The Jurassic Age

"Can you believe this 'Adam and Eve' nonsense?" Dr. Jackson Firestone took a bite of his avocado toast and a sip of coffee. "I didn't think this world could get any more delusional but I have clearly miscalculated."

Dr. Cate Cooper ate a forkful of scrambled eggs. "I've seen the data. For the moment I think we need to deal with the factuals. Two full homo sapiens skeletons, one male, one female, carbon-dated at 150 million years old."

Zik Zok News droned in the background on their 8K video wall as they ate their breakfast. Jackson Firestone was tall, pale, and thin. Indeed, everything about him was thin; his graying hair, his nose, his lips. Cate Cooper was not tall. While her partner was thin, she was dark; her tan complexion, her brown eyes, and her still black hair. 

"Let's just say I strongly doubt the provenance of that data," Firestone said. "Ironic that science would be used to provide validation for this biblical myth of creation," he added. "Especially now."

"True. I'm dubious given the obviously orchestrated rollout of Adam and Eve. Still, it's being credited as the basis for the ceasefire in Iran. A reconciliation of warring religious factions, according to Zik Zok News," Cooper said.

"More like recess than reconciliation," Firestone said.

"Peace is a good thing," Cooper said.

"Even if it's based on a lie?" Firestone asked.

He had felt uneasy from the moment the Adam and Eve discovery was made public. Somehow, in ways he couldn't quite put his finger on, things were different, as if the soundtrack to the movie was off by a split second. He felt displaced. Not in the intellectual sense; not in the sense of science having been replaced by religion-fueled conspiracy theories. Perhaps he had talked himself into thinking that he'd accepted the reality of his life and this was simply a manifestation of his own personal delusion. This is personal, Firestone thought; an emotional reaction, something subconscious. That he could not describe it with a formula somehow made it worse.

The audio piped the high pitched whistle for the Zik Zok News headline alert. The screen filled with large block letters; HEAVEN CANNOT WAIT. Video followed of the smoking wreckage of a jet airliner. They watched and listened to Zik Zok reporter Richard L'Engle.

The world was shocked and devastated early this morning by the news of the loss of the entire Adam and Eve discovery team in an airline disaster of an as yet undetermined cause. The team of paleo-archeologists were en route to an audience with the Pope when their plane fell from the sky. There were no survivors of the crash. The Vatican announced just moments ago the Pope will bestow sainthood on all members of the Adam and Eve team and has asked the world to pray for the families of those who, and I quote, "lost their lives bringing proof of God's living word to the world." Rumors of an explosion prior to the crash and the possibility this was the work of radical scientists have yet to be confirmed.

"If I may understate the obvious," Firestone said, "that's odd."

"Tragedy is always odd," Cooper said.

"Coincidence is always odd," Firestone said.

Science had gone underground in 2055, essentially outlawed by a coalition of conspiracy theorists, religious fanatics, political opportunists, and dunces. Firestone and Cooper were outlaws in the literal sense as they had continued their work in secret following the Disaccreditation of 55.

Like artists during the Renaissance, underground scientists like Firestone and Cooper relied on patrons - benefactors who funded their work, though not necessarily with the good of humanity in mind. They weren't naive. That the quantum time machine they'd developed would undoubtedly be used to enrich rather than enlighten was inevitable. Vacation packages for the super rich; a tour of Stonehenge under construction, the Battle of Gettysburg from a safe vantage point, a glimpse of one of the many possible futures, ideally the one with flying cars and not the one with Morlocks. Who am I kidding? Firestone thought. The big money will be in group vacations in the Old Testament, or walking in the footsteps of Jesus, all the way to Golgotha. 

Cooper finished her breakfast. "Ready?"

They had spent most of the previous day as well as their morning breakfast analyzing the Adam and Eve news and its implications. Firestone took the position that their beta test time sorties had been successful and the time was now for a big win for science, a 'moon shot.' Cooper countered with the point of view that they had done little more than shake down the quantum sphere and its stealth capabilities; capabilities critical to ensure their presence 'out of time' would go unnoticed and leave the timeline undisturbed. They had made only short trips that ranged from a few hours to a few days. Why not stick to their plan and complete the sorties of ten and twenty years into the past and the future? They could always return to this particular moment in time once the beta test phase was complete. Firestone had ultimately agreed that something slightly more than a "day trip" was prudent and on plan but was troubled by the evidence required as proof of their temporal journey. Anything retrieved from a sortie of a decade or two could be easily explained away. He recalled his 'moon shot' analogy and thought about the fact that more people now believed the 20th Century Apollo moon landings to be science fiction than science fact.  

