Linkage (The Narrows of Time Series Book 1)

by Jay J. Falconer

  Just then, the lab doors opened again and Kleezebee walked through. He looked pissed. “Next time, run the paper by me first,” he said to Lucas. “You’re lucky nothing in it violated this project’s confidentiality agreement.”

  “Sorry, boss,” Lucas said, assuming Larson had just told Kleezebee about the paper he’d posted online. The professor returned to the hallway as quickly as he came in.

  “What was that all about?” Drew asked.

  “Nothing. I’ll tell you later. Let’s get to work.”

  Lucas and Drew began their shift by dressing in their customary white lab coats and logging into the computer network.

  FOUR

  A short while later, Drew was seated next to Lucas at the lab’s center worktable when the lab doors buzzed behind him again. He prayed it wasn’t that jerk of an attorney, Larson. He didn’t think Lucas would be able to keep his temper in check this time, assuming the man came at him like before.

  When he turned his wheelchair around, he saw Trevor and a lovely young Asian woman standing next to each other. His heart nearly stopped beating. She was a petite, black-haired beauty with an adorable figure and dark, soulful eyes. She flashed a bright, alluring smile, revealing a gorgeous set of sparkling white teeth.

  “Hi,” she said to Drew.

  Drew’s tongue shriveled up and swallowed the words in his mouth, leaving him to muster an uneven grunt. His lungs suddenly forgot how to breathe properly, taking shorter and shorter breaths. He desperately wanted to say something, but he just sat there, staring at her like a creepy dumbass.

  As she moved into the lab, her hair shimmered under the fluorescent lights like heat waves rising up from the desert sand. Her curly, flowing locks wrapped around her neck and cascaded gracefully down the front of her shoulder, drawing his eyes lower and lower until they found her curvy chest. Drew couldn’t believe his eyes: She was a vision, a goddess who wore a yellow flower just above her right ear.

  Lucas extended his right hand when she arrived at the worktable. “Hi, I’m Dr. Lucas Ramsay. Welcome to Project AG-356-12.”

  She bowed her head slightly and then gripped and shook Lucas’ hand. “Hello, I’m Abby Park.”

  She looked at Drew. He dropped his paperwork.

  Lucas let out a short laugh, then put a hand on Drew’s shoulder. He shot a casual smile at the new girl. “And this slobbering member of the male species is my little brother, Drew.”

  “Hi Drew. It’s nice to meet you,” she said, looking as though she was waiting for a return greeting.

  Drew tried to speak again, but his tongue still wouldn’t cooperate. He felt his face turn an even darker shade of red, if that was even possible. He looked at Lucas, sending him a subtle ‘help me’ look.

  Lucas didn’t hesitate, turning to Trevor to draw attention away from Drew’s embarrassing stumble. “I assume you’ve already introduced yourself to Abby?”

  “Ja, I did.”

  “Have you signed your non-disclosure agreement?” Lucas asked the girl.

  Abby nodded.

  “Well, then, let’s get started,” he said, motioning for her to follow him toward the reactor chamber, only a seven-step walk. It was on the side of the room opposite from the lab’s entrance doors.

  Drew remained behind with Trevor to organize the items scattered across the top of the rectangular worktable in the center of the room. He still couldn’t take his eyes off her.

  * * *

  Lucas began Abby’s introduction with the control station located just to the right of the reactor chamber’s door. It featured a seven-foot-wide stainless steel counter with a flat panel computer screen at each end and was attached to the wall below the viewing window. In front of each console was a black wireless keyboard and matching mouse, and between the two stations was an angled instrument panel covered with switches, knobs, instrument gauges, and the like. Two rolling desk chairs were offset to the left, leaving room for a third to be added on the right end of the counter.

  “This is the Primary Control Station, where all the action happens. Drew sits to the right, and the other console is mine. The chair in the middle is yours.”

  Abby opened her spiral notebook and started taking notes. “What about Trevor?”

  “He usually stands over there and monitors his system,” Lucas said, pointing at three heavy-gauge steel shelving units installed on the wall to the left of the reactor chamber. They were loaded with rack-mounted computer equipment actively processing data, with their LED lights flashing and their hard drives whirling. A retractable network console was located waist-high in the center rack, with its hideaway keyboard pulled out on sliding rails.

  “Trevor designed the system from the ground up and it controls our reactor. Everything else is networked to the university’s mainframe and we share CPU time across all active experiments.”

  Lucas guided her to a pair of tall red-and-blue storage cabinets on the other side of the room. He opened the first storage unit, which contained an assortment of hand tools, cleaning supplies, paper, pens, and other miscellaneous materials.

  “If you ever need any supplies, you’ll find them in here.”

  He removed a clipboard hanging on a magnetic hook inside the cabinet’s door. “Just be sure to write down what you took in this inventory log. Dr. Kleezebee wants every penny accounted for.”

  He opened the second cabinet, which held an array of equipment, wire, and other electronic parts. He pulled out a handheld device the size of a DVD case and held it up in front of her. “Radiological detector. Hopefully, we’ll never have to use this puppy.”

  “How likely is that?”

  “Not very. We’ve spent the past eighteen months making sure this experiment is perfectly safe.”

  “But there’re always risks, right?”

  “Sure, but I wouldn’t be too concerned. Kleezebee made sure we took every precaution.”

  Abby scribbled some more words into her notebook. “Can I see the reactor?”

  “Sure. I was planning on showing you that next.”

  He walked to the door to the reactor chamber. Drew followed along behind them. Lucas led Abby into a smaller room just inside the chamber’s entrance; Drew stayed outside. He and the girl were standing in a closet-sized room that resembled a two-door airlock system, like those found aboard a submarine.

  “The reactor’s a clean room, so we use this decontamination chamber each time personnel or material enters the chamber.” Lucas reached around her and closed the thick outer door. He turned around and powered on a twelve-inch LCD monitor to the right of the inner door. Drew’s face appeared on the screen once the image stabilized.

  “He’s sitting in front of his console at the Primary Control Station,” Lucas told her, pointing.

  Lucas opened a cabinet to his left and gathered one of the six yellow protective suits hanging inside. Below them were several pairs of steel-toed boots and chemical-resistant gloves. A handful of voice-operated microphones and earpieces were sitting on the top shelf.

  “A Hazmat suit?” she asked.

  “Yes, Level A. Provides airtight protection from all forms of chemicals, including gasses and vapors. Safety protocols require we use them inside the reactor.”

  He pulled out a second suit and gave it to her. “We even have one in your size. Here, put this on. Let me know if you need assistance,” he said, spinning around to give her privacy.

  * * *

  Five minutes later, both of them were wearing their protective gear, including boots, gloves, and the voice-activated communication devices.

  “Abby, can you hear me? Is your comm unit working?”

  “Yes, it is. Can we go inside the reactor?”

  “Wait until Drew sets everything up. He’ll give us the all-clear signal when it’s time.” Lucas looked at the pea-sized camera mounted above the video monitor. “Okay, bro. We’re ready in here.”

  An upward stream of air blew past them as the process began. Thirty seconds later, Dre
w gave his brother a thumbs-up signal. Lucas entered a five-digit numerical code into a keypad next to the video monitor and waited for the inner door to unlock and slide open. They both stepped inside.

  The reactor was a gray metal sphere the size of a commercial walk-in freezer, with a series of cables and heavy industrial piping above it that fed into the backside of the unit. There were dozens of valves, conduits, and other industrial components leading to and from the reactor’s base.

  “What kind of material is this?” she asked, tapping on the reactor’s housing with her pen. She pinched her eyes with a look of curiosity on her face. “It’s not like any metal I’ve seen before.”

  “It’s one of Dr. Kleezebee’s inventions. He calls it VX-312. We call it tri-tanium.”

  “Like in Star Trek,” she quipped.

  “Exactly. It’s a chemically altered blend of hardened titanium and tungsten composites, which have been infused with a series of interwoven membranes of nanocrystalline diamond fiber. It can withstand fusion-level temperatures and intense gravimetric shear.”

