{"id":3217,"date":"2022-12-19T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-19T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/?p=3217"},"modified":"2022-12-17T16:34:34","modified_gmt":"2022-12-17T15:34:34","slug":"venus-flytrap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/2022\/12\/venus-flytrap\/","title":{"rendered":"Venus Flytrap (Second Place Winner of the “Tomorrow” Short Story Competition)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Image:<\/strong> \u00a9 “Venus – JPL Travel Poster” by NASA\/JPL, JPL licence. Source.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author:<\/strong>  William Flores<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has been almost a month since scientists on board Venera III have identified what appears to be a pitch black spot, about 10 meters in diameter of\u2026 absolute nothingness in the Venusian sky. Every conceivable instrument has so far failed to show any reading of mass or energy. This excludes the initial hypothesis of a miniature black hole. For now, the United Nations Space Exploration and Observation Agency (UNSEOA) has instructed scientific personnel aboard all five Venera stations to continue monitoring the mysterious spot. That is certainly not too big a task for these miniature, self-contained cities that float in the dense Venusian sky and whose primary mission is to understand the planet\u2019s cloud formation. Wesley Ramirez, an expert on dark matter from the Earth Astrophysics Institute has been sent by the agency to provide assistance to the team of highly trained yet, in this case, helpless team of astrometeorologists.

On March 29, 2297, Wesley finally arrived after a week-long trip aboard the fusion powered Horizon VI. Once in orbit, a small shuttle separated from the vessel and descended into the atmosphere, safely bringing Wesley to Venera III, where he was greeted by Sasha Stone, the station\u2019s captain.
\u2014 Doctor Ramirez, welcome to Venus! It\u2019s nice meeting you.
\u2014 Thanks! But please, call me Wesley. We\u2019re both too young to call each other \u201cdoctor\u201d.
\u2014 Can\u2019t argue with that, Wesley!
After a friendly handshake, Sasha showed Wesley his sleeping quarters and its amenities. Although he knew exactly that there would be a telepod, a standard component of all crewed space habitats, the young astrophysicist expressed his relief upon seeing it.
\u2014 Got some important business on Earth, Wesley?
\u2014 Well\u2026 yes. See, last month I met someone at the annual Earth Science Symposium and we were supposed to go on a date. But that was before I was assigned to this mission.
\u2014 Oh, I\u2019m sorry to hear that.
\u2014 It\u2019s alright. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and besides, with the telepod I can still go on my date, more or less.
\u2014 I\u2019m happy that you see it that way. Anyway, I\u2019ll let you get some rest. Dinner is at 07:30 in the mess hall down the corridor. You\u2019ll see that our aquaponic system provides us with exquisite produce.
\u2014 Great! That\u2019ll be a welcome change after the synthetic food of the Horizon\u2019s molecular assembler.
\u2014 I bet! Well, see you later!
And with that, the young astrometeorologist returned to her observation post. Just yesterday, the main computer indicated that the instruments of the Venera III had recorded a faint and ephemeral energy signal coming from the mysterious spot in the sky. Unfortunately, the crew was sleeping at that point, so Sasha hoped that she could make a direct observation soon.

At dinner, she introduced Wesley to the other members of the Venera III. They all studied the cloud formation of the Venusian atmosphere. Their mission was part of the United Nation\u2019s Earth Climate Restoration Programme, often called \u201cGaia Project\u201d. By studying the cloud formation on Venus, a planet which once experienced an extreme runaway greenhouse effect, the UN hoped that the collected data could help make cloud-seeding and weather modification efforts on Earth more reliable. While the programme, which was initiated in 2099, had already succeeded in removing excess carbon from the Earth\u2019s atmosphere by 80%, the planet was still recovering from the recklessness of the Late Capitalist Period (1980-2089). Global temperatures peaked at 2.3\u00b0C above pre-industrial levels in 2103. This set off seven planetary tipping points that were now being reversed. Wesley was no stranger to the \u201cGaia Project\u201d: both of Wesley\u2019s parents worked for it and so did his date.
\u2014 Tell me about your date, Sasha said. \u201cYou don\u2019t know how long you\u2019ll be here, so we might as well get to know each other\u201d.
\u2014 Fair enough, fair enough. Well, my special someone is called River and\u2026
\u2014 River! What a nice name!
\u2014 Yes, indeed. They work for the \u201cGaia Project\u201d as a marine biologist. Their specialty is coral reef restoration.
\u2014 That\u2019s really interesting! When are you going on your date? And where?
\u2014 Well, we were supposed to see each other tomorrow and take the Underwater Vacuum Train from New York to Paris and just walk around and eat dinner in a cute bistro.
\u2014 How romantic!
\u2014 Yeah, the city is becoming an increasingly popular tourist destination again. Temperatures are really comfortable there now.
\u2014 I\u2019ve heard! But I guess that won\u2019t work out for you exactly as planned.
\u2014 Yeah no. We have decided that I\u2019ll upload my mind via telepod to my avatar body that I left in New York and take the train to Paris anyway. There we\u2019ll just walk and talk, since eating won\u2019t be an option, at least for me.
\u2014 Yeah, it\u2019s sad how avatars are quite limited.
\u2014 It\u2019s funny you know, it\u2019s the first time I had an avatar made of me. It was a bit weird to look at that inanimate doll that looked just like me\u2026 kinda creepy even.
\u2014 Us astronauts are used to it. It\u2019s the only way we can keep contact with our loved ones during missions.
\u2014 No doubt!
After dessert, Sasha mentioned the strange energy readings and asked Wesley to look into them in the morning.

