Journey to Year 1,000,000,000 Ch. 03

Journey to the Year 1,000,000,000

By Gary L.M. Martin

[Note: This is a Science Fiction story with some erotic scenes. It is not a story with erotic scenes in every chapter. Some chapters have incredible sex scenes, but many others have none.]

Chapter 3: The Year 8,000,000

Taylor set the Devonshire on a three crew rotation with six hour watches. Taylor didn't want the crew to get too tired with longer watches. He headed one, Jennifer took the second, and Bill Carey took the third, and then Taylor took the next watch and so on. Whenever one of them needed a brief break, they left Lieutenant Babangida or Ensign Collins or Tanaka in command. Suki Tanaka was young, but Taylor had a good feeling about her. He saw she had served on a deep space mission for ten months. Those were tough assignments, with very small crews that required a lot of dedication and responsibility, and Suki's commander, Mark Waters, had spoken very highly of her, giving her top ratings.

There was nothing but blackness on the viewscreen. All the instruments told them was that they were moving at incredible speeds. And then, on the morning of the third day, while Jennifer had the watch, it happened. She called him to the bridge immediately.

There was a window.

One side of the Black Box was now completely clear. They could see through it, into open space. The Black Box continued onwards, but for the first time they had the option to leave it, and return to normal space.

Apparently.

"What do sensors detect?" Taylor asked.

"It is hard to get readings," said Ensign Collins. "Interference from the Black Box-"

"Look! It's Earth!" Jennifer Hale cried.

They looked out of the opaque side of the Black Box. Sure enough, they saw what looked like the planet Earth.

"So they were right," said Victor. He and Elizabeth were on the bridge. "This is not a tunnel that goes through space, only time."

"Not necessarily," said Taylor. "We may not have gone through space or time. We may simply be back where we started. Magnify."

The image of the Earth magnified. The crew cried out.

It was Earth, but not the Earth they had left. The Atlantic Ocean was practically gone. North America and Europe were close together. South America and Africa were almost having continental intercourse, as one fit neatly inside the bend of the other.

"The continents have moved together," said Taylor. "This couldn't have happened in only 200,000 years, could it?"

"No, Michael," said Victor. "We must have come farther than that. Much farther."

"Sir, sensors show that the window on the side of the time tunnel is collapsing ahead," said Suki.

"Can you slow down?" Taylor asked.

"No sir, I can't. I estimate we have perhaps two minutes to make a decision whether to exit this window or not."

Taylor thought rapidly. "The time tunnel has an exit here... but it keeps going on. Shouldn't we keep going on to its point of origin?"

"The other crews probably asked the same question," said Elizabeth, feeling her pulse quickening. "It all depends on where the shockwaves are originating from. They could be from here, or somewhere farther in the future."

"We have at most a minute and thirty seconds to decide, Captain," said Suki.

"If we leave the Black Box, will we be able to reenter it?" Taylor asked quickly.

"Unknown," said Ensign Collins, the sensor officer. "We are on the inside of it. We cannot know how it looks from the outside."

"One minute fifteen," said Suki.

"Opinions?" said Taylor, his voice tight.

"We should keep going to the end of the time tunnel," said Elizabeth.

"Bill?" said Taylor.

"I agree," said Bill Carey, his second officer.

"Jennifer?" said Taylor.

She shrugged helplessly. "I honestly don't know, Captain."

Taylor stared at the Earth for a long moment, trapped in his mind, unable to decide.

"Forty five seconds, Captain!" said Suki.

And then Victor caught his eye. "I think we should drop out now, Michael," he said quietly.

"Why?" said Taylor.

Victor shrugged. "Call it instinct. We've apparently already come a very long distance. I think, just on general principle, that it's a good practice to stop by the side of the road every million years or so to ask for directions."

Taylor looked at Victor, and saw his little smile. His point was obvious. It seemed like they had already lept a huge distance into the future. Victor, like everyone else, was curious what life was like on Earth million OF years in the future. But the decision, of course, would be his.

"Thirty seconds, Captain!"

Taylor looked at his crew. What if going on was the wrong decision? What if going too far had killed the other crews? Or what if dropping out was the wrong decision? What if they dropped out, came out at the wrong time, and were stranded here. But the Exeter had returned. But they had no idea of knowing what decision the Exeter crew had made-

"Fifteen seconds, Captain, it's now or never!" Suki cried.

