TheGlome on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/theglome/art/The-Dangers-Of-Quantum-Travel-44308961TheGlome

Deviation Actions

TheGlome's avatar

The Dangers Of Quantum Travel

By
Published:
1.6K Views

Description

Original line art here: [link]

In the small bedroom of a small suburban house an elderly man with a permanently affixed frown slept soundly. His snores were loud and nasally. He stirred slightly, and then leapt up and screamed with shock as a fantastically loud explosion echoed from outside his window. Putting on some slippers hastily, he grabbed one of his many shotguns and loaded it deftly as he strode out into the street, the hairs on his knobbly old knees standing up. He approached his neighbor's house. Steam was snaking its way out of the lower floor windows. He hammered upon the door loudly with the butt of his gun and waited for a response. A soot-stained young man wearing a large gas-filtering safety mask opened it and prepared to burst out with his usual apology, but the elderly man interrupted him-

"Not a word! Not one word! For God's sake, this has to end. Here I am, out in the middle of the night, scared half to death, thinking I was the victim of a particularly violent burglary..."
"Oh, you don't have to worry, Mister Wellington. You see, instead we are both the victims of a rather unfortunate, and unplanned, chemical reaction that took place in my basement a few minutes ago."
"I know," sneered Wellington, "Again."

The young man, whose name was Leonardo, bowed slightly and offered his deepest apologies. It was not his fault, he said, but rather, the volatile nature of his equipment.

"Perhaps you should take better care of them, then," said the old man, and he left Leonardo's porch, coughing slightly. He went back inside his house and after a moment the lights clicked off inside. Leonardo sighed and descended the long stone staircase down into his laboratory, where he opened all of the windows and began to purge the smoky cloud hanging in the room out of them. After he had finished he looked sadly at a scrap of twisted metal that sat in the center of the floor. He went up to his own bed and slept, albeit restlessly. He swore he could hear Wellington snoring next door.

The following morning Leonardo ate a quick breakfast of water and banana bread, also carrying with him downstairs a few tea sandwiches, of the peanut-butter-and-jelly variety. He was a scientist, but not a cook. He also carried a few large, rolled-up blueprints, and began re-assembling last night's disaster. It was a brilliant idea: It would be used to transport various heavy objects from one place to another; something that would prove useful in countless fields of study. It worked through making a scan of any ordinary object, then disassembling its bits and pieces and transporting them through a thin, black, airtight rubber tube. At the other end a computer with a specially made algorithm would rebuild the object from scratch based on the scan the first transporter had taken. It had worked perfectly well with things such as teapots and flower vases, but last night Leonardo had attempted to transport a battery-powered alarm clock. When the computer tried to reassemble the battery the necessary acids combined rather violently, and therefore caused the large explosion and the acrid smell that was still hanging around the lab. By the end of the day Leonardo had re-assembled his device and was ready to begin more tests. He decided to start with a pretty little rose he found growing in his backyard.

He placed it on one end of the transporter platform, and pressed a large, and rather gaudy looking red button next to it. The rose was turned to dust and that dust was sucked into the bottom of the platform. Leonardo heard the dust whoosh through the rubber tube and into the other room. He turned the corner and watched as the flower bits began to disperse out of the bottom of the other transporter platform. They climbed and crawled over each other until they were all in the correct position, forming the exact same rose, but in a completely different place. Leonardo picked up the rose carefully. It felt strangely warm. He placed it into an empty plastic bin labeled SUCCESS. Next to it lay various hunks of immolated plastic, bones, and metal in a bin labeled FAILURES.

Leonardo spent the rest of the evening testing odds and ends he found around the house. They all transported perfectly, and satisfied with the results, Leonardo decided to try a living creature.

