Chapter No.21. Surprise.

We began our trip back to Earth the next day. After an hour-long engine burn, we slipped into hyperspace at an acceleration that would have us arrive in the Milky Way galaxy after twenty-eight days.

Life aboard the ship slipped into a boring routine of exercising, eating and sleeping. Occasionally, we engaged in a discussion about our situation, usually when we got together for supper, which was typically a boring meal of soy burgers, a vegetable, and a potato. The only thing that made it tolerable was beer, a refreshing beverage that helped stimulate our discussions.

"How far in the future will we be when we arrive back at Earth?" Natale asked.

"Good question," I said. "COMA should be able to give us an estimate from calculations based on our ship's log."

"The last time I checked we were up to 2240 give or take five after we add this latest hyperspace trip," Janet said. "We really don't know for sure because the precise instant we first slipped into hyperspace is not certain."

"Wow! That's definitely further than I imagined."

"We've found two other crews out here," Sharon said. "Natale and Bridget's, and the one we found at the last planet. Why would they be out as far as we went? Wouldn't NASA have discovered the mistake and corrected it?"

"They might have," I said. "We don't really know how many missions they've sent out to find habitable planets,"

"We don't even know if humans are still on Earth," Natale said. "Climate change could have caused an extinction event by now."

"That's a possibility. There isn't much we could do about it."

"Isn't there some way to reverse climate change?" Bridget asked.

I rubbed my jaw. "I remember reading about the proposed climate change reversal theories, but they would have been difficult to accomplish."

"One method I remember is moving an asteroid into an orbit that would pull Earth further away from the sun," Sharon said. "Obviously, that would be a risky idea at best."

"The only way that we could do that is to use the object intervention laser system to coax it into an orbit that would intercept Earth. We'd need to find an iron-based asteroid for that. The laser would blast a rocky asteroid to bits."

"I didn't know we had a weapon like that," Janet said.

"It's not a weapon; although, it could be used for that. It was designed as a way for us to avoid an asteroid or comet collision."

"I found something interesting in the ship's material list," Natale said. "It indicates that we have tons of all sorts of tree seeds. Most of them are angiosperms, but there are some gymnosperm species. We only have a few fruit-bearing trees on the agricultural deck. What are the other seeds for?"

"Maybe they expected us to plant them on Proxima-b," I said. "However, trees are pollinated by insects, species of which would not be found there."

"We also have extra seeds for the plants we do have on the agricultural deck. "Basically, we're carrying the fruit of plenty from Earth."

"I've had this funny feeling all along that they might have hoped that we would be able to save Earth if we couldn't colonize Proxima-b."

"In other words, we are a genetic lifeboat, not only for plant species but also the human species."

I shook my head, "If that was their plan, it was ill conceived. We're over two centuries in the past relative to Earth. How could they even hope that we would make it back?"

"Well, as it turns out," Janet said. "We're not only going to make it back, we've worked out how to travel in hyperspace despite not knowing anything about it."

We all raised our glasses to a well-deserved toast.

"Let's hope that there is an Earth to return to," I said.

"We could check out Proxima-b," Sharon said.

I smiled. "Now that would be funny. It's the planet we were supposed to go to."

They didn't laugh. The thought of it made us sad.

Sadness didn't abate easily. We felt that we had been betrayed by people who organized our mission. They literally wasted our lives on an ill-conceived plan to find a habitable new Earth, not knowing if there were any candidate planets out there. Even worse, their mistake killed several people. Evidently, they considered us expendable in the interests of science.

But this realization did not cause us to fall into depression. We spent our time staying in good physical condition and making sure that we discussed any issues.

One issue that came up often was the lack of clothing choices, especially during the communal supper.

"It's one thing that we're forced to live on this bird cage, but at least we could have a better wardrobe." Janet complained.

I turned to Natale and Bridget for help with that. "Have you found any other clothing ideas?"

"Yeah, we probably could," Natale replied. "But what difference would it make. We don't actually need to wear clothing. The modesty cops are not working this part of the universe."

"Yeah, but I feel that being clothed makes us feel more human."

