Science Fiction Microstory Contest discussion
Thanks to those who liked my story and to all for being part of my friendly contest
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Great job, Jot!Can't wait to see the novel. Please keep us advised of your progress.
-C.
Jot, I really liked the longer version in your Consortium collection. This story will certainly lend itself to a full length novel. Great work!
Mod
Thanks everyone else. Came up with this story concept just after starting the contest four years back, but never used it in the contest. As Justin mentioned, a 10K version of this is the lead story in an anthology I put together with eight other authors from the contest. It's called Science Fiction Consortium: https://www.amazon.com/Science-Fictio...
Temporal Shift
Copyright © 2016 by Jot Russell
We joined up on Roosevelt Island, July 4, 2001. The fireworks were a fitting celebration to the completion of our mission.
“Things go smooth in Florida?” Jack asked.
I laughed. “Al-Qaeda's gonna have to find some more pilots.”
“Next time we should just...”
“Just what?”
“Tell you later. Ready to head home?”
I nodded and engaged my suit. The spheres formed around us and Jack's grew transparent before dissolving into time. I started to shift forward, but the world suddenly grew dark. It wasn't just the calm of fireworks, but the entire city. The rotating scatter of heavenly objects were Earth's sole luminescence. As my eyes adjusted, the presence of a city's ruin formed around that which had just been a park. Tall trees had long since grew through the broken streets, and I quickly realized that what ever this foreign city was, it had died long before.
I walked over towards the water's edge and stared across the Potomac. The airport, Pentagon and surrounding buildings were also replaced by that of a massive and broken metropolis. I looked to the sky, trying to defend an excuse that it was caused by a massive asteroid. No, this could only have been brought on by us messing with the past. But we were careful to return only a couple years, take out the hijackers, and have no other contact. On top that, we married our time-lines here in Washington before we were to return to the present.
A nerve struck like a stone on my brow. I recalled a joke that Jack had made, only it wasn't a joke. “Take out Muhammad,” he had laughed. I knew he hated Muslims, but I didn't understand just how far the flames of his passion went. He didn't want to kill nineteen, he wanted to destroy their religion. My only choice was to return to that time-line and stop him from what, he didn't realize, would be our annihilation.
I tapped the controls on my sleeve. The stars paused their dance and quickly retreated back into the future. The sun burned my eyes, but only for a moment as the band it formed across the sky dissipated back into darkness. I increased it's speed, creating a constant arch across the bright sky. This rose and fell with the seasons, and I turned to watch the tallest of trees recede back into the broken payment.
As its sprout escaped into the ground, a layer of ash briefly formed upon the land and was gone. Like a switch, the city clicked back to life before me; towering glass and steel a hundred years prior to our efforts at such structures. And upon one, the image of a double-headed eagle.
“Romans?!”
It made sense. Without a common language, religion and enemy for the middle eastern tribes to unite against, the Roman Empire was able to rebound and advance beyond its years in engineering, including that of the atom.
I continued back until the towers were replaced with more modest structures. Using the suit, it was easy to gain currency for transport to Mecca. The trick; however, would be finding the needle in the haystack. It would have been easy to learn of Muhammad's home in the past of my time-line, but here, his life was obviously short and non-notable. Fortunately, they kept good records and I knew his date of birth. It was just a matter of time.
Jack stepped from the sphere that appeared outside the uncle's house.
“You here to help me Phil?”
“From destroying our world, yes.”
“Don't you see? With our suits, we can fix any outcome and live like kings!”
In a glance, I understood that the power of the suit had corrupted his ambitions, because I felt its influence upon me. In that same glance, he knew that I knew and started to engage his suit. Without thinking, I drew my gun and shot his control arm. It produced a sudden overload, causing the sphere to glow bright before imploding in upon itself.
Behind the dying echo of the sphere, I saw the child's look of disbelief. With little Muhammad's fate secure, I jumped forward in time and wondered if that vision influenced his path. Mostly, I realized that it was the suit that represented humanity's greatest threat and reworked my mission to block its creation.
I stood witness to history's recurrence of 9/11 and hoped the struggle to follow would eventually turn friends from foes as Pearl Harbor once did.