The Metal Ones

The Metal Ones

                The brilliant sun rose over the titanium city. The burning sphere looms high overhead. Bright light reflected off of gold and silver cupolas and tower steeples. Everything was made of glass and metal. There are very few trees, making wood a no longer abundant material for construction. The machines are able to create and recycle metal.   

Heat from the sun quickly warm the city, which is underneath a glass bubble, through the green house effect, allowing a consistent temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit to bathe the city. This form of temperature control allowed the city’s inhabitants to function at the optimal temperature for electronic performance.

  All along the streets the metal ones moved, shuffled about and traveling like small drops of gallium drifting down a hot surface. All different types went about their existence in freedom, large workers lumbered around construction sites, erecting glass and steel walls, puffing out steam as they labored.  

Slim silver intellectuals debate the finer points of physics and philosophy while sitting amongst others in the various parks, populated with rare trees and other plants, the only biological life in the city. The verdure reached up to the glass ceiling, emitting vapor which rains down onto the city and provide fresh water for the machines’ cooling systems. The sun light pushes through the vegetation and lands on the large expanses of grass in the parks. Artificially created streams and waterfalls cut through the parks, fountains spurt water high up into the air and fall down into pools populated with lily pads and water hyacinths.    

Outside the parks lie the many miles of roads populated with taxi bots, compact intelligent vehicles picking up metal patrons along street corners and taking them to wherever they choose. There are also taxi bots in the sky shuttling passengers around to large stations in the sky. From within the stations many robots mill about, making decisions and creating orders. These are the temperature and environmental control stations. The most important machines make adjustments and pump out chemicals from the stations therefore affecting the city’s atmosphere. They have the most important jobs of anyone in the city, their choices affect the enclosed environment and the lives of all inhabitants.  

Back on the ground bulky enforcers maintain the law, arresting deviant androids and maintaining control. Amongst the other robots are health care workers including doctors and nurses, scientists conducting experiments within spotless laboratories, athletes and many others. They are all the progenies of their biological predecessors, human beings. They have flourished in their carefully controlled environments separated from the horribly polluted land removed from the city. Humans no longer exist but their class structure has been reproduced by the machines. They carefully mimic the world of the humans, creating the same jobs as humans, most of their forms are human like as well, composed of two arms and two legs, a head, hands and feet. They will soon evolve different and more efficient bodies. Until that point, that glorious point, they will be the advanced, metal humans. Their society will flourish where very few can. They are the metal ones.

The Living Planet

The Living Planet

                We set course for the living planet. A single living entity the size of a planet, it survives on atmospheric water and through symbiotic relationships with organisms living on and in it. It would take five days to reach it from the planet of Thion, our home planet. Our crew was small, only five astronauts. An engineer, a doctor, a biologist and two explorers, I am one of the explorers.  We maintained ourselves through the trip by playing card games, studying manuals describing the atmosphere of the living planet, and generally remaining in good spirits.

                We slept in the cabin when we became tired. We worked out in the small weight room to remain healthy. Every night, if you call it night (space is always the same) we made our own dinner from dehydrated food pellets, just add water. We were excited to be visiting the living planet, none of us have seen it before, this will be a new experience.

                Two days of travel remain; soon we’ll be gently landing on the surface as to not cause any damage. Our biologist became sick during our travels. The doctor tended to him and we each went about our ways.

                One full day of travel was left. Soon we’d be out of this small ship and roaming around the living planet. The planet could be seen in the far distance, a green sphere hanging in the perpetual darkness of space. Surrounding the planet were three bright stars and one moon, orbiting the oversized creature.

                We began our descent to the living planet. Huge pores dotted the surface of the planet and tall fungi stretched out from some of them. We came to a gentle landing, the planet shook with the discomfort of having a space craft land on it’s skin. The hatch opened and we ran out. The surface felt warm and squishy under our boots. We looked around.

                Huge flying lizards dotted the sky and red pools of liquid covered parts of the surface. From some of these pools sprung large two headed turtles. The biologist noted all of the life forms and swabbed the surface to test for bacteria. He cautiously walked to a red pool and dunked a small bottle into the strange liquid, gloves protecting his hands from any caustic effects.

