by submission | Feb 18, 2007 | Story
Author : Aelanna Cessara
She picked up a page of the large volume that had been compiled, her keen eyes picking out each individual strand of fiber in the primitive paper. They had not originally planned on doing it this way, but she had convinced the council that using the hand-made material would have significant impact on their charges, and thus she had spent all month making the rough pages and handwriting the all-important documents.
Her partner was looking her with some amusement, and she smiled with the pride that accompanied the success of such a difficult task.
“Did you know?†she said, tugging absent-minded on a feather as she gazed down at the surface. “They have a name for us now.â€
“Oh?â€
“They call us angels. Messengers in their tongue.â€
“Indeed,†he answered, smiling back at her. “We definitely have a message to deliver.â€
His fingers danced over the controls, and the shuttle nosed downwards, preparing to enter the atmosphere.
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by submission | Feb 17, 2007 | Story
Author : Noel Sloboda
Author : Noel Sloboda
Oh, let’s go back, Bekah pleaded. She had made a decision. Alone. What? Go back where? We’re in the middle of nowhere. Halfway between South Carolina and Vermont, Julian protested. Oh.
Palpable silence filled the car, pressing like a wet palm on the back of his neck. Do you have to go? To the bathroom, I mean. Oh. No. I just want to see it again. Jesus, Bek–you mean that thing? They had been the only ones on the road when they approached the mangled mass. The moonless night made it impossible to make out anything clearly.
Do you really think you’ll be able to figure out what it was? Do you? She didn’t. Still. He started to sneer yet hesitated. Something dead in the road had never ended a relationship, he reassured himself, no matter how strange the shape. His lips pursed as he started breathing through his nose. Ignoring her, he tracked the broken yellow lines beneath his lights, then sped up.
There was nothing ahead of them, and he didn’t look back. But long after the elements as well as hungry, little birds had their way with the mystery in the road, Bekah still yearned to return. She thought she could perform an autopsy, perhaps determine the cause of the thing’s end, even if there weren’t any longer remains to be found. Alone.
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by submission | Feb 15, 2007 | Story
Author : TJMoore
Lightning struck her left wingtip sending a twinge all the way down to her ribs. Finally it had begun. She flapped her enormous wings, increased her speed and altitude. She needed a body strike.
It had been twenty rotations since she had mated and the time was right. She could feel the clutch of eggs, dormant and unmoving in her womb, waiting.
Another lance of lightning flashed in the swirling clouds above her and she started her localized spiral up into the maelstrom.
She had never been pregnant before so she was a little nervous. The unknown was always two sided.
Suddenly, a blazing hot arc of static electricity that enveloped her whole body in a corona of blue energy slammed her, causing her to shudder. That was a good one, she thought.
She could feel the energy pooling in her womb as the eggs reacted to the static charge. Some of the eggs would burst and some would char, but a small percentage would transition to the second phase of development and become children.
Unsure of how much energy was required, she circles in the permanent storm getting hit time and again by the ferocious bolts until, finally, unwilling to risk burning another egg, she dove down to the relative calm of the lower stratosphere.
The orange clouds of Jupiter surrounded her like lilies on a pond as she flapped toward a distant flock that was her family, a bluish train of ions trailing after her leaving sparkles in the sky.
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by submission | Feb 14, 2007 | Story
Author : Duncan Shields
The good news is that my time machine works.
The bad news is that the laws of the universe will only allow it to go forward.
I don’t know what I was thinking. We sent it forward two minutes and then three minutes and then a month. All tests were green. No time passed for me but the people in my lab saw me disappear for four weeks. It was a success. There was talk of a government contract. We didn’t dare do a test back in time yet. The causality equations were still being worked out.
I just wanted to impress Jenny. I’d been drinking. It was late. I wanted to go a few hundred years into the future, find something amazing, and bring it back for her. It seemed like the most romantic thing anyone had ever done to my drunk lovesick scientist mind. I took a deep breath and hopped in and dialed in the tempordinates.
