Nano Bytes - A Collection of Short SciFi Stories

Hey Pal, By noholdzbardz

Pal Jacob felt trapped. The red door had slid shut behind him and the code he used to hack it initially, was no longer working. Pal thought maybe he had been set up. He was sure Ritchie and Marie were having a big old laugh back in the pod.

The chamber he was in seemed to be made of a solid red metal except for green pen-sized lights lining the wall. Pal had already injected the enhancers in his eyes so he wasn't sure if the room was actually somewhat lit, or if his eyes were just boosted to see in the dark. Either way, visibility wasn't the issue, being trapped was.

This was his first solo investigation as a member of the Unidentified Objects Unit. It was a program implemented about three years ago when small devices started appearing across the planet. Over ninety percent of them turned out to be nothing, but UOU was here for the other ten percent. Pal had joined as a scientist so he could be on the examination committee but immediate cutbacks caused everyone to do everything. He had still somehow managed to avoid fieldwork though, until now.

Pal cautiously approached the center of the room, arms extended checking and feeling for invisible objects. Unidentified things were often invisible so it made sense that invisible items would be in larger unidentified objects.

Larger unidentified object?

Try the largest unidentified object and of course Pal was the sucker who got stuck on duty.

When he was lowered down magnetically from the plane, the item in question had been just a small triangular pyramid device that looked like a child's puzzle game. Not that small makes the item non-lethal because of the ten-thousand deaths caused by unidentified objects, over 90% of them were caused just from picking up what looked "cute" or ""fun." That's why the UOU was formed in the first place. If enough people die, something will finally be done... and then undone as other people claim it is all a hoax and demand funding gets cut.

Pal knew oddities were real. He had seen an associate in the lab skip a routine safety scan on what looked like a glowing bow-tie and then basically get petrified as all the liquid in her body turned to a rock-like substance.

Pal didn't want that fate or any other and that's why he was being so cautious. No invisible objects in the chamber, he confirmed but there was something off. It was the red lights on the green wall. He could have sworn they were initially inverted into the surface, or at least even with the surface, but now they seemed to be slightly protruding from it. Wait weren't those colors reversed a while ago as well? Pal wasn't sure, and yet he was sure all at the same time.

"Make your Mayday call." He told himself, and he knew he should but he didn't.

Ritchie and Marie had been doing field work since the beginning and they were great at it. As they should be considering they had been trained in dangerous devices and transferred in from an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit in the Marines. They were never openly hostile or mean to Pal when he was forced into their crew, but their obvious lack of respect was mortifying. For the longest time they refused to let Pal check out even a donut. "Just in case." They would always say. What they meant was if you choke on that, we will get reprimanded for not doing our job. Finally, this time, the little red pyramid that they thought was a child's toy, they let him collect. Use the hazmat suit, proper collection technique with the hazmat bag, all the info they went over as if talking to a baby. Why not give Pal a pacifier while they were at it.

His wristband was ringing. He considered ignoring it again but didn't.

"Hey Friend, are you okay?" It was Marie's raspy voice. They never physically laughed at this but Pal could feel the implied chuckles.

"My name is Pal, not Friend."

"Whatever, when the pyramid transformed into a larger structure, you should have hit your MayDay button and teleported back to us. Since you are in there, tell us what it is like?"

Pal didn't respond.

"You can hit MayDay at any time and get out if you don't feel safe. Ritchie said you shouldn't have hacked in once it transformed but at most don't stay in over five minutes. We don't know what you are dealing with."

Pal ended Marie's transmission. "They probably have a bet to see how fast I will hit the chicken switch. As soon as I go back, I'll get all the smug looks that say I told you he couldn't hack it." Pal mumbled to himself while walking around the perimeter of the green metallic walls, there was no outline or sign of the door he had entered and now the red lights were definitely extended from the wall although they looked less like light rays and more like glowing thin tubes of paste? He wasn't sure paste was the correct word, but they were definitely more solid than a light beam. They also all seemed to be shifting ever so slightly everytime he moved almost like they were trying to follow him. He wondered briefly if maybe they were cameras or something.

The communicator was twitching again.

Pal Jacob ignored it for the time being although he fantasized about answering it and really telling those idiots off. "You are trying to get me to run so you can swoop in after me and take credit for discovering something new. You would tell everyone how you had to rescue a worthless scientist in the field and that you saved the day for all of humanity. Well, guess what? I am not going to run. I won't give you that satisfaction so watch me win the day for all those people in the world who are looked down upon!"

The red line things were getting longer now and seemed like they were stretching for him. Were they computerized, organic, alive? His organism scanner was in his backpack along with his recorder.

Again the buzzing communicator.

"Hello, Pal here." Pal said in his calmest voice.

"Hey Pal, I know you are probably fine, but I need you to hit your MayDay button now. Whatever you are in is starting to camouflage itself in the scanners. We may not be able to find you soon. I repeat, hit your MayDay button!"

Pal ended the communication. "I'm no coward, Ritchie. There is a difference between scientist and coward and today you will learn that."

He flipped his backpack off, dropped to his knee, and started rifling through looking for his organism scanner. He was focussed on Ritchie and Marie though, and their lack of respect. If he had been a marine, would they have tried to get him to hit the chicken switch then? Pal doubted it because marines are tough.

Pal Jacob looked up and then fell the rest of the way to the ground. Those red things were now stretched way out of the green wall and were whipping around like snakes about 3 ft. from where the top of Pal's head was. Now that he was on the ground they started moving in again.

In a panic move, Pal reached his hand for the MayDay button nestled to his heart but then stopped himself.

"I'm not a coward." he said and then fumbled with his device to try and get a scan off.

A piercing pain in his neck followed by what felt like acid reflux in his throat. Pal realized he had been bit, stung, or injected by one of the red swirling light thingies. Now he finally realized he was in too deep and he had to get out. This time he did slap the MayDay button on his chest right as another jolt of agony shot through the back of his head.

The button did nothing, so he hit it again and again and again to no avail.

More pain in so many areas it no longer registered.

"Scientists should rely on facts, not emotion and personal feelings." Pal whispered as he meekly touched the button one final time.