New set of free tiny tales #saturdayscene Aug 2

         #saturdayscene  Aug 3

     Got busy and forgot last week, almost forgot again even though I planned to do this one so this is late but still Saturday my time.  

Another repeat which maybe one or two people here have probably read before. I have a cluster of seven stories here but all are shorter flash and mini tales. From 25 words to 607 words for a total of 1887 words. The mini stories were attempts to place or win in one of the onthepremises mini story contests. “Blue of Home” has been the only one to receive even an honorable mention so far. The longer ones were all based on pictures. All have been revised at least once.  That includes the mini stories that have been lengthened in a couple of cases. About three years ago I decided I like doing these mini stories and even the longer flash. I will be putting out an anthology with 20 to 24 stories. Most will be these very short tales but there will be another anthology with longer 650 to 3750 word stories. I just need two covers and to revise some of the longer ones. 

   These are a variety of genres: fantasy, general fiction, science fiction, historical with a touch of fantasy and one that could be a couple of different genres including steampunk, fantasy and general fiction. 

The first one is “Blue of Home” written on the premise of “Write a story no longer than 50 words that describes color in an innovative way. (No “black as night” clichés; etc.)” The last one will be “Good Work with Thread” the story that could be one of a couple different genre. The others are mixed up.

 Blue of Home 

                                                     

      The viewscreen showed a microscopic blue-Ben stared. The right blue, produced by life. The trip out  had taken too long. He’d seen red suns, green nebalue, black holes--from a distance. None looked this perfect, a blue made from air and water. Ben smiled, the blue of home grew.   

Ohh, no. Not Another One!

Ohhh no, not again-another one of those quests, the wizard thought, and it’s going to be long-again. Even as his friend the warrior, who would be king, cheered and challenged the four man team to see who would be first on those giant, wide steps. After  they became solid enough and moved in a touch closer, of course. The warrior’s cape still bellowed out even though the bottom was in tatters. His sword, though, was still sharp, undinged and whole. 

   

    The new steps had just appeared from nowhere while the team stood at the end of wide path that had led to two man height pillars on the edge of this path. They each had rounded tops and a hole one could reach through at their tops. A person could almost fit their whole head through the holes. The wizard had reached it first and waited for the others. 

      At least here we could breath okay even though the air had a different flavor to it; thorny and mulchy and old, he thought. 

      

      The rest of the path just appeared with no flash or sound. The wizard  could hear everyone’s steps and each one’s breathing, plus the warrior’s boosts, so there was sound here, but nothing when it came to be. It had taken him seconds to realize it was there. He assumed it had been the same for the others since they hadn’t said anything. 

      It looked like another ten minutes of walking would lead us to the doorway. Tall and it looked more like a cave entrance with a bright light inside. And what might be another two pillars. 

    

     They only had a basic idea of where it would take them. But it would be tough, scary, and they would have to use their strengths to the uttermost and to think hard, to get back to their lands. The wizard sighed. 

    

      The whole trip up he had wondered what beings needed a path this wide and steep. Fantastic torches set in the soil lined and lit one side all the way up. They seemed to be ever burning. What looked like giant thorns grew around the edges of the trail and along on the steps. It made it look like both sections belonged together. At the end of the short flight of steps   

  

    Everything had huge thorns here more than that TV show a while back. But the Wizard looked at the dwarf who was ready to go with the challenge even though he usually lost. The other guy just sort of stood there waiting, he went along with whatever happened without much compliant. His thick staff, or long club, came it handy. He could swing it fast and hard, plus his speed was enough to move out of the way of incoming swings.  

  But at just the right moment, when the three leaned forward and bunched their muscles for a jump, the Wizard stepped over the space and stood on the new steps while the others jumped. They each stared at him, incredulous showing. 

      He said, "If we are going, lets get going and get this one over with.”

end

Traveled

Joseph sat on the wood bench near where the train would stop. It looked like rain, which meant less people. He liked that idea, for that meant less people to see him.

       The sudden steam whistle made known his need to stand. He sighed, but put out the effort. After he boarded he could sit on the train all of the way home. He would practice with his new artificial legs at his parents’ house.

Brightest Night

The two surviving Three Domes were full of people. Every room had lights on that showed that. No one knew why the first one had been tipped over in that huge storm during the earthquake, 88 years ago, while the others stood. But the one piece structure had shattered when it hit the side of the rock rise it had been built on. Scavengers had taken a lot of the material; some had been used to enlarge Dome Three.

       Plus no one knew why the three large and two small domes had been built, centuries ago, on consecutive rises. For this purpose? To see and celebrate the brightest night of the year-and this one would the brightest in the years. To be used as way stations when people had to travel by horseback and on foot? The land here was cold and very rough. It had the end of a forest and the beginning of a very rough and cold mountain chain together after all. So a rest stop would have been good.

      It didn’t really matter though, for we were here to party. These were now used to show us the brightest night without light pollution, or cars driving by interfering. Very soon the lights here would become superfluous when the bright sky turned even brighter. We would shout, bang our feet and enjoy the beauty and rarity of the sight. 

end  

Tenth

Jimmy readied himself for bed, thought of a higher power, smiled. 

