Free (now Public Domain) story ideas for you to enjoy, enlarge and exploit as you see fit.

Ideas in various stages of development that I now bequeath unto the public domain
for you to enjoy, enlarge, and exploit as you please.

Jul 1, 2016

Stellar

            A young man on a college campus goes to class, plays intramural football, etc.  He learns in astronomy that it is believed that in a black hole, time and space reverse roles and space becomes fixed while time becomes navigable (this is actually widely accepted as true).  He learns a lot in many classes.
            During his first semester of freshman year, his parents are both killed in a car accident.  The accident is covered well on the news as it is the 100th accident fatality in the county for that year.  The man is on the roof of a building arguing with his friend.  He claims that life is useless.  Nothing is unique, not even death.  When you die you are remembered as a statistic, and even if you are remembered for more, memory is finite so what does it matter in the long run?  He jumps.  He lies on his back, not dead.  He stares up at the stars.
            Months later he has fully recovered.  He starts a non-profit organization to promote driving safety.  He stars in a few commercials for his organization.  His organization picks up steam, and is eventually endorsed by a famous Hollywood producer.  The man co-writes a movie script about insurance adjustors in California.  He meets Hollywood stars and shifts into film production, still supporting his non-profit.  5 years later he branches out.  He produces a line of environmentally friendly products made from recycled goods.  He begins investing heavily in the stock market.  He stops directly working on movies and reverts to the role of executive producer.  Also a substantial chunk of his money disappears to some sort of secretive lab in Colorado.  This entire time the man is perpetually studying and learning, and never does he show any interest in women.
            Years later, the man has become a multi-billionaire, but he still lives in the same middle-class house.  All of his money is being put to use somewhere.  He still maintains all of his previous investments. 
            The man is in his forties now.  He closes all of his projects and flies to Colorado.  The lab is enormous.  Massive research buildings, and most notably, a launch pad.  He goes to the launch bad and boards the high-tech shuttle waiting there.  They launch him into space, the trajectory aiming him at black hole.  People on Earth discuss what he has done and looking at his will realize that he has left none of his money to charity.  It is all to be divided among the people who worked at his lab.  He has no heirs and has made no arrangement for any of his belongings.
            The man is in his shuttle.  From a great distance we see the shuttle flying through space towards the gargantuan black hole.  The shuttle suddenly stops dead.  It has hit the event horizon, so its motion is no longer visible.

            The end credits roll.  During them we see variations on the man’s life.  He gets married and his parents attend the wedding.  He has kids who carry on his projects while he grows too old to work, etc.  Whether these are his regrets/wishes during his infinite moment on the event horizon, or the actual events that he is living in his new reality, free of time, is completely unclear.

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