Looking at the numerous flashing lights around him, Mr. Slavinois knew immediately that something was wrong. Not that it was the flashing of the lights that troubled him - they always did that. What he was worried about was the way they flickered, random and chaotically fast, not the mesmerizing order that had been the normal occurrence before. Of course it's not enough I work my tail off keeping this school in line, but now I have to go chasing after every little glitch in the new software.
As head of the technical support, however, he had no choice to investigate.
He headed off in the direction the flashing lights told him. The system was set up in a way where when something went wrong somewhere in the school, lights would flicker pointing in the direction of the general area. It made it easy to pinpoint the problem. It also made a person want to go into seizures and go crazy watching them on the way.
As he walked the engineering corridors, he thought to himself, Why am I even here? There are a million other jobs that need my expertise, all of which pay better than the miserly salary this stupid school supplies me with. What am I -
His train of thought was cut short as he nearly collapsed with shock - he had reached the maintenance room where the problem had originated. The door was a solid steel two foot thick vault door. The label at the top read, "Dimensional Quantogenics: Storage". No...
He ran back down the corridor in the direction of the Principal's office as fast as he could. There was only one thing that could trigger an alarm in the quantogenics lab. Something had caused a dimensional flux, and now a gateway to another world was opened. This could be either the greatest thing to have happened in the history of mankind. Or, possibly, the worst.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Amorak
Sunlight streamed in through the window of the little shack, waking the young man sleeping on the grass bed he had made for himself so long ago. His eyes, bleary with sleep, opened slowly. Yawning and streaching, he rolled out of bed and stood up. Lethargicaly, he pulled his clothes from the wall where the hung and dressed himself in his work attire. His pants, brown with dirt and worn through in places, was all he ever put on. He lived by himself, and as far as he knew, was the only person alive in the world. Leaving his shack, he walked to the lake's edge and proceeded to wade in the salty water until it came up to his sholders. Pushing off the ground and aiming for the island in the center of the vast lake, he began his daily swim. It took him only a short time to swim there, but today, something told him to take it slow. He was hungry, and couldn't wait to get to his crop he grew on the small island. Soon, he was walking up the side of his island and onto the dry earth. He had just stopped to dry off in the sun's warm rays when he saw something laying on the small patch of grass he harvested occasionally for his bed when it rotted. The grass was smashed flat, probably by the thing laying in it. Outraged, he stomped toward the tresspasser, not knowing exactly what he was going to do about it. All he knew was that something was there, and it had destroyed his property. And he was mad.
A Strange New World
Eventually, Elsteba's eyes focused enough to make out the surrounding area. It was, however, still far more dark than her liking. A faint light fell on the land, casting a silverish glow around her. She looked up toward the source of the light, and was delighted to see the stars the had imagined hanging in the sky. There was an odd light in the sky as well. It looked like an arc of dim, pale light. Thinking hard on the Ancient History class, she remembered the light was called the moon, and was worshiped by much of the world. _No wonder! It's so beautiful!_
Elsteba became aware of an odd, ambient-like noise coming from behind her. Turning around, she saw a vast pool of what seemed to be a liquid of some sort. Approaching the edge, she dipped her finger in cautiously. Seeing that no harm came to her from this, she raised her finger to her mouth, hoping the liquid was drinkable. Until now, she hadn't realized how thirsty and hungry she was. A single drop fell from her finger and landed in her mouth. "EWWWWWW!" She shouted. The liquid tasted heavily of salt, which did no good to her parched throat.
Quickly, she scurried back to her landing place and sat, thinking about what had just happened, and fell asleep on the soft earth.
She had dreams of Ancient Earth, and of strange worlds with three moons, liquid mercury lakes, and of her family who she was sure she would never see again.
Elsteba became aware of an odd, ambient-like noise coming from behind her. Turning around, she saw a vast pool of what seemed to be a liquid of some sort. Approaching the edge, she dipped her finger in cautiously. Seeing that no harm came to her from this, she raised her finger to her mouth, hoping the liquid was drinkable. Until now, she hadn't realized how thirsty and hungry she was. A single drop fell from her finger and landed in her mouth. "EWWWWWW!" She shouted. The liquid tasted heavily of salt, which did no good to her parched throat.
Quickly, she scurried back to her landing place and sat, thinking about what had just happened, and fell asleep on the soft earth.
She had dreams of Ancient Earth, and of strange worlds with three moons, liquid mercury lakes, and of her family who she was sure she would never see again.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Where?...And When?
