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Chapter Six
Wolf 1061c: The Quiet World
Fortunately for Skip, his calculations led to
another window, but, after jumping to a distance across the galaxy, Rusty would
was forced to pilot the Phoenix for billions of kilometers at normal
speed. Proxima Centauri had been 4.22
light years, Ross 128b 11.03 light years, and now Wolf 1061c 13.8 light years
from Earth, but with varying success at shortening the distance to selected
worlds. There was, inexplicably, only
one window between their current point in the galaxy to the next likely planet:
Wolf 1061c. A thousand years had passed
since the humans had been placed in cyber-sleep. And yet it seemed like a split second since their eyes had shut
and they awakened as the Phoenix circled the new world.
Unlike the last time, after the usual trauma of
being awakened and suffering cognition as the Phoenix was circling Ross 128b,
when the humans appeared to have a degree of anxiousness and even hope after
the near-disaster on Proxima before, there seemed to be merely grim resignation
in most of them at first. “Here we go
again!” was the unspoken attitude, and yet there was the feeling among them
that once again they had escaped disaster.
Because of Elroy’s death, the horrors they experienced on Ross 128b was
given added meaning. Looking around the
conference table as they were served their first breakfast in a thousand years,
they counted eleven crewmember now.
This time no one asked Skip questions about the new world. Partly because they were afraid to ask and
partly from the exhaustion resulting from hibernation, they looked up at the
android captain with glassy eyes, as he gave them the good news, as he
interpreted it.
The very name of the planet, ‘Wolf 1061c’, was not
encouraging for many of them. Obviously
named after the star system’s discoverer, it had significance, but as far as
they were concerned right now it was just one more so-called Earth-like planet
that might give them grief. Skip didn’t
play up the new discovery yet. He
merely announced its name and his preliminary guess that it might be habitable,
before he brought down the ship’s scope.
Might, everyone understood, was the operative word. As the ship’s telescope projected the area
in question onto the table, there was little enthusiasm among most of the
humans. Despite their sullen faces,
Captain Drexel, Doc Rodgers, Carla Mendoza, Gandy Supra, and Mbuto Sawala tried
putting a good face on matters. Ingrid
thanked God that Skip had found them another world, and, at breakfast, uttered
a prayer of thanksgiving.
As Rusty adjusted the projection, however, the
remaining six stellarnauts scrutinized the image, expecting more monsters to
leap out of the forest.
“Aren’t we fortunate that Skip found us another
world?” Max smiled at Nicole.
“Right!” Captain Drexel piped, giving Sheila’s
shoulder a pat. “Who knows, folks.” He glanced around the table. “This time we
might get lucky!”
“I’m back from the dark sleep,” Gandy laughed
nervously, “that’s enough for me!”
“Hmm!” Mbuto nodded and folded his arms. “Look at
it: continents, a rocky world like Earth, Proxima, and Ross 128b. That looks like water and there’s some
clouds.”
“We saw that before,” Said frowned. “What’s it look
like with full magnification?”
As it grew larger when Rusty increased magnification
and focused the image, anticipation was thick on the ship. Showing little emotion himself, Skip waited
silently as the image grew progressively and its details were refined.
“So far so good.” Abe rubbed his hands. “Two of the
three failed us, but come on people—this one has to be good!”
“Let us hope so!” Carla murmured anxiously.
The more Rusty increased the size, the more
difficult it was to clarify the details.
It was clear at this point that it was a green world with other familiar
Earth-like features. Encouraged by what
they saw so far, Carla, Ingrid, Abe, and the operational crew nodded with
approval. The other crewmembers,
however, were not so optimistic.
“Ross 128b looked like that too!” Nicole grumbled.
“Now Elroy’s dead. We came pretty close
to being dead ourselves!”
“Yes, it true captain,” Ling Soon agreed. “We must be
sure this time. You said we were safe before!”
“Shame on both of you!” scolded Max. “He promised no
such thing. We were in dire straights when we heard the news about Earth. We’re
all lucky just to be alive.”
“Yes,” Sheila said unsurely. “Our captain knows
best. We must trust him…”
“Skip’s our captain during this search,” Abe
reminded her. “Without him and the
other caretakers we wouldn’t make it.
Hibernation keeps us alive.”
“Ya, it is true,” Hans looked sadly up at Skip. “….
The andies are masters now.”
