Wormholes Read Online Free PDF Page A

up the rescue group’s video camera and began taping the results of their explorations.
    “None?” Dacey crouched onto her knees and explored the hole in the roof. Sure enough, there was almost no debris beneath the roof, at least not enough to constitute anything resembling a full-sized suburban house. Just dirt and rock. Loose dirt and rock, but solid, she judged by the dull chunking sound it made when the men poked at it with a crowbar.
    “Looks like all that’s down here is this roof. Could something like quicksand have swallowed up the house?”
    Dacey squinted her puzzled squint and sat down on the roof, her forearms on her knees. A distant rumble emanated from one end of the chamber. “Well, there’s a phenomenon known as liquefaction. In earthquakes, the shaking can make water-soaked soil act like quicksand. It’ll sink houses a little ways, but I don’t think it’ll suck one down all the way. I’m still waiting for the seismic records for this area from the earthquake center in Golden, but I’m sure this was no earthquake.” She was silent for a moment, then stood up resolutely, breathing in the cool, dank air.
    “Down there,” she said, pointing in the direction of the rumble. “I bet there’s something down there that might tell us something.” The rescue workers hesitated and she understood their reluctance. “Look, there’s no need for you guys to go down there. I’m the geologist—”
    “Yeah, but you’re a—”
    “You were gonna say ‘a damned good geologist,’ right?”
    Lonnie chuckled. “Yeah, sure. What do you want us to do?”
    “Let’s tie together a couple of ropes. I’m gonna walk out over the bottom of this cavern to that narrow part and go in. I’ll holler if I’m in trouble. Haul me in quick.”
    The men rigged the ropes and tied her harness firmly to the end. They braced themselves against the rafters in the largest undamaged part of the roof. Dacey checked her helmet camera to make sure it was transmitting, and stepped off the roof. She stumbled slightly in the spongy uneven earth, but recovered and began to slog forward.
    Her heart beat faster as it always did when she descended into the depths of the earth. And more generally, she was always jazzed when there was an adventure to be had, and this one was a doozy. A healthy fear squirmed in her gut, and she found herself trembling slightly, but she was spurred by the prospect of some new geological discovery. The people in the department called her Rockhound for good reason.
    For the first two hundred feet, the floodlights from the basket were sufficient light, but the gloom farther on made her switch on her helmet lamp. The trickling sound was louder here, and the passageway did begin to narrow. She made sure to aim her helmet camera at the sides, to record their structure. The passageway became distinctly cylindrical and the sides smoother, angling slightly downward. As she walked, she noticed that the passage had shrunk to about six feet in diameter. Smaller and smoother. What did it mean?
    “You okay?” she heard faintly behind her.
    “Yeah, peachy,” she shouted back. The passage grew still smaller. The trickling was louder. Now the passage was about the size of a storm culvert, like a tunnel. She sat down and peered into the tunnel, slowly scanning her head left to right so the camera could capture the scene. She stopped, noticing that farther down the tunnel a chunk of granite lodged in the wall that looked like it had been worn away or chipped. She sat down, tightened her helmet strap, and scooted down into the narrowing tunnel feet first on her bottom. She was just able to sit up in the small tunnel.
    She reached the rock and examined it closer. It was glass-smooth, like the polished granite on the side of a building. She screwed up her face in puzzlement. This was a strange rock she had to have. She pulled out her geologist’s pick and chopped carefully around the rock. It was bigger than she had