Matt waved his hands in front of him, ‘Yes and no! You are getting ahead of yourself. First of all, our work here has already established, through observation, that gravity is a variable. We yet need to derive a valid analysis of the dependencies of the model for the variable’s behavior and that is the focus of our expedition.’
‘But I want you to now to consider this. You can see the figures here. We are already beginning to pass into this galactic arm called the Sagittarius Arm. The density of stars in this arm is much greater than in our Orion neighborhood of sixty five million years in the future. The passage into the arm will be turbulent and most likely will result in a thorough disruption of the Oort Cloud of cometary debris that surrounds our solar system. This is the cloud where all of our large comets reside. It contains a tremendous amount of debris. Further results indicate that the Sagittarius Arm is not uniformly dense in solar population. There is a higher density in the front edge of the arm, with which we are now colliding, than on the back edge. So the solar system is moving into the densely packed front edge where cosmic radiation will be very much greater than in the past hundred million years and even greater than in our home time frame.’
‘This theory is not new, but as the sun travels deeper into the arm, the interstellar debris levels are increasing as will the levels of cosmic radiation. There will be a time lag before the effects of these major disturbances accumulate to major levels, about a thousand years. We are heading into a major storm consisting of higher levels of cosmic radiation and particulate debris. These will fall into the solar system along with greater and greater accretions of cometary material that we will scoop up along the path. The nightly show of meteorite showers and cometary visitors should be quite spectacular, if you can see through the denser cloud cover that’s sure to form. Unfortunately, the probability of a collision with a larger body, such as a comet, will also increase and we know it will soon result in the K-T extinction event. The event will kill off over half the species in less than a thousand years. Dust from the collision coupled with greatly increased cloud cover will result in rapid cooling and the ice ages will follow. So we’ve significantly added to the confirmation of the theory with our observations. However, this is a minor victory at this point.’
Paul is amazed. He has never seen Matt act like this. Matt’s almost giddy as he turns again toward Paul. ‘Oh! There is so much more to it and the realization is so revolutionary and so simple that I’m mortified that it did not occur to us when we planned the experiment.’
‘We selected these stars as keys because of their easy identification, their relatively close proximity to the sun and our prior identification of them as having potentially life-bearing, earth-like planets in their orbital belt. Now look at this graph.’
The massive three-dimensional graph swung around with a wave of Matt’s hand. ‘Look here, here and here. These are very promising systems for exploration and colonization. They have the right levels of atmospheric gases, their orbits place the planets in the right temperature zone, they have acceptable ra diation levels and so on. These stellar systems were close, several hundred light years away from us at the most when we selected them. Now, our frame of reference has shifted. More importantly, the locations of these stars relative to the Earth have changed significantly. The farthest of these is now only thirty light years and the closest is less than ten.’ Matt smiled with a big expectant grin on his face.
He swung the graph around again and pointed to three newly highlighted stars. ‘These were not part of the stellar key set. They are much more promising, as far as having potential earth-like planets, but were previously too far away for consideration. Now they are even closer to the Sun, less than four light years away!’
Paul looked at the data and the display. ‘OK, we have a very good chance of improving our models. With understanding, we should be able to improve our drive design and therefore travel to the stars at several times rather than a fraction of the speed of light. So this is additional early confirmation that it’s just a matter of time and work on our part.’
Then he hesitated and the realization hit him. ‘Are you also saying that the important destinations for interstellar travel are now closer than in our time? This means we could reach and colonize these prime stars with greater ease if we left from some Cretaceous Station or spaceport rather than from our own timeframe?’
A rare smile of accomplishment appeared on Matt’s face, ‘Yes! This is the long awaited guarantee of survival for our race. Think of the implications! Before we even began this expedition, the human race has had sixty five million year old colonies on over a dozen prime, earth-like star systems! All of them originating from a stellar spaceport that we will build right here in the Cretaceous!’
