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The Bearbox
“Here, have another gummy bear!” Brian told me, and he pressed the small red button protruding out of the garish plastic box-like contraption he had put on the table.
There was no sound, no sign of any motion. Except that almost right away another gummy bear appeared and fell on to the table below.
I was left bewildered. “Can you tell me what’s going on here?” I asked.
“It’s beyond my wits either”, he replied, shrugging. “It works. I don’t know how. Each time you press the button, a gummy bear pops up. Always the same size, same colour, same shape. And they’re good also.” He picked up the newborn one and swallowed it whole. “Yummy!” he said.
I couldn’t believe it. I went ahead and pushed the button. Another sample jumped out of the box on to the table. I grabbed it and examined it: it was perfectly fine. I cautiously bit it. A pleasant taste of red berries overwhelmed my tastebuds. It was excellent, more so than any of its commonly available relatives.
In all the years I’d been teaching physics, this was the first time I was confronted with a phenomenon I couldn’t at least vaguely explain.
“Not that I made it on purpose,” Brian continued. “It was just sheer luck.”
“Mind if I take the box away for analysis,” I asked
“Of course not,” he replied. “Go ahead. I’m curious to know what you’ll find.”
I brought it home. I tested it, and was rewarded with another sweet.
I took the gizmo to my lab, X-rayed it, and recorded what was happening inside. It was baffling. The bear literally sprung out of nowhere. There was nothing to see up to a given frame. But on the next one, the bear was there, wholly formed. Its creation was instantaneous, or nearly so. Nothing I knew could explain that.
I forwarded the box to colleagues in other universities. They all recorded the same thing, to the general amazement. At last, a possible explanation emerged, but it was too fantastic to be true. Fowler, working at MIT, hypothesised that the mirrors lining the inside of the device were responsible for a Casimir effect. Pushing the button somehow boosted the effect, until the accumulation of negative energy opened a wormhole to somewhere, in this universe or another one. The gummy bear was somehow sucked up through it. That explained its sudden appearance. But why a gummy bear? The most logical explanation was that the wormhole led to a gummy bear container, or a sweet warehouse.
I know, this sounds ludicrous. But it was the only “rational” explanation we could hold onto.
Now Fowler elaborated that if the size of the box was slightly altered, maybe the wormhole would contort and something else would appear. So I told Brian to build a new box, changing the dimensions of the inner cavity.
It goes without saying that we kept all this under wraps. There was no question of telling the press or anyone else about it.
When it was ready, Brian invited me to test the new device. He pressed the button and a stream water sprung from it.
We looked at one other breathlessly.
I went back home, and told Fowler of what we had found. That night, I couldn’t sleep. I was too excited. Maybe this was the answer to every food and water supply problem we were facing on Earth. A set of such devices in every house, every desert village, dispensing food and water at will to everyone. The energy of the void harnessed to the benefit of humanity. No more shortages. No more pollution. No more transportation. No more need to slaughter cattle. Clean food for everyone, everywhere. Humanity freed from the spectre of famine.
But now, I’m afraid: Brian has vanished. I keep ringing him, no response. And I’m too chicken to go and knock at his door.
I know he was working on a new design. What could have happen?
What if he’s been kidnapped by the army? This could be too sensitive a discovery. Or maybe the army want him to craft a box able to create weapons?
But what if he hasn’t? What if…
What if something intelligent had popped out of the wormhole?
What if Brian opened a tunnel for a hostile extraterrestrial force to invade us?
What if those gummy bears were just a bait?
I wriggle in my bed. I’m terrified.
There was no sound, no sign of any motion. Except that almost right away another gummy bear appeared and fell on to the table below.
I was left bewildered. “Can you tell me what’s going on here?” I asked.
“It’s beyond my wits either”, he replied, shrugging. “It works. I don’t know how. Each time you press the button, a gummy bear pops up. Always the same size, same colour, same shape. And they’re good also.” He picked up the newborn one and swallowed it whole. “Yummy!” he said.
I couldn’t believe it. I went ahead and pushed the button. Another sample jumped out of the box on to the table. I grabbed it and examined it: it was perfectly fine. I cautiously bit it. A pleasant taste of red berries overwhelmed my tastebuds. It was excellent, more so than any of its commonly available relatives.
In all the years I’d been teaching physics, this was the first time I was confronted with a phenomenon I couldn’t at least vaguely explain.
“Not that I made it on purpose,” Brian continued. “It was just sheer luck.”
“Mind if I take the box away for analysis,” I asked
“Of course not,” he replied. “Go ahead. I’m curious to know what you’ll find.”
I brought it home. I tested it, and was rewarded with another sweet.
