The Flint Knappers - Chronicles [Episode #9]

Name: Katherine Winfield
Mission Date: d+335

After getting over the initial shock of the jump I began to get settled in quite well. I still think back to our lives on Earth and wonder how my company is doing. I hope Sharon is enjoying her new office and isn't overwhelmed by her new responsibilities. She's a trooper and smart as a whip. I'm sure she's got everything well in hand.

I worked hard my entire life to build my fortune only to have it ripped away from me in an instant. We let ourselves be blindsided. Maybe I was in denial of the reality of the project and it's implications. We always knew there were forces working against us but we got complacent. Now I'm in this strange new world and like it or not will probably spend the rest of my life here. It's a beautiful world full of undiscovered adventures and I have no choice but to make the best of it.

I have already been busy establishing a new daily routine for myself. In the morning I help the Vanara women with the cooking (I taught them how to make sweet potato bread!) and in the afternoon I spend time studying the geology of our environment. I may have spent most of my adult life in an executive role but I never forgot the hard science I learned in school. It is certainly the most valuable skill I have to offer in our current situation. I have started mapping both above and below ground and we will get good use of the maps as we formulate our battle plan to deal with the Rakshasa.

Over dinner recently I told the others about "Project Looking Glass". This was a closely guarded secret project started by the NSA in the 70s. The heart of the project was a device called a chronoscope that could be used to derive video of a specific time and place in the future relative to your own time. This might sound far fetched but it was based on the same quantum entanglement physics that brought us to this place. It worked but at the time that I was involved it was still very crude. I presume they managed to improve it because I suspect it was how they managed to catch up to us back on Earth. Astrid was the most surprised by this revelation. I think she's still a little upset with me for keeping it a secret even though she understands why. Sometimes secrets are best kept to protect the ones you care for.

The people that ran this project were not the kind of folks you invite over for a beer. The only reason I was involved was my experience with massively parallel processing systems. My home-brewed cluster was the piece they had been missing. Once the holographic modeling could be done in minutes the whole thing became a practical reality. I was smart enough to only give them small bits at a time because I knew they would toss me out like yesterday's trash once they got what they needed. No project like that allows loose ends.

Now that the others know about it I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. Who knows? Maybe Astrid will be able to put some new pieces together. I'm going to try and be open to learning new things since my computer skills from here on out will be limited to the speed of the abacus Newman made for me.

In the short term the mapping project will continue and with a little luck we'll be ready to start our attack about a month from now. I hope we can put the hostilities in the rear view mirror. There's so much more we hope to accomplish. I have to wonder if humanity is cursed to remain a warlike species forever. A beginning is such a delicate time.

To be continued...

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