‘We have a meeting scheduled with Mark this afternoon. We need to put together a plan to expand our position here from a simple research station into a spaceport. This may mean that we move our Station to a more attractive position and return to our time to bring additional resources back. We will also have to consider bringing back more engineers and construction to build a major facility. Then there’s the possibility of expanding further back in time to one of the earlier extinction events but that’s for the future. We would first have to evaluate this time frame’s local stellar neighborhood for nearby habitable planets wouldn’t we?’
‘Think of it, that group of rooms that Seth and Adrian found may have actually been what remains of our star port! It may have been built by our descendents. Some time in the past, perhaps around the last extinction event, although my mind has a hard time wondering how it could have survived for thirty or so million years. Think of it! Humankind travelled to the stars using time portals to access favorably closer stellar configurations….’
A hundred questions raced through Paul’s mind as Matt continued on in his speculations. Then, suddenly it hit him. Paul’s face wasn’t smiling as he interrupted. ‘Unfortunately, we are going to look pretty primitive to our ancestors if we go home and visit them by leaving from our original timeframe.’
References
1. Gold, Lead, Zinc and Silver deposits in Cretaceous Strata, Texas almanac and state industrial guide, Belo & Co., ©1904-1951.pp161-165
2. Mark Renz, “Megladon: Hunting the Hunter” , PaleoPress ISBN 0-97419477-0-8
3. J. Wendler, “External forcing of the geomagnetic field? Implications for the cosmic ray flux—climate variability”, Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 66 (2004) 1195 – 1203 (Climate change and magnetic pole reversals as influenced by the position of the solar system in the galactic arm.) http://tornado.sfsu.edu/geosciences/classes/gm700/PDF_Files/DaveGgeomag.pdf
4. N.J. Shaviv, “Cosmic ray diffusion from the galactic spiral arms, iron meteorites, and a possible climatic connection”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 (2002) 051102.
5. N. Shaviv, “The spiral structure of the Milky Way, cosmic rays, and ice age epochs on Earth”, New Astron. 8 (2003) 39–77. http://www.phys.huji.ac.il/~shaviv/articles/long-ice.pdf
6. Apesteguía S, Zaher H., “A Cretaceous terrestrial snake with robust hindlimbs and a sacrum”, Nature. 2006 Apr 20;440(7087):1037-40.
7. G. Erickson, P. Currie, B. Inouye, A.Wynn (2006). "Tyrannosaur life tables: an example of nonavian dinosaur population biology". Science 313 (5784): 213–217. doi:10.1126/science.1125721. PMID 16840697. http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/jai/podcast_publications/inouye_science_dinosaur.pdf. (Albertosauraus pack behavior. Pack of 22 found.
Albertosaurus
As a tyrannosaurid, Albertosaurus was a bipedal predator with tiny, two-fingered hands and a massive head with large, sharp teeth shaped for meat cleavage. Albertosaurus was much smaller than its more famous relative Tyrannosaurus. Typical adults measured up to 9 metres (30 ft) long, while rare individuals of great age could grow to over 10 metres (33 ft) in length.
Pack Behaviour
The Dry Island (Alberta, Canada) bone bed discovered by Barnum Brown and his crew contains the remai
ns of twenty-two Albertosaurus, the most individuals found in one locality of any Cretaceous theropod. The group was composed of one very old adult; eight adults between 17 and 23 years old; seven sub-adults undergoing their rapid growth phases at between 12 and 16 years old; and six juveniles between the ages of 2 and 11 years, who had not yet reached the growth phase. The group was found together. The site was not a killing spot like the La Brea tar pits or a river washout like in Dinosaur National Park in Colorado. There is strong evidence of pack hunting.
The Extinctions
There have been many recent publications linking the path of the solar system in the Milky Way with changes in climate and higher levels of cosmic rays and random interstellar debris. Passage into the leading edges of each coincide highly with extinctions as do major changes in climate and even the rate of flipping of the magnetic poles of the earth. This apparently is one major influences of climate change. This all of course leads to another story and, for the truly interested, some very good and easy to obtain references are listed above.
