Chapter 18 - Measurement

Friday, October 9th

Nothing. That’s what I had. No data from any electromagnetic spectrum. No gravity wave, from any detector on Earth.

I gritted my teeth in frustration as I drove to work in Oak Ridge. Maybe I’ll get some good news in an email this morning. My phone call with Misty last night had not been good news.

“Hi, Katie.”

“Hi, Misty. I’ve been eager to find out what you’ve detected. What’s the good news?”

“Nothing.”

“Um, what?”

“No detected emanations from the galactic core since the first day of the fires, October 2nd.”

“Not even gravity waves?”

“That’s where I concentrated my work. I checked with every gravitational-wave observatory on Earth. Nothing.”

I don’t remember how I said goodbye to Misty. I just slunk off to bed last night.

I didn’t feel any better this morning, other than a vague hope for my email to give me something. So I wormed through the lines of traffic and parked at the lab.

I had a report I had to write, but I procrastinated and read my email instead. Most were reports of fires and odd occurrences around the world.

“Wait. There seem to be more occurrences.” I quickly charted the incident accounts. They were increasing daily. I re-charted my graph of the globe turning and the incidents waxing and waning. The events waned more slowly. They waxed faster each day.

Whatever was hitting the Earth kept increasing.

Then I came to Sean Hamilton’s email.

I remembered the slender, earnest adolescent. I read his letter. He’d been experimenting with his wishing and—school grades? He’d maxed out his grades and now learned at an astonishing rate. He had doubts about the propriety of these wishes, but his parents assured him he was doing the work.

How could an alien energy make wishes come true? Was it like a magic genii? Or was it just—magic? My logical, scientific self rebelled at the thought.

I knew what I had to do. I whipped out my status report on the phenomenon for my boss in less than an hour and booked a flight back to Detroit—and on to Toledo. Then I went back home to pack.

On the way, I called the Kennedys.

“Hello?” Shirley answered.

“Hi, Shirley. This is Katie Garcia. Do you mind if I come over again and investigate Sean’s latest use of wishes?”

“Of course not. Is he in any kind of trouble?”

“Not from me. But he and your family are my best source for documenting how this interstellar power works. I know for sure you three are using it effectively.”

“Interstellar power? Why do you say that?”

“There’s strong evidence this phenomenon is coming from outer space.”

“Wow. That’s something. What time will you get here?”

“Probably by four this afternoon.”

“Okay. See you then!”

* * *

I pulled into Hamilton’s drive that evening. Traffic had been bad coming out of Detroit and I didn’t get there until supper time. I thought of my excuses for being late and interrupting their meal.

“Hi, Katie! You’re just in time for supper. I set a place for you.” Shirley Kennedy greeted me at the door.

“Sorry, I’m late. Traffic was terrible coming out of Detroit.”

“This time works out fine. Here’s your plate.”

I walked into their home and smelled scrumptious roast chicken. I saw the chicken on the table, along with baked potatoes and corn. I sat at my place and began eating.

“I didn’t realize I’d gotten so hungry. This is delicious! Thank you, Shirley. Thanks for welcoming me back.”

“Our pleasure, Katie,” said Phil Kennedy. “Your last visit was so interesting. Sean was motivated to try wishing for good grades.”

“Yes, I got his email. That’s why I’m here.” I looked at Sean. “After supper, I’d like to test your wishing skills, see what works, and see if I can detect any energy around you as you wish.”

Sean’s eyes widened. “That sounds great!”

“Do you mind if we watch?” asked Shirley.

“Of course not. Maybe you’ll catch something I miss.”

After supper, and a homemade chocolate cake with coffee, we sat in their living room. I got my instruments from my duffle bag and a textbook.

“Wow, what are all those devices?”

“That’s my radiometer. It measures EM, electromagnetic radiation. This is my Geiger counter for nuclear radiation detection. And this is my electromagnetic field detector. “

“What do you need all of those for?”

“I want to see if any radiation comes into you or out of you as you wish.”

“Into or out of? Where’s this radiation coming from?”

“Something is coming from outer space. We just don’t know what it is. The news reports from around Earth show the phenomenon waxes and wanes as it rotates.”

“Neat. That’s fun to think I’m channeling outer space energy!”

“If we can prove that, my job is done. Here’s one of my textbooks on quantum mechanics.”

“Uh, how is that going to help?” Sean looked dubious.

“Just read the first chapter and then I’ll give you questions from the back. Try to solve them. If you can’t, then just wish, and we’ll try again.”

“You really believe in going for the jugular with your experiments, don’t you?” Phil smiled wryly at me.

“That seems a rather mixed metaphor. What do you mean?”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“You ran your pants on fire experiments on yourself. Now you’re using the most esoteric aspects of physics to test Sean’s grade wishing.”

