Dinosaur Thunder (21 page)

The physicists speculating about quasi-time were condensed-matter physicists, a booming branch of physics ever since the transient dense matter created by nuclear explosions was found to create the time waves that coalesced with devastating effects. John found promise in this line of thinking, since he found it easy to connect Nick’s disappearance, and his experiences traveling through time and space, to what the astronauts found on the moon. Most puzzling was the sudden appearance of these new time junctions. The transient dense matter created by testing fusion bombs caused the original time quilting, and the ecoterrorists used orgonic energy to redirect the time waves. But what was powering this new phenomenon?

After logging on to a discussion site on the PresNet, John sent out a request.

FROM: JOHN ROBERTS, OSS. WHAT IS THE POWER SOURCE FOR THE CURRENT TIME JUNCTIONS? WE KNOW OF NO ORGONIC ENERGY SOURCES AND NO CONTEMPORARY NUCLEAR TESTING.

A minute later, the responses started coming in.

FROM: MAE TANG, U OF MINN. POWER SOURCE NEED NOT BE IN THE PRESENT.

FROM: LEE PINTER, U OF BC. ORGONIC ENERGY IS INSUFFICIENT TO SUPPORT TIME JUNCTIONS. WITH THE LAST EVENT THE ORGONIC ENERGY INFLUENCED BLACK RIPPLES FROM FUSION EXPLOSIONS, IT DID NOT CREATE THE TIME DISRUPTIONS.

FROM: KARL KRUEGER, BATTELLE LABS. ORIGINAL TIME QUILT ACCOUNTS FOR ONLY 86% OF ENERGY RELEASED BY FISSION EXPLOSIONS. THE REMAINING ENERGY MAY ACCOUNT FOR THE CURRENT TIME JUNCTIONS.

FROM: J. MARTIN KAHN, TCU. INSUFFICIENT
24
NA AND
56
MN CONFIRM NO SIGNIFICANT NEUTRON-INDUCED ACTIVITY.

FROM: LINCOLN PENN, U OF MISS. KARL, CHECK YOUR CALCULATIONS. I FIND SUFFICIENT ENERGY FOR STABLE TIME JUNCTIONS. TRANSIENT JUNCTIONS MAY BE POSSIBLE.

John jumped in.

FROM: JOHN ROBERTS, OSS. IS THERE SUFFICIENT RESIDUAL ENERGY FROM FISSION TESTING TO SUPPORT ONE-WAY JUNCTIONS?

FROM: LINCOLN PENN, U OF MISS. NO. WHILE THE RESIDUAL ENERGY WOULD PROVIDE FOR A BASE TIME MATRIX, IT IS INSUFFICIENT TO OPEN JUNCTIONS REGARDLESS. DIRECTIONALITY IS NOT INFLUENCED BY THE AVAILABLE POWER.

HOW MUCH ADDITIONAL ENERGY IS NEEDED FOR STABLE, BIDIRECTIONAL TIME MATRICES?

John asked.

There was a long pause now, and John imagined scientists sitting in offices and labs scribbling on pads, typing into computers, and pounding on calculators, estimating the energy needs.

FROM: KARL KRUEGER, BATTELLE LABS. DR. ROBERTS, YOUR QUESTION GOES RIGHT TO THE HEART OF THE FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM IN MODELING THE ORIGINAL TIME QUILTING AND SUBSEQUENT EVENTS. IN ORDER FOR MODELS TO SUFFICIENTLY PREDICT DENSE MATTER TIME WAVES, ASTEROID IMPACTS ON EARTH MUST BE INCLUDED IN THE MODELS. A SINGLE ASTEROID IMPACT ALONE CAN BE ONE THOUSAND TIMES THE EXPLOSIVE POWER OF ALL NUCLEAR WEAPONS ON EARTH, OR MORE. TO SPECIFICALLY ANSWER YOUR QUESTION, IT TAKES A MINIMUM OF 10.4 MEGATONS TO CONDENSE MATTER TO THE POINT OF CREATING A TIME WAVE. HOWEVER, SUCH A WAVE WOULD BE INSUFFICIENT TO ALLOW EVEN A MOSQUITO TO PASS THROUGH TIME. THE HARMONIC CONVERGENCE OF MORE THAN NEARLY 100 FUSION EXPLOSIONS COMBINED WITH TIME WAVES PRODUCED BY NATURAL AND EXTRATERRESTRIAL SOURCES, COMBINED TO ACCOUNT FOR THE ORIGINAL TIME QUILT. THE ORGONIC COLLECTING MATERIAL LINING THE ALASKAN PYRAMID, AND THE FORM OF THE ALASKAN PYRAMID (AND THE YUCATÁN PYRAMID?) FUNCTIONED TO STABILIZE AND HOLD OPEN TIME JUNCTIONS PRODUCED BY THE TIME RIPPLES. (OTHERS WILL DISPUTE THIS, BUT THIS IS WHAT I BELIEVE.) HOWEVER, WITH THE DESTRUCTION OF THE PYRAMIDS, AND DR. PAULSON’S REFUSAL TO RELEASE DATA ON THE ORGONIC COLLECTING MATERIAL, WE ARE LIMITED TO SPECULATION. PLEASE RELEASE SAMPLES OF THE ORGONIC MATERIAL.

