Dust To Dust

Flash Fiction

Photo by Sam Moghadam Khamseh on Unsplash

This story is set in the Sandbox Earth Universe, and I used it as an excuse to test my self-editing, a long neglected skill which I know I need to improve. This will be the last piece of flash-fiction posted before the Gibberish Writing Competition kicks off, after which I will resume sharing fiction as usual.

Please enjoy!

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The planet came into view—a water world, with a single landmass near the equator. Its red sun blazed brilliantly in the distance, giving an unearthly hue to the strange planet.

“We’re here.” I said triumphantly.

“No we’re not.” said Priya, her brows furrowing in confusion as she looked at the screen.

“Third planet, Rouge system, this is the one. This isn’t my first trip to space.” I chided.

“Third planet is supposed to be a rocky, desert world. This one has water—something is wrong.”

“Maybe our readings were wrong.”

“We would never have sent Dr. Neuman here without having sent a survey team first,” Priya put her hands on her hips confidently.

“Why did we send Dr. Neuman here?”

“Because he could pay,” boomed Charlie, the ground-man, as he entered the bridge.

“Hey, Charlie. That doesn’t explain why there’s suddenly water.” Priya replied, unphased.

“Well let’s send a shuttle down and see if the water’s real.” I suggested.

Priya and Charlie were silent, each in their own way. Priya, the brilliant geologist, was clearly unsettled by the change in the geology of the planet. Charlie, the cynic, was clearly unconvinced they were doing anything of importance here.

“Can we scan? Scan it like usual,” Priya commanded. “Treat it like a new world. If there’s water now, we don’t know what other chemicals have changed. We don’t want to get blasted by toxic air, even if the original readings said it was safe.”

“Yes ma’am,” I saluted sarcastically.

“Why did that old fart want to come to this crazy world anyway?"

Priya and I were silent, each in our own way. I was focusing on calculating a scanning orbit, while Priya watched the strange world with concerned eyes.

Charlie sighed, and silently excused himself.

= = =

The scan took two full orbits of the planet, something like four hours of ship-time. Once I had the ship in a stable orbit, I could focus on the instrument panel. This was my favorite part of the Surveyor Corps: the survey ships were filled to the brim with a best-in-class sensor suite, and each instrument fired in turn. They scanned the planet, mapping, assessing, like a chef tasting a new world with the most sensitive palette known to man. Everything I was seeing was that this new world tasted good.

Priya returned after a long absence. “How does it look?” she asked, placing a hand on the back of my chair as she peered at the tiny panel in front of me.

“It looks fine—more than fine, it looks perfect. I’ve never seen a more beautiful planet, there’s usually always a catch, but not here.”

“Can you show me the geology?”

I clacked away at my keyboard, and pulled up the geology report on an adjacent screen for her to see. I didn’t explain—she already knew what I knew, and much faster.

“This surface is so young. Any signs of volcanism?”

“None obvious. It must be there, but there’s so many different types. We’ve seen worlds with cataclysmic resurfacing, and some with more gradual tectonics.”

“It just looks too young. These readings are atypical.” That was how Priya said it looked too good to be true.

“Check out some of these other readings. Here’s the atmosphere.” I watched her face, expectantly.

“That’s an excellent atmosphere, it would not only be breathable but probably even comfortable. What about surface chemistry?”

“You’ve got a knack for finding the weird stuff. Here’s the surface chemistry report.” I clackity-clacked and the report came onto Priya’s screen.

“That’s a LOT of metals.”

“Definitely.”

“And look at this—barely any minerals I would associate with liquid water compounds. Where’s the hematite? Where’s the opal? Not seeing any. It has more in common chemically with a desert world, in my opinion. All this water feels new.”

“Hey.” Charlie had once again silently entered the bridge. “You two love-birds are gonna wanna take a look at this.”

My heart clenched at the barbed banter. Priya ignored the remark—oblivious, or indifferent: “What have you got?”

“I’ve been looking through the telescope, found Dr. Neuman—I think.”

Priya marched away immediately, saying “Show me.”

I let them both go. I needed to stay at the helm.

= = =

“A what?”

“A ziggurat, I think. Like a pyramid,” Priya said.

“He’s only been here two years and you’re saying he’s built a pyramid?”

“He can’t have built it.” Charlie said definitively.

“Did we see any sign of Dr. Neuman himself? Did you see his ship?”

“No—that’s what’s strange. And he’s not responding on any frequencies.” Priya adjusted the wrist-strap on her ground-suit.

“At least that’s consistent with the lack of communication back to Second Hammond.” Charlie quipped, twisting his helmet around his neck until it clicked.

