Other Earths

Chapter 1: Interstellar travel

Humanity's first manned mission to another planet outside the solar system. It was an incredible achievement made possible after the creation of the first generation hyperspace propulsion system. The hyperdrive is real and the secrets of the galaxy are at our doorstep. No longer confined to our cradle star, no longer only nursed by Earth. The Iron man crew shuttle is about to dock with Superman deep space exploration vehicle, or more popularly called the starship. The mission is only days away and the world is watching.

 "Superman this is Iron man, we are enabling our instrument approach procedure, excepting docking procedure in twenty minutes, fifteen seconds." Captain Nolan gave the rest of the crew a smile, behind the professional, lifelong training was a deep feeling of excitement. Like a child playing with toy rockets, he visualized every step.

 "Iron Man this is Superman confirming approach produce, looking good." The starship was still attached to a scaffold containing several docking bays and habitats, aboard was a maintenance and technical crew. The old international space station was with several other international and private stations, the scaffold was one of them, a dry dock for many missions to come. The furthest away was a small outpost near Pluto.

 The crew shuttle slowly docked with the scaffold and the docking module's clams locked them secure. In high orbit around Earth, the crew would spend their last few days of system analysis and hyperdrive tests. First, the starship would go to Mars and then to Pluto and back again. Time dilation was no problem as the hyperdrive only change the starship's positon, distance in hyperspace was shorter than in real space. But that meant that time was still a factor. Two years the journey would take in hyperspace, but compare to near two hundred and eighty-nine in real space it was more than acceptable, it was possible. With the right calibration the journey could be instantaneous but with the incorrect, instant destruction as the slightest difference in the laws of physics in hyperspace would be catastrophic. The starship and crew would be torn to pieces. However the crew was not worried, the hyperspace calibration where static, hard-coded and only the route from a to b differed which were a much simpler matter that took the onboard navigation computer a few minutes to calculate. Multiple teams had conducted extensive simulations of the entire mission and each part was tested for any possible scenarios.

Without a sound and only a small flash of light the starship reappeared from hyperspace, automatic system checks filled the screens and all systems reported full functionality. The first test was a success with a new Earth-Mars record of twenty-four minutes.

"Mars orbital control this is Superman. All hyperdrive test parameters are successful." Nolan said using the external communication system and awaited a reply.

"Superman this is Mars orbital control. Welcome to the red planet, hope you stay for lunch." A voice answered.

"Sounds great, but we will have to pass on that this time, we have a date with Pluto." Nolan replied as he entered a few commands and checked the instruments.

 "See you when you get back home, have a safe journey and stay away from red stars." The voice said and a lengthy technical conversation followed.

 Within an hour the starship disappeared again. The world was silent, waiting. There was no way to communicate with the starship in hyperspace. If something were to happen, no one would ever know. Not even ten hours later it reappeared near Pluto, they were ready for the first manned interstellar travel to another world.

Chapter 2: More of us

Each month the starship reappeared into real space and the crew conduct scientific experiments, took pictures of nearby star systems, nebulas and run diagnostic tests on the hyperdrive. They also sent messages back to Earth but they would take too long to get there for anyone to answer. There was a prototype of hyperspace probes that could carry messages but they would still take month and years. The starship was alone in the vastness of interstellar space. In just under one month they would arrive at the planet Maia named after the Greek goddess said to have embodied growth. A way to represent humanities expansion and growth as a species. They launched a beacon of information back to Earth containing a copy of their black box.

Jing Yu floated around the spherical glass dome called the tranquillity chamber, she watched the beacon float away. Outside was the blackness of space, stars never seen by human eyes. The calm music changed to country rock, it was not fitting to the situation but she closed her eyes and spun around, "freedom" she though. A beep could be heard from the speaker and she pushed away and floated to the wall.

"Jing here!"

"I'm sorry to disturb you but could you check the logs from the core when you get back? Darryl says he found an anomaly and needs someone else to check, it's probably nothing but he can't continue until it's done." Said Kwame the science officer.

