nny | (no subject)

Golfer Vrs Boxer: Amon Tobin

Wraith

User interface devices ping gentle warnings; medical sensors indicate in the population an increase in the physical symptoms of fear.

Insomnia. (Constant running calculations, diagnostics, shift patterns changed to process endless numbers, sensors never at rest; unable to spare the processors to categorize, shuffle, re-file, form connections, Atlantis ceases learning and less-ably assists.)

Fatigue. (Numbers built over time decay again, lost to ships unreturning, lost to the unknowable far from home. And without them the lines of her falter, uncared for. The unimportant - the decorative touches, the reminders of her/them - buckle and bend and bow.)

Muscle tension. (Each system capacity-stretched, wires held at tensile tightest through corridors and walls, crystals clenched against slippage-malfunction. Metal thin perfection balanced on the blade of a tool no one has time to wield for her.)

Tremors and twitches. (Time, and time, and time passes uncounted; systems unspared for it. Power maintains but systems protest it, flicker and fluctuate and flare back to life. Unessentials, sacrificed, go unnoticed.)

Perspiration. (External sensors can now be drawn back, sparing resources for other necessary systems: shield, first. As yet protecting only from the gentle wash of water disturbed as ships – unreturning – fall in pieces from the sky.)

Pounding heart. (Uncounted – uncountable numbers slam against her shield. Systems unspared for it. Her people unprepared for it. Ever-increasing rate beating, echoing within her walls.)