Losing Grip

It was just supposed to be an experiment, a quick 50 bucks.

The researchers clocked in, so to speak, for the morning. Constant questions needed to be answers and the University physics postgraduates needed to actually follow through on a project.

They've been having meetings every few days at this point, bringing new ideas to the group. Discussions would last for hours, but everything got shot down for one reason or another. Maybe in the next meeting something will be acceptable.

Wednesday morning, 2 hours to the prelunch meeting. The newest member of the 'club' shows up the meeting and just listens to the flow of ideas, and nothing sticks. One isn't feasible because the material cost is way to expensive, one doesn't make any logical sense, another would destroy a large part of the building if a single thing went wrong, and still another would kill dozens of lab animals in tortuous ways. That person was put on watch. With everything turned down the new guy was bidden to speak.

"I just started, I don't know what we can really do."

"Doesn't matter," replied a senior technician. "Part of your job is contributing to these meetings, as you can tell ideas get wild."

"OK, well, I was thinking about a way to play with gravity."

Looking around the room everyone was was baffled.

The head of the meeting spoke again, "What do you mean, like antigravity hoverboards?"

"No, no. Not fighting against gravity, more like turning it off."

Another researcher spoke up, "that would send everything out into space, and cause the planet to break apart".

The new guy spoke up again, "I wasn't wanting to turn it off completely, just turn it down like a dial. Then it would be easier to create hovering devices, get you wouldn't need the jets or the fuel to make rockets for keeping the vehicles aloft."

"Actually this may be possible" the head researcher responded as they looked down at their watch. "Oooh, we'll break for a late lunch at this point, and when we return I want everyone to break into 3 groups and for the next meeting on Friday bring one or more theoretical mathematical forumlas to calculate a way we would enact this."

As the new guy left the head said, "good work".

The new guy was surprised and went back to his shared office to sketch up the project design.

...

Months pass and work is done. The gravity on/off dial has been tested in one particular lab, the last one at the end of the hallway. It had the equipment and it's stable, but when they started it was left empty for a few months and already gathering dust. It's facing the sun for the hottest part of the day didn't make it a popular work space, and the windows don't seem to fit quite right in the walls.

The equipment had been able to lower the gravity in a particular cylinder. It was incredible, the balls, fruit, and bugs would slowly rise into the sky, and would be slowly lowered back to the platform. A few times the dial was far too finicky and balls and fruit would fall hard back to Earth and there was an incident with an experiment involving a watermelon, an apple, and a cherry, but the issues were soon remedied and they moved on to insects. Only non flying species after the beetles just started flying around the cylinder, ruining the experiment. It was a bit entertaining watching the ants and spiders spin around in the air as their legs tried to find purchase. Then they'd be lowered and let lose, back into the wild, back to normal gravity.

Time was racing, but only half a year later the experiments were deemed safe enough for human trials. Notices were sent, people contacted and scheduled, and that's when I entered this story. I read the notice sheet at school and thought it might be cool, plus extra money, always helpful.

…

I read about the history of the project, surprised how fast it had been built and made ready. Also surprised that no one never thought of the idea before. But, I guess that's what innovations and inventions are like once the idea is out.

I had an interview scheduled, in which they asked me sign a nondisclosure agreement before they would say what the project will actively involve. They went through the science, but I didn't understand it after the first minute or so. I guess that's what doing a bachelor's in physics gets you.

Signed all the pesky forms, including the 'I will not sue under *these* circumstances paper and the next week I went in for my testing appointment time.

The researchers gave me a suit to wear over my clothes with plenty of padding everywhere and what looked like a cross between a motorcycle helmet and a space suit helmet. 'What were they expecting to happen?' I kept the thought to myself, I should have asked... they carely didn't go into all of the craziest failures from the trials.

I went into a particular lab, it looked refurbished. Had a ton of pristine equipment and everything was clean, but the wall paint was a bit sun bleached and the windows were discolored and frames' paint was peeling. Guess it didn't matter much to them.

The first day they went over safety and what to do in certain circumstances if something goes wrong. They also showed me where I'll be specifically and what the dials and buttons they would be pushing will do. There was a ton of information and then we started the first test. I stood on the platform and they "played" around with the "antigravity" until I was lifted off the ground for half a second a few times and moved to the side a little bit each time.

It was incredible! But my stomach shoock all around and when I had retouched the ground I immediately ran to the nearest bucket as I quickly pulled off the helmet to throw up. They did warn that that might happen, but when I looked up multiple researchers standing in the back were scribbling in their notebooks. Damn, I hoped that I would get used to it. Maybe if I had more time I would've.

I went back a few more times, always a week apart, to be sure to avoid any kind of motion sickness and lingering side-effects that must have occurred in prior to human testing. Everytime they send me higher and higher, the highest was when I had to brace my self against the ceiling and then the wall and ceiling. It felt like I was doing a handstand at one point, if there wasn't a solid roof over my head...

Then it was today. The test ran as normal, at first. I had been sent up and let back down 2 or 3 times when the earthquake hit. I have no clue how powerful it was, I never got to check. They were about to send me up higher to the ceiling and a huge jolt caused pipes to break and what looked like steam sepued out like a kettle, then more holes and more 'steam' as the violent shaking continued. I was rocketed into the ceiling so hard it cracked. The machine must have been forced on so hard that it extended the field because dirt and cracked debris on the grounds tarted flying up and crashing into the corner of the ceiling and into me. Thank god I was wearing all that protective padding and the safety helmet for both the initial hit and when the floor started shooting toward my face. I obviously couldn't feel when the earthquake stopped but since I could still hear cracking, breaking, and even some screaming outside the room I doubt that it was over end.

The main researcher was half underneath the desk and holding down the keyboard so try to stop the machine from pushing gravity the opposite direction. They were yelling at to me to "Hold on!" "You'll be down in a minute!" I mean, c'mon, what am I going to hang on to, but i tried to hold on hope that I'd be ok. But, my heart sunk when I heard a loud crack from directly behind me.

The ceiling buckled and caved in, diagonally up into the sky and I followed. All I heard was a loud "No" scream. I would have laughed at the cheese if I wasn't falling into the atmosphere.

...

50 measly dollars, apparently that's how much my life is worth. I'm falling up, diagonally into the sky and there is nothing I can do. No parachute can help me now. How long will I keep going? How high is the atmosphere? I don't remember the number... This suit isn't air tight... will I die of asphyxiation first, or will my body fall apart without gravity holding me together? I wonder if the researchers ever thought about that possibility. I wonder if it ever happened. Must have been an acceptable risk to them. There go the mountains, turing into anthills. I feel weird, like dizzy, my hands are numb. It's getting hard to breathe. I ca---