FB4-101 "The Centrifuge"

At once a blurry video-screen appeared and I heard Mr. White's voice speak as well as see his familiar all-face covering mask of a rabbit. "Experiment #TR82 ..." he began to say.

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F U T U R E   B A R R I E R ( The 4th Novel ) Secret Technology, Unrequited Love, Absolute Vengeance © June 2021 - Written by David Wicker Please do not reprint without permission  CHAPTER 101 - "THE CENTRIFUGE" [ CHOOSE A DIFFERENT CHAPTER TO READ ] * * * This chapter is Rated: TEEN Slice Of Life (06-11-21) Hello there: Seems like some things just don't work out well. I'm referring of course to maintenance in some apartments. A few weeks back I saw some water was leaking around the commode. I finally got a guy out to look at it. As far as I could tell he uprooted the toilet 3x, looked, then put it back and said that it was fixed. But not really. Cause after this I started seeing water come up from under the bathroom tiles, not around the toilet itself. I called for maintenance, no-one came. A few days later water started appearing around the tiles in the kitchen. I called for maintenance, once again no-one came. I gave them 2-days grace and called again that the situation was getting worse. They stated they were aware of the problem and would get to me earliest convenience. No-one came. Now as of yesterday I was running a bit of a fever and didn't notice until about 6pm that the carpet leading to the kitchen was soaked. There was no water from the kitchen though that spilled to the carpet. Once again the water was coming directly from underground. Likely a pipe burst or something. So this time I called the emergency maintenance line at 6:15pm. A woman answered, took the information, understood that it was an emergency and ... nothing happened. No-one came. I got up at 10am this morning (06-11-21) and went straight to the office to state what all had happened (or lack thereof). They apologized saying that they had 2 employees to handle maintenance at the moment. I facepalmed, "Your complex is longer than a mile ! And you have only =2= people to handle ALL the maintenance difficulties ?" They nodded their head. Wow. So I asked for a copy of all the times I requested maintenance. They gave me that information minus the call for emergency I made last night. I was just talking with Kay. She was telling me a woman in a different complex had a similar problem, where maintenance just could not get out there. But hers was worse, her whole downstairs flooded and there was thousands of dollars in damage and she sued the complex. I'm hoping it doesn't have to this. I was told to call the office back at 2pm if no-one shows up. The time is currently 11:18am and I haven't received any phone calls or anything regarding confirmation of their arrival. SIGH . . . On a different note I've been looking to other assembly language commands. What with my interest in BrainF I was curious to know how many commands there were in the 6502 which is used for the Apple ][ computer. 56. That surprised me as surely I thought they would use the entire byte to achieve 256, but no, only 56. So now enter the modern X86 our current IBM-pc computers use today. How many machine-language commands do you think it has ? 256 perhaps ? Maybe less ? No. It's a whopping 1503 ! That's a thousand and a half ! That is insane ! For one thing is it means all commands must take 2-bytes minimal, additionally just what the FLIP could you possibly need to require all this ? It's like the book chapter I wrote last night in Dating Wyona: https://www.writerscafe.org/writing/dw817/2777402/ Dad and me were joking that the instruction set on the Apple ][ and IBM-pc were written not so much out of clarity and brilliance as necessity and brevity. And at the time I was doodling making my own system which was literally 4-bits. 4-bits for commands and 4-bits for its operator. A really sweet system, but alas I had never gotten past certain stepping stones with it. . . . I think I'm also running into something interesting - that all older people run into. I can do the coding, I can do the projects I have planned. I know I can. Yet - who am I competing against ? If it's merely myself, is there any point in doing so ? I'll have to rethink a bit of my life I think ... Try to wonder why it's so vitally important for me to be doing what I'm doing. Like working on code like this, my RG-350 IDE, like sawing wood to make a new table. Like building a model ship. I could just chill, as Katy tells me to. Just chill and let life happen. It's not going anywhere, and at times I certainly am not. However, it was 12:16am (midnight) Tuesday (06-08-21) evening, Wednesday morning ? And I've achieved system state. This is the first time I've been able to do this. So I'm competing against myself. Great ideas are thought up every second of every day. It's the rare chance when you actually =DO= something about it, that counts in the world today. Hmm ... . . . So with that let's return back to the last chapter of this book, Future Barrier 4, where Dev, Lilly, Tyr, Janet, Skunk, and now Nikki all search for an exit from the underground establishment of Mr. White. . . . We were all searching for wind blowing from one of the corridors, it was Nikki first who spoke. And when she spoke she trilled her consonants sometimes, I guess as would happen if a real cat were asked to speak. "DDev ! I have ffround the wwrind you are seeking." All of us immediately returned to her spot. Where she expertly flicked up her tail to hold motionless in the air. We were all quiet to see that there was indeed a small gust of air blowing against the tip of it. "Well done, Nikki !" I told her. She responded by eagerly rubbing up against me. Janet scowled. I could see this might be a problem later - but for now, we had found the way out ! We all went down the completely black corridor until we were suddenly tripping over things. I stopped to reach down and feel it was like triangles glued to the floor, made out of some material you couldn't just kick over. Like hard lead figures superglued to the floor. And by the time I got back up it was clear it had separated some of us. "Dev !" I heard Tyr call. "Where are you ?" "I'm right here !" I called back. Then I heard more cursing as apparently they were trying to find their way to me running into more of those hard steel triangles in the floor. I stayed on the floor though, crouched down, feeling the cold metal triangles and tried to continue working towards the direction the wind was coming. "Dev !" Janet yelled, but her voice sounded so far away, like she was 50 feet or more. "Janet ! Guys, follow my voice !" I returned. There was more cursing as they fought to walk across the triangle-ridden floor. "Crawl if need be !" I offered. "Don't keep tripping on these metal things or you're going to get hurt." I couldn't hear anyone now. "Janet ? Nikki ? Skunk !" There was no reply. I stood up for a second realizing the wave of metal triangles had finished in front of me. I stepped back to peer hard into the darkness when a light from above suddenly clicked on via a floorplate switch. I could see now why they couldn't hear me. There was a large metal door in front of me and I was no longer in the cave but some underground corridor next to a room. A few of the metal triangles were even in this narrow passageway. I carefully stepped over them to bang my fists hard against the metal. "Tyr !" I yelled at the top of my lungs hurting my own ears as apparently this room was soundproof and my voice just ricocheted right back to me. "Janet." I said quietly and fell down into a defeated clump. But then I stood back up to instantly look all around the metal wall in front of me, for any switch, anything that could open it again, but there was nothing. Behind me though it was different. There was a door with 101 written in its frame, very dusty, and somehow it looked terribly familiar. "No way." I said. Then I blew around where the lock was on the last door and sure enough it revealed itself. Then I reached into my pocket pulled out the 4-leaf bunny key placing it in the lock. Like before the door slid up and vertically yet I was too fast to retract the key once again. "You can't get out backwards. You got to go forwards to go back." I was trying to remember who had said this. It was some kind of children's show I think, when suddenly I came face to face with a much larger room very well lit. In the center was a classic centrifuge like you might find at NASA. I carefully walked around it to a video console. Beside it was a single video disk with the familiar metal ball in the middle. I picked it up, spun it on my finger for a second like the classic fidget spinners, then placed it inside the player. At once a blurry video-screen appeared and I heard Mr. White's voice speak as well as see his familiar all-face covering mask of a rabbit. "Experiment #TR82. Subject Grant has been placed in the centrifuge." The camera changed suddenly sharper to show there was indeed someone seated inside the centrifuge wearing a kind of protective high-tech suit I guess. Sort of like a spacesuit but considerably more sturdy. Mr. White's voice spoke again and the camera once again showed the outside of the centrifuge. "Now starting at point five G's." The centrifuge kicked to life and started to accelerate quickly going in a smooth clockwise direction. Mr. White spoke, "Inserting main program. Activating fail-safes." So saying I saw a computer console in front of him flicker to life and a percentage meter below started at 1%. The meter started to grow and as it did the centrifuge started spinning faster and faster and the motor got louder and louder ! "5 G's ! Account for stability !" Mr. White yelled. The camera flickered for a second to show the passenger. You could see his face in the suit from an opening at the front. While he grimaced he seemed to be doing okay. I wondered if somehow the suit he was wearing protected him from the massive G force. The meter read 15%. "8 G's !" Mr. White yelled but now for some reason the camera was vibrating, unable to keep a clear picture. A flashing red box suddenly flickered into view and a new alarm started. "Stabilize !" he yelled and pressed a few keys on the keyboard. The vibrations stopped and the meter now read 45%. "White !" Grant's voice came from the centrifuge. White looked up to listen. "I - don't think - I can take much - more of - this !" White responded. "Add to your displacement dampeners another 25% !" The pilot shakily moved one hand to the other and hit a control there to make the suit, well, it was hard to describe, it looked like the suit and the pilot in it were now in 2-different locations. "Better !" he yelled back, but now you could hear 2 of his voices. My face paled at what kind of weird technology this must be but I continued to watch the video, interested to see where and how it would end. White hit a button to continue the program and then announced gleefully, "10 Gs ! How are you feeling, Grant ?" "Aa wwaallkk iinn tthhee ppaarrkk !" he spoke back with a weird double trill. "Exceeding past safety threshold !" White said and looking at the screen several times, finally pressed a single key on the keyboard. the period. * * * The centrifuge now started to create an unearthly sound and - I guess it exceeded 10 G's, I didn't really know how fast it was going. "Can you hear me, Grant ?" White asked above the roar. There was something but it was unintelligible. The meter read 65%. White returned to press a few more buttons and I guess the centrifuge went even faster. It was really creepy to watch. As the video recorded 30fps it seemed now as if the centrifuge was traveling backwards, and very slowly at that. And as it did so a strange purple light appeared in front of it, as if this light were somehow propelling it, but backwards. "Final. Entry. Code." White said, struggling with something, I didn't know what as he was nowhere near the centrifuge for it affect him. He did so and then the centrifuge VANISHED at 85% ! It completely vanished from sight and to replace it a few seconds later was this beautiful ring of light for the centrifuge's course. Absolutely wonderful rainbows and sparkles and glittering, very soft and gentle, not at all the incredible speed the pod must surely be traveling now. Yet through all this incredible light show there was no sign of Grant anywhere in the window. The meter had completed at 100%. White watched with obvious interest. Then steam and sparks started to appear where White was. "Overheating." I heard White explain to himself. "Shutting down." He quickly tapped the ESCAPE key answering a query did he really want to stop the simulation. He did. Then the pretty rainbow exploded throughout the room finally showing a shaky centrifuge with a jagged purple light behind it, slowing to show two centrifuge, three, four, then a blur, then finally to a dead stop. Mr. White adjusted the recording camera to show the screen. MATTER SCOOP SUCCESSFUL PARTS PER TRILLION 34 Antimatter 17 Strange matter 12 Black matter 6 White matter 3 TAU energy wavelets RECORDED AND STORED White literally hopped down from the control deck to go to the centrifuge which was ablaze despite not moving now. He went to take a fire extinguisher and doused it down. He then opened it up to find - nothing. No trace of Grant or his suit. And he didn't disintegrate or anything, he just - wasn't there. Then White shockingly faced the camera, "You see ? It works ! If a body in motion reaches a certain speed in a circular direction of a particular radius, it frees them ! They are free ! Anyone can be -" Suddenly the video-clicked EJECT and ended abruptly with the tip of the video disk sticking out. Just then my tummy rumbled hungry for food. I took a little time out to investigate. There was absolutely no way out nor, more importantly, snack or vending machines nor kitchen. The one metal chair I found I took and banged