Puddle Driver-a podcast novel

Written and read by ApocD. The words were garbage, just rolls of vowels that made no sense.nbsp; Streis could see the frustration in the pre-phant's eyes, a frustration Streis had seen many times in Japan as he'd tried to communicate with the locals.nbsp; Although he was the foreigner there, it was always the natives who got nervous. The thing's mouth, although almost human on the outside, wasn't human at all on the inside.nbsp; The teeth were missing and the tongue had been replaced with a thin flap of gray skin.nbsp; The vowels continued to roll out of its mouth. The homeless man moved his gaze from the pre-phant to Streis.nbsp; ldquo;You understanding any of this?rdquo;

Written and read by ApocD. The bus driver mumbled to himself as he opened the door, pushed past Streis, and hit the pavement. He disappeared behind the bus as the old woman stood and then followed him. The open door allowed the homeless man's screams to fill the bus. The pre-phant stood in the same position. A young woman in a dark business suit left three shopping bags at her feet on the sidewalk and ran. A man with long hippie hair stepped out of his late model electric car, took one last look at the pre-phant, and ran. Two young boys who looked like they were heading home from high school ran. The whole crowd ran. People poured out of the shops and apartment buildings. People poured out of the cars and trucks. Everyone capable of running ran, and everyone else moved as fast as they could.

Written and read by ApocD. Streis, the homeless man, the bus driver, and the old woman all stood near the front of the bus, watching the pre-phant through the bus' dirty windshield. Colors rolled across the thing's skin, but in a much calmer manner than they had when Streis had watched the pre-phant die in the freighter's cargo hold hours earlier. Streis couldn't be sure, but it appeared that the pre-phant was completely naked. It walked upright, and its yellow eyes scanned its surroundings as it wandered, seemingly without purpose, in the middle of the intersection of McAllister and Fillmore. Life at McAllister and Fillmore had stopped. Cars and buses sat motionless along the streets. Horns blared from the distance, a clear sign that the people in those vehicles couldn't see what was happening. Customers and clerks stood inside the local shops with their faces pressed against the pane-glass windows. A stray dog, Streis thought it was a collie mix but he wasn't sure, sniffed at a trash can just meters from the pre-phant. People on the sidewalks just stood and watched. Streis assumed they all wanted to run away, but running would draw attention. Anyway, anyone who wanted to run had probably already done so.

Written and read by ApocD. Streis hit the hard ground and sent one last command to his mother's AI; he told her to erase herself once she had landed the freighter at Ocean Beach. The freighter's system would have to erase her, since it was impossible for a program to erase itself, but she would be able to give the instructions to the system when the time came. Rachel Carter disappeared into the trees without looking back. Streis smiled; he shouldn't have expected anything else from her. Streis ran. He knew running would draw too much attention, but he needed to get away from the site where the freighter had dropped them off as quickly as possible. It felt good to run. His lungs burned slightly, but it was a good burn, the kind of burn he'd felt at the beginning of every high school track season. The sky was clear and there was a sharp coolness to the breeze. The sun was approaching the Pacific, but it would be hours before the sun set. He came across a dirt path and stopped. He'd put some good distance between himself and the dropoff point, so he turned onto the path and walked. Although he had spent a lot of time in the park over the years, he wasn't sure where he was. He followed the path without seeing anyone and after several minutes he hit a paved road that he recognized. He turned right and walked. He found a small pond that he had visited years earlier. He was tempted to turn around and walk back to Ocean Beach, just to see the freighter and the people's reactions to it, but he knew that would be stupid. Although there was no longer a need to run, he knew the first people the police would check would be people at the scene. He didn't want to leave the park, though, until he had a better idea of where he was going to go, so he sat on a bench beside the pond and watched an old man do tai-chi. Minutes later the old man stopped with a look of surprise on his face. He turned around and faced the direction of Ocean Beach. The sound of an explosion followed. Birds flew from the nearby trees. The man returned to his tai-chi.

