Bill felt a sense of déjà vu as they crossed over Snoqualmie Pass. The last time he had crossed it was in his rusting pickup truck on a six-lane concrete highway. Now he was in a high-speed maglev train, the road beside the track being only gravel for cars winding up and down the pass. Bill was surprised to see a ski resort in the same location as on Earth.
Seeing Mt. Si was also a bit of a shock, in that it looked the same. He had always equated seeing Mt. Si as the gateway to the Cascades, with the bustle of the Puget Sound on one side and the dark green fir forests on the other. This time, though, there was just the forest.
Their trip to Tahoma was quick, taking a little more than a half hour from Milton. Tahoma, like Milton, was mostly modern-looking with low buildings in the core and smaller houses in the surrounding area. Bill could see small ships in the seaport in the protected bay. They were nothing like the huge container ships and large gantry cranes that he was used to seeing in Seattle; instead, the smaller ships had their own onboard cranes for cargo handling.
Grabbing their rifles, salmon rod cases, and duffels, the two headed out of the station to look for the skytrain that would get them closer to the Nisqually. Soon they were heading out of the small industrial city. “Y’know, I figured that with Tahoma being the industrial heart of Hayek, there’d be more pollution,” he mentioned to Meri while the train silently glided along the tracks.
“We don’t have many rules here, but that’s one of the biggies: no polluting the air, ground, or water,” she answered.
As they rolled out of town Bill spotted fields of what looked like marijuana. “Is that pot?” he asked.
“Pot? No, it’s industrial hemp. Don’t you have that on Earth?”
It took a few minutes to explain to her that all marijuana production, possession, and consumption was banned in the US at the federal level, with only a few states actually allowing it, despite the federal laws.
“How weird. Why would they ban it?”
“Good question. Because they can?” Bill asked.
Meri just shook her head over the inaneness of Earth’s politics.
In less than fifteen minutes they arrived at a station on the north side of the Nisqually River. As they disembarked Meri told Bill that they’d be on foot for the next mile. They crossed the river over a small bridge, where Bill spotted a small general store. “That’s pretty much where everyone around here gets their basics,” Meri told him.
The two followed a gravel road until they came to a driveway that led off to the right, toward the river. Over the driveway was an arched sign that simply read “Lewis Landing.”
“My grandfather put that up,” Meri said as they crossed under it. “Apparently, he was a real Mark Twain fan and sort of pictured this place as one of those places on the Mississippi River he read about.”
The house was more a country retreat than a year-round residence. Like the cabins at Sacajawea Base, it was a small two-story board-and-batten building, but it also had solar panels on the roof, a small water tower next to it, and a small shed nearby. Bill could see the river behind it.
Meri stepped onto the porch, set her duffel down, and unlocked the front door using an old-fashioned key. Opening it, she said, “Welcome to Lewis Landing!”
Inside, Meri pointed to a set of stairs to the right of the entrance. “Our rooms are upstairs. Dad’s room is over there” she said, pointing to a door opposite the stairs.
The house had a simple great room with a kitchen, a dining bar, and a living room all in one. In the center was a large stone-faced fireplace that Bill recognized as a masonry heater.
Meri placed her rifle in a rifle rack by the front door, so Bill followed suit.
“There are some hooks out back on the porch. Hang your waders there, but keep your boots inside—the mice like to eat them,” Meri said as she dug her waders out of her duffel. The two put their waders on the hooks and then Meri showed Bill his room and pointed out the shared bathroom where he could put his toiletries.
After getting settled, in he came downstairs to find Meri grabbing a couple of bottles of beer out of the refrigerator.
“I figured you’d want one after the week you’ve had,” she said. “I know I do, after that forced alcohol abstinence for flight training.” Meri opened the two bottles and handed him one.
“Sure. So, when do we go fishing?” Bill asked, accepting the proffered beer.
“After beer and supper. We’ll catch the evening bite. Dad said he’d be here around sevenish, so I want to make sure supper’s ready when he gets here.”
Bill looked at his chronograph; it was just past six thirty. He and Meri had left Sacajawea base at exactly five o’clock when the Corps was dismissed for the long weekend. Despite the fifteen minutes spent walking from the skytrain, and more than 150 miles on three different trains, they had only spent a bit over an hour and a half traveling. Huh. Had this been Earth, it would have been at least three and a half hours, and that ain’t including traffic, he thought.
As it was late summer, the sun would remain up for more than an hour with an extended twilight—plenty of time to eat and go fishing after.
Meri rummaged around in a small pantry and pulled out pasta and spaghetti sauce, commenting on the lack of food in the cabin due to everyone being in Milton. “We usually do some shopping on the way, but since we’re here only a couple of days, it doesn’t make too much sense. We’ll pick up some veggies at the corner store tomorrow.”
Bill offered to help, but Meri told him he’d just be in the way, and to go explore a bit. Taking his beer, Bill unlocked the back door and stepped out on the porch overlooking the river. He decided to wander down, and as he got close, he could see schools of sockeye salmon, their distinctive red bodies and green heads visible through the water. He watched them for a while until Meri called.
Making his way toward the cabin, he was greeted by Commandant Lewis stepping through it onto the porch.
