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     Earth…

     A forever revolving blue marble. It’s here with me. Its soft contour, its full sphere is laid out below me, with only the darkness of space around it. It instinctively spins on its axis, leaving the impression of vital existence and a unified system. Its active atmosphere quivers like a blue veil, drapes the planet like a shroud of fog. Its frills and wisps of cloud swim in one direction. Over there, a stream is pushing them into an enormous cyclone, forming a milky white carpet.

Yes, it is here with me now… It floats at the bottom of my consciousness, it is embedded in my memory… One never really forgets the planet he was born on.

The thick blanket of cloud moves out from under me. Through opening cracks here and there the vigorous green-yellow surface winks up at me. I see the continents roll away. The great blue peeks through: the ocean. The smooth, natural mirror of water painfully beats back the arriving light. I squint.

I squint. And I remember. I remember and I squint. Thick teardrops gather in my eyes – I wipe them away.

We are dream figures. We have all become slaves to the past and the future. What happened then hardly matters now. The here and now, that is what has become definitive for us all. That day when we began falling into nothing, is fading from memory now.

 

I.  THE JUPITER-CAROUSEL

 

   

     When you spend more than six months in space, continuously revolving around the giant planet below, you start to experience something that is a combination of immortality and reverence. This leaves a new impression on a person, one he would never have come across before.

Jupiter – with her enormous presence – did not make us want to escape her pull in the least. She kept us in a spell of wonderment every time we looked down on the powerful regal planet.

You could hardly make out her curvature. Even though we were at a great distance from the planet, her dimensions filled our entire horizon. Her yellow-red color was ubiquitous, like some alien glow.

Of all the planets in the solar system, hers was the greatest diameter and mass. The pressure in her atmosphere was several times that of Earth’s. It was no wonder that the army of scanning probes sent down by the researchers all failed. After a certain amount of time they would stop sending radio signals. The liquid hydrogen ocean under the thick layer of cloud simply slaughtered these instruments.

A system of belts running parallel to the equator lined the surface of the inestimably massive heavenly body. The contrasts of these stripes, and even their colors, changed often. Numerous patterns came to life and wandered around and around in the murderous atmosphere. They were continuously reborn and reformed into one another.

And here we were floating, about 650 million kilometers from Earth and 800 million kilometers from the Sun. We silently traversed an invisible path, rolled along a non-existent but precisely calculated cosmic rail line.

The rays of the distant Sun could blind you, even though from here her visual strength was just slightly 100 times that of the second-brightest star. The burning sphere of gas spilled her billions of photons into space. All you could make of it was the light. There was no heat to speak of. From this distance our life-giving Sun seemed just a comatosely vibrating, pathetic torch.

So what were we doing here at the end of space, in one of the most secluded nooks in the solar system? I often asked myself that question. I never had a really convincing answer. Maybe it was a thirst for discovery. The systems in the neighborhood of the four gas giants had just been deployed recently. The space instruments in the vicinity of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune were almost fully functional now. There was nothing left but Jupiter and her moons. Sure, we were motivated by money. These jobs paid well. So I left Mars and accepted a position on Callisto-5, one of Jupiter’s biggest moon bases. Later I passed some tests and was chosen to be stationed on the Procyon, which orbited the mother planet.

Two years ago I was chosen to be commander of Jupiter Navigation Center 322. I automatically became the spiritual and technical director of this cosmic conference center. Being commander didn’t come with more vacation. Instead I felt a heightened sense of responsibility for the facility and its attendants and passengers. I was provided with outstanding experts. There were five of us in the team.

A full day before the sinister phenomena appeared everything was going as it always did. Our orbit around the seemingly flat astral body had become routine. Our path was followed with exacting precision. No one thought that in the next few days our lives would be shaken to the core. That they would be run over, their rhythms broken and literally turned inside out. So we had no premonition of the awe-inspiring series of events that was about to unfold.

Or did we sense something? I don’t know. We did our jobs like we always did. We talked, worked, read or just stared at the stars through the monitors as we would any other time. The stars that danced around us as our hotel in the sky spun around its axis. The stars that were rooted in our souls and in the beating of our hearts. The stars that would later define every hour, every minute of our existence with an iron fist. But we sensed nothing. The stars didn’t communicate their plans for us. They just lazily circled around us and gave us their tired blinks.

The stars were silent. Space was resting quietly.

That day I was on shift in the Control Room  which was built into the end of the giant cylinder . It wasn’t much bigger than an average room up here, but it fit everything we needed. It had wide windows looking out onto the magnificent points of light in distant space. We were constantly spinning, so it would have been disorienting to watch the ever-rotating scene outside. So we watched the outside through built-in monitors that sent us stabilized images. The Command Desk was positioned furthest inside, just opposite the entrance. This complex unit contained all the various instruments, feedback and intervening switches, control buttons and malfunction, which are all served to fly the object. The instrument panel  was above it. We had a series of motion controls and stabilizers that forever watched and automatically adjusted our course.

I happened to be alone. I was double-checking the Procyon’s track angle, comparing my data analysis with the previous set. Ryan Keel, the deputy commander , came floating through the quietly opening door. He lackadaisically settled into his chair.

- I brought some steak from the supplies  - do you want some? - he asked. He put the sticky-bottomed food container on my table.

- I’ll have some later - I looked up at him and returned to my calculations. Ryan adjusted the monitor in front of him. - The passenger list is ready, but we’ll probably have to make a lot of revisions to it.

I sat down too. For a moment it was quiet, the only sound being the soft purr of the air circulator. Ryan looked long at the data the software had processed and then processed again. He leaned forward and shook his head in disbelief.

- There’s something wrong here. The P.E.P. turned on again.

He entered the command into the machine and started to rub his hands. When the number series finally appeared he angrily clicked his tongue.

- Of course… I should have known. Orbit disorder, and this is the third time today.

- I was going to say - I lifted up my index finger, but he was on it and nodded. - I noticed the perturbation about half an hour ago, on number four. What do you think? Gravitational disturbances?

- I don’t know. Maybe micro-particles.

- We’re under a lot of pressure - I noted.

We examined the internal and external technical parameters from head to toe; verything was in order. We repeated this operation twice daily anyway.

- Hey, Commander! – shot over Ryan. He didn’t take his eyes off his instruments, which were displaying an orgy of colors. - What’s with the T-1 star sensor? when are they finally going to fix it?

- The repair team is on the way - I turned around. - Two guys and a synthetic assistant, from the Service Station.

- Hmm… the robots are taking over the world.

- This morning one of the cleaning robots lost it and ran into a group in the bar - I said.

- Of course, they’re to blame for everything! - replied David Glenn, the deck navigator, who had just come in.

- We know - replied the deputy commander, ignoring David’s remark. - Dancers. They’ll do their show tomorrow in the Theatre Hall. There were no injuries.

- What’s your problem with robots?

Outside, in the space around our station, dozens of space instruments  were at work. Some of them were quite close by, others more distant. Jupiter’s blush pink glow made their metal bodies seem golden.

- I heard the news.

- Check out the monitor! - I pointed with my finger. - What do you think about this new course diversion?

And this is what we did every day. All locked in here together. With the exception of sleep it was rare to spend any time in our bed cabins. In an isolated place like this the feeling of being locked in can easily make life unbearable. After a while you started to miss nature.

But all in all we liked our profession. The truth is we grew accustomed to this existence. We could have chosen other jobs. People who could handle more than six months in space were rare.

David, our navigator, took over my position. But I stayed in the Command Room anyway. Our research officer, Angela Evans, came in. We were always happy to have a woman on the deck. It somehow brightened up the monotone grey of our day to day lives.

Ryan interrupted my reverie when he came closer.

- Commander, I checked over the course matter orbit-fluctuation.

The data was coming up on the monitor. The navigator came over to take a look.

- Here it is… Micro-particles. They caused the matter resistance. This is what caused the perturbation, at exactly… 13 hours 11 minutes.

       - Oh, it was nothing serious – called out Angela from the other side. - The station swayed a little. But not enough for anyone on board to physically feel.

       - Only the navigation system sensed it - chimed in David, rattling his cup to some rhythm in his head. - The correctional boosters adjusted for it right away.

- It had a short period so it didn’t reach a significant amplitude, as you can see – pointed the deputy commander to the monitor.

- Thanks for the coffee - said the research officer to the navigator.

- Sure, any time - he replied looking at her with a self-satisfied but friendly smile. - Come to the ballet performance with me tomorrow. Just you and me, baby.

The dark-skinned woman did not reply. She just sat into one of the special chairs in front of the instrument panels. The on-board computers humbly beeped and chirped. Ryan leaned forward and took out a notebook. All the screens turned on automatically and projected the course elements, the ascending node, the time of crossing the perigee and other coordinates. Angela, the research officer, entered something into the machine. The monitors showed close-up images of Jupiter as well as the moons Io and Europa, which were lazily traversing under us. Io shone red and Europa glowed white in front of the giant planet.

- Gentlemen, the conference programs are starting soon - the researcher reminded us. - We have about fifteen hours left.

I sucked the low-caffeine, vitamin-enriched coffee sludge from the blue tube while I peered at Angela. The Command Room’s air conditioning system started blowing an appropriate air mix from the liquefied oxygen and nitrogen tanks, then stopped.

- Ryan, what are the developments?

- Sure, commander - the tall, totally bald man glanced at me and squinted. - The guests are still arriving and everyone seems to be having a good time. There are some children too.

- If any of the kids wants to take a look at what we do - I furrowed my brows - by all means bring them up here for half an hour.

- I’m sure there will be a few volunteers - said the woman with a wave of her hand and a smile.

- So far, there have been no complaints about the service - claimed the navigator.

- That’s good to hear - I rubbed the back of my neck and closed my eyes. - Angela, could you help with the accommodations? - Angela nodded. This was how things worked, like on any other day.

In the afternoon I went for a stroll in the cylinder, just to relax a little. I visited the Screening Room, I checked in on the Sports Sector, I popped into the Digital Library. The library contained a collection of music, films and computer softwares. This exceptional structure, also a venue for cultural programs.

