Posts Tagged ‘virus’
Call It A Keepsake May 18th, 2008
“My ex-wife gave me this arm.”
“And you still want to keep it?” Kendal’s got him by the wrist joint, one foot on his thigh, and she’s pulling.
“That’s not,” his voice breaks into a shriek as his elbow port disconnects, “funny!” He’s panting. Something drips out of the joint. A bit of conductor fluid, a dab of blood.
“The worm’s in your wrist now, for sure. You’re about ten seconds from losing your shoulder. You want I should wait?”
“No,” he says. “Yes. Wait.” He looks at the ceiling. Yellow tiles, used to be white. He swore he’d never let her do this again. He smells the electric burn of his elbow grinding itself, out of place. If the virus gets into his myokinetic interface, into the flat ribbons under his shoulder muscles, leading to his spine, it could mess with the signals that run from brain to arm in a game of bioelectric telephone.
Permanent damage.
And yet.
“Don’t do it,” he says. Almost crying.
“Screw that,” Kendal says, leaning back into it, pushing off thigh until his arm’s off its threads.
Tags: amputation, cybernetics, upgrade, virus
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Nanosentry May 13th, 2008
Grax772A awoke with a start.
A rumbling pitch of the ground beneath him shook his tiny body and sent it flying off the molecular awnings, along with at least a thousand of his compatriots, their tiny arms flailing in the chaos to hitch a ride on the nearest semi-stable surface within reach.
“Boo!” came the thundering voice from above, a massive chasm of lips, teeth, and the black void within.
Laughter shook the air, a sonic boom with every guffaw. They hung on.
The Maker, giving them hell again.
Of all nanosentries, only Grax772A had been granted the gift of creative thought. The A stood for Alpha, a 24 hour experiment that would end with termination of Grax’s activity phase, assuming he lasted that long.
Graz dived for cover into the bonds of a steel matrix as the Maker roared again, blowing out a spray of fetid air, wiping out a thousand more nanosentries.
Grax772A’s assayed the damage as his programming blinked quietly. He’d had enough. No sense in waiting.
He put on the virus wrapper, aimed into the giant maw of the Maker, and flew upwards.
by Chaz Siu
Tags: nano, robots, sci-fi, virus
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