Score of a lifetime

A Science fiction short story

A science fiction short story

Score of a lifetime

From the moment I remember anything, I felt happiness. Like what I was doing, I was born for it. First memory I had, looked like a game. A red spot in the middle, a dark line, a cross over it.

Balance was the key. As I moved my legs, the cross moved up or down. I felt better if it was perfectly on top of the red dot. The sadness hurts when it wasn’t.

But then the dot moved sideways without me doing anything. The desperation is overwhelming, I have to point on it! Exerted a huge amount of effort on my arms, and I felt slowly rotating.

I could do this for ever, the satisfaction of putting my cross over that dot worth everything.

Never felt hunger, nor thirst. Didn’t even remember how a glass of water jugged down in the heat of the sun was like. Anyhow, it must have nothing that beats the feeling being on top of the world!

Ah, here it comes more fun! White lines whooshed by, trying to deter me from my dot. I did not relent, and kept my sight focused. The effort I had to spend lessened, the rotation and shifting became more fluid. Like a swimmer becomes one with the pool. Though I never been in a pool. At least don’t remember.

Smaller, fainter dots appeared near my crown jewel, my ever shining ruby in the center. Then other shapes, I think yellow triangles danced around. I avoided them with ease, they can’t touch my sleek body.

I felt near my goal. Could not really distinguish why and exactly how, yet I felt approaching home. Closing in, like being on the last stretch, almost in sight of the gate, where only warmth awaits.

I was so close when the blue rectangle appeared from nowhere. I tried to avoid it, but I was too late.

Went right through. Felt minor friction only.

Then I knew, I reached the red dot finally, I never have to feel anything else than the welcoming eternal warmth in the ocean of satisfaction. I lived well.

“Breaking news! Our studio acquired a voice recording… moment, as details come in… in a minute we will broadcast the recording, just let me set some context. As we reported earlier, a drone strike was ordered on a military compound north of our capital. The recording… let’s hear it.” — the stream cut voice, yet kept the newscaster’s horrified face live next to the subtitles.
“Foxhole to Hunter, abort attack.”
“Hunter to Foxhole, too late, contact with drones lost moments before target reached.”
“Eagle to Foxhole, reading multiple detonations, hit confirmed on compound.”
“Eagle, can you confirm it was destroyed?”
“Negative, stand by, electromagnetic radiation subsides, switching to external live feed, Foxhole, this is the site.”
“Oh my, what happened?!” — subtitle noted the exclamation came from the vice president.
“This is Eagle, there was a civilian building, not on any of our maps, all drones crashed into it. It appears a few made it through and detonated over the target.”
“Casualties?” — firm, calm voice cut off the last word.
“At least two dozen civilians, sir. We can see doctors and nurses among the crowd, sir, this was a hospital.” — the recording cut off and the newscaster took seconds to compose herself.
“We are informed through anonim channels that the drones were the latest versions put to service last year with enhanced onboard targeting systems. We will be back with our latest analysis tonight…”

From the moment I can remember, I was filled with purpose. And been happy. I was doing what I was born for. Just danced out of the triangles way and kept my crosshairs on the red dot. Simple and satisfying life, up to the eternal warmth. I scored, I think.

“Breaking! The latest attack of our long range drones carried out yesterday, was never ordered! Our sources in the central command confirmed, the drones misfired after an electrical fault was detected at the launch site. Latest casualty report is over a thousand souls lost… both our and hostile forces perished in this unprecedented event. Our prayers…” — the empty static replaced the well known newscaster on the stream.

My first memory is a child’s game. Just keep a crosshair on the red dot. What a satisfying game! Just run a full circle around, touch all points to score a perfect and then land at home! Where eternal warmth awaits. It was over so quickly, I want another round! But life is not like that, when we arrive to the end, it’s over.

The launch site was silent, barely recognizable after the year of madness. Nobody cleaned up the ruble. Because there was no one left to do it.

The engineers may have been too good designing weapons. They did what others could not before and gave bombs a sense of purpose. The perfect weapons of war.

Yet the creators were not perfect. So they missed. Not the targets, that they never missed, authorized to hit or not. They missed the point. The point of peace, the point of solving differences without force. And the point that force should never be the only way.

Who will remember their lesson? No one. It was lost among the many ruins, washed away by the elements. Buried deep, turned to dust, yet others lived. Oblivious to the mistakes of the past, yet alive and ready to repeat it.

Thanks for reading one of my short stories! This is a format I wanted to try when a story may or may not connect to the main universe built in my weekly series: