Projection: Projection, #1

By I M Gardner

Scott Wesson knew his life would change when he was promoted out of Astronaut training and into a new project. He just didn't know how much. With no idea what he was up against, he would still roll up his sleeves and try his best.  At least he had his hand-picked team that included the beautiful Russian assigned to the mission. That couldn't hurt too much, unless of course they all got eaten...

• Language: English
• Publisher: I M Gardner
• Release date: Mar 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781497777422

Book preview

PREFACE

I climbed the damp steps feeling like I had put in a twelve hour day. Well, come to think of it, I had. It started with a centrifuge session. Who would have guessed NASA would resurrect the centrifuge for our training? With no breakfast, it had not been my favorite part of the day. I was still slightly dizzy as I rushed into meeting after meeting. I knew the committee had to do something while they waited, but these meetings seemed pointless after awhile. The last two hours of the day in the gym felt like a vacation by then.

Kiki was at the door when I entered my condo. She wound in and out of my legs, telling me she was glad I was home, and oh, by the way, she was immediately available for dinner.

There was a sudden bright flash and then a long rolling boom. I glanced out at the bay. It was a spectacular scene as a thunder storm moved out across the dark waters.

I dodged the cat to make it to the kitchen and opened the fridge. There was a half bucket of fried chicken left and some cold mashed potatoes. It would do. I fed Kiki her Mighty Cat, then opened a bottle of pinot noir, grabbed the cold food, the warm wine, and flopped into the big cushy chair looking out at the bay. There was probably a game on tonight, but the storm seemed to hold my attention as I dined.

I checked my old beat up cell phone. There were six messages, all appointments for more meetings. I listened to the ones I could before the battery died again. I remembered I promised Frank I would accept the new proto-type phone. I guess I'd finally have to.

I leaned back, having scarfed down the food and wine way too fast. I didn't want to move. Maybe it was the hard day, maybe the wine, but I kicked off my cross trainers and closed my eyes. I was willing to relax and catch forty winks right here and now.

It didn't work out that way. Instead, I had the strangest dream of my life.

I was just an observer in my own dream, an elevated observer. It was like I was suspended high above the ground. I flailed at first, then finally relaxed to look down. It was wilderness below, a vast craggy highland of long waving grass. It was early morning and the glint of the low sun danced across a million grass blades. It was hauntingly beautiful and peaceful.

Then I spotted the beast. A great rocking beast. It was rumbling a sad melodic sound, almost like a song. Then it lifted a great trunk and a deep sound spread across the vastness. It was a call. I listened and could feel pain and loneliness in the long wail. The beast seemed to wait and listen. I listened also, but there was nothing to hear but the wind across the vast grassland. Finally it moved on.

I hovered over it, keeping pace in my strangest of dreams. I recognized it now. It was a native of the Holocene period of ancient earth. It was a wooly mammoth, a young female, newly on her own. I knew this now in my dream. She was utterly alone below me.

I looked ahead, for I could see a long way across the high plains. The mammoth stopped and the sniffed the winds. There were many dots on the plains ahead, and she had caught their scent. She walked faster now, finally excited. We closed the distance between us and the herd ahead. I could make out the grazers. They were steppe bison, burly, shaggy beasts with horns much longer than their modern descendents. The female mammoth seemed happy to see them.

She hurried to join them, rushing in to spread out the herd. I watched as she approached a number of them, offering her trunk in a friendly gesture. They ignored her and moved away to continue feeding. She stood isolated between two pods of feeding bison, turning back and forth, rumbling softly with her best greetings of friendship. Neither group returned her offerings. I could hear her sad rumblings as she accepted the loneliness and started to feed on the tall grasses. She fed, but didn't seem happy, as if life for her was disjointed and unsettled.

Soon she raised her trunk and sniffed the air. I followed her direction and scanned the horizon. I quickly spotted smoke. It was a broad half circle line of plumes. The mammoth below sniffed, then flailed her trunk in alarm. She let out a loud bellow that caused the grazing herds to jerk their heads up. They all sniffed and bellowed now. The female mammoth turned in haste and started back in the other direction, directly away from the smoke and flames eating their way across the high plain. Her legs were like pistons as she scurried as fast as they would move her. The bison strung out in long lines on each side of her. They galloped in panic, yet the mammoth covered every bit as much ground as the hyper running bison.

