TIME part 3

Copyright (c) 2019 by Randall R. Peterson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED This is a work of fiction. All persons, locations and actions are from the author's imagination or have been used in a fictitious manner.

By R. Peterson

          The next day, Leisha took John on a tour of Gravitron City. The tree-lined streets were as clean as hospital corridors and a heavy traffic of bubble-shaped electric-vehicles moved effortlessly on air-cushioned rails. Leisha pressed a button mounted on a streetlamp post, and seconds later an empty car left a busy stream and pulled next to the curb. A gull-wing door opened next to the sidewalk and when Leisha sat down, the seat rotated to the left allowing a space for John.

            Everything was automated. Leisha activated a drop down screen, with a Sikh turban wrapped around the top and selected tour as a destination option. “We will begin our tour as soon as you fasten your seatbelts,” a heavily accented mid-eastern voice said. John noticed the seat conforming to his body as Leisha turned on the radio. Seconds later he felt like a fetus floating in embryonic fluid.  Bachman Turner Overdrive boomed from the speakers. “Wow!” he stammered.

            “You ain’t seen nothing yet!” Leisha sang in perfect pitch.

            Like many of the great metropolitan centers of the world, Gravitron City was built on the banks of a river. John didn’t waste a lot of time wondering where a river came from in a city floating a mile in the sky! When you can reverse gravity and turn sand into gold … the impossible is expected.

-------2-------

            There were as many people walking shaded pathways along both sides of the smooth highways as there were vehicles in the center. John noticed that most of their feet were inches off the ground. “Do many people walk to work?” he asked.

            “It’s mostly for recreation,” Leisha said. “Work days are very busy and time is always critical. Walking in Gravitron City with lighter than air footwear is quite enjoyable.”

            “What’s our first stop?”

            “The museum of the Black Sisters,” Leisha told him. “Where all of this began.”

            “Black Sisters?”

“The first four elements of dark matter were named by Alvin after the sixties singing group the Marvelettes,” Leisha said, “thus the entire DM periodic table is sometimes referred to as the Black Sisters.”

The car they were riding in swept past a large Catholic church just across the street from an equally large Muslim mosque. The walkways in front of each appeared to be empty. “This is amazing,” John gasped. “I didn’t think an entire city devoted to science would embrace something as outdated as religion!”

            “There are actually twenty three different denominations represented in Gravitron City,” Leisha said. “Alvin never believed religion and science to be at odds,” she said. “Not when the entire existence of the universe hinges on belief and perception.”

            “I’ve never thought of that before,” John said. “But it makes sense in a way.”

            “Alvin was always at odds with Stephen Hawking and his work with gravitational singularity.” Alisha told him.  “He might have been much more than brilliant, Alvin always said, had his eyes not been closed to the reality of creation.”

            “Hawking was an atheist?”

            “Yes, and Alvin said it poisoned his research.”

            “That’s too bad, but understandable. How could someone in his quadriplegic condition believe in God?”

They were just passing the Life Science Center and John noticed a large group of protesters gathered outside the elegant building marching and carrying signs. “What’s going on here?”

            “This is the reason the church and mosque were empty,” Leisha said. “Many here with religious convictions believe that Alvin’s research into the recycling of life will destroy their beliefs. Others believe their religion will destroy their science.”

John glanced at a few of the signs. Jesus Lives! Alvin must die! One sign read. Just then a fight broke out and several police cars moved in front of their vehicle. “How can Alvin allow things like this to go on?”

            “In order for this to be a small part of the world it must reflect the world,” Leisha said. “Alvin believes in balance above all else.”

            One protester crashed his sign into another person’s head. John saw blood fly. “He has sure created a slice of the pie.” John said.

-------3-------

The Museum of Black Sisters looked exactly like a huge black swirling hole in the ground surrounded by gardens and walkways. The entire structure took up at least twelve city blocks. “Don’t let the entrance fool you,” Leisha said, “it’s perfectly safe.”

Even though John watched several others disappear into the swirling vortex he was still apprehensive until Leisha took him by the hand. “It’s like splashing your face with cold water on a hot day,” she said. “You’ll like it!”

Leisha was right once they stepped inside John felt cool and refreshed. The museum wasn’t at all what he expected. “Alvin is always very big on participation,” Leisha said. “He doesn’t want to just show you dark matter … he wants to take you inside it.”

The room was dark and cavernous. Beams of light originating from a large glowing sphere high above their heads disappeared into tiny holes opening and closing, seemingly at random, surrounding the globe.

            “The museum will not last much longer than a couple more weeks,” Leisha said, “and then it will have to be destroyed.”

            “Destroyed?” John couldn’t believe it.

            “When Alvin first isolated a particle of dark matter this entire complex was on one city lot. Dark matter does not occupy space … it creates it. The museum grows larger by the hour. If it’s allowed to continue Gravitron City would take up half of Nevada.”

John and Alisha walked around the perimeter of the display. Smaller models of the dark matter elements were spaced at regular intervals. One display had you press down on a large rubber beach-ball floating about three feet off the ground. Instead of adding your weight to the object and having it go down the ball lifted you into the air. “The Dark Sister element Delila is what creates the anti-gravity effect,” Leisha said. “The more gravity exerted against it the stronger it becomes.”

            “Does that create problems?”

            “Gravitron City was originally only a couple of hundred feet off the ground,” Leisha said, “as the city expanded … it rose higher in the air.”

-------4-------

            After visiting several more scientific centers in the city and having lunch on a floating barge in the river, Leisha received a text that Alvin was out of the controlled coma and was being successfully treated.  “This is great news,” Leisha said. “I’m sure Alvin will want to show you some of his favorite projects himself.”

They were nearing the hospital where Alvin was recovering when an explosion brought all the cars to a standstill. The air was filled with flying debris all going in the same direction. An inverted reddish-brown mushroom cloud appeared in the sky over the city. “Was that a nuclear explosion?”

            “A dark energy dump,” Leisha said. “It disrupts the city’s power supply for a few seconds … but it should come back on!”

She was right. Within seconds the car re-energized. When it did Leisha opened the doors and climbed out … the highways were jammed and she started running. John followed her.

            “What’s going on?”

            “The power to the city comes back on instantly but the negative velocity shield that protects Gravitron City from the outside takes several hours to reconfigure!” The walkways were overflowing with pedestrians. Most were running. Leisha pushed several people out of the way as they ran toward the hospital.

            “If Alvin is alive, do you think he’ll know what to do?”

Three F18 fighter jets broke the sound barrier as they flew low over the city. A secondary boom knocked them both to the ground. Leisha covered John with her body. A vortex of shattered glass, broken brick and melted pavement spread outward in all directions.

            “I hope so,” Leisha whispered. Blood streamed down her near flawless face. John fished out a handkerchief for the blood, and then with a sickening horror realized that the blast had torn off her left arm. Despite this, she managed to whisper, “We are under attack!”

TO BE CONTINUED …