“The helicopter is waiting for you. I wish you all the best.”
When he shook my hand my hand was shaking due to fear. I visualized the alien animal in my mind over and over, each time it became bigger and scarier, more fangs, more poisonous, more deadly.
I walked directly to the helipad. There was no time to update Facebook. This was the worst day of my life. I scolded myself. Why did I choose this job? The chief hadn't sent me to the moon like I'd wished, instead he decided to send me directly to hell. I still wanted to cry.
“You're the man for the job,” said Ben. “That's why I recommended you to the chief.”
I didn't reply. I only cursed him underneath my breath. After a couple hours of flying, I relaxed a bit. Helicopter travel wasn't the most comfortable thing I'd ever done but it would probably be better than facing an alien animal. I took some photos that I would put in Facebook when I got back. If I got back. We landed in the forest near a few tents. An army captain and other officers welcomed me. Based on their behavior, I could tell that they thought I was a great scientist.
“Steve is it?” asked the captain. “Your chief told us that you're the most brave man they've got there. And also an expert in alien research. I didn't even know they had a guy for that!”
He couldn't have been more wrong about me. I was speechless and just smiled.
“We found the area. You're in charge of the group and you are the authority, sir.”
Those 15 army officers saluted me. I felt safe because they were with me but my mind told me to be careful. The alien animal probably wasn't small. Why else would they send fifteen army soldiers to fight it and capture it? It had to be big. I was certain that my chief had planned for me to die during this operation. One of the officers interrupted my thoughts and suggested that we got going.
We climbed in a vehicle with a covered roof. After about an hour, the vehicle stopped at the end of the road.
“Sir, from here we go by foot. We can split in three teams and go in three different directions,” said one of the officer's whose name I hadn't caught.
I was shocked by the idea to split up. If we split up we'd have only five people on each team. I might easily be killed by an alien. If we kept all fifteen together my chance of survival would be much higher. I knew what happened in the movies when people split up.
“What's your name?” I asked.
“Lieutenant Johnson, sir.”
“Well Lieutenant Johnson, I am in charge here. I have the command and we're not splitting up.”
Every officer looked surprised and looked at me questioningly.
“How can we catch it if we're all together?” asked Lieutenant Johnson.
I was speechless for a while. I had to come up with a way to show them that I was brave. Suddenly I had an idea.
“We cannot split the team up into three groups because I need to be there when we catch the animal. I can only be in one team.”
“Sir, where do we go? If we go in only one direction we're likely to never catch it. We'll probably never even see it without splitting up.”
“We will wait here,” I said not showing my fear. “We will send one person in each direction and if they find it they will communicate it back. Then you all... sorry... we all will go there and catch it.”
“Sir, even though we're army officers, I don't think we're quite as brave as you are,” said Lieutenant Johnson.
“What?” I said, shocked and thought of running to the base.
“No, chief. What I mean is that instead of sending one person per direction we should send two for safety purposes.”
I was afraid because that would mean there were only nine officers with me. I told myself that if there was any problem the vehicle was here and we could escape.
After two hours there was no news from any of the three teams. Evening was falling. And the work day had ended about an hour ago. But the army didn't keep to office time. But I was. I was going to make damn sure I got overtime for this. I might even write a letter so if I died I better still get paid. 6 pm. Here was dark, too dark. I went over to Lieutenant Johnson and asked if there was any message yet. They still hadn't come across anything.
I was starting to think of going home. Today there was a football game that I needed to see. I certainly wasn't going to see it out here in the middle of the woods. I decided we'd wait for thirty more minutes and if they hadn't found anything we'd go back and restart the search again tomorrow. I prayed to god that the animal wouldn't be found. I prayed for god to save me, but we got the message that one team had spotted it. It was larger than a tiger, but asleep at the moment thankfully.
Once I heard that it was bigger than a tiger I almost passed out. I didn't walk, I ran over to the army vehicle and took a deep breath.
“Alright, let’s get in the vehicle and move.”
The officers stood there not moving.
“Chief, we're going to have to walk there.”
I finally got what was going on. I had to catch it myself. Maybe I was the bait or the distraction. Maybe that was all I was good for. We headed in the direction that the animal had been spotted in. I walked safely behind the officers. After thirty minutes of walking we came upon two of the officers we had sent out in search. They gave the signal so our people secured the perimeter. I didn't see the animal because it was too dark. I walked up to the two officers and stepped onto a rock.
“Where is it?”
“Chief, you're too brave!...”
“Yes, I know that but where is it?” I interrupted.
“You're standing right on it!”
I was shocked and I froze. What I thought was the rock was the animal. My legs realized that the rock was moving. Everyone pointed their gun at it.
“What do we do?” There were two possibilities. Either the animal was going to kill me and eat me or the army was about to riddle me full of bullets. I was silent. I heard a sound from the animal. I had disturbed its sleep. I cried out loudly but they misunderstood and took it for an instruction to open fire. I closed my eyes and sent up a prayer.