The Procyon was an 850 meter long, 200 meter wide metal colossus, with small protrusions on its side. Its original function was as an experimental plant-growing base, but for the last nine years it was run by the Jupiter Space Research Institute. They worked on it for six months, until it had been transformed into a kind of space hotel. People came here from all the moons of the world for various conferences and cosmological debates. We had ministers, bankers, billionaires, famous artists and even plain private citizens coming up here to vacation with their families or to have romantic getaways, here in space. In the sweet embrace of the stars, they are said. Even though these hot heavenly bodies were no closer to us, no matter how many steps we’d taken toward them, all the way to Jupiter. The closest blinking points of light were four to five light years away. Man had conquered the Moon, mined natural resources hidden on Mars, and colonized that handful of moons of Jupiter that among the sixty-seven discovered were most appropriate. But man could not reach the stars. He had launched discovery probes carrying information about Earth, but they had disappeared forever, perhaps swallowed up by the dust clouds of the Milky Way. It seemed that it would be a long time before we managed to approach those distant objects.

And indeed! It would take more than one or two lifetimes to reach the stars. You wouldn’t get many volunteers for an expedition where not only the passengers but their grandchildren as well were nothing more than spare parts, a generational springboard. Maybe one of their descendants will make it someday, see the triple system of Proxima Centauri up close - no, forget it. That kind of mission wouldn’t attract anyone. Floating out there in the labyrinth of space with nothing to do for months, years, centuries, just to be ceremoniously shot out into nothingness when you die? Not much of a life goal, is it? So we stayed within the familiar system of our beloved Sun, and We took longer and harder looks at the space surrounding us through our ever more powerful telescopes.

Experiments on freezing astronauts and slowing down their vital conditions weren’t going very well. After thirty to thirty-five years in hibernation the body initiates certain ageing processes. This made the whole program irreversibly a failure.

So, we are stuck here. With heavy hearts we gave up on our grandiose travel plans. There was much to do in our own solar system anyway. Much to carry out before we could just fly out of here forever.

This nearly one kilometer long space complex floated up here with its companions above Jupiter. Its 200 meter wide tubular body contained various rooms, bed cabins, big and small suites and all the machinery necessary to sustain life in this insulated environment. The station constantly rotated around its invisible axis, which ensured an appropriate projectile force. Like a centrifuge, increasing in strength from the mid-section on out, pressed the passenger up against the inner side of the wall, which served as our floor. The period of the spin was fast enough for the centrifugal force to feel like gravity up here in weightless space. But only in certain spots. The closer you were to the long axis, the more you felt your weight slipping away. Along the entire length of the center were our massive machines. They weighed several tons, but in their weightlessness they posed no obstacle to the spinning of the great station, nor did they slow it down. When rotation did slow down below a critical limit the outside supplementary boosters turned on and returned us to the appropriate level.

The grandiose inside section was divided into concentric layers. These three rings were located inside one another, ran round and closed in on itself. The outermost level contained the laboratories, the rooms for various services and some unused and empty spaces. Moving one level inward gravity was lower. Here were the manning bed cabins, the Flora-sustainment Laboratory - where individual plants was grown -, some luxury suites of various sizes, and the bathing areas were all here along with the Information Block, where guests could communicate with nearby bases and send messages to distant Earth. This level was where all the application servers ran, which ensured connection and coordinated the internal computer network. We lived in separated personal forecastle. The innermost corridor, which ran close to the imagined central axis, housed other rooms, like the Loading Area. We came in here before every shift to personally inspect the condition of the main machines, even though we were informed of all processes in the Command Room.

One of the parts of the silvery tube had eight small lifepods attached to it, these were some of the rescue cabins. At the other end, which was somewhat narrower, an almost 20 meter wide hemisphere protruded. This was the Command Room, the observation space in which we worked. From here we supervised the functions of all the various modules. The round room was equipped with thick windows, with light filters applied.

From time to time I would theorize about space travel. I was thinking about it now, as I traversed to long, self-enclosing halls. Then I went down to the bar and had supper.

In the evening the videophone in the Command Room switched on. The tv line programs were interrupted by crackles and flashes. The frequency was reserved for our sister space station, which orbited far above us.

- …Calling from the Aphidna… - she said stated the calm and cold artificial voice after a brief signal. You could hear it at the same volume at any point in the Command Room.

- …I am talking from the Jupiter Navigation Center…

- Procyon online - The short blonde man lazily reached toward the counter.

- …Please come in…

- Do you hear us now, Mr. Johnson?

- …Helloooooo…

- I repeat: This is Procyon X-2 - continued the navigator as he adjusted something on the instrument.

- …Yes, we have you!…

- Look at anything you like, but don’t touch anything! Understood? - said Angela to the two children she had brought to show our workplace. They nodded at her question. - Be good!

- We have some strong magnetic anomalies here. - David tried to clean up the image.

- …We would like to have a word with the commander, with that my good man… - I stepped over to the slightly slant-top table.

- Good day! Commander Bradbury here, what can I do for you?

- …Hello, John! We should have a drink after the conference. Have you fixed the problem?...

- Yes, the situation is under control.

- What’s thiiiiis…? - stared the freckled boy in glasses, and His sister sucked on a tube of beverage. It looked like they have gotten used to the weightlessness, because they didn’t seem bothered by it at all.

- …Things need to go as smoothly as possible. This is a very important international meeting. I don’t want the press on my back…

- This is the Command Desk, see? - said the woman as she moved her hand along the table. - This is where we operate all the processes from, night and day.

- Sir, we’ll do everything we can! The passengers are safe.

- …Well, that’s good to hear. I’ll call you again in twelve hours. Take care!…

- …Over and out… - said the soft but emotionless female voice. The screen went dark. I looked at the others, one by one.

- David, Ryan! Let’s be on our toes! If you see any blips in the system, let’s call each other right away! Full reports every six hours.

- You got it, Boss.

- No problem - nodded Ryan, then David.

- And once they’ve had enough of the lesson take them back to their mother - Angela looked at me and smiled.

I then made myself comfortable in the grey-white chair. Ryan was spinning something between his fingers Ryan was spinning something between his fingers without intermission.

- That’s done - the dark-skinned woman took a deep breath, closed her eyes, then blew the air out of her lungs. - All we have to do now is check on Sector B.

Angela Evans had been working with us for three years as a research officer. Once in a while we functioned as a space laboratory, so she was in charge of running various experiments. She too had lived on Mars before, but when her daughter grew up and became independent she left the red planet. We got along well. She was the only African-American in the team for a long-long time now. She looked fantastic. She was only thirty-seven years old.

I was looking at one of external monitors. Below us a system of colorful ammonia cloud channels was curling. Jupiter vividly reflected back the light of the sun. The planet had a year that equaled about twelve earth years. That’s how long it took her and her dozens of moons, and us, to circle the Sun. We couldn’t have a direct two-way connection with Earth. The distance was too great. Even the light-speed radio waves took almost two-thousand seconds to get from one location to the other through space. We had to wait more than half an hour for responses. A real Jupiter day lasted only nine and a half hours. This meant that this planet spun around her axis faster than any other in the Solar System.

That day Angela called Earth and sent an almost twenty minute message. At the time no one thought it was the last time her daughter would ever hear from her.

At seven-thirty the external maintenance personnel finally arrived at the Center. Ryan informed me of this on my personal communicator, while I was fighting down a synthetic sandwich in one of the bars. Including the robot worker there were three of them. They didn’t even bother checking in, they just started their work on the outside of the station. In the old days you couldn’t have done that. You would have had to identify yourself first with the authorization unit , then with the staff itself. I was mad at the maintenance team’s sloppiness.

That evening, when I went to bed, I stared out at nothing for a while. I couldn’t fall asleep. The ceiling of my bed cabin came to life before me. I thought the Earth. I’d go back there someday. Not now, I don’t miss it now. I’m doing well here among the gas giants. There’s always something going on. A new challenge every day, that’s it. I could stay by Jupiter for a while longer. I like working here. I like living here.

The forces of the universe's depths gathered around us, from everywhere. That night I had no idea what was coming. At that moment I was part of the solar system yet – Earth, Mars and Jupiter. All my body parts, all my soul flutter belonged to these planets. Back then I never thought, dreams came true. I know it now. The real incubus us broke the next day.

II.  BEYOND PROBABILITY

 

 

      The distant stars were blinking mysteriously. All around us the nothingness spread out its black veil. The far-off tiny lights almost pulled us toward them. Out there, in the deep of the cosmos, who knows what kind of star cities existed? What kind of incredible formations lay in unmeasurable space? Imagination attracted us to other dimensions; to places mankind had not yet set foot. Every time we glance at the telescopes always seen the same. Quasars, galaxies, conglomerations of shining plasma fog, somewhere in the distant past… The light we saw had crossed incredible expanses to reach our eyes; it had left the surfaces of these hot galaxies ten to fifteen billion years ago. The further we looked, the deeper we saw into the past through this optical time machine.

We floated. We swam in nothingness. Weightless and free we flew on the moth wings of inertial. The Procyon, with its company of five, a well-oiled team, was flying noiselessly in the solar system’s outer planet zone.

It was September 22, 2168 according to Earthly time. It was the day it all started…

Jupiter was slumbering below us in the depths. Of her sixty-seven accompanists, only four satellites were considered large, even though they were dwarfed in the proximity of the mother planet. These four Galilean moons – Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto – traversed their paths day to day. Their outlines seemed pressed against the visible surface, as if their bodies had blended together. Their round, periodically stretching shadows were projected onto the somewhat flecked, rather flattened planet.

From the very first moments the centuries old atmospheric vortex, the Great Red Spot, was clearly visible. This fifty-thousand kilometer wide cyclone system could have encompassed Earth with ease. It seemed to be alive as it wandered the surface to the right, then to the left. It left a strange feeling in you when you looked at it.

People were starting to gather for the Sixteenth Jupiter Conference in the saddle-like, upward curving, concave curved corridors. When Ryan and I walked the ship that morning we bumped into loads of experts we knew about, and a few we hadn’t ever heard of. As they saw the emblem on our chests, laying out the station’s name and outline and containing our photos and names, not to mention our ranks, they were quick to wave to us. Then I was left alone. Ryan returned to the Control Room to calibrate the path control equipment to the new coordinates. It's meant to be we were to raise our orbit, distancing ourselves from the mother planet.

Ryan Keel was the on-board engineer. He was forty-one years old, just like me. Fifteen years ago he got to the Callisto moon base, and before that he had worked on the America Space Station, which orbited Earth. He was given the rank of deputy commander about a year and a half ago. His task was to ensure general technical operations. We worked well together. We were friends, or at least it seemed so to me.

