Orders of Magnitude (The Genie and the Engineer Series Book 2) (40 page)

“Oh, I think you are right,” she admitted. “I guess it’s
been too long since I’ve seen that movie.”

Paul waved an arm and a holographic hundred fifty foot white
circular ring appeared, lying horizontally. The rim of the ring was maybe eight
inches wide and two inches tall. In some spots, the ring nearly touched the
rocky ground but in other locations, it was six feet above the ground.

“That’s level?” Capie asked.

“The circle is, yes. I’m tempted to level the top of the
summit here to match but that would be an act of desecration. I might be able
to put it back the way it was and then again, I might not. Better to leave well
enough alone. Besides, this will work just as well, I think.”

“I agree,” Daneel concurred, floating through the air toward
the center of the summit.

“The breeze is picking up,” Capie noticed. “I bet it gets
pretty windy up here sometimes.”

Paul waved his hand again, moving the circular ring, the
edge of it moving through and past them until they were just inside one edge of
it.

“The wind is getting stronger,” Capie said, pointing at the
grass. “But funny thing, I can’t feel it anymore, not since you moved the ring.”

Paul looked at the blades of grass outside the ring. They
were lying flat, pushed over by a really stiff wind. But Capie was right. He
could no longer feel the wind from his position inside its circumference.

“Interesting effect,” Daneel said, his face reflecting his
puzzlement.

“It didn’t do this when I created my first talisman,” Paul
remarked, his brow furrowed.

With another wave of his hand, a huge hexagram appeared, the
apexes of which nearly touched the white ring. The hexagram was of the same
white light, its lines also eight inches wide and two thick. Another spell
rotated the hexagram until one apex lined up where they were standing.

“A hexagram?” Capie asked. “I thought you used a pentacle
when you made the first talisman.”

“That’s what I thought too,” Daneel added.

Paul nodded. “That’s very observant of both of you. Yes, I
did use a pentacle. This is one of those new things I want to try. You see, it
occurred to me that maybe the wizards of
Errabêlu
have missed a bet
along the way.”

Capie appeared pensive. “You mean besides the isotopes? What
else do you think they missed?”

“Well, do you remember you once asked me why rocks from
space were different from Earth rocks even if they were made of the same
elements?”

“I asked that question too,” Daneel said, with a smirk.

She nodded, giving Daneel a knowing smile. “Yes, I remember
asking that. Do you know the answer now?”

Frowning, Paul shrugged. “No, I still don’t. But it got me
to thinking. If Earth rocks have a different property from space rocks, then
there might be something else that could be used in the creation of a chutzpah,
to make it even more potent.”

“Something else? What else is there if not Earth rocks or
rocks from space?”

Paul looked straight up and slightly to the west.

She followed his gaze and blanched. Daneel whistled in
appreciation.

“Wow, Dad! Brilliant!”

“The
SUN
!? You are going to include the
Sun
when you make the chutzpah? Are you crazy?”

“Only a very tiny part of it,” Paul replied, a little
pleased that she had guessed the right answer so quickly. And, of course, he
was playing the part of a tease again. “And I will enclose it inside a special
force field. That’s why I needed a really big rock, Capie. I need the power to
be able to reach all the way to the Sun and draw a small fragment of its mass,
and I also need the power to enclose it in a force field, to prevent its escape
until the chutzpah is created.”

She stared at him in disbelief.

“That sounds…crazy!”

“Fab-flipping-tastic, I say!” Daneel said, with a huge grin.
“Best old man on the planet, my dad!”

Paul smiled. “‘No one
ever
listens to Zathras. Quite
mad, they say. It is good that Zathras does not mind. Has even grown to like
it, oh yes.’”

She blinked twice. “Zathras again of
Babylon 5
. If
you’re not careful, I am going to start calling you Zathras Junior.”

“It’s a very appropriate quote, I think. But anyway, is it
any crazier than the rest of all this?” Paul asked, knowing the only answer she
could give, under the circumstances.

