Tag: SciFi (nonspecific)

Book Review: This is How You Lose the Time War

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This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Motar and Max Gladstone

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON

* HUGO AWARD WINNER: BEST NOVELLA * NEBULA AND LOCUS AWARDS WINNER: BEST NOVELLA *

Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandment finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading.

Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, becomes something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.

Except the discovery of their bond would mean the death of each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win. That’s how war works, right?

Cowritten by two beloved and award-winning sci-fi writers, This Is How You Lose the Time War is an epic love story spanning time and space.

 

MY REVIEW

This F-F science fiction romance follows the complicated pen-pal communication between two time agents. They were competitive before they started “talking”; and writing to each other, while hiding it from their hive-mind supervisors, takes that competitive nature to the next level.

In jobs where equals don’t exist, and “deep cover” can last for a generation, communication of something outside of work doesn’t exist. The slow burn of falling in love through words is a wonderful thing.

Read for book club.

Flash: Always Lead with Kindness

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ID 75056156 © Mik3812345 | Dreamstime.com

“Pops, will you slow down? Ain’t we suppose to be running in the other direction?” The thirty-five year old man scrambled over fallen pine trees.

At the crest of the impact crater, his gray-haired father bellycrawled the final few feet, his deer bow in hand. Pye, Junior’s teenage daughter, right beside him. Nuts, the two of them. And him, the tree tying them together following in their wake. He crouched crawled to their location.

Looking down in to the cleared sand of the pine barrens, he saw a circular UFO with the disc vertical and the half the circumference buried deep. Junior quiet-whistled against his teeth, “Someone is having a very bad day.”

“I’m not sure,” Pye squinted through the early mist rising out of the aquifer below the pine barrens sand. “I mean if they are a spinning ship, and that is kind-of what it looked like as they streaked overhead, then the gravity would be on the outer edge, so if you were to dismount, it would be through the floor. It would make sense for flying saucers to land edge up, right?”

“Good point, girl” His father whispered.

Junior was glad all those comics and adventure books leaked something into his kid’s brain. “Still it is a crash, pretty sure.”

George grunted agreement.

“Any landing you walk away from is a good landing, isn’t that what you say Pops?” Pye asked.

“Not seeing much walking.” George observed and started to stand. “The mist has made down the walls and isn’t burning off near the hull. Whatever that material is, it took care of the heat quickly. Come on, they might need help.”

Pye bounced up, following her grandfather down the sandy sides of the crater in a sideways slide. Youthful curiosity burst the question out burning in Junior as he followed the two with the dune-sand walk he picked up during his time in Afghanistan.  “What should we do if they say, ‘Take us to your leader’?”

“Well, election is next week, so I guess I’ll make introductions depending on their attitude.” George limped across the loose sand in the bottom of the crater. “If they are rude, they’ll get one. Nice, the other.” He winked at Junior. “But in the meantime, they might be in trouble. Always lead with kindness.”

“But pack heat while doing so.” The perky teenager touched the flare gun she carried beside the hunting arrows.

(words 402; first published 11/2/2024)

Flash: Bounty or Bother

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Photo 10010716 | Muddy Boots © Nadezhda Bolotina | Dreamstime.com

(Paid for single use, if you reuse, please pay the artist too)

“Argh!” Talsin yelled as he enter the slapwood and ceramic-crete house, kicking the stool by the door they normally used to remove their boots across the mudroom. “I hate that woman.”

“It’s okay boss, we’ll get her the next time,” said a member of his gang, coming in after him. Larrie always sucked up. “Kill her good.”

After securing the airlock, Maizee and Adman looked at each other before dropping their eyes, the woman in question had cost them a quarter million in rustling today after nearly four day’s work to get everything in place but killing women carried a steep price if anyone found out. Not a conversation they wanted to butt into, and with that quick look, they agreed to let Larrie calm the boss down, bless his bootlicker soul.

