I found it hidden in a secret compartment in an old building: a Jedi lightsaber. Who knew how long it had been there? Probably left by a Jedi with intentions to come back for it someday. When I pressed the switch a long green blade of light appeared, humming loudly. I wrapped it up in some rags and stowed it away in my pack, as I knew it must be worth something, though it took a long while before I found anyone willing to buy it. I eventually sold it for several thousand credits. I was so pleased. There was so much I could do now, maybe even travel off-world.
Then came the news the Empire was looking for a suspected Jedi. They had arrested the seller who had bought the lightsaber, and he told them they had got it from me. Not long after there were images of my face everywhere. I was now a fugitive. Everyone I encountered thought I was a Jedi and either wanted to help me or hand me over to the Imperial Forces to claim the reward. At first, it was sometimes hard to tell which. I could do nothing with the credits I had obtained, and now had to hide all the time in case the Empire found me. All because I found that lightsaber…
“You want to reopen the portal? Why?” Cally asked.
“You must understand I only want it opened for a brief period.” Mr. Williams explained. “It’s to find someone.”
“Who?”
“Well the reason why the attack on our world was thwarted, was that one person stopped them. They sent the invading force back through the portal and then closed it. They must have been incredibly powerful, more powerful than anything seen before. However, I also believe this person closed it while on the other side of the portal and trapped themselves there. I want the portal reopened so we can find them.” Mr. Williams said.
“But if that was years ago, wouldn’t they be dead by now? Surely if they were as powerful as you claim, they would have been able to reopen the portal by themselves and return here?” Cally wondered.
“I think something happened to them on the other side. I believe they are trapped in some sort of stasis field and are unable to return. That’s what my investigations have suggested.” Mr. Williams informed her.
“Surely we should be using our powers to make this world better, I mean, is it really so important for us to use our resources to bring someone back from another dimension when we could be doing something more constructive with it?” Cally suggested. “It also sounds like this could be extremely dangerous.”
“There is nothing more constructive we can do. My entire plan hinges on this. I need their power. After they thwarted this attack, they disappeared and then only a few years later the apocalypse happened. If they had been here, they could have stopped it. I want to bring them back and send them back in time, this is something the scientists at The Foundation have been calculating for me. They assure me it can work. Using their own power we can send this person back in time and they can prevent the apocalypse from occurring, meaning none of us will have to live through this wretched timeline of a dying world anymore.” Mr. Williams told her. Cally felt dumbfounded. Did he really mean to do this? It sounded crazy. He sounded crazy. “Don’t you understand? This is the only way we can survive.”
“You mean all this talk about using The Foundation to begin again and rebuild civilisation and the world was all just bullshit?”
“Well, it is the spiel I give about The Foundation, but yes it’s not the actual purpose of the organisation. Our plan is to stop the apocalypse from ever happening and erase this timeline.” Mr. Williams conceded. They both stood there in silence for a while. “I think it’s time we go back.”
On the journey back to the lift, Cally was lost in her thoughts. It was as if she was in some crazy dream and any moment now she would wake up in the ruins again. She wished she was back there. The place had been her home for as long as she could remember. It was all so much simpler there, though she doubted Mr. Williams would ever let her return.
Once they were back in The Foundation Cally was shown to a small room that had a bed, a table, and a few other bits of furniture. This was her space now, she was told. She sat down on the bed and wondered what she had gotten herself involved in. There was a soft knocking on the door. Cally opened it to see Sofi was there, smiling.
“Hi, I see these are your new quarters. They’re right next to mine. I was wondering if you were hungry? The other Rejects are meeting in the canteen. You want to join us?” Sofi asked.
“Rejects?” Cally asked. Sofi laughed.
“It’s what we call ourselves, though Williams doesn’t like it.” Sofi explained.
“Okay.” Cally replied.
“Great, follow me.” Sofi told her. Cally followed her to the canteen.
The door slid open to reveal a large room. In the centre of the room was a table with monitors and seats around it. Around the walls were electronic equipment of various kinds, Cally thought some of it looked to be for analysing, and in the centre of the wall to the left there were elevator doors. In the room there were six other people of around Cally’s age or older. Three were female and three were male. They all looked at her.
“May I introduce Cally.” Mr. Williams said to the others. “I think she’s the last one of you to be found.”
“Hi.” Cally said. The others said hi back to her. One of the women smiled and went directly towards her with her hand held out.
“Hi Cally, my name is Sofi. I’m the one who found you.” Sofi said. She looked to be Cally’s age and was of Indian heritage Cally guessed.
“You found me?” Cally asked confused.
“I was the one who became aware you were living in the ruins.” Sofi said.
“Though it did take a while for us to locate you.” Mr. Williams added.
“You became aware I was there?”
“Yes, one day I suddenly knew you were there.” Sofi told her.
“Sofi is able to locate people. She feels their presence.” Mr. Williams explained. “We need to get you connected to the computer.”
