“I know what you are all thinking,” said Wayne, “but if the Jump Starter somehow functions at or near light speed, then hardly any time has elapsed for us according to the theory of time dilation.” Everyone was gawking at Wayne.
“What?” said Wayne. “I’ve read a few things occasionally!”
What an understatement. Wayne had a photographic memory; he didn’t talk about it. It was so finely precise that he could look at the pages of an entire book and then recall them all later. If you asked him what notes David Gilmour played in the 54th bar of Time, he could tell you – he looked at the sheet music once in a shop on the west side of Austin.
“Maybe you should continue, Blackie,” offered Wayne.
“Okay, but only if there are no more interruptions, it’s hard enough to maintain a line of reasoning as it is without everyone haphazardly throwing in their two cents.”
Everyone nodded but Blackie knew that didn’t mean anything with Mark and Wayne in the mix. “Okay, so when we push the red button on the Jump Starter it knows where it’s taking us. There may be some calculations or sifting through alternative destinations, but at the point of the jump, the Jump Starter knows where it’s going.” Everyone was surprisingly quiet. “So, the jump begins, we are in stasis, we have no idea how long we are in stasis and it doesn’t matter, as Wayne pointed out, to us it may seem like seconds, but in fact it may be a relatively long time. How long? Long enough for the Jump Starter to teach us the languages spoken at our destination. We are in stasis until everyone has a working knowledge of the languages of our destination, then the Jump Starter deposits us in a safe place. The key is,” he continued, “the Jump Starter somehow makes the primary destination language our default language so when we arrive, look around and speak to each other, we don’t even know we’re not speaking our native language. It feels like English, it has facility like the English we spoke on Earth, or Nita’s language on her planet and Joules’ language here. But in fact, we have been through immersion training and now speak new languages – the languages of our destination. Dr. Bullrod has been on a perpetual Jump for almost thirty years, he must know more languages than any being that has ever lived.”
“The Lactropodectopoi might disagree,” said Mark, “you were finished, right?”
“Yeah, I was finished, said Blackie, “but nothing in my research indicates the Jump Starter can do what I’ve just described.”
“Well of course not,” interjected Nita, “their customers go on vacation and have a terrific time and language is never a barrier. They get back home, tell their friends and business is booming. The Jump Starter must be tremendously successful and success breeds competition; that explains why they don’t trumpet the language immersion training. And, when their customers return home, they return speaking their native language. It’s really brilliant.”
“I think he’s right,” said Mark, “how did you come up with this. Blackie looked at them with a satisfied look on his face and thought to himself, “It’s the only logical conclusion.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
THE SCOOPS OF TRAHL
There are irregularities in virtually everything. The edge of a metal bar observed by a scanning electron micrograph would render a completely different impression about the nature of that metal than its smooth surface observed by the naked eye. The loveliest of skin observed under high magnification yields its secret –it is not as smooth as one might think. On and on the examples go, and in fact with the right detection or monitoring equipment one could spend the rest of their lives finding and documenting the irregularities of physical matter. Challenge accepted by one Nigel E. Toffingten. Nigel E. Toffingten was fascinated with the seamy side of matter, with the idea that things weren’t as perfect and pristine as many supposed. His predilection for these observations began early in life, much to the chagrin of his parents who thought, there’s something wrong with this boy.
As a child, he loved to find cracks in the sidewalk on his way to school. He began making a list of them so he could monitor their changes, but most importantly he listed them so he would know if a new crack appeared. While cataloging the cracks, Nigel started to notice other things associated with the sidewalks and their cracks. For instance, he noticed that several cracks on his list were located in sections of sidewalks near the exposed root of a tree growing not far away. He noticed that if there was a pothole in the street often there was a crack in the sidewalk nearby and he noticed that if soil adjacent to the sidewalk was more moist than normal (he would know that because young boys will find mud, or anything similar to mud without really trying, and the nicer the clothes they are wearing the more likely they are to find it), or if pavement in the street seemed to always be wet, almost invariably there was a crack in the sidewalk.
Nigel E. Toffingten was unknowingly honing his skills of observation and association. So much so that his parents started to worry that his obsession was abnormal. But Nigel was not deterred by his parents’ prompting to play cricket or join the sculling team, he was perfectly happy concentrating on his observations. He even expanded his observations to cracks in walls. He found them at home on the garage wall. He found cracks in the storefronts of businesses he passed on his way to school. He even noticed an interesting crack in the exterior wall of the school gym his second year.
By his fourth year he was making regular observations of that crack, which no longer followed the mortar around the bricks as it did at the base of the wall, but was now cutting right through the bricks and had split through 90 courses of good, solid hot fired brick; it was two thirds of the way to the top of the wall. His fifth year that crack split through the top course of bricks.
