Snapshots of your thoughts...
By Sergio "ente per ente" PALUMBO
Keeedk used to take snapshots of his customers’ thoughts. Nothing strange, it was his job…
Actually, the device- apparently a sort of common holocamera- he worked with was a sort of technology coming from planet 77665 on Epsilon Tauri,within Hyades open cluster Sector. The species from that world had developed that mechanism more than 200 years ago, but no one elsewhere had ever been able to perfect it with the passing of centuries, so it had been finally relegated as a kind of Art.
In fact, given that it had become impossible to make it more useful so to have shots showing images of real or fictional places, characters and landscapes as seen currently in somebody’s mind while sleeping or still wide awake, that invention had ended up being regarded only as a weird genre of Modern Art.The gear, in frank words, took some beautifully vivacious holoprints in full colour, a sort of mixture of lines,circles and other unusual geometric shapes, portraying the thoughts presently on the mind of the customer who accepted to undergo this mechanism. At times, it was some tourist or even a citizen who was looking for something to take back at home and put on a digital picture holoframe, just to have a new attraction to impress his guests one day or another.
And that was good for Keeedk. He could do a lot of money, especially during the Feast of Temples,which occurred twice a year on Miltreh ( Keeedk’s world ), as many people just came here for business, study or some other religious matter ( he had never really understood…).
But there was another reason because that job was so good for him: in fact he was a secret agent, too, the one dealing with information about aliens in transit, their business and interests. Well, he was not a so important secret agent, after all, but he kept it seriously as a responsibility. Of course, if anybody just thinks of it, that’s obvious it was very important for every government to know all it could about strangers, especially if you live in or are forced to work for a semi- dictatorial system- like Miltreh- which wants to keep track of such things, looking obsessively on every newcomer prowling nearby- who knows- maybe committed to discover some secrets or the disposition of military sites within a specific area.
So, every day, Keeedk took several snapshots of his customers passing by- who were very attracted to that strange thing, given its very low cost- and then he did collect them on appropriate data storage just to send it to the high- ranking brains for their future evaluations.
That morning, he had already been asked for more than 350 snapshots, mostly from pilgrims going to the ancient temples built in downtown. He had put some of them on show on the cardboard wall at his back along the left bank of the King River, where his open air stall was placed, just to make the public more curious and interested in them.Maybe some among those guys would be attracted enough to spend the two e-credits necessary to have his work done…
Well, some of the pictures on show depicted very strange things, and he liked to put them in a peculiar order, for instance, the yellow sceneries on top, the group of images with black circles surrounded by triangles on the right and so on. For most people, those holoprints had no real meaning and you could tell them everything to make them interested in a particular holoframe instead of another. But in reality, all the images had their own story, as every type of colour, every single line possessed an important significance before the eyes of a practiced agent as he was, and mostly under his master’s examination, of course.
There was not much of a competition on that ground in the whole galaxy, of course, as the device itself was a sort of secret, so no other alien species could possibly figure out how it functioned. All because of a binding agreement made between the Miltreh government and the people from planet 77665 who built it first. So, nobody else was likely capable to use the same mechanism based on the same principles, until someone else somewhere had conceived again the same thing.
Actually, the device could depict all the thoughts the customer had on his mind when he put himself opposite to the holocamera. So, any worry, desperation or happiness had possibly to be on show when the holopicture was made.
Keeedk had a predilection for the blue circled lines he often was capable of looking at when he took his snapshots: they meant interest and awareness,as usually the customers were doubtful about the overall procedure and its outcome, but he liked them not for their real meaning, but because he counted them as a form of good art. Unintentionally, indeed.
That morning he had already taken a snapshot of a couple just leaving his stall, when soon another customer approached in a hurry. He was an alien from Indlllerh. Very hard to see more than two of them usually during the year, their planet was too far from that system. His very long nose, the furry hair on his own back and two round eyes had nothing to do with all the angular features and the four eyed undecorated head of a typical local from Miltreh - as Keeedk was- even though his height was almost the same. Anyway, he let him in his stall, set eveything for the work, but as soon as he had the snapshot done, he saw a very strange mixture of colours in it,a red circle full of black in a sort of haze…he had seen nothing like that before!
