A large rectangular fish tank floated in the blackness. A ball made of sponge floated in its center. The never ending supply of water flowed out through the sponge as though it were a giant exit hole. Alec watched, then with a thought, the sponge grew near… closer and closer until it was the size of a planet. He stood on it and saw people, also made of sponge, living in houses. He noticed that the water flowing through the sponge also flowed through them. As always, in this recurring dream of his, it was the flow of the water that held everything tight to the ground. Alec looked at his feet and jumped, and felt his weight pull him back down. Looking up at the dark sky he knew that by only achieving escape velocity could someone leave the planet and he somehow knew all the properties of gravity also applied to this wet little dream world of his.
“Alec.” Hearing his name surprised him. He never before heard a sound in this vivid dream of his. Looking around he saw nothing out of place. “ALEC!” He opened his eyes and found himself sitting in the conference room with Olivia, Cleveland and Clay staring at him. Olivia pursed her lips and shuffled the papers in front of her. Cleveland chuckled as he stuffed his handkerchief back in his vest pocket while Clay laughed out loud.
“I hope we didn’t disturb your dreams.” Clay said. “But we need to know when your engineers will be done with the car. It’s got to be test flown today.”
It took a few moments for Alec’s head to clear from his short nap before he could respond. “We’ve modified our circuit boards and we were just finishing up with the new drive controls before I got called in this meeting.” He didn’t need to mention that he and the team had worked all night. “You know we’ve only done a handful of low level test flights… I wish we had more time to work out the bugs…” he said knowing they had to take the chance in order to be ready for next week.
“What could go wrong?” Clay laughed off his warning. “So, unless you’re dreams are telling you that we shouldn’t be doing this, I think we should go.” He stood and headed for the door with Alec following.
“When you’re done, come right back. We need to finish up our plans for the Expo.” Olivia said she watched them leave.
“What were you dreaming about this time?” Clay asked as they made their way to the loading docks where the car waited.
“Same dream… the one that started it all.” Alec shrugged. The dream had started about 2 years ago. It was the first of many that fed most of his ideas. “Nothing new.” He said with disappointment. It was common knowledge that Alec’s dreams were the source of their technologies.
“That’s good, because we’re not out of the woods yet with McDonald. We wouldn’t want to be giving him too many new ideas.” Then getting serious he asked. “Are you sure you found all the technical issues with the car?”
“We reviewed all our designs, specs and circuits. Everything is good. It took a lot time away from getting ready for the Expo.” Alec replied.
“Maybe that was his plan all along.” Clay said as they entered the loading dock.
The car sat ready. A small group of engineers huddled in the corner staring at Stan’s laptop. Larry Fielding who ran the loading dock was wiping down the 1959 Plymouth station wagon parked in the center of the large shipping area. Alec found himself admiring the cherry red car with its white top, tail fins and tons of chrome. He thought it was perfect.
“It’s just what I imagined.” He said after settling down in the passenger seat. He gently rubbed his hand across the dash while Clay took his place in the driver’s seat.
“I’ve got to admit... it is nice.” Clay said. “Still, it’s not as nice as that convertible.” He had wanted a 1950 Cadillac convertible but common sense ruled the day as the extra space inside the station wagon swayed the decision in Alec’s favor.
“Are you ready for your first ride in a flying car?” Clay asked.
Alec buckled up. The car had been fitted with a set of racing harnesses instead of seat belts.
“You be careful.” Larry said through Clay’s open window. Larry, an older, bowling ball shaped man, supervised the restoration and retrofitting of the Plymouth. It was his ‘baby’.
“What’s to worry about?” Clay grinned. Then turning to Alec he quietly said. “This is it… do or die.”
Larry patted the roof before stepping back. Alec held tight as the car smoothly lifted and turned toward the open dock doors. ‘Wow, a ride in a real flying car’. Thoughts of his anti-gravity dreams flowed through his mind.
“Hold on.” Clay warned as he slowly accelerated out the dock doors. The ride started smooth, but as they picked up speed the car began bucking up and down like a small roller coaster.
“Quit messing around.” Alec complained feeling his stomach flip.
“I’m not doing anything.” Clay replied as they flew over the pond. As he continued accelerating, he elevated the car to fly above the woods beyond. The bucking of the car grew more intense the faster they flew.
“I don’t get it. Stan’s test vehicles flew smooth… there was no sign of… of this.” Alec spoke mostly to himself, his stomach turning over again.
“Could it be our speed, or our height?” Clay accelerated and gained more altitude as he turned back towards GraviTych. The car now shook, heaved and lurched almost uncontrollably. “This isn’t good.” Clay struggled with the steering wheel and controls.
Alec’s heart sank along with his stomach. “I... don’t understand. Maybe Stan…”
“What if I try…” Clay said as he accelerated straight up. The car seemed to fly a bit smoother but not much. He then began moving forward and almost lost control again. Unexpectedly, Clay brought the car to a stop, forcing Alec against his harness.
To Alec it felt like the car was spinning and it took all his effort to keep his lunch down. He leaned back and looked over at Clay who was staring out the windshield with his hands gripping tight to the steering wheel. Alec tried looking at what Clay was seeing, but all he could see through his blurry eyes was blue sky. He closed them and leaned back again.
“Are you OK? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone actually turn green before.” Alec turned his head to see Clay staring at him. He had been in boats and planes hundreds of times and never got sick before.
“What do… you… see?” Alec barely got out the question as he weakly pointed to the front. Before Clay could answer, Alec’s lunch decided it was time to leave. He opened his door to lean out and was unexpectedly held back by his shoulder harness. Fumbling and failing to release it, he finally gave up and squeezed his shoulders between the straps. Grabbing the arm rest and door frame he leaned out and released his lunch. He couldn’t do much else but watch a stream of half digested chef salad float to the parking lot.
“Get back in here!” Clay reached for the un-harnessed Alec hanging from an open door hundreds of feet in the air. Alec let himself be pulled back. He reached out and closed the door before leaning back in his seat to stare at the cars ceiling. “Ooooo” he held his stomach with one hand and his forehead with the other. Clay descended back to the loading docks and landed as softly as he could.
“Dad, that was so cool, you should have seen it from the ground. The puke came down in one long stream. It just exploded when it hit.” Jessie said, being the first to greet him. His face was still green and she couldn’t help adding. “Wow dad, can you do it again?” It was a heartless thing to say as she and Sofie couldn’t stop giggling.
“That’s enough girls.” Clay said walking around the car shooing them away.
“I’ll get the steam cleaner.” Larry said inspecting the side door.
“Thanks Larry, I owe you one.” Alec mumbled crawling out the car.
“Maybe one of your dreams… think, was there any clues? Any ideas you might have overlooked?” Clay asked as they settled back in the conference room.
“I just don’t know.” The green in Alec’s face has slightly faded. “Stan… any ideas?”
Stan had followed them up trying to find out what h
appened. “It must have something to do with speed. All our tests were at slower speeds and limited altitude.” He scratched his head. “Maybe I can adjust the drive controls.”
“How long would it take?” Olivia asked.
“At least a couple of weeks… can’t you delay the Expo?”
“No!” Clay and Alec responded together. Olivia and Stan stared back wide-eyed at their unexpected response.
“Well, I’ll see what I can do… I’m sure I can make some kind of adjustments. The blankets must be sensitive to some kind of gravity anomalies we don’t know of. If I could somehow make the drive controls more sensitive… no, maybe less sensitive…” Stan mumbled as he walked out the door.
“Well… if we’re still going through with the Expo…” Olivia paused, waiting for them to acknowledge. “…then we better get back to our planning.” She spread out the papers in front of them.