Opalescence

by Ron Rayborne

  Julie looked at it. Oblong, sleek and red. It looked about four inches long by two wide and half an inch deep. She frowned.

  “Unbelievable? All you have to do is snip off a bit of any plant and lay it on the platform inside. I suggest leaves.” He turned it so that Julie could see the inside. There was a smooth, opaque white, raised area. On one side were various keys for the addition of notes. On the other was the display.

  “Wait,” Karstens said, “I’ll show you.” Underneath the lid, he removed a small item and held it in his open palm. It looked like a slim pair of tweezers with a very small cup at the end. This he took, and, leaning over his desk toward a potted plant, squeezed the handles, taking a tiny bite out of one leaf. He then brought the tool to the opaque platform and squeezed again. Out fell a round bit of leaf. Next, he touched a small button inside the container. Immediately the bit of green disappeared, absorbed seemingly through the platform. Red, green, and yellow lights suddenly came on, flashing rapidly. The display also lit up and a long string of data instantly began to flow down it. It was apparently analyzing the plant’s DNA, comparing it to that of every other plant in its database, which was encyclopedic. What started out as many connections began to narrow from kingdom, to phylum, to class, to order, to family, to genus, and finally to species and variety. Then suddenly it stopped and the words “Epipremnum aureum. Golden Pothos” and “Cataloged” appeared at the bottom. The lights, too, went off. Meanwhile, a blue LED with the word “Data” lit.

  “You push this button if you want to view the information again, but slower.” He handed Julie the box. She took it and looked it over. “Essentially, it’s a tree, and every new piece of data, like another leaf. Each has its place on the tree. Yet, not only does it record the phylogeny of individual species, it also stores the actual genetic sample for later use. All you need is a small amount from each plant. We figure you can get several thousand samples in here. And it’s refrigerated. The tiny portions are frozen inside, preserving the samples indefinitely. With this device, we can build a new world. Needless to say, we hope you don’t lose it.”

  Julie was in awe. Carefully, she closed the box and handed it back to Karstens. He took it.

  “It’s constructed solidly. No need to be overly worried about it getting a little banged up. Though, of course, you are expected to use all caution.” At this point, he again reached behind his desk and produced something else. A backpack, A nice one, Julie thought, full of pockets. He unzipped one and easily slipped the oblong box inside, then re-zipped. The other pockets had items in them, as well.

  “Doctor Karstens,” Julie said, following his nomenclature, “I can try to locate the edible plants, but, to be perfectly honest, I might not be able to identify them correctly.” Julie then laid out a list of reasonable objections. “No doubt I’ll recognize some of them, but keep in mind that many of the plants I’ll be sampling became extinct five to ten million years ago, during the long Clarendonian / Hemphillian extinction event. True, some survived to modern times, but most we only know about from fossils - which don’t tend to reveal a lot. Also, it’s likely that many of the biota from that era never fossilized because the conditions weren’t right. Fossils generally need to be deposited in wet conditions. That potentially leaves out a lot of life. Furthermore, it’s also likely that some of these plants will look different than they do today, being earlier in their evolutionary journey. And lastly, some of these plants may have been poisonous in their younger years. There are just a lot of variables,” Julie said.

  “All taken into account, my dear,” Karstens said. “You are not solely looking for the relatives of those few plants that humanity grew up on. No, you will be sampling everything. This handy device,” and here Karstens patted the pocket of the backpack, “will tell you instantly which flora are poisonous and which are suitable for our needs. In this way it will also be a good means for you to know which plants you can eat while there. We would be happy to find the ancestors of those foods that we have evolved with, but truth told, if it’s comparable, it’s edible, no matter the species. Just think, we could be adding a whole library of nutritious and delicious foods to our diet!”

  Julie pondered that, then said, “If it can do all of that, then why, um,” her voice now dropped a decibel, “why do you need me? I mean, why not just send Tarzan here?”

