Gravity Versus Gravity, page 15
“Stop, stop!” the man shouted when he saw the handymen.
“Is the snake going to bite him if he does that?” another handyman asked.
“I’m not worried about that,” the man replied. “If he continues doing that he may actually stomp on the snake if it slides down.”
“Is the snake poisonous?” another handyman asked.
“No, but this one is very rare.”
“Help! Help!” shouted the handymen with the snake still coiled around his leg.
The man calmly held the snake below its head and unwound it. He put it in a box and said, “Four more to find.”
“I’m not going to work here anymore,” the handyman said. He looked relieved that the snake was finally off his leg.
“What about the four more?” another handyman said. “They’ll not come out till you show them your legs.”
Everyone laughed except the man. The man looked sternly at the handyman who had cracked the joke.
Another handyman said, “Sssh! Sssh! No jokes about snakes here. This is serious business.”
Everyone laughed again. The man went inside the house without looking back. Within minutes, he was back with three snakes. He was holding all three of them by their tails.
“Next time if you crack jokes about my snakes, I’ll let these loose inside your pants.”
“Try,” the first handyman said, pulling his pants. The man came forward bursting with anger. The handyman took out his pocket knife.
“If you come close to me, I’ll chop all three of these creepy creatures. And I don’t guarantee that you would not be hurt.”
The man stopped in his steps.
“Okay, okay,” Ingrid said, coming between the two men. She looked at the handyman and said, “Please be calm. We want to finish off today’s work normally.”
“Normally?” the handyman replied. “I’ve never had to deal with one snake in my entire career. And here I’m surrounded all over by them.”
“I’m grateful for your cooperation. But let us all keep calm.”
Ingrid then looked at the man. The three snakes had entwined themselves around his forearm. “Sir, we are here to help you. Please cooperate with us in helping you,” she said to the man.
“These snakes are the most precious parts of my life. They are like my children. I cannot tolerate anyone being nasty to them.”
“My men were not being nasty. They just cracked a joke.”
“Cracking jokes is the worst way one can be nasty about anyone,” the man replied.
“Your snakes don’t understand these jokes,” the first handyman said. Everyone again broke into laughter.
“This is too much,” the man said.
“I apologize on their behalf. There will be no more jokes.” Ingrid looked at the handymen and said, “Gentlemen, I plead with you not to complicate matters. Let us go inside and get rest of the boxes.” And addressing the man, she said, “Could you please put the three with you in boxes?”
The man followed the handymen. None of them talked to each other till the job was finished in about forty-five minutes.
At the end of the day, Ingrid was more tired than before. She was amongst the last ones to arrive at the late-night meeting. She met Boyle at the entrance. Boyle looked happy. He saw Ingrid’s condition and asked, “Bad day?”
“When you told about your bad day, I was thanking my stars that I had not encountered one. But right today, I had my bad one.”
“Like mine?”
“No. Not as bad as yours.” When walking towards the meeting room, she told him about her day.
“I can see that there are only three differences between our bad days.”
“Which ones?”
“I had to deal with a hell lot of stuff. You had to deal with only a lot of stuff. That is the first one. The second is that your day was a dangerous one. Mine was not. Dirty items don’t bite. And the third is that none of your men gave up.”
“Yes. But one of my men almost ran away,” Ingrid said. Then she added, “There are two more difference.”
“Like?”
“None of my men asked to leave early. All of them worked till nine. The other difference is that I’ve turned up for the meeting.”
“You are strong,” Boyle said with a smile. “Give me a high five.”
Just as the two of them had done a high five, Louisa saw them. She asked the reason for the celebration. Ingrid told about the day. She had to tell about the incident once again during the meeting. By the time she left the meeting room, her body seemed to be collapsing, her eyes were drooping, and her jaw bone ached.
The first round of securing the buildings was completed in six weeks. According to Louisa’s report, the problem was not with the bigger buildings but, the smaller independent houses with gardens and backyards. The bigger buildings had loose objects within the building only whereas the independent houses had various sorts of loose objects outside from large toys to lawn mowers. The trees, except a few, were not a problem. The branches lying on the ground were. So were the garbage bins - large and small - ubiquitously present.
In her interim report to Sandra, Louisa suggested that the Borough Councils be asked to issue orders that there should be no loose objects in the gardens. Sandra went a step further. After taking Thomson’s approval, she called Joe Banks, who was the liaison official for Borough Councils and Ministries.
“Hold this, Joe,” she told him, handing over the report. “Polish it and make it fit for the Prime Minister’s Office. I’ve spoken to Mr. Thomson. He agrees with me that we should forward the report to the Prime Minister’s Office. Make a draft letter from Mr. Thomson to the Prime Minister requesting the Prime Minister’s Office to issue a directive to the Borough Councils. If we go directly to the Boroughs, they may be reluctant to do what we say.”
“But some of the Mayors of Borough already know about the event. They have signed the confidentiality agreement.”
