Page 37

Chapter thirty-six

Check Your Energy

Karma

I squeeze Josh’s hand as we walk into the tattoo parlor. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“We’ve already had this conversation,” he reminds me. “I haven’t changed my mind. Have you?”

No way. If the man that I love wants to get matching tattoos, I’m one-hundred percent onboard. The marks on my neck and thigh will fade. A tattoo is forever.

“Hey, Karma,” my tattoo artist calls out. “I’m glad I finally get to meet your special guy.”

“Charlie, this is Josh.” I wrap my arm around his waist. “Thanks for fitting us in this weekend.”

The heavily-inked man gives us a wink. “Anything for young love. I’ve sketched out some design ideas based on your other tattoos. Why don’t you come into my office?” He jerks his head toward the station in the back.

We follow him, then take our seats while Josh gazes at the artwork on the walls. “Wow. Did you draw all of these?” he asks.

“Yep, and here’s the design I was thinking about for the two of you.” Charlie passes us a strip of paper with pencil markings on it.

I point to the intertwining figure eights. “Are those infinity symbols? That would be perfect for Josh—he’s a whiz at math.”

“Yeah, I thought it would go with the theme of your sleeve,” the artist tells us. “Y’know, ‘ hold infinity in the palm of your hand’? ”

I grin at Josh. “What do you think, Moonbeam?”

He gazes at me, his eyes shining. “I love it, especially the markings along the upper and lower bands. They remind me of a henna tattoo.”

“Exactly,” Charlie says. “I added the dots and lines to bring in elements of Indian culture. I wanted to make the design a blend of you both.”

That’s so perfect. “Were you planning on putting it on the palms of our hands, like in the poem?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “That placement tends to fade, but I had an even better idea.” The artist reaches for Josh’s right hand and wraps the strip of paper around his ring finger.

Josh stares at his hand for a long moment. When he looks up at me, I expect to see panic. Instead, his eyes are filled with love and determination. “I want this. Do you?”

“I do.” A thrill runs up my spine as I catch a glimpse of our possible future.

While the tattoo artist gets to work on our ink, we chat about this and that—his latest designs, a story I’d written, Josh’s graduation and plans for the future.

“Astrophysics?” Charlie’s eyebrows raise as he tattoos the design onto my boyfriend’s finger. “You’re kidding me, right?”

Josh laughs, then winces slightly in pain. “No, it’s true. And next, I plan on getting a degree in Cosmolo—“ His words jerk to a halt, his face falling as he glances over at me. “I mean, I haven’t completely decided yet…”

I grasp his free hand and lace our fingers together. “Josh is gonna be a cosmologist, just like Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein. It’s what he was born to do.” It’ll be tough to be apart for who knows how long, but I’ve come to grips with his decision. How can he do anything else but follow his destiny?

The tattoo artist’s eyes dart to mine. “ Damn . Way to score out of your league, bruh.”

Right? I’m so lucky to be loved by someone like Josh. After last night, there isn’t any doubt in my mind how deeply he cares for me. His tender treatment of my body, the emotion in his voice and eyes… Even before he told me, I knew exactly how he felt.

“Cosmology, huh?” Charlie asks. “So, tell me something interesting about the universe. Do you think there’s life on other planets?”

Josh nods his head. “Almost definitely—even sentient life is highly probable. Carl Sagan certainly believed so. He also thought that parallel dimensions were possible, which would exponentially compound the likelihood of life on other planets.”

“Parallel dimensions?” My ears perk up. That’s one of my favorite themes in science fiction. “If they exist, do you think future generations could travel to them?”

He shrugs his shoulders. “Maybe. Some scientists believe that black holes could connect to create wormholes, which—if stabilized—could act like highways through space.”

That’s so cool. “Do you think a wormhole could connect our universe to another dimension?”

“Theoretically,” Josh answers, “though there isn’t any scientific data to back that up, of course. Then again, dark energy was only discovered about twenty-five years ago, and look how much it’s advanced our understanding of the universe already.”

Charlie’s forehead wrinkles. “Dark energy? What’s that?”

As the artist finishes my boyfriend’s tattoo and begins his work on mine, Josh tells us about the Dark Energy Survey project and the data its research has gathered. One question leads to another, then another, until my tattoo is finished. Even after we’ve paid and said our goodbyes to Charlie, I continue to question Josh about the cosmos and his knowledge of quantum mechanics.

A seed of an idea has been planted in my head. Could the man I love hold the answer I’m searching for?

Knock-knock. I stick my head into Patterson’s office. “Have you got a minute, Professor P?”

The professor looks up from his laptop. “That depends. Is it time to ‘kick some Jhorvandian ass’ ?”

“I think it might be, sir.” My heart thumps in my chest. I’d stayed up half the night researching and organizing my thoughts. Though Patterson will have to rewrite the end of the novel in Rodrick Domingo’s voice, I think I may have found a solution to the plot’s dilemma. I can only hope that my mentor agrees.

He pushes his laptop aside. “You have my attention, Mr. Wilson. Proceed whenever you’re ready.”

I enter the book-filled room, pulling notes out of my messenger bag before setting it aside. As I pace back and forth in front of his desk, I tick off some established facts about The Ceranian Saga . “We know that the Cerans have found a secret cavern below the city of Lilania, and that it’s filled with rare crystals of immeasurable value. Once they deciphered the ancient hieroglyphics etched into the walls, the people of Ceran were able to use the Cerathyst crystals to power the entire planet.”