FROM: LINCOLN PENN, U OF MISS. I CONCUR. RELEASE DATA AND SAMPLES OF ORGONIC MATERIAL.

Other scientists wrote in also demanding the material. Until that moment, John had had no idea that Nick embargoed the samples collected in the Yucatán and those on the moon. Turning to Nick’s computer, John searched files, finding the records of the mission to the moon. In the file he found more video, and a database detailing the quantities of material collected, including the size, shape, and mass of each piece, and then current location. All the samples were in Florida, stored at NASA at a facility called the University of Florida Physics Extension. Digging deeper, John discovered that the Physics Extension was in Lake County, Florida, near Hillsdale, where the Mills had their ranch.

“Sonofabitch,” John muttered.

Then remembering the material in the lead box on Nick’s desk, John shoved papers aside to find it, and looked through the glass at the unassuming black material. Elizabeth had handled the material, but it had no physical effect that she reported. John pulled out his phone to call Elizabeth and then spotted the small symbol telling him he had a voice message. The call log told him it was from Elizabeth. John called his voice mail.

“John, it’s Elizabeth. I’m going to look for Nick.”

“No, you didn’t,” John said, his hands already on the keyboard.

John accessed the hard drive with the video recordings from the Mills Ranch. Checking the time that the message came in, John ran the recording to when Elizabeth called and clicked on Play. Immediately, John saw Elizabeth’s back. She was there with another person. Even from behind, John could tell it was a young woman. Then the two of them crawled forward with a dog and other animals. John reran the image, looking at the animals. They were velociraptors.

“What the hell is going on?” John said, watching Elizabeth rub shoulders with the vicious killers and then disappear.

25

Strangers in a Strange Land

A varying speed of light contradicts Einstein’s theory of relativity, and would undermine much of traditional physics. But some physicists believe it would elegantly explain puzzling cosmological phenomena.…

—Eugenie Samuel Reich

Sixty-five Million Years Ago
Unknown Place

Elizabeth, Jeanette, Sally, and the velociraptors tumbled down a rocky slope, finding themselves in an alien landscape. As in Florida, there were palm trees, ferns, and low-lying shrubs, but the landscape was more arid, the palm trees not really palm trees, the shrubs like nothing they had seen. It certainly was not the farmland around the Mills Ranch. Gone were the barn, the ranch house, and the old boarded-up house and every other sign of civilization. Years before, Elizabeth had traveled through a pyramid and emerged on the moon in a similar way, so she had expected the unexpected when she crawled into the hole. But this was a new experience for Jeanette, and she was bewildered.

“Is this what happened to Carson?” Jeanette asked, looking around wide-eyed. “Did he come here?”

“Probably,” Elizabeth said. “Let’s look for signs.”

Studying the ground, the women circled out from their landing point. Following their cue, Sally sniffed along behind Jeanette, the chicks spreading out, equidistant from one another, forming a perimeter.

“Here,” Jeanette said.

Elizabeth found her pointing at what could be a footprint.

“This has to be them,” Jeanette declared.

“I suppose so,” Elizabeth said, knowing something of the contortions time and space had been put through since the original Time Quilt.

Looking at the footprint from all angles, they decided on the direction it was going and started the same way. The chicks skipped about happily, sniffing, making their weird
awk
ing noises, turning their heads with quick jerks at every real and imagined movement and sound. Dense foliage made following the trail difficult, since the trail was not a path, only torn leaves, broken branches, and faint impressions in the soil. They stopped frequently, circling, making sure they were going the right direction. Elizabeth led with Jeanette right behind. Sally limped along at Jeanette’s heels, and the chicks fell into a line behind Sally. The chicks stayed close, and when the vegetation was particularly dense, the chicks tightened up, nose to tail.

Finding occasional footprints, mashed leaves, and broken leaf stems, they moved parallel to the hill they had tumbled down.

“Where do you think they were going?” Jeanette asked.

“No idea,” Elizabeth said. “Knowing Nick, he was probably chasing some prehistoric butterfly. What about Carson?”

“If he stayed here voluntarily, a lot of money changed hands.”

They paused for water, both sweating through their long-sleeved shirts. Jeanette wore shorts, but Elizabeth had long pants with zip-off legs. While it was hot, Elizabeth found she had a lot of energy, her breathing shallow and under control. When they stopped to drink and check Sally and Do, Elizabeth zipped off the legs of her pants and stowed them in her pack.

“Nice legs,” Jeanette said, watching Elizabeth pull off the bottom half of her pants’ legs.

“Used to be,” Elizabeth said. “A bit too much cellulite now.”

“No, they’re still nice,” Jeanette said seriously.

