“Are you saying what I think you are saying, that you have managed to create the ability to jump far distances in space?” one of the reporters suddenly bursts out.
Adam looks at him and smiles “That’s precisely what I’m saying.”
“Have you tried it?”
“Not yet!”
He can see how the crowd shakes their heads and looks around like they need to go someplace.
“Wait, me and my wife till try it right now,” and then he turns around, and he and his wife pull the huge blanket covering the machine. The blanket slowly slides off the massive structure hiding underneath it. Although it only takes the blanket a second to slide off, the crowd goes dead silent. When the blanket is on the floor, revealing the rectangular structure underneath, the crowd explodes in a chorus of voices. Flashes fill the air with light, and people start to exchange glances of disbelief.
Adam hadn’t expected this when he had gone out with the bulletin of his revelation. More reporters had shown up than he guessed, and lots of passers-by had stopped to see what the commotion was about. When this hits the news, he bets that the large channels regret not sending a reporter to the nut scientist claiming to have found a way to make long jumps in space in a few seconds. He smiles when he thinks of it, and then looks at his wife who is smiling back at him, probably not for the same reason. She had encouraged him and stood by his side the entire time. They had had it rough for a long time, all their time going to the project. He has not fulfilled his duty as a husband, yet she has stood there pushing and supporting him. That will soon be all over, and when they are back from this trip, he will concentrate on her and give her what she longed for. He nods at her and reaches out with his hand, and she grasps it firmly. He hits the switch that opens the pod, and with a big sigh, a part of the ship opens. When they enter the vessel, he can hear the reporter’s questions booming outside. He turns around, looks at the crowd, waves, and in a loud voice.
“See you in a couple of seconds”
At the same time as the door closes, his wife says
“Why do you have to be so dramatic?”
“I don’t know. I like it. Shall we?” he replies. He kisses her on her forehead when he sees the doubt in her eyes.
“Don’t worry, I have run thousands of simulations. It will not fail. Would I ever endanger you? I love you more than anything else.”
She smiles, and as usual, her smile makes him feel extremely loved. They sit down and put on their belts, then he starts the engine. When the engine has reached its threshold he pulls the lever against him, and the ship lifts from the ground. Slowly, the planet gets smaller and smaller. He starts the machine when they reach the outer atmosphere, and slowly it starts to charge. He leans back and takes hold of his wife’s hand, and he can feel her gripping it harder and harder the closer to maximum energy the machine gets. They both watch the displays with the energy build-up, and they can see the numbers increase 70%, 84%, 97%, 98%, 99%, 100%.
His head is spinning when he wakes. He feels sick and suddenly empties his stomach over his chest. Slowly, reality rushes back, the ship, the countdown, the jump, his wife. Omg, his wife! he looks over and realizes he still holds her hand. She is not moving, his heart starts to beat fast. Then he hears the beeping. He looks at the displays, and the ship is spinning out of control and dropping fast toward the planet nearby. He reaches towards the controls for the ship but feels so dizzy. He can see the planet’s surface getting closer and closer at an enormous speed. He can feel his fingers feeling around on the keyboard. Out of nowhere, an enormous force pushes him back into his seat and everything goes black.
Someone is calling his name, touching his hand, and he opens his eyes slowly. He is still in the chair, and when his sight clears he can see his wife trying to unlock the straps over her chest. At the same time, tears are flowing down her face. He takes her hand and when she looks at him he can see relief in her eyes and how her whole body relaxes.
“Ohh, I thought you were dead. Are you ok? you scared me,” he nods at her. “What happened?” she continues.
“Something went wrong and,” he looks around at the displays and realizes what had happened. “We exited the jump too close to the surface of the planet which triggered the emergency brake thrusters”
“You said that nothing could go wrong,” she looks at him with a made-up pout.
“It shouldn’t! I don’t know why we were unconscious, and even if we would be awake, the security should take care of any problems.”He looks around and then at her
“It seems like it did, as we have landed safely, and all the numbers indicate that the ship is intact.”
“How good,” his wife says with a smile, and then falls to her knees and empties her stomach on the ship floor.
Adam unlocks his belt and crawls over to his wife.
“Honey, are you okay? I’m sorry, I didn’t know it would be like this.”
“I’m ok! You don’t need to be sorry. We are alive, and I volunteered. Either way, I would never let you go alone. I wanted to share this with you.”
They lay side by side for some time and when he feels less dizzy he stands up. He gets two bottles of water and gives one to his wife. He also gets some energy bars and hands them to her. He takes off his smelly shirt and starts to check the readings on the display and after a while he says
“It looks like the air outside is breathable. It’s the cleanest air I have seen. It shows little pollution. Though the navigation seems to malfunction, I can’t get the readings of where we are.” He walks over to the door.
“Are you sure?” he can hear his wife saying.
He looks at her, “100%, isn’t it exciting?”
“We don’t know what’s out there.”
“And we won’t until we have a look around. Care to join me?” He extends his hand. She slowly gets up, walks over, and places her hand in his. The ship is surrounded by high grass and flowers in a vast variety. It reminds him of some of a wild meadow. Not far away, he sees a large forest with gigantic trees.
“Ohh Adam it’s amazing! I have never seen such green and vivid surroundings. “We need to take some photos and get some samples before we return home,“ his wife says.
“You do that. I will go in and configure the route back home.”
