PiNK

"Robot E95, may you please bring me to quadrant 716 of my library? I am in need of researching more of the Russian language before my trip," Alexandre commanded with his British accent. He was sitting in his crystal chair, drawing a picture of his newly found atom.  

"Yes my good sir, shall I assist you with anything else for the journey?" the small blue box with two little red feet replied.

"No, I shall just need to do research thank you." Alexandre said as he stepped onto the transportation platform with his burgundy robes flowing down his back 10 feet behind him.

As the robot pressed the green button on the control panel, the transportation pad started to float, and elevated Alexandre up through his mile long mansion that towered into the sky. This mansion was constructed like an ancient Italian cathedral, with thousands of rooms dedicated to reading and study. Once he finally reached his destination, he grabbed a book on the Russian language from the shelve and sat down in a comfy leather sofa to read. He studied like his life depended on it. Before traveling to Russia, he wanted to speak the language perfectly in order to not sound like a "disgusting commoner," a word that floated around in his mind a lot when thinking about others. He was the type of person who wanted to have higher standards than everyone else. He felt that being as rich and powerful as he was, acting like everyone else would be embarrassing.

After studying for hours on end, he knew for sure that he was ready to meet the Russian leader and talk to him about a harvesting plant deal on the Bolshevik Island. Speaking the language perfectly would allow him to land this deal for sure. So he went to bed confident in what he would do tomorrow. However, the next morning he quickly sat up from bed and started panting uncontrollably.

As he tried to pull himself together, he whispered, "Ah, that dream was nonsensical. I would never in my life do such a bloody act that would land me in jail!  I am too smart for that!"

"Why was I dreaming of such rubbish?  I must not feel intimidated as I travel today.  I am much stronger than that,” he later muttered as he slipped on his royal purple robes. After getting dressed, he called robot 3C4L to bring him his green v-shaped flying car. The flying car engaged and rushed down through the halls and libraries of the mansion until it arrived at his dressing room. He hopped on and flew to the transport garage as the massive portal doors opened to allow him passage into the busy sky highways. He engaged the on-board computer and he was off to Moscow with an assurity that he would land his new deal.  He smiled as looked at the small dashboard and saw that he was flying at 1500 km per hour, his new top speed in his latest designs of flying cars. As he traveled from England, he passed over many different countries that seemed huge and gigantic from his position in the upper atmosphere.

“Wow,” he said under his breath, “all of this land, all of this wilderness, all of this water, and especially all of these people. It is amazing how much area civilization has expanded.”

A few hours passed and Alexandre was finally overseeing the OKO tower, the tallest building in Moscow. However, the meeting place he was going to was a tall blue cylindrical building to the north. This was the new flagship building that the Russian government used for diplomatic discussions. As Alexandre descend into the skyways, he passed many people staring at him from the balconies of nearby buildings and other flying cars.  Alexandre loved the fact that he was famous in almost all parts of the world.

Alexandre landed with a swoosh on top of the building and continued to exit out of his flying car. There was an entrance to an elevator a short distance away. Alexandre walked up to the elevator and pressed the button to travel down to the 85th floor. The elevator was entirely made out of glass and fashioned down the side of the building. Although Alexandre designed the technology and the building mechanics to be able to construct buildings so tall, being up this high was a big stretch for him. Over the years, he perfected his ability to hide his  slight acrophobia since he feared the criticism of others more than he feared heights.

As he arrived at the correct floor, he found a group of five tall men dressed in black waiting for him in a  small hallway. They asked Alexandre for his passport and identification, speaking entirely in Russian. Alexandre gave them the details and then had a thorough weapons

and bomb search. After the search was done, he was free to enter the room. As he entered, the ruler of Russia, Mishka Roma, was in the middle of a heated discussion with a short German man. Mishka glanced away from the man and saw Alexandre with his robes stretching behind him has he exited the elevator.

Mishka quickly said, “ich werde später mit dir reden (I will talk to you later),” to the German who quickly arose from his chair.  He turned around and saw Alexandre and proceeded to exit the room in a hurry.

“Привет-(hello),” Alexandre tried to say before he was cut off.

“Hello my friend!” said Mishka in the loudest, booming Russian accent Alexandre ever heard.

