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missing mia!


May Tremont
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It was a bright, sunny day when Mia showed up at the bus station, holding her ticket.  She held one hand over her eyes, shading them against the mid-morning sun and watched the traffic on the roadway pass by, cars of all colors and shapes and sizes and destinations.  She smiled as she knew her own destination, her own personal journey she was undertaking this very day.

Space camp.

Mia had always wanted to be an astronaut, from her earliest memory of lying back in the damp grass in her front yard, the nighttime air cool over her face as she looked up at all the stars.  How many, she wondered.  Or did it even matter?  The possibilities were endless, as vast and unexplored as the night sky... and right then and there she knew in her heart she was destined for great things.

A low rumbling sound interrupted her thoughts, and she looked over to see an arriving bus.  But not the Greyhound bus she had been expecting, but a brightly-colored, almost gaudy, old model GM that came lumbering up and wheezed to a stop, the air in its tanks hissing.  As the dust settled she was able to see the side of the bus and the faded images painted there; "Circus".

I didn't know the circus was in town, she mused.

She had always wanted to run away and join the circus, even before she had wanted to be an astronaut.  She recalled images of activity and excitement as the carnival workers would scramble to set up all the tents and how they worked so seamlessly to raise the center pole, the longest, heaviest one and what seemed the most difficult to her, the foreman yelling and cursing all the while as they worked.  The smell of engine grease mixed with the unmistakable scent of baled hay having been battered around and transported from one site to the next.

And the clowns.

What had he said?  She struggled to remember, it had been so long ago.  He was tall, handsome, even through the heavy powder on his face.  She had smiled as he came near and noticed the tiny earpiece in his ear.  How odd, she thought, and looked closer.  He caught her stare, smiling through his makeup and then, with only a hint of acknowledgement, leaned in close and whispered in her ear, "It's okay, I'm with the FBI."

It had been her lifelong dream to become an agent with the FBI, as long as she could remember.  She had applied immediately after high school and been accepted.  She had always suspected she had a good word put in for her by the man she had met so long ago, the handsome clown.  She had worked hard to be where she was now, a secret agent, she was working on yet another undercover mission; infiltrate, evaluate and gather information.  It was one of her favorite things to do and she was good at it.

Her earpiece buzzed in her ear.  "All good, Agent?  Intel reports the space camp bus will be on site in less than a minute.  Get ready."

She smiled and brought her hand down, whispering into the tiny microphone at her wrist.  "All good.  Looks like we're on our way."

 

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The man smiled as he looked down at the young lady on the metal table, the shining manacles locking her wrists, legs and neck firmly to it. His white lab coat crisp and clean. Walking to the strange humming machine next to her, he checks the readout, pushes his glasses up and adjusts a few dials, refining the amount of the various psychotropic drugs fed to the IV. "Astronaut, clowns and an FBI agent? Well, it looks like this will be the best batch I have made so far. The bored rich idiots will be tripping balls after using this." He mutters as he turns from her. "It's a shame her mind will be so disjointed afterwards, she is very lovely," chuckling he walks away whistling  a circus theme.

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"...........focus............. focus!"

Her eyelids were so heavy, her mind awash in strange, swirling colors and haunting illusions, distant memories, an ache in her skull, pressure, being lost, wait, who was that?  Wha-

With only a glimmer of consciousness, she lifted her head a few inches above the surface of the steel table and brought it down sharply, harshly, the pain momentarily driving the darkness away.  Through the fog in her mind she was fully aware of the man's footsteps no longer near her but she sensed he was still nearby.  Very close, she knew, and her chest tightened in panic.

Although in a deep haze, she managed to quietly log out, disable RLV and log back in... cheating her bonds was never her style but circumstances were a bit more dire this time.

Chancing discovery, she opened her eyes only the slightest bit and cautiously glanced about, seeing the man in the lab coat standing at another workstation only a few feet away.  With practiced motion she withdrew her suddenly sore, aching wrists from the manacles, taking a moment to pull the medical tape off and slip the IV needle out, the blood following easily down her arm and dripping on the cold metal surface.  Only a heartbeat later and her ankles were freed, and with a smooth motion brought her hand up and found the derringer hidden in her garter.  A tiny pistol, but she struggled to hold it with both hands as she leveled the sights at the back of the man in the lab coat and glasses.

