Outland (World-Lines Book 1) (31 page)

Aug 27              Alex

Alex stood at the stack of fence-posts, contemplating his day, when Trish came up to him from behind.

“Alex, can I talk to you for a second?”

Alex turned to her. A jolt of anxiety ran through him.
Oh crap, this is it. I’m getting dumped. Just watch.

“Hi, Trish. What’s up?”

“That’s what I want to ask you. We were doing really
well together, then for no reason
you shut down on me.”

Alex stared at her in disbelief for a second, put his head down and said, “Aw, crap. So I made things worse
.
I should have told Frankie to fuck off.”

Trish tilted her head and looked at him quizzically.

Alex gave her a lopsided grin and tried to explain. “Frankie told me I was coming on too strong and I’d end up scaring you off. So I tried to back off, and it looks like I overdid it.”

Trish gave him the hairy eyeball. “Well, Frankie wasn’t entirely
wrong. You did seem to be kind of all over me for a while there, but this is worse.” She laughed. “Oh God, we’ve turned back into teenagers!”

He took her hand. “I’m sorry, Trish. I didn’t want to blow it. I can’t explain it exactly, but this all seems a lot more important now. Like we’re all suddenly
adults whether we like it or not.”

Trish stepped a little closer and looked down. “That’s pretty much right. This could be our home for the rest of our lives.” She looked up at him with a shy smile. “And it might not just be us. I’m late.”

“What do you mean? Late for…” Alex’s eyes got wide as his brain finally caught up with the conversation. “Oh…”

A goofy grin slowly formed on his face and got wider and wider. “Oh! Oh wow!”

Trish looked up at him with her head cocked at a slight angle. “Maybe we should discuss this at my place…”

Go big or go home, dude.
“Sounds good to me!”

Aug 28              Omni

The news spread through Rivendell like wildfire. If there had ever been any intention to keep it quiet, that plan was out the window. Trish Lopez, one of the scouts, had announced that she was pregnant. The perma-grin on Alex Shaw’s face left no doubt about who was to blame. Once the news hit, a couple of other women admitted that they were late as well.

The Planning Committee was in session. Lieutenant Collins was attending as the new Lead for Security and Scouting. Fred and Anson had happily bowed out with the arrival of the National Guard, stating their intention to start a Bocce and Chess Club.

Now everyone was looking at everyone else, waiting for someone to talk first.

Finally, Bill spoke up. “Momma said there’d be days like this.”

Lieutenant Collins looked at Richard. “He quotes Motown, too?”

“He quotes everything
!
” Richard answered. “We haven’t found the
off
switch yet.”

Bill smiled, way ahead on points.

“Anyway, we have a problem. Uh, it is a problem, right?” Richard continued.

“Well, medically, yes. In about eight months, it will be,” Krista replied. “Before modern medicine, up to fifty percent of newborns didn’t survive past three months of age. We’ll beat that statistic of course, because we know about sanitation. But we’ll be nowhere near the zero point six percent we’re used to in the modern world, not without some help.” She looked at Joseph, then at Richard. “The University Health Center is already on our list of targets, but we need to bump it up now.”

“If I could get the plumbing supplies from the Home Depot,” Bill cut in, “we’d have clean water.”

“If we could go find a couple more vehicles,” Joseph added, “we could do several of these important things at once!”

“Actually, we can help you out there, since we have these army trucks sitting around now.” Lieutenant Collins pointed out. “But it would be handy to have fuel storage tanks on this side.”

“Which also would be very handy,” Nick interjected, “for getting us construction supplies for those buildings for the winter…”

“And I remind you, gentlemen,” Samuel Wildman said, “that we still have to break ground before fall if you want spring wheat!”

Richard put his head in his hands. It was going to be a long day.

Aug 29              Richard

Bill and Richard stood outside, surrounded by tables and stands covered with equipment, parts, and tools. Bill had two odd-looking wind turbines up on stands. The turbines were slowly turning in a breeze that, Richard admitted to himself, didn’t seem strong enough to move anything.

Bill watched his handiwork with obvious pride for a moment, then turned to the measuring instruments on the table. They had gathered a lot of equipment from one of those sustainable energy supply stores, most notably a large number of storage batteries and a charging system to buffer the generator output. The store had also contained a stack of solar panels, which were now leaning against the south side of one of the sheds.

“We’ll put the solar panels on top of the sheds and add their output to the grid when we have time,” he said, as much to himself as to Richard.

Richard stood there and waited. Bill would get there when he got there, and meanwhile Richard was content to let the day wash over him. The sun was shining—amazing weather on this side—and felt good warming his face.

