Cipher [A Gravity Falls Tale] #Wattys2016

Two

Stanford relentlessly flipped through the thick books on his desk writing down every not he could find. Thick reams of paper covered his desk, notes scrawled all over them recording the locations of unexplained phenomena. A map hung on the walls where a Ford was marking the sites of the largest occurrences with red x's.

He continued to search the pages, taking note of every occurrence he could find. Yet another big one caught his eye-- a UFO sighting with a lot of witnesses-- and he marked it on the map. Oregon. Why were so many in that area?

An hour later, Ford came to the end of the book. With a sigh, he collapsed on the bed of his dorm. For three days, he had worked on this. He had scoured dozens of reliable sources on unexplained weird phenomena, writing down every known location on his list and, as previously mentioned, marking the most important on a map.

Now, Ford was sure he had enough data. He had to. Surely this was enough to get the average he was seeking. With another sigh, he sat up and grabbed his data, pushing it into a folder. He grabbed his things, opened the door, and went out for the first time in days.

"You want Large Turquoise, don't you?" asked Richard Northwest a little while later. Ford was standing on the doorway of his Berkley Laboratory. After giving his name to an attendant, Northwest had greeted him personally and listened to Ford's ideas.

"I have a list of over two thousand anomalies occurring in the last fifty years," stated Ford proudly, "along with their rough locations. I need to calculate the point of heaviest average concentration as exactly as possible, and your computational machine is the best chance I have."

"So you have a strong interest in the paranormal?" Richard questioned. "Interesting. I never saw that when I read about you."

"I didn't really let it show during college. I wanted to be taken a little more seriously than some of my contemporaries. But really, I've had this interest for a long time."

"Did you see that kid on the news last month? The one whose sister vanished? Maybe you could trade ideas with him."

"I think that Fox Mulder kid has a good idea about what he talks about on TV, but even so, I'm being serious, Mr. Northwest."

Richard sighed. "I know."

Ford looked at him hopefully. "Please?"

"Other labs have slightly more advanced computers," pointed out Richard. "Why not go to one of them?"

"None of their CEO's visited me personally," replied Ford. Richard nodded in approval, a small smile on his lips.

"All right. I'll tell the boys in the lab to fire her up. You have your data with you?"

"Of course."

"Then let's get this show on the road."

Within the hour, they were in the basement of the lab, several technicians working around the supercomputer Large Turquoise. Some were busily typing in each note of Ford's. A digitized map of the United States was present on the screen, a small pixel dot showing up for each location entered. Just like on his map, Ford could already see quite strong concentration around Oregon.

The computing machine itself was an impressive sight. Wires and vacuum tubes stuck out of the large screen at all angles. Lights flashed on and off, the humming of machinery a constant sound.

"You know, I've got a friend interested in these things," Ford said to Richard as they watched the techs at work.

"Really?" inquired Northwest.

"Yep. He's quite a bright engineer. We were friends in college. He has some dream of creating personal computers. You know, like a computing machine for one person?"

"Oh," Richard realized. "I didn't know Bill Gates attended Backupsmore."

"Oh, no, sir," chuckled Ford. "His name is McGuckett. I don't think he's made the news quite yet."

"All right," sighed one of the technicians. Ford read the name Valentino on his nameplate. "That looks like the last one."

"All ready, Robert?" inquired Northwest.

"Yes, sir," answered his employee. The young man barked orders to the other techs, who began flipping switches. The computer warmed up. Valentino sat down in front of his monitor and began typing. "Calculate... heaviest... statistical average... concentration," he mumbled as he typed in the command, then hit enter. Instantly, the computer came to life.

A spiral began to encompass the Northwestern United States, and the computer cut to a map of just those states, the most dots still present. It repeated this process, this time cutting to Oregon, Washington, and northern California. Then, just Oregon.

All the while, the computer was printing out massive amounts of data, computations in ink smeared across the readouts that came flying out.

Now, only part of Oregon was shown. It kept zooming in , the dot markers covering most of the map now. Finally, all went still. The computer, in a digital voice, stated, "Most exact average point of heaviest concentration located."

Valentino stood up and walked over to the last printout, which had three words written across it. He tore it off and held it up to read. "Gravity Falls, Oregon."

Ford felt a smile spread across his face. "Well, I think I know where I'm going!" he exclaimed triumphantly. The techs cheered and high-fived at the successful trial run of their machine.

"Interesting," nodded Richard. "You know, the Northwest family founded Gravity Falls. It's a sleepy little town out in the middle of nowhere. I don't care for it much, personally, though my brother lives in our mansion there."

"Really?" asked Ford. He had heard of Gravity Falls, though only briefly. Professor Trembley had mentioned it once or twice. Apparently he had family there, and it was supposedly a very strange place indeed.

"Yes," said Richards. "Which makes it all the easier for me to help you. For the right price, we can build you a lab out there with all the most up to date technology, and no one will ask any questions. The town is practically owned by my family."

"A very tempting offer," Ford said. "One I believe I'll have to take you up on. I need to be in that town if I'm going to carry out my life's dream, and the less people I have asking questions, the better."

"I can make it happen," repeated Richard, sticking out his hand. Ford grinned.

"It's a deal," he said, taking the older man's hand and shaking it.

Sadly it was not quite that easy. There was lots of paperwork to be filled out, and, as Richard had warned, it was quite pricey. However, Ford literally had more money than he knew what to do with, so money was no object.

Two weeks later, Ford packed up, paid his last check to Backupsmore, phoned his parents, and left his dorm for the last time. Driving to the airport, he left his rental car at the agency, checked in with the flight attendant, and hopped on to the airplane.

Reclining in his seat, Ford looked through the window of the airplane as it took off. He was off. Next stop: Gravity Falls.