Starmachine 2000

A Chapter by Sadie Cahill

A really short story that I was inspired from the song Starmachine 2000 by Wintergatan.

“Grandfather, grandfather, what is that?”

A child asks. Brown curls fall from her head, the color of blonde and brown. She smiles brightly to a wizened old man wearing spectacles above his nose.

Before them stood a machine. It churns and beats rhythmically like a heart. Plonk, plonk, beep, beep. Bubble rises from a funnel as it worked its ways falling to the ground around them.

The child was amazed by the sight of the machine. The old man, bent down and smiled at her, “My child, this machine is the Starmachine 2000, a machine that I will give as a gift to those outside this world.”

The child oohed and aahed as she grows silent, satisfied by her grandfather’s answer.

“And that’s how it is.” I say, finishing my story to my colleagues, staring at the coffee, the brown reflection reminding me of my past. It tasted bitter in my mouth, but it kept me awake as I have to stay awake to make final adjustments to my machine.

Perhaps it was a pipe dream for my grandfather, but now, I’m making sure that this machine that he had inspired will reach the galaxies.

“No wonder that you’d name it that,” A colleague smiles as he peers up at the machine. “Real piece of work you got here.”

I nod. The higher ups had acknowledged its existence, and have approve sending it to outer space. Yet instead of a toy-like machine, it’s a machine designed to catch pieces of stars and store them in capsules so that when they return, people will be able to study them more.

Like a child that I had been before, I called it:

Starmachine 2000 version 2.

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