Chapter 2

There was only one duty they had asked of me. I assume it's because the process of sending back information was difficult, and apparently impossible to modify. There was something about it self-destroying after a couple of oscillations. I basically had 2 buttons to choose from, but I had to find something out first.

Unfortunately, it was going to take a bit of work to find out what I needed to know.

They sent me with an atomic clock from home. They wanted me to feed some seawater into the pantograph, let it extract the correct type of atom, cesium I think, or construct it from native atoms. They had sent me with the shell of another atomic clock, which I would put the atoms in. When I connected that to my computer it would compare the results from the two clocks, and see if there was a perceptible difference between the time-flows. Considering that water is one of the easiest things to move around, and is made of mostly hydrogen, it's one of the best things to load the pantograph with. It had been explained to me that the pantograph could combine atoms to make more complicated ones, or break them down to make simpler ones, but that the former process was much faster. Given how slow the pantograph would be anyway, anything I could do to make it faster would be worth it.

Even better would be to have the right materials, which was part of why I wanted seawater. It has enough trace elements in it that might be needed to make for a perfect starting substance.

They wanted me to do this as fast as possible. They didn't know how long until my time synched up with the local, but they expected it to do so eventually. What they really wanted to know was how fast things adapted to the local time-flow when moved from one dimension to another, but due to the limitations of the system there was no way I was going to be able to send back that much information. Mostly I could send a positive, indicating that the time-flows are different, or a negative, indicating there is no difference. Either way they would know I had made it.

I figured they had given me a shot at the kind of life I wanted, and therefore I owed them a couple of hours work. Regardless, finding the sea would help me find the cave I picked out, so it was a perfect choice.

I had to head north to find the ocean, regardless of where in my target zone they had dropped me. My compass indicated which way was north, and so I made my way through the trees.

Having examined this area carefully before I left, I had located a cave near the ocean. It was in a valley that had a small stream running down through it, but not something big enough to flood appreciably. Since there was a reasonable change of elevation, I figured I would be able to put in hydroelectric relatively easily. My plan was to head north and see where I found the cliffs.

I remembered clearly that along the eastern coast, north of my target area, the cliffs came very close to the water. Further east, there was a fertile tide plain between the cliffs and the ocean. My valley was the best path down to that plain, so I would get a chance to see the valley and my cave on the way down, and then backtrack to it afterwards to make camp.

I'm not sure if you have ever taken a drive across country in a powered vehicle. I will assume that you have not. I know I hadn't.

It's a pain!

The suspension helped, as did the rudimentary AI that was built into the wagons. I had mostly brought it to keep them together, so that I could move three wagons at the same time, however I quickly learned that the bloody thing could see better than I could. Every fifty feet it warned me of a bush, or a soft spot, or a hidden ledge. I had figured it would take twenty minutes or so to find my way north to the sea. Boy, was I wrong!

Two hours later I managed to get my caravan out of the woods. Luckily, I found myself right where I wanted to be. I guess the eggheads were being pessimistic when they told me I needed to pick a target 5 square miles, as they had put me dead center. I am very glad they did. I worked hard to pick a clear target near where I wanted to go, but I had been forced by the terrain to include part of a river, and I didn't even want to think about the mess that trying to ford a river with all three wagons could have made.

Looking down over my valley I could see the ocean beyond it. It was an amazing sight. Not a human-made thing anywhere. When I had examined the maps this entire area was covered in fields and roads and houses. I was very glad to get a chance at a world unspoiled by humans.

I was definitely going to advance the humans living in this era, but I was hoping I would be able to do it without religion, or slavery, or brutal wars. Hopefully I could build in a doctrine of protecting the environment, which hadn't developed in my world until almost all of nature was destroyed.

Enough dreaming, time to work! Luckily the path down my valley and across the tidal plain was much easier. Not as many trees and much more solid soil. I followed the smell of the sea down to one of the prettiest sand beaches I have ever seen.

