.99999

By Robert Schulman and John Lohr

Its 2024 a dig for dinosaurs in Wyoming uncovers something that should not be there. The object quickly becomes a lightening rod for conspiracy theorists, the FBI, Homeland Security. the military, endless lawyers and politicians, as it prepares to collect a crew and depart earth forever. The ship was deliberately placed on earth by an unknown species called "the Others", with a mandate for eight individuals to travel to the galaxy's inner regions. The choice of crew seemingly makes no sense. Dark, sinister-looking and impenetrable to all but those eight, the object is impervious to any attempt to impede its launch from earth on its way to a dense inner spiral of the galaxy. During the 10,000 light-year voyage, the crew encounters fellow teammates, alien flybys, a neutron star. and the first earthling born in space, After meeting the "Others," each crew member faces a life-altering decision. That decision may decide the fate of these inscrutable "Others", the desperate species that engineered the voyage and had already saved the crew members' lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667861722

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Copyright © 2022 Robert Schulman

All Rights Reserved

ISBN: 978-1-66-786172-2

Acknowledgements

John wishes to dedicate this to the memory of Ian Lohr who was the inspiration for the characters of Eddie Robison and Ian O’Toole.  Thanks to Paula and Erin for navigating the making of this book.

Bob wishes to thank his wife and best friend Nancy Schulman for her continual support and help, and acknowledge Vicky Valencia for her expertise on the math and science.

About the Authors

Robert Schulman and John Lohr are former Wall Street executives, now reformed.  They have both previously published non-fiction.

In this, their debut novel the authors give you hard Science Fiction inspired by Isaac Asimov, with the wry wit of Douglas Adams.  They have woven engaging characters into an intricate plot which is meticulously engineered with scientific and sociological concerns.

Robert and Nancy reside in Manhattan, while John and Paula live in Florida.

Contents

Acknowledgements

About the Authors

PART ONE:  THE DIG

THE RANCH: MONDAY

SO, HERE THEY ARE: TUESDAY

THE SITE:  WEDNESDAY

ON-SITE: THURSDAY

FRIDAY PAID OFF

LATER THAT EVENING

SATURDAY

TALKING TO NEW YORK:

SUNDAY:  HOW BIG?

MONDAY MORNING: THE STORM IS COMING

TUESDAY:  NOW HOW BIG?

THE DIG IS OVER

MORE SUNDAY:  SA IN CHARGE

MONDAY CERTAINLY WAS INTERESTING.

TUESDAY:  IN THE TENT

WHERE ARE WE GOING?

THURSDAY:  BREAKTHROUGH

ELSEWHERE:  THE OTHERS

GOODBYE WYOMING

PART TWO: ANDREWS

DAY ONE AT ANDREWS

DAY TWO ANDREWS:  IT’S A BLAST

SHOWTIME

GOT IT!

THE MEADOW

THE TEAM

IAN

Dr. WHEELER

BOB’S TURN. A DIFFERENT APPROACH.

DEMARCUS

MARIE

IN FLAGSTAFF:

KATIE

MEANWHILE

TUESDAY:  DAY 20

DAY 21:  Water

ELSEWHERE:  THE OTHERS

DAY 22: WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?

DAY 23:  WHAT?

DAYS 23 AND 24:  GEARING UP

DAY 25:  AUGUST 24th

AT PRECISELY 10 am, Q CAME ON

PART THREE

DAY ONE AL: AFTER LAUNCH

ON THE GROUND

48 HOURS EARLIER

IN THE AIR

DAY TWO AL

ON TO SATURN

THE OTHERS:

DAYS 4 -6 AL: CLOSER BUT NOT BY MUCH

DAY 6:

THE REST OF THE DAY:

PART FOUR

TROUBLE IN PARADISE

JENNA, MARIE, AND DE, WITH Q

HOW ARE WE DOING?

ON EARTH

ONBOARD A1

QUIET TIME IN THE STARS.