Taylor found himself looking at Jennifer. For a second, a split second, he thought he saw Pam's features overwritten on her.

"Drop out of the tunnel, now!" Taylor cried.

The ship lurched as Suki steered to the clear part of the time tunnel. The ship flailed about for a moment, the instruments flickered wildly, and then.... they were out of it.

"Status!" Taylor cried.

"No damage reported," said Lieutenant Babangida, a moment later. "The ship is functioning within normal parameters."

"Where are we? Suki? Collins?"

It was Suki who answered first. "Earth, sir."

"When?"

"Working on it," she said. "Doing a star fix."

"Collins, is the Black Box still visible? Get it on the viewscreen."

Seconds later the Black Box appeared. From this perspective it looked like... an entrance.

"So we can go back into it," said Victor. "You made the right choice, Michael," he said, putting a hand on Taylor's shoulder.

Taylor, feeling his body covered with perspiration, nodded. That had been his biggest fear, that if they had landed in the wrong time, that they wouldn't be able to reenter the Black Box.

Elizabeth was fuming silently, crossing her arms under her small breasts. In their moment of crisis, Taylor had ignored the advice of his senior scientist, to take the advice of a man over hers. She gritted her teeth. But it appeared, so far, that Taylor's gamble had paid off.

"Getting a star fix sir," said Suki. "No... no, this can't be."

"What?" said Taylor.

"Rechecking," said Suki. And then. "Confirmed." She turned to face Taylor. "Sir, if these readings are right, we are eight million years into the future."

"Eight million years?" said Jennifer, turning pale. "That's not possible."

"That's what the instruments say," said Suki helplessly.

"Eight million years," said Victor. He raised his eyebrows. "So much for the Survey Service's theory of 200,000 years into the future." He chuckled. "And they worried that we wouldn't be able to relate to people who were 200,000 years in advance of us. They shouldn't have been concerned, should they, Michael?"

Taylor gave Victor a cynical smile. "Get Earth on the viewscreen."

It was Earth, but not their Earth. The continents had shifted closer together, though they were not quite touching. There was a mini ice age descending on North America and Europe.

"So much for the Global Warming nuts," said Victor. "It was cooling they needed to fear. We'll have to get back, just to tell them."

"Life signs?" said Taylor.

"Scanning," said Suki. Then... "Yes. In the thousands. Several million, at least."

Millions? The Earth previously had populations of billions.

"I wonder who lives there now?" Victor asked. "From where we come from, mankind has existed for only about 200,000 years. In seven or eight million years we evolved from the apes, it is said. And now we have eight million years more of evolution. Whatever we find down there, it's not likely to be recognizable as human."

"Our mission is not to sample human evolution," said Taylor. "We have to find out who is controlling the time tunnel."

"The time tunnel does not start here," said Elizabeth. "Logically speaking, it must be controlled farther ahead, in the future."

"That presumes that those who created the time tunnel didn't make it work in both directions," said Victor. "Perhaps they wanted to go both into their past and the future."

"Victor's right," said Taylor. He saw Elizabeth wince and shake her head slightly. "We have to examine this time period to be certain that the time tunnel isn't generated from this era. Suki, are there any signs of spacecraft in orbit?"

Suki checked. "No, sir."

"Then we'll go down to say hello. I'll command a small landing party. Elizabeth, gather up a few of your anthropologists. Victor, you come too. Mr. Babangida, I want a security detail. And send for Dr. McCrae-"

"Captain!"

"Yes, Mr. Carey?"

"You are too valuable to lead this mission, sir," said Carey. "I or Lieutenant Hale should lead it."

Too valuable. Taylor knew full well what Carey was really worried about. The memory of burning thousands of religious zealots with the reaction drive of the Asgard suddenly flashed through his mind. "I appreciate your concern for my well-being, but I need the two of you here, in case something goes wrong."

In case something goes wrong. He regretted it the moment he said it.

********

They took a shuttle down to southern Florida, or at least, what used to be Florida. Florida had twisted in shape now, bending back towards Alabama and Mississippi, like a penis which was no longer erect. They landed down by what had once been Naples, Florida.

There was a city there, of lean, one story homes, all made of some unidentifiable kind of material, perhaps some kind of futuristic plastic.

They landed the shuttle in an open grassy field. A crowd of people gathered to meet them.

People.

