Disclaimer: Xalvoe is actually the name a friend uses to make

music, and “Clockwork Horror” is actually a song he's put

together. His music is here: Http://www.myspace.com/xalvoe. I
don't own the name or the song or the title, etc., and if I get
super serious about this story and make further headway I'll
make up my own band name/song title for this part of the story
(unless he gives me permission to use his). Okay, disclaimer
over.

Ellysia put her headset on and lit the room with her
computer screen. Simultaneously her keyboard and mouse came
aglow, their outlines not doing much to outshine the large
monitor. The young woman rolled her desk chair closer to the
computer and tapped the small monitor laying flat on the desk.
It came alive at her touch, displaying a list of music tracks.
She pulled the visor down over her eyes and the room went dark—
except before her eyes, where the screen shone on the visor.
After a few purposeful clicks of her mouse, Ellysia put the
microphone to her lips and gave it her password. “Gametime,” she
said, and several windows popped up before her eyes: a web
conference window; the newest version of Wolf Auuudio, a
recording program; the web stream window; a timer with three
digital clocks; and a microphone levels control box. Ellysia
pulled the microphone on her headset down to her mouth and spoke
into it: “Test. Benny, online?”
The words appeared on the web conference window in italics
as she spoke them, and were transmitted to Benny and Ruth
visually and aurally. Benny replied: “I can hear you, Elle.
Ruth? Levels check, check.” Ellysia adjusted Mic A's level
according to Benny's voice. When Ruth replied to him, Elle fixed
her level, also, with a click and drag of her mouse on the Mic B
Volume Mixer.
“It's 10:59, guys. Just about ready?” Ellysia announced.
The top clock on the timer set on her screen was counting the
seconds to 11 p.m. “Ten seconds. Five seconds. Three—two—one!”
She pressed the STINGER 1 – ROLL INTRO file name on her
automation touch-screen, and the show intro theme played over
the headphones. On the conference chat, in bold, appeared the
message STINGER 1 – ROLL INTRO PLAY. From that point forward she
was text-only until break.
“You're listening live to Nuzaq Notes on XQAZ 1103.8-FM—
your source for community news and events, as well as hot new
music and concerts from established artists in the area. Here
are your hosts,” the file introduced, in a voice that belonged
to someone at the studio base. Ellysia hit the CUE button on the
microphone control box on her desktop, and the program input
this information into the web conference in bold red letters: ON
AIR.
“I'm Benedict Ruback,”
“And I'm Ruth Gaerling,”
“And welcome to Nuzaq Notes,” the two said, in unison, as
the intro music faded out.
Ellysia set the first timer for fifteen minutes. She
watched the web conference screen fill up with the bantering of
the two deejays as they made a lot of what little bit of
community news they had for the hour-long show. Nothing very
interesting went on in —unless you wanted to read the crime
blotter on air, or went through events being held at the local
grade schools. They opened the show by talking about the opening
of a new store in the Geimer District Mall.
“Sound Smorgasbord is hauling in a brand new collection of
hot music chips, mp3s, and SD cards for you old-fashioned
folks,” Benny said in his radio voice, that was so oddly
different from his normal one. “They'll have music from Earth,
any genre, and since it's an Apple subsidiary the Smorg will be
able to order any artist you could want—from the latest Eyeborg
tracks to oldies like Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson.”
Ruth cut in, “Speaking of Eyeborg, why don't we play their
new single?”
Ellysia navigated the music library via the touch screen until
she came up with Eyeborg's latest submission to the radio, an
electronica track called “Double-Edged.” She cued the music and
the music library posted by itself on the web conference in
bold: Eyeborg – Double-Edged – cued 11:09:14.
“Here's 'Double-Edged' by Eyeborg off their latest chip,
'Circles Round the Sun'.” Benny announced. Elle hit the PLAY
button at the bottom of the touch screen and switched the
microphones off air. The song began to play, the automating
computer counting the time down.
“Was there anything specific Adella wanted us to play
tonight?” Benny asked.
Ellysia checked her work e-mail in yet another window,
sized so that the timers were still visible. Every week she
received an e-mail from the music director with a list of
specific tracks and artists they were supposed to play on her
shows. She scrolled down in the message to the list for Nuzaq
Notes and read the names and titles off to her deejays. They
appeared on the conference screen as separate messages and
italicized, the way break text did. At the end of the list
Ellysia noted the time left in “Double-Edged.” “Thirty seconds
to air—and ninety seconds to break.”

