Chapter 01

Meeting the Locals

Breakfast was filling and delicious, but now it’s time to get on with the work the team is there to do. While they head to the car park with the gear and vehicles Ed wonders how the expedition leaders got permission to closely examine the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. They had to agree to not to do any digging or remove anything from the site, but they will be conducting a lot of extensive tests with a wide range of equipment to check the ground of the site and what’s under it for a depth of a few hundred metres. Doctor Josef expects to prove or disprove the many stories about tunnels and hidden rooms there, as well as some stories about hidden areas within the current structures on the Temple Mount.

Ed also thinks about his being on the team of twenty-one people. The five security staff make sense, so do the technicians for the ground probing radar and sensors, the two historians, the record keepers, and Dr Josef. Ed did ask why he was hired, and he was only told they wanted a non-expert as a reviewer and problem solver. Initially he refused the job, but they kept raising the pay until it reached a point he accepted the job and the risks of travelling to what he sees as a war zone.

Despite all his fears about the area everything went well, and looked good when they arrived at the Ben Gurion Airport yesterday and went through customs. The drive to their accommodations in Jerusalem was also trouble free and interesting. No issues settling in last night. But he wonders how long that’ll last, considering the way their mission is seen and commented on by the extremists on both sides of the religious issue.

What a Greeting!

The walk from the dining room to the door to the car park at the rear of the building takes a few minutes and it gives the team time to spread out a little bit while they walk down the hall. Two locals smile when they open the doors to the two and a half metre wide verandah that accesses the stairs to the car park. When Dr Josef, two guards, and Ed walk out the door Ed wonders if this was the front entrance of the original building before the newer construction at the other end enlarged the building.

After two paces onto the verandah Ed stops to stare, due to a mix of stunned shock and his reaction to the roar from the thousands of people jammed into in the car park, shouting while waving signs protesting the project. Both of the security staff move to a group of men yelling and charging up the wide staircase to the team’s left while Dr Josef stands still and the others press forward to see what all the noise is about.

Giving his head a shake Ed looks around, and he sees the several local security guards provided by the West Bank government smiling while standing away from their posts, thus allowing the protesters access to the car park and the stairs. The two guards at the bottom of the narrow stairs on the right just watch while four men race up the stairs, three are armed with automatic weapons of some sort. The fourth has a thin face with a fat chest and waist so it’s clear he has something large strapped to him.

Swearing, Ed takes three fast steps to reach the man without a gun when he reaches the top step. Grabbing the man’s belt in one hand and his clothes near the sternum with the other Ed lifts, he use all of his strength to toss the man over the stone wall and into the crowd. Spinning back toward the men with the guns he slams the lead gunner with a hard and fast sideways fist to the side of his head. The gunman’s head rotates over his left shoulder and his body starts to turn as well. His hands open and the gun starts to drop from them. Ed grabs the gun and turns it toward the men still on the narrow stairs. When he does he notices a red light moving on the wall, so thinks this gun has a laser sight. Grinning, he moves the light onto the groin of the new lead gunman and he pulls the trigger. The gun jerks while it fires three rounds and stops of its own accord, so Ed figure this is on a ’three shot burst’ mode he’d read about.

That man screams while falling as Ed gives his mate a similar burst. The two armed security guards at the bottom of the stairs are no longer smiling. Ed smiles as he gives each of them a shot in the groin. The men around the bottom of the stairs are now charging forward, so he gives the nearest of them a similar dose of groin changers.

Ed hears shooting behind him and rounds hitting the building beside him, so he crouches while shooting. He’s deliberately shooting them in the groin because that has a significant religious impact on them as well as the usual pain. By the time he runs out of bullets the area at the bottom of the stairs on this side is clogged with men holding bloody groins, and those behind them can’t climb over the pile of wounded too well.

Hearing the close shooting at the other stairs stop Ed turns to see what’s happening. Dr Josef is wounded and being moved back inside by the other staff, four of the security staff are down while the fifth is covering the withdrawal of the technicians with Dr Josef. There are also several dead men on the stairs, and another thin faced man with a fat chest is working his way up the stairs by climbing over the dead.

