{"id":1279,"date":"2018-07-02T19:00:44","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T19:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/?p=1279"},"modified":"2022-10-26T13:22:11","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T13:22:11","slug":"the-ghost-of-dr-ekhardt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/the-ghost-of-dr-ekhardt\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ghost of Dr. Ekhardt"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Joe Stanley<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m an electrical engineering technician and work for a small but well-funded community <\/span>college. In just a few years, the campus had nearly doubled in size with new buildings\u00a0 <\/span>sprouting up almost seasonally. This allowed a greater diversity of classes to be offered <\/span>which meant more money for the school and, thus, more growth.<\/span><\/p>\n

At first, I was tasked with maintenance work, but a retirement granted me an opportunity <\/span>for advancement. Soon, I was installing power systems in the new buildings and <\/span>eventually I was overseeing them. Most of the buildings were identical in their power <\/span>needs with the electrical and mechanical engineering building being an obvious exception.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was surprised when the latest building called for a system which dwarfed even that. This <\/span>single building was designed to use almost as much power as the entire campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

Naturally, I was curious about what would require so much power and asked the head of <\/span>this new department, Dr. Ekhardt, what would be going on.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was, as I already knew from gossip, a rather unpleasant individual. True to the rumors, <\/span>he tried to ignore me as if I wasn’t worth the time. When I failed to take his cue and leave, <\/span>he sighed impatiently and condescended to inform me that I simply would not be capable <\/span>of understanding. I took the insult as best I could, but I made it my business to find out <\/span>what was going on.<\/span><\/p>\n

This new department was a mystery unto itself. No one was willing or able to define it, not <\/span>even some of the administrators I knew. All I managed to learn was that Ekhardt was <\/span>personally responsible for very large donations to the college. I could only assume this <\/span>was why he was given a building to \u201cplay\u201d with and why his abrasive personality was <\/span>overlooked. In an age where a student’s hurt feelings can result in the disciplining of an <\/span>instructor, he seemed like a large liability. As to his field of expertise, all I could glean was <\/span>that he was a physicist.<\/span><\/p>\n

My inquires became known to him at some point, and he sent word for me to meet him at <\/span>his office. He was reading a paper when I arrived and didn’t take his eyes from it as he <\/span>informed me that his building was for research and wouldn’t be available for general <\/span>classes. He then turned away from me and continued to read. I was also nudged away from <\/span>further investigation by one of the deans who tried to laugh off Ekhardt’s lack of social <\/span>skills as though it was an endearing quality.<\/span><\/p>\n

There was little more that I could do but continue overseeing the installation of <\/span>equipment. This was no small task as the machines were unknown to me and I was <\/span>provided with only the information that was absolutely required. Keep in mind this is not <\/span>like plugging a home appliance into the wall, it requires an understanding of the <\/span>inductance and capacitance of the individual components in order to ensure things are <\/span>running at peak efficiency. At one point, I discovered an error in the overall design and <\/span>drawing this to the doctor’s attention, I actually managed to earn a small compliment from <\/span>him. Later I would discover that the entire building was his design and that my observation <\/span>had embarrassed him somewhat.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was still aloof and haughty, though he was somewhat more communicative. As we <\/span>neared the completion of the building he was notably excited. He didn’t even seem to care <\/span>than many of the offices and storage rooms weren’t finished at the time, he was impatient <\/span>for the equipment to be in working order. Though I assured him I was pushing the crew, I <\/span>did no such thing. I wanted them to be careful in their work as the huge amount of power <\/span>that would be in use was more than a little intimidating. A single mistake could cause <\/span>untold damage and end up burning down what was an unthinkably costly effort.<\/span><\/p>\n

We finally reached the point where things were almost ready, but the crew had already <\/span>been working overtime and it would have been technically illegal for them to press on. I <\/span>also wished to delay things as I intended to conduct a thorough final check before <\/span>applying power to the titanic installation. Dr. Ekhardt was so excited, so impatient to see <\/span>months of our work (and possibly years of his) drawn to a conclusion that he became <\/span>incensed at the news that we were stopping for the night.<\/span><\/p>\n

I remember the amusing and somewhat alarming shade of reddish-purple he became. He <\/span>trembled visibly and said nothing as he stormed off and out of sight. At the time, I didn’t <\/span>think one more day, just for safety’s sake, would be so much to ask. I had no idea how <\/span>recklessly desperate he would become.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ll spare you the technical details, but it should suffice to say that all that was left to do <\/span>was install what you might think of as a fuse and turn the power on. The \u201cfuse\u201d was <\/span>nothing more than a thick bar of copper. The \u201cfuse box\u201d, so to speak, was operated by a <\/span>ratcheting mechanism which extended two mechanical arms. The fuse would be placed <\/span>into the arms and, with the press of a button, the arms would retract and set the bar in <\/span>place, gradually applying power.<\/span><\/p>\n

For whatever reason, he bypassed this safety feature and manually inserted bar. I had been <\/span>outside in the parking lot joking with the crew when I saw the entire building light up in a <\/span>brilliant flash that instantly went dark. Every machine in the building drew current at the <\/span>same time and it all went through that bar. The solid block of copper essentially vaporized <\/span>directly in his face. The effect it had on his body was a horror that will never be purged <\/span>from my mind. I wish I had known what he was going to do, perhaps I could have saved <\/span>his life.<\/span><\/p>\n

The building stood unused for some time. Other experts came but couldn’t quite make <\/span>sense of whatever Ekhardt had in mind. Some were sure he was a genius, others were <\/span>certain that he was insane. His custom machines were removed, one by one, and sent to <\/span>recycling centers, as the state forbids school equipment from being sold regardless of its <\/span>condition. The building has remained largely empty except for occasional adjunct classes <\/span>sometimes held on its upper floors.<\/span><\/p>\n

The lower floors are avoided and for me there is a haunting memory to explain why. But <\/span>others openly speak of an odd and creepy feeling in the halls. And though the building <\/span>can supply far more power than it will ever need, there are unusual failures of electronic <\/span>devices and an occasional odd flickering of the lights. Rumors claim that these events are <\/span>accompanied by a sickening smell described as burning meat.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes they report a sight caught briefly from the corners of their eyes. They describe <\/span>a man in a long white lab coat, whose arms, chest, and head are darker, as if scorched and <\/span>charred.<\/span><\/p>\n

-end-<\/span><\/p>\n

back to previous episode<\/a><\/p>\n

forward to next episode<\/a><\/p>\n

back to list of stories<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Joe Stanley I’m an electrical engineering technician and work for a small but well-funded community college. In just a few years, the campus had nearly doubled in size with new buildings\u00a0 sprouting up almost seasonally. This allowed a greater diversity of classes to be offered which meant more money for the school and, thus, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[8,192],"class_list":["post-1279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-joe-stanley","tag-joe-stanley","tag-the-ghost-of-dr-ekhardt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1279"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2898,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions\/2898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanharker.co.uk\/theghostlyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}