For those of you who would like to catch up to the Tweet Addaline story, I will post the beginning tweets:
Tweet Addaline
(The Never-ending Story?)
Adeline died in my arms. I never should have lent them to her.
I yearn to scratch away her final gift, itching under my skin like guilt too long denied, but my fingernails languish in an evidence locker.
Eddie called to me across the room, pulling me back to reality. "Did you know her well?" he asked gruffly.
He shrugged with the indifference of exhaustion. Her blood rusted on his hands, puckering his skin.
"That depends," Eddie answered coolly. "Why did she have the key to your door in her hand when she died?"
ReplyDeleteCaustic memories seared my brain. "Screw you," I snarled.
Eddie already knew - when I could, I switched arms with the innocent (new prints and all). Eddie also knew, she wasn't that innocent.
And neither was he, that seeping sack of stinking shit. I know exactly what he's got buried out there--and he knows I know. Standoff.
What was innocence anyway. I was a freak of nature. And Eddie was dirty a cop.
Freaks of nature win every time.
ReplyDeleteI pointed my finger to his heart and let hatred rip a smoking hole in his chest. Score one for the freak.
Bring the rain, you bastard. I'll bury you with me.
But first, I'd bury him like the garbage he was. I grabbed his heels and dragged him to the dumpster.
There was still a chance I could come out of this smelling like a rose, which is more that I could say for Eddie. He hit the reeking heap.
Now I will have to get new arms and new fingerprints. The things I do to stay alive......
I fear the worst is yet to come.
And it did. "Looks like someone's been up to his old tricks," sang a contralto I recognized from a bedroom I once had. I turned to face her.
ReplyDeleteShe was a goddess in form only. Her voice was accusatory. She pointed a red-tipped finger at me. I had no choice but to...
...wrap my arms around her and squeeze, like a boa constrictor.
"No, no. After all we had together! You need me! Let me talk to you!" How could I resist? I always knew she would do me in.
A dame in red, and it wasn't all her blood. I let her breathe for just a second. After everything she had done, she tells me, I needed her?
ReplyDelete"I have... the Framston!" she managed to gasp. I released her at once. "Where is it?” I demanded. I had been looking for it for years. Damn!
"I can't tell you. You have to go with me. You know I can't trust you now!" She can't trust me? Trust?? Here we go again.
It all came back like a ton of bricks, just where we left off. "Trust me," she had said, and that's where it went wrong.
She rubbed her throat, purple marks marred her pale skin.
ReplyDeleteThen she suddenly pulled something out of a small pocket, and stabbed me in the heart with a shiv.
A shiv forged on mistrust and hardened by hate. How could she hurt me like this?
I looked at her one last time. Her eyes popped like a lemur's and her hair was a Hendrix halo. I took my broken heart and left.
I'd be back later, when she left like I knew she would. I'd find the Framston and frame her with it.
In the meantime, the heart needed replacing, Wally was good at fixing me up. Maybe he could get me better ears so I could hear her coming.
Yeah, I was a freak, doomed to be born, condemned to live. I rubbed my brow-ridge, weary with the charade that was my life.
ReplyDeleteI buttoned my jacket over the blood and went to find the clone-master and requisition a new heart.
A freak's gotta do what a freak's gotta do.
If you follow the rules the paperwork will kill ya, (if you weren't already dead). But I knew a few people, and Wally was one of them...
Wally had a place in the part of town where even the punks were afraid to hang out in. Everyone stayed away, which was good.
Freakville. Yeah, this was home.
I knew the back door, the one the world didn't see. I slapped my hand on the obsidian slab. It flashed red then strobbed green. I went in.
ReplyDeleteWally looked up. He was working on another 'project'. His last project took the worst crap from every bad copper and put it in one – Eddie.
"Wally! Who is this? What are you going to throw at me this time? After Eddie, I thought you would stay away from doing cops?"
"Super cop," Wally muttered through his bristling porn-stash. I ached to rip it from his lip. But I needed Wally. I opened my jacket.
"Hmph," he snorted. "Again?"
"I don't need your lip, just a new heart," I mumbled. "Any word on the street about the Framston?”
ReplyDeleteHis piggy eyes glittered with greed. "What've you heard?" he demanded.
"It's here and - she - knows where. I will get it. But I need a new heart first. You have to fix me before I can go on!"
Wally crooked a gnarled finger at me & I stepped closer. He studied the hole in my chest with interest. "I can fix it, but it'll cost you."
An hour later, with half my savings in Wally's pocket, I was back beating the pavement.
Thunder rumbled in the distance. I had about half an hour before I needed to find shelter or the acid rain would eat away my scalp.
Plenty of time to find my snitch. Dagger was bound to know something that could send me in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteDagger wasn't any more dangerous than a butter knife, but in a world of murderers and thieves, 'buttercup' just wasn't going to cut it.