Epilog: The River
" The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go.
What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.
Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time."
Robert Jordan
A heightened awareness of the world around him fed his deep sense of anticipation. Emotions mixed oddly with strange feelings of peace and relaxation. Feelings softly flowed through his being much as the passing river’s waters as he softly walked along its edge. The heavy showers of yesterday were a rare treat. The sky had flushed out the humidity and dust in a day of heavy downpours. At day’s end, rains mixed with an evening of lightning that snaked from horizon to horizon and the smell of ozone filled the air.
This was a first time experience. Every step seemed to harbor new sights and unexpected sounds. Ahead lay a day of promise, of carefully planned excitement.
They had started at the base of Blackbird Valley’s cliffs early, just before first light. The trail was clear but pebble strewn. They climbed easily in the early morning glow. A party of three following a natural pathway made clear by the passage of thousands, perhaps millions of feet ascending this same trail in the millennium of years before them. The path switched back and forth across the steep rock face, each turn carrying them higher and bringing new vistas filled with a softly rising glow. The brightest early morning stars stood a last silent watch to the rising light far in the east. Hidden on their right side by immense natural monuments of granite, the fall of the river to the floor of the valley rumbled with soft power in their ears.
Rare, cool air filled their lungs as they climbed with the freshness felt only after a cleansing rain. When they had traveled less than a quarter of the way up the cliffs, the singing started.
It was an ancient song, offered every day to the newly rising sun. The melody was always the same but still oddly different each day. The singers started at the tops of the cliffs as the first sweet shafts of sunlight warmed the rocky parapets dancing across golden peaks against the blue velvet sky. The song traveled down past the nesting sites on the cliffs, growing in volume and changing slowly as each wakened nestling added their own unique strains to the concerto.
It may have only been their location in the midst of the choir that lofted their spirits so high but the first rays to light the floor of the valley seemed miraculous. They had heard this concerto every day for the past three days as they prepared for the climb. Today’s song rose above those now mundane performances. The sweet voice of thousands lifted from below, above and all around them. The audible tides echoed from the cliffs and rode the rock-muffled soft background roar of the river as it flew from the cliff edge high above them to the waiting rocks thousands of feet below. Upward they had climbed in the golden glory of the young star amid the sweet flowing strains of nature’s wonderment come alive, taken to flight and now soaring about them.
As they neared the top of the trail, their journey crossed between massive boulders fallen eons before on the path. Granite walls formed a natural frame of the rapidly flowing water stream’s first leap over the edge of the cliff. A mist of spray filled the air giving birth to rainbows of refracted rays of color stolen from the sun.
The travelers paused for a brief rest to admire the vast panorama of Blackbird Valley and the beauty of its peaks. The songs of morning having long since faded into the new day, they continued their journey along the stream to the unique spot they had located earlier.
A tall, slim, blond haired girl took the lead of the party. Molly Pasteur carried herself proud and erect; her pace was strong and sure along the pathway. She followed the water, moving upstream over the bare rocks and brush of the cliffs and into the dense pine forest. The loose stony gravel beneath their feet gave way to a soft bed of pine needles with a cool green mix of Cyclades and ferns by the edge of the softly trickling water. High mountain breezes cooled her walk while the bright rays of the unfiltered sun warmed her face and brought bright shades of red to the fair skin of her cheeks. A pistol, black and deadly, bounced on her hip in a holster now worn smooth with the shine of hard use.
A flicker of iridescent golden brown passed from her side and onto the trail before her. It sang a low warble and disappeared instantly into the bends of the river stream ahead. Molly’s eyes moved constantly. She watched the stream and the small fuzzy reptiles that played about it. Familiar frogs jumped from the edge of the water as she neared a pool. Her eyes followed the majestic colors of a dragonfly as it hovered to delicately bounce off the pure surface of the pool.
