The Edge

by Jacob Wenzel

  “What about the rabbits?” Sally asked, “Will you try to get people to stop eating them too?”

  Both Eric and Randy looked at her, and said, “Who cares about the rabbits?”

  Randy agreed to join the cause if he could travel to South America to set Dusty set free. “I wouldn't have it any other way.” was Eric's reply.

  “I hate to spoil the moment,” William said, “But what about us?”

  “Hold on to your tortoises,” said Eric, “I'll get to you after breakfast.”

  William was getting impatient while Randy and Eric reminisced, and Randy filled him in on what had happened in Providence after he left. It seemed that Sarah, who had left Eric all those years before for Professor Simpson, then left him for a younger handsomer professor. Soon after, Professor Simpson had an accident with a steam-powered mustache trimmer he had invented, and was permanently disfigured. He ended up moving to a monastery in France that did not allow mirrors or mustache trimming. Then Sarah left the younger professor for the captain of the rowing team, and both of them died in the flu epidemic.

  After breakfast, Captain Eric took them back down to the hold, he walked around the Winnebago, studying it closely, peering in the windows but not opening the door. “Mr. Terwilliger, William Terwilliger, is it? Now that is an interesting coincidence, I once had a professor by that name, he was in his seventies when I met him, and everyone told me that he was quite mad. He had this crazy idea, that, there were other worlds, similar to this one, but that they existed in dimensions other than the three we can perceive. It would have been alright if he had just believed that, but he also believed that travel between these worlds was possible, if one had the right equipment.”

  William asked, “Did he say what the right equipment was?”

  “Well, he said that someday we would understand aspects of physics that we could not even begin to grasp now, things about the basic structure of the universe, and that that knowledge would enable us to move back and forth between different worlds as easily as we now walk from one room of a house to another. But he also said that he thought it might be possible to travel using current technology, by using a massive gyroscope.”

  “A gyroscope, how?”

  “Are you familiar with the physics of the gyroscope?”

  “I am.” was Williams reply.

  “Then you know that due to conservation of angular momentum, if you apply a force to the axis of the gyroscope, said axis will not move in that direction, but rather at an angle perpendicular to the angle of the applied force.”

  “Yes, of course, it's a well-documented effect.”

  “Well, professor Terwilliger believed that if a gyroscope was massive enough, and was spinning fast enough, and if that gyroscope was in a mount specifically designed to prevent that perpendicular movement, and if a strong enough force was applied, then that force would have to be transferred to a different perpendicular angle.”

  William was carefully listening, this approach had never occurred to him, it might work, but with absolutely no control as to which world you would be traveling to, and no way to get back but chance.

  He said, “That angle being perpendicular to reality, so to speak.”

  “He never said it that way, but that's essentially correct.”

  William said, “It wouldn't work, even if you could apply enough force, and who knows how much force it would take to rotate the axis in a fourth dimension, the machine would just rip the framework apart. Something would fail.”

  Eric continued, “And it did, several times. Professor Terwilliger said he needed greater force and stronger materials, something stronger than any known material.

  He began spending many hours in the chemistry lab, and somehow, he made a thread as thin as a hair, but stronger than even the largest steel cable, he would not tell anyone how he did it, and we never found any of his notes, so the secret was lost with him.”

  “What happened to him?” Sally asked.

  “He built a new gyroscope, with a new mount, he built what amounted to a steam cannon to apply the force. He reinforced the whole thing with his new fiber, when it was finished, he announced that he would test the next day.”

  “And did he?”

  “No, apparently, he became impatient. It was about two in the morning, when everyone within two miles was awakened by the sound of the explosion, and when we got to his lab, which he had built away from the main buildings, it had been demolished in the explosion, or more correctly, implosion. The building had collapsed inwards.”

  “And the Professor?”

  “Gone, not a trace, we thought perhaps his body had been thrown far away, but we searched, and never found any sign of him. The machine was also gone, not a piece of it could be found.”

  “So, you think it worked?”

  “There was one thing that makes me think that it worked.”

  “What was that?”

  “In its place was a bronze statue of a family of beavers with a plaque that said something to the effect of, 'Originally presented to the State of Oregon, 1985, Restored, 2135', So I'd say that he not only traveled across dimensions, he traveled back in time as well.”

  “Wait a minute,” William said, “back in time?”

  “Yes, this happened twenty-two years ago, in March of the year two thousand, three hundred and twenty-six.”

  “I see.” said William.

  “Now I must ask, what year are you from?”

  William saw no reason to lie about it, “We left our timeline in twenty-one eighteen, and have been traveling for about six months.”

  “That's interesting,” said Eric, “you're from a past, not our past, but a past that is more technologically advanced than us.”

  “So it seems.”

  They discussed points in history, trying to find a deviation point, Eric's world had had horses until about the third century, and that seemed to be where the divergence was located, a plague of some kind had wiped out all larger mammals except humans. Horses, cattle, all larger wild animals, even larger dogs were gone, sheep survived for some reason. With no beasts of burden, travel was strictly on foot, or, for the wealthy, by human drawn carts. The tide of history slowed, Rome, under attack from barbarians fighting on foot, fell more slowly, more likely due to internal forces than external. The dark ages started later, and lasted longer.

