Bryce looked at John “I don’t recall anyone doing that do you John?” he looked at the professor “And we’re both into sailing.”
Proff grinned “Well if he was ported here, then I guess you wouldn’t have heard about him, now would you?”
There were nervous laughs from the group knowing there had to be more to come.
“I couldn’t hazard a guess how many other poor unfortunate creatures have come here since my arrival one hundred and six years ago.” There were a few gasps.
“My portal had locked onto two hundred million years in the past, here to Pangea. Since then it wandered through time porting whatever it found to fit our programming…transport people, items and livestock…” Proff looked a bit frustrated “Looks like the portal figured dinosaurs would fall under the livestock category, I never had time to program defined parameters.
Wes nodded studiously and interrupted without thinking “If you’ve been here that long and all we’ve seen…then what that guy downstairs said to the newcomers of that other group was true.”
The professor nodded sadly “It was…is. I’m afraid you’ve found your new home and now that you’re here…I’m afraid my theory is correct since your arrival pretty much confirms my math.” Proff leaned forward and sadly looked at the new group from the future.
“Welcome to Pangea.”
Chapter 21.
There was stunned silence until Wes asked what everyone was thinking.
“Are you sure about this Proff?”
“Sadly, I am Wes. You see up till now, no one or thing has come through later than the time I am…er, was from. I guessed that Pangea was the focal point and my time had been the starting point. Using mathematics, I determined that for each year from the focal to the starting point in my time, the portal would go back from the focal point to beyond an equal starting point two hundred million years before Pangea. Of course there wasn’t a lot of life that far back, but there was closer to Pangea,” he grinned “that’s why all the variation in dinosaurs. I figured that because, if my programming had worked, it would sense the surrounding area and try to port common objects relative to that time.” he sighed “You see my portal was supposed to have a fixed point in the middle of the country, and then in my basement as one termination and starting point. The other starting and termination point was going to be wherever we programmed it to be…thus instant teleportation. We could send and eventually anyone on the other end could send something back to us through the focal point.
Something went horribly wrong and instead of distance in miles, it went distance in time.”
Red shook his head slowly “And instead of porting to the other end, it sent things…us…to the focal point…here?”
“Correct,” Proff acknowledged “and because the control came through, it became the focal…and termination points. Of course that is why we’re here.”
“And dinosaurs.” Boots muttered.
“Exactly. Hence a lot more prehistoric era things than modern.”
“And us?” Wes asked “If your time was the starting point…”
Proff sighed deeply “What are you doing here?” Wes’s people looked at each other hoping that perhaps now they would get some answers. Proff fidgeted in his chair.
“This is all conjecture of course…” he paused as if afraid to go further “…you see there seems to be a correlation between what era something comes from, as to how long that thing lives. The further from this age of Pangea, then the longer…” he looked frustrated and let out a huge sigh.
“Ok, look... People from our age seem to live about two hundred years perhaps a bit more. The few Cro-Magnons we’ve had a chance to study, seem to exist about half as long, and the Neanderthals their normal life expectancy of about twenty to thirty years, and that could be stretching it. So you see there is a huge disparity in life versus time lines.”
“And this has what to do with us?” Wes smiled, worried that perhaps he was pushing the professor a bit too hard for answers.
“I truly believe that now that you’re here, the portal has run out of energy. You see my whole theory is based on the device staying within the parameters I had set for it. If you are here then it means it had to drift in time away from the focal point as it lost power…uh, sort of losing its way when it lost power. Sadly it appears that you all were ported here only because you happened to be where it landed as it was running out of power…and no doubt saved others as your teleportation completely exhausted it. Or so my math said it should…if I was right in the first place.”
Red sat up straight and gave Wes a startled look “Aw crap! Wes remember how that thing faded and looked like a flag blowing in the wind?”
Proff flopped back into his well-padded chair and gave everyone a sad look.
“Then it is as I feared…” then added absentmindedly “…I hate it when I’m right. It would appear that it couldn’t retain its conformity and collapsed into itself.”
Boots looked around the room “And?”
Wes frowned “Well Boots, basically it means we’re screwed.”
“Perhaps not.” Proff muttered “There is a slim chance if we can find the power unit, we might be able to recharge it back up.”
Kurt who had been quiet up to now nodded in agreement.
“Sure professor, we have the crude wind generators…how long do you think it would take?”
Proff shrugged “I have no idea my friend. A year, two…” he sighed “…a lifetime. Remember the vast amounts of power I said it had used. We put no power to it, so that means it either generated it, or had it stored.”
Mary frowned “Is that even possible Proff? I mean store that amount of power…it’s…it’s…”
Proff laughed “Impossible? So was teleportation, yet here we sit.”
Kurt joined him in a frustrated sigh as any hopes he had for the newcomers, he knew was at best slim.
“I made up my mind long ago that if the chance came for me to return to my own time, I’d stay here. I’m a German, not one of those Nazi’s. I’d rather die here fighting for something I believed in, than back in my time.” He looked at the gathering ruefully.
