01 A Private Sorrow, 02 Departure, 03 Loss &
Discovery, 04 The Mechanics of Being,
05 Endings, 06 Debriefing, 07 Catastrophe
Emergence:
Section One, Jim and Kathy
Part One, A Private Sorrow,
Collected Chapters
|
Section 01, Jim and Kathy
Part 01, A Private Sorrow,
Chapters
01 Call
02 Morning
03 Lies
04 Closure
05 Confusion
06 Insight
07
Liminality
#Emergence
#SuperShortFiction
#365SciFi
@jaybotten
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Chapter One: Call
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Pt. 01, Ch. 01
Kathy answered the phone.
“Hello” she said.
“I need to see you,” said Jim, in his typical tone; detached.
“Café?”
“Yes.”
#Emergence
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Chapter Three: Morning
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Pt. 01,
Ch. 02
“Coffee,”
Jim orders.
“Chai;”
says Kathy.
They sit
in the sun, and read. It is busy.
Jim weeps,
and he won’t say why.
#Emergence
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Chapter
Two: Lies
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Pt. 01,
Ch. 03
“What’s
wrong?”
“I can’t
say.”
“Why?”
“You wouldn’t
get it…I’m not talking about it.”
“I don’t
get it.”
“I said as
much.”
#Emergence
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Chapter Four: Closure
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Pt. 01, Ch. 04
Kathy sensed the emptiness inside her friend; a hollow, where normally
there was active awareness, and perceptivity.
#Emergence
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Chapter Five: Confusion
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Pt. 01, Ch. 05
Now that she was here; Jim was not sure why he asked her to see him.
He could not tell her what was going to happen.
#Emergence
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Chapter Six: Insight
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Pt. 01, Ch. 06
It was clear that Jim had something to tell. Kathy sensed that it was
very bad news; for him, for her, and everyone.
#Emergence
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Chapter Seven: Liminality
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Pt. 01, Ch. 07
They sat with one another; speaking little. Jim enjoyed being with
Kathy; their thoughts synched. It felt like home.
#Emergence
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Emergence:
Section One, Jim and Kathy
Part Two, Departure,
Collected Chapters
|
Section 01, Jim and Kathy
Part 02, Departure
Chapters
01 Funeral
02 Regrets
03 Doom
04 Cycles
I
05 Cycles
II
06 Lament
07 Goodbye
#Emergence
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Departure; Part Two, Chapter One: Funeral
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Pt. 02,
Ch. 01
Jim
hurried from the café; afraid to miss his flight. He did not need much; black
suit, a tie. “I’m dead;” he mused.
#Emergence
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Departure; Part Two, Chapter Two: Regrets
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Pt. 02, Ch. 02
“I never should have seen her.”
Jim couldn’t help himself. It was all over; for everyone, and nothing
could be done.
#Emergence
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Departure; Part Two, Chapter Three: Doom
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Pt. 02, Ch. 03
What was about to occur would be a global catastrophe; affecting
everything on earth, changing humanity irrevocably.
#Emergence
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Departure; Part Two, Chapter Four: Cycles
I
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Pt. 02, Ch. 04
Earth endured episodic calamity. Storms, floods, earthquakes were
minor events compared to the power of the caldera.
#Emergence
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Departure; Part Two, Chapter Five: Cycles 2
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Pt. 02, Ch. 05
Seventy thousand years had passed since the last caldera blew; only a
few people survived it. This would be greater.
#Emergence
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Departure; Part Two, Chapter Six: Lament
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Pt. 02, Ch. 06
If civilization had developed further, it would have harnessed the
geological power of the caldera; but no disaster!
#Emergence
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Departure; Part Two, Chapter Seven: Goodbye
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Pt. 02,
Ch. 07
Jim
flipped a switch. The embolism in his doppelganger burst, ending its life. He
entered the wormhole. He was home.
#Emergence
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Emergence:
Section One, Jim and Kathy
Part Three, Loss and Discovery,
Collected Chapters
|
Section 01, Jim and Kathy
Part 03, Loss and Discovery
Chapters
01
Watching
02
Connected
03
Portents
04
Unrequited
05
Impression
06 Finding
07 True
#Emergence
#SuperShortFiction
#365SciFi
@jaybotten
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Loss & Discovery; Part Three,
Chapter One: Watching
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Pt. 03,
Ch. 01
Jim left.
Kathy followed him with her eyes, and when he turned the corner; with
her thoughts, which were disturbing.
