EARTH — Bill’s Lab
“Whoa! That was fun, let’s do it again!” Lizo and his team enthusiastically burst out of the colorful earthbound portal, a perfect Quarkopolis portal clone with its bright colors but far inferior in use of materials and skill. A bit dazed, the team of four looked around and almost gasped out loud as their sensitive eyes beheld a lackluster, dull, boring, dingy laboratory filled with unfamiliar items scattered haphazardly everywhere.
They had never seen anything like this place. Everything was completely foreign and, honestly, uninviting. In one lightning-fast movement, the four Quarkkids turned back to the painted portal, as all were thinking the same thought, “Get us out of here!”
To their surprise and dismay, the colorful bright portal had some sort of camouflage on it that obscured the details of the painting. They even tried using their best squinting technique to make out the details, but to no avail. The blur almost completely hid the amateurish brushstrokes of the old yellow Volkswagen Bug in Bill’s garage and so they were stuck on Earth in Bill’s lab.
The portal was closed.
“Argh!” Frustration shook the energetic team to their Quarkle cores. Fortunately, the shock wore off almost immediately and flinging off their deflated expectations like dandelion seeds in the wind, they decided to make the best of it and explore their own new forms.
You see, Quarkles, even as kids, are made of pure energy and light. They don’t really have a form, per se, they just exist. Invisible to most other life forms, they are the smallest living intelligent particle in the universe. But when they pass through a portal from Quarkopolis to Earth, they transform into miniature, animated forms. Most common are flying creatures such as butterflies or hummingbirds but the form can be anything reasonable, depending on the mission.
And the Quarkkids were not in the least disappointed with the transformation that had taken place from the Quarkopolis portal to Bill’s lab. Pegasus horses, miniature, detailed, with translucent wings. Colorful, black and white, all colors imaginable. They flew around and around, joyful, playful, resolved. Finally, reluctantly, they ‘got out of the pool’ as Lizo led them to a landing place beside a few scattered test tubes and random beakers.
“Well, here we are, that was fun, we’ve had our play time, but,” said Lizo, “now let’s…” he was interrupted by a loud sound coming from outside the lab.
It was an unusual noise, in fact it didn’t sound like anything they had ever heard before. Even on Quarkopolis they had never heard a sound like this one. It was musical, harmonious, and bewitching. And it was the music which compelled Lizo to make his next decision.
“Better go investigate.” Lizo reluctantly muttered to one of the team. “Try to be quick about it, I want to get on with the mission.” Purple sparkles drifted off his wings as he impatiently flicked them toward the intrusive sound.
Povi flew outside the adjoining door into the mechanic’s shop area and set out to look for the source of the sound. His wings and body leapt to the task and it was only a millisecond before the source of the sound became evident. Haunting melodies poured forth from a beam of constantly moving pure energy and light extending from ceiling to floor. High-definition entrancing songs poured forth like fresh gurgling water from the center. It was the shape of a cylinder rather than a tornado, wait, now it looked like an hourglass, now back to a cylinder, now, a tornado. The light was ever moving, ever changing, never stopping, always beautiful. It almost looked like something that a Quarkle had invented, almost.
Povi was used to light and energy but wasn’t familiar with any of the properties of Earth, so took it for granted that it was normal. Shrugging, he stretched his delicate animated wings and flew back to Lizo and the others, quick as a shot.
“It’s just a light beam, Lizo.” said Povi with disappointment in his high-pitched whinnying voice, “It looks pretty normal to me, just like anything that we’ve ever seen back on Quarkopolis.” He snorted and pawed the workbench while waiting for further instructions from the team leader.
Lizo scrunched his Pegasus mouth, wrinkling his eyes and nose at the same time, and thought about that. He had been to Earth before with his mentor, and he knew that it didn’t have nearly the same properties as Quarkopolis as far as light was concerned. Sighing, he made the decision to see for himself about this musical light.
Flying towards the light beam, Lizo felt a tug on his sparkly translucent wings, almost like a radiant wind, but pulling, not pushing. He was pulled, pulled, pulled, and then he was inside the light. It was swirling, singing and Lizo swirled and sang with it. A joyous experience to be sure. Looking out from the middle of his blissful surroundings, he saw that Povi had followed him and had also been pulled into the beam of light. He tried to shout to him but found that he could neither talk nor hear as the music overpowered any attempt at normal speech. This reminded him of the force when he was born, thrust from the sun to Quarkopolis.
EARTH — Bill’s Transporter Room
Bill was ecstatic — he had sent out the light beam just a few minutes ago and there they were, miniature animated Pegasus horses! Mesmerizing! And there were two of them swirling in the beam, helpless and maybe a little frightened. No, not frightened, there was no evidence of fear, but only a surrendering and joy.
Which is exactly the response planned for when building the Transporter.
Two of them! This was a definite bonus for all his hard work, after all, he deserved a bit of success after all he’d been through. “Waste no time, do it now, opportunity might be missed,” Bill fiddled with some switches, talked to himself over the loud beating of his heart, and pressed the button to activate the beam for transport. He glanced over at the container that he had built for the Quarkles and waited with great anticipation to see if his inventions and long years of preparation were going to pay off.
The light and music wavered as Lizo and Povi began to shimmer and slowly disappear. Without blinking, and with great anticipation and trepidation, Bill watched every changing molecule on a state-of-the-art monitor. Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the beam of light was gone, the music stopped and the Quarkkids had vanished.
Bill quickly flipped some more switches to the Quarkle Containment room, hoping, hoping….and…
He saw them! Two of the most beautiful creatures that he’d ever laid eyes on. They weren’t even fazed by the transport; it was like they did this all the time. Maybe they did, Bill had never actually seen Quarkopolis or a Quarkle, but had imagined and dreamed about it a million times over.
Bill patted his chest rapidly several times, trying to slow his breathing and curb his excitement. After all, he couldn’t afford to have a heart attack now. Now that he’d trapped not one, but two, Quarkles. He took some deep cleansing breaths, steeled his resolve and stopped just outside the adjoining door to the Containment room.
Bill intended to have a conversation with these mysterious, intelligent, and extremely tiny creatures.
Comments (4)
See all