Final Destination, Chapter 4: September 21, 3094

It was the most horrible day of my life.

This morning I woke up, as excited as could be. “This is it!” I told Al enthusiastically. “It’s taken us eighteen months, but we’re finally here. How far are we from home?”

“1,479 light-years,” Al said.

“Great,” I said. “Just go ahead and enter orbit around Larson’s Folly and we’ll take it from there. Let’s do an aerial survey before we actually land.”

The computer paused. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, Miles Porter.”

“Oh? And why would that be?”

“Because, Miles Porter, there is no Larson’s Folly.”

That got my attention. “What do you mean, there is no Larson’s Folly? Did you get us lost or something? Don’t tell me that you took a wrong turn or that we went in the wrong direction.”

“I am offended by your lack of faith in me, Miles Porter. I do not make mistakes. These are the coordinates for the star system that was said to contain Larson’s Folly, but it is not here.”

“You mean the entire planet is missing?”

“I mean, Miles Porter, that the entire star system is missing. None of the planets are here. The star is not here. There is, in fact, no longer a star system at this location.”

“You’re kidding,” I said. “Do you mean to tell me that Larson’s Folly was just a hoax?”

“Hardly that,” the computer replied. “It existed at these coordinates; of that I am sure. However, it no longer exists at these coordinates. The entire star system has been destroyed.”

“Destroyed! What on earth do you mean, destroyed? You can’t destroy an entire star system! The worst the war could have done was lay waste to the surface of the planet, Al – you ought to know that. Nobody ever developed a weapon that could vaporize an entire star system. That’s just not possible.”

“I am afraid it is, Miles Porter. There is no longer a star at this location, but there used to be. There are no longer planets in this area, but there are a few charred pieces of rock left. Something has laid waste to the entire star system. There are no longer any planets here.”

For several hours I could do nothing but sit there and stare out the cockpit window. He was right: the star really was missing. And the planets. And the moons. The whole thing was just gone, and I didn’t know what to do.

I didn’t know what I was expecting to find when I got here, but I was definitely not expecting to find nothing. I thought there would at least be ruins left that might hold something that I could bring back to Tau Ceti. To come all this way and find nothing was unbelievable.

“What happened?” I said aloud.

“I do not know,” the computer replied. “Would you like me to try to find out?”

“Yes,” I said. “Do some scanning. See if you can find ruins, rocks, I don’t know, anything. There’s just got to be something out there, Al. We can’t have come all this way for nothing.”

“I will let you know what I find.”

I knew the war had caused a lot of damage. It destroyed all the tachyon matter transporters and the tachyon communicators, which cut off the colonies from each other. It laid cities to waste and blew things up and destroyed the Commonwealth. But this was impossible.

There had to be something left. There just had to be.

* * * * *

“I have found some things that may be of interest,” the computer said a few hours later.

“Let’s have it.”

“Aside from random particles, intense radiation, and clouds of gas, there are what appears to be the remnants of a few planets. I have been tracking the course of a number of fragments of charred, melted rock, some of which are as large as a few cubic miles. It would appear that a source of intense plasma struck the planets at an enormous speed and broke them apart, and in the process destroyed the star as well.”

“Ok,” I said. “Let’s do this. It took us forever to get out here and I’m not about to leave until I’ve exhausted every possible option. Let’s search each and every one of those rock fragments that are out there to see if we can find any clues. It might be – I don’t know. Maybe we’ll find something. We’ve got to try, Al; we’ve got to exhaust every possibility before we leave.”

“Very good, Miles Porter. I will begin my investigation. This may take some time.”

“Take all the time you need,” I replied. “Just don’t miss anything. There’s got to be something left.”