Near the VY Canis Majoris red Hypergiant star nebula Constellation of Canis Majoris, 3,900 light years from Earth Tina was left stunned speechless for long seconds by SPIRIT’s announcement before she could speak hesitantly.
‘’Are...are you sure, SPIRIT? And how could you say that we went back in time instead of going towards the future?’
‘’I am sure, although I can’t say yet by how much we went back in time. As for the direction of our temporal travel, I can use the general direction the stars around us were going in 2337 to deduce that they are presently in positions predating the year 2337. We are definitely in the past, Tina.’
Tina swallowed hard, her head swimming a bit, before asking another question to SPIRIT.
‘’And by how much do you estimate we went back in time?’
‘’I truly couldn’t say by now, Tina. There is no known precedent to this incident and our knowledge of the past locations of the stars around Earth is very imprecise, the more so as we look further away. With us now being 3,900 light years from Earth, any guess on my part would only be that, a guess. However, in view of how close we got from that black hole and of how massive it was, chances are that we are at least a few hundred years or even a few millenniums in the past. Our only way to know for sure would be for us to go to Earth and observe what is happening on its surface.’
‘’What about finding a way to return to our time period, SPIRIT?’
‘’It is way too early to speculate about that, Tina. What we need to do now is to go to Earth, then establish as precisely as possible the time and date we are in. Only then will we able to try to find a way home. One thing which I would strongly counsel against would be to try passing near that black hole again in order to reverse its effect.
This is the bitter reality, not some cheap science-fiction movie script.’
Tina passed a shaking hand on her forehead in order to wipe away the cold sweat on it.
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‘’Very well. We will start on our way to the Solar System, using a series of jumps.
In view of the stress my poor ship has just gone through, we will limit each of our jumps to no more than 400 light years. This will allow us multiple opportunities to readjust our star charts while we are on our way.’’
‘’I concur, Tina. Hang on: I am sure that we will find a way to go back to our time period.’
‘’Thanks, SPIRIT.’ said Tina before cutting that link. She then stayed silent and thoughtful for a moment before taking a decision and opening her ship-wide announcement system.
‘’Attention all hands, this is your captain! I want the principal officers and department heads to assemble in the command conference room for an urgent meeting.
Thank you for your attention.’
With that said, she then spoke to Reena Shapour, who had returned to her navigation station.
‘’Reena, start plotting a course towards the Solar System, using a succession of ten jumps and calculating a good safety margin in terms of distances and headings.
Let’s try not to jump into a star by accident. Once you will have calculated those jumps, join me in the command conference room.’
‘’Will do, Tina.’
Tina then got up from her command chair and left the command platform, then the bridge sphere, going to the ship’s command conference room, on the level of the executive residences.
Some 23 minutes, Tina faced her command staff and departmental heads around the command conference table. While still quite shaken by the reality of their situation, she did her best to keep a brave face and a steady voice as she addressed them.
‘’My friends, we are now facing an unprecedented and critical situation. We are now 3,900 light years from home, near the nebula of VY Canis Majoris. Normally, going home would not be a real problem, except for one factor revealed to me by SPIRIT: our passage near that black hole threw us back in time by an unknown number of years, possibly millenniums.’
A mix of consternation and shock, punctuated by a few horrified exclamations, greeted her announcement. Tina waited for relative quiet to come back before continuing.
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‘’I will now let SPIRIT resume in her words what probably happened to us.
SPIRIT...’
The android avatar of their AI central computer, who was part of the ship’s command staff, then spoke for a couple minutes, enumerating the facts supporting her assessment of them having traveled back in time by possibly many centuries or even millenniums.
Overall, while shocked by all this, the staff members did seem to believe and accept her reasoning. That was when Tina jumped in the conversation again.
‘’Now, you are probably wondering what we will do in order to be able to return to our proper time period or, if we can’t go back to the year 2337, about what we will do then. First, let me say that I have no intentions of simply giving up and resign myself into staying in the past. We will try everything possible before I will even contemplate giving up. I don’t yet know how we will do it but we WILL return home! Second, if we indeed find out once back in the Solar System that we are in the past, I am resolved for us to avoid at all cost to do anything that could modify history in any way, shape or form. We may be lost in the past but we will do nothing that could erase our families, friends and the worlds we know by changing history. You all have watched enough science-fiction movies or read books about what kind of chaos a time traveler or time travelers could create by intervening in past historical periods. If we have to go down to the surface of the Earth in order to ascertain the precise date we are in, then we will do it in the most cautious and restrained way possible. If we have to do so, then we will go in, get the info we need, then go out, period! This is dead serious, people: the history of Humanity is now in our hands. Yes, Lester?’
