Chapter No.54. Apocalypse.

We had just strapped into our G-chairs to return to Earth when Janet noted something on the main screen.

"Something's wrong, sir!" Janet said, pointing at the main screen. "That anomaly wasn't there until just now."

I saw what looked like a hole in space that seemed to be expanding. It wasn't a black hole, but rather like a roughly rounded pond of water that was boiling at the edges and eating away at the blackness of space. "What the hell is that?"

"That might be a nucleating bubble, sir," Bridget said after staring at it.

"A what?"

"There's a theory about how space is not a true quantum vacuum and is therefore unstable, and if this metastability decays in a phase transition it could cause the universe as we know it to be destroyed."

"That looks as if it's expanding pretty fast," I said.

"It's probably doing it at the speed of light."

"We should be able to outpace it if we enter hyperspace," I said.

"That would only be a temporary fix, sir. Once it starts, this bubble nucleation effect will eventually consume the entire universe."

"Maybe we could avoid it by going through that nodal point near Earth. If we enter a different timeline, its universe might not be affected."

"That makes sense, sir," Bridget said.

"You'll have to set up the course and the time in hyperspace to get to that node."

"I have programmed that into the COMA system, sir."

How convenient, I thought. "COMA, take us into hyperspace on a course to that node."

"Burn will commence in ten minutes," COMA declared.

We entered hyperspace with only a few seconds to spare. My first thought was that this bubble effect would consume the planet that Megan was on. Was it the will of the universe to destroy her life and the lives of untold humans?

With the burn completed, we got out of the G-chairs and sat at the command station even though there was nothing to look at.

"Hopefully, we can get out of this timeline before space is destroyed," I said.

"I would think that as long as we're in hyperspace, we're safe," Bridget said.

"Then, we have to assume that if we do get into another timeline, we won't experience this phenomenon," I said.

"I find it hard to understand what separates these timelines," Sharon said. "Are these timelines in separate universes?"

"That would be one possibility," Bridget said. "Another theory suggests that it's time phasing. In other words, the times are separated because they exist in separate quantum phases or existences."

"I suppose it doesn't matter as long as we don't come out of hyperspace into a timeline or quantum phase that is being destroyed by this bubble nucleation effect."

"If we do, we won't suffer. It'll be instantaneous."

"That's comforting," I said with a sarcastic tone.

It would be several days before we arrived at the nodal point, and then we had to hope that it would send us into an alternate timeline that didn't involve the apocalyptic fate of the timeline we were in.

We gathered at the command station to watch what would happen, but what we saw was disturbing. The expected flash of light was followed by a high-pitched ringing noise that rattled our nerves. It sounded like the ship was being converted to a tuning fork.

Then it stopped.

"What the hell was that?" Kali said.

"It might have been the effects of the bubble nucleation," Bridget said. "We won't know for sure until we come out of hyperspace."

"When do we come out?"

"My estimate is 1200 tomorrow."

"Okay, let's enjoy our last day in hyperspace."

"Maybe we should just stay in hyperspace," Natale suggested.

"That would definitely be equivalent to a technical purgatory."

"That's a mythical religious concept," Kali said.

"Yes, but it fits our present situation. We're okay now, but we have no idea what we'll see once we come out of hyperspace."

No one refuted my opinion, and for the most part, we remained subdued during the hiatus.

The time came soon enough for us to drop out of hyperspace, hopefully not too far from Earth. I could literally feel the tension as we strapped into our G-chairs for the burn that would take us out of our space cocoon.

We felt the G-forces, but our tension was more psychological. It was as if we were bracing for the apocalypse.

But we didn't vanish into a quantum phase transition. We waited until the wheels were unlocked and started up again before we got out of our G-chairs and rushed to the command center.

"I don't see any anomalies, sir," Janet reported.

"We're on course to arrive at Earth in two days, but we can speed that up if you wish."

"Nah, I would rather approach Earth with caution. We have no idea what might be waiting on us there."

"Earth looks pretty much the same as it was, sir," Sharon said. "It's basically still blue."

