Outland (World-Lines Book 1)
Page 1
OUTLAND
Dennis Taylor
Copyright © 2014 Dennis Taylor
All Rights Reserved
Revision Date: 1.11.2015
Cover art by Magali Fréchette
CreateSpace ISBNS
ISBN-13: 978-1505631197
ISBN-10: 150563119X
Amazon ASIN
B00RPQ6M3Q
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Outland/708766959237852
Blog
https://dennistaylorbooks.wordpress.com/outland/
Dedication
I would like to dedicate this book to my wife, Blaihin, who understands me yet doesn’t run screaming from the room, and to my daughter Tina, who completed our family.
Acknowledgments
This is my first novel. I’ve been reading science fiction since the age of ten, when I checked out a copy of The Lost Planet by Angus McVicar from the library. It hooked me on the genre immediately, and I’ve been reading very little else ever since.
I’ve always envied the likes of Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, and the other greats for their ability to make a story come alive. I have no idea why it took me this long to metaphorically put pen to paper and try it myself. If even a few people like my stories and come back for more, I’ll consider it a success.
I want to thank my wife, Blaihin, for alpha-reading and for her constant encouragement, and for being the love of my life (she made me say that); the various beta-readers who’ve made many suggestions for improvement; the good folks at critiquecircle.com for tons of advice, education, and suggestions. And I’d like to give a shout out to the gang at snowboardingforum.com just because.
Thanks to my Beta Readers:
- Sandra and Ken McLaren
- Lianna Dunten
- Patrick Jordan
- Trudy Cochrane
- Al Macy
- Leigh Hogan
Table of Contents
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Table of Contents
PART 1 - BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR
The Plan
Discussing Toba
Toba, Sumatra - 74,000 B.C.E.
Lab Prep
Time Out
Preparing For Field Trip
Matt's Apartment
The Best Years
First Test Run
Yellowstone Field Trip
It's Getting Interesting
Second Test Run
Yellowstone Activity
Unexpected Results
Eaux de Volcano
Enter Erin
Under Glass
Relaxing
What's Happening?
Let's Try the Other Way
Just Another Day
Midnight Move
In the News
Monica and Erin Have Lunch
What's the Date
Enter Monica
Gates
Trying Out the Pole-Cam
Test Outing
First Road Trip
The Black Hills
Study Session
Outland
We're Back
The Road Home
Driving Home
Side-Trip to Yellowstone
Yellowstone, Outland, Toba + 200
Cashing In
Someone Noticed
In The News
Monsters From The Deep
Second Road Trip
Prospecting
Tallying Up
In the News
Trouble Brewing
Back At the Warehouse
At the Gun Range
Casing the Joint
In the News
Ways and Means
Shopping
Kind of Scary
Third Expedition
A Visit from the Mob
Mid-Day Move
Activity
It's Actually Happened
Eruption
What Now?
Let's Get Moving
In The News
Rescue Operation
Reactions
Moving Out
In The News
On The Way
Setting Up
In The News
Getting There
Going Over
Reactions
The Last Leg
Getting Up
In The News
Cattle Drive
Aftermath
Arrival
PART 2 - OUTLAND
Survival
In the News
First Meetings
Reactions
Rivendell
In the News
Loss
Explorations
Paydirt
In the News
Planning
Scavenging Party
Refugees
Results
Sunny Days
In The News
Mealtime
Surveillance
University
Food
Jacked Again
In the News
Ultralight
Scavenging
Fences
Farmer
Archimedes Screw
Vitamins
Gotcha
Hostage
Confrontation
Reconnaissance
Rescue
Getaway
The Tale Grows
Finding the Fallen
Joining Up
Interludes
Birth Rate
Electric Company
Planet 4
Epilogue
Appendices
Cast of Characters
Author's Notes
References
PART 1 - BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR
The Plan
Seriously? Parallel universes? Bill paused with his burger halfway to his mouth.
A moment later, Matt said, “Seriously? Parallel universes?”
Richard pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath. “Well, no, not in the usual science-fiction sense. When we say alternate world lines, we’re talking about probability paths—“
“Through a five-dimensional universe,” Kevin interjected. He immediately looked alarmed and blushed furiously.
Bill looked at him, bemused. This is like a Laurel and Hardy skit.
Kevin and Richard formed an unlikely pair. Richard Nadeski was over six and a half feet tall and built like a running back. Kevin Jahani, on the other hand, looked like the cliché of a math genius—skinny, bad haircut, horn-rim glasses. No pocket protector, at least. Bill idly wondered how they’d come to be working together on this project.
Matt looked over at Bill. “Play nice.”
Bill grinned back at his friend, and shook his head minutely.
