Down to Earth
Chapter 3
Harper picked himself up from the ground yet again. It was getting harder to get up each time. He tried to attribute his weariness to the great distance he had walked, but when he looked back, he could see that he'd only traveled about two miles since he "fell" onto this planet. "Face it, Harper--you're a wimp. Real gravity is stronger than artificial gravity and you just can't stay on your feet because you've been riding the great starship for so long!" He looked down at his dusty boots, striding along the macadam. "Y'know, if people were meant to walk long distances, you'd think they woulda been born with wings on their feet or somethin'!"
He crested a short rise and stood watching the sunrise--the vibrant golds,
pinks, and blues were certainly an improvement from the artificial lighting on Andromeda. There was only one sun, and a yellow dwarf at that, so this planet would be livable until he could get back home to Andromeda. He stopped and thought about that for a minute--yes, Andromeda was his home now. Really, Drom and the Maru were the only homes that he'd ever known and their crews the only family he could remember. No, that wasn't right--he did remember his mother, father, and little brother, but that was years ago and the memories were too painful to hold onto. The trauma of their murders by the ubers was mercifully dulled in his memory by time and distance. But his hatred for their Nietzschean killers would never fade.
His stride was slowing a bit from fatigue. His stomach let him know it needed food by emitting a loud growl. He patted it affectionately, "Easy Betsy, there's gotta be *somethin'* around here that's edible." He stopped on the side of the road and looked around. All he saw were trees and grass and road. His shoulders slumped and his stomach let out a small gurgle that sounded vaguely disappointed. Then he remembered that he still wore his tool belt and always kept an energy bar or two in one of the pockets for emergencies--like when he was in the machine shop and not near an Auto- chef.
Harper tore open the wrapper on the energy bar and was preparing to take a bite. So engrossed was he in his snack that he didn't notice that he had rounded a bend in the road. The forest abruptly gave way to open land, more intersecting roads, and after passing the last of the trees--a city. A large sign stood beside the road, green with white letters. The sign read, "Welcome to Middletown, PA, population 17,654". The power bar fell from his hand as Harper realized just where he had landed.
Except this was not the earth of his memories. Where were the Nietzscheans? Where were their policing hovercraft that filled the skies day and night, hunting down and killing any human that moved? Where was the enslaved human population in their rags? The view that opened up ahead of him could have been a picture in a storybook. Wooden or brick houses with neatly tended gardens and yards lined the street as far as he could see. There were-- yes, there were even children riding tricycles on the sidewalks and women standing in front of their houses visiting as if they hadn't a care in the world. Why didn't they run and hide? Harper opened his mouth to shout a warning to the mothers to pick up their children and get to shelter before the next hovercraft came along and they were all vaporized by the
Nietzscheans.
The shout died on his lips as he noticed another sign along the roadway. This sign was for the opening of a new business in the city and stated, "Arby's grand opening March 28, 1979." That was why there were no Nietzscheans or Magog in sight. He had not only traveled in distance but back in time to an earth that only lived in those few history books that survived the occupation.
There was a shimmer in the air in front of Harper and suddenly Andromeda's hologram appeared. She faded in and out of sight, hissing static making her speech difficult to understand. "Harper, is that you?" The AI turned and spoke to someone that Harper couldn't see, "I've found him." When she faced her engineer again, she studied him closely, "Are you all right?"
"Rommie, boy am I glad to see you! How the hell did I get here? More important, can you get me home?"
"We can, but it's going to take some work on your part. We have the power we need on this end, even though it's going to tax me to the limit. I have been able to tap into the vortex that sent you there, but you need to find a power source on your end. Since, as you have probably guessed, you are on Earth in the late 20th century, this task could prove difficult. The barbarians of this time still use combustion engines for crying out loud." Andromeda saw Harper's face fall in defeat and quickly added, "There is something that might work but that particular power is very limited. You are lucky that you are near one of the few sources on the planet. There is a power facility just a few miles to the North. Follow the river and you will come to it. You must get into the power plant tonight and get in position to use their nuclear power to make the leap ahead to us."
