Chapter 43: Chapter Forty-One

After leaving the Facility with the device – a micro particle accelerator, Milo and Alex took refuge inside an abandoned warehouse. It was a perfect spot to hide because it was completely random and allowed them enough room to work on the proper modifications.

They started by dismantling the device completely. Within minutes, there were parts and gismos laid out all around them. To the untrained eye, it would appear to be a huge disorganized mess, but each component was thoroughly examined and catalogued in Alex and Milo’s minds.

“You know, we haven’t heard from Aris in a while, maybe we should check in with him,” Alex suggested as she released the access pod from her arm and handed it to Milo.

“His status is offline,” Milo said.

“Try him anyway.”

Milo stopped what he was doing and called Aris. Aris’ customized dial tone buzzed in Milo’s ear for a while until the voicemail kicked in.

“There’s no answer, should I leave a message?”

Without losing focus, Alex looked up and gave a quick nod.

“Hey, Aris, it’s us. We want an update so give us a call back.”

Alex began to reassemble the device, but in putting it back together, she added a few important modifications.

“Need any help?” Milo asked.

“No thanks, I’m fine.”

Alex was a whiz with electronics and had the entire project planned out in her head. She had taken apart and was reassembling a highly complex device that only a handful of people in the world understood. Even with the proper data downloads, the micro particle accelerator was still too intricate for most people to comprehend. For the most part, Alex relied on her existing knowledge, but downloaded new data on occasion. However, what she was manufacturing had never been created before so most of the data she needed did not exist.

“Milo, I need to affix your pod to the device. The good news is that if this doesn’t work, you won’t be needing it anyway.”

“And if it does?”

“I’ll get you a new one.”

“Sure, it’s all yours, but I don’t think there’s much battery left.”

“It’s okay, I can hook it up to the main power source.”

“Where’s the main power source?” he asked, studying the design.

“It doesn’t have one, yet. I intend for it to draw its power from the sun.”

Before she committed the pod to the device, she checked if Aris had responded to them.

“Hey, there’s a message from Aris here. I’m not sure how we missed it,” she said.

“He’ll have to forgive us, we’ve been a little preoccupied.”

“This message is from over an hour ago.”

“What does it say?”

“It says: I’m at the house and there doesn’t appear to be anyone here. I have a strange feeling about this.”

“So if nobody’s there, why would he not be answering?” Milo asked.

“I’m not sure, maybe the battery on his pod died… or better yet, maybe he died,” Milo said under his breath.

“I’ll try him again,” she said.

The call went through, but just like the other times, there was no answer. She didn’t want to admit it, but it was not a good sign.

“I guess we’ll just have to proceed without him.”

“How’s the device coming along?”

“I just need to calibrate the sync pins so the bismuth 209 particles bombard the alpha particles to create astatine 211.”

“What’s astatine, I’ve never even heard of that?”

“It’s an extremely rare radioactive element – its name derives from the Greek word astatos, which means unstable.”

“Great, what are we doing with it?”

“Don’t worry, the process hasn’t begun yet, but when it does, the instability will be a good thing. Since it only has a half-life of about eight hours it will—” she paused mid-sentence. “On second thought, I don’t have time to explain it. You’ll just have to trust me.”

“I trust you,” Milo said sincerely. “So is it ready?”

“I think so. Of course, there’s no way to really know for sure without testing it.”

“Should we test it?”

“Not yet. First, we have to make sure Aris is okay.”