{"id":5709,"date":"2014-12-20T15:54:41","date_gmt":"2014-12-20T23:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/?p=5709"},"modified":"2014-12-20T16:11:14","modified_gmt":"2014-12-21T00:11:14","slug":"laser-shades-a-story-for-your-reading-pleasure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/2014\/12\/20\/laser-shades-a-story-for-your-reading-pleasure\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Laser Shades,&#8221; A Free Read! And Transrealism News."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today I\u2019m posting  the text of my story, \u201cLaser Shades\u201d\u009d for your holiday reading pleasure.<\/p>\n<p>The story was commissioned for <em><a  href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Robert-Shults-The-Superlative-Light\/dp\/0989798127\">The Superlative Light<\/a><\/em>, a photo book by <a  href=\"http:\/\/www.robertshultsphoto.com\/robertshultsphoto\/Current.html\">Robert Shults<\/a>, but it has not been otherwise published as yet.<\/p>\n<p>Two news items before my story.<\/p>\n<p>The writer and columnist Damien Walter posted \u201c<a  href=\"http:\/\/damiengwalter.com\/2014\/12\/19\/let-the-strangeness-in-monica-byrne-and-rudy-rucker-on-the-transreal-revolution\/\">Let the Strangeness In<\/a>,\u201d\u009d  a good interview\/discussion about transrealism between me and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.monicabyrne.org\/\">Monica Byrne<\/a>, author of the excellent novel<em> The Girl In The Road<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>And, on the same day, synchronistically enough, my film-maker friend Edgar P\u00c3\u00aara posted <em>Trans-Realist Maniphesto <\/em> a video from Lisbon, 1994, with me and good old Terence McKenna.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9bccvplA1w0?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And now\u2026on with the show..  <\/p>\n<h2>Laser Shades, by Rudy Rucker<\/h2>\n<p><em>If you want, you can listen to the story online while you read it.<br \/>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_5943\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/rudyruckerpodcasts\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/mp3\/rucker_lasershades_shults_book_june_11_2014.mp3\" title=\"Play\" onclick=\"return powerpress_embed_html5a('5943','https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/rudyruckerpodcasts\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/mp3\/rucker_lasershades_shults_book_june_11_2014.mp3');\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/powerpress\/play_audio.png\" title=\"Play\" alt=\"Play\" style=\"border:0;\" width=\"23px\" height=\"24px\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images5\/107_lasershades.jpg\"><br \/>\n<em> \u201cLaser Shades,\u201d\u009d oil on canvas, February, 2014, 24\u201d\u009d x 20\u201d\u009d.  Painted to go with this story. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images5\/107_lasershades_1200.jpg\"> Click for a larger version of the painting.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Adrian was entranced by Carla. She\u2019d hooked him fast, and she was reeling him in\u2014smiling with parted lips and nodding her head in rhythm to the cadences of his speech. Jack, off to one side, wasn\u2019t really listening to the words, no, he was reviewing tonight\u2019s plan.  Step one: bump into Adrian. Step two: get into to the laser lab.  Step three&#8230; <\/p>\n<p>This was a nice club, on Austin\u2019s merry Sixth Street, out towards the dark end of the spectrum. The Scales Fall. They featured yowly music here, one of Adrian\u2019s hobbies\u2014he talked about The Scales Fall all the time, which was how Jack had known they\u2019d find him here.  Tonight a hairy guy was playing a \u201cbeam guitar,\u201d\u009d which was like a steel guitar, but with sensitive light rays in place of the strings. The man wore his hair a hundred-percent over his face, like a cartoon hermit, and the only skin you could see was the tip of his nose. A happy nose.<\/p>\n<p>The beam guitar had a mellow, aethereal tone, sounding like one of those old-time gizmos\u2014theremins. A woman was singing along, kind of a Russian steppes sound, her voice dank and husky, reminding Jack, as so many things did, of his dead wife Yulia. Yesterday it had been six months. A prion infection from her lab. Horrible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid you hear what Adrian said, Jack?\u201d\u009d Carla was looking at him brightly. Humoring him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUh, no,\u201d\u009d said Jack.  \u201cI\u2019m lost in the music. A jellyfish.\u201d\u009d He made wiggly motions with his arms, managing to knock over one of their empty Shiner beer bottles. It bounced off the floor, unbreakable nanocrystal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVintage slimefabber move,\u201d\u009d said Adrian, laughing at Jack.  He was a tidy man with chiseled features.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSlimefabbing is king,\u201d\u009d said Carla, sticking up for Jack.  \u201cForget about brittle, thuddy machines. Jack cultures a wad of fabslime, he sings to it, and it makes what you need.  Like the way a peach makes a pit.