The Diamond Chaser - A Short Story Of Fiction

(Image from: wikimedia.org)

This time I had something more mainstream on repeat while writing  :P

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He had been doing this job for many years. A diamond chaser going out in the rain, waiting for the skies to drop their valuable rocks. He loved his job. His father was a diamond chaser all his life and he had shared so many stories with his son. The one he would never forget was about the biggest diamond the planet had ever seen. A gemstone as big as his fist. When his father caught it he became famous in an instant. The diamond was displayed in the Diamond History Museum and next to it a black and white portrait of the chaser that managed to get it. He was so proud of his father.

- How did you catch it Dad?

- Son, I've told you this story a thousand times.

- But I never get bored, please Dad!

- I was in the middle of a storm, I was flying carefully to avoid getting hit by the lightning strikes. Thank God my radars never failed me on that. I got a weird signal on my instruments at the time, the signal was too strong, stronger than usual. This had to be something big. We usually caught diamond flakes and pebbles, but this signal was so different. I started flying towards it and then I saw the biggest diamond we had ever caught, it was right in front of me! A gem the size of my fist!
Suddenly a lightning stuck right next to me, my smart shuttle was protectively shielded to absorb this kind of energy blasts, but my vehicle rocked violently. I didn't give up, I had to catch it! Quickly I stabilized my shuttle, got my mechanical arms out and captured it! The excitement I felt at the time was beyond words! The rest you know...

His father was a brilliant man. Flying through storms to collect gems, there were nights he would get a call because a new storm was coming and the chasers had to get up in the air to harvest the clouds, before the rocks were damaged by the fall on the ground. One night he received such a call. He could still remember the loud thunder and his father's voice saying:

- I'll be back in the morning, darling. Kiss our Jeremy for me.

But he never came back in the morning. It was a mechanical malfunction, they said. The shield didn't work properly and his father's shuttle was electrocuted. 

So now, 20 years after that, he was a chaser himself. He became one because he wanted to feel closer to his father and because he believed. He believed the bedtime story his dad told him very often about the brightest diamond that one day it will come out of the clouds and Jeremy would be the one to catch it.

- You got the biggest diamond ever, Dad. No one will be better than you.

- That's not right, son. I know that there is still another, more valuable diamond out there. It's not the biggest, but it's the brightest one. And you know what? I know that when the time is right, you will be the one to catch it! And then you will feel the exact same excitement I felt when I got mine! Then you will understand why I love this job so much and why I do it no matter how dangerous it is.

That storm was strong. Lightning was whipping the skies and the clouds were ready to drop their valuable precipitation. Jeremy was ready. He had been through several bad storms, it was then that they usually got the best specimens. So far he had managed to collect several gems the size of a pebble and one as big as a ping pong ball. He would gaze at the lightning among the clouds. It was a storm like the one that took his Dad away. A flash suddenly appeared on his left, Jeremy turned his head.

And there he saw it... the brightest diamond it had ever rained! It was so beautiful, so shiny, so perfectly shaped. One of a kind! His father was right! He had to catch it! He had to make it his!

But the gem was too high, higher than his shuttle could ever fly in such bad weather. Jeremy had to be smart, because he didn't want to miss it!

So he slowed down the engine for a while. He locked the location of his target and gave his shuttle a strong thrust! He was getting higher. The diamond was getting closer and closer. The mechanical arms of his vehicle were already around it and the radiant rock was finally caught inside them. A bright beam shone and the shock wave caused time to stop for a second. 

Mission Accomplished.

This story is more like a parable for children that think too highly of their parents' accomplishments and work hard all their lives to live up to their expectations and even surpass them. When I started writing it I thought it would turn into another romantic piece, but the pictures in my head evolved into something different, I hope you like it.

Give me some scientific background

There are planets in our solar system where it might actually rain real diamonds, not ice crystals with a fancy name like it happens on Earth. Diamonds are nothing more than processed carbon. On Earth diamonds are formed when carbon undergoes high pressure and heat. On Saturn lightning storms create elemental carbon like soot and graphite. The same happens on Jupiter. As these fall further down and get pressurized and heated by the planet's atmosphere (Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants), they are turned into diamonds. The gems go further down and meet higher temperatures to finally become liquid near the planet's core. Who would like to get in a diamond hot tub? :P 

[source: space.com]

This is another nature's great encouraging example of how you can create a gem out of something common and cheap like coal. Saturn and Jupiter are not the only planets that might present diamond precipitation. Uranus and Neptune are also candidates for this theory. After performing lab experiments, scientists concluded that diamond formation is possible on those planets as methane forms hydrocarbon chains. Those turn into diamonds because of the high pressures and temperatures beneath the surface (don't forget these planets are frozen gas giants) and get even deeper inside the planets' atmosphere as they move closer to the core. 

The results of these simulations might help studying exoplanets as well as find applications in technology and medical industry on Earth.

[source: astronomy.com]

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Thank you so much for your time!

Below you can find some of my recent posts:

• 5 Things You Would Boss Yourself To Do (A Revenge Challenge)
• Trolls Around The Solar System (Part 5 - Jupiter)
• Bizarre Natural Phenomena Vol. 38 - A Hole In The Water (The Great Blue Hole)
• 5 Facts About Me (Expose Yourselves)
• Let's Cultivate... Crystals! (Part 1)

Until my next post,
Steem on and keep smiling, people!