As I waited for the pantograph to convert a couple of handfuls of sand into a bucket, I basked in the sun, listening to the birds.

It was hard to take. I couldn't manage to wipe the grin off my face. Finally the pantograph finished its bucket, and I filled the hopper with seawater.

After I had filled the hopper about a dozen times, I checked, and it had enough cesium atoms to make the mass required for the atomic clock. The pantograph loaded it into a capsule for me to load into the atomic clock. Powering up my computer, I connected the both of them, and let it chew on the numbers.

Sure enough there was almost one percent difference in time rate between the one I brought and the one I made. I took the beacon, and placed it on the sand. I pressed the positive button and stepped back. It buzzed for about ten seconds, emitted a bright flash, and melted into slag. There you go brain boys, hope you're happy. Perhaps the next volunteer will have a choice of percentages, and they can get something resolved.

Now it's time for me to get to work on building a safe place to base my operations from.

First order of business is to go find my cave. I headed back to the valley and a little way up it to the cave I had picked out. I had spotted it on the way down, so it was easy to find. I scouted it out carefully, rifle in hand, but it seemed uninhabited. Hopefully it will stay that way, except for me and the dogs.

When I picked this spot out from home, I knew there was a nice cave here that would be big enough for my wagons. Turns out it was practically made for living in. The floor sloped lightly from the back to the front, insuring that any liquid on the floor would run outside. The entrance was about 40 feet wide but the cave slowly opened out as you went back from there. The main chamber was about a hundred feet wide, and had a cleft in the ceiling along the northern wall, through which I could see some light. It seemed to penetrate through to the surface, which meant fresh air and a place for smoke to escape. the water from that cleft was probably the source of the sloping, because once you got passed it, the floor leveled out into a large, flat surface. Along the south wall there was a perfect place to park my wagons, with room left over for a desk, and most of my stuff. That left room along the back wall, which was east, to stack wood, or store food, and to make up a bed.

I let Tricksie and Ralph out of the wagon, and let them sniff around. I wanted them to get to know home, and to make sure nothing snuck up on me while I made my list. First, I needed to make home safe, and then I needed to bring in some game for food. Then I could reassess.

As for making home safe, first the dogs had to make sure it was ours alone. That meant letting them sniff around, and mark the entrance. Check. Can always trust dogs to pee on new stuff.

Next, I would need to seal up the entrance and the air hole, at least enough to stop creatures from killing me in my sleep, but I wanted to leave airflow and an exit for any water that may come in. That meant logs to make a fence at the entrance, some sort of hinge for a gate wide enough for the wagons, and some electric fence.

I had the pantograph make me an ax and a hand saw. Once it had that created, I set it to making a fuel cell with the right voltage, enough wire, and the tools I would need to do some woodworking and set up the electric fence. I spent an hour dumping out the goods from my cargo wagon, with it mostly ending up in a pile against the back wall. Soon I would have to sort it all, but right now I wanted some safety. I loaded the dogs back up into the wagon, and headed across the valley. The stream running down the valley was small, and there were several easy fords, so I made good time, and had no problems. This entire side was covered in trees, which was going to make wood gathering easy for the next year or so. Eventually I would have to start leaving the close stuff to regrow, but today I was in a hurry.

It took me a lot longer than I expected to chop down the two trees I needed. Before I do that again I'm going to have to think about power tools. Luckily there were more than enough saplings to face the fence with. I used the winch to tie a hold of the two trees, and loaded the bed of the wagon up with saplings. Heading back to the cave, I dropped off the trees, and moved my wagon inside.

Looks like I arrived mid morning, which is good. Gives me a couple of hours yet to make this fence. I split the trees top to bottom, and again, breaking each tree up into rails. A little digging got me four firm posts. The two at the ends were snug against the cave wall. The next two were ten feet in from those ones. That left a twenty-foot gap which was going to be my gate.