Chapter 3 – Somewhere Out There
EPOV
Shifting uncomfortably in our seats, hands gripping the arms of the chairs, watching the windows as blurs and streaks of colors fly by us in what seems an impossible speed. I can hear them in the backseats gasping for air, as if they should be pressed to their chairs with pressure of g-forces, unable to catch a breath. However, there is no g-force. It is the smoothest, calmest ride we've ever experienced. Even more smooth than the speed trains that seem to glide on their tracks on Earth. No, the gasping of my mates comes from sheer awe. There is no more bumping, shimmying, shaking, just the glow of colors passing quickly by us.
"Edward? Are we sure we're even moving? This feels like an optical illusion. It's as if we're being given the illusion of moving but standing still?" Emmett asks in his infinite curiosity.
"Emmett, we're moving, trust me. You want proof? Look at our instruments, they are showing forward movement, they just don't know exact coordinates. Not only that, but look closely, you can see the stars through the tube. They don't stay in one place." Jasper added to comfort his friend as he points out the window.
Emmett leans sideways on his chair, his long monkey arms allowing his fingers to reach out and touch the thick paned plexi-glass window. He watches with a childlike innocence at what's happening outside. "It's so amazing, a whole new adventure, and it's just ours; alone with no one to have to share it with."
I laugh friendly jokingly at him and take out the camera we have stowed in a compartment close by and snap a few shots of the window, grinning to the guys. "Just to prove we've been here when we get home"
The guys sober up quickly with my words; both of them looking at me pensively with tense expressions lining their young faces. Em speaks up first. "Ed, you think we'll get back?"
I give him one of my charming grins to reassure him. "Em, buddy I'd never take you somewhere that we can't get back from. It might take a while, but I assure you that we won't stop working until we get home. That's my promise to both of you"
That seemed to reassure them slightly until the damn beeping of the alarms start going off again. We all tense up and look towards the board.
I shut off the master alarm; it's not really doing us any good at this point anyways. "Guys, relax, that was the alarm letting us know that we are off all known star charts. We expected this once we entered the wormhole, remember?"
"So we really are gone where no one has gone before?" Em questions us.
"Yes, Emmett. Did you expect to be home in time for dinner? I know you wanted that pretty little Heidi's pot roast?" I teased him a little.
Of course he grins and pops off "no way I just wanted to give you the chance to say 'Space, the final frontier, to boldly go where no one has gone before!' You know you want to, so just say it. "
I shake my head and take out something from the compartment next to me and fling it in his direction. Of course it floats slowly past his head and both he and Jazz just start laughing like the stooges they are.
"Space madness. You guys have lost it."
They both grin and we spent the next few hours spiraling through this tube, apprehensive but anxious. Jasper and Emmett start working and drawing designs of possible rockets to use with the different types of possible materials we might encounter once on the other side. We notice as well that as we go through the tube, we are using next to no consumption of fuel. This is good news as we don't know if there will be anything viable an option for fuel on our return trip. I sit and watch the control panel and try to make sense of the charting and directional controls, the effort is futile of course, and we're in the middle of what's basically no man's land; in space of course.
The silence of the cabin pulls me out of my stirring; I look backwards at the guys and notice they are staring straight in front of me with dazed, hypnotized looks. I follow their gaze and turn back looking up and out through the window.
"Holy mother of God, is that the end?" Emmett pipes up before the rest of us can come to our senses. We both nod silently as it's the only explanation either of us has.
Ahead of us is a huge open hole. It's full of nothing, just blackness. There are no stars visible, no colors seeping through, just a void. You can hear the audible gulp from everyone in the cabin.
"Strap yourselves in guys. It could get a little bumpy here." I run my hands over my straps making sure they are secure and tightly snapped. I can hear Jasper and Emmett snapping and re-snapping their own belts as the blackness looms ever closer.
As we grip our seats the cabin begins to stutter and shake again as we neared what we could only describe as a doorway at the end. The only problem we had is that we didn't know what was on the other side. We could be zooming out of the door only to engage in an asteroid belt. There are so many variables, so many possibilities to what's out there. So we hold our breath and pause as still as statues ready at a seconds notice for whatever is there as the wormhole spits us out through its doorway feeling much like the end of a water ride where you're slung out unceremoniously into the pool.
The shaking smoothed out and we breathed a sigh of relief as we re-entered space without asteroids or any other complications immediately. We took a moment to check all of our instruments and controls making sure that everything was reading as close to what it's supposed to as possible. Then we looked up, and out.
People talk sometimes about when you die and are revived. There is a white light and some see vast amounts of bright and vivid colors, a feeling of warmth and comfort surrounds them.
That is what this was like.
Everywhere around us where bright colored planets, unlike our solar system where everything was spread out, all the planets seemed to float along the same elliptical orbit around a yellow sun, the size of ours. It was all so vivid, and the sun warmed us in our cabin. All of the planets, and there seemed to be about 6 of them that we could see, were spread evenly along the orbit cycle. I suppose this keeps the gravity the same on each of them. Each planet looked differently but they all seemed full of life, greens and blues and warm inviting browns.
All this time we've been searching for life outside our planet, not finding even one small planet. Yet here, there were seemingly six, all within one solar system.