“Welcome to Lewis Landing,” he said, holding out his hand. A beer was in the other.
Bill took the offered hand and shook it. “Thank you, sir. And thanks for having me here.”
“My pleasure,” Lewis said, releasing Bill’s hand. “It’s not often Meri invites anyone to the Landing, so it’s great to have you here.”
Meri announced supper was ready and asked Bill to help her set the table on the porch.
As the trio sat down to eat Lewis peppered Bill with questions on his background, family, education, and thoughts about Hayek and the Corps. Meri quietly ate, watching the interchange between the two men. By the time supper was finished Bill felt as if he’d been waterboarded at Guantanamo. When Lewis stepped out of the room for a moment, Meri told Bill this was her first time bringing any male companion home to meet her dad. “Most were scared off once they found out who my dad was.”
When Lewis returned, Meri said, “All right Daddy, you can let up now. I brought Bill here to go fishing, not be interrogated like a criminal.” Nodding to Bill, she said, “Grab your gear and let’s go catch some salmon.”
Bill was relieved to have an excuse to escape the “interview.” He and Meri put on their waders, boots, and fishing vests. Rods in hand and rifles slung over shoulders, the two waddled their way down to the river. Meri showed Bill a small path, barely visible, that wound along the bank to a gravel bar, where they emerged from the surrounding forest and were able to safely wade into the river.
“Keep an eye out for bears,” she cautioned.
Meri was downriver, so she cast first, and then Bill cast. As his line drifted downriver he took a moment to look around. Nobody else was in sight. For him, this was a first. He couldn’t remember a time salmon fishing in Washington when there weren’t others scattered along the river, sometimes shoulder to shoulder. I guess there’s really no need for ‘combat fishing’ around here.
Soon both had fish on their lines, and the battle was on. For the next hour, they fished, mainly doing catch and release, but keeping a couple
.
At one point a grizzly bear came down to the water downstream from them. Meri moved a bit closer to Bill and both kept an eye on the large bear until it eventually caught a fish and moved back into the forest on the opposite side of the river.
Bill remarked to Meri how weird it felt to fish without a fishing license or catch record. She gave him a puzzled look. “Whatever would you need a license for? You’re obviously not commercial fishing, and what’s a catch record?”
Bill explained what licensing was like on Earth and that a catch record was a sheet that anyone fishing for salmon had to write down information on every salmon they caught and kept, such as date, type of salmon, and river caught on. He then asked her to explain why some people didn’t need licenses, but others did.
“Hmm. How familiar are you with the land and sea rights on Hayek?” she asked.
“Uh, not very.”
“In that case, let me try to make this real simple. Parallel owns the entire planet. They don’t just govern it, they outright own it. Anyone who lives here has agreed to abide by that. It’s part of the Responsibility Oath you took. Anyone who lives here either buys land from them, rents land owned by them or by another landowner, and purchases concessions for resource extraction if they want to mine, fish, log, or do any other commercial venture. This includes all resources. Parallel doesn’t require anyone to have a license to fish for personal consumption or cut down trees to heat their home, but if you want to catch fish or cut timber and sell them, then you’re required to purchase a license and abide by the rules that Parallel’s Resource Management Division set up. Hunting’s a bit different, in that hunting seasons are limited to certain times; unless you’re way out in the boonies and need to hunt to survive, then there really is no season.
“Another thing about Parallel is that they don’t sell vast tracts of land. The best you can do is maybe 100 hectares for agriculture, such as the farmers in the Palouse,” she said, referring to the land in the southwestern part of the Yakama Canton, “and they keep the right of first refusal in the deed. The Founders saw what happened on Earth and didn’t want it repeated here.
“I guess you can say it’s a bit idealistic, but it’s what I’ve grown up with and it makes more sense than what I’ve seen or read about Earth.”
Bill thought about it and had to agree; it certainly made more sense in some ways, but he wasn’t sure about having one company control a whole planet, even if he did work for that company.
As twilight started to become night, they gathered their salmon and headed back to the house. Bill offered to filet them and Meri took him up on it, showing him where the fish cleaning station was. Before cleaning the fish, the two put away their fishing gear. They hung the waders up to dry and put the boots on a special drying rack near the back door.
“How’d it go?” Lewis asked from an easy chair in the great room, setting a tablet down in his lap.
“Lots of action,” Meri said, while Bill held up the two salmon to show Lewis.
“Nice. Looks like fresh salmon for breakfast. I bought some eggs, so they should go well together.”
While Bill cleaned the fish, Meri poured each of them a glass of wine. She set his glass down on the porch table and started sipping from hers while waiting for him. As soon as the fish were clean Meri helped Bill put them in a container to put in the refrigerator, and then the two sat down on the porch to talk, drink wine, and watch the stars come out.
Lewis joined them for a glass of wine and regaled them with tales of his adventures, and more humorously, his misadventures, as a young Explorer. Bill couldn’t get the image of a young Explorer Lewis, interrupted while heeding nature’s call, running from a pissed off glyptotherium, pants around his ankles, screaming for help. “Bullets just bounced off his armored skin.”
