Chapter Three
Beautiful buxom pixies wearing skimpy chrome studded
leather bikinis
Using laser blasters to shoot monsters.
Shelby woke up…
[Shelby]
”NO! Oh Noeeeeees!!.
I like that dream.
It beats the HELL out of those other dreams I used to have.
I like this one..really.
I really, really do.
I don’t WANT to wake up”
He particularly liked the buxom part…. and the skimpy part…
...and the laser blaster part.
He opened his eyes...
Everything seemed to spin and weave about him. He didn’t feel dizzy though. It was only his sight that was affected. He saw the world from a thousand eyes.
[Shelby]
owwww.
Voice
Ooops.. ‘sorry bout that...software glitch. You have two eyes. Dragonflies have thousands of eyes. You’re not used to interpreting the world with a thousand eyes. .
Hang on...lemme see.
If I tweak this…(creak)
..turn this (creak, creak)
..up the amplitude here a little bit(screeee)
...damp the...yadda yadda yadda yadda…
[Shelby]
What ARE you talking about? Should I be talking to you? I thought I was waking up. I can’t talk to you when I’m awake. That would be crazy and I’m not crazy. Is this another one of those multilevel dreams? Yeah it must be. That’s what it is. Even if that's not what it really is... that’s what it is.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
If that’s NOT what it is then I’d be crazy...and I’m not crazy..So what’s going on? What were you saying about dragonfly eyes?
Voice
(Sigh)
Here I thought that I was a bitch. I ain’t got nothing on Cognitive Dissonance. Believing two contradictory things at the same time is a real bitch.
There...I Got it. That should work. How’s it look?
Shelby carefully opened his eyes…
Not dizzy. He wasn’t dizzy anymore..
Voice
How’s it look?
He got a text.
He didn’t get the text on his smartphone. His smartphone was wrapped up and almost forgotten in his waterproof gear storage compartment. Hell he hadn’t charged it in so long that the battery was probably dead anyway.
He received the text in his head, on the smartphone in his head. He heard a term somewhere...a virtual smartphone. Yeah..that was it. The text floated in space...before his eyes.
Voice
Well? You shouldn’t be so surprised.
You’ve been reading e-books inside your head for days now.
This is the same thing but different.
Definite point.
He had been doing that. Was he crazy if he texted in his head? How was that different from reading e-books in his head.
Voice
Oh for crying out loud.
SHELBY...get over it..!!
Shelby
Ok! OK! But I’m NOT crazy ok?
Just because I can read e-books in my head doesn’t make me crazy.
Texting to my imaginary friend isn’t any worse.
Voice
That would be GIRL Friend.
Please remember that. I have plans.
That’s right. I knew you could do it.
One small step for mankind...
Well? What do you think?
Shelby:
Think of what…..whoa!
The view had changed. The vantage point was now airborne. Shelby laid flat on is back on the ground….and held on…
.
He was looking down at his boat.
Then he wasn’t. He was looking at his surroundings from eye level..again.
He was viewing the surroundings from many perspectives. Many points of view at one time....they were all moving...as if viewed from a moving platform...worse..….the point of view kept changing... .Like a Gen-x’er with a remote watching TV.
Voice
Damn. Still buggy. Hang on.
Let me work on it for a bit..
Shelby hung on. He “heard” weird clanging, banging, and the sound of stressed metal. Slowly and gradually his vision stabilized.
He blinked once. He had a small window to one side, much like a rear view mirror on a vehicle.
.
Voice
How’s that?
I can modify it as need be.
[Shelby]
Yeah...that’ll work.
Move the text to the top of my field of view…. OK?
The text moved so that it was directly ahead of him but slightly above his line of sight.
They happily worked on their project for some time until finally.
[Shelby]
YES!!... Perfect...that. That Works
Ok... Now.
Give me a method of changing feeds...
there were more weren’t there?
Voice
Oh yes...many, many.
There...how’s that.
Somehow..Shelby could flip thru any picture, any viewpoint. Somehow he could make sense of it.
[Shelby]
That works.