  “We need an expert, Julie, and you know that particular time better than anyone else, present company not excluded.” It was an obvious reference to Hodges. Jim nodded in agreement. His feelings were not bruised; he was the one who, in fact, had urged the committee to pick Julie. In a situation like this, it was best to dispense with the usual courtesies.

  Suddenly Jaqzen spoke up, “‘Tarzan, here’ is going to be watching your back. Make sure you aren’t cave bear food. So I’d be a little less flip if I were you.” Hmm, I see, Julie thought, but will you be watching my back, or my backside? Instead, she said, “It was a crude comment. I apologize. I’m glad you’re coming along. Anyway, there shouldn’t be any cave bears in the Barstovian to worry about.” At that, Jaqzen’s countenance seemed to drop, but ever so slightly. It was barely noticeable. Now why would that disappoint you? Julie wondered.

  “While you are there, you are also going to be recording.” From another pocket, Karstens withdrew a broad-brimmed hat. He pointed to a spot in the center front. “You will be wearing this hat at all times. Here is the camera, it’s full color and high-definition. It will remain on the entire time. Thus, upon your return, we will be able to see what you saw and you will be able to review the entire trip at your leisure for your own studies.”

  “If I could,” Jim Hodges said, “what an adventure, Julie! People talk about ‘once in a lifetime’. This is far, far more than that. If I were younger, I’d have loved to go, and I know you’re eager, too. That particular period. Wow! So much going on, what luck!”

  “Yes,” Julie agreed. “It is amazing. I mean, what are the chances?”

  “Would you mind clarifying?” Karstens asked.

  “Sorry. Yes. Well, your ‘time machine’ could have gone anytime, but it chose the middle Miocene, a geologic period that runs concurrent here in the West with the Barstovian NALMA, or North American Land Mammal Age. And since this is California, we call it the Luisian, after foraminiferan fossils found in San Luis Obispo County.”

  “Yes, so?”

  “Bob, if we’re right about the time your machine chose, and I think we are, this period represents the convergence of a lot of exciting changes on earth. For one thing, it was the beginning of what S. David Webb dubbed the ‘Clarendonian Chronofauna.’” She thought for a moment. “When mammal diversity, their ‘species richness’, reached a peak as never before, or after, and all living in a lush, almost tropical paradise he called the ‘Middle Miocene Savanna Optimum’. In the oceans and skies, too, diversity also peaked. People have tried to figure out this sudden burst of evolution, and the closest we’ve come to an explanation is that it was due to a big increase in ‘primary productivity.’ You see, it was also a time of volcanic upheaval, coupled with a worldwide increase in rainfall. So you had huge episodes of volcanism throwing monster clouds of ash — and carbon — into the lower atmosphere and rain bringing it back to the surface. Besides heating the earth while it was in the sky, all that carbon became fertilizer for plant life, both terrestrial and oceanic, so animals had a lot more to eat. As a bonus, this intensified vegetal growth maximized and enriched the oxygen available to them.”

  She paused, then continued. “‘Populations increase as a function of food availability.’ Hopfenberg and Pimentel showed that around the turn of the century. Its what’s unfortunately led to our own overpopulation, despite some researcher’s insistence that numbers would level off or even drop on their own mid-century. So, because of this increased food supply, these animals bred and evolved like crazy.

  “It was a warm, green world,” she maintained, “averaging 18.4 degrees Celsius, with sea levels seventy-f
ive to a hundred and twenty feet higher than modern times, and that’s because there was so little ice locked up at the poles and in glaciers.”

  “Volcanism,” Halverson interrupted. “So is this going to be a big hazard?”

  “When you look at things over a much longer timeframe, events can look as though they occurred very close together, when, in fact, on a human timescale, they are actually far apart.” Here, Julie knew that she was stretching the truth, for though her words, themselves, were obviously correct, she also knew that the Miocene was rife with activity and that the chances for significant tectonism while she was there were high. She added more accurately, “The thing about this volcanism is that it wasn’t really the violent kind, big explosions and all. These were instead mostly fluid flows, called ‘flood basalts’. Lava oozing over valleys for long distances. There was a lot of it. Fortunately for life, though, they weren’t as big as some of the older flows, like those that formed the Siberian Traps.

