1 of 290

Write now Article Tools

Page 3 of 8

"That's the general consensus," she avoided looking up at the monitor. "So find us some results."
A panel on his far right began to flash red, he looked back to see the timer had taken up a full screen now, a large number twenty-nine flashed out, and was replaced by a red number twenty-eight.
"We'll see if I report back in twenty seconds or so," he tapped a few more buttons and the red numbers shrunk into one corner, leaving the screen a blur of snow. He sipped his coffee.

The numbers wound down as he stared at the snow. Nancy went about nodding and writing on the other screen. The numbers reached ten, "ten seconds, Nance." The numbers dropped to two, then one and zero. The counter dropped to red zeros across the board, flashing red and yellow. The static pattern of white and black snow flickered for a moment, but did not change any further.
"What was that?" Nancy's voice came.
"What was what?"
"There was a spike there, when the screen flickered," she twisted her head back and forth on the screen, tapping on unseen panels. "Slight radiation spike interfered with the channels. It's gone now."
"Any idea what caused it?" Marcus looked down into his cup, it was almost empty.
"Boys are analyzing it," she frowned.
"Don't look so worried," he downed the last bit of coffee. "We have twenty minutes left to abort."
"It's ok," she said, continuing to tap at panels. "The radiation spike was from the core, has the same bandwidth."
"There ya go," he smiled. "We're all set. So get a tech down here and we'll get the final checklist underway."
As he said that there was a metallic clang from up above and a beam of white light poured down into the room. Nancy smiled, "that should be her. I'll leave you to your checklist and check back in ten minutes for the log entry and final prep."
He smiled back at her face on the screen, "I'm missing you already."
A few metallic taps sounded from up above and the light was extinguished. Marcus sat in the stool watching the countdown screen. The blue numbers were there, just below the flashing row of zeros: 00:16:67.
"I'm Alex," came a light female voice from behind him.
"Nice to meet you, Alex," he tapped the panel that had shown Nancy's face a moment ago and a tree diagram popped on screen. "There ya go, have at it."
Alex moved in next to him and started tapping at the tree diagram, bringing up menu after menu.
Marcus picked up his coffee mug again and looked into the empty bottom. He frowned and set the mug back on the control panel, "I

• << previous page
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• ...
• 8
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Short stories: Science fiction?
We want to hear your view. Write now!