The Cinnamon Horizon
by Elliot Bowers
Chapter 10: The Computer God is Dead
...
1.
...
_____"What d'you think she's dreaming about?" asked one of the male cyborgs. He was
looking over at the sleeping female--gently resting against a truck's wheel. It was barely
morning, still chilly. Most everything around here with a human brain was still asleep.
"She's been mumbling weird shit the whole time she's been napping. Bad enough I'm
all keyed up. Being all excited about TODAY!"
_____"Hee-hee..." giggled the cuddled-up cyborg-girl, her face resting against her crossed
metal arms, blonde hair tousled and loose underneath her tall pink hat. "Pass me a...spoon.
Y-y-yeah... There's plenty." Murmur-murmur... She said something else after that, but it
came out all garbled--something about mushy food. And the way she smacked her lips,
she was probably dreaming about eating it.
_____The first male bounty hunter adjusted his pink chef's hat. "Hell, I'm surprised we all
didn't have whacked-out nightmares last night--because of this stupid shit we're told we
have to wear. God damn it... Velvet scarves and pink chef's hats! Why the fuck is that
crazy machine in Zalem make us wear this? Fashion statements?"
_____"Ha-ha..." laughed a new female voice. "Yes, maybe our bad taste in fashion accessories
will scare all the criminals into easy surrender." This newcomer was a thin-looking female
cyborg, in long black trenchcoat and boots, her black hair hanging straight down her back.
She also had on a pink chefhat and blue velvet scarf. "But we are all to be paid plenty of
chips for this...if we live." She then glanced down at the blonde cyborg sleep-sitting against
that truck. "We could all succeed if we were all calm enough to rest prior to the fighting."
_____The sleeping cyborg mumbled and murmured some more. "This is..." Murmur-murmur.
"Can't you...smell it? Ronette, if you can't..." SNORE! "Camilla, you too. It's...in the breeze..."
Mumble-grumble. "Why can't you...smell it? TASTE it? Huh? WHAT! You're head is...full
of it! AAIGH!" Whoa!
_____Everyone jumped back and took up fighting stances when the sleeping cyborg bounced
to her feet. Oddly enough, no one's chef's hat fell off. They knew what would happen if they
were to lose their hats... A stupid and risky thing, wearing these hats, but it was a key condition
to getting paid by Zalem.
_____The once-sleeping cyborg looked around, her eyes wild for a few seconds. She blinked
and giggled. "Hee-hee... Sorry, guys. I guess my nightmare got me a little carried away." She
shook her head, everyone looking at her. "God, it was weird. I dreamt that everyone was
talking backwards. We were all at this really long white table. I mean, the table was, like, a
mile long. And we were all eating stuff out of bowls. Some kind of mushy food flavored with
blood. Then there was..."
_____"I BELIEVE...we have heard enough," interrupted the female hunter in black trenchcoat.
"If you continue to rant psychedelic things of that sort, you are likely to fill our heads with
confusion. That is not what we want before the battles to come."
_____"You mean, the tall pink hats and the scarves aren't confusing enough?" asked one of the
male bounty hunters. "We haven't even started to boogie, and I'm already feeling a little freaky.
Talking about one more weird dream won't make much of a difference."
_____The female hunter in black trenchcoat gave a slight smile, turned away. She faced
west, looking at the darkening blue sky above this industrial city. Behind her, everyone else
was talking about what they were planning to do when the fighting started in the criminal-run
sector. The bounty postings from Zalem said that they did not have to collect heads to receive
bounty from this raid, but some hunters were going to do that anyway. They planned on making
plenty of headless corpses before this long day was done.
_____The Netmen said that this was supposed to all happen at the same time. There were over
six hundred bounty hunters involved in this, missle-armed Deckmen coming along, all going in
to do the same thing! All going in for the same reward. Yet the greatest bounty would go to
those who found the hackers--dead or alive. She smiled.
...
_____The madness began at noon. Fwoosh…KABLAM! An explosion shook the entire
downtown plaza. Within all the smoke and chaos, people ran and scrambled amidst loud
sounds of confusion and violence--screaming and shouting all over the place. Then came
sounds of grunts, along with gunshots and sounds of blades cutting: cutting metal and flesh.
Sounds of fright mixed with growls of anger became part of the dark cacophony. Over there,
enforcers were suddenly fighting bounty hunters in warrior clothing and pink chef's hats. Over
here, blades and fists clashed with firing guns. And look... Across the street, bounty hunters
were cutting off heads.
_____FWO-O-OSH… Another Deckman's missile came surprisingly close to here. It hit the
nearest restaurant, making brick and glass explode everywhere. There were more screams,
more blood. Fire sputtered within the wrecked building as wafting clouds of smoke poured
out to the chaotic street.
_____The fighting temporarily stuttered as the smoke wafted along the street. There was a
quick and violent flash of alloyed blade, and an enforcer lost his metal arm--before he lost
his head. Then the bounty hunter had himself a victorious smile.
_____Until a ceramic round blew out his chest. Blood and other fluids blasted out of his
back, and he dropped--an angry look on his face. Another hat-wearing bounty hunter
picked up his blade, now standing with two weapons. His surviving comrades leapt out of
the way when he ducked--a gunshot whizzing over his head. He turned and made a run for
the nearest alley where he was blasted to pieces by enforcer gunfire.
_____Then there were all kinds of shooting after that. The enforcers just started blasting
away at anyone wearing a chef's hat, not caring for efficiency or conserving ammunition.
Even when those bounty hunters fell to the street, the enforcers kept shooting. They changed
their aim, firing at those who were now running in this direction. The hunters' pink chef's hats
were no longer so humerous-looking as they were spattered with blood.
...
_____The next batch of hat-wearing bounty hunters just came from the next street over.
Over on that street, there was a modified Deckman hovering along on a weapons platform--a
large floating deck with plenty of missiles and several nuclear-powered guns that fired quick
bright bursts. All around, therewas smoke from several blasted shops and office buildings.
Bodies and body parts lay in haphazard places. The dead cyborgs weren't so bad, but the
murdered fleshies made for real messes.
_____CRACK! A carefully aimed shot had snatched a chunk of steel out of the deckman's
cylindrical body. The robot rotated around on the weapon-heavy platform--chubby rubbery
face scanning the area for anyone with a gun. CRACK! FW-FW-FWOOSH! In response
to that attack, the deckman fired a few random missiles. There were distant explosions and
more screams when the missiles found some things to blow up.
_____CRACK-CRACK! A few more ceramic blasts, and more chunks were torn out of the
riding robot's metal body. It whirled around and around, unable to tell where the gunfire was
coming from. It could not find the attacker.
_____Then there was an awesome and massive explosion. It was a fiery and massively loud
bast that destroyed everything within a thirty-yard radius. The targets could not be seen, so
the deckman blew itself up.
_____The enforcers that survived the blast ran out of the ruined buildings nearby. They stopped
outside just long enough to check their handguns, then ran off to join in the fighting. There were
random battles going on everywhere, street to street. Yes, Melchezedek the master-computer
was definitely malfunctioning--getting the bounty hunters to wear those funky things.
...
_____It was late afternoon now, this neighborhood looking a little more ruined from deckman
blasts. "Heh-heh... Watch me do this," he said. With five others watching, he knelt at the
edge of the roof and aimed his handgun. One eye closed, one metal finger went over the
trigger of the blocky handgun. He held his breath and squee-e-ezed the trigger. CRACK!
