Primordia 3: The Lost World—Re-Evolution

by Greig Beck

  Aziz’s mouth dropped open and he held his hands up in front of himself like a small animal holding up its paws.

  The two guards behind him went for the guns at their belts, but from behind, the man and woman who had been seated were already on their feet and up close. They shot them point blank in the back of the skull with silenced shots so soft it sounded more like a small child coughing.

  The three guards were carefully laid against the brick wall, and as the van roared to a stop beside them, its door slid back. Aziz was grabbed under one arm and lifted toward the open door like he was a child.

  “You got a date,” Chess said.

  The small accountant was pushed inside and the trio followed. On the street, few people were even aware something had happened.

  In the back of the van, Aziz’s eyes began to water. “Are you going to kill me?”

  Chess shook his head. “Nah, we’re just going to deliver you to the Maghadams. They’ll kill you…eventually.”

  CHAPTER 12

  “That’s why they call it a time paradox.”

  Emma leaned forward. “Helen, you said that something was changed in the past, we broke the rules, what does that mean?”

  “The butterfly effect is one name for it,” Helen said.

  “You mean the theory that if a butterfly flaps its wings in one place, it can affect another, like cause a hurricane?” Emma asked. “That bizarre theory?”

  “Something like that, but it’s an actual mathematical design theorem,” Helen said. “Grew out of chaos theory and was put forward by theorists in relation to weather modeling and the path tornadoes took. It can also be adapted to anything that can be affected by minute changes. And time is certainly one of them.”

  Helen reached forward and grabbed her coffee cup, sipped, replaced it, but continued to stare into its dark depths. “I did some research when I first thought that something had been changed that might affect us.” She put her cup down but held onto it.

  “There are so many theories, such as the grandfather effect, predestination, looping, and something called the Fermi effect. Basically, some of them contradict each other, and some state that no matter what someone did in the past, it was meant to happen anyway and therefore of no consequence to the future. Others say it is impossible to make changes, such as that proposed by the grandfather effect theory.”

  “Going back in time to kill your grandfather,” Drake said. “Like, how you can’t really kill your grandfather, because then you would never have existed to have been able to kill him in the first place, right?”

  “Exactly. Another theory that exposes the absurd complexity of it all is the impossibility loop.” She laid a hand on Drake’s forearm. “Say, an old lady gives a young man a watch. He then travels back in time and gives the watch to the old woman who is now a young girl. The young girl grows old and then gives it to the man. So, where did the watch originally come from?”

  “Makes my damn head hurt,” Drake said.

  “That’s why they call it a time paradox.” Helen smiled. “But one thing’s for sure, is that something we did, or maybe Andy did, has altered our version of time. And now it’s catching up to us.”

  “Like toppling dominoes,” Emma said.

  “Yes. And the further you go back in time, that first tiny domino to get a push, can topple a slightly bigger domino. And then that one can topple an even bigger domino, and the bigger the dominoes that can fall, and the more time they have, the bigger changes that can occur.”

  Drake’s brow was furrowed deeply. “But so what if you take out a few animals to eat a hundred million years ago? Or chop down some trees, or eat some berries and nuts? It’s not like they’re the last ones.”

  “But don’t you see?” Ben sighed. “They might just be the ones that made all the difference.”

  Helen clasped her hands together. “That’s how the domino effect works. Just imagine you went back in time 100,000 years. You find a berry and eat it. But that berry was going to feed a bug. That was going to feed, say, a bird that was going to feed an eagle that now doesn’t lay eggs that season. And those eggs were going to feed a hunter-gatherer family.”

  Helen rubbed her temples and went on. “The family goes hungry, and now don’t have children that year. One of those children was going to be a great leader and found a great nation that will now never exist. The human world will be changed forever.”

  Ben ran a hand up through his hair. “And now multiply that by a thousand times, by going back 100 million years.”

  “Yes, yes,” Helen said softly. “Through one tiny change, one species may die out, and instead another may take its place. An alternate future is created.”

