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.

Offer

Sorry for the delay.  I take full responsibility.

 

You’re ushered back into the conference room in which you met with Col. Hodgeson before.  You wait a few minutes, and then he enters.

“Gentlemen, you’ve had a close look at our operation.  I hope you’re still interested.  As I’m sure you can imagine we need to keep what we do here top secret.  You are not allowed to ever talk about what you saw here with anyone outside this facility.  Not that anyone would ever believe you, but if you were to disclose even the existence of our operation the consequences would be severe.  One former recruit wrote a book about us. Before it was ever published he was found with child pornography on his computer and is currently doing time in a particularly unpleasant prison.  There is no threat so long as you don’t breach our security.”

“We contract with initial recruits for five missions, which are completed some time within a three year span.  You’ll each be paid $100,000 per mission, and you can terminate the contract early (but not in mid-mission for obvious reasons).  An additional $20,000 will be paid at the end of your training period.  We routinely deposit this money in offshore accounts, to be disbursed slowly and not raise eyebrows. In the event you die or go missing, a designated next of kin will receive a one million dollar settlement (through a surpsie life insurance contract).”

“Here’s what we’ve come up with for your cover stories:

Mac, you’ve just been offered a job with Haliburton working in a galley in the Green Zone in Iraq.  Tell your family that it’s a lucrative offer and you’re considering it.  In two weeks an agent will contact you to see if you’re still interested.  Let us know if you’re in or if you’re out.

Larry, your situation is a bit more tricky.  In two weeks you’re going to be arrested for possession of the material to cook methamphetamine.  While you’re awaiting trial you’ll be contacted by an agent as well.  If you are in let the agent know and the judge will offer you a choice: 3 years in prison or 3 years in the Air Force.  Choose the   and your training will start.  If you are out, your Miranda rights card will be lost and your public defender will get you off of the charges.”

“I do hope that you consider working for us.  If not, I wish you well.  We’ll provide transportation back home.”

“Any questions?”

History of travel

Dr. Farnsworth ques up her Powerpoint and starts in with her lecture.

 ”New Agers believe that the Earth has lines of electromagnetic power that run in unseen patterns.  Freemasons have talked about it for three centuries. The same theory was popularized by Alfred Watkins in 1921 under the name ley lines.  It may have been insanity or lucky guesswork, but both are right.  Lines of quantum energy do wrap around and puncture the earth.  Some are static, some have rotations, and some appear only once.  Where they intersect the fabric of reality is thinner.  Things that aren’t possible in most places become possible.”

“Many famous sites have ley lines intersecting on a constant or regular basis: Stonehenge, The great Pyramid at Giza, the Imperial Palace at Beijing, The former World Trade Centers, much of Washington D.C. (ever wonder why the built the capital in the middle of a swamp?), and of course, here.”

“People on other worlds have been using similar centers on their worlds for centuries to cross over here.  Sometimes they will accidentally cross into our world; sometimes it is intentional.  Any numbers of historical quirks or bad fortunes can be linked to intentional manipulation from other timelines.  The meteoric rise of Nazi Germany (and their leaps in technology), the Spanish Armada, and 9/11 are all examples.” 

“The United States’ experience with Bridges started after World War II. The Nazis had the fortune to be visited by technologically superior visitors from another Alt.  These visitors were willing to share their technology and several hundred of them moved to our Earth, as they had laid waste to the environment on theior own.  When we defeated the Nazis, many of these visitors came into possession of the U.S. government.  You’ve probably heard stories of Nazis scientists working for the U.S. government. This is the kernel of truth to that story.” 

“So, what does our timeline have to do with others?  Why bother to manipulate other worlds?  I will spare you the quantum explanations about bifurcated systems and strange attractors. Suffice it to say that when worlds are in close contact what happens on one is likely to happen on the other.  This is difficult to predict, as analogs change from world to world.  However, we are getting good at guessing how other worlds impact ours.”

“Let’s take 9/11 as an example.  There is a world which is now moving out of contact with ours.  It is remarkably similar except that the U.S. in that world, as well as most of Western Europe is Muslim.  In 1979 they had a huge terrorist problem on their soil.  In their case, it was militant Catholics.  The Catholics self-detonated a nuclear devise in the middle-class town of Middletown, Pennsylvania, to sow terror.  Middletown, PA, is the site of the 3-Mile Island reactor in our world.  The nuclear reaction in one world caused the meltdown in ours, as we were close to each other at the time.”

