The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Fourteenth Annual Collection

by Gardner Dozois

  “I’m Bonnie Leveritt.”

  “Please to meet you, Miz Leveritt—or is it Doctor?”

  She wondered if he could utter sentences not punctuated with dashes. “Miz,” she said, “working on Doctor. I’m on my way to join a field team from Texas A and M.”

  One of the attendants consulted his wristwatch and nodded to the other, and each picked up a loaded syringe. The man looming over Leveritt gave her that quick, professional smile again. “This is to keep you from going into shock.”

  She had no particular horror of needles but turned away, nevertheless, to watch Morris, who lay squinting against the glare of the fluorescent lights. She heard him grunt softly as the needle went into his arm.

  “It’ll be another few minutes,” said Leveritt’s attendant. He and his twin left. Leveritt and Morris waited.

  After a minute or so, he asked her, “How are you holding up?”

  “Fine.” Her voice sounded strange to her, thick, occluded, like a heavy smoker’s. She cleared her throat and spoke the word again; improvement was arguable. “Actually,” she confessed, “I’m nervous as hell. This is my first time. It wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t have to lie here waiting.”

  “Supplies go through first—we’re down on the priority list, below soap and toilet paper. My first time, I was nervous as hell too. Nobody gives people in my line of work credit for much imagination. Except”—he made a breathless kind of chuckle—“when it comes to creative accounting. Yeah, I’m one of the bean counters. But let me tell you—the night before my first time, I didn’t sleep a wink. Not a wink. I kept imagining all sorts of things that might go wrong—plus, it all seemed so unreal, it was all so thrilling—and it was going to happen to me. Man! Oh, sure, the concept’s more exciting than the reality. There’s not much to where we’re headed—a little moss and a lot of mud. Beats me why they couldn’t’ve made a hole into some more interesting time period.”

  “I suppose that depends on your definition of interesting. Besides, as I understand it, they didn’t make the hole, they sort of found it. We’re lucky it didn’t open up on somewhere we couldn’t go or wouldn’t want to.”

  “You mean, like my hometown—Dallas?”

  Leveritt smiled; she was from Fort Worth. “Worse. For all but the few most recent hundred millions of years, the Earth’s been pretty inhospitable—poisonous atmosphere, too much ultraviolet light, things like that.”

  “Spoken like a true scientist!”

  “Not quite a full-blown one yet,” she said, “but I guess I’ve got pedantry down.”

  “Ah. Well, anyway, as I was saying—I was nervous before my first time. Scared, in fact. You might not think it to look at me,” and he paused long enough for her to realize that she was now to take a good look at him, so she did, “but I am no shrinking violet. I have a real active lifestyle—mountain climbing, skydiving. I guess I like heights.”

  Leveritt was willing to give Morris the benefit of the doubt, but he was a balding little fortyish man whom she could not imagine working his way up a sheer rock face. Dressed in his great-white-hunter outfit, he lay clutching the laptop to his narrow chest, drumming his middle, ring, and little fingers on the case. He looked as calm as though he were waiting for an elevator, but he also looked like what he was, an accountant.

  “Still,” he went on, “it’s one thing to jump out of a plane at ten thousand feet—another to jump through a hole in time. Straight out of the twenty-first century—straight into the prehistoric past! So, I didn’t get any sleep. The next day, when it came time for me to make the jump, I was a wreck—all because I was scared, see. But I hid the fact I was a wreck—and you know why? Because I was even more scared that if anybody found out, I wouldn’t get to make the jump—getting to do it meant that much to me.”

  Leveritt gave him another, more heartfelt smile. “It does to me too. But was it rough? The jump itself? I ask everyone I meet who’s done it.”

  Morris screwed up his face and gestured dismissively. “It’s no worse’n hitting a speed bump when you’re driving a little too fast. Oh, sure, you hear sometimes about people who got bounced around kind of hard, but—speaking from personal experience—I honestly think I could’ve walked right out of the jump station afterward with nothing more’n a headache and upset stomach. It was nothing. Now I’m less nervous about making the jump than I am about talking funding to this group of entomologists when I get there. Uh, you’re not an entomologist yourself, are you?”

