The Corps of Discovery Trilogy Box Set: Books 1-3: A multiverse series of alternate history

by James S. Peet

  “I thought Texans had the same kind of accent that Matt does. Why do you sound more like Bill?” Luke asked.

  “Because my folks weren’t from Texas,” she said. “My dad was from New York and my mom was from California. I guess I picked up their speech patterns. And I graduated with my master’s from UT Austin.”

  “UT Austin?” Luke asked.

  “The University of Texas at Austin. That’s the state capital of Texas, and they’ve got a great geography program, which is what I studied.”

  “Hey, a fellow geographer,” Bill said. “I studied GIS and remote sensing. How ‘bout you?”

  “Same thing. I guess that makes us geo-nerds,” Kim said, visibility brightening up.

  “What’s GIS?” Matt asked.

  “Geographic Information Systems,” Kim said. “It’s basically computerized mapping, but with the ability to analyze spatial data. You know the map app on your phone to get directions?”

  Matt nodded his head.

  “That’s a simple network analysis, one of the functions of a GIS. There’s a whole bunch more but no sense in boring you with this geo-nerd stuff,” she finished with a smile.

  Matt turned to Thep. “Well, roomie, what about you?”

  Thep replied, “I’m from the Chiang Mai. You’ve probably never heard of it. It’s a little place in the northern part of Thailand. In the mountains, so it’s not quite the tropical paradise you would think. Also, not enough action for me, and too many rules.”

  “Sounds like Seattle,” Bill said.

  “Probably, but without all the people and things to do, unless you like water buffalo, if you know what I mean,” Thep said. “Anyhow, I got my degree in tropical botany from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.”

  Jordan volunteered, “I’m from East LA.” Everyone turned to look at him. “I decided that it wasn’t for me, so I got a scholarship to Stanford, and busted my butt to get into the Corps. Yeah, unlike my friends and family members still there, I ain’t dead or in prison.”

  “Why would they be dead or in prison?” Luke asked, looking perplexed.

  “Ah, you know. Gangs and the War on Drugs stuff,” Jordan said. “Most of the guys I knew growing up were either using the shit or selling it. And if you’re selling it, you’re in a gang. And you know how gangs in LA are.”

  “I’ve heard of all that, but luckily we don’t have it here,” Luke said. “No need for a war on drugs or prisons for drug users. Drugs aren’t illegal. No need for gangs, either, because our society frowns on that kind of collectivist grouping for violence.” Then he grinned. “Except when it’s the Militia; I guess we’re nothing more than one big collectivist mob for violence.”

  “So, what did you study?” Matt asked Jordan.

  “Biology,” Jordan answered proudly. “I figured with all the new worlds being found, there’d be plenty of opportunity for me.”

  “You ain’t kiddin’,” Luke said. “Biologists, botanists, and zoologists are top hires. Not just in the Corps, but also for many of those migrating to the newer planets. Of course, so are mining engineers, mechanical engineers, civil engineers, agricultural experts. Well, you get the idea,” he finished with a smile.

  “In other words, if you’ve got a useful degree, you’re wanted,” Brenda said.

  “Actually, it’s more like a useful education,” Luke replied. “Degrees count, but most places care more about practicalities and common sense than they do degrees. As a matter of fact, here on Hayek, we look at the total picture, not just to see if you’ve got a degree or two. Of course, graduating from Hayek University or the University of Milton, or even Cascadia Tech shows you’ve got a pretty decent education.”

  “Wait,” Jordan said. “You mean you’ve got colleges and universities here?”

  “Of course. What do you think we are, home-schooled inbreds? Look, we’ve got close to sixty million people on this planet, and lots of things to do. Of course, we’ve got colleges and universities. Most focus on practical learning, unlike some of those silly programs I’ve seen for Earth universities. Didn’t you read the pamphlet the Corps sent you?”

  Bill shook his head. “Actually, I never got it. I guess it was still in the mail when I reported in.”

  “Well, you might want to pick one up or do some research. Lots to learn about Hayek.”

