C.M. Simpson's Blog

Wednesday’s Verse—Calls the Waterfall Tuesday's Short - Gods in the Lianreida

Carlie's Chapter 8 - Dear Tiger: I Don't Think I'm Human Anymore

LAST WEEK, Simone begged Tiger to get off Deskeden and go somewhere safe. This week, Tiger reveals he has located both Simone's parents and one of Simone's classmates.Chapter 8 – Maybe More than Human

Dear S.S.You forgot to tell me any dreams, so I can’t check anything else out.Right now, I know you are right about Marrietta—at least a little bit. And I know what happened at Ambron’s, and I wish I had better news.Whatever was in the jars got into the air ducts. The computer should have noticed it, but it didn’t, and the whole building was infected. Whatever experiment the company was conducting, it got into the Academy, and they got a whole lot more test subjects than they anticipated.They sent everyone to different regions of the galaxy, and told their parents or families they were on super-secret assignments. I figured out they couldn’t hide them all, forever, and that’s when I discovered the second reason Deskeden has been indicted.They’re starting to send everyone who’s been infected either here, or back to Sharvin.I don’t’ know why they haven’t sent you.Your parents are away doing research, but they’re not here, or where you are. The company sent them back to Sharvin. I get to see their reports on the artefacts, which is good, because I can tell you that they’re both okay.The big news here is that my parents aren’t being drugged any more. I found out who was doing it, and analysed the goop on the instruments. The goop’s something that makes them think any task to do with the infected equipment is the most important thing they need to be doing. I didn’t know what to do about the person spreading it around, but that’s okay, because the company ordered him to stop using it.They let it wear off, and then they told everyone we were on an indicted world.And they told us why.It’s because of what happened on Sharvin, and at the Academy, and it’s because of what we found here.Your folks found some ruins on Sharvin, a lot like the ruins that we found here. EXACTLY, like the ruins that we found here, which is why there are now shipments between Deskeden and Sharvin, and why we now have communications with each other, but, officially, no-one else.Which brings me to the next piece of news: I’m not supposed to be able to contact you. I’m not even supposed to be able to communicate off-world. The intergal-interweb is linked to our satellites but only has a very narrow access. We can search it, but we get delays for any info not stored in-system.Any signals, or emails, or newscasts are blocked, but not so you’d notice. The company buffers them, and then decides what goes through, and what doesn’t. It’s like we have a really bad download speed. All the time. In case you hadn’t already guessed, I’ve hacked that.Doctor M. is safe. He can pull stuff around the buffers and past their detection programs. And he’s got this girlfriend, Shell Koravy, whose emails he reroutes, so she doesn’t get into the same trouble as Alby. Because I had to erase his email before they could trace it back to you. So, Hello, Miss Koravy. Do you want to dance with me?Don’t laugh, okay? It’s the best I could come up with at short notice, but now I can talk to you anytime I want because there are no blocks between my doctor account, and your Shell account, so we’re all good, okay?I’m not so sure about Alby. Last time I checked that account there were FedExplore tracers pasted all over it. In case you hadn’t worked it out: don’t use it, okay?Now, what else did I have to tell you?Oh, yes, Marrietta. Right. She is on Sharvin.The company have built an underground facility there, and that’s why you saw her in the dark. You must have dreamed her while the complex was on a night cycle—and this is a really big thing, Shell-SK. Really big.Firstly, because if you dreamed her at night on your world, then they would have been on a dark cycle on Sharvin. And, secondly, because Marrietta would have been ported in while it was dark, so there would have been no-one to welcome her, and they don’t have any light during the dark cycle inside the complex.That’s why Marrietta was so scared. She’d woken up in the complete dark, and she didn’t know where she was. I don’t know what they’re studying in that complex, but I think she has a reason to be afraid. I accessed her medical records, and I’m in the middle of cross-referencing her stuff with the records of four of your classmates.They all got transferred to Sharvin, and they all got transferred to the complex, but their blood work has markers in it, and I’m still trying to work out what it means.Your blood work has markers in it, too. Just so you know.And I’m just as stuck with that, as I am with theirs.All I can say is that it has something to do with gene-editing.You might be right when you say that you’re not human, but you’re also wrong. From what I’ve seen you’re all human, even if they’ve added something that makes you just a little bit more.Hang in there, okay?I’m doing my best to work it out, and I will.I promise.
Love
Tobias M.
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The complete series is available as short, individual ebooks, and will become available as an omnibus, later this year. In the meantime, you can find them on this blog, until one week after the last chapter in the last book of the series has been posted, at which point this series will be taken down, and a new series serialised on site.