  “That’s impressive. Dr. Kleezebee is full of surprises.”

  “There’s more where that came from, believe me. The man’s a walking enigma.”

  She adjusted her headgear, then pointed to one of the eight black rectangular devices installed evenly around the perimeter of the reactor in forty-five degree increments. “What are these? I’m assuming they’re some kind of magnet, right?”

  “You got it. Superconducting electromagnets, to be exact. They’ve been specifically calibrated to allow us to control our gravity wave experiment.”

  Lucas saw her looking up at the elongated silver tube attached to the dome of the reactor, which extended to the ceiling at a forty-five degree angle. He continued his introduction. “That fires a focused, cold neutron beam at the core. It’s what jump-starts the experiment.”

  He unlatched and slid open a protective shroud covering the midsection of the reactor. Inside was a white, egg-shaped receptacle the size of a thermos bottle. It was being held in place at the exact center of the reactor by a surrounding lattice of non-metal struts.

  “What goes inside?” she asked after examining the interior of the reactor. “The reactive element?”

  “Right again. You catch on quick—I’m starting to see why Kleezebee assigned you to our team.”

  She smiled.

  So did he. “What goes inside is the really cool part of this whole setup. Follow me and I’ll show you.”

  They completed decontamination procedures and removed their Hazmat suits before stepping out of the chamber. They returned to the center worktable where Trevor was standing. Drew joined them, maneuvering his wheelchair up under the worktable.

  Lucas pointed to the three metal boxes near his feet, then looked at Abby. “These were just delivered today. You couldn’t have picked a better day to join the project. We’ve been waiting months, and now they’re finally here.”

  “Just dumb luck, I’m afraid. I never thought Dr. Kleezebee would pick me. I’m sure he had lots of applicants.”

  “Probably not as many as you think,” Lucas said, thinking about the professor’s reputation as a demanding perfectionist. “Trevor, would you do the honors?”

  Trevor picked up one of the boxes with ease and put it on the worktable before cutting the bands of yellow security tape with a pair of shears. He unsnapped three metal clasps along the front of the box, opened its hinged cover, and then pushed the box closer to Lucas with one hand.

  Lucas slid on a pair of safety gloves before removing the surface layer of the packaging material. Inside was a perfectly round black sphere the size of a baseball. He removed it with both hands, straining to lift the object up high enough for all to see.

  “This material is called ‘Unbiunium,’ which is a new super-heavy element recently discovered by the U.S. Navy. Its atomic weight is 121, which is why we call it ‘Element 121’ or E-121 for short.”

  Abby narrowed her eyes and furrowed her brow in what Lucas was beginning to recognize as her go-to look of concentrated scientific curiosity. “I thought elements larger than ninety-two on the Periodic Table were theoretical and didn’t occur naturally. Even if they could be synthesized by fusing two heavy elements together, wouldn’t it be unstable and instantly decay into lighter elements?”

  Lucas’ arm muscles couldn’t support the weight of the material any longer. He lowered the sphere down to chest level, locking his elbows in tight to hold it still for her inspection. “Yet here it is, stable, and in solid form. Kleezebee said he pulled a lot of strings to get us access to these samples.”

  “Where’d the Navy get it?”

  “In an unexplored deep sea trench off the coast of Mexico, near Chicxulub, just off the Yucatan peninsula. From what Kleezebee told us, the Navy found a substantial amount of it.”

  “Chicxulub? Isn’t that where they found the impact crater that killed off the dinosaurs?”

  Lucas nodded. “Yep. Sure was.”

  Abby stared at the ground before responding in a softer tone, “I do remember reading something about a gravitational anomaly found at that impact site. I suppose it’s possible that E-121 may have had something to do with that.” She leaned over and peeked inside the shipping container.

