Winter 2013 Short Story Contest!

[Nazi Flower Power]

I've been working on an entry, even though short stories aren't really my area of expertise. I'm almost finished, actually, and should be finished before the current deadline (at least in my timezone). I didn't originally intend to announce my interest in advance (since I wasn't certain I was going to be done in time), but I've changed my mind, seeing as you seem to be slightly disturbed by the number of entries so far.

EDIT: It's finished, unless I make any last-minute changes before the deadline.

Cool. Post it whenever you're ready.

I'd be OK with extending the deadline. It's kind of a downer to have only two entries.

I felt kinda awkward submitting the first story. Its nice to see at least I have some competition.

I know how you feel. It's a waste of a story if you don't have anyone to compete with.

[Respubliko de Libereco]

Here's my story. I have pretty much no experience writing fictional prose, so don't expect much.

A dry desert wind held aloft the dusty union jack that flew above a small fort. In the courtyard below, about twenty red-clad soldiers were drilling, their belt buckles and bayonets flashing in the hot African sun. They seemed impervious to the sweltering heat, to which they had grown accustomed. The same could not be said of the black clad gentleman who had just entered the fort. He was clearly overdressed, in a black greatcoat and top hat, and though he was successful in maintaining an expression of gentlemanly indifference, beads of sweat on his forehead betrayed his discomfort.

Despite the heat, the man waited for the soldiers to finish their drills before approaching the senior officer. “I’m Sir Steven Warren, here on behalf of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria,” he said, flourishing a document bearing the royal seal. “I need to speak to a certain George Williams.”

“I can’t imagine why you’d want to see Private Williams,” responded the officer. “He’s one of the worst soldiers in this company. He consistently displays behaviour unbefitting of a soldier in the Queen’s employ, and often gets into fights with the locals. He’s in our military prison right now, but I can show you to his cell, if you like.”

The gentleman followed the officer to a small cell, lit by what little sunlight could creep in through a single barred window. Hesitantly, he stepped inside. In one corner of the cell slouched the most pathetic soldier that he had ever seen. The prisoner’s coat was askew and covered in dust, his hair was dishevelled and dirty, and the red of his nose betrayed a problem with alcoholism. His face, dominated by a scraggly, tangled beard, was reminiscent of a once-majestic circus lion reduced to scavenging for scraps in a junkyard. Noticing the newcomer, this specimen of wretchedness turned his head slightly. A beam of sunlight from the cell’s tiny window shone directly in his eyes, and although the bright light made him blink in discomfort, he made no effort to move into the shade, opting instead to shield his face with his hand. Groggily, he mumbled “Whointhehellareyou?”

“I’m Sir Steven Warren” said the gentleman, taken aback by this unexpected sight. He could hardly believe that a once respectable scholar could have been reduced to such a condition. “Are you Professor George Williams?”

The prisoner let out a single, sad, almost mocking chuckle. “No-one’s called me professor in years,” he said, “not since the close-minded fools that run the Royal Society kicked me out. I’ve been called everything from Madman Williams to George the Dragon Hunter, but not professor.”

“Well, it appears that the city of London is in need of your services, Professor Williams,” said Sir Steven.

“Tough. I’m never going back. I joined the army to get away from that cesspit, and now I couldn’t return if I wanted to.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Sir Steven reached into his coat and pulled out an official-looking document. “This is a letter, from the Queen herself, offering you an honourable discharge, free travel to London, a knighthood, and a large monetary award in exchange for your help in dealing with a rather significant problem.”

The prisoner laughed again. “What kind of problem could possibly warrant such actions? Why the hell does the Queen want me specifically?”

Sir Steven coughed uncomfortably. “Well,” he said, “it appears that you were right about the existence of dragons. A large, winged, firebreathing beast has taken up residence in London, and is terrorizing the city. Conventional approaches to the problem have proven futile. Your expertise on the subject is our last hope.”

The change in the prisoner was almost instantaneous. Where once there had lain a pitiful derelict now stood a mighty warship. Triumph seemed to radiate from the professor - for he was suddenly a professor again - and the commanding officer who had been watching the whole exchange almost couldn’t believe what he saw. Before him stood a stranger, a man so opposite in manner to the wretch who had been there a few seconds ago that even his physical appearance seemed to have changed. His face certainly seemed more vibrant, and when he spoke his voice was infused with a confidence that the officer had heard in the voices of only the greatest generals.

“I knew it!” said Williams. “I warned them that the heat of the factories would attract dragons, but the fools at the Royal Society were too set in their ways to heed my warnings. They called me mad, just as the Trojans did Cassandra. Well, now they see the error of their ways! See how they come crawling back to me in their hour of need, like little children who wouldn’t listen when their mother said not to touch the stove. It’s pathetic.”

Sir Steven was silent for a moment, struck dumb by this sudden transformation. At length, he said “So, you’ll be coming, then?”

“Of course not! Those fools need to accept the consequences of their close-mindedness.”

“But this is unreasonable!” protested Sir Steven. “Surely you wouldn’t let the city burn for the sake of a petty grudge, when the alternative is a chance to save hundreds and become a hero? Where’s the logic in that?”

“Logic?” The professor laughed. “I gave up logic years ago. Logic is not nearly so unchanging and universal as most academics would have you believe. I used to think that logic would always lead to the truth, until I saw those Royal Society bastards claim that my theories about dragons - theories that I had arrived at through extensive research and reasoning - were illogical and ridiculous. Now I see logic for the backstabber that she is. The only universal law I still trust is that of cause and effect, of action and consequence. The people of London chose their actions long ago. Now, finally, it’s time for them to face the consequences.”

