Part 10 (2/2)

”I might be facing a weapon that controls gravity. So the more I understand it, the better.”

”So you want me to ask Dad about that part of Nathaniel's letter?”

”Yeah. And any other thoughts he might have about this weapon.”

”It isn't really a weapon, Ryan. It's a device that could change the world in some really great ways. Nathaniel is just misusing it.”

Regan told him she'd be back in ten minutes and ended their connection.

She returned just five minutes later. Ryan was surprised. Once their father began talking about science it was usually hard to get him to stop.

”Okay,” began Regan. ”Nathaniel called gravity ridiculously weak. That's because it is. There are only four known forces in the universe. Two of them are called the strong and weak nuclear forces. These do things like keep atoms from flying apart and ... I don't know, something else. I only took notes when Dad got to gravity. The third is the electromagnetic force. And the fourth is gravity.”

”So why did Nathaniel say it wasn't a force?”

”I'll get to that,” replied Regan. ”Anyway, gravity is by far the weakest of the four forces. Dad says magnetism is ... ” She looked down at her notes. ”Well, he doesn't remember exactly. But it's something like a thousand trillion trillion trillion times stronger than gravity. Which he says would be a 1 followed by 39 zeros if you were gonna write it.”

”Are you sure you heard that right?” asked Ryan. ”That doesn't seem possible.”

”That's what I thought. But it's true. Dad reminded me that the gravity produced by an object depends upon its ma.s.s. So the gravity we feel on Earth is produced by the ma.s.s of the entire planet.” Regan glanced at her notes once again. ”Dad says the Earth weighs about twelve million billion billion pounds.”

”Really,” commented Ryan, amused. ”I'll bet it was hard finding a scale big enough for that weigh-in.”

Regan smiled. ”The point is, even when the weight of the entire Earth is trying to hold a paperclip down, a tiny little magnet can lift it off the ground.”

Ryan thought about this and nodded. His dad made a good point. He had never thought about it that way. ”Okay. Magnetism one, gravity zero,” he broadcast. ”Which means that if you did have the technology to affect gravity, there's a lot of room to strengthen it.”

”I guess.”

”So why is it not a force?” asked Ryan.

”Well, some scientists cla.s.sify it this way, some don't. According to Einstein, gravity isn't so much a force as it is a change in the shape of s.p.a.ce-time.”

”What's s.p.a.ce-time?” asked Ryan.

”Dad says it's like s.p.a.ce and time rolled into one. But Dad told me when he was explaining not to worry about that. To think of it as the same thing as just s.p.a.ce. Anyway, he told me to think of s.p.a.ce as a gigantic sheet of rubber. Or a gigantic trampoline. And objects dent this trampoline, causing other objects to roll toward them. That's what gravity is.”

”What?” broadcast Ryan uncertainly.

”Let me give you an example.” She consulted her notes once again. ”Suppose you spread marbles out on a large, circular trampoline. Then you set a hundred pound bowling ball in the very center of the tramp. If you did, the bowling ball would stretch the tramp down, creating a crater-shaped pocket, and the marbles would roll toward it. But even the marbles dent the tramp some, creating their own little indentation to sit in.”

Ryan thought about this. ”Okay. I sort of get it. So s.p.a.ce is like a trampoline. And everything pushes into it. Light things dent it just a little. Heavy things, like the Sun, dent it a lot. And the heavier an object is, the bigger the crater it creates, so the more other things are forced to roll toward the bottom of this crater.”

”Right. So gravity isn't really a force. It's what happens when objects stretch s.p.a.ce.”

”Interesting,” noted Ryan. ”But I can't see how any of this is going to help me stop Nathaniel.” He paused. ”Did Dad say anything else about the Enigma Cube?”

”I tried, Ryan. But we got interrupted. There's a lot going on right now. He said he would tell me more at another time.”

After another few minutes of telepathic conversation the siblings ended their connection.

Ryan took a deep breath and crossed the barrier again to leave a red crystal for the expedition. As had happened earlier that same day the first time he had crossed the Isis s.h.i.+eld-could it really be true that only four or five hours had pa.s.sed since then?-he felt the stretching sensation that meant he was brus.h.i.+ng against the forth dimension. Now that he understood it-a little-he fought to open his mind as wide as he could to the experience.

Ryan buried the crystal and stabbed the two spears he had been making deep into the soft soil beside it to mark its location as he had promised. He shoved the other red crystal into his pocket. ”Better luck next time, wolf-things,” he said with a sneer.

With that, he crossed through the s.h.i.+eld and headed to the portal back to Earth.

CHAPTER 19.

Pinned

Ryan peered around the zoo exit cautiously. Not seeing anyone he emerged from the building, keeping an eye out for surprises.

A body was stretched out like a human speed b.u.mp on the ground twenty yards away. No one else was in sight.

He rushed over to the body and knelt beside it. It was Lieutenant Lebron Williams, and he was sprawled out like a snow angel on his stomach. He had been a.s.signed to guard the entrance to the zoo. His automatic weapon was lying next to him, and every square inch of his body that could possibly be touching the ground was pinned there.

The guard's eyes were closed but he was still breathing.

”Lebron, it's Ryan Resnick. What happened?”

The guard managed a shallow grunt but that was all.

Ryan grabbed one of Lebron's hands that was palm-down against the floor and pulled. He was able to move it, but it was far heavier than a hand should have been. Nathaniel must have used the Enigma Cube. The gravity of the ground on which the guard was glued hadn't changed at all. The gravity of his body had changed. It was as if Lebron was wearing a bodysuit made of powerful magnets and the Earth was made of solid steel. To Ryan, the gravity around Lebron was the same as it had always been.

Nathaniel had chosen the setting on his weapon carefully. He didn't change the guard's gravity so much that his heart stopped or he could no longer breathe. Just enough so that every movement was a battle. Ryan suspected Lebron had been strong enough to drag himself this distance away from his post before he became too exhausted and was forced to give up.

There was nothing Ryan could do for him. ”I have to go, Lebron,” he said apologetically. ”But I promise I'll try to find a way to help you.”

Ryan checked several more buildings and the security headquarters but it was all the same. Everyone inside of Prometheus was now pinned to the floor. Nathaniel must have set the Enigma Cube to a broad enough radius that the gravity effect had hit all life within the city at the same time.

He calculated that he was only two or three hours behind the deranged physicist and his hostage. And if Nathaniel had further business within Prometheus after using the gravity device, or had been delayed for any reason, Ryan might be almost on his heels.

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