Scene 1. Observatory

Lilly and the professor are standing outside the college’s off-road back-country exploration vehicle. They are standing on the access road and looking up at the dome of the college’s astronomical observatory facility. Several support buildings are also visible, everything is painted a dramatic bright white. All in white! The Professor and his drama!

“Welcome to my winter home!” The Professor smiles and waves at the buildings. Lilly looks around, she is excited, seeing this facility for the first time, but she is still dismayed and depressed that she is being exiled to it. Apparently no one uses the telescope except in the winter, and even then it is usually just The Professor. Everyone else gets too cold. The Professor walks over and unlocks the door to the main hall. The inside main hall the view is very impressive, with the three refractive telescopes of various sizes mounted on an elevated three-axis tracking mount in the center of the large round hall. “The telescopes are the different ones the college obtained by grants through the years.” “The big one is the latest, we got it five yours ago,” continues The Professor, trying to cheer up the downcast Lilly, who is already feeling imprisoned. “Look at it this way, you have exclusive use of one of the worlds leading research instruments.” “Look here at this eyepiece. I modified for specifically for photography.”

The Professor walks to the back of the room, “There is a complete darkroom.” He points to a door at the rear of the hall. “The out-buildings contain a complete machine shop.” “I took the older saws, mills, and lathes when the engineering department upgraded to newer machines." "So these machines are not the latest designs, but they all work and are great to have, especially up here when you need items quickly for emergency repairs and don’t want to wait for a delivery from below.”

“Follow me to our ‘Luxury Suites’.” “Ha ha!” "I am afraid they are not as nice as The Chief’s, but they get me through the winters here.”

‘The Suites’ are small closet sized sleeping areas, with cots and blankets and a small heat radiator in the rear. “The furnace is in the basement, it supplies steam to all of the radiators. You will have to keep the furnace going with wood from the forest.” “You want to minimize burning anything in the main hall as smoke and oil deposits are hell on the optics.” “Maybe we can install some of your electric lights.” “The observatory has electricity. I put in a water wheel, an electrical generator and a small dam, in the canyon up above.” “The electricity is for running the telescope mount motors and dome door motors, but there is plenty of extra power to run lights, once we have them.” The Professor smiles and waves around imagining the twinkling of electric lights.

“There is a drafting room where you can do your drawings.” “Give them to me when I visit and I will have your parts made at the college.” “There should be enough room here, and the jigs, to assemble and test your prototypes, unless they are really big.” “If they are really big, or require special support, we will assemble and test them at The Factory.”

Lilly broods, Everyone is assuming I will be bringing more of the 'new technology' to this world. Is this a good thing?

The Professor looks around to see if he has covered everything. “Oh yes, the kitchen!” He walks to the rear of the main building into a small side room. “This is the observatory kitchen,” The Professor announces proudly. Inside the small kitchen is a small stove, a small refrigerator and a small table with several simple wooden chairs, all painted white, of course. Cupboards line one wall. The Professor opens the cupboard doors, in sequence, to display all of the dishes and the durable food rations stored within. “There is also more storage for food, bedding and other supplies in the back storage building.” “Oh, be sure to store all food and trash in durable metal containers with secure lids.” “Lots of wild animals, some not so friendly, try to help themselves here, so be careful.”

Lilly is drawn to something else in the kitchen. The concrete floor has one odd rectangular patch, about one meter by two, that is of a slightly different, yellowish, color. Lilly stares at the floor patch and suddenly feels a chill, although this fall day is mild.

The Professor notices Lilly’s interest in the kitchen floor and interrupts, “Let’s get your stuff.” He walks out of the kitchen and back to the college’s vehicle. They are wordless and somber, as Lilly and The Professor unload and carry the boxes into the gallery and some boxes are carried to one of the small sleeping rooms.

Finally, everything they brought up has been unloaded and stored in the observatory. The Professor is standing next to the vehicle, preparing to leave Lilly alone on the mountain. He stands still and she walks up to him and embraces him tightly, eyes closed and with tears. “You are my last contact in this world, so please visit me as often as you can.” “And bring pizza, you know, my favorite kind, and make it a ‘large’ with extra cheese!" "Maybe you should bring two!” The Professor smiles and kisses her carefully, on the center of her forehead, avoiding her horns. He enters the vehicle and starts it up. The vehicle moves out, turns around, drives around the curve and disappears from sight. Lilly can still hear the sound of the vehicle engine, fading, as it descends the mountain. I miss you already!

