story Chapter 1

[DogTheGoblin]

Admittingly, all this science talk was going over Martins head somewhat. As interested as he was in finding out more about the rock and its tie to Mr. Broder, he failed to see the connection or how this experiment would show anything worth while. Regardless, he kept his tongue to himself and paid attention to what happened. It was intriguing on its own right, even the slight inflation of his ego that he haphazardly correctly guessed a possible cause for the glow.

 

Just as they were ready to begin, Bart seemed to have an episode of mania. That is, what Martin thought till he noticed the effect that seemed to be happening within the chamber. His mouth opened to ask what was happening to be beaten by Malcolm. Instead, his attention was drawn to Thompsons reaction there near the end. Maybe the chamber was reacting to something else in the room? Something that was causing the glow on the sample and the chamber at the same time? 

 

Martin scanned the room for something that looked out of place, or was reacting the same. Something in one these many jars and containers could be the cause.  

Edited August 13, 2022 by DogTheGoblin (see edit history)

[matt_s]

Tristan's mind raced furiously. The first thing he did was grab a notebook and meticulously copy the tracks drawn in the chamber with his pen. He trusted his memory, sure, but setting things down on paper meant he did not have to.

Then, he said

Grab a camera, quick! We may want to grab short and long exposures of the rock sample. If we have special film - the newfangled color stuff or even x-ray - let's put that to good use.

 

At the suggestion of a barrier, Tristan nodded in agreement.

 

Lead will do best, but any sheet metal lying around or even anything that's relatively thick will stop most radiation - if that is indeed what we are seeing. Thompson - do you recognize these tracks we are seeing? If it's new, do me a favor and put my name on the paper, hah!

 

 

[LaChupa]

Maria had no idea what was happening or what any of it meant, and the English was coming so hurried and fraught and filled with jargon, she was missing some of the words. But she took her cues from the body language and tone of the others.

"Ma'am?" she said quietly, and grabbed Livingston by the arm as though she might pull her away or usher her out of the room.

[Caystodd]

Livingston's eyes met Marias. The doctor was not afraid, but she was cautious so she took a step back at Maria's prompting.

 

"At this distance we are safe," she said. "I do not know much about physics, but those tracks aren't caused by x-rays." 

 

It wasn't much to offer in the situation, but this was not her field.

[Butchern]

On 8/12/2022 at 5:05 PM, Sir Lazeabout said:

"Extraordinary!" Malcolm breathes. "What could be causing this? We've ruled out radiation - perhaps some other manner of waves, then? Should we perhaps see what happens if we place an obstacle between the object and the chamber?"

"Good idea!" Thompson said. At Coupard's subsequent urging Thompson began looking around the carts that had been wheeled in for the lead aprons that were usually included.

 

22 hours ago, DogTheGoblin said:

Martin scanned the room for something that looked out of place, or was reacting the same. Something in one these many jars and containers could be the cause.  

Nothing in the room looked out of the ordinary . . . or, rather, everything looked out of the ordinary to Stone, but nothing looked like it had changed in the last minute. It was still the maze of science and samples. Only the Broder sample was glowing.

 

As Stone surveyed the walls his eyes fell on the window nearest to the door. On the sill of the window sat an enormous black bird. When Stone saw it, it pecked hard at the window and then flew away with a flutter of wings that was audible over the commotion of the room.

 

19 hours ago, matt_s said:

Grab a camera, quick! We may want to grab short and long exposures of the rock sample. If we have special film - the newfangled color stuff or even x-ray - let's put that to good use. 

Thompson was still looking for a lead barrier when Coupard hit him with a second task.

 

"Good idea!" he repeated and started to run out of the room to go get and setup a camera.

 

19 hours ago, matt_s said:

Thompson - do you recognize these tracks we are seeing? If it's new, do me a favor and put my name on the paper, hah!

"I don't!" Thompson called as he reached the door. "Very exciting!"

[thenucleus]

Kent has been totally bewildered by the last few minutes. He has always been a man of the moment and has never given much consideration to how things work, or why things are the way they are. He knows the night sky well, and can tell most edible berries and plants from those that can kill a man, but that's about the extent of his knowledge or interest in scientific matters. He had hoped to have his mind blown by this visit to the lab, but he has just become more and more confused with each development.

 

"I'm sure it is very exciting!" he says, looking to Thompson but addressing the room in general. "But would you mind explaining to a pleb like me what on earth is going on?"

[Sir Lazeabout]

Since Thompson has left Malcolm's suggested unfinished, Malcolm starts rummaging through the carts Thompson had been looking through. Lead is notoriously heavy - it shouldn't be hard to identify whether some metal plate is made of it.

[DogTheGoblin]

Nothing stood out to the reporter. Just a hoard of egghead paraphilia ranging from apparatus to samples, the staple snapshot from Science and Invention. Nothing that could possibly be forming the bridge between the rock and the chamber, meaning either two contrasting things. 

 

One, that whatever was happening within the chamber was directly linked to the rock. How or why would lead to his second point: whatever is happening here is way over his head. Would it be any surprise? When the man dipped his toes into the array of fields that science has established, he picked the ones that dealt with his fellow man. Perhaps that was the problem. Here he was, nodding along, pretending to understand what was going on, when really all he and his companions were probably doing was blowing out a simple and mundane explanation so out of portion that it even blinded their expert. 

 

This train of thought lead to nowhere. Afterall, - he reminded himself - this is for Mr Broder. He had to see it through. 

 

Martin gave the room another sweep over, just to make sure there wasn't anything, when he paused on a particular entity. A black bird, the biggest he had seen, sat upon the window sill. Looking in as if it were watching the commotion. As soon as Stone's eye fell upon the bird, the creature returned the look. The dark pits that stared back unnerved Martin, that he shot his back up straight when it began to tap the glass loudly. Only to fly away just as loud.

 

The reporter stood there a moment, a single question running through his mind. "What the hell was that about?" 

 

It must've have been attracted by the flickering glow of the rock. Thinking it was some kind of bauble. But to act so... oddly. He had never seen such behaviour from any bird. There was more important things to focus on for now, he'd bring it up later...

[Caystodd]

As the men jumped into action, Livingston moved out of the way to let them test their hypothesis and set up their additional equipment.

 

"We should be patient and let them work," Livingston said to Maria after hearing Kent's frustration, a frustration she shared but was suppressing. "They will explain when they have a moment."

 

Had this been a medical emergency, she would expected everyone to do the same for her.

[LaChupa]

Maria watched as one of the men ran out and the others began searching for something. ¿El plomo?

She nodded to Livingston and stood poised ready to help whomever looked like they needed another set of unskilled hands.

Edited August 16, 2022 by LaChupa (see edit history)

[Butchern]

On 8/14/2022 at 10:46 PM, thenucleus said:

"I'm sure it is very exciting!" he says, looking to Thompson but addressing the room in general. "But would you mind explaining to a pleb like me what on earth is going on?"

After a few moments, Thompson reappeared with a big camera on a stand in tow. He was struggling to get it in the door.

 

"A cloud chamber," he began, "is a way of detecting the presence of particles as they pass through the cloud of super-saturated alcohol. The tracks that appear in the cloud are the result of ionizing radiation, and physicists can examine the tracks to determine the type of particle present. Professor Coupard wanted to use this cloud chamber as a simple radiation detector to help determine what type of rock sample he has, but now the cloud chamber is behaving very strangely. It is detecting the presence of particles that it should not be detecting and leaving tracks that we cannot identify. Also, the mineral sample is glowing and pulsing in time with the chamber. Strange things happen in the physics lab, sometimes with no obvious explanation, but I've never seen anything like this. We try to document them all and study them to see what we can learn."

 

22 hours ago, DogTheGoblin said:

There was more important things to focus on for now, he'd bring it up later...

Maria sprang into action and helped Thompson get the camera inside and to its ideal location. Martin was there in a moment as well, helping with the setup. In short order, they were snapping pictures of the strange tracks in the cloud chamber and the glowing sample.

 

On 8/15/2022 at 2:22 AM, Sir Lazeabout said:

Since Thompson has left Malcolm's suggested unfinished, Malcolm starts rummaging through the carts Thompson had been looking through. Lead is notoriously heavy - it shouldn't be hard to identify whether some metal plate is made of it.

While the camera was being set, Malcolm found two large lead aprons on the second cart that had accompanied the cloud chamber. Before and between pictures, Malcolm, with some expert consultation from Thompson and Coupard, tried various configurations of the lead apron. When they positioned the aprons between the sample and the cloud chamber it appeared to have no effect. The tracks still pulsed, and the sample still glowed. Covering the sample entirely caused the sample to stop pulsing but didn't prevent the pulsing tracks from appearing in the cloud chamber. When the cloud chamber was entirely covered with the lead aprons, the pulsing stopped but the mineral sample continued to glow and pulse.

[DogTheGoblin]

The world carried on while Martin readjusted his mental fortitude back to normalcy. 

 

A smile formed on his face as they brought in a camera. Finally! Something he recognised! He approached to the two, reaching out towards the tripod and helped where he could to get the best angles and lighting of the subject at hand. It helped suppress that eerie moment he just beheld. "Here Professor, Miss González, allow me. Time I put those classes to use."   

[matt_s]

Outstanding work, Professor Thompson. Now as to what this means, perhaps we ought to develop that film once Martin here is through and maybe spend some time with the ol' books - if there even are books that could cover this occurrence. And of course my commendations to everyone else.

 

Tristan thinks for a moment.

 

How about we move the sample or the cloud chamber, whichever is easier, around the room. Both towards and away from each other, and in rotation. We can mark each location with chalk or tape as is convenient, and associate each location with any novel patterns or occurrences thus observed. Clearly there is some unknown coupling between the chamber and the sample, and a more varied experimentation could help us divine the pattern.

 

The bird is an awkward coincidence. Perhaps the rock disrupted the magnetic field that it used to navigate. Or perhaps something even stranger was at play....?

 

Quick, does anyone have a compass on them? Or maybe some iron filings or something electronic like a radio? Perhaps there is a magnetic disruption due to our sample here?

 

 

 

Edited August 18, 2022 by matt_s
added radio idea (and deleted the birb reference) (see edit history)

[Sir Lazeabout]

"Yes, a capital idea!" Malcolm says. "In fact, let us see what happens when we separate the two entirely."

 

He rubs his chin.

 

"Isolating either of them with lead makes the phenomenon stop for that object only," he says thoughtfully. "That seems to imply that they are in fact not affecting each other, but are both being affected by some third, unknown entity. And yet, the phenomenon only appeared once we brought them together. Most curious..."

[thenucleus]

Kent nods gratefully at Thompson's explanation. "Well it seems we have quite the mystery on our hands!" he claps, his face brightening. "Please continue, I won't pretend to know half of what is going on but I'm intrigued nonetheless!"

 

He is about to take a cigarette from his pocket, then remembers where he is and drops his hand.