Journal Of Webster Zirkman 1

CHAPTER ONE

“The instruments are going crazy!”

I watched as Aber rushed from one device to another. I told him to stay calm. We could figure this out. He froze. Then collecting all his strengths, calmly but with decided confidence and extreme urgency, he looked me in the eye and said we had to run. Something was about to come through The Rip. Something big. He didn't know what it was, but he didn't think we should be standing in it's path.

When I first met Aber three years ago, he was not confident about anything. I suppose going through a time rip and finding out he missed two years of his life in what was only a few days to him, well, that could shake a person. But since then, he has returned to being the professional, skilled technician he was before. If there is a communication gadget, he knows everything about it. And he has grown to be a curious and excelling student of Quantum Mechanics. When you put those two things together, along with his increased confidence, and his knowledge of The Rip, I am not about to ignore his warning. We grab all the equipment as fast as we can, throw everything into the truck, and set full speed back to toward the station.

I ask him what he thinks it is, and I begin to theorize. The data we have been collecting doesn't make sense based on our current understanding. Whatever The Rip is, and how it behaves, is contrary to everything I have learned, and could cause us to throw accepted cosmological theories out the window, like they did with the early dark matter, the big band theory, the earth going around the sun. We are on the verge of a new Cosmology. We need to be very careful how we approach sharing the data.

Aber, with his eyes fixated on the rearview mirror, is not concerned with my science. He says if his theory is right, what we are on the verge of is a catastrophe. The danger is not in our data destroying our cosmology, but the Rip destroying this planet, and maybe our universe. He slams on the brakes, and turns to look behind us. I look too. Something is coming through alright. It looks like a dust storm. It is stretched across the entire rip, making it's size and shape visible. And it is tattering the edges, and widening The Rip in every direction. Aber turns back around and sets full speed towards the station. I would think the storm would cause us to feel the wind at our backs, but the wind seems to be blowing towards the storm. Sand is sweeping past us in the storms direction. I comment that at least we should make it to the station before it gets there. Aber's shoulders and face drop a little.

“I don't think that will help us.”

I am beginning to put together the pieces of information that Aber must have already used to reach a conclusion I am just getting to. Aber said that everything on the other side of The Rip was destroyed by powerful dust storms. Nothing could withstand them except some monumental fortress. He also told me that this planet on our side was not always a desert planet. Archaeologist discovered artifacts of a ancient civilization before humans first visited the planet. That's why it is not listed as Uninhabited, but as No Inhabitants Remain. This is not the first storm to come here from the other side. And while the way station has been fortunate that none of them have hit it yet, the odds of that happening just increase with every storm.

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