-Surprised at what you see?- the alien from Indlllerh asked Keeedk, his strange fixed gaze on him.
-I doubt I’ve ever seen such a picture before…strange to say…-
-Maybe because that’s the image of my deadly hatred…-
-How is it that.…?- Keeedk was caught unawares. What nonsense was he saying?
-Now I can tell you who I really am…-the alien uttered then-I was a businessman and came here for a meeting more than two years ago. I had a stop at your stall and had a try at this procedure, asking for one snapshot of my thoughts, as I was indeed very curious. So, you did your work and then you passed the file to your masters…-
At that point Keeedk felt worried. How could he ever know about that…?
-But, the morning after, I was taken in custody by the temple guards, imprisoned for one month and deeply scanned to search for any info I was possibly looking for…-
-Well, that’s an interesting…-he said, gesturing to hold off.
-Yeah, just do not move! You do not remember me, of course, as I had a physical surgery on me just to come back here again unnoticed. You know, after that horrible experience, my life turned upside down, so I decided to serve as a secret agent for my home planet, when I was released. And I was sent back here, as a first mission, just for you! I am full of anger and this makes my eyes pop out of my head, my mind thinks of red blood now…-
The red circle full of black in a haze, Keeedk thought.
-So, I’m here for my mission now, to take your life and end once and for all your business…-and, that said, the alien raised his hands and grabbed Keeedk’s neck with all his strength.
“The red circle full of black” he thought again” What a beautiful picture, never seen anything like that, a so deep feeling of hate...”
But the hands of the alien kept his hold on him and Keeedk’s sight was growing dim, his thoughts were getting lost…
And there was nobody around to immortalize them by means of his holocamera at present…
- - -
My biography: I'm an Italian public servant who graduated from Law School working in the public real estates branch. I've published a Fantasy RolePlaying illustrated Manual called WarBlades, which is more than 400 pages long. Some of my works and short stories have been published on American Aphelion Webzine. I am also a scale modeler who likes mostly Science Fiction and Real Space models, some of my little Dioramas have been shown also on the American site StarShipModeler or MechaModelComp.
By Sergio "ente per ente" PALUMBO
Keeedk used to take snapshots of his customers’ thoughts. Nothing strange, it was his job…
Actually, the device- apparently a sort of common holocamera- he worked with was a sort of technology coming from planet 77665 on Epsilon Tauri,within Hyades open cluster Sector. The species from that world had developed that mechanism more than 200 years ago, but no one elsewhere had ever been able to perfect it with the passing of centuries, so it had been finally relegated as a kind of Art.
In fact, given that it had become impossible to make it more useful so to have shots showing images of real or fictional places, characters and landscapes as seen currently in somebody’s mind while sleeping or still wide awake, that invention had ended up being regarded only as a weird genre of Modern Art.The gear, in frank words, took some beautifully vivacious holoprints in full colour, a sort of mixture of lines,circles and other unusual geometric shapes, portraying the thoughts presently on the mind of the customer who accepted to undergo this mechanism. At times, it was some tourist or even a citizen who was looking for something to take back at home and put on a digital picture holoframe, just to have a new attraction to impress his guests one day or another.
And that was good for Keeedk. He could do a lot of money, especially during the Feast of Temples,which occurred twice a year on Miltreh ( Keeedk’s world ), as many people just came here for business, study or some other religious matter ( he had never really understood…).
But there was another reason because that job was so good for him: in fact he was a secret agent, too, the one dealing with information about aliens in transit, their business and interests. Well, he was not a so important secret agent, after all, but he kept it seriously as a responsibility. Of course, if anybody just thinks of it, that’s obvious it was very important for every government to know all it could about strangers, especially if you live in or are forced to work for a semi- dictatorial system- like Miltreh- which wants to keep track of such things, looking obsessively on every newcomer prowling nearby- who knows- maybe committed to discover some secrets or the disposition of military sites within a specific area.
So, every day, Keeedk took several snapshots of his customers passing by- who were very attracted to that strange thing, given its very low cost- and then he did collect them on appropriate data storage just to send it to the high- ranking brains for their future evaluations.