“Oh. Right. The experiment has to be falsifiable. So I have to do this twice, once before wishing and once after.” I looked at Sean who was pouring over the chapter rapidly. “How’s it going?”

“I’m reading it quickly because I wished for speed reading. But it doesn’t make any difference if I go quickly or slowly. It doesn’t make sense. Are quanta real?”

“What do the experiments show? I know chapter 1 has the basic experiments on light quanta.”

“Well yes, the experiments show light comes in these little quanta packages. But it is also a wave. So what is it really?”

“Heh. That’s the question, even to this day. Are you ready for your questions?

“I’m already confused. You might as well give it to me.”

I read from the textbook, “1.1. The actual postulate made by N. Bohr in his original 1913 paper was not directly Equation (8), but rather the assumption that at quantum leaps between adjacent electron orbits with n >> 1, the hydrogen atom either emits or absorbs energy delta E= h w. where w is its classical radiation frequency – according to classical electrodynamics, equal to the angular velocity of the electron’s rotation.62 Prove that this postulate, complemented with the natural requirement that L = 0 at n = 0, is equivalent to Eq. (8).”

“Um, what?” Sean looked at me blankly.

“Right. So you have no idea how to approach this question?”

“I don’t even understand what they’re asking!”

“Right. Just for my curiosity, do you know calculus?”

“No. I’ve heard of it and I’ve heard that it’s very difficult.”

“Yes and no. It is difficult, compared to arithmetic or linear algebra, but much simpler than quantum mechanics, which uses it as a tool.”

I smiled and said, “So the first part of our experiment is successful. You cannot solve this problem, even with your recent learning.”

“That’s successful? I’ve never felt so stupid!” Sean put his head in his hands.

“But we’ve just proven, that if after wishing, you can solve this problem, then you’re using this outside force.”

Sean’s face brightened. “I get it! Let’s go! I wish—“

“Wait! Let me set up my instruments.” I busied myself adjusting for background radiation and electric fields in the house.

“All right. I’m ready. Wish away.”

“I wish I could answer this question 1.1!”

“Well? How do you feel?”

“No different. But I need to write something down before I forget it.” Sean grabbed a pad of paper and a pen and began writing quickly.

Looking at his answer, I could see it was a clear and succinct response to the question. My instruments never wavered.

“Wow, you did it, Sean! This is a very good answer. Can you explain it?”

He looked at the sheet of paper. “No. It’s all gobblety-gook to me, like the chapter. I just had to write it.”

“Ah. You just wished for the answer, not the understanding. Now wish for the understanding.”

“All right. I wish I understood this answer!”

I checked my instruments again. Nothing. Sean stared at his answer.

“O-o-h, now I get it. Everything falls into place from Equation (8), L= h h. You can work backward from there to the original assumptions.

“Right. Cool.” I was anything but cool, staggered by his sudden understanding. I decided to check his understanding. “What are L, h and h?“

“L is the angular momentum of the electron, h is Planck’s constant, and n is the integer of the quanta.”

“Right again.” I sighed. “Your wishing is working, but I can’t measure anything!” I clenched my hands in frustration.

“Why don’t you wish for an instrument to measure it?” Sean looked at me.

“Uh. I don’t know if that’ll work.”

“You just proved that wishing does work.”

“Right.” I took a deep breath. I knew it worked, but I didn’t believe it. “I need help. Sean, will you wish with me?” I held out my hands and he grasped them with his long, skinny fingers. His palms were sweaty. I wondered why. Somehow, that relaxed me. The whole situation was silly.

Chuckling, I looked at my Geiger counter, my least useful tool, and wished, “I wish I had an instrument that measured the strength of this unknown force.”

The Geiger counter blurred, like I was squinting my eyes, and changed.

Multiple dials replaced single frequency dial. A rectangular dial read, ‘MU Sensor Intensity’. It showed a logarithmic scale from a millionth of an ‘MU’ (whatever that was) to ten million MUs. The needle quivered in the middle at around 1 MU.

The next dial showed ‘Background MU Intensity’. It had the same calibration, and its needle also showed 1 MU.’

The next two dials were circular. The first read, “MU Direction, Polar Axis”. That showed a needle in the upper left quadrant. The next read, “MU Direction, Equatorial Plane”. It showed North, South, East, and West, and pointed South-East. It seemed detachable, so I took it all the case and held it flat in my hand. It pointed directly at Sean.

I didn’t realize how long I’d been staring at the instrument in my hands. Shirley asked, “Are you okay, Katie?”

I didn’t remember letting go of Sean’s hands and picking it up, I’d been concentrating so hard.

“I guess so. This instrument is measuring something. I just don’t know what MU means.”

“I wish we understood what MU means!” Sean said confidently.

