by Jake Bible
Cash slowly lowered his leg and turned to face his father.
Lean, early seventies, deep brown skin with blazingly intelligent eyes, Thompson was dressed in his usual khakis and short-sleeved, button-down shirt. But the clothes were looking a little worse for wear despite being impeccably clean. Eight months in Flipside without proper resources and equipment meant that having clean clothes was a do-it-yourself affair. And despite being the primary stockholder in Topside Industries, no one was volunteering to do the old man’s laundry.
Cash had given his father a lot of crap for the lack of basic life skills. Cash had grown up poor with a single mother, someone that Tyrel Thompson had cast aside after a brief affair, so Cash knew how to not only do laundry, but how to handle all of the basics. While Thompson hadn’t grown up rich, he had grown up with a mother that did everything for him then went straight from that to college and from that to the highest strata of tech success.
Laughing at Thompson’s shortcomings was one of Cash’s favorite activities.
“What now?” Thompson asked and looked down at his shirt. “The spots? Yes, I used too much bleach.”
“You don’t bleach colors,” Cash said. “And you shouldn’t waste bleach on laundry. We need that for disinfectant more than we do to keep your whites sparkling white.”
Thompson ignored his son and turned his attention on Elvis.
“No greeting today, Elvis?” Thompson asked.
The dino snorted and gave the old man the side eye, but he didn’t turn his head or get up and greet Thompson as he usually did.
“He’s been like this for a couple of days,” Thompson said. “Unfortunately, we do not have a veterinarian here in Flipside with us. While we all had inoculations before our travels back in time, Elvis did not. He could be suffering from any number of illnesses or parasites his body is not used to.”
“Or he could be a pain in the ass and finally figured out there really isn’t a whole lot we can do to him if he refuses to cooperate!” Cash yelled at the dino.
Elvis snorted again then stood up.
“Ha. See?” Cash said just as Elvis lifted a leg and let loose with a geyser of dino piss.
Aimed directly at Cash.
“You rotten son of a bitch!” Cash shouted as he scrambled away from the splashing dino urine.
Cash scrambled up over the fence and dropped down next to his father as Elvis peed for close to two minutes straight without pausing. Elvis’s pen quickly became a mire of pee mud. Thompson broke out laughing as Cash stared down at the wet splatters on his fatigues.
“Asshole,” Cash said, the word directed at both the dino and the old man still laughing next to him.
“I guess he’s feeling fine after all,” Thompson snickered.
“Cash!”
Thompson’s laughter didn’t stop, but it did grow quieter as both men turned to face the incoming Barbara Chin.
“Uh oh. Sounds like you’re in trouble with your lady friend,” Thompson said. He walked off, still laughing, and gave Barbara a quick nod as he left.
Cash bit his tongue, letting his father walk away without comment, and waited for Barbara to reach him.
“What are you all fired up about?” Cash asked. He leaned in for a kiss, but Barbara stopped him with a firm hand to his chest. “Okay…”
“Mike still hasn’t gotten me a working camera,” Barbara said. “Part of the reason I matter on this base is because I can professionally document everything. Years of working as a holo reporter has trained me to know exactly what needs to be preserved for posterity and what does not. I can’t do anything if I don’t have a goddamn camera, though.”
“And you’re pissed at me because…?” Cash asked.
“I’m not pissed at you. I need you to go get pissed at Mike and light a fire under his tech butt,” Barbara replied.
“Barb, I’m not in charge of shit around here,” Cash said. “Tressa and Bloom run the show. After that, it’s Ivy for security and Raff as her second, Mike for tech with Lewis as his second, Dr. Raskov is in charge of medical, Olivia is in charge of child care and education, and a whole bunch of sub-heads among the international folks that I can’t keep track of. The only thing I am in charge of is feeding and taking care of dickhead dino over there.”
Elvis ducked his head low, aimed his rear-facing nostrils at Cash, and blew a long string of snot straight at the fence. It splattered against the metal and dripped off in long strands. Luckily, none of it reached Cash.
