by Jake Bible
“Thanks,” Tressa said and patted Cash’s arm. “Sorry about everything earlier.”
“You were channeling your inner Tyrel Thompson,” Cash replied. “Now he’s here and you can let him handle being the asshole on base. You can just be Tressa.”
“I wish, Tre,” Tressa said. “Still CEO of a company that’ll be bankrupt a year from now if we don’t figure out what is happening inside the bubble. No turn means no tourism.”
“I thought the government shutdown tourist applications as soon as it all went south,” Cash said. “Didn’t they?”
“Father greased palms and wheels,” Tressa said.
“Of course he did,” Cash said. “But, come on, sis, there is no way you’d let tour groups into Flipside when we have no idea if there even is a Flipside anymore, right?”
Cash’s own question hit him fast and hard. He pulled the ATV over into the shade of a large Quonset hut.
“Why did you stop?” Tressa asked. Cash turned and looked at her. “Jesus, Tre, you’re freaking me out. What’s with the weird look?”
“We have no idea if there even is a Flipside anymore,” Cash said. “The turns may not come back. Our window into the Cretaceous Period may be done.”
“Yes, I have thought about that,” Tressa said quietly. “You haven’t?”
“I just thought… No, I haven’t,” Cash admitted. “I’ve been so used to the turns and personnel rotations being like clockwork that I never really considered until now that it might be all over.”
“Well, welcome to my insomniac nights, Tre,” Tressa said. “I’ve been thinking of nothing but that scenario for the last year.”
“Shit. Sorry, sis,” Cash said.
“Don’t be,” Tressa said. “It’s why I’m paid the big bucks.”
“Back to the command center?” Cash asked.
“Yes, please.”
Cash drove them back to the building and parked the ATV out front.
“You on your way back, Ms. Thompson?” Mike asked over the comm.
“Smart ass,” Tressa muttered. “Yes, Michael, I am walking in the door right now. What’s up?”
“Something you need to see,” Mike replied.
Tressa gave Cash a worried look and they rushed past the guards watching the command center’s front entrance. They were in the command center proper within seconds.
“The turn happened,” Mike said as Tressa and Cash arrived next to his console.
“No, Michael, it did not happen,” Tressa said slowly.
“Yes, Tressa Thompson, CEO of Topside Industries, it did happen,” Mike replied.
“Stop,” Cash said to both of them.
“Explain,” Tressa ordered.
“Gee, ya think I should, dude?” Mike replied then pointed at the main monitor. “Watch.”
The image didn’t change. Tressa and Cash watched for a few seconds then looked at each other before turning to look down at Mike.
“Yeah, sorry, but going to have to agree with Tressa here,” Cash said.
“Are you sure?” Mike asked then pointed again.
The image was the same then there was a brief flash of darkness. If a person blinked, they would have missed the flash.
“Let me slow it down more,” Mike said.
He did and everyone in the room that hadn’t seen it before, that being Tressa and Cash, gasped.
The image held the Topside FOB, just as before, but then slowly, the phenomenon known as the “turn” occurred. The land within the shimmering energy bubble began to physically flip itself over like a gigantic hundred-square-mile disc. Flipside became the view, along with the Flipside FOB, then the turn continued and Topside was back.
“How fast was that?” cash asked.
“One-tenth of a second,” Mike said. “And it’s still happening.”
Mike typed at his keyboard and the main monitor split into a dozen different images.
“Every seventeen seconds the turn occurs,” Mike said. “Our systems weren’t wrong, we just can’t visually track what is happening without slowing down the image.”
“Freeze on the Flipside FOB,” Cash said.
“Sure,” Mike replied. “Full screen?”
“Please.”
Mike executed the request and a frozen still of the Flipside FOB filled the main monitor.
“Oh, shit,” Mike said. There were murmurs from the rest of the techs that expressed the same view. “It didn’t look like that before when I stilled the image. What happened?”
“Where’s Amanda?” Cash asked, looking around the command center.
“She’s off with that Herndon woman,” Mike said. “Apparently, they went to the same college. They left the building laughing about some sort of go tigers shit.”
“Clemson Tigers,” Cash said. “That’s good. Personalizes us to Olivia. Which was the goal of me bringing her here. So she sees we’re real and actually give a shit about getting all the answers she wants and more.”
“Call her back here now,” Tressa said. She tapped at her wrist tab. “Never mind. I’ll do it. Ms. Koppel? This is Ms. Thompson. Please report to the command center ASAP.” Tressa listened then nodded. “Give her over to someone else that can complete the tour of the base. A civilian tour, of course. Nothing classified.”
“Everything is classified,” Mike muttered.
“Thank you, Ms. Koppel,” Tressa said and looked at Cash. “Amanda is on her way.”
“What happened?” Cash asked, staring at the still of the Flipside FOB. “Look at everything. Half the buildings are demolished and the other half look burnt out. I don’t see any signs of life.”
“Signs of life would be hard to discern in one-tenth of a second,” Mike said.
“Oh, so if we had maybe a full second to look, then things would be better?” Cash asked.
