The Diffuser

"WHAT! DAD, YOU'RE SURE ?!"

Juliette, past 20 years old, had lost most of her innocence. Moreover, the last few months had been very stressful: her traits had lost most of her teenage softness.

"I'm sure. It's not just me. Several other think tanks and research labs have been led to the same conclusion." Pascal replied to the sceptism of Juliette.

"What does it mean for us?" Juliette looked straight at Pascal.

"It means we have a fighting chance, now." Pascal injected as much sincerity as he could as he stared at his smart and beautiful daughter.

The two of them had had very little privacy these days. At his office, Pascal had some time finally alone with his daughter after days of furious work.

"You think we can stop it?" Juliette asked again back.

"No, but we can learn to live with it," Pascal replied.

Juliette silently digested the words. Yes, they could live with it, but at what cost?

Every morning, the loud engine roars of the trunks around the house would remind her how urgent it was to strengthen and build up a self-sufficient community before the system would collapse. She was concerned about when the construction would be achieved.

"How is it going lately?" She asked.

Pascal sighed. It was going too slow for him, but he still said: "We're moving fast. So many prefab houses have arrived lately. So many members have already moved here at Crosses. Bastien and Isabelle have both settled here and are working daily to bring in essential supplies. Look, we even have solar panels on each roof now and a great stock of crops and canned food."

"What about the money?" Juliette couldn't even begin to fathom the cost of all that.

"Well, several of us borrowed as much money as we could from the banks. So there's that plus the reserve money Marie donated. God bless her."

"I hope she'll wake up soon..." Juliette was reminded sadly that not everyone had come out of the experiment unharmed. She returned to her main worry: "Dad, we won't be able to pay back all the loans, right?"

Pascal shook his head. He said: "No, we won't. But we won't need to. The whole system will go down in two or three years, but people don't even realize it, banks included. Or it might be that they refuse to accept it. Either way, we got the money we needed now. We'll worry about the loans later."

He then changed the subject.

"Juliette, you should call Eléonore and the boys to update them. Let them know what's going on. They're welcomed here if they ever leave the army."

"I'll do just that," Juliette replied.

Juliette left the office and walked to her bedroom, passing in front of various workers setting up backup power lines and other utilities.

She entered her bedroom and closed the door. Finally, some quietness returned.

She was lost in thoughts for a few seconds.

Her room was well-lighted. The right wall had a large two-meter wide window, so it was plenty enough to light up this fifteen meters by fifteen meters room. The other walls were mostly bare, except for some high school and college physics and chemistry posters. Juliette's interest in physics was evident. She also had many books in her private library, many of the romance and science-fiction genres.

One wouldn't miss the awards for winning various school competitions featured on top of her bed. Juliette was proud of her achievements as an intelligent kid who strove to follow in her family's footsteps.

Juliette's focus returned.

"I have to tell her about the true nature of the 5th force....," She thought.

She walked to her bed, sat, and took her phone.

She called Eléonore.

But nobody answered.

--

It wasn't a comfortable ride to Eléonore in any sense. The trunk shook incessantly and rushed through a country road straight to another military base. She was unclear what she would do once they arrived.

"ATTENTION!"

Eléonore looked up to the middle-aged man standing in the middle of the back of the trunk. She saw Julien and Paul straightening up to listen.

The man, Brener, said: "We're arriving in two minutes. Like you've been told, this is an unprecedented situation.

"Brest base is currently under lockdown due to an intense electromagnetic anomaly. The base is struck by thunder incessantly, and the personnel is trapped inside.

" A prototype to diffuse the 5th force by radiation was being tested on Brest base. Unfortunately, the test is an utter failure; the energy we fed it backfired and created an anomaly in the sky, which is the source of the local thunderstorm.

"Your goal is to neutralize the anomaly so we can rescue the personnel and recover what's left of the prototype.

" The mission is critical. The R&D team down there has unique skills to develop a working diffuser. It's our best shot to establish 5th force safe zones. We need to save them.

