Outland (World-Lines Book 1) by Dennis Taylor Read Free Book Online Page B

software mods that did it. He added a feedback process with learning capability. Apparently it found something more interesting than our flipper to zero in on.”
    Erin looked at Matt, who smiled and gave her a ‘ Who? Me?’ shrug.
    She swept her gaze around the group. “Look, the heat and that particular gas point to a small number of possibilities. Either you’ve connected with a volcano or something like it, or you’ve connected with Venus or something like it.”
    Erin gestured at Kevin in momentary confusion. “Um, Kevin right? Kevin was correct that it probably isn’t Venus—at least not at ground level—or you’d all be a whole lot of dead. Thousand-degree temps would have done more than just blister the wall. But you’ve connected to something that isn’t from around here, and once you accept that, the sky is the limit. Almost literally!”
    Richard leaned forward on his elbows. “So what would you suggest?”
    “Matt told me that you’re going to try again soon, this time with the gate enclosed in something airtight. That seems like a good plan. Will you have some kind of dead-man switch rigged to the container in case it doesn’t hold?”
    “Uh, I will now,” Richard replied, looking surprised.
    Erin saw Bill grin for a moment, just outside Richard’s field of view, and had to struggle to avoid doing the same. She made a pretense of rubbing her lips to hide it while nodding slowly. “Okay. I’d like to be there for it. You’ll have all kinds of cameras going, right?”
    “Yes,” Richard gave a dismissive snort. “None of us wants to be too close after last time.”
    “Seems reasonable.” Erin smiled. “Can you fill me in on what this is about? I know that it has something to do with Schroeder’s cat and random events, but that’s about it.”
    Kevin jumped in. “First, it’s Schrödinger’s cat, not Schroeder. Schrödinger was a scientist; Schroeder plays piano.” Kevin smiled at his own witticism.
    Erin raised one eyebrow and waited for him to continue.
    “Er, right. Anyway,” Kevin continued. “According to my models, the old idea that you get a new universe for each chance event is incorrect. When you flip a coin or something, the models say that only those things affected by the coin flip get duplicated, and the duplicate realities share the single universe at large.”
    “I asked once before if this was like the TV show Sliders, ” Bill said. “Kevin’s head almost exploded.”
    “Yeah, first, that’s where we get our science these days—from TV. Second, that show assumed you get a new world for every little decision. In reality, it takes a significant event to create a different world-line that will persist.”
    Erin shrugged, willing to take his word for it. She looked around the table, a little amused at this group of men who had possibly just made history and were treating it like a technical problem.

Under Glass
    June 23              Omni
    Bill, Matt, and Erin arrived well before Richard’s announced starting time. In the center of the lab, the gate sat inside something that looked like an extra-large diving helmet, the kind with an air hose running up to the surface. It had a larger window on the front, and one of the cameras pointed through the window at the gate. The whole assembly including the camera sat on a large turntable.
    Matt pointed at the setup. “Now, that is some mighty fine Rube Goldberg.”
    Richard waved a hand at the equipment. “That’s the pressure vessel that Bill supplied. No idea what it was supposed to be for originally. We’ll rotate the whole assembly on the turntable and try to get a 360-degree view of things.”
    “You think that’ll work?” Matt asked.
    “It should. This isn’t like a TV; it’s like a periscope. Stuff came through last time. I think we can rotate our viewpoint. We’re going to try anyway.”
    This time the control station and monitor were set up in the observation room behind the safety