Chapter 8
Journey Into Space
'R' Day was upon them, and the giant asteroid could be seen at night with the naked eye, looming far out in space. Earth was reporting that it could be seen during daylight at times. None of the residents of ‘The Return’ could see the asteroid of course; the only ports they had found in the whole ship were on the bridge. Blake and the team were now condensed in single building that seemed to have been designed as an administrative centre; over the past month it had been rigged with all the equipment needed. The locals insisted in naming it Northfield House, much to Blake's annoyance. Blake had managed little sleep when he decided to get out of bed that morning, it was just after five by GMT, ship’s time, when he made his first mug of coffee of the day, shut himself in his study and had his quiet time with his God. An hour later he heard Jo moving around outside in the kitchen area and decided he needed his second mug of coffee. “Good morning honey,” he greeted Jo, with a kiss planted on her forehead, “how are you feeling?”
“Surprisingly at peace, strangely, I slept well too and I didn't think I would.”
“I do miss the morning newspaper,” bemoaned Blake.
“I'm sure someone will get one up and running before too long dear,” Jo consoled him.
They ate breakfast and dressed, then walked the hundred meters to the office. They were astounded to find that most of the admin staff was already there; almost all explained this by, 'couldn't sleep'. There was little work done, and people just sat around chatting and receiving visitors, Doug arrived at eleven and had a coffee before he and the core team made their way to the bridge.
Departure was set for mid-day GMT, and although not one of the populations could see the departure the atmosphere was electric throughout the ship, it was palpable as the group walked to the nearest elevator. Douglas Martins, Jo and Blake Northfield, Edward Sculley, Charles Childs and Laura Price holding hands, John Armstrong from Boeing and past-President Oliver Bose, were all invited to the bridge to witness the leaving of Earth. The group, with Josh Flynn and Angelo Maeo, were already on the bridge had become an extended family over the past twenty-two months. The bridge was fully manned with a six person shift pattern. Josh, like the president had relinquished his title of General and assumed the role of captain, Captain Josh and Angelo had spent many hours selecting a crew from applicants within the ship. The crew consisted of five hundred people who had experience in flying, civil aviation crew, air force personnel, and so on. From those twenty-four bridge officers had been chosen who would command the ship. Engineers were appointed to the crew also, who would maintain the engines, and as many of the systems that were understood. All of the crew wore casual uniforms, non-military tunics, mostly so that they could be recognised.
Fifteen minutes prior to mid-day the PD was fired up and the control systems came to life, with glowing coloured buttons and view-screens. The observation ports were opened to reveal a view of Earth, everyone on the bridge gazed wistfully at the scene, the planet that had been man's home for who knew how many millennium. The Moon hung there, just beyond Earth like a searchlight on its parent planet, and beyond them the pink glow of Mars and beyond, the stars that would be their home for how long nobody knew. The scene brought tears to almost every eye that gazed out. There were so many questions, so many unknowns, the unknown is always a frightening prospect, but here there was no fear, just peace, why? How long would the journey take, would they meet the benevolent aliens, would they be like us, what would their new home look like, Earth, or so alien that it would not be settled? Patiently they waited for the digital clock to count down to twelve, there was no reason for waiting, it was just tradition, and nothing in space 'just went ahead'. Countdowns were a part of NASA and NASA was a part of Captain Josh.
Finally, the clock changed from fifty-nine to zero-zero, and Josh sitting in the newly installed captain's chair called, “Take her out Mister Maeo,” who then looked around at Blake and whispered, “I've always wanted to say that.” Blake gave a nervous laugh.
Angelo activated the manoeuvring thrusters and the ship slowly turned its back on Earth. “What course Captain,” he asked.
“One-hundred and eighty degrees, by one-eighty, range two-hundred million kilometres and full stop.” Josh ordered, “and steady as she goes,” he ordered, smiling.
“Why are we stopping out in space Josh,” asked Blake.
“We are going to wait there to see what happens to Earth,” said Josh, “only bridge officers and this group will know, the President gave me his last orders just before he relinquished the presidency, his last order, to watch from a safe distance.”
“Makes no difference, if people wish to watch,” commented Blake.
