They exchanged glances, “What?” I started to get angry. “Come on you can tell me. I’ve just found out my ship and crew are all gone, I’m in a strange place. Whatever you tell me from now is hardly likely to make things worse.” The fear was kicking in again.
“Were you told,” asked the doctor, “how time would pass at a different speed for you, compared with those you left behind on Earth?”
“Of course we were, time dilation is part of Einstein’s theory. It was unimportant to us. It was a one way trip, we all knew that. We were all asleep, we weren’t communicating with Earth. There was no issue with it.”
“Well some of this might not be too much of a shock to you then.” That sounded ominous. “About a year after you left, the light barrier was broken. In ten years after that the first light ships went out. They ranged far and wide. We found that the conditions for life were widespread, although we never found any trace of other intelligent life.”
So no aliens then, in its own way it was a relief.
“Humans colonised many planets. And over time, a long time, the human race expanded. As you’ve probably gathered, you’re on one of those planets now.”
So I wasn’t back on Earth, I had just slept through the future of humanity. At least I was here to see the end result. Now for the biggie, “and how long was I asleep?”
The man looked me straight in the eye, “well by your calculations a little over six hundred years.”
No wonder my legs were weak, and goodness knows how much of that had been drifting in a broken hulled ship, surrounded by the dead, while time rushed by all around me.
“And by yours?”
The military man went to the flat, featureless wall; I could make out a small panel in the corner. He pushed buttons and the walls became glass.
I blinked, this couldn’t be true. We were looking out on the towers of a city. There was a red planet with large rings visible in the clouded sky. Craft flew past the window in a variety of shapes.
“Welcome,” said the Doctor, “to Enmaya.”
“And to 11,031,” said the man.
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