Tesla Coil Fiction by John Freau                               The Coruup and the Coil  Tarin felt the mud squish between his toes as he left the tepid water  and headed towards the arena.  It was getting dark but the heat was  still unbearable.  He walked slowly past the battlements, and then  onto the causeway.  It was completely dark by the time Tarin  reached the almost filled arena and found an available seat.  No one spoke as they looked across the vast expanse of the arena,  towards the central coil and its monstrous toroidal topload.  Tarin  knew the coil was 200 feet tall and that the gold plated toroid was  200 feet in diameter.  He took out his binoculars for a better look,  and spied spark gap assembly, and the power supply  unit.  Tarin  knew what these were called, but he did not understand their function.     At last a figure appeared at the base of the coil.  Everyone knew it  was the Coruup.  Through his binoculars, Tarin could see the Coruup's  ash-white face and silver garments.  The Coruup seemed to float from  place to place at the base of the tower, occasionally raising his arms  with a mysterious flourish.     Gradually, a low rumbling was felt which eventually increased until  it seemed the earth would split in two.  Suddenly a cold white light  flickered at the coil's base and Tarin knew this was caused by some  kind of electrical arc within the spark gap.  The light seemed to reflect  from the Coruup, accentuating his fluid movements and flourishes.    Then small needling steamers spiked outwards from the toroid to meet  the darkness.  The Coruup waved his hands and the white arcs  lengthened as the sound of thunder filled the arena.  The lightning  bolts lashed above the onlookers with incessant fury.  The spectators  shivered and trembled despite the searing heat of the night.  As the  Coruup moved his arms, he seemed to control the crashing thunder-  bolts, lifting them to ever increasing brightness and frenzied activity.     As Tarin watched, the Coruup rose into the air, as if lifted by a giant  hand.  Higher and higher he rose, until at last a giant arc-bolt struck  him, then scattered around his glowing form in a star shaped pattern.  The multitudes could feel the telepathic powers of the Coruup  within their minds.  They could feel the unyielding strength and  un-matchable power of the Coruup himself.  The Coruup began to  drift from bolt to bolt, hovering within each streamer, seemingly  energized by its power, or perhaps giving power to the streamers.  Then he began to dart and flow through and along the streamers,  swooping outwards towards the onlookers, only to lunge inward  again towards the toroid.     Tarin could feel the Coruup's command within his own mind as the  Coruup willed the terrible arcs downward until they splashed against  the multitudes.  As the onlookers were struck by the awesome bolts,  they were filled with the Coruup's power, and they too were able to lift  themselves into the air and into the arc-streamers, and join the Coruup's  aerial dance within the streamers.  Tarin felt weightless as the sparks  lifted him into the air and the electricity stimulated his entire being.  He  and the others would have been vaporized if not for the Coruup's  protective powers.  In time, all the spectators joined in the aerial jubilee,  twirling and darting, ghost-like, within the steamers. They could feel the  energy and mental powers of the Coruup within themselves.  They  could feel the energy of the arc-streamers and the Coruup's mind  renewing them, physically and mentally.     At last they felt the Coruup's mind releasing its grip upon them.  They  clung, but he pulled away, gradually but relentlessly.  The multitudes  were eased down to their seats, and the mental bond was broken.  The numbing sounds and lights weakened and died, and the Coruup  stood once again at the coil's base.     The multitudes knew that their rejuvenation would sustain them until  next year's spectacle.  Brimming with Teslarian and Coruupian energy,  Tarin stepped smartly into the night, impervious to the blistering summer  heat.     John Freau   (This story gives my impression of coiling during the springtime.)                               The Worker and the Teacher     Having been genetically bred to be a worker, Tarin had never been  particularly curious about the world.  But now, he was struck by the  awe and mysteries of reality.  As the 80 ton metal doors of the  Underground began to groan and slowly open, he stood among the  great crowd, waiting to surge Outside.  Today was the first day of  spring -- the first day of the year that the workers were permitted to  leave the Underground.     Tarin had heard the stories about the old days, before the  Underground had been built; how millions of workers had perished  Outside during his world's brutal winters.  But now, as warmer  weather took over, the workers, their yearly work complete, were  free to join the Outsiders on the surface.  Tarin had also heard the  stories of how the genetic manipulations that had given the  workers their work abilities, had the unfortunate side effect of  making them sensitive to the cold.     Many of the workers, being so content at their tasks however,  continued to toil within their bleak caverns throughout the year.  So molded were they by their genes, they could not enjoy the  outside world of leisure during the warm seasons.  Tarin however,  enjoyed the feeling of the sun on his face, and the gentle breezes,  and the myriad of plants, animals, and flying bugs.     As the multitudes surged towards the now open doors, Tarin felt  the unspeakable cold piercing his being.  