by Darrell Bain
“I've got a question,” Dan said. “If they knew the other universe they followed us into was going to have different laws that would make them unable to function there, why did they do it?"
“They didn't know that for sure, but their very existence told them to prevent the Termites from going there, and us, when we came along. They followed us because their minds wouldn't allow them to do anything else. They were still bent on getting enough of them around us to control our movement and force us down on the planet when they brought us back through, even if they had to take a chance on winding up in a different version of reality. In fact, they probably counted on some of them doing exactly that as they came back. But above anything else, they had to stop us. Again, this is machine intelligence we're talking about. We'll never completely understand how they think, but this point was clear enough. They abhorred the thought of alternate realities. They even put it in their files, which is where we found all this out, as I said."
“Is there a way to ... to reverse this?” Dan asked hopefully. “Maybe go back through that warp point and come through again?” Then he remembered Terrell's words. “No, Terrell's already told me we did the best we could. Anyone going into and out of a different universe takes a chance on returning to a different reality, but he thinks the different laws in that one made it almost inevitable. I don't understand why, but obviously it did."
Susan gave a short laugh. “I doubt if anyone really understands quantum theory. But I agree with Terrell. I think now that going into a universe of different physical laws will always result in coming back to a different reality. If we tried it again, we'd wind up in still another alternity, maybe so different we'd never survive. The MI and Termites both knew there was a chance of coming back to a different reality from the other universe but they figured it would be one with the same laws they were used to, as proved to be the case. The Termites were willing to take the risks. The MI intended to quell any attempts no matter what they had to do."
It suddenly dawned on Stacey. “Oh, my God! What's happened to Earth? Will it be changed, too?"
Terrell didn't act surprised; evidently he had already thought of that. He shrugged and splayed his hands. “Yes, it's still there and unharmed; it's just that we're no longer in the same universe with it, and unable to get there from here. There's only one way to find out, and that's to go back and look."
“Before we do, I've decided we need to let the crew know what's happened so they can prepare themselves for any changes on Earth in this reality. Let's break this up for now and have a department head meeting in...” He glanced at his watch. “...in six hours. We'll give them the news, and let them break it to their people. In the meantime, Terrell, you and Susan get together and write up a detailed explanation for our dilemma in language a layman can understand, even if I don't.” That got him some chuckles before he continued. “We'll put that on the ship's net and give it a few hours to circulate, then I'll make a personal announcement. Does that sound like a plan?"
Nods and murmurs greeted his announcement.
“Okay, let's get some rest, the ones who need it. I know I do."
* * * *
The meeting of department heads took place in a large conference room. One table held Dan, Stacey, the inner circle and Susan and Terrell, all sitting on one side so they could face the gathering, seated in comfortable single chairs with armrests. His announcement was greeted with a mixture of surprise, despair and hope, according to the understanding and personalities of the ones present. When Dan opened the floor for questions, the Reverend McCoy was the first on his feet.
“Captain, do you mean to tell us that the Earth we left behind is no longer there?"
“The Earth will almost certainly still be there, Mister McCoy. Whether it resembles the Earth we left is something yet to be determined. We'll find that out when we return."
“Jesus Christ will hold you responsible for this!"
Dan responded to the outburst with a simple statement that hit with force sufficient to pound the knowledge of their predicament into every mind. “Mister McCoy, it's entirely possible the Earth we return to may never have heard of Jesus. Why don't we save the anger until we know what's happened?"
McCoy swayed on his feet as he took in the idea that the bulwark of his religion and profession might no longer exist. He slowly sank back into his chair, an expression of pure fear radiating from him like waves of heat from a stove.
“When do we leave? Will we have a chance to explore Termen first?” An anxious biologist asked, his countenance telling without words how vital he deemed the chance to see alien biology up close.
“We're presently on a course which will swing close to Termen as we line up the warp point leading back to Earth.” Dan had a sudden, startling thought that almost knocked him off his feet. It obliterated for the moment another problem he had been worrying over. Only the thought of his status as Captain and living icon of Pioneer kept him from revealing his dismay. He hoped his delay in answering the biologist's question made everyone decide he was giving the answer careful thought. And he was, to a degree. “Mister Obrion, I haven't made a decision on whether to land on Termen yet."
“It appears safe, Captain. The atmosphere, I mean. When we were close before, our measurements showed it to be very similar to Earth."
“That's not the only consideration. I'll delay my decision on that for the present. However, I will agree to at least a close orbit, allowing us to see what changes have occurred on the planet since the previous observations in our own reality."
The man looked disappointed but Dan wasn't going to allow himself to be hurried. Besides, that other astounding thought had to be talked over with the inner circle.
It was quickly agreed that nothing useful would be gained by trying another warp point now. Among the scientists, most were anxious to get back as soon as possible and find out Earth's status, yet they were in a quandary; this might be their only chance to observe exobiology. However, Dan, being ultimately responsible for the safety of everyone on the ship, was getting ready to veto a landing, though he wasn't ready to reveal his reasons yet. Besides, he needed to go over it, as well as that other thought, with his inner circle of advisors before making any more decisions. The quick orbital scan was all he was prepared to allow for the present.