"Nothing better than a blue Earth in the morning," I said with a bit of sarcasm. I stood up. "I'm going to go to the engineering deck and check out our propulsion systems. Let me know if anything happens.

"We will, sir," Janet said.

Kali came with me. She didn't say anything until we got to the engineering deck.

"I like your style. You don't seem to get rattled easily."

"What's the use. Some things are not worth fretting about because we really can't do anything about them."

"You're right. We are at the mercy of a violent universe."

"No doubt about that," I said.

She was silent for several minutes before she said something that I hadn't expected. "I think that this ship will be our home for the foreseeable future."

I looked at her. "Yes, it sure seems to be true. I don't know if you women can adjust to that reality."

She smiled. "You don't have to worry about me, and as for the others, I've got them under control."

My right eyebrow shot up. "Really?"

"They've adjusted to my authority over them."

"Dose that include me?" I said with a smirk.

"You're not a problem. You know the score. They didn't until I straightened them out."

"Well, I'm glad that you have things under control. I just hope we survive this crazy situation."

"We will. We're strong."

I wasn't as convinced as she was, but I decided to take what I could get.

We didn't have much contact until the morning we in orbit around Earth. All of us were on edge because we didn't know what we would find.

I could sense the anxiety when I sat down at the command station.

"This is really strange, sir," Sharon said. "Earth looks . . . it looks pristine."

"I'm not detecting any activity," Janet said. "In fact, I can't find any evidence of cities or signs of civilization."

"Maybe we're back in time," Natale suggested.

"That would be different," I replied. "We usually end up in the future."

"Something's really wrong, sir." Sharon said. "The Sahara is covered with vegetation. In fact, the entire planet seems to be covered with forests."

"There are no satellites or anything else in orbit," Janet said. "I think there is something wrong with the moon."

"What do you mean?"

"Look at it. It's closer to the Earth, maybe by twenty percent and there is less cratering."

"That could mean that we're way back in geological time."

"I'll run a scan of the sun," Janet aid. "Maybe I can come up with an approximate age."

"I think I see why there's so much vegetation, sir," Natale said. "The oxygen concentration is higher."

"How high?"

"Around thirty percent. It hasn't been that high for at least ninety million years during the Carboniferous age."

"Are we that far back in time?"

"That's unlikely, sir," Sharon said. "The continents are configured as we knew them, not like they were in that age."

"Fascinating!" I reacted.

"I don't think there are any humans down there, sir," Janet said. "The night side has no signs of lights."

"This doesn't make sense," I said. "It would suggest that humans didn't evolve in this timeline."

"Maybe the KT event never occurred," Bridget suggested.

"If that's the case, wouldn't we see dinosaurs."

"I'm not detecting much in the way of large animals down there," Janet said. "It's almost as if evolution took a vacation."

"Look for evidence of a large collision event," I said.

"There's also the possibility of a gamma ray burst or volcanic eruptions, sir," Natale said.

"I can't find any evidence that the Sun is younger than four and a half billion years," Janet said. "The rotation rate and magnetic lines are much the same as in our time."

"Wait!" Sharon said. "I think I've found what happened. I uncovered a huge crater in Siberia that has been overgrown with vegetation."

"That would suggest that there was an extinction event," I said.

"My estimate is about a million years ago," Sharon said. "The crater is almost three hundred kilometers across, indicating a large asteroid or comet, maybe around four or five kilometers."

"That would explain it. A million years sounds like a lot of time, but it would take much longer to reestablish large animal life."

"Basically, it means that there are no humans in this timeline," Natale said.

"I agree, and I believe we should try to find a timeline more aligned with our timeline of origin."

"We have to go through the node near Earth to do that, sir," Bridget reminded me. "We run the risk of entering the apocalyptic timeline."

"Not if we enter it at a different angle."

"If we do that, we'll end up coming out further away from Earth," she said.

"It's the price we'll have to pay."

Bridget reluctantly used COMA to calculate the correct course and timing to get us to a new timeline. We had no idea what we would find when we came out of hyperspace.