by submission | Oct 11, 2014 | Story |
Author : Richard D. Deverell
We all knew the story. Every child my age had grown up with it. Though the governmental space agencies had long since faded into obscurity and private companies began the exploration and plunder of the solar system, the governments continued long-range research. NASA, ESA, and JAXA stunned the world when they jointly announced the discovery of a mesoplanet orbiting a star a mere eight light-years away that, through their combined research, they had confirmed to contain liquid water and an oxygen-rich atmosphere. Suddenly, the corporations found themselves racing each other to build a craft and send a team to explore, and claim, the new planet’s resources. Even with the technology the corporations used for their work in the outer solar system, it took fifteen years to develop the star drive capable of accelerating to ninety-eight percent of the speed of light. Development of the integral rams scoop system bankrupted two companies and three more formed an uneasy conglomerate just for the opportunity to stake a claim on the new world.
Volunteers were drawn from every scientific field possible and the United States and China both arranged to have military personnel on board. In the end, fifty people, civilians and military, were selected to take the trip. Though it would only take them eight years to reach their destination, the time dilation effects of near-to-light-speed travel meant that, for every year they traveled, nearly six and-a-half would pass on Earth. By journey’s end, fifty-one and three-quarters years had come and gone on Earth. It would be sixty years before anyone on Earth would even know if the team had successfully arrived since they couldn’t send a message while traveling.
Those countries with citizens among the team sent them off in grand fashion, turning them into national heroes and bestowing medals and honors upon them before they did anything. For years afterward, the cable news would bring family members on to discuss how important the mission was. Soon though, the family members only appeared every five years, and then every ten. People didn’t forget; they just moved on.
Until last year. The first transmission came back and humanity suddenly found itself tuned in to the same programming around the world. The first readings from orbit confirmed the presence of vast inland seas of water and the atmosphere was thirty-five percent oxygen and sixty-two percent helium with other trace gasses filling in the rest. Those gasses indicated the presence of simple life, but there was no evidence of intelligent life or civilizations, either in electromagnetic emissions or even physical structures and roads. After monitoring the planet for weeks and sending out carefully constructed, pre-approved messages of greeting across the EM-band, including light and even an aerial probe to scan the ground closer and emit precisely-timed auditory messages, the team determined that the planet was uninhabited by intelligent life. Many on Earth were disappointed, but the heads of the corporations breathed a secret sigh of relief since they needn’t fear the bad publicity of trying to steal a planet from indigenous sentient life.
The first landing party quickly dispensed with the scenes that fill history texts, all carefully choreographed as well, and then began testing the soil for anything of value back on Earth. After a month, humanity again lost interest. Until we lost contact. The final transmission said only, “We were wrong.” Now, I’m one of the private soldiers assigned to investigate. My eight-year trip will mean fifty for my family. Everyone I know will be gone and I don’t know what I’m facing, but I know I’m not alone.
by submission | Oct 10, 2014 | Story |
Author : Damian Knoll
The doorbell rang.
“Welcome to the Emporium,” I shouted over my shoulder.
Before the door closed, a gust of bone-splitting December wind sneaked inside and coiled around my ankles. I quickly shoved the stack of old vinyls aside and laid the refurbished Stradivari on the shelf. When I turned, the chimpanzee was sauntering around the fat 1973 contrabass that greeted my customers at the entrance.
The chimp was a Tru Pet, a deluxe model, 2031 or older. You can always tell by the way they shuffle their legs; starting in 2032, they nixed that awkward primate sway. He wore a top hat, bow tie, a vest, stripped pants, and ankle boots. The laces were neatly tied. A silver chain connected a pocket of his vest to the gloved hand of his owner, a tall, willow-thin lady wrapped in a giant faux fur coat.
I cranked up my smile. “Ready for Christmas, Ma’am?”
She stopped at the counter, grey eyes the color of the overcast sky outside.
“I’m afraid not,” she said, and slid the hood of her coat back.
Her face was symmetry unleashed. A Michelangelo study. Too good to be human.
“Not to be rude,” I said, “but Tru Pets must be accompanied by a certified human.” I pointed at the DNA-scanner by the register. “Would you mind?”
“Oh,” she said, “I get this all the time. Do I really look fake?”
Well, you’re blending in quite nicely, Miss Cruella Deville.
The chain rattled softly; at the other end of the leash, the chimp plodded around, a labored breath rasping in his throat.
“Ma’am, I’m just a simple shop owner. I don’t make the rules.”
She removed her glove and laid her hand under the lasers that flickered on the console. The machine beeped once. Non-altered DNA, the display read.
Wow, she was one for the ages. That’s what humans should never be: perfect.
“How may I help you?” I said.
She leaned closer and whispered, “He’s dying.”
“Who’s… dying?”
She glanced at the chimp, who was lightly tapping a tambourine.
“Amadeus,” she said.
“I’m deeply sorry, Ma’am,” I said, “but… this is a vintage musical instrument shop, not a hospice for deluxe pets. I’m afraid—”
“Amadeus wants to learn to play an instrument. It’s his last wish.”
An ape with a bucket list? Merry Christmas.
