Moltation

Nigel Flaxton

Description

A professor and two students stumble across a highly unusual phenomenon. At first they attempt to keep it secret whilst investigating further, but leaks occur despite the intervention of MI5. The phenomenon involves a newly discovered element, synthesized by the professor and others together with a material deposited on earth by visitors from another planet who use the earth for observation. Their society is more advanced than that of earth, though they had no anticipation of the highly unusual result of the combination between the terrestrial and the extra-terrestrial materials. They are both appalled and pleased with aspects of the intriguing results.

Informations

• Publié par: Andrews UK
• Date de parution: 03 juillet 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783338689
• Langue: English

Extrait

Title Page
MOLTATION
by
Nigel Flaxton



Publisher Information
Published in 2014 by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
The right of Nigel Flaxton to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998
Copyright © 2014 Nigel Flaxton
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any person who does so may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.



Chapter 1
There is no doubt that molecular excitation had a profound effect on the human race. Its most wonderful property was as protection. A person with it could not be shot, or stabbed, or be blown up, or hit. Even falling did not result in death, even from a great height. At first it seemed to confer immortality, but that was not so; the ageing process continued despite the protection.
‘Moltation’, as it came to be known, was first discovered by Professor Bettrinski and his team at Grantacaster University whilst continuing their lucrative research into microwaves, hoping for further improvements to benefit industrial and domestic use. Guessing they were following yet another sidetrack they experimented with very small quantities of bettronium and were on the point of abandoning their work, due largely to the impracticality of using a material that could be volatile, when an odd event occurred. It took them many weeks to discover the implications of what had happened. Bettronium had been so named because of the Prof’s role in its synthesis some years before. Its attraction for their microwave experiments lay in its particular form of radioactivity.
They had used a lead tube about a metre in length and twenty centimetres in diameter, open at one end, into which they put a small piece of bettronium in its own tiny tube, opening its end as they had done many times before. But on this memorable occasion they suddenly found they could hardly see the end of the main tube; it seemed to be unclear - as though a piece of not very clean transparent plastic was in the way. Tentatively they prodded the apparent membrane, using a narrow steel rod and found it moved but could not be penetrated. Martin, one of two Ph.D students, went even further and rashly prodded it with his rubber gloved finger. Immediately his hand was surrounded by the almost invisible skin which ignored his gloves completely. The Prof and the other student, James, turned shocked faces towards Martin, but he assured them he felt no pain or discomfort. He touched his hand with the fingers of his other one, also gloved, but felt no unusual sensation. Indeed he was able to take both gloves off which left him with his right hand covered with the strange membrane and looking very slightly blurry. His left hand was perfectly normal.
At this point James had to leave to take a seminar. The Prof warned him not to mention the experiment. Martin tried to shuffle off the membrane but it wouldn’t budge. He picked up the steel rod, intending to try jabbing it slightly to get some purchase, then recoiled from doing so because the thing suddenly disappeared. Not a trace remained. Martin and Professor Bettrinski looked at one another in raw astonishment.
Following normal procedure they tried to replicate their previous steps but, no matter how they twisted and turned the small lead tube containing the tiny piece of bettronium the strange phenomenon did not reappear. After an hour they gave up and left for the canteen and a coffee, securing the laboratory as usual. Only James could enter without them and their security swipe cards.
After his seminar James did just that, excited to investigate further. Only mildly surprised at finding himself alone he set the experiment in operation again and almost at once could see the strange membrane at the end of the main tube. He started investigation procedures but the data told him the Prof and Martin had already done them all. He was puzzled as to why they hadn’t tried to go further and attempt to find out what was happening in the membrane; it seemed they had replicated procedures they had tried incessantly but to no avail. The intriguing question was what had been different on this one occasion to create the weird phenomenon.
The Prof and Martin’s return put the brake on his thoughts and they moved back to the lab bench on which the experiment was set up. They glanced at it in amazement.
‘How did you get the thing again?’ The Prof demanded. ‘We tried to replicate for over an hour but got nothing!’
‘I ran the process exactly as we did earlier and the membrane appeared immediately. I thought you’d have run further investigation into its make-up, but I found you hadn’t, so I was about to do so. Shall I carry on?’
‘No, we need to know first what produces it, how and when. Are you sure you did exactly what we did earlier?’
‘Absolutely sure, we’ve been through the routine times enough, haven’t we?’
‘Right. So what could possibly have been different when we tried to replicate compared to when you did the same, James?’
After a short pause in the conversation, Martin quipped, ‘Seems you’re the difference, James. What have you got hidden up your sleeve?’
Laughing, James retorted, ‘Nothing, old boy,’ feeling in his pockets simultaneously.