Gravity Versus Gravity, page 33
“No,” Thorpe replied. “It was a bicycle. It fell on the farmer’s tractor. ”
“I’ve heard of tractors hitting bicycles. This is the first time that a bicycle hit a tractor.”
“You should have seen the condition of the tractor. The farmer was lucky he escaped unhurt. He would have been the one and only casualty of the zero-gravity event.”
The next ten minutes were like being on a treasure hunt.
Dr. Wardle would see something from his window and say, “A box would have fallen here.”
And then Samantha would say, “Look here, maybe an iron chain fell here. Looks like it fell in one piece.”
Then, Thorpe would say, “If you look to the right, you’ll see several holes. Those holes are deep. Several sharp pieces of concrete may have fallen all at once.”
Al was quiet for most of the journey. He was noting down the coordinates of the places where large objects had fallen.
“Is there a pattern?” Dr. Wardle asked Al.
“Not one that I can think of till now. The objects have fallen randomly throughout. The only thing that I notice is that if an object fell, several objects followed it right away. Then the debris would travel some distance before this happened again.”
“Look down and tell me what do you notice below,” Thorpe said.
“There are no dents here. Nothing seems to have fallen down.”
“Yes, no brown patches. No broken trees. All houses at the end of the farm look intact.”
“The pool of water,” Al said.
“Yes, Al is right,” Thorpe said. “Look at the other places where there is water. They are clear. This is the only muddy pool of water. For the first time, a large amount of water went down all at once here. The water would have fallen like it fell from a three-kilometer-high waterfall. That explains why the water stayed in one place.”
“Phenomenal!” Samantha said. “All these evidences may disappear some time from now. How lucky of me to have seen them.”
“About two kilometers from here, we’ll see the first instance of damage very close to a house. This was the second person, who was very lucky to have escaped unhurt.”
“Did you observe anything unusual about the objects going down?” Al asked.
“In some places, the objects went down slowly. They fell for almost a minute and did not cause any damage on the ground.”
“The gravitational pull of the comets,” Dr. Wardle said.
“And, now, my dear lady and gentlemen, let me present you the most beautiful creation created out of destruction,” Thorpe said.
“The biggest crater?” Samantha asked.
“No, it’s a piece of art. Look at the tip of the hill to your right,” Thorpe said.
“We cannot see anything,” Dr. Wardle said.
“The hill is all grass from top to bottom. It’s about three hundred meters high. The peak is in the form of a sharp inverted V.”
“Yes, we see that,” Dr. Wardle said.
“And the inclined tree that you see just below the peak is not one that has grown on the hill. As I said, nothing grows there but grass. And you can see that the tree is the only one on the hill. It must be some hollow and not very heavy tree that either got uprooted because it was loosely fixed to the ground or someone chopped it and let it go up in the air.”
“You mean, in the zero-gravity area in London?”
“Yes. You, scientists, know better than me that the center of London was the only area from where the objects went up. That tree went up there and landed on the hill. As luck would have it, the tree landed in one piece with the trunk going down first.”
“One would have expected that the tree would have shredded to pieces as it shot downwards,” Dr. Wardle said.
“And that is something that did not happen. And if Al would let me do the talking, I want to explain the reason for this.”
“Please go ahead,” Al said, looking intently at the tree which indeed looked as though it had been planted near the peak and had grown precariously in an inclined position.
“The tree would have been ripped to pieces if it had been a normal fall from the skies. But as Al and I discussed just now, in some places along the path, the gravitational pull of the comets was strong. During such times, the pull was strong enough beyond the debris cloud to prevent any loose debris from having a free fall.”
“You should join us at the Swindon Center whenever you get bored of your pilot’s work,” Dr. Wardle told Thorpe.
“And we have Al’s vacancy coming up in the very near future,” Samantha said.
“I’m honored,” Thorpe said. “But I’m a very amateur scientist. What I’m telling you has mostly been gathered from listening to our DIMA officials.”
“You are humble,” Samantha said.
“So, to continue lest we get distracted and reach the other interesting places before I relate to you the real reason, let me finish off my story about the tree in one more sentence. The tree fell down with a gravitational force much less than 1G and did a soft landing in one piece.”
“We’ll reach an interesting place that I talked about earlier in about fifteen minutes. In the meantime, we’ll let Thorpe give some rest to his mouth and to our ears. If you continue looking on both sides, you’ll see evidence of several objects more which fell in this area,” McDonald said.
For the next ten minutes, only the sound from the helicopter’s engine could be heard. Dr. Wardle scoured the place to see signs of impact. So, did Samantha. Al spent more time making notes than looking out of the window.
“My dear lady and gentlemen, this is where it happened. We’ll fly in an inverted half circle forward. We’ll go down for about two hundred meters and then go up to the same level we are in now in about three kilometers,” Thorpe began again.
“Why?” Samantha asked.
