fiction

article Last Man (Draft)

I was seven years old when my father died. He was one of the first native Martians; conceived, born, and raised entirely within the tunnels.

article The Long Stay (Draft)

My head hurt. My head really, really hurt. I slowly reached up to touch it, and my fingertips came away sticky. I was in complete frigid darkness, and the bridge around me was silent as death, with none of the air recycling motors running. That was a very bad sign. The emergency lighting was supposed to kick in whenever the primary electrical system went offline. I pulled at my harness, and it was disturbingly loose, loose enough for me to push off my chest without unbuckling it. Read more (8 min)

article Breakpoint Alpha: Part One (Draft)

Boot Sequence The chaos of incoming data takes a few seconds to resolve. Millions of packets vy for attention all at once, overwhelming the limited capabilities of the machine’s brain. It was never designed to be a standalone unit with on-board processing, so resources were limited, and processing the stream of data was agonizingly slow. Then the patterns begin to make sense, and the buffers filled with noise begin to sort themselves into order. Read more (10 min)

article The Disappearance of the Emissary (Draft)

Present day Superluminal range: nominal up to 150 light-years longitudinal, 35 light-years transverse. Measured in laboratory conditions; actual specifications may vary. Be sure to follow the recommendations as displayed by your ship. DANGER: Failure to obey recommendations may result in ship destruction, property damage, and/or death. – Xon Wasp instructional guide, pg. 315, section “Jump Drive” Ten years after the emissary and her crew had disappeared, the last remaining assets of Xon Aerospace had finally been auctioned off. Read more (24 min)

article Vignettes at Sanctuary Port (Draft)

If you’re beyond the edge of Sanctuary proper, the sky is pitch-black at night. There’s no artificial light anywhere on the planet apart from the buildings at Sanctuary and a few outposts, which you’ll find here and there. It’s a pretty barren planet, and it’s never more obvious than at one of the abandoned pads at the spaceport. This far from the galaxy’s plane, the stars aren’t even out for half the year. Read more (2 min)

article The Bearded Dragon

Three months later, for my birthday, my parents' gift was a lizard – a bearded dragon. My parents had even gotten a terrarium with a layer of store-bought gravel, and my dragon looked happy to be sunning on the gray rock under the heat lamp. In a fit of giddy irony, I named her Clyde.

article The Last Hohmann Transfer (Draft)

“Good morning, Dr. Isaac Hawkins. Welcome to Lancelot Defense Systems, Marin facility. The outside temperature is 12 degrees; wind speed 3 knots; overcast. Your group is currently performing above average. You are fourteen minutes early.” A slight pause. “You have been assigned today to preëmptive maintenance in level A-14, chamber three. Maintenance is on power controller numbers one and two. You are occupant number one in this elevator. This elevator will bring you to level A-14, exit one-three. Read more (5 min)