…INSERT FLOPPY DISK HERE...
zzZZZzz
BLACKOUT
[PART 1]
TABLE OUTLINING ACCESSED 'FLOPPY DISKS'
[No apparent chronology apart from that constructed from timestamps]
:::Floppy 01::: - [1974] Data transcriptions from earlier documents? Diaries?
:::Floppy 02::: - [1976] Seems to have what seems like family photos? Full capacity (peggies)
:::Floppy 11::: - [1976] Corrupt as hell
:::Floppy 17::: - [1976] Corrupt but what appears to be more peggies
:::Floppy 09::: - [1981] Needs work (more docs?)
:::Floppy 07::: - [1986] JSDU Archives? Files prior to Jo/kan PKM-War?
:::Floppy 04::: - [1992] Kanto UPI (labelled)
:::Floppy 15::: - [20?] 3.5" BROKEN :P
:::Floppy 16::: - [2005] 3.5"(JSDU files?)
Excerpts are dated as early as '64 though it appears that these are digitised versions of older files. Floppies are thought to have started pre-1974 and production stopped in 2009 (Sony 3.5"). 'Modern' files have been received through the EL AI, as well as the XX024B batch of recovered SD's (dated 10/2181) and numerous unrecorded USB's and minifigs. These included the currently most popular pre-50's hit 'Happy Together' by the 'Turtles' - the longest trending single release ever.
:::Floppy 7:::
JOHTO SPECIAL DETECTIVE UNIT
EP-01000034X
Record of data acquired during the investigation
[Some of the transcript requires higher access and have been irreversibly blanked]
Date accessed: 17/06/84
User ID: jh5
Clearance: Upper Third
Following on from…[mostly blanked]...the site has since been closed and precautions taken to ensure minimal contact before deconstruction on…[mostly blanked]...however. Work will begin…[mostly blanked].
Of the…[mostly blanked]...four were recovered. These have now been distributed amongst foster carers to assess their development. Funding has been…[mostly blanked]...including significant deformities. These have been assessed in review of….[mostly blanked]...regular updates outlining the progression in respect to typical growth curves...
[The rest of the document is unreadable]
:::Floppy 4:::
The following is a reconstruction of the events from information now available following new data released from the Johto SDU case EP-06401134X - now a world-renowned case study for the early involvement of civilian personnel and heroic-era generation* thinking in pre-bioweaponry regulatory scams. Narrative is derived from written journals** logged from those involved in the early X01 rehabilitation scheme. Please note, artistic license has been applied for the creation of a coherent citation. All rights go to their respective owners***.
:::Floppy 01:::
Excerpt 1.12
It was a quiet evening as the sunlight started to fade, orange hues lighting up the panels in the front of the car. The driver, a young woman with light freckles, was steering down the expansive main-roads patiently. In the adjoining passenger seat, her companion had his elbow lent against the narrow window frame. He looked about thirty and had much shorter, glossy brown hair which was on the edge of being a combover. Both sat in silence, the women checking the mirrors now and then to check on the sleeping person in the back. Along the motorway and the car sped along with a steady thrum which had rapidly become repetitive, making all of them feel sleepy.
With the day drawing to a close, there wasn't much traffic but redlights still trailed into the distance. It was like sailing upon a sea into the sunset as the sky threw a pallet of pinks and yellows to drape the clouds. The view was majestic.
The boy in the backseats of the pickup looked about the age of fourteen, though he had the face that could have been five years younger. Thick black hair was messy and cowlicked, mostly from where he had been leaning against the window. With his feet up on the fabric seats, the boy rested with his eyes closed to the sunset through the tinted windows.
It would have been a typical scene from any family car on the motorway that night...if not for a slight difference. At a first glance, any normal onlooker wouldn't have noticed much.
Look a bit closer and it didn't take much stretch of the imagination to put two and two together. It was safe to say that the child in the back wasn't entirely human. Where small little round human ears should have been, long slender Umbreon ears peeked through his soft black hair - so soft in fact it could have been thick fur. Currently they lay back against his skull gently, with a matching Umbreon-like tail curled round to settle across the middle seat of the pickup.
