Professor Maad seemed happy to see me when I arrived at place this morning, he was grinning from ear to ear. “Come in, come in ole man.” Instead of going into the lounge he escorted me into his study which I had previously been in before when I was trying to find some clue to his whereabouts after he went missing a few months ago (see my old website for details). It had not changed much, still a mountain of sci-fi books and not a single non-fiction book in sight. Maad had set up an extra chair, “Not sure why ole man but I never liked sitting in the lounge, only when Esme insists, I can think better in here. Old habits and that, I'm sure you know what I mean.” I agreed and he offered a snort of twelve year old whiskey which I happily accepted.
Before I could ask anything he started himself, “You know I'm glad you rang I've been quite bored here but I have been thinking about Joe and what he might have been working on that got him killed don't you know. It seems to me it might have been energy related, we had talked about it at our RMS meetings. We had chatted briefly about Cold Fusion then discarded it, I remember Joe talking about Tesla and his radiant energy collector. I had looked at that myself and I gave him a few pointers of what not to try. Still it got me thinking, reminding me of the days when we were all young at Uni.” He paused obviously deep in his memory, “Perhaps you could tell me little more about RMS and why it was started, you said it was secret society?”
He broke out of his thought and looked at me, “Did I say secret, well I suppose it hardly matters now. It was secret because we never told anyone that it existed and Fred said we could try mixing science with occult rituals. Which is I suppose why we never told anyone not that we were ashamed or anything it is just we were messing with something that perhaps shouldn't be played with. I see your face and I know as scientists we were pushing the boundaries of science but now I look back on it I think we were arrogant and didn't consider the consequences of our actions.” “Is there anything exactly in particular, I mean why the name Shen?” “It was all Fred really, he was the glue that held us together. Shen comes from an Egyptian symbol for protection or eternal. Please don't laugh but for most part Fred had us all looking at methods of living forever, not just anti-ageing either he was looking for existing without a physical body.” “Did you ever find anything?” “Would I look like I do now, if we ever did find anything? However I've always wondered about Fred himself, remember I said he seems hardly age at all, I had the feeling back then that Fred wasn't really looking to better mankind, I think he wanted it for himself but it was a long time ago now. I could be wrong about that.”
He leaned back in his seat and pulled a pipe from pocket and started to fill it, “ Esme wouldn't probably have my hide for smoking in the house but I hardly ever smoke these days.” “What about the other members have you heard from them?” “Well as I said the others apart from Tomas went into business together, it is odd that you mention that. I have a call from Dwight yesterday, he didn't say much just wondered how I was getting on. He'd heard about my gardening leave of course, it seemed to me he was trying to tell me something but he never quite managed it, he skirted around it. I asked whether he knew about Joe's murder at which point he sounded angry because he hadn't heard at all, he excused himself for his brusqueness he has very busy of late and said he would ring next month to arrange a catch up dinner. To which I agreed, asking whether the other guys could make it as well, he said that John and Den would be okay but Max is quite fixated on a problem at the moment and never leaves his lab any more. Of course I asked what problem but he waved it off by saying he would tell me later.” “What do you think he was trying to tell you?” “He obviously worried about something, he mentioned project 19 9 80, he said '19 9 80 is really a big worry at the moment Ed, I'm not sure the others realise what it could really mean' I knew he was referring to the asteroid discovered 89, we had discussed it in a RMS meeting back then.” “To do what exactly?” “They wanted to captured it, bring to Earth and mined it, at the time of the meeting there wasn't a method to do it” “And now?” “Not really, but I know Johnny is working on a form of energy beam but I've seen the equations there is no way it would inside the Earth's atmosphere without huge amounts of energy to power it.” “What about outside?” “Well I don't say it is not possible, the device would still be fairly bulky. If anyone could pull it off it would be the chaps.”
We sat there for a moment in silence contemplating what this could mean I said, “How would this beam work exactly?” Maad smiled at me, “This isn't fiction ole man it definitely wouldn't work like some form of tractor beam like in Star Trek. Effectively in its simplest form it's a gun that fires a concentrated beam of energy, I won't go into the details but...” At that point the front slammed and Esme walked in, Maad tried to hide his pipe and looked like a kid who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. She smiled at me but said, “Do you mind Mr Wallace but I need to speak to my husband alone, perhaps you can come back another time.” It was quite coldly spoken though I suspect she was probably mad at me for arranging the interview without her knowledge.
