It was the year 2068…

The world’s supply of fossil fuels was disappearing, which meant no energy supplied by fossil fuel power plants. One man, Dr. James Jones, an energy scientist, started to develop a new type of clean energy to power the world. However, the world had only ten years remaining to come up with a way to generate clean and efficient power because other power sources couldn’t meet the world’s demands! From his hometown of Oxburg, Dr. Jones, was creating a way to generate lighting and harvest electricity contained within the lightning, but unfortunately, while traveling on a Hyper-loop, a futuristic train that travels at hyper-speeds, he and his work were lost during a crash occurring when he was heading to present his resolution to the World Energy Committee.

Dr. Jones had a daughter named Dr. Jessie Jones. Jessie is was 16 years old when her father was lost in the Hyper-loop crash. Jessie, like her father, is an energy scientist trying to solve the world’s energy problems. She and her father spoke often of his ideas to solve the crisis, but Jessie did not know enough to construct the lightning harvesting machine. How it actually harvests the electricity was still unknown. Jessie has done hundreds of experiments, trying to find out how to harvest the electricity from lightning. Sadly, she has failed each time.

As Jessie was heading home from work, she noticed a Hyper-loop passing by. Her eyes teared up as she fought the feeling to cry, but continued to drive by. Before she came upon her driveway, she peered through a dining room window and saw a family eating dinner together and a little girl jumping up to give her father a huge hug after his long day at work. Now, she felt like the world was turning against her. A tsunami of emotions came over her. She ordered, “Car. Off.” And the car’s engine shut down. Jessie ran to her room, sprang into bed and started sobbing, tears soaking the bed.

The next morning, a robot turned Jessie’s lights waking her up. “Yay, work.” She grumbled as she flopped out of bed. She opened her wardrobe and a robot came out and pulled her lab coat over her head. She walked to the garage, got into her car, and headed to work. When she arrived, she went into her father’s old lab, where she works. She looked at her list of ideas of how to finish her father’s work to solve the world’s energy crisis. However, her notes were empty. She was out of ideas! She had a surge of emotions running through her veins. She felt like she was failing her father, and the world, because she couldn’t complete this one task.

She grabbed her computer and threw it in rage. When the computer landed, it fell to the floor, cracking the tiles beneath it. She ran over to pick up the destroyed computer. When she bent down to pick up the pieces, she noticed a box lying under the broken tiles. Jessie reached down and grabbed the box and opened the lid. Inside, she found a key and folded map. She unfolded the map and realized it was a map of Oxburg. She noticed a circle and a red “X” around the park Jessie and her father went to as a child. There were tiny words written under the “X” however, they were too small to read. Jessie dug through her drawer in her desk and pulled out a magnifying glass. She peered into the magnifier and held the map under the glass. Jessie read aloud, “At the top of the tree, of the highest point, is where my work is hidden.”

Jessie jumped into her car with the box and its contents tucked safely in the seat beside her. “Car. On.” The car’s engine turned on and Jessie sped away. She pressed on the gas pedal as hard as she could, thinking, “Is the place where I will find my father’s work and finally solve the world’s energy crisis?”

Jessie drove to the park and ran into the wooded area. She analyzed the trees searching to find the tallest one. After a few minutes, she spotted the tree with the highest point. She stood under the tree and looked up wondering, “Am I going to have to climb this?” “Well,” she said, “Here I come! The answer to the world’s problems could be at the top of this tree.”

Jessie strapped the box to her back and began to climb. She pulled herself up, limb by limb, of the old oak tree. As she pulled herself up to the next level of the tree’s canopy, she hit her head on a low-lying branch. “Owww!” she cried, and sarcastically mumbled, “This is going to be fun.”

After dodging a few more branches, Jessie, finally reached the top of the tree. “Yes!” she whispered to herself triumphantly.” Now, let’s find my father’s work.” She started looking around at the top of the tree to see if she could find any clues. She found nothing – nothing – and more nothing. “Seriously dad?” Jessie exclaimed, as she jumped up and down on the tree’s branch, “Couldn’t you have made this a little less complicated?” Just then, she heard a metal clunking sound under her foot on the branch beneath her. She quickly knelt down to examine the branch. Jessie noticed a dark hole in the branch. She touched the hole and discovered the branch was constructed entirely of metal. She noticed the hole was in the shape of a keyhole. She took the key from the box and gently placed it in the hole on the trunk. “It fits!” She yelled from the tree top. Jessie turned the key in anticipation and heard a “click,” and felt a rumble beneath her. The tree was shaking and a hatch opened up at the bottom of the tree’s trunk. Jessie climbed down to see what the key unlocked.

When she came upon the grassy ground under the tree, she breathed out a sigh of relief. Jessie peered into the hatch. She saw a holographic disc hovering inside the tree. As soon as she saw it, she snatched it up and ran to her car. “Car. On.” The car started and she rolled out of the parking lot. “I must bring this to the World Energy Committee immediately!” she exclaimed, and began to drive. When she reached the committee’s headquarters, she hopped out of her car and flew through the entry doors. She took the elevator to the top floor and ran into the conference room, interrupting an important meeting. She stole a computer out of someone’s hands and plugged in her father’s holographic disc. The computer instantly projected a hologram of Dr. Jones. The hologram began to speak, “My idea is to create metal towers called Lynerators. These Lynerators generate lightning by charging the ground negatively and the air positively, creating lightning. The towers are made of metal and attract the lightning. When it hits the tower, a super conductive liquid converts the electricity into a stable electric current. This supplies enough energy to provide power to a small neighbors.

The hologram went dark, and the presentation ended. Jessie explained to the committee members that this was the presentation that was lost in the Hyper-loop crash. The committee asked Jessie what the super conductive liquid was made of. Jessie recalled from a conversation she had with her father during her childhood, that the liquid was made from water atoms with added electrons. She remembered watching her father use a machine he invented that could add and remove, electrons, neutrons, and protons from atoms. The committee thought this was an excellent solution and asked Jessie for her help to construct a model Lynerator tower to test the invention.

In a matter of five weeks, the first tower was built. As, engineers completed the installation of the main control panel, Jessie ordered the first test of the Lynerator. Workers tapped a button and, in less than one minute, clouds began to form around the tower and lightning began to strike. It hit the tower and was contained in the super conductive liquid, converting it into a electric current, and it flowed into a power storage center.

Year 2099: “And that’s how my mom helped save the world.” the history teacher said as she turned off her holographic history book.