Challenges: SciFi Short Stories

Epiphany

A second sun is rising, shadows dance on green valleys splittingcandy-like cloud on the horizon. A child is merrily playing in the grass with his parents. He runs too fast and crashes in the arms of one of his parents, and says with a happy voice

" It's so warm. I am so happy. I will be baptized tomorrow. I will finally be an enlightened one and live in the real world. "

" It's is all thanks to your efforts. You have proven to be the smartest, and most capable. You deserve it! And even if you hadn't, we would still love you. " answers the parent, folding the child in his arm.

" It's time to go to sleep. " says the other parent. With a snap of his finger a house with a peripheral window emerges from the grass. The front door opens itself, revealing a dream like child's bedroom with a huge comfy bed at the center of the room and beautiful moving luminous paintings on the ceiling. The child runs towards the house, vigorously jumps in the air, his clothes transmutes into a pyjama, lands in the bed and bounces repeatedly until his parents sits at his sides.

" Tomorrow will be exhausting day, and you need plenty of rest. Closes your eyes, and dream. "

The child obeys and falls asleep.

The other parent waves at the stars which disappear themselves one by one. The world falls into the darkness.

END OF VR WORLD SESSION... Booting subsystem... Welcome Enlightened One!

~~~

A cold blue light floods from the glass ceiling into the small room with almost no furnitures. Metallic sounds resonates in the distance. Coffins fixed on the wall starts vibrating, light panels starts flickering. Their doors unlock themselves and opens showing beautiful platinum ceramic-like dolls. The dolls walk synchronously out the coffins. White bands of clothes flow out from small slots, assembles themselves from one shoulder to the knees like roman's apparel.

One of the doll bows down its head and sit down at the only table in the room. The other docks a monolith on his back, stands in front of the door, its lips doesn't move but its voices reaches the sitting doll.

" I will met you at the church in 22 hours. "

The other doll raises its head.

" Do you think one of us will have to die? "

" Don't think about that. We are not obsolete. Our efforts finally paid. From now, our lives will be brighter. We will be a family. "

The sitting doll, slowly raises its head, stands up and calmly walks towards the other doll. They coldly embraces each others with clanging sound.

" See you at the Church. "

The front door slides open exposing a limitless factory through plains, gulfs and mountains with identical dolls of different apparel's colour swarming like ants, monolith on their backs lashing violent green lightning arcs under the gloomy starring sky. The sound increases tenfold by the seconds until the door closes. Now alone in the room, the doll goes back into the coffin, returns to the virtual world.

~~~

After fives hours travelling in tubes the dolls arrives to the church. A gigantic marble platform suspended in the sky, dressed by thousands of tubes up to hundreds of asteroids in space pulled by thrusters to avoid the planet attraction. At the center stands a misshapen structure made of metal and crystal reflecting the cold light of the stars in every direction, shades and colours. The structure is shaped like hands holding an egg brimming with a red aura.  Every seconds, in every little shakes of the platform, we can feel and never ending fight between the attraction of the egg and the thrusters, a hand preventing Damoclès to lay down its lethal strike.