             Today is the tenth, so ten complete days without it.

             He had thought he would fail, but now he let pride fill him. 

             Even though he still wanted it, hope blossomed.

            Now, I know I can do this.

Last Viking 

The Viking looked over the side of his ship. The mountains rose out of the ocean, higher than he would want to climb anymore. The day looked cloudy and cold even though he was viking and therefore used to cold. While not as deep as in some places the water here was still deep enough to hide monsters, or even an angry whale. 

   Askell glanced along his longship. The wood looked aged, it had nicks, claw marks, and blacken areas. That last fire they barely got out in time. He supposed he could get one of the new style of ships with multiple masts but he, and his crew, were too old to change that much. 

   He stroked his grey beard, looked down. 

   "To port now!” He shouted

   Something scraped the hull as the longship turned too slowly. 

   So this ocean was not deep, those rocks were hard to see. Movement under the water, Oh oh, something huge lived down there. 

   It neared the surface and before he could cry out for them to raise oars, three of them hit it. It thrashed, caused water to splash into the longboat. Cold water that soaked their footwear. The oars didn’t break, thank Odin.

    He snarled, spat bile out. Nothing would sink them in this cruise.

     Once the water settled again he ordered them to head for the distant bit of land. It had what looked like a strip of land they could beach the longship. Further in lay the base of a tall cliff They might be able to build housing right next to the cliff and have fish, birds and seals and maybe even smaller whales to eating and to use for tools and clothes. 

   He looked around. No one would be chasing them this far, but if they did they would pay for that with their blood, for his crew still kept their weapons sharp.

   Askell double checked the depth and for any other movements. He would have to be on his toes to make sure nothing else hindered them.      

end

Good Work With Thread

        He sighed. He leaned back in his slightly stuffed chair-dirty gray after all these years. It was warm in here again. Too cold in the summer, too hot in the winter, even though just right in fall and spring. That meant winter existed outside. When he finished this grand design he would have to take a break and check it out. He liked the rain and fog. 

       A moment later when he took a second to watch the hundred and eleven threads come his way he realized something else. The cotton threads smelled of mildew. Only a wee bit, but enough for his nose to notice. The buyers wouldn’t. But it confirmed his idea of the season of the year. Tiny amounts of mildew only formed when it got hot after the threads got wet. It rained outside so they would get wet while they were brought in here, but then they would dry in the heat inside. And soon it may get in his mouth because very tiny amounts of mildew stayed on his hands. It built up after a while and would get on his tongue when he brushed his lips. 

      His hands played back and forth along his loom. He decided on which colors and which types of fabric joined the others to form the pattern he wanted. He liked the pure gold and silver threads he used at times. The bright colors were a nice break in the same colors most customers wanted. They felt more metallic too-a good change now and then. 

         The rattle the loom made was a subconscious song to him. Most of the time it went on without his mind paying attention. However if it sounded an off note he would know instantly. It had three weeks ago and he had gotten behind while it had been fixed. Now he was almost caught up with all of the orders. There would be always more for his work was excellent.   

      It hadn’t always been of course but over the long years he had gotten used to the old grey, stone walls behind him, the changes in the temperature and smooth wood on the loom. Even the strange way the many almost microscopic fibers in the air he breathed in changed the taste of his lunches. It didn’t matter what he brought with him, it always had a different flavor than at home. Except the once he had to use an oxygen tank for a few weeks because of a lung infection. He had been so glad to stop carrying that tank around, but he missed it at times during lunch. 

     He had been afraid he would die, perhaps falling over onto an unfinished project. Part of him wouldn’t have cared, this job had gotten boring. But they had cured him and now he again enjoyed the way the threads played over his hands and into the loom, forming the design he wanted. Afterwards he had taken chances with intricate motifs. Those he enjoyed the most and seeing, or reading, a customer express joy was worth the extra trouble. 

    The weather had become more enjoyable too. He didn’t use to like fog but now he did. 

     He paused to use a handkerchief to wipe perspiration from his forehead-to make sure he didn’t get any sweat on his project or in his eyes. Too much heat in the winter was still a pain though.  

      After many minutes, he smiled at the design that formed: a beautiful star field with golds, slivers, bright reads and some yellows. Yeah, this one would be great and worth the heat. 

end

Hope you enjoyed them and make a comment or two.

#fantasy #sciencefiction #history #steampunk #generalfiction #contests #freestories #freebies #shortstories #amwriting #blue #indie #saturdayscenes 

Set of five very short tales in different lands

Been a while since I have posted anything new. As some of you may now I post stories each week on Google +, part of an ongoing event every Saturday with other writers there. Any genre is possible. And if you are on G+ they are posted in a Collection called something like SaturdayScenes 2018.  

This week I decided to post stories that take place in other lands. Each one is a flash tale, or a bit longer, based on a picture. Lately I have been doing a lot of those and hopefully this year I will publish an anthology of around 22 of these stories. But with these stories I considered stories that take place on spaceships or another planet, but I wanted other lands here, not in space.