“Doing a great job,” Barbara said, eyeing Elvis. “You trimmed his toenails yet?”
“Shut up,” Cash said.
“Go talk to Mike, please,” Barbara said with a sigh. “I tried talking to him, but he was busy.”
“Then he’s busy,” Cash said. “Go tell Lewis. She’ll get you hooked up.”
“Lewis is out in the field helping Mike test shredhawk drones for long-range comms,” Barbara replied.
“Sounds like a good use of their time.”
“As opposed to helping me? Because documenting all of this is not a good use of time?” Barbara glared then shook her head. “Thanks for nothing, Tre.”
Before he could respond, she spun about and stalked away. Cash started to call out to her, but after months of living together in tight quarters, he knew the body language she was putting out. Her backside said she was rage pissed and if he spoke one more word, she’d kick him out of their shared hut and he’d be sleeping in the pen with Elvis for a week.
Cash turned his face up to the clear sky and let the sun bake his skin. Elvis let loose with a massive fart behind him.
“Son of a bitch,” Cash said.
***
“We got a flock of wingers incoming,” Carter announced, nodding up at the dark mass that had just left the shimmer of the bubble behind.
“Keep an eye on them,” Lewis said as she stared at the new time bubble that was only five meters away from her and the team. “Drop one if they get curious. That should send them flying away. The wingers have gotten smart about steering clear when they hear rifle shots.”
“These are coming out of the bubble, Lewis,” Carter stated. “I don’t recognize the species.”
Lewis gave the flock a cursory glance, but her attention was mainly and firmly focused on what was inside the time bubble.
Fire.
And not from a field blaze.
A good quarter mile of the earth inside the mystery time bubble was mostly molten lava. Molten lava that was flowing directly toward the perimeter of the bubble. Lewis could feel the heat from where she stood.
“Nochez?” Lewis asked.
The operator was a couple meters closer than Lewis. She glanced over her shoulder and shook her head.
“I don’t recognize the landscape,” Nochez said. “Obviously not our time. By the way everything looks, I’d say this is prehistory to our prehistory.”
“Lewis…” Transk said.
The man’s tone caught Lewis’ attention and she shifted her focus. Transk was standing close to Carter and both men were staring at the flock that was coming straight for the team. Wingers for sure, and not from any species that Lewis recognized.
That wasn’t the problem. The problem was the size of the individual creatures.
Lewis had figured the flock was much closer than it was. That had been her mistake of perception. The flock was still a good ways off, but looked closer in proximity because each of the pterosaurs were massive monsters.
“Those wingspans have gotta be ten meters across, mates,” Wellstone said as he joined Transk and Carter.
“Lewis, we have more trouble,” Nochez said.
“Whatever it is, we leave it here,” Lewis said. “Time to hoof it back to the speed roller now, people!”
“We could pop a few from here,” Carter said, his rifle to his shoulder and eye to his scope. “Drop some and scare off the rest before they get curious.”
“Lewis!” Nochez shouted. “Teeth!”
Lewis whipped her head b
ack in the direction of Nochez and the bubble. Off to the right of the lava flow was a mass of dinosaurs heading straight for the time bubble’s perimeter. Each creature was easily as large as a Tyrannosaurus rex, but covered in thick, multi-colored plumage. The roars of the monsters could be barely heard from that distance, but what the team did hear did not sound good.
“Wingers are eyeing the teeth,” Wellstone said. “Fuck me.”
The flock of pterosaurs changed directions and dove back down into the bubble, straight for the land-based predators.
All except for two of the wingers, which must have spotted the team.
They broke off from the flock, angled their bodies, and pulled their wings in close to their bodies. The wingers’ speed increased exponentially.
Carter squeezed off four shots at the incoming flying beasts.
One of the wingers cried out, flipped over, and spun down toward the ground. The other let out a squawk that was a half cry of surprise and half of anger which caught the attention of the main flock. The attack on the incoming pack of teeth was forgotten.
