Inside Out (688 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.58 on 13 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by S.O.S. (View user info) at 2006-01-18 17:28:00 EST
The world now is made of spheres. Billions upon billions of them. They are scattered out across the endless reaches of space searching for organization like bubbles of matter trapped in an ocean of emptiness. Some merge together. Some act on each other through the dimples they create in the spacetime continuum. Some lose their fuel and explode in a myriad of color, painting the night sky with their wondrous beauty.
You humans can look up at the sky and peer back toward the dawn of creation as you know it, for your world is an open book, and it only requires the turning of a page to discover your origins and be satisfied who you are. Here your minds are open to the eternal, and your skies are without end.
But it wasn't always this way...
There was a time long ago, far in the past, before the creation of earth, before the creation of the sun, before what you lifeforms call the 'big bang', the entire universe was inside out - squeezed into a singular dot and out the other side. Everything was the opposite of what it is now; everything was like the negative of a picture. White was black and black was white. Light was dark and dark was light, and we all lived in the cold.
People didn't have reflections...reflections had people. Space wasn't filled with glowing orbs of matter...matter was filled with glowing orbs of space.
The only life in the universe consisted of diggers. WE were the diggers, and the diggers were astronauts. Giant mining machines - drills, scoops, massive boring behemoths - these things were essential to satisfying our curiosity. You see, curiosity is one of those absolutes that remain with intelligence no matter what side of the mirror you're on, or what your universe looks like. The need to know what's out there beyond the next turn, beyond the next hill, beyond the nearest star, this is what makes an intelligent life bearable.
But it was not so easy for us. For all we knew, we were the only bubble in the universe. For all we knew, we WERE the universe.
When we looked at our sky, or toward the gentle, concave curve of our horizon, we only saw our own world. To look straight up was to see the hustle and bustle on the other side of the universe, the other side of the bubble. Where you humans have the benefit of seeing the vast openness of that which you are part, we diggers only saw the inside of the bubble that was our eternal prison.
All our hopes, all our prayers for a better world lay in our digging machines. To dig out of our prison was our purpose. It was what united us.
What do you call it? Utopia?
Yeah, that's it. Utopia. That's what our world was like in some ways.
There was no war. We never fought each other. At least not like you people do... I guess you could say we diggers had common enemies: ignorance and imprisonment. We spent so much time occupied with trying to expand our world - mining into the walls of our terrestrial prison - that we sort of forgot to hate each other.
I've spent some time studying your history here. I guess you can relate to it. It's sort of like your Egyptians and thier magnificent pyramids - themselves a tribute to the endlessness of your sky. The pharoahs built them as vessels to the stars, but they also served another purpose. They kept his subjects occupied with a project instead of sitting idle. How do you say....idle hands?
When people are busy, they are too occupied to think and plan and mull about each other. Your people know this. Our people did too. Only, instead of blowing each other up, which is what you people do when you're not occupied building pyramids, the diggers would dig. Searching for freedom...together.
Then one day, one of the digger colonies came with news that they had found something! They had reached the other side! They had found a way out! But when we went to see, we found them all dead. The air was putrid and noxious. This was a dead bubble, and it had to be shut up so as not to poison our world.
There was a while after that we stopped digging. For years, we debated instead. We argued about our purpose. We argued about what we were doing and whether it was somehow 'moral' to continue trying to escape who and where we were. They said they had doubts about what we were doing because only bad things seemed to befall us when we dug.
We argued about morality and purpose...
Then we argued some more...
Then one day, the argument grew into a Great War.
The war was taken underground, and above ground, and in the spaces between. Instead of digging, we decided to make bombs to shoot across the great divide to destroy our cousins on the other side of the bubble. We took refuge in the mines. There we learned to live - eking out a life that was menial as it was dark.
More bombs came, and so we dug deeper. Then one day, in the midst of our great civil war, we punctured through to an uncharted tunnel. The walls of the tunnel had not been dug by diggers. This was dug by something else entirely.
I didn't take long for us to figure out the true horror of what we were up against. Giant creatures with 1000 eyes enormous, razor-sharp fangs began pouring into the tunnels toward the surface of our world. What had been a civil war fought for reason long obscured, had now turned into a united fight for survival against a vicious common enemy.
We fought the enemy back, and scrambled to seal up all our tunnels, lest our world be completely destroyed. This bought us some time. But we all knew if we didn't think of something fast, the diggers' days were numbered.
Then, a small boy had an idea. His name, which will forever live on in digger lore, was Ithra, and his idea was simple.
With rigorous stealth, we entered our tunnels via a secret entrance and made our way to the giant seals. It had been years since we had been here. Not since before the Great War had diggers ventured that far out. And there, sure enough, lay the bodies of our brethren, now mere piles of bones and mummified flesh. Their carcasses had been hastily cast aside in the effort to seal the breach, and, in the ensuing conflicts, had been forgotten.
But this was our space. This was our final frontier. This was an honorable death.
As the team leader gave the instructions and a small unit watched our rear, I loosened the bars holding the great seal in place. Shots rang out behind me followed by a lot of commotion.
The last thing I heard was the sound of my own guts spilling out. The last thing I smelled was the stench of the mysterious killer gas...
--
I awoke in what seemed like an age in a field. But something was wrong...different.
I looked up expecting to see the miniscule landscape of my home bubble, but instead I saw the stars.
User Reviews
Submitted by zoobie2000 (user info) at 2006-01-23 07:55:31 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Dead_0hi0_Sky (user info) at 2006-01-22 19:52:43 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
needs more rape.
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2006-01-22 19:16:52 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This almost had a Lovecraft feel to it. Very well-written.
You are a most welcome addition to Ubersite!
Submitted by Jacobt26 (user info) at 2006-01-19 07:10:07 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by simple_catalyst (user info) at 2006-01-18 23:11:57 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by ruthless (user info) at 2006-01-18 18:10:35 (#)
Ranking: 2
Interesting.
Submitted by freebie (user info) at 2006-01-18 20:31:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
I got as far as "big bang", that made me smile so I stopped.
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2006-01-18 18:52:24 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by Dreg (user info) at 2006-01-18 18:17:11 (#)
Ranking: 1
You aren't going to be known around here until you start reading and rating more.
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you have written 666 reviews at the point in time.
just thought that was interesting.
Submitted by seasofseems (user info) at 2006-01-18 18:23:45 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Dreg (user info) at 2006-01-18 18:17:11 (#)
Ranking: 1
You aren't going to be known around here until you start reading and rating more.
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Well, now you know me now.
And how do you know that's not all I wanted all along?
<mindfuck>
Submitted by Dreg (user info) at 2006-01-18 18:17:11 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
You aren't going to be known around here until you start reading and rating more.
Submitted by ruthless (user info) at 2006-01-18 18:10:35 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Interesting.
Submitted by Drone_of_Industry (user info) at 2006-01-18 18:02:50 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
FOR THINE HAST TOLD YON LEGEND MUCH TO MY SATISFACTION! FOR I WAS THAT DIGGER!
I.........
AM ITHRA!!!
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2006-01-18 17:50:07 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
pretty good, user24614
Submitted by DCWoody (user info) at 2006-01-18 17:30:17 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment