Open Writing

“So, who gets the short straw?”

Cal’s question hung in the air like a bad smell. The previous night, they had set up camp beds and had a good night’s sleep, taking turns keeping watch. When they woke, they found Jonathan already working on the device. Breakfast was prepared, and eaten in silence, mindful of what Jonathan had said the night before.

Jonathan cleared his throat. “Well, it was my idea, so I’ll go.”

“Jonathan, no! As Cal said, we came all this way through time and space. We’re not going to lose you now.” Karen protested.

“You’re not going to lose me. I’m confident I’ll be in no danger.”

“But Jonathan, even if that’s so, how will you get back?”

Jonathan smiled. “Ah now, there I have some good news.” He sat back in his chair. “I’ve given the device a pretty good examination, and I’m pleased to say I’ve found the return mechanism.”

Jonathan’s modest statement took them all by surprise.

“Jonathan, are you saying you’ve solved the problem of getting back?” Arnold asked.

Jonathan nodded happily.

“Well, that’s…fantastic! How? I mean, how does it work?” Arnold asked.

Jonathan smiled. “Ah, well that involves a bit of science which, with my apologies, will be difficult to put in lay terms. However, in truth, the application is ridiculously simple. All I, or whoever goes, need do is carry a simple homing mechanism which can be tuned to the machine. Any radio signal will do. The device can remain in contact with the tuner between universes. When you wish to return, you simply activate the signal, and the device automatically returns you to your universe of origin.”

Glancing at the others, Cal said, “Jonathan, when were you planning on doing this?”

Jonathan said, “Well, no time like the present, so…”

“You mean, now?” Karen asked.

Jonathan nodded. “Well, yes. I don’t see any point in delaying.”

“Oh, don’t you? Well, I do! None of us really knows anything about this device, Jonathan, not even you. Even if you’re right, and you do go through it unharmed, you have no idea what you’ll find on the other side. You might walk into a universe where planets have poison for atmosphere, or great hairy monsters, or…or! What will you do then?” Karen demanded.

“Well, I’ll just activate the return signal and come back here.”

Karen eyed him skeptically. “And what if it doesn’t work, or takes too long or…”

“Karen,” Cal interrupted gently, “that’s what they mean when they talk about exploring the unknown. Where would the human race be if we’d shied away from everything that might be dangerous? And what about our original mission in the first Hermes? We didn’t have a clue what we would find beyond the lightspeed barrier, but we went anyway.”

“But we were together, Cal! Jonathan…will be all alone out there.” She turned to the English professor. “Jonathan, please…”

Jonathan looked at the floor silently. Karen waited until he raised his head and met her eye. “Karen,” he said, “I promise I’ll be as careful as I can be, but I have to do this. It is my raison detre. My whole being as a scientist insists on it. Not to mention the religious connotations. This might be our chance to find answers mankind has been seeking for all of its existence.”

He stood, and looked around the table. “It might contain the mystery of God, the meaning of life, anything. I must go.”

He left the table and walked towards the device, which stood shimmering on the far side of the room. A moment later, another chair slid back, and another voice spoke.

“Well, you won’t be going alone, Professor. I’m coming with you.”

All heads at the table turned and stared at Joe McCulloch, who was standing.

“Joe, what are you doing?” Cal objected. “You heard Karen’s objections. You don’t know what…”

Joe smiled at his friend. “Oh, I see. It’s all right for an elderly professor, but for a Navajo chief, Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Aikido, Kung Fu adept, it’s way too dangerous.” He smiled mockingly at Cal.

“He’s got a point. If Jonathan can go, why not Joe?” Karen asked.

As Cal groped for an answer, Arnold said, “You know, they’re both right. Jonathan could use a bodyguard. I can’t think of anyone better than Admiral McCulloch. Not even you, or my old friend Dennis, with all his weaponry, I suspect, would be as deadly an adversary, or a better protector.”

Dennis nodded. “He’s right, Cal. We’ve all seen Joe doing his workouts. I rely on weapons, but I’d go unarmed anywhere in the world with him as my minder.”

“Hey, I’m right here, you know?” Joe grinned, then turned serious again. “Cal, you know it makes sense. The only other person to do this is you, and you’re our leader, so you can’t go. I know Captain Kirk used to lead the ‘away teams’ but that doesn’t happen in real life. Besides,” he grinned, “Karen’d kill me if anything happened to Jonathan. I’m not afraid of much, but I’m afraid of her.”

