The Recovery

The plain gray van parked on the ground floor of a parking deck in the heart of the Philadelphia downtown metro was hardly noticed. The exterior of the van was heavily weathered. You could almost trace the faint outline of a sign from a previous business on one side of the van. A sidewalk and a three-foot high wall with a railing on top separated the front of the van from Kensington Avenue. Kensington Avenue had once been a vibrant part of a thriving downtown. It had descended into decay as the street was now inhabited by the homeless. The non-descript van blended into this background, completely unnoticed.

Looking in through the windshield of the gray van, revealed the worn upholstery of the driver and passenger seats. Behind the seats was a dark curtain that fully obscured the view into the cargo area of the van. Behind the dark curtain was a man in a pair of headphones seated in front of a bank of monitoring equipment. He was listening to cellphone conversations and monitoring for spikes in cell phone usage. He was also monitoring conversations on the street for any indicator that would reveal the presence of his target. It was well past his shift change and Jack was hungry, tired and unshaven. None of these things registered with Jack as he focused on the hunt for his quarry. There were six other vans forming a rough grid spanning the northeastern part of the city. If Jack’s quarry was not detected in this area soon, well the consequences… Jack put this thought out of his mind.

Jack’s quarry was his best friend. They had known each other since junior high school. They had played on the same teams and grown up in the same neighborhood. They had attended each other’s weddings. Cooper or Coop was the first (and only, so far) warp-jump astronaut. In the testing and training, Cooper was head and shoulders above everyone. He was by far the best in the program. From Jack’s perspective, Coop’s only identifiable flaw was a strange obsession with always trying to fill an “inside straight”.  

“Come on Coop… I need you back or I am going to go broke on poker night…”. His concern for his friend causes him to grimace and he begins sweeping through his instrumentation again.

This was Cooper’s third journey and this time something had gone terribly wrong. The warp-jump was a low mass (no space ship), discrete, point-to-point jump, that was achieved by warping the fabric of space and time. The location was selected and by engaging the warp-jump mechanism, space-time was folded to allow the traveler, clad in a highly specialized space suit, to transition a distance equivalent to hundreds of light years instantaneously. The main drawbacks (and there were others) were twofold. The first was getting lost and never finding your way home (the navigation part was a bit imperfect and the distances being traveled were beyond comprehension). The second was the possibility of space psychosis. Due to induced chemical changes in the brain, the personality dissociates (believed to be temporary, getting lost in space, probably not so temporary). Jack knew based on the mathematical model of Coop’s previous jumps that he should “land” in this vicinity, and very soon. Or they may never see him again. Jack and all of the support crew were monitoring spectrum analyzers for localized power spikes. They were also eavesdropping, so to speak, on local communications to detect conversations about local sightings of anything out of the ordinary. They were scanning for any change out there. Coop was already way over due.

Cooper’s third jump was supposed to be an out and back, as he had done in his two previous jumps. On this jump, however, the target site was unstable. The jumps targeted moons and large asteroids to avoid navigational complications presented by a thick atmosphere. Unfortunately, the targeted moon was small and unstable. The additional kinetic energy from the jump started a wild rotation. A navigational lock for return was not possible. Cooper is performing multiple jumps to return to Earth. Each jump is using precious resources and driving Cooper deeper into insanity. Cooper senses a presence behind him. He is filled with an unease as he calibrates for the next jump. Fortunately, Stan is there to help talk him through the procedures. Apparently, Stan has forgotten his helmet and his right glove. Cooper initiates his next, and hopefully last jump.

Just a few blocks outside of the search grid, at 2:00 am local time, Dan, a slightly inebriated man is slowly walking home alone down a dark side street. 

Mumbling to himself, “Designated driver, did he not understand that a designated driver does not drink? Ok, so I will walk home.”

Suddenly, there is a huge concussion and a bright flash. Dan is knocked to the ground.  As he struggles to get back to his feet, Dan realizes that his hair is singed and smoking. An alien steps forward from the darkness and grabs him by the shoulders. Dan melts down into complete panic. The face shield raises. The alien looks Dan over. “Upright, bi-pedal humanoid… Earth …. I have made it back to Earth!” Dan tears away and runs for his life. Stan, Coop’s helmetless travel companion floating several inches above the ground looks at him with annoyance.

“Star Trek quotes, really… I mean I know your brain is shutting down and all, but really.” 

Cooper knows that he is gripped by insanity, but this understanding does not make the crazy stop. He is still battling to discern the real from the imagined. Coop reaches back and instinctively powers down the suit to avoid an inadvertent jump. How many jumps had he made? Was he really being pursued at one point? Where did his travel companion go? He kept me from facing this challenge all alone. Coop begins to miss Stan. Was this really Earth?  

Several blocks away Cooper’s arrival has been detected. The troops roll. The fleet of unmarked monitoring vehicles maintain their “grid” pattern as they move towards Cooper’s location for the recovery. Jack drops the disciplined approach and breaks out of formation. Immediately, his radio springs to life. “Back in formation, now!” “Sorry, you are breaking-up.” He knows where Coop is and he is going to get there now. 

The main recovery vehicle reaches Cooper first. The entire area is bathed in flashing emergency vehicle lights as the marked units arrive in rapid succession. The street is closed off and big bright lights are brought to bear on the scene. The dark street is now very well lit. The Recovery Personnel descend on the scene and release Cooper from the confines of the space suit. An IV is administered and Cooper is secured to a rolling stretcher. Jack has intentionally avoided interfering with the well-choreographed process. As the doors of the huge recovery vehicle close, Jack sees his friend’s face. Jack sees the look of bewilderment and confusion in Cooper’s eyes. Jack is overwhelmed with relief, but is still very concerned for his friend. Dying alone in some unknown corner of space would be the worst. Whatever the outcome for Cooper, at least he is back on Earth. Jack reluctantly returns to his van. Momentarily closing his eyes, he is almost immediately overpowered by sleep.