“We’ve been inside the sphere the whole time,” said Zoey. “Well, not literally. The computer within the sphere is sending electrical pulses to stimulate our brains, creating images and sensations much like a dream.”
“Weren’t you able to sense the computer, like you do most data?”
“That’s what’s so creepy, Sara. It’s so complex, this computer, that it’s almost human.”
“Then, what’s its purpose?” asked Sara. “Is there a way to ask it?”
“The A.I. seems damaged. Otherwise, it’s not very responsive.” Zoey looked up to the floating face. “Pull up system preferences.” Several windows appeared before Zoey. “Good news is it looks like it’s all in English. Bad news is I still can’t make out half the words.” Zoey flipped between the different windows. “It sustained a small amount of damage since its crash, and over time, age has been slowly eating away at the memory circuits.”
“So, it’s actually a lot like a human,” remarked Sara.
“Obviously, the A.I. was one of the first components to lose quality. Just skimming through the hard drive, there seems to be a just a ton of information in all sorts of formats.”
“Can you find out what has the most current time stamp on it?”
“As far as I can tell, it’s a movie file,” said Zoey. “It’s dated 2000 years into the future.”
“Play it.” Everything turned dark as the movie expanded and surrounded them.
A human face appeared, shrouded in shadows. “This message is for any who comes across this ark of human knowledge. The Earth has finally been destroyed through folly and pettiness. I have gathered all known knowledge of our race, so that you may learn from us and prevent the mistakes we made.” The screen erupted in static.
“The rest of the message seems to have been lost,” said Zoey as their surroundings returned to white. “Can this really be from the future?”
“If it was jettison into space, it could have been sucked into a wormhole or a black hole. Or…”
“Or what, Sara?”
“Or it is a time machine.”
“More like a time capsule. Like those old Voyager satellites they’d send out into space. What if it really does have the accumulated knowledge of the human race?”
“Then, we can’t let the Cabal get their hands on it.”
“Wait a minute,” said Zoey. “They’d have to have information on Zeitgeist.”
“This isn’t the time for personal vendettas,” remarked Sara. “I thought you were over him.”
“He’s just the person who experimented on me all those years ago. I can finally know more about him than just an alias.”
“No,” replied Sara. “This is forbidden information. We can’t risk learning about the future. I’m sorry, Zoey.” Sara closed her eyes and pushed the picture out in her mind. She soon felt the bite of the cold and heaviness of her many layers of clothing.
Sara opened her real eyes to find that stood exactly where they had been when Zoey had touched the Omnisphere. Quickly, Sara jerked Zoey away from the sphere. Zoey slowly came to, disoriented at first.
“You had no right,” she started, but her voice trailed off. “Where’s Lee?” Before Sara could respond, three armored men took them by surprised. In between the cracks in their white armor was a thick thermal material. Smooth helmets hid their faces. With guns thrust into their faces, Sara and Zoey were led back down to the altar room, where several more troops were waiting.
Lee was on his hands and feet, clutching his bleeding shoulder. The troopers shoved the women down next to him. “Well, well,” came a voice in their receivers. “Look who we ran into.” Zoey felt a chill run up her spine as she instantly recognized the voice belonging to none other than “Scarface.”
“Thanks for leading us straight to the sphere.” Came his gleeful voice.
“They snuck up on me,” said Lee. “I tried to fight them off, but they were too much for me.”
“It’s all right,” said Sara. To her captors, she asked, “What are you going to do with us?”
“I toyed with the idea of leaving you in one of the various traps set in this temple,” said Scarface. “But then, you’d escape. It’s your talents of getting out of trouble that made my boss pick you in the first place.” He snapped his fingers, and the troopers lined up behind their captives. “So, I thought a bullet to the back of the head would work just as well.”
The troopers, as one, took aim at Sara, Zoey, and Lee.
“Any last requests?”