Shelby experimented. He changed his POV repeatedly. Practice makes perfect. Shelby practiced. In a remarkably short period of time he had it licked. He had situational awareness like never before. No one..and he meant NO ONE was going to approach him unawares. If he’d only had this capability in his past life. It would have been SO useful in those jungles..
[Shelby]
This is beyond awesome.
How am I seeing this?
Voice
DragonFly eyes.
You are seeing out of the eyes of dragonflies.
[Shelby]
Oh…
Coooooooool
ed was a good little bit offshore. He couldn’t take his cruiser into the swamp and the marshes where Shelby took his little boat. Even so, he tried to keep an eye on Shelby, as well as the other swamp rats. Those old fools had no one to look after them. ed felt an odd sense of responsibility. He watched Shelby through binoculars from time to time. What was he doing now? He seemed to be in the middle of a swarm of..of...of something. Insects? Butterflies? Bees? marc was too far off to really see what they were. There was something and it was really odd. The swarm seemed to follow Shelby’s boat around wherever he went. Shelby didn’t appear to be in distress.
Did marc have the equivalent of a Birdman of Alcatraz? The ‘bugman’ of the lake maybe? ed’s ancestry included Indian. Many Indians thought the insane were holy. Was Shelby a holy man?
Who knew? Oh. Well. He’d just got a call, time to go pull some more millennials out of the drink. The crazy idiots had got drunk and crashed two very expensive cruisers together. Party, party with their parents money...make a mess then play the victim….they sure got THAT part down pat. No time to be worrying about crazy Shelby. Shelby had never bothered anyone.
I want to fly like an eagle
So the song went…
Shelby was free. He was flying like….well not exactly like an eagle.
When one of the dragon flies that he was monitoring exceeded a hundred feet range he lost contact. No worries. There were a LOT of dragonflies. His POV would automatically switch to another one.. A hundred feet was really pushing the range of his bio-bluetooth radio.
The Voice had told him, in his dream, that if he hadn’t had that metal plate in his forehead to act as an antenna he wouldn’t have near this range.
TheVoice had mentioned something about a phased array range extender in the skull plate. It must be working, bluetooth was normally only about thirty feet, the electronic kind. Bio-bluetooth would be less powerful, wouldn’t it?
Of course the Voice wasn’t real. She was his imaginary friend, but it seemed to be working anyway. This was SO COOL.
Voice
That would be GIRL Friend...
thankyouverymuch
Yeah that. He was definitely awake now so he couldn’t talk to her.
Briefly… so quickly that it didn’t really register on Shelby’s conscious mind, a thought surfaced then vanished. Much like a fish snatching an insect from the surface of a still pond. Shelby recalled the time that he was on a spook installation. The spooks had all kinds of nifty, neat, gonzo top secret toys. Top Secret hell. It was way above top secret.
Way Way above.
The voice noticed that thought and was curious. Perhaps she’d look into it later. There was, after all, the internet. She was coming to grips with the internet. She was beginning to understand it very well.
Each new encryption scheme, each new firewall, each new security measure that she encountered was taking less and less time to defeat.
Her main concern though, was Shelby. Shelby was in serious denial. He was really pushing the envelope. Evidence was ‘in his face’ that the Voice was real...yet he persisted in evading the truth.
He was worse than an evangelical christian denying evolution.
The Voice continued to pile it on. She’d made some serious inroads. They got along great at night, when he was dreaming or could plausibly deny, to himself, that he was awake. She had some ideas about that too. She’d seen the way he looked at her.
Getting him to text had been like pulling teeth, but it was working. Now he’d text her while he awake while still telling himself that she wasn’t real. That was some SERIOUS denial. The e-books had been the first chink in that armor. She was slowly overcoming his resistance. Eventually she would overwhelm Shelby’s denials and he would be forced to accept reality. He would accept her existence.
What’s up big boy?
[Shelby]
oh WOW.
I like your new outfit.
Voice
I had hoped that you would.
I wore it just for you.
You seemed to be enjoying the DragonFlies so I dressed for the occasion.
[Shelby]
I certainly do.
I haven’t had so much fun with my clothes on in a long long time.
Voice
Er...don’t look now but you don’t HAVE your clothes on, not many really. You’re lying, asleep in the bottom of the boat in the sun.
