Blog Update! Also, Short Story!

Hey, those few of you that actually read this thing.

Haven't posted on here since October, and I'm coming up on the end of my Uni degree, so I figured I'd better get posting some content.

I definitely plan on being more active on here when I have more free time. I want to carry on with my writing challenge (which I only ended up doing one of three weeks of...) 

Also planning on possibly drawing a few pages of my dissertation comic script, just to visualise it.

As well as this, I'm thinking of using this blog as a platform for multi-format content, such as an doodlings or 'art' that I produce.

For now, here's a short sci-fi story I wrote in my first year of University, enjoy!

ReWind

‘It is Time.’

Vi woke with a start to the voice buzzing through the speaker set into the wall above his head. He sat up on metal platform that served as his bed. As he did so it withdrew into the wall, pushing the thin mattress from the top. Vi fell with it. The soft mattress broke his fall onto the floor.

He pushed himself lethargically from the ground, yawning as he did so. He resisted the urge to stretch – the cramped confines of his room would not allow his large frame such a motion. It was little more than a cupboard in dimensions. He pushed a large square button in the wall and a smooth metal basin slid silently out from just above where his bed had receded seconds before.

His reflection stared back up at him, upside down from the curved surface of the bowl. His head shone from the bright light that beamed out from the whole ceiling. It itched where the machine had removed the last of his already close-cropped hair the night before. It had removed the hair on his face too, what little of it there had been. The others had warned him he would get hair there eventually. He had been proud of it finally appearing, and now it was gone. His face itched too. As he reached to scratch it, the door whooshed open.

‘Get dressed,’ commanded Donn, the eldest of the trio that shared the facility with Vi.

‘I have thirty minutes before first meal, Donn.’ The wizened man stroked his long white beard. He always did that when he was getting annoyed with Vi. Always Vi. Never the others. Vi let out another yawn, this time on purpose.

‘Not today. No breakfast today.’ The man stared at Vi. He smelled musty. Like the air ducts that Vi had played in as a child, when he was small enough to fit in them. Vi put on a frown and looked down at his stomach.

‘Hmm. I am kind of hungry though. What are we having? Grey gruel? Brown gruel?’

‘No breakfast today.’

‘Aww what a shame. I’ll shower and be right with you.’ Vi’s frown turned into a mock grin. 
‘You might want to think about having one too.’

‘No. No shower. Get dressed. Follow me now.’

‘Alright... What, don’t want to be late to your funeral or something, Donn? Give me two seconds, okay?’

Donn was stroking his beard at a rapidly increasing pace. He let out a long, rattling sigh. His hand stopped and returned to its previous position, tucked into the pocket of his lab coat. Slowly, he nodded, then turned around and walked away.

Whoosh.

Vi hastily opened the drawer below his bed panel after shifting the mattress out of the way. The book he had found years ago was hidden below his sheets and clothes. He remembered the day he’d found it. He had been exploring via the air ducts again when he had come across a room he had never entered before. He’d dropped down into it. On a desk had rested the book. He’d stuffed it in his clothes.

When he got back to his room, he’d read it. He did not understand everything in the book, it was alien to him. All his information had come to him via screens and touchpads. From what he did understand it was about a boy, like himself, called Harry. He found himself whisked away into a world nothing like that he had experienced for the first part of his life.

The others didn’t know about the book. Vi kept it to remind himself that there were things the others kept from him. He wasn’t stupid. He knew that what they taught him wasn’t all there was to know. There was more to the world than the facility. Even if there was nothing outside that he could see. There had to be more somewhere. Vi held the book as evidence of that fact.

Vi grabbed his clothes, a pair of light green thin trousers and a pale blue shirt and closed the drawer. ‘Scrubs,’ the others called them. He pulled them on quickly and splashed water on his face from the basin. It retracted into the wall. He walked up to the door.

‘Okay. I’m ready,’ he called out. A voice murmured from the other side. Although he couldn’t hear it he knew it was Donn telling the door to open. Since his last escape attempt two years ago they had programmed his door to only respond to their voices.

