The Twins Paradox - Alan Gasparutti (top ten books of all time txt) 📗

to sell a project."
"I don't see you in that image," said Frank.
"Good, you should look at me as someone from the outside, looking in," said Arthur. "Admittedly, it's a challenge, but it's a challenge I'm willing to take."
“Do you have any other projects planned?” asked Frank.
“I have a few other ideas, but they’re just at that stage at the moment,” said Arthur. “I’m waiting to see what happens here. That may give me a good idea whether the others may be worth the effort.”
“You sound like you may want to leave the planet?” Frank queried.
“It may not be possible,” Arthur told him. “Some people might rather live in an asteroid, particularly if it prolongs their life. Personally however, I’d rather spend what time I have left here in the open, breathing fresh air, drinking fresh water and eating fresh food.”
"You said you had other projects in the pipeline?" Frank queried.
"I do have a few other ideas, but I'd like to get this project off the ground first of all," Arthur said to him. "I'll pencil in a date of August 21st. Henry and I can fly over from the UK to LA. There's a bank holiday in the UK the following week, so Henry can stay there for a week to help with any queries with the cars. How does that sound?"
"That's fine by me," said Frank. "Why don't you come over to Colorado instead?"
"Colorado?" queried Arthur. "But that's hundreds of miles away."
"A thousand miles away, actually," Frank pointed out. "If you can't get to Colorado Springs, perhaps we could meet at Denver airport. It'll be an ideal opportunity for the car. We can see how well it travels for long distances."
"I'm not too sure," said Arthur. "I'll have to speak to Henry about that."
"Well how about if we arrange to meet the Governor of California in LA on August 25th. That will give us a few days to iron-out any problems."
Arthur wasn't too keen on the suggestion, but decided to go along with it. While they were talking, he could hear someone calling Frank at the other end.
“I’m afraid I’m in demand,” said Frank. “I’m taking my wife out to lunch today.”
“Going anywhere special?” asked Arthur.
“Just to a restaurant in town,” said Frank. “I may take her to see a movie later, that’s if she doesn’t end up taking me shopping.”
“I’ve heard women are good at that,” said Arthur. ”Anyway, have a nice time, whatever you end up doing. Cheerio.”

The following day, Arthur confirmed the details to Henry, before contacting Frank to let him know that Henry agreed to his suggestion. Frank then notified the Governor of California to say that they'd meet him in LA on August 25th. After they had agreed a time and venue, Frank confirmed the details to Arthur, who passed them on to Henry.
Arthur now had other things on his mind. After he had seen Henry's premises in Skipton, he wanted to have solar panels installed into the roof of his house. He thought this would be an ideal way to save energy in Tenerife, where the sun shone daily. He looked on the internet, but couldn't find any businesses who installed solar panels, on Tenerife nor on any of the other Canary islands. He looked in the phone book, and contacted a few builders, but none of them installed solar panels either.
One day, while Arthur was speaking to Henry, he offered to send some of his team to do the job. Arthur was grateful for the offer, but decided to decline it for the moment. Instead Arthur looked online again, to see if there were any installers or builders in Morocco, but again, he couldn't find any.
Henry, on the other hand, knew what he wanted at this time. He had saved a copy of the proposed solar-powered car, and so printed the plans. After taking a good look at them, he then spoke to Lucas and Ramondo, to discuss how the plans could be adapted to the new sports car.
After a while, it was decided that perhaps the best option would be to enlargen the roof of the car slightly, which would be slightly hollow. This could allow a larger SEB, Solar-Energy Battery, to be fitted within it, to absorb the solar energy coming through the enlarged sunroof. The roof would also be fitted with smaller solar panels along it. The bottom, or inner, part of the roof would be silvery-white, to reflect the solar energy coming through the panels. Two covered wires would then be connected to the SEB, and would lead to the engine, in order to transfer the solar power.
Lucas fed the formula for the solar sports car into the large replicator, before he, Henry and Ramondo went in a truck to a scrap yard to pick up some unwanted vehicles. They then went to an obscure and disused quarry in upper Nidderdale.
“Do you think we’ll be alright here, Major?” Ramondo asked Henry.
“Probably,” he replied. “I don’t see anyone here. The main valley road is around the corner. There’s a farm a couple of miles up the road, but I shouldn’t think anyone passing will look around here.”
Henry looked around, to assess the situation for a moment. He then took a close look at the local map of the area, to see if there were any footpaths leading into or around the quarry. He then instructed Lucas to get the ramp from the truck, in order to let the vehicles off, while he took each set of keys.
“One of us will have to go to the edge of the quarry, make sure no vehicles end up here,” said Henry.
Lucas and Ramondo looked at eachother.
“I fed the formula into the replicator,” said Lucas, as if to say he shouldn’t be the lookout.
“I put the plan together,” moaned Ramondo, not wishing to be the lookout, either.
“Alright, alright,” said Henry. “I’ll be the lookout. Now, sort yourselves out. If we’re lucky, we may be able to produce two of these cars from the scrap.“
Ramondo was holding the replicator, so decided he was going to use it first. Lucas picked up his mobile while Henry walked towards the slip road that led into the quarry. After he went around the corner he contacted Lucas, and asked him to make sure there were no ramblers approaching on the hills above.
Lucas said all was okay, before Henry looked around again, and when he felt it was safe, gave Ramondo the all-clear to use the replicator. Within a couple of minutes, the new solar powered sports car was completed.
Ramondo had a quick look around the car, to see if everything was fine and whether there may be anything out of place. When he was satisfied, he told Lucas, who gave the car a second look-over, before calling Henry.
“That looks pretty good to me,” Henry said as he walked towards the new car, and then looked over the car. “It seems a bit out of place here in the dales.”
“Why don’t we take it for a test drive,” suggested Lucas. “We’re only about thirty miles from the M1.”
Henry looked at the time on his watch.
“By the time we get to the M1, it’ll be rush hour,” he said.
“Besides, we can't use the car just yet,” Ramondo added. “It doesn’t have enough energy.”
“Don’t you want to try the car out first?” asked Lucas.
“We can do that tomorrow - while it's nice out, we'd best let it absorb the sunshine,” said Henry before he turned to the others. “The weather forecast for tomorrow looks good, so we can give the new solar car a test tomorrow. In the meantime, we may have time to replicate another car.”
This time, Lucas replicated the model, and Ramondo went to the road, as a lookout. When the second car was replicted, they each checked over it, before Henry looked at his watch.
“Is that the time?” he said to himself. “Lucas – you can take the truck back to Skipton”.
Henry then instructed Ramondo to winch the solar cars back up to the truck, while he put the replicator away. As they drove back down Nidderdale, Henry suggested to go to Ribblehead instead, to drop the new cars off there.
"What about your own car, don't you want to pick it up at Skipton?" Ramondo queried.
“You can come with me to test one car tomorrow,” Henry said to him. “If all goes well, you can pick up the other car tomorrow afternoon."
Lucas was quite happy to go to Ribblehead, as he could see the others and have a swift half at the Ribblehead Inn.