“Okay.” Cally said not knowing what that meant.
“Follow me.” Sofi said smiling. Cally followed her to the centre table. “Put your hand on the sensor pad.” Cally followed her instructions. The sensor pad started glowing.
“State your name.” said a female voice.
“Cally.” Cally replied.
“State your full name.” the voice immediately replied. Cally looked confused. She couldn’t remember her last name.
“Just make something up.” Sofi whispered to her.
“Cally Smith.” Cally said to the computer.
“Cally Smith, female, age range 18 to 105 years old.” the computer stated.
“What?” Cally asked. Mr. Williams looked perturbed.
“It must be another glitch.” He stated.
“I’ll check the lines of code.” One of the males volunteered.
“Okay Matt, you do that. I wish to take Cally down below. You can all introduce yourselves to her later.” Mr. Williams stated. He led Cally to the elevator doors.
“Where are we going?” Cally asked.
“There’s something I need to show you.” Mr. Williams told her. The doors opened and they both got in. Cally saw the others were now huddled around a computer monitor. Sofi looked up and waved to her. Then the doors closed and the lift went down. Not long later, the doors opened to reveal a cavern. In the cavern was a cart that was mounted on tracks. The tracks went off into the darkness.
“What is this place?” Cally asked.
“Just a cavern. Get on the cart.” Mr. Williams insisted. Cally sat on one of the seats and then Mr. Williams joined her. He started up a motor and the cart began moving forwards at a steady pace.
“Where are we headed?”
“A place you need to see.” Mr. Williams answered. The cart moved through a narrow tunnel with a single light in the front showing the way. After half an hour they came into a larger cavern. Mr. Williams brought the cart to a halt. Cally felt cold and put her arms around herself to help keep warm. Mr. Williams got off the cart and beckoned her to follow.
“I don’t like this place.’ Cally remarked. Mr. Williams looked at her.
“Interesting. Maybe you’re sensitive to energy levels.” He stated. He suddenly stopped and faced the far wall.
“So what happened here?” Cally asked.
“The reason why I’m gathering all your team together is that you’re all gifted, and when I say gifted I mean you all have powers. In the old days it would have been called magic, whatever that means. Magic, or what we called magic, is the ability to change matter at a subatomic level, or so I believe. And that is something you’re all capable of doing at some level, though of varying degrees of power.” Mr. Williams explained.
“So what happened in this cavern?” Cally asked.
“Well I was getting to that. Years ago another dimension opened a portal to our world here in this exact spot. The intentions of the denizens living there was to invade our world and take it over, but at the time they were thwarted and their portal was closed.”
“I see. So what are you wanting us to do?”
“I want to use your powers to reopen the portal.” Mr. Williams told her.
It was always the same dream: before her stood several figures with rubbery skin and tentacles looking down at her with cold intelligence and arrogance, and also hatred. The fact she was there, that she even existed, was an annoyance to them. They cruelly looked at her as she tried to repel them… “Cally?”
Cally opened her eyes. She was still in the white room with the sun’s light streaming through the windows. There stood Mr. Williams before her, smiling.
“Hi.” She said.
“Good morning Cally.” Mr. Williams said. “I thought today we could take a walk and you could see the facility and meet your fellow team members.”
“Team members?”
“Yes. You will be part of a team. I’ll explain more about it later. Now let’s see if you can still walk.” Mr. Williams informed her. Cally rose out of bed. She swiveled her legs over one side of the bed. Her feet touched the cold floor. Gently she tried standing up, but she suddenly began to shake and almost fell over. Mr. Williams quickly went to her side and took hold of her before she collapsed onto the floor. Cally hung onto his arm as she tried walking.
“How long have I been here?” Cally asked.
“Not too long.” Mr. Williams said enigmatically. They walked slowly towards the door with Cally clinging to the arm of his tweed jacket. They came into a white corridor. Mr. Williams led her to the right and they went past doors and windows. Occasionally Cally could see people in those rooms working on computers or writing equations on boards.
“What is this place?” Cally asked mystified.
“It’s the Foundation. I set all this up to create a new foundation for our world. To save what we can and begin a new way forward.” Mr. Williams told her. “To begin again.”
“I thought the world was dying.” Cally replied while brushing her brown hair out of her eyes with her free hand.
“It is, but I haven’t given up hope yet.” Mr. Williams answered. “So tell me how long were you living in the ruins?”
“I don’t know. All I know was that I was there scavenging food and supplies. I don’t remember what happened before that.”
“Were there others?”
“Occasionally. People would stay there, mostly from the north fleeing the famine, but they never stayed for long. Many disappeared overnight it seemed.” Cally replied.
“It’s not a good idea to live in the ruins. I’m not surprised many weren’t there for long.” Mr. Williams stated.
“I was happy there. There was still plenty of food that hadn’t gone rotten yet, if you knew where to look.”
