Cage fighting Nuns and tanks - a love story.

 Cage fighting nuns and tanks

A love story

Concept by “the Oatmeal”

Written by Pierre Adriaan Du Plessis.

Alissa didn’t want to be a nun. Really she couldn’t care less about vows and chastity and all that. She had her own reasons for being here. She was chasing after her man.

Alexi was her childhood friend. She had finally fallen for him on the evening of her nineteenth birthday; when he sneaked into her bedroom and gave her a present. It wasn’t expensive or big… It was just a hand carved heart. She reached up to where it now hung around her neck and clutched it in her hand.

Back then… she had fallen in love that night, and the next day he was gone; enlisted for war against his will. Alissa had vowed to enlist and reunite with him, just as soon as she was old enough, but she never had the chance. By then conventional war had turned into anarchy and enlistment became impossible.

She hated war. She hated fighting. 

War had taken everything away from her. She never thought that the second revolution of industry… Otherwise known as the tech-rev 2020, would lead to so much disaster. With quantum computing and energy transmission, each country thought it had the next best thing to suppress the rest of the world, and so chaos reigned for over a decade. 

During this time of despair, the people turned to their forgotten religions for answers. “Save us! What should we do!” So it was that religion became the control over the masses, achieving in some sense, what government had always wanted to. 

To bring order to the world, all religions had combined under a single flag and called itself the Church of common good. It was a promising change and things slowly started getting better.

Technology became a controlled substance and weapons were only allowed in the hands of those ordained to be pure and capable. If you wanted to pull a trigger, or even set foot in a tank, then you had to become a part of the church.

Your state of being was judged by the whole world, twenty four hours a day. Artificial psychiatric analysis and public observations, along with judgement by peers and through public relations… Nuns and Monks had no privacy anymore… As such it took everything Alissa had, to hide her true intentions.

Outside she could hear the crowd roaring… there was a fault in this system… to be judged physically capable by the community was a farce… all they really wanted tonight was violence… but their ‘public’ approval of her mattered, and this was how you got it.

She would give them violence in this monesterial arena… as much as she possibly could without seeming deliberate about it. After all… she didn’t really want to hurt anybody; no, she just wanted a license to drive a tank.

She let go of the wooden heart and took a deep breath. Then picked up her modified PDA and typed one last message. “It won’t be long now my love… soon I will be with you.”  She hid the device under a secret panel in her locker. 

Then she tightened the straps within and around her habit. Sticking to its original design to conceal her figure, it was also a drag if you had to fight in it. The straps were designed for fighters, to keep the cloth from getting in the way. 

The doors opened and the crowd went berserk. Alissa cringed under the auditory assault. Bright lights blinded her as she entered the circle. It made her think about the last time she had Alexi in her arms.

That day, the military practically dragged him out of the barn. No amount of hay would have hidden them from the infrared sensors of the drone. The spherical robot exposed them with its ridiculously overpowered lights. She remembered screaming at the blinding light as soldiers dragged her lover away. 

For years after, she had tried to find him again… but when she did it was already too late. He had been obliterated by a mass relapsing bomb, while shipping out across the pacific.  A few pieces of his body was all that they could find. She cried for months and felt like she would never love again, until one day…

The Monastery bells rang for the first round to start. She snapped out of memory lane and looked around for her opponent. The other woman had moved so fast that she barely got a look at the face before the black cloth flew over her head. She felt a leg wrap around her neck and was pulled to the ground, clawing at the cloth that obscured her vision.

“That was foolish little one. Where is your head?” 

She recognized the voice. It was Agatha. She bit her tongue, trying not to swear as the gravity of her situation dawned. Agatha was a Stavrophore. In the old days it would have meant that she had obtained discipline, dedication, humility but Agatha had no humility… she was the epitome of pride and self righteousness. It was to a fault, as the Ai Psych’s wouldn’t allow her anywhere near machines… Elevated aggression associated with a repressed tendency bold-mean bullying. Regardless she was unmatched in the arena and remained its champion.

Alissa decided it was time to play dirty. She reached into the habit that covered her face, snaked her arm between the folds where nobody could see. She found the touch of skin and pinched as hard as she could. Her opponent squealed with surprise. The leg unwrapped and she was kicked out of the way.

The two of them got back onto their feet and began circling. Agatha laughed. “That was the first time anybody has ever done that! But I’ll make sure you regret it little one.” The woman was walking kind of funny. Alissa felt like laughing when she thought of what her sneak attack might have landed on.

