Story: 'Triangles', V

(Part IV , VI)

If the world you knew what was made up of far more triangles than before you'd notice a lot of things. First, there would be many more facets to the shapes you saw, and secondly there would be a lot more sparkles to the world around you. While walking up the hill to what was hopefully the university campus, Delores was constantly being distracted by sparks off unusual surfaces and bizarre incongruences with her own world. Reflecting on things she wondered if maybe her world didn't have a geometric dominance, they just made do with what was most useful and practical. At a microscopic level everything was fractal anyway.

She wondered if things were still fractal at a microscopic level here. How it could not be, really? Why and how could this world happen if there weren't some hidden cause to it all? Were there worlds based on circles and squares and dodecagons? If so, why? The laws of physics would have to be subtly and fundamentally different and that could be lethal to someone from another plane entirely. Was she safe or was reality struggling to cope with her and chaotic nature?

Delores passed the side road to the National Library and paused for thought. In such a copyright library on her own Earth she could find the answers to every question she had if she could but read the language. Even on the campus did she have any idea what she was hoping to find? The world swirled around her as confusing and contradictory ideas crashed in and out a few times before receding back into the distance, and the young woman finally turned right and headed for the library. It was wide open and unlocked as she expected, much like all the other public buildings she had seen. Inside the massive archive she became aware of the challenge in front of her before she remembered something vital: The National Library of Wales was also a film archive back in her own world.

The film archive was hard to find in this National Library. As a Maths student, Delores wasn't even familiar the place in her own dimension and the unfamiliar text and altered geometries made it harder. Finally she stumbled - or possibly broke into with malevolence - a room with a large triangular screen hanging from one of the walls and what was apparently a projector. The projector was an incredibly simple device, with a signicantly coloured pyramidal cartridge loaded into the top and two buttons, one green and one red. She pushed the green button and the room lights dipped as the projector shifted into action.

There was still electricity. Someone had to be around in the world to keep it going.

On the screen a still image of a man appeared, someone in a shambling mustard overcoat and silly blue hat. He was smiling at the camera. At the bottom of the screen there were a row of icons, color coded. Delores Grey touched the green icon and watched as a movie began to play out in front of her.

The man was in a large circular chamber and surrounded by an array of shapes, all resembling doorframes in size and function. There was a light glaring angularly down from the ceiling onto each and a mass of cabling crawling across the floor. The camera continued panning around until the point of view reverted to it's beginnings and the mad looking man grinned a toothy smile and stood on a large triangle in the centre of the circle. The cabling on the floor of the room glowed and the frames filled with irridescent light before settling on to views of... elsewhere. Different places and people could be seen through each aperture, all oddly distinct to her mind. Some of the sights couldn't even be understood, so alien were the rules of reality in place there.

"He did it? This mad person crossed planes? Hopped planets?"

Something was wrong on the screen. Everything was shaking and the mustard coated man was rushing back and forth, trying to shut down power and reestablish safety. Cracks appeared in the camera lens as the chaos intensified and the recording cut off.

"Or maybe he broke it all to heck..."

More shall follow...