The Garden

by Craig W. Turner

  They all turned to Keegan, but were immediately sidetracked by Landon, who had gotten up and was walking out of their circle toward an opening in the trees. He was in a trance, lurching forward as though he was sleepwalking. “Landon?” Claire called after him.

  He took a few more steps, then turned his head to see them. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

  It hit her. She hadn’t even thought about it, and it embarrassed her a little. They’d landed in what geographically should have been the middle of a wasteland. But this was no desert. It was a lush rainforest, with thick greenery surrounding them in every direction. Inspecting the landscape further, she saw a brook weaving through the trees to her right. To the left, a quiet pond surrounded by tall reeds. She turned to see a wall of dense, enormous trees, taller than any she’d seen, even in the forests of Western Canada. She tried to analyze what she was seeing while the skeptic in her said quietly aloud, “Are we in the right place?”

  “I believe we are,” said Landon dreamily. Claire watched him inspect his VitaCom and then gape upwards at the mammoth trees. “We’re in the right place. It’s more beautiful than I could have imagined.”

  “The Garden of Eden?” Amy asked. Claire hadn’t noticed her getting to her feet. “Is it possible?”

  “That’s exactly where we are,” Landon said, finally turning to them. He was a different person than the one Claire had known the past 48 hours – excited, gleeful. “Do you know what this means?”

  “It means our mission is accomplished,” Reilly said. “There’s no sense in wasting time here.” He started to reach for his pack.

  “Are you insane?” Claire said. “We don’t know anything about where we are. We might not be in the right place. We might not be in the right time.” She reached for the display on her arm. “We have to-”

  Robert grabbed her by the shoulders. “Claire, it’s okay.” She turned to look at him. “We’re not going anywhere yet. We have some time. We can look around a bit.” She made eye contact with him for a moment, trying to see if there was anything to read into what he was saying. There was no defiance in his voice, but since Reilly was here, Robert wasn’t in charge. Though, he must have picked up something from the way she was looking at him, because he laughed and looked at Reilly. “I’m sorry, General,” he said. “I’m used to heading up the missions. I would encourage you, though, that we do some investigating before simply heading back. We need to know exactly what we’re into here, if we hope to save the program when we get home.”

  “I’ll tell you what,” Davies said. “With all due respect, General, you can go back whenever you want. I’m sticking around to have a gander.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Landon said, diverting everyone’s attention. “No one’s going anywhere.”

  Claire and everyone else turned their attention to the new guy.

  CHAPTER 51

  A bit amazed with himself that he hadn’t realized it on his own, Robert knew immediately what Landon was talking about when he spoke up. “He’s right,” he said, while everyone else waited for an answer.

  “Why is he right?” Reilly asked.

  Robert held his hand out, giving Landon the floor.

  “You had a copy of my paper,” Landon said to Reilly. “Did you not read it? Any of you?” He looked around. “Keegan, I know you read it. We discussed it.”

  Keegan and everyone else looked him blankly.

  “Tell them, Landon,” Robert prompted him.

  Landon sighed, then went into it. “If we are indeed in the Garden of Eden, Claire’s doubts notwithstanding – before the Fall of Man – then it’s very possible that at this point in history, according to many schools of thought, time does not exist.”

  “Bloody hell,” said Davies. “He’s right.”

  “Sure there is,” Reilly said. “The Earth revolves around the sun and rotates, just like in any other time. Even from the Biblical perspective: The evening and the morning were the first day.” He dismissed Landon’s theory with a shake of his head. “That’s how we could pinpoint-”

  “Yes,” Landon said, “but one hypothesis held by scholars has always been that until they sinned Adam and Eve lived in an eternal state in the image of God, himself. And that before the Fall of Man they lived in an existence without time. Which is why Adam and Eve could have lived for what we would equate to thousands or even millions of years.”

  “You couldn’t have mentioned this before?” Reilly said.

