Far Out

Let me tell you a story. I think you can handle hearing it now. Even if you don’t want to please try to take it all in. I want you to do this because it’s what you’ve always wanted to hear. You’ll see. All you need to do is believe.

Derrick Trifler was a man on the edge. Even though he was a man himself, he hated all other men. That’s rather strange don’t you think? To understand Derrick’s story I want you to travel forward in time. Only about a hundred years or so. Can you manage that? Good.

Humankind had come along quite well in the late 21^st century. The planet as a whole had basically come together to realize that it wasn’t such a good idea to have had all those wars, and that money stuff just had to go. People started noticing each other on the inside, not just the colour of their skin. They stopped destroying the trees because everyone was beginning to get a little short of breath. They had cures for most of the diseases that struggled so hard to kill them all. Times were really good.

But humankind insisted that they were not alone in the universe. The theory that they were alone was beyond their comprehension. They poured endless effort into space travel. They spread out into space in search of.. something, anything. All the while the people who weren’t searching lived their happy lives with just the slightest curiosity of what was going on out there. But all the while, humankind’s frontier in space was expanding outwards. It’s funny that no one ever sent a probe into the endless expanse that is the mind of not only humankind, but of the universe. Oh well.

Years went by and all humans were getting a little anxious because there didn’t seem to be any other life out there in space. They had gone way beyond the solar system and discovered many new planets, none of which could support any life, or no life that they could comprehend. That’s when they started building their little space stations. Like links in a chain, stretching from the furthermost outpost all the way back to mother Earth.

Each one of these space stations had a purpose, whether it be for communication or fuel, research or surveying. Only one person manned many of them. Quite an unusual situation for a human, but this gave Derrick Trifler his idea to obtain inner peace.

Even though most external problems caused by humans were eradicated in the first half of the 21^st century, there were some things they could just not change. That’s right, people couldn’t change. I’m sure you’ve heard the expression ‘nobody’s perfect’, so you may know where I’m coming from.

Now Derrick Trifler was always considered a bit of a loner. He was easily offended by people around him, and that seemed to even out by the fact that he was equally offensive to everyone else. He also felt he was cursed with another affliction, he was a genius. That ensured he had a reasonably high position in the space project.

Then one day it hit him. He was simply fed up. He couldn’t go on any more. To look at another human face would simply be torture. There was no one he felt he could relate to, no one to argue with, no one to love. He was all alone on a planet crawling with 20 billion other people. If he was going to be alone, why not ensure he was literally alone. He now made the decision to request duty upon a space station far out and away from man. In fact, he requested the furthermost outpost to date.

The directors of the space project couldn’t understand it, Derrick was so needed on Earth in development. The thought did cross his mind that a man with a name like Derrick couldn’t possibly be of any major importance. If only he knew the real reason the directors were unhappy about his decision.

The frontier post Derrick had requested to be stationed on had a secret purpose known only to the directors. They had planted observation equipment on board the station with the aim of studying first contact with an alien species. The official reason for this station was in fact that it was simply a territory flag. An outward show of the homeworld’s empire. Nothing more. But it was something more.

Over the next few weeks Derrick packed his belongings, along with his treasured copy of the film 2001, A Space Odyssey and made his way one day to the departure lounge. The ship he was travelling on was called the Jupiter 2, named after the influential rock group of the 20’s. As the nurse administered his long term stasis drugs, he thought of how unsatisfying their jobs must be these days with so many healthy people around. But even she began to turn his stomach with her feeble attempts at chit chat. It wasn’t that Derrick was a nasty person, but he just had more trouble than everyone else did interacting with others of his kind.

Even travelling through hyperspace, the journey to Border Outpost 3 took 6 months. But finally they arrived at the space station. It wasn’t all that impressive, Derrick thought as he stepped out onto the docking gantry. It needed some good incidental music to really give it some atmosphere. Paccini possibly.

As Derrick watched the Jupiter 2 pull away and disappear in a blur of light, he thought about the solitude he longed for. At last. He was so glad he didn’t have to suffer the company of the captain of the Jupiter 2. The stasis field saw to that. He couldn’t even remember his name, but the captain’s personality reminded him of a character he once heard of called Roger Ramjet. Intolerable!

And so the days went on and on. And Derrick Trifler was finally happy. His duties were very hum drum. All he had to do was keep the station running and be prepared to pilot it to a new frontier should the need arise. He was blissfully unaware that his superiors were keeping him under constant surveillance in case of alien contact.

Months went by. Derrick decided not to bother even looking at the calendar anymore. It was a good two years before a ship would return with supplies for him, and he didn’t feel lonely in the slightest. Virtual Reality had a way of making you whatever you wanted, with no consequences, every human’s dream. In Derrick’s VR mindscapes there was only ever a few people, and he made sure they would never judge him one way or another. It was rather satisfying to have such control. It was partly through this means that contact was made.

