Dinosaur Thunder (27 page)

“Because of its unusual properties?” Lund asked.

“Exactly,” Puglisi said. “The differential time flow between the entrance and terminus may be the barrier. Somehow the material recovered on the moon exists in a state that is time neutral and that empowers the traveler to make the transition between time flows.”

“You know I am understanding only part of this,” Willa said honestly.

“Yes, Madam President,” Puglisi said. “I don’t understand much of it myself, but I do understand this: We know that the region, and especially Florida, is experiencing an unusual series of tremors. After meeting with John, I mapped the quakes using longitude, latitude, and then added Richter strength and duration of the quakes and found a pattern. The quakes spiral out from this lab. That material we recovered is the epicenter for whatever is happening.”

“Exactly what is happening?” Willa asked.

“Honestly,” Puglisi said, staring intently from the screen, “I don’t know, but the quakes are increasing in strength and decreasing in spacing. We need to do something and do it quick, before it is too late.”

“Too late for what?” Lund asked, frustrated by the vagueness.

“I don’t know, but earthquakes are part of it,” Puglisi said.

“I assure you that I am as concerned as you are, but what can we do?” Willa asked.

“That black material is acting like a giant magnet, attracting something. I suggest we get rid of it before it pulls whatever is at the other end to us.”

“Get rid of it? You mean burn it? Blow it up?”

“I don’t think that would work,” Puglisi said. “The force it is projecting could be released, intensified, or transformed. Better to stick with the devil we know.”

“Then what?” Willa asked.

“Pack it all up and send it into space,” Puglisi said.

“We’ll lose the strategic value of the material,” Willa said, thinking through the consequences. “That is a lot to give up.”

“It’s not just about Nick and Elizabeth,” Emmett said. “Whatever has ripped open these time passages isn’t just affecting time and space, it is also altering time flow. The time ripples that created the Time Quilt came from nuclear explosions in the thirty- to one-hundred-megaton range. Those bombs did not have the megatonnage to alter time, and it took a convergence of ripples through time to cause the Time Quilt. What’s causing this new phenomenon is exponentially more powerful than anything any nation has detonated.”

“That’s not possible,” Willa said, anxiety growing. “Unless these tunnels connect to the future?”

“Not with velociraptors and tyrannosaurs popping out,” Emmett said.

“Then what?” Willa asked.

“I did some calculations, and I think I might know what’s anchoring this,” Emmett said. “It’s the K–T event. An asteroid strike that kills eighty-five percent of the animal life on the planet.”

“It killed the dinosaurs,” Willa said.

“And more,” Emmett said. “Dinosaurs, pterosaurs, marine reptiles, ammonites, many plants, even forms of plankton were eliminated or devastated.”

“You think that destruction could bleed through to the present?” Willa asked.

“I think the connections we’ve found are the larger time fractures, but that there are many more that could rupture as the K–T event approaches.”

“Approaches in the past,” Willa said.

“I know it’s confusing. The time effects ripple out on both sides of any event. We’re experiencing the before ripples, and after the strike, we’ll suffer the after ripples unless we can minimize the effect.”

“But it has already happened,” Willa said.

“Yes, but we’ve only experienced the time ripples, the full waves have not hit yet. Normally, they would ripple out through all of time, but I believe that the orgonic material that we have been collecting is altering time–space, creating a path of least resistance leading right to our present. Specifically to Florida.”

Willa understood, grasping the potential disaster. Florida was heavily populated and loaded with tourists year-round. There had already been an incident in Orlando, and if the energy from an asteroid strike bled through into present-day Orlando, the death toll could be staggering.

“Your plan is to get rid of this orgonic material?” Willa asked.

“Since the orgonic material is acting like a magnet, yes.”

“To space?”

“Off the planet, yes. Let the energy released dissipate in space.”

“I suppose we must,” Willa said, accepting the idea.

“There’s a problem, though. If we move the material, we may shift the time tunnels that have been created. I don’t know if once created they are fixed, or transient based on proximity to the orgonic material.”

