Chris: Spud, I've got an idea...
I wrenched control of my fingers back from Rhea -- a sensation not unlike one hand fighting the other in a thumb war -- and bashed out a quick response.
Brian: You know I hate it when you say things like that... Ok, I'm ready, hit me. *braces for impact*
Chris: Where are you?
Brian: My house?
Chris: Coordinates, smartarse
I blinked at the screen, Uni peering over my shoulder. I turned to meet her eyes; we shared a glance and shrugged at each other.
Brian: one sec, googling
I punched in "lat long address" and picked the first search result -- a standard tactic of mine and one which I'd had good luck with in the past.
Sure enough, it was a mapping utility to convert an address to a set of coordinates. My address got me a set of numbers stretching out to six decimals; I
hurriedly typed them in and sent them to MD.
Brian: ok, now what/
?
Chris: see you in a few seconds!
"He's lost it," I said, staring at the screen.
Uni shrugged. We waited.
And waited.
Brian: you still there?
No response.
"You think he's okay?" Uni asked, her tone worried. I shrugged by way of answer and resumed drumming my fingers on the workbench -- Rhea using
my other hand to pet Mr. Whiskers.
The phone rang. I raised an eyebrow at the caller ID -- Unavailable -- and picked it up. "Hello?"
"GET ME OUT OF HERE, MR. WIZARD!"
I winced and held the handset away from my ear. The accent was unmistakable; I'd heard it often enough in voice chat. And, let's face it: I
didn't know any other Australians. At least, none that had my phone number.
"MD?" I replied incredulously. "Where are you?"
"IN A BLOODY RIVER!" was his -- her? It was Tam, apparently -- reply. Somewhat more calmly, she continued (over the sound of roaring water),
"And not to put too much of a rush on you, Spud, but I see what looks like a dam up ahead. With power lines on it. Get the idea?"
Uni nudged past me to the other laptop, the one she'd ... boosted, for lack of a better word, earlier. "Tracing the call," she said to me, her
fingers resting lightly on the keys as her body shifted again in that creepy, disconcerting fashion, becoming Quicksilver Nano -- fortunately without the
eye-searing auras that made her look like a walking light-bulb in the game. I noted and very carefully didn't notice that she wasn't typing; the
laptop was just... doing things.
"Just hang on, man," I said into the phone. A thought struck me. "You have a waterproof cell phone? Awesome!"
"SPUD!"
"Sorry, sorry," I replied, my brain racing.
"Got her," Uni -- er, Silver -- said, spinning her laptop to face me. A blinking dot in the middle of the Spokane River, just upstream of the
hydroelectric plant. Even as I watched, part of the screen expanded to show a real-time image as Silver worked her magic. There in the digitally-enhanced
frame, barely visible in the reflected light from the dam, a panicked-looking bedraggled... PPD officer? wallowed in the current.
I groaned. "That's, what, two, three miles from here? We'll never make it in time!"
"Mr. Whiskers can grab her," Rhea said, shrugging our shoulders. "But he says he can't channel it through you." She blinked and our
lips quirked in a grin. "Well, actually, what he said was you can't handle the power involved, but I was trying to be polite."
"Gee, thanks," I said. "So we're screwed, you're saying."
Both the women in the room crossed their arms and glared at me -- Silver physically, Rhea mentally.
"What?" I replied.
"I'm not going to let Tam die because you're afraid!" Rhea snapped, bringing us to our feet. The handset clattered to the bench, a
plaintive, "Spud? Now would be a good time..." coming tinnily out of the speaker.
"Now, wait just a goddamned minute here--" I began -- then the pain hit.
You know that scene in The Matrix, the first time they jam the spike into Neo's brain? That look on his face as his body arches and writhes, where you
can't tell if he's in agony or if it's the best orgasm of his life or both at once? Yeah. That.
When I was myself again, I was no longer myself. Rhea giggled and twirled on the balls of one foot. "That feels SO much better!" she cried.
"WHAT THE HELL, MAN!" I bellowed.
"Oh, shush," she replied. "I have to concentrate." So saying, Rhea bent over the laptop as Silver edged out of the way, her blank,
glowing eyes revealing nothing of her thoughts. I could see a half-reflection in the screen of Rhea's face -- not mine.
Her eyes were brown.
"Let's do it, Whiskers!" Rhea cried, and I felt a strange surge as something happened.
With a pop and a bright flash, Tam appeared in midair and fell to the concrete floor with a wet thud.
Rhea followed, with me along for the ride. As the floor approached, I had time to giggle insanely to myself and remark in the no-longer-private reaches of my
own head, "We're out o' pow'r, cap'n! She cannae take nae more!"