He’d had an unexpectedly good time today when he ended up seated beside a girl named Suzie at breakfast. Suzie was bright, interesting, and didn’t kill people. Richard felt a little ashamed of himself, but he had to admit that Monica was turning out to be a full-time job. And that was without any real expectation of an exclusive arrangement. She seemed to be quite happy with both Bill and himself vying for her. Maybe it was time to let Bill have a clear field and look for someone who was looking for someone, so to speak.

And for maybe the first time since he was ten years old, Richard felt at home. He had people who he considered friends, who he would trust with his life. As far as he was concerned, Earthside could go jump.

Meanwhile, Bill’s monologue seemed to be running down. Richard started paying more attention.

“There’s a pretty steady breeze from the west most days,” Bill said, “and on balance it seems to be enough for us when we’re not running too much equipment, with a little left over to keep the batteries charged. The solar cells will add to that. And of course we can always add more turbines.”

“So we have full-time electricity then?” Richard asked.

“Yeah, but we should try to avoid becoming dependent on it for everything. If everyone starts running air conditioners, it’s lights out. Literally!”

“The new pioneers…” Richard mused. He grinned. “Next thing, we’ll be churning butter.”

“Mmmmm… butter…” Bill replied.

Richard laughed, gave a casual wave, and walked off, whistling the
Andy Griffith
theme.

Aug 30              Kevin

Kevin and Bill were in the mad science lair. Bill put the panel back onto the portal generator that had been shot by the goons, while Kevin watched.

“And, done,” Bill said. “I think we may have managed to salvage the device. Among their many failures, the morons shot it in the power supply.
Those
we can get anywhere.”

Kevin considered. “We should probably
test it.”

Bill thought for a moment, then a slow smile spread on his face. “Yes we should, Kevin. You know, we could test it by just connecting up to Earthside…”

Kevin looked at Bill quizzically.

Bill continued, “But we’ve done that so many times…”

Kevin looked alarmed.

“And we do have the pressure vessel, so it would be safe…”

Kevin’s head was shaking back and forth, faster and faster.

“And you can’t tell me you aren’t curious…”

Kevin started to back away, while continuing to shake his head emphatically.

“Oh come on, Kevin. Don’t you wonder even a little bit?”

“Wonder about what?” They both turned to see Monica walking up.

“Bill wants to test the portal repairs by connecting to the next Earth,” Kevin said, in a tone that indicated his disapproval.

Monica looked at Bill. “So what’s the hold-up?”

Bill laughed, while Kevin looked at them both and said, “Oh God, I’m surrounded by lunatics.”

“Oh come on, Kevin,” Bill said. “We’ve got the pressure vessel, like I said. Richard’s dead-man switch is a good piece of engineering, though you didn’t hear it from me. We’d just have it on for a second or two.”

Kevin looked back and forth between Bill and Monica, then slumped, defeated. “Okay, but if anyone asks, I’m telling them you threatened me.”

Bill and Monica both laughed, and they started setting up. Bill and Monica moved the pressure vessel into position, while Kevin disassembled the pole-cam. In a half-hour or so, they had everything set up and the video image on the tablet showed a deactivated gate.

“Should we stand outside the shed?” Kevin asked.

“Honestly, if we end up destroying the shed, I think I’d rather go up with it,” Bill answered.

Kevin looked even more alarmed.

“Enough jawing,” Monica said. “Push the button dammit.”

Bill smiled at her, held up the tablet and pressed OK.

There was the usual momentary blurring, then the video showed an image of dense forest.

“Maybe more like jungle,” Monica said in response to the unspoken thought. “There are a lot of ferns and vines in there.”

As they watched, an animal entered the field of view. It was bipedal, about four feet tall, with bright patterned plumage in a predominantly red pattern. It also had taloned forearms and sharp teeth.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Bill said.

“Velociraptor?” Monica added, awe in her voice.

“Oh boy.” Kevin finished.

Epilogue

The southern hemisphere will not be spared. The volume of ash and gas pumped into the northern hemisphere will be more than sufficient to force significant quantities across the equatorial convergence zone, where it will spread and create similar problems in the south.

Over the longer term, the ash and dust in the stratosphere will cause up to a decade without summer. Every country on the planet will find its ability to produce food severely
impacted. Unable to feed their own populations, formerly
food-exporting countries will shut down their borders. Formerly
food-importing countries will not accept this decision politely. Tensions will escalate.

In the end, disease, accident, starvation, collapse of infrastructure, and internecine warfare will kill more than two billion people within the first year. Deaths will continue to outnumber births for at least a decade.

Cast of Characters