Zero 'g' Read online

  Henry put his head in his hands. “I know. I know. Geez, and you just reminded me that I have no idea if my dad is still alive. Do you think he’s even looking for me?”

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I’m sure your dad is OK; he’s a smart guy. He’s probably somewhere just like us, working his mind off to fix this. I have no doubt he’s searching for you; any parent would. He loves you. But in the meantime, it’s just us, and we need to focus on that,” Carly said.

  He nodded. “You’re right. So, what are we going to do? Any ideas on how we can increase the mass of Earth?”

  “Yes, I do, but it’s going to sound nuts,” Carly said with a small smile. She couldn’t even believe she was going to say the words, but she didn’t know what else to do. For now, it was the only plan that made any sense.

  Linus laughed. “It can’t be any more nuts than what’s going on right now.”

  Carly laughed along with him. “Yes, very true. But you might be surprised.”

  “So, what is it, Carly? Knowing you, it’s a brilliant plan,” Henry said.

  “Well, thank you for the vote of confidence.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “I don’t think we have any other choice but to cause an asteroid to collide with Earth. Hopefully, that will be exactly what we need for Earth to increase its mass.”

  There was a silence as loud as a shotgun blast.

  “Oh, my God…that is nuts,” Linus whispered finally.

  “Are you insane?” Henry said incredulously. “That’s a terrible idea.”

  Both of their mouths hung open.

  “Henry…hold on…”

  “No, that is not what we should be planning on at all. Arranging for an asteroid to hit Earth will kill a multitude of people. We don’t want that. Too many people have already died. How could we make a plan that will only kill more?”

  “Henry, there is that risk, yes, but it could be the only way to stop all this. We have to try. If we do nothing, then everyone on the planet will die, anyway. We have to do this.”

  “I guess you’re right, but I just can’t believe that it’s our only option.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Carly could tell that Henry was having a hard time accepting her plan, even though he knew it had to be done. She knew it was a dangerous plan. She wasn’t foolish. She also knew that it could result in a lot of people all over the world dying. But Carly knew deep down that they had to do it. They just didn’t have a choice. She felt exactly the same way that he did, worried about the future. But every time that she thought about Rose, she knew she had to go through with her asteroid idea. They had to get the gravity back sooner rather than later. Without it, they were doomed, and it was just getting worse every minute that passed.

  Carly’s thoughts were intruded upon when Linus spoke up. “Henry, she’s right. As much as I agree that it’s an extreme idea, it’s still the only option we have. There really is no other way of increasing the mass of Earth in such a short time. We have to do this.”

  Carly smiled, thankful for the support. She didn’t want to have to convince everyone of the plan. Though she was the only adult there, the boys were brilliant for their age. She wanted them to be on board because the plan, once they came up with one, would run so much smoother.

  “Please be on board with us, Henry. I know this is not an easy pill to swallow, but we just don’t have any other choice. This may be the only chance that we have to save the planet.”

  “OK, OK. I get it. So, do you have a plan? How are we going to do this?” Henry said with a sigh.

  “Well, we would have to find a place that would suit an asteroid crash, right? You know, try to minimize the damage as much as possible,” Linus added.

  “Exactly,” Carly said. We just need to take a look around and find a suitable place. If we can somehow control this situation, then we can save the planet with minimal damage and loss of lives.”

  “OK, let’s get out there and take a look.”

  “Ugh, just when I was getting used to some normalcy,” Linus said.

  Carly laughed. “I hear ya. Let’s go, boys; we have a world to save.”

  Linus opened the door and slipped out. As soon as he stepped outside, he began to once again float in the air. Carly and Henry both followed suit and began to float around as soon as they left the moon room. Henry and Linus floated right to the laptop and started the search. The goal was to scour various image feeds all over the world. The hope was to find a way to safely crash an asteroid into the planet. They were going to search until they found a suitable place to do so. Carly wasn’t entirely sure there would be a perfect place. After all, the world was pretty populated; they might not be able to find an area safe enough to spare all life. But they were sure going to try.

  Carly glanced up at the ceiling where David resided. He looked awfully lonely up there. Just looking at the child pained her. Not only did he remind her of Rose, whom she wasn’t sure she would even see again, but she couldn’t imagine how such a small child would ever understand what was going on around him. She was desperate to do the right thing by him. Was sending an asteroid plummeting to Earth the right thing? She wasn’t entirely sure, but it seemed the only option they had.

  She moved up alongside him and pulled him into her arms. His eyes snapped open, but he seemed to relax when he saw Carly.

  “Hi, David. How are you?”

  He shrugged, looking as if he wanted to say, “I miss my mom.”

  She smiled softly. “I know you do, and I’m sorry this is happening to you. But you have been a very brave boy today. This is going to be all over soon, and then we will find your mom, OK?”

  He nodded.

