Sometimes, they come back. (812 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.58 on 37 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by GodChicken <Monty> (View user info) at 2004-05-18 04:20:28 EDT
I'm a Fisher.
You have to be kind of insane, for this job, but first let me explain what it is I do.
At 0853 on December the 17th, 2053, The second manned expedition to Mars vanished. It didn't just drop off of telemetry, stop transmitting, or go dead. It vanished. Optical tracking telescopes in orbit determined that it was there, and the next, it was gone. Never made it to Mars.
Scientific analysis over the next year discovered that there was some weird distortion there, at those last coordinates. A "slipstream" of Dark Matter, a type of matter only recently discovered and examined by astrophysicists over the last 40 years.
Named the Bohr's Coordinates, it became an entire new field of study. One year later, the hulk of Deimos II suddenly re-appeared, tumbling out of control back into the solar system. There was no one aboard. The suits were gone, the crew had obviously left it, somewhere.. where, nobody knows.
Only the people who jump in the stream, know where it leads.
The hastily written notes, designs and sketches on the walls, were so astounding, that it broke half the known laws of science.. but the technology they sent back WORKED.
It wasn't long before the private space flight companies started firing people off, sending them out with corporate sponsorships to see if they could get a little of whatever is out there.
Someone's got to come and get them, when they come back. That's me. A Fisher. Sitting out here on a hastily constructed space station not far from the Bohr's Coordinates. I didn't get to go.. for some reason, the stream just didn't take me. So they left me out here, a well trained astronaut is a non-renewable resource. I go out and drag the ships back in, recover the data, the artifacts, whatever it is they come back with.
I get sick, a lot, when I have to go out. It's hard to describe the type of vertigo you get in space. The unstoppable tumble as you push off from the station, leaving that last frame of reference behind. Nothing in any direction but billions of miles of emptiness.. and somewhere nearby, The Stream. I am scared, one day it will take me alone, out there in nothing but my suit.
What if I go? Will I end up in some sort of intergalactic gas station, down the way? Picking up a few cheap trinkets and postcards to send home.. until whatever happens to most of these pilots happens to me? Will a dead husk that used to be ME come tumbling back out of the stream?
The buzzer sounds, I've got a fish to go get.
This one's been out a long time, the stripped down little ship is of a type we haven't seen in about 4 years. I swallow back my lunch, staring down past my feet to the stars as I make the push off from the station, tow cable in hand. Locked on, I ride the battered little probe back to the airlock. I'm always the first in.
Records show it's a british scientist, who went out on this one. I hope he's not in there. Most of the time, they die before they come back, and I've got to clean up. I blow the bolts on the hatch, tug the heavy door out of my way, and step inside.
The cramped little ship is worn out. Things are held together with duct tape, looks like some of the electronics went out, and he salvaged what he could.
"Hello." A voice from the darkened crew compartment beyond nearly stops my heart. A live one? This is something unprecedented! A shaggy haired man steps out into my view, gliding in the low gravity the station gives. He stares back at my shocked face coldly. There's nothing human in that gaze, but it looks like a man, standing in front of me.
What do you know?
Sometimes, They come back, too.
*** Thanks to the story "Hinterlands" by William Gibson for inspiration (god i love his work) and www.digitalblasphemy.com for the cool picture.
User Reviews
Submitted by missflibble (user info) at 2005-06-24 07:04:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
i'M LVOING THIS
Submitted by Crystle (user info) at 2005-06-24 00:06:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by AlwaysAnEagle (user info) at 2004-07-20 18:50:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Bohring.
I am the funniest woman alive.
Just wanted to drop by with a plus two, I just realized I did not rate when I read this at first.
Submitted by K.M (user info) at 2004-05-28 11:18:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
There is some pretty decent fiction on this site today.
Submitted by JMG114 (user info) at 2004-05-28 11:05:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Hard core. You should expand this.
Submitted by SpikeGoddess (user info) at 2004-05-19 00:44:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This is the inspiration you spoke of yesterday?
Yay for chickenposts.
Submitted by mystiamoon (user info) at 2004-05-18 17:06:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
good stuff Monty
Submitted by Judoka (user info) at 2004-05-18 16:05:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by iddqd (user info) at 2004-05-18 06:48:57 (#)
Ranking: 2
neuromancer ruled. william gibson is fucking awesome.
amen. A little homage to iddqd.
In fact the whole Sprawl trilogy is the gold standard for modern sci fi. The Matrix movie were cheap rip offs of Gibson's work.
Submitted by euripidestrousers (user info) at 2004-05-18 14:02:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No Comment
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2004-05-18 13:44:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
nevermind... i went back and read the answer to my question... adurrr...