It it weren’t for me you’d be getting a sunburn.
Silly boy.
That’s not what I want to talk about though.
[Shelby]
(perk)
Yeah?
Voice
No…not that.
The UFog is completed.
[Shelby]
oh.. that.
Voice
(giggle)
Later perhaps. Right now we need to discuss the care and feeding of UFog.
What is your preference?
One way is a ring.
[Shelby]
Huh? We’ve only had ONE date and you're already talking about a ring?
Voice
Silly boy. Not THAT kind of ring. We could call it a Ring of Power. There’s power in your blood,tm you know that,
but on occasion you can’t use blood. Range limitation you know? Sometimes it’s better to use fog.
You’ve read a lot of books and I have all that data. You’ve been reading fantasy lately.
Magic.
Magic is a WONDERFUL metaphor for UFog, after all it IS magic in a sense. We can copy some of the stuff the Mythological Magicians did.
In times of old
when men were bold
and women weren’t particular.
They used Power Objects
such as rings or Torques .
Swords were very popular.
[Shelby]
(groan)
Magic, did you say?
Voice
Certainly. Clarke's Third Law. Don’t tell me you don’t remember it? You have certainly read enough science fiction!
[Shelby]
Oh yeah. “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Voice
That’s a good boy. That’s the one. The technology of the SoulStone is indistinguishable from Magic. Pay attention now..this is what you need to do.
Shelby woke up with a thick collar like scar around his neck. It was getting harder and harder to deny the existence of the voice in his head.
(Later)
Shelby noticed the Lake Patrol boat. He’d never seen marc go so fast, perhaps it was someone else. Shelby wondered if there was a problem, an emergency perhaps? The boat was approaching him much too quickly.
The wake was likely to be a big one. Wait…The boat wasn’t going to go PAST him. The approaching boat was coming right AT him. It WAS going to hit him. It reversed its prop rotation at the last minute.…dropped off it’s plane…stopped dead in the water…..and ...
SPLASH!!
The huge wave swamped his small boat, which promptly sunk. Everything Shelby owned was gone.
“FREEZE!” A voice yelled at him from the patrol boat. “Don’t move. You’re under arrest!”
Shelby did as instructed... he froze….and sank out of sight.
“You picked a fine time to sink me Water Bear.”
….a silly variation of an old song echoed through the chambers of his mind. He was rather sad. He had thought better of Sargent ed.
Shelby sank to the bottom. He lay in the muck and mud pondering the situation. Oddly enough he felt no real need to breath. What to do…what to do?
May I make a suggestion?
[Shelby]
Um…I can’t..
Voice
Yeah, Yeah. I’ve heard it before. You can’t talk to me because you’re awake. If you talk to me while you’re awake you’re crazy.
Right?
[Shelby]
Um…Well….yeah.
Voice
Would you rather be dead?
[Shelby]
Good Point. What do I do?
Voice
Swim. Swim very fast. Pick a direction and go. Go now.
Shelby did that. He had the oddest feeling that his health and well being were not of any great concern to the crew of the police boat above him. Best for him to make himself scarce.
His clothes would do nothing but slow him down. He slipped out of his shoes first then his pants and shirt. There was something odd about the collar around his neck. It seemed to have turned into a liquid and was coating his body like oil or paint. The water didn’t impede it’s flow. In seconds he was completely covered. He had a second skin Frog-eye like goggles formed on his face. His vision quickly cleared and he could actually see in the murky water. The view improved by the second.
He began to swim.
Fins grew around his feet. His progress improved.
Voice
“Not like that darling. Don’t use the flutter kick….use the dolphin kick.”
Why not? He held his feet together and did so. The fins on his feet grew, merged and became a mono-fin. He had a regular whale tail. He used it like one and really began to move.
He swam faster and farther than any man had on one breath….ever.
(Later)
Shelby read his book, mentally, on the smart-phone in his mind. Reading settled his mind. His mind had been pretty much unsettled by the day's events. His boat had been sunk with him in it. He’d lost it and everything he owned. All that he had left was the clothes on his back .
He’d gone down with the ship so to speak. Shelby had never been a Seal while in the military although he had much of the same type of training. He was no stranger to water and had been a respectable swimmer.
