Daisy was indeed only eleven months old. She was currently the only child in Infinity’s close-knit family, although Xavier and Celia were expecting within two months. Reece Eagleton and Chloe Hunt were also expecting, within two weeks, in fact, but they had decided to remain on this world so that Chloe could give birth in a real hospital. Infinity could hardly blame them for that.
“Celia and I are with you too, Des,” Xavier added. “For better or worse.”
Desmond leaned back toward the chamber and peered inside. “Not much of a colony, but we’ll make it work. We’ve done it before, right?”
Infinity followed his gaze, assessing the other migrants. All the surviving members of her family from the arthropod world except for Reece and Chloe had decided to stay together, in spite of the possible risks. Including Gideon. Thanks to some medical help from Kitty, the guardsman hadn't lost his arm, and his shoulder was healing. The Marine Vic Shepherd had also volunteered, and he had actually convinced his girlfriend to come with him. The other surviving Marine, Terry, had decided he never wanted to see another alternate world and was staying here.
That was it—seventeen migrants. At least it had been until four days ago, when five strangers had been added to the roster without explanation. Colonel Camron Chislett had apparently recruited them. Four women and one man, all of them about thirty years old. Infinity and Desmond had requested to interview them, and had been granted permission, but they’d been told that they had little say in the final selection of migrants. About all they’d been able to determine was that the newcomers had seen news reports about the colony of migrants and wanted to be part of it. They appeared to be physically fit, and they had all said that they were reproductively viable, as far as they knew. Infinity decided she might as well welcome these new volunteers, considering no other people from this world were interested in abandoning their home world, which they perceived to be safe. She only hoped that they fully understood what they were getting themselves into.
Infinity was getting bored with waiting. She examined her right hand, flexing her fingers. Not only had Kitty’s medical skills and technology saved Gideon’s arm, but she had also accelerated the healing of Infinity’s broken hand. Kitty had performed another procedure, of course, intended to repair the damage from Infinity’s old knife wounds. But in recent weeks Infinity had been working on forcing herself to stop dwelling on this, because she had no idea whether she’d ever find out if it had been successful.
One of the techs poked her head out of the airlock. “Three minutes, folks.”
Infinity inhaled deeply and then felt herself fighting back a smile. She should have been terrified. What if Kitty’s promises of safety and peace had been lies? But she was still tingling from her experience on the picnic table in West Plains. She was also adrenalized, anticipating what was to come. Not because she was about to bridge—she was done with bridging—but because this time it really would be her last bridge.
She took Desmond’s hand, and the two of them led the way back into the bridging chamber, Armando, Lenny, and Xavier following close behind. The techs exited without saying much of anything, and the airlock hatch closed behind them.
The twenty-two migrants stood there awkwardly, waiting.
“Are they supposed to come here and help us with this, or what?” Xavier asked.
Infinity shook her head. “Kitty assured me that it would simply happen. At eight o’clock.” She turned and looked at the faces around her. “Normally, I’d give advice on how to deal with the bridging process, but I’m pretty sure my old spiel would be useless now. Bridging these days isn’t anything like—”
Infinity fell silent. She squinted against the brightness of the morning sun. A breeze tickled the three weeks worth of stubble on her scalp and fluttered through the fabric of her t-shirt and shorts. She felt Desmond’s hand grasp hers.
Daisy let out a delighted giggle.
“I’ll be damned,” said Hayley Millwright, one of the members of Infinity’s original colony and former President of the United States. “It’s true. Everything Kitty told us is true!”
Infinity turned slowly, taking in the scene. The supply boxes were sitting beside the migrants, still neatly stacked, though they were now resting upon a wide stretch of golden sand. Beyond the sand was forest, gradually rising up a low hill, with a taller hill in the distance behind it.
