My Jamison WhisperGlide moved almost silently up the gentle slope to the crest. A moment before the loudest sound had been the whisper of the tires and the swish of bushes against the vehicle body. Now the camp was unrolled below and all of the camp's normal noises could be plainly heard: people talking and shouting, music from several radios, the clatter of equipment.
Several cars and motorcycles were clustered around the science area, a triage center for the exploration being done, and I headed for an opening between the biology tent and the cook wagon.
"What'v'ya got? Bugs, beasts or plants?" Wayne Visconte didn't look much like our chief cook, his white shirt, pants and apron being stained with a variety of colors, predominantly red and black. He wiped his bald head with a towel. A thin cook would have been suspect, and he was always sweating because of his bulk.
"As usual, all of the above. I saw a young pig get hurt by a fully grown adult, so I bagged him, parasites and all. I also picked up some hot peppers, which is strange this far north."
"That's not so strange. Dr. Olsen brought back peanuts. Said he found 'em near some volcanic hot springs. Brought back several plants and enough peanuts for everybody to snack on."
I opened up the back of my vehicle and removed the plants, each one with its root ball wrapped in coarse cloth. Wayne dug into the cooler for the pig I mentioned, carrying the plastic-wrapped animal with an ease that showed how really strong he was. "Any part of this you particularly want to lay claim on?"
"I'd like a shoulder, to cook up with some beans for tomorrow, and a piece of the liver, if it's healthy enough."
I continued to unload, first a couple of small fruit trees, then three plastic boxes containing a variety of small plants, birds and animals for the biologists to examine.
"What's this? Lemon trees?"
"Oh, hi, Dr. Olsen. Cut one of the lemons open."
He picked one of the large, pointed yellow fruits, sniffing at it before cutting it open. He stared briefly at the bright red flesh inside before licking a few drops of the juice to confirm that it really was a lemon. "I've never seen a red-fleshed lemon before. I bet they'll be popular."
"I've never seen anything this vividly red before, either. I've seen lemons that looked exactly like oranges, even on Earth. They're great for jokes. This one still looks like a lemon on the outside. It seems a bit more acid than most lemons, though. Oh, I think I found horseradish, too, although the plants seem smaller than I expected."
"They're probably just wild varieties. Many plants don't get very large before they've been cultivated for a while. We've had a pretty good haul today."
"I've heard about your discovery of the peanuts. How big are they?"
"About the size of a Virginia peanut, with nuts about half an inch long. There was a field of them, several acres. I took plants from all around, then collected a couple of hundred pounds of nuts for eating. I also found some small tomatoes. They were very sweet but there weren't that many of them, so there aren't any available for eating."
"What've we got for supper? More of that buffalo?"
"Hind leg, roasted. Why? You don't like my buffalo?" Wayne had come up behind me with a pair of packages in white butcher paper. "Here's your shoulder and liver, perfectly healthy. Need anything else?"
"Well, yes. I'm having a party for some of the people who've been with me for a long time. That includes you, Olsen. Anyway, I should have several cases of wine in the cooler."
"You'll have to talk to Fortin about that. He went and locked it all up. Took all of your beer, too."
"I'll do better than that." I summoned a team of six demons and instructed them, "My wine and beer have been locked up. I want to have a celebration. Get all of my pear wine and a few cases of beer, make sure they are well chilled and deliver them to my tent area. Find a couple of those big folding tables and set them up. Get my pickles and some crackers and cheeses, too. I'll also need plates, napkins and cups."
Nobody argues with a team of demons. Smart people don't argue with even a single demon. Within a few minutes, Joel Fortin, the supplies manager, came storming over. He was a small man, neatly dressed in contrast to the rest of us. "What the hell's the big idea of sending your monsters to break open the supply truck?"
"I told you yesterday that I was going to have a little party today and that I need my wine, properly cooled, delivered to my tent. You failed to perform your duties. I'm not going to play stupid games with you. If I had wanted my stuff locked up, I would have locked it up. Everybody but you knows better than to touch my stuff."
"I didn't want anybody getting drunk on all of that booze."
"That's not your decision to make. Besides, that wine is too light to give much of a buzz. It's for celebrating, not for getting drunk. And stop drinking up my beer."
"I haven't ..."
"Don't try to deny it. You've had two bottles a day lately. Leave it alone. It's off limits to you. Have you ordered the stuff I asked for yesterday?"
"I'll let you know when it arrives." He stormed off.
Dr. Olsen said, "I enjoyed that. But he's going to get his revenge on the project. His uncle will see to that."
"I'm not going to put up with his uncle much longer, either. He's caused this project too much trouble with his cost-cutting measures, which are basically an excuse for robbing the project blind."
"You'll have to buck Senator Rosweck before you go after Fortin."
"Yes, I know what has to be done. Rosweck is good at covering himself and he's powerful, but I have Rasputin and Rosweck isn't going to keep any secrets from us."
A group of motorcycles popped up at the edge of the camp and drifted silently over to unload their finds and make their reports. I wandered over to one trim figure who was just removing her helmet. Giving her an enthusiastic kiss, I asked, "Did you have a good day today, Karen?"