The first takes place in Africa and was written many, many months ago. The last takes place in Japan and was written not that long ago. The others are in-between. I revised them all today so they will be a bit longer and, easier-hopefully-to read. In case you have read them before. They are 3,069 words long totally. They are historical, general fiction and science fiction. Two take place in Africa, one around Norway but more North, one in the Middle east three or four centuries ago and is part of my Dark Castle series-which are posted on G+, and the last one in Japan. One takes place during the War of Roses or one of them.



So without further adieu here is story one:


The Tower
The boy and girl, tall and lanky, even though in their early teens, walked toward the end of the hills. For now they were called Esiankiki and Loiyan, but that would change as they grew.
Both felt not right for the mountains they were leaving were strange to them. Not at all like the Savanna. They feet ached from the hard rough surfaces they had walked on.
They stood the beginning of one side of the part of the Savanna where they came from. The trees they knew still grew here and some of the animals they killed or competed with came here too. The air felt warm as it should. The scents of grass, the droppings of lions, and desert air all grew as they walked closer to the natural border. Loiyan thought he heard the cough of a lion far in the distance, but little of any other sounds.
It would be good to get back to the foods they knew, bread made from the grains they had grown with.
Before going home though both had wanted to see the Tower. It looked manmade shape under many and many years of grime, but very few stories passed down to the next generation told of it. No one knew when it had been built or why. To worship the Red god or the Black one maybe. Loiyan thought it was something the evil Red god would like. Esiankiki wasn’t sure. It had different levels, each one with what looked like walls that swooped up to a sharp point. The oi-boni had never restricted the Masai from going there but he had given warnings, as far as they knew no one had climbed to the top-fear maybe or that it was just different?
Both had some honey to eat so they did not worry about food. Water might be a problem later. It took them two hours or more to get to the tower. Up close it looked both man made and natural. Neither knew how that could be but each agreed on that.
Loiyan placed the palm of his hand on it: rough like the huge rocks they had just climbed over but warm. Esiankiki placed her ear to it. She thought she heard something but so faint she couldn’t be sure: she said that she didn’t like the roughness against her ear’s skin. She pulled Loiyan back when he wanted to taste it with his tongue. Too rough for that she said.
Around the other side they saw a way in, or up. What could be very old steps, worn smooth by feet and weather. With very careful steps they went up. The first level had a place to walk but they couldn’t see over the edge of the wall even as tall as they were. The same with the second level. As far as they could find there was no way in, and no places to sacrifice offerings mixed with grass. Maybe that was on the top. But once they reached as far as they could go still nothing. The inside of the walls looked and felt smooth. The bottom had smelled of age and something neither one liked. But up here only air. They saw lions and tall grass further on, for the walls had grown shorter on the way up.
No blacken areas with very old ash so no sacrifices up here either. So what was this used for? To watch the lions, to see if any enemies were coming? The People did sometimes fight.
They examed the walls carefully for long minutes. Loiyan found lines in the inner wall like a doorway, The People used curtains over doorways, but they knew others had wood and metal doors, some with metal and what was called glass. They both had been to cities, ridden in cars and a train. They had seen a helicopter land. That had been noisy, worse than a very large pride of lions Loiyan had been trapped in when very small. All of the beasts roaring at once had deafen him. The helicopter’s noise had been louder than a big rain storm with lightning and thunder. But if this was a door he nor Esiankiki had seen any way to open it. He tried to slide his fingernails into the cracks but something stopped them. Esiankiki noticed the indentations near waist level on one level, but they didn’t seem to do anything. Loiyan who had the hearing of a warrior thought he heard clicks from inside when he pressed then indentations, but nothing happened. Both felt tiny vibrations in the door but they did nothing. Esiankiki thought she tasted in the air something like what flavors the air when lightning strikes. The space in-between the lines grew warmer but only a little. That made no sense.
After a while they gave up and walked down. Back at the bottom they saw more lines in the tower but they were shaped wrong for a doorway for any person. And they all went into the ground. So they knew the Tower went deeper like a huge rock. These doors looked like something that slid out maybe. Esiankiki stated that she wasn’t sure why she thought of that. Loiyan thought it would be something larger than a hut if so. With a final shrug-that the People had picked up from the shorter white visitors-they left and finally headed home. The People or someone else had lived in the Tower many many ages ago, they were now sure of but who? And how did they get the doors to open? They would never know. Maybe The People had climbed those steps and but they came away with more questions that could not be answered so they either forgot them or decided not to bother others with unanswerable questions. Maybe when Loiyan became a warrior he would ask and come back with others who knew more than he did. For now though they would just go home, it had been too long since they had seen family.