“Not saying that, dude,” Mike replied. “What I’m saying is we need a better, and yes longer, view than a tenth of a second to ascertain whether or not the FOB is still being manned.”
“What’d I miss?” Amanda asked as she ran into the command center. She was sweating and her chest was heaving from the exertion. “Jesus. I think I broke a base sprint record. What am I looking at?”
“One-tenth of a second,” Cash said.
Mike filled Amanda in on everything they knew.
“I can’t explain the fire, but the buildings look like they were run over by a herd,” Amanda said.
All eyes went back to the image and heads began to nod.
“Good catch,” Cash said. “She’s right. That hut there? You can see claw marks all over the metal.”
“And tooth punctures,” Mike said. “Here, let me zoom in on…”
The room went still. All typing ceased and no one dared even breath until Tressa said, “That’s a human arm.”
“Fuck,” Cash said.
“Who’s arm?” Amanda asked. “There’s a wrist tab. Zoom in closer, Mike.”
“I’ll try,” Mike said. “But odds are I won’t pick anything up. I’d need to see the bottom of the wrist tab to find out who it belongs to. The ID number isn’t on top.”
“There’s an image in the tab,” Amanda said. “See? It’s a photo or something.”
“Zooming in closer,” Mike said, not sounding convinced his effort would yield any results.
The image grew and grew until the wrist tab screen filled the entire monitor.
“Haskins,” Amanda said. “That’s a picture of his wife and kids. That’s Haskins’ wrist tab.”
“Which means that is poor Haskins’ arm,” Thompson called out as he walked into the command center. He held out an open palm at the monitor. “Any reason you are all looking at this extremely important bit of information without me?”
“We just found out that—” Tressa began.
Thompson tapped his ear. “Full access. I heard you call Ms. Koppel here. You had time and forethought to do that, so do not give me any excuses that you did not have time to call me.”
“We have work to do?” Thompson chuckled. “What is this we, son? You are a security consultant that no longer has clearance to be in this command center. Do not include yourself in this discussion.”
“Both of you out,” Tressa said.
“What?”
“What?”
Tressa turned and gave Cash a pleading stare then gave her father a harsh glare.
“As CEO, I’m making the call that neither of you should be in here,” Tressa said. “It’s a distraction to those that have some very important work to do. Out. Both of you.”
“I am the majority shareholder and chairman of the board, daughter,” Thompson snapped. “I have every right to be here and do not need your permission.”
“Mike? The general alarm, please,” Tressa said, folding her arms across her chest.
Mike hesitated then shook his head as he typed at his keyboard.
A loud alarm rang out in the command center followed by a canned voice that stated, “This is a base-wide alert. All personnel to their posts immediately. This is a base-wide alert. All personnel to their posts immediately.”
“Kill it in here,” Tressa ordered and Mike cut the alert off in the command center. “That now gives me full authority to have anyone removed from the command center. We are in an emergency situation and the CEO has complete and total authority in an emergency situation.”
“Followed by the Head of Security,” Cash said and nodded at Amanda. “Which means you are third down the list, father. Time for you to leave.”
“You’re going with, Tre,” Tressa said.
Cash began to argue, saw the expectant faces staring at him, then nodded.
“Sure,” Cash said. “We’ll leave you folks to your work. I have a dino to check on anyway.”
“A dino?” Thompson asked as Cash took the man’s arm and led him out of the command center. “What dino? What are you talking about?”
“Never mind,” Cash replied once they were outside. Personnel were scrambling every which way. Cash walked directly to the ATV. “You coming or what?”
Thompson hesitated then followed his son to the ATV and hopped into the passenger’s seat.
“He’s here?” Thompson asked again.
Cash rolled his eyes and backed the ATV away from the command center building.
“Why’d I say anything?” he mumbled.
Five
“Who’s the best Ankylosaurus in the whole wide world? Who is? You are, that’s who! You are the best Ankylosaurus in the whole wide world! Not just because you are the only Ankylosaurus in the whole wide world!” Thompson exclaimed as he rubbed a spot just behind Elvis’s right set of horns. “Oh, you like that, don’t you? Yes, you do! You love some scratchings!”
“Makes me wish I was a dino,” Cash said. “Elvis gets treated with respect while you shit all over your own kids.”
“Oh, cut the drama, son,” Thompson said as he continued to scratch hard at the spot behind Elvis’s horns. “Elvis can’t disappoint me, so he is treated accordingly.”
“You have got to be the worst human being on this planet,” Cash said as he scooped a bucketful of plant matter from a large bin and tossed it into a trough just inside Elvis’s pen.
The fence was neither electrified nor even close to strong enough to keep the animal contained if he wanted to leave. But everyone treated Elvis like the rock star his namesake was, so there was no need for the creature to even contemplate leaving. Yet, just in case, three guards with stun thumper rifles stood about twenty yards away, their eyes trained on the pen and nothing else. One shockround slug from either of the stun thumpers would have brought the dino to its knees.
“I am far from the worst human being on this planet,” Thompson scoffed as he stopped scratching Elvis and walked toward a rack of tools that leaned against a small enclosure. “So fucking dramatic.”
