CATACLYSMAL

by Adrian Glass

  “Certainly has that alien strangeness to it's design that's for sure. But yeah, not a spaceship. Unusual shape, hard to describe in someways.” Katy replies both of them intently looking at the conceptualized image.

  “That it is very impressive. So if this is an artifact of alien origin and is not a space ship. What is it?”

  “Well the full disclosure will occur in a few days at a conference in Boston. We will be describing in details and revealing all our equations and of course the conceptual art. The building of theories has been contributed by a lot of brilliant physicists and astronomers. What I can say is the Alien-Artifact is and has been emitting a particle known as an Neutrino, named by Enrico Fermi in nineteen thirty three to describe the decay of radioactive elements, more specifically the beta decay of the Neutron. The symbol for the equation is the Greek letter Beta with a plus sign. What is produced is a very fast and very small Neutrino, a particle that has no mass and emits no electron charge. It's also known as the Ghost Particle...”

  Suddenly the image goes blank.

  “Shit!” Katy says as she stands, placing her glass of wine down she walks towards the television, bending down trying to work out why there is no picture. Shannon lifts up the remote control with her left hand randomly picking stations. She then checks the diagnostics.

  “It's dead, no signal”

  Katy sits back down and leans up against her partner

  “Blame it on the Aliens.”

  Shannon kisses her forehead, she also places her wine down and they both embrace. “The red light on the Tele, means it's turned off?”

  Katy pushes up against Shannon and kisses her on the lips. Looking into her lover's eyes. “Yes”

  “Good to see that you sister is ok.”

  “I'll always be there for her. I think it's time for bed.” Katy replies. Shannon smiles as both women stand and walk towards their bedroom.

  “Interesting, so the bases for this theory is that this object emits a particle that passes through the Earth and can only be picked up by underground detection stations.”

  “That is correct, of course there are natural occurrences to Neutrinos, more so we can detect the mass-less particle being emitted form Nuclear Power stations for example. What we are discovering with this object is the particle has a persistent pulse...”

  “A message?”

  Jansky tilts her head, she smiles in a respectful manner but her expression holds no eluding depiction. She doesn't answering the question.

  “I guess all will be revealed soon.” The hosts replies smiling.

  “Yes very soon...” Jansky pauses as she thinks back quickly to Professor Tori's equations and also the updated equation that shows the Alien-Artifact as a massive particle accelerator. But something else bothers her, sifting through her thoughts in regards to the paper that she will be submitting. She remembers what Denlas wrote at the end of his letter, before his death. Looking away from the host, Jansky recites Jensen's last words “...What is heading towards us is not to be feared. However what we know in this reality will change, it will be the Cataclysmal.”

  “Dr Jansky...” The hosts asks. He then looks in the direction of the control room, holding the ear-piece close to his left ear, he hears a message from the floor manager. He then turns to Jansky “...It seems that we have lost the satellite...Thank you for coming into the studio.”

  Jansky stands as the floor manager removes her microphone. “That's ok,” she replies reaching across and shakes the hosts hand, Jansky quickly makes her way to the exit. While at the same time lifting up her cell phone.

  ***

  “I am not going back Niles, you should know this.” Professor Ivane Tori says. As Niles Stephenson and two military personal stand at his doorway. Stephenson looks at both of the soldiers indicating for them to return back to their vehicle. They then both walk back toward the small jeep.

  “We've deciphered the message.”

  “And?” Tori says standing within the frame of his doorway.

  “You knew.”

  “No, I didn't. The equations...What I calculated was as complete as it could be disclosed. If you were astute, and I know you are Niles, you would have seen that.”

  “But you knew it was mainframe. A particle based engine....”

  Professor Tori doesn't answer the military physicist.

  “What was the message?” Tori asks

  “The alien message...in a direct sense undecipherable. No human being could possibly understand it's sequence, our computer systems barely coped with deciphering the coding. However they could compute it's...” Stephenson pauses looking up at the sky. A man in his early forties, within his ambitious desire has grown an impatience. “...totality as a summarized meaning which we would understand. So, the system broke down the simplistic explanation. This Alien-Artifact...It's here to save us.”

  Professor Tori nods looking down. “Yes, the threat is Vacuum Decay. Our known Universe is about to cease to exist. That is why it is here. It is, as you are now aware, a particle accelerator on a massive scale. It will split reality, transfuse Space-time and deliver us to a new Universe. These spheres of infinite death, vacuum decay of the known Universe will reach us at any point.

  “Decay?” Stephenson asks

  “Go home Niles, to your family.”

  Stephenson remains standing in front of Tori, he peer's back over his shoulder at the two soldiers.

  “Is that our threat Ivane?” He slowly looks back at the Professor.

  “You cannot stop it,” Professor Tori replies.

  “Vacuum decay of the Universe. It is still a theory.” Stephenson says

  “An actuality...and it is very close. As I said and now you are aware this Alien-Artifact is a mainframe...It will save our reality and the constructs of matter. But the compromise, the next reality will be not the same, different. Memories, recollections of this...” Professor Tori points around his home and the Georgian country side. “...will not exist as how we know it...and we won't know, nor care...”

