The FEAR Machine

“The nose knows,” as the saying goes, and nowhere is that truer than in Cyber Cosmos, a world that is utterly dependent on its flower fields and the renowned perfumes that are made from them. Although this highly lucrative industry should benefit everyone, in Cyber Cosmos, some noses are considered “cleaner” than others. While the narrow-nosed Supremacy Sames and their esteemed leader, Dittohead, enjoy a life of luxury at the top, their fortunes have been built on the backs of the Nosers, whose large, hooked noses make them second-class citizens. The Supremacy Sames’ cozy situation is turned upside down, however, when a pandemic renders them unable to smell, thus threatening to unseat them from the top of the food chain as quality-control sniffers.

Fearing he will be blamed for the disaster and that the Nosers, who are somehow immune to the virus, might take over, Dittohead initiates a smear campaign against them. Using his powerful Fear Machine, he propagates a barrage of lies that convinces the Supremacy Sames that the hapless Nosers are responsible for the crisis and that they must be rounded up and eliminated.

With the Nosers’ survival, not to mention the fate of Cyber Cosmos, hanging in the balance, all hope rests on two scientists—one Supremacy Same and one Noser. They hold the answer to the pandemic and every other problem plaguing Cyber Cosmos in their hands. Now all they have to do is stop Dittohead’s Fear Machine before it’s too late.