I dream of Avalon each night; the apple trees and bamboo forests stretching out endlessly under twin moons. When I awaken I find myself back in my apartment, the open land replaced by two narrow rooms with ceilings so low they make me feel as if I've been entombed. Today, however, I know that this life is over and in just a few minutes I will be dead - shot by the security guards here in my lab or passed away from old age in Avalon. Either one will be an improvement. The hammering on the door is growing more urgent every second, and it's a matter of seconds before they break through. If there's anything I've learned here it's how much of a difference seconds can make.
I've watched Avalon grow from an inhospitable primordial world to the paradise it is now, witnessed our plants slowly take over the surface and carpet the black mud - one day the world was a lifeless swamp, the next it was the green of moss and grasses. The next trees had sprouted and died, forming little islands. Now Avalon is all rolling hills and crystal lakes, any crop taking hold eagerly and providing more fruit than could ever be eaten. I can't let them turn it into a mirror of this world.
The door flies open, and I know I've lost my ticket out. I could have been selfish, could have snuck into Avalon by myself and lived an entire lifetime before they caught me, but I thought about the contraband I had smuggled in - books, actual books that I had read and loved and then left there to break down into the soil. Did I want that to be my legacy, to vanish into a foreign world in another dimension and be forgotten? Far more noble to take something there that won't erode, won't be destroyed by the elements, will thrive and continue on across the brief ages. The guards are raising their weapons, and I hit the button.
Shots fire out as the Transport room flares to life. I had been setting up a delay so I could go too, but I can die happy knowing my contraband has been sent. Packed into the chamber so tight they could barely breathe, an eager batch of young colonists have just been sent to my previously unpeopled world. The bullet hits my shoulder, and I fall to the ground. Before the guards can pile into the room I pull the gun one of the colonists gave me, feeling the weight of the antique in my hand. I shoot blindly at the doorway, each shot buying them more time to live in peace. I count off the seconds - one year, two, three.
They're trying to talk me down; good. Talk is slow. I really should destroy the device entirely but we had more pressing concerns than explosives and there's nothing I can do with this gun. I can destroy this control panel, but there's another I won't be able to reach. Suddenly the guards run for it and they have me, pinning me to the floor and wrenching the gun from my grip. I had hoped they would just shoot me. Already someone is manning the control - it's Robert, we've worked together for years but he's a coward.
The guards are ready to storm Avalon and kill the colonists. How long did I give them? Two minutes? That's well over a hundred years, maybe it was worth it. The gate flares to life but before the guards can move arrows fill the air. A war cry erupts from the chamber as a hundred armed warriors pile into the room, wooden swords cutting the guards down in their tracks. They're moving quickly; they know that this mission is costing them years with their families. They carry me past Robert's body, and past some smoldering barrels they're placing around the device.
The gate flashes once more, and the empire of Avalon cheers my arrival.
I don't understand the deal with the books he sent over; was it part of some experiment to find out how long it would take them to degrade? It just didn't make sense to me.
ReplyDeleteThe physics of the gateway (and the implications of the time rate difference) are pretty scary. Like, the arrows might behave in strange ways.
I don't understand the physical layout of the location; is the Transport room part of his apartment? Is it big enough to hold all those people at once?
Overall, another awesome story. :-)
The apartment thing... I see your confusion, and I think that's from a shift in my thoughts for how the story would start. I should fix that. He's in the lab, which is a separate place from his apartment.
ReplyDeleteThe books... again, I may try to clarify - I had so much more but it was too long and rambling and I felt like I needed to get to the action sooner. The books were contraband because he's in the standard Dark Future, and he took them over so he could read them. Just relax by a lake and read - he would only have to sneak away from the other scientists for a while to do that. And then he would drop the book as he left, and the evidence would be destroyed by the elements long before they returned.
The physics... yes. Yes, it's quite scary. The Chamber is fairly large, and I picture it forming a kind of bridge to the other side. Still, any way you work it you have the ability to do some impossible stuff.
Anyway, we won't have to deal with it again, since those barrels exploded and did so much damage to the device that it couldn't be properly calibrated; while the physicists on the Avalon side might figure it out (they're FAR more advanced than everyone else by now) the people in the main reality can't find those same coordinates again. Most spots they try will just have empty space, which is less useful.
Was avalon discovered or created?
ReplyDeleteWhile I was reading this I believed that Avalon was sustained by some sort of technology in this world, somewhat like THE MATRIX. Hoever, after having finished it, I think the intention was that it exists on its own.
Lastly, I imagine he told the settlers that he would give them a few hundred years to prepare for the war, but I have to wonder how many hundreds of years did they sit ready to attack at a moment's notice?
Although, I suppose it probably went like this. The portal opens, a few weeks later they can send their army out to help their scientest buddy since the 1 second - 100 years means any delay gives them significant time to act.
1. Discovered, but as a ball of goo. It was then terraformed.
ReplyDelete2. Ah, I can see that, yeah. And yes, the intension was that it was a separate thing that exists on its own.
3. The way I pictured it: He didn't really give them any specific instructions, and in fact when he got caught so quickly he was expecting they would be wiped out - but someone on the other end said "Crap, he didn't make it! Hmm... well, it couldn't hurt to keep an eye out for him. And, come to think of it, if it opens again and it's not him that comes though..."
So over the next hundred and something years they settled, trained some guys, and always had someone watching that spot. Like you said, when it DOES open again they have some time to prepare before they pile in.