#Emergence
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Loss & Discovery; Part Three,
Chapter Two: Connected
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Pt. 03, Ch. 02
Kathy was with him, looking through his eyes as he drove away. While
she was connected to him, she felt his despair.
#Emergence
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Loss & Discovery; Part Three,
Chapter Three: Portents
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Pt. 03, Ch. 03
Jim projected a sense of doom. It lingered as he departed. Kathy was
filled with unease; like everything was ending.
#Emergence
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Loss & Discovery; Part Three,
Chapter Four: Unrequited
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Pt. 03, Ch. 04
Jim left a
pen. He always left something. Kathy stared; imagining it with the others,
reassembling them in her mind.
#Emergence
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Loss & Discovery; Part Three,
Chapter Five: Impression
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Pt. 03, Ch. 05
Kathy felt that Jim wanted to tell her something. Like a stone; it
pressed on her, the turbulence of despair in him.
#Emergence
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Loss & Discovery; Part Three,
Chapter Six: Finding
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Pt. 03, Ch. 06
Kathy stayed at her table; sensing a fragility in Jim she never had
before. Life as she knew it was about to change.
#Emergence
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Loss & Discovery; Part Three,
Chapter Seven: True
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Pt. 03,
Ch. 07
Kathy often felt the “weight of the world on her;” that she was “too
sensitive,” never suspecting how real that was.
#Emergence
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Emergence:
Section One, Jim and Kathy
Part Four, The Mechanics of
Being,
Collected Chapters
|
Section 01, Jim and Kathy
Part 04, The Mechanics of Being
Chapters
01 Journey
02
Transition
03
Nativity
04 Self
05 Strings
06 Bodies
07 Home
#Emergence
#SuperShortFiction
#365SciFi
@jaybotten
|
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The Mechanics of Being; Part Four,
Chapter One: Journey
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Pt. 04,
Ch. 01
A worm hole is not a tunnel in space/time; the passage is a
transposition, billions of atoms turning on a pin point.
#Emergence
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The Mechanics of Being; Part Four,
Chapter Two: Transition
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Pt. 04, Ch. 02
A flash of violet fades to white. Jolt, a buzz, the tensing of a
seizure, darkness; Jim opened his eye. He was home.
#Emergence
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The Mechanics of Being; Part Four,
Chapter Three: Nativity
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Pt. 04, Ch. 03
Jim was not its name. Designation 92835670100561474; the Observer came
to consciousness rapidly in a magnetic field.
#Emergence
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The Mechanics of Being; Part Four,
Chapter Four: Self
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Pt. 04, Ch. 04
Transitioning from human life to mechanical form was not easy. Organic
life is thrilling, being in circuitry is not.
#Emergence
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The Mechanics of Being; Part Four,
Chapter Five: Strings
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Pt. 04, Ch. 05
Consciousness is electromagnetic. Its essence exists in many forms;
animals, mechanical, or in the collective field.
#Emergence
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The Mechanics of Being; Part Four,
Chapter Six: Bodies
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Pt. 04, Pt. 06
The mechanoid body Jim occupied had the sensory tools of a human, like
those of its ancient race; enhanced and more.
#Emergence
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The Mechanics of Being; Part Four,
Chapter Seven: Home
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Pt. 04,
Ch. 07
Jim set himself free from the coupling that held him as his
consciousness uploaded, and flew out of the docking bay.
#Emergence
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Emergence:
Section One, Jim and Kathy
Part Five, Endings;
Collected Chapters
|
Section 01, Jim and Kathy
Part 05, Endings
Chapters
01 Notice
02
Anonymous
03 Autopsy
04 Family
05 Finding
06 De Ja
Vu
07 Memory
@jaybotten
#Emergence
#SuperShortFiction
#365SciFi
|
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Endings; Part Five,
Chapter One: Notice
|
Pt. 05,
Ch. 01
Kathy knew she would never see Jim again. She knew it before she got
the call informing her that his body was found.
#Emergence
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Endings; Part Five,
Chapter Two: Anonymous
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Pt. 05, Ch. 02
Jim did not carry ID. There was nothing on his phone
that said who he was; only record of the call he made to Kathy.
#Emergence
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Endings; Part Five,
Chapter Three: Autopsy
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Pt. 05, Ch. 03
The pathologist told her the cause of death; a stroke. An embolism
burst in his brain.
“Why am I here;” she wondered.
#Emergence
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Endings; Part Five,
Chapter Four: Family
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Pt. 05, Ch. 04
Jim was more mysterious in death, than life. Kathy was fascinated;
except suddenly she was responsible for his body.