******
As they ate breakfast and sipped their coffee, the
action shown by most of the crew seemed perfunctory to the medics. There was little enthusiasm for the extra
effort Sandra and Woody had put into making the powdered eggs, pancakes, and
bacon look appealing. Even the
specially brewed coffee failed to stir them.
Excitement and trepidation was an incompatible blend.
What changed the attitudes of the five gloomy
crewmembers was when, at the image’s maximum size, the details of Wolf 1061c
were almost perfect. As before, there
was a collective gasp at the table. For
several moments, no one spoke a word.
As they studied the thick jungle canopy, its clearings, and a nearby
river running at the jungle’s edge, they could see that it was a green world,
as Ross 128b had been, but this time there were no signs of animals. This, Rusty admitted, was why it had taken
so long. The details he had been
looking for had been signs of animal life, which were not apparent on this
world. There were no walking, crawling,
slithering, or flying creatures, which led Skip to suggest that animal life on
Wolf 1061c might just be very small and not detectable until they studied it up
close. Despite a slight hesitance in
Skip’s voice when he made this suggestion, this information was welcomed by the
humans, who had enough of monsters for awhile.
Hans, once the picture of gloom, summed up their
feelings. “At last,” he cried, “you
find quiet world!”
“You don’t know anything about this planet,”
cautioned Skip. “Proxima looked innocent enough too!”
“Well,” Captain Drexel sighed. “It looks good so far
to me: a quiet world beneath a quiet sun, with no dangerous creatures jumping
out or attacking from the sky.”
“No apparent creatures detected,” Skip
qualified. “There could be small, unseen ones. The last time you didn’t check
for harmful microbes. Now that there
doesn’t seem to be any animals, I advise testing the air, water, and soil. A plant world might still be affected by
microbes like an animal world. Have
Carla check this out like she did before, but this time test for harmful
equivalents to Earth’s viruses and bacteria.”
Once again
Skip, the android captain, not the human captain, was giving the orders. Though he bristled at Skip’s imperious tone,
Captain Drexel hadn’t thought of this himself.
It was a good suggestion and might very well save their lives. Skip pointed to a likely place to set
Phoenix One down on the sector of Wolf 1061c shown: a large clearing near the
river that appeared to be a field of some sort. Though there was no equivalent forms of life on the new world
like those of Earth, already the explorers were thinking of it as the ‘Plant
World.’
Because of what they knew so far about the Plant
World, the humans were more enthusiastic than they had been for the previous
two enterprises. As Said put it that
hour, “What could be dangerous about a bunch of plants?”
******
Following the same regimen they had before visiting
Proxima and Ross 128b, the humans rested up for three days, eating heartily,
exercising, and getting plenty of normal sleep. When the exploration day finally arrived, all twelve of them were
confident that they had finally found a habitable world. Climbing aboard Phoenix One this time was a
light-hearted occasion. Skip, Rusty,
Sandra, and Woody cast worried glances at the humans as they filed into the
craft. By the explorers’ smiles and
chatter, it was as if they were on an exciting outing.
“The humans are like children,” Rusty said dryly.
“They remind me of something I found in my database…. Students going on a
school outing.”
“I remember something.” Sandra thought a moment. “….
Scouts going on a campout, with Captain Drexel as the scoutmaster.”
“This is no outing or campout,” Woody said grimly.
“So badly do they want to believe they’ve found a new home, they might become
careless.
“There are dangers in many disguises,” replied Skip.
“Proxima seemed quiet too at first.
From space Ross 128b looked very much like a rain forest on Earth. Now, inexplicably, we’ve found them a jungle
world without wildlife, which, if this so, is, in fact, quiet…. How very
odd. I’ll be glad when our search is
over and our human charges are safe and sound.
If, by definition, quiet, as the human uses this word, merely means
silent, not safe from solar flares, then Wolf 1061c appears to be a quiet
world, but it might not be safe.
Microbes are silent, so were the poisonous plants and insects on
Earth. The only really safe place for
them so far is on the Phoenix, in their cryogenic chambers, until we’ve found
them a secure home…. Let’s hope this is the one!”
******
Upon
landing in the field adjacent to the forest, the twelve human were eager to
begin. From the window in front of the
control console and through the portholes of the rover, the forest appeared
peaceful and idyllic. As they waited
for Carla to suit up and test for breathable air, evidence of harmful rays, and
harmful airborne microbes, they studied the scene outside the craft within the
safety of Phoenix One. It was indeed a
quiet world, they agreed. Carla claimed
that the silence was deafening, a stark contrast to what they heard on Ross
128b. When her tests showed breathable
air, a negative reading for harmful rays, and no potentially hostile microbes,
they were raring to go. The eleven
earthlings couldn’t wait to explore the new world.
