quintessence.htm

Vera barely remembered tapping the enter key. Then she saw her laptop disappearing in front of her. She held on to the picnic table, hoping to stay there. She recollected the changes she and Frank made to the program. They agreed that it was correct. She is glad that she teamed up with Frank.

Vera closed her eyes. She floated and she moved fast horizontally through a funnel. She twisted around her own axis and she felt dizzy. First, she felt a chill across her body then she felt hot as if some force propelled her through a hot oven. What will be on the other end? She appeared weightless, her mouth was dry, but she wasn’t scared though her body shivered. She floated and she had no control over her movements, anticipating of what was coming. Will there be a soft mattress at the end of the funnel? On the other hand, will she drop on a concrete slab, breaking all her bones, terminating her free fall, once she exits the funnel? Or, will there be a billion of electronic particles gently engulfing her, preventing her from hurting herself?

Or will she die?

Vera saw a light in the distance. Slowly she reached for it while she floated, but it was too far away. Then she saw a round, elongated object floating in front of her. She floated right behind it. I should catch up to this object and hold on, thought Vera. It was still in front of her. It must be at least twelve feet tall and six feet in diameter. While floating, she did the Australian crawl. That wasn’t easy in this media. It was air saturated with ozone. Gradually she shortened the distance between the object and herself. Now, her speed was slightly higher than the speed of the object and slowly she was closing in.

On Vera’s right she saw her laptop computer floating next to her. She reached for it. It seemed to her that it took forever, almost as if a filmstrip was running at one-quarter speed. This time, she was close enough to the computer and she grabbed it. She closed her hand around it, but it slid out of her hand. She closed her hand too fast, generating an unseen pressure, causing the laptop to escape her. I must be gentler the next time. She tried again. This time, she closed her hand slowly and gently until she physically felt the laptop in her hand. Then she squeezed. At last, it was in her possession. She has difficulty reading from the screen and she closed it. I will try later. While she waited, she looked around. She saw another irregular shaped object floating by her. It was silvery looking. Did it have substance or was it just a cloud like form? Vera shivered. She felt a cool breeze wafting from behind her. It had the smell of copper and iron. Strange smell! Are there any humans here? She didn’t see any. Finally, she reached the round elongated object. What should I call it? I know! It looks like a children’s spinning top, tapered on the bottom. That’s it!

I will call it, TOP.

All around, equally spaced it has two-foot oval openings. Slowly, the top turned clockwise. Vera entered one opening and she brushed one wall. The wall moved and separated and when Vera cleared the opening, it returned to its original shape. Strange material! Somehow, a magnetic force bonded microscopic particles together. Could they be electrons? Inside Vera floated toward the middle. The top spun while she didn’t. She became dizzy. Slowly she drifted toward the wall. Then she held on gently and she twisted her legs around one of the vertical bars. Now Vera spun with the top. The spinning motion held her against the top’s wall.

She was in a space as black as graphite when she looked behind her, and as bright as sunlight when she looked ahead into the distance. Where am I? What place is this? Vera turned and she looked out from the top, between an oval openings. The vastness that she saw humiliated her and she became scared. Am I going to die here? There are no people here and no animals. She shivered and she saw curved, colorful paths of electronic highways. Then, in the distance, she saw a new object. It drifted closer. It had a body and it looked like a bug. Upon Vera’s close investigation, it looked more like a bee. “Yes, it’s a bee.” Vera welcomed it. She was not alone anymore. It floated and it turned. Is it going to sting me? It had some color — from a dark gray to an orange. The head was black, with penetrating eyes. The wings fluttered and gave off sparks. Why would the shape of a bee float in here in this space? She answered her own question.

It’s a replica…