It was obvious. We all said together, “Magic Units.”

Half laughing, I said, “The only thing this detector lacks is a paper roll to record the dials’ measurements.”

A roll of paper appeared on the side, rather like a seismograph, showing the readouts of the four dials.

“What about a USB port to record it electronically?” Sean said.

“Why not?” I wished for that and it appeared above the paper roll, complete with a USB dongle. Printed on its side was 1 Terabyte. I noted each time I wished, the directional dial swung from Sean to me.

“Okay, Sean. Are you up for another question?”

“Why not? It doesn’t hurt to learn new things.” He grinned at me.

“Here’s question 1.2: Generalize the Bohr theory for a hydrogen-like atom/ion with a nucleus with the electric charge Q = Ze, to the relativistic case.”

“Uh, sorry. I don’t understand where to start with that one.”

“I’m not surprised. You haven’t learned relativity yet, have you?”

“Nope. I just know Einstein invented it.”

“Wish away. I’m recording.” I watched my dials eagerly.

“I wish I understood this question and can answer it.”

The dials twitched. The MU units on the directional sensor I pointed at Sean went from one to ten and back down.

“I get it now! Wow, relativity’s pretty weird. Here’s your answer.” He jotted it down quickly.

I looked it over. It looked good.

“I’m going to have to get to a hotel room and process all this.”

“Why don’t you stay here? We’ve got an extra room,” Phil said.

“Why thanks. If you could lead me there, I’ve got some thinking to do.”

“We all do.”

* * *

I reviewed the graphs of Sean's wishes. There was definitely a surge of “MUs” from him. I couldn’t bring myself to call it ‘magic’. Then the MUs dropped to a background level.

Background level. I compared it to what the direct sensor showed. The direct sensor never showed zero MUs. I tested everything in my room, including the floor and the ceiling. The ceiling had .01 MUs, the floor .005. That made sense if the radiation was coming from outer space. Finally, I tested myself. .5 MUs. Huh. I only wished once, but I had over a hundred times the MUs in the ceiling.

I went back to the living room carrying my detector. Phil and Shirley were reading books and Sean was on a laptop.

“More experiments?” Phil looked up from his book.

“More measurements. I’m looking for a pattern.” I check the ceiling and the floor. They were the same as my room.

I checked Phil. .7 MU. Maybe he wished more than me. Shirley was at .75. Then Sean. 2.1

“Woah! Sean, you have twice as many MUs as anyone or anything else.”

“I’m not even wishing. I’m just watching some anime.”

“The background MUs are about .4. You have five times as much. It must accumulate in you as you wish.”

I thought some more. “It must accumulate in you even if you don’t wish. Every object I tested in my room had some MUs in it.”

“So what does all this mean?” Sean looked at me.

“I don’t know—yet. But I’ll find out. I’ll go back to my room to think some more and plan my next steps. Thank you all. This has been a breakthrough in this project. Good night!” I turned to go but stopped and turned back.

“Sean, which anime were you watching?”

“An old one, Princess Mononoke.” He seemed almost embarrassed by its age.

“Ah, that’s a good one. I watched it as a kid. It’s that old.” I laughed and went to bed.

* * *

The next morning, the first thing I did was check my MU charts. As I expected, the background MUs dropped off overnight. But there was something odd. The pattern didn’t match the drop-offs I’d been seeing daily for the past week and a half. The drop-off was even shorter than I’d seen before. The MUs never reached zero; they bottomed out at .4. The same as my MU level.

I reached for the USB dongle to transfer the data to my computer but stopped. Why not wish? I pointed the sensor at my belly. .4 MU.

“I wish for this MU detector to have a Bluetooth adapter for data transfer.”

The face of the detector flickered. A blue light appeared with the Bluetooth symbol. I started up my laptop and added it to my devices. It showed as ‘MU Detector’. I connected and it showed up like a disk drive. There were four files of data in standard database format. I copied the over and began comparing it with my previous data.

I glanced at the printout. My MU level spiked to 2.1 and dropped back—to .5.

“So each wish accumulates more MUs.” I thought of this happening worldwide to billions of people. Most people weren’t wishing, but millions were. The more they had their wishes granted, the more they’d wish. I shivered with a sudden chill.

This energy is being absorbed by people all over the world.

I completed my comparison of the new data to the old. The MU effect extended longer and longer: twelve hours at first, then twelve and a half, thirteen, and today, fourteen.

I checked my emails for the latest incidents. Another flying car incident from Cleveland showed up. The FAA had arrested the lady for flying without a license. That’s where I’d go next.

I dressed and packed. What next? My stomach growled. Breakfast, of course. I could smell bacon frying. I booked a flight to Chicago. I had to investigate this pink dragon. Then I had breakfast.