Nano Bytes

Nolan was walking upwind towards her along the sidewalk on this side of the street. As boyfriends went, he wasn’t half bad. His mop of unruly platinum blond hair crowded his forehead like a forest in autumn encroaching on the clear blue twin lakes of those eyes. He was the picture perfect Swede, including the fair skin. His six–foot–two stature fit for a Rodin sculpture, down to the iron–hardness of his muscles. But the Harlequin book cover look was the first clue; he was a droid. The nano could make people nearly as beautiful these days, but it couldn’t lend them such an air–brushed look. The microscopic sized bots were married to human biology, after all, not silicon.

Her girlfriends gave her hell for her choice of beau. Screw them. He was the only one who could keep up with her in the bedroom. He could play the part of a soulmate, forever in sync with her, finishing her thoughts, with the push of a button. Or she could just as easily dial up his abrasiveness if she got tired of her perfect little life. In the end, real people exhibited no less programmed behavior. But they were just that much harder to re–program. All the nano seemed to do was make them more fully who they were, like erasing the last vestiges of self–doubt from a complete egomaniac. No, that path wasn’t for her.

Nolan kissed her and took his seat opposite her on the round table for two. They were close enough to keep pecking one another by just leaning into each other slightly, which they did for a while.

She should have checked how she looked in her compact when she saw him sauntering towards her. Instead she made do with the blacks of his eyes, showing her chiseled, birdlike features, and her orange hair cut short above her neck in what might fondly be called a beehive cut. She drew conscious of her smile this close to his pearly whites and sent nanobots scurrying to her teeth to scrub away the yellow. As nano–saturated as she was, there wasn’t room in her body for a nano solution to everything. That meant prioritizing. It wasn’t like she was going to be designing protein molecules in her head while Nolan was around.

Peeling his lips off of hers from the latest round of smooches, he said, «You’re feeling amorous, this morning.»

«Actually I’m feeling pensive.»

«What’s on your mind?»

«What if all this is just some hallucination we’ve sold ourselves on?» She gestured to the Times Square sights of New York City around her.

«You’re not talking about your nano–filtered take on things, are you?» She shook her head. «Is this the age old philosopher’s question, are we dreaming our lives, or is someone dreaming us? Just some idle speculation to stimulate the mind this morning?»

«I wish.»

Wattpadder DeanCMoore is an experienced indie writer who writes about three full length titles a year across all genres, but with an underlying tone of comedy that permeates his writing. His experience shows in this excellent short which he has kindly allowed us to share here on the Science Fiction profile.

You can find more content on his profile here on Wattpad.

ELImstsuj Europa

My fingers tapped nervously on my regulation jumpsuit–clad leg. There was no–one else in the room, but my eyes kept avoiding…something in the stainless steel kitchen. It was just so odd, all metal and sanitary and characterless. It was what I had expected, but I still wasn't used to the uniformity. I sighed. Was I going to be put to work or did they hire me to sit around and convert oxygen into carbon dioxide? I stared at a liquids heater. They told me to stay here until orders came. There was no window in the kitchen and I longed greedily to catch another glimpse of Earth turning beneath us.

I love Earth so much, despite my mother's best efforts to turn me against it. She says that Earth is weak and that Europa will carry us much better. I did some research on Europa, but I only found the basic information we were all provided with: it was investigated in the 2110's, it was teraformed over the years with equipment sent there piece by piece, it orbits Jupiter and so on and so on. I stayed on Earth for as long as I could, but the final Leaving will be taking place in a few hours. Mother and Father have left for Europa already, but I insisted on staying on Earth 'til the last Leaving. The last Leaving will be the largest one, and I signed up to work as a member of the kitchen staff because it meant that I boarded early and missed the crowds.