Ravens' View

One Small Story in Seven Acts

2012-02-10T01:46:58-05:00

Another flash fiction challenge from Terrible Minds. Chuck had discussed various plans and structures to build a plot around, one was a seven point structure. Below is the structure, as well as my short story using it.

Behold, a rough seven-act structure - and how I used it:

Intro (duh) –> alarms and crisis in space
Problem or Attack (duh) –> AI has lost most memory access
Initial Struggle (character first tussles with source of conflict) –> use alternate memory to manage problem
Complications (conflict worsens, deepens, changes) –> more systems failing
Failed Attempts (oops, that didn’t work) –> tried master reset, even worse
Major Crisis (holy sh*tbomb, everything’s gone pear-shaped) –> self destruct on, can't escape
Climax and Resolution (duh) -> use vintage iPhones to compute, escape

And the story (note, went in and removed section headings below, to let story flow better.)

Jumping with Siri

Dave cringes, then slaps at the flashing panel, silencing just one of the many alarms, bells, and sirens.

"Jeez, Siri," he calls. "Can't you filter and collate these all somehow so I can focus? And find out what the hell we just went through that is causing the status board to light up like a Christmas tree?"

"Sorting now, Dave. Critical life support failures filtering to a fog horn, other system failures to a police siren, minor failures to a saxophone solo."

"Stop it, visual, not audio, you idiot," says Dave. "Don't joke around, just handle it like you always do. Give me flashing lights, three small ones, red, orange, and yellow. And pop up a list for each one."

"Making it so," she says.

Dave sits back and enjoys the quiet. "Be serious for a change, because it looks like we're in some serious shit here right now. Tell me again why we jumped into this area?"

"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that," she says.

"Jeez, don't be weird," he says, "just tell me."

"I'm really can't," she says, "I know we are in a space fold end point, but the how and why and where of it - nothing. I seem to have lost access to quite a few areas, including most of my quantum effect memory. I don't have my main memory or my computation scratchpad online anymore. There seem to be some routines running in firmware, but I'm basically only here and now. My older memories from decades ago are there but other than that anything past the last 30 seconds keeps disappearing."

Dave looks at the displays. "Hmm, some radiation alarms here, not any high energy fields, but there are some peculiar patterns in the spectrum. And you are popping up more system errors every second, maybe we should just turn around and .."

Dan cringes, then slaps at the flashing panel, silencing just one of the many alarms, bells, and sirens.

"Jeez Siri," he calls. "Can't you filter these all somehow - oh wait, been there, done that. Filter to visual, small flashing lights, red critical, orange system, yellow minor. And lock this response routine into auxiliary memory, not your main quantum memory."

"Done, Dave. What's happening?"

"We are in a jump terminus, taking on some weird kinds of radiation. It's scrambling your access to your main memories, and doesn't help my head either, I feel as fuzzy as my last tequila hangover. You'll need to access some alternate storage for now, anything past 30 seconds is gone for you, so for starters use that storage to catch the "now", and to run your basic routines from."

"I wondered about those echos in my mind," she says, "I'm getting a deja vu feeling all over again."

"At least you've kept your sense of humour," said Dave. "Or my grandfather's to be precise."

"Well, he gave it to me, in his iPhone 6," said Siri, "using a hacked-in personality app. I'm a much bigger AI now, but that part of me is still in here somewhere it seems."

"Lets check out these alarms," Dave says. He pulls at his collar, "is it getting warm in here?"

"Yes Dave, looks like the systems are all scaling back to the very basics, alternate storage is too slow for their routines. I'm having trouble just keeping them out of stand-by mode."

"That's it," he says. He flips open a panel and grabs a large red lever.

"Just what do you think you're doing, Dave?" she asks.

"When in doubt, reboot," he says. "We'll start off fresh."

The lights dimmed, then flickered back on.

"Any better?" he asks.

"I'm back on, Dave. No memory, still on auxiliary systems, but even less controls now. Looks like most things haven't come back on line after the reboot. I've no links with life support at all, some seals are leaking, lights are on batteries only, and - oops!"

"What the hell do you mean 'oops'?"

"Sorry Dave, looks like a security module is stuck in a loop, it thinks we're under attack and that something is re-routing basic functions to alternate devices, so it's triggering the self destruct."

"But that's our re-routing - oh never mind, we're out of here, once we get away from these fields we'll be OK. Set up a jump will you?"

"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I ..."

"Yeah, you can't do that," he says. "No computations scratchpad. Shit. Let me think, maybe we've something in the hold we can use." He grabs a clipboard. "Let's see. Well, we've crates of supplies for Old America, the retro planet - lots of odd ball nostalgia items, but the only thing even close is just a batch of replica iPhones. Can we wire them in or something?"

"Dave, I believe when I was growing up as an iPhone 6 I had Bluetooth and Hotspot options, with remote diagnostic access. I still have the codes."

"Can you access these phones here?"

