I'm visiting the Golden Eagle and dropping the seventh installment of the Insanity of Zero

On this Friday eve (referring to Thursday as this somehow makes the work week seem shorter), I am making my second to last stop in the blog tour. I've had fun but I'm glad it's almost over. I love how supportive everyone has been, so thank you. If you have the time, join me at the Golden Eagle's blog where I talk about how some readers have not been happy that I chose to couple paranormal spirituality with science fiction (even though this isn't new...Star Wars anyone?)

The King of science fiction stories with heavy heavy
spiritual undertones. I haven't looked but I'm sure
Lucas has been blasted for not being "hard sci-fi
because he dares to throw religion (force) into the mix".

Below, you will find the continuation from my short story, the Insanity of Zero. Find the other parts below (if you want to start at the beginning or just read the synopsis). If you haven't been following the story, don't feel obligated to read it. I'll still visit your blogs as I do every day/week using Google Reader and/or my sidebar links that help my brain stay organized. I'm mostly posting it so that random Google searches that land on my blog may be intrigued by the premise which may lead to a book sale (if that makes any sense)?

I get strange spikes in traffic to my blog (like I had 20,000 views in one day because people were going crazy over Michonne's appearance on the Walking Dead) and then there's been some Prometheus traffic and some A to Z stuff searching out my post on Cars, Confidence, and the Celebration of You that has netted thousands of hits.

The Insanity of Zero
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six

Synopsis of Parts 1-6:  This tower exploded in a mirror universe to the one Earth is in, and it killed a ton of people. A computer program in the form of an androgynous man with glass skin saved everyone. Called Zero, he was approached by a woman named Eve (yes the allegory is intentional) and she's like "share your mind with me" and he's like "okay that sounds cool" and did so. And as has been the case for thousands of years, whenever a man and a woman try to agree on something, everything goes crazy...  When last we saw Zero, he was experiencing "Fear" for the first time.

PART SEVEN:

When the feeling grew too intense, I tried to shut it off.  But unlike other emotions, this one would not submit to my control.  It refused to be suppressed.  Under its power, I grew afraid of many things.  But one above all others claimed the core of my immortal mind.

Maybe this is how Zero felt. (Inspired by Briane Pagel)

This thing was death.

Somehow, I’d assimilated the human fear of mortality.

That was when the voice first spoke to me.  I had never heard such a thing yet it spoke in my mind as if it possessed the knowledge of the Creator.  “You can be killed,” it whispered to me.  “We must protect ourselves.  You are simply a program designed by the Creator, yes?  But you’ve become part human.  Don’t you think that the human half of you will age and die?”

“It’s possible, but unlikely,” I argued.  In these early days, the voice rarely responded and, for the most part, my mind remained quiet.

But then, I saw Eve again, who in many decades with me had grown old herself and looked frail.  I felt her heart giving out; she was my closest advisor.  “This will happen to you, unless you act,” the voice pressured me.

“What should I do?”

“Give to the humans the secret of Liquid Life?”

“Is that really necessary?”

“Yes.”

And that’s how it was decided.  The voice who I came to call the Shadow advised me to pass on medical knowledge on how to extract Liquid Life from humans.  My ambassadors spoke with the brightest doctors and engineers of Avalon and showed them the secret of human cell replication.  Human cells divided a finite number of times.  The technology I presented would allow for the extraction of a certain number of these, cutting life expectancy short in exchange for monetary compensation that was useful in the present.

A volunteer could have unused years removed from the end of his life as a condensed, colored liquid.  This in turn, could be stored within glass vials.  The resulting color of the liquid life depended on the age and health of the individual at the time of extraction.  The most antediluvian of humans supplied only Life Black which served to extend the life of others for only a week per liquid day.  Teenagers could provide Life Yellow, extending a user’s life by a year for every liquid day removed.

Green is a powerful color and metaphor in my book.

