Andrew Mackay - Infinity Claws

“Hmm.”

Jamie turned to his right and looked out of his window. The clouds drifted slowly under the curvature of what seemed like the end of the planet. Looking up, he could make out the edge of the dark, bleakness of space that hung above.

“Mom?”

Emily sighed and pressed the side of her face against her headrest, trying to relax. She closed her eyes. “Yes, poppet. What is it?”

“Space is really high in the sky, isn’t it?”

Jamie looked past his reflection in the window and pressed his nose against the glass. His mother didn’t answer.

“It’s like, really high…”

He turned around for a response, only to find his mother had fallen asleep in something of a drunken stupor…

South Texas: Southeastern Peninsula

(One hundred miles north of Corpus Christi)

“You join us here at Cape Claudius on a bright and sunny day for what should prove to be the mother of all finals…”

The news reporter, a feisty young lady named Dreenagh Remix, stood in front of thousands of people lined up at the entrance to The One arena.

A road split the crowd in two sections, barricaded by signage advertising the Star Cat Trials – a black canvas with a silhouette of a cat looking up at the stars.

Heavily armed guards adorned the entrance to the arena. Flashing lights from various personal handsets took pictures.

Fans of the show took selfies of themselves, trying to catch Dreenagh’s attention as she reported to the floating camera drone in front of her.

“As you can see, the event has drawn quite an impressive crowd. Indivimedia has gone off the charts,” Dreenagh inspected her forearm. The black ink-like substance showed on screen, spinning numbers around at a furious rate. “It seems half the planet’s population is tuning in to see just who will win today’s spectacular event. Over to the data-glaze now for the odds-on favorites here, today, at Cape Claudius.”

The screen flashed and buzzed, revealing the betting odds for the finalists.

Soozie Q-Two (USA) – 20/1

J. Anderson (UK) – 12/1

Bisoubisou (Russia) – 6/1

(all other contestants 25/1 bar)

A black limousine pulled up along the road to a deafening chorus of approval from the insatiable crowd.

Dreenagh approached a little girl cheering behind the railings. She and held her wrist to the girl’s face. “Hey, there, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”

“Yes, it’s okay,” the girl said, keeping her attention on the limousine.

“Who’s your favorite to win the finals today?” Dreenagh asked over the roars of the crowd.

“I like Bisoubisou, the Russian Blue cat,” the girl said, pulling out her personal handset. She enlarged a picture of a particularly striking gray face and whiskers. The cat’s yellow eyes perfected the determined look. “She’s got the agility and fight in her. I think she’ll beat everyone else.”

The limousine crept to a halt.

Two security guards opened the back passenger door and allowed the couple out.

A woman in her forties stepped out from the passenger side, dressed in an expensive dress and shade-wear. The crowd whistled and whooped as she posed for several hovering drones, all hungry for her image.

The woman kept the door open for her five-year-old son. He clutched a medium-sized cage in his hands and waved at the crowd as the car door shut behind him. Like his mother, he sported expensive shade-wear. He removed them so the crowd could get a decent look at his smug, confident face.

“Look, there he is. Remy Gagarin,” the little girl squealed, unable to contain her excitement. “Remy! I love you!”

Remy couldn’t hear his fan’s screams of adulation. He walked along the carpet with his mother, who threatened to steal the thunder with her incredible beauty.

“One has to wonder,” Dreenagh commented over the scene, “If Remy Gagarin’s mother, Elena, isn’t trying to vie for some commercial work. She looks absolutely stunning as she makes her way with her son over to the arena.”

Those of you who were born in the middle of the last century may remember something called Social Media . A concept noble in intent and, for a short while, rather successful.

It began in earnest at the turn of the twenty-first century. Several “websites” (i.e. pages on the internet connected by computers and “modems”) were set up. Some failed, and others succeeded. The intention of social media was to connect people together.

And connect, it did.

Family, friends, acquaintances and strangers-in-law.

What the investors of Social Media could not have foreseen was the temerity of the people who used their service. In order for it to be free, they had to give up their privacy.

Around fifteen years after its inception, people realized quite quickly that other people “sucked” (an outmoded term for “not being much use”.)

The irony of social media was that, in trying to get users to socialize, it had the complete opposite effect. So used to utilizing these platforms were the users, that they forgot how to operate as human beings. Particularly when it came to interpersonal relations.

Marriages broke up.

Some humans forgot how to speak.

Interaction with others grew into an art form.

ADD (Attention Deficit Disorders, and it’s High Definition variant, ADHD) became common place.

The Social Media war lasted ten days. It claimed over twenty million casualties – all over one idiotic comment a user left on someone’s video of their dog jumping from a roof into a paddling pool.

In 2068, Social Media was outlawed in a desperate bid to reverse the damage.

Popular “video” streaming sites were closed down.

People were forced to interact physically once again.

It was absolute chaos.

The events that followed the deregulation and subsequent “banning” of Social Media gave rise to the vastly superior concept of Individimedia.

Harnessing the same connectivity, Individimedia was an altogether different beast. Some experts argue that it went right where its predecessor went wrong.

Individmedia , simply put, espoused the virtues of individual broadcast and fame. It did not include the ability to comment or interact via those channels.

The result was a return to physical interaction. Today, Individimedia is installed on all human beings who were born after the year 2070. A simple piece of technology installed on the forearm of every human being.

It’s powered by micro pulses from the user’s brain. No need for batteries.

A simple tap on your skin, and the universe’s database of knowledge is at your disposal.

You can also broadcast yourself to others.

In the early part of the twenty-first century, the same people would have owned ridiculous devices such as “smart” phones (#irony, as the same imbeciles might have joked at the time – “smart”) and ghastly contraptions called tablets. Rectangular pieces of junk that rarely operated properly, if ever.

Thankfully, the only “tablets” users have today are the ones needed to contain their anxiety. We have Large Pharma for that.