  “Just hang in there a little longer. I just need you to be brave until we are done, and everything will be back to normal.” Carly smiled as she said it, hoping it sounded genuine. She had no idea what was going to happen, but she needed him to believe that things would be OK from now on. She also hoped that somewhere her daughter also felt safe. She needed to believe that her own family was safe at home, waiting for her to return.

  She looked down at the boys working. “How are you guys doing down there? Did you find anything?”

  Linus looked up at her and chuckled. She imagined she was quite a sight up there with David. “Not yet. We are still looking, but there are people everywhere. It’s hard to pinpoint an area that’s completely cleared. We would at least need an area the size of Texas to allow for the asteroid’s size. Where are we going to find an area that big?”

  An area that big…Linus was right. Where were they going to find an area that big? Maybe it had been a pipe dream to think that they could really fix things. The size of the asteroid meant that they would need a huge area. Where could they send it? She puzzled until a smile broke across her face.

  “I got it!” Carly shouted.

  All three boys looked to Carly with surprise. “You know where we can send it?”

  “Yeah, I do. The Bermuda Triangle. It’s perfect.” Carly couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought about it before. The Bermuda Triangle was the ideal spot for the asteroid to hit. It was a loosely defined region located in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean, and it was one of the most mysterious areas known to man. It had a reputation of causing hundreds of mysterious crashes, one of which had killed her uncle, who was a pilot. It had been a family tragedy and one that was painful to remember because she had been close to her uncle. No one ever knew what happened to him. So many people had been lost there. It was known as a doomed place where a number of aircraft and ships were said to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The whole place sort of creeped her out.

  “The Bermuda Triangle?” Linus asked.

  Henry chuckled. “Ah, yes, the Devil’s Triangle. What better place to send an asteroid? We know there is no one alive in there that the asteroid would kill, and it’s big enough to swallow anything. So, why not? You’re right, Carly. It’s perfect.”

  “OK, guys. We hav
e some serious planning to do. This is no easy task, but at least we know where to send the asteroid. Once it gets swallowed by the Bermuda Triangle, Earth should have the mass it needs to stabilize once again.”

  The boys turned back to the computer to begin planning.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Carly was pleased that things were finally starting to go right for them. It had been an exhausting day for them, and they still had a lot of work to do. She was so thankful that she had managed to come up with some sort of solution to the problem. They had to do something, after all; things were just getting increasingly dangerous out there. She didn’t even think it was safe to leave the house because you could go out in the street and get hit by a building. She had completely tried to avoid thinking about Rose because any time the thought crossed her mind, she felt like she was going to go insane wondering if Rose was OK. She wished she had some way of knowing if her mother and daughter had lived through the crisis so far.

  She knew she had to focus on the problem at hand, but it wasn’t always easy for a mother. Rose was all she had ever thought about, even before the world fell apart. Now that Rose was in danger, Carly could barely concentrate because she was worried sick. She just had to hope that her mother was still alive and able to care for Rose. The best thing for everyone at that point was for Carly to help get the gravity back.

  Now that they had a solution to the problem, everyone was happy. Carly wasn’t so sure, however. There was still the matter of how to implement the solution. That matter still had Carly a little confused about it all. It was no easy task to control an asteroid and make sure they could get it to land in the Bermuda Triangle without killing the rest of the people left on Earth.

  She was waiting to see what Linus could find out about the Bermuda Triangle before they tried to put any plans in place. It was hard not to think about her uncle at that time. She wondered whatever had happened to him. Was there another world on the other side where people could continue to live, or was it immediate death when you passed through? If anyone was alive on the other side, would they be killing them by sending the asteroid through it? The Bermuda Triangle still held so much mystery to the world. She hoped the plan wasn’t going to be a disaster.

  Henry made his way over to where Carly floated with David.

  “How’s he doing?”

  “As well as can be expected, I suppose.” She squeezed David, and he giggled.

  “I had some questions, Carly, that I’m hoping you can answer for me.”

  “Sure, if I’m able to, I would love to help in any way that I can.”

  “Why am I having difficulty breathing?”

  “Are you?”

  “Yes, since we have been here.”

  Carly thought for a moment before answering. “Well, you’re not the only one. I mean, I think everyone is feeling it differently, but there have been times when I felt like I couldn’t catch my breath. You’re having difficulty breathing because gravity is the key to holding the environment together. Since there is almost no gravity left in the environment, things like air and water have all begun to move from Earth and into space. I imagine the breathing problem only will get worse. If we don’t get things together soon, the air will be totally displaced from Earth. Then it’s good-bye for all of us.”

  “Holy crap.”

  “Yes, exactly. That’s why I said we had to try this despite the risk. Otherwise, we are all dead, anyway.”

  “OK, if Earth has no gravity, then the human beings and all the other living creatures will be pushed into space. The same, of course, will happen to all the buildings as well. And if that’s the case, then they’ll be moving at a rate of 1,040 miles per hour, which, if you bear with me here, is the speed of the rotation of Earth.”

  She smiled. She just loved smart kids. “Yes?”

  “So, why didn’t we fall?”

