SFS1 - Science Fiction Short Stories (6 page)

These machines
are my boss'
invention.
While he's an excellent scientist, the world has
never seen him. He doesn't want fame or glory.
Doing research and invention is his passion.
I've worked with him for the last three years as
an assistant and in this time, he's invented
three
things
but
he
never
discloses
his
inventions to the world. Every time he invents
something new, I tell him that he should let
people know about it. But he just dismisses my
advice by saying something like 'this can be
misused' or 'maybe one day, but the timing
isn't right.’ I can't accept that. There's so much
good that can be done for the world, and I
need more and more money. So I stole his
machines last week while he was busy with
some new research. I don't know the science
behind it. But I've operated the machines many
times and I know if other scientists can get
their
hands
on the machines
that
they can
reverse-engineer them. I can't live like a monk
like my boss can. I want money and I want my
hard work to be acknowledged, even if I'm just
an assistant.

Teleportation is
only
a concept
to
most
people. For me, it's a daily reality. I can't count
the number of times I've teleported within the
lab. That's what I stole. I can disappear from
one machine and
appear
in the other
in a
fraction of a second. And I'm going to sell it to
the world.

To monetize it, I prepared a demonstration.
At the same day and the same time, I booked
two auditoriums. One was in New York and
one was in San Francisco. Yes, I am going to
have my demonstration in two places that are
on two different sides of the North American
continent. At first, no one believed me. When I
took out ads in the newspaper, people finally
started
listening.
My
boss
never
read
the
newspaper so I wasn't afraid he'd catch on. I've
been contacted by some nut jobs, but for every
one of those, I've had ten venture capitalists,
reporters,
industrial
leaders
and
even
government authorities who want to get their
hands on this new technology. I've told them
all the same thing: wait for the demo.

Now I'm on stage in New York, behind me
there is a teleportation machine and on the
other side of the stage there are two screens.
One shows the San Francisco stage, and the
other
shows
its
audience.
The
same setup
exists in San Francisco, except of course, their
screens
show
the
New
York
stage
and
audience. Along with this, everything is being
live streamed to the internet. .

I show my hand to audience and start to
talk. “Science fiction concept becomes reality.
This
is
my
invention,
the
teleportation
machine!”

The audience looks
at
the teleportation
machine. It looks like a glass wardrobe with
two cables connected into the back of it. I begin
to
explain
what
teleportation
is
to
the
audience, but most of them are familiar with
the concept.

“Of course you already know what
teleportation is!” I say. “Well then, let's
proceed to the demonstration.
I'll be going to
San Francisco by teleportation, please watch
me arrive on the screen.”

Once again I wave to the audience and enter
into the New York teleportation machine and
exit in San Francisco in a fraction of second. I
welcome the San Francisco audience and am
met with a resounding cheer. The New York
audience is clapping from there as well. Some
are taking out their phones and calling people,
others are hurriedly talking to the audience
members next to them.

To impress the both audiences I tell them
from San Francisco stage: “I left my water
bottle in New
York,
I'll
be
back
in just
a
second.”

I interrupt my speech and enter into the San
Francisco teleportation device and exit in New
York after I take the water bottle, I see the San
Francisco audience by screen and smile. Once
again I go back to San Francisco.

I start my speech. “You can’t believe this
right?”
Most of the people clap, a few members of
press replied.
“Yes. We're not going to believe it unless we
can see it for
ourselves.
Maybe it's just an
elaborate magic trick. You have one twin here,
one twin there. Let us prove it for ourselves.”
I'm
not
shocked
by
the
reply.
Some
Hollywood movies have shown how this trick
would work with twins.
“Alright then! Any one of you, please come
with me to New York! I will teleport you there
and get you back here safely. No transport
charges! Choose a representative to go, I'll be
waiting.”
After some discussion, they decided to send
the CNN reporter. First I sent him by pressing
the destination terminal
as
T01 using
the
keyboard. The audience and myself see him
appear on the screen in New York When he got
there, he looked out into the audience and
began to talk with them. He asked them if he
was really in New York, took some photos and
then
walked
outside
the auditorium.
After
that, we couldn't see him any longer on the
screen.
After a few minutes, one of the reporters
suddenly came to the stage and told me that
the CNN reporter was on video call on his
iPad. We hooked it up so that we could show it
on the screen.
“I went outside and checked to make sure
that I was in New York,” he began. “I also I
checked the current location in Google maps
and saw that the city it said I was in was New
York. But I can’t believe this, seems to be a
dream.”
The audience clapped, they still could not
believe what is happening.
“Alright, now I will go to New York and
send a different reporter from there to here.”
I
sent
Francisco,
Francisco
surrounded me and took photos and started to
interview me.
Press: “How does it work?”
Me:
“It's much too technical
and
complicated to explain in a brief press meeting.
I'll simply say it converts an object from one
form
to
another
form
after
successful
transmission and then regenerates the original
object at the other end.”
Press: “What is required to operate this
machine, is any fuel required?’
Me: “Only electricity to power it and an
internet
connection to
transfer
the data.
It
couldn't be simpler.”
Press: ”What is the use of the internet
connection?”
Me: “It could be LAN, WAN or the Internet.
the
NY
Times
reporter
to
San
and
I
appeared
again
in
San
right
after
him.
Everybody
A connection is required to transport the data
like I said. The teleport terminal will convert
the object as digital data and transfer it over
internet to the receiving terminal.
Then the
receiving end regenerates the object. After a
successful regeneration, the digital data will be
automatically erased in both terminals as to
prevent copying.”
Press: “Then you mean, a human can be
cloned using this?”
Me: ”It could be, but that's really not the
functionality of this invention.”
Press: “is it safe?”
Me: “100% , it uses lossless conversion. If
there's
an internet
connection problem,
the
data is here so it will either resend it again or
regenerate
again
in
the
same
sending
terminal.”
Press: “How can this invention be used?“
Me:”In the future we'll have no more
airports or railways stations, only teleportation
stations. People will come to the teleportation
station and then can go where ever they want.”
Press: ”Can even go to other countries?”
Me: ”All the teleportation machines will be
linked, they can go to any terminal by entering
the terminal number. It can be in any country.
It might not even have to be on Earth.”
Press: “Space travel? Other countries? Won't
this be a security risk?”
Me: “Absolutely not. Just like at airport,
teleportation
will
be
overseen
by
the
government and everyone will still have to
follow the visa and security checks of course.”
One of the press reporters told me that this
would be the headline tomorrow and for days
to come. They started immediately publishing
the news on the internet and I thanked them
for their kind words. I sent and received back
the reporters. Now I am at New York.
The venture capitalists were eager to meet
me. In truth, they're the ones I wanted to meet
with all along.