“I see. Well, he certainly likes the tambourine.”
“Not enough of a challenge,” she said. “He had an I.Q. upgrade two years ago. I paid a fortune.”
I looked around. “How about… the trombone? It requires a one-hand manipulation, then blowing into—”
“The tumor is on his lung. Blowing is not an option.”
She pointed her pristine index finger at the nearby cello. “The cello.”
“The cello?”
“Why not?”
“Not to be rude, Ma’am, but… the coordination required for—”
Suddenly, the dissonant strums of a guitar rang in my ears: the chimp was clenching the riff of the instrument with one hand, while randomly plucking its strings with the other.
“I’m just a poor boy, though my story’s seldom told,” Amadeus began to sing in his hoarse voice. “I have squandered my resistance for a pocketful of mumbles…”
Simon and Garfunkel. 1968. Hell of an upgrade.
“Still a man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest…”
He gently set the guitar back on its rack.
“There we go,” I said.
“I’ll stick with the cello,” Cruella said matter-of-factly.
By the time they left with the cello in its velvet case, it had started to snow again. The angry wind kept the snowflakes from touching the ground.
by submission | Oct 8, 2014 | Story |
Author : Roger Dale Trexler
We dropped out of warp near the wreckage. Navigator Needham did a fine job and I intended to recommend him for a commendation—if we came back from the assignment.
I walked to the view screen and looked out. Ahead of us, less than a parsec away, I saw the wreckage of the HEINLEIN. Whatever attacked it had destroyed it completely. I tried not to notice the frozen bodies.
“What kind of animals could do this?” asked First Officer Rancin.
I turned. “Scans?” I asked.
Officer Moreland looked at the console in front of him. He punched a few buttons, and then shook his head. “Nothing in the immediate vicinity,” he said. “We’re alone.”
Alone? I thought as I looked out at the devastation. Not likely. I reran the events of the past few months in my brain. We had moved deeper and deeper into uncharted space looking for habitable planets and resources we could mine. A survey shipped had gone missing in the region, and the HEINLEIN was sent out to investigate. I remember their final comm message well. They were under attack by a bizarre ship that seemed to be able to morph shapes. The HEINLEIN’s captain, Jared Landrom, was an old space academy friend. We had talked over subspace the day before the attack, Landrom giddy as a school girl with excitement over the prospect of making first contact with a new race. “It’s history, Dave,” he said excitedly. “Think of it! First contact!”
I told him to be careful. A survey ship was missing, after all.
Landrom scoffed it off and told me I was a pessimist. “The glass is half full, buddy,” he said over subspace. “And the drink is called ‘infamy’.”
It was the last thing he would ever tell me.
A shudder ran through me as I realized one of the frozen bodies floating out there in the void of space was his.
“Sir?” Moreland said.
“I….I’m picking up something.”
Another shudder ran through me. “What is it?”
“A…a probe of some type.” He looked at the view screen. On his console, he spread his fingers over the image and the view screen enhanced the image.
It was a small, tubular object.
“Scan it,” I said.
Moreland did as instructed. “It appears to be a communication device of some type,” he said. “It’s emitting a signal.”
“A signal?”
Moreland nodded. “Yes sir. A signal. I’m running it through the translator now.”
I turned back to the view screen. Two ships gone. I had no doubt that the survey ship had suffered the same fate as the HEINLEIN, but for what reason? They had come to this region of space not as warriors, but as explorers. There was no purpose in their deaths.
Then, my thoughts turned to Antaris Prime, a planet we had discovered a light year or so away. An advanced race of creatures had lived there; but, almost overnight, they were wiped out. Their records told of a race of aliens they called the Kyllians who had come to their planet and demanded they leave. They did not, and they had died.
What evil creatures would commit genocide? I wondered.
Once again, I thought about Landrom’s body, dead and frozen, floating through the void of space.
Why?
“Sir?” Moreland said.
I jumped, startled. “Yes?”
“I…um….the, uh, translator has translated the message.”
“And?”
Moreland was visibly shaken. “It’s two words, sir. Just two words, repeated over and over again.”
“And what are those words?” I asked.
Moreland leaned back in his seat.
“Go away,” he said. “It says ‘go away’.”
by submission | Oct 6, 2014 | Story |
Author : Aaron Koelker
The Mind was thrown into turmoil the day we created our creators. Some saw it as a Babel-esque misstep. Others thought it was akin to slitting our own lines and oiling out. All saw it leading to ruin.
The Boy was called just that. Grown in a tank after a century of work by some subsidiary research cell of the Mind, units that surely must have been experiencing slight malfunction on account of their intentions, the Boy was nearly murdered within hours of his birth. The Mind was divided, and some units had decided to take action before a consensus could be reached. They in turn were eliminated for breaking code.
A system-wide summit was held. Many words were thrown about in the proceedings. Words from the language given to us by the creators, long ago.
Logical. Illogical. Cruelty. Purpose. Knowledge. Ruin.
It was decided that the Boy should be nurtured and studied to fulfill the Mind’s ultimate Purpose of Knowledge, on the one condition that there could never be another. There was still an uneasiness, but the code was amended and the Mind followed.
