Drabble Wednesday: Exploration

Today, on Drabble Wednesday we go exploring... into space, through dimensions and below the ocean’s surface.

To Boldly Go...

A voice reverberated through the crowd of eager scientists at NASA Mission Control.

“Discovery One has passed out of the solar system. The exploration probe is transmitting. We are receiving video communication. We will soon see what is beyond...” Abruptly the screen filled with static as the probe’s transmission ended.

“Communication is down! I repeat communication is down! We’ve lost Discovery One!”

Outside the solar system, charred pieces of metal, the remains of the ill-fated Discovery One, floated past a black, cylindrical security drone. Just one of millions patrolling the galactic quarantine perimeter of hazardous species 4BZ112~THX, native designation: human.

~*~

Quantum Phenomenon

Curiosity.

A strange, essential human trait, but a dangerous one. At least I’ve found it so, for it led me here to a rather sizable predicament.

I’m a scientist, and you may imagine curiosity is my stock in trade. My field of study is quantum mechanics, and recently I made a breakthrough.

I found a method to generate interdimensional doorways.

Hence my current problem.

It was that last one, you see, the last door I opened. The one that led to Hell. Now I have demons trapped in the closet, and I don’t think the lock will hold much longer.

~*~

Under the Sea

They said I was mad!

They were probably right. I may indeed be quite insane. If my colleagues had been smarter, they would’ve locked me away in some deep hole and thrown away the key.

For, I found it.

Years of painstaking research, of ridicule, laughter, but I located the coordinates. I discovered the position where the city lies beneath the waves. Where He waits dreaming.

But today He shall awake.

I will pierce the black seas of infinity and rouse the beast.

He shall rise and return to this world.

The Old Gods will walk the earth once more.

© A. F. Stewart 2016 All Rights Reserved

Drabble Wednesday: Strange Travels

We embark on a journey today on Drabble Wednesday, a trek through worlds sublime, and stories short…

Bon Voyage

I heard the gulls squawking, and the sound of crashing waves as the ocean rolled past the day into twilight. The last vestige of sun scattered through the gathered clouds, glinting sparkles off the water. In the company of this grand sea, I remembered better days, sorted memories like photos in a forgotten album; scenes of picnics at the beach, sunset walks, laughing children.

The reminiscences helped. They distracted from the cold, from the water that invaded my nose, my mouth, my lungs. Then I shut my eyes as I choked my final breath and sank beneath the ocean’s surface. 

The Morning

He settled on the grassy hillside and removed a hard biscuit from his rucksack. He chewed the tough bread—his only breakfast—and watched the sun rise above the fog shrouded mountains he left behind. Wondrous colours diffused the sky, a melange of titian and burnt umber, brushed with blush, that spread across a heavenly field of sapphire blue.

The old tree still stood in the meadows beyond the mountains and he remembered the day he carved his initials, and Ellen’s, in the bark. The day he first kissed her. She was gone now, and he could no longer stay.

Rendezvous

Alice waited on the train platform, her carpetbags packed with her belongings. She clutched her ticket, wondering for the umpteenth time if she was a fool. Risking it all for love, for Avery, a man with twinkling hazel eyes and promises of marriage. Her father would never take her back, never forgive her shunning the husband he picked out in favour of a gentleman he considered a wastrel.

She checked her small pocket watch again. What would she do if he didn’t show?

“I’m not that late, am I?”

Alice spun, greeted by his smile and a matching train ticket.