"Questions?"

Julien did have many questions indeed. "Sir, how do we neutralize the anomaly?"

Brener replied right away: "Let me brutally honest with you: I am not sure. This is unprecedented. To reach the core of the anomaly, you'll have to fly. Once there, do as usual: just convert the remnant energy into something that isn't harmful. Do that until the anomaly stops and touches down. Eléonore, can you make us fly?"

All heads turned toward Eléonore.

She swallowed.

Although she had indeed flown once, it was in a life-or-death situation, and she had been in the heart of a gravity anomaly.

Not exactly in a thunderstorm.

However, the 5th force took many and any shape; whatever the anomaly, she should be able to apply its energy in any direction she willed.

It was nonetheless downright scary.

But she had signed up for this.

"YES," she shouted courageously, "But I lack experience in neutralizing an anomaly."

"Can you carry me? .... I mean, fly me?" Julien asked, nervously making sure his glasses were fixed on his helmet to not fly out. Eléonore, Julien, and Paul all wore a special insulant suit for this intervention - a set of fabrics layered with a particular sort of plastic. Compared to biohazard suits, they had more flexibility and agility as the suit was reaching closer to their body.

Eléonore pondered. She had flown Marie back then, so flying Julien shouldn't be a problem... in theory. "Probably," she replied.

She didn't miss the worried look that Julien threw back at her.

"Yes, I can." She reaffirmed.

"Then I can go with you to neutralize it," Julien confirmed as well.

"What about me?" Paul asked.

Eléonore and Julien kept silent. They weren't sure of what Paul could do. Finally, Eléonore herself didn't feel confident in flying more than one person: "Paul, I'm not sure I can fly more than one person. Flying myself and someone else requires already a lot of focus."

Paul gritted his teeth. He understood he shouldn't come flying with them. Even if Eléonore could stabilize their path through the thunderstorm, he would still be less effective than Julien in neutralizing the electromagnetic anomaly.

Sensing the mood of Paul, Brener jumped into the discussion: "Paul, we'll need someone on the ground. In case anything happens. Can you do that ?"

Paul felt it was more of an excuse to not make him feel bad, but he appreciated the concern. "Yes, sir!" He said.

Soon after, the trunk stopped.

They had arrived.

Eléonore exited the trunk with Julien and Paul.

They could barely see the surroundings from inside the trunk because of the opaque armor, so when they finally disembarked, the view in front of them shook them.

It was the weirdest thunderstorm Eléonore had ever seen: massive and powerful thunder stroke the roofs of the blackened building of the compounds incessantly. Yet, there was no rain nor the usual dark-greyish clouds of an ordinary thunderstorm.

There was only a pitch-black spherical-shaped "cloud" from which the thunder originated. The sphere seems to ascend and descend and didn't have a clear border. Its periphery was rotating around the center of the globe. The closer to the center, the faster the rotation.

But the most disturbing thing wasn't the sphere; it was the sky all around it. It was A. Clear. Blue. Sky.

It seemed impossible, yet it was real.

Eléonore had never seen such a composition, even in movies. It was astonishing and equally scary.

Getting any close to the source of the anomaly seemed like suicide.

For a moment, Eléonore wondered if she was right to have signed up for this.

Then she remembered...

That it was only the beginning. These rare anomalies would soon happen every day, and no one would escape them. By that time, however, she would be ready.

She was needed.

Eléonore walked instinctively closer to the camp, almost reaching the fence. The thunder was striking, attracted by the metal in the base: the walls, the vehicles, and the roofs were continuously struck.

The camp wasn't big: it was perhaps double the size of her school, enough to fit the four buildings it was made of. The four buildings and their fence formed an approximate rectangle of 300m in length. Most notable was the strange oval-shaped dome at the center of it;

A voice came from behind:

"That's the diffuser prototype. It was supposed to convert the 5th force energy into all other kinds of non-dangerous energies, mostly stupid heat, as a way to create a "safe zone" in which electronics can work." It was Brener. He was raising his arm towards the oval-shaped dome.

