Tanabe pushed back his chair just after three in the afternoon.
Something was wrong with the data. One side was running hotter than the other. Not a measurement error — he’d rerun everything and it kept coming out the same. He needed to explain the asymmetry to his supervisor, Kuwahara.
He walked to the end of the corridor and knocked three times.
“Come in.”
Kuwahara was still facing the window. He was in his sixties, had a sharp tongue, and somehow everyone adored him. Tanabe still hadn’t figured out why.
“It’s about the data,” Tanabe said. “The southern half is running about twelve percent warmer.”
“Mm.”
“The asymmetry doesn’t make sense to me. It should be uniform.”
“Why wouldn’t it be asymmetric? An external force would distort it. Obviously.”
Tanabe was quiet for a moment.
”…Yeah, fair enough.”
“So what’s causing it?”
“I think something massive is pulling on that side, compressing it. The simulations back it up. It’s the most natural explanation.”
“Then write that.”
“Right. Though this isn’t a permanent state — once whatever’s pulling it gets absorbed, it should even out again. It’s transitional.”
“But right now it’s distorted.”
“Yes. It’s mid-change.”
“Then write: currently asymmetric, but this is a transient condition.”
Tanabe was almost out the door when Kuwahara spoke behind him.
“Tanabe. You said earlier the asymmetry didn’t make sense.”
“Ah — yeah, that was my first instinct.”
“And now?”
”…Now it seems perfectly obvious, if there’s an external force.”
Kuwahara gave a small nod and turned back to the window.
Tanabe walked back down the corridor and opened the report. Currently asymmetric, but this is a transient condition. He typed it out, and as he did, he thought: right, of course. An external pull will warp things. Obviously.
And slowly he began to feel as though he’d known that all along — even before he’d walked into the room.
Kuwahara’s office is on the south side of the corridor.
When a massive object passes close enough, its gravity can gradually deform what was once a uniform gas envelope. This story is about that kind of pull — the kind you don’t notice until you’re already off-center.