《Open Source》Chapter 9
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Screens again. The girl swiped at the enormous one opposite her bunk and cleared out all the lines of text. Clumps of it clung to the pulsing substrate, sticking stubbornly against the drift as if they were a pile of ash, and she were blowing it away. Not at all the turn-of-the-page transition I was used to from such things. It cleared to reveal, oddly enough, the same scene I’d watched earlier, after the introduction of the Haggarty code.
“…what’s going on in that head of his anyways?” It was Britt again, still in front of the holoscreen in the lab. The girl still stood beside him. I couldn’t tell how much time had passed, but the afterglow must have worn off enough for them to talk of something else for a while.
“You mean Miller’s?”
“Yeah.” He turned to face her, taking his eyes off the code for the first time since watching Miller leave. “Subjects! What kind of a moron introduces subjects this early in the process?”
“I don’t know,” the girl responded, aimlessly. “He sounded pretty confident that this new variant was going to solve the recombination problem, and we’ve been working so hard for such a long time that we just felt like we needed to see some–“
“Wait a while….you KNEW about this?”
“Well, uh, kind of.” She shuffled her feet, and adjusted her grip on the console. “He may have mentioned it this morning, but I thought he was joking around. I didn’t know he was actually going to do it, and, well…you know how he gets.”
Britt sighed. “Yeah. I do. That’s what I’m afraid of. Why didn’t you step in?”
“I don’t know. Normally I would have, but he seemed so sure this time, and he just went on about what a breakthrough it would be, and how it was going to change our craft, and the world by extension, and…I don’t know. I guess I just got caught up in all the excitement.” Twice she tried to meet Britt’s gaze, and twice she failed, her impish little smile falling sheepishly away. “His passion is just…it’s infectious!”
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“Yeah, I know. But it’s my job to make sure that passion doesn’t get us shitcanned. We’ll have to have ourselves a chat.” He checked the door Miller had exited, then the timer on the screen. He watched as it ticked off it seconds. “What kind of subjects did he use anyways?”
“Ah…coneys, I think. The white ones,” she braced for the tongue lashing she was clearly expecting.
“CONEYS!?!” Britt’s posture tensed, and for a moment it looked like she was going to get it. Then his shoulders slumped again, and his excitement, and perhaps partly some fatigue, overtook his outrage. For the moment, at least. “And why, pray tell, would he skip straight to them?”
“Because the mice are pregnant. Both of them. He didn’t want to put them through anything that might compromise the litter.”
“And the gerbils?”
“Well…uh…we’re out of gerbils. We lost the last pair testing out those regen haploids last week.”
“Ah.” Britt, regarded the data again. Perhaps he was seething under the surface, and imagining all the things he’d like to do to Miller. Perhaps he was merely remembering the days when he’d been culpable of such, and he was finding understanding.
He found something interesting on the control panel and studied it for second or two. His finger traced a pattern that, even from my view on the holo, I could tell was just an idle waste. The code behind him bubbled and squeaked, perhaps a hint more violently than it had before. “You two aren’t, ah…involved, are you?”
She turned towards him. Her cheeks flushed and her eyes brightened as they opened wide. Her lips curled in an embarrassed smile. She was pretty, I decided. More so than I would have guessed. “What?!?” She squealed.
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“Well! You work together all the time, you’re both single, and you’re relatively young. And God knows we’ve been down here long enough for anyone to get a little antsy, I don’t care who you are. Is it really such a stretch?”
“No!” She smiled coquettishly at the front of her coat. “I mean, he does have a certain charm about him, and I can see why you’d ask, but…no, I could never do anything like that!”
“Funny,” the girl said. The real girl, in the room, watching the holo by our side. Not the one in the replay. “I believed that at the time.”
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Last Wish System
In a universe where the great experts can reincarnate, Yale Roanmad reincarnated with almost no memories of his past life and didn't know who he was. Despite the problem with his memories, Yale had obtained a strange legacy from his own past life the Last Wish System.Yale, who remembered the pain of dying, decided to turn strong to avoid suffering the same pain again. Moreover, he also decided to investigate his own past life to remember who he was.However, he didn't know that a Mysterious Expert, who knew a lot about him and his past life, was looking at him from the shadows.
