Chapter 21: Bad Moon Rising
T-27 days, 22 hours, 13 minutes and 47 seconds (09-14 ∇ 11:32).
Once the shuttle had left the Moon, Francine opened Waldo & Magic, Inc. and began reading. "Waldo" began with a man demonstrating impossible feats of physical agility and strength. A reporter asked him, why did he choose dancing as a career?
Meanwhile, events were transpiring that Francine and Miss Weir knew nothing about:
IMPERIAL LAW 567423
The animated television program known as The Rescue Rangers has been found to be treasonous to the Emperor. Henceforth, all individuals associated with the creation of this program are to be shipped to the Moon, where they will spend the remainder of their lives serving the State.
In the alternate future described in "Waldo", all power was transmitted through the air in the form of high-energy radiation, replacing electrical lines and gasoline engines alike. This radiation had unknown effects on the human body, but the benefit was thought worth the possible risk, until the power receptors of North American Power-Air, or NAPA, started failing, and planes started falling out of the sky. Neither the Chief Scientist, Doctor Rambeau, nor the chief engineer, Stevens, could find the cause of the problem, since the deKalb receptors were supposed to be infallible, and had been manufactured correctly. Because of the strong dependency on radiant power transmission, the spreading failures threatened to topple the whole of civilization. The company had no choice but send Stevens to beg for the help of the man their lawyers had stolen millions from in the form of forged patents: Waldo Farthingwaite-Jones.
The same penalty of perpetual servitude applies to all individuals who are members of groups that promote The Rescue Rangers, or who are found to possess videos or memorabilia associated with this program. A reward of Ten Thousand American Dollars will be given to anyone that assists in the detection and apprehension of these traitors.
Waldo had been born with myasthenia gravis. In fighting his physical weakness he had developed his intellect to genius levels, and the inventions that he had created to live like a human being had revolutionized the world. He had been living in a permanently weightless space station for the past seventeen years, nursing his grudges with humanity, which he considered his inferiors. His primary means of interacting with the world was a series of scaling manipulators controlled by the hands. The public called them "waldoes" in his honor.
The words "Rescue" and "Ranger" are no longer to be used in the same sentence, other than in the context of discussing this law or attacking the program. Violation will be punished with a fine of One Thousand American Dollars for each occurrence. Any organizations that might use these words and are not associated with the treasonous television program will have to change their name immediately, at their own expense.
Finally, the same penalty applies to the use of any of the following words when used as names: "Chip", "Dale", "Gadget", "Monterey Jack" (or "Monty"), "Zipper", ...
Stevens realized that the only way Waldo would let him set foot on his station, Freehold (called "Wheelchair" by the public), would be in the company of the closest thing the genius had to a friend, Doctor Gaines. Gaines had been the family physician when Waldo was born. He was also one of the few men to believe that radiant power had been slowly sapping the physical strength of the human race over the years. In a few years, he predicted that the whole of humanity would be as weak as Waldo. With Gaines' help, Waldo was finally convinced to help NAPA. Gaines also challenged Waldo to come up with a solution to the problem that involved an end to radiant power.
An Open Letter to the Emperor
June 1st
To Professor Norton Nimnul,
The World Space Commission and the government agency popularly known as "The Company" would like to congratulate you on your successful work in liberating the planet Earth from control of the Danaan race. We will forever be in your debt.
While Stevens was groveling before Waldo, his assistant McLeod had been investigating one of the airplane crashes when his personal skycar failed as well. He found himself in the Amish country of Pennsylvania, the place he had grown up. While waiting for help to transport the failed skycar back to headquarters, McLeod bumped into Grandpa Schneider, an impossibly old hex doctor. Bored, he told his problems to the man, and Grandpa Schneider fixed the deKalb receptor by means of chalk lines and an incantation. Not only did this fix the device, but as a result the antennae of the receptor were now alive, flexing and writhing. He brought the skycar back to headquarters.
However, with that crisis resolved, we humbly request that you relinquish your powers and duties as Emperor of Earth to the civil governments. In return, we are prepared to provide you with generous living conditions, and enough money so that you never have to lift a finger for the rest of your life.
Please return your answer in the next twenty-four hours.
Sincerely,
The World Space Commission, Geneva, Switzerland
The Company, Washington, D.C.
If Stevens was disconcerted by the change to the receptor, the chief scientist, Dr. Rambeau, was driven insane. Rambeau called Waldo with the revelation that that he had reproduced Grandpa Schneider's results, proving that nothing was certain anymore. He then demonstrated this by cutting his finger without bleeding and causing the knife to defy gravity. "Chaos is King," Rambeau cried, "and Magic is loose in the world!" Francine gasped in shock at this passage.
NBS News Bureau
This is the six o'clock news for Tuesday, June 2nd.
Our top story: the cities of Washington, D.C., and Geneva, Switzerland were destroyed today. The former city was crushed by an enormous silver dollar, approximately three hundred million tons in weight, while the latter was crushed by a similarly sized gold euro. Both objects were launched from the Moon. Thanks to early warning by Emperor Norton, there were no casualties.
These two cities were the headquarters of the two most influential organizations on Earth, and both of them had sent an open letter to the Emperor yesterday asking him to resign his post. When asked for comment, the World Space Commission had no comment. Members of The Company could not be found for comment. In fact, it appears that the organization has completely ceased to exist.
All praise Norton II, Emperor of Earth and Protector of the Moon!
Phantoma. It's the hottest new videogame out of Japan, but could it be dangerous? Find out, after the break.
Francine continued frantically reading, her mood mirroring Waldo's desperation in the story. Waldo was forced to return to the Earth and the crushing forces of its gravity to learn Grandpa Schneider's secrets. He then studied every book on magic that he could find, striving to extract the scientific truths hidden inside about the Other World, the world of magic and infinite possibilities, which Schneider spoke of. Waldo surmised this Other World to be a parallel universe operating on different physical laws than our own, and apparently full of energy, which the modified receivers were using instead of radiant energy. It was the solution to the crisis, the solution to Mankind's energy needs forever, and potentially the end of NAPA, if they weren't willing to pay though the nose to Waldo. The crisis itself was proof of the existence of magic on a mass scale: the depression which was a side effect of radiant energy on the human brain had caused a global loss of faith in humanity, and it was therefore the gloom of the pilots themselves that had caused their planes to drop out of the sky.
Waldo eventually realized that if the modified deKalbs could pull energy from the Other World, then so could he, and he could use this energy to finally free himself of his debilitating illness. Losing his disability caused him to shed his contempt and hatred of humanity. And it was he who was demonstrating unbelievable feats of physical agility at the start of the book.
excerpt from The Company's Report on Norton Nimnul:
...These objects were fashioned from no observable source, killed no one, and succeeded in destroying the cities without causing any additional damage to the surrounding area. The silver dollar contained as much silver as all the silver that has ever been mined on Earth, and the gold euro contained twice as much gold as has ever existed.
All of these events are impossibilities.
We are led to the inescapable conclusion that Norton Nimnul is no mere scientific genius, and is rather some sort of god.
We recommend The Company go underground until such time as this being's weaknesses, if any, can be determined.