Whoo-

The facility shook violently. Vi put a hand out to steady himself but found nothing to hold onto. He fell and cracked his face against the wall. He tasted blood.

Vwirrrrrr.

The door stopped, partially open. Vi stood up.

‘Crap. Not again,’ groaned Vi. Donn’s face appeared in the small gap the door had left. Vi stepped back.

‘Step through.’

‘The gap’s too small Donn, I won’t fit.’

‘Step through.’

Vi sighed. He pushed himself through the gap, sucking gut as he did so. The frame and door pulled on his clothes and he was sure they were going to tear, but then he was through.

‘Follow me,’ Donn told him.

They walked down the long corridor, passing many unlit rooms. Vi had walked this way countless times. Every tile on the floor was as familiar to him as the back of his hands. Vi looked out of the large screen doors at the entrance of the facility. The ground ended a few hundred metres from the steps leading down from the door. Beyond that was nothing but sheer blackness. The ground curved around to either side in a perfect circle. Vi knew that those curves joined up again at the other side of the facility. He stopped to watch as a massive chunk of dark brown earth drifted up into the gloom. It slowly came apart into smaller pieces as it drifted further away. The more it travelled away from the facility the more it disintegrated until finally nothing remained.

‘Do not linger, Six,’ said Donn as he grabbed Vi’s arm.

‘My name is Vi.’ Vi shrugged him off. Donn did not respond but to continue walking. Vi had no choice but to follow. They progressed past many rooms. Corridors branched off, ending in nothingness. The walk was a long one, winding through most of the facility, but eventually they reached their destination. The others were waiting for them.

As Vi entered the large room the air itself seemed to close around him. The temperature was up way higher than it needed to me, making the atmosphere cloying. They sat in darkness upon two seats amidst hundreds, curved in rows extending diagonally up the from the platform where Vi and Donn stood. Donn stepped from the platform and joined the others in the shadows.

The platform was brightly lit, but Vi was used to this affair now. He shielded his face with his hand. His eyes adjusted quickly to the contrast in light levels and he could soon see the others perched in their usual places, alongside Donn.

‘Six. You know why you have been brought before us,’ boomed a second male voice. Vi knew it belonged to Artemis, the leader of the Tempus Terminatus. That was what they called themselves, these three.

‘We have prepared for this your whole life, and many of ours,’ continued Artemis. He stood as he said this and as he did so his form came into the light of the platform. Vi could see his wrinkled face and balding head. His eyes creased at the corners as he focused on Vi. A goatee surrounded his mouth, flecked with spittle as he shouted from the seats. The large room carried his voice, making it seem even louder. Louder than necessary.

‘Oh, don’t be so dramatic, Art.’ A third voice this time. Female. Artemis shot her a look. 

‘Seriously. We haven’t got the time for it.’

‘Pardon, Morrigan?’

This time it was the woman’s turn to stand. She was not as old as the other two, or at least did not look it. Her hair was still raven black and extended straight down almost to her waist. Like the others, she wore a lab coat, but hers was more tattered and frayed. She stood face to face with Artemis. They were of a height. Donn looked across at them and slowly shook his head.

‘You heard me,’ responded the woman. ‘I don’t see why we had to bring Viator all the way into the lecture theatre when we could have simply briefed him in the lab. We can’t sacrifice time to feed your dramatic flair. Every second counts. You know this more than any of us.’

Vi stood where he was, speechless. He could almost smell the tension in the air. He would never think of standing up to Artemis as directly as she did. But there had always been conflict between those two. Morri had told him once that it was because of their different backgrounds.

The main topics that set the two to arguing were the machine and Doctor Cole. Vi did not know much about the machine, other than it was kept in the lab. The lab was out of bounds to him. When he had asked about this machine, he had been confined to his room for a week and only let out for meals and lessons. He had not asked again, but his curiosity had only grown. After he had inquired, their mentions of it had become vaguer. That they were discussing taking him to the lab now sent a chill down his spine.

