SL Huang - Up and Coming - Stories by the 2016 Campbell-Eligible Authors

–Emma

To: LMAteam-all

From: CorporateResponsibility

We’d need something more functional. Could you add in components from our real chemistry sets?

—Mac

To: LMAteam-all, CorporateResponsibility

From: LMAmarketing

Mac, I love this idea! Given the manufacturing deadlines, easiest would be to repackage the chem kits as expansion packs. We’d be ready for the holidays as an extra sales boost.

The chem kit that makes hydrochloric acid is perfect for Bonesy. Now, what can we do for the other three ponies?

–Anna

To: LMAteam-all, CorporateResponsibility

From: LMAproductdesign

We could repackage two of the bio kits as expansion packs for Sniffles and Punchy, with the mild virus and the testosterone and the microscope. Still not sure about Om-nom…

–Emma

To: LMAteam-all, CorporateResponsibility

From: BusinessDevelopment

Great news! One of the show’s fast food sponsors (you can guess who) can donate meat contaminated with tapeworm eggs. That could be an Om-nom accessory, right? We’re still working through what (if any) co-branding would be appropriate.

–Greyson

To: LMAteam-all, CorporateResponsibility

From: Legal

ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGED INFORMATION

Guys, we’re very concerned about liability. We strongly recommend against live diseases, poison, parasites, and anything else with high risk of injury or death.

–Laura

To: LMAteam-all, CorporateResponsibility, Legal

From: LMAmarketing

Oh come on Laura, don’t be a downer. The danger factor has been testing very well with the kids. Besides, we’re already selling the chem and bio kits on their own through the edutainment toys department and those have each been cleared. We’ll keep testing the tapeworms, but I don’t see this as an issue.

BTW, we have a mandate from the CEO to bump up production of the Little Miss Apocalypse Armageddon Playset, which includes all four accessory packs. They’re counting on this for our yearly sales goals

–Ann

To: LMAteam-all, CorporateResponsibility

From: Legal

ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGED INFORMATION—URGENT SAFETY ISSUE

After demoing the first few Little Miss Apocalypse Armageddon Playset kits for retailers, we’ve found a critical issue. The virus is airborne—not an issue on its own (we QA’d the bio kit) but when it’s near an open container of testosterone it becomes a superbug that kills dogs. When exposed to the hydrochloric acid in the chem kit, it affects humans too.

WE STRONGLY ADVISE TO SHIFT THE PRODUCT DIRECTION.

–Laura

To: LMAteam-all, CorporateResponsibility

From: Legal

ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGED INFORMATION

Update: we’ve found an antidote for the superbug, but this does not change our recommendation.

–Laura

To: LMAteam-all, CorporateResponsibility, Legal

From: LMAmarketing

The CEO still really wants the LMA Armageddon Playset out in time for holiday, and we’re too behind on schedule to make major manufacturing shifts. HOWEVER, I think we can solve this.

First, we put a warning on the packaging not to have LMA ride all the ponies on the same day. It covers us for legal and it gives an extra element for danger, which we believe is a top sales driver.

Second, we institute a golden-ticket-style promotion. One out of every 1,000 playsets will come with a special code for a free vial of antidote. It’ll be an additional sales driver, and if that’s not girls being empowered to make real change within their neighborhoods, I don’t know what is.

Thoughts?

–Ann

To: LMAteam-all, LMAmarketing, Legal

From: CorporateResponsibility

This ties in with both the “Yes I Can Cuz I’m A Girl” campaign, as well as the following campaign (branding TBD) which will encourage community activism.

Love it. Let’s ship it!

–Mac

Subject: LMA year-end numbers

To: CEO

From: InvestorRelations

With the stock price at record highs, I think we’ll have a great investor meeting! Some highlights before we publish earnings:

This year the LMA brand has quadrupled profits, mostly driven by the Armageddon Playset. Despite the numerous deaths and subsequent lawsuits, this is still the most profitable line for the company.

With this success, we’ll be announcing the expansion of the Little Miss Apocalypse product line at the investor meeting. We won’t reveal all the goodies, but we’ll call out the LMA Armageddon Deluxe Playset, which comes with a new stable for the ponies, the antidote, and the brand-new antidote to the antidote. If we have time we’ll also highlight the life-size educational Apocalypse Play Lab, which will come with plutonium.

We project profit growth of an additional 10x from this product line alone.

Go team go!

–Paul

Originally published by Analog, January 2016

We’d tested plenty of missiles before, but Teeny was the only one that convulsed when we cut him open.

Oh, your viewers need more background? OK, I’ll back up a bit. Lemme tell ya, kids today don’t know their history. Even locked up in here for the past ten years, I can tell. No education. Good thing you’re getting the real story out.

Now. This was back when Hamazi was the supreme dictator of the Ambridian Republic, enemy number one. The whole military was buzzing about overthrowing him, and General Pitticks—I guess he’s Presidential Candidate Pitticks now—wanted to make a name for himself. So the weapons division got a lot of money to make something spectacular.

Previous missiles had AIs, of course. Precision navigation with plasma propulsion that could turn on a dime. Facial recognition to find the target and follow them. The Azimuth5900 could detect genetic debris to avoid hitting decoys, and the Tarzon-A-80’s nano-scales could rearrange to make the outer shell take on any shape to blend in with its surroundings, so if it needed to land to gather more intel it could camo without suspicious shadows giving it away.

But Teeny was something else altogether.

No, of course that wasn’t the official name, but Predator-TVACEW34W doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue. So can I continue?

It was just the beginning of the new wetware computing. Nanotech could only get us so far, so instructions were entwined in ADNA, the quickly-standardizing format for Artificial DNA, and plasti-neurons wound their way through plasma rockets and payload decompressors and sensopatches, all within a state-of-the-art nano-scale morphing skin that was even higher-res than the Tarzon’s.

Wetware was unpredictable, but it sure was efficient—Teeny was only the size of a golden retriever.

Me and the other gals, we were in charge of the final testing, coding up the VR simulators for the finished bombs to see what they’d do. But for Teeny, the first one ever made of wetware, this was something new. It was like rocket surgery—skin flayed open and held with clips so we could hook the sims to the plasti-neurons, systems looking like life support threaded through and plugged in to maintain the beat of electrical impulses, and the longest manual we’d ever received on how to not kill the bomb in the process. We’d thought it was kind of funny, to tell you the truth, the idea of killing a machine that was built to kill others. But I’ve gotta tell you, by the end, we saw Teeny like our own little baby, and we made darn sure we didn’t kill him by accident.