                We grouped together near the ship to formulate a plan for exploring the planet. The doctor and engineer went off together; the biologist, myself and the other explorer went in a separate direction. Our main goal was to document the life on the planet and more importantly to communicate with the living planet and learn about the rich history of this enigma. How did the planet evolve? Where did it come from? Is it male or female? These were all questions on our mind. But our first step was to learn about the life on the planet, from there we may be able to discover if the planet can communicate with it’s inhabitants and symbiotes. We continued on.    

The Lab

The Lab

                Today is my first day as intern to the famous research scientist Dr. Isaac. I showed up to the lab twenty minutes early and I met him at the lobby, he extended his hand for a shake, I nervously extended mine in return.

                “Welcome James to MRL (Moon Research Lab), we are the first laboratory to be established on the moon. As you’ll remember, since the colonization of the moon there have been many facilities set up, but we are the first biological/cybernetics lab on the planet. Did you have a good trip from Earth?” Asked Dr. Isaac.

                “Um, yes, very much so.” James replied.

                “Good, then we shall proceed this way. Here is a lab coat and safety glasses for you. We’ll begin in the aquatic laboratory.” Said Dr. Isaac.

                Dr. Isaac walked to the right of the doorway and swiped his security badge. The double doors opened, leading them into a LED lit laboratory. There were four large tanks, each with an assortment of tubes and pipes running into them. The tubes were connected to a large switch board with dials and illuminated buttons throughout. There were clean, organized lab benches with various instruments on them. There were pipettes, hot plates, mini-centrifuges and other equipment. The real wonders lie within the large tanks. They walked over to one and Dr. Isaac began talking:

                “As you’ll see here is our first attempt at a cyborg dolphin, Pete. You’ll see the telekinetic apparatus grafted onto the organism’s cranium. Stand up straight and pay attention.” Said Dr. Isaac.

                “Sorry sir, I’m still a little disoriented from the space ship ride.” Said James.

                Dr. Isaac nodded and continued talking: “this dolphin has the ability of simple telekinesis. You’ll see him stacking those lead blocks in his tank just by using his mind. He’s very intelligent. You’ll also notice the electrodes attached to his telekinetic apparatus. They lead out of the tank and hook up with our control panel right here. We can study his brain activity while he moves and stacks the blocks, very interesting.”

                “Yes indeed, this is absolutely amazing.” Said James.

                “You’ll spend much of your laboratory time here monitoring Pete’s brain activity and recorded data into our electronic lab notebooks. We’ll set you up with one today; moving along now to the second tank.” Said Dr. Isaac.

                The two made their way over to the second large tank where a sea turtle swam around inside it. A technician moves two switches with a click. Suddenly the turtle faded into invisibility. The technician moves the switches back over and the turtle came back into focus.

                “As you’ll see here James, in this tank is Thomas our invisible sea turtle. We’re testing a new type of cloaking device on him, which is interwoven within his flesh. For some reason the device does not react well with oxygen which makes it a perfect fit for the anaerobic respiration cycle of the turtle. On the occasion Thomas will swim to the surface to breathe in air, at which point he becomes visible.

                “That’s incredible!” Said James.

                “Yes, much of what we do here is on the cutting edge, you’ll definitely learn a lot here.” Said Dr. Isaac.

New Story: The House of the Future

The House of the Future

                High atop the mountain sat a house of curious wonder. This was no ordinary house. As you complete the trek to the top of the mountain you’ll first see the flying car parked on the landing pad. From this altitude, the car does not have to expend much energy, or use much citrium infused water to reach the clouds. The car is also quite interesting in that it is half machine half organic. It drinks citrium infused water and eats table scraps from the kitchen, but enough about the car.

                As you’ll see the side yard is home to many wind turbines. Harvesting the strong winds at the top of the mountain and pumping the electricity to the house. Also on the roof are many solar panels running at 98% efficiency, the best money can buy. The house is completely off the grid, it generates all the electricity it needs.