When they emerged from Phoenix One, however, they
were assailed by the heat and humidity of the plant world, a phenomena, the captain
reminded them that was due to tropical temperature, exacerbated by their
emergence from the air-conditioned craft.
In her life support suit, Carla hadn’t noticed this discomfort. The temperature now was significantly
greater than Ross 128b’s 90o F.
To their dismay, the thermal indicators on their wrists registered at
120o.
“Let’s put our life support systems on,” suggested
Nicole. “I’m ready to pass out.”
Looking up at the sky at the great red sun, Carla
mentally compared the tropical rain forests of Earth with Wolf 1061c and was
perplexed.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” she confessed.
“It’s like we landed in the Jurassic Age on Earth. During that period most of the earth was also hot and humid but I
don’t think it was anything like this.
A 120o F reading with this much humidity is unbelievable!”
“Ach! Dis is
serious,” Hans grumbled. “It’s like sauna or Indian lodge!”
“Yes, exactly.” She nodded. “Wolf 1061c has what we
climatologists call the hothouse effect.”
“Then lets go back!” Ling Soon pleaded. “I will die
in this heat!”
“Yes, back into the loveliness of space!” implored
Nicole.
“People!” Captain Drexel raised his hands. “If we
build structures with air-conditioning, as we planned to do on Triton, we could
survive here. This might be our only
chance.”
“Triton was far more inhospitable than this planet,”
Max reminded them.
“But we weren’t going to live there,” countered
Said. “This would be permanent.”
“There were numerous peoples in Earth’s history who
lived in hot temperatures and survived,” Mbuto informed him. “The Arabs of
Saudi Arabia and Native Americans in the Great Basin all managed in high
temperatures.”
“Yes, dat is true,” Hans scoffed, “but not at high
humidity.” “What is humidity here?” He looked at Carla.
“Sixty-five percent.” She frowned. “Which is very
strange.”
“With that kind of humidity, why isn’t it raining?”
asked Gandy. “In India it might be pouring now.”
“Gott in himmel, we don’t want that!” Hans wrung his
hands.
As they stood there debating the issue, it appeared
as though half of them were ready to return to the ship. Even Gandy shook his head in dismay. Despite the implications of returning to the
mother ship now, present discomfort outweighed long range goals, until the
captain reasoned with his crew.
“Let me ask you folks one question.” He looked
around the group. “Do you prefer the dark sleep to giving Wolf 1061c a chance?”
“Well….no.”
Hans shrugged.
“What’s the point?” blurted Sheila. “We’re not
dinosaurs. I read about the hothouse
effect. I was in Equatorial Africa
during its hottest season. That was bad
enough. But one long afternoon of
endless heat? Isn’t that asking too
much, sir? What if it does in fact
start raining as it does in rain forests on Earth? Dear God, what a nightmare that would be?”
“Listen folks.” Captain Drexel shook his head. “We
haven’t set foot in the forest yet.
I’ve been to the tropics. The
temperature drops significantly, when you enter beneath the canopy.” “Doc, Gandy, Carla, Mbuto, and I are going
in. Those of you too fainthearted to
join us, can stay in the rover.”
Carla smiled bravely, as did Gandy, Mbuto, and Max,
but Captain Drexel wasn’t fooled. As he
turned to forge ahead, they hesitated a moment, while the others began walking
back to the craft. Then, when the
captain entered alone at the forest’s edge, Max ran toward him. Following close behind him were Carla,
Gandy, and Mbuto. Having said her
prayers, Ingrid quickly caught up with them.
Seeing her example, feeling guilty they hadn’t supported their superiors,
both Nicole and Sheila followed behind the geologist, as did Hans and Said,
and, after some deliberation, Ling Soon.
Excited by this leap into the unknown, the eleven
stellarnauts chattered nervously amongst themselves. In quiet murmurs, Ingrid gave encouragement to Nicole and Ling
Soon. The group had been too busy
talking to each other to notice how deathly quiet it was in the meadow where
they stood: not so much as a breeze stirred and even their footfall was muted
by the grass below. As they followed
the captain along the bank of a stream meandering through the forest, something
was added to the ambience: instead of cooling off as the captain suggested, it
grew hotter and the humidity was thicker, but that wasn’t the ambience they
detected nor was it the unsettling quiet normally heard in a jungle. Unlike the racket and constant movement they
found on Ross, Wolf 1061c, all they could hear was their own breathing. Once more the unspoken question in all of
their minds, as they looked around at the strange looking trees was “Where are
the beasts?” In the dense foliage, they
saw only more plants, a designation that, Ling, the botanist pointed out, was
incorrect, since this wasn’t Earth.
