Outland (World-Lines Book 1) (10 page)

Date: July 5

POV: Omni

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.

***

POV: Richard

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.

***

POV: Omni

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 tornado, 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.

***

POV: Monica

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 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.

—Wikipedia, “Black Hills Gold Rush.”

July 5                            Monica

“Nice planning, Einstein. You’ve never heard of reservations? When I say ‘five-star,’ what exactly
pops into your teeny mind?” Monica put on her best glare.

Richard couldn’t meet her eyes, and a flush worked its way slowly up from his neck. “I’m sorry! How many times do I have to apologize? Look, we’ll spend very little time here hopefully. If we can find out where…”

“Yeah, yeah. Pan for gold, everyone’s rich, isn’t it wonderful. I know the drill. But if that bed ends up having a coin-slot, you’re gonna hear about it, buster.”

The drive to the Black Hills had gone without incident, and they arrived ahead of schedule. A steady stream of other vehicles going ten to fifteen mph above the posted limit gave them the cover they needed to push things a little.

However, summer was high season in the area, and there was a dearth of available accommodations. After much searching and phoning, they ended up with a couple of rooms in a Super 8 in Deadwood, a fact that was not sitting well with Monica.

“Hey, at least we each get a bed,” Erin said. “The guys have to all fit into one room and two of them will have to sleep on those fold-out abominations.”

“Two rooms was all we could get…” Richard started to explain.

“Oh, boo-hoo. You owe me dinner for this, bub.” Monica figured she had played this for all it was worth, and it was time to give the poor fish a little bit of slack line.

“No problem, whatever you want,” Richard replied, rising to the bait as expected.

And that’s how it’s done,
thought Monica, and winked at Erin.

“Okay folks,” Richard announced, obviously trying to salvage a little dignity. “Dinner, then a couple of us will ask around about tours and such. If we can avoid having to go on one, we’ll save some time. We just have to get the vehicles close to where we want to be, pop over, and do our thing.

“So, now, restaurant. Opinions?”

Monica smiled at Richard.
Now you pay.

July 6                            Suzie

Suzie and her friends were in the Union for another study session. However, as happened too often lately, the conversation moved to current affairs and actual study got short shrift.

This time, they’d gotten into it with another group. Frankie, as usual, seemed ready to get into an argument about anything or everything.

“You’re kidding, right? Conspiracy?” Frankie said. “Better yet,
government
conspiracy?”

“And why is that surprising?” the loudest of the other group asked. “You’re telling me they won’t do what’s best for them and screw the rest of us?”

“Well, if they were Republicans, yes!” Frankie replied with a nasty smile. “That’s exactly
what you expect Republicans to do!”

This produced a glare of rage from the other guy. Although he hadn’t admitted to his political leanings, the degree of vitriol he displayed about the current administration left little doubt.

Suzie knew that Frankie enjoyed arguments like this. He didn’t care about the specific subject matter that much, but baiting blowhards of any stripe was always premium entertainment for him.

Suzie waggled her fingers at him. “Hey. Frankie. Study Session, remember? Late Antiquity? Exam coming up? Passing grade? Any of this ringing a bell?”

Frankie and the other guy both looked sheepish. The other group’s study session had also been derailed by the growing storm.

Everyone settled back in their chairs, turned to their various reading materials, and prepared to get down to work.

“It’s still a conspiracy…” The other guy muttered. A wadded piece of paper bounced off his head, and everyone broke up in laughter.

“Regardless, did you hear the latest?” Maddie said. “A road literally
melted
in Yellowstone. They’re saying the magma shifted or something, and it’s heated the ground so much the asphalt melted. It’s cut off part of the park.”

“I saw that story,” Suzie said. “But they say that happens quite often. No cause for concern.”

The other guy snorted.

Frankie grinned. “I have to agree with conspiracy guy on that one. They’re always saying, ‘Nothing to worry about.’ I’ve started to visualize Officer Barbrady whenever I hear that:
Nothing to see here. Move along. Move along.
”

July 6

Richard

Richard started the day with a feeling of anticipation. Yesterday evening’s scouting expedition had gone better than expected. They had found out everything they needed to know so wouldn’t have to take a tour. Even better, they had found a parking lot a stone’s throw from where they wanted to be. Piece of cake.

Or not. The parking lot was very busy, very public, and not at all suitable for setting up a bunch of scientific equipment and opening a portal.

“Oh, bloody hell!” Richard exclaimed. “Really?” He looked to heaven. “You really are a bastard, aren’t you?” He imagined he could hear a deep laugh coming from above.

After a few seconds, Richard sighed and turned to the others, only to find Monica glaring at him.

“Your plan, oh great leader?”

Richard could see Bill in the background, wearing that damned smug smile. He deliberately looked straight at Monica. “Maybe we can find a place to park where we can get some privacy. Even if it’s a little farther away. How about we split up?” He gestured to Kevin, “You stay with the vehicles, the rest of us will look for something that might work. A lane, access road, old abandoned property, I dunno…”

They split up, heading off on foot in ones and twos.

They met back at the parking lot an hour later.

