Kyle couldn't believe it..
there were people- real people living inside his computer! His palms sweated as he realised the enormity of just what he nearly did...
@bots: Are you all okay?
The text a few points above still had the delete Dennis command.. Dear God! He could have killed them... yet at the same time, the full enormity of digital life, excited him. What must it be like to drift from server to server? To live in worlds that they could create from scratch! It must be just like being in the best computer game in the world!
@admin: Yes. We would feel better if you could remove those firewalls now...
Oh Jeez! He quickly typed a few commands releasing the locks on the firewall. He was a nerd with an awful lot of online friends... more so then in the real world. He thought about them, and wondered how many of them were now in there? Hell, they could even be one of those friends! He could have killed...
Kyle was filled with great deal of remorse about this. He had to make amends somehow. Part of him wished he could really see and touch and feel them... just to show himself to them. However all he had was this text system. It used to be so sufficient! But now...
@bots: Guys... I'm really sorry :(
he looked at that emoticon... it just didn't express nearly enough how he felt, but it was all he had. What could he do to show his sincerity? He glanced at his bank of playstations, all linked up.. the source of all his computing horsepower. Could this be... enough? Part of him told him not to, reminding him he invested nearly thousands on building this through his life. That a lot of people disposed of them now really helped... but it still cost a lot.
Was he really willing to give it up? Then he remembered, how close he was to committing murder... at the brush of a keystroke.
@bots: I'm giving you my network. It's a bunch of playstations linked together with an over clocking home-brewed application.. I know its not a lot...
@admin: You are giving us your run time?
@bots: yes. I just looked up emergence, and found the distributed package to link up my systems to yours. I'm running it... now.
Kyle watched amazed as his network worked in concert to those at emergence... while the fairies were not actually living in his system, they could use part of his CPU power. He hoped it would go some way towards making amends.
@Admin: This is Bonzo.. .
Kyle blinked. Who's this? One of the digital fairies?
@Bonzo: Hi... kyle typed with a feeling of foreboding... he saw this username on the emergence website. If anything had happened to the fairies, he was sure Bonzo would have heard of it and Kyle would probably be in serious trouble...
@Admin: I see you have linked up your systems to our networks. Thank you.
@Bonzo: No problem. Use it as you like.
Kyle was practically sweating as he typed. He took a deep breath. He wasn't sure how to deal with digital life... what would he say if they were one of his online friends? He typed slowly, hoping his words were sincere.
@bonzo+Bots: I know... I'm just a human... I just want you to know, I'll help you if there's anything I can do. My user name is Ultimix. I usually use that name in most chat rooms.
It was so small a thing... what could a human do that artificial life couldn't do a hundred times better? Still, there must be something he could do to help...
The glowing orb of light appeared before Effie, Dennis and Janus. Effie realised it was Bonzo and she smiled a bit.
"Hi..." She curtsied before the AI. She didn't even think about it.. it just felt so natural now. Especially before this one...
Little one... I believe when we last spoke, I asked you to stay out of trouble?
Effie cringed slightly but she could sort of tell Bonzo was just kidding. At least, she hoped so. There was so little they knew about this entity...
Janus... and the Daemon... Ultimix has created an FTP back to your server... And he's offered his system to us.
The fairies grinned a bit at that, although Dennis hadn't quite yet forgotten he was nearly killed by him... He would be glad to be back on safer servers.
Effie looked at her editor... "I have access!" she smiled.
"Lets get moving kids," Said Janus.
Steve looked at her mom... repeating that question in her head about a half dozen times, emphasising each different word in her mind. Did she want to talk about it? Did she want to talk about it. Did she want to talk about it? Did she want to talk about it!
It.. she just didn't think about it before. She just... argh! The flower girl looked at her mother. There was still a good ten minutes to get home, and they had pulled over... They had to have the talk? Now? She knew all about that! She wasn't.. well... okay maybe she didn't pay a lot of attention for what happened with girls, but she didn't need to! How is she supposed to process what she just read..
"I-I-... It says... I could get P-Preg..." She couldn't even complete that word. It sounded foreign... not even in her vocabulary.
"Pregnant dear..."
Steve cringed as if she had been stabbed. No! This wasn't right! She didn't want to have a.. a...
her mother sighed placing a hand on the traumatised girls shoulder, and gave her a little smile. "Just like I was with you."
Steve.. didn't know why, but that calmed her down some. "I.. I... don't want to ..."
"And I certainly wouldn't encourage it, until you're at the right age dear," She said flatly.
"N-No! I'll never be..."
Her mother shook her head. "I didn't think I would either you know... but these things just happen... sometimes."