I looked off to the right. My heart sank. There was a cliff, a great ravine ahead of the herds. It stretched for miles to the right and left, yet the herds were pushed to it by the never ending smoke and flames.

She finally saw the cliff and slowed down. I saw her stop and turn to study the fire roaring behind her.  The last of the bison blew by her only to stop at the edge of the crevice. Soon the bison were piled and grouped along the edge, bellowing and mewing with fret.

I looked over the edge to the depths below. I spotted them down there,...people. There was a make-shift camp way down there. I saw temporary tents of rough fur. There were cooking fires, waiting below and a great ring of hunters, set way back from the fall zone. It hit me like a ton of bricks when I realized all this was a hunt, or more aptly put, an organized massacre. I had only been with the mammoth for mere minutes, and yet I pulled for her deliverance.

She paced back and forth between the creeping flames and the cornered bison. She bellowed and wailed and called to others of her kind, others that were not there. She had no herd, no matriarch, no mates to comfort her. She was alone.

I cringed as the flames forced her back to the ledge. I looked away as bison after bison slipped back off the edge to tumble and flail in a long fall to death. Soon it was only her and one last bison, a big bull. He bellowed and ran at the flames, only to stop and retreat in pain. He faced the ravine and knelt at the edge, his front hoofs hanging out and over it. Finally he slid over the ledge, as if the careful slide would save him. Miserably, I knew it had no effect.

My female mammoth was alone now. She backed up against the ledge. The flames still came. She bellowed and screamed in frustration and misery. She held her trunk tight under her chest as the flames licked at her long tusks and face. Finally her back legs slipped over the edge and I watched as her trunk made one last desperate grab at the barren ledge. I watched in misery and despair as she went over the ledge and fell to her end.  I thought I heard the last sad note slam out of her as she hit far below. I stared in disbelief as the flames reached the edge, only to waver weakly and burn out.

I could see the ring of humans below close upon the carcasses to start the butchering. I knew the mammoth would be used by these people. I knew this tribe, or one like it, would flourish to conquer the continent. These people would eventually spread over the years into many tribes from shore to shore. I also knew others from across the ocean would come and bring guns and disease and decimate the descendents of these same people.

Yet, I was angry in my dream. She had become my mammoth. I had followed her in the last hour of her life. And I knew in my dream, something she was not aware of. For in her heartbreaking death, the hopes of all mammoths was lost. Sadly, I had witnessed the death of the last mammoth.

I awoke shaking. I lay, not wanting to get up. It was completely dark out across the water now. It was deathly quiet in my condo. I could hear the clock on the mantle tick after tick. Finally, I sat up and rubbed my face. I leaned forward wondering how on earth I could have such an odd dream. I slowly rose and walked out onto the porch. There was a great smell of ozone in the air and a line of drips splattered onto the railing from above. The dream started to slowly dissolve away. Soon, I could not remember much, only a lingering sadness. I looked out over the calming waters with a strange sense of loss.

I turned and gathered my things. Kiki scampered for the bedroom, afraid I'd shut her out. I glanced at the clock. It was 1:30am. I knew I wouldn't go in tomorrow. Frank had offered us some time off. We had certainly earned it. To hell with it then, I was taking a couple of days off.

I. Return of the Probe

The new phone beeped in my ear. God.....I loved the new phone. I slowed the throttle back and tapped in my ear. (Tap once to answer the call, tap twice to hang up, I just read that.) A small projection appeared in my upper right vision. I could see Frank at his desk. The image was expandable, but I didn't know how yet and I was kind of speeding down I-45 on a Harley. I hung up and pulled over into a new car dealership. I hit the fifth button down and re-dialed Frank.

Hi there Frankie, what’s new? I said rather loudly, giving him my undivided attention over the passing traffic.

Frank was leaning over his desk. I was hoping I wouldn't have to witness it collapse under his bulky frame.

Good morning Scott. I see you're on your scooter today. Hey, mind walking over to that Porsche? Wonder if I'd fit in one of those. He was in a good mood.

It's red Frank. You're too old for red. Get a grey one. Actually, a grey minivan. It’s more you. I smiled.

Good Golly, Wesson you're as amicable as a ditch cat today. Be nice or I'll hang up and make you wonder why I called. He threatened, smiling like a great friendly bear.