Capie’s mouth worked opened and closed. Finally, she
replied, “No, I guess not. But really! You are much crazier than I thought.”

He grinned. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“You should, Dad,” Daneel said, laughing.

Capie shook her head, then stopped. “Hey, where did all the
clouds come from?”

Paul glanced skyward. True enough, there were now a lot of
clouds around. He could have sworn that the sky was cloudless when they first
arrived. Even now, it appeared that the clouds were growing larger.

“That’s eerie,” Daneel said, with a frown. “Like that
episode of
Star Trek,
“The Apple,” when the clouds gathered and
lightning killed another red shirt.”

“Yes, sort of like that,” Paul agreed thoughtfully. “Well,
let’s see what happens when I do this.”

With a wave of his hand, six virtual reality, large sound speakers
appeared, one at each apex of the hexagram. One such speaker was directly over
their heads.

“The speakers are for the ceremony music, I gather,” Capie
said. “Oh, look at the clouds now!”

As they watched, the clouds quickly went from a dark gray to
a deep purple. Suddenly there was no more blue sky visible, just one huge angry
storm cloud stretching from horizon to horizon.

“What is going on here?” Capie asked. “Are we really causing
this?”

“I don’t know what’s happening,” Paul grudgingly admitted. “But
this won’t take long. Maybe we can finish before it gets too weird up here.”

Paul sat down on the ground. From this point onward, he
would need to draw on the power of Devils Tower and not an Oni talisman. He
unlaced his shoes and popped them off.

“What are you doing, Paul?” Capie asked, tilting her head to
one side.

As he stripped off his socks and wiggled his toes, Paul
replied, “In order to maintain constant skin contact with the rocky ground, the
best way is to go barefoot.”

“That’s going to hurt,” she pointed out.

“I can use a spell to make my feet tougher,” he countered,
as he stood up again.

Pointing at each isotropically enhanced object, he sent each
to fly to an apex of the hexagram, where they hovered gently in mid-air. First
the tantalum to the first apex to their left, then the emerald to the second,
the pallasite to the third, and the komatiite to the fourth. With themselves at
the sixth apex, that left only the fifth apex empty.

A lightning bolt blasted across the sky, startling them.
Rain began to fall in sheets.

“Here comes the storm!” yelled Daneel.

The rain was falling all around them. None of it touched
them.

“I’m not getting wet,” Capie said, both surprised and
mystified.

“Me either.” Paul glanced around. “It’s the circle. Nothing
is getting through the circle except sound and light. It’s keeping everything
else out.”

More lightning blazed through the sky.

“This is just not natural,” Paul stated categorically. “Capie,
I lived all my life in the west and they just don’t have storms like this one
out here. Maybe in a hurricane out in the Atlantic or a typhoon in the Pacific,
but not here. This is definitely our doing, a side effect of the magic we are
creating here.”

“But you said this didn’t happen when you created your first
talisman!” she pointed out.

“No, it didn’t. But this chutzpah will be far stronger than my
old talisman. That might make the difference.”

“What’s next?” Daneel asked.

Paul reached forth with his right hand. “The komatiite rock
represents the rock of the Earth. I want to do more with it than just represent
the Earth. In the name of Gaia, Terra, and Eorthe, let a magical channel open
between the center of the planet and the komatiite rock!”

A column of red light sprang up from the summit of Devils
Tower and enveloped the igneous rock in a holographic ball of fire.

Capie’s jaw dropped in amazement. “Wow!”

Paul pointed to the meteorite. “In the name of Carl Sagan,
Sir Isaac Newton, and Nicolaus Copernicus, let a magical channel open between
deep space and the pallasite meteorite.”

A column of deep blue light formed from the meteorite and stretched
up into the sky, up to the angry storm clouds.

The rain was coming down now in solid sheets, the lightning
blazing across the sky, the thunder a constant loud roar. Hail stones began to
fall, at first small ones, then larger stones. The display of nature’s fury was
staggering.