A small female umbreon, young for the species, was curled up in the boy's arms. Unlike the apparently sleeping child, her large red eyes stared out of the window lazily.
The trip so far had been a long one. The passengers had been travelling since midday, mostly in silence apart from the rattle of the vehicle and movement of the people inside. The radio had long been turned off after the adults realised the passenger in the back had his ears folded back and a grim expression fluttering over his face. Either the boy hated the country music that she'd been playing, or the sound of other human voices across the airwaves frightened the child.
And so they sat, with just the rumble of tires on tarmac to break the silence.
Outside and the light was slowly fading. Moment by moment day transitioned into the depths of night. To be fair, it didn't take long during the short spring evenings.
After what seemed like hours, the man turned to the driver.
'So how far to go now Jenny?'
Jenny paused, staring down the road. After a moment, she dimmed her lights for a passing car, before speaking,
'About another hour and a half, maybe two.'
'The lad in the back's quiet...eh?'
Sighing to himself, he stole a glance at the sleeping boy who by now had his arms hugged tightly around his little female pokemon companion.
'I wonder why that umbreon's so special to him? She seems a little…' he paused for thought and a silent attempt to seek out the correct world. Either this search was fruitless or he simply decided to say nothing. Instead the man turned to the driver, who now seemed more alert with the spur in conversation. Previously, she had been keeping herself away by aiming the cold aircon down onto her slim feet. That and pinching herself when she felt her eyes drooping.
She sighed, adjusting her hands on the wheel.
'What they did in that lab was terrible…' Jenny stated, '...forcing him to fight like he's just any old animal, feeding him utter rubbish...and...and then not even treating his injuries or….'
She stopped, reaching over to switch off the air blowing through the vent into the footwell.
'Those people were utter monsters Mark.'
In the passenger seat, the man just looked at her solemnly and nodded. He'd only glanced at some of the paperwork but knew the gist of what had happened. In some respect, it was better to know less about the boy...at least so he didn't make any early misconceptions and judgements on the kid. What they were doing was completely off the books at the moment, and he felt a little uncertainty about the situation as whole.
Maybe at some point in the future they'd look back on this all disapprovingly.
Turning back to the window, Mark watched as the darkness deepened and the sky became blotched with stars. The road was empty of cars except for the couple zooming past now and then. Each was lazily speeding above the designated limit, only dimming their lights at the last moment down the winding country a-road.
He spotted the moon to the left. The crescent was about a quarter full and tickled the horizon with a yellowing light.
Mark hadn't noticed that Jenny was stealing a glance at him, indicating the boy in the back.
Where before he had been content to snooze through most of the journey, the Umbreon-boy was now wide awake. His crimson eyes were staring intently at the moon in the distance. It was a cratered mass of dampered refracted light that gave the world a misty hue of silver edges. Both of the adults could see the rings over his tail and ears glow a faint gold...to the point it could be picked up in the rearview mirror. Rings also adorned his elbows, knees, and forehead. The latter was much dimmer than the others however, as if etched across his very skin.
In his arms, the female Umbreon seemed to also be longingly gazing into the starry sky above. Her rings glowing in sync with the boys as if to some unending rhythm of hue and saturation. Mark almost thought that they could have been communicating, most likely aided by a faint, low mummering and twitching ears.
Jenny looked across at Mark and for a second it appeared they were thinking the same thing.
There was a lot more to this boy then met the eye.
Excerpt 1.43
'Come on mate...Come on...Up you get...'
The boy heard the voice almost before he heard it at all. It was if the noise had registered in his ears first, their long lobes rotating like small dishes to best capture the human talking. After a few moments the sound reached his brain and then again, it was a few moments before he understood what they meant. The tone was soothing and he relaxed for a moment, unwrapping his tail and his body naturally stretched the tension from his hamstrings.
He opened his eyes slowly.
Blinking in the bright morning light, it took a moment for his eyes to congeal the information into a clear signal. Rubbing at them with the back of his hands, he pawed at the itch of morning dust clinging to the bridge of his nose.
With a start he noticed the man standing in the doorway. For a second he froze, eyes taking in all data available in a mad rush of identification and early target appraisal. Such a motion was ingrained into his very being, an instinct of fight of flight which took a long moment to settle into the back of his brain.
