The Gaia Protocol

[methos]

Always build your doomsday vibrating thingamajig with good backup batteries!

[Bookwyrm]

Thanks for all the kind comments
Methos: LOL!

I was so intent on what I was doing with that scene that I never actually thought about what it would seem like. It's not revealing anything to say that the doomsday vibrating thingamagig uses the wiring in the house and it's actually self powered.

But I got a huge chuckle imagining that whole scene with the thought that the battery backup went kaput just as the world ended.

I wonder if Shelly will think like you. Hmmm...

[juco]

Excellent! Thanks so much.

and moar please

[Bookwyrm]

Sorry for the long delay. My characters and I are arguing about what they should be doing. Here's a short addition.

“Shelly!” A voice intruded into the blackness that enveloped my existence. “Shelly, please wake up.” I lay still for another moment, trying to get my bearings.

“Since you’re being polite about it,” I tried to say, but I think it came out more like, “Uhhg.” I opened my eyes, then shut them again quickly when light pierced deep into my brain. A cool damp cloth was wiped across my forehead, soothing the pain away.

“Just take your time, Shelly. It took an hour before I could even sit up after I woke up.” The voice was soothing, but I couldn’t quite place it. I tried to figure out what had happened. Was I in the hospital? Then things started to come back to me. The honking horn, Bryan, the vibrations, the device.

“Who make a device that saves you from the end of the world so that it needs to be plugged in?” I croaked. The words came out a bit garbled, so I wasn’t sure if he understood.

A harsh chuckle, tinged with surprise was my reward. “In retrospect, it does seem a bit foolish. But it’s not the power, but the wiring that it needs. It’s protecting your house and everything in it. I’m not sure, but it may be protecting your barn as well. We’ll have to wait and see about that.”

I tried opening my eyes again. The light wasn’t quite so piercing this time, and if I squinted, I could stand to leave them open. I shifted my head until Bryan came into view. He looked thirty years older than he had last time I’d seen him, his face haggard and his eyes bleak. “What happened?” I asked.

“I’m not exactly sure,” he replied, his eyes not meeting mine.

“Don’t give me that,” I said, raising my voice and immediately regretting it as my head began throbbing more than before. I moderated my tone and continued. “You showed up at my house yelling about the end of the world, plug in something that you say saved us and then tell me you don’t know what’s going on?”

He sighed, and sat in a chair next to mine. “Do you think you can sit up? I’ve got a glass of water for you.”

I glared at him, sensing that the effect was somewhat diminished by my squinting eyes. I realized that I was on the couch, and slowly swung my legs around. Bryan helped me to a sitting position. A wave of nausea swept over me, but I fought it down and took the water. Then I noticed the smell, and the nausea returned. My clothes reeked of vomit. Bryan handed me the water and I took a cautious sip, hoping that it would help to settle my stomach.

Bryan looked down at the ground, still not meeting my eyes. “Okay,” he said heavily. “Here’s what I know.

“That group that you joined? It was a front for an eco-terrorist organization. You were the only member of this chapter that wasn’t in on that information.”

I looked up sharply at him. He was an eco-terrorist? I was about to demand another answer, but sensed that I should keep quiet if I was to get the whole story.

“Jeff was the head of the whole organization. He was calling the shots and making the money. All the cash that we raised went straight to their goal. Two years ago, some top secret research went missing, along with the head researcher. We suspect that he was a member of the group, but haven’t been able to confirm that. The information that was stolen was preliminary research into the creation of a quantum bomb.

“The chapter you were involved in didn’t do any of the research, but they were communicating with the other group secrets. That’s one of the things that I was supposed to figure out. They…” His eyes flickered up and met mine briefly, and he bit off what he was going to say next, then began speaking again.

“Now, I’m not a scientist, but as far as I understand, this bomb will destroy or change things on the sub-atomic level.

“I was assigned by the government to infiltrate the organization and put a stop to this and at first I couldn’t understand why they would want to do something that was this destructive to not only humans, but to the environment as a whole. I finally managed to figure out that they were continuing the research and trying to use the bomb to turn the whole earth into a quantum computer. They were trying to create Gaia, the Earth with intelligence.”

“What?” I asked incredulously forgetting my resolve to keep quiet. “That’s absolutely ridiculous!”

[juco]

Excellent! Please tell your characters to stop arguing with you. I like where you're taking them and if they cooperate you can write faster.

[Vtshooter]

Thank you Bookwyrm. It's really nice to see this story continuing.

[sssarawolf]

Oh wow a chapter thank you soooo much.