Joey Cloudy online

Isaiah Jones versus the Sea (A 21st Century Odyssey)

chapter 9 pt 1

No Country for Young (Black) Men’

“In a hundred years they will be invisible to themselves.”

‘From the Diary of Kwai Chang Caine’

-Tim Siebles

The Story of O. J.

“Light nigga, dark nigga, faux nigga, real nigga

Rich nigga, poor nigga, house nigga, field nigga

Still nigga, still nigga

Light nigga, dark nigga, faux nigga, real nigga

Rich nigga, poor nigga, house nigga, field nigga

Still nigga, still nigga”

-Jay-Z

Isaiah worked on the coil gun, explaining its nomenclature as he tinkered. “This is often misnomered as a Gauss gun,” he said with a smile as they talked. While both are types of Mass Drivers, they work on completely different principles as electromagnetic force multipliers. I’m adjusting the plasma window seal of the vacuum chamber; the ceramic caseless rounds never contact the barrel when the weapon is fired. Which is the wrong vernacular, this platform launches a projectile. It is a frictionless discharge of a .44mm (about 1.73 in) 16-gram caseless ceramic (strontium hexaferrite (SrFe12O19) or barium hexaferrite (BaFe12O19) rounds I designed when I was 7, patented in 2012.

The slugs never touch the smooth walls of the flyway tube or barrel, i.e., vacuum chamber, with the rifling being on the rounds rather than the barrel of the gun. What we are utilizing is Newton’s second law, F=ma.” He looked up from the weapon into her eyes as he spoke. “Force equals mass times acceleration.” Naomi knew he was trying to make himself clear, talking slowly and using small words to avoid losing or confusing her.

She suspected he was forced to do this a lot when he wasn’t around the family and friends he had grown up with. She had seen it in his eyes in the videos with the kids he partied with in Key West posted online, and she could see it now—a lingering sadness, a profound loneliness. She noticed he talked only about his thoughts and ideas, but never a word about his feelings. There were so few people who were even capable of communicating with him on his own level; it isolated him. He didn’t seem to care, but she wondered if it was an act, if it hurt to be so alone. His mind, his gift, to her seemed more like a great burden. Beyond the autism, he simply was not like us, no matter how hard he tried to be normal—whatever the hell that was.

She had never seen a black person as dark-skinned as he with big, bright green eyes. Even she knew that people treated dark-skinned people worse than lighter-skinned black people; colorism is the colonial legacy in Cuban culture, as well as the rest of the post-colonial nations. He was a beautiful black boy, but most people in the America he grew up in missed the beautiful.

“I built this thing when I was still at SMU. The school paid for the diodes and the capacitors, everything but the resistors. They thought it was a rail gun, Philistines,” he scoffed as he and worked on the space-age weapons electromagnetic plasma window before tweaking the charging controller SSR, Signal GND, and discharging controllers’ sequential acceleration of the tethered capacitors, solenoids, and diodes. I have always been fascinated by the poetry of mathematics and electromagnetism. Magnetohydrodynamics is where most of my research is focused.

Ultimately, I hope to use Mass Drive platforms to transport cargo on hyper-speed rails and eventually to launch payloads and even people into orbit. It’s just a matter of having a long enough rail to reach escape velocity without pulling so many Gs you crush your passengers.

“When I was 6, my mom, the biology professor, decided it would be a good idea if I was a member of MENSA, so we logged on to their website and I took the test without even prepping for it. Their test placed people with IQs as high as mine as doctors. It was over 300 the last time they checked. Since then, I’ve been contacted by everybody from DARPA to the Freemasons, and I suspect the masons may have someone at Mensa looking for people like me. I didn’t join, mind you, but I didn’t say no either,” he said with a knowing grin. I am the author of 108 cited scientific papers and publications registered with the United States Copyright Office, having references and acknowledgments in scholarly works, academic papers, articles, and books. As well as being the holder of 42 patents in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

“(“Youngest Graduate Award – SMU: Awarded for being the youngest graduate from SMU Simultaneous Degree Program with a B.S. degree in physics from Dedman College and a B.S. degree in engineering from the Lyle School of Engineering at the age of 15.

