The Other Earth Read Online Free Page A

I'm just excited to see what it brings with it" I told him.
    "Randi, look." He said, pointing at the screen.
    I looked over and saw that the spac e bot was opening its landing gear only moments away from landing in Houston. The entire room became silent as they watched the space bot slow down and finally land lightly on the ground, its momentum slowed by the large parachute that was now falling behind it.
    There was a thunderous uproar as everyone in the building started to cheer at once. I put my hands over my ears, still feeling the after effects of the drinking I had done the night before, trying to still seem excited.
    Brandon looked over at me, giving me a thumbs up and a hearty pat on the back, all awkwardness from before gone. Although any tension might have only been on my part, as Brandon had seemed unfazed by it all. The room became silent again as two men in bio-hazard suits walked out to the space bot and examined it.
    I watched in awe as they slowly opened the space bot and extracted a small thumb drive from the inside. People started to clap again, but not in the same upheaval as before, and for that I could not be anything but grateful. I looked over and saw that Brandon had moved on to another group of co-workers that I recognized from the bar the night before, all hugging and shaking hands with each other.
     
    ***
    I walked out of the restroom, thinking about heading over to my cubicle to get a little bit of work done while everyone else was distracted when I heard a herd of people talking very loudly. Too curious as to what was going on I headed back over the conference room. As I turned the corner everyone was standing around talking to each other excitedly, a few trying to get Jessica to speak to them. I looked up at the screen and saw what looked to be a picture of our solar system. I looked around confused as to what the uproar was when I saw Brandon standing in a corner alone, looking as though he was in deep thought.
    "What happened? I walked away for five freaking minutes and I miss everything" I said to him as I got close enough that I knew he would hear me.
    He looked up at me and then back at the screen, "Do you not see what is happening?" he asked me pointing to the screen next to him.
    I shrugged, "It's a picture of our solar system, so what?" I said, figuring that the early pictures of the space bot would b e of our own planet before it went into the black hole.
    He shook his head, "I think you have been gone longer than five minutes then. These are pictures taken from the space bot. Yes, it does look like our solar system, but these were taken after it had al ready passed through the black hole Randi."
    I felt my eyes go wide as I looked back up at the screen. What he was saying was crazy, it was impossible. "What are you saying Brandon?"
    "On the other side of that black hole is another solar system nearly identical to our own, with another planet also close to an exact match of Earth. There is one difference though, can you see it?" he asked, his eyes shining.
    I looked back up to the screen and studied the picture. The placement of the planets did look exact to ours; only it looked as though maybe the sun was a little different, though not enough that a normal person would notice. I stepped closer, trying to get a better look at the planet that looked to me to be exactly like ours. I finally noticed the difference Brandon was talking about and gasped.
    "Brandon." I said quietly, never taking my eyes off of the screen. "How is it possible?"
    "What do you see?" he asked me, walking up until he was right next to me.
    "That planet, it does look like ours, but not like our planet today. It almost looks like a picture of our planet would have looked over three centuries ago. I don't see that they have the pollution cloud that ours now has." I said, in awe.
    Brandon nodded, "Yes, this planet looks to have water, grass, land , trees, oxygen, and maybe even intelligent life similar to ours. Only,