Thus, after a good night\u2019s sleep and a light breakfast, the young astrophysicist joined the team of the Venera III on the observation deck. Sasha looked both exhausted and excited.
\u201cMorning, Wesley! LOOK!\u201d she said while pointing at the spot in the sky. \u201cCan you see the thin halo around it?\u201d
\u2014 Morning Sasha! Yes, I can see it.
\u2014 Do you know what it could be?
\u2014 Nope, but I\u2019ll have a look at the instrument readings.
\u2014 Apparently there\u2019s been a brief surge in Hawking radiation.
\u2014 What? For real?
\u2014 Yeah, look at the recordings!
\u2014 Oh my god! You\u2019re right!
\u2014 Do you think it\u2019s a black hole after all?
\u2014 That can\u2019t be! The gravitational pull would have ripped us to pieces!
\u2014 That\u2019s what I thought, but what else could it be?
\u2014 Could be anything. Maybe a wormhole of some sort. To or from another part of space or\u2026 maybe time?
\u2014 Time?
\u2014 Yes, that would explain these bizarre time readings right here. Apparently, every time the computer observed an energy surge the clock ran\u2026backwards?
\u2014 What? That can\u2019t be!
\u2014 You\u2019re right, there must be a problem with the instruments.
\u2014 We\u2019ve already checked!
\u2014 We\u2019ll check again. Because this doesn\u2019t add up.
And so the crews of the Venera III and the other stations ran all conceivable tests to check if all instruments worked as intended. By the end of the morning they found nothing. All instruments on all stations worked perfectly. Exhausted, the scientists took their lunch break.

Meanwhile, Wesley returned to his sleeping quarters and got ready for his date. He undressed, put on his sensory bodysuit and entered the telepod while selecting the \u201ctransfer mind\u201d option. A complete scan, on the subatomic level, was made of his brain, before an odorless gas filled the pod and made him unconscious. Thanks to quantum entanglement, the information from the scan was instantly transmitted back to Earth. Lightspeed was no longer an upper limit for the transfer of data.

Meanwhile, the mysterious spot in the Venusian sky continued emitting more and more energy. Sasha only took a short lunch break and was absolutely baffled by what she saw upon returning to her post. The bright halo that used to surround the spot now covered it completely. The spot went from pitch-black to blindingly bright just like that. \u201cWhat the fuck\u201d was pretty much the only thing Sasha could say to herself in that moment.

After a few seconds of complete unconsciousness, Wesley woke up in his New York apartment. His avatar body felt almost like his actual body. It was good enough, though. After getting used to walking in this body, he went to meet River at Grand Central.
\u2014 So, you made it after all!
\u2014 Told you so!
After giving each other a hug, they boarded the train and were on their way to Paris. The ride would take about 30 minutes, but after about 15 minutes the avatar body stopped responding. It was lifeless. \u201cAre you still there? Are you okay?\u201d River asked, in vain.

After a minute, Wesley regained consciousness. He was back in the telepod. \u201cWhat the hell happened?\u201d he told himself. After several failed attempts to reconnect to his avatar, he stepped out of the pod and got dressed. Something felt off. He went to the observation deck and was relieved to see Sasha and the crew. They seemed terrified, however.
\u2014 Sasha? What\u2019s going on?
\u2014 LOOK!
She pointed towards the sky. The spot was gone.
\u201cSo, everything is back to normal?\u201d Wesley asked naively, perhaps sincerely hoping that that would be it.
Holding back her tears, Sasha instructed the astrophysicist to check the date on a computer screen, any screen would do.
Upon doing so, Wesley was mortified.
\u2014 Tell me, Wes, what day are we?
\u2014 March 30th, 2007.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image: \u00a9 “Venus – JPL Travel Poster” by NASA\/JPL, JPL licence. Source. Author:  William Flores It has been almost a month since scientists on board Venera III have identified what appears to be a pitch black spot, about 10 meters in diameter of\u2026 absolute nothingness in the Venusian sky. Every conceivable instrument has so far failed to show […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1002189,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[37,76],"class_list":{"0":"post-3217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-2022-winter","7":"tag-prose","8":"tag-short-story-competition-tomorrow"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1002189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3217\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/musemagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}