The Edge Read online

  They flew northwest, following the Columbia glacier to the Pacific, where it extended several kilometers into the into the ocean and broke up into dozens of icebergs that were drifting south. They decided to follow the icebergs south, as the sun was setting. The coast was as deserted as the Portland area had been.

  In William’s world, the Oregon coast had always been sparsely populated, the high winds and the frequent rain made it less than desirable except to those who loved the wind and rain, or were willing to put up with them in exchange for the moderate temperatures, and lush evergreen forests. The population on the coast had only doubled in the last hundred years in contrast with the inland cities, which had nearly quintupled in population.

  The temperatures here now were hardly moderate, before sunset it had been about minus 10°C, and now it was dropping rapidly, Bob estimated that it would drop as low as minus 45° overnight here, and into the minus fifties inland. The wind was still here, though, gusting to 90 kph. William was considering flying as far south as San Francisco, about four hours at their current speed, when Bob reported a flashing light to the south. As they approached, William recognized it as the Heceta Head Lighthouse, he’d been there many times as a child, his parents had had a vacation home a few miles down the coast in Florence. The lighthouse had sat on a rocky outcropping about sixty meters above the ocean. With the new ice age here, the sea level had dropped another ten meters or so.

  Sally said, “I assume that it’s called a lighthouse because of the big flashing light at the top, but what’s it for?”

  “A long time before I was born, lighthouses were used to guide ships as they traveled at night or in the fog, and warn them about a rocky coast.

  “I see, and what’s a ship?”

  Sally was so intelligent and such a quick learner that William tended to forget that only a few months before her whole world was a stone age tribe in a forest. She’d seen the ocean, so explaining a ship was fairly easy.

  They cruised by the lighthouse, the caretaker’s house had collapsed, but what looked like a big foam igloo had been constructed near the lighthouse where the snow had been cleared. A large figure in a parka ran out of the igloo, waving his arms.

  “Bob, do you think it’s safe to land?” Sally asked.

  “Not only safe, it would be unsafe not to.” was Bob’s response, but he would not explain further.

  They landed. Bob told Sally to go open the door.

  “What if he's dangerous?”, she asked.

  Bob said, “He's not, I understand what's happening.”

  The figure ran toward the Winnie, and Sally opened the door, he ran in, looked around, and said in a strong Scot’s brogue, “Where’s my Willie? Is he alright?”

  Sally was startled, and backed away, she’d never seen anybody so large and loud, and had never seen red hair on a human, or a thick beard, the men in her world had very little or no facial hair, and William was clean shaven. She wasn’t sure if he was a man or some kind of bear.

  “Professor Fergus?” William asked, as he came into the foyer.

  “Aye, lad, thank the laird I caught ya in time, you’re alright, it’s so good to see ya. I assume the tiger is harmless.

  “Who’s the bonnie lassie, a hitchhiker?”

  “Sort of, Professor, this is Sally, Sally, this is Professor Fergus, my friend and thesis advisor, it’s a long story, but first, what’s happened, why are you here?”

  “Willie, ya came back ten months after ya left, ya were alone, injured, sick and delirious, you kept mumblin’ about ‘the dew’… then ya died.”

  “Oh. Could Bob tell you what happened?”

  “Bob's node on the Winnie had been damaged beyond repair.”

  Sally was standing behind William, and hugged him from behind.

  The professor continued, “The Winnebago was infected, ya’d picked up some spores somewhere that developed into carnivorous plants, the place was lousy with ‘em, we had to burn it. We think the ‘dew’ was the carrier for the spores. Bob's node at the University calculated that the Oregon coast was the best place to intercept ya, but we couldna’ be sure when or exactly where. This lighthouse was still workable if we brought a power source. Bob would only be givin’ us a one-year window, and this timeline comes close to ours once every three years so there was a brief time that I could get ta here in a single jump, and get home after that time. So I came, lit the lamp hopin’ ya’d see it, an’ set up camp.”

  “How long have you been here?”

  “Two years, I’ve been waitin’.”

  “Two years in this?”

  “Well, I’ve been wantin’ ta spend some time a-writin’, anyway. Would ya be considerin’ givin’ up this quest and goin’ home?.”

  “No, I need to know this, we just have to figure out where the ‘dew’ is, and avoid it, and how to get you home.”

  “Don’t be worryin’ about me, lad, I’ll be picked up in another year, I’ll still be needin’ a little more time ta finish my book.”

  “What’s it about?”

  “It’s called, ‘A thousand and one fun things to do with ice.’ it’s a collection of poems and essays.”

  Bob interjected, “Professor Fergus, would you like some lemonade?”

  “Nay, Bob, but you could be makin' me a nice, dark ale, somethin' ya can't see through.”

  They stayed parked at the lighthouse for a few days, visiting, Sally spent a lot of time in the library, she had become a voracious reader, absorbing science books of all kinds, physics, chemistry, astronomy, medicine, she tried some fiction, but didn't have the social background to make sense of most of it. Fluffy spent a lot of time outside, playing in the snow, the cold didn't seem to bother him at all.