  The black plague first hit an overpopulated Dark Age Europe in Seventeen thirty-eight, killing eighty percent of the population. The lack of manpower brought an end to the feudal system and set the stage for a late Renaissance. The new world was not discovered until nineteen-twenty-two. In the Americas, large mammals had apparently been gone for much longer, and the prairies and deserts were populated by giant tortoises, which had been unknown in Europe and Asia. Most of the natives revered the tortoises as gods, and left them alone, but would build shelters from the shells of dead tortoises, When the Europeans arrived in the west, they saw the giant beasts as a food supply to be exploited.

  William pondered the similarities between the two worlds that should not exist, while exploration and colonization was done by different people at different times in the two worlds, most place names were the same. Eric's school, Brown University, in this world had been founded in two-thousand-sixty-one, by a wealthy German industrialist name Braun, who anglicized the spelling of his name when he came to America, so it had a completely different history, but was in the same location. William wondered if there were greater forces in the Universe that kept things similar, but then he reminded himself that every world was possible, and they had just happened on one that was remarkably similar to his. He also reminded himself that while the visible portion of the last world they had visited had looked very familiar, it had been built that way for the benefit of the visiting humans, and the surrounding area had looked very different. He theorized that it was the fractal nature of the macroverse, two points might be very similar, but in between them, but in between, there might be a seemingly infin
ite number of variations.

  Eric interrupted William's train of thought, “May I see the inside?”

  Sally glanced at William, who nodded, “Yes of course.”

  Sally interjected, “Wait a minute.”

  William said, “What?”

  “Let's not forget, Eric's a pirate. Eric, you steal things don't you?”

  “Tortoises, mostly, but yes, we do steal other things occasionally, but only from those who exploit the tortoises.”

  “How do we know that you're not going to steal our vehicle?”

  “Well, technically, I've already stolen it, and kidnapped you. So you have no reason to trust me at all, and, being a pirate captain, I'm going to take what I want, however I want, so you really have no choice, I was just being polite. But I will tell you, I have no interest in you or your vehicle other than scientific curiosity. I have a mission here, and if I thought your vehicle would be of significant help in accomplishing that mission, I would not hesitate to take it. But I would like to see the inside, now open the door, please.”

  Sally was kept outside as William opened the door, and escorted Eric in, Fluffy was remarkably subdued.

  Eric took a look around, “It's a little smaller, and, honestly, a bit shabbier than I was expecting.”

  “How did you know what to expect?” William asked.

  Captain Eric pulled an old wrinkled envelope from his inner coat pocket, and handed it to William, “I've been carrying this around for a very long time. I freely admit that I've read it. You might not want her to see it.” He nodded toward the door.

  William took the envelope, he hoped that this wasn't going to be another mystery letter, like the one from Sam and Janet, that raised more questions than it answered.

  It read, “Dear William, I have been stuck here for about thirty years, the Winnebago was stolen by Melissa soon after we arrived, do not trust her. You might consider leaving her somewhere, it's cruel, I know, but she is real trouble, and may cause many deaths. I have managed to make a life here, but I think I have a way home. I was planning to leave tomorrow, but a stranger who seemed to know me stopped into my office this morning, and told me if I left at precisely one-fifty-nine AM local time, with the machine pointing West-Northwest, the most likely jump world would be home. I have no reason to doubt him, he knew more about me than anyone on this world could possibly know. I will give this message to my student, Eric, and tell him not to open it, (although I know he will) and in time, he will know what to do with it. Good luck at the Edge. -William”

  William said, “Excuse me.” and he and Eric stepped back out again, he handed the letter to Sally, who read it, and asked, “Who's Melissa?”

  William said, “I have no idea, perhaps someone this William met on his way.”

  Eric said to Sally, “You're not Melissa?”

  “No, I'm Sally.”

  “This is very confusing, Professor Terwilliger talked about her as his traveling companion, I assumed she was you, or you were she, and I was planning to hold you here to let William escape so that he would not be stranded here later, or earlier.... or something. Now I don't know what to do.”

  “I think you'll need to let us both go,” Sally said.

  William handed the letter back to Eric, “You should hold onto this, I think this letter was meant for another me, I'll keep the warning in mind, but I don't think it's our timeline that your Professor Terwilliger was from.”

  “In that case, I see no cause to let you go, I was doing it as a favor to the Professor, but if you're not him, there's no reason not to take your vehicle to use as I see fit.” He started to pull a pistol out from under his coat.

  Bob had remained silent until this, then suddenly said, “How's this for a reason for you?”

  Eric only had time to shout, “What the hell...,” before he was flat on his back with Fluffy standing on his chest, snarling, the tiger's massive face inches from Eric's own startled visage. The other pirates had their cutlasses drawn, but were otherwise paralyzed at the sight.

  Bob continued, “William, Sally, you might want to get inside now.”