_____"Nope, you missed!" commented the male enforcer with the expensively cut blond hair.
He walked closer to the edge of this roof to get a better look at who Joe had shot. "Your
shot just knocked off his hat. The wind must have ruined your aim. Now the jerk is looking
around."
_____A female enforcer stepped next to Joe. "I think he meant to do that... Didn't you?"
She crossed her arms as the late-afternoon breeze played with her dark-brown hair, squinting
as the sun shone almost directly into her artificial eyes. "Okay, why'd you aim for his hat
instead of his chest? Or are you going to leave it as a surprise?"
_____Joe's answer was a sinister smile. It was the sort of smile that meant, I'm not going to
tell you. You'll just have to wait and see.
_____Everyone else came over to the edge of the roof and took a look. They were looking
down on the sunset-colored street--three stories down: a confused-looking bounty hunter
down there. He had his hands on his bare head, looking around. Then he happened to turn
around... Ah, THERE IT IS! His pink chef's hat was being blown along the sidewalk, blown
by the random winds. As stupid and ugly as the thing looked, he had to get it.
_____Chasing his pink chef hat along that sidewalk, he suddenly tried to turn and run the
other way. There was a deckman nearby, on a hovering weapons platform. Uh-oh... The
sound of a missile launch was audible from up here.
_____Fwoosh... BLAM! All six enforcers saw a gray streak shoot out from a deckman's
missile platform to blow up that bounty hunter. There was a short-lived fireball in the street
that quickly darkened to black. The pall of dark smoke hung in the street like a large and
shadowy ghost before being carried away on the next wind.
_____Joe continued to smile as everyone else stood there in open-mouthed surprise. It was
Judy, the one standing next to Joe, who understood what just happened. "Oh, I get it! It's
those stupid HATS! That's how the bounty hunters keep themselves identified to the deckmen!
They're all part of some big team. A damned stupid team, coming into this sector and thinking
they can beat us into submission."
_____The blond male enforcer crossed his arms and kept looking down there. He saw the
deckman go floating over on its weapons platform. Even from up here, he could recognize
the look of the cylindrical robot. Like all deckmen, it's face had chubby rubbery cheeks and
extra-thick lips. It's eyes were twin cameras that looked like deep dark eyeholes. It surveyed
the aftermath of the explosion, confirming that the bounty hunter had been eliminated, then
started hovering away along the street.
_____Stupid robot. Don't try to look up, thought Joe. Because you can't. He took aim
again. CRACK! He had targeted the body, and the shot had snapped a hole straight through
the deckman's cylindrical body.
_____At first, it seemed as if the hit had done no damage. The deckman just kept riding
along the street. But when it approached the next streetcorner, it didn't turn. It didn't stop.
It just drove itself right into the next building across the way--the impact making for a weak
THUD of steel against wall. It bounced back, began hovering slowly backwards. Luckily,
all the cars were off the street... No, wait.
_____What was that sound? It was coming from way over there, down on the streets.
Something was coming. There was a squeal of screeching tires and the sound of a heavy
engine roar to match. Everyone looked at an approaching truck--coming from the west.
Because the setting sun's glare was in everyone's eyes, they couldn't really see where the
Hell truck had came from.
_____But they sure knew where it was going, no question about that! They saw that big
dark vehicle go ROARING full-speed ahead, flames shooting out from its big exhaust-pipe.
The night-colored vehicle was rumbling right for the deckman's hovering weapons platform.
Then there was a BLAST of shattered metal and broken parts. The dark truck had simply
rammed its way right through the robot and its weapons platform--somehow without causing
the weapons to explode.
_____Then the truck just kept going, undamaged even after it had obliterated the deckman.
But even as it went right past this building, they could not really get a good look at the
vehicle. The truck was just so dark. And the sun was still making for quite a glare, making
it look blurry. Before long, the vehicle was gone.
_____"WOW!" exclaimed Judy. "That must have been one piss-angry truck driver! I always
thought they were all safety conscious. Thought they were even a little bit like cowards or
something. Guess I know better now!"
_____"What the...? Well, I don't care if he did obliterate one of those deckmen," commented
the blond enforcer. "That was crazy and stupid! If our sector survives this stupid bounty hunter
raid, I'm going to talk to the transportation dispatchers and...!"
_____"Our sector WILL survive," insisted Judy. Facing away from the sunset, she explained.
"We're going to beat all the bounty hunters. Melchezedek is malfunctioning, sending in a
handful of crazies armed with nothing but outdated weapons and ruthless tactics." She
reached into her dark jacket and took out her own small weapon: a small and extremely
efficient ceramic-round handgun. "And all we have to do is look out for those pink chef
hats and blue scarves." CRACK! "Damn it, Joe! I was TALKING!"
_____Joe smirked a smirk that meant, So what? Then he resumed. CRACK! CRACK...
CRACK! He was shooting again. This time, each one of his shots knocked down a bounty
hunter. An entire group of them had wandered by these evacuated urban streets, wondering
about the explosions and the destroyed deckman. It was too easy to just point and shoot the
bastards. Pink chef hats and blue scarves...! All of them were wearing chef hats and
scarves!
...
2.
...
_____Lissette dressed herself in black athletic shorts and matching lycra top before leaving the
lab, her long dark hair tied back with a circle of yarn--dark footwear on her feet. She climbed
up the ladder and felt upward. Instead of quickly opening the hatch, she paused and listened.
There were no sounds coming from above, other than the sounds of the wind. Above this
lab was a night club that was closed until all the bounty hunter craziness was over. According
to the text messages from Feng-Long, most people were staying off the streets. And all the
neighborhoods with the most dangerous fighting had been evacuated completely. So, of
course, there would be no one at this night club.
_____At least most of the fighting was over. The messages also said that most of the bounty
hunters had been--themselves--hunted down. Just maybe, Zalem's master computer shouldn't
have ordered that they all wear pink chef hats and blue scarves. And those deckmen, they
were blasted as well. The streets shouldn't be too dangerous now...
_____They shouldn't be, but Lissette wanted to be sure. That was why she was getting up
out of this lab--going up out to the surface to have a look-see. So she pushed up the hatch
and climbed up, bringing her into the kitchen of the night club.
_____Someone had left the light on. Then, quietly, she lowered the hatch. It now looked a
lot like the rest of the floor. A person had to look very carefully to see it. That done, she
walked out of the kitchen, into the main room of the night club. The plain white lights were
on and extra bright out here, making this place seemed abandonded and dead. The lights
were usually dimmed and multi-colored when the customers were here--on the dance floor,
sitting at the side-tables or at the drinking bar. Music would be thumping. Everyone would
be drinking and having a good time.
_____But not now. No music was playing. All the people were gone. And the full bright
lights--florescent white--gave this temporarily abandoned place the look and feel of a morgue.
With the wind blowing and howling outside the door, it even felt like one. Lissette carefully
stepped across the hard dance floor and between some of the tables to reach the exit.
...
_____The gloomy outside was a contrast to the sharp and bare brightness of the night club
inside. Outside, the dying light of day set the cityscape in reddish-orange tones. The sunset
was deep and orange, lighting the cityscape in soft glowing tones. This day was getting later
and darker. It would soon be over, all of it. The violence, the murder, the screaming and
the killing... Lissette heard none of that. Everything seemed so quiet and calm--maybe too
calm as there were no people in sight. There were no bounty hunters: no cyborgs in blue
scarves and pink chef hats.