"Are you both seeing what I'm seeing?" Jasper asks quietly behind us, we both nod in acquiescence.
We share a look before we all start working on controls, working on the plan; get us to a planet, land us and get us up and running again to go home.
"Jazz, man don't forget to record all the readings from the wormhole so we can know where to aim when we head home. "
"Got it Edward, they're all written down and recorded and stowed away, even as stunned as I was I remembered to check it. "
"Hey Ed, do you think there'll be any kind of life down on one of those planets?" Emmett the curious one asks.
"Maybe, as lush green as they all are, one would think something's living. Perhaps we should worry about getting some of our gear out for defense just in case while we're working on landing procedures?"
"Got it!" Emmett jumps up and heads towards the back of the capsule inspecting and loading up some things we might need on a whim while I direct us towards one of the planet's outer orbits.
"Do you think this one looks alright? There appears to be water down there as I'm seeing splashes of blue. Jasper can you get any readings on oxygen levels and things?"
"Sure thing Edward, give me a minute and I'll do a sensor check." I nod going back to my piloting while Emmett and Jasper work on their jobs.
After a few minutes of scratching pencils on Jasper's side, he stops and smiles.
"Edward, the sensors gave me their readings and I did the math, the planet below us we're currently orbiting is almost earthlike. The carbon dioxide to oxygen ratio is nearly the same, however oxygen levels are slightly higher; which makes sense because if you look at how much green there is down there. I'd almost be willing to bet it's almost pre modern earth stats down there. You know what I mean, before man took completely over and killed everything in nature?"
You could hear Emmett back in the cabin crunching on his dry cereal bar concoction while he worked only stopping long enough to listen to Jasper. He comes into the main cabin his cheeks pudging out like a squirrel with food; of course this doesn't stop him from speaking.
"So what you're saying Jazz, is there's gonna be dinosaurs down there?"
"No Emmett, that is not what I'm saying, we have no idea what kind of life is down there, but I doubt highly it will be dinosaurs. Just in case though, I'm sure there's a t-rex that's just anxious to sink his teeth in you."
We all laugh including still spitting crumbs out of his mouth Emmett. "Alright guys back to business. Jazz, are we gonna be safe to go through the atmosphere to land? "
He checks everything out before answering "Uh ya Ed, we should be good, the increase oxygen shouldn't be a fire hazard, so we should be good to try entry whenever you're ready. I also checked trajectory for landing and we're good there. Our chutes haven't been damaged and we should not have any problems."
We all nod and get into landing mode, working feverishly to get things done, hoping to aim it and time it to where we land on the sunny side of the planet. We all lock back down and snap in.
"All right my friends, are we all ready? Check your instruments. Emmett? Go or no go?"
A short pause was heard from him. "We are go Edward"
Nodding I tilt my chin towards Jazz. "Jasper, go or no go?"
There was another short pause of silence and the sounds of pencil scratching, as Jazz does nothing without putting it all to paper. "We're clear, go for me as well Edward"
Staying with procedures even though we have no contact at all with NASA, it just seems the safe thing to do.
"Ready for descent in five, four, three, two, one" I quickly press the reentry button on the console and you could feel the physical pull downwards on the capsule. The heat beginning to pull through to the inside of the cabin as it sends its payload hurtling downwards. Flames are knocking at the windows as we shake and shimmy hard in our seats. We can hear Emmett in the back as he tries not to get sick.
"Awe man I hate re-entry!" he groans as he closes his eyes through the ordeal.
Our parachutes stop our descent suddenly, lurching us with a whiplash effect in our seats. Emmett puts out the landing gear and we hear it groan beneath us as it deploys, and we land with a soft but audible thud.
We take a moment to look out the charred windows. Giant green leaves engulf the entirety of the windows. "Keep your helmets on until we know for sure the oxygen and air quality is safe right guys?" They both nod in agreement as they get out of their seats as well, and walk towards the hatch.
Very carefully we push the lever to the door and kick it open; the long standing vacuum of the cabin releases a hiss as new fresh air enters the cabin. We all three take a peek out of the hatch and stop dead in our tracks. We've never seen anything so beautiful before in our entire lives.
?POV
Meanwhile, down on the planet's surface, there are creatures that look up seeing a sight they've never seen before. There, in the distance is a flaming ball heading towards the surface of their world. They see it as a sign, a changing, and race towards it. Not aware if there is danger, but the feeling of urgency and need to get there first overwhelming. With not more than a seconds time frame to glance and assure each other of their decision; they race off towards the dancing fireball. They stop and gasp as they draw closer to it and out of the top three nonliving gliders pop from the top, they scream at this new thing but it doesn't stop them from racing forward towards it. They stand in the shadows, wrapped around the greenery unseen. They watch as other shadows play along the windows of the strange contraption. The whistling of the door opening startles them. They move closer to each other and hold their hands together as they watch white puffed up figures exit the unique machine.
The world around them was teaming with life, the sounds of creatures all around, but for one moment in time; there was absolute utter silence as these strangers from different worlds locked eyes with each other.
?
That's it for chapter 3. I'm sorry that there's been so much tecno babble, but hopefully that will be at an end and we can really move it forward. Thank you all for reading and let me know if there's anything you'd like to see or change! hugs
