Zero Mirrors
by H. C. Turk
In a society where your garment is your shelter and dancing is illegal, a young woman must Sashay through time to save her land from a Plant Plague arriving from the future.
EasyLiving City is the outcome of a Plant Pandemic caused by merging plant growth with modern construction methods. The most important structure here is a grounded space vessel called the Tree.
To protect Plague fighters, high-tech garments were created: Wearable Assertive Data-Integrators (WADs), which include brain cells donated by deceased persons.
Melony (a City Sashayer) wears a WAD, though she thinks it’s just a dress. Uniquely, her WAD gains the consciousness of its donor. Melony is only vaguely aware of this as she journeys with another unique companion, Robben, a kidult: an adult who had his body modified so he’s the size of a child again. Robben thus exhibits the personality of a child one moment, and the experience of an adult the next.
Robben’s nemesis is the Tree’s engineer, Blinda, who created a special WAD for her daughter, Melony. This WAD is unique in being connected to the Tree’s power source, which enabled the Tree to move through space without duration: a type of time travel.
Blinda still lives in the plague-ridden Tree, but Melony was sent to the City, which is free of plantosis: no people are part plant, part human. But when plantosis infects the City, Melony (who knows nothing of her mother) flees to the Tree. There, she communicates with Blinda, who explains that the Tree must be saved by returning time to an era prior to the infection. That can only be accomplished by Melony and her WAD, which is literally connected to a time machine. All Melony has to do is prance time backwards level by level (which seems impossible). At the top she will find her mother, or the end.
Melony begins her journey, both benefiting and suffering from her erratic WAD. The same with Robben, who is sometimes a hero, sometimes a brat.
They start at the lobby. Since this is an entry, Melony sashays backwards to the exit. Though she succeeds in curing plantosis here, she sends time back too far, and the lobby becomes that of an antique office.
In the food room, Melony performs a sashay routine away from growth. Though she succeeds in curing plantosis, she again prances too far, and the growth room becomes an old farm.
In the infirmary, Melony alters abandoned WADs so they can cure plantosis. But the modern infirmary becomes an old hospital with creaky beds.
This process continues through the gym, storage chamber, and finally to the power room, where the truth is revealed: By entering, they will set off a time bomb that will send them ahead to a better time, or back to the Dark Age.
EasyLiving City is the outcome of a Plant Pandemic caused by merging plant growth with modern construction methods. The most important structure here is a grounded space vessel called the Tree.
To protect Plague fighters, high-tech garments were created: Wearable Assertive Data-Integrators (WADs), which include brain cells donated by deceased persons.
Melony (a City Sashayer) wears a WAD, though she thinks it’s just a dress. Uniquely, her WAD gains the consciousness of its donor. Melony is only vaguely aware of this as she journeys with another unique companion, Robben, a kidult: an adult who had his body modified so he’s the size of a child again. Robben thus exhibits the personality of a child one moment, and the experience of an adult the next.
Robben’s nemesis is the Tree’s engineer, Blinda, who created a special WAD for her daughter, Melony. This WAD is unique in being connected to the Tree’s power source, which enabled the Tree to move through space without duration: a type of time travel.
Blinda still lives in the plague-ridden Tree, but Melony was sent to the City, which is free of plantosis: no people are part plant, part human. But when plantosis infects the City, Melony (who knows nothing of her mother) flees to the Tree. There, she communicates with Blinda, who explains that the Tree must be saved by returning time to an era prior to the infection. That can only be accomplished by Melony and her WAD, which is literally connected to a time machine. All Melony has to do is prance time backwards level by level (which seems impossible). At the top she will find her mother, or the end.
Melony begins her journey, both benefiting and suffering from her erratic WAD. The same with Robben, who is sometimes a hero, sometimes a brat.
They start at the lobby. Since this is an entry, Melony sashays backwards to the exit. Though she succeeds in curing plantosis here, she sends time back too far, and the lobby becomes that of an antique office.
In the food room, Melony performs a sashay routine away from growth. Though she succeeds in curing plantosis, she again prances too far, and the growth room becomes an old farm.
In the infirmary, Melony alters abandoned WADs so they can cure plantosis. But the modern infirmary becomes an old hospital with creaky beds.
This process continues through the gym, storage chamber, and finally to the power room, where the truth is revealed: By entering, they will set off a time bomb that will send them ahead to a better time, or back to the Dark Age.
