Virtigo (n, pl):

1: The sensation of numbness to or falling away from reality through overwhelming technology.
Virtigo is an amalgamation of related stories which were intended to be a hypernovel. If I ever have time, it might make an appearance here but for the time being, here are some fragments.

  

virtigo-neon-2.gifMonologues: The Beamer

    I remember the first time I beamed. That was Gammaglenni. You don't train as a Beamer by beaming anywhere for real, it's too damned expensive for one thing, so you learn on the job. One minute I was on the Spirit of Deliverance, in the beaming dock with three old hands and fifty rookies. The next instant I'm surrounded by freaked out Yokies. The smell, the taste of the air, the pressure, the gravity, the noise, everything was different. Those Yokies were regressed, a real primitive society. Fifty guys appearing out of nowhere in the middle of the street, and half of them puking their guts up right there with the transit, well you can see the reaction that would have. I beamed onto the main street on Beta Curie once, and all those sophisticates screamed the place down like savages, so you can imagine what the Yokies were like and that was before the killing started...
  

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