It was soon after that, while Nigel was contemplating that crack, that he made an absolutely gigantic scene at school. He implored the kids to join him in the field to play soccer; he hated soccer. When they wouldn’t join him he starting yelling at them. He grabbed his friend Hank and literally dragged him away from the gym toward the field while kids nearby watched completely dumbstruck.
They started shouting at him to leave them alone. As you might have predicted a shoving match ultimately ensued between a large kid standing with a group of boys near the wall and Nigel. The chant of, “fight, fight, fight” finally caught the attention of a teacher on recess who parted the boys, asked a few questions, and immediately escorted Nigel to the Head Mistress’s office. Nigel’s only explanation was he didn’t want them to get hurt. He was sent home on three days’ suspension and his parents were told to monitor him for agitation as his behavior at school wasn’t typical; he hated soccer. He thought it was a total waste of energy. It’s not, but you certainly couldn’t have persuaded Nigel of that. His father didn’t say much on the ride home, which was fine with Nigel since he was trying to focus on the sidewalks as they drove by.
The next morning early there was a crisp rap on Nigel’s front door. His parents, Tom and Betty, weren’t expecting anyone and they were shocked when Mrs. Brewer, the Head Mistress, was found on their stoop under a rather large umbrella. “Do come in, Head Mistress,” said Betty beckoning her into the foyer.
“Thank you, thank you very much,” said Mrs. Brewer as she shook water off the umbrella onto the floor of the stoop, “I’m sorry to make an unannounced visit but in light of yesterday’s events involving Nigel I thought I would come over immediately.”
“Mrs. Brewer,” began Tom, “we are more than willing to discuss yesterday’s events with Nigel but you said yourself it shouldn’t be blown out of proportion and yet here you are in our house at seven in the morning.”
“Yes Mr. Toffingten, I certainly did say it was not a big deal, but that was yesterday.”
Tom cut her off, “Then why on earth are you here at this hour in this dreadful weather?” he finished pointing at the stoop that was now being lashed by heavy rain. “The whole of last week was like an intermittent typhoon,” he said loudly toward the stoop, “and apparently, it will continue today.” Tom’s ag
itation with the prolonged inclement weather was more than apparent.
There was a brief moment of silence after which the Head Mistress cleared her throat and said, “I am here because the entire western wall of the gymnasium came crashing to the ground yesterday evening after everyone had left school. The rubble is everywhere.” Her voice cracked and she shuddered slightly.”
“Would you like to sit,” offered Betty who realized Mrs. Brewer was visibly shaken by repeating the news.
“Yes.”
“Tea?”
“Yes, thank you and I need to speak with Nigel,” she said as she sat down in a nice brocaded winged back chair.
Tom, who had sat on a divan opposite Betty and Mrs. Brewer said, “And you think Nigel had something to do with that wall collapsing?”
“Oh, heavens no,” said the Head Mistress quickly, “but when I spoke with him after the shoving incident with Billie Barton, Nigel said he just didn’t want any of the kids to get hurt.”
“So, you DO think he had something to do with that wall collapsing?”
“Honestly no,” replied the Head Mistress slightly harsher than before, “I believe...,” she hesitated.
“Go on then,” said Tom who was preparing to shout down any accusation of Nigel’s involvement in what could have been a horrible disaster.
“I believe Nigel somehow knew the brick wall was unstable and was just trying to keep his friends from getting crushed when it came crashing down; Nigel knew that wall was going to fail.”
There was utter silence. Nigel had just gone from villain to hero in a matter of seconds. Although Tom immediately felt better and was prepared to say so it was Betty who spoke first.
“How could he have known, how is it possible that Nigel could have sensed the impending collapse of that wall?”
Tom could only muster, “Impossible.”
Tom and Betty quit suggesting that Nigel learn to play cricket or soccer. At the Head Mistress’ urging they soon transferred Nigel to a school that could help him develop his unique talents. Much to their surprise he returned home at the beginning of his fourth year sporting a nice new soccer uniform. Betty and Tom were both astounded and keen to know what prompted his sudden interest in what Nigel would previously have described as a total waste of energy. At dinner that evening, which was usually a quiet affair with quiet discussions about subjects that didn’t incite too much emotion, Nigel explained his sudden interest in soccer.
“It’s really about observation and relationships,” he said. “Late last year one of the players and his mates were discussing a game the night prior, and a particular formation that hadn’t worked as the coach intended. I was sitting at the table listening and no one offered him a solution. They were all soccer players and no one spoke up. So, I did. I explained how the problem with the formation was basically the spatial relationship between two of the players and the location of the ball and opposing players. I explained how to fix it given a specific set of players and opposing players spatial relationships. Next week the guys at the table scored using the tweaked formation. The next thing I know Coach was trying to pull me out of physics class to talk about soccer. I told him “not now, we can talk after school,” and we did. He showed me sketches of formations and asked me what I thought about them. Some were really pretty good; others were dreadful and I told him why. He wasn’t offended, in fact he asked me to join the team.”
