Invisible Threads--Chapter 11

Writer's Note: Please read the previous chapters and prologue of Invisible Threads before reading this.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Cherie had stormed around ranting and raving, and starting sentences with, "How could you possibly...?"

Gary sat silently through it. This was followed by a period of false calmness during which she worked with him on the next performance--scripting every word and going over every tone and facial expression. This had gone on until well after midnight when they were both exhausted. She collapsed on the sofa and he retired to his bedroom.

When he awoke, he was 30 minutes late for work. With Cherie still asleep on the sofa, he skipped making any noise in the kitchen to avoid waking her and starting a sequel to last night's horror show. He stopped off at a 7-11 and got coffee and a non-fresh breakfast burrito. This set him further behind schedule so by the time he arrived at his lab, he was 45 minutes late.

Phang looked up from his computer as Gary rushed in. "You can relax, Lecki isn't in yet. He said yesterday that he had a faculty breakfast and would be late."

Gary sat back in his chair and exhaled. "Something goes right."

"I saw that girlfriend of yours."

"Cherie?"

"You have more than one? Of course, Cherie. Not a runway model but a lot hotter than anyone I ever thought I would see you with."

"Yeah well. I am not really with her. We're pretending to be together to make a better storyline for the television show."

"You mean you ain't tappin' that?"

"I ain't... what?"

"Dude. Are you sleeping with her?"

"No."

"She shut you down, huh?"

"Its... I... She... Yes. She shut me down."

"Stone cold, dude. So near yet so far. And to think, I thought you were my hero."

"I'm working on something that will usher in a new age of science and I would be your hero if I slept with a girl?"

"Totally."

They worked in silence. Gary was halfway done prepping for his Tuesday TA session when Dr. Lecki strode through the door and up to his desk.

"Mr. Richardson, may I see you a moment?" He turned and left with no further explanation. Not good.

Gary followed Dr. Lecki down the hallway to his office. Lecki turned sideways to slide past two piles of books and papers and sat at his desk. "I wish to speak with you about what your television people had to say about my interview."

Gary paused. He knew he should carefully phrase this answer but that would require a talent in subtlety. "They said that there was very little that they could use. They might be able to cut in a few lines for humor."

"Humor. Less than optimum. But did they say anything about how I came across regarding the scientific aspects of your... performance?"

As much as Gary prepared himself for these discussions, the familiar anger rose. He tried to keep his voice calm but there was too much water under than bridge. "They said that you were dismissive and did not recognize innovative science when it was laying at your feet."

"Those words exactly?"

"Mild paraphrase."

Lecki sat and stared at Gary for a moment. "While I like to believe that my body of work has created a reputation that keeps me from being considered a laughingstock, there is no doubt that my credibility within the community has been damaged by my association with this. It's hard for me to explain to someone at your point in your career the situation that you have put me in. I'm caught between a scientific community that frowns on the absurd and a University administration that relishes any press that takes peoples' minds off the performance of the football team."

Gary gripped the armrest tightly. "My research is not absurd. I am following strict protocols. If you and your peers could get past your regimented biases..."

Lecki interrupted, "Then we would believe you."

Gary was nonplussed at the statement, "Correct."

"Then what?"

"Excuse me?" The answer was obvious to Gary. Fame. Unlimited funding. Nobel Prize.

Lecki continued: "Then what? What happens if I believe you? You've told me that when you are wearing your copper hat, you can align the electrical impulses of your brain with the Earth's magnetic field and you are then able to perceive continuity strings that reach out in a true straight line possibly to the end of the universe. Correct?"

Gary liked the phrase continuity strings. "Basically."

"And by using the combined power of your brain impulses and the Earth's magnetic field, you are able to realign all of the mass along this functionally infinite line to a single point and then change that alignment slightly and put everything back where it was?"

"I don't yet know what supplies the power. That is something that is still to be..."

"But nevertheless, the basic explanation fits your claims."

Gary felt a trap being set but couldn't see what it was. "More or less, yes."

"Now let's say that your uncorroborated first-person witness is sufficient to convince me that this is all true and not simply parlor tricks. If I believe you, then you have the ability to bring functionally infinite mass to a single point. And then to release all of that mass at that single point at the same time."

Gary now realized where this was going. He felt like he was being called out in class for an oversight.

Lecki pressed on: "If you released all of this mass at the same point at the same time, what would be the result?"

The trap was sprung. Gary had no choice but to answer. "At a minimum, an instantaneous, exothermic nuclear reaction."

Lecki steepled his fingers and nodded. "In laymen's terms, a nuclear explosion. As you said, that was at a minimum. What about at a maximum?"

"The mass density would be such that it would form a black hole."

"So, the best case would be an explosion that would kill over 100,000 people and the worst case is the complete eradication of the human race. And this could happen... what?... if you sneezed at the wrong time?"

