Twin Earth

The sun had gone down and heavy rain clouds had begun to set in by the time we had managed to convince Robert of our need to move our investigation to the Helix lab and to let Rachel and James join us, but thankfully my father had softened his mood by promising to report any new discoveries immediately to him first rather than to NASA.

I think Robert’s reaction had been more to do with the fact that I had wanted to go because he had clearly swallowed his pride to involve me in the first place, but I technically didn’t work for him anymore, so he couldn’t do anything about it and a part of me delighted in that fact. That said, I was starving. I’d barely eaten since the early hours of the morning and it didn’t look like we were going to get any food soon. My nausea was also not being helped by the fact that Rachel was cooing over my father like a lovesick teenager. I knew how respected my father was in his field, but it never ceased to disgust me how some people, mainly women, fornicated over him. I mean, he wasn’t even that good looking and was quite old in my opinion.

“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” I asked James, nursing my stomach yet again. “I think I’m beginning to feel car sick. Do we have any food in here?”

“Here, have this,” Rachel replied throwing me a Snickers.

“Ugh, I hate these things,” I moaned. “Too many nuts.”

“No pleasing some people,” Rachel replied grabbing the chocolate bar back and opening it herself.

“Seriously, shouldn’t we have been at the Helix lab by now?” I asked confused. “We’ve been on the road now for over an hour.”

“It’s the sat nav. I think it’s sending me false information. I’ve been down this lane twice now, I’m convinced.”

Then suddenly James braked hard, slamming us all forward in our seats.

“Ow, why did you do that?” Rachel moaned from the back, peeling chocolate of her lap.

“Look,” James announced pointing forward.

As my eyes adjusted to the deserted country lane, through the onslaught of rain, I was surprised to see a huge flock of birds just sat in the road looking confused.

“What the hell?” Rachel whispered leaning forward.

“Are they pigeons?” I asked.

“No, they’re Artic Terns,” my father whispered, stunned. “Why are they here?”

“Are they not supposed to be?” I asked confused.

“It’s almost December. Artic Terns spend their winters in the southern hemisphere, like a second summer,” my father replied. “They come back to the North in the spring.”

“Yes, but not to the middle of England surely?” James retorted.

“James, did you not say your Sat Nav is sending false information?” my father continued.

“Yeah, it’s been playing up since this morning.”

“I’d use Google maps,” Rachel mumbled sitting back down and fiddling with her phone.

“What are you suggesting Dad?” I asked.

“Well, maybe the asteroid has affected our navigational systems somehow.”

“But birds don’t rely on technology?” I replied confused.

“No, the Earth’s magnetic field.”

“And it’s not just these birds either,” Rachel stated passing me her phone. “The news is reporting all sorts of odd migratory patterns all over the world. There’s a report here of finding Snow Geese in the Middle East!”

“They’re a North American bird,” my father stated in surprise. “This is most odd indeed.”

For a few minutes we sat in silence, simply staring and waiting for the birds to move in front of us as we slowly edged forward. The birds didn’t look well at all. They were clearly suffering from the cold and wet weather of a wintery Britain.

“Poor things,” I whispered as we finally drove past them.

“I’ve managed to download a map on my phone. The lab is over twenty minutes away,” Rachel stated unhappily.

“Twenty minutes away?” I replied. “This is ridiculous.”

Shrugging Rachel leaned back again and looked out the window. “Everything about today is ridiculous,” she replied.

“No joke there.”