The boy rode his bike up the long hill. The boy did not like the hill. Cycling up the hill was hard work, and no matter how many times the boy had cycled up the hill it never got easier.

The boy could see the cottage where he lived with his mother at the top of the hill. Smoke was rising from the chimney. The boy’s mother had told him to be home before it got dark. It was nearly dark. The boy pushed the pedals, and huffed and puffed.

The boy’s name was David Sterling. David lived with his mother in the cottage on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Scotland.

David Sterling was an unremarkable boy. David was 14. He didn’t do so well at school. His teacher’s told his mother that he was bright enough, but that he just couldn’t comprehend most of what they were trying to teach him. David Sterling wasn’t a great sportsman either. When a game of rugby was being played, he would often be the last player selected. David didn’t mind this. He would rather be standing cold and wet watching a game of rugby than being cold and wet and shouted at by his teammates for being so bad at playing rugby.

David had friends. He was cycling back from his friend's house, who lived in the village at the bottom of the long hill. David and some friends had been playing Dungeons and Dragons all afternoon.

But now David Sterling had to make it up the long hill home, before it got dark.

There was one thing that was remarkable about David , and that was David Sterling’s father. David’s father was - had been - one of the most famous people in the world. David’s father was a scientist and mathematician. Dr. Roger Sterling had received awards and prizes for his work in the realm of quantum theory. Dr. Roger Sterling had toured the world, and given lectures and speeches at universities. Dr. Roger Sterling had advised world leaders, and established research centers. Dr. Roger Sterling was a celebrity.

Dr. Roger Sterling’s work had revolutionized the understanding of quantum theory. Dr. Roger Sterling’s Theory of Everything paper that joined the physical world of Newtonian physics with the quantum world of particle physics was groundbreaking.

Other scientists and researchers described it as moving from peeping through the keyhole, to opening the door and stepping through into the room. Dr. Roger Sterling’s work would inspire thousands of new lines of research, and change the way scientists thought about the world, the universe, and - well, everything.

Dr. Roger Sterling was being tipped for a Nobel prize for physics. A sure bet, many would say.

And then Dr. Roger Sterling just vanished.

It was 7 years ago that Dr. Roger Sterling vanished. He had been working in the barn at the cottage on a project, a secret project. His wife had brought him out some coffee and a slice of cake, and he had smiled and thanked her.

His wife had asked him what the strange motorcycle contraption he was working on was. Dr. Roger Sterling had smiled, and said it was a secret.

The last time anyone had seen Dr. Roger Sterling was that evening. He was burning papers behind the barn. His wife had called out the kitchen window that dinner would be ready in 5 minutes, and he waved and then walked back into the barn and was never seen again.

The police were called.

‘Was the doctor experiencing any family or work problems?’ - the detective had asked

No, said his wife. David sat on the couch looking at the detective.

‘Had the doctor disappeared before?’ - asked the detective

No, said his wife.

‘Is there anything you are not telling us?’ - asked the detective

No, said his wife.

Dr. Roger Sterling and his motorcycle contraption were gone.

News of the famous physicist’s disappearance made the evening news. Missing person posters were put up in the village and in Edinburgh.

‘He had a lover. Ran off with her’ - said a man in the village pub.

‘They say he was building a motorcycle. He probably went round a corner too fast on the thing and is dead in a ditch’ - said another man

‘The Americans snatched him. They have him working on some new bomb!’ - said a third man

‘It’s an insurance job!’ - said a fourth man

The days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. And months turned into years. Dr. Roger Sterling had just vanished.

Documentaries were made about the disappearance of the famous Dr. Roger Sterling. People from the village were interviewed. His work colleagues were interviewed. The detectives working on the case were interviewed.

The theory that seemed the most plausible was that Dr. Roger Sterling had suffered a breakdown, and had run away from his family and work. He was seen burning papers just before he vanished, and psychologists in the documentaries suggested that this was a sign that Dr. Roger Sterling wanted to put everything behind him.

The documentarians suggested that Dr. Roger Sterling was either dead, or living a new life away from his fame and popularity.

The man from the pub in the village told the filmmakers that Dr. Roger Sterling had a lover, and had run off with her.

That was 7 years ago.

‘It must be hard for him, not having his dad’ - people would say about David

‘His dad was never home, always working’ - other people would say

‘They thought he might be like his dad, a genius’ - they said

‘A friend of mine who works at the school said they tested him, and he is just normal’ - said someone else

David was an unremarkable boy. He was just normal.

David Sterling remembered his father. He remembered him as a loving, friendly, and happy man. David would sit on his father’s knee whilst his father worked, and draw pictures.

David ’s father had a love of dinosaurs, and would take the young David to the natural history museum to look at the dinosaur fossils. Dr. Roger Sterling had hundreds of books about dinosaurs, and collected models and posters of them.

David remembered going camping with his mother and father. And his father let David light the campfire. They cooked sausages in a pan over the hot coals, and his father let him stab the sausages with his pocket knife.

David remembered a holiday with his father, where they had visited the Jurassic Coast in England. They had spent days on the cliffs looking for dinosaur fossils.

David remembered his father running along behind him when he learned to ride a bike.

‘Don’t let go dad’ - David was shouting

‘I won’t let go!’ - his dad shouted back

When they had stopped, David’s dad told him that he hadn’t been holding the bike and that David had been cycling all by himself.

David missed his dad, and wondered where he was and why he left. Did the Americans snatch him? Did he run off with his lover, and had a new family? Did he have a breakdown?

David pushed the pedals. He looked up, and the cottage at the top of the hill seemed just as far away. David huffed and puffed more, and pushed the pedals harder.

David noticed something ahead, about 20 meters ahead of him. There was something glowing. David put his head down, and pushed the pedals harder. David looked up again. He could see it now, it was about 10 meters away. It was a toy. A figure of a little man, and it was glowing.

David pushed harder and now he was 5 meters away. He stopped pedaling. It was strange. It was a figure of a little man, but it wasn’t a toy. It was glowing with a bright blue light. David put his bike down and walked towards the glowing little man. David was now 1 meter away from the little man.

‘What is that?’ - said David to himself

The glowing little man was about 60 centimeters tall. It wasn’t moving.

David crouched down and moved closer to the glowing little man, and then it moved.

‘We come in peace, David Sterling!’ - it said

And then everything went very bright, and David could feel himself lifting off the ground, and then he couldn’t feel anything. And then he blacked out.