The Orthogonal Galaxy (25 page)

The entire team leaned
forward staring at the image with captive attention. At length,
Zimmer’s eyes grew wide in recognition. “Reyd,” he said softly and
calmly, as if in shock. “Falsify the color, please.”

“
Professor?”

“
The digitized image. Can
you falsify the color of the stars? Perhaps turn them all
fluorescent green.”

“
Oh, yeah, coming right
up.”

With a couple of mouse
clicks, the live stars maintained their yellowish-white glow while
other green dots appeared across the screen.

The rest of the team
quickly understood what they were seeing. Far away from the beam,
the green dots overlayed perfectly with the stars, but going closer
into the center of the image, where the yellow beam sat, pulsating
its mesmerizing light, the green dots remained farther and farther
away from the beam, while the live starlight grew closer and
closer. And at least one green dot, the digital location of the
star Deneb, was alone in the night sky, with its live counterpart
completely missing. The light was indeed bending towards the beam,
and those stars which were closest to the beam found that their
starlight was completely consumed behind the obscure background of
the beam itself. Another momentous discovery had been made, but as
have been the case with all discoveries thus far, more questions
were created than there were answers afforded.

While Reyd and Kath
congratulated Joram on this huge find, Zimmer remained at the
monitor studying the image. He began pacing and mumbling
incoherently. The noise level of the trio of graduate students
diminished as they understood that Zimmer was still consumed in
thought and concern. The tension of silence resumed and was broken
by a tension even greater in the form of a phone call.

“
Dr. Gilroy,” breathed the
crackling voice of Zimmer into his cell phone. “We have a huge
problem… about the rescue mission… I’ll need to come to Johnson
immediately.”

…

A voice droned and echoed
throughout the domed room. “Apparent magnitude can be calculated as
follows. The variable M-sub-x denotes apparent magnitude, where x
denotes the specific band of electromagnetic radiation for which
apparent magnitude we are measuring. Thus, M-sub-x equals negative
two point five times log base ten of F-sub-x plus C. F-sub-x is the
flux in the band x, and C is a constant calculated for the band of
interest. As you already know from Maxwell’s equations, the flux
can be derived by calculating the surface integral of an
electromagnetic vector field…”

Kath could barely keep her
eyes open. As her head began to nod, she forced herself to
attention once more.

“…
equation by John Henry
Poynting, where S, representing the energy flux in watts per square
meter, equals one divided by mu-sub-zero times E cross B, where
mu-sub-zero is the magenetic constant, defined as four times pi
times ten to the minus seven power…”

It was no good—Kath could
not stay focused. She looked to her left and noticed that she was
not alone in her inability to follow the monotone nature of Dean
Scoville, filling in for the absent Zimmer. She looked to her right
and saw more of the same. Heads propped up by hands on desks,
gravity-afflicted bodies slinking out of seats towards the ground,
and—you gotta be kidding? One student taking fastidious notes,
consumed with rapt attention. A smile formed on Kath’s face. She
couldn’t resist the moment.

“
P-S-S-S-S-T.” The letters
formed quickly on Joram Anders’s Digital Note Tablet inline with
the notes he was rapidly copying from the whiteboard which Scoville
had filled for the third time during the lecture. “One divided by
the quantity two times mu-sub-zero times P times S times S times S
times S times T all multiplied by E-sub-zero squared.”

Irritated, he looked up
and glared at his fellow student. As Kath shrugged her soft
shoulders in a most flirtatious manner, Joram felt a tingle in his
stomach and knew that he couldn’t be the least upset with his
delightful research partner.

He shook his head, fixed
the equation, and returned his attention to Scoville—sort of. He
could still feel Kath staring at him, and glanced over as she gave
him a wink. He gave a sigh, looked over and mouthed the words “Stop
it”, concerned about how easily she was able to steal his attention
away from weightier matters.

After class, Joram had to
scold her. “Note passing, Kath? Isn’t that a bit
juvenile?”

