Free Tesla's Signal by L. Woodswalker Page B

are in the storage shed,” an unsympathetic bellhop told him. “You have three days to clear them out.”
    Niko's soul burned with humiliation as he moved his personal effects into the dusty back office of his Fulton Street lab.
    His friend Robert Johnson found him in Bryant Park. “Nick, we've been so worried about you! If there's any way I can help...at least come for dinner. Katharine wants to cook you some of her chicken almondine.”
    But Niko could not think of food; his belly had clenched to a hard knot. He put his hands over his ears and staggered back to the lab, where he now slept on a swaybacked couch...when he could sleep at all. He shut his curtains, because the sunlight burned his eyes.
    A deafening noise filled his ears...no, it was only the hum of a nearby alternating-current transformer. The ground shook...but that was merely the vibration of a carriage going past. The breeze blew past: an insect crawled up the wall: a couple made love five blocks away.
    It's happening again! I'm having another nervous breakdown.
    Night came and New York slept. Still Niko's sensitivity increased. He heard the sounds of molecules combining and colliding with each other.
    He lay in bed, drenched with sweat. He seemed to be hearing the sound of the Earth turning. The planet resonated at an ultra-low frequency a hundred octaves below the range of the human ear. And beyond that: the sound of the spiraling galaxy itself. A voice began to call him from a vast distance.
    
    He focused with his entire being. < Can it be? Are you real? I thought perhaps I imagined you...> At last, the Aon had contacted him again!
    
     Niko told the ethereal being.
    
     His heart pounded.
    
    He just lay there listening, afraid to breathe lest the being named Alu might dissipate into mist.
     Alu told him.
    He wondered what that might be. Questions bubbled up. < Did you
signal me at Colorado? Did you journey to Mars, so you could visit Earth?>  
    He did not get an answer, and realized that they would not understand those place references. His brain whirled with questions. How did they communicate with him? How could they cross dimensions and take a compatible form? Most of all...how could he establish reliable communication with them? Could I tune to their frequency and transmit messages from the Tower?  
     Alu told him .  
     Niko tried to follow the conversation, but exhaustion began to pull him under.
    He woke up with an ache in his head and the coverlet twisted around his knees. His chin itched with a growth of stubble. Good Lord, how long was I asleep? It must have been an entire day, perhaps two. My God, he needed a bath. And food!
    He found nothing in the cabinet but a tin of crackers. He stuffed one in his mouth and stumbled out the door. Somehow he found his way to a park bench. A flock of pigeons wandered about nearby. He watched them, with the blank emptiness of a man on the edge.
    The Aon visited me again! Or was that just a sign of his madness? 'Tesla is a crackpot,' the papers were saying. 'Belongs in the lunatic asylum.'  
    He watched the pigeons, admiring their bright eyes and fluttering wings. He meditated on the simple souls of creatures. They didn't care about money, power...they were content to just be . How restful it was to watch them, and not think about theories, currents, inventions, or hopes for Mankind. He felt his cares dropping away.
    A white pigeon with dark wing-tips fluttered