Lilly then walks back in to the main hall and stares at the telescope. I guess I can be an astronomer between inventions. I’ll need to keep myself busy, to keep myself from sinking all the way into insanity. She stands and listens to the complete silence in the hall. Then, just on the edge of perception, she hears voices, and she laughs,

One thing about being schizophrenic, I’m never alone.

Scene 2. Invisible-Ray

Lilly spends the rest of the day assembling the prototype of the ‘invisible-ray’ machine, moved from The Factory. She sets it up for a demonstration for The Professor’s next visit. After that it will be taken back to The Factory for further development, and maybe, production. She stares at the ‘invisible-ray’ tube. She then walks back to the machine shed and returns with several large sheets of metal. She sets the sheets around the tube and places a photographic plate, still wrapped in its opaque envelope, under tube. She then lays her entire lower fore-leg, hoof and nails, over the large glass photographic plate. She starts the pumps and then switches on the inductive-interrupter power supply. She holds still for the exposure time that she observed with the frozen-fish experiments. She turns off the machine and the associated pumps. She removes the photographic plate and takes it to the observatory darkroom and develops it, she then rinses the large plate and takes it outside to dry. Lilly looks down at the plate in the sunlight to see the shadow of her bones, her fore leg along with hoofs and nails, as clear as an anatomy skeleton, without any flesh

Am I already dead?

Scene 3. Astronomy Domine

Lilly settles in to her life as an astronomy monk by taking her isolation and sexual frustration out on the telescope. It does not take her long to figure out the all of the observatory's operations. She tunes everything up, with new bearings, proper lubrication. She even adds access ladders with additional telescope and camera supports. I guess my years working as the plumber at my apartment complex weren’t wasted after all!

She has also optimized the operation of the great telescope, cleaning the optics and adjusting the cameras. The Professor left her suggestions for photographic and research targets, celestial objects that are visible in the heavens this time of the year. She is immediately drawn, as many are, to the brightest star in the night sky, ‘Aurora’. Aurora is said to be a binary pair with her world’s star. Aurora is imagined to have a collection of planets similar to this solar system. These planets, however, cannot be seen, even through the large telescope, as they are lost in the glare of Aurora, the host star. The two stars have been calculated to revolve, around a common center, every few hundred years. Oh boy, let’s have a look! Maybe I can see planets cross in front of the star!

So Lilly starts on the real science of astronomy, carefully measuring the dimensions between the points of items from the photographic plates, with a compass, and the angles, with a protractor. She was very proud of a device she made to compare two photographic plates with each other, switching from one to the other to see movement. She used parts from a ‘demonstration lantern’ for it. This is the first useful thing that I have made that is not a gift from the other world. This was made by me! The Professor will be proud. Plus I think I have enough material for another scientific paper, all my own research, with The Professor’s help, of course.

Now that I think about it, I have not seen any scientific displays for astronomy science in Apollo’s world. I wonder why?

Lilly has now spent several nights alone on the mountain and is lying on her back on her cot staring at the near ceiling of her sleeping room. I have not had any dreams since I got here. I wonder if I have been forgotten by everyone? Tomorrow I will hike to the summit, it is said to have a nice view.

The next day is again a very nice, early winter, day, with a chill in the air. I am supposed to wear a disguise if I spend any time outside the observatory. It is cooler now so it shouldn’t be too bad. She unzips a large clothing storage that The Professor left her, saying it is her disguise. It is a hanger bag containing a large, fluffy, wool coat, complete with a hood. The wool hood is adorned with large sheep horns on the sides. It looks kind of silly but The Professor and The Chief were adamant that I always wear it when I go outside, to avoid discovery. There aren’t that many ‘white goats’ around anywhere.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

That reminds me, I forgot to ask The Chief what he is so afraid of? Who wants to kill me? And why?

Lilly then tries the sheep-disguise on. It fits! Good! None of my old coats fit me anymore, so this is great, even if it does look silly. The coat is thick wool fleece and it is very warm. Lilly looks at herself in the closet mirror, Ha ha! I look like one of the Professor’s plump sheep assistant girls! He must have used one as a model!

Lilly then sets off for the summit. She reaches the summit in about an hour and a half. Mountain tops are visible in the distance but the valleys are obscured by haze. She sees no one else on the trail. I guess this trail is more popular in the summer season.

She decides to check out the generator while she is out near it. She breaks from the trail and heads off cross-county, toward the ravine. The electric generator looks very old, like something that The Professor salvaged. She brought tools to adjust the brushes and grease for the bearings. I will need to rework this generator before the winter if I don’t want to risk a sudden power failure. The associated dam and the waterwheel both appear to be okay, for now. The dam has several water pipes leading out of it. This must be the observatory’s water source as well. She then walks back to the observatory.

She enters the kitchen and then begins to prepare a meal from the dehydrated rations The Professor keeps on hand at the observatory. Ahhh, what I wouldn’t give for a fresh, hot, pizza right now! She slaps her belly, "Pop!"

While she is boiling water to reconstitute her dinner ration, she again is aware of the discolored yellow patch of concrete part of the floor of the kitchen.

Lilly shivers again.

Scene 4. Ghost

Lilly is lying in bed again reflecting on her past dreams, she has not been to Apollo's world for a while. Maybe my ‘other me’ doesn’t want to come here. I don’t miss my other dreams though. She closes her eyes, No jumping figures! Good! She is still lying with her eyes closed when she becomes aware of a strong windstorm wind that seems to be shaking the entire observatory. She hears the main hall door, slamming open and shut, down below, "Bam!" "Bam!" "Bam!" Oh no, I thought I bolted that door! She gets up and dons the sheep disguise for warmth and heads down to the main hall. She sees rain and wind blowing water and debris into the hall through the open hall door. She quickly steps across the main hall to secure the door. She is startled to see a figure, standing just outside the main hall door, in the wind, framed by the light from the hall. She tries to pull the figure inside but her fore-hooves feel nothing there. The figure then walks into the hall. Lilly then closes and secures the door, behind the figure. The whistling gale of the wind with the blowing debris suddenly stops and there is an eerie silence in the hall. Lilly turns to regard the figure. The figure is a young sheep-woman, dressed in an antique fashion, for mountaineering. She looks like an old picture of my mom. She is dry and does not appear to be windswept. The woman looks at Lilly and smiles. Lilly is still dressed in the sheep disguise. The woman starts to laugh and Lilly laughs too, knowing how silly she must look. Lilly briefly worries that she has blown her cover, but motions the woman to the kitchen anyway. It’s too late now, I might as well save her life, if she is alive... “I’ll make us some tea and you can tell me what you are doing up here in this windstorm so late at night.” The woman walks in to the kitchen and sits on a chair against the wall. The woman stares into space and begins her narrative, “I came up to the observatory on a tour by the college this morning. We toured the observatory and then went out on a trail hike after a tour of the observatory.” “It didn’t go very well for me.” “One of the college advisors separated me from the main tour group and then forced me off the trail, he then pushed me down to the ground, held me down and raped me.” “Then he struck me with something.” “That is the last thing I remember. Then I was at the observatory doorway in front of you.” “I must not remember the trip very well as the observatory does not look at all like what I saw on the tour.” Lilly examines the woman carefully, she notices that the young woman is very attractive and is even more voluptuous than herself. You’re a lovely sheep-girl! Like The Professor collects! “Who is your trip advisor?” The woman gives a name and the name gives Lilly a jolt. It is the name of the current physics department head, The Professor’s boss. Lilly quickly thinks, “Do you know what the year and day it is today?” The woman gives Lilly a date from twenty years ago! Lilly is beginning to panic at the horror. She notices that woman has not touched her cup of tea, or moved anything since arriving. The woman looks down at the kitchen floor, “And that floor patch was not there,” pointing to the yellow concrete patch on the kitchen floor.

Lilly picks up her tea cup as if to drink and then suddenly tosses it at the woman and the cup passes through the woman and shatters against the kitchen's far wall.