They dropped to the floor to remove their boots. Prairie kept a lot of critters in its mud, and everyone knew, no matter how stomping-mad they got, to not bring no dirt into the sleeping quarters. A single earbitter egg could wreck a day worse than a dove on her monthly.

Talsin righted the stool and sat, pulling off his deep treaded boots with his pleaky-leather gloves. “The bitch is worth more to us alive than dead.”

“Fine then, we get her and the bounty too!” Larrie smiled through his breather and scraggly beard. “Upgrade the pass-thru with that kind-of coin.”

“Nah, you don’t get it.”

Everyone slid the boots into the lower decon area, then dropped their hats, breathers, and gloves into the upper area before heading to the pass-thru. The unit was built to handle a family of four, meaning a grown man, woman and their gov-approved knee-biting offspring, so four sturdy bullmen didn’t fit none too well, but running it twice in a day-cycle strained the batteries and usually meant the air conditioning wouldn’t kick in until mid-day after the batteries got replenished from Prairie’s white star. Meanwhile the house would bake like a tin can, making it impossible to get a good day’s sleep. Upgrading the pass-thru, or at least the energy storage, would be as welcomed as the fall rains.

“We need her to keep running around.” The boss snapped the controls on and they all breathed deep as the green mist and gas filled the pass-thru chamber. Each in turn shook their pants and jacket as best they could in the tight quarters. The lights cycled purple, yellow, and red. Finally natural white, imitating Earth-light showed overhead at the end of twelve minutes. Ain’t no one talked during the double-handful of minutes as the sensors had broken from a leak during the spring rains and registered any sounds after the cycles started as distress and would stop and toss them back into the mudroom and ain’t no one wanted to fill their mouths and lungs with Scheele’s Green more than they had to.

The stripping room hamper in the center filled with denim, pleaky-leather chaps, flannel, and mint-thread shirts as the men undressed. Maizee tapped it to start the cleaning and infusion process once everyone was down to their BD suits. Prairie manners, and as rough riding as Talsin and his crew were, they abided by manners, said no one talked to each other, or really looked at each other while starkers.  The pass-thru shower could only handle one full-grown man at a time, but the final decon only took a quick rub to get the oil everywhere. Adman went through first as he had dinner chores. Bossman oiled down second, Maizee with the dishes, setup and washing, third. And finally Larrie, since tonight was his night off chores.

He came through, stroking the oil through his beard as best he could, envious of Maizee’s genes which kept his chin clean even after a week outside, to find the boss combing extra oil through his hair, shaping it. All of them needed time with razors and scissors after the past week outside except Maizee who braided his straight black hair like his ancestors did back on Earth and kept it under a skullcap while outside. The doves back in town loved playing with his waist length hair when they had extra coin to spend. After Larrie pulled on his houserobe, he asked, “Why do we need Silver around? We should just collect the bounty and let her be sent polar.”

“As annoying at that bitch is to me, she is three times as annoying to the sheriff and his kin. Equal rights for the doves and catalog women and all that.”

Larrie grunted.

Talsin tilted his head one side to the other in the mirror, checking out his pompadour. He switched to the pick and worked out the matting the breather had knotted into his goatee. “We just need to figure out how to keep her out of our business, while she does her business and distracts the sheriff from our business.”

(words 820; written 5/18/2024; first published 7/21/2024)

Book Review (SERIES): The Murderbot Diaries

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My book club introduced me to The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Her website indicates she is a NYT bestselling author, and believe me, she deserves it.

An example – after reading All Systems Red, my book club talked about it, as one does with book clubs, and half of us (I think there were eight in attendance that night) assigned the “she” pronoun to the main character – the self-named Murderbot and the other half referred to the Murderbot with the “he” pronoun set. The result made me go looking during the meeting, because my editing brain went a little bonkers – how could anyone, let alone a bunch of women and man (singular) I respect as excellent readers, get the pronouns wrong?