Outstanding Thesis Award – SMU Engineering Department: for exceptional research and thesis work at an undergraduate level. I cited Watts & Fish early 2000s research on the tubercle effect, work they applied to boat and drone propellers. I was the first to see its applications in hypersonic ballistics and munitions designs.

National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Fellowship: Awarded for outstanding research potential in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics.

Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology – Finalist: Recognized as a finalist for groundbreaking research in the field. I was 11 when I won their last competition in 2017.

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Student Paper Prize: Awarded for an exceptional paper in the field of engineering or related sciences.

National Merit Scholarship: Recognized for outstanding academic performance and potential for success in college studies.

Young Innovator Award – National Academy of Engineering: Acknowledgment for innovative contributions and potential impact in the engineering field at a young age. I was 10 when I designed a weaponized pneumatic platform that could launch a lawn dart through the engine block of a vintage Dodge Charger, 1968 426 HEMI V8. Isaiah said, smiling. Most of my work is related to B = mBcos(θ) “Torque on a current carrying loop in a uniform magnetic field.”

My expertise is in using electromagnetism to accelerate objects to Hypervelocity, light gas guns, linear motors. I’ve used Moore’s Law to extrapolate how long it will take to finish work I started when I was 7 years old. I must wait 2 more years to complete my most important work.

Ok, Kool, only one question, what is a pneumatic weapon?” Naomi asked.

“A potato gun.” He replied deadpan with a straight face before they both burst out laughing at the same time.”

“My dad says I’m good PR for any organization. Did I mention the Westinghouse Prize?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Naomi said cautiously.

“That was when I was 12 and still a high schooler. They call it something else now, he continued to work as he thought, ah yes, he said. They changed the name of the Westinghouse Science Talent Search to the Regeneron Science Talent Search. Big pharma took over the competition the year before I won.” And it turns out mom was right about MENSA. Part of the reason that Stanford now allows me to take all of my classes online while working on my master’s/doctorate is because of my MENSA score. And I thought they, Mensa, were a joke.” Apparently, because I was the youngest Fields Medal winner, I’m in line for a Nobel, and dad says that nothing opens the wallets of the alumni like having an award-winning scientist amongst the student body, even remotely. By that logic, I had already attended Oxford, Princeton, Yale, and Columbia by the time I was 11. They all have courses online, YouTube, and if they’re stupid enough to put an Ivy League education online for free, then I’m dumb enough to take it. He chuckled.

Naomi looked at Isaiah sheepishly as she confessed. “Well, now I’m embarrassed. All I use the internet for is Netflix, Amazon, and Grubhub.” They both laughed again as she scratched behind Starbucks’s ears, and the dog’s tail wagged happily.

He handed Naomi one of the elongated tear drop shaped ceramic slugs to examine. Can you see the rifling on the slug?

“No, Naomi said, pushing a lock of black hair from her face with her empty hand as she studied the nearly 2-inch-long, slender piece of ceramic, all I see are a few bumps on the tip and along the length of the round. I never saw any ammo that looked like this back when I was in Delta Force.”

That’s because I hadn’t invented them yet, and DARPA hasn’t stolen them yet. They both laughed. He kept tinkering with the acceleration timing mechanism as he spoke. “Surprise, the bumps are the rifling. Using the tubercle effect on projectiles is my gift to ballistics and munitions manufacture; like the bumps and irregular edges of a blue whale’s fins and body create vortices that decrease drag and improve lift, much like the fletching on an arrow.

1. No friction loss in the barrel. and 2. rifling on the round causing the projectile’s rotation to begin once it exits the flyway tube and hits the atmosphere. 3. Trans sonic flow patterns and the critical point where metals and fluids behave alike when impacted at Hypervelocity.

So, these little bumps are like the wings on the end of a missile? Naomi asked as she turned the round with her fingertips, examining it closely.

Exactly, but they are an improvement on that 72,000-year-old concept.

