Blue and Purple Ants

By fuzzicat333

"The floor is glowing again, come and look. Why don't you believe me?" Francis whined loudly from the bedroom to Ophelia, his beautiful and youthful looking carer working downstairs.

She scurried about in the kitchen, washing up and cooking several meals, enough to last for the two days before she would be back again that Wednesday.

"Not that again, it's all in your head. I can't come and see, I'm not done yet! Look, I'll check on you before I leave, alright you old nutter." She whispered the last part but Francis had turned up his hearing aid, so he heard her perfectly well.

Sighing, he stared at the line of around twenty small black ants, who walked towards the faintly glowing square on the fake wood effect lino. The edge was sharp and bright as if a trap door had suddenly appeared.

Francis carefully lowered his body to watch as they walked across, seemingly with no harmful effect.

He sat up, trying to ignore what he now believed to be a figment of his imagination. This wasn't the first time he had seen it, always in the same place, glowing mysteriously.

It was half the size of the room which made it hard to miss but Ophelia always came upstairs too late and now everyone thought he was crazy. Last time it happened, he got a little bit carried away trying to prove it.

The tool box had been hidden after the sledge hammer and crowbar incident. Originally the floor had been polished wood but now there was no way to dig through the rubbery lino.

Shaking his head, Francis pushed himself up and took a quick look back at the ants. They looked fine except half their number seemed to be missing. He squinted and recounted them.

As he watched, another one disappeared at the edge of light, as the trail of ants continued over to the other side of the strange square. He frowned and looked towards the door as Ophelia stomped up the stairs.

"What is it then? I have to go soon." Ophelia grumbled as she poked her head around the door.

"The floor was glowing again but this time it took the ants!" Francis exclaimed, pointing at the now perfectly ordinary floor. "Never mind." He muttered.

"Well I'm off now, see you on Wednesday." Ophelia looked around the room for any sharp objects that needed taking away then turned and walked back downstairs when everything seemed safe. The door slammed so Francis peeped through the curtains at her retreating back as she hurried down the garden path.

She snapped her fingers above her head and began waving her hands in front of her face. Francis supposed she was using one of those implants that young people had nowadays. She began talking to someone he couldn't see.

"He's still the same, Milo, why don't you put him in a home or something? Look, he doesn't even have an entertainment implant, he's still using a tablet. What will happen when they phase out touch screen devices next year?"

She walked out of range onto the moving shiny metal edged path leading to the rest of humanity as she spoke, so Francis turned back to his floor, which was still annoyingly ordinary right now. It didn't matter what she said, he knew who she was talking to.

Grabbing his real wood walking stick, Francis made his way downstairs to get the tablet. He refused to get pieces of electronic doodads inserted into his flesh and no-one, not even his great grandson Milo could force him to do it.

The tablet sat on the coffee table unaware that even its high tech presence was not enough for this world. Settling into his favourite brown and green striped, real cotton covered armchair, he stretched the rod shaped golden object.

It still fascinated him, the way it changed shape so fluidly and stood on its thin silver legs when he told it to. Flicking through the options on the screen, Francis checked for information on those 'homes' Ophelia had mentioned.

They looked pretty nice except you couldn't access anything without implants. He looked around his antique furnished home which Milo called a dark hole filled with old junk. Nope, he would never give this place up.

He shivered at the thought of all those life prolonging implants and body improvements that had been taken up by others in this changed world. Life was very different now from the decades he had seen but he could have never reached his second century if he had not accepted some of the medical advancements currently available.

Later that day he ate one of the stored meals prepared by Ophelia and went to bed early, tomorrow he probably had to think about whether he should make some changes in his life, if only to stop Milo from dumping him in a home.

*

Light shone in his room, waking him from a deep slumber. Thinking it must be morning, Francis sat up and put on his glasses. He walked to the bathroom along the dark hallway, still groggy from his peaceful night's rest.

After brushing his reformed but perfectly ordinary teeth and dealing with a necessary toilet trip, he walked back to his brightly lit room to gather his things for a refreshing shower. Yawning, he shuffled towards his wardrobe in his maroon silk pyjamas and fluffy grey slippers.

