"The story.. is not over yet. The story is NEVER over."
	--Londo Mollari

Project HEARD
presents
DIMENSION OUT OF RANGE: FINDING TIME

10 JULY 2000  1817 EDT
3628 BROUGHAM ROAD
BROUGHAM, ONTARIO, CANADA

 Lights played across the interior wall of the house as a vehicle pulled into
the driveway and stopped. The lights, and the vehicle, were shut off, and for a
moment, there was silence.
 Then there was motion just outside the front door, accompanied by muffled
voices. One, belonging to a female, was full of laughter; the other, the male
one, was somewhat less audible and infrequent, as if he was working hard at
something.
 The knob on the back of the deadbolt turned as the key on the other side was
also turned, to unlock the door. It was one of the very few "old" style doors
left in the world; most places had switched to new thumb, retina, and/or
implant-recognition systems instead.
 The door opened an inch or two and stopped. The voices could be heard somewhat
clearer now inside the house.
 The male: "Hmm."
 "What's wrong?" the female asked.
 "Door's stuck."
 "Stuck??"
 "Yeah, it won't move any more." The door shuddered, as if it was being pushed
against whatever was blocking it.
 "Want me to kick it?"
 "No, but I do want you to get down for a minute, if you don't mind."
 The woman left the cradling embrace of the man, and the latter used both his
hands to push against the door, grunting and wheezing with each shove. After a
few moments, he had it open as far as it would go.
 "Okay, let's try this again," he said.
 She jumped into his arms gleefully, and he, balancing her weight as carefully
as he could, walked into their home.
 "Lights," he commanded, and the room lights flickered on. Jason Low--and his
new wife Brianna--looked around at their house, back inside it for the first
time in ten weeks. It wasn't dusty, but it was obvious that it hadn't been used
for those two and a half months.
 One of the big giveaways was the pile of mail that had been lying before the
door, now jammed between the door and the wall. "So THAT'S what it was," he
said, nodding.
 "Do you want me to get down now?" Bri' asked, still hanging off Jay, arms
draped around his neck.
 "Oh--sure, if you want to," he said. He set her down on her feet, and reached
up to her; she bent slightly and met him halfway, and they shared a quick kiss.
 "I'll get our stuff," Jason said, heading back out towards the truck.
 When he returned, two suitcases in hand and a backpack over one shoulder, Bri'
was laughing, holding some of the mail that had impeded the door's travel.
 "What's so funny?" he said.
 She held up several pieces of mail from Metro Hydro; most looked to be bills,
and one was different than the others--the envelope was handwritten, yet it was
from Metro Hydro as well. She read the manually-typed letter inside aloud:
"Dear Mr. Low: We at Metro Hydro take great pride in our IS department and.."
She waved her hand and nodded as she continued, "Yadda, yadda, yadda.. However,
our billing process evidently was not scrutinized as completely as it should
have been, and the billing computer inadvertently, for five billing cycles,
invoiced you for 101 years of electrical service that you, of course, did not
use. Please accept our sincerest apologies, and disregard the invoices for
February, March, April, May, and June of the year 2000. At no time have you
ever owed us the $1,798,943.12 that those invoices stated, and, in fact, to
make amends for our gross oversight, we have charged you nothing for your
service for the above five months, and will in addition reduce the overall
invoice amount for July of this year by 25%. We regret any blah, blah, blah,
signed some guy writing a form letter." Bri' looked up with a grin and a laugh.
 Jason couldn't help chuckling and smiling as well. "You know what's ironic?
They probably spent half a billion dollars on Y2K consultants to make sure that
didn't happen, and overlooked something probably as simple as the mainframe's
ability to accept 21st-century dates on its hardware clock. And now they're
losing millions in half-a-year's billings for each and every customer they
service."
 "Aren't you glad you always THINK when you program things?" she told him.
 He put down the cases and took the mail from her, sitting her down beside him
on the couch. "Right now I'm gladder that I have you here," he said.
 The two did what most newlyweds do--they kissed and played around for a while,
that is--and finally finished bringing in their stuff from the truck, and then
called it a night.

11 JULY 2000 1125EDT

 Jason awoke and turned over to see Brianna staring at him and grinning.
 "Hi," she said.
 "Hi," he grinned back.
 Despite what they'd promised themselves and each other, they had fallen victim
to the behavior that many newlywed couples seem to adopt. The "I love you"s and
"I love you too"s shot back and forth several times a day.
 After they were finished saying hi to one another about fifteen times in
various ways, they got up and went through the shower. Since the beginning--
since they'd built the Brougham complex, that is--they'd usually each taken
separate showers, sacrificing romance and intimacy for the ability to use the
twinned water supplies they'd installed. Since both of them tended to flush
either right before or right after they got out of the shower, it saved one or
the other from a scalding on more than one occasion.
 However, this particular morning, both climbed into the same shower stall.

 After the shower, Jason made breakfast for his wife--a significant feat, since
his morning meals normally consisted of either peanut-buttered toast, cereal,
or whatever leftovers happened to still be in the fridge from the night before.
 Still, a survivable morning repast was delivered and consumed, after which,
the two of them resigned themselves to cleaning up--everything they'd brought
home with them, save the perishables of course, was piled in a heap on the
floor of the living room in the house.
 Bri' walked past a phone at one point, looked down, and blinked. "Hey. We've
got meesages."
 "Oh yeah.." Jason trailed off. "I don't think either of us remembered to check
the machine last night."
 "We were too busy," Brianna agreed with a stifled giggle. She put down what
she was carrying and pushed the button.
 A holographic display sprung up from near the base of the videophone. The
first bunch of messages were from various family and friends, wishing them well
and congratulating them on their marriage. Among the noticeables were both sets
of parents, and Mitch and Valsen.
 Three more messages were from various companies and corporations, apologizing
for the mixup their non-Y2K compliance had caused. All in all, it meant their
power service, Internet feed, and gasoline cards were paid off for the first
half of the year, gratis; the satellite TV service wanted to bring them up to
the next programming tier for free for a year; and the CD-of-the-month-club was
saying that their service would be completely interrupted until they could get
someone to come and completely rebuild their computer software, and the club
wouldn't even speculate on how they were going to reimburse their members for
the lost time.
 There were two messages left. As the second-to-last sprung to life, Jason was
walking into the room, and slowed to a stop.
 He snapped his fingers. "Well-Manicured Man!"
 "Huh?" Brianna said, looking over her shoulder at Jason.
 Jay indicated the image over the phone. "The British guy from the X-Files; the
one that died in the movie."
 She smiled and rolled her eyes, turning back to the holoscreen as the message
began.
 "Good day," came the voice, speaking with a distinctly European accent. "I
am.. in need of your services. I'd rather not discuss it over the telephone.
If you will contact me, I would greatly appreciate it."
 That was the end of the message, and Bri' and Jay only had enough time to
become confused when the final message came up. It was from Brian and Gina's
place, and had been recorded just that morning.
 "Did you get a phone call from some weirdo that wants our help?" Brian was
asking. "Call us."

 Without hesitation, Jay and Bri' called Bri and Gina.
 "Hi!" Gina answered cheerfully, seeing her sister on the other end. "How're
things?"
 "Pretty good," Brianna answered with a mischievous grin that made Jason
visibly worried, which was the intended result. "And you?"
 "Oh, not too bad," Gina smiled. "I just realized last night that I might
finally get rid of that horrible nickname."
 Brianna raised an eyebrow in a questioning expression. "Howso?"
 Gina smiled again and simply said her name: "Gina BURGESS."
 "Ah," Bri' nodded, smiling. "I see."
 "Anyway, you guys're probably calling 'cause of our message, right?"
 "Yeah," Brianna said. "We got a message from the same guy you did, we think.
Jason called him 'Well-Manicured Man' when we saw his image."
 Gina was interrupted briefly by Brian's off-camera shouts in the background;
apparently he agreed with Jay's appraisal of the man. Gina smiled and went on.
"Anyway, we figured out where he is and how to get hold of him. We thought
maybe it was best if we did a 3-way conference call to talk to him and find out
what he wants with us."
 "Good idea," Bri' agreed. "Shall we, then?"
 "Okay.. hang on, I'll get Brian."
 Brianna and Jay watched Gina not move at all. Actually, she did roll her eyes
once, at what must have been some unspoken comment from her husband. After a
few moments, Brian was there with her.
 "Hi," he said. "I understand we're going to go ahead and call Well-Manicured
Man now, are we?"
 Jason grinned. "You like that, huh?"
 "It fits."
 "Perhaps we shouldn't call him that to his face, though."
 "Oh, you're no fun," Gina said with a smile. "Hang on, I'll set up the 3-way."
 Another ringing sound came over the line, and each party found their screen
split in two to show both the other parties they were conversing with. For Bri'
and Jay, it was Gina and Bri on one side, and Well-Manicured Man on the other.
 "I see you received my message," he said without greeting or introduction.
"And also divined the way to reach me."
 "Indeed," Gina said with a hint of a Sherlock-Holmesy tone to her voice. Jay
and Bri' tried to hide their embarrassment, and Brian was able to mask any
reaction he had completely--as far as outward appearances were concerned.
 "Betcha he's sending her some really bad vibes right about now," Jay whispered
quiet enough that only Bri' could hear him. She nodded.
 Meanwhile, the conversation was going on without them. The man had introduced
himself as Alec Gauder, an 'independent businessman'. He was saying he was
still wary of using the telephone to conduct their business.
 "Well, we have to get at least SOME information from you in order to decide
whether or not to accept your job," Gina pointed out. "Can you give us a hint?"
 Gauder sighed. "I need you to find my son."
 There was a long pause from the other ends of the connection. "Sir," Gina said
after a moment, "are you sure you wouldn't prefer someone like the police, or
maybe a private investigator?"
 "It's not that kind of search," he explained. "Perhaps I should have phrased
it differently: I need you to find the town that my son has set out to locate."
 "Okay," Gina said, casting a look of promise at her sister and brother-in-law.
"Where might he have started looking for this town?"
 "That's one of the parts that I'd rather not discuss over the phone," Gauder
sighed. "If you come meet me in person, I'll be able to tell you everything you
want to know."
 "Fair enough," Gina said to Gauder while shrugging at her three partners. "Can
you drop one more hint as to how we'd get to where you are?"
 "I will send some coordinates to you in a few moments," Gauder said. "They
will be secure-signed and will come to your email account."
 "All-righty, then," Gina answered. "We'll be there as soon as we can."
 "Excellent. And.. thank you."