Richard pointed back up the access road. “Believe it or not, I actually found something. There’s an overgrown side road a little ways back, although ‘road’ might be charitable. It’s not paved. But it curves so you lose sight of the main road right away. It’s a bit farther from the creek of course. We’ll have to use compass bearings to make sure we don’t get lost.”

“Or spray paint cans, for marking the trail,” Bill added. “That’s why I brought them.”

They all piled into the vehicles and followed the van. Richard hadn’t been exaggerating. The side road was little more than two parallel wheel-tracks, it had not seen recent use and couldn’t be described as anything close to ‘flat.’

After they got out of the vehicles, Bill said, “Next time I’ll go to the bathroom first!”

But the location was perfect. They were invisible from the main road. Nothing gave any indication that people had been here recently.

The portal generation hardware, after several rounds of improvement, now consisted of a box not much bigger than a tower PC. One power cable and several fiber-optic cables ran from the portal generator box to a set of connectors labeled A through D. Each gate had corresponding cable receptacles. Bill had carefully packed the small gate with its pole, the three-foot gate, and the two large gates.

Richard and Matt manhandled the generator out of the van and placed it with the equipment. The others laid out supplies for the hike. This included weapons, basic survival equipment such as first-aid kits, axes, and machetes, as well as water and food. Beside this pile, they placed a couple of sets of screening boxes and a manual water pump.

Richard looked at the group. “Okay, I think we’re about ready to go. We don’t want another rant from Bill about scripts that require people to act like morons, so Bill and Kevin will be staying on this side, just in case.”

Richard went over the equipment and supplies and gave instructions for dividing up the loads. Erin was given a lighter load because she would have to control their guard dog.

Lucy kept trying to help. She appeared surprised that people felt her help was no help.

“Ready to go, sir!” Bill affected a military pose and threw a sloppy and insolent salute.

Ignoring Bill, Richard signaled to Kevin to activate the portal. They turned to the six-foot gate, and… nothing.

“Er, I’ll check the script again, but isn’t this the part where the gate opens?” Bill asked.

“The hell?” Richard said. “All right. Drop everything people. It’s debugging time.”

The crew removed their packs, dropped what they were carrying, and settled down to wait. Kevin methodically checked hardware from the gate back to the generator, while Richard did diagnostics on the tablet.

After several minutes, Kevin said, “There’s nothing wrong, Richard. We have power. The software is happy. The gate is happy. Just no connection.”

“Okay, let’s try the pole-cam,” Richard replied. They swapped the connections to the pole-cam, held it up, and activated it. The video window on the tablet showed a different reality.

“So, this works. Shit. Okay, let’s point it downwards.” Richard carefully angled the pole so that the camera faced down. They looked at the monitor. “Maybe it’s just me, but doesn’t the ground look closer in the monitor?”

Matt came over to look. “No question. The ground is higher on the other side. Maybe the gate doesn’t care for being opened underground.”

“Well, no, it wouldn’t,” Kevin interjected. “Unless the soil was pretty loose, the gate would have to cut the soil, and I believe I’ve already mentioned that is not possible.”

Bill rolled his eyes. “You couldn’t have brought that up earlier?”

That earned a glare from Kevin.

Richard smirked but decided to ignore the byplay. “Okay, let’s move the gate up onto the van. Maybe that’ll be enough.” They lifted the gate onto the deck of the van, reconnected it, and started up the portal. This time they were rewarded with a gate connection.

“Odd. I never would have expected the ground level to have changed like that,” Erin said. “This is like the hilliness in Lincoln…”

“Well, doesn’t matter,” Richard replied. “We’re ready. Let’s go through and get this done.”

They ducked as they walked through the large portal. Erin carefully led Lucy through on a leash. Kevin’s explanation notwithstanding, no one wanted to end up with half a dog on the other side.

There was a step down on the Outland side of less than a foot.

The noise level in the forest had an almost physical impact. To the surprised comments, Monica replied, “Welcome to real nature, people. What you get around town is nothing. Around here, everything that walks, flies, or hangs in a tree is trying to announce its territory.”

After a pause to get used to the noise level, Richard pulled out a can of spray paint and handed it to Monica. “Spray each tree as you go past it. Always to your right.”

Erin, meanwhile, looked down at the ground on this side of the portal, then scuffed her foot on the ground underneath her feet. She stared at it for several seconds, frowning.

Richard touched her shoulder briefly. “Problem?”

Erin turned to him and shook her head.

It took about twenty minutes to get to the creek, which was in the same place on the Outland side. However, the area around the creek looked quite different. The ground about thirty feet away from the actual creek bed rose into a steep bank, which left the creek in its own little valley. This was in contrast with the Earthside terrain, which had a barely detectable slope down to the creek. Richard could see Erin frowning again.

They set up their operation. Lucy stood guard, her leash connected to Erin’s belt with a carabiner. The leash gave the dog a twelve-foot radius of movement. Everyone in the group carried a pump-action shotgun, although Matt was the only one who was comfortable with it.

