The Field of Reality

by Aditya Deshmukh

  “For the record,” Madden whispers. “I wouldn’t have done any of those things. Just a good swim.”

  “Yeah, a swim in radiation!” Omar rolls his eyes. “The point is our minds are fucked and like that lady said, we should not trust ourselves with the controls.”

  “Yes. That’s why I’m asking Savitri, an outsider. She didn’t have any control issues with the drone. So she is outside of the Reality Field.”

  “What if she isn’t? And something worse happens?”

  “Do you have a better idea?”

  Omar sighs. He and Madden continue sprinting toward the control room.

  “I’m ready, ma’am,” Savitri says.

  “Remember. Just a scratch.”

  Dozens of bullets are unleashed on the Mammoth. Madden and Omar cannot see anything from the passageway that feels more and more like a conduit. But their faces are up, eyes on the ceiling, ears wide open. The bullets make terrifying sounds as they penetrate the layers of steel, and ultimately hit the accelerator.

  Loose panels and beams of steel clank as they collapse. They make irritating sounds of friction that make Madden plug his ears. A heavy explosion sounds through his plugged ears. His eyes widen as he looks at Omar.

  “What was that? It came from the control room?” Madden says, his voice breaking.

  “Don’t know. Maybe it’s the accelerator’s auxiliary. In some safety measures, we blow up the power source in a controlled way to ensure total safety. You’re an engineer, you should know this.”

  Madden is in no state to verify this against his own experiences. He simply nods.

  The vibrations stop. The shuddering passageways relax. Lights vanish with gravity. The reactors turn cold.

  “We did it!” Savitri exclaims.

  “Really?” Madden says, a smile dawning on his face. “Wow, that was easy.”

  Omar grins. “Cap, we did it!”

  Cap doesn’t answer.

  “Cap?” Madden asks.

  “Cap, do you copy?” Savitri says. “No!”

  “What’s going on now?” Omar says, punching the steel in frustration.

  “The control room…it’s burning!” Savitri screams. “It’s where the explosion happened,” she says quietly. “To ensure no one can get the data,” she says, choking. “Maybe I fired too many rounds and it triggered some kind of a self-destruction switch.”

  “Is Cap alive?” Omar asks, grimly but with a strange calmness in his eyes.

  Madden sees through the facade. He is being the shield they wanted him to be. In truth, both are just as shattered.

  Savitri doesn’t answer. Omar closes his eyes.

  The dream bursts. Cap’s beautiful face gazing upon the sun on that summer beach suddenly catches fire. Her golden bikini turns into liquid gold.

  Madden joins his hands as tears emerge from his eyes and circle around him. Please. You cannot leave us, Cap. Please. Madden watches the opposite end of the passageway with hope.

  She floats out of the shadows, into the area lit by their headlamps. Her suit is covered in a layer of black soot. She is flying toward them, cradling a mangled arm near her chest. Her nose is bloody. A fine stream of oxygen is leaking through the spidery web of her cracked visor. Yet, her lips are curled into a brilliant smile.

  “Man up. I don’t allow crybabies on my ship.”

  The Godlith,

  At the Fringes of the Solar System

  MADDEN DOESN’T REMEMBER MUCH OF THE RETURN JOURNEY. He knows Savitri dug them an exit with a laser-equipped drone. Then they thrust toward the Godlith. He stares at Cap the entire time. Watching her fly in the beautiful black space, with the grace and confidence as if she owns the universe…it’s so surreal.

  As soon as they board the Godlith, Cap orders everyone to remove their suits in the airlock. They are not infected, but to a certain extent, everyone is a bit paranoid about the whole thing. Cap tosses the suits in an inert bag, which Savitri later attaches to the missile they launch on the Mammoth. They watch the blast with great satisfaction.

  The reactor is refueled and they are on their merry way to Pluto Belt.

  After a meeting no one is really enthusiastic about, Madden, Omar and Savitri are seated in the saloon, challenging each other to shots they obviously cannot take anymore. Savitri is a mess. She finishes her final shot, burps and calls it a day.

  “You look like shit, engineer,” Omar says.

  “No kidding.” Madden points to the three bottles of fine 200 year old Earthen whiskey they gulped down. Omar had won them as a bet back on Deimos Station and had been saving them for a perfect occasion.

  “Not that. I mean, you still look worried.” Omar rubs his back. “Yeah, the Mammoth did a number on us. But it’s nuked now. End of the story.” He smiles. Then his expressions mirror Madden’s. “You know what was going on with me down there? That ship…it looked exactly like the one my mom used to work at.”

  “Yeah, the realions. They read our mind, our thoughts, our fears and desires, and create a subjective reality.”

  “I get that. The scientist suicide theory, that made me think of mom. And the ship she died on, the one the Mammoth was warping into. For me. It’s my nightmare. What I don’t understand is how you also experienced the same reality when it’s supposed to be subjective. And how I also saw the beach when I’ve never ever gone to any in all my life.”

  “Weren’t you listening back in the meeting?”

