Moltation

by Nigel Flaxton

  Title Page

  MOLTATION

  by

  Nigel Flaxton

  Publisher Information

  Published in 2014 by

  Andrews UK Limited

  www.andrewsuk.com

  The right of Nigel Flaxton to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998

  Copyright © 2014 Nigel Flaxton

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any person who does so may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Chapter 1

  There is no doubt that molecular excitation had a profound effect on the human race. Its most wonderful property was as protection. A person with it could not be shot, or stabbed, or be blown up, or hit. Even falling did not result in death, even from a great height. At first it seemed to confer immortality, but that was not so; the ageing process continued despite the protection.

  ‘Moltation’, as it came to be known, was first discovered by Professor Bettrinski and his team at Grantacaster University whilst continuing their lucrative research into microwaves, hoping for further improvements to benefit industrial and domestic use. Guessing they were following yet another sidetrack they experimented with very small quantities of bettronium and were on the point of abandoning their work, due largely to the impracticality of using a material that could be volatile, when an odd event occurred. It took them many weeks to discover the implications of what had happened. Bettronium had been so named because of the Prof’s role in its synthesis some years before. Its attraction for their microwave experiments lay in its particular form of radioactivity.

  They had used a lead tube about a metre in length and twenty centimetres in diameter, open at one end, into which they put a small piece of bettronium in its own tiny tube, opening its end as they had done many times before. But on this memorable occasion they suddenly found they could hardly see the end of the main tube; it seemed to be unclear - as though a piece of not very clean transparent plastic was in the way. Tentatively they prodded the apparent membrane, using a narrow steel rod and found it moved but could not be penetrated. Martin, one of two Ph.D students, went even further and rashly prodded it with his rubber gloved finger. Immediately his hand was surrounded by the almost invisible skin which ignored his gloves completely. The Prof and the other student, James, turned shocked faces towards Martin, but he assured them he felt no pain or discomfort. He touched his hand with the fingers of his other one, also gloved, but felt no unusual sensation. Indeed he was able to take both gloves off which left him with his right hand covered with the strange membrane and looking very slightly blurry. His left hand was perfectly normal.

  At this point James had to leave to take a seminar. The Prof warned him not to mention the experiment. Martin tried to shuffle off the membrane but it wouldn’t budge. He picked up the steel rod, intending to try jabbing it slightly to get some purchase, then recoiled from doing so because the thing suddenly disappeared. Not a trace remained. Martin and Professor Bettrinski looked at one another in raw astonishment.

  Following normal procedure they tried to replicate their previous steps but, no matter how they twisted and turned the small lead tube containing the tiny piece of bettronium the strange phenomenon did not reappear. After an hour they gave up and left for the canteen and a coffee, securing the laboratory as usual. Only James could enter without them and their security swipe cards.

  After his seminar James did just that, excited to investigate further. Only mildly surprised at finding himself alone he set the experiment in operation again and almost at once could see the strange membrane at the end of the main tube. He started investigation procedures but the data told him the Prof and Martin had already done them all. He was puzzled as to why they hadn’t tried to go further and attempt to find out what was happening in the membrane; it seemed they had replicated procedures they had tried incessantly but to no avail. The intriguing question was what had been different on this one occasion to create the weird phenomenon.

  The Prof and Martin’s return put the brake on his thoughts and they moved back to the lab bench on which the experiment was set up. They glanced at it in amazement.

  ‘How did you get the thing again?’ The Prof demanded. ‘We tried to replicate for over an hour but got nothing!’

  ‘I ran the process exactly as we did earlier and the membrane appeared immediately. I thought you’d have run further investigation into its make-up, but I found you hadn’t, so I was about to do so. Shall I carry on?’

  ‘No, we need to know first what produces it, how and when. Are you sure you did exactly what we did earlier?’

  ‘Absolutely sure, we’ve been through the routine times enough, haven’t we?’

  ‘Right. So what could possibly have been different when we tried to replicate compared to when you did the same, James?’

  After a short pause in the conversation, Martin quipped, ‘Seems you’re the difference, James. What have you got hidden up your sleeve?’

  Laughing, James retorted, ‘Nothing, old boy,’ feeling in his pockets simultaneously. ‘Just this - wow, it’s darn hot; why on earth...’ He pulled out a smallish black stone. ‘I picked this up on holiday recently, in Dorset, on the Jurassic Coast. I thought it was jet, but I was surprised because there’s no real source there. But why is it so hot, I’ve never known it be like that before and I’ve had it around for some weeks? I like the feel of its smoothness. I tend to finger it when I’m thinking.’

  ‘Well, if it isn’t jet, what is it?’ Martin looked at Prof who took it from James.