The meeting seemed to go on and on. Dan deferred as many questions as possible to Susan, Terrell and a physicist who was supposed to be extremely well versed in quantum mechanics. Dan found him to be so obscurely technical with his explanations that he created more exasperation than understanding. Shortly he quit referring questions to the man. As soon as he decently could, he called the gathering to an end. He caught Matt and Hawkins with his eye and they followed him and Stacey to the captain's stateroom, with Matt making a detour to bring Tara with him.
Inside, Hawkins spoke first. “You seem like you're worried about something, Dan. I saw you acting like a wounded duck after Obrion asked whether or not we were going to land on Termen. Is there something we don't know?"
“Actually, a couple of things.” He sat down close to Stacey on the big lounger and placed his hand on her knee as he spoke, seeking comfort from the feel of her body. “First, is there any chance of the warp point leading back to Earth being different in this alternity?"
From their expressions, he saw that no one else had thought of that.
“Good God, I haven't even looked, and I call myself an astronomer!” Matt blurted out. “Crap! I'll be damned if I know. Listen, let's get Terrell in here—no, why don't I just call him?"
Dan nodded assent.
Matt accessed Terrell on his personal line so that he knew no one but he could hear. “Terrell? Got a quick question for you. What? No, the Captain brought it up. Look, is there any chance the warp point back to Earth might be different in this reality?” There was a very long silence while Terrell was obviously thinking over the possible quandary. Finally, he must have answered, for Matt replied “Okay, get ba
ck to me quick as you can. Right now I'm in the captain's stateroom. I'll let you know if I go anywhere else."
He replaced the phone then turned to Dan. “I think we took him by surprise. Apparently, you're the only one who's thought of that possibility. Anyway, he's got his gang doing all the measurements to see if it's changed. He said he'd get back to us quick as possible."
“Okay, that's one out of the way. Now for the other."
* * *
Chapter Twenty-Six
All eyes turned toward Dan. Stacey felt for his hand on her knee, found it, and intertwined their fingers. She gripped tightly, as if expecting bad news.
“Okay, folks, here's the quandary, although perhaps I should wait on Terrell. If the warp point's changed, this problem will be moot."
Stacey squeezed his hand encouragingly. “Go ahead, love. You can't make us wait now."
“Yeah, guess not, so here it is. A lot of folks want us to land on Termen. They've got some pretty good arguments and ordinarily I'd let us do it, even though whoever went out would have to go into tight quarantine for a month, at least. The thing is, suppose we get back and find that Earth is uninhabitable in this alternity. Atomic war, pollution, massive meteor strike, whatever. You can take your choice of the possible scenarios. Anyway, suppose one of those things have happened. That would leave the people here in Pioneer as the sole representatives of humanity left in the universe."
“In this reality,” Stacey said quietly, “but I see what you mean. So far as we're concerned, we'd be it. And in that case, you don't dare risk landing on Termen for fear of a possible lethal bug of some kind."
“If Earth is uninhabitable, we'll have to take a chance somewhere,” Matt said.
“Yes, I know, but I want us to have our spot picked out first. Surely with what we now know about warp points we'll discover others in the solar system. Besides, Termen is already inhabited. We'll want to find our own planet."
Hawkins laughed. “Now you're forgetting something. In this reality, Termen may not have intelligent beings on it."
Dan was disconcerted but joined the laughter at his expense. “There's too damn many possibilities happening all at once, but you're right, Chet. I guess we'd better wait and see. And wait to hear from Terrell."
As if on cue, his phone rang. He picked it up. “Captain Saddler.” He listened for a moment, then said “Thanks. Keep at it.” To the others in the room he said “Terrell told me that very preliminary measurements show there's no change. He's also thinking warp points would probably be the last thing affected by a different reality but he wants to study our exit back to Earth some more before giving us a final answer."
Stacey chuckled and put her other hand around the one of Dan's she already held. “So right now, we still don't know a thing for certain."
“Yeah. It doesn't hurt to talk about the possibilities, though. I'll have to make up my mind soon, and the more input, the better decision I'll make.” He grinned. “Unless I'm left even more confused than I am already."
“Okay, if you want to talk, suppose we find Termen is eminently suitable for life and now has no intelligent beings on it. Do we take a sure thing or still go back to Earth, bearing in mind there's a possibility we'll never find anything better if we can't stay on Earth?"
“Damned if I do and damned if I don't, but that's an easy one. If we don't go back and see where Earth stands, I'll have a genuine mutiny on my hands. I'd be overthrown and we'd wind up going to Earth anyway.” He reflected for a second or two over a previous thought then brought it out. “Suppose we do find conditions on Termen drastically changed. Can we extrapolate from that and assume the same has happened on Earth?"
“You come up with the damnedest scenarios, Dan,” Matt said, admiring rather than disparaging.
“That's how I got me and Stacey into this mess. I thought we ought to check out the ship before the military arrived and put it off limits and you see what happened! More coffee?"
