Planetary: Mercury, page 30
“The call is started. How is she?”
Mary’s light vocals strained across the line, “Her breathing is still steady. But I can’t tell much else. She’s in such an odd, twisted position, but I didn’t dare try and move her.”
“I see,” Eli said.
A paused passed between them, and Mary asked, “So what were you coming in to tell us?”
“Ah, yes, that,” Eli cleared his throat. The moment of inspiration seemed so far away and insignificant now, but he dragged it back to the forefront of his mind enough to explain, “I read something in Jimmithy’s old journals, a theory he had, but didn’t have the means to make work. I was running some calculations… and I believe I could have a good shot at it.”
“Well, that’s something,” Mary said, trying to sound hopeful, “what was the theory for exactly?”
“To use diamonds as a focus point to punch through time and space—a teleporter, essentially.” Eli cringed at how ridiculous it sounded aloud in his ears, so he tried to explain further, “His problem was he had no way to cut the diamond into exactly the correct shape. He also didn’t have a powerful enough laser, and couldn’t find the right compound to shoot them through. But a lot has advanced in 400 years, I already have Tedd working on the chemistry…..” He trailed off, “Look, I know it sounds stupid-”
“No,” Mary cut him off. “Impossible, sure. But if you have a plan, and believe you can make it work, then,” Eli imagined he could hear the soft smile forming on her lips as she said, “I believe you can, too.”
“Thank you, my love,” Eli replied, wondering how in the galaxy he had managed to find a woman like her.
They fell into a passive silence, waiting for the call to be answered. Eli thought, more than a few times, about how he wished he had a teleporter now. Then he could whisk his daughter straight to Earth. Maybe one day soon he would. But for now, all he could do was wait.
When at last the call came through, Sirius had woken up. Mary was able to keep her calm enough to be able to talk through her symptoms with the doctor. Eli waited patiently until Dr. Nathen had gathered all the information he could from Sirius and Mary, then shut them out of the call.
“Well Doc,” he asked, bracing himself for the worst, “give me the bad news first.”
“I’m afraid that’s the only news I have,” the doctor replied. “I cannot be sure, since I’ve never gotten to fully examine the girl, but my educated guess is that the lack of gravity has been detaching her vertebrae from each other as she grows. If this continues, her spine will eventually snap, in multiple places.”
“Alright….” Eli took a deep breath. His hands were shaking, but he willed his voice to stay steady, “how much time does she have?”
The other line was quiet while Dr. Nathen considered, then he answered, “There is no way to tell. Could be another year, could only be a couple months. However, from the way she described her pain, I would count on sooner rather than later.”
“Is there….” Eli cleared his throat, desperate to remain in control, determined to find a way, but unable to bear the tremendous weight of it all, “is there anything I can do?”
“Short of bringing her to Earth? No.” Dr. Nathen must have heard Eli’s sudden choke. For, after a long pause, a sigh crackled across the space waves. “Look, son. I wish I could help you, I really do. But she needs to come to Earth. If you aren’t able to….” the doctor paused again, choosing his words as one who knew death all too well, “make her comfortable. Cherish every moment. That’s about the best you can do.”
“I see.”
“And,” Dr. Nathen added, “don’t worry about the call credits, I will handle that.”
“Thank you.” That was all Eli managed to say, that was all he could say. And even so, it felt disconnected from himself, like someone else was thanking the doctor, like someone else had just learned the news that their daughter was dying. For surely… surely this could not be his life.
Eli let the connection cut, and then sank to the floor. He knew not how long he sat there, numb, unable, or unwilling, to face reality. He did not want this. Having his invention and livelihood stolen, being stranded on Mercury, knowing he was about to lose his little girl—this was not supposed to be his life.
The reality of it all was crushing him. How could he have failed so much? Was there nothing he could do? What was the point in going on from here? The thoughts threatened to choke him. And yet through the fog of despair, one thought stayed. An image planted itself in his mind, one of diamonds, of lasers, and of the impossible.
Returning to himself, Eli reached into his pocket and brought out the drawing Sirius had done. It was wrinkled and a bit smudged, but the picture was clear. As Eli stared at the color and messy scribbles depicting Sirius’ dreamed flight to Earth, he was painfully reminded of the promises they had made to each other. She would stay strong, and he would take her to Earth. Just as he’d promised. He would find a way to take his star to Earth.
October 12 2061
We began work on the new project. The first step is to get a chemical compound that will not burn up with the lasers. We haven’t had any success yet. However, I wrote up some possible combinations while rocking Sirius to sleep. I will try it in the morning.
December 29 2601
Mary was able to get Sirius to get up and move around a little. Then she curled into her hammock and refused to move for the next few days. I’m not sure if moving is better or worse for her back… I guess we’ll work off of how she is feeling. We’ve found a way to mix the diamonds with a stable version of califoma. It took quite a bit of work, and Tedd almost lost a finger, but we did it.
January 03 2602
At last! We’ve found the right strength of laser that will engage the diamond without causing it to combust and explode. It’s been 72 hours since I last slept….
