This time, before making the hyperjump to the solar system, we all prepared containers of fruit juice, holding straws in the corner of our mouths so that, even if we had no physical motion, we’d still be able to drink. We’d been somewhat shocked at the effects of being in the dark matter universe. It looked as if spolding would always have to be done in relatively small stages. If we’d had a method of targeting a world five hundred light years away, instead of forty, we’d have almost certainly died from dehydration en route. Astrophysicist Mary was determined to discover why the time dilation occurred as soon as she got back to her laboratory.
‘Three, two, one, go!’ said pilot Anna, and we were once again in the dreadful stasis.
I couldn’t resist trying out my straw idea immediately and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the orange juice could be sucked without a problem, even though the rest of my body was frozen.
A fraction over ninety minutes passed, and our journey ended. The Earth, welcoming us back with its beautiful creams and browns and greens in addition to the familiar dozens of shades of blue and the pristine white swirls of clouds. A gorgeous world. Our home world.
‘One hundred and sixty thousand miles,’ said Anna.
‘Take us in,’ I said. ‘Once we’ve discussed the problem with NASA, we can soon put in a course to the moon for decontamination.’
Imperceptibly slowly, the globe began to fill our view. So lovely, incomparably beautiful compared with the dirty black and brown worlds of Trappist-1. I wondered if Quietus would have looked like Earth if we had arrived prior to their fatal discovery of space flight. Probably not. The dull red light of Trappist-1 meant that green plants would always likely be at a disadvantage. I was sure, however, that the world would not have been as dead as it had been when we explored the streets of that devastated alien New Liverpool.
‘Odd,’ said Tosh.
‘What?’ asked Bill.
‘Not picking up GPS transmissions.’
‘I’m not getting the ISS beacon either,’ said Anna.
We all turned our attention to the sensors, particularly Tosh’s console which was designed to detect transmissions of any type. What could this mean?
‘Is there nothing at all, Tosh?’ I asked.
‘No. Airwaves, or rather, space-waves are dead. Completely dead.’
‘Fault with the sensors?’ I asked.
‘Don’t think so,’ Tosh said. ‘This is worrying.’
‘That’s daft,’ said Bill. ‘Must be a console fault.’
‘Don’t tell me what’s daft or not!’ retorted Tosh. ‘Check it yourself. There’s not even radio coming up from the surface.’
By now we were through the Van Allen belts and approaching a three-hundred-mile orbit.
‘No satellites,’ said Anna.
‘None! You’re sure?’ asked Mary.
‘Certain,’ she replied. ‘Orbit established.’
Mary’s fingers became a blur above her keyboard. Pages and pages of reference documents flashed across her screen.
‘No. It isn’t possible,’ she said under her breath.
Now was the time to be concerned. If Mary was shocked by something, it was sure to have serious repercussions for the rest of us. I grabbed the high-power binoculars and studied Africa, which was directly in front of us. Not a good continent on which to search for signs of habitation, but our orbit continued north-eastwards, showing us the Sahara, and soon the Nile delta was coming over the horizon. Plenty of forests and lush greenery in the delta and along the Nile, but no sign of Alexandria and, following the Nile southwards, there was no Cairo and the lake at Aswan had vanished. What the hell did it mean? An awful pit opened up in my stomach. It didn’t make any sense.
‘Come on, Mary. What’s happening? The cities have vanished,’ I said and floated through to the recreation area, unbolted the Celestron telescope and brought it back onto the bridge.
‘Don’t know,’ said Mary. ‘Working on it.’
Within a minute I had the telescope fixed in position and examined the Nile again before it disappeared from our view. ‘Nothing. Even the pyramids are gone!’
‘How can that be? It’s crazy. Pinch me, someone,’ said Tosh. ‘How can all of the thousands of satellites have vanished? It makes no sense. Mary, what’s going on?’
‘It is Earth, isn’t it?’ asked Bill. ‘We couldn’t have returned to the wrong planet.’
‘Don’t be bloody stupid, man!’ said Tosh, becoming agitated. ‘Look at it! Of course, it’s Earth!’
‘Look, there’s the Dead Sea and Galilee!’ said Anna.
‘But where’s the Suez Canal?’ asked Bill
I noticed Mary had gone very quiet indeed. ‘Mary,’ I said. ‘What have you found?’
She looked at me like a child who’d been caught with her hand in the candy jar. She’d gone pale, considering her Pakistani origins, very pale. What was wrong with her? She looked at her console again.
Fear rose within me. ‘You know, Mary? Don’t you? You’ve figured it out!’ I said.
Everyone looked at the astrophysicist. She glanced up from her screen, like someone who had a dreadful life-changing secret which was about to become public knowledge.
‘I can guess,’ she said extremely nervously.
I’d never seen Mary behave like this. What had she found? Four anxious pairs of eyes stared at her, awaiting some sort of explanation.
‘Sorry,’ she continued, ‘but if I’m right, none of us is going to like the answer!’