I kept moving on. I was stopped at one of the projections at the end of a corridor by the president and owner of the hotel.

- Bradbury, ahhhhh!… Have you seen how many people there are here? - he said proudly as he pointed ahead.

- Sir - I turned around and looked over the crowd. - This will be a well-attended event. How many people are we still expecting?

- Most of them have already arrived. Like a good host I escorted them up. The rest will arrive on a small spaceship in about… half an hour later. How many of us are there now?

- About fourteen-hundred. They’ve got the exact number in the Command Room.

- We’re going to need everyone to pitch in. These people here are laying the foundation for the space city we’re going to build here. Right here, in this spot! That’s right… The Procyon is old, like me. In a few years we’ll both retire. - The grey-haired man smiled. - One more thing! I hope that all the equipment and machinery will work properly.

- Everything is being closely monitored, Mr. Aitkens.

- Very good. Then we’ll live to see another day. - His face turned serious and he grabbed my shoulder approvingly. Then he smiled and disappeared into a group of well-dressed ladies and gentlemen.

The space ferry arrived soon after. We took another hundred and fifty people on board. The total population on the station was still well within the limit. The afternoon was spent with special preparation. Everyone eagerly anticipated the beginning of the interplanetary conference. It promised to be a long one. But it couldn't started.

I was resting in my cabin, lying on the bed I had pulled out from the wall. My roomphone rang, along with the badge I had attached to my chest. This was no surprise, because we had to call each other all the time. But the usual short audio signals were followed by an ear-piercingly loud, sharp series of whistles. The units on my wall and on my chest began to flash bright red. There was a problem. A big problem.

The small device turned on automatically before I could even touch it. I lifted the thin sheet of the hand unit from my chest.

- I’m here…

- …Come quickly!…

- What happened?

- …Hurry, as fast as you can… - I heard the deck engineer’s dizzied, alarmed voice before the picture came in. I jumped up. I felt the blood run out of my face. I’d never seen Ryan like this.

- I’ll be there in a minute! - I replied and I rushed out of my small room.

I ran as best as I could along the long rising corridors that connected the levels. At one of the crossing points I bumped into someone and spun them around some. They must have thought I was crazy, but I don't care. My communicator turned on again as I ran.

- …they can try… to blow it up… - I thought I heard.

I flew through the Commander’s Corridor, turned right, and after the door opened I slid into the round area. Right away I could tell that Angela was trying to hide her fright.

- We’ve run the data analysis! - said the woman as she saw me.

- Data analysis…? - I first turned to Angela, ten to the others.

- John, according to the course controlling…

- There’s no time for that! - said Angela as she interrupted Ryan.

- …so, it’s almost certain - continued the deputy commander reluctantly, pointing to the graphs - that impact is unavoidable.

- Yes, all the calculations reach that conclusion - agreed the navigator in a subdued voice.

- What… impact…?!

A few seconds of silence ensued in the Command Room. The others looked at Ryan and they tried to avoid my eyes. It was as if they were paralyzed. As though they hoped he had the courage to articulate the problem that had arisen.

- A cargo ship went out of control. It’s headed straight for us.

- A cargo ship? this time…?

- It’s a food transport unit - said Hans, confirming what David had said. He had just climbed in through the door.

- And why don’t you establish contact with it?

- It’s a robot spacecraft, there’s no human on it - explained the navigator. - It launched from Jupiter G6 toward the Aphidna, but it was struck by a meteor and sent off the way.

- It’s spinning out of control, they have no way to stabilize it - said Angela as she made spinning motions with her hands.

This was the sentence that is forced willies into us.

- David, Hans! - I turned toward them. - Get as many people into the escape ferry as you can!

- Let’s go, Doc! – waved his hand the navigator. They left immediately and the door closed behind them. I took my place in my chair.

- Our operations system kicked the bucket for some reason. We had to reboot.

- Exact coordinates?

- Just a second… Here is the orbit position - answered the woman, gasping for breath.

- Good. Let’s try to calm down a little.

- If that thing hits us, it’s lights out for us! - Ryan looked at me, shaking his head.

We were able to measure the precise position of the space transport. A series of sharp whistles sounded out. The room was caked in red light.

- …This is Jupiter Center!… - we heard through the speakers. - …The Phoenix’ automatic systems are not responding to radio commands. It’s scorch straight toward you! It’s slow, but it’ll get there in five minutes…

- This is Space Station Procyon. Why don't you shoot the ship?

- …We tried. One of the heat shields that came off crashed into the Aphidna. There was a bit of chaos…

- Destroy it before it gets here! - I replied, paying attention to the monitor.

Angela bit her lip, and Ryan watched the escape procedure as it unfolded on the small monitors.

- …Bradbury, we both know that that would be irresponsible. More than a thousand people's lives at stake! If the detonation wave reaches you, the debris would tear you and everything in its path to shreds! The only obvious method is immediately leaving the object…

- Is this some kind of joke? - I raised my voice. - Five minutes is not enough!

The connection with the Center broke for a short time. We all tried to keep track of the quickening developments.

- We should go down and help out - I recommended.

- Aitkens has enough people, and Hans and David are there, too - said Ryan as he outward pointed.

I looked at the deputy commander. He also tried to hide more and more burst of emotions.

A dot appeared on the large monitors. It was the runaway transport vehicle. Its image was surrounded by hundreds of tiny changing numbers. One of the small screen released the overtop and recessed green diagram of orbital plane.

- We need to get the station higher - suggested Ryan.

- In such a short time? is impracticable. Such an operation would cause too high a fluctuation - I replied and I felt Angela shaking.

- It might just will go next to us. In a few minutes it would enter the atmosphere, and it would burn anyway.

- After twenty-five minutes - corrected Angela. The navigator’s voice sounded through the speakers on the instrument panel.

- …John, the first safety ferry is ready. We stuffed two hundred twenty passengers in, and two astronauts, but it’s already overloaded…

- I authorize the undocking.

- …Check… - we heard David say. - …We’ll start getting the next one ready…

- Forget preparing it! As soon filled with people, and start right away! - I commanded.

The nerve-wracking whistling continued. We looked at the monitors again.

- The second escape ship fits the same number of guests. What about the next people?

Ryan was right. These life ships hundred, eighty passengers fit comfortably. I leaned forward. I could smell the sweat between my fingers.

- Gigant X-2 is on its way. It’s a giant ferry rescue - said Angela. - So thousand of people will take place.

I pulled up the zipper on my overalls.

- I’m going down to the others.

When I got down shards of sound were flying to and fro, destroying the silence. I saw at my wristwatch: two minutes yet. I reached the two large sluice chambers on the other side. David and Hans were trying to calm the drove down. David saw me first.

- We’re stuck here, right? - he asked directly. It felt like a knife had pierced through me.

- A bigger rescue ship is arriving shortly - I looked at him. - Too late, I think…

- I least I know what we’re looking at here - he said. I looked at watch again.

- We haven’t told the guests about the transport ship - hissed Hans as he turned to me.

- We have one more minute. Let’s hurry!

We opened the round, double-walled door. The passengers clumsily tried to swim into the little car-ferry. The rapidity of the exercise must have aroused suspicion. A few passengers seemed to feel the seriousness of the moment.

- Women and children first! - yelled Hans in the big tumult.

Forty seconds. Forty long seconds. I thought the entire situation through during the fraction of a second. This is completely nonsensical! To die like this, because of a disabled cargo ship… Or maybe not? I assisted a large woman through the airlock’s door. I still couldn’t believe what was going on… The poor woman kicked and swung her arms, but there was nothing we could do: we had to be taken her to the other side.

Thirty more second, dear God! We’ll run out of time… Hans pushed an old man toward me, then a young one who seemed about twenty-five. A hundred and fifty-one people are over there… The rest! the others! Quickly, before… I didn’t want to think about it. The next passenger is through. At least they…

Eighteen seconds left only. We don’t answer anything, though we’re getting a lot of questions. The perturbed passengers weren't really helping the rescue operations go smoothly. They were obstructing one another. No wonder. They weren’t as prepared for this ordeal as we were. Time seemed to progress according to its usual rhythm, but maybe it had sped up.

- John…! - David tried to get my attention. We were thinking the same thing.

- Not any more! The rest of you will get on the next one! - I bellowed. They stormed the gateway, like all of you crazy people would.

- I said that’s enough! The life ship we should be to eject!

- You trying to be funny? There were two-hundred people on the previous one!

- I’m not going to croak here! - roared a man in a suit with a twisted face. He was trying to push me against the wall with all his might, but I punched him in the face. He rotated and floated away in the air. I didn’t have a choice.

The passengers spun and wobbled and chaotically tried to get closer to the entrance. They had no regard for anyone. In disordered and disintegrated lines they tried to clear paths for themselves only.

When the swad calmed down a little, they let me the hatch. With a great deal of effort we managed to close it. Only was to program the launch. We had to enter the code and that was all. We didn’t dare look at our watches. Our hands worked feverishly. More feverishly than ever before. We hit a wrong number on our first attempt. We didn’t have much time… We rescue these people into space. But all those passengers who were stay here on board… they would all die along with us. I felt a shiver, and I looked at the little display on my arm.

We were five seconds past the critical second. The collision was late. I didn’t quite believe that that machine would just fly past us. At last…! The data storage accepted the code, and all that was left was the command. The command…

       A deep clunk ran up along the corridor walls, and the floor was shifted to and fro underneath us. Then we heard the sound of the correctional jets as they struggled to reposition the massive station. A succession of long creaks blended in with the buzz of the throng. Signs of confusion on our faces, there were.

       - Back! Go back and lock yourselves in your cabins! - I ordered the remaining passengers in the area. They tripped and tumbled down headlong the curved slope of the corridor.

- It’s not accepting the command for some reason - said David as he shook his head in disbelief.

- Try again! - said a wide-eyed Hans.

- We need to launch them - I added.

- Can the two astronauts steer the ship, who are inside?

- No, not if the autopilot shut them out - I replied.

- So much for that.

When I entered the Command Room Ryan was waiting for me with the latest news.

- The robotship hit us in the opposite end of the cylinder - he began, his face turning red. - It left a small hole that started leaking air. We’ve got three people in crucial condition and several with light injuries. Six people died a horrible way - the ones who were there in the danger-zone directly. There was one child among them…

- This is terrible… - Angela covered her eyes with her hands.

