Zero Gravity

 

 

 

The time is almost 2 years later. The location is the Mars base, now called “Zero 1”. It’s very high tech, and expensive, soft lighting, with metal walls and floors. Monitors flicker, and computer fans hum very softly in the distance. There are at least a dozen large open doors. Somewhere at the end of a long hall Jimi is playing May This Be Love at a much slower tempo than the recorded version on Are You Experienced.

 

Dee is sitting at a computer console, staring into space, literally. Images of bright swirling colors fill the screen. The images fit well with the music. Soundlessly a Time Bubble appears in the room, it is deep purple, and just barely visible. The room is reflected spookily on the perfectly spherical surface. The colors shift but the reflected image is rock steady. With a soft sigh, the sphere vanishes leaving Sydney standing in front of a Pedal. The look on her face is one of serene relaxation, and she wobbles just a bit, then walks over to Dee, and gives him a kiss.

 

Syd, “That was great relaxation therapy! I set the controls for Zero Gravity, and took my time. I saw North America from the air, then over the North Pole through the Northern Lights. I circled Mars for a while, and just floated. What a gas!”

Dee, (grinning)“I can think of an even better therapy. I’d like to try it soon. But on a different subject, Jim arrives next week. He’s still moving into another house, but when he gets here we should leave. Everything is ready.”

Syd, “Sounds great to me, But what about Jimi?”

Dee, “Oh, he’ll be fine, it’s a bit of a shock for him to find out he died so young. I know it wasn’t right to go back and rescue him just before he took the pills, but we had to do it. And he’s glad we did.”

Syd, “If he’s here, how could he have died? How did you manage that?”

Dee, “Well, he didn’t die, we staged that part with a bit of help from his family. They provided some of the details we needed on Jimi himself, and we paid some professionals to make the whole thing convincing. The technical offshoots from the Time Bubble have been very lucrative, as if I have to remind you. Although it was hard to get old currency, all we had to do was go back 30 years before Jimi died and put a few bucks in a bank account. By the time we needed it, the interest was easily enough to pay the whole shot.”

Syd, “I hope you did the right thing. I want to freshen up a bit. Then we can go wherever you want, or whenever for that matter.”

Dee, “Maybe we’ll never know if I did the right thing, but in the meantime we’ll have some great jams!  When Jim gets here, we have to decide what to do about publicity, there’s been too much of it.”

 

(The music stops, followed by the sound of an electric guitar being unplugged.)

 

Syd, “What do you mean, don’t you ever want people to know?”

Dee, “Too late for that, but there are some very real reasons to keep the technology secret, as you know, and I think the best way to do that, is to have it fail miserably and in a very public way.”

Syd, “You’ve lost me.”

 

 

Dee’s Notes:

 

Ethical Dilemmas created by the Time Bubble.

 

1) In the wrong hands, it will create havoc throughout the Universe, and throughout time. This is unavoidable, and as with the Atomic Bomb, or Genetic Engineering the secret cannot be kept forever. And because of the nature of the secret, forever is now.

2) Changing history is possible, and we have already done so. Is this morally acceptable? What changes may occur as a result of our actions? Any Star Trek fan knows that we’ll do it anyway, and never know the full consequences. But, were we supposed to make changes, the changes could be just a part of history. This is an un-solvable dilemma.

 

 

I chose to answer these problems by not answering them. The only response to a problem with no solution is not to solve it.

One other ethical question. If we escape the Universe will we meet the Creator? So far no luck, she hasn’t turned up.

 

 

 

Dee, “Jim has suggested we do a public broadcast, world wide, the whole works. We will take the Time Bubble outside the Universe, and pretend to find nothing at all. It isn’t really a lie, in fact there is nothing there to see, and if we just point our cameras the wrong way, or keep the transparency turned off they’ll see nothing. In fact, there will be no evidence we went anywhere, just lots of what could be interpreted as special FX. We’ll be branded as quacks, and the Time Bubble will be considered a failed experiment. It’s about the best we can do to avoid giving away the secrets. If we show off our successes, we’ll be inundated with hackers, spies, media, all wanting to know how it works.”

Syd, “Do you think they will be so easily fooled?”

Jimi, (peeks his head around the corner) “Uh, excuse me?”

Dee, “Oh come on in Jimi, no need to keep secrets from you.”

Jimi, “I think you gotta do what you can to keep this castle made of sand from crumbling into the sea, although it will eventually.”

Dee, “As a wise man once said! We should go through with the scam, we’ll look like fools, but who cares. When we achieve our final goal, we’ll use the Time Bubble no more. And I promise I won’t bring back Janis, at least I’ll try not to.”

 

Nobody noticed but Dee had his fingers crossed…

 

Jimi went off to check out something called a “Pod”, while Dee and Syd headed off to another room. Later they took the Time Bubble out for a long slow Zero Gravity flight. No one knows where they went, or when.