“I kinda understand... I think. But what’s this ‘evolution’ you were talking about?” Teddy asked. She was an active talker and spoke with her hands in great, wide gestures, but out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a problem. Then she looked down and noticed an even bigger problem... or two of them, to be exact.She was naked!She turned bright red all the way from her hairline to her nipples and stammered, “Uhh... ummm... uhh... can—can I get some clothes please?” She felt a bit embarrassed. She tried to keep herself in shape, but between being a full-time student and working a part-time job on campus and another one off campus to help pay her tuition, she often found herself skipping gym sessions. Thus, she wasn’t in the best shape, but an objective observer wouldn’t think she was a sloth, exactly.That said, the evolution she had just undergone had definitely improved her shape; she just didn’t notice it since it was hidden from her perspective. All she could see when she looke
{I understand it’s difficult, just try your best,} Aceso said, scribbling something on her notepad as she calmly watched Teddy laying on the couch. The silence stretched on for a while, then Aceso suggested, {Why not start from what’s easy to remember and go from there?}Teddy nodded, then closed her eyes and started working backward from the moment she regained consciousness. “Well, there was the pain. I think I heard somewhere that you’re supposed to forget pain after it’s gone, aren’t you?”Aceso nodded. {That’s generally the case, yes.}“Right, well... I remember it....” Teddy continued working back toward the lump of “new stuff” that had been embedded in her brain. “I think I can maybe show you? Can I try that?” she asked.{Go ahead. Nothing in here can be damaged.} Aceso smiled encouragingly at the young woman.Teddy raised her arm and pointed her palm at the ceiling. “Now all I have to do is, uhh... think cold. Like, cold thoughts, not the word cold. Oh ow ow ow!” she yelped a
“No matter how many times I see it, I still can’t get used to this. Aron is an absolute miracle worker, there shouldn’t be a doubt in anyone’s mind of that,” Felix, the head of Hephaestus Heavy Industries, said as he watched the growing space elevator. Just the millions of GEMbots and constructor swarm queens on the surface was something he had a hard time wrapping his head around, let alone the unfathomable number that had to be working to hollow out such an enormous asteroid. And all of that with no human direction at all!Not to mention that he was standing on the bridge of an honest-to-goodness spaceship, watching the construction progress in actual space, as he wanted to see the process with his own eyes. Sure, he could have watched it in the simulation, but there was just something... different, something... more, about watching it with his own two eyes in reality.“But why’d you have to drag me out here with you?” Sarah complained in a joking tone. She was actually enjoying the
Three days later.Aron, having taken as much time as he could to whisk his family around the globe on a world tour, had finally returned to work.{The total number of awakeners in the world is estimated to be 237,058,766. Of those, 225 million are imperial citizens, of which 130 million have awakened to elemental mana and are in training, 70 million awakened to derived mana and are in training, and the remainder are still undergoing their evolutions. We currently have no way of identifying affinities before they wake up, so we don’t know how many of them will fall into which category,} Gaia reported.{Also, during this period, another 8 million potential awakeners were registered by their parents, due to the care they want their children to receive in our medical pods. There are 11.5 million adults who registered along with them. That leaves an estimated 4,000,612 non-citizens currently undergoing the awakening process. However, due to inadequate care, the actual number of unaffiliate
“Al-Ra’ees Al-Khalidi, we can’t keep using the economic crunch as an excuse for downsizing or the company will face major delays in important projects,” Youssef Al-Mutairi said. He was a tall, distinguished looking middle-aged man with a neatly trimmed salt-and-pepper beard, dressed in a white thobe and red-checkered ghutra.(Ed note: Al-Ra’ees roughly translates to “president”, Al-Khalidi is a Saudi Arabian surname, and the thobe and ghutra are traditional Saudi apparel. It’s the ankle-length white robe [thobe] and the headscarf [ghutra] that you see them wear on television or in movies. Ghutras are secured to people’s heads by a black cord called an agal.)“How old will you be this year?” Suleiman Al-Khalidi asked. It was a weird deflection of the issue Youssef had raised.Suleiman was a trust fund baby that got parachuted into a leadership position far too young. He was the very definition of the phrase “hire them while they’re young enough to believe they know everything” and felt
Youssef froze for a moment in shock. “Can I contact my wife first?” he asked.Huzeyfa shook his head. “You can talk to her on the way to our destination. But we have a schedule to keep, so please exit your vehicle and board the shuttle,” he repeated.Youssef, still lost in disbelief, could only get out of his car and follow the guard to the waiting shuttle. To him, it seemed that the gullwing door and ramp were a toothless maw, waiting to swallow him into the blackness within the shuttle. Of course, that was just his thoughts; the only reason the interior of the shuttle seemed dark was because it was one o’ clock in the afternoon in Saudi Arabia and the contrast between the dim interior of the shuttle and the bright, sunny day outside made it appear darker. Perception was a funny thing like that. Every human being had an innate fear of the unknown that was baked into their DNA and reinforced with subconscious selection in every generation. Despite modern times being safe and humanity
“Have a seat, gentlemen,” Aron said. “I realize you’ve been brought here in a hurry, so allow me to explain. The empire needs talents, and the two of you were identified as the talents we require. Jeremy, out of the billions of imperial citizens, you were selected as the Minister of the Interior, and Youssef, you were chosen to fill the office of the Minister of the Exterior.“The two of you, along with about fifteen million others, will be notified of their selection to fill roles as imperial workers today. Everyone from ministers,” Aron nodded at the two men sitting across the desktop from him, “to janitorial staff will be receiving their notifications starting an hour from now. The two of you got yours early because yours are the most important positions we needed to fill, should you choose to accept the job I’m offering you.”The emperor paused to allow the potential ministers in front of him to digest the information. He waited in silence for the two of them to speak; he wanted h
VR Imperial Palace, emperor’s council chamber.After settling Youssef, Jeremy, and their families in their new quarters in the Cube and getting their initial round of genetic enhancements underway, Aron brought the two new ministers to a meeting in his council chamber.The newcomers looked around, seeing a well-furnished, round room. Since they had entered from the imperial wing of the palace, where they would soon be taking up their own offices, they had entered on the side of the room behind the council’s bench. It was a U-shaped table made of mahogany, with understated oak paneling on the front of it facing the middle of the room. There were seven seats at the bench—three to the left, one in the middle, and three to the right. The one in the middle was obviously the emperor’s working throne, a comfortable, yet imposing wingback chair upholstered in royal purple velvet with gold accents and gilded legs. The chairs to the left and right were less ostentatious, yet equally inviting.T