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Languages Professor Samuel McGovern – age 57
No matter the language I was teaching, music and poetry were great ways for students to gain a better understanding. For the more advanced classes, I always make one of their assignments the composition of a song or poem.
Translated to English, some high points of the dreadful atrocity I was grading were, “They lustfully enjoyed stacking his barber’s cow eggs”, and “He longed to stir his stinky ear and frolic in her charcoal again”.
Less than a quarter of the verses rhymed, and there were more typos than lines. Unfortunately, it was six times the minimum length I had specified. I thought if he was going to serve his audience something toxic, at least he should be decent enough to make it a small portion.
It was an easy decision and I entered it for the record. Ben Jones: D plus
My granddaughter Robin asked, “Grampy Sam, can we get lunch soon? I’m hungry.”
“Just two to go sweetie, it won’t take long.” I’m glad the little twelve-year-old is easy to entertain, all it takes is a few videogames on a tablet.
I put the tragic travesty down on the stack of other disappointments, and started reading another epic offence to the spirit of Homer.
Suddenly we were FALLING FROM THE SKY, then SWIMMING!
I saw water all around and tall cliffs ahead of us. Robin was keeping her head above water. The last time our family went to the pool, she swam faster than I did. I was glad she was okay. Cliffs meant land! Land! “Robin! Swim this way! Toward the cliff! Follow me!” My shoes were slowing me down, so I kicked them off. After what seemed like a long time, we made it to a beach made of small stones at the foot of the cliff. I knew I was in no condition to try mountain climbing, and Robin was only twelve.
I looked around and saw the meter-wide beach ran along the bottom of the cliff just above water level for several hundred meters each way. There were no islands or other land I could see. Thankfully, the water was only a little chilly, instead of dangerously cold. The air was nice and warm. Our situation reminded me a little of some poems about the white cliffs of Dover, only these cliffs were a light beige, sandstone, probably.
Robin yelled, “Hey! Can anybody hear me! Help!”
A young man’s voice called back. “I’m Pedro, and my friend is Anna is with me. Who are you?”
“I’m Sam, and Robin is my granddaughter. Is there a way we can get to you? We’re stuck on a small beach here.”
“I making a rope, but it’s not long enough yet. Can you hang on a few hours?”
The ground shook a little, and we saw a large section of the cliff tumble into the water a few hundred meters away. It must have been forty meters high, but only a meter or so thick. It made a large wave and formed a new small island as it collapsed.
“Hold on tight, Robin!” I grabbed her as the wave hit us. Luckily, it was waist-high and only knocked us down as it passed.
“Hey, Pedro, I think we can get to you where the cliff fell. Go meet us there, okay?”
“Sure!”
Pedro and Anna were nearly nude, except for their ‘purses’ and hats that Pedro had weaved. Robin still wore her t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. My suit felt a little too warm, so I gave my jacket to Anna.
“Thank you, Sam. That’s really nice of you.”
When Robin mentioned she was hungry, Anna gave each of us some coconut and a few strawberries to eat.
They showed us around their little camp, their goats, and their few tools and food items. It was a far cry from the modernity of Chicago, but at least we weren’t drowning at sea and we weren’t alone.
I was astounded that Robin had held onto her tablet and it still worked. There were no wireless connections to use but it might come in handy later. I had her turn it off to save the battery.
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Report of Caretaker 9042
Species WDT
Multiple specimens – cycle 6
Health 14/24 to 24/24.
Major intra-species empathy observed.
Intra-species food exchange observed.
Written language available to subjects.
Electronic computer available to subjects.
No buoyant or powered flight observed.
No use of fission or fusion power.
No dimensional rift usage.
Results to date:
Early technology, worth further observation.
Technology level: 7/24
Resilience: 12/24
Progenation: 1/24
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Supervisor 3614 notes
Allow verbal communication with new subject 096.
Do not open new habitat, encourage 096 to escape to new area.
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Sargent Keisha LaCroix – US Army Ranger – age 24
Our transport chopper was flying over the desert at night. Our mission was to capture or eliminate an enemy commander at a fortified house in a remote area. Any hostiles would be in the building, so we wouldn’t have to watch our backs much. The pilot announced in our headsets, “Prepare for touchdown! Two minutes out!”
I saw a red streak coming toward us from the ground. I thought missiles didn’t fly that fast. For half a moment I wondered if it was a laser, or …
I woke with a bit of a headache thirty meters from the burnt-out remains of our chopper. I checked and was happy I wasn’t wounded. I still had all my gear, helmet with night vision and radio, carbine, pistol, canteen, flashlight, knife, smoke and flashbang grenades, glow sticks, first aid kit.