  “As I indicated, the same carbon that encouraged so much plant growth also increased temperatures quite a bit, spurring what came to be known as the ‘Middle Miocene Climate Optimum’. It is going to be hot. Yet, paradoxically, not as hot as we’ve managed to make our world from the burning of fossil fuels.” The government official shifted uncomfortably in his seat, as though feeling some of that heat himself.

  Julie continued, “Not long after this era, again, geologically speaking, there was an enormous asteroid strike at Nordlinger-Ries in Germany. That rock was almost a mile wide, which left a crater fifteen miles across. It had the power of nearly two million Hiroshima bombs, and may have had something to do with this whole thing. At least, they are somewhat causally linked in time.”

  “I do remember something about all this,” Karstens said, hand stroking his thick beard. He thought, then said, “I believe that there was also a smaller strike at Steinheim, Germany, as well. And if I have my time right, you can correct me on this doctor, if I have my time right, coincidental to everything else, or maybe not so coincidental, the earth’s magnetic field reversed in record, or near record, time.”

  Julie clapped her hands together. “That’s right. In just one to four years! North became South and visa versa. I’ll have to look at that when I look at my compass.”

  “That must have been one hell of an asteroid hit,” Karstens injected. “I know it’s remote, but what if it happens while you are there? My God!”

  “No, I’m pretty sure the strikes were after what I saw on your video. I’d guess by about two hundred thousand years, or more. Those animals, they are one of the last links in a wondrous chain of events that some think began to end at Nordlinger-Ries,” Julie answered somewhat confidently. “The Clarendonian Chronofauna, that diversity event lasted roughly ten million years, from fifteen to five million years ago, with fifteen being the peak. Well, fifteen to twelve. Then, at about 14.5 Ma, the accumulation of volcanic aerosols, sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere, combined with the drawdown of carbon dioxide by the same abundant plant growth it spurred, and in concert with certain geographical phenomenon in the southern hemisphere, began to reverse the temperature direction and the world began its long cooling and drying slide. Coincidentally, that’s also when the asteroids struck. Slowly after that, species and genera began to drop away, one by one, like leaves from an autumn tree. By six million years ago, or so, over five dozen genera had become extinct and the earth was hobbled by a huge drought. It’s called the Messinian Salinity Crisis, when the Mediterranean Sea dried up. The drought ended when the ocean finally crashed through the straits of Gibraltar at around 5.3 Ma, creating a monumental waterfall, the Zanclean flood, that refilled the dry Mediterranean seabed.

  “But the earth continued to get colder until the Pleistocene, when almost half of the northern hemisphere was covered in ice.” Julie looked over at Jim Hodges. He was smiling in an almost fatherly way. Karstens looked over at him too, and nodded as if to say, Yes, she was the right choice. Julie wasn’t finished, though.

  “What I’d like to know is, why did the incident here at the Institute choose that temporal point to land in?” All eyes were on her, waiting for an answer. “Might it be that a temporal loci was created around that time, perhaps by the asteroid strikes? Something that drew you almost like, like,” and here she looked around, then walked over to a small table which had a cloth covering the top. On that was a bowl with various items, geologic souvenirs that Karstens had collected over the years, rocks of interesting shapes and colors. “May I?” she inquired.

  “Oh, by all means, uh...” Karstens sputtered. Julie picked up the bowl with her left hand while removing the cloth with her right. She then set the bowl back down. Then she walked over and handed Karstens, Hodges and the two government agents each a corner of it.

  “Now pull it taut, but not too taut,” she said. They obliged. Julie then picked out a beautiful, red, round rock from the bowl, came back, and then, with her hand hovering half a meter above the cloth, said, “Nordlinger-Ries,” and released the rock. It fell, bounced a bit, then rolled to the center. The weight of it caused a depression in the cloth with every part inclined toward it.

