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Literature Text
Zaen adjusted the video camera, humming a small tune he had recently learned from Rose--something called "Greensleeves." He pressed a button, and a red light on the device began to flash. Moving in front of the lens, he suddenly felt self-conscious, as if he stood before a judgmental crowd. He shuddered. Being on camera, even if it was only for his personal records, was not one of his favorite activities.
"Project Retrieve, version one point seven two," he spoke to the camera. "Trial one." Seating himself at the PC in the corner, he tapped away at the keyboard. The device on the table next to the computer began to hum. A spherical yellow field appeared below the device, flickering like an old TV set.
A fluorescent green tennis ball rested on the other side of the table. As the yellow field below the device buzzed, so the air around the tennis ball rippled and changed visibly. Zaen watched the screen intently, and then gazed toward the tennis ball, analyzing it and the surrounding area through his psychosynthetic sense. His heart sank a little. The air temperature surrounding the tennis ball had already risen by forty degrees Fahrenheit. He could feel the electrons accelerating madly, excited through subspace manipulation. The experiment could almost be considered a failure already; no living thing would be comfortable in that level of heat.
Even so, he gazed at the tennis ball as it faded, flickering like the field across the table. Soon it became insubstantial, partially in its own sphere of space, and part inside the field. "Keep going," Zaen pleaded. "Work! Come on!"
The yellow field flickered one last time and gave a fervent buzz. Then it dispelled. Below the device, where once had been empty air, now lay the tennis ball. "I-It worked!" Zaen stammered. He beamed at the camera. "Trial one: successful."
He marched proudly to the table and scooped up the tennis ball. It was still warm to the touch, but he smiled. "Excellent." His smile faded quickly. The tennis ball crumbled to dust in his palm, no more than loosely connected particles.
Sighing, he reconstructed the ball and placed it back on the X he had marked on the table. "I spoke too soon," he said to the camera. "Trial one is a failure."
Zaen ended the recording and lifted his invention off the table, giving it a psychosynthetic once-over. All was as he had built it, except for one major circuit, the one responsible for altering the conditions of the space around the subject. That one had fried. Again.
Roughly the size and shape of a remote control or a regular teleporter, the device was surprisingly heavy in Zaen's hand. He frowned at it, frustrated, and set the support frame down on the table. How much more would he have to change?
The door opened behind him, causing him to jump. But it was only Rose, followed by Kirrah. Both were laden with brown paper grocery bags.
"Rose," Zaen grinned. "You're back. Did you get the salad? And the cheese?"
"It's all here," Rose answered, setting her bags down as Kirrah did the same. "Sorry, they were out of the nonfat mozzarella. I hope cheddar is okay."
Zaen nodded. "Yes, it won't make that much of a difference. Thanks for picking that up. Hello, Kirrah."
"Hi." Kirrah waved. "Rose said you were working on something, so I decided to come along and see. I hope that's alright."
"That's fine."
Rose pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "So... What exactly did you need this for, anyway? Were you planning a lunch or something?"
Zaen laughed. "No, no. As I mentioned earlier, I've been having trouble concentrating lately. I can rearrange molecules just fine, but altering substances at the subatomic level has somehow become more difficult."
Kirrah squinted. "Meaning?"
"For my experiment, I needed calcium. In my present state, I can take calcium out of things and combine it with other molecules, but I can't simply make it out of thin air. That's why I asked Rose to bring me some calcium-rich food."
"That was why?" Rose asked. "Interesting. But what's been causing the problem? Are you getting enough sleep?"
Zaen scratched his head and looked to the side vaguely. "No. I stay up thinking about my project. It's really quite baffling."
"Zaen! You know that's not good for you."
"I know."
"Your project?" Kirrah asked. "That device you're holding? May I see it?" She held out her hand, receiving the device from Zaen. She scrutinized it closely. "What does it do?"
The other two silenced as Zaen cleared his throat. "I know you are familiar with the concept of teleportation. Well, that's really all this is, except that rather than transporting the subject to a faraway location, this device is designed to transport a faraway subject to the user."
"Interesting!" exclaimed Rose. "But... Isn't that a little dangerous? Can it miss the target?"
"It hasn't so far." Zaen received the device back from Kirrah. "At least when the target is close by. But keeping the target intact on arrival is another matter entirely... Remote teleportation is actually quite a bit more complicated than I previously thought."
