Homecoming by Kristine Kathryn Rusch Id been down maybe four hours long enough to go through the newest version of decon --a rayof light that poked every part of the body with gentle warmth -- not long enough to get asense of this American 89 years in my future. Technology was different --that seemed obvious laws were different --noticed that just a fewminutes ago but people seemed to be the same preoccupied with their own agendas too busy tohear let alone answer questions. Not that there was anyone to ask. I was sitting in what passed for a police precinct interviewroom a windowless square with blank white walls so clean I could almost see myself a tablealso white with tiny fingerprint shaped indentations. No one sat across from me. I got asense they all huddled outside the room watching the 100 year old man who looked like he wasthirty-five --or depending on your point of view the thirty-five year old man who wasactually well over 100. My stomach was tied in loops --this certainly wasnt the homecoming Idbeen expecting. Not that Id been expecting a particularly good one. Hell anything could havehappened --an asteroid couldve wiped out all life on Earth for all we knew --at least until wereached Earth Central and managed to jury-rig our communications equipment so that we couldunscramble their messages somewhere around the Moon. Wed been celebrating during our glide from the Moon to Earth celebrating and trying to figureout how to land the damn ship according to the parameters Earth Central had sent to us.Everything was different which we had expected but we hadnt expected our equipment to be soantique by Earths point of view as to be nearly non-functional. Someone slipped up and told us they thought we were dead. Seemed they never got ourtransmissions once we left the solar system. Or maybe theyd get them years from now when itno longer mattered. Comptin figured theyd upgraded their equipment forgot all about us anddidnt set anything to receive. Worthy thought that we just didnt aim the communicationsequipment right after wed left the solar system. Me I was beginning to figure the screw-up was just one of many that was plaguing us in ourrelationship with Earth. Or my relationship anyway. The others seemed just fine. They wereheading off toward their grand homecoming