“So, back to 9/11.  In 1980, Reagan comes into office here.  He hears about the real cause of 3-Mile Island and wonders what this other world might do next.  He decided to send two-man teams of Green Berets across a Bridge into that world to help organize the resistance and try to topple the government, and it kind of worked (they destabilized, but are still in power).  However, the Muslim U.S. decided to retaliate. Their New York City is a hellhole, and their biggest Christian housing project was the Twin Towers (World Labor Center).  They knew that the Twin Towers were important here, so they dynamited theirs on 9/11 2001 and had one of their agents fund and assist some suicide bombers in our world.  You know how it turned out.  The combination of the bombers here and the quantum ripple from a world in close proximity brought down the towers.  The conspiracy nuts are half-right.  There is no way those planes should have been able to bring down those towers.  Not without government help (just not our government).”

“Obviously, the United States of America and the NSA does not take kindly to being attacked in this way.  After 9/11 our operation went into high gear.  Before 9/11 we were tasked with exploration and advance detection of possible threats. Now, we are primarily tasked with termination of threats and timeline manipulation for our benefit.  This was not a popular decision amongst some of the staff here and my predecessor resigned when he heard about it.”

“So all of this explains why we need to alter things on other worlds with care.  We don’t want to be detected, and we need to take care in what changes we make, as they can impact us.  If we nuke New York in their world, what happens here?”

“To complicate this all even more, we aren’t the only ones with active Bridges on our world.  The British have one (we frequently cooperate with them on missions).  The Chinese have one (although ti is notoriously inconsistent).  The USSR did have one, but it was sold to the Sultan of Brunei (we don’t think it is functional). There are rumors of private companies making them, but this is unsubstantiated.”

“Finally, it is important for you to know that there are different types of teams we send across the Bridge.  Some teams are strictly observation and threat identification.  Teams with language or custom specialties may be asked to interact with the populace and do some anthropological study.  Some teams are sent to extract important resources or people.  Of course, some teams simply blow things up and such.  What you do will be up to the NSA higher-ups.”

Click here to read about other worlds or post here when you’re ready to speak with Colonel Hodgeson.

Alternate Worlds

Dr. Farnsworth is told by an aide that she has a phone call.  She steps away for about five minutes, letting you drink in some of the sterile details of the Bridge access room.  She returns and starts with her Powerpoint slides.

 ”So, here is an alternate earth primer.  You’ll be exposed to more specifics about certain worlds later, but you’ll need to know a few basics right away.”

“Here’s a few terms you may hear: 
Alt: short for an alternate earth.
Bridge: Short for Einstein-Rosen Bridge. This refers to both the actual wormhole itself and the physical equipment that generates it.
POD: Point-of-Divergence. Where we think the alt’s timeline deviates from our own.
Main Sequence: Our earth.”

“We have a two-tiered classification system to group alike worlds.  Each Alt is categorized first by a number based on its physical characteristics. 
Class 1: Indistinguishable from Main Sequence in almost all respects.
Class 2: Physical laws are exactly the same, but structural changes to the Alt exist (i.e. different topography, a certain mineral rare in Main Sequence may be common).
Class 3: Physical laws and topography are compatible with human life, but are recognizably different (i.e. slightly lower gravity, probability works differently).
Class 4: Hostile world. Humans may be able to survive short periods of time with special equipment (i.e. and all ocean world or ice-covered world).
Class 5: Completely incompatible with human life (i.e. any other planet in our solar system).”

“Each Alt is then also given a letter that follows this number. The letter describes the cultural environment of the Alt.
A: Differs from Main Sequence in only smallest of details.
B: Significant cultural differences from Main Sequence.
C: Intelligent Life, but Main Sequence humans would be obviously out of place (i.e. an alt full of albinos or intelligent non-humans).
D: Life, but no recorded intelligent life.
E: No obvious life.
F: Quarantined. No contact or travel is allowed. Often, the existence of these worlds is classified, even to project staff.”