Ah, and there was Dagger, hanging in the Soy Shack, sucking back a shake, sadly reminiscing about the time when milk was the real deal.
I didn't give a rat's ass about the milk--but steak! Hadn't ripped into one since the great Bovine Blitz. Yeah, even I missed meat.
"Dagger, whaddya know? Where's the story?" He looked like his shake soured in his mouth. Snitches are so predictable.
"I don't know nuffin' an' the story's left the station. A soy burger'd go good with this shake," he hinted.
ReplyDelete"I could spring for a burger and maybe fries on the side. So which station is the story at, anyway?"
Dagger signaled the waiter with greasy-fingered snap. "Up on Avenue A. Dog-Dick's department."
Ah, Detective Dick Bowser. Figured.
Living with a name like that, he'd learned to become as surly as a junkyard dog. And he looked like one too. With brains to match.
I let the waiter bring the veggie stuff and paid in trade. Dagger choked on his burger when he saw what I gave the waiter. Made him think.
Not that his zinger-addled brain thought. The guy reeked of the drug and not the good stuff. Cheap street crap that a rat would piss on.
ReplyDeleteBut for a Zing-head, he could sing pretty good, kept the delusions separate from the allusions. If he said Dog-Dick had the story, then...
Something suddenly rattled a memory cell. "Just a minute," I said.
Everything comes at a price and Dagger's was a lot higher than a burger. I slammed my fist in his face and ran before the trap snapped shut.
That was too close. Dog-Dick wasn't far behind. I shoulda held out for a new brain to go with the new heart. Shee-it, I was tired.
But back to Oh's crib. She'd be out by now, propping the bricks on her usual corner, hard-hearted whore that she was.
She stood against a lamp post, her long legs extending a meter below her short skirt. "So, Oh, what have you heard?" "Not much," she said.
"Come on, Darlin', you can do better than that," I encouraged. "For you, I might have a slice of the bigger pie. The Framston was..."
Suddenly, a dark red stain spread across her chest. Someone had shot her. She fell into my arms, choking on her own blood.
ReplyDeleteI dropped her limp form and dived to the left, bringing my zipgun around as I rolled. I fired in the direction the shot had come from.
But there was no one there anymore. Damn!
I looked down at her body, remembering its inviting curves. "Sorry, Babe," I said. "I owe you for that one."
I stood up and started walking home, then paused. I turned back to look at her. The scavengers would be out within a few minutes.
I pulled my foldable hacksaw out of my jacket pocket. "Waste not, want not."
That visit to Wally had cost me a lot. It was time to recoup. Oh would've done the same to me. Law of the jungle morphed into street rules.
I cut.
But as my blade rasped into her leg, I knew immediately that something was wrong. It didn't have the feel of bone.
She wasn't a Fleshy after all. Damn!
It had to be the first time I'd been fooled since I was a piece of protein in a Petrie dish wriggling toward my silicone mama.
My left ear buzzed a funky tune. I pinched my earlobe to open the line. "Yeah?"
"If Oh is out of commission, bring it in!" I knew Wally's voice, but he sounded panicky. "My life depends on it! Bring it here!"
All I got from that was that Wally and Oh were in on something together cuz I sure as hell didn't know what he was talking about.
Had Oh been playing both of us?
I gathered Oh and her crap - she carried everything; a real walking dime store blonde. If there was an answer she had it on her, or in her.
ReplyDeleteFinding that out might prove interesting. Unless it was booby trapped. I smirked at the irony.
I found an alley that seemed safe enough for a quick look, then dumped her purse on the ground. I had to admit, she was prepared.
Not just zipguns, but blasters, too. And something that was bizarre: an antique 20th Century thing that looked like it shot actual bullets.
What the heck did she have that for? And how did she get one? The museums had all been sacked during the last war, many years ago.
I tucked it in a pocket. It might be worth a bob or two. But that wasn't what had Wally's belly in a rash. What did Oh have that Wally wanted?
I double-checked all the purse pockets; mint gum, lipstick, a credit chit among other things. Wait a minute! I patted the red silk lining.
I held it up so I could see it better in what light made it down into the alley. The odd piece of metal had symbols on I didn't recognize.
I tucked it in my pocket where I had put the antique weapon. I made a mental note to examine it later. Right now, I had to lam to safety.
But that wasn't Wally's. I wasn't up to his tricks. Not yet. Even freaks need sleep and food. I went to the one place I could get both.
Good timing. The Steeple Sheeple had left the building, gone bleating their platitudes along the chosen path. I went in my usual entrance.
The vent hole, behind the chimney on the roof opened to a slide, which spiralled seven floors down into the depths of the mossy covered cellar.