I said I'd let myself out and promptly left. Damn I wanted to ask why he was on gardening leave not to mention the cliffhanger of this energy beam and Tomas as well.
Before I could ask anything he started himself, “You know I'm glad you rang I've been quite bored here but I have been thinking about Joe and what he might have been working on that got him killed don't you know. It seems to me it might have been energy related, we had talked about it at our RMS meetings. We had chatted briefly about Cold Fusion then discarded it, I remember Joe talking about Tesla and his radiant energy collector. I had looked at that myself and I gave him a few pointers of what not to try. Still it got me thinking, reminding me of the days when we were all young at Uni.” He paused obviously deep in his memory, “Perhaps you could tell me little more about RMS and why it was started, you said it was secret society?”
He broke out of his thought and looked at me, “Did I say secret, well I suppose it hardly matters now. It was secret because we never told anyone that it existed and Fred said we could try mixing science with occult rituals. Which is I suppose why we never told anyone not that we were ashamed or anything it is just we were messing with something that perhaps shouldn't be played with. I see your face and I know as scientists we were pushing the boundaries of science but now I look back on it I think we were arrogant and didn't consider the consequences of our actions.” “Is there anything exactly in particular, I mean why the name Shen?” “It was all Fred really, he was the glue that held us together. Shen comes from an Egyptian symbol for protection or eternal. Please don't laugh but for most part Fred had us all looking at methods of living forever, not just anti-ageing either he was looking for existing without a physical body.” “Did you ever find anything?” “Would I look like I do now, if we ever did find anything? However I've always wondered about Fred himself, remember I said he seems hardly age at all, I had the feeling back then that Fred wasn't really looking to better mankind, I think he wanted it for himself but it was a long time ago now. I could be wrong about that.”
He leaned back in his seat and pulled a pipe from pocket and started to fill it, “ Esme wouldn't probably have my hide for smoking in the house but I hardly ever smoke these days.” “What about the other members have you heard from them?” “Well as I said the others apart from Tomas went into business together, it is odd that you mention that. I have a call from Dwight yesterday, he didn't say much just wondered how I was getting on. He'd heard about my gardening leave of course, it seemed to me he was trying to tell me something but he never quite managed it, he skirted around it. I asked whether he knew about Joe's murder at which point he sounded angry because he hadn't heard at all, he excused himself for his brusqueness he has very busy of late and said he would ring next month to arrange a catch up dinner. To which I agreed, asking whether the other guys could make it as well, he said that John and Den would be okay but Max is quite fixated on a problem at the moment and never leaves his lab any more. Of course I asked what problem but he waved it off by saying he would tell me later.” “What do you think he was trying to tell you?” “He obviously worried about something, he mentioned project 19 9 80, he said '19 9 80 is really a big worry at the moment Ed, I'm not sure the others realise what it could really mean' I knew he was referring to the asteroid discovered 89, we had discussed it in a RMS meeting back then.” “To do what exactly?” “They wanted to captured it, bring to Earth and mined it, at the time of the meeting there wasn't a method to do it” “And now?” “Not really, but I know Johnny is working on a form of energy beam but I've seen the equations there is no way it would inside the Earth's atmosphere without huge amounts of energy to power it.” “What about outside?” “Well I don't say it is not possible, the device would still be fairly bulky. If anyone could pull it off it would be the chaps.”
We sat there for a moment in silence contemplating what this could mean I said, “How would this beam work exactly?” Maad smiled at me, “This isn't fiction ole man it definitely wouldn't work like some form of tractor beam like in Star Trek. Effectively in its simplest form it's a gun that fires a concentrated beam of energy, I won't go into the details but...” At that point the front slammed and Esme walked in, Maad tried to hide his pipe and looked like a kid who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. She smiled at me but said, “Do you mind Mr Wallace but I need to speak to my husband alone, perhaps you can come back another time.” It was quite coldly spoken though I suspect she was probably mad at me for arranging the interview without her knowledge.
I said I'd let myself out and promptly left. Damn I wanted to ask why he was on gardening leave not to mention the cliffhanger of this energy beam and Tomas as well.
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