- Were they civilians? - I asked. I felt the air rush out of my lungs, as if I’d been punched in the stomach.

- Four passengers and two people from the service staff. The firewalls sealed off the section right away. The vacuum blown to pieces his bodies. That’s all we know for now. From the reports and the camera footage.

- Arrange for the disposal of corpses - or whatever is left of them.

- Sure - nodded the man. - If there’s some way.

- God… - I sighed. But I pulled myself together as best as I could. - So it was not a full-frontal crash.

- The transport vehicles was spinning and it tore off one of our protective shields. It shaved off the sheet from the protective block of the instrument unit. Some of the docking circuits were damaged. There is a crack in one of the nitrogen tetroxide tanks, there’s a chance it could ignite. We need to get rid of it as soon as we can. The biggest problem is that we can’t turn off the two path-modificatory propulsions. They’re still on and they’re spitting out fuel.

- The Safety Net is still there below us.

- The Safety Net can’t support a mass like ours! - shouted the navigator with his brow scrunched tight.

- We're finished! We're gonna crash into the planet.

- According to the course coordinates, yes.

Those on the Aphidna were trying to calm us down, saying the large rescue ship would arrive shortly. We stopped the axis rotations. We buckled into our seats in front of console desk. We knew that there was nothing left to do. The rescue ship wouldn’t be able to interconnection with us. We were stuck here in this hellish cylinder.

The flight level only slowly reduced, for the time being. The surface of the planet was coming closer inconspicuously.

I grabbed onto the armrests of my chair convulsively. Our lungs heaved. Our nerves were stretched to the limit. Fear flashed and flashed again in our eyes.

 

III.  THE SCREAM OF INFINITY

 

       - Altitude?

- Four-hundred and eighty-thousand kilometers.

- Acceleration?

- Sixteen, and rising.

- Tangent to the path?

- The yaw and incline angle are fluctuating.

- I’m checking that… Angle of incidence?

- 49 degrees to the horizontal tangent and increasing!

- What is our altitude now?

- Four-hundred and seventy-thousand, Io moon’s periapsis is closing in.

- Gravitational acceleration?

- Critical, 2 g-s, approaching surface acceleration!

- Angle of incidence?

- 75 degrees and growing rapidly.

The Command Room was in extremely motion. The buckles of the free hanging safety harness were loudly clanging into one another.

- We’re calling the Radar Control!

- No connection!

- Why aren’t these display units working?

- The navigational equipment has gone dead! We’re full soon to nosedive!

- The Gigant…!

- What…?!

- It managed it!

- Good Lord!

- It’s underneath us, it’ll pull us down!

- We’re drooopping!

All hell broke loose on board the Procyon. We know that the tidal forces at play would soon tear apart the ship, and after we’d be flattened by the enormous atmospheric pressure. Given what we could make out in relation to the horizon, our great metal body moved to and fro, as if it were being tossed around. The veins in our necks bulged, our eyeballs swelled to the point of bursting.

Jupiter more dangerously approximated towards us. The system of colored water and ammonia cloud belts was getting wider and deadlier.

Shards of call for help were flying through the speakers, and we didn’t reply. We had fear of dying, and we almost sagged, semi-conscious. Maybe it was better that way. Our minds managed to partially block out the impulses of the outside world.

We left the periapsis of Io and Amalthea, that is to say their point in the orbit closest to the Jupiter. All that was left was the crystalline phase of atmospheric of the giant planet.

Angela collapsed and fell forward in her chair. Hans freed himself from his belt and thrashed about in the air. The sirens wailed and almost deafened us, the flashing and vibrating emergency lights burned into our brains.

I don’t know how long it took for us to enter the deep air. At that point our speed had increased to the point where there was no way of stopping it. It was a miracle we were still in one piece, that the whole construction hadn’t fallen apart yet. From outside we heard a noise that sounded like howling wolves. We saw what were at first tiny fire-like sparks appear around us, they grew bigger, into tongues of fire. We know that the heat shields would struggle for a while, but they would soon pop off and melt. And we will be engulfed in flames.

I wanted to look around, but the resonance and acceleration made it hard for me to turn my head. Not even my eyelids were able to cooperate. We were nailed to our chairs, knowing that we would soon die – that was probably the most inhuman aspect of all this.

What ensued, it’s hard to put it into words. I didn’t voluntarily move at all, it was enough just to imagine doing so… Like this – I just moved a hair’s width –, and I found myself in a different place altogether. At first I thought I saw the Procyon from the outside, from a couple of hundred meters. Then I was in the middle of some massive sphere, where the walls were so far away I couldn’t make them out with my eyes. The harder I looked, the more I was aware that the inner surface of the sphere was in fact the totality of the space station’s outer walls. The huge metal object seemed to be opening up, then it tripped over the dead center of the plane and started folding inward. Then the developing cloak zoomed in, curved into itself and then pressed onto the imagined concave surface. It was as if the cylinder section had been turned inside-out, like a sack! The fact that whether my eyes were open or not I saw the same vision was a pretty interesting effect. But the vision was sharper than eyesight! Later the entire Command Room broke into pieces. The tempo of appearing cracks sped up, and each one gave out a loud clunk. The torn-apart wide strips of the room slowly floated away in all directions of space. And then our original state appeared again, and I seemed to be able to sense everything in the normal way again.

I felt like I had to throw up. A feverish heat rose from my feet and swarmed over me. Sweat flowed off my forehead like a creek, and colored rings jumped around in front of me. At first the command desk  turned grey and seemed to start melting. Then by degree it turned transparent. I could no longer hear the screech of the emergency sirens, the buzz of the instruments, nor the squawks of my crew. I felt like I had been draped in a cloak of cold water. My brain and organs immediately responded to the changing factors in my environment, and to the degree they were able, they tried to numb me. But I had my wits about me, even if my senses were a bit dulled.

And then something remarkable happened. The space station picked up an unnatural, incredible velocity. At first the outer noises ceased, as if there were no friction against the atmosphere. Then the flouncing stopped. I opened my eyes.

We were engulfed in a milky white glow that seeped in through the windows. Every detail in the circular space of the room gave off a blunted reflection of the ignited radiating effervescence. I thought I detected a bit of the color purple, but that may have been an optical illusion.

I looked around. David’s face was white as snow. He looked around dumbfounded, his mouth was open in wonder. Ryan mumbled something to himself and he gripped onto the armrests of his chair, opening and closing his eyes. No one said a word, we just sat and stared. The whole thing felt like we had left a world of enormity and had just stepped into heaven.

The boring sound of the instruments on the walls and desks dimmed down. The monitors continued to show us a monotonous image of the outside, but mostly just showed lines running across them. The magnetometer indicated a strong magnetic field and the compass spun just round and round. We moved nearly parallel to our course direction, and to a point we tipped up straight. We had to confront a mysterious view through the windows.

We were flying in a nightmarish tunnel of length unknown, but maybe we were standing still and the ghostly tunnel was flying back around us. The slow rotation of the bump of a bow on the space station made it seem like the chimney pipe we were in was turning left and right. The twisting path danced in front of us. I estimated the inside diameter of a thousand meters, but it might have been considerably wider – our equipment wasn’t able to take measurements. It was like we were flying in a long plastic tunnel which was lit up from the sides. But this light enveloped us and wide rings lapped around us, forming so slowly we could hardly see the change. These belts were far ahead of us and seemed to be running in front of us into eternity. I felt like we were sliding down into a slippery throat, without ever touching its sides.

It occurred to me that we should have long been consumed by flames. In this transcendent feeling I had completely lost my sense of time, but I know the space platform should have fallen apart, that much was for sure. The fact that we were still alive scared me even more. Jupiter and its moons disappeared from our sight.

The clock showed 15:48. I ruled out the possibility that we were inside the planet. We simply should have been dead by now. Or were we traveling through the otherworld…?!

The walls of the tunnel radiated white. The corridor continued to twist about, and we felt that we were isolated from our environment, swimming with the light as an independent body. Like we had stepped into an alien space, where we were subject to completely different laws of physics. We squirmed in their claws. My ears popped, and a confused surdity fell over me.

Why is it that no one is speaking? that no one has said a word? We hadn’t addressed one another. But then… Who, or what had made us go dumb… Who is not allowing us to… to what? What is it with me? This imperturbable force… Just to stay alert, just to think. Think straight, if possible! Yes, this is like being drunk…

What is going on with us? We still exist… or not? Where am I now? and who am I? John Bradbury… that I know. That’s who I’ve always been…

 

 

- Will he survive, Doctor?

- If we can manage the surgery, then yes.

 

- It feels great to be here among the vibrating colored rings of Saturn!

- I feel happy. We had a lovely journey.

- John…! John, we’ll love each other forever, right?

- Yes, dear. Forever.

 

- No, no I don’t believe it…! How could this have happened…?! oh my God…

- The ship caught fire during landing, Mr. Bradbury. Believe me, we are very sorry, and…

 

- …I’m dizzy… I feel feverish… Stop it… Stop it…

- That’s enough centrifugal training for today. So, are you feeling sick?

- …Stop it!… Why don’t you turn off the machine? What are you waiting for?!…

- It is stopped, Sir! The rotation will slow down. Calm down. You withstood it for a long time today. Congratulations!

- …Everything is all right… Perfectly all right.

 

 

Blue flowers, blue dreams. The dream don’t cheat. Dream are the ultimate form of reality. Who said they are the root of the unreal? No, a dream is a monster embodied and come to life, it has been starved and it mercilessly eats away at us… Dreams are all possible colors, the ones our eyes can never see when we’re awake.

Standing on the edge of the cylinder wall in multiple selves, well, it’s a new sensation. So is seeing your body melt and flow away like mercury. Until it fills the entire space. Space and time now belong to it. And the entire cosmos. And then it comes to the realization: ONESELF is space, ONESELF is time – and oneself is the Universe… Blue dreams. Blue flowers, blue dreams…

A yell in space. Infinity is shaking.

A warning scream rips into space.

…The emergency alarm were increasingly loud as my hearing returned. The instrument panel looked to be dark, but then—when my eyes started getting used to the normal lower lighting—the outlines of objects become more visible. A calm returned to the room.