“Each world also has a code name.  Barren worlds have their classification followed by a five digit contact number (5E00123, for example).  A world which may be habitable will have the classification followed by a mission name (they retain the code, but it is only used by archivists).  An example is 2BHIGHTECH (or 2B00001), which we’ll talk about.”

“Statistically, most worlds are classed 4E or 5E. 9 of 10 worlds we contact are incapable of supporting human life.  Of the ones that aren’t inhospitable, 90% of those are functionally indistinguishable from our own (Class 1A).  They have only the smallest details different. A recent one has the White House address as 1601 Pennsylvania Ave instead of 1600, and this is the only difference we can find.  So, that means that 1% of the worlds we come into contact with are novel and capable of supporting exploration (about one or two per year).  I’m going to detail a few that have drifted out of contact with us so that you’ll have a feel for what these worlds are like.”

“The first world that we were ever aware of was 2BHIGHTECH.  This is a world with similar properties as our Earth, but different topography.  Beyond that, the humans inhabiting it were brilliant mathematicians and scientists, but lacked any 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.  Well, a group of their eggheads built a Bridge and came over to our world in 1941.  They landed right smack 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.”

“3DTHINKTANK was a world we lost contact with ten years ago.  It seemed like a habitable world with some animal life, but not much to distinguish it.  When we landed a team there, we found that intelligent beings could control the physical environment by thought. Our team could lift rocks with their minds and control the flight of birds.  Sadly, one team member died there as the result of an aneurism (we suspect due to stress of thought).  The three who returned lost their abilities when they returned, so it was a phenomenon unique to that environment.  Two of them died of brain cancer not long after, and the fourth has no ill effects.”

“1B worlds are usually very interesting.  These are the “what if” worlds that are very similar, but in which time followed a different path.  A good example of of a 1B world is 1BPILGRIM.  The POD for this world was 1620.  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, by far).  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 (they’ve since drifted away).” She shows you a slide of the CSA Flag:

CSA Flag

“I’ll be able to brief you one other worlds in more detail as your training allows.”

Click here to hear about the history of time travel and post here when you’re ready to speak with Colonel Hodgeson.

Explanation1

Dr. Farnsworth takes a deep breath and starts slowly:

“I’m going to explain this as best I can, but you really need a Ph.D. in mathematics and/or Quantum Physics to understand the details of how this all works.  In a nutshell, it goes like this.  We live in 3+1 dimensions.  The three that we can see and move through freely (up/down, side/side, front/ back) and the one we can move through in one way (time, we only move forward).  That doesn’t mean that is all there is.  As far as we can tell there are 26 dimensions.  I can’t show you a model or a drawing, because we can’t perceive them that way.  We can’t physcially exist in fifth and higher dimensions.  Think of a 2-dimensional drawing coming to life in our world.  It would have no form.  We may be able to move about in the fourth dimension (time), but we can’t figure out to do that.”

“What we have been able to figure out is how to do essentially “ride” the higher dimensions into other worlds parallel to ours.  We think that time splits like a garden path, constantly forking and splitting of into new worlds. Eventually we think these all reconsolidate, but from where we’re standing in time there may be an infinite number of alternate worlds with different histories than ours.”

“What saves us from being invaded by technologically superior timelines on a daily basis is that the worlds are always moving along the dimensional streams.  Even when you have the technology only a few worlds are open to travel at any given time.  And, as I said, it takes an incredible amount of energy to move even a person.  We suppose that any world capable of producing that amount of energy would have no need to invade us.  We’d be like Neaderthals to them.”

“Some worlds stay close enough to us (if you want to think about it that way) to be open for years; some for a few days, hours, or less.  We haven’t really been able to figure out a pattern to which worlds open up at which times, but we are getting better at seeing them coming.  I guess we’ll have to settle for that for a while.  We think that well over a hundred worlds come into contact with us each year, although most are only open for a day or less. Of those we are able to investigate about fifty or so each year.”

“When a new world comes on-line we send over a probe (essentially similar to the landers sent to Mars) that is programmed to record basics: temperature, atmospheric content, nearby topography, electronic transmissions, and a brief audio/video recording.  If it looks like it is safe for people, we send in volunteers like you.”

“Any questions?”