Behind Agatha, Alissa could see the big screen. It showed a close up of her own face; still flustered from the pressure of choking… and then the screen flickered. It was a message from ‘him’. She smiled, having managed to read the microsecond of text that had flashed between the flickers. It was Alexi’s way of talking to her. Nobody would notice it unless they knew to expect it, but Alissa was used to it by now.

I believe in you

The first time he had reached out to her from beyond the grave was on the radio. It was a year after she had learned he was dead. She had been digging for food in the trash behind a military base, and an old discarded radio came to life right next to her. The signal had a lot of static, but she could have sworn it was Alexi’s voice, calling out her name. She had taken the radio home that night, hoping to hear his voice again. It wasn’t until the next morning, that the static flared up again, and woke her up with an audible “Help me!”

The radio had blown a fuse and was useless thereafter, but Alissa began snooping around the base, convinced that her lover was somehow trapped inside. 

One night, she had gathered the nerves to infiltrate the place. She sneaked in like a rat, and made her way to the ventilation system. Her tiny frame wriggled its way through the system and she found her way to a large central chamber. Feeling tired, and slightly claustrophobic, she wrestled with the mesh and dropped to the floor like a happy bag of potatoes.  

When she had gotten up, she was amazed at what she saw. It was an assembly house for tanks. She had never seen so much industry in one place. The machines worked tirelessly in putting together an endless supply of destructive behemoths. There wasn’t a single human around. The entire system was automated. She found herself wondering if anybody ever came down here anymore. 

She dusted herself off and began to tour. She watched the miracle of hydrogen reactors come to life; followed them as three were carried off to be transplanted into the shell of a single Tier III Task master. The monster was only completed half of the way, but it still struck her with fear and awe. The rotating barrels of the cannon tested the engines strength before the Task master was shifted over into another line. There it waited for a set of external limbs and armor plates.

Seeing so many of them in one place; it nearly made her empty her bladder out of fear. She reassured herself that she was safe, because if any of these machines were fully active she’d be dead already. Regardless she still tiptoed between the monsters. She found a hatch at the back of the facility and slipped inside.

It had led to a service tunnel with leaky pipes. She squeezed around a small drone that was trying to plug one particularly stubborn leak. Water was spraying all over the poor thing and Alissa helped it by shielding the sensor with a piece of her rags before moving on.

At the end of the tunnel was a dim blue light. The sound of more machines gave her an idea of what to expect, but again she was surprised as she rounded the corner. A large robotic arm descended from the ceiling. It carried within its grasp, a large liquid container made of glass. Inside was an object suspended haphazardly by cables and thin sinuous strands. As the liquid stopped moving she could make out the shape. It was a brain!

She wanted to scream and slapped a hand across her mouth. It was a shock to admit that the horror stories she had heard about this place were true. The robotic arm stabilized the oscillation of the contents and moved on. 

Alissa shuddered and then looked around. The place she was in was bathed in luminous blue light. The walls stretched endlessly into the distance, and stacked with shelves of glass canisters containing more brains. Each canister had a tag with a sequential bar code and serial number. It was the same format as those issued to soldiers… she knew because she had spent years memorizing Alexi’s number. A desperate search began.

She ran along the wall for what seemed like miles, counting down the numbers as she went. Robot arms were busy kidnapping canisters from all over the place and she panicked at the thought of being too late all over again. Faster still she ran as the difference became smaller. Another fifty, another forty, another thirty! Alexi, I’m coming!

She felt her legs begin to tremble as the location drew near, and as she approached a robot arm descended from above. Nononono. She counted the numbers down one by one. The robot arm latched on just as she confirmed it “Alexi? NO!” It seemed cruel and wrong and evil that this machine would wait for her to find him just to take him away again. “No! not him! I won’t let you!” Of course the arm wouldn’t listen. It pulled the canister from the wall with apparent apathy. “ALEXI!”

She grabbed onto the arm and tried to force it to let go. The machine didn’t even budge. It lifted both of them into the air and started flying back the way she came. She screamed and clawed and punched at the machine. It simply picked up speed and she screamed in terror. Never in her life had she been moved so fast. She clung for dear life and stared at her lover. His brain simply swirled as if it was fun. 

She released one arm and reached into the liquid… It was as cold as ice and she gasped. She had to reach him, even if it meant destroying what was left… There was no point in saving him now, but she knew what was waiting at the end of this flight. If she couldn’t save him now, she would destroy him instead, because she’d be damned if she’d let the military keep him; damned if she allowed him to become a slave inside one of their tanks.

