Excerpt: Into the Rifts

Jonathan Nolan glared over the top of his clipboard at the dig site. The heavy cranes and steam shovels had done their work, now it was the job of the humans to pick out the bodies of the dead soldiers. Three months ago this dull and dry army base used to be the home of the Andle Government’s Top Secret Project: gate that could open doorways into other worlds. It was going to be their secret weapon of sorts, Jonathan’ superiors said. They would be able to get food and supplies from other worlds in case of a siege or even weapons and new technologies. Of course while the government said it was for the former everyone knew it was for the latter. Since it was top secret Jonathan and his fellow Hounds were called in to investigate.
Right now the investigation included digging up bodies. The day the gate was turned on the unexpected happened. Four people came through from the other side. All the scientists and engineers immediately said this was impossible. They tended to do that. As soon as something like that happened, it was decried as impossible. Three people left through the gate, destroying the machines in the processes with destruction last seen in the bible. Jonathan wasn’t sure exactly how true what the survivors said was, but the evidence did lean in their favor.
It looked like an earthquake and thunder and lightening and God only knew what hit the base. Up to and including the ground opening up and burying half the personal there. Also the fourth person in the group that came through the gate. His body, Jonathan double checked to make sure it was a he, was who they were looking for. Regular people couldn’t get their hands on this off worlder. This was another thing for the government to handle and keep secret.
Unfortunately the Hounds numbers were small and thus making it hard to get this job done quickly. Jonathan felt that if things got any slower, he would shoot someone. The walls of the hole they’d dug already collapsed twice now. They’d gotten supports and built up a load bearing wall, but too much damage had already been done. He didn’t even know if they’d find this stranger, much less intact.
He tucked the clipboard under his arm and started down the scaffolding to where Adrian Fraser and Fox DeLeon were taking a smoking break. Again. For the fifth time in the past two hours. “Fraser! DeLeon! What the hell are you two doing?”
Adrain, the taller of the pair, shrugged. “Taking a break?”
“You’re supposed to be digging.”
Holding up a shovel in his hands, Fox said, “We are. It just got cold so we wanted to warm ourselves up.”
“Cold? It’s near seventy eight outside.” Jonathan pulled out his environment reader and waved it at them. “See, six…”
He stared at it and then gave it a shake. The air around them couldn’t be sixty one degrees. However the readings didn’t change. “That’s not right.” He turned around in a circle. When his back was to the earthen wall, the temperature warmed up a few degrees. That meant that the cold was coming from the dirt.
The original reports did mention an extraordinary piece of ice in the shape of a lance of all things.
“Here. Dig here!” He pointed to the wall where the reader said it was the coldest.
“What’s up with you Nolan?”
“Just dig DeLeon.”
Rolling his eyes, DeLeon slammed the shovel into the earth, pulling clods down onto their feet and the wooden planks. The first bits crumbled easily. As Fox dug deeper the clods became harder, like stone, plinking onto scaffolding. Adrian picked up one, rolling it around in his fingers. “It’s frozen.”
“Good.”
Fox’s shovel clinked. “Ice. I think I’ve hit ice.” He dropped the shovel and brushed the dirt away to reveal a crystalline ice block. Jonathan pushed Fox out of the way. He tapped the wall. Yes, it was ice.
“Right. Okay. We’ve got to be careful now. This is what we’re looking for.”
“I wonder if we could dig around the block,” Adrian mused. He took a pick and tapped against the dirt near the revealed ice. “Pull it that out and defrost it. Or whatever Owens wants to do with it.”
“Turn it into a zombie,” Fox said. He’d pulled out another cigarette and lit it.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“The corpse.”
Jonathan held himself from hitting Fox. The man had to be on drugs to keep him this out of touch in reality. Without them he’d be even worse. “Why would the commander want to do that?”
“Get information.”
“Idiot.” Adrian snapped at him.
“What? It’s entirely possible.”
“Idiot.” Jonathan repeated.
Fox glared at the both of them. “I’m going to go get the commander. He should see this before we do any more.” He scrambled up the scaffolding before Jonathan could order him not to.
Almost laughing, Adrian offered him a cigarette. He took it and after lighting it with a flick of his fingers, stuck it in his mouth to smoke and glare angrily at the world around him. Adrian didn’t offer any comments as he too smoked. Not even on the weather or their gristly work. Jonathan was thankful for it. He could feel the ice wafting drafts of cold onto his back, his face flushing warm with the heat. It created a strange sauna like situation, or like being in a Jacuzzi where for some reason his back wasn’t protected from the cold. Perspiration beaded onto his skin and he wiped it off with the back of his hand.