I took the gizmo to my lab, X-rayed it, and recorded what was happening inside. It was baffling. The bear literally sprung out of nowhere. There was nothing to see up to a given frame. But on the next one, the bear was there, wholly formed. Its creation was instantaneous, or nearly so. Nothing I knew could explain that.
I forwarded the box to colleagues in other universities. They all recorded the same thing, to the general amazement. At last, a possible explanation emerged, but it was too fantastic to be true. Fowler, working at MIT, hypothesised that the mirrors lining the inside of the device were responsible for a Casimir effect. Pushing the button somehow boosted the effect, until the accumulation of negative energy opened a wormhole to somewhere, in this universe or another one. The gummy bear was somehow sucked up through it. That explained its sudden appearance. But why a gummy bear? The most logical explanation was that the wormhole led to a gummy bear container, or a sweet warehouse.
I know, this sounds ludicrous. But it was the only “rational” explanation we could hold onto.
Now Fowler elaborated that if the size of the box was slightly altered, maybe the wormhole would contort and something else would appear. So I told Brian to build a new box, changing the dimensions of the inner cavity.
It goes without saying that we kept all this under wraps. There was no question of telling the press or anyone else about it.
When it was ready, Brian invited me to test the new device. He pressed the button and a stream water sprung from it.
We looked at one other breathlessly.
I went back home, and told Fowler of what we had found. That night, I couldn’t sleep. I was too excited. Maybe this was the answer to every food and water supply problem we were facing on Earth. A set of such devices in every house, every desert village, dispensing food and water at will to everyone. The energy of the void harnessed to the benefit of humanity. No more shortages. No more pollution. No more transportation. No more need to slaughter cattle. Clean food for everyone, everywhere. Humanity freed from the spectre of famine.
But now, I’m afraid: Brian has vanished. I keep ringing him, no response. And I’m too chicken to go and knock at his door.
I know he was working on a new design. What could have happen?
What if he’s been kidnapped by the army? This could be too sensitive a discovery. Or maybe the army want him to craft a box able to create weapons?
But what if he hasn’t? What if…
What if something intelligent had popped out of the wormhole?
What if Brian opened a tunnel for a hostile extraterrestrial force to invade us?
What if those gummy bears were just a bait?
I wriggle in my bed. I’m terrified.
A lot of mechanical problems:
“Mind if I take the box away for analysis,” I asked should have a question mark after analysis and a period after asked. Both I tested it, and was rewarded with another sweet. and I went back home, and told Fowler of what we had found. shouldn't have commas in them, and “It’s beyond my wits either”, he replied, shrugging. should have the comma inside the close-quote and some word other than either--too, I'm thinking. Also, even after staggering through the Wikipedia article, I'm still not quite sure what the Casimir effect is...
I found myself wondering what Brian did for a living, and the narrator's debilitating fear at the end took me by surprise. Maybe establish earlier that he's a naturally timid person? But mostly, this struck me as too big an idea for a minific. I could see it working if played for laughs, but taken seriously like this, it needs more room.
Mike
“Mind if I take the box away for analysis,” I asked should have a question mark after analysis and a period after asked. Both I tested it, and was rewarded with another sweet. and I went back home, and told Fowler of what we had found. shouldn't have commas in them, and “It’s beyond my wits either”, he replied, shrugging. should have the comma inside the close-quote and some word other than either--too, I'm thinking. Also, even after staggering through the Wikipedia article, I'm still not quite sure what the Casimir effect is...
I found myself wondering what Brian did for a living, and the narrator's debilitating fear at the end took me by surprise. Maybe establish earlier that he's a naturally timid person? But mostly, this struck me as too big an idea for a minific. I could see it working if played for laughs, but taken seriously like this, it needs more room.
Mike
Okay, second review, and this time BB's already jumped in and said what I was gonna say :( Listen to him about editing, size constraints, and lack of buildup to the fear at the end; I entirely echo his comments.
Unlike him, I was able to breeze past the limited techno-babble, but I found myself hung up on the character assumptions; why does the narrator immediately assume that the gummy bears aren't coming out of the box because there's gummy bears in there? Why is there "no question of telling the press" or of publishing, when that's what any normal scientist would do? It's not that either of these things can't be explained, mind; it's just that they're contrary to my expectations, and they are glossed over as if they should be taken for granted. When you edit this into what I assume will be a significantly longer form, think about how to show the ways in which our viewpoint character is more than just an everyman scientist, and to justify some of his less obvious assumptions. I think this is a plot that will grow nicely with a few more words and a bit of elbow grease.