Lilly sits up, in a panic. She is in her cot bed, A dream? Lilly gets up, dons the sheep-coat, walks down to check the hall door. The hall door is still bolted from the night before, with no sign that it was ever open during the night. The kitchen is undisturbed, no broken teacup, and no evidence that any tea was brewed last night.

The next day Lilly walks around outside the building and examines the kitchen foundation from the outside of the building. Lilly thinks that she can dig under the kitchen floor and examine what is under the floor without having to break through the concrete kitchen floor.

No astronomy today, just a murder mystery.

The strong Lilly has no difficulty with the pick and shovel work, even in the stony ground of the observatory. After a while she has dug in under the floor about a meter. She is pretty sure that she is now under the discolored concrete floor patch, but so far she has found nothing. She continues digging, certain that she will ultimately find something. Then, a long narrow white spear appears out from the side of Lilly’s hole beneath the kitchen floor. Lilly examines the white spear, afraid to touch it, even through her gloves. This is a leg bone! Lilly then carefully replaces all of the soil and rock she previously removed. The Head, in addition to bullying The Professor, is a murderer! What do I do now, I can’t tell anyone,

but especially not The Professor.

Scene 5. Professor

Without warning, Lilly returns to visit Apollo in the morning of his world. Her other self does not seem to sleepwalk at the observatory as there is no mess. It must be because it is so cold. She must return to her world to do any business she needs to do, where it is warmer. I have been being careful about keeping my body ‘relieved’ before bed in my world, so she doesn't feel the need to get up at night.

Something is different on this visit to Apollo's world. Lilly notices that she is feeling ill after getting up in the morning. She is very hungry for breakfast though, even more so than usual. As they walk to the science building from Apollo’s home, she also notices that she can feel a solid lump forming at the bottom of her abdomen. She reflects, with a start, eyes wide, I have felt this feeling before... Oh No! I’m pregnant! She looks at Apollo with a grimace, You took me off to ‘meet’ ‘Billy’, and you had him do this to me! Deliberately! Now I will have kids to take care of in this world too!

Lilly ignores her ‘delicate condition’ for now. She wants to know more about this invisible radiation and the mysterious ‘particles’. She steers Apollo to the tables and charts she thinks are relevant and has him run the demonstrations and read the charts for her. Back in her world she tries to reconstruct the diagrams for The Professor. Unfortunately these new charts and demonstrations seem to be too far beyond the science of her world to decode.

Except for the ‘cloud-chamber’ device. This one is interesting as it has no parts to be fabricated. She closely examines the demonstration. It consists of a glass flask containing a small piece of ore mounted in the bottom center. The flask is placed on a very cold item, a block of frozen carbon dioxide. A small amount of alcohol is added to the flask. The alcohol forms a vapor layer near the bottom of the flask. And then, short straight vapor trails start to appear, emanating from the ore fragment. Particles!

The professor drives up to the observatory, with food and supplies for Lilly, as well as components for her latest demonstration, This time it is not for a device but for the demonstration of a scientific phenomena known as ‘elemental radiation’. Lilly is beside herself with glee in anticipation of being able to reproduce this new science. She is also in ‘rut’. It is everything that Lilly can do not to jump the poor Professor as he exits the vehicle, she is so excited to see him, or anyone. She helps The Professor unload the vehicle and then she allows him rest from the long drive, as she gobbles the pizza he also brought with him. She sorts through the components, rations and papers and an ice chest that holds the required solid frozen carbon dioxide.

The Professor stands up from the table and Lilly immediately jumps up and embraces him tightly. The Professor attempts to beg off smiling, “I really love your passion for science!” “but let’s do the demonstration first.” “I wish you were my student thirty years ago!” Lilly pushes him back and looks at him sternly, “I wouldn’t have liked you then!” “My men must be aged, (and stink!) like old cheese!” They both laugh.

The demonstration goes very well, the ‘particles’ can be easily seen. Lilly then shines one of the ‘demonstration lanterns’ on the ore sample. The ‘particle’ trails more clearly seen and shadows of the trails are projected on the wall behind. She adds a magnet. The previously straight trails now form screw trails. Lilly jumps in the air and squeaks, “Eee!” “Eee!”.