Doctor Cole was a more open subject. He had been Artemis and Donn’s mentor. They had not been in the same area of learning though. Artemis and Donn had been studying Quantum and Medical Physics, respectively. Vi did not know Morrigan’s connection to Cole, only that she had been close to him. Cole was here with them, in the facility. Only he was sleeping, as the others described it. A long sleep. It was a sleep that he could not wake from.

Artemis opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it again. He pulled his own lab coat tighter around himself as if to keep warm, although the room was stifling as it was.

‘As you will, Morrigan. We will take Six to the lab. Donn, bring him.’

This was it; they were actually going to the lab. Vi would finally get to see the fabled machine. Excitement made his breathing faster and he could not help but let a small smile onto his face. Artemis stalked out of the entrance Vi had come in, with Morri on his tail. Donn progressed towards Vi, almost at a jog. Donn never rushed. Whatever was going on, it was now beginning to worry Vi. His smile faded. Donn went to grab his collar but Vi dodged.

‘I can walk just fine by myself, thanks, Donn.’

‘Hurry, then. Artemis is not one to be kept waiting.’

They caught them up midway down the first corridor, outside the lunch hall. Artemis and Morrigan were in heated discussion.

‘I’ve worked with you towards this for longer than we can remember, Art. I think you need to begin respecting my opinion more. Viator should be told.’

Told what? Were they finally going to tell him what the machine was?

‘I really wish you hadn’t given him that name, Morrigan. It does not help to be attached to the subject.’

‘Viator is different. You said so yourself. He’s not like the others.’

What were they talking about? What others? It was just the four of them. It always had 
been. Five, if you counted Doctor Cole.

‘Number Six is the final step. He is the conclusion to our life’s work.’

‘He is our last, best hope to end this,’ agreed Morrigan, reluctantly.

Vi couldn’t stand it anymore. He sprinted the few metres between he and Donn and the others and grabbed hold of Artemis’s shoulder. Artemis instantly locked onto Vi’s hand with his own as he turned. He expertly bent Vi’s arm up behind his back, causing Vi to cry out.

‘What are you talking about?’ Vi exclaimed in pain. ‘What is going on? Tell me.’

‘You will find out soon, Viator,’ said Morrigan, soothingly.

‘He’ll find out now,’ added Artemis, letting Vi’s arm go. ‘We’re at the lab.’

Vi hadn’t even noticed their location. He turned to face where the others were looking. Fluctuating light poured through the small windows in the double doors, spilling into the murky hallway. A low thrumming vibrated in Vi’s head. He couldn’t tell if it was coming from the room or his own quickened pulse. Vi gulped.

Artemis threw open the doors. Vi covered his face as the light hit it. It took his eyes longer to adjust than they had in the lecture theatre. When they did, what he saw took his breath away.

The room was white and bare but for a bank of monitors and technical equipment along one wall. In the centre stood the machine. The main part of it was cylindrical in shape, stretching from the floor to ceiling. A curved door was set into it, facing the entrance to the room. The door had a small circular window embedded at Vi’s eye level, though slightly above the other’s eye lines. Cables extended from it, up to the ceiling and along it to the machinery on the wall. More cables led from above the door to a canister set into the floor beside the cylinder. It was transparent.

Inside the canister was darkness, and light, waging war. A vortex hung in the centre of it. Matter spun in towards the centre of the storm where there was nothingness. It was a hole in the fabric of the universe. A hole about the size of Vi’s fist. Around this hole spun bright particles of light, each no bigger than a fingertip. Brighter than any light Vi had seen. They lit the whole room. They darted around in a no particular pattern around the hole, never touching it, but orbiting it. Each particle had an opposite, moving in the reverse direction to its twin. Their movement made the shadows in the room dance.

‘What... what is it?’ asked Vi, rubbing his shoulder.

‘This, Six, is one half of the salvation of humanity,’ beamed Artemis.

‘What’s the other half?’ asked Vi, tearing his gaze away from the canister to look at Artemis. Artemis’s grin had turned into a cold, hard stare. A stare that was directed right at Vi.

