Chapter 1

Luke MacDougall stretched out in his tent during the last night hunting the Brooks Range in Alaska. He had been hunting moose all week, and while he had seen a couple, none had presented a decent shot, so he hadn’t taken any. This didn’t bother him because he had also got some fishing in and had done very well catching pike and arctic grayling. Plus, being away from the office distractions, he had gotten several projects done and had sent the drafts to his secretary and second-in-command via satellite link. Luke owned an engineering firm that worked worldwide, mainly for the chemical industry, but they did jobs for many other sectors and the military. He had master’s degrees in chemical and mechanical engineering plus a bachelor’s in metallurgy from Purdue University.

Luke had been in the Marine Corps until a combat injury forced him out. While in the corps, he had been a combat engineer and still did engineer consulting work for the Marines. He had done two tours in Iraq and had been awarded three Purple Hearts, three Bronze Stars, and a Silver Star. Near the end of his second tour, he received a million-dollar wound, which ended his career. He had done everything he could to stay in, but the doctors wouldn’t budge.

He stood 198 cm tall, weighed 113 kilograms, and even though he mainly did desk work now, he was by no means out of shape, just not as good as he had been. Not only was he very strong, but he had been a hand-to-hand combat expert in the corps, was one hell of a shot, and had gotten several black belts in various martial arts after getting out. He had thought about trying out to be a sniper while in the corps but figured that his size would give him away and, therefore, be a threat to his teammates; this he couldn’t live with. Luke also had light brown hair that was kept high and tight and piercing blue eyes.

Although he looked to be the very definition of a hard ass, he was extremely considerate to those around him and always took an extra second to consider how his actions would affect the people near him. While he didn’t have a family of his own, his older sister Mackenzie did. Her husband, Dan, was one of Luke’s oldest friends, and they had two kids that Luke had always made sure to spoil rotten. Since he didn’t have anyone to spend money on, he had set up trust funds for both kids over his sister’s objections.

She still lived on the same ranch they had grown up on in Wyoming. Their parents were killed when Luke was sixteen, and Mackenzie was eighteen. Without thinking about it, Mackenzie canceled going to college to stay on the ranch and care for Luke so the state wouldn’t take him. Luke’s mom had been a geologist, while his dad had been a part-time jeweler and worked the ranch in his spare time. Luke had sent most of his marine pay to Mackenzie to help pay her back for sacrificing her future for him. She wasn’t happy about this, but Luke didn’t give her a choice, and the extra money had helped her and Dan get started. By the time Luke got out, he had his first niece. Two years later, Mackenzie provided Luke with a nephew. Also, while Luke had been in the corps, he took every engineering class he could, so when he started at Purdue, he was a junior.

Tonight, Luke had another reason to be happy. He had gotten the jewelry done for his niece’s birthday and had sent it to her the day before he left for his trip. Since he lived in Anchorage, Alaska, it took some time to get to his niece. He had made her a handmade necklace out of gold that he found in some of Alaska’s streams. There was a large sapphire in the pendant that he acquired while working on one of his overseas jobs and had smuggled into the US before cutting it to maximize its beauty. Luke’s jewelry-making was a hobby to relax after a hard day in the office, and he knew how to cut and grind gemstones, thanks to his mom and dad. Going to sleep that night, he never in a million years would guess that his life was about to change completely.

During the night, while Luke slept in blissful ignorance, a cosmic catastrophe struck. In this catastrophe, the only person immediately affected was Luke, who was transported across space and time. His sister and co-workers would spend months looking for him without success. They knew where he had been camping, but when search planes overflew the area, there were no signs that Luke had ever been there. Eventually, Mackenzie would inherit Luke’s engineering firm and sell it to the employees. She had no idea how to run an engineering firm and didn’t have the time or energy to learn. The only comfort was Luke’s employees would be cared for, and his niece and nephew would never need money.

When Luke woke up, he noticed it was much more humid and warmer than when he went to bed. Luke then noticed that the bird sounds were different as well. ‘Okay, this is weird,’ he thought. He stuck his head out of the tent, and his confusion deepened. Around him was a wild forest of deciduous trees instead of the scrubland of stunted aspen trees that had been there when he went to bed. ‘I must be dreaming, and if this is a dream, damn.’

“Well, I guess I better look around,” he said.

Luke spent the rest of the morning looking around his “dream world,” wondering when he was going to wake up. Noticing the sun was almost straight overhead, he had an idea. Checking the time on his laptop against the sun would help him figure out where he was. He knew his computer’s internal clock would still be accurate enough for this purpose. It was an even bigger shock when he discovered his laptop was nine hours behind. That, combined with the tree species around him, put him in England. The weather, plus the state of the leaves on the trees, likely meant that it was mid to late spring. What bothered him the most was that he couldn’t get any satellite lock or cell signal.

Chapter 2 »