They looked just like human beings.

"Astonishing," said Victor. "They look exactly like us. Is it possible there has been no evolutionary development in eight million years?"

"Not very likely," said Taylor. He nodded to Lieutenant Babangida and his men, who, like Taylor, were all armed. "Let me go first with the security detail."

Taylor cautiously exited the shuttle first, with the others following behind.

There was a crowd of people standing respectfully at some distance. Two approached them. One was a man, the other a woman. The man was wearing a one piece outfit, as was the woman, but the woman's was much more revealing, showing the sides of her breasts.

"Nice to see that some things haven't changed in eight million years," said Doctor McCrae.

Elizabeth gave him a glare.

The man and woman approached. "Hello," said the woman, with a nervous tone. "You are welcome here. Do you understand me?"

"We understand you," said Taylor. "Do you understand me?"

"Yes," said the woman. "My name is Juci. This is Tedi."

"Hello," said Taylor. "My name is Lieutenant Commander Michael Taylor."

Juci squinted. "Lu... Lu....."

"A form of rank," said Taylor. It was to be expected that certain words would have changed. Frankly, it was amazing that they could even understand each other after eight million years. "I'm the Captain of the Survey Service ship USS Devonshire."

Juci looked blankly at him.

"The ship, in the sky," said Taylor.

"That thing," said Tedi, pointing to the shuttle.

"No, the ship... it's in orbit."

"Ooorbit," said Juci, looking confused.

Yes, they were definitely going to have a language problem.

"We've come a long way," said Taylor. "Can we speak to someone in charge?"

"In charge?" Juci looked confused.

"You don't know what the words in charge mean?" Taylor asked.

"Michael, the problem may not be linguistic, it may be conceptual," said Victor. "Juci, we're looking for the person who runs things."

"Runs things?" she said blankly

"Who makes decisions?"

"Who makes decisions?" She parroted.

"The person who... coordinates-"

"Ah!" she smiled. "You want Coordinator."

"Yes. We'd like to speak to your coordinator."

"Engin," said Juci. She turned to Tedi. "They want to speak to Engin."

"Engin is very nice," said Tedi.

"Yes he is," said Juci.

"Can we speak to him?" Taylor asked.

"This way," said Juci.

She led them through a crowd of curious spectators.

"They don't seem hostile," said Lieutenant Babangida, the security chief.

"Neither does a Vegan swamp toad, until it clamps down with steel jaws," said Elizabeth. "We can't judge things by our conventional senses. We must make a thorough scientific study."

"Doctor Shaw is right," said Taylor. "Just because something looks harmless doesn't mean it is harmless."

Elizabeth beamed and stuck out her chest slightly. It was the first time Taylor had said something supportive.

They walked into a village and were led to one of the larger structures, which was only two stories tall.

"Deindustrialization," said Victor. "What happened to all the tall buildings?"

"Perhaps the back-to-the-Earth movement took hold," said Elizabeth.

"A scary thought," said Doctor McCrae.

They met coordinate Engin. Engin was a nice man, as Juci had said. He gave them a pleasant smile and welcomed them.

Taylor tried to explain where they were from, and when, but could see he was having no more luck than he had with Juci and Tedi. Finally he said, "Do you have any scientists here?"

"Scientists?" said Engin.

"Maybe they mean Bernard! Bernard really likes science," said Juci.

"Yes, let us send for Bernard."

As they waited, they talked among themselves in low voices.

"Could human society have regressed to a lower intellectual level in eight million years?" Taylor asked.

"Perhaps," said Elizabeth. "But it would usually be in response to a massive war, or environmental disaster. I see no evidence of-"

"Ah, here is Bernard!"

Bernard was a smiling brown haired man.

Taylor introduced himself. "I'm Captain of a spaceship, the Devonshire, in low orbit. Do you know what a spaceship is?"

"Of course, Captain Taylor," said Bernard.

Taylor repressed a sigh of relief. "Do you also know about the Black Box in orbit around the Earth?"

"Black Box?" said Bernard. "Do you... do you mean the dark phenomena in orbit-"

"Yes, yes!" Taylor said joyously. Finally, to find someone with a mind! "We came from there. It's a time tunnel. This will be hard to believe... but... we're from eight million years in your past."

"Eight million years?" said Bernard. Then a light appeared in his eyes. "You are like the others."

"Others?" said Taylor.

