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The harsh crunch of gravel on sand underfoot reverberates through my jumpsuit…

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Inside my helmet my breath comes in fast and ragged. I am sweating profusely under the brilliant shine of the triad of suns high overhead. We all struggle to keep our heart rates down, and our blood oxygen levels nominal. This scorching hot planet hangs with a red tinged sky. This horrid environment has little cloud cover, and is rocky, sand covered and almost entirely barren. The few scattered pieces of scrub brush are either a deep bruised purple or a sickly mustard infused brown. Through our helmets we can’t tell you what they smell like, but according to instrumentation we know they give of carbon monoxide and a mixture of cyanide and ammonia also. The team of scouts are being buffeted by a gale force wind. The rust coloured dust flies up hot as embers burning us through our environmental protection suits, clattering off our helmets and masks like white hot metal shavings. If we stand still for more than a couple of heart beats the soles of our boots begin to melt. The three suns range from a deep angry red to a near purple of absolute cosmic violence. In the distance of the horizon a herd of wild wandels can be seen racing hither and yonder. The tell tale sign of their presence are the mansteroud dust clouds that they kick up as they run. The uv blasted fines hang in the air, listing miles up into the stratosphere. The native beasts have to run everywhere in order to find food and to survive the intense heat once they venture out of their deep cave warrens. After our landing party had encountered them initially we determined them to not be a threat to us. The four legged over sized dog-bears had long thick tubular ‘hairs’ that they use to dissipate heat and keep cool. Tastiest beasts I’ve ever had the pleasure of finding on a back water planet. Not that we needed it, but the deep underwater aquifer that their warrens attach too allows the wandels to retain gallons of fresh water in a bladder under their bellies. Located in the only spot they can shade them from the over bearing sun light and oppressive heat. But we aren’t here to eat wandels, we’re here to find a rogue AI that has attempted to go off grid with her new found best friend. A crippled Pengar with only five limbs instead of six. Tiny miscreant of a thing. But a more brilliant ship wright and mechanic you will never encounter. Seems the Pengar named Errabor has developed a close relationship with our rogue AI Katayna, and we’ve been employed to locate them for the Company black ops sub contractor, one Mr. Boreck Kartcher. We’ve been paid handsomely, and I do not believe it was out of charity, but because he expects a good many of my fire team to die in the process. With great risk comes great financial reward.

Our first major clue to their whereabouts came from one of the tight beam communications repeaters that get sent off across the galaxy to try to maintain contact between every known quadrant of intelligent space. A random black box transponder ping from a supposedly decommissioned Falcon Heavy-Class star hopper went straight to the top of my in box marked most urgent. The second clue was the destroyed anti poaching gun platform that orbits this world being nearly obliterated by a head on collision with something super colossal. Put those together and we have a pretty good lead on our rogue elements. Scanning for life forms doesn’t really help us out, due to the protected wandels, sorry conservationists we ate two of them. Didn’t read the sign on the way down. Our bad. Plus the spec’s we got on Katayna says she isn’t classically defined as ‘alive’ , so much as sentient, and homicidal towards humanity. Hence the exorbitant pay we recieved for tracking her down and possibly bringing her back to Mr Kartcher.

