by submission | Feb 3, 2013 | Story |
Author : Christine Rains
All they cared about was the color red.
When we landed on blue-gray gaseous Kepler 3, the squirrel-like beings greeted us peacefully. The Keps were primitive and living in small farming communities. They’d never even seen the full spectrum of colors, but they were intelligent and eager to learn. We brought them machinery to help with their fungi crops and technology to make their everyday lives easier. We even shared with them the secrets of space travel.
The first time some of their kind entered one of our ships on the surface out of the color filtering atmosphere of the planet, they cried out and some fell to their knees. Our galactic allied flag was brightly dyed, and the ship’s name was in red letters underneath on the wall. The Keps reached out their stubby hands, trembling as they traced each letter.
We were proud to have made new friends and allies. Not all beings we met in the galaxy were friendly. Yet we humans managed to make enough allies to help us flourish in the darkness of space.
The Keps worshiped us at first. And, not surprisingly, we liked it. Yet we didn’t stop to understand why. We assumed it was because we were strong and smart. They were small and comic in our eyes. We had brought them into a new age. We were gods.
We were blind to when it started to change.
They created a new flag for their world and wore uniforms. All red. We saw it as a tribute. They learned about weapons and strategy. They became great pilots and techs. Every farmer became a warrior. The Keps left their planet and made space their home.
When they helped us win wars, we gloated. When they conquered our most feared enemies, we congratulated them. We were the most powerful alliance in the galaxy.
Then they turned on us. We didn’t understand why. We had given them so much.
We lost several billion humans in the fighting. We feared we’d become extinct. When the Keps accepted our surrender, we thought they would kill off the rest of us. They were hungry for violence and glory.
They kept us clustered in camps on Mars. Earth was no longer habitable having been devastated by the war.
The Keps used us as entertainment, but mostly for livestock. They’d bleed us to stain their flags and uniforms. The red kept its intense color through ingenious fabric preservatives. Our blood was so different from the bluish-black ichor in their veins. Perhaps it was a statement to other aliens of their superiority, but in the end, we realized it was something more primal. Something that reached into their hearts and souls to bring out centuries of suppressed anger, passion, and hostility.
It was the color red they truly worshiped.
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by submission | Feb 2, 2013 | Story |
Author : Chad Bolling
They looked like large slugs with reptilian skin and no shell. Besides their lack of defense mechanisms, the species had many more obvious traits that made it easier for predators to catch them. However, through some miracle, one these creatures alone could supply the human colony with boundless energy.
“Make sure he stays happy.” The colonies director, Myers said.
“We think the species is a hermaphrodite,” Dr. Chambers, the colony’s head scientist replied.
“Then keep it happy.”
It was kept happy for some time. The creature, nicknamed Volt, was safe from predators in its large aquarium.
“It’s getting fat.”
“This type of creature is meant to have an excessive body weight, but because of its poor survival mechanisms, it usually doesn’t make it to its mature body mass.”
The interesting thing about the glow slug, which is what the newly discovered species that included Volt was named, is that when they sleep they glow in the dark. Volt was no different from the other members of the glow slug species in that respect, except when he slept and began to glow, Volt gave off a highly powered energy field. The energy was then harvested quietly by the colonists and used as a power source.
Years later, Myers and Chambers were having a meeting about the status of the colony. “Well, Chambers,” Myers said, “the colony is prospering far better than anyone expected.”
“With the cost of energy so low compared to other off world colonies it’s no surprise,” Chambers replied.
Myers leaned back in his chair. “Our Volt has given us all the energy we need for the cost of a pet lizard!” Myers stopped talking to reflect for a moment. “Unfortunately, this colony has reached full capacity. Volt can only give us so much power per day. We can’t have anymore people moving here without using a more traditional power source, which would be much, much more expensive.”
After a minute of silence Chambers spoke, “well sir, we could try and figure out how the creature makes its energy field.”
“How so?”
“We can find the gland or organ that creates the energy field then extract it, then clone it using cells from other glow slug and have an infinite amount of energy!” Chambers said confidently.