end


The Last Viking

The Viking looked over the side of his ship. The mountains rose out of the ocean, higher than he would want to climb anymore. The day looked cloudy and cold even though he was viking and therefore used to cold. While not as deep as in some places the water here was still deep enough to hide monsters, or even an angry whale.
Askell glanced along his longship. The wood looked aged, it had nicks, claw marks, and blacken areas. That last fire they barely got out in time. He supposed he could get one of the new style of ships with multiple masts but he, and his crew, were too old to change that much.
He stroked his grey beard, looked down.
"To port now!” He shouted
Something scraped the hull as the longship turned too slowly.
So this ocean was not deep, those rocks were hard to see. Movement under the water, Oh oh, something huge lived down there.
It neared the surface and before he could cry out for them to raise oars, three of them hit it. It thrashed, caused water to splash into the longboat. Cold water that soaked their footwear. The oars didn’t break, thank Odin.
He snarled, spat bile out. Nothing would sink them in this cruise.
Once the water settled again he ordered them to head for the distant bit of land. It had what looked like a strip of land they could beach the longship. Further in lay the base of a tall cliff They might be able to build housing right next to the cliff and have fish, birds and seals and maybe even smaller whales to eating and to use for tools and clothes.
He looked around. No one would be chasing them this far, but if they did they would pay for that with their blood, for his crew still kept their weapons sharp.
Askell double checked the depth and for any other movements. He would have to be on his toes to make sure nothing else hindered them.

end


Congratulations


Jacob snarled, he wouldn’t let them smash him into the mud. He shoved against one man the same age as himself. That worthy went “ufff” as another two bodies jumped on top of the others. Some of them let out exclamations too. His lighter brown skin could easily be identified among their black skin. They all were from around here while he came from somewhere different.
He twisted his body one way then another, kept his legs moving so they couldn’t be grabbed. He sneezed: someone wore an awful cologne. Probably Kensu.
Someone used both hands to shove him harder, forced his face toward the mud patch on the parade ground. The whole area was plain dirt, not even grass. Mud holes were not rare even though most of it was dry dirt. Light metal bleachers filled one side. But they would be of no advantage to Jacob, nor would the various light and speaker poles around the area.
Jacob surged his back upward to flip off whoever was on his back. It didn’t work. He thought it was time to start punching and jabbing. A second thought, no one used fists, hands or feet as weapons. They all depended on brute strength, and their weight, to get his face into the mud.
Their grunts and heavy breathing filled his ears, but no name calling or obcentaites, which surprised him. He managed to get his feet and hands on the ground: one hand and knee splashed the mud around. He shoved upward and managed to stand as his attackers fell off. However his victory lasted one-second for someone tackled him and rolled with him toward the mud. Kerrich, he thought for. Sweat matted his hair, the clothes of those that touched him were clammy with it. He spat out the mud in his mouth-at least they used fresh water and mostly clean dirt.
Again he tried to get his hands under him so he could shove off the ground, but two more joined in the, what was still called, a dog pile. His face inched closer to the mud. No! These guys weighed a lot even though he had proven himself the better, stronger fighter.
With a snarl he surged upward, but only moved an inch, more poundage landed on him. He could smell the mud, at least it seemed to be just water and dirt. Before he could take a breath his face smashed down into the mud. It filled his mouth when he breathed in, splashed up his cheeks, got in his ears and hair. A roar of victory followed that and with a suddenness that surprised him all of the weight vanished.
He jumped up, turned to face them. Eight young men stood in badly formed semi-circle. Their formation instructor would not be happy with that a part of his mind said.
Half of them looked unsure, would he attack them?
The leader stepped forward but only so close.
He said, “Congratulations, you will be the first cadet to become Captain.”
Jacob blinked, they knew that?
“We honor you with our traditions.”
He nodded, for he knew of this one where they congratulated another cadet to raise in rank, but never expected to have it done to him. They had never really excepted him.
He spat though, to get the taste of the mud out of his mouth.
Jon-Wel said, “The commissary has a new batch of Mars Malt beer. You can wash out your mouth with a bottle. I will buy the first one.”
Jacob didn’t know if that was part of the tradition or because Jacob didn’t usually have much money unlike them. But…
He smiled, “I would be happy to wash the mud out that way,”
Some of the men looked relieved.
The leader nodded and motioned toward the store.
Jacob thought, He may never be one of them, but he had their respect and well wishes, that was good.

