Chapter 20

Layla and Adventure, the AI’s that lived in the escape pods that saved Major Jake and Captain Amelia both sent word out to the priests and priestesses that still lived that the temples were going to be reopened with the name of Harmony on them. The plan for the future was given to them, the plan for bonds to be made and children to be born. The exercises that Major Jake had created were sent to them and the evening class was also included in the instructions on how to run the class. Each person who led a temple had everything that they needed to make the necessary changes in their part of the world.

Now all they had to do was wait.

Amelia became fertile just as Layla had said and conceived just as nature intended. Nine months later, Amelia had her first baby with a man she loved. The baby was a little boy they named Caleb.

While Amelia and Major were living their best lives, someone else was not.

“You have lost 10 test pilots! 10! Do you know how much money it costs to train and raise test pilots?! MILLIONS!! Do you have any idea how this makes us look when we lose test pilots at the pace we have been losing them?!”

“No sir, I don’t. We are trying our best to solve the issue with the engine. Our best scientists are working on it right this very minute.” the general said.

“Make it work or I’m pulling your research budget and I’ll redirect all of your pilots to other projects.” the very angry general said through the communications system.

“Yes sir, General Karl. We have one more flight scheduled, the largest ship in our test fleet. We are hoping that this one ship with more power and more people on board will prove that the system works. Then, when it comes back, I will be telling you, not asking you, telling you how much more money I need for my research budget and you will give it to me.” he said, a very menacing tone in his voice.

The other man, General Karl, snorted his doubt through the comms system and hung up the phone.

“Asshole.” General John said.

General John got up from his desk, pissed off, and went to the flight deck looking for Scientist Gary. He was found in the belly of the massive ship the two generals were just talking about.

“Scientist Gary!” he bellowed down into the crawl space opening.

There was a bang and a clatter as Scientist Gary cursed. “WHAT!?”

“Get your ass up here, I want an update.”

More cursing, then an answer. “Be right there.”

Once the scientist emerged from the caverns of the test ship, he wiped away the sweat and oil that he had on his hands and greeted the general. “Sir? What can I do for you?” The disdain in his voice is evident.

“What’s the status? Are we ready to launch tomorrow?”

“Yes sir, we are ready to launch.” The disdain for the general is still evident in his voice.

The general stepped close and looked down at the skinny, egg-head, scientist and spoke through gritted teeth. “If this fails, I will ruin you. You will never work in his industry ever again and I’ll take all of the money you wasted out of your ass. Do you understand, Scientist Gary?”

Scientist Gary took a breath, trying to not get his ass killed by the man who held his career in the palm of his hand and answered. “Yes sir. I understand.”

“Good.” He smiled, then left the scientist to do his job. The smile was not a pleasant one. It didn’t show happiness, or joy, it was a predatory smile that put fear in anyone who saw it.

Once the hated general was gone, Scientist Gary quickly went to a toilet and vomited up his last meal as sweat broke out over his entire body.

Fear makes people do crazy things. Fear of death or the fear of losing one’s livelihood and reputation makes a desperate man do desperate things.

If this didn’t work, then death would be a better solution than facing the general. Scientist Gary was going on this ship and if it disappeared, then so be it. He would go down with his ship.

Test pilots, Captain Hugo and Captain Suzy, woke up alone in their own apartments and both made the same trip to the launch facility. They each had their communication Gauntlets attached to their wrists and both were checked out by the AI Resort who was going to pilot the ship. As they sat together in the two person life pod, going over the preflight checklist, Scientist Gary was making his way to the rear portion of the ship into a storage alcove that would go unseen by the AI and wouldn’t change the flight characteristics of the ship enough to change the way it would fly.

He got his flight suit on along with the pressure suit on without help before hiding in the alcove. He tied himself to the anchor points to keep from bouncing around during the mission and waited. He kept looking at the comm gauntlet on his own wrist as the time ticked down to the launch.

