Quantum Kid

[Kchoo]

The neighbor turned and walked away,
"We are on the same side."

Sam started winding the string back onto his spool,
"I am sorry, Dad."

Dad,
"For what?"

"I shouldn't have built the second one..."

Dad,
"I understand. I would have done the same thing."

Sam,
"Can you get it to work?"

Dad,
"I don't know, I tried everything you said, and it did nothing..."

"If you do get it to work, it will just fly away again...."

"Probabaly..."

 

[Kchoo]

Sam finished winding the kite in...
"Dad? If we built a cage similar to the structure of the rotor, but static... it might keep it from flying away.... then we can work on an idea for controlling direction by combining three different rotors fixed to a plate... if we destabilize one, it should create a push pull effect... and follow the lines of gravity in the earth..."

Dad grabbed the kite, and knelt down so he could be eye level with Sam,
"You are smart. Maybe so smart that others won't understand... I don't want to discourage you, but I don't have the resources to build what you wanted, and even if I did, we Are already in over our heads."

Sam,
"But.. never mind..."

Dad studied Sams expression, and could tell something bothering him,
"What is it?"

" I know what it is... it opens a portal to somewhere... Dad, there are things, people, not like us... I saw one when I put my head inside."

Dad, sort of fell off his knee and landed on his butt, still holding the kite up with both hands so as not to hurt it.

Sam laughed,
"Hahaa... Dad... you protected a cheap cardboard Kite! I know that means you understand me."

Dad grinned at first, then stood... "Come on, It is Saturday... let's go to get some ice cream, then we will go to my lab... Don't tell your mom..."

 

[Kchoo]

It was a quiet ride to the drive through. Dad purchased two large ice cream cones and paid the attendent. He handed one to Sam, and held his out so Sam could tap the edge of his with his Dad's.

"CHEERS!"

They quietly drove to the lab and ate their ice cream.

Dad handed a napkin to Sam as they were getting out, and they wiped their mouths and tossed the papers in the waste bucket by Dad's metal desk.

Dad rattled his keys as he searched for the one he was looking for, put it in the door handle and looked at Sam,
"Nobody knows what is in here... I used it to store chemicals, but my research was done last year and all the chemicals are gone.... So it is just an empty closet now. Well, as far as they know. "

He turned the key, and opened the door. The frequency generator was hooked up to the input capacitor circuit just as brother had done in the shed. The rotor was sitting on its cradle in the correct location on the workbench. Dad turned toward Sam,
"Tell me about your cage idea..."

Sam pointed at the ceiling and walls,
"All you need is a bare copper wire net on all the walls, ceiling, floor and door. HOOK the frequency generator up to it also....
Then if we get it to work again it will stay suspended in the center point of the room."

"Ok, I will order the wire."

"You will need to order two more sets of coper pipe and the brushes and magnets also. "

Dad,
"Ok, son... I still don't understand this... but we will try it. If it works.... well... one thing at a time, huh?"

Sam,
"I won't tell mom..."

 

[Kchoo]

Dad turned out the light and locked the door.

Sam,
"Dad? Did you try simulating the power outage?"

Dad,
"No. We will try that if needed, but it feels like we are grasping at straws..."

Sam,
"Well, one thing at a time, huh?"

Dad grinned,
"Did you know Thomas Edison failed at making the lightbulb a thousand times? We can't afford to fail more than once!"

Sam,
"You said others may want it. If they trace it back to us, maybe we will just give it to them, and they can fail a thousand times for us."

Dad,
"One thing is certain, life is interesting when you have a mystery to solve. I think the best part of being a scientist is discovering what works.... but it can come with a price. Do you understand that this could blow up in our faces?"

Sam,
"Well, if they catch up to us, and it blew up in our faces, it solves the other problem you were worried about."

Dad,
"Wow, you are right..."

 

[Sheltie]

I was always skeptical of the Philadelphia Experiment until recently. Those who believe it caused the USS Eldridge to disappear and teleport claim it was a secret research project that united the fields of electromagnetism and gravity into a single field. The commonly used degaussing equipment on many navy ships is known to have no effect on light or visual appearance.

 

[Kchoo]

Upon returning home with his Dad, Sam decided to investigate his father!s library.

Oh, Sam had learned to read basic words, and for a boy of 5 he did have a good vocabulary. He picked up more than most boys his age, and he could sound out big words, but couldn't understand them or understand the full context.

