Dear Atul,

It is a shame, my friend, that the annual meeting of the Fortean-Mobist League took place in your absence. All of us were excited to see the Rocket Tree finally in full force, however, your silence puzzled us. And it still does. I know how dedicated you are to our efforts, and I realize how much the League owes to your crafts, vision and sensibilities. Perhaps you hesitated in sharing the definite Rocket Tree concept with us; perhaps you were overwhelmed by our overt display of enthusiasm; perhaps you shrieked back when the Agents of Alienation pinpointed you as the ‘brains’ behind the undeniable modification of space & time – which has taken its toll on all of us.

Some voices whisper that you actually succeeded in lifting off the Rocket Tree. Some say it was a manned flight. Did you make it? The question terrifies me, dear friend, as I know your Rocket Tree was designed only to set sail for Vulcan. So far, none of us have ever seen Vulcan with our own eyes, however, we believed you on your words when your calculations convinced us that rotational velocity is able to camouflage space with time, and time with space. Perhaps we were struck by the simplicity and beauty of the theory, and perhaps we turned a blind eye to the practical possibilities. It comes to no surprise that our annual meeting was dominated by a nervous, yet euphoric debate on the Rocket Tree and the possibility of the camouflaged planet you called Vulcan. The fourth day of our gathering was dedicated to several lectures of professor C.F. Hoy, whose research results confirm the validity of your suggestions. Let me summarize some facts for you here (though I know they will not come as a surprise for you):

In 1859, Dr. Lescarbault, an amateur astronomer of Orgéres, France, announced that, upon March 26 of that year, he had seen a body of planetary size cross the sun. He wrote to the famous astronomer Leverrier, who hastened to Orgéres. Leverrier, the first to see Neptune, satisfied himself as to the substantial accuracy of the reported observation. This story is told in Monthly Notices (29-98). However, Leverrier was careful not to tell Lescarbault who he was. He subjected Lescarbault to a severe cross examination, to find out whether he was a fraud or not. When he was satisfied, Leverrier gave the name ‘Vulcan’ to the object that Lescarbault had reported. Within a few years, Leverrier collected six more observations of Vulcan, made by astronomers unknown to one another.

According to the Annual Register (9-21), upon the 9th of August, 1762, a certain M. de Rostan of Basle, Switzerland, was taking altitudes of the sun at Lausanne. He saw a vast spindle-shaped body, about three of the sun’s digits in breadth and nine in length, advancing slowly across the disk of the sun at no more than half the velocity with which the ordinary solar spots move. It did not disappear until the 7th of September, when it reached the sun’s limb. Because of the spindle-like form I incline to think of a super-Zeppelin, but another observation, which seems to indicate that it was a world, is that, though it was opaque and ‘eclipsed’ the sun, it had around it a kind of nebulosity – or atmosphere? Did De Rostan see a proto-Rocket Tree and a world – later known as Vulcan - at one and the same time in one and the same object? Did he experience the art of cosmic camouflage? Tell me, Atul, I beg you, did you experience the same thing? Or more frightening, are you actually involved in the planetary and cosmic cataclysm we witness today?

But listen, the story continues. Then there is M. Coste, at Sole, about forty-five German leagues northward from Lausanne, who had seen the same thing De Rostan saw, describing the same spindle-form, but disagreeing a little as to breadth. Then comes the important point: that he and M. de Rostan did not see it upon the same part of the sun. This, then, is parallax, and, compounded with invisibility at Paris, is great parallax - or that in the course of a month, in the summer of 1762, a large, opaque, spindle-shaped body traversed the disk of the sun, but at a great distance from the sun. The writer in the Annual Register says: “In a word, we know of nothing to have recourse to, in the heavens, by which to explain this phenomenon”. And we still do not know, I would like to add.

