Turbulence

In the darkness, I can only hear static coming from the comms. The video feed and messages have disappeared, leaving me alone.

It isn't until now that I realized I no longer feel the attraction of gravity. My limbs are free to float around, but I can't see them.

Any binds confining my physical being have vanished, but it's not just my body that feels at liberty. The dread and the hopelessness back on Earth are left behind in that instance. My mind is also now free, drifting in the unknown plane along with my body.

Soon, hints of understandable voice break through the static.

"Pzzzzzz… Kris… Pzzzzzzzzzzz… Can-… Pzzzz…."

"Hello? Cisca?" I ask into the abyss.

"Pzz… I can-… Pzzzzzzzz… the connec-… Pzzzzz…"

"What was that?"

"Pzzzzz… I think the-… Pzzzzzz… I think the connection is sta-… Pzzz…. -bilizing."

"You think the connection is stabilizing? Is that what you said?"

"Pz… Yes. Can you hear me well now?"

Cisca's voice is now clear.

"I can. I can hear you just fine," I say.

"Great. Now I will re-establish the video signal."

The square pops back up, but it's full of white noise.

"I can't see anything," I say.

"Give it a second." Right after Cisca says that, the video distorts and becomes a noisy view of her face in the laboratory. She waves at me.

"Hey. Can you see me now?" She asks.

"Yeah."

"Nice. I can almost see through your lens. And… now. It's coming through. Why do you have your eyes closed, Kris?"

I do? I try to open my eyes, and it actually works. I don't remember blinking when I got transported, but apparently, I did.

"Whoa, there it is," Cisca exclaims.

I see what she is surprised about. In front of my now opened eyes are streaks of colors zipping past me at speeds hard to catch. In the distance is an orb of white light that never gets any closer. All around me is dark except for the zooming lights. It feels like I am flying through a tunnel in a dark amusement park. Everything is so bizarre, but at least I can see my own hands now.

"What am I looking at right now?" I ask.

"Uh… These should be distorting photons flying past you as you tear through the fabric of space-time," Cisca says. I can see my view being reflected on her glasses in the video feed. A smile stretches from one side of her face to the other.

"Whatever you just said, it's cool," I say.

"Y-Yeah. They showed up in my calculations, so I expected this to happen, but actually seeing them… I-It's… amazing," she says with wide eyes.

We stay in the psychedelic trance for a minute or two.

The colors are from all over the spectrum, and there is an endless flow of the streaks, too. Some go right through my body like it doesn't exist.

BEEP. BEEP. An alarm goes off from Cisca's side, and I can see the side of her face flashing red from the screen beside her.

Cisca shakes her head and snaps herself back from astonishment and looks around.

"What is happening?" I ask.

"Uh… uh… It seems like we are getting interference," she says while scrambling on her keyboard with a puzzled expression, "Get ready for some turbulence.

"What does that mean?"

"I… am not sure, but everything else is on course, so you shouldn't be in any danger, yet."

"Yet?"

"Just… we will see what happens."

"What?"

Nothing has changed from what I am seeing, until now, that is. The white orb in the distance suddenly begins to expand, as if I am getting closer.

The white takes up more and more of my vision.

"Um… Cisca?" I ask.

She doesn't look away from the other monitors and says, "Give me one second…"

The white has now totally devoured me. In every direction is a void. The flying colors are gone, and there is only light around me.

I can feel gravity, or a force similar to gravity, beginning to take its toll. My arms are no longer floating, and the bottom of my feet land on a solid. I have lost all sense of directional movement.

"Cisca?" I ask.

I can see her confused face in the corner of my eye.

"This… doesn't make any sense. The sensors… they show that you have reached your destination, but it's just… all white," she mumbles to herself.

I take a step forward and see nothing around me change.

"Could this be the other world?" I ask.

"No, that's not possible. You are not on a physical plane right now. It's as if something… caught you and caged you there."

"What does that mean?"

"I… don't know, either."

Oh boy. It is not often I hear those words come out of Cisca's mouth in a scientific context.

"Look around, I guess. See if you can find anything," she says.

"Okay, then."

I continue walking in the direction I was going in, but there is nothing around me to signify that I have moved at all.

Out of the thin air far in the distance in front of me, a glowing light conjures into existence.

"What the…" I mutter and continue to walk forward, but it doesn't seem like I am getting any closer.

The glowing light grows bigger and bigger. It's hard to tell the size of it as I can't grasp the distance between it and me, but it's definitely getting mountainous.

"Cisca?" I call out for help.

She glances at my screen and pushes her glasses up.

"Currently, I know the same amount about the situation as you do, so… good luck?"

"Cool…"

That's not good.

The glowing ball begins to take the shape of a human, but only the shape, as its size is definitely not normal, and it's still only made of light.

"WHO ARE YOU TO TRESPASS UPON MY DOMAIN!" The human shape growls out in a reverberating voice.

The thing can speak? English, too?

"Your domain? What are you?" I yell back at it.

"Who are you talking to?" Cisca asks.

"Can you not hear it?"

"Hear what?"

"What it just said."

"The weird light in front of you?"

"Yeah."

"I didn't hear anything."

"Oh… this is an interesting situation," I say. If Cisca can't hear the figure in front of me, does that mean it's communicating with me telepathically?

"What is it saying?" Cisca asks.

"Who am I to trespass upon its domain."

"It's intelligent?"

"Seems like it."

"Is it aggressive?"

"Uh… seems like it," I say as I watch the light either approaching me or increasing in size even further.

"Oh… It's closing in with a massive amount of energy. Quick! Neutralize it!" Cisca yells.

"What?"

"Neutralize it with your atomic bomb! The nuclear fusion should disrupt whatever energy plane you are in right now and rip you out!"

The nuclear bomb, right. I would have thought the nuke would be the last weapon to be used, who knew it's going to be the first?

"Right!" I say as I take it out from my belt.

"Press the red button five times and chuck it!"

"Uh... Okay!"

I put my thumb on the button and begin pressing it. The figure is really close now, or really big, I can't tell.

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. The bomb begins making sounds.

"It's activated! Throw it!" Cisca yells.

"Alright!"

With all the forces in my arm, I send the bomb flying forward as hard as I can. I can tell it's getting further away from me. A second later, when it reaches the center of the figure of light, the bomb bursts into an even brighter ball of light.