Zoom-zoom, home sweet home. I scraped mould from a hunk of cheese, gnawed hunger away, then curled up on a pile of rotting vestments.
The Fleshy part of me drifted into sleep. Bored, the Freak side dreamt the time away.
The kaleidoscope of dream-colour whirled like it was Zinger fuelled. Finally, the body had enough down time. I opened my eyes.
ReplyDeleteI took a whiz, ate the centre out of a mouldy piece of bread and downed the last of a bottle of wine. Then I took a close look at the metal.
Oh was standing right in front of me, looking really mad. "Why the hell did you take my stuff?" The hole in her chest passed light through.
The symbols were unlike any I had seen before. Not Hebrew, not Arabic, not an Asian dialect. Could it be alien or some weird code?
The 'Roswell Incident' occurred centuries ago. Conspiracy theorists claim people had seen chunks of metal with weird symbols on them.
Was this one of those? Since Earth turned its eyes to home and not the stars, I had always assumed there was nothing else out there.
There had been stories, even before the so-called "Fall of Civilization," that the big governments had been covering something up.
But when everything went belly-up, that stuff was the last thing on people's minds. Survival was the main game. Screw the rest.
But then--there was me and the rest of the gene-fiddled Freaks. Survival of the species with help from above? I'd always wondered.
I looked at the clue in my hand. Artistic graffiti--or Rosetta Stone? I knew the answer.
I looked to the gloomy skies and grinned. "Pops?"
Enough reverie. I poked through various bags and boxes, gathering up some things I thought I might need. I charged my zipgun, just in case.
ReplyDeleteI crammed my pockets and stood up, finding a chunk of mirror facing me.
I looked at what I could see of my reflection.
I've seen worse.
The Fiddlers had been kind. I looked more Fleshy than Freak. Still, I could have done without the Neanderthal ridges and roamin' nose.
Not bad for 200 years old, though.
Back to The Street. I knew a guy who might be able to shed some light on that chunk of metal. Street knew stuff about archaic languages.
Maybe he'd seen these symbols before. He also followed every conspiracy there ever was. Paranoid, but smart, from those Chips in his head.
Upstairs, I dipped my fingers in the holy water stoup, not to sign in but to clean up. I slicked back my hair and left by the front door.
Rain had fallen during the wee hours. What trees there were drooped sickly leaves. Still, green was green and welcome in this grey world.
I kicked aside a rotting rat that hadn't run from the rain and strode down the broken sidewalk. Now--where would I find Street?
My ear tuned again. Wally's voice interrupted my thoughts. "I just fixed up a snitch. He told me that Fleshy cops are looking for you."
I checked all his usual haunts-Crank's Bar and Garage, The Tech Shop, a dive down by the wharf and his underground hangout.
He wasn't at any of them. I turned away from the Underground when I heard someone call my name. I froze. Was it friend or foe?
Who was I kidding? Since when did I have friends?
ReplyDelete"Looking for me?" came the unmistakable voice of Street: like the sound of someone gargling while walking on gravel.
I turned slowly to see a holo of his face floating beside me.
I hated frickin holographs.
Especially ugly ones. I scowled. “I'm not talking to ether. What rock are you hiding under today?”
He coded me a brief response. “Aerie.” Good, I thought as his holo flickered and faded. It was one of Street's nicer rocks.
I kept to the back ways, as much out of habit as to avoid the cops. If Wally was still warning me, then he was still looking for what I had.
I'd rolled the flex-metal message around a finger and pulled on tip-less gloves. It'd stay there till I made sure Street was mine.
I was getting real curious about those scratches and symbols.
When the Great Fall started, everyone blamed terrorists. Then when people realized the governments had been funding terrorism, it got ugly.
At one point, it had seemed as though the only ones with power, and that operated with at least some code, were the gangs and crime bosses.
Nukes had taken out a few cities, but most damage had come from gangs' skirmishes, some of which had pretty decent firepower.
One of the media outlets that managed to stay intact through it all had described it like the "wild west," but with bazookas and plastique.
Now, New York looked no different than Topeka. I know. I had been through Kansas on my way to LA, before I had to turn back.
ReplyDeleteWhat passed for law and order in Arizona and Nevada had scared even me, and I don't sweat easily.
Mind you, very little of me has sweat glands anymore.
I was happy to be back in what passed for home, leaving the rest of the country to the War Lords and Kingdom-Comers.
History was the rubble beneath my boots. I didn't see much of a future for mankind, but didn't care. It's not like I was one of them.
My outlook? Freaks would rule, Fleshies dissolve into drool. Maybe the message I had would get things started toward that end.
Or the etchings were just some alien housewife's shopping list.
I made it to Aerie, a bleak burned-out building at the perimeter of the city. The basement had been converted into a pub-like atmosphere.
