by Gary Starta
A copper-colored cylindrical tube which seemed to stretch onto forever sat silent surrounded by nothing but hundreds of black wires which dangled above it resembling railroad tracks. In minutes, the ordinary tube encased within a tunnel in Upton, New York would no longer be a silent giant as enormous magnets within would propel gold ion to collide.
The spin-proton polarized collider a.k.a. RHIC could create temperatures above 7 trillion degrees Fahrenheit and turn matter into a liquid goo formally classified as quark-gluon plasma. Amazing as this event would be, only a few pairs of eyes would witness it. Engineer Normand Toews was one of those exclusive watchers.
In this most heated crash and burn of an atomic dance, a veil would be lifted – for at least a few seconds – so physicists might further examine hadrons and its inner structure known as quarks which come in a variety of ‘flavors.’ Quarks emit and absorb gluons – a binding force which holds quarks in tandem – within the hadrons. During this chaotic atomic dance, quarks and anti-quarks meet with the briefest and sweetest of intentions. Varieties or flavors of quarks include up, down, top-bottom, strange and charm and even come in colors just to add spice to the subatomic party.
Normand was seated at a console to monitor not only what was about to happen in the RHIC but also outside of it. He felt like a nervous chaperone and imagined the atomic dance and how the prospective quark partners might find a brief hookup during their collisions. Normand pitied the not so lucky partners or types of quarks which might be delegated to sitting this ‘dance’ out.
Atomically, the dance was random chance but always governed by the laws of physics (Normand thought of these laws as the head chaperone of the universe). Positive charges should negate negative charges while quarks should negate anti-quarks. Observation was the key as to how physicists would see these dances would play out, especially when repeated. Repetition might give physicists the keys to create in the fashion of The Big Bang. Could practice make perfect?
Yet Normand’s mind drifted, wondering how predictable any outcomes might be. When was the universe ever repetitive? It seemed only exclusive gems such as our planet only came into fashion on circumstance - a mix of prime conditions to put Earth in the right place at the right time. The engineer further thought about what might be created solely upon happenstance. For example, when particles are created, they make energy fields, and even if those fields exist in nano seconds of time, fields help create the dynamics of how our universe is put together. Normand sipped at tepid coffee, wishing he might have the power to influence his beverage to magically heat up. Normand also felt a tinge of caution when he wished for such things. Fields, after all, determined what humans were made of. What might happen if enough or even one new field was inserted into our reality? Introducing that possibility into his mid-day daydream, Normand felt a little less like a chaperone and more like a prospective parent.
Caron kneaded fingers into her crying daughter’s shoulders. “Don’t worry, Miranda. We’ll find Joule. Everything’s going to be okay.”
We’ve got to find her. It’s got to be all right.
Caron hoped she sounded more confident than her straying thoughts did.
Miranda sobbed in bursts of anguish, countering her mother’s optimism.
“It’s all my fault. I feel I will be punished, and I think…no…I know…Joule will be punished because of me.” Miranda hiccupped sobs, in between she swiped the sleeves of her long black tee at puffy eyes.
“Do you think our universe has some kind of punishment/reward logic to it?” Caron feigned a laugh hoping to convey a carefree attitude. She realized that even though her daughter sat with her back to her, Miranda could see her reflection in the stainless-steel refrigerator. She put on her best lecturing voice. “If we were in a science lab, would my daughter’s actions hold any real consequence for our escaped cat?” Caron placed an index finger on her chin in contemplation. “Do you think you’re that special, Miranda?”
Miranda turned to gaze at her mother and then sobbed even more hysterically, gyrating her arms as if she were attempting to put out a fire.
“Oh, I didn’t mean that like it sounded, sweetheart. I just meant that Joule’s actions will be most important. She is a smart cat. She is about to give birth. A mother always has great instincts. She can take care of herself.”