“But what should I tell the people of London? That you prefer to see them die for no well-defined reason? Your newly-restored reputation will once again be spat upon, except that this time, the people won’t pity you; they’ll despise you.”

“I don’t care. I left my reputation for dead the day I joined the army. Would I be here if I hadn’t?” The professor gestured to the dirty cell that held him. “I don’t care what you tell the people of London. No, wait - I do. Tell them what they told me. Tell them that dragons don’t exist, that they must be delusional. Teach them what it’s like to have their protests fall on disbelieving ears.”

By this point, the wave of triumph and confidence that had engulfed the professor when he first heard of the dragon had been replaced with something else entirely, something like a mix of anger and regret. George Williams was little more than a disgraced soldier again. In fact, Sir Steven fancied the new Williams to be even more pathetic than the old. When he had arrived, the man had merely been resigned to failure. Now, however, he was actively pursuing it, not just for himself, but for the people of London as well. One thing was certain: he had clearly earned the once-inaccurate title of Madman Williams.

Rather than waste his words on obstinately deaf ears, Sir Steven simply walked out of the cell, motioning to Williams’ commanding officer to close the door behind him. As he headed out into the sweltering heat of the African summer, he was suddenly struck by the enormity of what had just transpired. “London will burn,” he thought, “because of one man’s stubbornness.” In retrospect, it almost seemed foreseeable. He had always expected London, like Rome, to fall eventually, though he had assumed that it would be at the hands of some great foreign general. However, the more he thought about it, the more it made sense that stubbornness, one of the most enduring flaws in human history, would lead to its destruction. “After all”, he thought, “what is war but two nations refusing to admit defeat? What happened today is nothing new, just obstinance claiming its latest victim.” Somberly pondering this revelation, Sir Steven returned to his coach outside of the fort, ready to begin the long journey back to London, or whatever was left of it.

It's not great, but it just might be acceptable.

[The New World Oceania]

Are you judging for verisimilitude at all?

[StellarGate]

I'd be OK with extending the deadline. It's kind of a downer to have only two entries.

I felt kinda awkward submitting the first story. Its nice to see at least I have some competition.

I know how you feel. It's a waste of a story if you don't have anyone to compete with.[/quote]

You can never waste a story. Ever.

I'll be writing sequels to my submitted story since the person I got Kara Harrington and the Terran Empire from liked it.

[Nazi Flower Power]

Are you judging for verisimilitude at all?

We're judging for what it says in the OP. Verisimilitude will often work to your benefit, but it's not a requirement.

[Timothia]

Is the deadline on this extended? Because I'll submit a story within the next three days if it is.

[Nazi Flower Power]

Is the deadline on this extended? Because I'll submit a story within the next three days if it is.

It's up to Jenrak.

[Jenrak]

Yes, it is updated to the 15th, sorry I forgot to update the post.

[Unitaristic Regions]

Yes, it is updated to the 15th, sorry I forgot to update the post.

Really? Then I'll be joining as well. Maybe. I'm writing a short story as exercise that just might be short enough

[Jenrak]

Of course you should.

[Jenrak]

BUMP!

[Forsher]

I'd be OK with extending the deadline. It's kind of a downer to have only two entries.

I don't know, this way I'm in with a chance for a podium finish. Although now there are three...Yes, I'm aware a podium has three spots.

[Raurosia]

Hmm...nine days seems good enough!

[Occupied Deutschland]

Didn't even see this until now, I could'a/should'a/would'a made some snarky comments in the thread relating to writing to try and keep it further ahead on the board. Oh, well, better late than never right?

I think I'll try to whip something up for this. I've been meaning to try something shorter than what I usually do anyways, this seems like a good excuse.

[Occupied Deutschland]

I think this is the first time I've actually set out with the goal of writing a short story instead of the first chapter of a longer one.

I have confirmed my bias against the genre.

[The New World Oceania]

I'm contemplating two pieces I want to submit. Both are flash fiction actually – I take it about 500 words isn't too short for submission?

I think this is the first time I've actually set out with the goal of writing a short story instead of the first chapter of a longer one.

I have confirmed my bias against the genre.

Ah, first the bias against — later comes the respect for.

[Jenrak]

I'm contemplating two pieces I want to submit. Both are flash fiction actually – I take it about 500 words isn't too short for submission?

I think this is the first time I've actually set out with the goal of writing a short story instead of the first chapter of a longer one.

I have confirmed my bias against the genre.

Ah, first the bias against — later comes the respect for.

If it's good, it's good.

[Tiltjuice]

I might take part as well.

[Occupied Deutschland]

“I wonder if this is how Christopher Columbus felt before sailing to the new world.”

“Probably isn’t. He knew his boats weren’t going to sink.”

Marie Heidigger rolled her eyes at the tongue-in-cheek reminder. “Fine, then.” She muttered, letting a trace of faint annoyance into her voice. “I wonder if this is how Yuri Gagarin felt before lifting off into space.”

“That’s better,” Davis said, grinning. Then he continued, the grin widening. “But my innate anti-Russian sensibilities make me suggest Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier as a more fitting analogy. You know us Americans, can’t stand someone else having a spot in the limelight.”

Marie snorted, “So when we get back I can count on you to downplay my own contributions to this whole crazy idea, right?”

“Of course.” Davis agreed, nodding. “I’ve got a book deal lined up now. It’s going to reveal everything, your rampant alcoholism and complete inability to handle the pressure making me have to take over, Maloney’s newfound belief in God in the face of the awesome spectacle he witnessed, and of course my own fearless confrontation of the alien Queen in a suit of powered armor.”

Despite the tension of the moment, Marie laughed.

