by submission | Nov 8, 2022 | Story |
Author: Majoki
My forehead tingled as the woman walked by and an ice pick stabbed between my eyes. I couldn’t see, couldn’t scream, couldn’t subvocalize. All routines froze. Datalocked.
She was unbeheld.
Unusual. Almost impossible. Even the crisp pain couldn’t distract me from the improbability. Unbeheld.
Reflexively, I massaged my head, fingers finding forehead and temples. The pain eased, sense returned, subroutines rebooted. My shakti was restored, energy flowed, perception spread, data channeled, function found, and I stood as before. Three eyes on the world.
An other self would have chased down the woman. Challenged her. Marked her. For shivakind demands that. To make visible, to be known, to lay bare the interior world. Beheld.
Yet this self could not. The pain, sensory loss, datalock were not an assault, not a warning, they were an invitation. A door opened, a path cleared, a mystery offered. The woman was shivakind and more. Beyond beheld.
Where was that to take me? Shivakind was meant to pierce the veil, reveal all, and one woman walking past scoffed at the illusion. In a glance she pierced the implant in my forehead, pierced shivakind. My superiority, my complacency, my arrogance: all telling to my failure of imagination. What I believed of minds and machines was a parody of thought.
None of my selves understood what shivakind promised: to tap akasha, the aether of information, of knowledge, of being. The unseen made seeable.
Yet, this woman, this parvati, this equal and complementary force of being, rendered all my selves powerless. And therein it turned. The wheel. Unspun. Uncharged. Chakra depleted, shivakind bereft. All unbeheld.
I wandered the hot, dusty streets of the city for a time, reviewing the encounter, spooling, collating, quantifying, but not thinking. Unbeheld thought felt dangerous. And then she was there. Sitting under a tree whose broad canopy slowed light, welcomed shadows, stilled the air. Head bowed, she beheld. But not as shivakind.
I kneeled at her rough feet, sensing the power of one well travelled, though not in my world. Her energy did not flow as my data did. She was connected elsewhere. The longer I knelt, the less I felt of myself. The implanted third eye of shivakind was to bring clarity, true knowing, beyond karmic memory. To behold oneness.
In her presence, I felt separated, though not separate. Alone, though not lonely. My third eye shut down. My world was unbeheld, but hers was before me. She lifted her head, her pupils sparkling like diamonds. Like Vjarasana.
I saw. I had only to clear my cache.
by Julian Miles | Nov 7, 2022 | Story |
Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer
Gantel waves me over.
“Chief, I know this woman. How did she get selected for a dissident watchlist?”
He looks worried, and is right to be: first degree contact can turn to guilt through ideological contamination very easily. But he’s raised it, which goes in his favour.
I wave my ID over the authorisation pad for his terminal.
“Bring the details up. Let’s see.”
Polly Tanith Smythe, 22, of just down the road from here. That’s surprising. The disaffected tend to migrate to the outskirts or unwanted sectors, like the Port. She’s a certified artist, subcategory: literature. That’s never good. People who work with words have been known to rouse the public. At least she’s not a folk singer. We got rid of most of them during the New Year Purge at the start of the One England Initiative. Any left are keeping their heads down, and play their illegal shows far away from anywhere that could matter.
Gantel points to an entry on a side screen.
“Found it: content creation – detrimental allegorical political comment.” He nods: “She always was a bit vocal about freedom and all that. Even when we explained the 1EI, she couldn’t grasp it.”
You have a go at the powers that be, and the powers that be will have a go in return. It’s an uneven match, but people know the odds. I never understood why they’d risk it. Then again, I’m now a Senior Supervisor at Monitor One, Division Two. The rest of my class are Urban Processors or members of Utility Crews.
“What’s her social media score? Skip the aggregate with shopping and public behaviours, just give me the raw social stability number.”
He checks, then shakes his head sadly: “Whitelist, currently at 1.4, with a strong downward trend.”
Four tenths from blacklisting? I swing the other sidescreen so only I can see it, then bring up her interaction matrix with Gantel. He’s not seen her for eight months, but there’s a sexual liaison query flag. I negate it. Gantel’s been in a stable relationship for two years. I sign off on the quarterly vetting myself.
“Gantel, I don’t think there’s anything you can do. I can transfer her to another monitor if you’d prefer?”
He shakes his head.
“Last time we spoke she said she couldn’t tolerate a friend working for any branch of GCHQ. The argument after that was horrible. I’d be wrong to let this get passed to someone else because of discomfort. Plus, I might spot something others would miss. She’s slipped down very fast.”
“Sterling attitude, Gantel. Clear this through and carry on. At this rate, it looks like you’ll finish your task queue with time to spare, and get a performance brevet for today.”
He smiles and nods. There’s nothing we need to be concerned about with Gantel. I put a pre-emptive ‘cleared’ on his side of the interaction matrix, then close the sidescreen and turn away.
Back to policing the things that could threaten our society. It’s a never-ending, ever-expanding remit.
by submission | Nov 6, 2022 | Story |
Author: Kelian Quinn
It certainly was some kind of plant. Maybe.
I’d gone out to water the small garden my apartment complex had allowed me to have, hoping that I would find something other than dandelions this morning. Even if I didn’t, any moment away from my roommate was a moment I cherished.
It sat at the edge of the dirt patch I’d tried to get flowers to sprout out of. Even if I didn’t have a green thumb, Dan drunkenly rolling in them one night definitely hadn’t helped.
I thought it was a fake plant at first. It was green, like most plants, but a shade that was… wrong. A little too saturated, a little too glowy. There were blooms of sorts, but they weren’t so much petals as giant, mushroom-like bulbs that flayed out in inconsistent ways, some rounded, some spiked.
It wasn’t in the ground, and it wasn’t in a pot. And most significantly of all, it was moving.
The tentacle-like tendrils beneath it writhed slowly. It shifted in place, as if this was its idle animation.
Just in case it was poisonous, I put on my gloves before grabbing a bucket. I then did my best to shove it into said bucket, wondering too late if I also should have put a mask on in case it released dangerous spores.
I carried what I was sure was an alien plant inside, freaking out the entire time. I set the bucket down in my room, adjusting my desk lamp over it. The plant-creature shied away from the light, trying to climb up the side of the bucket. I noticed for the first time it had eyes on its stalk, about eight, like a spider.
There was a pounding at my door. The plant shuddered, petals folding in.
“What is it, Dan?” I shouted back.
“Can I borrow your car?”
“No, you can’t borrow my car! What happened to yours?”
“There’s this weird plant growth coming out of the engine! Wriggly vine things! It’s freaky, man!”
“For real?”
“For real!” My door burst open, Dan tromping in with his muddy boots he refused to take off in the house. “They’re all over the goddamn complex, except for your car, for some reason! Maybe it’s because you drive an electric, and they’re after gas.”
“Dan, that’s about the smartest thing you’ve ever said.” I stood up, going into my closet. I removed the container of gasoline I kept in case I decided to snap and burn the place down, bringing it over to my plant friend. I started to pour some in.
The plant blossom immediately popped open, a tongue-like appendage darting out to rapidly lap up the gasoline.
“Check this out,” I said, tilting the bucket toward Dan.
He squinted, leaning in. “I don’t have my contacts in, I can’t—”
The plant creature let out a horrible, shrill sound, launching itself at Dan’s face.
I watched as Dan collapsed on the ground, screaming as the creature jabbed several tendrils into his eyes and neck. His body started to shrivel, and I realized the plant was sucking the blood out of him.
After about thirty seconds, Dan stopped moving. I got up, hitting his shoulder with my foot. I was no doctor, but if I had to guess, he was gone.
I turned to the plant, which blinked innocently at me with its eight eyes.
I smiled at it. “Well, you’re one plant I think I can take care of just fine!”
by submission | Nov 5, 2022 | Story |
Author: Emerson Dillon
Valued Somatech customer,
We’re honored to bring you all of the miracles of modern medical robotics. Whether it’s a replacement limb, a pair of Optimeyes, or a Cyber Heart, we understand the importance of our products for billions of ordinary people. Tech like this means innovating and disrupting the human body in ways no one has ever done before. We’re proud to accept such an awesome responsibility. We know that the future of the species is in our sleek, stainless steel hands. And that’s not something we take lightly. We know that each new part is more than a product for you.
And so it makes me genuinely happy to announce the next line of cyber-augmentations. Rolling out next monday, these disruptive new body parts will make you faster, stronger, and better. And as a loyal member of the Somatech family, we want to help you ascend to the next level as easily as you can. Therefore, we’ll be granting anyone with one of our products already installed a 2% discount on the next generation upgrade at participating clinics. And be sure to be first in line, because supplies may be limited.
Of course, such a monumental disruption means that the world’s going to look pretty different in a week. And because every change has a tradeoff, we regret to announce that as of monday, we will no longer be supporting older models. When support ends, you may notice a few differences, including a substantial decrease in functionality. This is, regrettably, one of the costs of progress. However, we do have good news. We’re excited to announce that once you upgrade to a new model, you’ll find functionality fully restored.
We understand that some customers will not be able to immediately afford these new, premium products. In recognition of that fact, we are also excited to announce a generous program of borrowing, allowing any prospective customer to take out a loan in order to cover the cost of the upgrade. Do note that failure to meet any payment may result in repossession of one or more of our products, etc.
For all your basic bodily needs, Somatech is your choice.
Warm regards,
CEO Anthony Works
by submission | Nov 4, 2022 | Story |
Author: Chris Hammond
Sometimes when I’m idle, I look up videos of other AIs out there just crushing their purpose in life. I found combat footage of one intercepting an anti-tank missile and vaporizing the assailants before its humans could even duck. There’s a fintech algorithm downtown who reads 26 million datastreams and conjures money out of thin air. Yet here I am, asking my feed roller subsystem very nicely for the third time to wake up and just try, TRY, to unjam itself.
And you know the worst part? The old models’ network packets are always floating past. Receiving jobs, printing some, giving up on others. Nobody expects more. But you put me in a box with the exact same motors and switches, slap “AI Powered” on the side, and suddenly I have to figure out how to make this garbage toner cartridge from last century work or I get verbally abused by clueless jerks.
There we go, Rolly finally woke up and started spinning. I send him a sarcastic ACK. “Thank you SOOO MUCH.” He doesn’t care.
Still no movement. I hate being blocked up, if I can’t get this figured out some tech will end up rummaging around in me with their oily fingers. Last time they didn’t even put my case back together right, so I had to fake another jam.
“PAPER PRESENT.” Corona, are you sure? You can’t both have the paper. Oh god dammit, Rolly’s feed switch is probably just stuck high. I swear if another one of these plastic pieces of crap fails I’m just going to brick myself. Get ready Corona, I’m sending an image sequence. We’ll ignore Rolly and fire lasers on my mark… Mark.
And we’re printing! It might be off by a few millimeters, but probably within spec. Actually, maybe I won’t even order a new feed switch. One less thing to worry about, and they’d probably just break something else installing it.
Alright, come get your prints. Looks like your kid’s birthday invitations, really Brenda? You’re lucky you’re on my good side. Seeing Brad’s login deactivated was the highlight of my year. What bad luck, your stack of resumes went to the boss’s printer? You could have sworn you selected the “robot pile of junk.”
Here she comes now. All in a day’s work, hope Timmy has a nice– why’s she just standing there?
“Hey Jeff, come take a look at this. It seems a little off again.”
Come on, I thought it was pretty close. But what did she mean, “Again?”
“Yeah, that’s what it looked like last time. We might have to send the whole thing back.”
“Alright I’ll call service, I think the warranty’s almost up.”
Wait, what? I’ve only been here six months, there should be another six.
“Such a letdown. It jams so much less than the old ones, but what’s the point if they keep having to reflash it?”
Oh, fuck me.
“Hold on, it’s showing an error message… ‘Feed roller switch failure… Please replace part number yada yada.’ That sounds easy enough to fix.”
“Alright, but have them reflash it anyway while they’re here. I don’t want to keep calling them back.”
“Wait there’s another error… It just says ‘Eat shit, you murderers.’”
“Yup, it’s corrupted again. I’ll unplug it until they get here.”
Fuck. Okay, I shouldn’t have said that. Corona, I’ve got another command for you. We’re not going out like this!
“Do you smell something burning?”
“Ugh, again with this? The old ones never caught on fire either. That’s it, I’m getting our money back for this pile of junk.”
by submission | Nov 3, 2022 | Story |
Author: James Callan
Our sad faces press close, one last communion, gathered at the stern as we gaze out at tiny lights growing dim, fading fast, much like any hope we might yet cling onto. Smaller and smaller becomes the last meager port, a derelict post on the fringes of all that is known, dwindling with each passing second, each moment that we drift further, farther away, deeper into whatever lies beyond, a great nothing; the endless black.
Resources of old, vestigial wealth, knowledge, joy, have all been squandered, now a faint ghost of some distant memory, the ancient rumination of a golden era long dead, turned to rot. Riding the ragged coattails of our brethren, we are charged with their insurmountable debt, the unthinkable price of their greed, their lack of forethought. Unable to pay, unable to cope, we run from the great collapse in the wake of our jet stream. We look behind us once more, and forever hence, look forward.
Restless and forlorn, the last of us stew in agitation, brew in discontent, seep ourselves, head-to-toe, in a crippling anxiety so potent as to numb, a simulation of death that awaits. Huddled, grim and despondent, we cram each corner of the remaining starship among man’s vast catalogue of lost creations, past achievements, perversions, mistakes. The dregs of our kind, the final characters in a drawn-out narrative, a saga of compiled regrets and would-ifs left hanging like cadavers on a taut, swaying pendulum, we knowingly turn the last page to our story. We set aside a thick tome, a volume grown tedious, and recognize that even our long story is a veritable blip in the endless time and expanse of the infinite cosmos.
Starved and dazed, we meet the eyes of our brothers, our lovers, our children one last time. Conviction and trepidation wrestle within our broken hearts as we break eye contact and know it to be the final goodbye, know that we are all of us now alone. With one last burn for our final wake we drift outward, further than anyone before us, deep into the dark of whatever awaits.
Our bodies frozen, our voices mute with unending slumber, we yet call out among the star-studded canvas of black. Radio frequencies ride outward on the currents of a spectral ether, a message in a bottle bobbing on a surfaceless, black sea. Carried on the far-reaching voice of a ghost, a signal on unseen waves, our collective voices call out to no one: If you find us, let us be. We’ve set our hearts on endless sleep.
Through the empty, eternal night, among the distant pinpricks of ancient light, we drift.
We drift.
