Hi All, Hope you are all safe and well. Just wanted to share this Early Adopters short story I wrote the other week. I did it in the form of a MilliTech internal report. Hope you enjoy! D.T. Report of: Director Pitts
Report to: MilliTech Management Committee Project: Powerpack Project Classification: Above Top Secret Date: 21/07/ 2076 Report Detail: It is with deep regret that I write to inform the Committee that project Powerpack has failed. You will have learned by now the salient details of yesterday’s events, however as senior executive on site, I will relay in more detail what transpired. I arrived at our Powerpack facility in the Pennines at 8.30am, greeted by Professor Lendt. After a brief tour of the facility, the third that I have been required to endure, myself, Lendt and his three subordinates took the secure magna-lift the further ten floors straight down to the facility core, so that the reactor test could commence. Once we were suitably ensconced behind the safety glass of the reactor viewing platform, Lendt was at pains to tell me of the advances his team had made since my last visit. I informed the professor that for the good of the project and himself, we hoped that this was so. Lendt was left in no doubt how highly MilliTech valued The Artifact donated to him or how many other good uses it could have been put to during his years of failure. For his part, Lendt seemed unfazed. Less nervous than usual. He gave off the air of a man who had succeeded in bottling lighting. For once, he was as eager to get started as I was. If only we had known. We were soon joined by the familiar blue glow and incessant hum as the reactor below came online. Lendt gave the signal and I made the call, with more confidence than on previous occasions. Contacting Grid Control, I gave the order to switch all of our facilities to back up generators, then looked over to Lendt for the final all clear. He gave the instrument deck a final check, before throwing me a nod, grinning manically as he did so. I wasted no time in ordering Grid Control to kill the auxiliary generators and stand by. The deep thrum from the Powerpack reactor intensified, pulsing through us bodily. I held my breath, expecting the usually anti-climax. To my surprise however this time Powerpack took the strain. The test was successful. The facility was powering everything we have, worldwide, from a clean, renewable, inexhaustible resource. It was ten minutes into the test when things began to fail. I noticed the irregularity among the cacophony of noise all around us. The professor tried to dismiss it at first, but there it was. Undeniable. Deafening noise with guttering spaces in-between. We looked down to the reactor core below us. The engineers milling around had picked up on it too. Hastily they checked readings, made adjustments and grew gradually more impatient with each other. Behind the blue central core of the reactor, a stranger glow began to pulse. Around fifteen minutes into the test, a rhythmic thudding developed, building to sound above the general operation of the facility. Lendt was visibly panicked by now and looked to make his way down to the reactor floor to direct matters himself. His aides moved to stop him and it was at this point that the figure appeared, looming against the central plexiglass wall of the reactor core. They all froze in terror. It was then that all hell broke loose. The steady thud, thud, thud continued, now competing with myriad alarms shrieking across the facility. We all knew what was coming. I gave the order to kill the feed, instructing Grid Control to come back online. I then contacted facility security to begin full lockdown. Less than a minute later The Artifact had breached the core from within. Once awakened, it was only a matter of time. The force of his escape shook the facility. Suddenly there seemed to be fire, explosions everywhere. He climbed from the wreckage he had just created and stumbled unsteadily across the reactor room floor. Two engineers tried to intervene, to calm him. Their commitment must be commended and their families suitably compensated, but clean up were still prising their corpses from the reactor room walls this morning. The rest had the good sense to stay back. From there it didn’t take The Artifact long to smash a hole out of what had been his blissful prison for the last seven years and back up towards the surface world. Lendt voiced a childish hope that the perimeter force fields would hold him. Robustly I informed him that this was a pipe dream. Within five minutes The Artifact was gone. Initial incident reports suggest that the facility was infiltrated by our own rogue asset Doctor Robert Cline, codename Mainframe. Once his digitised consciousness had breached our firewalls, he had murdered the facility AI, keeping its cadaver operating long enough to provide cover. Mainframe had then been free to undermine the virtual reality construct that had bound The Artifact in familial bliss all these years so that we could syphon his fathomless power. I must stress that The Artifact is now on the loose, potentially anywhere and in an unknown mental state. I question whether we have the resources (without help from our external partners) to be able to recapture this asset even if we can now locate him. Although the latest test proved that the Powerpack concept developed by Lendt works, without The Artifact, or similar enhanced individual, the facility is now a useless waste of money. Yesterday’s events were an unmitigated disaster. In retrospect, I should have considered the possibility of Mainframe’s intervention, especially after the recent breach at The Hole. As such I take full responsibility for these events and do not hesitate to offer my resignation. I only hope that the Committee, recognising my years of dedicated service to the company, can consider some modicum of mercy. I await the Committee’s decision.