Click Here to Go To The Next Chapter
Written by J M Emmons. The story and all characters are copyrighted by J M Emmons.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
Way Out West: Comments on Chapter Eleven
One of the ideas I had for Sara and Zoey were for them to get mysteriously transported to the old West. There, our heroines would try and blend in, Zoey'd get framed for a murder, and Sara would save her from a lynch mob. Sounds fun, I know, but as a half developed idea, I saw the chance to use it during this serial. Unfortunately, using the whole story would take too long and distract from the main storyline. So, in the end, it's a very abbreviated version, a casual hop into another genre to throw readers off for a little bit. Maybe, someday, I'll have a chance to revisit the idea, but chances are...
Next week, we get back to the story proper, and the origins of the Omnisphere. Probably be a good thing to bring back some antagonists, too. Things get a little boring without some conflict...
Next week, we get back to the story proper, and the origins of the Omnisphere. Probably be a good thing to bring back some antagonists, too. Things get a little boring without some conflict...
Sunday, November 22, 2009
The Forbidden Temple of Khyber Gorah – Chapter Eleven: Sunset Software
Sara watched helplessly as the scruffy cowboy Rufus taunted Zoey into putting on the gun belt. His rough voice slowly counted to three. Just before he got to three, Sara dug her heel into the foot of the man holding her. She swung around and punched him firmly in the jaw, sending into a number of other cowboys. She kicked a chair; it slid right into Rufus. His gun was already out of the holster, but his aim went high, thanks to Sara’s intervention.
Even this moderate amount of provocation was enough for a bar fight to erupt. Sara took a swig from the class of milk she had before smashing it down onto one cowboy’s head as he started to draw his gun. The sheriff, attracted by the commotion, had just entered the saloon and was trying his best to stop the fighting.
Amid the chaos, Sara grabbed Zoey and together they found a rear exit out of the bar. As they scrambled out of the bar, Sara said, “Take that thing off right now!”
“Okay, okay,” said Zoey, removing the gun belt. “I know what you’re going to say, but, well, things just out of hand. One thing led to another…”
“You could have gotten yourself killed,” said Sara as she climbed one of the horses.
“I get it already,” replied Zoey following suit. They rode out of town in a hurry. Soon, they found themselves surrounded by rock croppings, each distinct and worn down by time. The sun was starting to dip behind one of these unique formations. They continued until Sara felt they were far enough from the town.
As they came to a stop, Zoey dismounted the horse. “So, what’s the plan?”
“Make camp for the night. In the morning, try and find another town.” Sara sighed. “I just wish I could understand what happened to us.”
“Well, like you always say, we can worry about that tomorrow.” The two women stood a moment and watched the descending sun. While both held trepidations about their current predicament, they put them aside to watch what they spent so little time to admire.
“What is that?” asked Sara. She pointed to the sunset as it shuddered and blurred. Digital artifacting and aliasing sped around them, literally eating away the ground they stood on. Slowly, the picturesque scene was gone, leaving the two women in a void of whiteness.
“That was unexpected,” quipped Zoey.
“There went the west,” said Sara. “Where are we?”
“May I be of assistance?” came a booming voice. Out of the white void came two teal-tinted eyes and a large mouth. They hung there before the two women as a surreal face. “You can search by category or just say the subject you’re interested in.”
“Who are you?” asked Sara.
“Question too broad. Please specify.”
“Where are we?”
“Location subjective. Unable to reply.”
Sara turned to Zoey. “This is getting us nowhere.”
“No,” said Zoey. “You’re just not asking the right question.” Addressing the face, Zoey asked, “What is your primary function?”
The face replied, “I am the user interface, allowing easy search through our 65 million terabytes of information. You can search by category or just say the subject you’re interested in.”
“Sara,” said Zoey. “I have a bad feeling about where we are.”
“And that is…?”
“That whole Wild West scenario was the most convincing virtual reality I’ve ever seen.”
“If it’s all a digital environment, how did we get here?”
“Remember when I touched the large sphere, you grabbed my arm. There was some kind of spark from the sphere. I think it went through both of us.”
“You’re saying we’re dead?”
“No, but I think it somehow connected our minds to the giant computer within that sphere. Maybe the electrical charge rode through our neural passageways to the part of the brain that controls dreams.”
