(This time I combined the theme post with my writing prompt. Not sure if I like the result or not - I'll let you be the judge)
The air was calm. The
water was still. The insects in the surrounding jungle had stopped making a
sound. It was like everything had just stopped all at once. Jason looked around, mouth agape at the sudden
silence – the deafening cacophony of nature, which had been his constant
companion for the past two months, had never once abated. He took another step
into the clearing, and tentative sounds emerged once more. Each step towards
the obelisk in the center raised the decibel level, until by the twentieth step
the sound was back in full force. Vague discomfort faded, and Jason stood
examining the object in the center of the clearing.
It stood in the exact center of a perfect circle cut in the
vegetation. Vines, trees, and undergrowth abruptly gave way to waving Kentucky
bluegrass, itself an oddity in the rainforest. The obelisk stood in the center
of the tranquil sea, its alabaster body covered in complex carvings and
symbols. The flow of the symbols tugged at Jason, hinting at a meaning beyond
his grasp – a word on the tip of his tongue just begging to be heard. Jason
moved closer to the obelisk, examining the carvings. Smooth lines festooned the
surface, showing no evidence of tool work common among ancient relics in the
area. The sunlight reflecting off the surface was unbroken, marred by neither
crease nor gouge. The craftsmanship rivaled the greatest of modern fabrication
techniques, the perfection bespeaking exquisite care and skill on the part of
the craftsman.
Jason reached a tentative hand out to the object. His
fingers lightly brushed the surface before he jerked them back, shaking feeling
back into them. His arm hairs stood on end, static electricity coursing through
him as he reached forward again. This time, there was no shock – his fingers connected
solidly with the object. What appeared smooth at a glance felt pebbled as he
ran his finger down the side, exploring the texture. His wandering finger found
one of the designs – an odd spiral that folded back on itself three times. He
began to idly trace the design, his finger moving of its own volition along the
curves of the engraving.
The sounds surrounding him began to die out again, but this
time a low pervasive hum began to rise in their place. Jason’s eyes widened at
the change, but his finger continued to walk the curved path, increasing in
speed with the volume of the basso rumble. It came from everywhere at once,
shaking Jason’s bones, causing his teeth to chatter uncontrollably, but his
finger continued to push onward. His arms visibly shook with effort as he tried
to pull away, but he was unable to stop the progression.
At the halfway point in the design the hum became a
high-pitched whine. The ear-piercing shriek appeared out of nowhere, starting
as abruptly as the basso rumble had stopped. The greenery of the clearing faded
as his finger moved, occluded by a white glow originating from the obelisk
itself. The intensity grew as he moved down the spiral, becoming blinding while
still allowing perfect sight. The world faded into a white light, the obelisk
only making itself known through the pebbled texture under Jason’s finger.
Jason’s finger finished its traversal, and everything
stopped at once. All the jungle sounds, the whine, the light – all ceased to
exist. He blinked his eyes, seeing the obelisk as an after-image against his
eyelids in the green and purple of photo-negatives. He opened his eyes to look
around, but was met with only darkness. There was no breeze, no odors, no
light, no sound – the entire world had ceased to exist. Time dilated as Jason
stood in the nothingness. His finger hadn’t moved, but he could no longer feel
the obelisk. Minutes passed like seconds, and seconds passed like hours. With
no feedback, no frame of reference, an eternity whipped by in an eye blink.
A sudden buzzing caught Jason’s ear. There was a bright
flash, and then a rising glow. Bars of light, floating in empty space as they
increased in illumination, pierced the blackness. After a few moments details
appeared, the soft white light reflecting off matte gray as his surroundings
came into focus. Jason blinked a few times, clearing the afterimages as his
eyes adjusted to the new light. The obelisk was gone, as was the grass.
Unmarked gray lined the walls, floor, and ceiling of the room he found himself in,
broken only by the bars of light along the floor of the chamber.
Realizing he was still holding his finger out he snatched it
back to his side. He checked the finger, but saw no damage imparted by the
strange object. His breathing quickened as he looked around, all signs of the
world he knew gone. Jason moved about the room, running his fingers along the
unbroken walls, but the only variation in the perfect octagonal enclosure was
the light emerging from the floor.
“IDENTIFICATION.”
Jason jumped at the sudden sound. The voice came from
everywhere and nowhere, deafening, permeating his very being. He clapped hands
over his ears in shock, but the sound had left before he completed the
maneuver. The silence rang in his ears, stretching as no further information
came. Jason swallowed, and spoke to the room.
“Hello?”
His voice sounded tentative, the sound small in the
acoustically dead space. He waited for a response, but none came. He had just
opened his mouth to try again when the voice invaded his body once more.
“IDENTIFICATION INVALID. RESTATE.”
“I, uh, I don’t have any…” Jason’s voice trailed off as he
stumbled over the words. “Who… who are you?”
Once again the silence stretched out, and Jason stood
silently. After another pause, the booming voice returned.
“IDENTIFICATION INVALID. UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED.
ASSISTANCE REQUESTED. PLEASE STAND BY.”
The words hit him with a solid force, the meaning both plain
and confusing. Jason looked around at the walls, seeing neither speaker nor
microphone.
“Uh hey, what’s going on here?” His voice had a bit more
strength behind it, but the complete lack of ambient noise made it continue to
sound thin. “Where am I? Who are you?”