The dome seemed inert and whole, so there was still a chance to recover some parts of it and the data it carried.

The squad contemplated the base for a moment and kept walking towards it.

"I think we should fly from here," Julien suggested. They had walked till nearly reaching the fence. Any closer, and they may be struck by the thunder.

Eléonore agreed.

Paul stayed on the side. He looked bitter, but he did not say anything.

Eléonore took a deep breath and searched in her memory the feeling of flying through the gravity tornado.

The very same feeling that enabled her back then to create local pockets of gravity pulling at her so that she could fly by little leaps in the direction she wanted.

What she felt here... It wasn't the same at all.

The 5th force gave her an entirely different feeling.

Back then, she had felt like a leaf carried in a rapid and turbulent river inside the gravity tornado. However, here, she felt as if a myriad of ants ran through her, effectively paralyzing her senses and nerves.

For a moment, she felt it was impossible after all.

Then she remembered.

All this was impossible, to begin with.

One of Juliette's first lessons was this: all you have to do is to believe it, and it will happen.

So she believed it.

She convinced herself to feel what she felt back then: the flow of an invisible river around her.

Then, she disturbed that flow.

She guided it in a way that a pocket of gravity was created on top of her.

She flew upwards.

"ELÉONORE! WAIT!!!"

She came back to her senses, looked down. Julien was waving at her.

Right.

"I have to bring him," she reminded herself.

She let gravity returning to normal around here; immediately, she "flew" down.

She landed.

"Julien, how close do you need to be?" Eléonore asked.

"Not sure. Close. I'll tell you when close enough." Julien answered. He nervously checked his helmet and his glasses once more.

"I'm ready." He said.

Eléonore nodded.

She channeled the field of 5th force around her just as she did before. Except she increased the intensity and the range so that the local gravity bubble on top of her would pull Julien as well.

The two young adults levitated.

"Woooh! " Julien exclaimed. "It's amazing!"

Eléonore heard him but didn't say anything. She needed to focus. The 5th force was slim down on the ground.

Julien didn't miss that and kept silent.

They ascended.

One meter.

Two meters.

Fours.

Soon, they reached an altitude of 100 meters.

It was already incredibly high for two humans, but it wasn't enough.

Eléonore and Julien couldn't help to look down and gulped.

Any fall would kill them, for sure.

The ascension was even scarier for Julien; he was not in control, despite trying incessantly to feel what Eléonore felt.

He had no idea how she was doing it. It was all up to Eléonore.

He couldn't feel anything behind his feet.

Julien was downright terrified.

"You ...re... sure..about... that?" He asked Eléonore with much difficulty. Words seemed to refuse to come out.

"It's ok; it's actually easier the closer we get to the anomaly." Eléonore appeared less focused than when they ascended from the ground, yet, she was not relaxed. "Julien, how close should I fly?"

"... maybe 50 meters away from it?"

"Are you sure?" Eléonore asked to confirm. She very much didn't want to get close to the thunderstorm. Thunders struck incessantly. If they were unlucky...

"Yes..." Julien nodded nonetheless.

Eléonore gritted her teeth and flew Julien and herself continuously closer to the anomaly, staying a fair distance from it horizontally.

Soon, they reached 800m of attitude.

It was cold.

They had reached the same altitude as the anomaly.

Eléonore didn't stop there; she looked ahead and flew horizontally towards the blackish mass of cloud from where the thunder originated.

She flew carefully, by little steps, to make sure she stayed out of the range of the thunder.

Fortunately, the thunder from the anomaly was all oriented towards the ground, so it was relatively safe to approach the anomaly from its side.

She could feel a continuous increase of the 5th force around her, which made flying easier.

She stopped when it seemed she was 50 meters from the anomaly.

She looked at Julien.

He nodded.

Julien then spread his arms.

Soon after... it started.

[1] Crosses is a farming village located in France in the Cher department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France]