Speed's usual table was in a back room. I was surprised to see Wally. I clutched the zipgun under my overcoat, in case it was a trap.
He was sipping something red in a tall grimy glass. When the waitress came for my order I told her to bring me a large coffee.
Or at least, what passed for coffee in this joint. Wally raised his eyebrows in an unspoken question. Did I have it with me?
I gave a quick nod, then mouthed the words, 'not here'. Wally shrugged as I slid into the booth beside him. He leaned close. "Describe it."
His breath was enough to cause the bile to rise in my throat. I turned my head away so my ear was the closest thing to that rotten mouth.
ReplyDelete"I want to see it," Wally insisted. "Not here," I repeated. "I don't want anyone else to see it until I know what it is."
Wally's face turned an interesting shade of purple. I knew he was more Freak than Fleshie, but I'd never seen that colour on anyone before.
The waitress brought me a cup filled with a thick brown liquid that sort of resembled coffee. I took a whiff and decided it was palatable.
After pouring in an ounce of ‘milk’ and two spoons full of sugar, I took a sip. It tasted like sweet tar. "Let's get out of here," I said.
Wally nodded, gulped down the last of his drink and stood. I plunked a fiver on the table and left with him. We headed for the alley.
Crouched behind a dumpster, I took off my glove and unwrapped the metal square from my finger. Wally gasped when he saw it.
"Put that away!" he ordered. He looked around furtively. He was acting more paranoid than usual. I tucked the thing back into my glove.
He calmed down visibly, and wiped a few beads of sweat off his forehead with a sleeve. He motioned for me to sit with him in the corner.
I plunked down and said, "So what's up, anyway?"
He looked at me carefully, as if he didn't know if he should trust me. He couldn't, but for now, I could play along.
"How much do you know about the work of Dr. James Framston?" he asked finally.
"Nothing," I replied. "Why? Is this thing his?"
Wally smiled. "No, but he's the reason why you and all freaks are around today." He pointed upward. "He made a deal with the boys topside."
ReplyDelete"Topside?" I frowned. I imagined rich-ass bureaucrats sitting around in penthouses somewhere.
"Yeah, topside," he repeated. "Really out there, you know?"
He was serious, which worried me a bit. I mean, he's a weird Freak, but now he was gone. "Like...," I began.
"... not this planet, for sure," he finished. Then he leaned into me and whispered, "Framston was their first."
Ah--Pops was from 'away' after all. Interesting. I said nothing. Silence made Wally babble.
Everyone heard whispers - Framston was it - the one that could fix ya. The pattern they started with and then screwed up to create freaks.
I wondered why the topside dudes had bothered with us at all. We were already collapsing of our own accord. Or maybe that was it.
So, Wally--babble already, I thought impatiently. If I'd owned I watch, I would have made a point of looking at it.
"There was supposed to be a blueprint," Wally said. "Something to begin growing whatever part they wanted." "Is this it?" I asked.
Wally nodded, but before he could speak his eyes clouded over and he toppled face down on the table - dead. I had to get out of there!
I grabbed the metal square and headed for the door, but it was blocked by a huge guy with a steel plate in his head.
I had no choice but to comply, since his steely Freak-enhanced fingers were wrapped around my neck, dragging me with him.
"The Freak-Doctor sent me to retrieve you," Street said. "Rumour has it, you have the Blueprints and his competitors want it."
ReplyDeleteBlueprints? I stopped wishing someone would do in Street like they'd done in everyone else I'd had contact with over the last few days.
Maybe all that had been to get me to this point. I tried to swallow, choked, and gurgled a protest. Street lightened up and I gulped in air.
"Easy, Big Fella," I mumbled. "I'll play nice." Street let go of my throat but kept a meaty paw on my arm. I followed meekly--for the moment.
I was beginning to feel that having the Framston could be dangerous. I needed to hide it on my body where no one else would look.
And there was pretty much only one place where ain't nobody gonna look. Problem was how to get that Framston where the sun don't shine.
I could tell Street the coffee had kicked in. Not like it had for Wally, but even a Freak's uber-gut couldn't digest poison. It had to go.
"Street! I really need to use the john, man!"
Street didn't get it, to him the whole city was a cesspool. Why would anyone want to pay for a private room? He shrugged.
He looked blank. Poor Street--brilliant in so many areas, post-hole stupid in others. I gave my head a disbelieving shake. “Bathroom."
There were boxes around the city with one-way glass, and a hole that dropped into the sewer. I used Oh's credit chit to go in.
I didn't think I could really hide the thing on or in my body, flesh or otherwise. I just needed to get away from Street to think a minute.
Wally had stitched a pocket in the back of my tongue for hiding small things. I had to see if the thing would fit. It worked, just.
It gave a whole new meaning to "Spit it out". I didn't care.
