Chapter 19. Confusion.

Charles allowed Alice to pilot the ship on its voyage to the N2 Lupi star system, which is 48 light years away from Earth. She activated the faster than light tachyon system that got them there in just two days. They could have cut down that time, but they agreed that it might push the engines too far.

"This is a G-class main sequence star that's much older than our Sun," Alice told Charles. "It has seven planets orbiting it. The one we want to examine is a super earth orbiting in the habitable zone. It appears to have an Earth-sized moon."

Charles rubbed his jaw. "Yes, I doubt that it had life on it, but it's still possible."

"What exactly are we looking for?" Carl asked.

"This system is directly in line with the space rift that caused our blackout. Even if it had no intelligent life, it probably had some sort of living creatures. If we find that it was vaporized clean, it will be verification that the disaster that condemned us to everlasting life in purgatory was from the space rift."

"Is the rift still active?" Dave asked.

"No," Vicky replied. "However, we should still be able to see it." She adjusted the telescopic view of that part of space.

"It looks like a black hole that's been squashed into a black slot," Charles commented. "Maybe it's a wormhole."

"That's a possibility," Judy said. "But that would suggest that the energy beam that caused the blackout came from somewhere much further away."

"Maybe it came from the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy," Beverly said. "They tend to get active and emit relativistic jets."

"Yeah, but they emit from the poles of the blackhole, which wouldn't be pointing in this direction."

"The blackout event was short lived," Charles said. "That's also not consistent for a relativistic jet."

"Maybe we'll get more evidence of what it is by examining the moon orbiting the super earth planet," Carl suggested.

"Who's going down on that?" Vicky asked.

"I think it's my turn," Charles replied. He turned to Alice. "How about you?"

She gave him a brief smirk. "Yes, I will go with you."

No one complained.

After the ship was in orbit around the moon, which was orbiting a rocky super earth planet, the view of the moon revealed some interesting artifacts.

"Well, that's not what I expected," Vicky reacted. "It appears as if this was the home of an intelligent species."

"I believe you're right," Alice said. "'Those structures are not natural. However, the moon's land masses look rather odd."

"They were probably stripped of any life, but the atmospheric heating didn't destroy their structures."

"Should we go down there?" Alice asked Charles.

"I believe we should." He stood up, and she joined him.

"Hold the fort," he told the crew.

They walked to the elevator and went to the hanger deck, leaving the others to wonder why the two leaders would go together on a possibly dangerous mission.

After boarding a shuttle, Charles began the process of traveling to the moon orbiting a large planet.

"Do we need spacesuits?" Charles asked her.

"Not really. This moon has six percent oxygen. We should be ok."

"When did you find that we aren't breathing much oxygen?"

"'Around the same time that I discovered that energy doesn't have any effect on us. I stuck my hand on to one of the stove units that the robots use to cook with, and it had no effect."

"Did it hurt?"

"Yes, it hurt like hell."

"Interesting. That would suggest that our flesh is . . . it must have been converted."

"And yet, it feels and acts the same as flesh. It must be some strange transformation that we don't understand,"

"Oh, well," Charles said. "We have plenty of time to figure it out."

The trip down to the moon's surface was without any problems. They exited the shuttle without putting on space suits and began walking to a structure that appeared to be a possible meeting area. The door, which was probably made from something like wood, had been completely consumed, leaving only the walls.

Charles looked around the empty room. "I doubt that we'll locate any biological remnants, but we might find objects that were made from stone or metal."

While they were searching the structure, Charles looked at her. "Did you try any other tests to determine how durable we are?"

"Yes,' she said. "I had the robots adjust my shower to allow it to run at the hottest and coldest possible temperatures. I instructed them to adjust the temperatures to exceed the safety values. Neither extreme caused any observable damage to my flesh."

"Was it painful?"

"Yes, it was! I'm surprised that no one heard my screams."

"That would indicate that we feel pain, but our bodies are not affected by extreme temperatures."

"That's the way I see it. It makes sense. We're being tormented for the egregious sins of humanity."

"Ok, let's get some readings on the walls of this structure and the ground around it," he told her.

She pulled an instrument off her utility belt and began the scans while he continued searching around for any evidence of the species that created the structure. He looked at the ceiling and smiled.

He got her attention and pointed at the ceiling. "Get a good photo of that mural up there. I think it illustrates what the species that made this looks like."

She looked up. "Why did they put that up there?"

"Maybe they figured that it wouldn't get damaged by foot traffic."

She gave him a smirk. "Of course."

They completed their search and returned to the shuttle. The trip back to the ship was without incident. While Charles guided the shuttle to the entrance of the hanger, he decided to see if Alice had discovered any other evidence of their physical durability.

"Did you try any other tests?"

"Not yet. I was planning on having the robots suspend me by my feet for an extended time, but I doubt that would prove anything."

He smiled. "Were you contemplating self-flagellation . . . with their help that is?"

"Not really. I'm crazy, but not that crazy." She looked at him wide eyed. "Would you like to watch me do another shower test?"

His answer came quickly. "Nope! I'm not into watching people suffer."

Alice gave him a mock frown. "Wouldn't you love to see me pay for my sins?"

"No. I give you absolution. Go and sin no more."

She laughed.

When they arrived on the command deck, Vicky turned to them. "While you two were fooling around on the planet, we saw something come out of the rift, or whatever it is. It might have been a vessel because it changed directions and quickly disappeared."

"Are we back to the alien theory?" Charles asked.

"Maybe it was an unmanned device," Alice suggested.

Charles looked at Vicky. "Did you get a course direction for it?"

"Yes, but it disappeared too quickly to get an exact one."

"Ok, see if you can come up with some destination possibilities. I'm going to go and relax in my quarters."