"These bikes are as comfortable as any I've ever used, but I've been on top of this one far too long. My butt hurts. Can I ride with you tomorrow?"
"You know you're always welcome to spend the day with me. Hey, look at this lemon. Cut it open."
She pulled her field knife out of its leg sheath and lopped the lemon in half. "That's neat," was her reaction to the red flesh.
A pair of heads poked themselves over our shoulders to examine our find. Rob agreed, "That is neat. Does it taste like a lemon?"
Casey reached for one half and licked its surface. "Ooh, sour. But it tastes like a lemon for sure. Does it breed true?"
"It seems to. I got the same fruit from several of the trees I found. None of them were as sweet as a regular lemon. I got some hot peppers, too. And horseradish."
Rob asked, "How much horseradish did you bring back?"
"A dozen plants plus about a hundred pounds of clean roots."
"Outstanding. I've missed horseradish far too long. Now I can make a proper buffalo sandwich."
"And how did you do? Anything good for the pot?"
"Bird city. Quail, partridge, prairie hens, even a few pheasant."
"Well, at least you didn't get any more buffalo. I got a small pig. I'm going to cook up a shoulder with beans for tomorrow's dinner. Meanwhile, I'm having a party for the old-timers. Grab a plate from the chow line and stop over. I've got wine and goodies already set up."
Rob and Casey both nodded. "Good. Tomorrow's the big move to a new base. Have you got anything to keep us out from under tearing down this camp and setting up the new one?"
"Rob, a little manual labor won't hurt you. Never mind. Something is sure to come up. I'll find something for all of us to do besides pack, move and unpack all of the camp gear. I hope we don't regret it later."
A short time later, before I got to the chow line or the party, Kent Doring, the nominal leader of our expedition, took me aside. "Look, Andrew, I need a big favor. Dr. Olsen ran into something strange and I'd like you to look into it. But it's awfully nebulous."
We walked over to where Dr. Olsen was waiting outside the administrative tent and all of us went in. Kent directed us to take a seat. "Okay, Olsen, did something happen to you today? Something you don't want anybody to know about?"
"I'm not sure. That's why I don't want to broadcast it. It was just a feeling. I'm surprised Kent is taking it seriously."
Kent said, "Dr. Olsen, nobody else here has your background. You are one of the most talented biologists I have ever met. If something out there made you nervous enough to hop in your truck and take off immediately, there was doubtless something there. I don't care if you didn't wait to identify it. You did the right thing."
I asked, "Where were you? Were you alone? What were you doing?"
"Rebecca was with me, and we were goofing off. We had found a neat place where a hot spring mixed with a large creek and there were pools of different temperatures. So we stripped and went for a swim.
"We spent at least two hours in the water. We dried ourselves off and got dressed. Becky was brushing out her hair and I was just looking around. All of a sudden, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I didn't wait to figure out why. I told Becky to get in the truck and we drove off immediately. She thought my behavior was strange. She laughed at me and wanted to go back. I didn't want her to know I had told anybody else about it."
"Which way was the wind blowing?"
"It was blowing from the north, where we came from. Why? What does the wind have to do with anything?"
"I suspect you smelled something that triggered a memory. Smell is our trickiest sense. It invokes powerful emotions, bypassing rational thought. Our olfactory sensors are parked there, right outside the brain, and you get direct stimulation. That's much more likely than hearing or seeing something that made you nervous.
"Olsen, like Kent, I take it seriously when your subconscious sends you a message. A lesser person would have ignored his feelings or would have kept quiet about them. I think it's worth investigating. Kent, I'll take Karen in my machine and Rob and Casey on bikes. We'll start near where you had your feeling and track backwards the way you came."
"You're making my reaction sound almost rational."
"You are very intelligent and you have centuries of experience. You may not know why you reacted but I'm convinced you had a very good reason for getting out of there. Kent, I want to use the big gun. I'll need you to release twenty rounds of the twenty millimeter ammo you have locked up. I'll have some demons mount the cannon on my roof and hook it up after dark so it won't disturb anybody. Rob and Casey should also carry a couple of big rifles with plenty of ammo. Have the kitchen crew pack us a lunch tonight and we'll be out of here before anybody else wakes up. Now I have a party to host. Will I see both of you there?"
Both of them agreed to come. We all left the tent and I headed for the chow line to fix my dinner. Karen was waiting for me.
"Where did you disappear to? I was afraid you had forgotten your own party. I got you a bowl of soup and Rob fixed you a sandwich. He loves the horseradish, by the way. Casey made sure he didn't use too much on your sandwich, though."
"Well, I promised Rob I'd get him off of having to pack and haul. The four of us are going to check something out tomorrow, very early. You and me in the machine, Rob and Casey on bikes. I want you to run one of those little robot camera airplanes. Or two, if you can handle two of them while controlling roof-mounted cameras. I want a complete visual record of what we find."
"What will we be looking for?"
"I don't know yet. We'll all know when we find it. Let's party."
"By the way, what are we celebrating?"
We arrived at our camp site, where twenty people, most of the old-timers, were waiting. I addressed the group. "Karen just asked me what we are celebrating this evening. Some of you may already have guessed or figured it out ..."