Elizabeth smiled, enjoying the compliment.

“I hope my legs look that good when I’m your age,” Jeanette said.

“Let’s go,” Elizabeth said, losing the good feeling.

Each woman carried a rifle, the pistol in Jeanette’s pack. At first Elizabeth carried the weapon at the ready, but soon put it across her shoulders, hooking her wrists on the weapon to rest her arms. Jeanette carried the rifle over her shoulder by the strap, frequently shifting it from side to side.

After a long hike, they drank more and Jeanette pulled the tail of her shirt out of her pants, unbuttoned the bottom, and then hiked her shirt up and tied it just below her bust. Just as hot, Elizabeth wanted to do the same but hesitated. Jeanette was a beautiful young woman with no body fat. Her belly was flat, her waist tiny, and her breasts large. Elizabeth felt like she was hiking with Jungle Barbie. Reluctantly, Elizabeth did the same to her shirt, and now they were walking with bare midriffs.

“This isn’t good,” Jeanette said after a time, squatting.

Elizabeth knelt next to her and instantly eight curious animals surrounded them. Do leaned against Elizabeth as he sniffed the ground in front of Jeanette. Elizabeth gave an involuntary shudder, Do briefly looking at her, then going back to his sniffing. While the velociraptors had trampled much of the footprints, Elizabeth could see the large three-toed track of a large predator.

“
T. rex
?” Jeanette asked.

“Maybe,” Elizabeth said. “Or something just as nasty.”

“Poor Carson,” Jeanette said.

“There’s no blood,” Elizabeth pointed out.

Looking hopeful, Jeanette stood, searching around, and then began following the trail again. Elizabeth and Sally fell in behind, but the velociraptors stayed, sniffing the predator tracks. Then Jeanette sang, “Do, Re, Me, Fa, So, La, Ti,” and the velociraptors came running, lining up and following like ducklings do the mama duck.

The trail was easy to follow now, since it was made by a dinosaur ten times the size of a human. They watched for branches where the humans had split off, but they found none for a long distance, and then the trail became confused. They circled, the chicks immediately sniffing the tracks of the predator, suddenly getting excited and
awk
ing loudly. Jeanette and Elizabeth found the chicks huddled in a circle around a few drops of dried blood.

“Oh no,” Jeanette said.

“Keep looking,” Elizabeth said. “That doesn’t tell the whole story.”

They found a diverging trail that was too small for the dinosaur and had renewed hope. They followed this trail now, thankful for every step where they did not find more blood. As they walked, they realized the trail changed at some point. Now there were cut branches lining the trail where before branches had been only broken or bent. Hesitating, they discussed whether they were following the right trail. Deciding to follow the trail until there was evidence they were on the wrong track, they moved on. It was wider now with a lot of cut branches, and they moved faster, eating as they walked, sipping from their bottles without slowing down. Eventually they came to a clearing, where they paused. The trail led into a valley devoid of trees. Leaving the protection of the trees unnerved them, and they stood, resting, thinking.

“I say we go,” Jeanette said after a time.

Elizabeth liked Jeanette, although they were very different. Jeanette exploited her body and looks, while Elizabeth tried to professionalize hers, refusing to be sexualized. Elizabeth could not know what forces had led Jeanette down her path, but she was an intelligent, courageous woman, and Elizabeth was beginning to think of her as a friend.

“We didn’t come this far to give up now,” Elizabeth said.

They plunged into the meadow, with the chicks trailing, heads down, nearly touching the tail of the chick ahead of them. The trail led directly toward a mound in the middle of the valley, Elizabeth thinking that they should climb it and look around. Then Elizabeth nearly crashed into Jeanette, who had stopped suddenly.

“I think we came to the wrong place,” Jeanette said softly.

Elizabeth stepped up beside her. Coming across the meadow were six figures, but they were not human. Wearing loincloths and leggings, the six carried spears and packs that were secured with leather straps that crisscrossed their chests. They were hairless, with copper-colored skin. The nose and chin merged together into a single facial feature. The eyes were huge, at least double the size of a human’s. Their feet were wrapped in leather strips, each of three toes wrapped separately, large toe claws exposed. The hands were three-fingered, with short, curled claws.

The figures came on aggressively, shoulder to shoulder. Jeanette and Elizabeth readied their weapons, Elizabeth working a shell into the chamber, Jeanette cocking the semiautomatic rifle. Now the figures slowed, as if they had seen rifles before. Still they came on.

“Do, Re, Me, Fa, So, La, Ti,” Jeanette sang.

The velociraptors came from behind the women, fanning out, heads held high, studying the approaching creatures. Noses in the air, the velociraptors sniffed, then
awk
ed loudly and dropped into attack positions. The figures stopped, bringing their spears down, holding them with two hands and hunching. The creatures exchanged sounds that resembled Chinese, with a wide range of pitch. The exchange was animated, maybe even heated. The conversation ended, and one of the creatures on the left end separated, taking a curved path as if to flank the women.