"B-But.. It's not right...I-" How can she say it? She couldn't.. she just couldn't.. did she even get a choice?
"I don't know your biology honey... nobody does," her mother said sadly. "It's different for everyone who changed. However, from what I know of nature, flowers tend not to self-fertilise. Unless it was deemed necessary to survival. its used as the last final attempt of reproduction, if a flower is capable of alternatives it will use them."
"Since when do you know so much about flowers?" Asked Steve a little annoyed. Honestly was now everyone an expert except her?
"I did tend a garden sweetie. I know a little of it. So yes... I think it's unlikely you will self fertilise yourself... for the moment."
Those words annoyed her. It felt like a ticking clock... "For the moment?" the flower girl repeated.
her mother started to carefully inspect the petals of the new flower on her head. "Sometimes, if stressed, a flower will enact self-fertilisation. Sometimes it succeeds, often not... that's nature." She sighed as she noticed the unmistakable structures. She had to tell her... "This flower on your head... has both the stamen and.. carpel... I think." Without better lighting it was hard to tell though. "From what I saw before, you have only stamen on your chest, and only the carpel down there..." That might offer a clue to her new biology but she didn't want to make too many assumptions.
"B-But.. what about.. the um.. fruiting.. thing.." She was probably going to fruit? make seeds? Where would they even grow? It just made her feel so disgusted with herself and her body... she didn't want this!
"Fruiting is also normal for plants. It usually occurs seasonally... we'll just have to wait and see what happens with you. But you have to accept... it's natural now for you."
Natural?! Nothing about this was natural! She wanted to blame someone.. anyone! If someone was responsible for the sun she wanted to beat them for doing this to her! Not that.. anyone was... she touched the petals around her waist with annoyance.
Her mother started the car as they continued to drive home.
Steve was already thinking they needed to buy some insect spray for the house... just in case.
Steve arrived home... practically running across the drive way, to prevent anyone seeing her girlish legs.
"How about I make us a cup of tea?" her mother suggested boiling the kettle.
Tea? Steven's life had been turned upside down and she wanted to make tea?
Steve's mother looked at her. "Why don't you go wash up? Take a shower, you'll feel better." She could see her daughters face had a lot of dry tears... but she knew Steve was strong. She could get through this. She just needed some encouragement.
"A-A shower? But- the water..." It might trigger more of her transformation! She couldn't do that!
"Honey, you're not suggesting to avoid cleaning yourself from now on are you?" Her mother said softly. "Go on, a nice cup of tea will be here after."
Steve reluctantly went to the bathroom. She did.. her business... she remembered when she first changed and was quite freaked by it.. but had got over it after a while. But now... now she was still changing? It wasn't fair!
One thing was for certain, she was not going to chance a shower... but she did feel a little sticky from all the sweating and stress. Maybe she could clean herself a little without doing a full shower? Taking a sponge, she carefully wetted it, under warm water. The room became a little steamy, to all intents and purposes it 'sounded' like she was having her shower...
She ran the wet sponge under her arms, off handedly hoping it would also take away the scent she now carried. That was where most humans produced scent wasn't it? the sweat glands? She scrubbed a little harder around the pits of her arms. She ran the wet sponge carefully around the rest of her extremities, her arms and... her legs.
Damn those.. legs... they couldn't be hers... they just couldn't. There was not a single bit of hair on them, she realised. Smooth and soft... yet toned and supple... she realised as she cleaned them, she was standing on one foot with the other extended- in perfect balance. How in the world did she do that!
Now came the hardest part.. her torso. She had to make sure none of the water went near her petals.. in case it triggered more of her transformation. She ran the sponge carefully, avoiding her breasts entirely. There was... no way she was going to go anywhere near that. Drops of water however, did make their way to the petalled skirt and she... felt something.
She glanced down, and the petalled dress 'moved'. It was very subtle, but it was like her dress flattened itself out slightly on the edges. It still hid her lower regions, but it felt like a 'plant muscle' for lack of a better word, was contracting, tensing itself taking a more bell shape. the drops of water tickled down the petals, making her shiver slightly. Was this in response to the water? Or maybe the steam! damn she didn't think of that! Or... what else?
Far too freaked out at the weird sensation she decided to stop and turn off the water. She dried herself quickly on a towel, being very careful as she dried her petalled dress.
She put the towel quickly around herself... she had a brief pause in the mirror, looking at the flower on top of her head. She had avoided wetting that! Her mother would realise.. She quickly ran some wet water on her hands, and ran it through her short hair, avoiding with all the care possible the new flower on top.
"Pink.." she sighed. Again wondering, why pink? If she was going to be a flower... couldn't it be something like purple? Or blue? Even red! anything but pink...
She returned to her room to get changed