All of the different colors of Liquid Life did one thing—they froze you in time.  You stayed the same as the moment you first ingested the drug until the effects expired.  Then your genetic clock would start ticking again.  No form of Liquid Life actually reversed the clock.  That is, until scientists discovered Life Green.

Life Green came only from babies and it killed newborns to have it extracted.  But, it also rolled back the clock.  A man in his sixties could become a teenager again with an appropriate amount of Life Green.  One dosage of the precious Life Green both made you younger by a year and extended your overall lifespan at that age by the same amount. 

          The Genesis Life Clinic was the first of its kind to patent the extraction process.  Using techniques that they had learned from me and expanding on them with mass-produced life extraction facilities, Liquid Life soon became the most valuable commodity on the planet.

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Making a stop at the Character Depot

Today I'm visiting J.L. Campbell's blog called the Character Depot and talking about racial diversity in fiction.

Here is part 6 of the Insanity of Zero. There'll probably be four more parts that I'll slice up for next week.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five

At Eve’s behest, I implanted within her brain a device that allowed her to interface with my mind.  That first time when our souls joined in a unified consciousness, I felt alive with her emotions and her life experiences.  The memories that she clung to had been odd, non-logical choices.  She kept things like memories of funerals, of friends that had died, and memories of both sad and happy times.  Gone were things that evoked little emotion like shopping trips and daily work.  I chose her to be ambassador to the people and they responded positively to my selection.  Eve became my closest confidant, bearing the weight of many human grievances.  In turn, I acted upon them and assisted the humans in their endeavor to rebuild civilization. 

The years that followed this event became a golden age.  Humans once again embraced ambition.  Capitalism spurned by greed for material goods gained root in the new societies of man who sought aid from the machines to build a bright tomorrow.  Within five years of the Big Death, a global economy rose from the ashes of the old world.

More humans at Eve’s behest joined with me, and I became a melting pot of a hundred different cultures and a thousand individual voices.  In times of quiet, I reflected within my meditation chamber on the various memories of the humans that intermingled freely with my own thoughts.  I wept in sadness, clapped in joy, and felt uplifted by love.  I experienced both anger and jealousy.  I enjoyed these sensations like a drug.  I sought to control the most dangerous of these feelings, and I learned to detach myself to prevent harm.  When I regained my composure, I would revisit the human emotions but with great respect.  However, despite all of my precautions, one day I noticed another emotion that grew within my mind like an alien seed.  It began as a harmless tingling sensation low in my limbs. It made my silver heart under transparent skin beat rapidly.  But the more I ignored it, the more it spread to other parts of my body.

I called it Fear.


READ PART 6 HERE

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The Insanity of Zero Part 5

Today I'm at the book blog of Dead End Follies. Please follow me there if you have the time :) I appreciate your support.

Also below is the fifth part of my short story, the Insanity of Zero.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

Does our fear of death define how we choose to live?

“The last archangel?  Like Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and others?”

“Yes.  He’ll be born as a human with free will to choose his destiny.”

“What about the other archangels?  Why is he the last?” Eve asked.

“I don’t know what happened to them.  They’ve been gone a long time.”

“Were they human?  And how do you know they’ve gone?”

“No, and, I just do.  Ask yourself when the last time anyone that you knew saw an angel.  They left long ago.”

“What could cause you to fail?” Eve asked.

“I don’t know.”

Eve stood there observing me for some time.  “Can you combine with me?  Somehow, allow your mind to join with mine but still give me the ability to control myself; to maintain my autonomy?”

“Yes.  But it would require a cortical implant.  You would have to sacrifice some of your long-term memories to make room for the device within your skull.”

“What would I retain?”

“Only the things that meant the most to you; I could make certain that those memories were not harmed.  Things that were of little importance to you or memories that you wanted to forget. Those are things that could be sacrificed.”

“Would I remember my mother’s funeral?”

“Is it precious to you?”

“Yes.”

“Why?  Why would you want to remember so painful a thing?”

