Zero 'g' (3 page)

It was essential
that
they get the particle, but it was still possible that they could
fail.

Still
, it was
something that Iverson believed in, and he had to have faith that
the people around him would see that and have some belief in the
system, too. The world needed to band together if it had a hope of
surviving what was coming. This was their one shot to turn things
around, to have unlimited energy, to never have to worry about
Earth’s destabilizing again. The expedition would not be easy, and
it would certainly be expensive, but it had to be done. There was
just no other way. The NASA team had exhausted every other avenue
and had come up with nothing.

“
Excuse me?”

Lost in thought
,
Iverson was startled to hear someone addressing him. He looked up
to see the president of the People’s Republic of China addressing
him from a monitor. His stomach started churning, and he
immediately regretted the tacos he had for lunch. He faced the
monitor and took a deep breath.

“
Yes, sir?”

“
I feel as if I’m following along rather well
here
, but with this new
discovery, I’m in awe that we have come so far and have the
capabilities to save our own planet from extinction. It’s quite a
marvel,” he said with a smile.

Iverson nodded and waited for him to go on. He hoped that
the
president of China stayed
in good spirits.

“
Aside from how impressed I am about what is going on
here
, I am also very curious.
This is clearly no easy feat. Saving the world never is, I
imagine,” he said with a chuckle.

“
Yes
, sir, and no,
sir.” Iverson smiled back at him.

“
How much is it going to cost to transport
Particle B to Earth? Is it even
possible to do so? I mean, that’s one heck of a project. Can we
even generate the kind of funding you would need to do such a
thing?”

He rubbed the back of his neck and wondered if it was
getting hotter in the room or if
he was just experiencing hot flashes. He cleared his voice
once again and said, it will take approximately ten trillion
dollars to complete the operation and to make a new type of rocket
called the antigravity rocket, according to our best scientists
working on the situation

“
What exactly is an
antigravity rocket?” asked Cameron.

“
These rockets are a new innovation, specially designed to
transport Particle B Well, one of the main problems we have been
having
, obviously, is getting
the particle back to Earth. The rockets we have just don’t have the
capabilities we need to transport the particle. So our scientists
have designed a new rocket that can do the job.”

“
Tell us about it,”
implored Cameron.

“
I won’t get into the science behind it all; it’s classified
at this point. It is
, however,
going to cost a lot of money to get these rockets
built.”

“
Without this particle
,
Cameron, we will have only fourteen months left before the gravity
disappears from the entire planet. Now, I don’t know about you all,
but that scares me to death, because I don’t want to be here when
that happens.”

I’m sorry
; that is all
I have at this time, until we can look into things further. I thank
all of you for your time, and I will be in touch in short
order.”

Iverson quickly sat down before the firing squad could get
to him again. He was relieved to be out of the limelight or the
interrogation room
, however he
wanted to look at it. The world’s council was relentless, and he
hoped he wouldn’t have to do any more public speaking. He just
wasn’t very good at it. He preferred to stay back in the lab and
work on things with his fellow scientists. He knew it wasn’t over
yet, however; the panel would be demanding more information sooner
rather than later, and it was up to him to provide that
information. He just hoped that he could do that efficiently before
someone decided that he was too incompetent for the job.

He looked over at President Gates
, who was grinning ear to ear. Iverson wasn’t sure
what the president felt so confident about, but he nodded at him
nonetheless. Things were going to get ugly with the council; he
could just feel it. Even without doing the numbers, he knew that
the expedition was going to cost a fortune and no small one at
that.

The
president winked
at him, and Iverson suddenly felt like he was part of something he
didn’t really understand. Iverson suspected that Gates was just
pleased because he felt like he was involved in something that
would save the world, which was a pretty big deal for someone
looking to be reelected. But Iverson wasn’t sure it was all going
to work out in the end; it was too early to tell. There was still
so much unknown at this point. He would feel much better about
things once the data was fully analyzed. Until then, he was just
happy he had a few months before he would have to face them all
again.

Chapter Four

After Nine
Months

Jim
Iverson stared at
the latest report in his hand and felt sick to his stomach. He
scanned it briefly before going in for a final read. It was
terrible news, the whole thing from top to bottom. He could barely
believe what he was reading. The whole team had been working
tirelessly for months, and things were still looking pretty dire
for the world. A lot of time had been spent on the rocket alone,
and then it needed to be launched. The process took forever, and it
was not without its problems. But they had gotten through it only
to discover that bringing back Particle B was not only a difficult
task but one that could be very dangerous to the Earth.

It
had taken them nine
months to build the impressive antigravity rocket, the very rocket
that was currently bringing back the particle they had discovered.
But when it came time to launch the rocket into the atmosphere,
they had learned that it wasn’t as easy as they’d all believed it
would be. Sure, the building process was a success, but launching
it and bringing back the particle had led to one problem after
another. The rocket’s launch had attracted quite the crowd. People
from all over the world had traveled to see it go off. Rockets were
launched regularly on Earth, but this one had a specific purpose.
The launch went off after solving a lot of hitches, and it was
considered another one of NASA’s legendary achievements.

