No ratings.
Technology gone wild can cause problems on an Orbital. Some of them are serious ones. |
Technology Specialists A Short Story Written By SpaceFaction Everyone panicked and screamed as they ran down this corridor. Some are trying to take shelter in a room along one side of this corridor or another, and some are just running around there in chaos. All the runners keep looking behind them at the human monster. It all started a few hours ago when Majurn finished checking out a new hand weapon he is about to demonstrate to some other Technology Specialists and those who control this Orbital. “Haven’t you been having problems with this new weapon of yours? Are you sure you have fixed all your problems?” Borrma, Control of Protection of this Orbital, asks. “I don’t know what they were yet,” answers Majurn while he finishes checking out his hand weapons. “But they haven’t been problems that need fixing.” “What does that mean?” Borrma asks. Majurn doesn’t answer Borrma. He just points his new weapon at a fake Amovith and fires this weapon. Instead of a small red ball coming out of the end of it, this red ball comes out of the end of it and hits Majurn in his face. Suddenly, he bursts into flames all over his body. ## The fire-consuming Majurn is put out quickly with the Fire Prevention System. He looks dead as the HealthyYou Specialists come to take what is left of his body back to HealthyYou. They are about to announce his death when he suddenly opens his eyes, then he sits up on his Sleeper. “What happened? Why am I in HealthyYou?” Majurn asks. “You should be dead,” says HealthyYou Specialists Puul. “We don’t know how you are still alive, but we will find out.” The HealthyYou Specialists start looking at Majurn. They soon find out there is nothing wrong with him, except for the way he looks now. “We still don’t understand why you are still alive.” “Then I can leave here anytime I want to.” Majurn starts pulling the wires connected to his body out of him. He begins to get up, but Puul stops him from doing it. “We would like you to stay so we can check you out further.” Puul pushes Majurn back down onto his Sleeper.169 Puul and the other HealthyYou Specialists leave Majurn for only a few minutes while they get things ready to check Majurn out further. When they get back Majurn is gone. “Where is Majurn?” ## A loud alarm and flashing lights filled the Control Room of this Orbital. Deom, the Control Leader of this Orbital, starts walking toward his Technology Specialists, Stanust. “Someone turn off these lights and alarms. We all know something is wrong.” The alarm and flashing lights suddenly stop. “What’s wrong with our Orbital now?” Deom asks Stanust after placing his hand on his shoulders and leaning over his right shoulder. “Another technological problem has happened. This time our problem is in our Computer Systems.” “How bad is it? Has anyone been hurt or worse because of this problem?” Stanust keeps his eyes on his Data Monitor while he talks to Deom. “No one has died yet. But seventeen more Amoviths have been hurt by the electrical wires flying everywhere. Nine are still trapped by those wires. Five others are near death.” “Why is this happening to us? Does it have anything to do with Majurn and what has happened to him?” “We don’t know if there is a connection between Majurn and what has been happening to our Orbital, but we think there is. All we know is that these technical problems started soon after Majurn changed.” ## Deom walks over to Borrma. “Any idea where Majurn is?” “We still don’t know where he is, what he’s doing, or if all the problems we have been having lately are his doing. But Majurn is a Technology Specialist. If anyone is causing these problems, it’s him.” “If it is Majurn causing all these problems, why is he doing it?” Deom asks. Borrma keeps looking at his Data/Image Monitor and taps a few buttons on the controls under his Data/Image Monitor. Hundreds of small images start to appear on his Data/Image Monitor. Each image is a different part of this Orbital. “We know that Majurn is here somewhere, we just haven’t found him yet.” “Any idea why you can’t find him?” Deom asks. “He’s a Technology Specialist. We think he’s using our technology to hide from us. Maybe that’s why we are having all these technology problems. Majurn may not even know his hiding has been causing these problems.” Deom starts looking at the images on the Data/Image Monitor. He begins tapping these images. “Is there a pattern to these technology problems? Maybe we can find him if there is a pattern to these problems?” ## “It looks like we are wrong about Majurn hiding within our technology,” says Borrma. “We have found Majurn.” “Where is Majurn?” Deom asks from the center Seat in this Control Room. “Put it up on our large Image Monitor.” Borrma spins around in her Seat behind Deom. “I don’t think you want me to do that.” Deom gets out of his Seat and goes to stand behind Borrma who is now looking back at her Data/Image Monitor. His eyes get wider and his jaw drops slightly. He can’t believe what he’s looking at. Majurn barely looks human anymore. He’s a lot bigger now too. “Is that Majurn?” Deom asks. Before Borrma or Deom could say anything more, they saw Majurn kill another Amovith with electrical sparks coming out of his fingertips and his body from his badly burned body. The Amovith is twitching in pain as he slowly dies from what is happening to him. After killing this Amovith, Majurn starts destroying this Scientific Creation Room with small fireballs coming out of his open mouth. It doesn’t take him long before this entire room