Patterson nods. “It’s the reason they’re being attacked by the Jhorvands. T?rlig will do anything to steal their power source, even if it means destroying Ceran and enslaving all of its people.”

“And the only defense the Cerans have is the one that they found within the Cerathyst cavern.” I stop pacing and turn to face my mentor. “It’s the Ultimate Weapon… or is it?”

The professor’s eyes narrow. “Continue.”

As I look at my notes, I start pacing around the small office again. “The deciphered runes say that, ‘All Life will be torn apart’ by using the Ultimate Weapon and that, when confronted by an enemy, they should ‘always seek peace and follow the law’ .”

“Yes, yes.” He motions with his hand. “Get to the point.”

“The point is,” I arch an eyebrow, “what if they misinterpreted the meaning of the ancient hieroglyphics? What if the symbol for ‘law’ doesn’t mean ‘commandment’ or ‘rule’ , but rather a physical law, such as a scientific principle?”

Patterson purses his lips. “I’m listening.”

I look down at my notes, then say, “In science, the law of conservation of energy states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed—it can only be converted from one form to another. We know that the Cerathyst crystals conduct energy, much like the quartz crystals that were used to conduct radio waves in our first radios on Earth. Even today, silicon crystals are used as semiconductors in modern computer chips.”

“ Hmph ,“ he sniffs. “Go on.”

“Maybe the secret of the Cerathyst crystals is in the way they conduct energy,“ I tell him. “Not through electromagnetic radiation—such as radio waves, microwaves, or visible light. Not even through acoustic radiation, such as sound and seismic waves. What if they conduct energy through gravitational radiation ?”

The professor frowns. “Explain.”

I read my notes to him slowly, pausing to let the information sink in. “In physics, the term ‘radiation’ means the transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space. Gravitational radiation takes the form of gravitational waves—or ripples in the space-time continuum. Are you following me, sir?” I glance up.

“Blindly,” he says. “Continue.”

Holding my notes in one hand, I raise a finger on the other as I make a series of points. “One: the law of conservation of energy states that energy—such as that found in gravitational waves—can’t be destroyed. It can only be transformed into another state.”

“As previously noted.” Patterson sighs.

“Two.” I raise a second finger. “Newton’s Third Law of Motion tells us that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction—“

“Mr. Wilson,” he interrupts me. “Your train of thought has jumped its track. What does the law of cause and effect have to do with the Cerathyst crystals?”

Ignoring him, I hold up a third finger. “Three: the law of gravity… or anti-gravity , in this case. Cosmologists believe that almost seventy percent of the universe consists of a mysterious force called dark energy. This force acts as a type of anti-gravity, causing the universe to expand.”

“I’ve been reading about dark energy,” the professor tells me as he takes off his glasses. “It’s fascinating stuff. But what could dark energy possibly have to do with defeating the Jhorvands?”

I sit down in a chair across from him and lean forward. “The Cerans have a mysterious, inexhaustible energy source that T?rlig would do anything to get his hands on. We know that the Cerathyst crystals are the ideal conduit for this power supply. What if the energy source that they’ve tapped into is actually… dark energy ?”

Patterson blinks, then sets down his glasses, his forehead wrinkling as he stands up. Wandering around the room, he thinks out loud, “Dark energy… the most abundant energy source in the universe. The Cerans have discovered how to harness it, and they alone have the crystals with which to do so. The location of the Cerathyst cavern and the cipher decoding the ancient runes are the secrets that Jeanrire must protect at all costs. But I still don’t see how we can use that information to defeat T?rlig.”

“It’s simple, sir,” I tell him. “We unleash the Ultimate Weapon.”

“ What? “ He stops in his tracks.

I knew that would throw him a curve. “Jeanrire and the members of the Resistance believe that it will destroy all life on Planet Ceran—maybe even the entire universe. That’s the reason he was willing to sacrifice himself to protect his friends. But what if they were wrong? What if that isn’t actually what the Ultimate Weapon was created to do?”

The professor shakes his head. “The runes clearly state that ‘all Life will be torn apart’ if they follow the weapon’s instructions.”

“It also tells them to ‘seek peace and follow the law’ ... but it doesn’t say which law,“ I point out. “Is it the law of the conservation of energy, which can be neither created nor destroyed? Newton’s Third Law requiring an equal and opposite reaction? The law of anti -gravity—or rather, of dark energy, which is causing the universe to expand at an exponential rate? What if the Weapon brings peace by tearing life apart… into separate dimensions?”

“Separate dimensions?” Patterson murmurs as he processes the idea. “So, let me understand this. Jeanrire activates the Ultimate Weapon, which uses the Cerathyst crystals to conduct dark energy—“

”—which expands the universe in an equal and opposite direction. The Cerans are a peace-loving people, while the Jhorvands are war-mongers. Their energies are diametrically opposed. If they ‘seek peace’ when they activate the weapon, then according to Newton’s law of cause and effect…”

“... the war-loving Jhorvands will be torn away—either into another dimension or across the universe—far from the planet of Ceran.” The professor gazes into the distance as he thinks it over it, then holds a hand out for my notes. After reading them through multiple times, he glances up, his eyes blazing. “I think you’ve done it, Karma. You just saved an entire civilization.”

I grin at my mentor, my heart soaring. “I promised I would, Professor P. Like you said, I’m not a quitter.”