Gravity Versus Gravity, page 3
“No harm checking with your own eyes. If you look at the data and tell me so, I’ll leave without a word.”
“If you had told me this, I would have done it long ago. I’m a man of few words. And I like men of fewer words.”
Al thought I can prove it wrong right away. I’ll start talking about how great his work is. And he will go on and on. He will not stop me if I go on flattering him with achievements that he has never made.
Chris took the hard disk from Al and connected to his computer. Al came closer and leaned towards the computer.
“Now, don’t do that, Al. Have confidence in me. I’ll only tell you the truth. That is what I’ve done throughout my life. And I don’t want to break that rule in the five minutes that I’m spending with you.”
Al stepped aside and pretended to look at everything else but Chris’s computer. What Chris didn’t notice was that Al had even managed to remember the passwords of the two programs that Chris had opened.
Chris had a quick look at the data. The program ran for a few seconds and gave the results.
“The results are ambiguous. It looks like a sun-grazing comet to me,” he said. Then he looked up and continued, “If at all it’s a comet. Now take your data and come next week. I’ve more important work to do. If I go on wasting more time, I’ll have more sleepless nights.”
Chris pushed back the charts and frames that Al was thrusting towards him. Some of them fell on the floor. He did not bother to pick them up and moved to the other corner of the room waiting for Al to leave.
Al was constrained to take a drastic step. While leaving Chris’s room, he took the keys of the room lying on the table. He quickly went out, took out his car, went at full speed to the locksmith market and got a duplicate key done.
Al was back in Chris’s room in less than thirty minutes. Chris was at the corner table working on his computer. He turned around when the door opened. Seeing Al, he almost got up from his chair ready to scowl. “You are here again,” he said.
“I forgot to thank you,” Al said.
“You could have done that over the phone.”
“I’ve been taught never to do that. I would rather not thank than thank over the phone.”
“Okay, I accept your thanks. You may please leave now. I need at least three days of uninterrupted work to do what I’m doing. How I wish I could spend time on doing useless work like you.”
“Thanks for the compliments, Chris. Good luck with your assignment.”
Chris turned around and continued to work on his computer. Al took out the key from his pocket and quietly put it on the table. Chris never noticed its disappearance.
Al came back to Chris’s room at night when Chris had left for dinner. He had ruffled his hair and put a cap like the one Chris wore on that day. He put on the black jacket of the Center that usually lay idle in his office. Chris could be seen around only in the Center’s jacket. He wore it when he went to the market. He put it on when he went to drop his children to the school. He did not part with it when going to a restaurant, either. He loved the recognition that the jacket brought. It could get discounts, make strangers smile at him and bring help whenever needed.
Al was the opposite. When in the Center, he did not like that he should be flaunting his jacket to show his senior status. He was happy when the cleaning woman talked to him as someone from the same family or the carpenter did not hesitate to share his personal problems with him. Putting the Center’s jacket on was a good way of saying those lower down in the pecking order to stay at a distance. When outside the Center, Al wanted to come across as a normal human being enjoying life as everyone else did.
Al did not look at the camera at the corner of the corridor. He hunched a little to increase similarity with Chris. The lock opened in one click.
The locksmith has done a good job. This lock is the only of its kind that I’ve seen in my entire life. As strange and unique as the master, Al thought.
He quickly got inside and bolted the door. He went straight to Chris’s computer, fed the data and waited. He heard footsteps in the corridor after less than a minute. He switched off the computer screen and hid under the table. The footsteps stopped near the door. There was a knock, and after some time, the person tried to look inside through the window pane. And then Al heard the footsteps disappear into the distance.
It’s good that Chris is a strange fellow. It must be usual that he sits in the office without keeping the lights on or doesn’t open the door when it’s knocked, Al thought, carefully coming out from under the table.
Al switched on the computer screen. The results were in front of him. The mass that he got did not match the mass of the comet. The trajectory was neither elliptic nor parabolic. All he could make out was that the object would crash into the sun just as Chris had said.
Nearly futile effort, Al thought. I’d have thought that Chris’s programs are more sophisticated.
Al switched off the computer, locked the door from outside, hunched and quickly left the building. He did not meet anyone on the way out.
The next day, Al calculated the distance once again. It was in the asteroid zone. The comet had not picked up speed. The mass was different from what he had got the previous day.
While the constant speed was surprising, the variable mass did not have any possible explanation.
Al scoured the space websites and journals. He did not find a single mention about the comet. Either I’m lucky, or the new lenses on the telescope are too good, Al thought.
Sam returned on Thursday. She called Al several times at work. Al would speak a line or two and then find an excuse to get back to work. Sam came back home early. She waited for nearly five hours before Al returned. “Al,” she said, “you are behaving strangely. Mom was upset that you did not even call her. Her injury was very bad. She was in a lot of pain. The doctor has advised complete rest for a month.”
“I would have called her, but I had a lot of work.”