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know all about that,\u201d\u009d said Adrian.  \u201cJack fabs components for my group at the yottawatt laser lab.  I\u2019m a plasma ultraoptics tech, right?  Jack here\u2019s the only slimefabber in Austin who can make mirrored surfaces. You\u2019ve known him for awhile, huh, Carla?  Have you ever heard him singing to his slime?\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Carla giggled and nodded. \u201cKind of rank,\u201d\u009d she said.  \u201cAll burbly and wet. But maybe a little magical, too.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images5\/lexresdino.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Truth be told, Carla had once had a crush on Jack.  She\u2019d been Yulia\u2019s research assistant, and with Yulia out of the picture, Carla had half-expected to take her place. But nothing was happening along those lines, and Jack was getting ever stranger.  Carla was about done with Jack. As a farewell, she\u2019d let him rope her into helping him with this insane last-ditch scheme he was running tonight.  Not that Carla even remotely expected it to work.  Because if it <em>did<\/em>\u2014but never mind that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI enjoy my work,\u201d\u009d said Jack evenly.  \u201cHow\u2019s <em>your <\/em>project going, Adrian?  Got those pocket stars happening yet?\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPocket stars?\u201d\u009d said Carla, playing dumb. As if Jack hadn\u2019t been steadily talking about this stuff for the last month. \u201cWhat a beautiful name. Did you coin it, Adrian?\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Adrian would have liked to say yes, but he couldn\u2019t.  \u201cThis guy,\u201d\u009d he said, jerking his thumb at Jack.  \u201cGood with words.  I was going to call them femtoscale fusion reactors. You\u2019ll use them like batteries, see. The technology of batteries is a millstone, a bottleneck, hopelessly stalled. Pocket stars will disrupt the paradigms.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat about hard radiation?\u201d\u009d asked Carla.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot a show-stopper,\u201d\u009d said Adrian.  \u201cThat\u2019s the part I\u2019m working on, matter of fact.  Mirror mazes around our little suns.  Phase-shift cancellations.  Troughs and crests. Optical wizardry.  That\u2019s where Jack\u2019s components come in.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow\u2019s the latest upgrade working out?\u201d\u009d asked Jack in a studiously neutral tone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSpectacular!\u201d\u009d said Adrian.  \u201cWe\u2019re past the point of inflection, guy.  Up onto the gigabucks slope of the growth curve.  One more round of funding and my group can productize.\u201d\u009d  He lowered his voice.  \u201cThe latest prototypes\u2014they shed megawatts like dogs losing hair.  I even sold some power to the lab. In the right matrix, one of these pocket stars could last indefinitely.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCan I see one?\u201d\u009d asked Carla.  \u201cPretty please.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, I wouldn\u2019t be authorized to take you into the lab,\u201d\u009d said Adrian.  \u201cIt\u2019s class-seven secure.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images5\/bubblesbeaubourg.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, it\u2019s Saturday night,\u201d\u009d said Carla.  \u201cNobody\u2019s gonna be there. And I\u2019ll show you one of <em>my <\/em>secrets if you\u2019ll play.\u201d\u009d  She smiled, working her charm.  \u201c<em>Two <\/em>secrets, maybe.\u201d\u009d  She drew a little box from her purse, all angles, darkly gleaming, cupping it in the palm of her hand.  \u201cThe first secret is that Jack slimefabbed something off a sample from my lab. Wouldn\u2019t you love to know what it is?\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaybe,\u201d\u009d said Adrian, not all that interested. \u201cWhat\u2019s the second secret?\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Silently Carla mimed a juicy kiss.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCarla is a postdoc in the mitochondrial genomics group here,\u201d\u009d said Jack, before Adrian could properly respond.  \u201cSpecializing in the Golgi apparatus. She was working with Yulia right up to the end. She even found the fix to neutralize the prion that killed Yulia. Saved the others in the lab.  They called her a hero.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSoft, wet science,\u201d\u009d Carla told Adrian, her voice a tiger\u2019s purr.  \u201cNot like those yottawatt laser-beam swords you boys play with. Not like your pocket-pool hydrogen bombs. Genomics is the only femtotech that matters.  A cornucopia from the living mother of life.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe living mother of life, huh?\u201d\u009d said Adrian with a crooked grin. \u201cDoes that have anything to do with your second secret?\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything,\u201d\u009d said Carla.  \u201cDim things <em>matter<\/em>, Adrian. Not just bright things.