A Theory of Gravity

by Wycroft Taylor

  At the same time, he wanted some candid images of the creatures at rest, at work, and at play to show the people back on Earth what the creatures were like. He wished he had a camera that lent itself to surreptitious picture taking, but he did not have a camera because he unfortunately forgot to pack it in his space suit when he left the space ship and could not get the teacher to give him their version of a camera. So he had no real choice as far as he was concerned except to draw on his notebook with a pencil surreptitiously or from memory.

  Chapter 53: The Creatures’ Private Lives

  One day, wondering about the private lives of the creatures, Peter realized that there must exist a number of rooms inside of the asteroid that he had never been invited to see. He thought about this while in class, at a time when more than twenty nozzles were attached to different parts of his body, when the teacher was absorbed in pecking away at its three-dimensional keyboard, and when (presumably because of the effect on him of the keyboard’s management of electric charges and their passage through the nozzles and key board) his mind was filled with a lot of strange images and feelings.

  After dinner that night, he spoke to Sylvia about the thought that had come into his head about their beings other rooms. He said to her, “You know, there must be a lot more to the inside of this asteroid than what I have so far been allowed to see. I was wondering if the knowledge kept from me was revealed to you. I was wondering if maybe the creatures showed you other rooms or talked to you about other rooms before I came. Did they?”

  “What other rooms are you thinking of?” she asked.

  “Oh, I was thinking of rooms they use for living, manufacturing, study, communication, research, and other things. We have seen the creatures only in the big meeting hall, the classroom, and the corridor where the bedrooms are but nowhere else. They can’t possibly do what they need to do to keep busy and alive if they are confined to those same few spaces where we have been confined. There have to be other spaces.”

  “Such as?” Sylvia asked.

  “Such as supply rooms, a kitchen, workshops for manufacturing and repairing the motorized carts and their other equipment, some kind of laboratory for manufacturing and recycling water, some kind of sewer system, some kind of hospital, and one or more rooms for communicating with their home planet and for observing planets and stars.”

  Sylvia scratched her chin and said, “No, they never talked to me about or showed me any such room; and, strangely for some reason, it never occurred to me until you pointed this possibility out to me just now that such rooms would exist. But, you’re absolutely right, such rooms have to exist. Where are they? Plus there have to be places where the creatures rest, cluster together, and presumably sleep.”

  Peter said, “The list of rooms I just came up with just came off the top of my head. I said just what came to mind as I talked to you. There might be a lot more to this asteroid than even those rooms…and, of course, there is also the ramp in which you were confined and the maze in which I was confined. Thinking about this—especially the unknown rooms and spaces—drives home to me how limited our knowledge of these creatures and their culture really is. They’ve shown us some things and talked to us about some things but obviously a lot has also been kept from us.”

  “Do you suppose it would do any good to ask the teacher about the rooms you think must exist,” Sylvia asked.

  “I don’t know. A lot depends on whether the information we don’t have was intentionally or unintentionally withheld from us. I suppose it couldn’t hurt to ask though,” Peter said.

  The next morning they did ask the teacher about “other rooms” but the teacher only tapped the two of them on their foreheads with its upper limbs, as if pleased by their inquisitiveness. The teacher even said, “You too are very curious. Your curiosity is perhaps the quality in the two of you that I most admire. Are all humans like that or are you exceptional in that respect?” Though both were pleased to be praised by their teacher, Peter especially wondered to what extent the teacher was trying to get them to stop thinking about unknown rooms by means of the compliments.

  Sylvia said, “Thank you teacher but, no, most humans are not very curious. It would be a mistake to generalize too much based on what you’ve seen and deduced about us. We’re not typical. Maybe that’s a good thing. And maybe it’s a bad thing.”

  The teacher said, “I think it would be a very good thing indeed if all or at least most humans were like the two of you.” “Thank you, teacher,” Sylvia said. Peter noticed that she beamed and blushed.

  Peter did not want to let the teacher get away with not answering the question they had asked so easily so he said, “We asked you about other rooms. Do they exist or do they not?” The teacher began moving all eight of its limbs about in strange and complicated ways as if it was signaling someone or thinking by means of a kind of sign language that they had never been taught and did not even know existed. When, after a few minutes the teacher’s limbs stopped moving spasmodically about, the teacher said only, “There’s a lot more to this asteroid than anyone supposes.”

  Peter concluded that the other rooms must exist but that, for some reason, the creatures did not quite trust him and Sylvia enough to talk to them about the rooms let alone show them the “other rooms.”

  One of the factors behind his curiosity was a wish to draw the rooms but now he knew that, unless the policy changed, he knew that seeing the rooms, let alone being allowed to draw them, was out of the question.

  He consoled himself with the thought that he had a lot to draw in the spaces to which he did have access. He was especially looking forward to drawing the baby and especially to drawing Sylvia with the baby. He pictured in his mind Sylvia holding and nursing the baby, subjects he very much wanted to draw. Anticipating being able to do that very soon filled him with much joy.