_____There were some executive cars parked on the sides of the street, the dimly lit empty
streets. The wind was picking up. A random gust nearly knocked her over, making her long
dark hair flap like a banner in storm. She had to stand with feet apart to keep from ending
up on her back. When the wind did die down a little, she took another look around to be
sure that there were no bounty hunters. There was no one around. And all the bounty
hunters were being forced to keep on those pink chef hats.
_____Miss Patsun's building--or what was left of the structure--should be about six blocks
away. By now, it was very likely that most of the structure was trucked away along with most
of the bodies. Lissette was told that Miss Patsun was killed when her building went down.
She just had to be sure. It was hard for her to believe...
_____Lissette crossed the abandoned street and turned right. Walking along, the hacker-girl
expected to see at least some people. Her eyes would glance to the sides and to the street.
Expecting to see someone, anyone. But there was no one around here. There was just the
howling winds blowing among the buildings, wind rushing along the streets. It was going to
be dark in about an hour, the sunset still burning low on the horizon. Hmm... A pretty slow
sunset, she thought to herself.
_____R-R-R-UMBLE...! The sound of a heavy engine made her quickly turn around. It
was a black truck, moving fast and motoring along the street--its exhaust pipe spouting flame.
When it roared past, the big thing was moving so fast that she felt the breeze of its passing,
even from here on the sidewalk. She had also felt the heat from its flaming exhaust. Damn,
she had never seen a truck do that!
_____It was soon gone, probably heading for somewhere else in the city. And things were
quiet again. Lissette wasn't sure, but she didn't think she saw anyone up in the driver's seat
of the huge dark vehicle. Must have been a trick of the light, she thought. Then she went the
rest of the way to the location of Miss Patsun's office building.
...
_____From across the street and half a block away, lit by the deep reddish glow of sunset,
Lissette saw someone kneeling on the rubble and doing something. A girl with long red
hair, light glinted off the metal of her body. The girl was a cyborg. She seemed very busy
with something. Could it be...?
_____Lissette made a quick light jog across to that side of the street. Indeed, the workers
had trucked away most of the building. Now the debris pile looked especially flat. She
raised her right hand and opened her mouth to give a greeting to the cyborg-girl...but hesitated.
The thing that the cyborg-girl had, that was a gun.
_____The dark-haired girl was now looking on a scene of obscene horror. The red-haired
cyborg was doing all sorts of dangerous things to the gun. Her lips wrapped around the gun's
she was sucking on it. Then she tried blowing it. She finally put the thing to her head and
tried to pull the trigger... Nope, the gun was still jammed.
_____So she would try sucking and patting the gun some more. Apparently, the cyborg-girl
must have been doing this for some time now. It was a good thing she didn't know much about
guns. If she did, she would have disassembled it, cleaned it, reassembled it...and successfully
blown out her own brains.
_____Getting over her shock, Lissette drew a deep breath into her lungs. She paused,
gathering her strength, then let loose with as loud a shout as she could. "SERA! STOP IT!"
_____"Hmm?" Sera paused, the barrel in her mouth. That was just long enough for Lissette
to dash over--yet again showing how unusually fast she was for a fleshie. The girl seemed to
become a blur of speed with trailing dark hair. The gun was SLAPPED out of Sera's mouth.
Flecks of synthetic saliva ppattered out, and the handgun bounced along the rubble.
_____Lissette tried to stop quickly, instead stumbled and rolled on the rubble. When she
did, she was crouching on one scraped knee wet with redness. Both knees were scraped.
But she saw the gun! The dark-haired girll hopped quickly over to it and grabbed it up.
Red wetness dripped down her smooth calves from the damaged flesh of her knees as her
quivering fingers held the handgun.
_____Sera slowly stood, her head bowed and hair shadowing her face. The fiery light of the
dying day made her red hair seem even redder. "Give me the gun." She put out her left hand,
palm up. "I need it."
_____Clutching the gun even tighter, Lissette slowly shook her head. She was surprised when
something warm and wet splashed against her hands: tears. Then she realized that she was
crying. Sniffing once, the girl answered. "No, Sera. I won't let you." More warm wet tears
splashed down during the moment of silence that followed.
_____Sera's voice sounded harsh and damaged within her artificial throat. "I said... Give
me the fucking gun, you bitch." She clenched and unclenched her waiting hand. "My family
is waiting for me... Can't you hear them? When I die, I can be with them. So give it. Or shoot
me yourself, it doesn't matter. Just listen to them in the breeze."
_____Just as those words were said, the wind suddenly pushed a little harder. Lissette
narrowed her eyes and tilted her head to the side, as if straining to hear. Listening very
carefully. All she heard was the wind, howling of the wind in her ears.
_____"I don't hear anything, Sera. You're tired and upset, so you're not thinking clearly.
Why don't we go over to a nightclub and talk this all out. Besides, there's nothing beyond
life. If you die, there will be nothing there. Nothing but NOTHING. Trust me."
_____Sera closed the hand she was holding out, the hand waiting for the gun. She then slowly
lowered her arm. The winds became angrier, suddenly picking up powdery waves of dust
and grit from the rubble they were standing on.
_____The wind stopped blowing as if holding its eternal breath. It was now quiet enough
to hear spoken words, though there was still the faint churning and humming of industrial
machinery off in the distance--still running so close to nightfall. Sera's words were as sad as
the sunset happening right now. "You... You won't give me the gun? Then... I'm sorry, but
I will kill you for it." Then Sera began to take slow steps towards Lissette--footwear crunching
debris that still held bodies of the dead. Fierce gusts began to blow again.
_____Above the renewed gusts of wind, Lissette shouted to be heard. "LOOK! I'm trying
to be friendly! I don't know you too well, but I'm still trying to reason with you!" she shouted.
"Are you LISTENING to me?"
_____Apparently, Sera was beyond any listening at this point. Lissette tried to turn and run,
but the debris was too unstable, making her stumble. No, there was no running from this one.
She tossed the gun behind her and took up a fighting stance as the cyborg walked within
striking distance. The girl didn't want to kill Sera, but she would defend herself.
...
_____Lissette thought it ironic that she so happened to dress herself in dark athletic clothing.
She had dressed this way so she could better blend in with the oncoming night. And the tight
Clothing was tight enough to allow quick movement.
_____Good thing, because Sera's first attack was a backhand-fist that moved fast enough to
cut air, a gray blur. Lissette had seen the blow coming, tried to block with her forearm...
THWACK!
_____A fleshie trying to stop a cyborg's strike is like trying to stop a piece of factory machinery.
Lissette was sent flying for a second, knocked sideways. She landed on her back--hard on
some concrete, stunned for a second. Damn, this concrete was HARD! Sera really was
trying to kill her; the blow nearly ruined her arm! Now Lissette was pissed. Her right arm
feeling shaky, she stood again. That cyborg moved over to Lissette's new position.
_____Thump! WHACK! The first kick made Sera double over, a blow to her armored
midsection. And the second kick snapped across her head. It brought her to her knees, her
eyesight becoming a dazzling red haze thoroughly sprinkled with many sparkles of pain.