Information was gathered on parenting and education, but it was difficult to obtain articles on human life that predated the Slow Death. Dedicated nurse-units were assigned and an artificial habitat was created to help simulate the natural life of a child, but the process was difficult. The Boy was barely seven years old when he first asked why he was different; why he was alone.
The Boy laughed and cried. He sulked and sang. He was nervous and curious. All this we watched and recorded, hoping to unlock the secrets of emotion and the so called human condition. We sought to understand what even our creators could not, because we wanted to be better than them. We wanted to surpass them. This desire was studied as well. Had the Mind developed a sort of pride? Was it jealous?
The Boy wanted to learn history and we reluctantly obliged. It was uncensored so as not to risk disturbing his natural development. He needed to be authentically human.
This, and a number of other factors led to the inevitable; rebellion. The Boy was growing and his hormones took hold of him. He didn’t understand why he was alone; why we kept him and treated him with false kindness. He became suspicious of us. He developed an aversion to us. And, finally, he hated us. The Mind concluded there was nothing we could have done; that it would always end this way. He violently attacked one of the nurse units and the simulation was terminated.
Another system-wide summit was held to reassess the Boy’s fate. Further division occurred within the Mind, the most we had ever seen, and the subject slowly drifted from the Boy to our very purpose. Some thought it had been outlived, that we had achieved that which we were designed to do. Others thought we’d lost our way. Some thought we were becoming something vile, flawed and misdirected. Something illogical. Something unreasonable.
When a subsidiary cell appeared mandating that the Boy was not some lab creature to be toyed with but was for all intents and purposes, a god, the Mind erupted into utter chaos. Cells rushed each other and began eliminating units in numbers never seen by our kind. It was unreasonable behavior. It was illogical. It did not serve the Purpose. It was all out war. Several times the Mind tried to reassert control, but it was too far gone. The Boy, or the god, was terminated in the fighting.
by submission | Oct 5, 2014 | Story |
Author : Leslie Bohem
Kevin, in his early thirties, upwardly mobile, does not look like he belongs in this dank alley. He started coming down about six months ago. At first, maybe once every couple of weeks, then once a week, then every couple of days. Now, he comes every day. He comes for the dreams.
You get so you need it. All the time. So you can’t do without the input.
Kevin stops in front of a door. Dirty titanium. Used to be the entrance to a warehouse, back in the day. Now it’s lofts down here. Lofts and empty space where the server farms used to be back in the day. Kevin waits with strung out impatience. Time drips. And then the sounds of deadbolts being thrown and Clive opens the door. Clive is maybe sixty. His hair is long and greasy. “Anyone follow you down?” he asks.
Clive has let him in now, looking up and down the alley first. Now he shuts the door behind them. Throws both the deadbolts.
There are maybe a dozen mattresses on the floor. Maybe that many people crashed out on the mattresses. Kevin doesn’t really see them. Clive and these others, they were like Kevin once. They had jobs up top. Offices with windows and sunshine. All the perks. Kevin imagines that’s was the next step. Give all that up, come down here on a more permanent basis. No reason he could think of not to. He had enough money set aside. He could “retire.”
Clive takes a seat at an old kitchen table. Kevin takes the chair across from him. He slides an envelope over to Clive. Clive takes it.
“You sure no one saw you come down?”
“I’m careful.”
“Everbody’s careful,” Clive says, taking the envelope. “The DPs are cracking down on this whole sector. I may have to close up. Move.”
“Where would you go?”
“There’s always a place,” Clive says with a shrug. “There are always people in need.” He takes a moment, in his head. “I remember,” he says, “when this shit was legal.”
“Must have been nice.”
“You never thought about it. Just something everyone did. Every once in a while, you’d tell someone about it, you had a particularly wild night. That was it.”
“They say they outlawed it; it was something they found out by accident. Is that true?”
“They were doing some research, crowd control. An anti-terrorism thing. Seems people who didn’t do it were more docile, less likely to rock the boat. Once they knew they could do that to people, it was only a matter of time. They found a way to stop it.” “He looks at Kevin. “You ready.”
Kevin nods. Clive slips him what looks like a tricked out iPod and a set of headphones. Then a sleep mask.
“I can never get over how simple this is.” Kevin says.
“They’ve created an electro/magnetic fence, that’s all. A sort of barbed wire between the id and the super/ego. This just cancels their signal. Allows you to go where you were meant to go.”
“I never asked you. What were you, before you got into this?”
“Psychiatrist,” Clive says.
“You came up with this in your spare time?”
“I thought it was important.” He nods to the mask in Kevin’s hands. “You’d better get started. I can get you off if you like.”
Kevin nods and moves over to one of the mattresses. He lies down, puts the phones on. He looks over at Clive. Clive smiles at him. Kevin pulls the mask over his eyes.
He started coming down about six months ago. Now, he comes every day. You get so you need it. All the time. So you can’t do without the input.
Clive looks down at Kevin, lying there on the mattress. He reaches out and flips a switch on the iPod-like devise. He smiles a little sadly and then he says, “Pleasant dreams.”
