Grandfather glanced
behind them and between his wide strides said, “Zack, I’ve got a better idea.
Let’s go to my house for a bit.”
“Are we going to do some experiments?” Zack asked.
“Kind of. I think it’s time I showed you something special,”
Grandfather said, now glancing the opposite direction.
“OK.”
“All right. That’s my boy,” Grandfather said, a wide smile
splitting his face.
They strode to the Professor’s house next door. As they
approached the white picket fence around Grandfather’s yard, Zack saw a light
blinking on a nearby motion sensor. The gate opened. The sprinklers modified
their spray so it didn’t hit them as they walked past. A perfect halo of air
broke the mist as they strode down the footpath.
Grandfather Goodspeed took a sharp left and paced towards the
detached garage. The garage began to growl at him viciously. A camera attached
to the roof of the garage and shaped like a giant eyeball followed them as they
approached.
“Down boy. Down!” said Grandfather.
“Voice recognized,” said a pleasant voice from a speaker mounted
on the garage. The growling stopped and the sound of a dog panting replaced it.
“What the heck is that?” Zack asked.
“Oh, that’s my new security system.”
“That’s an angry-sounding dog.”
“Actually, it’s a recording of my neighbor’s black Labrador.
That’s why I now call this place my ‘Labradory.’”
Zack smiled at Fyodor. Many of the people in town, especially
Zack’s parents, found Fyodor Goodspeed simply wacky. Zack enjoyed his
grandfather’s quirks though. He found them refreshing.
“Door opening,” said the garage speaker. “Welcome home, Fyodor
Confucius Goodspeed.”
The garage door squealed
open. The interior of the garage was pitch black, like a large, gaping
mouth. Zack stepped inside. Even the memory of the time Grandfather had almost
burned his hair off didn’t deter him. Zack could see something special
twinkling in Grandfather’s eyes today. The door squealed closed behind them.
“Kalamazoo!” Fyodor Goodspeed cried. The lights flickered on and
the garage came to life.
The Labradory was a cornucopia of instruments, engine parts,
gadgets, books, tools, computers, monitors, and gauges. The computers flipped on.
The gadgets started whirring. A monitor blinked to life, displaying reams of
text and images. A radio turned on, playing up-tempo jazz music. In the center
of the gizmo jungle, on a high steel table, sat a large black cube, five feet
wide, by five feet tall, by five feet long. The cube twinkled under a spotlight
but seemed to capture more light than it reflected.
“I am so glad your parents let you come over to play
‘baseball,’” Grandfather said with a wink. Zack stood still, admiring the chaos
of the Labradory and the black cube that stood in the center like a monolith.
Grandfather strode through the mechanical mess to the cube,
knocking over quite a few gizmos as he did so. Zack followed, picking his way
carefully past several large contraptions that looked precariously balanced.
They came to the steel table and Grandfather Goodspeed pressed a
nearby switch. The table lowered a few feet. Zack could see better now. The
cube seemed to both capture and radiate energy. Zack could almost feel the energetic
waves it gave off. His fingers and toes tingled when he stood this close to it.
Zack reached out a hand and touched the cube. A sensation like a million angry
bees shot through his arm, into his head, and down his spine. A crashing sound,
like a wave, roared in his ears. Zack flew back and fell to the floor.
Grandfather rushed over to him. “My boy, my boy! Are you ok?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“Are you sure?” Grandfather said, looking at him with concern.
“Yes. What is that?”
“That, my boy, is the reason I asked you over today. That is my
new Onyx Sun.”
“What is an Onyx Sun?”
“It is a source of unlimited power.”
Zack stared at the cube. Although he could still feel waves of
electrical energy pulsating from the cube and had felt its power firsthand, he
had a hard time believing this simple shape could house any kind of power.
“I don’t believe it. It’s not possible.”
“Oh, it is quite possible, my boy. It’s just that no one outside
yourself has ever seen something like this.”
“Is this what you’ve been working on? Is this why you’ve been
gone?”
“Yes.”
