. A board hanged where there should’ve been a steering
wheel. Its screen was like the ones on all the consoles in the Command
Tower. Interactive, I figured. It showed a field of connected polygons,
like a bee hive. About two hundred polygons, I estimated. Two short
sticks hung on each side of the board, one green, the other blue.
Drawing tablet was the first thing I could think of. I took the green stick
and ran it over the tablet. Those few polygonal cells under my pen
became green and the car moved forward. It stopped on its own,
centimeters from a wall. Excited, I put the other pen onto the tablet
and drew a blue line in the other direction. I moved backwards.
Another line over the same cells deactivated them, and they became
gray again. I radioed Allie and Nick immediately to share my discovery.
I found a key which slides the door open, and let them in.
”I call shotgun,” Nick said.
Allie sat on the back seat, while I explained how the car works.
”I have no idea what it runs on, but it’s probably the same stuff
everything else here uses. Solar power, stocked energy… Hell, even air
is a possibility. I don’t know. Anyway, this is a control panel. Notice how
the bottom of the car is flat? There are cells down there that I can’t
explain, but I can turn them off and on with these pens I’m holding.
Each cell on the tablet represents a cell on the bottom of the car, I
think. The blue one moves the car go backwards. If I color one, a
corresponding cell on the bottom will activate and start moving the car.
The more cells I draw, the faster the car goes. If I run the pen over a lit

cell, it will deactivate. Same goes for the green stick, only that one
moves the car forward. If I color the cells on the sides, the car will, of
course, make a turn. It stopped just when I was about to hit a wall, so I
think there’s some sort of crash detection built in.”
“I knew I brought you for a reason,” joked Nick. He was obviously
impressed, as I was obviously proud, “Good job.”
We made our way back to the ship, loaded the Armadillo with food and
weapons, and slept. In the morning, we left the Pilgrim lying in its
crater and headed for the Needle in the center of the city.
We made way through the metropolis, passing between the incredible
buildings and abandoned vehicles. There were no stoplights or signs
that I could associate with traffic regulation. It all looked so... clean.
This could, of course, be an effect of the decimeter thick ice that
covered everything. It looked clean, but in no way peaceful.
Threatening, scary towers above us intimidated me. I kept thinking
what kind of destruction one of them could cause, if it were to fall.
Constant howling of the wind made me only jumpier. Whenever I heard
a crack or a bump, I’d frantically scan my front and rear monitors for
monsters and aliens.
”Ghost city,” I heard Allie say to no-one in particular.
”Big ghosts,” said Nick.
“What do you think happened here, Gregory?” I noticed then that in
serious situations I called Nick by his first name, “It looks like they just
disappeared. I don’t see any signs of combat, or demolition, looting...
panic. Well, besides the abandoned cars.”
”I don’t know, and I’m tired of thinking about it. There must be answers
in the Needle. Until then, we can only guess. Damn computer wouldn’t
let me sleep last night. Wake me up when we get there.”
I watched him put on his helmet and dim his visor, admiring how calm
he was about everything. I hoped that he was right about the Needle. I
was scared of what those answers may be, too.
The slim tower pierced the large, flat building like a javelin from the
sky. We found many entrances. None seemed to have doors or barriers.
We went inside. I was amazed at how smart these creatures built.
There were no light bulbs, neon bars, or anything that could resemble
our solutions for luminosity. Instead, the whole ceiling was glowing. It
was just a tad lighter than the walls, so it didn’t hurt our eyes. After a
long corridor, we arrived at what I will call the biggest room ever,
anywhere. I saw countless of other corridors that seemed to be ending
here. The room was shaped like the inside of an egg. I could not see
the bottom.
Suddenly, something started to shine at the center. I watched with
dimmed visor and open mouth as the light began to grow. When it