 The foursome, of course, stayed online after Gauder had signed off.
 "You know, Bri, I just met someone more paranoid about telecomms than you,"
Jason said with mock awe.
 "Oh, shut up," Brian shot back good-naturedly (almost).
 "So what'll we do? Shall we load up with stuff and then go from his base to
whereever he wants us to head?" Bri' asked.
 "How about we go there, find out what he wants, light-gate home and get our
gear, and then go from there?" Jason put forth.
 "I like that idea better," Gina nodded. "Hang on--here comes the mail."
 She decoded it and read it aloud: "Fifty-two degrees, forty minutes, twelve
seconds north; by one-thirty-two degrees, sixteen minutes, five seconds west."
 "Off the coast of B.C., I think," Jason said. "Somewhere out there."
 "Actually, just south of the Queen Charlottes," Brianna added, indicating the
map she had brought up on a separate screen. "About fifty miles due west of the
northern tip of Kunghit Island."
 "Like I said," Jay nodded. "The nearest light-gate spot we've got is Victoria;
we can go there and have a leisurely four-hour flight to those coordinates."
 "If you don't mind," Gina said, "and if it won't be too much of an intrusion,
I'd like to come to Brougham and we'll all head out in a single party, for
safety's sake."

 Half an hour later, after the obligatory gathering-up of the mess in order to
leave the house/complex in a reasonably clean state, Bri and Gina light-gated
to Bri' and Jay's.
 As they climbed from the car, which they'd gated straight into the Brougham
complex's bay, Gina spoke directly into Brian's mind. [You go on ahead; I'm
going to postflight the car and take a peek at the new stuff here in the bays.]
 [Be my guest,] Brian sent back with a smile. [See ya in a bit.]
 Brian walked out of the bays into the lab, finding no one; through the lab he
went, then, and into the kitchen. Brianna was sitting there, reading an old
issue of _Big Guns_, and sipping at some kind of cold beverage.
 "Hi," Brian said.
 "Greetings," she answered with a smile, getting up to hug her brother-in-law.
"How's things?"
 "Not bad at all," he nodded. "How about with you guys?"
 "Well, we're spending most of our time upgrading the truck, our guns and toys,
and the complex.. that's sort of become a full time job," she smiled.
 "I'll bet, what with all the new tech--"
 A muffled explosion was felt through the floor at that moment. Brian looked
around, startled, and was entirely surprised to see Bri' not reacting at all--
even when several more explosions were heard in rapid succession.
 "What in the nine hells causes that?" Brian blurted out.
 Brianna smiled. "Inadequate soundproofing on Sub-3, mostly."
 "Sub-what?"
 "We expanded downwards a few more floors," she said. "Sublevel 3 is a mini-
firing range. Jay's down there testing out my latest toy."
 "Ah.. I see, now. By the way, Gina's just sneaking about in the garage,
looking at all your new stuff.. in the meantime, how might one get down to
Sub-3 if they were foolish enough to want to walk up to Jay when he's carrying
a weapon of mass destruction?"
 "They'd gulp audibly and then take the spiral ramp in the northwest corner of
the complex 'til they got to the area marked SUB/3," Bri' grinned.
 Brian smiled as he made a gulping noise, then headed for the corridor.

 He found Jason, five minutes later, as he (Brian) rounded a corner, entered
sublevel 3, and came across the so-called "mini" firing range. The field would
put most police and sport ranges to shame. It was built to withstand the very
kinds of blasts it was taking right then, from the machine Jason held in his
hands.
 As Jay ran back and forth, firing away at imagined targets, oblivious to Bri,
the latter regarded the sight before him. It was almost comical: Brianna's
latest 'toy' appeared to be a cross between a bazooka and a grenade launcher,
with, of course, a twist: A large hopper on the top rear of the weapon held
around fifty of the diminutive Peebo bit-bombs that Bri' had perfected not long
after Jason's COBOL bombs had made their appearance.
 The hopper had held fifty Peebos when Brian had arrived; less than a minute
later, as Jason kept launching the AI-controlled explosive devices left, right,
and everywhere, the hopper ran dry. He spun around and saw Brian there.
 "Quick!" Jay yelled excitedly, pushing the safety goggles up on his forehead.
"I need more Peebos!"
 "Wh-what?" Brian stammered, caught off-guard.
 "The bag behind you!" Jay hollered, gesturing, obviously on an adrenaline
high. "Dump it in here!"
 Jason indicated the hopper on the back of the gun, and Brian looked behind
him, saw a blue-grey canvas sack there, and picked it up, hearing dozens of
miniature clanking noises as a few dozen nitro-charged bit-bombs rustled around
and said "Peebo" every now and then.
 Brian emptied the sack into the machine's hopper, trying not to look at the
little sentient machines that seemed so happy to be launched from a cannon to
their certain fiery ends almost immediately. He said, "That's all there is!"
 "Get back!" Jason launched into battle mode again, rushing back and forth,
launching Peebos into the air in every direction imaginable, causing each to
explode as it contacted something.
 After another few seconds, it was all over; Jason set down the steaming-hot
weapon on its hopper end, and shoved the goggles up on his forehead, turning to
face Brian with a smile. "Hey, how ya doin'?"
 "Okay, I think," Brian said with an incredulous tone, still regarding the
carnage in the room. "How about you?"
 "Never better," Jason said. "Just testing a new device or three."
 "So I see," Brian said with the same air about him as before. "Kind of a waste
of a dozen perfectly good hurt-bots, though, inn'it?"
 Jason turned to look at the firing-range floor, where the robot drones he'd
been using for target practice were scattered in every corner, in zillions of
pieces. "Oh, thanks for reminding me." He pushed a button on the wall, and four
work-bots entered the range from hidden alcoves, gathering up the remnants and
carting them off. "The work-bots'll recycle those back into new robots.
Granted, I started out with 30, and now we're probably down to 10, but that's
what you get when you start assaulting things with a fifteen-a-minute Peebo-
launcher."
 "Is that what this's being called?" Bri said, hefting the still-warm cannon.
"For the life of me I'll never get over the way Peebos behave, by the way."
 "Ah, you get used to it. They're bred for this kind of thing," Jay pointed
out.
 "So were the Zentraedi," Bri countered as he set down the cannon and followed
Jay up the ramp to the main level. "They grew out of it, eventually.."
 They got there soon enough, finding Bri' and Gina in the lab. "Hi," Jay said.
 "Hey," Bri' smiled. "How'd things go down there?"
 "Not bad," Jay shrugged. "Peebos did their job, the bots did THEIR job, and
the cannon works great."
 "Might you say it was a blast?"
 Brian and Gina groaned, Jason smiled slightly, nodding again. "Guess so," he
agreed with his wife.
 Brian filled Gina in--audibly, since they were in the presence of the others,
on what had transpired in the subbasement, and she looked impressed.
 "Wow," she said. "Home only a day and you've already found something to occupy
yourselves with."
 Jason opened his mouth, and Brianna looked at him expectantly, almost with
excitement. She waited and waited, arching her eyebrows and nodding, as if to
urge him on.
 Finally, he closed his mouth and shook his head quietly. "Nope."
 "Awww," she sighed dissapointedly, also shaking her head and turning away.
 "What the hell was THAT all about?" Brian asked her.
 "Jay's had a hard time coming up with smart-assed comments since we came
home," Bri' said. "Kinda like he's lost his touch or something."
 "Oh, really?" Brian smiled. "This could be fun.."
 "Brian.. you'd kick a man when he's down??" Gina piped up.
 "Never!" Brian countered. "But I'm not averse to rubbing dirt all over him
every now and then."

ROUGHLY FIVE HOURS LATER (1945EDT; 1645PDT)

 Gauder's home--if that is what it was--was a massive houseboat riding the
Pacific at the advertised coordinates. Calling it a houseboat, though, was kind
of like calling the Grand Canyon a pothole. It was more fitting to call it (the
vessel, not the Grand Canyon) an apartmentbuildingboat.
 To get to the point, it was a massive, floating fortress. It had helipads at
either end, and they were both in use, with helicopters and VTOL planes either
coming or going all the time Gina and team were there.
 It was to the north helipad that the car and truck were directed; they landed
one after another, then were directed to maneuver to carrier-style elevators,
which took them down to an impressively-sized hangar.
 As the two drivers--Bri' and Gina, this time around--secured their vehicles, a
young man in a dark suit arrived in their corner of the hangar. "Good day," he
said in very practiced tones. "Mister Gauder will see you in the den."
 The servant, or greeter, or whatever he was, led them through a maze of
hallways and passages that eventually ended at a large set of double doors,
several levels and a few thousand feet laterally away from the hangar.
 The man in the suit opened the door far enough to poke his head inside. "Sir,
your guests have arrived," he could be heard to say. The reply was inaudible to
'the guests', but the suited man pushed the doors open wide, turned and nodded
at the foursome, and left.
 Inside the room was the same older gentleman that had conversed with the group
on the phone. "Greetings, and welcome into my home," he said, smiling warmly
and standing with a hand outstretched in greeting.
 After the pleasantries of introductions were over, though, Gauder turned very
serious. "Forgive me for barging ahead gracelessly, my friends, but I feel that
urgency is the best policy at this point."
 "We understand, sir," Gina nodded. "What can you tell us?"
 Gauder sat down and gestured; Brian picked up on it and closed the doors, then
the four sat down on couches that Gauder was indicating. He brought his hands
up to his face, touching steepled index fingers to his lips, then, with a heavy
sigh, began to speak.
 "My son, Shawn, has always been fascinated with certain natural wonders of the
world--most recently, glaciers. He's been going on about the 'wonderful things'
that might have been hiding beneath them since the last ice age. Ancient
civilizations and all that, you know. Well, with Tolum's arrival, he pored over
its historical records of Earth, but found nothing that would satisfy his
curiosities, and he became almost possessed by the need to find something..
concrete, if you will. Last month, he heard a third-hand rumor of sorts and
acted upon it, and he's gotten himself and his party lost."
 "What kind of rumor?" Brian asked.
 "He was perusing old maps of Alaska, from before it was an American property,"
Gauder explained. "He found a map that indicated the location of a rather large
town--perhaps even a city--which bore the name, so the map said, 'Vremya'."
 "Time?" Jason and Brian asked simultaneously.
 Brianna glanced at her watch. "Almost five," she declared.
 "No, Mrs. Low--your husband and brother-in-law are simply translating," Gauder
shook his head. "'Vremya' is the Russian word meaning 'time'."
 "Odd name," Jason said.
 "Indeed," Gauder nodded, "but perhaps it has some other meaning in Russian. In
any case, the location on the old Russian map corresponds to--" he paused to
activate a holographic map on the wall beside them "--here."
 "On the Malaspina Glacier?" Gina questioned.
 "Not on it," Gauder corrected her. "Under it. Or at least, that's what my son
decided. He put together an expedition team and set out to find a way through
to the base of the glacier to see if he could find the town. You see, the
Russians knew about treasures such as gold in the far northwest long before
anyone else did. The records of Vremya, as far as Shawn could tell from the
information Moscow sent to him, indicate that it was the hub of activity in all
of Russian Alaska as far as mining and drilling went."
 Brian saw Gina's eyes start to glaze over and sent to her, [Calm down and keep
your head on straight for a minute, okay?] Aloud, he said, "I have two problems
with this, sir. First of all--wasn't the glacier there long before humans were?
And two, even if it hadn't been--if it HAD rolled over the terrain after Vremya
was built--the town would've been completely destroyed by the wall of ice,
wouldn't it?"
 "Shawn believes that the town was indeed built after the glacier had been
through, but he thinks it was built at the BOTTOM of the glacier, not atop it."
Gauder pushed a button and the map changed to a picture of what looked like a
fantastic waterfall partly frozen over. "This is what is known as a moulin. It
is a hole in the glacier caused by water which runs into fissures, melting the
ice until it forms holes such as these. They supposedly run straight to the
bottom of the glacier, and Shawn believes that at the bottom of one of these,
Vremya lies waiting."
 [This sounds suspiciously like the way to get to Tolum,] Gina thought openly.
Brian sent the equivalent of a nod back to her.
 "That looks profoundly dangerous," Jay said, gesturing to the image. "Besides
the fact that the water must be cold enough to kill a man within minutes, who's
to say that it doesn't just narrow to a crevice a few hundred feet below?"
 "The fact that the water doesn't dam up and overflow the mouth of the moulin
is what drove Shawn to believe that that wasn't the case," Gauder said. "That,
and I believe he figured that since you four were able to do it in a waterfall
encased in rock, he could do it in the ice."
 "Do you have any idea if there's a moulin near where Vremya's supposed to be?"
Gina queried.
 "There are several dozen," came the answer. "They form and refreeze as melting
occurs. A few seem to be perennial, but I can't say for sure which, if any,
lead to my son's goal. I was hoping you'd be able to divine that information."
 Gina worked it over in her head: A few thousand feet of ice would be a
challenge to scan through, but not by much. "I think it can be done," she said.
 "I'd asked him to hire, or at least consult, the four of you before he left,"
Gauder said. "Unfortunately, his attitude and demeanor had changed in the past
few weeks since his discovery of the existence of Vremya. I do believe he's
become rather greedy and possessive about the find."
 "We'll figure out where he is, sir," Gina promised. "How well was he equipped
for the climate?"
 "Rather well, I do believe. After all, he'd planned to enter the bowels of the
ice itself."
 "Right," Gina said. "With your permission, we'd like to rest for the evening,
and in the morning, we'll get right on it."
 "I wouldn't have it any other way," Gauder nodded, standing up to shake their
hands.

