Neil didn’t take long getting back to me.
‘Hi, Mark. Wally is still here and Anna is his partner. Same with Veronica, so it only seems to be Chi and Penny who are causing the immediate problem.’
‘What should we do, Neil?’ I asked. ‘We believed we’d reversed each of the spolding journeys correctly. I don’t see how we are going to be able to improve upon them to cut out this particular paradox.’
‘Down here, we’re concerned about a duplicate ship returning and you meeting yourselves. Mary’s spolding team are starting work on the conundrum right now. Frankly, we could do with Mary joining them and bringing all the Spirit data.’
‘Tell me, Neil. What’s the name of the English television company?’ I asked.
‘What do you mean? The BBC? Why?’
‘It changed from BBC to EBC while we were on Mars, so that has been corrected, yet we never did a correcting journey to resolve the Mars trip. What a mess,’ I said.
‘That’s interesting, Mark. We must check out the actual video.’
‘Yes, I can check if it was the same interview,’ I said. ‘Of course, we have a mass of video of our work on Haven and it will all show Chi.’
‘Assumed so,’ said Neil.
‘We’ll come back to that when you’re Earth-side. I need to let Chi speak to Tosh now, Mark. She’s tearing her hair out here.’
‘Well, I’m not sure if we should, Neil,’ I said. ‘Just imagine that they meet up and then the other Spirit returns. One of the two Toshes will be devastated, not to mention me, Bill and Anna. Is Chi listening to this conversation?’
‘Yes.’
‘I’m not sure of the wisdom of that, Neil,’ I said. ‘Chi, I’m so glad you’re alive, but I have a responsibility to my crew. Tosh was cradling you on Haven as you died and it hit him pretty hard. You died in his arms, for heaven’s sake. We have Shooey in one of the lockers. Do you understand the effect it could have if you speak to him now and then the other Tosh returns?’ I said.
‘Yes, Mark. I’ll be careful,’ Chi said, her soft Chinese accent immediately recognisable to me. ‘I can’t imagine how weird it will be seeing video of myself.’
‘Neil. Once Chi has spoken to Tosh, there is no going back. We can never deliberately tear him apart from her again,’ I said.
‘No. Chi and I have discussed that,’ said Neil.
‘And if your version of Spirit also returns – what about that other Tosh? Have you discussed that?’
‘Yes, but we’re hoping that doesn’t happen,’ said Neil.
‘You’re wishing Penny into oblivion,’ I said.
‘I suppose so. I’ll have to speak to her family. Whatever we do will be both right and wrong. Dealing with duplicates has huge potential repercussions,’ said Neil.
‘I don’t know, Neil. Perhaps we should just set off back to Trappist-1 and try to be more accurate in our distance and mass calculations. There is no simple solution to this – people are going to be hurt. Throughout this correction process, I’ve been agonising over losing Linda and Jason. How much worse that will be if we reunite now only for my other self to return and demand that I leave. Even though Linda will love us both, we can hardly share a wife and fatherhood.’
‘What are you suggesting then?’
‘I want to have a meeting with my crew to discuss all of the aspects of this paradox. We’ll then take a vote whether to return to Trappist-1 and try to correct things or to accept the risk that the second Spirit will turn up one day. Does that sound reasonable?’
‘Let me speak to Tosh, Mark,’ said Chi.
‘No. I can’t do that,’ I said. ‘We must consider the implications first among ourselves. What you ask is too much.’
‘Okay, Mark. I see your point and it would be good for you all to make that decision,’ said Neil. ‘How long do you want?’
‘As long as it takes. I’m certainly not mentioning Chi up here until we’ve made the decision. I’ll present it as a problem more for me, Bill and Anna. You do understand, Chi?’
‘Yes,’ she said quietly. ‘I see the dilemma and, yes, introducing my existence into the equation will only complicate it, but Tosh is not likely to be amused if you have not provided all of the facts.’
‘That’s the point. If I do mention you, Tosh will lose all objectivity,’ I said. ‘Chi, you must remember that he is grieving and I’ve watched him going through the process. He has not taken it well. I can’t elate him and then smash him down again. It wouldn’t be right or fair.’
‘Mark’s right. Call me when you have made your decision,’ said Neil.
‘Do you understand, Chi?’ I asked.
‘Yes. I suppose so,’ she said in a resigned manner.
‘I’ll call Neil when the decision is made,’ I said.
