Off Course

science fiction by Margaret Karmazin

Aug 20, 2023

This week’s story involves space travel, time travel, and new world orders that may or may not be your personal utopia. At any rate, there is a lot to digest, so have at it!

Content warning: sexual situations

a bright yellow light shining in the dark — Photo by Thomas Willmott on Unsplash

Off Course

by Margaret Karmazin

"Are we crazy for having agreed to this?" Indira asked at dinner around their gray, metal table inside their gray, metal walls. Indira was almost six feet tall and wiry strong, a mix of Indian and Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewish, with large, dark middle-eastern eyes.

"Yes, probably," said William. "But nothing gets done unless some brave idiots try it."

Indira gritted her teeth. She did not want to show invulnerability in front of the men and was sorry she had given in to it. Though William was never afraid to express his uneasiness.

The mission was supported by the private company of billionaire Thomas Dumont and was beyond secret. Dumont Space ran a thriving business of rentable shuttles to and from the moon and had made three Mars trips, though these were composed of trained astronauts and not open to travelers. Dumont Space had several secret projects going on at any one time, including some bordering on the metaphysical. This current project was now circling the sun and revving up to a so-far-untried speed for an occupied vessel. On board were four astronauts: Commander Kai Morris, age 45, Engineer William Marker, 37, Pilot Arjun Varma, 35 and Communications Officer Indira Geiss, 34. All four of them understood that the mission was quite risky.

"None of us are married or have children. What does that tell you?" said Kai. His voice was deep and no nonsense and in spite of herself, Indira found it sexy. He wasn't her type though. Hard and military is how she thought of him.

"So, when do we get this ball rolling?" said Arjun.

"You'd better fly right," said William. He was super geeky and sometimes Indira wondered how he had ever passed the physical training, delicate-looking and pale blond as he was.

"Remember, I don't fly at all," said Arjun. "This is all remote control. Strap in; I am setting it now. Any last words?"

"I got nothing," said Kai.

"Light, camera, action," said Arjun.

They scrambled to their places and clicked themselves in for a ride like no other.

"We are set for five minutes into the future, but we'll take three or ten or even twenty. But we're set for five," said Arjun. "Buen viaje, mis amigos."

They closed their eyes and settled deep into the atom-jarring roar of the engines.

What no one had counted on was the solar flare. They were five million miles from the star and the unexpected eruption shot right through them. It was a miracle when they slowed back down that they still existed.

"What the hell?" said Arjun, unhooking himself and checking over his body. He looked at the others, two of which were out of their protective padding but not moving.

Indira slowly climbed out of hers. "What happened?"

"Flare," said Arjun. "Not expected. But hey, we went forward in time. Got stuck at the five minutes. Indira, I can't seem to get Canaveral to comment. Get on there."

"The flare probably broke communication," said Kai.

"But they should be back online now," said Indira. She had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, but didn't want to freak everyone out. Frantically, she waved her hand over the consul, tried several configurations and backed off to gather her wits.

"How many times have you tried, Indira?" William was rubbing his hands in that way he did when agitated.

She was silent while working. There was nothing but static. "Canaveral, do you hear me?" Zzzzzzzt, zzzzzzt, zzzzzt in return. As if nothing at all were out there.

She turned to the others. "Well, our instruments show that the experiment was successful in spite of the flare. We are, according to my monitors, five minutes ahead at least, though one of the readings seems quite off. We should do as planned, come out of this revolution and head back. The thrusters still seem in working order, right, William? We can take it to hyper for a short burst. Should be back home in forty-five days."

No one had any argument with this suggestion. "Make it so," said Kai.

They were all quite tired of each other and past Venus' orbit with Earth visible when communications came alive. "Kkkkkkkhhhhhh! Identify yourself! You are approaching Earth airspace!"

Indira clicked on. "Barnstormer One," she transmitted. "Reapproaching Earth. Should be there in a week. Please inform as to approach."

Long silence.

"Are you there?" she transmitted.

"Uh, yeah, Barnstormer. We are unaware of your existence. Where did you take off from?" The reply was in English but with an accent, possibly Norwegian?

"Canaveral," Indira said sharply. Who was this, some kid in his basement?

Another pause, talking in the background.

