When Technology fails

by Ponynator

Chapter 2: What could go wrong?

April 2nd, 2100
Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Landing Area
3:14 AM

"Here we are son, the Cheyenne Mountain Complex." General Sinclair and Jan were looking out of the window.

"Wow, finally I am at the place where my favourite TV-Show is playing. You know, when I first saw it, I somehow knew that I would be here in the future."

"Well, now you are here and we will go inside; I don't have to remind you that this is all top secret?"

"Of course not."

The machine was slowly nearing the ground. After a few seconds it finally made a small *thud* and the pilot told them that they had landed and that they could go outside. A soldier opened the door, letting James and Jan out.

"Is there anything more than the teleporter inside of this bunker?"

"You shouldn't ask."

"That means yes..."

"It means that I won't tell you." The general looked at him and was grinning.

"Let me guess, top secret weapons and technology which could save the victory of a new world war? Also a third one is not going to happen."

"All I can tell you is that it has nothing to do with war, believe me; since the third world war has ended, the Cheyenne Mountain Complex hasn't been used by the government. Until now."

He's hiding something, I believe him the no-weapons story, but what are they exactly doing down there? I think that I will better not ask him about that. "If it wouldn't come out of your mouth, I wouldn't believe it; I'm still mad as hell, aft-"

"Stop thinking about that son, it's corrupting your mind and you will need a clear one for the next days. The government has changed. By the way, each person in this place is selected by me, so don't worry about that."

"Good to hear that." He's right, the government has changed a lot the past year - I just hope that the past doesn't repeat itself. All the cruel things that have happened, the things the government has caused, the things I've gone through, the things I have done.. But his thoughts were cut off when they were standing in front of a big vault door and two guards.

"So here we are, they will just check our DNA and finger-prints for verification and after that we will take the elevator down to the laboratories where Dr. Venham is waiting."

"Huh, what? We're already inside?"

"I think you day-dreamed, but I wouldn't wonder about that, it's short after 3 o'clock." While saying that he pressed his hand on the PDA which one of the guards was holding.

"Verification complete, person has been identified as General James Sinclair." The electronic voice of the PDA stated.

"Now it's your turn. Just put your hand on the PDA." Jan put his hand on the PDA; a beam of light was scanning his hand, which tickled for some reason.

"Verification complete, person has been identified as astronaut and engineer Jan Schneider."

"Okay, everything is alright, you can pass." The guard put the PDA back into it's holster on his belt and the big vault door opened slowly with a metal screeching.

"I am impressed - when I was on the military field of the space ship which brought me to the ISS 2 I had to wait an hour for the verification to be completed." The ex-astronaut said as he entered the elevator.

"Well, times change son - what would humanity be if we didn't develop new technologies?" Jan looked at him; he didn't look back and said to himself: "We probably didn't have to go through three world wars..."

"What was that?" He asked, as if he didn't understand what the general said.

"Nothing, I was just thinking about how deep this bunker is." He was looking at the floor counter, which was counting the other way, 1 for the top, 35 for the bottom. They were heading for floor 25, 5 floors above the teleporter. *bing* the doors of the elevator opened. "So here we are, Dr. Venham is in room 13; if you excuse me, I have to complete my report for the President."

"You are talking with the President himself?" Jan stepped outside of the elevator, while the general pressed the button for one of the upper floors.

"Yes, I mean, I am a general after all and responsible for the Cheyenne Mountain Complex."

With that the doors closed and Jan turned to the floor, searching for room 13. "Room 10, room 11, room 12 and room 13", he said to himself and knocked at the metal door.

"The door is open, you can come in." A voice said from inside.

Jan went through the door, closing it behind him. "Uhm hello? Where are you?" He turned his head to see if the doctor was behind one of the machines which were standing in the room.

"Ah you must be Mr. Schneider." A head popped from the side of the machine the ex-astronaut was standing in front of. "My name is Dr. Ramuel Venham, but I guess General Sinclair already told you that." He held out his hand.

Jan shook his hand and nodded. "Yes Dr. Venham; and you are right, my name is Jan Schneider, I am the astronaut you wanted for your... well... experiment if I can say that."

"You can just call me Ramuel; and don't worry, the experiments are done, I would never test a possibly dangerous machine with a human body. Besides, none of the 253 experiments have gone wrong, the machine is totally safe."

"Oh man, I already feared that I would be a guinea pig." He grinned as Ramuel bursted into laughter.

After he couldn't laugh anymore, he continued: "So, well, we only tested the machine with fruits, plants and mice. But of course a mouse or a banana can't tell us how it feels and can't fill out a report. Besides, I want to talk with somebody who understands the things we are doing with him and not somebody like the guards."