“Hmm. Well, what kind of instinct made her bolt out the door? I was even giving her your favorite port wine cheese spread…” Miranda paused, mouth agape, realizing she had admitted her sin.
“Oh, I see…”
“Mom, it was only because I was paying attention to Joule’s needs.”
Caron repositioned herself so she was in Miranda’s direct view. “Paying attention is admirable but paying attention to more than one thing, not so great.”
Miranda nodded. “Multitasking never goes well.”
Caron placed her hand underneath Miranda’s chin and kissed her daughter’s forehead.
“I understand. Joule will too. Now, we have all kinds of means to retrieve our baby. Remember, she wears a SMART collar. All I have to do is pull up an app and we can GPS her location in real time.”
Miranda huffed. “Then what are we waiting for?”
“For her to reach a destination. She’s going to run until she tires. When she does, we’ll track her. Also, don’t forget that shiny silver nametag your father gave her. It has every piece of info on it but a social security number. And if that’s not enough, her music chip should give her some peaceful vibes, so she’ll settle down.”
“I feel foolish.” Miranda gazed downward.
Caron once again placed her hand underneath her daughter’s chin. “Well, get used to it. That feeling never quite stops.”
“I better text, Leesa. Maybe she’ll have some ideas on how to find Joule.”
“If you want to, sure; but that cat has every technology except 5G. I’m certain we’ll get her back soon.”
A slate grey sky rumbled with thunder while intermittent shards of electric light interrupted its dark hold over summer. The light was piercing; it held the magnificence of illumination so well that even closed eyes could see it. The weather was of no concern for a pregnant cat seeking a nest for its kittens. It would not be hostage or slave to any storm, natural or manmade.
Joule ran until she was well outside of the boundaries of her Deer Meadow Run neighborhood. Panting all the way, her heartbeat was steadied by the Solfeggio frequencies playing from her chip. Each successive intonation sustaining itself a little longer, each frequency a bit higher in pitch than the previous, until a set of six notes completed and repeated themselves. It was divine, it was inspirational as if it were a slow-motion Rocky anthem designed for cat empowerment. But before Joule could reach the proverbial Rocky steps she was forced to pause. Her steps were not toward a museum as in the movie but an intersect with the Long Island Expressway.
Joule observed tractor trailers, SUV’s and sedans racing toward their destinations and instead of detracting her, they inspired her to forge ahead to a nesting ground she felt her kittens deserved.
Joule paced forward, then backward, before launching herself at the highway currently occupied by tractor trailers, each heading in an opposite direction.
If Joule was a physicist, she might have considered her trek to be analogous to Chaos Theory in this very time and place.
But Joule’s mind was clear and determined. A horn blared in reaction to her singlemindedness.
A symphony sounding much like the screeches of a cat in heat mixed with the sounds of a buzz saw drill permeated the emergency bunker. Normand Toews smiled as he recorded the galactic symphony produced by the RHIC. Now that’s entertainment!
“That’s it!” Miranda cried out to her mother. “I think she’s at a stopping point.”
Caron motioned for her daughter to head to the car while Miranda carried the phone as if it were some kind of divining rod leading her to treasure.
When
Caron was behind the wheel, she glanced at the app.
“Deer Park?” Caron had vocalized the words with a concern in her voice she did not intend her daughter to hear.
“Mom?” Miranda’s face contorted back to worry and grief, lips quivering, eyebrows knitted in pain.
“Oh, it’s just near the Brookhaven labs, sweetheart.”
“That’s right where you…worked.” Miranda’s statement echoed her mother’s distress.
“Yes, right near where I worked.” A strained smile flashed across her face. “It shouldn’t be hard to find. That’s a good thing.” Caron’s fingers tapped on the wheel.
What wasn’t a good thing was that Caron never really lost complete touch with her work. There’s going to be an acceleration today. I don’t like this feeling I’m having. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Meanwhile, the SUV accelerated Route 27 East in dire need to catch up with speeding particles.
