The Path

A Story by Ranbir Singh

"Our destiny chooses our path, and it is not the other way around, like many of us believe"

He eagerly waited while his wife loaded the highly valued Lawrencium in the particle accelerator, a massive machine that could accelerate electrons up to the speed of light, which would then strike Lawrencium. Every time they would conduct this experiment, the result would be astonishing. They sometimes needed years to study the results. The theories he had formulated with his works had taken him to the zenith, and he was highly respected in the scientific community.

What he was trying to do today however, would make him the greatest among the greatest. He would be regarded as a god if his experiment was successful. After years of calculation, he had finally devised an easier way of producing new elements. They only had to strike precisely numbered electrons, protons and neutrons at an accurate speed to Lawrencium to create the new atom.

Maya had been his co-worker for twenty years now. As could be expected of two people working together alone, they fell in love and later married. Dan Perlos had everything he had ever wanted. But in a life the other people could only dream of, there was a wish that the almighty had not granted. Dan and Maya were childless. After struggling with himself for years, Dan had finally accepted that his wife was not to bear a child.

Maya was the only person left in his life now. A person he valued more than himself. Someone he could not afford to lose. Life is a labyrinth, a journey of sufferings. We all need a hand that we can hold when we are afraid of moving on. We all need someone who stands by our side in the worst of our times.

Maya locked the machine after putting all the raw materials inside. As she was about to return, Dan, who was observing her through CCTV cameras noticed that the compartment had not been sealed properly. He reached for the mike to alert her, but accidentally pushed the button that would start the machine.

The highly dangerous machine started with his wife still inside. The chamber where it was placed was sealed automatically. He knew it very well that once the machine had started working, it could not be stopped. But even then he kept on pushing the START button repeatedly, in hope that he would stop the machine.

His wife died in the worst way he could have ever imagined, being burnt to death while he watched her helplessly.

The machine stopped exactly eight minutes later, on its scheduled time. Dan rushed to his wife to find her charred body lying on the floor. He carried her to the hospital, running frantically all the way.

She was declared brought dead.

Dan lost his senses on hearing the news. He had never imagined a world without her. He felt as if a hole had been bored inside his heart. The worst thing was that he was the cause of her death.

So, he went to his laboratory to end his life the same way Maya had died. But when he reached the particle accelerator, he saw the shining new atom in the machine. Something that would have pleased him earlier only brought despair now.

He stared at the new element for a long time, and felt as if it was staring back at him. He felt as if this new atom was Maya’s own soul.

Her sacrifice should not go in vain, he thought. So, he decided to present the new element in her name to the world, Mayanencium. He mailed about his discovery to his old and trusted friend and also wrote what he would want it to be called.

Then he went inside the chamber and using a remote, started the machine at full acceleration, something he believed would give him a painful death, like the way his wife had died.

The particles reached a speed higher than the speed of the light. Rather than just striking his body, they started passing through him. He fell unconscious at this point.

After what seemed like years, he was woken by Maya. “Dan, what happened? Why are you lying here?”

He stood abruptly. “Maya, are you alright?”

She gave him a confused look. “Yeah, I am. Are you?”

He scratched his head. “I don’t know how I came here. I just had a really bad dream”

“What?”

“Never mind”

She laughed. “Okay, I wouldn’t. Let’s complete our experiment”

“What experiment?”

“How could you forget? Today is the big day! We might create a new element today”

Dan squinted. “But haven’t we already done that?”

Maya placed her hand on his face. “Dan, why are you behaving in such a strange way today? Are you alright? You can take a day off. We will complete the experiment tomorrow”

“No, I’m alright. Let’s do it”

And so he was once again standing in the control room while Maya brought the articles that she had to put in the machine.

Suddenly Dan remembered what had happened in his dream.

“Maya, let me put the materials in the machine”

She looked at him funnily. But she did not protest. “Alright”

After he had put the materials in the machine and securely locked it as well as the chamber, they started the experiment once again. After fifteen minutes or so, the particle accelerator stopped and they could see the new element in the machine.

Maya gasped and hugged him tightly. The next moment she fell motionless on the ground.