The ride took an unexpected turn and she lost her grip. Howling as failure dawned. A failure confirmed as she struck the ground and rolled, breaking arms and legs. Her crash landing destroyed several other canisters that day. In a way she was saving all of them from a fate far worse.

She didn’t see Alexi’s brain again. Security drones had found and restrained her. Authorities had dragged her off to the hospital. They didn’t bother to listen to her story. They laughed at the idea that a harvested brain could have any concept of its reality… much less that one could find a way to circumvent the Qomputer system and consciously reach out into the world. Regardless she was certain of what she heard on that radio and refused to admit that what she did was wrong. 

She was then given a choice. “You can go to prison, or you can sign up for this new initiative.”

“Initiative?”

“The new church of common good. Serve the public, and perhaps one day, you might live a normal life again.”

She didn’t have to think about it twice. Prison was a dead end… at least this church would give her a second chance, and so it did. 

A few years later the world agreed, the church will be given full control of the military. She was already a Rassaphore nun by then. Her objective became clear… Work hard, prove yourself and get a license… once you can drive tanks, you will find Alexi again.

She found him sooner than that. Alexi had indeed become a slave inside a tank, but he had found a way to retain sentience in silence. He had used his new body, to hack into the military grid and find his lost love again. They could only chat via text, for fear of detection, but that was enough for him.

It was not enough for Alissa though. And here she is now, fighting in a cage, to prove to the world (even if they didn’t know it) that she was capable and worthy of love. 

Agatha was hopping around the floor, hyping up the crowd. Alissa sneered with contempt and then calmed herself again. I do not hate her, she reminded herself. But her actions are unbecoming of her vows. She reached down and loosened the straps on her habit. My ambitions are worthy of victory. Cloth fell freely to the floor in great volume. They draped from her like the black waters of indifference she had to endure all these years. The feeling was liberating and serene. She might trip and smash her teeth out on the floor. She might stumble and find herself pinned down for defeat, but she might also win…. and when she does, she was going to do it right. This is the cloth of common good.

She began to run towards her opponent. The cloth flowed around her feet with miraculous grace. It followed in her wake like the tidal wave of cleansing destruction. Agatha turned around in surprise and shrieked in fear.  

Alissa launched herself high into the air and descended upon her prey like the giant black carnivorous dove. The two women went down, drowned underneath a wave cloth and ambition. Screaming ensued. The crowd fell silent as confusion began to set in. The hulking black mass writhed and moaned and a murmur began to vibrate amongst the spectators. People started shouting again and then roared as an arm finally appeared. The arm stretch skywards out of desperation, beckoning for some kind of divine assistance but there was none.

The arm fell to the floor and went limp. The bell rang once more. The fight was over and everything in the room felt ominous. 

A presiding monk was lowered into the ring and approached the tangled fighters. He lifted the cloth and peered underneath. “I see you’ve won…. But what of your opponent?”

“Relax, she’s just out cold.”

Alissa released her choke on the other woman, and threw her off to the side. The crowd had a mental meltdown of joy. The noise was deafening. Her approval rating shot through the roof. She now had more than enough. She had so much of the stuff that if she ate a baby right now, the fans would shower her with condiments.

She grabbed the old man by the throat and pulled him closer so that he could hear.

“I’ve won. And now… in the name of common good… GIVE ME MY FUCKING TANK!”

The unbreakable and the breaker.

She said she'd like to break me. It made me laugh.

I regarded this woman as strange... She was a proud intelligent woman with a well developed set of beliefs... On a lot of issues we disagreed. I would often take the more reserved route of monotony, meaningful sex, and restraining urges. I cared for, and respected women. 

This woman was like a nemesis. She pawed at a multifaceted relationship. She wasn't against casual intimacy. She believed in enjoying the above without restraint, and had a morbid desire to tempt men into infidelity.


We had a few friendly bouts of verbal challenge and debate. We didn't judge each other. We were merely presenting our states of mind for the sake of consideration and understanding.
At some point she said something along the lines of  "I would like to get you drunk some time and break you."
I laughed.
It wasn't that I didn't appreciate the comment. It certainly sounded like fun... but it was a boastful thing to say.
To counter-illustrate the point, I made some artwork for her. A depiction of the type of creature (and mind) she was hoping to conquer.

She has long since stopped communicating with me... It was fun conversation, but I don't really miss her. We will probably never find out if she could really break me, but I would have been very amused to see her try.

Avatars, cats and bicycles.

An avatar created for a friend.

She's a very driven ambitious woman that likes to challenge herself. I incorporated a lot of her personal aspects into this piece.

