4th Platform Building Campaign 2nd Exercise

Boy 2.0

Trevor watched the red unit intently, wondering what its data limit tested out at. He appeared to have the largest capacity of any of the data retention units available.

His current memory unit had begun to age, bits of data had been corrupted and lost, and that was unacceptable given the timeline of his Department of Defense contract. However it wasn’t until the diagnosis of memory retention dementia that he’d been forced to take action.

The Data Espionage Wars of 2031 had left all silicon based memory devices infected, leaving bio-storage as the only incorruptible form of data retrieval. And since his DoD contract required a level 12 security encryption module, bio- storage was mandatory. However, even after 10 years, Trevor still struggled displacing the humanity from what was technically a human child. Legally, it was considered nothing more than a data storage device but it still looked and acted like a boy.

He was speaking with the salesman to arrange for delivery when the unit was brought over for inspection. Trevor moved to leave when he felt a small hand grasp his, turning he saw the child’s eyes lock onto his own. “Are we going home now?” he asked.

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The technician, Ron, was busy preparing the boy for the procedure. “This isn’t going to hurt,” he told him.

Not hurt, Trevor thought, just reformat your brain. Trevor got up to leave the room, but the boy called out to him, “Please, doesn’t leave. I’m scared.” Trevor hadn’t considered that he knew what was coming.

“Enough,” Trevor said grabbing Ron's shoulder. The move startled Ron, who accidentally brushed the green implantation toggle, causing instant activation. The device hummed, suddenly becoming ensconced in a swirling vapor cloud.

"Get me something to hold this thing that won't conduct electricity, we've got to contain the nano-docks!" Ron yelled. Trevor ran to the kitchen, grabbed a ladle, and threw it to Ron, who balanced the implant on the wood and tried to reverse the dispersion command, to no effect. The vapor cloud had already contacted skin.

Both the boy and Ron jerked in shock as the microscopic machines entered their bodies and began to work on their nervous systems. Without thought, Trevor grabbed the boy and ran.Whisps of vapor clung at first, but then redirected to Ron, whose eyes glazed over, blank.

Trevor looked down at boy and felt tears pool in his eyes.

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(Write a story/poem in five sentences, each sentence based on one of the prompts)

The pair ran until the man was forced to rest his injured leg beside the broken bridge, the boy’s hair was still wet from the dye that changed its color. Pausing, they watched a group of abandoned children dig through some rubble and the man wondered if any of them were created like the boy, alive but with no intended life. Just days ago he had watched the boy blissfully play away what was supposed to be the last moments of his humanity. The conversion process had, however, gone horribly wrong leaving a technician essentially brain dead, and the man scared of how close he’d come to losing the boy. The man told the boy to get some sleep and the boy, looking at the man, asked “Daddy, will I ever dream of more than flying lines and stars?”

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What I undertook:

1. Write a short story/flash fiction piece of less than 200 words based on the prompts
2. Write a poem/flash fiction piece (in less than 200 words) about the water pear *without* using the words “pear”, “spoon”, or “droplet”. 
3. Write a story/poem in five sentences, each sentence based on one of the prompts

• Complete at least three of the above activities and tie them all together with a common theme
• Write in a genre that is not your own (I normally write Fantasy/horror, this was an attempt at Sci-Fi)

and.. PLEASE.. do feel free to critique my writing.  The only way any of us learn and improve is to write, learn, grow, and write again.  I will very appreciatively accept any feedback given in that spirit.

I know I probably messed up on the first prompt, I initially thought it was a prompt to write a flash fiction about one of the pictures, not all of the prompts, but I'd completed the second flash fiction by the time I figured that out, and I liked the story too much to delete it.. Like how Trevor comes to look at the memory unit as a boy, I've come to look at the flash fiction as 'my baby'.  ;)

I hope you enjoy, and as always, if you do.. Please Vote for me by clicking here and voting for #19

 ..or..
Even if you don't want to vote, please go read some of the other tremendous works by other writers at that link. These challenges are full of some very talented writers, so go enjoy.

Thanks,

Kevin.