"They called themselves... Aura," said Bernard.

"Aurora?" Taylor asked, barely containing his excitement. The Aurora was the science ship, the first sent out.

"Yes, that was it, Aurora," said Bernard. "They came to visit us, some years ago."

"How many years ago?" Taylor asked.

Bernard shrugged. "I do not recall."

"What happened to the people from the Aurora?" Taylor asked.

"They went up," said Bernard.

"Up?"

"They went up," said Bernard.

Taylor bit his lips. Bernard might well be the smartest guy in town, but there were obviously limits to even his understanding. It sounded like the Aurora had come to this version of Earth, looked around, and then taken off, probably reentering the Black Box.

Which would imply that the people of this era were not responsible for the Black Box. Taylor could well believe that, given the limited level of intellectual development of this era.

Taylor huddled with Elizabeth, Doctor McCrae, and Victor to see what they thought.

"I agree, Captain," said Elizabeth. "This society doesn't have the technology to be in control of the Black Box. Somehow, humanity has regressed."

"So let's get back to the ship and go back into the time tunnel again," said McCrae.

"Wait a minute," said Elizabeth. "Just because this society isn't what we're looking for, doesn't mean that this can't be a tremendous learning experience. This is our one and only chance to look eight million years in the future. Think of all we could learn!" She saw the reluctance in Taylor's face. He was focused on the mission.

"Please, Captain," Elizabeth said, and Taylor was very conscious that he was now Captain and not Lieutenant Commander. "Just a few days?" She looked longingly into his eyes.

Taylor frowned. He was charged with one mission, and one mission only. But he said, "All right. I'll give you two days."

"Only two days?" Elizabeth looked pained.

"We could gather information a lot more quickly if we could bring more people down," said Victor.

Taylor considered that. The people here seemed friendly enough. "All right. I'll authorize multiple landing parties. But I want everyone to be armed, and I want people to travel in at least groups of twos or threes. No one is to be alone here."

"Thank you, Michael," said Victor.

"Yes, thank you... Captain," said Elizabeth, and Taylor thought he detected just a hint of emotion in her voice.

********

Later that day, Taylor took a tour of the colony, in the company of Jennifer Hale, who he had invited down to walk with him. He left Bill Carey in command of the Devonshire, much to his second officer's displeasure.

Elizabeth, who was a qualified exobiologist, had performed a physiological analysis of one of the locals using a hand scanner. "They seem human like we are," she said.

"Do you concur, Doctor?" Taylor asked Doctor McCrae.

"No, I do not," said McCrae. "Our hand scanners are very useful for telling the difference between a rock and a banana. But they aren't made to detect subtle differences in the human body."

"What are you suggesting?"

"We take one of these lovelies up to the ship and I do some thorough scans."

"Do you think you could get someone to agree to it?"

"I already have," said McCrae, pointing to a tittering young woman. "Her name is Gouda."

"Are we going to the sky now, Bill?" Gouda asked. "Are you going to show me your thing?"

Jennifer's eyebrows went up.

"I promised her a tour of the ship," said McCrae. He saw the expression on Jennifer's face. "That's what she meant."

"Of course," said Jennifer, a bit mockingly.

"Fine, doctor," said Taylor. "Just make sure you have someone from security escort her up to the ship with you."

"Security?" McCrae snorted. "For her?"

"Just in case," said Taylor.

********

That had been over an hour ago. Taylor was still waiting to hear his findings.

In the meantime, Juci was giving him and Jennifer a tour of the town. "We never talked about Michael," said Taylor, in a low voice. "Did he have a hard time letting you go on this mission?"

"It wasn't the... easiest conversation we've ever had," said Jennifer. "Michael, my Michael, wasn't happy about it. But he agreed to let me take the assignment."

"I'm just a little surprised, you being a married woman and all, that you would agree to go," said Taylor. He looked at her, but was thinking of her unspoken words, after they had been rescued from the cave near where they had crash landed last year. Things had gotten... confused between the two of them, and a line had been crossed. After they had been rescued, Taylor had invited Jennifer to dinner in his quarters, and he raised the subject of... them.

If it weren't for Michael, my Michael, we could be together, she had told him. And that was the end of that.

So Taylor had thought.

But now Jennifer had left her husband to go on a mission that was very likely to be a one-way trip. How in love with him could she be to leave her husband behind, possibly forever?