"Well that's true. When are we going to start anyway?"

"Well, it's pretty late already, I wanted to go to bed in a few minutes; but I would say tomorrow, better to say today, at around 4 PM"

"Do you mean you wanted to do the first test with a human in the same night?" I can see it coming; it's one of those near crazy scientists...

"Uhm yes, why not?"

I knew it... "It just seems.. a bit rushed, don't you think?"

"If you don't rush in modern science, you will get nowhere."

"Like rushing school?"

Ramuel had to grin. "Yes, like that; anyway, before we go to bed... do you want to see it?" Jan quickly nodded. "Follow me; we are going down to floor 30, the entry point." They both left the room and went to the elevator. After they reached floor 30, they had to pass another security door. Still, it was smaller than the one at the main entrance. They walked along the path until they reached a big metal door. "Wait a second, I have to open the shielding of the room." He pushed a button on the wall, just a second later the door opened and they could see the inside of the room.

"WOW.... oh.... my...." Jan couldn't believe what he was seeing. In the middle of the room there was a 10 feet wide plate, which was mounted to the side of a very deep and 30 feet wide hole; inside of the hole were 4 plates with 4 holes in each of them, rotating counter-wise against every layer, "This is...", he paused and looked at the ceiling; there was the same big hole with the same size and the same amount of plates. "...unbelievable. How big are these holes?"

"Around 30 feet wide and 60 feet deep."

"And this thing in the middle is where I am going to stand on?"

"Yes why? You aren't afraid of heights, are you?"

"I kinda am." How ironic this was: An astronaut who is travelling in space, in an unbelievable height; was afraid of heights.

Ramuel started to laugh. "That's the most ironic thing I've ever heard, do you know that?"

"I know, you aren't the first one who says that." And I thought that I could hide that from him. "But I mean, what happens if I fall down and get shreddered by these things?"

"Never thought about that..." The ex-astronaut dropped his mouth and was trying to find words, but he couldn't. "Don't worry, I am just kidding; there's a force field which keeps you safe in place." At that point Venham's watch beeped. "Oh, already 4 o'clock, we should go to bed now; I will show you to your room." They left the room. Jan looked at the machine for last time before the door closed again. Many things went through his mind at that moment; What will happen tomorrow? How will it feel like? Will something go wrong? But he shook his head at these thoughts, he needed to keep a clear head for tomorrow.

— — — —

April 2nd, 2100
Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Floor 30
4:12 PM

Ramuel and Jan had talked the whole morning about the machine; how it works, how he invented it and how he was able to build it. Ramuel had shown the special modified space suit to the - not anymore ex - astronaut. They talked about their lifes and how they got their jobs; Ramuel even talked about India and told him how different it was there.
Now they were standing at the sidewalk of the hole, Jan already wearing the space suit, ready for the first teleportation: To the moon!
"Man this thing is heavy and you can't properly move in it. I thought we would be using the newer models, like the ones they are using on the Lunar Laboratories."

"It isn't one of the older ones, the thick material is heat absorbing and the big and heavy backpack is caused by the graviton generator and the small fusion reactor which is powering the magnetic field shield. You don't want to be turned into roast-beef by the heat, or into an ice-sculpture by the heat lost at the end. Also, this thing absorbs most of the shockwave caused by the teleportation."

"Shockwave? It won't be strong enough to break my bones?"

"Hell no, the shockwave isn't much dangerous, just not very pleasent."

"Okay, I think we should start now." He closed the visor of his helmet and green words appeared on the HUD:

System self test initiated...
Air tightness... checked!
Oxygen supply... checked!
Fusion generator... checked!
Graviton generator... checked!
Magnetic field generator... checked!
Communication... checked!
Emergency systems... checked!
All systems checked. Total errors: 0

"Everything is fine, I will go to the plate now." He carefully walked over the bridge to the middle of the plate; after he reached the center and turned around the bridge retracted.

Ramuel and the other men, who were doing last minute checks on the systems, left the room and closed the door. After a minute Jan could hear him through the speakers of his space suit: "Are you ready Jan, are you feeling good?"

"Good isn't the word, I feel fantastic."

"Very well, I will start the system now; it will take 60 seconds until the teleporter is charged and ready, then we will start the 10 seconds countdown."

"Got it." The plates that were rotating under and above him started making sparks and were beginning to rotate faster and faster. After a few seconds the sparks were jumping between floor and ceiling. The machine started making a high pitched and very loud sound, which seemed to go higher the faster the plates rotated. He could feel the vibrations they were causing. Fear appeared on his face. What have I gotten myself into? This is crazy, this thing will disintegrate me... OR WORSE! Wait, how could it get worse than this?

