Καλλιόπη

Chapter 2

2010-03-12T19:03:00.002Z

She stopped in her movement and tried to anticipate the course of the drone, solely focusing of the sounds. The humming grew sometimes a bit louder, then quieter again. She gave it some thought and then decided that the drone was probably an advanced autonomous model, randomly making its way through the urban canyons. If she would have had her equipment right now, she could have monitored the bursts by the drone, tracking them to the security node, which in turn quite possibly was part of the hideout she was supposed to find. However, those were thoughts in vain. Her “luggage” was due to arrive at the green apple in only two weeks time, at the North Pacific Skyport.

But she had time. She better kept her head down until she had her tools at her disposal. As for the drone, there was nothing she could do about it right now, and her signature had probably been picked up not only by that one, but by several ones by now. Drones tended to be encountered in groups, a single drone was usually not very effective – at least, not against her. Neia just hoped her ID was as safe as Fleur had assured her, and that Fleur had forwarded the ID on time. Neia picked up her slow pace and started making her way back to the hoverbike she had rented upon her arrival. Some meters further on she finally spotted the drone from the corner of her eye, and with a thought switched the recording option in her cybernetic eye on. The drone was too far away to make out any specifics, but she would review the recordings later with her equipment. The little ball of white ceramic looked innocent enough at the distance, gently readjusting the solar panel wings every now and then to compensate for the shadow of a cloud.

Back on Io, such a method of powering a drone would have been impossible. The constant storms and gravitational pulls from Jupiter made pretty much everything relying on fusion energy. It was more than amazing that the green apple – Earth – had made such a recovery. When fusion energy had started to become a more or less reliable technology, which actually produced more energy than it needed to keep the magnetic fields up, Earth had been an ecologically ravaged planet. Catastrophic floodings, droughts and earthquakes had become commonplace. Petty governments fought petty wars over dwindling resources. Epidemic diseases spread faster than ever before. Nonetheless, enormous advances in all sciences had some become rich, and other so powerful that at some point, the known economy and governmental structure collapsed.

The Megacorps emerged, and immediately formed the NEG. The New Earth Government then set its eyes on the stars…which were pretty much the beginning of Neias world. “Or maybe the end of it all?” she mused. The masses were more than happy to volunteer for the colonization projects. The prospect of free healthcare during the journey in the colonyships alone was more than enough to motivate most. The base on the moon, expanded several times and now known as Luna 1 to Luna 12, colonization of Mars, and then the outposts further on, on Ganymede, Europa, Callisto, and Io, circling the big one – Jupiter. Hell, Io.

Those could have been synonyms. Neia would remember her year on Io forever, and all the guys who died there. Rationally, she could understand the importance of an outpost there, and the immense effort that had been necessary to establish the tiny rafts there, floating on Io’s surface, avoiding the constant eruptions and earthquakes, and even more importantly, Jupiter’s radiation in the flux tube. Rationally, a lot could be explained and justified. She just hated that place. Once, she had met some miners from deep in the Kuiper belt, and even they acknowledged that Io was ‘Galaxy’s asshole’.

In that moment, Neia envied those miners. They had been on leave at Mars, and seemed to have an incredibly good time –

“Neia. What a lovely surprise.”

Fuck. Even though the voice was quite robotic, she recognized it immediately. What the Hell was HE doing here? ‘Come on, where’s your trademark accent?’ she thought. Fuck. She prepared herself mentally – an attack was imminent. I’ll kick your ass this time…

As he turned around the corner, she couldn’t help but hold her breath. She really had an excellent taste in lovers and enemies.

***

“Doctor? Doctor…sorry to disturb you, but I think this is really urgent and you will surely pardon me for waking you up…”

Kat slowly opened her eyes and tried to ignore the nagging voice of her assistant. She was still on top of the ocean, and by the looks of it they had just passed the Atlantean research stations near the midatlantic ridge. She could see the Algae farms stretching out below, and the purple shines of the habitats. Which meant that she had only slept 3 hours, including the naps during the holobriefing and at the skyport. She had especially booked a normal flight, in order to get a bit more sleep than with the suborbital semi-ballistic flights – even though she enjoyed those more…less turbulences. At long last she had a look at the display from which she didn’t stop receiving polite, but more and more urging requests to end admiring the scenery but to focus on some DNA chains rotating on screen.