Rob broke in. "It's obvious. We had a party after five years together, another after ten years, then twenty, fifty and one hundred years together."
"And every century since. According to my calculations, as of two hours ago it has been five centuries since our little group left Earth. It was a pretty random group and I never expected us to stick together like this."
Rob asked, "Just out of curiosity, how many years have passed for you while we've had these five hundred years together?"
"Just five hundred. I haven't gone anywhere alone since we started. And I don't intend to start until you let me know that you've had enough. I don't really expect that to happen. You are all hereby invited to accompany me on visits to all sixty thousand worlds."
Casey asked, "I can't imagine that we're the only ones that have stayed with you for extended periods of time. Over two billion years there must have been lots of people who've wanted to live forever at any cost."
"There are some. You may meet them. There is one woman who stayed with me through ten thousand worlds before deciding she was satisfied. You'll meet her in another forty thousand worlds. On the other hand, those I chose for the specific purpose of taking advantage of their insights over an extended period have chosen not to continue. They were famous people who didn't like being in my shadow. Or they were pioneers who discovered that fifty billion years of progress elsewhere have eclipsed their discoveries. They asked not to be given new lives and I respected their wishes. Many who have continued to live for centuries or millennia have done so through insurance they either earned or purchased and I haven't met all of them.
"With sixty thousand worlds to populate to a target population level of a billion people each, I've had to resort to many measures. I've duplicated people from our past history, but having people volunteer to go far back in time and live repeated lives works much better. Millions have done so."
The party, while pleasant, broke up early. We weren't the only ones who had to get up early the following morning but we were the first. I gave Rob and Casey the coordinates and let them scout the easiest way for the larger vehicle to follow. When we reached the hot springs we stopped to gulp down our breakfast while Karen launched her two camera planes. She set one up to follow us from a couple of hundred feet up, placing the other one to scout the way ahead from a greater altitude.
After we had gone another four miles we found ourselves stopped by a stream. It was only about a foot deep but the banks were about five feet high. The stream wasn't much wider than the length of the van, so we would have to cross at an angle. There were hills nearby to the west, so we had to seek a crossing to the east. Karen sent the upper camera drone in that direction while Rob and Casey checked on foot to see if we could knock the banks of the creek down easily near where we were. Suddenly Casey screamed.
Three large cats had poked their heads over the edge of the creek where Casey was wading, surprising her. The animals were about the size of African lions. Karen immediately told the weapons system to arm itself, but I put it back on standby and got out to take a look.
"They're kittens, Casey," I said, "hardly more than newborn. They probably want to play. Still, I suggest you get back up on this bank."
Rob helped her up, then climbed up himself. "Those are awfully big kittens," he said.
"Look at their fur, so fluffy. Notice how big their eyes seem. Watch the way they bounce from place to place because they can't walk well. And take a look at their mother sitting over there under the overhang by that cave mouth, watching us."
Rob pulled out his binoculars and scanned until he spotted the large cat whose stripes allowed it to blend in so perfectly that it was almost invisible. "What's wrong with its face?"
Karen replied, "Its a sabre-tooth. Those oversized teeth are specialized for killing a particular kind of prey, animals bigger than it is."
"Oh, look," Casey said. The kittens were trying to push each other into the stream where it was obvious none of them wanted to go. We all watched the kittens for a while.
I said, "Okay, everybody, it's time to go. We're all going in the van. All of you get inside. Karen, point the near camera at the area between us and the cave, then bring back the other camera to watch our rear."
Casey didn't want to tear herself away from watching the antics of the kittens. "What's the rush? Relax. As you pointed out, they're kittens and harmless," she said.
Rob said, "The boss must know something we don't. How often does he give us orders? He'll explain later. Get in the van." Rob began loading the bikes into the cargo area. Casey took her bike away from him and wheeled it into the van herself. Rob jumped into the back seat. I closed the cargo bay doors and ran around to my side of the van. Casey took another long look at the kittens, then reluctantly got into the back with Rob.
I told the defense systems to arm themselves. I said, "The attack should come from the right side, Rob. Point your camera that way."
A giant bear burst through the bushes and headed toward us at a gallop. I fired off a couple of flash-bang charges. The bear halted, confused by the loud noises and bright lights, and stood towering over the van. Casey started to scream. Suddenly another giant cat, bigger than the mother we had seen earlier, sprang from the bushes and wrapped its jaws around the enormous bear's neck. The two of them fell against the van, which was now moving backwards. The impact of their bodies pushed us several feet to the side. They continued to struggle as we backed away.
The mother sabre-tooth jumped up from the stream onto the front of the van. Karen's screams joined those Casey was still making. The windshield wipers disappeared from the onslaught of the windmilling rear feet. Fragments of solar panel from the roof rained down on all sides of the van. As I turned the van around I fired the cannon on the roof, harmlessly scraping the big cat's side. She slipped off and I went from reverse to full forward while firing off a series of smoke bombs and flash-bangs. As we headed away from the stream, the mother cat attacked the rear of the van and another giant bear, slightly smaller than the first, reared up in front of us. The cannon fired four times rapidly. The impact of each shot could clearly be seen on the bear's chest. I swerved the van to the side to pass around the bear. The mother cat let go of the van's rear and attacked the bear, wrapping her massive jaws around its neck. The two struggling animals bumped the van as it passed them.
