Discovery: Proton Field #1

by Laurence Dahners

  “Yeah,” Myr said, sounding like she was having a little throat difficulty too. “It’ll go beyond a hundred. But a hundred percent is what it’d take to make you essentially weightless if you were up about about a foot from the frame.” She shrugged, “This isn’t a perfect form of antigravity. The focal points pull harder the closer you get to them. If you set it a little above 100 percent, then manage to get up too close to the frame, you’ll fall toward the ceiling”

  “Wait a minute, if I get too close could they suck me in and squish me down to nothing?”

  Myr laughed. “No, these field generators produce a linear field, not the geometric ones that we use for most of our other stuff. So, you feel the pull farther away and it doesn’t get incredibly intense when you get close to them. But it’ll still pull harder up near the ceiling.” She lifted an eyebrow, “And, if you get yourself stuck up against the ceiling, you’ll have to gradually decrease the pull a few percent at a time to get down safely. I’d recommend against it my young monkey boy, because once you start to fall down away from it, the further you get from it the faster you’ll drop. My suggestion would be that you not get yourself into a zero G situation ‘cause you’ll probably break if you come crashing down.”

  Connor had started lifting his hands up and moving them around, “Look! I can use my arms!”

  Myr gave him a mock frown, “You could use them before. It’s just that you can use them better now.” After a pause for him to glare at her, she said, “You want to try standing up?”

  Connor’s eyes opened wide. It’d been years since he’d been on his feet. “You think I can stand up?!”

  She shrugged, “Should just be a matter of adjusting the lift from the ceiling to the point that you can. Wanna give it a shot here at seventy-five percent? I’ll hold on to you in case you start to fall.”

  “Let me boost it a little more for my first try,” Connor said. Speaking to his AI, he asked it to increase the lift to ninety percent. Myr stepped over and got a grip on Connor’s stronger left arm. Reaching down with his right hand he undid the buckle of his seatbelt, then scooted himself forward and stood up for the first time since he’d been a child. He couldn’t stand completely because his leg joints were stiffened from disuse, but, still, he was on his feet! “This is awesome!”

  From behind them they heard their mother’s voice, “Connor, what’s holding you up?” Her voice took on a more strident tone, “What—what’s going on?!”

  Myr let go of Connor to catch their mother who’d stepped in to the room expecting full gravity. Her first step had bounced her up high enough to almost hit the ceiling. Carol was rotating over frontward and looked like she might come down head first. Even though she wouldn’t land very hard, Myr unconsciously grabbed and righted her. Myr was only away from Connor’s side for a second, then was back making sure he was steady. His heart was thumping with the excitement of standing alone.

  Carol said, “What the hell?! How is this happening?”

  Myr smiled at her, “Come on Mom. I told you I was installing something in Connor’s room, that’s why you had him out gallivanting all over town.”

  “Yeah, well, I pictured another one of your electric doors or something like that. What is this, some kind of antigravity?”

  Myr got a smile like a Cheshire cat, “Some kind, yeah.”

  An excited new expression dawned on her mother’s face. “Oh my! I saw in the news feed that Miller Tech put a bunch of exotic new technology up for sale a few weeks ago. Is this some of it? Did they let you bring some samples home for Connor?”

  Myr nodded.

  Connor took a breath and said, “Mom! This is…” He paused when Myr patted him on the arm.

  Carol said, “Did you get to work on the team that developed this?!”

  Connor felt like his head was going to explode if he couldn’t fill his mother in, but Myr merely nodded at Carol while gently squeezing Connor’s arm.

  His mother’s voice filled with concern, “Connor, don’t you need to sit down?”

  Connor shook his head, “No Mom. I hardly weigh anything. I want to try walking.”

  “Let me get your other arm.” His mother came around and took his right arm; then Connor started slowly walking around the room. His mother was having a significant amount of trouble with her own balance in the low gravity, but he didn’t want to tell her that she seemed more hindrance than help. She turned to Myr, “How are you so stable walking around in this?”

  “I’ve been getting plenty of practice while I figured it out.”

  Carol’s mind jumped away from that issue and onto another. “Is it incredibly expensive? Will they let you have more of it for the rest of our rooms?”

  Myr shrugged, “Like most new tech, it isn’t cheap.” She winked, “But I’ve got an in with the company, so I should be able to get more of it without any problems.”

  Carol gushed, “They’re so nice down there. I’m so glad you went to work for Dr. Miller!”

  Connor couldn’t take it any longer. The words exploded out of him, “Mom! It’s her invention. It’s her proton field!”

  He saw his mother turned to stare at Myr.

  Myr gave her a tiny nod.

  Carol said, “Oh… Are you… Are you going to get some money from it?”

  Myr nodded again. “I deposited some in your account.”

  “Oh, how much?”

  Myr shrugged and winked, “Why don’t you check your balance?”

  Carol frowned, frustrated that she had to do so instead of Myr just telling her. But she spoke quietly to her AI for a second. Then she staggered, grabbing Connor’s desk to stabilize herself. “$10 million?!”

  “Yeah,” Myr said, “I thought you might want to help fund Dr. Levinson.”

  The End

  Hope you liked the book!

  Author’s Afterword

  This is a comment on the “science” in this science fiction novel. I’ve always been partial to science fiction that posed a “what if” question. Not everything in the story has to be scientifically plausible, but you suspend your disbelief regarding one or two things that aren’t thought to be possible. Then you ask, what if something (such as faster than light travel) were possible, how might that change our world?

  And, try not to “hand wave” anything else…

  This story’s “what if” has to do with asking what would be the potential of a field that warped space for protons? What if you could warp space for protons in a fashion similar to the way that space-time is warped by neutron stars and black holes, pulling matter in and crushing it together. Without requiring huge amounts of power to apply the pressure since somehow the field also suppresses electrostatic repulsion. What would happen if only protons were susceptible to such a field?

  With this as a framework, I started trying to figure out what might happen (fusion etc.) and what else might be possible. Being a nerd, I spent an inordinate time using Wolfram Alpha to calculate how much energy would be released by only the first proton-proton step of hydrogen fusion. Also watching videos of underwater explosions to comprehend how big they’d be, doing internet searches to find out how much water vapor there is in your typical room (1 liter), and doing calculations to find out how much energy it takes to accelerate two kilograms of water up to a walking speed of 5kph (0.4 joules). Now, because I really want things other than any oddball premises of the story to be physically correct, I’m hoping I didn’t make some math errors!

  I find all this pondering and calculating fascinating—as I consider what might happen and try to think of all the possibilities that might be opened up. There are other technological possibilities beyond the ones described in this book (can you say “Proton Field #2”?) and I’m sure I’ve probably missed even more of them, Some of you readers will be pointing out more ideas to me in the near future.

  I love the fascinating suggestions and feedback I get from readers!

  Just an FYI, I once knew a very pretty young woman who really
did make quite a bit of money sharking guys into betting on games of H-O-R-S-E. I’ve always thought it was hilarious and thought it ought to be in a story.

  I had a great time writing this tale and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it.

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to acknowledge the editing and advice of Nora Dahners, Gail Gilman, Elene Trull, Mike Alsobrook, Allen Dietz, Mike Giroux, Jack Hudler and Eddie Still, each of whom significantly improved this story.