“So…” began Maite, her cortado in hand as she looked across the small table at Kepa. They had met at the Herriko Taberna and found a spot outside on the plaza, far enough from the rest of the patrons so that they wouldn’t be overheard. “What now?” Kepa looked nervously into his own cup, the […]
Maite awoke with a bit more of a resaca than she had hoped for. “When we were kids,” she thought to herself, “a gau pasa wouldn’t affect us at all.” She groaned as she sat up in bed. “But now…” “I will never understand the human desire to flood their delicate circuitry with chemicals that […]
The rest of the evening flew by as Kepa and Maite celebrated with their friends. The town only had three bars, but they bounced from one to the next all night. It was early in the morning before they finally found their way home. Kepa drove Maite home to her parents’ apartment in Gernika before […]
“So,” asked Koldo as they stood around a high table in one corner of the bar, “how did the interview go? You’ve got to tell us all about it.” “Interview?” asked Maite. “Oh, right! Berkeley. It feels so long ago…” “What do you mean?” asked Idoia, taking a sip of her gin and tonic. “It […]
Maite looked around. This time, she was certainly back in her own time, standing at the end of the hallway in the airport in Bilbao. She looked out the window where she was greated by the rolling green mountains and the baserria speckling the hillsides. There were no throngs of people dressed in strange garb, […]
Moments later, Kepa materialized seemingly out of nowhere next to Maite. “Zer…?” he began. Looking at Maite, he asked “What is going on?” “We’re in Garuna’s mind,” replied Maite. “What?” he exclaimed. “Why?” “Garuna wants to go with us.” “Go with us? Where?” “Our own time.” “Can it do that?” Maite nodded. “It can, but […]
Maite looked around. She expected to find herself back at the airport in Bilbao, in her own time. She expected to see the long hallways and, out the glass windows, the green mountainsides that were so familiar. But, instead, all she saw was darkness. “Kaixo?” she said, almost in a whisper, her voice trailing off […]
“Where is the AI?” asked Kepa. “We have to find it.” Latxe just shook her head, her eyes staring at the spot where de Lancre once stood, the only thing left a red stain on the floor. “What’s the point? We can’t stop it.” “Don’t we have to try?” asked Kepa, grabbing Latxe’s shoulders and […]
“What…?” said de Lancre as he stared in disbelief at the empty black sphere floating in front of him. He looked up to Maite and Kepa, suspicion in his eyes, until he shook his head. “No, you don’t have it. The bubble would have burst if you somehow got it.” “I have it,” said a […]
De Lancre was on his knees, curled up in a near fetal position, as Kepa and Maite approached him. They watched as his arms twisted in unnatural ways, the nanobots fixing the broken limbs and torn flesh. He was much more serene as the nanobots must also have been administering some local anesthetic, which made […]
