A Matter of Space - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

Synopsis

Paul Melton, a middle school student, witnesses the crash of a UFO in the Chesapeake Bay while helping his father tend their crab pots. Paul and his father quickly become the "guests" of the U. S. Navy--sequestered to keep them away from the media--while the Navy recovers the crashed space ship and conducts the subsequent investigation. Paul soon becomes more than just an observer. He learns that the alien pilot has died in the UFO crash, not from the impact, but from other causes.

Because of his small size, always an impediment for Paul in the past, he is the only person available who can fit inside the UFO. Through a gradual and logical progression, Paul becomes the crucial figure in the crash investigation and ultimately in the flight testing of the recovered UFO. Paul experiences a transformation during this process, growing more confident and realizing that he has special abilities. His past dissatisfaction with his size and his poor performance in school sports fades in importance as he begins to see the other possibilities for accomplishments in his life.

While flight testing the UFO, Paul experiences an encounter with another alien space ship that affects his mental ability. But that affect is not discovered in the first part of the book. That part ends with Paul successfully evading the other alien craft and landing safely back aboard the navy base.

In part two, Paul finds he has the ability to experience events of the remote past as if he is really there. Paul discovers this ability while apparently daydreaming in school. When the episodes continue, Paul’s teacher becomes alarmed by his unusual behavior. She calls in Paul’s mother and eventually refers them to a counselor for evaluation. The counselor finds Paul’s description of actually visiting the past strangely convincing and refers him for further scientific examination at a top secret laboratory.

The laboratory performs research in the working of the human mind. Through a new visualization technique they have developed, the scientists are able to observe what Paul sees by interpreting his brain waves. With this technique, they monitor Paul as he travels back in time. The realism of his experience inspires them to devise a test to determine if Paul’s experience is real rather than just a young boy’s vivid imagination. This test takes Paul to a time in colonial history when the English Civil War erupted in America. Paul becomes personally involved in this battle and seeks shelter in a fort.

The ultimate test of Paul’s ability to travel in time pits his memory of the fort and its location against the opinion of the archaeologist who has searched unsuccessfully for the location of the fort. Paul finds the lost fort and convinces the scientists that he really can travel through time.

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