The Dangers of Saving a Life

Chapter 21: Milo

Hock note: As Dr. Chocka entered Professor Aidan's lab that Saturday morning and asked for Milo, let's check in on Milo and Kwin. 

Milo made up his mind that he didn't like the obnoxious girl. Kwin strutted as if she were superior to them simply by her good looks. Even more exasperating, she stood next to him. Right spinning next to him. Then she glanced sideways and grinned at him as if that was supposed to wow him. He turned the other way. She thought she was some hot proton.

The number of new faces in Professor Aidan's burgeoning Saturday morning crowd had grown so fast that Milo lost count. Besides Kwin, he recognized his literature professor, Sanaja Nudny. (He stayed away from her.) He also picked out the dean of the business school, Kersen Lembah. But many other faculty and staff joined along with masses of students and even some people from outside the college.

He recently brought in another new girl—very cute—named Jemma. But the girl acted as if she were new to the earth, like she had just arrived from somewhere in outer space. A coven of boys snatched her away almost immediately. With all the attention she received, he felt a bit sorry for her. Well, not really.

Hock note: Jemma Colera is a monk from the Tachyon Monastery who foretold the coming of the Demon of Dark Energy. She was sent by the monastery to assassinate the demon, who she thinks is Professor Aidan. Jemma is a main character in the longer version of this story titled, Believe the Tachyons, available on Amazon. 

As Professor Aidan did each time they met, he began their Saturday meeting by lecturing from behind the table. "Physical space doesn't exist," he said this time. "Yet we must be physically present in only one place at a time. Then we must travel over long distances to get anywhere else. We must even send signals to communicate with each other. Does anyone know why?"

"Because we're stuck here in these three dimensions?" Kwin said.

What a proton. The cocky athlete blurted out the first thing that came to her empty airhead. Even more irritating, Professor Aidan acknowledged her.

"That's right, Kwin, although I would say we cling to the physical. We are so addicted to our prison of three dimensions that we are unable to gain our freedom. So how do we overcome our addiction?"

"With the extra dimensions," Kwin said eagerly before anyone else could answer.

"Right again," Professor Aidan said, nodding to her. "But what kind of extra dimension?"

"The Drommel," Kwin said, nearly jumping to answer.

Exasperated, Milo shoved his hands in his jeans pockets. He tried inching further away from her.

"Yes," Professor Aidan said, "because the Drommel is an energy dimension. It's very different from the three spatial dimensions of length, width, and height. So we overcome this physical prison with the energy."

When Professor Aidan switched on the generator, Milo felt the familiar lightning strike inside him.

"They call you the demon of dark energy," somebody blurted out.

"And what do you call me?" the professor said.

"You're going to save us from Axion," another called out. 

With that, the professor walked over to his desk in the corner of the room. After he rustled about for a bit, he carried away a piano keyboard in one hand. Myriads of dangling wires connected it to a black pylon he gripped in the other hand. Then he sat down and played.

Although Milo didn't hear anything with his ears, he felt the rhythm in his soul, or more precisely, in that other dimension, the Drommel. His spirits wanted to soar with the melody and his body wanted to move to the beat. He wanted to, but that obnoxious girl, Kwin, beat him to the punch.

Kwin jumped in front of the table with the generator, in front of the professor, in front of everybody, putting herself in the center of it all. She flailed her arms and legs, jerking her head so that her hair flew all over, wiggling her body in all sorts of ways. What a proton. She thought she was so hot. Milo would have laughed if he weren't so embarrassed. Worse yet, she turned and smiled at him. He wanted to crawl into a black hole and die.

He thought for sure the professor would reprimand her. But instead, the professor nodded his approval, smiling and even dancing himself while he played. That encouraged others to follow along, mimicking the moves. She leaped from one person to the next, showing them how it was done. Well, Milo was not about to join in. It was massless. It was spinning ridiculous.

Kwin danced over to him, pulling his hands right out of his pockets, and tried to make him move. He yanked them away from her and shoved them back in his pockets. "I don't want to do it."

She grabbed his hands again. "Yes, you do. I'm a pro. I'm going to make you do it."

It was almost like forces pulled at his arms and legs. He felt as if he stood in the ocean where currents pushed and pulled at his body, an arm this way, a leg that way, his torso to one side and then the other. His body had a mind of its own. It wanted to move to the beat.

"I'm not doing it, okay?"

They went back and forth, Kwin grabbing for Milo's hands, him yanking them away.

"Stop it, now."

In the end, however, his own body betrayed him. One movement led to another. His arms and legs did what came naturally to them. It didn't feel like jerking and spasming. It felt smooth and natural. He flowed through the highs and dropped to the lows, bopping to the beat from another dimension.

She took his hands and they moved together. He could feel the vibes of music in that other place. Maybe he didn't hear it with his ears, but he did sense a melodic rhythm. It was such a good feeling he didn't want it to stop.

He didn't know how long they had danced before Kwin stood in front of him, smiling in a way that took his breath away. The realization hit him that they had generated dark energy and Axion had not come. There were no mygs and no Captain Max. How long had they danced, and nobody came to stop them?

"Walk with me."

Kwin's beautiful and ridiculous face stared right into his eyes, confident and hopeful.

"What?"

"Let's go for a walk."

She grabbed his hand again and held it. It felt so nice. How could he say no?

"Yeah, sure, I'd like that."