"Roger that, I will be right there."

"Great, what you want for dinner?"

"Surprise me." Now she could only think of food. Which be the way was excellent, the ship and each crewmember's training had included mandatory cooking courses.

A minor fluctuation logged by the system caused nothing more than an hour of redone tests and paperwork. The crew ready themselves for the last trip with a meal of Indian Baingan Bharta served with fresh flatbread. The starship's kitchen was impressive and entire teams had poured hundreds of hours to embrace the psychological effects of cooking together. Supplies, especially food was not an issue as if something would go wrong there where emergency rations for years. Redundancies were key for this kind of missions, even the backup plans had backups. Another mission would soon follow when they got back home and after that huge plans for real colonization ships. Maia was Earth-like and they expected a breathable atmosphere to analyze and a gravity about forty percent stronger than Earth's. Oceans should cover forty percent of the surface and who knows what kind of lifeforms. In case of alien civilizations, there was a huge amount of procedures and the entire mission would change into observation only. No contact or interference of any kind would be allowed.

For the last time on the journey to Maia, the starship reappeared into real space. Light from a foreign star hit the hull and the expanding solar panels. The crew looked at each other, they made it, first humans in another solar system. Now the real mission could begin, there was so much to do, so much to explore and analyze. So many things that the crew would be the first to do.

Captain Nolan hit the recording button for the audio logs. "Event triggered audio log for Starship Superman in Atlas star system, point one five astronomical units from the third planet Maia. Time and date are five hundred hours, the fourth of august, twenty eighty-seven Earth time. We have arrived safely and all systems are green. We will be approaching Maia in five steps according to procedure tk-4a. No signals or any other signs of intelligent life or civilizations. Next log at planetary distance marker beta."

"Local time set to forty-one hundred hours, day sixty-nine, year zero," Kwame said based on Maia's rotation around its star and its own axis.

"We all know what to do. It has been a true privilege doing this journey with all of you." Nolan said.

Two days later Five hundred thousand kilometers from Maia at distance marker Delta Kwame notice an incoming signal. It didn't look like the kind the starship had sent out and they had not yet deployed the two survey satellites they carry aboard. This could be it, he thought. The first sign of intelligent life outside our own solar system. He called the others to the science module, this could be a huge discovery. As they ran the signal through several programs Jing stood up disappointed. "It's ours!"

"Are you sure?" Kwame asked and went over to her workstation.

"It must have bounced on the planet or something. Look it's ours, I recognize our own…" Jing went silent and rushed to grab a few documents.

"What is it?" Kwame said slightly irritated. The only thing he didn't like about her was that she was so impulsive, so driven by emotion and intuition. But he knew all of it was a part of why she was so good.

"Strange is what it is," Jing said while going through the procedures for different distance markers. "we are not supposed to send this until the last distance marker, right before we deploy the satellites. Here look." She handed over the document to Kwame.

"Can we have sent in by mistake?" Kwame went back to the workstation and opened up several logs. "No nothing here what I can see, can you check?" He asked Jing who did the same.

"No, we haven't sent it. At least not by purpose and I have hard to think we could without it being logged."

"Probably sent by that thing, whatever it is." Nolan interrupted as he sat by another workstation and moved a camera video stream to a bigger screen, it showed a tiny dot around the planet. "We are not alone, there is something there…" He continued and stood up while zooming in using his portable data assistant.

"That is us," Kwame said coldly.

"How could we see ourselves, there are no mirrors in space and no remote cameras pointed in such direction." Jing neared the screen as it reached its maximum zoom.

The external communication system signaled an incoming call and the crew went silent. No one dared to answer. Nolan, Kwame, and Jing looked at each other. "It must be Darryl." Nolan said with a bit or relieved voice.

"Yes, sure… But why is he using the external system?" Jing said and tried calling Darryl on the internal system.

 

"Darryl here."

Jing hesitated a second. "Are you on the external communication system?"

