Cretaceous Sea

'Don't worry, bro, mum's the word.'

TOM'S APARTMENT LOOKED like a stage designer's idea of a bachelor professor's habitat. It was crammed with clutter reflecting his fascination for the past. Books, pa-pers, and maps mingled with geologists' tools, camping gear, fossils, and an extensive collection of toy dinosaurs. When Rick entered the door, he smelled the pungent spices of Southwestern cooking combined with the scent of rock dust. Tom called from the kitchen, 'Want a beer?'

Rick walked to the kitchen and grabbed one from the fridge. 'Thanks.' Tom threw some chilies in oil. 'You're going to miss my cooking this summer. Is that when you're going?'

'Tomorrow, actually. At least, that's the first trip.'

'At the beginning of the semester?'

'I'll be gone from the present time frame for less than a minute.'

'Oh ... I forgot. This is time travel.'

'You still don't believe me,' said Rick.

Tom added some chopped onions to the oil and gently stirred them as he talked. 'I made some inquiries this afternoon,' he said. When he saw the alarm on Rick's face he quickly added, 'Don't worry, I've been very dis-creet. I called up David Ross over in the physics depart-ment—said I needed information on time travel for a lecture—and he did a literature search. Rick, there's been almost no research in the area, except Eckmair's work in the thirties. He claimed to have demonstrated it on the subatomic level, but his findings are still in dispute. The rest of the papers were strictly speculative. Most physi-cists believe time only goes in one direction. Those that don't think it might reverse inside a black hole or some other exotic place in the universe, but certainly not inside a man-made machine.'

'What if they're wrong?' replied Rick. 'I've got some evidence, five grand and airfare.'

'That's hardly evidence,' answered Tom. 'This doesn't make sense. A discovery like that doesn't appear out of nowhere. There should be research papers leading up to it. Green would get the Nobel Prize for something like that.'

'There could be some reason why he hasn't published. Maybe he doesn't want the government involved. Maybe the government is involved.'

'There's another thing,' said Tom. 'Who's this Peter Green? There are only two scientists by that name—one's a botanist and the other's a retired chemical engineer.'

'Dammit, Tom!' said Rick irritably. 'If your snooping spoils this for me, I'll never forgive you. You forget, I saw the pictures. I believe they're real. I'll risk being fooled over missing out. This is a dream come true.'

'I'm sorry,' said Tom. 'It's just seems so improbable.'

He browned some cubed beef among the onions and chil-ies, then began adding spices. Rick silently watched his brother cook, the smells bringing back memories of so many meals together. After a while, he broke his silence. 'What's the point in fooling me?' he said. 'If this were a hoax, why trick a college student? No one would believe me. You don't. What would they gain?'

'I have no idea,' admitted Tom. 'It just bothers me. Are you sure you'll be all right?'

'Of course.'

'All the same, could you leave me your flight infor-mation and destination? I'd feel better.' Rick decided not to tell Tom he didn't know his final destination. 'Sure,' he said, 'I'll leave it in my room. If there's an emergency, you have the key.'

Tom cut open a plastic pouch of tomatoes and another of beans, then added them to the meat. After some more stirring, he turned the heat down and covered the pot. 'This can simmer for a while,' he said, taking a beer from the fridge and heading out of the small kitchen to-ward the living room. He sat down on the couch, and Rick sat down in an armchair close by. 'Okay,' said Tom, 'I'll stop being a party poop. Tell me about this trip.'

Rick's eyes lit up with excitement. 'The woman I talked to didn't seem to know a lot about the place we're going to, but she showed me two datacam disks, and I learned a lot from them. The images of the dinosaurs were definitely Upper Cretaceous— Triceratops and the like.'

'Are we talking K-T boundary here?' teased Tom.

'Come on, they have more sense than that. With mil-lions of years' worth of sites to choose from, do you think they would open their resort at the time of the impact?'

'A resort!' exclaimed Tom incredulously. 'Someone builds a time machine and the best thing he can do with it is open a resort?'