Fast Fiction: Aboard The Sypher - Badware
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Aboard the Sypher, captain Tok and crew were under attack. Wiley had clicked a pop-up notification on the ship's dash and activated location sharing. A big blip on the radar, a large shudder, and the blast doors began to buckle from a barrage of invader firepower.
Figaro, the feline-spliced operative, stood from cover, took aim, and connected with two direct hits. It didn't slow them. The invader's armor was dense, dark, and ribbed with a small familiar logo on the upper left pocket. Figaro ducked behind cover. She cupped her hands around her mouth and hollered across the brig to captain Tok. "They're too well branded! That gear's VaderLife, we won't leave a scratch on them!"
GYNZT, the female droid commenced battle mode. Her human form shifted, clicked, whirred, and snapped into a spider-like array of guns. She scaled the walls while laying down continuous cover fire.
Figaro sprinted to Tok's location. "Captain, I've got to slip past them. We don't stand a chance going toe-to-toe like this. I have a plan: I get into their control room and create some leverage for us."
Captain Tok nodded, but then shook his head. "It's too dangerous. You're fast, but--"
"With all due respect captain, you ain't seen nothin' yet. I'm not just genetically modified, I am bio-mechanically modified. I've never fully activated my assets because I've never had to."
A hot beam hissed through death-spider GYNZT. She clunked to the ground.
"Captain!" Figaro's voice boomed. "GYNZT is out of commission. Lay down some cover fire for me and I'll show em' something they won't expect."
Tok tightened his grip on his pistol. He stood.
Black-clad invaders were pouring through the blast doors.
Figaro leapt into action.
Tok took aim.
Figaro changed direction unexpectedly.
Tok fired a wild shot that hit her in the back of the head.
Figaro dropped lifeless to the floor.
"OH!" Tok dropped the pistol and covered his mouth with his hands. An energy projectile grazed his neck. Blood spurted and the captain dropped to the ground with a gurgle.
"Aw shit." Wiley adjusted his cowboy hat from behind cover. "Yousef, my man, things just got FUBAR."
Yousef didn't respond. Wiley looked at Yousef's nine appendages and translucent blue skin. "Ya know, lookn' at ya, I don't even know how I would describe you let alone talk to you. Why don'tcha cut me some slack and chill with the silent treatment for once. I get that you're an alien and all but we're 'bout to die, here."
Yousef's skin shifted from blue to illuminating green hues. Wiley sat up and tipped his hat back, "You tryn' to tell me somethin'?"
An energy projectile severed one of Yousef's appendages. A horrible wet guttural reverberation emanated from Yousef.
"Aw shit, man!" Wiley's face grimaced.
A gray thick muddy liquid gushed from the severed appendage as it flailed about. The gooey mass bubbled thicker and appeared to climb up the tentacle-like arm. It soon covered Yousef's entire body as if his own blood were devouring him.
"Jesus, what in the hell!" Wiley was trying to scoot away, but was already against the wall.
The gray mass thickened further and hardened. Yousef was a clumpy grayish statue.
Wiley didn't say anything.
The barrel of an energy rifle tapped his temple. "Up! Slowly!"
The cowboy-hat-wearing pilot lifted his hands and rose as commanded. "Take it easy. I'm not nothin to be afraid of."
"Shut up." The hot barrel tapped his temple again. "Show me your dash."
"Yeah, sure, whatever you want." Wiley walked over to the dash and pressed space-bar.
"Type the password or die." The barrel poked the back of Wiley's head.
Wiley typed the four-digit password. The dash screen appeared. There was an icon for navigation software. One for inter-shuttle social media. A health and wellness app. Calculator. Wiley was knocked to the floor. The invader's gloved fingers rattled across the keyboard for about two minutes. The typing stopped. "It's done." The armored typist readied his weapon.
"Hey, wait, any chance--umm--ya know, just, not kill me?" Wiley said from the floor.
The closest invader looked at the others then looked back. "We don't really operate that way. However, you could take a survey."
"Are ya still gonna shoot me?"
The invader looked at the others again then looked back. "Yeah."
"Well, shit."
"Unless." The invader fidgeted. "Unless you wanna sign up for a monthly subscription with us."
Wiley didn't say anything. "I mean...OK, tell me. What is it exactly I'm signing up for?"
The invader sighed. "We're with planet Seppio-X5, it's the dense jungles of Guatemala precisely recreated with the latest decentralized cloud-based eco-mapping software. We bring you the universe's best coffee from what used to be Earth's best coffee. Seppio-X5 3055 blend presents a dark roast from dense jungles grown from volcanic soil. You will experience flavors of earthy spices, smoky aromatics, and rich chocolate. With membership, it's like having Guatemala delivered to your door every first Sunday of the month."
"Is there, like, a trial membership?"
"Yeah, I can coupon you for a free trial. We'd be cool with that."
"Any guarantee?"
"100% money back after the trial, so you actually get two deliveries to experience it over time to see if you really like it."
"And, um, just for the record, it's not actually from Guatemala. Am I right?"
The invader sighed. "It's from Seppio-X5, we believe it's better than Guatemala. We've engineered more oxygen-rich air and nutrient-dense soil."
Wiley sniffed. "Right…"
The invader adjusted his posture. "What do you think? Want to at least take the survey?"
"Ya know." Wiley looked around at all the invaders holding loaded weapons. "I think I'm good."
The energy rifle discharged a shot through Wiley's eye socket and out the back of his skull. The invaders filed out.
The Sypher was silent.
Lines of code ran across the dashboard screen. TAO, the ship's integrated AI booted up. Cables dispensed from the walls drug the dead crew into the incinerators. The ship commenced self-cleaning mode. A few hours passed. The lights readjusted and the walls and floor gleamed pristine.