Um, Murderbot never uses a gendered pronoun to refer to themselves. And everyone else refers to the SecUnit cyborg as an “it.” Sooooo. There is that. Takes some serious writing skill to have a main character without a gender AND HAVE NO ONE NOTICE THAT NO GENDER IS INDICATED. I mean, that is some mad skills. The book club conversation then turned to WHY did each person decide the gender was male or female. That told us more about ourselves, our assumptions, and our reading habits than about the book, but was very interesting.

The whole series is well-written, with amazing worldbuilding. I consistently give it five stars on Goodreads as well as Amazon and BookBud.

Bonus: Autistic-coded; asexual; non-gender being.

The Murderbot Diaries series

  1. All Systems Red
  2. Artificial Condition
  3. Rogue Protocol
  4. Exit Strategy
  5. Network Effect
  6. Fugitive Telemetry (A Novella flashback)
  7. System Collapse – Immediately follows Network Effect and the first book that does not work as a stand alone. You must read #5 first.

extra short story: Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory: A Tor.com Original Murderbot Diaries Short Story. (Link leads to the free on-line short story printed at tor.com – April 19, 2021) Set before Fugitive Telemetry

extra short short: Compulsory – appeared in Wired Magazine, January 2019, set before All Systems Red (NOT REVIEWED)

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for ALL SYSTEMS RED

A New York Times and USA Today Bestseller; Winner: 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novella; Winner: 2018 Nebula Award for Best Novella; Winner: 2018 Alex Award; Winner: 2018 Locus Award; One of the Verge’s Best Books of 2017

A murderous android discovers itself in All Systems Red, a tense science fiction adventure by Martha Wells that interrogates the roots of consciousness through Artificial Intelligence.

“As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure.”

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

MY REVIEW for ALL SYSTEMS RED

A wonderful novella about Murderbot (self-named), an android contracted to protect a group of scientists investigating a world for possible purchase for resources and colonization. His group is one of two on the planet. Typical of most corporation-lowest-bidder situations, things break, … a lot of things break at inopportune times. Except, is this job just typical breakage?

Murderbot usually doesn’t care. He is just a contracted construct – self-aware, sure, but who has time to go become a murderous robot or obedient automaton when the entertainment channel is so good? But if his present humans all die, he will get investigated and might get cut off from his soaps.

A fun romp.

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for ARTIFICIAL CONDITION

It has a dark past—one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot”. But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.

Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A” stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.

What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks…

MY REVIEW for ARTIFICIAL CONDITION

Another fun quick entry in the Murderbot Diaries. Finally free-free, Murderbot decides to investigate one of the black holes of his memory wipes.

The first book is a teenager getting cranky about being pulled away from his media entertainment. But also discovering not every family is dysfunctional. The second is his first time away from home / supervision. Basically Murderbot is learning about adulting. He has to figure out how to make friends (ART) – BTW ART is a great first friend who is both vastly better at some things and not-so-much at others – they make a good mix. Get to places instead of his owners/renters taking him there. Have a job because he wants/needs it instead of just chores & duties. And discovering even when adults get answers to their questions, they aren’t always satisfying.

A good second part of a coming-of-age series. I think that is the theme of the series – watching Murderbot going for teenage sentience-awareness to an adulter-adult.

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for ROGUE PROTOCOL

Starring a human-like android who keeps getting sucked back into adventure after adventure, though it just wants to be left alone, away from humanity and small talk.

Who knew being a heartless killing machine would present so many moral dilemmas?

Sci-fi’s favorite antisocial A.I. is back on a mission. The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris Corporation is floundering, and more importantly, authorities are beginning to ask more questions about where Dr. Mensah’s SecUnit is.

And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good.

MY REVIEW for ROGUE PROTOCOL

At the end of book 2, Murderbot left the site of their defining birth and chosen name by making friends with a Transport a LOT dumber than ART. (Which is practically every bot in existence, and I pretty sure Murderbot will like never to meet anything SMARTER than ART.)