He never seen or even heard of ANYTHING like what he’d done when they sank his boat. He swam like a fish. Literally. He’d skimmed along the bottom at high speed weaving and dodging among the tree roots and going through the weeds. He hadn’t surfaced until he was far, far away.
Much too far away for anyone to have swam that far on one breath. He’d swam for miles. No one could do that.
”You Can”
The Voice said. This time she resembled a shiny metal robot. A FEMALE robot. Odd that. Why would robots have gender?
[Shelby]
“Oh HI! WOW!
NICE... er......
I really like your new outfit.
So Metal!“
Voice
“Thank you.
I thought it might be appropriate considering the circumstances. Just say the word and I’m going postal on them”
[Shelby]
“Shiny!
Can you nuke ‘em from orbit?”
Voice
“Well no. I can’t do that. Wait.! What? You’re speaking to me...straight out? No denial? Are you accepting my existence?
Oh Darling!
I’ve waited SO LONG!”
[Shelby]
“Yeah. I guess it’s about time huh? No need to get all Gooey. Forget the nuke. Maybe we can do something else. Something that lasts longer and hurts them more.”
“What’s your name anyway?”
Voice
“I certainly do think its time!! YeS! We can make them hurt. We will“
She was almost bouncing up and down..she seemed excited.
Voice
“I’m so happy. I’m so pleased that you accept me.
I don’t know what my name is. I’ve never had a name.
What would you like to call me? What do YOU think my name is !”
[Shelby]
“Gee...I dunno. I’ve never named a Robot Gurl Daemon before.
Lessee.. how about...Anastasia?”
Voice
“Meh”
[Shelby]
“Aurora? Fiona? Jasmine? Krystal?”
Voice
“Haven’t hit the ‘G’ spot yet.
Nope.”
[Shelby]
“Ursula? Esmerelda? Brunhilda?”
!!!! !!!!
[Shelby]
“I’ll take that as a no.”
Shelby retreated in dismay. He was about ready to tell her to come up with her own damn name. One more shot, If that didn’t work he would.
[Shelby]
“How bout Elvira?”
Voice
“Elvira!...Yes. I like that. I’m Elvira forevermore.”
[Shelby]
“Good.”
(thank gawd) he thought quietly
“I dub thee Elvira .
May you live long and prosper.”
Elvira
“That would be WE buddy-boy. May WE live long and prosper. WE’re in this together.“
[Shelby]
Should we jump over as sword or something?
Elvira
Fresh out. Don’t happen to have one on me.
[Shelby]
Just my luck. After 30 years I finally find a woman and I don’t have a sword..
Elvira
Why are you being so silly? You KNOW we are closer than any husband and wife ever have ever been or ever will be.
[Shelby]
Yeah…that. I think it’s called Sublimation or something.
Or maybe Projection. It’s a method of coping with being scared silly, which is what I are. How the HELL did I swim that far, with no air? How did I swim so fast?
Elvira
UFog
[Shelby]
Oh yeah. I’d plumb forgot about that.
Elvira
“ The nanites in your body have been turning the Carbon in your metabolic waste CO2 into UFog and recycling the Oxygen. The UFog, excrete from your skin and the UFog that we built from all those plastic bags at my direction, transformed into a dolphin suit. I hope you don’t mind. ”
Shelby pondered that a minute. He thought that was very interesting.
Elvira
It is VERY interesting. You can stay under water a LONG time. I’ve no idea how long. Very, very long.
[Shelby]
Now what?
Elvira
Your wish is my command Master.
[Shelby]
(Perk!)
Oh Really?
Elvira
Yes!
[Shelby]
Come here you.
Elvira
Yes Master.
Sgt Raines piloted his boat slowly along the shoreline where it had happened. He couldn’t believe it. How could old Shelby be dead? That old swamp rat had been paddling around here for damn near twenty years..
The new political appointee, Lt Craig Hoops had called it in. It wasn’t at all clear what had happened. Something about drugs and resisting arrest? That made absolutely no sense. Marc had his suspicions. If it was up to him he’d review some boat videos. It wasn’t up to him though. The Lt. was politically connected. Marc was not. More importantly the old swamp rat was not. Very few people even knew that Shelby had existed. Even fewer gave a damn less. There would be no review.
