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The Rats In The Walls
(© Biswapriya Purkayastha)

Page 1

"You’ve not come down here," the colonel said. He keyed in a code into a panel set in the wall, and the armoured door swung open. "You have never been here, if anyone were to ask you. This place does not even exist. I hope that is clear."

The astrophysicist was small, grey-haired and more than slightly overweight. He glanced at the officer from the corner of his eye. "Nobody’s actually told me anything. So I have no idea why you thought fit to order me here."

"You’ll find out." The colonel waited for the armoured door to swing shut behind them. The corridor was stark white and brilliantly lit, without a scrap of shadow. "Before we go any further, let me inform you, officially, that you’re now under military jurisdiction. Anything and everything you see or do here is classified, and any violation attracts punishment."

"Oh?" The astrophysicist raised one eyebrow, a skill of which he was secretly rather proud. "What are you going to do? Rap me on the knuckles? Stop my magazine subscriptions?"

The colonel didn’t even blink. "Oh no. You breathe a word of this, and we are going to shoot you."

The astrophysicist didn’t have anything to say to that. He followed the officer down the corridor until they reached another door. The colonel opened it and stood aside. "There you are," he said."Go in."

"Aren’t you coming?" Suddenly, the tall colonel in his green uniform seemed to be an old friend, an anchor to the world outside.

"No. The general’s waiting for you. He’ll brief you himself." The colonel inclined his head, smiled slightly, and closed the door behind the astrophysicist.

It was quite an ordinary office room. The carpet was green, and on the wall behind the desk there was a flag with a golden emblem which he didn’t recognise, but apart from that it was an ordinary office, with a computer monitor on the large desk and filing cabinets along the walls. There were no windows, of course, but then it was all far underground.

"Welcome, professor." The astrophysicist was startled by the voice. He turned quickly, and found the speaker standing near the door with a file in his hand. "I hope I didn’t startle you."

"No, it’s all right." The astrophysicist studied the general. He seemed surprisingly old, with a deeply lined face and unmilitary-looking grey hair. His eyes were bloodshot and tired. "Could you explain what this is about?"

"Yes. Sit down, please." The general motioned towards the chairs set before his desk. He casually slapped down the file in his hand on the desktop, turned so that the scientist had no difficulty reading his own name on the beige cover. "You’ve been told, of course, that this has to stay completely secret?"

"I have." The astrophysicist eyed the file as though it was a possibly dangerous animal. "What is so important about this?"

The general said nothing for a moment. His fingers clicked away at the keyboard of his computer, placed on a recessed shelf below the scientist’s view. A picture appeared on the computer monitor. "You know what this is, of course?"

The astrophysicist glanced at the screen. The bat-like shape on it was midnight black, its edges jagged and irregular. "It’s the hyperspatial craft," he said. "It’s been all over the news recently. What about it?"

"Yes, it’s the hyperspatial craft, as the media dubbed it. For our purposes we call it the X Craft. You know its significance, of course."

"I’m not privy to the details," the astrophysicist said, "but from what I gather it’s meant to create and exploit a wormhole, so that it achieves virtually instantaneous transport across space. We’re told that it holds out our only hope for reaching the stars."

"That’s right." The general seemed agitated. He stood up and began pacing behind his desk, his hands making odd spasmodic movements. "The media do indulge in a lot of hyperbole, but they’re probably telling the truth when they claim it’s the most significant revolution in transport after the wheel." He turned to the astrophysicist suddenly. "You know about the successful test, of course."

[ Continue to page 2 ]

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Genre:Science Fiction
Type:Short story
Rating:6.26 / 10
Rated By:20 users
Comments: 1 user
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