 After one of Gauder's aides had given the foursome directions towards the
guest quarters, they walked to the landing bay to get some stuff from the
vehicles.
 "So," Gina asked the others, "What do you think? Is this doable?"
 "Fairly easily," Brian nodded, interlacing his fingers behind his neck. "The
hardest part'll be convincing this guy we're not there to steal his claim."
 "AND making sure he'll leave some for us," Gina hastily added.
 "Yeah, yeah, that too."
 "How were you planning to find the right moulin?" Brianna asked.
 "Well, I know we're not on contract with the government any more, but do you
guys still have the ability to task the GodsEye satellites from the truck?"
 "Oh, you bet," Jason grinned. "Even if they hadn't officially permitted us to
keep the link, we'd've found a way."
 "It'll take the better part of a day to punt the sats into the right orbit,"
said Brianna, doing the calculations in her head. "Maybe 16 hours or so."
 "What I was thinking is we could start them moving now, grab some sleep, and
then in the morning, set out for the glacier, and get the data when we can.
Make it look, to Gauder, like we just snapped our fingers and there it was, but
in actual fact, we'll be getting it on the fly."
 "Okay," Brianna nodded, turning to Jason. "We can do that, can't we?"
 "Without a hitch," he agreed.
 "Settled, then," Bri declared. "If I may, I have a topic to bring up, though..
what about young Mister Gauder? How should we prepare for him?"
 "What do you mean?"
 Brian faced Gina. "Well, what would YOU bring along if you were going on a
really big find?"
 She seemed to go over it in her head. "Well, a force field generator.. a laser
pen.. my GyroJet, of course.. a hurtbot or two.."
 "My point exactly," Brian said. "While it's doubtful that Gauder has hurtbots
and the like, I'm reasonably sure, from the way the elder Gauder spoke of his
son, he's probably prepared to defend his team and their haul quite well."
 "What are you suggesting, that we take a team of hurtbots with us?" Jason
queried.
 "Well, maybe not that harsh, but we should at least be ready," Bri countered.
 "Okay, well, I know for a fact that Brianna has prepared--and OVERprepared--"
 "Hey!"
 "It's the truth, dear. Anyway, she has every imaginable occurrence covered, so
I think we can leave it at that."
 "Fair enough," Brian conceded. "Anything else?"
 Gina counted off on her fingers. "One, how do we go down the moulin--as in, do
we take the cars, or just our armors; two, what are we gonna do once we find
Gauder--do we force him to go home or do we just tell him to get in touch with
his dad; three, if he IS hostile towards us, how do we accomplish item two; and
four, and this is a big one, what if Gauder's not there when we get to Vremya?"
 Brianna's shoulders slumped. "Damn! I had answers for all of those until the
last one."

 In the end, they decided, in order: they'd initially resolve to take just the
armors down into the glacier, unless the satellite scan could show that the
moulin was guaranteed to be wide enough all the way down; they'd strongly
suggest that Gauder return home, but at least insist that he contact his
father; they'd burn the bridge that was Gina's 'item three' when they came to
it; and if Gauder was missing, they'd retask the satellites to search for him.
 After picking up some necessary gear from the car and truck, they went to the
guest spaces, settling in; then, as they realized their stomachs were rumbling
rather loudly, they hunted for, found, and inhaled some of the finest food
they'd had in a long time.
 "I wonder what this guy does," Jason said, looking around, "that he has the
need for a full-blown -cafeteria- in his 'home'."
 "Don't think about it," Bri' said with a shake of her head. "You'll just burn
your brain out."
 "More than it already is," Brian quickly added, going one up on Jason; their
insult-war was almost as long and involved as Gina and Penny's wedgie-war had
been.
 "Ouch, touche," Jason said with a practiced wince.
 After getting some food, they took it back to the guest quarters and consumed
it promptly. That left them with an evening just to themselves.
 Jay and Bri'.. well, they did what one might expect them to do when they were
alone and recently married. Suffice it to say that Brianna was satisfied, and
Genn would be relieved that he'd no longer be needed as he'd been when Brianna
had first arrived at the Diggers' complex. (This, despite the fact that he
hadn't been 'needed' ever since Jason and Brianna became SOs.)
 As for the activities in the bedrooms, the word 'rabbits' comes to mind,
actually.
 In any case, in the next room, Brian and Gina were also rather intimate with
one another, but in their own way. As they both had bio-implants, as we well
know, they were able to do much more than the "primitive" things that
entertained Jason and Brianna next door. Gina and Bri used their implants to
increase their enjoyment of the moment beyond anything an unaugmented couple--
like Bri' and Jay--would ever experience.
 That's not to say that the Burgesses didn't employ the same methods being used
the next door over, though; truth be told, they were at it as much as their
counterparts were, and likely moreso, with their implants boosting the fun.
 The same scenarios--with the same players, but a different script every
night--had been playing out since the night the two couples had married.
 It was like the honeymoons had never ended.

THE NEXT DAY
(12 JULY 2000 0950PDT)

 "Get up, sleepyhead," Brianna said, playfully hitting Jay on the head with a
towel as she came back into the bedroom from the shower. "We're gonna be late."
 "I'm not a sleepyhead, I'm an exhaustedhead," Jason exclaimed as he awoke with
a yawn. "You damn near wore me out last night!"
 "Just testing some limits," Bri' said in an airy, matter-of-fact tone, a grin
all over her face.
 "I'm not complaining," Jason answered, climbing out of bed. "Just stating some
facts."
 "Fair enough," Brianna called into the bathroom. "But don't expect me to go
easy on you tonight!"
 As Jay laughed nervously, Brianna started packing up their stuff. It certainly
was like they'd added a couple of days onto their honeymoon. Unlike Brian and
Gina, who went to Hawaii for theirs, Bri' and Jay had chosen Tolum as their
destination. If you can imagine the best of all possible resort getaways under
one roof, so to speak--even though Tolum's bubble was removed when it rose back
to the surface--you've got an idea of what there was to do in Tolum. The Lows
certainly had a fun time.
 Naturally, it didn't seem nearly long enough, as they'd expected--despite the
fact it was two-and-a-half months in length. True, part of that had been their
own fault--they'd used the last week to visit with Mitch and Valsen--but still,
Bri' for one felt like they deserved a bit more time alone together. She felt
so strongly about this, in fact, that she was going to insist they not take on
any more 'jobs' for the rest of the year after this job was over.
 <We need some personal time,> she went over what she'd say, to both Jay and
Gina.

 Twenty minutes later, the car and truck were launched from the helipad, aimed
generally north-northwest, and sent on their way by their pilots. Bri' was once
again driving, leaving Jason to keep watching the satellite display until it
showed what they needed to see.
 Jay was aware of a bunch of chirping and twittering coming from the box of the
truck. "Hey, all you Peebos back there," he called out.
 "Yeah, boss?" came a disjointed chorus of about five dozen high-pitched,
synthesized voices.
 "No blowing up inside the truck, got it?"
 "Okay, boss," the flock of bit-bombs answered almost disappointedly.
 Brianna snickered. "Sounds like you're getting your edge back," she said.
 "Just an aberration, I think," Jason told her, his head still buried in the
readouts. "It still doesn't feel right."
 "Aw, nuts."
 "I know, I know. I can't do anything about it until it happens."

 They continued on their way, taking an hour or so to hit the Alaskan coast. By
the time they were feet-dry, they had the satellite acquired and sending images
down to them.
 "That looks insane," Brian said, watching the video being piped to the car's
screens. "Like.. well, I don't know what it's like."
 "You guys telling us that in all your travels, over all your life, neither of
you've seen a glacier?" Gina said with disbelief.
 "Nothing like this," Jason nodded. "Not on a world that isn't still covered in
dinosaurs and the like."
 "Zoom it in and let's see if we can't find Alice's rabbit hole," Bri' smiled.
 "Ow. You gave that one up to BRIANNA," Brian reminded Jason. "You sure ARE out
of it, huh?"
 "Stop it," Jay said, working the controls that would manipulate the satellite.