I kept the line open for a few minutes so that the others would think I was still talking. It gave me the time to think about how best to present this to the crew.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
‘What was that all about?’ asked Tosh as I returned to the communal area.
‘We have to talk and make a decision. Where’s Anna?’
‘I’ll get her,’ said Mary who flew through to the bridge.
Once we were all together, I took a position where I could see and be seen by all.
‘We have a dilemma,’ I said. ‘There is a really bad paradox brewing, which we will all have to face. I’ve told Neil that I will do what the crew, you, decide. There’ll be a democratic vote and I’ll have the casting vote if it splits two, two.’
‘Come on, Mark. What the hell is this?’ asked Tosh.
‘It affects us all, but particularly me, Bill and Anna.’ I hoped that would knock Tosh off guard.
‘There are two Spirits. Ours, but also another one which has not yet returned from Trappist-1. The crew of the second Spirit is us too. We are the duplicate, not them. It is we who have the dilemma here. We’ve returned to the wrong Earth, not them.’
‘How do you know we’re the duplicates? Why not them?’ asked Tosh.
‘There is a very simple reason why we must be the duplicates. I’ll explain when we’ve made our decision,’ I said.
‘Okay, let’s hear it,’ said Bill.
‘I want you all to consider this very carefully. It affects us all to some degree, but Bill, Anna and me more than others.
‘Down on Earth there is a Ronnie, a Wally and Linda, but, because we are duplicates, if the original Spirit from this universe returns then we will possibly be coming face to face with ourselves.’
‘Why not me?’ asked Tosh.
‘Well, yes, you too, but your parents having two identical sons is hardly as problematical as Ronnie or Linda having two husbands.’
‘Okay,’ said Tosh, sullenly, ‘continue.’
‘Bill, imagine your situation with Ronnie; Anna your situation with Wally; and, of course, I’m thinking of my personal situation with Linda and Jason. To them, we are us – there is no paradox, but the moment the second Spirit returns, all three of us will be seen as usurpers by our other selves.
‘How will we react to having our lives stolen away by what is, to us, duplicates of ourselves. That’s only part of it, of course. We would be the duplicates. Ronnie, Wally and Linda would not be our partners, but the others’ partners. Think about that. Would you want to hand over your partner to another self?’
‘Oh my God! What’s the chance of that happening?’ asked Anna.
‘Neil thinks it is unlikely, but still a distinct possibility,’ I said. ‘Personally, I think it is actually quite possible, you might too. Neil hasn’t experienced the spolding conundrum in the way we have.’ I thought I’d managed to sideline Tosh, but he was too clever for that. He’d been thinking laterally.
‘Chi could be on that other Spirit,’ he said.
‘Yes, Tosh, but so would her Tosh. You’d still be the duplicate if that was the case. She’s not going to overthrow her you for you, is she?’ I said.
‘But it would be lovely to know she is still alive,’ he said.
‘You’re assuming she wouldn’t have died on the other Spirit. You have no reason to believe that,’ I said.
‘No, but if she hadn’t, I’d still be pleased she was alive, even if I couldn’t have her,’ he said quietly.
‘You really mean that? It is easy to say but will not be easy to live with. What do you think, Anna, Bill?’
‘What’s the alternative?’ asked Anna.
‘We head back to Trappist-1 and try to correct our spolding to bring us back to our own Earth,’ I said.
‘That’s as likely as us winning the lottery,’ said Mary. ‘Any improvements upon what we’ve done to try to correct matters are no better than pure chance.’
‘So? What do we do?’ I asked.
‘I think we should stay here and take our chances,’ said Bill.
‘And your alter ego returns and demands you move out of your home with Ronnie? Would you want to put her through that too?’ I asked.
‘I’d live with it somehow,’ he said, ‘but heading back into the void with little or no chance of improving our situation most certainly does not appeal.’
‘And you, Anna?’
‘I feel the same as Bill,’ she said.
‘How do the rest of you feel?’ I asked. ‘Try to imagine you, too, had partners here. How would you feel? Mary?’
The astrophysicist said, ‘As I said, I think the chance of us improving upon our spolding reversals is as near zero as makes no difference. I’d vote to stay.’
‘And you, Tosh? Imagine Chi was here and you could have her back, only to lose her again if the other Spirit returned. What would you do?’
‘I’d stay and hope for the best,’ he said.
‘Right,’ I said. ‘A vote. Who would stay?’
All four hands rose. I was relieved not to have to place a casting vote.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
I contacted Neil with the result of our deliberations and he accepted our decision.
