The Orthogonal Galaxy
Read The Orthogonal Galaxy Online
Authors: Michael L. Lewis
Tags: #mars, #space travel, #astronaut, #astronomy, #nasa
The Orthogonal
Galaxy
Galaxy Series
—
Book 1 —
Michael L.
Lewis
Copyright © 2014 Michael
L. Lewis
All rights reserved. This
book or any portion
thereof may not be reproduced or used in any
manner whatsoever without the express written
permission of the author except for the use of
brief quotations in a book review.
Second Edition,
2015
ISBN:
9781310144844
michaellewisbooks.blogspot.com
DEDICATION
To my supportive and loving wife,
Suzanne, whose
encouragement turned this work of fiction into reality.
1
In a quiet alcove of the
federal courthouse in Atlanta, Georgia, a middle-aged man stared
out of a rain-splattered window. His dark hair was betrayed by
streaks of gray on either side of his head. Although a model of
physical fitness, he leaned against the wall for support while
watching the heavy rain that splashed down on the sidewalk five
stories below. He watched as cars drove by purposefully and
pedestrians with umbrellas dashed along trying to avoid the streams
of water that rushed off into the street. Occasionally, his focus
was directed to the window as beads of water raced erratically down
the glass pane.
While he stood in this
motionless position, he envied every car, bus, taxi, pedestrian,
and—yes, even the lone bicyclist—in their ability to travel to
their intended destinations. How he would have traded positions
with any one of them. Even the bicycle was a symbol of freedom that
he currently was not able to enjoy. How much longer that privilege
would escape him was up to a jury of seven men and six women who
had just settled into the courtroom not far away.
“
Paol?” a soft voice from
behind him blended smoothly with the subtle sound of rain splashing
against the window. It was so soft that the distracted man
completely missed it.
The sound of heels
clicking on the polished tile floor grew louder as they approached
the man, but even this noise did nothing to arouse him from his
thoughts. Only when a gentle hand was placed on his shoulder did he
turn with a start.
“
It’s time, Sweetheart.”
The gentle words were warm and encouraging in spite of the façade.
Paol knew that his wife was agonizing ever so much as he was, and
while he was grateful for her strength, he ached to know that she
had to carry this burden so gracefully.
As his bloodshot eyes
gazed into her smiling face, a corner of his mouth turned up sadly.
With a deep breath, he held out his arm. She received it happily
and turned towards a man that had been waiting at the back of the
room.
“
We’ll beat this, Paol!
I’m confident that if there are any on the jury who are yet
unconvinced, they will be on our side before the end of the
day.”
Wearing a dark pin-striped
suit, well-pressed white shirt, and cobalt blue tie, the lawyer was
dressed as confidently as he sounded. Spinning around, he walked
with deliberate poise down the hall. Following his lead, the couple
pursued the man and disappeared into courtroom number
523.
As he crossed the
threshold, he contracted some of the encouragement of his defender.
After all, Paol Joonter knew that he was innocent of the charges
filed against him. Surely, the best judicial system in the world
could not make the wrong decision.
2
In a different location of
the galaxy, Joram Anders studied his new surroundings that appeared
perfectly earthlike. The sky was blue, the grass green, the
collection of oak, maple, and willow trees rustled in the gentle
breeze just as they did on Earth, and the strong golden Sun beamed
its warmth in approval of the setting. Yet, for Joram, it felt as
though he were on another planet. Motionless, he looked slowly to
his left and then to his right. He saw a vast number of human-like
figures traveling on brick-lined pathways in all different
directions, each arrayed in a varying degree of fashion and quality
of grooming. The sound of cars on nearby streets and an occasional
bird singing high in the treetops confirmed that, indeed, Joram had
not been mysteriously transported to another planet.
Yet it all seemed so
dreamlike, so surreal. And perhaps it should! As far back as Joram
could remember, he had dreamed of the day he would stand in front
of the building he had seen in hypergraphic photos from the moment
it was dedicated. That was eight years ago—just two weeks after his
thirteenth birthday. For several minutes, Joram kept reading the
words “Carlton H. Zimmer Planetarium” and each time he felt his
heart race with excitement, anticipation, and anxiety. For a while
now, he had stood in a statuesque manner, moving just enough to
occasionally twist his arm for a glance at his watch. In just a few
minutes now, the farm boy from Wichita, Kansas would begin his
astronomy studies as a graduate student at the California Institute
of Technology.
Naturally, he was
intimidated to enter the planetarium for his first class of the
term, where his boyhood idol and legendary astrophysicist, Carlton
Zimmer, would instruct Astrophysics 21: Galaxies & Cosmology.