DAYS TURN INTO DAYS

DAY 196

IT WAS A GOOD PLAN

PART FIVE

THE NEXT FIVE YEARS OR SO:

RUTH LYLES

DAY 331

DAY 337  .999986

Day 180 SOL

EARTH:

1000 YEARS AFTER LAUNCH (1000AL)

FLYBY

SPECULATION AFTERMATH

THE SHOWER AND THE BABY’S NAME IS…

THE THIRD-YEAR

FROM THE JOURNAL OF THE MEADOW ONE

BY IAN O’TOOLE

ABOARD THE BRITISH SHIP

THE EVENT

THE PLAN

AND THEY’RE BAACK!

PART SIX DECELERATION

THE OTHERS

Epilogue

PART ONE:  THE DIG

THE RANCH: MONDAY

Theysaid they’d be here tomorrow. ‘Digging for dinosaurs,’ Doc said to Old Blue. Blue nosed him in the back and chawed at his vest pocket for treats. 

Might be the most excitement since Calamity was born.  He was pretty sure Blue didn’t care. Still, big buddy, we might mosey over t’ the cliff and see if we need to tidy up any. 

Blue was great at moseying. Especially on the bluffs; he generally picked his away down carefully and rocketed up.

Saddled, bridled, reined, and packed, Blue moseyed. Doc was along as a mere passenger. Blue knew the way. They both stopped at the very edge of Coyote Ridge. Not that Doc had much of a choice. With the Big Horn Mountains over their left shoulders and the barn about 2 miles directly behind, they looked over the expanse of the Coyote Basin. 

Sure does look wavy, like the bottom of the ocean, don’t it?  Occupied with the few blades of prairie grass that were not too close to the edge, Blue didn’t comment.

Right below there, where that rill kind of stops, turns round that little mound. That’s where they asked permission to dig for dinos.  Blue sneezed from prairie grass pollen.

Sure, I said ‘yes.’ Maybe they find the ‘big one.’ Put the Howling Wolf on the map, so t’ speak. Maybe we cash in, Blue, cause it’s on our land…but, maybe it’s nothin’ but a couple of grand rent in my pocket….

Looking over his shoulder at the Big Horns—13,000 feet of a volcanic upchuck, Doc muttered, mostly to himself, The Howling Wolf Ranch—27,000 acres of bad trail. Nothing grows here ‘cept’ pronghorn that dam locals call ‘antelope.’ Horses don’t like it much; cows won’t eat it. I left Connecticut to own a dam rock farm.

Turning back to look over the 300-million-year-old Sundance Sea one more time, Doc said, Les’go back, Blue. Nothin’ to do here ’til tomorrow.

Like most horses hear, back starting with B means barn, which means hay. Blue turned a 180 and picked up the pace some on the way back.

SO, HERE THEY ARE: TUESDAY

Doc saw them coming about a mile away. That van with the U haul’s going to have fun comin up the hill, he thought.

Up 1000 feet of winding dirt road with no guardrail, an SUV towing a U Haul trailer followed by a Jeep approached the Ranch. They rolled through the Ranch gate entrance and landed in front of the stone house. The van driver, a tallish gent under a floppy hat, descended and walked toward Doc. Hi.

Welcome to Howling Wolf. I take it you’re Jack.

"That’s me. This is Dr. Jenna Rydecki, a physicist actually, an astrophysicist and mathematician. She’s a volunteer and team leader. Eddie Robison, here, is our geologist. Eddie and I are from the Museum

And your team?

Maria, Billy, Imelda. Patel and Richie - our hardest workers, the cogs that make the dig run; all volunteers, all college student interns at the Museum, and top-notch budding talent.

Three pack leaders with their ragtag lot, Doc thought. Stuffed backpacks, notebooks, and 20-year-olds who looked about 14. Jeans were de rigor in Wyoming, but those big floppy hats looked dumb. Loose long sleeve shirts over white t-shirts were topped by unbuttoned flannel overshirts. One guy wore shorts. That’ll change about nine tonight, Doc thought.

Well, come on. Les’ get you somethin’ to drink:  Iced tea, water? You three old folks want a beer? Any of y’all want to make a fast friend? See that white four-legger over there by the shed? Grab a handful out of that red bucket over by the fence and meet Blue. Horse treats make you a friend for life. 

