Outland (World-Lines Book 1) (9 page)

July 3                            Bill

Richard gestured at the varied collection of parts, cables, and enclosures on one of the lab tables. “Okay, I’ve got all the parts for a second portal. I’ve made a significant dent in the Physics Lab inventory.” He ran a hand through his hair and grinned. “Sure hope no one suddenly
feels a need to set up a new project of their own.”

Bill looked at him with his eyebrows raised. “Is that going to be a problem?”

“No, not very likely, Bill. Most people have more sense than to be here during the summer. I’ve left a note in the inventory area, where someone would find it if they were looking.”

Bill shrugged, then gestured to another table, with its own collection of equipment. “I’ve got the people-sized gates here.” He pointed to two elliptical metal hoops, six feet on the long axis. “It’ll be a tight fit for you, but not bad for us normal mortals.”

“Elliptical gates? Are you sure that’ll work?”

“Kevin said it would, although I guess we’ll have to test it.”

Bill walked over to the table and gestured to a diagram. “I haven’t been able to make the truck-sized gate, though. Problems with parts, not enough room in the fabrication area to lay it out, and I’m not sure how I’d get it out of there. It should be designed so it can be disassembled, but I just don’t have the tools for that. I’m thinking maybe after our first trip, when we have some funds, I can either hire it out or rent some equipment and do it in the warehouse.”

“Yeah, one step at a time. Hey, where’s the Faraday cage on the back?” Richard pointed to one of the gates.

“Turned out to be unnecessary for gating to the other Earths. Another of Kevin’s suggestions. I tried the medium one after I removed the cage, and it connected fine.” Bill looked at his feet and chuckled. “About three seconds after turning it on, I remembered Monica’s experience with the smilodon, and turned it off real quick. Which is why I haven’t tested the big ones yet. I’d like some backup around for that.”

Richard laughed. “Well, you ain’t wrong.”

“Anyway, not having the cage saves some weight and some material. I’ve mounted some light metal plate on the back of the gates to brace them. They don’t have a lot of structural strength on their own.”

Bill hesitated for a moment, then turned to face Richard. “Hey, Richard, I’ve been thinking. What should we call the other side? Earth Two?” Bill paused for a moment, then said in a too-casual tone, “How about
Wildside
?”

Richard made a
pfft
sound. “Even if I hadn’t already read that book, I’d be suspicious of you, Bill. How about just
Otherside
?”

“Lame,” Bill replied. “Derivative without being witty.”

The argument continued while they loaded up the van.

July 4                            Matt

We know of no strategies for reducing the power of major volcanic eruptions. Even science fiction cannot produce a credible mechanism for averting a super-eruption.

– From a 2005 report by the Geological Society of London

Matt held the door for Erin, and they entered the warehouse. They found Bill holding a pole in the air and waving it around slowly. Matt walked over and examined the pole in detail.

It appeared to be one of those extendable fiberglass poles used for trimming tree branches. At the end of the pole, Bill had removed the usual saw and branch-clipper. In their place, he had mounted the original eight-inch gate, still sporting the nine symbols, but without the cage.

He had mounted a camera in front of the gate, pointing into it. Cables ran down the pole to the portal generator box and to a monitor. The monitor showed an ever-changing scene of the other Earth as seen through the gate, as Bill waved the pole around.

“Hey, that’s pretty cool, Bill,” Matt said. “And smilodon-proof. Monica will appreciate that.”

Matt noticed that Bill’s expression brightened at the mention of Monica.
Uh oh. If I had a spidey sense, it would be going off.

Bill nodded at the pole. “Yeah, thanks. I kind of MacGyvered it together. I took the cage off the back and put a back-plate on, like with the larger gates. It’s cut down the weight and power requirements. The pole-cam is easier to handle now.”

Bill continued after a pause, “Listen, Richard and I were discussing things last night, and we’ve come up with a name for the other Earth. Richard shot down pretty much everything I came up with—”

“
I can imagine,” Matt said.

“—so we ended up with
Outland
by default.”

“Works for me,” Erin said. “As long as it’s also
Goldland
.”

“So, on to business,” Bill said. He leaned the pole carefully against a shelving unit and turned off the portal generator box. “We’ve got this pole-cam for scoping out the situation on the other side. We’ve got the three-foot gate. We’ve got a couple of larger six-foot gates. We’ve got spare parts—you’re welcome—and a generator. In a pinch, the equipment can run off the vehicle through an inverter, which we also have.”

