"Come on! Let's go! The train won't come back." Conrad told to his sister.
"Yeah." Valerie nodded. "We have already missed the chance to go with aunt Ille."
"There wasn't a single chance! We must collect lithium hydride for the battery of the hand device! We don't have time to have fun hunting."
"Don't shout at me! I know. Let's go and find the temple that aunt Ille recommended."
Valerie took out their device and called up the map. The route, the device had drawn to them was easy to follow, although it was very long.
"I think the temple is that way!" She pointed left.
Conrad checked the map, and he agreed. They set off.
"Fortunately we have gotten off the train in a good place this time." Conrad smirked at his sister.
"Yes. Look around! It seems this kingdom is richer, than the Hydrogens'."
Conrad understood what Valerie was thinking. Already at the train station there was a nice, demanding sign, not just a simple traffic sign with a few letters. The ground was covered by grass, with small flowers here or there. The roads were dirt roads, but they were clearly visible. The Capital had street signs, and there were small parks too, with benches and small statues. It felt like they would have been arrived from a desert to a small village. There was nothing large-scale in the Capital, but it was definitely more comfortable than the desert. The Capital was big, so the kids had to walk for hours to reach the temple, and the air got a lot dark. The night was definitely coming.
"What are we going to do if we don't get there on time?" Valerie watched the sky worried.
"I don't know." growled Conrad. He was also tired of the events of the day and the many walks. " It seems we have arrived!" He pointed to a small temple with white walls, at the end of the street.
They both ran to the temple, and fought a bit who would push the door chime. Conrad won, but he regretted it as soon as he had pushed the button. The chime was very loud, and sounded like a sick elephant's roar. After a little time a small window was opened on the door, and a pair of blue eyes appeared in the frame.
"We're looking for Sister Electra Oly!" Conrad said, frowned, as the door was opened.
"You have found her!"
A young women was standing at the door. She didn't look like a nun at all, because she wore jeans and leather jacket.
"Aunt Ille told us, that we could buy Lithiums here, to make lithium hydride." stuttered Valerie.
"Oh! Were you sent by Auntie Ille? Come in, come in!" She smiled, and invited the twins to the temple.
The kids followed her. They were a bit tensed, but the Sister's smile was very similar to aunt Ille's, so she seemed to be trustworthy. The temple was very simple, comparing to the Hydrogens' temple, but friendly with the verandas and the small inner courts, covered by grass and colorful flowers. The nun led them to an office-like room.
"Sit down!" She pointed toward the chairs, which were standing by a big desk. She also sat down, but behind the desk. "So you want to buy Lithiums. Can you tell me the reason?"
The twins nodded.
"We have to make lithium hydride to improve the battery in our hand device." said Conrad.
"May I see your hand device?" The nun asked, and she took over the device that Conrad had given her. "We have the required battery ready for this device. Do you want to buy it, instead of bringing lithium hydride back to the Hydrogen Kingdom? It would be easier and cheaper, not to say, faster."
"Is it expensive?" asked Conrad worried.
"Let's make a deal." She answered. "I give you the battery, and put it into your device, in exchange your making lithium hydride with your Hydrogens. Plus I give you bed and board, while you are staying here."
The twins were clueless and tired. Neither of them was able to decide whether the deal was good or bad for them. The young woman noticed the state of the children too, and she had commiserate them.
"You know what? Let's sleep before yo decide! I'll show your room and we'll talk in the morning. Come with me!"
She guided the tired children to a room with bunk beds. It also had the same shower, like in their previous room. The nun brought them candies to eat, while they were taking shower, but neither of them wanted to eat. They just climb into their beds – they didn't even quarrel over which bed to own. Their eyelids closed as soon as their heads had reached the pillow, and in the next moment they were already sleeping.
The next day also started sleepily. Sister Electra woke them up in the morning. Not too early, but the kids felt that they hadn't slept a minute. Drowsiness accompanied them throughout breakfast, which was tasteless anyway, because they couldn't even imagine any taste. In their sleepy state they accepted the nun's offer from the previous day.
"It okay, you have to work in the pen number 2. As soon as you are ready, I replace the battery in your device."
The twins followed her throughout the labyrinth of verandas of the temple. The walk had made them a bit waking, but when they had seen something at their goal that them wide awake. They almost jumped out of their socks from fright.
"SNAKES!!!"
Valerie and Conrad were running so fast back to a column.
"Where are you going?" asked Sister Electra, surprised, although she had heard the kids' screaming.
"Snakes!" Conrad pointed to the long, thick excited-moving somethings. They looked like snakes. Definitely. Some black and white snakes.
"Those are not snakes, and not even dangerous!" She said, but couldn't convince the twins, who were both clinging to the column, as it would have saved them from those creatures. "Those are not snakes, but oil."
"OIL?"
The kids were surprised. They had already seen oil, but they couldn't even imagine, that oil would look like snakes.
"Yes. Oil. More precisely mineral oil."
The kids still didn't intend to move.