  While Bill knew that a lot of people were migrating off Earth, he’d been unaware that the number of people on Hayek was so large. I think I better do some research, like ASAP. Damn, I wish I’d gotten that packet. Bill had planned on doing more research on Hayek and the Corps after graduation and before reporting, but Jessica’s behavior left him in a bit of a tailspin and accelerated his move.

  “Did you go to one of those schools, Luke?” Kim asked.

  “Yep. Cascadia Polytechnical School. I’ve got a degree in Exploration Science.”

  “Exploration Science? That’s an actual degree?” Jordan asked, sounding surprised.

  “Of course it is,” Luke answered indignantly. “You only studied biology at Stanford. At Cascadia Tech I studied zoology, botany, physical geography, geology, remote sensing, GIS, resource identification, and aviation science. I also had to study some civil engineering, metallurgy, and field repair. As a matter of fact, with more Hayekers graduating with an Exploration Science degree, the Corps is starting to phase out recruitment from Earth. I’m betting in five years no Earther will be able to get admitted to the Corps.”

  “Wow. Guess we got in under the wire” Matt said.

  The others nodded.

  “Then again, if the Gaia Firsters get their way, there won’t be a Corps of Discovery,” Luke said.

  “Gaia Firsters?” Matt asked.

  “Yeah. I guess on Earth you’d call them Earth Firsters. They put the natural planet above the needs and wants of humans. They’re always interfering with gate operations to stop exploration and settlement.”

  Bill hadn’t heard about this, though he remembered the protesters at the gate. He asked Luke to expand on it.

  Luke told them about a group of people who called themselves “The Gaia Liberation Front;” their slogan was “Gaia First.” They had been responsible for a number of attacks on the company, the Corps, and several gates on Earth. “Fortunately, since Parallel controls the gates, not too many of those whack jobs made it to Hayek to cause any problems. I’d hate to see what they would do if they got over here.”

  “How come we’ve never heard about any of this before?” Kim asked.

  “Beats me. It’s always big news here whenever a gate gets attacked or an Explorer gets killed. We’ve even had the Militia called up a couple of times.”

  The group continued with their lunch, probing Luke about the Corps and Hayek. They also wanted to know what the rules were about leaving base.

  “Other than when you’ve got to be somewhere, you’re free to go anywhere you want. I’d just suggest holding off a couple of days until you’ve learned enough to survive out there unless you’ve got a guide. Hayek’s a lot different than Earth. Safer, but also easier to get into trouble if you don’t know what you’re doing. Tell you what, though. If you guys like, I’ll take you into Milton tomorrow. But you’ve got to promise you’ll listen to me and do what I say.”

  “I’m game,” Bill said. The others agreed.

  They decided they would meet for breakfast, then explore Hayek as a group.

  “Make sure you’ve got enough in your accounts for any goodies you may want,” Luke cautioned. “I don’t want to start you off in debt to somebody.”

  “Where can we check our bank accounts?” Bill asked.

  “The base has secure wi-fi all over the place. Just check online. The password is in your cabin,” Luke answered.

  “I’ll show you where it is,” Thep said to Bill and Matt.

  After lunch, the group split up, with the four men of 117 Jaskey Lane heading back to their cabin. Bill put his card in the lock’s card slot to see if it would work. It did, and t
he four went inside.

  Thep pointed to a piece of paper tacked to the wall near the front door. “Here’s the wi-fi and password info. They apparently don’t change it too often.”

  Bill picked up the Base Information pamphlet and sat down in one of the chairs so he could read up on his new home.

  On the inside cover of the pamphlet was a map of the base. It looked rather large, extending from the outskirts of Milton on the east to the crest of the Cascade Mountains on the west, and from the Yakima River Canyon to the north to a ridgeline several miles south of the Yakima River. It still caused a bit of a disconnect for Bill, seeing names he was used to mixed in with names of towns and cities that weren’t on Earth. He knew that the volcano he knew as Mt. Rainier had once been called Tahoma, but seeing it on the map as such was disconcerting, to say the least. He wondered why some names remained the same, while others were replaced or gone.