 In a minute or two, they had it down to a decent resolution: they could even
make out the car and truck at the extreme bottom portion of the image.
 There was a few moments' debate as to how they should scan: Should they try
infrared/heat imaging first, to see if they could spot a 'trail' to follow? Or
would a life-scan be a better idea--or would that pick up all the wildlife
roaming the wastes as well? Or perhaps a density contrast image, to make out
Shawn Gauder's equipment and apparatus against the ice?
 In the end, they decided that all of these would be equally flawed; the cold
ice would make a heat trail stand out better, but only for a few moments, until
the waterflow of the moulin erased it; life signs may be impossible to detect
through the deep glacier; and a DC image might fail for the same reasons. So,
they decided to use all three, plus whatever else they could simultaneously
task, and focus on the moulins one at a time, which would be a slow process,
but had a better chance of getting the desired result.
 They orbited the edges of the glacier while they waited, using good-old-
fashioned eyeballing to see if they could spot anything out-of-the-ordinary on
the ice. The visual search came up empty, although it wasn't entirely a loss,
as they all felt they'd come out of it with something positive, having scoped
out an ice mass that was probably a few hundred thousand years old, if not
older.
 "What are you thinking about right now?" Brian asked Jason, who, he saw on the
screen, was off in never-never land.
 "Oh, nothing much.. just that it'd be fun to drag the Veritechs out of storage
some time soon and fly 'em, even if only to keep the reactors from scramming."
 Brianna sprouted a huge grin as she enthusiastically piped up, You mean I'm
finally gonna get to learn how to fly one of those things?"
 "I don't know if we've got a helmet that'll fit you," Brian said. "We may have
to modify one of the other ones."
 "I can do that in a SECOND," she gushed. "Just give me a chance."
 "We'll probably need pilot's licenses, or at least permission to use the
airspace," Jason pointed out cautiously.
 "What, and you don't think we need permission to fly like we're flying right
now?" Brianna retorted.
 "Um, guys, I hate to break this up," Gina pointed out, "but there's something
showing up on the display that might be interesting."
 The screen showed an arrow pointing at a hole in the ground. From the onscreen
reports, the foursome was led to believe that the moulin led almost 1250 feet
straight down. That wasn't unusual--most were that deep--but several factors
made this one stand out: First of all, as Alec Gauder had said, it was a wide
moulin, unlike the others which faded away into a thin crevice. Next, the water
that was pouring into it, melting off the glacier's top, was going somewhere,
as opposed to backing up like a stuck drain. And finally, the density scan
showed that there was a cavern of sorts at the end of the moulin, but it was
hard to tell if it was waterlogged or not.
 "Geez, we should just do the same things we did when we got to Tolum," Jason
said. "It's almost a carbon copy."
 "Except for the ice," Gina contributed.
 "Yeah, yeah."
 "So what are we going to do about the vehicles?" Brian asked. "Leave them at
the moulin's edge or go down with them?"
 "Well, I think we'll have to be in the armors anyway," Brianna said, gesturing
to the screen. "The entire town's probably flooded, anyway. On the other hand,
there aren't any vehicles up top now, so Gauder may have taken his own with
him."
 "Good point." Jason studied the screen for a moment.
 "It'd probably be best to leave them up top," Brian supplied. "We can't be
sure what we'll find there, and if the flow's anything like we encountered at
Tolum, we'll never get back up with the cars if we take 'em."
 "Agreed," Gina nodded. "So let's find a place to set down and get suited up."

 The ideal landing zone, it appeared, was an area where a ridge or hill of
sorts blocked the wind. Despite the protection, they needed to put their parkas
on while they got their gear out of the vehicles.
 Brianna had to tinker with her armor for a bit before putting it on, so while
he waited for access to the back of the truck, Jay climbed the mound they were
parked beside, to get a better view of the nonexistent scenery.
 As he surveyed the landscape, something odd caught his eye, and he called for
the others quietly. Bri', in her armor, came up beside him, and the other two
showed up on his other side.
 "What are you talking about?" Brianna asked.
 Jason blinked, then pointed. "That."
 "'That' what?"
 Before Jason could answer, the whiteness before them shifted once again, and
five figures in all-white winter gear were suddenly visible.
 The team jumped back, startled, as the other group came into view abruptly.
 Everyone looked at one another for a moment, and slowly, Brianna and Brian
turned to regard Jay, in between them, staring straight ahead at Shawn Gauder's
party of explorers.
 Brianna walked up to Jason, as did Brian from the other side. She looked at
Brian, who nodded.
 "Jay?" she asked, like she was checking to see if he was alive.
 "Yeah?" he said, wondering what they were doing.
 "This is where you go 'MMmmm-Nmmm!', okay, hon?" Brianna said.
 "Mmm-nmm?" Jason echoed.
 Brian and Bri' pulled on the drawstrings to Jason's parka's hood, closing the
opening in much the same way Kenny from South Park would hide from a threat.
 "Geez, you really ARE off your game, aren't you?" Gina said, watching the
whole thing.
 Gauder had no idea how to react. He stood there for a moment, staring at the
newcomers, until one of his own team spoke: "Who the hell are you??"
 "Don't bother," Gauder said to his teammates, while glaring at Gina. "I know
of these four quite well. It's the infamous Gold Digger and her clan."
 Brianna shrugged to her sister, who had cast her a dejected look upon hearing
the words "gold digger". "Greetings, Mr. Gauder," Gina said aloud. "We were
sent here by your father."
 "Yes, I'm not surprised," Gauder nodded, an acidic tone to his voice. "He
OFTEN does foolish things like that. He underestimates my prowess--and my
ability to accomplish these tasks ALONE."
 "Well, your father believes that you're lost," Gina said. "He's quite
concerned."
 "He worries too much," Gauder scoffed.
 One of Gauder's colleagues--a female of about 23 years of age--eyed the
foursome. "Are you supposed to be some kind of search and rescue, then?"
 "Of sorts," Brian nodded. "We were sent to find you--"
 "Well, now you can go back and tell my dad that you found me," Gauder cut
in. "See ya."
 "I'm afraid that's not how it works--" Gina began, but she was cut off, once
again by Gauder.
 "Oh, you BET it is," Gauder seethed. "What you're going to do is get back into
your cars and go home, or else."
 "'Or else'?" Brian said with a tone of disbelief. "Or else what?"
 Gauder gestured, and one of his subordinates brushed aside their coat to
reveal a gun strapped to their waist. "It might get messy, to put it one way."
 Jay spoke next, primarily to focus attention to him and away from Brianna, who
was about to draw one of her own weapons. "Mister Gauder, may I point something
out?"
 "If you must, Mister Low," the man sneered back.
 "You are as much an adventurer as we are, is that not correct?" he didn't wait
for an answer. "So you and I both know that how well we fare on our missions
determines whether or not we put food on the table, right?"
 "You got that right," Gauder nodded, still on the defensive. "And--"
 "And our mission this time out was to put you in contact with your father,"
Jason finished. "And if we don't attain that goal, I don't see us getting paid
any time soon. So how about you just use our truck's interlink to ring up dear
ol' dad and then we can all sleep better tonight knowing everything's gonna be
okay. OK?"
 "Fine!" Gauder snapped. "Let's just get this over with so you can get the hell
outta my site," he shouted, striding towards the truck.
 Gina caught up with Jason as they headed in that direction as well. "Like his
dad said, rather 'possessive', don't you think?" she whispered.
 "A wee bit," Jay said. "If we don't get a chance to go down there, I apologize
to you in advance."
 She smiled. "Gee, how thoughtful; thank you," she jokingly mumbled.

 Brianna helped Shawn Gauder set up the truck's communications suite to allow
him to reach his father's houseboat/fortress. In moments, the elder Gauder was
onscreen.
 "Ah! I see you have been found," he said happily.
 "That's right, father," Shawn said icily. "Your 'search party' has found me."
 "They are exceptionally well-equipped and skilled, aren't they?"
 "I suppose I'd have to agree," came the son's reluctant answer. "Now that
you've been in contact with me, I'm going to send these people home and carry
on with my mission.. if that's all right with you."
 Alec ignored his son's frigid tone. "Actually, there IS a matter of payment.
They haven't yet been renumerated for their services, and rather than make them
come all the way back here to me, I've decided that I shall pay them by letting
them join you in searching Vremya."
 "Father!" Shawn protested loudly.
 "BeHAVE, son!" Alec answered with as much volume. "Keep in mind that these
ladies and gentlemen are adventurers, just like you purport yourself to be. It
is their nature to go on expeditions like this. You must learn to share again,
boy; take these people with you below the glacier and give them what they
deserve."
 Shawn appeared to fight an internal battle for a few moments; finally, he
scowled and said, "Fine, father. I will do as you order."
 The screen winked out without an exchange of farewells.
 Gauder turned and climbed out the open side door of the truck. "I'll presume
you all heard that," he said coldly.
 Gina nodded. "We're all excited to be able to work with you, Shawn. We--"
 "Enough talk," he plowed ahead in a monotone. "Let's get on with it."
 He stalked off, his team following him to their trucks while Gina and friends
regarded one another with surprise.
 Halfway to the ridge that hid his vehicles, he turned to look at the four.
"Are you coming or not??"
 "We thought we might take our own cars down," Brian answered.
 "No. We'll take mine, they're specially designed for this."
 Jason looked at the rigs. "They're just Sno-Cats, aren't they?"
 "No. Get your gear and get aboard," Shawn snapped.
 The foursome looked at one another and headed for their cars, gathering some
of their equipment, and walked up to the Sno-Cats. The machines were all-white
with black trim, and, as Jason had stated, looked just like the ones you'd see
on a ski hill.
 They got aboard, two to a 'Cat, joining the others; Gina and Brian were with
Gauder, the female team member, and the one who'd shown off his gun. Brianna
and Jason were with the other two of Gauder's men.
 "Impressive rig," Jay said, looking about at the multi-layered control panel.
"I gather you're chipped?"
 "Aren't you?" the driver said back, as if not having a bio-implant was absurd.
 "I prefer the natural methods," Jason countered as the 'Cat started to move
forward, then turn slightly right to face the moulin.
 "Suit yourself." The truck continued to rumble its way toward the gaping hole
in the ice.

