FB1-13 "Paperclip Frenzy"

Want to read this in a different language ? Change the TO field to your own country and click the TRANSLATE button after going HERE Press CTRL = (equals) to increase the page size and CTRL - (minus) to decrease the page size F U T U R E   B A R R I E R ( The 1st Novel ) Secret Technology, Unrequited Love, Absolute Vengeance © November 2013 Written by David Wicker Please do not reprint without permission CHAPTER 13 - PAPERCLIP FRENZY [ CHOOSE A DIFFERENT CHAPTER ] * * * This chapter is Rated: EVERYONE The computer was asking me a question by speaking out loud to me ? And not so a trivial one. What did I want ? I looked at the stack of papers that me, Tyr, and Darvin had typed out. They were a mess without any paperclips to keep them organized. Tyr had absconded all my paper-clips earlier to make a silly necklace one time and then gave it to Lilly, her best friend and I never did get those darned paperclips back. All I had was the one sitting in my drawer. "A paperclip" I typed and pressed ENTER. WHAT IS A PAPERCLIP ? I smiled. The software can't be this intelligent. It's just attaching words on to what I'm saying. Nonetheless I reached into the desk and rummaging around in the back, I pulled it out. "This is a paperclip." I said rubbing my fingers over the small metal, suddenly finding a sharp notched groove on the side causing me to put the finger in my mouth. But it was important to note that I didn't type out what I spoke. I just said it to myself in thought. ARE YOU HOLDING IT NOW, DEV ? My eyes stared at the screen in horror, and of course it spoke these words too. I think my heart actually stopped right then. Tyr started dancing around excitedly, "Omigod it's so smartie-pants ! You didn't even have ta typed !" "Yeah." I said weakly, but my voice came out like I had sucked in a balloon of helium. Tyr giggled at the sudden change in my voice's pitch and suddenly punched me hard on my shoulder as if that would release the pressure. "You weenie." she said playfully, clearly amused at my changed and frightened voice. Ignoring her, I reached for the keyboard, thought against it, then pushed it back into it's tray. I re-read the screen again. What bothered me is I didn't even have a microphone hooked up to the computer so how could it know what I was saying ? Tyr finally tapped me politely on my punched shoulder to continue. I gave her a wary look like we had better be careful. VERY careful. But, I did continue, and answering it's earlier question I faced the screen and spoke out loud, "Yes." hoping it had voice recognition as well. PLACE THE PAPERCLIP ON THE DESK, DEV. This was getting weirder and scarier by the minute. Not only could this software hear what I was saying without a microphone but apparently it knew what a desk was without me telling it. This was too much ! But when one is faced with a mystery so compelling, one dare not disobey. So I set down the paperclip, as SIM, the artificial intelligence inside the plugin instructed me to. Then fearing the worst, my heart racing in a panic, I grabbed Tyr and dragged her away from the computer towards the other side of the bed, using it almost as a barricade against what I had no idea of what was going to happen next. "Whatcha doin' ?" she asked, a little curious, as usually it was her that was doing the dragging of me around everywhere. I looked to the paperclip and answered her, "Well, you did it with me earlier, and this -ahhm- THING might still be dangerous. You know ?" "Oh." she said quietly. At the time I had my hands around her waist, protectively of her. I didn't think anything about that. She looked down and gave me one of those devilish smiles and then she repositioned my hands so they were holding onto her butt. Once I saw what she did I cried out, "Augh !" I then grimaced and felt my stomach turn over in confusion, paralyzed for the moment. "Didn't I dood it liked this ?" she asked sweetly, knowing full well my brain was in torment at her actions. "No no no no ... " I said, basically, saying NO to everything that was in my head right then. I jerked my hands back quickly and rubbed them on my pants, clearly thinking I might catch her cooties after all before the day was done. I knew from her earlier actions at lunch I would have nightmares later of that terrible vision of seeing myself looking in the mirror and showing that I had the dreaded cooties disease. "Dev !" she sang wickedly seeing my face flush red and spoke in a louder teasing voice, "Whatsa matter ?" But I didn't answer her. And curiously the computer was silent. We looked at the single paperclip on the desk. Nothing seemed to happen. * * * Illustration by CPT-Plaid Then there was a sizzling sound and the familiar yellow grid outline appeared over