Wormholes

PART ONE: WORMHOLES AND HAPPY ENDINGS

Dr. Zednik (Zed) tinkers frantically, yet masterfully, with his creation before him. He slams on his keyboard in short bursts, measuring, calculating, but never resting. Indecipherable code runs across the many screens in the lab. Zed's eyes leap from screen to screen, triple checking for mistakes in his calibrations. His machine slowly comes to life with bright lights and strange humming sounds. 

On the other side of the lab, Aaron sits in his Gravchair and watches his older brother erratically switch back and forth between consoles and type rushed codes into every screen. Aaron feels like a dumb third wheel. He only brings me along for pity, Aaron thinks. Nevertheless, he is happy to be there and excited to witness potential breakthroughs in modern science - if that ever happens.  

Unlike his brother, Aaron never tested high enough on the RATs for advanced education. After primary school, he was assigned to work in the asteroid belt as many athletic young men are. It isn’t the most glorious job, but it worked for Aaron. He was happy. Until one day, a prospecting drill broke loose, crushing Aaron against the drilling platform. It destroyed his spine, paralyzing his legs and left arm. He was only sixteen years old when it happened.

 A huge settlement from the mining company ensured that Aaron would never have to work another day but it inadvertently doomed him to an unfulfilling life. Unable to perform the physical duties inherent to the workforce he RAT tested into and unable to enroll in advanced education, he finds himself lost and bitter. Zed is the best thing in his life and he is certain that he would be lost and alone without him.  

Zed blames himself for his brother’s accident, a notion that has not once crossed Aaron’s mind. There is no logical tie between Zed and his brother’s accident, but it is a cross he will force himself to bare forever. He does everything he can for his younger brother, his only real friend in the world. I should have been there to protect him, Zed always forces into his psyche. He’s tried to get Aaron’s name up further on the list for Advanced Education consideration and has pulled every string he can but fighting the RATs Council is an impossible task even for the rich and powerful. The test results are taken as gospel. So, Zed has been educating his younger brother as best he can without arousing suspicion, in hopes that he will one day be cleared to legitimately take Aaron under his wing. But his RAT scores say he’s too dumb for real consideration. 

“Wormhole manipulation,’’  Aaron exclaims sarcastically to his brother, always teasing him for being too serious and too protective of his work. He can barely handle people poking fun at his work.  “Let today be the day we finally discover time travel!” he boasts, knowing this will get a rise out of his brother. 

“Well,” he laughs at his brother’s joke, “not exactly but that’s close enough.” Zed brushes off Aaron’s attempts at humor as this is the 216th time they have sat in this room together, conducting this experiment. Aaron knows the details by heart now and is tired of reciting them. Maybe science isn’t for me after all, he thinks as he ponders the monotony of doing the same failed experiment repeatedly, never making any progress.

My brother jests, Zed snickers to himself. Time travel is a fool’s errand. 

The experiment always goes the same way. Zed creates a micro-black hole, shoots some lasers into it, makes a few observations, takes some notes, downloads data, then collapses the hole. Things can get weird, fuzzy, and at times confusing but there’s never anything profound. And Zed has it very well contained.  It’s the same thing every single time. Aaron honestly wouldn't be able to tell if an experiment is successful, but he certainly knows what it looks like to fail. At least Aaron considers it a failure - his brother is probably collecting worthwhile data every time they run it, but all of that doesn’t mean much to Aaron’s uneducated self who sees the same boring, inconclusive results 215 times they have run it. 

 But this time things are different.  

Aaron sits in his chair several feet behind his brother and prepares for the experiment - he doesn’t really do much, but Zed tries to make him feel part of it. Zed sits at the master control panel with unbreakable determination. His unrelenting passion and pursuit of understanding make him glow. His fiery ambition burns in his eyes as he personifies the inventive fury of a mad scientist. Let’s change the world, he thinks aloud. 

Dr. Zednik fires up the readied and newly calibrated machine. Aaron can’t feel much, but the massive rumble bellowing from beneath him is unmistakable raw power. The ground vibrates and the room begins to shake. Aaron looks up from his tablet and towards his brother who has the most sinister grin he has ever seen. The room begins to contort, and spatial cognition seems to break down. The sounds are hard to describe as loud, but nothing else can be heard over them.  Zed and Aaron feel the sound all around them. It seems to take on a nearly physical form as it suffocates and dissociates them. 