Now, how to deal with Street?
Street pounded on the door. I started violently, almost choking on the Framston. I gagged & bent forward to keep from swallowing it.
ReplyDelete"What the hell you doing in there, freak!" Street shouted thru the door. "Play with yourself on your own time!"
"Keep your shirt on!" I went out, hoping he wouldn't notice my face colour. It was a lot like Wally's just before he died.
"What took you so long?" I looked at him like he was too stupid to understand - which in fact he was. Ah come on, we're late already.
I rolled my tongue, easing that flex-metal strip flat. Last thing I need was to meet the powers that be with a lisp and some drool.
“So, who was Street dragging me to anyway?” I tried asking. Street gave me a dumb-eyed glare.
“You'll see when we get there.” Okay--but things was starting to look a whole lot like countryside, and I didn't like countryside.
Okay, so it was more flattened mouldering burbs than wide open spaces, but there was still a mess-load of open sky--and nowhere easy to hide.
I tried to imagine what it had looked like before everything happened. Was the ground really green at one time?
There was no green now. Only dishwater greys and putrid browns to seduce fleshy and freak eyes alike.
It was like comparing a super model to a crack whore.
Even the multi-coloured fungus along the path to a broken down hovel was subdued. Figures, Street took me there.
As he pulled me through the doorframe, I looked around the shack's interior. "I love what you've done with the place," I snarked.
A thin smile crept across his lips, and I realized my error. The ramshackle decor was just a sham. A very new hatch was open in the floor.
Street had gone gopher. I was curious about his nest and hardly needed the shove I got. I crouched, then sat and inched closer to the hole.
ReplyDeleteThe 'hole' wasn't what I expected. It was fitted with a first class speed slide. I hadn't seen something that new in over fifty years.
Shiny.
This was going to be fun. I pushed off and flew down the smooth surface grinning all the way. Sometimes we never grow up.
I sat, pushed off and shined it up a little more.
There was still someone left in this world with a sense of fun. It made me wonder. . .
And there she was--red-haired, pixie-faced and beautiful. A Fairy-Freak.
I picked myself up off the floor and smiled wryly. "Hi, Sis."
"Nice digs, sis. What's happening now? You in with the freak doctor now?"
“Silly," she smiled. "I am the freak doctor and I want you."
"Kinky."
"Not like that, bro'," she said with a smirk. "Your body is unique and I think it has the key to immortality. Worth a lot of dough."
As long as she wasn't about to start slicing and dicing on me, she could have that immortality. That was way too much forever for me.
"So, what is your plan? It had better not involve knives!" She got a serious look that took the sister right out of her. I got nervous.
Sis was no sissy when it came to bad stuff. I don't think she was going to let me hand over my genes in the good way.
I looked into her odd and very scary eyes. To a long-suffering brother, those eyes were way more reptilian than the cat everyone else saw.
Those eyes coldly said that bit by bit was her preference. Looking at her, you'd think I'd been the mean one way back in the day.
Not so. Her brains had pinned me down and beat me to a pulp more times than I could remember. I glanced at Street and saw no help there.
She was taking sibling rivalry a little too far, I thought.
There was only one way out of this. The way that I used to always get out of trouble and give my sister grief.
"Hey, Ma!" I called, activating my emergency broadcast throat mike by shifting my jaw slightly. "Sis is after me again!" I grinned at her.
ReplyDelete"You coward!" she screeched as she shimmered in the transport that took her home to see Mother.
Stunned, Street shook his head like an ox puzzling over a persistent gnat. I had scant seconds to act.
I made a bee-line for the slide and scampered up its smooth surface like a kid at the park. Gotta love the soft rubber on my Reeboks!
Street was too big and clumsy to follow. I just had to move fast enough to avoid Mother porting me to her as well. That would not be pretty.
Family reunions were about as much fun as dental surgery, and I wasn't about to climb into that chair for a home cooked dinner.
I could almost feel the tracking lasers on my back, trying to get a lock on me as I scrambled up the hatchway into the open. Now where?
I had to move fast! An ancient trolly lumbered along the dilapidated lines through the suburb. I think it was fuelled on the fungus.
I swung on board, feeling the last of the sensation from Mother's teleport in my heels. So now where was I to go?
I was getting tired of being pushed around, shot at, poisoned and stabbed. I had to figure this out before my expiry date came up.
Back before my first cyber implant, there was someone. I was always too scared afterwards to see her again. I heard she was on Luna Colony.
I hadn't been to that moon in years. The security cops the last time I was there were too hard on freaks with implants. What about now?
Time for a little creativity. Luna’s a place where anything goes. With enough creds, anything did. I didn't like it, but there was an option.
I could, if I wanted, go to Luna impersonating a mannequin. I had the drugs. I could ship myself to MagiWear Industries. They'd take me.
