Quantum leap. Twenty-four hour short story contest
Source
This my entry for @mctiller’s The 24-hour short story challenge
Mike was anxious in front of the controls of the experimental ship. He did not feel his weight as he was beyond the stratosphere. Through his communicator he received the last instructions from the command center on earth; the countdown was about to begin. His mind wandered, he had been chosen among 100 candidates. Finally, there were only two left to perform the test, but by some strange miracle, his counterpart decided to withdraw from the test.
"Ten, nine, eight ..." the countdown took him out of his reverie and took the controls of the ship in his hands. He glanced at the digital clock on the console
“07:59:53”
"Seven, six, five ..." It would be the first time in the history of humanity that a human being traveled at the speed of light.
The trip for him would last a couple of seconds in theory. However, for all others, a considerable time displacement could occur. What would mean a couple of seconds for Mike, would be a couple of months for a spectator off the ship.
"Three, two, one..."
Mike immediately pressed the ignition button.
What happened next only lasted a couple of seconds from his point of view. The entire cabin began to vibrate faster and faster and he saw in slow motion as the fuselage of the ship began to disintegrate with the vibration. Fortunately, the cabin had been reinforced with a highly resistant material, so it did not disintegrate during the period of the test. Mike's body began to vibrate at a high frequency and when he was about to lose consciousness, he was already in the hangar of the air base on the planet.
The fuselage was scrapped. Mike took a few seconds to come to his senses and looked again at the console clock.
“08:00:04”
He unbuckled his belt and opened the hatch in the cockpit. It was already night and he had no idea of the "real" time it represented at that moment.
When getting off the ship. An alarm sounded around the entire hangar and immediately the sirens of medical vehicles rang in the direction he was heading.
Mike removed his helmet and suddenly, it was daylight and he was in a desert, under the suffocating heat of the sun. A rocky environment with little vegetation, totally desolate. Had he lost his mind?
He still kept his helmet next to his hands. His body began to vibrate again and he lost his balance dropping his helmet, the sound of the helmet crashing on the ground brought him out of the trance and again he was in the hangar next to the aircraft. The medical staff had been petrified before him.
Mike lost consciousness and woke up in a room surrounded by sensors and other devices attached to his body. A familiar voice spoke from a communicator:
"Mike, I see you came back to you. You are inside a Van Allen radiation belt to counteract the effect you suffered during the test "
The scientist continued explaining what had happened to him, however, Mike could no longer hear what his friend was saying. Everything around him began to slow down. When he thought better of it, it was him who got faster.
"We lose him, doctor", was the last thing he heard in slow motion.
Again the scenario changed. Mike was in a ruined building. With each step he took, the scenery changed again. Not just the place, the weather, the temperature. Everything was transformed around him.
Until suddenly, he found himself in a totally white room, on a platform.
A man appeared at his side and grabbed his arms and placed a bracelet on him.
Everything began to normalize around him. Until finally he could hear what this man was saying.
The man, who in his opinion was a scientist, explained that he had traveled 500 years into the future, fortunately, since that allowed him to move forward enough so that technology could help him and stop his process of continuous unfolding over time.
Unfortunately, now none of the people he knew were alive …
He was confined to living in a world totally unknown to him.
Thanks for passing by!
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Hi jadams2k18,
Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.
Thank you very much
Good job! The story feels fresh, I like the idea of being many places and times. The last sentences are more traditional stuff. I understand 24 hour story is quite a challenge. But maybe at some point you could rewrite them into something spectacular, just as the rest of it.
Keep on creating!
There are many stories that I had created previously, which I decided not to deepen due to reasons of insecurity, but comments like yours inspire me to make this fact come true. Thanks for passing by
This is a beautiful work of fiction. I have not read a sci-fi novel before, but I love the idea that this one brings. I actually didn't want it to end. I was hopeful that it would continue. I guess this is just because of the contest limitations. You could give us a more comprehensive story later.
Well done @jadams2k18
You are right about the content length. It's not a bad idea to expand more the story later. Thanks for your kind words.
Its such a sad one for Mike, maybe his colleague knew of this side effect and that was why he backed out of it at the last minute? It such an incredible story, well, quite different from the "travel back in time" we usually do hear or read about.
It is always a danger for all pioneers. The courage of these people is enviable.
Yes yes, always a danger! I seriously don't wanna have that much courage...🤣🤣
Oh yeah!
Living in the unknown world!
This is exciting!
I like the story pretty much Adam!
I'd love to be in the unknown world, who would not?
Earth I guess to some is boring? lol
Anyways, time will tell when we die and the exciting after life will come, facing the unknown.
There are still many unknown things in this world! Thanks for your comment
Oh yeah!
You're very much welcome!
Even your profile photo is unknown to me man lol
Anyways, you're awesome and fantastic!
Oh yeah!
The ending is kinda sad, it's hard to live in a world no one knows you in.
This part:
I was thinking in present tense when I was writing that sentence, not past or gerund. But, it's a good point, I was tempted to use either
Oh, didn't know it was intentional
It wasn't intentional my dear @ahmadmanga
I think I like the idea of "We lose him" because according to this story, it could be the mother tongue interference of a non-english speaking national, like movies portray some Arabians, Spanians or Africans at times.
Oh, that's good too :)
Yes, English is not my native language.
Traveled to 500 years in the future! Well, no wonder none of those he knew still existed. It is actually surprising that he is still alive after all those years. That gave me the impression that his travel has an effect on his biological progress.
Very good fiction you have come up there! You must be very creative and imaginative to have completed such a story.
Do you really write stories outside of joining contests like this?
A few months ago I had written some stories, although they were not well received. But I decided to write again and I was surprised by the good reaction. Thanks for passing by
To be honest about the attention now, it is because you caught curie's attention thus the following mob. Keep writing good quality stuff and you might be catching more and more attention... 😊
Sci-fi is something that many of us love, because it is interesting and exciting to know what will be in future, we like to hope that everything will be better, the life, health and prosperity but we do not know. Therefore speculations could be done in both directions: good and bad I believe one will find people who will be interested in both genres. Like the way you describes the moment of time travel and the feeling of being now at the end alone among other new people.
I love sci-fi stories very much. It is through them that it gave rise to the technological advances of today, Star Trek in its beginnings already used devices that gave rise to cell phones and tablets. Don't you think?
It makes me think of a movie when some knight came from the past to the current world and he didn't know anything and anyone. I don't remember the name of the movie but eventually he got back. This is different for your character as I guess he can't go back.
I'm sure he thought at the beginning that it was very cool to be chosen from 100 people but now he is reconsidering and it's too late for him.
I can imagine that his is confused and maybe angry? I don't know for sure...
Are you planning to continue the story or is it just an entry to the contest and you will leave an open end?
I have enjoyed it and it would be nice to know what would happen next :)
Thank you for sharing!
Well Mike, like all the pioneers, from my point of view, are people with a lot of courage maybe even reckless, willing to face all kinds of situations. Think of the first astronauts, the first people who used a plane, the pilots of formula one, you have to be very brave or be crazy to go to more than 400 km/h.
I'm glad you enjoyed the story. I will consider writing more about it although I have other stories that I would like to expand, like Her secret and maybe introduce a cameo of Greg into this.