Bill and Matt had been invited to meet at Dempsey’s Pub to discuss their possible involvement in an experimental physics project. Richard had refused to give details in advance, and Bill was beginning to understand why. Even money says previous candidates ran screaming for the door.
“Okay, Kevin, I’ll bite,” Bill said. “Why not eleven dimensions?”
Kevin blushed again. “Uh, this isn’t String Theory. Any curled-up dimensions wouldn’t—”
“Chrissake,” Richard said. “Can we focus, please?” He sat back and looked around the table. “We are attempting to put together a physics experiment to test Kevin’s theoretical models about the nature of the universe and probability space. Without getting into details…” Richard glared at Kevin. “Kevin believes that time is two-dimensional, and that the second dimension is where quantum uncertainty manifests.”
Bill considered this. Kevin’s theory�
��and Richard’s English translation—contained a lot of handwavium, but the basic concept sounded interesting. It could even end up being fun, in a nerdish kind of way.
He leaned back in his chair and absently looked around the dimly lit pub. Dempsey’s was less than half full, not surprising for a pub that depended on tired and stressed-out university students for most of its business. The third summer session was about to start at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, and the population was down to a fraction of spring session levels. Small groups of customers had spaced themselves evenly around the pub for maximum privacy. The background buzz of conversation didn’t quite drown out the big TV playing a local football game.
The waitress showed up with more beer and Matt’s burger — the one he’d ordered this time. Matt smiled and thanked her. The waitress apologized again and looked like she was going to start flirting. Richard’s glare and curt “Thank you” sent her off with a blistering look at him over her shoulder.
Bill watched this byplay with a wry shake of his head. As usual, he envied the way girls just seemed to throw themselves at Matt; and as usual, he was a little ashamed of feeling that way. Matt had certainly put in the hours to get to that fit. Seventeen-plus years of various types of martial arts had resulted in multiple black belts and trophies, and a hard, trim physique that the girls rarely failed to notice. Bill glanced down at his own slight paunch, shrugged, and took another bite of his burger.
Matt looked at Bill and pointed to the side of his mouth. Bill frowned and wiped off a stray dollop of mustard.
A short period of silence stretched over the table as everyone attended to their meals. The aroma of cooked beef, caramelized onions, and vinegarized fries wafted around the table.
Matt paused in his task of burger destruction to take a sip of beer, then turned to Richard. “So where do we come in?”
“Through the front door,” Bill said, before Richard could respond. “Weren’t you paying attention?”
Matt laughed. “Ba-Boom-Tsh!”
Richard’s kilowatt glare was back. “We need,” he said, waving a french-fry, “some control software for this experiment. Matt, you’re specializing in control systems, right? Linux-on-a-card and such? What we’re trying to do is too delicate for hard-wiring and bread-boarding.”
Matt sat up straighter, a look of surprise on his face, and nodded slowly.
Hooked, by God, Bill thought. Well played, Richard.
Richard turned to Bill. “And you have a reputation as a bit of an artist when it comes to building weird-ass devices. Your engineering team’s Rube Goldberg entry last year, that was mostly you, wasn’t it?”
Bill strained to keep a straight face. He was proud of the contraption that had won them first place, but Richard’s attempt at handling him was too transparent. Not wanting to give him the satisfaction, Bill waved his hand in a whatever gesture. “And then what? Wham, bam, thank you, sir?”
Richard snorted. “Of course not. I doubt if it’s going to be that easy, so I’m hoping you’ll continue to be involved in the project.”
Well, this was turning out better than expected. Good thesis projects were always welcome, and original ones were hard to find. The alternative was to be assigned some boring subject that had already been beaten to death by generations of students.
All four sat back in silence, sipping their beers—or in Kevin’s case, his soft drink.
Sensing an opportunity to pour a little gasoline onto things, Bill sat forward and gestured to Kevin. “So, is this going to be anything like Sliders?”
Kevin grimaced — and blushed again, which was an interesting combination. “First, no, this is science, not TV schlock. Second, you don’t get an entirely new universe from every branching. It’s—“
Richard dropped his forehead to his hand and let out a loud breath.
Bill sat back with a satisfied smile. Bill Rustad wins on points. Again.
Discussing Toba
Millions of people come to Yellowstone every year to see the marvelous scenery and the wildlife and all, and yet it’s clear that very few of them really understand that they’re here on a sleeping giant.
— Robert Christiansen, USGS
Erin Savard maneuvered through the other students to get a seat dead center, a few rows up. As usual, Lise and Donna were already there. Erin smiled at them as she sat down and started removing items from her backpack in preparation for the lecture.
Students filtered into the lecture hall in ones and twos. A few of the die-hard, too-cool-for-school types took seats at the back of the hall, but most sat down at the front. On the stage, Professor Collins was setting up.