reached the size of, I’ll guess, an Olympic swimming pool, a larger
transparent sphere started to glow around it. The whole setting looked
like a shiny marble inside a red glass ball. In a time period that was
only long enough for my eyes to register it, a stream of red energy
rushed from the outer layer towards the shiny sphere in the middle. At
that same moment, the sphere expanded, collided with the red stuff,
let out a blinding flash and disappeared. Now a black sphere floated
where the shiny one used to be. The inside of the bubble looked...
distorted.
Then it hit me.
“Holy shit... Holy shit,” was the only thing I could make my stunned
body say.
”What in the world was that?” asked equally shocked Allie.
”My God, Nick... We just saw a star go supernova!”
He just looked at me, not saying anything.
”Listen! The shiny thing was a miniature star. It was so dense that it
collapsed five seconds after it was created. We’re alive thanks to the
red bubble around it. Not only did it keep all the action inside of it, but
it also shielded us from the light. Nick, that was the same containment
field that Patriot has! A lot stronger, only. It’s so dense we can actually
see it.”
”We’re standing two hundred meters from a black hole, Adam?”
”Black hole, neutron star, I don’t know. Either way, the answer is yes.”
”And the only thing keeping us from being cramped into a grain of
sand is that red bubble? I’m seriously considering soiling myself.”
I looked at Allie. She was crying, her eyes wide open and clearly in
shock. I was afraid she would break down and try to run away. Her eyes
shifted towards me, and scared me more than the black hole behind
me.
”Allie, listen. Don’t panic. I think this civilization used this for some
purpose or other. This has happened before. It is safe, trust me. Why
else would they leave it open to everyone? Do not run away, please...
If -and this is a Jovian if, Allie- if something went wrong, believe me,
you could not get to a safe place in a thousand years,” I tried to
explain as calmly as I could. The truth is, I wanted to run, too. She
nodded through tears and slowly came closer, as if to hide behind me,
“The red bubble is not gonna let go, don’t worry.”
There was no way I could possibly have known that for sure. It did not
matter, though. If the bubble did crack, we would not live long enough
to notice.
“Remain calm. Your body will become tense by instinct, but you must
fight it and remain calm. I wish you no harm,” I thought. I thought? Did
I? Why did I talk to myself in second person? I don’t remember ever
being that confused. I looked at Nick and saw him shaking his head. He

looked just as baffled as me... and Allie. I caught something in the
corner of my eye, and turned towards the corridor, in the direction from
where we came.
My heart near exploded. I gasped for air as the shock of seeing a tall
figure in front of me took over. Again I had that strange feeling of
thinking, but not being the one who is doing the thinking.
”Remain calm,” I thought. Telepathy! What!? No other explanation for
this, it has to be telepathy, “I do not want to harm you.”
“N... NICK! I CAN HEAR IT!” I shouted.
“Me too, it’s telling me to stay calm!” I heard him say over Allie’s
screaming.
“Please, I only wish to give you... answers,” it said. I noticed that it
chose its words carefully. Answers. We came here for answers, and that
was freshly stored in my brain. It tried to keep me calm, just as I did
with Allie moments ago.
“I wish I could give you my name, but we label ourselves differently
than your kind. We do not use names composed of words. You would
quite simply not understand. Think of me as Alien. I am not using your
body to talk to you. Please, do not think that I am controlling it. I do not
have access to any of your motor functions. We are designed to
communicate like this. I cannot read your mind. The front part of my
brain sends a signal which is received by your mind and translated into
terms, feelings, sounds and pictures that you are familiar with. I know
you are scared, but please, I am not inside you. What may I call you?”
I swallowed, tried to regain moisture in my mouth and began talking.
”My name is Adam Worth. These are my colleagues Allie Summers and
Gregory Nikolaev,” when I looked at Allie, I saw her gasping for air and
clenching my arm tightly. I hugged her, although it wasn’t easy doing
that through the suits, “We are not of this world. We come from a
planet called... Wait, how can you understand me?”
“I will ask you to follow me. We will go to a place more suitable for your
bodies.”
We followed the tall bipedal creature, keeping safe distance. It was well
over three meters tall. Its limbs were thin but it moved with a certain
amount of grace and precision. We went out of the Needle and into a
nearby building. The creature stood at the opposite side of the room as
Nick and I removed our suits. We decided that Allie should keep hers
on, so we could monitor her. She looked pale and exhausted.
”Adam, you probably know what to ask better than I do. Talk to it while
I check Allie,” said Nick while unfolding Allies arm computer. Alien
stood motionless in the corner. I noticed then that he was wearing a
skin tight suit of some sort. His face was long and hairless. From where
I was standing, I could see three layers of pupils in his eyes. They were
all different shades of brown. His nose was flat, almost invisible. Just