"Is this some kind joke?" Why the weird sentence structure?

"Joke?" barked Indira. This was the last thing they needed. They were tired, grumpy, dirty and worried. All she wanted was a long hot bath and some cake. She wanted cake.

"Um, Canaveral not working for almost two centuries. Take off from Reykjavik now. Canaveral not habitable. What you speaking of? For sure you are human?"

The four astronauts looked at each other.

Indira answered slowly "Yes, we are human. Are you?"

No reply.

"We don't understand what's going on," she said. "We took off from Canaveral and are supposed to return there. We can make an emergency landing off shore if that's necessary."

Long pause again, then, "Do not head to Canaveral. Can't help there. Use these coordinates for Reykjavik. Can you do that, Barnstormer?"

"Can we do that?" Indira asked Arjun.

She heard William mumble in the background. Kai said nothing.

"I-I suppose so," said Arjun. "I can give it my best. If not, we'll have to come down in the Atlantic. Freezing this time of year."

"Give us the coordinates," Indira transmitted.

"Something horrible must have happened since we've been gone," said William.

It was a week before they orbited the earth and began their descent. "Something is really wrong," said William. "Just look."

Currently over the dark side of the planet, they saw very few lights. Nothing from China, total darkness. Australia had a small spattering, Indonesia nothing. As they approached the Americas, again nothing. Blackness. A spatter near Toronto. Then blackness and more blackness until Greenland and Iceland lit up. On over Europe, a tiny island of light in India, and back on around. This time Arjun clenched his jaw, slowed them down and almost made a landing at the coordinates but missed, and they had to deploy water landing gear. Bracing themselves, they came down, with William losing consciousness for a moment. And then they looked out the windows to see an oddly turquoise, semi-tropical sea and the approach of an unusual hover vehicle. Something was terribly wrong.

The person in charge of the rescue was a rough-edged woman who looked to be in her fifties. She had short, messy blond hair and wore a casual brown shirt and knit pants.

"I am Runa," she said. No attempt had been made to look attractive other than large silver hoop earrings and a weird flower jammed into a chest pocket. She was accompanied by a boyish-looking young woman, also blond, and a dark-skinned young woman with what looked like chalk around her eyes.

Kai tried to assert his position of command by sternly asking for "whoever was in charge" and "what was going on with Canaveral" but Runa appeared to be the strong silent type. The boyish girl said nothing while she worked at controls. She called to the dark girl and said, "Lindo, they ready at shore?"

Lindo nodded, crunched her hair into a ball at the back and secured it with a long pin. "Interrogation room ready," she said.

"Interrogation room?" said William, madly rubbing his hands together again.

No one answered him. Indira made eye contact with Runa and they studied each other. "You okay?" Runa oddly asked.

"Well, not really," said Indira, and Kai hushed her.

"Don't give them anything until we know what's going on."

"You don't have lotsa choices," said Runa firmly. "You do as told."

They came to land, leaving the ship to float in the ocean. Indira gasped when they were led ashore. The scenery was semi-tropical. It looked as if they were in the Caribbean. Palm trees, lush ground cover, a balmy breeze. Buildings constructed of unknown materials and of various pastel colors. People walking around in tropical clothing, short pants, cotton T-shirts, sandals. And then Indira looked more closely at the people. They seemed to be mostly, if not all, women. Here and there she saw what might have been a boy or more masculine-looking woman. What was going on?

aerial photography of boulders on body of water — Photo by Chor Tsang on Unsplash

They were taken to an office in one of the pastel buildings, placed under guard, and told to wait.

"We don't understand what's going on," Indira said desperately to one of the guards, also female. They held in their hands what was possibly some kind of weapon she didn't recognize, shaped like a rod.

William started to worry aloud, and Kai told him to shut up. Arjun said nothing.

Runa entered the room, this time accompanied by a woman with long red hair, dressed like Runa only with a wide belt of some kind of ethnic-looking cloth. Runa motioned for them to sit. She pressed a tiny disc, evidently a recorder of some kind.

"We have found your mission. Barnstorm, from Canaveral, year 2056. According to records, your ship disappeared and was never heard from again. It was, apparently, a time travel experiment, correct?"