Moving toward this man Ed swears when he feels a sharp pain in his right side. He realises he’s going to die due to the incoming rounds or this bomber, so he figures to hurt the attackers as much as possible.

Leaning further forward he pushes off with his feet to charge at the bomber while bent over with his arms held out wide to the sides. While he charges he screams the only thing he can think of as a well known and uniquely Aussie battle cry, he shouts out, “Up there, Cazaly!”

In the five steps it takes to reach the man Ed picks up a lot of speed and momentum. When the man is stepping onto the top step Ed hits the man in the belly with his left shoulder while his arms go around the bomber to grab him. Ed hits and starts to move the man backward as well as lifting him a little while putting all of his strength into throwing the both of them out into the crowd at the bottom of the stairs. After a short fall Ed feels the man impact on those in the crowd. He also sees the man’s left hand clutch at something. Then it all goes black.

A Surprising Offer

On hearing noises Ed opens his eyes, and he’s shocked to see screens in the wall showing his heart rate and other readings to make it clear he’s in a medical centre of some sort. However, many of the screens don’t make any sense to him, nor does the writing. He knows it’s not the local script because he knows that, nor is it English or Russian.

Seeing no one to talk to he see no reason to say anything and no point in trying to break the straps holding him down. Ed figures they must be strong enough for the job or they wouldn’t be using them on him.

After a few minutes a female voice comes through a sound system, “A very interesting specimen we have here, David.”

A male voice replies, “Yes, Wilma, I think he is. That’s why I took him when I could.” A small delay, then, “Ed, we know you’re awake. Please tell me why you’re quiet, and why you just lie there.”

For a brief moment Ed mentally debates about replying to them at all, and he decides he may as well. “David, Wilma, I assume those are your names from what’s been said. I saw no point in talking when I couldn’t see anyone in the room with me. I also felt you wouldn’t have used straps to hold me down unless you thought they were strong enough to do the job. Thus I saw no point in testing them until after I knew a bit more about what’s going on and where I am. Now, it’s clear I’m alive and in some sort of medical facility, so please tell me what happened.”

David replies, “Well, you should be pleased to know the two bombs were radio linked, so they both went off when the second man hit his trigger by accident while trying to get off the people you threw him on to. The other man was already standing and heading back to the stairs when the bombs went off. The results were quite spectacular in terms of destruction of that end of the building when they damaged the rooms beside the car park and caused the stairs and verandah to collapse. The expedition’s cars were so far back only the windows were damaged by people thrown against them. The bombers had anti-personnel devices on their bodies too, so over six hundred very militant protesters were killed while another two hundred were injured. Four of the team security staff were wounded, and also lightly hurt when the verandah collapsed, but nothing serious. The only team members hurt were Doctor Josef with a light bullet wound and you were ripped apart by the bomb. The government officials have started an investigation into how they found out where the team was located, and why they were allowed into the car park. Many of the local militant religious leaders are very upset so many of their followers have been sent to their reward in such a violent way. They were especially upset with the ones you shot, because a few survived and they spoke about how selective you were with your aim.”

Ed laughs long and hard before replying, “I knew that would be an issue for them if they lived! So it was deliberate, and I’m glad it is a big problem for the bastards. I love the idea of the militants getting hoisted on their own petard that way. Since you said I was killed and this isn’t heaven or hell, where the heck am I, and how did you manage it?”

“You’re in our spaceship. I manipulated your continuum to put a clone of you in your place in the time between the bomber starting to grip the detonator and when it blew. No one noticed. You now qualify as one of those who were abducted by aliens. Except they have proof you’re dead, complete with some parts of your body. Your family will get all the insurance bonuses. On a side issue, just what is it with you and Doctor Josef. He was very angry about the attack, but when he heard you were dead he was ... well, I think the expression ’blew sky high’ best covers it.”

“I wish I knew. I’d never heard of him, nor met him, until this job was offered to me. They were very insistent on getting me on it. In the end they paid me so much they couldn’t hire two other techs.”

Wilma butts in with, “I think we should have some people find out why he was so insistent on getting you on the project. He even went so far as to say the project may end up as a failure without your input and insight into the initial findings.”