The man was middle-aged with greying hair at the temples. However, such conclusions beyond this seemed unnecessary when compared with the warm smile spread widely across his face. Staring at the man with his eyes narrowed, the figure didn't seem to notice the expression and walked into the room anyway. Oblivious to the umbreon-like boy's discomfort, the man reached over to pull the curtains open.
There was the scraping of curtain loops against metal and in an instant the room was blindingly bright.
'Breee…' grumbled the boy, blinking the world back into focus.
A warm flush of morning air blew into the room and with it the smell of lawn grass and wildflowers. Birds were singing outside merrily and the boy's ears pricked up at their calls. Peaceful sounds washed over him as he uncurled himself from under the bedsheets.
'So you're up then?' Mark had his hands on his hips, 'How are you feeling?'
The boy just nodded, awkwardly pulling the linen off his small frame. In turn this revealed the small female umbreon who was still curled up snuggly against the fluffy fur of the boy's tail. Yawning loudly, the pokemon stretched before turning her crimson eyes up at the adult across the room.
'So you slept with the little umbreon then?' Mark walked over and sat on the edge of the bed with the boy,
'Can I?' he spoke softly, motioning to the umbreon on the boys lap.
'She's not mine' the boy's voice cracked from a combination of lack of use and an early-morning sore throat. It was slightly deeper than Mark felt it should have been, and a bit croaky but that could have been due to anything. The child sat up a little in bed and the adult wasn't sure this was a motion to move away from him.
Mark perched himself on the end of the bed slowly as the boy spoke,
'I...I just look after her...she looks after me...too….'
He stared at the man who was scratching the little female Umbreon behind the ears. The Pokemon was purring happily. However, the sideways glance she stole told a whole nother story as she attempted to reassure her young companion with a warm empathetic look.
The man stopped.
'I forgot to introduce myself, my names Mark. I...Well…'
He struggled for the words.
'Let's just say that I'll be helping to look after you for now on. You met Jenny last night didn't you? She's really nice isn't she? Well we're together and offered to look after you...now that those mean guys have gone.'
The boy's eyes widened.
'I'm...I'm not going back? But won't...they'll…'
He was stopped in his stuttering by his Pokemon companion smooshing herself into his arms. The Umbreon pressed herself into his arms for comfort and Mark was more than a little surprised to see the complexity of emotions underlying her actions. They made short eye contact as he pulled his eyes away awkwardly.
'Well...no...no you won't be. They did some very bad stuff and we want you to have...to have…'
He trailed off, not sure how much to explain to the child.
'Do you have a name?' Mark asked instead, bending down a little so as not to be looking down at the boy.
With the Umbreon cuddled up in his skinny arms, the boy seemed to contemplate the question. His one hand had subconsciously risen to his neck as if expecting to find something wrapped around it.
'Ea...I'm called Ea.'
Mark nodded,
'Well Ea...would you like some breakfast?'
The boy nodded vigorously, his furred tail wagging under the linen sheets.
Excerpt 1.65
Ea sat on the bed, dripping water all over the sheets and forming a little puddle on the floor. At first he's been miffed at the fact his clothes had once more disappeared, but he was slowly getting used to how a house worked. At this point he had a few sets of the items...meaning Jenny could wash some clothes while he wore other ones. Ea didn't know why people hadn't thought to do that before. Maybe it was a new concept.
His tail felt heavy as he pulled himself to his feet and shook himself off once more, spraying water across the room. Fluffing his ears up, he ran a hand through his hair to try and remove some of the moisture.
For a moment he simply stared at the back of his hand. Ea was starting to noticed that he was filling out a little, and that now it wasn't as easy to see the veins protruding through his skin...or the ribs down his chest. Maybe that was a good sign.
He wagged his tail, feeling good at that thought.
A shower was still something that felt a little weird to the boy. So much water and soap seemed excessive the boy thought, pausing in thought between searching for some fresh clothes to put on. Mark and Jenny had given him a whole wooden box with drawers so he could put away the items...items they said actually belonged to him! Ea was uncomfortable at being responsible for so much and so ensure each time he was in the room that everything was still in place.
At the moment, Jenny knocked and poked her head around the door.