Only the host of the dashboard displays chirped rhythmically and flashed in a thousand colors. The mangnetometer at the silvery left side of the desk indicated a normal magnetic field. The outside temperature has fallen significantly, and the air-pressure was zero. Through the darkened panoramic windows we saw a shiny, dissipating yellow-brown blur.

- Where are we…?

The return of zero gravity made all our movements seem childishly light. I undid my buckle and floated away from my spring-loaded chair. My wrist watch and the monitors showed the same time: 16:07. So according to that—if the clocks were accurate—we spent almost twenty minutes in the passageway. And come to think of it—they may have been broken—they can’t all show the same time by mistake!

- Angela… Ryan… Is everyone OK? - I worriedly looked at the others.

The monitors on the table showed us only the brownish smoky clouds that dissipated around us out there. None of the small hand-sized screens indicated any contact with the Center, nor with anyone else for that matter. The radio speaker spouted whistles and hisses and other transmission deficiencies. If these are emanating from within then they’re likely caused by a malfunction in the receiver system or the antennas – I thought to myself.

- I don’t know what that was - said the doctor as he turned around in fear and wonder.

Hans—who didn’t have the time to buckle himself in—was floating at the back of the room, his hands holding onto the tiny bars in the metal floor. His legs floated crookedly in the air, about half a meter above the floor.

Angela and the deputy commander sat intently in their chairs and stared with eyes opened wide at the gray mass of the fog in which we were enveloped. They were trying to make sense of the amazing things that had just happened to us, trying to force some kind of logic and reason on the events.

David, the navigator, was floating in front of the command desk. He squinted, trying to pick up a decipherable signal from the chaos of different noises. It wasn’t going well. He peered ruefully at the mess of dysfunctional instruments. I went to the exit.

- Let’s go check on the passengers, someone come with me - I turned back and felt like the world was still spinning. The door quietly slid open beside me. - Doc…?!

- Right away - he answered and floated to me through the air.

- Keep this thing running! - Through the crack in the closing metal door I could see the blond man nodding.

We got down to level two, where Jonathan Aitkens, who seemed rather red, flew at us.

- Gentlemen. Does someone have a rational explanation for all this? - he asked, while he patted away at the sweat on his forehead with a crumpled handkerchief. - I would appreciate you sharing it with me.

- The analysis is underway - I replied, looking around. Hans reached into his medical kit as if he were looking for something. - Has anything serious happened down here?

- If spinning in our cabins like being in a blender doesn’t count as serious, then no, nothing happened - the old man looked at me wildly. He closed his eyes for a moment. - Start evacuating the guests from the Procyon right away! Get them to safety!

- Everyone stays here! - I pointed downward with authority. - The safest place at this moment is the station.

- Damn it! - He fumed in anger. - How do you expect them to get back to Jupiter?

- And how do you expect to protect all these people if you don’t listen to us? - I batted back.

- Tell me, what the hell is going on here? It’s just the three of us here, out with it!

- Mr. Aitkens - I resolved to avoid the president’s probing stare - You are aware that various machine units have become non-functional, and we started dropping toward the planet.

- Well, it seems that didn’t happen - he shook himself with a cynical face, while he adjusted his wide tie peeking out from under his jumpsuit. - Or did it?

- We would have been squished to jelly if it did, although the comparison isn’t dramatic enough.

- Tell me, Bradbury: do you take me for some kind of idiot? I went to school, I learned a thing or two about the atmospheres of gas giants! Now tell me where the hell we are! And what’s with the weightlessness?

- We don’t know anything for sure.

- Now listen to me. You guys are the so-called experts! It’s safe to say that my guests aren’t feeling very comfortable in my space hotel anymore!

- So let’s put our cards on the table. We aren’t receiving any signals from the Aphidna. We released the first life ship and probably saved the people on it, but weren’t able to launch the second. Now we have to get the people off that stuck ship. Until we’re out of danger I’m ordering a red alert! And according to the rules, I now take over the full command of the Procyon.

- So much for the conference, but… Listen to me now… if we manage to get out of this… thing… stuff… cloud or whatever, the Space Agency is going to have a few things to say to you and your crew.

- I think it’s best if you don’t interfere with my job - I said angrily. - As soon as we know something we’ll inform you. I take it you don’t want the passengers to start panicking.

- I wouldn’t worry about that. It happened already. Have you thought about what’s going on in the bed cabins?

He looked around a little and you could see he was struggling with himself. But after some thought he turned to me.

- All right, then. I think given the current situation I’m going to have to cooperate with you.

I nodded so slightly you could hardly tell.

- Go up with Hans and get the crew to help you get everyone off that stuck life ship, but carefully! Then examine them and… get things cleaned up in those dams suites! We’ll get artificial gravity back as soon as we get the cylinder spinning again.

- That’s going to be quite a tough job - the doctor finally said, but more to the president than to me.

When I finally went back up to my team the atmosphere was quite tense. David, who was occupied with the instruments, had news for me.

- We examined the receiving equipment and every antenna, and they all work. We can also state that the d isturbances all have an external source.

- So it must be atmospheric noise.

- We’ve ruled that out! We’re not in an atmosphere of any kind!

- Then let’s think this over. It can’t be emitted Earth transmissions, because we’re nowhere near Earth. There’s been no development of high-powered radio near Jupiter.

- The problem is we can’t see anything outside the fog cloud.

- Background radiation? - I ventured.

- Yes, but this strong?! - Angela asked back. - The sun is the only nearby star that could cause that, if it had gone through some kind of transformation. But the signals are energy waves.

- They’re not even caused by a single source, they’re coming from everywhere!

- As if a whole series of objects was radiating at once.

- All right, all right… Before we start guessing, let’s try and establish contact with station Aphidna.

- No contact - said David, pointing to the instruments. - We can’t locate a radio signal.

- When we entered the atmosphere the plasma shield that formed around us obstructed communications for a while. But we’re in empty space now.

This was unquestionable, beyond a doubt. The outside meters showed we were floating in zero-pressure space, although we were surrounded by some thick, opaque dust.

- Somehow we must have reached the other side of the planet - gestured the navigator. - There must be some kind of occultation, in the shadow of the planet…

- You’re not serious, are you? - I interjected. - You think we just flew through Jupiter?! That we fell right through it?

- Whatever. Look at the facts! - Ryan floated forward. - We haven’t received one single radio signal, not a word, not on any frequency. Right? Contact is down. So we can’t exclude the possibility that… some kind of current or vortex threw us up into space, to the other side of Jupiter. And because of that we’re in Jupiter’s shadow. And that’s why we’ve got radio silence.

- Ryan! - I grabbed the deputy commander’s shoulder. - Jupiter’s gravitational mass is several thousand times that of Earth’s. Can you imagine a cyclone system that reaches cosmic speed here on the planet, escapes what is multiple Earth gravities, and lifts up the Procyon, a fifty-thousand ton colossus?

Our deep exchange of ideas was interrupted by a signal from the radio receiver. We jumped to the microphone like a starving predator jumps on its prey.

- Yes, we’re here… we’re here! Jupiter Center…?!

- …this is Gigant-2 X-4 calling… What channel have you been on till now?…

We had forgotten about the ship that had attached to us before the drop. At the last second… It was the only explanation.

So the Gigant had been with us all along. And we could not have crashed down into the planet. Here we were breathing… and arguing about what had happened… We couldn’t make any sense of it.

- …Are you all OK?…

- Given the circumstances, we’re OK. We’re about to open the docking door.

- All right. We will talk about all this over there. Over…

Hans called us to say that they had successfully evacuated over a hundred people from the second small life ship. The news was a great relief.

- Tom Stevens.

- …and Michael Gould - the pilots introduced themselves after they had swum over to us.

- I’m John Bradbury. Welcome on board. That’s Ryan Keel, the deputy commander.

- Can we help with anything? - asked the young man with a questioning expression.

I looked around and hoped that no one outside our circle could hear our conversation. I couldn’t see a soul in the long hallway.

- Did you see the light phenomenon all around us during the drop?

The taller pilot thought for a couple of seconds, then swallowed audibly and spoke up.

- I can confirm that we saw it too, Commander. A vibrating tunnel with a round cross-section.

The two astronauts looked at one another nervously, then the other continued.

- We’re aware of a certain kind of spatial displacement, when an object breaks out of hypersapce, into an extra dimension, it can move spontaneously, even great distances. But I’ll admit, I’ve never heard of it actually happening.

- Teleportation…? - asked Ryan in response.

- I’d rather call it a kind of spatial jump - the man clarified.

- I hope to God you’re wrong.

- Let’s keep this between ourselves - I said as I approached them. - The most important thing is that we think clearly. I ask that you help Dr. Hans and the others so we can examine the corridor system and take stock of the damage.

We then discussed the next steps. With the exception of Hans we all met among the flashing equipment in the Command Room.

I looked out. The thick, brownish gas seemed to be dissipating. Some kind of faded, formless figures floated around us in that space. We suspected that the dust fog gave off no light of its own, so the light must have come from an object, or objects, behind it… Good God!… You could make them out, just barely… Veiled, dim… By the grace of God, there they are, it’s captivating!… There they are floating, beyond the misty yellowish cloak… This… this can’t be true… There they are, shining behind the dissipating, slowly disappearing dust cloud, ever clearer, sharper… The glow is moving to groups, to given spheres, which… are sparkling even more, and… Yes, they are burning brighter… There must be hundreds of them… Maybe more, maybe thousands… They ghoulishly surround the space station… And they’re close, very close… But they are stars!

They are so close you feel like you can reach out and touch them, all those snow white stars! They seem an arm’s reach away, an inestimable number of stars!

…We could not believe our eyes. Our revolting consciousnesses and emerging feelings were unable to accept the sight. It seemed fake. There we floated in front of the windows, and in a bewitched state we sucked in the narcotic effect of the phenomenon. And then we had a first notion of the reality that threatened us. We were dizzied by the arresting eddy of the sparkling light, and weakened, we sought support in the light bars protruding from the walls. What we saw was more than amazing. What we felt was the dreamworld come to life, illusions having become reality.

- Beautiful… - whispered David, who floated closer to the window.

We turned our heads to take in ever more detail of the shimmering mass of stars. At that moment we were more transfixed by this unusual event than anything else. We hastily breathed in the hot air, our lungs were hard at work. But it was in vain that we closed our eyes, that we tugged at the hair on our arms, that we bit into our own lips to cause pain, enough so for them to bleed, the mysterious shine continued to float out there, overcoming all imagination, smashing to bits all the laws of physics we ever knew.

The monitors accurately transmitted the outside images, the beautiful but cold reality, which cut ever deeper into us, into the most hidden coves of our consciousness, like a hot knife through butter. We still could not believe what had happened to us. Our sense of logic, in forcible revolt, rejected every detail of this frightful vision. Our ruffled souls whispered one thought only, our hearts beat one idea only: this is not real. It is not real! But the process was far from over.

Between the increasingly dissipating, ever dimming dust formation’s particles we thought we saw large bodies zig-zagging to and fro. These spinning, whirling pieces of rock, however, did move along decisive paths, and were actually moving outward radially. The masses seemed in places as big as continents and flew spherically in every direction of space. It was conceivable that they were moving away from us at a high speed, but it is likely that this was just what we felt, as we could not directly measure the phenomenon.

An asteroid field? - we didn’t know. But by all means it seemed we entered a monumentally sized meteor shower, or a small planet belt in interplanetary space. Interesting that we were unscathed by it.

- There…! Out there…! - the Deputy Commander pointed in the direction of the rocketing mass of rocks. - Maybe a planet exploded.

- Jupiter…? - the researcher woman looked up with fear in her eyes.

- I wouldn’t think so. There is no solid rock mass in Jupiter. At least not on the surface. Maybe one of its moons…

It was then that we caught sight of the planet we were above. Through the now quite thinned out dust particles we saw a remarkably light heavenly body. It must have been quite large, with a diameter perhaps half of Jupiter’s. It’s seemingly ancient surface was pocked with craters, which indicated the lack of an atmosphere and a host of meteors that had crashed onto it over millions of years. A few larger summits poked out from a chain of various ring tips, and a central peak could be seen inside.

- An alien planet… - said David with a cooled visage as he glanced at us.

Between the terraced plains and basins lay a large, regular round depression, with a small parasite crater on its edge. The side of the planet was criss-crossed with deep canyons and cracks. In the area surrounded by these lay a hyperbolic radiation band system. The planet resembled Earth’s moon, but was considerably larger.

- Wherever we are, we need to get the station into a stable orbit! - I looked at the monitors. - What is our altitude?

- According to the laser radar we’re three-hundred and forty-thousand kilometers above the planet - replied David.

- The engines are still on, we can’t turn them off. We’re keeping in orbit, and we can thank the pull of the rescue spaceship for our current stability - stated Ryan factually, as he indicated a circle around the monitor with his hand.

- The Gigant has saved our souls - Angela ensured us with thankful eyes. We still had no idea how right she would turn out to be later.

- It is an enormous planet. The one that fell apart must have been one of its moons.

- The tidal forces must have torn it apart - guessed Ryan, opening his arms. - It probably got too close to the mother planet and the emerging energies ripped it to shreds. That’s how Saturn’s rings formed, back then.

- Enough! - screamed Angela, with vibrations in her voice. - What’s with this deathly calm? Who cares about this planet? Why the expert debate on some unreal world…?

On this point she was right. There we were, floating, and coldly discussing an enchanting mirage, which did not exist for us. It could not have existed.

- Call the Solar system - I raised my voice -, and the Earth Command Centre! Someone has got to answer us!

David first looked at Angela, then at me. Then his eyes opened wide and he buckled into his seat.

- All right then. Once again.

The faintest ray of hope flashed in front of us. We all gathered around the navigator and with heightening nerves watched his fingers dance across the keyboard. With our ears we tried to unravel something sensible out of everything we heard.

- We are calling Jupiter Navigation Centre on all channels - started David, leaning over the desk. The radio played only crackles and whistles. - Earth Flight Command, come in.

The same snaps and warbles in the headphones. We all felt a chill in our bodies, and sweat formed on our brows.

- This is space station Procyon, we have an emergency! I repeat: emergency!

- Try a lower frequency - signalled Ryan with a nod.

- Solar system come in! Solar system come in! Solar system…

Numerous times we tried. Numerous times. But no one responded to our S.O.S. The solar system disappeared without a trace, and we were stranded. We had to deny the laws of physics we had known, reject sheer logic, because the theses thereof were not good enough to explain our current situation. We were in a state of pure helplessness, in a world unknown to us, which punished us like we were sinners, enclosing us from all directions.

Three of us sat in front of the desk. Angela. Ryan. Me. Hundreds of numbers and tiny LEDs danced around on the equipment. We checked the viability of the main external equipment.

- Docking unit 2?

- OK.

- Docking unit 3?

- OK. It’s sealed.

- Escape rockets?

- Fine.

- External sluice chambers?

- Hermetically sealed, pressure equalized.

- Technical unit and Command Room?

- Equalized pressure, electrical supply normal.

The modules placed in the internal spaces were next. Ryan was the on-deck engineer. I asked and he was ready to answer. He looked at me.

- Children and women?

- In a safe place.

- Passenger area?

- Levels one, two, three are OK - he said. - Pressure there is 35 kilopascal. Temperature 23 degrees Celsius. Air cleaners, pressure stabilizers, communications and electric distribution systems working satisfactorily.

- Explain.

He stroked his hair back with his hand.

- One of the guests in corridor two has the bends. The air injector broke and it changed the pressure parameters suddenly. The patient is recovering, he’s just feeling ants in his pants. I emptied his cabin.

- We’ll need to clean up as soon as possible. Let’s move on.

- Warehouse, cylinder area OK. External telescope units are working all right. We’re ready for further operation. I’ll hand over command until 8 hours, 0 minutes.

- Thank you - I replied - I hereby take command of the Procyon.

I sat into the grey-white armchair. I’d be happier to say I leaned back, but we were in zero gravity, and given the lack of a pull force I could not settle back into the chair. The concepts of “down” and “up” lost their meaning here. The blood in my body didn’t try to flow down, because nothing pulled it in that direction, there was no “down”. If we accidentally spilled water out of a bottle it eventually formed a perfect sphere, didn’t drip down, and because of the lack of hydrostatic pressure soon broke into pieces and floated in small drops in the air.

Outside, through the continuously escaping chunks of continents and the yellow-brown fog the light globes began to take on a more defined form. It was poetic! Through the clearing space a dreamlike spiral galaxy unfolded before us…

But we didn’t wonder at it for long, because a new point of interest appeared in the sky, one that trumped all the others to this point. A flashing object approached us in silence. Its direction was suspiciously direct, headed right toward us. Only a moment ago it appeared to be just a point blending in with the background stars. It must have been very fast, it moved along its linear path in a mind blowing way, with no adjustments, no change of direction.

- Quick! Record it! - I motioned to Ryan, although I could not take my eyes off the unstoppably approaching, threatening object.

We turned the external cameras on to automatic record, and waited. The lively star’s dizzying rush alongside the space station caused a real fright. The sensors recorded a significant heat expulsion, the strength of the magnetic field shot up, and the external temperature rose drastically.

- Heat flux shift! - pointed Ryan to his monitor.

- Hold onto something! Vibration in the cylinder! - shouted David as he crunched forward and instinctively ducked his head.

As we had resumed rotating a couple of minutes ago, above average resonance appeared in those sections where we had centrifugal gravity. There was a chance the huge ship’s hull would break apart, as the vibration began to approach the ship’s own frequency, and we began to tilt.

I crashed into the metal wall as the quake reached us. When we once again found ourselves floating in front of the window the sparkling threat was on our other side and slowly disappeared into the black of space.

We slowly got over the shock of it. Our amplitude returned to normal, and the temperature factors dropped to their normal levels. The monitors were still swinging to and fro, showing only the white globes of fire around us.

- Did you catch the speed of that thing? - asked the navigator in wonder.

- It’s good to know we’re not alone - I said, mainly to myself.

We played the recordings. The monitors accurately showed the registered images, which had been taken synchronously from several vantage points.

- It seemed to be in quite a hurry - showed Ryan. - It’s unlikely it noticed us.

- That was an incredible speed, I could hardly make anything out with my eyes. The computer calculated that it came by at five-hundred eighteen-thousand kilometers per hour, which means… here it is: the object moved almost one hundred and forty-four kilometers in one second!

- Distance…? - I looked to David curiously.

- It got to within exactly two-thousand, two-hundred meters of us.

- What was it? - I asked, looking at the others.

Everyone shook their head, as all we could do was guess.

- It looked like a star, didn’t it. But of course it was incomparably small… It might have been a hundred, hundred-and-fifty meters across. I couldn’t make out any features on the surface.

We looked over the video at least twenty times, but even at the slowest speed we couldn’t make out any details of the speeding light spaceship. The monitors were distorted by the intense light recorded when the object was close to us, and just glowed white around us.

- We have to conduct repairs out there - I looked at the Deputy Commander. - Ryan! Will the two of us be enough?

The strongly built man, who was also the on-board engineer, nodded yes.

- If the damage is not too big. I’ll have the spacesuits filled within half an hour.

He wanted to smile, but he could not. He finally left with the others.

I remained alone in the dimly lit area. As I looked around contemplatively, something occurred to me. I began to make feverish explications in my head. I tried to put together the whole mosaic, which was incomplete in many places.

What would tomorrow bring? How are we to survive once water and oxygen have run out? Will we ever see our home worlds again, our solar system, our mother Earth?

If only we could have seen what was coming… If only we’d have known the truth.

 

 

IV.

THE GLORIOUS DANCE OF THE STARS

 

       The alien milky way lay in the sky in splendor, a titanic windmill spinning almost unnoticeably. My God, it was beautiful. Thousands of stars paraded in its long, curved spiral arms, these seething, pulsing thermonuclear gas forges. As we looked across the widening, entrancing light corridor spreading in front of us, its dizzying closeness hit us traumatically. It gave us a boundless feeling of joy, almost making us forget the unmistakeable fact of the trap we were in.

- An irresistible sight! - said Hans as he returned. - As if it were set on fire.

- Gentlemen! Now that we’ve entered a higher, more stable orbit, thanks to your help, these asteroids are no longer a threat to us. A few colleagues and I will go out and begin external repairs. In the meantime, I ask that you become familiar with the Command. This is the Command Desk, the equipment panel, on-board computer, these are the error indicator units - I explained to the two men.

