Proxima Adventure

Chapter 8. Conjecture.

Chapter 8. Conjecture:''

When the guys met the gals for the communal supper, they were not sure what the women would think about their AI experiments.

"AI surmised that it was an alien attack," Charles announced. "It didn't have a possible explanation as to how it happened."

"I'm not surprised," Hilary said. Her expression turned more exited. "We've come up with a possible theory that's more realistic, and it has a possible way to prove it."

Charles tilted his head as if trying to hear a low sound. "Really?"

"Yes. Really!" she replied with a sly smile. "After taking very detailed readings on the Earth's surface, we think that what we're looking at is Earth a couple of thousand years in the future."

"How so?"

"The background radiation suggests that Earth went into an intense global warming period that caused it to enter a Venus-like status in which the surface became molten after the atmosphere heated up from large amounts of carbon dioxide. Basically, the Earth suffered a melting of the surface and everything on it. The oceans boiled, killing everything. With time, it cooled down and then entered the adiabatic period that we can see."

"That would suggest that we've been transported into the far future," Dave said.

"Yes. I know that sounds crazy, but at least it doesn't suggest that we're in some sort of psychic fog."

Charles tapped a finger to his lips before he replied. "Yes, I see what you mean. That idea could be proven by examining the surface. There should be residues of elements that would only be possible if it once contained a technical society."

Hilary pointed at him. "Exactly!"

"Are we sure it's safe to go down there?" Carl asked.

"The probes didn't detect any dangerous situation other than low oxygen," Charles replied.

"Even if we do determine that we're in the future, how can we go back to our time?" Alice asked.

"One problem at a time," Charles said. "Let's see if this idea is legitimate and then we'll work on that question."

"So, who's going down there?" Alice asked.

"I think that it should be a planetary expert and someone who understands detection methods," Charles said. "I think that suggests Carl and Beverly. Carl knows how to fly the shuttle, and Beverly knows planetary science as well as archeological principles."

Both Carl and Beverly expressed concurrence with that idea.

The big adventure happened the next day. Carl and Beverly went to the hanger deck and boarded a shuttle. After going through the initial check, Carl moved the shuttle out of the hanger and fired the breaking engines to send it down into Earth's atmosphere. When it was into the stratosphere, Carl leveled it out and began an approach to an area that was once New York city.

"I'm surprised that this section of land is still there," Carl said. "It was only eight hundred square miles of lowland."

"Yes," Beverly replied. "If Earth was mostly molten, it's hard to imagine how this section of land survived. It could have been protected by the fact that it's so close to the Atlantic Ocean."

Carl sat the shuttle down in the middle of what would have been Manhattan.

"We'll have to wear oxygen masks," he told her. "Otherwise, we should be fine."

They also got into suits that covered everything. This would prevent them from infecting the planet.

"Air temperature is 20.6 C," Beverly announced. "The pressure is just under one atmosphere."