“You had work earlier, too. Remember, when we had just met, you dropped me at my parents’ place on the eve of your seminar, then came home to work on your paper, which you presented the next day, having slept only three hours.”
Al did not have an answer. He knew that he was behaving strangely. He was obsessed with the comet. He was less bothered that his relationship with Sam had nosedived in just one week and had started showing signs of a crack.
“I’m behaving strangely because that crazy comet is behaving strangely.”
“Al, while you cannot control how that comet behaves, you can at least control yourself,” Sam said. She ran her fingers through Al’s hair.
“Okay, I’m sorry,” Al said, hugging Sam. “The last thing I want is my work adversely influencing my personal life. But I can’t help it. I’ve not been so baffled at work since the time I began working at the Center. All the expertise of the Center and my full decade of knowledge seems to be just leading nowhere.”
“You are an intelligent fellow, Al,” Sam said. “But no matter how intelligent a person is, the brain needs rest. A calm brain can resolve issues in minutes which an agitated one cannot in years.”
“I get the point. I’ll need both rest and immense luck to solve what I’m at right now.”
The next morning, when Sam got up, she was glad that the sun was still not up. But, Al was not in the bed. When she came out to the hall, she found that Al had left.
She found a note near the television. Sam, I’m going to office early. Got some more work. Your breakfast is on the table. See you at Oliver’s today evening at six. I’ve booked a table in my name.
Sam had wanted to call Al and shout at him, but Al’s note made her smile. She loved Oliver’s. And the last time they had a dinner together outside was almost three months ago.
Sam was at the restaurant sharp at six. Al was not waiting at the door as he usually did. Sam went inside. Al was not at the table that he had reserved.
At fifteen minutes past six, Sam thought that she would give a call to Al. Instead, she ordered a drink for herself. At half past six, she thought that Al would be there at any minute. It was not in his habit to be late. She thought of having one more look at the entrance to check if she was mistaken. Instead, she waved at the waiter and ordered another drink.
Sam had started to enjoy the music without Al’s company. At a quarter to seven, someone tapped on her shoulder. “Hi Sam, what are you doing alone?” she heard.
Sam turned around. It was Andy Rivera, the manager from her previous job. Andy was a cheerful person and had always been helpful to Sam at work. Sam was happy to see him.
“Hi Andy,” Sam said. “Nice to see you after a long time. You have lost a lot of weight.”
“Yes, I have and some height too.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I was on a weight reduction program. After three months, I found that I had lost fifty pounds and three centimeters in height. My dietician said that as I lost weight, I also lost the fat between my vertebrae reducing my height.”
“That’s strange. Maybe you should not have lost weight at all.”
“Yes, I know. I look so tiny. But I did not have a choice between losing weight and staying the way I always was. The doctor gave me an ultimatum. He said that I would not live beyond fifty with my weight. I could have neglected that ultimatum, too. But when my fiancé said that she could leave me soon if I kept on burgeoning, I had to do something.”
Andy saw a young woman entering the restaurant. “Okay Sam,” he said. “My fiancé has come. If she sees me merrily talking to a beautiful girl, she may come up with another reason to leave me soon. See you later.”
Sam looked at her watch. It was almost seven. She looked at Andy. He had put his hands across his fiancé’s waist, and the two of them were swaying merrily as they walked towards their table.
Sam was not hungry. And she knew that she would get uncontrollably drunk if she had another glass. She waved her hand to call the waiter. The waiter did not notice her. But Al, who had appeared from the back door, waved back.
He came running to the table. “Sorry, Sam,” he said, planting a kiss.
“I was about to leave,” Sam said. “You could have at least called to say that you’d be late.”
“Very sorry. I’m very close to making a breakthrough. I just lost track of time.”
“How many times will this continue? How many times will you say sorry and still continue to behave the same?”
“Okay, let’s not spoil the evening and order some drinks.”
“I’ve already had two.”
“Have another,” Al said, waving at the waiter. “A dry martini for me and another glass of red wine for my girl.”
Al turned towards Sam and said, “How is your mother?”
“She is fine. She missed you. Even when I was leaving home, she said that she would have been happy to see you.”
“I’m sorry for that. It doesn’t happen very often that I’ve found an eccentric comet, which no one believes is a comet.”
The waiter brought the drinks. Sam did not want to ruin her evening talking about Al’s work. Al never got tired talking about astronomy. And although Sam never told Al so, she was never fond of listening about his work. She did it only for Al’s sake. But a dinner date was a strict No, No for her to talk of anything but personal and sweet things about life.
“You know who I met today?” Sam said, changing the topic.
“Who?”
“My former boss, Andy. I could barely recognize him. He has lost a lot of weight. Haven’t you seen him?”
“Yes, we met him twice in your previous office. He is a sweet guy. His weight suits his personality. I cannot imagine how he looks now. Is he bubbly as before?”
“Yes, he is still the same but for his weight. He must be somewhere around. I’ll show him, and you’ll not believe how different he looks.” Sam looked around the room. “There he is,” she said, pointing towards a group of people.