The college kids made right for Blue.

Jack, Jenna, and Eddie followed Doc up the porch and sat while Doc grabbed four ice teas. Doc sat.

West was the Big Horn Mountains, Cloud Peak capped white in the middle. East was flat and rocky for a couple of miles, then more foothills and a distant town. A sharp updraft of maybe another 1000 feet, and more foothills rested on their left. It was all greenish and brownish until the Big Horns allowed trees up the mountain. Powder River Pass cut a deep slash through the mountains. Not another house in any direction. 

So how did you guys decide to come here to high desert rock land anyhow?

Jack explained, Well, we started by researching the geography of Northern Wyoming. We know this general area has been dubbed ‘The Jurassic Mile.’ There is evidence of a Dino trail, so to speak, along the shore of an ancient seabed. We know that from gastrolith finds. They are rocks dinosaurs swallowed to help them digest their food. This whole part of the country, from Canada to New Mexico, was covered by water 100 million years ago. Your area here was on the shores of what we call Sundance Lake. The Big Horns didn’t exist until they were thrust up in a very violent climatic time. That was long after the last dinosaurs were gone.

Sundance Lake, huh? Probably named for the Kid, Doc quipped. No smile forthcoming, he shut up.

Geologists and paleontologists determined that there is a probability that we find Dinosaur evidence near the upthrust of the ridge where there is sandstone of the right composition.

So, here we are.

John Kennedy MacLellan was ‘The Assistant Curator of Paleontology’ at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. From Brooklyn to Yale to Harvard to the Museum of the Rockies to New York City—basically round trip in only 37 years. His friends and colleagues called him Jack. He had his early career dream job. Curator was THE late-career dream job, but that was maybe 15 years away. Since his sophomore summer at Yale, he was a veteran of six major dinosaur digs. Since he was three years old, it was all about dinosaurs. Toys, models, books, and more books to the dirty job of being a volunteer on digs, to his digs.

He had sat in the dirt with Jack Horner, brushed silt with fellow volunteer, George Lucas in Hell Creek, Montana, lived in a tent while he worked in the Prep Lab in Thermopolis, WY. He helped unearth Big Al in Shell, WY. He lived his work in the Morrison Formation, the holy grail of dinosaurs in America.

‘Jurassic paleo passion’ was what the pros called it (among themselves). He had it. Paleos knew that no matter how much prep time, research, walkabouts, and digging, you took what you got. Paleos also knew that the ‘big one’ laid just over the horizon. A full skeleton: Sue, Al, and Teddy were ‘big ones.’ Each cemented the career achievements of the lead paleontologist. They all wanted one. When his boss, Michael Novacek, was ready to retire, Jack hoped to be high on the list to be Curator. The ‘big one’ would help. In the meantime, you dug and dug and dug.

Jenna Rydecki was from Bozeman, Montana. Visiting the Museum of the Rockies as a kid led to Montana State to Harvard to Cal Tech and a coveted teaching position there. She vaulted her way to astrophysicist of ‘probability space’ at the ripe age of 32.  One of America’s few superstars in the field, she was a mathematician in the mold of Richard Feynman. She had studied his 7 Lessons on Physics at Cal Tech and read everything he wrote or was written about him. She wished she could have met him. She was not obsessive about Jurassic fossils, but like everything else in her life, she was meticulously curious about everything scientific. She had volunteered on a summer dig before. She met Jack on a Horner dig in Montana. Here she would be working closely with him. She wondered if that influenced her decision to volunteer. She thought he was smart and likable. But no time for that. She knew her career was on a rocket. She smiled to herself at the unintended pun. The dig and Jack were pleasant diversions, a good way to spend her vacation, think about something other than math, and a chance to be near home.

