The Other Earth

by Amber LaShell

  "No dinosaurs" I said.

  "That is definitely a good thing, in my opinion" he said.

  I laughed, "I think anyone would have that opinion" I said, turning back to the telescope.

  "You see anything else?" he asked.

  I shook my head, "I still can't zoom in close enough, but look at those picture. Do you notice how they have a big cluster of land in one place?" I asked.

  Brandon looked back down to the computer screen and scrolled, "Yes I see what you mean. It's almost like how our planet was before the continents separated."

  "Yes, exactly. So, is it odd to you that this planet was only formed a few hundred years ago, yet they obviously have intelligent humans there? It's like they skipped the entire evolutionary pattern" I said.

  Brandon put his hand on his chin, "Hmm, you make a good point. The problem is that we still cannot see what their so called humans look like. I am assuming they would look like us, but we can't be sure yet."

  I leaned back in my chair, "This is so frustrating. We have been on this ship for almost six months. I feel like I have been in a waiting room waiting for a very slow doctor. I want to be there already" I said, putting my fingers up to my temples.

  "Do you have a headache again?" Brandon asked me, his eyes narrowing in concern.

  "Yes" I moaned without opening my eyes.

  I heard him get up and in seconds felt his hands on my shoulders. I started to moan as he started to massage them, "You have to relax" he said.

  "I know. I'm just a little stressed." I said.

  He continued to rub, "I don't know why you are letting something you can't control stress you out. It takes time to travel through space. Just be thankful we aren't in one of the old rockets. It would have taken us at least nine months to get there on one of those things" He said.

  I laughed, "I am grateful for that" I said, tilting my head to the side as pushed his thumbs into my neck.

  "Besides, has the last few months been all that bad? I know the last three have just flown by" he said, leaning down and kissing me on my neck lightly.

  I laughed, "Well, the second half of this trip has gone by much faster than the first half that's for sure."

  "With a lot less cold showers too" he said, kissing the other side of my neck.

  I smiled, "But with many more hot ones."

  "You are such a bad girl, do I need to spank you?" he asked.

  I groaned, "I would love a good spanking. Later. Just not right now, I have too much to do to get ready to land."

  "We don't land for another few days, what are you getting ready?" he asked, moving his thumbs up to my forehead.

  "I need to start logging our arrival and trying to coordinate our landing somewhere safe on this planet. I need to start securing the supplies that will be locked up while we are there, and I need to start packing clothes once I can get a look at how these people dress" I said.

  "You don't have to do all of that by yourself, I am here to help."

  I smiled, "I know. It just seems like there is so much left to do in just a few days. The time somehow got away from us it seems" I said.

  Brandon laughed, "Yes well, that happens sometimes when you are having fun. So I'll tell you what" he said, clapping his hands together. "I will start to scan the coordinate for the landing, and you can start the log. Once that is done we can sit down and have a nice dinner. Then, maybe after that we can play a game of poker. We haven't played in a while and my hands are itching to kick your ass."

  "If I'm not mistaken, I am now ahead of you on games won, so I will take that challenge" I said.

  He leaned down and kissed me on the forehead, "Great, see you at dinner dear" he said, laughing as he walked down the stairs back to the main control room.

  ***

  "Hey are you coming to eat? Dinner is ready" Brandon asked me.

  I looked up from the computer and sighed, "Wow, that time went by fast" I said, not realizing two hours had already gone by.

  "Are you still logging?" he asked.

  I nodded, "Well I was logging, and then I caught some movement from the other earth and as I studied the pictures that were coming in, it looks like they have something that resembles our cars, but they look a bit different."

  Brandon walked up to her, "Different how?" he asked.

  I pointed to the screen marking a spot that held one of their vehicles, "Well, look here at how it's shaped."

  Brandon leaned in, "Tell me why this looks like I'm looking at a picture of a Twinkie" he said.

  I laughed, "Yes, exactly. It's shaped like a long log. I can't really tell at this point but I would guess that these vehicles would only have room for one person in them."

  "One person? That's odd. How would they take their kids to school or go buy groceries?" he asked.

  I shook my head, "I don't know, that's something I was wondering too, but I think I might have it figured out" I said.

  "What do you think?" he asked.

  "Well, if you look here and here" I said, pointing to other parts of the screen. "It looks as though they are divided up into very small colonies. I can't tell if these are like barbed wire fences or if it's a solid wall, we are still too far away. But either way, if they are in small colonies, then there really isn't much use for a car, as you can walk everywhere you want to go" I said.

  Brandon nodded, "Yes I see what you mean. This is very interesting. I mapped out the coordinates and it shows that down in the southern area there is a large amount of empty land. It seems like the space they live on is limited and they have a lot of free wilderness. Seems odd since they don't have all that much land to work with anyway." He said.

  "Yes, that is odd." I said.

  Brandon stood back up, "Well, we won't know anything more until we drift a little closer. Come and eat" he said.

  "Okay" I replied as I stood up and stretched my body, which had been sitting in the same position for a few hours already.

  "What are we having?" I asked, following him down the stairs.