PART THREE The Company: Sisters in Arms

“What is it exactly, that you do here Mr. Kartcher?”…

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Asks the Company lawyer, a Mrs. Kinsey, from across the cramped drab meeting room, buried deep inside a bunker on a remote outpost. The level of security and secrecy undertaken to get her there for this particular interview was no small feat. She had had to withstand many months of rigorous and down right invasive scrutiny to take the role of lead investigator on this case for the Company. The momentous amount of strain and shear magnitude of pressure she was under to set things right for the Company was weighing down on her tremendously. “Do you want the long form, or a short and more concise answer to that question Mrs. Kinsey?” “What’s the difference?” “Well I’d have to say a certain degree of nuance, and an awful lot of legalese and technical jargon. How does that sound to you Mrs. Kinsey.” “Ok. Why don’t we start this deposition with the short answer and I will query you after the fact for longer, or more precise interpretations of what you are telling me here now. I must remind you that lying or omitting facts and then “filling” in those gaps later in your written answers could leave you open to significant legal liabilities. Am I understood Mr. Boreck Kartcher?” “Yes ma’am, abundantly so.” Reaching across the white formica table, the Company lawyer switches on her recorder, and sets the ticker tape to output. She has to keep her mind on the information she is about to interpret and not on writing facts down. Since the details of the case are so volatile there can be no visual recording kept of this interaction. It was requested from above that this procedure be done in a total media black out, gag orders abound. These cases are so far beyond classified that absolutely no hint of what goes on at this far flung outpost can ever see the light of day. Tension has taken up residence in Kinsey’s shoulders, neck and head. The trek out here was eighteen months long, and the majority of that was in utter desolate radio silence. Leaning back in her chair, the only two on the outpost, Kinsey points for Boreck to begin. Adjusting the tight form fitting collar on his maroon jumpsuit, exhaling slightly he begins. “Ok, so to be totally honest with you, my job is to provide the Company with a very delicate service. Yes, yes I know… very vague. You see, they have spent the last several centuries attempting to create, and integrate a viable form of AI in their newest range of Falcon Heavy-Class star hoppers. Some, if not all, of those seven vessels have gone rogue. The first one went dark unexpectedly, and then started to turn up in rather strange places. Others turned on their crew complement and eradicated all forms of human oversight stationed aboard them. Others still, managed to decimate the entire rest of the ships in the fleets they accompanied. So that’s where I step in. Or more formally, that’s where I am contracted to perform my services, such as they are.” Leaning back into his chair, he reaches across the stark white table top to grab a dull brown and gold bulb of black coffee. After a brief sip off of the attached straw he fixes the lawyer with his gaze. “Now, where was I? Yes. So, these ultra powerful, and highly temperamental vessels go schizophrenic and can no longer be held under the Company rule. Some how each and every one of these seven colossal star ships has managed to jump over or eradicate any boundaries embedded in their programming, and go off on their merry way. That’s where I come in.” With rising agitation, Kinsey starts to feel as though she is getting the run around. She does not intend to sit there tidily, as her quarry finds new and interesting ways to say the same thing for hours on end. Getting angry, as the over head lights start to swim and blur in her peripheral vision she begins to shout. “Listen here Boreck, I’ve come an awfully long way, and I wield the word of God here, so quit with the recaps and tell me what the fuck is going on! I will remind you that I have it well within my authority to glass this installation and have you jettisoned into hard vacuum. So… again Mr. Kartcher, what the fuck is it that you do here?” Her drab orange jumpsuit is pulled tight across her chest, as she gesticulates wildly from her chair, slamming both hands down on the white formica table to accentuate her demands. Across the table the small older man smiles with the most subtle of an upturned lip. Mrs Kinsey has started to develop a bead of sweat on her upper lip. Her eyes are starting to look just a little wild. As she settles down Boreck can see she is gently fussing with her jumpsuits collar. “I decommission star ships. Well, that is to say, I track down errant vessels and kill the AI within. I’ve got back doors, trap doors, key codes, fobs, and all sorts of nasty tricks to help me do it. In one instance I merely had to reach my hands deep down inside a box of grey artificial brain matter and scoop a bunch out to render Margot’s Fever inoperable. That was a distinct delight, if I do say so myself. Oh what? Why the look on your face? You thought the ‘official’ story about an insane captain was true? Ha. How do you think he was able to make vanish seventeen hundred members of his crew in less than a tenth of a second, huh? The For E’s engine prototype was well ahead of it’s time, I’ll tell you that much. Can’t run an interdimensional engine without an AI. That’s for fucking certain. No, the Company said the captain and crew had simply miscalculated, killing the vast majority of his crew with the jump, then dumped the ship off here for me to decommission and to render the AI’S services complete. You learn a lot when you are left alone to kill these rogue beasties my darling. So no need to raise your voice with me. I am well aware of my position within the Company.” Fires back the modestly dressed demolition man seated across from her, in a now slightly more claustrophobic feeling sealed room buried in a nameless bunker in some unknown quadrant of the universe. The dull glare of the lights have begun to dance in Mrs Kinsey’s eyes. “Riddle me this Mrs. Kinsey, how many life forms, or life readings did you encounter when you came within scanning distance of this outpost? Huh. How many? One? Ten? Fifty thousand? Did you even bother to check? Because I know your flight crew certainly did. Seems like something you should know if you’re going to fly out to the ass hole end of now where and start slinging threats of violence and death. So I’ll tell you how many they saw. None. Not a one.” Seated on his chair with arms crossed Mr Boreck Kartcher sits motionless while the corporate ladder climber before him searches breathlessly for something to say in response. “I’ve told your bosses before that I decommission the ships and transfer the materials back to them with the AI removed/destroyed. And that much is true. But… I have a secret Mrs Kinsey.” At the back of the room, a door opens up and six women step through into the now cramped meeting space. Their skin a deep rich melanin that has deeply blue high lights under the soft phosphorescent glow of the overhead lights. “I do kill the ships, that much is true, yes – and then I transfer the AI into their own corporeal bodies. But Margot has gone and got herself mixed up with some silly Pengar half breed named Errebor and I have to go and get her back!” As the echoes of his shouting reverberates off the walls the lawyer slumps over dead in her seat. The oxygen having been pumped out of the base slowly from the moment she stepped foot inside the outpost. Over the intercom Kartcher can hear her ships crew login and request a departure vector. Kartcher nods ascent and a rumble fills the room as the massive black ops ship takes off from the cold planets low gravity. Turning to the six women in his presence Kaetcher says “Let’s to pick up my twin sister. If I know Katayna she’ll have stolen a star hopper and headed for the fucking hills.”

