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Botober 29: Rupture 2
Looking at today's Botober prompts, it suddenly occurred to me that a direct sequel to yesterday's story would be an easy way to make use of them. I have to watch that, though; I'm not as good at pantsing longer stories as I used to be, and the last time I tried a weekly short story challenge I bogged down after three parts of the same story. But whatever, it's fun. (The tricky part is figuring out where to stop...so I
just stopped when I got tired.)
Oh, yeah, what are those prompts?
Rupture 2
Hamnet and Kasia put their hands up as the group of robot warriors fanned out around them. "You Will Find That You Cannot Escape From This Research Station," they said in eerie unison.
Dr. Helvia popped up, standing under a tree; she plucked an apple from one branch and threw it toward the robots. The apple suddenly started glowing as it neared them, and Hamnet realized that Dr. Helvia had thrown it out of another universe. He pulled Kasia down to the ground as the apple suddenly exploded with a bright flash. It didn't seem to do any more to them than make bright flashes in their eyes, but the robots all collapsed to the floor. "Thought so," Dr. Helvia said. "Somehow that apple had gotten impregnated with strange matter, and in our universe it was much too unstable to exist."
"So, Dr. Helvia," Hamnet began, but she was trotting towards the cafeteria. Kasia looked at him and shrugged, and they followed. No killer robots there, though they did have to dodge around a shopping cart filled with cabbage that was rolling slowly toward the door.
"So, Dr. Helvia," Hamnet started again. "Can we stop this?"
"It depends," she said. "On whether we're actually intersecting with a countable infinity of parallel worlds, or an uncountable one. A lowercase infinity or an uppercase Infinity, if you will. If it's the uppercase one, then we'd probably require the entire energy output of a universe-sized white hole to accomplish it. Luckily, in an uncountable infinity, there's almost certainly going to be one of them somewhere...but it'll take extreme precision to use that energy to close the rift rather than just wiping out a countable infinity of other universes with it. So the trick is going to be...figuring out how to find the exact universe we want. The one that already has this calculation worked out. So concentrate on that, will you?"
"Wait," Kasia said, tossing a cabbage from hand to hand. "Are you saying that we can get to another universe just by thinking about it?"
"Focusing your mental wavefunction on the salient characteristics," Dr. Helvia said. "But essentially, yes."
Hamnet grimaced. With his luck, if he tried that, he was going to end up in a universe where the Staypuft Marshmallow Man was trying to kill them all.
just stopped when I got tired.)
Oh, yeah, what are those prompts?
- Things: A lowercase infinity
- Concepts: You Will Find That You Cannot Escape From This Research Station
- Advanced: An apple made out of matter that cannot exist in our universe
- Terrible: A shopping cart filled with cabbage
Rupture 2
Hamnet and Kasia put their hands up as the group of robot warriors fanned out around them. "You Will Find That You Cannot Escape From This Research Station," they said in eerie unison.
Dr. Helvia popped up, standing under a tree; she plucked an apple from one branch and threw it toward the robots. The apple suddenly started glowing as it neared them, and Hamnet realized that Dr. Helvia had thrown it out of another universe. He pulled Kasia down to the ground as the apple suddenly exploded with a bright flash. It didn't seem to do any more to them than make bright flashes in their eyes, but the robots all collapsed to the floor. "Thought so," Dr. Helvia said. "Somehow that apple had gotten impregnated with strange matter, and in our universe it was much too unstable to exist."
"So, Dr. Helvia," Hamnet began, but she was trotting towards the cafeteria. Kasia looked at him and shrugged, and they followed. No killer robots there, though they did have to dodge around a shopping cart filled with cabbage that was rolling slowly toward the door.
"So, Dr. Helvia," Hamnet started again. "Can we stop this?"
"It depends," she said. "On whether we're actually intersecting with a countable infinity of parallel worlds, or an uncountable one. A lowercase infinity or an uppercase Infinity, if you will. If it's the uppercase one, then we'd probably require the entire energy output of a universe-sized white hole to accomplish it. Luckily, in an uncountable infinity, there's almost certainly going to be one of them somewhere...but it'll take extreme precision to use that energy to close the rift rather than just wiping out a countable infinity of other universes with it. So the trick is going to be...figuring out how to find the exact universe we want. The one that already has this calculation worked out. So concentrate on that, will you?"
"Wait," Kasia said, tossing a cabbage from hand to hand. "Are you saying that we can get to another universe just by thinking about it?"
"Focusing your mental wavefunction on the salient characteristics," Dr. Helvia said. "But essentially, yes."
Hamnet grimaced. With his luck, if he tried that, he was going to end up in a universe where the Staypuft Marshmallow Man was trying to kill them all.