Over the bridge

Col. Hodgeson briefs you on your first official mission.  “We try to start our agents on low-risk missions.  This one should be a pretty standard milk-run.  You will be sent for three days across the Bridge to a polar world (4E01451).  Obviously, this is why you were stationed down South for the last three months. We were planning on waiting another two weeks to send you in, but we lost contact with the remote two days ago.  It recorded temperatures in the subzero range, so you’ll be outfitted accordingly. The air will be breathable (just cold).  No life was recorded, but we’re sending weapons with you just in case.  You’ll have three days to find the remote and the bridge will re-open.  Your secondary objective is to take digital pictures and voice record temperatures and any unusual phenomenon.  Make sure you’re at the rendezvous site (it is the same as where you’ll arrive).  If you miss the pick-up we’ll try again three days later.  Unfortunately, you can only carry enough propane and food for one week.  If you were to miss the second rendezvous we would send an emergency recon team with extra supplies.  I certainly hope we don’t have to.”

Dr. Farnsworth walks you through the ins and outs of walking the Bridge as your gear is brought into the room.  She reminds you that disorientation and passing out are common side effects.  She warns you to get your bearings and get a shelter established right away when crossing.  She tells you that in three days they will send a signal to retrieve you, which should pull you back here (no bridging equipment needed).  You do need to be within 100 yards of where you arrived, so marking it is a good idea. She tells you that at most you can have 100 pounds of gear each.  Any more and you may not make it back.  The remote you’re looking for weighs almost 100 lbs, so you’ll be leaving gear behind if you’re successful.   She seems worried as the techs arrive to gear you up.

You are given top-quality cold weather gear. You are given heavy duty parkas, polar fleece overalls, thermal underwear, balaclava, gloves, boots, and goggles.  You are to share a pack of extra clothing.  You will carry over a tent, one two-man sleeping bag, survival gear, and propane for heating and cooking.  You have a basic field kit with a cook stove and utensils.  You’ll have ice climbing gear, but are supposed to avoid using these if possible.  You have a basic first aid kit and enough food for one week.  You’ll carry binoculars, a digital recorder, and a homing device that should be tuned to the remote you’re looking for.

You are each issued a combat knife, a Smith & Wesson .342 (a 5-shot pistol that weighs less than one pound, and you are to share a 7mm Magnum Remington Model 700 hunting rifle.  They tell you that its used to hunt Kodiaks in Alaska.

You gear up, step onto the bridge and they power it up.  Mac, you seem to blink and suddenly you are standing on an icy plain with the wind ripping right through you.  The cold shocks you and it takes a minute to gain your senses.  Larry is slumped on the ground next to you.  The sun is going down and you know you don’t have long in these temperatures.  Larry starts to groan as you quickly assemble the tent.  Larry, you gain consciousness as Mac pulls you into the tent and starts the propane heater.  You both spend a long, cold quiet night together. 

The view to the north.

After 6 hours, the sun starts to come up, but holds low in the sky.  It is not really a dawn, more like pre-dawn.  You can see about 100 yards out.  You are on a wide plain and can faintly see mountains to the north, but have no way to gauge distance (or what is between you and them).  There is no vegetation present and the only sound is the wind.  You wait another two hours, and it doesn’t get any better.  You get a faint reading on the homing device; your compass says it is east.  Do you head out in the half-light or wait longer for the light to come out?

2BHIGHTECH

POD: Unable to determine

Opened:  1942     Closed: Unknown (one confirmed contact)

World Population: 5 Billion 

Technological Equivalent: A.D. 2050 (estimated) 

The first alt that we were ever aware of was 2BHIGHTECH (2B00001).  This is a world with similar properties as our Earth, but with different topography.  Beyond that, the humans inhabiting it were brilliant mathematicians and scientists, but lacked much social structure or skills.  The government was near anarchy and social order was weak, to say the least.  Imagine a world filled with people with Asperger’s Disorder and that would be a pretty fair description.  A group of their scientists built a Bridge and came over to our world in 1941.  They landed in Nazi Germany and were put to work by the Nazis.  A few resisted and were dealt with, but most didn’t realize what sort of people they were helping.  They thought they were assisting us poor barbarians enter the modern age.  After WW2 a few were acquired by the U.S. and Britain, which helped us establish Bridges of our own.

1BPILGRIM

POD: A.D. 1620

Opened:  2/20/2006     Closed: 5/23/2006

World Population: 1.8 Billion 

Technological Equivalent: A.D. 1890

In this Alt the Pilgrims landed, but immediately established a new country.  The Revolutionary War was fought 150 years earlier, and the Brits won.  They didn’t get the last laugh, though.  Pilgrims kept coming and coming to the new world and started a terrorism campaign that lasted 100 years.  By 1740 the British pulled out to Canada and the Christian States of America (C.S.A.) was born.  By now, the CSA is established as a world power (though not the only one).  The CSA is not a pleasant place to visit.  They live under strict Protestant Christian law.  There is no alcohol, taking the Lord’s name in vain, or premarital sexuality involved.  Also, no Catholics, Jews, or Atheists allowed.  They did free the slaves a century before we did, though. 

