The Portal
An excerpt of my upcoming short stories....
The Portal
By
Bapru Marma
The portal
Belinda hurried up the hillocks to hasten her arrival at the house. Saturday runs are one of the busiest days for her, being in real estate when the world is busy savouring the sun, beach and caffeine, she is busy performing in front of an audience eagerly clenching, thumping their palms. As auction pitch went up and down and swayed left and right so was their mood and head movement in unison. Tucking her shirts, she grabbed tightly around the pamphlet, shifting it from left to right as if to redistribute the weights across her torso. In these terminal hours of earth’s orbit formidable creatures are bustling with chores from yesteryears, bartering for minuscule
She keyed in through the garage and profusely apologized for being unpunctual to the gaping, chafed assemblage with pricked up ears, and somewhat exuberant crowd. Among the ardent passionate partaker were
For generations the house has seen it’s fair share of commotion and controversies as the only portal available for travel into NaiPre.
As she walked up the stairs with her immaculate auburn hair, straggling keen eyes followed her arrival.
She stood in the podium opening her notebook, ‘Ladies and gentlemen. I apologise sincerely sorry for being not on time. As all of you might be aware that there’s some hinge problem going on with earthlings. I had to make mends on some urgent issues threatening to close the portal for future operations. Had to engage some birds to reorganize the operations. Nonetheless it shouldn’t worry you for what you are about to bid. Today we gather for gaining the rightful ownership of a lucrative compound held by Khyong Sa Mang (Riverland King). A brief history on the family for new comers. Khyong Sa Mang Chichin has been ruling the water world for centuries controlling the trade, business transactions, safe passage and above all harbouring a gateway to NaiPre. Unfortunately, king himself couldn’t be here but on his behalf his close friend and butler will be overseeing the auction. The portal you know have been a game changer for wayfarers across the galactic it has helped our species to thrive and spread across various continents and planets. The only portal that you need to maintain your link to former lineage of our ancestry and thrive in the place that you live currently. The portal has been used by Great Magicians, scientists, shamans, illusionists, spellcasters, thaumaturge, occultists, necromancer, psychic, traders, businessman, and especially by negotiators. The starting price has been set for the property to be 10000 Magnetite iron mines spread across Andromeda galaxy which is pretty low compared to light years that you would be traversing. There’s drinks to be had on that table. Make yourself comfortable and have a look around. Ask me any questions that you might have anytime. Oh and don’t forget to hydrate yourself in this summer hit. ’
Someone in the crowd raised a hand, ‘What about the dislodged roof tiles that created opening in roof? How did it happen? Is it mendable? What’s the costs for repair?’.
Crowd turned to source of the question. With glowing eyes veiled behind crepuscular caped robe, only ocular eyeball visible. Tucking edges of the robe with silver talons he flicked it over his shoulder.
Momentarily taken aback, Belinda recovered from her trance, ‘Anything is fixable that was part of the last week’s annual ritualistic consequential endeavours. With the right price right solution can be called upon. It’s all about price, person and time. The quicker you want it fixed the more you pay and the higher up the chart you have to go to seek right qualification and solutions. Real question is whether you want to pay the right price for right solutions in a time frame acceptable to you. That’s a great question by the way. I am sorry would you care to introduce yourself to other guests?’
‘I am the son of Alingbo the clever. You may call me Oyuk the shrewd. There’s a rumour that the portal is shrinking and it has been repaired multiple times in the last few months to no avail. Hence this arrangement of quick sale. It is losing money instead of making it. You talk about the right price, right timing. Maybe the timing is for quick sale as you are not making enough money to keep it open. In the last five years the user’s has been switching to more easier methods of Dilation travel rather than through portal which gives one day’s of headache, nausea, vomiting, let alone irregular heart pounding some experience.’
‘Mr Oyuk all technology comes with its pros and cons. When you think about portal you are talking about it’s massive transport capabilities, a constant connection between two worlds only steps over multiple times of the day, as and when needed, whereas dilation is a slower process and oftentimes takes almost half a day to get things done. Not to mention the physical challenges travellers face. Long term backpain, sleep anpea, arthritis, sciatica pains, etc. Travellers often times complaint about hallucinations days after travels. You just have to weigh your options. Portal is the proven technology that our ancestors has developed and have been refined over many centuries I think we can all agree that has it not been for the portal most of us in this room won’t even have seen this beautiful place that people call Planet Earth’, She paused to catch her breath.
Agape mouths could be seen around the room. Mr. Oyuk’s intention of muddying the water is spreading across the room.
Except for old timers who seemed content with status quo newer breeds of recent generations seemed sceptical who are more open to experiment new things without bothering about old proven technologies. To them new is always better even if it involves a few headaches and pains here and there.