The pilots quickly studied the complicated equipment, even though at some points it was somewhat different from the newer equipment on large spaceships.

I checked my watch. It was a little after ten in the evening. So much had happened to us today, and midnight was still two hours away… Well sure, I was a bit confused. There was nothing by which to measure our time. So we continued using Earth time as a starting point, given that we had not instigated a new reference.

- John! - Angela called out. - Ryan is ready and waiting.

- Maintain two-way radio contact, and let’s analyze every procedure - I put my hand on the counter. The indicators on the wall clicked nervously.

- David! Can you reassure me somehow? - I looked at him asking.

- Not very much to go on - he answered, then continued: - It really looks like…

- I get it - I stopped him. - Keep searching the sky, all directions.

- Take care of yourselves out there! - said Angela as she waved.

I looked at the others and then got on my way. I didn’t see a soul, they must have been on the lower levels. After leaving the Command corridor I floated weightlessly and grabbed the thin protruding bars. The lower I climbed the more I felt my weight return. For the first time I felt that these routes were dead, and…

- Who’s that…?!

- Just me - someone answered.

- Go on…

- I don’t want to disturb you, Commander - said the interrupting voice, the owner of which looked in my eyes.

- Who are you and what do you want? - I asked the man who had jumped in front of me.

- I’m Tom Winczewski, director of the Mars Research Institute. I’ve really got to get back, I can’t just go missing like this!

- Sir…! - I began, but the balding, bearded man cut me off.

- Commander, it is imperative that I get back to the Aphidna as soon as possible! This whole set of theatrics is very realistic, and I don’t want to interfere with your plans, in fact, I really like rebellious sorts. But I really need to get back, just name your price…

- You’re insane! - I turned toward him.

- Hey, Commander! Just tell me how much!

- Do you actually believe… You believe I took the Procyon off course?! - I asked, not believing my ears.

- What I believe is irrelevant! I have to get back at any cost! My institute…! I won’t just stand for this!

- Who cares? - I asked irreverently.

- You’re making a huge mistake!

- We’re conducting a rescue mission, have you noticed?

- Shut up and listen to me…!

- Get off my back! I’ve had enough adventure for one day.

- Listen, Commander…

- You listen! - I looked at him angrily. - It would be better if you helped the others! And let us do our jobs, understood?! - The old man seemed on the verge of exploding in anger.

- Does the emergency manual deal with this situation?! - I did not turn back, but decidedly jumped a few times toward the end of the corridor. At the turn I looked back again, but the terribly rude gentleman was nowhere to be seen.

I wanted to calm down as much as I could. I finally reached the Storage area, where I encountered a figure in a cumbersome outfit; it was Ryan.

- Someone should grab his money - I said briefly. - He thinks we hijacked the space station.

- I see. Here is the other spacesuit.

I put on the large protective gear.

- All right, let’s check the oxygen level first.

- Oxygen OK - I answered, looking at the level meter.

- Pressure?

- 53 kilopascal.

- Interior temperature?

- 20 degrees. Celsius.

- Relative humidity?

- 25 percent, at thirty degrees.

- Hermetic seal?

- Seal is good.

Through the spherical helmet, equipped with an ultraviolet filter and smoky-gold tint we heard one another’s muffled voices.

- Water circulation?

- Normal.

We attached the special gloves and boots.

- OK. Let’s turn on the radio.

- …Yup… That’s better…

- …How is the sound?… - asked Ryan as he turned toward me.

- …Perfect… - I showed my satisfaction. - …Command, are you receiving?…

A blink of silence, a bit of static… then Angela’s voice answered.

- …We hear you clearly. You can go for your walk…

We entered the lock, which was not very far from the Command Room. After the door opened we swam through a narrow, curving tube, the side of which had thick black cables running along it. We reached the entrance to the outer lock.

- …Command. We’re at the outer lock… - I said into the microphone. - You can start filling up.

Within a couple of minutes air from the high pressure gas containers filled the space.

- …Command here. Lock chamber two is full, pressure between the Exit Corridor and the lock has been equalized. You can open the passageway…

After opening the entrance we entered the small cabin. Then we re-closed the thick three-layer door and strapped on the long safety cable. This prevented us from floating out into space, given that the projectile force caused by the rotation would fling us out into the distance.

- The safety cable is secured on both ends. Lock 2 door is hermetically sealed…

The answer came in fifteen to twenty seconds.

- …All checked. We will empty the cabin…

It took slightly longer for the equipment to suck the air out of the chamber.

- …Commander, number two is now a vacuum, zero pressure. You may open the external door.

Things went slowly in the uncomfortable, blown up gloves. We opened up the oval exit and stepped out.

- …Command, all is OK here. We’re out, let the party begin…

- …Acknowledged, Commander. You are authorized to begin the external tasks…

We went along the metal wall, grabbing the handrails. We floated across the old familiar window.

- …We see you!… - we heard Angela say, with a degree of gaiety in her voice.

They large cylinder beside us was rotating quickly. Of course we didn’t notice any of that, as we moved synchronized with it out there in space. To us only the stars in the sky spun madly.

We reached the wide depressed groove. This relatively sheltered space contained a series of parabolic antennae, radio telescopes and an array of special cameras. Ryan mumbled something, adjusted something on one of the star sensors, and we moved on.

- …We’ve arrived… - he finally said with a touch of boredom as we reached the ripped heat tile. - …I don’t know how it withstood the descent. This is not a space shuttle, it’s not supposed to have contact with atmosphere…

Ryan unscrewed the remaining binds from the cover panel with his electric combination tool and then ripped off the now useless piece.

- …No need for this anymore… - with an elegant motion he tossed the piece away.

The terribly warped cover piece flew away from us at a relaxed pace, toward the planet the floated underneath us. In a few seconds it flew out of our sight. The galaxy surrounding us provided us with an indescribable, picturesque backdrop. We were blinded for a moment, despite our polycarbonate, heavily shielded helmets. When I turned back toward the wall a saw a distorted reflection of the magnificent galaxy on Ryan’s helmet…

We examined all the damaged cables and the wiring of all the electronic units. Ryan’s hands moved quickly and assuredly. At first he put the offset oxidation material valve back in place. We looked over the connection wires and the fuel lines; everything was in order. Then we opened the door to the electronics block of the dysfunctional rocket engine.

Ryan took out his welding pistol. As we touched the two ends of the snapped cable the fuel line, which was at a respectably safe distance from us, stopped leaking gas mix. We quickly welded the thick wire, wrapped it with strong tape, and then closed the flat metal sheath. I handed Ryan the brand new cover panel that had been attached to my chest, and he secured it beside the others. We had completed the repairs.

I was just about to speak into the microphone to announce that we had finished when I heard David’s quiet voice in the radio.

- …Don’t move…

The space station’s silvery body was covered in a curtain of light. On the plexi of Ryan’s helmet I saw a shining point. Then another. And another…

- …They’re back… Lot’s of them… - we heard through the speakers in the helmets.

I turned around. I knew that my partner had already noticed them, but he hadn’t said a word. The star-like objects floated around, scaring us to death.

- …John… Ryan…

Now I stood face to face with them. It’s difficult to describe what I felt then. I would have screamed, but I couldn’t get a lonesome sound out of me. It was as if time stood still… The shock of it froze the moment.

There must have been about eight of them, or that was how many I saw. They formed a semi-circle around us, while the others must have been on the other side of the base then. They moved slowly and comfortably, round and round, counter-clockwise. At times they moved past us, while at others, when their speed matched our rotation, the appeared to be still.

- …Yes, we see them… - I heard Ryan breathe out.

They must have been much closer to us than the one that flew past us a few hours ago. Eight-hundred, nine-hundred meters away. They all spun around their axes, and that is what must have caused their shocking brightness.

I felt dizzy. I felt the blood pressed out of my viscera and into my head, to feed my brain more oxygen. As the seconds marched on I could feel myself breaking into a sweat. The green digits on the digital panel on my left wrist showed it was minus sixteen, Celsius, which was extremely hot for here out in space. The circulating heating liquid system inside my spacesuit switched to cooling mode, trying to balance out the rising external temperature.

In the pale, dim light at times we could hardly make out the parading objects. I couldn’t hear anything outside the quiet background noise of my safety suit’s radio set. Maybe I could hear the blood racing through my veins. We didn’t dare move, we just floated there beside one another, with one hand latched onto the grappling rungs. The security cables attached to our bodies tightened, then loosened again in the nothingness.

- …Let’s go… - said Ryan, and with a bit of a nudge he jumped about half a meter in space.

I wanted to follow him, but I was so winced, as if I had an electric shock! The piercing light of the globe hit my eyes like a lightning strike.

Ryan grunted loudly, and went as stiff as a statue. I heard his heavy breathing through the radio. The fireballs slowly stopped. To us they still seemed to be circling, given our rotation.

They were there in front of us. It is not too much a stretch to say we could have reached out to touch them! What were their intentions with us? What inspired them to surround the space station at hardly one kilometer?

I felt like my lungs were about to rip themselves free of my ribcage. My pulse raced up and my heart beat wildly, like a drum. The drops of sweat running along my back torturously tickled me, as if tiny insect legs were running over me. The nerve-wracking phantasm broke across us in waves, like a fountain, across the bound between our conscience and sub-conscience. And still we floated in our spot, surrounded by space.

- …What… what do they want? - asked Ryan quietly.

- …I don’t know…

And then all of a sudden they stormed away in every direction. They moved away quickly, until they were dwarfed by the lights of the stars.

The whole scene unfolded so fast, that it was tough to regain our senses.

- …Commander, are you two all right?… - I heard David’s crackly voice.

- …We’re going back in… - I replied.

We both returned, and we operated the lock functions in the reverse of the exit ordering. When we took off the heavy suits we saw our form-fitting underclothes were soaked. Ryan had beads of sweat across his forehead and my eyes were stinging from the amount of salty sweat that had poured into them. Ryan packed away the spacesuits, we showered, and then went up to our place.

The others were waiting for us in the corridor, and they bombarded us with all their questions.

- …Are you OK?

- There’s nothing wrong, is there?

- Did you see them too? What were they like from out there?

- Are either of you hurt?

When we finally caught our breath Ryan was the first to speak.

- I’ll have to admit, they made me break out in a sweat.

- We saw that flash of a plume too, the one that one of the globes shot at you - said Hans, still deep in thought.