This relaxed the tension, and Karen, only slightly mollified, said, “You’d better not let anything happen to him, Joe McCulloch.”

Joe smiled at Cal. “With my shield or on it, right, pal?”

“Well, I hope it doesn’t come to anything like that,” said Cal. “You be careful out there.”

“Copy that.”

Joe glanced at Jonathan, who was standing by the device patiently. “Just a little preparation, Professor. We don’t know what kind of weather we’ll meet over there, so we’d better dress for any contingency.” He walked to his kit, stripped off his uniform tunic, and pulled on a buckskin tunic-shirt, and strapped on a gunbelt with one holster, and cartridges all around. Then he took a handgun from his bag and inspected it quickly.

Cal watched, “Still got the old .44, eh pal?”

Joe nodded. “Yep.”

Jonathan said, watching with interest, “Isn’t that what Bill carried, Cal?”

Cal shook his head. “No, Bill packed a .44 Colt Magnum, the old ‘Dirty Harry’ piece, which was new at the time. What Joe has there was old before he and I were born. Tell ‘em, Joe.”

Joe took the gun from its holster and twirled it on his finger. “This, my friends, is a Colt Peacemaker .44, circa 1872, the gun that tamed the West. Carried by such luminaries as Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson and Wild Bill Hickok. James Butler Hickok was, literally, the fastest gun in the West. No one could face him, so he was shot in the back while playing poker in a saloon.”

“Dead man’s hand,” Arnold said, surprising them all.

Joe nodded, “Right, Arnold.” At the others’ unspoken inquiry, he said, “He was holding two pair, aces and eights, when Jack McCall entered the saloon and shot him in the back.”

Cal joked, “Look at him. This Indian’s a cowboy.” The others laughed. “I’ve heard the story before, Joe, but tell them what he was like.”

Joe smiled. “Larger than life, but all those Wild West characters were. Same with Wyatt Earp. You know, Earp went through countless gun battles and never got touched. He died an old man in 1929. They said it was his sheer nerve that unsettled his opponents. He wasn’t very fast with a gun, like Hickok, just totally fearless and deadly accurate. He stared them down, took careful aim, and while they were blazing away in all directions, calmly shot them dead.”

“What about Hickok? How fast was he?”

Joe paused thoughtfully, “Well, let me answer this way. I was trained at this by a guy who was the fastest gun in America back before the Event. He could draw and fire in three fifths of a second. Used to train movie actors. That was with the newer, short-barreled Colt like this one. Hickok used the old, long-barreled model, much heavier and more cumbersome, although more accurate.

“I asked my instructor once how he would have gone against Hickok, and he said, ‘Wild Bill would have put one in my head and one in my heart before I even cleared leather’. That’s how fast Hickok was.”

“Did you ever beat your old teacher, Joe?” Dennis asked.

“Just once, but I suspect he was off that day.”

Cal laughed. “He’s being modest, Dennis. You should see this guy. A regular pistolero, that’s what he is.”

Joe flushed. “Cut it out, Cal. You’re embarrassing me.”

Jonathan cleared his throat quietly. “If we’re going, Joe, we’d best get moving.”

“Right with you, Professor,” Joe said as he picked up a small gym bag, set his Western style hat on his head, and joined Jonathan by the machine.

Cal turned to Karen, who was looking distressed and fretful. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. Joe’s been watching my back for more years than I care to recall. They’ll be fine.”

The others got up from the table and stood around the device, staring into its glittering blackness.

“Well, I suppose this is it. Oh, I nearly forgot.” Jonathan handed a small device to Joe, the size of a small broach. “Here, clip this onto your shirt or jacket. It’ll get us back, so don’t lose it.”

Joe put the mechanism in one of his many pockets and zipped it.

Jonathan looked again at the assembly. “Ready for the off, Joe?”

“Whenever you are, Professor.”

Jonathan squared his shoulders. “Right, then. Here we go.” He looked at the others. “See you soon. We’ll just have a look, then come right back.”

Staring into the sparkling blackness, he closed his eyes and walked into it resolutely, Joe hard on his heels. As their companions watched, the two men were swallowed by the inky black, as though they had never existed.