Tremendous Universe

Ginger conjured a cool, dark river.  The bottoms of her feet actually tingled as they slipped over the smooth rocks in the virtual riverbed.  As she lowered her body into the wetness, frightened river fish darted around her legs.  She heard birds hidden in the boughs of the great trees surrounding her insular sanctuary. She thought that she could hear their anxious voices, the furtive fluttering of fragile wings.  Everything echoed, even her breath.

The air became heavier and heavier.  She sang and she sang and she sang. Her breath caught in her throat when she heard hushed whispers.  When Ginger opened her eyes there were eight of them; the virtual guardians who functioned as the core-controls of Tsui City.  Her voice had been the lure to draw them into this fabricated space.  Caught in her web, they surrounded her.  Infiltration had been easy enough.  Staying alive and getting the job done was going to require a lot more finesse.  She began to weave a story, a story of orphans and a dead mother who had loved them—a mother named Dusk...

Devious Machine, a short story | Genre: Science Fiction | Posted at: The Hive Mind
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