By Edwina Harvey
“I want to go back and play with the dinosaurs!”
There’s petulance in the words of the companion entity who journeys with me.
Maybe that’s where they get it from? I ponder as I reply, “The dinosaurs were a long time ago. We must keep going in the direction we’re going.”
“Are you saying time is linear?”
I’m cautious. The companion entity has sought to trap me before. They like to challenge my intellect, advancing their own in the process. I carefully think my answer through before replying “Yes.”
The moment the reply has formed in my mind, I see its fault.
“Well, if it’s linear, why can’t we follow the path back again ?”
There’s a hint of smugness rolled into that seemingly innocent question.
“I meant all things occur at the same time.” And again, the second the thought has formed I realise my error.
“Entanglement,” the accompanying entity states with surprising maturity, then posits: “It’s more of a challenge, but we just untangle the strand we need, to go back to the time of the dinosaurs. They were fun!”
That flux between maturity and immaturity can be so distracting! By which I mean irritating.
I change the parameters of the current game. “Will this suffice?”
In quick succession we observe Mary Anning discovering fossils in a cliff face, the other players who followed reverently unearthing bones locked in stone for millennia. Many of the bones they discover are dwarfed by the finders. Many others dwarf the finders. The time of titans long since passed. The game is more cluttered now, the players smaller, more compact, but crowding the platform.
For perhaps a fraction of a second in eternity the entity companion is engaged.
“Look, they’re inventing us now. Or think they are. The dinosaurs never evolved to that level.” A second of reflected superiority.
The current crop of players have been remarkably resilient. Also remarkably inventive when it came to self-destruction! Torture, wars, ruining their environment, yet still somehow managing to survive, regenerate. Even make feeble attempts to reach out to the stars.
If only they knew!
“But the program is caught in a loop. They just keep going round in circles, never really progressing. I’m bored with it.”
I thought they’d been progressing, but on reflection… “How do we want this game to end then? Floods?”
“Done it.”
“Global pandemic?”
“Done it.”
“Another global war?”
“Boring. I’m tired of it now.”
“You never got tired of the dinosaurs,” I can’t resist mentioning. “How shall we end it, then?”
“Why not another asteroid?” suggests the accompanying entity. “It worked for the dinosaurs.”
About the Author
Edwina Harvey is a writer and editor, specialising in speculative fiction.
Her urban fantasy flash fiction, 'Party' appeared in AntiSF Issue 1 and went on to take its place in her urban-fantasy novel, "The Back of the Back of Beyond" published by Peggy Bright Books.
Geraldine Borella writes fiction for children, young adults and adults. Her work has been published by Deadset Press, IFWG Publishing, Wombat Books/Rhiza Edge, AHWA/Midnight Echo, Antipodean SF, Shacklebound Books, Black Ink Fiction, Paramour Ink Fiction, House of Loki and Raven & Drake
Merri Andrew writes poetry and short fiction, some of which has appeared in Cordite, Be:longing, Baby Teeth and Islet, among other places.
Emma Louise Gill (she/her) is a British-Australian spec fic writer and consumer of vast amounts of coffee. Brought up on a diet of English lit, she rebelled and now spends her time writing explosive space opera and other fantastical things in
My time at Nambucca Valley Community Radio began back in 2016 after moving into the area from Sydney.
Alistair Lloyd is a Melbourne based writer and narrator who has been consuming good quality science fiction and fantasy most of his life.
Tim Borella is an Australian author, mainly of short speculative fiction published in anthologies, online and in podcasts.
Sarah Jane Justice is an Adelaide-based fiction writer, poet, musician and spoken word artist.
Tara Campbell is an award-winning writer, teacher, Kimbilio Fellow, fiction co-editor at Barrelhouse, and graduate of American University's MFA in Creative Writing.
Ed lives with his wife plus a magical assortment of native animals in tropical North Queensland.
Brian Biswas lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
Barry Yedvobnick is a recently retired Biology Professor. He performed molecular biology and genetic research, and taught, at Emory University in Atlanta for 34 years. He is new to fiction writing, and enjoys taking real science a step or two beyond its known boundaries in his
Mark is an astrophysicist and space scientist who worked on the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn. Following this he worked in computer consultancy, engineering, and high energy research (with a stint at the JET Fusion Torus).