"...ffffFBI!  P-put your h-hands up!"  she croaked weakly.  Was that her voice?  She didn't recognize the sounds that came from her own throat, the haze deeply overwhelming and she struggled to stay conscious.

"...I -- I know!  I know...." she slurred, dreamily.  "this is no s-space camp!  This is... you're ... this is an illegal psychotropic drug manufacturing operation...!"

 

 

.....but what if it was true?

She squeezed her eyes shut and groaned sharply, her throat tight.  That was a movie, a stupid movie, stop thinking that!  That's not... it's not even possible... 'Total Recall'... no.... NO.

It was at this point she questioned if she had daydreamed even waking up.

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Her body twitched as she lay on the table...the electrodes dancing wildly on her head and chest.

The man in the lab coat looked up. A large group of well dressed men stood on an observation platform a few feet above him.

"As you can see, gentlemen, we can manipulate her mind as we see fit." He pushed again on his glasses, clearing his throat. He hoped that he got the accent right...he would hate to be mistaken for something he wasn't. "At the moment, we are giving her the impression that she has escaped. You can see what she's doing on this monitor here."

The man walked to the monitor, watching Mia pointing a gun at his back. The images were fuzzy, as she hadn't seen his face before. The man flipped a few switches and turned a dial. The images faded and changed....

*****************************************************************************************************************************************

She found herself sitting a field of flowers. The smell was intoxicating. The autumn air was crisp and clean. Next to her was a basket, full of food and a handsome man holding a glass of red wine.

"Oh Mia....I have missed you so much." he said in a thick European accent. "Since you went away to Space Camp, my life has been so empty." He holds a glass out for her.

"No. No. This...this isn't right." Mia said quietly, her thoughts jumbled. "There was this man...I was on a metal table in a lab.."

The handsome man took her hand and held it tightly. Mia could feel her heart racing.

"You had a terrible experience at Space Camp, my dear" he replied. "The clowns...." He stopped, looking deeply into her eyes.

"It is all over now, my love." He handed her the wine again. "Tomorrow, I will take you home."

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Class, please direct your attention away from the scene on the TV behind me and towards your classmate, Mr. Flogistan who's nodding off in the front row. You'll notice he bears an uncanny resemblance to the lab coated gentleman who just explained his mind manipulation machine to the onlookers in that observation room gallery. And if you look up to the back of the lecture hall, you'll see my teaching assistant, Mia, who appears to be at the controls of a similar apparatus.

As I announced yesterday, today's exam will be open-book, open-note, open-neighbor, and focused entirely on the concept of "Recursive Induced Hallucination" we've been investigating all week. You will have the remainder of the hour to discover which one of you is at the top of the recursive hallucination that is, at the moment, affecting all but one person in this room.

I'll give you all a head start by noting that I have always dreamed of being a professor of pyschology.

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Mia stood at the back of the class as the students ran around trying to figure out the solution. She smiled..that all knowing smile..and looked to the chalkboard. She knew what was happening..

"Somethings missing, Mia..." she thought.

"Missing....Mia"

"Missing..Mia"

The words pushed themselves together and rattled around in her mind. "Missing Mia. What in the world could that mean?"

Her mind wandered a bit. Another set of words entered her mind. "einfach so geloggt?" She blinked her eyes a few times, beginning to ignore the class, even as students asked her questions about the machine she was using.

"einfach so geloggt.....einfach so geloggt...Logged just like that...Logged just like that"

"It...it makes no sense," she said to no one in particular. "Logged...just...like...that?? Missing Mia...Logged just like that."

"Mia?? Are...are you all right?" one of the students asked. Mia's face was flush with fear.

"I remember....." she yelled as she dropped the controller for the machine and ran quickly from the lecture hall towards the computer science building....

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Sits mesmerized and in stitches as he awaits the next installment....or wait....is he in class...maybe the circus....he did see some clowns....lays his head on the desk....or perhaps it's a metal table....eyes growing heavy as he wonders....Mia???