February 08 2602
We had a breakthrough today in regards to controlling the entrance point of the diamond transporter. We knew that the way the diamond is cut influences where in space it will punch out. However, we have been running tests, and discovered that if we cut the diamond to mirror the geography of an area, the accuracy is greatly improved. This opens a whole new door, and much more work to do.
March 14 2602
At last! We’ve done it! Joyous day! I must go tell Mary and Sirius immediately!
Brozel Gagarin waited in anxiety and anticipation. The construction of the Teraformation Engine had gone smoother than he had expected. Eli’s plans were perfect—Brozel had to admit that he would have never been able to lay out something like this. But he dared not dwell on it. Instead, deciding to regard it as his and forget the guilt. Which was easy to do when he had an overwhelming and illogical grudge against the man for the past several decades. But again, he preferred to focus on the positive things, like what this invention was about to do for him.
He paced backstage, awaiting the time he would make his epic presentation. Old angst plagued him. All throughout the construction, Brozel had hired guards to ensure that neither Eli nor any others would interfere. Then he doubled security as the time for the grand reveal approached. All was well… almost too well. Brozel had no reason to act so paranoid, and yet he couldn’t shake the feeling.
He had to stop dwelling on the matter, it was show time.
With a deep breath, and a shot of something strong, Brozel sealed up his suit and walked out onto the stage
Hundreds of bots hovered in the air, all perfectly in line. Together their numerous screens projected the live video of the audience in Link Hall, where the greatest gathering of scientific minds was held annually. Applause from 48 million miles away sounded through the speakers as Brozel stepped up and bowed before the cameras.
“Greetings, ladies and gentleman,” he began, repeating the words of his speech he’d been reciting to himself for weeks, “I am Brozel Gagarin, of Gagarin & Galactic, here to present you with the greatest advancement of the past century!” He paused for dramatic effect, just as he had rehearsed. But his nerves were getting the better of him, he sounded stupid in his own ears, so he cleared his throat and moved on, “I have here behind me, a machine that will forever change the way we colonize space.”
Brozel was satisfied with a gasps of awe from the audience as their camera switched to the bots all around the globe, showing off different parts of the engine. “This is a terraformation engine,” Brozel explained, puffing out his chest as he watched all the amazed faces over the screen. “The engine will get its power from the planet itself; from the extreme heat and unbearable cold. And with that power, it will generate an atmosphere, making Mercury livable!”
Brozel continued on, explaining the mechanics and workings of the complicated engine from the notes his engineers had given him to memorize. All were impressed. Even his critics who submitted questions to try and trip him up, failed in their attempts.
The audience on Earth was captivated by the invention. Brozel was higher than the stars at the attention, and all thought of that pesky Eli Shepard was gone from his mind.
“And now, I present to you….” Brozel stepped back and extended his arm in a grand gesture, “The World Engine!”
His engineers took the signal, the engine was turned on, and the crowd cheered. Brozel grinned, feeling a defiant satisfaction that he had proven wrong all those who had doubted him. No one could take this away from him.
Brozel suddenly felt an odd sensation, like gravity flexing. Then came a flash of light. It was abrupt, instant, and over in a moment. Brozel had only just recovered when he stumbled from the second shock. For there, where the light had appeared, stood none other than Eli Shepard.
“You…..” Brozel blinked, “How did you….”
“Sorry to steal your moment of stolen glory,” Eli said, sweeping past Brozel, “but I have something better to show the galaxy.”
Eli stepped up to the camera and gave an elaborate bow. “My fellow scientists, inventors, and explorers! Allow me to blow your mind,” he declared. “But first, tell all your news lines to send their bots to the entrance of Link Hall, I’ll be there momentarily.”
A gasp and muttering ran through the crowd; some began getting up and heading towards the main doors. Meanwhile, Eli continued, “What I have in my hand will change our space travel forever!”
Those left in the audience stopped and stared through the cameras and screens to the object in Eli’s hand. For those in the room that had studied deep into history, they would have recognized it as modeled after a camera of the early 21st century. For all others, it looked like a box with a lever, and a lens with a diamond anchored in the center. “Using diamonds, lasers, and a certain chemical compound, I can travel any distance, with a simple flip of this lever!”
“Impossible!”
Brozel had found his feet again and came stomping forward, “This man is mad! Don’t listen to him!”
Eli rolled his eyes and addressed the audience, “I shall let my work speak for itself.”
Turning to Brozel he said simply, and only loud enough for him to hear, “I care not for your wrongdoings or your schemes. You have taken from me many times, but I release that. You can have all you have taken. However, I have more important matters to attend to, and you are not worth my time. So stand back, while I do something the galaxy has never seen before.”
Brozel was stunned at Eli’s calm and smooth words. He stood stupidly as Eli stepped forward and gave one last bow. “Ladies and gentleman,” he held up the camera contraption, “I, Eli Shepard, present to you,” he took a deep breath and clicked the lever. A small beam erupted from the lens of the jumper, shot through the diamond, then expanded into a man sized portal. Eli stepped through with one foot, and the following foot hit the sidewalk of the street outside Link Hall. He blinked, took off his space helmet, and smiled at the astonished crowd as the light portal vanished, “The very first teleporter in human space history. I give you, the Star Jumper!”