“Wait a just moment,” I told them. “I will
say goodbye to the San Francisco audience and
be back in a couple of minutes.”

It took me fifteen minutes to dismiss the
meeting and
enter
into
the San
Francisco
teleportation device after which I reappeared
in San Francisco. Business people were waiting
for me in New York. Already it was a longer
delay
than
I would
have liked
I
urgently
pressed T03 and I exited in New York. No... it
was not New York. It was my lab. And my
stupid boss was standing front of me. Now I
understood.
I
wrongly
pressed
the
lab's
teleport ID T03. During my work day I tested
this machine hundreds of times. I pressed the
wrong
teleport
number
by
habit
and
accidentally
teleported
here.
My
boss
is
looking at me angrily and I cannot look him in
the eyes.
My
plan is
to
run again to
the
teleportation terminal
before my
audience
wonders where I've gone.

“I was busy with my newest research and,
in fact, had just completed it when I saw you
on the television,” he began. “I hadn't even
noticed my missing teleport machines until I
saw the CNN live report and understood what
was going on.”

I was silent, just waiting to get out of there.
He continued, “You don’t know anything
about how the teleportation machines work
and still you stole them.”

I run to the teleportation machine and enter
the New York teleport ID correctly. Luckily the
device is working. I exit and open the door.
Again my boss is standing right in front of me.

He pointed his finger at something to my
left. That's when I saw it, the San Francisco
teleportation
terminal.
Now,
three
teleportation machines were in the room.
I'm
shocked and I ask him how this is possible.

“This is teleport 2.0,” he said with a smile.
“It's my extension to my teleportation
invention.
Now
I'm able to
teleport
objects
remotely and I can even teleport a teleportation
device itself just as I've done with the two
teleportation machines you thought you could
steal.

“Get me back to the audience. The world
deserves these machines. Science isn't for the
benefit of only one man,” I yell.

He stood there silently. I lost control ran to
him and tried to hit him. But he just dodged
and I though better of it. I ran to the store room
and fell down in misery. Before I tried to attack
him again, He locked the door. I shouted for a
long time but got no response.

After 8 hours, He opened the door. I was
very tired and gave up trying to attack him. I
requested that he allow me to go back with the
teleportation machines. I was sure someone
was still waiting for me to come back.

He motions over to his computer screen.
“Look at that news website.”
The website reads: ‘Black-magic man cheats
press media, suddenly disappears from hotel,
hotel
management
complain
to
police
regarding balance of settlement for auditorium
rent.’
I pulled up more pages and saw the same
article on every one of them. It was even being
posted on websites that didn't even usually
post about the news. Nobody believed it was
real because the teleportation devices and I
disappeared from there. They all thought it
was some elaborate hoax.
My boss looked at me for a long time before
he spoke. “Get out of here. Never come back.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Krishna Kumar resides in India and is a new
author who writes mainly in the science fiction
genre. He is currently working on a novella
and above everything else puts his readers first
when writing stories.

He
is
a
techie
with
twelve
years
of
experience in the IT industry and currently
works for an IT product startup as their Senior
Technology Architect. Writing is his passion
and he's been writing since he was ten years
old. This is his first publication. He is thankful
for the time he's been able to spend on this
book as his education, family, job and other
commitments take up a lot of time. He was
waiting for the right time to publish, and He
hopes you've enjoyed reading his work.

Reach him at
www.writerkrish.com
Facebook
www.facebook.com/writerkrish
Twitter @ writerkrish