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By
William C. Spaulding
© 1989
"We should be home soon—only forty parsecs to Earth, yet," Zatar said with a sigh of relief. All three agreed. Samantha excused herself to go to the bridge.
While Zatar and the other two were talking about what they were going to do when they got back, Samantha rushed into the lounge, screaming,” We must've drifted off course. I can't find any stars!"
"What do you mean?" Bogar asked, frightened.
"Just what I said! I can't find stars anywhere." All four of the crew rushed to the bridge to see for themselves. Samantha activated all the ship’s external CCD's, looking in every direction, and there was nothing to be seen—only complete darkness.
"What could possibly cause something like this?" Kuschka demanded.” The CCD's must be malfunctioning."
"That's what I thought at first," Samantha explained, "but nothing can be seen out of any of the windows either."
"That's impossible," Kuschka said.
"We've must've drifted off course," Bogar said frantically.
Zatar, the captain of the ship, was checking the navigation instruments and the diagnostics for the CCD's. "We didn't drift off course, and even if we did, we should be able to see stars anywhere in the universe.” He examined the output of the diagnostics. "There's nothing wrong with the ship or its sensors."
Kuschka added, "We're almost home. There has to be stars nearby!" Zatar could detect fear even in Kuschka's voice, the first time that he has ever done so.
Samantha: "There must be, but for some reason, we can't see them."
After a few minutes, Zatar turned to face his crew, who were talking to each other about this preposterous mystery, and said, "I think I've found something. It's a planet."
"A planet? Is that all?" Bogar asked. "No stars?"
"That seems to be the case.” Zatar shook his head. “I don't understand this at all."
"What do we do now?" Kuschka asked.
"The only logical thing to do is to go to the planet and find out what we can," Zatar responded. "Okay, people. Get to work. Let's find out what the hell is going on here."
The two dispersed to their respective stations. Only Kuschka and Zatar remained in the bridge. Kuschka leaned over to study the information gathered by her instruments; her long black hair hung down, hiding her face. Zatar maneuvered the ship closer to the planet and as the ship got closer, its image on the large video screen got larger and brighter, silhouetting Zatar's tall, muscular figure.
Then Kuschka began, "The atmosphere is rich in carbon dioxide—almost 98%. Its gravity is 92% that of Earth's. It has a surface temperature of 290 degrees Kelvin, with little disparity between the equator and the poles. It has a very rocky surface, mostly silicates. Doesn't have any significant geologic features—no mountains, rivers, clouds; not even any channels or gullies. After a brief pause, "It's also totally devoid of any life. "Kuschka looked up at Zatar's silhouette. "Why are you standing there, staring into the screen?"
"Don't you think there is something very unusual about this planet?" Zatar finally said.
"It seems like a pretty boring place to me."
"It may not be as boring as you think. This planet is totally isolated, without a star."
"There are many planets without stars. Most of them are unknown because they are extremely dark." Her face expressed enlightenment. "Yes, I see what you mean. It has no star, but it's bright."
"Exactly! How is it bright? Where is the light coming from? We have seen every side of this planet now, and yet, we can't even find a terminator.” Pause. "Well, prepare for landing."
"Where?"
"I guess it doesn't matter that much if the data you have just given me is accurate." Walking over to an intercom, he tells the other two, "Bogar, Samantha; prepare for landing. Gather as much data as you can as we travel through the atmosphere. Send out three robotic sensors."
"Right on, boss," Samantha replies. Turning to Kuschka, "We'll descend through the atmosphere obliquely to learn more about the planet's surface."
The ship began to skim upon the upper atmosphere, and as it did, frictional heating of the outer hull slowed it down, glowing brighter as the atmosphere got thicker, moving swiftly over the monotonous surface.
"I never saw any planet so devoid of anything interesting," Bogar noted, peering out of one of the windows with Samantha.