After a certain sleep period, Derrick went on his way to perform the daily routine as quickly as possible so he could get into VR. And a compulsion came over him. He made his way to a room in thew station of absolutely no consequence and started feeling the panels on the wall. Finding a slight notch he tugged on it. The whole panel pulled away to reveal a highly sophisticated bugging system. From here he could see that his every action was being monitored and beamed back to Earth. For some reason though he wasn’t surprised at this.

‘Break it’, said an inner voice.

It seemed like a very reasonable thing to do, but at the same time it wasn’t. Using the hammer on his utility belt he smashed the equipment to pieces with a blaze of blue sparks. A couple of them sizzled into his chin. He thought it strange he didn’t feel a thing.

‘Go to the control room’, said the voice again, very convincingly too.

He did so, and when he arrived, he knew the voice was going to issue more commands.

‘Shut down all communications and set life support for shut down in ten minutes time.’

Once again he did so and once again the voice compelled him to go to the medical supply store. He stood in silence for a few moments before the voice spoke again.

‘Inject three rad shots of metabolic rate reduction drugs and lie down.’

Derrick felt no surprise when he gave himself the injection, even though it was potentially a lethal dose. When he lay down on the stretcher beside him he was feeling a certain stress about feeling so calm about all of this.

He stared into the darkness ahead of him and noticed a small point of white light becoming larger and larger. It grew to a certain size and stopped.

‘Hello’, said a voice, this time coming from within the light.

‘Hello’, replied Derrick, the drugs slightly slurring his speech.

‘I’m glad I can finally talk to you. I haven’t been able to work out how to communicate with your kind until now.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘I’m an explorer’, replied the voice. ‘My people have been spreading out across the galaxy looking for intelligent life such as our own. We were beginning to think we were alone in the universe. You humans are so stuck in your own mindsets, never able to travel as we.’

Derrick couldn’t help but chuckle. ‘We humans were trying to contact you for ages too. We also were beginning to believe we were alone in the universe.’

‘Isn’t this wonderful?’ said the voice.

Suddenly Derrick was very sad. This life form couldn’t have picked a worse example of a human to make contact with than him. But now he was determined to make up for his hatred of humanity. Now with this discovery, he could make up for all those lost years of aloneness. He could have a purpose in life. He decided to ask a few more questions.

‘Was that you who compelled me to do all those things before?’

‘Yes that was me. As I said, I have been trying to communicate with humans for a long time and I finally discovered that it was your humanity that was barring contact. Your stubborn human mindset was stopping me. By cutting down your technology and reducing your metabolic rate we are able to communicate this way, directly into your mind. Isn’t this wonderful! I have so much to tell you. There is so much to exchange!’

Derrick Trifler did indeed agree how wonderful it was to be able to be a part of this momentous occasion. And as he slipped peacefully into death he thought how ironic it was that the reason no one could communicate with these life forms, was because everyone was just too busy being human. Even he was human as much as he tried not to be.

However at the point of Derrick’s death I found myself trapped in the empty space of his dead mind. My way out was sealed with his last breath. I am thankful though, that due to laws and principles of the universe just a few of you know that I was and always will be in the mind of mankind itself. During all periods in human existence have I been.

So there you have it. All that is yet to happen just under one hundred years into your future. And that is the closest I have come to contacting one of your kind. You see we don’t exist in time as you understand it. All these things I would love to explain to you. I have such a lot of information to give you. So much to tell you.

The simple fact that you believe my voice is a product of your imagination produced by words written down on this paper could well mean you don’t believe I am real. This could very well mean my death to you. When you finish reading this I will still be there as long as you believe, waiting to complete my contact with the human race. You could if you wish speak with me now, because I’m travelling in the collective psyche and dreams of mankind. Thanks to Derrick I’m here with you all. Just turn out the lights and say hello. Like I said I have so much to tell you.

But alas, like Derrick, you’re human too....

Dwayne and Matthew (holding the sword) joined forces in early 1999 after they discovered a common interest in science fiction and fantasy. Apart from their first two novels 'The Vision Collides' and 'Doctor Who - The Joining', they have been approached to work on screenplays and live productions. Dwayne is also working on several solo projects including a childrens novel 'The Staircase Bookcase' and books of poetry called 'The Rantings of a Raving Looney' and 'The Dark Places of the Inside'. Matthew too has solo projects including a series of self contained short fantasy stories along the same theme and an anthology style series called 'The Agency'. Both of them reside on the Gold Coast, in Queensland, Australia.

E-mail: earthshadows@hotmail.com

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