Story Burst 6
🚀 SPiN ST8 Weekly - Your Dose of Sci-Fi Stories
This week's Flash Story: Take a Stand
New on YouTube: Take a Stand the animatic of our flash story
Behind the Scenes: [One sentence about your creative process this week]
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This week’s flash story:
Take a Stand
Elephants started wandering last July. They crashed through acres of land, swayed into convenience stores to raid shelves of chips and chocolate. They spooned together at night under bridges. Reached out with their trunks every morning. Now they stand in front of your house, calling out to you: join us.
Watch the animatic Take a Stand on YouTube
Answer Key: Episode 6
“Hmm, ok, go ahead.” Kairos leaned back in his chair in a studied manner, holding his face in a serious look of inquiry.
“Well, what I focused on,” Hal turned his laptop screen toward Kairos so he could see the charts, “were the signs of aging in Rat A as soon as it reappeared. Now, those numbers were not there at the time of the final readings, when the rat was dissected.”
“Hmm, well, if there were mistakes in copying numbers, let’s keep it quiet—we’ve just landed a grant from the CDC to fund future studies.”
“Oh, I’m not questioning the skill of the member of Amser’s team, but I do think that the rat had suddenly aged. When the rat disappeared, it might have gone into the future for a moment.” Hal sat back and watched Kairos’ face. It was a changing sky on a windy day—a cloud of doubt, condescension in the twist of his lip, a brief flash of fear.
“Umm, well, that’s interesting, Hal, very interesting, but we have some pressing needs to meet as a research center.” He unconsciously straightened his already straight tie. “I’m about to present before the Brain Science Foundation. All my researchers have to work together to document and catalog Amser’s experiment. This will continue to get us features in journal articles, government funding, and eventually private sector donations. There is enough work in those two dead rats to carry us all into retirement,” he chuckled at the thought.
“But I could take a team now and explore time travel—”
Kairos’ voice became stern. “I don’t want any hint of pseudo-science or quantum mysticism to taint Amser’s findings. Do not proceed. Focus your efforts on bolstering your colleague’s work. The sooner we establish ourselves, the sooner we can consider other ideas. Do I make myself clear?”
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