Chapter 17

The search for ice has us glued to the windows, even the children have joined in the search. Dom says that we are getting close to the Pole, but there simply is no sign of ice anywhere. Okay, I’m willing to believe that all of the ice has melted and has raised the sea level to a point well beyond what we were threatened with back during our time on Earth.

Miami, Florida, had already put in some dikes and was madly working on trying to contain the rate at which water flowed into Miami’s harbor area. It looked to me like they were fighting a losing battle, and what we see now seems to indicate that I was correct.

AI commented that Dinosaur Planet seemed to have an axis much less tilted than the 23° of Earth. I asked if that could be because of Earth being hit by the asteroid and Dinosaur Planet being missed. He said that he didn’t think that the asteroid hit that hard, but he would need more evidence before he could reach a firm conclusion. AI said that he thought that Dinosaur Planet had something like a 3-5° tilt at the most. What difference that could make to evolution was currently open to question.

Okay, AI seemed to be in a somewhat pedantic mood at the current moment so I backed off from more questions.

We continued flying what we perceived to be north for a few more hours, and Dom asserted that we were well past the North Pole. No ice was seen by any of us, so we guessed that it was all gone for now, and maybe permanently. AI said that we seemed to be a little farther away from the sun than our old Earth had been, but there was considerably more methane in the atmosphere than we were used to. It was not affecting our health, so we could ignore that for now.

On the other hand, by being farther away from the sun and having more methane to contribute to the green house effect, we could be experiencing a more uniform temperature from summer to winter. Of course, the reduced axial tilt would also help that. In any case, we would have the climate that we were experiencing now for some time, possibly thousands of years or even longer.

There would be a small change as the methane oxidized to carbon dioxide and water, but that was going to take a long time. AI insisted that all of that was an estimate on his part, and not a solid prediction, but knowing AI the way I did, I was sure that he would not have mentioned it if he were not very sure of himself.

We discussed the situation in great detail and decided to head south to see the situation at the South Pole. We thought it would be the same as here, but we wanted verification. That was a trip of around 12,000 miles to the South Pole and nearly that much back to Miami. We decided to follow the east coast of North America, or whatever this was as long as that idea was practical.

An uneventful trip to the South Pole would take us around 500-550 hours, or on the order of 21-23 days. We could probably stand that, especially if we saw interesting or unusual things. BJ and Harriet would be amused by their learning programs, so the situation would not be too bad. Mary, Jane’s daughter, would be hitting the study programs pretty soon. In fact, she was probably doing so already because she heard so much about them from BJ and Harriet.

We had been headed south for about 10 days when AI announced that we had received another batch of emigrants. These were four Spanish Conquistadors from Cortez’s people. Frankly, AI was very concerned because he recognized these men as being thieves and murderers who were with Cortez to escape being sent to prison. Miami had no provision for handling that kind of person, and Ed was at a loss as to what to do.

Those of us on Z1 decided that we would give up on our exploration trip and head back to Miami as quickly as possible. We were an estimated nine days out from Miami when we made this decision. We turned Z1 around and headed home at what we laughingly called flank speed. By dropping our elevation to 15,000 feet and pushing all of the engines, both propulsion and steering to maximum speed, we were able to reach close to 30 MPH.

Z1 was going to need a major overhaul before it went anywhere again, but we made it home in eight days. By this time, the four Spaniards had been isolated in a stasis field, but neither AI nor Ed wanted to leave them there. Their reasons were different, but they did agree on the question. They had already killed Helmut Sammas when he tried to stop the rape of his wife.

Our whole community agreed that a permanent exile was the only proper punishment for these four hooligans. There was a small suburb of Miami a few miles north of Miami that we jokingly called Hollywood where we could exile these men. The decision was to put the four men in Hollywood where they could live or die, depending on themselves. Food would be supplied, but that was it. The access doors to Hollywood would be sealed so that they could not escape. AI merged with that local AI so that he could keep an eye on the malefactors. He was not happy with that, but he agreed that it was necessary.

There was a medical computer there, so their medical needs could be treated. No women were supplied, and that really upset the four men, but it was pointed out that was a part of their punishment. They were sentenced to Hollywood for life, and there was no appeal. AI had learned Castilian Spanish so that he could communicate with these men when they were first picked up, so the communication link was available if it were needed.

Every man in the community showed up, armed with an air-powered pistol and hollowpoint bullets to escort the men to Hollywood. The crazy thing was that the men did not understand why they were being treated so “unjustly.” After all, they were soldiers and expected to act that way. They did not find a single sympathetic ear.

After the men were put in jail, the question came up about what to do concerning the exploration with Z1. Ed absolutely refused to continue being the leader of Miami, and nobody else would take the job, so I was forced back into it. My wives were loyal and refused to resume the exploration without me, so the whole project died until somebody showed up as an immigrant to take over the job of “mayor” of Miami. Dammit, I could not escape!

I was stuck in the job of mayor of Miami for five more years until my relief came along. As it happened, Jack Osburn and his wife Hazel were flying in Jack’s plane to a vacation in Bermuda. They had stopped off in Charleston, SC, to refuel themselves and the plane before continuing to Bermuda. They encountered the six waterspouts and were snatched to Dinosaur Planet.

As usual, Hazel attracted AI’s attention with a mayday call when they suddenly found themselves over land and with nothing but confusion from their navigation instruments. They wound up here in the early morning, though it had been in the afternoon when they had seen the waterspouts. Anyway, to compound their problems, they were being chased by a pterodactyl. Fortunately, Jack, the pilot, had been an Air Force Warthog pilot who had extensive time in the air in Iraq, so he was able to dodge the pterodactyl’s first two runs at them.

Like most people, they assumed that they were being attacked by a dragon, and Hazel was on the edge of panic. On the other hand, Jack was able to draw on his experience in Iraq and kept his wits about him. Fortunately, Al was flying a patrol in his Mustang in that area, and had been planning to hit that particular pterodactyl just prior to its first attack pass. Al was too far away to be able to draw a fine bead on the pterodactyl at first sight, but he was able to pull in close enough to end the creature’s attacks on the Osburn’s Cessena soon enough to prevent a disaster.

AI had answered Hazel’s initial call and had guided them to the highway. Jack was able to land very close to the entrance ramp to the hanger bunker, so it was not even necessary to send any help to the Osburns beyond what Al had given them when he shot the pterodactyl. Jack was able to taxi into the hanger, and I was standing near a good parking place when he came in. He killed the engine and shut the plane down properly before either one of them exited the plane. I gave them the quick rundown on where they were as soon as I spoke to them.