PsuedoTime
few I originally wrote PsuedoTime back in 1983. I edited and edited and edited over the years, but never managed to get satisfied. I did a massive rewrite of it in 2006. Some things I think improved and some left me still not quite feeling like it was right.
Psuedo is on my list of projects I hope to revive and complete in the next years or so.
Ian picked his way gently through the crowd. He was watching everywhere for any hint of movement in the fuzzy red light of pseudo-time. Movement would mean another clicker. The skads were behind him somewhere in the once milling throng of people.
He couldn't hear them, pseudo-time left only a dull leaden hiss of moving molecules within his own head.
He drew his beretta. He jammed the 17 round clip of 9 mm ammo home and jacked in a round. Ordinary ammo would only produce flesh wounds on a clicker due to his mass and enertia. These were full steel jacketed, high velocity, not for speed, but to pump their momentum up. The speed of the bullet was inconsequential at pseudo-time velocities. Clickers would be moving faster than the bullets. The idea was to get the clicker to run into the bullet instead of the other way around. Then his own speed would drive the bullet in to kill him.
He looked at the frozen bodies around him. He couldn't shoot without a sure shot. A miss would cause casualties among the helpless frozen people around him. A flicker caught his eye. He turned and saw a dozen other flickers of motion in the crowd. The skads would be on him soon. He realized with a shock that they were ramming their way through the helpless crowd to get him, or at least flush him out. With their mass and momentum it
would be like hitting the unmoving bodies with a truck at fifty.
Ian hoped he wouldn't have to see the mess they'd leave behind. High civ casualties, he shook his head at the thought. He couldn't let their actions deter him. He had to get away. The best hope for the crowd was for him to get through and out the other side as quickly as possible. But it was like moving through a maze of eggshells. To brush one of the statues around him would shatter bone. Ahead of him the crowd congealed until
there was no way through with out pushing aside bodies. Behind him the skads had no such scruples. They were gaining fast. Ahead, dimly in the half-light he saw more skads coming into crowd from the other side. He was cut off by skads as much as by the crowd. Ian watched his plan fall apart in shreds. He was surely trapped now. What to do? He stopped moving. Non-motion in the pseudo-eviron would mask him better than the bodies of the crowd. Turning his head as slowly as he could, he looked behind him. Ian froze as a lone skad appeared. A young man in a bloodied black skad uniform passed within feet of him. Ian slowly drew a thick steel knife, then he swiftly stepped forward and jammed the blade hilt-deep into the back of the skad's head. He stifled his remorse for the killing, thinking of the blood that was smeared on the black fabric. Blood from the broken bodies of the crowd. Action as Ian snuffs several others. Need pseudo-time to real-time conversion so I can keep track of what the real timers are doing while the pseudo action takes place.
Psuedo is on my list of projects I hope to revive and complete in the next years or so.
Ian picked his way gently through the crowd. He was watching everywhere for any hint of movement in the fuzzy red light of pseudo-time. Movement would mean another clicker. The skads were behind him somewhere in the once milling throng of people.
He couldn't hear them, pseudo-time left only a dull leaden hiss of moving molecules within his own head.
He drew his beretta. He jammed the 17 round clip of 9 mm ammo home and jacked in a round. Ordinary ammo would only produce flesh wounds on a clicker due to his mass and enertia. These were full steel jacketed, high velocity, not for speed, but to pump their momentum up. The speed of the bullet was inconsequential at pseudo-time velocities. Clickers would be moving faster than the bullets. The idea was to get the clicker to run into the bullet instead of the other way around. Then his own speed would drive the bullet in to kill him.
He looked at the frozen bodies around him. He couldn't shoot without a sure shot. A miss would cause casualties among the helpless frozen people around him. A flicker caught his eye. He turned and saw a dozen other flickers of motion in the crowd. The skads would be on him soon. He realized with a shock that they were ramming their way through the helpless crowd to get him, or at least flush him out. With their mass and momentum it
would be like hitting the unmoving bodies with a truck at fifty.
Ian hoped he wouldn't have to see the mess they'd leave behind. High civ casualties, he shook his head at the thought. He couldn't let their actions deter him. He had to get away. The best hope for the crowd was for him to get through and out the other side as quickly as possible. But it was like moving through a maze of eggshells. To brush one of the statues around him would shatter bone. Ahead of him the crowd congealed until
there was no way through with out pushing aside bodies. Behind him the skads had no such scruples. They were gaining fast. Ahead, dimly in the half-light he saw more skads coming into crowd from the other side. He was cut off by skads as much as by the crowd. Ian watched his plan fall apart in shreds. He was surely trapped now. What to do? He stopped moving. Non-motion in the pseudo-eviron would mask him better than the bodies of the crowd. Turning his head as slowly as he could, he looked behind him. Ian froze as a lone skad appeared. A young man in a bloodied black skad uniform passed within feet of him. Ian slowly drew a thick steel knife, then he swiftly stepped forward and jammed the blade hilt-deep into the back of the skad's head. He stifled his remorse for the killing, thinking of the blood that was smeared on the black fabric. Blood from the broken bodies of the crowd. Action as Ian snuffs several others. Need pseudo-time to real-time conversion so I can keep track of what the real timers are doing while the pseudo action takes place.