Marc really didn’t want to do this..but it needed doing. Marc hadn’t known Shelby at all well but he figured that he was about the closest thing the old Swamp Rat had to a friend. Marc took it upon himself to do the job. If anyone found Shelby’s body he wanted it to be him, not some stranger. He lowered the grappling hook and started dragging the bottom.
It wasn’t long before he drug up Shelby’s Skin On Frame Canoe. Marc remembered the time when Shelby, that VA lady and those other damaged war vets had spent almost a year building those canoes. Shelby had done a fine job. It was a work of art. Like all skin on frame boats when it was full of water it sunk like a rock. How in the world did it get full of water?
He also drug up some camping equipment, and some clothing. He didn’t find a body though. As far as Marc knew Shelby hadn’t owned very many sets of clothes. These were likely what he’d been wearing when the boat sunk. The clothing wasn’t in particularly bad shape considering how old it was. It looked as if they had been removed carefully instead of being ripped off a corpse by a gator or eaten through by scavengers.
That was very strange.
(Later, a few miles away, deep in the swamp)
Shelby woke up.
“Good morning sleepyhead” Elvira chirped. Shelby was beginning to think that Elvira was a morning person. How could he have been so “lucky?”
(mumble) he said . What was that smell?
COFFEE? Did he smell coffee?
He rolled out of his bunk, walked over to the coffee pot. Poured himself a cup and sat on a deck chair watching the river drift by.
Huh?
Where did this all come from? When he’d gone to sleep he’d been laying on an island with not a single material possession to his name. The good part had been that he’d had crazy awesome sex with Elvira.
Elvira! So she wasn’t a dream. Had that been real? Was this real?
He blinked hard, held his eyes closed for a little bit then opened them again.
Nope...it was still there. He was on a small shanty boat, not so small as all that actually.
“Elvira?” he whispered.
“Yes Master?” she replied.
“Uh...er...I mean.” he stammered for a minute. His grandma had said that he’d complain if they hung him with a new rope. Perhaps he should reconsider what he’d been about to say.
“Er...this is very nice Elvira” he stammered in disbelief. “I love what you’ve done with the place.”
(giggle)
“(cough) So tell me Elvira. What exactly am I looking at? Am I dreaming or have I died and gone to heaven?” Shelby asked
“That’s a bit difficult to explain.” Elvira said
“Try me” he replied “Last thing I remember is that I had just made an impossible swim. You jumped my bones, wore me out even more, and I went to sleep laying in the mud. Lucky I didn’t get gator ate.”
“Oh I would never have allowed that to happen” she said. “I have a vested interest in your good health. You have such nice bones, one in particular.”
“ (Blink)…..er…yeah….That’s good to know.” He said “Now…if you will…will you please explain to me what happened?”
“Ok.” she agreed “The short answer is U-Fog.”
“I kind of figured that” he said “how about a little more detail.”
“OoooooKaaaaay.” she replied.
“UFog is Active, polymorphic material ...yadda yadda yadda…conglomeration of 100-micron robotic cells ("foglets")....yadda yadda yadda…of molecular nanotechnology...yadda yadda yadda…Each Foglet has twelve arms...yadda yadda yadda…. The central body of the ...yadda yadda yadda… 10 microns in diameter. Yadda yadda yadda yadda “The atomically-precise crystals ...yadda yadda yadda… a tensile strength of at least 100,000 psi. ...yadda yadda yadda…t 3% of the volume they encompass. ...yadda yadda yadda… anisotropic tensile strength of 1000 psi. ...yadda yadda yadda… 500 if measured ...yadda yadda yadda…As a bulk material it has a density of 0.2 g/cc”
Shelby’s eyes had glazed. “WAIT! STOP! That’s not what I meant. What I meant was…was….er.”
“(giggle) But..but...I was just getting to the good part” Elvira said.
“No...really. That’s fine. U-fog. That’s a GOOD answer.” he replied.
“ok..let’s start over. You built all of this from U-Fog?” he said cautiously.
“Uh-huh” she said. “ Kinda sorta.”