"Yes," said Kai, his eyes starting to dawn with the terrible truth, though his granite-like face was closed, military through and through, don't give the enemy anything. Clearly, he saw these people as an enemy. Indira didn't know what to think. Her heart pounded unpleasantly.

"It is now 2297," said Runa. "Seems your experiment went off rails."

William could be heard stifling a sob. Arjun gasped. Kai said nothing.

"What happened to the earth?" Indira said. She felt lightheaded. She thought of her mother, her brother, her nieces and nephews. Her sweet cats, friends she would never lay eyes on again. Silly things, her new car, the video painting she'd recently purchased. She thought of chocolate, ice cream, martinis. Was anything at all left?

The other woman, Mariet, who as it turned out, was a doctor, said, "There was a plague. There were several, but this last one was the plague of all plagues." She seemed to speak in a style more like Indira's time, while the others spoke in some sort of shorthand with occasional undecipherable words.

"It wiped out most of the population of Earth," said Runa. "And all of the males. Every last one."

The astronauts were silent in shock. Finally, Kai said, "Then how do you reproduce? How are people still here?"

The two women looked at each other as if debating whether to explain or not. Indira had noticed that when they spoke to her, it was with respect, but when to the three men, with a kind of mild disdain.

"We do fine," said Runa firmly. "From the women who survived, and there were over a hundred thousand, we created clones. We use genetic splicing to create new combinations, and we have greatly reduced disease incidence, raised general intelligence, and gotten rid of most mental disorders. People live to a hundred and forty, give or take, and we are working to extend lifespan further. The world runs quite nicely without males, I assure you."

Indira saw her fellow travelers exchange meaningful, if not somewhat horrified looks. Even Kai seemed unsettled.

As if to change the subject, he asked, "Apparently global warming has greatly altered the geography of the planet."

"You might not have noticed while going over darkened areas, but a third of the landmass of North American is gone. Parts of Europe also gone. What once was cold is now quite welcoming."

"Do you still carry babies?" Kai asked. "Do you give birth the old-fashioned way?"

"If a woman chooses that, she can be implanted. A few do. But most not. We have other ways of growing babies without endangering or interrupting lives."

Indira thought she detected anger in Kai's expression, and she felt a sudden urge to smack him. What right did he have to judge whether a women went through pregnancy or not when he himself would never have to. She couldn't help making a little snort. And yet at the same time, she knew she was in a state of terror just as the men were.

"What's going to happen to us?" said William. As usual, he did not conceal his emotions. Indira worried about him. She felt like weeping herself, her feelings were so close to the surface.

Runa raised her eyebrows over slightly-amused gray eyes. "Probably nothing. We will give you men quarters to live in. We will assess your skills and determine where best you can serve society. People are free here. You may move among us, do as you like, as long as you respect our laws. One thing you will definitely do is supply sperm to our labs. An influx of new genetic material is welcome."

Arjun looked alarmed. "How will you take our sperm?"

"The three of you will report every third day to Lab 2 or whichever lab is nearest to donate. Shouldn't be difficult. If I remember correctly, you males engaged in much release of sperm. It is the least you can give to us for food and shelter."

Kai's face expressed outrage at this, but he said nothing. "I am gay," said William.

"Not a problem," said Mariet. "Why would it be? If any of you have problems ejaculating, we have instruments that will help you."

That shut them all up.

Indira was provided with an apartment of her own while the men lived together in one space. She worked as a consultant in their own space program, which was surprisingly limited.

"You don't have much new," she remarked to the women she worked with closely, two engineers, Chloe and Sarita.

They shrugged. "We keep what we have in top working order and take up ships for study and some exploration."

"But why not go to Mars? Why not inhabit the moon?"

"Why not make life good on earth?" Chloe said. "Our goal is a good life and we are accomplishing that. Much better than times past."

She had a point, Indira thought. She observed the life around her as she went about her daily business. While occasionally two people argued or ranted about some unfair treatment or someone cried over a broken relationship, life was reasonably orderly and peaceful. Women formed romantic and platonic relationships, raised children, created music, art and interesting written and holograhic stories, decorated their homes and themselves and played with pampered pets. Healthy dogs and cats sauntered about the streets and vehicles stayed out of intensely populated areas. It was a pleasant and peaceful world, but Indira longed for males, and after some time, went to see her fellow astronauts.