'Can I come in?' She asked sweetly.
Ea just nodded. At first he had been confused at why they asked such things. It appeared that they acted as if he owned the space he slept in...or at least was once more in charge of who was inside of it. So far everybody was allowed in...even his little Umbreon companion...which made the tradition counterintuitive.
Jenny flashed a ready smile as she pushed the door open with a foot, a bundle of towels in her hands. Laying some of them down over the back of a chair, she picked out a bright yellow one and approached the boy with the fabric spread between her hands.
'Time to dry the rest of you off! We can't have you trailing a path of water behind can we.'
Ea chuckled quietly, feeling at ease around the mothering woman who started to gently pat the boys down around the ears.
'You did wash behind your ears didn't you?'
For some reason, such a comment was supposed to be funny and Ea did his best to laugh.
Helping to dry the boy off had become a ritual for Jenny. To the woman, the umbreon-boy looked like a drowned Rattata. Very little worked to dry out his fur, to the point that she considered to stop attempting what was rapidly becoming a frivolous gesture.
But Ea seemed to enjoy the fuss and so it continued
:::Floppy 04:::
Johto SDU case EP-06401134X has since marked the initial point of regression for what has been labelled as 'heroic-era' thinking*. This considered instead immediate recovery of situations and fixing of issues without true reconciliation of future sustainability. In fact, many early schemes proved to be mass-wealth projects raising equity in a highly immoral fashion. Occuring during syn-global upheaval (climate deterioration and mass social change)**. Pokemon were the victims of the pre-bioweaponry scams, though we have them to thank for later regulations*** emplaced prior to the post-war market crash of the late nineties (see Y2K)****.
:::Floppy 15:::
Kanto UPI
_(EP-01)
Recorded verification files (changeover 010031) (subset Aa 4)
[Transcript of Report dated 21/09/2011] (Unpublished)
The Johto Special Detective Unit (JSPU) was disbanded along with the localised government following the Great War* and have since been centralised underneath the Kanto UPI. Records from the JSPU were reclassified in '76 although key documents pertaining to the 'Struggles' which are still ongoing e.g. Olivine City** (See Greggs et al., 1981). The EP-01 files were reviewed a year later under the Government Paritions act for the Protection of Biosecurity Interests (GPPBI). Sadly many of the files were lost in regard to the initial translational databases used for file storage. These were placed in archaic storage devices (including tape reels) which are either lost or degraded to mush.
It is largely due to early bioengineering attempts (including EP and later projects) that attempted advancement via use of splicing techniques has become what it is today - a banned methodology that has never been reattempted nor rediscovered. The mysterious death of Dr H. Tanaka only four months ago*** proves that this information is still under active suppression. Given what occurred during and after case EP-06401134X****, perhaps this is for good reason. Their present master's student (Carlo Zabinski Sr.) has released a statement promising further clarification of the study.
EJECTING
zzzZZZzzz
Session: Session 43
Date: 31/03/2181
Time: 10:32 (GMsidereal)
Context: Interpretations of samples 01/02/04/07/15
Risk Assessment: See previous :P
[Interpretations]
I was tasked with this project as part of initial training before a PhD in 2087. Since then I've got the project studying tech from the Heroic Era, and here I am already over a year in! At first I was simply interested in accessing a box full of old floppies that were recently recovered (Soho, 2076). Beats working on SD's which even a five-year-old could access with a screwdriver. But even though it was great fun to crack into the old tech - the material on them proved more engaging than I could have ever imagined. And I'm not talking about old copies of 'Hall and Oats' or the 'Buggles'.
So here I am constructing a history of Heroic era to at least provide some context to my line of study. This history might not be exactly classical in its approach. I'm a hacker by nature and a fan of retro tech - something which makes me a perfect candidate for trying to piece together a society locked away in ancient hard drives. That and Dr Zabinski was a colleague *cough* of my late-father and felt sorry for a spectre like me. Zabinski says I'm a new-generation programmer. To be honest, I don't know how that works when I'm running worms through old floppies. Nobody would fund such a pointless project so I'm pretty sure we're running on dirty H'era money that Zabinski inherited. Better not probe into that too much further.