“Shall we start calling you Warrant Officer Ripley then?” She joked, twisting slightly in the crash-couch to find another position in it that was slightly more comfortable. Creature comforts such as lumbar support seemed to be a novel idea to the designers. It wasn’t all that surprising, but it was frustrating, especially after hours of waiting for Maloney. At this point the only thing keeping her sane was speaking to Davis and the anticipation of finally leaving.

“Well I—“

“Last walkthrough is done.” Came Maloney’s voice in each of their ears, cutting of what Davis had been about to say. “I’m coming back up to the bridge and then we can go.”

Marie flexed her jaw in the right manner to activate her own radio, “Alright, Maloney.”

Marie chewed the radio off then swung her attention back to Davis and visibly sighed. “He sure took his time, didn’t he?”

Davis shrugged, turning back to the monitor at ‘his’ station and running his fingers over it. “He’s the man with the plan when it comes to those engines. I’m willing to wait for him. Death frightens me, I’ll give him however much time he needs to lower the chances of that thing exploding or turning us inside out or whatever it could do.”

Marie bobbed her head up and down in mild agreement. At this point the crazy setup blowing up underneath her seemed somewhat envious in comparison with all this damned waiting. But that was probably just her sore back talking.

Waving a hand in front of her to activate the screens, Marie idly flicked through a handful of readouts. Maloney’s travel up from the engines probably wouldn’t take long, but she’d have to do this before they left anyhow so might as well get it done now. Besides, Davis had become engrossed in his own screens doing the same thing and she needed something to take her mind off the uncomfortable seat.

Marie shook her head slightly as she grasped the thought. Here she was on the verge of such a massive step in human history and all she could think of was the heavens-be-cursed uncomfortable seat. Maybe that was what Columbus and Gagarin and Yeager had had on their minds before their steps into the unknown? All the minor crap they had to put up with? The captain’s quarters on the Santa Maria weren’t spacious enough, the boots of Gagarin’s suit didn’t have the right insoles, the X-1s headrest wasn’t tilted far enough back. All seemed possible in a humorous way.

Marie wondered if waiting for the beginning of their famous ventures had annoyed them as well. Or had they been more patient than her? More able to bear it? She doubted it. It somehow didn’t conform to her images of them. An explorer with patience seemed like a contradiction.

“You two can get to work now. My inspection was good.” Maloney muttered as he wandered into the bridge and took a seat opposite of Davis on Marie’s left. It wasn’t like he had much of a choice. It was either sit there or remain standing, and that wouldn’t be a great idea very soon now.

“My console says everything is secured. Davis?”

“Yep. Same here.”

“Well then, I guess we should tell the slowpokes back near Earth that we’re transitioning to the final stage.”

Davis nodded his agreement before manipulating the screen in front of him once again, then spoke.

“I-S-S Control—“ Davis paused for a moment, “—And all other traffic, be advised, H-S-X-one shall be underway shortly. Maintain distance.” Marie could almost hear the silent ‘hopefully this works.’ Davis’ facial expression added to the message.

That formality out of the way, Marie took a deep breath. The message wouldn’t even be heard by the commercial flight controllers until this had all panned out one way or another. In a way that was liberating, now she could be on with it. Get it over with. See how it turned out. Find out whether it would work or not. Relieve the tension in her back.

“Straps on everyone?” Marie asked as she checked the belts crossed over her own shoulders.

“Yep.”

“Good here.”

Marie nodded as she flicked to the proper screen and thumbed the appropriate button.

Her weight seemed to disappear into nothing. Marie reveled in the feeling for a moment, letting a stupid smile paint itself onto her face.

“Gravities at null. Davis?”

“I’m on it. Setting the field.”

The bridge descended into another brief silence, Maloney twisting as far as he could in his seat to try and look behind him while Davis manipulated things on his screen.

“The field isn’t changing.” Davis said with a modicum of panic in his voice. He stabbed at his console with fingers as if how hard he hit the buttons on it would determine how effective he was in solving the problem.

“Why not?” Marie prompted.

“I don’t know. It’s like the engine still thinks it’s…” Davis trailed off as he stared at his screen.

“Davis?”

“Nothing. I got it?” Davis tilted his head at his screen for a long moment then almost visibly put whatever was on his mind aside. “The field is dropping now. Just went through seventy Newtons…fifty…thirty…fifteen…and zero. Zero Newtons relative with a bubble of one kilometer.”

“What happened there?” Marie prompted, still curious about the man’s pause.

Davis shrugged. “Just took a little longer than I thought it would. I think.”

“You think?” Maloney chimed in from his seat.

“I don’t know. It ain’t like anyone’s ever done this before with your engines you know!” Davis quickly growled back. Maloney tilted his head in recognition of the point, though made no apology. That was just how the man was.

“Alright. Settle down boys. Is it holding at zero?”

“Yeah, it’s steady at zero with a variance of,” Davis swiped his hand quickly, “ten to the negative twelfth.”

“Well within my theoretical bounds. By three orders of magnitude even. Damn I am good.”

Marie’s lip twitched slightly in annoyance, but she kept her composure otherwise. “We stand in awe at your prowess Doctor Maloney. Now would you be so kind as to start this whole process? Davis, watch those field readings. If they start wandering let us know.”

“Don’t worry. They move and I’ll start screaming like a little girl.”

“My hero.” Marie deadpanned back, taking slight refuge in the exchange. Manipulating the gravity around the ship wasn’t the weirdest thing they were slated to do today, but it alone was dangerous enough. The original International Space Station could attest to that fact. Or, more accurately, it couldn’t. It couldn’t do much of anything anymore.