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2004-05-18 13:43:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
this is great... is this from a story?
did you make this up?
Submitted by SausageKing (user info) at 2004-05-18 13:26:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Science fiction can be hard to do without becoming cheesy. This wasn't cheesy.
Submitted by wazzawazzayo (user info) at 2004-05-18 13:19:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Sorry, but this is way too close to W. Gibson's original for you to taking any credit.
Submitted by zakalwe (user info) at 2004-05-18 13:02:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Ubersite needs more Sci-Fi.
Fan of Iain M. Banks?
Submitted by Yes (user info) at 2004-05-18 12:12:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I concur.
Submitted by slowlyrotting (user info) at 2004-05-18 11:17:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
and sometimes, it's good.
Submitted by ohlookasquirrel (user info) at 2004-05-18 11:15:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Awesome chicken!
Submitted by GodChicken (user info) at 2004-05-18 10:53:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Razor: basic concept plucked from his story. I embelished it in the directions I wished it to go.
That's why I credited it with the inspiration.
Submitted by Razor (user info) at 2004-05-18 10:41:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Can you clarify? Was this an original idea or did you pluck it from somewhere?
Submitted by funk_boy (user info) at 2004-05-18 08:58:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I liked it.
Submitted by drky (user info) at 2004-05-18 08:14:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This was great and i love gibson...
'Idoru' and 'All tomorrows parties...' were great.
But nothing touches Neuromancer...
If you can find the time (i'd lend you some of mine to keep going if i could) you should keep it going...
Submitted by GodChicken (user info) at 2004-05-18 07:33:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
heyzeus:
Yes, first back alive.. "unprecedented"
http://www.astro.queensu.ca/~dursi/dm-tutorial/dm0.html
nice tutorial on dark matter.
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2004-05-18 07:33:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I hope for a 2nd installation of this because it rocked.
Submitted by heyzues (user info) at 2004-05-18 07:25:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
So the raggedy lookin dude in the returning ship was the first guy to come back alive?
Sorry but I get confused easily.
Submitted by GodChicken (user info) at 2004-05-18 07:05:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by iddqd (user info) at 2004-05-18 06:48:57 (#)
Ranking: 2
neuromancer ruled. william gibson is fucking awesome.
this taste of a story is also awesome. but this isnt a story, its like the lead-in idea for a larger picture. when are you gonna try and work on it?
============================
My ideas and inspiration come in such fitful little spurts and leaps, that it is practically impossible for me to add on to something that I've already created without a great deal of time and a journal of some sort.
I could acquire one, but not the other. Time is a limited asset..
But thank you for the compliment.
Submitted by StonedSilly (user info) at 2004-05-18 07:05:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Fuck Kreefmeester, he's a cunt.
Awesome writing, man.
I'll be waiting for more.
Submitted by heyzues (user info) at 2004-05-18 06:55:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Really good.
I thought dark matter was compressed matter thats left behind after a star dies.
Submitted by iddqd (user info) at 2004-05-18 06:48:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
neuromancer ruled. william gibson is fucking awesome.
this taste of a story is also awesome. but this isnt a story, its like the lead-in idea for a larger picture. when are you gonna try and work on it?
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2004-05-18 06:42:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Really, really good.
Submitted by Sideburns (user info) at 2004-05-18 05:34:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I was prepared to return your +1 from all those nice times you gave me one.
Then I read your post.
Damn you and your coherent ramblings.
Submitted by GodChicken (user info) at 2004-05-18 05:30:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
DeathJester:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bpbohr.html
Niels Bohr. Quantum and theoretical physicist, helped with CERN, europes largest particle accelerator, etc.
Just a nod towards someone who did a lot of the groundwork in atomic theory. which, if you look up Dark Matter online, you'll find people are trying to find it, to account for the missing mass all over the universe.
Submitted by KreefMeester (user info) at 2004-05-18 05:23:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
wtf?
Submitted by Ainkara (user info) at 2004-05-18 05:21:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by DeathJester (user info) at 2004-05-18 05:13:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Good writing...Slightly Event Horizon-esque! B
But why Bohr? He's all to do with Oxygen Dissociation...
Submitted by Kichigai (user info) at 2004-05-18 04:58:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by GodChicken (user info) at 2004-05-18 04:31:48 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
fisher is partly mine. The story contains something like this, as well, but I've taken license with it to fit what I thought was a better (and shorter) story.
Submitted by apollo88 (user info) at 2004-05-18 04:28:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I liek the 'fisher' concept?
Is that yours?