- Unfortunately we moved - I showed him.

Then we spoke with the two pilots of the Gigant. They would do a nine-hour duty shift for us. The guys were happy to get something to do.

So we had nine full hours. We all wanted to make the most of the time. For me, I went to my bedroom, lay down on the bed I’d pulled out from the wall, and without removing my clothes lied down. I didn’t have to wait long. Despite being disturbed by recent events, I soon fell asleep.

My breaths lengthened. I was relaxed, you would have thought I was dead. I had no interest in what was happening outside and no concerns for the fate of all those people. I invested no thought into how we would escape, or how we would find a passage back through space… I heard nothing of the humming equipment. The things that had happened to us just ceased to exist for me. Everything that had occurred to that point just faded into an eternal haze.

In my dream time flowed backward… I saw us fly up to Jupiter and fly in orbit around it…

And then I was in some magical country, where people were eating a milky white soup for lunch, and there I sat with them at a table. I put my spoon in the whirling liquid, but it got caught in some kind of black material, which simply did not want to leave the bowl. I called over the waiter, who offered excuses and apologies to no end. He tried to take out the object, but did not succeed.

The manager of the restaurant apologized profusely and gave me my money back. He offered me the daily special for free. I did not accept. Every time I looked around I saw people staring at me in wonder with a mix of disgust. Some people smiled and pointed to my irregular soup bowl.

They brought out a strong looking steel tool and got to work on my lunch. They suffered for it. After a long struggle the metal object snapped in two with a pop.

They called out the fire department and started using various kinds of drills. They all met the same fate: they either broke or were bent out of shape.

But now everyone had stood up from their tables to get a better look at this demonic phenomenon. A few dressed up and rushed through the drill bits lying on the floor and out of the restaurant in disgust. The manager and his staff offered me the day’s full income to leave the premises, me and that bowl.

I passed through the cavalcade of approaching soldiers and television reporters and went home. Once in my room I took a look at the white porcelain bowl. With my right hand I reached into the milky dollop and turned to stone!

I was able to take the shiny object out of the liquid with no difficulty. I held a miniature of the Procyon space station in my hand… I saw the rotation of the cylinder section, which was as wide as a finger. I heard the screams and inarticulate moans of the people inside… Then I woke up.

With suspiciously light steps I made my way through the corridor. I wanted to go to where my colleagues were, to tell them about my dream, which was already starting to wisp away. But the long corridor was endless.

I began to run. I ran as fast as I could! Where are the concentric levels? Where are the bed cabins, the bar, what happened to the conference guests? “You will never escape” - I heard from somewhere above. I looked up and saw where the deep voice had come from. It was a black head, about a meter across. One of its eyes was the Earth, the other Jupiter. Stars spun in its mouth!

With a feverish fright I turned away and continued running down the now convulsive hall. I ran like the wind runs across sheets pinned on a clothesline… I did not turn around, but still saw the gas bullets escaping from the monster’s mouth. They were chasing me. In the distance I heard the faint sound of a child crying…

I screamed. I emitted an incomprehensible, non notable, meaningless word that drowned in the echoes of the corridor. I pinched the back of my hand sharply, then I did the same to my face, though my arm didn’t really want to respond to my will. I though I could wake myself up this way. I tried to pinch harder… nothing. Hey, wake up! Wake up, come on!

- You’re not real, you can’t do anything to me! - I screamed to the fireballs approaching me behind my back.

…I knew that I was up now. But my eyes were closed and I did not dare open them. In the first moment of consciousness I heard myself scream…

I finally came to. I shook, then I shook again to free myself of the physical and spiritual effects and the phases of surfacing. I did not want to recall the dreams, but I was bothered by the fact that I could not remember the first one. Only the last remained with me, for many long minutes.

But the worst part was that the things we had just been through, the realistic experiences, were all just as abstract and obscure. The more I thought about the chain of events… well, I had a tough time separating them from the series in my nightmares.

According to the Procyon it was September 23, 2168. It was the next day, ten in the morning. The second twenty-four hour period of the things we could barely comprehend.

We visited the injured patients in the Hospital Area. In Hans’ opinion, with one exception none were in a life-threatening state any longer, but their conditions were still critical. We gave each of them a gift.

We all arrived in the Command Room. We changed shifts with the pilots. They too needed some rest. Then we sat into the chairs behind our command desks.

- I’ve been up for two hours - David looked to us. - I couldn’t sleep any more. I examined the sky as best I could. I found something we should look into.

The same curiosity arose in us all as we heard the on-deck navigator speak.

- First let’s look at the spectrum of visible light - he lightly coughed. - The star system in front of us takes up close to thirty degrees of our line of sight. So we’re seeing it not quite from above but not quite from its edge either. From our vantage point we’re seeing it tipped, in relation to the plane of its crown. It takes the whole system about a hundred-million years to rotate around its axis. So that’s about one galactic year. You can easily make out the spirals, the rotation has not tightened them up around the center, which indicates that this is a relatively young object.

David looked around at the others. After a pause he continued.

- There is a very dense group of stars in the central part of the huge millstone. The weakly twisted arms emanate from this huge galactic seed. They contain many hot, blueish bodies. In the symmetry plane of the system, near the equator of the galaxy there is a horizontal, dark dust cloud belt, and this is that light-absorbing material that is found in our Milky Way. The whole galaxy is a sphere with a light sporadic filling of stars, surrounded by the so-called galactic crown. - This is the optical light scale. I also looked at radio wave emission, although there were a few problems with one of the radio telescopes. In the hydrogen belt, so going through the twenty-four centimeter wavelength, we see cornucopia hydrogen clouds and pulsars in the spiralling arms.

David pointed out the window.

- If you look in the opposite direction you’ll notice that there is a graduated density of stars. That too is a star system, just of an entirely different shape. I would say it’s an unstructured elliptical galaxy, the sphere-symmetrical type, to be specific. It isn’t flattened, isn’t disc-shaped like the previous one, and there are no visible spirals, because over time they smoothed out from all the rotation and twisted around one another. And we are probably at the far end of this little galaxy, somewhere among the last set of stars.

After a long and deep silence Ryan was the first one to speak.

- So what you’re saying is that this little galaxy we’re in is a satellite of the bigger one?

- As a matter of fact, yes. The large system on the other side probably caught it and they are now circulating in each other’s gravitational field, around their joint center of gravity. Anyway, this object, given its size and distance, probably contains hundreds of millions of stars.

A thought entered my head like a blunt headache. I turned to the navigator.

- That can’t be… we’re looking at our own galaxy, but from the outside?

- Well, we have two parasite galaxies, the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds! - the Deputy Commander continued the train of thought.

David shook his head in disdain.

- No, this is not our Milky Way! The Magellanic Clouds are irregularly spherical, their shapes are irregular. But this little system we’re in now, it seems perfectly spherical, perfectly regular. And besides - and I found this terribly exciting - I’ve discovered three more satellite galaxies on the other side of the system.

We sat there in silence.

- And the Andromeda Cloud…? - Ryan pierced the silence with eyes wide open. - As far as I can recall, it has satellites too!

- Yes, it does. But unlike this one, its spiral arms have almost flattened against the central disk. Anyway, Andromeda is more than two million light years from us, so…

- So… so what is this galaxy? What system are we in? How far away are we?! - broke out Ryan.

- I have no idea where we are - began David -, but one thing is for certain. We are several million light years from the Solar System.

From that point on the Deputy Commander had nothing more to say. He just sat there in front of the windows and looked ahead in despair. David’s words had a dramatic effect on us.

I stood up and looked out ahead.

- But still… How could this have happened? - wondered Hans. - How did we end up so terribly far away?

- Remember that long, milk-like corridor? - I asked. - It must have been some kind of space-time passageway. - I could see an inkling in the faces of the others. Maybe they had some premonition. - It flung us across space like a sling!

- But that is impossible! - spoke up Ryan again. - Things like that simply can’t happen!

- We were just ripped out of our world - Angela spread her arms. - To the other side of the Universe, who knows where? No, you can’t expect me to take that seriously!

- You really believe that? - asked the Deputy Commander. He looked at us then turned away.

- I know it sounds crazy. - David raised his head. - But it just happened to us, and here we are gasping for air. - He looked ahead and then continued with an altered face. - But, for the love of God! We have to accept it, don’t you understand?

With the exception of David we all looked at one another. We could read his next thought.

- Goddamn it…! - Ryan expressed his anger.

We understood our minuteness, our defenselessness. We’d been torn from our system all of a sudden. We must have been in some nook at the furthest reach of the Universe. The true fact that we would never get back, never return home, dawned upon us gradually… We were very very far from our beloved sweet home. Further than anyone had ever been.

- There’s no way back… - said David coolly.

Hopelessness radiated from one of us to the other over the next few minutes. The eyes of our science officer welled up in a veil of tears. She was the first to understand the extent of our tragedy. Angela, our research officer, was but a minute, meaningless victim of the unfathomable and wild game the cosmos was playing with us.

- Looks like we’re going to rot away out here - said Ryan to himself.

- So there’s nothing we can do? - asked the now pale woman.

Hans looked at me incomprehensibly, then to David. He shook his head and with his eyes closed he looked like he was about to faint. I felt I would double over. The strength was leaving my legs. I could hardly swallow. I took a great gathering of my little strength to speak up.

- Listen to me! - I looked at them faking calm, but they didn’t really look at me. - We mustn’t lose our heads.

- What are we to do? - Angela leaned forward, in a voice choked up with tears.

- Is there a plan? - asked the doctor.

I tried to gather my thoughts. I know that if we gave up now then it was all over. Given that no one else offered an answer, I continued.

- Let’s look at where things stand. Ryan! David! - The navigator seemed ready to act, but Ryan just shot me a hopeless look. - How long can we stay alive in here?

- With the current situation, I mean, in these conditions… well our oxygen, we’ll be lucky if it lasts ninety days - the Deputy Commander replied in a calmer voice.

- There is condensed oxygen and nitrogen in the high-pressure containers - the navigator spoke up. - That should give us about four months if the passengers stick to their sleeping cabins. The air cleansers will remove the oxygen from the used air and recycle it. That would take us up to about eight months. But no further, because we can’t resupply, the stocks will get used up and the system will drown in itself.

- No point in waiting for refuelling ships…

- Understood. What about food?

 

 

TO  BE  CONTINUED ...