 "You're awfully quiet," Gauder observed sarcastically. "I gather you're as
unhappy with my father's decision as I am?"
 "No, actually," Gina shot back. "We're always eager to explore new places and
learn more about the world. Bri and I just.. talk in a different way, that's
all."
 [Oh, so you've got implants, then,] Gauder sent.
 [Yes,] Gina sent back after a moment. "And we prefer to limit our contacts to
people we trust."
 "So you don't trust me?" Gauder smiled.
 "Perhaps my wife used some harsh words," Brian cut in. "What she means is that
it's too easy to let an unscrupulous person into your head with this tech. Our
Tolumi friends assure us that with experience, all of us who've received the
implants will eventually be able to expand our control--and blocking--a
thousandfold."
 "It's okay," Shawn said in a condescending tone. "I don't trust you either."

 "THIS should be fun," Brianna said aloud, watching the moulin looming large in
the 'Cat's windows.
 "Relax. These vehicles can handle this sort of thing. In fact, they use some
technology you people once tried out, but abandoned."
 "Oh, really?" Jason asked the driver. "And what would that be?"
 "You'll see in a couple of seconds."
 Jason looked at Brianna, who shrugged. They resumed watching out the window,
tightening their shoulder harnesses once more.
 They felt ill as the truck suddenly tipped forward, like the cars of a roller-
coaster about to hit the first drop. The sight of the water rushing down the
ice tunnel into nothingness chilled them despite the heated cab.
 Before they knew what was happening, the vehicle was stable again, on a slow
descent. They looked around through the wraparound windows and realized why:
The tracks of the truck had split and shot out from all four corners on
telescoping arms, and each section was now in contact with the ice walls, the
tracks getting traction due to the force of the hydraulic arms pushing against
them. The body of the tractor was suspended in the center of the chasm at the
terminus of the four arms, and the tracks continued to rotate, lowering the
vehicle down into the moulin at a safe speed.
 Jason looked out the right side windows to see the two tracks on that side
straddling the immense waterfall. "Okay, now THIS is impressive, I'll admit."

 The trucks covered about a foot-and-a-half a second, meaning it took just over
830 seconds--or roughly 15 minutes--to travel down the moulin to the cavern.
 "These things watertight?" Jason wanted to know a few minutes into the ride.
 "Of course," the driver shrugged. "They also have NBC filters and all other
protective features imaginable."
 Brianna blurted out, "Armored hull?"
 "Four inches thick with a layer of Kevlar over it," came the response.
 Brianna whistled. "That'd do it."
 "The reason I ask is because with this amount of water coming down, there's a
good chance this place may be flooded. How about propulsion? Can those tracks
be extended to work like paddles?"
 "Do not worry about the tracker unit," the other Gauder-team member--the
passenger--answered. "It can do the job."
 "I'm not saying it can't," Jason protested. "These are the kinds of things I
ask myself when I'm entering an unknown. You should always check for hazards
and such, you know."
 "It's all been taken care of."
 "Okay, okay," Jason said, and they rode in silence for the rest of the way.

 Nearing the end of the moulin--as far as the radar was concerned, since they
couldn't see in the utter darkness even with the floodlights on--Jason wondered
how they'd drive down to the cavern floor if, for example, the tunnel ended in
the ceiling of the cavern and there was no water flooding it out. However, he
kept it to himself, mostly to be able to say "I'd thought of that" if the
problem came up, as a way to spite the driver for his snotty attitude.
 It didn't come to that; the tunnel slowly angled level again, the water
running through it like a huge storm sewer. The trackers stayed on the high
side of the tunnel, using their extended axles, until they passed a massive
hole in the tunnel floor which seemed to channel the water underground--or at
least under the tunnel--perfectly.
 As the trackers transited back to conventional mode, Jay and Brianna's driver
stood up from his chair, as if it'd help him see through the darkness better.
Still, the headlights faded away a couple hundred feet down the tunnel.
 "In case you're wondering," he said, "Mister Gauder's tracker is pulling a
power cable behind it that's connected to a camouflaged generator on the
glacier's surface. It will provide us with enough power to illuminate a rather
sizeable portion of the main cavern."
 "IF we find it, Calvin," the other passenger said. "This doesn't look too
promising."
 'Calvin' fixed his partner with a stern look, and after a moment, Jason and
Brianna realized he was probably sending a telepathic nastygram. His partner
answered verbally: "I'm not 'doubting Mister Gauder's intelligence', Calvin,"
he said with a mocking tone. "But you HAVE to admit, we're not seeing anything
up ahead."
 Bri' nodded with a smile towards the front windshield. "You mean like that?"
 Everyone looked out the windshield to see the lights falling on a series of
dilapidated wooden structures at the very edge of the headlight beams' reach.

 The lot of them climbed down from the trucks a few moments later, in the
middle of the small ghost town.
 "Wow," Bri said, looking around. "Preserved rather well, I'd say." He was
jostled as a member of Gauder's team pushed past him to the cable spool on the
back of Gauder's tracker.
 "Nineteen hundred and nineteen feet played out, sir," the person reported to
Gauder.
 "Excellent, Jeffrey. Eighty-one feet left to spare. Well done. Activate the
generator and then set up the lights."
 "Yes, sir."
 "Teresa."
 "Sir." The female came up.
 "Find out if there's a power grid to speak of in this place. If so, run a line
from the generator cable and splice into it. Calvin?"
 "On my way," Teresa said, moving off with flashlight in hand.
 "Right here, Mr. Gauder."
 "Just a moment, Calvin. Teresa, hold up." Gauder waited until his team members
were all present once more, then went on. "All of my people, we will use
strictly verbal modes of communication during this operation, for the benefit
of our non-chipped guests. If you're going to be away from the group, ensure
you have a radio."
 "Understood," came a chorus.
 Brian smiled as he realized Gauder had almost tripped up.
 "Calvin," Gauder continued, "take your tracker up on its legs and try to
develop a map. I want to know what this place is built like before we go
wandering about."
 "Right away."
 "The rest of you, help Jeffrey with the lights."
 After the remaining team member went to help his comrade, Gina and the others
realized that Gauder meant for them to help out as well. They walked to the
truck and picked up the light towers.

 By the time the dozen or so lights were set up, flooding the area with
illumination and casting great long shadows, Calvin was done with his scan of
the area.
 "Looks like four streets in each direction, sir," he reported to Gauder. "This
large area we're in here appears to be the town square. No blind alleys or side
streets to be seen, just the four roads each way in a grid, like a tic-tac-toe
board with an extra line on each side."
 "Understood, Calvin. Good work." Gauder held his radio up. "Any luck, Teresa?"
 "Doesn't look like Edison ever heard of this place, Shawn," came her reply.
 "Very well," he said. "Come on back to base and we'll regroup and move out to
explore."
 "On my way."
 Gauder turned to address the others. "Three groups of two and one of three.
I'll stick with Calvin and Harry. The rest of you can choose your own partner."
 Naturally, the Gauder team-members paired up with each other; Brian and Gina
stuck together, and Bri' and Jay made up the last pair.
 "Here," Gauder said, handing radios to Jason and Brian. Gina snatched Brian's
away, and Jason handed his back to Gauder. "If you'll give us the frequency,
Bri' can plug it into her suit radio."
 Gauder shrugged, but he was surely upset at the one-upmanship. Jason smiled.

 And so, the four groups walked off in different directions. Gauder told them
all to report back to him if they found anything major. (This, of course, irked
the Burgesses and Lows to no end, though they let it go for the sake of
exploring a new place.)
 Bri and Gina wandered around the square for a bit, taking in the skyline (?)
and wondering what life in the town had been like.
 "These people must've had a heck of a time getting around with only lanterns
and such to guide them," Gina said. "It's permanently night down here!"
 "Must've been a real morale-dropper," Brian agreed. The two shone their lights
around some more, casting odd shadows.
 "And how did they tell time and that sort of thing? With no external source to
synchronize with, spring-type movements could've been hours or days off!"
 Brian smiled, shaking his head. He walked towards the buildings on the near
side of the street, while Gina went a few yards to the left, checking out what
looked like a little park of sorts. It was hardly worthy of the name, though;
everything was built atop sheer ice, and even in his parka, Bri felt a chill.
<The temperature must be minus fifteen down here, even with the lights going.>
 Brian studied the building he was facing. A frosted-over picture window made
him believe he was facing a store of some sort, and as he wiped it away, he
found he was right--a counter that looked like it belonged in a butcher shop
went from one wall to the other.
 He wondered where they would've found the meat to sell or dispense in a
butchery; would they have had animals penned up in the town somewhere? The
place didn't look self-sufficient at all--what would they have fed the animals,
for example.. and how would they have fueled any lanterns to use to see?
 "Jinkies!"
 Brian turned to see what Gina was going on about, and saw a small opening in
the ground, surrounded by a two-foot-tall stone wall, built in a circle about
three feet in diameter. There was a cover on it, and Gina had flipped it over
to reveal water roaring past underneath.
 "Looks like a wishing well," she said as he came up to her.
 "Or a manhole cover," Brian pointed out. "From the looks of that water, and
its speed, I'd say it's the runoff coming in from the moulin."
 "You are so UNROMANTIC sometimes!" she hollered as he walked away.
 "Just practical, Gina," Brian shot back. "I'm goin' over this way. PLEASE
don't wreck anything."
 "Why, you--" Despite their promise to the contrary, she used her bio-implant
to send a lot of rude remarks Brian's way.

