Diorama Part One The Future

Synopsis DIORAMA © Rose Raikos

Speculative Science Fiction Adult Word Count 120,000 told in six parts.

Diorama is about future beings, who use a book saved in data storage units of Wattpad, and Microsoft cloud. The data becomes the foundations of a virtual bridge,  a tool to contact those genetically linked to them in our time. Emma Rose, the Author of Human Survival: The Future Needs Us and Yana, born 2177 ADC are genetically linked.

Yana visits the writer in her own time via dreams which the writer saves to the cloud. The future team involved with Archival Data retrieval contact Emma-Rose to lay the foundations of a virtual time travel bridge. For the Diorama to work and be used by the future beings the story in its multiple drafts posted to the cloud, becomes the tool to further infiltrate and change our society and us. The future beings use this virtual world, the Diorama as a portal. They push us into the future for our survival and theirs, so our life form is free to become true Cosmic Beings of the Universe and advance further into space.

Blur: The story that follows is inspired by what  Kaku, the physicist involved with the Large Hadron Collider and the experiences of dark matter said, about time travel: “Don’t turn someone away who knocks at your door one day and claims to be your future great-great-great- grandchild. They may be right.”

 I add here, and they may need your help to survive.

Chapter One of the First Part of the Speculative Science Fiction DIORAMA

Chapter 1 Future is the Beginning

Part One                          Chapter 1 Part One :  HAROLD

Prologue:

Prologue:

Our world,  planet Earth, is buried in a thick blanket of snow and ice. A healing hibernation for the whole planet after our ancestors’ failure to address climate change and because of a war that raged for one hundred years. In the summer months some areas show the destruction to the surface. The depletion of topsoil, the lack of vegetation and the silence of the complete disappearance of all life. But humans did survive, for years deep underground after the end of the hundred- year -war. They emerged in isolated groups over the last decade.  Coming back to the surface and  now are struggling to reconnect to each other.

The year is 2196, after the end of the ancient world a time- line called: after common dating, or ACD. People are fighting for their survival. I’m now 28  and called Harold Hadrick -Jones.   I’m married and belong to the established religious community of “The Earth Mother”, shown by my hyphenated name. My wife Alana and me are left to continue our parents’ work and  hopefully build a virtual bridge which allows us to travel back to the cross over timeline of 2012  through their surviving data storage units. The bridge will allow us to transverse time and change what we need to help us survive.

Harold held the pen with his thin long fingers, rotating it between his thumb and fingers as he paused in his note writing. His face shows signs of stress and the thinness of long hunger.  As he paused, he looked at the pen remembering his teenage studies on old writing implements. The pen , this one was magical, as it would reconstitute the stored ink continually as it was being used. “Science, and innovation are our friends both together will help us survive.”   

He returned to his writing : Humans are fading away as an AI takes over our demise of failed biological beings. Aliens have judged us as not being able to progress to the next level of civilized life form. Or is this just one side of the story? A lie so someone or something can take our place in this world. With every person taken by this strange process I am more of the understanding that there is more to humanities demise of our spirits uploaded to a computer program , much more. Surely we can’t be so dangerous to the cosmos and judged defective to only exist in a prison?

Harold stopped again and was about to remove the last paragraph by turning the pen upside down and running a tip over the words written when he heard the footsteps of his wife approaching the study.

Part One

A young man is sitting in the fading light of day reading in an old chair ancient from much wear, he sighs and rubs his eyes as the light dimes. Harold Harrick-Jones placed the aged notebook into its case. He pushed the icon to activate the vacuum seal to lock the ancient treasure away from all destructive elements.

The sunlight , a faint glow on the horizon showed the coming of the long winter caught the young man’s gaze for a moment. Harold looked out the window to see the sun slip away and his world was again in darkness of a long night. And tomorrow would only have a few hours of sunlight. As the internal lights automatically triggered the young man viewed his internal space, as he was to leave his family home in the morning.  The light was pushing all shadows aside revealing  the sparsely furnished study. A desk and old-fashioned bookcase next to the internal doorway always brought memories of family stories, the generations of Hadrick Clan and of his mother’s family both the Japanese Hiroko and the North American Chewey.   As Harold placed the closed case into the bookshelf  a woeful sound filled his being.

“Too soon. No!”

 Fear jarred his mind, “No, no, not Ma.” Harold made his way to his mother who was lying on top of the bed. He held her hand. It was transparent as glass. Emotions overflowed as his voice cracked,  “Ma, please don’t fade. We need you.”