But those were interesting indeed… She wiped them in front of her, enlarged them and extracted some genomes, and finally send them over to the holographic pile of 3D-models she would use in her speech. This was a new era. Doctor Kawashima would be pleased. She admired the white and black speckles below her, the Canadian Shield. Like a painting, with a white canvas, and lots of black lines and dots and splotches, which were the abundant rivers and lakes. Fifteen minutes later she was escorted to the main Arc lift.

This speech would be awesome.

Arrival:Seattle (Chapter 1 of the community-based novel writing project)

2010-03-05T11:33:00.000Z

She just couldn't get rid of the creepy feeling. Neia had almost forgotten how it felt, getting goose bumps not out of cold but rather...feelings. The peaceful atmosphere around here didn't match - the sun was shining, mummy nature was giving her very best to look sexy. In the distance, some kinds of bees or wasps were gently humming.

Still, this place was dead.

Looking around, she had difficulties believing that this was once a thriving city, on the cutting edge of society. For the first time, she experienced the full effect the nanoblast must have had, when was that again? One hundred, two hundred years ago? Those towering pillars, coated in reddish limestone, those must have been buildings. That huge phallic structure, a tower...they used to call them skyscrapers back then...an ancient radio tower maybe? She had learned about the incident at military school. Many details were classified (to the public) still, probably due to the fact that UNATCO had used nuclear 'seeders' in a desperate attempt to confine the relentlessly self-replicating nanites to the city’s core. No one knew how many lives were taken by the nanites, and how many by the seeders. In the end, the town was so utterly depopulated that humanity had never again attempted to rebuild it. As for the nanites, they simply stopped. They may have run out of organic mass. Maybe they were primed to stop after a certain amount of time. Now, Nature still had difficulties reclaiming the town. Which made for either a quite depressing large scale piece of surrealistic art, or a perfect place for wealthy people to hide, or enjoy their wealth, depending on the point of view.
This was why she was here.

She gently shook her head, as her eye had started to hurt again. That was her only flaw, she thought, that cybernetic eye. Sure, it had all kinds of useful techie stuff cramped in, especially for her current line of work, but it made her vulnerable. To all kind of things...the static white noise she got every time when she passed through skyport controls were on the nicer end of flaws. And it looked crap.
She could have upgraded it, to a concealed version, or one which was just a tick less prone to failure and interferences or better wired to her synapses. Instead, her version was just the standard Information-gathering-unit-officer-gets-harshly-wounded-and-we-will-pay-recompensation-military-lawyer-style eye. It looked so unhuman that on some evenings, she really wanted to rip the thing out just in order to find other real humans who wouldn't freak out at the first sight.
But she kept it, as a reminder. Emotional value. Back then, on Io, when she was still a real galactic freshie. Reminders of those others. Sophie, with her obsession of science. Everything needs to be provable, she used to say, amidst her quotes from various reports, newsbursts and scientific priority beepers, telling of some new breakthrough on asteroid xyz. Bo, always calm, always polite. A good companion. Stef, the psi of the unit, appearing out of nowhere, listening, disappearing, reappearing again...Laure, who packed the hardest punch but had the broadest smile, and made those funny cookies.

She wondered about herself - usually Neia wouldn't get into nostalgia. Nostalgia could make her sad. Nostalgia could make her vulnerable. She wouldn't allow that. She couldn't allow that. Unprofessional. Even now, her heartbeat had gone up - only for two bpm - and her epinephrine level had risen slightly, she noticed thanks to her cybernetic eye. Full of techie stuff. She smiled.

The humming got louder. That weren't bees. Nor wasps. That was the sound of a drone, a small one, she reckoned. She had arrived at the right place.