_____Lissette brought herself back to a basic fighting stance--arms up and legs apart. But
when Sera did not get up, she lowered her arms and stood normally. "Stop this right now,
Sera! I was the one who taught you how to fight, remember? I know all of your kickboxing
moves. But if we still have to do this, I... AIGH!" She shrieked in surprise as the cyborg
grabbed her around the thighs.
_____Struggling and straining, Lissette was brought down. For the second time this fight, her
back was slammed onto the concrete chunks of the rubble pile. But that wasn't the worst of it.
The cyborg still had a painful grip on her legs. Then the cyborg began climbing on top of
her, the weight of a metal body pressing down on her hips... Then down on her midsection.
_____Sera was using her metal thighs to clamp Lissette's arms to her sides. The dark-haired
girl struggled while the cyborg reached for a particularly sharp and jagged piece of concrete
debris. The sun was getting low and there was a lot less light to see by, but Sera's artificial
eyesight let her find what she was groping for. With her right metal hand, she gripped
Lissette's chin and pushed back her head. This exposed her throat...
_____Oh my God, she wouldn't, thought the girl. Then she felt the horrible pain begin
at the side of her neck. Then she could painfully feel the jagged sharpness being pulled
across, coming across her throat. As the jagged piece of concrete cut across, so did the
pain! THE PAIN BURNED! The hurt and suffering filled her head and spread throughout her body
for some seconds, then began to fade...
_____Red wetness sprayed up like a fountain. It splattered all against Sera's face and
chest. She still sat astride the girl, the bloody shard of concrete still gripped in the left hand.
She waited for the girl to stop struggling...
--This is an INSERTED PAGE--done on Wednesday.
_____The girl's body relaxed and went still. Sera climbed up off of the body, feeling oddly
relaxed. So she had killed again. And killing felt even better than before. She looked at
the shard of bloody concrete. It felt good and strong in her left hand. Maybe she would find
another fleshie walking by and use this again.
_____Somewhere in the back of her mind was something--or someone--telling her to stop
this. This was the thinking of a monster. A monster kills people. A monster finds innocent
bystanders and ends their lives in blood-soaked ways. Monsters live off of pain. Or, so said
the little voice at the back of her head.
_____But, being a monster... It felt so good. Looking at the shard of bloody concrete, the
cooling city winds whistled past and fluttered her long red hair. These were the winds of the
sunset--the winds that came as the darkness of the night continued to approach. And when
it was dark, it would be easier to find a firm-bodied young fleshie and cut... And mutilate....
And eventually KILL.
_____Thoughts of cut flesh and high-pitched screams filled Sera's mind like the effects of a
sinister wine. As she stepped off of the rubble pile and away from Lissette, the young cyborg
thought about where she would hunt first. The border regions of this sector were a good
place to start. There were a lot of fleshies around there, and they had plenty of children. Yes,
children... They would struggle wonderfully before dying. So the gunshot was a complete
surprise.
_____Sera stopped walking and looked down. She saw blood pouring from the jagged,
star-shaped hole in her metal chest. Funny, it didn't hurt. She slowly brought her right hand
to the edges of the damage--even dipped the tip of her index finger inside. There was just
so much blood. Where did...?
p2
_____The second shot spun her completely around. It was as if the shooter was saying,
Behind you, stupid! Sera saw the holder of the gun, backlit by the blood-red horizon. It
couldn't be... The Dream Woman?
_____What the Hell? No, it was Lissette there again--her large dark eyes glinting. The
discarded gun was in her right hand, pointing in this direction, the barrel smoking. This was
an impossible sight. The girl was standing there with a terrible and bloody cut across her
throat. Even by the dimming reddish light of the fading sunset, she could see how ruined
Lissette looked. All the blood...!
_____The girl should have been dead. Her blood everywhere. Her blood had gushed up
and out... Sera remembered how it sprayed, gushing from a cut throat. Even now, from the
neck-down, the front of the girl's body was slick and wet with dark red. It soaked the front
of her sports top and flowed down her bare-midriff, dripping down her legs. You should be
dead, thought the cyborg. You shouldn't be up and alive.
_____One more loud sound struck through the night air, slapping Sera's head backwards.
And she felt herself falling backwards. Things were moving so slowly that she felt as if
she was flying. When her back hit the concrete debris, it seemed to take a long time. It
was like she was lying down to sleep.
_____Impossible, she tried to say. But her artificial lungs couldn't press enough air through
her damaged throat. Sera thought about trying to get up. Instead, some sparks came out from
her chest, along with some blood. It hurt at first.
_____Then it began to feel relaxing. Slowing and relaxing... Dying wasn't so bad. She felt
herself falling into the warm darkness that waited for her. And she could hear her little sister
and brother laughing and singing, coming closer along the breeze. Then the darkness of
death closed over her like a billowing bloom of night-colored smoke. The smoke blocked
out everything.
...
3.
...
_____The sun was now below the horizon, the smell of factory smoke and riot fires now
gone stale. All the light of today was now a deep crimson glow on the western skyline.
But most of the sky was dark, some of the streetlights flickering on. Night was coming on
the winds.
_____Lissette stood on the rubble--gun in her right hand, fingers of her left hand over her
red-leaking throat. She was standing on the rubble, waiting for Sera to get up. The cyborg
went down too easily. All of those sparks and spurts of blood... At least she died
peacefully.
_____Sera had to be dead. All of the shots rang true, hitting their mark. The cyborg was
dead. So Lissette dropped the gun, clattering on the chunks of broken concrete.
_____Then came the strange smoke. It was an oily, dark cloud that began to billow up from
where Sera lie dead. And it was beginning to spread. Where it was coming from, Lissette
couldn't tell. She didn't want that weird smoke touching her! By the light of the streetlamps,
she made her way off of the rubble and onto the more-solid sidewalk. "Uh!"
_____She had tripped and fallen, further scraping her knees. Sucking in air, she managed to
get unsteadily to her feet and walked away from the smoking pile of rubble with its unknown
smoke.
_____Now she was beginning to feel it, the heat... She felt as if she was burning up. Her
injury was beginning to make her suffer. This was all the more reason to hurry back to the
computer lab to treat her bleeding somehow. She couldn't go to a hospital. It had to be the
computer lab.
_____Would she make it back in time? Lissette thought about trying to run or jog, but that
would heat her up even more. And all she could do now was a quick walk. Any faster,
and she would...fall...over...
_____And then she was down again, looking up. She must have blacked out for a few
seconds, or minutes. Maybe an hour. It was hard to tell how much time had passed, since it
was still night. At least she was feeling a little cooler now. So...
_____She brought herself to her feet and got moving again, passing a few more blocks
through the city streets. It was still quiet around here. But, off in the distance, she could
hear cheering and shouting. There must be a party. But what could they be celebrating?
She moved on, thinking about that crowd. Something good must be happening. That, or
she was mistaking the sounds for fighting. The cheering could be the shouting of any remaining
bounty hunters far away.
_____Hmm... Such a long way. Her thoughts were becoming prolonged and dizzy, neck
still leaking. Her sight was covered over with a slight gray haze, and she was feeling weak,
hot and dry all over. Each one of her steps was a little thud of pain through the numbness.
_____She just kept walking. One foot in front of the other... That's it. At least there wasn't
so much bleeding now. Her athletic clothes were already a mess. She would probably have
to throw out the whole outfit! It would go in the trash, probably recycled somewhere. Then
she would go downtown and buy some more. That is, if there still would be a downtown. The
bounty hunters and the deckmen had blown up a lot of shops. They probably blew up a few of
her favorite places!
