SF Short, Extraction, Published at Aphelion
August 16th, 2008…and I didn’t even know it until I got the google alert.
This short story is one that I wasn’t entirely comfortable with publishing, but the webzine “cribbed” it from somewhere on my website, where I didn’t know I had posted/uploaded it. Since everything I do is Creative Commons licensed, this is pretty darn cool.
The story follows Jyl, an inventor working on time travel, who, when her invention works, accidentally unravels her life. Robbed of all her life’s accomplishments, she decides to wage war on all intelligent life on Earth, traveling back in time in an effort to extinguish our ancestors and the intelligent life that ascended from them.
Originally titled The Historical Annihilationist, the editors have re-titled the piece Extraction, possibly because, to my surprise “Annihilationism” is an actual word referring to a Christian doctrine where sinners are obliterated rather than condemned to hell–which makes no sense in the context of my story.
So a better title would be, The Historical Nihilist.
The story can be found here.
The other day I was thinking if I could time travel and change one thing in human history what would it be? I would stop Constantine from converting to Christianity.
Ryan,
This was a very good story! Love the concept. Your protagonist was a bit of an idiot tho. Who commits suicide at the beginning of life on earth? I mean, at least go out with a bang… jump to when the sun goes nova…
Oh and here’s an observation for you. She successfully killed Hitler.
-BMF
This is really really good!
I am reminded a bit of my Quantum Hackers story, where my character wound up in a slightly different reality by tinkering with his technology. Also with all the drinking, since my story was rife with substance use.
But this is very different, as it focuses on time and not parallel universes. The time travel is crazy! I’ve seen some episodes of Gargoyles or X-Men that get pretty crazy with the time travel, but usually nothing as epic as genocide ):
I love how she ended up in the harbor… That actually reminds me of Being John Malkovitch for some reason.
One thing I found confusing was “No tracks, fruit trees, or flowers, nothing suggested the animal kingdom had made it ashore.” … Would not fruit trees exist if the animal kingdom hadn’t made it ashore? Or are bees required for that pollination. My confusion may very well be due to my own ignorance :)
And bonus points for a Myers-Briggs reference!
But anyway.. wow…. what an end!
And again: Very dark. You’re writing a lot of dark stories. You okay? ;) Actually, I like ‘em dark and evil!
[...] SCI-FI STORY: Extraction, published at Aphelion, by Ryan Somma A webzine published one of Ryan's short science-fiction stories… I just read it, and it's really good! Lots of time travel. And evolution. And very dark. So dark. (tags: media stories sci-fi TimeTravel time RyanS byRyanS) [...]
Would not fruit trees exist if the animal kingdom hadn’t made it ashore?
I think you might be right on this one. Some plant use fruit to get birds to transport their seeds great distances, but I believe that for many the fruit is actually to provide nutrients for the seeds. Good catch, and thanks for the comments!
Oh yeah, about my stuff being dark… I’m not sure why that is. I’m a big fan of positive, uplifting SF, but for some reason everything I write ends up being dark and cautionary. Maybe I’m watching too much Battlestar Galactica. : )
It works for me!