Thankfully, their technology is 100 years behind ours so we didn’t have to worry about them coming over on Bridges to save us.  Here is a slide of the CSA Flag:

CSA Flag

Cold

Before you leave Col. Hodgeson gives you a few rules pertaining to your next training site. “You are being transferred to a German research station because we want you to acquire foreign language skills.  It will also be difficult for you to converse with the researchers, which minimizes the chances of you accidentally discussing your mission.  You are not to disclose your mission or our existence to anyone (this should go without saying).  Your cover is US Air Force research, which is top-secret.  You are to carry out experiments in the cold.  The experiments are real, but we’re mainly putting you down there for the cold-weather training.  Study while you’re down there.  It will keep you sane.  I’d tell you to stay out of trouble, but you’ll find that there really is not trouble there to get into.  Enjoy.”

To get to Neumeyer Station in East Antarctica you need to take three planes to Perth, Australia (a total of 30 hours in the air), ferry across the southern Indian Ocean (56 hours), then transfer to a smaller skiff to run through the icebergs (6 vomit-inducing hours).  After that it is a short drive (2 slow hours) to the research station itself.  You arrive in May (just before their winter hits), after which there will be no outside transportation available for three months (barring life-threatening emergencies).

At first, East Antarctica is a beautiful place. It is white and clean and sterile.  The charm wears off after a day.  After that it is just cold.  In fact, it is the coldest place on Earth. You are given a German Army liaison who speaks limited English and can help you navigate the do’s and don’ts of cold weather survival. You spend the first two weeks learning how to stay alive in the Antarctic.  After that you start field trails on equipment and setting out samples that you’ll collect in a few weeks.  Even with that, you’re bored.  The satellite TV is intermittent and the alcohol is rationed.  You find plenty of time to study.

It turns out that being locked in a German research station is an excellent way to learn German.  By the end of three months you feel almost comfortable with the cold and are pretty conversational in German.  As your electronic tutor advices, you speak this to each other and rarely use English.  You conduct some experiments and manage to avoid dying of boredom.  You manage to strike up a friendship despite (or maybe because of) you very different personalities. 

You make the long, long trip back to Long Island and are greeted by Col. Hodgeson, who you think is a bit more friendly after your return.  He gives you three days to recover before calling you into a conference room on base.  “It is time,” he says “for you to apply your new training.”

Training time

Mac:

Mac, you are sent back home to collect your things and say your goodbyes.  You spend a long two weeks waiting for the call.  Your brothers are quite and you aren’t sure if they are skeptical or envious.  You say “yes” and are on your way back to Long Island for training.  You spend the next few weeks in tutoring learning about applied physics and the practical implications of trans-dimensional travel.  You read up on case files as cautionary examples.  They keep you on a strict physical training regimen.

After six weeks, you are sent to the Survive, Evade, Resist, and Escape (SERE) school in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where you spend the toughest five weeks of your life.  You meet up with a shaved-head Larry there, who has retained his smart mouth.

 

Larry:

 Your experience is not as enjoyable as Mac’s. Your apartment is raided two weeks after returning home. You are busted for possession of material used to cook meth (despite the fact that you had little in your apartment).  You go through the legal motions.  You meet with a NSA agent, and just like Col. Hodgeson promised, you are convicted.  The judge offers you three years in the Air Force and you accept.  You fly to the very hot and humid San Antonio, Texas to Lackland AFB.  You spend 6 ½ weeks shooting off your mouth and running.  At the end of that, you are inexplicably sent to the Survive, Evade, Resist, and Escape (SERE) school in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.  Your instructor assumes it is a mistake, but assumes someone else will correct it there.  They manage to finally shut your sassy mouth.

 

Both:

You spend the next five weeks bonding and learning how to survive on rat, endure torture, and hide.  You hope you never have to use it.  You fly back to Long Island and are given a week to enjoy New York City.  And you do.  When you return, Col. Hodgeson gives you each a password-protected Amazon Kindle (electronic book reader) loaded with selections in cosmology, physics, survival, comparative anthropology, and German.  You are told that you’re going to have plenty of time to study them at your next training site.  You’re told to pack your bags for Neumayer Station, a German outpost in Antarctica.

Post any replies you have, otherwise I’ll just continue with a new post and wrap up the last of the exposition (promise) in a week.