is a weekly serial. While it is a work of fiction, it has elements from both my own experiences and stories I’ve heard from various people. The characters, while in some cases inspired by real people, aren’t directly modeled on anyone in particular. I expect there will be inconsistencies and factual errors. I don’t know where it is going, and I’ll probably forget where it’s been. Why am I doing this? To give me an excuse and a deadline for some creative writing and because I thought people might enjoy it. Gozatu!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\u201cWhat are those lights?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThose?\u201d she asked, looking at him quizically. \u201cThat\u2019s the Chinese colony. Everyone knows that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is a colony on the moon?\u201d Kepa asked incredulously. And then, with excitement growing in his voice, he added \u201cThat\u2019s so cool! Maite is going to be flabbergasted!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Latxe shook her head. \u201cSome day, you are going to have to tell me where you really come from.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kepa gave her a sheepish grin before changing the subject. \u201cSo, how do we get in again?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Latxe pulled out what looked like to Kepa a small phone or tablet. \u201cWith this,\u201d she said, \u201cwe can hijack the nanobots within a small radius.\u201d Her finger danced across the face of the screen, touching and highlighting various symbols and icons that Kepa couldn\u2019t decipher. She ended with a sweep of her finger in a circle and then a sudden motion upward. Within moments, an opening appeared in the side of the wall. Latxe stepped through, beckoning Kepa to follow her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s amazing!\u201d he said as he watched the opening disappear as if it never existed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe nanobots are pretty cool,\u201d she admitted. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine life without them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut, they are everywhere, right?\u201d asked Kepa. \u201cIsn\u2019t that a little\u2026 creepy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Latxe shrugged. \u201cI don\u2019t know. They\u2019ve been around all my life, working in the background, keeping things clean and making sure that we have the right infrastructure for the current population. None of us have any material needs since the nanobots provide everything we might want.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAre they all over us too?\u201d asked Kepa with a shiver, absentmindedly brushing off his arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey are programmed to stay off of living beings,\u201d said Latxe. \u201cI mean, if you wanted a change of clothes, they could make that happen, but only touching the fabric and not you. I guess that is one step too far for most of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat do you mean, \u2018most of us?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWell, there is a whole counterculture where people actually hijack the nanobots to force them to modify their own bodies. I\u2019ve seen a few people whose faces constantly morph as the nanobots reconstruct their facial features. One moment they might be an African woman and the next a Nordic boy. Others have the nanobots cover their bodies in metallic scales, literally transmuting their skin into metal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWon\u2019t that kill them?\u201d asked Kepa in shock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe nanobots also compensate for any damage they do, providing the body with just enough medical aid to counter the effects of these changes.\u201d Latxe shrugged. \u201cI\u2019ve thought about it myself, about having the nanobots change me, but I haven\u2019t thought of anything I wanted bad enough to go through with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis place is so weird,\u201d said Kepa under his breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNot as weird as you, my friend,\u201d said Latxe with a chuckle. She looked down at her device. \u201cCome on, we have a long ways to go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you get this post via email, the return-to address goes no where, so please write blas@buber.net<\/a> if you want to get in touch with me.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A few nights later, Kepa found himself at the base of de Lancre\u2019s tower. Kepa had wondered why they didn\u2019t wait for a new moon, but everyone had told him that the streets were too well lit for there to be any advantage. He looked up at the moon hovering above them and noticed some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2640,864],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa","category-bubers-basque-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/maite-and-kepa-v2-01.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-1tB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5679"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5680,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5679\/revisions\/5680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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