Rochelle, Happy 9th Anniversary of hosting FFs!Genre: Science Fiction Word count: 100 Come along and join in with Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers. Rochelle asks that we use the photo prompt (© Brenda Cox) and limit our words to 100 or less. Click on the frog to read more stories.
The violent shuddering of masonry and the collapse of the great cathedral had left a thick cloud of dust like a shroud over the city. It settled like particles of mist coating every moving creature, turning everything a sinister gray. Here, the dead had numbered 750,000.
We eyed them from the Adviser, the multi-dimensional-intergalactic space lab, Commander Fauci. His otherwise pristine white lab coat was covered with beagle hair as he emerged from his I-CNN studio. He looked unconcerned. The interview had gone well.
Had we made the right choices? Only time would tell. Meanwhile, we needed to cover our tracks.
This Jolly Beggar 
I too saw the picture initially as ruins
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I went with that first impression lol. But the ruins are outside.
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I’ll be thinking of Fauci with beagle hairs all over him for some time 🙂
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He can’t shake them off or sanitize it.
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This is an interesting one, I must say. What cones across as sci fi has a much different meaning!
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Dystopic ones usually do. 😉
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There are master-planners who do such things and then smartly cover their tracks.
Great observation & much conveyed.
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They’ve deftly used the “greater good” to commit what later generations rightly identify as “crimes against humanity,” haven’t they? Thanks, Anita.
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Dear Dora,
Fauci in Beagle hair. That made me laugh. We all hope he made the right choices. 😉 Good story.
Shalom u’vracha,
Rochelle
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Indeed we do. Thanks, Rochelle.
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You’ve written a clever satire on Fauci. I can’t help feeling, though, that it’s both wrong and unwise to make such attacks on people who are trying conscientiously to do a very difficult job. If someone is going to be savaged for such work, for party political reasons, who on earth would want to do it?
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Penny,
I did just mean it as a satire. And I don’t pretend to know the motives of the man, as no one can, except on the basis of what he’s said and done. Thus the references to the Beagle puppies/sand fly experiments in four different facilities over the years, his funding of gain-of-function research (illegal in the U.S.) at the Wuhan lab where the virus was created, his funding of experiments that grafted the scalps of aborted fetuses onto rats — all of which are public record, as are his conflicting statements on masks, dismissal of concerns on the experimental nature of the therapeutics, while prognosticating certainty where there is none, and endangering lives & livelihoods, etc. And scientists are not immune to the power of political influence. Perhaps Fauci was the best our society could do given its unwillingness to draw clear moral and ethical boundaries. He’s certainly what we got. And that’s the stuff of satire. Still I hope you’re not too offended, and value your opinion enough to want to explain my perspective.
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Dear Dora
I’m sorry. There is a line in the FF sand that criticism should be constructive. I crossed that line in my comments on your post. I really am sorry. Thank you for the restraint you show in your response.
As well as admiring your writing, I like you and think of you as a friend. I hope you will forgive my crass criticism of your satire.
Pax
Penny
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You do not have to apologize at all, dear Penny. There’s nothing to forgive. Your response made me reflect on what was written and see it from your point of view as provocative, which it is, and then consider if it was unduly so. And that is always constructive in a community of writers, but especially among fellow Christians. We are more than friends, we are family. What a privilege! I appreciate what I see of your grace and generosity in your writing talent and your comments. That will never change, whatever our differences otherwise. Shalom, always. 💞
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🙂
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so it was a space lab. i saw it as a navy ship. amazing that we look at the same picture and interpret it differently. 🙂
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I enjoy the different interpretation we get. Part of the fun, no? 😀
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From your story I had the image of a cartoon scientist who was not sure what he had done, as his experiment failed. He therefore had to cover his tracks and perhaps blame someone else…
Humorous indeed.
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Thank you, James. Glad you enjoyed it.
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A great take, Dora. Well done.
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Thank you, Mason.
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I’ve often wondered what people high up in a space station would be thinking as they watched the world exploding…
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You have, Ali? Often? Now I feel like I let you down with a mundane “oops, cover it up!” plot. *sigh* Next time . . . .
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Apocalyptic. Good descriptions of the aftermath!
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Thank you, Lisa!
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You’re welcome!
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🙂🧡
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