His stomach dropped, nearly causing him to throw up last night's dinner. He grabbed his head as a piercing ringing whistle caused an ache to spread from his ears. He forced his eyes fully open as he had shut them tightly from the pain, actually they had not been fully opened this whole morning.

The sight that greeted him was not his bedroom but a strange place that reminded him of the old Dr who intro without the sound track. Spinning bright edged squares spiralled in all directions with cloudy puffs of vapour streaming from each corner, below his feet was a shining light ribbon which twisted around every square in an impossible way.

Carefully turning around, he spotted a square behind him. That must be the way back, he hoped. Francis shuffled towards it but it shrank as he approached, until it disappeared with a small pop.

He hunched over in defeat as even the ribbon of light he stood on, faded away. Hopefully this was all just a dream, Francis thought, sometimes you could even feel pain or dizziness when asleep, he lied to himself.

*

"The gate should be opening, why isn't this blasted machine working? Hey sleeshrike, move from your hook and check."

"Grrrr, yes master Troddlump." Sleeshrike grumbled then stretched its purple body down until some of its claws touched the base of the tube room, then it skittered to the pinboard to look through the anchors and power supply.

The Troddlump had been developing this machine for the great ones, they were looking for a new home, for the last few survivors of the end of all intelligent living things. Their world was doomed since the invasion and so far the aliens had not discovered their plans.

Sleeshrike bowed its head and waited for its master to notice.

"What did you do wrong this time, I won't report you to be reassigned. There are barely enough helpful pin workers and you are too small to carry sludge." The Troddlump gathered its much larger purple body and clicked into the acceptance shape, otherwise it would never get anything out of Sleeshrike.

"Master, the anchors for some of the parallel worlds were able to get through the portal into the gate dimension. I was sure the anchors would be too large to get through but the size settings were wrong. Also the system should have selected a large immobile habitable organic host tree of at least two hundred cycles," Sleeshrike complained.

"Was the portal visible to the aliens?"

"Should we ask Master Brodlump to go and check Master? She was due to do a last recon before we left for the door dimension." Sleeshrike paused to hold up the pin wire.

"Yes, we can't afford any mistakes, we are leaving tomorrow, as soon as the carrier workers emerge from their pods." The Troddlump sighed and checked the containers holding all of their possessions, some of which had to be left behind.

She knew that they could make new things in the chosen parallel universe, but she would miss having her favourite soft massage pocket to relax in and all her fun but failed projects that were to be left in the display hexagons. Maybe one day they would return.

"Let us go over the calculations one more time then, we should also reset the anchor. Sleeshrike! Come on." The small purple creature jumped.

"Sorry Master, I have sent the message but I also received one, we have to reduce our allocation of personal possessions again." She declared sadly knowing that she would probably only be able to take what she could carry herself, which wasn't that much considering her size.

The Troddlump felt sorry for her, she didn't want her only assistant to be discouraged. "Look Sleeshrike, we haven't always got along but you are a quick and precise pin worker. If you need me to carry anything for you, not over twenty pebbles points mind, I will add it to my pack."

Sleeshrike puffed out a cloud of pheromones, making the Troddlump giddy with happiness for a moment. "Calm down Sleeshrike, let's get to work."

*

Francis threw up all over his bedroom floor, good thing it was lino. He had no clue how he had ended up on the floor. Blinking groggily, he pulled himself up, holding on tightly to his bed frame. A wave of exhaustion overcame him. His mind tried to tell him that something was wrong but he brushed the thought away.

Deciding that a short nap wouldn't hurt, he pulled himself onto the bed, not even curious as to why there were no bed sheets on the mattress. He would clean up later, before Ophelia noticed the mess. There was no way he was going back to the hospital, if he was sick one more time they were going to alter him without his permission.

He sank into an instant deep sleep but only a few hours later a noise from outside woke him. He dispelled the foggy dream of purple geometric ants and sat up on the edge of the bed, noticing his bare mattress. Maybe he had stripped it himself after feeling sick, he wondered, looking at the nasty congealed puddle on the lino.