So where do I start? The Earth used to be a nice place, but now it's a bio-protected zone with a max population of about forty thousands humans. Taking into account aboriginal and native populations covered under the Horizon Peace Act, that limits the number of visitors to about seven thousand a year. Great for the Earth I guess, but it makes surface-time a luxury for vacuum-cruisers with the cash to spare. In turn, that means I can't just pop down and recover some old hardware for myself to study - not that they'd let a spectre like me do anything of the sort.
You see, Humans were idiots and triggered climate change before they knew what they were doing. Runaway consumerism backed by lignite deposits (since exhausted) and the plastic-gen acted to muck up the climatic system, increasing seasonality and storminess. Doesn't sound like much until you consider the two-point-five degree warming and the failure of the North-Atlantic drift shifting rain shadows across the most densely populated region on the globe. Combine that with over population and you get a recipe for disaster. Morbid stuff I know, but at this point it's just numbers. One deaths a tragedy, but the loss of a few billion is a statistic. You know how it is. About half of the earth or something? Grisly, I bet geography teachers love that stuff.
Yeah I know I sound like a nerd but it's history. Especially for a spectre like me. Originally I was just into remixes from the early nineties and some classic eighties rock running through flash drives (a real old type of coding before blockchain became a thing alongside delocalised storage). Anyways, turns out being able to hack into such ancient machines isn't as common as you'd expect. It's unusual enough that I found myself graduating with a degree from the prestigious Luna-2 studygroup and the first to do it with a tail stuck out of their butt. Not a mean feat. But like any spectre should, I just keep my head down and my mouth zipped. Something easier said than done when you have weird SFAL groups trying to champion you in the modern age of slavery.
The Heroic Generation followed the Gen-Z's and are famed for their rather stupid use of technology to fix the earth. Many of their failsafe methodologies were actually business projects used to fund equity divides and undercover research into colonising LEO and maybe the moon. Whilst billions were being poured in carbon capture and storage (not to mention geoengineering projects to stabilise the Greenland ice sheet) profits were being siphoned into some unsavoury projects. A few key players became CEOs of the largest corporations in the world, ripped off the globe, and in the end created an AI that runs the world climate system - an AI too clever in its own right to be switched off. Personally I love EarthLight and think of computer as a living legend - but it forced Heroic Era thinking onto the planet in a way that can never be removed again. Thanks Dr. Sobeck.
Really, I think it's Earthlight that really pissed the human's off. Now we're stuck with our old mistakes with nothing to do but wait out Project Dawn. Might take a few centuries but more likely a few millennia to sort out our good ol' blue marble.
After a huge crash in human population and all that misery (thankfully before I was born) people were forced to find refuge elsewhere. However, we'd known for decades that the human body didn't cope very well in space for extended periods of time. The solution? Just engineer better humans! And the quickest way of doing this was splicing the human genome with chosen bits from Pokemon DNA and the likes. Design humans capable of surviving in microgravity, with improved metabolisms, and whatever hair colour you can imagine (that was actually a thing). Whilst your at it why not engineer a whole new inferior race to do your dirty work for you? Ghosts to live in the underworld of the neo-UN to keep things running smoothly.
Bioengineering was first proved in the late sixties with a series of subjects (see the X01 scheme) most likely in a way that was utterly groundbreaking. Sadly, there was only one survivor, an Umbreon Morph who proved that such a feat was possible. It's thanks to him paving the way that morphs like me are floating round at not even point-five g on an orbital ring.
Or at least, that's what I'd been taught.
If these box of floppies are anything to go by (as well as some hilariously retro peggy images) then all of that was absolute bollocks. The Johto (an old region later incorporated into Kanto) detective unit had extensive records about the discovery of the project, its eventual shutdown, and the rehoming of the single test subject - only because the others were (quote) 'terminated'. The Umbreon (which appeared to be called Ea) was actually saved and homed by a socialist regime which had gained footing following the Kanto/Johto war.
This group was later deconstructed by Kanto police, the Umbreon recovered and subjected to intense 'study' which (by the looks of things so far) resulted in his death. This all occurred in the years 1985-1990 but was well documented and used as a case study in the role of ethics in a rising bioengineering industry. The case possibly resulted in a complete ban in the use of genome splicing - something of which there is no record of in the Luna-2 University files for Law or History. I triple-checked that myself.
