Wednesday, June 16, 2010

flash fiction--designSciFi "The Outpost"

The Dream

Suzie awoke to blackness.  She could swear she had a dream.  If that were true, it would have been the first known dream generated by artificial intelligence.  She wasn't sure.  She went back to sleep.  When she woke again in the morning, the stars were still up, but something was out there.  She checked the security scanners.  They reported nothing.  "That's strange," Suzie thought.  Something would show itself soon.  She needed to know sooner than now, but something in her program was making her sweat.  There was nothing in any of the data bases about this.  Suzie noticed it was 4:48 a.m.  That kind of data she always knew.  It was in her archaic program designed in the twentieth century Scantology Interim Consortium (S.I.C.), a group of scientists who pointed out the importance of the ability to recall exact pinpoints of time when important events take place in a lifetime.  Suzie felt she was entering a state she didn't recognize.  She turned on the light and went into the kitchen.  She saw her reflection in the window over the kitchen sink.  The black jungle night outside in contrast to the lighting in the kitchen brought definition to her reflection.  She had no rings around her eyes.  "High grade collagen," she thought.  Suzie began feeling her strength as she looked into the mirror.  "The Station will call at 5 a.m. I'll wait."  She dimmed the lights and noticed a flickering in the blackness now.  There was no sound. 

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