Foundation

by M J Kendrick

  When everything was finished and all of the equipment had finally been installed, the boys had a real sense of achievement. The lab workshop was perfect and had them all itching to get started on their projects.

  Carlton’s setup would take a few days to calibrate, so, like the others, he started work the very next day. Initially, the noise levels were a bit much for him, but after the initial excitement of everyone running in and out of each other’s areas lessened, they started to concentrate on their own projects, and things eventually settled down. Even so, once Carlton had his equipment all dialed in, he chose to start the in-depth analysis of his father’s accident data in the quiet of his room where his concentration could remain unbroken.

  After three solid days of reading and re-reading the data, Carlton sat back in his chair and looked up at the board on the wall in front of his desk.

  He had drawn a lined chain of events using post-it notes with the written procedures and results on them and a line leading to the next series of post-it notes that was starting to look like a family tree, or one of the investigation boards full of mug shots that the TV cops used in their shows.

  His head was spinning. So far, he could only re-confirm what his father had confirmed as correct at the time of the accident.

  He would have to start his own investigation from the beginning and explore every possible avenue before, during, and after each stage. He needed a break.

  Carlton headed down to the nerdlab, as it had now been named, to catch up with the other Smarties.

  When he got there, they were all deeply engrossed in their projects. William was helping Miles to recycle some failed composites; Per was sitting at his drawing table rolling around a small aluminum bracket in his hand, trying to figure out how to improve its functionality and design; Anton was hunched over his bench using precision tools to make adjustments to his latest microlaser; and Haru was assembling some very compact electronics and attempting to squeeze them into long, thin, clear plastic tubes.

  “That’s never going to fit in there,” Carlton said jovially as he came in. Haru was looking frustrated but stopped what he was doing, and, seeing Carlton, he smiled.

  “Oh, hi, Carlton. Yep, I haven’t quite got this yet. Guess I’ll need to re-think some of the circuitry.”

  “Looks interesting,” said Carlton as he bent down to closely look at the neat row of unfinished complex-looking devices. “Are those some of your airflow sensors you were working on with Per?”

  Haru’s face brightened, pleased that someone was taking an interest in his latest project.

  “No, actually, they’re miniaturized audio/LED Geiger counters housed in pens, or should I say will be, if I can ever get them small enough.”

  Carlton was impressed. “Wow, that’s a fantastic idea.” And jokingly added, “do they work?”

  Haru laughed. “Work, of course they work, really well as a matter of fact. I’ve made them super sensitive and able to be recharged from any USB port, long life too,” said Haru proudly.

  “Way to go, Haru,” said Carlton, as he gently slapped him on the back. “What are you going to do with them?”

  “Well, when I perfect these first ones, I was going to give one to each of us. William thinks they’re marketable and could be worth considering as a sellable product. I know there’s a gap in the market and William thinks we can have them mass produced at a reasonable cost.”

  “That’s brilliant news. Good old William, he’s so good at that stuff. Looks like you could be the first Smartie to make something tangible and actually make some money,” said Carlton.

  “We’ll see,” said Haru, suggesting he needed a little more convincing. “How’s your data research coming along?”

  Carlton had told the Smarties what he would be doing, and they had all showed interest, but most of them were quickly lost when Carlton’s enthusiastic portrayal became a little too technical.

  Carlton was always careful about speaking of the farm’s research and would always omit any reference to their work, even if it did make him feel guilty. He’d often thought about helping out his friends but was too worried in case anything ever got back to the wrong ears. Using any of Omni’s advanced technology would definitely lead to questions and almost certainly cause problems for his parents, especially since he was warned against divulging anything by both them and Omni when he first joined MIT. The risk was too great.

  “Aah well, that’s another story. I’ve exhausted the research data, and I feel I’m no better off than when I started.”

  Anton had now joined them and had put a brotherly arm around Carlton’s shoulder.

  “Are you going to start experimenting?”

  “Definitely. I’ll start reproducing the recorded experiments and see where that leads. Could take a while, though.”

  “That’s good! You’ll finally join us working in the nerdlab. We’re getting the band back together!”

  They laughed, only to be drowned out by one of Miles’s machines noisily cutting through some plate metal, which hit the floor with a bang, making everyone jump.

  Miles’s tiny, muffled voice was then heard saying, “Sorry,” as he comically sunk down out of view from the glass partition windows, causing a further outbreak of laughter.

  ***

  Carlton was back in his room, poring over the data from the last three days’ experiments. His wall chart had acquired a plethora of post-its and colored stickers and was now starting to resemble a mosaic, as he added results and possible variations to each stage for further experiments and tests.

  So far, he had managed to successfully replicate all of the previous trials and had begun eliminating items from his now long list of possible cause and effects. He had spent the entire day double checking that nothing up to now had been missed. He thought about his parents. This is exactly what they would have done. He just had to keep going.

  Haru knocked on his door and entered his room.

  “Hi, Haru, how’s it going?” said Carlton, pleased for the break.