  ‘Ye gods, it certainly is hot,’ he exclaimed. ‘Its molecules must be zooming. I’ll run an analysis on it in my computer - I’ve got the chemical element program there.’ He did so, twice, but got nowhere. There was no match whatsoever. ‘Seems you’ve picked up something out of this world,’ he laughed. ‘How was it on the shore - just like other stones?’

  ‘Yes, exactly. I looked for others but couldn’t see any. I’ve no idea whether it was washed up by the sea or came from the cliffs like many of the fossil stones.’

  ‘You’d better give it a name, at least until we can really find out what it is. It looks as though we are going to be using it to push this experiment.’

  ‘How about jeterium?’

  ‘That’ll do. Now, probably it’s reacting in some way with the bettronium. However, why has it only happened today? Haven’t you had it with you before, James?’

  ‘Ah, no, you’re right. I don’t usually wear this top in the lab and it’s been in the pocket since my holiday. Usually I have it on when I’m out walking.’

  ‘OK, that proves we only get the membrane when the jeterium is present. So it probably does react in some way with bettronium. I wonder how close the two need to be. The membrane disappeared when you went off for your seminar, James, so try walking away some distance now and we’ll watch.’

  James did so and they soon established the critical distance was only about a metre. They also proved the role of the bettronium by capping and uncapping its small tube. With the cap in place there was no reaction. The jeterium also cooled to the ambient temperature quite quickly.

 
‘Now we need to find out why the membrane wrapped itself around your hand, Martin,’ said the Prof. ‘I’m going to do this, so if it’s the last thing I do I’m relying on you two to write up an accurate account of my demise!’

  He laughed a touch nervously, whilst the two students exchanged concerned glances. The Prof then took the jeterium in one hand whilst carefully lifting the open bettronium tube out with the other. Immediately his whole body was enclosed in a membrane, underneath his clothes. He felt no discomfort, indeed he said it felt quite pleasant. He took off his lab coat and his shirt and revealed the slightly blurry membrane clinging closely to his chest and arms, extending to his hands and up around his clean-shaven face and head and over his hair. He opened his mouth tentatively but there was no feeling of the membrane entering his mouth. When he spoke the others heard his voice almost normally; there was only the slightest muffling.

  He was still holding both the jeterium and the bettronium tube, both of which were unaffected by the membrane which covered his fingers. It seemed to have an affinity just with the live tissue.

  ‘Now for the crucial test,’ he said, ‘will it disappear?’ He held his arms wide so the stone and the tube were well separated. The membrane complied, leaving his body perfectly normal.

  ‘Good, I’m pleased about that, he laughed. ‘Now, what on earth have we discovered?’

  The three men realised they had something extremely unusual in their grasp but had no inclination of its world-shattering implications. Over the next weeks they tested the phenomenon exhaustively. So they found the membrane didn’t restrict breathing but needed to be switched off for eating and use of the toilet. Certainly the air molecules surrounding the body were forced into tremendous activity but only to a very small depth. Nevertheless the force field was impenetrable. They dared to experiment with a dagger, gently at first but then with increasing force. The weapon simply bounced off. They tried testing with animals but found they were unaffected; no membrane could be produced to adhere to their tissue. So the role of the phenomenon in protecting against bullets and bombs lay in the future, when mankind did what it was too inclined to do - kill one another.

  Of course they gave no indication outside their laboratory of their amazing experiment nor of Martin’s discovery or its location. But somehow, someone got slight details. The pathway of the leak was never discovered but undoubtedly it must have carried a fortune.

  Oddly the first news was the kind most people dismiss out of hand. A believer in UFOs wrote an article stating that an unknown substance had been found which had obviously been seeded on the earth in an experiment by a superior race to observe the reactions of the lower level humans. The description of ‘black stones’ caught the eyes of a few people and soon messages were being exchanged on social networks inviting information on who had found them and where. Most answers ridiculed the UFO idea and insisted the stones were hard jet and so had been washed up on shore by the sea. A few people realised they were exceptionally hard but no one had thoroughly experimented with them having no reason to do so.

  The first inkling that something strange was afoot came when adverts from a firm of hitherto unknown jewellers offered to buy any black stones found on beaches. The price offered was very tempting so most were sent. A very few people became suspicious and so kept theirs, whilst an even smaller number decided to investigate their stones rigorously. They soon found that not only were the stones harder than diamonds they were exceptionally difficult to cut and, most weirdly, when an incision was made, very expensively, no swarf was produced. Owners knew then they had something unique in their hands.

  So a few small groups became highly interested in jeterium, although they didn’t yet know it as such. All were determined to reach the source of the information gleaned by the writer of the UFO article.