One chapter illustrated how the shell could be removed carefully from an egg, and placed into a glass of liquid to study the effects of osmosis. The picture was enough to spark his curiosity, so he had brother read it and explain the words he was having trouble with.

After that, Sam re-read the whole chapter out loud and explained to his brother how it worked, and his brother confirmed that he was getting it.

On Sunday, Sam sat down with a spoon, and an egg, and carefully cracked away... he failed three times, but on the fourth try, he was successful at removing most of the shell. Then he dropped it into a glass of water, added salt, and waited...

There was a knock in the door, and a man asked to speak to the man of the house. Dad went to the door, and spoke to a man in a black suit and tie. Sam was told to wait in the other room. Sam tried to listen, but the echos and muffled sound from the other room made most of it incoherent.

Finally The man in black came into the room with Dad following behind,
"Now, wait a minute, you leave him alone, he is just a boy!"

Man, "I just want to see him for myself... Are you Sam?"

"Yes..."

The man studied the glass, and the book Sam had in front of him on the table... "Is this yours?"

"Yes... well... I cracked the egg... "

The man picked up the book,
"What are you studying?"

Sam, "Can't you read it? It is about osmosis..."

Man, "I know what this is... but how old are you?"

"Five..."

Dad, "Leave him alone... he is just pretending to be a scientist, emulating his father... getting his brothers to read stuff to him.... He doesn't know anything."

The man said, "Can you read this and understand it?"

"I can now, but yesterday I couldn't..."

Dad, "See? "

The man held up his hand as if to shush Dad. Dad's face turned red.

The man opened a black case, pulled out a camera, inserted a flash bulb, and took a picture of Sam with the egg experiment and the open book, then took another close-up ofthe egg and the book.

 

[Kchoo]

Mom was heard talking in the background, and Sam heard the unmistakable sound of the reciver being lightly but firmly planted onto the wall mounted base.

"I just spoke with the police, and they COULD NOT CONFIRM WHO YOU ARE Mr. James..."

She rested her hand on his arm.

Dad puffed up his chest and grabbed the mans jacket and patted him down for his credentials, to which the man protested,
"I am here because the FAA asked me to investigate a disturbance by an unidentified object we traced back to this very location... I AM LEGITIMATE. I am only here to document and to help. "

Dad finished looking at the man's ID.

" A reporter!?"

He pulled the man's camera away and opened the compartment to pull out the roll of film, and stuffed it into his pants pocket.

The police arrived and immediately nodded at the Man. "Ok... everybody relax... we will need statements from all of you, and we will file a report... "

Dad,
"And if I have anything to do with it, a restraining order will be filed... I do not want this guy around my family."

Sam ignored the rest... as far as he knew, this was just too serious for a boy his age... he had better things to focus on...

 

[Kchoo]

The rest of the day was a nice normal day. Dad made burgers on the hibachi, and we all sat down and ate together like we always did. Brothers and sister bantering about daily things, clanking of forks on plates... Sam was hungry, and ate two hamburgers and two servings of corn.. he felt kind of grown up for being able to do that, as Dad's burgers were not small ones...

Sam didn't listen to what people at the table were saying... he was thinking about the next experiments he wanted his Dad to perform in his lab. He knew he was out of time... people were catching up to them, and Dad's lab would be discovered sooner or later...

There was a knock on the door... "Sooner?"

 

[Kchoo]

Dad answered the door, but kept the chain on. The neighbor spoke through the door... "Snoops are about."

Dad, "Yeah, what did you tell them?"

"Nothing really... I said some kids were building models and flying a kite after dark, but I don't think they bought it."

Dad, "Thanks."

Neighbor, "That chain isn't necessary... keep acting paranoid and they will get really suspicious..."

Dad, "We had an uninvited guest earlier.... a reporter."

"Oh oh, better check the news papers tomorrow, huh"

Dad, "I bet you are their anonymous source."

"NO, I said they could qoute me."

Dad, "GO home, ok?"

Mom came into the room..."There are two men walking around the shed with measuring tapes, metal detectors and a box..."

 

[Kchoo]

Sam wasted no time... before anyone could know where he was, he was following the men around the shed...
"What cha doin? "

Man,
"Just taking measurements..."

"Are you going to build a shed like Dad's"

"Maybe."

"Are you with the government?"

"I work for the government... do you know what happened?"

Sam pulled his Dad's compass out of his pocket, "No, but look at this..."

The man studied the compas and walked around the shed... then entered and waved it around... "This needle always points to the center of this workbench."

The man took a video camera out of the box and shot some footage about the time Dad came out to talk to them... "Do you have credentials... or a warrant? If not, I would like to inform you that you are tresspassing."