  “Um, I had a couple of shots before the meeting actually. Just wanted to forget it all.” He shrugs as if this is no big deal. “I still want to. But I guess I can’t put it behind me until I understand perfectly.”

  “Okay. So, as Savitri said, the reality realions produce is unique for the individual. It is based on that individual’s thoughts. However, if the thought is too intense and the people in the vicinity are not exhibiting their own thoughts on the matter, the nearby people can also experience this reality. I saw that ring because it was all you could think about it. You wanted it to be found. You saw the beach because recently I really wanted to see it. You didn’t want the nightmare, but you did think about it so intensely that I saw it. Get it?”

  “Hmm.” Omar grabs the bottle. “All this talk makes me want to drink more.”

  Madden laughs. “Yeah, me too.”

  “So,” Omar says after taking a swig. “Was the other ring real? Did the steel really twist and turn into my nightmare? Or was all that just illusions?”

  “We will never know. You made me throw the ring.”

  “Yeah, I threw the one I had too. It was kind of instantaneous. Just wasn’t thinking I guess. But probably a good idea,” he said, scratching his nose. “Still, what do you think?”

  “Hmm, I want to say it’s just illusions. That way it sounds as harmless as drunken dreams we are about to have soon.” He smiles. “But who can really say? Whatever we feel, whatever we call reality, it’s nothing but a complex picture of signals made by the trillions of neurons in our mind. Click them in the right configuration, I’m eating an apple. Change some signals, I’m eating a pineapple. Or a pineapple is eating me.”

  “By the way, the pineapple is really eating us when we eat it. That’s why the tongue stings.”

  “Yeah, but you get my point? Reality and illusions…If you cannot tell one thing from the other, does it matter?”

  “Okay.” Omar stands up. “I guess I’ve had enough to drink. Both this wine and your philosophical crap.” Omar takes his last swig and walks toward the pressure door in a series of several missteps.

  Madden smiles, watching him. He feels like helping Omar, but as soon as he stands, his world also starts spinning. As he reaches the exit, Omar is slipping into Savitri’s cabin. Madden wonders if Savitri knew about the ring. Whether she would have liked to have it. Whether Omar can afford another. Well, at least she must know Omar is serious about her. He feels happy for them.

  Before retiring to his room, Madden decides to check on Cap. Like usual, she didn�
��t join them for the drinks. She also wouldn’t be in the medical bay. Madden really likes that about Cap. She is always so responsible and focused on their immediate future. She would probably be writing the report as they discussed in the meeting: how they got lucky and came across a destroyed ship with intact fuel storage. And how normal and perfectly well everything was.

  Madden climbs the ladder that leads to the control room. Cap is sprawled in her chair. A dazzling smile sits on her face. There is a sparkle in her eyes as she watches not the main screen, but the stars.

  Cap’s not working? Strange. Hmm, maybe she already finished the report.

  “Shouldn’t you be in the medical bay?” he asks.

  “All healed up.” Her gaze shifts to him. “Come here.”

  Madden approaches her with some hesitation. She reaches for his lips.

  “Cap, are you drunk?”

  Their eyes lock. Piercing blue eyes, luscious lips. She is irresistible.

  “Come here,” she whispers.

  Madden squints. “Cap, no.”

  As she bites her lips seductively, Madden cannot help but wonder if something is wrong. It’s as if when he prayed Cap to return, God brought back the sexy version of her he always dreamed of. He never knew why he dreamed about it. It was also kind of embarrassing. He did have a crush on her, but not just because of her beauty. Anyway, who knows how dreams work? But dreams surely don’t leak into reality like this.

  It’s as if she’s here because he…wanted her to be here.

  Cap unzips her white Martian uniform.

  The sight takes his breath away. A chill goes up his spine. It freezes his soul.

  Below the uniform is a golden bikini.

  Madden steps back. “This is not happening. No, this can’t be real!”

  Cap holds his hand. A soft touch. It is more real than anything Madden has ever felt.

  When something really scares Madden, his response is to not walk away, but confront it. “What are you?” He looks at her, eyes wide, face screwed up. “Are you real? Is this real?”

  Cap smiles. “If you cannot tell, does it matter?”

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ADITYA DESHMUKH IS A MECHANICAL engineering student from India who likes exploring the mechanics of writing as much as he likes tinkering with machines. His ultimate dream is to help erase environment problems (and perhaps also the people responsible for them) and become a cyborg (it’s either that and fight or be some robot freak’s pet). That’s what he usually says. But that’s not the whole story.

  He’s a devotee of the Great Void, the nothing from which everything emerged eons ago. Sometimes the Void speaks to him. It speaks of many things: grief and joy, love and hatred, hope and despair, life and death, civilizations of Earth and the worlds beyond human comprehension. He tries to erect these strange worlds from the bricks of words and cement of pure, wild consciousness. Come, be a part of his mad world. There are tacos and cats!