"Come on! They are not dangerous!" Sister Electra walked to the kids, and held out her hands.
Conrad was the braver one, he accepted, and held the nun's hand first. Valerie hesitantly followed his example. She was still frightened from those creatures. They walked together closer to the snakes.
"They are made of Hydrogens and Carbons. That's why we call them mineral oil."
"Is the oil, in the kitchen looking different?" stuttered Valerie.
"Yes. Mineral oil is not eatable at all. The oil, we eat is totally different, that contains Oxygens too."
Sister Electra tried to soothe the children with talking to them, because they were still trembling.
"Don't worry, these are not a danger to you! I have been liviving here for years, and I am still in one piece."
"Then why are they here?" asked Conrad.
"They are security guards."
"They are very good security guards! I sure wouldn't dare come here alone to steal Lithium!" Conrad said, a little reassured.
"They are not here to protect Lithiums from thieves, but from Oxygens." Sister Electra laughed.
The kids have only just noticed that briskly moving, rotating somethings, are covering more, smaller or larger cages.
"The Lithiums you want, are in the cage number 3. It is a small cage, and the staff is already prepared them to you." She led the twins to a relatively small cage.
Valerie and Conrad thought about how they were going to get into the cage, but the nun simply shook the oils away by hand and opened a door.
"Come in quickly!" She told them.
The kids ran into the cage as fast as they can, Sister Electra closed the door, and the oil covered the door again in a moment.
"They are more like slugs, from this angle. " Valerie found from the safe inside of the cage. The oils couldn't come into the cage, so the fright of the kids more or less had vanished.
"Yes, you are right. They are very useful slugs." Sister Electra smiled.
"Why should Lithiums be protected from Oxygens?" asked Conrad.
"Because Lithiums are very friendly, and always want to shake hands with other little ones. They do it anyway, when they meet them. The oil simply prevent these meetings."
"Isn't it cruel not to let them making friends?" asked Valerie.
"If you want to work more with them, you could find wild ones in the fields. Of course with their friends, and you should make them to convince that it is better to make friends with your Hydrogens. It is a very hard work, because they usually don't want to change friends, so you need a lot of energy to reach your goal. That's why we keep them under oil guards."
"Or under arrest." mumbled Valerie, but the nun had heard her words.
"Do you think, they are sad?" asked her, and turn her toward the Lithiums.
The words of Valerie and Conrad got stuck. They had never seen something like that. There were a huge pile of Lithiums before their eyes. The Lithiums looked like big beach-balls, bigger than the Heliums, and they had two, holding hands on them. They were in a translucent jelly, which held them in one place. All of them were cheerfully wobbling in their places. They didn't look like sad at all.
"Shouldn't they also have a third hand?" Valerie asked in horror.
"They have a third hand." Sister Electra stated.
"But they don't resemble to the Hydrogens at all! I see two hands, like Heliums, but there isn't the third one anywhere!" protested Valerie. "Did you cut it off?"
"No, nope!" Sister Electra was laughing hard. "I told you that the third hands are there! Look!"
She went to the Lithium pile, and dug her pointing finger into the jelly. Suddenly a small hand held her finger, leaving a hole in the jelly. The nun shook her hand a bit, and the little hand vanished.
"Did you see? The third hands makes the jelly. They are moving so fast, that we only see them as jelly, but they are basically juggling, so the Lithiums look like they are floating in jelly."
"They are not sad at all!" said the amazed Valerie.
"Why aren't they hold hands with just two of them?" asked Conrad, and in his head problem alert was ringing.
"They prefer this way to make friends."
"Is there any other ways to make friends?"
"There are basically three simple ways to make friends for the little ones. The first one, you learned in the Kingdom of Hydrogen. We call it covalent bond. The atoms hold hands, and they are like glued to each other. The connected atoms are called molecules. The Hydrogens make friends with covalent bond in elemental form, they are molecules too. The oil slugs around us are also molecules, take a closer look at them!"
Valerie and Conrad went to the wall of the cage. The oil slugs were snailing outside, but the nun was right. They were built by black and white atoms. The atoms were holding hands in strange ways.
"The second one in called metallic bond, like the Lithiums. The atoms' hands become somewhat independent from them, and freely juggling the remaining parts. The bigger part of the atoms likes this way."
"Which is the third one?"
"Well, that is a bit difficult one, but you will make a lot of them today. It is called ionic bond."
"Ironic?" asked the kids laughing.
"No. I-o-n-i-c. The atoms forms ions before bonding."
"Why?"
"How?"
"Basically they want to look like the Nobles, so they throw hands away, or get the thrown hands, that make them look like the closest Noble. Do you see? The Lithiums have two holding hands, just like the Heliums. Plus one hand. So they throw away one hand, and their appearance becomes like Helium."
"Why do they have the third hand, when they don't need it at all?" asked Valerie.
"Because inside them are three protons, so they have three electrons. That's the rule."
"How could we make them throw away the third hand?"
"By giving them energy."
"Something is not clear. The math limps. If they have three protons, and two electrons, something is odd. Won't they cry?"
