When I woke up, I stared out the window at the tower. It was still there, in the middle of the town, just like all my time in division 17. Unchanging, still. The sight of it made me nervous. The large metal obelisk was cracked in several places, and rusty, giving it the quality that it was bleeding. My division made fertilizer. Nothing special, but it has to be done I suppose. I went downstairs and made some cream of parsnip soup. After I was done, I headed out for my daily trek across the dead grasslands that surrounded division 17. When I reached the old town square, an empty round clearing of cobblestone, I gave the tower a wide berth.
When I reached the fertilizer plant I clocked in and walked through the maze of dusty machinery to my section.
“Morning, Chatsworth!” My manager, Baranovskiy—Dimitry Baranovskiy to be exact, greeted me from his office balcony overlooking the factory.
“Morning Baran.”
He let the staff call him Baran. I suppose he was attempting to adorn himself; trying to make our days brighter, while having to work in the broken, sad, machine that was the ‘Advancement’ they called it. The cluster of dilapidated factories, towns and farms wheezing along, trying to hold the rest of humanity together after the first age. The Advancement was the last colony of humans, trying to scrounge up the last people living off the continent.
“Make sure to insert the order for phosphorus. The distilling area’s running low.”
“Alright, Alright! Only if you reach your quota!” Replied Baran. I walked over to the packing station, and when I sat down to oversee the packaging line for: Meffert and son’s fertilizer: grow crops in a day!”, I noticed what looked like a 3x3 cube, with a seemingly random pattern of colors on each side. I went over to pick it up, and noticed that for how dusty the surrounding area was, the cube was completely clean. One of the sides was slightly misaligned from the rest and I was able to turn it to be lined up. At this point I realized that theoretically I could match up all the colors on each side and have the cube “solved”. I decided to completely disregard my job and become enraptured by this cube. I managed to get the first two layers done, but was stumped on the last one. I managed to make a cross, with the edges aligned, but nothing else. I was fiddling with it and I had the distinct sense of someone watching me.
“Hello Nick. Did I forget I reassigned you to that, or are you just purposefully not working?” Baran said, annoyingly.
“I-I-I just got distracted. I will get back to work. Sorry.” I went back to my task, but made sure to pocket the cube.
After finishing my quota I went home. After walking a few minutes, I took the cube out of my pocket. On the top white face there was a barely legible logo I hadn’t noticed. Rubik’s cube. Where have I heard that before? I knew I had heard it before, but the memory seemed clouded. I went home and made some cream of mushroom soup, and went to bed.
Would it seek to break the seals? They cannot be undone. They must be undone. Let us sleep, little shadow, allow us our peace.
When I woke up, I came downstairs to make cream of celery soup and thought about my dream. What does that mean, “break the seals?” My mind wandered to the cube. My vague memory of the name Rubik’s did seem clouded, and I wondered if it had been intentionally clouded. I had no idea how any of that would be possible, but it seemed like the only way. In my spare time I was a puzzle maker. Best that I knew of. Logic puzzles, tactical puzzles, what I called word cross puzzles, but I had never seen something as complex and elegant as the cube. I finished my soup and walked outside. I was walking the dull gravel road to work, I looked over at the tower. The rusty patches were growing. Upon closer inspection I noticed a small hole near the top facing the side of the factory where I found the cube. Maybe the tower is the seal and the cube was expelled… As I was contemplating the implications of this, I started walking faster.
When I got to the fertilizer plant I clocked in and went straight to the corner where I found the cube. The side of the plant where the cube was, is one of the taller areas of the plant, and a network of decrepit scaffolding was between me and the ceiling. I paced around a bit, looking for a better way to check the roof for a hole. After a few minutes I was able to locate a small pinpoint of light coming down through the beams. I needed to get up there, so I looked around to make sure Baran was not watching me and prayed that the scaffolding would hold my weight. As I climbed up I felt young again. No cares, not thinking about consequences, just being free. When I made it to the top, I found an abandoned room. Everything was covered in a layer of dust, and really wasn’t a room, just a platform, with walls on two-and-a-half sides. Looking out the hole I could see the tower much clearer. I never realized how close the tower was to the factory and I could smell the rust. There was a crater near the top, like something had hit the tower. But looking again, it was obvious something had been expelled. The cube had left the tower—or the seal—and had landed in the factory. I resolved to visit the tower later and climbed back down, happy. When I got to the bottom, a very unhappy looking Baran met me.