When operating this platform on its higher settings, wear eye and ear protection for when the round exits the vacuum of the barrel, passing the plasma window and hitting the air in front of the barrel at Mach 10, hell of a muzzle flash with the sonic boom, and one hell of a recoil. This coil gun can achieve projectile speeds ranging from a few hundred meters per second to several kilometers per second, depending on the setting.

When operated at its highest settings, the projectile will strike its target at such a high velocity that the round will cause a localized explosion of kinetic energy on impact. The ceramic projectile traveling at Mach 10 impacting a target, the localized temperatures at the point of impact will be extremely high, as all of that speed is now instantaneously converted to kinetic energy on impact in the thousands of degrees Celsius, once the projectile hits the target at such a high speed, the impact generates intense heat due to the kinetic energy being converted into thermal energy. He paused for a moment as he quickly did the calculations in his head before continuing.

“…convert the Mach 10 speed to meters per second:

Speed of sound at sea level…343 meters per second.

Mach 10 = 10 * speed of sound = 10 * 343 m/s = 3430 m/s

Kinetic Energy=12×mass×velocity2Kinetic Energy=21 ×mass×velocity2

: Kinetic Energy=12×0.016 kg×(3430 m/s)2Kinetic Energy=21 ×0.016kg×(3430m/s)2

Kinetic Energy=12×0.016×11772400 m2/s2Kinetic Energy=21 ×0.016×11772400m2/s2 Kinetic Energy=94099.2  Joules Kinetic Energy=94099.2 Joules”

“So, this .44 mm slug with a mass of 16 grams traveling at Mach 10 generates 94,099.2 Joules of kinetic energy on impact. KE=mv squared. If an object’s mass doubles, its kinetic energy doubles. But, if its speed doubles, its kinetic energy quadruples!

A ship’s fiberglass hull, for example, will have a large hole, a minimum of several feet in diameter, if it does not tear the entire craft apart. The fiberglass and ceramic particles will become lethal shrapnel that will tear through human flesh as if it were cotton candy at the speed the debris will be traveling. Basically, on impact, it will explode and start a fire. Even if the projectile fails to penetrate the target on impact by hitting a heavily armored tank, for example, the concussion and heat blast would liquefy and cook the vehicle’s occupants. You’d need a shop-vac and squeegee to clean out what was left.”

“! Jesus! Naomi exclaimed, and they let you build this thing at school?”

Yeah, Isaiah said as a mischievous grin slides across his face. You see, technically it’s not a firearm i.e., gun, no gunpowder or chemical explosion. So, it’s like owning a pellet or airsoft gun.

“So, it’s the magnets that are moving the bullet?” Naomi said, still examining the slug.

Yes, exactly, the projectile is carried through the barrel by an electromagnetic pulse slingshotting it through a series of tethered coils. The previous iterations of the platform used photosensor wires to send the signal through the electromagnetic coils. This uses a laser traveling through an ionized gas plasma field instead. This backpack here holds the power source for its auxiliary systems, a lithium-ion battery from the ship’s hydrogen fuel cell. The flyway tube (smoothbore barrel), this polymer-coated barrel here is basically a nitrogen-cooled heat sink that allows you to operate the platform underwater without electrocuting yourself. The gyroscope keeps the recoil from tearing your shoulder from your body when the weapon is discharged at high settings. As well as controlling the laser targeting system.

“Once I started attending university at 13, everyone except Penelope assumed I was there on a basketball scholarship. She had taken my dad’s Calculus class the year before, and we look exactly alike. He’s 50 lbs. heavier and 3 inches taller at 6 ft 4. These may be my mother’s eyes, but yeah, anyone can see we look almost exactly alike in the face. No one ever guessed I was there on an academic scholarship. I was a 6 ft tall 13-year-old black guy.” There were lots of 6 ft plus whiteboys on campus, never heard anyone ask if they were on the basketball team. He laughed as he slowly shook his head in disbelief.

Naomi quickly did the math and realized he had finished college in only 2 years.