  “Geologist.”

  “You ever tried to talk to an entomologist about anything but bugs?”

  “Not knowingly, no.”

  “Then you’ve never had to pretend to listen to whatever gas some guy wants to vent—”

  Leveritt had to laugh. “You obviously have never dated some guys!”

  “Ah?” Morris frowned. “No. I sure haven’t.” Then he got it, or got part of it, anyway, and made another breathless chuckle. “Anyhow, I have to go talk to these entomologists, and they never can—I deal in the definite, see. All they can talk about is the great contributions they’re making to science—how vital their work is. I know they’re making contributions to science—that’s why they’re there, right? They understand all about bugs. I understand all about money—and never the twain shall meet…”

  Leveritt found herself tuning out the sense of the words, but she could not tune out the sound of them. The drugs were taking effect; she wanted to relax and drift, but Morris’s voice would not let her. She closed her eyes. Scarcely five seconds later, the attendants suddenly returned, one of them announced, “Time to go, folks,” and Leveritt’s gurney struck the door sharply as it lurched into motion. The air in the jump station had an unpleasant tang to it. Leveritt saw people moving briskly about, heard them muttering to one another, heard that low sound of static or surf again. A technician seated behind a console said, “One minute to next transmission.”

  “Doesn’t matter which one of us goes through first, does it?” Morris asked his attendant, who answered with a shake of his head. The little man grinned at Leveritt. “Then I’ll go first and wait for you on the other side.”

  “No. Please, I need to get this over with. Let me go first.”

  “Well, guys—you heard the lady.”

  Leveritt’s attendant pushed her gurney quickly past Morris’s, past a metal railing, onto the sending-receiving platform. He lightly touched her arm with the back of his hand. “Have a nice trip.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Deep breaths, now,” he said as he stepped back off the platform.

  “Stand by to send,” said the technician at the console. “Five seconds. Four.”

  Leveritt inhaled deeply.

  “Three.”

  Morris caught her eye through the bars of the railing. She was touched by and grateful for his wink of encouragement.

  “Two.”

  She started to exhale.

  Everything turned to white light.

  * * *

  The Navy doctor held her eye open between his thumb and forefinger and directed the beam from a penlight into it. She moved her tongue in her mouth, swallowed, and managed to say, “Where’m I?”

  “Sickbay.”

  “I made it? To the Silurian?”

  The doctor put away the penlight. “Now, what do you think?”

  Leveritt moved her head experimentally and at once regretted it. When the pain had receded, she carefully took stock. She was still on the gurney. There were exposed pipes overhead and a muffled throb of machinery. The ship, she thought, I’m on the ship, in the Silurian, and after a second or two she realized that she was disappointed. She had wondered if being in Silurian time would feel somehow different. Thus far, it felt just like a hangover.

  The doctor held up a knuckley finger in front of her face. “I want you to follow my finger with your eyes. Don’t move your head.”

  It hurt her even to think about moving her head again. She watched the finger move to the l
eft and back to the right. She said, “My head’s killing me.”

  “You’ll be fine in a little while. You’re just a little shaken up. Here.” He gave her two aspirin tablets and some water in a paper cup. “Stay on the gurney till those take effect. Then we’ll see about getting you up on your feet.”

  “How soon can I get ashore?”

  “We generally like to keep new arrivals under observation for at least six hours.” Leveritt groaned when he said that, and he gave her a mildly reproachful look. “You can only get ashore by boat, and the next one doesn’t leave until late this afternoon.”

  “It’s just that I’ve been looking forward to this for so long.”

  “Uh-huh, Well, the Silurian period’s still got five or ten million years to run. You aren’t going to miss out on it.”

  The door opened behind him, and a khaki-clad officer leaned in and asked, “Dr. White, may I talk to her now?” Visible in the passageway was an unhappy-looking man in civilian clothes.

  “These gentlemen,” said the doctor, “have some questions they want to ask you. Feel up to it?”