--
ON AIR. the conference window announced. “I really like
that song,” Benny commented over the last few seconds of the
track. “Eyeborg is so galactic. I can't think of any other word
to describe them.”
Ruth: “I know. They're quite a sound. Speaking of Eyeborg,
they're actually going to be in later this month. At the Jobs
Arts Theater, Eyeborg will be playing with Rourkee Schmitt and
the Spheres of Lightning on August 9. We're going to be there,
actually.”
“Really? I didn't know that—no one told me we were doing a
remote.”
Ellysia rolled her eyes and shook her head. Check your e-
mail sometimes, maybe, Ben. It helps with that whole knowing
stuff thing, she thought at him. She navigated the touch screen
to a 2-minute break module and cued it. This was announced in
the chat window.
“Looks like we're going into break so I can read my e-
mail,” Benedict told listeners. Lightheartedly he added, “We'll
be back soon, and when we are I'll hopefully know what's going
on at my workplace.”
Elle hit the off-air button with her mouse and touched PLAY
on the break module. She highlighted the track list she'd
rattled off during the music and dragged it to the top-right
corner of the chat window. It docked itself there, and she
returned the pointer back onto the text box.
Ellysia cued up the last track to play on the show at
11:55:58. Ruth took them into Xalvoe's “Clockwork Horror.” At
the end of the song, Ruth and Benny signed off air and Elle
played the file STINGER 1 – ROLL OUTRO. Ruth and Benedict had
already logged off for the night before the outro was completely
over, and Elle stayed on to cut the recording for streaming, e-
mail it to the site manager, e-mail the show transcript to the
traffic director, and back all of the information up on her own
computer.
&&&
When she had turned off all the components of her
computer/radio transmitter, the clock on the wall of her
apartment told Ellysia it was almost half-past midnight. She
walked through the blue-carpeted apartment and went to her
bedroom. There wasn't much to her room, as it was with the rest
of the flat; her furniture—consisting only of one bedside table,
the bed itself, a tall dresser, and a jewelry case—was all made
of heavy, light-colored wood, free of almost anything
decorative. All that really made the bedroom seem like someone
lived in it was the mural on the ceiling above the bed: it was a
rose-shaped design with sharp edges, with stars on the edges and
a bright yellow rose at the center. Benedict had drawn the
design, and after two weeks worth of a neck ache on his behalf,
Ellysia had painted it herself. It seemed to spin like a mobile
as she fell asleep at night.
Elle rummaged through her dresser drawers until she found
something to wear that was suitable for a night at the club. She
decided on her favorite blouse, a tight-fitting bright yellow
tee with almost a turtleneck, and a dark pair of bluejeans. She
threw her long pajamas on the bed behind her as she changed in
front of the dresser. Her sneakers were on the floor next to the
dresser, and she slipped them on once her jeans were buttoned.
Then she went to her jewelry case, which sat next to the
dresser. Its satin-lined drawers were mostly bare, the top three
being the only ones with anything actually in them at all.
Ellysia slipped two amber dangling earrings into her ears and
put a ring on her wedding finger. She always fell back on that
ring when she was approached by men. Talk was fine; but when
they hinted at leaving together, she had the ring. And Benny was
her make-believe husband of five years. It was the cleanest way
she'd come up with to let guys at the club down easily. She tied
her long chestnut hair up high in the back of her head with a
thick hairband, so tightly she'd have a crease to wash out
later, and grabbed her purse on the way out the front door.