Microstory 1281: The Little Fish and the Big Net

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There was a fisherman who was proud of his work. He did not care to go to the market and purchase the tools he needed for his trade. When the seas were too dangerous, or when he just wasn’t up for going out on the water, he liked to sit in his cabin, and create his own tools. He carved his own fishing rods, strung his own fishing lines, and even weaved his own net. He was so proud of his net that he couldn’t wait to go back out there, and give it a try. He dropped it in the water, and dragged it along to pick up as many fish as he possibly could. Now, the fish he caught were large, which were great, but he noticed that a great many smaller fish escaped his clutches. He was not happy with this. He wanted to get all the fish he possibly could, so he went back home, and started weaving a new net. He made it as tight as he possibly could, so barely a drop of water could pass through. “No fish will escape me now,” the fisherman said after months and months of working on it tirelessly. He dropped it in the water, and scooped up a hefty haul. When he took his catch to the market, he noticed that people were still only buying the larger fish from him. “Why don’t you take some of these instead?” he would ask. They always answered the same, that there was not enough meat for them to get anything out of those tiny little fish. “But I worked so much harder to get these ones,” he complained. It didn’t matter. His efforts were not just pointless, but counterproductive. Had he only focused on gathering the fish he would be able to sell, he would have been able to catch more than one school. No one cared how much effort he put into his profession; only the results of those efforts. They would have been just as happy with the larger net.

This story was inspired by, and revised from, an Aesop Fable called The Fisherman and His Nets.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: November 29, 2267

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Nerakali smiled when she saw that the Matics had agreed to stay on mission with her. They were ready to do what needed to be done, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have questions. “Where did you get these devices?”

“Where does anyone ever get any temporal objects?” Nerakali answered with a question. “Mostly from Holly Blue.”

“Holly Blue,” Leona posed, “or Weaver?” They were both technically the same person, but the former was native to this reality, while the latter came from an earlier one.

“I honestly do not know,” Nerakali said.

“But you know where they come from,” Mateo began, “because you called them Cassidy cuffs.”

“Yes, I know about Cassidy Long. Before you freak out, I have no ill will towards her. I’m the one who found her for her mother, Étude back in the day.”

“Oh, yeah,” Leona admitted. “You did mention that.”

“I don’t like that these things exist,” Mateo lamented. “I don’t like to think about what had to happen to her to make them exist.”

“Knowing both of them,” Nerakali said, “it was an agreement between the two of them. I can’t imagine she was hurt by it.”

“She was, at the very least, exposed by it,” Leona pointed out. “These things are dangerous. We’re trusting you with them, but what happens when the wrong people gain access to them?”

“That’s true of everything,” Nerakali said, “especially when you factor in time travel. If something can exist, it probably does eventually, which means it does always. If you’re going to keep going with the mission, that’s something you’re going to have to wrap your brains around. When we destroy the hundemarke, we’re not undoing all the bad it’s caused. Those are quite literally inevitable. All we can do is prevent its future use. Though, of course, what exactly does future use even mean in this context? It’s all very confusing, and I make no guarantees about the outcome.”

“We understand.”

They took a couple hours to admire their surroundings. This was Machu Picchu in the year 2266. According to records, the historical site was closed off to tourists over two hundred and thirty years ago. Fortunately, before that happened, highly advanced drones were dispatched to capture three-dimensional data of the entire area. Afterwards, a fourth-dimensional layer was added based on predictive modeling, which allowed audiences to witness what the hillside city would have looked like as it was being built, after construction was complete, and over the centuries, as it fell apart. These were all plugged into a virtual reality construct which tourists were then able to visit instead, without having to worry about damaging the site further with foot traffic. Just about every wonder of the world, and other important historical locations, were given this treatment. While the majority of cities and highways were demolished so that living accommodations could be consolidated on the surface of the Earth, truly important places, like this one, were either maintained and preserved, or left entirely alone.

Of course, they weren’t allowed to be there, but what was the point of being a time traveler if one couldn’t enjoy a few exemptions and privileges? They slept in a moderately sized tent that Nerakali had for them in her bag of holding, and woke up the next morning in 2267. They weren’t in Machu Picchu anymore, though. No, this was a very different place—just as wondrous, but on the other side of the world—The Great Wall of China. At least that was what Mateo guessed. They were standing next to a giant wall that looked like it went on forever. “Not that I’m not impressed, but...what are we doing here?”