Harper's face brightened until the reality of what Andromeda was proposing sunk in. "Fission power? I don't know Rommie, I don't particularly care to glow in the dark--makes it kinda hard to sleep at night, if you know what I mean. Besides, I may want to have a little Harper someday! Don't you have any other ideas?"
"No, Harper, this is the one and only way to do this. Now, get going or you're going to be too late. I've already expended too much energy looking for you 300 years in the past. When I didn't find you there, I had to keep going farther back until I found you. I thought having my mind connected to a black hole was bad, this vortex is giving me a killer migraine."
Andromeda rubbed her virtual temples. With her eyes closed she anticipated
Harper's next question. "No, I'm not sure how you got this far back in time. It's taken Trance and I too long to find you as it is. Answers will have to wait until we get you back. It's taking too much energy for me to even communicate with you now. If we wait too long, all hope of bringing you back will be gone." As if to emphasize her words, Rommie's hologram faded in and out of sight.
Harper threw up his hands in defeat. "Okay, you convinced me. Here goes Harper, the freakin' glow-in-the-dark engineer off to the power plant."
Harper walked along the riverbank, actually enjoying his trek now that his feet had soft grass to walk on instead of pavement. As he neared a bridge that crossed a tributary of the river, he saw a sign and read the name of the river he was following. "Susquehanna River" the sign said. "Where have I heard that name before?" he thought as he walked. The name was familiar but he couldn't put his finger on where he'd heard it before.
Harper kept his mind busy during the walk imagining all the guilders, ("Oops, they probably don't have guilders here!") he could make if he had to stay here by
'inventing' some of the tools he used every day on board the Andromeda. "I could get mega rich just from inventing the nanowelder."
The river curved a gentle, sinuous path to the right and Harper rounded the last bend. He finally came within sight of the nuclear power station that Rommie had described to him. A chain link fence circled the property and two huge hourglass-shaped chimneys gave off steam into the morning air. A sign on the chain link fence read, "Nuclear Power--the power of the future now."
"Man, they don't know the half of it," Harper giggled to himself. Following Rommie's directions, he connected his data port to a keypad that was mounted
on the gate. The gate swung open and he entered the grounds. Rommie's directions were to go to unit 2, as unit 1 wasn't completely online yet. It was surprisingly easy to enter the building with one of his tools, cutting through the lock with ease. He found the auxiliary control room, which was unlocked and entered without seeing a soul. When he looked at the mainframe computer that filled most of the room, Harper let out a groan. "Rommie, you really expect me to hook up with this dinosaur? It's gonna give me a major headache!"
Andromeda's hologram appeared before Harper again. She gave him an exasperated look, "Get out your data port connector and get to work. You know what to do. But make sure you only close the power operated relief valve. Don't touch the block valve or there will be a meltdown."
"Yeah, yeah, trust the Harper, the Harper is good." With that, the Harper connected his data port to the computer and found himself in a matrix the likes of which he had never seen before. However, the schematics were fairly simple, and he found the power operated relief valve control without any problems. He knew that if he closed this valve, the reactor would lose cooling water and the core temperature would increase exponentially to the amount of time the valve was closed. He needed this increase in core temperature to double the power output, a level the reactor wasn't made for, but could tolerate for the nanosecond it would take to make the leap. The safety features would then kick in and reopen the valve to cool the reactor core back down to safe levels.
"Okay, Rommie, here goes nothin'!" Harper electronically closed the valve and within 30 seconds the core temperature was hot enough to provide him with the power he needed. Rommie gave him an extra boost from her connection with the vortex, and Harper withdrew from the matrix just in time to feel and hear that all-too-familiar POP, disappearing from the control room.
As he vanished, his passing created a mini tornado in the control room, blowing papers from the desk in the corner. One sheet landed on the computer control console with the letterhead clearly showing---"Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant".
