Scott normally didn’t care much about how he looked, well excluding the week he’d spent as “Rhonda,” but tonight he knew that he needed to look his best.  His light brown hair was slicked back and the designer black jeans and shirt were intended to show off his athletic build. 

In this chapter we gain more understandings of what the Curtain Fall may have done; and we learn more about Kadrapraba's thoughts and logic. From it we also receive a small insight into how and why the Tarneerans organize themselves and enforce their won hierarchy...

Several hours have gone by as the engineers and slicers worked on the Gree computer recovered from Taral V. My friends were celebrating behind me as I looked out on the rolling clouds of the Maelstrom. A violent mixture of gas and plasma much like a thunder cloud, but colorful from the mixture of different gasses. Hidden in those gasses were tiny grains of sand to planet sized asteroids. If the plasma didn't get you the debris would and if not that the fluctuating gravity would.

That there was a total look of disbelief on Randy's face would be an understatement. "Mother of Mary, that thing really thinks better than we do?"

He stooped over to see if he could find any answers under or behind the desk. Picking up the keypad he felt along the top of the desk.

"Please Mr. Shells, if you must call me something, I would prefer you call me the same thing Karen does. My name is Henry. Although 'thing' may be appropriate in your mind when you refer to the unknown, it does not endear you with me. I understand the nature of humans to do name calling when they’re mad, frustrated, and scared. It serves no useful purpose to do so at an inanimate object."

Mike watched in amusement as Karl pulled the gun out thinking he was using it only to scare Karen. Then the shots rang out. "CHRIST, KARL. You didn't have to kill her. She couldn't hurt us."

"Listen stupid. If she pointed her finger at us, those goons Comm Tech has working as her bodyguards would as soon kill us as talk to us. This way nobody knows besides us. She sure ain't going to be doing any singing..., Now."

It had been several weeks since the initial attempt and now their plans were in place. "She usually leaves the building almost the same time everyday. Normally it is close to eight or there abouts when she walks out to the parking lot. She gets in that damn rocket of hers and drives home followed by the tail she picks up when she passes the gate."

the same accident that caused the loss of his leg at age six also stimulated the latent genetics that ran in his family to trigger a mutation. Although becoming one of the ‘exo-humans’ the government monitored would prove to be the least of his worries once he stumbled upon his family’s secret.

The same accident that caused the loss of his leg at age six also stimulated the latent genetics that ran in his family to trigger a mutation. Although becoming one of the ‘exo-humans’ the government monitored would prove to be the least of his worries once he stumbled upon his family’s secret.

Curtain Fall - Chapter 11

Posted in the Albuquerque Village

To Adrasteia -

I and my friends were spellbound by our first true meeting! Your spirit, beauty and cleverness found us utterly captive to the force of your personality! You have truly won me over, and gained the respect of my companions! Please forgive their earlier rambunctiousness. They were simply feeling over-protective. Perhaps we can meet in a public place to show to all concerned that there are no hard feelings?

Curtain Fall - Chapter 10

Adam stood as the elevator opened on the floor housing director Feber’s entourage and looked out on the floor. He entered the hall and walked to the director’s room and knocked firmly on the door. After a pause the door opened and a man stepped forward and up to Adam.

“Please state your business sir.” The tall lean man asked with little expression.

Adam responded loudly enough to be heard by those within the room, “Good morning, my name is Adam Bosarge of the Albuquerque Journal and I’d like to discuss why deputy director Feber is here.”

a little warning, chapter 1 may be a little dry, because of exposition. But I hope that can be fixed in the next chapters.
Also, I love comments, and am very nervous - since this is my first time putting anything out for review or critique. Also, if you want to play in my Rutverse sandbox, feel free to drop me a message with questions before you write your story.

