January 8, 2011

From “Star Wars Orthodoxy” by Amber Fourside

Posted by alexp01 under Excerpt | Tags: , , , , , |
Leave a Comment 

“I don’t think our generation has fully thought this whole childraising thing through,” said Andrea. “There are important issues that our parents didn’t have to deal with.”

“Like the internet?” Jake said, stroking her hair. “Or cell phones?”

“Like Star Wars,” Andrea said. “Will we teach our kids that Han Solo shot first and that you watch the movies in the order that they were made? When will we sit them down to talk about Jar Jar Binks?”

“I think we can work through that issue,” Jake said.

“Will we really let them play with kids whose parents are Star Wars fundamentalists that insist no new movies have been made since 1983, or kids who–God forbid–make them watch the movies in numerical order?” Andrea giggled. “What kind of parents would we be if we allowed that?”

“Normal?”

“There you go again, oversimplifying,” Andrea said, playfully hitting Jake with a pillow. “Star Wars orthodoxy could be a huge issue for our children, causing strife in the classroom and on the playground to rival the great schisms of old. Nobody our age has thought this through in the slightest, to say nothing of other issues like Old Trek vs. New Trek or which cut of Blade Runner they should see. We’ve got to do it, for the children’s sake!”

 

December 12, 2010

From “Inctel is Success” by Hammond O. Reordan

Posted by alexp01 under Excerpt | Tags: , , , |
Leave a Comment 

17 December 20–

Sir,

We have recieved your letter of the 2nd of this month, and regret to inform you that Inctel Inc. cannot be held responsible for side effects of its products’ use as laid out in the end user license agreement. By opening and using the device in question, you agreed to be bound by the terms of the EULA, and as such the company and its affiliates bear no responsibility for what you describe in your communications. Nevertheless, we can offer some suggested solutions as long as you understand that these do not represent any admission of wrongdoing and that you fully assume any and all consequences resulting from their use.

Some users have complained that, while phase shifting, they have accidentally created causality loops that appear to strand them in a skein of time where they do not and never have existed, or experienced certain other radical deviations from their point of departure. Returning the unit to its default factory setting and pressing the power button until the system reboots has worked for many of these cases. Returning to a skein prior to any noticed changes and then moving forward in increments may also work.

As for your complaint about “specters,” some users have complained about similar phenomena. Manually adjusting the phase setting on your unit may work, as hallucinations may result if the default has “drifted” into the positive or negative plane. Customers have also reported success using the anti-time bubble option at maximum setting, but this is not recommended and will void your warranty is still covered.

I am, respectfully.
[signature blurred]
“Inctel is Success.”

 

December 7, 2010

From “Gertie Was” by Kindleman Harris

Posted by alexp01 under Excerpt | Tags: , , , , |
Leave a Comment 

The note continued in the same vein:

Gertie was sometimes called Gertrude. This was her name on certificates and papers but never her real name. Anyone who called Gertie by that name was no friend of hers.

Gertie was said to always be nervous, but this was a lie. Gertie would pretend to be nervous or even pretend to faint because it made people see Gertie and treat her with kindness.

Gertie was barren, they said, and could never have children. But Gertie knew this wasn’t true. Her husband insisted it was so, and tried to prove himself right with many others.

Gertie was weak, they said, but they’d never had to be Gertie.
Gertie was many things at many times to many people and in many eyes.

Gertie was none of those things afterwards.

Gertie was no longer Gertie.

 

December 2, 2010

From “Metamorphosis” by Jill O. Garibaldi

Posted by alexp01 under Excerpt | Tags: , , , , |
Leave a Comment 

“I don’t get it,” Albert said. “Why can’t you continue to collaborate after he grows up? I thought Neltoq was grown up already.”

“You don’t read much, do ya, kid?” said Gelb. He flicked ash from his cigarette onto the station floor. “For the Ultoq, growing up’s the same as death.”

The Ultoq homeworld was a global mass of structures not unlike mangrove swamps on Earth, with only shallow seas and upland plains in between. Competition was fierce, so Ultoqs had evolved a complex life cycle to prevent their young from competing with adults. Ultoq newborns were planktonic, released in vast numbers with only a few reaching the second stage and moving back to shore. After a metamorphosis, the primate-like Ultoq that most humans were familiar with emerged. With binocular vision, a highly-developed forebrain, and opposable fingers on all seven limbs to facilitate moving and feeding in the vast and complex root structures, the second stage was intelligent enough to develop a civilization and tools if it lasted longer. Evolution, however, had dictated that the second stage existed merely to gather food; once a certain stage of growth was reached, the Ultoq returned to the sea and underwent a final metamorphosis into a sessile, mindless tunicate-like filter feeder, which lived only to send out vast quantities of sperm or eggs into the sea to begin the cycle anew.