“Be that as it may be,” Abe reminded her, “they look
like plants. What else can they
be?”
“Not plants,” Ling Soon shook her head
stubbornly.
“Then the beasts back on Ross 128b aren’t animals,”
Said reasoned.
“That is correct,” nodded Hans.
“Wait a blessed minute.” Gandy raised an eyebrow.
“Animal and plant are universal labels, like rock, bush, tree. This is true for microbes, viruses, and
bacteria. ”
“Not true,” insisted Ling Soon. “Alien life must
have different names. Technically, they
are all life forms. We must instead say
similar to plants, not plants.”
“And similar to animals,” Hans agreed. “Since
viruses and bacteria are life forms on Earth, the same holds true for them.”
“That’s absurd!” Said grumbled. “You natural
scientists are all the same!”
That moment, as Ling Soon, the botanist, and Hans,
the zoologist, looked for specimens to study back on the space station, the two
scientists made a shocking discovery.
On the bushes near the stream bank, on leaf structures and grasses of the
jungle, during their preliminary investigation, they found that the plants were
barren of insect-like creatures found on Ross 128b and Earth. More obviously, the ground, which should
also have evidence of small as well as larger creatures and in air, in which
forests normally contained fliers among the trees and in the air buzzing and
flapping to and fro, there was no animal life (which Ling Soon and Hans
referred to as Earth-like organisms).
There were no walking, crawling, or flying creatures, large or small to
be seen anywhere. In the soil samples,
Ingrid had been unable to find even microscopic forms of life.
Upon discovering the stream, the explorers heard the
first tangible sounds on Wolf 1061c, which was somehow reassuring: the sound of
running water. Since nothing unpleasant
had happened to them yet in the jungle, a decision was made by the group to
follow the stream, so as not to get lost, and explore more of the mysterious
world…. This was their first mistake on Wolf 1061c.
It was, during their exploration, that the unnamed
ambience was felt the strongest. It was
as if there was a presence in the forest and something was watching them. No sooner had they walked a ways along the
stream, than a brand new horror none of them could have imagined occurred. It seemed as though some of the flowers
sprouting along the riverbed came alive and turned toward them as they
passed. Small sized, medium sized, and
large plants quivered and swiveled on their stems. Abe and Max didn’t mention this anomaly for fear of causing a
panic, though it appeared as if the plants were sizing them up. Then suddenly it happened. One of the strange-looking sea-anemone-like
creatures sitting on its spiny stalk bent over suddenly, grabbed a hold of the
botanist, and closed its tentacles around the screaming woman. Ling Soon, who had been looking closely at
the life-form, became the second victim during the odyssey to find a habitable
world. In that ghastly moment, as the
thing ingested the scientist, the remaining ten explorers tackled it, Captain
Drexel firing his blaster to decapitate the anemone before he and the others
tore at the tentacles with their gloved hands, until pulling her free. By then, however, the poor woman had
suffocated. Lying beside the stream, a
death-like stare on her infantile face and her mouth gaping wide, she was
covered with a sticky slime that also covered her crewmate’s gloves. Quickly retracing their steps, the men and
women, lugged her corpse down the bank, in the frantic effort to return to
Phoenix One. All possibilities of making
Wolf 2061c their home vanished entirely, as they charged toward the rover. But, as they were nearly out of the forest,
something even more frightening than the anemone, blocked their retreat. What had appeared, as they passed by, to be
just one more of Wolf 1061c’s strange, giant flowers, suddenly rose up—a thing
resembling a giant Venus fly-trap on several stringy, wreathing legs, and, in a
bizarre, fluttery movement, charged toward them.