The manoeuvring thrusters shut down with barely a vibration, “Ahead slow,” said Angelo. The ship slid silently out into interplanetary space and on the rear view screen Earth shrank slowly in diameter. Just on three hours later the ship came to a full stop just short of Mars orbit, and parked. When the group returned to the offices everybody gave a cheer, believing the ship was moving through space.
“I'm not comfortable with just stopping and letting people believe that we are on our way to a new planet,” said Blake, “I have nothing against anyone who wishes to view the end on our planet, if they wish to. We cannot get everyone onto the bridge, however, and that is not fair for those who wish to see the event.”
“But no one will know Blake,” said Doug.
“And that, my friend compounds the whole thing with what is essentially a lie,” answered Blake.
“There is little we can do about it Blake,” said Josh, “unless we, I, ignore the President's last executive order and just keep going, which I really don't wish to do.”
“Look,” said Oliver Bose, “if this is going to cause problems, just ignore it; I'm no longer president so my orders no longer stand. I just wished to salute Earth, she's been our home for who knows how long.”
“Mister Preside . . . sorry Oliver, I have nothing against that, in fact I think I would probably wish to do the same,” explained Blake, “I'm just not comfortable with the lie, and I just don't think it's fair.”
“And I agree with you,” responded Bose,”so let us just keep going.”
“Blake can I make a suggestion,” interrupted Charlie, “we know we have an audio public address system, but we have never investigated beyond that, why don't we spend a week out there and I'll see if there is a video option.”
“That would be helpful,” agreed Blake, “but what happens if there isn't one or you can't find it?”
“Then we continue on,” said Bose.
“OK,” agreed Blake, “one week, and we will tell everyone that we have stopped for a systems upgrade, which is not a lie. What are the chances Charlie?”
“I'd say, pretty darn good,” ventured Charlie, “surely with all this technology they must have a way of showing video, we just didn't look for it.”
“You got a job, Charlie, let's get it done,” said Blake.
Charlie finished talking and crossed immediately to the section of the bridge that they had christened the Communications Station, and started to investigate the many controls and buttons on the panel. The group broke up and went their separate ways, leaving Charlie to his challenge. Blake and Jo returned the Administrative Centre where they found a small group waiting for them. Some wished to know if they were underway and if so, was it too late to contact Earth? Blake's answer was that by now it would be too late. Others had various requests, but two asked if it would be possible to see the destruction of Earth. Amazed he told them, “We are working on that, but we are not sure yet whether it would be possible or not, can you please give us a week, we will know by then.” The two continued to their office and as soon as they were alone, Blake said, “I didn't expect that Jo, it seems that there must be some interest in the event.”
“Maybe you should make a general announcement Blake,” suggested Jo.
An hour later, Blake was sitting at his desk with the thin stalk of a microphone before him, ready to make the announcement. They had installed a radio system, which was independent of the ships address system. The system included some software that the Google Corporation had developed, especially for the ship, and free of charge, that translated the verbal input into a thousand languages in real-time. This was transmitted to individuals with the correct receiver for their own language. “Attention please, this is a general announcement. This ship will soon be stopping just short of the orbit of Mars, we will maintain this position for at least a week. The reason for this is that we have received several requests to be able to observe the final demise of Earth, and we are investigating the possibility of allowing this. Because the only observation ports in this whole ship are the small ones on the bridge, we need to find a way of bringing the collision to you in video. This will take one week, if it is not possible by then we will continue our voyage, if we succeed we will maintain this position until the event. I hasten to add that if you do not wish to watch this, there will be no compulsion to do so, and arrangements will be made to shield people from the video. Thank you.”
