Lost Connection

“Mission control, this is Stargazer. Do you read me?”

“I’m sorry, commander, but all I’m picking up is static on every channel. I can’t even raise the ISS.”

“The ISS is on the other side of the planet, so it makes sense we won’t be able to contact them if the Earth’s relays are down. We should be able to achieve line-of-sight communications with them in 17 minutes. Keep trying Space-X command central. In the meantime, does anyone have a theory about that inky black anomaly we just flew through?”

All but one crewmember shook their heads no. The youngest person on board appeared lost in his laptop and unaware of his surroundings. During their lengthy training, the young man had gained the nickname Sheldon because of his obsession with trying to understand the time-space continuum. He stopped typing and looked around the capsule, realizing everyone was staring at him.

“I’m sure you all remember that asteroid NASA blew up last month. The anomaly you are referring to is in the exact location where the explosion occurred. I know you’re all going to laugh, but I think it tore a hole in the fabric of space and time and we passed right through it. We might be somewhere in the future or in the past. I really can’t tell which one it is right now.”

“Okay, does anyone else have a theory that’s less Sci-Fi and more real life?” the captain asked.

Once again, silence reigned.

“Look, I know this sounds as though I’ve lost my mind, but consider the facts for a moment,” said the young man. “Normally on flights to the ISS what do people report seeing outside? They talk about lights shining up from Earth, orbiting satellites, and space junk. What can you see right now? No lights from the dark side of Earth, no space junk, nothing orbiting but us. We should be able to see the ISS in 2 minutes, but I don’t think we will.”

When he finished, everyone on board unstrapped and floated to the nearest porthole, anticipating the ISS to come into view. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the ship approached the location where the space station should be visible. It wasn’t there. All they could see was the blackness of space perforated by starlight. Everyone looked back at Sheldon, waiting to hear what might come next.

The young man looked at his fellow astronauts for several seconds, then nodded to the captain as if asking for his permission to speak. “Go ahead,” said the man in charge. “I’m as curious as the rest.”

“Think of space and time as a sheet and blanket covering a bed. One covers the other and normally moves together as one. If the sheet, space for this example, develops a hole, you now have access through the hole directly to the blanket or time. The explosion caused a tear in space, but not in time. When we entered the anomaly, we traveled a long time until we found another hole in space to glide through. If Tina, our resident astrophysicist, can check the positions of the constellations, we might determine whether we went back in time or forward.”

Everyone sprung into action, letting their training take over. Tina charted the stars while Garret, the flight engineer, checked the ship’s systems for any damage that may have occurred during the space-time jump. Norah inventoried provisions and life support while captain Zackery coordinated the duties as he piloted the ship. That left Sheldon and Beth, the crew’s medical officer, to work out how to return home.

In less than an hour, everyone gathered in the main cabin and exchanged information. Tina told the crew that according to how the stars were positioned, they were somewhere near the beginning of the 8th century B.C. Garret reported the ship sustained no physical damage, but electronic navigation systems were useless without ground links or GPS satellites. Norah said if they rationed, there was enough food for 10 days, but air would run out in 7. The captain told his crew they might have enough fuel to return to the correct tear, but if it didn’t work, they would be adrift forever. Then they all turned to Sheldon for his report.

The boy genius quoted astronomical odds of ever finding the correct time and space to re-enter their exact crossover point. Their best chance to survive would be to land in the past and learn how to survive on an Earth that was as foreign to them as landing on Mars. That was the end of any further discussions.

Zackery landed safely on the shores of the Aegean Sea. The crew stripped the ship for anything of use and destroyed what was left. The time travelers roamed the countryside until establishing homes on Mount Olympus. Today we know these space explorers by the names the ancients gave them: Zeus, Athena, Hephaestus, Hestia, Demeter, and Apollo.