"Oh." Rose glanced at the tennis ball on the table. "You haven't tested it on anything living yet, have you?"
"No, Rose." Zaen smiled. "You know I wouldn't do that to a poor living organism unless I was absolutely sure it would work."
"Okay. That's a relief. I just wanted to make sure."
"Of course."
Rose looked around, pushing her glasses back up her nose. "Where's Dark?"
"Dark? I asked him to go take care of something for me. He should be back any moment now..."
The group flinched as the door burst open and Dark stumbled in, panting. Part of his shirt was torn open, the skin underneath a deep red precursor to a nasty bruise. Out of breath, he leaned against the wall, holding up a hand to ward off a concerned Rose. "Don't bother, just listen," he grunted. From his pocket, Dark produced a slim metallic object and extended it to the blue-haired boy. "Zaen."
"You did it!" Zaen came forward and received the object from him. "Thank you, Dark."
"This had better be worth it," was all Dark could manage.
Kirrah squinted at the object which Zaen was laying on the table by the computer. "Isn't that... The beam weapon? The one belonging to that Rasso boy?"
"It is. I thought that by studying its components, I might be able to solve some of the problems with my remote teleporter. Despite their differences in function, they are actually somewhat similar in construction."
"But what happened to you, Dark?" Rose asked. Her eyes were full of concern.
Dark looked from side to side and made an annoyed sound. "Rasso was at the zoo..."
The others stared. Rose scratched her head. "What do you...?"
"And Kendryn was with him..."
Zaen's mouth gaped progressively wider as he nodded slowly.
Dark scratched his chin. "Oh, yeah, and we should probably get out of here."
A roar unlike anything they had ever heard blasted from outside. Before either Rose or Zaen could react, Dark seized each of their wrists and dove for the back door. Kirrah followed close behind. Once they were all safely in a heap outside the house, Dark grabbed them by the shoulders and pushed. "Run!"
A sharp crumbling sound rattled the air as the house behind them shook.
"Get out here, you dark-headed idiot!" Kendryn's voice boomed. "Give back Rasso's stupid gun before I smash your whole front wall down!"
"No, you don't." Dark grunted. "Not my house!"
"No, wait!" Rose reached out to grab Dark's tattered shirt, but was unable to stop him from charging back around the house to meet Kendryn.
"There he is!" she heard Rasso shout. There was another roar, and Dark let out a pained yell.
"We have to do something!"
"I'll go," said Kirrah. She placed a hand on Rose's shoulder before vanishing around the house herself.
Rose was at a loss. What should she do? As much as she hated it, could she try to fight? Fists quivering, she prepared to lower herself into a running stance.
"Wait, Rose!" Zaen said worriedly. "There's no sense in all three of you putting yourselves in danger. Stay with me. I have an idea."
"Zaen--" Rose started, but the boy was already disappearing through the back door. What are they all thinking?! she screamed inwardly. She found Zaen on the floor with the beam weapon, the remote transporter, and a block of cheese, gazing seriously at all three of them.
More crashes resonated through the structure of the house, and the roaring continued. Dark and Kirrah shouted several times, and then something hissed.
"That's it!" Zaen cried at length. He shut his eyes in concentration. Rose couldn't see what he was doing, but she knew it must have something to do with psychosynthetics. The boy's eyes shot open. "Done."
He led Rose out the front door, to her chagrin.
She gasped and plastered herself against the crumbling wall of the house. It was too much to take in.
Kendryn was massive. She had the body of an elephant, with a head that was somewhere between a rhinoceros and a lion. A snakelike tail whipped at her haunches, and there was even an undersized pair of wings on her shoulders for good measure. She looked for all the world like a Greek chimera. The street beneath her was cracked in several places.
Rasso rode on her back, his face a vision of rage. He waved a long stick in his hand like a broadsword, shouting obscure quotes by Tolkien.
Zaen carefully aimed the remote teleporter toward the area in front of the creature.
"The Halflings are courteous folk, whatever else they be!" Rasso bellowed, swiping at the air as though he expected the stick to do anything. "I see a great smoke. What may that be?"
Dark was bright red. "Be quiet, you rat-faced lunatic!"
"Battle and war! Ride on!" Rasso howled his fiercest war cry as Kendryn swung at Dark with her horn.