"Darwin? Darwin?" He was greeted by a scratchy meow from his new kitten, who was plodding around the kitchen hungrily. His food bowl was empty. "Darwin," said Leonardo, scooping the cat up in his arms, "It's time for you to help daddy out a little bit, mmkay? You'll be rewarded, I promise. Darwin nodded understandingly and flicked his tail a bit. Leonardo placed him on the first transporter platform and pressed the button. Darwin looked at up him quizzically and was then turned to dust. Leonardo chewed his fingernails nervously. He heard the little kitten bits rumble through the tube, and he ran around the corner to the next room. Tufts of fur and bone and flesh began assembling themselves in front of him. Darwin looked around the room confusedly. Leonardo laughed happily and lifted him up again, spinning him around: Darwin wanted his reward. Leonardo gave him a small fish-shaped kitty treat and the cat left the room, back to hunting for more food.

Leonardo ran outside to his back yard in search of more leafy test subjects. He peered over the hedge into Wellington's back yard; he was wearing a pair of black sunglasses, a frilly hat, and a pair of bathing shorts. His skin was shriveled and somewhat nauseating to look at. It did not seem to tan, but to cook instead, like flesh that had died a long time ago but still managed to cling to the bones that supported it. Leonardo waved at him, and Wellington sat up and returned the favor.

"What are you up to now, you waste of life?"
"You should come see, sir! I've done it! I've really done it this time."
"Bull and shit," said Wellington, nonetheless interested. He sat up quickly and put on a floral patterned t-shirt. "I'm coming. This will be interesting."
"It most certainly will! Bring something with you - anything - I'll use it to test the device." Wellington paled slightly.
"I'll make sure it isn't anything valuable, he said," removing his hat.

Wellington trotted around to Leonardo's front door and entered his house. It was clean and organized, but the smell of burning battery acid still hung in the air like a fresh nearby corpse. He sniffed disapprovingly. "Right down here, sir," said Leonardo, motioning him downstairs.

The laboratory was quite a mess compared to upstairs. Masses of wires were strung about from every possible angle and there was little space to walk on. Leonardo led him to the transporter. "Put your object on that," he said. Wellington placed his hat on it gingerly and placed his hands on his hips, waiting for something disastrous to happen. Leonardo pressed the red button and the hat crumbled away. Wellington's jaw hung open slightly as he watched it reassemble on the other end, perfectly intact.

"Bloody impossible!" he said, snatching up his hat, and putting it back on, inspecting it for mutations, possibly. "I can't believe it, lad. You've actually made something that works."
"I had it in me all along! Now, if you'll allow me to..."
"This is fantastic! Why, I'd never need to walk or move anywhere with one of these wondrous devices in my home! I could go to the store with a press of a button! My entire family would be furiously jealous! How much will you take for it?"
"Pardon?"
"I said, for how much money are you willing to part with this device for?"
"It's not ready yet," said Leonardo. "There are still some things I haven't tested, like liquids, food, non-cats..."
"Bull and shit," replied Wellington, striding atop the platform. "It works perfectly. Let me show you." He jammed on the red button a few times. Leonardo gasped for him to get off of the damn platform, but it was too late. Wellington grinned hugely and was turned to dust like everything else that had gone into the machine. As he traveled through the rubber hose Leonardo was made aware of a strange gurgling noise. Something was not working like it was supposed to. He approached the other transporter platform and waited for Wellington to arrive. He showed up rather quickly, still wearing the same grin. He waved at Leonardo. "What a trip, my lad, what a trip..." After speaking these words, a deafening explosion rocked the room and Wellington's clothes were blasted off of his body, as well as his head, and most of his saggy skin. Blood and bits of brain matter slid down the wall slowly, but Wellington still stood there: dead but quite static, apparently. His skin was beginning to shrivel rapidly, and soon it looked even more disgusting than it usually had. Leonardo wrung his hands.

"Oh god oh god oh GOD, Darwin," he said, looking down at his kitten, who was sniffing at the blood on the floor curiously. "That was not supposed to happen. It wasn't my fault. I told him not to--" Leonardo was interrupted by the sight of Wellington's body keeling over and smashing into the wall behind him. "...to do that."
Image size
800x1015px 631.99 KB
© 2006 - 2024 TheGlome
Comments35
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
MissMew's avatar
Geez, this is scary. GOOD scary, but still scary. Maybe I'm seeing how many times I can use scary in the post, I don't know. Scary.

But seriously, I like the wires and the blood. And the green goo in the thingidontknowwhattocall. Yeah, that.