You can hear more about the history of travel between worlds here and of different worlds that have been documented here.  When you are ready to meet with Colonel Hodgeson again, indicate on this page.

Character Descriptions

 Mike “Mac” Gunhus is a twenty-three year-old white man.  He stands six feet tall and has a wiry build.  He is an athletic man with average looks.  When pressed, he has been able to display extraordinary endurance, even for a well-built man.  He has shoulder-length blond hair that is slightly unkempt and a wild beard to match.  He is almost always found wearing casual or work clothes.

He is of average intelligence, but is often thought of as slow due to his low level of education.  He has a fiery temper when under stress (which has gotten him into trouble in the past).  His social skills are noticeably weak.

Mac grew up on a farm in a tight knit community in Illinois.  He joined the Army right out of High School and has recently returned home to the family farm. His parents still live on the farm, as do his two older brothers who work it.  He also has a younger sister who is just graduating High School with honors and is bound for college in Chicago.

Mac doesn’t feel that he belongs anywhere.  If he stays on the farm he has to work it farm for free. If he wants money of his own he would have to find a job as well. His family guilts him into helping out, even though they don’t really need him there to farm (it just takes some of the work load off of the others). So he wants to leave town quickly. He is considering re-enlisting, although he didn’t like the military.  He has access to the GI bill, but college doesn’t really interest him.

In the Army Mac learned firearms and survival skills. He was trained as a medic and has a pretty good ‘first aid’ ability. He has considered the idea of going to school to be a paramedic/first responder. Outside of the military he is really into running, biking and swimming in that order. He wants to compete in triathlons and is interested in improving his swimming skills.  Mac is a good person willing to help people in need.

 

Larry Warren is a smart guy who fell into trouble when trying to put himself thru school. He was just a short way from graduating with a degree in engineering, but is now deciding on how to move forward. 

He is 22, strait, single, 5′11″, of average build, and lives in a blue collar suburb of Chicago (Evergreen Park). He has a younger half brother that is looking like he is going to be an athlete. He sees his family, but is reminded that his behavior probably comes from his mother’s side. He almost graduated college with honors, but after his arrest hasn’t gone back to school.  As a child Larry had a hobby of looking up dangerous things and ignoring the “do not try this at home” warnings. During most of his youth he wanted to be a scientist but after falling in with a bad crowd he now has a taste for danger.

The most important event in his life so far happened two years ago. With his family being poor he was forced to work as a janitor while the rich kids at his school could go off partying. This seemed like the way it would go until he met Brieanna and Garrot; a brother and sister from the right side of the tracks.  They acted at first like they wanted to be his friend. Brie would even hit on him pretending that she could be interested in him, but what they wanted was a way to make money that their parents could not control. They used his skills with a computer and his keys being a janitor to get into the chemistry lab and started making party drugs. Things went well for a while with even Larry making money, but Garrot was using too much and Brie wanted more and more money. This led them to sell drugs beyond the small college environment and into the city. This crossed one of the gangs in the city who ambushed them while they were making a deal. Brie was shot and while they were hiding from the law and the gang Garrot overdosed and is still in a coma.  Larry had to turn himself in. Being poor Larry took a lot of the blame, but since most of what they did would implicate the other two he only had to serve 90 days.  Larry knows that if he stays on the straight and narrow he will be able to go back to school, but he can’t help but miss the excitement of before and wonders if a desk job is really his future.

Just by using the internet Larry learned some skills in chemistry including bomb and drug making. He has good computer skills for both schooling and personal practice. He was on the streets for some time and learned a little about defending himself and some firearm practice.  He is smart he has always had a natural ability with his mind. His will is above normal, as that is what kept him from becoming hooked on drugs. He is above most nerds physically (but not by a lot) and has average social skills.

Larry has always had an interest in dangerous science from bombs, drugs or hacking Larry has always had an affinity for knowing how to do bad things. On the opposite side of the coin, his knowledge has lead him to the wrong side of the law.  He has a criminal record and a taste for danger.

Now that Larry is stuck working in a warehouse he dresses like the rest of the blue collar workers. His dark hair still has the remnants of a green dye job. He also has a tattoo of a charm against the evil eye over his heart and the diagram of a transistor on his back.

These look awesome, guys!  Any last changes before we start?