Timecachers (13 page)

“Ahem,” Adam said. Good start, he thought. Always start with ‘ahem’ when you don’t have a clue what to say. He wished he had a pipe like Tom so he could give the impression of pondering the situation for a while. Since he didn’t have a pipe, he figured he needed to give them a little more though. “Does anyone have any suggestions?” he asked. Yeah, that was good, throw it back on them. Use the old Socratic approach.

“You don’t have a clue, do you?” said Alice.

Not exactly the reaction he was hoping for. Obviously he wasn’t going to bluff his way out of this. “No, for once I’m afraid I don’t,” he answered sheepishly.

“The LANav has satellite communications. How about calling someone on it?” Alice suggested.

“Good idea,” said Adam, wishing he’d thought of that himself. They had left their cell phones behind along with most of the other gear in the SUV, since they only got spotty reception at best. The LANav had been more dependable in the remote areas. He quickly dismissed the idea of calling Dr. Odan. It would be bad enough to call his employer to tell him they were lost. He could just imagine the response he’d get if he asked what year it was. He fished the business card he had picked up at the outfitter’s store from his pocket. “I’ll give James Adair a call. He knows this area as well as anyone. I bet he knows all about some special event going on today. He’ll probably have a good laugh at my expense, but at least the mystery will be cleared up.” He retrieved the LANav from his belt pack and set it to “sat-phone” mode. “Uh-oh, that’s funny.”

“I can’t imagine anything that could strike you as funny about this. Now what seems to be the issue?” asked Tom in an irritable tone none of them were used to hearing from him.

“It says NO SATELLITES. I’m sure we had coverage all through this area before.”

“Perhaps they didn’t pay the bill,” Tom said sarcastically.

“More likely it’s just a temporary service interruption,” Adam answered.

“May I make a suggestion?” asked John Carter.

“Sure. Absolutely. By all means,” said Adam, more than happy to let him take focus for a while.

“I know I am a stranger to you, and you all must be in great disharmony because of this upsetting situation. But if you are unable to continue with the plans you had made, perhaps it would be helpful to journey with me for a little while, so that you once again may become oriented. It may be that an explanation can be found along my path, since yours has become, uh, confused.”

“That seems as good a suggestion as anything I could come up with,” said Adam. “Maybe we’ll see a landmark we recognize, or maybe the communication system will come back on line. What do you guys think?”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” said Tom. “You don’t actually believe we’ve time-traveled to the 1800’s do you? I think we need to go our own way and figure out our way back to the parking lot.”

Adam was beginning to regain his composure. He realized that making sense of this bizarre situation was going to take a level head and strong leadership. His engineers were professionals, but right now they were stressed and prone to rash decisions. He needed to maintain a calm, confident manner despite his own anxiety.

“How confident are you we can do that?” asked Adam. “A few minutes ago you were certain we hadn’t taken a wrong turn. I’m not saying I believe we fell into an H. G. Wells novel, but at the moment I don’t have a reasonable explanation to offer either. We haven’t seen a soul other than John since we left the valley, so I’m not sure it’s a good idea to separate from the only other person who may know his way around this area. At least walking in the direction of the New Echota historic site we’ll reach civilization before long.”

“That’s a valid point,” said Alice. “But how about consulting the navigational features of the LANav? Is it giving us any other indication of where we might be?”

“I checked it while Sal and Tom were off looking for the parking lot and it indicated that we are in the same spot along the stone wall that we were when we arrived,” Adam said. “The beacon indicator is now showing a new anomaly location about twenty miles to the southwest. That’s the direction John is going anyway, so we may as well walk along with him toward the second beacon.”

“Awesome plan, dude!” said Sal, suddenly coming to life. “Let’s follow that freakin’ thing to another beacon!” He jumped up and started pacing along the wall.

“For heaven’s sake, Sal, calm down. Do you have another suggestion?” said Alice.

“No. I don’t know. I guess it makes sense to follow Squanto for a while. Let’s just get the hell out of here. Then I’ll calm down. Dude, this is seriously creeping me out.”

“For once we agree on something,” answered Alice. “I don’t know what’s going on either, but I’m all for getting out of this wilderness area.”

“New Echota, where I am going, is in the direction that your device is telling you to go, so it seems your choice is clear,” said John Carter. “In any case, I must be on my way to reach the town before nightfall. You are welcome to come with me if you wish.” With that, John began leading his horse along the trail.

“Tom?” Adam asked.

“If the rest of you want to follow him, I’ll play along. At least until we reach the highway, or to get somewhere with satellite coverage,” Tom answered grumpily. “Either way, it will put an end to this foolishness.”

The team followed John Carter, plodding along the faintly defined trail, lost in their thoughts as they tried to make sense of what was happening. John moved rapidly, although he had slowed his usual pace to make it easier for them to keep up. He tried not to be annoyed by the tension the group was feeling, reminding himself that he was not the true target of their exasperation, even if they considered him to be. While he did not understand much of their talk about the strange device, or the disorienting effect it seemed to have had on them, he hoped he could find some way to ease their discomfort. He motioned to Adam to walk along side of him so they could talk.

“If you were able to tell me more about your mission and device, maybe I could offer you some thoughts about what is happening. You said you were under an obligation not to reveal its secrets, but I believe anyone would agree that the circumstances are extenuating.”

“I suppose that could be helpful,” Adam replied hesitantly. “I’m still limited in how much I can say. I gave my word in a signed agreement.”

“Of course, I understand you must honor your word, signed agreement or not. “But consider this; if I am correct and the year truly is 1838, then in theory you have not yet entered into an agreement. If, however, your friend is correct and I am just a ‘delusional Indian’ anything you told me would be safe, since no one would listen to someone who is delusional.”

