Pilgrimage (The New World) (35 page)

Ross staggered back a few steps and gasped in disbelief before regaining his wits, and then asked the alien to explain. He was informed that it was all part of the cosmic breathing process, and he needed to think on a huge scale if he was going to understand the truly big picture. The alien reminded Ross that planets make up a solar system around a host star, and millions of stars make up a galaxy like the one that both Earth and the aliens’ home world are located in. Beyond that, a few thousand galaxies, with incredible amounts of space between them, comprise what is known about the universe. It is massive beyond the scope of most life forms imagination, including the alien species, and they had just begun to explore and map some of the stars in their own quadrant of the galaxy.

The alien continued by informing Ross that the entire thing expands and retracts like different life forms breathe, and during that process things are bound to crash into other things. In the case of Earth, an asteroid will crash into its only Moon, but this one just happens to be much larger than the thousands of others that have hit it before.

Ross understood the alien’s meaning, because he had walked near several dozen of the many different sized craters caused by those uncountable impacts when he was on the Moon. The suspicions of many astronomers and scientists on Earth were then validated by the alien when he confirmed to Ross that
₹-829-4
, or Mars, had been impacted long ago by an object large enough to render it currently lifeless. Ross then realized that the entire process of the universe could be summed up as one tremendously huge game of cosmic marbles.

Back to the impact of the present time, the alien informed Ross that they believed the force of the impact would break apart the Moon into several sections that would be unable to maintain orbit above the Earth. As Earth’s own scientific teams have discovered, the asteroid measures one-tenth the size of the Moon with a composition that is quite dense with large quantities of iron. The force of the impact will be tremendous, and will push the softer Moon towards the planet as it begins to break apart. The larger pieces of both the asteroid and the Moon will crash down onto the planet over a period of several weeks in Earth time as the orbit decays, and each one of them will be catastrophic in nature. There will be huge surges in the oceans of the planet that could be thousands of feet high depending on where the impacts take place, and thick clouds of dust and debris from ground impacts will engulf the planet for several Earth years.

After all the larger pieces of the asteroid and moon have rained down, whatever is left of the planet will be in ruins. Food and clean water sources will be difficult to find after a short period of time, and Earth history dictates that some of the inhabitants will turn negatively upon each other. The satellite communications system in orbit will probably be severely damaged, or completely destroyed, from collisions with pieces of space rock that were either once part of the asteroid or the Moon. That will make it difficult for one region of the planet with survivors to communicate with other regions.

Much later, when everything finally settles down, the oceans will no longer have daily tidal surges because there will be no closely orbiting body to create the gravitational pull. That will have an impact on the ocean currents, which will in turn create tremendous deviations in the planetary weather patterns. The absence of the Moon will also eliminate a light source that has been used by the people of Earth when their position on the planet has rotated away from the host star. It may not sound like much, but with the thick engulfing dust cloud that will be created any light source at all would be a welcome one. At some point in the future the Earth may even develop a few rings much like the ones around
₹-829-6
, because many of the smaller pieces of rubble from the initial impact on the Moon may remain in orbit. The rings won’t be on such a grand scale, as the planet that you call Saturn is hundreds of times the diameter of your home world, but the concept is similar.

The alien concluded his current thoughts by informing Ross that in some regard the upcoming event will be far worse than if the asteroid were to make direct impact with the Earth. That would have been a tremendous punch to the planet that may have killed every living thing, but at least it would have been just the one impact. Ross remembered back to their communication at Camp David when he was informed that some people and animals would survive, but it would not be easy for anyone to do so.

Before Ross headed back to the viewing window where he had left Aurora and Jessica, he thanked the alien once again for all of his information and the help. If he wasn’t already completely sure he had made the correct decision in evacuating Earth, the last twenty minutes would have convinced him. Ross’ only regret now was that he had not been more persuasive with Patty and the family about coming with him, because this new information made their survival less likely.