  Robert caught Landon’s eye as he held out his hands in defeat. “It was in the paper you threw across the table at me,” Landon said. Reilly didn’t answer, instead simply looking at the ground.

  Robert realized that despite rank, experience or seniority, the mission had just assumed a new leader.

  “Hold on,” Claire said, interjecting. “We have found nothing to prove that this is the Garden of Eden. And you said we’re in the right place. If that’s true, how could that be possible?”

  It was a good question, so Robert engaged his own VitaCom, looking for their current time. To his surprise, the readout told him they were in 7891 B.C. Though he immediately questioned himself as to why the actual math had surprised him.

  “What is it?” Claire asked.

  He looked up at her. “Right on the money. Right where and when we’re supposed to be.”

  “7891 B.C.,” Amy said, having done the math in her head.

  Claire was smug. “Well, that settles that argument.” She looked at Landon. “You’re wrong.”

  Robert noticed Landon shaking his head, though. “You feel differently?” he asked.

  “I don’t know that it settles anything,” he said. “I haven’t had a chance to learn this device in my arm yet, but I can only assume that it uses geo-positioning to pinpoint time. Yes? While it’s true that we couldn’t have landed here if the Earth wasn’t in this exact position at the right time, that doesn’t necessarily guarantee that we have a way back. Old Earth Creationists-”

  “Honestly?” Claire interrupted him. “Are we really going to use mythology as a guide here? Chester, you’re the expert. Say something.”

  Their attention turned to Davies, who was lost in the scenery. “I am not in a position to refute or confirm anything right now,” he said, looking skyward. “The world is a different place for me than it was ten minutes ago.”

  “Wonderful,” Claire said, exasperated.

  Robert shook his head. “I’m sorry, Claire.” He knew that as the most avid opponent of Creationism, her emotions had to be taking a beating right at that moment. “I did not expect us to find what we’ve found here, but I hate to tell you, I think we’re here. Eden.” His mind suddenly flashed to the darkness – the place they’d found themselves after launching through the time machine. A shiver went up his spine. “Wait. Did you all see the same thing I did? The darkness followed by the bright light?”

  “I saw it,” Amy said. “It was unbelievable.”

  “I saw it, too,” Landon said. “What do you suppose it was?”

  Robert smiled. “Creation?” he said slyly.

  “Oh, c’mon,” Claire said. “Do you know how ridiculous you sound right now?” She snickered. “Maybe it was the Big Bang.”

  “And… Do you know how ridiculous you sound, Claire?” Robert replied. “We went 10,000 years into the past, not 14 billion. I think we’re going to have to accept a modicum of ridiculousness for the time being.”

  “Look,” Reilly said, “we can hypothesize all of this later. What we need to figure out is how we get out of here. Dr. Tripathi? Any ideas?” Robert watched as Landon stared into the trees, thinking.

  “What happens if we try to get back?” Davies asked.

  “Well, theoretically,” Landon said, still staring, “if you were to put the cloak on and attempt to jump back to SATP, provided there was no time by which you could measure, you would be caught in a time loop. Or, worse, your atomic mass would be scrambled and launched out into space in search of a satell
ite that’s not there. Or, more precisely, will never be there because history, as we know it, has yet to be set in motion. According to the religious doctrines.”

  “How is that worse?” Amy asked, with a snicker. No one answered.

  “I can’t believe we’re entertaining this,” Claire said. “We’ve got the data right here.” She slapped her arm harder than Robert would’ve recommended. Then she looked at Keegan. “Nothing from you?”

  Apparently not, as Keegan just stared at her.

  “So, Dr. Tripathi, if there’s no time, what do we have to-” Reilly cut himself off, having answered his own question.

  In fact, as Robert looked around the circle, he realized that everyone seemed to come to the same conclusion at the same time. Even Claire, the non-believer.

  “Oh, my goodness,” Reilly said.

  Landon was shaking his head and smiling. He almost looked amused. “You can’t say that I didn’t warn you about taking this mission.”

