Hood's dream:
It's going to be some sunset is Jacob's first thought as he looks around the unfamiliar landscape. The narrow island that he's standing on is composed of the same reddish rock that rises in low hills from the mainland about a half-mile away. On the other side there are other, more distant shores rising from the deep blue water. Despite the waning sun it is quite warm and the soft breeze that touches his cheek does nothing to cool him. Feeling out of breath and a little dizzy he decides that sitting would be safer than standing and he lowers himself to the sun-baked earth.
Something is wrong with this landscape but he can't put his finger on what it is. Nowhere in his wide travels has Jacob seen anything that looks quite like this. The shore of the Red Sea would come closest but he knows he isn't there. Maybe it's because of the profound silence that envelops him. He scuffs his heel on the ground to make a little noise. So he isn't deaf but the there is no way he's going to call out to see if anyone else is around to hear him. Somehow he knows it wouldn't do any good; knows that he is alone here, wherever here is.
Out of nowhere it occurs to him that he might be on another planet. Another equally ridiculous possibility might be that he is still on earth but in an earlier time. Let's see, he muses, if this is another planet that would involve travel through vast amounts of space as well as time. It would be simpler to assume that the leap was only through eons of time so he might as well start there. Deal with the more possible of impossibilities, so to speak. He shakes his head and snorts. Too bad he has no idea how he got here. Anyone mastering the art of time travel was a shoe in for a Nobel.
He tries to remember what he knows of earth's geological ages but finds it hard to think clearly. Pre-Cambrian strikes him as being a bit too early. There is a greenish tint to some of the hills rising from the shore would seem to indicate the presence of some sort of multi-cellular plant life. Or perhaps it was copper bearing ore. Nah, it's the wrong green. He squints, trying to make out more detail but its impossible from this distance in this light. So when then? Ordovician? Silurian? It had to be somewhere around then, give or take a few million years.
The scientist in him is overwhelmed by the opportunities that arise from this unprecedented event. He could spend a lifetime just doing taxonomy, not to mention collecting data on the climate and geology. Of course any scientific activities would be greatly hampered by his lack of a lab or even the simplest equipment. He gropes through his pockets and finds a pen but no paper. He sighs and looks around some more.
Putting science aside for now he realizes that simple survival might be the biggest challenge facing him. There is nothing to eat or drink on this thin sliver of land. He puts his finger in the water and tastes it. It's brackish at best. He might be able to swim to the mainland but what would he find there but the most rudimentary of plants and some millipedes? He notices some stirrings in the water that seem unrelated to the faint breeze. Even if there are fish out there, how could he catch them?
As he considers his situation with growing anxiety he catches sight of something or rather someone moving toward him. Jumping up he watches the figure move in a lurching gait toward him. In the gathering dark it has to come very close before he recognizes who it is.
"Rachel?" Thank God, at least he is no longer alone.
As she gets closer he can see that she is panting from exertion and looking about in wide-eyed fear. She stumbles and is about to go right past him so he grabs her arm and swings her around to face him.
"Rachel, what's wrong? Its me – Jacob Hood – don't you …"
He is unable to finish his question as she has kicked his legs out from under him and he lands flat on his back on the hard earth.
That's my girl he thinks, wincing.
The effort of pushing him off his feet seems to have totally undone her. She collapses next to him and lies still; only her chest heaves rapidly as she tries to breathe. Her shoulders start to shake.
He sits up and carefully sidles closer to her.
"Rachel?" he lightly touches her arm and she shoves his hand away but without much conviction.
" Rachel" he says more softly. He gently pulls her up to a sitting position and with one arm around her shoulders, uses the other to lift her head and push her hair back from her face.
He is alarmed by how ashen she looks and by the terror he sees in her eyes. She is still shaking and breathing heavily. She gives no sign that she recognizes him.
" Rachel, its okay I won't hurt you. You're hyperventilating. Just try to relax and breathe more slowly and you'll feel better, I promise."