 Jay and Bri' weren't being as argumentative as their counterparts. They walked
through the village hand-in-hand, checking each building, finding nothing of
value.
 More correctly, they found nothing of value from a treasure-hunter's point of
view. Historically, they were walking through the past, visiting things that'd
been untouched for over a century. They'd passed through a general store,
several specialty shops, and even a hotel--<What purpose would a town like this
have for a hotel?> Jay asked himself--but not one of the buildings had anything
even remotely related to gold or gold-hunting.
 They did notice light bulbs suspended in the ceilings of some of the places,
so there was electricity of a sort, but not for the entire town.
 <Haves and have-nots,> Jason found himself thinking, looking at the hotel's
ceiling with a small but probably very extravagant-for-its-time chandelier. <So
how did they come up with the power to run these lights, then?>
 "You got the camera with you?" Brianna was asking him. He looked up. Bri' had
taken off her armor's helmet and was holding a dress up in front of her.
 Jay blinked. "Um.. I'm not one to ever criticize this sort of thing, but.."
 "But what?" Bri' said, leaning forward and looking at the front of the dress
as she held it against her armored body.
 "Um.. despite the rumors and stories, I'll bet Russia never had any six-ten,
two-hundred-and-sixty-pound women in the late 1800s."
 "Oh, stop it and take my picture," she smiled. He did, and she added, "That
remark could almost be categorized as 'witty', y'know."
 "I tell you, it's not coming back yet," he told her. "I promise, you'll be the
second to know."
 She lifted his hat and messed up his hair. "Anxiously awaiting, dear husband."
 They carried on through town, leaving the town square--which appeared to
double as the commercial district. Interestingly enough, there didn't seem to
be a town hall to speak of, only commercial buildings surrounded by residences.
 "Why such a 'big' town, by 19th-century standards, without any purpose?" Bri'
wondered. "If not the gold rush.. then what's this place here for?"
 "I wonder if it's like Australia was?" Jason answered her question with one of
his own. "I mean.. besides sending most of their bad guys to Siberia, what if
the Russians tossed some of them into a hole in this glacier?"
 "Could be," Bri' agreed. "Might explain why they're down here."
 They walked on; rows of residential buildings filled many of the other blocks,
all the same size, shape, and class. That surprised them, slightly; they'd
figured that higher-ups would get bigger houses--mansions, almost. Though, in a
mining town, the only people living there should be workers. And since it
wasn't a mining town, or at least didn't seem to be, that struck down that line
of thinking.
 "What's on the front of all these houses?" Jason asked.
 Bri' frowned; she slid her visor down again for image-enhancement. "Idunno.
They almost look like.."
 "Like?"
 "Crosses," Brianna said. "They're crosses."
 They walked up to a house. The cross fixed to its door had a family name upon
it.
 Brianna looked up and down the street, at the other crosses nailed to doors.
"Is this a religion thing?"
 "Don't think so," Jason said. Given names were listed below, comprising a
family, and a series of dates. "I think these are the dates these people died."
 "Died? Why put it on their houses, not their graves?"
 "Think about it," Jason put forth. "We're still a couple hundred feet above
the ground, strictly speaking. Below us is just ice. And I'm sure that with the
day-to-day activities going on around here, the ice level never stays the
same.."
 Brianna made a face. "Ugh. I see your point. So that's why there's no bodies
around--not even animals? You think they.. DID something with them?"
 "My guess would be that they put them in that hole where all the water goes,"
Jay said. "Either that, or however the town got down here, the deceased got
back out."
 "But the houses..? Almost looks like each time a family packed it in, the
house was sealed up and abandoned. Why wouldn't you let someone else move in?"
 Jason shrugged. "Maybe they weren't prepared to do that. OR.. maybe something
happened, like some kind of illness, that killed a whole bunch of people off at
once, and either they had no need for so many houses any more, or they didn't
want anyone else to catch whatever'd killed the previous residents."
 "You ALWAYS see the good side of things," Brianna muttered good-naturedly.

 Brian was also searching the town, of course; he'd gone the other way from the
town square, away from Jay and Bri' (and Gina, but we'll get to that in a bit)
and into what looked to be a sort of an industrial area--as far as industry
went in the 19th century town.
 He encountered what looked like a smith's, all the tools and equipment cold
and inert. <But that probably means horses, doesn't it?> he wondered. <And if
so, why isn't there any evidence of them? Or of people, for that matter?>
 Also on the same street was a small shed full of brooms and sacks. At first,
he thought the sacks might've been used in a search for gold, but they were way
too big; more than likely, they were makeshift trash cans, and this was the
public works/street cleaning storage shed.
 He continued past a store, looking like a market; it was bare to the walls,
though. Even the cold storage--a hole cut in the basement floor--was empty,
though it had obviously been well-used to store meat and other such goods.
 "So, the entire town just up and left one afternoon?" he muttered to himself.
He didn't know why, but he at least expected to find skeletons--no one who
lived down here would've been able to escape back to the surface using 1880s
technology, would they?
 <And no gold; nothing at all,> Brian reflected. <Gina's going to be pissed.>
She and Brian weren't really as angry at each other as it appeared; they had
'arguments' like these all the time. It was part of what made their marriage
special, they figured.
 The four of them--including Jay and Bri'--were certainly still having fun
together, that was for sure. Everyone apparently had fun on their honeymoons,
and they were adventuring once again--it couldn't be better.
 Well, yes, it could; Brian had to agree with the others that they deserved a
break. After getting rid of the government contracts, they still kept busy with
people who approached them after learning of them through the story of Tolum.
<Fame sure does have its price,> Brian smiled.
 He stopped in front of a large barn. It was made of much stronger wood than
the other buildings, and remained locked with a good, strong lock, even to the
present day. It had a skull-and-crossbones painted on the door, along with the
word "DANGER" (in Russian, of course).
 It took some work, but the door did eventually open; inside, to his surprise,
Brian found a small room, with a set of pipes that descended into the ground,
with a pressure gauge on them. Yet again he was caught off guard, when he
glanced at the gauge and saw that it had substantial pressure behind it.
 In the other direction, the pipes, after they left the gauge, passed through
the wall into the next room. Brian chose to follow them, and on the other side
of the door was the rest of the barn, full of machinery.
 Four immense tanks lined one wall, thirty feet high and fifteen or so feet in
diameter. A pipe ran along the length of the tank farm, with tees to supply
each tank (or was it the other way around?). The pipe continued to a terminus,
where there was a valve, a device that looked like a horse-scale, and a cart,
just inside the double doors that marked the opposite end of the barn.
 It was the stuff in between the tanks and the pressure gauge that was the most
interesting, though. After passing through the wall, the pipes that Brian had
seen in the other room went through several devices. An electric cable ran from
a hole in the outside wall to a machine that looked like a compressor or
generator of some sort. Also from there, wires ran to lights hanging on the
ceiling of the massive room.
 <So this stuff IS run by electricity,> Brian sighed internally. <Meaning
there's no chance of making it run, without going back and getting Gauder to
shunt some power from his generator--and I get the feeling that won't happen.>
 Just before the device with all the wires on it sat another piece of equipment
that Brian had missed, because of its smaller size. It was only about 12 inches
across--roughly twice the diameter of the pipe--and looked like a small turbine
of some sort.
 And it had a brake on it, which was locked down.
 Without another thought, Brian reached down and released the brake; he heard a
rush of pressure, then saw the turbine start to spin. The device just past it,
with all the wires, came to life next, and Brian realized it wasn't used to
provide power to the pipeline, but vice-versa--the pipeline generated flow
which went through the turbine, which was connected to the generator, which
built up electricity.
 All of this came to him as the lights slowly came up. In addition, two or
three small lights on a piece of apparatus even further down the line blinked
on. Brian walked to that piece and inspected it.
 It appeared to be a compressor; the pipeline continued on through it, but out
the back of the device was a tee that led to the previously-mentioned pressure
tanks. There was a gauge on the compressor, and it was already starting to
build.
 In addition, as Brian moved to that piece of equipment, he noticed another
setup near the wall. It had another pipe coming up from the ground, which,
after going through a machine, split into two pipes. It had a small-diameter
gas line leading up to the machine.
 All of it worked very silently; there was hardly any indication--save the hiss
of gas being compressed into the tanks--that anything was happening.
 He went to the valve at the end of the tank farm--the valve was surely a
filling station for smaller tanks--and cracked it open a bit. Aside from flakes
of rust, he was hit in the face with a rush of whatever gas it was.
 <Well, that didn't tell me anything,> he chastised himself. He knew that the
odorant put in specific types of gas is added at the refinery stage..
 He glanced at the cart. It was rigged to be horse-drawn, and had on the side
of it, in Russian, words that equated "Property of Ministry of Natural Gas".
 A sound from the front room surprised him, and he turned to see Gauder and his
men entering the room. They didn't see him, so he crouched down and waited.

 Gina turned around and realized that, after her circuitous self-tour of the
ghost town, she was back in the square again, right in front of the wishing
well. She looked into the hole and saw the water rushing by underneath.
 <What harm could it possibly DO?> she thought to herself, smiling as she dug
in her pockets for a penny.
 Holding it tightly in her fist, she closed her eyes; she wished for something
good to come out of all this, and that things would look up from here on in.
She wished for life to be less hectic, and she wished for a chance to get away
from it all for a while.
 The penny was gone from the moment it hit the waterflow. By the time she
looked into the well, it had vanished in the underground stream.
 <Oh, well,> she shrugged, closing the lid over the well and walking away.
 Meanwhile, her penny kept tumbling through the pipes, going with the flow of
water. The water was frigid, though, and that caused ice to form on the inside
of the pipes, despite the water's velocity. In fact, about half-a-kilometer
downstream of where Gina tossed the penny in, the pipe's inside diameter was
reduced to almost nil by ice blockages and other debris.
 The penny, tumbling in the turbulent stream, flipped up and landed dead-center
in the ice blockage, plugging the only remaining place the water could go.

 Gauder's men spent as much time looking over the natural gas setup as Brian
had; then, one of them said, "Looks like someone already found this, Shawn."
 "Yes," Gauder answered, "I agree. However, it could be to our advantage. See
that?" Gauder pointed to the machine near the wall. "That looks to me like a
water heater. That means that this gas is very likely flammable. We may find a
way to get rid of the Gold Digger and her friends yet. Remember this place;
we'll come back to it later, after we find the treasures this place holds."
 Bri stood up and cleared his throat. "Man, isn't this embarrassing!" he said.
"You should always make sure nobody's listening when you declare your evil
plans to an underling."
 Gauder turned around again, slightly startled. He then folded his arms and
addressed Brian. "So, now you know. My father suggested it and picked the
spot. Brilliant man, brilliant plan. As if you'll be able to stop us; we're the
ones with the vehicles, and once we get the goods and leave, you'll be stuck
here."
 "There aren't any 'goods', Gauder," Brian shot back. "Just this gas. THAT'S
the reason this place exists--and that's the only thing coming up outta this
place besides all nine of us. The only things left in this town are gas, wood,
and a few chunks of stone. Whatever you want from that, I'm sure we can come up
with a deal that's fair to all of us--"
 "No deals!" Gauder shot back. "You four've had too much of the spotlight
already! Now it's time for other people to gain their rightful spot in the
history books!"