“MAYA! MAYA!”

Without wasting any time, Dan took her to the hospital.

“She suffered from vagal inhibition. All the chances to resuscitate her failed. I am sorry, she could not be saved”, the doctor told her an hour after he brought her to the hospital.

Dan went back to the laboratory and looked curiously at the particle accelerator. Had he predicted the future in his weird dream? Or was it not a dream at all? Could it be true that he had…?

He shook his head. No, that it is impossible. We cannot travel to the past using such simple technology, he thought. It was possible in theory but not practically. Or could it be?

Once again he completed the whole process of mailing his whole research to his trusted friend, in case he was disillusioned and died in the new experiment, the new journey he was about to undertake.

He locked himself inside the particle accelerator chamber as before and started the machine at full force. The machine attained the highest possible speed in a few seconds and the neutrinos exceeded the speed of light. The simple walls of the machine could no longer hold back these high speed neutrinos. They easily pierced through those walls and pierced through his body.

Light is a unique force created in this universe that is unaltered by the effects of the time. In other words, it does not age. Anything that travels faster than the light should then be able to go back in time, just like the neutrinos did.

This time, he did not fell unconscious, but was propelled to the past along with the neutrinos.

Now he knew that he had attained a power that could change mankind. He could do so many things. He could avert wars and disasters. Millions would live because of him.

But did he really wish to prevent World War? Did he care about the great tsunami that struck the Indian coast years ago?

No, he did not. Like every other human being, he was satisfied if his own desires were fulfilled. He only wanted one thing.

Two things, actually. Affection and recognition.

He wanted two things in life. He wanted a long and happy life with his love, and he also wanted to present the new element to the world, that he would name after his beloved wife.

But he knew the risk of involving Maya in the experiment.

He called her at home. “Maya, please do not come to the lab today. I want to conduct some experiments alone”

After an hour or so, he completed the experiment. It was then that he received a phone call. “Mr. Perlos, your wife was involved in an accident. Please reach the local hospital as soon as you can”

When he reached the hospital, his fears were confirmed. His wife had not survived the accident. He had the choice of going back in the past to bring his wife back to life. But by now he had understood that she was destined to die on this very day. Now he knew that the fate cannot be changed, no matter what we do.

A month later, he presented his discovery to the whole world.

“I have named this new element after my late wife. I want the whole world to call it Mayanencium”, he announced before a gathering of scientists and reporters.

“Before I tell you about the complex process involved in creating this element, I want to share a belief that has evolved in the course of this experiment”

“Right from the moment a man is born, he is told that his destiny is decided by the path he chooses. We are told that we decide our fate. But now it all seems false to me. I have now developed a firm belief that it is actually the other way around”

“I was destined to form this element. Unfortunately, the person who helped me in all the research was never to see what she had created. Even if I could go back in time and change the course of events, the ultimate result would stay the same”

“We all men are fools to believe that we are in control of anything in our life. Our destiny has always been predetermined. And we are all heading towards the destination that is not at all in our control”

“It is that destiny which matters, and not the path”

© 2015 Ranbir Singh

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pstalbot

It seems your writing gets better once you get to the part of the story that is the most interesting part. Before that it seems you are just trying to get to the point where you can really tell the fun part of the story. I think a good process for you IS to write exactly like this for your first pass, then go back to the beginning to say "how can I get people hooked on this story so that they stick around for the best parts?"

I say this because I think in the beginning you glaze over a few character and back story things that could really enhance the later developments. I REALLY like the turn in the story where the man goes through the accelerated particles, that pulled me into the story, but on a later pass you could go back to the beginning where you talk about their relationship about how they worked in the same lab and got married because of their proximity. Maybe you could describe this by saying "when they first worked together they were simply co-workers parallel to each other. As the days went on they would share their lunch breaks, getting to know each other more and more. They found themselves talking outside of work for three, four and five hours a night as they could not tear themselves apart..."

One more thing, as a person interested in medical terminology remember that not all of your readers understand the implications of a Vagal whatever it was. By the end of the story I was hooked, I really enjoyed it, make sure you get the reader to enjoy the start of your story so they stick around to be hooked.