\u201d\u009d  She was hefting the dark little container in her hand. It had sides like pentagons. \u201cTake us into the laser lab, and this little stash box opens like a clam. You\u2019ll be flabbergasted.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSay yes,\u201d\u009d Jack urged Adrian, his voice very intense. \u201cYou know I\u2019ve been putting in an extra effort for you. And you\u2019ve only let me into the lab that one time when you hired me.  I need feedback if I\u2019m going to keep working for you.  Don\u2019t worry about Carla. I know all about her.\u201d\u009d A touch of ice in his voice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCarla is single?\u201d\u009d asked Adrian, rudely direct.  \u201cNot your girlfriend?\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJack\u2019s the grieving widower,\u201d\u009d said Carla.  \u201cI\u2019m the perky, yearning, star-struck ing\u00c3\u00a9nue, rejected once too often. And you can be Prince Charming, Adrian.  If you don\u2019t act like a jerk. And if you\u2019re not too chicken to let your friends see what\u2019s in your lab.  And if you really <em>do <\/em>have your pocket stars working. Which I\u2019m starting to doubt.\u201d\u009d She paused for effect.  \u201cMaybe we should leave, Jack. I don\u2019t think I like this man.\u201d\u009d Carla rose to her feet, enjoying her power.  She took two steps towards the door. Glanced back over her shoulder.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWait!\u201d\u009d said Adrian, right on cue.  He threw money on the table for the beers and followed Jack and Carla outside.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can drive,\u201d\u009d said Jack. \u201cI\u2019ve got my whale.  I parked it down a side street.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGreat,\u201d\u009d said Adrian.  \u201cI came by bus.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images5\/gvalakebench.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It was a warm November night. The pecan trees were droppping nuts.  Carla scooped up a handful, squeezing them together in pairs, eating the ones that gave way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe champion pecan,\u201d\u009d she said after a bit, holding up a final nut. \u201cHe cracked all his friends.  But can you even see?  It\u2019s so dark tonight.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need our laser shades,\u201d\u009d said Adrian, pulling out two pairs of sunglasses. He handed one pair to Carla.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ll like these,\u201d\u009d Jack told Carla.  \u201cI\u2019ve got my own pair in my car.  I helped slimefab them for the lab.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>They were standing by Jack\u2019s car now, an old-school convertible with its top down, a massive construct of Detroit steel.  Cars like this were generally illegal to drive, but Jack had a historical preservation permit for his.  He drew his pair of laser shades from the glove compartment, and now the three companions were standing there, goggling at each other, goofing on the scene. Although the laser shades had dark lenses, they had infrared laser crystals set into the rims of their frames.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGhostly,\u201d\u009d said Carla.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe crystals vibrate,\u201d\u009d said Adrian.  \u201cScanning across the things you want to see.  Scanning them with infrared, you understand, and the rays bounce back to your special lenses.  So you\u2019re seeing a moir\u00c3\u00a9 image contour map. With pseudocolors based on temperatures.  You look like a singer in a yowly music band, Carla.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>She did a little dance in the street there, brandishing her faceted box and her champion pecan.  Jack was in the driver\u2019s seat, ready to go. But now, as often happened, the car failed to start.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been working on a fix,\u201d\u009d said Jack. He twisted around, rooted though the debris on his back seat, drew forth a crufty glob of fabslime the size of a coconut, and warbled an open-sesame command.  Obligingly the hairy orb split in two, revealing a glittering carburetor part, quite unobtainable on the commercial market.  Jack flipped up the car\u2019s flappy old hood and installed the piece.  Accustomed to this routine, Carla worked the starter until the car let out a dinosaur roar.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images5\/boathousedoor.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>They cruised through the warm dark Austin night, the three of them on the car\u2019s wide front seat, Carla in the middle, the air beating, pecans crackling beneath the wheels, the passing scenery like cartoons seen through their laser-shades.<\/p>\n<p>Adrian had to pass all kinds of thumbprint and eyeball scanner routines to get them down the elevator and as far as the actual entrance to the yottawatt laser lab.  And then it became a matter of jollying their way past the gatekeeper, Cruz Sordo, who was somewhat distracted by a holographic ballet-dancing game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve nailed my arabesques and fouett\u00c3\u00a9s,\u201d\u009d said Cruz, rocking back and forth.  \u201cI need three perfect grand jetes to reach the next level\u2014which is the virtual Bolshoi. Your two guests are cleared, Adrian?\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJack\u2019s already been in this lab before,\u201d\u009d said Adrian.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd Carla\u2019s from a genomics research group,\u201d\u009d put in Jack.  \u201cShe\u2019s bringing an add-on for Adrian\u2019s run.\u201d\u009d Adrian let the unexpected claim pass.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOkay, fine,\u201d\u009d said the feckless Cruz. \u201cBut I want you folks out of there in ten minutes. Before the lab\u2019s next autoscan.\u201d\u009d He backed off and took a running jump across the hall.  \u201cYes!  I might even be on the Bolshoi level by then.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The laser lab was deserted, a bit sinister, with sagging cables, panels with jiggly readouts, work-benches like sacrificial plinths. The place was dimly lit, with stark pools of brightness in certain spots. Filtered through the laser shades, the potentially hazardous light came through in sour greens and tender mauves, in meaty reds and shinbone whites.<\/p>\n<p>A vacuum pump was thumping, with a wheezing sound.  \u201cChirped pulse amplification,\u201d\u009d said Adrian.  \u201cLike an accordion. Working the light up to the yottawatt level, back and forth, strong enough to zap protons to the petavolt scale.  Enough to spark a pocket star.  My set-up is over here.\u201d\u009d  They proceeded down the aisle, first Adrian, then Carla, then Jack.<\/p>\n<p>Jack noticed an intense glow of infrared body-heat coming off of Carla.  She was scared, more than scared\u2014terrified.  Jack formed a sudden conviction that she was planning to sabotage tonight\u2019s run.  Lurching into her from behind, he seized her wrist and pried the precious, crystalline case from her hand.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images5\/egyptgnarl.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cJack! <em>I\u2019m <\/em>the expert on mitochondria.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou killed Yulia, Carla. I have to say it. It was your fault. You did it on purpose. To get your hands on me.\u201d\u009d There. Laying it out at last.<\/p>\n<p>Carla\u2019s voice rose by two octaves. \u201cYou are so <em>crazy<\/em>! I don\u2019t even <em>like <\/em>you anymore! Adrian! We need to get out of here!\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCruz said we have ten minutes,\u201d\u009d said Adrian, not really understanding. \u201cBe quiet and pay attention, you two. My target is right here on this little platform, a piece of foil.  See Jack\u2019s mirror-maze next to it? The laser pulse is going to make a pocket star.  And then a magnetohydronamic vortex pulls it into the maze. Keep back. The pulse is coming in ten seconds.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Jack shouldered past them, holding out his faceted box. He flipped a dark pink object onto the workbench\u2014it was a fabslime-woven matrix for Yulia\u2019s mitochondria.  Jack was singing, his voice liquid and weird. The magic bean was twitching like a pet.<\/p>\n<p><em>ZzzzzZZZttt!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The yottawatt laser beam drilled into fleshy lump. The pulse was lasting much, much longer than usual, as if the biotech lump were impossibly sending signals up the beam to its source, jamming all the switches to <em>on<\/em>.  One, then two, little stars bloomed within the shuddering bean. Though scorched and smoking, it held its shape. Jack still hadn\u2019t stopped singing. Adrian and Carla were backing away.<\/p>\n<p>Fueled by the yottawatt beam and by the two pocket stars, the Yulia lump grew larger, taking form, extending arms, legs, and head, channeling energy like a babe at breast.<\/p>\n<p>The thumping of the hidden vacuum pump had risen to a wild tattoo, and now came an explosion.  The laser beam winked out. Somewhere in the lab an alarm horn was hooting. Perversely, idiotically, a set of ceiling sprinklers kicked on, raining down upon the scene.  Jagged sparks, swirls of smoke, shattering glassware.  The remaining lights cut out. Footsteps rushed to the lab door\u2014Adrian and Carla escaping.<\/p>\n<p>In the soft dark, wearing his laser shades, Jack could still see a little bit.  Yulia was sitting up.  Reborn. Smiling at him.<\/p>\n<p>And now she opened her eyes.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images5\/egyptrudy.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Merry X and a Wild Y!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today I\u2019m posting the text of my story, \u201cLaser Shades\u201d\u009d for your holiday reading pleasure. The story was commissioned for The Superlative Light, a photo book by Robert Shults, but it has not been otherwise published as yet. Two news items before my story. The writer and columnist Damien Walter posted \u201cLet the Strangeness In,\u201d\u009d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5709"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5722,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5709\/revisions\/5722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}