Chapter No.14

The next day, all the scientists were busy trying to determine something that would indicate what caused the mass vanishing event.

Janet had finished the scans of the crater that was prominent on the surface of the Moon. "I don't recall that dark area ever being there." She pointed at the screen." It's emitting nuclei at near the speed of light, and it's aimed directly at Earth."

"In other words, it's blasting Earth with cosmic rays, even though it shouldn't be."

"Right."

"How the hell is that possible?" Margaret asked.

"We have to assume that it's something the aliens did," Carl replied. "Although, I have no idea why aliens would even do something like that."

"How could cosmic rays cause people to vanish?" Janet asked.

"The only way I could see that happen is if the cosmic rays consist of nuclei that could cause quantum effects like exotic neutrinos. Unfortunately, we have no idea why that would make people vanish but still be able to reappear."

"I think we need Einstein for this problem," she replied.

Carl rewarded her with a rebuking frown. "I think he would have dismissed this nonsense as being an anomaly not predicted by science."

"What I don't understand is that only women have reappeared," Margaret said. "What is it about women that would cause that?"

"We need a physiologist for that problem," Carl said.

"Maybe one will reappear," she said.

"Hopefully, we'll see that happen," Carl said, suppressing a smile. "For now, we may as well try to determine if that crater is about to send a new blast of cosmic rays at us."

"It seems to be radiating at a steady pace," Janet said. "So far, it's not causing any problems."

"The fact that we haven't experienced any light flashes would suggest that this cosmic ray source is only idling. The July 6 blast must have been the main event that caused everyone to vanish on Earth and most of the people on this space station."

"None of this explains why people who did vanish can reappear," Janet said.

"The only conclusion we could come to is that they aren't vanishing, but rather transferring to another reality."

"So, you're proposing that they all still exist?" Margaret said.

"Yes. At least in an existential sense."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"I'm thinking of the idea that the essence of humans is more one of thoughts and memories, in other words, it's a philosophical concept of existence that transcends the material life itself. Maybe all that constitutes us is information contained in quantum particles that make up our bodies. It would be consistent with the concept of teleportation, but not from place to place, but rather from reality to reality."

"So, what does that have to do with cosmic rays?"

"I assume that the aliens came up with the proper method of teleporting humans to a safer reality. That would be consistent with the warning or prophecy they transmitted to us."

"What about the two that reappeared? Is that supposed to happen?"

"I don't think so. I think the alien method of saving everyone didn't allow for some discrepancies in the process. I think that the two women can't recall where they were because their brains can't deal with two separate realities. Perhaps it has something to do with water. Ellie was near a large water tank when she reappeared. Mrs. Samson was in the shower."

"If that's the case, why wouldn't Earth's atmosphere cause the same thing?"

"The atmosphere's water is mostly in a vapor state other than during a rain storm. Maybe the water is at the wrong temperature or at too high of an altitude. I don't know. We have to get more data to truly understand this phenomenon."

"Maybe we should try to get a radiation scan of someone right after they reappear," Janet said. "That might give us a clue as to what's making them reappear."

"Yes, I agree," Carl said. "The better data we can get, the easier it might be to determine what's going on."

His suggestion didn't come about until that evening when Janet went to the shower unit to bathe. She had just finished and was about to dry off when she saw the outline of a woman appear in the shower unit. The interior of the outline fluctuated from being almost complete to a fog-like appearance.

After several fluctuations the woman became solid and stared at Janet as if she had seen a ghost. "Who are you?"

"I'm Janet Foster. Who are you?"

"Melicia . . . Melicia Wells . . . I don't understand . . . you weren't in the shower with me."

"When did you come here to take a shower?"

"Wednesday."

"I mean what date."

She hesitated, staring at her questioner. "July 6."

"This is August 5."

The woman was shaken but she managed a reply. "I don't understand . . . "

"You've been somewhere we don't understand for all that time. Do you remember anything about where you were?"

"I . . . No, I don't . . ."

"We must get you to the medical scanner. You're probably radiated." Janet extended her hand. "Come, we don't have much time until the readings will not be fresh."

Janet led Melicia out of the shower station and down the hallway towards the medical station.

Carl was headed their way and immediately realized that Janet had a very recent reappearance in tow, but he didn't expect to see both completely unclothed.

"She just appeared," Janet blurted. "I'm trying to get her scanned as quickly as possible."

"I'll go get the unit warmed up," Carl said before turning and running to the medical station.

Janet arrived with Melicia and helped her lay down on the medical scanning bed. After she had her strapped down, she activated the scan process.

"Who is she?" Carl asked Janet.

"Melicia Wells, and she doesn't remember anything about where she was all this time."

"That pretty much makes it unanimous. Evidently, a human cannot have two memories."

"There's nothing in her scans to suggest she's damaged," Janet said. She pointed at the unit's screen. "See that. It indicates that she's been bombarded with neutrinos,"

"Yes," Carl agreed. "And they are antineutrinos, mostly of the tau flavor. However, I don't think they're coming from her. I think they are the result of cosmic rays interacting with her body."

"Are you suggesting that we are also forming antineutrinos?" Janet asked her.

He smiled. "There's one way to find that out."

"You want to scan me, I assume."

"That would do it."

Janet helped Melicia up and then had her recline in the scanning unit's bed. After a few adjustments, Carl managed to get a reading.

"You're not emitting antineutrons. Yours are of the normal tau variety."

"Does that mean that she's been affected because she vanished into another reality?"

"That's possible."

Just then Ginny Samson walked up. "What's going on here?"

"Melicia has just reappeared in the shower," Janet said. "I got her down here to the medical scan to see if we could find out what's going on with this vanishing and reappearing nonsense."

Ginny turned to Carl. "And you just happened to be here when this happened?"

"I was just taking a walk. I didn't expect this."

"Well," Ginny said with a grin. "Apparently, you got lucky."

The women laughed. Carl just smiled. "It seems so, madam."

"Hopefully, you found something of value," Ginny said.

"We don't know. We are being constantly bombarded with cosmic rays from something in a crater on the Moon. We, who have not disappeared, are producing tau neutrinos from the cosmic ray collisions. People who have reappeared are producing tau antineutrinos, but not for long. This reaction to cosmic rays evidently has something to do with the vanishing and reappearing effect. We don't completely understand how it works, but it proves that the aliens who sent us a prophecy were obviously hell bent on trying to save us by transporting us to a different reality."

"So, you think they were trying to save us?"

"That's the theory for right now, but we don't know for sure. Hell, we're not even sure that their radio transmission has been translated correctly. We also don't know if people reappeared on Earth. At some point we're going to have to leave this station and go back there."

They realized that their time on the space station was coming to an end, but what they would face on Earth made them uneasy.

Author's Notes

Neutrinos are quantum particles that are extremely difficult to measure. I made it easier in this story because they are the markers for cosmic ray exposure. There isn't all that much difference between the four flavors of neutrinos, the tau flavor being the rarest. Same goes for antineutrinos. As they fly at near light speed they change flavors. They are the mystery particles of quantum physics.