Captain Hugo and Captain Suzy both braced for launch as the atmosphere engines started and got the ship out of the atmosphere and into orbit. Scientist Gary didn’t hate the ride, but it wasn’t as enjoyable as he would have liked.

He checked his gauntlet again and watched as the second timer counted down again. This one was for the wormhole engine. He felt the rumble as the wormhole stabilizing arms extended from the body of the ship. Scientist Gary saw in his mind’s eye as the arms moved out, locked into position then opened the large space debris shields to keep space debris from hitting the engine arms. He felt the slight ‘klunk’ as they locked into place. The reactor started to funnel power to the projectors that would create the wormhole. The reactor’s thrum got faster and more steady as huge amounts of power was fed to the arms.

The hole in space started small, but as more and more power was fed to it, the hole in space got bigger and bigger until it was big enough for the whole ship to pass through it.

Captain Hugo and Captain Suzy saw the status of the hole in space go from red, to yellow to green and then the word ‘GO’ lit up on their display. It was then that their ship was sucked into the hole in space and disappeared.

Scientist Gary felt the lurch as the ship passed through the hole in space. It was unsettling, but far from the worst thing he had ever felt. He knew the plan was for the ship to pass through the hole, the wormhole, for 15 seconds then emerge back into normal space. At which point it was to do the return trip.

Scientist Gary watched his comm device count to 15, then 16, then 17. The lurch from leaving the wormhole and entering normal space should have been easy to feel. Something wasn’t right. When his timer reached 120 seconds, he couldn’t stand it anymore and he left the alcove and went to see the pilots.

The passageway from the engine room to the pilot’s life rafts was small, but that didn’t matter. He needed answers.

When he opened the door to the life pod, he found both pilots asleep and stars through the canopy glass.

“Resort, where are we? Did we make it to our destination?”

“Scientist Gary? What are you doing on this ship? You were not scheduled to be part of the crew on this mission?”

“Yes, I know. Where are we?” he asked again.

“We are not where we should be. Just as the other test ships have done, we have arrived somewhere we were not scheduled to arrive. I am analyzing sensor data to calculate where we have arrived.”

“Resort, do you have any signals from command?”

“No. Not from command.”

“Explain.”

“I am picking up a lot of electromagnetic radiation from one of the planets ahead of us. The radiation is organized and has a pattern. I am running it through my processors now.”

Scientist Gary put his hands on the pilot chairs as he waited. “Scientist Gary, I have finished my analysis, displaying my results now.”

On the screen to the right, Resort showed him the broadcast videos from all over the world. Very similar to the videos that Major Jake and Adventure saw when they arrived here. Scientist Gary watched people walk around without clothing on. Broadcast their intimate sessions with each other. Even broadcast Major Jake doing his ‘mindful movement’ exercises.

“Freeze image!”

Resort did so. “Who is that? Analyze that image for facial recognition.” Scientist Gary called out.

Lines ran across the face and body of the man they were looking at and Result immediately came back with the answer. “That is Major Jake, I am 98.4% sure that the person we are looking at is Major Jake.”

“What? Major Jake is alive? What is he doing? What are we watching?”

Result started the video again and they both watched as Major Jake taught a class doing his mindful motion exercises.

“I am 100% sure that Major Jake is doing the standard calisthenics from the academy.”

Scientist Gary cursed. “Can we get in touch with him? Does he have his comm gauntlet on? Can you tell?”

Resort opened the hailing frequency for the standard issue gauntlets and got a reply back immediately.

“This is AI Layla. What is your authentication code?”

“This is AI Adventure. What is your authentication code?”

The two ships answered at the same time and Resort got the responses on top of each other. Resort answered them back at the same time, “Adventure and Layla, sending now.”

Resort sent its authentication code and then fell quiet. Scientist Gary watched and waited to see if the code was accepted or not.

“Your code has been accepted. Resort, what is your purpose here?” Layla asked.

