Included below are three sample chapters from the new novel, The Incredible Origins of the Onyx Sun by Christopher Mahoney.

Sections:   Prologue   |   Chapter 1   |   Chapter 2

Prologue
A Normal Boy’s Abnormal Grandfather

Zack Goodspeed was a perfectly normal ten year-old boy, growing up in a perfectly normal suburb. His friends were all normal. His teachers were normal. His mother and father were practically Mr. and Mrs. Normal. Everything in Zack’s life was exceptionally normal save one thing: his grandfather Fyodor. He was decidedly not normal.

Right from the get-go, Fyodor Confucius Goodspeed had established himself as anything but usual. As a child, he had been a ridiculously lanky lad with pale skin, like tissue paper. He had a wild tuft of hair that sprouted from the front of his scalp like a weed. Otherwise, he was completely bald from the moment he was born, all through his life. It was like his cranium generated so much heat it singed the hair from his head. Fyodor Goodspeed also had a tendency to dress entirely in white, claiming he had neither the time nor the patience to match what he wore any other way.

Fyodor’s defining abnormality though was his genius, a word which by definition means “unusual intelligence”. He had shown an aptitude in building clever machines from a very young age. Sources of energy were his specialty and, around age seven, he built his first atomic reactor. Over his parents’ gasps at the 800-pound, glowing monstrosity on his Superman bedspread, he commented, “Well, that was easy.”

So, as his parents hurriedly scoured the phonebook for a company specializing in bedroom nuclear disposal, Fyodor took out a blank piece of paper and started fresh. He had new ideas how to power things.

Fyodor unveiled his new thinking at the Forth Grade Science Fair. While other young scientists in the school’s gymnasium displayed erupting volcanoes, model rockets, and gyroscopes, Fyodor unveiled a five inch wide, by five inch tall, by five inch long cube. The cube was dark and featureless. It looked like a perfectly cut square of black onyx. Black onyx is a type of stone that is so dark, staring into it is like staring into a void. So, Fyodor’s cube looked: it was a small, perfectly square, infinite void.

Mr. Burton, the school’s fourth grade science teacher, stretched his plump cheeks to smile at Fyodor’s project.

“Well Fy,” said Mr. Burton, using Fyodor’s nickname. “It seems that you have entered a rock into the Science Fair. Are you presenting geology?”

“It’s not a rock. It’s an energy source,” Fyodor said plainly.

Mr. Burton laughed, “An energy source! How could that be? It’s clearly a rock - a very interesting rock, but a rock regardless. Did you shape it yourself? Do you have a rock chisel around here?”

“No, I don’t. Rock cutting is for bozos. This is an energy source. It provides unlimited power.”

“Fy,” said Mr. Burton, his fat cheeks flattening. “This is a Science Fair, not an Imagination Fair. I’ll enter your submission as ‘The Onyx Rock: a Rock Cutting Example by Fy Goodspeed’. I’m sure you will do quite well in the fair, although rock cutting certainly won’t win first place.” He wrote something on the tablet he carried.

“It’s not a rock,” Fyodor insisted. “It is the single smallest, but most powerful source of energy on Earth. It can power a jet by itself, no fuel needed. It can provide renewable power to a large city. It can even run in a vacuum, like space, without any oxygen. It never runs out of energy yet it produces no pollution! I call it the Onyx Sun.” A small smile of pride crossed Fyodor’s lips.

Mr. Burton squinted down at Fyodor through fleshy eye slits. His eyes flashed with frustration. “Fy, keep this up and I’ll have to give you a zero,” he said. “Now, is it a rock or is it an unlimited energy source?”

Fyodor held his teacher’s gaze. After a long moment, Fyodor plucked the cube from the table and strode down the aisles of exhibits in the gymnasium. He approached Chris Cleatus, who was demonstrating to a large crowd how a gas-powered go-kart works. Since the fair was inside the school, the go-kart had been emptied of fuel for safety reasons.

Fyodor cut through the crowd, approached the go-kart, and ripped a wire from the engine.

“Hey!” Chris said, pushing people aside so he could stop Fyodor. Fyodor turned to face Mr. Burton at the far end of the gymnasium. Everyone watched. Fyodor held the wire up in the air in one hand and the Onyx Sun in the other. As he brought his hands together, a blue bolt of electricity arced from the cube to the wire. The wire leapt toward the cube and stuck to its side as if magnetically attracted. Fyodor reached down and pressed the ignition button.

The go-kart engine raced to life. Its loud roaring boomed through the gymnasium. People stepped back. Chris Cletus stopped in his tracks. Mr. Burton let his tablet fall to his side. His mouth was wide open.

“It is an unlimited energy source,” Fyodor said. He stared at all the people staring back at him. Then, he shrugged. Fyodor hopped into the go-kart, revved the engine, and raced out of the gym through the open exit doors that emptied onto the parking lot. All he left behind was blue tire smoke and open mouths. That was the last day Fyodor Confucius Goodspeed attended normal school.

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