Bill grinned at his friend. “The question is not
Am I paranoid?
, but
Am I paranoid
enough
?
”

“And we’ve got the destination information,” Erin added. “As soon as everyone gets here, I’ll go over it. We’ve got all the supplies.” She pointed to a pile of items in the corner. “And a moving van to carry the portal equipment. We’re bringing a couple other vehicles, and I’m bringing our family dog.”

“Would that be as a guard dog?” Bill asked.

“More or less,” Erin said. “Lucy is pretty undisciplined, but she has a good nose and a deep bark. She’ll make a good early-warning system. We’ll stop in Kearney and pick her up. My parents won’t mind her being gone for a few days. She’s a bit of a handful.”

Matt went over to the kitchen area to make coffee, and Erin went to help.

“It’s starting to get real,” she said.

“Yep. I guess I should go get the shotguns out of the truck. We want to have everything ready when Richard and Monica get here.”

“Grab my camera, too?”

Matt smiled at her, then headed back to his vehicle.

July 4                            Monica

Monica held the tablet and watched the video, while Bill waved the pole-cam in the air. So far, there didn’t seem to be anything dangerous in the area.

Bill kept trying to maneuver around to see the tablet, and Monica was having fun frustrating his attempts. Bill seemed to be enjoying the game, but she was pretty sure Richard was glaring at them.

“Looks clear,” Monica said, looking up from the tablet.

“Okay then, we are ready for prime time. Pleistocene excursion, Take One.” Bill smiled at Monica.

“Then let’s do this,” Richard said. He picked up a shotgun from the arsenal that had been laid out and prepped earlier by Matt. He walked over to the six-foot gate, which was set up near the middle of the warehouse floor.

Kevin held the tablet that was slaved to the portal generator for that gate. A few pokes with his finger, and the gate opened, showing the meadows and wildlife of what Bill kept referring to as
Mutual of Omaha
Earth. The ground on the other side was even with the warehouse floor—Monica and Bill had spent a few minutes with the pole-cam earlier, picking the right spot.

Matt, Erin, Bill, and Monica picked up shotguns. The four exchanged looks, but no one made a move toward the gate.

“Oh, for God’s sake,” Monica said, exasperated. “Unless Bill wants to make some
One small step
comment, Matt should go through first.”

Matt smiled at her, turned, and stepped through the gate, followed closely by Monica and the others. They spread out into a circle and looked around.

This was nature as depicted on postcards. The landscape was predominantly meadow, with long grasses waving in the light breeze. Mild rolling hills gave just enough variation in elevation to add texture to what might otherwise have been prairie. Occasional stands of trees spread their branches to catch the sun. Scattered throughout the scene they saw small herds of deer, the occasional moose, and other less recognizable species. All of this under a sky of such an intense blue that it seemed like a new color. Patches of fluffy cumulus clouds provided just enough break in the sunshine to keep the temperature comfortable. Various kinds of birds looped and dodged through the sky, in flocks large and thick enough to blot out the sun as they flew by. As the birds passed overhead, they made a sound reminiscent of helicopters.

Monica shouldered her shotgun and pulled up her binoculars.

“Look at that!” Bill said, excitement clear in his voice. “Buffalo!”

“More likely
Bison,”
Monica said, distracted. She scanned slowly in a circle. “Looks clear so far… Holy jumping sonofabitch!”

She lowered her binoculars and pointed. “Mammoths. Honest-to-God
mammoths!
Columbian, I think.” In the distance, there were five of what appeared to be elephants.

Bill took the binoculars from her and looked through them. “Holy God!” he exclaimed. He passed the binoculars around. As each person looked, there were expressions of surprise and pleasure.

“Now that right there is worth the price of admission,” Bill said, grinning. “We can go home now.” He looked at Monica with raised eyebrows.

“Nice try, buddy! I came here for a hike. Now move your ass!”

Bill laughed and they started moving in the direction she had indicated, straight towards the mammoths. They walked past the still-open gate, waving to Richard and Kevin, who stood on the other side. Monica noted in passing that Kevin still wasn’t carrying a weapon.

As they were walking down the slight slope, Erin stopped and giggled. The rest of the group turned to her, and she pointed to the other side of the portal. The metal plate that Bill had used to brace the gates was visible, hovering unsupported in mid-air.

