The Intern (The Forbidden World Book 1)
Page 31
Then he stared at Nick again and added, “I can see the name doesn’t tell you anything. And this is even weirder. I have not met many people familiar with Zan’s work. And those who share his views of the world and universe… I have met none.”
Instead of an answer Nick got up, found a stick on the ground and asked, giving it to the old man, “Draw it for me.”
“All right, but please don’t repeat this anywhere lest people think you are crazy,” the old man said and then smirked, adding, “Although, this must not be new for you, or is it?”
Quickly and quite recognizably, the old man drew the local planetary system. The only thing that threw Nick off was that it was depicted linear, with the planets located on one invisible line.
“Can I?” Nick reached his arm out. Curious, Whisperer gave him the stick.
“So, this is Orphius, right?” Nick pointed at the largest circle. “This is Junius, here – Dominia, and this is Terrius, where we are, right?”
The old man nodded in agreement silently.
“Then this is Caprius and here – Santius. Smart man is this Zan the Thinker of yours!” Nick said respectfully. “But something’s missing here.”
Nick started to draw the orbits of the planets in the form of circles.
“I have seen these circles as well in the old drawings,” the old man’s voice was giving out sincere interest. “But I couldn’t understand, what do they mean?”
“All these worlds are moving around the Orphius, while Terrius is also rotating, that is, moving, around its own axis.”
Whisperer kept silent for a long time, moving his lips as if arguing with himself. Nick was silently and carefully watching him. Finally, the old man sighed and said, “Perhaps it is indeed so. Or perhaps there was no Zan the Thinker.”
Suddenly, far away near the horizon the sky was split with the lightening strike. The old man trembled with his entire body. Then he jumped off the log bench and stared at that spot. The lightening stroke again.
Nick looked at the horizon. What alarmed Whisperer so much? He couldn’t be scared of the lightening strikes, could he? They were striking so far away that even the echo of their thunder was hardly discernable. Although, it is possible that strong thunderstorms were not characteristic of this area and that’s why Whisperer was nervous. “And seriously, in all this time I’ve been here I’ve never seen a good rain. Some drizzle here and there, for a short time, sometimes several times a day, and then it stops. But I’ve never seen a pouring rain with the lightning and thunder here,” Nick thought.
“It’s starting!” Whisperer was clearly alarmed, and looked like talking to himself. “But why so early? Too early! Many will simply not make it!”
“What is starting?” Nick was now also alarmed, but didn’t understand anything.
“The Exodus! The Exodus is starting! Did you hear the thunder?” Whisperer grabbed Nick’s arm.
“Yes, of course, I heard it, so what?”
“This is the Heavenly Harbinger! It always foreshadows the beginning of the Exodus!” Whisperer was almost shouting. Then he looked at Nick and said in a calmer voice, “We are leaving tomorrow. Will you be able to walk?”
“Whisperer! Nick!” they turned sharply to the voice. Sith was running to them, all disheveled like he just got out of bed, “The Exodus! The Exodus is starting!”
They looked again at the blazing horizon and went toward the house. The air smelled like ozone. A slight breeze came from somewhere and Nick felt it chilling him down to the bone. Somewhere not too far, dogs started to howl.
The end
Notes
1. Earth Similarity Index – determines how similar a planet is to Earth based on physical parameters such as size, mass, density, distance from the star, surface temperature, etc.
2. Planetary Habitation Index determines the possibility of habitation on the planet and is calculated with the help of additional factors: type of surface (rock or ice), existence of the atmosphere and magnetic field, amount of energy available for potential organisms (sun light or tidal fluctuation warming up the core), existence of organic compounds and liquid solvents, etc.)
3. Parsec is a unit of measurement in astronomy, equal to 206265 astronomic units, or 30,857×10 to the 12th power of km. One parsec is equal to 3,26 of the light year.
4. Free Search Group.
5. An astronomical unit (AU) is a historically used measurement of distance in astronomy, equal approximately to the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Used mostly to measure distances between the planets in the Solar system, systems beyond Solar, as well as between the components of double stars. 1 AU = 149 597 870 700 km.
6. Dejà vu (French «already seen») is a psychological disorder in the form of a feeling that everything seen at present (people, events, environment) was already lived through at some point in the past.
7. Supersonic speeds are measured in Mach numbers. 1 М = 343 m/s = 1234,8 km/h