It Only Gets Stranger, part 6 (597 hits)
Category: NoneLabels: ItOnlyGetsStranger
Rating: 2 on 9 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by MackTuesday (View user info) at 2008-06-19 16:31:07 EDT
Parts 1-3: http://www.ubersite.com/m/116950
Part 4: http://www.ubersite.com/m/117107
Part 5: http://www.ubersite.com/m/117216
I heard water running, then the door opened. Dave had a clear raincoat on. It was covered in blood.
"What the *fuck*?"
"Parker, it's the only way."
The only way? I'd ask later. First I wanted to see precisely what was in the bloody bathtub behind him. I would have pushed past him but I didn't want to stain my clothes.
"Let me in," I commanded.
"Parker --"
"Let me in!"
He backed off enough for me to pass. Bloody parts of a person were in the tub. On the tile floor to one side sat a gallon jug labelled MURIATIC ACID.
I turned around and implored, "Dave, what the hell *is* this?"
"Well what else can we do with the body?"
"What do you mean, 'we'?"
That seemed to sting Dave a little. He said solemnly, "Alright. If -- If you don't want to deal with it, I understand."
Clearly I was missing something. Either that or Dave had gone completely bonkers. "Dave, I don't know what's going on. I don't understand any of this."
Dave looked puzzled. "What is there to understand?"
For a moment I was speechless. With eyes wide, I sputtered in frustration, "I -- I don't understand how there's a fucking body, in pieces, in your fucking bathtub!"
The light in Dave's head finally turned on. "I guess you don't remember. Yeah, it said you might have some amnesia."
"What said?"
"The page on concussions. You seem to have suffered some sort of head injury."
"I don't remember hitting my head."
"Well, yeah, amnesia."
Finally something was making sense. "Okay, the last thing I remember is standing in your kitchen, drinking beer."
"You don't remember the loud boom that came from downstairs?"
"No."
"Ah. Alright." He apparently wasn't relishing the idea of describing the incident. He sighed. "Parker, I'm afraid this is going to disturb you."
I waited.
"There was a huge sound that came from downstairs. It sounded like an explosion. Everything shook -- the whole house. We ran down there, and in the lab, it was you, down there. It was... well... you were dead."
"You mean, there was a... second me? A second Parker?"
"Yeeaah." He drew out his response with timid reluctance.
I put a dead me together with the body parts in the bathtub. My stomach turned and sank. Hard.
"You weren't just dead. You... were... torn up. You were... you were messed up pretty bad."
I sat down on the toilet, bent over, and pushed on my eyeballs with my thumb and middle finger. "I don't suppose you know how that happened."
"I... think it might be a future you."
I sighed, "A future me, a future me. Please tell me it's preventable."
He wasn't answering. I looked up at him. He was looking away, at nothing, with his mouth partly open. His eyes met mine. He shook his head minutely.
I deflated and said, "Okay, this weekend now officially sucks."
"Parker," Dave said, "I know this is going to sound pretty insensitive, but I need to continue, um, disposing of your body."
I got up and moved past him.
"But don't go anywhere. There are some other things you need to know about what happened in the lab."
I sat down on the berber carpet outside the bathroom and watched as Dave picked up the hacksaw, knelt against the tub, and took one of my limbs in his gloved hand. From that angle I couldn't see which limb it was, and I wouldn't be able to watch the actual sectioning of my other body, but I still needed to turn around and sit with my back to the hallway wall. A wet, scraping sound started.
Dave called out, "Okay, so, when we got down to the lab, my transport machine was *on*. I don't know how that's possible, but there it was. We, um." The sawing sound stopped temporarily, started again. "We ran into the changing room and put on the suits. Then we came back out and started to move the body. But then, another one of those freaky metastable state things came out of the machine. And it hit you."
Fascinating. "So what happened then?"
"The suit completely disappeared! Oh, except for the face plate. You seemed to be okay except you fell unconscious."
"That thing sent me somewhere."
"You didn't go anywhere. You were there the whole time."
I told Dave about the burgundy room and endless water flats, the eternity of walking, and my confusion about the whole thing. "Although, I understand if you don't believe me, seeing how I ended up with a concussion."
After a stomach-turning moment filled with the sound of flesh being rent apart, Dave said, "I believe you. That sounds entirely too vivid to be caused by head trauma."
"It definitely wasn't a dream... So I didn't disappear or anything?"
"No, if you were transported somewhere else, you appeared to be gone for zero time from my point of view."
I needed a moment to swallow that. I almost stopped noticing the slippery munching sounds coming from the bathroom.
"So what the hell could it be?" I asked.
"Could be anything... Look, we're talking about technology that's capable of transmitting matter across a spacelike separation. It opens the door to time travel and all sorts of wicked cool stuff. So when I say it could be anything, I really mean it. It could be something really wacked-out crazy, something beyond our imagination. I just didn't expect stuff like this to happen so soon. The time travel ability hasn't been enabled yet."
My eyes went wide. "Yet?"
"Yeah, all you need to do is send one of the interfaces out at relativistic speed."
"Oh, is that all?"
"Put this technology in the hands of a national government, and a manned mission to Alpha Centauri will launch ten years later... if that government decides to use it for that purpose. Someday, someone is going to build a time machine. Well, it will really be more like a time 'tunnel'. But it will happen."
"Hm. Why does sending an interface at relativistic speed turn it into a time machine?"
"It has to do with time dilation. It's like, the local times at each end diverge, so... you go through one end at one time, and come out the other end at another time."
"Damn. Wow... Okay, now, you said that the time travel ability hasn't been enabled yet. So how did this whole thing happen?"
"I don't know. I haven't had time to think about it."
"But wait, if someone will build a time machine, the time machine doesn't need to exist right now in order for someone to come here, right?"
"Apparently not, but that's not what the theory says. The theory says, you can't go back in time before the machine's construction. There needs to be something to receive you at the destination."
"Your machine was there."
"Yeah, but I had it turned off, and it isn't even a time machine yet. Rather, it wasn't supposed to be. It wasn't supposed to be capable of receiving a time traveller."
I slowly shook my head. "Wow. This stuff... This rocks my junk like a naughty bitch."
I could hear the smile in his voice. "Hmm, yes, that is one way of putting it." More sawing. "Hey, you know, this body of yours, it could be a clone."
"A clone!" I liked that idea very much.
"Like I said, anything is possible at this point."
User Reviews
Submitted by messmind (user info) at 2008-06-20 14:16:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
http://www.ubersite.com/m/117107#2725136
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2008-06-20 11:19:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
what your mom said
Submitted by Nellypaal (user info) at 2008-06-20 07:08:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
What they said.
Submitted by sexualchocolate1984 (user info) at 2008-06-20 07:06:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Fuck! i'd been avoiding this series, now I'm hooked and I'm gonna be needing the rest. I will be gutted when it finishes.
It had better fucking finish though.
Submitted by PhillipTheGreat (user info) at 2008-06-19 21:28:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by GangsterSquid (user info) at 2008-06-19 16:51:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I agree with the Boshman.
Submitted by DudeThatsBOSH (user info) at 2008-06-19 16:43:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
i agree with shadow.
Submitted by shadow (user info) at 2008-06-19 16:39:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
You had really better finish this series.
just sayin'
Submitted by Yozz (user info) at 2008-06-19 17:33:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Loves Ghola
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Submitted by GangsterSquid (user info) at 2008-06-19 16:51:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I agree with the Boshman.
Submitted by DudeThatsBOSH (user info) at 2008-06-19 16:43:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
i agree with shadow.
Submitted by shadow (user info) at 2008-06-19 16:39:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
You had really better finish this series.
just sayin'