But only William was there, and he was miserable. "This is a nightmare for me," he said. He was pasty-looking and smelled slightly off.

"Are you ill?" Indira asked after an unpleasant hug.

"I don't know, possibly," he said. "I so wish we could go home, but that's impossible. I have no one. Kai and Arjun went off somewhere; they are not in communication with me, though they took coms with them. I don't fit in here; there is nothing for me to do but be a milk cow for those sickos in the lab. It's humiliating, Indira, a nightmare."

She understood his misery but there was little she could do. "What about your engineering degrees? Surely there must be something of value you could do here."

"They're not interested in my input. They've moved beyond me in the areas that interest them, and the rest they don't care about. They only care about making life comfortable and pleasant, nothing else. There is not enough curiosity, no adventure, no pushing ahead. I am so bored."

She nodded, understanding what he meant, feeling torn between the old urge to explore, and the life in which she was growing complacent. "Oh, William," she said, wishing she could somehow comfort him. "Is there anything I can do? Just ask."

But there was nothing and not long after, Mariet, the doctor, came to tell her that William had hung himself.

She felt as if a fever engulfed her. As if she was in the deadening heat of the day and could barely work up the energy to stand up and walk. Off and on, she cried for William, for his wasted life and so early demise, but she understood perfectly why he had done it.

I need to find Kai and Arjun, she thought, and went to see Runa, who seemed to be in charge of local "government," though she had no title. "I am one of the elders," the woman had explained once. This when accompanied by another person like her, one perhaps twenty years younger. Identical sisters of different ages.

"Her name is Bea," Runi said.

Indira and Bea politely nodded to each other.

"Runa" began Indira, "if you don't mind, I need to find my two companions. Where are they?"

Runa made a slight face. "They insisted on traveling," she said. "I gave permission as long as they regularly contribute sperm."

"Where did they go?"

Runa consulted her com, which was built into the flesh on her arm. Indira had not yet been invited to have one installed. They allowed her a more primitive device. "Nuuk. I am told they are hoping to build a better airport/spaceport." She chuckled.

"Why do you laugh?" said Indira, irritated by the attitude.

"Males," was all Runa said. And then she pressed her arm onto Indira's com. "There," she said. “I transferred their position to you. Transport leaves at two PM. Enjoy."

She didn't need money. Somehow you could do anything you liked, though you were expected to pitch in and do work of some sort at least four full days of the week. They had gotten everything they could from her about communication devices from her time period and various professors had interviewed her in front of their classes, but after a while she discovered that she did not want to work in modern communication formats. Everyone had instant computers to rise out of their arm coms, and at first, she was fascinated, but later felt overwhelmed. It was peaceful to work with animals, and it seemed that everyone had cows, sheep or chickens. Most everyone gardened and created things even if they worked with high tech. The truth was, she liked the organic way people lived and would have been happy except for missing men and their energy. When she landed in Nuuk, her heart pounded at the thought of seeing Kai. Not Arjun who was younger, and that surprised her.

Greenland was nothing like it had been in their own time, now half-temperate and half-semi-tropical. As in Iceland, pastel-colored houses and two-story apartment buildings dominated the cityscape. Flowers and foliage everywhere. Very charming.

It was not difficult to find the men. "They are speaking at the Round House," she was told by an escort at the airport. The woman said this in a disapproving tone.

"Is there a problem?" Indira asked her.

The escort looked away. "The one, Kai, has caused my partner and I to split apart."

"How? How has he done that?" said Indira, truly perplexed.

"What he is doing," said the woman. "Getting people thinking those things."

"What things?" Indira felt strangely alarmed.

The woman shrugged. "Listen to him yourself!" She looked closer at Indira. "Aren't you the woman who came here with them? You... you should have killed them!"

"What a thing to say!" Indira exclaimed, but the woman turned away.

"Find your own way to the Round House. I want nothing to do with it."

Bewildered and upset, Indira located the place after asking for directions—a circular arena constructed of stone and wood which was visible from a distance. Where had all the fancy wood come from to construct it, she wondered, but then realized that the town, tundra in her time, was surrounded by lush forest. Inside, the place was half-full of avidly listening women. Kai and Arjun were on the center stage, Arjun seated and Kai giving a commanding speech.