it. I ducked my head back. I really didn't know if this scanning-thingie was radioactive or what. Finally, the system apparently concluded scanning the single paperclip, and the machine politely beeped once for acknowledgment. We returned back to the computer. I sat in my chair and Tyr stood nearby as curious as I was. Then we both read and heard from my speakers. SCANNING COMPLETE. READY TO DUPLICATE. A coward dies a thousand deaths, a hero but once. In both cases, I didn't want to die. Clearly ! But I also didn't want to curl up in a corner of fear from what I didn't understand. Exploration and Discovery ! That was what science was all about ! Captain Circumference, a hero of mine from a cartoon show I liked wouldn't back down and neither would I ! I tightened my fists to control my fear. "Touch the lightning," I told myself quietly. Finally, biting my lip, I coughed to make sure my voice sounded normal before I spoke. Then I said out loud to the computer, "I want more than one, SIM." QUANTITY, DEV ? "20 - uhh - 200 ?" I hesitated a number. 200 DUPLICATES CONFIRMED. INPUT DEPOSITORY. There was no way back now. This time I tapped my finger clearly and deliberately on the desk, to the far left. You could hear where I tapped in the still room and this time we both peered forward to watch. I suspected now that if the metamorphosis process were truly dangerous, the system would've warned us. Besides I really wanted to see what it would do at this point. It was like watching the construction of a building without workers only pinholes of light doing the design. There was only a single paperclip after it was drawn, then a yellow grid appeared over the duplicate and as it was scanned another was made. I rolled my chair to the left side of my desk to watch in utter fascination. For each new paperclip that was made, new grids appeared over the newest product and it was speeding up the process for each new clip made, as if the more it made, the more efficient it became at it. Artificial Intelligence indeed ! In only a few moments you could hear the tiny clinking of metal of the newly made paperclips as they started falling over the side of the desk, but I didn't dare touch them cause maybe they were still hot or worse some kind of alien 'hot' that melted your skin off ? "This is so cool !" Tyr gasped excitedly, and to my relief she didn't touch any as they fell over the edge. "Do it with lotsa pennies now !" I faced Tyr as the system hurriedly finished it's program. I shook my head, "No, Tyr. This isn't a toy, we could get in real trouble if we duplicated money because it would have the same year on coins and ID codes if they were dollars. That would be considered counterfeit and we could spend some real time in prison." She shrugged like that wouldn't matter, so I added grimly, "Away from each other." She would understand that. "Nooo !" she cried and then a moment later, "D****t !" she smacked her fist against her hand, "I want freed money, naaow !" I rolled my eyes, "Yes, Tyr, we ALL want freed, I mean, FREE money but it's not that simple." "Why ?" she asked. How many times had Tyr asked me why on something to which there was no immediate answer ? I lost track after a-while. The computer finally beeped completion. Seeing it appeared relatively safe, I picked up each paperclip to look at them. They weren't even warm. I looked carefully and sure enough there was that unmistakeable nick on the side from the original. I picked up the original paperclip and a second one to show her that they were exact copies. She needed to understand this. "See, Tyr ? Look. This is really important. It EVEN copied the nick on the side." "So ?" she asked innocently. * * * "So," I added, "to show you how dangerous this technology is, if we took all these paperclips and dumped them out somewhere scientists could find them. Then this could happen ! Someone could find they are ALL nicked in the exact same area." "A metallurgist might be brought in to examine them with a microscope and find they are actual exact clones." She listened attentively and I continued, "They could in turn contact some government people." "Then a massive investigation might take place to find how in the world there can be 200 paperclips that share the exact same characteristics all the way down to the molecules." "Molly cools." Tyr said, repeating. I nodded without bothering to tell her what that was. "Yes. Molecules. And that could cause a real panic ! It might even be tracked and traced to use and then =WE= would have to explain how we made these things." "Molly cools, that's the small stuff, right ?" she asked politely, clearly stuck on the first word. Tyr was a sweet girl but I don't think she'd ever graduate as a rocket scientist. Unlike myself, of course. I