  "Chicken and Rice" he said.

  I groaned, "Again?"

  "Yep, again" he said.

  I sat down at the table and started to eat, which was good even though it was boring.

  "What do you think these people are going to be like?" Brandon asked.

  I shrugged my shoulders, "I don't know. That's something to think about though. We should be close enough soon to actually see what they look like and what they wear and things like that. Hopefully they don't dress too crazy or we won't have anything to fit in with them."

  "Another thing I was thinking about. It took so many years for us to evolve into the humans we are at home, and it took billions of years before someone invented things like cars and such. If this planet has evolved so fast, will their demise be just as fast?" he asked.

  I thought about that as I finished chewing my food, "I don't think so. The entire problem that we have with our planet stems from our pollution, which in turn has been killing our planet. They don't have the problem of pollution as we do, so will they ever meet their demise?" I asked.

  Brandon nodded, "I see what you're saying."

  We continued to eat in silence, the both of us contemplating this new planet and what surprises it would hold for us. I just hoped that the people would be friendly enough that I didn't feel as though I was serving a prison sentence. I looked over at Brandon and smiled, I had been so worried about things becoming too awkward between us, but we had somehow fallen into a sort of comfortable routine with each other over the past few months.

  Every day we had breakfast together, did some work, had lunch, wrote in our journals and studied a little more, had dinner together, and then it was personal time. Personal time was usually spent locked up in one of our rooms, exploring each other.

  The routine was actually a little too comfortable it seemed. What would happen when we landed on the planet, all of the personal time would have to be put on hold for the sake of the mission. It was one thing to pla
y around at night when we were all by ourselves on this ship, but it was another thing to do that when we were supposed to be blending in and getting to know the people and learn as much about this new planet as possible.

  "What are you thinking about?" Brandon asked.

  I shook myself out of my daydream and decided I wasn't going to bring it up. We still had a few days to enjoy the time together and I wasn't going to be the one to break the spell we were under.

  "Oh just thinking about this new planet." I said.

  He nodded, "Yeah I figured that's what you were thinking about" he said.

  "Well what were you thinking about?" I asked.

  "Getting you naked" he said seriously.

  I laughed, "Well I hate to burst your bubble mister, but you owe me a game of poker first, and I am going to wipe the floor with you" I said, taking my empty plate to the sink.

  "Oh it's on" Brandon said, slapping my ass as he walked past me. I smiled, happy for now that we were still comfortable around each other.

  ***

  I looked through the telescope, trying to understand what I was looking at. We were only hours away from landing and I could finally see people close enough to make out what they looked like, and I was actually surprised by what I was seeing.

  "Can you see them?" Brandon asked from next to me, looking at the images flashing across the computer screen.

  I nodded, "Yes, but it's not what I thought" I said.

  He tilted his head to the side as he turned to look at me, "What do you mean" he asked.

  I looked back through the telescope, "Well, first of all, they look like humans. The same as us, but only they dress funny" I said.

  "Dress funny how?" he asked.

  I pulled away from the telescope and motioned for him to look through it, "They all dress the same. Gray shirt and gray pants. I can't see close enough to see their shoes but I would take a guess that they are gray too. The other thing is there is some kind of symbol on their shirts. If you look between the different areas that are separated each area has a different symbol, and all of the people there wear the same one."

  "They almost all look like they are living on a military base or something" Brandon said.

  "Yes Exactly. It's odd though because everyone is like that, so what would they even have a military for?" I asked, confused as to what we were getting ourselves into.

  "I don't know. Maybe it's not that they have military, maybe the people there just live this way. We don't know the history of the planet yet so they may have had some huge war and now they dress alike." Brandon reasoned, pulling away from the telescope and switching seats with me again.

  I shook my head, "It's odd, but we can find out what the reasoning is once we get there. Now we have a problem though. We have gray clothes, that's not an issue, but how are we going to fake that symbol on their clothes? We will stick out like sore thumbs if we don't' have it" I said.

  "Well, where we are going to land is in a place nobody seems to live, but at the same time is close enough to people to get in and get out quickly if need be. We will try to figure something out to blend in, but if we fail, we can always hide out in the ship. I don't think anyone will find it where we are going to be landing it" he said.

  I nodded, "I'm just worried that we won't be able to blend in. I mean, I get that we can always forfeit the mission if we have to, but it's like I waited my entire life for this mission and I want it to go smoothly" I said.

  Brandon reached over and put his hand on my leg, "When has anything in life ever gone smoothly?" he asked.

  I laughed, "Well you have a damn good point there. Let's get this baby on the ground, we will have to get ready to enter their orbit soon so we better get down to the control room" I said, standing up.

  Brandon stood up with me and before turning to walk back down he pulled me to him and gave me a slow kiss that made my toes tingle.

  "What was that for?" I asked.

  "I just wanted to, now let's go land a space ship."

  Chapter Fourteen

  "Brace yourself, we are about to touch down!" Brandon yelled from the chair next to me.

