New Future

“It’s finished.”

Running his calloused hand through a box full of a grain-like substance on his desk, a muscular man wearing a blue worn-down jumpsuit picks up some of it and turns around to look out of the massive window behind him.

“What was once impossible will be made possible today. Our dreams will soon merge with reality.” The purple and metallic grains shine in the man’s hand as he admires it.

“You know what makes it turn purple? It’s the heat that electrifies each piece. Using plasma, electric arc furnaces and other processes, we are able to get the highest temperature recorded on earth to fuse these metals together.”

Picking up a single grain of the residue with the other hand, the man holds it up to the bright white lights on the other side of the window. The man then turns his gaze from the substance and looks out of the window before him.

“Beautiful isn’t it? We’ve created a feat of modern engineering here.'' Lowering his hands he continues on speaking.

“You see it’s often the smallest things that have the potential to make the biggest impact, shine the brightest and change everything we know. With this right here, we are pushing the very limits of what is humanly possible, Kono.”

Clink. Clank. Boom! Hot sparks fly as steel and other valuable crude metals are refined and processed by robotic hammers as they are conveyored out of blazing furnaces. Each strike of the hammer, forming thinner and thinner sheets until the metals have become pure metallic powders. These powders are then taken to rows of hundreds of small robots, which with mathematical precision fuse the various metals into the product’s design, resulting in a device the size of a grain of sand.

In a symphony of man and machine, various workers take bucketfuls of these tiny grains to other robots which screen each of them individually along a conveyor belt, spitting out those that fail the required quality checks to be remade. The surviving grains are then moved to electromagnetic chambers. Composed of sprawling coils and tubery, these metallic spheres process the machines with electromagnetic waves, electrifying it, giving it life.

Moving from chamber to chamber through the interconnected tubery, the grains begin to float in accordance with the polarities of magnetic fields. By the help of these fields, the product is able to cloud together and share a charge amongst each grain. Going through numerous tests, factory workers observe groups of grains as they float in distinct forms and shapes in each electromagnetic chamber. The workers weed out the weak batches as they fail to float seamlessly into the desired shapes or fail to accomplish tasks. The surviving few groups of grains of the trial are dropped as the chambers power down. Workers gather the survivors and move them onto the next stage of production in massive barrels.

Brightly lit, laboratories full of programmers begin to input the required programs for the freshly finished machines. In a room filled haphazardly with wires and rows of computers blinking various colors from their LEDs, the machines are hard coded and connected via a cloud data system that is found on another side of the factory. Various commands and actions are tested on the machines as they float through obstacle courses and pick up specified objects before the programmers are satisfied enough for the workers to take them for packaging.

Production is in full force.

“There is always more that can be done, Alex.”

Dressed in a lab coat, a thick layer of stubble grows on Kono’s face, his hair hanging long on his head. Sitting tensely in a brown leather bonded club chair, Kono is restlessly shaking his left leg from the coldness of the room. He looks to Alex who is standing behind an office desk, still looking out of the office’s window. With eyes full of confidence and vigor only obtainable through years of long and arduous work, he expresses his worries.

“This needs to be perfect before we can say that we are done here. We've spent years trying to make this work and we are so close.”

“Well, it's a matter of small steps. That's the finicky thing about reaching perfection.” Alex says, picking up and dropping the grains back into his hands.

“There are thousands and thousands of small steps that are required to shape it.”

Turning around, Alex faces Kono who is sitting down across from him. He is looking expectantly at Alex.

“So trust me Kono when I say that I’ll tell you when I’m confident enough to call it perfect. So until then, we'll wait. We’ll improve.”

Alex then lets the product flow out of his hand back into the container he originally picked it out of making hundreds of small tinks as each grain lands. Suddenly, the door to the office bursts open, causing both men to turn towards the door in anticipation.

“Excuse me sirs. Here are the latest batches as well as the results for the final quality checks. Things are looking promising.” says a factory worker. Setting down a box labeled Dream on the table next to Alex, the worker hands him a clipboard and leaves the room quietly.

“Do you really think that today is the day Alex?” Kono asks. Reading through the test results of the product written on the clipboard, Alex feels through this new product.

“These feel better than the previous batches. Less course.”

Taking a closer inspection, Alex looks closely on a single granular piece of the product with a magnifying glass. Alex looks back at Kono and smiles.

“Yes, yes, yes! Now this is what I call perfect.”

Upon seeing Alex's face light up with joy Kono sighs. Taking a moment for his disbelief to pass him, he then smiles as his posture finally untenses. The rhythmic tapping from his restless leg stops as he covers his eyes with one arm and leans back in his chair.

“Finally.”

Beneath his covered eyes, tears begin to fall down his face.

“I know. Our dream has finally been made a reality. Brother.”

Reaching out across his desk, Alex picks up a picture frame of himself, and a woman standing next to him. He smiles as he glazes over it.

“I hope you are happy now Sarah.” Alex says to himself, closing his eyes as he also begins to cry.