"Jackson?" Cooper asked.

"Sorry," Firestone said. "Yes, I'm ready."

*****

Dr. Jackson Firestone turned on the external cameras. "Well, we're not in Kansas anymore." 

"Munchkins?" Dr. Cate Cooper asked as she joined Firestone at the console. "Flying monkeys?"

The display screen was filled with dense forests of conifers stretching to the horizon. "Is this what we were expecting to see in 2355?" Firestone asked.

"2355?" Cooper asked. "I thought this was supposed to be a plus 10-year jump?"

Firestone smiled. "Oh. Yeah. I must've misplaced the decimal point."

"Misplaced the decimal point," Cooper said. "Is that supposed to be funny? Because this is not my happy face."

"Don't be mad. Come on. We're fine. Let's complete the jump protocols, okay?" Firestone pleaded.

"Do I have a choice?" Cooper asked.

"You always have a choice," Firestone said.

Cooper returned her attention to the console display. "Perhaps we landed in a wildlife refuge. What are we getting for atmospheric readings?"

Firestone piped the data to the display. "Well, it's every bit as warm as we would expect based on climate change projections." He paused. "CO2 levels are more than double what the calculations predicted." 

"Camera, pan left," Cooper said and the images of what looked like gigantic cousins to the junipers she'd planted as ornamentals in their front yard tracked across the display. A small clearing revealed itself along with an immense and instantly recognizable creature. "Camera stop!" Cooper ordered. "Is that what I think it is?"

In a raspy whisper, Firestone said, "Diplodocus."

"A dinosaur?" Cooper said with a mix of surprise and confusion. 

A group of three allosaurus crashed through the stand of trees on the edge of the clearing and attacked the brachiosaurus. "Emergency return!" Cooper ordered.

"Cancel!" Firestone shouted.

"What are you doing?" Cooper asked, unable to disguise the panic in her voice.

"I'm doing science," Firestone said. "What are you doing?"

"Saving our lives!" Cooper said. "This is not 2355!"

"Ridiculous," Firestone said. "Every test voyage was a success. Telemetry," he ordered. The data appeared on screen. "There. October 13, 2355."

But Cate Cooper wasn't listening. She watched as the gigantic lizard struggled to fend off the attack, it's 45-foot tail swatting an allosaurus off its feet. The sphere shook as the diplodocus reared up on its hind legs and then dropped down, crushing the stunned allosaurus.

"Strap in," Cooper said, grabbing Firestone's arm and pulling him to their seats.

*****

The stealth technology for the quantum time sphere proved to be too effective, though when Jackson Firestone thought about it later, he decided it wouldn't have mattered if the sphere had been in plain sight. The allosaurus were fighting for their dinner and the diplodocus was fighting for its very life. The frantic, chaotic battle was upon them before they could engage the quantum drive and with one blow from the tail of the gigantic reptile the sphere had been damaged beyond repair. Or return. They were stuck in time. They definitely were not in Kansas. 

The good news, if you could call it that, was that neither of them had been seriously injured. Cuts and bruises; nothing that was beyond the supply of painkillers, bandages, and antiseptic balms in their first aid kit. More good news: The structural integrity of the sphere remained intact. It would provide serviceable shelter for the time being.

After exchanging are you okays with Firestone, Cooper noted, "It goes without saying this is all your fault."

"I can't and I won't argue the point," Firestone answered grimly. "I'm afraid that I've killed us."

"You're not giving up, are you?" Cooper asked. "Because we can't."

"I'm sorry," Firestone said. "You're right." He took a deep breath and let it out. "I just, I should've listened-"

"The first thing you can do is stop feeling sorry for yourself," Cooper said. "What do we know?"

"Yes," Firestone said. "Okay. The quantum drive is fried but maybe there's something we can do to bring it back on line. We apparently have plenty of time on our hands."

"Funny," Cooper said. "No wait. That was not funny."

"Right. Well, this isn't 2355," Firestone said. "Based on what we've observed, environmental readings, it appears we've landed in the Jurassic Age of the Mesozoic Era. I have no explanation. Perhaps we hit a rift in time or a wormhole or, I don't know what. It's not clear from the telemetry, at least, from my initial review. Bottom line: We're 150 million years off course."

"A bit more than a misplaced decimal," Cooper said.