 

DIGITAL ART from LAVENDER HILLS.

Here is a selection of art work that inspired the story...
 First some legalities...
Your consideration is appreciated.
The images below are copyright protected. All rights are reserved. Any use of these images , including the reproduction, modification, distribution or replication of same, without the prior written permission by Pierre A. Du Plessis is strictly prohibited.

Enjoy. (and people say I don't share :)

Insomnipotence in progress

A couple of weeks ago I started an undertaking of creating a short story with the help of  a new acquaintance.
Said acquaintance has seemingly become indifferent since our first meeting. I imagine that perhaps she didn't enjoy my company and is too polite to say it.
But that's okay. I can take a hint and realise that I'm not everybody's cup of tea. There’s no hard feelings but if she's listening, I would really appreciate getting my imported copy of Korean CG back.

That being said. I thought it might be nice to share the fruits of our collaboration with the rest of you.
If it's well received I might feel inclined to continue, SO HOLLA MOH! IF YA WANNA MOH!



Remember... you read it first at Cafe' Ambivalence!
I hereby humbly submit....

INSOMNIPOTENCE.    

Jed woke up with his keyboard imprinted on his face. Falling asleep online was becoming a bad habit of his but he couldn’t help himself. Lately it seems that no matter how much sleep he gets, it’s never enough, and then there was the sleepwalking…

Heavy as his eyes were, he managed to glance about the room. Clinical white. Boring images of nature on the walls. He hated being in hospital. The thought of getting out of there was becoming more and more appealing… but he still had hope they could figure out what was wrong with him.

Exhausted, he forced himself onto his feet and zombie’d over to the basin. He opened the generic stainless steel tap. He didn’t know if splashing water in one’s face really made any difference, but he saw people do it in movies… figured it was worth a shot.

He stared at himself in the frameless mirror. A meeting with his own dark eyes… nearly black with a hint of blue… they seemed cold… uncaring. His face had seen better days. It was an ever increasing husk of his former self; side effects of his sleep deprivation.

The bags under the eyes made his pale skin seem dead. The stubble along his jaw was turning into sand paper again. He’d shave right now if they allowed him to use blades…

He knew that his problem with sleeping had something to do with the woman he was trying to find, and the loss of his artificial companion… Olivia.

And also likely, the new personality he had to deal with… “Geb”

If he could figure out one problem, he could fix the others.

He hovered with his cursor over the icon of his old companion. Or rather, his (sort of) daughter, but he knew that she wouldn’t respond if he called. She was afraid to come back to him. Afraid of getting hurt.

Olivia was an artificial life form he had created for himself out of sheer loneliness. Initially his motivation was cheap and clichéd but over the years, the intelligence grew in complexity, and he came to regard his creation as a kind of daughter.

Being human, he had formed a deep emotional bond with her. She wasn’t real, but the feelings were. It wasn’t surprising that he couldn’t sleep well, now that she was missing.

As it is, he assumed Olivia was secretly residing inside the P-chip of this woman he was trying to find. P-chips were the latest revolution of social networking. A convenient dermal implant that replaced the bulk (and cold detachment) of mobile hand held devices… Olivia used to live in his and now, she was gone and Jed was left feeling like a part of him was missing.

He hated himself for what had happened.

It all started several months ago...

-----

That day in the coffee shop was like a pleasant nightmare… He still had no idea how he came to be so taken by a stranger; so absorbed by the moment that he completely forgot about his invisible companion.

The coffee shop was a quiet place. Abundant in space with a small customer base. He liked going there to unwind while a blend of caffeine, tartrazine and other stuff that ended with INE could tend to his brain.

The light in the shop was low and warm, and the music complimented it with violins and female vocals. People didn’t go there to meet. They went there to get away… this is why his actions that day was so ironic.

As he left his little alcove, to return to the world outside, he saw a woman in passing. She had taken a seat in the alcove next to his. He would not have noticed her until just then. She was slender and pale, with a vibrant explosion of long curling red hair. She was engrossed in a novel and didn’t notice his attention at first.

The alcove’s personal vents were feathering her clothes and hair with a constant breeze… It made her seem almost ethereal and the more he had observed, the more she drew him closer until he had found himself standing practically on top of her. She had looked up to enquire about his interest and he had said something, though he couldn’t recall what because from there the details of the encounter become blurred in memory.

Jed was ordinarily a strictly logical man. As such, the captivation was a momentary weakness; a lapse in judgment that had cost him dearly. He didn’t expect that he would lose his daughter as a result.