  “Jesus Christ,” Drake whispered and stood up. He paused. “But…why is it happening now? None of this occurred when Ben was stuck there.”

  They sat in silence for a moment, all lost in their own thoughts.

  “Maybe, uh…” Ben hiked his shoulders. “Maybe it was like keystones. Everything I interacted with wasn’t important…wasn’t key to our timeline.”

  “That’s all I can think of,” Helen agreed. “Some species, or even some particular animals, are pivotal to our timeline. You might be lucky a thousand, thousand times, and then the one berry you eat, or bird you kill, or fish you net, turns out to be the one that was important.” She looked up at Ben. “That turns out to be the keystone to change.”

  “Lucky us.” Drake exhaled through pressed lips. “Okay, I got another question. Why is it affecting us, here, when we were down in South America?”

  “It’ll be a global effect,” Helen said. “As well as continental drift, the sea level was much lower many times over the past 100 million years. There were land bridges between Africa, Asian, European continents, and us, right here. Things, creatures, plants, moved back and forth.”

  “We just have to adapt,” Emma said. “Maybe things will change for the better. Maybe we humans will be less warlike, maybe there’ll be less disease, better food…we might have to just wait and see.”

  Helen’s eyes were glassy. “Or maybe we won’t exist at all.” She gave Emma a watery smile. “Or a new disease might evolve, a new predatorial creature.” She chuckled. “Or we might have decided to never come down from the trees.”

  “We could vanish altogether,” Drake said. “Our…human line, our thread, might begin to be unpicked right before our eyes. One person at a time.”

  “And we might be the only people in the world to notice,” Ben said morosely.

  Ben felt the tingle run through him again and he grimaced. He saw Drake and Helen look to each other, and Emma reached out to place a hand on his shoulder just before everything went black for a second.

  “Oh God, another one.” Emma gripped Ben’s shoulder even harder.

  “Yeah, I felt it too.” Drake straightened in his chair. “What else just happened this time? What else has turned up, or disappeared?”

  Emma looked to Ben and he back at her—the same question hung between them. She jumped to her feet and ran to the steps.

  “Zach?” She sprinted halfway up the stairs. “Zach?”

  Ben rose, staring toward their staircase and feeling sick in his gut. He said a silent prayer.

  “What?” It was the muffled sound of Zach’s voice.

  Ben exhaled, only then realizing he had been holding his breath. He slowly sat back down and sighed heavily.

  “The human race is a frog in a pot with the water beginning to boil,” Helen said softly. “And just like the frog, it doesn’t even notice the changes.”

  “So what’s worse?” Drake asked. “Not noticing and carrying on as the world gets more dangerous or people just start winking out? Or being like us, somehow immune to this collective obliviousness and actually witnessing the changes?”

  “Worse for us,” Helen said. “Because we won’t know what to look out for. Remember your kronosaur?”

  Drake nodded. “Oh yeah. And I didn’t even get to tell you abo
ut the bird-eating jellyfish.”

  Emma came back down the steps, and her expression was relieved but strained. She came and sat up close to Ben and grabbed his hand in both of hers.

  “What do we do?”

  “Nothing we can do,” Ben said.

  “Isn’t there?’ Drake asked. “Sure, we can’t do anything today, but it’s now been nine years and eight months since we were on that damn plateau.”

  “So,” Ben picked up. “In four months, Primordia returns. And with it, comes a doorway.”

  “A doorway back to stop anything else happening.” Drake sat back.

  “No,” Emma said. “No way. We only escaped with our lives by the skin of our teeth last time. No way we’re going back. Why the hell would we?”

  “Andy,” said Helen. “Whatever he’s doing, we can’t let it continue.”

  “No.” Emma was even more emphatic this time. “I’m not doing it.”

  “I agree,” Ben said. “You stay.” He drew in a deep breath. “But the thought of not going, and leaving our son in a world that is hostile to him, scares the hell out of me. You need to look after him. But I need to make sure this ends. Whatever this is.” He smiled, but couldn’t make it extend to his eyes. “Besides, it’s basically a second home to me, right?”

