Image
The Social Belt, A.I. Generated

Words
Neal Ulen

When : Where
289 DE (2599 CE) : TerraFollowing the Transcendence Wars (2300-2310 CE), Terra became an inhospitable world compared to its pre-war state. Regardless, huamnity was forced to eek out an existence there with most survivors of ... More / TechspirePlaceholder Faction: Transcendentalists Exists in: Realspace More / The TangleThe term "Tangle" refers specifically to the mass of humanity on Terra that resides between the three mile tall Techspire and the Barrier which acts as the final dividing line between the Tangle and t... More

Note: This is an unfinished, unedited first draft excerpt from an upcoming Infinispace novel.

Most people have a sense of home when returning to haunts where they’ve grown up. Not HoratioSummary: Placeholder More. He loathed the TangleThe term "Tangle" refers specifically to the mass of humanity on Terra that resides between the three mile tall Techspire and the Barrier which acts as the final dividing line between the Tangle and t... More, but from time to time certain aspects of his undisclosed servitude required that he descend from the SpireSpires is a term for the more specific Techspire, Warspire, and Lorespire that are the three arms of the human Triocracy. In a broader sense a Spire is the center of power on a given planet and/or sys... More when he was on Earth and retrace its narrow and dangerous avenues. The last time he had felt any semblance of familiar while walking among other Citizens was when he was just a child. Now he was a young man, fifteen years removed from being uplifted out of this milieu of poverty. Being asked to drag his feet through the filth felt like a test to him … or a reminder. Perhaps that was the point. He never considered this place his home, merely a way station; only the first page to the short story of his life.

Tonight he was meeting OpheliaSummary: Placeholder More and HamletSummary: Placeholder More in the Green Plaza, and it required that he pass through the Social Belt. If Citizens couldn’t afford the prices to live incredible fantasies somewhere in Infinispace or a Dream TheaterA Continuum feature where Infinispace users are able to enter and share the minds of others during sleep cycles to generate fantastical dreams. The observer has no control over the content and is only... More, they resorted to the more mundane and traditional offerings here. Economical, but often unpredictably unsafe.  Unsafe wasn’t the proper term, more like unsavory or deadly.

He loathed the Tangle, but from time to time certain aspects of his undisclosed servitude required that he descend from the Spire.

It was rare, but Horatio was required to shadow Hamlet whenever his friend left the Spire … no exceptions. He touched the black serpent tattoo that snaked up his left arm and watched it writhe and squirm in anticipation. It could sense the loathing and trepidation in his mind directly through its symbiotic connection to his bio.nodeA bio.node is a technology that is integrated within a host's brain and consciousness that acts as a personal communication node to all open parts of the Continuum. The technology is not embedded via ... More.

A sly smile crossed his face as he knew he had his own shadow watching over him, just as he watched over Hamlet. These were the same streets he knew as a child, but he was no longer that same weak and lonely child.

.FIN.

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