Sighing, he went to get the mop and bucket. When he had cleaned up, he noticed how bare the rest of the room looked. His clutter had been tidied away and the bedside table was missing. He panicked for a moment before finding his glasses and hearing aid in a box inside the carved wooden wardrobe.

Maybe he should get a few adjustments done, he hated having to rely on these things. The cost was high but he could afford it.

An old friend had got the whole package, adjusted his entire body, he looked about forty now. He had decided not to go too young, age had its perks. Since then he had become a different person, not someone Francis could understand anymore.

There was another noise outside. Francis walked to the window and noticed Ophelia and Milo chatting in front of the house.

"Oh crap, she's early! I wonder why Milo is here?" He muttered. Before he moved to go and let them in, he caught some of their conversation and stopped to listen.

"What do you mean Milo? You know I need this job!" Ophelia seemed close to tears.

"Don't cry, it's just a bit pointless to keep coming, just to wait for him to come back. I warned him that something could happen if he didn't get implants. I don't know if he has gone for a wander or gone off to die somewhere." Milo tried to tap Ophelia on the back to comfort her but she flinched away and ran towards the silver towers.

Francis shook his head, it wasn't the first time his carer had to be replaced because of family troubles. He honestly didn't really listen after he heard Ophelia crying. Grabbing his stick by the door, he went downstairs to warm up a meal.

Surprisingly the fridge was empty. Puzzled, Francis opened the freezer instead.

"Good girl!" Francis exclaimed happily when he saw that Ophelia had put several meals inside. As his meal warmed up, he thought about the weirdness of this day. Everything seemed slightly off.

He went to the living room with his food on a tray and picked up his tablet. Everything was in the right place here at least.

That is what he thought until he switched on his tablet anyway. The date had changed too much. He had missed two weeks of the World Cup! The one thing he had grown up with that hadn't changed.

What was happening? Francis went over everything in his mind. The glowing square must have taken him somewhere else for two weeks. Thinking about it again, he realised none of it had been a dream.

Francis suddenly realised the conversation between Milo and Ophelia outside, must have been about him. He stood up suddenly, Milo had sacked Ophelia. She was the best cook he had ever known, actually one of the reasons he had been refusing adjustments recently was just to continue eating her food.

This was all wrong, he needed to tell Milo that he was ok and get Ophelia back. Francis took a step away from his food but his stomach grumbled and he felt light headed. Maybe he should eat first, he didn't want Milo to think he was sick.

He polished off the meal in record time and washed up, Ophelia hated it when he left dishes piled up. Now he would get her back by finding Milo.

First he tried the call function on the tablet but it would not connect. He left a message telling Milo not to sack Ophelia. But just in case Milo had switched off the message function, he would have to find Milo himself.

Grabbing his stick, Francis walked to the passage. He picked up an instafill water bottle and some nutrifill crackers and put them in his rucksack. Pondering for a moment, he also took his cover all, insta jacket and his factor 100 sun blocking hat.

Feeling uneasy, he peaked out of the door. The sun shield was up so it should be safe outside but he still remembered the time when it wasn't, when everyone would get sick if they didn't carry their own sun umbrella.

Even when they did, the sun showed no mercy, the heat would kill you if you stayed out too long. Francis stepped onto the grass realising he was still in his pyjamas with bare feet. Sighing he went back inside.

Five minutes later he was ready to go but walking to the end of the garden got harder the further he went. It had been a few months since he had left the house so going out on his own was extremely difficult.

The side gate creaked as he opened it, Francis couldn't go along the sensor path, he found it creepy. All of the public paths now checked your health as you walked and it felt weird to him.

Shivering at the thought, he set off in the direction Milo had gone. He pulled his jacket close around his body, which was set to the highest level of sun protection and pulled his hat over his ears.

Francis knew that Milo only checked his messages every two weeks so his food would definitely run out if he didn't catch up. All hope wasn't lost as his jacket had a find me function which was set to Milo's implant, because Francis didn't have one.

Switching it on, Francis discovered that Milo was coming back very quickly. Then a police car with bright stripes displayed on it, deposited Milo at the front gate.