I called you remember? Besides, I already know what's up, the probe's back. I was just hoping out loud.

Lucky guess Gandalf, you’re so smart, maybe you don’t need a briefing on the probe’s findings. Frank smiled again.

Don’t tease me big guy, when can we get this briefing done?

I was getting excited. I knew that Frank wouldn’t have even called if it wasn’t good news. The probe was sent three days ago. It was designed to give us a quick look at temperature, atmosphere, soil composition, and visual data from the surrounding location. The fact that it was in one piece to even return was a miracle in itself, because...after all... it was sent twelve million years into Earth’s future. Yeah, I know, that’s still amazing to me too. I can’t take any credit. They are the brains, I’m just the brawn, disposable at best. I’m one of several picked to travel time, a process so new only four individuals have done it so far. We work out of NASA, Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. We’re a multi-national backed company called Chrono-Lab and employ about a thousand handpicked people from the space program and armed services. Well, mix in a few free-lance computer geeks too, I guess.

Only a few people know we’ve actually achieved time travel. The nation hasn’t been told yet because of some disturbing things we need to process... like why there is no human presence on Earth ten thousand years from now. We found lots of cats, dogs, pigs and horses, but not a single human. Chrono-Lab wasn’t sure what to do with this sensitive information.

The first trip took place about two months ago, using the other team. I still wouldn’t have the need to know if it wasn’t for the highest executive decision to look at the impact of having no humans on earth in the distant future.

I won’t speculate rather or not this is the correct decision, to zoom so far into the future. There’s a strong camp of supporters in favor of easing just slightly ahead a few thousand years to determine when the human race meets its demise and how. Once the time and cause have been determined, it may be possible to fix it. That’s the eventual plan, but we need this trip to find out what we’re effecting long term by meddling in this near term disaster. It took us several days to soak in the bitter, if somewhat unsurprising news that the human race wouldn’t make it very far.

Frank, you there? When can you brief us? I was all business now.

About three days from now...where are you going to be?

Frank, I’m half way back from Galveston, I can organize the team to be there in an hour, ok?

Scott, Good Golly, you know I haven’t reviewed two days’ worth of data yet. Calm down hot shot.

"Oh, I’m a hot shot now? Does that come with a raise? Frankie, what can you have for us in two hours then?" I pressed.

Cold lunch... and maybe temps and atmospheric data.

Ok, ok, not bad ... hey what if we sit in on the first few minutes of video recovery? Can you make that happen? We won’t throw food and giggle...I promise.

Crap.... Silence.

OK, I’ll throw together a small meeting, but you owe me a pizza after...I’m serious.

Wahoo, I love you, you big sweetheart. We’ll be there in a couple of hours, don’t start without us.

I worked my way back into freeway traffic. I was so excited, it was difficult not to speed. I leaned the bike hard at the NASA Boulevard bypass and then zipped down the caliche road to my condo. My place was old and weathered, but grand in size and had that great water view. I ran up the stairs two at a time and rushed into the study, throwing my helmet on the bed and launching a grey cat across the room.

Oops sorry Kiki.

The cat grumbled as she made her way into the kitchen with me. I absently tore the cover off the Luxury Pet cat food tin, dropped it on my boot, and slid it across the floor to stop it just short of Kiki’s left paw. She is so used to this by now, she doesn’t even flinch. I held the bottom button of the phone in my ear to scroll through my call list...I stopped at Andra Amanakov and tapped once. I listened to the electronic ring, hoping I could reach her.

Andra...my goodness. She made this whole project extra bright for me. The time travel, seeing things we wouldn't get to see in our own life time, all very cool... way cool, but it would enhance all this beyond compare if she comes with us. Yeah... that sounds real professional...not. Anyway she is on my travel team as my Russian Chrononaut counterpart. We both trained originally as Astronauts/Cosmonauts and were selected and honored to participate as initial Chrononauts.

Andra is tall and athletic, lithe, and curvy... and of course, brilliant. We shared similar studies and doctorates in Bio Science. She specialized in flora, where as my focus was fauna. Together with her plant knowledge and my animal studies we represent quite a bit of bio knowledge to the Chrono-Lab team. We were to be a valuable combination for a previously scheduled trip back