“But how did you build it?”
“Ah, that’s actually quite complicated.”
“But why didn’t you show me this before?” Zack asked.
“Because there was nothing to show,” Grandfather said. “I
created a smaller prototype Onyx Sun years ago, when I was about your age. I
thought at the time I’d solved the world’s energy problems. But as I tested my
device, I realized although it could produce unlimited power — theoretically
— it couldn’t do so safely. The prototype became dangerous at high power
levels. It was too small. I realized I had to develop another one, much larger
than the first, to contain the power it generated. Zack, I have done it! I
completed this Onyx Sun only last month, and have brought you here for its
final test.”
Zack shook his head. He was having a hard time believing what
Grandfather was saying. Could he really be telling the truth? Was something
like this possible? Even if it was, would this be one of his grandfather’s
experiments that went horribly awry? Questions flooded Zack’s head, but one
rose to the surface.
“Why show me?”
Grandfather stared at Zack
and said, “Because you’re the only one who understands me. I see genius growing
inside you already, as it did in me when I was your age. I think you are going
to find it will separate you — separate us — from people like your
father and mother. Even if I tried to explain this to them, they could never
appreciate what I’ve done here. But you can, Zack. You do already. Don’t you?”
Zack thought about the moments he had been home and felt out of
place. He longed desperately to understand his parents, but sometimes they
completely baffled him. Grandfather though made sense. It was like his
grandfather’s weird motivations and mannerisms were a code only he could understand.
Zack nodded and said, “Yes. I get it.”
Grandfather smiled and rubbed his hands through Zack’s wild
hair. Then, he helped Zack up.
“All right, shall we begin, my boy?”
Grandfather strode across the lab and started attaching
different instruments to the cube. He attached spectrometers, radiometers,
omniometers, bigometers, and smallometers. All kinds of “ometers” were attached
to the cube, until Zack could barely make out the object underneath.
“All right,” Fyodor said. “We’re going to pulse test the cube.
Let’s see how stable this baby is at its highest energy level. Um, take
cover…just in case.”
Grandfather led Zack behind a large lead plate on one side of
the room. It had a slit in it they peered through.
“If my calculations are correct, this test should give us enough
energy to power an aircraft carrier,” Grandfather said. He removed a black,
rectangular remote from his pocket with a red button on it. The button was
labeled “Kalamazoo!”
“Would you like to do the honors, my boy?” asked Grandfather
Goodspeed.
“Sure,” said Zack, taking the remote.
Grandfather
Goodspeed began counting down. Zack joined in.
“…5…4…3…2…1…Kalamazoo!” said Grandfather, as Zack pressed the
button.
Nothing happened.
Grandfather peered around the side of the plate.
More of nothing happened.
Then, a sound, like a revving turbine, emerged from the cube. It
escalated, until Zack could barely hear his grandfather, who was screaming
something excitedly. His lips looked like he was yelling, “It’s working!”
The ground began to vibrate. The overhead spotlight shook on the
wire that held it to the ceiling. Reams of text flew across the computer
monitors. All the “ometer” gauges spiked past the red line. Random objects fell
from their shelves. Blue lightning bolts arced from the cube. They streamed up
and down the walls lighting papers on fire and blowing up the computer monitors.
Zack looked at his grandfather, who was no longer smiling.
Fyodor snatched the remote from Zack and frantically pressed the button. He
looked at Zack desperately and his lips made shapes that remarkably resembled,
“I forgot to build an ‘Off’ button!”
Zack covered his ears to protect them against the whine the cube
was making. Just when he thought the garage would collapse, a magnetic pulse
burst from the cube.
The lights went out.
The noise stopped.
Total blackness overtook the garage again.
* * *
When he awoke, Zack had a headache that felt like his skull was
imploding. It was still completely dark in the garage, except for a small pool
of light. Zack stood and, through the slit in the barrier, saw his grandfather
standing over the cube, a penlight in his mouth. He was scraping the surface of
the cube with different electronic devices and then comparing the readouts. A
swell of frustration rose in Zack. Had Grandfather even checked on him before
he went to examine his invention? Zack doubted Fyodor had even noticed him unconscious
on the floor. Zack stepped out from behind the plate.
