CATACLYSMAL

by Adrian Glass

  Michael

  Jansky quickly checks her wristwatch, she then reaches across to her kitchen bench lifting her handbag placing her cellphone into the bag's opening. She leaves the apartment.

  Kix Bar

  58 Gold St, San Francisco

  “It's good to see you Elly,” a woman says slightly shorter than Elly Jansky. They both embrace.

  “Likewise Katy,” Jansky replies as they both sit either side at the small table.

  Katy Jansky smiles at here sister. “How was Europe?”

  “It was mission, spent most of the time in Rome, Italy.”

  “A confidential mission?” Katy asks in a sincere manner.

  “Since the New Cold war tensions are easing. No, it wasn't confidential, my colleagues and I are working with an eminent Professor. You've been watching the news?”

  “The alien thing?”

  The waiter places down a bottle of chilled water and two glasses. “Gibson Martini please,” Jansky requests, the waiter acknowledges with a nod, he turns and looks at Katy. “Prosecco please.” Taking down the order he then walks away as Jansky reaches forward and pours the chilled water into two glasses. Handing one to her sister.

  “Thanks”

  “Aliens...Well, it looks like it has all the testable hallmarks of an Extraterrestrial Intelligence...or at least what we deem on Earth as ET intelligence,” Jansky replies taking a sip from the iced water, she places the glass back down onto the table

  “I've seen the news reports...Feels weird thinking about it. So we're not alone in the Universe?”

  Jansky smiles looking her sister. “We were never alone...It's just that we don't know what extraterrestrial life is nor if this ETI structure is actually an alien controlled entity.”

  “Floating around out there,” Katy says smiling pointing up at the Bar's ceiling fan as it gently rotates.

  “It has a purpose, we're just not too sure, at this point in time, what that is...How's Sharron?”

  “She's good, sends her regards. Starting a new job on Thursday, retail marketing. Finding work is hard at the moment. Recessionary out there...”

  Jansky looks around the Bar restaurant which is mostly filled with patrons. “You wouldn't know. Maybe the bars and restaurants will be the last ones standing.”

  The waiter returns holding a tray, he places down a Martini and an Italian sparkling wine.

  “Just got a three month notice to vacate from the landlord.” Jansky says quickly sipping the Martini.

  “Really? Why? You'd have to be the best tenant there.” Katy replies also taking a sip from her wine glass.

  “They don't take that into consideration...Kinda ready to leave anyway. An exchange student couple moved in next door. They argue every second night. Feels like I'm in fucking Dublin.”

  Katy laughs. “Irish?”

  Jansky lifts her glass and smirks. “And an Australian...Probably studying fine arts...like every other second student in this city.”

  “How many art students does it take to change a light bulb?”

  “Too many...and they can't afford to pay for the light bulb.” Jansky replies. They both laugh.

  “Hows mom?” Jansky's asks her expression solemn.

  Katy places her wine glass down. “Not good...Will you see her soon?”

  “Yes...This Friday,” Jansky replies looking down at her Martini glass. Katy also looks down as both women feel an enveloping sadness knowing that their mother is dying.

  “When she goes...” Katy begins to sob. “...There will be no one, she is all we have...”

  Jansky leans forward and holds her sister's hand. “I will always be here for you.”

  Katy looks at her sister and nods, wiping the tears from her cheeks with her left hand, with her right hand she clutches Jansky's hand. “I know,” she replies.

  “...and Shannon...She loves you.”

  Katy nods quietly, her expression sombre as she sips from the wine glass.

  Jansky notices her cellphone has lit up. She lifts the phone from her hand bag looking at the missed call which says unknown number, also left is a voice-mail message. “I'll check it later.”

  “Is it from Josh?” Katy asks looking at Jansky, knowing that her sister misses him.

  Jansky shakes head dismissing the idea that the call could have come from a man she has fallen in love with. “Nah...he's gone.”

