Fifty-WordScienceFictionStories
Some stories by William, some written in December 2019, some written in January 2020.
An alien arrives from another galaxy and is being shown many inventions made on earth. One is a door lock and key and how they are used together. The alien finds the device fascinating. The alien looks puzzled and then asks “But for what practical applications are such things used?”.
Born safely in the zoo. “Endangered species”. Such fuss over him. “Let’s repopulate them in the wild”. No consultation with him. Flown long way. Yet he managed to make them think he could not learn to hunt. Sent back. Years later, meals brought to him regularly, medical attention when needed.
“Our holiday trip to Earth was a disaster! We had carefully made very detailed replicas of their currency and were spending it, but their authorities claimed they found a tiny error and got very upset, and made a big fuss, so we got in the starship and came back early!”
A village hall, vegan audience. Magician performs. “Now a vegan version of an old trick.” A top hat. Shown as empty. Onto his table. From hat, he produces a pineapple! Hat picked up. Onto ordinary table. From the hat, an orange. Applause. “How did he produce the orange?” people ask.
The unmanned passive starship had arrived at Earth. Covered in long panels with sequences of holes in them, some round holes, some square holes. Binary sequences? How many in each sequence? Some counts the product of three prime numbers, some of just two. One the product of four primes! Interesting.
A committee is discussing the best way to record the star Betelgeuse going supernova when nobody knows when it will happen. Someone suggests sending a space probe out to send a signal back as advance notification if a supernova is detected. Why are people looking at him in that way?
The proposed new design of high-speed-rail-compatible tram will, if implemented, take you from outside The National Gallery to the pyramid outside The Louvre without any need to change from one vehicle to another. This will be very helpful if you want to bring back lots of stuff from their shop.
The Emperor’s starship has been constructed. When it gets to Earth the crew are to try to find out what all those people sat on green seats in a room and talking, as seen in all those intercepted television broadcasts, are doing. “Is it something that could be useful here?”
“With my mobile telephone, trying to enter the letter I can sometimes have the result of the chemical symbol for mercury being displayed upon the screen.”
“Do you know why that happens?”
“Yes, I am a bit too slow with the third click!”
Any similar effect for any other elements?”