 "What the--?" Brianna said as the lights flickered on.
 "Somebody must've found the power," Jason told Brianna. They looked at the
room slowly fading into view before them.
 It was a monstrous room. As the lights slowly came up, humongous gears clanked
into action, turning themselves and hundreds gears of all other sizes. For a
moment, Jay thought it was some kind of mechanically-operated passage that was
about to be opened, until he turned left and saw what was beside him.
 "Holy.."
 "Clocks?" Brianna finished.
 The wall--about a hundred and fifty feet long by thirty feet high--was floor-
to-ceiling and end-to-end with shelves that held small, very ornate stand-up
clocks.
 "There must be thirty thousand of the damn things here," Jason whispered.
 "Yeah," Bri' nodded. She walked up and lifted one from its cubbyhole. "Heavy."
She turned it over in her hands. "The casing's all gold and silver."
 "Hey--bring it over here," Jason said. She looked, and he was at a desk that
seemed to abut the massive gear system. Atop the desk was what appeared to be a
control panel, with a set of spindles sticking out of a recessed space.
 "That looks like it fits right in here," he said, sliding the clock, face-out,
into the hole. It did, and the clock's second hand came to life.
 "It's winding it back up," Jason said, looking around at the back of the
control panel, trying to see what the spindles connected to. "But I don't see
any way to set the proper time."
 "How about this?" Bri' said. To the left of the recessed space, there was a
clock face--much less exquisite, far more utilitarian--set into the control
panel. She looked at her watch, then reached out and moved the hands into the
proper positions on the control panel's clock.
 Slowly, the hands on the ornate clock began to adjust themselves. The only
other adornment on the control panel, a gauge of sorts on the right side,
inched its needle up a notch.
 "What's that say?" Brianna asked.
 "Um.." Jason tried to translate it. "Something about calibration, and how much
time remains before it's complete. No--make that how many DAYS are left. Looks
like just a shade under 28."
 "A month? To 'calibrate' this little clock?" Bri' asked, gesturing to the one
they'd plugged into the console.
 Jay shrugged. "Don't ask me," he said. His eyes fell to the desk. "Hey..
wonder if this might have some answers."
 He pushed the chair away and tried the drawers; the two on the side were open,
but they held nothing of value. The center one was locked securely.
 "Let me try," Brianna said, gently elbowing her way in. She gripped the drawer
and yanked, and it came out of the desk with a loud crack.
 They set the drawer on the desktop, remotely aware that they were damaging an
antique piece of furniture and a part of history previously untold. That was
soon forgotten, when they saw the objects in the drawer.
 "Wow," Brianna whispered, lifting a small book from the center of the drawer.
It was very well-preserved, still-white pages between sturdy leather covers. It
bore no marks on the outside, but the first page had a handwritten title upon
it. Jason leaned in to see.
 "I think.. 'Ministry of Timekeeping'," he said slowly. "Timekeeping?"
 They browsed through the rest of the book. "It's a log," Jay added after a few
moments. "Whoever kept this was in charge of calibrating aaalll these clocks"--
he waved his hand at the wall--"and sending them back to Russia."
 "Neat," Brianna contributed.
 "Is it ever," he agreed. He flipped a few pages. "Hey, THIS is different."
 "What?"
 "Well, the rest is pretty much a log, like a ledger of sorts, but here,
someone's used it like a journal. Let's see.. 'It is ironic that.. the very
weather I so enjoyed back home in the motherland may well be our end. The
crane's.. moorings melted out of the ice today, in the warm sun, and it all
came down the shaft. Katja tried to save the.. wreckage, but I fear he drowned
when the crane was washed into the underground river.'" Jason paused, partly to
turn the page, partly to ensure he was translating as best he could. "'I will'
..here, a word I presume means 'calibrate'.. 'no more of the timepieces, as
there is no.. point. We cannot send any more clocks to the surface, and our
much-needed supplies will be.. undeliverable, as there is no way to lower them
to us. We will not survive the.. year.. it will take to build a new crane.'"
 "'The only' ..lightness? I think he means something like 'saving grace'.. 'The
only saving grace.. in all this is that the.. gas.. still flows. We continue to
have a means to cook and heat, and pump our water, but unless we are witness to
one of God's miracles--perhaps some.. animals might fall into the shaft--Vremya
will become our tomb. It shudders me to my very soul.'"
 Just then, Jay and Bri' were nearly knocked off their feet by a horrendous
rumbling, rocking motion coming from underground.

 Brian and the others felt it too.
 "An earthquake?" he wondered aloud. Then he realized it was traveling from one
end of the building to the other, and it continued to build. As well, the water
lines on the heater device had begun to leak violently.
 His shoulders sagged and his face took on a pained expression as he bolted for
the door, Gauder and his cronies forgotten. Brian hollered: "GIIIIIINAAAAAAA!!"
 Gina was standing in the middle of the road, looking back at the town square
with a surprised expression on her face. "What the heck's going on??" she asked
Brian.
 "You tell ME!" he shot back, grabbing hold of her arm and towing her back
towards the safety of the tractors. "What did you DO?!"
 "NOTHING!" she snapped, running to keep up with Brian, her feet touching the
ground every ten feet or so. "Oh--um, except.."
 Bri stopped just short of the vehicles and turned to face her. "Except WHAT??"
 He caught her glance towards the little stone well on the other side of the
square. "It CAN'T have anything to do with--"
 "Aw, Gina!" Brian said, throwing his head back. "I TOLD you not to mess with
that thing!"
 Just then, the hatch atop the well blew open, and water began gushing out of
it, spilling all over the square. 
 Brianna and Jason raced into sight just then. "Holy shit!" Jason expounded.
"What happened?"
 "Ask your sister-in-law here!" Brian countered.
 Just then, there was a tremendous BOOM! and a huge shower of sparks, as the
flood reached the generator cable and finished it off. The tower lights that
Gauder had brought along blew out promptly, leaving them only the dim street
lamps to see by.
 In the near-darkness, they saw Gauder and team rush for the trackers and
start them up. Brianna, the only one with armor on, tried to stop them, but
they were into the cavern before she could catch up.
 "I think leaving is a good idea right now!" Jason said, looking at the water
already up to his knees.
 "But how?!" Gina pointed out, having to yell over the roar of the water.
"Brianna's the only one who can make it up the shaft, and her thrusters won't
support the weight of all of us!"
 "Well, we're gonna have to try!" Brianna said, waving them to follow her into
the cavern. "We'll come up with something!"
 "And when we get out, we gotta deal with Gauder, too!" Brian said. He told
them all about the real reason that the Gauders wanted them on the mission.
 "That just takes the goddamn cake!" Jason said, throwing his arms up in the
air even as they ran for the cavern. "Whatever happened to Tolum's return
bringing us heightened peace and tranquility?!"
 "I'll have you know that's one of the things I wished for!" Gina shot back.
 "What??!" Jason said.
 "I'll explain later, if we survive!" Brian hollered. "Just run!!"

 They stayed a few feet ahead of a fair-sized wave along the horizontal portion
of the cavern, but only as far as the hole into which the moulin runoff went.
Brianna leapt into the air, grabbed onto Jason's arm with one hand, and Gina's
with the other; Brian latched onto one of Brianna's armored legs.
 "Give it all you got, Bri'!" Jason hollered.
 "I already am!" she shouted back, rising up through the vertical shaft at a
rate of only about five feet a second. "I want you and Gina to try something!
Gina, I'm gonna spin you around--let Jason get into your pack and get the Gina-
Line out!"
 "Okay!" Gina said, as Brianna struggled to turn her sister around so that her
back was facing Jay. With his free hand, Jay undid the cover and rooted around
for a second or two, finally coming up with the suction-cup gun in question.
 "Got it!"
 "Then use it!" Bri' shouted back.
 "Firing!" Jay aimed above them and pulled the trigger. Two hundred and twenty
feet of line sure didn't go very far, or so it appeared. The cup firmly stuck
to the wall, Jason retracted the cable, and their rate of ascent was improved
somewhat.
 "Great! Keep doing that and we'll make it!" Brianna said optimistically.
 He had just retrieved the suction-cup and was ready to fire again when the
geyser hit.

 <No, 220 feet IS a good long distance,> Jason decided as he suddenly found
himself blown high above the surface of the glacier atop a lukewarm column of
water. Suddenly, his upward velocity slowing but not fast enough, he found
himself suspended in the minus thirty degree air with no water below him and
nothing to hang on to.
 In the corner of his vision, he saw Brianna grab Brian, and Gina was pulling
on the ripcord that turned her pack into an emergency chute. <Hey, that's a
good idea,> he decided, and did the same to his own pack.
 A few seconds later, the foursome were safe on the ground, albeit under a
rainfall of somewhat-warm water. As Brian hopped down from Brianna's arms, he
snapped his fingers.
 "The gas must've blown," he said. "I bet there's a pretty big fire going on
down there right now."
 "Gas?" Gina echoed.
 "Yeah," Brian said. "There wasn't any gold down there--only the mother of all
natural gas wells! I found the wellhead and the transfer station down there. I
was trying to make Gauder believe that we'd share the find with him, when all
hell broke loose."
 "And we found a journal," Brianna added, pulling off her helmet and shaking
her head to get rid of the water in her hair. "You're right, the gas was the
reason that place was there. They had a crane mounted up here, which was used
to transfer supplies to and from the town--I presume they put the gas into
cylinders somehow, right?"
 Brian nodded.
 "But that's not all," Jason called from the back cab of the truck, while he
was finding some dry clothes. "They also sent a clock with every load of gas--
once a month, in other words."
 "Why?" Gina asked.
 "They figured out a way to keep very precise time using the gas flow," Bri'
said. "Not on par with today's atomic clocks, but I'm sure it was very accurate
back then. Anyway, they had a building FULL of these special clocks, and they
spent four weeks calibrating each of them with the gas flow, and then sent them
off to Mother Russia, where they were used to ensure the place was synchronized
with itself."
 "The journal had thousands of entries by the guy in charge," came Jay's voice
again. Momentarily, his upper body--in fresh clothes--came into view from the
truck's cab. "Clocks received, clocks sent, corrections in the 'official' time,
that sort of thing. Too bad we didn't save at least that--it would've been a
neat part of history to have kept."
 Brianna smiled and reached inside her armor, extracting a small leather-bound
book, waggling it in the air.
 Jason grinned. "Sometimes you amaze me, my dear wife," he said, ducking back
into the truck.
 "What about Gauder?" Brian wanted to know. "We just gonna let him get away?"
 They turned to look at the tracks left in the snow by the long-departed
vehicles. "Well," Gina said through clenched teeth, "seeing as how he was going
to just leave us in there to die, I feel like we should make sure that doesn't
go unpunished."
 Brian grinned. "Exactly what I wanted to hear."