  “You sure?” Katy replies

  “He wanted me to move to Cincinnati with him, live in this wood shack...Can you imagine me living in a wooden cabin?”

  “The famous Elly Jansky celebrity physicist...retires. No I can't imagine.” Katy smiles shaking her head.

  “Celebrity?”

  “You're on television a lot.”

  Jansky chuckles lifting her drink. “Not that much...Just re-run clips on the Internet. But...Watch this space! I'll be assisting and co-presenting a conference regarding the...” She takes sip, remembering Professor Tori's paper and calculations. “...Alien Artifact.”

  “So it's an artifact?” Katy asks

  “Speculatively...I know this conceptual designer and architect, he's also an artist.....His name is Jensen Denlas.”

  “I've heard of him, he helped with the designs in your book,” Katy replies placing down her glass of wine onto the table

  “Actually just one of the conceptual designs that I commissioned for the publication, Jensen was the artist that designed an xeno-object...alien structure for the chapter The Beacon Hypothesis. He is very talented. Able to create the unique specifications as close to a testable model as you can get. Art that lies within theoretical concepts. The astrophysical community, at times, shows little respect for an art based hypothesis. But, when they need a press release for a recent finding or new planet discovery, they always use a conceptual artist.”

  Katy lifts her cellphone with her left hand, she looks at her sister in a sardonic manner. “Science fiction invented the cellphone.” Both woman laugh again. The waiter returns for the meal order.

  “Nigiri?” Jansky asks looking at her sister, Katy lifts her wine glass and sips the Prosecco. She nods allowing Jansky to make the order. “Platter of Nigiri sushi for two please.”

  The waiter acknowledges, writing down the order he then promptly walks back towards the open kitchen area of the restaurant bar.

  “So, if an alien ship is heading towards the Earth, why aren’t we freaking out?” Katy asks as she looks around the bar.

  “Because we haven't completely understood it's intention. Professor Ivane Tori, which was the reason I was in Europe, a brilliant man, now working for the US military in Italy. His equations show an embedded, unnatural configuration within Space and time, but it is not what we would deem a spaceship, in particular the Hollywood ideal. From what we know, it's an object, made up of matter...” Jansky picks up a serviette, she then takes out a pen out from her handbag. Drawing a shape, she then turns the napkin around so that her sister can see the image.

  Katy looks down at the image that Jansky has drawn. “It's like a cone.”

  “From it's angle, in relation to an directional course. This artifact is emitting Neutrons and Neutrinos towards Earth.”

  “What?” Katy replies at the same time looking at her glass of wine that is now empty.

  “Particles, similar to what is released from the sun as solar radiation, which hits the Earth every day. The Sun, our star is an erratic nuclear engine. Except this...” She points to the crude image of the Alien-Artifact. “...is pinpointing it's emission at us in an intense array. The Neutrino count surpasses all know natural origins from the Galaxy.”

  “Fascinating,” Katy says smiling.

  “Yes, Neutrinos, also known as ghost particles, have hardly any mass, they pass through you and me as we sit here. A decayed compound of a beta plus Neutron. This object spurts these things out like a pulse. We also believe there could be an encoded message within that Neutrino undulation.”

  “No wonder people aren't freak
ing out...too complex. Give us an alien fleet Hollywood style.” Katy replies lifting her wine glass, as she looks around for the waiter, she then sits back with a bemused look.

  Jansky turns and looks at a couple sitting near herself and Katy. The young man and woman, leaning forward are staring into each others eyes in their self adsorbed trans-fixation lies an obliviousness - within this point in time, they have no desire or care of external events. Their world is only each other. She then looks at her sister. “Probably good people stay uninterested for the time being. All the data from what we have gathered to date is there on the Internet, anyone can view it, so is the idea that this is could be an ETI structure. We are hoping that this up and coming conference will be the full disclosure.”

  The waiter returns with the platter of Nigiri-sushi. “Freshly caught by line today, our Sushi chef is a master from Japan.”

