Gravity Versus Gravity, page 2
Al gave a stern look at Sue. He said, “Sue, this is not the kind of answer I expect from a good friend. I know that this is not a technical error.”
“Okay,” Sue said. “If you are that sure, let me have another look.”
She put on her glasses again, moved her hair from her forehead and leaned to have a closer look at the computer screen. She gazed at the screen for a full one minute.
She had her answer after looking for the first ten seconds. She stayed there for an extra fifty seconds for Al to look at her. But Al continued to look at the screen through the small space between Sue’s face and the computer.
Sue realized that it was not the right day to tray to grab Al’s attention. She slowly turned her head. Al was still staring at the screen. She wanted to say, if you had looked at me instead, I would have given you an answer that you would have liked.
“So, what do you think?” Al asked.
She looked at Al blankly for a few seconds and said, “Al, my answer remains the same. You saw how closely and attentively I looked at the blob. I’m sorry to say that it’s not your blob but of the computer or of the telescope.”
“I should have called someone more knowledgeable,” Al said.
Sue could not take it any longer. She said bluntly, “Al, your shift is over. Go home and catch some sleep. When you come back tomorrow, your blob would be gone.”
She hurried towards the exit and before Al could say anything, she had banged the door and left.
Al sat down on the chair. He knew about Sue’s feelings towards him. He always had. But, he never had the courage to tell her that he treated her as a colleague and the only feelings he had towards her were of friendship. On a different day, he would have gone to Sue and apologized to her.
Al did not go home. He printed out the charts several times. He switched on his mega-computer to process data more precisely. One thing was clear - the blob was not there a day before. It had suddenly appeared from nowhere in a day.
The easy way would have been to wait for the next day. If the blob was gone, it was what Sue had said it was. And if it was still there, it would be Al’s win.
Al did not want to wait till the next day. He was determined to find the answer before he left. What use going home now when the only thing that will be on my mind would be this mystery? I’ll not be able to sleep. So, better to remain sleepless at the Center, he thought.
Al called the telescope station. He could have taken a shorter route of calling one of the other scientists to have a look at the images. However, after the experience with Sue, he did not want to take this risk. He wanted to reach his answer by the process of elimination.
At the telescope station, the stand-by operator, John Brown was on duty. Al knew John well and was always appreciative of his expertise. Al and a small group of scientists, who were at all times kind to John, were familiar with the reason behind his part-time work at the Center.
John had spent his whole life looking at the sky when it became dark. He had become a night bird and could sleep only during daytime. To be a full-time operator, one needed to be present at the Center during normal working hours. That was just not possible in case of John. Al knew that John had twice as much knowledge as all other telescope operators at the Center taken together. So, he was glad that John was at the telescope station when he called.
“Hey, John. Is there anything wrong with the telescope?” Al asked.
“Perfectly all right,” John replied. “Have my word for it. You couldn’t have called on a worse day. We completed the annual maintenance two days ago. We found some problems with the focus. The boys sorted them out to perfection. Some of the lenses are new. We now have a better telescope than when it was brand new.”
John paused for a moment. Al had never called earlier to check about the telescope. It was usually to check how John was. John continued, “But why are you checking about it at this hour? Are you up to some interdepartmental transfer?”
“No, nothing of that sort. I’m happy where I’m. Given a choice, I would retire from the same place.”
“God forbid, Al. You are not born to retire from a small room with three other scientists. You are a gem, not just of the Center, not just of Ohio but of the entire country. And I can see how high you’ll rise before you retire. Now, tell me how I can help you.”
“Found something unusual today. This blurred blob that I’ve been seeing today is everywhere. And it’s like something I’ve never seen before,” Al said.
“If you cannot make anything out of it, it has to be an error with the computer.”
“Not you, too, John,” Al said, exhaling heavily.
John understood that Al believed the blob was not an error. He said, “Okay. You might have discovered something that no one has discovered so far. Crosscheck at your end.”
“Will do, John,” Al said. “Good night and thanks for taking the call.”
“You are always welcome, friend,” John said, putting down the receiver.
Al shut down all the computers and booted them again. He took out fresh printouts and carefully checked them. After three hours of peering through the images and the printouts, his eyes started to get drowsy, but he was not getting anywhere. When he was having a second look at the images, he decided suddenly that he had had enough. He shut off the lights and went home.
He had earlier called Simon Miller and told him not to come when his shift began. “I plan to be here till the morning,” he had told him. And when he left, his mind wandered from one chart to another and from one screenshot to the next one. He forgot to tell Simon that he had changed his mind and was leaving.
Sue stared from the adjacent cubicle as Al banged the door behind him. She did not often get to see Al behaving erratically. Simon was not yet in, and Al was already leaving. Sue feared spending the next half of her shift alone, but she was more scared to ask Al to wait till Simon came. As soon as the door closed, she picked up the phone and called Simon.