When she regained consciousness, the first thing she discovered was she was laying on a solid surface. This thought alone made her sigh with relief. I'm not falling anymore...
Then she realized it was not like any surface she had ever witnessed before. It was not smooth and cold, like the steel and chrome that had covered most of everything before, but instead was loose and gritty, almost like dry bread, but harder. Much harder. And yet, it was not uncomfortable. It had a certain measure of comfort attached to it that made it almost an enjoyable experience.
She opened her eyes. The surface was dark and mottled and indeed loose - she could pick it up and let it run through her fingers like the sand she used to play with when she was still young enough to play in the primitive sand boxes. She would have been completely confused with the substance if it hadn't reminded her of one of the few times she had paid attention during Ancient History class:
"Back when the world was young, before the Great Birth of Technology, it was covered in strange and primitive functions of life, commonly known as nature. It included such things as plants and animals, the common flora and fauna of your fairy tales which you read in your English classes. Of course, during the Great birth, these were all done away with, such ancient and primitive things, and new more efficient ways were created to continue the Earth's natural processes. The most basic and beneficial change was, of course, the conversion from 'soil'.
"Soil was a dirty loose surface which once covered the whole globe. You couldn't go anywhere on Earth without encountering some of it. It caused many problems, such as being subject to violent upheaval every time it sank beneath the Earth's crust violently, causing earthquakes and the like. That is, now, a thing of the much less recent past. It was replaced with our chrome paneling, which was more easily manufactured, maintained, and altered."
So that was what she was now resting on. Soil. Bizarre, but it doesn't seem to be the dirty annoying substance everyone says it is...
Then she realized it was not like any surface she had ever witnessed before. It was not smooth and cold, like the steel and chrome that had covered most of everything before, but instead was loose and gritty, almost like dry bread, but harder. Much harder. And yet, it was not uncomfortable. It had a certain measure of comfort attached to it that made it almost an enjoyable experience.
She opened her eyes. The surface was dark and mottled and indeed loose - she could pick it up and let it run through her fingers like the sand she used to play with when she was still young enough to play in the primitive sand boxes. She would have been completely confused with the substance if it hadn't reminded her of one of the few times she had paid attention during Ancient History class:
"Back when the world was young, before the Great Birth of Technology, it was covered in strange and primitive functions of life, commonly known as nature. It included such things as plants and animals, the common flora and fauna of your fairy tales which you read in your English classes. Of course, during the Great birth, these were all done away with, such ancient and primitive things, and new more efficient ways were created to continue the Earth's natural processes. The most basic and beneficial change was, of course, the conversion from 'soil'.
"Soil was a dirty loose surface which once covered the whole globe. You couldn't go anywhere on Earth without encountering some of it. It caused many problems, such as being subject to violent upheaval every time it sank beneath the Earth's crust violently, causing earthquakes and the like. That is, now, a thing of the much less recent past. It was replaced with our chrome paneling, which was more easily manufactured, maintained, and altered."
So that was what she was now resting on. Soil. Bizarre, but it doesn't seem to be the dirty annoying substance everyone says it is...
Thursday, September 4, 2008
The Gateway
She had no idea how long she had been falling. Time, even on her watch, had stopped. As soon as the light from the tube had been lost in the darkness, she gave up hope of ever returning to her world. All she cared for was light and companionship. She was stuck, exiled in oblivion. Nothing she knew could do any good here. She wasn't even sure if she was still falling! She could not see, smell, hear, taste or feel anything. This left time for only one thing: Thoughts. At first, all she could think about what how she would never see her friends again, or how her family would worry. Now, she occupied herself with remembering the fun times she had over the years. She found that if she could do nothing else, she might as well try to be positive. It didn't take long before she gave up on thinking and decided to use her imagination.
Elsteba had heard that imagination was the tool of the future from old, cheezy movies like Barney and Mr. Rodger's Neighborhood, but she had never tried to use it before. For the tool of the future, it's odd that no one here knows what it is. She imagined stars in the sky. She had once heard of stars. They had been visible before the great astrodome was built. She had been told that they were beautiful pinpricks of light that dotted the skies when darkness came. She had no trouble seeing darkness, but when she opened her eyes, she was amazed to find herself surrounded by billions and billions of pinpricks of light. At least I can see now. Reaching out a hand, Elsteba touched one of the pinpricks. As suddenly as they had appeared, all the stars dissapeared, swallowed up by the darkness once more. Only one remained; the one she had touched. She looked around in sadness at the void, wishing she still had the light of all the stars. She turned to face the solitary point of light, but it, too, was vanishing. In desperation, Elsteba reached out to catch the star before it died out completely, but this simple action seemed to cast the void into chaos.
