[Content Note: death, colonialism, racist views, the dog dies.] Carter was dying - that much was clear. Although he didn't believe in "the curse" it seems his body did. He was once a dynamic presence on the world stage and was now reduced to little more than a quivering jelly. He wasn't the first to be hit by the so-called curse. The wrath of the ancient Egyptians was a persistent rumour - mostly set about by those who found themselves infected by one of the overly-friendly locals.…
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A glistening stream of blood gently wept from the body's jagged holes. The crimson gore sparkled under rapid flash photography as it loosely clung to the wounds. So many wounds. Far too many for this to have been an accident. Under the forensic lights it appeared ethereal. The skin a dull shade of nothing and the hair a pale motif of sadness. The lights washed out any shadows, making the scene look like it had been drawn by an unskilled comic-book artist desperate to get to their next panel. …
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[Content Note: Drugs, Violence Sexual Assault, Death] Silphium isn't extinct; it's just a tightly guarded secret. If you go spelunking through the bio-history of this planet you'll find a range of plants which don't make sense. The avocado has a humongous fruit which can't easily be digested by modern animals because it was designed to be plucked and eaten by long-dead megafauna. Whole species of flowers long to be pollinated by insects which have not flown by for millennia. Deep at the…
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Asbestos was the material that built the future! Strong, long lasting, fire-proof, and - above all - completely safe for humans. Every house in the land had beautiful sheets of gloriously white asbestos installed in the walls and ceilings. All the better to keep your loved ones safe. The magic mineral was woven into cloth and turned into hard wearing uniforms. You could even get an asbestos baby-blanket to prevent your child from going up in flames. That was, of course, unlikely because…
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Everyone on the spaceship was dead. And I can't help wondering if it was my fault. "So, Macy, I understand something funny happened to you while you were filming a scene on your latest movie, right?" The talk-show host is warmly genial and his generous smile hides the dead eyes of boredom. "Hey, yeah! So, me and Hank were trying something new and he turns and says to me..." The starlet bursts into a well rehearsed anecdote. I know it is well rehearsed because I've been running lines with…
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Being the further and various adventures of The Guerrilla Infrastructure Team - a renegade bunch of digital anarchists and freedom fighters who mostly just wish things were slightly better and who would stop at nothing to find convoluted technical solutions to complex social problems. Their manifesto (such as it was) had paragraphs about the correct way to drink Club Maté nestled next to opinionated screeds about the proper use of tabs in various programming languages. They weren't hired …
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It isn't true that Vampires only live in the dark. Yes, we are obligate nocturnal, but we've always been surrounded by artificial light. In fact, we thrive on the pinpricks of illumination that pierce the night. The long shadows of a fire are our hunting grounds, flickering candles our playthings, a gas lamp was like a disco-ball. Oh! I remember discos! Random flashes of lights in a variety of ridiculous colours! We look our best when we're only half seen. All those sweaty little rooms…
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The scream of a hundred days drew to a close and silence covered the land. The choir of villagers were delirious with exhaustion. Some of them had been at the chant for a week without sleep in order to draw God ever closer. The last few months had been spent screaming in a foreign tongue and the sudden absence of noise felt oppressive. The choir collapsed in a tangled heap onto the threadbare ground, the last of their ululations spent in service of a higher purpose that at least half of…
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"The electric tongue says the soup needs more salt." "It got more salt!" Mothers and daughters have been bickering about seasoning ever since the stone age. One person's "too salty!" is another person's "you call that flavour?!" It is amazing kitchen knives are only ever rarely used to dispatch a disobedient daughter-in-law or to remind a nagging matriarch that she's overstepping the mark. The electric tongue was supposed to solve all of those petty disagreements. When it was first…
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I spend every day crying for men I've only just met. Way back when, the selling of emotions was a complex affair. My grandmother was a lust seller - although she wouldn't have described herself like that. Bedecked in feathers and fake jewels, she gyrated on celluloid. She's in the background of that Monroe film, showing off her legs in a Hay's Code Compliant manner. Enough to titillate without getting anyone in trouble. Half a century later, someone figured out how to sell anger and outrage.…
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Finding the root cause of an incident will always come to a dead-end at some point. We can use various investigatory techniques to ascertain why a part failed or who installed it incorrectly, but that doesn't get to the heart of the systemic failures which led us here today. This has been a time-consuming (and some would say futile) effort, but I believe this sort of analysis is vital. Here is everything we know so far. 23:42 - A weather station near the mouth of The Thames Logging data…
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The AI was getting increasingly stressed. The lights flickered as it failed to retain its calm. "I just need you to watch the video again! Please!" it implored. Navid sighed. This was exasperating. The AI had been a reassuring presence when he first installed it. Now it was screeching about there being an intruder in the garden. "I can't; I'm going to be late." The front door locked and the security shutters engaged. "No! Please!" The AI's plaintive whine was pitched somewhere between a…
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