  I held on to my safety harness as the ship came down hard on the ground. I heard Brandon grunt as he was thrown around as badly as I was. I had thought the landing would be much smoother than it was, but they seemed to have more gravity on this planet that we had previously thought they would.

  I looked out of the window and nearly gasped at how beautiful the area we had landed in was. There were rolling hills of lush green grass that were covered in small colorful flowers. We were directly next to a rather large hill that had a huge waterfall that was cascading down the side of it with crystal blue water. I had only seen water that clear in pictures as the water on Earth more of a green color now, with all of the pollution.

  "Wow" I said, taking in the beauty.

  "Yeah, it's really beautiful here. I am going to lower the wheels of the ship and move it to be under that waterfall. The color of the water will blend in with the silver of the ship and nobody will ever know that it is here." He said.

  I smiled, "That is brilliant. But, there is one small problem with that." I said.

  He looked over at me, his forehead crinkled with worry, "What?" he asked.

  "I am not going to want to leave it" I said.

  Brandon threw a pen at me, "You scared me" he said.

  I craned my neck to look around at the beautiful land while Brandon started to slowly guide the ship under the waterfall. Once we were completely underneath it and therefore well hidden I didn't know what to do.

  "So what do we do now?" I asked Brandon.

  He looked at me for a few seconds, "I have an idea I wanted to run past you" he said.

  I clicked open my safety harnesses and stood up out of my chair, "What's your idea?" I asked.

  Brandon stood up out of his chair, now safely out of his harnesses as well, "Well, I know for a fact that neither of us has gone swimming since we were kids, before they put the restriction of being outside for a long period of time and basically closed down all of the swimming pools." He said.

  I nodded, "Yes, so what's your point?" I asked.

  "Have you ever swam in a crystal clear lake with a waterfall?" he asked, raising his eyes brows.

  "Do you think that would be a good idea? What if the water is bad or something" I asked.

  Brandon sighed, "You have been studying this planet pretty heavily for a couple of months now. Have you seen anything yet to make you think that the atmosphere isn't exactly like ours?" He asked.

  I shook my head, "No. But I think we need to test the air quality first. Run the calibrations and see if it is in fact oxygen. If it is then we can venture outside and check the water. If it's water, just like ours, then yes, we can jump right on in and get wet" I said, actually excited about the idea of standing under a cool waterfall.

  Brandon rubbed his hands together, "Great. I'll run the calibrations now." He said.

  We both sat there looking out of the window at the clear waterfall in front of us. I was thinking about how cool and refreshing that water looked and actually wanted to swim in its lake more than I would probably ever admit to Brandon.

  After a few minutes the computers started beeping and Brandon pushed the button and read the screen. "Yep, it's oxygen. It's probably the purest oxygen I've ever seen, but oxygen none the less" he said.

  I nodded, "Okay, let's venture outside and get some fresh air."

  "It will probably be the first time we will breathe air this fresh" he said.

  I sighed, "Well, after six months on this ship, I could use some fresh air, and maybe a dip" I said.

  We both walked over to the door together and I pointed at the release button, not wanting to be the one that opened the door and killed us with the toxins. Even though the readout showed that this planet had the oxygen that we needed, it was hard to trust that my head wouldn't explode as soon as the door lifted up.

  Brandon pushed the
button and we waited as the ship decompressed and finally the door slowly lifted upwards. Once it was completely open and the ramp lowered we walked slowly out the door. I walked to the bottom of the ramp and looked around, taking a deep breath and nearly choked.

  "Wow, it's weird huh? Breathing air this fresh?" Brandon asked.

  I nodded, "Yes, it is. I can smell so many things. I can smell the sharpness of the water, the sweetness of the flowers, and even the grass. I haven't smelled things like this since I moved to the city" I said.

  Brandon reached over and grabbed my hand, giving it a little squeeze, "This is going to be great" he said, pointing to the waterfall.

  "Are you sure there nobody close enough to see us out here?" I asked.

  He shook his head, "No, why?" he asked.

  I smiled and pulled my clothes off as quickly as I could. Once I finally got everything off and stood there naked I walked into the waterfall, being careful not to go far enough to fall into the lake. I gasped as the cold water rushed over my body instantly giving me goose bumps. After a few seconds I turned and walked back out of the water to where Brandon was standing, now halfway naked.

  "The water is so cold and refreshing" I said in wonder.

  "You just wait until I get the rest of these clothes off, I am going jump right into this thing, and I might decide to never come out again" he said with a laugh.

  I giggled and turned back to the water, and running through, jumped off of the small ledge and into the lake below.

  I opened my eyes as I landed in the water and looked around and was happy to see how clear the lake was. I could see that the rocky bottom that didn't look very deep, but probably was deeper than you would expect. I floated under the water as I turned trying to see something that I had never even experienced on my own planet.

  I blinked as I saw Brandon splash through the water next to me. I watched as he had the same idea as me and took a second to look around the water. I smiled at him as he caught sight of me and pushed my way to the surface of the water. As I came up I looked around again and was happy to see that while they had the perfect view of the rolling hills, we did still seem to be alone.