This Will Indeed Be
A Little Gem
By
Mario V. Farina
Copyright 2016 Mario V. Farina
All Rights Reserved
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Mario V. Farina
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[email protected] The course of time shifted to slow motion when someone either jumped or fell from the platform at the Canal Street Station in New York City. There was chaos, yelling and milling around. Disliking unpleasantness, I edged away from the commotion. Since it was now obvious I was going to miss my train, I decided to do some shopping. That's when I saw it. It was a small object that looked like a man's ring. It was lying on the platform in plain view. There was a technical magazine lying near it. I was surprised no one had picked it up before me. Curious, I stooped, and took it in my hand. I saw that the object was not a man's ring, but some sort of a device that looked like a ring, but had buttons on it, and it seemed there was a purpose for those buttons.
The purpose of the thing was not obvious. I put it in my pocket intending to examine it more carefully when I got home. If it had any obvious use, I could try to return it. I also picked up the magazine and put it in my attaché case. It might have a connection with the device, I thought.
My name is Philip Stanton. I'm a Consultant at Chem Tech which has offices and labs on 15th Street in Troy, New York. I live only a few blocks from the office where I work. I'm a widower, fifty-seven, gray-haired, in good physical shape, and am of an adventurous nature. (I made a parachute jump last year!) I'm looking forward to retiring at sixty, so that I can spend time on the slopes in Colorado.
It was May 16. I had been in New York meeting with technicians from Arrow Labs. Returning to my home, I made dinner of chicken breast, asparagus, and potatoes. After eating, I washed the dishes, racked them, then sat in my recliner in front of the television set. I reached into my pants pocket, pulled out the device, and began examining it. "It's like a little gem," I mused.
I rotated the object in an attempt to deduce what it was. I saw something I had not seen before, a tiny lens near the first button. I could see no obvious use for lens or for the device, itself. I examined the three buttons and tried pressing them randomly. When I was done, I felt that I had not learned anything since nothing had happened at the time that I pressed the buttons.
I decided to try a more systematic series of experiments. Gingerly, I pressed the button that was closest to the lens and held it down for a couple of seconds. There was a dim green luminescence in the circular band. I felt a slight vibration, but could not determine its source. I decided that this button must be a sort of On/Off switch. I pushed it in and held it in for a few seconds. The luminescence went away. I pressed the button again and the luminescence came back. Yes, this must be an On/Off button.
Now that I knew the purpose of the first button, I needed to learn what the other two did. I pushed the second button in a bit and held it there for a full second. Immediately, there was a movement in my body that startled me! I released the button and the motion stopped. I pushed it slightly again. This time when I felt the movement, I did not release the button but pushed the button in a trifle more. I felt my body physically rise a few inches from the recliner!
Unnerved, I dropped the gadget into my lap. At the same time I fell back to the seat. For several minutes I sat and contemplated what had happened. How could my body have risen from the seat by my simply pushing a button on a little gadget? I picked up the gem from the recliner and tapped the On/Off button. The green light was extinguished. After a few seconds, I turned it back on, and turned the thing so that the buttons pointed straight up. Applying very little pressure, I pushed in the second button and held it in. Slowly, my body began to rise from the recliner. As it rose, my legs remained in the recline position. Conquering my panic, I continued to push the button a little deeper. When I had risen a bit, I released the button. I came to an immediate stop and hovered over the recliner.
Greatly awed, I turned the gem so that the buttons pointed straight ahead, then lightly pushed in the same button. As I had expected, I began moving forward slowly, leaving the recliner behind. I pushed a little more and found that the speed of my forward motion increased. I released the button, otherwise, I would have crashed into the television set. I hovered in place.
Feeling that I had learned a good deal, I began moving from side to side, up and down, forward and back. Finally, I maneuvered the thing in such a way that I could hover over the recliner. Releasing the button gradually, I eased myself back into the seat. All this activity had required a minute. It was time for reflection. What was this? Where had it come from? What was it for? These and other questions occurred to me, but there were no answers.
I resumed the experiments and practiced for half an hour. I found that it was easy to control the apparatus. I could float from ceiling to floor and vice versa. I could move from room to room. I could hover near appliances like the kitchen table and the television set. I learned that the third button was like an automatic pilot. Once in motion, pushing this button would keep me moving at the selected rate in the desired direction. Now, outdoor experimenting was needed.
It was about seven. It was still light, but I had to be circumspect. I put on a jacket, thrust the item in my pants pocket, opened the door, and walked to the Bronco. I drove to Prospect Park, and walked to the wooden rail that overlooks Troy. There was traffic on the streets forward and below, but this was half a mile distant. I could see no one. I took the gem from my pocket, turned it on, and pointed it upward. I pushed the second button, that I now referred to as the Propel button, and found myself moving upward about a foot a second. I pushed the button harder, and my rate of climb increased significantly. I saw that the harder I pushed the button, the faster I moved. I suspected it if I rammed it in as hard as I could, I would rise like a jet, but I was not ready to try that experiment. I had learned that subtle movements of the Propel and Auto buttons resulted in significant movements of my body. I also found that the device seemed to create a force field that surrounded me like an invisible balloon.
With another experiment, I found myself two or three hundred feet into the air and was suspended in place. I experienced a great deal of fright when the fact hit home that I was hanging in space without any apparent support. If whatever was holding me up failed, I would drop to earth within seconds and be killed.
Gathering courage, I began moving at various rates of speed. At first, they were are cautious five or ten feet per second but they increased to about fifty. I tried the Auto button and mastered it quickly. Next, I found that I could lean in various directions and turn slowly. This allowed me to survey everything around me. These experiments gave me a feeling of power and confidence. I now believed that I had fully mastered the controls and could operate the gem safely under all situations.
I did not know what powered the gem. Nor whether the power source needed to be replenished. Perhaps foolishly, I had begun to trust the device as if I had been using it for years.
I turned the gem toward Earth, pushed the Propel button slightly, and found myself descending toward Earth at a slow rate of speed. When I came to within a few inches of the ground, I released all of the pressure and came to a soft landing on a grassy area.
Now, I was ready for a high-speed experiment. Pushing the gem upward, I pushed the Propel button moderately hard and found myself risi
ng quickly. Within a few seconds, I was back to three hundred feet. I felt that I must rise a great deal more in order to avoid running into obstacles while in the high-speed test. I rose to about one thousand feet. The fear that I had conquered at three hundred feet returned, but dissipated quickly. I pointed the gem in the direction of Latham and counted down from three. At zero, I pressed the Propel button hard, held it there for a second, then released it. There was an instant burst of speed westward toward Latham. Though I had traveled for only a second, I felt a severe pain in my chest. It was as if I had hit a stone wall. I nearly blacked out, but recovered within a few seconds. My chest stung and my face felt hot. Instinctively I knew that the pain had been caused by traveling at a speed that was much too fast for my body.
Looking downward, I found myself directly over the Latham Circle. I knew that the circle must be about five miles from Prospect Park. As I floated over the circle watching the traffic flowing around it, I estimated that I had traveled at a rate of about 3600 miles per hour, but I knew that the gem was capable of much