"No, why should I. Is there anything wrong with it? Did you find the source of the signal?" Darryl replied.

"You better come here," Jing said and hung up. The others looked at her and then at the external system that kept calling.

When Darryl arrived Nolan pushed the button to answer the external communication system. Before them on the table where the first contact procedures. However, there were no precise scenarios that matched this one.

"This is Nolan on Earth starship Superman, is there anyone there?" Nolan really regretted they named the ship Superman. Not that any aliens would know what it meant, at least not out here. Had they contacted Earth or spend years analyzing all signals sent out they might have picked human superhero comics but no human radio or television had reach this part of the galaxy yet. They were not sure what they expected, a mysterious signal our unidentifiable sounds perhaps.

 "Yes…" The entire crew felt a chock crashing over them. A voice had answered. A human voice, talking English. It was Nolan's own voice and it continued. "…This is also Nolan aboard Earth starship Superman. You are the third orbiting around Maia as we speak and we need to meet. Hold your position, we are approaching your location. I will explain everything, keep this channel open." The external system went silent as the other Nolan hung up. The crew did nothing. What could they do? What did they just hear and experience? So many thoughts went through their heads at once. They looked at the screen again and saw that there were two approaching objects, very similar to their own ship.

Kwame broke the silence and tried to figure out the situation. "Perhaps… they have masked themselves. Taken on a different form to make contact easier, mimic us."

"But they said that we are the third and that he too was Nolan on our ship." Jing filled in.

"Well, if they are aliens, who knows how they interpret us and what we do. They have only heard Nolan's voice, only seen our ship. For all they know, all of us sound, look and are like Nolan. When they say this is Nolan they might think that is the way we introduce ourselves. Our way to say hi." Kwame continued.

"They might even have scanned and analyzed all the data in our computers, we basically contain the entire accumulated human knowledge in our database. We just have to wait and see…" Darryl said.

Chapter 3: Infinite Earths

There they sat, three crews from three starships. Copies of each other around the big table in the spinning habitat module. They had taken a break, Kwame has almost had a panic attack, too much to take in.

"As I said. We have done this once already. Before we thought we had started to figure out what happened, you showed up. I suggest that we are crew number one, they are crew number two and you are crew number three... Let's hope, for now, that there won't be more of us." Nolan one from the first Superman ship that arrived at Maia said as he saw that Kwame three had calmed down, they had been here for a few hours now.

"Let's just go through it again…" Jing three said and took a breath. "…You arrived here six days ago. Conducted the tests, followed the procedures, got to distance marker Epsilon and that's when the second starship appeared from hyperspace?"

"Correct." Kwame two begun and continued. "We barely had time to do much before we found out of each other."

"But why, how?" Jing three continued rhetorically to herself.

"Something with the hyperdrive, perhaps something that only happens near this star, after long enough time in hyperspace. We haven't found anything yet and all of us know that nothing remotely similar has come up during decades of research and testing. Not a single time with all prototypes or in any theory." Kwame one said with a tired voice, he started to feel upset of repetition.

"Food!" Darryl three said. "I know myself and we need to eat." The other two Darryl smiled and nodded.

"About that… your habitat module is bigger than ours, how is that. Shouldn't they be identical?" Darryl one said and looked around starship twos extended habitat module.

"Well, suppose our mission was different from that yours." Nolan two said and stood up. His neck hurt as he hadn't relaxed in days. "You see…" he continued. "We weren't supposed to go home but wait here for the next starship and team to arrive."

"Really, a long wait." Jing one said. "I mean two years journey here and waiting an extra two years and then you will not even go home?" She continued.

"No, our journey here was only nine months." Nolan two replied.

 "How that possible?" Jing one asked. "So much is the same on our Earths and our technology. How can your journey be so much shorter? Can we compare hyperdrive configurations?"

"Sure, perhaps parallel universes have different galactic configurations, we could check that..." Kwame one added and the others looked at him. "…What else could it be? The hyperdrive broke the fabric of space and we all ended up in the same universe."

