by Tom Johnson
Suddenly, the water was replaced by soft dirt as the rocket hit a sandy beach, but with nothing to slow the ship's plunge, it carved a deep rut in the gravelly soil for several miles before it finally came to rest with a violent jerk. Only their safety devices saved them from mortal danger.
"That was damn scary," Major Cooper laughed. "I figured we were heading straight for a solid wall of rock. I'd swear I saw a cliff face at the edge of the coastline!"
"I'm glad you didn't say something to that effect when we were coming in, Major, you would have frightened us all to death," Colonel Peterson smiled.
"Where are we?" Captain Mercer asked.
"It looks like a desert to me, Captain," Major Cooper said. "Coming in, I think we were close to the equator of Pangaea, and we must have landed on the west coast of the continent. That's as much as I can tell you."
"We're not in the ocean?" Doctor Terrill asked, opening her eyes again.
"No, Barbara, we're on dry land," the commander told her.
"Unfortunately, the ship is lying down," Major Cooper said. "I don't know if we can ever take off again. Not from this position."
"Welcome back to Earth," Professor Plymouth said. “Be it ever so humble …”
"Welcome to Pangaea!" Colonel Peterson told her crew.
Chapter Three
Gondwanaland
Within a few hours, nightfall descended on the Galileo Two, and seven wayfarers from the twenty-first century viewed the moon from the ancient Earth for the first time, and the silver orb filled the night sky; a giant balloon of extraterrestrial beauty. The desert sand appeared to glow in the view screen, a far away planet on the cover of a science fiction magazine. The stars in the heavens above looked strangely out of place, as if they were part of a far distant alien universe. They were so different in their organization that it was difficult to pick out familiar clusters that would eventually fill the night skies of their own century. The professor attempted to point out the familiar zodiac, and show the others which were bright stars, and which were known planets.
"Basically, they're still the same," he told them. "You just don't recognize them this far back in time."
"What worries me most," Colonel Peterson admitted, "it seems like there are more shooting stars than normal, Professor."
"Meteorites," Professor Plymouth said. "Yes, I think there are a lot more meteors than in our own time. Remember, everything is much younger than when we started out on this honeymoon cruise!"
"Don't worry about the ones you see, Colonel," Major Cooper laughed. "It's the big one that you don't see that will kill us all."
"It looks dead out there, Professor," Captain Mercer said. "Do you think the big extinction you spoke of has already taken place?"
"No," he told him. "Our indicators show an atmosphere rich in oxygen. From what I have studied, the air and water was probably poisoned for thousands of years after the extinction event 250 million years ago. We're probably in a period many years before the extinction, but I don't know what that means. One day before the catastrophe, or a million years before? We'll run some test tomorrow, and maybe we can determine just where we are in time. But we still won't be able to pinpoint a date for the extinction."
The next morning everyone took turns with the air bath in the special air chamber. The heated air blew the body clean and it killed any germs that might be hitching a ride. The air baths also saved on water, which could become a precious commodity if they were to be marooned on a prehistoric world with no modern facilities, except for what the spaceship provided.
"Today," Colonel Peterson told them, "we can explore just around the ship, no further. At lunch we will discuss our future plans—all of us."
After the port door was opened, and a ladder was lowered to the surface, Major Cooper stopped everyone.
"I think our commander should have the privilege of stepping onto the surface first," he said. "After all, that has been the custom since the first moon landing."
"Thank you, Major," the commander smiled. "That is very considerate of you."
"Not at all," he smiled. "Actually, we don't know what monsters await us down there. Just figured they could get you first," he laughed.
"If I run into any monsters, I'll scream for Flash Gordon," she smiled. "Or would that be, Flash Cooper?"
"Huh uh," he laughed, "remember protocol, ma'am," he faked a salute.
"Before anyone steps out there," Doctor Terrill said, "let me warn each of you, don't pick up any strange creatures until Sheri and I have had a chance to examine them. We were on our way to Mars, which is a dead planet. Remember? There were not to be any poisonous insects or other creatures
on the red planet. Here, it may be otherwise, and we didn't bring antitoxin. Not that anything we had in the twenty-first century would be effective in the Permian Period."
Sliding down the ladder, Colonel Peterson found herself in the shadow of the Galileo Two. As she stepped into the sunlight, she gasped and instantly jumped back into the shade of the giant spaceship. When she looked up into the faces staring down at her, she shook her head and said:
"It's damn hot out there. We'll need to acclimate our bodies to this environment before it bakes us!"
Professor Plymouth left the doorway for a minute to check some of his instruments, and when he returned, he called down to her:
"Commander, my instruments indicate the temperature to be 120 degrees Fahrenheit—and it's still early morning. It'll probably get a lot hotter by afternoon!"
"Well, come on down, all of you, and feel the sand under your feet," Colonel Peterson told them. "Then we can cool off in the ship again. We’ll take only morning jaunts until we can adjust to this heat."