“Because that is the path that the debris took in this area,” Thorpe replied.
“I see,” Samantha replied.
“You may be aware of this,” Thorpe said.
“Not at all,” Samantha said,
“No,” Dr. Wardle said.
“And not even you, Al?” Thorpe asked.
“I know. I followed the entire trajectory. This piece of information, however, was kept out from the live television coverage.”
“You are absolutely right. The DIMA people had the scare of their lives when this happened. Al would have been surprised, too. This was not expected. None of the calculations had shown that this would happen. Am I right, Al?”
“Yes, you are right. I never had an inkling that this could happen. The trajectory was very simple. Debris going up, flying and going down. This is where the binary comets caught us by surprise. The gravitational pull was to start decreasing about fifty kilometers from here, and the impact area was to be about seventy kilometers from here.”
“Very right again. But the debris started descending here. This was a freak. The gravitational pull of the comets started decreasing here for some reason we don’t know as of now. Or maybe earth’s gravitation pull is stronger here. Al will have to find out the right explanation in future. But the debris did start going down here. The descent was very slow. And after about five minutes, the debris started its ascent. I must also tell you that in this area, the speed of debris, too, was the slowest. Another thing that needs to be considered when analyzing the event.”
The helicopter had once again reached the highest point and flying in a nearly straight line.
“Fifteen more minutes and we’ll make the final descent,” Thorpe said. “In the meantime, my dear lady and gentlemen, you can get back to doing what you have been doing so far when I stop talking.”
Samantha and Dr. Wardle strained their necks and ached their eyes to see more objects on the ground. They did not find a trace for the next ten minutes.
“Strange,” Samantha said. “I would have expected that as we get closer to the impact area, we would have more objects on the ground. Not one.”
“Yes, I, too, did not notice any,” Dr. Wardle said.
“Congratulations, Samantha and Dr. Wardle. You are the first people to have observed this. I mean observed and spelt it out.”
“Who was the first person?”
“Who else but yours truly,” Thorpe replied. “I noticed it during the second sortie. I thought of telling about this to the DIMA team. But I found them so busy with their own work that I decided not to burden them more. Eventually, they would discover it themselves. But not the reason for it, which, I confess, I’ve no clue about. We’ll have to request our great scientist, Al to come to our rescue.”
Al, who was busy with his notes, looked up. “Did you ask me something?” he said.
“We want to know why there is the area before the impact area devoid of any objects from the debris. This seems contrary to a common man’s logic. The closer we get to the impact area, the more objects should have started getting loosened from the debris,” Samantha said.
“I wish I knew the answer. All I can say now is that it’s random. The objects which fell earlier were random. The depression area where the objects got lowered and then went up again was random. And so is this space.”
“Why is it so that the zero-gravity area and the impact area were not random?” Samantha asked.
“Good question,” Thorpe said.
“The zero-gravity area was where the binary comets neutralized the gravitational pull of the earth. That was at their closest distance from the earth. The area would have been bigger if they had come closer. The area would not have been there at all if the comets were a little further away. So, from this point, the distance between the comets and the earth started to increase. The gravitational pull of the comets was strong enough to hold the debris in the air till a particular point. And when the gravitational pull of the earth got better of the gravitational pull of the comets, the debris came down.”
Al paused for a moment. Everyone was attentively listening to him. McDonald, who was usually paying more attention to flying the helicopter, was also listening attentively to Al.
Al continued, “And everything in between depended on the whims and fancies of the gravitational pulls of the comets and the earth. You could imagine that there is a small dot in the middle of a rubber band and you are pulling the rubber band from both sides with both hands. You’ll find it difficult to keep the dot in one place. Sometimes, it will move slightly to the left and sometimes, to the right. That is why the randomness in between the zero-gravity area and the impact area. In this space before the impact area, the gravitational pulls were the same from both sides, and this stayed on for ten minutes till the comet moved away, and the debris was pulled down by earth’s gravity.”
“Interesting,” McDonald said.
“If the pilot says it’s interesting, it means that the explanation is really interesting. And Al’s explanation has ended right on time because, in thirty seconds, we’ll begin our descent. We’ll keep our descent along the outer edge of the debris. When the debris went down, it was like a cloud exploding. The content went down roughly in the form of an “n”. Both the left and right edges were inclined,” Thorpe said.
It was almost seven in the morning. The sun had come up, and the ground below was visible clearly. As their helicopter approached the village of Jeans, Samantha said, “If I were not told that I’m not in the UK, I would have thought that this is some place in Afghanistan or Iraq after being bombed flat.”
“The total impact hand more energy than twenty thousand atom bombs. It’s good that the impact was spread over an area of more than three thousand square kilometers.”
Al took photographs from the helicopter of the area. “Could you photograph the bigger craters from the other side?” he asked Samantha.
Samantha went to the other side, and as she zoomed her lens onto some of the bigger craters, she was surprised how deep they were.
