The Portal Above --SOS2022-- writer

Bartt was having a bad day.

Here I am, he thought, sitting outside the Oval Office.

Briefing the President should be the dream of every SES, right? Except ... except when you're the SES who has to deliver spectacularly bad news.

Once more, he sighed. The stress was terrible.

Gawdam' idiots at CERN, he thought for what felt like the thousandth time. Those European bright bulbs just HAD to crank up the power to see what happened.

Yeah, he thought, the outcome of the experiment was sensational. As in world-ending sensational.

For once, all the intel agencies agreed on what had happened.

Far from what was intended, the experiment had opened something. He thought of it as a portal. And, unhappily, there turned out be a somewhere on the other side of the portal with other ... intelligences.

His thoughts were interrupted by the door to the Oval Office opening. Some man he vaguely recognized from press coverage stood there, as if he were the right hand to God. "Rans? You're up."

The Oval Office was practically filled. He recognized some of the people, these were the top echelon of Washington. Guided into the room, he presently found himself in front of The Man himself.

A staff weenie piped up. "Mr. President, this is Mr. Rans. His directorate handles contact with unknown phenomena."

The President's expression changed to a scowl and he waved his hand brusquely. "I don't care about that." Fixing Rans with a beady stare, he sat bolt upright and roared, "NOW, MISTER TRANS, TELL ME ABOUT THOSE TITS!"

The room went silent and the group oozed a sensation of something between fear and loathing. Clearly, they believed the President had gone, once again, "off script".

Bartt winced; the President had already heard that stupid acronym. Clearing his throat a bit, he spoke before the stunned staff could react.

"TITS, Mr. President, is an unofficial acronym for "Tunnel In The Sky", and is used to describe an aspect of the phenomenon. It was named for a work of science fiction."

The President rolled his eyes and Bartt immediately regretted having uttered the second sentence.

The President spoke. "Tell me, in brief, what you know."

Bartt nodded. "Mr. President, in brief, the Europeans, in a research facility, recreated conditions that hadn't been present in the universe for something like 15 billion years. But whatever they tapped into didn't "go away" when they stopped the experiment. Whatever it is, is something like a doorway to another universe."

The President squinted at him. "Huh. But why is that a problem?"

Now an admiral spoke up. "Mr. President, the problem is that there is another form of life on the other side of the portal. And they have made clear they intend purge our world of humanity."

The President look confused. "Threats? Why don't we just nuke them?"

Again, the admiral spoke. "Unfortunately, Mr. President, they have already demonstrated their ability to shut down our weapons systems ... including nuclear launch facilities. We're disarmed, in effect."

Bartt couldn't help but noticed the shocked and crestfallen looks of those in the room. A babble of competing, fearful voices began to spontaneously rise, but was cut off by a shouted "SHUT UP!" Glaring at all in the room, the President curtly ordered, "GET OUT! I NEED TO THINK"

Just then, a red telephone on the President's desk began to ring. The ring tone was a rapid rising-and-falling pattern. A member of the President's staff picked up the receiver.

After a moment, he looked at the President with an expression of relief. "It's gone! The TITS has disappeared ... no trace of it!"

Other staffers began speaking. "Mr. President, London, Moscow, and Beijing are calling. They want to know what we did to shut the TITS down." The atmosphere in the Oval Office was electric.

The President leaned back in his chair with a smirk on his face. "Say this. That I used to be a lifeguard in a tough neighborhood, and I told those dam' aliens if they didn't take off, there would trouble in River City!"

The staffers looked at each other with a mixture of disbelief and dismay, but nodded their heads and left the room.

A firm hand grasped Bartt's forearm, and he heard a whisper in his ear. "That's all -- get out!"

As Bartt exited the White House, he could hear cheering and table thumping coming from various offices and rooms. Whatever had happened, people were clearly elated.

In his agency vehicle, Bartt turned on his cell phone. The incident management center had been trying to reach him. He dialed the number of his deputy. "Jordan? What the Hell happened? The portal is gone?"

Indeed, Jordan confirmed, the portal was gone. Then Jordan's voice got that smart-aleck tone it always did when he was going to "put the cherry on top". "Boss", Jordan drawled, "you're going to love the reason".

Bartt was curious now. "Yeessss ?"

Jordan chuckled. "The cleaning lady saved us. Seriously. She needed a power outlet for her floor buffer, so she pulled the first plug she saw -- a facility monitoring system. When that lost power, the entire CERN facility automatically initiated a controlled shutdown. And--however--, that broke the connection and caused the portal to collapse!"

Jordan continued. "I guess, boss, this will become one of those things that will be among the Secrets of Science." He hesitated for a moment. "Chief, it has been a long 70 hours. Mind if I take a few hours off? I'd really like a cold one."

Bartt replied that sounded like a great idea, and hung up. No more TITS, maybe I'll get a cold one too, he thought to himself.

~~~

Elsewhenwhere, a vidouk cowered before his superior.

"S-Sir. We almost had them."

"WHAT HAPPENED?!"

"It was their cleaning staff, they ..."

"AGAIN ??!!"

The weapon's blast was mercifully short and efficient. Where the vidouk had been was only a small, greasy cloud of particles. Wistfully, the superior glanced in the direction where the portal had manifested. "Someday", it thought.

THE END

Cheers

Appreciate your submission.

Good Luck in the Contest!
Johnny


**

"Tunnel In The Sky" .. The acronym made me snicker

Long live the cleaning lady!

I love it!

That was awesome! Definitely gave me a chuckle.

I love it.

"AGAIN???"

gave me a chuckle