keymaker

This sci fi story that I composed was inspired by scientist friends whom I met in the chatrooms. It was recently printed at our literary group supplement page on a local newspaper in Davao City. This story, as with my other scifi compositions, were based on my 'formulas' like 'rocket's theory' and other personal viewpoints that I had blogged here previously.

Me, the Keymaker, and the Quantum Mechanics Bar
by Ric Vil Hori

One day, just as I expected it to be, I met the Keymaker in the cyber highway. So I told him “Hey, let’s go to the quantum mechanics bar and order a shot of neutrino. It’s cool, we don’t have to pay anything because the glass is empty anyway. Then, let’s chat about the keys to the mysteries of the universe.”

So off we went and entered into the weird quantum mechanics bar, for it only has one door from our Present, the only one there is in the entire universe for us to enter. Yet once inside, the quantum mechanics bar peeks into countless portal doors of multi-universes that co-exist with the universe behind our Present door. Rumor has it that, along with the Present Door where we entered, there are other distinct portals with doors from our past, to the future, and to our parallel Present universes. The strange thing about the rumor was that there will appear an inevitable portal that sooner or later we must enter because that portal leads to our Future. Yet, in the quantum mechanics bar, anything can happen, though the bartenders and customers who patronized the bar smugly treated such inevitability as ‘rumor.’

I have discovered that a game was being played upon us, for among the countless doors, a distinct portal will magically transform itself into our Future door when the moment comes, provided that we have the right magic key for it. This door becomes the portal to our Future Universe. I anticipate the magical transformation of this Future Portal, which is why I invited the Keymaker to talk about it, while we sip a shot of neutrino at the quantum mechanics bar. But the Keymaker claimed he did not know anything about magic keys. All he knew was making great keys, for he is a very good keymaker.

I told the Keymaker that we can actually create our own Magic Future, to which the Keymaker responded with a quizzical look. I told him to peek into the keyhole of one among the many doors of the quantum mechanics bar that enters into a Magic Future, where truly free people live in magnificent, highly advanced cities with lush green parks. The inhabitants ride in levitating cars, utilize free energy, travel to the stars, and even teleport themselves from one destination to the next. But the Keymaker showed neither excitement nor interest. For him, such a Future will just be ‘rumor,’ and he insisted that he does not know anything about making a magic key.

Then it dawned on me that even the Keymaker, just like any other person from the Present, was bounded by the dark magic of the Despot who ruled the Present Universe from where we came from. The Keymaker never knew about magic, for the Despot made sure his subjects are bounded with the illusion of an imprisoned Present. Through the ages he planned sinisterly to lead them astray towards the Prison Future, away from the knowledge of Magical Realities that would otherwise set the Keymaker, and the rest like him, freed from the Despot’s bondage.
Yet, the Keymaker, just as the other subjects like him, was obviously not as bad as the Despot. In fact, he tried to be as upright as the rest by reading the Black Book. But unknowingly, it imprisoned them with the dark spell of the Despot who ruled the Present. The Despot uses the magic spell of the Black Book to control the gullible. Hidden behind its moralistic trappings he had laid his trap, the door to a Golden Prison. Cunningly, the Despot secretly encoded within the Black Book the key to the Golden Door of the Prison. Lured with such promise, the Keymaker became obsessed with the Black Book.

From its wake the dark spell of the Book slowly crept into him, unwittingly stifling the Light of his own Creative Power to be imprisoned by the rigid impositions of the Despot. Now, the Despot ruled over the Present with iron grip to all its gold resources, and with such cunning maneuver succeeded at controlling its physical universe and the will of the people, including that of the Keymaker and all who must work for gold for their physical needs. From the dark rule of the Despot sourced the conflicts, wars, famines and all ills of the Present, cunningly manipulated by the Despot towards the golden lure of the Prison Future he has prepared for all gullible subjects, where he shall ultimately reign.

I gazed through the Keymaker and sensed the complexity of the situation. The dark spell of the Despot had already crept deep into him, and I could only scrounge for a flicker of hope, if there were any. Then, amidst the dark, startlingly intricate mesh of prison web of the Despot’s spell that penetrated deep through his system, I saw it. A tiny flicker of Light, faint, but still desperately glowing. I gave him the hint: rekindle the Power that they had stifled from you, then it will help you craft the Magic Key.

As usual, he gave me his usual quizzical look, which seemed, for now, more like a habit. But from his eyes I could perceive the fragile flicker of Light, slowly glowing. A hint of grin betrayed him and we decided to leave the quantum mechanics bar. As was the rule, everything that occurred in the bar will be dismissed as ‘rumor’ from the moment we step out of its door. Before we left and separated our ways, the Keymaker said he will go back to his room and play with the violin that he had stacked in the storage for a time now, and perhaps even compose a tune. It felt good to hear that.

In mere moments after leaving the bar, a swarm of the Despot’s minions suddenly surrounded my Keymaker friend. Indeed, the sinister, intricate mesh of the Despot’s dark magic that gripped the space-time dimension of our Present was astonishingly efficient. But I flew away before those minions came, for I knew the Despot and his intentions, and I could see through him. The minions were programmed by the spell of the Despot who ruled the darkness of this Present, to treat Freedom’s Light as despicable anomaly. However, the minions cannot extract anything from the Keymaker, for they were mere ‘rumors’.

He will be alright. The Keymaker will return to his room and play with his violin. I could sense him as he played with his music instrument, and the once faint flicker of Light glowed again within him, slowly but inevitably.