The professor has also brought a new discharge tube, with a filament a plate. One end has the zinc sulfide screen material coated on the inside and the sides of the tube are inlaid with a thin metal sheet. The tube is pumped down and the filament and high voltage supplies are started. The glow at the screen can be moved around by a magnet. More kinds of ‘particles’?

Then wireless communication system is demonstrated. A spark gap apparatus with two metal wings. It communicates, on and off, with a similar device with the wings connected to a discharge tube. Both devices have a coil. Wired in parallel with the coil is a mechanical assembly consisting of two adjustable parallel metal plates, almost touching. The plates are slid closer or further apart, to maximize the brightness of the illumination in the receiving discharge tube. The the gap between plates on one transmitter receiver pair can be set to maximize the received signal on the other. Now the two wireless transmitter and receiver pair systems can operate both at the same time and place without interference from each other. The each transmitter-receiver set is both wireless and independent.

Another demonstration is an electrical generator, wound to produce electricity that is alternating in polarity as the shaft is rotated. The rotating element can be wound in such a way as to couple electrical energy from the stationary elements coils to the rotating coils around the shaft without direct electrical contacts or ‘brushes’. In a similar way, a motor can also wound to use the alternating electrical current for power and to rotate the shaft without brushes. Lilly thinks of the observatory generator and realizes that it will be much more resistant to the elements than the one that requires ‘brushes’. In addition, this alternating polarity electricity can be transformed into different voltages by magnetic coupling of the electrical current through coils with different number winding's, to produce higher or lower voltages, replacing the inefficient inductive-interrupter device that is presently used to produce high voltages.

Another device is an evacuated tube with three elements. This device is demonstrates the electrical amplification of the voice signals from telephone circuits into an electromagnet with a cardboard sounding surface. The telephone voices can now be heard throughout the room.

Lilly is skipping through the air and celebrating these successful demonstration reproductions. Her reward is ice cream, and The Professor. She glares at The Professor, grinning, “Don’t you even think about driving down this dangerous mountain, in the dark, tonight!” “It is way too dangerous!” “You will be staying here tonight!” “With me!” "Where it is safe!"

The Professor regards the excited Lilly, tail wiggling and hide glowing crimson under her translucent fur,

But Lilly, you’re dangerous too!

Scene 6. Lamb

The Professor is gone and the days continue. It will soon be spring. Lilly continues her astronomy observations and research. The Professor supplied Lilly with strings of the new electric lights, courtesy of ‘The Factory’, and Lilly has installed them, twinkling, throughout the observatory. No more greasy, stinky oil lamps that ruin the optics! The Professor also brought improved optical instruments, photographic plates and photographic development chemicals. These, with Lilly’s hard work and the clear, cold, winter night skies, have all resulted in yet more discoveries from the heavens above.

Lilly lies in her cot, very pleased with her night’s work and reflecting on her world, If this keeps up, who knows what I will find. Maybe, I’ll finally find ‘The Universal Truth’ and become even more famous. She closes her eyes.

She becomes aware of a glow through her closed eyes. She opens her eyes to see a small figure sitting, in profile, at the end of her cot-bed. The figure is glowing a gold-orange. The figure appears to be a small, female sheep, a lamb. The figure resembles The Lamb figure on The Ram's cross. The Lamb is looking down, holding a small book, reading. Lilly, in fright, speaks to the golden apparition, “Who are you?”

The figure looks up and replies, “I am known by many names,” “but I am usually just called ‘The Lamb’.”

Lilly is increasingly frightened, “Why are you here?

The Lamb replies, “I come because I am called,” “by the desperate and the hopeful.” “I appear before martyrs and emissaries,” “to tell them that they are about to face a trial.” “I ask them to reflect on their faith, for the strength to endure.”

Lilly suddenly opens her eyes to see only the darkened sleeping chamber. It is completely dark and she is alone. She remembers the worry of The Chief. And that she is incommunicado, except for her weekly visits from The Professor. What is going on with me? She thinks about the words of ‘The Lamb’.

I am about to face ‘A Trial’?