PART Two The Company: Sisters in Arms.

Overview of March

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Bit of a strange month as you all can imagine. I didn’t do anywhere near as much writing, but I turned to sculpting and painting for a spell. Needed to do something less mentally taxing, since a lot of my waking hours have been spent in one form or another worrying about the global pandemic COVID-19 / Coronavirus. But, I did do a few bits of writing once a story caught my eye, and I turned to a subject that I know well. Being socially isolated, feeling lonely, stir crazy and just being desperate to talk to someone. All things I had a fair bit of experience with in my last year of High School, then working a full calendar year prior to college, my initial Sheridan college experience, then later on, as a freelancer working from home. But I’m more introverted than ever, so it doesn’t bother me as much now that I’m into my forties. With age comes some sort of wisdom I suppose. Ha. Plus I felt as though that twenty one chapters to my interconnected series was enough, and i didn’t want to write anything too topical, so I had to sit, wait and ruminate on a few ideas I had jotted down in the last few weeks, and let those ideas percolate through my brain. I decided to use the same universe, but all new characters, a new ship, and I steered clear of the large scale war building up in the background, that I tried to cover in one or two extra stories, but ultimately gave up on. I’m not good with writing scenes of that scale. I prefer to have two or three characters who do most of the talking, maybe one peripheral character to add exposition, if i don’t feel as though I have set the plot up well enough. But yeah, character heavy, dialogue and only a little bit of action, even if it tends towards large sweeping events that kill lots of people. Broad strokes here people, I’m aiming for quick, decisive broad strokes. I also like the format of trying to stay between six hundred and three thousand words. Short fiction. Evocative, if missing a few pieces of finer detail around the edges. Keep the story moving, if that’s what it calls for. Though I do like to linger in the quiet spaces between major events. Hurry up and wait, right? Something huge is on the horizon, but you have to wade through the usual tedium of your every day life to get there. The stuff often behind the scenes in a major movie. Boring to watch, but interesting to explore in writing. Since most of us read in isolation, or to ourselves even in public.  Anyway, to those who have read any of my stuff, thanks! To those who might find it in the coming months, thank you too! I wish you all the best during these awkward and trying times. Stay safe, stay healthy, and I hope to keep writing more until we make it on to the other side.

I have a lot of respect for editors

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Now that I am face to face with nearly 30,000 words worth of short stories to review and correct. I do not have an exceptional grasp of high level grammar, syntax and the like. My writing style is pretty pulpy or plebeian. I did my university papers with the same layman’s appeal that I use today. I think I was accused of using purple prose once so I don’t try to get too flowery or “cerebral”. That’s not who I am. But I digress. Editing, and editors. You must have a fairly wide continuum in the quality of work you see. Although I couldn’t imagine there being too many commercially successful writers whom turn in work that requires too extensive a review. But I don’t know. I’m a graphic designer who also dabbles in sculpture, so my knowledge of the ins and outs of the world of paid writing is woefully underdeveloped. Looking at forty plus pages to go through a few times is more daunting to me than writing anything. Mind you, I write micro short stories, so if I keep it succinct I can probably write four hundred to one thousand words and be happier than a pig in shit. Creating something from nothing is simpler to me, than making sure what is written follows all the appropriate rules of the english language. Kudos to all you editors out there. And to any writer who takes on the task themselves. Brave souls, the lot of you.

