Two old men sat on a porch outside of a Los Angeles retirement home. Between them was a table. On the table there was a cardboard box. Inside the cardboard box was another plastic box labeled: "MONI CONNER. LOS ANGELES COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF MEDICAL EXAMINER-CORONER".
"Why don't you tell me the story again?" Buck suggested.
"I'm not in the mood," Charles replied softly.
"Come on, it's a great story. Swooping down in your helicopter to save people? It's a great story. Like, movie good, I'm telling ya."
Charles laughed, but it was a weak laugh. "I was like forty at the time. I wasn't a helicopter pilot anymore."
Buck raised his eyebrows. "You weren't? What the hell were you doing with the blue helmets then?"
"I... I might have included some... details... that weren't exactly accurate," Charles admitted. "They needed ground crew. I volunteered to go as a civilian. I didn't do anything except fuel the choppers."
"Why the hell would you volunteer? You mean you weren't even being paid?"
Charles sighed.
"I'm not a good man, Buck," Charles said. "My ex-wife hates me, and for good reason. My daughter hates me, and for good reason. For so long I blamed the booze. But... you can only lie to yourself for so long.
I just... I just thought that maybe, maybe if I could do just one good thing, then it would all be worth it. My life would have brought some good into this world."
"And you saved a kid," Buck said.
"One kid," Charles spat bitterly. "And now he's dead."
Charles couldn't help but look at his legs. His skinny, useless legs.
"What the fuck am I going to do now, Buck?" Charles asked.
Buck sighed deeply. "I don't know, Charlie. Something. Isn't that always the answer? Something."
____^._.^____
It was quickly becoming apparent to Dr. Park that Iris Higgins was really the force behind the project.
Sure, the idea had been Yin Erikson's, and he was the one who had found Dr. Park. But Erikson couldn't provide anything beyond a few server banks and a couple of programmers who were mid-tier at best. After all, he only owned one company. Iris, on the other hand, seemingly owned a large share of every major company in the world. And by using this power, she had managed to gather the people Dr. Park needed.
Sarah Kowalski was a neurological researcher for Aycici Sciences, lured away from their biotechnology R&D department with a combination of money and flattery. She was a world-class expert in neurological research, the only problem was that her research revolved completely around rat brains. However, she had long theorized that rat brains and men brains were probably not that different, and so she had accepted the job despite knowing very little about the human mind. Incredibly, she turned out to be correct.
Tyler Bawal was a system analysist for Silver State Solar, or at least he was until he spent three months (paid time) attempting to construct a "battle mech" at a remote substation in Zone 2 near the Texas-New Mexico border. Apparently he had "issues" with the local building department and was planning on taking revenge in the most needlessly self-destructive way possible. When he was finally discovered, Higgins personally made sure that he was offered a new job instead of being arrested. This lack of public attention was good for SSS as well, since for three months no one had noticed that Mr. Bawal was 1) not actually working, 2) actively stealing supplies for his "battle mech" from SSS depots, and 3) consuming around 52% of the total power output from Zone 2 in order to run all of his equipment.
YOU ARE READING
Plasma Cat
Science FictionIn the near future, a group of people decide that the quickest way to create a human-level intelligence is just to copy one. Their simple plan ends up having more consequences than they were expecting, however.