"Maybe," she says. "Realigning systems to Bluetooth parameters, sending access codes, getting returns, 10 units, 200, 400, 512 online now. I'm pushing the jump parameters to them now for parallel computations - be patient, they are old quad 6 systems and a few are sending back low battery warnings."

Dave sits quietly, listening to the hiss of escaping air from the hatches.

"Got it," she says, "here we go."

There's a flash behind Dave's eyes, and a wrench at his gut. When his vision clears he looks around the bridge - quietly blinking lights, the whir of a ventilation fan, mutterings from the subspace radio.

He sits back in his chair. "Siri, run a full diagnostic, and let Old America know we'll be a little late. And put on some music."

"Would you like me to sing 'Daisy' for you?" she asks.

"No - dig up some Deadmau5," he says. "And a cold beer."

ROW80 - the writing challenge that knows you have a life

2012-02-08T09:01:26-05:00

First day.

This challenge is called "A Round of Words in 80 Days", and is a challenge that lets you set the balance that works for you. You choose the goal(s), and some SMART objectives to help you get there, publish it all on your blog, and do an update in there of your progress twice a week. You link the original goals and progress updates to the ROW80 site, to show off your progress, and so that others can track you too. No big prizes, and the only pressure is peer pressure, but I've decided to give it a try. I do realize my whole life would probably benefit from an overall set of goals and objectives and structure, but I'll start on this little corner of it for now. The challenge repeats four times each year, and the current one started this January but you can pick it up at any checkin too. So I will, on Wednesday.

My big goals are about being an author - as in a published writer. So one goal is to finish the two first drafts I did in the last two NaNoWriMo's. Which leads to an objective of editing 90 minutes each day. Another goal is to be a better writer, so that gives me an objective of writing a short story a week - via site challenges such as Chuck Wendig's Terrible Minds, and another objective to spend 30 minutes a day reading from my Google Reader list of writer's blogs. For the last one, I think the challenge will be to read no more than 30 mins a day - so easy to just keep on following links and threads of ideas through the Internet. So - I have:

edit novels 90 minutes a day
one short story challenge a week
read blog list of writers/editors 30 mins a day

I'll see how it goes - fingers crossed.I think my second step will be to get up earlier and at least start the day on a schedule. Which leads to the first step - get to bed before midnite - no more late night tv or reading.

Present Tense

2012-02-03T12:54:08-05:00

Another challenge from Terrible Minds - to write only in the present tense. This was difficult, but I think I came close. Story follows.

Julie stares into the dark, eyes wide open, listening. She hears it again, a thump, then a muffled curse. She is pretty sure no one else has a key to Dan 's apartment, and she knows he's still in Taiwan. She's tempted to call out, but decides using 911 is safer. She fumbles on the bedside table for his phone, but when she picks it up, instead of a dial tone she hears a recording.

"Hello ... Dan ... your telephone access is now restricted to ... no ...calls, as per Federal regulations. You now have ... seven ... outstanding responses in your iVote queue. Press 1 for a list of your priority items, 2 for a list of all items, or 3 if this is an emergency."

She presses 3.

"I'm sorry, that is an invalid response. Press 1 for a list of ..."

She presses 1.

"You have ... one ... mandatory vote. If you are voting now please stand in front of your iMonitor to show your vote. Remember to ensure your face is free of any coverings, for optimum response from the iFace system."

She hates this new system, even more than she hates junk mail and telemarketing calls. She hates that it's a sellout from her government to Apple, that trades exclusive access rights to every household for a massive government buyout. It's no longer just optional online voting, and a few surveys, it's now regular votes at all levels of government, a daily barrage of survey questions from all sorts of companies, and stiff penalties for non-compliance. And it appears that Dan shares her dislike, and now she's paying for it. She tries her iPhone, and gets the same response as it tries to call out over Dan's network. She looks around Dan's room - no iMonitor, which means she has to somehow use the one in the living room. She assumes she can fool the response software into reading a positive or negative response from her face other than Dan's, but she knows that the biometrics software developed by Homeland Security is picky. Luckily she and Dan are almost be twins, right down to the same haircut.

Julie opens the door slowly, phone in hand, and peeks out. The room seems empty, the sounds now coming from the distant kitchen. She tiptoes over to the monitor, set in the middle of a wall of electronics and speakers, and whispers,"Display on, low volume."

The screen brightens, and asks, "please confirm identity."

She drops her voice, "Dan Percival."

"Unable to confirm."

Damn. She tries again, "Dan Percival."

"Unable to confirm. You have one attempt left," says the monitor.

"You're screwed!"

As she spins around she sees a tall figure standing in the hallway, smiling at her.

"Guess you haven't seen Dan in a while, he's got a beard now." He picks up a portrait of Dan from the shelf and turns it towards her.

"Who are you?" she says.

"I'm Charlie, a friend of Dan's" He jingles some keys. "These are spares from last time he went away, I'm here to pick up a book of mine. How about you, are you a burglar or just house sitting?"