"I hope you got all of that on film. I don't want to go back and do that again." I stopped the van about fifty yards beyond the two animals. When the bear didn't respond, the cat checked it, then started dragging the body toward the stream. Behind her we could see her mate doing the same with the larger bear. We filmed them until they started to feed.
Rob said, "I hope there aren't any more of those beasts around."
"There are two more," I said, "another juvenile female like the second bear that attacked us and an adult female."
"Look up on the hillside to the west! Rob, get your camera on this," Casey said.
Two more giant bears were running up the hill. They burst through bushes behind which a small herd of giant camels had been resting, scattering them. Each bear took a victim, both young animals. The younger bear snarled at the older, then the bears dragged their kills off in different directions before stopping to feed.
I asked, "Is everybody all right?"
"No, I am definitely not all right," Casey said. "I need a bath and clean clothes. I messed in my pants. Since meeting you I've been killed in lots of interesting ways, but I have never before been as frightened as I was today."
"Well, there are hot spring ponds we can bathe in back where we had our breakfast. The robots can clean up your clothes while you scrub up. Then we can all soak for a while before having lunch."
"How do you know there are ponds there? I didn't see them when we were there earlier," Karen asked.
"Dr. Olsen told me. He had just finished, as he said, goofing off in the ponds when something frightened him and he took off. That's what we were investigating, whatever frightened him. I think we found it. He said a stream mixes with the hot spring to produce ponds of different temperatures. He spent hours playing in them."
"Let's go. The sooner we hit the water the better."
I drove us back to the hot spring. We all stripped, both girls giving their clothes and underclothes to the robots for washing. We washed in the lower ponds, then moved higher up to warmer ponds. Karen and I made love in one pond while Rob and Casey chose a pond out of our sight. Afterwards we all moved to adjacent ponds to talk while we relaxed.
Casey asked, "Okay, how did you know we were in danger? Did Rasputin tell you?"
"No, I figured it out for myself."
"Yeah, but how? We were all there, we all saw the same things. I was enjoying myself, watching those cute kittens. Somehow you saw something. What was it?"
I said, "There were three kittens."
"Yeah, so what? Why is that important?"
"There should have been an even number, four or six. The mother could have supplied milk for six. She was healthy, in good condition, so there shouldn't have been any still births. Mama cat had muted stripes that provided good camouflage. The kittens were bright golden orange and were happily playing together as long as they could look over and see Mama watching over them. When she vanished, they got nervous. Each catkin moved as far as possible from its siblings and they all started back towards the cave while not seeming to be running away.
"Mama cat was using her kittens for bait so Papa cat could kill the bears that would go hunting them. One kitten got killed as a result. Or maybe three of them, but I doubt it.
"When Mama cat disappeared, she told me that the bear was hunting us instead of the kittens."
Casey said, "I didn't even notice that she was gone, much less figure out what it signified."
"It's like magic. I was trained to see beyond the distraction the magician hopes will mask what he's doing. My father and my uncle used to do magic shows, so we were always around lots of magicians. They showed me how most of it was done."
Rob asked, "That sounds reasonable and logical when you explain it. But you're still doing things that surprise us after all these years. Are you human?"
"Rob, that's not nice. Of course he's human. Aren't you, Andrew?"
"Do you want the long answer or the short answer?"
Karen said, "Well, I want the long answer."
"Then let's get out of the water, dry off and get dressed. I'll explain while we're eating lunch."
Karen said, "No. This water is the perfect temperature for relaxing the soreness out of my butt. I need at least another half hour to soak. You can start your discussion right here. Have a demon bring me a beer, please. We can have lunch later."
We each had a beer brought from the van, then I continued. "I've changed myself genetically as well as physically. The fifty-eight changes I've made are all dominant features that simplify things by removing duplicate or contradictory functions. All of my descendents have shown improved intelligence, greater visual accuity and other improvements. I've considered over a thousand changes to recessive genes. I've made the same changes to other people, mostly the ancients from early in human history, to observe the results, which have been either favorable or neutral so far. I would get the whole suite of improvements but my descendents would each get a different fraction.
"The problem is that human genetic content will change with time. It doesn't matter much during this initial hundred-thousand year period unless people start doing experimental genetic changes to themselves. And some have, with mixed results. On one world, experimentation produced three distinct races that could no longer mix with each other or with the base humans. The improved races were superior, so the unmodified humans became a very, very small minority. I developed the world for humans, so I had to dispose of the new races. I made them all sterile while within that solar system, then gave them interstellar vehicles that would allow them to escape my influence and regain their fertility.
"Half a billion set out for one cluster of suitable suns, three hundred million to a second cluster and the remainder to another cluster, several ships going to each star. That improves their chances of survival. Each ship, using technology developed over fifty billion years by billions of starfaring races, still only have about an eighty percent chance of safe arrival, so the more ships making the trip, the more likely the group will survive to found a colony. When they arrive and set up colonies, they should get their own Chosen Ones and I will find out how well they have done. Meanwhile, there were less than a quarter million inhabitants left on the planet and they are about two hundred years away from becoming synchronized with Earth. They are going to encourage immigration.