“OK, can you please put us a bit further away from the planet’s surface this time?”
He gives her the tongue and steps in. First, he needs to get the navigation to work.
“What’s wrong?” he looks up from the data and sees his wife has entered the ship.
“What do you mean?”
“You have been in here all day.”
“All day?” He looks at the computer’s clock and realizes that she is right.
“Ohh, I’m sorry, I must have lost track of time.”
“We are not going home today, are we?”
“No,” he says bitterly. Something is wrong with the navigation, and I can’t get our correct position. Don’t worry. I will fix it. It will just take a bit longer time.” She looks at him and he smiles.
“First, we will have something to eat and a good night’s sleep,” she says and starts to look in the provision cabinet. After a while, she shows him some energy bars. “I guess this is our luxury meal tonight.”
After breakfast, his wife had insisted on going out to find something to eat. Although he had tried to tell her he would get them home today, she had insisted. She didn’t want to eat energy bars all day long. After she left he returned to the computer to continue analyzing the information. Why was the coordinates wrong? He has checked all units, and he found nothing wrong with them. There are no errors in the computer, yet he can’t get the coordinates to work. How would he find his way back to earth if he didn’t know where they are and where they are going? Suddenly, he is interrupted by his wife coming into the ship.
“I found some fruits that resemble some of the ones we got back home.” She stops and looks at him and says “You look worried.”
“It’s nothing.” He tries to sound as untouched as possible.
“It’s something. You can’t fix the problem.”
“No…” he starts to say but stops. He knows his wife can tell, “Is it that obvious.”
“Adam, you have been sitting here for two days.”
She moves up to him and puts an arm around him. “We have been married for several years. I know you.”
“I don’t know, I can’t understand what the problem is…” he sighs, “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t worry, you will solve it, you always do. I spent my day looking around. Nothing in the surroundings seems to be a threat. If the fruit is what they seem to be, we will survive until you find the solution. There is even a creek nearby with fresh water, so tasty; I don’t think I have tasted so pure and fresh water.
“But what if…” She interrupts him, lifts his head, and looks him in the eyes.
“Relax, come out and taste the fruit I have prepared. Have a good night’s sleep, and tomorrow you find the solution.” He follows her outside and sees a table filled with different kinds of fruit. On the horizon, he can see the sun setting. Wait! The sun! According to his data, this planet should have two suns. Perhaps the other one has already been set.
“Has the other sun already set?” he asks his wife.
“What other sun? I think you have been sitting in front of the computer for too long”
“There should be two suns.”
“I have been out all day. I have only seen one. Come eat something, then you feel better.”
He looks around and sees that his wife even built a fireplace. Beside it, a blanket lay and she is patting the ground beside her.
“I thought we could sleep outside. It feels warm enough and much softer than the chair in the ship.”
“I’m amazed. Have you made all this?” he asks and his wife gives him a whack on his arm.
“What do you mean? You don’t think I can’t take care of myself. It’s not like I had something else to do.” Before he can answer, she smiles at him.
“I’m just teasing. Here come taste, it’s delicious.”
Later, when they lie side by side in their outside bed, he asks her.
“What if we are stuck here?” He immediately can feel her hand grasping his.
“We have each other. That’s enough for me. I love you with all of my heart no matter where we are.” Then she snuggles up to him and kisses him on his cheek. He smiles at her, but the knot in his stomach tightens. As he lay there watching the sky filled with stars his eyelids are getting heavier and heavier. Is there something familiar with the stars? No, he is just tired and lets the sleep take him away.
When he wakes he can’t believe his thoughts, was it a dream, or had he seen all the familiar patterns in the stars? He needs to check the data once more. He looks around but can’t find his wife and instead goes inside. It doesn’t take long until he realizes what he has missed. He runs out to find his wife and sees her further away from the ship. She is squatting and looking at something. He walks towards her when she suddenly turns and indicates that he also should squat. He squats and slowly gets up to her.
“I think I have found the problem…”
She looks at him and hushes and points towards the grass. Among the grass, he can see an animal sitting eating something. When it slowly gets up, he can see it’s some sort of ape. Or it looks more humanlike but is covered with hair. It doesn’t stand, it has more of a hunched posture.
“It has followed me all morning, mimicking all my moves,” his wife whispers.
“Interesting, but did you hear? I have found the solution.” but before he can continue, his wife leaves his side and is slowly closing in on the animal.
“No, wait,” he says and follows her. At the sound of his voice, the creature stops and looks at them. His wife extends her arm and shows something he can’t see. The animal looks at the arm and slowly moves towards it, its eyes darting and nose smelling the air. With great speed, it retrieves the object and backs up. When it smells the object, Adam can see that it’s one of the fruit that looks like an apple. No, it doesn’t look like an apple, it’s an apple. The animal takes a bite, and then another, and you can see it’s enjoying it. It doesn’t take long before it has devoured the fruit.
“Hello,” his wife says, “do you want another one?” but the animal runs in among the trees. His wife turns around and looks at him with excited eyes.
“Did you see? We almost made a connection. It almost reminded me of an ancient human.”
“It’s because it is, a Neanderthal or some of its relatives. I don’t know until I have found a way to calculate the date.”
“What do you mean?” she says with confusion written all over her face.
“As I was trying to tell you, I found the solution to the problem with the coordinates and why we can’t go home.”
“I knew it, so now we can go home?”
“Eve, my love, we are home.”