Some went back to their own ships to eat and rest. Kwame one, two and three went to the science module and looked at star maps. They had all changed to different shirts and put paper labels with numbers on them. Kwame one was making more for the rest of the crews.

"So your earth's located here, ours is there and theirs is there?" Kwame three said and rubbed his head. He drew a simple picture with Maia in the middle and the relative positions of the different Earths around with distances. "Then perhaps we are not from different parallel universes but the same, just different locations." He continued and put the pen down.

"Not likely, how could it be that our solar systems are the same? The odds that the same solar system has formed the same way and resulted in the same lifeforms with the same history is ridiculous, impossible." Kwame one said and put the last label down.

"The same goes for different parallel universe where only the locations of the planets are different." Replied Kwame three.

"Let's just accept the facts we have here and solve the mysteries of the universe later. The question is what do we do now, how do we get back. Are each of our earths still accessible for where we are now? Can we all go home?" Kwame two asked openly to the rest, he stood leaned against the wall behind the others that turned towards him.

"You are right, perhaps only one of us can go home. We need to figure out what happened, and un- or redo it." Kwame one said. "I will talk to my crew, hand over the labels. We to should really get something to eat."

The next day back in the extended habitat module on starship two Darryl one entered the dining room, he stopped as another Darryl handed him a cup of tea.

"Thanks… Sorry but, you are?" Darryl one said a bit confused.

"I'm not a number, I'm a free man. "The unknown Darryl said and smiled.

"Funny." Darryl one said and took a sip of the hot tea. It was just as he liked it, but that was no surprise. In a way, he had made it himself.

"I know, I'm number two?" Darryl two said, took up his cup which he had labeled with the number two on it.

Darryl one turned toward the table where the other already was deep into the discussion.

"If there really are parallel universes, there probably are an infinite of them. What says that we won't end up with an infinite amount of copies of ourselves here?" Kwame one said as he spread his arms.

"Nothing, we might just be the first. We just have to wait and see." Jing three said as she needed to lean away to the side to avoid Kwame one's arm. "If our earths are located differently, it is probably a matter of distance. Who arrived first?" She continued.

"We did, what do you mean?" Nolan one replied. He had chosen not to shave that morning to stand out, but so had Nolan three. Perhaps they needed to start to synchronize such things he thought to himself and put on the label Kwame one made the other day.

"And how long was your trip?" Jing three asked to Nolan three who answered.

"A year and eight months."

 "Ours were nine months only, and we arrived as number two. But…" Darryl two started but hesitated. It was hard to know what the others already knew since the differences where usually few.

"Yes?" Jing three said slowly and turned to Darryl two who sat down.

"… There was a delay, an accident caused the shuttle to explode and they needed to delay the entire mission for months. We are the backup team, not sure if it was the same for you." Darryl two continued.

"No… but the different earths distance thing might still be true, just with a few more variables. We might just have to expect more to come. Some might be even more different from us, some might have completely different history altogether." Kwame three said and leaned forward as the spoke, placing one hand on the other.

"So this is some type of convergence point. No just in time but also space and history of our civilizations." Kwame two added while looking at the ceiling. This starship used some design ideas that they had rejected, but here they were used only slightly changed from the blueprints he had seen.

"Looks like it, unless some earths are too far away so that other planets might be more suitable for a first manned mission. What we experience might happen on an infinite amount of other planets." Kwame three said and leaned back again and crossed his arms. "No matter what I say we should try to find any anomaly in our hyperdrive and find a reason for all of this-" The internal communication system activated and interrupted him.

"You all better come here." The voice said. It was Jing one, she sounded very serious, almost afraid.

Chapter 4: The one true Earth

They were all crowded together in the communications module and looking at the screen Jing one showed them. There was a fourth ship. But this one was much larger, more advanced but still had an overall made-by-humans look and feel. "It just appeared from hyperspace!" Jing one said to the others and zoomed in on the unknown vessel.