Erin broke out the metal detector and swept the creek bed to get a general idea of where to dig. She marked the areas with good readings using bright yellow plastic tent pegs. Matt maintained careful guard with his shotgun at ready.

Soon, Erin indicated she was satisfied with her survey. She grabbed a shovel, and they quickly settled into a routine. Erin took a shovelful of creek bed and placed it in a screening box, which Richard and Matt held. While they shook it back and forth, Monica used the hand-held pump to pour water onto the muck and gravel.

It took less than a dozen shovelfuls before they spotted their first yellow nugget. Monica yelled, “Woohoo!” and passed the nugget around.

“Heavy,” Matt said, bouncing it in his palm.

Over the next hour, Erin took shovelfuls from different parts of the surveyed area until they were able to see where they were getting the best results. After that, they concentrated in that area of creek bed. The gold bag filled fast.

***

Matt

Matt was conscientious about his guard duties. He found himself anxious about the fact that no one else had firearms experience. If there was trouble, Matt wanted to be the one doing the shooting.
Really should have done some practice firing when we started. Damn.

During one of the breaks, Erin asked Matt to accompany her over to the steep bank. Erin dug into the slope for a few feet, examining the soil after each shovelful. Again, she had that frown on her face. When Matt asked her what was bothering her, she shook her head and walked back to the group. They stood up with groans and got back to work.

They had settled into the routine again when the dog started barking. Lucy had a very deep bark, and the large feline that had been creeping up on them from the trees hesitated. Then apparently unimpressed, it resumed its approach.

Everyone grabbed their shotguns. Monica seemed to have a little trouble with the pump. Seeing this, Matt moved to stand between the feline and the group.

The feline continued to approach slowly. It was obviously being very cautious with unknown prey. Matt decided to see if he could scare it away. Pointing slightly to the side, he pulled the trigger.

A twelve-gauge shotgun is impressive in action at any time, and the group had elected to get the biggest cartridges they could. The result boomed like a cannon in the close forested space, and shredded the small tree at which Matt had aimed. The reaction looked like that of the family cat when surprised. The feline jumped six feet into the air, did a backflip, and hit the ground facing away from the group and already running, spraying gravel back at them before it finally got traction and disappeared.

Matt stared bemused at the hole in the air where the cat had been, while the others risked glances in that direction. Lucy helped it on its way with a few well-deserved barks. And gradually the forest cacophony, which had ceased with the gunshot, returned to full volume.

“That,” Monica said in a small voice, “was another smilodon. Smaller, probably either juvenile or
gracilis
. And I may have just peed my pants.” She grinned at the others.

The experience took any feeling of vacation out of the air, though. The group got back to work and soon had the bag filled to their satisfaction.

“Time to go home,” Richard said. They headed back the way they had come, keeping the tree graffiti on their left.

***

Bill

Aw, crap.
Bill looked over at Kevin. “Hey, Kev, can you give me a hand here? Little help?”

Kevin looked up. He’d been sitting in the lawn chair, staring into space, and he looked irritated at the interruption. “What?”

“I’m kind of tangled up here…” Bill replied.

Kevin stood and hurried to the side of the van, where Bill had the second portal generator powering the pole-cam. He had the cables wrapped around him and around one leg, and he teetered on the edge of losing his balance.

“How did you manage that?” Kevin asked.

“I got bored, so I set up the pole-cam. Been doing some examinations of the plant life and small animal life on the other side. I guess I lost track and got myself tangled up.”

“Well first,” Kevin said, “You don’t keep rotating in the same direction if you don’t want to get tangled up. Second, we shouldn’t be using the spare, especially not running two units off the generator. Third, we’re supposed to be watching the portal.”

“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Bill retorted. “Hey, here’s a thought. How about you untangle me so I can put this thing down without breaking it?”

Kevin shook his head and got to work unwinding his unruly partner-in-guarding.

He had just gotten Bill unraveled when there was a
ba-bump
and the van moved a little on its shocks.

“What was that?” Bill asked.

“I don’t know,” Kevin answered, “I was over here with you,
not
guarding.”

“Wow, you’re a pill, Kevin. Not following the rules just drives you nuts, doesn’t it?” Bill was a bit pissed and embarrassed about having pulled such a boner stunt. Normally he wouldn’t taunt Kevin like that.

“Yeah? Well hey, Bill, you like TV right? And you’re an engineer, right? Know what we learn from TV? That engineers don’t have PhDs. Plus they’re short, and live with their moms.”

Bill smiled. That was pretty lame, but Kevin had at least tried. “Okay, Kevin, you win. Let’s see what’s going on.”

They grabbed their shotguns and headed to the back of the van. As they turned the corner, they came face to face with a very large wolf. There was a moment of mutual frozen astonishment before Bill and Kevin brought up their weapons and took aim.

“Um, Bill?” Kevin said, “He’s between us and the gate. If we shoot him, we could take out the hardware.”

“If we don’t shoot him, he could take out one of us. Or both, he’s big enough,” Bill replied.

The standoff lasted for perhaps ten seconds more. Then the wolf, seemingly uncomfortable with the unknown surroundings and unknown opponents, turned and jumped back through the gate.