Prophets for the End of Time| Chapter | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Prophets for the End of Time
Roland, who did all the cooking and cleaning, set aside his mop and greeted Henri Elobert at the breakfast table. As usual.
"Good morning, Henri," he said with his bright smile and empty eyes, eyes which never seemed to fully connect and left Henri with the feeling Roland was studying his neck.
"Good morning, Roland." Henri stood, stretched upward, and clapped a hand on the janitor’s shoulder, returning the smile. It was a ritual, this morning greeting; Henri, who had only six years of age, liked Roland very much, almost as much as he liked old Dr. Elobert himself. The two of them, Henri and Roland, had performed this greeting ritual for as long as Henri could remember. The few times Henri had stayed in his bed chambers sick, perhaps with influenza or a sore throat, Dr. Rousas had been in an uproar the next day, complaining that Roland kept walking away from his daily chores to stare down the cafeteria hallway, waiting.
"Beautiful day, no?" Roland asked.
"Oui, c’est belle." Of course, Henri did not know whether the day was beautiful or not; he rarely was allowed outside the compound, and never by himself. But this was the way he and Roland always did the greeting.
"It does not seem as if it will rain, does it?"
"Not at all, Roland."
"No, it certainly does not."
"Certainly not."
Roland took his mop and slushed a final wide arc across the red and black mottled tiles of the cafeteria. He then proceeded to wash his hands in the side-wall sink before preparing Henri’s breakfast. "So," said Roland, as always, "how is all the studying?"
"Mesmerizing."
Roland nodded, and said, "Good, good." Henri had always been curious what it was Roland thought "mesmerizing" meant.
"Oh," Roland said, a very dim glimmer coming to those absent eyes, "Dr. Rousas was looking around for Dr. Elobert this morning. Have you seen Dr. Elobert? Dr. Rousas looked very upset."
A tautology, Henri thought, to say Dr. Rousas looked upset. He realized their greeting ritual had just been skewed by a variable, and a variable introduced by Dr. Rousas at that.
Henri felt uncomfortable. He, much like Roland, preferred his days to be typical: rise at 7:00 and wash himself clean; eat breakfast at 7:30 after greeting Roland; practice math studies with Dr. Rousas from 8:00 to 10:30; do microbiological and biochemical lessons with Dr. Bernardin from 11:00 to 13:00; eat lunch from 13:00 to 14:00 with Dr. Elobert—kind, old Dr. Elobert, whose second name was the same as Henri’s—and then go with Dr. Elobert right into lessons on microphysics and applications; and finally, from 16:30 to 19:00, in with Dr. LeFavre to do studies in astrophysics and cosmology. After that, dinner with the doctors, discussion of the day’s studies, and back to his sleeping chambers by 21:00.
That had been Henri’s typical schedule for as many of his six years as he could remember. Today, he feared, was not going to be typical, and that made him nervous.
After breakfast he walked to Dr. Rousas’ study room. Dr. Elobert was there. The two doctors were yelling at each other, so they did not notice right away that Henri had entered.
"If you have lost faith in the project, just say so, and you are free to resign!" That was Dr. Elobert.
"I have not lost faith in it!" Dr. Rousas shouted back. "I am simply relating to you the concerns of the Société. We have worked for three years here, and there is concern that we will never generate revenue to justify the investment."
"This is long-term!" Dr. Elobert punched his fist on Dr. Rousas’ desk. "They knew results would be a decade in coming."
Dr. Rousas began pacing in front of the chalkboard. He ran his hand over the bald spot in the middle of his head. "We cost a lot, Javier," he said in a smoother tone. "A great deal."
That was when Dr. Rousas saw Henri. He stopped pacing. Dr. Elobert also turned and looked. Henri wondered if it was bad not to have told them he had been standing there. He was going to say he was sorry. Dr. Elobert walked over and put his hand on Henri’s shoulder, so Henri realized that he was not in trouble.
"Generate revenue," Dr. Elobert said to Dr. Rousas in a quite angry voice. "Fine. If that will appease them, fine." Then he said to Henri, "Sit down, please."
"I have my mathematical studies right now, Dr."
"Not today, child. Today we generate revenue."
Henri did not know what that meant, but he was too anxious about the sudden schedule change to ask any questions. Dr. Rousas sat down also and rested his chin on his hand.
"Fiber optics, Henri. Laser communication. Have we discussed the topic?"
"The doctors have discussed it often at dinner," Henri said. "I have never been asked to join the discussion."
For the next two hours, Dr. Elobert explained the nature of a laser source transmitting photonic signals through the core of glass fibers. He detailed the process of signal encoding by opto-electronic controller hardware, and final reception of the signals by a similar opto-electronic decoder.
"The problem is attenuation; the laser signal grows weaker over long distances. Solve the problem, Henri. How can the glass fiber be modified to produce reliable transmission over great distances?"
"If you please," said Henri, "why would there be a need to transmit over long distances? No point inside the compound is more than a kilometer in distance from any other point."
Drs. Rousas and Elobert glanced at each other.
"We work with a theoretical situation, Henri. Solve the problem."
Henri nodded. "Then if you please, Dr., I believe you wish to first consider not glass purity, but a flaw in your initial structure. You do not want to use simple laser light broadcast."
Henri spent the next three hours explaining how a light-emitting diode would be preferable to pure laser, sending a less focused but more stable photonic signal with decreased attenuation, provided that 1) the fiber core be increased from Dr. Elobert’s theoretical 8 microns to Henri’s suggested 50 microns, and 2) the light emitting diodes broadcast at a wavelength from 800 to 850 nanometers. This did not mean, of course, that laser light was not an option, or that glass purity need not be improved. This was simply Henri’s quickest solution to the attenuation problem.
They worked through lunch. Dr. Elobert took copious notes. Dr. Rousas checked Henri’s math but found no errors. By 16:30, Henri had countered all their arguments and constructed on the chalkboard a practical schematic of a LED source fiber optic communication system, along with supporting equations. He felt very hungry.
Dr. Elobert thrust his notes into Dr. Rousas’ hands. "There," he said, and Henri could tell Dr. Elobert was still angry after all these hours. "Tell your precious Société to sell this to Bell or Corning or AT&T or whomever the hell they want. It is worth a few million, I suppose."
Dr. Rousas was pale.
"If you please," said Henri, "could we return to our schedule tomorrow?"
Dr. Elobert smiled and rubbed his hand through Henri’s hair. Henri felt warm. He really liked Dr. Elobert and was distressed that the doctor was so angry today.
"Yes, Henri," Dr. Elobert said. "Tomorrow we will return to schedule."
Henri smiled now, too, and he felt calmer than he had all day. Perhaps it was not right to feel confused by unscheduled changes. Perhaps, like the laser light, his own tight focus would cause attenuation.
But Henri’s whole world covered just a few square kilometers. He did not need to travel as far as beams of light.
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