Written and read by ApocD One of Streis' tracers returned with the news that there was a phantom on the network and it was closing in fast. Streis disconnected from the Net without saying goodbye to Dr. Anders; Streis knew he would understand. He hoped the phantom didn't find Dr. Anders, but there was nothing he could do about it. Streis closed his eyes and imagined himself as secure and invincible. He opened his eyes and turned to Rachel Carter, who was staring at him. ldquo;Well? What's the plan, Streis?rdquo; ldquo;Doctor Anders suggested we put down on Ocean Beach.rdquo; There was a look of confusion on Rachel Carter's face. ldquo;Ocean Beach, San Francisco?rdquo; ldquo;Yeah, that's the one. He said we can't put down on an air field because the military will find us and he thinks if the military finds us we'll be in serious trouble.rdquo;

Written and read by ApocD. Streis buckled in as they hit the atmosphere. Through the porthole, he saw bright light engulf the ship. Rachel Carter sat beside him, silently watching the ship's vitals on the control screen. It had been a long time since Streis had reentered like this; on his last return from the moon, he had used the African Elevator. Although it had been much more efficient than pushing ships through the atmosphere, the construction of a replacement elevator was still under debate. Besides the obvious costs of constructing such a monster, the various African governments involved had to consider the safety concerns as well. After at first being considered an act of terrorism, it was now known that the collapse of the African Elevator had been caused by a design flaw. After apologizing to the public for the immense loss of life and property, the entire engineering team had taken their own lives. Streis had seen the video on the Net; countless nights he had sat alone in back booths in dirty bars around the world and watched that video, watched the life slip from their faces. Despite all of these difficulties involved with replacing the elevator, Streis couldn't help feeling that society had taken a step back. Pushing ships through atmosphere was a very 20th Century thing to do. He still couldn't understand why neither the Americans nor the Europeans had built an elevator; maybe they'd just lost interest in progress. Streis had once heard a historian say that human history was a progression of two steps forward and one back. He agreed.

Written and read by ApocD. ldquo;Is it Pana-wave, Streis?rdquo; ldquo;Of course it's Pana-wave. Didn't you disable the jumpship's communications?rdquo; Rachel Carter sat back in her chair and smiled. ldquo;Of course, I did. They can't know he's dead, yet. What's the message? Can you play it on the ship's system?rdquo; ldquo;Just a second.rdquo; Streis listened to the message through his implant. It didn't contain anything he wanted to keep from Rachel Carter, so he ran it, unedited, through the ship's system.

Written and read by ApocD. Torture.nbsp; The word ignited an explosion of memories in Streis, memories that Streis had spent years trying to forget.nbsp; The therapy had taught him to face his memories, to deal with them one at a time with complete honesty, but he had fulfilled his therapy requirements in six months and had never looked back, until now. It seemed to be working; if not, Streis would have noticed a drop in pressure in the main cabin.nbsp; As a headhunter, Streis knew that all options were on the table when it came to survival.nbsp; Torture, though, hadn't crossed his mind; he'd nearly forgotten that torture even existed. The airlock kept the sounds from the cargo hold from passing into the main cabin, so Streis could only guess at what Imaoka's screams must sound like.nbsp; What was she doing to him?nbsp; Streis hated to admit to himself that he wanted to know.nbsp; Even though he had been tortured more than once--headhunters had to get used to such things--the idea of others being tortured wasn't so repulsive that he didn't want to know the details.nbsp; He wanted to know. The main control screen showed the ship's vitals in vertical columns of green light.nbsp; Air temperature and pressure were holding steady.nbsp; Their trajectory had remained the same since Rachel Carter and Imaoka had disappeared into the cargo hold.nbsp; Everything appeared normal.

Written and read by ApocD. Most headhunters with any ambition at all had been banned from the lunar colony. The information in the colony's networks--the private data that business people, government agencies, and criminals thought to be safe so far from the earth--proved too great a temptation for even the most rational headhunters to ignore. Now that the colony was gone, it left Streis with one less worry, one less reason to look over his shoulder, and as a headhunter, Streis already had enough reasons to be careful. He had enjoyed his time in the colony, though. The people were friendly. Ideas flowed freely along the sterile hallways and through the well-lighted tunnels. Although it had been originally created as a science station and evolved into an information center, the politics of the place, the idea that a new government could be started fresh with the knowledge of civilization's previous 10,000 years, had been exciting. It had changed politics on the earth. It had changed people's ideas about how they should be governed. It had been destroyed. In his earlier years, Streis might have pointed the blame for the day's events, especially the destruction of the lunar colony, on some holdover from previous governments, some white male in a dark suit who couldn't let go of the idea that he was supposed to be in charge, that his people were supposed to be in charge. Yet, with his years of experience, Streis knew things were never that simple. The infiltration of the feed, although nearly impossible, could be done with the right people and some luck. The replacement of the AIs, though, as far as Streis knew, was impossible for a human or humans.

