HCC/SW10: "Worse Than Useless?" 24 Minute Challenge

[Scott Eiler]

I knew things were going wrong when I saw the barn wide open *and* full 
of high tech.

---

Hi.  I'm Wyatt Ferguson.  I've been on vacation this summer, on leave 
from work.  Vice-President "Crusher" Joe Corrigan lets me stay on his 
private Crusher Island in Washington state.

Cap'n Bill Erhart still operates a private ferry service there, so I can 
cross over to the mainland at will.  Usually he goes to his home port of 
Anacortes, but he let me talk him into a cruise to the next port south, 
La Conner.  He talks with the locals; I take a bike ride.

I'd had lots of coffee that morning.  So about five miles east of La 
Conner, I pulled over for a rest stop.  One farmer's gravel parking lot 
had a port-a-potty set up.

On the way out, I peeked in the barn.  That's when I saw the high tech. 
  It looked like harnesses that conducted power, and devices to plug in 
to them.  But I couldn't see where the power came from.

Then the farmer walked up from behind.  But he wasn't mad I was in his 
barn.  He just asked, "Here to look at the Ellipsis tech?"

"Whaaat?"  Ellipsis is the closest thing this world has to a mad 
scientist.  "What...  How did you get Ellipsis tech for display in your 
barn?"

"It's open source now!"  The farmer was going into demo mode.  "The 
harness generates the power!"

"Since when does Ellipsis trust other people with his tech?"

"He always loved open source.  We came up with a psionic failsafe, 
linked to other device users so it'll shut down rogue usage.  I'm just 
excited that after twenty years, we got the Ellipsis Field working for 
common use."

---

I learned as much as I could.  Then I called the Vice-President, on his 
tip line.  He said, "Wyatt!  Y'know this ain't the social number."

"I know.  Did *you* know Ellipsis tech is becoming open source?"

"Yes I did."

"Can you imagine how everyone else will react to that?  Including all of 
Ellipsis's enemies?"

"Yep.  But that's kind of the *bottom* problem the world has right now. 
  We're actually gonna produce power out of this.  That's all I can 
say... unless you wanna come back to work now."

"Yeah.  I guess I'd better."

---

Oh, shit.  Ellipsis always wanted to change the world.  With recent 
climate disasters, he'd finally gotten his chance.  But I figured the 
world wouldn't change all that easily.

People used to say, Ellipsis was useless because they could't use his 
tech.  Now I think we'll find out what Worse Than Useless is.

I'd actually become a United States National Security Advisor.  It was 
about time I did it again.

---

Author's Notes:

Hey, I left myself about a minute to explain the story!  That's just 
about enough time to link to the prequel. 
http://www.eilertech.com/stories/2011/page.php?fn=discontent3a.txt

-- 
(signed) Scott Eiler  8{D> -------- http://www.eilertech.com/ ---------

Turns out I'm an anally-fixated oedipal paranoid with 
south-of-the-border schizophrenic delusions...  But never mind, I've 
found me the ideal job.  I'm going to run for President!

- Major Honey, scripted by Grant Morrison, Doom Patrol #46, August 1991.