Quantum Entanglement

Nobody can hear you scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. Quantum entanglement will tell you otherwise. You may not be able to hear people scream, but you can certainly feel their pain.

Emotion swept over Altemus like a warm blanket when he saw the first asteroid hit Earth. He was too late. A series of them were heading toward Earth and seemed to come out of nowhere. He was on a mining mission near the asteroid belt and thought he could race back in time to save his daughter Terra. He broke down, knowing the pain he was feeling was from her.

“Terra, my baby.” He said.

Jepard, his copilot, tried to comfort him with a gentle hand resting on his shoulder, but there was little he could do now.

“I’m sure she made it to a transport,” Jepard said, trying to be supportive.

The last time he saw Terra, she slid behind a burning building as they captured him. They were runners. The ones who would not be of a world ruled by The State. She knew how to make it back to the tunnels, but it was dangerous. She was tough for an eight-year-old, but everyone has their limits. Even if she did make it back to the clan all those months ago, would they know there were asteroids coming? Would she be able to find a ride on a transport in time? The probability was so low, Altemus refused to imagine how small it was.

He turned the ship and headed for the Chicago Space Elevator station. It was long abandoned, but the clan made plans a long time ago with other runners to meet there if anything catastrophic happened.

Jepard noticed the change in direction. “Where are you going? We need to report to Polaris Station immediately.”

“Can’t you see Earth is being destroyed? Who cares about orders?”

“I do, for one. Earth might be destroyed but the other colonies exist. Mars, Europa. Those were the Admiral’s orders and I'd like to live somewhere.”

“Well, you can do what you want after I leave the ship.” Altemus said.

“Where are you going, anyway?”

“Chicago Station.”

“Chicago Station? That hell hole was decommissioned before you and I were even born. Are you nuts?”

Altemus stared ahead, rewriting his own mission orders in his head.

“It’s where I’m supposed to meet my group.”

“You’re group? Who are they?” Bishop said. After a pause he continued. “Don’t tell me you’re a runner?”

Altemus gave no response.

Jepard laughed. “You have got to be kidding me. Aren’t those the dirty people who try to break into The State to get food all the time? You’re telling me you're a scrounger?”

“We are Runners and don’t talk about my people like that. They have more heart and integrity than you’ll ever know.”

Jepard held out his hands giving a stop motion.

“Hey, don’t get me wrong, The State isn’t going to give me a warm hug, a mug of hot chocolate, and squeeze me in their ample bosom when I return, but at least we have space ships to go places with food to eat, and a hard metal bench to lay my head on at some point.”

“My daughter might be there, and I have to go there. With, or without you.”

Jepard nodded. “Ok, sure, I get it. What are you going to tell the rest of the crew as we pull up to a dark space station that’s been the target of a million pieces of space junk over the last, oh, thirty years or so?”

Altemus didn’t think about that. They would likely cause a mutiny. Then again, he didn’t really care. He was flying this asteroid miner to Chicago Station, and it didn’t matter who got in the way.

A message indicator light flashed on the console.

“Looks like someone knows you’re off course.” Jepard said.

Altemus ignored the indicator and kept on course. The light flashed faster.

“You know you can’t really ignore them,” Jepard said. “They will just come over the loudspeaker.”

Just then, a message came through the loudspeaker in the cockpit. “Miner Ship AS-429, you are off course. Redirect immediately to Polaris Station and report for duty.”

Altemus said nothing and kept staring forward.

“They’re just going to take over the ship remotely.” Jepard said.

“I might be able to make it.” Altemus said.

The message repeated, and then the joystick went limp in his hand. He had no control over the ship. It turned on it’s new course to Polaris station. Altemus unbuckled and headed aft.

“Where the hell are you going?”

Altemus ignored him.

“You crazy bastard, you’re going to get us all killed.” Jepard said, fading in the distance.

Altemus wasted no time, using his hands and feet, he made his way down the corridors and tunnels of the ship toward the escape pod. They might be able to control that too, but they likely won’t care about something so small and insignificant while the Earth was being pummeled.

He made it to the pod and strapped in. Jepard was right behind him and strapped into the seat next to him.

“I thought you didn’t like runners?” Altemus said.

Jepard shook his head as he donned his helmet. “Oh I never said I didn't like them, but they do have a hard life.”

Altemus pulled his helmet on and tested the comm. “Why are you going with me?”

Jepard clicked on his microphone. “I guess I love adventure. Either that I’m a glutton for punishment. I don't think The State has much for me any longer. I quit.”

Altemus smiled, surprising himself. His daughter was in eminate danger, but somehow, he felt she was going to be alright. They were quantumly entangled. The pain he felt before was likely from all the other people who died in the first hit. He the hit the the big red button with “Jetison” written on it. The pod shot out of the ship and into space. A second, larger asteroid entered Earth’s atmosphere and formed a compression wake. Altemus watched in horror it as it slammed into the area that used to be the Pacific Ocean before it dried up two hundred years ago. His body went limp as he felt all the souls that just lost their lives in that impact. He slowly lifted his head and looked toward the North Pole and saw the walls of The State were still intact. That was a good sign because most of the runner tunnels were near there. Most other places on Earth had been uninhabitable for the past four hundred years. If all the asteroids he passed along the way back to Earth hit their mark, Earth wouldn’t survive to be 2693 anyway.

If he didn’t have his daughter to worry about, he would have thought the view from up here was strangely beautiful, although powerfully destructive. He opened a small keypad on the right side of his seat and quickly typed in a series of numbers. “Backdoor Access Granted” appeared on the screen in front of them.

“How did you do that?” Jepard smiled.

“One of the perks to being a runner. You need to know how to communicate on back channels.”

“Come in, is anyone listening?” Altemus said.

There was nothing but static. He tried again. A faint signal came back.

“Mayday, we need help.” The voice said, crackling in and out.

“What’s your location?”

“Alert, Canada. We’ve bunkered down but don’t know how long we can last.”

Alert was a long way away from The State walls. These were not runners that he knew.

“You need to get out of there. Have you talked with anyone else?” Altemus said.

“Some. They are leaving Earth, but we have no transports.” The man at the Alert station said.

“Are any transports going to Chicago Station?”

Another asteroid entered the atmosphere, making the communication channel full of static. This asteroid headed further north, slamming into central Canada. Now, dust covered his view of all of Canada and The State walls around the arctic circle.

“Damn, they are goners.” Jepard said.

“Not if I have anything to do with it.”

Altemus gave up communicating for now and headed toward Chicago Station. The next asteroid missed Earth but hit the moon, shattering it into a thousand pieces.