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Pictorial writing prompt from @ScienceFiction, Sci-Fi Competitions and Challenges, October 2021
Story word count = 419
"You are in so much trouble."
"Wha...?" I raised my head from the bench, trailing a small string of drool from my lower lip. Must have fallen asleep in my lab last night. Bright beams of morning sunshine streamed through the east window, lighting up the dust motes in its path. My experimental apparatus hummed in the background.
Amie's long, dark ponytail flipped from side to side as she bounded about my lab. Having this much energy so early in the morning surely must violate the laws of thermodynamics. Little sisters can be infuriating.
She came up into my face with her usual irritating grin. "You ran your dimensional thingy last night, didn't you?"
"It's an inter-dimensional teleportation transponder, not a thingy," I corrected, stiffening up on my stool. "It presumes a variant of the multiverse cosmological theory where other universes like our own can occupy the same space, but in different unseen dimensions. If you align the quantum fields just right, we should be able to--"
"Whatever..." Amie interrupted me, rolling her eyes like she did so often. "But Dad is going to kick your butt." As I wrinkled my forehead in confusion, she grinned. "Look outside."
My parents generally allowed my experimentation, calling it 'learning experience', but they were not too happy when I disintegrated half of the garden shed. It can't be that bad this time, could it?
Sometimes scientific experiments yield unexpected results, but this went way over the top. There, embedded in the riverside, was a weathered wood and iron wagon wheel. Not just any wheel, though, but really, really big. With a diameter over forty times the height of our house, it towered over the hills. This was going to be noticed. While quite imposing, at least it didn't hurt anything here.
But this was good. A smile grew on my face and I pumped my fist into the air, yelling, "Yes!"
Amie narrowed her eyes, disappointed in my happiness. I explained, "Don't you see? I teleported it in from a parallel dimension. This is the proof of concept I hoped for, but way bigger. Apparently, the scale factor of the other universe is different."
My mind drifted to the future, where I received multiple scientific awards, bathed in public accolades, and prestigious universities competed for my attention...
Tugging on my arm, Amie brought me out of my fantasy. She pointed up at the unnaturally big celestial crater-pocked body dominating the eastern sky. "What about that? That's not our moon."
