Author Games: Brave New World

Task Five Entries: Eden

Sydney Morristan

There were only a few instances in Sydney's lives where she did not look up up the stars for guidance, rather relying on her own intuition and intelligence to solve a problem. This was one of them.

When she had first seen in, Sydney had disregarded it as some scrap metal or part of a can that some other colonist had accidentally dropped on the ground. It was roughly rectangular in shape, hidden near the gnarled roots of a tree, and Sydney would not have deemed it as anything special until she reached down to touch it. When her skin brushed against the rusted surface of the item, the metal seemed to ripple like a stone dropped in a lake, before its shimmering died down to reveal...the Statue of Liberty?

That caught her attention, all right.

She saw down on the ground, cross-legged, and took the object in her hands to inspect it. Not once did the notion of asking the stars for help cross her mind. Lucia may have done so if she was caught in a similar situation – but then again, Sydney may admire the stars and study them, but she didn't look at them as a holy deity. No, instead, she ran through a list of space debris that had been found on Earth in her head – but she could remember nothing that even looked like the thing she was holding in her hands.

Sydney chew nervously on her lower lip as she sat, looking at the image of the Statue of Liberty that the odd metal thing reflected. It was obviously something alien, she knew that much, but the purpose of the object remained a mystery. She hesitantly poked the surface of it with a finger, experimenting, and sure enough the surface rippled once more, now projecting the image of the Great Wall of China.

So it shows all the landmarks of Earth? She wondered, but somehow that didn't seem right. Why would alien inhabitants of Danu create a device that only showed famous monuments on Earth. It didn't make a lot of sense, and Sydney pondered over the article for a good five minutes before another idea arose from the depths of her mind.

What if it shows the holder anything that they want to see, anywhere in the universe? It seemed strange to her that if her hypothesis was true, that the aliens would just randomly leave such a precious device lying around in the grass. Still, Sydney shrugged her shoulders to herself and placed her finger on the surface of the thing again, but this time, she murmured, "Show me Jupiter."

A few tense seconds passed in silence – besides the omnipresent gentle whispers of the wind, that was – as the extraterrestrial artifact once more rippled and shone. When the shimmers died down, Sydney's blue eyes widened as she stared at a picture of the planet Jupiter displayed on the device's silver surface – which Sydney guessed must be some kind of screen. "Holy moly," she mumbled underneath her breath, and then decided to do it again. "Um...show me Neptune."

Neptune was shown. And to her utmost surprise, she saw that the pinpricks of stars surrounding the blue planet twinkle and sparkle, and realized with a joint that the device did not merely display pictures of anything. It displayed videos, in real time.

"Oh my god," she whispered in awe, her fingers clutching the artifact harder now. "This is so cool." She knew she sounded like a small child marveling over planes and spaceships, but frankly, Sydney didn't care. Standing up with a wide smile etched on her face and wings attached to her heart, Sydney quickly shoved the object into a duffel bag she had been carrying, feeling as if she was on Cloud Nine.

She could not wait to show the object to Lucia.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Reagan Wilkie

DID NOT HAND IN

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lucia Paula Fernandez