"I think I'll do the same," Alice said.

The crew on the command deck watched them enter the elevator together.

"They didn't seem all impressed with our observation," Vicky said. She turned to Judy. "Did they say what they found on that moon?"

"Yeah," Judy said before she transferred their photo of the structure's ceiling to the main screen.

"Is that what the aliens that lived there look like?" Carl asked.

"That has to be," Judy said.

"The look almost human."

"Sort of. They don't have hair of any kind on their heads or faces."

"Yeah, you're right. Strange."

"If they saw us, they would think that we're monkeys."

Carl smiled. "Speak for yourself."

She waved a dismissive hand at him. "Ha, ha!"

When Charles and Alice exited the elevator on the quarters deck and began walking to their quarters, Alice stopped him from entering his quarters. "I have another idea for testing our supposed physical durability."

"Oh?"

"You have a swimming pool next to your quarters. Maybe we could determine how long we can swim in water without breathing."

"I'm not sure that would prove anything."

"Maybe, but it would be an interesting test, especially since the water is especially cold."

He held a hand to his face. "How do you know what its temperature is?"

"It's in a temperature record."

"I assume you want me to be the test dummy."

"If you wish, I'll do it."

He raised a hand. "No that's ok, I'm game."

She smiled.

On the command deck, Carl and Vicky had worked out possible destinations for the alien device that emerged from the space rift, and they sent the results to Charles. He looked them over on a large screen in his living area. The three other males were there with him.

"Interesting. They're all around 40 to 50 light years from Earth."

"That object could have been an alien device," Dave said. "Maybe it was a robotic search vessel."

Charles rubbed his jaw. "Hmm. That might be a better possibility. There is a theory that intelligent species could advance to the point at which they would send AI controlled space crafts to explore the universe."

"Shit!" Carl exclaimed. "We're almost in that category."

Charles smiled. "Speaking of that. When Alice and I were on the moon, we weren't wearing space suits."

"What? How did you breathe? The oxygen was too low."

"Alice believes that we don't need all that much oxygen to live. In fact, she thinks that we could swim underwater for long periods without needing to breath."

"You mean we're like fishes?" Robert asked.

"No. Fish take in oxygen from the water. We wouldn't need that."

"I guess there's only one way to prove that." Carl said. "We can try it out in the swimming pool connected to your quarters."

"If we do, I promised Alice that she could monitor it. Remember that we don't have bathing suits."

Carl shrugged. "That doesn't bother me." He turned to the other men. "How about you guys?"

"It doesn't matter to me," Dave replied.

Robert nodded his ok.

As if on cue, Alice, Vicky, Hilary and Felecia entered Charles' quarters.

"Are you guys going to swim like fishes?" Alice asked.

"Yes," Charles replied without emotion.

"Great," she replied. "We want to monitor it."

Charles pointed to the door to the pool. "There's the pool."

The four guys waited until the gals had entered the pool chamber and had taken seats near to the pool before they proceeded.

"I'm surprised that they didn't complain about us watching them," Hilary said.

"They probably figured that they'll be underwater most of the time."

The women didn't have to wait long. The four men walked out where the diving board was and took turns diving into the water. The women went to the edge of the pool so that they could watch them swim around underwater.

"I got a timer on them," Vicky said. "Normally, they couldn't stay under there for much more than ten minutes, especially in this case because that water is really cold."

"How cold?" Felicia asked.

"It's about five degrees C."

"Oh my God!"

"Why so cold?" Hilary asked.

"I don't know. Maybe it's because cold water doesn't evaporate as much as water at room temperature."

"They seem to be swimming around without and signs of stress," Vicky said while watching their bodies flash by where she was."

"What are you hoping to find from this test?" Felicia asked Alice.

"I want to confirm that we can stay alive without oxygen, especially under stressful situations."

"How can we live with little or no oxygen?"

"Evidently, our bodies have been completely altered by the bio energy system that's in that unit near the hibernation chamber. It must have altered our DNA in some way we don't understand to make our flesh and our organs work in processes that keep us from aging and dying. What I'm trying to determine is how durable we are."

She pointed to the water. "So, you're experimenting with them to find the answer."

"Yes, but it's only the first step."

"What she's trying to find out is why the Space Command idiots came up with this crazy scheme to escape the complete demise of the human race," Vicky said.

"They would need to change us into androids if that was their plan," Felicity replied. "No biological system is capable of everlasting life."

"Maybe, maybe not. That's what she's trying to determine."

After an hour of watching the men swimming around, the women watched as Charles climbed out of the pool and walked over to them. "Man is that water cold!"

"You don't seem to have suffered any damage," Vicky said. "You should have drowned."

Carl, Dave and Robert exited the water and walked over to them. "We're frozen," Carl complained with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Why in the hell is the water so cold?" Dave asked emulating Carl's chest hugging posture.

"It keeps it from evaporating so fast," Charles replied. "I'm sure there's a way to walm it up."

"There is," Alice replied. "But we wanted to see if you could endure the cold."

"Burr!" Carl complained. "We're naked as Jay birds and we're frozen."

"Yeah!" Dave said. "I'm having trouble feeling my feet."

Alice looked at his feet. "They didn't turn blue." She turned to Charles. "You guys should go take hot showers."

Charles gesture to the guys. "Yeah, let's go warm up."

The women watched them walk to a shower room off the pool chamber.

"Well, that was fun," Felicia said.

"Yes, it was, but it was at their expense," Alice told her. "We need to give them more credit for what they do."

"Yeah, they entertain us well," Hilary reminded them.

"Indeed, they do!" Vicky exclaimed.

They giggled, but they knew that what they're doing is not right.