Ethereal Stories is a new format that I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I’ve been writing stories since I was little, but I’ve always been afraid to share them for fear it won’t be good enough but this time around I made up my mind to give it a go.
Ethereal Stories will be short stories set in an imaginary science fiction or fantasy world. I keep my fingers crossed, hoping you like it.
Alone
I
“
— You look bad today! Really, you’re scary to see eh? And no need to blame this broken mirror. Yeah, what it reflects makes you look like you are stepping out of an earthquake.
— Oh yeah, it’s just like.”
Good…
Well, I still have my pretty brown eyes at least and… and no blood. Phew! This is a good thing.
Fucking Shivans! They destroyed everything and we saw nothing coming.
How many days have I been on the road? I have such a hard time remembering, and this, this pain in my head.
The ceremony yeah, all the heads of state were there and my god! Dany ! Dany my darling! Neos, my son!
No, no, no, no, no, no, I must not mope, there is still a way to save them, to save them all.
“
— Come on Nat, take it again, luck is on your side. The inhabitants of this barracks had a supply of water and food. Hehe, this is the first time since you got out of the rubble that you’ve found a place that hasn’t been looted or destroyed. It’s a good omen!
— Go pull yourself together and a little water on my face to wake you up.
Oh yeah, what’s wrong with my head!
— Hey don’t look at me like that with your unearthed face!
— I know I’m in really bad shape and then this bandage around my head isn’t meant to help me.
— Okay, move on, we’re not going to spend the day there.
— Ok, what do I do now?
— The research center. I have to go to the research center. Where is he already?
And that headache!
— Come on, remember, you know that!
— This is… this is a top secret military research center, you are in the skill set, remember!
— He, he’s underground, The Shivans couldn’t destroy him, I know that but… Oh damn, damn, but where the fuck is he? Ah yes, it comes back to me, The natural park of Ørsteds and, and Andersen? Why do I think of H.C Andersen?
— Nat, that’s not going my dear, get hold of yourself common sense!
— Hahaha, yes, it’s easy for you to say that! You’re not the one dragging your damn headache!”
What am I talking about? I’m losing control, here I am yelling at myself.
“
— Come on, think about it, what’s the deal with Andersen?
— The Jarmers Tower! Where the Nørre Voldgade and H.C. Andersen Boulevard intersect! I must go to the remains of the tower.”
This is where I have to go. Let’s get out of this hut before it falls on me. Direction Copenhagen
II
“
— Breathe in, the sky is blue, barely a few small clouds blown by the east wind and no trace of the Shivan ships.
— Yeah, they left the game, like angry kids. Unable to accept that he could never invade us. They swept the playmat with their hands, except that there, instead of cards, are entire cities… and how many deaths…?
— Oh Dany, honey, what did they do? I don’t want to lose you, I must save you and Neos. And my head hurts so much! It’s unbearable, I don’t know if I’m going to make it. Dany !
— I am here, my love.
— Dany ?
— You can do it, but time is running out. Come on my love, your life is at stake.
— Dany ? Dany, my darling, it hurts so much.
— Advance !
— Yes, yes you’re right, I have to… I have to… What is happening to me, I’m not feeling well, my head is spinning, I… Huh? What ?”
I had one more absence. How long have I been unconscious? Come on, we don’t care Nat, get up.
Ok, where am I again? Where am I ? I’m in… in Køge! I arrived yesterday. I got there … How did I get here? I don’t know anymore, I … I can’t remember anymore, I …
“
— Come on, come on, come on, it’s okay, I have to go ahead, Copenhagen, that, that I know. I know where I need to go, that’s all that matters. To speak, I must speak, so as not to forget. Come on, it’s … about forty miles. Have, without this headache, a real health walk.
— Come on, one foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other.
To say it was a city here. Køge was not a very big city, but a city nonetheless. Now all is ruins and desolation. And all these bodies! These poor people …
— Clear the hell out of you! Go feast further.
Only the dead and, aside from the scavengers, not a single living soul on the horizon.
I am alone. Am I the last?
— No, no idiot, the stores did not loot themselves!
— Yes of course… yes of course but where are they then?”
III
I’m finally out of town, finally out of what’s left of it.
“
— I need to talk ! I need to talk !”
I feel my head clouding over and my thoughts escape me. The world rocks slightly in front of me and,
“
— And MY FUCKING SKULL IS JUST A FUSION OVEN READY TO EXPLODE!