  Drake groaned. “It was my idea, so if you need a wingman…” He screwed his eyes shut. Say no, say no, say no.

  “Thanks, bro,” Ben said and leaned across to slap his shoulder.

  Drake opened his eyes, held out a fist, and Ben bumped it with his own. “Done.”

  Ben looked at Drake with a level gaze. “We make Andy come back with us. Or we stop him doing what he’s doing.”

  “Hey.” Helen’s eyes flashed. “What does that mean? Stop him doing what he’s doing? How do you plan on doing that?”

  Ben looked at Drake, and the two men knew exactly what that might mean. He cleared his throat. “We convince him to come back with us. Even if we have to tie him up and drag him home.”

  “Really?” Helen’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t trust you.”

  “Well, come with me, us, I mean.” Drake lifted his chin.

  “Seriously?” Helen frowned. “You’re going to use this as a way to try and rekindle our relationship? Try and get me to come back to a prehistoric world where everything there is designed to tear you limb from limb? Oh, and you also insinuate you might harm my brother as well.”

  Drake grinned. “So I’m a bit rusty, huh?”

  Helen looked furious for a moment and then burst out laughing. Ben and Emma did the same.

  “You asshole.” Helen wiped her eyes. “Okay. Because I know if he sees me, he’s more likely to come with us.”

  “Okay?” Drake’s brows went up. “Seriously? I was only joking about you coming.”

  Helen shrugged. “You’d be dead in a minute without me. And besides, I figure if we don’t do something, then this world, or rather this time, might end up just as deadly as the one of the Late Cretaceous.”

  Emma sat back and folded her arms. She shook her head, and her eyes watered. “I’m sorry; I can’t.”

  Ben reached across and put an arm around her shoulders. “I know, and you shouldn’t. Your priority is Zach. As is mine. You need to stay to look after him. I need to go to ensure he is safe in the future. That we all are.”

  Emma nodded, but then paused. “Maybe he’ll come home by himself. When the portal opens, he might just decide to come home.”

  “Maybe. And maybe the changes we’ve seen so far are all that is going to occur,” Drake said.

  “No, he won’t come home,” Helen said. “But, I’m betting his scientific curiosity will draw him back to the plateau to observe the doorway opening again. He won’t be able to resist that.”

  Ben nodded. “He’ll be there, and so will we. Snatch and grab, and then we bug out.”

  “I’ll organize some hardware.” Drake grinned. “And I’ll make damn sure it’s appropriate this time.”

  “Jesus, you guys.” Emma shook her head. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

  They waited.

  Emma scoffed. “Ben, you first went when we were 30. That was 20 years ago. Now you’re in your 50s. I know you guys have trained hard and maintained your fitness. But seriously, the one thing you both know is that surviving on that plateau is the most arduous thing anyone could do at any time anywhere.”

  Ben sat back. “We don’t intend to be there long. We can’t afford to be.”

  “So we’ll need help.” Drake rubbed his stubbled chin, making a rasping sound. He began to nod. “I know some people. They’ll bulk us up on muscle and firepower. But they’ll cost us.”

  “It’s not right,” Helen said. “Remember last time? There’s no way you can make someone believe or be ready for what that place is really like.” She turned to Drake. “All those years ago when Emma first spoke to you about it, did you believe her?”

  “Nope,” Drake said. “And even now, I still find it hard to believe it was even real. That was, until a few days ago.”

  Ben used a thumb and forefinger to rub his eyes for a moment. “I don’t think we have any choice. The world is at stake, and it doesn’t even know it.” He opened his hands, palms up. “Sorry, Helen, but what we’re doing is bigger than just our little lives, or even anyone else’s lives who comes with us of their own free will.”

  Ben then gave Emma a crooked smile. “I know you get it. Bottom line, even if we don’t go back, it seems the past is coming after us anyway. Maybe coming after Zach and all the other Zachs.”

  Emma seemed to melt and grabbed his hand. “No, I’m sorry. Bring Andy back, save our world and its future.” She lifted her chin. “Just leave me a damn big gun.”

