Falling Against Gravity Read online

  When Fort and Ripley got down the stairway, Fort tried to defuse the tension. “I forgot to thank you for sweeping up the place.”

  “It was no trouble, Charles. I want to help.”

  “Well, thank you for all your help. It is greatly appreciated.”

  Ripley gave a little smile and a shrug. Fort’s efforts were working.

  “The controls for the roof are over here,” Fort said as he motioned towards the dusty, rusted cobwebbed panel. Ripley’s eyes widened a bit as he got a better look at the controls.

  “This old machinery, Fort … are you certain it’ll work?”

  “Oh, yes, works like a charm. It just hasn’t been used in a while.” Fort brushed some cobwebs off with his sleeve. “The chain drive has a differential that is powered by the turning of the water wheel outside.” Fort pointed to a metal ring and continued, “There is a hand wheel, a differential clutch, and two levers.” He stepped repeatedly on the large steel clutch pedal and flipped the large levers up and down to show his point. “You see, these are the controls for the roof, but there's no power.”

  Ripley was about to nod to show he understood, then realized he had been subconsciously nodding ever since Fort began to explain the mechanism. He strained to listen and concentrate, but when he was under pressure, his brain started ringing and he struggled to follow what people were saying. Mechanical and technical things alienated him, as well. He then tried to say something in acknowledgement, but his mouth and throat were bone dry and nothing came out, so he just nodded harder.

  “Once the water wheel is done charging the batteries, we’re all set. You stand right here.” Fort pointed at a spot on the floor.

  Ripley nodded even harder. He was beginning to perspire.

  “You'll have an etherphone, we'll be able to see and hear and talk to each other. I'll be up in those porthole windows.” He gestured up towards the ship’s hull. “Once we're sure we're going to go for it, I'll give you the signal.”

  This was getting to be a lot of pressure, Ripley thought. “What’s the signal?” he nervously queried. He was feeling light-headed and needed to sit down. He was starting to see black spots in his vision. Things were going blurry, but he needed to be alert so he blinked the blackness away. He silently fought not to pass out. Too much depended on him. He would not fail his friends. He desperately wanted to be the kind of man they could count on, to rely on. But he sure could use a sip of water at that moment.

  Fort scrunched up his face in thought. “What would be a good signal? I know … this!” Fort gave Ripley the thumbs up. Ripley weakly nodded attentively.

  Fort asked, “Ripley, are you feeling alright? Are you following and understanding what I’m saying to you?”

  “Oh, yes. Etherphones. Portholes. Thumbs up.” Ripley made a queer smile and held both his hands close to his face with his thumbs sticking up.

  Fort looked at him strangely, but kept talking. “Alright, then you push down on the clutch with your foot, just like the auto-car. Hold it down and turn the hand wheel all the way and release the clutch. Then just pull down both these levers. Once you see it start opening, run along upstairs and watch from my office. It'll be safer up there.”

  “Okay ... I can do that. Wait for your signal, push in clutch, turn hand wheel, pull levers, run away and hide. Got it.” He paused for a moment and then had a curious thought. “Why exactly is it safer in your office than down here? Isn't there a greater chance you could crash it into your office?”

  “Well, I hadn't considered crashing it,” Fort awkwardly responded. “Actually, I was thinking that the last time we opened the roof, some of the old brittle glass panes broke and fell down. Just like the other night. Nothing too serious, but it would be better if you're not standing around down here.”

  Ripley gulped. “Clutch, wheel, flip levers, run upstairs fast. Got it! You're right. I can handle this. You can count on me, Charles.” Ripley pushed on the pedal a few times and pretended to turn the handle and move the levels a bit, looking rather out of place.

  “Atta boy! That's a great attitude, Leroy! You’ve come so far since I first met you.”

  “I'm trying. I really am. I push at my comfort levels. And this …” Ripley pointed around at his surroundings. “Your team. All of it. It's all really exciting. I've never been involved with something I cared about before. In spite of what I said earlier, I'm proud of what you're doing here. And I really hope it works, Charles.”