On his way back home, Al could not take his mind off the blob. At the traffic junctions, the lights reminded him of the blob. The water pools reminded him of the blob. When he saw circular shapes on roadside advertisements, his mind automatically drifted to the blurry blob. His side-view mirrors looked like the blob to him. He remembered the blob every time his eyes fell on the wheels of a car.
At the gas station, he almost filled diesel instead of petrol. He forgot to take the change, and the cashier had to run after him to give it to him. He changed his lane without noticing that a car was coming at full speed from behind. The other driver shouted, “Hey, man. Better take some rest at this hour of the night.”
Everything seems to be going wrong today. I hope when I cuddle up to Sam, I’ll be able to get some sleep, Al thought as he turned the corner towards his home.
Sam Reed had been Al’s girlfriend for more than three years. It was the first time that he had been able to have a steady relationship. He had wanted to propose to her several times during their second year together. But, every time, he had had a feeling that he should give their relationship a little more time. In the third year, he never had the urge and wondered if love was about reaching a plateau and staying there.
Reaching home, Al found that the lights were off. A slip hung precariously on the front door. Al did not bother to remove it. Sam had scribbled - Going to my parents tonight. I’ll return on Monday. I’ve cooked food and put it in the refrigerator. Love, Sam.
As Al opened the door, the slip flew away and landed on the stairs. Al threw his bag on the floor, took out a piece of pizza and gulped it down with a can of beer.
Al’s father had always told him that he should not take a life changing decision when he was not in a normal state of mind. But, Al could not help thinking about his future with Sam. Did he want to spend his life with a girl, who did not get worried when he came home late? Could he stay forever with someone, who did not consider it important enough to inform beforehand about her plans? Did he still love her? Even if he did, was it sufficient enough?
Al took out another can of beer and finished it in one go. He could not stop himself till both the blob and Sam were out of his mind.
When he got up in the morning, he found he had fallen asleep on the couch. The television was still on. He had forgotten to switch off the lights in the kitchen. The leftover beer from the last can had spilled over on the carpet.
Al had not been so careless in recent years. Sam had brought sanity in his life. He had become dependent on her. He now found it difficult to manage even a single day without her. When she was not at home, he felt a void. Is that love or habit? he thought, getting up from the couch. His head was throbbing due to the hangover.
The phone was ringing. Holding his head, Al reached for the receiver.
“Hi Al,” Sam said. “Sorry for leaving in a haste. Mom has broken her arm after a bad slip in the bathroom.”
“Yes,” Al said.
“Are you ok?” Sam asked.
“Yes.”
“Upset that I’m not with you for the weekend?”
“No.”
“Why don’t you come over? Mom and Dad would be happy to see you.
“Can’t.”
“I’ll try to come tomorrow morning if I can.”
“Ok.”
“Bye, love,” Sam said. “Take care.”
“Bye,” Al said.
Sam sensed that all was not okay with Al. She did not have to look at his face to know what was going on in his mind.
The blob had not deserted Al in his alcohol-fueled sleep. He had not been able to sleep as well as he would have wanted to. His sleep had been broken several times with the thought of the blob.
The turbulence in his head about the unsolved space mystery became stronger after the aspirin had decreased his headache. The blob was in his head while he was shaving, brushing his teeth or cooking the breakfast.
Just as most of those working at the Center, Al had two days off for the weekend. Usually, he did not go to work on the weekends. He spent them going out with Sam and doing some exercises on his home-gym to bring back his body to normal after five days of sedentary work.
But, that weekend was unlike any other weekend. After the breakfast, Al could not hold himself any further. He took out his car and was at the Center in an hour. His headache was gone.
“Al?” Bob Cox, the first weekend substitute, said in surprise. “Since when have you started loving your work so much?”
“I had to check something,” Al replied, trying to avoid eye contact with Bob.
“What?” Bob said still surprised.
“I saw a blob yesterday. Did you not notice it?”
“Yes, I did. I mean, Bob did see the blob. Either it’s a supernova or an error in the secondary mirror of the telescope.”
“I think it’s a comet,” Al said, still trying not to look at Bob.
“You have gone mad,” Bob said. “How can it be a comet? We would have known its appearance even before the blob would have appeared on the computer screen.”
“Look at this,” Al said, showing the charts that he had printed.
“I still cannot believe that it’s a comet. These are errors in the mirror. Did you call the telescope station?”
“Yes, I did. They confirmed that everything is okay.”
“Have a look at the Messier Catalogue. I’m quite sure it’s a dim nebula.”
“It’s not the nebula that is dim,” Al said, finally looking at Bob with some scorn on his face.
“What do you mean?”
“You should start from grade six again. We don’t have nebulas in our solar system. Did you notice the distance?”
“Even the distance is an error,” Bob replied. “And as far as studies are concerned, you better start getting some training from the fresh entrants in the Center. You are starting to forget your fundamentals.”
