Chapter 10. Consensus.

After more medical tests confirmed the original results, it was time to determine the next processes that could explain their situation.

"We're at a point at which we need to figure out what we can do to determine how we got into this time parody," Charles said. "We're possibly some years into the future based on what physical evidence we've obtained from Earth, which implies that we've traveled into the future. There's only two ways that's possible based on the science we're familiar with. One is to find or create a worm hole and then accelerate one of the entrances to near the speed of light before returning it to its original position. The other way is to go near to the event horizon of a black hole and wait for years where our time slows down and the time away from the black hole increases. This would be extremely difficult to do because we don't have enough engine power to pull away from a black hole."

"So, what does this mean?" Carl said. "That there's no way we should have been propelled into the future?"

"Right, at least ways we know about."

"What about the blackout events?" Hilary asked. "Did they plunge us into the future?"

"We assumed that aliens shot powerful microwave beams at us, which interacted with the graviton systems," Carl said.

"The problem with that is that our graviton system would have been altered, making our gravity change, which it didn't," Charles reminded him. "First of all, we call it a graviton system, but that's not an accurate designation. Those systems don't make graviton particles, which are massless and, according to string theory, strings, not particles. These systems create artificially produced gravity by simulating centrifugal force without spinning anything, at least not in the normal way. I don't know why they called them graviton devices other than quantum physics lists those particles as being responsible for gravity." He paused a moment before continuing. "If the graviton system was changed during the blackout incident, we would have noticed it."

"What we experienced was a period where there was no light possible," Hilary said. "It was as if we were in a dead zone."

"Yes, and that should be what we concentrate on," Charles said. "How could that propel us into the future?"

"The only way we can determine that is by determining how the blackout incident happened," Carl said.

Charles smiled. "Exactly."

"I wonder if there were other crews out there in space when that hit," Alice mused. "Is there any way we could determine that?"

"I believe there was a mission to Mars about the time we went to Enceladus," Dave revealed. "I'm not sure if they made it."

Charles stood up. "Well, let's go see if that is the case."

"You're going to go all the way to Mars?" Dave asked, his expression exhibiting confusion.

"Sure. It'll only take a few days to get there."

"Wow, this vessel must have powerful engines."

"Yeah. We needed them to get to near the speed of light when we traveled to Proxima B."

Dave got up and went with Charles and Carl to the command deck.

When they were out of hearing distance, Hilary turned to Vicky. "So, how endowed are the males on this ship of fools?"

Vicky chuckled. "Well, let's just say that it took a good deal of time sticking the probe up their dicks."

"Wow!" Alice reacted, with a subtle grin. "Weren't you the lucky one."

Vicky's expression morphed to a more concerned expression. "That wasn't the real fun."

"What do you mean?"

"I had to have them produce some sperm to determine if they were viral."

Alice's face exploded with surprise. "You didn't?"

"Yep!"

The women laughed.

The men weren't laughing when they got to the command deck and activated the ship's engines.

"I think the women are getting a bit on the wild side," Carl said. "Vicky wasn't supposed to do those prostrate exams like that."

"Yeah," Charles sighed. "I suppose it's her way of having fun."

"It shouldn't be at our expense."

"I agree, but I'm not about to discipline any of them. We need them to help us out of this mess."

"Speaking of that," Dave said. "I don't think we're in the future, at least not for a thousand years."

Charles squinted at him. "What do you base that on?"

"I don't think the blackout event had anything to do with changing time. Whatever happened was an energy process. That's not how time could be changed. I think we're in normal time and whatever happened to Earth was a short-lived event, something like an intense gamma ray blast that caused an atmospheric ignition where the nitrogen neutrons fuse, which would have destroyed everything."

"Yeah, that's possible, but it would have had to have been a very close event to do that. The only thing that could do that is something like two black holes colliding."

"Yeah," That's a possibility, but I don't remember any report of that happening."

"I think our problem is the result of having too many strange events to explain," Dave said. "We need to attack each idea one at a time."

"Ok, let's assume that we didn't go into the future," Charles began. "What could have destroyed the surface of Earth?"

"I believe it would require a very powerful gamma ray burst like Dave said."

"Like from a supernova?" Charles asked. "I don't think there's any stars that could do that are close enough to Earth."

"I was thinking more like the collision of two neutron stars or maybe black holes."

"Yeah," Carl said. "That would definitely fry the Earth."

Charles sighed. "We still have the problem of what caused the blackout event. I don't think that a gamma ray burst could do that."

"That's a question that we need to ask the women," Dave said.

Later that evening when Charles was taking a shower, Vicky entered his quarters and went to the bathroom. He saw her distorted image outside the shower and thought it was possible problem.

He opened the shower door and stepped out. "What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry for imposing on you, but I wanted to apologize for putting you through some rough medical testes."

He shook his head. "That's not necessary. It wasn't that bad."

"Yeah, but I think you should discipline me for a dumb ass prank."

"That might be true, but I don't want to punish you for something like that."

"Even though I did it for amusement?"

"Yes, even for that."

She sighed. "You definitely are the right person to take over command of this ship."

He smiled. "Thanks."

"And here I am violating your privacy. I'm just a bad ass."

"There is no privacy on this vessel," Charles said with a grin. "You can watch everything that takes place anytime you wish."

"Really?"

"Yes."

She smiled. "Thanks."

He sighed as he watched her walk away in a more seductive manner. He was disappointed that she was not behaving in a more professional manner, but he realized that their confused situation was not helping the matter.