“You guys wanted a vacation, right?”

“We don’t use that word,” Leona warned her. According to Nerakali, there was nothing they could do for the mission quite yet. The problem was, whenever they claimed they were on a day off of some kind, that was when some giant interruption came to attack them. What was it going to be this time?

“Oo, umm...I think I get it.” Nerakali thought about what she was going to say. “Okay, so this is research for our mission. We’re gonna be going all over the world to look for my mother. You have not had a whole lot of experience doing that. I mean, I know you’ve been to other planets and such, but this could still help. You need to see what things look like nowadays. What better way to do that than to go to famous historical places?” She showcased the wall with her hands. “This is called The Great Wall of China. Well, it’s one section of it. We’re going to be seeing the rest of it here in a minute.”

“I don’t remember the exact number,” Leona said, but that should take years. It’s thousands of kilometers long.”

“Yes,” Nerakali agreed. “Fortunately, someone has already walked it for us.” She approached the wall, and examined it to look for a particular stone, When she found it, pricked her finger with a needle, and rubbed a little bit of her blood on it. The stone was a little reddish, suggesting that others had previously done the same. The stone swung out, and revealed a secret compartment. Inside of it were several sets of booties, like a contractor would use to walk through a client’s clean home. “You know how Google hired people to drive, ride, boat, and hike all over the world, so others can enjoy their journey on the maps program?”

“Of course,” Leona said.

Mateo nodded.

Nerakali went on, “Well, we have our own version of that. His name is The Adventurer, and instead of just snapping photos, and stitching them together, he records a four-dimensional walkthrough of places like this. These booties let you walk thirteen thousand miles in his shoes in a matter of hours, but you have to actually go there; it doesn’t simply require an internet connection.”

“Oh, that’s amazing,” Mateo said as he was putting on his booties.

“You would think so,” Nerakali agreed, “but his hard work isn’t as appreciated in our world as it should be. He leaves these things for anyone with the right blood to access, but few take him up on his offer. I guess they just don’t see it as much of a gift.”

“Well,” Leona said, “we see it.”

And so, after breaking camp, they climbed up to the top of the wall, and slid along the whole twenty-one thousand kilometer structure, from one end to the other. For the sake of time, they programmed their booties to take them at maximum speed, which was around mach 3.4, so they were done with the whole thing in under six hours. They stopped at a few places to rest, and take in the view in realtime. Once they were finished with it, they jumped to other amazing places; ancient dig sites, pyramids, museums that were still standing, and whatnot. They packed multiple lifetimes worth of world travel into a single day. They were extremely exhausted from the experience, but profoundly grateful for it. As easy as it would be for other time travelers, what they did was probably pretty rare; maybe even unique, and that made it something special. Nerakali could just be playing the long game, and turn out to be evil, and working against them, but right now, Mateo and Leona would have to consider her a dear friend.

When it was over, they stopped in the middle of a forest to camp again. Nerakali said it was safer to be away from people. To put it another way, it would be easier to track them if they stayed under security cameras, and in front of witnesses. They couldn’t be sure no one was trying to stop them, even though they had no specific knowledge of any opposition. As far as they could tell, Savannah Preston had no clue that anyone was working against her, or that her own daughter would be a threat to her, but perhaps they were mistaken. Perhaps they just didn’t know what they were getting themselves into. They had their fun today, but it was time to circle the wagons, and remain vigilant. Danger could come from anywhere, and at anytime. They still felt pretty safe going to sleep, though. Nerakali set up temporal wards around them. They weren’t strong enough to keep attackers out completely, but they would hopefully slow them down, and give the three of them enough time to bug out. They slept soundly, and didn’t wake up until 2268 when one of these wards was triggered.

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Dardius: Ramses Abdulrashid (Part III)

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Ramses Abdulrashid. Engineer. Former capitalist. Awarded most improved. Man of the people. Deputy Delegator. Exile. Rescue. Sacrificial lamb. Survivor. This was his life in a nutshell. He started out as a capitalist, and member of a movement called the Freemarketeers, who he would come to categorize as terrorists. He was grateful for having been pulled from that life, and nowadays, wishes to have nothing to do with it. A lot of people put in a lot of effort to cure him of his bad thoughts, and he didn’t want to live in fear of relapsing. So he filled his life with other stresses, and made sure he didn’t have too much time to reflect on the past.