The rocket was launched at one end of the world while on
the other end of
Earth, there
occurred one monumental natural disaster after another. It appeared
as if the damage done to Earth through all their explorations was
starting to come back to haunt them.

They
had known right
from the beginning that any explorations that were conducted could
cause damage to Earth, almost undoing their efforts. Iverson
groaned just thinking about it. Winning the battle wasn’t the way
Iverson thought it would be. He was trying desperately to not cause
further damage, but what else could be done? It was essential to
Earth’s survival that they keep looking for other means of making
the world more energy-efficient. They were using up their natural
resources quicker than they expected, as well as digging in the
mines and making the antigravity rocket; yet these things were
causing more damage to Earth. Not exactly good news. The
opportunities that would be brought about because of the amazing
Particle B would astound the world. It all made it worth it in the
end—at least Iverson hoped so. They were risking a lot, and that
was terrifying to Iverson as one of the lead scientists on the
team. It had to work out in the end, because if it didn’t, he
didn’t even want to think about it. So many jobs and lives were at
stake, and their future—everyone’s future—was depending on what
happened with the rocket. If they failed, then they would have to
start back at square one, and he wasn’t sure if they had that kind
of time.

They had been trying other means of fixing the damage
already done to
Earth in the
hopes that they could reverse or slow down its effects. Every
night, NASA turned on its satellite vacuums, which sucked out
polluted air from Earth’s atmosphere. Every day, the world woke up
to fresh, clean air. The bad air was sent into space near Venus. It
was surprising to Iverson, however, just how quickly the air became
polluted in just one day. There was no break; the vacuums always
went back on at the same time every night to clean the atmosphere
of the damage we continually did to it.

Scientists
also used
various reusable rockets all over the world, across many different
countries. These rockets collected trash, hauled it off Earth, and
dumped the useless material into space. NASA had been able to clear
off most of the world’s waste in a very short amount of time. It
had been one of the agency’s most successful innovations. Again,
though, the continuous launching of the rockets caused damage to
the atmosphere. They needed Particle B to reverse all
that.

The scientific team was still determining all the benefits
of Particle B. As it
traveled
to Earth, they waited to hear more. It would take some time to get
it all there, but in the meantime, while the antigravity rocket was
being launched on one side of Earth, the other side was
experiencing issues with the ice in Antarctica.

Iverson had just received a report that said the
Antarctic Ocean was experiencing
continuous melting of the polar ice caps. The whole continent of
Antarctica seemed to be falling apart, and they were powerless to
stop.

Iverson shook his head as he finished reading the reports
coming in. Fear struck him once again as he wondered if he would
ever be able to pull off what was required of him. He took a seat
and put his head in his hands as he thought about all the melting
ice in the
Antarctic. When the
ice melted in the Antarctic, it changed Earth’s gravitational
field. The more melting that occurred, the more Earth’s gravity
would shift. It would be disastrous if the ice continued to melt.
It had to be stopped as soon as possible. He wondered if they could
do anything to slow things down until they got the particle back.
Time was running out, and he hoped they would get Particle B to
Earth before everything fell apart around them.

Everything was connected on
Earth, and most people didn’t even blink an eye when they
heard the ice caps were melting. But so many things came into play
when events such as that started to happen. It set off a domino
effect of events that could affect the whole world. When the ice
sheets melted, the land that was underneath the ice would slowly
start to rise. As the ground rebounded in that fashion, the gravity
field would begin to change. That was the last thing they wanted to
happen right now. If that wasn’t bad enough, closer to the equator,
they were having problems with volcanoes.

The scientists were guessing at this
point
, but they believed that
the volcanoes were starting to erupt with molten iron. The team
believed that the molten iron was coming up from Earth’s core. It’s
pretty common to have volcanoes erupt, and it’s not normally a
catastrophic event, but lately things were changing, and the team
was paying a lot closer attention to the erupting volcanoes. When
the molten iron from Earth’s core begins to erupt, that’s a big
problem. It’s over. It’s over for everyone.

Oh
, no!
Iverson thought.
Now what?

Chapter Five

Earth Loses Its Gravity

April 3, 20
74

Beatrice and Harold Channing ha
d been attempting to lose weight for the past few
months on doctor’s orders. Their health had been deteriorating over
the years, and their family doctor had suggested strongly that they
get their lives in order. The Channings had found that once they
started exercising, they actually enjoyed the newfound energy in
their lives. Their routine usually consisted of going for a light
jog in the early afternoon around New York. It allowed them some
fresh air and gave them the exercise the doctor expected of them.
The Channings lived in an apartment that gave them a gorgeous view
of the Statue of Liberty. Beatrice always loved to look outside
each day and get a sense of peace from the view.

“
Beatrice
, dear, you
need to check your weight, so I can record it for the doctor. We
have that appointment this week.”

A
program within the
house did an exact scan of her weight with a simple command. It
also could track calories for the day. It made calorie counting a
breeze.

“
Check my weight,” Beatrice called out.
A virtual screen popped up and listed Beatrice’s
weight as 120 pounds. She clapped because she had already lost 55
pounds, and she hoped to be back at her proper weight of 110 pounds
in no time. Suddenly, the screen flickered, and the numbers started
to drop drastically:
90…89…88…87…86…