"Eventually there will be sixty thousand worlds that are synchronized. I have to encourage or force genetic exchange between them to guarantee that there continues to be a single human race. The down side is that human evolution will be slowed greatly. And I will have to evolve myself to maintain compatibility with the rest of the race."
Casey asked, "Can you evolve us? Can you give each of us the same fifty something changes you gave yourself?"
"If you want them. You won't notice much of a change, I'm afraid, because it will take a while, several years, to activate the changes. Do you want me to get Rasputin to start the changes?"
Each of them was eager to be changed. I silently ordered Rasputin to begin the process. "Okay, the changes will be made, but parts of the brain, particularly the visual centers, have to grow before you will notice results. Your next batch of kids will all be changed from birth."
Karen said, "So you are going to remain genetically human, changing to match whatever humanity becomes, while making sure there continues to be a single human race. How aren't you human?"
"I have lived much longer than anybody else and my soul has started to adapt to a single protective body. Souls usually get cleansed after living in one body for a while, often becoming very fragmented in the process. Fragments from several previous owners may unite to occupy a new body, along with a quantity of raw soul stuff. But by returning to the same body again and again, the soul gradually takes on a more detailed image of the body. Then a number of interesting things happen. The soul becomes aware on its own, it gains the ability to manipulate matter, does some healing, then maintains the body at some age that is optimum for the soul, eventually becoming able to recreate the body completely if anything happens to it.
"Other Chosen's souls have started to learn to heal after ten to twenty billion years, with the ability to reconstruct the body taking about twice that long."
Karen asked, "You mean you won't have to die every fifty to eighty years after a while?"
"Right. After about ten to twenty billion years that unpleasant process of dying, becoming a ghost, then being reincarnated will be unnecessary. And it's not just the Chosen. Stay with me long enough and the same process will happen to you, too."
Casey said, "So you won't really be less human. You'll just be old enough to benefit from something short-timers will lack. What about your extra abilities, like seeing in the dark?"
"That's really just ghost vision. You have each experienced it while your souls were being cleansed. You can still experience it, through meditation and practice. Try seeing in the dark first. After a month or so of daily practice it should become automatic. Then you'll be able to see through things, too."
Rob grinned. "X-ray vision?"
"Part of the process by which Rasputin sees our world. You are just tapping in to what he does anyway. It doesn't use radiation at all, although you can learn to examine energy flows, too. You can play with seeing in infrared, ultraviolet, cosmic ray, X-ray or any other range. Karen, you can already see things in the dark, can't you?"
"Yes, a little bit. But I've never thought about it."
"Well, if you think about it you can improve the ability greatly.
"But there's one other big way in which I'm not human."
Rob said, "You're always so calm, so much in control. I know you have emotions, but much of the time it seems more like you're playing a game rather than sharing our reality."
Karen said, "You rarely use your super abilities. You once took on the world, made people look like colored Easter eggs, brought the governments of the whole world to their knees or lower. Now you don't push people around, you defer to them and let them push you around. Why?"
"You're both right. I have too much power. Several times I've modified myself into something whose intelligence could no more be expressed in human terms than you could meaningfully express the power used at the center of a star in candlepower. That gave me great insights, but I modified myself back. Having those abilities was wonderful; dropping them was painful. The temptation to become a super-being again is strong. I have had to set up rules for myself to keep myself from becoming inhuman again because I want to continue to understand the human experience and human problems, at least for a while longer. Most other Chosen have failed to resist that temptation. I may eventually give in. But while I can I want to be a person, not a god.
"So I make it a game. Sometimes it isn't real for me. That's when I need something like today's experience of all of us being in real danger, even though none of us would have suffered any lasting harm from the bears or the cats. I could have blasted those animals away, turned them to ashes or dust, without any physical danger to myself. That would have made the whole thing meaningless. I don't want life to become meaningless, so I play games and limit my use of power.
"If you knew you would always win, how much time would you spend in a casino? Winning would no longer be important. The element of chance would be gone. There would be no thrill. You would have no excuse to celebrate a win. The alternative to avoiding the casino is to allow yourself to lose. The better I allow myself to lose, the more I appreciate winning. Some day I may find something more interesting than the casino, but I have no idea what that might be."
Karen said, "I need another beer. And I've soaked enough. Let's get out and have lunch. And let's not talk about this any more for a while; I have too much to think about right now."
Lunch was buffalo sandwiches, cold wildfowl, fruit, salad and pickles. Rob's sandwiches were clearly marked with red bands to warn us they were hot. We had finished off the beer while soaking in the hot springs so we had only tea or water to go with it.
Casey said, "I'm sorry I blew up about getting in the van when you told us to. I don't know what came over me."
"Casey, I've known you long enough to recognize the symptoms. You always get a bit hostile and confused the first few weeks that you're pregnant. You should run a check to confirm my suspicion. It might not show up for a few more days, though. If it makes you feel any better, Karen has already tested positive."