When she looked at him, she felt a sort of thump in her groin. It had been what seemed ages since she had looked at a muscular man, and while she should, she felt, have been feeling just joy to see her fellow astronaut, instead she was experiencing pure lust. She wanted him and she wanted him then and there and hard and long. It was terrible and with the intensity of the situation, she felt a vast loss. No men in the world but these two, and what the hell were they doing now?

"The question," Kai boomed, his voice amplified somehow, "is why are you letting the government of Iceland dominate your own island? Greenland dwarfs Iceland in size and what it has to offer! Their cities there seem much more cosmopolitan with more universities, culture, and riches. Compared to Reykjavik, Nuuk is primitive! Why do you put up with this? You should have your own government, your own leaders and not ones subservient to Reykjavik! If they won't listen to reason, then break away by force. Take control! Stop being complacent! There is land beyond here too that you claim is no longer populated—why not take it and spread out? Why not move beyond this limited way of living?"

"But we've been happy!" shouted a woman in the front row.

"You have a world to reconquer!" boomed Kai. He paused. "But you need men to help you do it. You need men to push on, to invent and create!"

There was a loud silence. Oh, Kai, Indira thought, why did you say that?

Some women got up and walked out. But others stayed and made a low rumble with their talking.

He patiently waited. Arjun looked nervous.

"We will end for today," Kai finished. "But I'll be back and you can speak with me daily. I'm at the Gathers Hotel. Not hard to locate me." He laughed and looked right at Indira. Apparently, he had not missed when she entered, and recognized her immediately.

Some women lingered to talk to them, mostly ignoring Arjun. Arjun did not look happy.

"Kai," said Indira, throwing her arms around his neck. Surprised, he held her close.

She felt an overwhelming urge to merge with him. How had she gone this long without male companionship? Why had she left William so much to himself?

"William is dead," she told the two men. They were surprised, but did not seem to care enough.

"One of the last three men on Earth," she said for emphasis.

"There will be more," said Kai with confidence. "All that sperm we're forced to donate."

Indira was surprised. "Don't you know? They don't save the Y chromosome sperm. They don't permit Y sperm to fertilize an egg!"

The men looked shocked. "Why?" said Arjun. "Why wouldn't they want men? Look at this place, how fixed it is, how boring! Nothing changes, it's like the Middle Ages or something! Why isn't there a bridge across that inlet? Why are they using old aircraft? The medicine seems very advanced but everyday life is—"

She cut him off. "I guess it's a matter of priorities. Maybe what is important to women is not the same as what matters to men."

"But you sure enjoyed the things we invented, didn't you?"

"Some of it, yes. But a lot of it, no."

"Like what?" said Kai. "What didn't you enjoy?"

"Weapons," said Indira firmly. "I didn't enjoy those."

"But they kept you safe!"

"What did they keep us safe from?" she snapped back.

They had the sense not to answer that question.

That evening, she and Kai made love. There were little preliminaries. Neither of them wasted time being coy. Indira had never before enjoyed sex so much. The next morning, she was hungry and at him again; there was desperation about it, as if she knew somehow that after this, she would never again make love with a man. She wanted to feel his hard flesh and smell his odors. She traced her fingers over his arms and stomach, felt the stubble on his chin, the Adam's apple in his throat.

He was back at the Round House the next afternoon, once again raising questions to his now hardcore followers. "We can make Iceland see what we want forcefully," he said. "No need to cause mass destruction, but just enough to make them see."

She knew when she heard these words that Kai and Arjun were doomed. It did not take long. After their next sperm milking, they were told they needed vaccination and given injections with a little gun. It took less than a minute for each to die.

She cried for days afterwards, could not stop sobbing off and on, but then within a couple of weeks calmed down and suspected that a new life grew within her. "We will check to see what it is," said the gynecologist. She knew what that meant.

"Female," the smiling doctor announced a day later. "You are having a daughter with new genetic material! You should be proud."

She left for Iceland the next day to share with Runa and the others this wonderful news. This was her world now and she would live in it.