Tag: collective thinking

Chapter

Altering the Plan

by Tower Curator — “You’re ruining my mission,” Ruby said with quite possibly the most terrifying pout that Dyna had ever seen. Pitrelli’s office didn’t feel like the most secure location to discuss possible traitors to the Carroll Institute. It had no door, a large window, security cameras galore, and more photographs of mountains and rivers. The latter fact didn’t weaken the security of the situation, but did strengthen the theory that the decor in Harold’s office had come from the institute rather than…
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Chapter

Alpha

by Tower Curator — Administrator Alpha scanned the report from the most recent experiment for the umpteenth time. Each reading had her scowl deepening further and further as things just didn’t quite add up. Pulling up the report from Harold’s capture, she compared Dyna’s debriefing there to the one here. The first and most obvious change was the lack of freely offered information. The Harold incident was full of offered conjecture, full thought process of every decision, and ideas for how she could have handled any…
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Chapter

Administrator Theta

by Tower Curator — Following her arrival back on campus, Dyna realized that she had no idea where to go. A quick call to Beatrice resolved that problem. She had figured that she would be directed down into the deepest darkest depths of Psychodynamics, deeper even than the Vault, perhaps. However, instead of taking the elevator in the administration building down underground and into Psychodynamics, the elevator went up. The administration building had the appearance of a modern skyscraper—though stunted with only six…
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Chapter

Administrator Alpha

by Tower Curator — Dyna didn’t sit still in the noosphere. The tulpa that had attacked Tartarus—and, likely, most other tulpa that Alpha sent out into the world—had some way of entering and exiting the noosphere effectively at will. She didn’t know whether or not Frankenstein had that ability but didn’t want to wait around and find out. It came as a small surprise that Dyna could move around. She had figured that any power disruption would have affected the Continuity Engine and it losing power would have…
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Chapter

A Quick Trip to the Store

by Tower Curator — Shopping with Mel was something that Dyna wouldn’t soon forget. Dyna didn’t do shopping in person all that often. When she went to a store, it was usually to pick up something specific that she really couldn’t wait on delivery for. Everything else, she ordered online. Clothes, snacks, supplies, toiletries, and everything else she needed got loaded up on a truck and shipped out to the Carroll Institute. Prior to her enrollment at the institute, the only places she really went shopping were…
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Chapter

A New Hope

by Tower Curator — Dyna’s foot thumped against the floor in repeated, nervous taps. Her fingers pressed into her temple while her thumb threatened to gouge a hole into the edge of her jaw. Her other hand gently rubbed against the eye-shaped pendant she bought at a thrift store. She didn’t see anything. Her eyes were closed, so some might assume that to be natural. But the others all saw things with their eyes closed. It was just her. “Miss Graves, your answer?” Dyna gnawed on her lip. She couldn’t delay…
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Chapter

A Gift for Cross

by Tower Curator — Doctor Phillip Cross stepped away from the terminal screen with a sad shake of his head. They were getting nowhere. The small fog-emitting machine demonstrated exactly one anomalous effect and it was nowhere near the level of proper artifacts. The only unusual property of the fog machine was that it didn’t need to be refilled or charged. It could run perpetually and indefinitely—or at least for seven days, the longest they had tried thus far—and would emit the same level of white clouds of fog, never…
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Chapter

A Flight to Catch

by Tower Curator — “She woke up?” Dyna said, slumping in the seat in front of Beatrice’s control panel. “Ruby’s okay?” That gave her some hope for Id. “I intercepted a call from Ruby’s phone to the Carroll Institute. Would you like to speak with her?” Dyna’s eyes flicked up to the clock displayed on the screen above Beatrice’s waveform. After Dyna had spent the last hour trying and failing to make an exit from Beatrice’s core straight to Puerto Rico, Beatrice had worked her magic and chartered a…
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Chapter

A Day Off

by Tower Curator — “Alright, Miss Graves. You may remove the apparatus.” Dyna straightened her back, gripping the handles built into the armrest of the chair to help pull herself forward. She reached up, undid a small buckle set under her chin, and slowly lifted a complex series of interlocking metal plates off her head. Cables and wires ran up into the ceiling. Most were for data transfer, but a few were connected to winches and counterbalance weights, causing the helmet to practically levitate away from her with…
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