[ im-uh-mawr-ee-uhl, -mohr- ]
Adjective
- Extending back beyond memory, record, or knowledge.
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** Either a story beginning, a story ending, a piece of flash fiction, a poem, painting, dance move—inspired by the word, immemorial, where does it take me? Where does it take you? Learn more about “The Word” here.
Gustav sat patiently behind the controls of his one-person submarine—one of his designs. As he fumbled with the joy-stick and pushed buttons, two mechanical arms extended from the yellow, spherical bubble that he sat inside.
To his left, right, and directly across from him were three other one-person submarines with their own mechanical arms.
“Any plan here, Gustav, or just dig?” came Richardson’s voice over the speaker.
“Just dig,” Gustav said. “No need to worry about landslides or anything here. We’re in the vicinity of the signal I found, which is plus or minus twenty feet in any direction.”
“So… just dig,” Richardson repeated with humor in his voice.
“Yep.”
“Digging!” said Angel, her voice excited, and her submarine—to Gustav’s right—pushed forward, the mechanical arms extended outward like a child chasing after a puppy.
Together they pulled up boulders off the seafloor, dug into the ground, looking for the source of metal that pinged Gustav’s unique sensors.
His team salvaged old submarines, boats, and planes lost to wars, storms, and time. What excited him and everyone about this dig was the location. It wasn’t a typical route one would have taken a ship or flown a plane. They were all hoping for some old boat, full of treasure, blown or drifted far off course a long time ago.
“I got something,” said Hansel…
… the submarine to his left. “I think I see the tip of something metallic.”
All the other submarines converged slowly to the spot where Hansel had been digging. There was indeed a small triangle of metal poking out of the seafloor.
Together, they all aimed jets of water at the spot to clear off more debris, digging deeper without digging. The triangular shape grew larger.
“Stop!” Gustav called, and the jets ceased. They waited patiently for the water to clear, for the dirt to settle.
“I don’t understand…” Richardson said.
“It’s not even rusted,” Angel added.
“Not just that, it looks… shiny still,” Hansel said.
The triangle was an airplane wing. Broken off from whatever plane it came.
The problem was what they all said. If that wing had been down here for a year or more, it would be covered in rust and not shining bright. That meant it had to be recent, like days or weeks recent, and there were no records of such a crash.
Gustav was certain of only one thing. What they found shouldn’t be there. It didn’t belong. This excited him, and it scared him too.
“Let’s get it up to the surface to run more tests,” Gustav said, attaching the mechanical arms to one side of the wing.
Whatever it was, and from whenever, they would find out soon enough.
Notes/Thoughts/Ideas
The idea behind this is to set up a cool science fiction story. What if we found something and dated it to be before the time of people? A time when we thought no other human life existed, only to discover that perhaps they did, and were even technologically advanced!
This is going to tie in perfectly with the continuation of my podcast story, In Bloom. I ended that story by starting another one, and this short scene could be a perfect opening to that next story.
Once I had that in mind, I couldn’t get it out!
What do you think of Immemorial?
Haven’t read or listened to In Bloom? Go check it out. It’s one of my favorites, and now I think I’m going to have to write the sequel!
Leave your thoughts, your own story beginning/ending, flash-fiction, or whatever in the comments! Where did immemorial or my story take you?
If you liked this story, check out my podcast of short stories, More Than A Story.
Today’s word is from Dictionary.com
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