Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY
IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I
generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family
rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to
write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration
(quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind.
These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat,
irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if
anything comes of them.
H Trope: Halloween!
Current Event: http://physicsbuzz.physicscentral.com/2013/01/ghost-images-in-3d.html
(Interesting sidebar: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/10/27/marines-police-prep-for-mock-zombie-invasion/)
Snow-dusted, dark
alpine slopes reminded Nazar Ionescu of a tidal wave frozen solid an instant
before capsizing a crowded luxury liner on the North Atlantic. The TITANIC,
perhaps. He said, “This is not going to end well.”
Giorgia Lukić shook
her head and said, “Sad sack.”
Nazar looked over at her, frowning. “What does that mean?”
“Nineteen
forty-three, World War Two, an old comic book character whose name was a
euphemism for a much more vulgar term. But you’re someone whose very presence
lowers the tone in the room – a sort of the human equivalent of Eeyore from
Winnie the Pooh.”
“I am not!”
She swept an arm
to include then entire four hundred kilometer long range of mountains. “They’re
moody this morning. Yesterday morning, they were divine. How can a conference
in the Alps...”
“These are not THE
Alps. They are Alps – and do you know it’s a Latin word that means a place in
the mountains where cows eat?”
“It does not!” she
exclaimed pushing him away from her. “It can’t. It’s got to be more romantic
than that!”
He shrugged. “I
was born not far from here and shipped out about ten hours after when the
Soviet Union shattered. This is not a romantic place.”
Giorgia took a
deep breath, exhaled then said, “All right. It’s November and miserable. But
we’re not here for romance, are we?” She fixed him with a long look. He blushed
and turned away. “We’re here for an experiment that has the potential to change
the face of physics…”
“Or open a gateway
to another realm,” he said. She shot him a quelling look. They’d had the
conversation before. Many times. With many people. He was well-known for his
beliefs. Some had even named him ‘Marburger’ – as well as a having a fast food
named after him at a nearby restaurant – after the early 21st Century
report1 that nudged a
controversy just before the first activation of the Large Hadron Collider.
“You cannot be
really serious, Nazar. Really?”
He stared up into
the mountains for a long time before saying, “Science is full of unexpected
developments, Giorgia. No one working at Bell Labs in 1958 could have predicted
that their device would be used to play movies in people’s home. Certainly no
one watching Enewetak would have predicted the Bussard probe on its way to
Alpha Centauri. No one...”
“I get it. We test
a new application of a scientific law and don’t necessarily know exactly what
will happen.”
“I’m not talking
about the purely physical results. There is another dimension, something beyond
what we...”
She held her palm
out to him and turning around, headed back to the lab where a team of nearly a
hundred scientists from all over the world had gathered at the foot of the
iron-rich mountain range to create a microscopic wormhole that would take power
generation to the next level.
“Giorgia! Wait for
me!” She stopped but didn’t turn around. When he caught up with her, he said
breathlessly, “If nothing happens with the first power up, you’ll never hear
another word from me.”
The sunlight faded
as clouds drifted over the Transylvanian Alps. Giorgia shivered as she nodded.
“Make sure of it.” Still without turning around, she headed for the lab.
Padding footsteps
made by his rubber-soled, signature blaze orange Converse All-Star high top tennis
shoes followed after her. She said, “They should be powering up right around
now.”
Under their feet,
the ground trembled. Giorgia squeaked in surprise and Nazar grabbed her elbow
to steady her. She was looking directly at the lab, slightly upward so that she
could see the archaic crenellations of the roof. Something appeared over the
building. Immense, winged, it appeared to be hovering over the lab and for the
briefest instant seemed to coalesce into an apparition that she could only call
a ghost dragon...
Names: ♀
Italian, Serbian; ♂ Ukraine, Romania
Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2-arXKTiwzTybeiZ-IjR8P9j_aP2vqKXJulRCqqk_e42EoyXriDrQffp-dV_b96wQqLf5Y-M9XYpYkS4Lpz0PJvQcjGfHXS3M8QSPWCq9l9UURqlah0AR2TAlNeS4yX_NR2arOLIZVuY/s1600/2212_1025142570.jpg
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