Footprints of Thunder

by James F. David

  Nick’s stomach knotted at the mention of Gogh’s name, remembering the messages exchanged on the PresNet system-He didn’t like the direction of Gogh’s reasoning—even less so now that the man had direct access to the President.

  “The President respects you, Nick. He and the others were impressed by the way you figured out what happened.”

  Nick swallowed back a protest. A college kid from Oregon and a mysterious group of others had seen what scientists with multiple degrees and decades of grant-supported research had overlooked. Nick had no intention of taking credit for the discovery.

  “I know what Gogh has in mind, Elizabeth, and I’m going to argue against it,”

  “You should know that Sandy McIntyre is in Atlanta—was in Atlanta. The Secret Service can’t contact or locate her. She apparently was in the part of the city that is gone. The President isn’t thinking clearly, Nick. He only wants to get her back, nothing else matters.”

  Now Nick understood: The President’s rapport with his wife was legendary, and a big part of his success in politics was due to his wife. Sandy McIntyre was witty, attractive in a motherly way, and the warmest person Nick had ever met. So wide was her appeal there had been half-serious talk of putting her on the ticket.

  Nick realized he felt more of a loss for Sandy McIntyre than for the millions lost across the country. He understood why: partly because for the first time he had thought about the loss of a particular individual. But mostly he grieved at losing the first lady’s personal magnetism. If Nick mourned, the President must be devastated.

  The agenda had undergone radical change. At its top was a plan of action from Dr. Arnold Gogh. As Gogh began, Elizabeth leaned forward to whisper to the President, but uncharacteristically he dismissed her with a sharp wave of his hand.

  “As the President directed we have been working on a solution based on the time displacement theory,” Gogh stated.

  Nick noted he did not give any credit for the theory to Nick or to anyone else. At Gogh’s direction the lights came down and a slide was projected on the screen. It was the photo Nick had seen of the quilted New York City.

  “As you can see from this photo, approximately one third of New York City has experienced time displacement. The segment is grassland and is probably from the Cretaceous period.”

  Gasps and expressions of disbelief rippled around the table.

  “Cretaceous period? Impossible!” Natalie Matsuda answered loudly, ignoring the mounting evidence.

  Dr. Gogh looked irritated but ignored Matsuda and called for the next slide.

  The next slide was blurry but it was an overhead shot of an animal. That photo had not been in Nick’s packet, and he realized he had been partly cut out of the decision loop, just like Elizabeth.

  “This is a blowup of one of the aerial photos. As you can see there is an animal in the photo.”

  “Is that another dinosaur?” Cannon asked.

  “Yes, but one much bigger than the ankylosaur in your Quebec photo.”

  Gogh said it with pride, as if he were in a competition to find the biggest dinosaur. “Professor Struthers of the PresNet has tentatively identified this as an iguanodon. It’s hard to scale this photo, since there are no familiar objects near the dinosaur, but Professor Struthers tells me iguanodons can be twenty-five to thirty feet in length, and when standing they might be fifteen or twenty feet tall.”

  Gasps and soft whistles filled the room as the occupants launched impromptu discussions. Some wondered if the animals were aggressive. Others speculated on what would happen if one wandered into New York City’s midtown streets. Nick listened to the voices around him and then asked that the previous slide be put back up. Looking disgusted at the interruption, Gogh nevertheless reversed the projector.

  “What’s along the line where the prehistoric segment meets city?”

  “Buildings, of course,” Gogh replied abruptly.

  “Buildings with people inside!” Nick pointed out. “How close are these animals to the residents? We already know some of the animals in the Quebec displacement are wandering out of their natural environment. What about here? There’s a human factor to consider here.”

  Nick was embarrassed he too had never considered the human factor. But now, that attention was long overdue. He turned and looked at the President, who studiously ignored him.

  “Shouldn’t we take steps to protect the residents near the displaced segments?” Nick prodded,

  Still the President ignored him. Nick caught Elizabeth’s eye, and she shook her head briefly, indicating they had done nothing about this.

  Finally Gogh spoke. “I’m sure the local authorities are taking care of that problem, but as you will see there may not be any need for federal action. Next slide, please. This slide shows New York an hour later. Notice that the missing segment is back.”

  Instantly the room erupted into a mixture of relief, disbelief, and hope. For a minute Gogh enjoyed the effect of his pronouncement, then pushed on.

  “Notice the fuzzy sections around the displaced segment. This next slide shows a blowup of the fuzzy section.”

  Another picture Nick had not seen appeared on the screen. It was an aerial shot of buildings, but they were transparent and the golden color of the grassland showed through them. More discussion rippled around the room, though the President sat quietly lost in his own thoughts. Elizabeth tried to whisper to him again, but he dismissed her with another wave.

  “Notice the indefinite state of this section.” Gogh walked to the screen and pointed at the transparent section. “Notice also this ring.” He traced a thin golden section. “This is a section of grassland around the outer edge of the displaced segment. The next photo was taken two hours later, and the next was taken an hour after that.”