‘Give me a moment and I’ll get Chi,’ he said.
‘I’ll get Tosh,’ I said and cut the transmission. I opened my cabin door and called him. Some of the others followed, but I put out my hand to indicate not yet.
I asked Tosh to tether himself to the seat at my cabin desk.
‘What’s going on?’ he asked, looking at me quizzically.
‘Some special news for you,’ I said and switched the radio to live.
‘Tosh is here, Neil,’ I said.
‘Someone to speak to you, Tosh,’ said Neil.
‘Tosh, it’s me,’ said Chi.
I watched his face as a puzzled, worried expression formed, bringing out the frown lines on his brow. He looked at me, then the reality began to sink in. He was shocked. He looked at me and said, ‘How can this be? Is it some sort of bizarre joke?’
‘It’s her, Tosh. In this universe, she never came with us,’ I said.
‘Chi?’ he asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Is it really you?’
‘Yes, it’s me, dearest,’ she said.
Tosh burst into tears.
‘I’ll leave you two to talk,’ I said and left to join the others in the communal area, trying to think of the best way to let them know what had happened. I’d face any wrath Tosh felt towards me for being misled later.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Decontamination and quarantine took four weeks. NASA had created some sealed tents which could be affixed to the outside of Spirit’s hull in the same way we used the tunnels to link the buggies on the moon. Once they were sealed with an astronaut inside, the storage lockers were opened and a powerful disinfectant sprayed over the area of the hull and the inside and content of the lockers. The sealed specimens were then removed from the lockers, the tent unsealed and the items put into another hermetically sealed unit for transfer down to Earth. That, of course, was not without its hazards. When the Rimor was ready to make the journey to the Earth-side laboratories in the Nevada desert, it would carry a nuclear device which would totally incinerate it and everything it was carrying if there was a problem during re-entry which might cause contamination to be released. Everyone hoped it would never have to be used.
Once we were all disinfected and quarantined, almost a month after our return, we boarded our second Rimor for the descent, with Anna piloting. Spirit remained in orbit, the asteroid disconnected and two new Rimors and a fuel tank ready to dock for the next spolding journey. Astrophysicists were delighted to have an alien rock to study and it was parked in the same orbit as the ISS.
Anna landed us safely at Houston. Once the engines were purged, we descended onto Mother Earth. Neil and Chi were standing on the apron awaiting our arrival.
Several weeks in free fall had affected our bodies and we had difficulty standing – all except Tosh, that is. He flung himself almost in a diving rugby tackle towards Chi and they both fell over with the speed of the embrace. Tosh was in floods of tears, joined by Chi as they staggered back to their feet and stood with their arms around each other.
Neil hugged each of us and Chi extracted herself from Tosh’s arms and we all hugged her too.
‘Can’t believe this, Chi,’ I said. ‘I watched you die. It is so wonderful that the universe has given us this extraordinary opportunity to be reunited.’
‘You bet,’ she said.
We entered the reception building and there were the others. Linda, Jason, Wally, Ronnie, and Mary’s brother. Such a beautiful and welcome reunion.
I knew Bill and Anna were having the same difficult conversation I was with Linda – understanding and facing the problem we might encounter if the other Spirit returned.
After a few days at home, we all returned to plan a strategy to save the marooned Heradians on Arctur. How were we going to move a colony of more than three hundred people and where were we going to put them? It was so exciting to think of meeting an alien race, face to face. I wondered what biohazard precautions we might need to concoct, in order to do so safely. We wouldn’t want to save them from Arctur, only to then kill them with chickenpox. The NASA medical team was on the job.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
‘I don’t want to worry the rest of you,’ said Tosh, ‘but when we left Trappist-1, Chi was buried on the surface. I watched the grave for a while and could read the words on the makeshift headstone.’
‘And your point is?’ asked Terry Bairstow, one of Mary’s team of astrophysicists and experts in spolding theory. He was a tall rangy man in his late thirties, prematurely bald, but with a pleasant face and winning smile. I liked him and he was clearly a genius, almost on Mary’s exalted plane.
‘Keep up, man,’ Tosh replied belligerently. ‘If this is the same section of the entiroverse which we left when we returned from Trappist-1, how could there be two Chis?’
‘Are you sure it said Chi?’ asked Neil.
‘Of course, I’m bloody sure,’ raged Tosh. ‘It said, “Here lies Chi Wang. Much loved enhanced human pilot from the planet Earth.” It is ingrained on my mind. I could never misread or mis-see such a thing.’
