Captain Elias Vance stepped onto the rocky terrain, his boots sinking slightly into the dark, ashen soil. His heart pounded with exhilaration. This was it—the discovery of a lifetime. A new planet, untouched by human hands, orbiting the distant star designated Kepler-452b. His ship, Odyssey, had suffered damage during descent, but that didn’t matter now.
Elias glanced at his surroundings. The sky above was a hazy blue, much like Earth’s, but with a faint violet hue at the edges. A dense forest stretched into the distance, trees swaying gently despite the lack of any noticeable wind. He took a deep breath, his suit’s filters analyzing the atmosphere. Surprisingly, it was breathable.
"This is Captain Elias Vance of the Odyssey," he spoke into his helmet’s recorder. "I have successfully landed on an uncharted planet. Initial scans indicate Earth-like conditions. Proceeding with exploration."
He took a cautious step forward. The ground felt oddly familiar beneath his boots. He activated his visor scanner, sweeping the landscape. The readings startled him—composition of soil, air, and even background radiation levels all matched Earth’s almost exactly. That was impossible. This was a different star system, light-years away from home.
Pushing the thoughts aside, Elias pressed forward into the woods. The trees were tall, their bark rough and dark, but the leaves—somehow, they were identical to those of an oak. Birds chirped in the distance, their calls eerily similar to robins. A chill ran down his spine. How could convergent evolution produce creatures so alike to those of Earth?
Then he saw it.
A road. A paved road. Cracked and worn, but unmistakably human-made. His breath hitched. His mind raced through possibilities—had some other expedition beaten him here? Was this a lost colony? Had humanity’s reach stretched further than he’d realized?
Elias followed the road, his heart hammering. Soon, the trees parted, revealing a small town nestled in a valley. The buildings were old but standing, their architecture reminiscent of early 21st-century America. A rusted-out truck sat abandoned at an intersection. The sign above the general store read Maple Grove.
His blood ran cold.
He knew that name. He grew up in a town called Maple Grove.
Staggering forward, he reached for the nearest structure—a house with peeling blue paint. The door was slightly ajar. He hesitated, then pushed it open. The interior was coated in dust, furniture covered in sheets. A family portrait sat on the mantle.
His heart stopped.
It was his family.
His mother, father, and sister, frozen in time, smiling out at him from the faded photograph. He ripped off his helmet, desperate to prove this was a dream, that he hadn’t gone insane. The air was crisp, real. The scent of old wood and dust filled his lungs.
“No,” he whispered. “This isn’t possible.”
His mind spun as he stumbled out of the house. His gaze darted around, searching for some sign, some clue to explain what was happening. Then, he saw movement.
A figure stood at the end of the street.
It was him.
Elias stared at his doppelgänger, identical down to the smallest detail, except for the vacant expression in his counterpart’s eyes. The other Elias tilted his head slightly before speaking in a voice that made the real Elias’s skin crawl.
"You shouldn't be here."
A surge of panic shot through Elias as his double advanced toward him. "What is this?" he demanded, backing away. "Who are you?"
"You already know," the other Elias said, his voice disturbingly calm. "This is Earth. Your Earth. But from a different thread of time."
Elias shook his head. "That's impossible. I traveled light-years. This is Kepler-452b!"
His counterpart smiled faintly. "Did you? Or did Odyssey slip through the cracks between realities?"
The truth crashed down on him like a tidal wave. He hadn’t landed on another planet. He had entered another version of Earth—one where he had never left for the stars, one where his home stood abandoned, where something had gone wrong.
The sky darkened. Shadows lengthened unnaturally. The town, silent just moments before, now hummed with an unseen presence.
The other Elias took another step forward. "You can’t stay here. It won’t let you."
Elias swallowed hard. "What won’t?"
As if in answer, a low, guttural sound echoed through the town. The buildings trembled. The very air shimmered as something ancient and unseen stirred. Elias felt his body grow weightless, as if reality itself were unraveling.
"Go back," his double urged. "Before it notices you."
Elias didn’t need further convincing. He turned and ran, bolting through the trees, back toward the crash site of Odyssey. The ground warped beneath him, gravity shifting unpredictably. His ship loomed ahead, half-buried in the soil.
Scrambling inside, he initiated emergency takeoff. The engines roared as the ship trembled, its systems struggling against the very fabric of this twisted reality. The last thing he saw before the ship lurched skyward was his double, watching him with an almost sympathetic expression.
As Odyssey breached the clouds, the world below flickered, distorting like a fractured mirror. The ship rattled violently. Then—
Silence.
The alarms ceased. The turbulence vanished. Stars stretched before him, the vast, endless void of space.
Elias exhaled shakily, checking his coordinates. His heart pounded.
He was back.
Earth—his Earth—loomed in the distance, blue and whole. His transmission beacon pinged with responses from NASA. He was home.
And yet, as he sat back in his seat, a cold dread lingered in his bones.
Had he truly escaped? Or had something followed him through?