  The next slide showed a New York City with a clearly missing section. It was quickly followed by a slide showing New York with the piece back. It took Nick a minute to notice the change.

  “You will see,” Dr. Gogh said, pointing with a pen, “that the amount of city in the displaced segment is smaller and the indefinite area has pulled toward the center. Notice also that the ring of grassland has grown larger.” Again he traced the golden ring around the oval. “This phenomena tells us two things. First, that the effect appears to be in an indefinite state. Second, that the effect is reaching a state of equilibrium, and doing so rather quickly. The oscillations between city and prairie are irregular, but the growth of the stabilized time-displaced sections is increasing logarithmically. We have little time to act. Fortunately, we have developed a plan of action to deal with the problem.”

  Everyone at the table leaned forward at that point except the secretary of defense, who kept her eyes down and looked distinctly uncomfortable.

  “We have accepted the theory that the time displacement occurred as a result of time disruption created by the detonation of nuclear devices. However, the idea that waves are sweeping across the surface of the planet has been rejected. Instead, in conjunction with Dr. Gomez, at the Fermi Institute, I have developed a model that shows that the current effects and the originating explosions are actually connected.”

  “Connected how?” the CIA director asked. “The bomb testing you are talking about happened in the sixties, maybe even the fifties.”

  “The explosions created an effect that crosses space and time. The effect we have today is happening because the explosions are happening right now in the sixties.”

  Cannon shook his head in confusion but kept quiet.

  “Since the events in the past and the current event are linked, it means we have an opportunity to manipulate the event. We intend to disrupt the effect before it has a chance to reach equilibrium by creating another time wave to counteract the effects of the one that produced our current problems.”

  Nick was confused for a moment. He knew of no way to create a time wave except with dense matter, and the only human way to create dense matter was with a nuclear explosion. Then he reali
zed what Gogh was planning and a sick feeling swept over him. A moment later Gogh confirmed what Nick was thinking.

  “We intend to use a nuclear detonation to create another wave.”

  As chaotic discussion followed, Gogh and the President waited it out. Most of the questions directed at the President were the “Why wasn’t I consulted?” type. When order returned Nick managed to get the floor.

  “We don’t know this will work. We don’t even know for sure this is caused by the nuclear explosions. For all we know, it could be some factor interacting with the detonations to produce the effect. Besides, what’s happened to us wasn’t pro-duced by a single bomb, it was the accumulative effects of hundreds of explosions.”

  “That’s why we intend to use more than one device.” Gogh waited, making Nick ask the obvious question.

  “How many more than one?”

  “One hundred.”

  Even the stoic military officers gasped at the thought of detonating a hundred hydrogen bombs. Nick was stunned by the thought but slowly realized if you were going to take this course of action you had little choice but to use such megatonnage. The time wave that had disrupted Nick’s present and sent millions, if not billions, of people spinning off into time wasn’t caused by one or two bombs. There had been nearly a thousand British and American bombs tested at the New Mexico test site alone. From that perspective a hundred bombs was even conservative, but no human or natural event could match the power of one hundred warheads detonated in the atmosphere. Krakatoa and Mount Saint Helens would pale in comparison. Nick recalled the nuclear winter concerns of a few years ago. Even if they got the missing people back, they could lose them again to starvation. Nick quickly assessed the benefits and costs and took his stand.

  “You can’t do this. We don’t understand what we’re dealing with yet. All we have is a rudimentary theory and there is no evidence that this will return things to normal. At best all you will do is create more time displacement and at worst … who knows? We know it will cause vast destruction, and may have long-term effects. You have heard of nuclear winter?”

  “A discredited theory,”

  “It won’t be theory if we detonate that many warheads, and then it could be too late.”

  Nick was surprised to find the President and not Gogh responding. “We know what will happen if we don’t do anything. We will lose millions of our citizens, billions of dollars in property, not to mention the cost of rebuilding. This country already has more debt than most of the rest of the world combined. How will we rebuild from this? You see, Dr. Paulson, I am thinking of the human factor. The human factor on a worldwide scale.”

  “Mr. President—” Nick began, but found himself cut off by the President.

  “We’ve considered the risks, Dr. Paulson, as well as safety and other issues.” The President motioned for Gogh to continue, then picked up a paper clip and began twisting it into a shape he could twirl.

  Gogh returned to his presentation with a new air of confidence and self-importance. “As the President indicated we have considered the consequences of this action and have taken steps to reduce risk. First, we must select a displaced segment suitable to our needs. The potential detonation sites are limited by several factors. They must be U.S. territory and must not require an overflight of another country to reach the site. We have too little time to pursue diplomatic channels for overflight permission. Second, the site should be located as far west as possible. The effect spread from the east to the west, so there will be more instability in a western site.”

  The east-to-west spread was a new idea to Nick. He hadn’t seen that on the PresNet, and Gomez had not mentioned it. Did the idea originate with Gogh?

  “Third, since the detonation will take place in our past it must be in an era that will not disrupt our present. So far all the confirmed data suggests the displaced segments are from the Cretaceous period, but we can’t be sure of all. Some could be from more recent time periods and possibly even the future.”

