Elon's Mission (A 24 hr Short Story)

Elon sank back into the beauticians chair, the soft brush of fine bristles applying another layer of the pink fleshy skin coating he wore every day.

“And could you look up for me please sir?”

Elon obligingly raised his eyes to the ceiling, having his second set of eyelids pinned open for public appearances was always fairly uncomfortable, but Annette, fairly new at the job, was particularly thick fingered about it. He winced, as the tiny nano clip slipped the wrong way up a scale.

“Please try and keep still for painless application.”

Elon grunted in response, on the verge of pointing out that keeping still wasn’t going to improve her dexterity, but aware that Annette, only three months on the planet, hadn’t really picked up on the nuances of social etiquette yet. She would need a lot more work before he let her out in public.

It was with a pinging pinch she finally positioned the clips. Elon had observed the humans, their eyes secreting some form of soothing lubrication that seemed to directly ease pain, and although he had managed to create a ‘tack-on-tear-duct’, a real life saver for his fellow reptilians under cover, it only replicated the leaking. He wondered, as he felt another sharp stab, how much of these creatures would remain beyond his comprehension.

It didn’t matter now, he would have all the time in the world to study the data once he got back home. If he got back home.

The complex at Palo Alto may seem extensive, but the maze of tunnels and laboratories would fit in a single department of his pride and joy, Alteria Palentia, the moon of his home world, from which he had begun his expedition.

To study a sentient species, to live amongst them, was both an honour and a burden, but he had a mission, one that couldn’t fail. He had worn many faces, each painstakingly applied every morning, in the course of his time on earth, but he knew this would be the one they’d remember him as.

The problem, Elon had found, with the species self identifying as human, was their refusal to accept change. He had exasperated at length, on how on earth this species, so afraid of change, had ever evolved from the monkeys he’d checked in all those years ago.

He had to help them stop killing their planet, it was after all, one of the finest nature reserves in the galaxy.

He’d shown them alternative power sources, nearly entirely removed the need for particulate based pollution, even shown them the stars within reach, but they just weren’t interested. They’d come to the convention, and like the crowd already gathering outside, oo and ahh at all the right moments, then get back in their filth spewing vehicles, and each drive home in a corrosive convoy. If only they could be less selfish, if each one didn’t only think of themselves.

Elon felt a lump rising in his throat, aggravated by Annette’s fine bristle brush touching up the pale peachy skin with a final glaze of magnetic body hair. Once it clung to the metal particles mimicking pores, the ‘human’ effect would be complete.

A scurry of claws over marble interrupted the rising concerns already threatening to wrinkle his still-setting face.

“Erm, Sir,”

A wavering voice broke from the doorway.

“Sir, there has been a complication with the guest list?”

“Who is it? They all have to be here, we need every car manufacturing and petroleum dealer to witness this! They ignored my alternative power sources, competing instead of adapting. Dear Cthulhu, we could have had this planet fossil fuel free and got back home years ago if they could stop being so damn stubborn!!”

Elon was only drawing breath, but the PA, considerable more used to handling their great lizard leader than space-fresh Annette, swept in to a low bow, raising his tail to bring the coloured scales into alignment in an age old gesture of respect.

“With the greatest of apologies, for it is quite true you did think of everything, but there has been a somewhat unexpected development….”

Elon paused, allowing the assistant to finish.

“It is rather, not that a guest hasn’t turned up, for they all arrived in their corporate parades in time for the breakfast spread, which, i must once again say was a genius idea to incentivise prompt arrival.”

The impatience was already visible through the thick fleshy mask he worn.

“But rather, we have received word of an uninvited guest, that simply cannot be refused…”

Had they been a species of ant men, as opposed to reptilians, they may have been able to scurry around and quickly facilitate this change, however what on the surface, may seem like a minor change to the numbers, was wreaking havoc throughout the building.

Elon wafted Annette away, he knew instantly who had turned up.

“We must begin immediately, before that buffoon gets loose.”

Elon rose, striding to his personal elevator. It may be thirty minutes ahead of schedule, but he had given the order, so by the time he stepped out at the bottom of the shaft, he expected everything to be ready.