Unlike him, I was able to breeze past the limited techno-babble, but I found myself hung up on the character assumptions; why does the narrator immediately assume that the gummy bears aren't coming out of the box because there's gummy bears in there? Why is there "no question of telling the press" or of publishing, when that's what any normal scientist would do? It's not that either of these things can't be explained, mind; it's just that they're contrary to my expectations, and they are glossed over as if they should be taken for granted. When you edit this into what I assume will be a significantly longer form, think about how to show the ways in which our viewpoint character is more than just an everyman scientist, and to justify some of his less obvious assumptions. I think this is a plot that will grow nicely with a few more words and a bit of elbow grease.
Hey guys!
Greets to all and especially to the winner, runner up and runner up of the runner up! ;)
First off, I feel especially bad not to have taken part in the comments round. I was really swamped, snowed under a ton of work. This round was scheduled at the worst possible moment of this month, but I still wanted to contribute somehow.
>>Baal Bunny
>>Chris
This little piece was just an experiment at recreating in written form what you can feel when you watch a foreign movie without having the subtitles on. Since the prompt was about “pleasant”, of course I had to choose what I thought would be an endearing scene. I was a bit at wits' end so I plumped for a simple scenario. Nor did I have much time and space to elaborate, but there was little need to. Expanding this into a full-fledged story would have been unbearable.
Also it was inspired by this famous funny as hell video.
I apologise for the use of “along”. I seem to have problems at hammering into my mind that “along” fits only for space, not for time, except in “all along”. That idiom interferes with the way I construe the word, plus probably some influence from French, and I end up adding extra temporal indication after “all along” which makes it sound off.
Also, I wanted the whole scene to feel Aussie, so I chose British vocabulary in hope it would be in use in Oz, but I hadn't time enough to have an Aussie read it, so it was like a shot in the dark. “bagsy” is a fun word which means “secure for oneself” in BrE. I thought it more colourful and spicy than the usual “grasp, grab, clutch…”
>>Baal Bunny
>>Chris
I totally agree with you on that one. It was written on the back of an envelope in like one hour that Sunday morning. TBH, I hesitated until the last minute whether to pull it back or not, because I was aware the regulatory framework was cramped and the outfit I had given to the story was more a straitjacket than a tailored suit. I finally decided to let it leave, and it’s a bit of a shame in hindsight because that means I won’t be able to expand it and submit it for a short story round. On the other hand, I suspect the idea of such a deception by an alien hostile civilisation is not new, so I’m not really keen at spending too much time and effort to build on that skeleton. Might switch my mind if you tell me there’s potential, but currently I really doubt it.
Also, Chris, welcome back. You come back to us in times of need? :)
Cheers to all! Happy new year again!
Greets to all and especially to the winner, runner up and runner up of the runner up! ;)
First off, I feel especially bad not to have taken part in the comments round. I was really swamped, snowed under a ton of work. This round was scheduled at the worst possible moment of this month, but I still wanted to contribute somehow.
>>Baal Bunny
>>Chris
This little piece was just an experiment at recreating in written form what you can feel when you watch a foreign movie without having the subtitles on. Since the prompt was about “pleasant”, of course I had to choose what I thought would be an endearing scene. I was a bit at wits' end so I plumped for a simple scenario. Nor did I have much time and space to elaborate, but there was little need to. Expanding this into a full-fledged story would have been unbearable.
Also it was inspired by this famous funny as hell video.
I apologise for the use of “along”. I seem to have problems at hammering into my mind that “along” fits only for space, not for time, except in “all along”. That idiom interferes with the way I construe the word, plus probably some influence from French, and I end up adding extra temporal indication after “all along” which makes it sound off.
Also, I wanted the whole scene to feel Aussie, so I chose British vocabulary in hope it would be in use in Oz, but I hadn't time enough to have an Aussie read it, so it was like a shot in the dark. “bagsy” is a fun word which means “secure for oneself” in BrE. I thought it more colourful and spicy than the usual “grasp, grab, clutch…”
>>Baal Bunny
>>Chris
I totally agree with you on that one. It was written on the back of an envelope in like one hour that Sunday morning. TBH, I hesitated until the last minute whether to pull it back or not, because I was aware the regulatory framework was cramped and the outfit I had given to the story was more a straitjacket than a tailored suit. I finally decided to let it leave, and it’s a bit of a shame in hindsight because that means I won’t be able to expand it and submit it for a short story round. On the other hand, I suspect the idea of such a deception by an alien hostile civilisation is not new, so I’m not really keen at spending too much time and effort to build on that skeleton. Might switch my mind if you tell me there’s potential, but currently I really doubt it.
Also, Chris, welcome back. You come back to us in times of need? :)
Cheers to all! Happy new year again!