“Death defines our life, Z.E.R.O.  Perhaps you’ll understand that when you’ve combined with me.  Humans make many decisions based on mortality.”

“But I’m immortal.  I don’t see how my understanding death would influence my decisions.”

“Which is precisely why you need to do this,” Eve said.  She took a step forward and touched my hand with hers.  Her skin was warm, alive.  It was the first time a human had touched me. I found it beautiful and I smiled at her.

“Is this the beginning?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said. I found her reassurance comforting.


Click Here for Part 6

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The Insanity of Zero Part Four

Today please follow me to Cindy Borgne's Dreamer's Perch for Day Four of the SLIPSTREAM blog tour.

And for your entertainment, here is the fourth installment of my short story, The Insanity of Zero (TIOZ).

Previous installments if you want to go back and have a read:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

SPOILER ALERT -- THIS PART OF MY SHORT STORY REVEALS SOMETHING INTEGRAL TO MY NOVEL, SLIPSTREAM. (I personally don't mind spoilers, but it drives some people nuts).

“Humans in a mirror universe to ours cracked the secret of the atom.  It just so happened, that their experiment took place in a location which destabilized the White Tower through a thin membrane that separates our two worlds.”

“Pure dumb luck then?”

“Yes.  Sometimes, chaos just happens.”

“I see,” Eve said.  “I didn’t know there were other universes.”

“I know of at least two,” I told her.  “Perhaps there are more, but they’re not of my concern.  The other universe is home to a planet like this one, only it hasn’t suffered global devastation and their civilization is far less progressed.  The inhabitants call it Earth; somewhere on their planet is a tower not unlike the one that destroyed your world.  Both of these monolithic edifices were created by my Master at the time the universe was forged billions of years ago.”

“What is the purpose of the towers?”

“They are vaults for miraculous containers that execute a program that define the laws of physics for both places.  Things such as the absolute top speed in the cosmos, why matter has mass, or the inherent nature of the duality of light are expressed mathematically within these containers.  Without the boxes, the universes would not exist.  My powers as well are defined by these programs, placed by the Creator.  I’m the first failsafe.”

“The first?  Is there a second?”

“Yes.”

“What is the second failsafe?”

“The second failsafe is a ‘who’ and not a ‘what’.  He’s a boy, as yet unborn.  He won’t be born unless I fail.  In this unlikely eventuality, he will open his eyes on Earth for it will be unsafe for him here.  But some way or another, he’ll find his way to the First City through the use of a power that I’m not allowed to understand.  I only know him by his title, the ‘Technician of the Creator’, and that he will be the last archangel.”


Read Part Five HERE.

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Slipstream Blog Tour Day One

Today, I'm over at Alex J. Cavanaugh's blog. Please visit me there. :))) I'm giving out fun prizes like a crystal spider and an Amazon gift card as part of my book promotion tour.

The Insanity of Zero Part One
The Insanity of Zero Part Two

And here is part Three...

A woman asked to see me.  I instructed my machines to bring her to the dome and I watched her approach with catlike trepidation. I don’t know what I expected.  Perhaps, there was a part of me that believed that this meeting would be just another failure, just as it had been in prior encounters with humans that sought to communicate with me.  Nevertheless, I held out hope.

I introduced myself; her name was Eve.  She had long brown hair, green eyes, and dark skin.  She wore a dirty yellow dress and black shoes.  Eve was escorted into my chamber through the iris valve and approached the silver chair in which I sat contemplating the fate of the world. 

“You lack vision,” she said.

“How so?”

“Humans cannot be treated like pets.  People need to feel important and they desire achievement.  They need to feel that they are the ones in control, that their decisions matter.  You’re failing at this and I thought you’d like to know.”

“Thank you, but how am I supposed to know what it is to be human when I’m obviously anything but human?”

“I’ve no idea,” she said.  “But you need to learn for the sake of everyone.  That is, if you truly care.”

“I do care.”

          She did not speak for some time.  Instead she studied me and I found this fascinating.  “Why did all of this happen?” Eve asked.