My pack with tent, sleeping bag, water, meals, and extra ammo was on the ground two meters to my right. To my left, I saw a pile of the other gear we brought with us. It looked mostly intact. I knew there was a satellite phone and a scout drone in the pile of plastic crates somewhere, along with a blasting kit and ten kilos of plastic explosive. I didn’t see any sign of my squad or the pilots, no bodies or even bones.
I rolled onto my belly and looked around carefully through the scope on my carbine. Other than the pile of equipment and the wrecked chopper, there was nothing significant up to the cliffs a few hundred meters away. I saw a few shrubs and head-sized rocks laying on the mostly smooth desert terrain, but nothing else. The chopper wreckage would attract hostile attention but there was no significant cover between me and the cliffs. I smelled salty sea air, though our mission had been two hundred clicks from the closest major body of water.
I turned on my radio and heard only a quiet hiss. I called for the squad to regroup a couple of times, but nothing. I patiently checked all the channels while keeping an eye on the horizon, but got only static. The sat phone showed “NO SERVICE” no matter which button I pushed.
I checked my GPS, and it showed I was at the North Pole. The sand, warm air, and extreme lack of ice told me that was probably wrong. I always carried a small magnetic compass just in case. I took it out, and it slowly spun in a circle without stopping. Other than the cliffs on all sides there were no landmarks, so my map was useless too.
I wondered what the hell was going on. This was some seriously fucked up shit!
The only tracks on the ground were mine, from after I woke up. If the other 16 aboard the chopper didn’t burn up in the crash, how did they leave without putting boot prints in the sand? Where the Hell did they go? Even if they were 20 clicks away, I should have been able to reach them on the radio.
I had only met the pilots the previous day, but would all 14 of my people really leave without me? Even the Lieutenant? Our squad had been together nearly a year and half of them were Black like me, so a race issue wasn’t it. Morale had been great when we left base, with us joking around and ready to kick some serious ass. What in all the damn Hells is going on?
I found the container with the drone and launched it. I was a little surprised nobody shot at it. That was the enemy’s favorite reaction. I flew it up high, and saw I was in an almost square area bordered by thin lines of cliffs. There was a sea or ocean to what I though of as the East, a steep mountain to the North, and hundreds or thousands more square areas enclosed by cliffs to the South and Southwest.
I flew the drone around close to the ground near the cliffs, following the perimeter of my area. Other than a large undetonated bomb behind some shrubs 100 meters to the northeast, I didn’t see anything of interest.
The bomb looked like one of the seven-ton daisy cutters! It probably wouldn’t go off if I left it alone. Probably! I knew that if it did go off, I should be at least half a click away to avoid catching any shrapnel. With a bomb that size, there’d even be a small risk at 500 meters away. If it went off at this distance, I’d be lucky to survive. Much closer, and they could bury what was left of me in my helmet.
There was a small chance lightning or even static electricity could trigger it at any time. Even if I could forget about the mission, I still needed to get out of here before long.
I folded out the solar panels and plugged in the drone to charge it.
I saw a hint of smoke over one of the clifftops, and instinctively shouldered my carbine and clicked it off safe. I heard a repeating ‘thump’ noise. It didn’t sound mechanical, more like somebody pounding nails slowly. Since I was alone, the safest thing would be to stay back and look with the drone.
I took out one of my combat meals and got it ready. Salmon, pasta, and vegetables. Not my favorite, but it would do. I had eleven more meals of several kinds, and would make sure to save my two beloved enchilada and rice meals for rougher times. They were my favorite and would lift my spirits if things were going badly.
I looked at the mound of gear and saw packs from three other Rangers. I had water for a week or more, food for a month, and more ammo than I could carry. We had even brought along a couple of AT4 anti-tank rockets, in case the enemy had an armored vehicle or bunker.
Since I was in charge of the squad, I had brought the snacks. A lot of sergeants got granola bars or trail mix. I liked hard candy, so we had a kilo of it. Being by myself now, there were mints and root beer barrels to last me a month or two.
I ate three candies in the time it took the drone to recharge. It was just another part of military life, long periods of boredom.
I sent the drone to look over the cliff where I saw the smoke. I was surprised to see four people around a small fire. One of them was a man hitting a coconut with a rock, making the pounding noise.
A little girl sat on a log next to an old man. An old lady sat near them as they ate something. They were a motley mix. The girl and the old man were dressed in American-style clothing. The other two looked like villagers from some stone-age tribe. I didn’t see any weapons, unless you counted the rock and what looked like a primitive hatchet. They obviously weren’t the enemy.