on the only exit to the place and realized that door had to have been several feet thick. I was crying now, upset about what to do in this situation. I would die of starvation and thirst here ! With nothing better to do I decided to check out the capsule in the centrifuge. Strangely it looked to be of a completely different design to the one showed in the video. I looked inside and there was a comfortable chair. But more importantly there were 3-buttons marked, "Breakfast," "Lunch," and "Dinner." I sat in the chair and pressed the Breakfast button. A fair-sized all grain and nut granola bar spat out the front of it along with a hot cup of coffee from a lower dispenser. I greedily ate the bar down and enjoyed the coffee despite it being unsweetened and black. Oh man did that hit the spot ! I pressed the Breakfast button again for another round but then a computer voice chirped up. "Breakfast has already been served." So I pressed the Dinner button. The same computer voice this time said, "You cannot have Dinner before Breakfast." Growling I finally hit the Lunch button. The voice spoke, "It is not yet lunchtime." I kicked open the door angrily and looked around. If I had a screwdriver I might be able to get at the granola bars from under the front of the chassis. So feeling a bit better finally having had some food and drink I looked around. But no, this place was not only empty but sterile as well. I couldn't find a single particle of dust on either the floors, walls, or doors. The computer console where Mr. White was sitting earlier was not there. I fingered around the place it was and saw there were connectors for it. So he must've taken the computer with him when he finished his experiments here. I checked everything more thoroughly, much like a blind mouse trying to find his way out of a maze, but to no avail. All I could find was a small and rude bathroom that held a sink with running water, so I wouldn't die of thirst anyway. That, a working toilet with paper, and - I was back to the centrifuge room. I looked at my own Captain Circumference watch and saw it was noon. Maybe now that infernal computer would give me something good to eat. I went back to the pod and without sitting this time pressed LUNCH. The computer spoke, "Pilot must be seated to initiate this sequence." Wow whoever designed this computer I'd like to ... grrr ... I sat back down and pressed LUNCH, the computer spoke but what it said - with apologies to Far Out Space Nuts. "Launch !" "What !? I said LUNCH not LAUNCH !" "Launch commenced !" the computer insisted retracting the keyboard and showing me only a metal plate now in addition to slamming shut and locking the door to the pod. Then the thing started slow to spin. Oh crap ! If I didn't have that protective gear Grant wore earlier I would surely die ! Now I kicked on the door, I knew I'd hurt myself badly jumping out of this crate while it was moving but what else could I do ? But no the whole pod itself was made out of a super strong alloy and I couldn't so much as put a dent in it even with my strongest kicks ! "Open the door !" I yelled hoping the computer would listen as the G pressure started to increase. "Negative." it replied soullessly. "Program #TR82 commences - now !" END OF CHAPTER 101 THE END ... ? END OF BOOK 4. THERE WILL BE A BRIEF INTERMISSION AND I WILL THEN RETURN TO START BOOK 5. Return back HOME You are Earth Visitor #

Reviews

[Kari Rakitan]

Yikes, that water situation sucks! I've seen a few articles pushing the idea that it is better to rent than to buy. I strongly disagree. Sure you have to look up someone to repair things and pay for your own repairs, but if the first person you call doesn't have an opening, you can try someone else.

That food dispenser is so annoying! It makes me hungry. Good thing Husband is making lunch!

[dw817]

>> Yikes, that water situation sucks!

Indeed it does, Kari.

>> I've seen a few articles pushing the idea that it is better to rent than to buy. I strongly disagree. Sure you have to look up someone to repair things and pay for your own repairs, but if the first person you call doesn't have an opening, you can try someone else.

My problem is I've never been a homeowner or landowner so I don't know anything else other than what I've had.

>> That food dispenser is so annoying! It makes me hungry. Good thing Husband is making lunch!

Just hope it isn't tasteless protein granola bars like poor Dev got.

And YES ! This concludes the 4th book. The 5th book will be started July 06-06-21. Does Dev get teleported to where the first pilot went or ... something else ? Remains to be seen. :)

[Kari Rakitan]

Looking forward to it!