Gary was at a loss. He was furious with himself for never thinking in these terms. Lecki was right. He had no idea what would happen if he chose to keep all of the matter in a single location when he snapped back the thread.

"I need... I need to add this to my notes."

"You're still not thinking this all the way through. If I believed that one individual had the power to end the human race due to an absent-minded error, what would be my moral obligation as a scientist... as a human being?"

"I don't know."

Lecki stood from his chair and leaned out over his desk staring straight down at Gary. "It would be to kill you. Right now. The risk would be too great."

Gary's throat tightened. "What do you want from me?"

"Stop this preposterous charade! This is not science, and I'm becoming concerned regarding your mental stability."

"I'm not crazy." Gary insisted.

"With your mother's condition, I have to consider the possibility that you actually believe what you are saying and need help. If you ever thought this was funny, let me make it clear that it no longer is so."

"No sir. It's not funny. Nor is using my mother's condition to try to make me doubt my own sanity. Are we done?"

Lecki sat down. He spoke quietly and almost with compassion. "Gary, if you are seeing something that no one else is seeing and it makes no logical sense, then you should doubt your own sanity. You must."

"Are we done?"

Lecki ended the discussion. "If you would be so kind as to keep me out of this television nonsense from this point forward, it would be appreciated."

"Yes sir."

Gary left the office and headed back to the lab to return to work. What would happen if he released additional mass at a single location? He sat at his desk and took turns brooding and fuming through the afternoon.

***

Professor Lecki left promptly at his usual 4pm. Phang followed at 5:30. Cherie remained angry and Gary had heard nothing from her. For the first time in what seemed like days, he was alone and could work and think.

He now had two things to work on: the concentrated mass issue that Lecki had pointed out and the strange threadless area that he had now seen twice. Once, in the lab with Cherie, it had elicited fear in him from nowhere. The second time, In Lecki's office, it had seemed to be involved when he teleported from the office into the adjacent hallway. He had no idea what it could be. It was an anomaly.

Since the teleporting event in Lecki's office, the anomaly seemed to pose the more immediate risk. As such, he needed to find out more about it. The first question was: did it take up space?

He tried a simple experiment. Standing from his desk, he moved a box of old computer hardware to the clear area next to the door where he had previously perceived the anomaly. The box filled that area and a roughly equivalent area was now clear next to his desk.

Sitting again at his desk, he focused on the trigger memory and watched as the threads formed around him. He looked at the area near the door and the newly clear area next to his desk. No sign of the anomaly. He waited a few moments and tried to scan the room with his peripheral vision. This gave him a slight headache but he saw nothing.

He moved more furniture around to create a new clear area next to Phang's desk. The first change he felt was the same fear that he had previously experienced when Cherie was in the lab. He put it aside and scanned the room. There were no threads running through the clear area next to Phang's desk. He then moved his focus just to the right and discerned the blurry, intangibleness that marked the anomaly. Its size was roughly the same as before.

He spoke aloud into the empty room. "Testing. Testing. I am testing an initial hypothesis that the anomaly is impacted by sound waves."

No change. It remained at the edge of his vision. The headache from concentrating on something so indistinct was coming on strong.

He continued speaking aloud, "Okay. It does not appear to be impacted by sound waves. What about conversation?" If the anomaly could only be sensed when in a state of focused brain patterns in sync with his surroundings, could conversation further focus his thoughts and make it appear more clearly?

There was no audial response, but the shape grew more distinct and was slightly more opaque. Previously, when he shifted the focus of his thought, he lost the threads. But they remained intact. So, while the anomaly seemed to be separate from the threads, it also might be associated with them.

Then it was gone. Threads instantaneously filled the space where it had been. The gnawing sense of continuous fear had also left.

He replayed the video paying specific attention to the camera view of the clear area. On the video he could see nothing. He tried looking at it through his peripheral vision and still nothing. He tried different settings, but it was obvious that the camera had recorded nothing.

His phone vibrated on his desk, causing him to jump. He stopped typing, saw Cherie's name, and answered.

She didn't let him say hello. "Where have you been?!"

"I worked late."

"Worked late? I was expecting you here over an hour ago and I was waiting to eat dinner until you got home so we could talk about your next performance. It has to step up from the previous ones. Where are you?"

"The lab."

"I'll be there in thirty minutes. Don't get into your Pop Tart stash. I'm starving and want to have dinner."

That was no problem since his Pop Tart stash was empty. He had thirty minutes to try and think up a trick that would get her mind off of teleportation.

Twenty-five minutes later, Cherie was stopped dead in her tracks when she walked into the lab and witnessed Gary hovering about 18 inches above the floor.

He looked up and smiled. "I think I have the next trick."