Be Careful What You Wish For
Adam is about to make history, just not quite how he thought..
“Be careful what you wish for?”
The tone had been questioning but the words were self explanatory so he didn’t reply until Pete held the flashlight up and raised an eyebrow.
“I told you, it was a present, came with the inscription.”
It had, on his eighth birthday, the year after he first asserted a desire to make the impossible possible and be the most famous man alive.
Adam waved away the follow up question, he needed his concentration on other things, such as not materialising inside the solid rock that surrounded the now dry cenote he’d chosen to prove his theory. Thirty years of focus, dedication, sheer force of will that would move him metaphorically out of his illustrious father’s shadow, but also physically twelve meters to the north.
The first items teleported never rematerialised, or so he’d thought. His assistant suggested sending a long range RFID tag and it turned up several meters underground along with some of the other items. Further experimentation found that the larger the item the deeper it materialised, but never lower than bedrock so he chose this location with more care. Cizin, a sinkhole named for the Mayan god of death. Ancient solid rock adjoining a once sealed tunnel system, power and illumination coming from generators and bulbs already there for the tourists that no longer were. He traded the last of his inheritance for permissions and got to work. A month of drilling and draining then presented two gifts, one would speed his progress considerably, the other not so much.
The cave came first and it was close to perfect, large and secluded, all the privacy he needed but with simple access and a vaulted ceiling which would be great come time for the first public demonstration. The second gift appeared after stringing the lights. Supine and central where it had sat in the darkness for countless centuries, long enough for the pelvis to have fused with the stalagmites that calcified the floor all around.
A person, or rather the petrified remains of one, crosslegged in the exact centre of the cave, and it had been holding Adam’s flashlight.
“Really though, how do you think it got there?” It had been months since then and Pete just wasn’t letting it go.
“Seriously? This is getting old now. Just admit you put it..”
“Nothing to do with me, boss.”
Adam hated interruptions, and the build up of static electricity on the pad was making him nervous so he snapped back.
“Whatever, just make sure the area is clear, we go in ten minutes.”
Nine months, in that time the skeleton was dated by measuring uranium and thorium isotopes in a phallic stalagmite. If the results were to accurate this six foot tall homosapien had been in the cave a while, a long while. Not thousands, or even tens of thousands but millions of years. That couldn’t be, the idea was an affront to science. It was an elaborate hoax and the DNA testing would prove it but Adam wasn’t going to wait for it to play out. He wasn’t going to be upstaged by a collection of bone shaped stones; he was to make real history.
“You sure this is ready for organic matter? The last run was a bit screwy.”
“It’s ready!” Peter was still holding the torch, pointing it in an accusatory manner Adam found unpleasant so he grabbed it and put it in his pocket. “Give me that. Go.”
It was true though, he’d not sent anything other than gold spheres since the hamster incident. It was all about mass, and Mr Fluff hadn’t had very much so he corporealized much nearer than expected. Now there was a rule about stray items in the test area, and everyone checked their lunch twice before taking a bite. He could still taste the fur.
“And you’re sure the archaeologists will be okay with us moving..”
“I swear to God, if you don’t start doing your job I’m going to teleport you into the Earth’s core.” The threat elicited little fear so he scowled and added a few words. “I’m being serious.” That did it, he levered up the last of the bones, a femur, and threw it into the pile. Adam regarded the long dead remains with a dark expression, hoax though it may be it was more famous than him, for now.
“Rest in peace, buddy.”
Adam could feel the electricity now, more than he’d anticipated, a sudden tightness crushed his chest and robbed him of breath. Twinkles of light filled his peripheral vision before expanding across his whole vista, then as quick as it started it was all gone. A blinding technicolour explosion of bass and vision filled his head with terrible images and loosened his bladder, then darkness.
The torch was old, cutting a narrow arc through the black. The dim light revealed enough for Adam to be sure he was still in the cave albeit dead centre, twelve meters to the north. There was nothing else, no lights, equipment, entranceway, just rock.
The beam flickered and died, the myocardial infarction killing Adam a few seconds later. He fell to the ground crosslegged, torch in hand, a smile on his lips.