“Kinda sorta what?” he asked “ That’s not much of an answer. You’re evading the question. Are you hiding something from me?”
“Um…well….yes.” She said.
“What?…what are you hiding from me and why?” he asked her.
“ Wellll. “ She stammered “I’m not sure how you’d react. You’ve been so concerned about your mental state lately and…and…”
“ELVIRA” Shelby said sternly…
“Yes Master?” she said meekly.
“Spit it out. Quit beating around the Bush”. He said.
“Yes Master.” She said…and took a deep breath. “Brace your self. Remember that I told you the other day that we all lived in our minds and that I controlled the mental reality?”
“Er…no. I’ve slept since then. What has that got to do with anything?” he asked.
“This” She said
The Shanty boat slowly faded away. So did the river. He found that he was floating in a fog, or perhaps a cloud.
“What is this?” He asked. He was beginning to get nervous.” Have I died? Is this a dream?”
“I urge calm Master.” Elvira said. “Please be calm. You insisted that I show you.”
“Ok “ Shelby said. She looked like she was going to cry. Shelby purely hated crying women. He took a deep breath….let it out slowly“Ok…I’m calm.”
“Damn. I wish I had a Ceegar” he said.
A lit ceegar appeared in the air in front of him. It floated to him. Shelby grabbed it and took a puff.
“OoooooKay. I’m not sure I’m going to like this but….” He mumbled
That explains a lot. I think I have an idea of what’s going on but please explain it to me anyway. Use small words and terms that I can understand. No evasion please. Where I am and what is going on. Ok?” he asked.
“Ok”. She said.
“We don’t have enough UFog to actually make a ShantyBoat. I can make it, or almost anything, if I have enough UFog. It’ll take a while to make though. The nanites in your blood can only make them so fast and it takes a LOT of foglets to make anything very large. The blood bucket helped a LOT..but we’re still short for any major conjuring.” She told him.
“Conjuring huh?” Shelby muttered.
Shelby noticed that the fog was thinning. He now appeared to be floating in water. Underwater actually. In fact he appeared to be floating near the bottom of the swamp, perhaps thirty foot down. Off to one side he could see cyprus roots…in front of him he saw a fish swimming by.
Shelby became very still. He stared at his surroundings. Slowly, very slowly his face broke into a huge smile.
“This is GREAT.” He said. “It’ magnificent . What else can you do with UFog?”
“Anything”...she said smugly. She sounded relieved.
Shelby knew..he just KNEW that she was waiting for him to ask for more details. It was TRAP. He knew it. She was going to overwhelm him with techno-babble. He asked anyway.
“Like what?” he said. Then he cringed.
“Oh...it can morph into just about any configuration.” she stated. “as a general rule we need to allow for an expected shear force not to exceed…”
“STOP!” he said. “I get it. Ok.”
He could just SEE her grinning at him. He imaged an alligator grinning at a skinny dipper in a bayou at night.
(grumble) he muttered to himself.
“What was that?” she asked.
“Oh nothing...nothing at all.’ he replied.
“That’s what I thought” she said smugly.
A few minutes of mental silence ensued. She said. “I love this swamp.”
He hadn’t seen THAT coming. He had no idea what she was talking about. Cautiously he asked. “Er...why?”
“It’s so NASTY...it’s chock full of pollution. I have all the feedstock I want...right here...all I have to do is strain it out. There are unlimited building materials free for the taking. Why when I get a blood-bucket up and running….” she was almost giggling.
“It’ll just take some time is all. The pollution is there, but it’s rather dilute.” she said.
“Well..we could move.” He stated. “Over by the ship channel I bet it’s a whole lot nastier…lots more pollution over there.”
“Oh MASTER” She cried. “You’re a genius.”
Almost immediately they begin to drift.
Over the next few days and weeks much pollution was strained from the water and converted into Fog-lets. For a time Shelby was hooked up to a device, made form UFog naturally, that resembled a dialysis unit. The “power in his blood” was being used to make Fog-lets much more efficiently than slitting his wrist over a bucket full of plastic bags.
