IO img


IO

Lizi turns and moves a couple steps towards the shimmer.
This thing is going to take off. And green beam all of us. I have no choice.

The craft emits a low rumble as the green vapor billows around it.

Sideways, backwards or forwards, Lizi stares at the shimmer,
I don't care where that craft is going. I need to stop it.
Now. Disarm the threat.

"Chiara Elizabeth Buttegieg you stop right now!"
Despite her mother using her horrendous first name, Lizi doesn't take her eyes off the craft.
Hagstrom barks. "Call IO! Call someone! Call them!"

Lizi stops and looks at their anxious faces on Nelson's EO com.
She smiles, "To stand between the people and danger. Isn't that the oath, Hagstrom?"
"But Lizi, you're not an agent."
"I'm the only one here. And if I don't do something, then a lot of people are going to get hurt. So, today..."

She turns the blood stained IO patch on the sleeve of Nelson's jacket towards the com. "Today, my name is Lizi Hagstromsdaw."

Lizi clips the com on the front of the jacket and slings the scanner over her neck and arm.
She pulls the blue beam out of the holster, ignites it, and walks towards the green vapour.

"This is for you, Nelson. For all of us!"


The year is 2075

Forty years since the last empire fell.
It has been a time of peace and rebuilding.

Many countries have formed together into units called Unions or Alliances.
Upgrading their operating systems to OS2020 standards.

In the First Union, seventeen-year-old Lizi is bored with college and annoyed by adults.
Only her best friend Kai and her Haplo pals keep her sane.

She lives with her mother Katija, a geneticist who works for the Gene Base division of the First Union Firewall.
Katija recently partnered with Hagstrom Vik, an IO (Internal Office) agent.

The Firewalls keep the populations stable.
But a highly disciplined outfit called The Mechanism operates in the shadows.

A new threat is emerging.
One that will test them all.
As IO, EO and The Mechanism scramble across the world to stop it,
Lizi will be caught at the center of the fight.






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OS2020

The Operating System of the First Union


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Excerpt from IO by Simon Gray. Download a free advance copy at safehousebooks.com.

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IO

IO

"But Kai, you're so young. You have your whole life in front of you..."

"No Lizi. None of us have our lives in front of us.
We only have the lives we leave behind us.
That, is what defines us."

window

Spiritual awareness

spiritual awareness
does not mean ~
i become aware
of how other people
should
be living their lives

spiritual awareness
means ~
i become aware
that there are
no shoulds

box

eleven truths

1 i am more like the other animals ~ than i am different from them
2 i am more like other human beings ~ than i am different from them
3 we all have the same instincts
4 we all have the same needs
5 we all have different wants
6 ego is the root of all evil
7 i am the architect of my own misery
8 there is no universal right and wrong
9 there is no universal good and bad
10 all things are normal
11 the earth is a living organism ~ it doesn't make mistakes

signpost

the spectrum

love is not the opposite of hate
joy is not the opposite of sadness

the opposite of joy
is indifference to joy
the opposite of sadness
is indifference to sadness

all feelings have
their own spectrum

joy -------------------------------- indifference to joy
sadness ------------------------ indifference to sadness

this is why i can feel conflicting feelings
at the same time

love for my partner ------ | --------------- indifference
anger at my partner --------------- | ------ indifference

only my position
on the individual spectrums changes

acceptance

acceptance

~ acceptance ~
is the middle path

but
~ acceptance ~
is difficult

which is why
so few humans
attempt to do it

it's so much easier
to judge and avoid
we are humans
we like easy

acceptance is the only path to serenity

chairs

All things happen in balance

life itself
cannot exist
without the balance
of positive and negative energy

we cling
to our positive beliefs
the way neutrons
cling to protons

but neutrons
do not praise protons
for their positive charge
and shame electrons
for their negativity

the stability
of the atom depends
on the balance of both

every building block
in our universe
from atoms
to solar systems
teaches us
the importance
of the balance
of positive and negative

our entire existance
is based on this balance

this is a great truth

this is the middle way