"You did it again! You guessed I was pregnant before the thought crossed my mind. Your powers of observation are fantastic. And you are usually right, so I am going to stay off of bikes for a while. If I show positive, I'll want to take the next five years off."
Karen said, "I'm planning to move back to the Cascades for the next decade."
Rob asked, "That's that big lake with all of the waterfalls leading into it, isn't it?"
"Yes, although the lake isn't that big. It's just under a mile long. There are eleven streams or rivers emptying into the lake with drops of ten to fifty meters. It's a lovely place, and it's not that far from several cities on the Columbia River."
"You ought to call it the Bubbles with all of those domes you built there. And how big is that biggest one?"
"It covers about an acre. There isn't much inside except smaller domes. The big dome keeps the small domes cool in summer and warm in winter."
Karen and Casey continued congratulating each other while we ate, exploring possibilities, with Rob and I making infrequent remarks.
After lunch we all got back in the van. I drove us back to our old camp site while the others napped. When we arrived, the only thing in sight was a cargo plane. All of our things were already aboard, including the dutch oven with my mixture of pork, beans and grains, so I simply drove the van up the cargo ramp. Rob and Casey fastened the van in place while Karen and I went forward to the cockpit to go through the preflight checklist. Soon Rob and Casey joined us. Rob filed our flight plan while Casey checked the weather reports on the computer.
There was no bad weather except a cold front with possible rain that would arrive in eight to ten hours. The new camp wasn't very far away. Most of the camp had been moved to its new location by truck, with the few cargo planes making several trips each. We didn't bother flying very high, but the landing beacon showed up on the instruments after about ten minutes. Fifteen minutes later we started our landing approach.
As we started our approach, a new voice came from the control station to order us to land immediately. Since that had been our plan anyway, I agreed to do so. I landed the plane smoothly and effortlessly. Immediately the new voice ordered us to drop the cargo ramp. I did so immediately.
A Peacekeeper officer came aboard with two devils and a crew of demons. He ordered us to move forward to the cockpit. It was the same voice I had heard on the radio.
I said, "Officer, all of us are already in the cockpit."
He said, "It's lieutenant. I'm Lieutenant Joseph Dalrymple."
The deep voice of one of the devils announced that nobody else was present in the plane. Glancing back, Dalrymple noticed the van and said, "That's a hell of a big cannon on your van. Do you really need such firepower?"
"Yes," I replied. "Notice the condition of the van, the scratches on the front, rear and top, the big blood stain next to the cannon. Yes, we needed that much firepower."
He walked around the van. Looking through the broken rear window he noticed the rifles in their boots on the motorcycles. "Those are awfully big guns on those bikes. I'm afraid we'll have to confiscate them." He waved a devil to collect them.
"Belay that," I said.
The devils all nodded. "Right, boss," their leader said. They moved away from the van. The lieutanant looked shocked that his devils would disobey him.
There was a disturbance at the cargo ramp as some newcomers arrived: three devils, one having a crown of seven horns on his head to proclaim his rank, a colonel in silver-and-wine uniform, and a very thin young lady. Both the girl and the two minor devils were carrying baskets. The colonel stopped in front of me and gave me a technically perfect salute.
"Colonel Samuel Canyon reporting, sir!"
I returned his salute more informally as I emerged from the cockpit, the others following me. "Hello, Sam. Welcome aboard. And this must be Grace. Fantastic. You've grown since I last saw you. What was it, five years ago?"
"Seven years, Andrew. Mom and Joan sent you some goodies, including several bottles of a new experimental vintage they want you to try."
Karen and Casey stepped forward to take the baskets. The lieutenant shouted, "Just a minute. I'm trying to find a fugitive named Joel Fortin." His shout activated the van's defense system and the cannon moved to point at him.
"Belay," I shouted. "Defense system, go into maintenance shutdown. Sorry about that, lieutenant. I thought the system had been shut down after our little encounter out in the field. I'll tell you about it later. Meanwhile, did your crew look for Fortin in the latrines?"
"Why, no. We will check them eventually, but I expected him to make a run for it or to take this plane. Why would he be in the latrine, sir?"
"Fortin has been stealing my beer, drinking up two bottles each day. So I had my demons remove it all and substitute two bottles of green beer where it would look as if they had been overlooked."
"What is green beer?"
"Green beer is beer with all of its yeast still active. One bottle, about a liter, might cause minor cramping and mild diarrhea as the yeast beasties wake up and start searching their new environment for food. Anything in his gut would be fair game for those hungry yeast beasties. Two bottles would increase the intensity of the symptoms."
Karen looked shocked. "Andrew, you didn't ... ." Rob and Casey stepped toward the cockpit in an attempt to keep from laughing. They failed when Grace broke down laughing. Karen soon joined in. The devils and demons vanished. Only the two officers and I were able to control ourselves.
The lieutenant reported, "Sir, we found him. He was in the third portable toilet we checked. He wasn't able to remove his pants in time and he's a mess. We'll have to strip him and wash him off."
The laughter intensified.