Eddie Robison was a rock star. No, seriously, he knew as much about rocks as anyone. It is said he could identify basalt from the color of the grass 650 feet above it. This was probably an exaggeration, but you get the point. He came to the Museum in New York from Berkeley by way of Ohio State and never had short hair. Average height, average build, and over- the- shoulder now gray hair he had since 14 flowed over his perpetually black BLM t-shirt. He was always (and we mean ALWAYS) the first one picked in a Trivial Pursuit game. His irreplaceable skills allowed him the opportunity to work on multiple projects at the same time but never finish one. It was no matter. His starts gave all the other scientists a path to the finish. He played the guitar. Not in his 30’s, Eddie was a baby-faced grey-haired 45-year-old.

Jack pointed north over the flats and said, The dig’s out there, below the ridge where the flats end. We set up today and start our walkabout tomorrow.

Walking over to the corral gate with Jack, Jenna, and Eddie, Doc said, Once you get through both green gates, there’s a two-track.  Pointing diagonally, Take that through the next green gate, and you come to a road in about a mile or two. Go left down the hill, and when it flattens out, there’ll be another two-track on the left that takes you back right up to the base of the ridge. That is your wash. The Tahoe should be good in 4-wheel, even with that trailer. The Jeep is good to lead. Just remember that under every blade of prairie grass, there’s a rock. Out here, every rock is like the tip of an iceberg. There’s a lot more underneath than what you can see.

Eddie offered, That’s what we’re hoping. I live underground; it’s the best place to meet women.

THE SITE:  WEDNESDAY

6:30 A.M. 

Doc was on Dillon, The Gentle Giant. Blue followed, saddled and bridled. Looking down from the edge of the ridge, they saw the crew had been busy. Four tents were set up, a rock-lined campfire pit, and three blocks, maybe six feet square, were already staked with six-inch-high wood borders. It looked like the kids were staking out another block with pegs and twine. A couple of red-flagged stakes completed the picture. The gray pony-tailed Eddie was tending a coffee pot. Two or three others wandered about the rocks along the base of the ridge. Doc opted to let Dillon pick his way down the ridge. Sure-footedBlue followed, no lead line needed.

By the time they reached flat land, Jack was waiting.

Howdy, Doc.

Jack, don’t mean to bother y’all, but jest wanted to see what the setup looked like. Doc rested his hand on his waist and glanced around.

Sure. Come on, grab a coffee, and I’ll show you.

Coffee in hand, Jack and Doc were standing in the middle of the tent area.

You got a lot done in a day, Doc said. "So, this is what was in your trailer?

And more, Doc. A dig is a long, arduous task—dirty, dusty, back-breaking, tedious hard work. But, find a fossil? Dinosaur fossils are the top of the heap, for me. So far, anyway. A find is exciting, and a big find is an adrenalin rush like winning ‘best all around’ in the NCAA rodeo championship.

Well, I never done that, but I do understand the idea of hard, tedious work.  Doc added, You find anything yet?

Well, we have done some exploring and found three or four places that might be promising. Students set up the tents. Eddie prowled, looking for a trace. We’re fairly sure the rill has float.

Float?

Fragments of dinosaur bone unearthed by the water erosion. Where we want to look deeper first is in the wooden framed squares. Prime sites so far. Red flags mark the next possible sources.

Pretty much what you expected?

Maybe a little better. The area may be ripe.

Anything you didn’t expect?

See that slight rise in the flat over there?  Jack pointed north about 40-50 feet or so.

It’s bare, and it’s huge. Got to be at least 50 feet of nothin’ there.

Yes. Eddie says it shouldn’t be there. We hope to take a shot at it in the next couple of days. Today, we explore more—our walkabout, so to speak and start digging tomorrow. We’ll see what we find in our prime sites and then try to figure out the barren spot—no idea what we may find there.

Shifting trails, Doc said, What did you think of the Milky Way last night?

The students were awestruck. They don’t see much of that kind of sky in the city. 

We’re only 50 miles from Big Sky Country. Montana doesn’t have any bigger sky than ours, though. You know, Jack, tomorrow night, the International Space Station will cut a Northwest to Southeast track about 10:10 or so. It’s easy to spot straight lines blinking and bright as any star.  Keep an eye out for UFOs, too.

Have you ever seen one? Jack asked with a kind of eagerly quizzical look.

Nope, not yet.

Well, I hope we can stay up that late. We start early in that 4:30 morning light.

