Current mood:

irritated

Unlucky for the Rabbit
Widge has another Fiction Frenzy at Needcoffee, so here's my entry. As always, comments welcome.

Unlucky for the Rabbit
by Scott Campbell

"And this is one of our monitor suites, General." The room resembled any studio control room with a wall of video monitors, various consoles and computers manned by personnel in lab coats. All the screens have one man on them, an ordinary looking man in a suit with stains on the pants and jacket of his suit. He stands in a subway station, clearly exhausted, but all the benches are occupied.

"As you can see, we are currently observing subject 'Fred'." The man occupying the general tapped a few keys and on one of the larger screen displays a close-up of the man. Several small cuts could be seen on his cheerless face. On the corner of the screen in green letters: "March 3, 17:46 EST Subject: Fred Test: Bad Luck Level 2"

"Well, he looks like he's had a shitty day," said the General.

"Exactly. We have been able to induce 14 bad luck days for Fred alone."

"Now Dr. Smith, according to your reports, you can create the opposite."

"Oh yes, we had combat teams carry the focusing agents in simulated combat scenarios and there was improvement in accuracy, completion time, everything." Dr. Smith practically glowed with pride. "And of course, the benefits of inducing bad luck onto an enemy political or military leader are obvious."

"So the project is going well?" the General asks innocently.

Dr. Smith's pride dimmed a little, "Yes, General Browne."

"I got an email that mentioned some problems. Are there any problems? It really is easier to tell the truth."

Dr. Smith considered. "There isn't a problem. It's more of a disagreement."

General Browne sat down and motioned Smith to continue.

"As you know, the luck is generated by projecting a sub atomic energy field over the target area. This alone doesn't affect anything on the macro level. That's why the focusing agent is required to concentrate the energy and cause the various sub atomic particles to synchronize their spin." Dr. Smith had appeared at several congressional and White House briefing, so was skilled at giving the very simple version. "But we discovered that a sentient mind was needed to shape that condition into influence events to be favorable or unfavorable for the subject. It seems to work on the subconscious level. Fred and the rest of our current subjects have no knowledge of the cause of their good luck or bad luck."

"So, where's the disagreement?"

Dr Smith sighed. "We've been reluctant to experiment with higher energy levels since there's a correlation between them and the unlikeness of the events experienced. There are concerns about something happening that might expose the project or kill innocent people. Now our tests on our subjects show that some of the subatomic particles are spinning in a synchronized fashion even after the energy field in turned off. These inconclusive results led a few of our scientists to think that there might be a buildup and cause a high probability spike. But it's doubtful…"

The General said "Tell me about subject Louis."

Dr. Smith sighed again. "During one of the tests, subject Louis happened to be involved in three bank robberies in a day. But we never established that was from a spike. There could be other factors that contributed to that admittedly unusual event. Now if something completely inexplicable happen…"
The General interrupted "Like being attacked by giant mutant alligators."

"Exactly" the doctor started to laugh but then he noticed that general wasn't looking at him but at the monitor. The doctor turned around and saw that Fred was backed into a corner of the subway station while alligators walking on two legs slowly advanced on him. The doctor sighed and said "I need to make a call."