The clutter that had once been evenly spread around the garage
was now piled against the far walls. A perfect circle of empty floor lay around
the cube.
Hearing Zack approach, Grandfather Goodspeed said, “Come here,
my boy.”
Zack shimmied around the circular pile of instruments.
Grandfather never once glanced away from the Onyx Sun, offered help, or asked
Zack if he was okay. Zack was baffled at how his grandfather could seem so
sincere earlier yet care so little now.
“Well, I’d say that was a success!” Grandfather said.
Zack looked around the garage and said, “Um, it sure doesn’t
look that way.”
“Nonsense!” Grandfather Goodspeed said, waving a hand in the
air, as if to shoo a fly. “That was a significantly stable high-energy
reaction. Instruments can be fixed. It’s the Onyx Sun that we care about. The
smaller prototype would have destroyed the whole block at that energy level.”
“I’m not sure my parents would like that,” Zack said, but his
grandfather ignored him.
“So, it seems that the Onyx Sun’s stability increases
exponentially, as its size grows,” Grandfather said, checking a device in his
hand. “Excellent! This is even better than I expected!”
“Yeah, but you didn’t notice it knocked me out,” Zack said.
Grandfather scanned him and said, “Poppycock, you look fine. You
can stand. You’re eyes aren’t crossed. And you’re not drooling, which is a
considerable benefit in social situations.”
“Well, it ruined your lab, at least.”
Grandfather shrugged and said, “Ah, I have other labs. This was
just a tinkering lab anyway—” He caught himself mid-sentence. Zack
noticed something shifty in his eyes.
“Other labs?” said Zack. “What do you mean—”
“Kalamazoo!” Grandfather exclaimed suddenly, looking at his
watch. “I promised to have you to the mall by 11:00. It’s 10:59!”
Grandfather Goodspeed shot panicked looks around the garage.
Then, he stopped, turned to Zack, and said, “Zack, my boy, if I show you
something secret, will you promise not to tell anyone?”
“Grandfather I don’t—”
“Promise, Zack!”
“Ok. I promise.”
“Great! I knew I could count on you.”
Grandfather dove towards the back of the garage. He threw aside
mangled metal devices until he exposed the back wall. He shot one more cautious
look at Zack, then clapped his hands together and placed them on the wall.
“Fyodor Confucius Goodspeed…recognized,” said a computer voice.
The garage floor rumbled. Zack looked at the Onyx Sun, but this
sound was coming from elsewhere. Suddenly, the rear wall split open to reveal a
hidden chamber. Bright light shined into the garage. As the door spread wide,
Zack could see a white chamber. The walls were cast in white blocks. The floor
was a solid sheet of white. The ceiling was covered in white lights.
What caught Zack’s attention though was the object inside the
room. Hovering in mid-air, unsupported, was a streamlined wedge of an airplane
with two cylindrical jets running down its sides. The ship had an open-air
cockpit and two leather seats in the back third of the ship. Gold streaks
started at the flat nose and ran down the sides, toward the back, where the
engine exhausts tapered to ovals. The hull was mostly white except the underbelly,
which shone like a glimmering gold plate.
“What is that?” Zack stammered.
Grandfather smiled at Zack, his face as bright in this light as
his attire. Zack could see the excitement of a young boy inside him.
“That, my boy, is the world’s first Onyx Sun-powered airplane. I
call it the Onyx Airstrider. It can go faster and farther than any aircraft in
the world, and it never needs refueling,” Grandfather said, smiling at the ship
like a proud father.
Zack took a closer look at the ship and noticed the engines
looked familiar.
“Wait a second. The jets on this thing look just like the one
that landed on my dad’s bushes!”
Grandfather looked taken aback and said “Ah yes. Quite sorry
about that. I’m afraid an engine fell off during my first supersonic flight test
yesterday. I know he loved those roses. Pity.”
