Jarvis Jacobson was hyped! He had a global livestream event ready to go and was about to embark on a first-of-its-kind expedition and adventure into the skies of Gateworld. A professional balloonist with decades of experience, he put safety first - there were simply too many unknowns to deal with. Along with the usual challenges of uncharted wind conditions or air temperatures, his research people had told him that the physical dynamics of air travel itself might be different here.
An experimental weather balloon test had confirmed just that - he wouldn't be able to count on his altimeter, usually the most useful guidance device he owned. Somehow, gaining altitude simply did not lower barometric pressure at anywhere near the expected rate. They had eventually lost contact with the high-altitude weather balloon when it drifted out of range, but the last measured altitude had been at over 80 miles, and atmospheric pressure at that height had been about equal to ground level in Denver - insanity!
Of course, despite that, Jarvis had his oxygen tank and breather mask ready to go, along with an assortment of devices to measure air composition and the partial pressures of the main gasses involved, as well as humidity.
"Hey JJ! Get your head back down here." His executive tech assistant Roberta called out. Jarvis realized he'd been staring off into the clouds for a while, trying to assess weather conditions. When Roberta had asked what she could do to help, he'd told her, quite literally, to "Go fly a kite!".
"Not enough winds for the kite anymore" Roberta reported. "We're sending up the kid's balloons every 5 minutes now to see if things are calm enough."
Meteorology, unfortunately, just didn't yet have a handle on Gateworld weather. The best they could tell him was that there were no massive rainclouds within a couple day's range - doppler radar worked fine, fortunately, and they could track cloud movement with it, but wind forecasts were still a mystery - they somehow didn't follow high and low pressure zones the way they should.
It was currently 9 AM Gateworld time, and Jarvis was eager to get streaming and get going. He was planning a much faster accent than he would ever try on Earth, and the balloon itself was expected to be lost. There was a 95% or better chance he was coming home by parachute, so he just needed to stay within range to guide himself back down to base after he jumped. If winds were calm enough, he'd be able to free-fall most of the way back.
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Dan Vogt was glued to the livestream. This Jarvis guy had been going mostly straight up all day and was now at 12 miles, yet the reported air pressure and temperature were the same as if he'd been only 1 mile up on Earth. The panoramas he was filming were amazing, whole mountain ranges, oceans, huge lakes, winding rivers, vast deserts, rough hilly badlands - all clearly visible through impossibly clear air.
The other oddity was the upper-level winds themselves. Not many may have noticed, but whenever Jarvis mentioned something about his speed or direction, a few minutes later his expressed wish would slowly come true.
Eventually, Jarvis DID jump, but only because he'd overstayed his high-altitude time and wouldn't be able to land before sunset. It was clocked as the longest free-fall ever recorded, at over 16 minutes. Even then, he was still over a mile up when his chute opened. At 1/2 mile, the wind turned against him and he landed nearly 2 miles from base - ending the stream.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
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Marc Cassidy was one of those immediately informed about the upper altitude wind conditions and their implications, and immediately put a higher priority on getting fighter jets across to Gateworld and runways established. Several planes had been taken across and were now in the process of reassembly, with final flight checks and fueling planned for two days from now, when the initial runways would be ready.
The big delay was that most heavy construction equipment simply wouldn't fit through a Gate, hindering most infrastructure projects. Custom designs and Gateworld-side assembly areas would soon solve the worst of those issues, but the big projects would still take quite a while to complete.
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In Pakistan, a group know as the PLA put forth a plan to their leading clergy - they had a Gate path from their mountain base to a warehouse on the New York docks, needing only a 12 mile desert vehicle to traverse - a small dune buggy would work. To their disappointment, they were told that nuclear options would not work, but a warehouse full of high explosives and chemical weapons should certainly make an impression. To prevent any trace of the origin, they planned to set it up so that the explosions could only go off after the Gate expired.
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Shane was sure of it now - something was happening with Salt Lake that was helping him get stronger and healthier. It made sense, after all. Certainly plant life was greatly enhanced, and animals seemed to grow better and faster, so why not him? Or maybe it was more than that. Certainly he had seen no reports of effects like his on the Gateworld internet forums.
Still, Shane calculated, there were a couple of unique aspects to his own circumstances. There was his continual distance from the Gate entrance, and there was the massive about of Earth material pouring through his Gate. Then there was the fact that he was the only human here - did that perhaps concentrate the effect?
In any case, having fully established his lakeside manor, he decided it was time to explore further downstream and he prepared for a 3-day expedition.
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Rachel was having the best spa vacation of her life, with only one problem - no food. So, on the 2nd full day after her transportation, she decided she had to try going back. Finding materials she could use wasn't too hard - several of the mineral pools had unique-looking deposits she was sure would qualify. Then it was just a matter of finding a sharp enough rock and a spot to mix in the blood.
She made the double circle much like the one she had fallen asleep in, and started meditating, thinking of Earth, her home, her place of origin, her birthplace.....
Suddenly Rachel came back to full awareness with a start! She was in a semi-darkened room she didn't recognize. Looking around, she could quickly tell it was some kind of medical facility - it had the telltale smell and feel, and there was a bed right next to her. There were faint sounds coming from the doorway, light voices in the distance.
Rachel got to her feet, and opened the window curtain, seeing out from about the 3rd floor of what was obviously a hospital onto an unfamiliar cityscape. Turning back, she opened the door, which led to a normal hospital corridor, ending at a nursing station. Stepping out into the hall, she saw the outside of the door she had just come through - marked "Delivery Room 4". Very obviously, this was the Maternity Ward.
As the door closed and the situation became clear to her, a nurse came out of a nearby door and stared at her for a moment - "Mam, can I help you? The ER is down on the first floor."
Rachel quickly realized her dirty and slightly bloodied state, so she responded "Sorry, I got confused. Which way is the elevator?"
After heading down the elevator and through into the lobby, she saw this was Richmond State Hospital, Indiana - her birthplace.