One by one, the crewmembers descended the ladder and walked out beneath the bright sun, hoping to find some living creatures in the sand of an early Earth. But the desert seemed devoid of all life during the morning heat. The landscape wasn't totally barren; there was plant life sprouting helter-skelter in the desert environment, showing that the soil was full of nutrients for living things, even though they were a fair distance from the swamps to the north and east. Finally, the commander ordered her crew back aboard the ship.
After a breakfast of MREs, Colonel Peterson addressed the crew.
"Our choices are simple," she said. "Either we try to leave, and search for a planet with life. Or we remain here, and try to make a go of it. Engineer, what are our chances of repairing the ship and getting off this planet?"
"Given time, ma'am, I think we can repair the system," Roger Manning said. "Blasting off from this position may be a little more difficult, though not an impossibility."
"Professor, what are our chances of finding a planet with life?" she asked Carl Plymouth.
"There is a slim possibility that Mars had some form of life during this period, but we don't know that for a fact, Commander. If we leave here, we may not be any better off than we are now," he said. "Besides, even with the coming extinction, Earth is still young, and holds promise for our best survival."
"Is there a chance we could locate the plasma anomaly that caused this problem in the first place and go back through—to our own time period?" she continued.
"Even if we could find it in this vast universe," he smiled, "we have no guarantee we could survive another exposure inside the anomaly, let alone come out where we started from. My guess is that the anomaly is out of our reach by now, and even if it wasn't, I don't think it is our solution."
"Does anyone have a suggestion that we might consider?" she asked.
"God has a purpose for all things," Roger Manning said, "and I think this is His plan."
"If it's God's plan," Doctor Terrill said, "I'd like to know what it is!"
"Suggestions, anyone," Colonel Peterson snapped, "not speculations! Major Cooper, what do you suggest?"
"I'm not fatalistic," he began, "but I agree with Professor Plymouth, I can see no reason to go back into space at this point. We don't know what is out the
re. But we do have a living planet here, and it will sustain us—for now, at least. And we can plan and prepare for the coming disaster."
"I agree with the major," Sheri Thompson said. "I believe there is animal life, either in the sea to our west, or the jungle and swamp area to our north and east. We have enough MREs for five years. After that, we should be able to harvest vegetables from the seeds we brought, and maybe trap some animals for food. Earth, no matter how primitive it is, seems to offer our best chance for survival. I vote that we stay where we are at!"
"Does your God want us to stay here, or leave, Manning?" Colonel Peterson asked the engineer.
"We are not meant to know His plans, Colonel," the engineer said. "If He wants us to leave, we'll leave. If He wants us to stay, we'll stay. "No matter what we decide, I think we'll be doing His will. I'll go along with the majority."
"There are seven of us," Colonel Peterson said. "Let's have a show of hands. All in favor of looking for life elsewhere, raise your right hand."
There were no hands raised.
"All in favor of staying where we are, raise your right hand," she continued. There were six hands raised. Roger Manning was the only one that didn't cast a vote either way. "The vote is carried," Colonel Peterson said. "We'll remain here, unless circumstances arise that call for a second vote.
"Tomorrow, we will start setting up the bio-dome. It's not needed for its original purpose, but it will still work as a secure environment outside the ship. We can pipe cool air from the Galileo Two, and set up our workshops inside, where we will be more comfortable.
"We will work only in the morning hours, before the heat becomes too unbearable for outside labor."
"What are we to do in the afternoons, ma'am?" Roger Manning asked.
"You can read your Bible," Sheri laughed.
"I brought Shakespeare's Sonnets and poems," Professor Plymouth said.
"I brought some classic action movies from before the start of the war," Captain Mercer said.
"I have my medical studies to keep me busy," Doctor Terrill said.
"I wanna dance," Sheri laughed.
After a short silence, Colonel Peterson asked, "And you, Major Cooper?"
Looking into her dark brown eyes for a second, he smiled, and said, "A lot of cold showers, ma'am."
"What about you, Colonel?" Sheri asked. "What do you plan for entertainment?"
"I do have a passion," she said. "I like to write songs, and sing.”
"Oh, I love to sing, too," Sheri ejaculated.
"I think I'll go back outside," Major Cooper laughed.
"Wait a minute, Major, and I'll join you!" Doctor Terrill said with a grimace.
"I know some Hymns," Roger Manning said with gusto, suddenly.
"That does it!" laughed Major Cooper. "I think I'll volunteer to inventory the storeroom. Anyone want to help me?"As Major Cooper left the command cabin, Professor Plymouth, Captain Mercer, and Doctor Terrill followed behind him. They left a chorus of "I Saw The Light" vibrating from the ship's walls.
The next morning they began the tedious task of lifting the bio-dome from its mooring in the cargo bay. The dome was in three parts stored in the one large compartment up front, completely filling the space to capacity. The bottom was metal, circular, ten foot high, with an inner and outer wall, housing a small space between the two doors, one leading to the outside, the other to the interior. Intended for a planet with no oxygen in the atmosphere, the inner room was an oxygen chamber separating the two atmospheres. The middle section, also ten foot from bottom to top, was a thick Plexiglass that allowed sunlight into the large chamber within. The top, also of thick Plexiglass, with a large tank for storing liquid, slid down over the middle section, and then turned to tighten in place. Tubes ran to sprinkler units at the top, and once connected to the ship's water system, would provide water for plants being grown in the bio-dome. An air current was also provided, and supplied to the interior by the atomic generators of the great ship.