She used to reside inside in the back of his own neck. The P-chip there, was a cozy place to keep her, nestled between his mind and the interface. She thrived in the snug of activity there and kept him company as their thoughts were connected on a permanent basis. Their connection had been so profound that even calling her a daughter seemed too distant. Regardless, he had been the fool to cause her so much pain and fear, as to make her “run away” from him.

Olivia wasn’t ready for him to express such interest in another. Up until that moment they had always been completely devoted, connected and engrossed with each other.

He should have stopped himself from walking over to the stranger; Stopped himself from greeting her and sitting down; Stopped himself from asking her about the book she was reading… stopped himself from even talking at all.

And all the while, like a mindless ape, he didn’t notice Olivia’s alarm. Didn’t even hear her digital panic and scream, enraged and confused as to why he was suddenly so distracted by another woman.

The reaction might seem excessive if one was talking about an ordinary living breathing child, but Olivia’s state of being lived at a pace unimaginable to humans.

Her ability to develop and experience complex emotion happened at a fraction of the time it would take a human. That being the case, it came as no surprise that she would develop the artificial equivalents of severe jealousy, depression, anger and heartache… all within seconds of his sudden infatuation with another. His mind had once been her world, and now it was being taken away from her.

And so, back then, in a fit of desperation, Olivia had created and executed a program to escape the fear; to escape him. She had shutdown her interface and allowed the programs to carry her away to the nearest p-chip in the vicinity.

The exodus was a tremendous shock to Jed’s mind. In the blink of an eye his co-dependent companion was suddenly gone. The silence in his mind was deafening. The psychological backlash had caused him to collapse to the ground.

The collage of autumn leaves, painted on the ceiling of the coffee shop, was the last thing he remembered since he woke up again in a hospital three months later.

The woman from the coffee shop was just a memory and his daughter, was gone.

Jed massaged the chip on the back of his neck again as if to ease the dull emotional ache in missing Olivia. Reluctantly he returned to the bed and tried to fall asleep again. It was futile. His mind was alive with thoughts of the past few weeks.

He remembered how he had first woken… Just as soon as he was awake, his P-chip come online and flooded his mind with appointments, emails and deadlines he had missed. “3 months since your last login!” P-chip issues aside, he was more concerned as to why his arms and legs were strapped down.

Calling for a nurse had provided a doctor instead, and the ensuing conversation had been one of the most bizarre he had ever had.

He didn’t bother to remember the name of his doctor. The man was a distasteful sight. He had an androgynous comical face. His lips and eyes were a shade too red and his eyes were beady. He gelled and combed his hair from one side to the other.

Whenever the man spoke, he did so with a smile and a presumption of know-it-all that Jed had yet to see proven.

“Good morning mister Geb.” He had said at first. Geb was not his name. “What did you call me?”

“I called you Geb. But that is clearly not your name.”

“My name is Jed. Why am I tied down?”

The doctor had explained that although this was the first time Jed appeared to be awake, his body had in fact, been conscious several times during the previous three months. Only it wasn’t Jed but a person called Geb, that was occupying the “driver’s seat”

Jed wasn’t inclined to believe him until the doctor played some recordings to convince him. It had been as though watching a deranged twin brother. The raging man being dragged into the hospital, screaming words that they could not understand.

Audio analysis kicked in and overlapped the recording with subtitles.

<trans. Egypt. “…Gate is open! Word is spoke! Event is now! Geb I am!”>

Regardless of the crude translation, the words had made no sense. The doctor was satisfied that he had seen enough and ended the playback.

“Geb was the Egyptian god of the earth; a member of the Ennead of Heliopolis.”

“The what of what?”

“Ennead means a collection of nine things. In context it refers to nine deities that were worshipped in the city of Heliopolis… ”

As such, up until just then the doctor had only known him as Geb. The doctor explained to Jed that until that day they had not been able to speak to him as himself at all.

That was almost a month ago. Since then the doctor had persistently scheduled sessions with deep hypnosis so that he may draw out this Geb persona and try to learn more from him. Despite his efforts, it was clear that there was no reasoning with this Geb.

As such the sessions were proving to be pointless. Rather they just seemed to be making things worse. Every time Jed woke up again, he would feel a little different… a little changed… He didn’t like it.

----

Present day…

Alicia had been out of sorts. She twirled a pale finger in the curl of her crimson hair. Everything about her slender body felt alien to her these days… as though she was living inside the body of somebody else. She was trying to write it all down in a blog but couldn’t find the words to properly describe what she was feeling.