“Just before I was ported here, I…we, found out about the death camps…the lies, we were told...” His eyes couldn’t look at the American’s anymore.
Red nodded “I’m sure we all understand that Kurt, there were a lot of German’s that felt the same way.”
The door opened and a tall distinguished Japanese gentleman walked in. He appeared to be in his mid-fifties. Proff stood and grinned.
“My friends, let me introduce you to Dai Mamoru, he was…is, the carrier’s flight officer and squadron commander.” Introductions were made and Dai began to explain why he was brought in from the carrier.
“After we we’re dropped here, rather unceremoniously by the portal, we made contact with the Cyclops,” he smiled “and they brought us here to Boulder.”
“You must have been here for a while,” Sarge added “you’re English is better than mine.”
Dai chuckled “Princeton, class of 1921. As a matter of fact, it was in America that I was introduced to flying. I was thrilled by the idea of long distance flying and was checked out on one, two, three, and four engine aircraft. And that is where I was in the war.” Dai leaned forward from his chair as his mind raced back.
“My plan was to take our brand new aircraft carrier and using your Colonel Mitchel’s tactic of launching a twin engine aircraft off a deck of an aircraft carrier to fly and find your carriers prior to the invasion of Midway. To make the story short, late night, fog, our escort ships spread out so we wouldn’t run into one another as we were running blacked out.”
Sarge grinned “Let me guess, saw some purplish glow in the fog and arrived here.”
Dai nodded and smiled “As did we all. The professor here had a brilliant idea. Using bladders made from dinosaur skins, we were able to take on extra fuel. We lowered the twin engine Mitsubishi G3M on the runway
my men made with the help of men from Boulder, and took off. We had stripped everything we didn’t need to rid ourselves of weight and flew north until we were nearly half empty, swung east a good twenty miles, and then came back. And repeated wider spokes over the next year.”
Proff interrupted still as excited as the day Dai returned and showed him the log books.
“North there are other human settlements, bison, wolves, deer…”
Dai grinned “Saber tooth tigers, bears the size of a tank.”
Proff smiled “True, but there are others. In each direction Dai flew, there were distant settlements…there are others existing here my friends.”
The Japanese flight leader nodded “And there were many destroyed buildings as well. It looked like some tried building forts, some seemed to thrive, and some destroyed long before we flew over. Some people waved…”
Proff grinned “That means they knew what an airplane was.”
“True,” Dai added “We had made up some prewritten papers and maps telling people where Boulder was generally located, but considering the distance, no one ever came.”
Proff chuckled “That’s assuming they even spoke English, German, Chinese, or Japanese…but they know they aren’t alone, that we’re here.”
“Settlements that looked like they were frightened…” Dai grinned “…or threw spears at us, we just moved on. The disturbing thing was…” he looked at Proff.
“The Neanderthals have been at war with the Cro-Magnons since arriving here. Just before we lost the G3M, we saw the Neos as we’ve dubbed them, headed in a wandering southerly direction. We warned our Indian friends, but it seems now that we’re in a war with the Neos.”
Dai nodded in agreement with his friend the professor.
“Eight years ago they hit the Indians most northern village. Their towns and settlements are largely spread out in a series of settlements in the cliffs, open savanna like what we have around here, and water base mesas. So it is rare that neither of us get through because of the attacks, but we managed to supply each other sporadically. Even with our superior weapons, there are but a few thousand of us, about the same for the Indians.” He looked at the professor.
Proff shrugged “The best our scouts have figured out, is that their numbers are in the tens of thousands and they are scattered all throughout the eighty-six miles between us and the first Indian settlement all the way to wherever the Neo’s have their territory at in the north.
The Indian cities, which by the way is well protected, managed to stem the Neos at the northern cliffs. We had just finished expanding most of the wall to the west a few months before we were hit, but we drove them back and stepped up construction of the eastern wall expansion. I have a nasty hunch that is what happened to the Inca, Mayan, and the other South American races that proceeded us.”
The military man in Sarge came to being “Bodies? Weapons?”
“No sign, our best guess…everyone, everything…all removed by the attackers. Some scouts have found recent signs of gnawed humanoid bones.”
“Cannibals?” Missy asked timidly and the nods she got back from Dai and Proff confirmed her fears. “How horrid.”
Proff smiled again “And that’s why you all are so important. You see, you have a train, or so the messengers said.”
Wes smiled back “Only twenty three miles or so Proff. I’m afraid that much won’t stretch to your Indian friends.”
“Oh not to worry guys,” he chuckled “about sixty years ago one hundred and fourteen miles of track from the Orient Express dropped out of the blue. We had a few hundred Chinese that were dropped here over one hundred years ago and…”
“Let me guess,” Wes chuckled “They were building a railroad.”
“Actually yes!” Proff chuckled “But not as you think, they were building a railroad in China in the twenties. We had a few Chinese living here and they spoke both the languages. So between us all, we have track, and a solid bed all the way to the Indian compound on the shores of what I believe someday will be the Grand Canyon.”