“Ground observation is the best way to find out what’s going on.” Priya reassured me.

Charlie smirked, “That’s why you have a ground-man.”

“And you’re going because…” I looked into Priya’s eyes, and she looked back innocently.

“I want to take ground samples. This is such a strange world—ground samples will tell us more than remote sensing ever could.”

Never in my life had I wanted to go to the surface of a planet more than right now. But that was how surveyors worked. A skeleton crew. One pilot, one ground-man, one specialist.

Priya clicked her helmet on. I said, “Well, I’m jealous. Send me a feed.”

“You got nothin’ to worry about. She’ll be safe with me.” Charlie winked.

“Be careful,” I said, “…you two.”

“You got it.” Charlie pulled the door of the shuttle closed behind Priya, whose mind was still turning over the puzzle of this world, like an oyster turns over pearls.

I rushed back to the bridge, and clicked on my com-link. “Shuttle this is Interpolator.”

“Loud and clear Interpolator, we’re strapped in.” It was Charlie.

“Destination set to the Ziggurat area. Opening bay doors.”

“Standing by.”

I pressed a button on the command panel and felt the vibration through the ship as the bay doors under the shuttle slid open.

“Shuttle, you’re clear to detach.”

“Detaching.”

Another vibration, as the clamps holding the shuttle released and gave it a gentle push towards the planet.

“Shuttle clear, navigation downlink received.”

I had adjusted the viewscreen camera to watch the shuttle as it drifted away from the ship. “Separation confirmed, You’re off and away.”

“See you soon Cap.” Charlie signed off.

I watched as the engines flared to life, and the shuttle accelerated away from the survey ship Interpolator.

= = =

It was an agonizing forty minutes. Ensuring the shuttle descended safely was a time consuming process, and the drone shuttle followed its subroutines automatically. Priya once compared it to descending underwater in a pressurized tank—get in, wait, and then you’ve arrived.

His com-link buzzed to life, ending his long wait. “Shuttle to Interpolator, we’ve landed.” It was Priya.

“Good to hear.” I said, tentatively.

“Camera feed is live, please confirm?”

I cycled the viewscreen to the fuzzy shoulder-strap camera-feed that showed perspectives from both Priya and Charlie.

“Confirmed, feed is coming through.”

“Opening the hatch.” Charlie said.

I watched on Priya’s view as Charlie unstrapped and opened the door of the shuttle. It was almost solar noon, and the strange red light washed out the camera, until it adjusted. Priya unstrapped, slung her geology kit on her back, and followed behind Charlie outside the shuttle.

“Atmo reading is safe, just like we saw from the scan.” She said.

Priya was distracted by her instrument panel, but I could see Charlie in the background turning around in wonder. “What the hell is this place,” he asked.

Priya looked up, and turned around. There, in the distance, was the Ziggurat. It towered high above them, and gleamed a sullen red in the high-noon sunlight. It was replete with stairs and columns. “Wow,” she whispered.

The landing site was uniformly flat. Some green brush was growing but there were no trees to speak of. No rocks or boulders either—the ground was solid but uniform.

“What do you make of it?” I asked.

“It’s so…fresh.” Priya said absently. She turned around, looking for something. “We’re not near water. I wonder if the beaches are sandy.”

“Hey, Priya, what’s that?” Charlie asked. She looked over to him, and he was pointing towards the Ziggurat. Something was stirring—a cloud, almost. It was hard to make out on the viewscreen.

“I don’t know,” she replied. “Keep an eye on it. Let’s get some samples.”

Priya unslung her backpack and started working with her geology tools. She knelt on the ground, and shoveled a scoop of earth into a jar. She shook the jar around—but the dirt disintegrated into uniform particles.

“Priya, it’s getting closer.”

“Don’t you have a gun?”

“Yeah—but—I mean, what is it? It’s a cloud, you think a gun will really work?”

“Listen, if you guys feel unsafe for any reason it’s ok to come back and assess.”

“Yeah, thanks mom.” Charlie quipped. I ignored it—he was stressed, and possibly afraid. The ground-man always had the toughest job. Charlie had been through the ringer on some worlds, and always came back sarcastic and cynical. He never let it phase him. But here—this was new, this was unusual.

Priya was messing with the dirt, so I switched to Charlie’s view. He was watching this cloud approach. There was a form floating in the middle of it all.

“Charlie, does that look like a…person?” I asked.

“Uh, yes, it does. He’s…floating? I can’t tell what this cloud is.”

The cloud was reddish-brown in the light, and seemed to be emerging from the ground underneath the man. It was almost as if he was hovering and pushing the dust out with whatever force he was using to stay in the air.