"He'll be dehydrated. When he's been cleaned up, strap him to a stretcher and get some fluids in him. Give him something for the nausia and diarrhea, too. Well, Grace, does that finish things up?"
It took her a moment to control herself before replying. "Yes, Andrew. We've rounded up the whole rotten crew. Senator Rosweck tried to commit suicide and is in the hospital. Mr. Fortin's uncle had a stroke and is also in the hospital. One of the other senators tried to fight his way past a Peacekeeper. He didn't survive his stupidity."
"Good. This calls for a celebration. Gentlemen, you will join us while we have dinner. My other guests should arrive in a moment. Sam, you'll want to see the pictures we got on our little trip."
The lieutenant said, "I'm afraid I must decline your invitation. I have a prisoner to see to."
Colonel Canyon turned to the lieutenant with such a glare I thought the kid was going to faint. "Lieutenant, you were not invited to dine, you were ordered to sit while Mr. Jamison and his party eat. By now you should have figured out who you are dealing with. When I came aboard, Mr. Jamison had just ordered your devils not to follow your orders and they obeyed him. There is only one person whose orders they would follow over yours. I could only order them through my own devils once they established that I had the higher position in this project.
"Mr. Jamison initiated this project. He took it directly to President Mendoza. I spoke to her myself. She placed his friends June Marshall and Joan Crayton in charge. They, in turn, sent me to escort Miss Grace Marshall here to take care of whatever business remains. Obviously, a debriefing is necessary and your presence is required. Besides, you may never again experience the opportunities you have this evening. Is that entirely clear?"
The lieutenant squeaked out a faint, "Yes, sir." The colonel waved him to a seat and took one himself.
Grace had Rob uncorking wine bottles. Casey placed a variety of fruits from the baskets onto platters and placed them on the table. Karen and I served the mixture of pork, beans, barley, rice, corn and spices into bowls, which we placed in front of each person, setting three extra places.
Karen said, "Lieutenant, you don't have to eat anything if you really don't want to, but Andrew cooked this mixture up himself."
Dr. Olsen poked his head timidly around the van and said, "Andrew, a devil told me you wanted Rebecca and I to join you here now. Kent is with us. Is that right?"
"Come on in, all of you. I have some pictures I want you to see and I want you to join us in a little celebration." I seated Karen and then took my own seat at the table. I took a red pear and divided it in quarters. We ate without ceremony and with very little conversation. Several people got extra portions of the stew, including the lieutenant and I.
"Karen, do you have our pictures ready?"
"Well, Andrew, I have them set up to show what happened from the time we reached the stream. Is that what you wanted?"
"That's perfect. Okay, everybody, watch the monitors." Two monitors showed the camera drone pictures of the van by the stream while the third showed the stream as seen by the roof camera. As Rob and Casey entered the stream, the kittens could be seen emerging from their cave. Somebody in the room caught their breath very loudly. There were giggles when Casey screamed at the kittens emerging heads. Our mad scramble brought sounds of inquiry. Then the rooftop camera swung around and the giant bear appeared.
"Damn," said Dr. Olsen very loudly. "It was a cave bear."
Karen stopped the pictures, leaving the roof camera monitor showing the giant bear standing up in response to the flash-bang. "Have you had an encounter with cave bears before, Dr. Olsen?"
"You might call it that. Andrew, may I have some of that wonderful brown ale of yours and some of that horrible amber whiskey you make?" He poured half a bottle of the beer over a generous splash of whiskey and tossed it off, then squeezed one of the red-fleshed lemons into the mug with the remaining beer. "It was about two centuries back. I was doing some field work on my own. It was a wooded area with lots of caves nearby. I rounded a corner and found two juvenile cave bears in my path less than ten yards ahead of me. I immediately stopped, ready to back off. The mother bear hit me from behind, throwing me into some bushes. I couldn't move. I'm pretty sure my back was broken. I watched as the mother bear came over and bit my head off. I'll never forget that sour, musty smell or the feel of my neck and skull being crunched." He paused for a long sip of his beer. "When I was restored, the bears were still there but there was a pack of goblins chasing them off. Several goblins escorted me back to my truck. I had nightmares for a decade."
I said, "You remembered the smell, though it was too faint to identify. Your reaction was entirely appropriate to the situation. You got out. If you hadn't, you might have been attacked again. Are you ready to see the rest of what happened."
At his nod, Karen started up the pictures again. We watched the giant cat attack the giant bear, the fighting pair almost toppling the van when their bodies hit it. Then the roof camera swung to the front in time to observe the mother cat's leap to the front of the van. The van top camera's monitor went black. Everybody looked over at the van, now understanding what it had gone through. Escaping the mother cat for a moment, we spun and headed back the way we had come, only to meet the second bear as the mother cat attacked the rear of the van, completely shattering the rear window. The picture from the nearest camera plane clearly showed the large holes made by the bullets emerging from the bear's back before the cat dropped off the rear of the van to attack it.
Now the third monitor lit up with pictures from Rob's handheld camera. We watched the two giant cats drag their prey to the stream where the male tore up the bank to make a ramp both cats used to drag their heavy prey well up onto the bank. They began feeding out in the open and the kittens emerged to join them. Then the cameras swiveled to catch the remaining two bears popping out into the midst of the giant camels and taking their victims.