Marie occupied herself with checking, for what seemed the thousandth time, the status of the ship. Occasionally craning her neck to try and catch a glimpse of Maloney’s screen or setting her own console to give her the readings on the gravity field that Davis was supposed to be watching. Just to be safe.

“Shifting control to you, Miss Heidigger. Everything still checks out. I could do another manual inspection though.” Maloney began to rise.

“That is alright, Doctor. I trust your first three passes caught any nasty surprises.” Marie was quite certain the man had caught everything on the first pass, but wasn’t going to swell his ego even more than it was by mentioning that.

“I believe in this instance we can begin.” Marie manipulated her screen for a moment, granting permission for Maloney’s console to shunt its information to her. Now came her part in this wild and crazy scheme. As she compared the HSX-1s position to the maps the respective space agencies of a half-dozen countries had provided and her own previously calculated routes, she couldn’t help but hum lightly.

Marie picked one of the options she already had entered in and set about changing some of the values which didn’t quite match with their actual position. She was good, but there was always that damned error.

“…-ball that we rode was moving, but now we’ve got a new machine.”

“What’s that?”

Marie glanced up, “Oh, nothing. Talking to myself.” She admitted, quickly diving back in to her work before anything else could be made of the slip.

Leaning back a few minutes later, Marie licked her lips. “Returning engines to you doctor.” She said. Besides that, the bridge went entirely silent except for the occasional chirping of the monitor screens.

“Do you think any words are appropriate?” Davis half-joked.

“I do not know anything relevant.” Maloney said.

Marie held both her hands out palm-up, “Besides, we should probably wait until we return and we know it worked. It’d be rather embarrassing to say something grand and stirring only to end up dead.”

“Well, there’s an inspiring thought to go out on. Thanks Marie.”

Marie made one last quick check through the different readouts available to her, and once again spotted nothing out of the ordinary. Ordinary, of course, being rather loosely defined in this instance. It was time to get this over with. Find out one way or another, and alleviate the discomfort in her back either by death or arriving at their destination and being able to walk around the ship for a change.

“Davis, pass along the message. But do remember to leave out anything about us being worried over dying.”

Davis held a thumb up, “Of course. That would jeopardize the brave image I’m making for myself. No one would believe the book about me facing down the evil Alien Queen if I showed fear in the face of a little thing like breaking the laws of physics, now would they?”

Marie caught Maloney sighing and shaking his head out of the corner of her eye. He did not, however, bother to correct the man as he had numerous times prior over the inaccuracy of characterizing what they were doing as ‘breaking the laws of physics’.

“I-S-S control, all other traffic in the area, be advised, H-S-X-one is underway.” The brief message finished, Davis looked at Marie. It’d be almost ten minutes before their first message reached the ISS, this one would be another four on top of that. One way or another, everything would be done by the time the ISS knew they were even beginning. Of course, that had been why such a distant test location had been chosen, along with the other more practical safety concerns. But it still felt very final.

Marie nodded to Davis, then shifted her gaze to Maloney. He, in turn, nodded at her.

“Here we go.” Feeling as if it would be either extremely important or completely useless, Marie lowered a palm onto a rectangular box in one section of her screen that read ‘Activate’.

She seemed to be stuck in that position for an endless instant, her mind incapable of sorting out just what was occurring before her. The entire color spectrum seemed to dance before her eyes, like a rainbow folding in and over itself an infinite number of times. Something very much like white noise screamed in her ears, and she felt a slight pressure on her, as if she were lying down on concrete with every inch of her body.

Above it all though, was the tunnel at the center of the rainbows in her vision that the colors danced around. The tunnel that seemed to lead everywhere at once, but snaked its way back around to where it began eventually. Like the rainbows it underwent an endless cycle of folding in and over itself, but unlike the rainbows it didn’t seem to stop there. Instead, it branched off. The branches intertwining and peeling off, with their own rainbows surrounding them, with branches from them and rainbows around those, and branches around those, leading off to an infinity of branching tunnels. All from the same point, and yet connected at every point. They were stuck in one, but the others sat to the sides, waiting. They seemed to be beckoning with the same siren song of white-noise that Marie could hear now.

“Dear God. It’s beautiful.” Maloney’s words seemed to cut through the white noise for a moment, and then disappear.

“See, what did I tell ya’! Maloney’s gone and decided there might just be a God after all!” Davis said.

Marie could do nothing but stare as the tunnel they were in began to brighten. The light overpowered the other colors, and then disappeared to black.

Tried something very different for me. Lots of speaking, very little detailing. Not sure how I like it.

[Nazi Flower Power]

“I wonder if this is how Christopher Columbus felt before sailing to the new world.”

“Probably isn’t. He knew his boats weren’t going to sink.”

Marie Heidigger rolled her eyes at the tongue-in-cheek reminder. “Fine, then.” She muttered, letting a trace of faint annoyance into her voice. “I wonder if this is how Yuri Gagarin felt before lifting off into space.”

“That’s better,” Davis said, grinning. Then he continued, the grin widening. “But my innate anti-Russian sensibilities make me suggest Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier as a more fitting analogy. You know us Americans, can’t stand someone else having a spot in the limelight.”

Marie snorted, “So when we get back I can count on you to downplay my own contributions to this whole crazy idea, right?”

“Of course.” Davis agreed, nodding. “I’ve got a book deal lined up now. It’s going to reveal everything, your rampant alcoholism and complete inability to handle the pressure making me have to take over, Maloney’s newfound belief in God in the face of the awesome spectacle he witnessed, and of course my own fearless confrontation of the alien Queen in a suit of powered armor.”