Ed responds, “Well, it’s got me beat as I’d need someone to explain the printouts to me. I do have a reputation as a good troubleshooter and being able to make links between things that aren’t obvious. However, I’m not all that famous for it.”

David comes back into the conversation, “It would be good to know, but we now need a decision from you, Ed. We’ve a little project we’d like you to undertake for us. The short description is we’ll place you on a primitive planet like Earth was about thirty-five to forty thousand years ago. We’ll provide some resources and we want you to do all you can to live in that environment without any further help from us. There are other people and animals there, all of them consistent with those in the middle and southern parts of Europe at that time.”

Ed is surprised and stunned about this offer. He lies there thinking about it. Hmm. I’m officially dead, so they can just kill me if I refuse. But what’s in it for them, and why? are the main thoughts he has before he replies, “I see I have very few options in regards to my future. But I want to know some more details before I answer. An important one is I have to know what you get out of all this.”

There’s a few minutes silence before Wilma replies, “Ed, I may later get into trouble from higher up for this, but the best way I can relate this in terms you’ll understand is this: I’m a newly appointed top level executive producer for our version of television. I’m putting together a new show for our network. It’s a lot like your TV series ’Survivor,’ but more so because it’s a proper reality show. We’ll dump you there and it’s up to you to fight to survive. The cameras are automatic and we won’t have anyone on hand to pull you out if it things go wrong. You’ll have to live on your own abilities. You will have two and a half tonnes of gear to help you to get started. The initial run is for a year, if you survive, with options for some more gear if the network keeps the show on.”

Let’s Make a Deal

Ed is stunned by this, but he takes some time to think through all of the repercussions he can imagine. Several minutes later he says, “OK, I’ve an idea of where you’re coming from. Also, I understand I’ll be tossed in the deep end and left to sink or swim. The terms of employment are clear: Go there and do what I have to do to stay alive while I enjoy my new life without a care for the fact I’m being watched. The pay is the load of gear to help me survive. What happens if I don’t survive long?”

David laughs as he says, “If you die too soon Wilma will probably wish she died instead. This show will either make or break her career.”

Ed laughs too. A little later, after some thought, he says, “I think we can say we have an agreement on the concept. Now we have to agree to terms on the pay. I want time and resources to study where I’m going to be dropped, plus information on what I can and can’t take with me.”

Wilma says, “Good. David is my senior technical supervisor so I’ll let you talk to him about the gear. Then he can tell me and I’ll see if it’s within the budget I’ve got before I get back to you. Is that OK?”

“Yes, it is. OK, David, what are the basic limitations, please?”

Ed can hear the grin in David’s voice when he replies, “In short, you are sort of restricted to the current level of technology on Earth today, but we can adjust that a little. What I mean is if you want something of a technical nature you need to be able to give a reasonable description of what it is you want and how it works, unless it’s something you can buy in a shop down the street of where you used to live. We are allowed to substitute better materials and design features if we wish to and you agree to the change. One example I can think of is your clothes. We can supply clothes like you wear today or like what they wear on the planet, but made from our materials that have a lot better wear-ability and thermal control, so they’ll be warmer and last longer than what you would get here or there. If you ask for a fusion reactor as a power source you’ll need to lay out the design features for us, or we won’t build it for you. Does that help you with your planning?”

“Yes, David, I think it does. So let me say, right up front, when I list an item I want and you have something that is a better design or better materials you should just go ahead and make the switch. The only time I’ll need to be asked about it is if it weighs more than what I asked for or it works in a different way, as I’ll need to be given instructions on it. I can also see your point I need to prove I know what I’m talking about for the advanced stuff, just so I don’t get a jump off of your technology.”

“Exactly, Ed. But for many basic things like hammers etcetera we won’t need you to lay out the design, unless it’s something unusual.”

“Right, let’s get down to cases. I’d like you to keep a running tally on the weight so I don’t have to worry about it. I also want to keep it all very simple because I won’t have an opportunity to call a repairman. Thus I won’t be going for anything of an involved mechanical nature. I want it all to be capable of being maintained in the field by me. For example, if it needs bearings I want the highest quality, longest wearing, lubricated, and sealed bearings you can provide for the job. Some items will need to be capable of being either repaired or replaced in the field from the local resources, so keep all of that in mind, please, David.”

