2. 8:11pm, August 11, 2006. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio....
Bob Roberts runs over to the card table and says in a hushed voice, "Skipper, I think you should come see dis. The compass is spinning around like I've never seen!" The young Jamaican looks as if he can't decide if he's going crazy or if the ship is.
At the same moment, the radio program Igal had been listening to abruptly cut off, only to be replaced by a low static buzz.
Suddenly, light flickers dazzling around the ship, arcing up into the sky forming a multicolored dome of garish light. Everyone touching metal on the ships hull jumps back, zapped by what feels like static electricity.
"What the fuck is that?" says Al Armstrong, the first words he's said all night.
Johannes looks up and around .. "Und was hat das jezt fur eine Ursache...?"
Igal says :" if I were on a yacht near Cyprus I'd be sure a couple of nuke just detonated nearby, but here ? I'll be damned if I know what's up"
Demetrious says "No way. First that radio of yours would be fried 10 ways from Sunday,
not just giving static. Besides multicolored dome of light? No way it's a nuke. Oh for that matter I don't know of anything that could produce a dome of light like this."
Igal answers
"The nuclear explosion can interfere with short wave passing in the atmosphere, can't it ? But I agree, it can't be a nuke.
May be the magnetic poles has changed their places and we're seeing the Polar Radiance , Polar Shines - what's the proper English word for Aurora Borealis ? It can explain the radio and the compass, but I'm not sure the exchange can be instantaneous
Demetrios thinks to himself
"Ever catch that damn Canuck of a Yank I'll throw him head first to the lions. But that's insane"
Then he says aloud "Herr Baur. Would you mind helping me take some shots at this thing? I have the feeling they'll be of some interest. If there's a video camera as well..."
Morton jumps to his feet, the card game clearly over. "Igal, see to the passengers and make sure they're alright. Julia, come with me to the helm."
Morton, Julia, and Bob all run to the controls, to try and make some sense out of what just happened. There's no sign that the event, whatever it was, is over -- the sky and horizon are still obscured by the strange eldritch dome of lights.
Al turns to Igal, "You said something about a nuke - have you ever seen anything like this before?" Strangely, Al seems extremely excited rather than frightened by the dome.
"It's odd," says Al, "it's almost as if the dome was centered on us. It's low too."
Ted, his father, asks, "What do you mean?"
"The arc of the dome seems equal in every direction, but it's hard to say how far away it meets the sea. Above us it can't be more than a mile high, there are no clouds obscuring our view of it. It could be 10, 20, or even 40 miles across for all we know. I wonder if it runs underwater as well?"
Cap, have we got a Geiger counter, just in case ? You know, I'm quite a radiophobe - because why ? Because I've lived not so far away from Chernobyl ...
"I'm too talkative", thought Igal, "it's because I'm afraid, like I has been afraid in May of 1996 ... all those scary stories ... I've been sure I am going to die "
"Sorry, cap, don't pay attention to my words" said he aloud
"Relax, it can't be a nuclear explosion, it ridiculous ... you must not to be afraid" - told he to himself "you wasn't afraid under fire, so don't be afraid now, you're making a fool from yourself, stop it !"
It helped - a little.
Demetrios says "Moved of what? 40-50 degrees latitute at a stroke? Not happening and never happened before for that matter. Besides the Aurora is not
creating a spheroid sell from sea to sky and back to sea like this thing..."
Johannes saya "that would be hard to say with an aurora - i once saw one near Kiruna where i would have sworn it was only 15 meters above our heads .." ..
"perhaps a really massive solar storm with a massive coronal mass
ejection .."
Al grins and says, "Cool." Placing his iPod's earbuds back in place,
he sits down on one of the deck chairs, watching the light display
above the ship.
Demetrios reminds : "Johannes, photographs? Not often that you find yourself in a hollow sphere of plasma that size...or any size."
"And we'll leave aside how one could be created in the first place"
Johannes replies:"Of course I photograph .. at least this will give us some permanent record .. "
Johannes fitts a fisheye lens to his camera and starts taking shots on
full auto, slowly circling around .. the camera goes beep-click, beep
-click about every second ..
Demetrios says
"Insane or not, it looks like it. If there is even a chance in 10,000 what's better inside or outside? Assuming the barrier can be crossed of course should it be a barrier and should this be what it can't be. Well inside I suppose. That's a no brainer given the choices."
Quietly to Igal
"If this thing doesn't go away in short order, some here might freak out. Especially if there is no explanation. So if I were you I'd be sooing as many as possible to their cabins. Now got to pester the captain for a bit."
Igal took himself under control and nodded : "Yes, the Cap already has
given an order"
Igal said very loudly : "Lady and gentlemen, descent to your cabins
immediately, the foul weather is in offing, we need to batten the
hatches just now, not a minute to be lost !"