Fortunately, this was  simply the result of living underground at a constant warm  temperature during the winter.  He and the other workers would  quasi-adjust to the sub-zero temperatures, but it was hard for  him to understand how the Outsiders were able to live outside year-  round.  Compared to mid-winter, it was now warm.  Of course, the  summers were almost as bad as the winters; the heat was that  intense.  Without the Tesla coils, and the Coruup's power, no one  could survive the summers.  The Tesla coils and the Coruup helped  people to survive the summers, but didn't help the workers much in  the winters.  Tarin looked forward to the times during the year when  the temperature Outside would be just right.     The workers trudged relentlessly through the deep snow, making  their way along the causeway.  The ice-encrusted battlements lent  an aura of surrealism to the scene.  Glancing towards the Arena,  Tarin saw the giant Tesla secondary coil, with its monstrous golden  toroid, projecting from the drifts of ice and snow.  He looked forward  to the summer's aerial Tesla/Coruup jubilee, when people would be  lifted into the giant Tesla coil's sparks by the Coruup's energy, and  become rejuvenated by that ghost-like dance, and thereby made  able to survive the summer heat.     Tarin stopped in a nearby porto-kiosk, where workers could obtain  warm food and drink, and escape temporarily from the biting cold.  Many of his worker friends remained in the Underground until  warmer weather arrived, but Tarin wanted to experience all the  sensations that nature could offer.  Still, he wasn't anxious to leave  the relative comfort of the kiosk.  Tarin sat at a table and sipped his  hot gor-val tea, and watched the workers trekking through the cold  darkness outside.    At first he didn't notice the Outsider sitting opposite him at the  table.  Outsiders rarely came to these kiosks, often prefering areas  high in the mountains or in the cities.  Although relations between  the workers and Outsiders were peaceful and polite, the two groups  tended to remain apart, not quite understanding each other.  Occasionally, an Outsider would wander among the workers,  probably out of a sense of curiosity or adventure.  Sometimes it was  said, the outsiders would study the worker's ways, since the  Outsiders often had a curious and scientific bent.     Tarin could see that this Outsider was a teacher, one of a  mysterious group who were rumored to possess secret powers  and knowledge.  The teacher's face was drawn and somber, with  large piercing eyes.  He wore long flowing robes with golden  fringes.  Then the teacher spoke to Tarin in a deep musical voice.  Tarin was startled, never before had a teacher spoken to him.  After a few polite exchanges, the teacher began to speak of the  Outside world.  He told of the various pursuits of the Outsiders;  of their philosophical musings, their writings, and their music.  Tarin listened in fascination to these stories about these mystical  beings who it seemed were similar to the workers in many ways.  The teacher noticed Tarin's interest in the stories and said, "You  are truly interested in hearing these strories aren't you?  It is very  rare to meet a worker who is interested in hearing about the  Outsiders."     "I think as I grow older, I'm becoming more curious", Tarin replied.     "This fits the genetic programming", the teacher explained, "among  Outsiders, the very young are curious.  The workers were bred to  not be curious, but sometimes, once in a great while, the brain's  development deviates somewhat from its genetic directive, due to  environmental, or other pressures, and a greater than normal  curiosity develops.  You may want to visit one of the great libraries,  although much of the material is written in the Cal-Grom language  which workers are not taught to understand."     "What about the Coruup?", asked Tarin, "Where did he come from,  and how do his powers work?"     "Even we don't fully understand the mysteries and powers of the  Coruup", said the teacher, "but we know he is very old, and came  from an alien world.  It was the Coruup who brought Tesla coils to  this world.  The Coruup also brought many other technologies to  this world.  You may not know it, but the Tesla coils are run during  the winter months to help warm the world a little.  They are not  particularly efficient as heating devices, but it is an old tradition to  use them for this purpose.  It is sometimes said that the Tesla coil  was invented on an alien world called the 'Earth', but no one knows  if this is true, or if it is just a myth.     Tarin spoke the word slowly, "Earth.  Is anything known of that  world?"     "It is said to be a place of beauty and horror, a place of mystery  and contrasts, but really nothing else is known about it," said the  teacher.     "I would like to go there", said Tarin as he continued to drink his  gor-val tea.  He glanced at the golden toroid in the Arena.     "We do not possess space ships on this world," explained the  teacher, "The Coruup is able to travel to other worlds, but he has  not given us that technology.  Our scientists have tried to develop  space vehicles, but have failed so far.  But some day we will  succeed, and perhaps you will be the first worker to leave this  world, and travel to the mysterious world called Earth".     Soon Tarin and the teacher left the kiosk, and went their separate  ways.  As Tarin continued along the causeway, he thought about  the teacher's stories, and daydreamed about visiting the place  called Earth.  He no longer noticed the cold.                     END.  John Freau