 Half-an-hour later, after they were all in dry clothes and back to normal
temperature inside the heated car and truck, they took to the skies and headed
for a position known to them as 52.40.12N by 132.16.05W--the location of Alec
Gauder's houseboat/fortress.
 It'd moved a few degrees, but it was easy to find; the pair of Mirage fighters
that rose to meet the car and truck was enough of a hint that they'd arrived.
 They were escorted down and, for lack of a better phrase, taken into custody,
as soon as they got on board. All of their gear, save the clothes on their
backs, was confiscated, and they were taken to Alec Gauder.
 Armed guards stayed behind the foursome at the room's exit while Gauder spoke
to them. "It is.. most unfortunate that you did not stay in Vremya and accept
your fate," he said, pacing back and forth like he was simply disciplining some
employees. "Now we must dispose of you some other, less tidy way."
 "You're sick," Jay blurted out. "What the hell makes you, and your son, think
that you have the right to prevent us from adventuring?"
 "We're not just going to prevent you from adventuring, Mr. Low," Gauder said,
turning to face him. "We'll prevent you from EXISTING. Or, to use a quote from
a motion picture, as you seem fond of doing, 'I do not expect you to talk, Mr.
Bond. I expect you to die.'"
 "Well, keep in mind that Bond always got away," Jason shot back.
 "He did, didn't he? Duly noted. Wouldn't it be nice if that happened elsewhere
than just the movies?" Gauder said. "Too bad real life works differently."
 "Why do you feel the need to do this?" Brian argued. "We've never impeded you
OR your son, at least, not intentionally; there's more than enough still
unknown about our world that we can ALL explore it without trying to bump each
other off in the process.."
 "Another thing that would be nice, were it true," Gauder countered. "Consider
the following: Prior to you and your friend's addition to the Gold Digger's
team, she and her sisters amassed nearly a hundred million dollars in finds all
about the globe! A hundred million, Mr. Burgess! Now, that sort of paltry
pocket change means nothing to ME, but in the grand scheme of things, it means
nearly a hundred million dollars' worth of treasure has been removed from the
'playing field' for the other adventurers."
 "You know what? You can HAVE all that stuff," Gina boiled over. "If you want
all the money and treasures, that's fine--so long as I get the credit for
finding it! I'm in it for the adventuring, not the cash!"
 "Ah, how quickly you forget even your own history," Gauder smiled. "You are
renowned THE WORLD OVER as a first-class TREASURE-HUNTER, Mrs. Burgess, from
the days when you were known as the Gold Digger. And if you weren't in it for
the money, as you put it, why did you turn down all but the high-paying jobs
starting in 1996?"
 Gina's face reddened; he meant the period just before Brian and Jason had come
into her life, right around the time that the IRS finally got around to doing
their killer-audit on the girls. "That's none of your business!" she spat out.
 "True; true," Gauder said, holding his hands out and waving downwards, as if
he could lessen the tension in the room by doing so. "My apologies. I know how
stressful one's financial troubles can be. Well, not DIRECTLY, since *I've*
never been in dire straits myself, but anyway. Shall we come to an agreement
that you won't retire from treasure-hunting any time soon?"
 The four bit back the comments they had; arguing semantics on treasure-hunting
versus adventuring wasn't worth it at the moment. "We won't be giving it up
while we're still able," Brianna answered for the four of them.
 "Very well. My son wanted to 'go easy' on you, to use your generation's words
again, but I am not so inclined. My son is destined to be world-famous someday.
I cannot allow you to continue to intervene, especially since you introduced
Tolum to the world; its answers to many of the planet's secrets has made my
need to do this all the more urgent."
 He gestured to the guards at the door. "They will take you to your quarters,
and you will be permitted to, either individually or in groups, determine your
preferred method of execution. It's the only sensible thing to do, I think."
 "SENSIBLE?!" Jason screamed, throwing his arms wide. They were caught and
twisted in behind him by a guard; Jason screamed out in pain.
 Brianna was suddenly beside the guard, having easily wrestled her way out of
the grip of her own captor. "If you let him go RIGHT NOW, I promise I won't
break BOTH your arms--just one," she said.
 The guard that had let Brianna escape jumped her in a flying tackle while the
other two holding Brian and Gina hauled their quarries into the corridor. Bri'
shrugged her tormentor off with ease once more, and rushed the guard who was
trying to maneuver Jason to the hallway. "Your choice," she said to the man.

 Jason suddenly tumbled through the air, his arms free; he barely had enough
time to wrench them around in front of him before he had to try to use them to
stop him from smashing into the wall. He succeeded, mostly, though he got his
bell rung quite a bit.
 Brianna was dribbling Jason's attacker on the corridor deck, so he went after
hers, who was still trying to recapture her. "Hey, buddy," Jay said. "Pick on
someone your own size."
 True, the man WAS Jason's height and more-or-less his weight, but he had the
advantage of being rather skilled in some form of brawling or wrestling, it
seemed. Then again, Jason had the advantage of having been trained by Julia
Diggers.
 There isn't much to say; Brianna finished off Jason's former captor and came
over to help Jay take care of hers, but he had things well in hand. The man
wisely chose to feign unconsciousness after the fifteenth or sixteenth punch,
not getting back up for some more.
 They ran a short length down the corridor, where Brian and Gina were just
mopping up after their own little fracas as well. "Well, that takes care of
that; shall we abscond now?" Brian said, dusting off his hands.
 An alarm started to ring, and red lights flashed along the length of the
corridor.
 "Um. YES!" Gina blurted out as the foursome ran aimlessly through the halls.
 They had no idea how to get to the hangar bays; what they did was launch their
vehicles remotely--Jason by pager, and Gina by implant, of course--and hope to
luck across an external hatch from which they could hit the ocean and swim for
it.
 All four of them were dismayed to learn via their respective control methods
that their vehicles were completely empty--their equipment was being held
somewhere else.
 "No time to go hunt for it," Brian declared. "We've all got spares; we gotta
get off this floating mini-mall and get the hell outta here!"
 "We had spares," Brianna said as they ran, "but I DID have that book in my
armor.."
 "Well, maybe we can call in a favor from the government and get them to do a
warrant on this place later on," Jason said. "But for now, Brian's right--let's
get moving!"
 ".."
 "What the heck's that?" Brianna asked.
 "What?" Jason and the others said.
 "That noise.."
 "We don't hear anything," Brian countered.
 "pb"
 "THAT!" she stressed. "Sounds like someone mumbling."
 "We gotta get out of here," Jason urged her on. "Come on!"
 "pbo"
 He stopped as he, too, finally heard it. "Um, guys.."
 The other two had stopped as well, looking back at Jason and Brianna, who were
standing there, looking up at the ceiling.
 "What's that rumbling noise?" Gina wanted to know.
 "It sounds like a whole flock of.." Jason trailed off, searching for a hatch
in the ceiling that he'd be able to peek into. He found one, and looked to Bri'
for a boost up.
 "pbbo" came the sound again.
 She picked him up and hoisted him high enough that he could reach the hatch.
He pushed it just as the rumbling noise grew rather loud.
 "I think it's.." he said, trailing off again as he looked into the ceiling.
"Ohhh, shit."
 "What?" the others asked.
 "Let me down," he blurted out. "Run!"
 "What is it?" Brianna demanded as she put Jay back on the floor. "Is it.."
 "Just RUN!!"
 The rumbling grew to a fever pitch, and the walls and ceiling were vibrating
with what seemed like hundreds of miniature footfalls; then, finally, dozens of
synthesized voices said as one:
 "PEEEEBO!!!"
 
                         - + * B W A M M M ! ! ! * + -

 The floating fortress was decimated. Bits of it flew so high into the air that
they would not rain down on Earth until almost a quarter-hour had passed. The
sea in all directions was incredibly turbulent as the vessel's superstructure
was torn to shreds by the blast. People were thrown into the water left and
right, and one or two of the escape boats actually made it away from the
wreckage.
 For several minutes, the destroyed fortress lay still and silent.
 Then, the rubble shifted, and a hand popped up; another pregnant pause ensued,
and after yet another delay, the hand was followed by the rest of its arm, the
other hand and arm, and then the torso and head of the person that all of the
aforementioned body parts were attached to.
 Gina finished extricating herself, looked around and saw Brian trying to get
out of the rubble, and went to help him. Elsewhere, Brianna was digging herself
free as well.
 Finally, another mass of debris shifted, and two hands reached up and pushed
more junk aside. Like he was surfacing after a dive, Jason burst out of the
rubble and climbed out to stand atop it.
 As the others were dusting themselves off, Jason threw his hands high in the
air and his head far back, and cried triumphantly, "THIS!.. This was.. NO..
BOATING ACCIDENT!!"
 Everyone cheered. Brianna brought Jason his just-rescued hat.
 "Hey, lookit that!" Brian pointed. They all turned and saw the two vehicles
doing orbits of the wreckage, as instructed, skimming the surface of the ocean
like hovercraft, or perhaps hydrofoils. The more interesting thing, though, was
floating halfway between the cars and the people.
 "Our armors!" Brianna exclaimed, and dove into the waves. She swam out the 200
meters or so and wrestled with her armor for a moment, then turned and held the
small leather book--the only treasure to survive Vremya's destruction--high
above her head triumphantly.
 Everyone cheered again.

LATE ONE EVENING
A COUPLE OF WEEKS LATER
BROUGHAM COMPLEX

 Brianna and Jason lounged around. They'd promised themselves some break time
when their mission was over, and they sure as hell were going to take it.
Other than the weddings and honeymoons, they'd basically been romping all over
the globe (and elsewhere, in the case of the trip to Aebra) on various
adventures and missions since they'd first met. Now, they decreed, it was time
for a rest.
 However, there was one last thing to be dealt with: Since the Gauders were
nowhere to be found, the site of Vremya was pretty much the property of Gina
and friends. They had chosen to hire an underwater drilling company to go in
and stabilize the gas well, then start producing from it, at a rate of a couple
million cubic meters a day--nothing HUGE, but enough to make them rather happy.
In fact, enough that Gina et al split the proceeds half-and-half with the
drilling company.
 As was said, though, it was time to rest. The phone was turned off, the doors
were locked and the doorchimes were shut down. Jay and Bri' hid in the complex
itself, out of sight of everyone except each other, and enjoyed it very much.
 "That was a fairly radical, out-of-the-blue idea you tossed at Bri the other
day," Brianna said. "About the Veritechs and all that."
 Jason shrugged. "We've got plenty of time to play around like that. In fact, I
was even going to think about getting a dog one of these fine weeks."
 Bri' blushed slightly. "Well," she said with a grin, "I think maybe you should
hold off on that idea for now." Jason totally failed to clue in to the fact
that Bri' looked down at her midsection briefly. "I think we'll have plenty to
occupy ourselves with from now on."
 "Hm? Howso?"
 She made another very obvious glance at herself. "I'm saying, there'll be an
adventure of an entirely different kind coming for us in a few months."
 Jason stared up, open-mouthed, at his wife's slowly spreading grin; his mind
ever-so-slowly slipped into first gear and processed the incoming information.
 "Two of them, in fact," Bri' added, almost in a whisper, her eyes moist.
 It was Jay's turn to explode into a grin; that he did, accompanied by howls of
joyous laughter, along with a rushing leap to embrace Brianna, who was doing
basically the same thing in return.
 They both spun one another around and did an impromptu dance on the floor of
the Bay, all the while continuing to laugh and cheer one another until they
cried.

TO BE CONTINUED IN "AFTERTHOUGHT"
VOLUME TWELVE OF DIMENSION OUT OF RANGE