Zero 'g' (11 page)

She smiled
. She just
loved smart kids. “Yes?”

“
So
, why didn’t we
fall?”

“
OK, so think about the last time you saw the sun today. It
was in the same place for the past few hours
, which leads me to believe that Earth is no longer
rotating. I believe, Henry, that the rotation of Earth has stopped.
Really, if I’m going to be honest, we may be only seconds away from
Earth losing the last bit of gravity that it has. But anyway, to
answer your question, that’s why we didn’t fall into outer
space.”

Henry nodded before saying, “Yeah
, but then Earth and all the other planets should be
attracted to one another and should collapse because there is no
gravity on Earth.”

Carly thought hard and then smiled
. “Henry, nature has the ability to adjust itself to
new situations. It’s been around a lot longer than humans have. All
this time, nature has been adjusting itself and trying so hard to
protect us. The problem is, we have spent decades destroying the
nature that is supposed to be protecting us. In the name of
development, we have destroyed Earth to the extent that nature can
no longer protect us, but it still has some capacity left to adjust
itself. We as a species are very selfish. We need to wake up and
take this as a lesson that we can’t just go around doing whatever
we want and expect there to be no consequences.”

“
OK
, I think I’m
following you, Carly, but if there is no gravity on Earth, then
shouldn’t Earth be pulled toward the sun by its large amount of
gravity?”

“
Yes
, that’s true, but
if that were the case, then Earth would have been pulled by the sun
a long time ago. There’s no way it would have taken so long. We
would have all been turned to ashes by now. There are just some
parts to this whole experience that we just don’t understand. There
are some other hidden forces going on right now that we still don’t
know about yet. It may be something yet to be discovered, something
that is unknown to humans at this point. That’s possible, right? I
find it hard to believe that we know everything we can about Earth.
I think these unknown forces are preventing Earth from being pulled
by the gravity of the sun.”

“
Yeah
, that makes
sense. You’re right.”

“
We need to focus
,
however, Henry. Don’t ask me any more questions for now, OK? We
don’t have much time left to bring back the gravity.”

Just saying the words chilled Carly to the bone. They had
so little time
, and she
worried that it wasn’t going to be enough time. What if they
failed? Was it going to be a certain death for all of them? She
couldn’t bear the thought of it, and she went cold all
over.

“
I think I got something here
,” Linus called out.

They all surrounded the computer as best they could while
floating
, and Carly and Henry
looked down at the screen to see what Linus was able to
find.

“
What am I looking at
here?” asked Carly.

“
OK
, so what I realized
by doing my search was that the Bermuda Triangle is located at
seventy-seven degrees from this axis.”

“
All right
…meaning
what?” Henry asked.

“
Well
, after checking
out the trajectory of the asteroid, I discovered that while the
Bermuda Triangle is at seventy-seven degrees, the asteroid that we
need for the collision will be passing through the
forty-four-degree line on this axis.”

“
Oh
, no,” said
Henry.

Carly stared at the screen while she formulated her
thoughts. She felt
that they
could still pull it off with just a little creativity. They didn’t
have much choice, really. She didn’t want to die, and she doubted
that anyone else in the room did, either.

“
All right
, boys. So it
looks like we need to get Earth to revolve at seventy-seven
degrees.” She waited and let that sink in for the moment. The room
was filled with silence as each of them was lost in thought.
Finally, Henry was the first to speak.

“
One question there
,
Carly.”

“
Yes?”

“
How is it even humanly possible for us to revolve
Earth to seventy-seven degrees?”
shouted Henry.

She took a deep breath and said, “That’s
easy
, Henry. Earth has hardly
any gravity, so it’s now weightless.”

Chapter
Sixteen

They all surveyed the information that Linus had pulled up
on the screen. It was
amazing
that he was able to just hack the system and find the information
they needed. It was indeed going to be quite a mission. They didn’t
have a lot of time left, and yet they had so much work to do that
it felt overwhelming.

Carly’s
idea was big.
She hoped it wasn’t too big. It terrified her to the bone, but she
had a lot of hope, too. They had come up with something workable;
it really was a good plan. There were three brilliant minds at work
trying to solve a monumental problem, and if they couldn’t do it,
then maybe no one could.

She still wished the other scientists were with them
because more minds were always better in a
crisis
, but she had no idea
where any of them were, and they were running out of time. They did
not have more time left to fix the problem, and yet they were still
discovering how they were going to do that. They had to conduct
research so that no mistakes were made. A mistake could cost them
their lives. If they couldn’t save the world, then she wasn’t sure
if anyone else in the world was trying at all. There was no
indication that anyone anywhere else in the world was helping with
the crisis. She wondered why. Fear could certainly be paralyzing,
but where were the other great minds? She was chilled by the
thought of the time they had. It seemed so short. Could they really
accomplish what they wanted to in such a short amount of time?
Carly gulped hard. They had to. They just had to.

The more she thought about what she had put
together
, however, the more
she felt good about it. Carly was actually getting excited to
implement the plan; it could be the end of all the madness if it
worked. It was certainly daring, and if it didn’t work, they were
all doomed. But she had never felt more confident about something
in her whole life. She thought for sure they could pull it off, and
then the world would be saved. Wouldn’t that be something? One day
she’s mopping up the floors, and the next day she is saving the
world with some new friends of hers. The thought made her smile.
She had certainly come a long way.

