flash fiction-ecoSciFi "TheOutpost"

Call of Wild

Cooper flashes up at the ceiling, not thinking, not at this moment. Nothingness thinking is a state of mind he has grown accustomed, his residual thoughts blurry, his face expressionless, as if nothing ever happens--the face of a Buddhist monk., willing to accept all the world's offerings, or nothing. It is the state of mind he brings to his lab bench. As he opens his perceptions, his state is jerked away and replaced by heavier, thicker thoughts of a warrior who has fought and struggled, who has asked more of himself than anyone or anything can offer, and who is more than willing to take up a weapon at the sound of any noise.
"What the hell," he says. "Damn! Did you hear that?" Did you hear that Carter asks, as if strange sounds were not a part of this jungle. Cooper says,"My heart just gave birth. Do you have a weapon?" "Yes." "Is it loaded?" Carter switches the security lamp on."You found your cat." You found your cat he pronounces, as if cats are suppose to be in this jungle, running around, climbing trees, and whatever else phantom cats do. The sound was far away but unmistakenly primal.
He stands straight, awake, almost military in his stance, the sound echoing in the jungle blackness. The sound has no face staring back at him, yet something told him it was inhuman--
Cooper says, "That's no cat."

ecoSciFi "The Outpost"

ecoSciFi "TheOutpost"

Cooper gives Suzi a salt water injection. "You look good today," he says. Suzi's silicon face has always been captured by her beauty: the rounded high cheekbones and bright wide eyes; the shiney hair, soft textures of her skin. She was designed to work with young scientists, never to be aged by the passage of time. "Thank you," Suzi says. "It seems like you are a little disinterested." "You know, just because I am a robot, I don't always do what I've been told." "Really." "Even Pavlov couldn't brainwash every one of his dogs. Some he had to castrate to get them to do what he wanted." "Excuse me?" "Never mind." Cooper is shocked at Suzie's apparent sudden relaxation of censorship. But he wasn't ready for her next suggestion. "Would you take me to church in the village this Sunday?" "Why?" "Because I want to know why humans go to church." "I can tell you why. They stop wanting to listen to each other, only to God." Suzie said nothing.