(Somewhere in Kansas-2012)
“Ready Miss Rhodes?” The small mousey technician looked around the monitor at the young woman on the platform. She nodded. “All right then, stand-by everyone.”
A chorus of “standing by” echoed across the lab. The young woman shifted where she stood; pulling on the shoulder straps of her backpack, mentally checking that she had everything: wallet, music player, plane ticket, books, phone, clothes, Japanese to English dictionary. Jessica Rhodes was a woman of average build, with steel grey eyes that sometimes looked blue or green, auburn hair, and a perpetual tan. By popular standards she might be pretty if, it dictated, she kept her hair in a conventional style (maybe not so short) and wore makeup. She was more comfortable in t-shirts and jeans than any designer fashions, despised pink, and never wore skirts. A strong and determined woman who wouldn’t take no for an answer, she had been in love only once.
Now she stood nervously on the small raised platform at Newtronics headquarters watching the lab technician and his assistant run through the final checklist.
“Stand-by Tokyo,” the technician spoke into a headset and, from her position, Jessica could hear faintly, “Standing by,” issuing from the earpiece.
“Ready?” the small man scanned the room. “Teleportation in five, four, three …” He was pressing buttons as he spoke, Jessica’s hand tightened on the strap of her backpack. “…two, one.” He pressed the final button. Jessica closed her eyes, but the light still blinded her as she became the first person to attempt a long-distance teleportation.
She landed with an audible thump, which she had expected, but was immediately disoriented by the rocking motion that threw her off balance. Jessica opened her eyes as she fell backward and glimpsed blue sky before she landed on her butt on the deck of… a ship? It was unlike any ship she had ever seen, besides a spaceship in a movie, yet it was rocking gently in a harbor near other ships like it. Was Japan developing some new type of ship? Obviously, something had gone wrong with the teleportation and she had somehow landed here. Jessica was distracted from her thoughts by a loud noise and looked up, expecting a plane, and saw… a space ship. It could be nothing else.
“Oh shit.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she panicked; her palms began to sweat and she was shook by spasms of trembling. She slowly started scooting her way backwards, only to be stopped by the railing. Jessica felt her breath come in ragged gasps as she turned and faced the monstrous impossible city before her.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment