Release date: April 28, 2015
Subgenre: Science fiction, alien invasion
About The Sentience Sentence:
What if your housemate was trying to take over the world?
Chris Kelton decides to stick it out one last summer in his college town after graduating, and takes on a housemate for few months to help with the rent. Why? He's not sure. His new boarder, faculty at the university, wasn't what Chris was looking for, but he takes him in anyway. Before Chris knows it, he's helping with research, neglecting his cat, making big lifestyle changes and ignoring his friends. Even though he knows his summer guest is strange, Chris doesn't seem to mind the mystery. Yet true intentions can only stay hidden for so long, and Chris soon discovers that his guest has is not who he says he is. Has Chris inadvertently hastened the end of the world as he knows it? What will Chris do next? What can he do?
The Sentience Sentence is approximately 13,500 words in length. This story has no violence, one swear word (not counting 'crap' or 'damn'), and no sex, although there are sexual themes
Chris Kelton decides to stick it out one last summer in his college town after graduating, and takes on a housemate for few months to help with the rent. Why? He's not sure. His new boarder, faculty at the university, wasn't what Chris was looking for, but he takes him in anyway. Before Chris knows it, he's helping with research, neglecting his cat, making big lifestyle changes and ignoring his friends. Even though he knows his summer guest is strange, Chris doesn't seem to mind the mystery. Yet true intentions can only stay hidden for so long, and Chris soon discovers that his guest has is not who he says he is. Has Chris inadvertently hastened the end of the world as he knows it? What will Chris do next? What can he do?
The Sentience Sentence is approximately 13,500 words in length. This story has no violence, one swear word (not counting 'crap' or 'damn'), and no sex, although there are sexual themes
Excerpt:
Against my better
judgment, I decided to brush my teeth to get the beer off my breath and tidied
the place up as best I could. At exactly five, as far as I could tell from my
phone, the doorbell rang. I got up from the couch, where I was killing time
watching some mindless reality show. I turned the TV off and went to the door.
“Ah, hello Chris,
good to see you again. You look much better than this morning,” Dr. Nishiyama
said.
“Yeah, I worked
late the night before so it was a bit early for me.” I lied.
“Well, mind if I
come in?”
“Not at all.” I
turned aside to let the short man enter.
“Oh I see much of
the clutter is gone—good, good.” The doctor again scanned the main room.
“So, will you have
any furniture?” I asked.
“Not at the
moment, no. Well, yes.” He moved to his new bedroom and poked his head in.
“I’ve just a few personal belongings and the experimental equipment I will need
for the tests here.”
“Experimental
equipment? Here? What equipment?” He hadn’t mentioned this. I had a vision of
bubbling beakers full of colored liquids and electrical sparks flying off
twisted antennae. I was pretty sure my lease agreement wasn’t going to allow
that.
“Oh, you know just
my computer, some notebooks and recording devices.” He paused, and looked at me
with a raised eyebrow. “So, yes, I guess I haven’t told you about my research
here in the department?”
“No.” I stared at
him, waiting for him to proceed. His eyes quickly darted back to the room, a
bit uncertain but then they moved back to meet mine with a surprising focus. “I
am an anthropologist, interested in the behavioral responses of the human
species to certain stimuli, primarily with respect to entrained behavioral
paths wired into the human brain.”
“Um, okay...?
That’s a mouthful.”
“Yes. So, having
that out of the way, I will be—”
“Wait, that’s not
exactly ‘out of the way’,” I said. “What do you mean, experiments? Why can’t
you do them at the university?”
He softened his
stare. “Oh now, Chris. It’s nothing so serious. It’s, what is the word? I always
forget. Oh yes! Instinct. Yes, that’s it. I just study how instinct functions
via aural stimulation.”
“Aural?” I had a
feeling I should know that word.
“Sound. Yes, you
know, sound. But I mean questions. I ask subjects questions, and record their
responses.”
“That’s it?”
“That is it Chris.
I’m trying to understand how modern life has co-opted evolved behavioral
strategies. I don’t want to do it at the university because the setting—the
laboratory setting—is too formal, it makes subjects nervous and will alter the
output. No, no, a fellow student’s apartment is the much more natural
environment.”
I slowly found myself
nodding in agreement, though I still was unsure of the entire thing.
Dr. Nishyama
smiled. “Good, good. Oh, well and say—I will need an assistant.”
Amazon
About Ian Jaymes:
Born and raised in the scenic Pacific Northwest, Ian Jaymes has
been writing fiction of some sort or another since the fourth grade.
Finally, he decided to dust off old notebooks, floppies and cuneiform
tablets, and is now publishing some of his shorter works. He also has
begun to finish up several longer pieces that have languished on paper,
but have stayed vibrant inside his head for years.
With a background in biology, Ian is a research scientist in sunny California, where he currently tries to make bacteria do things they don't want to do. He lives with his loving wife, a squid, and two wonderful children.
With a background in biology, Ian is a research scientist in sunny California, where he currently tries to make bacteria do things they don't want to do. He lives with his loving wife, a squid, and two wonderful children.
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