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Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("The Luddites were right"):
rdm@aus.social wrote:
I looked across the tent at a perfect copy of myself. Well, not quite perfect. They are still getting the hang of English.
I should back up a bit.
Just before sunset a week ago, I screwed up. I'd been driving too long, and only saw the wombat on the highway at the last moment. I swerved and lost control.
When I came to, my car was totalled, and well out of sight of the highway, behind a low rise on the plain. I struggled out of the wreck in the dark, but had enough sense not to try wandering around. There are all sorts of sinkholes around here, and if I fell down one of them, I was a goner.
As I stood next to the remains of my car, I saw what I thought was a helicopter coming my way. I waved and shouted, but then I noticed how erratically it was flying. The lights seemed a bit off, too. I was pretty sure helicopters didn't have purple lights. So maybe it was someone's drone?
All of that went out the window, when it turned towards me, and then crashed into the ground next to my wrecked car.
What I was looking at was an actual flying saucer. About twice the size of my car. And it looked about as wrecked as my car was.
After a couple of moments, a small port opened, and a gush of purple liquid poured out, followed by a splat of something grey.
I just stared. What I didn't notice was the grey blob in the purple puddle extruding a tendril towards me. At least until it touched my leg.
I probably jumped five metres straight up at that. And about five backwards.
What followed was the grey blob contracting back into itself, and then changing. Into a perfect copy of me.
This was one shock too many, and I fainted.
When I came to, the copy was crouched next to me. Before I could move, it touched my forehead, and I was filled with a sense of worry. And it was not mine. This I found a bit reassuring, and so I stopped myself from moving, and tried to ask what it was.
It took a lot of back and forthing of mental images, but it's ship had hit an near-earth asteroid, and it had lost control. It wanted to know if it could be fixed.
I didn't know. But, between the two of us, we might be able to get one vehicle sort of working. We thought about getting a lift, but there would be questions. Too many of them.
Of course, it was now in the form of a human, so the first order was arranging food and water. Then it discovered it needed to sleep. And everything else.
Some of its ship still worked - and it knew enough to work out how create food and water for us both. And it is learning English. Which is a bit easier than trading images.
We've been here a week now.
As I watch the copy of me, it wakes up. I watch my body stretch, and then it looks at me. "We fix car. Get bigger car. Take my ship to fixing place."
"I don't know that we've got anywhere that can fix your ship."
"Can't fix it here."
"Can we fix the car?"
"Easier than ship."I guess it has a point.
#SF #SFF #SciFi #microfic #tootfic #microtfiction #IAmWriting