The perils of facing East. I won’t keep you from your work. I was wondering, though, if you run into a time when you need to get somewhere quick, a horse is helpful. That is if anybody is a rider.

I believe somebody told me Jenna used to barrel race in High School.

Perfect. If you want, I can leave Blue and his tack with you. He doesn’t need any entertainment. He eats what grass he can find. He absolutely will not leave your camp unless you tell him to, and he’s a good coyote alarm. He’s a good packhorse, too.

You never know. We might need his help. Thanks.

Sounds good. Dillon and I will mosey back, so you can get to finding dinosaurs. I understand you have a satellite phone, so ring me if you need something. Usually, I’m just horsin’ around.  Doc allowed himself a little smile at his turn of phrase.

After a wave at the crew, Doc delighted Jenna with the reins to Blue. Admittedly, it was love at first sight for both. Doc swung into Dillon’s saddle, said goodbye to Jack and Jenna, and let Dillon pick his way back up the cliff. Doc glanced back and saw Eddie slowly walking around the bare rise, poking here and there. Wouldn’t it be somethin’ if they found the big one, Doc thought.

ON-SITE: THURSDAY

Two days of mostly looking and a little brushing and troweling, the crew spent two full days looking for traces of dinosaur bones and found some. To no one’s surprise, the best areas so far were near the edge of the ridge and close to the rill. Jenna and two students gently brushed and troweled in the #1 block. Three students did the same in the #3 block. Jack was intent on the rill and block #2, which so far had turned up little. Eddie spent a lot of time poking around the mound, stirring loose ground with a pointed stick. He kicked at the dirt and worked with a hand spade here and there. Blue watched them with bemusement. Then he ate what little grass around that he could find.

Doc’s backhoe had carefully worked the topsoil layer at each staked block down to lakebed soil. The team walked the perimeter and poked at the few inches of topsoil removed to make sure nothing was missed, or worse, disturbed. It was slow. Still, they had room to dig at three sites by noon, so they did. Right at the rock ledge, the fourth site was Jack’s ace in the hole.

Early afternoon, one of the students got excited with a find. She held a fist-sized roundish stone with a smooth red disturbed surface. She brought it to Jack and waited expectantly. Examining it, turning it over a couple of times, Jack looked at her, It’s quartzite. Her heart sank.

And, Jack continued, See the smooth red bubble-like surface nodes? I think it’s a gastrolith.

You found clear evidence of a dinosaur, Maria!  She soared again. Dinosaurs swallowed minerals like this to aid their digestion. There’ll be more, so trowel carefully.

No dinosaur yet, but they were getting someplace.

At the early afternoon lunch break, Jack told the team, Please be very careful. The heat is a big deal at midday. Stay hydrated. Let’s concentrate on Blocks 2 and 3. Look for anything that looks out of place: shape, color, pattern. Bones we are looking for have straight lines that end in a small hole. If the line goes all the way around, it’s not a bone. If there are perpendicular lines, it will be a mineral. If it sticks out, do the taste test. Lick the end with the hole, hold it firmly, press it into your finger, count to 10, and let go. If it sticks to your finger, even if you shake it, it will be Dino’s bone.

They all nodded, making Jack continue, I expect we’ll find a lot more from the edge of the ridge in or just above the reddish, purplish soil above the drab gray bed. This is limey, fossiliferous sandstone. We are standing in a Jurassic flood plain. This is a marine setting like we expected. I think the float will run from 15 feet above the ridge edge out toward the bare spot. We are getting close, guys. Dr. Rydecki, do you want to take a student and scrape up the ridge a few feet?

Jenna nodded and moved off with Patel.

The other four students split two and two to work more on blocks 2 and 3. That left Jack. Eddie was staring at the mound. He turned to Jack and said, Jack? That does not belong here.

How about a Lakota burial mound?

Noo…. According to Jenna’s research, Red Cloud and his bunch were here. They were mostly looking to steal horses from soldiers from Fort Fetterman, down the pass. Her data says this was not a traditional burial spot for Lakota. Besides, no big battles were fought here. Not after Fetterman, anyway.