“Oh, good! That should make for a much better show.”

“David, why do I feel this show is in competition with another one?”

“That might be because it is. Another major network has a similar show going. However, that fellow has a lot of technical support on hand and he sort of lives a modern day life in the same era. He uses lanterns, rifles, refrigerators, and such. If you’ll stick to the older technology we will have a more interesting show for our clients, so we should steal some of their client base for some of the time, if not permanently.”

“Why am I not surprised about that! Oh well, back to basics. As much as possible I want everything I get to look like it could have been made there and then. Clothes have to look like animal skins and tools to look like they’re wood or bone or stone. Anything that needs an edge has to be permanently sharp or long lasting with a sharpening kit and instructions on how to sharpen it with safety. Also, it all has to be as light as possible where the weight or mass isn’t a key aspect of what it’s used for. In the later case I don’t mind any extra weight if it helps with the performance.”

“OK, Ed, let’s get down to the gear you want.”

“Right, can I get up from this table first?”

“Sorry, Ed, I forgot about that.” The straps are released on one side and are pulled back into the other side. The table adjusts to be more like a lounger as a desk with a chair comes out of one wall while the wall at that point becomes a large computer monitor. “The screen at the desk will show you the terrain and area around where we’d like you to set up housekeeping. You should study it while thinking about the gear.”

“Thanks, David. How will I communicate with the locals?”

“Good point, Ed. They do have their own language, so we’ll give it to you as sleep training, later. We’ll set it up so it will be as natural to you to use as English is now. At the same time we’ll enhance certain of your body functions to make it easier for you to operate there. We’ll improve your senses, muscles, immune system, and similar type stuff.”

“I get a feeling it’s going to be a lot more than that. But if it helps me to stay alive I’m all for it.” Ed moves over to sit at the desk and he starts to move the mouse to examine the area. He has troubles controlling the mouse on the desk, and very soon he gets extremely frustrated with it.

It’s clear David is watching him when he’s quick to say, “Ed, lie on the lounge for a moment, please.” Ed does as asked, lies down, and shuts his eyes because he thinks something medical is about to happen. A moment later David says, “Right, I’ve added an organic control unit to your mind. From now on when you look at something while holding something that needs to be pointed or aimed a cross-hair will appear to show you where it’s currently aimed. It works like a mouse pointer and it will be one when using a computer, but it’ll also work as a target sight when using a weapon like a gun or bow and arrow. It will also work as such when you’re on the planet, and it’ll adjust for gravity too.”

“Thanks, David. That can be very useful. Why did you do it?”

“While you were lying down I did all those body enhancements I mentioned a moment ago. By adding them now they probably won’t notice the targeting control unit. Even if they do they’ll probably ignore it because it’s the same unit we insert into all our people as mouse pointers. All of our computers are intended to be used with this type of pointer, but the old software to use the mechanical mouse was not working well with the new systems. Kind of expected when the technology items are so many levels apart. Now, back to work.”

Ed sits back down at the desk, and he smiles when the mouse pointer moves with his eyes. He soon finds he still has to click the button on the physical mouse, so he wonders how David’s people do that with their computers. He soon gives up on that as being unproductive as he gets on with examining the screen while thinking. The area he’s allowed to view covers about twenty-five kilometres on a side, but it only has four areas that fit what he’s looking for as a long term residence location.

While trying to make a choice between them Ed asks, “David, can you make changes to the terrain before you drop me off?”

“Depends, Ed. All of the locals know what their area looks like, so we would cause major issues with large changes, but small ones are OK.”

“What about creating a cave that doesn’t exist now?”

“Technically, we can do that. But, again, the locals would know it!”

“Not if the cave entrance was concealed and it was clearly hidden for a long time. Then they wouldn’t be upset about something new.” Ed moves the view to the site he sees as his best option. “See this section of the canyon’s wall! Look at the large wild growth of thorn bushes! It’s clear they’ve been there for many decades. If someone was to find a cave behind that lot no one would be surprised they hadn’t seen it before as no one from when they were small is likely to still be alive.”

“I see what you mean, Ed. Yes, we can create a custom cave in the rock of the canyon wall there for you. What would you like?”