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March 7, 2007
Stacy: Rebirth
Under cover of darkness the grubbers always came by the hundreds. The guards watched idly via infrared cameras, not paid enough to care, and really only there for show - salve to a nation’s guilty conscience. The agency had been defunct so long it hardly mattered what the grubbers were after anyway. Anything of value was surely long gone. Yet they always found something, gathered up bits and pieces into rickety trundles, before fading back into the darkness.
Then one night a roar shook the night and something climbed into the heavens on a tail of flame. NASA lived again.
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March 8, 2007
Stacy: Capitalism
There it was… newspun cotton, dyed a delicate shade of blue. She reached out a wondering hand to touch it, and was snapped across the knuckles with a ruler.
“No handling the merchandise, you,” growled the shopkeeper, eyeing her over the tops of half-glasses.
She ignored him, imagining wonderful things from the cloth.
“H-how much? I have peppermint,” she added hopefully.
The shopkeeper sneered.
“More than you can afford. And peppermint’s been taken off the exchange, it’s a penny spice now”
She visibly drooped, then brightened.
“Do you accept paprika?”
The shopkeeper’s greedy eyes fairly sparkled.
“Right this way, madam!”
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March 9, 2007
Stacy: Wild Blue Yonder
On March 9th, we all woke up and could fly. Yeah, fly. All you had to do was kick off gently and you were hovering in mid-air. Lean forward a little bit and you were moving, flying. It was more fun than a basket of puppies. Safe to say nobody went to work that day. Lots of accidents, though…too many people in the air with too little common sense. We lost ¾ of the world’s population that day, when they kicked off too hard and couldn’t figure out how to turn around. Plenty of flying room now, there is.
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March 20, 2007
Stacy: Excerpt from the Phsyicker’s Manual on Treating Non-Specific Syckness
After approval by the credit department, install the supplicant in a biobed.
Attach the tubes for Foul Vapors, Tears of Agony and Night Sweats. Do not neglect to open the trap valves or risk ye a flogging by the Sanitation Department.Use the laser scalpel to open the Ventral Humor and allow two pints of ichor to out. This will cleanse the supplicant of evil spirits. Disinfect and seal the wound with Instaskin.
Attach seven leeches to the supplicant’s abdomen, to prevent spirits from returning. Then remove all hair from the body using the UV razor, and summon the physicker.
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May 24, 2007
Stacy: The Assistant TM
Nearly a second skin, The Assistant ™ wasn’t so much a shirt as a symbiont, preventing heat loss, recovering precious moisture. It also repelled rain and bullets, but did sometimes get confused by slow-moving blades. It had 97 pockets, cost a lifetime’s pay, and I could never, ever take it off.
The Assistant ™ powered itself using the natural electricity of my body. Mostly. Every five years it required a full recharge. Complete immersion was required in order to fully replenish its emergency reserves.
I let the still-twitching body drop to the ground and reached for the next screaming donor.
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May 25, 2007
Stacy: Saving Your Future
He gripped the paper tighter as he hurried down the sidewalk. Almost 4PM, only had about eight minutes left.
Where the fuck is that house…
He broke into a trot as his watch started beeping.
Hurry… hope I don’t have a fucking heart attack...
There it is…
He rushed to the front door, banged loudly with his fist. The startled housefrau snatched the door open, prepared for battle.
“See to your child!” he yelled.
She turned, dashed up the stairs, just as the wailing started. He placed the black paper on the entry table.
Future Fixers, Inc. saves another one.
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July 10, 2007
Stacy: We Fix Futures
Their marriage had never been ideal, but she’d always tried so hard. It wasn’t until their second year together that he hit her.
Things only got worse after their son was born. It took all her energy to keep the violence focused on her instead of the boy.
Then one day he came home and didn’t recognize them. They were strangers to him.
She apologized for trespassing and left the house with the boy. Outside, a man stood next to a nondescript sedan with a set of keys. She handed him a thick envelope and drove away with her son.
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July 17, 2007
Stacy: The Leader
The last election was held back in ’08. After that, they just quit having them.
Nobody seemed to mind much. The country was prosperous, the rest of the world was basically quiet. Just the usual god-wars.
Then the broadcasts quit coming. When the banks closed, some folks worried. Usually just the ones with money, though. The rest of us just started trading for stuff we needed. If nobody had it, then we didn’t need it.
Nobody ever went to see what happened. Didn’t care much. Life was simple and good, and it was enough.
At least until he showed up.
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March 13, 2009
Stacy: It's All Relative
James literally could do no wrong. He breezed through school, finished college in four years with double docs in physics and engineering. He had a rewarding and hugely profitable career in private industry and was married to a beautiful woman who did not make him crazy. His kids were bright, cute and respectful.
James was bored out of his mind. That’s when Future Fixers Inc. appeared on his doorstep.
Now James has a new career, helping design and develop the highly complex apparatus FF Inc. uses in their temporal activities. The replacement dad for his ex-family was a big hit.
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