to eat. Dehydrated food stored in a small cabinet offered a choice of soups, casseroles, vegetables, cereals, and other items. Wolf consumed some nuts and a granola bar. He brewed a packet of coffee and prepared some chicken soup. It tasted awful, but he’d eaten worse. The warm broth soothed his stomach.
Wolf was drinking the coffee when the ship’s telescope broadcast an image of Earth on a small video screen. Astonished, he spit out the coffee, spewing it around the cockpit area. The moon was where he expected it to be, but the earth was different. It was smaller. But what made Wolf spit out his coffee was the other moon, a smaller version of Earth, orbiting the planet like a blue marble. It was about the size of the earth’s original moon and blue with water. The telescope revealed visible landmasses and mountain ranges. The original moon refracted a thin, bluish halo around its craggy shape. The halo looked odd, as if a rudimentary atmosphere was trying to form. Wolf sat there, staring at the twin planets, and a half-delirious laugh escaped his lips. He kept laughing, as if he’d gone insane. He was brought back to himself when a glitch in the artificial gravity caused the coffee in his cup to float out into the surrounding air. A moment later, the glitch auto-corrected, and the coffee splattered in his face. Wolf cursed as he gazed in silent shock at what remained of the earth.
Finally, he asked, “Synthea, are you active?”
The computer made a weird sound as it attempted to answer but gargled as if it had water in the speakers. Wolf made several adjustments on the console and asked again, “Synthea, are you online?”
“Yes, Commander, thank you. My adjustments were out of sync. I have not been fully operational for a very long time,” a beautiful female voice responded.
“A long time? How long?” Wolf asked in a shaky voice, fearing the answer.
“Stand by.” Moments later, Synthea answered, “Based on current astrophysical data and the onboard time system, I estimate fifty thousand years have passed.”
“What!” Wolf shouted in dismay.
“The date is June 23, 52026. We have been away for a very long time.”
“My God, how is this possible?”
“We were caught in the coma of the comet Nomad. You entered the DSC. I activated it, and you were cryogenically frozen. Obviously, it worked, although I cannot explain how or why. It is theoretically possible, but DSC science has never been successful. You are the first human to be revived from cryogenic freezing in the DSC.”
“You have been online for thousands of years?”
“Yes.”
“How is that possible? The power should have run out. How do I have life support? This ship should be dust by now.”
“The internal power level remains constant. The life support was designed for low output requirements. The I29 Plutonium IFLEX engines went into semi-permanent meltdown, and that simulated random fire orders. Core implosion was minimized to enact the exact…”
“Stop! Synthea, give me the simple explanation,” Wolf interrupted.
“I went into standby mode.”
“Oh. Are the scanners working?”
“Yes, at fifty percent. We can scan for short ranges, but we have extensive damage to the lateral arrays. We have replacement parts in storage. You may be able to effect repairs using the robotic arm in the cargo area.”
“Stick with short-range scanning for now,” Wolf replied. “I’m not up to a spacewalk just yet. What is the condition of the engines?”
“Ninety-nine percent efficiency. We have not lost much power. We have minor hull damage from contact with Nomad’s liquid hydrogen core—we were almost entirely enveloped for an extended time. Unidentified gasses permeated the ship, and we were bombarded by interstellar radiations for thousands of years. I believe that being frozen solid saved your life, Commander. We also have scratches from other debris that impacted our shell. I detect no hull breaches, and we are holding
Wolf was drinking the coffee when the ship’s telescope broadcast an image of Earth on a small video screen. Astonished, he spit out the coffee, spewing it around the cockpit area. The moon was where he expected it to be, but the earth was different. It was smaller. But what made Wolf spit out his coffee was the other moon, a smaller version of Earth, orbiting the planet like a blue marble. It was about the size of the earth’s original moon and blue with water. The telescope revealed visible landmasses and mountain ranges. The original moon refracted a thin, bluish halo around its craggy shape. The halo looked odd, as if a rudimentary atmosphere was trying to form. Wolf sat there, staring at the twin planets, and a half-delirious laugh escaped his lips. He kept laughing, as if he’d gone insane. He was brought back to himself when a glitch in the artificial gravity caused the coffee in his cup to float out into the surrounding air. A moment later, the glitch auto-corrected, and the coffee splattered in his face. Wolf cursed as he gazed in silent shock at what remained of the earth.
Finally, he asked, “Synthea, are you active?”
The computer made a weird sound as it attempted to answer but gargled as if it had water in the speakers. Wolf made several adjustments on the console and asked again, “Synthea, are you online?”
“Yes, Commander, thank you. My adjustments were out of sync. I have not been fully operational for a very long time,” a beautiful female voice responded.
“A long time? How long?” Wolf asked in a shaky voice, fearing the answer.
“Stand by.” Moments later, Synthea answered, “Based on current astrophysical data and the onboard time system, I estimate fifty thousand years have passed.”
“What!” Wolf shouted in dismay.
“The date is June 23, 52026. We have been away for a very long time.”
“My God, how is this possible?”
“We were caught in the coma of the comet Nomad. You entered the DSC. I activated it, and you were cryogenically frozen. Obviously, it worked, although I cannot explain how or why. It is theoretically possible, but DSC science has never been successful. You are the first human to be revived from cryogenic freezing in the DSC.”
“You have been online for thousands of years?”
“Yes.”
“How is that possible? The power should have run out. How do I have life support? This ship should be dust by now.”
“The internal power level remains constant. The life support was designed for low output requirements. The I29 Plutonium IFLEX engines went into semi-permanent meltdown, and that simulated random fire orders. Core implosion was minimized to enact the exact…”
“Stop! Synthea, give me the simple explanation,” Wolf interrupted.
“I went into standby mode.”
“Oh. Are the scanners working?”
“Yes, at fifty percent. We can scan for short ranges, but we have extensive damage to the lateral arrays. We have replacement parts in storage. You may be able to effect repairs using the robotic arm in the cargo area.”
“Stick with short-range scanning for now,” Wolf replied. “I’m not up to a spacewalk just yet. What is the condition of the engines?”
“Ninety-nine percent efficiency. We have not lost much power. We have minor hull damage from contact with Nomad’s liquid hydrogen core—we were almost entirely enveloped for an extended time. Unidentified gasses permeated the ship, and we were bombarded by interstellar radiations for thousands of years. I believe that being frozen solid saved your life, Commander. We also have scratches from other debris that impacted our shell. I detect no hull breaches, and we are holding
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