It wasn’t until, by chance, a second-stage Ultoq discovered the grinyth plant that their civilization had developed. Grinyth fruit and leaves produced a compound that retarded the onset of the final metamorphosis–as long as there was grinyth in its system, an Ultoq would not proceed to the last stage of its life. Even as Ultoq Civilization developed, though, the need to maintain their numbers was paramount. Thus, after a time, they would all cease intake of grinyth–or its synthesized derivatives–and “grow up,” losing all memory and ability to propagate the species.

“Heavy stuff, man,” said Albert. “Heavy stuff.”

 

November 24, 2010

From “Kubinka” by Glennis D’Arbo

Posted by alexp01 under Excerpt | Tags: , , , , , , , |
Leave a Comment 

As the attendant gave Jeremy his ticket and the change from his thousand-ruble note, his hand brushed the cash register. A vision sprang into his head, clear as day: an employee slyly opening the till and pocketing a stack of bills.

Jeremy sighed, and pulled his glove back on. “Always something bad,” he muttered, and pushed through the turnstile into the museum proper.

Bypassing the indoor exhibits, he strolled outside, where an impressive array of armored tanks and fighting vehicles were arrayed along a semicircular path. This was Kubinka, the great tank museum of Russia and the former Soviet Union, and every vehicle here had a story to tell.

“And they’ll all be tragic, horrible, wretched things,” Jeremy muttered. Military things always were. He recalled a visit to the Smithsonian, pressing his palm against the Enola Gay and witnessing a blinding flash and ever-expanding fireball.

There was nothing for it, though. Jeremy reached into his pocket and produced a dog-eared sheaf of photocopies. An article on the top detailed the tragic fate of one Jeroen Schoenborn, accused of disabling his tank at Kursk in an act of cowardice, later tried and executed for the same. Painstaking research had led his grandson to Kubinka, where most survivors of that great battle could be found.

And he’d touch them all, regardless of the pain it’d cause, to learn the truth.

 

November 17, 2010

From “The Thousand-Year Orbit” by Felicia Murphi

Posted by alexp01 under Excerpt | Tags: , , , |
Leave a Comment 

“You said the external hull had suffered catastrophic damage, and couldn’t be reliably identified through long range scans due to radiointerference from the black hole,” Cassowary said softly. “Are you sure about that?”

“I have the data right here,” said Burke.

“Are you sure about that?” Cassowary cried, the speaker in her suit’s helmet crackling.

“Yes, I’m sure,” Burke said, startled. “Simmons said that the time dilation this vessel experienced during its orbit has allowed some systems to stay online, but that the damage and interference made it impossible to identify. You were there.”

“I know,” said Cassowary. “He thought it was the result of a trip through a wormhole beyond the event horizon.”

“If you know, then why ask me? Why all the shouting?” Burke said.

Cassowary sank to her knees. “I was hoping that I’d made a mistake, that I’d overlooked something. But it’s all there in the computer.”

“We ought to be concentrating on reestablishing contact with the Perihelion and finding where Grant’s team went.”

“There’s no point!” moaned Cassowary. “This is a Helios-class exploration craft, and the chronometer has been running for three thousand years. Don’t you see. Burke? It’s our ship. It’s us. We just haven’t realized it yet.”

 

November 10, 2010

From “Tale of the Guardianese” by Orville Canner

Posted by alexp01 under Excerpt | Tags: , , , , |
Leave a Comment 

The French ship Sentinelle first charted the island and found it ringed with coral reefs that prevented approach. They named it Guardian Island after these structures and abandoned any attempt to land there. They were merely the latest in a long line of explorers to seek, and fail, to make contact with the people of the isle. Those reefs, plus Guardian Island’s isolated location in its archipelago, allowed it to escape the notice of Mughal emperors, British traders, Japanese invaders, and Indian unionists alike.

When the technology for surmounting the reefs became available, the Guardianese violently rejected all contact, repelling any landing with spears and arrows. They are, near as anyone can tell, the last completely uncontacted indigenous people in the world, direct descendants of the first modern humans to emerge out of Africa who have occupied their island home continuously for over 50,000 years. For this reason, India has abandoned attempts to contact them, reasoning that to do so could wipe the entire population out through disease.

