Friday Flash Fiction: What happens now?

“Ambassador Grosh. I thought I’d find you here.”

“Ah, my dear Captain Solomon. It is most gratifying to see that you have survived recent events.”

“Yeah, somehow I doubt that you or your people thought I was in any real danger out there.”

“You are most intelligent, Captain. It was not certain, but it is true that the probability of your survival was high.”

“What I don’t understand is how you survived? I saw the hole that was blown into the station. There’s no way anyone would have survived a blast like that, even your people.”

“Yes. I sometimes forget that your people are not aware that this form we show you is not our true form.”

“Not your true…?”

“Indeed, captain. We are a very old species, as you have no doubt guessed. We have taken on this form in order to appear more… pleasing to you.”

“That you can better manipulate us?”

“Manipulate? No, my dear captain, manipulation was never our intention.”

“But you admit that you’re behind all of this?”

“I have never denied such a thing. I believe that if you think back to our conversations, you will see that I have admitted to tampering with events long before you ever came to this station.”

“I knew it.”

“Please, captain, put your weapon away. It is not necessary. I will gladly put myself into your custody and subject myself to your peoples justice. The test is done. I am to be my people’s sacrificial lamb, now, and I do my duty with pride and honor.”

“Test?”

“Indeed. This was all a test of you and your people. And you have passed.”

“My people? You mean all of humanity? Surly, you don’t think my staff and I are representative of all humanity?”

“But we do. Within each of you is the seed of what humanity is truly capable of.”

“So you set all this up just to test us?”

“I did not set up all of this, no. Events were already in motion, things would have proceeded along a pace similar to what actually happened without my interference. All I did was nudge events in a direction that were better suited for the test.”

“Such as making sure that humanity would build a station in this system, forcing us to become involved.”

“Indeed.”

“So… what happens now?”

“Now? Now my people move on.”

“Move on? What does that mean?”

“It means simply that it is time for us to leave this galaxy to live out our finally centuries as a people.”

“What, you’re packing your bags to move to some universal Florida to retire?”

“Ah, Earth humor. I will miss it. It is, of course, more complicated than that, but the metaphor is apt. And now is the time when you will ask the question that most burns in your mind.”

“Why? What was this all about?”

“Quite simple, my dear captain. My species has watched over and protected this galaxy since before humanity first walked upright. We have made sure that worlds were given the chance they needed to breed new life, that space faring sentients did not cause too much harm to the galactic environment. We have even culled herds, if you will, to prevent overpopulation. Oh, not with sentient, space faring peoples, of course. Those we subtly guided to fallow worlds where sentience was unlikely. I mean on worlds where sentience was endangered by overpopulation. But, as I have said, we have done this for a very long, long time. And now we are tired. We wish, as you put it, to retire. But we cannot simply abandon our duties.”

“You wanted a successor.”

“Indeed.”

“Humanity?”

“I know it seems an odd choice. You are so very young, even by the standard of other space faring races. But you already move toward the role on your own, and your belifes so match ours that very little was needed on our part to push you in the right direction. We just needed a test, one that would prove to us that you were ready, or at least near to ready.”

“And we passed, I take it?”

“Indeed you did.”

“So, what? You hand over a galactic guardian handbook, ‘How to feed and care for a Galaxy’, or something?”

“Not quite, but very close, yes. We have left our technology and secrets intact on our home world.”

“But no one knows where that is. Except you, of course. Are you saying you’re just going to give all that to us? How do you know we won’t use it to become galactic dictators?”

“Because of the final test you must pass.”

“You’re not going to tell us where the planet is.”

“Oh, I am. It’s location is on this disk. No, the test will be for you to pass our security procedures and then learn to read the files that we have left behind. By our calculations, it will take you nearly a thousand years to do so, and even then you will only discover things slowly. Our files will guide you, but not control you, nor will you get the knowledge faster than you can handle. It is how the information was passed to us. It is how you will pass the information on when it is time for your species retirement.”

“I… see.”