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  http://adityadeshmukh.com

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  OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR

  Opium Hearts: A Collection Of Poems

  http://mybook.to/opiumhearts

  Breath Of The Void

  https://books2read.com/BotVoid

  100 Words Of Void

  getbook.at/100wov

  (Coming Soon)

  Black Pyramid

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  FIRST OF ALL, I THANK YOU, DEAR READER, FOR SUPPORTING AN INDIE AUTHOR. This work wouldn’t mean much without you, its reader. I sincerely hope you enjoyed the story. I’m always open to constructive criticism. So if you want to contact me for anything at all, don’t hesitate—I don’t bite. Well, I do bite, but only when someone gets on my nerves. Readers don’t belong to this category; I worship them. (This doesn’t hold if you’re an alien. Then I’ll have to bite you to see if I get any superpowers.)

  Special thanks to Mr. David Green and Mr. Vishal Dixit for betareading The Field Of Reality. Their suggestions helped improve the story, and for that I’m always grateful.

  I thank my friends who always gave me their 100% support. You know who you are!

  Lastly, thank you to everyone who does something nice for others, like giving a helping hand, complimenting someone, or doing good for the society, animals and nature. Your contribution on the scale of the universe might seem insignificant, but have you heard of the Butterfly Effect? The big things are a result of something small. So keep doing what you’re doing. Keep reviving hope. Earth is a beautiful place because of people like you.

  More From

  The Great Void Books!

  Unreal: An Anthology Of Speculative Fiction

  http://getbook.at/unreal

  Black Veins: An Anthology Of Horror

  http://getbook.at/blackveins

  Blood Crown: Sword And Sorcery Stories

  Water Turns Red: An Anthology Of Crime Fiction

  http://adityadeshmukh.com/the-great-void/

  THANK YOU!

  THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING THE FIELD OF REALITY! If you liked it, please write a review or leave a rating on Amazon. I’m super excited to hear your thoughts. It will also help with sales; reviews have tremendous importance for indie authors like me.

  It would also mean a lot if you can recommend The Field Of Reality to your friends and family. FTL is great, but word of mouth travels at a whole different level.

  The Field Of Reality belongs to Allworld, my collection of stories that explore what kind of worlds would exist in future and the dynamics among these societies. Currently I have two series in Allworld: New World and Plastic Nightmare (The Field Of Reality is a standalone). Soon, two more series will be published. Some worlds are independent, while others will interact with each other in time. It’s an exciting universe that started forming in my mind ever since I began my writing journey. Finally it is mature and I am ready to share it with you! Please let me know if you’re enjoying your Allworld tour!

  Link for reviewing: getbook.at/thefieldofreality

  Again, thank you so much for picking up a copy of The Field Of Reality! No words can express my gratitude. If you like my writing and want to stay in touch, or just don’t want to miss my future writing projects and updates on Allworld including “Know Your World” blog posts, please sign up to my newsletter. Occasionally, there will also be freebies and some special events like cover reveals!

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  See you soon, on some other adventure!

  Wait, there’s more!

  PLASTIC NIGHTMARE

  It’s a beautiful world. Utopia is here.

  You control not only the lights in your room, but also the shade of sky. Illness and poverty are things of the past. Drugs of all sorts are available, so you’re in charge of how you feel.

  But even in mankind’s greatest dream, something must go wrong. No version of society can be perfect for us, for we are creatures of light and shadows, and shadows don’t stay hidden for long.

  Razia cannot believe her brother died in an accident; in Utopia, there are no accidents. She has spent five years in search of someone who may not be alive. But she doesn’t give up, because for the first time in a very long time, something even stranger than her brother’s disappearance has happened.

  An ominous figure called The Scarlet Killer has left a string of hauntingly beautiful artworks made of corpses in the heart of New World. Plastic Nightmares, who, at first, remain stationary, but soon start to walk. No amount of cameras, AI processing, and any kind of dreamlike Utopian technology can trace the Scarlet Killer. Not heeding to what her husband or her therapist say about her psychology, Razia makes the Scarlet Killer her new obsessio
n.

  There aren’t enough clues, but she knows someday it will lead her to her brother. Or her death. Whatever the outcome, it will break the loop that consumed her childhood and her future.

  http://getbook.at/plasticnightmare

  NEW WORLD

  “For the Martians, watching a dying Earth is entertainment. For Uru, their cruel game is her only hope for life—a dark adventure from an imagination that sees our world in its bleakest terms.”

  —Scot Noel, owner of DreamForge Magazine.

  Welcome to New World! This story belongs to Allworld, Aditya Deshmukh's collection of stories that explore future worlds and the dynamics between them. New World is a series of short stories set in a dystopian world, where human civilization has won Mars, but lost something in its pursuit of glory: humanity itself.

  Everything changed after the Shift. A small population found its heaven on Mars. The rest were left behind to rot on a decaying Earth. Gray sky, gray ocean. Everything was dying.

  However, a flower called Uru bloomed in this gray sickness.

  And she dared see a beautiful dream of escape.

  http://getbook.at/newworld