  Lucas was excited to be sharing his talisman with the appreciative new assistant. “This special material has some very unique properties, which are essential to the last phase of our project. Without it, we can’t run the experiment. Super-heavy elements like E-121 have an ultra-strong gravity field that extends well beyond the perimeter of its atom, making it accessible. Just like any other field in the electromagnetic spectrum, E-121’s gravitational wave has a specific frequency and amplitude. Since we can access it, we plan on using the reactor to control it.”

  “Are you trying to manipulate the element’s strong nuclear force to bond its particles together?”

  “No. We plan to morph the actual gravity field itself,” Drew replied, picking up an egg-shaped capsule sitting next to him on the work surface. He unscrewed the capsule’s domed-shaped lid before holding out the bottom half with both hands.

  “Don’t you think Trevor should take it from here?” Lucas asked.

  “Nope, I got it,” Drew replied, resting his elbows on the table.

  Lucas wanted to say something else, but didn’t. He put the E-121 sample into the container and screwed on its lid. Drew tugged the capsule across the tabletop and put it in his lap, partially wedged between his legs.

  Lucas told Abby, “We’ll use E-121 as the catalyst for our experiment. We hope to compact one side of the element’s immense gravitational field under the control of the powerful electromagnetic system, which will in turn push out or bulge an equal and opposite reaction on the other side. While the quantum morphing occurs, we expect the surrounding subspace to counteract the change in force and effectively push against our material to maintain spatial equilibrium.”

  Abby nodded several times while writing in her journal. She folded her arms with the notebook pressed flat up against her chest. “Assuming I understand you correctly, in theory that could result in transmutation of the laws of gravity, or ‘anti-gravity,’ as it were. Like what would happen if you pushed against the side of a floating soap bubble.”

  Lucas nodded. “We hope this will lead to a revolutionary new type of interstellar propulsion system, which is why NASA agreed to fund this project in the first place.”

  “The power requirements must be enormous,” she said.

  “That’s where the cold neutron beam comes into play. While an atom’s strong nuclear force is trillions of times stronger than gravity, we believe there’s an underlying quantum energy stream that’s even more powerful.”

  Drew was smiling when he added, “So powerful in fact, we should be able to use it to manipulate E-121’s gravity field.”

  “Did you say quantum energy stream?” she asked Lucas.

  “If we can precisely match
the frequency of E-121’s gravity wave, the beam should be able to wedge open a crack between the exposed section of the gravitational field and the element’s perimeter. This should allow us to tap into the energy matrix connecting our universe to the next. With it, we should have an endless supply of energy to power our experiment.”

  Abby’s mouth dropped open and she did not respond.

  Lucas smiled internally. He’d finally impressed her, which he was learning wasn’t easy to do. Kleezebee had chosen her well. Not only was she much better looking than Gracie, but she was smarter, too.

  FIVE

  Drew shot a covert glance at Abby across the worktable, just as the lab’s security system buzzed. He turned his head in time to see the double doors spring open. Dr. Kleezebee breezed in, carrying a black three-ring binder with the phrase PROJECT AG-356-12 written on a white label affixed to the cover.

  “How are things progressing?” Kleezebee asked with an unlit, stubby cigar hanging from the corner of his lips. The professor made his way to the worktable and stood next to Lucas.

  “Perfectly,” Lucas replied. “We’re just about ready to load the core.”

  “Excellent. Let’s get to it,” the professor said, placing the binder on the table. “I’ve finished reviewing your work, and everything appears ready to go. Nice work, you two. I only changed a few things with respect to power utilization. Let’s begin with the flow regulator set at fifty percent. We can always increase it from there if needed.”

  Lucas and Drew nodded.

  Kleezebee winked and smiled at Drew. “Time to man your station. Abby, you go with him to observe.”

  “Yes, Dr. Kleezebee,” she answered crisply.

  Drew gave the E-121 container to Trevor and wheeled himself to the Primary Control Station. He sat in front of the right console; Abby sat down to his left. When she scooted her chair closer to his, he could smell her strawberry-scented perfume. It reminded him of his mother’s backyard vegetable garden.

  Abby was looking over her right shoulder when she whispered to him, “What’s the deal with Trevor? He sort of gives me the creeps.”