_____There was this really nice lady who ran this great little boutique across the street from
a warehouse, a lady who always knew what to look for in storage. Such a nice lady... She
was probably asleep right now--or up and worried about everyone. Lissette wasn't sure, but
that boutique lady had cyborg sons or something who worked the plastics reclamation facilities
on the far side of this sector. Yes, keep walking along.
_____Still walking. She was still feeling sickeningly hot, but she still kept walking and thinking
distracting thoughts. About that lady... The lady's sons were probably cyborgs. She didn't say,
really. Humans became cyborgs whenever their bodies became too ruined with pollution or
violence. Flesh was replaced with metals and plastics. Electromechanical bodies, those are
hard bodies, reliable bodies--a lot more reliable than living ones. Lissette's body was synthetic
flesh over a titanium skeleton. Synthetic skin covered over, with polymer strands for hair
and ceramic eyes.
_____The pain, the burning... Lissette shook her head and kept walking on. She had to
keep her mind on something else, like her friends. Which one of her friends would have to
become a cyborg first? Sam was the oldest, and he sometimes complained that his fingers
and feet were "getting bad." He even had internal cramps and had to use the side-room's
bathroom a lot some days--a sure sign of some internal organs beginning to fail. As the city's
toxins kept building up within his body, day by day, he would get worse.
_____Just keep walking on. She did not have too much farther to go. One more city
block. And...! Coming around the corner, now she could see the night club. Thank
goodness the lights were still off over there. That meant no one was in there; the club was
still closed. Good. She began to walk across the street.
_____The sudden rumbling sound surprised her, the sound of a truck. Twin headlights
appeared to her left. She was feeling too hot and dizzy to run out of the way. All she could
do was hope that the truck would slow down.
_____It did. There was a squeal of brakes as it slowed to a stop. The bright twin headlights
blazed onto her, bloody from the neck-down and feeling dazed, paused and waiting. The
truck didn't run her over; that was good. But the lights were just so damned bright.
_____Footsteps approached, and someone put her arm around his shoulder. That someone was
helping her over to the door of the night club. This was the right place. Underground, in the
computer lab, she could be fixed up and made better--a comforting thought as she went
unconscious. She was just feeling so damned hot...!
...
_____She slowly opened her eyes, felt herself on a hard and flat surface. Bright worklights
overhead, she sat up on the table. There were wire leads taped to her head and right wrist.
The burning and dizziness were gone, as was the "blood." She was now dressed in a light
sleeveless blouse and shorts--no shoes. The burning heat was gone. In fact, she was now
feeling a little chilly.
_____"You're awake! Goody!" cheered the skinny, purple-haired girl in thick jacket and
shorts--gold eyes full of delight and happiness. Her breath made cold puff-clouds in the
frosty lab air. It was Kela, standing next to the table Lissette was on. Then she took on a
more stern tone of voice. "It's about time! Your processors were cooled to optimal for a
full ten minutes!" She began to wag a finger. "I don't care if you DID lose sixty-eight percent
of your secondary liquid coolant. The hardware for your personality subroutines ought to be
able to handle higher temperatures than that! Jake and I had to do..."
_____"WHAT!" shouted Lissette, hopping off of the table. Unlike Kela, Lissette's breath
didn't make for cold-air puff-clouds. That was because she wasn't really human. "You let
JAKE work on me? Now he knows! Why did you have to tell him! Oh my God...! If he
knows, then someone else will probably know after that. Then EVERYONE'S going to
know! They'll make me into somebody's property when they find out I'm not a real person.
That I'm synthetic. They'll try to cut me open to see what my insides look like. Then they'll
try to use my parts to make toys or..."
_____Kela squinted her eyes shut before letting loose with a massive shout. "WILL YOU
SHUT UP FOR A SECOND!" Lissette did. "I mean, GOSH! Okay... Jake was the one
who got the e-mail and found you standing in the street, looking like a real mess. That big
gash in your curculatory capillaries splashed your coolant all over your clothes. Yeah, if you
were human, you would have been dead six times over! Jake helped you down to the lab.
You're just lucky Sam wasn't here too."
_____Jake then stepped out of the side-room, into the cooled lab. The right side of his tee
shirt and jeans were blood-stained... No, that wasn't blood. It was some of Lissette's
spilled coolant, which was designed to look like blood. His hands were covered with more
of the same drying liquid. "Huh-huh..." he chuckled, giving Lissette a thumbs-up.
_____"See?" said Kela. "He ran full remote diagnostics on your BIOS firmware while I
fixed up your neck. Then we had to pump some spare coolant into your veins. Had to fix
your knees, too. It took hours, AND we did it while the lab stayed cold enough to cool you
down. You're just lucky all of our computer labs have backup supplies and parts for you.
_____"Then after ALL that, we had to drag you over to the shower to wash you up and get
you dressed. You may have a nice athletic-looking body, but you sure weigh a LOT! All
that myogel muscle tissue in those legs of yours..."
_____Lissette walked over and gave Kela a hug. "Thanks. Thanks to you and Jake. You
saved my life, even if I'm not really alive." Kela's hands went to Lissette's back as she returned
the embrace. Jake chuckled just before he fell unconscious. Kela also went unconscious,
slumping in Lissette's arms. They were taken into a dream...
...
_____In the Other Place, all of those in the surrounding darkness were giggling and
whispering. As the wind howled through the dim gloom, they continued to mutter and speak
in low tones about what was happening. Oh, things were getting good--really good. Something
else was going to happen... Footsteps clicked through the darkness, the sound of high heels.
_____The footsteps soon came to a stop, and hands reached for a chair. The chair was pulled
out from the table. Then there was the slight creaking of a tight red leather dress as firm hips
flexed in sitting, followed by the sound silky sound of bare legs crossing. There was a sudden
flash of light, and the spotlight shone down. The Dream Woman, dressed in the red leather
dress--was seated at a round wooden table. Her blood-red eyes glinted, reflected the
shininess of the table's polished surface.
_____As caused by the events happening in the city, her transformation was nearly complete.
To complete her change, she needed something... She turned her head to the side, and
something came out of the darkness--an electric upright vacuum cleaner. No one was touching
it, and no one was pushing it. The electric vacuum cleaner could move on its own.
_____When it approached the table, pieces of something clattered onto the table. These
were angular shards of cast metal tinged with powdered redness. Put together, the pieces
would form a metal bowl. But not now: the bowl was broken.
_____"This will have the taste of pain," she said to the vacuum cleaner. The electric vacuum
cleaner said nothing in response. But those in the darkness made low laughter and whispered
comments about what she meant by that.
_____But they went silent when the Dream Woman began to do something. Her delicate
fingers grasped a piece of the shattered metal bowl. Closing her blood-colored eyes, she
opened her mouth and brought a piece to her mouth. She was somehow able to get the
entire shard in, swallowed. It was quite a lump as it traveled down her slender neck--going
into her body.
_____Then came another piece of the metal bowl, swallowed in the same painful-looking way.
Those in the surrounding darkness whispered excitedly about what was happening now.
They and the electric vacuum cleaner were witness to the Dream Woman consuming the
pieces of the shattered metal bowl. One would have expected her to cut her thin delicate lips
on the shards--hurting herself somehow in doing this. Expected blood to come dribbling from
between her lips. Instead, the blood poured down her long hair and dribbled from her eyes.