Mary muttered “Christ, my head is swimming.” Several others, including Wes nodded in agreement which got both Proff and Dai smiling.
Dai nodded sympathetically.
“We all go through this, do not feel badly.”
“It’s true.” Proff added I would like to adjourn this meeting, but if you can draw us a map of where your train is located, we can send out a caravan of workers to take up the track behind your train and lay it in the front. Our Dillos can pull a section of double track one hundred feet long without any problems, and the smell keeps predators away.”
John leapt to his feet “Whoa! That train is ours, if you’re going to move it, I’m going with you…” he looked at Red who nodded he was in as well.
Red looked to Wes and Wes smiled.
“Yeah, he’s in too.”
Cassy jumped up “Me too…” she looked sternly at the rest “and before anyone else says a word, I can survive out there better than anyone of you, and will be invaluable as a scout.”
Proff started to say they had scouts, but Wes simply added…
“If this lass says she’s goin’, I for one feel better.”
Sarge grinned “Other than she can shoot the turd off a flea at a half mile, this little lady can spot things that you wouldn’t dream of.”
Cassy grinned at the group “Then it’s settled.”
Wes grasped her hand gently “First we rest for a few days, Proff can send some of his people on ahead to get things started. We chow down and fatten up, and then we move out.
“Yeah, wouldn’t wanna feed the dinos skinny people.” Cassy muttered with disappointment that they were not leaving sooner.
Chapter 22.
For the three days that it took the caravan to ready itself, Wes and the rest took in the sites and set up their temporary residences in the three story, wooden hotel that looked as if had dropped straight out of Dodge City in the wild west. Much of the furniture was of dinosaur hides of various textures, some cotton and wool. During one walk and shopping tour, one of the shopkeepers explained that cattle and sheep had been found occasionally, so wool was possible. Cotton was another thing, there apparently was some prehistoric version of it that grew in the wild and only with limited success have we been achieved on growing it commercially…and again Bryce and John spent the rest of the day trying to fit that into their schemes of getting rich.
Once the first huge caravan moved out they got a chance to chat with Proff and some of the inhabitants that lived and worked in that part of Boulder. It was astonishing at the diversity of people and professions. Already the professor and his people had built a strong civilization, but lacked in technology that was needed to move beyond that of early twentieth-century production methods.
Red, Mary, Missy, and Wes all strolled along the flat stone sidewalk gazing in shop windows, as a second huge caravan left to head to join the other that had to be nearing the train by now. They watched in amazement as men and women by the hundreds passed through the tunnel packed into much larger wagons than they had arrived in.
Wes just shook his head in amazement that so many volunteered.
“You know they sure must think that train is going to be a boom for the area.” he chuckled as he held Missy’s hand “But in this time, I guess it would.”
Red looked at Wes and grinned.
“Speaking of time…you know I still don’t have that time crap Proff was feeding us down to where I understand it.”
Missy laughed “Think of it like this Red, the closer in time you are to Pangea, the more normal the life span is. The further away, the longer we live.”
Mary frowned “Well why the hell didn’t Proff just say that?”
“Because he’s a professor guys.” She replied with a throaty laugh.
Wes nodded “Seems that…”
“HEY!” came a shout from behind and they turned to see Kurt running toward them. In his hand he waved a small
piece of paper.
“The carrier pigeons came! The first said they had already started moving track at the front of the train to get around the trees. The second said they had already hooked up the first sections of track and are moving it to attach to the tracks in front of the train; should be ready to move the train in a few days.”
Red grinned “That’s good, but it will take more than a few days for them to…”
Kurt laughed “My friends you don’t know our people very well. There are close to four hundred people working on your tracks, flattening the ground.” he laughed “We have teams of Dillos moving long sections of the track all together, as your modern track is welded and well fastened to the ties. What takes us the longest is cutting the sections to move, we have teams of six Dillos pulling a half-mile section of track at a time. That and making sure the track is affixed to the ground well enough for your train to move over it without derailing.”
Red nodded “That would be bad.”
“The last ‘pigeon’ said to get you all moving and that they’ll have close to ten miles laid by the time you all get there.”
“Holy crap, that’s fast.” Red sputtered “It took us days to get here by…”
Kurt pointed toward the wall and the warehouse that they had seen the day they arrived in Boulder. “Horses! There’ll be the five of us and our escort.”
“Escort?” Mary muttered and then it hit her “Holy cow! I completely forgot where we were…I mean the dinos and stuff.” she tittered softly “An escort will be nice.”
Within the hour they arrived at the warehouse with fresh clothes that the shop owners of Boulder had provided without barter.
The women had already made it perfectly clear that wherever Red and Wes went, they too would go and the guys were stunned by the perhaps overly tight leather riding pants and the open weave blouses they wore.
Missy held up a hand and smiled at Wes.
“Before you say a word on these clothes…”
Last Train to Pangea: Death by Dinosaur Page 15