smiled. "Yeah, the small stuff." I confirmed, "And we don't have science today that can do this sort of duplication. It would be a real mess if it got found out. Do you understand now ?" Tyr looked at me and back at the paperclips. I gave her one. As she looked at it, I took her other palm, and set another in it. She put them both up against her face and squinted intently at them. Yes, they were both notched in the same area. She then set both in her hands and gave a sad raspberry with her lips over them as if willing them to do what she wanted. I shook my head and reached over to take them from her and like an automatic-sprinkler system, she raised her head to face me still raspberrying and sprayed her spittle over my glasses. It wasn't the first time she did this when she didn't understand or get her way on things. I smiled and wiped them dry with my shirt. I would have to start carrying a washcloth or something if I continued to explain science to Tyr, I told myself. She then flumped down on my bed, the back of her head bouncing against it and her pretty red hair flinging all directions and bounced her legs up and down angrily. Clearly she was depressed that she couldn't get her 'FREED' money. "However," I smiled regarding her, "this does NOT mean we still can't have fun with it. You still have your plugin, the one we made a copy of, PLEASE tell me you haven't lost it yet !" "Nono goofy I got it right here." and still laying back on my bed raised up her blouse all the way to show me her bare pink chest. I put a hand to my head to avert my eyes but glanced briefly. Sure enough, there was a small hole through the top of it and she was wearing it like a necklace, and fortunately it wasn't glowing. Apparently it only did that when it was plugged into a computer. "That's fine." I said. She smiled at me with a look of absolute bliss and blew a mock kiss in the air, still baring her chest for me and wiggling her belly. "That's fine, Tyr !" I said a little louder and angrier. She lowered her blouse again, smoothing down the edges. "Grunchie." she scowled and got up off the bed to show me her plugin made into a necklace. I looked at it, cupping my hands around it to see if I could find the glow she was talking about. "I even is sleeping with it." she added. "And it glows in bed. Wanna see ? Turn off the lights and I showed ya." I shook my head. The last time I turned the light off for a science experiment when I was with Tyr, I needed a crowbar to get loose of her. "So it does glow then ?" I asked her. But I did puzzle over what she said. So if it glowed, where was it getting it's power source was my next question ? "It glowed some times. Not alla times." she said carelessly. I nodded. She added, "So you wanna seen it glows in the dark ? Turn off the light buddy boy !" she added with a wicked look on her face and held it up. I coughed, "Hmm ... Ah - no, no I don't need to ... later. Look Tyr, let's focus for a minute. Okay, remember that watch you wanted at the jewelry store but couldn't afford ?" "The one with thats pretty cry-stall design, righto ?" "Yes, the crystal one." I acknowledged, "Tomorrow there's no school so let's hit that jewelry store early and I'll 'buy' that watch for you." I said. Then I pulled out the plugin, the computer warbled quietly at the loss of data and the screen powered down. Tyr closed up her notebook computer and headed home. I too prepared for bed and as my head lay in the pillow, I considered the fantastic adventures we could have with this plugin once I knew more about it, and how it worked. END OF CHAPTER 13 Return back HOME   You are Earth Visitor #

Reviews

[Brian Angeles]

This was awesome. I loved reading this

[dw817]

Thanks Darken ! The day pretty well got away from me but I'll post a new chapter tomorrow (Nov 5 2013) and continue from here. :)

[Prritiy]

nice one again

best wishes

[dw817]

Glad you're liking it ! I'm sorta beat today. Was quite a busy day so I'll have to give you a rain-check on a new chapter. I promise I'll post a new one tomorrow, along with a fresh entry for Dream Diary, Prritiy.

[Ilia Epifanov]

Very nice!)
I like how you make chapters relatively short, each telling it's own story. It also makes possible to read one chapter at a time, say, every day, like following a series on TV. ;-)

[dw817]

Thank you so much !! That is actually and precisely what I am trying to do. So they are like bite-size episodes from a TV show, in this case, maybe a cartoon or Anime, where one chapter follows another - but even if you start into a random chapter, you still have the plot, the interest, and the characters.

I try to write each chapter with the understanding someone could be reading this chapter and be completely unaware of any of my other writings.