A sharp pain traveled through my leg. Oh my god, the animal has bitten me! I didn't know what was going on. Gun shots echoed all around me. The animal made terrible sounds. I lost consciousness.
I woke up. I don't know how long I was unconscious for. My army officers were there and I was in a cot. I checked my leg but didn't find any wound. My legs are fine. God saved me!
“We captured the animal. Sorry, chief. During the encounter one of the officers shot you in the leg with the tranquilizer gun. You were passed out for a while. You should be alright though.”
In my mind I thanked the person who had shot me otherwise I might have died from fright. I couldn't tell any of them that though.
“Do you want to inspect the animal now, sir? It's sleeping again.”
I looked around me and didn't find any rock. Last time I thought the animal was a rock.
“Where is it?” I asked, hesitantly.
“It's in the box right below you.”
I suddenly jumped down and saw that I could see inside. It was asleep.
“You idiots! Why would you place me on top of the animal's box?” I shouted.
“Chief, you are brave so you do not fear this animal. We had no cot since we were in the forest so we put you to sleep on top of the box.”
“I don't know the meaning of the word fear. Hell, I don't even know how to spell it,” I said after a moment. “I was thinking about the animal's safety. If you hadn't shot it I would have arrested it myself!”
They said that I should touch it and see that it was alright. Everyone else had touched the animal they told me. But I was afraid to touch it so I told them that I had already stood on it earlier. I had to produce this sleep animal to my boss and propose that he gave me an increase in salary and a promotion as well. We met the army captain and he wished well. They sent me back with the animal in the helicopter. I didn't touch the box then either.
After we reached the research station people congratulated me as a hero. There were no army officers there to take the glory from me. I knew the animal was asleep and that it was inside the box so I projected out how brave I was. I moved the box just like my luggage trolley and warned people to stay away. I even bypassed security. Everyone knew I was the hero. I took the box to the lab.
“Is this the alien?” asked the doctor after seeing the box.
“I risked my life to catch it. It had better be the alien.”
“You touched it to make sure, right?”
“Yes, of course I did. What kind of question is that?”
He asked me to touch it again, but I simply walked away.
It was midnight and I went to my cabin to check the Facebook updates and count the likes on my useless shares. This morning I posted “I don't like seafood.” 39 people liked that. I have no idea what the likes even mean.
The doctor and the chief came to my cabin. The chief's face seemed to be scared. I needed him to be proud of me. I had done a good job. I put on my best smile.
“You idiot! I sent you with the army guys because you know about aliens,” he shouted. “They don't know anything about aliens. You didn't catch an alien animal, you brought a robot back to our base. It was designed by our enemies to find our research station. Had you touched it you would have known that it wasn't an alien!”
”So what happens now?” I asked
“Just now we deactivated the robot,” he replied angrily. “Go and look at it.”
“One question, chief,” I said as I stepped into the lab. “It won't bite, will it?”
“I should punish you, you know?” he shouted out of control. “Instead of sending any dogs or monkeys to another planet for testing, I think I'm going to send you there.”
“Thank you, chief. It's always been my ambition. I've been waiting for this opportunity.”
“Wow. You're not the idiot. I'm the idiot.”
Note:
The enemy country fabricated the story about the alien and leads the research station on a wild goose chase. The target country believed they were searching for an alien. The enemy had planted the robot there that was so bravely captured by our comedy hero.
3. Half-Invention
Date: 18-Dec-2013
My name is Robert. So far I've submitted five research papers. I have gotten grants from research funds to meet my expenses. I am currently working on my sixth research paper. I've spent over a hundred thousand hours on my latest research. Yes, actually a hundred thousand. But my research is still only halfway completed. I'll have to at least as much time as I've already spent to complete it. But before I do that, I'm going to test my invention. It might only be half done, but I've already spent so much time. I can't wait longer. My invention is the time machine. But as I said it's only half an invention. So far it's only able to travel to the future and cannot go back to the past.
Scientists believe in their research and dedicate their life to their work. But they're not ready to perform an experiment on themselves. And neither am I.
I am going to test my time machine with a rat. But I need to know if the rat reaches the future safely. How you ask? I invented a device that is based on the theory of relativity. It's about to communicate from anywhere in any time. It doesn't matter if it's sending a message to the past or the future or what. I attached the device to the rat so I could listen to the sound and see its body temperature.
My time machine is not ostentatious. It simply looks like a big box. I placed the rat inside the time machine, closed the doors and set the year to 2200 with today's date, December 18th. It took a few seconds for the rat to disappear, but when I opened the time machine to check, it was empty.
Even though I had already tested my invention with inanimate objects such as books and dust bins this was the first time I was testing with something that was alive. I put on the headphones and listened carefully. I heard the mild sound of a rat moving around. The temperature reading was normal. I was excited and loudly sang a song of joy as I sipped my black coffee.
