The Devil Comes Back to Retroville

by Gary D. Snyder

Part 13:

One of Jimmy's long-term projects had been to identify the most immutable substance in the known universe, as a number of his inventions required a material that would resist all manner of forces and pressures. To date he had narrowed the choices to a half-dozen ceramic and synthetic carbide derivatives, but after five minutes arguing with Cindy he concluded that the real answer was a woman who had made up her mind.

"You are not going," he had argued. "It's too dangerous."

"Oh, and waiting for a piece of dark matter to hit Retroville isn't?" had been her retort.

"If anything goes wrong, you could die. I don't want to have that on my conscience."

"Hey, if anything happened to me it would happen to you, too, so I doubt that's a big concern. And do you think it would be any easier for me if I stayed behind and something happened to you? I'm going and that's it."

For every logical argument Jimmy put forth Cindy had a semi-logical argument to counter it and in the end Jimmy relented. There was a lot of work to be done in preparing for the upcoming mission, and giving in to Cindy gave Jimmy two definite advantages. The first was allowing him to proceed with his plan, and the second was having an extra set of hands to do so. Cindy wasn't technician enough to do much independently, but she was able to hand Jimmy the necessary tools as he needed them and help assemble the parts he needed for the work. From time to time she would question Jimmy about his plan.

"Won't there be problems going into another dimension?" she asked, handing him a wrench. "What if we hit something already in there?"

"Not likely," he replied as he worked within the bowels of the Strato XL. "We're just going to be travelling outside the three-dimensional space we normally occupy, not phasing into an alternate reality. Ultrasonic welder, please. The thing that looks like an electric toothbrush."

Cindy complied with the request. "What's the difference?"

"An ultrasonic welder induces high frequency vibrations in adjoining materials which causes them to heat them up and weld together, while an electric toothbrush –"

"No, no! I mean between phasing into another dimension and phasing into an alternate reality."

"Oh, that." There was a faint hum as Jimmy took a few seconds to weld a seam. "It's pretty easy to confuse the two. The fact is that every existence has an infinite number of dimensions, but we're used to experiencing only three. We're going to slip sideways along one of the other axes, kind of peeling a sticker off a paper backing. We'll still take up three dimensions, but we'll be displaced along a fourth dimension and no longer in contact with everything else here. Alternate realities all occupy the same dimensions, but oscillate at a different fundamental quantum frequency that keeps them separate. It's kind of like all the different cable channels in a single cable."

"Oh. I see. I guess." Cindy wasn't sure she got the concept but decided that if Jimmy felt there was no danger she'd accept that. As Jimmy crawled back out of the rocket ship she asked, "Now, why do we need oxygen tanks and a canopy?"

Jimmy dusted off his pants as he explained. "Because there won't be any other transphased air where we're going. The volume of the tanks that I have are limited, so we're going to have carry pure oxygen and have to be very careful about regulating it." He pointed into the cockpit. "Those two valves – one in front and one in back – will control how much oxygen we're getting. There's no time to put in an automatic regulatory system, so we'll have to adjust them manually to make sure we don't get too much or too little."

"Uh-huh. But why didn't we ever need this stuff when we've gone into the vacuum of space before?"

"Well," Jimmy replied as he began organizing a number of multicolored wires into a harness, "as I explained to Carl and Sheen…"

"Oh, we went to the moon,

But it wasn't in June.

I wanted to croon,

So I sang a short tune –"

"Carl!" Sheen shouted. "Stop singing!"

"Oh. Sorry," Carl apologized. He and Sheen were in Carl's room playing Llama's Day Out.and Sheen had stopped in mid-move to glare at him.

"What's the matter with you?" Sheen demanded. "Why are you singing?"

"I don't know." Carl shrugged. "I was just thinking about the time you and Jimmy and me went to the moon to save Brobot from the Moony Men and I just felt like singing."

Carl's answer failed to placate Sheen. "Well, the Moony Men were all just a trick of Brobot's and we nearly got killed by the Junkman."

"Yeah," agreed Carl. "But Mombot's refreshments were really good."

"That's true," Sheen admitted. "But we don't have any. So knock off the singing!"

"…and that's pretty much it," Jimmy concluded back in his lab.

"That makes sense," Cindy nodded. "So are we about finished?"

"Pretty much. Let me familiarize you with what you need to do." Cindy craned to her neck to see the various instruments and controls in what was to be her section of the cockpit. "This is the oxygen regulator valve. Turn it clockwise to increase the flow, and counter-clockwise to decrease it. This button is for launching the backlight flare. This screen is a broad spectrum radiation monitor that will let you view the backlit meteor after the flare is fired and allow you to target the gravimetric sensor so that you can calibrate the reading. The flare only lasts a few seconds so you'll have to be fast." Jimmy looked at Cindy. "Do you think you can do that?"

"No problem," Cindy answered.

"Okay. Once the sensor is calibrated this meter will show the relative strength of the gravity field. If the reading increases we're drifting too close and need to speed up. If it decreases we're pulling ahead and need to slow down. I have a duplicate meter on my instrument panel but will need to be watching a lot of other instruments to keep us on course. If you see your meter moving into the red zone on either side, let me know immediately so I can adjust our speed. If I don't the meteor will drift outside of the field and…well…you know."

"I know. I will." Now that the moment of departure was at hand a wave of uncertainty swept over Cindy. "I guess this is it."

"I guess so." Jimmy was silent as he studied Cindy's face. "Are you sure you want to do this? Goddard –"

"I'm sure." Despite her nervousness Cindy's voice disguised it well and carried the weight of conviction. "Let's do this."

Without further conversation the two climbed into the rocket and took a few minutes to fasten and adjust their safety harnesses and go over the preflight checklist. The checklist was rather short, as Jimmy's rocket design followed the classic "keep it simple" philosophy of video game rocket control.

"Canopy closed and locked," Cindy recited.

"Check," Jimmy acknowledged and the clear bubble lowered over them.

"Silo hatch open."

The roof of Jimmy's clubhouse slid back. "Check."

"Launch track elevated."

The rocket angled back. "Check."

"Atomic batteries to power."

There were several clicks and a low hum and powerful relays closed and high energy began coursing through complex circuits. "Check."

"Turbines to speed."

An audible whine increased in volume and frequency. "Check."

"We are go for launch."

"Acknowledged. Commencing countdown. Launch in five…"

This is it, Cindy thought.

"Four…"

There's no turning back now.

"Three…"

I hope Jimmy really is back…

"Two…"

…or this is going to be one short ride.

"One..."

Wish me luck, Angelo.

"Blast off!"

With a subdued roar that was more of a prolonged whoosh than the blast of a rocket the colorful ship shot upward into the night sky and was quickly lost amidst the glittering pinpoints of light overhead.

End of Part 13

Author's Note:

An observant reader noted the problems that the meteor could cause should the dimension into which Jimmy transphased it was occupied by an alternate reality. While I had originally intended Jimmy to devote only a sentence or two on the subject I decided that a slightly longer explanation was warranted. I could actually spend pages on the subject but decided that it wasn't really crucial to the central plot of the story and that the tale was getting to be long enough already. Considering what I know is to come I really can't rush things, but rest assured that things will reach a crisis next chapter.