  Bob announced that he had discovered the divergence point for this world, “Apophis struck the Al Gore memorial awning control satellite, causing the awning to permanently retract, the planet quickly overheated, then plunged into an ice age.”

  The Professor had a hard time letting go, since he would be going back to a timeline where William was dead, he had helped guide this William to a timeline where he would live, but that didn’t change his home timeline. Sally suggested they take him along to the timeline where William didn’t die, but he would have no part of it, “The world you’ll be travelin’ to already has an Alexander Fergus, one’s enough for any world, my ex-wife says it’s too many, besides, what if I met myself at a party, and we were wearin’ the same tie, t’would be a wee bit awkward, and it is possible to visit each other’s timelines once we all get home.”

  They visited until it was time to go back to Portland for the next jump. William suggested that they make the jump while at high altitude, this would allow them to survey the landscape before choosing a landing sight. They should be able to avoid “the dew” that way, he said.

  17.

  Captain Persomone Zed-Navi switched off the re-entry warning light, and breathed a sigh of relief. She was almost home after seven and a half years, carrying colonists to Mars, food from the farms of Mars to Titan, towing icebergs from the rings back to Mars and Luna, and metals from the asteroid belt to The Project. The Guides had not revealed what The Project was, but it had been under construction for three thousand years, and would be completed within her lifetime.

  All that was left was the forty-minute glide to the Peninsula City Spaceport and the shuttle back to her home overlooking the bay in Fog City, she’d have a year off and then back to the circuit, this was her twenty-fifth time, her fifteenth as captain, just five more until retirement, then she would have to decide what to do with the last hundred or so years of her life, perhaps she would take up paleoncology or water sculpting. She was just deciding to put in an advice request to the Guides on their next appearance, when the collision warning sounded and she had to take evasive action to avoid an RV as it flew out of a cloud, “Tourists! They’re going to get themselves killed, flying like that. May the Guides be with them.”

  18.

  Sinc
e the interior of the Winnebago was constructed almost entirely in alternate dimensions, it was not subject to normal inertial forces, if it had been, Sally and William would have been thrown to the ceiling when the turbulence from the freighter sent them into a spin. Bob quickly regained control and announced that all systems were normal.

  “Normal? What the hell was that, a meteor?” William shouted.

  “We’re okay, right?” asked Sally

  Bob responded, “I believe it was some sort of space going freighter completing re-entry at about eight thousand kilometers an hour and slowing, headed for Florida, but I can’t be sure, as I have no nodes here… wait a minute, I do have a node here now, I mean other than this one. No…. wait, it was gone before I could establish communications.”

  Sally quickly formulated a theory, “Could it be that we were just crossing paths with some alternate us?”

  “That’s a possibility, the protocols were slightly different than those I am currently using, but definitely mine, possibly from a future me.”

  They surveyed the landscape, it still looked like the Portland area, but mostly undeveloped except for a compact city surrounded by fields and orchards. There were no visible roads outside the city. They decided not to approach the city, at least yet, and headed for a clearing in a forest well away, to the west near where Astoria was in William’s timeline. It was as wild as Sally’s world, there was absolutely no sign of human activity outside of the city. Sally let Fluffy out to stretch his legs, and he disappeared into the forest.

  Within ten minutes of their landing, a small green aircar landed, it had the words “Forest Ranger” in English on the sides. A man and a woman in green uniforms stepped out and approached the Winnie, “Having some problems?” the man asked.

  William answered, “No, it just looked like a nice place to stop.”

  “Well, you're going to have to leave, this forest is a restricted area.”

  “Oh, sorry, we didn’t know, we’re not from here.”

  “Colonists on vacation, eh? There’s an authorized camping zone about three hundred kilometers down the coast, you can’t miss it, all sand, no forests to disrupt there. I suggest you move along, we’ll be back in an hour, if you’re still here, we’ll have to take you in. Have a nice day.”

  Sally said, “Don’t worry, we’ll be going as soon as Fluffy comes back.”

  “Lost dog, eh, well you’d better find him soon, we can’t cut you any slack because of an animal.”

  Fluffy chose that moment to trot back into the clearing, skirting the rangers, and sitting down next to Sally, he was remarkably calm.

  “I’m going to have to ask you not to leave, after all.” The woman pulled out a hand weapon of some sort while the man spoke into his lapel, “Better send the acquisition squad, we’ve got two unauthorized forest visitors, and they’ve brought an animal outside its habitat, a tiger, I believe. Okay, you two are going to have to stay right here until the squad shows up, I’m afraid I’m going to have to arrest you for unauthorized entrance to a forest, and illegally relocating a wild animal. Please turn over the tiger.”

  “I don’t understand,” said Sally, “What’s arrest? Why can’t we be here, Fluffy’s my pet, I’ve had him for years, my father gave him to me, you can’t take him.”

  Fluffy did not take well to Sally’s distress, stood up and snarled. The woman fired her weapon, the was a pop, and Fluffy collapsed, Sally screamed, and fell to the ground, holding him, crying, “You killed him, why?”

  “He’ll be fine. The squad will revive him and return him to his natural environment.”

  “No! You can’t take him away, William, Bob, do something!”

  “They’re pointing guns at us, I don’t think there’s a lot I can do.” was William’s response.