  Chapter 2

  That man was Wendell Manton. He was an ageing bachelor who lived alone in Heddersham village, a picturesque spot in southern England not far from the M4 motorway. A shock of unkempt white hair and weatherbeaten features hinted at a lifetime at sea. Small round spectacles now added a scholarly look, albeit one with a fixation on one particular area of study. After retiring from a full career in the Merchant Navy, Wendell developed a fascination with UFOs. His small cottage bulged with just about every book and journal on the subject and he convinced himself that beings of superior intelligence from another solar system had not only visited earth but were using mankind rather like laboratory animals. This in no way alarmed him but he felt he was duty bound to share his conviction with his fellow men. The problem was that very few of his fellow men - or women - were at all interested. Largely his occasional talks, tweets and letters to the press were ignored.

  But that changed the day he received an unintended email giving some information about black stones found on certain beaches in the UK. The message carried the usual rider that if it was inadvertently received by any unintended person it should be deleted, so naturally he kept it. This proved to be a ghastly mistake.

  Without giving much thought to the source of the email, he soon convinced himself that the stones were mysterious, that they were of a material unknown to man and that therefore they were extra-terrestrial. Obviously, therefore, they had been seeded and whatever people did with them would be of interest to the alien observers. He soon produced a respectable article which was accepted by one of the small journals dealing with UFOs and read by people who enjoyed having their imagination stirred by such possibilities. The word mysterious can be very attractive.

  A few days after the appearance of his article he opened the door to two strangers. Both were smartly dressed in dark suits with what looked like college ties. They spoke politely, explaining they were interested in UFOs and had been fascinated by Wendell’s article. At this point he invited them indoors and took them into his small lounge. After politely declining tea, or anything stronger, they asked him whether he had seen the advert offering payment for any such. Wendell assured them he had not. They then enquired whether he had found and collected any himself. Again he replied that, regretfully, he had none. So they then asked him how he had learned of them in the first place.

  Naively trusting fellow ufologists, as he thought, Wendell turned to pick up his laptop, explaining that he had received a strange email and had kept it, prompting his article. The blow fractured his skull, making him immediately unconscious, and suffusing his white hair red with his draining blood. The men grabbed his laptop and were out of the cottage in seconds, caring not a jot for the crumpled figure. Unattended Wendell died without regaining consciousness. His body was found three days later when police forced entry into the cottage following a call from a plumber who was to trace a slight leak in the old central heating system. Local newspapers and television reported the death as mysterious because the police had no leads whatsoever. No one, it seemed, had seen anyone approaching or leaving the cottage. Though many people knew Wendell by virtue of his appearance, he had few friends, being regarded as an oddity with his fixation about extra terrestrial beings. His killers vanished completely, as was their intention.

  In fact they were very successful criminals, having embarked on a career of deception, embezzlement and theft extending over some twenty years without detection. They were masters of the art of covering their tracks. Although occasionally they had to contact each other by email they used a code of their own devising. This worked exceptionally well because any message was in plain English, so had anyone intercepted one it would be taken at face value - an innocuous message about trivia. They identified one another by the designations K1 and K2 and were happy to accept that K stood for Killer.

  From vague talk, messages, Wendell’s article and his laptop they pieced together enough information to reveal that black stones had been discovered that were highly unusual, possibly of an unknown material, that they figured in secret tests being undertaken somewhere and, crucially, were th
erefore likely to carry considerable financial value. They also found the source of the undeleted email on Wendell’s laptop was Grantacaster University. They deduced that was likely to be the venue of the testing, so determined to investigate it in their turn.

  What they did not know was that MI5 had established some concern about their activities. Their identities remained unknown but partial suspicion had been aroused by comparison between a number of their crimes. At this time a collection of their emails was being studied by some very intelligent minds in the Security Service. These people, however, were totally unaware of the jeterium/bettronium experiments, so they and the two Ks approached the experimental world of Professor Bettrinski and his two students simultaneously with minimal knowledge and completely opposed motivation.

  Because the Prof and his assistants were involved in microwave experiments for industry it was inevitable that they had to report regularly to their sponsors. Face to face discussions leaked some information that their experiments had taken an unusual turn and that possibly this would lead to a lucrative conclusion. It was from these meetings that knowledge of the black stones percolated and was variously seized upon.

  Chapter 3

  Another small group showing a marked interest in the black stones was comprised of people who were far more in tune with Wendell’s notion of seeding by a superior race from another planet. Like the two Ks they were very secretive, but unlike them they were on a completely different wavelength. Indeed they were completely different in every sense because they were actually participant observers from the superior planet. They travelled to earth from their home, which they called Zennitia, in a space ship which travelled way beyond the speed of light and which had landed them quietly and unknown to anyone. They quickly established themselves in a previously unseen village in an unpopulated area so their arrival provoked no surprise whatsoever. Very quickly they established themselves as very ordinary people who took jobs in various locations in different countries and interacted with people normally, arousing no suspicions whatsoever. Collectively they referred to themselves as the Watchers. Their superior intelligence enabled them to learn languages with inordinate speed.