‘That would be you, of course,’ stated Artemis, as if it were obvious. He motioned to Donn. Vi began to panic. He stepped away from the trio, but found himself against a wall. He looked for a way out but found that the only exit was the double doors, and between him and them was Donn. The old man advanced towards Vi. Within seconds he had secured Vi in a vice-like grip. Vi squirmed but found he could not move against the man’s body.

Artemis pressed a button on one of the panels along the wall. The door to the cylinder hissed open. Donn dumped Vi inside and the door slammed shut behind him. There was another hiss as the door pressurised. Vi felt the air thinning, breathing became harder. He pressed his face up against the small window.

‘What are you doing? What does this thing do?’ shouted Vi frantically. His voice broke at ‘thing’. He looked around at each of the three in turn. Donn stood silently behind Artemis. Morrigan was sat on the floor in the corner, her head in her hands.

‘This ‘thing’ as you call it, is the culmination of my work with Doctor Cole, Donn and Morrigan. It harnesses the power of a singularity combined with that of tachyon particles, it-,’ started Artemis.

‘Tachyon particles? You taught me they were hypothetical. They don’t exist.’

‘True. They don’t ‘exist’ in the strictest sense of the word. What you see is simply their shadow as they travel.’

‘Shadow? But they’re so bright...’

‘We’re into conceptual physics now, Six. We’re not following the usual laws you’ve been taught.’

‘If I’m what all this was for, then why teach me the wrong thing?’ Vi thumped on the door. It did not make a sound. In fact, all it did was make his hands hurt, and worsen the pain in his shoulder.

‘Teaching you helped us to revise the basics while we worked on this project. On you.’ Artemis started to interact with the controls on the wall. The low thrumming increased. It definitely wasn’t Vi’s pulse. This was coming from the canister. Vi watched as the glowing particles increased in speed until they were nothing more than a spherical shell of light around the singularity.

‘Morri?’ gasped Vi, choking down a sob. His whole world was being torn apart. She looked up, and there were tears in her eyes.

‘I’m sorry... Viator. I’m so, so sorry. You’ll be okay. I promise.’ She got up and walked towards the cylinder, wiping her face as she did so. She stopped a metre from the window. All Vi could see was her face. The room began to shake and they both shook with it.

‘I’m not okay! None of this is okay!’

‘You’re going on a journey, Vi. To a place you’ve never been before. Like the boy in your book.’

'My book? How do you know about the book?’

‘It was my book. I left it there for you. In Doctor Cole’s office. I knew you’d be drawn there.’ The room stopped shaking.

‘What? But-’ Tears were in Vi’s eyes now. They ran from them, warm and wet. They never hit the floor. Instead, they drifted off his skin into the air. Vi looked down. Except there was no longer a down. Vi’s feet were no longer in contact with the base of the cylinder. He floated in space, like the singularity floating in the canister.

‘You need to stop this, Viator. You need to stop us. This machine.’

‘What do you think I’m trying to do? Let me out, Morri, and I’ll stop this!’

Morrigan was dragged out of the way. Artemis’s face replaced hers. He was struggling to stand against the room shaking.

‘Listen to me now, Six. What Morrigan said is right. Where you’re going, you need to prevent any of this from happening. Stop us from creating this machine. Not now, but before.’

‘I don’t understand.’ A tingling spread up Vi’s back. Artemis’s face began to dissolve, as did the rest of the world. His mouth moved but Vi could not hear what he was saying. And then he was gone.

Everything was gone.

All Vi could feel was an immense pressure. He was in total darkness. He could hear nothing.

The next thing he knew there was dull orange glow in his vision. His eyelids were shut, that much he could tell. He tried to open them but couldn’t. He was unable to breath. He felt hands, hands larger than any hands had any right to be. They were holding him, bearing him in the air. Something hit him on his back. Suddenly he could breathe again. He took the largest breath of his life.

‘What do you want to call him?’ spoke a voice.

‘Victor,’ replied a woman. ‘Victor Cole.’