If these floppies are to be believed, then case X01 was actually one of the first and last bioengineering projects in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Prior to the Heroic Gen at least, it appeared there were tight regulations on the use of any direct gene editing in anything more sentient than a Cutiefly. Obviously the floppies only just reach into the start of the Heroic Gen (afterwhich more sophisticated hardware was used) - but I've got like thirty more-
[Sudden Disconnection]
Session: Session 43 [eddited]
Date: 09/04/2181
Time: 23:12 (GMsidereal)
Context: What the hell?
Risk Assessment: It's only illegal if you get caught...
[Interpretations]
I got called into the main L-2 office this morning with Dr Zabinski. Turns out that they got wind of what I was doing and some of the context to what I found. They had me wipe nearly everything, took the floppies, and now have me working on SDs until (quote) 'I've learnt my place'. Frankly, I know that lesson already. I won't fill you in on the full conversation but it went something like this:
Prof: You've found stuff that indicates that spectres should never have been made and might have human rights. You also have proof that they were more liberal in the past and had considerably better ethics in contradiction to how humans have since branded the heroic generation etc.
Me: No comment
Prof: You do realise that you are nothing. Nill. And frankly I think you're a stuck-up misfit who is only here because we feel sorry for you
Me: No comment
Prof: I will take all of these floppies off you, destroy them, and ensure that arrogant spectres like you never learn your history. Let's keep this Orwellian illusion going. Frankly we're stuck with you by contract for another year so have some shit to do so we can wait it out in comfortable silence. Look through some SD cards or something.
Me: You're a dipshit set on wasting my talents
Prof: True. Anything like this again and I can get you erased. You are nothing.
Me: F*ck you. Find somebody else to go through finding vintage porno peggies and shitty 80's synth pop.
[Please note: I didn't actually say this but I sure as hell thought this. It actually went as follows]
Me: Yes sir
Prof: But you're right. You've got talent and so we'll put away *cough* destroy *cough* those floppies you've been working and and get you some new ones - where you will be heavily supervised. You're a hacker not a historian.
Me: Yes sir
Prof: We're also putting you in a lab right at the back of the facility to minimum people come into contact with you. We don't want to give this place a bad image.
Zabinski (talking for the first time in like half an hour): The hell? Surely there's a better way to do this then moving my whole lab?
Prof: No
Zabinski: I'll resign and take my funding with me.
Prof: Full apologies. Compromise! The spectre can have restraint to ensure he's tracked at all times and can't get into any trouble. Not to mention the tax break if we put him on the books as being owned by the Uni. We love how people are entitled to basic human rights these days!
Zabinski: You said it bro. Let's go get coffee (codeword for wasted) and forget about this mess
Prof: Boi let's do it.
Me: ?
So yeah. At least I know that Dr Zabinski has my back. To be frank 80's synth pop is not the only stuff I come across. In a modern world of full censorship getting *cough* material *cough* is a lot more hassle than it should be. Nor is it all bad news! The device I rigged to read the floppies backs up the data continuously onto my own personal hardware storage (you can't trust the cloud) to ensure if anything goes wrong it's not a complete loss. They may take the floppies but I still have everything that was on them! They will never take our freedom! I'm a little sad about the other floppies but better that then get terminated.
The downside is I now have a stupid stub round my ankle and they even went as far to give me an ear tag! So now I'm literally walking property (I checked the serial code and it's attached to the L-2 physics and coding department) but at least I still have my work. I've been up all night writing an encryption to ensure that I can hook up this journal to my dorm server without others reading it. Took a leaf out of my ancestors books and used binary - nobody will be expecting that.
So as you can guess, I'm beyond tired and need a nap.
Last thing to note is that Liliane SFAL (spectre freedom something or other) has been in contact again. With what's happened I'm starting to think more seriously about her proposal.
