The Darkness (AIASP)

"Mr. President, we'll need to initiate the Heliospheric Teleportation sequence in three minutes."

"Thank You."

The noise of the bunker rushes in as the president's door closes behind him. The strategic analyst liaison hands him a memo before quickly disappearing back into the organized chaos.

"Solar Activity Increasing..." he reads.

Teleporting the entire heliosphere into intergalactic space is risky enough. The risks during a solar maximum are incalculable. But, what choice do we have? There is no way we can put this off any longer.

Lost in his thoughts he didn't notice Tom standing in front of him.

"Sir, our sensors indicate their anti-gravitron pulse weapon has been discharged. We are now tracking 1,721 oort cloud objects inbound. The first object will hit the heliopause in nine minutes."

"Our intelligence was correct. Thank you, Major."



Meanwhile, three miles above on the planet's surface, the tranquil scene gave no hint of the perilous situation unfolding. Sleepy houses on rolling hills stretch out into the night. At the end of a lonely cul-de-sac sits an old Victorian home. The soft glow from a half buried basement window is the only sign that anyone is awake.

Locked away in his basement, surrounded by a triple faraday cage, the young professor finishes the final preparations for his experiment. The smell of burnt metal permeates the small basement. A dusty tesla coil can be seen off in a corner. The long oak table, with it's deep gashes and burn marks, is cluttered with wire fragments and magnets. A single light bulb hangs with an oblivious finality.

"It's done." he mutters, setting down the soldering iron. Taking a long drink of water he glances approvingly over his work. A twisted array of coils and magnets stare back at him. Flipping a sequence of switches, he sends the alternating charges to the faraday cages. The soft hum of electricity fills the room as the overhead light bulb dims. Setting down his now empty glass he reaches over and turns the machine on.

With a deafening sound the basement goes dark.



"What happened, Major?!"

"Sir, it looks like we had a coronal mass ejection at the precise moment of the jump. We haven't gone anywhere."

"What's our operational status?"

"It appears our telemetry array was damaged, Sir. We can still initiate another jump but we won't know the direction."

"Make it happen, Major."



Bumping his leg into the end of the oak table, the young professor makes his way to the circuit breaker. Click, Click. Nothing. Stumbling up the creaky stairs he opens the basement door and steps into the engulfing dark of the kitchen. Fumbling for a few seconds he finds the drawer with the flashlight. Click, Click. Nothing. He looks around, wondering why his vision hasn't adjusted yet. Then a faint glow catches the corner of his eye. It's coming from the kitchen window.

As he steps outside, a cold chill runs up his spine. The neighbor's house is dark. He slowly walks down the driveway towards the street. Everyone's house is dark.

Then he notices it. There is no sound. No crickets, no distant cars; nothing, but a deafening silence.

Looking towards the end of the street he waits for someone to come outside; his eyes darting back and forth trying to make out even the slightest movement. He stands there for what seems like an eternity. Surely someone notices the blackout. He slowly makes his way down the row of houses towards the stop sign. As he reaches the end of the sidewalk he is greeted by the same eerie silence and impenetrable darkness. To the left he notices a car stopped right up the block. He sprints to the car, but finds the car empty. Looking towards downtown, he starts to walk.

Having lost count of how many empty cars he's passed, he sits down in exhaustion and defeat. As he rests his head in his hands, a glimmer of light towards his feet catches his attention. He looks down into a small puddle of water. As the ripples die down a soft white crescent takes shape. The faint glow, he remembered. He looked up. It was the moon. A barely visible sliver hanging high above his head. He pauses. His heart skips. "Where are the stars?"

Geez, Omni - You sure make the reader hunger for more! What a cliff-hanger - maybe the professor and the President should compare notes, eh?

Or - as your story suggests, perhaps it's too late for that...

Loved the professor's basement lab, BTW. Very descriptive - makes you wonder how many determined basement professors are scattered around the world with their magnets and wires and Tesla coils...

Hmmmm...

Thank you for the comments, Outrageo. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I really wanted to create the ambiance in the lab to take the reader far enough away from the bunker to properly introduce the professor and set up the suspense for the second transition.

[edit on 20-3-2008 by OmniVersal]

With the short story I was attempting to keep the magnitude of the situation unclear until the very last sentence... "Where are the stars?"

So, just in case anyone didn't quite figure it out, here is the situation as it stands.

The coronal mass ejection caused a duplicate heliosphere, including Earth, to be sent to the original coordinates outside the milky way galaxy. However, all the humans and animals were not caught in the duplicate data stream and remain on the original Earth, which is still under threat from some cowardly aliens lobbing large rocks our way. If Earth can make the jump before the first asteroid hits the heliopause then they are home free and won't see any more oort cloud threats ever, since it's outside the heliosphere. And the aliens will be sitting their shaking their heads wondering where the sun went.

However, due to being inside his unique faraday cage configuration, the young professor was sent on the duplicate data stream. So the professor is now all alone, somewhere in intergalactic space with access to everything on a duplicated Earth. With the heliosphere intact he can live out the rest of his days in complete and utter isolation. Or he can scour the duplicate Earth for the technology that was used to make the jump to begin with. But as only one man, such a project could take several lifetimes or more.

Thankfully for those left behind, the original telemetry array was damaged and the original Earth cannot teleport to the original coordinates. If it could, the two heliospheres would completely annihilate each other in a spectacular explosion. But as it stands, the original Earth and it's inhabitants still have a chance to preserve the human race.

Will the original Earth make it to a new set of intergalactic coordinates in time?

Will the professor ever be able to figure out exactly what happened?

And if he does, will he look for a way to find the original Earth, or will he relinquish himself to the situation and enjoy the fruits of the human civilization, forever alone?