#Emergence
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Endings; Part Five,
Chapter Five: Finding
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Pt. 05, Ch. 05
It took time, and some detective work. They located Jim’s residence,
and a judge gave Kathy access to the apartment.
#Emergence
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Endings; Part Five,
Chapter Six: De Ja Vu
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Pt. 05, Pt. 06
Kathy had never been to Jim’s home, and he had never moved. It was
exactly as she had visualized it; scant and bare.
#Emergence
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Endings; Part Five,
Chapter Seven: Memory
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Pt. 05,
Ch. 07
Kathy remembered everything, her recall was perfect. Standing in Jim’s
home, she knew he had lied about many things.
#Emergence
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Emergence:
Section One, Jim and Kathy
Part Six, Debriefing;
Collected Chapters
|
Section 01, Jim and Kathy
Part 06, Debriefing
Chapters
01
Concealment
02
HomeWorld
03
Screening
04 Secrets
05
Identity
06
Connection
07 Shock
#Emergence
#SuperShortFiction
#365SciFi
@jaybotten
|
|
Debriefing; Part Six,
Chapter One: Concealment
|
Pt. 06,
Ch. 01
Jim had made the crossing thousands of times, but never carrying a
secret. There was no way to know what would come.
#Emergence
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Debriefing; Part Six,
Chapter Two: HomeWorld
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Pt. 06, Ch. 02
HomeWorld was not home to Jim, nor was it a world in
the proper sense. It could seem like either; if he believed it.
#Emergence
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Debriefing; Part Six,
Chapter Three: Screening
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Pt. 06, Ch. 03
Jim went to the council; sharing his consciousness, memory, and
experience, but hiding his plan deep within himself.
#Emergence
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Debriefing; Part Six,
Chapter Four: Secrets
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Pt. 06, Ch. 04
Secrets were forbidden, but this was a lie. The Continuum hid things,
everyone participated. Concealment was an art.
#Emergence
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Debriefing; Part Six,
Chapter Five: Identity
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Pt. 06, Ch. 05
Since his last mission Earth’s tech had advanced dramatically, Jim
used it to alter his mind, and shield his secret.
#Emergence
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Debriefing; Part Six,
Chapter Six: Connection
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Pt. 06, Pt. 06
The catastrophe struck. Millions died in seconds, and Kathy was
connected to all of them. Jim transmitted all of it.
#Emergence
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Debriefing; Part Six,
Chapter Seven: Shock
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Pt. 06,
Ch. 07
Jim opened his mind to the Continuum. The pain of Earth streamed
through the quantum field, flooding the collective.
#Emergence
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Emergence:
Section One, Jim and Kathy
Part Seven, Catastrophe
Collected Chapters
|
Section 01, Jim and Kathy
Part 07, Catastrophe
Chapters
01
Unleashed
02 Channel
03 Volcano
04 Shock
05 Quiet
06
Justification
07 Undone
#Emergence
#SuperShortFiction
#365SciFi
@jaybotten
|
|
Catastrophe; Part Seven,
Chapter One: Unleashed
|
Pt. 07,
Ch. 01
The explosion shook the world. Kathy felt it from over a thousand
miles away, and she felt the fears of those dying.
#Emergence
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Catastrophe; Part Seven,
Chapter Two: Channel
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Pt. 07, Ch. 02
Jim felt Earth’s psychic pain through the wormhole
connecting him to Kathy; a hit from the other side of the galaxy.
#Emergence
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Catastrophe; Part Seven,
Chapter Three: Volcano
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Pt. 07, Ch. 03
The volcano in Yellowstone blew. Most had no idea of the threat. Now
the disaster was here, and the world was dying.
#Emergence
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Catastrophe; Part Seven,
Chapter Four: Shock
|
Pt. 07, Ch. 04
The trillions of persons of the Continuum became silent; all
consciousness stilled. Every one felt the psychic pain.
#Emergence
|
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Catastrophe; Part Seven,
Chapter Five: Quiet
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Pt. 07, Ch. 05
Jim was the first to recover from the trauma flowing through the
string; connecting them to Kathy. Silence followed.
#Emergence
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Catastrophe; Part Seven,
Chapter Six: Justification
|
Pt. 07, Pt. 06
The catastrophe could have been avoided; as on many other worlds, but
now the Continuum would feel its indifference.
#Emergence
|
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Catastrophe; Part Seven,
Chapter Seven: Undone
|
Pt. 07,
Ch. 07
As the Continuum was paralyzed; it was a simple thing for Jim to
dismantle the architecture supporting its defenses.
#Emergence
|
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