That morning, he had already been asked for more than 350 snapshots, mostly from pilgrims going to the ancient temples built in downtown. He had put some of them on show on the cardboard wall at his back along the left bank of the King River, where his open air stall was placed, just to make the public more curious and interested in them.Maybe some among those guys would be attracted enough to spend the two e-credits necessary to have his work done…
Well, some of the pictures on show depicted very strange things, and he liked to put them in a peculiar order, for instance, the yellow sceneries on top, the group of images with black circles surrounded by triangles on the right and so on. For most people, those holoprints had no real meaning and you could tell them everything to make them interested in a particular holoframe instead of another. But in reality, all the images had their own story, as every type of colour, every single line possessed an important significance before the eyes of a practiced agent as he was, and mostly under his master’s examination, of course.
There was not much of a competition on that ground in the whole galaxy, of course, as the device itself was a sort of secret, so no other alien species could possibly figure out how it functioned. All because of a binding agreement made between the Miltreh government and the people from planet 77665 who built it first. So, nobody else was likely capable to use the same mechanism based on the same principles, until someone else somewhere had conceived again the same thing.
Actually, the device could depict all the thoughts the customer had on his mind when he put himself opposite to the holocamera. So, any worry, desperation or happiness had possibly to be on show when the holopicture was made.
Keeedk had a predilection for the blue circled lines he often was capable of looking at when he took his snapshots: they meant interest and awareness,as usually the customers were doubtful about the overall procedure and its outcome, but he liked them not for their real meaning, but because he counted them as a form of good art. Unintentionally, indeed.
That morning he had already taken a snapshot of a couple just leaving his stall, when soon another customer approached in a hurry. He was an alien from Indlllerh. Very hard to see more than two of them usually during the year, their planet was too far from that system. His very long nose, the furry hair on his own back and two round eyes had nothing to do with all the angular features and the four eyed undecorated head of a typical local from Miltreh - as Keeedk was- even though his height was almost the same. Anyway, he let him in his stall, set eveything for the work, but as soon as he had the snapshot done, he saw a very strange mixture of colours in it,a red circle full of black in a sort of haze…he had seen nothing like that before!
-Surprised at what you see?- the alien from Indlllerh asked Keeedk, his strange fixed gaze on him.
-I doubt I’ve ever seen such a picture before…strange to say…-
-Maybe because that’s the image of my deadly hatred…-
-How is it that.…?- Keeedk was caught unawares. What nonsense was he saying?
-Now I can tell you who I really am…-the alien uttered then-I was a businessman and came here for a meeting more than two years ago. I had a stop at your stall and had a try at this procedure, asking for one snapshot of my thoughts, as I was indeed very curious. So, you did your work and then you passed the file to your masters…-
At that point Keeedk felt worried. How could he ever know about that…?
-But, the morning after, I was taken in custody by the temple guards, imprisoned for one month and deeply scanned to search for any info I was possibly looking for…-
-Well, that’s an interesting…-he said, gesturing to hold off.
-Yeah, just do not move! You do not remember me, of course, as I had a physical surgery on me just to come back here again unnoticed. You know, after that horrible experience, my life turned upside down, so I decided to serve as a secret agent for my home planet, when I was released. And I was sent back here, as a first mission, just for you! I am full of anger and this makes my eyes pop out of my head, my mind thinks of red blood now…-
The red circle full of black in a haze, Keeedk thought.
-So, I’m here for my mission now, to take your life and end once and for all your business…-and, that said, the alien raised his hands and grabbed Keeedk’s neck with all his strength.
“The red circle full of black” he thought again” What a beautiful picture, never seen anything like that, a so deep feeling of hate...”
But the hands of the alien kept his hold on him and Keeedk’s sight was growing dim, his thoughts were getting lost…
And there was nobody around to immortalize them by means of his holocamera at present…
- - -
My biography: I'm an Italian public servant who graduated from Law School working in the public real estates branch. I've published a Fantasy RolePlaying illustrated Manual called WarBlades, which is more than 400 pages long. Some of my works and short stories have been published on American Aphelion Webzine. I am also a scale modeler who likes mostly Science Fiction and Real Space models, some of my little Dioramas have been shown also on the American site StarShipModeler or MechaModelComp.
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