She doesn't respond so he can't tell if she understands him or even hears him. He pulls her a little closer and rocks her a little, murmuring reassurances in her ear. Gradually her breathing calms and she leans into him more heavily. It occurs to him that she might be falling asleep because he is feeling exhausted, not wanting to wake her he leans them back slowly until they are lying on the ground. Without waking Rachel snuggles in closer to him and throws her arm across his that she has obviously decided to trust her he kisses the top of her head. Her hair has a floral scent which strikes him as comically ironic given that flowers are still millions of years in the future. As much as he wants to stay awake its impossible.
Sometime in the night Jacob wakes up. His feet are cold and the reason they're cold is that they're wet. His little island is much smaller; there must be some tidal action. He stands up slowly, feeling more than a little disoriented. With a jolt it hits him that it is actually brighter than it was when the sun was still up. The stars, my god he thinks as he looks across the sky, the stars are so much brighter than he's ever seen them. They actually seem more numerous, almost filling the dark of the sky. He can hear himself laughing. It's so thrilling and strange he feels almost giddy. But this is not possibly the sky that he should be seeing at this point in time. The stars should be much more distant and distant from each other, than this. Could he possibly have gone for another time trip while he was sleeping? He looks around him and apart from the island being significantly diminished and an increase in the churning activity in the water everything seems the same. Could it be that the counter gravitational force of dark energy wasn't as strong during the early days of the universe? Could the universal constant have been inconstant? Inconsistent would be a better way to put it. His thinking feels very sluggish which he attributes to the lower oxygen content of the atmosphere. No doubt that is what was giving Rachel so many problems breathing earlier.
And speaking of Rachel, where was she? Jacob realizes with a start that he hasn't seen her since he woke up. His knees almost buckle.
"Rachel! RACHEL!"
He splashes a few feet into the water. Had she tried to swim to shore? He can't see anything of her in the black water that reflects so much starlight he has to squint. Out of the corner of his eye he catches a glimpse of something in the roiling waters that makes him quickly jump back on shore. That was no school of fish out there but some singular thing of great size.
His body flashes cold with dread as he tries to remember something that he should have remembered sooner, something from his childhood. He had been as fascinated by dinosaurs as any young boy but typically for him, he had delved deeper to find monsters of earlier ages. There was one in particular he liked, because it was so big and nasty looking, and its name was similar to his. The eurypterid jaekelopterus, which looked kind of like a lobster mated with a scorpion and was a distant relative of spiders. He could remember the diagram he saw of it drawn next to a man, which it dwarfed in size. And of course it was amphibious. He hears a disturbance in the water behind him. Something large was pulling itself out of the water and onto his little island. He can actually feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Frozen in place he has nowhere to run.
Jacob awakes with a gasp and sits up in bed. By force of habit he looks to the other side of the bed, which is, as usual, empty. He has been trying, without much success, to sleep in the middle of the bed. Well, at least he could accept the half empty bed without wanting to jump off a bridge. He pushes his pillow back to the middle and lays down again. What a ridiculous dream! And how odd that Rachel should show up in it. He smiles ruefully to himself. He has to be the only man on the planet who would have a dream of the beauteous Rachel Young where he was cuddling her rather than tearing her clothes off. He must be getting old. Too old. He gets up, pulls his sweats on and goes in search of his oldest bottle of scotch. Poor Rachel, he was always dragging her into some mess or another.
The bottle found he pours two generous fingers into it. Note to self, he muses as he holds the glass up to the light to admire its deep amber hue: no more lobster ever again.
Note: If dark energy's expansive force is stronger now than gravity's attractive force (causing the ever quickening expansion of the universe) then it might hold true that gravity's attractive force was once stronger than that of dark energy. This might have meant that the stars we see would have been closer to us for a longer period of time. Just wild guessing- I'm no scientist. Jacob is right however in thinking that 400 million years is not far back enough in time to observe this effect. More likely it is the lack of any light or air pollution that made the stars seem brighter and more numerous.