Elsteba was surrounded in intense light, causing her eyes to burn and her head to throb in pain. A high-pitched ring ripped through the void, and Elsteba passed out.
Elsteba had heard that imagination was the tool of the future from old, cheezy movies like Barney and Mr. Rodger's Neighborhood, but she had never tried to use it before. For the tool of the future, it's odd that no one here knows what it is. She imagined stars in the sky. She had once heard of stars. They had been visible before the great astrodome was built. She had been told that they were beautiful pinpricks of light that dotted the skies when darkness came. She had no trouble seeing darkness, but when she opened her eyes, she was amazed to find herself surrounded by billions and billions of pinpricks of light. At least I can see now. Reaching out a hand, Elsteba touched one of the pinpricks. As suddenly as they had appeared, all the stars dissapeared, swallowed up by the darkness once more. Only one remained; the one she had touched. She looked around in sadness at the void, wishing she still had the light of all the stars. She turned to face the solitary point of light, but it, too, was vanishing. In desperation, Elsteba reached out to catch the star before it died out completely, but this simple action seemed to cast the void into chaos.
Elsteba was surrounded in intense light, causing her eyes to burn and her head to throb in pain. A high-pitched ring ripped through the void, and Elsteba passed out.
Exile
Elsteba leaned against the frozen wall, scanning her memory for the procedures of escaping a frozen space-time tube. As far as she knew, it was impossible to have this happen in the first place, but here it was. Her first thoughts consisted of having a legitiment excuse for being absent from class, but she soon realized that if the tube didn't start moving her soon, she would be stuck forever between parallel dementions. Being locked in her locker for a prank was one thing. At least she had been audible. Now she was trapped between physical and unknown worlds. She pressed her face against the fogged glass in the hopes of seeing someone, or at least something that could help her.
Suddenly, Elsteba saw a flicker of light in the distance. It looked almost like a comet that was only visable for a moment before the darkness swallowed it. She pressed her hands to the glass to push out the light behind her and fell through the glass into the void. Screaming, but not hearing anything, Elsteba fell, gaining speed rapidly and unable to see anything but the cylinder that had been her temporary exile only a few seconds ago. At least there had been light in there, even if it was cramped.
Suddenly, Elsteba saw a flicker of light in the distance. It looked almost like a comet that was only visable for a moment before the darkness swallowed it. She pressed her hands to the glass to push out the light behind her and fell through the glass into the void. Screaming, but not hearing anything, Elsteba fell, gaining speed rapidly and unable to see anything but the cylinder that had been her temporary exile only a few seconds ago. At least there had been light in there, even if it was cramped.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Getting to Class...
With a smooth, sighing whirrr, the glass doors opened, and Elsteba entered the pure glass sphere known as the main transportation room. There were many glowing openings in the sides of the sphere, all color coded. The main desk floated like a balloon in the center of the sphere with thousands of courtesy hoverboards orbiting it. When summoned, these boards take off to assist the less-than-wealthy students travel to their next classes. Elsteba began scanning the sphere for a green portal, which would take her to her next class. Soon, here eyes fell on the portal and she zoomed through the opening and into the selection chamber. Green meant science, and Elsteba had biology. I hate that class...
First thing she noticed was the panel had been 'upgraded'. By this, it meant she did not have to select her destination as usual. She merely stepped it to the transparent cylindrical room and the computer did the rest. It programmed her path of travel and destination based on her school schedule. She had quickly realized that this new update was going to make it much harder to skip class or hang out with her friends at the library. Of COURSE the Board of Education would do this. Their goal this year was, after all, 100% attendance. I hate school...
-->A lot of students thought it was a dumb idea, but since when did the Board of Education ever listen to the lowly students? They only ever care about students if the parents start getting involved.
I punched my name into the terminal and stepped into the tube. Usually there is a line for the tubes because of everyone trying to get to class, but since I was late, most everybody was already in class. Score one for the tardy student.
I went off like a rocket, catching glimpses of other tube users every now and then. For the most part, though, I had my eyes closed. I had long since learned that it wasn't beneficial to classroom performance to be dizzy off of vertigo.
Eventually I stopped moving. I opened my eyes to see the tube completely fogged on the inside and frosted on the inside. When I touched the tube, it was freezing. Strange...
