Time Blast

by Author on August 3, 2019

I‘ve been experimenting with story openings. Not sure if this will turn into a larger story but thought you might enjoy peeking into the “clutter in the attic” of my writer’s mind.

Time Blast – A Story Snippet

Ben awoke to the faint smelled of the cheese snacks he’d had an hour before and the contoured edges of the nav station buttons pressed against his cheeks. He wasn’t wearing his four-point harness and yet was still sitting in his chair. Good. That meant the artificial gravity was still working.

With deliberate care, Ben sat up and rubbed his steady hands over his face. The scratching sound of day-old stubble made him believe he wasn’t dreaming. But beyond that, rubbing his eyes didn’t help. He still couldn’t see.

The aging engineer tried to focus both his eyes and his mind. His last memory had been the blaring of the proximity alarm that made his ears want to bleed. He had yelled to Megan, the young pilot fresh out of the academy, asking if she saw the ship the instruments said was on top of them. Then there had been a blinding flash of light. That was all he remembered before waking up with his upper body draped over the useless console that hadn’t warned them in time.

Faint pinpoints of glowing blue lights from the familiar state-of-the-art board in front of him pierced the darkness of his vision. Ben pushed himself up by the edge of the console, careful to favor his bad knee. Only, his knee didn’t protest. In fact, he found standing up to be easier than it had been in years.

The space veteran leaned forward until he could read how many life signs were onboard the ship. Only two.

He needed to check on his pilot. Ben’s hand smacked the cold metal of the young woman’s chair. She wasn’t in the seat although the safety harness, she habitually wore even on calm treks like this had been, was pulled taut away from the seatback.

He heard a caught breath, a whimper, then the silence was pierced by a primal screech that sent a bolt of adrenaline through his system that the previous events hadn’t.

With his vision returning, Ben saw Megan’s clothes puddled in her chair. What sent terror spiking down his spine was the toddlerwith Megan’s eyes staring back up at him from that clothes pile.

The old man’s gaze was caught by his own hand suspended over the child’s head. He stared in disbelief as he flexed smooth fingers unbent by arthritis.

Tagged as: "clutter in the attic", fiction, snippet

{ Comments are closed }

Titles building on Wenebojo

by Author on July 13, 2019

Wenebojo streaming story service

For the last year, every story I’ve written and everything I’ve been doing has gone into the launch of Wenebojo.com

It is so exciting to see my stories turned into audio with close captioning and images. It brings the world in the story to life so much more than I expected.

{ Comments are closed }

Snippet from a Western

by Author on July 13, 2019

I write mostly Science Fiction and Fantasy stories. Occasionally a little of what I call Slice of Life. But Westerns have been something I hadn’t tried before.

Following advice, I went onto Ebay and bought a collection of 1940s-1950s Western magazines. These stories were written during the Golden Age of pulp magazines. Reading them has helped me have a greater understanding of the genre.

Here is the beginning of a Western story I’m writing. It hasn’t been sent to an editor yet, but I thought you might enjoy it.

Snippet from No Posse Needed

Sheriff Clint McCade studied the block of properly-seasoned pine in his hand. His pocket knife made a small flick, and a tiny curl fell off the wood. Pale tawny eyes in a prematurely weather-beaten face studied the still indistinguishable shape and saw the bird beneath the surface. Much like he saw what was between the lines of what people said and didn’t say.
He propped a boot heel up on the scarred desk. It rested comfortably in the worn notch as he leaned the matching chair back on two legs. Clint pushed back the brim of his battered Stetson. An onlooker might not think the whittling was at a stage where critical cuts were required. But the survivor of Gettysburg knew battles could be lost before the first shot was fired.
The sheriff placed his knife with precision. He backed the blade out when the door of the jailhouse swung open on well-oiled hinges. Clint studied the young man who barged into his office.
Scotty Randell, who had recently been spending more time at Smitty’s Saloon than helping on his old man’s ranch, exclaimed, “Sheriff, come quick.”
Clint slowly set his chair back on four feet and reluctantly put his project on the desk. He hated leaving a thing undone, especially since the look in the young whelp’s eyes was more excitement than urgency.
“What’s going on?” Clint asked in an even tone.
The youth glanced over his shoulder then said, “They told me to come get you.”
“Who’s “they,” son?” the sheriff asked patiently as he stood and took his gun belt off the peg in the wall behind his desk.
“Ned Tompkins, Bert Hollerman, and Jordi Lawson. They’re all gathered at the saloon to be your posse. Old Clemson’s been murdered.”
“Just now?” Clint was surprised the old loner came into town. He didn’t typically show up for supplies more than once a month, and it wasn’t his time yet.
The boy shook his head. “Naw, Ned found his body being eaten by vultures out in the gulch.”
Clint nodded and finished tying the leg strap on his holster. That made more sense. With a last reluctant look at his unfinished work, he strode to the door settling his Stetson back into place. Best he found out what was going on. He didn’t need Tompkins riling up the young bucks again.

{ 2 Comments }

Encased for Duty – Episode 002

by Author on November 19, 2017

I was looking at some Golden Age comic books from the 1950s. The stories were fun though dated. I’m trying my hand at updating one. It’s fun writing in the over-the-top style of the 1950s comics.

I’ll put up new episodes as I write them. Enjoy.

(PS. This hasn’t gone through an editor.)

<<<>>>

In the year 2103, when people die, their minds are put into android bodies, a process called Encasing. The cost for this immortality is being indebted to the government and breaking all ties with their former life. Is the price worth it? Four Encased trusted with America’s new Cold Fusion submarine will risk real death to save America and the world.

Episode 001

Encased for Duty

Episode 002

Commander Willa Ford watched the three faces, that looked exactly like hers, contort with surprise and disbelief, when she said, “Let me start by asking, has any one of you seen a flying saucer?”
The three Encased, Willa chose to join her in this mission, were in for more surprises. Willa gave a quiet, amused chuckle then continued. “I don’t blame you for being shocked that I would say something like that in front of the president of the United States. Flying saucers and aliens have been called hoaxes and mass hallucinations.” Willa paused to meet one by one the gaze of each of the three women in front of her. “But they exist. And they may be the greatest danger we’ve ever encountered.”
Dharma Ruggles, a trained combat soldier, almost immediately had her features under control and was displaying a look of mere interest. With Dr. Edie Hernandez, Willa could almost see the scientist’s mind leaping at the possibilities. Antonia Cooper, the young wild card in the mix, was leaning forward with her mouth agape and her eyes wide. The young circus performer looked ready to believe anything. Willa gave a mental nod. Their responses were what she expected. This was good.
Willa turned to the single man in the room, the president of the United States, who was entrusting her with the nation’s newest and greatest weapon, the Cold Fusion submarine. “Mr. President, would you care to sit down while I talk?”
“I think I may, Commander,” he said as he eased his weary body into a chair. “It’s been a long day.”
It was a sign of how ingrained the idea of the Encased not being people was embedded in the culture that a man who was known for not sitting in the presence of a standing woman, would sit in the presence of four standing Encased.
She did not offer her teammates the option to sit. The women’s minds were contained within android bodies which did not require the same level of rest.
Willa made a throat clearing noise. Once assured she had everyone’s attention again, she continued. “As I said, flying saucers may be the greatest danger we have ever encountered. Let me tell you what I know of them. Three months ago, I was assigned to run down the rumors. I was patrolling an area where they’d been reported…”

<<<>>>

Three months earlier…
Willa scanned the sky out the front window of her high-altitude jet. The coaxial cable between the aircraft computer and the port in the side of her chest kept Willa aware of the aircraft’s movement. Since Encased didn’t continuously require oxygen, she could take her jet higher into the upper atmosphere than a Living pilot.
“This is frustrating, Benny,” Willa said to her copilot. “One set of stories has those saucers whizzing the skies in this area, and another has them shooting out over the Atlantic, where they dive into the deepest part.”
Private Judy Benjamin, a skeptic of all alien theories, banked the jet south as she said, “You can forget both yarns. Those things just don’t exist.”
They were the only ones in the sky, according to what Willa could see and what the aircraft equipment was telling her. Then, out of the nearby cloud bank, a flying saucer came rushing out in front of them. Too close to dodge, they crashed into it.
Strident warning bells clanged, lights on the control panel flashed bright red, and messages bombarded Willa’s brain through her link to the aircraft. They were going down.
Heavy g-forces pressed Willa into the seat. If she had had a human body, she would not have been able to move. As it was, even her android strength had difficulty overcoming the g-forces fighting against her. She yanked the umbilical connector out of her side port with a grunt.
“Willa. Can’t. Pull. Cord,” Benny said with a strained effort. Benny learned to fly in an era when the pilot had to pull a wire cord to blow the canopy off. Though it was no longer a cord, Willa knew what Benny meant.
With Herculean resolve, Willa trained all her mental control into moving her straining mechanical limbs. Clouds rushed past her vision at dizzying speeds. The jet was in a nosedive. They were seconds from splattering onto the surface of the ocean. Despite the sounds of the metal structure around her groaning under duress, Willa swore she could hear the micro-servos in her limbs doing the same thing.

Slowly, her arms inched towards the lever at shoulder height. The one that would jettison them from the aircraft. So close, her fingertips mere inches away, she pushed with her legs trying to leverage herself just a little higher in the seat. Her fingers touched the edge of the bar, just a little further and she could wrap her hand around it and pull. She gave a hard kick with her leg, her hand wrapped around the handle, and she pulled.
The canopy whipped away. Willa felt the vibration rattle her whole body as an engine on the underside of her seat ignited and pushed her out into the rushing air. “Benny,” she screamed. Had her copilot gotten out? As the speed of her chair slowed, and the g-forces lessened, Willa whipped her head around looking for the other woman.
The flying saucer had also been damaged in the midair collision and floated on the waves not far from where Willa was about to land. Willa hit the harness release and pushed off from the chair. That’s when she realized she had broken a leg.
Willa landed in the water not far from Benny. Benny was already out of the water crawling up onto the damaged flying saucer. Willa smiled briefly with pleasure. Those aliens didn’t stand a chance with a fighting demon like Benny coming at them.
Benny got to the hatch at the top center and looked down. Willa saw a look on Benny’s face that sent a chill down Willa’s spine. Even though Living doctors and training manuals over the years had told her that such feelings were not possible in an android body, Willa knew better.
“Benny, what’s wrong?” Willa called out as she dodged waves and crawled through the water toward the craft.
Benny didn’t answer, she didn’t move. Benny stiffened as if a sudden paralyzing hand gripped her. Her android body was in perfect condition, but she couldn’t fight whatever invisible force was attacking her. Benny fell forward, still board-stiff, into the open hatch. Willa struggled faster to get to the flying saucer and help her friend, but her damaged leg slowed her down.
Then, suddenly, miraculously, the damage flying saucer was intact again, and a second later the flying saucer took off and disappeared. With Benny as a prisoner.