The team was now the main target.
“Oh, shit, that was a mistake,” Carter said as he lowered his rifle. “Sorry about that.”
“Apologies later, mate!” Lewis shouted. “Right now we fucking run!”
Two
“Hey, Mike,” Cash said as he stepped into the command hut. “Any chance you could—?”
“Where is Dr. Xipan?” Mike snapped at Cash. “I sent your girlfriend to get her and she hasn’t showed up yet.”
“Nice to see you too, pal,” Cash said. “And I have no idea what you’re talking about. Barbara came to me because you won’t get her a working camera. She didn’t say shit about Dr. Xipan. She’s the geologist, right?”
“Yeah, she is, dude, and I needed a geologist like thirty minutes ago!” Mike nearly shouted.
None of the other techs looked toward Mike, but Cash could read the body language of the room and knew they were listening hard.
Cash grimaced and walked to Mike’s console. He stared at the readings and the grimace became a full frown.
“Earthquakes?” Cash asked. “I felt a couple tremors earlier, but they were nothing. What’s the problem?”
“These aren’t here at Flipside BOP, dude,” Mike explained. “They’re coming from readings out by the permanent sensor and comms relays. Lewis and her team are out there somewhere and I need to know if they’re in trouble or not. Dr. Xipan can read this data better than I can.”
“If Lewis and her team are in trouble then you should have alerted Ivy,” Cash said. “She’s Head of Security.”
“Ivy is not responding to comms at the moment,” Mike said. “I believe your ex-wife has found herself a fuck buddy. Every day at this time she turns off her comms for at least an hour.”
“Huh,” Cash replied. “Who’s the guy?”
“No idea. Don’t really care, dude,” Mike said. “What I care about is getting Dr. Xipan to look at this shit ASAP. Any chance you can track her down?”
Cash smiled. “Any chance you can get Barbara a working camera so she’s not pissed off all the time?”
“Dude, seismic activity like this trumps shielded cameras any day of the damn week,” Mike said. Cash’s smile widened. “Fine. I’ll have one for her by tomorrow morning. That work for you?”
“Works great,” Cash said and turned to the room’s door. “I’ll be back with Dr. Xipan in a few minutes.”
“And maybe Ivy, if you can find her,” Mike said.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Cash replied and left the control room.
Standing a few meters away from the command hut, chatting with some of the support personnel that had been assigned to water purification, was Tressa Thompson. Middle-aged, intimidatingly beautiful, with deep, dark skin, Tressa was several years older than Cash. She stood tall and strong as she studied a tablet one of the workers had handed her.
Cash could see by how she held her shoulders that she wasn’t pleased with the information she’d been handed, but wasn’t pissed either.
“Hey, sis,” Cash called.
Tressa sighed and glanced over her shoulder at her younger half-brother. “Busy, Tre.”
“You seen Dr. Xipan anywhere?” Cash asked, ignoring his sister’s comment. “And Ivy?”
“Together?” Tressa replied. She gave the tablet back to the workers, said a few words Cash couldn’t hear, then turned and walked toward him. “This a new item I need to know about? As co-lead of all this crap, I have to be aware of who is coupling with who so I can head off any drama.”
“No, not together,” Cash said. “Not that I know of. Mike needs Dr. Xipan because of seismic readings he’s worried about. And Ivy needs to know that Lewis and her team might be in the shit.”
“The two issues related?” Tressa asked.
“Maybe. I don’t know for sure. I’m just the errand boy,” Cash said with a shrug.
“Why didn’t Mike comm Dr. Xipan?”
“She isn’t set up for comms.”
“This something Bloom should be in on?”
“Again, sis, I’m just the errand boy.”
“You used to give a shit, Tre.”
“I used to live in the 21st century,” Cash countered. “And I do give a shit, sis. I simply don’t have answers for you. Do you have an answer for me?”
“An answer to what question?”
“Do you know where Dr. Xipan is?”