  “The physics....” Stephenson expression is blank. “...it's intention is to protect the physics of our reality.”

  Tori nods. “Yes, decay of the Universe at the speed of light will be absolute. It will destroy the whole concept of reality. There will be nothing left. Even physics and it's matter, as I said, that resides all around us will be decimated...It is the ultimate death of everything.”

  “What will happen to our memories?...” Stephenson turns and looks at the two servicemen once again. “...Wait.” He says to the Professor as he walks back to the jeep, Tori watches the young physicist as he talks to the two soldiers, they then get back into their jeep. The engine starts. Stephenson walks back towards Professor Tori who is still standing at his doorway. The Jeep drives off. “I told them that I would call for them to return later.”

  “I am going back inside...You should have gone with them,” Professor Tori replies.

  Stephenson's expression remains blank. “I have nobody...”

  “Your family, can you call them?” Tori asks in the final moments of a known reality, a teacher of Physics and his former student stand facing each other in the countryside of Georgia. Although Professor Tori was aware of Stephenson's driven ambitions, it was his exceptional memory that caught the attention of the eminent Professor. But reciting equations from mental representation and emulating theory, doesn't make one a knowledgeable physicist. Only from learning theory and the understanding of physics can one begin to build upon testable explanations with the adding of new equations. Stephenson never attempted this with his papers, although he did not plagiarize, there was something else about Professor Tori's former student. Intuitive achievements intended for his own survival. A rare type of person, who, earlier in his life may have had very little, but was able to become something, despite the odds against him.

  Stephenson shakes his head without replying, he then looks in the direction of a nearby sunflower field. “Always stuck in my m
ind, that plane disaster a few years ago...The bodies lying in that field of flowers Men, women and children. Dead...They don't come back?” He looks at Tori.

  “No...all matter disperses. You know this. Life, in this reality, what we experience as a cycle, remains. That is, the Universe, which is what we recognize and have studied will also stay the same. There will always be renewal. The human race continues to evolve. That is how it is, life and death and life again...It won't change. This...alien computation will ensure this. But you and I, we only get one life.”

  “Goodbye Ivane,” Stephenson says, he then walks towards the field of sunflowers. Professor Tori turns and enters his home closing the door he makes his way to the small backyard where his wife's ashes are scattered beneath the olive tree.

  ***

  “Micheal.”

  “Elly, how did the news report go?”

  Elly Jansky lifts her right hand to hail a cab, also looking up at her wrist watch. “Ivane he knows what it is”

  “Yes, an Alien-Artifact, that, with your updated equations indicates that it is a massive particle generator. Which could be a relic.”

  “It's not dead, it's will reach the Plank scale for a purpose.”

  “It's not in the paper Elly? Why now? Have you spoken to Ivane?”

  “No I haven't. It just came to me, the equation. Slightly incomplete, when I sent Ivane's equations to Sam Wisemann and Heath Les who wrote the paper on invisible structures in the Universe a few years back. They helped close the gap on Ivane's equations...But, there is something else. I missed it. The count down to reach the Plank scale energy level has already started. It's here to save us Micheal and our perspectives of matter within the the existing Universe. We haven't got much time.”

  Micheal Reddy doesn't reply straight away. “We'll need to revise the paper on short notice. Can you email through the equations?” He replies his tone resonates frustration and confusion.

  A cab pulls up along the curb, Jansky opens the door at the same time verbally giving the driver instructions. She closes the door. The cab drives towards her apartment.

  “It's building a magnitude that will be ten twenty four on an electron-voltage.”

  “We saw that open formula on the paper, so yes, hence most waste being Neutrino based. Thus your assertion and updated equation checks out against Ivane's.”

  “That's right, he left the equation slightly open. I filled the gaps. He also left the high YeV open. Which is on the scale of Planck-scale collider...” Jansky looks up at the skyline, as it begins to darken she notices the masses of cloud stretch across the San Francisco sky. “...Think about it Micheal. Why is it here?”

  There is a pause in the conversation as Reddy doesn't answer straight away, the cab nears her apartment. Pulling up along the curb, Jansky promptly pays and exits the cab, walking at a pace towards her apartment gates.

  “What are you saying Elly, I have to be honest with you I am confused.”

  Jansky also becoming frustrated as there is an urgency in contacting her sister.

  “Why would they design a particle accelerator on this scale? It would be to offset a cosmic threat...To reach Plank scale energies is to reconfigure Space and time itself.” Jansky opens her apartment door quickly walking to her room, lifting down a small bag from her wardrobe, she checks for a few personal items.

  “And what would the threat be?” Reddy asks

  “Vacuum decay and it will reach us at any moment.”

  “Elly, we have a conference on Saturday. Now you are talking Doomsday?”

  Jansky shakes her head in annoyance. She has known Reddy as a colleague for three years. They have both shared a close and respectful professional relationship. She is seconds away in ending the call.

  “Our current known reality will end, but not completely. We just...” Jansky pauses as she lifts the bag slinging it over her left shoulder. “...won't know that we lived at this point time in within this Universe.”