"A hundred bucks that is alien!" Darryl one said but just got a few uneasy and nervous looks from the others.

"Well, we did kind of expect more to come, but this one sure looks different." Darryl two said and put his hands back on this head.

The external communication system showed an incoming call. Jing one didn't hesitate and put the call on speaker so that all could hear it. "Humans of other Earths. You do not need to worry, we come in peace. We are the same. Approach us and we will answer all of your questions." The voice went silent, as did the crews.

 

"So what do we do now, meet them?" Jing one turned away from her workstation. "We kind of getting a routine for this now so-"

"Not sure this will be the same…" Nolan one started, "…they seem more advanced and they already know about us, or others like us. Perhaps they have done this before." He couldn't stop staring at the screen and the ship, he got a bad feeling from it. Depending on how advanced they where they could just as well be like aliens he though. Much could change in just a hundred years of technological development or a few events in history with different outcomes, for good or bad.

"Perhaps not all of us should go..." Kwame stood up and stretched his back as much as he could in the crowded space. "…One from each crew, one Nolan, one Kwame, one Jing and one Darryl."

"Sound like a plan, but one crew must send two. There are only three of us, but I guess we will meet ourselves again over there." Nolan three said scratching his stubble. He had to shave, he wasn't used to it, never did. He continued as no one seemed to have any objections. "I can volunteer to represent our crew, anyone else?"

"I'll go…" Kwame two and three said at the same time. They looked at each other and raised their left hands. "Best of three?" Kwame three said and they played a quick round of rock, paper, and scissor. It was a tie for two rounds then they were aborted by Darryl two who rolled his eyes and said "I'll go for our crew… crew number two, that is."

Kwame two smiled at Kwame three. "I guess it's you and Jing from your crew."

"Perfect." Jing three said and hesitated. "No reason to delay, we can transport to Superman three and approach them in that."

The fourth ship was a lot bigger, perhaps even ten times as big. It still had recognizable features such as different modules and solar panels but the engine was something they hadn't seen before and there were four smaller shuttles docked. Superman three approached with Nolan from crew one, Darryl from crew two, Kwame and Jing from crew three. Jing three pushed a button and opened the external communications channel. Kwame three maneuvered Superman three and locked their speed and rotation with the unknown ship. Moments later a call came through.

 "Superman class starship, this is OTE Ratatosk. From what we can see out hatch is not compatible with yours, I suggest you transfer to us using spacesuits. We will be sending over a line to aid you, please confirm." An unknown voice said. It didn't belong to any of them.

"Roger that, we will open our docking hatch to secure the line, stand by," Jing said and muted the microphone. "perhaps not all of us should go, it sounds like we should expect more than copies of us?"

"I can stay here, just in case you need me. Jing can represent our crew." Darryl said. "Kwame you suit up and secure that line?"

"Sure, don't worry we'll be fine." Kwame looked at Darryl and stood up. "I don't think they are dangerous, they are clearly humans."

"Yeah, that what I'm afraid of, you don't know what or who's in there," Darryl said but saw how Jing and Nolan looked at him. He wasn't the one used to be open to showing fear or be worried. "Never mind, probably just more of us, say hello to me from me and the rest of me."

Jing, Kwame, and Nolan followed the line between the two ships and entered an open hatch. Inside there was an airlock, the hatch closed, the compartment pressurized and behind the inner door through a small window they could see a human face. It wasn't any one theirs, but it still looked familiar. The human on the other side reached for something near the door and his voice could be heard on an internal communication system. "On behalf of the one true Earth, I Welcome you to this vessel. I will let you inside in a few moments." The voice said and closed the channel. Just like on their own ships there was no gravity except in the circular section containing the habitat and most workstations. However this ship had three rings, they were in the middle of two of them.

Kwame looked at Nolan with a worried look as he took his helmet off. "One true Earth, I don't know. Nothing good has come out of people who claim to be the one true of anything." He whispered.

