Chapter 4: not a helping hand

Chapter 1: (Part 1 / Part 2) Chapter 2: (Part 3 / Part 4) Chapter 3: (Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 ) Chapter 4: Part 8

---

“NO!”
“KODA!”
“Koda! Are you alright?” Hands grabbed me and turned me sideways. “Did you let the switch go?” Something smelled burnt. My ears rang. First thing, I thrust my left fist up the dead-man switch securely in my hand, then I opened my eye. “Thank God, I thought I; you’re – here.” We locked eyes. Mother Goose kneeled in front of me, face pale, eyes shining as I’ve never seen before.

Huh, there were a lot of things I experienced for the first time today. Might be my newest hobby. I grabbed his arm, and he pulled me up and into a bear hug. Okay, unexpected, another first. Well, uh, I surprised myself by blushing hard, and you guessed it. Definitively a new hobby to show off. The heat in my chest and cheeks made my heart forget how to kick my head into gear. I drew a blank. “Attaboy,” Sam Spade waved from afar. I wasn’t sure he meant me or Mother. Awkward, but nothing to be ashamed of, just sayin’.

Chapter 4: Negotiation Tactics

^{Trigger warning (grief, mutilation, body horror, suicide)}

Chapter 1: Part 1 / Part 2 (Scenario Green) Chapter 2: Part 3/ Part 4 (K-Black) Chapter 3: Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 (Cricket)

---

The little drone marched up the wall, dollar signs still running around its spherical body. We looked at its slow progress. Shepherd put her hand on my shoulder. I was about to compliment her, but she only wiped the goo off of her hand. ”Thank you, doll.”

A huge bang made us jump and crouch. The room shook, gave way a bit. The structure was unstable, or was it hit by floating debris? It was enough to persuade us to follow the spider-drone’s example and to leave the floor.

Chapter 3: Mutiny Shuffle

Chapter 1 -Scenario Green: Part 1/ part 2 Chapter 2- Koda Black: part 3/ part 4 Chapter 3 – Plans: part 5/ part 6/

---

We went for a little walk on the scrap metal ball, aka the not-fancy mining satellite. The scans showed, there were nominal pressure and a thin atmosphere in several chambers, but not in the center. The heart of the structure was occupied by a heat source with strong magnetic fluctuations. Whatever was causing it, it could most likely produce a devastating explosion.

If Bayard was caught in it, the fuel on board would start a chain reaction with all the methane and hydrogen clouds around that particular area. Even a fart could ignite it… So no farting on the job! It occurred to me, it could also be a high-energy weapon the size of a glider, or just scrap metal holding an unstable reactor together. Still no farts. Anyway, we shouldn’t stick around for longer than necessary. Holding in farts wasn’t healthy, so there was that.

Electric Shinigami (1)

Part 2 – Interceptor

---

PART 1:

Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo

F***. I’ll miss you. Oz mumbled around his mouthful of Al-Capone Pizza. He wiped the grease from his mouth with his sleeve. He toasted the city with the rest of the slice in his hand. …Maybe.

He has been on the roof all evening, to watch his last sunset. He let Izanami record all his visual input. Every bit of visual and sensorial memory was important. He was going to be home-sick, he supposed. Everyone was, at least, that was, what they had told him.

Why so serious? Isn’t this what you wanted? Izanami whispered into his ear from his new Uplink implant. He still had to get used to the vision tracking commands, so he wouldn’t zoom in on a passing bottle fly, or falling pigeon poop. If he wanted, he could count the hairs on a mosquito leg, but who would want that?

Electric Shinigami (2)

Part 1: Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo

---

PART 2

INTERCEPTOR

This April evening darkness came early. It was hardly past 5 pm and Newport City didn’t stand a chance, engulfed by a tidal wave of flickering electric light, mist and a gentle rain.

The big ads on the skyscrapers flared to life, bathing the windows in neon blue, bright green and crimson. The street lights flashed, blinked and faded away, only to restart in less than half a minute.

Oz moved through his empty apartment without making light. Not that he would have needed light ever again… His new prosthetic eyes automatically switched to night vision, showing him his empty apartment as shabby as it felt to him now.

H U M A N F E E L I N G S

RECORDING STARTS…

 …

What is this? Where am I? 

A holo loop.

…Loop? 

Yes.

Who are you again?

Don’t you remember? I told you.

You did? …It’s freezing!

Has to be.

Why?

Entropy, Anna. The impeccable laws of the cosmos at work. Inter dimensional traveling has side effects.

This sounds… familiar?

We spoke about this. Over three hundred times.

Can’t remember…

The Valentine’s thing, Anna! The thing all users crave. Sentiment. Love. You’re now a permanent addition to the show. Stuck here.

I’m stuck?

For a long time. Earning me lots of Wulongs. Your kind is sluggish and stubborn… I’d be sick of it. 

Sick of what?

Ask me again, I flush you out of the airlock. Even if you’re precious now, it’s my ship, you’re my property. Just concentrate on your feelings. Over a billion are going to plug into the Love Show. Brute feelings for wealthy beings. Tasty, pure wildness, lust laced with desire.

Feelings?

Ready?

 …

INITIALIZING PROJECTION HOLOSPHERE. INDIVIDUAL. FEMALE HUMANOID, ANNA. STAR DATE: -304877.17646499234. COORDINATES: MILKY WAY. SOL SYSTEM. TERRA. 35°42′44″N 139°46′16″E.