In the Monthly Notices of February 1877, Leverrier gives the six observations upon the unknown body of planetary size he had formulated: “Fritsche, Oct.10, 1802; Stark, Oct.9, 1819; De Cuppis, Oct. 30, 1839; Sidebotham, Nov. 12, 1849; Lescarbault, March 26, 1859; Lummis, March 20, 1862”. Starting out with this check-list, C.F. Hoy collected more observations. July 26, 1819, by Gruthinson, who observed two bodies that crossed the sun together; Nature mentions astronomer Benjamin Scott from London, who had seen in 1847 a body “similar to Vulcan” (!) cross the sun; L’Année Scientific (1876) publishes a same observation by Hind & Lowe, March 12, 1849; again Nature makes note of a “body of apparent size of Mercury”, seen Jan. 29, 1860, by F.A.R. Russell and four other observers, crossing the sun. Hoy’s list is endless: similar observations are found in Constantinople (1865), Berlin (1876), London (1871, 1873)…how long do I need to go on?

Where are you, Atul? Did you discover the key we have all been looking for so long? Do not leave us alone in this eternal and meaningless void we call home. Dear friend, give us a sign of your presence.

Till that day, we will work, study and contemplate. In the forthcoming issue of our Fortean-Mobist Journal we will publish Dr. T.B. Pawlicki’s calculations of the theoretical details you provided, after showing us the prototype of the Rocket Tree. Again, his preliminary conclusions support your claim that space is a creation of the camouflage of time. What did the observers, mentioned above, see, when they pointed at the sun and shouted: “Lo!” Did they see time travelling itself, materialized in spatial, spindle-shaped bodies?

(As an accelerating body disintegrates along the axis of travel, it re-forms along an axis proceeding at right angles to the line of travel. As a result, the standing wave is observed to veer to the right as relativistic velocities are reached. As an accelerating body acquires velocity on the second axis of travel, it begins to disintegrate in that direction also, and re-form along a third axis at right angles to the other two. As a consequence, all particles moving at relativistic velocities are seen to travel in corkscrew trajectory. The velocity of light is never quite reached in any direction because the trajectory curves over an angle of 45 degrees every time the velocity on the relevant axis reaches a certain point.)

Could this be the sighting of Vulcan, Atul?

(The speed of light is reached on all axes simultaneously when all the flow axes of the waves which create the standing wave rotate through a total of 540 degrees. At this point, the three axes of generation close from 180 degrees to zero degrees simultaneously; the standing wave disappears over the event horizon of a Black Hole at the speed of light, and jumps to infinite velocity. At the speed of light, the travelling body is transformed, or better, camouflaged, into pure radiation.)

No, dear friend, do not tell me this is what happened to you. Are we on the right track?

I will leave the horrifying conclusions of Pawlicki’s final propositions up to you. Listen, Atul, as soon as explorers leave familiar landmarks by venturing over land or sea, they are in danger of becoming lost. As long as exploration was confined to the surface of a small planet, adventurers could wander all over the world with a fair chance of blundering their way back home. The advent of space exploration, however, demands accurate courses plotted before the first Mercury capsule blasted off from Cape Canaveral; the navigator has to know exactly where to go (Is this why you chose Vulcan, Atul?) and how to get back. Travelling to the future can not be so simple as hopping into a time shuttle and going. Which way did you go, Atul?

If you blast off at the speed of light and return six months later to the location you left, all you will find is empty space. The Earth and the Solar System will be long gone in their galactic orbits, six months away. To reach future Earth (or Vulcan) you must plot a return course that will bring you to the location the Earth will occupy at the other side of its orbit six months from now. I hope you will understand these basic rules.

Tonight, my friend, I will join my brothers and sisters at the Observatory, where we will dedicate our time to science and speculation. Indeed, anxious to yell our own “Lo!” one day, we sincerely await your arrival more than anything else. As our good friend Annie Henderson once cried out, “Now it is not so lonely up here anymore!”, we will cherish the same hope and desire.

With love,
Your good friend,
Dr. Auratheft.