The next day was warm and sunny too. Henry had a close look at the solar car at about 8 am, and noticed that sebometer, which effectively replaced the fuel gauge, was almost at halfway. When he went to look at it a few hours later, the sebometer had increased above the middle of the gauge, and so decided to take the car out for a spin with Ramondo.
The sun was still shining brightly as they drove towards Ingleton. They noticed that though they had been using the energy, the sebometer had increased slightly. The heat and sunlight more than compensated the little energy used. Henry decided that in order to gain more energy, they would take the scenic route towards the Forest of Bowland.
By the time they approached the M6 motorway, the sebometer was almost at the three-quarter mark. Before they got to the motorway junction, Henry turned off the main road and pulled up. He decided to let Ramondo drive along the motorway, so they exchanged seats, before setting off again. The sun was still shining, though there appeared a few more clouds coming into view, with the sebometer stagnant at the three quarter point.
As they travelled along the M6, the car seemed to handle well. After they drove for about ten minutes, Ramondo began to press his foot down on the accelerator. The car continued to handle in the same way as you would expect a 2-litre sports car, reaching 90 miles per hour easily. As Ramondo was continually increasing the speed of the car, Henry suggested to slow down. He felt that they had proved the ability and performance of the car. He also noticed that the sebometer had reduced, suggesting that the amount of energy used to power the car was greater than the energy absorbed by the SEB.
By this time, they had passed the exit for Kendal, and could see the main railway line between London and Glasgow crisis-crossing the motorway. The hills in the distance grew larger and larger, and they noticed mountains beyond. At this point Henry looked at his road atlas, before checking if they had a copy of the appropriate ordnance survey map.
"Do you want me to to take the next exit?" Ramondo asked him.
"Can you exit on the next junction after the next one coming up," instructed Henry.
"Do you want to stop off in Penrith?" Ramondo queried.
"No, not really," said Henry. "I think we should head the other way, towards the lakes. There are some good roads to practice on there."
"Not for a sports car, surely," said Ramondo.
"They're not ideal for a sports car at all," replied Henry. "That's why I want you to head for the Lake District."
"Whatever you insist," said Ramondo.
The exit off the M6 was a little way away, and as they continued, the sebometer slipped to the half-way point. Henry instructed Ramondo to drive between 60 and 70 miles per hour, to try and assess the ideal speed in which to use the least amount of energy necessary. Unfortunately, the