"When the ship from Janus came back and we examined Robert's files, there was a bunch of data regarding the blasts that ended the world as we knew it, but we could never make any sense of it. I will always wonder."
-Declan Kunkle

TEMPEST

Everything here looks and feels just like we're inside a dream instead of on Janus. The landscape and sky look more or less the same as it does on Earth, but everything is just a hint more vibrant. The sun in Janus' solar system is setting, casting a hot pink hue across the sky behind whispy clouds. In the pink glow, the grass appears more lavender than green, and the yellow wildflowers that spot the yard just outside of what looks like a base station seem to have a warm, orange tone.

"I can't believe it worked," Neo mutters.

The truth is I can't believe it worked either—we very well could have been one programmed equation away from breaking down into atoms and no longer existing—but somewhere on this picturesque planet is a boy with a nuclear detonator sewn into his genetic code. We have to find him and make sure he is safe so that no one needs to get hurt. If there even is anyone else on this planet besides the three of us. The base station across the meadow from the platform where Neo and I stand looks deserted. No glow shines out from the narrow windows, no outdoor lights show us the way, and the now dingy American flag flops about the pole, like years of rain and dirt have weighted it down enough to keep it from moving in the breeze that carries sweet, floral scents across the meadow.

"We should check the base. That's the first place I would go if I came here alone," I say.

I can tell from the way Neo bites the inside of his cheek that he's probably a little ticked off that I'm already focused on finding Yuri, but our lives literally depend on it. He can get over it.

We find stairs on the right side of the platform to descend into the meadow towards the base. When I look back at the platform, I see a portal gate, nearly identical to the one on the Mayflower, only much larger to fit the entire platform. I heard that in Japan there was a gate of this side... maybe that's what this was originally supposed to transport to.

The swaying flowers and grass comes up to my knees and Neo's shins, so we both have to march as we cross toward the base; but when I get closer, I see a hand print in the dust on the door across from us. Yuri has to be inside, and we can't be too far behind him. The dust, upon closer examination, is actually pollen from the flowers, and even now I can see the hand slowly filling with a thin layer of it.

Neo stops me with his arm. He reaches for his gun at his side. "Let me go in first. We don't know what we will find inside."

I don't argue, despite the fearful thought that maybe Neo would shoot Yuri on purpose. That would stop him from exploding, wouldn't it? Or would the trauma act as ignition? I guess it would depend on how long it would take for Yuri to die.

I feel sick to my stomach that that thought even crossed my mind, and when I think about the reality of Yuri's death, my eyes begin to tear. I push it to the back of my conscious.

The door opens with a low clunk and then a whoosh as the air pressure adjusts. Neo steps inside first, and then silently motions for me to follow. The door into the base leads to a sort of mud room with suits and boots lined up in cubbies that haven't been visibly touched for a long while, as some of the pollen from outside has leaked inside and coated them with a golden sheen.

I follow Neo deeper into the base, and as I do, voices become audible.

"Roberts brought us all here, and forced us to create a secret portal, one that Cooper would never know about, that would lead us not just through space, but also through time."

I don't recognize this voice, but it belongs to a woman, and it sounds like she hasn't really spoken to anyone in a while. Then I recognize Yuri's voice ask, "Where did he want this portal to go?"

The woman and Yuri are in a room off of the darkened hall where Neo and I stand in silence now. We pause to listen.

"He wanted it to go to Earth, back before the end of times." The woman sort of chuckles at this. "He wanted to stop the end of the world for some reason, he never told us why. He wasn't what you would call an open and warm person, but he was much kinder than Cooper. At least from the stories Roberts would tell about him. The farther away from Earth we traveled, the further from friendly the stories became. It was my personal theory, and some others agreed with me, that maybe Roberts wanted to go back in time to send Cooper here instead of him. Some others thought maybe he wanted to do it to kill Cooper, that's how bad some of the stories got. A few who actually liked Roberts thought maybe he wanted to go back to stop the apocalypse from happening all together, but I never thought he was that kind. There was always going to be something in it for him."

"Did it work?" Yuri asks.

"I honestly have no idea."

"What? Why?"