As the cloud got closer, Charlie audibly gasped: “It’s Dr. Neuman!”

“What? Are you sure?” I asked. I cycled the view back to Priya—she stood up, and was looking at the approaching figure.

“It’s him,” she said quietly.

I saw Charlie take a few steps forward, his hand hovering near his hip where the gun was magnetically attached to his belt.

Dr. Neuman’s voice was surprisingly loud: “Hello, visitors!” he called out.

Charlie was incredulous. “Dr. Neuman? Is that you?”

“It’s me! I’m so happy to see you.” As Dr. Neuman came closer, it was clear that he wasn’t wearing anything but a tattered loin-cloth. He was perfectly bald, no hair on his head, nor eyebrows, nor whiskers, nor chest hair, nor presumably hair on his arms or legs. In the dossier, he was a severe grey-haired old man when he left Second Hammond. This man hovering in front of them looked younger.

“Dr. Neuman, we’re with the survey ship Interpolator. You financed this expedition and then we stopped hearing from you. Are you ok? Is your team here? How are you floating? What’s this pyramid doing here?” Charlie spilled questions nervously. I’d never seen him so on-edge.

“Calm, calm. Everything is fine. I’ve never been happier.”

Priya took an impatient step forward. “Why haven’t you communicated? There was an agreement that—”

“My experiment was a success,” he interrupted. “It worked. I succeeded. There was no need to communicate further.”

“What was your experiment?”

Dr. Neuman turned around, and revealed a device attached where the back of his head met his neck, like an orange box. “Neural integration.”

Charlie and Priya were silent, each in their own way.

Eventually, Charlie managed to ask, “Neural integration with what?”

“Nanobots,” Dr. Neuman said with a flourish. There was a swirl of dust, and a miniature ziggurat emerged from the ground in front of him. “I have created nanobots, and they have replicated themselves using the resources on this world. I resurfaced the entire planet to make it a paradise.”

My heart was pounding.

Charlie asked, “Where is your ship? Where is your team?”

The miniature ziggurat Dr. Neuman had created a moment before dissolved into the air, leaving only a perfectly flat surface. “I have recreated this world in my image. I have attained the pinnacle of humanity.”

“What. Happened. To. Your. Team.” Charlie said with determined emphasis.

Dr. Neuman answered magnanimously, “They are one with this planet.”

I whispered into the com-link, “I think it’s time to go now.”

Priya took a step backwards, Charlie took a step forwards. “Dr. Neuman, you killed your crew.”

The ground flattened in a circle around Charlie, and shone like polished marble floors—he stumbled, and landed hard on the new surface. “Sir, you misunderstand. This is the next phase for humanity. This is the path forward.”

“You’re psychotic.” Charlie said.

“Let us leave, Dr. Neuman.” Priya said. “We have come to see that you were safe, and we see that you are.”

Dr. Neuman turned to her, looking down his nose at her from where he was hovering. “Did you know,” he said, ignoring her, “that worlds are closed systems? Well—mostly. There’s a fraction lost to space—atoms blown to the edge of the atmosphere, and caught by the solar wind and carried into infinity. And there’s a fraction added—meteors, the few which make it to the surface. Even the ones that burn in the atmosphere are added to the gaseous mix.”

Charlie climbed slowly to his feet.

Dr. Neuman continued, “This world is a closed system. And my nanobots—with only so many resources, can only do so much. And they can do a lot!” he emphasized the end of the sentence with an ominous tone that made my stomach churn. “They can move individual molecules from here to there, they can create and destroy compounds. Raise up structures, and level them like they were never there. Marvels! Truly marvels. But, in a closed system, there are only so many resources.”

“Priya…” I said in the com-link.

“With only so many resources, I can only produce so many nanobots.”

“Priya!” I think I shouted her name.

“And so, the fact is…” he paused, “I need every atom I can get.”

Charlie screamed—Priya looked over, and his hand was dissolving.

“Get out of there!” I screamed in the com-link.

Priya screamed too. She turned and ran back to the shuttle, but stumbled—on her camera, I could see the shuttle dissolving as well. “I’m sorry—” she said, she reached her hand towards the ship, and I saw her fingers begin dissolving into dust. Suddenly, the feed cut.

I stared at the screen silently, in my own way. I was completely blind. No shuttle. No camera feeds. No communication. I switched to the telescope and focused it on the Ziggurat. They were too small to see from space, I just watched the surface of the planet. It was so fast. My heart was pounding in my chest. My hands tingled with adrenaline. I realized I was standing.

It all felt like a bad dream.

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Thank you for reading!

God bless you!

AJPM