She kept turning. No more than a hundred yards from where she was standing, waves of greenish water were washing up onto the beach and then gradually withdrawing, leaving a wide expanse of wet sand that sparkled in the sunlight like stars in the night sky. A short distance out from the shore, the water faded to sky blue, with multicolored patches of coral reef visible below the surface. A mile or so offshore was another strip of beach lined by another forest—an island. To the right of that, and to the left, and beyond it as far as Infinity could see were more islands, all of them covered in pristine forest with no signs of any kind of civilization.
She squeezed Desmond’s hand. “It really is true,” she whispered.
Desmond pointed. “Look at that, Infinity!”
A massive creature, at least the size of a whale, was breaching a few hundred yards offshore. Its arched back cut through the surface, with numerous evenly-spaced ridges along its length.
“It’s beautiful,” someone exclaimed.
Infinity squinted, and then she drew in a sharp breath. Something about the ridges didn’t look quite right. Just as the creature’s back went under, its tail emerged and hovered above the surface for a moment before slipping out of view again. Now Infinity was certain of it. The thing wasn’t a creature at all—it was a machine.
There’s More To This Story!
That’s right—Bridgers continues. You don’t want to miss the stunning series conclusion, Bridgers 6: The Bond of Absolution. Available in November 2019.
Infinity and Desmond have a new home, but making a life there will require overcoming a challenge unlike anything they’ve ever faced.
And be sure to pick up INFINITY: A Bridger’s Origin. This is the book readers have been asking for—the story of how Infinity became a bridger!
INFINITY: A Bridger’s Origin
Infinite worlds. Extreme danger. One fearless woman.
Passerina Fowler just wants to be a professional fighter. She has struggled for years to make a name for herself. But then her life abruptly changes when she's discovered by a recruiter from SafeTrek Bridging, a company that transports clients to alternate versions of Earth.
With nothing to lose, Passerina accepts a job as a bridger, an elite fighter who protects clients on excursions to alternate worlds. However, on her first day she witnesses a horrifying event and realizes bridging can be downright deadly.
In spite of the risks, she is determined to complete her training program. But she soon realizes the training is more focused on her fears than her strength and endurance. And for good reason—there is much to be feared when bridging to alternate worlds naked and unarmed. Passerina must steadily transform herself into a bridger, with a new name: Infinity.
Infinity grows impatient for the excitement and danger of her first bridging excursion. But when it finally comes, she finds herself in a world of vicious predators, and the danger becomes all too real.
Author’s Notes
Some of you may have questions. So I have decided to offer my thoughts on a few things related to Bridgers 5: The Trial of Extinction. These topics are in no particular order, and they may not even be important to most people. But if you are at all interested, here you go.
Is it really possible that lemurs could have evolved to be this intelligent? Yes, it’s possible, although perhaps not very likely. But when you have infinite do-overs of Earth’s history, the unlikely becomes much more likely. The appearance of intelligent lemurs is certainly more likely than the appearance of intelligent mosquitoes or salamanders. Lemurs, after all, are primates. They have hands with dexterous fingers. They also have thum
bs, although their thumbs are not truly opposable (they are called pseudo-opposable thumbs). Let’s consider the hypothetical scenarios proposed by Infinity and Desmond in Bridgers 5. Desmond suggests that, if the monkeys and apes (simians) had never appeared on Earth, the prosimians (lemurs, tarsiers, lorises) and others would have had a much better chance of diversifying. Monkeys are particularly competitive and aggressive, and it would be extremely difficult for other species to outcompete them in their habitat. But if some random event had prevented the simians from evolving, the prosimians (and perhaps other types of primates) likely would have diversified, and our world would be filled with numerous new creatures. It is possible that one of those could have evolved human-like intelligence. Again, maybe not likely, but certainly possible.
Infinity then suggests that perhaps lemurs evolved to be highly intelligent while they were isolated on Madagascar, and after becoming intelligent, they spread out from that island and eventually displaced (or intentionally killed) the monkeys and apes. This didn’t happen on our version of Earth, but perhaps on another version—another timeline—some random event (like a change in climate or the immigration of some species into Madagascar that forced the lemurs to adapt in a different way) could have resulted in environmental pressure on the lemurs that makes it more advantageous for them to develop problem-solving skills and reasoning ability.