It really was painful, but a GOOD kind of painful. It was the pain of change.
_____When the final piece was swallowed, Sera had put it into her mouth--because Sera
was now sitting exactly where the Dream Woman was. Her dark eyes stared out from her
own face. Long red hair cascaded down her back. Sera now wore the red leather dress.
_____"I want my SMILE-COLORED CONTAINERS!" she said aloud. "Blue hats go
good with white hair! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha...!" She tilted back her head and opened her
mouth, letting the laughter echo from within. Still laughing, she took two little strips of red-flavored
gum from nowhere and gave it to the electric vacuum cleaner.
...
_____Lissette was sitting on a cushioned chair when Kela and Jake suddenly got up from the
blankets on the floor, the pillows still impressed from where their heads had rested. Lissette
had set the blankets and pillows to make the two comfortable while they lie unconscious.
She didn't know why the two had fainted.
_____"What's up, guys?" she asked as the two teenagers got up and found seats at
computer workstations. "Uh, hello...! Would you two PLEASE talk to me? You're acting
especially creepy. It's bad enough that it's so quiet and abandoned outside... What are you
doing?"
_____The lights flickered and there was the sound of buzzing electricity. Both computers
came on, hacking programs up and ready. But Lissette didn't even see the machines boot up.
She wondered, What the Hell is going on here? Kela and Jake began using the keyboards
to tap in a series of commands. Lissette had a look at the computer monitors...which showed
program coding she had never seen before.
...
_____The technician in blue coveralls was slumped at the monitoring terminal, his dried eyes
bulging and mouth hanging open. He was dead for some hours now, head caved in from
hard blows. That was not what killed him, though: His "brain" was actually a hexagonal chip
deep within his generally empty skull. The head injuries didn't kill him, but the bloody pipe
jammed through his chest had done the job.
_____Yes, the pipe did its job, but the technician would no longer do his! This technician's
purpose was to monitor the temperature and output of this fusion reactor--one of several in
Zalem. Yes, the fusion power plant was literally IN Zalem: deep within the structure of the
vast floating city. Though the master computer of Zalem began to totally malfunction and
spout nonsense, he continued to perform his function of monitoring. And even as the streets
of this floating city burned with the flames and chaos of rioting, he would keep at it.
_____He kept working until his artificial brain--the hexagonal chip--became weary and he
had to sleep. Wild-eyed rioters infiltrated this area and killed all the technicians, killed the
man while he slept. Then the rioters smashed all the machines they could find.
_____So he didn't wake up. So the rioters did their damage and went elsewhere to do more
things! Here lie the murdered technician at the monitoring terminal: the cracked monitor now
showing a great deal of blinking red graphs and WARNING signals.
_____Ah, Hell... Now the WARNING signals were getting very serious. A small picture
showed flames coming out from cracks in the fusion containment core. What did he care?
He was dead.
_____All the while, the riots continued to ruin the wonderful floating city. Melchezedek, the
mighty master-computer of the floating city and the world's factories, was caught in a whole
series of logic loops, checksum errors, I/O parity malfunctions, short-circuiting problems and
a great deal of other mess. Centuries of little and minor irrepairable problems deep within the
computer's hardware had built up... Continued to build up. Then there were the hackers
who sent in some computer viruses that Melchezedek could not stop. Now the grand and
mighty machine was as dead as that technician slumped at that monitoring terminal--unable
to do anything about what was happening.
_____As dead as the monitoring terminal...whic began to beep! All throughout the complex,
warning klaxons and automated emergency announcements made frightful declarations
about all kinds of nightmarish problems happening RIGHT NOW. But the rioters didn't
care, their now-unregulated chip-brains full of violence. And the dead people--dead from the
riots--didn't care either. Then came the overload when this fusion reactor went critical.
...
_____There was a white, bright spherical explosion in the night sky. It was Hellishly bright
and hot. For a few moments, it was like having a second sun to light up the darkness--lighting
up the junk-covered landscape below. It was metal junk for hundreds of miles, piled up into
clunky mountains and flat chunky expanses stretching into the horizon. Everything was visible
around here, and it felt hot. It really WAS hot, as hot as a summer day. Then came the
shockwave, reaching the ground.
_____Junk was blasted and strewn about. It blew away mountains of junk and metal trash,
shoving and spreading waves of debris. Anyone scavenging for spare cyborg parts around
here was killed. Luckily, this wasn't the main population area. Random large pieces of
Zalem would come crashing down for several weeks to come after this. Indeed, the master
behind the world-controlling Network was dead.
...
4.
...
_____The next day, late afternoon, Lissette stepped into one of her club's favorite drinking
places: The Turning Wheel. Extensive reconstruction in some parts of town had been going
on all day. Large trucks had been moving back and forth, carrying away debris and bringing
back building supplies from warehouses at the edge of this sector. But the day's work was
done. Lissette herself had spent some time personally overseeing reconfiguration and repair
of some pretty expensive computer setups--damaged during the fighting. Thank goodness
the raids were over quickly. Now, showered and dressed in blouse and jeans--small purse
over a shoulder--she was going to relax with friends.
_____She stepped into the dimly lit and well-packed bar, the warm lights illuminating the
noisy place. Damn, this place is crowded. Lissette looked around, saw most every table
full of people. And the drinking bar itself was packed, every high stool occupied by a
fleshie or cyborg. The bartender and servers were quickly hustling drinks all over the place
and making plenty of chips. But where were... Ah! There they are!
_____She saw her closest friends sitting at one of the tables to her left, talking to someone.
It was hard to tell who they were talking to from here. Besides, Sam's chubby self was
blocking the view. She stepped between tables and dodged a few waiters in getting over to
there.
_____Kela waved and smiled as Lissette came up to the table. Lissette had a look at who
everyone was talking to at that table over there--a surprisingly pretty girl. Her long hair was
combed straight back from a smooth and beautiful face: a face with delicate features and large
dark eyes. Her creamy skin-tone was offset by the blue blouse she wore. Beneath the table,
her slender legs were covered to mid-thigh by a simple red skirt. Somebody is fooling with
my mind, she thought as she stared at the girl.
_____"Well, have a SEAT, Lissette!" demanded Kela, her gold eyes twinkling. "You're
lucky we were able to save a place for you!" So Lissette did, slowly sitting down. That girl
shouldn't be here, she thought. There was no way at all she could be here. It was absolutely
impossible.
_____A waitress came up to the table--her metal body mostly concealed by the semi-formal
uniform worn by the staff of this bar. "Welcome to The Turning Wheel, miss!" she said
above the chatter of the small crowd. "What will you be having?"
_____"I'll take a light wine for now... I suppose," she said. The waitress nodded and walked
away. And she locked eyes with the girl sitting opposite her right now. She thought back to
yesterday, how she painfully fought with Sera and had been nearly "killed." She remembered
the way her heel struck the metal of Sera's neck machinery--the throat. Sera was a cyborg,
and Sera died as a cyborg.
_____Sam looked left and quickly raised a hand. "Hiya there, Lissette!" He took a sip of
red-colored wine with his left hand, gestured to the red-haired girl to his right. "The young
lady here is named Sera. She came to this part of town when the trouble started yesterday.
An' now she's looking for her family."
