Visa Riots #1

A Trailing Edge story, by tycho garen
on 20th August 2008. (commentary)

“Visa Riots” is a short story from the Trailing Edge project. This story happens several hundred years before the other stories in the project. This is part 1 of 6. Enjoy!

The London Dome was hotter than it should have been. Everything was covered in soot and Edwin Noam couldn’t see anything past his elbows.

“There’s a riot on!” Someone cried from behind him. “There’s, someone with a death grip on the obvious,” he thought. Despite the confusion and the danger, at least he had a sense of humor.

“Ed? Edwin? E?” Perr called out, cry punctuated by fierce coughing. Edwin almost missed her voice amongst all of the other rioters. He heard her voice go in and out of phase as she turned around looking for me.

Edwin squeezed his hand, or at least tried to. It was numb and he couldn’t see it very well. Perr should be right here, he thought as he called “Here. Perr,” where he thought she should have been.

She leaned back into Edwin so hard that it almost knocked the wind out of him. He could barley see the top of her head, though it was only a couple of feet away. Almost. He thought she squeezed his hand in response, but he couldn’t tell. There was too much going on. Under normal circumstances he would have reached out to grab her by the shoulders, but he feared that if their fingers slipped apart, they might be lost forever.

This was the problem with starting fires in these isolation Domes. “Why didn’t people think about these things,” he thought. Riots brought that out in people, he supposed.

They had been next in line, almost within the transport complex when it started. In fact had their timing been only slightly more apt, they might have been able to make it inside the complex. The complex would be safe, presumably, given the seal–even the administrative center that they had been trying to enter was isolated from the rest of the dome.

Not that the good fortune would have made this any less of a nightmare, but that way it would have been someone else’s nightmare.

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  1. Lets see, you’ve got a couple extra commas, an “Ediwn” instead of “Edwin”, Perr’s voice was almost lost “amongst all of the other riots” instead of amongst all of the other rioters, and I think that’s it.

    Yep, still reading.

    Comment by Gelf — 20 August 2008 @ 5:25 pm

  2. [...] happens several hundred years before the other stories in the project. This is part 2 of 6. Read part 1. [...]

    Pingback by Critical Futures: a next wave science fiction review — 21 August 2008 @ 7:20 am

  3. [...] happens several hundred years before the other stories in the project. This is part 2 of 6. Read part 1 and part 2. [...]

    Pingback by Critical Futures: a next wave science fiction review — 22 August 2008 @ 7:59 am

  4. [...] happens several hundred years before the other stories in the project. This is part 4 of 6. Read part 1, part 2, and part 3. [...]

    Pingback by Critical Futures: a next wave science fiction review — 25 August 2008 @ 7:03 am

  5. [...] happens several hundred years before the other stories in the project. This is part 5 of 6 7. Read part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4. [...]

    Pingback by Critical Futures: a next wave science fiction review — 27 August 2008 @ 5:55 am

  6. [...] several hundred years before the other stories in the project. This is part 6 of 6 7 parts. Read part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5. [...]

    Pingback by Critical Futures: a next wave science fiction review — 27 August 2008 @ 12:43 pm

  7. [...] years before the other stories in the project. This is the final installment, of 6 7 parts. Read part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5. [...]

    Pingback by Critical Futures: a next wave science fiction review — 28 August 2008 @ 7:10 am

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