“Sorry, I can’t stop… so many…find out why.” Alice rasped between gasping breath.

“I promise.”  Harold moved closer to his ma’s face to hear what else Alice was trying to say.

Alice, lay struggling as she took a final visible breath in, “the transfer worked for Peter. But mine?”

“I can’t check, the new connections aren’t working. Hold on until the Quantum is back.”  Harold’s voice trailed off to a whisper as his mother’s body disappeared. Alice’s legs rippled with light, flashing upwards to envelope Alice’s whole trunk. Then her weightless hand slipped from Harold’s palm and onto the bed with her fingers dissolving on contact with the sheet.

“Oh no!” Harold watched as her eyes faded with a final look of resignation and defeat. The stare sheered into his heart and memory. “Ma!”

All thoughts turned into an internal scream. Harold’s hands began to shake uncontrollable, and a lump appeared in his throat. The young man’s muscles tightened preventing him from speaking, from breathing.

A shadow fell over the lamplight of the bedroom. A slim small figure of a young woman emerged from the gloom; Alana reached out to gently touch Harold’s hand which was resting on the now empty bed. “Sorry love, both of your parents within a few days.”

“What if I’m next? What if my mother is lost, doesn’t transfer?” Harold voice broke as he struggled to speak, he took a deep breath and continued to deliver his concerns. “When my father faded, he was in control of the new Quantum System that allowed  him to pass over without delay. Ma said Peter was saved, one of the last things she said.” Harold turned to look at his wife , and continued , “dad’s transfer wasn’t the uncontrolled fade as hers. Oh no! Alana I’m next.”

Alana pulled Harold’s chin around to look him into his hazel green flecked, eyes. “Don’t think of these things. Remember, we are connected by marriage, shown by our hyphened joined names. The same as your parents, they are together. Your dad can save Alice from inside the system.”

“Yes — I must believe– that our psychic link strengthens us, and my parents. I know my dad managed to get into the new Quantum and not in a holding space of the Antiquated Epsilon. He will find her.”

“That’s right,” Alana kissed the few tears escaping down Harold’s face. Both saw the bed was now completely empty.

“I promised Ma. You realize, I must discover the answers to this fading.” As he spoke the sheets began to disappear. There was no trace of his ma’s body not even the indentations or creases of her ever lying on the bed. He turned his attention to Alana felling her hand on his shoulder. The warm touch strengthen him.  Alana’s brown eyes which reflected her pure love for him.

“Both of us will, Harold. We know the answers are in the past. Our trek north is the beginning of finding the answers as to why this is happening , and hopefully the way to stop it so we as humans can survive.”

“Yes, we must connect to our ancestors to get help. Virtual time travel, the bridge is the only answer.” The bed now had almost disappeared only the frame and wooden legs stood there empty. “Look, how quick everything is disappearing.”

Alana nodded, and said, “tomorrow we leave here in search of the ancient Cloud Storage units . Together, so it doesn’t matter if the house dissolves.”

Harold hugged his wife of two weeks and allowed his emotions to break completely. He sobbed with the raw anguish of losing both parents in such a short time. Childhood memories flashed by quickly in a haze.

Finally, Alana’s lavender scent began to ground him in the present moment. The familiar lavender oil defused into his fogged mind. Harold moved his head up from Alana’s shoulder. And pushed her hair from her eyes. He saw the silent traces of shared grief ; she had also lost both parents in much the same situation. “I believe we will meet them again , all of them that have now gone so suddenly with out any warning.”

“Shh, shh, let’s have a drink.” Alana pulled away and took Harold’s hands in hers. She added, “ I ‘ve packed everything, for our trip.”

“Thanks. I sure hope the subway system is working as the government reported, it means less walking through the snow and wilderness.”

Alana  gently guided Harold to the doorway of the room. As they walked out together, he noticed the yellow paint fading on the wall by the door. He stopped and took an old photograph from its position which left its frame marked around the hook. One of his mother’s grandfather showing a youthful Japanese man dressed in ancient traditional Montsuki. “This picture will survive, has too as it is oldest thing in this building, except our dining room chairs and the basement.”

Harold looked over the area, sighing, “This house is disappearing quickly. We must bunk down in the cellar like I did when young.” He pushed the photo into his inner jacket pocket as Alana gently pulled him from the fading room.

“I realized her fading would affect the house, but Harold it’s not the end.”

He smiled, “You’re right, I count my blessings every day, especially having you close to me.”

