Katherine L. Atchinson – 37 years old.
San Diego, California, USA
“Ladies and gentlemen! Without further delay… let’s give a special welcome to our final keynote speaker and honored guest at this year’s Emerging Technologies Professionals Conference in San Diego! All the way from London… Dr. Katherine Atchinson!” the announcer said with enthusiasm. The announcer exited the stage soon after and sat down near the front of the grand ballroom in a luxurious 5-star hotel while the applause from the crowd slowed.
Katherine walked across stage, her high heels thumping up to the podium as she smiled out toward the attendees, it seemed to be one of the biggest crowds she had ever spoken to in her career. “Hello everyone! And please just call me Katherine if you see me at the happy hour later” Katherine said with a smile, clearing her throat as she became comfortable and relaxed her shoulders. “It was quite a long flight here! I’ve been enjoying this lovely weather though, much better than anything in London this time of year… or rather… most of the year, for that matter” Katherine joked, her slightly posh English accent sounding through the microphone on stage as she received a few laughs from the crowd. “San Diego is beautiful, and you’re such a beautiful audience! So, thank you all for being here… so many amazing representatives here… biotech… AI… experimental development…” Katherine said before she looked down at her notes, the large screen behind her projecting an image of herself with all of her credentials that nearly took up the entire alphabet below her professional picture.
She cycled through the first few slides with the clicker that was provided to her atop the podium. “I want to begin by saying that we are here because we are all on the forefront of innovation in our respective fields, and with an ever-changing and ever-evolving landscape, who knows what the world will look like just a few years from this very moment…” Katherine said as he began her hour-long talk about the future of technology.
The presentation went as smoothly as ever. There were plenty of questions, showing Katherine interest and engagement from the audience. Katherine happily answered a few dozen audience members, but time was dwindling down, and Katherine was urged by the event organizers to make her way to the private car arranged for her, chauffeured to a fancy cocktail bar just a few streets over from the hotel.
Katherine was showered with attention during the happy hour as hundreds of people drank and mingled with one another, networking in the bars that were rented out for the troves of professionals visiting the city from all over the world. Suits, pantsuits, ties, blazers, high heels, jewelry, and watches accenting the loud chatter, laughs, and clinking glasses full of liquor. A fully catered dinner of famous tacos slowly being picked at and emptied by the well-dressed attendees and speakers as Katherine piled extra cilantro atop her taco.
A plethora of different representatives shoving their business cards at Katherine as she tried her best to organize them into her designer purse. Sipping at her cocktail, and another, and another, Katherine was feeling good, loose, confident, and a little naughty the tipsier she began to feel throughout the evening. However, every interaction she had with her peers just felt like they wanted insight on the secrets of her company... dampening her mood some as she almost wished one of the better-looking men in the crowd would approach her with something more interesting to say or even invite her over to their suite for a raunchy night.
The single, career-driven woman stayed for one more exquisite cocktail before she excused herself, saying her goodbyes to a multitude of people before thanking the organizers of the conference and exited outside. She called the private car, the black sedan pulling around the corner soon after. The driver opened the door for her as she wobbled into the back, feeling the alcohol a little more intensely.
She checked her bank account on the drive back to the rented house north of the city, making sure she had been paid for the conference, taking a deep breath and relaxing her head into the seat, peering over through the windows of the car toward the Pacific Ocean barely illuminated by the very end of a perfect sunset.
Katherine ran a few fingers up her inner leg, her nails tracing across her tight black pants. Looking up toward the rearview mirror to see if the driver could see her slowly stroking her fingers between her legs in the back seat of the car. Part of her was excited by the thought of being caught playing with herself by the stranger, but no, he was focused and professional… no fun, she thought. “Thanks… bye now” Katherine said as she closed the door and the driver was off.
Katherine tapped in the security code into the front door of the house, her luggage and belongings already inside of the master bedroom, the main bathroom was a mess with her makeup and beauty products strewn about the counters and shower as she had to rush to get ready before heading to the conference that morning. The house was quite sizeable though, 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, a huge kitchen and outdoor patio, beautiful windows and modern furniture, a brilliant view of hills and a small sliver of ocean in the distance as the night approached and the stars and moon revealed themselves.
Katherine still feeling somewhat jet-lagged due to the long flight from the UK, a slight headache of exhaustion weighing on her during the conference, but the four strong cocktails she had temporarily cured the tiredness and the headache… now she wanted nothing more than to release some tension in one of her most favorite ways... and there was only one thing on her mind that would satisfy her cravings for the night… her app…
The app gave her control, freedom, and a powerless audience that did whatever she wanted, Katherine becoming quite aroused at the thought. Sure, she had audiences all over the world when she gave speeches or presentations, but this app contained a very different type of crowd.
The app that her experimental technologies team had been working on at her company was still only in the extremities of a pre-alpha stage and Katherine was the only one allowed to test the app. Her app was top-secret, her team forced to sign non-disclosure agreements and were heavily scrutinized daily to make sure no information was leaked, a direct order or they would be consequently fired and blacklisted from working for any competing companies.
Katherine’s high heels clacked across the wood floor as she strode through the hallways and into the living room. She sat in a comfy chair, a small coffee table in front of her and a few pieces of artwork on the walls, a houseplant nestled in the corner next to the window and a standing lamp. She opened her phone, swiping over a few screens to an icon that didn’t even have a picture assigned to it yet, simply a white square as she tapped it open.