Ahead of them, the sounds of approaching feet softly padded on the fallen needles. Almost below hearing, she could hear their approach but Molly pushed on, ready for the unexpected. Suddenly, with no warning a golden brown blur broke from the ferns to their side. It brushed past Molly and into the path behind her. Hardly breaking her stride, Molly looked back to see a broad face framed in soft pheasant-colored feathers and an orange comb race by to brush and circle the broad shouldered hiker behind her.
He walked with the lightest limp today. The strength of his pace left no doubt in her mind that the faint hobble would soon fade away to the steady measured pace of a man used to years of hard work. His face held the remains of a faint red scar across his cheek that would also fade under the control of modern medicine in a primitive world. Alex growled at the intruder, mocking a battle stance as the five foot tall, bronze colored blur came at him.
‘Ha, I saw you that time Buddy! No, cut it out, my ears! Come on, you’re going to scare them.’
The soft-feathered Hype was finally pain free after suffering several days under the close ministrations of Doctor Graeme. His shoulder was still sore if you grabbed it wrong but the joys he felt on this adventure surpassed such slight annoyances. Their love had grown so strong that he and Alex were near inseparable. He had learned something very important, the bond between human and Hypsilophodont can root very deep.
Buddy circled again and collided with Alex and bounced from him like a ball. Alex’s high gravity muscles staggered lightly from the blow and Molly yelled as a six foot long, feathered tail snapped across per pack. ‘Alex, why can’t you control your Hype? And when are you going to start teaching him to talk?’
A laugh rose behind them as the hiker picked up a small stone from the path. ‘They don’t all take to mimic and talking Molly. Some just like to be what they are, good companions.’
Molly let a low branch snap behind her as she passed. ‘Right Dieter! Take his side on it. You guys always stick together.’
The mountain formed a plateau with a gentle grade falling off behind them. The river had grown to be about thirty feet wide as it twisted and turned in its path toward the falls below. Conifers filled the plateau around them spreading a soft, pine-scented blanket of needles among the ferns to cushion the tread of their boots. The pine trees are old and majestic, climbing straight and true toward the sky. Their growth carries
them higher than any of their ancestors will be able to achieve. The storms and lighting are few and seldom seen here in the Cretaceous Period so the height of these giant trees is not limited by wind and lightning.
The forest canopy cuts the intense rays of the high altitude sunlight. As they walk, the cool forest opens into small glades, filled with primitive cycads, and strange flowers new to this age. ‘Hold on,’ Molly stops with a whisper. ‘There’s a group of small dinosaur, look at their colors. I want to see if I can get a really close recording.’
Dieter turns toward Molly, ‘They seem to be vegetarian but be careful. I have no idea as to what they may be.’
A group of eight fluffy, tan bellied dinosaurs are fluttering in the clearing ahead of them. The largest is only three feet high and has deep blue feathers across its back with a tufted crest on its head. Their tails stretch out behind them, the blue features giving way to black and white tufts at the tip. They run and tussle with each other in playful sport, chasing a large pine cone that they grab with their broad toothed mouths or their four fingered hands.
Molly slowly approaches in a low crouch along the soft-needled trail. The high ferns provide cover as she slowly moves close enough to hear their warbled song of play. Carefully placing each foot step to avoid fallen sticks and brushed ferns that would alert the quarry to her approach. Her breathing is controlled into shallow, half breaths and she sees them moving ahead of her.
One head pops up in alarm! The group stops and all heads turn toward the brush. Further back in the ferns, Alex’s hand reaches for his pistol in alarm. Almost as a group they warble a question toward Molly. Knowing that she has been spotted, Molly slowly stands, unsure of the reaction. Suddenly one of the dinosaurs breaks rank and runs toward Molly. They all follow and soon are running around Molly. They jump and run about her, still unsure of their approach but curious enough about this new stranger.
Nodal Convergence (Cretaceous Station Book 1) Page 35
