In the beginning of the book, Fred gets "hiccups" that make him emit items. Where do these items come from?

My first guess was that they were coming from his "personal gate" like Carl says, but what does that personal gate do? I thought that they were things that Fred picked up and are now escaping from a temporospatial claudication, but Fred said he had never been to a planet like Earth, where all the emitted items were coming from. Then I thought maybe Fred had accidentally activated a kind of wormhole, but why would it be picking up random items and from where on Earth would these items come from?

Answers or thoughts, anyone?

If I remember correctly, it was just an extension of his emission of energy. All of the order around him influenced the kind of matter he was emitting, since he was no longer in space, where dust clouds were as close to order as he got.

He was converting energy to matter, rather than picking up the items from elsewhere. The amount of energy required to produce a fueled-and-running Learjet boggles my mind, but white holes do emit quite a bit...

Oh, I see. I never got that from the book, but that makes the most sense. Wow that would need a lot of energy!

are you sure he was actually using energy, and not simply reordering matter? i looked up white holes, and they are theoreticaly connected to some black holes...things go in black hole, they come out of a white whole, forming a wormhole. (not all black holes, just some) so fred could have reordered any matter that came through the right wormhole, theoretically...(this is just my random wonderings again, but i think it works out) i don't think they actually EXPLAINED it in the book.

All I know is that Fred's hiccups made him my favorite character in the first book. There-for when I joined, I became the infamous fred22. I tend to let most of the technical factor of what things do go in books and just enjoy -_0. However, if it is presented in a bad way, I do have some negative feelings and investigate it to see that my point is justified.

I just read a part where Fred emitted something (a plant, I think), and Nita said "I didn't know you could make live things." From this I would assume that he was making material things from energy. I don't know, I'll have to read the beginning again.

i researched white wholes...theoretically, they exist. at least, according to SOME theories they exist. and it's impossible to say something CAN"T exist, because you can't PROVE that it can't exist...even with the laws of physics, there's always a chance that there's something more we don't know yet, which would allow things to exist anyways! plus, if you believe in alternate dimensins there'd have to be least a few dimensions wehre the correct situation was present for these things to exist...

It's cute when Nita asks Fred for a hand, and then she says, "Not that kind!" as he prepares to emit.

true...i suppose he could spit out a hand for to hold, if he concentrated hard enough. *grins* hod DID they solve the hiccups in the end, anyways? I can't remember...

Carl did a spell for him. Carl's wizardry was "subtly untangling forces that were knotted tight together." (page 109 pb) But later Fred did some emissions on purpose for diversions.

YoungReader: They used a 1893 (?) zinc penny to stop the hickups. He (fred) is my favorite character as well. I love it when he emits the car. I read the book to my mum and now every time she sees that car she's like :"My gnaster will never be the same again!" It's so funny.

thank you! i personally still like nita better, but fred was cool...and the car seen was priceless, to say the least. *grins before running off to post elsewhere*

Fred's hiccups were funny and too cute, but I thought it was just a matter of his converting his matter which was held in a claudication ...

Or is that what everyone's saying when they say he was converting his energy?

I liked the Lotus too, but ... I wonder if Fred couldn't have purposely made another ... I'm not too clear on whether he could control what he made with his emissions ... he couldn't right?

he didn't have any REAL control....i think he once did something big on purpose, but i don't think he had any control over what it was going to be....

At first he didn't have any control over it, but then Carl did that spell for him, and after that he was able to emit stuff whenever he wanted, but it was painful for him. And he didn't have control over what he emitted, just when he did, and I think he could control the size to some extent. But that's just how I read it. I haven't read it in forever.

i think you're right...i remember that him bieng in pain, and he managed to do big things occasionally for a distraction. (don't remember carl giving hjim something, but that's probalby just me.:P) and from the little i remember, he didn't exactly control THAT either...of course, i don't even remember how he died that well, so i should probably reread it at some point...when i finally get past this habit of having four non renewable books at a time, maybe. (if i don't forget. :P)