Excerpts From Nonexistent Books

“The Ctiverar Object…know it?”

“Sci-fi Channel original movie?”

“Mysterious structure in the middle of the Sahara.”

“Is it sand? That’s plenty mysterious.”

“No it isn’t.”

“It is if you’ve never seen sand. Maybe someone from Greenland.”

“It’s not sand.”

“What is it then?”

“Giant X, made out of stone. Natural, or so they say, but straight as a ruler. Can see it from the space shuttle.”

Time eventually ran out for the O’Fette government, though not from any of the mechanisms that they had suspected and planned for.

Parliament brought a motion of no confidence against Minister O’Fette, which failed by a considerable margin. Emboldened by this, O’Fette called for an early election, hoping to buttress his majority and achieve the numbers he needed to make his majority completely impervious to interference from other parties.

Much to his misfortune, the election season happened to coincide with the Severton Explosion, a munitions fire that eventually spread out of control and killed dozens at the navy pier. Citizens in the capitol demonstrated against the government’s perceived negligence in providing aid and protection in the wake of the disaster, and the action soon became violent. O’Fette had to call in the army to restore order.

His plan backfired, with the recent troubles leading to his ouster. O’Fette fled the country hours after the news was announced, taking with him as much of the treasury as his motorcade could accommodate.

Draque spread his arms wide. “Each squadron is named after a nasty predator: Viper, Shark, Hornet. This is Lion Hangar.”

“Guess ‘Fuzzy Bunny Squadron’ didn’t have much of a ring to it when it comes to striking fear into the enemy,” said Mayer.

“To the right enemy it would. The Dlrinians are such strict vegetarians that the very idea of coney stew would be enough to either scare them shitless or drive them into a homicidal rage. And rabbits are sacred to the Knidr, so it might just impress them.”

Mayer cocked his head. “Did you just make that up?”

“Parts of it,” Draque said.”Anyway, the name isn’t for the benefit of our enemies; it’s for the troops. If being called a lion makes them more useful as killbots, then we call ’em a lion.”

Call: Creation must occur in the Permeable Lands.

Response: Those with the gift may only cause tiny changes in the Impermeable, but within the Permeable Lands their power is multiplied a thousandfold.

Call: It is difficult to destroy the living.

Response: The living resist destruction and alteration with every fiber of their being, a force even the most gifted can rarely overcome.

Call: It is easier to create the inanimate.

Response: The living are magnificent in their complexity. To fashion one takes considerable skill and errors will be noticed. But how often does a stick not look like a stick?

Call: It is best to specialize.

Response: Grow skillful in creating one sort of thing, that you might trade it with others.

Call: Creation lies not in the details, but the whole.

Response: Once mastery of the gift arrives, creation may result in complexity of result without complexity of input.

As the police pulled up, Vincenzo noticed a slip of paper tucked under the windshield of his car:

Belittling neighbors seems like a blast
But this time ain’t like the past
Showing them where you have park’t
So then your stash you find nark’t

It was the last thing he read as a free man.

“You sure this is the right address?”

Ruttort Produce looked as if nothing remotely resembling produce had darkened its doors since before the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon. The grocery’s walls were overrun with ivy, faded advertisements for products that no longer existed, and provided much-needed shelter for generations worth or rats and roaches.

“I’m sure,” Carson said. He pointed at the floor, where the dust was disturbed by sets of human footprints.

The trail led into what must at one time have been the store’s office, only it was doubtful that the long-dead store manager had ever dreamed of anything like the high-powered computer terminal and backup unit humming on his desk.

“Look at this,” Carson said, pointing to cables that snaked across the ground. “This spot’s only a hundred yards from the main fiber-optic pipeline to downstate. Tapped into it like this, Johannes can read the mail of everyone in six counties.”

“Does that amuse you? Viac Funiked was the name of the first president of Pilchardania, the man who led us to freedom after the first World War. At home I am often laughed at because our names are the same, and I see that here it is no different. Your laugh, however, is as borne of ignorance as my countrymen’s was of knowledge.”

Cesar reddened and could only mumble a reply.

The man jabbed at him with his walking stick. “What’s that? You didn’t expect a man with such a name to speak your language? Or did you honestly think I’d join in your fun at my expense?”

The Conabin Fish was named after its discoverer Augustus Conabin, a naturalist on a British exploration vessel. Conabin’s crew took shelter from a Pacific gale in the lagoon of an atoll that the captain named Sarah Anne Island after his eldest daughter. The ship was there long enough for the naturalist to go ashore and collect specimens. Most were unremarkable palms and crustaceans, but a large stream flowing from a freshwater lens yielded a distinct-looking species of what appeared to be a freshwater triggerfish. It was brightly colored in a dazzling pattern according to Conabin’s notes, and fed off small shrimp and other invertebrates in the soft sand.

It was only years later, when the British Navy attempted to press a claim to Sarah Anne Island, that it was found to have vanished, with no trace of the island in its reported position and soundings indicating over a mile of ocean below. Conabin’s specimens were dug out and examined; though badly discolored and damaged by preservatives, experts concurred that they resembled no known species.

It represents one of the most enduring mysteries of zoology to this day.

Carronce took the entire complement of the ferry hostage. A veteran of the war, he’d come home laden with booty from foreign battlefields–machine pistols, rifles, and even a precision scope–that put him far and away above the local Cheboygan County police armed with surplus revolvers. By the time the call went out into the surrounding countryside for able-bodied men willing to lend their own firepower, the ferry had moved too far offshore to be hit.

Forcing the crew to operate the radio for him, Carronce demanded that his seized assets be restored and that his wife and child be tracked down and reunited with him “at taxpayer expense.” The designated negotiator, trying to stall for time as proper boats and equipment were rounded up for a rescue, asked why Carronce was so adamant about the last point.

“I served my country for five years and killed ten men for it. It’s the least she can do.” was his reply. It was the last communication anyone would ever have with the ferry.

Five hours later, a Coast Guard launch approached the ferry under cover of darkness to attempt a boarding. The maneuver was botched, though, and Carronce opened fire even as he lowered the ferry’s car ramps, rapidly swamping the craft. A few bedraggled survivors were hauled out of the water, but the rest slipped beneath the oily-smooth Huron waters with their captor.

Tobias rested a boot on the amplifier. “This, my friends, is the Ampbust 262. Only 250 were ever made before federal noise regulations forced the maker out of business.”

A quiet gasp resonated throughout the group. “What are those?” somebody asked, pointing to nearby amp-like shapes under a tarp.

“These are three more of ’em. Barn finds, picked ’em up for a song and restored ’em myself.” Tobias waited for this to sink in for a moment.

“And?”

“On the same circuit, grounded, with a high-quality axe to back them up? We could tear down a wall or tear a hole in the freakin’ fabric of spacetime, man.”