— Speak Nat, speak, you must not forget. Remember, remember! Yes the center in Copenhagen, Speak, speak, speak, focus on the center.
— Ok, ok, ok, ok, ok, we have developed a process of cloning and tissue regeneration.
— Yes that’s it ! That’s it, we borrowed this technology from the Shivans. We, we didn’t ask them for permission, you surprise me! Joke of fate, the Shivans destroyed us and thanks to them, we will be able to rebuild ourselves, well I hope.
— AAAhhhh that skull!
— Go talk, talk!
— In the basement, in an airtight room, designed to withstand the most violent earthquakes, there is the largest genetic library in the world, all humans who have at least once given blood are listed there. But without their conscience, it is of little use.
— But if I can, but if I can … I still have to get there!”
I feel so weak now.
“
— Courage my love, you’re almost there.
— Dany ? Dany ? Yes, yes, I have to move forward, I have to move forward …
— What am I doing here ? What is that building in the distance? I… I’m so tired. I must rest. I’m… I’m going to rest there. I think I’m going to … get some sleep
— Get up Nat!
— Who is talking to me ?
— Nat get up! The center is in front of you!
— Who’s Nat? Who is this? Is the man coming? I believe, I believe that, that I fall asleep
IV
The ceremony had started, all the heads of state were present. We thought we were celebrating the dawn of a new era. Relative peace was established with the Shivans and we were going with this new technology that the Secret Service had recovered to become their equal.
The machine present in its premises made it possible to duplicate our entire consciousness and store it in a bio-quantum chip.
I was walking down the steps to the lab and chatting with the engineer when we were knocked to the ground with a deafening uproar. I got up groggy. The engineer had been crushed under a cabinet but he was still breathing. The door leading to the stairs had been gutted by concrete blocks preventing any exit. Instinctively I looked for another way to escape. I walked over to the air vent and felt a thin trickle of air. Hundreds of fleas were lying on the ground. The engineer called out to me with difficulty.
“
— Hey, hurry up! They cannot survive for long outside of the foster frost.”
They were the bio-quantum chips intended to be implanted in the brain of a clone in order to integrate its consciousness there. To be stored, they had to be bathed in a specific liquid and then frozen. All the heads of state, including the staff present, Dany and Neos, they were all there in these chips.
“
— What do I have to do ?
— You have to put them back in tubes and freeze them.”
I looked at him and he looked at me, aware of his blunder. There was no more electricity. We could still see each other as light tubes with their own energy had taken over, but storage freezers that continued to run on internal battery would not last long. And after ? Afterwards, fleas, like any organic component, deteriorated rapidly.
I picked up one and watched it through my fingers.
“
— Ok, it activates thanks to the magnetic field produced by a brain, right?
— Yes that’s it … But what, what are you doing?!?!”
I placed the chip on my shaved head and felt biomechanical filaments implant themselves in me.
— I offer them an alternative source of energy.
— You can not do this !
— Yes, I can and I do. I said, looking for Dany and Neos chips.
— Consciences will seek to infiltrate you, you risk … losing yourself and disappearing.
— I take the risk.
When I was done, my entire head had been covered with bio-quantum chips. In the meantime the engineer was dead. I was hoping for him that it was in one of the chips that I had implanted. I wrapped a bandage around my head and threaded my way through the air duct to open air. The world was on fire, there was nothing and no one left.
Epilogue
— Do you think she’ll be okay?
— Daniel, I’ll do my best to save her, she’s a heroine. What she did, the risk she took, all mankind will forever be grateful for.
A few days later alongside Natalia, Daniel was watching. She began to breathe harder. Then his eyes moved under his lids, before slowly opening. She looked at him as if she didn’t recognize him, then swept the room with a long, lost gaze.
“
— Where, where am I?
— In a treatment room”
She looked at him without understanding.
“
— Do you remember how you got there? he asked anxiously.”
She continued to look at him without saying anything. Detailing every feature of his face.
“
— I, I know you. It was both a question and a statement.”
He took her hand, kissed it, and put it on her cheek.
“
— Yes ! he said quietly so as not to cry.”
At this contact Nat’s face contracted, then her eyes widened and then she said:
“
— Dany. Dany ? Dany ! my love ?
He hugged her with all his strength.
— Tell me I’m not dreaming.
— No, sweetheart, you are not dreaming. You saved us all.”
Nilsa's world 