The Sea Within Read online

  “I know some of you might be feeling uneasy or afraid at the moment. There’s no shame in fear.” Jackson stopped pacing and turned to the group with her fists braced on her hips. “It’s what you do with that fear that counts. The person able to push through that fear for the good of the team…for the success of the mission…that’s what counts.”

  Jackson was quiet for a moment, letting her words sink in.

  “Are we ready?” Jackson glanced at Saro.

  “We’re ready, Commander.” Saro nodded.

  “Okay, team.” Jackson faced the group. “Let’s go make history.”

  Everyone moved toward their assigned gravity tubes. Elle climbed into the gleaming bed and lay down. She was so scared she was having a hard time catching her breath. She closed her eyes. The clicking sounds of the technician affixing tubes to the flight suit sounded loudly inside her head. She clenched her fingers over and over inside the cumbersome gloves attached to the cuffed sleeves of the suit.

  “Elle?”

  The warm timbre of Jackson’s voice was like a dream. She opened her eyes. Jackson was leaning over, above her. She smiled and Elle immediately felt calmer.

  “Hi.” Elle took a deep breath.

  “You’re gonna be okay.”

  Elle nodded, grateful that Jackson had taken a moment to say something to her before launch. Her fragile nervous system needed a little bit of favoritism right now.

  “Let’s go save the world.” Jackson’s grin was playful. As if they were about to ride a roller coaster, rather than hurtle themselves through a wormhole into deep time.

  “I’m ready.” Elle tried to sound like she meant it.

  “I know you are.” Jackson patted the technician on the shoulder and disappeared from view.

  “Here you go.” The technician held a mouthguard near her lips. “Just so that you don’t bite your tongue during reentry.”

  Jeezus. How rough was this ride going to be?

  “I’m closing the hatch now.” The technician spoke to her again. His relaxed manner almost put her at ease—almost.

  She nodded, unable to speak around the plastic mouthguard.

  The hatch seal made a suction sound. Elle had the impulse to adjust the padded helmet she was wearing, but the tube was too small for her to raise her arm. She closed her eyes and focused on taking slow, even breaths. Lights blinked off and she had the sensation of being in a noise depravation tank. She’d only done that once, and the confined, dark space had sort of freaked her out. This was different because there was noise, although muffled, and the bed of the tube vibrated as the engine fired up.

  This was trusting technology on a whole other level.

  She’d live or die and would have no control over either.

  Don’t throw up. Don’t throw up.

  The vibration increased. And then intensified. More. More. More.

  Fuck.

  She tried to clench her fingers but found she was unable to move them as they were pressed against the bed of the tube. The vibration was so intense that if the suit weren’t attached and strapped down at the feet, waist, and shoulder, she’d have bumped the glass window of the hatch with her face.

  The actual flight would only last minutes. Although, as it was explained to her, it wasn’t a flight in the truest sense. They would be inside the tunnel, spinning at a supersonic velocity. Once the ship achieved the proper momentum, the time travel part would be almost instantaneous. She kept reminding herself that she only had to survive this bone-jarring turbulence for a few minutes.

  Her body weighed a thousand pounds, and without oxygen being forced into her lungs from the mask she feared she’d have been unable to breathe. Every muscle felt as if it were being separated from her bones. If she could have gathered enough breath, she was sure she’d have screamed. But there would have been no one to hear her. No one to come to her rescue.

  And then it happened.

  Nothingness.

  Weightlessness.

  Extreme fear.

  Was she asleep or awake?

  Her mind struggled to make sense of what she was seeing. The brightest threads of something that looked like a veil. They sparkled like mica, gold-white on silver-white, and in one place a rigid shaft of metallic radiant brightness pierced the shroud. Then a second shaft of light cut across her field of vision, and drew near, as if to travel with her. Tiny glowing threads sprang out of the lit shaft the way small curved lines are drawn into an ever more intricate pattern. Dizziness threated to overwhelm her. This was too much to take in. She braced her mind, closing it for its own protection.

  How much time had passed? She was unsure.

  She blinked, becoming aware that the hatch of her gravity tube was open.

  The small of her back ached. When she moved, bending her back, shifting her knees, everything whirled hazily. The tethers that had constrained her had released and she was free to sit up but not sure she was able to do so. Her head felt twice its normal size as she tilted it from side to side. She had the strangest sense that her limbs had detached and reattached without her control. Then, with a kind of sliding or shunting like the falling into alignment of a weighted curtain, the interior of the ship came into focus and remained still.

  Elle attempted to climb out of the tube but then realized she was very near fainting. She’d swung her legs over the lip of the bed, but sank back for a moment, allowing her head to catch up with the fact that she was sitting up. Something was between her teeth. Oh yes, right, the guard thingy. She tugged it from her mouth and tossed it onto the bed.

  There was movement in the space around her as other members of the team began to stir.

  “Don’t try to stand right away.” Jackson was at her side. She held a metal pan out to her, but why?

  “What…oh…” She grabbed the pan an instant before throwing up.

  Jackson handed her a towel. She pressed it to her face for a minute.

  “Sorry,” she mumbled into the cloth.