“
How could you focus on
that lecture, Joram?” Kath attempted to change the
subject.

“
Kath, it’s not the
speaker that I care about—it’s the subject.”

“
I know, I know,” Kath
surrendered. “I’m sorry, Joram. It’s just that I’ve been having a
hard time sleeping. These weekends at Palomar are really throwing
my body into sleepless disarray. I’m not sure if I’m cut out for
astronomy, Joram.”

“
Don’t say that, Kath.”
Joram loathed the idea of losing Kath from the program. “Give it
some time, you’ll adjust. It’s just been two weekends so
far.”

“
And then, with Scoville…
I swear if Zimmer doesn’t get back soon, I’ll become infamously
known throughout the department as Kath Van Winkle.”

“
Speaking of Zimmer,”
Joram took advantage of the segue, “What do you think he’s
doing?”

“
I suspect he’s still at
Johnson.”

“
Really? But he left on
Sunday. Three full days?”

“
Yeah, I suspect the
longer he’s gone, the worse news it is on the rescue mission, not
being able to figure out how to counteract the effects of gravity
on the beam so close to the spaceship.” Kath’s voice trailed
off.

“
What’s wrong,
Kath?”

“
I just can’t help
wondering about the astronauts. How awful it will be if we have to
leave them up there. I understand they can survive for several
months. What a miserable demise it will be to be left waiting that
long. Talk about a slow death.” Kath stopped on the sidewalk and
turned to Joram. “It could’ve been worse, you know.”

Joram returned a curious
stare. “What do you mean?”

“
If you hadn’t discovered
the gravitational effects of the beam, we might have sent up a team
of rescuers to an most unexpected and unfortunate doom. You have
probably saved a handful of lives, Joram.”

“
Well, before you award me
with that medal of honor, the act wasn’t anything close to heroic,
Kath. I just stumbled across something, that’s all… any of us
could’ve done that. Besides, it was Zimmer’s decision to go find
Deneb. Any other star, and we probably would’ve just looked over
the detail.”

“
Do you think a rescue
mission is still possible?” Kath asked the question that had
weighed on her mind all week long.

“
I’m confident that Zimmer
will come up with a way to save them—and study that beam
too.”

“
But how, Joram? What
would you do to save those astronauts in light of the gravitational
risks of the beam?”

“
I really don’t know,
Kath. I suspect that we might need to take advantage of the beam’s
gravity. Use it as a slingshot to hurl us away from Mars and then
bring us back in a sort of orbit around the beam perhaps. It might
take a lot longer to get there, depending on how strong the gravity
of the beam is, but what’s a few more weeks, or even a couple of
months if need be to bring those astronauts back. Any politician
who loves his career is going to do all that he can to bring those
men back alive.”

“
I sure do hope you’re
right, Joram.”

The pair resumed their
course through campus at a leisurely rate, when Kath’s cell phone
rang in her backpack. Opening the phone up, she looked at the
caller’s phone number and gasped. “It’s Zimmer!” she said quietly
to Joram, as if the professor might overhear her.

Without saying a word,
Joram gestured anxiously for her to answer.

“
Hello, Professor… Really?
Oh, that’s great news… launch on Friday… oh, I’m so relieved. But
what about the gravity? I’m sorry, say that again… But… I don’t
understand… Houston, you say? Weekend after next… Wow… yeah that
will be great! Joram? Oh, he’s probably too busy reviewing Dean
Scoville’s notes after the last lecture to turn his cell phone
on…”

Joram’s jaw dropped as he
threw open his backpack and rummaged through its contents looking
for his phone.

“
Yeah… he says he’s really
enjoying the dean’s lectures… he’s absolutely smitten with the
man’s intelligence…”

Joram looked horrified.
This little prank was just going too far, and he made gestures to
get her to stop—frantically waving hands, jumping up and down,
making slicing motions across his neck, reaching out as if to
strangle her for this level of imprudence.

“
Just kidding, Professor…
he’s right here with me. We just got out of 21, you know… yeah,
I’ll let him know… See you on Friday.”