One of the men turned around, and seemed to recognize Dad... "We were in the Air Force together, weren't we?"

Dad, "I remember your face, but we didn't know each other..."

Man, "Well, I have the credentials you need. We are not going anywhere until we finish our survey of your shed. We may need to impound it..."

Dad reviewed the man's badge and Studied the credentials, "Looks legit. I will answer any questions, but I really don't know what this is...."

Man, "An object's path was traced back to this location... we don't know what it was, but it grounded an airliner. The president was even notified... set us on a yellow alert.

Without Dad's help.. the two men moved the toolkits out of the workbench, and hauled it out into the yard. The compass still pointed to the same spot in the empty area of the shed, "This is odd... I can't find the source.. no magnets, nothing... no electric panels... just an extension chord that runs to the attic of the house... and this compass...
A guy waved a gieger counter around... slowly trying to detect anything... the other, used some kind of box radio with head phones, and moved the dual antennas around the area. Finally he spoke with Dad again,

"We can't go back empty handed... so unless you show us what is happening here, you are going with us to White Sands."

Dad, "I can show you what I know, I was trying to make a frictionless device... and the tests were not goin well... never got it to work... was playing with models using magnets...just playing with magnets... I can't explain it, but There was a power outage... maybe that triggered something... maybe it was ball lightening, I don't know... but I can show you everything...I have the plans in the house... but I think it was something else... just coincidence..."


Sam knew Dad was playing dumb...
"That might work..."

 

[Kchoo]

For a while things were all nice and quiet. Nothing was seen in the paper or on TV about any strange anomalies in town. No one talked about it. Sam continued his studies of science books and tossed atound ideas before bed with his brother.

Niether of them spoke about the events that occured, but Sam often layed awake pondering the green dude, and imaging what it must be like to live THAT life. What did they eat? Were they explorers like Columbus, or Buzz Aldrin? Were they inventors like Edison, or scientists like Einstein or map makers, or pirates? Maybe they already charted the entire galaxy or maybe even several galaxies?
Would they let Sam go for a ride and see Mars or drive around on the moon buggy used by the astronauts?
So many awesome adventures whirled around in his mind...

Sam knew someday he had to do more to find out, finally he sat up in bed in the dark, proclaiming,
"I WILL!"

His older brother sat up in bed and put his pillow in front of him and kind of hugged it,
"WHAT? ... YOU OK?"

"Yeah... Im great! "

Brother fluffed his pillow and tossed it behind his head and flopped into it, "Go to sleep..."

 

[Kchoo]

The next morning, Sam was woken quietly by his father who handed him jeans, a shirt, and shoes... "Come, we are going to my lab... I want you to see...,"

 

[Kchoo]

We didn't eat hreakfast, we just got in Dad's car and drove to his lab.

Perhaps it was just early in the morning, and maybe it was because he hadn't eaten, but Sam felt queasy.

Dad opened the door to the lab, and held it while Sam went in. Without words, Dad efficiently found the key to the closet among the many keys he carried on his waist clip, and opened the door.

The room was lined with the coper wire cage, and sitting on the table, between the Tesla coil towers and the frequency generator, were three new rotors, each fixed to a corner of wooden triangle frame.

Dad closed the door, "Ok son, I made a few changes... the rotors are smaller, but the proportions are the same as yours... There is no mechanical starter, it is all based on frequency only... in fact, the rotor does not need to spin at all... watch... "

Dad turned on the frequency generator, and the triangular device lifet up off the table a few inches.

Sam, "Good! You made it work?"

Dad, "No.. not like you did... I tried everything down to mimicking the power outage... adjusting frequency up and down, changing the distance in the tower... but this is all it does..."

Sam, "Let me look... "

Sam, leaned in to the table... turned the knob on the frequency generator to the same position he had done in the shed at home. The divice wobbled a bit as it hovered, and then Sam pulled the plug from it's socket...

The lights went out...

Dad, "What did you do?"

As their eyes adjusted, they could could see the object started to have a blue fog around it, but then it dropped to the table...

The lights came back on... and Sam plugged it back in...

The device resumed its hover position a few inches above the table.

Sam looked at the gauge on the frequency generator, and turned the knob to triple its frequency...

Then device moved to the center of the room and hovered...

Sam held his finger up to it, and tapped at the solid wood triangle... "Not the same..."

Dad, "Yeah, but your getting closer than I got...."