Deep in his thoughts, he didn't recognized that Ramuel was talking to him: "Jan answer, are you ready for the countdown? Remember, this is the point of no return; when the countdown has started, we can't abort anymore!"

The astronaut was still thinking, one side of him wanted to start, but the other didn't:
C'mon, this is THE chance to get back in action.
...when you are dead, this won't help you a bit.
Ramuel said that it's safe and I believe him!
...and when you die?
And when I don't die?
...then you will be in space!
Exactly!
And with that thought he yelled: "GO! I am ready!"

Ramuel pressed the start button in the control room and gave Jan the countdown through the speakers."10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3..."

The world seemed to slow down for the astronaut, so many things he thought about, how he grew up and became an astronaut....

"- 2 -"

How he lived on the ISS 2...

"-1-"

And what he went through, after the accident on the space station and what he did back in WW3...

"ZERO!"

A bright light filled the room and his helmet; he couldn't see anything and closed his eyes, it was like he was in the sunlight; it was warm, he could feel every tiny place of his skin, he felt alive. Suddenly he felt ground under his feet and the heat was gone; he slowly opened his eyes looking on the ground...
He was on the moon, safe; he looked up and could see the earth, it was fully brightened up by the sun, which was behind him. The astronaut was still amazed by the beauty of his own planet, it should be like the time he was on the ISS 2; but it was different: It felt better.

The silence was broken when Ramuel suddenly called for him. "Jan! Can you hear me? Are you alright?"

Jan opened his mouth, but somehow he didn't know what to say; even if he just needed to say: 'Yeah, I am alright!' But he just couldn't. After a few seconds he finally said: "Yo Ramuel, you remember the shockwave you told me about?"

"Yes why?"

"It feels like someone has slapped me... with a freaking sledgehammer."

Everyone in the control room laughed and was happy; the teleportation was successful and the tester okay. "We will teleport you back in a minute."

"Take the time you need." Jan was still watching the earth. He turned to his right, trying to see some stars, but there weren't any stars. Oh I almost forgot, the gold steamed visor makes it impossible to see the stars... damn...
Ramuel started the countdown and he was teleported back; but this time the bright light appeared on the other side of the teleportation. He re-opened his eyes, but could only see something white; he put a hand on his visor. "Ice, there's ice on my visor Ramuel."

Ramuel, who was already back in the teleporter room, washed the visor with his shirt. "You are right, it's ice, seems like the surface of the space suit heats up to 300°C and cools down to -100°C when you're being teleported; interesting..."

"Could you help me to get the helmet off, there's condensed water inside of it and I can't see shit." Ramuel flipped the two securing lashes over and took the helmet off. "Ahhh, much better, thanks."

"How are you feeling?"

"I couldn't feel better, you need to try this out."

"I think I will wait until we fixed the shockwave problem."

"Your decision. And please find a solution, this sledgehammer hit is awful."

— — — —

1 week and 9 successful teleporations later...

Again Jan was standing on the plate, now with a second astronaut; since teleportation #7 they had two astronauts for further tests Ramuel had prepared. The last week had been a joy for him, Ramuel and the rest of the team. They had sent him 6 times to the moon and 3 times to the Mars without any problems. This time he and the second astronaut were going to the colony that was built up on the Mars; he got a special box out of pure titanium for his personal clothing, attached to his suit. "I still can't believe that you couldn't find a solution for the graviton shockwave."

"Seems like we have to deal with that later."

"You are just fearing your own teleporter and don't want to find a solution, so you don't have to come with us." Both astronauts laughed.

"Shut up or I will send you to the end of the universe!" Both of them stopped laughing. "Okay, can I start the countdown?"

"Yes." Jan said.

"No, wait, I forgot the damn box, can you extract the bridge and send Jan without me first?" Ramuel extracted the bridge and the astronaut went through the door.

"Oh man, where does he put his head when he doesn't use it?" Jan face-palmed.

"I heard that!" The other astronaut yelled through the speakers.

"Nevermind, let's go!" Ramuel started the countdown, but wasn't counting down, because Jan had said that he wouldn't need it. In the first seconds everything was normal, but then...
"What the... RAMUEL!" He was nearly out of breath and in fear. "THE SPACE SUIT! IT'S STEAMING AND MELTING!!!"

"Oh shit, we have energy spikes; don't worry, you will b-", suddenly Ramuels voice disappeared.