After I finished my coffee I checked the temperature and tried listening again. I got nothing. No sound, no temperature reading. I was surprised. What had happened? I waited for more than an hour but nothing ever changed. I couldn't wait to invent a relativity camera to watch what was transpiring in the future so I decided to send the most intelligent monkey I could find.
I attached the device to the monkey's neck carefully and gave him an air horn. I took the air horn and pressed it. The monkey pressed it as well and liked the sound. He kept pressing it over and over. Of course I kept the time machine's remote control because although he was smart, he wasn't that smart!
I placed the monkey inside the time machine. He was still making noise with the air horn and enjoying himself. I set the same date and time for the machine. In a few seconds the monkey was gone. I wore the headphones and could hear the horrible air horn sound. I reduced the volume and checked the temperature which turned out to be fine. I monitored him continuously.
After two hours I put the headphones back on and checked to see if it was still there. The same air horn sound came out of the headphones but now I could hear some people's voices as well. I tried to listen but the air horn kept disturbing the voices.
I finally heard, “How did this damn monkey get this damn horn?”
I was super excited. A voice from the future. Unfortunately I couldn't hear anything other than the damn air horn noise. So now I was going to do the thing that scientists never do. Yes, I was going to test my half invention on myself. I couldn't control myself after having heard the voices from the future. I was going to travel through time. I didn't require the relativity device but I took the relativity remote to control the time machine.
I set the same time and date once again and entered into the time machine. I stood there only a moment before it started.
I closed my eyes. A loud noise started so I covered my ears with my hands. Suddenly I felt like I was flying at the speed of light in the dark. Then everything was quiet. I felt again like I was on the earth.
I opened my eyes and looked around. I could see ultra-modern building, flying cars, and there were a lot of robots. The robots were cleaning the roads, taking pets for walks and there were a few cars in the road but they were all driverless cars. I started to get excited. Yes, it seems to be 2200. No one even gave me a second glance. I started to walk down the street and wonder what else I could find here in the future.
I saw a few people and kids standing near a tree and looking at it so I walked over there. And then I saw it. My monkey was still there making noise with the air horn. I was so proud of my invention. I didn't want to stand there too long otherwise the monkey might see me and walk over to me. I covered my face so he couldn't see me and began to walk down the road. By chance I noticed that the relativity device which I had tied onto the rat was on the ground. Now I understood why there had been no updates. The rat had gotten free of the device and someone had trampled on it, breaking it. I picked it up and put it in my pocket.
I walked for an hour and saw things I'd never even dreamed of. I saw a restaurant that I wanted to get a taste of and knew it contained the food of the future. But I didn't know the value of money here. My credit cards were long past their expiration date and they probably didn't even use paper currency here anymore. Regardless, I didn't bring my wallet so I bypassed the restaurant.
I walked for so long my legs got tired. I took tons of pictures with my cell phone. I decided to go back home. I knew I couldn't go back to before the 18th so I decided to go to the 19th of December 2013 , the future. I checked the number on the remote and it said “December 18, 2200.” Oh god. I couldn't go back to 2013 because now that was in the past. I could only go forward. My half of an invention left me half of the way. How could I have been so stupid? Now I understood why scientists never experimented on themselves.
4. 404
Year: 2200
&nbs
p; Mobile phones are a thing long forgotten. Instead, nano-chips are inserted into the ear and take their power directly from the human body. With your voice alone you can accept, reject and even make calls. You no longer have to worry about forgetting your phone at home or running out of battery in the middle of a call. Video calls and mobile applications use a holographic illusion that interacts with your body. There is not physical display. Every human being now has an IP address, ten digit phone numbers are a relic of the past. Computers, robots, all are mapped with human names similar to website domain names. And they're inexpensive. Only the poorest cannot afford multiple robots.
The holographic screen appeared and the computer let the station know they had an incoming call. The dispatcher answered the call after seeing the caller's photograph, name and address.
“Emergency services, how may I help you?”
A woman's face appeared on the screen. She looked sad and had obviously been crying for some time.
“Officer, my son is missing. I have no idea where he could have gone. Please help me find him.”
After scrolling through the woman's personal and family details, the officer came across a page with a family number named Stephen, a ten year old boy.
“This call is about your son, Stephen, then?”
“Yes, that's right. Today's a holiday for him so he went to play outside with his friends. I didn't think anything of it because sometimes he gets distracted and doesn't come home for lunch and eats with them or at one of his friends' houses. But now it's five o'clock. I've called his friends' parents and they say they haven't seen him.”
The officer tried reaching him from an adjacent screen. An error message popped up with error number 404 saying that the recipient was currently unreachable.
“Did he walk when he left to go see his friends?”
“No, he was riding his bicycle.”
“Alright. I will see what I can do. I will get back to you as soon as I have any information that I think will help.”
SFS2 - Science Fiction Short Stories: 10 Science Fiction Short Stories Page 2