Kara Discovered: Episode 4: Into the Fuzzy Unknown
Jefferies finds himself even more blind then he'd been warned of on crossing to the the new universe
Jeffery heard the men tense behind him as he stepped up to the line that separated this universe from the next. Taking a deep breath, Jeffries slipped on the glasses and stepped through the gate on the right-hand side and stopped.
The milk white glasses became see-through, barely. He could see the sand and his feet, but four meters out, things blurred together.
This wasn’t good. He raised his fist to beside his ear in the sign to hold. Lifting his glasses, and everything was just a blur, so he let them fall back into place.
He strained his ears.
It told him very little. He’d landed on over a hundred planets in three universes, but none sounded anything like this.
“Testing, one, two, three,” he said aloud.
That didn’t sound like his voice.
Was that faint sound to his right a response to his voice? How far away was it?
Instinct said he didn’t belong here. Sight was wrong. Sound was wrong. It was too hot.
The smell was right, though. It smelled just like the other three deserts he had been in. Of all the possible places to begin, a desert was likely best, far fewer possible threats than forest, swamp, plain or coastline.
He wanted badly to abort. But mankind was coming here. The Fraternal Order of the Legion, the closest thing man still had to a military, was vowed to protect man wherever he went. Belong here or not, he was Legion, he was staying.
He pointed at the ground three times, which told his sergeants to shorten their perimeter from fifty meters to thirty, then pointed ahead.
Legionnaires charged out the gate, each sergeant taking his eight-man squad to their assigned position.
Doctor Green crossed the gate yelling. “Damn you Jeffries move, you are standing on the only plant we have seen here.”
Jeffries took three steps forward, keeping his back to the gate and attention on his deploying men.
That was loud. The men made far more noise here than in their home universe. Jeffries could hear every step every man made.
Doctor Green yelled again, “Damn it Jeffries! It’s too loud. We can’t hear what noise the wildlife makes here for all your men.”
“Freeze,” he bellowed, using his command voice.
Each man froze in place.
The silence that followed put a shiver down his back despite the heat. It was all wrong. Jefferies counted to five twice by holding up fingers to Doctor Green, then said, “Resume.”
“Doctor Green, my men have things to accomplish. Including each squad keeping in contact with the one next to it. I will issue a Freeze command from time to time so you may listen, but that is the best I can do for now.”
“That isn’t acceptable. You need to send at least half of these men back through the gate.”
“Why don’t you go back through the gate and make that request to your dean. For now, we have work to get done.”
“Fascinating,” Doctor Titus said, interrupting Doctor Green’s angry retort.
“What?” she said, turning to the man that knelt where Jeffries had stood.
“The rate of rot. The plant was undoubtedly alive when the Lieutenant here stepped on it. But it is rotting even faster than the organics from our universe did when pushed across during our test. Already the leaves are little more than smears on the sand.”
“Then you better let me take over and you and Doctor Green start looking for another plant.,” Doctor Li said. “If the roots are rotting just as fast, only a very careful forensic examination will give you any hint on how extensive a root system it may have had.”
Jefferies moved away from the scientist and began his inspection of the rotational perimeter his sergeants had set up. Six positions occupied by six squads, with a squad inside and one outside of that on the move.