Zelav waited expectantly for the same red laser to shoot out, but something was wrong. The machine wasn't firing. rather, a light glow, slowly growing brighter, seemed to be building up in the machine. Zelav put her finger on it, as gently as possible. She could hear a rather disturbing vibration. Trying not to panic, she decided to ask her creator for help as innocently as possible.
"Um, Valez, ma'am.... how, um, exactly does this machine work?"
"It combines quantum theory with genetic engineering to analyze the DNA of an organism and-"
"No, I mean how do you use it?" The glow was getting stronger. Zelav hoped her voice was masking the building worry in her chest. Valez wasn't catching on yet, luckily.
"First, I need to set the parameters. That's the longest part, and the most annoying, because for some reason are reset to blank after every trial. After that, clear an area, position a subject, flip the switch, wait for the magic."
"Parameters... what do they consist of?"
"A lot of things.... cuts down on any chance of deviation in the double."
"What would happen if the machine was used without those.. parameters?"
"Don't know. At best, the laser would do nothing, and at worst, it could create a bunch of freaks. Zelav, why are you-"
She turned around just in time to see the machine rumbling ominously.
"NononoNONONO-"
Valez raised up her hands just in time for the machine to erupt in a flash, blinding Valez and causing her to take a few steps back. She covered her face and tried to yell over the device's high-pitched whine.
"Turn it off, Zelav, TURN IT OFF!"
"I don't know how!" Zelav shouted back in a clearly frantic tone of voice.
"The switch, a plug, anything!"
"I can't see! It's too bright!"
"Do SOMETHING!"
Several seconds later, a loud crunch pervaded the air, and smoke was blown everywhere. Valez coughed and waved her arms desperately, hoping that the smoke would disappear somehow, hoping that the machine would, in fact, do nothing when it was overloaded and under-directed...
Luckily, the suffocating fumes passed quickly. The holes Zelav had punched in the walls and ceiling to the outside made an easy ventilation path (though Valez heard her cough a few times, too.) She looked upon the further damage already done to her half-laboratory. She immediately arched her eyebrows wide and covered her mouth in shock as the scene revealed itself in a midst of coughs, groans, questions, and gasps.
The machine hadn't done nothing. It hadn't even just made a mess, or a mistaken pile of cells, or even just a clone of Valez or two. It had filled the room with Valez's perfect duplicates- a rough count of them showed at least twenty, maybe more, in various states of standing, leaning (Valez saw two resting on Zelav's gigantic, oversized shoe-clad foot and her stomach did a flip-flop,) looking around, coughing, helping each other up, talking to each other, and all of them trying to compose themselves and figure out what had happened to them.
Behind them all stood her first enormous wide-eyed copy, her shoe's heel stuck squarely on top of the remains of Valez's cloner.
"Oops." Zelav whispered.
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author