I hit the go button. Everything worked perfectly. I stared at the exit door, took a deep breath and pulled the handle.
With a crack and a hiss I walked out into the darkness. Immediately, floodlights came up and a loud horn made me freeze like a scared dog. It looked like I was standing in some sort of parking lot but it was hard to tell with the light shining down on me. I shielded my eyes with an upraised hand. I squinted into the darkness.
“Quin do lave track temp shift over max chain†said a booming voice from a loudspeaker.
“What?†I stammered back “My name is Dr. Jenkins. I am from the year 2008. I, uh, I come in peace.†I finished lamely.
My stomach was really not enjoying the celebratory whiskey anymore. I was scared like I hadn’t been scared since I was a child. I staggered forward onto my knees and vomited noisily onto the pavement.
That was all six months ago. Turns out they’d been waiting for me. This tempstation had been set up like a barrier across all of local time. It catches us illegal time travelers like tennis balls thrown against a net. I was the thirtieth one that they had caught so far but I was a semi celebrity seeing as I was the inventor of the first time travel machine.
Unfortunately, it meant that they had to tell me the bad news that every time traveler since me already knew. It’s not a return trip. You can’t go back.
They say they’ll let me out of the holding cell soon. I have a support group of temporal displacement counselors and fellow temponauts waiting to help me adjust to this new future society.
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by submission | Feb 12, 2007 | Story
Author : Patrica Stewart
Kathryn Duncan sat in the waiting room of Alternative Realities, surrounded by her husband, her two sons, her four grand children, and her seven year old great granddaughter, Wendy. Wendy sat in her lap, while the others gathered around her recalling stories about their childhood (usually exaggerated, fabricated, or both). They were all laughing and poking fun at each other. Talking about everything except why they were there. Kathryn had just turned 75, and was now eligible for her one legal opportunity to temporarily “do-over†her life. For the modest sum of $1,999.99, she could enter the “chamber†for two hours and experience a lifetime of events and memories “as real as reality itself,†to quote the holocommercials. She simply chose a date in her life where she made some key decision, and the temporal computer would manipulate space-time to send her back (virtually) to that moment in time. But in this alternate reality, she could choose a different path. Then, she would live out the new timeline (virtually and accelerated) to the present date, unaware of the true timeline until she was removed from the chamber. Once revived, she would retain both sets of memories, and would know the answer to the nagging question the haunts most people…â€What if…â€
Wendy, who was somewhat overwhelmed by the gathering, innocently looked at her great grandmother and asked the question that no adult would. “Great grandma, what are you goin’ to change?â€
The room suddenly turned silent. Nobody ever asks that question, primarily because the change could involve you (or more likely, their life without you). As it turned out, Kathryn hadn’t made her final decision, although she had narrowed it down to the standard options:
1. (Marriage) Marry Scott instead of Joe.
2. (Children) Finish my PhD before having children.
3. (Career) Accept the vice presidency in the Lunar office.
After all, these were the logical alternative timelines. Would she have been happier, more fulfilled, or more respected if she had chosen a different path? She looked into Wendy’s beautiful crystal blue eyes, then at her loving family, all staring at her expectantly. They had all been so supportive, especially Joe. He had “gone back†last year, when he turned 75. Kathryn had never asked him what he had changed. Only naive, innocent children ever do that. But he was not the same afterwards. Nobody else seemed to notice, but after being married to him for over 50 years she knew he was affected, at least sub-consciously. Maybe it was regret, maybe it was only her imagination. Kathryn couldn’t be sure. But it made her wonder why everybody was obsessed with going back. Maybe 90% of the people confirmed they had made the right decision, and 10% didn’t. Maybe it was 50-50. You either climb out of the chamber no better off than when you went in, or you had a lifetime of regret to deal with. It seemed like there was nothing to gain, but an awful lot to lose.
Kathryn wrapped her arms around Wendy, and stood up. “Yes, honey. I’ve decided to change…nothing.†Hugging Wendy like a life preserver, Kathryn left the waiting room, and headed home, content in the knowledge that she had made all the right decisions, including this one.
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