Moving Performances
Sensies for GURPS Fourth Edition
by Paul Stefko
Melissa wiped her hands on her skirt. She always got nervous before a performance, and this would be her most important show ever. Live sensie performance was a dying art; few bothered to develop the skill necessary to create memory in real-time. The audience was dwindling, but Melissa still managed to draw several thousand people to the outdoor stadium.
She peeked out from behind the curtain to look at the crowd sprawled on blankets up the slope of the hill. They looked young and eager; hopefully, at least some of them would remember what she had to show them today.
The music began, and the announcer's voice rumbled from the conduction strips below the stage. The computer sewn into her blouse began scanning crowd response, reading the audience's excitement. "Ready to go, boss," it whispered through her interface.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I give you . . . Mnemosyne!"
Melissa stepped out onto the stage, smiling weakly and waving to the crowd. At center stage, a large padded seat had been placed, and Melissa gratefully settled into it. She cleared her mind and drew forth the first images of her set: 13 human forms, floating in a dark purple liquid, connected one to the next by thick tubes.
As she shut down her own senses in preparation for her broadcast, she felt the rifle shot like a bee sting on her right breast. Even with her last breath, she knew she had enough life left for a burst transmission. Someone out there had . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: April 7, 2006
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