Written and read by ApocD. ldquo;You picking anything up on the mics in the cargo hold?rdquo; Imaoka shook his head. ldquo;Still nothing, Mister Streis. My guess is she's dead and they're just waiting for us to open the airlock.rdquo; ldquo;Or she's struggling with them right now and needs our help.rdquo; ldquo;Don't get me wrong, Mister Streis, I'm going in there. We have to go in just in case she's still alive, but I don't think we'll make it out.rdquo; ldquo;Then we need weapons.rdquo; ldquo;I already told you, Mister Streis, there aren't any weapons on the ship.rdquo; ldquo;Just give me something I can use..."

Written and read by ApocD. The freigher's engines engaged and they started the slow descent to the lunar surface. "You want to talk to her, Mister Streis?" Streis continued to stare at the screen, which showed the lunar surface moving closer to them. "No, I don't think that's such a good idea." "Well, now, we need to let her know we're here to help and maybe find out what happened so we know if we'll be in danger down there. I tell you what, Mister Streis, it's a lucky thing you're here. If you didn't happen to know her, she might now trust us." Streis turned from the screen and looked at Imaoka. "She still might not." Imaoka cocked his head, twisted his mouth, and looked up at the ceiling before focusing on Streis. "Either way, Mister Streis, she's more likely to trust you than she is me." "You're going to have to talk to her, Imaoka. With an accent like that, I doubt you have much trouble gaining people's trust." He smiled at Imaoka, who returned the smile. "Fair enough, Mister Streis. But, if it sounds like I'm about to lose her, I want you to jump in, okay?" "Fair enough." The woman's voice filled the cabin again. "two four seven dash beta gamma alpha. I see no other survivors. Please send help..." "S.O.S. acknowledged." Silence. Then: "Oh, I can't believe it. My name is Rachel Carter. Colonist..."

Written and read by ApocD. Also, for those of you who don't check the blog, Brace for Impact is now available in print. Brace book As Imaoka worked the camera's controls, they saw that some of the pieces of machinery were from the other freighters. "All three of them crashed, Mister Streis. All three." "Then, we need to get out of here." "Not, yet, Mister Streis. If I'm the only person from my group to see this, I need to record more so I can show my people back on earth what happened. Maybe they can make some sense of it." "There's no sense here, Imaoka. Whatever's taken down the feed has taken down the freighters and..."nbsp; Streis stopped speaking when he saw a domed structure on the screen.

Chapter 10 was written and read by ApocD. Streis saw the hesitation on Imaoka's face and knew he had little time to act. "Look, Imaoka, I understand why you don't want to tell me anything. I'm familiar enough with Pana-Wave to know the whole group is built on secrecy. I can also understand why you wouldn't trust me; I make my living off of revealing secrets. So, here's what I'll do. I'll tell you everything that's happened to me and everything I know about what's happening, and if you still don't trust me, I'll get in the jumpship and take off. Afterward, though, if you want to talk, I'd really like to know what you know. How's that sound?" Imaoka nodded.

In Chapter 9, Streis and Imaoka hit the network. Written and read by ApocD Streis' conditioning told him to go for the jumpship. Will Gibbs' headhunters didn't survive by helping people and doing the right thing; they survived by removing themselves from danger no matter the consequences. The jumpship had only room for one person, but breathing alone in the jumpship would beat dying in the vacuum of space with a man he'd just met.

Chapter 8 was written and read by ApocD. Streis held his breath. He had tried controlling his breathing, but the silent cargo hold revealed even the slightest sounds and he needed more time; he had to decide what to do. The other person in the cargo hold?Streis had decided the footsteps were those of a human after hearing the feet shuffle near the dead creature?had stopped moving. He could hear faint breaths but couldn't tell if he was dealing with a male or female.