Sighing in relief, Francis turned towards Milo but was suddenly pulled into the bushes surrounding his garden.

"Hey! What's going on?" Francis shouted before a grubby hand covered his mouth.

The man holding him hostage looked too familiar, like looking into a mirror, but his face was very dark, almost charcoal black with a hint of brown. It was as if he had been burnt rather than a deeper skin pigmentation compared to his own brown skin. It made him shiver at the thought that maybe the sun shield was down. The man's clothes were a bit smudged but almost identical to his own.

"Francis, don't shout. I'm you from a parallel world, I'll be pulled back to my own place soon but it will never stop if you don't help. You must help the ants. If more of us end up in the same place it could cause some parallel worlds to merge and believe me, some of them are really bad."

Moving his hand away carefully, the other Francis looked at his twin with hope. Then he gave himself the secret sign that he had made up as a kid, this was only known to himself and his friends over two hundred years ago. They were all long gone so no one else knew it.

"You really are me aren't you. What makes you think I'm the one to help? And which ants are you talking about?"

"First we need to leave, if Milo catches you the same thing that is happening to me, will happen to you. Leave the jacket here, they can track you with it."

Scruffy Francis pulled clean Francis with him along the meadow and woodland, bordering the moving walkways, which led in different directions. Finally settling on a spot beneath a silver tower which was thick with small trees and shrubs.

Just like clean Francis, Scruffy Francis felt safer out of direct sunlight. Scraping sticks out of the way, he pulled his twin to the ground.

"I used to be just like you, I got pulled into the portal and I didn't know it but I was contacted by another me. He didn't know how to stop it. I thought I should squash the ants, I thought they were evil. I mean all those movies I watched must have brainwashed me.

They defended themselves of course. I hadn't realised that they were peaceful and I had attacked first. They called me an alien and said they would retreat and remove the anchor to my world but instead of freeing me, it made me swing through other parallel worlds every time they travelled.

I thought it wouldn't be so bad but it was. Some of those worlds were deadly but luckily I got pulled back each time before I was hurt too much. The problem was, I spent an hour in every world at a time but a week or two passed in my own world before I got back.

I already saw two parallel worlds fuse, scary stuff. You really don't want to know how bad that was. Anyway, stay here. The portal will come to you. Save the ants and you will be free. Look, you are my forty fifth attempt. The others all failed. Good luck."

With that last sentence, there was a screeching noise and the glowing square appeared on the ground. Scruffy Francis was sucked through the edge, then the portal disappeared.

Francis lay on the small patch of grass his twin had found between the shrubs and looked up at the underside of the silver tower, which was reflecting a safe amount of natural light to the plants under it.

Was he that critical to his world? It didn't seem real but he had definitely started to believe something weird was going on.

A light shower of rain started to drop from the tower base. "It must be three o'clock already!" Francis grumbled to himself. He got up and ran to one of the tower legs where a small bench was placed under a circular shelter, for those who didn't want to get wet.

From this spot he could see another police car, maybe they could help when the shower ended. He started to walk towards them but they seemed to be busy setting up a holo display. He paused when it started up, of course it was his face with the word missing under it.

Remembering the words from his twin, Francis slipped back into the shrubby area. He found a place which blocked the view from the tower as well as the car and hid. Time for a cracker and some water.

Then Francis realised that he had dropped his bag under the bush next to his house, so he licked his dry lips sadly. He thought about going back but changed his mind when he saw a glowing crack in the sky, it disappeared after the foul stench of burning reached his nose.

So he sipped the water on the leaves around him while he waited for the portal to reappear. For a short time he napped, leaning against a small tree.

*

It was dark when he woke up, his body was stiffened by the cold. He noticed the glowing square was back but it was smaller this time. He stretched out his hand but felt it being pulled into the square.

Wrapping one arm around the small tree trunk nearby, he again reached for the light and this time the square came towards him. His arm went through, followed by his head but the rest of him didn't fit.

He looked around the strange portal dimension before seeing some small black ants huddling nearby. They must be the ones his twin was talking about, he hoped. He scooped them up and pulled himself through the portal.