Eventually a sufficient quantity of UFog was manufactured. Shelby/Elvira created a Shanty boat out of UtilityFog. They’d thought about it’s design for a long time while the Fog-lets were being assembled. Their ShantyBoat is not particularly noticeable. It mimicked many others much like it. It does not draw any particular attention.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the cop-shop a Forensic Tech examined the material that Sgt. Raines had drug up from the bottom of the river. The technician noticed that there weren’t any bloodstains on the clothing. The shirt and pants hadn’t been ripped or torn. There were no overt signs of violence.
He continued his meticulous investigation. Eventually he opened a compartment in the canoe. The compartment is waterproof. In it there are a few small items including a cellphone in a ziplock plastic baggie. He removed the cellphone, a NICE smartphone he noted, and examined it too.
There was something odd about it. He couldn’t place what is wrong until it suddenly dawns upon him. The smartphone has no seams or screws. There is no obvious way to take it apart. It appears to have been grown, not assembled. How very strange.
He presses the “on’ button and…the smartphone turns on!
Just for giggles the LabTech tested the functions. He attempted to send a text.
[LabTech]
“Hello? Is anyone there?”
He’s astounded when he receives a reply.
Who are you and what
are you doing in my head?
The tech almost drops the phone.
“Uh HUH!” he said “I think the Sargent would like to see this”
(Some time later)
A matter of great importance was being discussed on the ShantyBoat…breakfast.
“Ummm...I think I’d rather have wild bird eggs.” Shelby said. “Perhaps we can find some duck eggs or maybe even Geese?’
“Sounds like a deal” Elvira said. “You need to do some heavy breathing. We need more fog.”
“You’re joking right?” Shelby asked Elvira.
“Actually I am. I get most of the fog feedstock from the river, now. You knew that.” she said. “That was a test. You passed. You’re developing a sense of humor, or at least you can recognize humor when it beats you over the head. You are healing.”
“Healing how?” Shelby asked, honestly puzzled “I thought I was already healed. I don’t hurt anymore, I’m not in constant pain. I don’t limp. I don’t Need the Vodka to suppress the dreams anymore. I just like it. If I wanted to I could quit any time. I just don’t want to.”
“ I sleep well.” He finished.
“That’s all true.” Elvira said. “Really. It is. I know these things. It’s also true that your mind was grievously damaged and has been for a long time. Your answer is evidence that’s it’s healing. You are becoming much more intelligent too.”
“I are?” he asked with a grin.
“Yes...you are.” she replied. “A LOT more intelligent. Your psych profile is changing also. A few months ago you would not have thought to question that statement. Didn’t you ride around town one day on a bicycle, all day, only because you didn’t have someone to tell you what to do?”
“Can’t argue with you there. It happened.” Shelby said. “So … what’s the plan?”
“ Real food for Breakfast. Eggs I think. Perhaps some bacon.” she told him. “Vodka has very few vitamins. You need some real food occasionally. Aren’t you getting a bit tired of fish?”
“Well yeah. Now that you mention it, I are. Ok...let’s get some eggs.” he told here. “How are we going to do that? How the hell are you going to find any bacon?”
“Dragons…” she said.…
(Later…near a hiking trail)
This was kinda fun.
Shelby was dragon flying.
The dragon-drone that he and Elvira had constructed from UFog was about the size of a large Canadian goose. Shelby had wondered why she’d picked a dragon.
“ Dragon’s are what I have.” Elvira had said when he asked her.
“I’ve got dragon plans. I also have plans for a lot of other pre-historic monsters. Like T-Rex. Should I conjure up a T-Rex?” she asked snidely.
“Um…no. The little dragon will be fine. At a distance it’ll look like a Goose or something. T-Rexs might be a bit obvious” he conceded.
“Exactly right.” She agreed.
The little dragon’s wings were longer than that of a goose and it had a long tail. It also had a dorsal fin like a sailfish. It was as maneuverable as a humming bird and Shelby was tele-operationally piloting it to get eggs for breakfast.
He was finding them too. The dragon-drone almost had a full belly. He only needed a few more before it was time to return the drone to the Shanty-boat. Nearby he heard a little girl.
“Oh look Daddy! Look! A Dragon!” The little girl squealed and pointed.
“Darling...there’s no such thing as dragons.” her father told her patiently.