(Oh, by the way, my book club finished their discussion of Murderbot #1 and I was referring to Murderbot as “he” and someone else a “she” – so that ended up part of the discussion … and then I had to go looking. Ms. Wells has done an INCREDIBLE job of keeping the android gender neutral. Not once is gender stated or implied in books one or two. Ms. Wells has done this TIGHT.)

Anyway, onto book 3. The Transport out roped Murderbot into being a security consultant again – keeping a bunch of tense people in line. Reading the internal commentary of the android is worth the price of admission. Murderbot has no patience with bickering beings cutting into their screen time.

Once they escape that nightmare of social interaction (for a shy, introverted killing machine) upon arrival at a spaceport, Murderbot goes on to investigate another site of where GrayCris may have done things out-of-line, even by corporate standards.

They follow some humans to what should have been a terraforming station, using them to gain access to the remote platform. GrayCris has been a bad boi, and the corporation doesn’t want to leave any evidence behind. Can Murderbot do what it does second best and save the people?

A fun novella that keeps you guessing.

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for EXIT STRATEGY

Murderbot wasn’t programmed to care. So, its decision to help the only human who ever showed it respect must be a system glitch, right?

Having traveled the width of the galaxy to unearth details of its own murderous transgressions, as well as those of the GrayCris Corporation, Murderbot is heading home to help Dr. Mensah—its former owner (protector? friend?)—submit evidence that could prevent GrayCris from destroying more colonists in its never-ending quest for profit.

But who’s going to believe a SecUnit gone rogue?

And what will become of it when it’s caught?

MY REVIEW for EXIT STRATEGY

The fourth novella installment of the Murderbot Diaries has our favorite entertainment-feed loving android discovering GrayCris has kidnapped the doctor who had freed it.

There are certain things one should not do – Most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well known is don’t mess with Murderbot’s humans. (Well, okay, this is completely unknown at this time … but boy-o-boy is it one of the certain things corporations should NOT do).

While Murderbot is not happy about going into the heart of corporation territory, the corporations will be even less happy unless them give it back its human.

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for NETWORK EFFECT

You know that feeling when you’re at work, and you’ve had enough of people, and then the boss walks in with yet another job that needs to be done right this second or the world will end, but all you want to do is go home and binge your favorite shows? And you’re a sentient murder machine programmed for destruction? Congratulations, you’re Murderbot.

Come for the pew-pew space battles, stay for the most relatable A.I. you’ll read this century.
—
I’m usually alone in my head, and that’s where 90 plus percent of my problems are.

When Murderbot’s human associates (not friends, never friends) are captured and another not-friend from its past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action.

Drastic action it is, then.

MY REVIEW for NETWORK EFFECT

Fifth installment of the Murderbot diaries is a full novel, giving time for a complex story to develop. ART returns, and he continues to live up to the name our favorite entertainment-feed-addicted android gave him – stealing some of Murderbots favorite people.

A story unfolds of old colony tragedy, overly optimistic second attempts, and cooperate greed. Murderbot has to fight on a variety of platforms while unearthing what mistakes humans had committed yet again. Action packed fun ensues.

Oh, and Murderbot and ART may have made a baby.

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for FUGITIVE TELEMETRY

Having captured the hearts of readers across the globe (Annalee Newitz says it’s “one of the most humane portraits of a nonhuman I’ve ever read”) Murderbot has also established Martha Wells as one of the great SF writers of today.

No, I didn’t kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn’t dump the body in the station mall.

When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people—who knew?)

Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans!

Again!

MY REVIEW for FUGITIVE TELEMETRY

After the long novel (Network Effect), Fugitive Telemetry returns to the quick novella format of the other Murderbot Diaries. This time the mystery is an actual murder and our favorite entertainment-feed loving android has to work with human security instead of running rings around them.

The problem is the murderer seems to be able to run rings around Murderbot.

Is it a corporate villain, or something even worse?

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for SYSTEM COLLAPSE

Am I making it worse? I think I’m making it worse.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.

But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast!

Yeah, this plan is… not going to work.