The passengers grudgingly begin to gather up their stuff and head below
"Cap, do we need to lower all sails ?" - asks Igal
"Yes, that's a good idea, see to it. We don't know what else is in store for us and it's best not to get caught with our pants down."
Johannes secures his camera in a safe spot .. looking around at the sea ..
"Igal .. do you need help ..?"
Igal looks around .No wind or waves, in fact the air is completely calm and the seas don't seem to be any more choppy than they were before.
"Sure, at fist we need to take in main-gafftopsail, so just clap on to that line, and tally and belay right aft, will you now ?
"Nema problema .." .. Johannes identifies the line Igal is pointing to and starts paying out the Main-Gafftoppsail halyard .. keeping an eye out to the sea and weather ..
"sure looks quiet out there .. "
Still with a little smile and chuckling Peter puts down the cards and walk quietly to my cabin. "I have some personal things to sort out. Just in case..."
Demetrios enters the cabin after Morton
"No signals get I suppose? This thing could be a sheath of plasma I suppose, we'll leave aside how it got created for the moment, which explains the radio silence. But if I'm right I'd be keeping the ship a close to the center of this sphere as you can. Unless you want all your electronics fried out..."
Morton looks up as Demetrios speaks. "You're an electrical engineer, right? Come take a look at this." Morton indicates the ship's radar, which seems to be saying that the ship is in the middle of solid object. Bob Roberts is scanning the channels on the ship's radio, but all of them have identical static. "Any ideas what's going on? Don't worry about me taking the ship anywhere that thing either. I didn't like the way we all got zapped when it appeared. As it's I can't tell if the equipment's been damaged and it's malfunctioning, or if the dome is something really weird."
After taking a look at radar and radio "From a cursory look I'd say radar works fine. So does the radio. So for that matter seems to do about every single electrical and electronics device aboard the ship. Now per the radar we are inside a hollow sphere of radar reflecting material. Oh for that matter could tend to mean we are inside what's for practical purposes a Faraday cage several miles across.
Now what it may be...I'll tell you first what it can't be. Not large scale EMP, no nuclear explosion of any kind, not the aurora borealis migrating 50 degrees south, not spherical lightening, not the largest solar fare since creation. Oh I suppose it could be a hollow plasma sphere so to speak as I told you before but here the reflectivity comes to play. IMS if this thing up there, was plasma by the colors it shows it should be absorbing radar EM frequencies not reflecting them that strong, not to mention how in creation it would come to being in the first place... in short no natural or man made phenomenon I can think off the top of my head.
So for the time being and just between you and me I'll go for the "something really weird. In that category there where a couple speculative fiction stories describing something short of like this but I wouldn't willingly call them anything near plausible...normally."
"This is really strange, I've never seen anything like it," said Julia. "The engine is working fine, I guess between the electronics and the compas it's purely an electromagnetic phenomenon. I wonder if we're the only ones affected, or if there are other domes like this."
John says,"The Canaries aren't that far away, I'm sure the Spanish authorities will send something to check it out. I'm more worried about how long we'll be stuck in here. We've got food and water for weeks if need be, but I'm going to be very worried if this is still happening in the morning."
Demtrios says "One is bad enough as far as I am concerned. Occam's razor. Not a natural phenomenon, not one seen or known before. Not anything remotely possible to be human made. What options does this leaves us with? And something out there that perfectly reflects the radar. I'd question whether radars can see inside the sphere any more than we can see outside. Open question if anything can cross, unscathed at least, too."
He smiles
"If you want the extreme completely wild speculation explanation, this could just as well be the inside of the event horizon in an Einstein-Rosen bridge. The fireworks outside, radar reflection et all would not be contradicting it. But as long as there is a more... rational explanation..."
John Morton shrugs. "I don't know what an Einstein-Rosewhatever is, I just want it to go away. I'll leave the job of figuring out what it was to the experts."
Bob Roberts chuckles suddenly. "You know, I'm just happy dat we're not in the Bermuda Triangle. Then I be thinking we *really* in trouble if I see this happening!"
Demetrios smiles again :
"Naw. As far as I know the triangle isn't any more prone to mysteriously disappearing ships than any other place on the surface of the planet. Or so claimed the research I had read on the matter.
Now if you don't need me right away I think I'll go have a look at this thing out there. If you need me or anything just call.
Oh and captain. You can as easily say wormhole instead of Einstein-Rosen bridge. Not entirely accurate but good enough. Not that I'd believe the thing out there can really be one."
Igal enters the cabin and reports : All is shipshape and in Bristol fashion, Captain. Sails are furled, double lifelines are stretched between bow and stern, all hatches except the last are battened, the sea anchor is ready