Special Theory

• Aaron Watts, Grade 12, Xavier Catholic College -
• Short Story
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Write Along 2018' competition

Albert stood up from his desk. His notes on the recent patent lay scrambled amongst his research notes.

He organised his thesis papers, sorting them back into the large folder. It was his final paper for his phD. Albert had already achieved great success with his three other theses; some fellows at the university had already called this his miracle year, but this was definitely his defining paper.

The way humanity would interpret the universe would never be the same.

As Albert made his way to the station, a soft pitter patter of rain on tiled roofs resonated through the streets of Berlin. He climbed his way up onto the concrete platform, where the schedule told him that he had ten minutes to wait. Albert took a seat at the nearby bench, while the rain’s intensity increased and nervous commuters retreated to cover.

Through the heavy rain, spectacular flashes of light broke through the growing darkness of the sky. It was followed a few seconds later by a large crack, the close gap between light and sound evidence the close storm.

Albert wished that his train would come sooner, dreading the fearsome lightning.

He could see a train travelling through from the east tracks. It raced through the station, not destined to stop. Albert could see a watchful passenger about to zoom past him at an astonishing speed.

It was at that moment when the most extraordinary event took place. Two powerful lightning bolts hurtled downwards from the sky, their paths traced out by brilliant streaks of light. Each made contact at opposite ends of the moving train. Almost instantaneously after, a loud thunderous crack roared through the busy train station, silencing shocked commuters.

And then, after the wondrous event, everything returned to normal. The metal train continued on its journey through, any structural damage to its frame not apparent. The bewildered crowd restarted their conversations, still in awe at the strange event

But Albert sat in dead silence. New thoughts churned through his head, born out of the spectacular event. The two lighting bolts had sparked an idea: the flash had been simultaneous for him, but would it have been for the passenger on the train? He was stationary, but a passenger was not, hurtling towards one of the bolts. If he assumed that light speed was constant, it would mean that it the event was not simultaneous for the passenger, allowing their frame of reference to be out of sync and that time could be relative

Albert’s train came into the station, opening its doors for boarding. Being consumed in thought, he remained sitting at the bench.

This was a whole new aspect to understanding the universe. The millions of galaxies and their billions of stars just came a little more accessible. Time and space were relative, subjective to each observer, and through unifying time and space Albert could redefine physics. Now he just hoped that his theory would be good enough to complete his paper.