                The rather large back yard contains two, large chicken coops. Within the coops are german shepherd sized chickens, genetically modified to be huge and protein rich. They each lay eggs the size of small bowling balls. The eggs are packed with vitamins, protein and the right balance of carbohydrates and fats. The single inhabitant of the house can live off of the eggs alone, but he prefers to butcher a chicken every now and again.

                Also within the backyard are two full vegetable gardens. One garden is just potatoes, cucumbers and tomatoes; the second is peas, carrots, squash and zucchini. He built by hand the enclosures that contain the cucumbers to give them climbing room. Both gardens receive full sun for eight hours a day since there is not competition for light from tall trees. The man eats to capacity and cans the rest of the vegetables so they can be consumed during the winter months. He rarely has to go shopping. For a little variety, the man harvests wild blueberries that grow along the mountain. It’s the perfect life for a hermit.

                Every other week he takes his flying car ten miles to the desert to harvest sand. He is a rather eccentric inventor and uses the sand to melt into glass. He then molds the glass into light bulb forms. He’s engineered light bulbs to never burn out and uses them throughout his house.

                Water is condensed from the air through the use of large cooling spheres attached to the roof. The water trickles down the side of the sphere and runs down the jacket of the rod that supports the sphere. The water is then collected in large barrels to be taken from whenever the man sees fit.  He then boils the water to sterilize it and refrigerates it for use later.

                The man is never greeted by visitors, but that’s how he likes it. He is constantly working on his amazing house. Always busy and working hard. He believes in the philosophy that if you work hard and do good, then you’ll receive good. So far his philosophy has been true.      

               

New Story: The Golems Part 2

The Golems Part 2

                The golems act in a pair, their energies feed off of each other, two complimentary pieces forming an evil entity. They stood tall and dark, the silver one to the right of the girl, the gold to her left. She fell down, crouched and curled on the cobble stone road. She transformed her body into a pile of ash. A gentle wind took her away. She traveled up into the sky and watched the golems from high above. Her essence mixed with the air molecules and soon she could extend her cloud to encompass the town. She remained suspended over the golems, watching and blotting out the moon light. The townspeople looked up into the sky with horror and saw, silhouetted against the stars, a black ash mist. She corrupted the oxygen around her, replacing the molecules with carbon monoxide and other sleep enhancing elements.  

                The silver golem filled himself with rage and thrust his massive fists into nearby buildings, destroying the wood and cement facades. He worked his way up and down the streets. Patrons and civilians fled the buildings screaming and crying. His eyes emitted intense lasers, the beams ignited nearby trees and roofs.

                The gold golem stood still, he did not move. From his position he began to shake and tremble. His eyes were closed and an aura soon formed around him. The aura increased in size like rings around a drop in a pond. The fleeing civilians ran into the magical aura and then they changed. They became lethargic and slow. Their movements were apathetic. The aura slowly encompassed the entire city and continued to expand. The people of the city were trapped in a draining bubble. The silver golem stopped his reign of terror and stood still. He lent his power to the gold golem. The spell intensified and caused the people to crawl, some lay down and slept in the roads.  

                She can watch the entire city, her dark form creating a nasty shadow.  She hears something in the distance. “Is it music of sorts, a song sung in a high pitched falsetto?” She casts telescopic vision on herself. She peered in the direction of the song and saw the source of it. A small boy sings a song by himself. The boy is sitting in a garden on a sunny afternoon. Sunflowers tower over him; some are unable to hold their giant flower head up. He continued to sing until all the sunflowers are fully upright. A ray of sun shine beams over him. She knew there was something enchanting about this boy and his abilities; she feels an intense sense of good coming from him. She knew he must never come near the golems.

                The golems continue to cast their spell of coma over the civilians. Everyone in the city sleeps except for one man. His immunity prevents falling under the golems spell. He stands up and looks around the block. His fellow men and women all sleep under a horrible curse. He senses something far in the distance, something wholly good. He turns to leave the city but is stopped by a giant silver golem. His red eyes narrow. The golem bends down and reaches with his massive hand. He grabs the man but is suddenly repulsed by the contact with the man’s body. Electricity shoots out from the man’s body and electrocutes the silver golem. The man runs and flees the city.

                “I must find the beholder of this intense good. Hopefully he or she will have a solution to this horrible problem.”