“S-sir,” Alexandre stuttered after listening to Mishka speak, “I speak very good-”

“No matter my friend, I know all of the European languages. Now, about this deal you have, I love it. It allows the Russian people to expand into Siberia! The more Russia can produce, I can see it now my friend!” Mishka yelled as he smashed his large fist on the table.

“However, I think we may have a problem, your transportation things, how do you say in English?”

“Fl-” explained Alexandre.

“Flying cars! HAHA, thank you my friend! We need you to give us thousands, or millions of these cars to transport the materials to us at the mainland of Moscow.”

“My good sir, I love your nation, the people, the sights, the land. I know that some of my work has even been used in your everyday lives. But, I am not sure if I can supply any more of what I have for free.” Alexandre said in a softer voice than he usually had.

“You must my friend, or no deal,” countered Mishka.

“You can’t talk to me like that sir, I, too,  should have a place in this deal,” demanded Alexandre.

“My country, my people - MY rules!” Mishka yelled with his booming voice, “Проваливай (get out)!”

Two security guards lifted Alexandre from his chair and threw him into the elevator.  As the doors slid together, Mishka returned to his business without a second glance at Alexandre.  Alexandre travelled home feeling discriminated and was furious that he was treated like a commoner! He landed his flying car in his transport garage and headed up the elevator to his private living quarters.

The next day, Alexandre jumped out of his bed and yelled, “I will not tolerate such treatment!  I am so rich that I could own half of Mishka’s  national  economy. But no, he wanted to step all over me.  I should not have to settle with what others are willing to give.  No!  This world has much more to offer me and my business and I will simply take it if they don’t want to give it to me.”

Alexandre picked up his pen and one of his old notebooks and quickly sketched an atom on the first piece of paper he could find.  “That’s it!” he thought.   He then took his transport pad to his well stocked science lab as quickly as he could. Alexandre loved working in his lab.  Time had a way of flying by while he was creating and it seemed like he would never come out.  “Yes,” he muttered, “I will always take whatever I want, just because I can.”

Meanwhile, in a far away land, Calvin Robins knew that the bell would ring sometime soon, and that wasn’t a good thing.

"Need something Mr. Rob?” Ms. Flores, the high school physics teacher, snickered as Calvin was sprinting down the school hallway.

“I need something all right” Calvin said as he turned around.

Calvin finally saw the door to classroom 2002. He quickly grabbed onto the doorknob and stepped into the classroom just as the tardy bell rang. He awkwardly got into his seat, almost landing on the arm rest as he fell into the chair. He even heard one girl laughing in the back of the classroom.

“He-hello class,” Calvin stuttered as he tried to speak, “I am terribly sorry for being late, I was stuck in the Manhattan traffic. Now, this class we have a new exchange student from England named Lucius. Why don’t you talk about yourself and what you like to do Lucius?”

“Hello everyone, I come from the London area of England, and I love to photograph everything around me. I also like to play a lot of video games, as well.” Lucius nervously explained as he stood up and turned around from his seat in the front of the class.

"Welcome to chemistry class. Well, my name is Calvin Robins and I will be your-” began Calvin.

“Calvin Robins? As in - uh, Alexandre Robins’ brother?” stuttered Lucius.

“Yeah, but I-”

“That’s AMAZING! What is it like being related to him? Are you rich, too? Why are you working as a teacher?” questioned Lucius.

"Please stop interrupting me Lucius,” chided Calvin.

“Sorry, but he is my idol. And he is really famous in the UK and everywhere else around the world,” Lucius explained.

“Yeah, I know he is to lots of people,” Calvin sighed having given people this talk many different times, “I am really proud of my brother and what he has done with his career. He is a really great person.  He has helped third world countries double their economy and increase jobs throughout the world. And if you were going to ask, no, you can’t meet him. Frankly, I never see him. There are only a few things that he does. He is either reading about something, inventing some new machine, or talking with a president of a country. He never commits any time to anything else that seems ‘unproductive’ to him. Although, whatever he does has been working.”

“Anyway,” Calvin finally said, “let’s start discussing the subject of today’s class.”