Charlie worked tirelessly on the system trying to identify some means of transmitting the images of the ultimate disaster. He found other systems, a means of contacting almost anyone on the ship privately, a long range communication system that he could get no answer from. There was also a system that seemed to be live and open all of the time, but could find no use for it, although he found it was linked into the general ship's P.A. System. There was also a system that automatically scanned all wavebands for transmissions, this one Charlie left activated as wall. On the fifth day of the week Charlie found a system on a small panel above the communication station that he had not noticed. There was the usual transparent power dome and several controls, including a small screen, holding his breath he pressed the little amber dome. The small screen came alive, but showed only white-noise. After manipulating a row of seven knobs the screen started to show various views of the ship's interior. Then the views disappeared and a star-field filled the small screen, “OK,” Charlie said to himself, ”all we need to do now is to find some system to broadcast this.” Leaving the stars on the screen he left the seven knobs and started looking at other controls, there was a smaller transparent dome, this one colourless and three mini touch-pads to the right. He pressed the small dome which illuminated with multicoloured lights in blue and green, but nothing happened.
Charlie touched the bottom-most touch-pad and the picture changed to one he recognised, he walked over to the navigation panel and saw the same image displayed there. “Right we have the feed from the navigation screen,” he muttered as he went back to his little corner of the bridge.
“Have you found something,” asked Angelo, whose shift it was.
“Making progress, Angelo,” he said, “I just don't know how to display it to our passengers yet.”
Just then the ship's intercom came alive, “Laura Pierce to bridge.”
“Angelo here Laura, you want Charlie?”
“Yes, I just wanted to congratulate him on getting the video feed going,” she said.
“What!” shouted Charlie, “can you explain please Laura?”
“Come down and see, it's like holograms all over the ship, the picture just appeared in mid-air.”
Charlie left the video running and made for the elevator, dialled the destination where they now lived and popped inside. A couple of minutes later Charlie stepped out to find Laura waiting at the end of the row of elevators, as soon as she saw him, she pointed up towards the clouds. Charlie followed her pointing and looked up at about forty-five degrees. There he saw the most massive virtual screen he had ever seen one that could probably be measured in miles rather than meters, there were no visible supports and no sign of any projection system.
“Well done Chas,” said Laura, “that's amazing.”
“It was another accident, as usual.”
The ship stayed on station for the following three weeks, but the feelings in the ships community was split. Less than a third of the population wished to view the event, and Charlie managed to find a way of zoning the holographic screens. Specific zones were designated as viewing areas and everyone was asked to assemble in those areas on the day, whilst the remainder of the population would continue their daily routine. On the eight-hundred and sixty-sixth day since the detailed conformation, those who wished to observe Earth's destruction gathered in one of the many viewing zones. Charlie was responsible for the video feed and at eight in the morning he started tracking the asteroid, now called 'Satan', as it hurtled toward planet-Earth. The mood in the zones was a sombre one, there was little noise or even the usual undercurrent of people talking, that accompanied large gatherings. People just sat on the grassed areas, sat on camp chairs or at the permanent picnic tables and just stared at the seemingly stationary asteroid. Captain Josh had moved the ship to a point where the asteroid would pass the ship, but where the ship would be perfectly safe. Over the hours the aspect of the great rock changed as it approached the ship and then passed it by, now showing the rear elevation.
Charlie, using the navigation system, slowly zoomed in on the rock as it drew away from them, until the Earth filled about half of the screen and then locked it off. The asteroid, as was predicted headed for a dead-centre hit in the Atlantic Ocean. Despite the apparent speed of ‘Satan’ the last minutes seemed as if it took place in slow-motion. The asteroid hit the top of the atmosphere and flame flared out from the leading face of the rock, the asteroid flipped over as if it was bouncing off water and started to spin. Well before even a tenth of the rock had entered the atmosphere, the leading edge hit the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Great clouds of steam burst out like jets and quickly filled the atmosphere, like a snow-globe, followed immediately by another flare of flame that encompassed the planet. Then, the planet seemed to be cleaved like a mighty sword cutting a cake, and seconds later an explosion blasted Earth into smithereens, and dust. What was left was a fog and mist consisting of remnants of the once life-bearing planet. At the cloud's centre was the still molten iron core glowing in a dull orange, like a cooling coal ember. The core still held the pieces in its gravitational grip, because nothing was now going anywhere, the rubble just hung there like Saturn's rings, but without Saturn. The show was over, and many of the watchers were in tears, some because they had lost friends and others because Earth was no more. The Moon, now freed from its captive gravity of the Earth, floated of into space, with small explosions on its surface where detritus hit the Moon’s surface. After thirty minutes of watching the sphere of detritus, Charlie switched off the feed and closed the system down.