“Sounds good to me. Get on it Chambers!”
“But sir there is one thing.”
“Yes?”
“We will need to do a full dissection of the creature.”
Myers sighed and gave the okay, saying the colony had enough backup power to last until Dr. Chambers and his team could duplicate the creature’s energy field generating ability.
“This will be a risk, Sir,” Chambers said before the dissection.
“I understand the risk, but I have complete confidence in you and your team,” Myers said slapping Chambers on the back.
After the dissection, Chambers and his team searched with both microscope and naked eye to find the source of the creatures unique ability to generate power fields.
“Have you found anything yet Chambers?”
“Well sir, not really…”
“Nothing?” Myers raised his voice.
“Nothing”
“How could this have happened? We aren’t prepared for this Chambers. Now we don’t have any power source at all.”
“Yes sir, I know. We should probably start a nuclear power contract-”
“Dammit man! We were at the top of the food chain. Just imagine it, a world with free energy.”
“Well sir, it seemed that our glow worm, Volt, had given us that…it just wasn’t enough.”
“Do you know what caused all of this Chambers?”
“Too much ambition?”
“Hah! You could use some more of that! No Chambers, it was greed.”
by Patricia Stewart | Feb 1, 2013 | Story |
Author : Patricia Stewart, Staff Writer
If the Skipper found out what I was about to do, he’d probably dock me a week’s pay, but it’d be worth it. I figured with the gravity generator off-line for the next four hours, I could probably get in three runs. I popped open the access panel at the mouth of the ship’s mile long ventilation shaft. The schematics had referred to it as the “Trunk Shaft”. The escaping wind created by the bank of centrifugal blower fans nearly sent me flying backwards into the maintenance lockers. Gripping my tether line and fighting the wind, I carefully pulled myself inside, and closed the panel door. The steady fifteen miles per hour wind felt much stronger than I expected. I turned my helmet light on and looked down the shaft. I could only see about a hundred yards, but it didn’t matter; I had memorized the location of every reducer, every Dyson Booster Ring, and every cross vent. I aligned myself head first, let go of the tether line, and nudged myself into the middle of the ten foot diameter shaft.
It was slow going at first, but as the wind gradually pushed me along, I started picking up speed. I was probably doing 5 mph as I passed the Bridge’s cross vent. If I wanted to abort, that was probably the last chance; as I’d be moving too fast from here on out to grab a vent corner. After about a minute, I shot though the first reducer. You wouldn’t think that a diameter reduction of only eighteen inches would make a difference, but it did, at least psychologically. Before I knew it, I went through another reducer, and a Dyson Booster. I briefly turned sideways, and my feet and hands slid along opposite walls. The cross vents were flying past every few seconds. That meant I was traveling at maximum speed. My heart was pounding like a drum as the current swept me past another reducer and booster. It was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time, like falling down a bottomless elevator shaft.
Despite my diligence, I clipped my left elbow going through the next reducer, but hell, it was better than my head. I needed to be sharp for the next thirty seconds, as I had to count the number of cross vent openings. If I missed the bungee line that I had strung across the shaft, I’d slam into the T-Fitting at full speed. Okay, twelve, thirteen, fourteen… I twisted myself into position and grabbed the bungee line. I quickly found the end and wrapped it around my chest just like I had practiced, and hung on. When the slack ran out, my upper body was yanked “upward”. Like a boa constrictor, the line started compressing my lungs as the bungee cord began to stretch. I was “falling” feet first now, and I used my arms to take some of the load off my chest. This was almost as much fun as the fall. I had to smile to myself when I came to a complete stop less than twenty feet short of the Engineering vent. I released the cord and it snapped up the shaft. The air current nudged me the final way and I pushed myself gently into the Engineering cross vent. Ten minutes later, I was making my way through the ship to start my second run, when my crew chief spotted me.
“Hey Garnerin,” he yelled, “I’ve received a half dozen calls about unusual noises coming from the ventilator shafts. Would you mind starting your maintenance shift early and looking into it?”
“Er, no problem Max. I’ll get right on it.”