“So you didn’t come from the north with your family then?” Mr. Williams asked. Cally frowned.
“If I did I don’t remember them. All I remember is the ruins.” Cally answered.
“Curious.” Mr. Williams replied. “You wanted to know how I know you’re gifted? You wouldn’t have survived so long in the ruins if you weren’t. The ruins were once cities full of people. These days they are places to be avoided as they are deadly for most people if they stay there too long, but you seem impervious to it.” Cally nodded at his words.
“I did know they were once cities. I don’t know why though.” Cally replied. They walked on for a little longer, and then Mr. Williams stopped at a particular door.
“Hopefully the Foundation can change all this.” Mr. Williams remarked. “Through this door are your other team members. Are you ready to meet them?”
“Sure.” Cally replied. As they stood there, the door slid open…
“You’re safe. We found you in the ruins. It looked like you had been living there for sometime.” Said a voice. Cally opened her eyes to see she was lying on a bed in a white room. She had never seen a room this white before. “So what’s your name?”
“I’m Cally. Who are you?” Cally asked.
“My name is Anita.” Said the woman standing by the bed. She was in white robes and had darker skin than Cally. Her hair was black and she looked in her mid 30s.
“Why am I here?”
“You’re in the Foundation. We were looking for you. You’ll be safe here.” Anita assured her. An older man walked into the room. “This is Mr. Williams. He was the founder of this facility and wishes to speak with you.” The man walked over to Cally and smiled. He looked as though he was in his fifties and had a greying beard and short brown hair.
“Thanks Miss Singh. How are you Cally? You’re looking well.” Mr. Williams asked with a warm smooth voice.
“I’m okay. What am I doing here?” Cally asked.
“We found you. You were covered in dirt and wearing rags. I’m not sure what you were living off, but it’s remarkable you survived.” Mr. Williams replied. “So we brought you here. You’re welcome to stay here for as long as you wish. In fact, we hope you agree to stay here permanently. There are others here like you.”
“Like me?”
“Gifted. The Foundation needs gifted people, like yourself.” Mr. Williams told her. Cally felt confused.
“I’m not gifted.”
“But you are, you just don’t know it. When you’re able, I will give you a tour of the place, so you can meet the others here. I’m sure you’ll like them. They are most eager to see you. It’s been a while since we found anyone like you still out there.” Mr. Williams said. “But right now I think you need some more rest.” He nodded at Anita, and before Cally could speak, Anita brought out a syringe and emptied it’s contents into a tube that was connected to one in Cally’s hand. Cally felt her eyelids suddenly get heavier and within a few seconds she was sound asleep.
It was a momentous occasion. The Zulob Empire was leaving. The new President declared Earth was finally free from Zulob control. We didn’t know their enemy was planning to invade once they left.
I was trying to find an image of some science fiction presidential figure. In the end, some of you may have noticed, I settled on Laura Roslin from Battlestar Galactica…
Audrey and Trevor were in the park one afternoon, when they came across an object in the grass. Audrey picked it up.
“It looks like some futuristic gun.” Trevor observed.
“It’s just a child’s toy.” Audrey said as she pointed it at Trevor and pressed the trigger.
“No, don’t!” Trevor screamed, but was too late as she shot a red beam directly at him. Within a minute all that was left of him was a puddle of red goo.
“Oh, my!” Audrey exclaimed. She hurriedly walked off stashing the gun into her handbag. After all, it could be useful.
Joanne Fisher
Word count: 99
This is my second go at the prompt Oh, My provided by the Carrot Ranch November 21 Story Challenge. The previous one was Oh, My published here yesterday.
“So they still work then. Are they still producing electricity?” Nikki asked.
“No reason why they wouldn’t be. The question is can we find a way to connect to the power they’re producing?” Steven answered.
They were both standing on the shore staring out at the wind turbines. Dark clouds were above them. Already the temperature was dropping. Within a couple of weeks there could be snow and ice everywhere. They needed to find a power source if their community was going to survive.
“Surely there’s some place nearby that oversees them?”
“Maybe. I guess if we wander along the shore we might find it. Otherwise we will need a boat.” Steve replied.
“We can’t be outside too long. The radiation levels are still high.” Nikki reminded him. Steve nodded. They set off northwards. As they walked, Nikki wondered what sort of future any of them could have now.
Eliza observed the darkness around her as she floated. There was darkness, but there were also bright burning stars too numerous to count. How breathtaking the cosmos truly was. Occasionally she noticed the red blinking light of her emergency beacon as she floated in the deeps of space.
She was the only survivor of the accident. Luckily she was already in a spacesuit when the emergency happened, but the chances of her being found before she ran out of oxygen were absurdly remote. So she decided to enjoy the beauty of the universe for as long as she could.
Joanne Fisher
Word count: 99
This was written with the prompt floating provided by the Carrot Ranch July 18 Flash Fiction Challenge.
joanne the geek 