Session: Session 96 [eddited]
Date: 14/07/2181
Time: 01:53 (GMsidereal)
Context: Floppy data
Risk Assessment: N/A
[Interpretations]
I've just come across something really interesting. Having been through yet another assessment last week, I'm still being monitored so had to rely on the data transfer from my floppy-reader to pick up the material later. I've got a data-tracking software running through my softscreen that picks up on key scripts and that'll send encrypted copies to my dorm. Works a treat but means I have to wait nearly a day for my snail-like system to decrypt and read the files again. This is the first floppy I've been allowed to work on given the couple of boxed they had imported last month. It's almost like they trust me!
Anyway, cutting to the chase. I came across the following:
JOHTO SPECIAL DETECTIVE UNIT
EP-01000042X
Record of data acquired during the investigation
[Some of the transcript requires higher access and so has been blanked]
Date accessed: 24/08/84
User ID: jh5
Clearance: Upper Third
Following complete degradation of the subject's…[mostly blanked]...one remains…[mostly blanked]...end. The site has been decominished and the laws put through by congress following…[mostly blanked]...to be enforced immediately. The program is now being quoted as the turning point in the advent of splicing technology…[mostly blanked]...
Of the three that…[mostly blanked]...handlers found…[mostly blanked]...tragic. There deaths have been labeled as accidental though with…[mostly blanked]...clearly premeditated. These 'ghosts' as named by the media exhibit strong resemblance to the source pokemon…[mostly blanked]...
[The rest of the document is unreadable]
Session: Session 104
Date: 19/09/2181
Time: 23:17 (GMsidereal)
Context: Wow. Much excite.
Risk Assessment: N/A
[Interpretations]
Hit the jackpot and found some early dank memes on a USB that one of the new Master's students was struggling with. There's this one with some weird dog-like thing and...yeah...I don't know how half of these are funny but they are. I guess memes today are just more UN propaganda. Such cool. Wow. Not to mention an Oasis single that went viral in four hours and now I have a small stream of advertising money going to my payfriend account. That'll keep me on rations for the next few weeks. The name file was gnarly so I guessed the title.
I've been chatting with Liliane again, softcreen not face-to-face (Ha! I haven't been allowed to leave the facility in months! Damn do I miss that fresh dome air! Supposedly they have genuine Mitsu-Wishiwashi aircon that gets rid of smells! Humans don't notice it but stuff stinks out their dorms for days on end! Inferior senses ugh!)
Back to the point. We had a conversation the other day that went something like this:
Liliane: Your work is interesting. We too believe in the rights of spectre. Become the figurehead of our movement and we shall rise against the humans!
Me: Uh. Not really interested. I kinda like being alive and having a job and a future
Liliane: Do you not care for you fellow spectre?
Me: No offence. But I'm doing pretty well for myself. You never know. You might get lucky one day. Humans aren't so bad. So yeah now I'm tagged and I'm restricted to one building. I've heard mars is worse and that you have water rations. You should see some of these classic pre-membrian memes.
Liliane: You have black market memes?
Me: Sure. But it's going to cost you.
Liliane: I'm interested.
That was a few days ago. Things got a little crazy for a few days and I had most likely one of the best trips of a lifetime. Sure, I'm a pretty savvy guy who can sort of understand when crazy things happen. I don't know whose idea it was, but I ended up with a ticket to the L2 annual conference 2189 with the theme of 'improving technology' which is just about as vague as you can get.
So the conversation I had this morning went a little differently
Liliane: Your work is pretty interesting. We too believe in the rights of spectre. You ever thought about joining us for once? Give it try?
Me: Uh. Not really interested. I've been kinda busy.
Liliane: Do you not care for you brethren?
Me: Getting a bit repetitive now...What do you think? Do you even keep up to date with the media?
Me: Link;[qauntanet/article:Spectre-emplyoed-at-top-uni-met-with-applause-at-L2-con/.]
Liliane:
Me: Beat that! Last thing you did was lay sheets over those weird desert lines and broke them. At least I'm doing science.
Liliane: [Read 10:07]
Turns out that the Luna-2 Uni (which is supposed to be the university of the people) wanted to show how inclusive they all were by showing me off (tag and all) to the academics - not to mention the media. For a spectre that had been hidden away in the orbital-ring campus for his whole life, I actually got the chance to go the Moon! All my dreams had come true in the twenty hours between an offhand remark by Zabinski and touchdown on the lunar regolith. I got to be a little kid again and thoroughly enjoyed everything that 'normal' people take for granted. Things like being being able to leave buildings, use public toilets, and eat in the vicinity of others. Oh, not to mention I got to take a plasma-ship to the moon.
