The Last dimension

this is a story i wrote for an online sci-fi writing contest...i didnt win anything but i'm posting it anyway...please comment!

“Man I am so full, that was 1 hell of a treat...i don’t think i have room for coffee at all”, said Ravi. “Well...i have given you the option of not drinking, you realize that don’t you??” , was my reply, as i continue to search every piece of penny left in my thinning wallet…man i thought birthdays were the best part when i was young….but now..I just wish I wasn’t born…first minute of your birthday and you are already holding your butt with 1 hand, have the cell phone in other, endure shouts of “treat” in the ears, bear the smell of rotten eggs in my nose coming somewhere from the top of my head, and strain my eyes by looking everywhere for more potential attacks on my body…and if this wasn’t quite enough, I also have to pay for all the gluttons gulping down my hard earned money(???) presented to them in the form of food..I tell you concentration camps would have been a lot more effective if they had employed a similar technique. But we do get a chance to redeem on other’s birthday though. “DUDE…where are you lost...we have already ordered, it is you who are left to pay you know..” said someone, drunk obviously, thus interrupting my train of thoughts from visiting places hitherto unvisited till now. I went to the counter and asked him for the bill...boy. Why is the cashier eyeing me so strangely?? I asked him again and still he doesn’t say anything...just continues staring…is he blind or what?? “ err exc..” I started but just then the door behind the shop slams open “get back you moron, ruining my shop earnings go and do the dishes” said the owner (I think)..”but don’t you see…?” started the cashier but was cut short again by the owner who seems to be terrified for some reason...”I do and i am wise enough not to be shouting loud about it...we cant mess this up..So just get out and let me handle”. What the hell were these guys talking about...are they …”sorry about that, your net total is 124” said the owner who seems to have quite a timing of interrupting people just when they seem to be suggesting something important..Might have come really useful to hemi paid the bill and joined my friends who were already halfway into their coffee. “Wow, this coffee sure is strong,” commented rave who has an opinion about everything apparently. Was it my imagination again or were they all acting strange again??? Dammit whats got to me?? I think too much...of course they are all right...they are all acting normal...it’s just my imagination.

“It’s not your imagination, son”.

WHOA…!! Dammit what the hell was that?? I turned around, saw no one and again thought i was imagining…I turned to my friends, “hey did you guys hear that as well??” I asked. All remained still. I asked again….and again…wait a minute...why are they not moving? I went to Ravi and hey…his coffee is hanging in mid air...ohh no...Everyone has stopped….just stopped. I run outside, all the cars, bikes, traffic everything has stopped….what’s happening?? My mind is definitely playing tricks…

”no it’s not playing tricks ronit”

..Dammit this time I am sure I heard it. I turned around and I am sure I saw it too. Standing before me was the owner of the shop with his cashier. I knew something was not right about that guy. “Who are you?? What is this?? What happened?? Wha..??”

“I know a lot of questions are there in your mind. And I will do my best to answer them all. Only if you have a little patience and come inside. I will explain everything. Trust me I won’t harm you, nothing will happen to your friends, just come inside.” Reluctantly I agreed and went inside though keeping a distance. Something tells me not to trust people who can apparently read minds and stop time. I went inside and saw a cup of coffee. The owner assured me that the coffee will help me relax. As I sat drinking the coffee...he started “my name is rofuus and i am not an inhabitant of earth. I am from planet napstia. I...” the statement was cut short because apparently the owner was wet, owing to me spitting out the coffee in shock. I mean come on...i know it happens a lot in the movies, but...”i know its tough to understand, the UIA has done a commendable job of keeping you in the dark till now.” The blank expression on my face was taken by him as a hint to explain further. “But of course you don’t know what UIA is, do you? You see the UIA stands for the ‘universal interact association’. It’s the representation of earth in the universe. Just like you have parliament of various countries, in the universe we have representations of various planets that has people from all over the world. As a whole all the agencies from all planets help in maintaining the universe’ order and at the same time discovering new planets and new phenomenon in the universe.”

You know those moments of life when you have so much to say and you go completely speechless...well this wasn’t one of them for me...because i exploded after hearing this “WHAT???!!?? What is this supposed to be a joke??? What are you talking about??? How co…”

“I see you are having a tough time believing us. Let me show you something.” And with this he did some weird motion with his hands and well there was a screen in front of me showing a lot of weird people and some more weird machines. Before I could ask he explained “this is the agency on my planet. You might have noticed the people are not human. Hope you believe us now.” “Fine even if all this shit is true, why are you telling me this? What have I got to do with this?? And why you?? Why not earth??”

“Yes...yes now i see us getting down to business…i need you to listen carefully without interruptions. As I said before all agencies of universe work together in exploring new phenomenon. So far you must be aware of 3 dimensions and maybe heard about the possibility of time as the fourth dimension. But we have succeeded in not only discovering time as the fourth dimension but also have discovered 2 more dimensions. Please don’t interrupt now. You see the fifth dimension is ‘intelligence’ and the sixth is ‘noemic’ which means the ability to control minds. You see just as you travel through the 3 dimensions you can travel through the other 3. That is you can move in time, move through intelligence zones of the universe and and the worst, move through minds.”

Bang...here comes the lots-to-say-still-speechless moment. Though I didn’t really need to bother as he continued “and now we are at the brink of discovering another dimension. The most important dimension of all as unlocking this dimension will give us all the answers ever aroused in the entire universe. It can give us answers about origins of universe, about evolution of planets and life, vastness of universe and even about existence of god. However the problem is after the 6^th dimension was discovered the agency of earth feared that after the 7^th dimension is discovered their position in the universe as the superior intelligent species will be threatened and thus they have so far attempted in every way to stop people from going after the 7^th dimension. You see their intention is clear, they want to dominate the world”

“But why are you telling me all this? What have I got to do with it?”

“That’s because you hold a very important part of are the seventh dimension. You see as I said we can travel through time and a sneak peek into the future just showed us how important part you are.” Was his opinion.

“But if you can travel to the future why not see the seventh dimension itself??”

”ahhh good question, you see the fun of living life is when you know every day is different and unpredictable. If you know what holds tomorrow, what good is that?? What fun is watching a match if you know the result beforehand. Keeping that in mind each planet is allowed only 1 peek in the future that too only 6 months in future, except in emergencies. Thus we only know that you hold the key to the lock that unlocks the seventh dimension.”

Well I can’t help say that I wasn’t exactly modest at that time. I mean come on how would you feel a person from another planet came and told you that you can answer all the questions of the universe but still I kept my cool “but I don’t know anything, no special ability, nothing...”

“Don’t worry we’ll train you to think and act. And…” but just then a voice rang through the sky...”rofuus we know you are here. Leave the boy. You have no right to be here. Come out and surrender.”

“wha...what...i-is that?” i stammered.

“Dammit how did they know?? Seems we’ve been compromised, kurtin call for backup, quick”.

“There is no use of calling anyone rofuus. We have jammed all signals in the universe. The universe is united. You cannot go anywhere. Come out before it’s too late.” Just then rofuus took out a strange equipment from his...well…well in humans (males) that is…well anyway…he kept that on back and ordered in a strange hoarse voice so unlike his nice one “MARCH”. I just stood still but he just nudged and I shouted out in pain, a huge electric shock passed through my body. “DO WHAT I SAY”. And without further hesitation I walked forward out of the café and what I saw was better than any Hollywood movie, better than my wildest imagination, explaining it in words will completely devalue and demeanour the very grandeur of the spectacle. However I was brought back on ground by another electric shock.” You cannot do anything to the boy, you need him don’t you. You are surrounded. Just let the boy go and surrender yourself.” “surrender? HA, oh hi am not surrendering, but i know what I am about to do, I know I have no chance but I won’t give you a chance either, say goodbye to your planet.” And with this he took out some kind of weird device again...but before that he was on the ground. His eyes wide open and the last evil smile still on his face. I turned around and saw the cashier, whom he called kurtin standing with what seemed like a rod but before I could indulge further everyone came rushing in and a person came along and took me away as people surrounded his body. As he took me along I asked shakingly “i d-don’t un-understand..”. “of course you don’t , you are too young and you have just heard an hour of lies.” “you mean everything he said, about UIA”…”oh no no, that all I fear is true. in fact everything he told you about dimensions is true too” .”so that means the 7th dimension is there? Something that can answer everything??” .

“ i am afraid there is. In fact the seventh dimension has long been discovered and its power is quite evident.”

“ “ what?? Its already been discovered?? But he said..that i hold the key?? But then what he needed me for?? “.

”ahh yes you see,when the seventh dimension was discovered everyone feared the enormous power it had and its implications if used in the wrong way. Thus the universe collectively decided to lock away the 7^th dimension forever and not to be used ever again. The 7^th dimension was locked by a complicated code whose algorithm changes every day. and the algorithm for each day is stored in a different person of the universe though that person is not aware of it. Every time a new person is born a random algorithm is planted. No there are no adverse affects of planting the algorithm. But you see you hold the algorithm for this day exactly 6 months later the closest in the future found by rofuus by unimaginable means. His sole intention was to unlock the dimension and control the universe. “

“but then if i know the date of my algorithm, that means i can unlock it??”

“you can try but i bet it would be the last thing you ever do” and he smiled though i didn’t find telling people about their last deeds remotely funny. “but what is the seventh dimension that is so powerful”. The agent smiled at me and moved his mouth and it hit me. Of course what else could it be? So obvious,so simple..but just then a needle jabbed into my arm and just fell down asleep, with the name of the seventh dimension fading from my mind.