  “Thanks, Leroy. It is exciting. And I want you to keep on pushing at those comfort levels, my friend. It looks good on you, and someday you'll come up in the ship with me.”

  Ripley visibly shook at the mere thought. “Me? Up in that thing? Oh no, Charles! You'll never see my feet leave the good old terra firma.” He stomped his feet for effect. “No way. Never.”

  Fort threw his arm around Ripley as they started walking back. “Someday my friend ... Someday you will.”

  Later that night, thunder rolled in the distance as the crew feverishly worked a plethora of tasks to finish up on time so they could have their tests run on schedule. Everyone felt equally awash with anticipation and riddled with nervous anxiety. Everything rested on the night’s success, and it was palpable. This evening could end with celebratory champagne or tear-soaked whiskey to drown their sorrows.

  “Nikola, you monitor the voltage levels,” Fort instructed. “Once the Gyrocore’s rings have achieved and maintain the optimal rates of rotation, we'll give it the juice and watch the magic.”

  Nikola’s shoulders scrunched up in a knot. He curled his lip and loudly grumbled, “Not magic. Scientific brilliance.”

  Fort rolled his eyes.

  “And Gyrocore is a stupid name. Should be called Teslasphere. Obviously,” Nikola continued to mumble.

  “Not now, Nikola!”

  Later on that evening, bright lights blindingly blazed all over the hangar. Every shadow was extinguished, every corner was illuminated. Possible opportunities for a mistake had to be glaringly apparent. Even with all of the makeshift assurances, there were numerous chances for a misstep. Everyone was going through their final pre-launch checklists. Fort walked around the consoles and control panels, tapping his finger on various gauges and writing their measurements in his log book. An excited smile was starting to grow on his face. He couldn’t help it. Nikola was down in the battery room checking the cells. He caressed each of them carefully, almost lovingly. He then sat back on his haunches and flicked each of the three brass cells closest to him with his long middle finger. He liked the sound they made. He braced himself and stiffly got up from the floor. He stuck his begoggled head out the door and yelled up to Fort, “The Teslacells feel good. Not too hot.”

  Fort smiled and shook his head. “Good to hear, Nikola.”

  Ripley nervously watched from the second floor promenade. His anxious energy wouldn’t let him stay still any longer, so he paced a bit and wandered towards the front of the ship. He saw Zoya and waved to her, looking like a little boy who saw a teacher he fancied. Embarrassed, he adjusted his cap and scurried back to the stairs near his station. Zoya waved to Ripley as he ran back, smiling at his quirkiness. She sat back in the pilot’s seat, reaching into her vest pocket to pull out her grandmother’s charm bracelet. She held the little collection of bobbles first to her lips and then to her forehead. She quietly said, “Watch over and protect me again, Baka.” She took the charm bracelet and secured it to one of the large steering arms in front of her. She gave it a little flick and smiled as it tinkled. She was ready.

  Fort yelled downstairs, “Come up here, Nikola. It’s time!”

  Nikola lumbered up the small spiral staircase to the main engineering room containing the massive ringed Gyrocore.

  “Let’s start the rings and get them up to the proper speed before we electrify them,” Fort said to the wheezing man when he got to the top.

  “Of course, of course…” Nikola panted.

  Fort then spoke into his portable etherphone
. “Zoya, can you hear me? Are you ready? Stop.”

  “We're clear to release the moorings on your word, Mr. Fort,” Zoya shouted back into the box.

  Fort waited and then took a deep breath. “Alright. Here we go. Stop.” He nodded to Nikola, who then flipped several toggles, causing a series of belt drives to start turning quickly below the floor plates. Then Fort slowly squeezed the handle on a large lever and carefully pushed it forward. The massive rings of concentric tubes filled with mercury turned inside one another with a slight metal-on-metal scraping noise that slowly faded away as it picked up speed.