“I don’t understand why Elvis likes you,” Cash said, tossing another bucketful of plant slop into the feeding trough. “He’s usually a great judge of character.”
“Maybe he understands me on levels that you never will,” Thompson said as he walked back to Elvis, holding what looked like oversized hoof trimmers. Which is exactly what they were. “Do you mind stopping that? I need him still while I get this bit of toenail taken care of. You throwing food into his trough is making him twitchy.”
“What bit of toenail?” Cash asked as he put the lid on the plant slop bin and set the bucket on top. “I trim him every week.”
“Oh?” Thompson asked as he patted Elvis’s right foreleg. Elvis obliged and lifted the leg up so Thompson could get a better angle. “See that? There’s a split right here at the edge. If it isn’t clipped properly, then that split will grow and he’ll end up losing half the nail.”
“You haven’t seen Elvis in what? Four years?” Cash said. “Yet you’re the expert.”
“I’m always the expert, son,” Thompson said as he trimmed the nail, studied his work, trimmed some more, studied again, then nodded and let Elvis’s foot fall back to the ground. “On everything. You and your sister would do well to remember that at all times. It would make life so much easier for us all.”
“Nice try,” Cash said. “But for that statement to be correct, you’d have to actually have empathy for others. I don’t think even you believe you’re capable of that.”
Thompson stood straight, flipped the trimmers into the air, and caught them by the handle several times before he walked back to the tool rack and hung them on their peg. He gave Cash a thin smile.
“No, I suppose even though it would win me the argument, I can’t admit that,” Thompson said. “But empathy is overrated. I tried empathizing with your mother, but then she tried to trap me. Empathy is how you get played, son. That’s today’s official lesson.”
“Jesus Christ,” Cash swore. “Do not get started with that today’s lesson crap.”
“Cash?” Amanda called over the comm. “Where are you?”
“Entertaining a beast,” Cash replied. “And feeding Elvis. What’s up?”
“We think we have a plan,” Amanda said. “Gonna need you.”
“Main operations room?” Cash asked.
“Operations room?” Thompson asked, tapping at his ear. “Hmmm, I seem to be left out of the loop yet again.”
Cash held up a finger and tilted his head so he could concentrate on Amanda.
“We going in?” Cash asked.
“Maybe,” Amanda replied. “That’s what we need to talk about. I need your input on this.”
“Tressa okay with that?” Cash asked.
“I got her onboard,” Amanda said. “She doesn’t really have a choice at this point. We need every experienced operator we have.”
Amanda went quiet. Cash stiffened.
“You have new intel,” Cash stated.
“Yeah.”
“It’s not good.”
“No.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m on my way,” Cash said.
“Am I on my way too?” Thompson asked.
“Mandy? My father would like to know—”
“Bring him,” Amanda said. “Might as well. He started all of this. He might know something we don’t.”
“I won’t tell him that,” Cash said. “This base couldn’t hold that kind of ego boost.”
***
The main operations room of the command center was a stark space with monitor-lined walls and a large conference table set in the middle. The chairs were not meant for comfort. Nothing about the room was meant for comfort. The objective of the space was to plan missions, then relay those missions to the team leaders, so the team leaders could then relay the missions to the men and women that compromised their teams.
Get in, get out.
It was all part of the no
-frills philosophy that Tyrel Thompson instilled in every aspect of Topside Industries. Except for his Topside BOP cabin. That part the man insisted on from the beginning since he spent the first few years of the Wyoming Bubble’s existence living there nearly full time.
But every other element of the company was a stripped-down, no-nonsense operation.
Even if the operations room had been outfitted in luxury, no one sitting there would have relaxed one bit. Not after what Mike had shown them all.
“Let’s start at the beginning,” Mike said and held up a hand before anyone could object. “Humor me, dudes.”
He tapped his wrist tab and the monitors all came to life, each showing the same image of a prehistoric landscape.
“This is our little slice of Flipside,” Mike said as he pointed at a monitor. “Before we developed it and Flipside FOB was built.”
“In the raw,” Thompson said from his seat, nodding with nostalgia. “Brings back some memories, that’s for sure.”
“Here we are before the incident last year,” Mike said. The image switched to a view of a fully built out and functional Flipside FOB. “State of the art everything. Quite possibly the most technologically advanced, and secure, installation on Earth. Flipside FOB rivals Topside BOP in every way. It has to since it spends most of its existence living in the past, millions upon millions of years ago.”
“Mike, we understand all of this,” Cash said. “We’ve all been back there after the turn.” Cash looked around the room at Tressa, Thompson, Amanda, Ivy, and Dr. Raskov, who had been asked to join them.
“Let him explain, Tre,” Tressa said, her voice low and even.
Cash shrugged and nodded at Mike.
“Thanks, dude,” Mike said. “Yes, we all know this. What we also know is that the turn has happened almost like clockwork every year since the bubble first appeared. Same with every other bubble on the planet. The turn happens and our slice of Topside goes back in time to Flipside. That slice of Flipside becomes part of Topside, all contained within the confines of the energy bubble.”
Mike toggled back and forth between a view of Flipside FOB and Topside FOB.