‘Calm down, Tosh,’ I said quietly to him. He looked at me venomously then his expression softened as Chi grasped his arm.
‘Then we haven’t completely sorted out the spolding conundrum,’ said Terry.
‘We definitely entered hyperspace at two-seventy degrees and exited at the same angle,’ said Mary. ‘We used the same angle during all of the jumps, only not reversing it until we discovered the conundrum.’
We all sat quietly for a few moments, surrounding the large conference table. Me, Linda, Neil, Tosh, Chi, Mary, Terry, Bill, Anna, Chan Huang, another pilot from the Moonstruck expedition, and an additional astrophysicist, Sandra Brewerton.
Well, that could be it,’ said Sandra.
‘What?’ said Mary.
‘That last jump was to reverse any possible entry into a different universe during the original jump to Trappist-1,’ said Sandra.
‘Of course,’ said Mary, ‘so we did travel through the entiroverse. The Trappist-1 we left is not in the same universe we’re inhabiting now.’
‘Chi’s grave might not even be there in this universe,’ said Terry. ‘Perhaps the entire crew of our Spirit, with Penny Heston on board, died because they didn’t realise how deadly the plant was until samples they’d take back to orbit began emitting pollen.’
‘You mean we’re all dead in orbit around Haven?’ said Bill.
‘I don’t know. But possible,’ said Terry.
‘And the colony on Arctur might not exist in this universe,’ said Neil.
‘Possible,’ said Mary.
‘How can we find out?’ asked Neil. ‘We don’t want to go on a wild goose chase to save them if they’re not even there.’
‘No,’ said Tosh, and we all fell into silence once again.
‘We need to go back, but this time ensuring we do not jump into a different part of the entiroverse,’ I said.
‘In that case,’ said Mary, ‘my team has a lot more work to do. We still haven’t got a good theory for why the journeys aren’t instantaneous – and what if the universe hopping isn’t just caused by entering and leaving incorrectly. There could be other factors.’
‘Okay,’ said Neil decisively. ‘Mary, you take your team and return to the lab. You know what’s needed. The rest of us will consider how we’re going to rescue the Heradians.’
‘Come on, Terry, Sandra. Let’s get back to the laboratory,’ said Mary and the three of them left us to our deliberations.
‘As I see it,’ said Neil, ‘the project can be broken down into three parts or stages. One, we should ship them some supplies to compensate for the vitamin deficiency they’re currently experiencing. Two, we need to find out what they are planning with regard to ridding Herade of the plant. As part of that, there will need to be some experimentation. Three, we need to transport them from Arctur to Herade or, at the very least, ensure they have the wherewithal to be able to do that themselves. Did anyone think to find out if they are enhanced?’ Neil looked around at the rest of us.
‘No,’ I said, looking at the rest of the expedition members.
‘Don’t know how we’d have discovered that,’ said Tosh. ‘Also, if they were enhanced thousands of years ago, the virility of the enhancement might have worn off as it had on Earth before we brought the fresh entities from the moon.’
‘I see,’ said Neil. ‘Well, we’ll need to find out. We also need to be sure that they are peaceful. That warrior on his eight-legged steed looks pretty fierce. Do we want to save a deadly enemy?’
‘A lot of this is just imagination,’ said Tosh. ‘Let’s work on the basis that they are a peace-loving species. Certainly, giving them some fresh entities wouldn’t hurt the situation.’
‘Wouldn’t it?’ asked Anna, who’d been quiet up to now. ‘They might not want to be enhanced.’
‘That seems unlikely,’ said Tosh. ‘Once it is explained, it is a no-brainer.’
‘So much so, that Earth wanted to wipe them all out on the moon. Don’t be so sure,’ said Chi.
‘Hold on a moment,’ I said. ‘Given what we now know, or rather surmise, about moving around in the entiroverse, our first task is to go back within this universe and to check whether or not they still need our help.’
‘Mark’s right,’ said Bill. ‘We might go back and find that the people of Herade were never wiped out by the weed.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Neil. ‘It’s a huge cost just to obtain that information.’
‘Is it? Why is it?’ I asked. ‘Spirit is sitting there ready to go right now. We don’t need to descend to Arctur or Herade’s surfaces. We just need to go look and return immediately.’
‘Not until Mary’s team has checked out all the factors which could cause an erroneous jump,’ said Neil. ‘That’s the crucial factor.’