The cellar door was made of thick metal and needed at least two people to pull open. Luckily, the electrical system was still functioning so opening it was easy. The basement was deep underground and self- contained with its own ventilation and heating operation. It was what saved Harold’s father’s family and his mother’s during the worse times of war and following environmental destruction. The families had been isolated from other groups for many years which helped them to concentrate on the scientific developments to heal the dying world.

The couple made their way down into the basement via the stairs that circled downwards into the earth. As the young couple reach another door they stopped. Harold punched in the code to release the lock and the entrance swung open to reveal a vast underground room. A warm welcoming light was sent out from bulbs ringed around the walls of the spacious chamber a greeting which for him was a treasured childhood memory. I love this place. He smelt the old earthy aroma that surrounded them as they progressed into the bunker. On one wall was another exit which Harold went towards, “I’ll get the wine. And maybe something to go with it, maybe  some cheese.” He made his way to the large cellar which was three times the size of the lounge kitchen area.

While Alana found some drinking vessels, the young man cut the cheese into bit potions. Harold then opened the dusty bottle when Alana returned with two silver goblets. She put them down on a wooden table set before the couch which faced and artificial fireplace that sent out a control warmth and soft glow of light. Once she was done, Alana turned to her husband saying, “I’m puzzled; I mean not why things fade but what?” She watched Harold sip to make sure it was drinkable.

The sip of wine touched his tongue and he swallowed it with a satisfied smile. “Ah, good as gold.” He placed the open bottle down to wait for Alana to also take a sip. She nodded her consent.

“The fading is a big problem, and why only structures and things built before the ‘War of Hundred Years’ survives the departure of the owners, it just doesn’t make sense. The answer does lie in the past, it must.”

Alana took a small piece of cheese, a luxury in an age of lean food supplies. The cheese was not true but created from chemicals and in fact a poor substitute, but the cheese went well with a good bottle of old wine. Wine was original and produced from the last grapes grown on the family vineyard some one hundred and fifty years ago. The grapes had been preserved for many ages and only just created into wine twenty years ago.  A true wine which even though was prepared by Harold’s father had not faded with him. She held the cheese in her fingers and waited for Harold to pour the ancient wine. “I think, the human life form is connected to the physical world built, at least the personal things. Things that they touched every day is part of who they are. That is why those things fade with them.”

He poured the wine, “for some reason my parents combined work of the new quantum computer and the repaired shield are still working.  You would think they would also disappear? And this wine is still here. ”

“Maybe it’s because others who maintained and finished those projects are still in the bodily form, like us. You told me you had helped him make this drop.” Alana took another sip of wine.

Harold smiled over the memory of squashing the reconstituted grapes with his feet at the age of ten.

“ I count on this, and hope.” He raised the goblet, adding , “to them both, Alice and Peter.”

Alana repeated, “to them both”.

The newly- weds settled down on an old leather and wood lounge, they dank the bottle between them and nibbled on the artificial cheese. Then melded into each other in love making.

In the afterglow of their physical bonding Harold cuddled his spouse and ran his fingers through her hair. He could see her looking deep into his with nothing but tenderness and total acceptance of his being.

“Alana, I cherish you so much that if anything happened to you, I would follow. Like my ma did.” He then sat up, “I hope it works. Is the Quantum down?”

His bride pulled herself up onto her left elbow so she could  look at his face. “I re-checked before I came into to see you, Harold and unfortunately the maintenance will take several hours. You realize your mother maybe safe in the epsilon system?”

“Faith is all I have that her data is linked into the new and not be trapped in the closed epsilon programs. Alana, I don’t trust that old system at all. My father’s consciousness transferred without a problem but, the quantum was fully operational when he faded.” 

“I am sure your father will find a way to save her. He may have saved her awareness before she disappeared when he went into the Quantum system.”

“Of course, you must be right about that, I hope anyway.” He allowed himself to relax and lie down with his wife. Before too long the couple curled up on the air bed and slept.

During the night, he felt his awareness peak into a half-awake sense as an apparition of a shadow hung over his sleeping body. Through his flickering eyelids he saw the shadow hold up a book and then put what was an ancient data saver flex-sheet in the pages. Then the ghost-like image placed the book into his personal bag. The shadow reappeared over the top of him. He felt his lips move with a soundless word, “Ma?”

Harold tried to wake up to touch the obscure image, but it dissolved before he could. Now bolt upright, he glanced around the cellar to see if the apparition lurked in the darkened space.

“Nothing.”

Alana stirred, “too early, relax.”

“ Ma was here.”

“You’re imagining it, go back to sleep.”

Here ends the first part of this first chapter of DIORAMA PART ONE THE FUTURE WORLD.