end


The Way Stop Castle


Jounn turned in his saddle to face his friend Brock. He felt glad they had stopped. The horses hoofs had been stirring the sand dust. It made his mouth dry when he breathed it in, not to mention making him cough.
“There is the castle I told you about.”
After he spoke he looked back down from the small dune they both had stopped on. Night covered the desert which is what they wanted. It cooled quickly here after the sun went down. But the dark made it better not to be seen.
The castle, a ruled by a neutral Duke far from England, sat on a hill. The neutrality though will probably have to change to one or the other roses, he thought. The structure looked gray tall and narrow with a full moon behind it. A village in front of it. Guards walked the wall. The gate looked still open even this late.
Brock said, “That wall, most be a good ten feet hight and what? Three feet thick. It would hold an army for a while. If one came here at all.”
“I am not fearful of armies, but of sudden changes of neutral Dukes. Or of an assassin.”
“You think they would really send one after us?”
Jounn shrugged, “They have done it before. During the last bit of fighting, which I can barely recall, my cousin was challenged to a duel by someone who turned out to be en expert swordsman. After the duel the man disappeared but left a rose. I have heard of that all my life with warnings to be watchful.”
“But if you don’t trust the Duke, why stay here?”
“We are not staying here. We present ourselves and the Duke gives us a suite of rooms. He knows me so will not think it strange that I would come here. We say we need to mediate over the conflict so we need to stay in the rooms without being disturbed. Once settled we change to less conspicuous clothes, bathe and be rid of traveling odors then head down to the stables. In my last two visits I learned that there is a back gate through the wall. It is small but a horse can get through. We get our horses and leave that way. Even if a guard sees us and if he should report it the Duke would be still able to say that he gave us rooms and then we left without even a proper thank you or good bye. That he knows not when, or where we went. Or even if we left the castle. We could be hiding among the vassals and others that live here.”
“Do you think that will work?”
“I believe it will, but we still need to be on our toes and watch. We will be able to get supplies for a long trek through the desert, but we hide our trail and head South, which might further confuse anyone that is sent after us.”
“Well, that plan is better than no plan, or just running.”
“As I said we will watch and keep our hands close to our swords and daggers. If he portrays us we will sell our lives dearly. If he is still neutral than we go as I said and leave him with an excuse.”
His friend nodded and said, “Than we should make sure we have no roses on us then he can say he did not realize we had chosen sides.”
Jounn nodded, picked off a brooch off of his chest, while his friend ripped off a fastener on his cloak, and started his horse down the dune.

end

Way of the Samurai

“You are late.”
“I know, Father, I have no excuse,” even though I did-saying good bye and finding my round hat had not been easy. I had tied my waist long hair into one braid. My long dress would be help against the cold. I wore a lighter outfit under it, if it warmed. I suspect that my Father had on something under his armor. His helmet with the grimace face hid his face as it should. He wore his two favorite swords and I am sure a third. He stood between the posts of the gate as the sun sank. He looked magnificent.
He grunted and nodded once.
Our road led between two tall strands of bamboo over a rough surface. No one had come this way in years so they had not kept it up. The wind blew leaves around.
Father was a hard man, but a tough, experienced, brave and honorable warrior. He showed his love in training me well so I would be able to defend myself and in teaching me honor. I have only the one sword though. I am not a Samurai so can not wear the armor but I am not sure I would want to.
The air smelled strongly of bamboo and growing things. Maybe we should take some of the shoots to eat later, but Father is ready to leave now.
I sighted, I have already defended myself. That group of three thieves had shown surprise when their heads rolled to the ground. The last one had been a fair fighter-he lasted five swings. And months later, the first man I had killed for trying to dishonor me-he had been someone important. Later when questioned Father acted like he didn’t know who had killed him.
Now we go-to somewhere else. He has not told me where but I trust him. Maybe it was to protect me, or because he was tired of this place and just wanted to go to some place new, or he knew of something bad coming to this area soon. He would train me more in the way of the Samurai as we go. Maybe I would be able to make my own armor by the times we get there-if I decided to wear some.
I am glad I had brought two skins of water and two bags of nuts and cooked rice, they would last if we found nothing else to eat later and didn’t collect the shoots here. He would have something on under his armor too.
I kept my eyes on him and did not turn for one last look.

end

A Science Fiction-sort of The Tower. Whole flash tale

This one is sort of SF and takes place in Africa.


Now this story is for a picture on the Charlie Hoover Google+ profile. A couple of us sometimes place mini stories on the comments sections of his Geek pictures of the day. But this one is longer. I place it here with a link to the pic.

I wrote this in a couple of hours, in one huge sitting and one very minor sitting.

You all get to enjoy it though.