It closed with a louder screech than the last time. Francis sighed in relief before releasing the ants onto some dry earth. They didn't look evil or strange to him at all. He looked up, the crack in the sky was back. He turned his gaze back down and looked at the ants closely.

Suddenly he remembered them, these were the missing ants that had crawled over the trap door in his room. Maybe his twin was wrong, there must be something else going on. The burning smell increased, making Francis retch.

There was no time, it looked like his world might fuse with a terrible one. He stared at the spot the square had appeared in before and waited. The black ants milled about, probably looking for a scent trail.

Then the portal was back, even smaller, only the size of his head. It was much too small to fit through now. Francis crouched down to look at it as the crack above him widened.

A small creature made out of an arrangement of purple geometric shapes slipped through the portal. It held out a strange device and pointed it at a black ant nearby.

"Is the translation device on, Sleeshrike?" The strange creature said in a small voice.

Francis knew these must be the ants his twin was talking about, the purple creature did look vaguely ant-like although it was the size of a mouse.

A smaller purple head popped through the portal.

"It should be set to intelligent life in this dimension master Troddlump."

The larger creature turned to the small black ant which had stopped running in circles and had begun to wave its antenna at the larger purple ant.

"We come in peace, please allow us to stay here. We will share our technology in exchange for sanctuary. Do you accept?" Troddlump directed the device back to the black ant.

"I search home. Where home?" Replied the ant.

"This species seems primitive, it should be safe. Let everyone come through and we will help it." The Troddlump directed this comment at the smaller Sleeshrike.

"That is the coolest thing I have ever seen!" Francis gasped out loud. "Abort! Aliens are here, retreat!" Shouted The Troddlump.

"Wait!" Francis stopped Troddlump from escaping back into the portal with his hand. Scooping it up carefully, Francis brought the creature closer.

"It's ok Troddlump, I accept your peace offering and I will help you. I also think I know where these ants live."

The creature stopped trying to escape and faced him, pointing the device in his direction.

"Do you need rescuing, Master?" Sleeshrike asked timidly from the portal entrance.

"Actually, no. Wait a minute. Tell everyone it is safe. Let me talk to this alien." Troddlump explained excitedly.

"Can you tell all your people to come through the portal and shut down whatever you are using to travel to different dimensions. It's kind of destroying the universe." Francis said while lifting Troddlump up to see the huge crack in the sky.

"Oh, right. That does not look good."

"Don't run away, I really will help. Just save the universe first, please." Francis carefully placed him in front of the portal and prayed that Troddlump would believe him.

It skittered into the portal which closed behind it. Francis sighed and looked at the crack which had not disappeared with the portal. He had tried, maybe the next Francis would stop Troddlump from leaving, he thought sadly.

The smell got stronger and Francis thought of all the good times he had experienced in his life. He hadn't really lived life to the fullest recently. Those adjustments would have been great, if he lived through this he would get everything done and stop acting like a backward old man.

Many people in this newly advanced society were nearly as old as him but they weren't stuck in the past. Looking back at the now ordinary patch of earth, he sighed.

The square of light popped back into existence, and Francis relaxed slightly. He watched as Troddlump climbed through, this time carrying a large bag with many straps. He was followed by a steady stream of low slung creatures with flat bodies carrying many different shaped bundles. Hundreds of smaller creatures accompanied them.

They kept coming until Francis became scared of squishing them. There were large ones like Troddlump and smaller ones like Sleeshrike. Others had different shapes or parts of their bodies were larger. Finally some of the creatures began to set up some kind of tent and some much larger cat sized creatures climbed through the portal.

Unlike the rest of the ants, these creatures were bright blue with beautiful wings laying across their bodies. Smaller purple ants assisted them with thick ribbons of some stretchy blue material which were being used to hold up their large abdomens. Several of these creatures had much larger, heavily patterned wings which were tied and wrapped securely.

When all of the blue creatures were through the portal, four stronger purple ants carried a large machine through with a small ant sitting on top. It seemed to be Sleeshrike, the ant from earlier.