It seemed that everyone remained in a sombre mood for several days, one man told Blake the majority of the population of the ship had been praying that in the end the asteroid would pass Earth bye. The present mood then was hardly a surprise, certainly, the images would be indelibly fixed in Blake's mind for the remainder of his life, and he imagined that it would be the same for other viewers. The following day the ship was turned again and the course was set, to where they did not know. Josh was on the bridge as Angelo brought the PD on-line and eased the control up to ten percent of the speed of light. The ship responded and smoothly accelerated to the desired speed, when they found there was no problem, Josh ordered the ship to twenty-five percent of 'c'. The ship cruised at that speed for a day until Josh gave the order to proceed to fifty percent. The same procedure took place to increase speed to seventy-five percent then the day after to ninety-nine percent. After no adverse effect at the top speed, Josh asked for a meeting of the original team to discuss the next step.
“So here we are as close to the speed of light as we can get, just one percent under 'c' which is something no one thought possible,” said Josh as he opened the meeting. “We now need to decide if we are going to use the main drive. Ed, you know more about the theories of faster than light drives than anyone alive, or dead?”
“I certainly don't pretend to know the absolutes of this main drive,” said the professor, “we activated it twice and it seemed to slip into some other dimension, I believe that it creates a hole in space, where space-time does not exist and that enables it to hop anywhere in the universe, but it's a total unknown, isn't it.”
“Well, if it's there it must work,” said Blake, “and likely, that's how the ship got to Earth.”
“My worry,” interjected Josh, “is there seems no way of navigating, we can use the navigation system in PD but we don't know if it works in the main drive, we can't see where we are or where we're going, what if we hit a planet, or something.”
“I dare say that the aliens who built this ship will have solved that problem,” stated Charlie.
“True enough,” replied Ed, “there must be some automatic guidance, because we certainly can't be in control if we can't see.”
“What would be the point of these aliens sending us this ship if we couldn't use it,” said Jo, “or if there was a chance of hitting something on the way and killing us all off anyway.”
“There's feminine logic for you, isn't it,” commented Ed, “listen to her boys”.
After around and hour's discussion the team were almost unanimous, almost because Josh still had niggling doubts, but understood the logic.
“So, are we agreed,” asked Blake, “we push on and start the main drive?” Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.
“Do we put another target in the navigation or should we just keep going on our present course, wherever that takes us to,” asked Josh.
“Can I make a suggestion,” asked Blake, as there were no objections he continued. “Every astronomer knows that to the north there is an area of space that seems to be almost void of stars, it's even mentioned in the Bible, in Job 26:7, it mentions an area of empty space. Besides the fact that it has always fascinated me, it struck me that there is less to hit in that direction, if anyone is worried.”
Ed slapped the table with the palm of his hand, “That my friend,” he said in his thick Welsh accent, “is supposed to be the direction of heaven, isn’t it.”
Everyone looked at the professor in surprise. “What's the matter then, I'm not a heathen am I.”
“It's just that it's the last thing I would have expected you to say, Ed,” said Blake.
“Listen, boy,” said Ed, “I'm a good chapel lad, always was and always will be.”
“OK, at least it’s a course we can set,” said Josh, “can you find it from here Blake?”
“As long at we can work out in what direction north was from Earth.”
“I think Angelo could do that, he's a whiz at celestial navigation,” said Josh, “that's why I picked him.”
The whole team made their way to the bridge once more but Angelo was off duty, Josh used the newly discovered communication device to contact him and asked him to come to the bridge. Five minutes later Angelo exited the elevator onto the bridge, and was presented with the problem.
“Sure,” said Angelo, “we figuring on going to heaven?” Everyone laughed, much to Angelo's bemusement. “With respect Blake, I can find the void myself, we're not that far away from the Solar System as yet.” He crossed to the navigation system, “and I think we may be able to locate your area of space from here.” Angelo studied the screen as he zoomed out, took a hand-held computer from his pocket and tapped in a few commands, and then compared the results with the navigation screen. It took several minutes of manipulating the navigation controls and more consultation of the computer before he declared, “Got it, only just though, another day at this speed and we would have had to turn back.”