  Before she could reply, the officer said, “Just a couple of routine questions.”

  “Sure.”

  The officer moved quickly toward the gurney with the civilian in tow. Dr. White said, “Miz Leveritt, this is Mr. Hales—”

  “How do you do?” said the officer, rather too impatiently, she thought.

  “—and this is Dr. Cutsinger.” The civilian slightly inclined his head in greeting and repeated her name. “The lieutenant is from our operations department. Dr. Cutsinger is one of our civilian engineers.”

  “Physicist,” Cutsinger said, and smiled tightly.

  Leveritt tried to sound good-natured. “I was hoping you were the welcoming committee. Isn’t anybody going to welcome me to the Paleozoic?” Evidently, no one was. Lieutenant Hales regarded her as though her show of good-naturedness were somehow in poor taste. Cutsinger continued to look unhappy. The doctor nodded at the two men and went out, closing the door behind himself. Leveritt repressed a sigh of bafflement and said, “Well, gentlemen, ask away.”

  Hales said, “Miz Leveritt.”

  “Lieutenant?”

  He was obviously uncertain as to how to proceed. The lower part of his expression suddenly twisted, rearranging itself into an approximation of a smile; at the same time, a frown intensified the upper part. Considered with his deep-set eyes and hook nose, the effect was ghastly and alarming. Finally, he said, “The, ah, experience of time-travel is never exactly the same for anyone. We like to find out, ah, make a point of finding out how it was for each person each time. Can you describe your experience in detail?”

  Leveritt’s eyes met Cutsinger’s. He blinked and shifted his gaze to a point slightly to the right of her ear. She refocused on Hales and said, “I’m afraid there were no details, just a blinding flash of light.”

  Hales seemed disappointed by her answer. “What about before the jump? Did anything in the jump station strike you as unusual?”

  If you weren’t so intense, Leveritt thought, that question would be funny. “It was all unusual to me, because, as you surely must know already, this was my first jump.”

  “Of course. We want your impressions, though. Anything you can tell us, anything at all. Before the flash of light, when they took you into the jump station—you and Ed Morris. Do you know him well?”

  She saw something shift in Cutsinger’s face as he glanced at the lieutenant, saw his expression of general unhappiness sharpen into one of very particular contempt. To the oblivious Hales she said, “I don’t know him at all. We met a few minutes before the jump, and he talked my ear off. I think you’d do better to ask him these questions. As you surely must also know, Mr. Morris’d made at least one jump before this. He can tell you if anything was unusual or not. As for me”—she swung her legs over the edge of the gurney and sat up—“if I’m going to answer any more questions, it’s going to be in an upright position.”

  After a second’s hesitation, she slid off the gurney, onto her feet. Cutsinger said, “Are you all right?”

  “A little rubbery in the knees, like I just came in off the jogging trail. Otherwise—” She stepped away from the gurney, quickly stepped back, leaned on it for support, admitted, “Still a little wobbly.” She locked eyes with the lieutenant. “What is it in particular you’re driving at? I somehow can’t help feeling you know something and are dying to know if I know it too.”

  Hales turned the full force of his grimace on her again, and she realized with a jolt that he now intended it to be a look of reassurance. “As I said, these are just routine questions.”

  And possibly excepting my six-year-old nephew, you are the worst, the most unconvincing liar I’ve ever known. She almost said it aloud. What stopped her was the thought of all the time and effort she had put into getting this far—to a room, as she saw it, adjoining the prehistoric past—and how much farther there was to go. Fist on hip, she waited.

  Hales, however, clearly was at a loss. He turned to Cutsinger, who, no less clearly, was close to losing his temper. “Anything you can think of to ask her?”

  “I told you there was no point to this!”

  “I wish to God,” said Leveritt, “one of you would tell me what this is all about.” Neither man spoke. “Fine. Have it your way. But if I don’t get out of this room, I’m going to go insane. The doctor said I wouldn’t be able to go ashore for hours, but if you’re through, I’d at least like to take a look outside. Okay? Please?”