Thud.
--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs
I wrenched control of my fingers back from Rhea -- a sensation not unlike one hand fighting the other in a thumb war -- and bashed out a quick response.
Brian: You know I hate it when you say things like that... Ok, I'm ready, hit me. *braces for impact*
Chris: Where are you?
Brian: My house?
Chris: Coordinates, smartarse
I blinked at the screen, Uni peering over my shoulder. I turned to meet her eyes; we shared a glance and shrugged at each other.
Brian: one sec, googling
I punched in "lat long address" and picked the first search result -- a standard tactic of mine and one which I'd had good luck with in the past.
Sure enough, it was a mapping utility to convert an address to a set of coordinates. My address got me a set of numbers stretching out to six decimals; I
hurriedly typed them in and sent them to MD.
Brian: ok, now what/
?
Chris: see you in a few seconds!
"He's lost it," I said, staring at the screen.
Uni shrugged. We waited.
And waited.
Brian: you still there?
No response.
"You think he's okay?" Uni asked, her tone worried. I shrugged by way of answer and resumed drumming my fingers on the workbench -- Rhea using
my other hand to pet Mr. Whiskers.
The phone rang. I raised an eyebrow at the caller ID -- Unavailable -- and picked it up. "Hello?"
"GET ME OUT OF HERE, MR. WIZARD!"
I winced and held the handset away from my ear. The accent was unmistakable; I'd heard it often enough in voice chat. And, let's face it: I
didn't know any other Australians. At least, none that had my phone number.
"MD?" I replied incredulously. "Where are you?"
"IN A BLOODY RIVER!" was his -- her? It was Tam, apparently -- reply. Somewhat more calmly, she continued (over the sound of roaring water),
"And not to put too much of a rush on you, Spud, but I see what looks like a dam up ahead. With power lines on it. Get the idea?"
Uni nudged past me to the other laptop, the one she'd ... boosted, for lack of a better word, earlier. "Tracing the call," she said to me, her
fingers resting lightly on the keys as her body shifted again in that creepy, disconcerting fashion, becoming Quicksilver Nano -- fortunately without the
eye-searing auras that made her look like a walking light-bulb in the game. I noted and very carefully didn't notice that she wasn't typing; the
laptop was just... doing things.
"Just hang on, man," I said into the phone. A thought struck me. "You have a waterproof cell phone? Awesome!"
"SPUD!"
"Sorry, sorry," I replied, my brain racing.
"Got her," Uni -- er, Silver -- said, spinning her laptop to face me. A blinking dot in the middle of the Spokane River, just upstream of the
hydroelectric plant. Even as I watched, part of the screen expanded to show a real-time image as Silver worked her magic. There in the digitally-enhanced
frame, barely visible in the reflected light from the dam, a panicked-looking bedraggled... PPD officer? wallowed in the current.
I groaned. "That's, what, two, three miles from here? We'll never make it in time!"
"Mr. Whiskers can grab her," Rhea said, shrugging our shoulders. "But he says he can't channel it through you." She blinked and our
lips quirked in a grin. "Well, actually, what he said was you can't handle the power involved, but I was trying to be polite."
"Gee, thanks," I said. "So we're screwed, you're saying."
Both the women in the room crossed their arms and glared at me -- Silver physically, Rhea mentally.
"What?" I replied.
"I'm not going to let Tam die because you're afraid!" Rhea snapped, bringing us to our feet. The handset clattered to the bench, a
plaintive, "Spud? Now would be a good time..." coming tinnily out of the speaker.
"Now, wait just a goddamned minute here--" I began -- then the pain hit.
You know that scene in The Matrix, the first time they jam the spike into Neo's brain? That look on his face as his body arches and writhes, where you
can't tell if he's in agony or if it's the best orgasm of his life or both at once? Yeah. That.
When I was myself again, I was no longer myself. Rhea giggled and twirled on the balls of one foot. "That feels SO much better!" she cried.
"WHAT THE HELL, MAN!" I bellowed.
"Oh, shush," she replied. "I have to concentrate." So saying, Rhea bent over the laptop as Silver edged out of the way, her blank,
glowing eyes revealing nothing of her thoughts. I could see a half-reflection in the screen of Rhea's face -- not mine.
Her eyes were brown.
"Let's do it, Whiskers!" Rhea cried, and I felt a strange surge as something happened.
With a pop and a bright flash, Tam appeared in midair and fell to the concrete floor with a wet thud.
Rhea followed, with me along for the ride. As the floor approached, I had time to giggle insanely to myself and remark in the no-longer-private reaches of my
own head, "We're out o' pow'r, cap'n! She cannae take nae more!"
Thud.
--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs