Secondary Targets

The Transdimensional Anomaly was running all over the field; no problem at all for my automatic tracking machinery. Easy as pie, I thought, and then I spotted the civilian following the TA, some small girl without enough sense to run away from the talking animal-like entity.

I immediately requested an additional killcode for the girl, but by the time Ops sent it, both the TA and the girl had disappeared into a hole of unknown topological properties.

That made the kid no longer my responsibility; I only deal with the Things that get In. What gets Out is not my problem.

Which doesn't mean I didn't feel sorry for her. She had looked sane enough, but I knew that wouldn't last for long. Not in Wonderland.

.finis.

The machine that did nothing at all

It was complex enough to be thought of as an organism, smart enough to be said to have feelings, and designed so those feelings would always be of love.

It sold by the hundreds of millions.

.finis.

On the strength of faith

And so Abraham, tried until only his faith remained, killed the false angel sent by Satan, and then fulfilled the command of his Lord.

.finis.

Education

See? There's nothing under your bed, said Mother. The monsters are all in your head.

As if that made things less scary.

.finis.

The Ego, Squared

There are conceptual drugs, imaginary solutions in the algebra of need. They are packaged in whispers and very rarely sold, and the difference between a searching detective and an addict can be as thin as the semantics of a shade.

.finis.

Fermi's test

The H'zlaa steer asteroids toward every planet found by their probes. Species that don't survive weren't interesting enough in the first place.

.finis.

Post Praelium

We lost the Memetic War of 2023, but only because they had been right all along.

.finis.