  “Wow,” was all Haru could manage as he looked at Carlton’s multicolored board and piles of research data.

  “You’re gonna need a bigger room at this rate,” he said, staring in amazement.

  “Tell me about it,” said Carlton, as he joined Haru’s gaze. “Fortunately, I’ve finished with most of this now, so I’ll be filing it away.”

  “I’ve got something for you,” said Haru, handing Carlton a small box.

  Carlton took the box and opened it to reveal a shiny, blue, metallic pen. Carlton’s face beamed at the gift and he said, “Is this . . .”

  Haru excitedly jumped in, “Yes, it the Geiger pen, all finished.”

  Carlton was admiring the workmanship and, seeing that it was also a working pen, started to sign his name on bits of paper lying on his desk.

  “This is great,” he said.

  Haru came and stood next to him. “Hold it up to your watch,” he said

  As soon as Carlton moved the pen toward his wristwatch, it began clicking, and a blue LED started flashing on the top in time with the clicks. The closer the pen was to his watch, the faster it clicked and flashed.

  “This is absolutely brilliant,” said Carlton, moving the pen back and forth as if mesmerized.

  “If you rotate the top, you can adjust the sensitivity. I’ve made a different colored one for each of us,” said a very excited Haru.

  “This is outstanding. Thank you, Haru. I’ll never part with it.”

  Haru was elated at Carlton’s delight. “You’d better finish up and come down,” he said. “We’ve got some clearing up to do before the girls get here. Per’s ordered in a special meal for us all from that Italian place for when they arrive.”

  “Cripes, I forgot about that. When are they due?”

  “Lucy should be waiting for Calisto’s plane to land so they can get a cab together. They should be here in a couple of hours, I would think.”

  Carlton stood up, and they head
ed for the door. “We better get a move on, then.”

  The girls arrived back at the house three hours later, both looking well. Calisto especially was looking remarkably happy and fresh for someone who had just come off a long flight, though it was probably because her father had paid for her to travel back first class. It still, however, didn’t stop their radar eyes picking up on the man version of cleaning up.

  Choosing not to make too much of a point of it, Lucy simply said, “Had a good time, did we?”

  Over dinner, the boys excitedly brought the girls up to speed on everything. Haru gave them their pens, and in return, Calisto gave them each a small souvenir springbok key ring from South Africa.

  The girls were seriously impressed with the nerdlab but also glad they weren’t around to enjoy the mess that had no doubt accompanied its build.

  They laughed and joked long into the night, happy that they were all together again.

  ***

  A few days later, life for the Smarties had resumed its academic ferocity as they buried themselves in their studies, only coming across each other occasionally. Carlton had become the most elusive of the group as he crammed in the extra lectures, work, and dissertations that his additional subjects demanded, and, although he was coping well, when he did bump into Lucy he tried to hide his obvious excitement at seeing her. He’d admitted to her that he wouldn’t want to take on anything else—although he didn’t let on that a large part of the reason was that he had found himself missing spending time with her.

  All of the boys’ projects had practically come to a halt with the exception of Per, who would study from his space and made good use of his large, technical drawing board.

  By the end of fall, each of the Smarties was so far advanced in their fields that their curriculums had to be revised by the senior professors at MIT and their lessons and lectures realigned to coexist closer together. This allowed them to place the Smarties into a unique stream that had been designed to allow MIT to keep up with them, and, more specifically, keep them separate from the other MIT scheduled exams.

  This was a great help to the Smarties as it meant they could maximize their time and set crucial dissertation defenses as and when they reached the required level and not have to wait for the specific dates to come around.

  Carlton especially welcomed this, as he was more than ready in his two favored subjects of metallurgy and nano technology to progress to the final stages, and if he sacrificed going home for Christmas, he could set his defenses and free up some time to concentrate on the other two subjects. He reluctantly made the call.

  Carlton returned home late in the evening on Christmas Eve. All of the other Smarties had long since left to join their families for the holidays, and he had missed saying goodbye to them.

  He had left at dawn that morning to sit a long, two-part metallurgy defense, which had begun at 7 a.m. and paused from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., lasting until 8 p.m. He felt confident but tired. At least he had four full days until the equally long nano tech defense, so he planned to take the time to relax and read the notes and letters that he knew his fellow Smarties would have left for him, but only after he Skyped his parents first.

  The house felt eerily empty and quiet with everyone gone. Carlton made himself a huge sandwich, scooped up his pile of letters, and went up to his room to call home.

  Carlton’s parents were, of course, a little sad that their son wouldn’t be back for Christmas, but they were very understanding. Having closely followed his progress at MIT, they both knew how much this meant to him, so they gave their full support.

  Lucy and Calisto had been in contact with them over the last few days, and, with Jean’s help, the girls had made Carlton’s favorite Christmas dinner for him, which they had hidden in the back of the fridge. Carlton was overjoyed when his mother told him of the surprise, as Christmas dinner was one of the things that he enjoyed most about the holidays, and this was the first time he would spend it without his parents. Knowing that they had all worked together to make him a special Christmas meal made him feel less homesick.

