The Orthogonal Galaxy

by Michael L. Lewis

  “I don’t know, Blade. I just don’t know.”

  “Well, this superluminal physics is all new science, Paol. The next generation of scientists are gonna eat up this data. Shall we head back and give it to them? What are yer orders, Cap’n?” Blade stared eagerly into Paol’s face.

  Paol’s fear was replaced with renewed enthusiasm at these fascinating discoveries. “What are you talking about, Slater! Go back? Now? And miss out on all of the scientific discoveries we’re about to become famous for? Besides, can’t you feel our ride? It’s never been smoother. I don’t have a clue as to why we aren’t being ripped apart by the violence of the particles, but I’m not one to be ungrateful for not being pulverized. Hold the course steady, Navigator. This mission is just getting started.”

  Blade’s heart leapt and a broad smile grew on his face, as he leaned back and watched the Star Transport on its path towards Earth2.

  …

  “Zero point nine nine, Cap’n,” was the report from the navigator.

  “It looks like we’re going to get there after all, Blade. I just zoomed in on the vehicle velocity chart, and it’s definitely not asymptotic to warp speed. The projections indicate that we’ll reach the speed of light in about two minutes.”

  “Paol?”

  “Yes, Blade.”

  “D’ya think we’ll be makin’ that leap from 1.00 warp to twelve hundred warp?”

  “I don’t know… it’s as possible as anything, I suppose.”

  “D’ya think the Star Transport will be able to handle that sort of velocity transfo’mation? I mean a particle of dust is already… well… a particle of dust. What if warp speed only pertains to the realm of atomics? Couldn’t we also be transfo’med into independent dust molecules when we make the leap?”

  “Maybe so, but if I know you, you won’t be content not knowing, right?” Paol had a twinkle in his eye as he smiled at Blade.

  “Oh, the lost sleep!” Blade blurted playfully. “I thinks we’ve just gotta forge ahead, come what may, or I’ll never rest again wonderin’ what could’a happened.”

  “That’s what I thought,” Paol nodded. “Zero point nine nine five. We’re only traveling about one thousand miles per second, or about three and a half million miles per hour less than the speed of light now.”

  “When ya’ say it that way, it doesn’t exactly seem imminent, does it?” Blade shook his head.

  “And yet the computer calculates that we’re less than a minute away now.”

  Both astronauts held their breath, as hearts pounded relentlessly, knees bounced nervously, and remaining bits of finger nail chattered noisily through teeth. Their eyes barely blinked as they focused on the display: 0.995… 0.996… 0.997. Mercilessly, it seemed that the anxiety would never end, as the display hung onto 0.999, until long after the anticipated event should’ve happened.

  “Ya’ thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’, Partna’?” Blade spoke softly.

  “Now, let’s be patient, Blade. I know we had expected to be at one point zero zero warp by now, but maybe it’ll just take a little longer.”

  “I don’t think there’s gonna be a one point zero zero, Paol. I thinks we’ve reached our physical maximum.”

  Paol slammed his right fist into his left palm. “No! I don’t accept it. Just a little longer, Blade. It would be too anti-climactic to not hit warp speed. Besides, if the comet tail particles can do it, then there’s no reason why Star Transport can’t.”

  “I don’t know, Paol… maybe it’s entirely different material all together. Anti-matter? Dark energy? Who knows? Maybe the subatomic makeup of that stuff out there’s ever so different than the raw material found on Earth, from which you and I and this ship’s made up of.”

  Paol’s fist pounded on the display in fury. “No, No, NO!”

  Zero point nine nine eight.

  “Blade, steer us farther into the beam, will you? We need to get to the deepest part, where the fastest material will certainly push us over the threshold. We’re only getting pushed at 10K warp. We know that the fastest stuff will be going nearly 30K, so I think we just need to push deeper in.”

  Blade feverishly worked the navigational controls for a couple of minutes, and eventually confessed. “Can’t do it, Cap’n.”

  “What?! Why not?”