Joram took a deep breath and approached the building slowly while
other students passed by, paying no attention to this nervous
newcomer. With one last glance of his watch, he grabbed the door
handle. While he was seven minutes early to enter the building,
this was by design. He wanted to take in the whole setting by
stationing himself in the middle of the arena, partly so he could
be lost in the crowd, but mostly, because he wanted the perspective
of being at the nucleus of this great building.
With the door closing
behind him, he paused to allow his eyes to adjust to the darkness.
The room was dimly lit from recessed lighting that circled the room
shining directly up onto the ceiling, which was as black as any
midnight Joram had experienced back on the farm in Kansas. The
front of the room was brightly arrayed from a string of track
lighting lining the wall behind the lectern. Lights along the floor
helped Joram find his way down the red carpeted stairs towards the
center of the room. Making his way into an aisle marked with the
letter “I”, Joram slid down to the middle seat. Surprisingly
comfortable, he brushed his hand against the velvet upholstery, and
reclined almost all the way to the floor. For the first time all
day, his anxiety gave way to a deep soothing sigh.
Instantly, he was
transported back to the family farm where he would spend hours at
night every summer evening, laying on a blanket near the darkest
side of the house. In the stillness of his Kansas farm and with a
pair of well-worn Star Goggles, he could see the faintest of stars
viewable under the thick atmosphere of the Earth.
“
Joram,” his mother would
call out from a window, “it’s nearly midnight, Son. Come on in
outta this night air and get you some rest. You know that your Pa
needs your help with the chores in the morning.”
“
Just a few more minutes,
Mom. Barnard's Star is about to set.”
“
Barnyard Farm! What are
you talking about, anyway?”
“
Not Barnyard Farm, Mom,”
Joram said with an exasperated tone. “It’s Barnard’s St—oh, never
mind. Just five more minutes, Mom. I Promise.” Joram allowed his
mind to depart Earth one last time to wander among the stars and
particularly to Barnard’s Star. While Proxima Centauri is the
closest star to our solar system, it is never visible from Kansas.
He would love to see Proxima Centauri some day, although he knew
that the difference between 4.2 light years and 6.0 light years
didn’t really mean much. Both are invisible to the naked eye from
Earth, so both would require the assistance of the Star Goggles.
Yet Proxima Centauri was his star—the one he dreamt about, the one
he longed to see with his own eyes.
His fascination with
Proxima Centauri centered on his dream to visit the stars. While he
eagerly attended to all of the news regarding the scientists who
were racing to develop the first interstellar shuttle, nobody had
produced anything that would approach the velocity required to
travel to other star systems. Should interstellar travel ever be
feasible, he would have to think that the Proxima Centauri star
system would be among the first targets for exploration.
Hearing the window fly
open again, Joram absently shouted out, “Just two more minutes,
Mom.”
An audible huff and the
shutting of the window left him to his perfect silence one last
time, as he continued to gaze at Barnard’s Star, trying to imagine
in his finite mind how far 6.0 light years really is.
…
A sudden burst of light
brought Joram back to reality. Restoring his chair to its upright
position, he looked behind him as students began to enter the
planetarium. Embarrassed to be seen reclining in his first grad
school classroom, he scrambled to raise the seat back up. Fumbling
for the wooden desktop in the right armrest of his seat he began to
empty the contents of his backpack, comprising just two small
electronic items. The first was his brand new Digital Note Tablet,
currently empty of any entries, but would soon be put through the
paces of digital note-taking. The second item was his iText Reader.
This device had already been slightly worn, evidence of his early
perusal of the texts which his professors had assigned to him for
his coursework this term. Most professors transmit books during
class, since each classroom is equipped with its own private
Wireless Services Access Point, so there was no need for Joram to
have downloaded them over the Internet first. But, his love of
science—and particularly astronomy— drove him to download all of
his textbooks from the university intranet the moment they were
announced to the students.
Joram, however, knew that
it was more survival than ambition that generated this behavior. To
come all the way from a dairy farm on the plains of the Midwest
through Wichita State University to this prestigious institution in
Southern California would require all of his abilities. He was now
placed in an atmosphere where intellect and knowledge were
practically innate. He had come from an insufficiently educated
farm family, so he was not oblivious to the challenge that would
face him in this highly competitive setting.
“
I hear these seats are
really comfortable,” interrupted a young lady as she took a seat
next to Joram.
“
Yeah, they are,” Joram
blushed slightly as he looked up at his classmate. The blush wasn’t
so much intended for the attractive brunette with emerald green
eyes who had engaged him in conversation as it was for his state of
relaxation that some must have noticed as they entered the room
earlier. Joram had hoped that the lighting would have still been
too dim to notice, and that the newcomers’ eyes would have not had
enough time to adjust to the darkness yet.