I was looking at some Golden Age comic books from the 1950s. The stories were fun though dated. So I tried my hand at updating one. I’ll put up new episodes as I write them. Enjoy.
(PS. This hasn’t gone through an editor.)
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In the year 2103, when people die, their minds are put into android bodies, a process called Encasing. The cost for this immortality is being indebted to the government and breaking all ties with their former life. Is the price worth it?
Encased for Duty
Episode 001
Commander Willa Ford rode in the back of a blackened limousine. As the car passed through several checkpoints at the New London shipyard, Willa’s enhanced vision allowed her to see the momentary surprise on each guard’s face as he inspected top-secret clearance documents for the vehicle and its occupants. As they drew close to the dock buildings, an excess of workers appeared to scurry around frantically.
The car pulled into a small garage bay, and its door closed. Only then was Willa allowed out of the limo. She tired of the secrecy, the enforced separation from living people. But as she had learned long ago, it was better for everyone to keep the Encased out of sight from the Living.
Willa was escorted through empty hallways to a small office. Seated at the desk was Admiral Halston.
After her escorts left and closed the door behind them, Willa spoke. “There’s a lot of whispers and wild rumors floating around, Admiral. Are you developing a new type of naval vessel?”
Halston stood up and waved his hand in front of a wall monitor. A submarine schematic appeared. The admiral folded his hands behind his back and turned to face her. “We have developed the greatest secret weapon America has ever had. Luck has been with us as we expedited the launch date. For we now have an emergency far greater than any the general public could imagine.”
Adm. Halston had always been one for talking in hyperboles, but even for him, this was a little bit over the top. Willa mimicked his stance. “Please explain, sir.”
“You know what I speak of,” he said with a nod toward her right leg.
Even after almost 30 years with her mind encased in an android body, Willa could still feel phantom pains when body parts broke. She ignored the throbbing of her thigh where she’d broken it three months earlier.
“What can the submarine do for us that our existing Navy can’t?”
“This is a Cold Fusion submarine. A huge mechanical marvel that can be operated by a crew of only four Encased. But they can’t be ordinary Encased, Cmdr. Ford. A mighty weapon like this can only be entrusted to outstanding individuals, who can safeguard it and get maximum advantage from it.”
The admiral went back to the desk, sat down, and straightened out a stack of papers before turning his attention back to Willa. “Cmdr. Ford, you’re known as one of the best brains in the Secret Service, and you’re already in on this emergency. I’m leaving you to choose the three greatest Encased you can find. Individuals who can meet any type of challenge and work through it.”
Surprised, Willa said, “Three? You said the sub needed four.”
The admiral sat back in his chair clasped his hands over his ample belly and gave Willa a smug smile. “The fourth will be you. You’ll be the leader, Cmdr. Ford.”
“Me?” Willa’s surprised question came out through her shock. In all the years she’d been conscripted, she’d never heard of an Encased being in charge of something this big. “I appreciate the honor, sir. I won’t let you down.”
Willa left the shipyard in the same secretive manner she entered it. Once back at the Eastern Seaboard Compound for Androids, Willa had time to think about this mission. As a former divisional director of the Secret Service, Willa still had access to some of their networks. Through that network, she gained access to the Department of Defense android database.
One of the slots would need to be filled by someone who was a master boxer, weightlifter, and distance swimmer. She entered that data, and a name came up for a twice-Encased soldier. She was pleased with the level of experience this individual had.
For the next slot, she needed a top scientist, someone expert in mechanics, atomic devices, general weapons, and an ace in chemistry and physics with a decent background in fusion. The name that came up was not one Willa recognized, but the doctor, Encased two years ago, met every single one of her requirements.
For the last position, Willa wanted someone who could think outside the box. A free spirit, someone who wasn’t the typical Encased. When she looked at the unusual credentials of the name that came back, Willa smiled, pleased at the selection.
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In a high-tech laboratory in Bethesda Maryland, Dr. Edie Hernandez read the urgent, priority message scrolling in front of her vision.
“Washington? And in a rush. Don’t they have enough scientists over there?”
Though she had no desire to leave her experiments, Edie knew she had no choice. For an Encased, she had a fair amount of autonomy. She didn’t want to raise questions about what she was doing with her time. Even after two years, Edie still believed her death was not an accident. She’d refused to work for the government. A day later, she met an untimely death and the government ended up with her in their labs. As long as they thought she was adjusting, and producing what they wanted, she had the opportunity to dig into things.
