Avi's+Story

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 * __ Follow the Sun __**

__Prologue__
“We are now streaming video from the launch of project Helio, a revolutionary step towards stopping world hunger and global warming by allowing the world to have a perfect, mild temperature year-round all over the globe. We now hand it over to our Russian correspondents.” the news reporter said with a broad grin plastered on her face. “Hello,” began the Russian correspondent with a thick accent. “This historic date, September 9th 2011 marks the start of project Helio. Helio consists of transparent panels set in the sky all over the world. In summer, they store excess heat that will be used in the winter so it is not so cold.” He said with just as much enthusiasm as the American news reporter. A clip was then played of Dr. Ivana Petrov, the scientist behind Helio speaking, her face absolutely glowing with pleasure. She was launching into an explanation of how the project was going help the Earth. “During the summer, crops wither away and most work is not possible in the sweltering heat. In winter, crops cannot grow, food shortages occur, and most work is not possible in the frigid cold. That is why I’ve came up with the revolutionary idea of invisible panels which would cover the world. In summer, excess heat will be stored in the panels and in the winter, that excess heat would be used to keep the climate at a comfortable temperature all year round. Now need to worry about global warming anymore! Now, without further adieu, I present to you Helio!” She finished as she flourished a control pad from her pocket. “10…9…8…7…6…..” The audience surrounding her and the audience at home began counting down. “5…4…3…2…1” Dr. Petrov pressed the button. The panels became visible to illustrate how they would reflect the sun’s rays. People around the world gazed up at the sky to see the panels. They had been set up at dawn, ready to catch the summer rays in the northern hemisphere and vie versa in the southern hemisphere. Dr. Petrov’s smile looked like she found the cure for all cancers, won the lottery, and received the Nobel Prize all at the same time. As the first tendrils of sunlight reached the earth, they were not absorbed in the panels as intended. Dr. Petrov’s mouth was agape with incredulity and was absolutely nonplussed at the situation. After a few seconds, more rays hit the panels and continued to linger there, not being absorbed. Then as fast as lightning in fast forward mode, the solar rays were projected back at the sun. Dr. Petrov started panicking; the tests she had run gave no indication that the rays would be reflected off of the panels and back at the sun. When she realized what would happen when they would reach the sun, she fainted; but nobody was there to catch her as all heads stared at the sun. The first of the rays hit the sun, lighting the corona a poisonous, fiery red. Gradually as more rays hit the sun, the entire sun became that same color. Prominences and solar flares were aplenty. After two minutes, the sun had turned a dangerous white hot and had swelled up into an impossibly big size. And suddenly... the sun was gone. It had collapsed with a deafening boom. The world was only lighted by white hot swirls of hydrogen left from the explosion. The idea had not sunk in yet: The sun was gone; human’s entire means of existence had gone up in smoke like a bad magic trick they were //all// going to die.

__Chapter 1__
“And this is the exact lab used to simulate project Helio from three years which we know, has been a quite catastrophic disaster.” droned the NASA tour guide, his monotonous tone showed almost the same level of boredom as the students from a nearby school had. “Now if you will follow me, we will enter our future projects section.” “Oh goody, honestly, I would rather be back in science class testing if the artificial sunlight can grow food than be here. This is taking forever!” Exclaimed Kathy, waiting for me to finish reading one of the posters on the wall. I had to agree with her, ever since the sun was destroyed, NASA had been working overtime, trying to find a way to bring it back or at least find some way to grow plants. Nothing had grown for three years. There was no grass, flowers, or trees outside. It seemed as if an artist painted the world with only gray. The lack of plants created a large gap in the food pyramid. First the plants died, then the herbivores died, and unfortunately it would not be too long until omnivores like humans died out too. The American government did have an emergency supply of food in case a natural disaster occurred to sustain the people for about a year until the food flow could resume but they had not counted on the sun disappearing and there not being any possible way for the food flow to resume. It seemed as if the entire world had been paused. Wars stopped being fought, economic conflicts did not seem to matter, the only thing that still existed was school and a few lingering remnants of a once functioning government. “Weird huh, when I imagined the world without war, I did not think of it being so dark, and missing a sun.” I murmured. “Oh come on already, we need to catch up with Lily!” Kathy cried out, dragging me along the corridor to where the rest of the people were. But as I was being dragged along the corridor, I noticed a piece of blue paper lying outside the door of the old Helio lab. Curiously, I picked it up. It said it was “COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL- PROJECT POSTPONED UNTIL 2017.” I flipped it over and gazed suspiciously at what appeared to be a blueprint for a device which was labeled as a time machine designed by none other than the infamous Ivana Petrov. I looked around, trying to spot whoever dropped it but no one was there. I pocketed it, not believing that anyone would be crazy enough to even try to build a time machine.