Despite the tension of the moment, Marie laughed.

“Shall we start calling you Warrant Officer Ripley then?” She joked, twisting slightly in the crash-couch to find another position in it that was slightly more comfortable. Creature comforts such as lumbar support seemed to be a novel idea to the designers. It wasn’t all that surprising, but it was frustrating, especially after hours of waiting for Maloney. At this point the only thing keeping her sane was speaking to Davis and the anticipation of finally leaving.

“Well I—“

“Last walkthrough is done.” Came Maloney’s voice in each of their ears, cutting of what Davis had been about to say. “I’m coming back up to the bridge and then we can go.”

Marie flexed her jaw in the right manner to activate her own radio, “Alright, Maloney.”

Marie chewed the radio off then swung her attention back to Davis and visibly sighed. “He sure took his time, didn’t he?”

Davis shrugged, turning back to the monitor at ‘his’ station and running his fingers over it. “He’s the man with the plan when it comes to those engines. I’m willing to wait for him. Death frightens me, I’ll give him however much time he needs to lower the chances of that thing exploding or turning us inside out or whatever it could do.”

Marie bobbed her head up and down in mild agreement. At this point the crazy setup blowing up underneath her seemed somewhat envious in comparison with all this damned waiting. But that was probably just her sore back talking.

Waving a hand in front of her to activate the screens, Marie idly flicked through a handful of readouts. Maloney’s travel up from the engines probably wouldn’t take long, but she’d have to do this before they left anyhow so might as well get it done now. Besides, Davis had become engrossed in his own screens doing the same thing and she needed something to take her mind off the uncomfortable seat.

Marie shook her head slightly as she grasped the thought. Here she was on the verge of such a massive step in human history and all she could think of was the heavens-be-cursed uncomfortable seat. Maybe that was what Columbus and Gagarin and Yeager had had on their minds before their steps into the unknown? All the minor crap they had to put up with? The captain’s quarters on the Santa Maria weren’t spacious enough, the boots of Gagarin’s suit didn’t have the right insoles, the X-1s headrest wasn’t tilted far enough back. All seemed possible in a humorous way.

Marie wondered if waiting for the beginning of their famous ventures had annoyed them as well. Or had they been more patient than her? More able to bear it? She doubted it. It somehow didn’t conform to her images of them. An explorer with patience seemed like a contradiction.

“You two can get to work now. My inspection was good.” Maloney muttered as he wandered into the bridge and took a seat opposite of Davis on Marie’s left. It wasn’t like he had much of a choice. It was either sit there or remain standing, and that wouldn’t be a great idea very soon now.

“My console says everything is secured. Davis?”

“Yep. Same here.”

“Well then, I guess we should tell the slowpokes back near Earth that we’re transitioning to the final stage.”

Davis nodded his agreement before manipulating the screen in front of him once again, then spoke.

“I-S-S Control—“ Davis paused for a moment, “—And all other traffic, be advised, H-S-X-one shall be underway shortly. Maintain distance.” Marie could almost hear the silent ‘hopefully this works.’ Davis’ facial expression added to the message.

That formality out of the way, Marie took a deep breath. The message wouldn’t even be heard by the commercial flight controllers until this had all panned out one way or another. In a way that was liberating, now she could be on with it. Get it over with. See how it turned out. Find out whether it would work or not. Relieve the tension in her back.

“Straps on everyone?” Marie asked as she checked the belts crossed over her own shoulders.

“Yep.”

“Good here.”

Marie nodded as she flicked to the proper screen and thumbed the appropriate button.

Her weight seemed to disappear into nothing. Marie reveled in the feeling for a moment, letting a stupid smile paint itself onto her face.

“Gravities at null. Davis?”

“I’m on it. Setting the field.”

The bridge descended into another brief silence, Maloney twisting as far as he could in his seat to try and look behind him while Davis manipulated things on his screen.

“The field isn’t changing.” Davis said with a modicum of panic in his voice. He stabbed at his console with fingers as if how hard he hit the buttons on it would determine how effective he was in solving the problem.

“Why not?” Marie prompted.

“I don’t know. It’s like the engine still thinks it’s…” Davis trailed off as he stared at his screen.

“Davis?”

“Nothing. I got it?” Davis tilted his head at his screen for a long moment then almost visibly put whatever was on his mind aside. “The field is dropping now. Just went through seventy Newtons…fifty…thirty…fifteen…and zero. Zero Newtons relative with a bubble of one kilometer.”

“What happened there?” Marie prompted, still curious about the man’s pause.

Davis shrugged. “Just took a little longer than I thought it would. I think.”

“You think?” Maloney chimed in from his seat.

“I don’t know. It ain’t like anyone’s ever done this before with your engines you know!” Davis quickly growled back. Maloney tilted his head in recognition of the point, though made no apology. That was just how the man was.

“Alright. Settle down boys. Is it holding at zero?”

“Yeah, it’s steady at zero with a variance of,” Davis swiped his hand quickly, “ten to the negative twelfth.”

“Well within my theoretical bounds. By three orders of magnitude even. Damn I am good.”

Marie’s lip twitched slightly in annoyance, but she kept her composure otherwise. “We stand in awe at your prowess Doctor Maloney. Now would you be so kind as to start this whole process? Davis, watch those field readings. If they start wandering let us know.”

“Don’t worry. They move and I’ll start screaming like a little girl.”

“My hero.” Marie deadpanned back, taking slight refuge in the exchange. Manipulating the gravity around the ship wasn’t the weirdest thing they were slated to do today, but it alone was dangerous enough. The original International Space Station could attest to that fact. Or, more accurately, it couldn’t. It couldn’t do much of anything anymore.