The Commandant also talked about the threat posed by groups such as governments on Earth and non-governmental groups, such as the Gaia Liberation Front.
“We’ve got enough problems with some of our Explorers questioning the need to open new planets without having to deal with the Gaia Firsters,” Lewis said. “Last year, alone, we had over a dozen attacks on Earthside gates by these lunatics. Believe it or not, we’re actually working with some of Earth’s governments to try and put a stop to this.”
Bill told them about his experience crossing over, and the protesters outside the gate. He thought about the problems of the Earth Liberation Front on Earth, and how they caused extensive damage to commercial operations throughout North America, and asked Lewis what could be done.
“We’re working on a few things,” he said. “Most of the problems come from the developed countries on Earth. That helps us, and it also hurts us. Because most of those governments are authoritarian, they’ve got some pretty good databases on their citizens. Of course, asking any of those governments for help also puts us at a disadvantage, particularly if they’re after somebody who came to Hayek or through one of our gates. This is especially true because we don’t have any extradition treaties with them, other than for murder.”
He took a sip of wine and continued. “Of course, the biggest threat is posed by those governments, who want to control the gates. As you know, we’ve already had two of them attack us. Luckily, the gates are controlled on Hayek, so those attempts didn’t work out too well for them.”
Later that evening, as Bill was about to retire, Meri came over to him, wrapped her arms around his neck and said, “This has been a great day. Thanks for putting up with my Dad.” She then kissed him, let go, and went to her room, leaving Bill thinking, Wow! Just, wow!
The rest of the weekend went far too fast for Bill. Not only did he get a lot of fishing in, but he and Meri became closer, although nothing beyond what propriety would allow, especially since Commandant Lewis always seemed to be around.
I wouldn’t exactly say that he’s protecting his daughter’s virginity, but he’s sure acting like he is, Bill thought on his last evening at Lewis Landing.
Lewis left late the following morning, proclaiming, “Others may get three days off, but I never do.”
Before he left he pulled Bill aside. “Damned glad you came, son. I haven’t seen Meri this happy since her mother died. Try to keep her that way.”
“I’ll try, sir,” Bill replied seriously.
Turning more serious as well, Lewis then told Bill about possible threats to Meri’s life from the GLF. “Intel tells me they’re planning on taking more action, this time against me and my family. Keep your eyes and ears open, and your powder dry.”
Along with the increased affection that Bill experienced for Meri, he also discovered that he enjoyed her father’s company. The commandant turned out to have quite a sense of humor and was never at a loss for words. Bill was sad to see the weekend end, but he was also looking forward to getting back to training so he could begin his career.
13
On the walk to the station, Bill asked Meri about the GLF threat. She shrugged it off, saying “Dad’s always worried about something or other. He wouldn’t be Commandant if he wasn’t. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”
The ride back to Sacajawea Base was just as thrilling for Bill as the ride out. He got to see the land from different angles, so new things came into view. The late afternoon approach to Tahoma really showed the north-south running hills that were drumlins left over from the last ice age, more than 10,000 years ago. While populated with small houses, it had nowhere near the density that Bill was used to.
As the two walked from the skytrain station to a restaurant in Tahoma, before hopping the maglev back to base, Meri held out her hand for Bill, so he took it in his.
“So, are we a couple now?” he asked her, partly in jest, partly serious.
“Well, duh. What do you think?” She grinned up at him, then reached over and gave him a quick kiss on the lips—more a buss than a kiss, but enough to thrill him even so.
The restaurant was near the maglev station and had a great view of
the bay. The Puyallup River, milky white with glacial flour sediment, flowed into the bay, which was larger than on Earth, and with far fewer, and smaller, cargo vessels. The one dock Bill could see looked like it held a small stack of shipping containers, but none of them were larger than Earth’s smallest, the twenty-footers. He pointed that out to Meri, who shrugged and said she didn’t know much about cargo shipping but didn’t recall seeing any larger containers her whole life.
Supper done, and with the sun set, they made their way across the street to the maglev station.
While they didn’t hold hands during the train rides, and there were no more public displays of affection, they did hold hands between stations and from the final station outside the base to Meri’s cabin. It turned out she didn’t live too far from Bill. Then again, not many Probies lived too far from each other.
When they arrived outside her cabin, she gave Bill another kiss, this one much deeper, which caused his heart rate to increase dramatically, among other reactions.
Laughing, she said, “Whoa, down boy,” as she released him. Another quick peck on the lips and she said, “See you at breakfast,” then disappeared inside.
Bill walked back to Jaskey Lane practically floating. When he got home, he found his roommates sprawled on the seating.
“Damn, look at you!” Jordan said.
“Yeah, what’s with the stupid grin?” Matt asked.
“That must’ve been one helluva weekend,” Thep said.
“Why, yes. Yes, it was,” Bill said, and without another word, headed up the stairs to put his stuff away and go to sleep.
Early the next morning Bill checked his email, something he hadn’t done for several days. He discovered that he would begin flight training that morning and was to report to the airfield with his primary survival equipment and wearing his Nomex flight suit.
The Corps of Discovery Trilogy Box Set: Books 1-3: A multiverse series of alternate history Page 16