Now the ship slowed considerably, its discoidal hulk parallel to the ground thirty meters below it. Its three legs stretched out to embrace the rocky terrain, settling down lightly, recoiling from the initial impact.
Kuschka stayed inside the ship to gather information from the robotic sensors while Zatar ranged with the shuttle to cover a wide area. After putting on their suits to protect them from the inimical environment, Samantha and Bogar disembarked on foot.
When they first went outside, Bogar and Samantha looked up at the isotropically bright sky. "Amazing," Bogar said. Samantha nodded, then looked around, only to find that the rocky terrain was isotropic as well. Suddenly, he noticed a mound—where, she was sure, there was none before. Pointing to it, he said, "Let's go over there. There’s something weird about that."
As they walked toward the mound, the mound became a tree, and the rocks beneath them became alive with tall grasses and flowering plants of every color and shape. There were shrubs that harbored rabbits from the sun, where before, there was no sun—and no rabbits. Trees abounded on nearby hills, and the hills got higher and higher with distance until they were mountains setting on the horizon with snowy peaks and steep sides.
Astounded, they looked at each other, wondering if they were both seeing the same thing.
"I hope you don't think I am losing my sanity, but did you see how this barren place transformed into...well, Earth, practically?" Samantha asked.
Bogar was slow to respond, dumbfounded by what he saw. "Yes. Yes, I...did. We got to be dreaming. Things like this can’t happen. Why should an alien planet be so much like Earth? Especially with the same kind of species of plants and animals. The chances of that happening are infinitesimal. Look." Bogar pointed to the distance. "There’s a rabbit. And there are all kinds of insects buzzing around here. How can they survive breathing carbon dioxide?"
Samantha took off her helmet and sniffed the air, then breathed more deeply with each succeeding breath. "There must be oxygen in the air. I feel all right. I don't feel the least bit dizzy."
Bogar took off his helmet, and carefully breathed in the air. "I don’t understand this at all. The whole planet has changed so suddenly. But how? Maybe we're becoming...mad! It might change into something else. Something far more deadly than we're prepared for. Let's go back to the ship. Now!"
They turned around, looked into the distance, and saw golden meadows everywhere—and the ship nowhere.
"What happened to the ship?" screamed Bogar.
"Hold it, hold it. We're not going to get anywhere by getting hysterical. I don't know what happened to the ship. I know as much as you do. Nothing," Samantha said frantically, with tinges of anger creeping in. "Wait a minute," she said softly to herself. "I gotta relax; I have to relax."
Bogar yelled into his radio. "Kuschka, Zatar, can you read me?” Silence. "Kuschka, Zatar, can you read me? Can anybody read me?" Silence. Then Samantha used her radio, with the same resulting silence.
"How are we going to get back?" Bogar exclaimed.
Samantha stood for a few minutes in profound bewilderment. The prospect of being stranded all alone in a world that could not be understood was dismal, indeed. The reasons for the changes could not even be imagined. Cause and effect were no longer married. A planet amidst nowhere; a sun that could be seen from the planet, but not from space; a ship that disappeared suddenly without any sign of departure. Geology was revised, and biology sprang into being instantly, with Earthlike creatures of ecological producers and consumers.
But this was not Earth. Earth was predictable; it had logic and order. Logic and order were the rules by which it was governed, rules on how to play the game of life. But this planet threw away the rules. How do you play a game that has no rules? How do you win? Maybe it was only a dream. But what test distinguishes reality from unreality? And if there is no test, then what difference does it make?
Bogar's exclamation interrupted Samantha's contemplation. "What are we going to do?"
"Just walk around, I guess. See what we can find." They walked for miles, and as they were walking, Bogar realized that Samantha only had regular clothes on, her space suit gone. Then he realized that he, too, only had regular clothes.
"Samantha. Our suits are gone!" Samantha looked at Bogar, then looked down at herself. "We didn't have any clothes underneath our suits. And I don’t even own clothes like these."
