Photo by: Na’ama Yehuda
The armies of sixteen nations struck at the rampaging alien machine. They tried bombs, lasers, microwave weapons, achieving nothing.
Finally, they dispatched Colonel Connelly Ekstrum. Known for being cool under fire, he stood still as the ten-story tall machine stepped towards him.
I wanted to run, but then Ekstrum said, “The aliens who built it must be very tall.”
As buildings toppled, I said, “What?”
“Every machine has a weakness, so designers make sure that weakness is hard to get at.”
“So?”
A giant foot came down meters away. “That’s to avoid this.”
Ekstrum reached out, and pushed the OFF button.
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Written for the Friday Fictioneers: https://rochellewisoff.com/2020/12/30/1-january-2021/
EagleAye
Neat twist. Reminds me of Marvin in Hitch-hiker. “What a depressingly stupid machine!”
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Hope he pressed that OFF button before the foot reached the ground!
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Good one. Happy New Year!
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Almost as big a design flaw as putting an exhaust port with direct access to the reactor on your brand new death star… 🙂
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Ouch, that’s a worst flaw than the exhaust port on the Death Star. 🙂 Nice story. Happy New Year!
-David
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If only the Corona virus had an OFF button.
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Oh, how wonderful if we could just reach out and push the stop button!
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Dear Eric,
Would that we had not only an OFF switch but a reboot as well. Quite off the wall but not under(giant) foot.
Shalom and happy new year,
Rochelle
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LOL. Tasslehoff Burrfoot moment? (If you’ve never read Dragonlance then never mind and forget I said that!) Either way, great story!
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Ingenious! There’s a reason they called for Ekstrum!
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Ingenius! Enjoyed!!
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Hilarious! You definitely had me “reading on” to see what on earth was going to happen.
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The trick is finding the off button, that is not always straight forward.
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