The plasma literally formed into a double layer that behaved like the membrane of a living cell.
I didn't have a computer, never mind the sort of system that could run and display models of molecular dynamics. So I couldn't do like Tsytovich and virtually simulate the right conditions in outer space where particles of inorganic dust could undergo self-organization, as their electric charges become separated until the plasma becomes polarized, thereby forming helical structures that interact with each other as if they were organic life.
I did, however, have the means to recreate the Lozneanu-Sanduloviciu experiment. Which is to say, I should be able to simulate the ionising superstorms of primordial Earth by inducing the right conditions within an isolated environment of low-temperature plasma.
My order from the glassworker had been for what basically amounted to a giant fishbowl. Except instead of housing fish, I had just finished mounting it upside down over my little setup of empty space populated by two electrodes in the middle, three Tesla coils along the outer circle, and all over the floor was a layer of the closest approximation of space dust I could rustle up.
My heart had been in my throat for the entire time that the glass bowl was suspended on my jury-rigged crane – it was too wide to carry by hand – but I was eventually able to lower it in place without shattering it to a million pieces and causing me to self-combust from pure apoplexy. It had been the most stressful part of my preparations, even though the real drudge work went into making everything airtight.
When it was over, I went around locking every door and window, then spent another ten minutes running like a chicken with its head cut off from one end of my workshop to the next, tossing nails and wrenches all over the place at random. When I was panting from exhaustion and still hadn't nailed any invisible watchers with my crazy behaviour, I decided I was as observer-free as I could possibly get.
Unless the Hokage was taking time off during his work hours to use his crystal ball to watch me right this moment, I should be alright.
Unless there were spells or seals to see and listen remotely, but I doubted it. If those things existed, ninja wouldn't need power lines, bulky film cameras and VHS tapes.
… Portable earpiece radios were a thing though. Or would be by the time Naruto graduated, did they exist already right now? I don't remember them in use prior to Naruto's birth from the series, and I'm pretty sure they weren't used during the Kyuubi attack either.
I still spent another half hour checking every nook and cranny for bugs and even ultramodern spy cams I was pretty sure didn't exist here yet before I decided to call it. Blessedly, I didn't find any.
Now…
Time for science!
I carefully uncorked the two valves on the glass vessel, leaving one open for the air to escape through while hooking the other to my pressure can of Argon gas. And boy, collecting that had been another bitch and a half, even in this little quantity.
Not only did I not have the right equipment for cryogenic fractal distillation, but this world didn't even know the element existed. I'd had to recreate the Rayleigh – Ramsay isolation method from first principles and repeat it ad nauseam for days.
When the little lightning arc began to turn purple between the little pair of powered electrodes I was holding near the opening, I quickly closed the valve. Then I just stood there before my setup and waited for my jitters to die down.
They always seized me when I was about to commence an experiment. It took a fair bit of willpower to refrain from the immediate gratification of doing science without minimising the risks of something going wrong.
When the jitters took their sweet time leaving, I checked everything over again. Even tossed various things at the walls and corners in increasingly silly ambush setups to trip up any invisible watchers.
Three times. Finally, I was calm enough to proceed.
"Igor," I called with perhaps too much glee. "Pull the switch!"
I pulled the switch.
The Tesla coils came to life.
Ba-bum-shriek-crackle-ba-bum.
Suddenly, the inside of the glass dome was filled with arching electricity amidst purple light. Lightning shooting here and back all over the place.
I watched as the lightning became softer and softer, jagged crackling bolts increasingly turning into sustained, continuous beams whose tips crawled languidly over the inside of the glass as the purple gas was steadily ionized. No tiny balls of lightning spontaneously coming to life though.
It was just as well. This was just the preparatory phase anyway.
First you ionized the atmosphere to create the birth conditions of Earth-that-was. Then you played god.
The lightning calmed to slowly meandering streams, like thistle spurs bending around each other. Or the coronal mass ejection of a star.
It was a much more advanced effect than I expected, I didn't think the Tesla lightning would change behaviour so soundly, how exactly and how far had the environment changed? Slowly, I thumbed the switch to off.
The coils deactivated. The arching lights disappeared.
The purple glow lingered like an afterimage. Amidst it all, the dust hung suspended, spread all throughout the orb as if weightless.
I'd expected some manner of disturbance from the coil bolts, but not this. Not gravity nullification.
Then again…
The theory was that plasma helical structures could undergo the same changes as biomolecules. Divide, form copies, interact to induce changes in the neighbouring structures, induce evolution into completely new structures.
Could that mean that it's possible to make structures that interact with energy and force in ways that are fundamentally different from the rest of matter? Even if that wasn't the case, though…
Gravity and static electricity are the same force at the Planck scale.
Quietly, I thumbed the second switch.
The two electrodes at the centre of the medium came to life, the space between them split in half by bright, vivid lightning in a continuous arc.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
◆ Consider joining my PATREON to have a
early access of 10+ chapters.
https://www.patreon.com/DEVIL_DIKTATOR
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~