“The reason I was homeschooled is because my mother came to the school to pick me up when I was 6 years old, only to find me in the office with the school’s security, an off-duty policeman who had me in handcuffs. I am a high-functioning autistic, and I threw a temper tantrum when the teacher interrupted my counting, which calmed me. My very southern, very white mother lost her f@cking mind seeing her 6-year-old autistic child in handcuffs, and that was the last time I set foot in a school until I started college at Southern Methodist University, where they are both adjunct professors 7 years later.

Momma didn’t give them any quarter; she’s white and knew the score with these people. It was good old American racism, pure and simple, no matter how they tried to spin it. They sued the police department and the school and won. 18 months later, the cop died of autoerotic asphyxiation while using his night stick to stimulate his prostate. 7 months after that, the teacher committed suicide by injecting herself with a lethal dose of fentanyl.” “The biggest wreath at both funerals was from Granny Culpepper. She attended the services and kissed both cheeks of their corpses as she whispered her goodbyes.

“Karma is a bitch, huh?” Naomi said as she looked at the caseless .44 mm ceramic round.

Isaiah smiled as he continued. “They taught me how to see the human world through the eyes of anthropologists like Leaky, Fossey, and Goodall. This gave me the tools I needed to pierce the veil of civility and navigate human society in safety. The point is, I see the differences in how white people react to my very presence every day. The change in pitch of the waitress’s voice once they see me and my dad at the table with my mom. The way the shopkeepers follow me around the store when I enter the quicky mart with my white friends while we are out skateboarding around the neighborhood. On and on it goes; it’s in the eyes even when they try to hide their hatred with a razor blade smile and saccharin-coated words. My parents taught me how to see the enemy in order to keep me alive.

By the time I was 10 years old, they had ‘The Talk’ with me. You don’t know what “the talk” is, do you? I mean, sure, you are Cuban, “Todos los cubanos tenemos un tío en Pinar del Río,” he said with a noticeable Dominican accent and a smile, but you could easily pass for a white woman in America. The talk all black parents in America have with their black sons about how to behave when the police are inevitably called on you, so they don’t murder you and pretend they feared for their lily-white lives.

White Americans don’t have that talk with their children; they are taught that the police are their friends and the good guys. In many ways, they are like children psychologically. They live in ignorance of the fact that the United States of America is an apartheid state. Jim Crow is just another term for apartheid; these days, it’s a ‘soft apartheid,’ but it’s still there. It’s in the DNA of colonialism—the Americas, South Africa, Palestine; same story, different country.

My dad says they don’t even teach their children history in their schools, and that is part of the problem—he calls what they teach as history “white people fan fiction.” Colonialism, its practitioners, and the systems necessary to maintain its legacy are objectively evil. Genocide, redlining, domestic terrorist organizations from the KKK, to the Daughters of the Confederacy, to the latest wave of neo-fascist militia, Aryan Brotherhood, neocon politicians, ghost-skin police officers, and neo-Nazi servicemen, the list goes on. Whenever they get all weepy eyed and maudlin about that red, white, and blue rag, it’s all he can do to keep himself from laughing in their hostile little faces. They might as well be getting all emo about Santa Claus.”

Then there is the economics of silence from liberals that most black Americans do not understand because their families have not been allowed to build generational wealth. Too many liberal allies remain silent in the face of racism because millions of dollars are on the line. If they piss off a conservative family member, aunt, uncle, mother, father, grandmother, or grandfather, that person will write them out of their wills, and their trust funds will take a hit. Many know that their racist family members have clauses in their wills and trust funds to disinherit them if they have an interracial marriage or are openly gay.

Naomi listened as he talked matter-of-factly about how the Catholic neighborhood he grew up in was created because the people in University Park and Park Cities would not sell a home to Catholics, and just to the north, the Jewish neighborhood existed for the same reason. Even now, they still uphold the same racist practices clandestinely. HOAs (Home Owner Associations) were created as a direct result of the Equal Housing Act to subvert it. The entire layout of Dallas and every city in America has a similar story. But we don’t talk about it, like we don’t talk about how they dodge paying their taxes by hiding their wealth in offshore accounts in the Cayman and Virgin Islands. Hired Latino illegal aliens after the passage of the Civil Rights Act so that they could have a clandestine workforce of second-class citizens to do manual labor and service jobs rather than pay the American negro a living wage and treat them like first-class citizens.