He waited expectantly, but no reply came. After several
minutes, he began to pace the room. He ran his hand along the gray walls, but
found nothing. Each edge of the octagon appeared to be six paces long. He bent
down to examine the light source, but could detect neither power connection nor
method of generation. He stood up and struck at the wall, balled fist bouncing
harmlessly off the hard material. He shook his hand and cursed, checking the
bones tenderly but finding no damage. After another moment, he returned to the
center of the room and sat down.
“Who are you?”
The voice startled Jason, and he turned around to look at
the source. A dark figure stood outlined in the center of one of the walls,
bathed from behind in bright light. The voice was feminine, but the shape could
have been anything – amorphous, columnar, indiscernible. Jason squinted, trying
to discern details.
The figure shifted slightly. “Can you understand me?”
Jason nodded. “Yes, I can.”
“Good.” The figure stepped into the room, revealing a
woman’s head over flowing purple and maroon robes. The robes obscured the
woman’s figure, the lack of lines and smooth complexion of her face bespeaking
youthful vigor. “Who are you?”
Jason stared at the woman. “I’m, uh, Jason MacIntyre.”
The woman frowned. “I don’t know of anyone by that name
authorized to use this facility.”
“Facility?”
The woman ignored his question. “How did you get here, Jason
MacIntyre?”
Jason shrugged. “I don’t know. I found this carved pillar in
a forest clearing, and now here I am.”
“Hmm.” The woman cocked her head, as though listening to
something, then abruptly focused on Jason again. “Please come with me, Jason
MacIntyre.”
“What? Where are we going?” The woman either ignored him or
didn’t hear him as she turned and stepped back into the light. After a moment’s
indecision, Jason got to his feet and followed her. She walked confidently down
the brightly-lit corridor, white and featureless walls glowing with a daytime
intensity. Jason caught up to the woman. “Excuse me, miss. Where are we?”
“All will be made clear soon enough, Jason MacIntyre.” The
woman’s voice lacked inflection and emotion, sounding as mechanical as an
electronic answering service. Jason shrugged and continued to follow the woman.
The hallway abruptly ended, leaving the pair standing in a
corner. As Jason opened his mouth to ask another question, the woman raised a
hand against the wall before them. A circle flashed green around the woman’s
hand and the wall simply faded, revealing a small room beyond. Along the far
wall was a man sitting at a desk, staring into space. The desk was made of some
featureless gray material, similar to the walls in the earlier octagonal room.
The woman gestured, and Jason stepped across the threshold. He turned to look
at the woman for instruction, but the wall had already reappeared behind him. Jason
stepped forward, putting a hand to the wall in wonder, feeling nothing but
solid material beneath his hands.
“It won’t work for you, at least not yet.” Jason turned to
look at the man behind the desk, who had lost his unfocused look as he eyed
Jason appraisingly. He indicated a small chair opposite the desk. “Please have
a seat, Mr. MacIntyre.”
Jason moved over to the chair, examining it suspiciously. He
reached out a hesitant hand, but felt nothing out of the ordinary. After a
moment’s hesitation, he sat down and looked at the man across the desk. “Who
are you?”
“You can call me Frank.” The man smiled. “And you are Jason
MacIntrye.” Jason nodded. “I bet you’re wondering what’s going on.”
“You could say that again.”
“Well, unfortunately I wish I could tell you that. Your
arrival has caused a lot of concern.”
“Arrival?” Jason looked confused.
Frank nodded. “The octagonal room – that’s our arrival area.
It’s been closed off for nearly twenty years. I’m guessing some technician
forgot to disconnect the power.”
Jason stared blankly. “Ok, wait. What’s going on here?”
“This is going to be a bit hard to take.” Frank sighed. “Mr.
MacIntyre, you’ve travelled approximately six hundred years into your future.”
“Wait. What?”
“The device you found was one of our early experiments in
time travel. By activating it, you activated a recall beam that pulled you from
your time into ours.”
“Time travel? Recall beam? All of that’s impossible!”
Frank chuckled. “I’m sure it seems that way to you, but I
assure you it is both possible and feasible.”
“But what about Einstein, and all that relativity stuff?”
“Ideas of science evolve, Mr. MacIntyre. A few thousand
years ago, people were convinced that Aristotle’s four elements were all that
composed the cosmos. Not all that long before your time, people were convinced
that it was bad blood that caused disease. Let’s just say our understanding of
physics has changed in the intervening time.”
Jason exhaled deeply. “Huh. So, six hundred years?”
Frank nodded. “Give or take.”
“Where am I, then?”
“You are in a small research facility near what you would
have known as Des Moines, Iowa.”
“Would have known? Was there some sort of massive war or
something?”
Frank chuckled. “Several, actually, but really we’ve simply
evolved past our need for physical delimiters of space.”
“Physical delimiters?”
“Locale designations, addresses, and so on. Those hold very
little meaning these days.”
“So how do you know where you are?”
Frank shrugged. “Call it something like GPS. With the advent
of quantum teleportation, we simply refer to everything by coordinates. It’s
easier and produces a more accurate description of location.”
Jason frowned. “Teleportation? Like Star Trek?”
“Star Trek?”
“Never mind.” Jason looked around at the room, then back at
Frank. “Seems kind of sparse. Does no one decorate in the future?”
Frank chuckled. “Oh we do. We just have different ways of
seeing it.”
“Different ways?”
“For lack of a better way to put it, every person has a
computer built into their brain that constantly affects what they see.”
“Computer built….”
Frank waved a hand. “Look, we could spend years talking
about the things you’ve missed. But in the end, right now we have two questions
to focus on.”
Jason cocked his head. “And those are?”
“How did you get here, and how in the hell will we ever get
you back.”