"We just have to wait and see, perhaps they just are the first who encountered others the same that we have. Don't need to mean anything". Nolan replied and soon after the inner door opened, they pushed themselves inside and the person they saw through the window waited for them.

"You can leave your spacesuits here, then follow me this way. I'm Franjo be the way, already know your names." Franjo said smiling and later showed them the way to one of the habitat rings. Kwame thought that he recognized Franjo, perhaps another astronaut that also existed back on his Earth.

Before them in what seemed like a sort of observation room with large windows stood four crew members, one they recognized. It was another Nolan but this one looked older, or perhaps just tired. He had a full beard and a small scar on the right side of his forehead. The unknown crew's uniforms looked different. "Military" Nolan thought as he studied the strangers before them, he had never been part of any military, yet this version of him even looked like someone with a high rank. There were no medals just a more strict and non-civilian look and feel.

"As you probably already know I'm Nolan. You have already met Franjo. To my left are Sofia and Trace. And to my right Jamil." The new Nolan began. "We have had must more elaborate first encounter routines but I prefer to keep it simple. Besides, you have already made contact with others so this isn't much of a first encounter anymore." He continued.

"So this isn't your first, how many before us?" Jing asked.

"I have lost count…" the new Nolan began. "Trace, perhaps you have more accurate numbers to present?"

"This is the first time we meet three other Earths at the same time, but I quest about a little over two hundred so far." Trace said and ended looking back at the new Nolan as if she was impatient and tried to say something with her eyes.

"That… that is a lot. At how many planets?" Kwame said without really knowing it was a question or just him thinking out load.

"We have sent manned missions to hundreds of different worlds. But nothing really compares to visiting other Earths. Compare history and analyze different outcome for different choices made." Jamil said. He seemed proud and excited but in the same way as he held himself back.

"I'm sorry for seeming rushed but you did say you would answer our questions so, my first question is naturally if you know what is going on. How can any of this be possible?" Nolan asked looking at the new Nolan. This version was not like him but it was still him. He knew himself, and the new Nolan was hiding something.

The new Nolan answered the look. He turned around and took a few steps closer to the window. He places one hand on a safety railing that ran across the entire window. "We are actually not really sure. If you want technical studies, theories and speculations then we have a lot. All we know is that the only alien life forms we ever encountered since we began to explore the galaxy are humans." He turned back to the others. "Not all of them have been friendly, some even hostile."

"I hope I can say that we come in peace, at least our crews here do. But I would be a fool if I tried to speak for the entirety of my planet, my own Earth." Nolan said and looked at the others in his crew. Well not really his, but they did act like a team of ambassadors for the other three crews. "How do we go ahead, what do your protocols and routines say that the next step is?"

"Return to your own Earths, tell them what happened here. I will present documents that describe a treaty between our Earth and yours. We are all humans in the same galaxy no matter why. The only thing we have asked in return is the location of your Earth so that we can send proper ambassadors to discuss our joint future in a human commonwealth." The new Nolan said and not much later the crew returned to superman three where Darryl waited. They had received a hard drive packed with information including a lengthy document and different adapters based on different standards, some they didn't recognize at all. The crew sat in the habitat and scrolled through the pages as Darryl ready the transfer of data to the other ships.

"This is not to sign an entry in a commonwealth, this is to sign our surrender. To subjugate our world to their rule, some kind of vassal or tributary state. We would be a puppet for them to command, we cannot sign this." Jing said as she crouched over the tablet she held in one hand and a fork in the other, today's menu was a crispy Caesar salad.

"We are not told to sign or accept anything, just to present it." Nolan said while deep in this own thoughts.

"Takes us to your leaders by proxy-" Darryl started but was interrupted.

"And if we do not? Who knows, they could even be involved intergalactic wars? He said it himself, not all they met have been friendly. He just didn't mention that they are the hostile one!" Jing slapped the tablet onto the table and was openly angered but perhaps even more disappointed.