  “OK, so think about the last time you saw the sun today. It was in the same place for the past few hours, which leads me to believe that Earth is no longer rotating. I believe, Henry, that the rotation of Earth has stopped. Really, if I’m going to be honest, we may be only seconds away from Earth losing the last bit of gravity that it has. But anyway, to answer your question, that’s why we didn’t fall into outer space.”

  Henry nodded before saying, “Yeah, but then Earth and all the other planets should be attracted to one another and should collapse because there is no gravity on Earth.”

  Carly thought hard and then smiled. “Henry, nature has the ability to adjust itself to new situations. It’s been around a lot longer than humans have. All this time, nature has been adjusting itself and trying so hard to protect us. The problem is, we have spent decades destroying the nature that is supposed to be protecting us. In the name of development, we have destroyed Earth to the extent that nature can no longer protect us, but it still has some capacity left to adjust itself. We as a species are very selfish. We need to wake up and take this as a lesson that we can’t just go around doing whatever we want and expect there to be no consequences.”

  “OK, I think I’m following you, Carly, but if there is no gravity on Earth, then shouldn’t Earth be pulled toward the sun by its large amount of gravity?”

  “Yes, that’s true, but if that were the case, then Earth would have been pulled by the sun a long time ago. There’s no way it would have taken so long. We would have all been turned to ashes by now. There are just some parts to this whole experience that we just don’t understand. There are some other hidden forces going on right now that we still don’t know about yet. It may be something yet to be discovered, something that is unknown to humans at this point. That’s possible, right? I find it hard to believe that we know everything we can about Earth. I think these unknown forces are preventing Earth from being pulled by the gravity of the sun.”

  “Yeah, that makes sense. You’re right.”

  “We need to focus, however, Henry. Don’t ask me any more questions for now, OK? We don’t have much time left to bring back the gravity.”

  Just saying the words chilled Carly to the bone. They had so little time, and she worried that it wasn’t going to be enough time. What if they failed? Was it going to be a certain death for all of them? She couldn’t bear the thought of it, and she went cold all over.

  “I think I got something here,” Linus called out.

  They all surrounded the computer as best they could while floating, and Carly and Henry looked down at the screen to see what Linus was able to find.

  “What am I looking at here?” asked Carly.

  “OK, so what I realized by doing my search was that the Bermuda Triangle is located at seventy-seven degrees from this axis.”

  “All right…meaning what?” Henry asked.

  “Well, after checking out the trajectory of the asteroid, I discovered that while the Bermuda Triangle is at seventy-seven degrees, the asteroid that we need for the collision will be passing through the forty-four-degree line on this axis.”

  “Oh, no,” said Henry.

  Carly stared at the screen while she formulated her thoughts. She felt that they could still pull it off with just a little creativity. They didn’t have much choice, really. She didn’t want to die, and she doubted that anyone else in the room did, either.

  “All right, boys. So it looks like we need to get Earth to revolve at seventy-seven degrees.” She waited and let that sink in for the moment. The room was filled with silence as each of them was lost in thought. Finally, Henry was the first to speak.

  “One question there, Carly.”

  “Yes?”

  “How is it even humanly possible for us to revolve Earth to seventy-seven degrees?” shouted Henry.

  She took a deep breath and said, “That’s easy, Henry. Earth has hardly any gravity, so it’s now weightless.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  They all surveyed the information that Linus had pulled up on the screen. It was amazing that he was able to just hack the system and find the inform
ation they needed. It was indeed going to be quite a mission. They didn’t have a lot of time left, and yet they had so much work to do that it felt overwhelming.

  Carly’s idea was big. She hoped it wasn’t too big. It terrified her to the bone, but she had a lot of hope, too. They had come up with something workable; it really was a good plan. There were three brilliant minds at work trying to solve a monumental problem, and if they couldn’t do it, then maybe no one could.

  She still wished the other scientists were with them because more minds were always better in a crisis, but she had no idea where any of them were, and they were running out of time. They did not have more time left to fix the problem, and yet they were still discovering how they were going to do that. They had to conduct research so that no mistakes were made. A mistake could cost them their lives. If they couldn’t save the world, then she wasn’t sure if anyone else in the world was trying at all. There was no indication that anyone anywhere else in the world was helping with the crisis. She wondered why. Fear could certainly be paralyzing, but where were the other great minds? She was chilled by the thought of the time they had. It seemed so short. Could they really accomplish what they wanted to in such a short amount of time? Carly gulped hard. They had to. They just had to.

  The more she thought about what she had put together, however, the more she felt good about it. Carly was actually getting excited to implement the plan; it could be the end of all the madness if it worked. It was certainly daring, and if it didn’t work, they were all doomed. But she had never felt more confident about something in her whole life. She thought for sure they could pull it off, and then the world would be saved. Wouldn’t that be something? One day she’s mopping up the floors, and the next day she is saving the world with some new friends of hers. The thought made her smile. She had certainly come a long way.