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In a holographic training booth, Dharma Ruggles called out a halt to the simulation as an urgent, priority message scrolled across her vision. Dharma’s simulated opponent took one more swing before the software closed down. Dharma saw the motion out of the corner of her eye, ducked and threw a retaliation punch. Her hand sailed through the dissipating particles of her opponent. Dharma shook her head, blinked to get the message to start over, and concentrated on what she was reading.
“They want me in Washington? Without delay?” Dharma shrugged her shoulders then rolled her neck to get the kinks out. Why not, her assignment here guarding a prison had gotten exceedingly boring. Maybe whatever this new assignment was, would add a little spice to the day.
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At a training facility for the newly encased, Toni Cooper took a startled step to the side and bumped her shoulder into a wall. There were words scrolling in front of her eyes. She reached out a hand to touch the letters, but her hands were a long distance behind the letters.
Then she remembered. Somewhere in training over the last two months, they’d said she could receive messages that only she could see. Belatedly, she scrambled to understand the message. She only caught the tail end of it about reporting immediately.
“Where? And why?” she asked out loud. Toni blinked. The artificial eyes in her android body didn’t need her to blink, but the simple motion was something she’d always done to get herself off one line of thought onto another. To her surprise, the message started over.
She was to report to the military base transport for a trip to Washington, DC. What could Washington want with a simple circus performer? Perhaps the president wanted to see Antonia the great, the greatest escape artist since Houdini. Toni choked back a sob as she remembered not surviving her last performance.
Sometime in the few moments between when she’d last checked the car, and when she got into it in front of an audience, someone had sealed up her trapdoor. As the car rolled towards the cliff with her in the trunk, Toni slipped out of all of her restraints and pulled on the trapdoor as she was over the drop spot. However, the trap door didn’t open, it didn’t even budge. Toni could feel the same panic roiling around in her stomach that she did then. All the scientists and therapists here at the Encasement Center told her that her android body did not have a stomach and did not feel pain.
How did those scientists know? They were still among the Living. Not one of those men had their mind yanked out of a dying body and locked inside an android one. Toni squeezed her eyes shut and tried to think of something else besides the terror of that deadly accident. The words of the message started scrolling across her vision again.
When she’d signed up for Encasement two years ago on her 25th birthday, she had assumed it would happen sometime 60 or 70 years in the future. Toni tucked that raw disappointment into the back of her mind and headed for the front desk. It seemed she had a command performance requested.
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After a forty-five minute, transcontinental military shuttle where she was the only passenger, Toni was led to the back of a windowless van. When that stopped, she was escorted through the halls of a nondescript government building to a small office. In the office with three other androids.
When the government showed their glamorous ads for the afterlife as an Encased, they never showed faces. Toni had always assumed that was because each person’s android face was made to match their real face, and the government didn’t want to upset families by showing pictures of love once they were no longer allowed to contact. But that wasn’t the case. They didn’t show the faces in the ads because every single face was identical. The hairstyles varied, and the hair varied from white through dark gray, but that was the only individualism Encased were allowed.
As Toni entered the room, the android with gold accents on her body stood and looked at Toni. “Antonia Cooper?”
Toni tucked her hair behind her ear. “Yes, but I prefer Toni.”
The other woman gave an abrupt nod, then turn back to what she’d been doing.
Toni took another step into the room and then stopped. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do or where she was supposed to go. The woman who spoke to her seemed occupied again. Toni studied the other two women who looked so much like her. The one with the blue accented body had the same aloofness as the gold accented one, who had talked to her, had. The one with the green accents appeared to be taking notes, on what Toni wasn’t sure. But in either case, neither woman so much as looked up or acknowledge Toni’s presence.
Toni took another step then stopped. The only empty seat in the room was next to the android in green, and Toni was hesitant to disturb the woman as she was writing.
Just then, the android with the gold accents put down the comm tablet she’d been looking at, and walked towards Toni with her hand out. Toni shook the woman’s hand, as the woman said, “I’m Cmdr. Willa Ford. I’m your team leader.” The commander motioned towards the android with blue accents. “Over there is Lieutenant Dharma Ruggles. And on the sofa is Dr. Edie Hernandez.”
The door behind the commander opened, and a man walked in. Toni’s eyes grew wide, and she stood up taller. She whispered to no one in particular, “The president.”
The president of the United States looked at the four androids and nodded. “You individuals have been called here because you are each an outstanding expert in your field, and you can provide immeasurable aid to America at this critical moment. As to why the battle is so critical, I’ll let Cmdr. Ford tell her story.”
The commander turned so she could see every person in the room. “Let me start by asking, have any of you ever seen a flying saucer?”
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