“I see,” Willa said. “You’re saying that the passage that our people passed through may dissipate if we send the orgonic matter into space.”

“Yes.”

Willa did not hesitate. “Wait as long as you safely can, then move the material. I can’t risk losing a city or even a state to save one or two people.”

“There is a way that will make it possible to wait to the last minute,” Emmett said.

“How?”

“With a little help from Area Fifty-one.”

31

New World

For about 250 years, our species has been known as Homo sapiens, a scientific name in Latin that means “wise man.” Given the havoc humans are wreaking on natural systems, putting ourselves and so many other living things in peril, we don’t deserve this name contends Julian Cribb, an Australian science writer …

—Wynne Perry, Live Science

Sixty-five Million Years Ago
Inhuman Village

“No, wait!” Elizabeth shouted, pulling Jeanette back.

Jeanette was about to follow Do through the opening into the weird world on the other side.

“You don’t know where that goes,” Elizabeth said. “You don’t even know if you can breathe there.”

“Do can,” Jeanette said.

Elizabeth looked to see Do trotting in the distance, his head showing above tall waving grasses with green stalks and golden tassels. Tracking something, Do was moving away at an angle.

“Maybe that’s where the boys went,” Jeanette said. “That’s why they brought us here.”

Doubtful, Elizabeth turned to the lead creature, still uneasy with their weird catlike eyes. “Our friends, they went through there?” Elizabeth asked slowly, walking her fingers across her hand toward the opening, the best gesture she could think of. “People like us went there?” Elizabeth pointed to herself and Jeanette, and then at the opening, repeating the walking gesture.

Still agitated by Do’s run into the opening, the creatures sang to one another, two or three mimicking Elizabeth’s finger gesture.

“I’m going,” Jeanette said. “I can’t see Do anymore, and Carson might be in there.”

“Wait,” Elizabeth said.

Velociraptor chicks inched forward, searching for Do, heads high, tails low, emitting soft
awk
s.

“No, Fa,” Jeanette said. “Stay, So. Stay, La.”

“Woof,” Sally said, reinforcing Jeanette’s command, her nose almost inside the cave opening.

“Our friends, did they go in there?” Elizabeth repeated, gesturing with her fingers.

After a few singsong exchanges, the lead creature looked directly at Elizabeth, bowed his head, and then used two of his three long fingers and made the walking motion right toward the cave entrance.

“Look, he’s telling you that’s where Carson and your guy are,” Jeanette said.

“Maybe,” Elizabeth said, unsure of what the creature was communicating.

“Re, Me, Fa, So, La, Ti, we’re going,” Jeanette sang out, rifle ready.

“We’ll be back,” Elizabeth said to the creature just as Jeanette stepped into the opening, surrounded by velociraptors.

“This is a bad idea,” Elizabeth said to Sally, and then followed Jeanette.

“Woof,” Sally said, and limped through the cave opening.

32

Communication

Whorf coined what was once called the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, which is more properly referred to as the Whorf hypothesis. This states that language is not simply a way of voicing ideas, but is the very thing that shapes those ideas. One cannot think outside the confines of their language. The result of this process is many different world views by speakers of different languages.

—Amy Stafford

Sixty-five Million Years Ago
Community Church Refuge

“I’ll talk to them,” Nick volunteered, looking down at the approaching band of Inhumans.

“Please don’t,” Reverend said. “I feel like I pressured you into this, and I did not mean to. I spoke rashly. Don’t do it because of what I said.”

“Reverend, I want to do this,” Nick said. “Look at them! They’re a sentient species evolving on a parallel course with us.”

“Actually, they predate us by sixty-three million years,” Gah said, joining the conversation.

“At least sixty-three million years,” Wynooski said.

Sighing loudly, the reverend said, “You’re speaking nonsense. The theory of evolution is a distraction, created by Satan. It is a false trail to lead you into the wilderness of sin, and it has worked beautifully since the very first day Mr. Darwin was led astray. Now Satan has his hooks deep into your souls. Listen to your heart, not your clouded mind. Those are demons down there, and to speak to them is to speak to the devil.”