"They will cry." stated the nun. "They will cry, because they are not atoms anymore, but ions. They will have each a plus positive charge."
"How will we make them silent? They won't have free hands to make bonds!" Conrad asked.
"You have to give the thrown away hand to a Hydrogen atom. It will have one proton, and two electrons then, and gain a plus negative charge. The others are simply. One positive charge neutralizes one negative charge, so both of the ions becomes silent. It is the ionic bond."
Valerie and Conrad also became silent. Everything was clear, and easy.
"I will show you, how to make lithium hydride. Call a Hydrogen molecule, and break their bond please!"
Conrad called out a pair of Hydrogens from the device. Valerie gave the candies and chocolate bars, and they released their hands and started to cry. Sister Electra asked Valerie, to hold their hands, and the girl offered them her fingers. The little ones grabbed one each, and fell silent. The the nun went to the Lithium pile, and fed energy to one of them. The chosen atom plopped out from the jelly, and the third hand is appeared on its surface, covering the two other hands. Since it was crying very loud (louder, than the Hydrogens), Sister Electra offered a finger to it.
"Do you see? The are very similar, aren't they?"
"Yes. Both of them have one hand on the surface. But Lithiums are much more bigger!" said Valerie, as she observed the beach ball-sized atom.
"Yes, it's really bigger now, but not for long! Conrad, please hold the sphere part firmly!"
The nun started to fed the Lithium with candies. A few candies later the third hand of the Lithium came off, and the atom shrunked. It almost escaped from Conrad's hand, and the boy would not have hurt if it had done so, for the sphere had begun to scream. Sister Electra wasn't bothered by the screaming, she turned to Valerie, and offered the hand one of the Hydrogens. One of the little ones released Valerie's finger, accepted the plus hand, clasped the two hands together and blown into a beach ball, while shrinking candies. Moreover this one was started to scream too. The nun grabbed it, and held closer to the screaming one in Conrad's hand. They plopped together, shrinked candies and fell silent.
"Huh. They were very loud!" said Valerie, but she were watching the odd pair with a smile.
"The next one will be easier, because we already have a pair!" Sister Electra promised.
She repeated the process, but when the little one who had thrown the arm began to cry, she held closer to the existing couple. It plopped to them, shrunk a bit of candies and fell silent. She repeated it with the other Hydrogen, and the four little ones made a cute square. All the big ones, and the little ones had two, clasped hands, and they were peacefully watching the twins. They had signs on the top of their heads, like they would wear plasters. There were a big – on the big ones' heads, and small + on the little ones' heads. They were wobbling a bit, but stayed together, and cheerfully chirped, as kids stroked them. Sister Electra was right. The Lithiums were very-very friendly toward other atoms.
"I think you have questions!" Sister Electra laughed, as the twins were staring to the formation for minutes in silence.
"I have a lot of questions." The twins said in unison.
"There are signs on them!" Valerie pointed to the top of the heads of the little ones.
"It shows the charge of them. Minus is negative, plus is positive."
"Why did they change size?" asked Conrad.
"When an atom turns into a positive ion the size becomes smaller. When it turns into a negative ion, the size will be bigger. This is related to the number of protons and electrons. When there are more protons, than electrons, the size shrunk. If they have less proton than electron, the size puffs up, because the protons, can't grab every electron, so the electrons could wander farther from them."
"If they are not atom anymore, how do we call them?" Valerie asked, puzzled.
"If it is a positively charged ion, it would be easy. Put the 'ion' tag after the name of the atom. The negatively charged ions' name is a bit fussy. Mostly they have the '-ide ion' tag is put after the atom's name, or shortened name. So that's why they are Lithium-ion, and Hydride-ion. When you put them together, just leave the ion tags, and their name is Lithium-hydride."
The kids nodded. it was easy.
"Why did the third ion stop crying, when it joined to the two others? The charge of it couldn't be neutralized by the others!" noted Conrad.
"Yes and no. They are forming a lattice structure. One positive ion is surrounded by six negative ions, and one negative ion is surrounded by six positive ions. The number of charges neutralized in the lattice. That' why the ions, added to the lattice, fell silent temporarily. To permanently make them peaceful, you need to neutralize the charges."
"The energy we gained is not too much..." sighed Conrad.
"This procedure does not produce too much energy. Don't care with the candies all over, I will collect them, when you are ready with the whole bunch. So, you have seen, how it works. Just put them together, like they were lego bricks. Then work!"
"I can't go outside alone." Valerie said suddenly, as the nun wanted to leave them there.
"Don't worry! Call me on your hand device!"
"?"
"Your hand device is also working like a mobile phone. Just like yours at home. Haven't you noticed yet?"
No. They didn't notice this feature at all. They didn't even need it. The person, they really wanted to call, the ID number was unknown to them. Sister Electra showed them, how to initialize a call, and left them alone with the work.
"Man is always learning." Conrad sighed, after they were left alone with the task.
"Yes. But you also have to work beside learning." replied Valerie. "Let's work."