Samantha looked up toward Bogar slowly, tittering, then turned around, and started walking again. They walked for what seemed to be days. It was hard to tell, for the sun never set; in fact, it didn't even move. They found nature in her primeval beauty—untouched by any civilization; thus, indicating that there was none to be found.
Frustrated by what seemed to be a futile attempt to find something to help them out of their predicament, Bogar sat down on a large rock by a small stream, and watched the water rush over and around the rocks that stood in its way. Samantha sat down beside him, her back against his, looking out of the glen.
"I don't understand this at all," he said. "How can we be sure that this is real? How can we know what's going to happen next?"
"How can I be sure that this is real?” Samantha answered. “Because I can see it, hear it, smell it, and touch it. Isn't that how we determined what was real before? The only reality we can be sure of is the reality that we can perceive now. Everything else is inferred, and consequently, less than certain. I use the word ‘reality' to mean the world that we perceive with our senses. Because whether this world is an idealist's world or a materialist's world, it still has well-defined characteristics in relation to our senses."
"I'm not sure what you mean."
"Well, take this rock we are sitting on. We can feel the pressure this rock exerts on us because of our weight. We can feel it has substance. We know we can't put our hand through it. We know these qualities for certain because we can test them right now with our senses. Whether God is deluding us as Descartes hypothesized, or whether this world is just a thing of the mind as Hume conjectured, or even if this world does have an independent existence, it doesn't matter; this rock still has substance. We can't put our hand through it. At least for now. Maybe even that will change.
"You know, it's funny. David Hume said that even if the world was a thing of the mind, we have a natural instinct to believe in the separate existence of reality, what he called the reality instinct. But I think this instinct arises from the fact that what we have always perceived was always consistent with this notion of reality's separateness. Up until now, anyway. This planet has weakened that instinct considerably. At least for me."
"Samantha. This conversation isn't making me feel any better."
"I know. They're not consoling thoughts. I don't really understand this situation any more than you do. It's a totally new experience. An experience without explication. But, I have no idea of what to do except to deal with the present as best as possible."
"Well, how are we going to get...?"
"We should be home soon—only forty parsecs to Earth, yet," Zatar said with a sigh of relief. But as Zatar realized that he had said this before, and as he realized that he was back in the lounge on the ship again with the other three members of his crew, but without any idea of how or why, his feeling of relief dissipated. Then he leaned forward from his chair out of surprise and astonishment, gripping the arms of the chair with more strength as if to make sure that it was really real. He looked at the others, and the others looked at him and at each other, wondering about what actually happened.
Samantha got out of her chair and quickly ran to the bridge, and the others, knowing why she ran to the bridge, followed her. When Samantha reached the big window that she looked out of before, or thought that she looked out of before, she saw numerous stars; she continued racing toward the bridge. When she got there, she looked at the screen, and it corroborated the window. She sat down, trying to fathom her perplexity as the others joined her. They, too, looked at the screen, feeling great relief as they sat down. Kuschka checked the ship's memory and found nothing recorded of their experience, not even the existence of the planet.
It must have been a dream was the consensus. How was it to be explained otherwise? Who would believe them? How could they believe it? Even Samantha didn't take her philosophizing seriously. For now that the bizarre experience was only a memory, it had lost its impact upon their minds, and the reality instinct had renewed its strength.
* * *
"Zatar, welcome back to Earth."
"Thank you, Admiral."
"I heard your trip was well worth it. You came back with much new information. Discovered three new civilizations."
"Yes, we did. I'll tell you all about it after the party."
"Good. Good. I'm anxious to hear about it. But I was wondering, did you have any trouble during your trip?"
"No."
"Are you sure? None at all?"
"Yes, I'm sure. Why do you ask?"
"When we checked your ship, as we do all ships that have returned from a long voyage, we discovered that you're missing a shuttle, three robotic sensors, and two space suits. How did you lose them?"
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