Deeply troubled by how fast the weather was deteriorating,
Paul said, past the lump in his throat, “In the name of Galileo Galilei, Edwin
Hubble, and Steven Hawking, may a small but immensely strong bubble force field
be formed above the fifth apex and let it contain half an ounce of helium drawn
from the surface layer of the photosphere of the Sun!”

A small translucent globe the size of a soccer ball formed
above the fifth apex. Suddenly a very intense white light emanated from the
globe.

Paul dug two pairs of sunglasses from the back pack and
handed one pair to Capie. She put hers on. He did the same. Daneel created a
set of virtual glasses for himself and put them on too.

“You did it!” Capie shouted, above the noise of the storm. “You
tapped the power of the Sun!”

Paul grinned like an idiot, feeling as if nothing were
beyond his power to make happen. “Yes. Isn’t it great?!”

The ground rumbled beneath them.

“Earthquake?!” Capie yelled. “Oh, my Aunt Gloria,
LOOK
!”

Out over the landscape, they could see a funnel cloud
forming from the sky, reaching down to touch the surface of the earth. It grew
larger.

“Another one!” Daneel yelled.

The Scottie was right. Another one had formed, off to the
right. On a hunch, Paul glanced around at the rest of the sky. There were now
six tornados, each one a mile off an apex of the hexagram.

Paul stared at the skyline, mesmerized by the power being
displayed there. And still, they felt nothing inside the circle.

He shook himself back to reality and reached into his backpack,
pulling out two sets of earplugs. He handed one set to Capie and used the other
pair for his own ears. Daneel put his fingers in his ears.

Stretching forth his right hand, Paul pointed to the speaker
at the first apex.

“Play the theme song from
The Avengers
film! Play it
in a loop!”

The speaker began to blare out that catchy tune.

With a wave at the second speaker, he said, “Play the theme
song from
Star Wars
!”

Another wave. “Let the third speaker play “Protectors of the
Earth” from Two Steps from Hell! Let the fourth speaker play the theme song
from
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
! Let the fifth speaker play the
theme song from
Transformers
! And let the sixth speaker play the theme
song from
Doctor Who
!”

The ground jerked beneath his feet, rattling his teeth.

He looked out over the landscape and gulped in amazement
tinged with a healthy dose of fear. The tornados were huge now, swallowing up
whole sections of the sky. And they were closer too.

Were they going to survive the next step in the process?
Just what kind of chutzpah would this make? Paul knew what his equations said,
but nothing had prepared him for anything remotely like this!

It was time for the words.

Paul reached out with his right hand and grabbed Capie’s
left hand. Capie reached out to grab a corner of Daneel’s titanium frame with
her right hand.

From memory, Paul quoted in a loud voice:

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary
for one people to dissolve the political bands which have made them subservient
to another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal
station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent
respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes
which impel them to the separation.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, Equality and the pursuit of
Happiness.

“We the People
of the Planet Earth, in
Order to establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common
defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to
ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish the right of
self-governance from this time forth forever!”

The tornados now had moved so close that they had merged
together, an impenetrable barrier of wind roaring around Devils Tower in a
never ending circle. The earth shook continuously now; the sky was one solid
sheet of lightning bolts as they tore across the opening at the top of the
funnel cloud around them.

Nervously, Paul waved with his left hand at the items at the
apexes of the hexagram. They began to move forward. Gingerly stepping forward
on his bare feet, he led Capie and Daneel closer to the center of the hexagram.

“Do we really have to do it this way?” she screamed at the
top of her voice, visibly nervous.

Uneasily, Paul nodded.

“A lark in the park!” yelled Daneel.

They slowly moved closer to the center.

At the center, the tantalum, emerald, pallasite, komatiite,
and the Sun sphere began to merge together. Paul reached out with his left
hand, touching the merge point.