Firestone continued. "We know we have sufficient battery power for at least 10 months of life support here in the sphere, but we've got just two weeks of food. We're going to need to put on our hunter-gatherer pants. Or in this case, our stealth suits, which should allow us to avoid carnivorous encounters of the third kind." Firestone smiled weekly, barely able to convince himself they would last more than a few days.

"There's something else we should discuss," Cooper said.

"The irony in how similar my last name is to Fred Flintstone's?" Firestone asked.

"No," Cooper said, doing her best to hide her exasperation.

"What then, Wilma?" Firestone asked.

"I thought it was obvious," Cooper said. 

*****

Monsignor Alessio waited in his office in the underground bunker complex built hundreds of feet below the Armenian Highlands. It was one of five so-called "Armageddon Bunkers" the Church had built in anticipation of a cataclysmic endgame for humanity, a possibility that until recently had seemed inevitable. Alessio had been the driving force behind the construction of the bunkers, as well as the creation of a small army of modern day Knights Templar to defend them, should the apocalypse come.

Georgi Alessio was a small, round, unassuming-looking man who was all razor-sharp edges under the surface. He had the pink, cherubic face of an intemperate uncle that disguised the cold, calculating machinery that whirred and clicked behind his pale blue eyes.

He watched the feed from the security camera positioned outside his locked office door in anticipation. After a few moments, the man appeared. He was purposely nondescript; horn-rimmed glasses, an off-the-rack suit, and scuffed, brown wingtip shoes. Allesio buzzed him in.

Alessio rose from his seat as the man entered his office. "Mr. Jones. Good to see you again."

"Good to see you, too, Monsignor," the man answered. He reached into his pocket and tossed the small, metal case to the prelate.

Catching it in both hands, Alessio said, "Thank you." He examined the metal box, which was secured by a six digit combination. The titanium case had been found, encased in a small chunk of amber, just a few feet from the fossilized Adam and Eve skeletons. The plane crash had been necessary to keep this part of the discovery a secret. A blood sacrifice, Alessio thought. A small price for the reconciliation of man and God; a small price for world peace.

"3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9," Mr. Jones said.

"You've opened it?" Alessio asked, his voice rising an octave, his vocal chords constricted by anxiety.

"Of course," Mr. Jones said. "And I've made a copy of the contents. Call it travel insurance."

"How did you-" Alessio began.

"It's pi. The combination. The first six numbers. A simple cypher for anyone with a passing knowledge of technology, math, engineering and, dare I say it out loud, science. Adam and Eve, whoever they really are, clearly wanted the contents to be discovered. By the right people," Mr. Jones said.

"A message in a bottle," Alessio said, oblivious to the subtext in Mr. Jones' comment, opening the case, and removing the small USB drive. 

"I'll leave you to it," Mr. Jones said and turned to leave. He stopped at the door. "I fully trust my payment will be mined by close of business today. I far prefer payment to payback so I hope I won't be forced to share my copy with Zik Zok News."

"Don't worry, Mr. Jones," Alessio said with a smile. "You'll be paid off."

As Mr. Jones left and the door closed behind him, Alessio turned his attention back to the security camera's display, watching as two his Templar Knights surprised and killed Mr. Jones, swiftly and bloodlessly, and carried off his body. Alessio had already warned his contacts at Zik Zok News of the likelihood that scientists would make every effort to discredit the Adam and Eve discovery, and the irreparable harm publishing such lies would have for anyone involved.

He pushed the drive into the USB port and after a moment a video began to play.

"My name is Cate Cooper, and this is Jackson Firestone. We're astrophysicists and time travelers, marooned in the Jurassic Age of the Mesozoic Era. We understand this may be hard to believe."

"We've left our DNA signatures as confirmation on the device you've found and are using to play this video, along with documentation of our work, telemetry from our final voyage, as well as some basic biographic data as evidence that we are who we say we are. I was born October 13th, 2203, in Ithaca, New York, to Drew and Lynn Jackson," Jackson said.

"I was born May 5th, 2207, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to Scott and Anne Cooper," Cooper said. 

"It should be easy enough to confirm our identities," Firestone said. "To confirm the legitimacy of the evidence you have in your hands."

"We are not Adam and Eve."

Alessio paused, then closed the video. He pulled the device from the USB port and returned it to it's case, spinning the numbers of the combination and locking it. He held it in his hand for a moment, then rose and walked over to the wall where the print of The Creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel hung. He lifted it, revealing a wall safe. He entered the combination and opened the safe. He placed the small case inside and locked it away.