Strings: something big is about to happen... Read online

  “Intelligence cannot be accurately measured at this level of magnification. However, new research suggests that we may soon harness more of the power of our minds to see beyond what the universe currently reveals to us.”

  “We shouldn’t take the hot, if there is life.” Li contributed his thought reluctantly.

  “When will we meet the next system choice?” queried Lom.

  “7, 081 blips,” said Sim.

  “We are so close to winning!”

  “Who cares about a few microbes?”

  “How long will it take them to die?”

  “If they are alive in the first place!”

  “Depending on intelligence and location, less than a dwil,” announced Sim. “But you must take into account that, though a dwil, to us, is nothing more than the blinking of an eye, it could represent a substantial period of time to a microbe.”

  “I never did really understand that,” said Lon.

  There was telepathic jeering from the others, until Rim shared his thought: “I want to go home.”

  The others concurred, regretfully, but unanimously. And, although Ti still had reservations, there was always the discretionary rule, which said that, if a player needed to take a risk on less than adequate information provided, they could choose to bring home the specimen for study purposes.

  “All for one and one for all?” Sim queried.

  “Ratch nor dwl! Ratch!” came the reply.

  ***

  Hugh was watching the news.

  “Maddy! Come and see this.”

  There was something in his voice that made her come. And, looking at the screen, a tickle started in her mind, which always signified the beginning of clarity.

  “They noticed it two weeks ago, but they don’t know what it is. Just that it’s getting closer at some speed that’s impossible to calculate. They don’t think it’s solid. Some kind of gas cloud. They say it will pass right through us.”

  The astronomer on the television explained that the objects detected were nebulous in nature and changed shape constantly, registering slight changes in density. They covered an enormous area of space and were travelling at unprecedented speeds, seeming to disappear in one location and reappear in another. Physicists were excited. They were talking about wormholes. Science fiction aficionados were dressing up and organising conventions to discuss the possibility of alien visitors coming to Earth. The astronomer was asked whether the objects could be travelling at ‘warp speed’, and he laughed with the presenter, saying that would be really something!

  Maddy stared.

  “What is it?” asked Hugh.

  “It’s happening.”

  “What’s happening?”

  “Ratch nor dwl! Ratch!”

  ***

  “Approaching system, one thousand dwil. Ready nets. All play!”

  Li got off first, barging into Rim, who used his booster to swing round and face Lon, somersaulting into him and flinging him away. Ti dived, streamlining, taking shape, increasing in mass, towards the hot, only to be shoved off course by Lon.

  Sim awarded points and penalties on the scoreboard. Whoever captured this hot would secure a victory for the team and a coveted distinction for himself.

  “Watch out, lightweight!” Li took on mass and engaged full booster for twenty dwil.

  “No you don’t!” Rim sent out one of his remaining shockwaves and Li curled into a ball, cursing.

  All four were still in the running.

  “One hundred dwil remaining,” announced Sim, calmly.

  Shape changing at will, increasing mass to the max, and using the last allocated energy to boost, Lin veered off target and lost speed. Li came in and shock-waved Ti, who cursed and slowed. Two of them left, heat shields on, salm treated nets at the ready. At the last ten dwil, the countdown began. There would be nothing in it. Lin touched his booster, a dangerous strategy at such close proximity, and cut in front, drawing back his net and coming around.

  “Ratch nor dwl! Ratch!” he cried.

  *****

  People in the northern hemisphere screamed, as the sun disappeared. One moment it was there and the next, the sky was in darkness.

  Maddy put her arms around Hugh and held the thought that blazed in her mind of a coiled string lit by apertures, into which she flew, emerging into a universe on a scale more enormous than any she’d ever imagined. And before her, visions of boys and girls, of sorts, gathered round a table, examining what looked like coloured marbles in a vast space, brightly lit by lamps that looked like suns.

  *****

  “Be sure to examine the blue particle brought back by Ti Drar, gathered in the proto-nets we’ve been trying out. Well done to Ti. It was taken under the discretionary rule and may be of particular interest.”

  “Where is it, sir?” asked a female student.

  “In the microscopic particle accelerator.”

  There was a murmur of excitement.

  “Gather round and select maximum enhanced magnification. We will review the collisions on the screen later. For now, observe.”

  “It looks pretty,” said Lin. “It’s a pity it’s covered in microbes.”

  A thought wave of rippling laughter flooded the room and echoed into space.

  Other titles by B. A. Spicer:

  My Grandfather’s Eyes (dark, psychological drama)

  A Good Day for Jumping (mystery and suspense on the island of Crete)

  The Undertaker’s Son (mystery and suspense in France)

  Short stories:

  Angels

  Strings

  Peaches in the Attic

  Humorous titles by Bev Spicer:

  One Summer in France (two girls in a tent - Bev and Carol, Book 1)

  Bunny on a Bike (Playboy croupiers in 80s London - Bev and Carol, Book 2)

  Stranded in the Seychelles (teachers in paradise - Bev and Carol, Book 3)

 

 

  B A Spicer, Strings: something big is about to happen...

 

 

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