Marie occupied herself with checking, for what seemed the thousandth time, the status of the ship. Occasionally craning her neck to try and catch a glimpse of Maloney’s screen or setting her own console to give her the readings on the gravity field that Davis was supposed to be watching. Just to be safe.

“Shifting control to you, Miss Heidigger. Everything still checks out. I could do another manual inspection though.” Maloney began to rise.

“That is alright, Doctor. I trust your first three passes caught any nasty surprises.” Marie was quite certain the man had caught everything on the first pass, but wasn’t going to swell his ego even more than it was by mentioning that.

“I believe in this instance we can begin.” Marie manipulated her screen for a moment, granting permission for Maloney’s console to shunt its information to her. Now came her part in this wild and crazy scheme. As she compared the HSX-1s position to the maps the respective space agencies of a half-dozen countries had provided and her own previously calculated routes, she couldn’t help but hum lightly.

Marie picked one of the options she already had entered in and set about changing some of the values which didn’t quite match with their actual position. She was good, but there was always that damned error.

“…-ball that we rode was moving, but now we’ve got a new machine.”

“What’s that?”

Marie glanced up, “Oh, nothing. Talking to myself.” She admitted, quickly diving back in to her work before anything else could be made of the slip.

Leaning back a few minutes later, Marie licked her lips. “Returning engines to you doctor.” She said. Besides that, the bridge went entirely silent except for the occasional chirping of the monitor screens.

“Do you think any words are appropriate?” Davis half-joked.

“I do not know anything relevant.” Maloney said.

Marie held both her hands out palm-up, “Besides, we should probably wait until we return and we know it worked. It’d be rather embarrassing to say something grand and stirring only to end up dead.”

“Well, there’s an inspiring thought to go out on. Thanks Marie.”

Marie made one last quick check through the different readouts available to her, and once again spotted nothing out of the ordinary. Ordinary, of course, being rather loosely defined in this instance. It was time to get this over with. Find out one way or another, and alleviate the discomfort in her back either by death or arriving at their destination and being able to walk around the ship for a change.

“Davis, pass along the message. But do remember to leave out anything about us being worried over dying.”

Davis held a thumb up, “Of course. That would jeopardize the brave image I’m making for myself. No one would believe the book about me facing down the evil Alien Queen if I showed fear in the face of a little thing like breaking the laws of physics, now would they?”

Marie caught Maloney sighing and shaking his head out of the corner of her eye. He did not, however, bother to correct the man as he had numerous times prior over the inaccuracy of characterizing what they were doing as ‘breaking the laws of physics’.

“I-S-S control, all other traffic in the area, be advised, H-S-X-one is underway.” The brief message finished, Davis looked at Marie. It’d be almost ten minutes before their first message reached the ISS, this one would be another four on top of that. One way or another, everything would be done by the time the ISS knew they were even beginning. Of course, that had been why such a distant test location had been chosen, along with the other more practical safety concerns. But it still felt very final.

Marie nodded to Davis, then shifted her gaze to Maloney. He, in turn, nodded at her.

“Here we go.” Feeling as if it would be either extremely important or completely useless, Marie lowered a palm onto a rectangular box in one section of her screen that read ‘Activate’.

She seemed to be stuck in that position for an endless instant, her mind incapable of sorting out just what was occurring before her. The entire color spectrum seemed to dance before her eyes, like a rainbow folding in and over itself an infinite number of times. Something very much like white noise screamed in her ears, and she felt a slight pressure on her, as if she were lying down on concrete with every inch of her body.

Above it all though, was the tunnel at the center of the rainbows in her vision that the colors danced around. The tunnel that seemed to lead everywhere at once, but snaked its way back around to where it began eventually. Like the rainbows it underwent an endless cycle of folding in and over itself, but unlike the rainbows it didn’t seem to stop there. Instead, it branched off. The branches intertwining and peeling off, with their own rainbows surrounding them, with branches from them and rainbows around those, and branches around those, leading off to an infinity of branching tunnels. All from the same point, and yet connected at every point. They were stuck in one, but the others sat to the sides, waiting. They seemed to be beckoning with the same siren song of white-noise that Marie could hear now.

“Dear God. It’s beautiful.” Maloney’s words seemed to cut through the white noise for a moment, and then disappear.

“See, what did I tell ya’! Maloney’s gone and decided there might just be a God after all!” Davis said.

Marie could do nothing but stare as the tunnel they were in began to brighten. The light overpowered the other colors, and then disappeared to black.

Tried something very different for me. Lots of speaking, very little detailing. Not sure how I like it.

Haven't read it yet, but experimenting is a good way to grow as a writer, even if some experiments turn out better than others.

[Occupied Deutschland]

“I wonder if this is how Christopher Columbus felt before sailing to the new world.”

“Probably isn’t. He knew his boats weren’t going to sink.”

Marie Heidigger rolled her eyes at the tongue-in-cheek reminder. “Fine, then.” She muttered, letting a trace of faint annoyance into her voice. “I wonder if this is how Yuri Gagarin felt before lifting off into space.”

“That’s better,” Davis said, grinning. Then he continued, the grin widening. “But my innate anti-Russian sensibilities make me suggest Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier as a more fitting analogy. You know us Americans, can’t stand someone else having a spot in the limelight.”

Marie snorted, “So when we get back I can count on you to downplay my own contributions to this whole crazy idea, right?”

“Of course.” Davis agreed, nodding. “I’ve got a book deal lined up now. It’s going to reveal everything, your rampant alcoholism and complete inability to handle the pressure making me have to take over, Maloney’s newfound belief in God in the face of the awesome spectacle he witnessed, and of course my own fearless confrontation of the alien Queen in a suit of powered armor.”