Joule burrowed into dirt, her front paws keeping purchase while her back legs kicked donkey-style shoveling small mounds of gravel behind her. She was making a tunnel, a gateway for her kittens. Joule couldn’t have realized where that tunnel might eventually lead.
A flash of lightning struck at the cat’s silver tag, momentarily suspending the feline in midair, about a yard above the ground; the flash ended as quick as it came, sending Joule down her rabbit hole. The lightning bolt continued onwards, unimpeded, seeking bigger game.
Normand couldn’t have heard the storm above the cacophony of the collider. He also wasn’t aware that the lightning strike had bounded off the cat’s collar to seek a better and larger conductor, the collider.
The sound of the RHIC reminded him of two magnetized giants playing ping pong, only their ball possessed nerves and the means to vocalize a reaction to being swatted into the air. It was an ascending pitch of pain mixed with glee; a strange bedfellow of emotions to go along with some pretty weird interactions going on inside the long copper-colored tubing.
Unlike the weather, Normand wasn’t oblivious to the workings of the machine and its immediate surroundings. It was his sole job to keep an eye and ear on every nuance inside the tube and immediately outside of it. A cam confirmed a small animal, possibly a cat, was seeking cover just underneath the tubing. It appeared only in an array of colors via infrared imaging. That’s impossible. How did it get in here?
“Breach! Breach!” Normand yelled into a microphone. Leaping from his bunker, the engineer risked his safety in hopes of pulling the orange crash cord in time to stop the beam.
The smell of ozone permeated the area where the GPS had tracked Joule.
Miranda running ahead of her mother nearly stumbled into a hole. “Watch your step!” Caron’s exasperation sounded like a grunt.
“What did you say?” Miranda yelled to be heard over another rumble of thunder.
“Just don’t get hurt! We can’t help Joule if you’re injured!”
“But Mom, she should be right here!” Miranda pointed at the hole with her free hand.
“This app. It must be wrong! Where is she…?” Miranda tossed the phone onto the ground.
Caron braced herself for the reality of the situation. I’ve got to level with her. She needs to understand Joule could be gone. But she’s got to know I won’t leave her.
Miranda dropped to her knees to rummage through a small mound of dirt. “She must have dug here.” The teen’s pupils dilated. “She was about to give birth.”
Caron’s mouth moved in an awkward and deliberate manner. “She…might…have…been….” Her sentence was interrupted by a sensation of something rubbing against her shins. She shrieked.
“Mom! It’s a cat!” Miranda pointed at a blue mewling feline now at an equidistant vantage point between the two.
“I can see that!” Caron caught herself, angry at her tone. “I’m sorry. It’s just…it’s just not….”
Miranda finished the sentence. “…Joule.”
The ocean-colored cat paced back and forth in place, oblivious to the Ellis’s concerns. Greenish outlines accentuated its skull and eyes which were a deep-sea blue.
“He’s extravagant…” Miranda beckoned the cat in a gentle tone. She waved hands at the cat hoping it would come to her and whispered, ‘here kitty, kitty’.
“He’s…extraordinary.” Caron tilted her head sideways mulling over the strange feline, fighting every urge in her system which screamed Probability Theory.
Caron observed the cat leap into Miranda’s waiting arms without trepidation. She shook her head hoping her eyesight was playing a trick. But if my eyes aren’t deceiving me, I’m observing a cat which looks like it was made with Crayola Crayons.
“Come, sweetheart. We’ve got to give up the search for Joule…for now. Let’s get this poor cat shelter.”
Chapter Two
Miranda shouted so her mother could hear from the bedroom. “He’s just circling the dish, sniffing, Mom. I don’t think I can get him to eat.” Miranda froze as if a statue and rested hands on the top of her head in the kitchen. “I don’t know what to do!”
Caron popped into the kitchen from behind her daughter with arms full of beach towels. “Well, since we couldn’t go the beach…”
Miranda finished the sentence. “…we’ve brought the beach to us.”