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Mia pushed open the heavy door that led out the back of the lecture hall and blinked in the bright sunlight.  Her shoes crunched in the deep gravel as she trotted toward the computer science building, only a couple hundred feet away when she heard the growl.  A low, rumbling, hissing growl.

She stopped, the hair standing on the back of her neck as she froze in position, listening.  Turning slowly, she looked over her shoulder to see the Administrator's two pet black panthers he used as sentries, Muck and Adolf.  The big cats had heard the commotion and paused their midday snack to approach unheard, their lithesome bodies and fur shining in the sun.  They eyed Mia lazily, but with unbreaking intent... they were waiting for her to run.

"You've got to be kidding me,"  Mia muttered under her breath.

She took a step, tentative, cautious, hesitant, her sneakers making an incredible racket as the gravel shifted and fell around it.  The panthers watched, Adolf licking his lips, his massive whiskers flitting as his tongue wrapped around his fangs and disappeared again into his mouth.  He took a step, too.

Mia waited until the gravel had stopped compressing beneath her foot and shifted her weight, slowly, until she could lift her other foot and brought it forward, placing it one long, long pace ahead... an unnatural position for anyone who happened to glance out the window and see her.  She might be running in slow motion, but as in all magic tricks could be all but impossible given the law of gravity pulling her down and keeping her honest.  She carefully shifted her balance to her forward foot and paused to take a breath.

Muck took two steps...

The gravel scritched beneath her feet as she broke and ran.  The panthers arose from their haunches and settled into a sylphlike canter and then an all-out scramble, their large, soft paws landing easily in the gravel and leaving barely discernible footprints as they gave chase.  Mia was breathing hard, her arms and fists pumping as she ran, her lab coat whipping around her waist.  She couldn't look back -- she didn't NEED to... her mind was focused on reaching the closest opportunity for shelter and sanctuary from the sudden onslaught, a low concrete walkway and a short set of steps leading down to the maintenance room below the science lab.  It wasn't much, she realized, but it was close, and in her heart she knew if she chose to make for the front doors of the lab she'd sooner feel the panthers' claws embedded in her back.

She reached the guardrail and leapt over it sideways, jumping too far and slamming her right shoulder against the outside brick wall of the lab, the rough surface tearing at her blouse and leaving deep abrasions in her skin.  The panthers were close, Adolf rumbling to a stop at the guardrail and chancing a swipe through it, his massive paw only missing Mia's hair by a fraction of an inch.  Mia bounded down the last few steps and grabbed the door handle, the knob turning and pulling open with a groan as she slipped inside and pulled the door closed behind her.

Darkness.

Her breath came in rasps and shudders, only broken as she paused to try to swallow, her dry mouth preventing it.  The dull walls in the basement echoed her breathing, even though she could not see she knew the room was empty.

Mostly empty.

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Mia stood with her back to the door..trying to control her breathing. Her clothes were drenched in sweat and her hair was a long tangle of knots. She ran her fingers through it, trying to undo the damage, almost screaming as she pulled on each group of strands.

"Ow! Damn It!" she yelled, pulling on another section. "Who the hell keeps panthers on a college campus, anyway?"

She listened at the door. She could still hear the slighty growl of the cats. Her eyes slowly began to adjust to the darkness of the room. She could make out shapes, but not much more. Grabbing her phone, she found the flashlight app and turned it on.

"einfach so geloggt, Mia."

Mia dropped her phone, cracking the screen and plunging the room back into darkness.

The voice, deep and low, repeated itself.

"einfach so geloggt, Mia. einfach....so....geloggt."

"Who are you?" she screamed at the darkness. "What do you want? Stay Away!"

Mia could hear footsteps, heels clicking in the dark, moving in her direction. She pushed on the door behind her. It appeared to lock from the outside.

"Stay away from me!" she yelled again. The figure stepped closer to her. She couldn't see him, her eyes still not adjusted from the light of the flashlight.

"Missing Mia....Miss..ing...Miaaaaaa" the voice repeated. Mia crouched to her knees, her hands covering her ears.

"NO!! NO!!" she screamed again, as she felt a sack being placed over her head quickly and tied with stiff rope around her waist.....