The Tower

The boy and girl, tall and lanky, even though in their early teens, walked toward the end of the hills. For now they were called Esiankiki and Loiyan, but that would change as they grew.
Both felt not right for the mountains they were leaving were strange to them. Not at all like the Savanna. They feet ached from the hard rough surfaces they had walked on. It was not the land of the People. However they stood the beginning of one side of their part of the Savanna. The trees they knew still grew here and some of the animals they killed or competed with came here too. The air felt warm as it should here. The scents of grass, the droppings of lions, and desert air grew as they walked closer to the natural border. Loiyan thought he heard the cough of a lion far in the distance, but little of any other sounds.
Both had wanted to see the Tower. It looked manmade but very few stories passed down to the next generation told of it. No one knew when it had been built or why. To worship the Red god or the Black one maybe. Loiyan thought it was something the evil Red god would like. Esiankiki wasn’t sure. It had different levels, each one with what looked like walls that swooped up to a sharp point. The oi-boni had never restricted the Masa, as others call the People, from going there but he had given warnings, as far as they knew no one had.
Both had some honey to eat so they did not worry about food. Water might be a problem later. It took them two hours or more to get to the tower. Up close it looked both man made and natural. Neither knew how that could be but each agreed on that.
Loiyan placed the palm of his hand on it: rough like the huge rocks they had just climbed over but warm. Esiankiki placed her ear to it. She thought she heard something but so faint, she didn’t like the roughness against her ear’s skin. She pulled Loiyan back when he wanted to taste it with his tongue. Too rough for that she said.
Around the other side they saw a way in, or up. What could be very old steps, worn smooth by feet and weather. With very careful steps they went up. The first level had a place to walk but they couldn’t see over the edge of the wall as tall as they were. The same with the second level. As far as they could find there was no way in, and no places to sacrifice offerings mixed with grass. Maybe that was on the top. But once they reached as far as they could go still nothing. The inside of the walls looked and felt smooth. The bottom had smelled of age and something neither one liked. But up here only air. They saw lions and tall grass further on, for the walls had grown smaller on the way up.
No blacken areas with very old ash so not sacrifices up here either. So what was this used for? To watch the lions, to see if any enemies were coming? The People did sometimes fight. They found lines in the inner wall like a doorway, The People used curtains but they knew others had wood and metal doors, some with metal and what was called glass. They both had been to cities, ridden in cars and a train. They had seen a helicopter land. That had been noisy worse than a very large pride of lions Loiyan had been trapped in when very small. All of the beasts roaring at once had deafen him. And the noise had been louder than a big rain storm with lightning and thunder. But if this was a door he nor Esiankiki had seen any way to open them. He tried to slide his fingernails into the cracks but something stopped them. Esiankiki noticed the indentations near waist level on one level, but they didn’t seem to do anything. Loiyan who had the hearing of a warrior thought he heard clicks from inside but nothing happened. Both felt tiny vibrations in the door but they did nothing. Esiankiki thought she tasted in the air something like what flavors the air when lightning strikes. The space in-between the lines grew warmer but only a little. That made no sense.
After a while they gave up and walked down. Back at the bottom they saw more lines in the tower but they were shaped wrong for a doorway for any person. And they all went into the ground. So they knew the Tower went deeper like a huge rock. These doors looked like something that slid out maybe. Esiankiki wasn’t sure why she thought of that. Loiyan thought it would be something larger than a hut if so. With a final shrug-that the People had picked up from the shorter white visitors-they left and finally headed home. The People who someone else had lived in the Tower, they were now sure of but who? And how did they get the doors to open? They would never know.

end

Link to picture

Four Free Fun Flash Science Fiction tales

Posted May 13 Happy Mother’s Day to those who are. You deserve a day-at least. Hmm, maybe I should have had a mother’s day story but I am not sure I have any. The last story here could be one though, come to think of it.


Again I decided to do some flash tales, four Science Fiction this time. These were originally posted on Google Plus in one of either two places. I have revised them once. 

Each one was inspired by a picture. I tried to describe the scene in the picture, so you can see it in the setting even though you won’t be able to see the pic itself. With one exception. The third one or the TRAPPIST-1 tale, was more a chart that showed the planets than a true pic. But you should be able to get the idea. Three are form one group of pics posted to inspire people and the other one is from another set. TRAPPIST-1 is a real solar system evidently recently discovered even though obviously we know it only from a great distance.

Okay Enjoy:


The Monument

There it stood, in the soil of one of Mars’ moons. The monument. With Mars framed behind it just like in the famous picture. The suit looked larger than life size even though of course it had to be just life size, but than again life size suits back then were larger than today’s.
Even from here Mars looked red and the moon gray. Tiny rocks lay here and there mixed in with the dust. But the monument looked clean. I could easily make out the CCCD below the red star. The faceplate reflected Deimos’ surface just like the pics of our astronauts on the Earth’s moon. I didn’t know if that cleanness was natural or if they had a regular maintenance schedule. There was no wind here nor were people allowed close enough to damage the suit, so it might just stay pristine on its own.
I noticed that I had begun to sweat, but it’s not because of my suit. It’s from my excitement. To be here. This is a tourist spot, lots of people come here, but at the same time it is so good to stand here.
There’s even a radio channel with all of his messages spoken in vaious translations.
We had made it first to the moon but Russia wouldn’t be outdone so they sent someone to Mars. He didn’t quite make it though. Still everyone celebrated when he landed on Deimos and walked on it, claimed it for the Soviet Union of course. The Russians still take pride in it and are still here. It started the new space race to Mars. This one ended in a tie of all things. A few Historians think the two teams of astronauts somehow planed it that way, along the way. But none of them admitted it.
I breathed in, glad my suit had a bit of mint in the air storied in its tanks and that it had better protections than his. No one knows for sure what killed him. Some historians listen to recordings of his messages and think he was in pain. Some accident injured him on the way and it was only his determination and pride that got him into the suit and onto the surface of this moon for the Soviet Union. After all his ship did have a malfunction which is why he landed here and not Mars. So there are stories, poems and songs made up of his heroism. Others think a micro meteorite punctured his suit and let his air out, which they say doesn’t downplay his determination and gut force. One of these days they may allow someone close enough to take x-rays or CT scan of him. For now though the mystery reminds. And if some have their way the reason will always be unknown.
Now there are colonies here and on Mars. Half a dozen countries are on Mars since no one could clam it. Another country was on their way here to join the others.
I take my own pictures using the lens in my helmet. There were a lot of heroes in the very long space race which is still going on even though out further. I was named after one, a great grandfather. I wanted to visit the sights were heroes, like my name sake, did their great deeds. This was my first stop. After more sight seeing and a day for rest I will head for where my grandfather died on Mars. In one way that will be a better sight, even though it will be sad and full of pathos too.