  “Don’t worry about it.” Jackson rubbed her back. “It happens to almost everyone the first time.”

  Across from her, Ted heaved into a trash receptacle attached to the wall.

  How was Jackson so steady on her feet? Her flight suit was unzipped to reveal a dark T-shirt underneath. She seemed so relaxed, so in control. She left Elle to check on Ted.

  They’d arrived. She wasn’t sure exactly of their position yet, but the SLST craft was definitely no longer in motion. She now knew why they called it the Slingshot. She felt as if she’d been shot through the air into a brick wall. Every muscle ached.

  “Drink plenty of water today.” Jackson had materialized in front of her again.

  She stood quietly while Jackson dislodged the gloves from the suit and tossed them onto the bed behind her. She nodded.

  “Thank you.” Her words were raspy.

  She walked to the small galley and retrieved a cup for water. She refilled it twice before sitting down. Everyone was already seated behind her. She took a seat next to Ted. The two security guys, Nunez and Harris, looked hungover. Nunez rested his face in his hands.

  Not such a tough guy now, huh? It seemed the Slingshot was a great equalizer.

  Only Jackson and Wallace seemed to show little effect of travel through the gateway. Everyone else looked as if they’d been on a forty-eight-hour rager that they now regretted.

  “Okay, everyone. Take some time to hydrate and get some food into your system.” Jackson held a digital tablet in her hand. “Wallace and I will prep the ATVs. Nunez, Harris, as soon as you’re ready we’ll need your help to load the gear.” She paused. “Elle, you and Ted will need to verify that we have everything we need to secure samples.”

  “Okay.” Ted spoke for both of them.

  “We’ll set out in two hours for base camp.” Jackson said something to Wallace that Elle couldn’t make out, and then they left the galley.

  The SLST had enough food and water for five days, but the goal was to extract samp
les and initiate their return in seventy-two hours. She couldn’t imagine how her body would feel making that trip a second time, but she’d try not to focus on that. There were other things to worry about at the moment. She hoped like hell her research was accurate. This was definitely going to be the ultimate field test.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The first thing Jackson noticed was the air. The air was so clear and clean. She’d never experienced anything like this. And then the next thing she noticed was the silence. But then the longer she listened the more she heard different sounds than she was used to. Wallace was close by; he stowed a small case in the back of the forward ATV. There were two light alloy framed all-terrain vehicles and two trailers, now both loaded with gear and supplies. The tires for the ATVs were enormous, offering as much ground clearance as possible.

  “How’s does everything look?” Jackson tilted her face skyward. She’d been asking about the gear, but a strange call from a bird she didn’t recognize caught her attention.

  This was the world without humans. It was odd to be a stranger on your own planet.

  “Everything’s loaded,” Wallace called to Nunez and Harris. “You guys ready to depart?”

  Jackson walked back to the ship. Elle appeared at the rear hatch before she got there.

  “It’s time to go.” Jackson held her hand out to Elle. “Is the science team ready to head out?”

  “Yes, we’re ready.” She accepted Jackson’s offered hand. “Thank you. I still feel a bit unstable.”

  “That will pass soon.”

  “This is so utterly strange.” Elle surveyed the area around the ship.

  “What?”

  “If I take a step, I will be stepping into the past and the present simultaneously. Will the future know?”

  “I think you should save the existential questions for when we get back. Trying to think through the timeline will make you feel lightheaded.” Jackson didn’t release her hand right away. The warm contact felt good.

  “The day was the first finished work of God. If we have the technology to change the order of the days, what does that make us?” Elle searched Jackson’s face.

  “Adventurous time travelers.” She placed her hand under Elle’s elbow. “Come on, Professor, let’s take a little drive to the beach.”

  Ted followed on their heels. Jackson split the team into two groups. Ted, Nunez, and Wallace in the lead ATV. Harris, Elle, and Jackson in the second ATV. Jackson had said she wouldn’t play favorites, but at some point after touchdown, she’d changed her mind. There was no way she was letting Elle out of her sight for the duration of this operation.

  According to the ship’s coordinates, they’d hit the target landing site. The ship was at the edge of a wooded area, nestled amid rolling grassy hills. Basically, they were in the same place they’d departed from, only at a different point on the timeline. This was what the modern location should look like, the present-day location. Except that in the present, the clumpy native grasses had been overrun by some invasive species that fueled wildfires. The terrain around the SLST command center had been ravaged by fire repeatedly, until all the gnarled coastal oaks were blackened skeletal remains. The vast contrast in how time had shaped the same location was hard to get your head around.

  The trek to the coast was going to be slow as the all-terrain vehicles had to maneuver through and around dense conifers—redwoods and other pines—the largest trees she’d ever seen. The forest floor was blanketed with pine needles and large ferns. The air was cool and damp and only intermittingly did the sun breach the canopy and reach the ground.

  Wallace was a genius at navigation. Despite the winding route, she knew he’d hit their westward coordinates for base camp. The plan was to set up camp about a half mile from the beach. Close enough to retrieve samples, but sheltered by the tree line before it transitioned to the coastal grass and shrub cover that she expected to find. Camping at the edge of the grove would limit their exposure to coastal winds, rain, and the likelihood of rogue waves during high tide. If the coastline was anything like modern topography, then they’d have to be careful with extraction and might have to do it on foot. The ATVs might not be a safe way to access the beach if the cliffs were too steep and rocky.

