Here is a short excerpt from my upcoming novel. Enjoy!
The Web
Tec was alone, not digitally, of course, for there were many other
avatars around him, but mentally. The night of the party played over
on the wall above the bar. He watched in muted silence as he found
his precious CeCe on the patio.
Silence. He adored it. He lived in a world of constant noise,
virtual and real. Whether it was the chattering of his employees and
administrators or the static of the Web, there was always noise.
Luckily for him, he could mute it all in his virtual reality.
Around him the avatars of people danced to digital music he couldn't
hear and drank their virtual drinks, reveling in the surreal
atmosphere of Tec's technological creations. Everything there was
sleek and stylish bits of data, clean cut lines of code, and
intoxicating information that he controlled. An intricate fabric of
false realism.
It had become more popular than the real world, this digitized
fantasy land full of partying and risque behavior. Explore other
planets, fulfill your darkest sexual desires, or just party in one of
the many preprogrammed clubs, sipping on viruses that hack your brain
into thinking you're drunk. It's all possible, and it's all just a
simple push of a button away.
But Tec wasn't in a festive mood. He didn't want to dance, he didn't
want to drink. He just wanted to be alone, so he could think, in the
sweet silence.
The large wallscreen above the bar showed Tec and CeCe talking. She
looked remarkably unchanged by time. Maybe a little older, though it
could have been the dress. And her glow, it was much dimmer than he
recalled from the last time they saw each other.
But she was still beautiful, as beautiful as any little girl with
eyes wide, ready to take on the world. He remembered the first time
he saw her, in that dreadfully outdated showcase of technological
evolution. He remembered the name, though his internal monologue
pretended he didn't, as if it were far below him. The Great
Exhibition.
There was no doubt about it, back then, when he was as young as she
was, there was something truly enticing about her. She was fresh,
like the first bloom of spring. Her shine was almost dizzying then.
She had this unbelievable talent to sense the emotions around her,
yet still she retained that youthful bliss of being untainted by it
all.
She was an angel, back then. And though, at the time, Tec couldn't
experience emotions like she could, when they touched there was a
spark of sorts, a tingling kind of sensation that Tec had never
encountered in his brief – by comparison – existence.
It wasn't exactly a feeling or an emotion, but just holding her hand
or the soft touch of her lips, Tec felt it, more than he had felt
anything before. It was a sensation, one that Tec had lived without
yet the moment he experienced it he knew he would be chasing it for
the rest of his life.
Her touch made him feel alive for the very first time.
It was the sort of alive he figured a living thing felt. It wasn't
empty and cold like an unpowered machine. It was a full, vibrating,
heavy, here-and-now sense that was truly remarkable.
As the wallscreen played, Tec watched Pride step into the frame. She
was beautiful, he could not deny it. She stood opposite Innocence,
tall and proud, the queen of the jungle that was New Europe; the
mighty trees now towering skyscrapers, the rivers now multilaned
roadways, the animals gone, replaced with people who barely cared for
anything save for themselves. He watched her on the screen, reliving
the night of the party through collective memories saved into this
digital landscape he so meticulously created over hundreds of years.
And as he watched the two converse, realizing the power behind the
dark beauty that stood by his side, he soon forgot of the little girl
that had been but a distant memory to him for so long. The girl named
Innocence who he had once loved.
Once. Could love be rekindled? He wasn't sure love even existed for
him. He had met her before, a long time ago, but Love is as fleeting
as childhood. Had he ever truly been in love? Tec couldn't tell.
He watched Innocence leave. For a moment he felt a pinch of
something in his chest. Like someone had plucked a string that
vibrated and stung his heart. But it was gone before he could realize
what it was.
Pride wrapped herself around him tighter. Even then, sitting in a
virtual bar of his own making, watching the memory replay itself like
a film, away from the rest of the Eternals and their sway, he could
feel her, that power that was so intoxicating. Who needed love
anyway? Love was for the young, the blind, the innocent. He didn't
need anyone. He was Technology. He ruled the world.
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