  The next night, Sylvia made Peter very happy by agreeing to marry him. When he actually proposed instead of saying he would propose as he did the night before, her answer was very simple and very beautiful. “You know I do,” she said.

  Three days after Sylvia formally accepted Peter’s proposal and one day after they told their teacher that the two of them wished to have a ceremony, with the teacher presiding and guests looking on and with the main purpose of the ceremony being to make it known now to the creatures on the asteroid and eventually to humans back on Earth that they were a couple who intended to stay together for a very long time, an improvised ceremony was held..

  The ceremony did not last very long but it was very nice and made both Peter and Sylvia very happy. This is what happened: before class began, the teacher asked Peter and Sylvia and the other students to step up to the desk. A couple of other creatures, creatures that neither Peter nor Sylvia had seen before, came into the classroom and were invited by the teacher to step up to the desk, which they did without comment and without appearing to be at all surprised or curious about what was going on.

  The teacher said, “These two human beings wish to make it known that they not only have been compelled by circumstances to be together but also would also choose to be together and would do what they could do to create whatever circumstances were needed to bring them together. Furthermore, projecting into the future, they think they would like in the future to stay together no matter how circumstances change.

  “A child is coming. They wish to join in the raising of it and enjoy together its company.

  “Let us acknowledge their wishes in these regards and hope that their wishes are fulfilled no matter how circumstances change. Now, Peter, what do you have to say regarding this matter of your being together with Sylvia in the present and staying together with Sylvia in the future?”

  “I agree with everything you have just said about this. This woman’s very presence gives me great joy. We have devised methods that we feel will keep alive our sense of the privilege bestowed on us by the company of the other. We hope these methods work regardless of what the future brings. People’
s hearts sometimes take a path different from their intentions, but we think our methods will keep hearts and intentions aligned.”

  Sylvia said, “I agree with all that the teacher and Peter have said. I feel this is a good thing we do. Soon we shall be returning to Earth. We shall tell people there of the kind treatment we have received at the hands of the residents of this asteroid. We shall tell them of what we know about your habits and customs, some of which we have borrowed and are sure will help make our marriage work into the indefinite future and will help assure that our child or children will lead happy lives. We will give him or them shelter, food, health care, a pattern of living, and a sense of how problems change as one moves from one stage of life to another.”

  Peter and Sylvia then kissed one another. The creatures standing around raised the stalks that supported their eyes straight up into the air and moved their various limbs in strange fluttering motions as if they were birds and preparing to fly. This was their way of applauding. Then the teacher opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a flat silver plaque on the surface of which a series of inscriptions had been embedded.

  Peter and Sylvia were able to read their names followed by symbols that they translated as “they marry” followed by symbols that they translated as meaning “as is now recorded” followed by a symbol that they translated as being the date according to the creatures’ calendar” followed by a symbol for the name of their teacher followed by a symbol meaning “one copy of this plaque to be given to Peter and Sylvia, a second to be deposited in the records office here, and a third to be sent to planet Ebolian (the name they used for their home planet) by radio transmission and by rocket ship.”

  The teacher then said, “On behalf of myself and my fellow colonists, I have a gift I wish to present to you.” The teacher then began looking for something but did not seem to remember where it had put it. The teacher pulled open one drawer after another, bent forward and looked at what was in the drawers, and reached into the drawer with one or more of its limbs. “Where did I put it?” the teacher muttered. “Not here. Not here,” the teacher muttered.

  Then the teacher seemed to have found what it was looking for. “Ah, here it is,” the teacher said while pulling out a little box that seemed to be made of pieces of wood in various shapes and of various colors and fitted together in such a way that there were no gaps visible anywhere on the surface.

  The box was about four inches long and wide and three inches high. Pressing a little pin that just barely jutted out of one side of the box, the teacher got the box to open. Inside of it was a model of an example of their species made of what Peter and Sylvia thought must be some kind of metal though they could not say what the metal was.

  The model lay on its back. Touching a pin that just barely jutted out from the center of its shell, the teacher made the model come alive. All eight of its legs began moving around and stalks came out of the top of its head with eyes at the top that curved around so that the model seemed actually to be looking up from inside of the box.

  Also, the eight slits on the model’s chest opened and closed slightly so that the model seemed to be breathing. Its limbs, which at first seemed to be moving about spasmodically, began after a while to work together in an organized fashion.

  At one point, all of the legs stopped moving about except the middle four, which curled around until each touched a different dark spot found on the edge of the model (where the back plate and stomach plate joined). When the four spots were pressed, the chest plate sprung open at one side, revealing a padded recess shaped like a square with rounded edges. Inside of the square recess were two golden rings.