Mr Oyuk’s smug face isn’t very hard to read.
‘In the last 10 months the portal has been out of operation for 5 months. If you call that a fully developed technology refined over the years. I think we are better off sticking with new techs from netherworld that is yet to be proven operational per se.’, Oyuk’s inveighing demeanour didn’t change.
‘I am a bit confused as to your intention. I think we are open to negotiate with someone who is interested and have vested commitment to repair, maintain and operate this iconic gateway for centuries to come. With days as hot as ovenic temperature and weather’s as dusty as calahari I’d say we’re better off sticking with proven transportation system rather than traveling via quantum realm. The quantum realm that is the basis of dilation travel is an emerging tech impressive nonetheless. But we are better off sticking with a proven mode of transport that has been successful for centuries’, Belinda’s cheery mode thwarted her hidden anguish initiated by irritating Oyuk.
As far as she is concerned Oyuk’s been known to cause problems from what she heard from her peers. In the lead upto last month’s apparent salvaging sale of AirSledge he showed up on the auction day and successfully negotiated a lower bargain deal with the seller. His points of argument lay on figuring out damages, defects and expenses he has to incur before making it fly worthy. Maybe he is trying to blow similar fluke. So far he seemed to be trying to do just that.
“Why don’t you let those bothering be someone else’s worries?”, Myokshe the fast spoke in a nonchalant way. The words cut through like knives and seemed to have stymied the flow of words.
At that a momentary silence hung in the air.
Hopping onto the podium Belinda got hold off of the situation and broke the silence.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, I really appreciate your presence today here in this wonderful real estate known as “The Portal”. As you already know for centuries this has been a vital blood supply to our races for thriving in this alien world called earth. A vital connection exacerbated by our need to become interplanetary supreme being. The experimental construction of Dyson’s sphere over red dwarf five years ago has set the bar pretty high for what can be achieved if wits of our races are put together just as we did with the portal. Quantum dimensions once were realms of entertainers, gamers, enthusiasts of playful nature but see what have we achieved. This could’ve never been accomplished if we were content and happy with status quo. Never thought of straining our thought process. The moment again presents here with this house. To reset the bar and hurl into completely new bearings. Let’s begin the journey. What would be starting bid for the house Mr. Kasa?’. She turned to the butler Kasa.
‘1000 titanium mines in exoplanetary systems’, Kasa raised his voice so that others in the room could clearly hear the word ‘exoplanet’.
A gasped reverberation went around the room. The exorbitant starting price has already blew away every doubts that was drifting in the room. Surely no one expected the price to be cheap! But titanium mines in exoplanet! Wow that’s one heck of a price. With that many mines unless someone was completely innocent one can build planets and have several moons created and still have enough leftovers to construct massive fleets of weaponry to annihilate moons, asteroids, competitors and divert trajectories of orbital movement. But in turn what one is getting is still not something to be undermined. A chance to travel anywhere that you know of, with infralocation. Infralocations are predetermined travel paths established by astronomers with powerful infrared telescopes and satellites. The saying is “If you can see it you can travel it”. So far exoplanets such as orbital 8, orbital 10 and numerous other infralocations were explored and deemed safe for Tongsa Alien Races. This gives hopes that nearby other exoplanets are only a matter of time before they are being listed as ready for travel. The discovery has paved the way for unprecedented innovations into telescope technology advancement and becoming a successful bred in multiplanetary colonisation. The next set of technologies involve installing telescopes in exoplanets for peering far out beyond.
Just when it seemed the silence lingered permanently locho the bad added, ‘How about braving a quick demonstration before the auction if you are so inclined on it’s present status?’
‘Caveat Emptor Mr. Locho. You know what’s it capable of, what’s it’s legendary usage and users were, trails of historical references are available but unfortunately, we don’t have time enough to veer into the demonstration direction.’, Belinda commanded.
The portal was housed in a podium with dials resembling that of an analog watch from days ago with curtailed words housed in a glass house. The transparent dome like house contained three rows of seats with full height adjustment, tilt, swivel and turn features. Analog instructions work as a good indicator to direct what functions the buttons commands as holographic user interface overtakes the command-and-control centre.
‘I would suggest you move away from entrance Mr Oyuk and don’t put your hands on any buttons’, Belinda’s irritation unequivocally visible., ‘No fiddling please’.
With a sly smile Oyuk clicked the hatch door open and stepped into command-and-control room. Against Belinda’s wide-eyed protests, he proceeded to fiddle with keys with finesse. Dextrous finger movement bedazzled Belinda in a way she froze as stupefaction struck her.
