Waiting: Difference between revisions

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“He said we were to wait. Anyway, the can dies in an hour.” Luxurious.

The lasers cycled. The miner felt tired. ''I wonder if my original body is still in some stasis unit, somewhere.'' The one that had grown in his mother’s womb, left arm a fraction of a millimeter longer than the right. Had he lost it? Or had he jumped out of it and left it that Wiyrkomi station in Lonetrek. What would his grandfather say if he knew he’d left the body his ancestors had loaned to him in a Caldari vat somewhere? ''I think gramps was uploaded before he passed'', he recalled. ''I should ask him. Or, to be more specific, his emulation''. He hadn’t even given it his best implants, not that he felt it hadn’t deserved them, but he’d had to make choices and optimize himself across his bodies.

The lasers cycled. The miner felt tired. ''I wonder if my original body is still in some stasis unit, somewhere.'' The one that had grown in his mother’s womb, left arm a fraction of a millimeter longer than the right. Had he lost it in battle? Or had he jumped out of it and left it in that Wiyrkomi station in Lonetrek. What would his grandfather say if he knew he’d left the body his ancestors had loaned to him in a Caldari vat somewhere? ''I think gramps was uploaded before he passed'', he recalled. ''I should ask him. Or, to be more specific, his emulation''. He hadn’t even given it his best implants, not that he felt it hadn’t deserved them, but he’d had to make choices and optimize himself across his bodies.

''Could I go back?'' They wouldn’t have destroyed his old brain yet; the Caldari didn’t hate him enough for that, did they? A few State cruisers in a slightly more entropic state than when he had found them; bygones, certainly. Maybe he could convince somebody at Wyirkomi to let him jump back without a memory transfer, with a little sticky on his cortex: Go farm seaweed on Pozirblant, kid. There’s nothing but life out here. Behind the dutiful façade and the silly sneers they always seemed to have on their faces like they came out of the vat wearing them, the Caldari salarymen could always be persuaded that what’s good for the corporation (and by extension, themselves) was good for the State. Meaning, they could be bribed. Accidents could be arranged. Coincidences. Make everything new again. Go back home and eat carrots from the garden. Cheat time once more, but this time from the other side of the trade. But it had been too long already. How long had it been? Nothing to be done.

@@ Line 79: / Line 79: @@
 “He said we were to wait.  Anyway, the can dies in an hour.”  Luxurious.
-The lasers cycled.  The miner felt tired.  ''I wonder if my original body is still in some stasis unit, somewhere.''  The one that had grown in his mother’s womb, left arm a fraction of a millimeter longer than the right.  Had he lost it?  Or had he jumped out of it and left it that Wiyrkomi station in Lonetrek.  What would his grandfather say if he knew he’d left the body his ancestors had loaned to him in a Caldari vat somewhere?  ''I think gramps was uploaded before he passed'', he recalled.  ''I should ask him.  Or, to be more specific, his emulation''.  He hadn’t even given it his best implants, not that he felt it hadn’t deserved them, but he’d had to make choices and optimize himself across his bodies.
+The lasers cycled.  The miner felt tired.  ''I wonder if my original body is still in some stasis unit, somewhere.''  The one that had grown in his mother’s womb, left arm a fraction of a millimeter longer than the right.  Had he lost it in battle?  Or had he jumped out of it and left it in that Wiyrkomi station in Lonetrek.  What would his grandfather say if he knew he’d left the body his ancestors had loaned to him in a Caldari vat somewhere?  ''I think gramps was uploaded before he passed'', he recalled.  ''I should ask him.  Or, to be more specific, his emulation''.  He hadn’t even given it his best implants, not that he felt it hadn’t deserved them, but he’d had to make choices and optimize himself across his bodies.
 ''Could I go back?''  They wouldn’t have destroyed his old brain yet; the Caldari didn’t hate him enough for that, did they?  A few State cruisers in a slightly more entropic state than when he had found them; bygones, certainly.  Maybe he could convince somebody at Wyirkomi to let him jump back without a memory transfer, with a little sticky on his cortex: Go farm seaweed on Pozirblant, kid.  There’s nothing but life out here.  Behind the dutiful façade and the silly sneers they always seemed to have on their faces like they came out of the vat wearing them, the Caldari salarymen could always be persuaded that what’s good for the corporation (and by extension, themselves)  was good for the State.  Meaning, they could be bribed.  Accidents could be arranged.  Coincidences.  Make everything new again.  Go back home and eat carrots from the garden.  Cheat time once more, but this time from the other side of the trade.  But it had been too long already.  How long had it been?  Nothing to be done.