__Chapter 2__
//From the Personal Diary of Dr. Ivana Petrov// //9/2/2011// //My time at NASA is almost over. I’ve been here for about a month now doing last minute tests on project Helio to make sure everything will run smoothly next week. We’ve run over a million tests and all have given the expected results except for one test I personally conducted. In the testing, I used a ray of sunlight and a small part of one of the solar panels to simulate what would happen when Helio is launched in a week. What was odd is that the small amount of sunlight did not get absorbed into the panels according to its temperature. My results do not suggest what happened to the ray of sunlight but I think it might be possible that the ray might have been projected back at the sun. Of course with such a small amount, it was not possible to see if it was indeed projected back at the sun and caused any problems. I chose to ignore this for far more professional equipment was used many times to see if it would work and the results showed that the panels were functioning properly as planned. I probably just did not get the right ratio of the area of the panel to the amount of sunlight in my personal experiment.//

// In other news, I have been working on a personal side-project; a time machine. As a child, I loved H.G. Wells’ story The Time Machine. I was thinking about the concept of a time machine when something clicked in my head. I asked some colleagues of mine back in Russia who were experts in the field of black holes and the theory of relativity if time travel was indeed possible. They showed me some calculations they had been working on to try to build a time machine. The calculations showed that it was possible to build a time machine from a strong electromagnetic field that could be generated from a common computer and a strong electromagnet. The computer would cause a strong electric current that when it combines with the electromagnet, would create the same kind of gravitational field in a black hole except on a smaller scale, just large enough to transport a certain number of people back up to 24 hours per use. Their problem was that they couldn’t create the computer program that would cause the computer to create the strong electric current that was required. I looked at the series of letters, numbers, and symbols that they had come up with so far for the program. I may have been a great astrophysicist, but even I could not figure it out. I made some minor modifications to their blueprint for the time machine and left it in the lab at NASA, hoping that one day someone would find it and would be able to figure it out. //

__Chapter 3__
I could not help looking at him. As I was sitting at my desk in math, I could not help looking at him and smiling on the inside. For some reason, I could not get him out of my head. His voice, his laughter, his chocolate-colored eyes, was all implanted in my brain. If only I could tell him… “Gwen…Gwen…Gwendolyn!” began Lily, waving her hand in front of my face. “Huh?” I said with a confused expression on my face. “Sorry, spacing out again. What were we talking about?” I really needed to start listening more in my classes. “You didn’t just hear the bell ring?” she asked staring at me with a puzzled look on her face. I wished I could have told her why I was spacing out but I kept that secret to myself, some things are just too personal to share even with friends. I gathered up my stuff and headed downstairs to science, my least favorite class. Sometimes, I just did not get anything that the teacher said. I entered the classroom and took a seat at my assigned table. I hated my seat since I was surrounded by three idiots who mooched off of my work. Sighing I took out my homework while willing the clock to move faster so that school would just end. The teacher walked in, looking tired after a long day of unruly 9th grade classes. “Class, today I will be telling you about the district science fair. Now as you all probably know, this science fair is held every year to recognize the fine scientific achievements of students in our district. I am now passing around the entry sheets.” she said while passing around a large sheaf of papers. “As you can see, this year’s theme is to find a way to help improve life in general after this current environmental disaster.” she gestured toward one of the windows, the outside dimly lit by the artificial sunlight. I groaned, I hated when people referred to the destruction of the sun as a “current environmental disaster”. First off, there had been no sun for three years, it was not the most current of catastrophes and secondly, it was not an environmental disaster, it was a man-made disaster. I silently cursed Ivana Petrov in my head. Why did she have to invent stupid Helio? True, global warming was getting really bad but I would rather line in a world full of green house gases than live in a world with no sun. As I was thinking about Dr. Petrov, I realized something; wasn’t she the one who designed that time machine whose blueprint I had pocketed back at NASA? I realized that I was wearing the same jeans as that day and searched for the small folded up blueprint while Ms. Davis rattled on and on about when she won the science fair at least 500 years ago when she was our age. After pulling out a stick of gum, a ponytail holder, and a candy wrapper from my pocket, I withdrew the blueprint. I started unfolding it and I realized two things. First, the thing in my hands could very well save mankind from dying of starvation. Second, I was going to be a shoe-in for the winner in the science fair because my experiment was simple, build this time machine and go back three years, back when there was sunlight, warmth, and more food.