  “Sounds good!” Jansky says as the waiter places down the platter onto the table between the two women. He also fills Katy's glass with more sparkling wine. Picking up a pair of chopsticks Katy lifts a single tuna Sashimi, dipping the layered raw fish and rice into a small bowel of soy sauce. She then leans forward taking a bite.

  “How big is this thing?”

  “Massive...” Jansky replies also lifting up a single piece of Sushi, using her chopsticks she stuffs the whole piece into her mouth a traditional Japanese way of consuming Nigiri “...That was fucking delicious,” Jansky says smiling as both women laugh. “Ok, so...” Using a fork she picks away a small portion of the sushi rice from a single Nigiri piece, she then opens her mouth, lifting up the sushi and chomps down on what remains. Jansky then carefully spreads out nine pieces of rice that remain on her plate. Placing them horizontally across the middle of the lunch plate. “...This is our solar system, obviously not to scale from left to right first is our Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune...I always disliked the term dwarf planet. But, we'll also place Pluto here at the end.”

  “That makes ten,” Katy says leaning over as Jansky arranges the pieces of rice in small line representing the Solar System. “That's right! But you can argue that with my colleagues. Anyway, this plate is roughly ten inches in diameter. These small pieces representing the nine planets...” Jansky using both of her index finger's creates a rough measurement scale for the small line of rice pieces. “...Say an inch and beyond that is our outer Solar System lies the Kuiper asteroid belts. This structure, being the circumference of this plate would fill our whole Solar System at the same time taking in some of the asteroid belts.”

  “Shit...that's big.”

  “Our comparable models shows the diameter and size variables to be equivalent to one of the hyper giant stars such as Betelgeuse. Incredibly huge.”

  Jansky with her chopsticks lifts another piece of sushi, dipping it into the soy-sauce she then tries to scoop up the makeshift Solar System on her plate. Some of the small white pieces of gluten stick to the Nigiri, other pieces are pushed aside.

  “And it's heading towards us?” Katy asks sitting back into her chair as she sips from the sparkling wine.

  “Yes,” Jansky replies looking at the piece of sushi, she then places it back down onto the plate in front of her.

  “Is it dangerous?”

  “We don't know, if it is a natural phenomenon, the assumptions would be of an immediate danger to us. But this object is not unstable like a star, apart from the concentration of mostly Neutrinos, but it's not a decaying star, Black-Hole or anything that we deem as dangerous, in the sense a natural danger, however...” Jansky looks down at her plate, noticing the dispersion of her makeshift Solar System model and the piece of uneaten sushi “...It is the gravity pull, something that big entering our Solar System...” She looks at her sister. “...We have no idea what it will do.”

  Katy nods placing her wine back onto the table. “Probably good people aren’t taking much notice.”

  Jansky checks her phone again noticing two missed calls with voice-mail messages. The number looks unfamiliar. “The realization will hit home soon...It's just the public maybe at that stage of possible denial, and of late there has been a lot of non alien object events to distract us. Thanks to the Internet and news feeds. But at the same time, we still do not know what we're dealing with.”

  “Our everyday worries and concerns,” Katy replies

  Jansky lifts her Martini glass sipping the last segments, she then picks up the small cocktail onion attached to a toothpick. Sliding the onion off with her teeth, she crunches down on the pickled onion releasing it's bitter sweet taste. “But as a scientist, we gotta know...and we maybe getting close to understanding it's physics...” Placing the toothpick into the empty Martini glass. “...then we'll understand it's purpose.”

  “Where do you think you'll be moving too?” Katy asks, changing the subject, her look of concern for her sister. As she knows that Jansky uses her work, despite it's importance, to mask her emotions.

  “Not too sure, maybe Hayes Valley lots of apartments going up there.”

  “From an old school apartment to a newer one?”

  “I guess so, need better air-con than the last place. Always hated the shared balcony.”

  “Well, if you are stuck between moving out from your old place till you find a new one, Shannon and I can put you up for a while.”

