Henry, intent on convincing the Particularians to abandon their bloody crusade in the name of light as a particle, directed the pilot of the landing craft to land almost on top of Particularian headquarters. The rumble of the ship circling downward was almost as loud as the artillery bombarding the planet below. The pilot had to take evasive action twice to avoid being shot out of the sky. In the distance hulke d the wreck of what had been the Great Corpuscular Temple, surrounded by a ruined city. The lander had hardly touched the surface before all those aboard including Henry and Soufflé (who moved around via a motorized aquarium) had been ushered underground through the tunnels of Particularian headquarters.
The Particularian leader—whom his followers referred to as the Corpuscular One—seemed like a rather pleasant fellow. Henry cast a relieved glance at Soufflé; their task would not be so difficult after all. Just as this thought whizzed the neurons of Henry’s mind, he was nearly knocked over as the Corpuscular One began screaming at the top of his lungs—Henry assumed that the Shebangis had lungs—almost fa ster than Soufflé could translate.
“Something about war zones and how we’re obviously Wavoni spies,” gurgled Soufflé.
“Your Corpuscularity,” soothed Henry, clearing his throat and straining to recall what little knowledge he possessed concerning Particularian etiquette, “surely you realize that our only intention is to confirm the glory of Light in such a way that peace might return to Shebang.” Henry added the Shebangi Jig of Please-Don’t-Execute-Me-and-My-Friendly-Space-Squid to make sure his friendly intentions got across.
This time the Corpuscular One’s outrage was directed at the Wavonis themselves, rather than at their “spies.” “We will never compromise with those fiends of wickedness!!&n bsp; Glorious Light’s corpuscular nature is irrefutable! Observe, infidel!” The Corpuscular One grabbed the Shebangi equivalent of chalk (only it was purple with shiny speckles and smelled like Henry’s Aunt Mildred) and began drawing diagrams furiously upon the Shebangi equivalent of a chalkboard (only it was orange with velvet stripes and screeched like Soufflé’s Aunt Squishy)
“A steel ball, which even the foolish Wavonis admit is a particle, will travel in a straight line just as light does when not affected by outside sources—”
“—That’s rectilinear propagation,” Soufflé added to the rushed translation.
“—And a steel ball will rebound from a steel plate at the same angle with which it struck, just as light does—”
“—That’s reflection,” Soufflé added again.
“—And a steel ball’s path seems to refract, or bend, when it travels at an angle from one horizontal plane to a lower one via a ramp, just as light bends when passing from air to water.”
“—That’s refraction,” volunteered Soufflé unnecessarily.
The Corpuscular One threw his ‘chalk’ to the ground with a dramatic flourish, leaving Henry quite stumped. He simply had to forge a compromise between the Particula rians and the Wavonis or all of Shebang would be reduced to war-torn waste!
Ah-ha! He would attack the Corpuscular One’s...
Post comments for all to see