The big dash monitor read: Clone replacements crew activated. Hull pods: A13 Jules Tok, B4 Code-name: Figaro, C2 Wiley Breaux, D2 'Yousef', and Maintenance pod Gynoid Zenware Technician 'GYNZT' ready for thaw and bio-individual activation.
A few hours later the crew was back on the brig with updated, predetermined, memories.
Tok yawned and took his seat in the elevated center of the ship's command deck. Wiley sat at his station in front of the dash. He pressed space bar. He typed in the four-digit password. Something in the bottom right hand corner caught his attention. A green tree-like icon. He clicked it. A topographical map of Guatemala showed on the dash.
The intercom clicked on and startled everyone. A gravelly voice ushered forth the words: "Guatemala is known for its rich culture and rich coffee--"
Wiley click-canceled the ad. The voice on the intercom cut out and the screen went blank. "Sorry everybody."
That is a very good work of art and very creative imagination for you to combine technology and agriculture! I was kind of laughed when I got to the survey part. I was not expecting earthly matters like Guatemala and coffee to get into alien invasion stories. It was indeed funny!
Are you a writer? Or do you regularly write stuff like this?
Glad you liked it. I have been writing for most of my life. For now, the best place to find my most recent stuff is here on Steemit.
And this is usually the type of stories you write? Have you tried coming up with a book? Or maybe you have already... ?
I write a variety. Usually there is humor. Unless like this one, most are not genre. I like short stories. I have a short novel as well as a full length novel but decided not to publish them for now.
Well, if you publish the full length novel here then I may not read it unless you do it by section or just upload a pdf file which I can bring anywhere. 😂
Kidding aside, I suppose you are aware of kindle? Have you tried publishing your novels there? I don't write but I just thought that can be a good channel to monetize your craft.
I have looked into it. I followed a mentor and read books on how to structure a novel and how to do market research and joined the kindle communities. I read a weekly paid subscription called the Hot Sheets that gathers market research and lets authors know what's happening in the writing world. Read blogs and vlogs and joined numerous communities and workshop groups. I immersed myself into the indie publishing industry and hated it. :D
Doing the Amazon thing took all the joy out of writing because they are currently most in control of the market. I didn't want to contribute to a monopoly for online publishing.
I don't mind writing to market but not with my fiction.
Fiction has kept me sane all these years and I don't want to "mess with success" in that department :p
Authors have to be more careful now than ever about where they publish. I simply don't trust most of the sites out there. The stories here I'm positing will be available for only 6-7 days and then I will remove them and put them on my Patreon page.
Nearly every piece of fiction I find online is of disappointing quality. Usually both technically and creatively speaking. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places. However, in my opinion people are too preoccupied with writing what sells rather than what really matters to them. Time is money and they skip on editing as well. There are top-selling books on Amazon that have obvious errors in their bylines. That's the first thing people read after the title.
I know that with posting flash pieces on Steemit I can put out numerous quality pieces for free. Any time I go trending(happened to 3 stories so far) I see a little money and comments like yours. That is what feeds my soul and is gas for my creative engine. I'm keeping it light and having fun this time around.
That's also why I have my Patreon page, the more people who decide they like my work enough to support it, the more time I can allow myself to spend on it.
If you know any other sites you'd recommend to where people are hungry to read stuff like Aboard The Sypher, let me know. I am open to suggestions.
The type of material that authors write depends on what drives the author. To your point, many would write about what is trending in the market and not what matters to them. That tells me that money matters to them and I would not think ill of that if that is what fits their situation. I am not a writer but indeed, writing (or doing) about what matters to you or what you love is certainly an inspiring one.
I have read different reactions about existing and dominating market platforms like Amazon. Some say it is good to tap into their system because it already built its strong brand. It attracts many people so thus the great exposure of your product if you're on board. Others have the same perspective as yours so they opted to run their own web page and grow it organically. I do not have much experience on the two options but they say the organic website will help you grow your brand. So I guess if you're up to that then maybe you can give it a try.
Good sci-fi story I like the idea of AI, especially nowadays when we hear on and off that the technology is on the way of developing. the simple version if Alexa from Amazon, but when there is a droid who knows how close they will be to human personality especially if AI can be self developing. Your story brings so many ideas and thoughts up, we are lucky to live this time when we can witness much from the previous sci-fi that become true now. Love your story, easy way of description and understandable for simple reader.
Glad you liked the story. You are very correct, there's no shortage of things to think about when it comes to AI. I think it would be hard to write scifi and not have some kind of AI in it.
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
Hey cool.
Hi cosimo,
Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.
The robot likes my human musings. Just kidding! Thanks curie, you're awesome.
Hey, @cosimo.
Thank you for this documentary of our future. I can definitely see the marketers and businesses getting lethal when you don't subscribe to their wares or services. :)
Being able to make the hard life or death choices because you know you have a clone body waiting for you is a definite plus, too. Unless they suffer from the ill-side effects of ever increasing degeneration. That wouldn't be so fun.
The coffee maurader's sales pitch was an especially nice touch, in a we can reasonable, but only if you do exactly what we want kind of vibe.
Congratulatons on the curie. A thought provoking, entertaining and well-written work of flash fiction with a twist.
Very flattering. Been learning a lot online and the constant subscription pitches and emails definitely got to me haha. I'm glad you liked it. There's more to come in this universe.
Hahaha, take a survey and not die? What a great imagination you have! I liked the story and I am surprised by how it ended. Very creative, structured and easy to read writing. I enjoyed the combination of technology and coffee. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for your kind words. I'm glad you got a kick out of it.
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