"Speculations is all we got at this point." Nolan said. His thoughts where not there and then, they were on the new Nolan. What could he have been through, how different could his own life have been. And he did look good in a full beard.

"Why are you so understanding, you have read it to. Is it because of him, because he is you? Nolan?" Jing said looking straight at Nolan.

"No, but our Mission here still active, we still have an obligation to Maia and-" Nolan said but was interrupted by Jing.

"Our mission have changed! Who are we supposed to colonies this planet together with? I don't think that they are the sharing kind." Jing said, she now stood up and walked around.

"I'm getting a message here…" Darryl began. "… the others have read it too, they feel the same. Apparently, all Jings are pretty pissed." He met the angry look Jing gave him. "They suggest we do not give away our Earths locations until we have returned home and discussed this as a civilization. Ts a huge decision."

"Sounds reasonable. We should contact them, tell them what we have agreed upon and ask for a way to contact them when we are ready." Nolan said and looked at Kwame who been unusually silent. "Kwame?"

"Agree," Kwame answered tiredly.

"Darryl let the others know, who contacts them? And perhaps we should return to our own crews now." Nolan said and looked around. So much excitement turned into this, whatever it was.

"Okay… two hours until we can dock with superman one and another forty minutes with superman two." Darryl turned to the monitor and sent a few messages. "Superman one will contact them, they are closer and have a better transmission. So this is it then?"

"Let's focus on the good..." Kwame said and washed down an aspirin with a glass of water.

"And that is?" Darryl asked.

"… We know that there are other lifeforms in the universe, we are not alone and I'm sure that we can sort all of this out. Imagine what we could learn from each other, learn about yourself." Kwame continued.

"Sure… what is that?" Darryl said and looked closely at his monitor.

 

"Did they reply?" Jing asked.

"The message was sent, I don't see a reply but look at this… It looks like they launched something from their ship, it's moving fast." Darryl said looking more and more concentrated. "Could it be shuttles?"

Kwame stood up and fear struck his face. "No, those are missiles!"

"WHAT!" Jing burst out and rushed to the monitor. They tried to zoom in as much as they could but could only see a blurred picture of the missile impacting and completely destroying superman one.

"My god, what happened, where are they?!" Jing said but she knew what they just saw.

 

"There are more of them…" Darryl opened other windows on the monitor. There were two more missiles and one was heading towards them.

"Are they mad? They will kill us, for what? Saying no?" Jing continued and started to panic.

"Can we maneuver away for it? Darryl!" Kwame placed his hand on Darryl's shoulder who were almost paralyzed.

"What? NO! We are not a fighter plane! That thing will hit us in a matter of minutes!" Darryl shouted while another monitor showed superman two exploding.

"The hyperdrive…" Nolan had whispered to himself. "Darryl!"

"WHAT?" Darryl screamed.

"ACTIVE THE HYPERDRIVE, GET US OUT OF HERE!" Nolan was panicking, and a few moment later all of them rushed to the command module. The missile closed in and the crew rushed through all the routines they saw still needed to be done to safely enable the ship's hyperdrive.

"Which Earth?" Kwame said and froze in what he was doing.

"What you mean?" Darryl asked.

"Which Earth should I enter as destination, we all come from different Earths!" Kwame said.

"ANY EARTH!" Nolan shouted as he saw the missile closing as visible range through a window. The starship disappeared and the missile passed by. Two years later it reappeared in the solar system belonging to superman three. They set a course for Earth and opened a channel using the external communication system, it answered.

"This is the international space agency's central operational center… superman is that you?"

"… Yes, Earth it is us. I know you don't except us this soon but the mission failed. We have much to tell." Nolan said with a heavy voice.

"… Yes, I'm sure… We also, and a few questions." The voice almost stuttered and sounded confused.

"What do you mean?" Asked Nolan.

"Well, not sure how to tell you this but you kind of already arrived a few weeks ago…."

THE END

Author's Note

At the moment I would like feedback on Everything, this is my first short story that I have published.