  So amazed were Peter and Sylvia by the beauty and intricacy of the box, the model inside that was also a box, and the rings that they said nothing. They just stared. They were so full of awe and wonder that neither one even reached down into either of the boxes or looked at any of the creatures standing around or said a word either to each other or to any of the creatures. At one point, Peter lifted up on of his hands and pointed with his index finger and pushed his finger to the box but he never touched the box or the model. He just dropped his hand at his side and sighed.

  The teacher reached into the square recess and pulled out one ring which was handed to Peter and pulled out the second ring which was handed to Sylvia. “From among the visions your minds produced during classes, we have learned that it is the custom among your people to have marriage ceremonies something like this one and that the ceremonies include the giving of gifts and the exchanging of rings. So now you have gotten a gift, and the gift includes two rings. Each of you can now place the ring in your hand on whichever finger belonging to your friend and partner that you would like to adorn.”

  Before putting the ring he had been given on Sylvia’s ring finger, Peter said, “I wish to say on behalf of myself and also Sylvia (I am sure Sylvia feels just as I do about this) when I say how surprised we are and impressed and delighted these gifts and this ceremony have made us,” Peter said.

  Turning the ring he was about to present to Sylvia around and around while holding it between his thumb and forefinger, he wondered what exactly the rings were made of. “Are they really made of gold or of a metal unknown to us or of an alloy of some kind also unknown to us? He wondered where the metal or metals came from and how it or they were mined and refined and shaped and what their properties were such as melting temperature.

  Looking at the inside of the ring, Peter saw very simple squares with tiny symbols etched there. He tried reading the symbols but could not. The symbols were just too small to be read with the naked eye. He’d have to look at them when he got a chance through a magnifying glass or microscope.

  Sylvia reached out to touch the teacher and settled for touching its upper left limb when the teacher instinctively pulled away. “You are too kind,” she said. They exchanged the rings and were not too surprised when they discovered that the rings slid easily onto their ring fingers and fit perfectly.

  Then they kissed each other again and took the box with the model. They turned around so that they faced the others in the room and held up the hands with the rings and the box with the model inside so that everyone could see what they had gotten and how happy they were.

  Small glasses filled with a cherry red fluid were placed on the same table where Sylvia and Peter usually found their morning drinks. All of the glasses that sat on the table except two had very long flexible purple tubes dangling from the top edge. Assuming that the glasses without straws were meant for them, Sylvia and Peter picked those glasses up from the table and then stepped away from the table so that the others could roll up to the table and, by utilizing three or four of their eight limbs, grab the tip of a tube and push into one of two round holes existing on their carapaces just above the bottom-most slit.

  The teacher then made a series of clicking and buzzing sounds. It was saying, “Let these humans’ futures be bright.” It then made a loop out of the flexible tube it had inserted into its chest. The other creatures did the same and began slurping on the liquid that ran through the tubes without making any noise. Peter and Sylvia watched with great interest as the level of liquid on all of the glasses with tubes coming out of them dropped.

  Peter and Sylvia looked at one another and raised their glasses high into the air. Peter said, “Cheers.” “May our futures be bright,” Sylvia said. Peter added, “And may all of your futures be bright as well.” “I second that wish,” Sylvia said. Then the two sipped the cherry liquid out of the glasses, enjoying the taste very much. Peter sidled up to Sylvia and put his arm around her waist and Sylvia responded by resting her head on his shoulder. “We are married,” Sylvia whispered.

  Chapter 54: A Theory of Gravity

  Just as the inscriptions Peter found in the maze needed to be put in sequence if they were to make as much sense as possible so also did the inscriptions Sylvia had drawn while descending her ramp have to be put in sequence if they were to make sense.
/>   When Peter and Sylvia finally managed to recreate what they thought was an order that gave sense to most of the inscriptions, they realized that the inscriptions Sylvia found had to do with the phenomenon of gravity. The title they chose for the essay was “A Theory of Gravity.”

  The essay began as follows: “Science can be divided into two parts with one part being based on things observed directly or indirectly (through the medium of instruments) and the other part being based on speculations regarding what cannot yet be directly or indirectly observed. The first can be called ‘hard’ or ‘real’ or ‘observed’ science while the second needs to be called ‘speculative’ or ‘soft’ or ‘imagined’ or ‘not quite or not yet real’ science.” Thus ended the first paragraph of the essay.

  The second paragraph said simply, “This essay is purely speculative, its ideas being ideas about what might exist rather than about what is known to exist. The subject of this speculation is the phenomenon called gravity.”

  After the second paragraph, the essay turned very strange as far as Peter and Sylvia were concerned because, the two of them being steeped in Einstein’s ideas about gravity, discovered here that ideas very different from Einstein’s were being postulated.

  The third paragraph said, “Everything is particles of different sizes, shapes, and powers of interaction with other particles of the same and different kinds. When particles become very small, they can be seen in different ways—as particles, as waves, and as forces—depending on the preferences of the theorist or observer.