Sleeshrike began clicking to the other ants who set the machine down, Francis couldn't understand them anymore but he carefully stepped back and waited. He watched the crack nervously while the small ant inserted its

small limbs into holes in the oddly shaped machine. It began to walk all over the machine, faster and faster accompanied by a pinging sound.

The portal closed quietly but the crack stayed. Francis watched the small creature pause before it started running again. This time it seemed to blur into an infinity symbol over the machine.

A 'BANG SCRREEEEEECH' noise came from the crack.

The creature slowed and then stopped. The crack blurred and disappeared, leaving a bad smell which gradually faded.

"Is it over?" Francis asked the ant.

It looked towards Troddlump, gesturing and clicking.

Troddlump pulled the translation device off its shoulder and pressed a thin spike on one limb into a hole in the machine.

"Sorry, I turned off the translation machine. Can you tell me what is the name of this brave saviour of the universe?" Troddlump asked politely.

"Hi, my name is Francis and are you called Troddlump?"

"Yes! What now Master Francis? Is it safe for us to stay here?" It asked him while gesturing at the area.

"Not quite, but I can take you to my house until we figure it out. These guys live there too." Francis pointed to the black ants which had huddled together, in defence of some curious pokes, from their strange purple relatives.

*

Francis stepped into his garden where he had cleared a spot for the very special tree he had planted. The tree was going to look amazing when it grew larger. He pulled out a few weeds and watered the spot where a small blue leafed sprout was starting to emerge.

Francis had changed so much in just a few months, now he looked about thirty years old and had a communication implant. Stranger still, his carer Ophelia was now his wife.

It turned out that Ophelia wasn't that different in age to him, only seventy years younger. It was only when he felt young and healthy that he realised that he liked her cooking because she made it. Francis forgave her for the insults she had given him, as he had mostly deserved them.

He carefully slipped the force ring back in place to protect the plant and switched it on. Now any creatures large or small would bounce off the force field harmlessly.

He returned to the house to make a video call to the great ones, who now lived in his basement. The ants couldn't be contacted through the implant so Troddlump had figured out a way using the tablet. Francis held it on his lap to wait for Sleeshrike to connect the call.

"Sleeshrike at communication point one. Welcome honorary great one Francis, who would you like to speak to?"

"I would like to speak to your great ones please. I have exciting news."

"Right away sir." It said, an animated pink cloud appeared in the corner of the video call with a smiley face emoji, which was the ant translator's attempt at decoding Sleeshrike's pheromones.

After a click, the picture changed to the gathering of twenty great ones who sat in their circular throne room.

"Welcome Francis, how are you?" The oldest blue creature asked.

"I'm really good now, thanks. I called to let you know that the tree has sprouted. It is definitely the right plant this time, it has blue leaves!"

"Oh, that is good news. Let us have a celebration, you may invite Ophelia and Milo this time. Don't worry you won't squish us. We must prepare. See you this evening Francis."

The call ended, Francis felt content. The world was an amazing place, with blue and purple geometric ants using his home as a refuge. He had never discovered the reason he hid or why scruffy Francis had been so afraid of Milo but it didn't matter anymore.

*

Many parallel worlds away, another group of refugee ants huddled in a sprawling shanty town on a desolate world, filled with smoke and the bodies of the fallen.

"Sleeshrike, how is the machine? Will it be ready by the next Leafday?" The Trodlump asked from the far corner of the makeshift shelter. She searched through scraps of materials and clicked in excitement when she found what she was looking for.

"yes. But this time the weapon will be more powerful. We have lost too many citizens and warriors to the aliens here and in the other world. The machine will be well protected this time and all the aliens will be destroyed," Sleeshrike whispered.

"What was that Sleeshrike?"

"It will be repaired. I obey Master Trodlump," Sleeshrike bent her body in a full right angle, indicating total obedience. One claw twitched, showing aggressive thoughts but thankfully Master Trodlump couldn't see it.

"Good, well done. You really are the best pin worker! This could reinforce the frame, I will help," The Trodlump tapped a large strip of metal and dragged it forward.

Sleeshike got to work, hiding her thoughts of revenge from her Master.