MY REVIEW for SYSTEM COLLAPSE

Unlike most of this series, System Collapse (book 7) does NOT work as a stand-alone. You should at least read book 5 of the series, Network Effect. (Note book 6 – Fugitive Telemetry is a novella stand-alone flashback.) I read book 5 about 10 months ago and struggled.

That said, another excellent addition to the Murderbot series. Our snarky hero continues to grow in maturity, basically teenage level now with pouts and shutdown and continue struggles with “why are supposedly emotionally mature sentients like this?” It has taken over observing and assisting with the emotional growth of those who are “younger” than it. I adore watching the SecUnit change over time and take on new skills outside of being a construct built to Secure & Protect.

The specific story for this one mixes politics and exploration, at least for Murderbot’s humans. It has to keep them safe while they do unsafe things.

If you are unsure about whether this series is a good fit for you, check out the bookquotes.

Checked out through the local library. Support Libraries!

***
So one of the other reviewers say that Murderbot now reads as a teenager and that was bad.
I think it is great. It shows maturity. I would place it about 13 or 14 – still respecting some adults it has grown to trust, liking people for their own sake, growing its personal circle of friends, but also melting down and needing prodding because the brain is just … braining.

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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for HOME (SHORT STORY)

“Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory” is a short story set in the world of Martha Well’s Murderbot Diaries. This story was originally given free to readers who pre-ordered Network Effect, the fifth entry in the series. The events of “Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory” occur just after the fourth novella, Exit Strategy.

MY REVIEW for HOME (SHORT STORY)

More a vignette or character exploration than a short story, Home is told from Mensah’s POV between stories 4 and 5.

Very little new information is brought to the table – you don’t need to read this. But I do like discovering how Murderbot and Mensah interact, tease, and support each other from the human standpoint.

Flash: Join the Crew

Erin Penn 2 Comments

Image from Jennifer Marquez on Unsplash

“Come forward, hermana.”

Anita walked forward to the gray-haired, stooped old man, her body trembling, her head bowed with her black hair streaming down against her white quinceaera gown, grateful for the gown still fitting a year later, though gaping wider at the chest and re-cinched at the waist. Her family was poor; the gown would be sold after this ceremony, her younger brother not needing it. She dropped to her knees on the first of galvanized diamond-etched steps making up the repurposed the spiral staircase. The metal used to connect the bridge to engineering, now it connected the passenger-congregational area of the community casa y iglesia to the Ship Logs.

“Rosita blessed, guiding light, she who brought us to Neuvo Mundo through Starfire and Voidcold. Before us this day is a child, our future. A daughter and a sister. You have guided and protected her four times four rounds of our home. Today, matching days to the ancient world, she has reached majority and is a child no more.” The priest of the Shipboard Faith paused. “Are her parents present?”

Her parents rose from the madera-nega bench they sat on and came forward. “Nosotros estamos aqui.”

“Do you have a marido for your hija?”

“No one has spoken to us or her. We present her to the Ship as an adult with no contracts for apprenticeship or procreation.”

Few men took on the title husband without a hefty dowry, and her small family were saving what little credit they had for their son. Fewer still of the skilled artisans and crafter took on apprentices outside their families. Her family’s small pasto y madera farm would go to her brother. Anita would need to find her own way in their colony.

“Rosita bless you for raising a child from birth to adulthood. Thank you for answering the calling, padre, madre. You are relieved of the onus you took on for us all.”

They sighed in relief behind her, her lifegivers, the ones who raised her, before retreating. Last year they celebrated her fifteenth birthday with all the love in them. Today, they willingly gave up obligations related to her. They had talked about it, her and her parents, but still, it hurt. Sixteen years was not enough; eighteen years and twenty-seven days by the Earth calendar, was not enough.

“Hermana Anita, welcome to the Shipboard. Do you join our vessel freely and of your own will?”

Not knowing any other options after being raised in the small Neuvo Mundo colony, forty-two light years from the ancient world, Anita answered, “I do.”

“Do you wish to serve the vessel as crew, or travel as a passenger?”

