The Laser

“Why is the sky so red?” asked Lily who stared across the thick glass in the observatory. She had never lived through such a scenario, a thin, crimson line splitting through the dark, almost unnaturally straight, too accurate for anything that has to do with nature.

Jared was hunched over a cluttered desk and didn’t bother to look up. “It’s just another test of the lasers. They have been doing that for months.”

Lily frowned. “Yeah, but it’s so much more intense this time. So much more intense.”

Jared sighed. His fingers were still winding around the wires and the microchips which were strewn all over the place from a benumbed circuit board. “You are always pushing it with something Lil. Last week it was solar flares, the week before that it was a ‘strange hum.’ Just let it go.”

Lily simply raised her eyebrows to shake off the tiredness partly from ongoing diabolic practice and partly from simple frustration. “You have been pretty distant since this Project started which is sceptic and quite frankly rude. Well, let me put it this way, you are the tech guy, Jared. Isn’t this exactly what we’re supposed to be worrying about?”

“Exactly what?” He finally looked up, his eyes bloodshot from too many sleepless nights, too many energy drinks. “It’s a research laser, not an alien death ray.”

"I'm not saying aliens. Just... look there is something weird here, okay?" Looking out the window as she spoke, Lily gasped as hot air fogged up the glass; quite amusing this was. The red laser was dead on steady and motionless. To any on-looker from the right position it was a cut across the sky as a blade- clear, unshaking and unsurpassed.

Jared moaned rested on the chair, pushed it back and got up to join her by the window. He looked at the red line for a moment and shrugged. “Maybe it’s just some power surges. They are rather pushing the boards too much. Who cares”.

"You are impossible," Lily could not help speaking with spite. She turned away, a knot tightening in her stomach. The laser had started small—a harmless project, they said. Just a beam, they said. But it wasn’t long before its purpose shifted. The government’s vague promises about energy and communication turned into rumors about surveillance, and then into outright conspiracy theories about control. And tonight, it was burning a hole in the sky.

Lily picked up her jacket and moved toward the doorway. “I’m going to go out there and have a look at the equipment.”

Jared turned his head around and looked at his messy desk once again. He had a dilemma there. Stay behind these comfortable circuits and codes, or go out here into the unknown. He knew which one to choose. Moreover, he knew Lily would not drop it either. "Okay. But we are not going far. It’s quite late now."

"Look, it is standing still all right," she said, the concern or satisfaction she felt rather challenging the authority of the voice. "Is this not odd?"

Looking up at the laser beam, Jared squinted to interject. “It’s stabilized. That is the point.”

"But that stable? Even in a storm?" Lily pointed towards the dark clouds rolling in, angry and heavy with rain. "No wind, no distortion? It’s not natural."

Jared paused, feeling a shiver that wasn’t just from the cold. She had a point. The laser’s unwavering line defied the elements, defied logic. He pulled out his phone, fumbling with an app designed to monitor electromagnetic signals. The screen flickered with data streams, numbers racing in ways that didn’t make sense.

"Alright, that’s... different," Jared admitted, his voice faltering. "There’s a spike in the EM fields, but that doesn’t explain—"

Suddenly, a sharp, high-pitched noise split the air, like metal scraping against metal, setting their teeth on edge. They both flinched, covering their ears.

"What the hell is that?" Lily shouted, her voice barely audible over the piercing sound.

Jared’s screen was going wild, graphs spiking and falling, unable to settle on anything coherent. "Feedback loop? I don’t know! I’ve never seen anything like this."

They focused their attention on the laser that was now beating in great bursts, like a heart that had lost control. Jared’s brain was now in overdrive, searching for answers – and there are plenty of them: power stress, faults, terrorist acts, etc. But it is not possible.

The noise came to an end as suddenly as it had begun, now there was only silence which was even more dreadfully chilling. The laser returned to focus but this time it appeared…more focused and even more powerful.

"Something’s wrong. This isn’t a test," Lily said almost mechanically. "It’s doing something."

Jared’s phone chirped, the screen lighting up with a message: WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED USE OF LASER GRID DETECTED.

"Unauthorized? What the hell do you mean unauthorized?" Jared swore under his breath and rushed into tapping the screen instead. Even his hands shook as the application began supplying more data; geographical locations, satellite hit and words that were so out of wack it was dizzying really.

Lily gripped his wrist. “Jared, look.”

The beam had started to soften, to bend and curve in an unnatural fashion as though some force was reaching out freely. Instead of being horizontal or horizontal it was a raised arm or finger with the tip directed straight at them.

Jared took a step back, almost dropping his phone at the same time and gasped: “That’s... that’s impossible.”

“No, it’s not,” said Lily, this time in a surprisingly calm way, which somehow terrified him. “This was never meant to be only a research laser. There was deceit. All of it was false.”

Jared’s head was spinning. With all those whispered rumors, the files he had only thumbed through and shut out, the casual 'come-ons' from the superiors, it was not surprising. This time he remembered all the occasions when he was indifferent of all those warnings that Lily had.

“I believe it is… it is targeting,” Jared murmured, his voice soft.

Lily nodded. "They’re not testing it. They’re using it. And if we’re seeing this, others are, too."

The sky above them brightened more, the beam growing stronger with ominous dark red color. It wasn’t a line anymore, but a weapon, poised and ready.

“I think we need to disable it,” she said, taking over the conversation with an urgency that overshadowed her fear. “Right now.”

“Okay,” Jared nodded, adrenaline surging. They raced back inside, scrambling over the cluttered mess of their lab. Jared’s fingers flew across keyboards, accessing systems he wasn’t supposed to touch. Warnings flashed—ACCESS DENIED, SYSTEM LOCKED—but he bypassed them with a determination fueled by terror.

“Shut the engine!” Lily ordered. She became frantic scanning the room, glancing at the windows where the red light was creeping in. “We’re running out of time.”

Jared was able to spot the main control; his fingers were trembling. Few keystrokes, and the following screen read only one thing, SHUTDOWN LASER GRID?

He hesitated for just a moment, then slammed the ENTER key. The lights flickered, the hum of machinery slowed, and outside, the beam began to waver. The red line broke apart, shattering into fragments of light that scattered across the sky before finally winking out.

They both collapsed against the wall, breathing hard, the sudden darkness outside feeling like a victory, however small.

"Did we do it?" Lily asked, half-expecting the beam to return, stronger, angrier.

Jared checked his phone. The data streams had stopped, the EM fields settled. "We did. For now."

Lily nodded, her eyes still fixed on the empty sky. "They’ll try again."

Jared leaned his head back, staring at the ceiling. "Yeah. But not tonight."

For a moment, they sat in silence. The laser was gone, but the questions remained. What was it really for? Who had activated it? And most importantly, what were they willing to do to keep it running?

"Jared," Lily said quietly, her voice cutting through the stillness. "We can’t just walk away from this. We need to find out who’s behind it."

Jared sighed, knowing she was right. This wasn’t over. Not by a long shot. "Alright, Lil. Tomorrow, we start digging."

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