(M)Through the Barrier to Time Travel(IC)

[GodlyD&D]

Occasionally Roger would see little rodents slightly poking heads out of holes that were in scattered places in the ground, which he figured could be voles. A lot later it was a little lighter and he could see further in the distance. In one direction he saw, a good distance away, two animals that could have been dogs, moving low along the ground. He took them to be wolves. They had a scrawny appearance. He had noticed them before they showed any awareness of him, and he was glad the slight wind blew from their direction basically toward him. He squatted low behind a dried shrub, not wanting to contribute to a situation of having to deal with hungry wolves.

Roger watched carefully in silence as the wandered about. They might have been looking about scattered holes for voles that they might find. At length they moved on out of site behind distant low hills. He waited a few more minutes, and then stood up, set up another simple flag. At length, after several more simple flags being planted, each one just barely in a view of another in sequence, he spotted a view of sea some distance away, appearing between low hills. He went on in that direction, thinking it was a good possibility that Vatcoad had come from that direction, from what could be understood of what he had been saying.

He was closer to the sea, having passed between the low hills, when he heard growling coming from behind him.

[GodlyD&D]

Roger's hair bristled, and he turned to see what was behind him. Sure enough, a wolf had spotted him, and was preparing to spring at him several feet away. He thought with a little comfort that at least it was only one that came after him.

He had just a couple of moments to draw out the sharpened shaft that he had used to pick holes into the ground to hold ready in position. It would work to use it well in defense only once, he was only too aware. The wolf sprung, and with practiced aim he put his strength into a thrust, right into the wolf's throat as to came at him.

The next moment, the wolf was lying on its back twitching in agony. Roger struck again with the shaft, into the wolf's head, and ended its agony.

It was several minutes that Roger sat near to it, recovering his nerves. Then he came to the dead creature, and began to use a digging trowel with him to scoop up snow and cover the animal. When it was buried, he took up his things, and walked on toward the sea. It only took a few minutes, and he was there, looking around to recognise what he could from what was understood from Vatcoad's description.

[GodlyD&D]

Roger spotted distant mountains down the coast that would correspond to the description from Vatcoad. He took the pack from his back to take out the instruments that he would use to take readings to determine his location in the world, when he noticed tracks nearby that were left in the snow. These were a little distant to him, and he approached for a better look, glancing in the direction to which they led to see if anything might be spotted, although nothing was seen from that. He shivered as he looked in awe at the tracks. They had a resemblance to prints from human feet, of one walking barefoot through the snow. But they were huge, and very broad. Vatcoad was large as a man, but of no extreme size, as these prints were showing their maker to be.

He went back to work on measurements, but looking around frequently. He came to a good idea where he was, this would determine where in the world the impact was from what came out of the sky.

He was now sure it was more than 99% certain that he was on the same planet Earth of evidently prehistoric times, and sophistic readings he was able to make showed that he must be on an ancient shoreline, along a rather stormy sea, with Caucasus mountains to the east. With this information and hope for a bit more observation made of what the environment was like, although having to be in transition, Roger was ready to turn back the way he had come. But he was startled now by an observation of something of which he had no understanding. A glowing image in the shape of a slender cone with a narrow point toward the ground was some distance away, before the mountains but much nearer to him. Its top was near to low dark clouds, of the sort that come with thunderstorms, but there was no rain, thunder or lightning. It was moving, but apparently gradually, basically coming along the coast, but there was no sound with it.

He stood transfixed a few minutes wondering at what he saw, and awareness came to him again that he was ready to depart, as he well may do before this strange phenomenon would come to his vicinity. He put what he had out back in his pack, including a few small samples of plants that grew in the area, leaving the shaft out to carry while the pack would be on his back. This took a few more minutes, and he stood to retrace his route coming to this spot. This glowing object was clearly nearer, but it appeared to Roger still to be not quite as large as it seemed earlier, although that seemed questionable. He then turned, looking quickly all around him with caution, and then moved following his tracks to return to whence he had come from.

[GodlyD&D]

Much of the trip back was uneventful except for him spotting many more of the rodents. Roger watched carefully for any more wolves, or other possible threatening creatures, but he did not see any such things as expected. Further along tracks were more buried by fresh fallen snow, but the flags he had left with foresight guided him back along the same way. Before he full returned though, he saw in the distance an upright creature. It was evidently the creature that had made the prints he had found along the coast.