On his subway ride home later in the day, Calvin thought about Lucius and wondered, “Do I really seem like that to people? Just Alexandre’s brother? Either people must see right around me, or they don’t even see me at all. I feel like I have lived in Alexandre’s shadow all of my life.  Can I make a difference in the world, too?”

He walked up to his tall New York apartment building in Manhattan and told the man at the counter his room number. He pressed a button and a floating platform came up from the ground. Calvin stepped on, and it quickly transported him up through a tube in the middle of the building. As he came closer to  his apartment, the platform almost ‘rubber banded’ and missed his door by

going higher. It corrected itself and made sure he could get off safely at his apartment door. “What a faulty design,” he muttered. As he stepped through the door,  he saw his red and white painted apartment with dirty clothes thrown all around and  empty pizza boxes lying turned over on the floor. Being exhausted from another tough day as a teacher, he made his way through his messy front room and slid down onto his soft, old leather couch. He couldn’t stop thinking about what has been happening with other people and his brother's popularity. He thought about calling his brother to see how he was doing. He grabbed his cell phone from his pocket. He tried calling a few times but got no response. However, he knew that Alexandre was a busy man and may not be able to talk to him. So, he understood.  Calvin decided just to watch TV on his 3D projector, yet another thing his brother invented. When he first turned it on he saw a news broadcast.

“A war is commencing in the world,” the lady in the broadcast stated in a worried tone, “the richest man in the world or Alexandre Robins has designed a new atom, X , or Xium. This element is incredibly powerful and has many capabilities. I have the famous chemist Doug Brown here to discuss the ramifications of such a dangerous element.

Calvin’s eyes popped open as he began to understand what his brother had invented.  Knowing Alexandre as he did, Calvin knew that although he had a brilliant mind, his brother held onto animosity when he was offended. He stood in wonder and fear of what would happen.

“Hello everyone,” Doug announced,”this new atom that was created has been theorized but has never became an actual thing. This atom has an insane reaction with carbon, an element that is found in all living things. It forms XC, a chemical compound that freezes normal  bodily reactions of living things, turning them into goo monsters who can then be manipulated.  The goo monsters can then spray atom X on others.  Alexandre can manipulate the goo monsters by firing  electrons through all of the XC compounds. This means that he can use mind and body control on any living thing X touches. He also has manufactured a large supply of atom X, and built a huge generator that propels a steady electron stream. With this generator, the atoms can be formed infinitely, and because these atoms interact with living things, this contraption could technically cover the earth. Reports say that this is what Alexandre is trying to do.

“We are warning the world to be prepared.  If Alexandre is successful, atom X will cover the whole entire world with black goo at an alarming rate. Scientists are still researching this atom and this chemical compound and will get back to everyone once this has been sorted out.”

Calvin was shocked. He loved his brother and he thought he was an amazing man. But he didn’t understand. Why would Alexandre do something like this in the first place? What could cause a perso-. Then he figured it out.

“If he is the richest man in the world, he would want to gain more power, and get a bigger economic increase for his businesses. However, he can’t always build new power plants or harvesting plants wherever he wants. He must negotiate with other countries. More power plants means more money, an increase in people working for him, more land, more control, and more fame.” he thought.

Calvin stayed up all night thinking about his brother. Considering that he grew up the Alexandre, he knew how he thought.   The two brothers went through almost everything together and grew close as children and teenagers. Therefore, Calvin can predict lots of things that go through Alexandre’s mind. Although, almost too many things go through his mind, considering how smart and knowledgeable he is.

The next day, Calvin got up from his unmade bed and got dressed in his work clothes, just a plain white shirt and slacks. He ate some pancakes and drank a banana smoothie before going to work. Throughout this whole entire time, he couldn’t stop thinking about one thing: how could he stop his brother. He went down the circular elevator that was in the middle of the building and traveled down to the first floor.  Surprisingly, it worked properly today.

Everybody in the lobby was talking about Alexandre and what he was trying to do. People were terrified at the thought of what might happen. Calvin knew people feared uncertainty and he also knew that his brother could design new types of molecules and atoms in his state-of-the-art laboratory. He also knew that some of the atoms and molecules he made have been extremely weak.