"Well, so, we made the portal, and according to all our theories, it was supposed to work. Some of us volunteered to go through first to test it out, mostly the people who couldn't stand life on Janus and didn't really care if it discontinued, if you know what I mean. As beautiful as this place is, you can probably imagine how lonely being away from Earth would be, especially for us, since we never knew what the planet was like after it was all destroyed. Anyway, so the people went through, and then we couldn't get them back. Well, that's not entirely true... they came back, it's just that... how can I put this? It was clear they weren't themselves."

"Huh?"

Neo relaxes his body. The story is getting good, so we both sort of lean in to hear how it ends.

"So time travel is weird, right? It's this uncharted territory, and there's string theory to help us kind of theorize how everything will work; but what we learned after more experiments through the portal is that your essence, sort of like your soul if you believe in those, kind of gets lost between the timelines. When the people came back, it was just their bodies, not their memories, not their identities, not anything else about them. They came back as these sort of blank canvas humans. I'm still not sure why this happened, but it did. It was me and a few others, including Roberts, who were left here with ourselves in tact, but Roberts was getting old. We figured out a way to keep him 'alive' in a way by sort of downloading him onto the ship. That way, whatever he had wanted to do with the time portal wouldn't be lost, you know, in case someone left on Earth could figure it out. But we had to call it quits. The three of us left sent the ship with Roberts and the blank canvas people back to Earth, and we hunkered down on Janus, trying to figure out a way to somehow get our people back or get the portal working. One failed test and one unexpected heart attack later, I'm here alone. I'm still shocked you came back through that old thing out there. Where did you say you came from? Another ship?"

"Yeah, we took off from Japan. I could probably help you go back through that portal, but I need to stay here."

"Why?"

"It's a much longer story than yours, but essentially, there was a maniac on Earth who embedded nuclear weapons inside an entire generation."

"You are a nuclear weapon?" The woman's voice shakes. "You can't stay here. I've lived way too long to go like this now."

"What if I could send you to my ship?"

"Absolutely not, send yourself."

Neo takes this as his cue. He steps into the doorway, his most serious expression glowing with light, and raises his weapon. "We are all going to calm down," he starts, "and keep our heart rates down."

"Neo," Yuri exclaims, "how did you get here?"

I step into the light behind Neo. "The same way you did, Yuri. Come back to the Mayflower with us."

"I don't know who you people are, but I suggest you all either leave from your portal or mine. You're not staying here," the woman says. I can see now that her skin has been wrinkled by time and her blonde hair appears almost silver now. Her face is long, and her teeth have yellowed, but she looks as though once, she was pretty.

"I can't go back on that ship and risk all of those lives," Yuri says. 

He pauses a moment, and then breaks into a sprint past us. He shoves Neo and I aside, only allowing me enough time to let out a startled, "Hey," before he is off, down the hall. 

Neo puts his gun back at his side, and asks the woman, "Where is your portal?"

She starts into a sprint as well, shouting back for us to follow her. I don't process my surroundings as I race to follow her and Yuri, it's all just a blur of silver, until we get to a room bathed in purple light.

Yuri stands before a portal, which looks just like a doorway into an electric purple watercolor painting, his back to us.

"If you go through there, the person who comes back won't be you. You need to be prepared for that, whatever that means," the woman says sternly.

"Yuri, back away from the portal. We can make this work," Neo says.

"Knock it off, Yuri," I yell, my patience clearly wearing thin.

With his back turned, I can barely hear him say, "Maybe it's better that I don't come back. Maybe that's the only way I can save everyone and myself."

"You're not saving anyone by walking through that portal. No one knows what will happen, it might even cause you to detonate right here," Neo argues.

Yuri doesn't turn around. "I'm sorry," he says. Then, before stepping into the light, he seems to wipe tears from his cheek.

I hold my breath, in case it's my last, but the light swallows him whole, leaving the woman, Neo, and I in the silver room, bathed in purple.

"He's gone," the woman says. "Your friend will never come back now. His body may, but... given his condition, I suggest we don't try to summon him back. I'd say we are all very lucky he's gone."

Neo groans in frustration, the sound intensifying before he says, "That's bullshit. I'm going in."

Before I can stop him, Neo jumps in too. I scream, but he's lost before the sound fully escapes from me.