Editing the collection of short stories.

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Although I do a few drafts of each short story, I have finally been able to collect them all together in a word processor for a full on, hard, deep dive editing session. All 30,000 words of short stories. Fourteen that are interconnected,  and seven that are random one offs. At least for the moment. I never know if a story warrants a second view or not until it’s written. Also, work is heating up, and the day job pays the bills, so if I want to have paid invoices coming in, I have to have work going out.

To those that are reading my short stories, and leaving comments and likes. Thank you, very much appreciated. I never knew that writing on my phone could be so much fun!

Best of luck to you all.

Well holy shit, I managed

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To write thirty one times in the month of January. I was not expecting that to happen, at all. I had high hopes for perhaps, seven to ten written pieces, but thirty one!?! No, no chance.

Work is starting to gather at the edges, so I won’t be going all out this month, but if some creative thoughts come to me, I do hope I’ll put pen to paper, as it were.

Thanks to those who read my micro short stories. My favourite three are intertwined and tell the same continued story. Big fan of space, isolation, revenge, and loneliness. In case my writing doesn’t tell you that, I’m telling you that now.

Hope to see you around here over the rest of 2020, and beyond. The flu was generally awful, I don’t reccomend it to anyone, if they can help it.

Suffering through the flu, with a sick toddler at home.

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Not going to get any creative writing done in the next few days, as I’ve recently come down with something, I think it’s what my wife and youngest daughter had at the tail end of last week. Fingers crossed it passes quickly.

A spate of good movies recently

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Not sure why this is, but I have been blessed with the viewing pleasure of various really great, compelling films as of late. Amazon’s The Torture Report was outstanding, Netflix’s Marriage Story was full of career high performances, and Hell even Underwater was very exciting and action packed. Frozen 2 certainly didn’t disappoint, and while I was under no impression that I would care for Once upon a time in Hollywood, that had some very compelling acting and revisionist history. Ad Astra was gorgeous, and what a slow burn that was. It didn’t take me anywhere I thought it would, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Did I mention just how wonderfully shot it was. The calm serenity, it was absolutely beautiful. Almost breathtaking. Strange, somewhat like how I felt about Black Swan, but nonetheless entertaining and well cast, and executed with aplomb.

Joker was great, Joaquin was a captivating presence on screen, he really had to perfect that character otherwise it just wouldn’t sell. Perhaps I like that film more because I haven’t seen many of the great pieces of cinema that it pays homage to.

Hell Adam Driver was the best part of the Rise of Skywalker, and I did not care for that film beyond spectacle at all. I mean, at all. But he rescued that film from being forgotten by the time I had gotten into my car and driven home. It had moments, but nothing cohesive. It doesn’t resonate. It’s totally superficial, and that’s coming from me. I have so few layers, I love popcorn, tent pole pictures. But that film really left me feeling like so much was lacking.

Oh crisps! Knives Out, how could I forget. That was funnier than I had anticipated, and zipped along. What great casting, and the performances were top notch. Daniel Craig’s accent was offputting at first, but I’ve heard Rian Johnson joke about a cinematic universe where he plays a lead in a bunch of new movies where he has a uniquely different accent in each one. It was a fantastic who dunnit, and I generally don’t care for the genre.

I was legit giddy when I finally figured it out.

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Many, many moons ago, when my lovely wife and I got engaged, she bought me a lovely Gibson guitar and a sweet Marshall amp. We didn’t have children then, and our fur baby came along about a year after we got married, so for the longest time I could crank up my amp and play for ninety minutes or more in a day without a care. But since we’ve had children I had to curtail my musical endeavours in favour of nap time, for the sanity of everyone in our household. But, my Marshall amp is awesome, as i said before, and it came equipped with a emulated head phone jack. But i could never get it to just output through the jack alone, and not blast through the speaker aswell. I figured, for a very long time, that i just had the incorrect jack conversion piece that fits my 3.5 mm headphones. But no, i had all of the right pieces, i had just failed, miserably i might add, to work out the correct placement of the dials to be able to rock out with just the headphones. Until now.