At the moment, he was chillin’ in a laboratory thousands of years in the future. A lot had happened that led him here, but the short story was that he was placed in stasis so he could one day wake up and take care of the little monster babies who were created to live on this planet. He was here with a few other people.

“Vearden!” one of them named Saga called out.

“Where are you?” another asked. Her name was Zektene.

“Have you seen Vearden?” Saga asked Ramses.

“I’ve been napping, sorry,” he replied.

“Let’s check the other section,” Zektene suggested. The man they were looking for was very badly injured. He had had some time to recover, but something might have gone wrong.

As the ladies were heading towards the hatch, Ramses got himself off the couch slowly, and tried to follow them. They didn’t realize this, so they closed the door behind them. He opened it not a second after, though, and discovered the room on the other side to be completely empty. “Hello?” he called out. “Saga? Zektene?” he asked. Then he added, “Vearden?”

There was no response. Both Vearden and Saga were known for stepping through doors, and ending up traveling through time and space. That must have been what happened to Vearden earlier, and now the other two. Hopefully they were safe, if not all together and safe. Ramses turned around, and went back through the door. He breathed in deep, preparing himself for a life of solitude on an alien planet. This was his next chap—

Just then, he thought he heard someone choking behind him. He turned around again, and saw a movie projected on the wall. There was no projector, though. Ramses’ best friend, Mateo Matic was strangling someone in...was that Stonehenge? “He’s over there,” the man being choked struggled to say.

“That doesn’t look much like a portal,” Mateo argued, looking towards Ramses. “More like a window. Fix it.”

“Let me go,” the man begged, “and I will.”

Mateo let the man go. Then the movie turned three dimensional, and it did appear as if they would be able to cross from one side to the other.

“Mateo?” Ramses questioned.

He stuck his hand over the threshold. “Come on, friend. We’re back together again.”

Ramses took Mateo’s hand, and crossed over.

“The Delegator, this is Ramses Abdulrashid. Ramses, this is the asshole whose life I had to threaten to bring you back to us.”

The Delegator was still massaging his neck. “He’s not supposed to be here.”

“And you’re not supposed to be a jerk!” Mateo argued. “I guess life’s funny that way. Now I don’t want to hear any lip out of you. I just want you to tell me which one is ours. And I swear to the flying spaghetti monster, if you send us through the wrong archway, I’ll find my own way back here, and you’ll regret ever taking this job in middle management.”

“I understand,” the Delegator said. He pointed to one of the Stonehenge archways. “It’s that one over there. No tricks. It will take you back to Dardius.”

Ramses held back when Mateo tried to lead him towards the other portal. “Dardius?”

“Yes,” Mateo said.

“I can’t go back there.”

“Yes, you can.”

“Why?” Ramses asked. “Is it in the past...before I was exiled?”

“That exilement was bullshit, and it’s time to remedy that.” He tried to lead him that way again.

“No, I can’t go.”

“You have to,” the Delegator said, “or he’ll blame me for it.”

“Why should I go there? Why now? Did the Freemarketeers change their minds?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Tell me what you’re not telling me!” Ramses demanded.

“I’m dead!” Mateo shouted back. “I need you back on Dardius, because that’s where my funeral is. Or my memorial service; or something. There’s no way I’m doing it without you.”

“I don’t understand,” Ramses said. “I mean, I know you’re all time travelers, so it’s possible for you to die, but still be alive to deal with it, but why? Why don’t you just travel through time, and prevent it from happening?”

“My killer used the hundemarke. It can’t be undone. What happened, happened, and it can’t happen any other way.”

Ramses didn’t know what to say for a moment. “I’m sorry.”

“Me too,” Mateo said. “But they saved me with an extraction mirror, so I can live just as long as I would have anyway. Death ain’t nothin’ but a thang in our world.”

“I’m still sorry,” he repeated.

“I know, but it really is okay. Dardius wants to do this whole ceremony. Leona and I just want to get it over with. But we can’t do that until you’re there.”

Ramses didn’t know if he could do it. He agreed to never return. It didn’t matter how much time passed, or how many things changed; that was a promise he didn’t want to break. Still, this was his best friend they were talking about. How could he not be there? It would be disrespectful.