  The first page was a welcome letter from the Commandant of the Corps of Discovery. The usual fluff, as far as Bill was concerned.

  The next page showed a more detailed map of the main base area within the Naches River Valley. Bill saw that about a mile south of the valley was the airfield, Bowman Field, and to its west were firing ranges. Bowman Field, named after the inventor of the gate and the founder of Hayek, was rather large, with two parallel runways and a third that transected it.

  Bill learned that the base was named after Sacajawea, a Lehmi Shoshone woman who helped the United States Corps of Discovery in 1804, led by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis. The purpose of that Corps was to explore North America for the US government. Bill chuckled upon reading this, thinking, Well, here’s another William Clark in another Corps of Discovery.

  Pages showed the contact information for the many facilities and the heads of each department, including an emergency number for medical or life-threatening emergencies, along with the hours for each facility.

  After reading the pamphlet, Bill set it back down on the coffee table and went to his room to retrieve his tablet. Back in the main room, he saw Matt reading the pamphlet. Thep and Jordan had decided to flop down on the sofa and were engrossed in their tablets.

  “Hey, guys. Anyone interested in seeing the museum?” Bill asked.

  “I’m up for it,” Matt said.

  “Naw, I saw it yesterday morning,” Jordan replied.

  “I’ll join you,” said Thep.

  “All right then,” Bill said. “Let’s go.”

  “Have fun, guys,” Jordan said as the three men headed out into the summer heat of Hayek.

  A short walk later, they arrived at the museum. It was larger than Bill had expected. He was used to military museums on military bases, which were typically only a couple of rooms in a regular-sized building. This museum was the size of a small gymnasium, and two stories tall.

  As they entered, they breathed a sigh of relief when hit with the cool air inside.

  The first thing they saw was a lifelike representation of a man on a horse, a lever-action rifle held in one hand, the reins in the other. He was wearing a brown felt fedora, a work shirt, blue jeans, boots, and had a revolver in a holster strapped around his waist. The horse wore a Western saddle with saddle bags behind and on the horn. Bill realized that the statue was the man responsible for discovering the gate, and Parallel, Incorporated’s founder, Timothy Bowman, Ph.D. The statue represented him on his first journey onto Hayek, when he and several others made a trip to the Blue Mountains, in the area Bill knew as Baker City, Oregon, to gather the gold necessary to finance the start of the process of opening up Hayek and other parallel planets for exploration and settlement.

  As the men walked around the first floor of the museum, they saw many large photographs of that first journey, including landscapes that were vaguely familiar, unshaped by the hands of man, and plenty of megafauna, including mastodons, giant beavers, a smilodon, North American lions, a cave bear, a pack of dire wolves, and herds of elk unlike anything seen on Earth in over a hundred years.

  A display of David Jaskey was in one corner of the first floor. It was because of him the first expedition went in armed sufficiently to protect themselves against carnivores who had no fear of humans. Most of the first party had either 45-70 lever-action rifles, the same one carried by Dr. Bowman in the statue, or civilian versions of the M-14 military rifle, the M1-A. The M1-A fired a 7.62 mm bullet, which was considered suitable for any animal up to 1,000 pounds and was the same caliber issued by the Corps to its survey members today. The display had photographs of him prior to crossing over, and on Hayek. He was a nondescript man in his mid-fifties, with a balding pate, graying hair, and a bit of a pot belly. A brief description of his life and the impact he had on that first expedition was attached to a large sign on the wall.

  A Grumman Goose twin-engine seaplane rested in the center of the first floor, looking ready to take off at a moment’s notice. Bill knew, from his readings about Hayek, that this was the plane that had taken the second expedition to California’s gold country.

  As the men toured the museum, they saw stuffed animals from various parallel Earths, including some that looked like small dinosaurs. There were plenty of megafauna, along with normal-sized animals (at least, normal-sized to Bill and the others). Pictures of past Corps members in various stages of exploration or training abounded, as did displays of the various pieces of equipment used.

  There was a special section on the second floor dedicated to trekkers. A pink marble wall listed the names of all trekkers, with a star next to those killed in the line of duty. The wall had almost five hundred names, of which more than half had stars. It was a sobering display.

  It also showed the tools trekkers used, and those developed along the way. There were obsidian knives, fish hooks made from bone, nets and snares made from rawhide or wood fibers, and a complete outboard rigger canoe. The display reminded Bill of some of the Hawai’ian and Native American museums he had been to, where the natives made everything from natural things, such as plants, rocks, and animals. He hoped he’d never be put in that position.

  The final display was one honoring those who had died in the line of duty. It was a long, white marble wall with the names carved into it. Each name was painted gold, so the name stood out in bright, bold color. If the trekker display was sobering, this one was doubly so. Almost two thousand names were listed, including those from the trekker wall. While the number seemed large, one had to take into account that it was over a forty-year period, reaching back to the gate’s discovery, through the beginning of the mass exploration and migration period twenty years ago, to the present.

  By the time the men finished at the museum, it was supper time, so they headed for the cafeteria. Along the way, they saw many new people hauling carts onto the base. It was actually becoming somewhat busy on base with all the new arrivals.

  “Looks like it’s starting to get busy,” Matt said on seeing the increased activity. “I wonder how many crossed over after us.”

  4

  When they arrived at the cafeteria, they were surprised at how crowded it was. While the lunchtime crowd had been pretty sparse, now at least half the large room was occupied. A lot of people were talking, that, with the sound of cutlery on dinnerware, created quite a din.

  Thep pointed across the room. “There’s Jordan. Let’s get some food and join him.”

  Bill saw Jordan half out of his seat, waving to them. He was with three different women than the ones they ate lunch with. Bill waved back and joined the line to get his food.

  When Bill got to the table with a bowl of venison stew and a couple of biscuits, Thep and Matt were already seated, wolfing down their meals.

  “So, whaddya think of the museum?” Jordan asked.

  “Sobering,” Bill said. “Makes you realize just how dangerous the job is.”

  “It is that.”

  Jordan introduced the men to the women. Two were from New Hampshire but had actually met at the Massachusetts Institute of Techn
ology, and the third, Nicole Andrews, was from Christchurch, New Zealand. The two Americans still exhibited their winter paleness, but Andrews’ face and arms showed a tan, due to her hemisphere of the planet just finishing up their summer and fall.

  Bill mentioned that he had always wanted to visit New Zealand, but it looked like it wouldn’t be happening anytime soon.

  “That’s too bad,” Nicole said in her Kiwi twang. “But, then again, where we’re going will probably be a thousand times better. So, which of you boys is a pilot?”

  Matt raised his hand and said, “Well, actually, I’m listed as a co-pilot. Does that count?”

  “Me, too,” said Bill.

  Nicole laughed. “Me, three. That’s why I was asking, to see if I’d be working with any of you.”

  The eight sat, ate, and chatted for almost an hour, then decided to hit one of the bars on base for a beer or two.

  It was obvious that Matt and Nicole were hitting it off. Bill suspected that if they spent much time together, Matt might do the same thing his college roommate Joe did—disappear as a roommate. Watching the two of them caused Bill to experience a flashback; he and Jessica sitting on the quad at UW, with the cherry blossoms in full bloom, along with the smell of her, something that Bill always found attractive. It was so real it caused him to experience a sudden physical feeling of loss and aching. He almost gasped out loud but didn’t. Luckily, nobody noticed.

  Did I do the right thing? he wondered. Either way, it’s done, and I can’t go back. Not unless I can come up with a hundred grand to pay back the gate fee.

  The bar they decided on was a small, relatively quiet establishment. A sign above the door declared it the Cave Bear Cave, with a painting of a cave bear emerging from a cave beneath the name. The air temperature was cooling down, so the group decided to take a table in the outdoor beer garden. Light music was playing over a speaker system strung on poles around the garden, and the volume was quite tolerable. Bill hated going to places where the music was loud enough to burst eardrums. He didn’t go to dance clubs or to very many live concerts.