* * * *
As Pioneer approached the planet, its biggest telescope was trained on the places where heavy industrialization had been seen before. As time passed it became clear that conditions on Termen were nowhere near like what they had been in their original reality. There was little sign of industry despite looking in every piece of ground not covered by clouds as the planet rotated. It wasn't until they were only a day out from orbit that signs of intelligent life were finally detected.
“Not much to see, huh? I can't make out anything interesting,” Dan commented idly from the captain's seat. Photographic images were being shown on all the screens. They changed frequently but each was clearly annotated and displayed beside the picture taken from the original alternity.
The photointerpreter Dan had called to Central Control explained with a pointer tapping the screen. “That little square resembles a medieval castle in some ways. Look closely and you can make out streets. The spectrograph says they're rock, Termen's version of limestone, probably. Those small structures along the streets are actually fairly large. They look somewhat like our old Quonset huts."
“How about the Termites?"
“Too soon to tell, sir. Give me a few more hours and I'll be able to make out individual appearances. Right now they're nothing more than specks. And little specks at that. Uh, sir? If we're going to orbit I'll be able to tell you lots more. Are we?"
“Read your bulletins, son,” Dan chastised the young man. “I've already announced that we'll orbit for a few days, or as long as it takes to get the answers we want, so long as it doesn't delay heading for our warp point."
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."
Dan nodded then winked at Stacey. They had made a game of noting and laughing privately over the obsequiousness some crewmembers showed around the captain.
The time they could spend orbiting Termen, or landing if Dan decided they should, was limited by the path of the planet in its orbit around its sun. They had a few days less than two weeks before having to leave in order to strike for the warp point at closest approach. Which reminded him that Terrell still hadn't given him a final report. He left his seat and walked over to the little alcove in Central Control reserved for when the captain or one of the officers needed privacy. Dan sat down and called Terrell. He got no answer, nor could he be found in his quarters. Not even a general page asking him to report to the captain drew a response. An hour later Dan asked Hawkins to send a couple of his soldiers to Terrell's stateroom.
* * * *
Tears were streaming down Susan's face. “But why? Why would he want to kill him? Terrell never hurt anyone in his life."
Dan's gaze traveled around the stateroom where signs of a struggle were easily apparent. A reading lamp had been knocked over by the big lounger. Papers were strewn about the room in a totally random order. Some of them were still wet with blood. Spots of blood trailed from the lounger over to the little wet bar. He stared down at the two bodies on the floor. Terrell lay on his back with one leg folded over the other. His chest was bloody from what looked like a gunshot wound, and almost certainly was, judging from a handgun laying on the floor against a wall. His right arm was stretched out as if his hand had been grasping for the phone, but hadn't had the strength left to reach up to the end table where it resided.
Murray McCoy lay on his back as well. The handle of a kitchen knife extended from his chest like a small red totem. The color on the handle was obviously from his blood. It had erupted from his chest around where the blade entered and washed over the handle and down his front, extending well past his waistline and discoloring his trousers to below the knees.
Dan thought he could reconstruct what had happened from the evidence. McCoy must have come in with murder on his mind, for what reason he didn't yet know. He shot Terrell but the wound from the small caliber pistol hadn't been immediately fatal. The astronomer had grappled with the preacher, knocking the gun from his grasp. The struggle extended from the lounger where Terrell had been sitting all the way to the wet bar.
There, Terrell had managed to get his hands on the knife and plunge it into McCoy's chest. They had both fallen back toward the center of the room a second or two later, and that was where both had drawn their last breath.
Stacey put her arms around Susan, trying uselessly to comfort her. Susan had arrived a few minutes after word had gotten back to Central Control that a murder had been committed. She knew Susan and Terrell had become close during the voyage despite the disparity in ages. They had slept together in each other's room as often as not, making no pretense about it despite the occasion Terrell told her about, when McCoy had chastised him over the arrangement.
Dan knew of the pairing also, but doubted that was the reason for the carnage. They were far from the only unmarried couple who lived together. He knew there had to be a different cause.
“I'll take Susan back to her room,” Stacey said.
Dan went over to the two women. “Susan, I'm so sorry this happened. I'll do my best to find out why."
“I know why,” she said, sobbing between words. “McCoy didn't want Terrell to tell you the warp point back to Earth was all right. He wanted to stay here."
“But why? The Termites are still here even if they don't have much technology now."
Susan accepted a tissue from Stacey. “When you told him Jesus might not have founded a religion in this reality, I think he went crazy. He came to Terrell yesterday with some wild idea of starting a new religion with the Termites and us together. I ... I should have reported...” She broke into a fresh bout of crying.
Dan hugged her, then let Stacey lead her away. “Of all the damn fool ideas I ever heard of, that's about the most idiotic,” he told Hawkins. Inside, he was trying not to blame himself for Terrell's death but it was hard to brush the idea away. He was the one who made the rule which allowed civilians to check out their weapons and practice at the firing range. Somehow, McCoy had contrived to evade the routine for checking his pistol back in when finished.
