Two men walked briskly up a gentle winding walkway from the lower parking lot to the side entrance of Cook County Hospital. The sound of their steps in the cool evening air was punctured by a passing ambulance's wail. The automatic doors parted for them and they entered the building, crossing to an elevator.
"Why don't we go to the university and talk to a physicist?", Ander asked.
"Trust me Carl, this guy will put it in words we can understand", Victor assured him without taking his eyes off the decrementing led counter. After a quiet bong, composed primarily of 360.2 Hz, with a little 559.5 Hz on the side, the elevator doors parted and Victor led them out and to the left. They approached a door with writing stenciled onto smoked glass, 'Dr. R. H. Talbhum - Cook County Coroner'. Inside, they found a thin balding man in his late forties with wire rimmed glases. Around him lay textbooks and xeroxed journal articles stacked in a haphazard fasion.
"Vic! How the hell have you been?", the coroner came to life.
"Good, I'd like you to meet Carlyle Meadows, my new partner", Vic said shooting a knowing look at Ander.
"Hello, Dr. Talbhum, it is good to meet you.", Ander offered his hand.
"Talbhum? That's my dad. I'm Reg, well Reginald really"
The two men shook hands, then each of them moved to sit down. Ander and Victor each had to move a pile of papers from their chairs.
"What can I do for you *Inspecteur*?", Reg began, throwing a poor frech accent into the mix.
"Well, Reg, we've been travelling, and we don't get this quadropole drive thing?"
"The quadropole drive, right, well it is really misnamed, because the quadropole is really just a way of making an efficient electric motor. The whole thing is a battery technology really, they've just found that instead of storing current as separated charge, they can store precursors for the four fundamentals and let them combine slowly and with the spark, make two dipoles, or really with the timing of the thing a quadropole, that will drive an electric motor. All new automobiles are set for this and they come with a battery that will last between eight and ten years of driving time, or more than the useful lifetime of the car. It is quite revolutionary."
"You lost me", Ander interrupted, "What was that about the four fundamental somethings?"
"Oh, boy you guys really were travelling. Rembember the mini nova? Well, some guys were doing sub atomic physics tests in Texas. The RF pulse that solar event put out interefered some how with their test and they cleaved a Tau Neutrino into these four 'fundamental' particles, a heart, a spade, a diamond, and a club. They found the experiment to be reproducable as long as they generated the same conditions. They started busting other things into these fundamentals. The mathematics that has everyone in an uproar now explains all this, but only if a ten dimentional physics model is used. This still has skeptics going nuts, since this system leaves two dimentions undefined, but the acceptors believe this is an improvement, since in the old 'model', three dimentions were, undefined."
"Wait a second, what do you mean two dimentions are undefined?", Victor leaned forward, "How can they use that to explain something?"
"Oh, they've done that for years. That is how they find these little particles. They assume that matter exists within these hyperdimentions, then by goofing around with formulas they predict different kinds of particles"
"I thought earth physics was based on the proton, electron and the neutron making up atoms?", Victor said.
"Earth physics? Yeah, here and everywhere, but that old model is, was too big even itself. These other subatomic particles can only be made under special circumstances and they don't last long, less than a femtosecond. You see, now, with this ten dimentional physics model, you have the three dimentions that we know and understand, up down, left right and forward back, right? Add to those a dimention for time. Then toss in the four fundamentals and you're there."
"That's only eight", Ander observed.
"Right, they need ten to explain everything that happens, from black holes, and electrostatic attraction to the printing press. They need the extra degrees of freedom. Maybe their math sucks, maybe there are more, I don't know."
"Ok, you said these 'batteries' stored 'pre' something for making the engine work", Victor querried.
"Yeah, the 'battery' stores 'precursor' for the fundamental particle. When the precursor is released from the bottle, ok battery, it is scotted along into a 'mixer' of sorts, that also regulates the flow. Then it is combined with the antiparticle and in the annihilation, enough energy is created to send the electron from an anode hell bent in the opposite direction from the coordinating vector. The thing is, that this won't happen unless the other two types of fundamental are shot off at the same time in the same area but at nintey degrees. I think diamond wipes out clubs and heart wipes out spade. At least that is what they call it."
"How are these 'precursor batteries' made?"
"Ah, the only problem." The coroner removed his glasses and wiped them with a hankerchief. "To make the precursor, a high energy source is required. The only one we currently make these batteries with is nuclear power. Also, the four batteries have to be made at the same time. The only good news is that is only takes about five seconds of directed energy to make a matched set. The should be commercially availble for about $200 for a set. Nevertheless, there are groups of people who are protesting the idea on the grounds of the nuclear aspect, but most swallow that potatoe when the figure out that his will mean no more carbon monoxide, CO2 and smog emissions. The gas companies are pissed as hell, but that's progress. Now they are coming out with all kinds of solar research for residental power. The applications of this technology haven't really even gotten started."
"This is amazing. This Sun Nova did all that?"
"Well, yeah it opened a whole new era really, and we haven't even started it up yet. It screwed up a whole ton of stuff though. Where were you guys travelling that you didn't get wind of it? It caused earthquakes, fires and tidal waves. Half the world's computers were toasted. People died badly, it was a disaster."
"Oh yeah, now I know what you are talking about. That was pretty bad.", Ander nodded to Victor.
"Well look Reg, we won't take up anymore of your time. Thanks for the explanations...we'll be in touch"
"No skin off my scalpel, guys"
Ander and Victor walked back toward the parking lot in silence. They got into Victor's car and drove to the first car lot they saw. Ander opened the trunk and pulled out a briefcase with cash. They bought a new Volvo Q99 and drove the quiet riding car to an alley. They popped the hood and looked inside.
"I don't sense, 'pattern' energy and it doesn't feel like 'trump' contact", Ander said. "Its much colder than either of those."
"Well, the destruction of the primal pattern had a good effect here, Carl", Victor replied looking at the shiny new engine.
"I guess so, but something isn't right. This occured most likely when the primal pattern. By my way of thinking, the short eight months that this discovery has taken to work its way to production have gone by way too long. This happened only ten days ago in Amber"
"Maybe Shadow Earth 'moved'", Victor offered.
"'Moved'? What does that matter?"
"Well, when a lightsource moves away at a high rate of speed it gets 'redshifted', right? Maybe its blue shifted, I don't know. The point it that maybe some kind of time distortion is taking place now that shadow is realigning itself to the ... new order?"
Ander considered for a moment. "You might be on to something Vic. Lets get back to your place and find out some more details from Sandy, now that we know what to ask."
"I don't think she's going to like the color."
"Well, tell her it was free, she'll like it then."