DAY FOUR of FLASH AUGUST FICTION. We have an antagonist! This is the NINTH OVALS EPISODE! Today I’m going to create the conflict in the OVALS series. This will be a Character v. Society, or even Character v. Nature conflict(s). Regardless, we have an antagonist! Now it’s a real story. Now it’s a real series. You’re welcome. I’m Commercial Herschel. You are on a journey with me, thank you. It will be good for you to listen to, or to read the episode called O.V.A.L.S.: Linear Time Re-entry Instructions from February 2nd. I hope you had a chance to do that while it was out from behind a paywall for the past week. So, let’s see about this thing about Madsen. We will make his first name Frank. His name is Frank Madsen.
OVALS: Where is Madsen?
593 Words written in about 45 minutes.
"JET-B Madsen, JET-B." Madsen is not responding to the instructions to eject his buds. The system is in a warning state, and it's two minutes until disengagement. The consequences of not manually disengaging are less dangerous than an automated disengagement. An automated disengagement would likely cause more shock to the OVALnaut than if they did it knowingly of their own free will.
"The System is requesting service from the Project Team. "Project Team, respond. Project Team respond."
"Anna Chambers of the PT, responding to the System, "We can see we have a failure to disengage. We can see that Frank Madsen is not manually disengaging."
"System, use an alert notice for Madsen." Anna Chambers directs The System to use an alert sound to disrupt Frank's mission. "If Madsen does not respond within 30 seconds, terminate his mission."
As the System engages the alert sound, Chambers converses with the Project Team.
Anna Chambers: "It's Madsen. I think he's doing it. I think he's leaving.
Duke Hollie: "He's been making inferences since Audra died."
Marylin Fae: "He knows he only had a few missions before he'd be retired."
There is a call from the System. "There is no response. Suggesting remote disengagement."
"Negative System. Wait for instructions." Chambers replies.
Hollie: "This decision seems obvious to me. If we remotely disengage him, he's done for. If we let him wait until critical moments, he'll be fine. If he's consciously insubordinate and retains pairing beyond the safe limit, he at least has a chance, but we may lose him that way too."
Chambers makes the call. "System, maintain manual Ovalnaut procedure."
The System responds. "Understood."
"Marylin, do you want to try and speak to him? He may respond to you."
Fae employs The System. "System, connect me to Madsen through his buds."
She speaks to Frank. "Frank, it's Marylin. You have 45 seconds to eject your buds and rejoin everything here. We need you home Frank. We know you miss Audra, we all do, Frank. She was my sister, and you are my last connection to her. We are the family that we have Frank. Don't leave us here. Frank, you have 20 seconds, your nieces and nephew want to see their Uncle Frank, let's go, buddy, come on back."
Frank responds. "I'm not hurting the kids." Tell them I love them. "You know this had to happen sooner or later. Someone was going to do this."
"FRANK NO! NO FRANK!! JET-B FRANK "JET-B!!" Marylin is shouting to Frank, and Frank is gone.
"SYSTEM! Attempt automated tracking and retrieval of the Madsen OVAL!" Chambers commands The System.
"System has been tracking OVAL and initiating retrieval attempts."
"Attempt one failed."
"Attempt two failed."
Duke Hollie: "System, had the OVAL gone completely manual? If so, how long will tracking be possible?"
“The OVAL is in manual mode; tracking can persist until the user decides. At the current state, tracking has 40% accuracy and degrading steadily."
"He's gone.” Hollie says, “he really did it."
Chambers responds. "Lt Fae. As a family member, you'll be required to identify his body, eject his buds, and make whatever decisions you feel are necessary."
"I'm already at Port." Marylin says. "This son of a bitch. This looks like a coma." We'll transport him to the Med-bay and make arrangements for observation and then cryo-storage." At the very least, we'll be able to learn some things from this. "He can stay in storage until his pension runs for all I care."
Duke Hollie inquires: "I'm wondering if we're angry because he's a free man."
The End
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