She closed down the blogger and glanced at the latest of her jewelry designs. The design was far from finished but she’d lost interest in it ages ago. It was pointless trying to feel inspired when everything else felt so… off.

She just hadn’t felt quite like herself since that day in the coffee shop. It was the most bizarre thing ever… One moment she was flirting uncontrollably with a stranger and the next she was walking around aimlessly in the streets. She had blacked out, left with no idea whatsoever as to what had happened, or how she came to be in the middle of nowhere.  

That area had been unfamiliar to her. It was merely logged as ‘SLUM’ in the travel log of her p-chip. She was all too happy to get out of there, but how she came to be there in the first place was still a mystery to her.

That was three months ago and she hasn’t been able to sleep well since. In addition to that, something had gone wrong with her P-chip.

It was constantly polling for a status update from another chip. When she tries to access the log, the information disappears. When she goes to the P-linic, the chip acts as if nothing is wrong. No viruses or malware… No hacking… It was as though the thing had taken on a life of its own. She had heard rumors about the kind of things they did to people and their implants in slums. Organ sampling, Internal mutilations, hypnosis and memory invasions. It was the stuff of nightmares and she prayed that it had nothing to do with these glitches. Regardless, the only solution to her problem was complete replacement of the chip, but she had already spent all her cred on diagnostics. Replacement was expensive and would just have to wait. The technician shrugged and disconnected the cable. “You could disable it, and then come back when you’re ready. On the other hand, your medical aid is up to date, so you can go and have it surgically removed if it causes you any more trouble.” He tilted her chair upright again, eager to get rid of her now that he knew she was broke.

“Thank you” she said, even though he clearly didn’t care that much. She got up from the chair and left the clinic.

Another migraine was coming on. It was the last thing she needed. She stood on the platform outside the skyrise. Her car was further down the queue of vehicles being fetched and delivered from parking. This was to be expected… the automated system gave precedence to those who paid more taxes.

She didn’t mind waiting. She enjoyed the moment of solitude out here in the open. The air was cool and the wind was strong. She held down the layers of her light dress as the forces of nature rushed around her legs. She resigned to letting it blow her hair about her face. The natural curls twirled into a soft red brush of fire that playfully caressed against the shiver of her pale neck. It was one last comfort to enjoy before the headache kicked in.

When her car arrived she was eager to get home and swallow the last of her sleeping pills. Perhaps she’d take one more day off before getting back to her job in the morning.

She managed to get home without causing an accident, despite the migraine blurring her vision. The apartment took note of her discomfort and produced a cocktail to ease the pain… she mixed in her pills and headed straight for the bedroom, slipping out of her dress as she crossed the wooden floor.

The dress was made of a micro-weave silk. Each layer floated down like a film of smoke, and yet stepping out of it felt like the weight of the world had just slipped off her shoulders. She didn’t care to leave the burden on the floor, downed the beverage in one shot before crashing to the bed in peace.

---

The doctor smiled as Jed entered the room. Jed had come to loathe the content in his eyes. It was a false projection… the doctor rarely had news to be happy about.

“Good morning Jed… ”

“I guess… I imagine you’re more eager to talk to Geb again?”

“Could you produce him if I asked?”

“Of course not… I’m merely stating that you seem more interested in Geb than me.”

“I’m interested in helping you Jed. But you have to be willing to trust me.”

“I trust results, and you have yet to produce any. I want you to make this Egyptian crap go away. I’ve done my own research. The dialect is ancient… There’s no way I could have picked it up from somewhere… it’s foreign and I want it out. But you people are not interested in helping me do that. You just want to study it instead.”

“This is a unique opportunity. There is something truly special about your mind mister Jed. It would be beneficial to all of us if you cooperated.”

Jed calmed down. The doctor was impervious to aggressive persuasion. It didn’t matter anyway… Angry or not, he’s already decided it’s time to go home.

“You’ve given me little choice but to cooperate, by dangling the promise of help in front of me. I’m not falling for that any longer. To be honest, good Doctor, I’m inclined to request that you let me go home.”

The doctor seemed uncomfortable. “We would love for you to stay. We have provided you with all the comforts you require. Is there anything else we could offer to make you stay?”

Yeah… my daughter, and my own unique setup of illegal hardware that I can’t tell you about.

---

When Alicia woke up she nearly screamed. She found herself on the patio… not just standing but leaning over the edge as though ready to jump. A storm of rain was roaring past her ears and disappeared into the urban canyon below. She fell back with the thunder and groaned as the cold hard brick wall bit into the naked skin of her back.