TBC
Chapter 3
Harper picked himself up from the ground yet again. It was getting harder to get up each time. He tried to attribute his weariness to the great distance he had walked, but when he looked back, he could see that he'd only traveled about two miles since he "fell" onto this planet. "Face it, Harper--you're a wimp. Real gravity is stronger than artificial gravity and you just can't stay on your feet because you've been riding the great starship for so long!" He looked down at his dusty boots, striding along the macadam. "Y'know, if people were meant to walk long distances, you'd think they woulda been born with wings on their feet or somethin'!"
He crested a short rise and stood watching the sunrise--the vibrant golds,
pinks, and blues were certainly an improvement from the artificial lighting on Andromeda. There was only one sun, and a yellow dwarf at that, so this planet would be livable until he could get back home to Andromeda. He stopped and thought about that for a minute--yes, Andromeda was his home now. Really, Drom and the Maru were the only homes that he'd ever known and their crews the only family he could remember. No, that wasn't right--he did remember his mother, father, and little brother, but that was years ago and the memories were too painful to hold onto. The trauma of their murders by the ubers was mercifully dulled in his memory by time and distance. But his hatred for their Nietzschean killers would never fade.
His stride was slowing a bit from fatigue. His stomach let him know it needed food by emitting a loud growl. He patted it affectionately, "Easy Betsy, there's gotta be *somethin'* around here that's edible." He stopped on the side of the road and looked around. All he saw were trees and grass and road. His shoulders slumped and his stomach let out a small gurgle that sounded vaguely disappointed. Then he remembered that he still wore his tool belt and always kept an energy bar or two in one of the pockets for emergencies--like when he was in the machine shop and not near an Auto- chef.
Harper tore open the wrapper on the energy bar and was preparing to take a bite. So engrossed was he in his snack that he didn't notice that he had rounded a bend in the road. The forest abruptly gave way to open land, more intersecting roads, and after passing the last of the trees--a city. A large sign stood beside the road, green with white letters. The sign read, "Welcome to Middletown, PA, population 17,654". The power bar fell from his hand as Harper realized just where he had landed.
Except this was not the earth of his memories. Where were the Nietzscheans? Where were their policing hovercraft that filled the skies day and night, hunting down and killing any human that moved? Where was the enslaved human population in their rags? The view that opened up ahead of him could have been a picture in a storybook. Wooden or brick houses with neatly tended gardens and yards lined the street as far as he could see. There were-- yes, there were even children riding tricycles on the sidewalks and women standing in front of their houses visiting as if they hadn't a care in the world. Why didn't they run and hide? Harper opened his mouth to shout a warning to the mothers to pick up their children and get to shelter before the next hovercraft came along and they were all vaporized by the
Nietzscheans.
The shout died on his lips as he noticed another sign along the roadway. This sign was for the opening of a new business in the city and stated, "Arby's grand opening March 28, 1979." That was why there were no Nietzscheans or Magog in sight. He had not only traveled in distance but back in time to an earth that only lived in those few history books that survived the occupation.
There was a shimmer in the air in front of Harper and suddenly Andromeda's hologram appeared. She faded in and out of sight, hissing static making her speech difficult to understand. "Harper, is that you?" The AI turned and spoke to someone that Harper couldn't see, "I've found him." When she faced her engineer again, she studied him closely, "Are you all right?"
"Rommie, boy am I glad to see you! How the hell did I get here? More important, can you get me home?"
"We can, but it's going to take some work on your part. We have the power we need on this end, even though it's going to tax me to the limit. I have been able to tap into the vortex that sent you there, but you need to find a power source on your end. Since, as you have probably guessed, you are on Earth in the late 20th century, this task could prove difficult. The barbarians of this time still use combustion engines for crying out loud." Andromeda saw Harper's face fall in defeat and quickly added, "There is something that might work but that particular power is very limited. You are lucky that you are near one of the few sources on the planet. There is a power facility just a few miles to the North. Follow the river and you will come to it. You must get into the power plant tonight and get in position to use their nuclear power to make the leap ahead to us."