Al turned around to look at Andy. “But, where is he?” he said, stretching his neck.
“There, behind the big man. Can’t you see him? I can see him from here.”
“But I cannot see him from where I’m sitting.”
“Maybe the big man is hiding him. If it were the original Andy, you could have seen him even if he was behind the big man.”
Big man! Al thought. He had received his solution.
“Even Andy was a big man till some time ago,” Sam continued.
“Eureka!” Al said, jumping up from his chair.
“I told you that you would not believe it when you see Andy.”
“Andy?” Al said.
“Yes, Andy.”
“Well, I still can’t see him.”
“But why did you jump up?”
“I just found the answer to my question.”
“Which question?”
“The comet.”
“The comet?”
“Yes, it’s two comets. To be exact, a pair of comets or binary comets. A second comet is hiding behind the first. Have to run to do my calculations. See you tomorrow.”
Al gulped down his drink, gave Sam a kiss and before she could say anything, he was out of the restaurant on his way to office again.
“You are back. You left barely an hour ago after spending more than twelve hours,” Rob Gray, the night-shift space scientist, said.
Rob had been Al’s companion scientist for almost two years. They were working jointly on three missions. Al had tried to get along with Rob, but no matter how hard he tried, he was not able to understand Rob. They had different approaches as scientists, and their personalities were poles apart.
“Yes, I’ve hit on something new. I need to recalculate.”
“Why don’t you leave this comet? For all you know, it seems more like an asteroid to me.”
“An asteroid doesn’t move that slow.”
“It might then be a distant nebula.”
“I’ve been already told about that. It’s not a nebula. I’ve calculated the distance correctly. We are talking something in the proximity and not light years away. And I’ll prove that we are dealing with a comet.”
Al started to do his calculations to find the exact orbit of the comet. He added mass to the hidden comet. As he added mass, his orbit became more defined.
“The blob was blurred because it’s not one but two comets. I’m almost on the verge of proving this. I can even say that the smaller comet is behind, the larger one. The tails of the two comets are merged,” Al said to Rob. Rob did not answer.
Al added almost three-fourth the mass of the main comet. The orbit and speed were making more sense now. The next step was to distribute the total mass between the comets.
Al made calculations with various mass and distance combinations of the two comets. It was like trying to balance four balls on a straight rod. Sometimes, the orbit would become very round, and sometimes it would look very elliptical.
Al could have made faster progress if he had asked Rob to help. But he did not want to. He also believed that if he requested Rob, it was unlikely that he would help.
Al was not the kind of person who was jealous of other’s success or wanted to take credit for all that was done by a team. But this was a special moment. If he was correct, he wanted to prove this alone. If he was almost there, he wanted to be alone when he was there.
Al continued adjusting the masses and distance. He would reach a dead end and then start all over again.
“I had not thought that this would be so difficult. It’s a matter of simple permutation and combination, but when we are talking about astronomical objects, the numbers can really be tricky,” Al said as though Rob was hearing him.
Al did not notice the silence in the room. The clicking of the keyboard had stopped. The hustling of feet was absent. There was no rustle of papers being picked up from one place and put onto another. The printer sat idle. The television was running only one channel. All that was audible was the ticking of the old clock behind Al.
Al was finally able to get what seemed like the correct proportion of masses. He slowly started increasing the distance between the two comets. And then within a minute, he had another eureka moment.
“That’s it,” he exclaimed and said, “Look, Rob.” He turned around. Rob had left. His shift was over.
The door opened at this moment. Ellie Jordan, who was to replace Rob in the next shift, was at the door looking at Al with surprise.
“And I had expected Rob to be here,” Ellie said.
“I, too,” Al said, getting up from his chair.
He was in two minds whether to share his discovery with Ellie. Ellie was a carbon copy of Rob in the way she behaved or was perpetually disinterested in everything that did not concern her.
Al picked up a Conference Request Form. Ellie looked curiously at him. She had almost forgotten that there was something called a Conference Request Form. She had filled them twice at the beginning of her career, and after both, the requests had been rejected, she had never bothered again to request for a conference.
Ellie said, “I did not know that we still had CRFs in our room. Seems like you are up to something.”
“Not really. I’m not yet decided. I’ll see if I really need it.”
Al did not fill the form in the room. He went out, sat down at the table at the far end of the corridor where he could barely read the small letters on the form, filled it up and dropped in the box in front of the Director’s office before heading home.
Al did not return home on Saturday. He went to his parents’ place and spent the Sunday, too, with them. Sam did not call. Al was scared to call her. He wanted her to cool down before he saw her again.
Dr. William Blackstone, the Director, called him on Monday as soon as he entered the office. He was not amused that Al had put in a request for a conference.
“Look, Al,” Dr. Blackstone said, “we have a board meeting after three days. This is the last time I’m calling you to a conference. In the previous conference, you goofed up with your forecast of solar flares. If you do the same thing again, I’ll ban you for a year from making any conference request.”