There wasn't one single company capable of matching the quality of work Karen and Henry were doing. Most of them tried to duplicate her work by ordering a model and disassembling it to find out how she accomplished it. Piece by piece, their lab technicians would dissect her models. At the end they experienced the same results as the medical research laboratories. Except for being polymer instead of skin and bone, it was an exact duplicate of the entire human anatomy. The programming she was running to complete one model had to be horrendous and yet she never made two models alike. The bytes of data Karen was using was incomprehensible to most model makers. They weren't programmers though, most of them were chemical engineers designing the plastics used in their manufacturing. Karen was a computer engineer who worked on the design of the models from a graphics equation perspective. Henry helped research the plastics used to build the models. Same problem to all the companies competing in the model market. Different approach by the engineers.

the same accident that caused the loss of his leg at age six also stimulated the latent genetics that ran in his family to trigger a mutation. Although becoming one of the ‘exo-humans’ the government monitored would prove to be the least of his worries once he stumbled upon his family’s secret.

Curtain Fall - Chapter 07

The captain and soldiery made no attempt to detain Jill as she walked away, although the captain did initiate a report to headquarters. They needed to know of the woman’s existence.

Curtain Fall - Chapter 06

Weeks had passed and Jill and Carol sat on a bench in the outdoor lunch area at work. They reveled in being able to comfortably eat out side in the sun of one of the first warm spring days. Having just finished her meal Jill had, eyes closed, turned her face up to the sun. “I know we’ve had a mild winter but it is so nice to feel the warmth of a nice spring day, you know?”

“Yes, I know how you fe-“, Carol started to respond but was interrupted by a co-worker who rushed out of the lunchroom shouting with excitement.

The same accident that caused the loss of his leg at age six also stimulated the latent genetics that ran in his family to trigger a mutation. Although becoming one of the ‘exo-humans’ the government monitored would prove to be the least of David’s worries once he stumbled upon his family’s secret.

The same accident that caused the loss of his leg at age six also stimulated the latent genetics that ran in his family to trigger a mutation. Although becoming one of the ‘exo-humans’ the government monitored would prove to be the least of his worries once he stumbled upon his family’s secret.

If you read this and think "I have read this already, please return to part nine, that was a glitch in posting. Part nine has new content, that needs to go before this, Sorry!

As Beth walked back to her office Karen started up her car. Now if she could get by Max, she would see if she could find a parking space in the tower. People who showed up late for work usually ended up parking across the street from Comm Tech and walking a half mile to work. If she was lucky someone would have already come and left today leaving her a spot.

—Excerpt from Presidential Security Council Meeting 3/5/35–

Yes sir, we’ve received our first reliable reports back from the zone in Nevada and initial reports from the Amazon region in South America. As you can see from the aerial and the first on-ground photos, these Probability Singularities we’ve seen in the atmosphere continue to be significant, even catastrophic threats.

Curtain Fall - Chapter 04

In the weeks that followed “Jill”, as he had been steadily encouraged to think as his name, continued working at Amalgamated Automation.

Curtain Fall - Chapter 03

Carol piloted the car carefully into the morning daylight. They began to see increasing numbers of people coming out of buildings. Most seemed to be cautiously exploring the nearest wrecks. A number, however, were just looking up into the morning sky. Curious, Gill craned his neck to look up out of the car as well and let out a curse, “Holy crap! Giant bubbles are way up in the air!”

Evidence

Breathe in. Slowly. Slowly. Breathe. I kept my eyes closed but I sat up. When I opened them Bree handed me a flask. I pulled, not because I wanted to but because that seemed like the thing you did when someone put a flask in your hands. And I coughed, because it was straight whiskey. And I handed it back.

I smoothed the bodice of my dress down. I ran my fingers through my hair and messed it up.

Well that was every calming mechanism I had that I knew of, I turned to Autumn, “Can I have a cigarette?”

Before —
Finally the two got to Carol’s apartment door and after unlocking pushed in. Carol pushed Gill a bit more roughly into the living room than necessary as the rigid control she’d been holding over her emotions relaxed now that she was in a ‘safer’ location, then closed the door locking it and sliding the deadbolt.

As the body she thought ‘might’ contain Gill stood quivering and tightly holding what Carol now had time to observe and confirm was “herself”, Carol’s control slipped and she barked, “All right! Who are you really, and what’s happened to my friends!?!?”