One rotor, began to wobble a bit, the frame tilted slightly up, and the stability of the other two rotors resisted...
The unit settled back down and then the third rotor wobbled again, and lifted itself from the frame... Sam tapped at it but his finger went through it...
"Dad, this one works! ".

Dad grabbed the butterfly net and swooped at it, but the net passed right through the object...

The other two and the frame stayed in the center of the room while the third, lightly seemed to touch against each of the others and bounce away... then the triangle frame and the Remains crashed to the floor..

Rotor three continued to hover...

 

[Kchoo]

Dad-"Ok... now what?"

Sam-"I don't know... this didn't go as expected... "

Sam pulled the butterfly net through the floating rotor... "Same problem as before.... "

Sam connected a wire from the cage to the aluminum frame on the butterfly net... and slowly approached the rotor with the hooped end... the rotor backed away... so Sam moved the hoop to the side... and it responded by moving opposite where he placed it... "Containment..."

Dad-"Genious... if we build a portable cage around it, we can move it..."

Sam-"Better than that... if we can build a shell around the rotor, and put in a smaller hoop and a servo from one of your radio controlled planes, maybe we could fly it where ever we want it to go!"

Dad's eyes lit up with the same child-like wonder... "Wow!"

 

[Kchoo]

Chapter 2. Curious People

A man in a black suit and tie knocked on the door. He flashed a badge and held up a letter. He said he is an investigator on assignment from the FBI, and has been given a warrant to search the house, but his understanding was that had already been done, and his thing was more about just talking with the family. Dad took the warrant, read it.. handed it to Mom. “We will be right back with you on that... my wife is calling to verify the authenticity of your papers...”

The man let out a sigh, “Ok.., I will wait... it is real. I am here to help if I can... No charges will be pressed... they just want to know how you did it.”

Dad, “I don’t have to talk to you, inspector. ”

Inspector, “Just call me by my first name, Jim. It makes it less intimidating for folks... and no... you don’t have to talk to me... if you want all your furniture moved around and carpet vacummed and your walls scraped for evidence... but if you want me to leave nice and quiet like... just talk to me... and If I like what I hear, I will leave and file my quiet report and you won’t hear from the FBI or me, again...”

Dad, “Even if you are real, I don’t want to talk to you. Send the real FBI, and I will talk to them.”

Jim, “I am in charge, right... just tell me the truth.. and the sooner, the better... as I haven't had dinner yet.”

Mom, “I called the police, and the FBI, and neither of them know of any warrant...”. She handed the paper back to Dad.

Dad handed the paper back to Jim, “I suppose you are another reporter. You can leave now. There is nothing but some kids with a kite here... put that in your paper... and leave us alone.”

Jim sighed again, “Can’t blame me for trying... I promise you this... if it isn’t just a kite, and I know it isn’t... I am good... I might as well work for the FBI... because I will find the truth... I promise you that. You could save us both some headaches if you would just talk to me... I really can help, you know? I mean no harm.., I promise you that too...”

Dad, “Liar.... you want a story and you will stop at nothing to get it... I promise you this... I will protect my family, and next time you show up un invited, I will be armed.”

Dad quietly shut the door.

Mom, “Well, I hope you were bluffing... I don’t want any more of this nonsense... You need to fix this. Don’t you have friends in the right places. Can’t you influence the right people to resolve this? “

Dad, “I already contacted a couple of people at White Sands... we will be ok, don’t worry... Just want these kooks to know not to mess with my family, that’s all...”

Sam, “What’s a kook? Was Jim a kook?”

Dad patted Sam’s shoulder and grinned, “You've got the idea.”

 

[Kchoo]

Saturday morning came, and Sam had been watching cartoons.

There was a knock on the door, so Sam peeked through the curtain of the large window next to the door.

It was Kev, a neighbor kid from a few doors down. Sam opened the door. “Hi. I was wanting to know if you want to see my bike. I got it for my birthday. “

Sam opened the door and walked outside to see a Brand New dirt bike with pristine knobby tires and black leather snap on pads on all the bars, and a chain guard to keep the pants leg from getting caught in the chain... and TRAINING WHEELS....

“Wow!” THAT is SO COOL!”

Kev, “I know... I am going to learn to ride it...”

Sam’s Bike was a Metalic Blue handed down from Bro. Bro had bought it new a few years ago. He saved for it for months doing odd chores, sweeping the parking lot in front of the toy store for a whole summer... But that was almost too long ago for Sam to remember. Now Bro had a Ten Speed with racing tires from the money he had earned from his Paper Route.

Sam’s Bike had no chain guard, and no pads, and a hole in the seat where’s the blue vinyl had cracked from sitting out in the sun too long. But Sam still didn’t envy Kev’s bike.

It was so new and pristine. It wasn’t proven yet. It hadn’t been been big brother tested and hadn’t even been on Eight Tack, or broken in yet, and Kev’s bike was all black... no chrome... Sam's had all chrome handlebars, a silver racing stripe, a fender on the back to keep mud from slinging up on Sam’s back when he rode through the mud at Eight Track... and the training wheels were long removed...
Sam didn’t even want them, and removed them himself the first day after Dad Put them on.

Sam nodded politely, “This is going to be so cool! “

Sam imagined Kev racing around Eight Track... but first, Kev needed to get used to riding... and so Sam did what his Bro had done to teach help him.... HE stood with the front tire between his legs, and supported the bike while Kev learned some balance. After Kev got used to keeping both training wheels off the ground, he let ol' Kev take a few pushes on the pedals and walked beside him on the sidewalk back to his house. His proud dad was standing in the yard watching and smiling.

“Thanks Sam, my Dad wants to teach me... I will be back when I GET rid of my training wheels.”,Said Kev as he hopped off his bike, and walked it up to his dad and gave him a hug.

Sam had never seen Kev hug anyone... It must have been a big day for him.

 

[Kchoo]

Kevin came back a few saturdays later, “I got rid of my training wheels. I watched you riding the other day... I want ride with you and to learn some of the things I have seen you do... that sideways breaking thing where you slide into a turning stop? That looked cool.”

So they rode around the block a few times, jumped a couple curbs, and Kevin pretty much nailed the sliding break maneuver the first time he tried it.

Kev’s younger brother, Craig, was sitting on the curb in front of his house watching us, “My birthday’s coming in a few weeks... I want a bike.”

Kev, “You can ride mine...”

Craig, “I can start learning now, and by the time I get my bike, I should be ready. But, I might need to put the training wheels back on.”

Lori, the girl across the street, was playing with her dog, “I am going to get a bike too...”
She walked over and they all gathered on the sidewalk in front of Craig n Kev’s house.

Sam, “When we all get Our bikes, I will show you a secret place and we can all do some Evil Kinevil jumps on the dirt ramp my brothers built...”

Kev, “Evil Kineval... Right up my alley...”

Craig, “Evil Kinevil?”

Lori, “I saw him jump a bunch of cars with his motorcycle on TV.”

Sam, “We might jump some cardboard boxes!”

Craig looked scared, “Maybe when I get good enough,,. Right now, I am nervous about riding Kev’s bike... what if I scratch it...”

Sam, “You can use mine.., it has some scratches already...” Sam pointed at one, “This one happened over there when I fell the fist day, I was going slow, but it tipped, and the wheel went straight at the curb, and I rolled over the handlebars, and got the wind knocked out of me. But I got back on... and I REALIZED IF I went faster, it was easier to balance...”


KEV, “Faster! Right up my alley!”

....

 

[Kchoo]

Eventually, everyone in the block Sam’s age or close to his age mastered their bikes and a few stunts at Eight Track...

They used brooms, bicycles, and a soccer ball to play their own form of polo, and enjoyed a good life on a simple street in their quiet neighborhood.

Sam had stopped trying to be a scientist, and just focused on being a kid. Science obviously didn’t have all the answers.

Sam wasn’s sure what happened to the gadgets dad had kept... whatever he did with it, he stopped talking and stopped showing Sam anything. SAM did visit Dad’s lab on bring your kid to work day... but the closet that had stored the device, was empty, except for some cleaning supplies... there were other people in the lab, so Sam tried to be vague but descriptive enough so Dad could know what he meant, “Dad, what happened to the cage.”

Dad, “I didn’t think you would have another hamster, so I donated it...”

Sam just decided to let it go.

YEARS LATER there was something about a NASA Space Walking Astronaut making a eport of a football sized object passing through the wall of the Space Shuttle cargo bay, and traveling on... the anomaly appeared to have caused no damage, but the shuttle remained in orbit for a few more days to investigate, and to make sure the onboard systems where not effected.

EVENTUALLY, manned space flight virtually stopped, All but some flights to the International Space Station...

Sam came across some descriptions on the Internet for a triangular shaped craft. TR-3B

He PULLED out the old copy of plans he had kept of his model. His Brother’s hand written note on the bottom of the page had called it “TR-1A”

“That’s interesting...”