End

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Ready for Patrol


Lt. Gary Wheelhite walked out on the armored tarmac, his black flight suit looked a bit too big for him but it was suppose to. It had room to become an emergency ETA suit.
The reddish and tan sand had covered most of the tarmac again, so it looked like just a dusty and dry sward near some tall, narrow crags. They looked almost like wind worn and scared buildings, but the real buildings were underground.
He carried his smart helmet which was against the regs. No one usually said anything though. Right now the excuse would be that they couldn’t see him through the dust thrown up by the transport landing behind his craft.
Gary sighed, another assignment where he would patrol the outer reaches of this system used as a relay for a long term freighter, transport and warrior route. He piloted a Q3-5D8 or QuThree, the most advanced warship man has made so far. Black belly with a tan, reddish, shiny blue top. But that last was deceiving. The top hull really reflected what light came its way, so it looked like what ever color surrounded it. So it now looked the same as the dust and dirt it sat atop.
Both singularity drives looked ready. Their disk like appearance under each double leveled wing showed easily. The door in the side of the hawk like nose had opened already even though he hadn’t turned in that direction yet. The ship’s AI knew where he was headed though. He had been on it enough for it to get to know him; all of his readings, so it knew who he was at 100 meters at least.
He sighed again. This would be his fourth four month patrol with just that AI as company. He was healed of his injuries and didn’t need a rest anymore. Not that QuThree was a bad personality, or fought him, it’s just that he would like a different person to talk to. The ship had VR movies, games and training, almost instantaneous communications, and a real gym, even a space to run around the inside hull, but it still felt more like a punishment. It might help if they were attacked but that hadn’t happened for over a decade.
The intense compacted, energy reflective hull was proof against all lasers, grassers, X-razers, even the rad of a close nuke. Anti-matter was a different matter but it still took a direct hit. His electronic magnetic-temporal shields made him even stronger. Even an impact at near the speed of light would barely dent it. His weapons packed enough power to go up against a battle cruiser. So far, since his injuries, though he had only fought in sims. And those were designed by Admiral Harrington to make sure he lost. She thought that made trainees work harder how to think out of the box and to figure out how not to die. Her philosophy may have saved his life during the battle for Omagron Eight.
He had been hurt badly. For the first time he had even heard of a QuThree’s weapons console blew up. They must have been feeding him enough power to lit a sun after his drives failed-also for the first time ever. The whole rear panel had disintegrated on him. QuThrees had been holed but not on that level. If his command center’s door had been open he would have been blown out. The AI had made it to an asteroid and backed into it. For two months its repair nanos had transformed the ore of the space rock into a workable patch over that whole rear panel. Not as good as the intense compacted, energy reflective hull, but it made the ship space worthy again. He had been in the med unit the whole time. He had been bleeding from half a dozen places, with internal injuries, a sliced arm almost all the way through and a dented skull, plus a couple of broken bones, ribs and more bruises than he wanted to count. Somehow he had gotten himself into to it far enough for the ship to take over. It still took a full med center three weeks to get him back to complete wholeness. His ship was ready a week later. Not only totally repaired but with updates and upgrades.
Gary turned toward the opened door. He was ready for combat again even though next time he wouldn’t take on three enemy double cruisers. Even though as he lost consciousness he had seen one Double Cruiser blow up, knew that a second was a drifting hulk. He hadn’t learned what damage the third had taken but it was significant. But never again.