“To get a perfect vector, will we need to go back anyway,” asked Josh.
“Somewhat Sir, we will need to take a 'S' shape course.”
“How long before we can open up the main drive,” asked Blake
“I'm just calculating that,” said Angelo, “we can be in position in two days.”
The course was set and the ship smoothly completed the long, slow change in its course, whilst life went on as usual. The following day when Jo was making breakfast in their assigned dwelling, and Blake was languishing in bed, there was a knock on the door. Jo called,” with you momentarily,” as she grabbed a robe.
“Who's that,” called Blake.
“Don't know yet as I haven't got x-ray vision,” Jo called back, sarcastically. She made her way to the door and opened it; on the door step stood Ed Sculley, with a smile on his face.
“Is that coffee I can smell,” he asked.
“Yes it is,” smiled Jo, “come in and sit down and I'll pour you a cup.”
“That would be super,” Ed said as he marched in.
“Are you here to see Blake,” Jo asked.
“No, well yes but you as well, where is the chief?”
“Still in bed . . .”
“No he's not, he just got disturbed by someone knocking on the door,” Blake said as he came down the stairs from the upper level. “Good morning Ed, what can we do for you?”
“Nothing, really, I just called in for a decent cup of coffee, I heard that you managed to bring some real stuff on board, and to give you an invitation.”
“Well here's you coffee,” said Jo, what's the invitation for?”
“Do you two know what day it is,” asked Ed.
“Do you know what, I have no idea,” said Blake, “no newspapers.”
“I thought as much,” said Ed sipping his coffee, “that's good coffee, the proper stuff isn't it. From your comments on the bridge yesterday I guessed you two are believers, is that right?”
“Yes it is,” answered Jo, “although we have not had time to worship since our last trip to Cornwall, there never seems to have been time over the past two years.”
“Well, that’s why I'm here see,” said Ed, “today is Sunday, and I wanted to invite you to join me at church this morning.”
“It started a couple of weeks ago,” continued the professor, “I was talking to a couple of people from my village back in Wales, we met by accident, and decided to meet up the following Sunday. This will be our third meeting and we have several hundred people already, so we decided to use the community meeting hall down the road, no one else has wanted to use it for anything so far. We're meeting in just over an hour at eleven, this morning. How about coming then?”
“Sure,” said Blake as Jo nodded, “that would be nice, thanks Ed.”
“Have you eaten,” Jo asked Ed.
“I had one of those breakfast bars that NASA supplied, thanks.”
“Right then sit down and join us for a proper breakfast,” said Blake. Over breakfast the three shared their various backgrounds in the faith, Blake, his Southern Baptist upbringing, Jo, her Anglican background and Ed, his Wesleyan experiences in the Welsh valleys. After they had eaten Jo and Blake dressed and they left the house, walking the short distance to the nearest transport garage, where they grabbed a buggy and drove toward the glowing spire that could be seen for miles. As they exited the next village the road was choked by people walking toward the hall and when they drove into the area of lawns around the spire, they found crowds milling around.
“Hundreds,” said Blake, “more like thousands, Ed, I think you need to learn to count.”
“I honestly didn't expect this many people,” Ed responded, obviously in shock.
The inside of the 'Spire' there were already hundreds, seated on a sort of tier system that seemed to lift from the floor, Ed took the lead and took the couple to the front of the auditorium, where he introduced them to Doctor Owen Williams, the pastor of Ed's church back in Wales.
“We are honoured to have you join us Mister Northfield,” Doctor Williams said.
“It's a pleasure to be here, we haven't been in fellowship in a good while, said Blake, “this is my wife Jo,” Jo shook hands with Williams.
They had found several musicians who had set up their instruments to one side of the low dais, at eleven o'clock the musicians started playing a song, one that both the Northfields recognised.
“Best get seated then,” said Ed.
The service was fairly standard, but acoustics were amazing thought Blake, there were no microphones or amplifiers, yet everyone could hear every word said and note played, even people at the rear of the auditorium could be heard by everyone el