 …

What will it be? Comedy? Tragedy? Anna, remember love?

Love? I was in love once… It hurt. In Tokyo,  Ueno Park. A Cafe. Valentine’s Day…With Natsume. He died… I think – I wasn’t me.  Not quite… I think, I killed him…

That’s a good girl! Keep remembering. How did the air smell? How did the blood feel on your fingertips?

 …

EMPATHY MODULATORS MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE. UPLINK ONLINE. INITIALIZING LIFE STREAM…

fabricate news

PART 1 / PART 2
„13.th October 2218; REUTERS, The United Regions Tribune:

“… The NASA – STRIX UNITED Franchise proudly announced, at a specially issued press conference, that  on Thursday, the first manned aircraft successfully circumnavigated Neptune. Using radically new technology, Cp. M. Rains caught up and overtook the fastest cyclone in the solar system, dubbed Scooter…“

Oscar sat in his dark living room and listening to the rain washing the pavement and his window. It was a gentle rain, sad and persistent. His bags were packed. Everything he possessed stored away in cardboard boxes between crumpled up newspapers. The storage space has been paid for five years. 

He was sipping his beer. Last can. The box with Chinese takeout food steamed on the coffee table. A pair of chopsticks beside it, ready to be unpacked and used. Two days to go. He was leaving the city.

It made him swallow hard. He was leaving the continent.

He had an exclusive contract with Strix, he had been hired right from the academy. He was leaving the planet.

This was important. No! It was top secret. He was leaving the inner solar system.

He thought of his thesis, and the disappointment in his father’s eyes. It wasn’t bad, but… He hated what his mentor thought about it. The young offspring of a rich family, all famous doctors. He must have talked to his father about it. The thesis was mediocre, satisfactory at best. Oscar knew that, of course he did. He wrote his thesis in two weeks, his work had been sloppy, lazy and careless. It didn’t seem important.

Another sip from the can. The beer was a bit warmer than he liked it. The liquid washed away the bitterness on his tongue. Replaced it with another kind of bitterness. An easy bitterness, easy to wipe away with fast-food, or cigarettes… Or women, maybe men. And of course, there always was gum.

His breath made little vapor clouds, they were barely visible. He felt the heat rising from his stomach to his cheeks. With one foot he nudged the coffee table aside, he wanted to smash it.

Suddenly he felt so unbelievably hungry.

SCOOTER

The screen flickered to life. A simulation of the landscape hidden under the thick blue methane and helium clouds unraveled itself. My custom navigation grid stretched over it, and listed all promising magnetic anomalies in the partially viscous crust. Areas of seismic instability stretched further into the polar regions. That was what the analysis program showed me in the lower right corner. I threw out my right index and thumb and the writing faded away. I did not plan to stick around to witness any crust activity.

Through the bull’s eye the surface seemed so peaceful and lush blue. It reminded me of Earth. The upper atmosphere showed a relievo ribbon of white clouds further to north to our orbiting position.

What bothered me most were the atmospheric pockets and the wind velocity, unpredictable and vicious. Even the CPU had problems showing me depressurization timely. Scooter was approaching faster than the simulations showed. Something was off. I had less time than calculated. That peacefully looking blue under me was deadly. It was ready to tear me and my glider to shreds. If anything went wrong, I could only hope for a fast death.

Septim

He felt the pressure-lock shutting behind him. Latching. He clutched at his suit and breathed.

To catch a sane thought he tried to shake off the wooziness, but his head was spinning,  fingers tingling. All that adrenalin screaming through his system. The sensation of moving skin and muscles under his hands. The fading power of defense, which wasn’t a defense anymore. His arms would remember that feeling as long as he lived. The nausea was overwhelming. A big gulp forced his stomach back down.

only weakness

A Chuck Wending flash fiction prompt – (about 2000 words) – 

“IT’S X MEETS Y!”

Indiana Jones meets The Matrix 

*

“Yo! Meathead! Cut me loose! And while at it, stop using my air!” Mall detectives became easier to outsmart when mad. I did my very best to annoy this one. One of my specialties! I was nearly done with the cuffs, just needed a little bit more time… Just a little bit more… My masking hologram was doing fine. I didn’t look like myself. While being busted, you better look like someone else. Shopping mall security men weren’t exactly what you’d call smart. “Do I see a brain-fart forming in that vacant room you call skull? It is! Lots of space between your ears- Say do you have an echo, when you’re thinking? Is it for rent? Where can I sign up fo-“

The first bashed into my face, jammed the rest of the sentence back into my throat. Couldn’t breathe nor swallow.   That was too fast! So fast! The room washed black, the sounds ran from my ears. The world shrunk… Shit! If I passed out, I was in serious trouble. The cracking sound surprised me even more. Nose went to pieces. My head took an attempt to fly off. “Ah, fuck.” The coppery taste made me gag. This mall detective had the shortest fuse I ever saw, and I wasn’t prepared for it. Than it hit me. Realization yanked me back into consciousness!

That wasn’t a – detective… Not a human, not anymore. Oh, fuck…

This was a host! A meat fingerpuppet. A parasite infested vlaipo! A friggin’ vlaipo! Dammit! Explained the speed. That punch was from another world… Hurts. Hell!