  “It's been rough Elly, for you. The pressures were there. You've done so much. Incredible what you have achieved and under stress. We, Chris and I can present the paper on Saturday. Take a rest. You deserve it.”

  Jansky smiles nodding. “Take care Micheal and Chris too. It's been an honor. But you won’t remember this...existence, maybe in a dream. Goodbye.” She ends the call. Quickly she requests another cab from her cellphone to take her to San Francisco International airport. In hurried pace she walks towards her front door, opening it onto the apartment shared balcony, before closing the door, she looks around at the boxes, halfway through packing away all her items. Jansky closes the door. She brings up her sister's number. Feeling a cold wind blow in from the bay. Jansky closes her eyes.

  Katy opens her eyes, in her darkened bedroom she turns and looks at her partner Shannon who is asleep. Getting up she lifts up a night gown. She sees her cellphone light up in the kitchen area. Walking towards the illuminated light she lifts the phone, the call is from her sister.

  “Hey Elly! Saw you are on television tonight. But the signal got cut off.”

  “Katy...” Jansky pauses. “...Remember when we used to have that dream, both of us hanging out, you and me in another city...which wasn't familiar.”

  Katy walking to the kitchen lifting up a glass, she then pours herself a glass of water.

  “Sometimes, yeah I remember. Also dreams where...you weren't always in them, but there were these people, like friends. It's just they, like the city in the dream, was not familiar but familiar at the same time. Weird. Why you asking?”

  “Oh, just thinking about when we were younger. You are an amazing person Katy, as my sister and a friend.”

  “And you Elly...I have never been more positive and focused. I miss mom so much. But, I love Shannon and your support...You are the best sister, family, it's so important.”

  “Did I wake you?”

  “No, funny thing. I felt that you were going to call.”

  “Have a nice night...go back to bed,” Jansky replies

  “You too...We'll speak tomorrow, maybe dinner on Friday night?”

  “That's sound nice. Speak to you then. Love you Katy.”

  “Always...” Katy replies as Jansky ends the call. She the walks back to her bedroom.

  Elly Jansky exits the cab, paying the driver she rushes towards the main entrance doors of San Francisco International airport. Checking her phone for the same day flight websites, she notices a flight about to leave in ten minutes. Checking the airline, she then quickly walks towards the booking desk. At the same time she brings up Josh Rigel's number.

  “Six thirty flight tonight?” Jansky asks as she checks in at the airline desk. She is informed, by the check-in attendant, that there is a flight and seat available for a six thirty departure from San Francisco to Cincinnati airport, she promptly pays for the ticket. Walking towards the boarding area. Jansky quickly calls Josh's number.

  “Elly! What a surprise!”

  “Josh, I need to see you...tonight.”

  “Yes of course. You ok?”

  Jansky closes her eyes, she feels happy hearing Josh's voice.

  “I am fine...it's just. I really have to see you...It's important.”

  “What flight?”

  Jansky looks at her electronic ticket as she nears the boarding lounge.

  “Six thirty from San Francisco...It will arrive at ten thirty Cincinnati.”

  “I'll pick you up...So good to hear from you Elly.”

  “I love you,” Jansky replies, at the same time she feels a relief, that within this moment in time it feels eternal.

  “And I love you...” Josh replies.

  Jansky smiles. “I'll see you soon.”

  ***

  _______________________________________________

  The Xeno-Structuralist lies outside of what we know, therefor to devise the ideas that may seem fantastical is in it's self the pure concept of rebellion. The child lives within Xeno-Structural, the imagination within it's
eyes shares a view of the world. For it is his or her own Universe. They create the wonder, to live and believe in it's science. To understand and realize the complexity of life, it's evolution. That death is returning back into matter. Absorbing it's self into the atoms in which it came from. The light, shadows reflected from human beings, the continuation of photons that travel at the speed of light for all eternity. Like memories, the self even though it is no more, it is the dreams that remain.

  _______________________________________________

  “Hurry up! Are you puffed?” A woman yells out, as below on a slanted trail a young girl makes her way up towards where a woman is standing in-front of a small forest.

  “Slow down mom...you're too fast,” she replies as the young girl nears her mother.

  “Your grandmother and I used to walk this path a few times a year...before she got sick.”

  The young girl now standing by her-side looks up as the woman, in her late thirties, gently brushes away strands of hair from the girl's forehead.

  “Come on, let's watch the two stars set,” Elly Jansky says as her daughter and herself continue onward, walking up a narrow worn path that weaves through the small forest of pine trees. A cool summer breeze passes through the tree line to what has been a perfect Summer evening. They walk hand in hand up the small path, Jansky clutching her daughter's delicate hand as they begin to reach the edge of the forest, where the cliff face is located. As they both move from the shadows of the pine trees, a dominate xanthous light of a yellow dwarf star illuminates the clearing, while at the same time a smaller red star also reflects it's reddish hue. The combined atmospheric elicited light from the two stars, emits a lush golden radiance that expands out from the horizon. Radiating off Jansky's daughter's face as she smiles staring ahead towards the cliff edge.