“Captain, you have lowered your gun. Are you letting me go?”

“No. No, you are still guilty of crimes, and I’m guessing that your actions even your people would consider crimes. I still plan to bring you to justice. And more importantly, I need you to tell this to others.”

“Of course.”

“I have one last question, Ambassador.”

“Of course.”

“What happens if my people decline the job offer?”

“That is a very unlikely possibility, Captain. Very unlikely.”

The End

Tiny Tales Tuesday: Crash

Once again, a 5 Minute Fiction entry, though this time around I didn't make it to the finals. Still, I like this story. The great thing about writing Flash Fiction is that it's just a snapshot of a larger story. There are many questions left unanswered. It's almost like a teaser. But you never get the whole thing, because this is it. I love that. It leaves the answers up to the reader.

And I think this this week's Tiny Tale is perfect in this respect. So, enjoy Crash.

********


“Get out, quick,” Richard said as he slammed his shoulder into the door. His force worked and the door jared open a crack, light flashing in from the outside. Weather it was daylight, or more fire was hard to tell. I didn’t hesitate to find out, though, the fire inside the shuttle was more than enough to convince me that I needed to get out.

Richard was right behind me, pushing me slightly in his rush to get outside.

“Keep running!” he shouted, which was unnecessary given that we were communicating through our helmets. But, I nodded and chased after him. We ran as hard as we could, which was difficult given both the terrain and the slightly lower gravity. After w few moments, we reached a rise, and we both turned to look back at the shuttle. The fire had spread to the outside, and the only place not burning as we watch was the cockpit we just escaped from.

I turned away from the wreckage. The crash was horrible enough, and I flinched at the memory of a piece of hull piercing through Hobbs. Instead, I turned my eyes towards the landscape before us. It was a lush jungle on the other side of the mountain, purple leaved trees with what appeared to be round, yellow fruit hanging from them. I wondered briefly if there were any animal noises. It would be impossible to hear through the helmet. I didn’t want to take that off to find out, though. The sensors before we crashed indicated that the atmosphere was poisonous.

“Well,” Richard said, finally turning away, “that’s it then. I managed to save some equipment, but not the radio. We’re stuck here.”

“I hope the signal got through,” I said. “Otherwise, getting out of the shuttle only delayed the inevitable.”

Friday Flash Fiction: An American Werewolf on the Moon

So, the inspiration came from a writing prompt from one of my favorite writing podcasts, Writing Excueses. The prompt was: "Start with a hard SF story, and turn it into a werewolf love story in three paragraphs." I think I managed to do that here. You'll have to let me know if it's any good, though.

An American Werewolf on the Moon


Mara listened to the sound of her breath, in and out, as it echoed in the sealed helmet of her space suit. On the moon, it was the only sound she could hear, and while the site before of was beautiful, the lack of sound was eerie. She breathed again just to hear the noise. Then she smiled. Despite the eerie starkness of her surroundings, she was thrilled to be here. A physicist, being a NASA astronaut on the moon was a life long dream of hers. And the reason they were here had her excited too. Oh, sure, it would have been fine to be here for the reason given to the public, and they were partially checking the site for a permanent moon base anyway.

But the real reason was no staring her in the face. An honest to God extra terrestrial spacecraft. A recent satellite sent to take pictures of Jupiter took some pictures of the moon as it went by, and what NASA saw was mind blowing. A crashed ship of some sort. Mara immediately put her name down to get in on the mission. She needed to see what these aliens were like. Did they have faster than light travel? What was their biology look like? Did they survive the crash? Where they planning on contacting us?

All of that, however, was shoved out of her head when her crewmate came into view, bounding down the lunar landscape. Mark Robbins was the most ruggedly handsome man she had ever seen. And over the fourteen days it took them to travel to the moon, the two had become close. Very close. And in that time, she had learned something about Mark that no one else knew, not even NASA. Mark was a werewolf. And he had just yesterday declared his love for her.