_____"Yeah, that's right," said the red-haired girl. "I haven't seen them for a really long time
because we've all been distracted. You know, from work and everything. Life is really
distracting." She took a drink from her glass of red wine. "I work nights and sleep most of
the day. So it's hard to visit relatives. But didn't I tell you this before, Lissette? About two
weeks ago or something?"
_____Lissette was quiet for some seconds, Sera matching her stare. How could she best
answer this? "Yes, you told me already. I just thought that you would have found them
already," she said. Found them after you DIED, she thought.
_____"What? Hey, NO FAIR!" whined Kela. "You didn't tell me you two knew each other!
Lissette, why didn't you tell me you knew somebody THIS COOL! Yeah, yeah... Did you
know that she can do magic tricks with her MIND? I don't know HO-O-OW she does them,
but they're really cool. Show her, Sera!"
_____The waitress came back with a glass and two bottles. "I wasn't sure of what you wanted,
Miss. So I brought you two light wines. Wine coolers, really. They're both good: Everyone's
drinking these two varieties tonight. So..."
_____Lissette took out six credit-chips of moderate value. "Leave the apple-red here." She
paid the waitress, and the bottle was left on the table. Then she poured herself a glass and
listened to Kela rant a little.
_____Obviously, Kela's enthusiasm was helped along with a little too much to drink. The
purple-haired girl was often cheerful and talkative; now she seemed annoying. And what was
there for Lissette to see?
_____"A magic trick, you say?" asked Sera. "Oh, okay... Let me think about this. Gimme
a sec." She half-closed her dark eyes and bowed her head. Then Lissette began to feel odd
and slight pinpricks all over. It was the feel of static electricity building in the air, which didn't
feel good to a humanoid robot like herself. Then the light above the table began to flicker,
and slight breezes swirled around this table. Everything seemed to go quiet for some seconds,
and Lissette was beginning to feel light-headed... A sure sign that high electrical interference
was tangling with her processors.
_____"No, I can't do it with Lissette," said Sera, breaking the odd moment. Everything had
returned to normal. The red-haired girl gave a weak smile. "I suppose it doesn't work with...
Uh..." She stared hard at Lissette. "Doesn't work with certain kinds of people... If you know
what I mean."
_____"It's still pretty creepy," said Sam. "I SWEAR that the girl can read my mind if she
wanted to. And she made the lights in this place flicker too..." He looked over at Sera.
"Hey, you've gotta teach me how ya do that...if you're gonna be in this part of town for a
while."
_____"Huh-huh..." chuckled Jake, taking a drink of his beer. He had been quiet all of this
time. Then again, that was nothing new for him.
_____Sera looked down for a moment. Looking carefully enough, Lissette thought the girl
was listening to something. She looked up and smiled. "I'm not sure if that's possible, but...
Maybe some other time. Let's talk about something else, please?
_____"Sure! Why not?" said Kela, putting down her drink. She put her skinny elbows atop
the table, rested her chin in her hands. "Hmm... I KNOW! Let's talk about our jobs! Hey
Lissette, what're we gonna do for cash now, HUH? Like, Zalem's been TOASTED or
something an' all the netmen have stopped tryin' to connect this sector. For all we know,
maybe all the netmen, like, ALL DIED when Melche... Melche..." HICCUP! "Whoops!
You know what I'm talking about, the big master computer-thingy... Um, what was I saying
again?"
_____"You were talking about your job," said Sera. "How you work with computer-machines
or something. That sounds pretty complicated. Hmm..." She reached sideways and wrapped
her fingers around Kela's wineglass. She sipped, returned the glass of red-colored drink to
its original place on the table. The lights over the table flickered... "Oh, I understand now.
You're all network hackers. You can infiltrate servers and mess up the coding "
_____That's funny, thought Lissette. She thought Kela was drinking beer before--not red
wine-cooler. But there it was: a perfectly shiny glass of dark red drink. Hmm... She tried
to reach for it, touch it, see if it was real.
_____"Oh NO YOU DON'T!" blurted Kela. She then downed her entire glass in one solid
gulp. Then the incandescent light over this table flickered... "We've been really close
friends and all, Lissette. But we're not THAT cool. Anyway, don't you...have your own
drink right there in front of you?"
_____Before Lissette could answer, the lights flickered yet again. Kela sipped her...beer.
BEER? Then Sam spoke up. "HEY! Yeah, we're hackers. Still are, I bet. Feng-Long
needs people to keep its computer networks up. And if they DON'T pay us... Heh-heh-heh."
_____"Wait a minute, guys!" said Lissette. "Hold it! Kela, don't take another sip. Sam,
put down the wine. Jake, don't say ANYTHING... And YOU, Sera, stay here." Everyone
at this table stared at her. "Something really screwed up is going on. Sorry, but I just
can't take it anymore. Kela, weren't you just drinking wine? And what's up with the lights?
Sera, I've seen you somewhere before. You were a cyborg."
_____Sam looked sideways at Lissette, his face blank. Kela's mouth hung open, her
sunrise-colored eyes wide open--a facial expression that meant, HUH? Jake started to
chuckle just as all the bar's lights began to go out completely. "Huh-huh-huh... Huh-huh-huh..."
...
_____While darkness covered everything else, this table alone was lit with a spotlight from
above. This glaringly white spotlight seemed to heat the table, making the polished surface
gleam. Sera sat here, three bowls of oatmeal in front of three seats. Two bowls of oatmeal
were plain; one bowl was cinnamon-flavored. There was no bowl of oatmeal for whoever
was supposed to sit opposite Sera. The pile of sand on the seat was silent.
...
_____She opened her eyes. Yes, everyone was still staring at her. "Hey, Lissette, are you
okay?" asked Kela. "It was like you weren't here for a second. After this, Joe and I could
check you out, make sure that you're working fine. If you know what I mean."
_____"That's okay," said Lissette, getting up from the table. "I... I think I'll go take a nap or
something." She took some credit chips out of her purse and put them atop the table--next
to the glass of wine-cooler. "This ought to cover the tip. See you all later." Then she turned
and began to walk away.
_____A gentle but firm grip closed over her left shoulder. A metal hand... Sam's left hand,
beyond the sleeve of his black jacket, was metal. He was already on the way to becoming
a cyborg. It was yet another thing that Lissette hadn't noticed before.
_____Sam spoke. "Why're you leavin', toots? Sera's just getting started!" he said to her.
Lissette gasped when the metal hand squeezed. "Don't you wanna hang around and see
what else she has to say?"
_____"Not now. Please... Please let me go." said Lissette. Sam released her shoulder, and
she quickly stepped away. She didn't know what was going on. All she knew was that she
had to get out of here before something else weird happened. Flickering lights, randomly
changing drinks, and Sera sitting at the table. Sera, who was supposed to be dead.
...
_____With bodyguards standing near the wall, Mr. Yin sat at a grand dinner table with
Ayame Suzuka--a rather elegant, attractive, and intelligent woman. The slim female was
clad in a dark gown that left her smooth shoulders bare. He thought her eyes to be like
deep dark jewels, her long dark hair like brushed strands of black silk.
_____She had more than mind enough to match her beauty, her smooth sweet voice gently
flowing with the words from her delicious mouth. "As I have said, the idea of an alien culture
being succintly human is an absurd notion. Beings from another world or from an alternate
universe would be very much unlike us."