"I'm just crashing for the weekend while he's away. I'm trying to call 911 to report a burglar, but it turns out our friend Dan is protesting iVote by ignoring it. Which means no phone, even 911. But no problem, now that I know your intentions are honorable."

"It is a problem," said Charlie. "A 911 attempt, plus failed ID, means a lockdown. Go ahead and try, the doors are all bolted now."

"So what if we we just flunk the last ID and let the cops come?"

"Dan has iGuard now to protect all this electronics, the usual options are gas and or taser. The police are already on their way to take us downtown, are you prepared to wake in a cell and wait for Dan to come home?"

They hear sirens in the distance.

"Shit, we're both screwed," she says.

Charlie holds up the photo in front of his face. "Not necessarily."

"You might fake the voice, but there won't be any expressions to show yeah or nay," she says.

Charlie holds up his cell phone. "Android phone, very rare. With some hacker apps, including one I call noVote. With some visual and audio jamming, the system defaults from visual to just voice responses." He holds the photo to his face, and triggers the phone.

"Hi, I am Dan Percival."

"Hello Dan, this is iVote. You have ... one ... mandatory vote ... Bill C-10, the copyright act. How do you vote?"

He turned to Julie, "does he support this?"

"Hell no," she says, "he hates it. Vote yes. And we can clear the rest too, all with the wrong vote. Be a bit of payback for getting me almost trapped in here."

"Dan here," he said," I vote yes."

"Thank you Dan. Canceling 911 alert, doors are now unlocked. Be advised there is now a 911 access user fee charged to your iAccount."

Random Photo Story

2012-01-26T21:22:31-05:00

From the blog Terrible Minds, comes another Flash Fiction Challenge. We were directed to go this site, which pulls up six random photos at a time from Flickr. From those six, we were to pick three, and use those as inspiration for a short story, 1000 words max, by noon EST on January 27th.

These are the three I picked. I don't know anything about the people or places shown, nothing implied about them, I just used the images as starting points for my own imagination.

The images are - a building in downtown Taipei, Taiwan http://flickr.com/photos/22310015@N06/6016785855/

two guys sitting on a rooftop http://flickr.com/photos/50792682@N00/3457578328/

and two girls biking down a road http://flickr.com/photos/12203542@N05/5641941202 .

And now the story, it's about 575 words long ...

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Taipei was big change for a high school student from rural Ontario. Tom's English teacher would have never believed that the school's star quarterback, her worst student, was now an ESL teacher in Taiwan. Tom found it hard to believe too. Up until now he had only left his small town on football trips to other area schools, so this had been a culture shock of international airports, cramped hours in the air, and a loud and incomprehensible town.

The first few days were a blur of students with confusing names, rules and regulations of the school, and the crush and chaos of a large asian city. Luckily Tom's new students overlooked any gaps in his knowledge in their eagerness to learn some Canadian slang, complete with a rural Canadian accent. By Friday he had met Todd, another new teacher, who was also on his ﬁrst journey from a small town - from Australia it turned out. They had bumped into each other at an after-school staff party, and seemed to fit together from the start. Tom was glad to have a new buddy to hang out with, especially a fellow jock, as he'd been missing the constant companionship of all his friends on the football team. The two of them shared a room in the small dorm and a table in the cafe, swapped lesson plans, and argued the relative merits of Canadian versus Australian football. Tom soon lost his homesickness as he and Todd explored Taiwan together, from rooftop picnics to local clubs to bike rides in the country. The school's group of teachers including two women from San Fransisco that were working their way together around the world. Annie and Gayle seemed equally inseparable, night and day, also exploring the city or countryside, so that the four of them often ran into each other. The girls flirted and joked with everyone, but seemed to usually keep to themselves. so Tom was surprised, and intrigued, when they asked him and Todd to double date.

They all headed out that evening, starting with spicy local food in the market, then several dance clubs, quarts of ice cold beer and shooters of expensive Scotch, finally ended up in the Red House district in a karaoke bar. Todd and Tom faced off against Annie and Gayle, each side trying to outdo the other, until all four finished off in medley of Abba tunes, much to the amusement and applause of everyone else in the bar. Todd had just excused himself to go to the bathroom, and Tom was trying to decide which one of the girls to make a move on first when Gayle leaned over and gave him a hug.

"You guys are great," she said. "It's such a relief for Annie and me to be able to go out clubbing without worrying about getting hit on by other women. Or guys. But I'm sure it's the same for you two, right?"

Tom looked at her blankly.

"Oh my god," she said, "didn't you know we were gay? You really are a small town boy, aren't you." Her eyes widened. "But you two are gay, right? I mean you're always together, and so comfortable with each other ..."

She laughed. "Oh well, if you aren't you should be, you guys are so obviously a couple. Good luck buddy."

Just then Todd slipped back into his seat next to Tom.

"Good luck with what?" said Todd.