Tom and Betty were completely surprised of course since Nigel hadn’t mentioned a word of this before.
“I told the coach, I don’t know anything about soccer.”
He said, we’ll see about that.
So, I practiced some with the team last year and he asked me to be a full-time player this year. He says I’m good.”
Tom was beside himself as he was a great fan of soccer. Betty was cautiously optimistic, “You will be able to keep up your studies, right?”
“That’s the deal. Coach said my participation was contingent on my grades not falling. That hasn’t been a problem, in fact, I’m helping some of the other players and their grades are improving,” he finished with a smile.
For the first time in a long-time Nigel felt like he could be himself, a slightly weird nerd. Except now he was a slightly weird nerd soccer player. He could have nerd friends and athletic friends; what a great deal.
Nigel was more than just good at soccer. So good in fact, he was offered a full scholarship to play soccer at Sempertin University. “He’s figured it out,” said his coach to the Sempertin athletic scouts, “but don’t ask him to explain how he does it, he’ll bruise your brain.” Since Sempertin was already on the list of universities Nigel wanted to attend the deal was struck. Nigel played soccer and graduated in three years with highest marks, one soccer championship, and an invitation to study at Seeling University where he intended to complete his doctorate in quantum physics.
It was at Seeling, in the second semester of his first year that he overheard two professors discussing an odd phenomenon encountered by space cruisers approaching or leaving the planet Nexteminin. Nexteminin is a busy commercial hub for the eastern quadrant of the Prolian System whose economy more or less depends on the import, storage and transportation of goods to other planets in the system. For some reason that had never been explained or investigated, cargo ships visiting Nexteminin constantly had to make course corrections so they wouldn’t miss their assigned entry points.
Ship pilots were grousing so much about the problem that the government of Nexteminin realized they had to do something quickly or business would begin to go elsewhere. Using resources in their educational grant program Nexteminin was willing to provide Seeling University with a very large donation in return for its help solving the navigational problem. It was this problem the professors were discussing when one of them noticed Nigel’s poor attempt to listen in on their conversation without being obvious and asked Nigel if he would like to join them for lunch, where they would continue their discussions and proposed theories to explain the phenomenon.
Toward the end of lunch, one of the professors asked Nigel what he thought about their theories. Nigel hesitated to join the conversation. But after much prompting and being told he wouldn’t be lambasted for his opinions (after all he was only in the first year of his doctoral program) he offered some comments, after which there were lots of, well yes of course, and, “yes, that is certainly a reason why that couldn’t be so, and several, it was just a working theory, nothing well thought out.
That last bit seemed painfully obvious to Nigel who had no idea how finely tuned his gift of observation and association had become. “Is there any chance I might work on this as my doctoral thesis?” he asked the professors.
“Nigel, I think you should speak with the department head about that,” responded one of the professors who announced he had to leave and immediately beat a path to the department head’s office where he gave a detailed account of Nigel’s discussions with them at lunch. When Nigel visited Dr. Danteen’s office the next day the decision had already been made, Nigel was offered the investigation of the odd phenomenon at Nexteminin and he accepted. Dr. Danteen had already arranged funding to cover Nigel’s investigation expenses from the very generous grant Seeling had received from Nextiminin’s educational grant program. His investigation began immediately.
It started with a trip to Nexteminin, on a cargo ship outfitted with a Whittsner Propulsion System, where he observed the ship’s captain making correction after correction to his flight path in order to have any chance of making his assigned entry point and not go skipping off the atmosphere into space. The captain groused the whole time and wasn’t shy about using “colorful” language and pronouncing that when his contract for deliveries to Nexteminin was complete he would gladly accept any other contract for his ship’s services.
After his cargo ship observations, Nigel studied a chart of the eastern quadrant of the Prolian System and he researched every planet near Nexteminin. Then he spent three
weeks in orbit around Nexteminin observing incoming cargo ships and watching nearby planets through a very powerful telescope. After three weeks Nigel had developed a working hypothesis on what could be the problem, namely the “Twin Planets.” He noticed that when ship captains reported navigational problems two nearby giant planets were always presenting the same side toward Nexteminin. He presented his preliminary findings to Dr. Danteen and spent the next month finalizing his investigation.
The Twin Planets as they were commonly referred to were actually named Trahl and Ahl, with the behemoth Trahl being the slightly bigger of the two dimensionally.
The twin planets were not only massive, they were thought to have once been a single enormous planet that was fractured by a cataclysmic explosion. The planets are unique in that they each had a deposit of actinite, a formation with massive gravitational pull. The deposits were so large that either one by itself would be the largest known deposit of actinite; not just in the Prolian system but anywhere (as you know, that’s a large area, depending on the speed you are traveling when you observe it). It has been postulated that the actinite deposits were originally near the core of the mother planet but after the explosion they were found very near the daughter planets’ surfaces.
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