Hammerport

January 29, 2006

Crutch (1 of 7)

Thread: His Silicon Hands

“Why do the men outside have guns?” she asked Yvonne. They were always quite friendly, smiling at her in the car when she and her father passed through the gate; one of them gave her chocolate once, but as she was not here that often she had not seen him a second time.

Yvonne replied tactfully, “Because your father needs to be left alone while he does his work.”

“Why? What is Daddy making? Will they really shoot people? Who wants to speak to him?” Alison asked all at once.

“Other people who want his help,” Yvonne decided to answer. She swung around on her workstation chair and called out, “Dr. Cohen, are you ready? Your daughter is getting restless.”

“From my experience, I’m afraid that’s really quite dangerous,” a voice shouted back. “You’ll have to tie her up.”

“But I don’t want to be tied up!” Alison protested.

“Then keep quiet and keep still, young missy,” Yvonne chided.

As with Alison’s previous visits, the lab was a hubbub of activity, everyone busy on a handpad, looking like they were doing something important. Not a single person in the so-called “lab” wore a white coat, much to Alison’s consternation. Some of them did not even wear glasses, but she was able to put that down to contact lenses.

Alison’s father came over and said to Yvonne in an official tone, “Good to go.” Yvonne grinned in response, rather too much Alison thought, but her father glanced away sharply, turning his focus to his daughter with a wide smile.

“Well, Alison, we’re ready for your contribution today. You’re going to be our new recruit. How does it feel to be a scientist?” he asked Alison.

“What can I do?” she asked with glee. She watched her father write down on a notepad beside the computer, “Configuration 16-1-12-13. Sunday, April 14, 2013. 14:03. Press Return.

“Go ahead,” he prompted, “press the Return key and the experiment will begin!”

Alison reached over from the desk chair to the keyboard with an excited finger seeking its target. She depressed the Return key.

Posted by: The Harbour Master @ 1718

January 22, 2006

Autophagy

Thread: Uncategorized

His followers had demanded his intervention. Darkness was rampant; the dispossessed roamed the streets seeking to vent their pain; a vast spider’s web of disinformation, spanning the globe, had ensnared thought itself. Even the project of faith had failed, culminating in an incomprehensible self-cannibalism of belief, where lives became currency used to purchase access to the empyrean.

And finally the anger overpowered the king of kings; he acted.

He aligned himself with a battered third world nation that had seen its share of misery and torment. He spoke through its citizens with words of violent disappointment to the gangster nations. Their poisoning of the earthly well would be endured no longer. With their foul propaganda and corrupt strategies they had attempted to put an end to free will, but his new people would stand against the advance of the war machines and the exploitative industries that followed in their wake.

Empowered by the divine light, his people killed the dark men in their thrones and tore down their false temples. When they were done, the name of the king was carved into the sky.

It was only then that the king realised the consequences of his single action, a gut-wrenching moment of clarity slicing through the rage that had possessed him.

The see had sawed and faith began to feast feverishly upon on its own flesh once again. Those who held the sharpest tongues and the sharpest swords embarked on bloody culls for their own definitions of religious purity. The king, having conferred his powers to a people now gone mad, was powerless to stop this tragic play from reaching its closing scene.

Not even his tears could rescue the world as it dissolved in a scalding nuclear bath, screaming his name in suicidal ecstasy.

Posted by: The Harbour Master @ 0126

January 16, 2006

Reductio Ad Absurdum (2 of 2)

Thread: Equation

Earl furrowed his brow, merging the beads of sweat which had been forming there, and took another swig of his now-tepid beer. Conversing with himself out loud he muttered, “Sweet A, that can’t be right, now. I have to believe in evolution for that to make some goddarned sense.”

“Bingo,” smirked God.

Posted by: The Harbour Master @ 2222

January 11, 2006

Reductio Ad Absurdum (1 of 2)

Thread: Equation

“And there’s proof of that?” pressed Earl.

God insisted, tapping the table rather forcefully, “The history of the planet Earth itself is proof that you only need a finite amount of monkeys and a finite amount of time to come up with the complete works of William Shakespeare.”

Posted by: The Harbour Master @ 0134

January 7, 2006

Family Planning

Thread: Uncategorized

He had watched them with the intensity that parental love demands. From their humble beginnings as blind single-celled organisms to structured societies with a mastery of the physical laws of the multiverse. Expectant faces gazing at the stars, they were ready to go beyond their planetary playroom and explore the dark void that He had built for them to explore and expand into.

He stepped back, mindful that His beautiful children would need a little room to seed the void, and His elbow knocked against something solid, hard.

Turning around majestically, He saw that He had nudged a hitherto unnoticed small blue planet into the fatal embrace of its bright yellow sun.

And God said, “What the fuck was that?”

Posted by: The Harbour Master @ 0139