  They darted inside, and Fluffy snarled one last time, turned and leaped back into the Winnie, Bob closed the door behind him and the vehicle vanished.

  Eric did not have time to come to grips with what was in the Winnebago's place before he was engulfed in a ball of flame.

  32.

  Sir Bedivere, the Dauntless, was growing tired of the interruptions to his quest. Arthur had set him to simple task, find the King's half-sister, Morgan le Fay, and bring back the Holy WingNut, which she had stolen from Arthur, wherever it might be. Merlin knew where it was, but the old dotard would not even give Bedivere a hint as to where he should look. Bedivere wasn't sure he'd ever get there anyway. What should have been a rather quick quest, get to Northumbria, where le Fay had set up her own kingdom, or queendom in this case, find the WingNut and return. He had expected that it would take no more than a few months, but it had now been over two years.

  It seemed that every time he would really get going, he'd be stopped by some villager, and asked to fight some evil knight of some particular color, or slay some giant or ogre or other monster. Most recently, he'd saved a damsel from the Giant Salamander of North Pocketshire which had been raiding the village, and eating all the pocketberries. Before that, it was the Demon Vole of Wotworth, which, it turned out was just a regular vole that had startled some children, who had exaggerated its size to their parents, who had then further exaggerated its size and ferocity to the town council, who had then stopped Bedivere, and told him of a beast the size of a small cottage that had devoured half the townspeople.

  Now, not more than two days later he was being called on to slay a fire breathing dragon. All in a knight's work, he thought to himself. From the directions he had received, he should be getting close to the dragon's lair, that is, if he’d turned at the correct place, “Go right about a half-mile before you get to the place where that old oak tree use to be, not the one where they hanged that thief, Cyrus, you know, the other, shorter one that's not there anymore,” he'd been told. Judging from the scorched spots scattered around, he was on the right course. As he followed the path around an outcropping of rocks, he saw the mouth of the cave in which the dragon had made its lair. The beast was asleep. If Bedivere had been a less honorable knight, he might have sneaked up on it, and killed it while it slept, but where was the glory in that? Instead, he tied his stallion, Ed, to a tree safely out of view of the cave, and approached on foot.

  “Hullo, dragon. Awaken, for I am here to slay thee!” he announced.

  “Go away, can't you see I'm taking a nap?” said the dragon.

  “I have not the time for naps, dragon, awaken, and I will deliver thee to eternal sleep.” He raised his sword.

  “Again with the threats,” the dragon stood, and stretched, “the name's Sid, I would prefer that you call me that instead of 'dragon', how do I know you're not talking to some other dragon? By the way, when you awaken a dragon, it's considered good manners to introduce yourself, it's rather rude to wake me up just to tell you you're going to kill me. What's your name, Sir Knight?”

  “Sir Bedivere, the Dauntless.”

  “Well, Belvedere...”

  “Bedivere.”

  “Whatever, let me introduce you to Sir Niles of Nixley.”

  “Where?” Bedivere lowered his sword, and looked around for another knight.

  “There, lying in the grass to your right. That skeleton wearing half melted armor. And a little past him, you'll see Sir Percy, the Faithful, he may have had faith, but there was one thing he didn't have.”

  “What was that”

  “Fire proof armor. You'll find a lot of others if you look around, those are just the most recent.”

  “Thou hast been eating the people of the village, and now thou must die.” Bedivere raised his sword again.

  “Totally untrue, I don't eat people.”

  “What about these
knights?”

  “I killed them in self-defense, and I never so much as nibbled on their charred flesh, people aren't kosher.”

  “Thou art Jewish?”

  “I have my beliefs, but all dragons follow rigid dietary laws, we eat herbivores only, no carnivores or omnivores.”

  “Omni-what's?”

  “Omnivores, it's what you are, my friend, you eat anything, plants and meat, whatever, that makes you unfit for dragon consumption, we are second-order vegetarians, we eat nothing that eats meat. You really shouldn't either, it's not healthy.”

  “Thou hast been eating the villagers' cattle.”

  “Very true, but what am I supposed to eat? When I came to this forest a thousand years ago, there weren’t any people for hundreds of miles, it was untouched forest, filled with all the deer I could eat, oh, occasionally a Pict or a Druid would pass by, but we just left each other alone, and everything was hunky-dory. I use to think that dragons and humans could peacefully co-exist, and then one day you humans started moving in, cutting down my forest, hunting my deer, so the only thing left to eat was your cattle, what would you do? For a hundreds of thousands of years, dragons ruled the world, and now you humans think you own it.”

  Bedivere puffed up his chest. “God granted us dominion over the world when he created it six thousand years ago.”

  “Dominion, my iridescent green ass. My uncle is over six thousand years old. We dragons had culture, religion and philosophy while your ancestors were trying to figure out how to make fire by rubbing two sticks together. You know what it is don't you? Inferiority complex, that's what it is. We're bigger, stronger, a helluva lot smarter, we live a hundred times longer, and, frankly, we're better looking.”