Many times, Alexandre’s atoms are not stable, considering how many neutrons they have. In some cases, the number of electrons is much greater than what it should be in order to stabilize them. However, he has found a way to abuse these flaws in his chemical structures. He knows that if the atom is unstable it  will have different properties than before, and it will want to get rid of whatever instability it has. He has found a way to harvest energy in this way and use it to power many of his inventions. However, if atoms and molecules were tampered with on a molecular level, they could easily be overpowered and destroyed. As Calvin was walking to the subway, he thought about creating a chemical compound or another atom entirely that would be able to exploit Alexandre’s flaws in his new atom X.

When Calvin finally got to school, he quickly found his way to room 2002. As he was about to reach for the doorknob of his classroom, he instantly heard tons and tons of talking, more than usual. He finally opened the door and stepped in. Instantly, he heard a voice coming from the middle of the classroom where the students had be huddled together talking.

The voice said in a soft tone, “Your brother Calvin, why would he do something like this to the world? Yesterday we were talking about how great your brother was and how cool it was to be his brother.”

“Well,” Calvin said, “he is not perfect after all. He wants to be the most famous, economically powerful ruler there is. So he wanted to take more land and be able to have more and more harvesting plants in hundreds of countries around the world. However, he isn’t always able to successfully negotiate with leaders of foreign countries.  Alexandre feels that everyone should agree with him.  Yet, he doesn’t realize that others have ideas, desires, and  rights, too.”

“So he did this because of his greed?” questioned a student.

“Yes, but I think I know a way to stop him.” Calvin said as he went on to explain about Alexandre’s flaws with his atoms and molecules.

“How do you know this, though?” another voice asked from the back of the room.

“We worked together on most of his early inventions. I knew that there were always a ton of flaws with his designs and he never wanted to fix them. So, he found a way to exploit the flaws and make the molecules and atoms stronger and more powerful than they

already were. In his new atom X,  he has really tampered with protons and electrons to make this atom incredibly unstable. This design has only been theorized, but has never actually been completed. The only way that these atoms are not able to collapse is because they are being held together by a constant flow of electrons, meaning that he has to have a constant power source.  No person has attempted what Alexandre has done because they are afraid of creating an atom with these destructive qualities.”

“Why did he make this exact type of atom?” A girl asked from a desk in the front row.

“This theoroetical design has over 1000 protons and 1000 neutrons. However, because of the size of this atom, it makes it extremely unstable compared to other atoms. Still though, to completely stop it, we do need to stop the power source that supplies the flow of electrons through this substance. I just need to figure out how to do this.”

“Can we help you figure it out, sir?” A voice said in the middle of the classroom.

Calvin looked around, sighed, then softly stated, “No.”

“Why can’t-”

“That’s final,” Calvin commanded.

The conversation ended shortly and the chemistry class began. During the lunch break, Calvin stood at the classroom  window watching his students.  “These kids are brilliant. They are the brightest students I have had in a long time,” Calvin thought to himself, “But, I could never let such young people help me with terrible things like this. Besides, its 2118, there are tons of other scientists in the world that could help me.”

He turned around and began strategizing on how best to stop Alexandre’s greed. He would need the most brilliant minds in the field and even then, they may not be able to outsmart Alexandre since he was one smart cookie himself.  Calvin began his search by turning to the internet on his touchscreen projector. He instantly accessed  the Readit website, one of the longest lasting online forums of all time. He went straight to the scientist forum where only scientists could ‘hang out’ and talk with each other. He searched the database of scientists but was unable to find anyone with the academic knowledge needed for such an important task.  The website was overrun with speculation and nonsensical ideas.  Based upon the posted chats, it appeared that the scientific community had ‘zero, ziltch, nada’  ideas on how to defend against Alexandre’s atom X.  Wonderful!    

Calvin was desperate to find scientists to help him so he powered up his 3D video  projector to grovel for help.

“H-hey everyone. I a-am Calvin Robins, or the brother of the famous Alexandre Robins,” stuttered Calvin, as he was sometimes shy and awkward, “I know the way to stop X and XC is to stop the constant flow of electrons through the substance, as the atom is very unstable with the amount of protons and neutrons it has. But I need help doing this. Somehow, we need to be able to disrupt the electrons without starting any nuclear reaction that could be harmful and toxic to people. So, I am asking everyone out there to help me find a way to do this, and to do it on a large scale.”

