Machine (standard:science fiction, 991 words)
Author: Lev821	Added: Nov 08 2011	Views/Reads: 4795/0	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
What's he building in his basement that can have unforseen implications?

Despite trying to think of anything else except his obsession, he found
his thought patterns returning to the problem he faced. That problem 
was lying in the basement of his detached house on the outskirts of a 
village. He stared into a candle-flame, hoping the answers would come 
from there, as he was conserving electricity, so used candles when it 
grew dark. 

He was sat in his living room, in his well-used armchair, in complete
silence, contemplating. Nobody knew what he was doing. People would 
probably think he had a screw loose. Loose screws were perhaps part of 
the problem, considering the amount of electrical equipment he was 
putting together. There were nine computers down there, each of them 
taken apart and an attempt made to fuse them all together to route 
electricity into two points. At the end of those points were two 
diamonds, which he believed would harness the electricity and convert 
its output into alpha radiation, which in turn would bend the 
surrounding space, much like putting a straw in a glass of water, 
images distorted. With space being related to time, it would therefore 
have to bend time as well. He was quite convinced it would work, that 
he could travel through time, as previously he had worked it all out 
mathematically. What he could not fathom was how to control where and 
when he would end up once he stepped between the diamonds. 

He had one monitor set up, the others were dismantled, which he was
trying to wire so he could type the destination and year. However that 
aspect of it might be harder to work out as he was doubtful he could 
type: ‘Antarctica, 1845', and actually end up there once the machine 
was on. The destination as it stood now, was probably where the machine 
was, only in a different time. He could perhaps type a date in the 
past, maybe two or three years ago, and end up in an empty basement. He 
had no idea. It was all theory at present, and he wondered if he should 
buy an animal from the pet shop, turn the machine on and throw it 
between the diamonds. He decided against it. He needed to see the 
destination. He was also aware of the problem that if he went into the 
past, the machine would not be there for him to return to the present, 
having worked out that there would be a time distortion between the 
diamonds in whichever time he was in. Therefore all he needed to do was 
return to where the machine would be, as time between the diamonds 
would be distorted as long as the machine was on, so he could return at 
any time. Yet he couldn't guarantee he would arrive in one piece. Would 
his biological matter, his very cells arrange back to normal once 
stepped into the vortex? He knew he would have to concoct some sort of 
programme to have everything constructed in an orderly way. 

Such was his curiosity and his eagerness to see if his calculations
worked, he made his way into the basement, turning the light on. There 
were two parallel tables, each covered with computer innards, but all 
connected to route electricity to the diamonds on each table corner. 
First he had to be sure that there was a time distortion between the 
diamonds, and all he had to do for that was switch it on. It was only a 
blank wall behind the gemstones, so if time was metamorphing, it would 
be difficult to tell, so he walked back out into the kitchen and took 
down a calender with a picture of a running leopard. It was quite apt, 
he thought, as the photographer had caught a snapshot of time. Time was 
frozen for the leopard. 

He took it down into the basement and sellotaped it to the wall between
the diamonds. If the leopard distorted when he turned everything on, 
then he knew it should work. To turn everything on, all he had to do 
was press the switches on the walls, next to where it was all plugged 
in. He didn't know why he was hesitant, perhaps it was in case nothing 
happened, or perhaps it was the fame of having invented a time machine. 
He proceeded to press the switches, but stopped at the last. 

He took a deep breath, and pressed it. With avid curiosity, he stood
watching the leopard between the diamonds. The electricity flowed 
through the equipment on both tables, generating a low humming sound 
which seemed to grow louder as the power flowed through. It reached the 
diamonds, and they glowed bright red, proof of the fact that it was 
converting to alpha radiation. The leopard looked no different, there 
didn't seem to be any interaction between each diamond, but the droning 
sound grew to be deafening, and the gems grew brighter, glowing like 
scarlet stars. 

It was then that he saw that the leopard was becoming blurred, but it
looked like it was running. Time was indeed becoming distorted, and 
before his mind went blank, he was aware that his feet were no longer 
touching the floor. 

He woke up where he previously had been sitting, in his armchair in the
living room, staring at the candle-flame with no memory at all of what 
had happened. He couldn't have any memory of it as it hadn't happened 
yet. He had indeed managed to invent the time machine, and it had sent 
him back ten minutes. The thing was, as all things that had happened in 
the past, have indeed happened, he had no freewill. This meant that he 
had exactly the same thoughts, and performed the same actions as he did 
previously. He still contemplated his time machine, wondering whether 
or not it would work, and would continue this cycle forever, inventing 
two things at the same time. The time machine and immortality.


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