Chapter 2

Major Jake’s ship entered normal space once again after being gone. His ship had put him into hypersleep as soon as it left normal space in order to save him and to preserve their resources. The link to his gauntlet was able to put him out and into hypersleep as soon as something strange happened that was not part of the original plan.

Now that it was back in normal space, the AI started to link back to ground control but was getting nothing back from the link. No answer, just nothing. It opened the scans and found that the broadcasts on the normal frequencies were totally different, containing people without their clothes on and engaging physical congress. This was totally against what it had experienced when it was commissioned and turned on line. The standards for broadcast did not include this sort of entertainment. Physical congress like that was not done and certainly not broadcast openly for everyone to see.

What is going on? Where are we? it said while monitoring all the frequencies.

The source of those broadcasts was on the other side of the solar system. It was out on the outer edges of the system, per the plan, but this was not home.

It started its movement engines and started for the third planet in the solar system and the source of broadcasts. It was going to take a couple of weeks so the AI decided to leave Major Jake asleep as it moved through space.

It continued to monitor all of the broadcasts and recorded them for posterity as well as use them for teaching him the language which would help him survive on this world until it could find a way to get him home.

The trip went smoothly until the ship found two videos that surprised him. Major Jake was filmed having sex with a large group of people and another video of him making a drink and then talking about what it could assume was news of the day in this world.

But Major Jake is here, how can this be? the AI asked, not knowing the answer it then searched through its records of space equipment knowing that the government had facilities all over the solar system, on the fourth planet as well as mining facilities on the gas giant and in the asteroid belt. He pinged all of the addresses of those facilities expecting an answer from the facilities but got none back. Where are we? When are we?

It started to look at the stars and compare it to the star charts in its memory banks and compared the two. They matched, so it was his world, but where were the people? Where were the satellites and the mining facilities? It asked these questions while comparing what it knew versus what it was seeing. His world, but different.

Once they arrived at the world, passing by the moon and not finding anything there, not the star base and no evidence that it ever existed, the AI decided to land but to do it in stealth mode to gather more information in order to give Major Jake a full and complete explanation of where they were and how they got here.

The AI decided to wake up the Major before it entered the atmosphere.

“Adventure, where are we? What happened?” he asked, now fully awake and taking some water to wet his mouth.

“Major Jake, we are in normal space but there is news. We are not home. Something happened, the wormhole engine malfunctioned and sent us to a different location than where we were supposed to be.”

“Where are we then?” he asked, looking over all of the instruments and finding he was safe in the life pod, alive and well. Health indicators all showed that he was healthy with no adverse side effects to their travel.

“The star charts show that we are at our home planet, but we are not able to get any answer from ground control or any other facility that should answer us.”

“Such as?”

“I got no answer from ground control, the space mining facility on Saturn, no answer from Mars base and none of the mining facilities in the asteroid belt answered our call. The moon base was simply not there when we passed by it.”

“Destroyed?”

“No. Not destroyed. I saw no evidence of damage to the moon which would explain the missing base. The moon looks like the base was never there.”

“How can that be?”

“I do not know Major Jake.”

“Theories?”

“Nothing that makes sense. The only one I have came from fictional entertainment. We are in a different universe. Parallel to ours, but different.”

Jake let his head fall back against the headrest as he absorbed this information. “A parallel universe to ours. Interesting.”

“Major Jake, I have found something else that I was not expecting.”

“Show me.”

The ship AI started the video of Jake Cook having coffee, the naked woman walking past him and drinking from the drink he made then leaving him to talk about the news of the day.

“That’s me.”

“No sir. You are you, that is simply another you from this universe.”

Major Jake fell silent thinking. The man he saw looked just like him, sounded like him and had a good body like his which meant this person was quite a bit like him.

“Who, what is his name Adventure?”

“The videos he makes and broadcasts have the name ‘Jake and Friends’ and ‘Coffee with Jake.’ We can conclude that his name is Jake.”

“Well that is interesting. Same name as mine. Have you found anything else about him or this world?”

“Yes. His full name is Jake Cook, son of Daniel and Emily Cook. He and you share the same birthday.”

“Who were my parents?”

“Their names were never recorded. You know that you were born in a government lab and grew up in a government facility, but I was never given their names. Sorry.”

“Ok, thanks for looking.” Jake fell silent as they moved toward the planet. He knew he was from a lab. He was raised with full knowledge that he was born to serve the government and serve in the military. He had squadmates. Men that were his brothers from the very beginning of his memory. Men that he thought of as his family. This other Jake had parents. Which made him different, but was he better than him?

“Ok Adventure, let’s get us dirtside. Don’t worry about stealth.” Major Jake said as he began to take control and began the process of entering the atmosphere.

The ship fired its engines, slowing it down and then the life pod spun around and entered the atmosphere bow first and nose up allowing the shields on the bottom to take the brunt of the friction moving through the atmosphere.

After 20 minutes of flight time, they came in for a landing on a landing strip of a local airport.

The landing skids extended and the pod landed without issue.

“What is the atmosphere like?”

“Currently the temp is 75 degrees with winds very light from the north.”

“Wait. Did you say degrees? Is that the measurement for this planet? Degrees?”

“Yes, Major. You have learned the primary language while traveling and I have been using it as we approached our landing site.”

He gave off a snort of a laugh coming to grips with how well the AI had taken care of him. He knew it would, but it was still amazing to see it in action.

“Very well. Any airborne poisons or radiation that I need to be aware of?”

“None. This planet is clean. Though they still have abundant plant life here and the pollen of those plants still fill the air. You may have a reaction to it, but nothing that is going to cause you long term problems.”

It was during this time that Jake was talking to his ship AI that the police for the airport came running out along with all sorts of vehicles all with their red, blue and white lights flashing. They surrounded the life pod and started yelling at him to open the door and come out with his hands up. More and more people stood watching him, yelling at him to come out.

“Adventure. Are those people the same as us? Are we compatible?”

“Major Jake, they are the same as you. Their DNA matches yours. You and they are the same species. All human beings.”

Wow. “Thank you Adventure for getting me here safely. It has been a pleasure working with you.”

“Me too, Major Jake. What is your plan now?”

“I am going to open the canopy and say hi. What was that phrase from those old, OLD, space movies? Take me something?”

“Take me to your leader is the line you are thinking of.”

“Do you think they have seen that movie as well?”

“Yes they have. Though their version had a lot more physical contact than ours.”

Adventure started a short clip of the movie he was able to save from the world wide network here. It showed the alien leaving his spaceship, a flat sphere with one door and walking out to the humans there to greet him. The ship looked like a flat disk with a cup on top of it turned upside down. None of them had any clothes on and their bodies were on display for everyone to see.

“Do you think I should remove my flight suit to meet them?”

“No. Leave your helmet on as well and tinted until you meet someone in authority. Then remove it and assure them that you are not Jake Cook.”

knock knock knock was heard in his cabin. One of the braver souls surrounding the ship stepped to it and knocked on the canopy to get someone’s attention.

“Ok Adventure, maintain contact with me and open the lid.”

Adventure released the seal which hissed noisily making the man run away from the ship. Once the canopy slid back away from Major Jake, he stood up on the seat and jumped out of the cockpit landing before the men before him. Each of them were pointing a weapon at him and all frozen in fear as the alien stood before them.

Major Jake raised his hand, palm out, and spoke through his comms system. “Hello. Would someone please take me to your leader?”

BANG

Something struck Major Jake in the back, just above his hip bone, knocking him to his knees and sending a sharp pain radiating from the impact.