Is it really possible there could be nine different sentient, intelligent species on one world? This is not only possible, it has happened on our version of Earth. Until very recently, humans shared this planet with others intelligent species. About 30,000 years ago, in addition to our species, there were at least three other hominin species that existed at the same time: the Neanderthals in Europe and western Asia, the Denisovans in Asia, and the “hobbits” from the Indonesian island of Flores. The question of why Homo sapiens is the only surviving species is a fascinating one, which does not yet have a definite answer. By the way, the “hominins” are a group of hominids that includes the genus Homo (humans, including our species and others) but excludes the gorillas, chimps, and orangutans. There are at least eight different “human” species (in the genus Homo) that we know of. As you can probably imagine, even more species have probably existed that we have not yet discovered. The world described in Bridgers 5 has nine species of lemurs that have evolved language and human-like intelligence. If we can assume that lemurs could become intelligent, then we must assume it’s possible for numerous intelligent species to exist at the same time.
What’s up with these weird solid objects that suddenly turn soft? In the arena, Infinity (and Terry) are given a cutting tool that works just long enough for them to cut themselves free of their bindings, and then the tool mysteriously becomes soft (“like a slice of brown, melting cheese”). Also, Infinity tries using a “plant stalk” as a weapon, which doesn’t go well. Yes, this is confusing, especially to Infinity and the other humans. Another thing that is confusing to them is how the lemurs can have walls and doorways that suddenly appear and disappear (including the massive walls in the arena). I suppose I took a risk of confounding the reader, but my intent was to show that the lemurs had discovered some way to remotely change the properties of a certain type of solid. Notice that this particular solid is always brown in color. Perhaps the solid objects have a tiny receiver embedded in them that can receive a wireless signal and then produce a certain frequency of vibration that temporarily makes the material soft, or perhaps even makes it turn from a solid to a gas (as with the walls). Anyway, I thought it would be fun to give the lemurs a few mysterious tech capabilities that baffle the humans. If you found this to be confusing, imagine how Infinity feels!
What have Infinity, Desmond, and their fellow colonists been eating during the last nineteen months? Many of the details of this are described in Bridgers 4. But it is important to point out that, on the “arthropod world,” there was a variety of animals they could eat. In fact, they even figured out how to keep several of these in pens near Mossview (the framework mound they converted into a shelter). Although it wasn’t specifically stated in Bridgers 4, we should assume that they experimented with eating various species of moss and aquatic algae in order to get some of the other nutrients they needed.
Why did the clothing, shoes, and weapons need to be made of living tissue? Because one of the limitations of bridging is that only living tissue can bridge (as well as some of the fluids and other elements inside of a living body). So, unless you want to arrive naked and weaponless on the destination world, you need to have clothing and weapons made of living tissue. These items were not available until Armando worked with the scientists on his new home world to develop them. I recently read a few articles about people growing articles of clothing from living human tissue (or tissue from other animals). So this is a very realist concept. The weapons are a bit more of a stretch of the imagination, but it isn’t difficult to imagine that muscles and highly-elastic tendons could be configured to propel a dart at high velocity. I think it’s possible, and the only reason we haven’t created such weapons is that we’ve never had a real need for them.
How did Armando and the Marines bridge to the arthropod world? This is something that would have been impossible without the information contained within the “key” to bridging technology. If you’ll remember, the mongrels gave this key (in the form of 900 symbols) to Desmond in Bridgers 3. The Outlanders concealed various keys within their instructions for building a bridging device, instructions that they transmitted through space by radio signal tens of thousands of years ago. The key the mongrels gave Desmond was really just the first of numerous keys within the Outlanders’ signal. Each subsequent key requires a higher level of intelligence to discover and decrypt. The mongrels had only decrypted the first of these keys (and they paid dearly for giving it to Desmond). Anyway, this key allowed Armando, Dr. Fornas, and other scientists to add additional capabilities to their bridging device. One of these capabilities allowed them to identify all of the worlds (universes) to which humans have previously bridged. In this way, Armando was able to figure out which world Infinity’s colony had bridged to nineteen months ago.
What’s up with Kitty and the rest of her species? Kitty’s species evolved on a different version of Earth. They are very human-like and would likely be classified in the genus Homo. They have fine black fur covering their bodies, and they have developed a language that is spoken very rapidly. They are far more advanced technologically than humans. It so happens that the Outlanders existed in Kitty’s universe also, and Kitty’s people discovered the Outlanders’ signal long ago. It can be assumed that Kitty’s people did not make the same mistake the humans on Infinity’s Earth made—they did not destroy their world by using the lowest version of bridging devices (which, by design of the Outlanders, destroy the world of the beings who use them). Instead, Kitty’s people were more cautious, and they discovered the “key” hidden within the instructions. This prompted them to look even more closely, and they eventually discovered the next deeper key. And perhaps they were smart enough to discover even deeper, more valuable keys.
Why did Kitty’s people put humans on trial? It’s important to understand that Kitty’s people think highly of the Outlanders. In fact, you could even say they worship the Outlanders. They’ve never actually met the Outlanders, of course, because the Outlanders lived tens of thousands of years ago on a planet thousands of light years from Earth. Space travel to such a place is not possible, or at the very least, not practical. Nevertheless, Kitty’s people revere the Outlanders. Their adoration of the Outlander civilization cannot be overstated. In fact, they have taken it upon themselves to forever enforce the rules that they believe are consistent with the Outlanders’ mission. One of their rules is that the various encrypted “keys” to bridging technology should only be possessed by civilizations intelligent enough to discover them and figure out their meaning without assistance. The mongrels gave Desmond the key, thus violating this rule. Kitty’s people
destroyed all the worlds the mongrels had ever bridged to, and Kitty’s people put the mongrels themselves on trial (we do not know how that trial ended). And since Desmond accepted the key from the mongrels, they put humans on trial. It’s a rather high-stakes trial, with complete annihilation of Armando’s new home world being the consequence of failure. This world also now happens to be the new home world of Infinity, Desmond, and the rest of their group (until the very end of Bridgers 5).
Did Kitty really spend 27 hours buried in the soil of the lemur world? Yep. After she initiated conflict between the humans and city dwellers in a really horrendous way (killing a pregnant lemur), she went into hiding. Her capsule is high-tech and produces plenty of fresh air for her to breathe (and is probably stocked with tasty snacks and drinks). From that safe hiding place, she could sit and watch the humans as they struggled to survive and to figure out how to prove that their world shouldn’t be destroyed.
Why didn’t the city dwellers keep their fences in good repair? Well, let’s face it, the city-dwelling lemurs are like humans in some ways. They can build impressive cities, but they tend to neglect their poor and the infrastructure of various portions of their cities. They tend to be self-centered, and they only care about their current interests. The enclosure fences were mainly built to keep the poor city-dwelling lemurs (those living in the shantytowns) from getting into the enclosures to hunt the captive lemur species. Only the wealthy should have that privilege. Also, the fences were originally intended to keep the eight species of hunted lemurs contained. But after a period of time, it got to the point at which the hunted lemurs had nowhere to go if they escaped their enclosures. As strange as it sounds, the ring-tails (and the seven other hunted species) are better off inside their enclosures. At least only one of them is hunted per day there. They regularly sneak out of their enclosures to scavenge for items discarded by the city dwellers (they integrate these into the construction of their dwellings), but they never stay out for very long. In a world full of city dwellers that hope for the privilege of killing them, being outside the enclosure is not desirable.
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