Science Fiction Microstory Contest discussion
Congrats to Tom Olbert, our first Fifteen-time Champion of the Science Fiction Microstory Contest
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Congratulations, Tom. Lovely imagery in your story!
Thank you, J.F. and Paula! I'll try to come up with a good and broad theme for next month.
David had finished his contract on the interstellar run. He’d spent the last 20 cycles hauling freight from the Pleiades to the outskirts of Orion and he needed to unwind. The spacer’s bar in Epsilon orbit was the nearest port to spend his credits and he wasted no time in berthing his ship there.
He was pretty well plastered by the time his mind was rocked by something he’d never experienced before. Even through the metaholic stupor, the force touching his brain came through as keen and powerful as a particle beam slicing through a stellar nebula. “Ooohhh, baby…” Not just intoxication. Something real. Then, he realized where it was coming from. The alien at the end of the bar. He wasn’t familiar with the species. There were so many new ones out there now, it was impossible to keep track, even sober.
It…he? She? Whatever. It was big. Like a huge insect in some ways, like a huge squid in others. Nothing even remotely resembling a face. He was having trouble keeping his vision straight, but…How the organism looked didn’t matter. Its thoughts were overwhelming. Like sweet fragrances and blazing stellar nebulae. Like suns exploding in his brain and stellar matter passing light speed as it was drawn into a black hole’s accretion disk. He was past event horizon and spiraling in fast. What was happening to him?
As he moved towards the alien…and it towards him…he could see the attraction was mutual. How was this even possible? When the silver-shelled, multi-limbed robot moved up beside them, then he knew. The A.I. was functioning as a telepathic conduit; translating David’s brain waves, and whatever the alien had that was equivalent. The robot had…introduced them.
“Greetings,” the robot said. “I am Janus 5. It is my hope that the three of us may prove compatible. And, mutually stimulating. We seem to be off to a very promising start.”
David rolled his eyes, nodding in understanding. He’d heard of these new telepathic A.I.’s. Some of the newer models got their synaptic relays dancin’ by playing matchmaker. They’d link two minds…usually different species…and piggy-back on the emotions resulting from the joining. Unnatural as it was…the differences were what set off the explosion.
“David,” he said, extending a hand to the alien. It extended a claw-like appendage that half-swallowed his hand. Images swirled through his mind. Sounds and scents and washes of light. Was that a name? Who cares, he thought, his mind swimming in light. “Your ship or mine?”
#
Light swallowed his mind. Light that dimmed like a fading sunset as he found himself in a villa overlooking a sea. Earth? He’d seen pictures in the memory records, but…that world had been dead and abandoned for a thousand standard years.
“A race memory,” a soft feminine voice said. He found himself facing the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Or even imagined. Her skin like soft dark velvet, her eyes like stars. She lounged on a bed clothed in silk, scented with sweet jasmine and perfume as she beckoned to him.
“Am I seeing what I want to see?” he whispered as he lay beside her.
“Janus 5 translates my thoughts and desires into forms your mind can comprehend,” she whispered in his ear.
“So…you’re a female of your kind?” he whispered, trembling in ecstasy.
“No such concept exists in my world,” she whispered, stroking and kissing him as they disrobed. “It doesn’t matter. This is where our desires join.”
Her name, in his mind at least…was Beginning.
He surrendered, an explosion like the big bang blasting through him as they seemed to merge into pure energy.
#
Months later…
Beginning entered his mind through Janus 5…standing in flowing white silk on a wind-swept mountain under blazing blue skies.
“We need to talk,” she said softly.
Now, that sounded ominous. He braced himself. “I’m listening.”
The Earthscape dream melted into interstellar space…living robot satellites constructing robot probes that traversed stellar systems, manipulating organic compounds on many dead worlds, spawning new life…
He understood. Janus 5 had evolved. Using the emotions it had derived from the joining with him and Beginning…Janus had created more advanced sentient A.I.’s with emotional awareness. He let out a long, trembling breath as a race memory formed. He found himself in a lodge, his hand stroking Beginning’s pregnant stomach. “What now?” he whispered.
She looked at him. “They’ll look to us both for understanding and guidance. Will you stay in the joining?”
He was terrified. “Yes.”