Holding down the button on his remote, William Boone uses his C.V.I. to channel surf. The speeding sounds and hurried images of evening television form one long impression: brown rice - Brian Henson - horns blaring -Scarlett O'hara - pool drowning - walrus eating - shuttles flying - lilies blooming - Mayor yelling - melting crayons -new companies - dusty bricks - olive oil - "Shaken, not stirred" - triple axle - xylophone jazz - "Fiddle dee dee" -technical difficulties - pink gin - eternal flame - Star Hustler - flash floods - soft porn - Chopin's piano - Bass fishing - Humphrey Bogart - Portal Authority - Tahiti - Granny Smith apples - Hercule Poirot - "Strawberry Fields Forever" - Barry Calvert - deviled eggs - "Teen Spirit" - Red Baron - Mint Chocolate Chip - death penalty - Loch Ness - pledge drive - tribbles - GNP - Monty Python - curve ball - Radio City - dust mites - Holocaust - Kentucky Derby - red light - blue funk - Doors Industries.
"Nothing and everything," sighs the implant. Boone finishes eating a piece of yellow cake and gets ready for bed. Condor glows fitfully as Boone drifts off to sleep.....
The fresh beige curtains in Boone's bedroom dissolve into the fading green velvet curtains in Scarlett O'hara's sitting room. A skrill climbs the parched drapery, which liquefies into a massive leaf. The olive fringe detaches itself from the edges of the former window dressing, becoming hard, straight, and sharp. The fringe daggers pin the skrill onto the leaf, while it is boxed by purple whispers from above. The skrill struggles white hot against the purple and the olive, shattering Boone awake.
Tapped into the nightmare, Boone's subconscious rails against the pain, allowing Condor to fire a single blast. Solidarity burns the beige curtains to ash, melts the window, and vaporizes the orchids on the ledge.
Searching for equilibrium, a choked Boone strokes his
skrill. His surveys the damage; he mourns the orchids. He renews the vow
he made to Kate when he realized there was only one real path: "I won't....We
won't let the pain destroy our solace."
Disclaimer: Earth - Final Conflict and all characters
therein are the property of the Tribune Entertainment Company.