Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zen_Pollo" data-source="post: 4587921" data-attributes="member: 11404">Chapter 1:  Carlito's StoryLondon calling, now don't look at usAll that phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dustThe Clash, London CallingSetting:  Late at night in a high-tech lab deep in the bowels of Evo’s Seattle Arcology.  The lights were turned out in the lab, but one workstation was still lit with a phosphorescent glow.  Seated at a lab table was a twenty-something lab worker.Carlito still wore the clothes his mother bought for him; the Filipino-Thai lab tech was clad in khakis, a blue button-down shirt, bow-tie and cardigan.  Of course, the garments were immaculately pressed – every crease ironed and every pleat in its place. Mommy had bought just the right clothes to ensure Carlito never got laid in high school.Life hasn’t changed much for Carlito since that time.    You never know when you will need to make a first impression, Carlito’s mother would say.  If you were more disciplined about your appearance, Carlito, we wouldn’t need these sessions, would we? Carlito rubbed the bridge of his nose as the errant thought passed through his mind.Carlito’s workspace had the same perfect arrangement as his clothing; Carlito’s virtual desktop had its icons arrangement in geometric patterns sorted by function and name.  Carlito sometimes spent hours arranging and rearranging its contents.But it wasn’t Carlito’s sublimely organized workspace that had kept him at his desk all night; it was the nano-factory schematic which he had been tinkering with for what seemed like an eternity.  Carlito had spent much of the day fidgeting, sorting and re-arranging the plans, but little actual work had been accomplished.  The Augmented Reality space depicted by his smartglasses showed the same virtual nano-schematic which had been floating there all day.Fortunately for Carlito, his boss didn’t mind.  In fact, Dr Samrartha tolerated a little eccentricity in his lab workers – the practice fostered more freedom in their R&D work.Ironically, Carlito didn’t need much freedom, for he was, quite literally, one of the smartest individuals on the planet.It was not that Carlito’s great genius was some historical accident, rather he had had parents whom went the extra mile to have him genetically enhanced during conception.  Better living through Eugenics! Carlito’s mother would say.Coupled with the latest transgenetic alteration processes after he matured to adulthood, a bleeding-edge encephalon implant lodged straight into the brain and the best cultured bioware money could buy, Carlito had a gift for science and mathematics that would have been unimaginable a generation ago.You were born perfect, Carlito, so quite whining and perform the integration. Yes mother.Carlito issued orders via his commlink for his nano-biomonitor to secrete some acetaminophen into his bloodstream.   An Augmented Reality Object (ARO) opened up detailing the state of Carlito’s physiology as the drug entered his blood stream.Of course, gifts of logic and reason were not the same as a true gift of genius.  Carlito’s IQ might have rivaled Einstein’s, but Carlito was still stuck in the basement of Evo Corp, taking orders from a lesser scientist -- a lesser man.Sure, Carlito had co-authorized a half-dozen papers and presented material at various bio\nano\genotech conferences, but Carlito had yet to really make a significant impact on the scientific world.Carlito worked with scientists from around the world – virtual lab spaces allowed for his colleagues half-way around the world to appear as though they were in the lab next door.Like Sadie, thought Carlito.  Sadie was one lab tech Carlito would not mind working more closely with at all.  Sadly, those feelings were not reciprocated about Carlito by many of his co-workers.But this factor was not the reason Carlito had had trouble with the nano-factory plans all day.Carlito had dwelled on an email he had received that morning which had taken a hold of his mind and distracted him from his tasks.Earlier, when Carlito had confronted Dr Samrartha about the email, the good doctor had attempted to deflect his concern.“Carlito, you know how the other labs have been coveting our workspace lately?”, asked Dr Samrartha.  Carlito had nodded his assent.“Well, they managed to convince the higher-ups that we should re-prioritize our project funding for this quarter.”“I knew it!  Those politicians wouldn’t know real science if it bit them in the … Wait a minute, what are you trying to say?”, exclaimed Carlito.“I am afraid you have been down-sized.”“What?!?”“Look, my boy, all is not lost, I worked out another assignment for you.  I have been informed this new project is being fast-tracked by the highest levels of the corporation.”But Carlito’s concern was not assuaged.  The rest of the day Carlito had been distracted; he felt little incentive to complete his nano-schematic when he knew that he was going to be fired any time now.For the rest of the day, whenever it was precisely 15 minutes past the hour, Carlito would pull up and then close the mysterious email three times in a row.  Only after the third time opening the email, would Carlito read the message and attempt to glean some additional insight into his new assignment.The United Way Golf Tournament?, thought Carlito, I don’t even play golf.The ice age is coming, the sun is zooming in Engines stop running and the wheat is growing thin A nuclear error, but I have no fear London is drowning-and I live by the river The Clash, London Calling</blockquote>

Verification