Question is, what would they do with me next? Waking up looking like an Indian holding a cigar box was one of their kinder setups.
If I was going to go in a box, why not tart it up? I'm thinking Pharaoh in a sarcophagus...a little resin soaked gauze and some gilt.
Time to go buy myself some people...
I haggled with the MagiWear rep and we settled on a price. Arrangements were made for my sarcophagus to be couriered to Luna base.
They forgot to put "This Side Up" on the crate! When the rocket launched, I was head down with only mummy gauze to pad my neck!
It's a good thing I'm a Freak! A Fleshie would have broken his neck! I waited impatiently. The lid was raised and I looked in a mirror....!
I hope the folks at MagiWear can replace the tip of my nose. If they can repair mannequins they should have a compound that will work.
But really! Like this, I looked like a rock star from centuries ago! Somebody Jackson? Or maybe just an alien. I needed repairs.
I lunged up from the coffin towards the surprised roadie who had opened the crate. I forgot that Luna was 1/6 g, so I came at him too hard.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately.
We both floated to the floor. As soon as I untangled myself, I high-tailed it out of there.
That's one thing I could count on; Magi covered everything except getting caught. Caught meant questions. Magi didn't touch questions.
But, there I was, in Luna, with only two airlocks between me and the older tunnels that were the original settlement. There I am safe.
I thought about her - Julia - even her name made my pulse react.
A descendant of the 'breathers' - the first colonists who operated the atmospheric processors to make the air breathable on Luna.
The processors were in ruins now, no longer needed. The air on Luna was better than on earth.
As old as I am, I will never get used to the feel of jumping around on the moon with the wind blowing in my face. I had to find Julia.
The airlock doors whispered open and I torqued it down the older tunnels towards the original settlement.
With all the freak work done to my body, would she even recognize me?
Julia started the first garden on the moon. Hers were the first air processors and they will always be the best. I found here there.
My palms were sweating, or maybe it was just an oil leak from my wrist joints. Whatever it was, I nervously approached her. "Hi!" I began.
I saw all the emotions pass by on her face: love, hate, anger, remorse, judgement; until it settled into a smile of welcome.
Before I could react, her fist shot out and connected hard with my jaw.
I quickly checked to see if all of my facial implants were still in place.
Then allowed myself to rub my aching jaw. "It's nice to see you again too, Jules."
Guess her memory circuits were working. Can't say I didn't deserve it. Though when the second fist came flying, I ducked. She kicked me.
ReplyDeleteI twisted to avoid the sharp toe of her shoe. "Would it make any difference if I said I was sorry?" I pleaded.
She took out my bad knee; I found myself on my back with a spiked heel at my throat, her weight on my chin. "It might." She said sweetly.
“Some strange things are happening and I think it has to do with the Framston. You were the one to protect from them. Help me please.”
"Obviously we both need the protection if that is what they want. They will never get it." She took her foot off of me. I breathed warily.
I took a different approach with her this time - honesty. “Framston,” I blurted, “is under the tip of my tongue.” "Well spit it out, talk!"
I told her everything that had happened to date. "So, how much of you is implants?" she asked.
“Um, lungs, both hearts, spleen, stomach, legs, arms, intestines, spine from the neck down...” "OK, I get the picture!" She shook her head.
"The sack that holds it all together is flesh!" I told her defensively.
She looked doubtful. "And your brain?" "Pound of ground beef. Top sirloin -the real McCoy" Now she really looked doubtful.
"All the important parts of me are still here. I can still remember everything we did. Like that time in Vancouver..." "All right, I get it!”
"Is that why you vanished without a word?" she asked. I replied, "I thought you'd reject my enhancements even though they saved my life."
A strange look shadowed the edges of her pretty face. Then it was gone.
"I want the Framston and I will do whatever it takes to get it. Do you understand?" "Yes, my love. I understand. Anything for you.”
"But first can I ask you something?" I hesitated. "Why do you want it? I thought you were against implants."
"A hundred years can make anyone change their mind. You have the secret to immortality! Without Pain! I need that."
ReplyDelete"I had no idea," I replied with remorse. "Of course not! I haven't seen you for decades," she said. "I waited for you to call me for years."
Oh-oh. That was it? I didn't call her? This was heading in a direction I had hoped to avoid.
I changed the subject. "Uh - aren't you already immortal?" I asked. "The Framston won't change that. I thought it overrides something."
"Yes", she paused, "It removes the genetic deterioration. No more copy mistakes. I'm not the women you knew fifty years ago."
“And yet, you look exactly the same." "All my changes are on the inside," she replied. "By the look of you, though, you need the Framston."
"Even if I had it, what would it do for me now?" I asked cautiously. "I'm more Freak than Fleshy. Can it grow my flesh back?"