The app had a special property, something Katherine had only tested a few times prior in the comfort of her personal office back in London… she wiggled into the chair to get comfortable, grinning almost, a warmth between her legs as she knew what was coming, only turning her on more, her vision slightly wobbly as she giggled. Fun memories of the previous 3 interactions she had flashed through her mind as she slowly rubbed her legs together with anticipation.
She began to select different settings within the app; all of the choices were very basic and bare bones as there hadn’t been much design put into the app yet other than just the functionality of the product. It seemed so physically impossible to Katherine when she first tested it, defying physics and the laws of nature… but the method didn’t matter to her. It worked, and more importantly, it was for Katherine’s entertainment, the only benchmark that mattered to her no matter what it cost the company… or how many perished underneath her…
Katherine finished the last few settings and tapped on ‘generate’, then pointed her phone’s camera toward the empty coffee table in front of her. The app loaded and loaded, processing her inputs for 60 long seconds as the screen stuttered, something that she knew would have to be fixed later on.
Her phone became warm to the touch and the battery drained significantly all in that single minute. Then finally, a puff of grey clouds appeared, and a whir of low humming noises followed by clicks and sparks of tiny electric static shocks fizzled in the air throughout the cloud before it disappeared and revealed what Katherine had been thinking about all day...
Spread across the coffee table was an entire shrunken city. Millions of tiny people found themselves suddenly underneath Katherine’s shadow as her imposing figure loomed over them. She was miles tall compared to them and now at the whim of her absolute power as an evil smirk parted her red lips. Her eyes menacingly looking down at her new toys for the night… she stood up… and began to walk around the city, surveying all the millions of speck-sized people like a god from above…
*** *** ***
St. Pallis City, named after a revered hero who saved the city and its people several hundred years ago during a brutal battle, a heroic statue of him located near town hall at the heart of downtown of the metropolis, the flag of their nation and their city waving proudly in the wind above the building.
The greater metro area had a population of 5 million people all spreading from downtown into the suburbs and outer towns and neighborhoods that bordered on the simple and quaint farmlands and sparse hills. Hundreds of thousands of people commuting back and forth along the main highways of the city as usual throughout the day.
The picturesque downtown abundant with workers all filling the many hundreds of skyscrapers and buildings that lined the condensed streets, thousands of people out and about at the many restaurants, cafes, and shops. St. Pallis City’s crown jewel, the university and its many educational buildings, was nestled near the grand park at the center of the city. The park bustling with university students enjoying their breaks from classes, having lunch with one another, studying, or playing games.
The train system carried thousands more every minute as workers, citizens, and students made their way to the city or back to their respective suburbs or neighborhoods. The busy airport on the south side of the city flying in and out thousands of people every hour. The city in an economic boom as well, St. Pallis City becoming a tech hub that hypnotized people from all over their world to move there, the nightlife and the university attracted youth, while the high-paying jobs attracted professionals and commercial developers.
There were constant events and happenings all over the city. Galleries, museums, concerts, food festivals, cultural gatherings, fan-packed stadiums for sports, and a sizeable river that ran through parts of the city while thousands of people kayaked and swam in it.
Suddenly their world changed and life grinded to an immediate halt. A plume of impossibly fast-moving grey clouds encapsulated the city while thunderous lightning strikes sparked wildly and chaotically at random. Businessmen and women in their skyscrapers stared out of the window at the strange phenomenon while a few people headed for the exits out of fear. People on the trains staring out of the window toward the sky, those swimming in the river looking up confusingly, and the students at the university stopping classes to peek up at the clouds and horrific lightning listen to the frightening thunder.
Then, about a minute later... the clouds disappeared as quickly as they showed up, and the lightning and thunder stopped. Almost everyone noticed the change, the air felt cooler, and the wind stopped… and the sky was different… it was a flat, greyish white... but it seemed to stop at strange inexplicable corners… an eerie stillness and quietness spread across the city.
A sudden, deep ‘CLACK’ brought the city and its millions of people to a heart-pounding fear. Louder than anything they had ever heard in their lives. It echoed over everything, from downtown all the way out to the farmlands. Then another sharp ‘CLACK’… the kayakers and the swimmers in the river screaming as the water rushed outward, the river draining over the side of an impossibly high cliff. With no water source anymore, the river dwindled, carrying hundreds of people over the impossible tall edge, falling all the way to the ground, thousands of feet below.
The airplanes in the sky that had just taken off lost all of their systems and navigational tools, the satellites not registering a signal as they repeatedly pinged for help, flying blind and manually with hundreds of confused passengers.
Another strong, thudding clack rang out over the city like a death knell. The quakes that followed were violent, shaking buildings, car alarms going off all over the city, dust kicked up from the farmlands and hills, glass shattering on some buildings as the workers inside the skyscrapers screamed while others took cover behind their cubicles.
Another violent clack and a subsequent quake that shook people and vibrated their bones as screams of panic broke out all over the city.
It was unavoidable now, the people started to understand what was causing the quakes. The horizon of the city showed part of what was responsible. A pair of long, black pillars easily miles tall and just as wide slowly drifted by, those that looked up saw what the black pillars were connected to… her… her long, massive legs went up and up, her titanic body looming above as she sauntered around the city like a god in the sky… her dark eyes looking right down at the millions of people who couldn’t quite process what they were seeing… a miles tall woman towering over everything and everyone…