“The world isn’t as it was,” Mateo began to explain. “Both you and I left nearly forty years ago. The Freemarketeers have been pretty well integrated into society. I mean, it’ll never be perfect, so long as the first generation is still there. You have millions of people who all look exactly alike, which is freaky, but other than that, things should be fine. Besides, I’m about to hand the whole planet off to a new set of owners, so they’ll be rid of us completely, if they just give us this one day.”

“Why are you selling the planet?” Ramses asked.

“I’m not selling it,” Mateo said. “I’m giving it to a family that will take good care of it. Believe me, I tried to just relinquish all rights, but they won’t let me. Someone has to take ownership of it, because that’s part of the foundation for their whole society. Don’t ask me to explain it further. I think it’s weird too.”

“Yeah,” Ramses said. “Well, that’s the thing. Because of how weird the Dardieti are about it, I’m not sure if they’ll let you just give it away. I think they’re going to want you to get something for it in return. It doesn’t have to be the gross domestic product of every nation combined, or anything, but it can’t just be two chickens and a goat either. It has to mean something; to you, and the new owner. They’ll have to make a sacrifice of some kind, I’m almost sure of it.”

“Well, what do you have in mind?”

“I’m certain we could come up with something reasonable, but I would have to know who you’re selling to, of course.”

“Okay.” Mateo tried yet again to pull him through the Stonehenge portal.

“We may not want to go straight there, though. If this place can go anywhere in time and space, it could come in handy.”

“Oh, no,” the Delegator hesitated. “I’m not your personal taxi driver. You asked for one portal to come here, one more to get your friend, and a third to get back. I’m not giving you any more. I don’t care where you go now, but wherever it is, you’re staying there. At least, I won’t be the one to let you go gallivanting all over time and space.”

Mateo let go of Ramses’ hand, and approached the Delegator menacingly. “I’m sorry. Perhaps you’ve not heard, but I’m dead, so my hearing isn’t great. What did you say? It was something about helping us with anything and everything we needed.”

Wow, this was a different Mateo than the one Ramses knew all those years ago. They got everything they needed.

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Microstory 1280: The Bat and the Boar

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A bat was flying overhead, looking for some food to eat, when she noticed a boar scratching his tusks against a tree. Curious, she flew down and asked him what he was doing. “Are you trying to cut that tree down? I do not believe that you will be able to.”

“No,” the boar replied. “I’m sharpening my tusks.”

This frightened the bat, for she had just flown above, but did not see any threat. “Are you in the midst of war?” she asked. “I did not see an enemy when I was in the sky.”

The ignorance annoyed the boar. “I need to sharpen my weapons now, so that when the fighting does come—as it inevitably will—I’ll be ready,” he tried to explain. “You know what they say, if you want peace, prepare for war.” He went back to sharpening.

“That may be what they say, but that does not mean it is true,” the bat argued. “War is war, and peace is peace. I say that if you want peace, be peaceful.”

And so it was that the animals in the forest were so afraid of the boar that they attacked him together. His prediction was a self-fulling prophecy. The bat, meanwhile, was left alone, for she did not purposefully make herself appear as a threat.

This story was inspired by, and revised from, an Aesop Fable called The Wild Boar and the Fox.

Microstory 1279: The Ladybug and the Ants

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One summer, a ladybug was merrily flying about, enjoying the day, chewing on some aphids, and hiding from birds under leaves. As she was finishing her meal, seemingly an entire army of ants came marching towards her. They were carrying large bits of food to their colony on the other side of the hill. The ladybug stopped one of the ants and asked what they were doing. “We’re taking food to our colony, so that we can have it over the winter.”

“Why do you need to do that?” the ladybug asked. “The food is already here. Why, you should just eat it now. That’s what I do with these tasty aphids. Why, there are plenty here for all of us, as long as you stay out of my way, we’ll have no problem!”

“There will be no food in the winter,” the ant replied. “We must store it up every year.”

The ladybug scoffed, and moved on. She was too young to know the cold. Weeks later, winter came indeed, leaving the ladybug with no food to eat. All the aphids were overwintering as eggs. She flew over to the ant colony, and begged them to let her in. “Please, I did not understand. Do you have room for a humble lady bug? I am so hungry, but I promise not to eat too much!”

“Of course you can come in,” the ant said to her, “but just this year. Next year, you must learn to fend for yourself.”

This story was inspired by, and revised from, an Aesop Fable called The Ants and the Grasshopper.