*****************************************

The Votings were: 3xSciFi/Thriller; 1xNon-fictional report.

The rules: Vote on Facebook for a theme in the timelimit. Read the results first on Facebook, then here.

Feedback welcome.

Firebird (1999)

2007-12-22T09:13:00.000Z

One old song, from my time with SNOP.

The night is cold and dark
the falling rain chills
the stars show up a shark
his teeth are blades for kills

the picture is scratched by another
a burning bird from hell
maybe the sharks big brother
another room in life s shell

REF1:
My gods have burned to ashes
my faith has turned to dust
I seek the truth that smashes
firebirds tales of bloodlust (x4)

Ref2:
Firebird, firebird, just a flame in the sky
Firebird, firebird, kill the magic seven
Firebird, firebird, you burn so high
Firebird, firebird, first scar of heaven (heaveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen....)

~~~

I can't remember the other three verses correctly. The verses of Ref2 were interchanged later on in the song (e.g.:...magic seven/...in the sky/...so high/...of heaven).

Yeah I know, it's horrible:D Just a bit of nostalgia, hopefully I've developed a more elaborate style since then:D

PS: If any old bandmembers are reading this by chance, I'd be glad if you could tel me about the correct structure we had for the song, and especially the other 3 verses.

Mind the Gap....

2007-12-11T13:04:00.000Z

Much clicking ahead...think of it as some kind of advent calendar:D

FR:
Air Berlin. Stanstead. Terravision. Victoria. Oyster Card. Tube... and MIND the Gap! Big Blue S.
On the Run? Pakistani weddings - Chiswick Park. X360:D.

SA:
Tate Gallery (Oh that rocked so much). Shibolleth. Spiders devouring St.Pauls (I hope it's St. Pauls and not Kings Cath...I dunno...). Skylines...why the hell do I have to have such a soft spot for Skylines at night? Superb Guide through the Tate's free exhibitions. Art quizzes (I suck;) ). Central London by foot. Everything looks red-sun bright when you've got the right person at your side to talk to.

It's not a church, it's a court of justice! Nice little house on the corner (I'm never going to find it o the web....). Londoners on the streets everywhere. Soho. (Stephan: I just found that there's a theory after which my speculation about the name may be right:D) Excellent extra-small vegetarian restaurant ;). "Just pick a pub, they're all the same". Cidres and an 'interesting' music-mix. Sadly but finally: Follow the bubbles to the Eros:D
1664 vs. Heineken (or something, can't remember).

SUN: Brick Lane. Cool Food Court. Strollin'. Sir Drakes Ship. London Dungeon. Lots of coffee (for me). Hot chestnuts:D . Trafalgar Square. National Gallery. Tower(s) of London. Tower Bridge vs. London Bridge. Reuters Open Air photo expo. Bus. Big Ben in the distance. Christmas Tree sponsored. China Town (sort of). Sad Goodbye in the Tube.

SUN Night: Back and forth by tube to Victoria. Bus to Stanstead - and ALL god sleeping places there are already taken!!! Oh well. NDS + FFIII. Coffee, lots of it and then some more (coffee).
Finally a whoppy flight back, and the weather here sucks.

Stephan + Steffi, I tip my hat to you! Thank You so much for that weekend, interupting your plans to show me everything in that short timespan, and showing me the

'London Magic'!

I sincerely hope to see you both again as soon as possible!

Intro for Project Decisions

2007-07-27T20:15:00.000+01:00

I post this here because it's more in the literature section, but it's meant as a preliminary draft to the elusive 'Project Decisions' (more information about this little baby of mine can be found here).

Also please remind yourself that this is in no way meant to be the final 'intro' for the game, it's more like a flesh-out of the setting and could probably be used as a voice over during the intro (of the game).
-----------------
(A female voice reads the following text while we see a male person, after having bought the 'newer history' pyramid, walking past huge statues towards his home. Those statues, unknown yet to the player, have a strong ressemblance with the actual protagonists of the game.
Everyone else the person encounters seems extraordinarily friendly, a lot of smiles can be seen. The settlement seems to be rather small, no cars or other means of transportation seem present. The settlement has been planned carefully with enough parks and fountains here and there, and in fact the settlement is so clean that it's almost sterile.

The technology level seen is slightly futuristic, but very close to actual standards of living, especially concerning architecture and housing. No skyscrapers can be seen, as well as no apparent law enforcement whatsoever.

