The Unanswered

David Mann spent his last night on Earth looking up to the stars.  He, like so many before, always felt a pull to those distant twinkling orbs.  For some, the night sky makes people feel insignificant, but it filled David with questions, not the romantic sort he was content to leave unanswered.  David had to know.  He needed the answers.  In pursuit of those answers, he spent the entirety of his life.  The more he learned of theoretical physics and astronomy, the more questions he had. 

After a few drinks, on his 30th birthday, he left his friends in his favorite bar to get a few minutes with his girlfriend Michelle, to gaze into the cosmos. She was always second fiddle to the night sky, and she knew it, but she also knew he loved her deeply.  They sneaked away often to steal a glance up, and she loved every moment of it.  He would point to a speck of light and speak with such passion about a star being consumed by a black hole, or a nebula giving birth to protostars.  Destruction and creation.

That night was different.  From his body language, she could tell something was bothering him. His eyes, reflecting the stars, no longer had the same hunger for knowledge.  After some prodding, David confessed to no longer being satisfied with the theoretical answers.  To him, theory became no more than looking up and asking the questions.  “I don’t understand,” she asked him.  He replied, “If I were to teach you how to ride a bike—I know you know how, but pretend you don’t.  If I were to teach you how to ride a bike, I could explain to you the physics of balance, and centrifugal force, and the mechanics.  You can learn all about it, but at some point—at some point, you’d have to get on the bike and give it a try.  At some point you have to ride.”

They got married later that year.  A small wedding.  A family and close friends type of event.  A new chapter in both of their lives, but for David, it wasn’t the only new start.  He had begun learning new expertise.  Over the next decade, he created advancements nobody thought possible.  Their second anniversary coincided with his breakthrough in a new, clean, abundant energy source, so they celebrated both the same night.  What took David two years to create would take scientists the next decade to understand and replicate.  It would have been a quicker process if David bothered explaining the science, but he wasn’t particularly interested in helping the world.  All he wanted to do was kick over the box and drag out all the answers to the questions he saw in the stars.  

Narrow as his focus might have been, it was not singular.  He still had an innate ability to know when Michelle needed a hug, and an ear.  They even found time for their friends.  Every Friday, at 9pm, they would meet Mike, Sara, Danny, and Heather at the bar for a chat and a drink.  Mike was the Sheriff of their small town, and his wife Sara was a nurse at the hospital in the next town over.  Danny was a farmer, and his wife Heather ran their produce stand.  None of them were intellectual giants, but they were good company.  David thought it a nice distraction, and needed the routinized blowing off steam.  

As David's work advanced over the years, he gradually stopped reporting his discoveries to the world.  He got tired of scientists showing up to ask him about his miracle generator, so he put up a fence to stop them from showing up at his house, but they managed to hunt him down at the weekly trip to the bar.  It was more fun when a random scientist showed up at the bar, after all, the local Sheriff was at his table.  Mike would flash his badge, cite some nonexistent local ordinance, and scare them off.    The group enjoyed watching the scientists squirm, scared off by the big, bad Sheriff.  It worked, almost without fail.

The one exception was a scientist by the name of Walter Pace.  He showed up week after week, quietly drinking and observing.  Mike spotted him in the first week, the lone stranger surveying their group.  He leaned over so only David could hear, “I think we have another Generator Jerry.  Blue shirt at the bar.  Want me to get rid of him?”  David craned his neck to get a good look at the guy, and after a moment, he smiled.  Leaning back in to Mike, he replied, “That’s Walter Pace.  He spent twenty years developing sodium cooled nuclear reactors.  Everyone thought it would be the safer, next generation reactor.  Atomic energy without the risk.  After two decades, he concluded it would never work.  Two weeks later, I gave the world my reactor.”

”After all that time working toward solving the world’s energy problems, and you just dumped a better answer on his lap.  Poor guy probably hates you.  Maybe he’ll shoot you.”