Microstory 1278: The Dolphin and the Ape

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As sad as it was, a ship called The Delfis once wrecked on the rocks near a small island in the middle of the ocean. Fortuitously, however, a pod of dolphins happened to be swimming nearby when it happened. They were so touched by seeing a ship that was presumably named after them that they felt they needed to help. Humans were always friendly to the dolphins, and these ones would likely be even kinder! They began to rescue the humans one by one, and carrying them to the shore on their backs, starting with those who were struggling the most. One of the first to be picked up was not a man, but an ape who had been aboard as a pet. Dolphins are known for their excellent eyesight, even out of the water, but it was dark and stormy, so the rescuer could not tell that she was not helping a human. “I like the name of your ship,” the dolphin said.

“Thank you,” the ape replied.

“What possessed you to name it that?” the dolphin asked.

Well, the ape—being not a man—did not know human language very well, and she certainly could not read. She had only heard the humans mention it a couple of times, but since it wasn’t important to her, she hadn’t really paid attention. She did not want to let on that she was so ignorant, however, because all the humans on board probably knew the answer to this question. So she lied and said that she and the rest of the crew were big fans of Elvis.

The dolphin laughed, and looked up to her back, to finally realize that she was carrying an ape, instead of a human. She was a good dolphin, though, so she still swam her to safety. Then she went back to the site of the wreck, rescuing all lifeforms she could find, human and animals alike.

This story was inspired by, and revised from, an Aesop Fable called The Monkey and the Dolphin.

Microstory 1277: The Hikers and the Wallet

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Two hikers were walking along the mountain path when one of them spotted something underneath his feet. It looked like a dark leaf, but when he decided to dig it up, he discovered that it was a wallet. It was wet and muddy on the inside, which suggested that it had fallen from its owner’s person sometime yesterday, for it had rained last night, but was perfectly clear today. When he opened it up, he found a punch card for a restaurant two states away, an insurance card that was turned totally illegible by the rain, and a couple hundred dollars. “Look what we’ve found,” said the one hiker. “I’ll split the money with you.”

“No,” the other replied. “We should find a way to return it to its owner.”

“That should be impossible,” the first hiker said. “There is no identification of any kind here.” He looked down the mountain. “The rain must have washed it away.”

“Either way, I’m not sure we should keep it. We’ll find the nearest ranger’s station, and see if anyone’s reported it missing.”

Just then, they saw a group of hikers climbing down the mountain towards them. A forest ranger was accompanying them. “I remember you from the campsite the other day. Did you steal my wallet?” asked one of the strangers.

“I did not,” the first hiker said.

“Why, I see it right in your hand!” the wallet’s owner cried.

“We found it here in the mud,” the second hiker explained. He took it from his friend, and handed it back to its rightful owner. “How fortunate that you returned here. Your ID must have fallen out, so we would never have known where to return it.”

“Yeah, okay,” said the wallet owner. He was a bit reluctant, but appeared to believe them. Their explanation was only logical, for if they had stolen it on purpose, they would have surely kept it hidden so as not to be caught.

This story was inspired by, and revised from, an Aesop Fable called The Travelers and the Purse.

Microstory 1276: The Dingo and the Crane

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Years ago, a dingo and a crane were drinking from the same watering hole, and got to talking. As different as they were as animals, and as unrelatable as their lifestyles should have been to each other, it turned out they had a lot in common. The dingo even agreed to limit her meals to rodents and lizards, which didn’t bother the crane at all. Birds were out of bounds, though, and the dingo was fine with this. One thing they did both enjoy, however, was a tasty fish stew. For one evening, the dingo decided to play a prank on the crane. She invited him over for dinner, like she had so many times, but the crane soon realized that he would not be able to eat the stew. She had placed it on an only moderately deep platter. The dingo was perfectly capable of lapping up the stew herself, but the crane couldn’t manage to get any into his beak. The dingo apologized for this, claiming that none of her other dishes was clean at the moment. A couple of days later, the crane invited the dingo over, so that he could host his own meal. They would have fish stew again, because it was easy, and agreeable for both. The dingo knew that the crane was planning on getting her back, likely by giving her a long jar in the same way that she had given him a platter. But she was wrong. The crane recognized that what the dingo had done was nothing more than a joke. He was able to find some fish on his way home the other day, and since he was not the vengeful type, he didn’t need to get her back. They remained friends, and one day laughed together about the silly platter prank.

This story was inspired by, and revised from, an Aesop Fable called The Fox and the Stork.