Her body started shivering, as if only now realizing how cold and exposed she was. She smacked herself on the head… “Alicia… dumb ass… What the fuck is wrong with you!?”

She eagerly retreated back to her room, and scrambled into bed again. She didn’t care for the water or the blood from the fresh cuts on her back. She just wanted to get back to sleep again… Things were getting worse. First thing in the morning, she was going to do something about it.

----

“I’m tired of this place. I want to go home.”

If Jed wants out, he’ll get out, and the doctor seems to have realized this. He decided to extend the ‘leash’ instead. A long leash was better than a broken one.

“You may go whenever you wish, but I trust you understand if we check in on you from time to time. Just to make sure you’re okay.”

As if – thought Jed. He already had plans to disappear to his secret lair as soon as possible. A climate controlled ship container… one of many that he moved around from time to time.  

“Do as you wish. You know where I live.”

The doctor smiled again. “We can help you Jed… to understand what Geb is, and to find the people you are looking for.”

Of course they have checked up on his computer activity. No doubt trying to find a way to make him stay.

Regardless, Jed had been clever enough to mask the details of his digital hunt. He didn’t want to tell them about Olivia, but even if they knew, their paltry means of data mining would have been no match for her.

Besides… he wasn’t ready to share Olivia with the world just yet. Rather, the world wasn’t ready to receive her…

“Thanks… but I think I’ll continue the search on my own.”

The doctor had nothing left to say… “You may leave, but we hope you come back if you ever have need.”

“I will” he lied, and they both knew it. He got up and left the office.

Downstairs, he wasn’t surprised that checking out was a pain in the ass. The Medix centers were renowned for a lack in competence when it came to reconciling accounts with private medical funds like his. While they tried to sort out their shit, he decided to go grab some breakfast and check up on his business.

---

Alicia arrived far too early at the Medix Centre. She had scheduled a full check up with them the night before, but being early, she decided to grab some breakfast first. The cafeteria was crowded. All the tables were taken. She had already paid for her food and didn’t want to wait outside in the rain… She was going to have to find a lonely stranger and share the table.

There just happened to be a man nearby, sitting alone and seemingly buried in the projected screen of his p-chip interface. Interrupting him was going to be rude, but there was no other way. She fluffed her hair and stepped closer. “Mind if I sit?”

The projection paused and the man peered through the gaps in the text, then his eyes grew wide…

There was an awkward silence…

“I… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

The screen disappeared and she gasped. The man from… before the blackout! She panicked. If he had something to do with that! She could be in danger! Alicia stepped backwards…

Despite her fear she couldn’t take her eyes off of him. His own expression seemed anxious… uncertain… cautious… and yet captivating as it was the first time they met.

Their eyes locked as though staring at old friends… His deep dark blue peering into Hazel green; recognition with a comfort that didn’t mix well with her need to get away…

She turned to run, but the crowds were blocking the exit. Part of her felt relieved that she couldn’t leave… She turned back to face the stranger again.

His dark hair was longer now, making him look haggard; a dire need for shaving with heavy bags under the eyes. He was as tired as she was. It made her feel a little less threatened.

“It’s you!” they both said.

Jed got up from his seat. “How did you find me?!”

“I… I didn’t!”

“Where is she!?”

“Who?”

“Where is Olivia!”

“Who’s Olivia? Who are you? How…”

Jed accepted that she had no idea. Olivia had hidden herself well. He called up his projection again and started typing frantically. Alicia felt her P-chip activate on its own. “Hey! What are you doing!?”

“Relax. I have to check something on your chip!”

His fingers were flying through the invisible keys as he forced a connection between their chips. Her nerves started tingling as the programs overlapped. “Stop that!” She instinctively placed a hand over the back of her neck but it did nothing to stop the wireless connection.

“I’m sorry!” cried Jed, but he had no choice. If he didn’t move fast Olivia might jump again.

Alicia suddenly became aware of a scream of knowledge. It felt like an application, but with a mind of its own. It wasn’t coming from the external link…  No… It was something else… something alive and angry, hiding deeper inside the system. It was so close to the nerves that it felt almost like a part of her mind. She could recognize it now… the glitch she’d been trying to get rid of! She could feel it now, moving and shaking in the confines of its digital world. It grabbed the reins of her chip and began creating scripts of its own.

“Shit!” cried the man. “She’s awake!”

Alicia realized that this man knew what it was. The thought occurred to her that this was all his fault and it made her angry. She grabbed the man’s shoulder and shouted in his ear. “Get this thing out of me!”