The creature had a shape like an anthropoid, it had shaggy brown hair covering its body. Roger saw that he had been seen, and he heard a moan and then screeching come from what he saw was about eight feet tall and must be an ancient glacial wild yeti, as it approached him. There were not many yeti left in later historical times. He pulled out and grabbed a pointed shaft, holding it in front of him, hoping it could warn the yeti away, although he realized trying to use it would not likely be effective.

The yeti came up, with a variety in what noises were made. Suddenly, something bright came up at their side when the yeti was close.

Roger was startled, and looked to his side to see what was glowing brilliantly, and what he saw took his breath away, and held his gaze for a few moments. It was a glowing pillar, taller than the wild yeti that had been coming up. It had slight crackling sounds. He realized it was cyclonic, it was determinate electric energy. He wondered if it could be the same phenomenon that he saw on the shore earlier. But it would be strange that it seemed much smaller now, with a changed shape. It was gliding toward him. He remembered the wild yeti, that had come up to him. He turned to look, and he saw the creature running and already some distance away.

Roger realized he had better run from this electric energy as well, it had almost come to where he was standing, as if it was attracted to him, and he possibly could be lethally shocked from it. He ran in the direction away from the side of the electric energy. He knew he had come close to the location of the opening of the wormhole that he had been through. But not seeing it right away and wanting to find cover quickly from the energy that was seemingly attracted to him, he turned to a hole in the side of hill behind some trees he happened to spot, not far from him. He ran to it, and dived in the hole, which was wide open even in the hill that had snow over it.

[GodlyD&D]

What Roger found with his dive through a hole through the snow on the side of a steep incline was a cave that had the opening almost covered from the drift. But with the cyclon of electric energy having almost come fully up to him, behaving as if there was attraction to him, he was not wanting to slow down but rather make his way as far into it as he could get. It did not have an immediate end but was open well into the earth, and he kept moving into it.

Roger came to a stop after a couple of minutes without coming to the end of the cave, and turned to look behind him. The light from the opening of the hole appeared small from the large distance he had come from it. He did not see the manifestation of electric energy on his side of the hole, but he worried it might still come. But that was not all concerning him. His eyes were slightly adjusting to the darkness within the cave. And it seemed he was seeing something moving on the floor of the cave.

Roger became suddenly aware that he was in a cave with snakes crawling around within it. Not knowing what kind of snakes they might be, a sense of panic started filling him. He bounded to the right side of the cave, hoping for a slope and maybe a high shelf to remove himself from snakes. Instead he found he was running through a further side passage, further into the earth. He kept going for a few minutes, until further thoughts brought him to a stop. He was in total darkness, and the only sensation he had was feeling the ground below him and a wall to the passage on one side. He feared that there was a possibility that he was in a large underground labyrinth, in which he could easily be lost.

[GodlyD&D]

There was no sensation of crawling things that made him uncomfortable, and with the situation now being different, Roger reached in his pack knowing he needed to provide light for himself, and pulled out a torch he had that he easily lit with what he had even in the dark with the knowledge he had for dealing with critical times. He had cared for not bringing more advanced technology for the possibility he might be seen by stone age people. And what he saw was what he had feared. It was not a presence of snakes anymore. He was in a passage with a good number of passages branching from one another. So he judged what had been the direction he thought had been that from which he had come, and turned walk that way to return. He realized any snakes he came across could be driven away with the torch. But his foot struck something, before he saw it, as he did when he then looked down.

Roger saw that he was looking at a large egg embedded in the grimy floor. It was quite too large for coming from a snake, and he wondered what kind of creature would leave an egg in this location. He decided to take it back with him, he pulled it up, and wrapped it carefully in soft material from his pack, and placed it at the top and carefully closed the pack again.

There might be an issue with doing something in what would be the world of our past, but taking something neglected from deep in the earth was not something of any likely consequence to the world, as he realized.

[GodlyD&D]

Roger then resumed his search for finding his way out the way he had come. After a good amount of time, he realized he had misjudged his way, and with great concern, he turned again to go where he had just been to find the right way. As he once again resumed a newer way that he judged a likely way he had come, he saw something he feared more than the snakes, which he would be able to drive away with the torch, far ahead. He almost turned to run away again.

What Roger saw was an electrical phenomenon, likely the same one following him before, but if so it was still far away down the passage. But he did not run from it this time. He pulled out his post, and a few tools from his pack. They had wooden surfaces, but each thing he removed from his person had a metal portion for underlying strength in the interior. He pushed them into the cave floor, in close proximity to each other. Then he backed away from these items, going away from the electric manifestation but without any panic.

