[This is the first chapter of a prequel, set several years before The Fall of Doc Future, when Flicker is 16, in 2012. The history of her world is similar but not identical to ours. The original (incomplete and will be revised) version is on tumblr starting here. For much of the historical background I referred to Ada Palmer's excellent series on Machiavelli that starts here, and the quotes are from the Project Gutenberg version of "The Prince" here.]
When Flicker had formally started her career as a superhero, Doc Future had expressed reservations about her ability in two areas. Not her power, technique, knowledge, or motivation, but two mundane, almost trivial seeming skills. Flicker hadn't thought they would cause any major problems.
They did.
The skills were triage and pacing. What to prioritize when she couldn't get to everything, when to stop, and when not to even go on call for the day because she hadn't recovered enough yet.
For someone who could respond to any emergency, anywhere in the world, they were essential. She'd eventually dealt with the triage issue by setting general priorities and letting Doc's Database handle the rest--because that let her concentrate on pacing. Which was still a problem. One that was manageable, but not always well managed.
Because knowing that people somewhere were dying or getting hurt because she wasn't willing or able to push just a little further... bothered her. A lot.
( Read more... )
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