The cheers, and commotion, that erupted were almost deafening. Eli fought off the curious onlookers, answered questions, took business cards, and relished in his success. It was not too long before he excused himself, and insisted he must depart. But not before he promised a press conference the following day to discuss his plans and the future.
Meanwhile, the cameras connected to Mercury where cut off, for no one cared to watch now. And while the success of the World Engine was great and beneficial, the day would be remembered for a different invention.
As soon he was able to slip away from the throng, Eli called a ride to take him back to the hospital.
Sirius was sitting in her bed, watching out the window, and a small kitten was curled up on her lap. The kitten had been a gift from Mary’s mother. Sirius had been so delighted at the little creature, having known nothing like it in all her days on Mercury. Now she refused to let it leave her side.
Eli paused and knocked on the door frame, “Hey there, little Star.”
Sirius’s eyes brightened at the sight of her father, “Hi Daddy!”
Making a spot to sit on her bed, Eli kissed her forehead and stroked her hair, “How are you feeling?”
“Great!” she smiled. “The doctors say I’m almost healed good from the operations, and Mama promises to take me to the zoo once I’m all better!”
“That’s wonderful!” Eli beamed at his daughter. She was glowing with beauty and getting stronger by the day. He couldn’t imagine a world without her, and thankfully, he didn’t have to. “You’ll be better in no time. And by the time you are, Daddy will have the Star Jumper all set up. I’ll show you and Mama all of the Earth.” He leaned down and touched his nose to hers, “And then after that….”
“To the stars?” she asked, looking up into his eyes—her own wide and shining.
He smiled, and kissed her nose, “To the stars.”
About the Author
A.M. Freeman is a young author from the beautiful Georgia mountains. When not arguing with fictional characters, she enjoys reading or horseback riding, and she just about never stops dancing. You can find her work, “At The End of Detachment”, in the anthology Forbidden Thoughts. Keep up with her musings and new works by visiting her blog lostinlalalandblog.wordpress.com.
CUCURBITA MERCURIAS
Dawn Witzke
“Claire, honey. Did you see this?” Al called out the door of the bedroom. He sat on the edge of the bed in the master suite of their brightly colored New England flat, scrolling through the news article on his commpad. “Another body was found on Mercury. They’re calling him the Mercury Killer.”
Claire walked into the room and peered over his shoulder at the screen. The ends of her bobbed hair brushed his cheek. She was dressed in what she always wore to travel, black slacks and a pink t-shirt with a kitten on the front. He didn’t understand why she bought the shirt, she hated cats and liked pink even less. But, he had to admit that the pink made her look much younger than her 49 years.
“Maybe we should stay home until after they catch that lunatic.” Al turned off the commpad and slipped it into his travel bag. “What’s the count up to now? Ten? Fifteen?” He zipped the bag shut and set it on the floor by the bed. “You know, we could do something odd like spend two weeks together at home.”
“Al, you know I can’t.” Claire sighed. “I was finally able to get the agricultural model stabilized the last time I was there. If I don’t go back, the ten years I’ve been working on this project will be wasted. It’ll take another six months to repair the damage caused by the neglect. You would think people dependent on the food and oxygen produced in the ag-models would take more care with them.” She walked to the adjoining bathroom to collect her things.
He watched as she walked away. They were coming up on twenty-five years of marriage and she still lit his fire. Her lithe figure had softened a little around the edges and there were laugh lines at her eyes, but she still held all of the grace, beauty and youthful curiosity that he had fallen in love with all those years ago.
Her job with Global Tech took her away from him for months at a time as she worked on some of the most important terraforming projects in the galaxy. The three Nobel prizes she had won over the years for her work in agriculture and the recognition she had received in her quest to eliminate poverty meant nothing to her.
Her first Nobel prize she received after they were first married. She was a researcher for Poverty, Inc. a nonprofit working to end poverty around the globe. Her discovery of a strain of wheat that could be grown in any climate on earth without artificial assistance brought her fame and fortune.
She cared for none of it. Soon after, Claire was hired by Global Tech, a company looking for ways to setup colonies on other planets. Her development of a working ag model on Mars netted her another Nobel. Her final one had been her discovery of a technique that enabled the crossbreeding of incompatible plants without the use of genetic splicing.
To his Claire, the recognition and fame just got in the way of doing her work. There was always more work that needed doing. But in those rare times when she was home, she set work aside and she was just Claire, his beautiful, loving wife.
“I wish you would travel with me more,” she said from the other room. “It gets so lonely out there sometimes.”
“We’ve been over this before. My job is here, catching criminals. Right now, it’s just Bob and I doing the job. Do you realize how many hours it takes to decipher some of the creative accounting people put together? When we get more staff on board, I will look into taking more time off.”
