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Chapter 4   Mac Katherine McKenzie took the mandatory aptitude test when she was ten. After years of begging her mother, who for some reason, was convinced she wouldn’t score high enough to land in a reputable class. She wasn’t smart enough for the medical or engineering fields, and anything below a technician is just shameful. Living her life without undergoing some major enhancement means acknowledging you serve no meaningful purpose in the perfect machine of society. “Thank god you’re pretty.” Her mother used to tell her, four words that always followed some sort of complaint about her cognitive development skills. Little Katherine was absolute pants at math, a hazard with sharp objects and too easily distracted by the bright colors of the world to memorize something in minimal time. Her mother thought she was too hopeless to be controlled by the strongest inhibitor, and her less-than-stellar test score sealed her fate. As the boys from her apartment complex gradually got fitted

 Chapter 3 Candor “How are we doing today Miss Candor?” Lana looks up from her feet at Dr. Stein, takes in his haywire hair and friendly smile, and feels herself smile back on reflex. She’s always liked Dr. Stein better, even though he and Dr. Yates clash regularly with the psychological aspects of her enhancements. “I’m trying to keep my distance.” She answers truthfully. “Nervousness brings out the over-analysis, and analysis doesn’t always lead to positive outcomes. Negative outcomes may lead me to – not be in optimal condition for this.” Dr. Stein smiles in understanding. He doesn’t reprimand her for shying away from the problem, and doesn’t suggest a checkup of her inhibitor nodes. As always, he allows her to breathe. “So what are you thinking about?” he asks curiously. Lana scans the room, and follows everyone’s focus attuned to their specific tasks before she whispers, “I’ve been wondering if I can transmute my fingers into multi-colored brushes and paint a full portra

 Chapter 2   Candor Sometimes when she closes her eyes, she can see the world. See its simplicity in shapes and colors instead of reading hard-coded facts about it. It only works when she is alone in the dark, and she closes her eyes tight until the 1’s and 0s that make up her monochrome world disappear into a cacophony of colors. Reds, blues, and greens appear into the darkness behind her eyelids, and for a moment, the world is quiet, her mind relaxed. “Are you quite alright Lana?” Her father asks from his seat beside her. She opens her eyes and it all comes rushing back. She turns to look at her father, observing his eyes – generation two business class lens, optimal for language translation – trained on her. They’re almost unnoticeable compared to her unnatural silver eyes, and she wonders how he sees her. Would he be able to untangle the mess of aimless thoughts and pointless information inside her head, and translate it into something she can understand? Or would he be distr

 Planet 345B. Andromeda galaxy. I’ve wanted to be a space voyager since I was a young sapling. I obsessively watched the reports on nearby worlds as they were found by our brave explorers and collected what souvenirs I could from different planets. I waited with bated breath, with the rest of my colony for any sign of life outside our planet. Every time the ships came back with nothing but rock and air samples I felt the disappointment in my veins, followed by a stubborn thought of ‘I’ll be the one to find them’. As soon as I was old enough, I joined the voyagers on their scouting missions. There had to be life out there somewhere, maybe in another galaxy or another dimension. I was determined to find it and make contact.   Three years passed before I got any strong leads. I had left our galaxy behind, parting ways with my crew who were too wary to journey too far from the home base. The constellation map told me I was entering The Milky Way, a smaller galaxy with a few hopeful p

  Mac Mac arranges her face back into a smile as the cameras turn to her. There’s deafening applause from the audience virtually tuned in to the late-night show as Mark Zeng takes his seat. Mac takes a moment to imagine people going through their routine pausing to clap at random times in the middle of nowhere. Her smile grows wider with amusement. Mark shakes hands with her co-star Ander, congratulating him and catching up like old friends before turning to her. He takes her hand politely, and Mac smiles into the sleek glass eye staring at her, Zeng’s eye feed providing an exclusive 1 st person view to selected viewers of the nation’s biggest show. Zeng keeps his eyes on her form as he takes his seat, taking in her silver ensemble for later fashion analysis and debate. “Welcome to the show once again you too. And Congratulations on the new movie.” Zeng starts the show with his signature enthusiasm. “I must say, my wife and I saw the movie just last night and your chemistry is i

Triptych In a futuristic world where humans are augmented by machine parts to enhance their talents and abilities, two unlikely friends find a way to connect and challenge the status Quo. Read more on bilkiwrites .