“A logical argument, I guess, but I certainly wouldn’t want to try to justify breaking a confidentiality agreement by claiming I was time-traveling. On the other hand, you don’t strike me as a corporate spy, so I guess under the circumstances it would be okay to discuss some of the project with you, as long as we don’t get into the technical details of the device. What is it you would like to know?”

“You have said that you were testing a new navigation device. Where was it intending to lead you?”

“We weren’t sure exactly,” said Adam. “It was indicating a place down in the small valley where we first met you. We were investigating to see what might be there. We did a thorough search, but found nothing of interest.”

“Perhaps it was leading you to me, since you found me there,” John offered.

“I hardly think it was leading us to you.”

“You are probably right,” said John. “I am not very interesting. I bet it was leading you to my horse. He is much more interesting than I am.”

“Now you’re pulling my leg, aren’t you? No, it doesn’t really work that way, John. The device doesn’t lead you to people or animals, only to fixed positions on the earth.”

“But Adam, you said that it was indicating something new, a thing that you didn’t know would be there. In that case, how do you know it wasn’t taking you to my horse?”

“For one thing, it has been indicating the place in the valley for several weeks, and you and your horse were only there for one night.”

“I see. I have been planning my journey for many weeks, but the stop in the valley was a last minute necessity when my horse became injured.” He paused a moment to consider. “Are you able to tell me how your device is able to lead you to these places?”

“Well, simply stated, it uses information from the stars and planets to determine location, and can calculate how to reach a destination by using that information,” Adam explained.

“Wonderful!” That is exactly the way the Cherokee have navigated for many years. It is good to hear that the whites are beginning to catch up. We also use the landmarks to find our way. You should recommend that to the makers of the device.”

“Uh, okay, sure. But I don’t think you get the idea of this device. You see, it can read the information from the heavens and guide you without your having to know anything about navigation. And all you need is this small device,” he said, showing John the LANav.

John eyed the LANav with guarded curiosity. He considered what Adam told him and reached his own conclusion. “I think I still prefer our way, though,” he said. “I carry all the information inside my head, so I don’t have to worry about misplacing a device and losing my way. Of course I could lose my head, but then it won’t matter if I am lost. Still, I can see how it would be convenient for the white men who get lost easily. Much easier than taking an Indian with you everywhere,” he said with a wry smile.

Adam looked at him curiously until he realized the Indian was mocking him. “I guess I deserve that for talking down to you. I wasn’t sure how much technology someone from 1838 would understand.”

“We’ve been finding our way around for quite a while. I have never seen a device such as the one you have. I can understand how it may be useful, though I have never needed to find something that I did not know what it was until I got there.”

“That’s not really the purpose of the device. Its true function is to guide us to where we want to go. Our current technology uses man-made satellites— platforms in the sky—positioned around the globe to broadcast location information to a receiver that can be carried easily by a traveler. The difference with this device is that it doesn’t have to rely on the satellites for information, it receives transmissions directly from the stars,” Adam explained.

John rubbed his fingers over his chin as he thought it over. “It seems a reasonable explanation, then, that since the stars have been here for a great number of years, and will be here for a great many more, that they could send you information about other times and places as well.”

“Are you suggesting that the stars and planets have a memory? Surely they could only provide location information for the present time.

“Not necessarily. Consider our own planet. We can excavate below its surface to retrieve information about what things were like many years ago. Archeologists and geologists have done this to determine the lifestyles of early civilizations and the formation of the earth. Does it not stand to reason that the other planets would also contain similar historical information? Not only information about their own formation, but especially of our history. They have been watching over us for such a long time!”

“It’s an interesting theory, but it doesn’t explain how we were moved through time, if that is really what happened.”

“I don’t understand how you can have ‘platforms in the sky’ either, but I do not doubt your word that you have them.”

“But why bring us here and now, of all the possible times in history?” Adam asked.

“Don’t know,” he shrugged. “But it seems as though you are going to find out.”

Alice, Tom, and Sal had been listening intently to the conversation. Tom was showing outward signs of irritation that Adam could possibly be taking any of John’s suggestions seriously. He was an engineer, and was not going to be easily convinced that they had somehow managed to circumvent the laws of time and physics just by walking into a secluded valley. He was anxious to get to the highway, looking forward to seeing a passing semi put an end to this time travel nonsense. He thought they should have reached it by now, but the up and down hiking through the mountains made it hard to judge exactly how far they had walked. He glanced over Adam’s shoulder at the LANav. The topology on the screen looked familiar, yet different somehow, and it appeared that they still had a ways to go to reach the highway. He also noticed the SAT phone icon with a line through it, indicating there was still no coverage. He scowled, his mood made even worse.

Sal did not know what to think. He was completely out of his element, trudging along, lost in the Georgia wilderness. It wasn’t the wilderness that was the problem; he’d spent plenty of time hiking in remote places. It was the “lost” part that was new to him. He couldn’t recall ever having been lost in his life. Yes, there were times when he had been unsure of his exact location, but he had never been truly lost. Disappearing landmarks were just not possible, and the crazy Indian dude talking about being in the 1800’s was making things exponentially worse. When he got out of this mess, he was going to demand some extra hazardous duty pay.

Alice was shaken, although not so much panicked as intrigued. Her natural curiosity kept her mind focused on figuring out a solution to this puzzle. She could not comprehend how they came to be lost. She certainly wasn’t about to accept the idea that they had traveled to the past. She was fascinated by John’s hypothesis, as impossible as it was. John was definitely an interesting character. If they were going to be hiking together for a while, she wanted to find out more about him. Maybe she could catch him off-guard and prod him to say something to prove he wasn’t from the nineteenth century. “John, I hope this doesn’t sound offensive, but you seem to be pretty well educated for a Cherokee Indian from the 1800’s,” she said.