“I would like you to meet someone, Chatsworth.” Said Baran. He took me to my area, and I saw someone else at my desk. “This is Julio Whitlock. New arrival and new assistant supervisor.”
“But that’s my job! My Life!” I exclaimed.
“Find a new one, slacker.” Said Julio
“He’s right, Chatsworth. You’ve slacked two days in a row, and if you had fallen just now the whole damn place could have gotten shut down. Now LEAVE.”
“But—“
“GET. OUT.”
I stormed out, not only disgruntled, but disappointed. That was my money. My purpose. As I was walking home I saw a man walking down the path which was quite an unusual sight, especially on this path which only led to my house, and off to division 18 to the east.
“Hello?” I asked. He seemed to be rambling on about something, and I wondered if he was a felon from 18 and had been dumped on us. Getting closer I could hear him talking about seals and cubes and so I held up the cube.
“Sir! Do you have any information about this cube?” I shouted. He suddenly seemed to notice me and responded.
“Boy! Come here! Help me!”
“Ok! What is it you’re needing help with sir?” I went over to him and he told me he has been researching the tower since it appeared and appears to be holding five more cubes of various sizes. He has had a covert operation running to break the seals, and has gotten the first seal, 2x2, broken, which is why the 3x3 was shot into the factory. The seals were made because ‘Speedcubing’ used to be a huge sport in The Advancement, but it was sealed away for destroying lives. He told me every document, and every memory containing Cubing on the continent was destroyed or sealed away. He was off the coast at the time, so he still has the memories and has been rounding up others like him. We went to his hut which was in the center of the oak grove on the edge of town. We walked through the brush to a ramshackle, but cozy, cabin. He served me cream of carrot soup, and we got to talking about our plan.
“We need to introduce cubing back. It was a noble sport, but It had few regulations. We need to bring it back and present our case to the Prime Minister. I used to be good, but my skills have withered away. I need you to break the seals, okay kid?” Stephan said
“Fine, but I’m 32. Will you stop with the kid stuff?”
“No comment”
Three weeks later
I had broken the first five seals and was moving on to 7x7. I had to solve it in under 2:30 and this was proving a challenge. I was proficient at sub 2:45 but shaving those last 15 seconds off was difficult. After a long night of memorizing algorithms, and a nice bowl of cream of chicken soup for breakfast, I was able to do it and broke the last seal. A loud rumble and shockwave signaled the falling of the tower and we left for division one. We had pre-packed bags, for an easy departure, to give the grand minister a piece of our minds. We hiked for two days and managed to make it to division 16. Having all of the information and memories of cubing had caused some chaos, but a makeshift cubing center had been set up, and overly caffeinated sleep deprived people were practicing. We stayed for a few hours, practiced, enjoyed some cream of potato soup and left. As we got closer to one, the scene got worse. People were staying awake for days, just to practice and drinking horrendous amounts of caffeine to compensate.
“I wonder if this is why cubing was closed off. You know?” I asked Stephan.
“Bah. These people are just stupid, and high on re-remembering their skills.” When we finally got to division one the sight was horrible. We arrived in a terrible rainstorm and people were outside at cubing tables, solving away. Most of them looked like they had not slept since we left six weeks ago. We found a hotel and prepared to visit the grand minister in the morning.
When we got up we put on our jackets and walked to the palace. When we arrived we talked to the guards.
“We, Hugo Chatsworth And Stephan Barneswell have brought cubing back and wish to speak to the grand minister.” I said.
“He is waiting for you.” Said one of the guards. Once we got into the palace we were taken up to his room.
“I’ve heard you were the ones to bring cubing back.” The grand minister said.
“Yes, and—“ I started to say.
“I didn’t ask. Take them away.” As we were pulled down to the dungeons he said “Some things are better left alone, kid.”
By Marjamjelly