A Fluke
MOTE Prompt Response
Jase stared at the table. When the gravity suddenly cut out, he’d expected the entire thing to turn into a floating concussion hazard. Instead, the table and the balls merely rose six inches off the floor of the pool hall and remained in their previous positions. What the hell? Dak looked equally astounded.
“Oh, we kludged up the pool table so folks wouldn’t lose their games. The gravity on this planet is weird and has a tendency to glitch. Been trying to figure it out since the first colonists arrived and no luck. So we put in some magnets to make it like those old floating pen tricks,” the bartender said, grabbing a floating bottle of expensive whiskey. “Wish the owners woulda done it for the bar too. I’m tired of losing expensive liquor.”
Jase shook his head, staring at the bartender. “Well, you’d think they’d be tired of losing money that way, too.” He returned his gaze to the casually floating pool table while wondering how he managed to accept losing liquor to random gravity dips was normal. “So, uh, does this happen frequently? Losing gravity, I mean?”
“Depends on what you mean by ‘frequently.’ Compared to other planets, yeah. Compared to last year here? Not really. Average? I’d say once a week or so. No particular pattern to time of day, or year or whatever. That’s what’s driving the scientists crazy. They want to predict it. I say, figure out useful workarounds first and then worry about the reason why and how to fix it or predict it,” the bartender said.
“Okay,” Jase said. “Can we keep playing, or should we wait until the gravity comes back?”
“Oh, keep playing. That’s another thing nobody can figure out… how long these outages last. Sometimes it’s a minute or two, and sometimes it’s a week or two. That’s why I wish the sciency types would figure out the workarounds already.” The bartender gave a disgusted snort and went back to securing his bottles.
Jase and Dak shared a look and a shrug. “Okay. I guess go ahead and break then, Dak,” Jase told his best friend.
Dak shrugged again and lined up with the cue ball. Closing one eye, he aimed carefully and took his shot.
Just as the gravity returned. Dak managed to fluke one into the top right corner pocket anyway.
Jase laughed. “I can’t believe your luck!”
******
Just a short, weird little vignette based on the prompt I got from AC Young: He fluked it into the top right corner pocket. I’m working away on Station on the Edge and I guess I have space on the brain. If you make your way over to More Odds Than Ends you can find other fun scenes and vignettes. Check it out!