"That would make sense if we were being observed," Sharon said. "But the only thing monitoring us is COMA."

"Okay," I said. "How about going to just wearing our skivvies?"

Janet cracked a smile when she turned to the other women. "Are you guys wearing undies?"

Sharon smirked. "Nope."

The others affirmed the same.

I sighed. "Well, that won't work."

They laughed.

Mostly, they resorted to teasing me, but not in any excessive manner. I suppose it was their way of letting me know that they were satisfied with me being in charge.

The days flew by without incident. When we finally dropped out of hyperspace, we were not too far away from Earth.

"I'm amazed that we're this close to Earth," Janet said. "We weren't sure where it was."

"Maybe it means that our luck has changed," I said.

"We should be able to arrive in orbit if we do a two-and-a-half-day ride in hyperspace."

"When?"

"At 1200," she said.

When the time came, we strapped into the G-chairs for the burn that would put us in Earth orbit. Everyone was excited about seeing our home planet again, but when we arrived there, it was not what we expected.

"This is not the Earth we left," Sharon said. "There's reduced vegetation and the oceans are much higher. Look at North America." She pointed at the main screen. "A good portion of Florida and lot of the Atlantic coast is under water. The land bridge to South America is much smaller."

"Hawaii is reduced to mountains poking through the water," I said. "Many of the smaller Pacific islands are gone, including parts of Japan and Taiwan. There's a massive typhon raging in the Pacific."

"The bolometric temperature is at least six degrees higher," Janet said. "I'm reading atmospheric carbon dioxide at 0.09 percent."

I sunk back in my chair. "We'll, I'm not surprised."

"Many of the satellites are gone," Natale said. "There's no space stations or orbital platforms."

"I wonder if the Mars and Moon colonies are still in existence," I said.

"We can check out the Moon, but we'll have to go to Mars to find anything there," Sharon said.

"There's no ice in the Artic and a reduced amount in Antarctica," Janet said. "There's some residual vegetation near the North Polar region."

"Check out the radio spectrum," I said.

After several minutes, Janet had a report. "I'm not detecting any signals on the frequencies we are familiar with."

"What the hell is that?" Natale said, pointing to the main screen at a location in the upper part of Alberta, Canada.

"It looks like a huge round structure," Janet said. "It's reflecting light."

"I think it's a biosphere habitat. See if you can get some infrared readings on that."

After a few minutes, Sharon had a report. "There's plenty of infrared returns, both small and large."

"I think we've found where the humans ended up," I said.

"Are we going down there?" Bridget asked.

"Not until we're sure it's safe. It's difficult to tell what humans are like under the conditions of Earth in the 23nd century."

Observations over the next couple of days didn't reveal much more than we had already determined. I decided it was time to take care of business.

"I think we should bury the three deceased crew members," I said.

"How are we going to do that?" Sharon asked. "Won't they smell by now?"

"They may not," I said. "Remember that we're not aging because of traveling through hyperspace. Maybe that would also apply to decomposition of a corpse."

I stood up. "Let's go find out. I'll need your help to get them in body bags and then up to the hanger so we can put them in the shuttle."

They reluctantly followed me to the hibernation pods. I overrode the locking system on the first one that contained the male. The lid slowly swung up to allow access.

"He doesn't look that bad," I said before I began unhooking sensors and bodily support systems. I pointed at Janet. "There's body bags in those cabinets." I pointed. "We need three of them."

After I got him fully unattached, I began the process of putting him in a body bag. Starting at the feet, I slipped the body bag on to him and gradually puled it up over his body. Sharon, Natale and Bridget began the same process on the two deceased women.

Once we had the bodies in bags and zipped up, we had to get them up to the hanger. The easiest way to do that is to stop the crew wheel deck from turning so that we could do it in zero gravity. Basically, we had to maneuver then to the axel tube entrances and then slowly guide them up through the tube to the hanger. Once we had them up there, it was not that difficult to put them in the shuttle. We piled them up in the area that was reserved for supplies.

We didn't go down to the planet just yet. We wanted to relax after the hard work and do it the next morning. What we experienced when we went down to planet Earth surprised all of us.