Al thought it better to devote his time researching more about the blob than arguing with Bob. He went into the small library attached to their Center. He took out the full database of comets and asteroids. He then took out the catalogues of recently discovered comets and asteroids.
The database and the catalogues provided little information to justify Al’s conviction. Al started to think that in some ways, Sue was correct. There were at least a hundred comets hurtling towards the sun in the next two years, but all of them were small. Most of the comets would meet the same fate. The sun-grazing comets would reach near the sun and get pulled by the sun’s gravity. These comets would then die as they got engulfed in the heat of the sun. Some of the comets could hit various planets, including earth. Those with the likelihood of hitting earth were so tiny that they would get ripped by the earth’s atmosphere into meteoric showers. Only a few of them would go around the sun. A dozen of them. But all these were small - too small to appear as a blob on the computer.
If we have only small comets, why is this one looking large? Al thought. He took the database and the catalogues and returned to his room.
He compared the charts with those from the previous day. The blob seemed to have moved some distance. That is good news, Al thought. This is now less likely to be a technical error.
However, when he calculated the distance, he found that the blob had travelled less than eighty thousand kilometers in a day.
How can that be possible? Al thought. How can a comet be so slow when it’s so close to the center of the solar system? The well-known theories of comets and asteroids were not making any sense.
After nearly ten hours of intensive work, Al started doubting himself. He was not heading anywhere. Perhaps I’m wrong, he thought. Maybe it’s not a comet at all.
It was nine o’clock in the night. Al’s mobile phone rang. He was recalculating the speed of the comet a fifth time. He did not pick up the phone. The phone rang again and then again.
Al finally picked up the phone irritated. “Hello,” he shouted.
“What has happened to you? Why are you not picking up the phone and why are you shouting?” Sam said at the other end.
Al did not reply.
Sam continued, “Why did you not come to my parents’ place?”
“I’ve too much work,” Al replied.
“Don’t tell me that you have even spent the whole Saturday in office.”
“I have,” Al said.
“What is so urgent and important?” Sam asked frustrated.
“I’ll tell you later,” Al said and put down the phone.
Sam called again. However, this time Al did not pick up the phone.
Al got the same answers after the fifth recalculation. He decided to go to Chris Bailey. Chris had been his supervisor when he had joined the Center as a research assistant. Chris was considered a walking encyclopedia on comets and asteroids, at least as far as their names were concerned. Al did not consider Chris to be a very trustworthy and ethical person, but he was always in awe of Chris’s knowledge.
It was not unusual for Chris to work during nights, over weekends and, many times, without a break. However, his room was locked when Al went to see him.
Al called Chris.
“Chris,” he said apologetically, “sorry for bothering you now but have you ever come across a comet traveling at a speed of less than one hundred thousand kilometers a day when it’s near the asteroid belt?”
“That cannot be a comet,” Chris replied confidently. “I can narrate you the names of the comets that have been discovered in the last five years and those which will come near to earth in the next century. But I’m too sleepy now to do that.”
“But that is not what the figures from the charts tell. They show that it’s a comet.”
“What is the speed?”
“Seventy-eight thousand kilometers per day. I know that this is too slow for a comet.”
“Yes, you are right. If that is the speed, it cannot be a comet. Check for telescopic errors.”
“I’ve done that. I’ve also checked for any technical errors. Everything - the computers, the server, the printers, the AI machine and the simulator. Each one is working fine.”
“Then let me go to sleep,” Chris said. “I’ve spent five sleepless days and nights in office.” He put down the phone.
Al was left alone. He had to prove himself correct. Years of experience and recent research were telling him that he was dealing with a comet and nothing else. He had to explain the anomaly.
The next day, Al brought the charts and data to Chris. He had also taken out some photographic frames.
“Chris, something seems wrong,” he said.
“I don’t have time,” Chris said.
“But this is really interesting. At least I’ve not come across any such thing.”
“Al, please wait for a week and then I would be able to examine the data.”
“By that time, it may be too late.”
“Too late?” Chris asked in surprise, looking up.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“By that time the comet could crash into earth. I mean, it could be an asteroid.”
“Crash?” Chris again looked up. “Why are you joking? You are an intelligent scientist. If comets and asteroids could crash at such short notices, we have not been doing justice to our jobs.”
“Okay, it may not crash in a week. But it may be on its way to do so. You have saved humanity several times. This is yet another chance to do so.”
Chris was part of the international team that had worked on deflecting asteroid 5381 from its collision course with earth. His role was limited to guiding the missile for a day after it had left the earth’s atmosphere, but he had never admitted this to anyone. Several scientists and Al were aware of this but had never spoken about it in front of Chris.
After Al had alluded to asteroid 5381, Chris could not ignore him anymore. He said, “I would not have looked at this thing at all. But now that you are talking about saving the humanity and since I’m the only one in the Center who has some experience on this, I cannot postpone this examination. But let me tell you again. And this is the opinion of the most experienced comet man of the Center. What you have brought to me is anything but a comet.”