Ross once again kept his new found knowledge to himself, and then watched in horror a short time later as the huge asteroid exploded into the surface of the Moon. After everyone took a step back in a purely reactionary impulse, several of them jumped for joy as they thought the crisis had somehow been averted. Some people claimed that they could return to Earth because everything was going to be all right, but Ross knew the horrible truth. He now needed to address the assembled crowd on hand, as well as the people on the other transport ships. He laid out all the information to those nearby that had recently been given to him by the alien, but before he could arrange a way to communicate with the other ships someone shouted out, “Look everybody”, while pointing towards the window.

The distant moon appeared to be changing shape, and huge cracks in the surface were noticeable even from this distance as it was beginning to break apart into several large pieces. The end was now beginning, and it was going to take a strong stomach to continue watching. Within a few minutes most of the people, including Jessica and Aurora, had begun to move away from the observation windows towards their sleeping areas, but Ross stayed on.

The aliens were still collecting data about the impact, and then Ross felt a hand on his left shoulder. His old alien friend stood behind him while offering condolences for what had just happened, and then reminded Ross that all was not lost. Some of the people of Earth would indeed survive because he had been enough of a visionary to grasp the possibility of moving to another world. Ross had been the voice of reason by convincing enough people from various regions of the planet to join this quest, so somewhere between nine and ten thousand humans would now colonize the new world.

Another positive aspect of the adventure was that now away from Earth, the humans would age at the rate of the alien species while on the transport ships and the new world. That meant that for every twenty-five Earth years they would only age about a month, so they would all theoretically have many more years to live after the journey.

Before moving away again, the alien informed Ross that the data collection would continue for another Earth hour or so. If Ross so desired, the alien could inform all of the people on the transport ships that the armada would be ready to begin the long flight to the new world when that task was completed. Ross thanked the alien once again, and asked him to please relay the information to the other transports.

Soon after that Jessica returned to join her brother at the observation window for one last look at Earth, and they knew they were underway when they saw the Earth begin to shrink from view. They, along with a few other people at the windows, were amazed how fast their former home planet faded from view as the transport ships gained speed. As Ross and Jessica jointly contemplated the fate of Earth while gazing into the complete blackness of space, they noticed someone approaching them from behind in the reflection of the window. Ross’ old alien friend had returned, and he was bringing them someone he thought they would want to talk to.

Although the alien would prove to be entirely correct, they did not recognize the person in the faint reflection. The woman wearing a green dress that perfectly complemented her long curly brown hair reached out her hand and with a velvety voice said, “Hello, my name is Janet Martin”, to which Ross and Jessica exclaimed, “Mom?” as they spun around to greet her.

JANET HAD NEVER
received such a greeting in her entire life. She was standing face to face with two people that were clearly much older than her current age of thirty-four, yet they were supposedly her children. Although the complexity of that possibility was fascinating, it was also shocking. The man, who claimed to be her son Ross, stood proud and tall a few inches over six feet in height. He was admittedly handsome, and his facial features and gray hair resembled those of an older version of her husband Robert. The elegant woman next to him, with the beautiful smile, claimed to be her daughter Jessica. Janet was pleased with the woman’s appearance, because if she was her daughter, then she provided Janet with a glimpse of what she herself might look like many years from now. A glance downward then revealed a leg brace on the woman’s right leg. Janet asked herself, could this truly be her precious little girl.

After all that Janet had been through, it was certainly not beyond the realm of possibility. Although the implication was daunting to mentally absorb during the first few minutes after being introduced, Janet knew that if their claim were true, then this wasn’t the first time she had met either of them.

Janet asked them each a few questions about their father, Robert, and then a few additional questions about their early childhood in an attempt to verify their supposed identity. Although it was true that most of the information about Robert could have been researched, it was unlikely that some of the minute details they were discussing would have become public knowledge. With each precise response to her inquiries, the unbelievable became more acceptable to Janet. These two people might actually be her children.

Janet’s inquiries then turned to what they knew about her own disappearance, as she asked, “What were each of you told about what happened to me?”

Their responses, which included the shocking revelation that came from their father on his deathbed, made all doubts vanish as a warm-hearted feeling washed over Janet. With misty eyes she extended her arms, and Ross and Jessica stepped into her embrace.

A moment later that silent embrace was broken when Janet said, “I want to know everything that has happened to you since I’ve been away.”

Ross assured her that he and Jessica would fill her in, and field all her questions in due time, but it could wait until after she told them her story.