"Rose, take cover if anything goes wrong," Zaen said softly. He pressed the button and bit his lip.
A sphere of air rippled in front of Kendryn, encased in the same yellowish field as before.
"What is this?" Kendryn growled.
The field exploded into shards of blue-and-white light. An impossibly large, beastly figure sat where once had been empty air.
Rasso swallowed. "B-b-BAKAN!"
The bakan screeched and swiped at Kendryn, barely missing. Kendryn herself screamed and changed into a leopard, bearing Rasso away. "Fly, you fools!" the boy shouted.
As the duo turned the corner, the hideous bakan turned its massive head to Rose and Zaen. The blue-haired boy froze.
"DO SOMETHING, KID!" Dark shouted.
Zaen pressed a button, and the bakan was gone in an instant, leaving behind nothing but a blast of foul air that made him cough.
The others gathered around him, dusting off their clothes. Kirrah had a scratch on her arm, but Dark didn't look injured any further.
"How did you do that?" Rose asked.
Zaen shrugged. "Athryl told me about an Altren zoo where they keep a bakan. He also sent me a virtual tour of the park he made himself. I just entered the coordinates he gave me and brought it here."
"Athryl? But that was dangerous! Those things are huge!" Dark shouted.
Zaen scratched his head. "Yeah... I think it only missed its target because it had teleportation sickness."
"I'm just glad you're alright," Rose said. "That was genius of you--You fixed your teleporter in a matter of seconds!"
"Thank you, but it was just plain ol' luck." Zaen frowned as the remote teleporter crumbled to dust in his hand. "You know, as frustrating as it was to invent this, I don't think I'll build another one."
"That's probably for the best," said Rose. She patted him on the shoulder, bringing some of the color back into his face. "You saved us. We're still alive because of you."
Zaen returned her smile as best he could. "Thanks for saying that, but it was also my fault we were almost killed."
"Then let that be the payment," Dark grinned. "Now you don't have to worry about owing anyone their lives."
Rose glared at Dark, but Zaen laughed. Then Kirrah laughed, and soon the other two joined in.
Nothing made Zaen happier than having friends who would defend him with their lives.
---
Zaen at his computer. The damaged parts of the house had been repaired, and he moon was now rising outside the window, casting its pale beams on the floor.
Dark entered the room and switched on the light. "Got another project going?"
Zaen smiled. "Yes. Now that the remote transportation fiasco is behind us, I've found myself able to work at the subatomic level again."
"So I'm free to eat the cheese?"
"Go ahead."
Dark unwrapped a brick of cheddar and walked up behind Zaen, nibbling at the corner. "Y'know, there's just one thing that's been bothering me about today."
Zaen continued typing. "What's that?"
Dark slumped in a chair nearby and swallowed. "Why didn't you just give Rat-face back the gun?"
Zaen groaned.
Dark laughed as he watched his friend's head hit the keyboard. His last sentence continued on the monitor without his fingers:
"The enyhuuuuhuuhhgyyyyyj..."
And thank goodness there were absolutely no citizens in the area at all... 
This is for
's writing contest: fav.me/d6dvdxr It uses her own characters and setting. Repeat, these are her characters, not mine.
The theme was rediscovery. I suppose my main intention was to revisit teleportation, but I ended up adding psychosynthetics and a little bakan as well.
Readers: Let me know if you see major grammar errors/plot holes.
I felt bad not having Rose do more in this story, but I frankly wasn't sure what I could have her do. I sort of sped-wrote this, if you know what I mean, and the other characters took over.
I was also going to delete the cheese, but then I wrote the end.
By the way, the head-keyboard text at the end is genuine... Heh.
This is for
's writing contest: fav.me/d6dvdxr It uses her own characters and setting. Repeat, these are her characters, not mine.The theme was rediscovery. I suppose my main intention was to revisit teleportation, but I ended up adding psychosynthetics and a little bakan as well.
Readers: Let me know if you see major grammar errors/plot holes.
I felt bad not having Rose do more in this story, but I frankly wasn't sure what I could have her do. I sort of sped-wrote this, if you know what I mean, and the other characters took over.
I was also going to delete the cheese, but then I wrote the end.
By the way, the head-keyboard text at the end is genuine... Heh.
© 2013 - 2024 pineapplehunter
Comments6
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*through the end
I should really edit my comments a little more closely to clear up things like that.