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Hey Everyone!
Just wanted to highlight two great books by indie authors I've read recently and really enjoyed. Bang to Begin - By Jethro Weyman (@WeymanWrites) Well, where to begin with this - Bang to Begin is an eclectic mix of short stories that turns gradually into much more! This is a wonderfully ambitious book and the fact that it comes in at under 170 pages means that every page is exploding with ideas, finely executed. There's no filler to be found here. The themes and genres covered are various - crime, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, metaphysical, ethereal. It will make your head hurt and will also make you think, like any good book should. Some of the stories will definitely stay with you, probably different ones for each reader. As you think, you will notice the seemingly separate stories begin to coalesce into a singular story that builds to a crescendo ending that doesn't disappoint. I would highly recommend Bang to Begin and look forward to reading more from this author. Nevada Noir - David Arrowsmith (@Mrwriterman79) A very different collection than the one above, but I loved this trilogy of intertwined stories too! Included in the collection are three gritty and dark tales set in Nevada and Sin City itself. The writing here is snappy and evocative, dropping you right into the heart of the action. The characters too are well rounded - you find yourself sympathizing with them, rooting for them and feeling the inevitable gut punches with them along the way. This is no mean feat in the short time we spend with them. The stories flow in and out of each other effortlessly, helping to flesh out the world, giving a feel of something that is more than the sum of the stories parts. I will definitely be looking out for more from this author in the future - maybe we will see another noir trilogy set in the authors next travel destination! I would definitely recommend both books as great reads. I've also included both author's twitter handles. Give them a follow, they are both very active on twitter. Currently i'm reading What Remains by James Fuller (@AuthorJFuller) and really enjoying that too - i'll update you all on that soon! Bye for now and have a great weekend. D.T. HI All,
My wife subscribed us to Disney+ the other week, so obviously one of the things I am now currently doing when in procrastination mode is re-watching all the Marvel movies. I believe this is a good use of my time! There seems to be a bit of debate online in relation to the watch order. Personally i'm going for release order, as the film makers and writers intended. The only exception I've made so far isfFor Captain America, which just sits better as first watch, due to the big difference in time period. So far I've got through Captain America: First Avenger, Iron Man and Incredible Hulk. My take aways so far are.
Also, love them or hate them (i think you'll be able to figure out where i stand on this!), you cant help but marvel (!) at the ambition of this project. What those involved have done is a fantastic achievement and also a fantastic success. I'm also looking forward to the original TV show content that's coming on Disney+, especially WandaVision, which looks awesomely creepy! I might keep you all updated on my progress with this re-watch (depending how it goes) and share my little thoughts as i go along. Have a great Weekend. Bye for now! D.T. Hey Everyone - hope you are all doing great out there!
A few quick updates from me from the last week. I have received some really nice feedback on my last novel, Ringer and my latest Early Adopters short The Dancer's Funeral recently. Its always wonderful to hear from someone who has enjoyed your writing and I really appreciate people taking time to tell me! I submitted a short (short) story to the guys over at Daily SF this week. Waiting on the outcome now .If it doesn't make the cut though, it will end up on the Early Adopters part of the site at some point. I've also been reading Bang to Begin by Jethro Weyman - really enjoying it and will be talking about that and other offering from other Indie authors in more detail in the future. Beyond the short story stuff I've been doing recently, I should really make a start on my next full novel. Next up i'm going to try bringing to fruition an idea that I've been sitting on for about ten years or more now. Again, this will bring together technology and horror aspects, which seems to be an ongoing theme for me. It will also include a particular kind of boogieman that i haven't seen before anywhere else. It will be the most ambitious thing I've tried yet, in terms of page length anyway. My other two novels so far have both been set over short time frames and as a result have both come in under 200 pages. Something to look forward to - sure the editing will be super fun! Until next time D.T. |
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May 2022
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