Twin Earth
Chapter Twenty One

Frowning, I stared at the screen in front of me.

“What is it?” Rachel asked looking at me.

“It’s vanished.”

“Vanished? What do you mean vanished?”

“One of the probes was destroyed, but the other... it just vanished,” I whispered, frantically scrolling through the data that was now streaming into the craft.

“To where?” Rachel asked confused.

“I... I don’t know. It managed to send back similar data to the first probes, but it doesn’t seem to have been destroyed. I can’t trace any of the debris.”

“Well, it has to be somewhere.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” I scowled in annoyance. “The computer just isn’t recording anything. It has literally vanished. No... wait...”

“What is it?”

“It’s sending back data again, look,” I remarked in amazement, pointing to the screen. “But... what the hell? Now it’s gone again?”

“Tom, I think it’s vanishing when the anomaly closes,” Rachel exclaimed. “Look.”

“You’re right,” I replied in amazement, staring at the probe data and comparing it to the anomaly data.

“But where the hell is it going when it vanishes?” Rachel asked.

“Well that my dear, is the biggest question of all,” I mumbled, lost in my own thoughts.

“What’s the data reporting?”

“Well, this is the weirdest part, the initial data reported the same levels of mass increases, but in the second data stream here, it’s relatively normal, as if it went back to normal space.”

“So why can’t we see it?” Rachel asked in bewilderment.

“I don’t know.”

For a moment we stared in silence at the data results and debated our next move.

“Let’s wait until the anomaly appears again and then switch on the camera on the probe. Maybe that can allow us to see where it is,” Rachel suggested.

As I listened to Rachel’s suggestion my stomach churned in excitement. Data was all very well, but there was something quite awe inspiring about seeing an actual image come through. I had worked on a few probe projects over the years and it never ceased to amaze me to actually see what we were studying. We waited until the anomaly opened up again and prayed the probe was still active wherever it was.

“There,” Rachel shouted. “It’s sending through data again. Anything new?”

“What the hell... it’s detecting a sudden burst of electromagnetic waves from somewhere.”

“But that’s impossible. There’s nothing out here, other than background noise.”

“That we can see,” I paused looking at Rachel. “Switch on the camera.”

“I’m actually nervous,” Rachel whispered, doing as I asked.

“I’m going to try Trevor again at ground control,” I replied, as we waited for any images to come through. “This is the ionohex, are you receiving? Over,” I tried, but was greeted with just static.

“Do you think there is too much interference out here?” Rachel asked.

“Maybe. I’m worried. We left them ages ago now and who knows what havoc is being caused on Earth right now from this anomaly. “This is the ionohex, are you receiving? Over,” I tried again.

“No! The anomaly has closed again. We lost the signal!” Rachel screamed a little too loudly, causing me to jump.

“Did any photographic data come through though?” I replied grimacing, rubbing my arm from colliding it with my chair yet again.

“I’m not sure. I’m just checking the feed now.”

“Tom... Trevor... mission... updates?” a voice finally crackled over the comms system.

“Trevor! Can you hear me? Over,” I replied frantically.

“Destroyed... can’t... earth communications... down... hurry...”

“Destroyed? What does that mean?” Rachel whispered looking at me.

“I have no idea, but it doesn’t sound good.”

“And hurry? How can we hurry? We don’t even know what we’re dealing with out here. Should we go back?”

Ignoring Rachel’s concerns, I tried the comms again, but frustrated to hear only static yet again I threw the comms microphone across the craft in anger and then, perhaps in a state of madness, laughed as it simply floated gently towards the front of the craft.

“You knew that wasn’t going to work right?” Rachel grinned.

“Shut up,” I smirked, trying to remain annoyed. “Any luck yet on those photos?”

“There’s half an image. The rest failed to load as the signal cut out, but I can’t make any sense of it. It’s just a blur of bright white light in one corner and the rest is black.”

“Let me have a look,” I replied, taking the small tablet screen from Rachel. “What is this?”

“I can only assume it’s background noise of some kind.”

“Ugh, this is so frustrating!” I shouted, passing her the screen back.

“I can’t reconnect to the probe now either. The anomaly seems to have calmed over the last half an hour. The frequency of ripples appearing has slowed. Do you think its resolved itself somehow?”

“Maybe,” I whispered rubbing my face. I was shattered. A part of me wanted to believe Rachel was right, it was easier, but I knew in my heart that this saga wasn’t over.

“Should we go back?” Rachel suggested, hopeful of my agreement.

“No.”

“Then what do we do?”

“I want to go in.”

“Go in?” Rachel muttered nervously. “What do you mean, go in?”

“I want to find our probe. I want to see what it is seeing. I want to know where the hell it has gone so we can finally get some fucking answers to this thing,” I shouted feeling my anger rise inside me again. Rachel didn’t reply and instead simply stared at my haggard expression. “We’ve come this far, haven’t we? I think we should wait for another ripple to open and then go inside it and see what happens.”

“Are you insane? We could be destroyed!” Rachel finally answered.

“What’s our other options? Go home?”

“Err... yes,” Rachel replied sarcastically.

“Don’t you want to know what’s on the other side of this thing?”

“Well, yes, but it’s too dangerous. I don’t want to die up here.”

“There, another ripple has opened,” I mumbled, switching on the ion drive and breathing out heavily as it did so.

“What are you doing?” Rachel shouted.

“Getting some answers,” I replied.

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