First thing she noticed was the panel had been 'upgraded'. By this, it meant she did not have to select her destination as usual. She merely stepped it to the transparent cylindrical room and the computer did the rest. It programmed her path of travel and destination based on her school schedule. She had quickly realized that this new update was going to make it much harder to skip class or hang out with her friends at the library. Of COURSE the Board of Education would do this. Their goal this year was, after all, 100% attendance. I hate school...
-->A lot of students thought it was a dumb idea, but since when did the Board of Education ever listen to the lowly students? They only ever care about students if the parents start getting involved.
I punched my name into the terminal and stepped into the tube. Usually there is a line for the tubes because of everyone trying to get to class, but since I was late, most everybody was already in class. Score one for the tardy student.
I went off like a rocket, catching glimpses of other tube users every now and then. For the most part, though, I had my eyes closed. I had long since learned that it wasn't beneficial to classroom performance to be dizzy off of vertigo.
Eventually I stopped moving. I opened my eyes to see the tube completely fogged on the inside and frosted on the inside. When I touched the tube, it was freezing. Strange...
Portal Problems
When she finally got to the school garage, her car hovered right into the exact space it always parked at - the very back. Many times she had tried to take over auto-pilot and steer her car manually into a closer space, but seeing as she had no idea how do drive a hovercar, she almost crashed everytime. Fortunatly for her, the car's computer safety system would take over before a catastrophe struck. Heaving another sigh, she sped her board as fast as the school regulations would allow, arriving at the class portals just in time to see the massive glass doors close, separating her from the portal-location room.
This happened to her often, but her heart still sank when it did. She sat down on her board and waited for the doors to reopen, allowing the tardy students through.
This happened to her often, but her heart still sank when it did. She sat down on her board and waited for the doors to reopen, allowing the tardy students through.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Late Morning - Early Beginning
Elsteba was running late, as usual. Early morning classes never seemed her type, and it always puzzled her as to why the High School desided to make the schedual start a whole hour earlier. If they were stressing the importance of attendance, shouldn't they be doing their part to make such an unreasonable goal come true? 6:00 is far to early for anyone to be up. Even the birds and insects knew when it was too early to wake and sing for the world.
Outside the horn on the hovercar was blasting sonic booms into her room. Such a noise could easily be heard for miles around, if it weren't for modern technological acheivements, such as the audiobeam. Why? Why does technology seem to be convinient for everyone but me? Elsteba quickly switched the clothes-former switch and was immediatly dressed in the new hottest styles to date. This outfit would be expencive, but so was the house, when it came down to it. The future is a place of boring monotony. Nothing ever changes here.
Looking in the walk-in mirror, Elsteba realized that her face still had the black markings of a self-washed mascara job, which was against school codes. Her futile efforts to be at least somewhat able to work had backfired many times. Once she had tried to dress herself and couldn't find where to wear the watch! It seemed obvious after the computer had done it, but that little clasp was not as easy as it seemed. Quickly, she walked through the mirror and out the other side. Her face was perfect instantaneously. Heaving a depressed sigh, she jumped on her hoverboard and flew out the door.
Outside she noticed that her hovercar, which had so 'conviniently' been programmed to drive off at exactly 5:50 to make the portal in time, had left. As usual. Putting her board on full speed, she eventually caught up with her car as it swerved crazily down the spacetime tunnels. So the reason school starts so early is because the careless programed cars can avoid accidents.
Outside the horn on the hovercar was blasting sonic booms into her room. Such a noise could easily be heard for miles around, if it weren't for modern technological acheivements, such as the audiobeam. Why? Why does technology seem to be convinient for everyone but me? Elsteba quickly switched the clothes-former switch and was immediatly dressed in the new hottest styles to date. This outfit would be expencive, but so was the house, when it came down to it. The future is a place of boring monotony. Nothing ever changes here.
Looking in the walk-in mirror, Elsteba realized that her face still had the black markings of a self-washed mascara job, which was against school codes. Her futile efforts to be at least somewhat able to work had backfired many times. Once she had tried to dress herself and couldn't find where to wear the watch! It seemed obvious after the computer had done it, but that little clasp was not as easy as it seemed. Quickly, she walked through the mirror and out the other side. Her face was perfect instantaneously. Heaving a depressed sigh, she jumped on her hoverboard and flew out the door.
Outside she noticed that her hovercar, which had so 'conviniently' been programmed to drive off at exactly 5:50 to make the portal in time, had left. As usual. Putting her board on full speed, she eventually caught up with her car as it swerved crazily down the spacetime tunnels. So the reason school starts so early is because the careless programed cars can avoid accidents.
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