Author: Alfred C. Airone
I awoke in completely unfamiliar surroundings, not remembering having gone to sleep.
There was someone else in the bed with me. I turned and saw her: cropped copper-red hair, perfect face, lips slightly parted, still asleep. I recognized her immediately: Rho Rondella, the fictional owner and captain of the equally fictional interstellar spacecraft Furious.
It worked, I thought, and into my silent jubilation there came a sound: the noise of all the scornful criticisms of my theories crashing to the floor like broken glassware. I had traveled to the future – a future that I had made real. A future that had previously existed only in a science-fiction novel I had read and re-read many times. A future I had created by hard science and uncertain devices coupled with ten thousand acts of choosing. A future plucked from among the Hydra-headed Potential, the not yet real.
I let her sleep. We were obviously already well acquainted.
If you liked this story, you may also like AUTOGNŌSION, my first sci-fi novel, where the real Rho Rondella shows up!
That is a fine tale.
I just saw your comment – please accept my belated thank-you.
I wondered about this when I saw it was so short, but it’s a nice micro. For me, the last line pulled it off. Well done.
Thanks, xdhz8 – so glad you enjoyed it.