Kath roared with laughter.
“You should’ve seen your face, Joram Anders.”

Joram stood there
motionless, not wanting to give away any emotion, but as he watched
her jubilantly engaged, with her soft brunette hair bouncing around
her face he felt his irritation, once again, melt into
attraction.

Taking a deep breath, she
composed herself once again. “Let’s go to the Red Door Café, and
I’ll tell you all about the call.”

Joram jumped at the offer,
all too eager to hear progress of Zimmer’s activities. Joram
prodded her for information all the way, but Kath refused to
divulge any details until she had a peach-flavored iced tea to
drink.

“
Well?” Joram asked as he
and his raspberry lemonade took a seat next to Kath.

Kath held up a finger to
hold off Joram just a moment longer. She took a swig of her tea
along with a long drawn out breath.

“
Are you quite sufficient
to talk now, my lady,” Joram said bowing to his regal
companion.

In a burst, Kath let out
all of the details of the conversation in the longest run-on
sentence that Joram was ever aware of hearing. “Zimmer said there’s
no worry about gravity; after studying the gravitational effects of
the beam on Mars, they realized that the light was not bending
because of gravity, but for some other phenomenon, because the beam
had not shown any effect whatsoever on Mars; of course, we’re going
to have to figure that one out now too, you know, but Zimmer said
he’ll brief us on that the next time we’re at Palomar, which won’t
be for a week and a half, but let me get back to that little detail
later; anyway, the mission will resume with just one day of delay,
so the launch will be on Friday afternoon instead of Thursday
morning; the professor needed extra time to add a few items for
studying the light-bending phenomenon up close; the mission is
going to launch the experimentation equipment prior to landing on
Mars in 18 days, which means that the experiments will begin on our
next research weekend, not this weekend but the next one, but of
course, you already know that; what you don’t know, however, is
that we’ll not be going to Palomar that weekend, we’ll be going to
Houston instead, in order to be in the rescue mission control room
while the experiments are under way; Zimmer thought it would be
best for us to be there collecting data in real time; by the way,
Zimmer was steamed that you didn’t answer your cell phone when he
tried to call you first…”

“
What?” Joram’s jaw
dropped. “But… but… but c’mon we just got out of class. I didn’t
have a chance to turn it…” Joram cut himself short recognizing the
look in Kath’s eyes. “Oh, I am so gullible. Would you just stop
doing that to me? How many times will I fall for it?”

Kath chuckled. “Hook, line
and sinker.”

“
Yeah, but just you wait,
Kather Mirabelle. I’ll start recognizing your bait before long, and
then you’ll have to pick up and move to a different pond, because
this fish ain’t gonna bite anymore.”

Kath feigned an expression
of seriousness. “Oh that will be a sad day, Joram Anders… a sad,
sad day.” Looking at her watch, she finished her tea hurriedly.
“Would you look at the time? We should get going. I’m meeting a
friend at the tennis club for a game this afternoon, and you need
to start reviewing those notes from Scoville.”

With a quick peck on the
cheek, Kath immersed herself in the crowded walkways of the CalTech
campus. Joram watched and admired her gait for as long as he could
see her. After she disappeared, he allowed the moment with Kath and
the news from Zimmer to settle in while enjoying the rest of his
lemonade.

15

After doing his best to
encourage Paol as they left the courthouse, Warron and Monay walked
quickly together towards the parking garage, each holding a black
umbrella to protect them from the rain. The storm was starting to
clear, but a dampening drizzle encouraged them to seek shelter as
they walked.

The silence began to
disturb Monay. She was not one for awkward fits of silence, even if
it was her boss. “Warron,” she engaged the sullen attorney, “do you
still really believe that Paol is innocent?”

“
Absolutely,” he affirmed.
“I can feel it. I have no doubt that he is innocent. We just need
to find better answers to the questions of the case. I really
wished the jury had been more convinced that these questions were
pertinent and serious. If I can find an answer or two, I’ll
convince them in the appeal.”