  Each of them had their own reactions. Amy sat back down on the grass, defeated. Reilly began to pace. Davies massaged the bridge of his nose. Claire continued to ponder a scenario in which she was right and everyone else was wrong. Keegan, surprisingly, seemed unmoved. Robert’s own reaction was along the line of Landon’s – there was a humor here that you had to look hard to find, but it was there.

  “Listen,” he said, knowing he had a smirk on his face, “what we need to do is something that, where we come from, has already been done. The only question is when. We’re not reinventing the wheel, and we’re not stepping on butterflies. All we need to do is follow a script.”

  “It’s not the easiest thing in the world to think about,” Amy said. “We’re good people.”

  “Good people?” Claire repeated. “Is that relevant?”

  “How do we even think about how to do this?” Reilly asked.

  “We just do,” Robert said. “Or, we can stay here and wait for it to happen by itself. Which could be, what, millions of years? Billions?” He was already beginning to lose patience with Reilly, whose attention appeared to be elsewhere. “That’s always an option.”

  “Well, we have some exploring to do,” Landon said. “Or searching, as the case may be. I suggest we get started.”

  A crackling noise came from the underbrush behind them, and they all turned to see a magnificent elk standing fifteen feet away, taking them in. Robert froze for a moment, as did everyone else, but then for the first time noticed a flurry of activity in the distance.

  “What is that?” Claire wondered out loud.

  Landon was beaming. “Animals,” he said. “Every beast of the field and every fowl of the air.”

  As Robert looked, he couldn’t deny what Landon was saying, which he remembered was at least a loose retelling of a Biblical passage. At every degree of vision around him, the forest was teeming with wildlife, and somehow irrespective of biome. To his right were a herd of water buffalo. To his left, kangaroos and pigs. Or boars – he didn’t know the difference. A wild turkey explored the ground about ten feet away. And his senses awakened to the sounds of what must have been thousands of birds among the trees. They’d been so preoccupied with themselves, they’d missed their entire environment completely.

  “Are we safe?” Amy asked.

  “I have no reason to suspect otherwise,” Landon said. “We should move, though.”

  There was a reluctant and quiet agreement among the group that they needed to take at least some kind of action, even if that meant strolling around the forest looking for anything that made sense. Those who weren’t standing stood, and they endured an awkward moment trying to identify who was going to lead the pack.

  “You’ve been quiet,” Robert said, noticing Keegan looking around, lost.

  “I’ll be honest with you,” Keegan said, “I have no idea what you guys are talking about.”

  “Really?” Claire asked. “Even I know what they mean. I don’t think they’re right, but I do know what they’re talking about.”

  “It’s a theory,” Landon said, reminding her. “I’m not saying this is all fact. I said it’s a theory. But since we only have one jump in each of our cloaks, it’s probably better to be safe than sorry. Right?”

  “There is only one justification for this to be anything but the middle of the desert,” Davies said. “Too many of the world’s theories on intelligent design point to exactly where we find ourselves right now. It’s best for us to be thoughtful and strategic.” He paused, looking at each of them, and then Reilly. “You get to paradise and the first thing you want to do is leave? I’m with him.” He motioned to Landon.

  Robert reaffirmed that Landon was the new mission leader.

  “So which way do we go, chief?” Reilly asked Landon with enough sarcasm to be blatant.

  Landon turned and peered into the trees, searching for anything that would give them direction.

  “I’m sorry, guys,” Keegan said. “You’re going to have to spell it out for me. What exactly is it we’re looking for?”

  “Keegan, c’mon, man,” Robert said. He held out his hands, unable to believe that Keegan, the guy who’d pushed for this mission from the beginning, was clueless. “The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil? The apple? The snake?”

  Keegan looked Robert in the eyes for a moment, then a devilish grin crossed his face. “Ah, yes,” he said. “That makes sense now.”