Lester Barnaby, who was the head of the entertainment department of the ship, a department that was made quite important in view of the mass of passengers often traveling on the NOSTROMO, cleared his throat before speaking.
‘’I fully agree with you about not doing anything to risk changing history, Tina, but we could use this occasion to remotely study and record from orbit or from high altitude, using reconnaissance drones, what is happening on Earth. This may be a very unfortunate situation we are now into but it is also an unprecedented one and a golden opportunity to record some priceless documentation and films concerning past periods of Humanity’s history. For example, if we stumble on the period of the Roman Empire and witness from orbit a major battle or event of the past, why not take the time to watch and record what we will see from orbit? After all, it will most probably take a lot of time for us
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to study how to get back to the future once we will have established in what year we are in.’
‘’I would second Lester’s suggestion, Tina.’ said Professor Samuel Shmelling, the head of the history department of the NOSTROMO’s university, an institute of learning which had a stellar reputation across the Spacers League and which was also highly sought after by would-be students. ‘’Not using fully such a golden opportunity in a safe way would be utterly derelict on our part.’
Tina thought that over for a few seconds before nodding her head.
‘’Agreed! However, any action which could even remotely affect the integrity of history will have to be vetted in advance by me. Anything else?’
To her surprise, it was Jehanne De Domrémy who raised one hand to speak.
‘’Yes, Jehanne?’
‘’First, let me say that I agree with you about the necessity for us not to risk the integrity of history as we know it by some inconsiderate direct contact with past inhabitants of Earth. With that said, I must remind all of you around this table that precise calendars did not exist in many historical periods of Earth. My hobby of medieval jousting and fighting reenactment showed me that the various nations, kingdoms or empires of the past all used different calendars, some of which bore little resemblance to what we would consider a proper calendar. Since we won’t be able to ascertain the date we are in simply by listening to some inexistant radio broadcast, and this along the vast majority of our history, we may then have no choice but to send someone or a small group on the surface, a group able to blend in and converse in the local language in order to ask an apparently anodyne question, like ‘what is the date today?’. Without wanting to brag about this, my androids who were programmed with the general knowledge of specific historical persons would be the perfect ones to conduct such discreet surface reconnaissance. I myself can speak Old French and Latin, know the customs and rules of the Middle Ages and could mingle around as a simple farm girl. Many of my androids are similarly well equipped to mingle in specific historical periods. By our nature as security androids, we would also be a lot safer from attacks than any of our Human crewmembers.’
‘’I also agree with that, Captain.’ interjected Shmelling. Many of Jehanne’s androids modeled on historical personalities do actually teach history classes in my department and are at least as knowledgeable about history as any Human professional historian. I must also say that mingling around a crowd of people in the distant past is a
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lot riskier than many people would think. One wrong word, one foreign-sounding accent or one badly interpreted gesture or sign could be enough to get a stranger in trouble in many places in the past. Even your gender or ethnic look could trigger hostility or suspicion. Add to that the factor of multiplicity of religions in the past, with their ingrained bias, intolerance and often hateful dogmas and you end up with a very dangerous social environment. The people of the past may have been ignorant but that didn’t mean that they were stupid, so underestimating them would be a grave mistake on our part.
Jehanne and her androids would indeed be perfect if we ever needed to send a discrete reconnaissance party on the surface of past Earth.’
‘’Alright, I buy that but we will still send such reconnaissance parties only if absolutely necessary. We will soon start on our way back to the Solar System, where we will then better be able to assess our situation. While we will be traveling through Space, I want our physics department to seriously study our encounter with that black hole and to come up with the help of SPIRIT with a practical way for us to go back to our time period.’
Janet Robeson, present in her capacity as Tina’s political counselor, then reminded everybody about something not mentioned yet.
‘’What about the 966 passengers who came aboard as tourists intending to visit New Haven, Tina? I fully understand that you didn’t have a chance to make them disembark on New Haven before the Space Predators showed up without warning, but they may well panic on hearing that they are now stuck in the past with us.’
‘’I will say two things to them, Janet. First, I am truly sorry that they are now stuck with us in this trap. Second, you can tell them that I haven’t given up on finding a way to go back to the 24th Century, far from it.’
Lester Barnaby then made a proposition in a joking tone, trying to lighten up the atmosphere.
‘’Hey, maybe we should organize some guided tours of ancient cities for them.’
Tina smiled at that and pointed a finger at Lester as others shook their heads in amusement or made facepalms.
‘’As my husband Michel would say to you on that: Nyet! On this, I declare this meeting over.’
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