Harper's face brightened until the reality of what Andromeda was proposing sunk in. "Fission power? I don't know Rommie, I don't particularly care to glow in the dark--makes it kinda hard to sleep at night, if you know what I mean. Besides, I may want to have a little Harper someday! Don't you have any other ideas?"
"No, Harper, this is the one and only way to do this. Now, get going or you're going to be too late. I've already expended too much energy looking for you 300 years in the past. When I didn't find you there, I had to keep going farther back until I found you. I thought having my mind connected to a black hole was bad, this vortex is giving me a killer migraine."
Andromeda rubbed her virtual temples. With her eyes closed she anticipated
Harper's next question. "No, I'm not sure how you got this far back in time. It's taken Trance and I too long to find you as it is. Answers will have to wait until we get you back. It's taking too much energy for me to even communicate with you now. If we wait too long, all hope of bringing you back will be gone." As if to emphasize her words, Rommie's hologram faded in and out of sight.
Harper threw up his hands in defeat. "Okay, you convinced me. Here goes Harper, the freakin' glow-in-the-dark engineer off to the power plant."
Harper walked along the riverbank, actually enjoying his trek now that his feet had soft grass to walk on instead of pavement. As he neared a bridge that crossed a tributary of the river, he saw a sign and read the name of the river he was following. "Susquehanna River" the sign said. "Where have I heard that name before?" he thought as he walked. The name was familiar but he couldn't put his finger on where he'd heard it before.
Harper kept his mind busy during the walk imagining all the guilders, ("Oops, they probably don't have guilders here!") he could make if he had to stay here by
'inventing' some of the tools he used every day on board the Andromeda. "I could get mega rich just from inventing the nanowelder."
The river curved a gentle, sinuous path to the right and Harper rounded the last bend. He finally came within sight of the nuclear power station that Rommie had described to him. A chain link fence circled the property and two huge hourglass-shaped chimneys gave off steam into the morning air. A sign on the chain link fence read, "Nuclear Power--the power of the future now."
"Man, they don't know the half of it," Harper giggled to himself. Following Rommie's directions, he connected his data port to a keypad that was mounted
on the gate. The gate swung open and he entered the grounds. Rommie's directions were to go to unit 2, as unit 1 wasn't completely online yet. It was surprisingly easy to enter the building with one of his tools, cutting through the lock with ease. He found the auxiliary control room, which was unlocked and entered without seeing a soul. When he looked at the mainframe computer that filled most of the room, Harper let out a groan. "Rommie, you really expect me to hook up with this dinosaur? It's gonna give me a major headache!"
Andromeda's hologram appeared before Harper again. She gave him an exasperated look, "Get out your data port connector and get to work. You know what to do. But make sure you only close the power operated relief valve. Don't touch the block valve or there will be a meltdown."
"Yeah, yeah, trust the Harper, the Harper is good." With that, the Harper connected his data port to the computer and found himself in a matrix the likes of which he had never seen before. However, the schematics were fairly simple, and he found the power operated relief valve control without any problems. He knew that if he closed this valve, the reactor would lose cooling water and the core temperature would increase exponentially to the amount of time the valve was closed. He needed this increase in core temperature to double the power output, a level the reactor wasn't made for, but could tolerate for the nanosecond it would take to make the leap. The safety features would then kick in and reopen the valve to cool the reactor core back down to safe levels.
"Okay, Rommie, here goes nothin'!" Harper electronically closed the valve and within 30 seconds the core temperature was hot enough to provide him with the power he needed. Rommie gave him an extra boost from her connection with the vortex, and Harper withdrew from the matrix just in time to feel and hear that all-too-familiar POP, disappearing from the control room.
As he vanished, his passing created a mini tornado in the control room, blowing papers from the desk in the corner. One sheet landed on the computer control console with the letterhead clearly showing---"Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant".
TBC