My microfiction. Mostly science fiction.
Scaling the Level Ground (770 words)
We assembled an elite team comprised of both scientists and mountain-climbers and obtained the necessary funding from governments across the world for our expedition uphill, away from the center of the Earth.
We had to turn back once when we realized the atmosphere was becoming thin. But once we regrouped and modified our plans to account for carrying oxygen, we set out again six months later.
Of course, most of the world's nations are clustered toward the center of the world. As we traveled outward and the direction of gravity shifted to pull us more and more sideways, the population became scarcer and scarcer. We passed through a small town at the point where gravity pulled at 15%, and then a quiet hamlet with not more than a hundred inhabitants at 30%. At 50% we found a small population of nomadic folk living in caves carved out of the ground--or what appeared, to us and to them, to be the steep mountain wall.
Past a 55% gradient, the atmosphere became to thin to breathe. We donned our oxygen tanks and extreme-gradient climate gear, and we continued.
Eventually the sky turned black. Stars twinkled overhead. I turned to look behind us and I almost lost my footing when I saw it--the atmosphere behind us formed a dome over the Earth, bluish with white swirling clouds. It looked like half of a crystal ball.
It was beautiful.
The radio in my ear crackled to life. "Lou, come on," Professor Cunningham prodded.
"Ah... right, right." I would have time to gawk later. Right now we had to climb.
There was nothing outside the dome of atmosphere but us and the flat mountainous plane we were ascending. The going was made easier by craters left behind by meteor strikes, the land out here unprotected by the shield of atmosphere.
I say "easier", but scaling a wall that sheer can only get so easy.
We lost Professor Ysbet at 80%. He lost his grip, and it turned out he hadn't tied his rope firmly enough.
My hands clenched my ice axe until, I'm sure, my knuckles turned white under my gloves.
"We must keep going," said Ondine, one of our mountaineer guides. She was the most experienced of the group we'd hired, though even she had never been out this far before--but still, she was the most experienced. And the others agreed with her. To go back for Ysbet would be suicide.
But we were too exhausted to go on. Another mountaineer, Guy, set an explosive charge in the ground and we all moved away from it so we wouldn't be caught in the blast.
The resulting hole was just deep enough for all of us remaining--three scientists and four mountaineers--to tuck into and rest for the night.
After a good five hours, we had breakfast--nutritious smoothies that we drank through straws attached to our oxygen intake masks--and set out again for the summit.
The last ten percent uphill was the worst.
It was basically a sheer cliff. Straight uphill, and if any of us fell... Well, none of us wanted to think about Ysbet.
(We double-checked our ropes before we set out.)
It was steeper than steep, but at the same time we weren't far from the end. The edge of the world was within sight. We clung tight to our axes and took it slow, and within only a few short hours Guy was the first to grasp the edge of the world and pull himself up.
Cunningham followed, then the rest. Then me. Then Ondine, pulling up the rear.
It was like standing on flat ground, and it was wide enough there was no risk of falling off; several miles at the very least.
I fell to my knees and didn't stand up for a good, long while. Everybody understood.
Finally, Dr. Grisham coughed awkwardly. "So... are we going to climb back down? I mean, that was hellish."
They were right. No one knew what to say.
No one except Ondine. "What's on the other side?"
All eyes turned to the far side of the edge.
After we'd rested up, we started walking. It was so nice to be back on flat ground again--even if, in reality, we were actually standing on the very edge of the world. Hey--it was relative.
We reached the other side, stopped about a foot back, and peered over the edge. Another bubble of atmosphere shimmered several hundred miles down.
Nobody said anything for a very long time.
Finally Ondine broke the silence. "Which way?"