Like a an actual plasma-ship! I even got a little model of it to put up in my dorm.
But anyway. This conference thing was a chance for the L2 to show off how amazing they were having a spectre working with them as if they had morphs like me everywhere in their ladder of academia. Jokes on them! I was at the conference and I'd be damned if I wasn't going to enjoy myself.
Well that's what I told myself. Actually being in a huge habitat with a few thousand highly intelligent people meant I fell into full spectre autopilot. Zipped mouth and head down. Don't draw attention to yourself and be as polite as possible.
That all fell apart when I was approached (well me and Zabinski who was handling me - because all spectres must be with a handler in public places) by some random chap. However, it quickly became apparent that this was no ordinary bloke when I noticed the beads of sweat on Zabinskis palms as they shook hands. It just so happened that we'd been approached by the leading senior technician at the L2 HE research branch in climate technology.
You may be wondering why the hell a person interested in climatology might want to talk to me. I felt the same way. Him and Zabinski were talking for a while whilst I was completely ignored (as per etiquette) until unusually, this senior technician started speaking to me directly. I perked up immediately.
Tech: I heard you're into old tech?
Me: Yes sir.
Tech: You enjoy working with the old stuff? I heard you're a pretty competent hacker given your...unfavourable situation. Where did you learn?
Me: Yes Sir. I enjoy working on it and the challenge at working through the old technology *cough* the memes! *cough* especially since I was self taught. I was very lucky to be given a scholarship by OE Uni to do computer science and really I have them to thank. Blah Blah. Spiel about how I am so very grateful for humans being so kind. More boot licking.
Tech (Looking straight through my well-practiced facade): Right. I heard you're the best for pre-millennial hacking?
Zabinski: My dad was a dirty Heroic Era businessman and I use his blood money to fund this stuff because *hot flush* I like the material that comes off these old drives. Nobody else can be bothered because although it's cool - the whole field of research is utterly pointless.
What Zabinski really said: He is very good. You should see him work.
Tech: I'm interested. I've got some old technology relating to some past geoengineering project that needs looking at. It's locked away on some ancient servers which just munch up any attempts our guys make. I'd like to see what you make of them. Can't hurt can it.
Me: That sounds intriguing.
Tech: Also you're a spectre without any human rights. I can tell you to do anything and get you eliminated if you don't. You're a meat machine that I want to use on my project. I'll pay off Zabinski in 'coffee' and you'll be working on the project if you like it or not. I'm a very high ranking academic and have enough contacts to get what I want.
Me:
Zabinski:
Tech: How does that sound?
So! Guess who's going to the moon? Maybe not through choice but I can't complain. Not to mention the fact they later pulled me up onto stage, blinded by with an LED spotlight, and clapped lots. I didn't catch what they were congratulating me for, byt the president didn't shake my hand like the others. Zabinski has to pull me off stage with a sheepish grin, a little apology, and four hours later here I am back in my dom again.
Packing of all things.
END OF PART 1
BLACKOUT is a rather convoluted two-shot written in collaboration with Just-A-Reader Love, who I'd like to thank for being a real inspiration for my work, as well as a great editor and writer in their own right! So a massive thanks!
The world of BLACKOUT is set in a future in which humans have been forced to leave Earth due to climate change. Taking pokemon with them, mankind had the ingenuity to genetically manipulate themselves to be better suited to the tough environments beyond our planet. In doing so, a slave race known only as spectre were also created to do the dirty work in creating and running a society.
The storyline follows a particularly eminninat spectre who has been lucky enough to find themselves working through recovered hardware from around a century ago. However, the information the spectre finds detailing the first genetic-splicing test subject (an Umbreon named Ea) indicates that his version of history doesn't match reality.
I am fully aware that things may be a little confusing. Enjoy some experimental off-the-wall fanfiction. The next chapter should be out in a few weeks.
Feel free to fav / follow / of drop a review!
ZenColour
(EDIT 18/11/18 fixed some typos)