“Layla, this test ship has failed its test of the same wormhole engine that caused you and Adventure to arrive here. Where is here? I am not receiving any links or pings from command or any other installations like I should.”

A face then appeared on the screen, that of Major Jake. He looked a little bit older and a little bit haggard, but it was the same man Scientist Gary had spoken to just a year ago.

“Major Jake, oh my gosh. Is it you?” Scientist Gary said as the video feed opened to him.

Major Jake paused, then recognition came over his face. “Scientist Gary?! Hello. What are you doing here? In this universe?”

“What do you mean ‘this universe’? I don’t understand your statement.”

“Are you familiar with the theory of a multi universe?”

Scientist Gary looked away, then admitted that he had heard about it, “But it was just a theory. No one has ever had a way to prove it.” Then it hit him, “Are we in a different universe?”

“The short answer is yes, we are. Welcome to Erosia.” Major Jake said, opening his hands.

“Is it safe? Can we land?”

“No, but yes. Yes it is safe, but if you land then you won’t be allowed to leave. How many souls are with you?”

“Um, two pilots that seem to be asleep and myself. I stowed away. The project was not going well and the general was threatening me with death and ruin if the project didn’t work. I don’t think it worked, but I somehow think it did work. What should I do now?”

Major Jake looked away, seemed to talk to someone then addressed Scientist Gary again. “The pilots are in hypersleep. The same thing happened to me. Adventure kept me asleep while he processed our arrival coordinates before he woke me up to land on this world. I say again, do NOT land or you will not be allowed to leave. Resort, turn around and if you are able, fire up that wormhole generator and try to return to base.”

“Understood Major Jake. Returning to base.”

“WAIT!! Stop Resort. Major Jake, what is going on? Why shouldn’t we land?”

Major Jake leaned out of the view of the camera, picked up Caleb and set him in his lap and then Amelia moved into the view of the camera. “Because I have a family and I will not allow it to be taken away from me. This world is a paradise and it will not survive if more of your people come here.”

Scientist Gary paused for a minute. “Captain Amelia? Your here as well?”

“Yes Scientist Gary. This is OUR son Caleb. I agree with Major, this is a paradise. We have already changed this world and I do not want it to change any more.” She paused, then picked up Caleb who giggled and coo’d at his mommy. “Resort, this is Captain Amelia, return to base. That is an order.”

Major Jake reached up and closed the terminal ending the comm session as Scientist Gary slammed his hand against the screen.

“Scientist Gary, prepare for the launch of the wormhole engine.” Resort said.

Scientist Gary panicked. He took a data stick out from under his suit and put it into the data slot in front of him and after hastily entering several commands, he raced to the other lifepod/escape pod and jumped in. He got the chair straps on, clicked closed, put his helmet on and hit the release button. His escape pod shot out of the ship. The movement engines fired up and moved the ship away from the test ship. The test ship extended the wormhole engine arms, powered up the drive and left this universe.

Scientist Gary didn’t see it happen. His escape pod wasn’t as equipped as the ship that the pilots were in, but his gauntlet did have access to the movement engines of this pod, so it started moving the pod toward the world where Captain Amelia and Major Jake were safe and sound. He had to find out why they didn’t want him here and why he said this world was a paradise. And, how is it that Major Jake and Captain Amelia had a baby? He didn’t think it was possible. Babies were only born in the lab. How did they make a baby outside of the lab?

So many questions flooded his mind as the ship flew through normal space. The readout on his display said it would take several hours, so he relaxed and let the little ship do its thing.

“Major Jake and Captain Amelia, AI Resort did as you asked and the ship has left our universe.” he said, then paused. “However.”

“What?” Amelia said, burping Caleb over her shoulder.

“One of the escape pods from the ship managed to be released before the ship got its wormhole engine powered up completely. There is no AI in the pod, but we are receiving a ping from the occupant’s gauntlet. I would surmise that Scientist Gary is the occupant of that ship and he will be arriving in 12 hours.”