“That is another thing. Issuing directive to the residents and securing objects will require manpower and money. Borough Councils are always reluctant to spend money.”
“Understood,” Joe said.
Joe had prepared the report by afternoon. The report and the letter from Thomson were delivered to the Prime Minister’s Office by the end of day.
The next day, Leo Frasier, Mayor of Camden Borough called Joe.
“Joe,” he said. “You could have told us directly about the decision. A phone call should have been enough. We would have happily delivered. What was the need of getting this shot delivered right from the top?”
Joe said, “Umm. Uhh. Umm,” and listened patiently to Leo’s rant. Joe did not show his face to any of the Mayors of Boroughs for the next two days.
The directive from the Prime Minister was taken as heavy-handedness by all the Borough Councils, but it worked. The Borough Councils took immediate action to issue notices to all residents. The parks were cleaned of loose branches on the ground. The cleaning was done at least three times a day. The garbage bins were firmly attached to the ground.
The work of garbage collectors doubled since they had to first untie the bins from their chains and then lock them again. Inspectors went around throughout the day to check if the orders were being executed. The garbage bags were collected more often than before. Residents who left loose objects outside were fined promptly.
Neither the inspectors nor the garbage collectors understood the reason. They were never given an answer because even their bosses were unaware of the sudden strange directive. The residents fretted, and several of them filed court cases citing unnecessary interference in their private lives. But not one resident broke the confidentiality agreement for over two months. Both Sandra and Louisa agreed that this was extraordinary.
Colin Fuller was the DIMA coordinator for machinery and transportation. He got in touch with the National Railway Network and the London Underground. He first met Phil Jowell, Operations Manager of the National Railway Network.
“How much time would it take to evacuate about a hundred thousand people from Devon?” Colin asked Phil.
“Thirty days?”
“Thirty days?” Colin asked in surprise.
“Yes, at the rate at which trains come and go from Devon.”
“Not the normal rate. But if you were to do it in a few days?”
“Two days if all other train services in all neighboring counties were stopped.”
“That sounds better.”
“But why are you asking this? Are you anticipating some flood or earthquake?”
“No,” Colin said.
“Is a stray satellite going to fall in Devon?”
“No. We are carrying out an experiment in DIMA. We haven’t had such a big evacuation so far.”
“Okay,” Phil said, satisfied at Colin’s answer. “Let me know if such an eventuality arises. I would be glad to play some role. Haven’t had some adventure since leaving school.”
Next, Colin went to Camila Carmel, the Operations Manager of London Underground. “How long will it take to evacuate everyone from Central London to the outskirts of London?” he asked her.
“One day if we stop all incoming trains?”
“Just one day?”
“Yes, in all we carry nearly half a million commuters every day.”
“And can the evacuees stay on the train for a day?”
“Well only a quarter of them. Others would have to leave the train for the train to return and bring more passengers. The passengers in the last trip could stay on the train. The ventilation is good enough for people to spend long lengths of time underground.”
“That is more efficient than the National Rail,” Colin said.
“For emergencies, don’t depend only on the National Rail. Go to the private services also.”
“I’ll do that,” Colin said.
His next appointments were with the private train services. In all, he met five of them. All of them, including Camilla, were left wondering if DIMA was to undergo a major overhaul in the near future.
One day, Colin reached Swindon to meet Al. It was lunch time, and Al was in the canteen with Samantha. “Hi, I’m Colin from DIMA,” he said, pulling a chair at the table where Al and Samantha were seated.
Al remembered Colin’s face from the meetings, but he had forgotten his name.
“What brings you here, Colin?” Al said.
“What else but our common mission,” Colin replied.
“What exactly from the common mission?” Samantha asked. She knew that this would be the question from Al after he had swallowed what he had in his mouth. Al nodded his head.
“Will magnets have a counter-gravity effect?” Colin asked, showing his identity card to Al.
“Do you want to float a huge magnet over London?” Samantha asked, laughing.
“Not all over London,” Colin said. “Only above some people’s head to ensure that their brains remain inside.”
“Well, theoretically, it is possible to counter the gravitational pull of the comets using magnets,” Al said.
“We might have to use magnets to secure the important buildings. We would not be able to take everything out of the buildings. It would make more sense to leave them inside. To ensure that the gravitational pull doesn’t affect them, we could put large magnets on the roofs. This could ensure that important things don’t fly to the ceiling and break when falling down.”
“You can try that, but it may not be completely effective.”
“Why?”
“While most of the gravitational pull would be from the top, there would be some pull from the sides, too, when the comets are not straight overhead.”
“Enclosing full buildings would be nearly impossible. And we have many important buildings in Central London.”
“Okay,” Al said. “Try just securing from the top.”
Colin left for London and drew up a list of the buildings that he needed to secure. He got their maps and took measurements of their roofs. He also got in touch with the five biggest steel factories in the UK.