<<<>>>

Willa had been staring at an empty spot on the wall as she told her tale. She blinked and pulled her attention back to the others in the room. She noted that Dharma had her fists bunched up in front of her chest and a determined look on her face. Edie had pulled out an electronic tablet and was punching notes into it. And Toni was staring at her with a look of awe and wonder on her face. Willa was satisfied with their reactions.
“So, that’s it. That’s what I personally know about flying saucers.” She glanced at the president, he nodded at her. Willa continued. “We suspect that they may be Russian or Chinese secret weapons. Our first step must be to capture one and investigate. But they are known to dive into the deepest part of the Atlantic, where nothing can get at them.” She let a smile of anticipation creep across her face. “Nothing can go that deep but America’s new Cold Fusion submarine.”
Willa was antsy to get started. That edginess came out in the need to pace across the room. “That’s it, ladies. You’ve been chosen as members of the Atomic Command Core. Secretly commissioned to serve under me and man the Cold Fusion submarine.” She stopped and turned to face the three Encased in front of her. “There is the possibility your body will be severly damaged on this mission and we will be far from help. If so, your brain will not be transferred in time to a new body, and you will completely die.”
Toni gasped. Edie looked up from her tablet, startled. But Dharma had a look on her face that told Willa she had enough experience being Encased that like Willa she didn’t see a possible end to her conscription as a bad thing.
The president stood up. “Commander Ford has full authority to do anything she sees fit in the pursuit of these flying saucers, without requiring approval from anyone. You will also have all of America standing behind you.”
There wasn’t any question of stepping back from the mission for any of them. Even as Encased, they were still Americans. A secret group of patriots, swearing a secret oath.
Willa saw determination and pride mark their faces as the women unconsciously seem to take a step closer together as a group.
The president nodded. “Good. Repeat after me… I swear to give my all to America, to protect her and this new great weapon.”
Each woman took that solemn oath without hesitation.
And so the desperate campaign opened. The Atomic Commandos would board the mighty Cold Fusion submarine, and embark on a mission of life and death in a society where death was almost nonexistent.

{ Comments are closed }

Encased for Duty – Episode 001

by Author on October 30, 2017

I was looking at some Golden Age comic books from the 1950s. The stories were fun though dated. So I tried my hand at updating one. I’ll put up new episodes as I write them. Enjoy.

(PS. This hasn’t gone through an editor.)

<<<>>>

Encased for Duty

Episode 001

Commander Willa Ford rode in the back of a blackened limousine. As the car passed through several checkpoints at the New London shipyard, Willa’s enhanced vision allowed her to see the momentary surprise on each guard’s face as he inspected top-secret clearance documents for the vehicle and its occupants. As they drew close to the dock buildings, an excess of workers appeared to scurry around frantically.
The car pulled into a small garage bay, and its door closed. Only then was Willa allowed out of the limo. She tired of the secrecy, the enforced separation from living people. But as she had learned long ago, it was better for everyone to keep the Encased out of sight from the Living.
Willa was escorted through empty hallways to a small office. Seated at the desk was Admiral Halston.
After her escorts left and closed the door behind them, Willa spoke. “There’s a lot of whispers and wild rumors floating around, Admiral. Are you developing a new type of naval vessel?”
Halston stood up and waved his hand in front of a wall monitor. A submarine schematic appeared. The admiral folded his hands behind his back and turned to face her. “We have developed the greatest secret weapon America has ever had. Luck has been with us as we expedited the launch date. For we now have an emergency far greater than any the general public could imagine.”
Adm. Halston had always been one for talking in hyperboles, but even for him, this was a little bit over the top. Willa mimicked his stance. “Please explain, sir.”
“You know what I speak of,” he said with a nod toward her right leg.
Even after almost 30 years with her mind encased in an android body, Willa could still feel phantom pains when body parts broke. She ignored the throbbing of her thigh where she’d broken it three months earlier.
“What can the submarine do for us that our existing Navy can’t?”
“This is a Cold Fusion submarine. A huge mechanical marvel that can be operated by a crew of only four Encased. But they can’t be ordinary Encased, Cmdr. Ford. A mighty weapon like this can only be entrusted to outstanding individuals, who can safeguard it and get maximum advantage from it.”
The admiral went back to the desk, sat down, and straightened out a stack of papers before turning his attention back to Willa. “Cmdr. Ford, you’re known as one of the best brains in the Secret Service, and you’re already in on this emergency. I’m leaving you to choose the three greatest Encased you can find. Individuals who can meet any type of challenge and work through it.”
Surprised, Willa said, “Three? You said the sub needed four.”
The admiral sat back in his chair clasped his hands over his ample belly and gave Willa a smug smile. “The fourth will be you. You’ll be the leader, Cmdr. Ford.”
“Me?” Willa’s surprised question came out through her shock. In all the years she’d been conscripted, she’d never heard of an Encased being in charge of something this big. “I appreciate the honor, sir. I won’t let you down.”
Willa left the shipyard in the same secretive manner she entered it. Once back at the Eastern Seaboard Compound for Androids, Willa had time to think about this mission. As a former divisional director of the Secret Service, Willa still had access to some of their networks. Through that network, she gained access to the Department of Defense android database.
One of the slots would need to be filled by someone who was a master boxer, weightlifter, and distance swimmer. She entered that data, and a name came up for a twice-Encased soldier. She was pleased with the level of experience this individual had.
For the next slot, she needed a top scientist, someone expert in mechanics, atomic devices, general weapons, and an ace in chemistry and physics with a decent background in fusion. The name that came up was not one Willa recognized, but the doctor, Encased two years ago, met every single one of her requirements.
For the last position, Willa wanted someone who could think outside the box. A free spirit, someone who wasn’t the typical Encased. When she looked at the unusual credentials of the name that came back, Willa smiled, pleased at the selection.

<<<>>>

In a high-tech laboratory in Bethesda Maryland, Dr. Edie Hernandez read the urgent, priority message scrolling in front of her vision.
“Washington? And in a rush. Don’t they have enough scientists over there?”
Though she had no desire to leave her experiments, Edie knew she had no choice. For an Encased, she had a fair amount of autonomy. She didn’t want to raise questions about what she was doing with her time. Even after two years, Edie still believed her death was not an accident. She’d refused to work for the government. A day later, she met an untimely death and the government ended up with her in their labs. As long as they thought she was adjusting, and producing what they wanted, she had the opportunity to dig into things.

<<<>>>

In a holographic training booth, Dharma Ruggles called out a halt to the simulation as an urgent, priority message scrolled across her vision. Dharma’s simulated opponent took one more swing before the software closed down. Dharma saw the motion out of the corner of her eye, ducked and threw a retaliation punch. Her hand sailed through the dissipating particles of her opponent. Dharma shook her head, blinked to get the message to start over, and concentrated on what she was reading.
“They want me in Washington? Without delay?” Dharma shrugged her shoulders then rolled her neck to get the kinks out. Why not, her assignment here guarding a prison had gotten exceedingly boring. Maybe whatever this new assignment was, would add a little spice to the day.

<<<>>>

At a training facility for the newly encased, Toni Cooper took a startled step to the side and bumped her shoulder into a wall. There were words scrolling in front of her eyes. She reached out a hand to touch the letters, but her hands were a long distance behind the letters.
Then she remembered. Somewhere in training over the last two months, they’d said she could receive messages that only she could see. Belatedly, she scrambled to understand the message. She only caught the tail end of it about reporting immediately.
“Where? And why?” she asked out loud. Toni blinked. The artificial eyes in her android body didn’t need her to blink, but the simple motion was something she’d always done to get herself off one line of thought onto another. To her surprise, the message started over.
She was to report to the military base transport for a trip to Washington, DC. What could Washington want with a simple circus performer? Perhaps the president wanted to see Antonia the great, the greatest escape artist since Houdini. Toni choked back a sob as she remembered not surviving her last performance.
Sometime in the few moments between when she’d last checked the car, and when she got into it in front of an audience, someone had sealed up her trapdoor. As the car rolled towards the cliff with her in the trunk, Toni slipped out of all of her restraints and pulled on the trapdoor as she was over the drop spot. However, the trap door didn’t open, it didn’t even budge. Toni could feel the same panic roiling around in her stomach that she did then. All the scientists and therapists here at the Encasement Center told her that her android body did not have a stomach and did not feel pain.
How did those scientists know? They were still among the Living. Not one of those men had their mind yanked out of a dying body and locked inside an android one. Toni squeezed her eyes shut and tried to think of something else besides the terror of that deadly accident. The words of the message started scrolling across her vision again.
When she’d signed up for Encasement two years ago on her 25th birthday, she had assumed it would happen sometime 60 or 70 years in the future. Toni tucked that raw disappointment into the back of her mind and headed for the front desk. It seemed she had a command performance requested.

<<<>>>

After a forty-five minute, transcontinental military shuttle where she was the only passenger, Toni was led to the back of a windowless van. When that stopped, she was escorted through the halls of a nondescript government building to a small office. In the office with three other androids.
When the government showed their glamorous ads for the afterlife as an Encased, they never showed faces. Toni had always assumed that was because each person’s android face was made to match their real face, and the government didn’t want to upset families by showing pictures of love once they were no longer allowed to contact. But that wasn’t the case. They didn’t show the faces in the ads because every single face was identical. The hairstyles varied, and the hair varied from white through dark gray, but that was the only individualism Encased were allowed.
As Toni entered the room, the android with gold accents on her body stood and looked at Toni. “Antonia Cooper?”
Toni tucked her hair behind her ear. “Yes, but I prefer Toni.”
The other woman gave an abrupt nod, then turn back to what she’d been doing.
Toni took another step into the room and then stopped. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do or where she was supposed to go. The woman who spoke to her seemed occupied again. Toni studied the other two women who looked so much like her. The one with the blue accented body had the same aloofness as the gold accented one, who had talked to her, had. The one with the green accents appeared to be taking notes, on what Toni wasn’t sure. But in either case, neither woman so much as looked up or acknowledge Toni’s presence.
Toni took another step then stopped. The only empty seat in the room was next to the android in green, and Toni was hesitant to disturb the woman as she was writing.
Just then, the android with the gold accents put down the comm tablet she’d been looking at, and walked towards Toni with her hand out. Toni shook the woman’s hand, as the woman said, “I’m Cmdr. Willa Ford. I’m your team leader.” The commander motioned towards the android with blue accents. “Over there is Lieutenant Dharma Ruggles. And on the sofa is Dr. Edie Hernandez.”
The door behind the commander opened, and a man walked in. Toni’s eyes grew wide, and she stood up taller. She whispered to no one in particular, “The president.”
The president of the United States looked at the four androids and nodded. “You individuals have been called here because you are each an outstanding expert in your field, and you can provide immeasurable aid to America at this critical moment. As to why the battle is so critical, I’ll let Cmdr. Ford tell her story.”
The commander turned so she could see every person in the room. “Let me start by asking, have any of you ever seen a flying saucer?”

<<<>>>

Save

Tagged as: Serial Fiction

{ Comments are closed }

Dragons and Steam Technology

by Author on July 18, 2017

This past weekend, I watched a staged sword (light saber) fight performed by the Sword Conservatory.

It was fun to watch, but more fun was the demo. I got to practice a method of stage fighting called Flynning. (Named after the great swashbuckling moviestar of the Golden Era, Errol Flynn.)

I found out it wasn’t as easy as the instructor made it look. Either that or my lack of coordination was showing. Although the latter was probably the truth, I like to believe it was harder than it looked. Okay, so we had foam swords but I’m sticking with my delusion.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, I wrote a short story, Bond of a Lifetime, about dragon-riding warriors in a medieval/steam-powered world. After my sword fighting lesson, I’m plotting out another story in that world so I can use my new sword fighting knowledge.

Stay tuned….

{ Comments are closed }

Even Superheroes Fall in Love

by Author on July 2, 2017

I had the opportunity to cowrite a a story with author Nahan Howe. He brought the superhero concept and I brought the romance. Together, we created a fun story to write. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we did writing it. Even Superheroes Fall in Love is in the Phoenix Prime anthology, Mysterious Hearts.

Here’s what anthology author Kat Lind had to say:

It is very hard to meet someone that you can care about when you’re keeping secrets… two Phoenix Prime authors explore some of the surprising ways that the universe provides us with opportunities for love and life combined.