Anita inhaled deeply. What she was about to ask wasn’t asked often and granted even less, but without a husband and no skills, the procreation and school house was her only other option. “Officer on Duty, I wish to join the crew.”

“Daughter of passengers, the life of crew is hard. Are you sure you wish to take up this burden?”

“I do,” Anita’s voice was firm.

Officer Alfonso turned on the narrow spiral riser and walked up to where the Ship Logs were stored at the top of the fifty-foot spiral. Each step set the bells sewn along the outside edge tinkling, reminding the congregation of the sounds their ancestors used to hear as the ship heated and cooled on its long journey.

A second Officer, Hermano Sanchez, the one who normally covered Night Shift, came out of the audience and stepped around Anita to mount the steps. He carefully measured his stride against Alfonso’s, so the bells harmonized, traveling up to the first landing and stepping off onto the platform where the Console was suspended above the main floor.

The Officer on Duty walked down the steps carefully carrying a non-reflective metal black box. He stopped at the Console for the Calibration ceremony.

Relaxing her hands where they had gripped her skirts, Anita smoothed the wrinkles. No female had tried to join the crew as long as she had been alive. Last two who tried both died. According to what little times she spent with the copy of the logs available on the passenger level, women had never done well qualifying for crew. And fewer qualified among each of the three generations born under gravity.

Anita knees hurt against the repurposed metal while she waited hoping she would be an exception. She didn’t want to die. The planet hadn’t been kind, and she, like all females raised in the colony, knew her onus to replenish the ranks. The colony was struggling to survive. Food they had in plenty, but much of it became natural contraceptives to humans in the sun and soil of Neuvo Mundo. She would hate to deprive her community by dying, but she knew she wouldn’t survive as passenger procreator. Being a crew lifegiver and careraiser to the seven Officers that served as clergy, leadership, and security would be challenge enough.

At last, the priest of the Shipboard Faith returned to the passenger level and set the black box against the staircase handrail until it clicked into place. He then opened the box. From inside he raised out a golden crown of Roses ad Rays, each ray an antenna sparking with its own LED light.

“Blessed be Rosita, Captain of Us All,” said the Officer on Duty, holding the crown high for all to see.

“Blessed be Rosita, Engineer of La Libertad.” The congregation returned.

“Hermana Anita, I ask once again, do you wish to join the crew and take on all onus, duties, and responsibilities pertaining thereto?”

“I do.”

“Rise, hermana.”

Anita stood, carefully holding onto the handrail after so long on her knees. Between her short height as a third generation compared to the Officer’s first generation and him being on a step above her, he easily lowered the crown to her head.

“Hold it steady.” He instructed, his voice cracking with age as he reached under her chin to buckle some trailing wires. He took the step down and walked to first one side and then the other to connect additional strings around her ears. He then lifted his hand back to the crown. “Let go.”

Anita lowered her hands away from the slick feeling metal, waiting for whatever came next. The copies of the Ship’s Log said nothing about how the Rose testing worked. Some of the Diaries speculated the Crown came from the Captain Helmet which allowed her to communicate with the La Libertad before a meteoroid holed its second AI unit, destroying its personality.

Shadows grew sharper surrounding her, until the passenger-congregation gasp helped Anita figure out the Crown lights were growing brighter. Then, as the glow emulated from the gold metal crown, she felt the spike rays slip downward through her thick hair, etching into her scalp. First with a pinch, then a pressure. Anita bit her lip hard enough to bleed when the humming pain began. She fell forward, grabbing the handrail for support.

“Auh!” she screamed as the rays dug deep, the shorter ones completely imbedding in her head. Someone kept her from falling forward, guiding her down onto the hard textured steps. Iron and burnt hair taste and smell filled her mouth and nose. Abruptly the pain stopped, but so did all tastes and smells. The world turned black and soundless, except for a group of dots brightening and dimming one after the other in a circle.

(words 1,247; published 5/5/2024; created 11/19/2023)