Sometimes some kind of 'futuristic shield' can be seen flickering in the background of some open places, obviously shielding the settlement against the extraordinary bright sun. The whole thing should ressemble a lot the current 'habitat' projects.)

In 2051, the world was on the verge of total collapse.

Some reasons for such sinister fate were overpopulation, an extended climate crisis and the rising threat posed by terrorists.
Economically, the most important change was the uprising of multinational enterprises which grew also to political power and established huge Con-Arcs, basically whole cities in just one building, complete with shops, sleeping facilities and of course working areas.
Those Arcs were the enterprises' territories, with established laws and paramilitarian security forces. Thus, some of the biggest enterprises became factual nations inside not only one nation, but many more.

(During that voice-over the man arrives home, and inserts the 'newer-history' pyramid into his holographic projector. Pictures illustrating the voice over can be seen, slowly growing, until they fill full-screen the user's monitor.)

However, our world changed due to an incident we today only know as the 'Szou-Shou' incident.

(The narrator voice is considerably changed, going mournful.)

We still do not know the exact circumstances which led to this incident, nor exactly who and in which role took part. The following is only a version most people today agree to.

For unknown reasons, although there are rumours that a resource conflict might have been the main motivation, the United States of America blocaded the port of Szou-Shou, China on the 10 September 2052.

Threats were exchanged, international lawsuits filed, and many other nations or organizations, such as the European Union, Japan, Russia, the Union of South American Nations and more were forced to take part in the upcoming crisis.

It is today proven that apart from the nations the top 8 multinational corporates also took part, even if that fact is today still denied by those corporations. Their role, however, is even more unclear than the one of the nations.

In November 2052, the port of Szou-Shou was still blocaded, and the atmosphere was tense. The whole world held its breath in anticipation of a war - a multinational one, waged with nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. As the first shots were fired, it was only a matter of time until the first nuclear warhead would be launched...

And every human being on the planet faced the fact to be annihilated, in a conflict that might as well have been born out of a simple misunderstanding.

(The narrator voice gets considerably happy here.)

Nothing happened.

The fighting was stopped almost immediately.
It is not known what exactly made the hostilities stop in such a definitive way.

The only thing we know is that the visitors showed themselves.

It must have been a frightening, impressive sight. It is known that a secret meeting was held at the International Space Station, and interestingly enough, no nations leader was invited.

Instead, delegates from the top 8 corporations attended. It is unknown what was discussed, but upon their return two days later the USA withdrew from the chinese sea, and the crisis was solved.

What followed was the most dramatic leap in technology humanity had ever experienced.

(The pictures now show a dramatic change throughout nowadays life, the camera flies through the different levels of a city towards one Arc of a corporation, infiltrates it via an air duct and ends at the menu screen - the lab, with guards in the forefront (mousepointer) , the 4 tubes in the background, and engineers as well as doctors in between (Controls screen, options, start game respectively)

(the voice goes back to her 'normal' narrator level)

Unfortunately, the new technologies came at the cost of the majority of the population. The chasm between rich and poor was never as extreme as it was.

Another result was the incredible dependence the nations worlwide experienced towards the corporations. This led to the anticlimax of the nations regarding their importance in every aspect.

But new hopes were bred, starting from a place no one would have imagined, unveiling our future...

which is our present.

Project Decisions

(Fade to menu screen)

---------------------------

...to be continued...let me know what you think about it!

Purrfect Desktop for writing

2007-07-02T14:39:00.000+01:00

:-)