end

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TRAPPIST-1

I stood behind the navigator with my arms behind my back. There were four work stations in the middle of the deck, with little room between them, and four more around located along the walls. I may have looked like an old Fictional star ship captain on an old TV show or movie, but I was just bored. On this flight of my unit of Space Explorers-a step up for over achievers like me in the Boy Scouts-we didn’t have a captain. The ship only had a ten member crew with the AI comp as back up for everything. This was a class too. Our mission was to check out the TRAPPIST-1 solar system. Not that it hadn’t been checked out many times since its discovery back in 2015 and 2016. But as young Space Explorers we had things to learn.
The 40 or so light years took us forty days to cover. We don’t get the fastest ships either even though one light year a day wasn’t too bad. We had time to study, goof around and study some more. The rest of the crew didn’t goof around as much as me, but I am not a nerd only an overachiever.
So I read some of the new fiction stories-the ones about wizards on spaceships-Galactic Fantasy-were good. Once at TRAPPIST-1 we popped the temporal-matter ghost bubble and settled into a far orbit around the system. The radiation the red dwarf star puts out is dangerous any closer. Of course our ship has shields but we didn’t want to take chances. Our orbit still was close enough to allow the radiation to fry us if our shields went down but the chances increased dramatically if we got any closer.
We, I, sent out probes and used the ship’s far sensors. I man the probe launch station and a side science station. Both are at the same panel which I like. Jill and Fred had to run back and forth between stations and Hillary had three separate screens to watch.
The seven Earth-like planets, at least in size, gravity and matter were interesting. It took hours of study to find out things about the system as we acted like we were the first to be here and to study it.
On the fourth day though Harry picked up an anomaly on the third planet, one of the four in the habitable zone. Not that that meant much here with all the radiation the sun poured out. I borrowed his readouts and zeroed in on the strange patch on Three. Metal.
Metal? What?
And a power supply.
Laura’s probe zoomed in almost to the surface. A manmade something along with a ladar signal. The message was a SOS. Someone had crashed there, but had survived and needed help. The readings even there were strange though. The metal didn’t seem to correspond with any we had on record, though.
Another Space Explorer maybe? Or a one man freighter? The message didn’t say. But who ever it was, they had been able to get to the side always away from the sun. Which meant they were in shadow and mostly protected from the red sun. And their ship would give them more protection if it hadn’t been damaged too much.
I told everyone we needed to rescue him or her. But they argued that because of the radiation and the fact that he didn’t say who he was we shouldn’t. It could be a pirate trap Harry said.
I said, “Our emergency shields will hold long enough for us to get the surviver and get back out. We can do this. After all it could be a test.”
I didn’t think so but I thought that argument could influence one or two of the group.
There was still too much discussion going on, most seemed to be against it. These nerds thought up too many things that could wrong. Jill wondered, because if the strange metal, if it could be a ship from some lost colony of humans, or a new alien race.
John said, “It could be someone from an alternate dimension. The radiation here could weaken whatever separates the dimensions.”
I silently shook my head. I was the one who read Science Fiction and even though a popular novel had that idea in its plot it still surprised me he would consider it.
Finally though Mary said, “We could use the shuttle without a crew, move into Three’s shadow but stay far enough away to escape if we need to, if it was a trap or some form of interdimensional gate.”
The way she said the last I doubted she believed it. I nodded and said I could live with that.
We finally agreed and set out to make it so.
Thirteen hours later we had the surviver onboard and were homeward bound. It turned out that the strange readings came from the various forms of radiation that had affected the probe’s sensors and the outer layer of the hull of his ship. The surviver was an Intergalactic Force trainee whose ship malfunctioned at the worse possible moment

end

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The Level


I recall a day when my mother woke me early so we could go shopping. At that time we lived on the 111th level. My mom liked the number, but when you were just two steps above what was still called dirt poor, the level didn’t matter that much. They were all the same: wide walkways with one side was an edge where you would fall if you got too close and the other side were shops. He had been taught very early on to stay away from that edge no matter what.
The ship fronts were very colorful, those that sold different products were painted whatever color the owner of the shop wanted it to be. Or could get cheap. Sometimes the signs were in a different language like the Asian script above the one we walked by. And there were three shops above that one. Many shops had stairs that led to those upper shops. Most of the time you had to know the correct path of stairs to get to one of those shops.
He didn’t know why they had been designed that way. Whoever had made these Levels cities had been a lot taller maybe, so originally it had been one shop. That might explain the wide walkways and what could be very long steps every so often. How humans got into them a couple thousand years ago, he didn’t know. His mother claimed she didn’t either.
Each Level had five shops on top of each other. The fifth one was right below the next Level., You couldn’t get to the next level from any of those shops. Their roofs were the bottom of the walkway and harder than anything that could cut. Many had clients or sold products mother didn’t want me around, so we never went up there. There were stairs, up and down, to the next Level but they were very rare. Some shops on the walkway Level where no more than stalls with a dull colored, thick sheets above them. Those protected the stall owners and customers from rain and the sun.
I wore normal clothes bought at a better second hand store and she wore her usual one piece jump suit. She liked it for it reminded her of her ship days plus it had hidden pockets she kept a couple of simple weapons, just in case, plus what was used for money and security keys.
The wind that blew at us was bit chilly but not cold. I could smell the usual odors of this level-some I love, some were okay, others I hated. As we walked I made sure to stay next to her. She no longer felt like she needed to hold my hand for I knew the danger of the edge of or talking to strangers, but she still meant security for me. When we past one shop, the one beneath the Asian letters, I saw it was now closed with a painted front window. It had been opened just three days ago. Mother explained that sometimes a shop will just disappear like for a reason no one knew.
There were a few people out this early even though you could buy bread, vegetables, and sometimes meat and grains. Some shops had hand made weapons, or cooked meals or used E devices. As I thought on where we were I decided we were headed for a school. That could be what we were shopping for. There were not many on these levels but mother had found one near us. Not as good as some I have heard of but still I would learn how to read and to count and some history of the Levels, and of the human race off the Levels.
I didn’t want to go but it would free mother to work more hours and learning was good. She had taught me some reading and I had heard her talk about my need to learn more. Even at my age I knew she was doing what she could for me even while stuck here. School would help me as I grew up and she was responsible for me having a desire to learn new things. So I promised myself I wouldn’t make too big of a fuss over it.
And I didn’t.

end



Hope you enjoyed them. And remember I don’t mind comments as long as they are what I call real criticisms. Sometimes others see things I don’t. That doesn’t always feel good but it shows what I need to work on. Praise is good too for it shows my strengths :)