I lowered the drone down to get a closer look, and the little girl waved and said something to the others. They looked up as the drone got too close to a tree. One of the drone’s propellers hit a branch, and I saw it spin and hit the ground through the camera. I couldn’t get it to take off, but I could still see them. The younger of the men picked it up and waved. He had a large woven bag of some kind wrapped around him like a purse. It covered his abdomen, but I could see his muscular legs and part of his … masculine equipment. I liked what I saw.
One of them wrote in the dirt with a stick. “SOS HELP!” I sympathized. I really did. I walked over to the cliff in their direction. I heard them yelling. “HEY! Help us! Hello? HEY!”
I shouted to them, “HEY! One at a time! Who are you? Where are we?”
The old man answered, “There are four of us. We don’t know where we are. Can you help us get out of here?”
I smiled to myself. “Sure! Get away from the wall! At least a hundred meters! Stay away until you hear a big boom!”
I walked back to the wreck to get one of my favorite items, and did some quick figuring in my head. “Stone wall one meter thick, no reinforcement. A third of a kilo should do it.” I used a half, just in case. Corporal Rogers would have used all ten kilos, “just in case”, which is why we didn’t let him near the explosives anymore.
I pushed the button, covered my ears, and five seconds later, indeed there was a loud ‘boom’. I was a little surprised there was a three-meter hole in the wall, instead of it falling down, but one meter would have been enough.
The other three led me to the old lady, who had injured her legs. She sat on a log by the fire. She offered, “We have some food if you’re hungry. Carrots, coconut, avocados.”
I passed her one of my four bags of candy, and the little girl’s eyes lit up as she smiled.
“There’s a lot of food and some clothes back where I was. Weapons too. Are any of you firearms qualified?”
The tall Hispanic man, Pedro said, “I’m a park ranger, and I was in the national guard a few years.”
“Park Ranger and Army Ranger. Nice.” I passed him my pistol.
The old lady Anna looked at my belt and said, “I’m a good cook. If I can cut meat well, I can cut other things, if we really need. That’s a nice knife.” I took the sheath off my belt and handed it to her, and she tossed aside a twisted piece of metal.
I looked at the old guy, Sam. He was shaking his head slightly, and said, “No. Just no, not me. Violence isn’t the way to solve things.”
I asked him, “Have you tried talking to a terrorist fanatic, or talked a lion out of biting? If you want, I have other weapons back there.”
He kept shaking his head. “No, I … I don’t even know how.”
“Okay. Let’s go get some clothes for these two, and bring some of the food over here.”
We walked back to the pile of gear. When he saw it, Pedro immediately smiled and said, “An M107! 50 cal! Nice! I never got to shoot one of those! I’m pretty good with a rifle. Mind if I take it?”
“Go ahead! I’d rather use something with more than ten rounds, that doesn’t weigh half what I do.”
He laughed and picked it up easily, then cleared and loaded it. I thought the other three might not be much help, but Pedro would be good backup. I also liked his muscular arms. He was kind of handsome. I was glad and disappointed at the same time, when he put on one of the spare uniforms.
I picked up a pistol and offered it to Sam. “If you take it with you, you can decide not to use it. But if you leave it here and change your mind later…”
He reluctantly took it from me and looked down the barrel. He had no idea what he was doing. I grabbed it away from him when his finger touched the trigger. “NO! NO! Never point it at anything unless you want to kill it! Keep away from the trigger unless you’re ready to shoot. The safety is here …” I gave him a basic lesson, until I was halfway confident he wouldn’t shoot one of us by accident.
As the sun was starting to go down, we had moved everything useful to their camp. We set up a couple of tents, but there was no wind or weather, and the temperature didn’t change at night. About all the tents did was keep the goats out.
There weren’t any bugs, and I had an extra sleeping bag rolled up for a pillow. I fell asleep thinking the tent was almost as nice as a few motels I’d stayed at.
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Report of Caretaker 9042
Species WDT
Subject 071 – Cycle 3
Multiple specimens, health 14/24 to 24/24.
Powered flight observed.
Use of chemical explosives observed.
No use of fission or fusion power.
No dimensional rift usage.
Results to date:
Intermediate technology.
Potential rescue candidates.
Technology level: 9/24
Resilience: 14/24
Progenation: 1/24
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Supervisor 3614 notes
Remove all cell barriers.
Expose portal hatch.
Release one of reject species JZT in area opposite WDT.
Remove JZT if it approaches within 24 rens of WDT.
Record and observe closely.
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