Descending Into The Crystal

This is a short story I wrote for an assignment in 2021. It technically is a short story - it stands on its own and everything - but it is considered also a prequel to a story idea I had almost nine years ago. So enjoy!
Edit: didn't realize some words were smashed together so that is fixed; note to self: always double check before posting...

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"Readings still the same."

The man narrowed his eyes at the indigo-blue crystal and then to the control crystal of the same colour. Everything was the same between the two – the colour, the clarity, and more or less the size. Only one difference still remained: one of the crystals gave an unusual and rather strange reading. He nodded, detaching the control crystal from his equipment for the umpteenth time. He definitely hadn't been hallucinating. Of course this had been going on for awhile, his questioning himself over whether these two crystals differed. It nearly nagged him ad nauseam; but once he had reaffirmed that they were different, he continued monitoring the crystal.

He had grown accustomed to simple projects like this over the years which allowed him to take on many projects at a time. Usually he would take one big project then smaller ones for a diversion any time he needed a break, but unlike previous projects the crystal's readings were nothing he had ever seen as a physicist. In the beginning, he had thought that his equipment was faulty. It was after all just a mere crystal that happened to drop into his lap. Nothing terribly exciting. Once he had established that his equipment was flawless, though, his real inquiry began. He first attempted to understand why the readings made it look as if his equipment were on the fritz only to discover another anomaly: the crystal's structure. Its complex crystal lattices baffled him more than the actual readings. That too was unlike anything he had ever seen. In between his intervals of confidence, he often wondered whether the complexities of the lattices meant another worldly origin; but as often as he wondered, he quickly dismissed that silly notion conjured by his extremely caffeinated self.

Weeks upon weeks of monitoring the crystal gave no new information. Or had it been months? Knowing and tracking the time was all a blur. Day in and day out, his daily routine became robotic. Meals were only consumed when necessary while breaks were nonexistent. He tried distracting himself with other queued projects; but even those were not enough to dispel his thoughts on the crystal.

One day as he sat for his midday mandatory meal, his eyes drifted to a framed picture sitting on the nearby wooden bookshelf. What once was a delightful reminder on most days now was a token of the past. He immediately stopped eating and held his stare at the picture as echoes of his children filled his study. The running around, the laughter, the curiosity – he missed those days. The flicker of the light then reeled in his stare to the door of his study. The images of his children were now very vivid as if he were watching in real time.

"Daddy, can we play?"

Those voices. They seemed. Real. But they couldn't have been. No, they weren't, his rational mind surmised. But the memories were still there. When his children weren't begging him to play with them, they would be intrigued by his work especially if he had some sort of experiment out in the open. If the setup was complete, he often would show and demonstrate whatever the scientific principle of the day was. Any questions his children had no matter how mundane he patiently and eagerly answered, illustrating whenever he could with whatever items he had lying around his study. He had made it a point to include both his children but only his youngest, his daughter and not even ten, had taken a special interest.

He sighed. He never had described himself as the perfect parent and husband; but he had always though the was at least average on the spectrum, providing all the necessities of life for his wife and kids. Yet that day still happened which left him with a gaping hole, an empty feeling. Even now he couldn't shake it.

A loud repetitive beep snapped him back to his surroundings. He quickly abandoned his half-eaten lunch and checked his equipment. "These energy readings are impossible," he mumbled to himself, "and yet... the possibilities – what this could mean!"

He fumbled around his workstation for apiece of paper and his faithful pen and like a mad man scribbled what came to his head. Once finished, he examined his masterpiece. "The amount of energy..." he ran his hand through his dark-coloured hair, blinking. "This could revolutionize the energy sector." Any hope of finishing his forsaken lunch was now completely gone. He cleared off anything not pertaining to the crystal off his table, not caring where the non-essentials went. Starting at that moment he determined to himself to find a way to harness the crystal's energy, beginning with a deep dive into its properties.

Days quickly morphed into weeks which then morphed into a couple of months. He threw himself into his work running on minimum sleep and eating the bare minimum if at all. The phone rang till it rang no more, and any knockings at his door quickly subsided as he ignored them. If it wasn't that indigo-blue crystal he simply wasn't interested, and yet he wasn't making much progress. Occasionally he stopped to review what he knew in the hopes of uncovering something, really anything, that he had overlooked; but that left him beyond what he already was becoming. Frustrated.

While he sat in front of the crystal hoping that it would speak its mysteries to him, the picture on the wooden shelf grabbed his stare. Whenever he was busy or completely stumped, his two children always appeared at the forefront of his thinking. Usually that had meant that soon they would pop in to his study; but that wasn't going to happen anytime soon, unless his mind wanted to play tricks on him again.

As he stared further at his son and daughter in the picture, his mood significantly fell. All those missed school recitals? He couldn't take back. The many missed baseball games of his son's haunted him even now as the voice of his wife echoed in his head. Family functions he had half paid attention to, his mind always circling back to whatever current project he had. Sure, he always had insisted to himself and even to his wife that his work mattered, that it meant something – that his projects helped further innovation in his field as well as others. But at what cost ?His wife packing her bags and leaving with the kids? Before that day he was certain in his choices. Now? Struggling in times of frustration became almost the norm. Everything in the house reminded him of the life he had had, the one he should have had fought for.

And now all that was left was this indigo-blue crystal, making him question everything.

His head space was nowhere near any of his calculations let alone the crystal. Deciding he needed a change of scenery, he headed towards his kitchen. A cup of coffee was sorely needed. Watching the coffee drip its final flavour and inhaling deep brought his focus back and renewed his spirits, much like he had hoped. As he sipped on that delectable liquid, he pondered more on the crystal's lattices; and the more he thought about it the more he convinced himself on its purposeful organized structure. It was much like a painting; but instead of different colours of paint arranged accordingly to create a desired image, it was the molecules. That brought even more questions. He sipped his coffee again.

Before he could spiral further into his thoughts, he suddenly heard a faint beeping noise that he knew was coming from his study. With his coffee still in hand, he rushed back to his study; and upon arrival, he immediately scrutinized his equipment. Now this was beyond anything he had encountered. He had seen huge energy output before, even when it came to this indigo-blue crystal. But this? This was just impossible. Suddenly, a thought struck him. What if all this time the readings he had been receiving weren't random? What if they too had some sort of design to them? A distortion began to appear around the crystal.

He then dropped his coffee suddenly noticing everything around him fading. He glanced at his hands lifting them up as he did. It wasn't the room fading. Feeling something – energy he presumed – coursing through his body, he took one last glance at the picture on his shelf. He smiled. He smiled at the memories. He smiled knowing his family was safe and wouldn't worry. A bright light soon enveloped everything. Then nothing.

All that was left was a broken mug lying in a puddle of coffee and an empty study.