Doppelganger

Go over again, what we have so far."

"At 8:45 PM Houston time, the Constellation encountered a....well, it was sort of a......"

"Yes, Colonel?"

"Well, sir, it’s not easy to explain. It looked like...this is going to sound crazy, but it looked like a tornado."

"A tornado in space?"

"Yes sir, that’s the best way I can describe it. When you see the tapes from the Constellation’s video recorders, you’ll see what I mean."

"And, the Constellation disappeared into this tornado?"

"General, it’s more like they were sucked into it. They were pulled right into it in spite of their front thrusters being on when it happened."

"And then?"

"The tornado disappeared and the Constellation vanished with it. We’ve had no contact with them since"

"Did radar give us any more data on this space tornado?"

"Well, General, that’s strange, too. Radar showed no evidence of anything near the space craft. Whatever it was can’t be detected by radar."

"What else do we know, Sam?"

"Very little. We’re going over all the data from the on-board flight recorder tapes, but so far they’ve been no help at all."

"All right Sam, get back to me when you have ........."

The phone on the General’s desk began ringing and flashing.

"Maybe, that’s more news," the General said, motioning Sam to answer the call.

Picking up the phone, Sam listened for a few moments before saying, "Yes .......When? ............That’s great .........What...........That’s impossible............I see..........All right, Captain. Keep me posted."

Returning the phone to it’s cradle, Sam looked shaken as he looked at the General once again.

"What is it, Sam? You look like you’ve seen a ghost."

"General, ten minutes ago, the Constellation suddenly appeared five hundred feet above the runway at Edwards Air Force Base and they’ve just made a successful landing."

"That is good news. How are Fisher and Borland?"

"They seem to be fine, sir, They’ll be flying them back here to the Space center soon, but ah........"

"What is it, Sam?"

"General, the first people to reach the Constellation reported that Colonel Fisher and Major Borland appear to be twenty years older than they were when they left several hours ago."

Tom Fisher and Terry Borland sat in General Wiley’s office slumped in their chairs. They looked depressed, frustrated and close to exhaustion. Tom looked at Sam McCord with the eyes of a totally confused man as he said, "Sam, we’ve answered everyone’s questions. We’ve told you all we know. Now how long before we can get out of here? I’d like to see my wife."

"In the last two days we’ve been prodded, poked and stuck with every size needle known to man. Tom’s right. We need to see our families," Terry added.

"That’s why I’m here," Sam said. "You’re right. You’ve answered all our questions and taken all the tests. Now I need to discuss a few things with you which we haven’t talked about."

"Discuss a few things? What could possibly be left to discuss?" Tom asked

"How old are you, Tom?"

"Oh, come on, Sam. You know how old I am. Check my service record if you’ve forgotten."

"Humor me. How old are you?"

"I’m 53. Now can we get out of here?"

"And you, Terry? How old are you?"

"48. What’s this all about, Sam?"

"Have either of you noticed anything strange since you’ve been back?"

"We were sucked into some sort of whirlwind in space and blacked out," Terry replied "Then we came to just a few minutes from touchdown at Edwards and barely managed to gain control of the ship in time to land and you want to know if anything seems strange?"

"Terry, I know you’ve been through a lot, but please bear with me. Have either of you noticed anything unusual since you’ve landed?"

Looking even more puzzled than before, Tom asked, "Where’s all of this going, Sam?"

"I’ll give it to you just as straight as I can.