Despite the tension of the moment, Marie laughed.

“Shall we start calling you Warrant Officer Ripley then?” She joked, twisting slightly in the crash-couch to find another position in it that was slightly more comfortable. Creature comforts such as lumbar support seemed to be a novel idea to the designers. It wasn’t all that surprising, but it was frustrating, especially after hours of waiting for Maloney. At this point the only thing keeping her sane was speaking to Davis and the anticipation of finally leaving.

“Well I—“

“Last walkthrough is done.” Came Maloney’s voice in each of their ears, cutting of what Davis had been about to say. “I’m coming back up to the bridge and then we can go.”

Marie flexed her jaw in the right manner to activate her own radio, “Alright, Maloney.”

Marie chewed the radio off then swung her attention back to Davis and visibly sighed. “He sure took his time, didn’t he?”

Davis shrugged, turning back to the monitor at ‘his’ station and running his fingers over it. “He’s the man with the plan when it comes to those engines. I’m willing to wait for him. Death frightens me, I’ll give him however much time he needs to lower the chances of that thing exploding or turning us inside out or whatever it could do.”

Marie bobbed her head up and down in mild agreement. At this point the crazy setup blowing up underneath her seemed somewhat envious in comparison with all this damned waiting. But that was probably just her sore back talking.

Waving a hand in front of her to activate the screens, Marie idly flicked through a handful of readouts. Maloney’s travel up from the engines probably wouldn’t take long, but she’d have to do this before they left anyhow so might as well get it done now. Besides, Davis had become engrossed in his own screens doing the same thing and she needed something to take her mind off the uncomfortable seat.

Marie shook her head slightly as she grasped the thought. Here she was on the verge of such a massive step in human history and all she could think of was the heavens-be-cursed uncomfortable seat. Maybe that was what Columbus and Gagarin and Yeager had had on their minds before their steps into the unknown? All the minor crap they had to put up with? The captain’s quarters on the Santa Maria weren’t spacious enough, the boots of Gagarin’s suit didn’t have the right insoles, the X-1s headrest wasn’t tilted far enough back. All seemed possible in a humorous way.

Marie wondered if waiting for the beginning of their famous ventures had annoyed them as well. Or had they been more patient than her? More able to bear it? She doubted it. It somehow didn’t conform to her images of them. An explorer with patience seemed like a contradiction.

“You two can get to work now. My inspection was good.” Maloney muttered as he wandered into the bridge and took a seat opposite of Davis on Marie’s left. It wasn’t like he had much of a choice. It was either sit there or remain standing, and that wouldn’t be a great idea very soon now.

“My console says everything is secured. Davis?”

“Yep. Same here.”

“Well then, I guess we should tell the slowpokes back near Earth that we’re transitioning to the final stage.”

Davis nodded his agreement before manipulating the screen in front of him once again, then spoke.

“I-S-S Control—“ Davis paused for a moment, “—And all other traffic, be advised, H-S-X-one shall be underway shortly. Maintain distance.” Marie could almost hear the silent ‘hopefully this works.’ Davis’ facial expression added to the message.

That formality out of the way, Marie took a deep breath. The message wouldn’t even be heard by the commercial flight controllers until this had all panned out one way or another. In a way that was liberating, now she could be on with it. Get it over with. See how it turned out. Find out whether it would work or not. Relieve the tension in her back.

“Straps on everyone?” Marie asked as she checked the belts crossed over her own shoulders.

“Yep.”

“Good here.”

Marie nodded as she flicked to the proper screen and thumbed the appropriate button.

Her weight seemed to disappear into nothing. Marie reveled in the feeling for a moment, letting a stupid smile paint itself onto her face.

“Gravities at null. Davis?”

“I’m on it. Setting the field.”

The bridge descended into another brief silence, Maloney twisting as far as he could in his seat to try and look behind him while Davis manipulated things on his screen.

“The field isn’t changing.” Davis said with a modicum of panic in his voice. He stabbed at his console with fingers as if how hard he hit the buttons on it would determine how effective he was in solving the problem.

“Why not?” Marie prompted.

“I don’t know. It’s like the engine still thinks it’s…” Davis trailed off as he stared at his screen.

“Davis?”

“Nothing. I got it?” Davis tilted his head at his screen for a long moment then almost visibly put whatever was on his mind aside. “The field is dropping now. Just went through seventy Newtons…fifty…thirty…fifteen…and zero. Zero Newtons relative with a bubble of one kilometer.”

“What happened there?” Marie prompted, still curious about the man’s pause.

Davis shrugged. “Just took a little longer than I thought it would. I think.”

“You think?” Maloney chimed in from his seat.

“I don’t know. It ain’t like anyone’s ever done this before with your engines you know!” Davis quickly growled back. Maloney tilted his head in recognition of the point, though made no apology. That was just how the man was.

“Alright. Settle down boys. Is it holding at zero?”

“Yeah, it’s steady at zero with a variance of,” Davis swiped his hand quickly, “ten to the negative twelfth.”

“Well within my theoretical bounds. By three orders of magnitude even. Damn I am good.”

Marie’s lip twitched slightly in annoyance, but she kept her composure otherwise. “We stand in awe at your prowess Doctor Maloney. Now would you be so kind as to start this whole process? Davis, watch those field readings. If they start wandering let us know.”

“Don’t worry. They move and I’ll start screaming like a little girl.”