So, what do you think, Eddie?

I think the ground there was disturbed more recently. No stones, no vegetation. It sits there like a big sore thumb, inviting us to pry…. I think I just mixed a metaphor, Eddie added.

What do you want to do?

I’d like to dig deeper, around the sides and from the flattop some, and use a pole to try to get further in. I’m fairly sure I won’t disturb anything we’re looking for, but I’d like to see what’s there that we’re not looking for.

Thursday afternoon was retreating. The team dug, scraped, troweled, examining and sharing looks at things unearthed. Still slow, but even dirtier. Maria approached Jack. She held out six pieces of what she believed was bone, and one part was curved and sharp; it took both her hands to hold all six.

It passed the taste test, and the striations are right, she said proudly.

Jack confirmed, It’s Dinosaur bone. This is a claw. A couple of students came around. Jenna recorded the find. Maria was elated. Everybody went back to work with a new purpose.

The end of the day showed twenty-three bone fragments, including a couple of gastroliths, now two claws, some Indian pottery, three antler sheds, and tan chert. The team wanted to treat themselves to a dinner out. Pistol Pete’s diner was down at the crossroads, across from the Sinclair with the convenience cubbyhole.

Jack called in the daily report to New York. He could just hear the nodding of no excitement as he listed what the day had wrought. Let us know tomorrow how close you think you are to a recoverable mount, he was reminded.

Pistol Pete’s here we come, Jack thought to himself.

By 10:30 that night, the big sky was awash with stars. The Milky Way cut a wide swath northeast to southwest. There was no moon out—nothing to see except the occasional shooting star trail of a meteorite. Jack had forgotten about the space station. Not sleepy, he walked around a little and then just stood, looking out nowhere in particular. Behind him, he heard, Hey.  It was Jenna. Musing or plotting?

A little bit of both, Jen.

The proverbial penny to you, then, Jack.

I just get impatient sometimes, Jen. After 18 years, I still second- guess myself whether I’m really cut out for this.

Nonsense, Jack. You’re one of the best. And, you know that will give you the big find, and you’ll be over the moon. I can just feel that we’re getting close to something. Come on, walk with me, Jack.

And so, they walked.

FRIDAY PAID OFF

Jenna and Patel dug on the ridge just above the flat and found several pieces of bone. Jack confirmed they were dinosaur bones, but they did not yield enough information to identify the type of dinosaur.

Blocks Two and Three had their separate payoffs. Ritchie found what he was sure was two more gastroliths, and more small round bone fragments were found at both blocks. 

Every find brought a new excited gathering of students, paleontologists, and astrophysicists. Finds were measured and recorded by Jenna. Every find was labeled, described, and a picture was taken. Results were reported to New York every evening, per protocol. The precise location of every find was marked with a red flag. Blocks Two and Three had 27 flags, and the find cabinet was getting heavy.

Nothing groundbreaking was discovered yet, but Jack felt it was close and told the teams so. We have only been working a week. This was a very promising start.

All-day long, the excitement level had flowed with talk and ebbed with silence – the team was focused on brushing and troweling. The intermittent piece of trace or bone was cause for team exhilaration. Even the shards of Indian pottery brought a thrill. Everybody wanted to be the first to find the big one, not the least of which was Jack. He took to pacing around the bottom of the ridge, offering encouragement to the teams in Blocks Two and Three. To no one, in particular, he said, I think tomorrow we expand to block One. Only occasionally did he glance at Eddie over at the shallow mound.

Eddie was prowling with a short spade, trowel, and brush. Rebar rods were sticking out of two sides and two in the top of the mound.

It was getting late in the afternoon when Jack, his back to the mound, heard Blue snort and felt him nuzzle his arm. Turning to pet Blue, Jack realized Eddie was there too.

Eddie?

I may have found something, Jack. Jack’s heart picked up the pace. Eddie was no stranger to finds.

Let’s see, Eddie. Jack held out his hand.

Um, it’s bigger than that, Jack.

Bigger? His heart ticked up another notch. Show me.

Walk with me, Jack. They circumnavigated the mound.