_____Mr. Yin pressed his palms together. "Ah, Ayame... Yet we cannot put aside cultural
relativism. All people are the same in some way, because all people are PEOPLE. The
ancient works of science fiction, such as STAR TREK, depict alien beings as just different
versions of humanity."
_____"Such science fiction was deeply flawed and ignorant," countered Ayame. "All of the
so-called aliens in STAR TREK were all actors in low-budget stage makeup, all of them with
the same language and the same attitudes. All of the 'aliens' behaved exactly like Ancient
Europeans! In the real world, people in the next country over speak a different language
and see the world in a very different manner. How can alien beings be the same and familiar
when even we humans are dissimilar from each other?"
_____Mr. Yin looked somewhat crestfallen at this point. This went against everything he wanted
to believe about humanity. He wanted to believe that all people, anywhere, were all basically
the same—even if they did come from somewhere else. He wanted to believe that, somewhere
beyond the sky and among the stars, there were people who were essentially human: more
human than the waste and the scum that inhabited THIS planet… Yes, he listened to what
Ayame had to say, though it hurt to do so.
_____She continued her explanation. "Think on it for even a moment. Human beings of
different lands are different from each other, so how could beings from somewhere else
behave almost exclusively like Ancient Europeans? Beings from outer space or an alternate
reality, would be so fundamentally different from human beings that they would seem
bizarre."
...
_____Lissette stopped walking at the streetcorner. The inside of the bar back there may
have been well-lit and noisy, but out here was more quiet and dark. There was just the
sound of the occasional passing car and some cyborgs walking by in the city night--pools of
light created by florescent street-lamps.
_____Strangely enough, she began to hear birds, the sound of birds. Looking around, the
synthetic girl was vaguely confused. She HEARD the sound of birds on the wind--but could
not see them. All that she saw were the night-darkened streets and the hard concrete
buildings. Some of the buildings stretched up to the infinitely black night sky above.
_____Chirp-chirp-chirp... Birds? Then there was the rapid flapping of wings overhead, up
in the infinitely dark sky above. Lissette looked up, but saw no birds. So where the Hell
was that sound coming from? As she stood there, neck arched back and face looking up,
some of the streetlamps began to flicker off.
_____Something was going wrong. The lights in the building windows began to do the same.
Flicker-flicker... Wink! One by one, the city lights began to wink out. Before long, there was
sheer and deep darkness, only punctuated by pools of light beneath the streetlamps.
...
_____Back in the bar, Sera seemed to be all alone--seemed to be, but wasn't. She had the
shadows and the oatmeal to keep her company. The bowls of oatmeal were atop the tables.
And the shadows were all around, standing in the darkness. She had called up the
darkness.
...
_____Outside, the city lights were still going out. Oh God, a power outage, thought Lissette.
She had never seen a power outage before, but she knew what it was. She decided that it
would be a good idea to get to her nearest computer lab and hide before the panic started
or it was too damned dark to see. Then the streets would be dangerous, full of panicking
cyborgs and humans. Panicking cyborgs were the worst: People with metal bodies, worried
and angered, they would go running through the darkness and doing damage to anyone or
anything in their way. All because of the power outage.
…
_____Yes, she had done it again! The inside of the bar was very quiet. Spotlights shone
directly down on each table--bowls of oatmeal gleaming in the white illumination. Sera tilted
back her head and opened her mouth, laughter rippling from within her. She could laugh as
loud as she pleased; the bowls of oatmeal wouldn't complain!
…
_____But...why now? Why were the lights going out, even after decades and centuries of
reliability? Maybe it had to do with the floating City of Zalem blowing up. Zalem's destruction
only happened yesterday... Would there be more power outages now that Zalem was no longer
up in the sky, controlling things? After all, the master computer in the floating city was able
to regulate most of the utilities. Maybe it also regulated the fusion power plants... Zalem
was able to regulate a lot of things. Not anymore, though. Somehow, Lissette got the
idea that this wasn't an ordinary blackout. This was something else... She started to run.
...
____"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha...!" laughed Sera. She had all the nearby bowls of oatmeal on her
table now. There was no need for the other spotlights in here. So, with a thought, she turned
them off. A spoon appeared on the table, and she picked it up. All the bowls, they were all
faintly flavored with cinnamon now! And when she ate them, they would all be delicious!
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha...!
_____As she laughed, blue smoke began to billow out from the darkness beyond the
spotlight. She then raised her spoon and dipped into a cinnamon-flavored bowl of oatmeal.
Someone screamed when she did that, the spoon penetrating the mush. She though it funny,
how oatmeal could scream when being eaten.
...
_____Lissette stopped running, stopping beneath a rust-poled streetlamp. At least now,
she could let her body cool down. She could run a lot farther than a real human, but her
synthetic muscle tissue tended to heat up after prolonged rigorous use. And standing in the
pool of light made her feel more comfortable than running through the vast spaces of
darkness between the streetlamps.
_____Flap-flap-flap-flap-flap-flap…! Another vast flock of birds flew overhead in the
darkness. And the wind continued to how through the night-darkened city. There was
also the truck... Somewhere nearby, there was the black-painted truck. Its engine could be
heard right along with the sound of the birds...in the wind...
_____The birds and the truck! Why couldn't she see them? And why was it so dark?
Lissette's visual systems were a lot more powerful than even cyborg eyesight. She should
have been able to see the buildings and the street beyond the bright lights of the streetlamps.
Should have!
...
_____"Furthermore," continued Ayame, "even if they did choose to speak our languages
or disguise themselves as human beings, they would still be bizarre due to linguistic translation
errors and omissions. For one example, we are speaking English at the moment--though I
speak Japanese with family, and French with some other friends. I am sure you speak
Mandarin Chinese at times: You still have your accent. Notice how some of our behaviors
and words are lost in translation!
_____"Therefore, due to innate linguistic and differences, visits from alien beings who come
from another planet or an alternate reality would be like a dream...or a nightmare. In fact,
visiting them through dreams and nightmares may be the only way to hold company with
them! For goodness sake… STAR TREK!"
_____At this point, Mr. Yin looked up, saw that Ayame's fine cheeks were flushed with
frustration. She looked even more ravishing that way. "Ah... Ha-ha-ha..." he gently
laughed. "Yet how can you even be sure of that, my dear? There is no solid evidence of
human beings visiting other-worldly beings from Another Place. Through dreams, abduction
or otherwise. What you say is logical, but merely based on conjecture and analysis. How
do you know?"
_____At this point, Ayame brought her right hand to the front of her slender neck. Her fingers
traced a very faint line of a scar across her throat. Years ago, a killer had cut her and run
away, chased away by neighbors. But the cut was shallow and she had lived--after a period
of unconsciousness and darkness: The cut only nicked an artery in her neck. Meaning, she
had come close enough to death that she lived to tell about it. "Trust me, Yin," she said.
"I have been to…Another Place. The people there are darker than you would know." Then
the restaurant lights flickered and went out.
...
_____Frightened, Lissette continued to run through the darkened city. As she ran on, running
in the spaces of darkness between the lights, she would get an occasional whiff of cinnamon
in the air--immediately followed by the smell of blood. And sometimes, she would hear
birds. What the HELL was happening?
_____The gloom and darkness was all around, filled by the sound of the wind and the
occasional sound of birds flying in the dark starless sky overhead. The rapid rhythm of her
running feet accompanied her off into the light-spotted darkness. There was a lot more
darkness than light.