Tag Archives: Jaclyn

Arc 14.9.5: Reality Tweaks

Reality Tweaks: Part 8

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Haley scrunched up her face, “That’s not really nice. They’re people.”

Amy shrugged, “Most of the time I’ve spent in this world was in Florida. I’ve heard that the benefits for working at Waffle House aren’t bad, but the dental care some people got before working there wasn’t great.”

Haley shook her head. “That’s restaurants. The full time staff get benefits, but most jobs are part time and they don’t get benefits at all. Are things different in your world?”

Amy stared out the window. Continue reading Reality Tweaks: Part 8 →

Arc 14.9.5: Reality Tweaks

Reality Tweaks: Part 4

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It didn’t take long to reach the surface, relatively speaking. Izzy lead us down a hall off of the main room, giving me a chance to look at the dead, frozen bodies of all the people Rook had turned into robots as well as his own transformed body.

Amy shuddered as she passed it, telling me, “The little bit of him that’s left saw his dead body. Even for him, it’s weird and creepy.”

Haley shook her head, saying only, “Yuck.” Continue reading Reality Tweaks: Part 4 →

Arc 14.9.5: Reality Tweaks

Reality Tweaks: Part 3

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Lim glanced off to the side, adding, “I really should go now. I’m going to assume that explaining what’s going on with Ray’s corpse and the Xiniti is one of those things that would cause more problems if you explain it than if you don’t. Tell me if that changes.”

“Sure,” I said, intending to say nothing forever unless Ray reappeared on Earth.

Lim stared into the camera for a moment, giving the impression that he was studying me even though I knew he was just getting a still of the Rocket suit in his video feed. Continue reading Reality Tweaks: Part 3 →

Arc 14.9.5: Reality Tweaks

Reality Tweaks: Part 1

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The glowing ring of the portal appeared before us, with the grey concrete of the dock’s control room visible through the circle. It grew larger by the instant, making it clear that we were exiting immediately.

It was less that we stepped through to the room, so much as fell through at an angle. There was no law, I supposed, that a tunnel through time and space had to synchronize with the orientation of the exit point.

Haley let go of my hand, rolling and coming to her feet. I turned on the suit’s anti-gravity, floating to the ceiling like a Rocket-sized party balloon.  Continue reading Reality Tweaks: Part 1 →

Arc 14.9.0: Engine

Engine: Part 9

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From where she stood next to Nataw, Kee smiled. “You met him in the future, and he chose not to kill you. I think Govan will be reasonable, provided we’re talking to the version of him who spared you. If we’re about to talk to a version of him that doesn’t know anything about that, it could become messy.”

“Great,” I thought back to her.

Continue reading Engine: Part 9 →

Arc 14.9.0: Engine

Engine: Part 8

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Tiger, meanwhile, had begun to sniff Nataw and Lee, starting with their butts and crotches.

I wondered if he’d still do that if he understood that they were older than our universe. Then it struck me that, given his understanding of English, he might have decided to start there because he’s a dog.

Nataw watched him and then scratched Tiger behind the ears. Then he said a word that my implant translated as Hideaway’s name in the language of a long-fallen galactic empire. “[Hideaway]. You’re a long way from home. I never liked the Abominators, but I did like what they did with your people. Dogs for hunting dinosaurs. Who’s a good boy?”

Tiger leaned in to the head scratches. Continue reading Engine: Part 8 →

Arc 14.9.0: Engine

Engine: Part 1

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As the stone touched my gauntlet, I connected with it and through it the Galaxy Core Device (GCD) itself. How did it feel to use a device that could destroy galaxies and create new ones?

You’d think it would be a moment of enlightenment or maybe ascension, since you assumed powers that you’d normally think were reserved for gods.

What surprised me is how normal it felt. I’d been absorbing knowledge from my implant on demand for years now. I’d been training with Kee to understand what Artificers could do for years and while I’d only been interfacing with Abominator and Artificer technology with those skills for a few days, it felt natural. Continue reading Engine: Part 1 →

Arc 14.8.5: Magnus

Magnus: Part 3

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I couldn’t see any hint of a connection to the energies that Artificers used, so I knew that the sword wouldn’t do much of anything. 

Thanks to the suit, I wasn’t short of normal ways to hurt people. I fired off a series of goobots. For all I knew, these guys were important to history in some way I wasn’t aware of.

The gray lines spread out from the bots, covering them in layers of sticky goo. They twisted, pulling against them, finding that they were stuck, then changed tactics. Continue reading Magnus: Part 3 →

Arc 14.6.5: Stage Three

Stage Three: Part 5

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Our first problem with following Magnus? The window. Amy and I rose to find Sean, fists clenched, staring at the window and the empty room behind it.

The window wasn’t moving at all.

And look, that wasn’t as stupid as it seemed. The frame around the window might have been made of metal. It wasn’t, but it could have been.

Colored black, but it appeared to be ceramic to me.

With a wordless scream, Sean punched it. His hand bounced off, and Dayton said, “Whoa, dude. Let them try.”

Sean wasn’t listening. Continue reading Stage Three: Part 5 →

Arc 14.6.5: Stage Three

Stage Three: Part 4

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Victor’s mouth opened without saying anything. He closed it, sighed, but asked, “Do you think it’s possible?”

I looked over at Cassie, who’d frowned but then started talking, “It depends. We’d need to make sure our birthing chamber has the right templates available. I’d say yes if we had the one you’d used. We all know what happened to that one, though.”

Over the implant channel, Sean asked, “What happened?”

“It’s not in working order,” I said. Continue reading Stage Three: Part 4 →