My maternal great-grandmother grew up with black servants and laborers, and my mom grew up with Latinos doing the same work. The constant threat of deportation held over their heads like the sword of Damocles with a single word: immigration. Never once saw the authorities arrest the employers for hiring them; some routinely called the police near the end of a job to have the workers deported so they would not have to pay them. Americans pretend to be a classless society, but it’s nothing more than ego preserving rationalizations and self-delusion. America needs her nigg@rs.

Naomi looked on in shocked horror, tears streaming down her face as he spoke, as if this were the norm and nothing better was to be expected. “Certainly, he was a wind hippy and a nerd,” but he had no illusions about America. He was a realist; to be anything less could result in his death by cop. “Murderers in blue with badges hidden behind qualified immunity. We have a higher standard for justice on the battlefield than in the streets of America, and this child knows this as a matter of survival. He had no illusions about his homeland.”

His pilgrimage to Africa, sailing the routes of the slave ships that brought his ancestors to America in chains, he was returning along the same path in the same manner over the waves and the currents, and the winds. He had figured it all out by the time he was only 6 years old. There were no Hebrews in Egypt begging the government for equal rights. When you get a chance, you put as much distance between you and your former enslaver as possible. It was only logical, and he was a fiercely rational being. The journey for him was about more than just sailing—this was a spiritual homecoming. It was the African American Hajj.” He was calm; he wasn’t fueled by anger. It was logical. He was a fiercely rational young man.

He understood the moment anyone set foot aboard his ship, he was in control. He had a way about him, a natural command presence, a quirky charisma, and even though he hated people, the fact is, she could see he was a natural leader. The army would have made him a four-star general. America was not ready for him, nor was she worthy.

Naomi remembered when she found the story online detailing his surviving the sinking of the SS Horizon Disparu 10 years ago. Associated Press article; (“Labor Day 2010 Tragic Loss Strikes Maiden Voyage of SS ‘Horizon Disparu’: 28 people Perished in Maritime Catastrophe 50 miles off coast of Porto di Catania, Italy of the twenty passengers and nine crew and captain on board, only Lieutenant Helena Jones of the US Navy stationed at NAS Sigonella and her 5-year-old son, Isaiah, survived.

As passengers slept below deck, the bolt-on keel detached, causing an abrupt capsizing that thwarted all attempts to deploy life rafts despite the captain’s SOS distress signal. In the aftermath, Lieutenant Helen Jones and her son, Isaiah, survived for seven hours, battling winds up to 50 knots and towering 20-foot waves. They survived the night until search and rescue helicopters located and rescued them at sunrise. As the world grieves, heartfelt condolences pour in, offering solace to all the families and loved ones affected by this tragic loss in the sinking of the SS ‘Horizon Disparu.’ The Associated Press diligently follows developments in this Labor Day weekend calamity, awaiting answers and closure while the memory of 5-year-old Emily Jones, lost at sea with 27 other passengers and crew.”)

“It ain’t right, man, it just ain’t right,” she sobbed. Isaiah stopped working, looked at her, his emerald eyes a sea of empathy, and shrugged with a knowing smile. “What can you do? He said as he powered up the Mass Driver, pumped the slide once, racking a round. “The only thing the white man fears is justice.”

“Sailing to Byzantium”:

“That is no country for old men. The young

In one another’s arms, birds in the trees

– Those dying generations – at their song,

The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,

Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long

Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.

Caught in that sensual music all neglect

Monuments of unageing intellect.”

-William Butler Yeats

-About the author

JD Cloudy’s poetry has disappeared in the literary journals: Fatfizz, Mad Swirl, Texas Beat Anthology, Danse Macabre, Du Jour, and Death List Five. He has won no literary awards, entered no slam competitions, and never completed college. He lives to write in Dallas, TX.