Alex Gore - The Cube

The young scientist with disheveled hair fixed his glasses, brushed his curls from his forehead and continued:

“The Higher Council of Russian Navy adopted a decision to improve these characteristics and create ‘the submarine of all seas and of all time’. Thus, the project ‘Kovaliov’ was started. The biggest submarine in the world is Project 941 class ‘Shark’ (American classification ‘Typhoon’). The project is ours entirely and it is manufactured in Severodvinsk. The dimensions of the submarine are truly gigantic: 900 feet long, 760 feet wide, displacement of 78 000 tons. If we compare the submarine to a football field the picture will look like this.”

They saw on the screen the draft of a metal corps overlaid on a standard football field. The submarine was twice longer.

“Imagine a ship twice as long as Camp Nou, for example”, Sergey offered. “The crew consists of approximately 200 people. It can remain under water and move autonomously for 250 days even if a nuclear war is raging on the surface. The maximum depth of submerging is 30 000 feet. But, like I said, this super machine will be manufactured only after one year.”

“Isn’t it better to wait till morning, Sir?” the lieutenant asked hesitantly. The protective suit was much too big for his short figure and made the otherwise serious man look comic.

“No, let’s enter the damn thing, so this would faster be over. Whatever is inside can’t be scarier than this anxiousness before the unknown… Uncover it, Lieutenant, this is an order!” Norman commanded.

“Hans, you look like a matryoshka doll”, Sergey said, his voice sounding like that of Darth Vader through the gas mask. It was true, the professor resembled a waddling musical doll, that is not sure on which side to fall.

“March, even this waterproof cloak looks good on you”, Michael said, enjoying his own voice, coming through the filter of the mask.

“Thank you, Mikey, but I believe Alan is the sexiest one under his canvas”, she laughed, pointing towards the former military guy, who really moved rather freely with the uncomfortable green plastic cloak.

“It makes you really beautiful, Hans, because your face is not seen”, Alan remarked.

“Mind your own business”, the professor replied nervously. “The body is nothing but a transitive form of mind.”

“Please, stop it”, Norman urged them. “Lieutenant, begin now!”

The baby-faced lieutenant was crouching over the manhole, holding with his hands the enormous screw. The rest were crowded around him, standing on the broad back of the steel monster. They were right behind the tower of the submarine at the entrance opening. It was not more than three feet wide, covered with a screwing lock.

Their glances were focused on the lieutenant’s fine hands, anxious as if he were a magician and a dove would fly out of his sleeve any second.

Babyface started unscrewing the lock and savage screeching sound was heard. It was as if nobody had opened it for a really long time. Unscrewing the lock all the way, the lieutenant opened the manhole. Stale air came out at them from within. They looked around, as if expecting little green men attacking them with weapons. Or, in a better version, welcoming them with music.

The Major put his legs in the narrow passage and was the first to go inside. The cold darkness of the metal monster engulfed him. Alan hesitated for a moment, took a deep breath and sunk inside, following him. Soon the steel belly swallowed all of them one after the other, the last one remaining outside being Michael. He looked around, raised his eyes for the last time towards the clear sky, studded with stars, inhaled deeply and went down.

A scientific report on “Irrational Numbers” presented to the academic council of Edinburgh University in May 2013. The thesis was not prized, on the contrary, its author was stripped off his title and expelled from Edinburgh University.

The scientific community condemned him as a ‘scientific populist’, ‘cheap charlatan’ and ‘shame for the profession’. Professor McDowell was severely lashed by the European Academy of Science and the Scottish Scientific Society and excluded as their fellow member without the right to an answer.

“Science & Co.” magazine, contrary to scientific dogma proclaimed his theory ‘the discovery of the century’ and called the author a man ‘of the order of Einstein’ and ‘at least Magellan of physics’. The argument has continued till the present day without any prominent result.

In 2014 Lord Dunwell, known in scientific circles for his nonstandard views and an irrational approach, proclaimed him as ‘the only bright light in scientific darkness for the last hundred years’. An extract from “Theory of Subjective Numbers”, 2013

2+2 = 4,0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000………….1

2+2 = 3,99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999(9)

God created man to make small steps and to look down at his feet. The first step is the hardest, the second is a bit easier and so on, forward along the path of truth. When man made enough steps towards God and raised his eyes up towards the night sky, seeing the light of the billions and billions of stars there, he knew that the more steps he takes, the nearer he comes to God.

Then God’s image, suffused with light, appeared to him and man realized that even though his steps were getting easier and more numerous, he would never reach God and be equal to Him.

“Alan, stop it!” Michael shouted.

“Sorry, people, but this is amazing…” Alan could already see himself in his new show. He pushed the others and stood at the head of the line of people, who were moving along the long and narrow passage of the fat metal torso. Their flashlights were throwing light on the grey metal appliances, covered with dust. While on the outside the submarine looked as if it had just got out of the sea, the interior seemed to not have been touched by nobody for years.

“Wow, it’s quite big inside!” Michael exclaimed.

“This is the most modern submarine in the world. There are even running tracks like in your neighborhood gym… Over there, look…” Ivanov said, not trying to conceal his pride of Russian military technology.

“I never imagined it could be so large inside. What I’ve seen on TV were dark and grim narrow spaces with no room for two people to pass each other.”

“You’ve seen too many films, kid. Submarines there are mostly from the time of World War Two, that are quite different from this masterpiece of technology.

“Wow, it is like a real spaceship in here…”

“That’s right, contemporary submarines are in no way different from a large ship or from modern airplanes. The crew avails of sunbeds, a gym, a small swimming pool, even a sauna. You can stay underwater without ever going to the surface for more than eight months.”

“But how is it possible?”, Marcela, who was walking right behind them, asked. “Won’t air get exhausted?”

“No, the crew of this baby can produce electrical energy and even oxygen for breathing. As I said, they are surfacing every few months only to stock food supplies.”

“But how can you produce oxygen under water?” Michael wondered.

“Don’t forget that underwater there is mostly… water”, Sergey said, who stopped and waited for them in order to take part in the conversation. “And water, as we all know, is composed of oxygen and hydrogen.”

“Electrolysis of water to oxygen and hydrogen – and there you are, you’ve got energy for sailing and air for breathing. Moreover, in practically unlimited quantities”, Ivanov said walking on.