  “It’s working Nikola!” Fort declared. “It’s working and it’s beautiful.”

  CHAPTER 13

  Blake and Wyatt kept their silent vigil over the hanger activities from their vantage point across the river. After their previous success, they returned to the same place they had taken their shot a couple nights before. But because of the weather, they needed to pull the automobile up close to the cliff’s edge, parallel to the river because neither felt like standing out in the rain. Blake sat in the front seat with a sturdy looking handheld telescopic monocular, intently watching the scene across the river. His pneumatic partner, Wyatt, sat in the backseat, scanning the hangar grounds with his rifle’s muzzle casually perched out of the window. Beams of light suspiciously shot out of the giant building at odd angles. With almost a mile of electrified wire running around the property, Fort and Nikola made sure that their perimeter was secure. Unfortunately, they didn’t think about what could lie beyond the property line or across the river. Wyatt adjusted the focus on his artificial eye, which in the dark emitted an eerie, low red light. He opened his mouth and a couple of metallic clicking sounds came out. Blake understood the strange vocalization.

  “Yes, they are definitely up to something tonight. Perhaps we did not slow them down enough. Cyrus doesn’t want Fort killed, but he can suffer. If you can eliminate one of the others, do it. Be ready to make a fatal shot on my word.”

  Wyatt made a double click in response.

  As the pair of assassins continued to focus on what was happening across the river, neither noticed the tall man dressed all in black in his simple makeshift hunting blind amongst the small evergreen trees. They also didn’t realize that by not picking the rifle casings off the ground the previous night, they made a foolish mistake that would allow a skilled warrior to pinpoint exactly where they had been. As they confidently thought they were the hunters, they didn’t consider the nature of the hunted, or take into account the skills of men who had already fought for their lives in guerrilla-style warfare.

  With Fort’s blessing, the day after Fort and Zoya’s near tragic ‘accident’ Envar procured a sizable amount of nitroglycerin and gunpowder, placing them separately in small glass vials. He packed the volatile vials carefully in a large, empty bean can. Once he put in as many vials as it would hold, he poured lead shot and candle wax in to fill the void spaces until it was a solid block of devastating danger. After he loosely attached a round shaving mirror with some wire on the can, he took the small dory they kept on the property and rowed it gently across the river, locating where the assailants had been and placing his bean can down at the bottom of the cliff in a little cave he’d dug. After pointing the mirror out towards the river, he rowed back to the hangar and cleaned up for a late supper.

  The next evening when he was tasked with setting up work lights, he set several outside under both eaves of the hangar, pointing low across the river. He asked Nikola to wire up a switch on a long heavy power cord which he ran to his hunting blind. Nikola was annoyed with the extra work project, but even Nikola didn’t feel comfortable with the consequences of saying no to Envar.

  Envar finished his thick Turkish coffee and cigarillo as the rain pelted the dark canvas tarpaulin above him. For a moment, as the pungent smoke curled around his face, he thought he was back in the war. He could almost hear the cannons and the screaming. He dropped his cigarillo to the ground and stomped on it with his boot, snuffing out both the ashes and his memories. He needed to be focused. Envar got in his preferred shooting stance. Once he felt ready, he stepped onto the makeshift light switch.

  The two spying men across the river jumped a little when the bright lights came on. Blake chuckled a little. “Ahh, they’re not completely stupid. They know we’re here. But they are just stupid enough to think that those lights can blind us. Keep watch. They must be about to try something.”

  Wyatt tightened his focus and scanned the yard around the hangar. He briefly thought he saw a muzzle flash.

  Envar’s bullet hit the shaving mirror, shattering it before the projectile pierced the bean can and blew an enormous amount of dirt out of the cliff wall, creating a brief cavern that became a muddy avalanche.