Karen stopped the playback. "After that we visited Dr. Olsen's hot springs and relaxed for a while in its pools, then had lunch and came back to the campsite."
Kent said, "You all did well. I'd like copies of your pictures to send back to the home office, assuming it is still there with this shake-up."
I said, "The home office is still there and functioning. It will continue to do so. Kent, I want to take some time off, probably about three months. That's how long they say it will take to make me a new van. It'll be my first break in seven years. Karen is going to leave the project, so I won't be spending a lot of time here, probably for a decade or so."
Rob said, "Casey and I are going to leave the project, too. I want to take some of those blood lemons back to graft onto a lemon grove I have going already."
"Rob, I'd suggest you call them something other than blood lemons, something like flame lemons or garnet lemons, something not associated with the blood oranges that are starting to come to market now."
"Good idea, boss. Garnet lemons, then. I have 240 acres of lemon trees in the Southwest, so I'll cut and graft about a third of them. Then I want to start new groves on that seven mile square I have in the Southeast. That area should be good for citrus."
Dr. Olsen said, "With all of the confusion, this would be a good time for me to take about a month off, too. Do you mind, Kent?"
"All of you have worked far too long without breaks. You are welcome to take off as long as you need to. Just keep in touch with me, please."
Kent, Dr. Olsen and Rebecca took their leave of the group. The lieutenant asked to be allowed to leave. I nodded and Colonel Canyon dismissed him.
"What are we going to do about him? He messed up pretty badly."
"He was set up to fail, Sam. Whoever sent him here deliberately failed to give him vital knowledge about his assignment. He figured out that there was more to it than it seemed, just from having been sent when an officer wouldn't normally be required. After all, what is so complicated about picking up a single criminal from a temporary camp? So he got cautious and a bit officious. He also failed to figure out who I was, which would have explained why an officer was sent.
"I want him rewarded, Sam. I want him assigned to some task that would normally require someone of higher rank and I want him well briefed on whatever it is. And I want the person who set him up identified and dealt with. Sending someone as powerful as a Peacekeeper to perform a task with inadequate information is dangerous. I don't like it."
"The first part, the reward, I can take care of easily. I have just the job for our young lieutenant. And I can probably find out who set him up. But I'd rather pay a visit to my old friend Colonel Tucker for a long talk. Tuck will take care of the problem just because it's the right thing to do. I won't have to call in any favors. Now, I've got a copter waiting for me. I understand Miss Marshall will be staying here, taking over Fortin's administrative post. If you've nothing more, I'll take off."
"One more thing, Sam. I lied to the kid. I didn't forget to shut down the cannon. It woke up on its own. It's broken. It's supposed to fail into a safe mode but it failed in such a way it was ready to blow the lieutenant away, probably taking one or more of us along with it. I had Rasputin destroy its control mechanism. Please don't tell the lieutenant.
"It's been great seeing you, Sam. Stop by the Cascades some time soon, when you can relax for a few days. I know there're some fish in the lake with your name on them. Karen and I will be there by the end of the week."
I looked at the array of empty bottles. Not only had all of the delightful new wine been finished off, there was no beer left. I found a clean pot and started making some herbal tea. Rob started making coffee.
Rob said, "The cannon was broken and failed in an unsafe mode?"
"That's right. That's why I need to spend a week or so checking it out. If the factory didn't know about the defect, I want to know why. If they did know about it, I want to know why I wasn't informed about it. Some heads may roll. And it is too much firepower. I want something lighter for the new van."
Rob, Karen and Grace had coffee. Casey and I had tea. We all sat down at the table to talk a bit longer.
Karen said, "I like what you did for the lieutenant. Do you like him?"
"Not all that much. I just liked what was done to him even less."
"Well, he was scared when he couldn't figure out what was important enough to need an officer, then even more scared when Sam told him who you were. He's smart. He'll figure out that you did him a favor after he messed things up. I have no doubt you'll be his hero from now on."
Rob said, "You're my hero, too." He said it in such a pathetic tone we all broke down laughing.
Casey said, "Every world we visit, we stay in Jamison Hotels and eat at a Jamison Restaurant. Our daily bread comes from a Jamison Bakery. Our kids are educated in a Jamison University. Our cars are built by Jamison Motors. We fly in Jamison Aircraft airplanes provided by Jamison Airlines. Sixty percent of all metropolitan newspapers are printed by a Jamison company, as are most books. People are born in a Jamison Hospital and go there when it is time for them to die. You provide our electric power and water and dispose of our trash and sewage. Tell me, is there a line of Jamison Brothels?"
Karen said, "If there is, why haven't I heard about it?"
Grace said, "Obviously he wants you for himself."
I said, "There are no Jamison Brothels for the same reason there are no Jamison Churches."
Rob said, "I don't see the connection."
"Perhaps that wasn't such a good example, then. But I refuse to profit from certain human endeavors, for a variety of reasons."
Grace yawned. The yawn spread to the rest of us. We all left the plane for our tents and our beds.