Outland (World-Lines Book 1)

by Taylor, Dennis

  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.

  Test Outing

  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.

  First Road Trip

  And finally, the day had come. The portal equipment, spare parts, generator, and camping and panning equipment were all stowed in a small, rented moving van. There was a thermos of coffee in each vehicle. They drove off very early on a Saturday morning in high spirits.

  Richard and Kevin were riding in the van.

  Erin and Monica were riding in Erin’s Subaru. The crapmobile had been given a thorough mechanical update and tune-up courtesy of Matt. Erin insisted that Matt should be reimbursed for the costs. Boyfriends were nice and all, but she didn’t want to be beholden to him for this.

  This left Matt and Bill in Matt’s F-150.

  They headed west on Interstate 80. Matt led in the pickup because he had cruise control. Richard had insisted that they must not attract any attention, so he gave instructions to Matt to either follow traffic, or do the speed limit otherwise. The last thing they needed was a nosy cop wanting to look in the van.

  ***

  Richard drove with one hand, slouching slightly. They’d been on the road about twenty minutes, and he was relaxing into the routine. Highway driving always had a certain zen quality to it.

  He looked over at Kevin. “So I guess you want to come out of this with a Nobel or something.”

  Kevin looked up, then turned to Richard. It seemed like it took him a moment to mentally shift gears. “That’d be nice,” he replied, “but I think any kind of recognition is going to be pretty significant. Tenure by twenty-five? I could go for that.”

  Richard chuckled, and Kevin continued, “What about everyone else, you think?”

  “Well, Erin’s easy. I think she’s watched one too many episodes of ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Obnoxious’ and she’s got a bad case of the envies. Matt wants security. The whole ‘my parents will no longer support me’ thing kind of freaks him out. Bill just thinks he’s in an episode of Stargate.”

  “And Monica?” Kevin asked in a too-casual voice.

  “Um, I think Monica just wants an opportunity to kick the entire alternate Earth into submission,” Richard answered with a slight smile. Richard hadn’t missed Kevin’s attempt at a sly dig, and he was realistic enough to know that he’d not only fallen hard but was being pinned.

  “And what about you?” Kevin asked.

  Richard gazed into space for a second, wistful. “I think I just want to be a part of something. Something interesting, something big. Your theories looked interesting. I guess we’ve kind of outstripped expectations.” They both laughed. “And, it’s nice to have company,” he finished.

  Richard changed the subject. “Anyway, it’s about nine hours to the Black Hills of South Dakota. Less if we can speed, which depends on whether there are enough other people doing so.

  “When we get there and start looking for gold, we won’t be panning as such. According to Erin we’ll want to do screening instead. The records say that there was a crapton of gold easily accessible. Once they found the right locations, of course.”

  “Do we know where that is?” Kevin asked.

  “Mm, well the place is a tourist trap now. Like every former gold strike, it’s turned into gift shops, tours, hotels, and so on. People still find gold on the panning tours. Just not very much. I’m hoping that the tours operate where they originally found the most gold. If not, we may be there a little longer. On the other hand, if that’s the case we can ask someone. Pretty sure the locals will know. Worst comes to worst, we’ll end up taking one of the tours to find out what we need to know.”

  Kevin nodded without replying, and Richard relaxed back into the driving routine.

  ***

  The convoy, led by Erin in the Subaru, pulled up to Erin’s family home in Kearney. As they all got out of their vehicles and stretched out cramped muscles, a woman came out of the house and hurried down the front steps.

  Erin yelled, “Mom!” and rushed to hug her.

  Monica rushed up just behind her, yelled, “Zia!” and hugged them both. The rest of the group walked up, smiling at this display.

  Mrs. Savard said, “Hello Monica.” She turned to her daughter. “Has she burned down any buildings lately?”

  Erin smiled at her mother. “Nope. She’s been very well-behaved. For her.”

  Monica looked offended and said, “Hey! I’m standing here!” in a very believable New York accent. The three laughed together and hugged again.

  Erin motioned to the rest of the group and did introductions.

  “Your father is away for the weekend on one of his fishing trips,” Mrs. Savard told Erin. She turned to the group, “Would you like coffee?”

  There were several affirmatives. Erin led them into the house. They went to the kitchen and settled in around the table.

  While she made coffee, Mrs. Savard told Monica, “I heard from your mother. They’re having a great time. Sophia says she’s tried to email you, but she just can’t get it working from there.”

  “My mom’s a technofeeb.” Monica shook her head. She turned to her friends. “My parents are in Italy, visiting family. Apparently, rural Padova is not at the cutting edge of internet communications. Just like my mother.”

  There was a bark at the kitchen door. “Ah, there’s your guard dog,” Mrs. Savard said, and opened the kitchen door. The black tornado that ran in did its best to visit everyone in the room at the same time. The result was quite comical, although a little painful for those who took a hit from the dog’s tail. Eighty-odd pounds of Lab-Pointer cross caromed around the kitchen, attempting to sniff each person, get patted, and check for food, all at once.

  “Wow, that’s one energetic dog!” Bill commented.

  “Yeah, she’s half black Lab and half German short-haired pointer. She has the attention-span of a gnat, the energy of a Tasmanian Devil, and the brains of, well, of a black Lab,” Erin joked.

  “Tell me about this camping trip?” Mrs Savard said, when the storm had died down.

  Erin replied, “We’re heading to the Black Hills for a few days. We somehow got the idea that we’d like to do some gold panning. I figured Lucy would give us a little extra security, and maybe give you a rest from, well…” Erin gestured at the black tor
nado, who seemed to be gearing up for another round.

  “Mm, hmm,” Mrs Savard said, nodding.

  Eventually, coffee’d up and with extra cookies in hand, the group prepared to leave. Erin collected the required dog supplies from her mother and led Lucy to the back seat of the crapmobile. She and Monica waved to Mrs. Savard, and they drove off.

  ***

  Lucy had decided that Monica’s cookie smelled good and was determined to investigate. “Will you sit!” Monica yelled.

  Lucy looked abashed and lay down on the back seat, but ten seconds later, she was back. Monica popped the last of the cookie into her mouth and glared at the dog.

  Erin nodded her head towards Lucy. “She’s actually very obedient. She’ll do what you say, but then she figures she’s done, and her obligation is over. There’s no real concept of ‘Sit and stay sat.’ ”

  Monica laughed and patted Lucy, then changed the subject. “So, um, Richard. Kind of an intense guy…”

  “Yeah, you’re fooling no one. He’s single. He’s not gay. He’s available. And I could see his brains ooze out his ear when he met you. Just smile and swear a few more times.” They both grinned, and Erin continued, “On the other hand, Bill looks kind of interested too.”

  “Nerdy but cute. Good sense of humor. I don’t think I’ll kill him after all.”

  The Black Hills

  The Black Hills gold rush had begun in 1874, when significant amounts of gold were found in Deadwood and Whitewood Creeks in the northern Black Hills. Eventually the placer gold in the creeks had been traced back to the source outcropping, which was named the Homestake Claim. This location would go on to produce ten percent of the world’s gold supply over the next one hundred and twenty-five years. Most of this gold was extracted using intensive mining methods, but for the early arrivals, each shovelful of creekside earth could deliver up to a year’s wages.