  “Thanks...I'll be right.” Jansky looks at her cellphone again wondering if the missed calls are from Denlas.

  “You look after yourself Elly, you've taken on a lot this year,” Katy says.

  “I know, it's the way it is...But something beyond our current understanding of physics is heading towards our Solar System. We have a lot of people working on this, a lot of brain power.”

  Katy leans forward reaching out to her sister with both of her hands, Jansky also leans forward and grasps her sister's hands.

  “You're only human,” Katy says smiling her look is one of admiration and respect.

  “We'll see mom this Friday, you'll let me know what time to visit?”

  Katy nods at the same time she closes her eyes. “Yes I will. Ok, I better go...We'll chat soon.” Jansky stands as does Katy, they both embrace, She then quickly turns and walks towards the exit, her sister with a concerned look watches Jansky leave the restaurant.

  Jansky makes her way out to the main street, a cold wind blows in from the East. Opening her bag, she takes out her cellphone checking the missed calls, she then holds the phone to her right ear listening for one of the voice mail messages.

  “Elly Jansky, my name is Frank Kass, I am a senior attorney at Taku and Cain. It is in regards to Mr Jensen Denlas. Would you be able to attend a meeting with me? I am available today at 3:00pm. It would be important that we meet in person. Could you please call 413 428 0277 and confirm the appointment. Thank you.”

  Jansky looks at her cellphone perplexed at the voice mail message, she then thinks back earlier to the call she made to Denlas's management agents. Quickly she returns the call to the number that was provided from the voice mail message.

  “Good afternoon, Taku and Cain. How may I assist you.”

  “Hi, my name is Elly Jansky, I have a missed call from Frank Kass it's in regards to Jensen Denlas. Not sure what this is about, but he wants me to confirm an appointment with me today at 3:00pm.”

  “Yes, Ms Jansky, I have you confirmed...”

  “I haven't confirmed just yet, would you be able to tell me what this is about.”

  “It is a confidential legal matter, you'll need to discuss this with our attorney Mr Kass.”

  Jansky closes her eyes, with her free hand she gently rubs her left temple fuck she whispers to her self. “Alright, I'll attend at 3:00pm.”

  “Thank you Ms Jansky.”

  She then throws the cellphone back into her bag. Looking at her wristwatch, she sees it is only 1:00pm. Without looking back at the bar she has exited from, Jansky walks onwards. She also worries, in a reciprocal manner, within her own s
ubconsciousness about her sister Katy, but she suppresses those fears. Like she has suppressed her own fragile temperament. At this point in time there are more pressing concerns, Jansky feels her heart-rate increase thinking about the impromptu meeting with Denlas's attorney.

  Taku and Cain LLB

  4 Sansome St #3500,

  San Francisco.

  “Would you like a tea or coffee?” The young secretary asks as Jansky flicks through a magazine.

  “No thanks. Just a glass of water.”

  The secretary smiles then walks away. Jansky places the magazine back down onto the marble coffee table, she looks out at the skyline from the waiting area windows of the legal firm, below sits San Francisco Bay.

  “Ms Jansky.” A male voice is heard as she turns around, standing in-front of her is a middle aged man dressed formally. He holds out his hand. She stands and shakes the man's hand. “My name is Frank Kass, senior attorney...Please come this way to my office.” He walks towards the hall area of the large foyer, with Jansky following behind.

  “I am intrigued with what this is all about,” Jansky asks as she looks into various offices, some are staffed with young lawyers and their assistants.

  Frank Kass stops in-front of an office door, opening the frosted-glass door with his right hand offering Jansky into his office. She walks into the large room, he then closes the door behind him.

  “Please take seat,” Kass says as a knock at the door is heard. The secretary walks into the room with a glass of water placing it down in-front of Jansky. She then leaves, closing the door behind her. The attorney then walks around to the other side of the large desk and takes a seat as does Jansky.