Hopefully
, the state
of the world right then would also be a lesson to the government
that things had to be changed. If they managed to save the world,
surely the government would do everything in its power to ensure
that the world took better care of the planet in the future. There
would be no more discovering missions, no more daily rocket
launches. It was so important to help the world now and let it heal
from all the damage they had inflicted on it. Although she hadn’t
been directly involved in any of the missions, she still felt
guilty that she had always been so excited to hear about the
discovery missions that were being conducted. She had always longed
to be on one. Yet those missions had destroyed Earth and hurt so
many people. They had caused their own Armageddon, and they were
darn close to causing their own extinction. The thought was
downright frightening. Carly knew that there had always been a
reason for the mission—they were trying to discover an energy
source to keep Earth out of danger—but by doing so they had brought
on that very danger.

Those days would be behind them now
, however; they needed to focus on repairing Earth and
restoring it to a healthy balance. That was what was most
important, and hopefully the government would be wise to that
truth. But it wouldn’t be the first time she would be surprised to
see the government fail the human race. She imagined at this point
that the human race would fight back if it came down to putting the
planet in danger once again. She knew she would certainly have
something to say if the government tried to go back to its selfish
ways. Her thoughts were broken by Linus’s voice.

“
Are you OK
,
Carly?”

She smiled
. “Yes, of
course. Just have a lot on my mind.”

He chuckled
. “Yeah, no
kidding. I can’t blame you.”

She grinned
. “Yes, I
guess so. I’m so thankful that you guys are here to help me. I have
never met two brighter guys than you. Thank you so much. I hope
this is all going to work.”

“
Your plan makes sense
,
Carly. Right now, I can’t find any holes in your plan, either, so
how could it go wrong?”

“
Well
, we are dealing
with forces that we don’t have any control over: Earth, the
asteroid, and gravity. We have no idea what’s going to happen once
we set everything in motion. We have a theory about what we think
will happen, but with forces that are so strong, the result could
be unpredictable.”

He nodded, looking a bit worried
himself.

“
So
, what do you think,
Linus?” Carly asked.

“
Yeah
, so now we are
back at square one discussing the plan. I know you don’t like it,
Henry, but her plan is what makes sense right now. We have to do
it.”

“
Yeah, I know. I understand the risks. I’m
in
,” Henry said.

Linus nodded
. “At this
point, given how much time we have, it’s the only way to restore
gravity to Earth.”

“
Henry
, is Mars closer
to Earth?” Carly asked.

Henry checked some calculations and said, “It
is
, but it won’t be closer for
more than twenty-seven minutes.”

“
OK
, I think I have an
idea.” She looked at Linus. “Would it be possible to make an
artificial magnetic field that circles Earth?”

Linus
thought for
several minutes before he nodded. “Yeah, I think it would be
possible.”

Chapter
Seventeen

Carly started talking rapidly
, as the thoughts were just pouring through her mind. She
was confident she had it all figured out now.

“
OK
, so once we
accomplish that, we just need to get Mars’s magnetic poles matched
up with Earth’s artificially created magnetic poles. If we are able
to accomplish that, then at that point, Earth would be repelled,
thus changing the angle of Earth. Are you following me
here?”

B
oth nodded and waited
for her to finish.

“
Now
, if we succeed
there, then we could use the Bermuda Triangle as sort of a giant
magnet and basically pull the asteroid to Earth.”

The smiles on the boy’s faces told
Carly that she was on the right track.

Linus said, “Well
, for
that to be possible, we would have to use the resources here in our
moon environment.”

“
Look
, guys, let me
remind you that the current situation that we have is
unsustainable. This is absolutely the only chance we have to save
the planet. We really need to make this perfect and make sure there
are no mistakes.”

“
You’re right
,” Henry
said.

“
OK
, I will get to work
right away on creating the magnetic rings. I will do it as fast as
I can.”

Linus knew that it was a good idea
. There was no denying that Carly was smart; he had a
lot of respect for her, and he was happy that she was on their
team. After Carly had given them the idea of making Earth’s
artificial magnetic field, Linus had to think for some time and
determine what he needed to make it happen. He then went floating
away from the others to the opposite side of the house in search of
the objects he would need to create the rings. He floated his way
down to the basement, which was no easy task. He managed to find
some steel and a very long copper wire. He put everything under his
arm and made his way back up to the room where his friends were.
They were elated to see his discoveries, and he started right away
to build what Carly asked for.

Both Henry and Carly sat there and watched as Linus worked
his magic. Carly was confident that with her idea in the
works
, Earth was going to get
back its gravity. She did have one fear, however; she feared that
all the people who were outside floating would eventually die
because they were all going to fall on the ground with full force
once gravity was back. The thought actually sickened her. She
didn’t want to be the cause of more deaths, but she didn’t have any
other choice. What was worse was the thought that Rose and Annette
might also be outside floating around. Could she possibly end up
killing her own family? She couldn’t bear the thought, but she
couldn’t give up the chance of saving the world because she hoped
that her plan would save them, too. So, Carly wanted to do
something about that possibility and decided to share her fear with
the two boys.