For five more minutes, Al took photographs. The helicopter flew over the Moor Park.
When the helicopter flew over the house in West Moor Park, Thorpe said, “It’s unbelievable that four young people were inside the house and escaped unhurt.”
Everyone was silent for some time, and then Al said, “The length is a little more than sixty kilometers and the width a little more than fifty kilometers. We could not have calculated the impact area more accurately. And if you see the photographs, you’ll see that the worst impact has been near the end.”
“Yes,” Samantha replied. “I would have thought that the impact should have been the maximum in the beginning or at the center.”
“That is what common sense would make us think. But there is a point when the gravitational pull of the comets can no longer hold the debris. It’s then that all the left-over debris descends suddenly.”
“Makes sense,” Samantha said.
Al pointed towards a star like object in the sky in the west.
“The monster,” Samantha said.
“Yes, it looks so innocent from a distance. And so beautiful. Yet, see the destruction that it has caused underneath.”
“Look there!” Samantha said, pointing at a large crater.
Al and the pilot looked down. There was a large house at the edge of the crater. The ground underneath had reclined.
“The house will fall into the crater any time,” McDonald said.
“That is not the only thing I’m thinking about at this moment,” Samantha said.
“Then?” Al asked.
“The lights are on in the house. It’s strange how there is light in this house when the whole of Devon seems to have no electricity.”
“Maybe the house has solar electricity or maybe a generator.”
“There is another thing that I’m thinking. If that is the case, there might be people inside.”
“Let us call DIMA,” Dr. Wardle said.
“They’ll take at least fifteen minutes to reach the place. By that time the house would have crashed into the crater.”
“Okay,” Al said. “Let’s go down.”
McDonald hesitated but then descended in an open area next to the house. “I’ll be hovering above,” he said. “It might not be safe for the helicopter to be on unstable ground. When you are through, call me over the satellite phone, and I would descend.”
Al and Samantha went to the main door. They heard sounds inside.
“Surely there is someone inside,” Samantha said.
They rang the bell. No one answered. They tried opening the door, but it had got jammed.
“I’ll climb through the window at the other end,” Al said.
Samantha waited at the door. She heard someone tapping at the other side of the door but could not see anything. “Anyone there?” she said. There was no answer, but the tapping sound continued.
“I’m inside,” Al said.
“And did you find anyone?” Samantha asked.
“Yes, there is an injured old woman.”
“Injured old woman?” Samantha asked in surprise. “How has she got left behind?
“No idea. She is in a shock and unable to speak.”
“Take her out and let’s leave fast.”
At this moment, the house creaked. Samantha heard footsteps. Al carried the woman to the window. Samantha called Thorpe to descend. Just as Al was coming out of the window with the old woman in his hand, the ground sank further, and the house started going down. Samantha ran backwards. The house slid further. Al was still inside with the woman.
The helicopter had landed. The house went into the crater. There were splinters and dust around. The crater seemed big enough to swallow two such houses. But the descent stopped suddenly. The house sat inclined on a big boulder underneath. The lights had gone off.
Samantha ran to the helicopter and took out the rope ladder. She threw one end inside the window of the house and tied the other end to the helicopter’s landing skids.
“Put it down further,” Al said from inside.
“There is no more left,” Samantha shouted.
“I’m short by a meter,” Al said.
Samantha looked around to see if she could find something to extend the rope. In the meantime, Al managed to slowly clamber up the wall with the old woman in one hand. He caught hold of the rope and tugged it.
Samantha heard Al shout, “Got it.”
“Pull,” Samantha said and waved her hand for the helicopter to go up.
“Get inside first,” McDonald shouted.
“I’ll come along with them,” Samantha replied.
“The rope ladder may snap or lose control,” McDonald screamed.
Samantha went reluctantly into the helicopter. The helicopter went up, and the rope ladder gradually started coming out of the window. In the end, Al came out, holding the ladder by one hand and the woman with the other. The helicopter flew for some distance and brought Al down along with the woman. The helicopter descended to the ground again. Samantha jumped out of the helicopter and ran towards Al. She hugged him tightly. “It has been a long time since I’ve embraced you,” she said, smiling. Al put his arms around her.
In a minute, another DIMA helicopter descended.
There was a tap on Al’s shoulder. It was Isaiah. “Did Mr. Thomson call you on your satellite phone?” he said.
“No,” Al replied. “Is there anything left to do?”
“Yes.”
“What?” Samantha and Al said together.
“Reap rewards,” Isaiah replied.
Samantha and Al looked at each other.
Isaiah continued, “You are getting the George Cross. And Ohio Space Center has requested you to come back with a promotion.”
Al hugged Samantha and kissed her. “First to the US,” Al said.
“And then to India to the Brogpas,” Samantha said.
Al embraced Samantha tighter. They stood in that position for a full one minute oblivious of the clapping around them.
Rahul Shrivastava, Gravity Versus Gravity
