To everyone’s astonishment and Jarrod’s delight, the unthinkable happened. The microwave dish began emitting an eerie energy flow that resembled heat waves rising from a hot desert landscape. The particles of surrounding air looked iridescent and began shimmering as the wave of gravitrons focused like a ray gun on the Humvee. At first the vehicle continued to remain stationary but then it, too, began to shimmy, sliding a bit sideways as if trying to rise, but lacking enough energy to fully levitate.
Jarrod recognized the problem and immediately entered new data into his formulas on the laptop, which increased the electrical throughput to the core. He then turned the green dial to the new coordinates and the generator immediately responded, rotating faster, beaming more gravitrons at the Humvee. Seconds after the correction, the massive ten-ton vehicle slowly started to rise, lifting about six inches before the heavy tires rose from the floor.
He looked out at Mills, who stood slack-jawed, unable to comprehend what he was witnessing. Jarrod beamed with satisfaction. Except for aviation and rocketry, this was the first known experience of mankind overcoming the bounds of gravity. Pioneers of theoretical physics-from the likes of Isaac Newton to Albert Einstein to Steven Hawking-had each been thwarted in their efforts to harness gravity: the fourth fundamental law of nature. Never in the history of mankind had there been anything close to an achievement of this magnitude; levitating an object of this mass was unprecedented. Jarrod’s theoretical lab experiments paled in comparison to the practical application he was conducting. Levitation was unquestionably one of the most profound human achievements of all time.
Jarrod left the machine running at capacity for several moments, basking in the glory of the moment. He made a mental note of the operating parameters on the command module and the machine’s steady production of elusive gravitrons. He couldn’t be more pleased with the results. He had never experienced such a sated sense of conquest. When he was comfortable that everything was holding steady, with no apparent glitches, he began reducing the electrical input and the Humvee slowly settled back to the warehouse floor. It didn’t appear detrimentally affected in the least.
As soon as the vehicle came to rest, Jarrod pushed the red all-stop button on the console, terminating the electrical connection. The first test of the gravity machine was an unqualified success.
Before closing the laptop, Jarrod went to his file directory to access his proprietary formulas. He found the one he needed and sent the link to the generator’s main computer, comfortable he could later access this whenever needed. Once installed, he alone would control the machine that Mills and Kilmer thought belonged exclusively to them. He then took the opportunity to send another message to Sarah, acting as if he were compiling information regarding the machine’s performance. He could see that both Starkovich and Mills were preoccupied, giddy from observing the first verifiable demonstration of levitation; they weren’t paying him the least bit of attention. He composed the next message, sending it on its way: “Sarah-Jer and I are OK, in warehouse fifty-two minutes from house. Machine works!”
“You’re a genius, Professor! My God…that was incredible,” Mills exclaimed rushing to the entrance of the console as the turbine rolled to a stop.
“Yes, I should say…that exceeded my expectation as well,” Jarrod replied almost inconsequentially. His heightened sense of exhilaration was nearly palpable but he managed to maintain his composure. Under the duress of captivity he felt no compulsion to embrace his incredible achievement. “I’ve never levitated anything beyond the size of a walnut, so to see the full extent of my research come to fruition was pretty cool.”
He quickly checked his email, looking for a return message from Sarah before shutting down the laptop. She had sent a response to his first message: “Will be searching for your location. Keep the faith…Sarah.”
Good. We have a connection. Do your thing, Ryan, Jarrod thought. Jarrod would have never believed in a million years he’d be rooting for his cousin’s help. My, oh, my, how things have changed in the past twenty-four hours.
Jarrod awkwardly drew himself up from the control console, feeling the lingering effects of the sharp punch to his abdomen. He could see Kilmer rushing back toward the trailer and resolved not to make any more concessions until he spoke with Sela. This was his next priority. He walked down the steps of the trailer to be greeted by Jer.
“You’re awesome, Uncle Jarrod,” Jer gushed enthusiastically, rushing to give him a hug. “That was unbelievable. I wish Dad were here…he’d be proud of you, too.”
“Thanks, Jeremiah. Believe me…I wish he were here, too… under very different circumstances. Ryan’s the only one who really knows the significance of this discovery. We’ve both taken different paths to get to this point,” Jarrod replied, breaking away from his embrace. He grimaced, holding his stomach in obvious discomfort.
The mood was uncharacteristically chaotic, with all of the men exchanging high-fives and enjoying the carnival-like atmosphere following Jarrod’s amazing feat of levitation. Each man knew this was a huge step toward the ultimate goal-which, if achieved, would make them all incredibly wealthy.
“Enough,” Kilmer barked, interrupting the revelry. “By jingos, Professor, that was ripper indeed. Good on ya. Why, ya look just as amazed as us. But this is just a start. We have a bigger project in mind and I need to know if this thin’s got the goods.”
“Not so fast, Mr. Kilmer. You promised me a conversation with Sela Coscarelli if I carried out your order. I’ve complied. You owe me,” Jarrod said defiantly, straightening up to disguise any sign of weakness. The mood turned suddenly darker as it appeared another confrontation was brewing between the quarrelsome scientist and the autocratic mercenary.
“Blimey, use yer loaf, Conrad! Yer up shit creek,” Kilmer glowered. “But I’ll cop ya sweet as promised. But don’t think me soft. I take rules of negotiation dead serious. Any commander worth ‘is ribbons would do the same,” Kilmer added, putting a fine point on his rationale to concede to Jarrod’s demand.
Kilmer turned to his men. “Stark, contact Sully. Give ‘im the deal. Have ‘im ring when Coscarelli’s ready to chat with the professor here.”
“I’m on it,” Starkovich replied, flipping open his cell to make the call to Sully Metusack in South Carolina.
“Now, as I said, Professor…we’re on a good wicket here. Mills claims yer contraption can run in reverse to increase gravity. Just wonderin’,” he paused, “what happens to the Humvee if we ran the machine in reverse with the same core?”
“The beauty of the equations lies in their flexibility,” Jarrod replied, intrigued by the question. “Any object levitated with a given energized nuclear force can have its mass theoretically reversed to produce the squared value of the object’s original mass.”
“What’s that mean for an Aussie fool like me?” Kilmer asked, parroting Jarrod’s earlier insult.
Jarrod took a long, exasperated breath. “For example, if an object normally weighs 100 pounds, the gravity machine could exert 100 pounds squared…or 10,000 pounds of additional force on the object. Einstein first defined this mathematical constant when he discovered relativity. He proved that the amount of energy available in splitting an atom was equal to its mass times the speed of light squared. This is his famous formula, E=mc ^ 2. Gravity follows this exact same proportional relationship.
“The Humvee would be flattened if the square of its weight was applied to its fullest extent,” Jarrod explained, smoothly slipping into his customary teaching role, aware that he was speaking well above Kilmer’s learning. “In this case the formula G=m ^ 2 e defines the amount of available gravity that can be converted by squaring the mass of an object times the amount of electrical force. It’s really rather simple.”