  “All nav systems are on automatic control, and I can’t get it into manual?”

  “Why not? Is the manual control system damaged?”

  “Dontcha remember, Paol? Once we start comin’ outta the beam, the computer takes over. It’s a failsafe mechanism that NASA employed, in case the effects of superluminal travel incapacitated us to the degree of not bein’ able to fly the ship properly.”

  “Ugh! Stupid engineers! Did they not think that perhaps we would be lucid enough to need to fly the blasted ship on our own? What idiots! We’ve got to override the system somehow, Blade. When we come out of the beam, we’re going to be nowhere near Earth2 for the computer to recognize the celestial signature. What will the computer do to try to get us to Earth2?”

  “I think the abort sequence’ll kick in. The computer will not recognize the star signature fer Earth2, so it will look fo’ the signature fer Earth1, at which point it will calculate our trajectory back home.”

  Paol’s face grew red with anger. “We were this close, Blade!”

  “Yes, but there’s no shame in goin’ home now, Paol. The ship aborted the sequence, not us. And we will have lots of data to provide. I’m guessin’ if it’s at all possible, another mission will launch durin’ the next pass of the comet.”

  “Geez… that’s another six years to wait, Blade.”

  “A small moment in time, compared to the history of man.”

  After a brief pause, Blade saw Paol’s face grow even more red.

  “Blade! Close your eyes.”

  Instantly, Blade realized that everything was growing red as before. Both astronauts tightly closed their eyes and covered their hands over them to avoid another red flash.

  “Paol… d’ya think we’re makin’ the leap to warp after all?”

  “Alas, no… I think we’re coming back out of the quiet zone of the comet tail. As soon as we feel the choppiness return, I think it will be safe to open our eyes, at which point we’ll see the current impact speed will be something less than one point zero warp.”

  Shortly, both astronauts felt a sharp jolt and a return to the violent shaking of the vehicle that had been a concern before. Slowly, they both opened their eyes, and saw the current average impact speed at 0.99 warp. As expected, they were leaving the path of the beam, and would shortly be on their way back to Earth1.

  “Well, buddy, looks like a fairly anti-climactic mission, huh?” Paol reached over and placed his right hand on Blade’s left arm.

  “Yeah. There goes any hope of this story bein’ written down fo’ the ages.”

  “I don’t know,” Paol said wryly. “Authors can find ways to write about anything. I suppose there’ll be somebody out there desperate enough for a gig to write our tale.”

  Blade chuckled. “I feel fo’ the poor sap who gives up his day job to write ‘bout us.”

  The pair laughed nervously about their situation, but deep down, the disappointment could not be assuaged.

  …

  Paol and Blade sat sullen and reflective. Since Star Transport’s computerized navigation system had full control of the vehicle, there wasn’t much else either could do, except wait out the ride. Their thoughts went a million miles a minute, as they reflected back on the many experiences they shared together: the prison cell, the astronaut training, the sublime views of Earth and Jupiter along with their moons as well as the stars and asteroids.

  Neither could help feeling the depressive anti-climax of the situation, but they also felt the privilege of the opportunity, and yet both felt guilt and shame for secretly contemplating their future. How would they be integrated back into Earth life, and what directions would their lives lead there? Woul
dn’t this provide them the easiest way out of the difficult situation? Of course, Blade’s prison sentence had long since past, but would Paol still be pardoned, or would he return to penitentiary? Would they be anticipated with the same heroic fanfare with which they left Earth just a few weeks earlier, or would they be ostracized and seen as the symbols of failure for a mission that cost too much and never should have been attempted? Would they continue to pursue their new careers as astronauts, and perhaps even attempt another ST mission to explore and map the solar system, or perhaps to even make another go at Earth2 six years from now?

  Paol tried to distract himself by studying the stars overhead. He had become so used to the sky above him when they journeyed from the Moon to Jupiter, but everything looked so differently now that they were heading in the opposite direction. Frankly, he didn’t know exactly how far away they were now either, considering that they had been propelled quite a way down the beam before they were ejected from the stream of particles.