  Chapter Sixteen

  On Christmas Day, Carlton spent the morning on Skype with his parents and all of the Smarties wishing them all happy Christmas, and, by lunchtime, when he had finally finished his long conversations, he felt decidedly chirpier.

  Carlton made a fridge raid for snacks before he turned his attention back to his project in the nerdlab. Now was the perfect time to start some uninterrupted tests and trials on the iridium block to get to the root of what had happened. One by one, he worked his way down his cause and effect list with zero results.

  After seven hours, he decided to take a break. He was hungry and was starting to get distracted by the thought of the delicious meal waiting for him in the fridge, so he turned everything off and went to the kitchen.

  The girls had attached a note to his meal with heating instructions, and he set about attacking the microwave. Carlton had savored every mouthful, and had anyone been there, they would have heard plenty of murmurs of pleasure as he eagerly ate until the large plate of food had been picked clean. After clearing up, his thoughts once again turned back to the iridium block. He had never been able to shake that niggling sensation whenever he thought about it, and now was no exception.

  Carlton returned to the nerdlab and powered up his equipment. He had brought down his post-it board and hung it on the wall in front of his workbench so he could use it as a map for his trials and experiments. As he sat there contemplating, he knew his problem was twofold and there were only a few combinations left to try.

  He felt sure the answer had to lie with the probability that the iridium block itself was the major influence, and he was feeling more and more certain that it involved an “unforeseen element” as the key factor. Somehow, something had come into play during the accident. He wanted to think more on this, but, in order to be 100 percent certain, he would spend the rest of the night running all other options to dismiss them from the picture before looking into the iridium block.

  ***

  Carlton slept soundly that night, not waking until nine the next morning. Feeling refreshed after a long shower and breakfast, he returned to the nerdlab. He wanted to start the day by thoroughly going over all of the equipment that was originally used.

  He had been given all of the original setup in the box that had originally been used, and, by four thirty that afternoon. he had managed to go through everything twice. Everything was exactly as it should be, with nothing faulty, broken, or out of place. In fact, all of the equipment’s internal components still looked brand new, without so much as even a speck of dust present. Carlton wasn’t surprised by this. At least he could eliminate those items from his list.

  The last piece of equipment was the broken clamp, which was still floating around the bottom of the crumpled box in his room.

  After standing and having a good stretch, he headed for the kitchen. He needed a coffee break, so he would collect the box while the coffee was brewing.

  Carlton sat down at his bench with his drink and picked out the pieces of the clamp. Some of the pieces were so small that he ended up just tipping the whole thing out onto the bench in front of him. He sat back and looked at the pile of pieces. Sipping his coffee, he said out loud to himself, “Geez, what a mess!”

  For ten minutes, he just sat trying to figure out in which direction the clamp could have failed before he set about reconstructing the clamp’s general shape by laying it out flat on the bench.

  For three hours, Carlton painstakingly reconstructed the clamp until all of the individual fragmented pieces were in the correct place. The whole thing looked like an exploded view diagram of some intricate device.

  He had carefully examined each fragment, concentrating on the score marks made as the iridium block was torn from the clamp. He knew he could easily work out how much actual force was involved, but if he could find a clue around the question of why the clamp failed, he knew he would be heading i
n the right direction.

  He began to reexamine the many fracture points. There were two small inconsistencies that became visible under brighter lighting, and Carlton looked hard at them both from different angles. There was definitely some minute evidence of something, but he couldn’t quite make out what. He went over to Haru’s workbench. He knew he had some powerful magnifiers which he used on his miniature electronics. He found them in one of Haru’s racks of parts. They looked like spectacles that had shot glasses as lenses.

  He put them on and quietly said to himself, “Whooah, can’t see a thing.” He removed the magnifiers and took them back to his workbench.

  He was amazed at how enlarged everything had become, and he could easily see the crystalline structure of the metal at the clamp’s breaking points.

  At one hundred times magnification, he could clearly see a mark that was the result of intense momentary heat. A picture was forming in his mind. He now knew that it would have most likely been caused by an external electrical fault. The microscopic melt scar was consistent with an exposed wire coming briefly into contact with the clamp and shorting out.

  Carlton knew this was a milestone discovery. It wasn’t the whole answer yet, but it was almost a dead certainty that it was a contributing factor. The unforeseen event!

  He felt he was getting closer.

  After updating his board, he moved to the iridium block itself. He wanted to take a sample by filing off some shavings for testing. He would use some of Miles’s diamond tools and one of Per’s small vices, but that was going to be messy, and it was getting late, so he would tackle that part in the morning. For now, he would just carefully disconnect and remove the iridium block from his testing area so that it was ready for the morning, and then call it a night. When he had finished, he lifted down his board and carried it to his room, where he lay in bed staring at it until he fell asleep.