  Cutsinger brushed past Hales. He said, “Permit me,” and offered Leveritt his arm.

  A romantic, she thought, taking it.

  “I think,” Hales said, “Miz Leveritt had better remain in sickbay.”

  Not looking back at him, Cutsinger said, “Take a flying leap.”

  “Master-at-arms!”

  A bluejacket with a sidearm suddenly filled the doorway. Cutsinger sighed, shrugged, and said, “Sorry,” as he directed Leveritt to a chair.

  “I’m sorry too,” said Hales, “but this is a United States Navy ship, and the rules of security are in force. Miz Leveritt, I want you to understand that this interview is confidential.”

  “So much for the subtle approach!” Cutsinger said sourly.

  Hales ignored him. “You’re not to repeat any part of our conversation to anybody or make any record of it without express authorization. Any breach—”

  “I’m sure she gets the idea, Lieutenant.”

  “Not at all,” said Leveritt. “What am I not supposed to talk about?”

  “We have a situation,” Cutsinger said quickly, before Hales could open his mouth to answer her, “an unprecedented one, I might add, which is why Hales here’s so rattled, why he’s handling it in such a ham-handed manner. Ham-headed too.” The lieutenant’s mouth did open now, in a threat display. Cutsinger met it with a glower and continued talking. “About all he’s really going to accomplish by invoking security is to make it impossible for you to do the work you came here to do.”

  Leveritt gave Hales an even look. “I didn’t come all this way just to fight the Navy.”

  “There’re some thousands of people living and working here,” said Hales, “and in the interest of general morale, we have got to keep rumors and misinformation from spreading and panic from breaking out.”

  “You’re the one who’s panicked! Either leave her alone or tell her. She’ll hear all about it soon enough.”

  “Don’t underestimate Navy security,” Hales said stiffly.

  That elicited a harsh laugh from Cutsinger. “I bet you anything it was all over the ship inside of five minutes. I bet you it’s already gotten ashore, some version of it, anyhow. All you’re doing is putting Miz Leveritt in a very awkward position. She’ll be the only person in the whole expedition who won’t have an opinion on what everybody else is talking about.”

  “Master-at-arms, Dr. Cutsinger is needed back at the jump station.”
>
  “Aye, aye, sir.” The bluejacket stepped to Cutsinger’s side.

  “Tell her,” Cutsinger said over his shoulder as he went out, “for God’s sake, tell her.”

  The bluejacket closed the door behind himself, and Hales said, “Well.” He looked at Leveritt; his features relaxed; he almost smiled a real smile. “Please accept my apologies on Dr. Cutsinger’s behalf. As a civilian aboard a Navy ship, he naturally finds working under Navy supervision irksome at times.”

  “By supervision, do you mean armed guard?”

  “I mean—I am not a martinet or a horse’s patoot.” He took a step toward the door. “Please come with me. I have enough to worry about without you going insane.”

  He led her down the passageway and opened a heavy steel door at the end of it. As Leveritt stepped through the doorway and onto a catwalk, a breeze touched her face and ruffled her hair. Her first, quick 180-degree survey took in the fact that the ship and some lesser vessels lay off a rocky coast. She gripped the railing with both hands and inhaled the scent of sea salt and the faintly oily smell of the ship. From a deck overhanging the catwalk came the sounds of a helicopter warming up its motor and spinning its blades. Below, waves smacked noisily against the hull. The midmorning sun was behind the ship, in whose great angular shadow the water was blue-black, almost slate-colored. Close by, two auxiliary craft rode at anchor, and beyond them a glittering expanse of blue-green water stretched to a line of sea cliffs. Even as she stared, transfixed by the sight of that shore, another, even smaller craft—not a Navy vessel at all, but a sailboat—came into view around the headland. Against the somber cliffs, its sail looked like a blazing fire. “Oh, my.” She breathed the words.

  Hales had followed her onto the catwalk. He rested his elbows on the railing and did not look at her when he spoke. “Dr. Cutsinger did tell me there’d be no point in questioning you. If there’d been any way to find out what we need to know without actually asking you.…”