The next morning Clay found Stan working with Alec. Like everyplace Stan worked, the bench was covered in a mass of wires. In the middle of the tangle was an open plastic enclosure exposing Alec’s new circuit boards. Stan was busy programming on his laptop which was somehow wired to the mess on the table. “Have you been here all night?”
Alec smiled looking relaxed and well rested. “I got home about 10. I asked Stan to come in early to help.” He didn’t need to mention that he needed Stan because he developed the drive controls. “He’s no Jessie when it comes to soldering, but he’ll do.” His comment caused Stan to look up from his programming.
“You’re getting old. In the old days you would have put in an all nighter and you never would have asked for any help.” Clay said in mock surprise. “Can you let me know when you’re done with whatever it is you’re building?”
“You bet.” Alec watched Clay leave. He wasn’t happy about their test ride yesterday… he was more upset than he let on. It wasn’t just about letting McDonald win; it was pride about their anti-gravity product. If he didn’t fix it, the expo would be a bust and the end of their company… and their dreams he thought to himself as he turned his attention back to Stan’s laptop.
It was mid-afternoon when Alec stuck his head in the conference room where Clay was meeting with Olivia and Cleveland. “Clay, when you’re done would you like to go for a ride?” He felt bright-eyed, like he had a full night of sleep, or a pot or two of coffee.
Looking up from their discussion, Clay responded with a smile. “So, you’re ready to let us in on your new creation?”
“We’re done here, lead on.” Clay said joining him. An interested Olivia and Cleveland followed them out.
Alec led them to the loading dock where they found Stan’s feet sticking out the driver’s side of the Plymouth, his head buried under its dashboard. Larry had somehow wedged himself in from the other side of the car. They could hear him fussing about the mess. A minute later Stan slipped out and walked to the other side to help pull Larry out.
“He wanted me to tie up some loose wires.” Stan responded to Alec’s unasked question.
Alec gave the car a quick inspection. “You ready?” He then said holding the driver’s side door open for Clay.
Clay settled in behind the wheel. Alec closed the door behind him and took his place in the passenger seat; barely able to keep his excitement in check. At his nod, Larry opened the dock doors. Clay activated the controls and elevated the Plymouth a few feet and slowly turned toward the opening. Hovering, he looked to Alec.
Feeling a bit tentative Alec nodded and pointed foreword. Clay grinned and accelerated through the open doors, then upwards past and over the trees lining the edge of their property.
Alec immediately knew his new invention was a success. Folding his hands behind his head, he crossed his legs and grinned from ear to ear. Clay brought the car to a hover 100 feet above GraviTych.
“This is incredible.” He said seeing his friend basking in his success. “What is it?”
“I call it inertial dampening.” Alec tried to sound confident… but it came out more like relief. What they had noticed was there was no longer any feeling of movement. No sense of acceleration forward or upward, it felt like they were motionless the entire time. Even now as they hovered they didn’t even feel any sway from the winds.
“I wouldn’t think inertia was related to gravity.” Clay said.
“I really don’t know. I don’t think it really matters if inertia is a property of space or not. It was that bubble of water the girls made under the helicopter. You see, Jessie created a small container of stable space… space that didn’t flow, that’s why the water formed a perfect ball. Without going into too much detail, I just created a bubble to encompass the car.”
“How come we’re not floating inside here?” Clay looked around the interior.
“You see, the static space inside the bubble didn’t happen naturally. Jessie had to compensate for it in her circuit. We just needed to make a few small adjustments to it so we could better control the flow within it. Stan was able to integrate Jessie’s bubble controls with the cars flight controls. The flow of space is counteracted by commands from the cars controls.” Alec saw Clay not fully understanding, even though he was trying to explain as simply as possible. “For example, when we accelerate, the control circuit detects the ‘forward command’ and adjusts the flow of space to counteract any internal movement.”
“Could this be used for artificial gravity in space?”
His question left Alec dumbfounded. He was so focused on the inertial dampening aspect of the bubble field, he never… “I, uh, never really thought of that.”
Clay chuckled and shook his head at how his genius friend could miss such a simple observation. “How much stress do you think this beast can handle?”
“It should be able to handle anything you can throw at it.” Alec’s response came out like a challenge.
“Well, then hold on.” Clay accepted his challenge as he invented some maneuvers no one else could have thought of before, except maybe for a roller coaster designer.
The crowd below grew as word of the test flight made it through the building. They oood and ahhd as the car raced across the sky, accelerating from a hover to instantaneously stopping miles away. The crowd became weak kneed watching the car shoot straight up to descend in a freefall, stopping just inches from the ground. Not being finished, Clay flew upwards in huge spirals ending with a loop de loop.
With the car stopped a few hundred feet above the parking lot, Clay seemed to grip the wheel a little tighter as he slowly rotated.
“What... are you rubbing it in?” Alec now remembered… this was where he got sick.
“No, it’s not that.”
The tone of his voice jogged Alec’s memory. “I remember... you saw something, didn’t you.” Just before he got sick, he remembered the look on Clay’s face. He had the same grip on the steering wheel. “What did you see?”
“A hole…” Clay began.
“A black, empty hole?” Alec recalled Jessie’s story about the storage room.
“No, it was a blue hole. I could see it was a different shade and it looked... well... like it had depth. If I hadn’t stopped, we would have flown right into it.” Clay thought a second. “Why did you ask? Do you know something?”
“I’m not sure. Could you do me a favor and not tell anyone... especially Sofie and Jessie.” When Jessie first told him about their adventure in the storeroom, he just wrote it off as imagination. A dark, spooky storeroom... heck the light bulb and electrical work was as old as the building. It could have momentarily blacked out. But now... this wasn’t a coincidence. He was going to have to check out that storeroom... and have a talk with Eugene.
“Sure. What is it? Does it have to do with our anti-gravity?”
“I don’t think so.” Alec’s mind was working... putting pieces together. The storeroom, the hole in the sky, not being able to sell anything, the helicopters reverse explosion... even McDonald’s takeover attempt. There were too many things going on; something didn’t seem right.
“You sure? You don’t look sure.”
“I’m certain it’s not. In fact, I know there’s nothing to worry about. Maybe it was an optical illusion caused by our gravity waves.” Alec held back a laugh... gravity waves? He smiled at Clay who was nodding in agreement.
“Let’s get back. I think some celebrations are in order.” Alec sat back.
Clay let the car descend to the loading dock to the cheers of the crowd. Jessie and Sofie were the first to scramble up the dock as the red Plymouth floated through the open garage door. Both Alec and Clay had their elbows resting out the open windows, talking and laughing like they were on a Sunday drive in the country.
Jessie was the first to run up to her dad squealing excitedly, jumping up and down. “It worked! It worked! The bubble worked!”
The crowd piling in from outside was abuzz with excitement. Sofie noticed Alec and Clay weren’t buckled into their harnesses. “You weren’t buckled! What if it didn’t work?” She learned of the inertial dampening from Jessie while they were in school and knew right off what was going on when they got off the bus.
Clay just smiled and gave her a hug, ignoring her admonishment, feeling like a million bucks… no… a billion bucks.