IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 473

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.

SF Trope: Archaeological Arms Race (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArchaeologicalArmsRace)
Current Event: http://io9.com/carbon-nanotubes-were-an-ancient-superweapon-1707615687, http://www.ryot.org/autistic-teen-becomes-youngest-astrophysicist-world/394809, http://msc.tsinghua.edu.cn/sanya/StringMath2015/speakers.aspx

Puteri Etini shook sand from his hands and stood up, brushing it from his jeans. “What are we supposed to do with it once we get it?”

Marama Daeng looked up from the excavation and said, “This sword was supposed to be able to split the hair of a vicuna into identical halves with ease.”

“And The Massachusetts Institute of Technology needs it…why?” She shrugged and continued her work of brushing debris from the object they were unearthing. “You think it has anything to do with the superstring energy project in Moscow?” She snorted then sneezed, doubling over the hole, intent.

She straightened up and looking into the distance, she said, “They’ve tried magnets – super-cooled and room-temperature, dipole and monopoles; they’ve tried coherent EM radiation at every frequency imaginable from radio to gamma; electrical fields of every strength. They have captured a string, balanced between Earth and the Sun. Everyone is in Vysokaya Lomonosov Moscow State University – and everyone’s enemies have gathered around to see what they do.”

“Who’s the idiot who thinks a depression in the space-time continuum can be touched by something physical?”

“Jakob Barnett.”

“The man who can’t speak? He’s...he’s…” Pateri said.

“…the intellectual equivalent of Hawking, Kadanof, Ellis, Dyson, Leung, Becker, and Silk all-rolled-into-one are the name’s you’re thinking of.”

“How...”

“If I knew that, then I wouldn’t be digging in the sand in a remote corner not far from the Syria- Iraq border, south of the Euphrates River. I can only believe that he can do what he says. How about you?”

He sniffed, grinned, and drew the .45 from his shoulder holster…

Names: ♀Malaysia ; ♂ Tahiti
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Ariane5_VA221_liftoff2.jpg/220px-Ariane5_VA221_liftoff2.jpg