When Ashley didn't answer the phone, the phone answered itself. "Hello? Are you there?"
Ashley dropped the phone, blurting out an epithet. The phone responded, "Good, you are there. I need help from the person who got this phone to work. Could you contact him for me?"
"Her," she said into the phone. "I'm the one who did it."
"Thank you. I need your help. Please come to this address."
Professor Sunderland buzzed her into the lab. He was a towering man with haunted eyes. "Do it again," he said, handing her a phone.
Ashley began accessing the settings. "Did they name my dorm after you?"
"My family. My grandfather's work helped to develop the atomic bomb; my father's work shaped smartphones such as the one in your hand. I am that third generation that suffers in comparison. How long did it take you to figure out how to fix your phone?"
"About two days. I didn't know everybody else was having problems, I just wanted to be able to reach home."
"And where is home?"
"Mexico." Ashley handed back the phone. "There. You'll be able to use it for about an hour, then wait five, then so on. That's the best I can do until that solar storm passes."
"It's not a solar storm," Dr Sunderland said. "It's a man-made mess that you're going to help me fix."
The professor showed Ashley his progress at the mapping workstation. "The work is much further along than I have been comfortable sharing. My collaborations have been very focused - myopic, I've been accused of. But I don't know everyone's motivations, what they're capable of. Do you know who Emerson Hu is?"
"I've heard of him, on the news. He's been missing..."
"No, you're not in danger," Sunderland interrupted.
"You say that, and now I think I'm in danger!"
"You're going to help me find him. Just figure out the sequence for this frequency oscillation so we can retrive it."
Ashley offered a confused look. "Retrieve?"
"Yes. The interference in all the satellites the past few weeks - everybody's phones and TV signals - came from this lab. I expect to go to prison, because of it - but I'd like to clean it up first. Help me, please."
The lab was humming. At his workstation, Sunderland began to coordinate the power extraction for his experiment: the attempt would extract an hour's worth of city power, even with the batteries in the lab to assist.
Ashley continued searching for the lab frequency. "Why me?"
"Your phone works; you're halfway to solving the problem." Sunderland walked to the generators. "Comcast, AT&T, the research departments of a dozen nations have not figured a way around the electric clutter - but you did. They're telling the public it's solar flaring, leaving excess particles in the Van Allen belts - because the truth would turn too great a microscope upon human activity in the ionosphere, facing unconsidered consequences. They're not ready for that. No one's going to fix this but us."
Ashley hit the enter key in triumph. "Got it!"
"Are you sure? It has to be in sequence, I can't leave anything behind!"
"Yes, I'm sure!... as sure as I can be."
Sunderland nodded, and pointed to an empty chamber, barely larger than a bathroom stall. "Watch that room-" He hit the switch. The room flashed, then went dark.
"Check the room!" the professor shouted. Ashley opened the door to the converted closet, but Sunderland is the one who burst in, and brought out the body of Emerson Hsu. "Is your phone working, Ashley?"
Ashley checked her phone; the signal was clear.
"You may call the police now, Ashley."
Almost two hours later, the police arrived. Ashley met them outside the lab. Sunderland was waiting in the teleportation chamber, staring at the body of his departed friend. He waited until the police entered, before he pushed a button and vanished.
inspired by Discover Magazine article, "Third Radiation Belt Discovered Around Earth"
No comments:
Post a Comment