“Brother!” Aaron shouts at Zed but can’t even hear the words leave his mouth. He’s not sure they even did. 

Zed types into his console as fast as his fingers can move. More codes. The black hole becomes violently unstable and grows in power. Something Zed types into the computer causes the black hole to split into four smaller black holes, each one small enough that he can close it. But it fails and he creates three additional equally powerful black holes that all collapse back into themselves, creating one massive, unstable, and uncontrollable blackhole that starts to warp the lab and all its reality. 

A bolt of electricity emits from the black hole, striking Zed’s console and sending him flying backward as the console is destroyed. Zed looks up in terror at the massive black hole that now looks more like an inviting wormhole. It is mesmerizing. This…is it, Zed thinks to himself. “This is it!” he shouts, waving his hands in the air. No one can hear him. 

Zed approaches his side console and begins typing into his program. A beam of light is quickly emitted into the hole in quick succession for three seconds then stops. The wormhole appears to stabilize but the brothers’ perceptions of reality are being compromised. 

After some quick typing, Zed blasts the hole with another beam of light, and the whole thing changes. The all-encompassing sound is gone. He can see through it now, and all he sees is war and suffering. Humanity tearing itself apart. Famine and fire rolling across the lands. Tears swell in his eyes as he tries to fathom what he’s witnessing. Where, when, how? 

The wormhole is getting bigger again, growing in strength and potential catastrophe. Zed tries to collapse it on his console when a large piece of stainless-steel rafter is ripped off the ceiling by the electromagnetic power of the hole. It breaks his leg and pins him to the ground. So, he turns to his paralyzed brother. 

“Aaron!” he shouts at his brother. “Aaron, we must shut it down!”

Despite the sound being gone, Aaron cannot hear his brother’s desperate calls for help. He is transfixed by what he sees through the portal. It’s him. But it’s not him. This version of him is not paralyzed. He sees himself running through luscious green fields with his wife and children. He chases them, picks them up, and tosses them in the air. It’s everything Aaron has ever wanted in life, and he is seeing it all right before his eyes. 

“Aaron! Snap out of it, brother!” Zed screams, trying to pull him from his trance. 

Tears are streaming down both sides of Aaron’s face as he sees everything his life could have been if he had never been in an accident. This feels so real to him - and so right. 

He turns to Zed and says, “I love you, brother.” 

“Aaron, No!” Zed screams after Aaron. “You have no idea what you’re doing!”

Aaron pushes his gravchair at full speed forward, straight at the wormhole. He enters it and everything goes white. 

A great white flash of blinding light blankets the entire planet. It blinds and deafens. It lingers. 

……….

Aaron’s phone alarm jolts him awake and he sits up in bed in complete shock. His body is covered in sweat from head to toe. His sheets are soaked through. Without even thinking about it, he swings his legs off the edge of the bed and leans over. Holy shit my legs, my arm.

Aaron spins around to catch a glimpse of the beautiful woman sharing his bed. His wife. This is his first time seeing her, yet he knows everything about her. He loves her. He has years of wonderful memories with her and they have lived a fulfilling life together.

Kids run into the room - and he knows them too. He has never known happiness like this. So much love. He walks through the house to find a Trackrunner in the living room. He jumps on and runs until he collapses. The excitement of being unparalyzed is almost too much for him to handle. Aaron has his life back. 

……….

Zed regains consciousness after the white flash dissipates. He is still pinned under the rafter beam, but something moved it ever so slightly, allowing him to escape while still facing a broken leg. He pulls himself to his feet and grabs onto the nearest support. He makes his way through the room using desks and chairs for support. He barely recognizes the lab. Not only is it destroyed, but it looks like it has been destroyed for a couple decades. This isn’t right - no, no, this can’t be! This is not good, this is not good.  

Zed pushes his way through the remnants of the lab and out of the building to discover that all the other research facilities on the campus are reduced to rubble. The largest research project in the world, the most advanced humanity has ever seen, gone. And not a living being in sight. Every direction seems like endless burning and carnage. The air is thick with pollution and breathing it in makes Zed sick. He immediately knows that this is the reality he saw through the wormhole.

In the ruins of the lab, Zed finds Aaron’s gravchair. It didn’t make it through with Aaron? Interesting. He hops on the chair, heads to the road, and goes west, riding off into the sludgy polluted smog-filled air toward a city that burns in the distance. 

PART ONE: THE END