This time the plant monster received the
full force of the ten remaining guns and was immediately incinerated. Not to be discouraged, though, a second,
third, and fourth member of this alien species, jumped out onto the stream
bank, like demented ballet dancers, fluttering toward their victims in mindless
frenzy. Before the crewmembers had a
chance to completely obliterate their attackers, a third crewmember became a
victim of aliens. This time Hans, the
zoologist, was taken now, swallowed whole in one gulp by one of the
trappers. Unfortunately, as the other
two trappers attacked and were fired upon by the hysterical explorers, their
cousin had his way with the man. Again,
the blasters and cutters finally did the trick, killing the first trapper that
had taken Hans and the second and third trapper as well, but not soon enough to
save Han’s life. Cutting out the
hapless scientist with his knife, Captain Drexel did as the others witnessing
this horror, and wretched. The poor man
was even slimier than had been the botanist.
As if anyone cared for titles at this point, there were no longer any
natural scientists to study alien life.
Moving around the smoldering corpses of
the trappers, both of the dead humans were gripped fiercely by their terrified
crewmates and dragged frantically back to the rover. Thinking that they were safe now that they were in the meadow,
they were stunned by the appearance of something at the far corner of madness:
a giant plant monster galloped like a quadruped across the field, its
trunk-like legs, tank-sized body, and long dragon-like head which sported a
mouthful bristling teeth, chomping mindlessly at the air. It looked hopeless at first, as they fired
their guns at the monster. Though at
close range, they could do serious damage, the blasters and cutters had been
designed for utilitarian use, not as serious weapons. The distance, they discovered, was therefore too far and, even
had they managed to hit it, the creature was large enough to absorb the blasts
enough to attack them before severe damage was done. For a few moments, it looked as if they would die horribly, some
of their number winding up in the monster’s craw, until unexpected help
appeared from the sky. Suddenly, the
second rover, Phoenix Two, arrived on the scene. Skip had appeared just in time to save the day. Hovering long enough to distract the monster
and allow the crewmembers to drag the corpses of Hans and Ling into Phoenix
One, Skip continued to buzz and distract creature, until the humans were safely
aloft. Both rovers now rose up swiftly
into sky, back to the mother ship, as the monster nipped mindlessly at the air.
Needless to say, the planet Wolf 1061c
was crossed off their list.
******
Numb with sadness and exhaustion, the
nine remaining crew members carried their fallen comrades from the dock to the
bridge, unceremoniously flopping the corpses in make-shift shrouds of blankets
from the rover onto the table. Skip,
Rusty, Sandra, and Woody were there offering the wooden comfort of androids but
expeditiously coaxing them to get on with it.
The first order of business, after a short, gloomy period of standing
there and looking down at the bodies, was to say a few words. Captain Drexel briefly recounted the dead
crewmember’s contributions to the Phoenix—Hans, as the zoologist and Ling Soon
as the botanist, though neither of them would have a chance to use their
expertise on a new world. After this
brief speech, the other crewmembers stood their silently staring at the
makeshift shrouds.
There was no Earth II yet, and it seemed very much
to them all that there wouldn’t be one for a very long time. Time, however, was, as Skip had pointed out
repeatedly, irrelevant. Aside from the
day trips during the three failed explorations, their great adventure might
just as well have begun last week.
There was scant mention of God this time in the send off given to the
departed. Ingrid quoted Saint Paul’s
words from Corinthians, “Oh death, where
is thy sting?” Oh grave, where is thy victory?”, followed by a whispered prayer. Gandy, recalling his Hindu heritage, also whispered one to
himself, but, for the other seven stellarnauts, there was no such reassurance
for the deceased. What happened today
was beyond words.
“Where are they now?” Nicole looked
expectantly out from the bridge as their two colleagues were jettisoned into
space.
“Where Elroy is,” answered Sheila, a
vacant look in her eyes. “… They’re dead!”
“You don’t know dat!” Ingrid scolded.
“It’s not fashionable for scientists to believe, but I choose by leap of faith
to believe. Out there in cold depths of
space, God, whatever you want to call him, still reaches out. Our friends didn’t go into
nothingness.” “How can you believe such
a thing?” She frowned severely at Sheila and Nicole. “Good people don’t simply
cease to exist, like the dark sleep—forever.
They just don’t!”
“You’re serious?” Sheila raised an
eyebrow.
“Yes, I am,” confessed Ingrid. “How many times have
your heard me pray? I pray constantly
for you people. I believe. I’ll always believe. You’re a damn fool if you don’t!”
“I still can’t wrap my head around
this.” Carla muttered in disbelief.
“You, a geologist specializing in alien
environments, believe in an afterlife?”
“Call it what you will.” Ingrid waved a
hand. “I don’t care what you think, Carla.
The rules don’t apply out here.