She still couldn’t believe it. Werewolves, aliens, the moon. It was all hard to take in. But when Mark told her four days ago, and then showed her with a partial transformation, she knew it would be okay. She loved him too, more than she had loved any man ever. He wanted to come to the moon to touch that strange night mistress that controlled his most brutal transformations. She could understand that. He even thought that he might learn something here that could help him control it all.

And the aliens, he thought, were the key.

She smiled at him as he waved her in. He had found the airlock to the ship, and it still appeared sealed. Their initial fly by had shown that the hull appeared intact as well. The hope was that there was breathable air inside. She had a new reason for hoping now, because it meant that, if anything inside was dangerous, Mark could wolf out and protect them. She hoped it didn’t have to come to that. She shook the thought from her head, and leaped forward. She still wasn’t quite used to walking on the moon, yet.

It took a good half-hour of fiddling with the controls before they both gave up and just blew the outer hatch of the airlock. Inside was another door, but this one was open. They quickly got inside and sealed the door with a new bit of technology from home. A thick, plastic sheet was stretched over the door and then sealed into place with a new poly-resin that would keep it there until a special spray was applied to it, dissolving it and allowing them escape.

They looked around. She looked at her scanner, which showed breathable air inside, if a little high on the oxygen. She nodded to Mark, and they took off their helmets.

“Well,” he said. “This is it.”

He took her hand and lead her into the alien labyrinth.

12 Days of Sci-Fi

Here's a little ditty I wrote up just for the fun of it. A special Christmas wish for all my fellow Sci-Fi fans out there.

The Twelve Days of Sci-Fi

On the First Day of Christmas my True Love gave to me
A little town named Eureka

On the Second Day of Christmas my True Love gave to me
Two John Crichtons and a little town named Eureka

On the Third Day of Christmas my True Love gave to me
Three Matrix movies, two John Crichtons and a little town named Eureka

On the Fourth Day of Christmas my True Love gave to me
Four Stargate teammates, three Matrix movies, two John Crichtons and a little town named Eureka

On the Fifth Day of Christmas my True Love gave to me
Five Star Trek shows, four Stargate teammates, three Matrix movies, two John Crichtons and a little town named Eureka

On the Sixth Day of Christmas my True Love gave to me
Six fast lightcycles, five Star Trek shows, four Stargate teammates, three Matrix movies, two John Crichtons and a little town named Eureka

On the Seventh Day of Christmas my True Love gave to me
Seven Stormtroopers, six fast lightcycles, five Star Trek shows, four Stargate teammates, three Matrix movies, two John Crichtons and a little town named Eureka

On the Eighth Day of Christmas my True Love gave to me
Eight Na’vi dancing, seven stormtroopers, six fast lightcycles, five Star Trek shows, four Stargate teammates, three Matrix movies, two John Crichtons and a little town named Eureka

On the Ninth Day of Christmas my True Love gave to me
Nine Firefly crew, eight Na’vi dancing, seven stormtroopers, six fast lightcycles, five Star Trek shows, four Stargate teammates, three Matrix movies, two John Crichtons and a little town named Eureka

On the Tenth Day of Christmas my True Love gave to me
Ten X-files cases, nine Firefly crew, eight Na’vi dancing, seven stormtroopers, six fast lightcycles, five Star Trek shows, four Stargate teammates, three Matrix movies, two John Crichtons and a little town named Eureka

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas my True Love gave to me
Eleven Dr. Who’s, ten X-files cases, nine Firefly crew, eight Na’vi dancing, seven stormtroopers, six fast lightcycles, five Star Trek shows, four Stargate teammates, three Matrix movies, two John Crichtons and a little town named Eureka

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas my True Love gave to me
Twelve Cylon models, eleven Dr. Who’s, ten X-files cases, nine Firefly crew, eight Na’vi dancing, seven stormtroopers, six fast lightcycles, five Star Trek shows, four Stargate teammates, three Matrix movies, two John Crichtons and a little town named Eureka

Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays to everyone!