Scientific Superstar in the Flesh
IT WASN’T the dog’s slobbery tongue lapping across Sera’s face that woke her out of a dead sleep. It was the dog’s awful breath. Sera’s nose instinctively wrinkled and she popped open her eyes and nudged her dog’s cold snout out of the way. She sat up, wiping her face on her shirtsleeve, saying, “No face licking, Ginger. Or Dixie. Or whatever your name is.”
When the dog lowered her head in shame, Sera hugged her tightly and added, “I’m glad you came with me, though. We’re a team now.”
The dog licked her face again, and this time Sera let it slide.
Sera got up from her simple cot to investigate her surroundings. She was in a small, dark room with heavy beige curtains, white walls, and dark wooden floors. Other than the large, gaudy cross above the door, the room was incredibly plain.
Was this really seventeenth-century Rome? What happened to all the . . . stuff?
And why was she so exhausted?
Sera heard people shouting in Italian outside so she went to the window and brushed aside the curtains to look. There were two groups of men in what looked to be some kind of town square. They were arguing and pointing at each other. One group was dressed in the black robes that she knew Roman Catholics called cassocks. They had matching black hats. The other group was dressed in more modern-looking trousers and long shirts. They looked like students.
And then Sera spotted the smallest of the trouser-wearing crew. He was standing right in the middle of the action, shouting louder than anyone else and in perfect Italian.
Dak.
Sera threw on the clothes Dak had clearly left for her and rushed out the door, the dog following closely behind. She pushed her way into the crush of people and tugged at Dak’s arm. “What are you doing?” she scolded him. “You’re going to get trampled out here.”
“Sera?” Dak was looking at her like he’d just seen a ghost. “Why aren’t you still . . . sleeping?”
The argument around them escalated, and Sera realized why this felt so different from any of their previous warps. Because she wasn’t wearing a translation device, she couldn’t understand a word anyone was saying.
Dak let her pull him aside. Once they were a safe distance away from the two clashing groups, Sera asked, “How long was I asleep? And why didn’t you wake me up?”
“Only a few hours,” Dak said. “You seemed sick or something, so I thought it was best to let you rest.”
The dog growled at Dak and showed her teeth.
Sera agreed with the dog: Dak was being sketchy. She narrowed her eyes at him. When was the last time he’d left her alone just because she was a little under the weather? Never, that’s when. Dak didn’t pay attention to stuff like that. He had to be up to something.
“You should have woken me up,” Sera snapped. “What are we doing here? What have I missed?”
Dak shouted a few more lines of Italian at the men in black cassocks before turning back to Sera. “Are you familiar with the heliocentric theory?” Dak asked her.
“Duh,” Sera answered. “The heliocentric theory states that the Earth revolves around the sun — not the other way around. I wrote about it on my blog two years ago. Remember? You left a comment suggesting that the Earth revolves around cheese.”
“Oh,” Dak said. “I mean, I forgot. Anyway, Galileo has been promoting the heliocentric theory all over the place lately, and now he’s been called in for an inquisition.”
“Right,” Sera said, recalling the significance of the date she’d entered into the Infinity Ring. “This is the day they find him guilty of heresy, right?”
Dak nodded excitedly. “It’s history in the making, Sera. In order to stay out of jail, Galileo is going to be forced to publicly declare that he was mistaken —”
“What a joke!” Sera shouted. “All of Galileo’s research is supported by the most powerful telescope available at the time. He proved the Earth revolves around the sun. It’s one of the most absurd setbacks in the history of scientific progress!”
Dak looked genuinely frightened by her anger.
“Sorry.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You know how I get when it comes to this stuff.”
Dak took a step closer and told Sera in a much quieter voice, “You’re right to be upset. In history as we know it, the cardinals rule against Galileo. We’re here because we can’t let that happen.” He opened up his backpack and pulled out the copy of Isaac Newton’s The Principia and handed it to her. “How familiar are you with this book?”
“Are you kidding?” Sera said. “I basically have it memorized.”
“Good,” Dak said, “because you’re going to use it to prove Galileo’s position is valid.”
“What?” Sera said. “How?”
“I’ve already set everything in motion for you,” Dak told her. “You just have to trust me on this one.”
But that was the problem. Sera didn’t know if she could trust Dak anymore. He’d been acting strange from the moment he’d shown up at her parents’ house. And now there was this look in his eyes she didn’t recognize. And there had to be a reason her dog was still snarling at her best friend and emitting a low growl. Animals sensed when people were hiding something.
Sera would have started drilling Dak with additional questions if at that exact moment, everyone in the town square hadn’t gone utterly silent.
Sera looked up and saw a group of armed soldiers escorting a man in shackles toward the courthouse.
A buzz of voices rippled through the square as the shackled man was led right past Sera and Dak. He looked up and met eyes with Sera, and Sera’s heart began pounding so fast, she wondered if this was what it felt like to have a heart attack.
This was her idol, Galileo.
In the flesh. In chains.
She actually had to remind herself to breathe.
When the man was led through the doors of the courthouse, Dak tapped the book in Sera’s hands. “The entire course of history is counting on you,” he said.
“No pressure,” Sera mumbled to herself, still staring at the doors of the courthouse. She swallowed hard, remembering that ten cardinals would rule Galileo guilty. How was she going to convince them that the Earth revolved around the sun when they were so set in their ways, they had refused to even look through Galileo’s telescope?