When he had placed some good distance between himself and the items, he stopped and turned to watch this cyclonic electric energy approaching. As it came closer, Roger had doubts that he was seeing the same thing each time. Something was quite different.

As what was surely cyclonic determinate electric energy came closer Roger could see how it was different than what he had seen before. But he thought to himself, are there several of these phenomena that are common enough here, or does one of them change so much? This one he was seeing now was with a paraboloid shape, the curved narrow point at the top, wider at the base. As it came close it still did not seem so large, apparently about seven feet tall at most. Roger did not want it coming much closer to him, so he backed up away from it a bit more. But it did what he was hoping for, it came to the items that he had placed in the ground, and remained centered over them.

A new problem occurred to Roger. The tunnels here were not so wide. The way that he thought would lead back out from these underground passages was past this electric energy. But to continue on it would mean passing this dangerous thing in close proximity. This was now seeming too risky to do. But Roger could not think of any desirable alternative. Going another way he was sure to be wrong, possibly leaving him lost in a potentially great underground labyrinth.

[GodlyD&D]

Roger sat against a wall of the passage. His torch he had wedged upright in a hole dug into the floor. The torch would stay lit for a number of hours, but it would still eventually go out, he would not want to still be underground then. He had no reason to stand around while he was undecided on what to do. He thought on it but could not see it to be any good to back away from this electric energy and to try any other ways through the passages. The hole through which he had entered into the underground passages was certainly in the same direction from which this phenomenon had come. Any other direction could not be expected to come around to the same opening. He knew something of cavernous passages. They could most often lead after a good length to a dead end, but they often divided, and one passage might at length come to a second opening to the outside, but it could be a great length that could not be determined. He at length came to terms that he could be risking his life trying it but that he would have to cross by very close to the electric energy to get by through the narrow passage.

A few of the hours might have passed by then. He was going to get up anyway, but seeing it again he became sure that it was changing shape. Was it rather fatter? It seemed now squat, and as he stood up, he realized that it was now shorter than he was. A bit more of his fast thinking had Roger realize that its power was diminishing, and if he waited a bit more it would likely be small enough soon enough for him to get by and get out soon enough. He sat down and watched it some more, glancing away toward the torch every now and then.

[GodlyD&D]

Maybe another hour had passed, and he saw how small it was, that he could get by maybe safely enough. He gathered up his pack and his torch, and just then he realized the energy seemed to be acting unstable. It wobbled a bit side to side, and bobbed up and down a bit. And then, as he hesitated for awhile watching it, it collapsed toward the ground. Roger watched as this effect seemed to drain through the grounded rods he had set up. And then he realized, to his surprise, that he was looking at a glowing flowergemstone.

He had heard of a few such things having been found. But this was so bright it surprised him. And he knew of gemstone eminations that led to deformities. So he he took a trowel and another flat metal tool and put them on two sides of the stone, and took a scarf to wind around them. He picked that up, got his pack on his back, and took up the torch, he walked along the passage, toward where the snakes were. But he had the torch out, and was able to keep going while shooing the snakes away. And so he made his way to the hole and to the outside again. He threw down the torch which was now mostly used, and hurried toward the anomaly that was ahead.

Roger quickly found himself in the Lab again, just the way it was when he had left it. He quickly was feeling warmer, and he removed the outer wear that had insulated him. Master Triggs and most of his team were there, and they wanted to hear everything about the exploration, having waited almost a couple of days for him. Roger showed them what he brought, including that glowing gemstone, and the egg, and told them he would explain. They sat in comfortable chairs provided at one side, and Roger told them all about it, and they had a recording of that made. And he provided the information to them, where the impact would have happened. It meant that there would have to be an expedition to that location in this modern age, and find what was left of the impact, to confirm that. But this would take more money, and so much had been spent to have the wormhole maintained.

[GodlyD&D]

There was necessarily months of little activity to accumulate funds, the wormhole being maintained was such an expense that it was suspended, and there were instead studies of the items Roger brought back from what was certainly in the ancient past.

The glowing gemstone released bolts of electric energy from where it was placed, occasionally. Research involved finding anecdotes of such items. It was learned that some incidental tribes had specialists at some time or other use such glowing gemstones to release supernatural power, altering things with triggering those, or teleporting things some distance away. There was discussion of finding some tribal specialist to examine this gemstone and say whether it could be triggered in some way.

The egg Roger found was kept where it was incubated, at a temperature a little lower than human body temperature, and observed for signs that life might emerge from it.