Calvin then uploaded the video  to Readit and went back to his apartment to begin planning his counter ‘attack’ and how to combat the pending destruction. To get to his apartment, he had to go by way of the public subway.  After paying the fare, he made his way to the train platform and was met with a throng of people  staring at him. Calvin felt uncomfortable with the unwanted attention, but he knew that it had something to do with him and his brother. He made it  back to his apartment lobby where he was also bombarded with people’s stares. No wonder.  The  large projected TV hanging in the lobby blared his name.

“This man Calvin is not like his brother,” said a man with a Russian accent who was being interviewed on the TV, “he is not that intelligent, and he doesn’t act like his brother.”

“Now Mr. Roma, what do you think of Calvin Robins’ plan?” The news reporter asked as she was holding up the microphone to Mishka Roma in his meeting room.

“Everyone thinks his plan is rubbish . I know that our great scientists from the Motherland know that electrons could never power this thing. It would be too unstable of a design. Het (nyet),  it would not work.”

“I see, well thank you so much Mishka Roma, back to you at the desk.”

Calvin stayed to watch for a few more minutes as he wanted to know why his plan was being discussed on TV. However, he needed to get back to his room to learn more about his post that he made. He traveled up the circular platform again and found his room. He logged onto his computer to find that his plea-for-help video racked up 6 million views. He was in awe. However, 96% of the people disagreed with his plan and ‘disliked’ the post. He sat there in a state of confusion “Why doesn’t anyone believe me?” he wondered. Calvin saw posts from famous scientists like Jack Barber and Anthony Lee who had commented that basically his ideas were the stories that made up childhood sci-fi fantasies. Thousands of other scientists agreed. They all talked about how Calvin was wrong about his design.  

What was weird, was that these criticisms of his ideas then led to the most outlandish conspiracy theories!  Intelligent scientists began spreading rumors that Calvin was actually in league with his brother and was only pretending to want to destroy Alexandre’s atom X in an effort to secretly share in his wealth. Comments started to pile in and many of the posts were hateful and mean.

Never one to back down, and always the one to do the right thing, Calvin had to muster the strength to go forward. However, he had no idea where to even start with his design to stop atom X.  He had strategized on WHAT he was going to do, although he hadn’t strategized on HOW he would do it. This is where the pain kicked in.

He then noticed something pop up as a notification on his computer screen. It was a warning for all nations. He clicked the tab and was routed to a live map of the world. He looked around and noticed a big black circle slowly growing bigger as it covered almost all of Great Britain and the ocean around it. On the side of the website it read, “Project X by Alexandre Robins has already engulfed the region of Great Britain and the people of the country struggle to find a way to flee by plane, train, or boat. However, millions could not get out and have been encased in atom X.

"From our observers, we can see that these people that were trapped are still alive, although just barely. The whole entire land is encased in the black goo, and so are the people. But, they do not act  normal. Reports say that this is how Project X is being expanded. Alexandre sets off tons of chains of atom X which will mutate humans into goo monsters.  Once mutated, goo monsters are under Alexandre’s control and he is making them shoot chains of atom X at other people.  His goo monster army is spreading havoc throughout the world. Sightings say that this chain reaction has already begun in China, India, France, Nigeria, Russia, and the Western United States. Observers say that you should stay indoors and not go into public buildings. It is expected to be in all countries of the world in three days and to cover the whole world in four. Be ready!”

Calvin sighed. Nothing was making this easy for him. Had his brother actually designed an unstoppable weapon?  Could he actually succeed? “Think Calvin, Think!”  he muttered to himself, “when we were kids, what was Alexandre’s weakness?” Then it dawned on him! The solution just had to be a lot more simple than it looked.

His brother’s  designs  were usually too complicated for most people  to understand.  However, the science behind his designs was actually very simple. Therefore, the creation of atom X and the XC compound  couldn’t be that hard to grasp. The only major thing that Calvin

needed to do was to separate the X atom from the Carbon atom and then find a way to clean up the atoms to remove the toxin from the atmosphere. Finally, a place to start.  Calvin spent most of the night researching, theorizing, and calculating chemical reactions and properties of the X atom and XC compound.

