“Mike, please, bring the car as close to the door as possible”, Marcela said.
“Right. Take more blankets, it’s cold outside at night” Mike said. A blast was heard in the distance. Then another one. Nearer.
“It has begun”, the Lieutenant said. “The double is exploding the nests one after the other, in three minutes he’ll blow us in the air. We better go.”
“But we’d be an easy target there”, Hans said.
A rain of bullets clattered fiercely on the dome, some of them pierced the boards that covered the windows and ricocheted on the floor.
Another explosion.
All the time nearer!
“Hans, Marcela, lie down!” Babyface shouted and pushed Michael on the floor, covering him with his small body. At this moment from the back of the room Alan’s weak voice was heard:
“I’ll help you solve the problem, friends.”
Alan hardly spoke the words, he hurt so much, his strength had almost expired. His voice sounded strangely acquiescent, there was not a trace of the true spirit of Alan.
“We cannot possibly kill him with just one shot, except if he does not come out as an easy target. If we stay here, he’ll blow us up, if we go out, he’ll shoot us”, Hans said, who was lying on the floor.
“Do you believe he would be able to catch up with the Rover?” Michael asked.
“I don’t doubt it”, Hans replied.
“I suggest we go.” Marcela was going all numb with the thought of the creature being so near.
“Who knows if it does not prey on us even now? Don’t forget he is armed heavily enough to wipe out us all.” The Lieutenant was gazing out of the window. The Lieutenant approached the wounded man’s bed.
“Alan, what are you talking, for god’s sake? Save your strength for the journey and don’t speak.”
“We both know I’m not going to survive this journey but at least I can help you get out of here.” Alan reached for the Lieutenant’s belt and with a fast movement dragged out the pistol out of its holster.
“What are you doing, Alan, are you crazy?” the astonished soldier exclaimed.
“I’ll help you get rid of that freak and you wouldn’t have to carry me.” Alan touched the gun to his temple and shot. The bloody brain mass flew all over the place.
They stopped the engine, got out of the truck and looked at the distance behind.
Every few minutes the roaring of explosions was heard and gradually all that remained from the Base against the horizon was red glow and smoke.
It was over.
The Base, the submarine, the Cube, all had vanished forever.
“Hey, people, did you notice, the shining is gone”, Michael said.
Driving in the Rover was hard and rough, but at the same time it was advancing confidently through the sand dunes as if sailing with the wind.
Michael removed his right hand from the steering wheel, turned over his shoulder and shoved the heap under the blanket on the back seat. “Hans, are you sure you returned the Cube back in time?”
“Yes, of course, there is not a trace of it left. It just evaporated like that”, Hans whistled. “Like smoke, like magic…”
“So, you returned it together with the submarine?”, Marcela asked.
“Yes, but the Colonel’s body fell over the controls and everything was mixed up. It smashed exactly on the temporal buttons. The last thing I remember from the interior, when we were attacked, was the date of the final destination. It was blinking brightly on the screen.”
“But it was supposed to be in 9861, the year the Russians took it before…” Michael said.
“What did the board say, Hans? Where did you send it?” Marcela’s head was almost between them.
Hans was quiet for some time, looked at Michael, then lowered his eyes, sighed and replied quietly: “22.08.2018.”
AUTHOR’S NOTE
One of my most hateful subjects at school was Literature, immediately followed in this dark list by Physics and Mathematics. Naturally, at the Medical University we were not studying these subjects at all. Therefore, it is quite surprising that I started writing books, the themes of which tackle Mathematics and Physics.
I say I hated them but the truth is I adored these subjects! I was all burning inside while digging in Asimov, Lem, Strugatsky brothers, Crighton, Hawking. But at school I found the lessons endless and boring. I was amazed how the same subject matter could feverishly inspire my teenage mind and make me sleepy in class.
For years I had been wondering why I received such undesired marks especially in the fields I loved best. Only after some time I realized that the methods of teaching were hopelessly outdated and were neither interesting, nor effective. The repetition of dusty scientific doctrines at the dawn of the new millennium is not only dull but dangerously inadequate to the present times.
Even more so to the future.
I believe we need to stimulate our children to think, rather than cram lessons in their heads. To create with inspiration and intellect rather than copy. And most of all we need to allow them the freedom to feel and have dreams.
In this particular way most of the quasi-scientific theories in this book are emotional and untrue. They were mostly born by the writer’s imagination and not so much by his limited and not always lucid mind. You will not find them in any textbook, but if they made you think or even better – laugh here and there, then this book has realized its purpose.
If you are a teacher, ask your students; if you are a parent, ask your children if they do not have their own opinion on a certain matter. Talk to them in a friendly way and let them teach you. Give them the opportunity to speak. Learn how to listen. You might be surprised how talented, clever and different their reasoning might be. And how much you can learn from them.
And who knows, you student or son might be the next Columbus or Einstein.
He might discover not just a new continent, but new galaxies. He might not just describe time and space but master and control them.
All through my life I have much more wanted to write than to be read. I suppose if the opposite was true, you would not hold that book in your hands and reach its frank end.
Copyright
© Alex Gore
ISBN: 978-619-230-033-3
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.