“Kind of ironic the way these evolution-deniers end up back in time before their kind actually evolved,” Wynooski said, as if Reverend and his people could not hear her.

“Everyone who believed in evolution got killed!” someone in the crowd shouted.

“They didn’t die because they believed in evolution,” Wynooski said. “You are talking nonsense.”

Rumbling with angry disagreement, the crowd became restless, surging forward.

“Wynooski, have you ever had a thought you didn’t express?” Carson asked.

“Ranger, this isn’t helping,” Nick said.

“‘So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them’,” Reverend said in his deep booming voice, quieting the crowd. “Genesis 1:27 says ‘man’ was created in the image of God,” he thundered, “and that is not man!” Reverend finished with a dramatic sweep of his arm, pointing down the hill. Amens erupted, rallying to the side of their leader. Jacob and his family stood at the rear, holding one another, concerned.

“‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground’,” Reverend boomed. “Every creature that moves along the ground, no exceptions, and those things marching on God’s sanctuary will bow before God and man or they will suffer God’s wrath.”

The vehemence of Reverend’s words frightened everyone into silence, even Wynooski. Gently, Nick tried to reason with Reverend.

“They are coming here for a reason,” Nick said. “Maybe sent by Satan but maybe brought by God for his purpose. There is only one way to know their reason for coming here, and that is to talk with them. Let me meet with them. If they kill me, then you’ll know they came for war. If they let me live, maybe I can find out what they want.”

Reverend hesitated. In Nick’s short experience with the reverend, he found the man swung between reasoned caring and irrational religious fervor like a clock pendulum.

“Might as well talk,” Carson said. “They’ve got us cut off anyway.”

Members of the Community were looking over the edge and toward the gate, where armed men stood with rifles poking through the wrought-iron fence.

“We’re surrounded,” one of the men at the gate said.

Still red-faced, Reverend slowly got control of himself, considering the options—there were few. Talking or fighting were the obvious choices, and talking did not rule out fighting.

“Speak with them if you must,” Reverend said.

“Thank you,” Nick said. “Norm, keep things together while I’m gone.”

Gah, sitting against the wall of the church, waved. Now Nick looked at Wynooski and Carson Wills. He wanted someone to go with him, but Wynooski was a know-it-all who could not keep her mouth shut, and the Dinosaur Wrangler would not volunteer unless his life depended on it.

“Let me go with you,” Officer Conyers said, leading Torino forward.

“I’ll be going with Dr. Paulson,” Wynooski said, butting in.

“I’ll take Officer Conyers,” Nick said. “The horse might impress them.”

“Then you should ride,” Conyers said, indicating the stirrup.

“I don’t know how to ride,” Nick said.

“Just sit on him,” Conyers said. “I’ll lead him.”

“I can ride,” Wynooski said.

Ignoring Wynooski, Nick let Conyers guide his foot into the stirrup and then gave his bottom a shove, helping him onto Torino. Nick had not ridden a horse since eighth grade, and he hated it then. His eighth-grade mount had refused all Nick’s commands, going wherever it wanted to go, and it wanted to go to the barn. So far, Torino was different, standing patiently, waiting for direction.

“Okay, let’s go,” Nick said, hanging on to the saddle horn.

Conyers led Torino to the gate, waiting while the chains were removed and the gate opened. Three Inhumans waited down the road, several more stood farther back. Nick found them fascinating creatures, with grayish green skin, large eyes, and three-fingered hands. Their weapons meant they were tool-users, so clearly intelligent, but evolving from a different root than humans. Gently rocking on Torino, Nick studied the Inhumans and, as they got closer, their tools. Nick was shocked. The tips of their spears and the shafts of their knives were made of the same orgonic material found on the moon.

Leading Torino, Conyers stopped a few yards from the creatures, the Inhumans more interested in Torino than in Nick or Conyers. Engrossed, Nick looked down at them from his perch, appearing imperious. Finally, one of the creatures broke the silence, its voice like a xylophone played softly.

“Got that?” Conyers said, smiling, one hand holding the reins, one hand on the butt of her gun.