two holes on a tiny bump on his face. The mouth was lipless and he
seemed to have teeth.
”Is your friend in serious condition?” He asked, pointing to Allie with his
long, bumpy finger.
“She is only tired. The shock will wear off when the drugs from her suit
take effect. She may fall asleep. I have questions.”
”Ask.”
”Who are you?”
”Think of me as Alien. I am native to this planet. Its name I cannot tell
you.”
”Why do you understand me?”
”I understand all languages from Earth.”
This threw me off. How could he know this?
”Have you been to Earth?”
”Long ago, before there was life on it, at the beginning of the project. I
am not allowed to go back.”
”Project? Can you explain that?”
”Yes. Your kind and mine -and many others- have been created by the
Originals. This is the closest to their name as I can translate. The
Originals are not life forms, by your definition. They are pure energy.
They need nothing to survive. They are able to exist anywhere, under
any circumstances. The Originals, as their name implies, are nearly as
old as the universe itself. Long ago, a swarm of these magnificent
entities conducted an experiment. They chose a rocky world, gave it
atmosphere and planted life on it. They repeated this many times, and
eventually populated planet c of Iota Horologii system. They helped us
evolve and gave us everything we needed. I am a link between the
experiments and the Originals.”
Amazed with the creature’s story, I asked,”Where are the Originals
now?”
”They are no more. I do not know what happened to them. I have not
been able to contact them for a long time.”
”Where are the citizens?”
”The sphere you saw activate in the Needle is a portal. When the Ice
Age was due, we moved to another planet.”
”Why are you here?”
”I came back for you. I helped create your world, and the one before it.
Through your impact on Earths climate, a global Ice Age will come,
fiercer than you would be able to survive. I wanted to evacuate Earth. I
have been monitoring your evolution, but I am not allowed to directly
interfere with it. I may have broken that rule by calling you here.”
”What did you... create... before Earth?”
”That was the first time I was involved in an experiment. Of course, I
made a mistake. The rock I chose was too small. The gravity could not
hold its atmosphere, which leaked into space over the years. Life never

reached multi-cell stage.”
”That sounds awfully familiar.”
”I am,” Alien paused. After a few awkward seconds, he continued.
“Proud. Tell me.”
”Mars.”
”Yes. Then we made Earth. There, I experimented with many different
organisms. Some still exist, mutated or evolved. We exploded a nearby
star to accelerate the mutation. Please understand that this was before
any of the beings had developed high intelligence.”
”Okay… So... You sent the signal. You gave us the technology. You
landed the Pilgrim. What do we do now?”
”I created life on Earth. I cannot leave it unprotected. I will give you the
technology needed for creating a portal. You will go back and activate
it. It will transfer carbon based life to a safe place.”
”But our ship can’t fly. Even if it wasn’t damaged, it was not meant to
take off from the ground.”
”I will send you to Earth.”
”Wait... May I ask a favor?”
”Yes.”
”Show me the first experiment. The first planet with life on it.”
After resting and regaining strength, Alien brought me to the Needle.
We stood at the edge of the hallway as the red field collapsed for a
fraction of a nanosecond, just enough to rip space and throw us out at
a calculated point.
After a strange feel of vertigo, I felt my body grow heavy in an instant.
A change of gravity, I thought. I was standing on a neon plateau.
Around me, an infinite sea of them glowed. The sky held the most
impressive aurora show I’ve ever seen. I turned and Nick and Alien
were there. My tall friend began explaining.
”These are the oldest organisms in the universe. They are a part of the
planet. This rock spins slowly. For eons, these glowing mushrooms
collect energy from the sun on the other side. They use the
accumulated energy to survive the long, long night. In your terms, the
night lasts one million, two thousand and three Earth’s rotations
around Sol.”
”Where are the stars? Are we outside?”
”We are outside.”
”So where are th...”
After a few moments of silence, Alien said,”I am proud. Tell me.”
”Loner system... We are not in a galaxy. We’re in intergalactic space!
This planet and its star are soaring through... nothing!”
”The Originals wanted a safe place for their first creations. The edge of
the universe.”

We traveled back to Earth. The effect of global climate change was
already visible. Cities were frozen, air was foul and people have died.
The remaining billion or so I transferred using Alien’s machine. Nick,
Allie and I watched it from a temple in Tibet.
We watched the sun explode.