  “Dr. Gogh,” Nick interrupted, “what do you mean the detonations will take place in our past?”

  “We will select a displaced segment that is clearly not from the future, or the near past.”

  “But all these segments are in the present now.”

  “When the bombs go off they will return to the past.”

  “What do you base that prediction on?”

  “I’ve been in consultation with colleagues who agree that a new ripple could return the time segments back to where they came from. Therefore, the explosions will take place in the past and remain in the past, and not affect our present.”

  “Isn’t it more accurate to say that your colleagues agree that time displacement is likely to occur again, but they are not sure whether the displaced segments will return to their own time or whether new displacement will occur?”

  “There is some disagreement, yes. However, it is a course of action with little or no risk and the potential of great gain.”

  “No risk to you … to us … only if you’re right about the detonations taking place in the past. But what about whoever is at ground zero?”

  “No one will be at ground zero. Perhaps some animals, yes, but unless you’re a radical antivivisectionist I can’t believe you would exchange the lives of a few animals for millions of people.”

  Gogh’s last sentence was spoken as if from a pulpit. The President’s eyes looked glassy and he seemed to be uninterested in the discussion, as if he’d expected some disagreement and was letting it run its course. Elizabeth looked encouragingly at Nick, so he took another approach.

  “It won’t work. You won’t be able to identify enough identical time periods to drop the bombs into. Besides, even if you could, the time displacement would end up taking place sometime in our future and past, depending on how far apart the detonations are at the various sites.”

  “True. That is why we intend to detonate all the bombs in the same displacement at the same time. The simultaneous explosions will create the effect immediately.”

  “Immediately in our past” Nick corrected.

  “Yes, but with immediate effects in our present.”

  “On what do you base that conclusion?”

  “On an improved version of a theory you endorsed just a short time ago.”

  The President’s loud slap on the table broke the exchange. “Dr. Paulson, there is no place for professional jealousy in my administration. You will receive appropriate credit for your contribution to solving our problem, but don’t attack Dr. Gogh for taking your idea a step further than you were able to yourself. I asked for solutions and I got nothing from anyone except Arnie. You had your chance. Now unless you have something constructive to contribute I suggest we move on.”

  “Mr. President, perhaps no one offered a solution because there is no solution.”

  “That’s defeatist. Let’s move on.”

  “This won’t bring your wife back, sir.”

  “I said move on!”

  Tears filled the President’s eyes and Nick regretted mentioning Sandy. He knew if he pushed it any further now he would risk losing his seat at the Security Council and his chance to influence the outcome.

  The rest of the meeting was a discussion of possible detonation sites. The one chosen could not have any evidence of human presence, or any signs of civilization. They did not want to risk killing people from the past, since that might set off a chain of events that would alter the present. Since communication across the country was disrupted, they had very little information to work with, and as a result the list of potential sites was small. There was an Alaskan site southeast of Nome described as having sparse vegetation. It was on the list because of unconfirmed reports that a pack of dinosaurs was attacking a herd of elk there.

  The second site was in northeastern Washington, where a huge glacier now covered parts of Washington, Idaho, and Canada. However, the detonation site was uncomfortably near the Canadian border. The third site was w
hat had been Portland, Oregon. Gogh announced that they were expecting aerial photos any minute to confirm the eyewitness reports, but so far it appeared to be a displacement populated by dinosaurs.

  The discussion moved on to the preparation efforts. The military was using overflights of the potential sites to develop the bit maps that would guide the cruise missiles to their target area. Since the missiles would be launched by both ships and B-l bombers and would have to travel different distances over a variety of terrain, timing would be tricky and need highly accurate maps.

  Nick felt dazed. His mind had not switched over to the practical side of the plan; he couldn’t get the image of one hundred bombs going off at once out of his mind.

  Nick paled at the thought of the impact on any site, but especially Portland. Bombing uninhabited sections of Alaska or eastern Washington was horrifying, but the thought of its effect on a metropolitan area sickened him. Abruptly, he decided to risk expulsion from the council and broke in at the first pause.

  “Since the sites are unstable, sometimes they are the present and sometimes the past. How will you be sure to deliver the bombs to the past?”

  Gogh smiled at the question. Clearly he had thought of this and prepared an answer.

  “The missiles are terrain guided. They will be programmed with the terrain from the past. If they do not identify the terrain as matching their program they will not arm their warheads. Instead, the missiles will harmlessly pass over the site,” Gogh said, and then swept his audience with his eyes. “Thus guaranteeing the detonations will occur in the past.”

  Nick conceded to himself that it could work. Still, from what he knew of the programming of cruise missiles Gogh wasn’t telling the whole story.

  “Dr. Gogh, isn’t it true that under combat conditions cruise missiles often arrive at their target after previous attacks have significantly altered the terrain?”

  Gogh looked at Nick suspiciously, as if he knew where Nick was leading him.

  “Can you tell the council how the missile’s programming handles that contingency?” Nick continued.