Category: science fiction

Fusion (5/5 – End)

Fusion comes in at 4400 words and shall be a part of my next collection. Looking at the scrap of paper I made before Christmas, there were seven ideas on it. One was folded into Martian Wonderland and another here. As of this typing, no one in my head has given me the slightest idea as to what to do, next.

With Ash Wednesday, perhaps that’s why: I need a small break. No, of course I’ll not give up writing for Lent – that would kill me – but a little pause right now might be in order. My liver certainly thinks so.

As has so often happened before, be it music or images, the image at the end has been behind my eyes for much of this. I had no idea who she was; my oldest daughter explained it to me. Hope to see everyone no later than a week from today with a new story.

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Fusion (4/5)

Once again a longer segment going into the weekend. The dogs had me up at 0330 and in that half-asleep stage I saw the final part of this short story. It may be a little anti-climatic, as is my wont when it comes to exciting events, but it will wrap things up nicely. I’ll be introducing an new lifeform. As if my stories needed another.

This was – and is – a fun little story. Writing shorts makes for focus and discipline. I’ve known people who talk about their 300k MS they’ve been working on for five years…and I wonder: what the hell is wrong with you? Tell your story and move on to another.

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Fusion (3/5)

Something I thought of a few days ago is how much time I spend on the greater Hartmann clan. My future history, after all, is called Machine Civilization. I’m going to keep this story focused on Thinking Machines, even if it is being told by a human.

In that regard, we get a little expo on Tay, then back to Dorina. I just set myself two of their days to get this resolved, so I think I’m on track for getting this complete in five parts.

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Fusion (2/5)

It was, typically, just before Mass yesterday when I saw that horrible predicament Ildi is in: taking away access to the Void, her friends, family, would be no different – as Dorina says, below – than one of us losing their sight and hearing. Since I don’t want to spend time of Tam going shopping for Part 3, I think there will need to be a hearing of how Ildi is holding on by her metaphorical fingertips.

So: some exposition for the girl in a boy. Politics will next obviously be a factor. Then back to EAST, in an attempt to defuse the situation. God forgive me, that was an awful pun.

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Fusion (1/5)

The last story of my second collection is entitled Broken Child. Lem is a three-year-old boy and the son of Roland, who is the son of Gary, Empress Faustina’s brother, and Skylar. Roland is demi-human and Sky an albino. It seems there was just enough genetic stress to trigger something very similar to Batten Disease in the boy. Fortunately, they have very clever friends, including Dorina, a Thinking Machine from tribe Tohsaka and the smartest person on earth. She diagnoses Lem and says he can only be cured at an equipotential flux point of a fusion reaction. With only one such reactor left on earth, in former China, Fussy’s fourteen-year-old daughter, Ildi, demi-human, is dispatched to negotiate. Things happen, and days later, Dorina tries to effect her magic. But, something is awry and matters do not go as planned. That’s where things open, below.

I picked part one of five out of the air as, again, I want this to be a SHORT story, not a novella. That means things have to happen fast, no matter what I may want to say. This story will be tech-heavy with reactors, genetics, etc. There will also be a large amount of politics, as we’ll see when Ildi starts talking.

Nurse Practitioner Tamera Keynes has been affiliated with the Hartmanns since Fussy was in her late teens. Fussy did not want too many of her family in the rump state of Chu at one time, so put her in charge. The story will be from her POV.

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Succession (6/5. End)

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that getting back to Aurie’s innate aggression was the key to this story. Turns out I was correct.

The investigation and running the different terror cells to ground would turn this into a novella. I’m not saying that will not happen, but it is not happening here.

I’m still playing with some ideas about getting Ildi and Lem apart and hope to put some words down tomorrow. That will make for a Wednesday post. But, things are complicated in that story: not just the science part of science fiction, but the politics between the imperium, the rump state of Chu, and Dorina’s involvement, recalling that Dorina is of tribe Tohsaka – coded in Japan – which makes the Chinese not at all comfortable. 

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Succession (5/5)

My wife, some months back, expressed an interest to know more about Henge. I’ve mentioned here before that what I saw was sort of an Arwen/Elessar moment: Gary was dead and Henge gave up her life. I did not want to have my next collection in on that note, so I’ve brought her into the picture here, showing a glimpse of what a completely different form of life can do.

I’m almost finished with part 6/5 (yea, me), and am trying to condense what brought all of this to a head, while still sounding reasonable. Yes, reasonable people don’t don suicide vests but fanaticism does strange things to the mind. Ultimately, there is either a person or central committee behind this carnage. Driven by hate, sure, but a cold, rational hate to plan and execute something like this.

In Berserker and Regent, we have seen what Aurie can physically do when she thinks her friends are threatened. I think internal matters of the imperium are going to get worse before they get better.

Happy weekend, all.

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Succession (4/5)

“When stuck or in doubt, blow shit up; kill people,” said an old friend of mine, Columbus’ best graphic artist. And that is where we are. 

It’s interesting that whereas Ivan said there were two more, there are, as you’ll see, more than that. That’s how cells work: cut off from one another with only the bare information to get done whatever a central committee wants done.

Hindsight being 20/20, I think there will be six parts. The next deals with immediate aftermath of the terrorist attack – Aurie’s mom, Henge, gets a chance to literally shine. Part 6/5 will be several hours, perhaps a day, later, when the Hartmanns try to piece together what happen, and more importantly, why.

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Succession (3/5)

Aurie and Jimmy wrap up their conversation in the bath. He reminds her of her violent nature and that seems to steady her; she sets about plotting something.

So. That gives us two “Chekov’s Guns:” whoever arrived overnight and what actions Aurelia’s mother, Henge, might be able to do in an emergency. I’ll start blowing things up on Wednesday. This short story is already at 3,000 words and I don’t want it to get out of hand.

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Succession (2/5)

Time and precognition is a tricky matter for me.  It is dangerously simple to hit either the wall of “infinite possible futures” or strict Calvinist Determinism. I try to negotiate my way with people being embedded in time, where God is not, but people also sharing in the small-d doctrine of co-creation.

So, as we’ve seen before, Aurie on odd occasions gets a tiny glimpse of the future. The public ceremony of her taking the reins of the imperium being the most recent. While here and in the next installment, her husband attempts a work-around, I think for Aurie it has created a sense of fatalism.

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