It gives me comfort!”
“I’d like to believe.” Nicole reached out
to touch window. “… I really would.”
“No one’s stopping you,” Ingrid said,
studying her a moment. “You might not dread hibernation so much if you did.”
“All of you.” She looked around at the group. “What’s the last thing you think
of before they prick you with that needle?
‘Is this it?’ You ask yourselves. ‘What if Skip can’t find another
world?’ It’s possible you know. We might wander the galaxy forever looking
for a home. I’m no longer afraid of the
dark sleep. I will either awaken back
on the Phoenix or, if I die, awaken in the next world.”
“The next world?” Max pursed his lips.
“You’re not talking about a planet, are you?”
“Of course not.” Ingrid tossed her head.
“I’m talking about the next life!
“It’s true, I think,” Gandy agreed
light-heartedly. “There is no permanent death.
No sir. Everything dies and is
reborn again, my father used to say.
Those monsters back on Wolf might come back as butterflies on
Earth. Who knows what we’ll become!”
“My uncle was a Christian,” Mbuto joined the
conversation. “He was a fine fellow, who believed in heaven and hell. If someone asked me what I thought hell was
like I would tell them about that savage planet Ross and that planet Wolf in
which plants ruled—that was even worse.
I like your Hindu version best, Gandy.
Often I thought I might come back as cat or dog. I’ve made many mistakes in life.”
“Your being silly, both of you,” Ingrid chided them.
“No one knows what it’s like. It’s only
important to me that it’s there!”
“What’s there?” Max seemed to toy with her.
Ingrid shrugged her shoulders. “Paradise, Valhalla,
the Elysian fields—call it what you wish!”
“There is no afterlife,” Carla scoffed at the
notion, “reincarnation or otherwise.
There’s only now. Heaven, hell,
God, Vishnu, Nirvana, have nothing to do with Proxima, Ross, and Wolf. Those are concepts of Earth to give people
comfort. Out here in space, we have
only each other and our destiny. The
further we travel the more apparent it becomes that we aren’t, as it is thought
by clerics, alone. This is a crowded
universe. Yet evolution has happened
differently throughout the cosmos.
Unless God was a madman, there’s no point to it, no pattern. The universe is a random, mess of white,
blue, orange, and red suns and countless varieties of life-bearing worlds. Where’s God in that?”
“Where’s God?” Ingrid looked at Carla with contempt.
“You’re kind are all the same. You
think there’s no pattern, eh? What
about the Big Bang. How do you explain
that? There’s certainly a pattern to
that. Who do you think started
that? It all fits. You remember your basic cosmology: from a
finite point—the moment of singularity, it began and—bang!—it exploded, and
here we are. What a mess! Who do you think did that? Screw evolution, Carla. It explains nothing. Perhaps Ross or Wolf are where bad
stellarnauts have go—two versions of hell.
I don’t care. I don’t care about
hell, but there’s an afterlife. I believe
it.” “Just don’t tell me that was the
end.” She pointed out the window of the
bridge. “It’s not on a star-map, but it’s still there. That black void is not the end!”
“No… it’s not.” Abe placed his arm around her
shoulders. “…. Hold onto that thought, Ingrid.” “All of you!” He looked around
at the group. “Are we not, as Skip pointed out, the new Ark, once again holding
the remnant of mankind? Perhaps, this
is a divine plan of some sort. Who
knows?… The point is Ingrid, this isn’t God’s country out here, not until we find
our home. Until then, we are, like old
Noah, a family—the family of mankind.
Our cargo, the specimens, are precious as was the first cargo of beasts. Now that we have to return to the dark
sleep, we once again take a leap of faith…. Hopefully next time will be the
last time. We’ll find our own Garden of
Eden, as did Adam and Eve!”
Sensing he was making fun of her now, Ingrid shook her head. “You’re trying to humor me now, but your mixing up stories: the Flood and Garden of Eden. Neither of them applies. They were written for Earth. We’re many light years from Earth. There is no Earth now, captain. We must write our own story. God and his plan, we can’t understand. Out here He is an alien god. How could he be otherwise? The first time before entering the chamber, I thought to myself, ‘this is what death is like,’ so I prayed—a silly prayer my mother taught me: ‘Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray to the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I awake, I pray to the Lord, my soul he’ll take.’ Silly yes, but it works for me!” “That is not the end!” she repeated, pointing at the dark void of space. “If you’re smart, you’ll believe that too.”