  The men in the auto were shocked by the explosion and scrambled helplessly as the vehicle tumbled sideways, then rolled over and over amongst the rocks and dirt, sliding down into the fast moving river. Blake fought furiously against the overturned auto and the river’s current, desperately trying to pull the half metal man to the surface. The two would-be assassins struggled in the muddy water as the fast moving river took them out of sight and beyond the reach of Envar’s lights. Envar had a rare smile as he turned the light’s switch off and lit another cigarillo.

  Inside the Nimbus, Fort stared intensely at a display gauge as he slowly turned up a large gray dial. Slowly and steadily, the needle of the gauge creeped into a gold area on the display face. When the indicator stopped moving and seemed stable, Fort called to Nikola, “Okay, we’re ready. The Gyrocore is up to velocity. Let’s charge the system.”

  Nikola quickly turned down the brass screws on several wires and their connectors. “Da! Go!” Nikola shouted over the sound of the metal tubes slicing through the air near them. Fort pulled another wooden lever. Similar to the appearance of ball lightning building up, electricity crackled around the space. Fort wiped at his face with a handkerchief and pulled his goggles down over his eyes.

  “Nikola! Turn up the batteries!” Fort bellowed into the etherphone. Nikola promptly followed his command, cranking the resistor switch.

  Then – with a sound that no human had ever heard before – a wave of energy blasted off the ship, knocking Ripley backwards.

  THROOOMM

  Suddenly and unexpectedly, the ship was alive. Fort shouted to Zoya through the etherphone, “Confirm your steering controls and prepare to release the moorings. Stop.”

  Fort yelled again into the etherphone. “Ripley open the roof! Stop.”

  A startled Ripley gathered himself and quickly headed to the stairs. He wasn’t going to let the team down. He was on the verge of vomiting, but shook himself off before another powerful bluish purple energy wave ripped through the hangar and knocked about everything that wasn’t nailed down.

  Ripley was about to get to the second step when his weight disappeared and he effortlessly flew off the stairs towards the underside of the Nimbus. He was too hysterical to be anxious or afraid. Without any sense of decorum, he let out a horrendous sounding “Gahhhhhhhhhh!” as he drifted slowly through the air. His arms and legs thrashed like a dog that was thrown into the water for the first time as he gracelessly floated towards the side of the massive vessel.

  Outside the hangar, Envar sat in the automobile, drinking Arak straight from the bottle and smoking. His hand shook slightly. Firing a rifle again felt as natural as breathing but it brought back too many memories and sensations he preferred to keep suppressed. He looked up into the moonless night and watched as the clouds seemed to come from every direction and pile up in their vicinity, swallowing up the remaining stars. It gave the night an eerie feeling, and confirmed for him that he had no interest in being inside the building while Fort was conducting his mad experiments. Instead, he would stay here and drink away his memories.

  The Nimbus started to feel like a ship in rough water as it violently pulled on its moorings. Fort looked out a window at the han
gar floor and couldn’t see Ripley. He roared into the etherphone, “Ripley! Where are you? Go open the roof. We’re going to launch the ship! Ripley, can you hear me? Stop.”

  Ripley could hear him, but because the infernal communication device was swinging around his neck on a lanyard, he couldn’t respond. The lack of gravity meant that he was unable to gaffle it, but at the moment he was more concerned by the fact that he was quickly drifting headlong through the air towards the side of the ship.

  Nikola tried to simultaneously turn multiple dials as Fort yelled, “It’s getting too hot! Turn it down immediately!”

  “I am trying but its response is delayed and variable right now,” Nikola shot back.

  Fort furiously tapped on various gauges like a mad pianist in a symphony orchestra. He heard a loud thud against the side of the ship and momentarily considered checking out the cause of the sound, but quickly returned to the gauges. Meanwhile, Ripley bounced off the Nimbus and was spinning out of control back towards the promenade. He tried to bat the etherphone away from his face but the weightlessness just caused it to fly around and hit him in the eye from the other side. “What is happening?” he screamed. Nothing in life had prepared him for this. This was not part of the plan, and if it was, he was going to throttle Fort for keeping him in the dark.