“So how was your date night last night?” Lise asked Erin. “New boyfriend, some dishing is required.” The girls leaned forward in anticipation of a little light gossip.
“No such luck,” Erin replied. “Matt blew me off. Something about a project planning session with some friends. This is not the way the universe works. New boyfriends don’t blow you off. I want my money back!”
“Well, I’ve seen Matt,” Donna replied, “and I’d be willing to forgive a bit of ignorance of the rules.”
Erin felt herself blush. “Mm, yeah, can’t disagree.”
Before she could continue, the professor turned on his lapel microphone, resulting in an amplified “pop.” Students cut off whatever conversations they were having and turned to face the stage.
Professor Collins used the remote to put a picture up on the screen behind him. “This is a picture of the Toba caldera today. Or what’s left of it.” The picture on the projector screen showed an idyllic aerial view of a large, calm blue lake with a large island within. Human development alternated with jungle and meadows. The professor worked the remote and a sequence of pictures showed different views of the area.
“And this is an artist’s reconstruction of what the area might have looked like just before the eruption of the Toba supervolcano.” Another picture went up, this one bearing no resemblance to the earlier scene. This image depicted a mountain range, with no lake in sight.
Professor Collins paused while a few latecomers got settled, and Erin took the opportunity to look around. Row after semi-circular row of seats rose into the darkness from the stage where the professor stood, dwarfed by the projector screen behind him. The indefinable aroma of paper dust pervaded the hall—an aroma that Erin had always found homey and comforting.
Erin knew that there were more students seated than were registered for this class. That was typical of Professor Collins’ lectures. While some faculty might have been offended at the idea of freeloaders, Professor Collins considered it a badge of honor that students didn’t have to be dragged kicking and screaming to his classes. It was one of the reasons that he was her favorite teacher.
The professor resumed his lecture. “Toba literally blew part of the mountain range into the air when it erupted. What we think of as a caldera is now a lake so big that you can’t see the ends of it when you’re in the middle.”
He started to pace as he talked. “It’s about a hundred kilometers along its long axis. Krakatoa met a similar fate. Where before there was a large mountainous island, afterwards there was just a bay surrounded by some small atolls. But Krakatoa was a pipsqueak compared to Toba.” Several pictures were shown in succession, showing different before and after views.
A student downhill from Erin raised her hand. “So, professor, how do you define a supervolcano versus a volcano?”
Erin smiled. And that would be one of the freeloaders…
The professor was unfazed by the very elementary question and answered with no trace of condescension or impatience. “It’s just a matter of size, and it’s strictly arbitrary. Any eruption that ejects more than a thousand cubic kilometers of crud into the air is considered super. And Toba sent off twenty-eight hundred cubic kilometers, by most estimates. That more than qualifies. Mount St. Helens, by comparison, only managed about one measly cubic kilometer or so.”
&n
bsp; He played with the remote for a moment. “The damage to the planetary ecosystems from that much ash and dust in the atmosphere would have been devastating. It would have caused entire species to go extinct, and changed the climate for parts of the planet. It may even have hastened an ice age in the longer term, although that’s controversial.”
Professor Collins bobbed his head side to side. “There’s a theory that’s becoming popular that the Toba eruption caused a genetic bottleneck in Homo sapiens that may have directly contributed to us becoming what we are.”
“Wait. How does that work?” another student asked.
The professor worked the remote, bringing up an evolutionary chart depicting genus Homo. “Evolutionary biologists believe that most if not all occurrences of speciation happen for one of two reasons.”
He held his hand up with his index finger extended. “One, the species undergoes a genetic bottleneck where the breeding population is reduced almost to the point of extinction. At that level any mutation has a good chance of spreading through the population. Genetic isolation of a breeding population works the same way. Genetic drift, essentially.”
He held up two fingers. “Or in the second case, new, unexploited ecological niches become available. In this case, you get a breeding frenzy of specialization and differentiation that results in new species with altered life-styles to fill the various ecological niches. The colonization of the Galapagos Islands is an excellent example.”
“Toba would have created the first situation, especially for our ancestors, who were already having trouble with the changing African landscape due to recurring ice ages. The timing of the Toba eruption is about right, given the genetic information.”
A student raised his hand. “Will this be on the test?”
The professor frowned. “Everything will always be on the test, Ted. The point is to understand it so you don’t have to memorize it.”
Erin rolled her eyes. Ted really needed to get a clue…
***
All too soon, as far as Erin was concerned, the class was over. Professor Collins turned off the projector and said to the class, “Remember, next lecture will be a planning and Q&A session for the Yellowstone field trip. Make sure you have gone through your packages, and make sure that you have signed all the forms and handed them in. I don’t want to have to chase you through the halls and tackle you. It’s hard on the knees, and the Dean frowns on it.”