Commander Ethan Cole awoke to the familiar hum of his spacecraft’s systems shutting down. The mission had been a success—a long six-month stint aboard the Artemis-9 space station, followed by a routine reentry. As the capsule's parachutes deployed, he exhaled with relief, watching the deep blue planet rushing toward him. Home.
The moment the capsule crashed into the warm sand, he felt a strange unease settle in his chest. His hands trembled as he unbuckled his harness and popped open the hatch. The air smelled different. Saltier. He had been expecting the sharp, mechanical efficiency of the recovery team waiting to retrieve him, the familiar voices crackling through his headset. But there was only silence.
Stepping out onto the sand, he shielded his eyes against the bright midday sun. Waves rolled onto the shore in a rhythmic dance, their white foam licking at the golden beach. Palm trees swayed in a gentle breeze. It looked like Earth. It felt like Earth. But something was... off.
No rescue team. No helicopters. No radio transmission.
A deep thrumming sound sent vibrations through the sand beneath his boots. He turned his gaze skyward, and his breath hitched in his throat.
A craft hovered just above the beach—a massive, disc-shaped vessel, its metallic surface reflecting the sunlight like liquid mercury. It made no noise other than the deep bass reverberation that rattled his bones. Blue lights pulsed along its edges, moving in synchronized waves. Ethan's heart pounded.
“This isn’t right,” he whispered.
He tapped the communicator on his wrist. “Mission Control, this is Commander Ethan Cole. I have landed, but… I am not where I should be. Do you read me?”
Static.
A shadow passed over him as the craft shifted slightly, angling downward. Ethan backed up, his boots sinking into the hot sand. Every rational part of his mind screamed at him to run, but where? He had no idea where he was. His training had never prepared him for this.
Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the UFO shot into the sky, vanishing within seconds.
Ethan staggered, trying to catch his breath. He needed to find someone—anyone. He spotted a small beachside shack in the distance, its wooden frame worn by the elements. He started toward it, his astronaut suit feeling unbearably heavy under the relentless sun.
The door creaked as he stepped inside. It was empty, save for a radio, a few tattered maps pinned to the wall, and a dusty table. He picked up the radio and turned the dial.
Static.
Then—a voice.
"—Cole? Do you copy? This is Mission Control. Where are you?"
Relief flooded his chest. “I copy! I landed, but something’s wrong. I saw… something. A craft. It wasn’t human.”
A long pause.
Then, a different voice, one Ethan didn’t recognize. “Commander Cole, you need to listen carefully. You are not on Earth. Not your Earth.”
A chill crawled up his spine. “What do you mean?”
“You reentered through an anomaly. You landed on an Earth in a parallel reality. Close to your own, but not the same.”
Ethan’s mouth went dry. He gripped the radio tighter. “You expect me to believe that?”
“Look around. You already know something isn’t right.”
Ethan turned, his eyes scanning the shack. The maps on the wall—there was something odd about them. The continents weren’t quite where they should be. The names of cities were subtly wrong. Los Angelis instead of Los Angeles. New Brooklyn instead of New York.
His stomach twisted. This wasn’t home.
“Is there a way back?” he asked, his voice hoarse.
A pause. Then, the voice responded, “The craft you saw—it belongs to them. They’re watching you.”
Ethan’s breath caught. He rushed outside, scanning the sky. No sign of the UFO. Only the endless ocean stretching toward the horizon.
“What do they want?”
“They may be your only way home.”
A cold wave of realization washed over him. If they could traverse dimensions, they might be the key to getting back. But how did he contact them? And what if they weren’t friendly?
A distant hum made the ground tremble. Ethan turned his gaze skyward. The craft had returned, hovering just above the shoreline, its blue lights pulsing faster now.
A beam of light shot down, enveloping him. His body felt weightless, his limbs frozen. Panic surged, but before he could scream, everything turned white.
Ethan awoke in darkness. The air was thick with an unfamiliar scent—like ozone and something metallic. He was inside the craft. The walls glowed faintly, pulsing with veins of light that traveled in rhythmic waves.
Then, a voice—not through his ears, but directly into his mind.
“You do not belong here.”
Ethan turned, searching for the source. Shadows shifted, revealing figures—tall, humanoid, with elongated features and eyes that shimmered like liquid silver. Their skin seemed to ripple like water in moonlight.
“Can you send me back?” he asked, his voice shaking.
The beings regarded him for a long moment. Finally, one of them stepped forward.
“There is a cost.”
Ethan swallowed hard. “What cost?”
“You must remember nothing.”
His mind reeled. To return home, he would have to forget this—forget the anomaly, the parallel Earth, the beings before him. All of it.
A part of him resisted. The scientist in him wanted to know, to remember. But the man in him—the one who longed for home, for his real Earth—knew what he had to do.
“Do it.”
The beings raised a hand. A soft hum filled his skull, and darkness swallowed him whole.
Ethan’s eyes fluttered open. The sky above him was a familiar blue, the air crisp and warm. A helicopter hovered nearby, rescue personnel rushing toward him.
“Commander Cole! Welcome back, sir!”
He blinked, dazed. The last thing he remembered was reentering Earth’s atmosphere. The mission had gone smoothly, hadn’t it?
A man in a suit approached, extending a hand. “We’ve been tracking your descent. Everything went according to plan. You feeling alright?”
Ethan hesitated, his mind clouded, a faint unease pressing at the edges of his consciousness. Something tugged at him—something important, just beyond reach.
“I… I think so.”
As they led him toward the recovery vehicle, he glanced at the ocean. For a fleeting moment, he swore he saw a shimmer in the sky—a disc-like shape, vanishing into the clouds.
And then it was gone.
He shook his head, dismissing it as exhaustion. After all, he was finally home.
Wasn’t he?