SUNGLASESS AND ROCKETS Part 2: The Machine

FROM EARTH TO MAMA BAT

As if he were a gymnast, the doctor grabbed the edges of the shelf that he had opened before and performed a new acrobatic stunt in order to make a turn. Now oriented, just like his shocked listeners, he leaned an elbow on the upper part of the compartment and went on:

"The proposal was unanimously approved. And as odd as it may sound, it was agreed that the application of future S-V discoveries would be for the exclusive benefit of mankind."

"Did all the military guys agree?" Darwin questioned.

"All of them. Perhaps it was a way to quiet down their consciences...after all, with the unlimited funds which they had raised themselves to initiate the program for nuclear weapons, they were contributing to make a gigantic barrel of gunpowder out of the Earth..."

"True," my friend whispered.

"Well," the doctor replied. "It took Cox three years to complete a detailed program for the colossal project, then, he didn't present his proposal until 1949. And as you already know, the visionary project was okayed. The construction of the base on the dark side of the moon was called 'Honeymoon Project'," he remembered, "and the making of the machine for S-V manipulation was named 'Eclipse Project.'"

"Eclipse Project..." Darwin observed, "I remember."

Indeed, when we were at the secret observatory, camouflaged as a ladies room, near George Washington University, the doctor had mentioned such project, although on that occasion, of course, he didn't go into details.

"Meanwhile," the doctor continued, "the S-V research had relocated to an atomic shelter in Merritt Island, Florida, north of Cape Canaveral. Then, they followed into space, on board soviet stations in lower orbits, and since 1974, finally, they were made on the moon. At that time there was no trace of S-V physics left on Earth," he concluded. "Everything is on the moon."

It would have been difficult to give credit to such a story about lunar physics, which came to complete the no less fantastic story of the construction of the moon base. But when the story is told in the rear cabin of a strange shuttle that has left Earth the most spectacular way to reach the dark side of the moon, at the height of the summer of 1999...the tale does not sound so wacky...

The truth is that that atypical and dense information was not easy to process.

And yet, there was more:

"The first device to manipulate S-V," the doctor proceeded, "which was built at the end of 1976, only managed to perform upon a few individual atoms...it didn't even touch the molecules, that is why—"

"Doctor," Darwin broke in and went back to the Honeymoon Project: "as far as I remember, you had told us that Russians had plans for a lunar base too."

The doctor nodded.

"Of course. The project resulted in a joint base."

"Did they have the same reasons to build it?"

The doctor's gesture told us that something had just come to mind.

"Yes. Yes. I forgot to tell you; Russians knew about the existence of the SV."

Our dilated pupils shot new questioning glances.

"Although in World War II we were allies, we spied upon each other already...and the critical finding in Oak Ridge ended up in the Kremlin. But then, a miraculous coincidence in space made the United States and the Soviet Union give each other a hand again and work for the same purpose," he shrugged his shoulders, "on the moon, at least."

We had knowledge of the latter. In his basement, the doctor had also told us that the two Super Powers had divulged their knowledge when their secret probes were mutually photographed when flying over the hidden side of the moon searching for a site to build a base.

"That's how they ended up unifying their kilometric lists of experiments for the future device which would manipulate the SV's," the doctor continued. "So, the results of the first mechanism SV had the same role as the ones that Gemini missions had for Apollo missions: a preparation to reach the main objective."

"To manipulate the SV of larger objects?" Darwin ventured.

"That is correct. Based on the first results, in the eighties, we designed the next prototype: one capable of performing not only on non significant individual particles but on bodies as large as buildings: we call it 'Machine for the activation of nano Shield and Vacuum properties', or simply SV Machine. Its complex construction has taken so long as its design has, a complete decade. Then, after 20 years, the SVM is finally ready..."

Holding onto the edge of the compartment, the doctor turned to the back a little and looked toward the small, front windows.

Lining up my glance with his, I encountered once more the majestic silver claw which dominated the starry panorama. Had I immersed in the extraterrestrial physics story so much that I had forgotten the flashy show that we had on the horizon.

"The experiments are scheduled to begin in 5 days," the doctor continued and turned toward us. "Our mission will be preventing that from happening."