The next morning, he looked out of his small apartment building window and was astonished to see people on the sidewalk below running in fear at the sight of the goo monsters!  Alexandre's Project X had spread across the United States and was invading New York.   Calvin panicked in fear for a second. “What to do, what to do?” he thought.  He was forced to stay in his apartment now so that meant classes were cancelled at school.   But, he was desperate to speak with his students. His young, bright, intelligent students.  He ran into his small study and quickly set up an online meeting with those who could attend. This issue was too important for his students to miss out on.

“Okay, I hope you are all safe.  Alexandre’s Project X is spreading fast and is extremely dangerous.  In a little while, we may all be mutated into a goo monster. I advise all of you to stay indoors no matter what and defend yourselves,” Calvin opened up with. “Today, I need your help. You know what the stakes are.  If you have seen the news or have been online you have probably

heard my name floating around, and not much good is being said about me. Even the scientific community  thinks that I am wrong about my plan to defeat Alexandre.  Many even feel I am actually trying to help out my brother. However, I truly want to stop this destruction.   It looks like it is up  to me to stop Alexandre once and for all.”

“Um Mr. Calvin?” Sheila said as she unmuted her microphone, “I have been thinking about this issue as well, and I realized something. Remember that lab we did a little while ago were we made that Magnesium tablet get eaten up by the Hydrochloric Acid? Couldn’t something like this happen where an acid breaks down the X?”

“Yeah I do think that is true-,” Calvin tried to say as he got interrupted.

“I thought the same thing,” Marcus said “we could find a way to break down this substance and maybe even turn it into a gas. If we could, we could maybe push the gas so it would float up and out of earth’s atmosphere.  We would need some type of energy force backing it up.”

“You guys are entirely correct, I haven’t thought about it like that,” Calvin proudly spoke to his class.

“So what more can we do about it?” Sheila asked Calvin.

“Well, I want you guys to be safe.  However, I think that if we can design the right atom, we could cause a chemical reaction with atom X which in turn will force a chain reaction that would break apart the XC compound and restore goo monsters back into humans.” Calvin answered, “So, what do we need to do to break the chemical bonds of XC?   Any ideas?”

“We could try to dissolve them,” Lucius slowly volunteered, “how many electrons does it have in its valence shell?”

“Well, since it reacts with carbon, I think that it is safe to assume that it has four electrons. But the way we decompose the two atoms is a whole different story. From the way it was theorized, the only way to do this is to react it with CoCl2,” Calvin said.

“So we should try that then, yes?” Lucius asked.

“If scientists have already been theorizing about this reaction, they must have already tried to complete it in the laboratory. And as you can still see, the goo continues to spread all over the world. However, there is something which I don’t think any scientist has designed. It is called PNK, or to be more specific, P2N3K3,” Calvin explained.

“Why hasn’t any scientist designed it? Is there something dangerous about it?” Alice asked.

“Well no one knows how to make the elements bond. My brother is the only scientist I know of who had tried to design it, but that was many years ago.  So, um.... Wait!  That’s it!  If I can find Alexandre’s old lab notes, maybe just maybe we can follow his early designs.  Let me think.  Where did I put his early lab notes?” Calvin questioned himself. He scanned his small study trying to remember where the notebooks were.  They just had to be there.  He began pulling books off of the bookshelf, opening desk drawers, turning over chair cushions, and rummaging through the socks and shoes laying haphazardly on the floor.  

In his search, he  flipped over an old pizza box on the couch and discovered a stack of unstapled papers. He grabbed them and  ran back to his computer. Shaking with anticipation, he scrambled through the stack of paper.  

Eureka! “Class, I just-st found my brother's copy of his early lab notes on my couch. This has all of Alexandre’s  designs that he made over the years. Before he stopped being in contact with me, he gave me his designs so that we could start a science business together. We each put in both of our findings. Although he published his and somehow got rich and famous from them,” Calvin explained in a jumpy excited tone.

“And you found them under a pizza box?!” asked Marcus.