The only extant source on the Guardianese are their neighbors, the Awaraj, who are of the same stock but inhabited larger islands and were therefore contacted. The last full-blooded Awaraj died in 1922, though many islanders share some Awaraj ancestry; the last surviving family was interviewed before succumbing to typhoid. They claimed that the Guardianese rejected contact for religious reasons, believing that their gods had descended from the skies in the time before time in tiny suns and given them an item to guard.

When asked what that item might be, the Awaraj simply laughed and said that the Guardianese had refused to describe it.

 

October 26, 2010

From “The Secret of Adjective’s Noun” by Rhona J. Hartwick

Posted by alexp01 under Excerpt | Tags: , , , , , |
Leave a Comment 

“Okay, are you there? The door should say ‘to Ophidian’s Cloister.'”

Harv worked his controller. “Yeah. Who’s Ophidian?”

Jim’s sigh was audible even through the crackly cellphone connection. “Haven’t you been reading the books in-game? They fill you in on all the little bits of backstory!”

“Look, if I did that I’d be dropping 100 hours into this game instead of just 50,” said Jim. “I’m only playing it to match your awards and get my score in a reasonable place, and because it was Game of the Year in twenty different places.”

“And the fact that it’s been praised as having the deepest and most original story in years makes no nevermind to you, huh?” Jim said.

“Look, I called you to guide me through the Maze of Insanity, not to get a lecture,” Harv said. “I like games where the story is ‘kill the evil alien overlord and his 10,000 troops with big guns.'”

Another crackly sigh. “Okay, whatever. Once you’re in the cloister, go right, then up the stairs, and then right-left right. That will bring you to the Oubliette of Redemption.”

“And from there?”

“Pretty straightforward. Two circles of doors; just take the ones for the Solarium of the Holy Haunt and then the Spire of Honor and Truth and you should see the cutscene before the final boss.”

Harv shook his head. “Where do they come up with the names for these rooms?”

“Certainly not the team of award-winning fantasy and sci-fi authors that were mentioned in all the reviews you didn’t read as part of crafting the story you mostly skipped.”

 

October 25, 2010

From “Do-Over” by Colleen Engstrom

Posted by alexp01 under Excerpt | Tags: , , , , |
Leave a Comment 

“Dr. Janssen’s device has proven very useful in the past.”

“But I still don’t understand how it’s possible,” Harmon protested. “I mean the theoretical problems alone, not to mention the practical points, would take decades-”

“Enough whining,” Fields snapped. “I’m telling you about how the Janssen Probability Thruster has been, not how it works!”

“All right, then,” Harmon sighed. “How has it been useful?”

“Well, the Modified Antimatter Configuration caused an explosion that threw debris over ten miles, killing hundreds including myself and the entire staff. So we scrubbed the experiment before it was ever run.”

“But how-” Harmon began.

Fields, clearly enjoying recounting the old war stories, ignored him. “Then there was the Diversified Positron Ionization fiasco. That created a black hole that consumed the Earth in a matter of hours, crushing every one of us into a quantum singularity. A tiny adjustment was all that experiment needed to be successful.”

“Still, I think-”

“And who could forget Electrical Osmosis? Sounded simple enough, but it duplicated a piece of lab equipment until it filled every micron of space in the universe! We scaled it back to one, which I’m sure you’ll agree is a major improvement.”

 

October 18, 2010

From “Delinquent Shuttling” by Daniel Sanders Guillarme

Posted by alexp01 under Excerpt | Tags: , , , |
Leave a Comment 

Once all the delinquents were loaded, their restrains were removed and the shuttle lurches skyward, taking a path along the high-security clearance route. It snaked between the highest towers of the City core; lit by the rising sun, it was an intensely beautiful scene. Squout found his stomach knotting itself up as the pilot wove the shuttle around.

“Hey,” one of the other delinquents said to him. “What’re you in for?”

“People call me Squout. I disrupted the City Sepulcher services.”

The delinquent scrunched his face up. “That’s it?”

“Yeah.”

“Pfft. People call me Richat, and I shot a City patrolman with his own heater!”

Squout felt sweat pricking down his neck. “Why’d you do that?”

Richat shrugged his scrawny shoulders. “He was about to pull over the shuttle that I stole.”

“That’s nothing,” said another delinquent. “I cut the brake lines on a citytram!”

“I hijacked a shipment of nutri-gel!”

Squout drew back, suddenly hoping that the shuttle ride was a short one.

 

« Previous Page — Next Page »