is blazing in flames. Nothing can be seen in there but these flames. #### Secondary Control is now in Control of this Orbital. Deom and the others normally in Control are in a Discussion Room talking about what they will do about Majurn. “Will everyone please calm down,” shouts Deom. “We may not know why Majurn has been causing all of our technology problems,” says Deom after standing up and calming everyone down. “But we do know we need to stop him before he causes any more technology problems or before he kills anyone else. Any ideas on how we should do this.” “There may not be anything we can do,” says Borrma. “We all saw Majurn walk out of that flaming Scientific Creation Room without any problems.” Everyone starts talking all at once again. Deom calms them down again quickly. “I don’t believe that. There must be a way to stop him. We just need to find a way to do it.” “I think I know how we can stop Majurn,” says Puul. “Since we know he can’t be stopped by technology or fire, maybe we can do it with just the opposite: cold. The only problem we may have with that is because of the fire within him now.” ## Borrma and seven other Protection Specialists come out of eight different rooms. She looks at the seven other Protection Specialists. They all shake their heads no. Borrma and the others meet at the end of this corridor where they split up again to check out eight more rooms. All eight Protection Specialists leave their rooms at about the same time. This time Borrma goes up to the one Protection Specialists nearest her. “Did you find Majurn? Are there any indications he has been there?” Protection Specialist Vhinckson looks back at the room he just left before he answers Borrma. “Majurn isn’t there now. But it looks like he has been hiding there.” “That makes another technology room he has been hiding in. I’m starting to see a pattern in what Majurn has been doing. This is another room we have had a technical problem with on this side of our Orbital.” “I think I know the pattern you are talking about,” says Vhinckson. “All of our technology problems lately have been on this side of our Orbital. There must be a reason why they have been only on this side. We just need to find out what that reason is.” ## Just as Borrma enters this Control Room, the alarms and flashing lights start again. That means there has been another problem, probably another technological problem. Borrma goes over to her Data/Image Monitor. She can’t believe what she is seeing. “The Secondary Control Room is right under us,” says Borrma, still staring at her Data/Image Monitor. It’s like the Scientific Creation Room. Majurn has destroyed the Secondary Control Room, flames are everywhere.” Deom is standing right behind Borrma now. “Does that mean our Control Room is the next one to be destroyed by Majurn?” “I don’t think so,” answers Borrma. “If he wanted to destroy us he wouldn’t have started with our Secondary Control Room first.” “It’s another diversion to keep us busy while he does what he really wants to do,” says Borrma, who can see what Majurn is doing on her Data/Image Monitor. “I think he has been causing these technology problems to keep us away from whatever he’s doing.” Deom reaches over Borrma to tap the image of where Majurn is right now. He starts tapping images where Majurn goes from one image to another. “Any ideas where Majurn is heading for now?” ## Majurn isn’t hiding anymore. He’s walking down the corridors of this Orbital. Everywhere he walks the other Amoviths who see him start running away from him. Most of them enter the nearest room. The rest just run down one of the other corridors on that level of this Orbital. All of them running away screaming and yelling. Majurn isn’t paying any attention to them. He is just continuing to walk down these corridors. The only ones not running away are Borrma and nine of her Specialists. They are staying far enough away from him so he doesn’t see they are following him. So far, it doesn’t appear Majurn has noticed them. It doesn’t look like he has noticed anyone around him. Borrma and her Specialists stop following him when he stops in front of a room. “Whyever he’s here, it looks like he’s where he has been heading for,” says another Protection Specialist, Grollem. “What room is that and why is he there?” Borrma asks. “I can’t see what room it is from where we are,” says Vhinckson. “But we all know why he’s there. He’s there to destroy that room too, and now we know why.” ## Borrma and her Protection Specialists start running toward this room when they see Majurn begin using his fingertip and body sparks before he enters this room. Just before Borrma and her Specialists enter this room they peek in to see what is happening. They see Majurn killing two Technology Specialists. Both of them are about to die screaming and in pain. Before they die, Majurn starts destroying this room with his fireballs. He stops when he gets to the entrance there where Borrma and her Protection Specialists are. “They deserve to die,” says Majurn. “That’s all I want to do before I kill myself too. Look at me, I’m a monster now because of them. I’ve been having a lot of problems with the new weapon I’m creating to help stop this World War on Amovith. They have been causing my new weapon to fail. But they went too far this time.” “I’m sorry about anyone who has gotten hurt or killed because of the technical problems I have been causing. That wasn’t supposed to happen. All I wanted to do was stop you from stopping me before I could kill those responsible for making me look like the monster I am today.” Word Count = 1,977 |