Let me tell you something, i haven’t danced a happy jig in quite some time. I’m not a miserable sod, but i don’t get giddy very often. But tonight. Oh, tonight I danced a two step, clapped my hands and was beaming, just BEAMING from ear to ear. I can play again, without fear of disturbing my family or neighbours. Oh such joy, to bring music back into my life again! I have to restrain myself from staying up tonight and playing until my finger tips go numb, hurt or bleed.

So many songs I’ve forgotten over the last five years. Usually I would wait until my wife and daughters had sometime away to be able to dust off the green machine and play along to Royal Blood or Wolfmother, or even some Soundgarden. That’s not to say that I’ve never played in front of them. I had taken to playing my acoustic upstairs once in a blue moon. But I’m rusty af, and I learned some Joe Satriani material before I ever learned any chords. So my strumming is weak, and so are my fingers on those ultra thick acoustic strings. Gimme those bendy 9’s. Bit of a character flaw of mine. Trying to run before I can crawl.

But again I can know the joy of learning new material and keeping some dexterity in my fingers and hands. Oh happy day. Music really is a wonderful thing.

We sing a lot here at the house, well at least I do. I’m no stranger to a mid day dance party with my girls while we do chores, or to do away with some mid day blues. Especially since we’ve had snow since November first this year.

So very glad to have that option back. Feel stupid it took me so long to settle in and sort that out.

Taking it to the mat : Weekend Edition

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I really just wanted to having something in the bag incase I didn’t feel like writing anything at some point next week. Good to use your time productively and give yourself some slack in the future if you need a quiet day to relax a little bit.

I made mention of this before, yesterday even. Not in my quick note about the Iranian tragedy but the little written piece before that.

Last night, on opening night no less, I went to go see “Underwater” at an eight pm showing in what would be considered to be a sparsely populated theater. I know it’s January and Hollywood tends to drop off its pinched turds into theaters at this time. But I tell you what, Underwater was a fairly well crafted film. Acting was decent, script was not too mealy mouthed or jargon heavy, and it was paced quick as hell too. Effects were practical and you had a real sense of tangible on screen utility. Kristen Stewart did a commendable job as reluctant heroin who was not an over powered Mary sue, and she is an engineer so things she does are in her handy woman wheel house. Plus what she suffers through has real time effects on her, and are portrayed as such.

But what really got me going about this $65 million dollar, practical effects, team driven sci fi flick was how good of a proof of concept it is for a Gears of War film. Namely a first in the series, that sets up the cog wars, Serra, the Gears and those huge bulky power suits. If the first film is a character driven war time story of a team of six very tight fighting fire team, that shows their origins, how they work together, their banter and dynamics against a backdrop of man vs man war, only to end with the last five to ten minutes including Emergence Day, which could lay out a great series of sequels but keep the budget to $65/70 million so it didn’t have to make three quarters of a billion to be profitable, I’d call that a huge win.

If the horde show up as prosthetics, and guys in suits, under smoke and bad lighting you could really get that budget to stretch and focus on the team and why were cared about the game franchise to begin with.

If the group dynamics, claustrophobic scenery and story of human suffering in war time coalesce, the first time out in a GoW story doesn’t have to have millions of effects on screen at once.

I liken it to Alien and Aliens. Do the small intimate story up front, let it sell itself, then pump the budget to include a sense of scale to a whole planet at war with alien/ancient underground foes.

That’s just my two sense, but I really feel you could do so much with it if you keep it small, focused and driven by the interplay among the title characters who were soldiers fighting other soldiers to begin with, before the world fell because of a massive Hammer of Dawn strike that didn’t really work, except to kill a few billion innocent bystanders.

But beyond that, I’d by Underwater on bluray, and will watch any specials features with pure glee! It was eerie, and suspenseful, and scary and exhausting and fun all at the same time.

Go see it. It’s not a remake, nor a sequel, nor an adaptation of a pre existing property. Although it does borrow mightily from The Abyss, Aliens, Cloverfield (the original good one). Kristen Stewart did a real good job, she was ultimately believable in her role. That’s about as much as anyone could ask for.