  Through this train of thought, his stomach dropped. How far had they come indeed? How long would it take them to return to Earth? For some time, they had been traveling nearly the speed of light, and this was taking them very quickly away from their home. Certainly, they must first send a communication to Earth. Once they received a response, they would be able to time their distance to the Earth by the round trip time of the communication. That way, they could calculate whether they would have enough fuel to race straight to Earth at full speed, or whether an emergency mission would need to be launched to reclaim the Star Transport in a reasonable timeframe.

  As he began to turn to Blade to ask him to relay a message to Earth, he was interrupted by the voice of his companion.

  “Cap’n,” started Blade softly. “I’m not sure I understand what I’m seein’ here.”

  Paol looked down at the display to which Blade was pointing. It read: “Celestial reading locked, trajectory to Earth2 calculated.”

  “Blade, when did you first see this?” Paol asked in dismay. “Something must be wrong.”

  “Just now, Paol. Why I’s just starin’ off into space, and I saw this display flashin’. When I touched it to acknowledge the message, well… this is what it said. Whatcha make of it, Partna’?”

  “Somehow, this hunk of junk thinks it has found a pattern in the stars that matches the Earth2 region of the Milky Way. But, it should’ve found Earth1 instead.”

  Paol started typing on one of the displays. Instantly, it provided a map of the galaxy. It pinpointed Earth1 and Earth2 on far extremes of the display. The Star Transport was represented by a green dot extremely close to Earth2!

  “Oh, my... oh, my!” Blade exclaimed nervously. “Why didn’t I thinks of this befo’? Stupid, stupid!”

  Joonter looked over to see his navigator taking his seat harness off and leaning towards the edge of his seat. His hands trembled violently as they fumbled on the touchscreen panel ahead of him.

  “What is it, Blade?” Paol spoke quietly, almost daring not to ask for fear of the answer.

  Paol stared intently at his companion as he threw himself back in his seat and started laughing uncontrollably.

  “What are you laughing at?!” Paol exclaimed. “Star Transport is thoroughly confused about our location, and you’re laughing? I’m not sure you understand the gravity of our situation, Blade. Unless this thing can be convinced of its error, we might just float in space forever!”

  “Doncha see?” Blade looked at his partner incredulously. “Wasn’t we supposed to fall asleep when we hit warp speed?”

  “Yes, but we didn’t.” Paol answered simply. “Instead, we fell out of the beam at zero point nine—” He stopped short. “Wait... are you thinking what I think you’re thinking?”

  “How would ya’ know if ya’ fall asleep if you’re asleep the whole time?”

  “Blade, don’t be so ridiculous. When I wake up in the morning, I know that I fell asleep the night before.” Paol’s voice hinted of agitation.

  “Sure enough. But that’s sleep sleep. This wasn’t exactly the same. Instead of sleeping, we were in some sort of suspended animation. Dontcha remember? They told us that everythin’ was supposed to just stop?”

  Paol grew wide-eyed. “Blade! If that’s so, then the only way we came out of the beam, was when the nuclear expulsion device propelled us away from the beam. What’s the status of the nuclear systems?”

  Blade turned his head towards Paol with a jubilant look on his face. Pointing to the screen ahead of him, he said, “Looks fo’ ya’self, Partna’.”

  Joonter read the display. “Nuclear Expulsion System #1: Detonated. Nuclear Expulsion System #2: Pending. This means the system to get us to Earth2 has gone off, and the system to get us back to Earth1 is still waiting for our return trip!”

  “So we really have been out of it for a year now?” Paul asked.

  Denial turned to disbelief and disbelief to doubt. As the situation slowly dawned on the two space travelers, they began to realize that they had just come through the beam, twenty-seven thousand light years away from Earth1 after all, and never even realized it until now. They had slept through the whole thing, and not a thing had gone wrong with the mission as they had supposed.

  “Can you look at the rest of the list for any system abnormalities, Blade? How’s the general health of the ship after coming through the heart of the beam?”