“No.”
“Is that a no as in no answer or no you don’t know?”
“I don’t know where Dr. Xipan is.”
“There. Was that so hard?”
“Kiss my ass, Tre. I don’t have time for your crap.”
“No one does.”
“I’m going to talk to Mike.”
“Good idea. I’ll keep looking for Dr. Xipan.”
“You do that.”
“Great talk, sis.”
Tressa waved him off and headed for the command hut.
Cash spun on his heel, ground his teeth as his right exo-brace sparked and seized for half a second, then headed in the direction of the mess building. Best place to start when looking for anyone within the walls of Flipside BOP.
The Flipside BOP had once been Flipside FOB, or forward operating base. But since being stuck Flipside, there was only one base, the BOP or base of operations. When built, Flipside FOB had been a combination of military installation, scientific research center, and tourist resort. Although, no one that had ever visited Flipside would have gushed over the accommodations as five-star.
“Disney Rustic minus the magic” was how it had been commonly described.
The base had been built around a central cluster of buildings that were there for the guests’ comfort—living quarters, gift shops, a couple cafes and a nice restaurant, a museum and auditorium, and some outdoor outfitter-type shops that charged a thousand percent markup on clothes that cost less to make than the hangers they were displayed upon.
After the central hub were many other buildings, spiraling out in concentric circles that were designed to be barriers to protect the tourists that had come to visit the prehistoric landscape. Of course, tourists were only supposed to be there when the Turn happened and the part of Flipside contained in the bubble was safely Topside. That scenario no longer applied.
The outer circles of buildings once were administrative offices, personnel quarters, mess hall, a cluster of research buildings, rows of pens for animals captured for study or held for rehabilitation, and the armory.
But that was the old layout. When the Turns had gone haywire, and the time bubble was no longer stable, the base had pretty much been reduced to piles of rubble. Having several transportation drones carrying large vehicles crash land across the base hadn’t helped. The destruction had left plenty of walls, but not a single building was fully intact when Cash and the others had arrived. Maybe one or two of the smaller ones, but for all intents and purposes, Flips
ide FOB was a complete loss.
So was the one hundred foot wall that had been built to protect the base from outside attacks. Single panels here and there had stood independently, but other than those few exceptions, the wall was as much of a loss as the base itself.
Then Commander Bloom and his coalition had arrived to help fight back the packs of teeth and flocks of wingers that were constantly trying to pick off survivors. Not to mention the Russian combots that were sent as hunter-killers to wipe out anyone left on the base. The Russians were not a subject Cash liked to think about. He left those logistics to Bloom, Ivy, and Raff, Cash’s best friend and one of the best operators in Flipside BOP.
With the entire base demolished, a complete rebuild was needed. Starting with the wall.
The Iceland contingent, which included Swedes and Norwegians, had created what Raff called a “bolt pounder.” It was a piece of heavy-duty machinery that looked like a jackhammer on steroids contained within a framework of welded steel. Put two cross beams under the machine and it could pound a bolt through the steel in the blink of an eye.
It took a month to complete, but Flipside BOP had been finally secured around its perimeter.
Which left the rebuilding of the other structures contained within the wall.
Cash passed separate barracks for the operators, for support personnel, for the civilians (which included most of the medical and tech staff), and a few individual huts that had been set up for command personnel like Tressa, Bloom, Ivy, Thompson, Raff, Mike, and Barbara, even though she wasn’t technically command, but she was in charge of documenting everything and had insisted on her own space.
Cash took advantage of her privilege and bunked with her most every night. Unless he screwed up, which he did often, then he was stuck in a cot in the operators’ barracks. He really needed Mike to get her that working camera or his back would be shot for a week after sleeping on one of those damn cots.
Making his way around the barracks, completing nearly a full circle, Cash passed the infirmary. On the other side of that, just barely visible, he could see the command hut, where Bloom and Tressa were more than likely having a conversation with Mike about what Cash had told his sister.