Tossing a towel into her daughter’s arms, Caron chuckled. “I certainly feel as if I took a plunge.” Her dirty blonde hair was matted to her head. She laughed fondly observing Miranda on a rare occasion when her pink bangs were combed away from her face. “I can finally see my beautiful girl’s face for a change.”
Miranda morphed what initially appeared to be a smile into a scowl. “I wish I could laugh but look at our new friend. He’s all wet and crying.” A torrential downpour began as soon as the trio popped into the car. Just a few seconds was all the storm needed to soak them heading from their vehicle to their house. Miranda stooped to sop up excess water from the cat’s blue and green fur. “And what about Joule?”
Caron rechecked the app. “It’s as if she is no longer on the face of this earth. Maybe it’s storm interference.”
Scooping the stray into the towel and bundling him in her arms, Miranda cradled the cat before resuming a standing position. She waited while Caron held a momentary gaze with the blue-eyed feline. “He sure is unique.”
“And beautiful.” Miranda took turns gazing between the cat and her mother as if waiting for acknowledgement.
“Yes, as I said at the park. He’s extraordinary. I think he’ll eat, he just senses Joule on the food bowl.”
Miranda sighed. “Okay, I see you’re going to keep dancing around this one.”
“I just have never seen a cat with such striking blue and green fur. I’m taking this all in; I’m acclimating.” She forced a weak, apologetic smile. “I know, he’s eye-catching.”
Miranda sniffed in air through her nose. “He’s never seen us before. But he’s coping, Mom.” She shook her head from side-to-side. “He’s probably not judging either.”
Caron rested a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “If you’re asking if we can keep…”
“I think, whether he stays here one hour or one lifetime, he needs a name.” She rocked the cat in her arms like a baby. “I know. How about Earth Cat?”
“Seems appropriate.” Caron refrained from saying more. She wanted to know how such a cat could exist and also suspected some weird connection between the pet and the lab. She wished she could be more accepting and open minded like her daughter. Maybe it was the reason her marriage failed. Mike had always been angered at how quick she jumped to conclusions. His words echoed in her head. “We’re not all part of your lab experiments, Caron!”
“I need to report this. I need to know why we didn’t complete an awfully expensive acceleration, Normand!”
Normand Toews raised the volume of his voice to match his director’s. “I know it’s not a trick of the light. This is substance, sir!” The en
gineer tapped the printout for emphasis. On it was the image of the cat he had seen in the tunnel, the feline that made him pull the emergency cord.
Max Schultz batted eyes as if he wanted to make the image of the infrared cat go away. He raised a hand in defiance of what seemed to be a trick of the universe, but then he lowered it and scrubbed a hand along the back of his neck in afterthought. “I understand you were following protocol to stop our acceleration midstream, Normand. I am sorry. I just need to know what that is.”
“If it looks like a cat, it probably…”
Max frowned and Normand’s words trailed off into some unintelligible mumbling.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Max inhaled. “I would like to see that ‘cat’. Please make that happen.”
Normand chuckled and nodded with relief. “That I can do. It’s just infrared thermography. I’ll have it looking like a picture in just a few, sir.”
Max turned to leave the bunker and traversed down the tunnel. He wanted to scan every nook and cranny of the tunnel for anything that could explain that photo. Whatever it was, it was gone. But then again, this lab worked with particle physics. The definition of ‘here’ and ‘there’ were already loose by definition. So how could a cat have penetrated the tunnel, never mind the lab itself? It only made sense if one were to think in terms of particles and waves. It was a disturbing thought for Max Schultz. It probably wasn’t going to get him any closer to a fuel alternative nor find any elusive quarks. He resisted the urge to stop and examine the area while in view of Toews. Observation should be done rationally, not desperately.
- Tokyo, Japan – A girl in pajamas runs from her house, tears streaming from her eyes. “Where is my Neko?!”