In a typical moment of human curiosity, when a rip in the fabric of space and time appeared in the lab, they did not explore it with all possible instruments, test dummies, cameras or animals. Instead, after poking it with a broom, and ensuring a potplant didn’t combust when put in for a minute, they stuck their heads in to see what was on the other side.
It was shaped roughly like a kumquat. If that kumquat was about five feet tall and capable of hovering in mid-air.
It hurt to look at it, but nobody could say why. Nobody could say, exactly, what colour it was or what seemed to be inside it.
“That’s it,” said Professor Ng. “One hole in our universe… leading into another.”
“How do we even test it?”
Sudden
realisation hit the team like a truck. They had already spent their
budget on the machines that kept the rift stable. What they had to hand
was all they were getting for seven more months. And somehow, standing
around and staring at the rift and occasionally going ‘whoah’ for seven
months didn’t seem to justify the expense.
Kev was the one who volunteered to do the testing. He said it “was going to be as trippy as fuck.”
First,
a broom that an unlucky janitor had left in the office. The handle
received no observable harm. Neither did the bristles. The office
aspidistra, duct taped to the broom, also survived unscathed.
Kev shrugged, muttered, “Yolo, dudes,” and stuck his head inside.
Nobody heard his screams. Nobody in this dimension, anyway.
The
parts of his body still on the observable side of the universe sheared
off as they left the range of the rift. Cleanly. Bloodlessly.
And
it did the same to the parts of the Thing that came through from the
other side, when Professor Ng slammed on the big, red button that shut
everything down.
She knew it was the right thing to do, because she had seen it casually begin consuming what was left of Kev’s left hand.
So
many questions paraded through her mind, but the one that escaped her
mouth was a whispered, “How are we going to explain this to the
investors?”
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