  CHAPTER 13

  Eagle Eye Observatory, Burnet, Texas—60 Days to Comet Apparition

  “Hey…” Jim Henson adjusted the lens on his massive telescope and amplified his view aperture. He leaned across to bring the computer online, and then jammed his eye back over the eyepiece.

  “What have you got?” His colleague, Andy Gallagher, sounding vaguely interested, continued to type data into his own computer.

  “Got some traffic,” Henson scoffed. “Little fella coming out of the void.” He quickly leaned an arm out to type furiously with one hand. He then looked across to check he had the details right and began to record the astral fragment.

  “Asteroid?” Gallagher asked.

  “Yeah, nice size, and going to come close enough for us to get a real good look.” Henson went from his eyepiece to the computer screen, satisfied that what he was seeing was now on the screen.

  To the novice, the screen looked black on black with a smattering of pinpricks of light. But to a trained eye, it was an astral snapshot of a segment of space, well out into our solar system.

  “Thought you were going to tell me that Primordia was on its way back.” Gallagher leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. “Our lucky number year again —‘8’—and our clockwork traveler, P/2018-YG874, is coming back for a visit.”

  “Yeah, sure, but this is something else.” Henson froze, and slowly turned. “He-eeey, you don’t think…?”

  Gallagher frowned. “Don’t think what?” His brows went up. “No way…collision?” He snorted. “Are you on drugs…? I mean, even more drugs?”

  Henson guffawed. “Hey, what do I look like here?”

  Gallagher grinned. “You look like Santa Claus, if he didn’t comb his hair or beard, and wore sweatpants.”

  “You flatter me, sir.” Henson straightened in his chair. “And Santa Claus with an astrophysics degree from Caltech, remember?”

  “Yeah, and mine’s from Princeton, honors, and we both know our orbital mechanics—space is basically empty, and the chance of two tiny astral bodies colliding is millions upon millions to one.”

  “And yet it happens.” Henson folded his arms and watched the moving speck on the computer screen. “P/2018-YG874, Primordia, has been traveling per
haps for millions upon millions of years.” He turned. “Eventually everyone and everything’s luck runs out.”

  “Impossible,” Gallagher said emphatically. And then, “But it’d be pretty cool if it did.” He looked up. “Hey, you spotted it, you name it.”

  Henson stroked his beard for a moment. And then raised a finger. “I name thee… Lord Vader.”

  Gallagher groaned as he grinned. “Lord Vader it is. And may the dark side be with you.” He turned back to his screen. “So let’s keep an eye on him, just in case.”

  CHAPTER 14

  Southeastern tip of North America, 100 Million Years Ago

  The huge theropod eased forward and gently placed a foot the size of a small car down on the soft ground. It did the same for the next step, and then became motionless for several minutes. It finally angled its head slightly, a little like a monstrous dog, as it listened for a moment, before taking another careful step.

  It inhaled deeply, drawing in all the odors and scents of the surrounding jungle. It was tracking something, something it couldn’t yet see, and for now could only smell. But its predator senses told it that the thing was close.

  The alpha theropods were huge beasts and happy to feed on carrion, but also liked the thrill of the hunt and kill as well. Their eight-inch, tusk-like teeth were all backward curving, designed for gripping, tearing, and sawing through the flesh and bones of the massive animals of its time.

  It remained frozen, and even with its towering size and bulk, it was near invisible in the dappled light of the jungle. Its mottled hide was a patchwork of brown and green with some banding on a thick tail held out stiffly behind it as a counterbalance for its huge head. At around 40 feet from nose to tail tip and weighing in at 15 tons, it was one of the largest carnivores in North America during the Cretaceous Period.

  It turned its head again, slowly, scanning the jungle floor, but also searching for the scent trail. Minutes passed, and then it took another step, and then another, and paused to search again.

  Whatever it was looking for was not being revealed. Whatever it was, it was better at concealment than the massive hunter was at hunting. Finally, it seemed to give up and it moved on, caring less about its noise and pushing aside trees as if they were long grass.