__Chapter 4__
I could not stop thinking about the time machine. My hopes were way too high. I suddenly remembered how great the sun was, how it made you feel warm all over, and how it made things seem better. It was so ironic since before he sun was destroyed, I hated it but now I was the one who was willing to put her heart and soul into getting it back. I was so excited about my plan that I even started whistling my favorite Beatles song, “Here Comes the Sun” while walking home. “Hi mom!” I called out as I walked in, setting my backpack and books down on the couch. My mom came out of her room to greet. “How was school today?” she asked with a smile on her face. I noticed that her eyes were missing the luster that they used to have. Lately, she had been worrying about food shortages after the government decreased the rations. Sometimes, she would wake up from horrible nightmares and although I would try to comfort her, I could not erase her worries about food shortages. That is why I needed to get that time machine to work. “It was great Ma.” I told her all about what we learned today hoping that she would be happier to know that I as doing well in school. “Well, I’ve got to start on my homework. I’ve got a big science project to work on.” I headed to my room when my stomach grumbled. I had been hungry all day. I remembered back when I used to be able to come home from school and eat a snack and feel happy and full. Now, I was hungry most of the time. Once, before I heard of the rations, I told my mom I was hungry and if I could have a snack. After I said that, she burst into tears because she felt she could not feed me well enough. Even though we were better off than a lot of people, we still did not have a lot of food but my mom and I were getting through it. All of a sudden, I thought of my dad who worked about 200 miles away but used to come home on the weekends. After Helio, my dad was not able to come often because the price of gasoline was raised to $19 a gallon so that most of it could be conserved in case another disaster occurred because of Helio. The sadness made me only more determined to build the time machine. Maybe if it worked and I would be able to restore the sun, I would be able to see my dad frequently again and my mom would not have to worry so much. Once in my room, I took out the blueprint and studied it. I turned on my computer in case I needed to look up something. Thank goodness that the destruction of the sun did not take away electricity or the world would be in an even stickier situation. After carefully analyzing every detail of it, I basically understood how it worked. If I could figure how to program my computer correctly, according to the blue print, all I would need was a strong electromagnet. And I knew just where I could find it.

__Chapter 5__
“Is this what you’re looking for?” Kathy asked while sorting through a large pile of what could only be described as junk. We were in her uncle’s junkyard trying to find the electromagnet needed for the time machine. It was hard to get Kathy’s help but after telling her that she could be my partner for the science fair and would get half of the credit for building the time machine, she agreed. I did not want to share credit with her since //I// found the blueprint and //I// figured out the complicated computer program but she was the only way to get that electromagnet. “Uh Kathy, do you even know what we’re looking for?” I inquired after she started looking through random junk that certainly did not look anything like an electromagnet. “Duh, an electromagnet, whatever that is. I’m not an idiot you know!” she stated after putting her hands on her hips and glaring at me. She held up what looked like a large wire coil. “Is this it?” Oh God, she //was// an idiot. “No it’s not.” I answered. “I’ve shown you about a billion pictures of it! It’s the thingy that is attached to tractors that when it is on, attracts metal stuff. You should know what it looks like since your uncle is using one like right now!” I pointed at her uncle who was sitting in the cab of a tractor that was using an electromagnet to pick up a very battered car. “Oh! Now I know what you’re talking about!” she exclaimed. “Hallelujah.” I muttered under my breath. She led me to the other side of the junkyard where a tractor similar to the one her uncle was using laid battered and broken. “My uncle retired it.” explained Kathy. I nodded my head in agreement. Lying next to it, with wires still attached was the electromagnet. I tried lifting it but it was way too heavy. “There is no way this thing will fit in my room!” I cried out. What were we going to do? The computer was already set up in my room so that all we had to do was connect it to the electromagnet. “Oooh, I’ve got an idea!” she squealed. I was almost scared of what her answer would be. “You know that big old shed that Lily has? We can get my uncle and his guys to move this into the shed. You can set up the computer in there. Problem solved!” I stared at her, my mouth agape. “Kathy, you actually gave a good idea. What next, flying pigs?” “More like Mrs. Davis not giving homework and loving each and every student.” she chuckled. I couldn’t help it and I too started cracking up.