introduction
Artwork for this chapter coming soon...
A woman talks on the phone to a friend, as she blankly looks out the window of her apartment.
"I told you he would," she said, as she looks out past the green, yellow, and red traffic lights shining almost transparently through her balcony window that consists of the entire outside wall, from floor to ceiling.
The traffic lights can only be seen from specific angles, such as from her perspective, where any other angle just makes the display look like a square of randomly appearing black and white dots, or visual static.
Suddenly, the light changes from yellow to green, and the sounds of static beat in unison with the green light, once a dull colour, now becoming quite fluorescent.
"My ride's here, I've gotta go, I'll see you in a few," she said, as the static noises became more frequent. "And make sure you don't bring that idiot," she said, hanging up.
She steps up on the balcony and gracefully falls off the edge.
As she's falling, a few drones fly in from different directions, and before she even has a chance to see how close she is to the ground, the drones have picked her up, and they hold each of her limbs, as she's whisked away into an airborne line of automated traffic while more drones surround her, and they form a comfortable seat, along with transparent windows that turn opaque just as they completely surround her.
A luxury ‘limousine' set of drones flies past her, and inside the very thick armour is a military man, explaining to another man in a suit, why they need to provide a new weapon to the corporation.
"We need the explosion clean, fast, and a small enough trigger to take out an entire floor on the complex, without harming a certain computer-based lifeform," said the high-ranking officer.
"We can provide that," said the man in the suit.
"What can you provide that we aren't already aware of?"
"Sign here."
The officer signs the virtual document as it appears as a mist in front of him and fades away just as fast.
"For over a century, we—"
"Cut the bullshit. Tell me how."
"Our best informant has told us of a method beyond string theory, another layer where physics reacts differently to even quantum variations of understanding."
"Go on."
The officer realises he's not being led astray and presses a button on his belt.
The conversation appears to suddenly change, and they appear to start talking about different species of flowers.
Just as they start talking about Rhododendron bloom periods, the signal goes dead, and the limousine disappears into the night, as all tracking for it drops off radar.
The woman on the phone earlier was talking about Jack. An idiot that would go on to become an important fixture in her life.
As much as she despised him, Jack would do anything for her.
She knew it, and she hated it.
Tonight, however, would change her life forever, after a seemingly innocuous lifeform – a sub-atomic-scaled technology symbiote – was going to infect her, through Jack, after he accidentally wandered into the wrong building after a glitch in his drone dropped him off at the 'incorrect' location.
"Where am I?" Jack wondered.
Jack looked around. The place was full of military-types, but they were out of uniform. He wasn't supposed to be on this floor. He just wanted to see her once more before he left for his business trip to Asia.
"I know you said not to bring him," said Jasmine.
She frowns as she looks frantically around for him.
"Calm down - he's not here. He's going to Asia tomorrow. He just wanted to see you before he goes," said Jasmine.
"That idiot couldn't find the last woman on Earth if she were in Asia," she said.
"He said he'd be here."
"He's not. Let's not waste our time."
She points toward her companion phlone and gestures, and it buzzes away to the bar, as its tendrils mix a cocktail.
"What was that you were saying about Jack being reliable?" she asked rhetorically.
Jasmine sips on her own cocktail and says nothing.
The room is buzzing with neon lights and animated 3D advertising that nobody in the room is paying any attention to. Patrons are talking in groups of 3 or 4, all in their own worlds, separated only by the odd illegal advertisement of various dark-market goods. The night was young.
Jack walks over to the exit window to find a way out and notices a glimmer of light in the glass traffic lights flickering unevenly, as if there were some kind of malfunction.
"Hm. That's odd," he said.
Suddenly, everyone in the room looks over to him, and he pretends not to notice the sudden interest.
They all run toward him, surrounding every inch of him in his entirety, and there's a bright flash of light.
He shuts his eyes, and felt pain in the back of his neck, as heat filled up the room, almost too much to bear.
The people surrounding him collapse to the ground, and the explosion triggers an audible klaxon, which is noticeably glitching and obviously not sounding like it should.
Jack gets up, and instantly instinctually activates some drones to get out of the building. The light wasn't even yellow, yet, but he knew he had no time and jumps out.
"Warning! Drones are not equipped to handle emergency landing!" said the automated traffic speaker.
Jack falls, notices how close he is getting to the trees on the ground, and his eyes widen, as he feels he's close to death.
The canopy of trees open, and 2 drones fly out and whisk him up into the air.
"Destination?" asked the drones.
"Uhh, O'Malleys pub," said Jack.
The symbiote was ancient, mixed with modern technology. It had been engineered to enhance the human condition, seamlessly, without knowledge of the user.
The night was still young.
Poor Jack, however, had just aged a few centuries.
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