“My hero.” Marie deadpanned back, taking slight refuge in the exchange. Manipulating the gravity around the ship wasn’t the weirdest thing they were slated to do today, but it alone was dangerous enough. The original International Space Station could attest to that fact. Or, more accurately, it couldn’t. It couldn’t do much of anything anymore.

Marie occupied herself with checking, for what seemed the thousandth time, the status of the ship. Occasionally craning her neck to try and catch a glimpse of Maloney’s screen or setting her own console to give her the readings on the gravity field that Davis was supposed to be watching. Just to be safe.

“Shifting control to you, Miss Heidigger. Everything still checks out. I could do another manual inspection though.” Maloney began to rise.

“That is alright, Doctor. I trust your first three passes caught any nasty surprises.” Marie was quite certain the man had caught everything on the first pass, but wasn’t going to swell his ego even more than it was by mentioning that.

“I believe in this instance we can begin.” Marie manipulated her screen for a moment, granting permission for Maloney’s console to shunt its information to her. Now came her part in this wild and crazy scheme. As she compared the HSX-1s position to the maps the respective space agencies of a half-dozen countries had provided and her own previously calculated routes, she couldn’t help but hum lightly.

Marie picked one of the options she already had entered in and set about changing some of the values which didn’t quite match with their actual position. She was good, but there was always that damned error.

“…-ball that we rode was moving, but now we’ve got a new machine.”

“What’s that?”

Marie glanced up, “Oh, nothing. Talking to myself.” She admitted, quickly diving back in to her work before anything else could be made of the slip.

Leaning back a few minutes later, Marie licked her lips. “Returning engines to you doctor.” She said. Besides that, the bridge went entirely silent except for the occasional chirping of the monitor screens.

“Do you think any words are appropriate?” Davis half-joked.

“I do not know anything relevant.” Maloney said.

Marie held both her hands out palm-up, “Besides, we should probably wait until we return and we know it worked. It’d be rather embarrassing to say something grand and stirring only to end up dead.”

“Well, there’s an inspiring thought to go out on. Thanks Marie.”

Marie made one last quick check through the different readouts available to her, and once again spotted nothing out of the ordinary. Ordinary, of course, being rather loosely defined in this instance. It was time to get this over with. Find out one way or another, and alleviate the discomfort in her back either by death or arriving at their destination and being able to walk around the ship for a change.

“Davis, pass along the message. But do remember to leave out anything about us being worried over dying.”

Davis held a thumb up, “Of course. That would jeopardize the brave image I’m making for myself. No one would believe the book about me facing down the evil Alien Queen if I showed fear in the face of a little thing like breaking the laws of physics, now would they?”

Marie caught Maloney sighing and shaking his head out of the corner of her eye. He did not, however, bother to correct the man as he had numerous times prior over the inaccuracy of characterizing what they were doing as ‘breaking the laws of physics’.

“I-S-S control, all other traffic in the area, be advised, H-S-X-one is underway.” The brief message finished, Davis looked at Marie. It’d be almost ten minutes before their first message reached the ISS, this one would be another four on top of that. One way or another, everything would be done by the time the ISS knew they were even beginning. Of course, that had been why such a distant test location had been chosen, along with the other more practical safety concerns. But it still felt very final.

Marie nodded to Davis, then shifted her gaze to Maloney. He, in turn, nodded at her.

“Here we go.” Feeling as if it would be either extremely important or completely useless, Marie lowered a palm onto a rectangular box in one section of her screen that read ‘Activate’.

She seemed to be stuck in that position for an endless instant, her mind incapable of sorting out just what was occurring before her. The entire color spectrum seemed to dance before her eyes, like a rainbow folding in and over itself an infinite number of times. Something very much like white noise screamed in her ears, and she felt a slight pressure on her, as if she were lying down on concrete with every inch of her body.

Above it all though, was the tunnel at the center of the rainbows in her vision that the colors danced around. The tunnel that seemed to lead everywhere at once, but snaked its way back around to where it began eventually. Like the rainbows it underwent an endless cycle of folding in and over itself, but unlike the rainbows it didn’t seem to stop there. Instead, it branched off. The branches intertwining and peeling off, with their own rainbows surrounding them, with branches from them and rainbows around those, and branches around those, leading off to an infinity of branching tunnels. All from the same point, and yet connected at every point. They were stuck in one, but the others sat to the sides, waiting. They seemed to be beckoning with the same siren song of white-noise that Marie could hear now.

“Dear God. It’s beautiful.” Maloney’s words seemed to cut through the white noise for a moment, and then disappear.

“See, what did I tell ya’! Maloney’s gone and decided there might just be a God after all!” Davis said.

Marie could do nothing but stare as the tunnel they were in began to brighten. The light overpowered the other colors, and then disappeared to black.

Tried something very different for me. Lots of speaking, very little detailing. Not sure how I like it.

Haven't read it yet, but experimenting is a good way to grow as a writer, even if some experiments turn out better than others.

Yes but my experiments have an odd tendency of ending up like Sherlock Holmes' experiments.

At the end of them there's a hole in my wall, I'm addicted to heroin and an innocent dog is dead.

[Nazi Flower Power]

Haven't read it yet, but experimenting is a good way to grow as a writer, even if some experiments turn out better than others.

Yes but my experiments have an odd tendency of ending up like Sherlock Holmes' experiments.

At the end of them there's a hole in my wall, I'm addicted to heroin and an innocent dog is dead.

That's unfortunate.

[Respubliko de Libereco]

Just a few more days until I get to find out how badly I lost.

[Jenrak]

Just a few more days until I get to find out how badly I lost.

I believe in you; if you don't believe in yourself, then believe in me who believes in you.

[Jamessonia]

I may write something up for this, I want to write more and I have a historical fiction idea.