  “Would anybody like some lemonade?” was Bob’s.

  The acquisition squad then arrived, a huge, flying truck, it was obviously the acquisition squad, as it said, “Acquisition Squad” on the side.

  Several men and women all dressed in black leather with black helmets and pink boots approached, “Back away from the tiger!”

  Sally refused, and held fluffy tighter, crying, “No!”

  “Back away from the tiger, or I will fire.”

  “Stop! Lower your weapons, stand down!” came a voice from the edge of the clearing.

  With all the activity, no one had noticed a small, white craft landing, and an elderly man stepping out.

  The squad and the rangers all lowered their weapons, and stepped back, “Yes councilor.”

  “You may all leave, The Guides told us to expect this, I will deal with it.”

  He waited patiently until they were gone.

  “First things first, Fluffy, clear!” Fluffy sat up and seemed fine.

  “Fluffy, clear?” thought William.

  “Now let me explain, at least to my limited ability, I am Councilor Neem Potri, I am in charge of this conflex, the Northport region. The Guides told us to expect you but they didn’t know exactly when or where. We had to wait until a report came in.”

  “The Guides? Who are the Guides?” asked William.

  “Where are you from, that you don’t know The Guides, wait, don’t tell me, if The Guides wanted me to know, they would have told me. The Guides, Sam and Janet, have watched over Mankind since the beginning. They know all, including the future. Everything good comes from The Guides.”

  “Sam and Janet?” William asked.

  “Yes, they visit once or twice a year, and offer advice, sometimes to scientists, sometimes to the government, and sometimes to individuals, they know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Bless The Guides. They always come in the evening, usually on an evening like this one, balmy, with a western breeze, we call it a ‘Sam and Janet evening’, there’s even a song about it, but I digress, they left us clear instructions not to interfere with you, but to give you this.” He handed them a manila envelope, turned and left.

  They opened the envelope, inside was a single page of handwritten notes:

  “Welcome, William and Sally, to our world, we are sorry not to be able to meet you at this time, someday, you will understand, please stay at your present location for the remainder of your visit. Please minimize any interaction with the natives, and under no circumstances approach Northport or any other city. It is important that this world stay isolated from other timelines, we have also communicated with Bob and he will, in all of his nodes, route future traffic around this world, yours is the first and will be the last visit from outsiders. We have made this world to be the way it is and it must remain forever isolated.

  Until we meet again, and we guarantee that we will,

  Sam and Janet

  P.S. On your next jump, you should stay at an altitude in excess of fifteen hundred meters in order to avoid the dew. S&J”

  “William, I’m very confused.”

  “You’re not the only one, Bob, do you understand what this is about?”

  “Yes, I do, William.”

  “Can you explain any of it to us?”

  “Sorry, I’m not allowed to, you ordered me not to tell.”

  “When did I order that?”

  “On the fifteenth of December, 2140.”

  “That’s over twenty-two years from now, how can you know that I’m going to do that?”

  “You said you would ask that, and that I was to tell you that it’s none of your business.”

  “There’s some sort of conspiracy here to keep us from finding out what’s going on here, and I’m in on it, Bob, I order you to tell me!”

  “Tell you what, William?”

  “Tell me what’s going on here!”

  “You ordered me not to in 2140, and later orders take precedence over earlier orders.”

  “But I haven’t given you that order yet.”

  “But you will.”

  “But I haven’t yet.”

  “William, it’s not my fault you have such a limited view of
time.”

  “I give up”

  “Good, that way we won’t have to take you by force.”

  “What?”

  “Just a joke, you said you wouldn’t get it.”

  “Never mind.” Said William.

  “I never do.” said Bob.

  Later, Sally said that she had a theory about the ‘Fluffy, Clear’, “I was reading about hypnosis, I think the weapon with which Fluffy was shot was some sort of hypnosis gun, and ‘clear’ was the command to wake up. The book said you can’t hypnotize animals because they are not intelligent, but fluffy is very intelligent. So I think that that must have been it. He wasn’t injured.”

  “That could be.” but he didn’t really believe it. It was just one of many things that just did not add up. While Sally went back to the library, he asked Bob a few questions, “Is Sally’s original timeline a past to my own.”

  “It is one of many possible pasts to your timeline and to a myriad of others.”

  “And what was our location when we found her”

  “The landscape has changed somewhat in fourteen thousand years, but it was in The Pacific Northwest, which is our most common destination in the worlds we visit on this trip, specifically, we were just East of where Brookings would be in your world.”

  “Why is that, Bob?”

  “Brookings is there because that’s where people built it.”

  “No, I mean why are we usually in the Pacific Northwest?”

  “Just a coincidence.”

  So Sally was from stone age Oregon, which meant she was early Aboriginal American, but she had green eyes, the most beautiful emerald green eyes he had ever seen, fiery, filled with emotion and changing as fast as lightning. She was able to learn things unnaturally fast, almost like a savant, but in every subject, and she had a tiger, native to Asia. Could green eyes have been more common then? Maybe the early settlers brought a few tame tigers over the land bridge with them, and no fossils had ever been found. Something didn’t make sense and William intended to find out why.