  “Good,” Robert said. “Can we, you know, go now?”

  Keegan nodded, Landon began to walk toward the brook. Robert patted Keegan on the shoulder as they all followed.

  CHAPTER 52

  “This is pointless,” Reilly said. “We have no bearings. We have no idea where we are or where we’re going.”

  Landon had noticed that the General had been increasingly testy since they’d arrived. He’d attributed it to his loss of control over the mission, but it was starting to get to over the top. He’d been through too much to get here to allow personalities to affect him. But, they had no idea what they were facing, and the only way they were going to learn anything was to explore. As the chief of a team of scientists on the project, Reilly should have understood that.

  They had access to GPS through their VitaCom technology, but it didn’t necessarily help because there weren’t any landmarks they were aware of. The sun was almost directly overhead, so it offered no guidance, either. And unlike in modern times, where you could be fairly certain that following water would ultimately take you to a population center, there was nothing leading them to believe it was a sound strategy here.

  Ignoring Reilly’s complaints, Landon continued to lead the parade through the trees, attempting to recollect his own writings from college, though it had been a long time. He reminisced about why he’d even chosen the Garden of Eden as a topic for a paper and remembered, unfortunately, that he’d simply been bored with whatever they’d been studying at the time. The project was done for a philosophy class that he’d reluctantly taken as part of his general education curriculum. To a great degree, it had been insulting to him, having himself written curricula for the university’s advanced astrophysics and molecular technology classes, to have to take a 101-level class to secure sufficient credits to graduate. When presented with a project that he thought was beneath him, he’d made the decision late one evening to take a violent stab at the theories of astronomic, geological and biological evolution by providing the scientific justification for the Garden of Eden. It had taken the university by storm, as Landon, who was not even Abrahamic in his faith, had blown the doors off of evolutionists’ frame of mind when it came to the mythology of intelligent design. He’d referred to it as a joke in Reilly’s conference room, which was exactly how he felt about the project – and until it had been thrown on the conference room table in front of him, he hadn’t thought about it since he’d turned it in.

  The one precept that had run throughout his work, though, that he was holding fast to, was the “Old Earth” Creationists’ belief tha
t time did not exist in the Garden of Eden. As he’d told the team, he considered it a “safe bet.” If their new surroundings had taught them one thing, it was that there was no certainty as far as what they thought they knew. They were in the middle of what was supposed to be an empty desert – there was no geological data that would support a lush forest in their current location and time according to their calculations. Whether that supported Creationist theories or was simply an anomaly that needed to be researched, he wasn’t prepared to opine at this point. But he did know that something fantastic had happened to them, and regardless of the politics back home, theirs was a discovery that deserved to be understood.

  He felt someone beside him, and looked to see Keegan catching up to him. Which wasn’t difficult, with his enormous strides. But he slowed down a bit anyway.

  “Do you know where we’re going?” Keegan asked.

  Landon shook his head. “Not any more than anyone else, no. How could I?”

  Keegan unexpectedly grabbed his arm, stopping him. Landon turned, facing him, to hear what he had to say, but Keegan only stared down at him for a moment, looking at him as though he was trying to read a strange look on his face. Which Landon was probably showing, given the interaction.

  It was an awkward situation, but after a moment Keegan spoke. “Your hypotheses were right,” he said.

  “My hypotheses?”

  “In your paper.”

  Landon laughed, and looked back in the direction of their landing site. “My paper? Where were you ten minutes ago when I needed you? I thought I was going crazy. We’d talked about it.”

  Keegan dismissed his rebuke, and held out a hand, inviting him to continue to walk. Landon took a hesitant step forward. “Somehow, I arrived here before you did,” Keegan said. “I had a chance to walk around.” He paused. “There’s no way to get back yet. But I can lead you to the Tree.”

  “Well, you’re just full of surprises,” Landon said. “But, how could you have arrived before us? We left, and you were still in the control room. I heard the whole conversation.”