Jan was now in panic, his suit was slowly melting and he lost contact to the control room. NOTHING went as planned now, if he would've just stayed home... but it was too late, he would die. The counter he imagined in his head reached zero and the light flash appeared. It was totally different; the comfy heat he felt before had been replaced by a burning sting which covered his entire body; it was a pain he couldn't have imagine before. Suddenly the shockwave hit his body; it didn't feel like the sledgehammer like before, it felt like somebody drove a bulldozer over him, smashing every bone and organ inside him. He opened his eyes to see where he was; he was falling straight onto a roof. With a loud *crack* he went through it, just to fall deeper onto a hard stone floor; his visor sprung into pieces, he quickly closed his eyes to protect them. He could feel a liquid dropping down from his head - water? No, it was red, it was his own blood.
There he was: Lying on the ground with an unbelievable pain he could have never imagined; he tried to call for help, but the pain cut his voice off and only let a quiet grown out. He tried to look up - the only thing he saw was a shadow; it was four legged and had something pretty big and waving on the top and at the end of it. He looked up further; indeed it had 4 white legs and something golden at the end of them - but he could only see the legs, not the body. Whatever it was, it had found him and it called for someone; the only two words he could understand were 'guards' and 'stallion'. Maybe it was just his imagination; after all he was deadly injured and maybe dead already and this was the afterlife.
With that thought his head fell down and he fainted.

End of Chapter 2

You can all guess where he is ^^

Comments

[Kishin]

"7 years ago a young scientist made a break-through in transportation: he invented teleportation."

Ummmm...redundant much?

Overall the concept is pretty interesting, but you're placing SO many infinitives in your story and your absence of any indication of past tense annoyed the crap out of me.

I recommend a spell-checker or editor for your future stories.

[Ponynator]

1117599
Thanks for the feedback :D
Well, this is my first story at all and english isn't my first language that's kind of a problem for me. I already have a pre-reader (friend) to sort out most of the mistakes, but I will try to improve the next chapter ;)

[Kishin]

1117640

Sorry, I didn't know [hindsight is such a bitch to me]

My review was kinda harsh, but thanks for thinking for your fellow viewers with your editing

[Kishin]

Hmmm the second one was pretty good though

[Perception Filter]

This sounds good. No wait, better than good. It's ORGASMIC!

[Ponynator]

1142049

I will try

And by the way: the third chapter is finished and currently beeing edited (checked for the awesome errors i produce )

[paladinwolf]

Not too shabby, I like the concept. Going to have to keep an eye on this. Oddly, the way everything started reminds me of the beginning of Farscape.

[ssokolow]

You really need a beta reader who speaks English as their first language. I don't have time to do a full proofread, but here are the suggestions I accumulated before I ran low on time and had to switch back to reading for leisure:

These two phrases are confusing and took quite a bit of thought for me to make sense of:
"could save the victory of" --> "could ensure victory in"
"it's short after 3 o'clock" --> "it's just after 3 o'clock"

Also, you seem to misunderstand how semicolons are used. "Yes, like that; anyway, ..." should be "Yes, like that. Anyway, ..."

A semicolon is used to connect two independent clauses (things which could be complete sentences) when you want a connection similar to using and/but/or but you don't want to actually write them. For example, "I like this; She likes that." (If you just use a period, it's sort of like waiting a minute between the two sentences but without actually waiting. There's no connection.)

Also, "Wait a second, I have to open the shielding of the room." is incorrect because you don't use a comma to join two independent clauses. Use a period ("Wait a second.") or, if you want to convey a pause between the two, use an ellipsis ("Wait a second…"). (And it'd be more natural to say "the shielding on the room")

Same with "I know, you aren't the first one who says that." The most natural way to write it would be "I know. You aren't the first to say that."

Also, you are right to use a comma in "But I mean, what happens if I fall down and get shreddered by these things?" but you need another one. (And it's "shredded", not "shreddered") You're inserting "I mean" inside the perfectly good sentence "But what happens if..." so you need a comma before it too. ("But, I mean, what happens if I fall down and get shredded by these things?")

...but you don't combine periods and ellipses, so "WOW.... oh.... my...." should be "Wow… oh… my…" (three dots, not four). Also, formatting is your friend. Only use all-caps when posting to a site that doesn't allow markup like italics and boldface. Not only does italic or boldface text look better, it's friendlier to screen readers for the blind.

Another mistake is that "10 feet wide plate" should be "10-foot wide plate". Same with "30 feet wide hole". You say "10 feet" when using the length as a state of being (after is/was) or a count ("How long is it? 10 feet.") but you say "10-foot" when using it as an adjective (when putting it immediately before the word as in "I wouldn't touch you with a 39½-foot pole.").

Finally, it would sound more professional and realistic for the identity-verifying PDA to say "Identity verified. General James Sinclair." and "Identity verified. Jan Schneider. Astronaut and Engineer." (As a UI designer, I can say with authority that, for something you're going to be using that often, you don't want it to be long-winded. You want it to provide the relevant details quickly and unambiguously.)