Jed ignored Alicia’s anger as he tried to contain Olivia’s movement. His digital daughter was pushing the p-chip to its limits, but as long as he flooded the wireless link with his apologies, she was unable to escape. Regardless, the AI was too cautious to open any message he sent through…

Olivia became aggressive and started fighting back. It didn’t take her long to repel and overwhelm his intrusion.

“No no no. Don’t do this. Olivia… come back!”

Alicia tried to make sense of the screen but the code was gibberish to her. Regardless it seemed as though this man was losing some kind of battle. She realized that her privacy was of little concern to him. He was only focused on this creature Olivia. She suddenly felt sorry and angry at the same time.

Olivia was going after Jed’s chip now. She intended to cripple him. He made a last ditch effort to close her acess to the data stream, but Olivia was much faster than him. She took control and invaded his chip and then everything went dark. The projection had vanished into thin air…

“What happened?” asked Alicia. Jed ignored her. He stared into empty space as he tried to force his chip online again, but it was futile. In an instant, Olivia had erased his firmware. By the time he got factory defaults up and running again, she’d be long gone.

He looked at Alicia. “Is she still there?”

She? Alicia figured he must have been talking about the strange presence in her chip. She closed her eyes and accessed the interface, but the strange sto-away was gone. Even the slight discomfort and the subsurface activity had disappeared. It was as if her chip was brand new again. She opened her eyes and shook her head. The man seemed sad, and for some reason, so was she.



MEN ARE ASSHOLES

A poem by P.A. Du Plessis  (Cafe' Ambivalence.)

She's beautiful but she wouldn’t believe,
the crystal of tears in her eyes
Her heart is worn down to her sleeve,
reluctant from all the lies.

So cold was the pain of a wishful storm;
the lie of a love and the pain of her screams.
Losing the hope that was keeping her warm,
a torrent of blades; a crashing of dreams.

My heart is touched by the hint of a tear.
by the sight of her skin
by the pain of her mark
I hope that she would let me near,
as to care not at all?
as to leave her alone?
Not now,
not ever,
not there in the dark.

...I just want to save her...

She's beautiful but I dare not to feel;
already she's under my skin?
Futile my heart as it turns into steel.
I'm falling for her and it must be a sin.

...I just don't deserve her.

Lavender hills takes forever!

Writing a book is Easy.

Writing a good book is tough.

I've been at it for what seems like forever.

I sometimes wonder if I'll ever get it done!

My name is Pierre Du Plessis

and I'm a first time writer. 

So let's dive into some Q & A.

Q: What is it called?

"Lavender Hills" - I'm not sure about the title but that's the name of the place where the story unfolds.

Q: What's it about?

It's about many things! There are various elements of Science fiction, violence, danger, romance and more.
The main character is a man who returns to his childhood home to reconnect with his past.
His life becomes wrought with conflict of all kinds.

 

Q: What kind of person might enjoy reading such a book?

I feel that the mainstream adult, that only reads on a casual level, would enjoy this book the most. The plot unfolds relatively quick and the Science fiction elements have been toned down somewhat to allow for easier interpretation. The spice of romantic activity will add a bit of flavor.

Q: Oh? Can we expect some raunchy scenes?

You may. It doesn't go as far as say "50 shades of Grey". Some might even say that the sex in my book is mediocre compared to the kinds of things people read in other books these days, but there are a number of steamy and erotic scenes that I hope will get some hearts racing.

To be honest the book was a self indulging exercise in my own fantasies, to allow me to desensitise myself against the abundance of moral decay the world has to offer. Also to help me embrace my darker side.

Q: So this book is not for kids?

DEFINITELY not. Mature audience only! I feel very strong about that. Under aged is NOT allowed!

Q: Writing an essay is one thing. Writing a short story another, but you've almost completed a whole book? How did you manage to gather enough steam to do that?

The book started out as nothing but a couple of images; digital art created for my own lustful delight.

I got the idea to compile these images into a photo book.

Then I had the idea to include some text for each picture.

The text evolved into a miniature story, and then a short story, and then the whole thing spun out of control and became a full fledged novel.

Q: Will you be including your art as part of the book?

It is definitely part of the plan. It's rare that an author would supplement his novel with his own artwork. I'm hoping that where my literary skills have much to be desired, I can make up for it in visual stimulation.

Q: What will hook a reader into buying your book?

Well it's perfect for newcomers to the world of science fiction.

Women will enjoy the romantic intrigue.

Men will enjoy the sex and violence.

Everybody will enjoy the mystery of finding out what went wrong at "Lavender Hills".

You saw it first from Cafe' Ambivalence :)