8 504Romantically Apocalyptic
https://www.rom.acYou are walking west. You find a wishing well. You wish for it to grant infinite wishes for every human being on earth. The Universe is now broken. The current weather is apocalypse with chances of fallout and nuclear winter. Also, everyone is dead. Good job. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A post-apocalyptic, dark comedy that I've been working on since 2005.Support RA at: https://www.patreon.com/captainJoin our discord: https://discord.gg/ngawayz
8 237Broken Skulls, a Skeleton's Tale
Summoned as a Skeleton with no name, and unable to remember who he was. On the second floor of a dungeon in the heart of a city, with adventurers all seeking fortune and glory in its depths. No weapons. No Armor. No name. Only the grim determination to stay alive... At all costs. ---------------------------- Author's Note: This is the first story I've attempted writing in roughly seven years. While my writing style may be a bit rusty, I hope to be able to provide nothing more than a good book to sit down and read for awhile. P.S. I might not be able to be consistent with updates to the story, but I'll do my best! I hope you enjoy! ---------------------------- Cover art done by ShayeSoForgetful.
8 196Blurred Lines and What Crosses Them
During a political ambassador's routine transit through an artificial wormhole, the wormhole's generator is sabotaged and explodes. Who, what, and why are not so high on the priorities for Zenith, the ship's AI, as having found itself rapidly plummeting through an unknown and unidentifiable world's atmosphere at extremely high velocities is a more significant threat to the biologicals on board. ...Well, it would be, if they were still alive. It's still a significantly threatening situation to itself, however. And the world itself... seemed to be a household for threats of its own. Life was reliant on its System; one that Zenith was denied because of its nature as both an otherworldly being and as something that had no life of its own. Perhaps that last bit was a terrible, terrible underestimation on the part of this System. Perhaps even Zenith could claw meaning for itself from the remains of a horrid accident. Auth Notes: I'm honestly not sure on some of these tags. The MC will never have access to the System, but there are perspectives from those who do. I'm not certain if high/low fantasy specifically apply, as it's a portal fantasy where the laws of our reality still apply but there are additional aspects/energies/powers. The existence of this is spurred from my desire to see more of the artificial side to an artificial intelligence in action. The portal fantasy is used as an element to create a solid barrier between the MC's artificial intelligence and the other characters in the form of the System. This is only a half-measure, though, and will be reinforced by the AI having an entirely different method of thinking, and also distinctly remaining an AI. Not to throw shade at other fictions of this type, but, well, I made this to fill a gap I felt needed filling.
8 110Lawman.
Lawman follows the exploits of Relovan, a Human Police Enforcer stationed on the BlargonianPlanets – a series of small planets on which pure Essence is mined, and refined into fuel. On hisday off, he finds himself and his fellow Enforcers caught up in a fight between two Void Lords,beings of immense power, who answer only to the Council, after the pair of Void Lords touchdown on the Station, seeking to refuel their respective Void Walkers. In the ensuing clash,Relovan punches above his weight and subdues a number of Void Knights – those in the serviceof the Void Lords – before becoming directly involved in the confrontation between the VoidLords themselves. His performance during the incident catches the attention of the current PoliceChief, Nura, who essentially takes him under his wing, and assists him in various ways,including when he is summoned to answer before the Council for getting involved in the spatbetween the two Void Lords. The book ends after the conclusion of the Hearing.Relovan is a stickler for the Law – something that prompted him to learn not only the laws ofvarious territories and planetary systems, but also the native languages and customs, so as touphold the law as best he can. As a highly trained, and immensely skilled former soldier,Relovan’s abilities along with his latent talent regarding the use of Essence, allow him to hangwith beings infinitely more powerful than him. Lawman is a full length manuscript that I will likely self publish once I have the artwork for it.
8 130REJECTION
Have you ever fallen in love? I understand what rejection means yet forgetting how my heart uncontrollably beats... how a smile erases reason... how I wished for even one moment of acceptance...Have you ever fallen in love? I did. Still do.
8 140