  “It looks like we got three impact sensor failures: two on the right wing and one on the tail stabilizers. All other systems are reportin’ normal status.”

  “Not bad,” Paol smiled. “This thing really held up better than anybody could’ve hoped for. We will need to inspect those three failures and any other body damage in general. We may need to patch some holes in the Star Shield before heading back to Earth1, but with just three failures out of thousands of sensors, I’m feeling pretty good about our trip home.”

  “What’s our ETA to Earth2, Cap’n.” Blade asked.

  Paol looked at a display to his left and reported his findings. “About 137 hours. We’ll be there in less than 6 days, since the beam gave us such a nice boost. We’re still traveling at warp zero point eight three.”

  Blade leaned forward and stared into the video display looking for any indication of a blue-green planet in the distance. He saw two red circles flash on the display.

  “Is that what you were looking for?” Paol asked. “There’s Earth2, although we only see a sliver of light, since we’re largely on its dark side, but over here is Sun2, already the brightest object in the sky.”

  “We’re really doin’ this, ain’t we Paol? We’re really on our way now.”

  They continued the journey with full smiles, giddy laughter, and more than a few tears of relief. Having survived the jump to hyper-warp speed and seeing their main target now almost plainly in sight, their confidence in the mission grew by leaps and bounds.

  ...

  Six days later, as measured by their forced sleep cycles, they neared the planet and descended into orbit. Their eyes hurt as they strained to see details on Earth2. They wanted to pick up any clues as to the nature of this new planet. While it certainly looked exactly like the planet they had left so far away, their apprehensions grew as they wondered whether they would be entering a friendly or a hostile environment. Thoughts wandered through their minds. Would there be dinosaurs? Cavemen? Or was an advanced civilization ready to meet them? From this altitude, they could discern no signs of civilization, but this did not concern them, because they knew they were still too far away to recognize much of anything man made. The fact that they only had occasional glimpses through cloud layers complicated their observations.

  They orbited several times as they tried to piece together the topography of the planet. Star Transport was continuously taking photos and mapping unclouded images to a map display on the main console of the cockpit. As shapes began to form, the astronauts were stunned at what they appeared to be discovering. Shapes that looked remarkably
like the Horn of Africa, the Aleutian Islands, and the archipelago of Japan formed on the screen.

  “I can’t believe it!” Paol responded increasing vehemence as the map grew to be more and more convincing of an exact copy of Earth.

  “It doesn’t make no sense,” agreed Blade. “I mean with plate tectonics and all, whose gonna think that this planet would be in the same geographic phase as Earth? All the continents could be in totally different positions.”

  “Well,” replied the captain shaking his head in disbelief, “the researchers did tell us that all indications was that Earth2 was as identical as possible to Earth1 in every way: distance from Sun, axial tilt, time of revolution and rotation, mass, temperature and composition. I still would not have imagined the same exact geographic makeup.”

  “Looks like Florida just came into view,” Slater pointed to the map as both astronauts looked at the real-time imagery and noticed that the iconic North American feature was clearly outlined below them.

  It took quite some time for the astronauts to adjust to the shocking reality that in almost every way, the geography of Earth2 was identical to Earth1. Eventually, it occurred to them that their mission was not to orbit for the next six years.

  “So, where do you think we should land?” asked Paol. “Mission control gave us guidelines to land in a temperate zone, but even they did not know the continents would line up like this.”

  Blade stroked his chin. He pondered the question seriously, knowing that in all likelihood, the decision would change the entire course of the mission. Thinking out loud, he said, “We don’t ‘xactly know how advanced this planet is. Could be, we’re just showin’ up at the dawn of civilization.”

  “Um… I don’t think so, Partner,” Johannsen’s voice cracked with anticipation. “Just look for yourself.”

  Slater focused his attention to the direction of Paol’s finger, and what he saw caused his eyes to grow wide with concern. “That looks a whole lot like farmin’ goin’ on down there.”