As if in reverie she watched Mr. Oyuk turn on the lights, slide the gear knob to release, change the stationary Globe GPS into a whirlwind of bearings, making changes to stationary geogrid and lobbing into god-knows-what light years. From the corner of her eye she sensed in a flash that few thousands black holes might at least be on the cards for wayfaring.
Blood ran out of her cheek as she sensed that Oyuk is prepping for haywire journey into extremes just to get hold of the precious portal. Security chief lunged forward in an apparent futile bid to secure last minute entrance through the slitted transparent window as it slid close. His ear got caught up in between the opening and a soundless shriek came out of his throat followed by rivers of blood from ear canal.
As the portal swung into motion doors opening to cosmic world gave way to iridescent variegated chrome. Oyuk stood facing the portal and let out a sigh of cheeky grimace as he synced his watch with the portals controller. The watch would make the controlling the ship much easier as he would be able to unlock advance hidden features of the ship. Ignored, focused, determined he stepped into the portal with an eerie confidence with only a backpack and lots of unanswered questions. Sparks flowed around the circular entrance with an eerie snap of winds and he vanished into thin air.
The lake at the end of the earth
It’s been only one millennia since Planet earth phased into Type 2 stellar culture of Astronomer Kardashev’s civilisation scale. But a lot of progress in technology far outpaced his prediction way before millennia. Advancement in technology kept up pace with him for quite a while until it degraded for the last 500 years. The last 500 years would be classed as neo-nazi period for science as the division between Eshe- The Low and Egri-The Rich grew further and further apart, sometimes completely in opposing directions culminating in chaotic revolutions across the planetary empires and realms. Worm holes, interstellar travels have sped up as scientists, both rogue and talented, discovered and invented to manipulate time dilation and space-time curvatures to their own benefits. Obviously, the exploration brought forth riches and mineral resources from across the galactic exoplanets weaved in the constant tug of expansion and spiral motion. Exoplanetary living species found so far across the galaxy proved to be carbonaceous being similar to us. But for millennia none has found any life made of Silicaceous form which has been a prime presumption of scientific communities for millennia. So when a silicaceous life bound alien traversed through portal one day and silently acclimatised it’s existence among living beings of earth none had the slightest idea as to how it evolved subsequently. Until one day an expeditious groups of students stumbled upon an epilithic feeding on fish and gurgling out its bones in a penultimate gloat. The groups left the secluded waterfall so hurriedly that none had chances to collect their clothes left on nearby camping ground’s soft sand. One might ask how did they know it was based on silicon-based life form? At the time they encountered none had slightest idea that it is a silicon alien lifeform but the description they provided later to police did confirm few traits that resembled that of life based on silicon. One standout feature confirmed by all of them was occasional exhalation of particulate sand particle through nostrils. While recovering from such traumatic experiences one surviving student came forward on behalf of everyone and wanted to set the story straight. His story confirmed the following details-
It was weekend of First snow fall in April, the day was sunny, with clouds frequenting sky and occasionally blocking out the sun, with breeze sweeping past north to west with serene tranquillity. Groups comprised of 4 couples with one single student whom others japed as to how to find a girlfriend. Bombarded with all of the advice one could amass, he looked for ways to dodge the free advice that was being hurled at him nonstop. He was the first to take a plunge when the group reached the lake. Within seconds of plunging into water he frantically swam out of the water with pale white face. One of the macho young lad laughed hysterically noting his stature and scarper. He laughed and laughed until he was numb down the stomach. None believed the story he tried to convince with. As the macho student took centre stage to dive deep into the pool of water the creature emerged from deep with writhing wholesome catfish in its mouth. Though half submerged in water the creature exhaled plumes of sandy dust into air as it chewed away the flesh of electric eel and seemed surprised to see human being scrutinising it far from the bank. Bloods dripping, the creature of 10 feet height length, body widths of 5 feet, muscular arms, gilled ear, conjoined fingers took less than a few seconds to dive and disappear into the deep with fish still tucked in mouth.
The news took no time to break across the country and around the globe of a haunting figurine lurking in shadows waiting for quick meal with razor sharp baring teeth and knifelike claws. Scientists both supporting and doubting came forward with their own theories as to how an alien creature may or may not last in planet earth. In the meantime, while the whole country was plunged into deep debates as to the authenticity of the debacle, a few hundred ships containing alien life form arrived at the same lake where purported alien being was living. Thanks to the portal’s incredible feat of accessible planets in far reaching exoplanets in the habitable zone, space travel has become easier than bread and butter. Merchants across the galactic colonies looked eager to embrace the modern travel convenience. Sky rocket demand proved to be a major inconvenience for researchers, scientists and engineers etc. who makes the best use of such instrument. Many interesting parties evolved out of this chaotic invention. Invention generations has been fortunate enough to keep it functional and operational.
Comments
Post a Comment