“You don’t spend your career trying to heal the world and believe in violence.  No, lets see what he does.”

So the group continued on, and every week, there was Walter, quietly enjoying a drink. Not bothering anyone.  On the seventh week, David finally started feeling bad.  When the bar freed up next to Walter, he finished his drink, stood, and announced it was his round.  Walter perked up a bit when he realized David was standing next to him, waiting patiently for the bartender.  After asking for another round, David pointed over at Walter and added, “and another for Walter here.”  Again Walter perked up, and said “Thank you, David.”  

“I was sorry to hear about the sodium cooled reactor, you put your life into that.  What are you working on now?”

“This newer tech, it's called The Mann Reactor.”

“Damn, they put my name on it.”

“What did you think they’d call it?  They still don’t understand it.”

“I don’t know, something a bit sexier.”

“What do you call it?”

“The reactor.”

“You know, some people think you stumbled upon it.  It was an accident.  And you don’t want to explain it because you don’t know how it works.”

“It creates a self-sustaining pocket universe and is able to extract virtually unlimited power through a bridge.  The bigger the bridge, the more power it can extract.  In theory, a large enough bridge could power the whole world.”

“You do know, fuck.  So what?  You create a power source capable of powering the world for the rest of human history, and you just—just that’s it, you did your part?”

“I didn’t make it to save the world, but—I realized it could.”

The drinks arrived, and David thanked the bartender.

“Come on Walt, help me out with carrying these drinks, and join us.  The world will still be here tomorrow, and if you come by my ranch, I’ll give you my notes.”

Walter did join them, and he let himself forget about saving the world, for one night.  The next day, David met him at the gate to his ranch, handed over his notes on the Mann Reactor, and wished him luck.  Ultimately, Walter figured out the technology, and solved the world's energy problems.  David kept working.  His goal was to answer the unanswerable questions.

The years passed, and a few months after David’s 42nd birthday, Mike, Sara, Danny, and Heather found themselves at the bar on Friday night just a foursome.  After a full hour passed, Sara checked her watch, and asked the group, “Did anyone call?” replied Danny, “I called and texted.  Nothing.”

“That’s out of character,” said Mike pensively, “We should go check on him.”  “I’m sure it's fine.” Danny shot across the table.  

“Well, last night Old Lady Allen called in and reported a bright light in the direction of Dave’s house.  Said it was a UFO.  Now, she’s always been a bit batty, but he’s doing some serious science up there.”

“Alright, why don’t you girls stay here, we’ll go check, and let you know.”

As they stood up to leave, Sara grabbed her husband’s wrist, and made him promise to be careful.  He promised, and told her not to worry.

The two of them hopped in Mike’s truck and drove out to Dave’s ranch in the middle of nowhere.  The door was unlocked, but nobody was home.  Leaving the house out the back door, they followed a path to David’s palatial shed.  From the inside, it looked like an airplane hanger with a clean floor and fancy looking tools neither of them could identify.  A large amount of floor space was empty, and a massive door was left open.  They looked around.  In respect, and a little fear, they were careful not to touch anything. Slowly, they made for the giant doors, and as they got closer, noticed a crater in the field.

They walked to the rim and looked down, looked down a long way.  Over 50 feet down and 100 feet wide.  The soil on the bottom and the sides was freshly disturbed, and slightly charred.  It was clearly made recently.

“Jesus Christ, Mike, what happened here?”

“I don’t know.”

Mike's phone beeped.  He pulled it out and saw a text from Sara, it read, “Last night was the second anniversary of Michelle’s death.  We forgot.  Mike, please tell me he’s okay?”  He put his phone away, and glanced over at Danny.  

“Did you remember last night was the anniversary of Michelle’s death?”

“Fuck! —No.  What did he do?  

“Who knows, maybe he blew himself up, or maybe,” he looked up into the night sky, “maybe he’s up there somewhere like he’s always told us.  Maybe he’s on some distant planet, looking up at us.  A tiny pinprick of light in an alien sky.”