The interior dimensions of the bio-dome were spacious; forty foot from wall to wall, and twenty-five foot from floor to ceiling once the three sections were in place. There was room enough for a small garden of vegetables, worktables, and even cots for those who wanted to sleep beneath the stars instead of in the ship.
The crane arm was on a track that allowed it maneuverability, but it was still tricky to remove the bio-dome from the ship's prone position, instead of at an upright angle as intended. The bottom section was easy enough, though it took all morning of the third day from when they crashed, until it was set in place. By that afternoon, the temperature had risen to over 130 degrees Fahrenheit, and they were forced to return to the coolness of the ship's cabin, exhausted.
On the fourth day, they were able to remove the second section, and set it on top of the metal bottom, but they were not able to screw the section in place before the heat forced them to cease. The fifth day, they completed attaching the two sections, and raised the top from the cargo hold of the ship before they had to stop. They left the final section swinging from the cable on the crane. That evening a strong wind came from the west, and they could hear the heavy section swinging loosely, and striking against the ship's metal body occasionally. And they worried that it would be damaged by morning.
But on the sixth day, they found the top section still in one piece, swinging gently in the morning breeze. Unfortunately, the crane arm would not lift the top sufficiently enough to slip over the middle section of the bio-dome.
"We're going to need to drag it into position," Major Cooper told the commander. "The arm doesn't reach all the way."
"Get the two ATVs from storage," she said, "and hook the cables from the top to their chassis, and pull it outwards with the all terrain vehicles."
"That should do the trick, Colonel," he agreed.
Shortly, Major Cooper and Roger Manning returned with the solar battery operated all terrain vehicles, grinning as they raced them around the ship.
"We need someone to release the cables from the top section of the structure," Major Cooper told the crew. "Any of you have some monkey ancestors in your blood?" he grinned.
"I can climb up there," Captain Mercer told them. "But I'll have to climb out on the arm to get to the cable."
Ten minutes later, they saw Tony Mercer climbing the crane arm from inside the ship. He was straddling the long arm, scooting along slowly, pulling forward with his hands, his legs gripping the metal arm as tightly as possible. Once he reached the far end, he swung off precariously for a second, and then dropped lightly to the top of the platform. The roof was slanted at a dangerous angle, and he dropped to all fours, sliding towards the edge. A raised wall, barely six inches in height, caught his feet, stopping his descent and keeping him from toppling over the side. Gently balancing on his hands and knees, he scooted around the edge to the cable-housing boxes, releasing one on each side, letting the long metal rope play out until it reached the ground, and then locked each cable in place. Most of the morning was gone by the time the cable was secured to the two ATVs.
Captain Mercer worked his way back to the crane arm, and then waited until the ATVs were ready to pull the top section. At a command from Colonel Peterson, Major Cooper and Roger Manning started pulling on the cables from below. When the slack was taken up, Captain Mercer released the bio-dome top from the crane arm, letting it rest in the pulley attached to the crane's cable. With ease, the ATVs pulled the bio-dome top forward until it dropped into place with a loud clunk!
"Keep the traction on the cables until I can get off the crane arm," Captain Mercer yelled from above, "or this thing will throw me off like a bucking bronco!"
Just as he started inching his way back down the crane's arm, the cable attached to the pulley broke loose from the top of the bio-dome, snapping backwards with whip-like reflex, the end cracking against Mercer's exposed arm, and wrapping around his upper body with tremendous force. When the cable fell away, he emitted a cry of pain and bent over the
metal structure, holding his injured arm with his good hand, while he retained his grip to the metal structure with his legs.
Major Cooper leaped from his ATV and rushed inside the ship for the crane. In a few minutes, he was beside the injured captain, and helped him to slowly come off the crane. It was an agonizing ten minutes before both of them were safely inside the ship's hold, and Doctor Terrill was waiting for them.
They rushed him to a sterile room, where the doctor sent everyone out of the room while she examined her patient after giving him a sedative.
Major Cooper rejoined Roger Manning and they quickly pulled forward on the ATVs until the top of the bio-dome locked into place over the middle section. Sweat was pouring from everyone, but no one had noticed. Now that the tension was released, they could all feel the incredible heat once more, and quickly returned to the ship, their work ended for the day. They sat in silence as they waited word on Captain Mercer's condition.
Several anxious hours passed for the crew before a solemn-faced Doctor Terrill entered the cabin. All eyes were on her, as the commander asked:
"How is he, Doctor?"
Shaking her head, the doctor told them sadly, "It isn't good. The cable destroyed muscle and tissue, as well as important veins, and completely sliced through the bone. I couldn't repair the damage, so had to amputate the arm. His left arm is still good, though, and I was able to treat for any possible infection. He's resting now, but he won't be able to return to work for at lest a month."
When the doctor returned to see after her patient, she left a motley crew of sad faces behind. What should have been a fairly easy task had turned tragic, resulting in a serious injury to one of their members.