The boy inside Grandfather disappeared, as a crinkle crossed his
forehead, and he looked at his watch.
“Quickly Zack! We’re late. Into the ship.”
Zack leapt forward, as his grandfather bumbled into the cockpit.
Zack climbed up the short triangular wings, as the engines whirred to life.
Grandfather took a black remote from his pocket with a red button on it. The
button was labeled “Kalamazoo!” He pressed it. Nothing happened.
“Ah!” Fyodor Goodspeed said in frustration and flung the remote
out of the ship. “Wrong one.”
He produced an identical
remote from his suit. He pressed the button, and the ceiling over the ship
split open. Sunlight, treetops, and blue sky appeared above. Grandfather
grabbed the controls, and the white-gold ship rose from the garage. The roof
closed behind them. Zack was now eye-level with the pancake roof of
Grandfather’s house. To his right, he could see a neighbor mowing his lawn,
oblivious to the rising airship just fifty yards away. The man mowed along,
back and forth, whistling as he went. To him, it was just another normal day.
“Here, put these on,” said Grandfather, handing Zack a pair of
goggles. Zack put them on.
“One little Onyx Sun, my
first one, powers this entire ship,” said Grandfather. “With its power alone I
can produce enough stable energy to levitate the ship, using atomic repulsion.
The engines on the side are for back and forward motion, like this!”
The ship shot forward. They accelerated so quickly Zack felt
like a gigantic hand was pressing him back in his seat. Wind ripped through his
hair and his eyes watered even with the goggles on. The airship blistered past
neighborhood houses and climbed into the sky. The experience was soundless
except for the rush of air. There was no jet engine noise though, like Zack
remembered from his trips on airplanes.
Fyodor dodged a flock of geese and the ship veered sharply left.
Zack could see his school fly by and his team’s baseball field. They ripped by
the town hall and several churches. People entering a church looked up as they
sensed something streak by, but the ship was already gone. They crossed
themselves and stepped inside the church.
“Wow!” Zack shouted over the wind.
“Not a bad way to travel,
huh?” Grandfather said, winking at him.
“What about the engines? Are
they going to fall off again?”
“Probably not,” Grandfather
shouted over the wind. “But who knows? Won’t it be exciting to find out!”
Zack swallowed hard. He felt
torn between excitement and sheer terror. Suddenly, breakfast with his parents
sounded more appealing than spiraling out of control in a one-engine
experimental plane.
The distant horizon quickly became the ground under the ship.
Zack could make out the flat mass of the shopping mall butting against dense
neighborhoods ahead. Grandfather slowed the ship. The parking lot was packed
with cars, but Zack couldn’t see any people. They must all be inside, he
thought.
Grandfather found an empty parking space between two SUVs. As
the airship hovered to a landing, both car alarms went off.
“Whoops! Not too subtle,” Grandfather laughed. “Now, remember
Zack: not a word to anyone. Our secret.”
“Can I ride in the Airstrider again?”
“As long as the secret stays ours, you can get a ride anytime
you want.”
“Deal!” said Zack. He jumped out of the cockpit, slid down the
wings, and ran toward the mall.
“Zack!” shouted Grandfather, as the airship took off. “Catch!”
A white baseball fell to earth. Zack caught it mid-stride. He
noticed it had “Goodspeed” written on the side in marker. Grandfather smiled
and said, “So your parents don’t get suspicious!” He waved to Zack and the Onyx
Airstrider shot off.
Mrs. Goodspeed waited outside the mall’s main entrance.
“And where have you been? Your father is already inside,” she
said.
“Playing baseball,” said Zack showing the baseball to his mother
as he ran past. “With Grandfather.”
“With no glove?”
“Ah, well, we don’t throw very hard.”
Mrs. Goodspeed looked around the parking lot and saw nothing but
parked cars and a white-gold streak racing through the sky. She blinked and
looked again. The streak was gone.
She shook her head and went inside the mall. Seconds later, she
had already forgotten what she had almost seen.