  It was her job to get Elle and Ted where they needed to be to gather samples. Based on the science briefing, she knew that phytoplankton lived at the top of the water column, only as far down as sunlight could penetrate. What had Elle called it? The euphotic zone. At any rate, they wouldn’t have to navigate deep water to extract samples. That was good news. If they’d had to bring diving gear something might have needed to be left behind. The Slingshot could only carry so much weight and that balance was delicate. They would be transporting fifteen gallons of sea water, hopefully loaded with plenty of microscopic aquatic hitchhikers.

  That seemed like simple math at first glance, with a gallon of water weighing about eight point three pounds. But the density of water was affected by changes in temperature and atmospheric pressure. Each container would have to be weighed to verify its true weight at time of departure. Nothing was as easy as it seemed initially.

  “Have you ever heard so many birds?” Elle sat next to Jackson in the passenger seat. She was scanning the limbs above them.

  “No, I don’t think I have.” Jackson had to focus on steering, no time for sightseeing. The trailer bounced over an extended root giving the ATV a small jolt.

  “And the air. It smells amazing.” Elle sounded almost giddy. “I swear the air is so clean that you can actually identify the scent of individual plant species.”

  “Well, you might be able to do that. All I smell is pine trees.” Jackson glanced over briefly and smiled.

  “That’s a Douglas fir mixed in with the redwoods over there. And golden chinquapins, Pacific wax myrtles and redwood sorrel.” Elle was like a nerdy kid in a botany-flavored candy shop. “This moist, shaded habitat is probably excellent for Pacific giant salamanders. I hope we see one. Although, I suspect this engine noise is scaring everything away.”

  “That’s probably for the best. I’d prefer not to see a short-faced bear if it’s all the same to you.” Jackson remembered the mention of them from Elle’s presentation.

  “So, you were just pretending not to pay attention?” Elle’s rhetorical question was playful.

  It was so hard not to flirt with Elle. She was so damn cute when she was excited about all the flora and fauna of this deep time habitat. Jackson decided that in order to avoid flirtation, it might be best to include Harris in the banter.

  “What about you, Harris? You smell anything?”

  “Just smells like the woods to me.”

  Damn, he was a humorless fellow. He and Nunez were so bland that she’d had to create word associations to remember which was which. Harris usually wore a hat, a tan trucker style. “H” for Hat and Harris. His brown hair was a bit long, not quite up to military standards, and his sideburns were on the bushy side. She figured he was an ex-jock. He had the build of a wide receiver. He never volunteered any details about himself, but she’d have guessed he played football at some point.

  Nunez’s head was shaved and he wore a closely trimmed goatee. He had a much thicker build. His neck was as wide as his jawline. He reminded her of a guy she knew from Nevada City. Nevada City, with an “N” equaled Nunez.

  Neither of these guys would be a first-round draft pick in her book, but maybe private corporate security had different standards. It didn’t really matter unless they didn’t pull their weight. She wasn’t here to make friends. She was here to do a job and they’d better do the same.

  The drive to base camp took almost two hours. Only rarely were they able to travel as fast as ten miles per hour, most of the time they had to drive much slower.

  Elle climbed out of the vehicle as soon as it stopped. She watched Jackson dismount easily from the driver’s seat. Jackson made everything look easy, and she seemed completely unfazed by their passage through
the gateway. Elle inhaled deeply and arched her back. She was stiff and she’d felt a little woozy the entire drive. She needed to walk around and stand on solid ground. She followed Jackson to the trailer at the back of the ATV.

  “Find a nice flat spot for this.” Jackson handed her one of the tent bags.

  Thankfully, it had already been decided that as one of the only two women on this expedition, Elle would get to share a tent with Jackson. That news made her feel happy and nervous at the same time. So far, the “friend truce” was working, but now they were going to share sleeping accommodations for at least two nights, possibly three. Close quarters would test the limits of the truce from Elle’s perspective. Although, camping with four guys in close proximity, regardless of any moonlit romantic potential, was a genuine buzzkill.

  The site for base camp was just at the edge of the tree line, just before the sea cliff. The surf provided constant background noise now that they were closer.

  Elle tugged items from the nylon bag and examined them. She hadn’t set up a tent in years, but it was coming back to her. Wallace’s tent was already up several feet away. He glanced over and smiled. He walked in her direction.

  “Need some help?”

  “I wouldn’t turn it down.” She shook out the tent, trying to sort out the orientation.

  Wallace was moving sticks and debris from the tent space. He took two of the corners and helped her position it so that the door faced toward the west, toward the coast. She tossed a few stones to the side to further clear the area. With Wallace’s help, the tent was upright within minutes.

  “Thank you.” Elle stepped back to inspect their work. “I guess my outdoorsman skills are a bit rusty. I haven’t camped in a long time.”

  She’d only ever done camping with her grandparents and that had been under a protective dome, with piped in air and water. Not quite the same as this at all.