Remote Control
by the Rachel of DOOM
Disclaimer: I don't own X/1999. I wish I
did, because then I'd be rich, and disappoint all the Subaru x Kamui fans. I
do, however, own a very disturbed and hyperactive imagination which prompts me
to mutilate the works of CLAMP. But I figure, as they don't know I exist, or
even speak the same language as I do, this works out fine.
Other: Rated PG only because it's a
story about a girl whose Apocalypse powers are, as 'Voices Carry' put it,
tentacle porn. Yah. Kiddy stories suck, anyway.
The basement was quiet, save a low humming that was only
audible inside the cavernous chamber. Gleaming metal walls reflected dull neon
lights, which in turn caught the smooth curves of the thick cabling that ran
across the floor. Had any human observer been permitted into the room, they
would have thought themselves the only living thing there.
But
they'd be wrong.
Cocooned
in the very centre of the hulking monolith that was the source of the
electronic hum, was another human life. The way she was motionless inside the
stack of cables and dimly lit LCD display screens, she could almost have been
dead. Sleeping was closer to the truth, her body immobile as her consciousness
roamed the vast and infinite information highways of the Internet, government satellites,
they all were duly registered and scanned for anomalies. It was an unconscious
procedure, automated, even.
The
chunk of chrome and dark, sinisterly curving cables was in fact a computer of incalculable
power. It was known as BEAST, and whilst it dwarfed the old 'thinking machines'
of the nineteenth century, those card driven relics that had been the first
computers, it housed a computing capacity unrivalled anywhere in the world.
It owed
this to the mind that drove it, that conceived its very design. The girl curled
within, her mind roaming the aether. Her mind was synched with the computer's
CPU, they shared the information they found, girl directing computer to the
next likely node of raw data.
Faster
than the speed of sound, human thoughts firing across motor-neurones to merge
with cold electric cable which relayed the information gathered back to the
processor, Satsuki communicated with the BEAST. They currently surveyed an
array of communications satellites, almost lethargically. Satsuki gave the
BEAST commands, the computer so advanced it followed her thoughts with ease.
"Bored."
CLICK.
The
computer switched frequency only a fraction of second after Satsuki had the original
thought. Compared to the BEAST, her human thoughts were sluggish, painfully
slow. Today, they seemed even more lethargic.
"Bored."
CLICK.
"Bored."
CLICK.
"Bored."
CLICK.
"Bor- oh, wait."
The
BEAST whirred, and waited. There was a couple of minutes pause.
"Bored now."
CLICK.
"Bored."
CLICK.
"Bored."
CLICK.
"Bored."
CLICK.
"Yay! MTV!"
CLICK.
"Dammit, BEAST!"