On Board: Chapter 3
Davis walked back into the suite with a smile and his arms outstretched, “Well, what do you think?”
There was no outburst of applause or enthusiastic response. The members looked at each other and nodded in agreement quietly. Davis could sense hesitation, “Okay, what’s the problem.”
Powell spoke up, “I think everyone here believes he’s the right man for the job. It’s just the reason we’re having to send him. He has a military background, and we believe he will solve problems that way first. We talked about this earlier, we don’t want any intervention in a military way unless it’s absolutely necessary for the expedition to get back.”
Davis had a stern look, “As I said, it’ll be made perfectly clear he only has to sit there and relax. His only reaction will be if something comes up where the crew is in danger of not getting back. I know you want this to be a pure scientific expedition, but we must know what happens. We sent out four unmanned ships. Only three came back. We can’t have that situation with people involved. As Dr. Goldman has told you, these projects could affect many different things in our world based on what happens in another universe. I truly believe it’s prudent to send someone who can make life and death decisions quickly on this project.”
Everyone in the room was uneasy, except Goldman. He was still messing with his phone trying to figure out why it kept beeping. When it was all said and done the entire room agreed, Bowie was the guy.
Davis acknowledged the decision, “Okay everyone, we adjourn for forty eight hours and meet back here to fly to the island. Remember, nothing is to be said to anyone about this. I’ll offer Bowie the job and bring him up to speed if he accepts. Thirty six hours after we get to the island the project gets under way. If Bowie accepts, and I think he will, things are going to start moving quickly so get ready. I’m not answering any questions now. I’ll see you back here in forty eight hours and any questions will be answered then.”
The assembled group got up and began to exit. Most of the party was still grabbing extra chips and one more margarita as they left. Davis was sitting in the room by himself thinking about how this project had come so far and they are now this close. The last piece of the puzzle was sitting in the outer room. Davis was determined to get him on board and get this thing going. Davis took a deep breath and stood up. He grabbed another margarita and walked towards the outer room. The group from the meeting were still saying their goodbyes to Colonel Bowie as they boarded the elevator. Bowie turned and saw Davis walking towards him. He still had the smile on his face, “Well, sir, what are we doing?”
Davis motioned for Bowie to follow him back into the suite. Davis walked over to a table and sat, pointing to a seat for Bowie to do so. Davis looked him right in the eyes and said, “We want to hire you for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The project should last about two weeks if all goes as planned. We’re hoping it’s the easiest money you’ve ever made. You shouldn’t have to do anything. Just sit there, enjoy the ride, and see some amazing things.”
Now it was Bowie’s turn to be intimidated, “Did you say two hundred and fifty thousand dollars?”
“Yes. It’ll be deposited in your bank account before we leave. You in?”
Bowie gazed for a second contemplating the money, “Uh, yeah, sure count me in.”
“Okay, it’s time to bring you up to date. I’m going to fill you in on the project. At this point it’s not going to be very intricate, and you cannot tell anyone. I mean anyone. This is top secret. I’m going to tell you the basics of the overall project and its objectives. As we told you earlier there will be experts on board to handle all necessary functions.”
Bowie was taking it all in as Davis swung a laptop around towards him and popped the screen up. Davis watched closely to see his reaction, “Watch this.”
The screen lit up and a video started. Bowie was staring at the screen. Suddenly, a planet came into focus. It was Earth. It looked like a picture taken during the Apollo moon flights. When Apollo circled the moon, they always had a great view of earth. Davis hit the stop button, “What do you think?”
Bowie shrugged, “I think you’ve got some great pictures of Earth. Probably taken by Apollo astronauts. What about it?”
Davis smiled, “Watch closer.” Davis zoomed in on the planet, “Now what do you think.”
Bowie looked closer at the picture, “It still looks like……. Wait a minute. What the hell! Where’s Florida?”
He was looking at the United States, but the Florida peninsula was just a stub. Then he looked towards South America, and it was thin, there was no bulge for Brazil. Then he noticed a large peninsula coming out of southern California into the Pacific.
Bowie’s mouth dropped open, “What is this. Did you do it with photo editing programs?”
“No, this is very real. This is an earthlike planet we named Two. As in earth two. It’s in the Orion star system. There are several well-known stars in Orion such as Rigel and Betelgeuse. They are large stars, and their gravity pull is massive. There are, however, a lot of smaller stars more the size of our sun. This planet revolves around the star M78. As you can see, it’s earthlike. We found it accidentally, but there it is. It’s about the same size as earth and we believe it has the same gravitational field. The oxygen is believed to be the same also.”
Bowie now has lots of questions, “How far is it?”
“It’s over one thousand two hundred light years away. That means if you traveled at the speed of light for one thousand two hundred years you would get there.”
“You said two weeks. Okay, are you pranking me?” Bowie started laughing, “I want to see some of that two hundred and fifty thousand dollars cause so far y’all’s numbers aren’t adding up.”
