Chapter No.7

The three scientists enjoyed a good night's sleep on Earth for the first time in many weeks. Combined with a shower and a decent breakfast, they were ready to face the universe. Unfortunately, the universe wasn't going to cooperate.

"So, what are we going to do?" Janet asked Carl.

"Okay, the first question to answer is; are there any human survivors other than us?"

"There doesn't appear to be any on Earth," Margaret said. "What about the Lunar L2 Space Station?"

"The last I heard they had several scientists and their families on there," Janet said. "Supposedly, the station can support a hundred people."

"I tried to contact them but never received a response," Carl said. "The only way we could determine if there is anyone on it is by going there, but that's not going to be easy. We would have to do all the prep work to launch. Besides, even if there were people on that station it still wouldn't reveal where all the people on Earth went."

"If all of the people on Earth vanished, why didn't we?" Janet asked.

"We weren't on Earth, which means that we have to assume that it was only an Earth event, at least that's what it appears to be."

"So, what can we do here?" Margaret asked.

"I believe we should try to use the IMINT Satellites to search for human activity," Carl said.

"We don't have the password codes to do that," she replied.

"I think I might be able to get into some of them," Janet said with a sly smirk. "I remember some of the NASA passwords I used when I worked with the Vegetation Surveying team."

Carl gestured to the main computer terminal. "Have a go at it."

She sat down and began typing passwords she knew into the main computer system. After some failures she got a hit. "I'm into the ground survey system. I should be able to realign it to search over cities and other populated areas."

"Good. Maybe we can find some people," Carl commented. "What bothers me is the fact that we can operate these systems which use satellites to communicate and still can't contact anyone. It just shows you how much AI technology has invaded human activity."

"Maybe it's because there is no one to answer us," Margaret retorted.

"I suppose we'll soon know if that's the case."

After many hours of satellite observations, Janet gave up. "I can't find any evidence of human activity. The city streets are clear of traffic, except for some parked vehicles and vehicles that are scattered around at random. Despite that, there are no signs of panic or massive evacuations. This is consistent with the idea that everyone simply vanished. It's as if humans never existed."

Carl rubbed the back of his neck. "That doesn't make sense. Maybe they vanished at night."

"The cities all over the planet exhibit the same situation. Not all of them would have been at night."

"Perhaps the disappearances occurred in a phased manner that passed around the planet," Carl suggested. "In any event, we're back to square one."

"So, what can we do next?" Janet asked.

"I suppose the only thing left is to go to the space station," Carl replied. "We can't make contact, but it might be that they gave up trying to contact Mission Control."

"Don't they rely on Mission Control for supplies like oxygen, water and food?"

"I believe that they're able to be self-reliant," Carl replied. "At least that was the plan when they built the station. Unfortunately, we have no means of determining if anyone is still there other than to go there."

"How are we going to set up a launch ourselves?" Margaret asked. "We have no idea how to do that."

Carl gestured to the main terminal. "Fortunately, the instructions on how to do it are in there. It won't be easy, but I believe we can pull it off."

"This is ridiculous!" she cried. "We're not engineers and rocket scientists. If we screw it up, we could end up killing ourselves."

"Or we could end up vanishing if we stay here on Earth," Carl said.

That made them think, and the conclusion that they came to was that he was right.

They decided to turn in for the night. Frustration aside, they needed a good night's sleep for what they were about to do next.

Author's Notes.
The L2 position between the Earth and Moon is a Lagrange point between the two bodies where the gravity pull of both along with the centrifugal forces balances out and creates a balance. Placing a space station there would put it in a stable orbit.
IMINT stands for the imagery intelligence company, which provides the software that is used in surveillance satellites.