SFS2 - Science Fiction Short Stories: 10 Science Fiction Short Stories Read Online Free Page A
Author: Krishna kumar Mani
he couldn't see me and began to walk down the road. By chance I noticed that the relativity device which I had tied onto the rat was on the ground. Now I understood why there had been no updates. The rat had gotten free of the device and someone had trampled on it, breaking it. I picked it up and put it in my pocket.
I walked for an hour and saw things I'd never even dreamed of. I saw a restaurant that I wanted to get a taste of and knew it contained the food of the future. But I didn't know the value of money here. My credit cards were long past their expiration date and they probably didn't even use paper currency here anymore. Regardless, I didn't bring my wallet so I bypassed the restaurant.
I walked for so long my legs got tired. I took tons of pictures with my cell phone. I decided to go back home. I knew I couldn't go back to before the 18 th so I decided to go to the 19 th of December 2013 , the future. I checked the number on the remote and it said “December 18, 2200.” Oh god. I couldn't go back to 2013 because now that was in the past. I could only go forward. My half of an invention left me half of the way. How could I have been so stupid? Now I understood why scientists never experimented on themselves.
4. 404
Year: 2200
Mobile phones are a thing long forgotten. Instead, nano-chips are inserted into the ear and take their power directly from the human body. With your voice alone you can accept, reject and even make calls. You no longer have to worry about forgetting your phone at home or running out of battery in the middle of a call. Video calls and mobile applications use a holographic illusion that interacts with your body. There is not physical display. Every human being now has an IP address, ten digit phone numbers are a relic of the past. Computers, robots, all are mapped with human names similar to website domain names. And they're inexpensive. Only the poorest cannot afford multiple robots.
The holographic screen appeared and the computer let the station know they had an incoming call. The dispatcher answered the call after seeing the caller's photograph, name and address.
“Emergency services, how may I help you?”
A woman's face appeared on the screen. She looked sad and had obviously been crying for some time.
“Officer, my son is missing. I have no idea where he could have gone. Please help me find him.”
After scrolling through the woman's personal and family details, the officer came across a page with a family number named Stephen, a ten year old boy.
“This call is about your son, Stephen, then?”
“Yes, that's right. Today's a holiday for him so he went to play outside with his friends. I didn't think anything of it because sometimes he gets distracted and doesn't come home for lunch and eats with them or at one of his friends' houses. But now it's five o'clock. I've called his friends' parents and they say they haven't seen him.”
The officer tried reaching him from an adjacent screen. An error message popped up with error number 404 saying that the recipient was currently unreachable.
“Did he walk when he left to go see his friends?”
“No, he was riding his bicycle.”
“Alright. I will see what I can do. I will get back to you as soon as I have any information that I think will help.”
The police officer checked the last incoming and outgoing call information for the boy’s IP address. He did a broad spectrum search using Stephen's photo and facial recognition to pinpoint his location with any surveillance cameras that might have seen him. One camera had photographed him just after noon. At one o'clock his number had become unreachable. He messaged the control room of the station nearest to where his photo had last been taken and relayed the information.
It only took an hour for the police to find the boy's bicycle at the edge of a nearby lake. They thought perhaps he had gone for a swim and might had drowned. They made a
I walked for an hour and saw things I'd never even dreamed of. I saw a restaurant that I wanted to get a taste of and knew it contained the food of the future. But I didn't know the value of money here. My credit cards were long past their expiration date and they probably didn't even use paper currency here anymore. Regardless, I didn't bring my wallet so I bypassed the restaurant.
I walked for so long my legs got tired. I took tons of pictures with my cell phone. I decided to go back home. I knew I couldn't go back to before the 18 th so I decided to go to the 19 th of December 2013 , the future. I checked the number on the remote and it said “December 18, 2200.” Oh god. I couldn't go back to 2013 because now that was in the past. I could only go forward. My half of an invention left me half of the way. How could I have been so stupid? Now I understood why scientists never experimented on themselves.
4. 404
Year: 2200
Mobile phones are a thing long forgotten. Instead, nano-chips are inserted into the ear and take their power directly from the human body. With your voice alone you can accept, reject and even make calls. You no longer have to worry about forgetting your phone at home or running out of battery in the middle of a call. Video calls and mobile applications use a holographic illusion that interacts with your body. There is not physical display. Every human being now has an IP address, ten digit phone numbers are a relic of the past. Computers, robots, all are mapped with human names similar to website domain names. And they're inexpensive. Only the poorest cannot afford multiple robots.
The holographic screen appeared and the computer let the station know they had an incoming call. The dispatcher answered the call after seeing the caller's photograph, name and address.
“Emergency services, how may I help you?”
A woman's face appeared on the screen. She looked sad and had obviously been crying for some time.
“Officer, my son is missing. I have no idea where he could have gone. Please help me find him.”
After scrolling through the woman's personal and family details, the officer came across a page with a family number named Stephen, a ten year old boy.
“This call is about your son, Stephen, then?”
“Yes, that's right. Today's a holiday for him so he went to play outside with his friends. I didn't think anything of it because sometimes he gets distracted and doesn't come home for lunch and eats with them or at one of his friends' houses. But now it's five o'clock. I've called his friends' parents and they say they haven't seen him.”
The officer tried reaching him from an adjacent screen. An error message popped up with error number 404 saying that the recipient was currently unreachable.
“Did he walk when he left to go see his friends?”
“No, he was riding his bicycle.”
“Alright. I will see what I can do. I will get back to you as soon as I have any information that I think will help.”
The police officer checked the last incoming and outgoing call information for the boy’s IP address. He did a broad spectrum search using Stephen's photo and facial recognition to pinpoint his location with any surveillance cameras that might have seen him. One camera had photographed him just after noon. At one o'clock his number had become unreachable. He messaged the control room of the station nearest to where his photo had last been taken and relayed the information.
It only took an hour for the police to find the boy's bicycle at the edge of a nearby lake. They thought perhaps he had gone for a swim and might had drowned. They made a
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