Davis didn’t waiver, he continued, “This was sent to us by our spacecraft Janus four. We can get to that universe in seconds and get back in seconds. All this is because of the transportation unit developed by Dr. Goldman. I don’t understand all the workings, but it’s based on what Einstein called the spooky elements. It’s quantum entanglement. You can Google it later. The way Goldman explained it is, take a playing card, the king of hearts. Put another king of hearts next to it. You turn one of the king of hearts over and without anyone touching the other card it turns over all by itself, instantaneously. You can move the card across the room and the same thing happens. You can move the card to another location and the same thing happens. You can move the card to Paris and again it flips simultaneously. You move the card to the moon and the same thing happens. In other words, wherever that card is it’ll do the same thing instantly when you flip the original card. Even when it’s light years apart it’ll still flip at the exact same time as the original king. Goldman and Hepwater created this system from experimentation Einstein did. The entire physics world thought they were crazy. I stepped in and financed their work on the condition they keep it top secret. Now we have a complete set up to get to this or any galaxy, go down to the planet, explore and get back. Look at that thing. Imagine, it must be a lot like earth. Who knows what’s there.”
Bowie was starting to grasp the enormity of the situation, “What do you want me to do?”
Davis hesitated, “Frankly, we don’t know. This is new to everyone. As I told you earlier, this will hopefully be the easiest money you’ve ever made. If something goes wrong however, we want you to be in charge of making the life and death decisions. We’ve hired four mercenaries who are former marine recon special forces. They will be under your command. That’s the only military reference I’m going to make. All the individuals involved in this project are against any military involvement. I feel it’s necessary to ensure the people return from there. We have to know what happens. Your expedition returning is vital, it’s named Janus five.”
“You mentioned Janus four earlier and now Janus five. Is there a Janus one, two, three, and four?”
“Yes, there is. We’ve sent out four Janus ships. Only three have returned. Janus three didn’t return and we don’t know why.”
Bowie was now getting apprehensive and said, “So, what happened to Janus three?”
“We’re not sure. It just never came back. Dr. Goldman thinks possibly some adjustments needed to be made and there was no one there to do it. On Janus five people will be there to make the necessary adjustments.”
“How did you come up with the name Janus?”
Davis now smiled, “I picked the name. This is a Roman God. The Romans and Greeks have almost all the same gods but with different names. The Greeks have no equivalent god for Janus. This is strictly a Roman God. He is the god of beginnings and endings, transitions, time, duality, doorways, and passages. He was depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and the past. As a god of transitions, he had functions related to birth, and journeys. I figured since we were making such a journey through time and space that was a proper name.”
Bowie was now practical, “Okay, what kind of propulsion system is going to get us there and back in seconds.”
Davis continued, “Goldman and Hepwater developed a system we call quantum plasma. When you’re on the ship ready to go the people will start the process. You’ll see it when you get up there, the ship has a large circular cylinder built into the rear. It’s basically a small nuclear collider. That starts the process. The device develops a plasma field around it and in a second, you’re clear across the universe. This is due to quantum entanglement. As I said, I don’t really understand it. I can’t explain the exact workings of it, but it does work. I’ve seen it. This is going to be the case with a lot of things on this mission. Don’t worry how it works, just go with the flow.”
Bowie smiled at Davis, “This sounds fantastic and crazy. What do you think will happen?”
“Colonel Bowie, you are about to go on an amazing adventure that, in the whole history of mankind, no other people have witnessed. I’m not sure what you’ll find out there, but I want you to come back and tell me.”
Bowie looked quizzically at Davis, “Why don’t you come with us?”
Davis turned and stared out the window, “Because only the specialists are going on this one. We don’t have much room. At this point, my only specialty is financing. The financing is done. So, I will stay here for now. You cannot imagine how much I want to go. I’m hoping soon it’ll be my turn.”
Bowie said, “What do I do now?”
“Meet me back here in forty eight hours. Go home and take care of any business you have and make whatever preparations you need to. When you come back, we’ll all fly to an island where things will take off. On the island I’ll explain even more to you. Within thirty six hours after reaching the island you’ll be in space.”
Bowie slowly nodded yes, “Okay Mr. Davis I’ll be back in forty eight hours.”
“Do you have transportation to where you want to go? I have a private jet that’ll take you anywhere you want.”
“I appreciate it, but I have my own plane. I’m heading home to San Antonio to take care of everything. When are they going to deposit the money in my account?”
“When you get back here, we’ll get all your bank account information. Before you leave it’ll be deposited in your account.”
Bowie sat back for a second, “Thank you Mr. Davis. I appreciate this. I appreciate the money and the experience of space flight.”
“Well, don’t thank me yet. We don’t know what’s going to happen, but it’s I who should be thanking you for taking this on.”
Bowie stood up, “Okay, I’ll see you in forty eight hours.”