  “Marvelous!” exclaimed Karstens “the cloth represents space and time.”

  “Exactly,” Julie agreed. “Space, and time. You could use other analogies as well, sand in an hourglass or water running down a drain. The asteroid dented space/time.”

  “But you said that the period we encountered was a couple of hundred thousand years before that,” Karstens said. He thought a moment. “Perhaps it’s a function of the mass of the asteroid. If it had been bigger, or if it were made of very dense material, it would have made more of an indentation, and we might have landed at the very moment of impact.”

  “Hmm,” Hodges said. “I wonder. If that had happened, might that, that ‘Temporal Drain,’ might it have affected our own space/time?” There was silence now, as those who cared to, pondered that.

  “Well, then, let’s be glad that it wasn’t bigger,” Karstens replied.

  “But maybe the asteroid isn’t the full, or only possible, explanation,” Julie cut in. “Maybe the very confluence of life itself at this particular time, this apex of biology, created its own temporal loci. And maybe this is a case of life attracting life, almost hyperstatically.”

  “Well, we’ve certainly got a lot to chew on,” Karstens said, and with that, he stood and walked over to his desk, then sat on a corner of it facing Julie.

  “My dear,” he said, abandoning any pretense of personal non-involvement, “intellectually, you are prepared for this adventure. More than prepared. But I suspect that it will be physically arduous. It’s going to be dangerous, even with Dietrich looking after you. It is paramount that you return safe and sound. One month, that’s 30 days, or 720 hours from the time of your launching, and that’s what we are calling it, a ‘launching’, 30 days from your launching we will be bringing you back. You’ll know you’re getting close because there will be a periodic beeping from your chronometer. Beginning two weeks before your return, it will increase in rate until that hour.

  “Why two weeks? This is to give you adequate time to return to the locus, the Strong Box. Two weeks out, two weeks back. Naturally, it would be unwise to cut it so closely since things can happen that could trip up the schedule, so don’t tempt fate. Personally, I recommend that you remain in the vicinity of whatever camp you make. A few miles in any direction should be all that’s required. Plenty of time to get back, even if injured. The same spot, of course, that you viewed in the video, so mark its location in mind and note it upon arrival. You will reenter the box, bolt the door, turn on the environmental equipment, be seated and fasten yourselves no later than one hour before launch time, then simply wait.

  “I guarantee you that we will not forget, so don’t you either, or you will be stuck back there permanently. Mark my words.” With that, Karstens turned to Dietrich, who sat at Julie’s left. “Dietrich ... Deet. We chose you because
of your singular ability to survive in difficult situations. You came highly recommended.” He stole a glance at the two government men, then back to Dietrich. “Your job is to do everything in your power — up to and including risking your life — to keep Julie safe. She will be your superior. You will follow her orders to the letter, no questions asked.” Jaqzen shifted in his seat. “In return, you will receive the compensation we previously agreed upon. If you incur an injury of such severity that you cannot return, but Julie does, our agreement about distributing the compensation as you requested will be honored. Understood?”

  “Yes, Sir!” Jaqzen answered, saluting.

  “Uh, right,” Karstens replied and returned the salute. Continuing, he said, “This trip, I don’t think I need to mention, will assure both of you a lot of personal benefit. Needless to say, neither you, nor your families,” looking at Julie now, “will ever have to work again. Julie, you will have all the time you want to research and publish. It really doesn’t get much better than that. Your place in history will be alongside the other great explorers and discoverers that have contributed so much to our cause: Galileo, Magellan, Gagarin, Armstrong. I wish it were me that was going. But, alas.” He threw up his hands, then smiled.

  “Don’t let me down, kids. It’s only thirty days. Think of it as a vacation.” Karstens reached into his shirt pocket. “In the meantime, Julie, you will be training with Deet.” He slapped two sets of keys down on the desk. “We have a fitness room here at the Institute. You will have complete access to it, 24/7 if you need.