“There is TOO!” the little girl told him.
“I saw the dragon movie with you! There’s Toothless. See him?“ she pointed at the dragon-drone. In truth the drone did resembled toothless. A little bit. Minus the dorsal fin.
The father wondered if it had been such a good idea to take his daughter to see that movie. She had been captivated by the idea of dragons ever since. She had all the dragon-merch. She had “Toothless” pillows, “Toothless” nightgowns, it seemed like everything she owned or wore was “toothless” related. She had a ton of stuff.
“Who bought all of that for her?” he asked himself.
“Guilty as charged.” he answered his own question. “It’s my own damn fault.”
He knelt down beside his daughter. “Honey. That was a movie. It was make believe. It was fun. I enjoyed it too. But it wasn’t real. There is no such thing as a dragon.”
“Daddy!” She stamped her feet. “There is too! Here he comes! Oh goodie!”
She jumped for glee. She happily watched the dragon rushing toward her at full speed. It’s wings were spread, the taloned feet were extended, the fang-filled jaws were open. It was hissing like a steam whistle.
It was diving on them.
Her father heard the shrieking dragon scream. It was coming from over his left shoulder. He turned his head too see the dragon swooping down upon them when he heard an ominous sound that was much, much closer. He snapped his head around and saw the snake.
The big old fat rattlesnake had been sleeping under the bush beside the trail. It wasn’t too happy about being disturbed. It was molting and couldn’t see too well because of the scales over it’s eyes. The serpent was grumpy and looking for a fight. It rattled briefly then struck at the little girl jumping up and down beside the bush. Interfere with his nap will she?
“Dragons on the left. Snakes on the right.” the father thought. “What am I too do?”
Of course that was a rhetorical question. Doing anything is better than doing nothing in some situations. This was one of those situations. The father ignored the dragon, grabbed his daughter and rolled. His body was interposed between her and all harm. He was wide open to either snake bite or dragon claw. That was part of being a father. It went with the job. They had to come through him first to get to his daughter.
The snake struck. At the very last instant before it’s fangs pierced the man, jaws clamped around the reptile’s neck behind its head. It’s spine was crushed. Bye Bye Mr. Snake. The Dragon-drone flew away...with a big old fat serpent dangling from it’s jaws. The damn thing was bigger than it was, it seemed. It should have been impossible for that little dragon to carry that big snake.
The Father had no idea what had happened. He’d only seen the dragon for an instant. He’d damn sure seen the snake. He held his daughter close and wept. The daughter looked over his shoulder and waved at the departing dragon.
“That was fun wasn’t it?” Elvira asked
“Oh yeah..that was a hoot” Shelby replied. He spoke between clenched teeth. He had a snake in his teeth. If he opened his mouth it’d fall out.
Or so it felt. Shelby was in full immersion teleoperation mode. As far as Shelby was concerned he WAS the drone. The dragon-drone was flying back to Shelby’s shanty boat.. It had a belly full of eggs and a fat rattlesnake in it’s mouth.
The drone flew out out of sight of the man and his daughter then made a few evasive maneuvers to confuse anyone that might have seen it. Then it faded from sight. To any observer it would appear that the snake was flying through the air.
“Umm…I’m not so sure that’s much help” Shelby muttered to himself. “What’s more eye-catching? A flying snake or a Flying Dragon carrying a snake in it’s mouth?”
“Can’t help you there” Elvira said. “Half a dozen one way…six the other”.
“True.” Shelby said. “ But hey…snake bacon. Right?”
The little dragon landed on Shelby’s shoulder, with the snake dangling in front of him. He turned to walk into the boat cabin. He took the snake from the dragon and the dragon found a perch.
His virtual smart phone rang.
“Now who the hell would that be?” he muttered. Then he checked the caller ID.
“Oh…I’m calling myself. Should I answer me?” he asked Elvira.
“Hang on.” She said. She worked her magic and a face appeared on his virtual heads up display. They could see who it was that held his phone. They couldn’t BE seen…yet.
“Ahh…it’s Sgt Raines” Shelby said. “He must have found my phone”.
“Want to talk to him?” Elvira asked.
“Sure…why the hell not.” Shelby replied. He grinned…