It was. Guests, still gripping their half eaten baps, others wiping pastry flakes from their mouths, were sat at the tables spotted across the company car park, flanked by a small horde of reporters, wired to their equipment.

Elon marched to the stage, he needed no introduction, no warm up act, they were here for him, and his time was too important to be wasted.

“Ladies, gents, titans of industry, I have invited you all here today to show you the future. Not the future of Tesla, not a car or design I hold the patent to, no, this is the future of our industry, and I have invited you here today to share that with you.”

A few heads glanced around, a loud line of blacked out limos with a full escort had entered the car park.

“For centuries, mankind has limped from a to b, we walked, we rode, we drove, and each cost us, not just in time and energy, but in resources. I have for you today, a fuelless car.”

By this point, the audience was getting quite distracted by the parade approaching the stage, the elongated, blacked out windows reflecting the small flags adorning each vehicle. Elon raised his voice, shouting into the microphone.

“This is not a car that rumbles loudly down roads, spewing out fumes, sittings on highways and intersections. I have developed, what we are calling the Tengine, an engine capable not of propelling a car through space, but of transporting it.”

The few faces still paying attention stared perplexed.

“That’s right folks, a car you do not drive from one place to another, but a drive that when turned on, takes you from one place to another.”

Still, his audience didn’t seem to be taking in the gravity of the news, instead standing up to get a better view of the approaching limo.

“If i could please direct your attention for a moment,”

Elon gestured to a large empty parking space alongside the stage.

“You will be the first members of the public to witness the Tengine in action, real life teleportation, in ten, nine, eight ...”

Well that got the attention of the group seated opposite the stage, they torn their gaze from to what had to be the presidential convoy, and stared expectantly at the spot marked ‘VIP - Reserved’.

“... seven, six, five…”

A single limo had broken from the pack, shedding the escort of bikes and four by fours, and was making its way towards the stage.

“... four, three …”

It began to indicate, the blinker flashing but no one was paying any attention, their eyes firmly locked on the empty parking space, until suddenly, their vision was obscured.

“... two…”

The limo was doing it, it was turning into the empty parking space, horror barely had time to whiten the faces of those who realised what was going on.

The entire parking space crackled with a blue light, dancing over the black limousine, spitting and sparking as it made contact with something that should not be there.

There was a dash of air pushing through the crowd, pulled through the opening flash, as a single object was propelled directly through spacetime.

A red sports car, last seen floating against a starscape, flashed into the limo, the crimson shining metal twisting and contorting with the black. Two objects, forcibly combined into one, bits of limo intersected sport cars. The passengers gargled cries were quickly muffled as they became mangled into the soft leather interior of Elon’s newly teleported car.

Screams filled the parking lot, assistants came rushing towards their respective CEOs, keen to whisk them away from the scene. Panic had possessed every news reporter there, their cameras going off in a seizure of clicks, each determined to each get the best shot of the carnage.

Twisted bits of metal, dripped blood over the tarmac.

Elon stood on the stage, waiting for the chaos to die down, things may have gone wrong on a level he hadn’t been able to anticipate… but he had both successfully demonstrated teleportation... and taken out a key opposer of the existence of climate change, maybe there was hope for the planet after all.

I had been very unwell for the past day or two, and thought i'd end up missing this one, eventually I wrote it in little spurts, so i hope it still comes together cohesively.

This is my entry to @mctiller's #twentyfourhourshortstory contest, there are still a few hours left on the clock so head over to the post to see all the rules and entries

Photo Credit by Pixabay User comfreak who has so many story perfect images I know i've used them before.

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Feel that in the wind? Adventure is a-calling in this play along story

Read the story, taking on the role of the main character and along the way, find the hints hidden in the episodes. Use the hints to find the secret episode, await the appearance of the mystery riddle, and solve it to win a grand prize, but that's not all the bounty to be won, there is a haul to be distributed between participants with the best comments along the way. So head over, follow the trail and leave your mark on the wall. I wonder how many of you will turn down any of the dark paths I had a hand in...