Bill stared at this for a few seconds, then did a facepalm.

“Well, whaddaya know,” Matt said, “turns out they have two sides!”

Bill shook his head and grinned. “I kind of suspected that would be the case, but it’s nice to have confirmation. So the plate on the back of the gate is a good security feature. You don’t want something walking through side B while you’re guarding side A.”

“Wait, what?” Monica looked at Bill in confusion.

Bill waved in the direction of the gate. “If Richard looks through the gate in the warehouse, he sees this Earth. If he walks around to the other side of it, he sees the metal plate I welded onto the back of the gate to brace it. If we look through the gate from this Earth, we see the warehouse. Around the back, we see the metal plate. If I hadn’t put the plate on it, we’d be able to walk through the gate either way.”

Monica crossed her eyes and made a face at Bill. She turned and resumed her hike towards the mammoths.

“Remember,” Erin said, “One hour at most. If Richard has to come looking for us, that’s five of us on this side. And let’s try not to get out of sight of the gate.”

Everyone indicated assent with nods and grunts.

Erin had her camera out and took pictures in different directions as they walked. A couple of times she stopped and used the zoom to take shots of the mammoths. Monica waited patiently each time until Erin was satisfied.

During one of the stops, Erin turned to Monica. “I’m still a little weirded out by the hills on this side. It doesn’t make sense. There’s no reason for it.”

When the group got within about fifty yards of the mammoths, the largest mammoths positioned themselves between the humans and the smaller juveniles, and trumpeted what was very likely a warning or challenge. Monica held up her hand and the explorers stopped. The mammoths stomped their feet a few times, but otherwise seemed satisfied with the current détente.

Erin took picture after picture at various zoom settings, while Monica used the binoculars to examine them as closely as she could.

After a few minutes, the adults resumed browsing through the grass, and the juveniles started a shoving match.

“Interesting,” Monica said. “They don’t identify humans as a known danger. Silly mammoths.” She smiled at the others. “But it means humans aren’t a factor over here. Either rare or non-existent.”

Matt’s phone played a tone. He canceled the alarm, and said, “We’re at a half hour. We need to head back.” There was no argument, and the group turned and started back to the gate.

About half-way back, Bill said in a low voice, “Don’t look now, but we’ve got company at four o’clock.”

Monica turned with the others and looked in the indicated direction. They could see a couple of forms hunched down in the tall grass. She lifted her binoculars to get a better look.

“Oh, boy. Smilodons. I hate smilodons.”

“I guess you kind of have a history…” Bill’s comment was pitched in the same low voice.

“Well,” Matt said. “That’s why God invented shotguns.” He pointed his weapon upward and fired a round.

The result was exactly as effective as anyone could have hoped. The forms vanished.

“I think they teleported,” Monica said, bemused.

“Yeah, along with—“ Bill started to say.

At that moment, there were twin
thuds
as two small objects hit the ground. Monica jumped.

Everyone exchanged wide-eyed looks. Bill walked slowly over to the objects, then started to laugh, almost doubling over. He turned to Matt, tears streaming from his eyes, and said, “You took out a couple of birds, O Great White Hunter. Want squab for lunch? The special today is passenger pigeon.”

Matt looked up. “I guess we should be thankful they didn’t all empty their bowels at the same time.”

***

“That was awesome!
”
Bill gushed. He seemed to have developed a permanent grin.

Richard made an unhappy face. “Wish I’d seen that.”

“Mostly
it was just like a hike in the country,” Erin said, “From any kind of distance, deer are deer and moose are moose, except a lot more of them, of course. But mammoths aren’t anything but mammoths.” She activated the LCD screen on the back of her camera and flipped through some of the pictures for Richard.

“Well, that’s fine,” said Kevin. “You keep your mammoths. If the only
large animals I ever meet are in zoos, I’ll be just as happy.”

Everyone laughed. Kevin looked surprised, then responded with a tentative smile.

“Anyway,” Richard said, “proof of concept is successful. We can go through, wander around, and come back. The portal is stable; the six-foot gates work. We’re good to go.”

“So, Operation Yellow-Brick Road is on,” Bill said, and exchanged a high-five with Matt.

Monica smiled at Erin. It was a great adventure, of course, but she’d also just seen animals that were tens of thousands of years extinct on this Earth.
I’d say this qualifies as a good day.