The look she gave me made my gut flutter. "Can it?" I asked again, a little more forcefully.
She licked her lips and peered at me through thick lashes. "You could look like you did when we dated, which wasn't bad, by the way."
"How does it work? The only clue I've found is a small piece of metal with hieroglyphs on it. What can that do?"
"I'd heard about something like that," she told me. "It sounds like it might be some kind of activation code for the machine."
She peered at it closely. "I've seen some of these symbols before. This one looks incomplete. I think this is only part of the code."
"Where do I go to get the rest? And are you coming with me? I should warn you that people close to me seem to be dying."
"I met an archaeologist a few months back. He showed me something with similar symbols he picked up on a dig in what used to be Venezuela."
Excitement rippled thru me. "Can u take me to him?"
She seemed conflicted. "Fine. He should be back at that site right now. I'll vid him. But let me clean up first."
ReplyDeleteShe took a step then stopped. "And after this, I want u to stay away for good."
I was crushed that she was thru with me, but glad she was willing to help me in my quest, so I agreed to leave her alone when we were done.
At least, that was the theory.
I guess that meant the rumor that she had had my child was false. She would tell me the truth, wouldn't she?
And, I wondered, if she had our child, was it fleshy or manufactured?
I decided not to ask, waiting patiently as the vid system connected. Soon an ancient-looking fleshie face appeared on the screen.
He looked up, startled to see us watching him. “Still can't get used to these damn things,” he mumbled.
Sid," Julie began. "A friend needs some info on the Venezuela dig. What other artifacts did you recover and have you deciphered anything?"
"This dig has been nothing but trouble, one confusing bit after another. It's like I'm missing a key piece of it."
"Perhaps a piece was stolen and smuggled out of the country," Julie suggested. "Is that possible?" "Maybe, a long time ago," he mused.
"I trust everyone in my current crew, so whatever's missing, it wasn't taken recently. There was evidence that someone got here before us."
"Can we meet you somewhere?" Julie asked. "We need your interpretation of an artifact."
Hmm, I thought, I'd been downgraded to "friend" but had improved my earlier status of "you damned bastard" all in all it was an improvement.
I was pleased when Sid agreed to talk to us. The trouble was, how do we get there, considering my tenuous passport and those after my blood?
"We will have to take the barrel to him," Julia said, packing things into a duffel bag. "You know, the escape pod from my first ship."
"But that thing has no controls! We will crash!" "Into the ocean," she agreed. "That's why we call it the barrel."
I was reluctant, but if I wanted to live, I had to find out what was going on. The ancient ship's ejectors blasted us off of the moon.
ReplyDeleteThe vibrations from those ejectors shook the old bucket making me feel like we were in a martini shaker!
The shaking got worse. "Is this thing going to make it?" She looked at me "It's built better than you are!"
That was a low blow.
"How are we going to land?" I asked nervously. "We splash down off the coast. Sid will send something to pick us up. Don't fret it so!"
Our insides turned to jelly. Then, after what seemed like an eternity things began to heat up. We became scrambled eggs, slowly burning. OW!
"This won't work!" I cried. "How long ago did you check this thing out?" "Check it out?" she laughed. "You don't know me, do you?"
Before I could answer, my head slammed against the bulkhead. We had landed! I sighed with relief, until water began leaking in...
Julie turned to me; "Grab the life raft, it's right behind you." It wasn't. There was a space for it. The space was empty. Really empty.
"Can you swim?" she asked. "Now's a great time to ask," I retorted. "I used to swim, but with all the metal in me now..." I shrugged.
"Well, you have to try," she said, opening the hatch. Water gushed in over us. I grabbed the seat padding for floatation gear and followed.
It went up and I went down. I held on. Forcing the seat down into the water, I managed to keep my head floating high enough to breathe.
The next thing I knew, hands were pulling me out of the water. Sid had come through for us. Julie grinned at me. "Told ya. No worries."
The boat Sid had rented was a leaky old tugboat, barely seaworthy, but better than that ancient rust-bucket we landed in.
"Thanks, Sid. I knew we could count on you," Julie said. "So, what do you have that you think is so important?" Sid asked.
ReplyDelete"When we get to your lab, you will see the missing code!" Julie grinned. "We have the framston!" Sid's look was priceless.
We followed Sid below deck where a mini-sub waited to deploy. I raised an eyebrow. "Sid's lab is sub-aquatic," Julie explained.
The farther into hiding we went, the more high-tech the surroundings. Sid's lab was astounding. Everything still worked smoothly.
I had never seen anything like it in a hundred years; no rust, no squeaks, and no barnacles. This was a better lab than the one mom had.
The doors sealed like a vault behind us. As the last one snicked closed, I looked over to see the welcome party. Even their guns were new.
