This week's photo is a photo used by many news papers, but was originally taken by photo journalist Elise Amendola of the Associate Press.
The story in an article about time zone changes in Seattle, and says this about the photo: "Electric Time Co. employee Walter Rodriguez cleans the face of an
84-inch Wegman clock at the plant in Medfield, Mass. Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008."
I've tried to think outside the box with this photo. It's ended up in some extreme science fiction. I do like to write this stuff, although it can be tricky working it out.
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Holding Pattern
Malik smiled as he passed Henry polishing the clocks
on the landing. It was his favourite time (ha, ha, time!) of year when they
were brought in for their yearly service. It was also a tense time, with having
to keep the world in stasis for the duration.
Thinking of which, Rafe had requested a meeting with
him. He went into his office, the curved wood panelling and bookcases greeting
him. He sat down in the leather high back chair at his desk facing the door, picking
up a report to read.
When Rafe arrived he came in quietly and sat down
opposite Malik in a smaller leather chair. A skinny, mouse of a man, who fitted
his Time Analyst job title perfectly, Rafe sat poised waiting for Malik to
finish reading. Malik lifted his head and greeted Rafe with a grin.
“Perfectly punctual as always.”
“Of course.”
“Any hiccups?”
“Nothing major, just some strange occurrences that
need resolving.”
Malik arched an eyebrow and took the proffered
graph. Their love of detail made it the perfect partnership; Rafe knew exactly what
Malik would consider important.
The flat line on the graph depicted the timeline of
the stasis holding period, the duration against movement fluctuation, and every
hour there was a second jump, like a blip on a screen.
“And we’ve not seen this before?”
“Never.”
“And nothing has changed in the analysis?”
“No.”
“Mmm, odd.” Malik frowned, peering closer at the
chart. “Any theories?”
Malik knew Rafe would have some idea about what was
behind it.
“I think it has something to do with the current
climatic and political state going on, in that particular world, it’s influencing
how time there is running. It’s like an overload.”
“What they are doing is having an impact on how time
runs? But yet time is something fabricated and installed, no?”
“Yes, but the energy vibration they are creating –
in particular negative energy, is causing it to fluctuate and expand.”
“But they are in stasis, nothing can fluctuate. Are
you saying that this negative energy is able to penetrate a stasis field?”
“Potentially. I can’t imagine what else it can be.
It’s like they are consuming more than they should, like it is starting to
leech into other metaphysical bodies. It’s like they are bulging at the seams
with this negative energy.”
“And what do you foresee will happen?”
“Well if you look closely it is escalating at a
fraction of a millisecond, so it appears every hour, but each time it’s getting
shorter.”
“Like a ticking bomb counting down?”
“That’s a good analogy.”
“So could they breakthrough the stasis field and
start running on their own without our guidance?”
“It’s a possibility, or ...”
“Or?” Malik leaned forward, looking intently at
Rafe.
“Or they could implode.”
“Implode?”
“And suck surrounding dimensions in, too.”
“Like a black hole?”
“A very good likeness.”
“Is there anything we can do to stop this?”
“Well I’m fairly certain it won’t come to that
during this stasis, but next year will be a risk. Another year running at their
current rate could drive it faster. I was wondering if we could install a
slower runtime?”
“What, increase the length of a second?”
“That’s right, but they won’t notice. It will give
more space to absorb this excess energy.”
“And you are certain it will work?”
“Yes, I’ve calculated to a 99.958 success rate.”
“Should we worry about the negative percent?”
“No, that’s the probability of their behaviour
improving over the next year, but the forecasts on that are in the minus.”
Malik knew Rafe’s calculation could be trust it.
“Okay, so we need to recalibrate before we restart.”
“Yes. Is there enough time?”
Malik flashed a smile at Rafe. “We create it, so of
course.”
Rafe gave a high pitched squeak that passed for a
laugh. “Of course.”
“I’ll get it in motion.”
Rafe stood, turning to go.
“But Rafe, keep an eye on this world would you, even
during runtime? I want to understand this anomaly better. It could be useful.”
“Certainly. I was going to do that anyway.”
“Of course you were; it’s why you’re my right hand
man.”
He gave Rafe a broad smile and a wink. Rafe returned
it with a slight upturn of the lips - his version of a smile, and left Malik to
organise the recalibration.
Malik started preparing the paperwork. It had been a
while since they’d done one of these. This little world was going to prove to
be more interesting than he’d thought when they’d taken it on.