Jess Horton was responsible for collection and dissemination of information. In some ways, her work was one of the easiest. She took detailed notes at the meetings. She took individual briefings from others if she felt she needed further details. She zeroed in on three television channels, three radio stations and two newspapers that could be used to disseminate information after it was decided that the news could be made public. She collected ten CDs of telephone numbers. Like everyone else, she had queries, which only Al could answer. She called Al one evening after work.
“Hi, Al, this is Jess from DIMA,” she said.
“Hi, Jess,” Al said although he could not recollect meeting her.
“Would people not be safe if they stay indoors?”
“Code please,” Al said.
“ZERGUK,” Jess replied.
“Okay. What was your question?”
“Would people be safe if they stay indoors in a tightly secured building?”
“I don’t think so.”
“You said that mostly objects up to a hundred kilograms would go up in the air. But if someone is inside, will he not just float near the ceiling and then fall down when the comets pass?”
“First, falling from the ceiling could itself be dangerous. Then, if you are hanging in zero-gravity for a long time, it may have physiological consequence. The roof is no protection if you are on the highest floor. Even if you are not on the highest floor, there is no guarantee that you would not go up through the window or the door even if they are closed. Remember that you are dealing with comets, which are celestial bodies.”
“Clear,” Jess said, satisfied at the answer. She knew what to reply to people who could insist on staying indoors and not leaving the area of zero-gravity.
Jeremy Rodgers was the man for handling most critical emergencies. He was to handle last minute developments - accidents, casualties, surprises, shocks, broken bones, and injuries. He did not have to do too many things himself since all emergencies would be handled by the emergency services. However, he had to know the drill well. He updated his information from first-aid to hospitals. During the event, he would also be the main supplier of information to those needing emergency services and to those providing them.
Exactly two months and twelve days after her meeting with Al, Sandra was getting ready to go to the office in the morning. She heard something on the television in the dining room that caught her attention. She ran out of her bedroom.
“Jack, what was the last news about?”
Jack was eating his breakfast and reading newspaper. Obviously, he was not attentive. “I did not hear that carefully, darling,” he said. “But there was some talk about some binary comets.”
Sandra sat down in the dining room waiting for a re-run of the news after an hour. She was correct. The news had been broken. A small footage of Al was also shown.
Globalized world and human psychology, she thought. In these days of information technology, nothing is a secret. The only satisfaction I have is that this leakage didn’t happen straight away after we started our work.
Turning around, she said, “This is going to cause panic.”
Jack was not there. He had finished his breakfast and left for work.
Sandra called a meeting immediately after reaching office.
“YTV has broken the news,” she said excitedly.
“This has happened very late,” Jess said.
“Yes,” Jeremy said. “I was wondering how is it that people know about it in the USA and not in the UK.”
“In USA, the news never went further than Al’s television interview and the documentary film. The government issued a gag order. The Ohio Space Center said that the information had been provided by an insane scientist and was false. The news did not spread beyond Ohio and a few other places,” Jess said.
“I always felt that whosoever I was dealing with had an inkling about the event. I might be wrong,” Colin said.
“Same with me, too,” Joe said.
“What do we do now?” Sandra said.
“I don’t think there is any reason to panic,” Jeremy said. “Now that the cat is out of the bag, we’ll have to provide accurate information to stop rumors spreading.”
“That’s right,” Sandra said. “All of you can continue with your work. I’ll discuss with Mr. Thomson and Dr. Wardle.”
“And with Al,” Jess said, smiling.
“It’s obvious,” Sandra said. “He is our linchpin.”
The group dispersed. Sandra called Thomson. “Good morning, Sandra,” Thomson said. “I’m sure you are worrying how to deal with the news.”
“You already know,” Sandra said. She was always appreciative of Thomson’s alertness.
“That is my job,” Thomson said.
“I was thinking of taking the opinions of Al and Dr. Wardle.”
“I’ve spoken to Dr. Wardle.”
“What does he say?”
“He said that we should let things take their own course. He will be here in an hour.”
“What about Al?”
“Al cannot leave Swindon. Dr. Wardle said he would consult Al before he left for London.”
“Okay, so let me know when Dr. Wardle is with you.”
Sandra’s phone rang after forty-five minutes.
“Dr. Wardle is here. Come over,” Thomson said.
When Sandra reached Thomson’s office, he was in a heated discussion with Dr. Wardle.
“Dr. Wardle says that Al is almost at the end of his calculations. He has a more precise measurement of the impact area. The northern part is closer to Mayfair than Hendon.”
“That is good news. The area is much smaller than before,” Sandra said.
“Al will need a day or two before he is able to tell the exact area,” Dr. Wardle said.
“Good,” Thomson said.
“We have a day or two to handle the media,” Sandra said.
“I don’t think so. Now that the media has latched onto this, they’ll not leave us till the event is over,” Thomson said.
There was a buzz on Thomson’s phone. As he listened, his face became serious. Putting down the phone, he said, “That was the Prime Minister’s Advisor. The Prime Minister wants a meeting with Dr. Wardle and me after half an hour.”