"Um, Sid...you do know we are on the same side, don't you?" His manner became demanding, but I held my tongue... with the framston.
So much for feeling safe. I glanced over at Julie. She didn't seem all that surprised or angry. Had she been in on this from the beginning?
"Don't look at me like that," Julie said. "I told you I'm not the women you knew-and no that's not a grammatical error. You knew 3 of me."
"You're kidding! How many of you have there been?" "I've lost count," Julie said. "With each copy, we are diminished. I need the Framston."
"Everyone needs the Framston, Darlin'," Sid interrupted. "And they'll pay dearly to have it. So where is it?" He poked me with his zip gun.
"What will you do with it? Who will benefit? You? Me? Julie? If it is for everyone, you can have it. Otherwise.... I don't think so."
I didn't know I could be altruistic. Where did that come from?
"Look," Sid said, poking me again. "Do you have the Framston or don't you?" "I don't know. People seem to think I do, but I can't be sure."
I was getting rather annoyed at being poked by the pointy end of the stick, or in this case gun. I was about to tell them where to put it.
They didn't seem to realize that with the augments that made me a freak, I could move at super speed if I had to. I took the gun away.
I held it to Sid's head. His goons backed off. "Ok, here's the deal. I'm tired of people trying to kill me. Now, I call the shots."
"Hey Ma! I need to come home!" I called into my throat mike. I felt the tingle of the teleport and then... nothing.
ReplyDeleteWhen I awoke, I was strapped to a steel table. I glanced to my right and saw Julie in the same predicament. "Hey, what's going on, Ma?"
In response, Mother's lyrical disembodied voice replied, "You've been a very naughty boy, Earth-son. I am very disappointed in you."
Not the welcome I was hoping for. Hell, not even a hug and a "how ya doing". Being on the slicing table wasn't my idea of a homecoming.
"You know I don't like guests, especially unexpected," Mom said. "You've also been talking to too many people about the Framston."
"It's not my fault! Someone is after it and they will kill anyone, including me to get it! It is time to help me Mother!"
"Odd, that's what your sister said when you sent her here a few days ago. You two are not doing your jobs. Now what do you want of me?"
"I need to finish my mission. My freak parts are confusing my brain. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do!" "It's not the freak parts, Son."
"It is your fleshy bits that have you and your sister confused. You must return the Framston to its maker as soon as possible."
"I would, if I knew who the maker was," I replied.
“Adeline knew. That’s why she was murdered. She kept the information on the maker in her heart. You have to go back and find it.”
"In her heart?" I asked, thinking to myself. What had happened to her heart? I had left her body back where I had toasted Eddie.
I had to go back. Cops will put her in the junk pile and Wally wasn't there to salvage her bits. I could avoid the cops, but what about her?
The junk pile--sorting through bits and bobs of maggoty bits while looking over my shoulder.
The woman in red was still out to get me. I didn't need her any more, but I'm sure she needed me. As I found Adeline's heart I saw the gun.
That instantaneous transport from Mother to the junk pile must have scrambled my brains. The holder of the gun should have been dead.
"Adeline?" I asked with astonishment. "But how...?"
I looked from her smirking face to the heart in my hands, then back again. "You're not fleshy at all, are you?"
"I'm glad I'm not, or I wouldn't be standing here holding a gun on you." She looked at me and frowned. "Is that MY heart you're holding?"
ReplyDelete"Oh, this?" I replied with feigned nonchalance as I held up the organ. "I just felt a bit peckish and found something to tide me over."
"Since when do you eat Teflon?" "I'm a freak, remember? This has information I want, whether you give it to me or I take it from the heart."
"Information? What information? Why don't I know about it?" "It's why you were murdered. I didn't kill you, Adeline. We're on the same side.”
"So who is the enemy?"
"I've yet to uncover that crucial piece of information, although a lot of nut jobs have been after this."
An unknown freak shimmered into being in front of us. "It's all right, Mother, I've got them." He caught us in an energy web - old school!
"Caught!? Mother's catching us? But we're the good guys! At least that's what the program said! "
"Yeah, about that program," the freak said, looking embarrassed. "Mother told me to delete it. Sorry guys."
Sorry? Is that the ending? Nooooooooo.........." ....ctrl....alt.....del.....
I looked over at Mother, "You can be so cruel. Did he even know?"
"That he was just a pawn? No," Mother said. "And I'm afraid, neither did you. You were a very good son. I almost regret what I must do.”
There was, of course, only one possible thing I could do: suck up.
ReplyDelete"Good work, Ma! Now we can try to get rid of that Framston once and for all!" Her silence meant she was at least thinking about what I said.
"I never intended to destroy it," she said. "It's too crucial to my work. I needed to recover the key element after it was stolen."