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I thought I could avoid being drawn into this; I've only been taking looks now and then when there are mutliple posts I haven't seen. Alas, the torn blouse was too much for me. It's full-on B Movie time now and make no mistake. I am in for the duration. I'm just going to race out to the lobby for a box of ice cream bonbons (Popcorn? Not for me, thanks) and hope I get back before she brushes the hair away from her eyes with the back of her hand.

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The man in the white lab coat stand once more before the small group of investors. Gesturing at the large monitor on the wall he explains," At some point it may be possible that she will realize the truth. The truth that she is not real. She is the latest in AI technology. Hence the acronym, M.I.A. It stands for Machine Intelligence Augmentation. She is nothing more than a program. A test of the latest SecondLife Viewer, V18.6.42.24601." He pauses there to let this implication sink in. Smiling he turns to the frozen image on the screen and gently caresses the image of her face. The beautiful image of his long dead wife. The wife he couldn't save. "She is almost perfect," He thinks to himself, "Only a few more adjustments to make."

Turning back to the investors he smiles, "As you can see, she can think for herself. Solve problems and have feelings. Think of the reaction of the male population of SecondLife. Women they can seduce that aren't real women? They could do any number of depraved things without any fear of repercussion. This is the pinnacle of SecondLife! With this technology we would be richer than our wildest dreams."

Smiling he resumes the program as she finds herself waking, strapped to the same metal table as before.

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He shakes his head as he seems to remember this scenario from some old movie....hmmmmm...if Mia was artificial intelligence....but had real feelings....should she be abused by the low life men of SL??? NO! It's time for  Schwarzenegger the good terminator to make an appearance and save the day....or was that line from Mighty Mouse....lays his weary virtual head back on the desk....table....whatever....

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(going to try to continue, although I think we're written ourselves into a corner)

Mia opens her eyes, slowly, trying to adjust to the bright light beaming at her from above. The man in the white lab coat stands over her.

"Ah, good. You're avake" he pushes on his glasses and tries to hide the slight slip of his almost perfect accent. "We were worried about you, my dear girl."

She tries to move her hand up to shield her eyes and again notices the tight straps around her wrists. She pulls frantically on them.

"What?? Why??" she yelled.

"Do not worry," he replied. "All will be revealed soon."

****************************************************************************************************************************************

The man in the lab coat looks up to the row of investors. "May I have a volunteer?" he asks quietly. A large man in an ill fitting suit raises his hand and is escorted down a long row of stairs to the lab floor. "Welcome sir. Mister Winston, isn't it?" he said quite happilly. The fat man nodded, the rolls of fat on his chin wiggling like jello."I assume you've been following what's been happening on the screens, yes?"

"Yes....uh. Yes, I have. It's quite interesting." Winston replied.

"I'm so glad you feel that way. It is now time for a test." The man in the lab coat sat the fat gentleman down in a chair in front of a computer monitor and handed him a pair of goggles. "Put these on please." Winston did as he was told while the man continued speaking. "These are interactive goggles. They will immerse you in MIA's world in Second Life. You will feel as though you're really there. How do you feel?"

"It's...it's amazing." Winston held out his hands and would see them interacting in the virtual world.

****************************************************************************************************************************************

Mia looked up. The light shining in her eyes was the sun. She was back in the field with the handsome man. She shook her head, trying to make sense of it all.

"Oh Mia." the handsome man said. "You look so beautiful."

Mia wanted to fight this...wanted to resist whatever was taking over her mind. She tried to stand up, run away, anything...but she found herself moving close to the man, kissing him passionately on the lips, She could feel his body heat against hers.

"No...no," she thought, "there's sommmm.....mmmmmm....."

"Oh Winston. I love you so much" Mia replied.

 

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His head jerks up his eyes fly open....THAT'S IT!! This is a generic cross between the Terminator and Lawn Mower Man with the B movie effects thrown in for marketability (low cut blouses and short skirts )...By Jove they have it... If we can just get Kate Winslet for the part of Mia  we have a definite hit on our hands ...Stands and yells "CUT!! PRINt!! That's a wrap!"

                                                                                                          " MISSING MIA"

                                                                                     COMMING

                                                                                         SOON

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