Sara took a moment to digest this. “Instead of goggles or headsets, the sphere is using our mind’s eye to display its information.”
“Something like that, possibly,” replied Zoey. “That would make it the most sophisticated computer that ever existed.”
“True, but it’s been hidden away in the temple for centuries, at least. Who made it?”
“Let’s ask it.”
“Hold it, Zoey. Then all this time…?”
“We never went anywhere. We’ve been inside the sphere the whole time.”
Click Here to Go To The Next Chapter
Written by J M Emmons. The story and all characters are copyrighted by J M Emmons.
Even this moderate amount of provocation was enough for a bar fight to erupt. Sara took a swig from the class of milk she had before smashing it down onto one cowboy’s head as he started to draw his gun. The sheriff, attracted by the commotion, had just entered the saloon and was trying his best to stop the fighting.
Amid the chaos, Sara grabbed Zoey and together they found a rear exit out of the bar. As they scrambled out of the bar, Sara said, “Take that thing off right now!”
“Okay, okay,” said Zoey, removing the gun belt. “I know what you’re going to say, but, well, things just out of hand. One thing led to another…”
“You could have gotten yourself killed,” said Sara as she climbed one of the horses.
“I get it already,” replied Zoey following suit. They rode out of town in a hurry. Soon, they found themselves surrounded by rock croppings, each distinct and worn down by time. The sun was starting to dip behind one of these unique formations. They continued until Sara felt they were far enough from the town.
As they came to a stop, Zoey dismounted the horse. “So, what’s the plan?”
“Make camp for the night. In the morning, try and find another town.” Sara sighed. “I just wish I could understand what happened to us.”
“Well, like you always say, we can worry about that tomorrow.” The two women stood a moment and watched the descending sun. While both held trepidations about their current predicament, they put them aside to watch what they spent so little time to admire.
“What is that?” asked Sara. She pointed to the sunset as it shuddered and blurred. Digital artifacting and aliasing sped around them, literally eating away the ground they stood on. Slowly, the picturesque scene was gone, leaving the two women in a void of whiteness.
“That was unexpected,” quipped Zoey.
“There went the west,” said Sara. “Where are we?”
“May I be of assistance?” came a booming voice. Out of the white void came two teal-tinted eyes and a large mouth. They hung there before the two women as a surreal face. “You can search by category or just say the subject you’re interested in.”
“Who are you?” asked Sara.
“Question too broad. Please specify.”
“Where are we?”
“Location subjective. Unable to reply.”
Sara turned to Zoey. “This is getting us nowhere.”
“No,” said Zoey. “You’re just not asking the right question.” Addressing the face, Zoey asked, “What is your primary function?”
The face replied, “I am the user interface, allowing easy search through our 65 million terabytes of information. You can search by category or just say the subject you’re interested in.”
“Sara,” said Zoey. “I have a bad feeling about where we are.”
“And that is…?”
“That whole Wild West scenario was the most convincing virtual reality I’ve ever seen.”
“If it’s all a digital environment, how did we get here?”
“Remember when I touched the large sphere, you grabbed my arm. There was some kind of spark from the sphere. I think it went through both of us.”
“You’re saying we’re dead?”
“No, but I think it somehow connected our minds to the giant computer within that sphere. Maybe the electrical charge rode through our neural passageways to the part of the brain that controls dreams.”
Sara took a moment to digest this. “Instead of goggles or headsets, the sphere is using our mind’s eye to display its information.”
“Something like that, possibly,” replied Zoey. “That would make it the most sophisticated computer that ever existed.”
“True, but it’s been hidden away in the temple for centuries, at least. Who made it?”
“Let’s ask it.”
“Hold it, Zoey. Then all this time…?”
“We never went anywhere. We’ve been inside the sphere the whole time.”
Click Here to Go To The Next Chapter
Written by J M Emmons. The story and all characters are copyrighted by J M Emmons.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
"Gomen Na"
I apologize for the lack of a chapter this week, but a lousy cold has been keeping me down these last couple days. I appreciate your patience, and prepare for the next chapter this Sunday.
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