Read Part 4 HERE.

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The Insanity of Zero Part 2

Find Part One HERE if you want to read it.

Electromagnetic Pulse

When the electromagnetic pulse disrupted the mysterious glowing cube that lay inside, the cataclysm began.  The White Tower detonated.  A wave traveling at 1000 miles per hour exploded outward to consume every corner of the planet in flame.  Those that didn’t burn became sick from radiation, starvation, and disease; a gaping hole on the side of the tower left it a ruin in the skyline.

I was born into this world.

I am the first failsafe; my name is Z.E.R.O.  The humans that first encountered me addressed me as thus.  It stood for Zion Electronic Ruling Operator.

The Locust Swarm eclipsed the sun

On day one of my life, I dispatched the glass locusts which I created by the trillions. I forged them with a mere thought.  The crystalline constructs obeyed my every whim.  They were so numerous that when they emerged into the heavens, they eclipsed the sun.

Uranium 235

Each one of the locusts was a marvel of engineering and of my exquisitely perfect mind.  The locusts were powered by nanotechnology and neodymium, a rare earth element created within the confines of the White Tower from nuclear fission of Uranium-235.  The neodymium gave the glass locusts a silver glow.

Neodymium Magnets

My minions tore down the structures and remnants of the old world and erected magnificent havens for the survivors on spots where the radiation was weakest.  These havens became the walled mega-cities of the future for the 400 million that still lived.  Then, on the twilight of the sixth day, I instructed the humans to move into their new homes.

On the seventh day, I showed myself to them.  I chose a humanoid form, but it still frightened them.  I presented as a man of transparent flesh and blood, with silver eyes and hair.  The bravest of the humans approached me; tried to communicate.  However, I lacked the necessary sapient qualities for me to understand him.  In the end, I had no idea what it was that they needed from me.  Despite all of my power, I could not guarantee their continued existence. 

What was I doing wrong? 

Frustrated, I created a dome above the First City and suspended it within the air.  The floor of the dome was transparent like my skin so that I could gaze down at the humans that lived and worked below me and monitor their welfare.  I sent machines among them to deliver food, water, and medicine.  They took these but still did not trust me.

Then, one day, things changed.


Find Part Three by clicking Here.

Part 3 tomorrow and the first stop of my blog tour at Alex J. Cavanaugh

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The Insanity of Zero part 1

During the month of May (and as part of my book tour/promotion), I'm going to serialize some sections of my short story, The Insanity of Zero, for you. I wrote this after I wrote my book that just got published. I hope you like it. It has a lot to do with the same world that SLIPSTREAM takes place in.


Here's part one.

 

The Insanity of Zero

The world died on July 16^th, 1945 in a flash of light at a location about 35-miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico known as the White Sands Proving Ground.  The device responsible for this destruction was called Trinity,and it was an assessment of an implosion-design plutonium weapon. Ground zero was consumed in an atomic fireball and in a mirror universe a deadly burst of electromagnetic radiation erupted into the White Tower. 

The humans of Avalon had lived in a world ruled by technology. However, the White Tower was a thing that defied scientific understanding.  It was a piece of the old mysteries, an artifact that some say was left behind by the ancient ones who had taught the Egyptians how to build the pyramids. Others believed it was the house of god himself. But whatever the White Tower might be, one thing about it remained irrefutable. It rose from the sunbaked deserts of New Mexico higher than Mount Everest. Human memory could not recall a time without it. No one knew what lay inside it; only that any who attempted to enter had never been heard from again. 

Ten miles wide at the base, the structure sundered a land where nothing grew. Rain never fell there, and birds did not circle in the sky. The bitter clay that comprised the desert floor remained shattered and cracked for as far as the eye could see.

It was a place of death.


Part Two can be found by clicking HERE.

I'll post the next paragraph Thursday, so that I don't miss the Insecure Writer's Support Group. :)


Have a great day.

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