Driftwood Cell Phone Stand

Here is a project I started. It's pretty much done. Thinking about either staining the wood or keep it natural.

I already had the drift wood. Cut to about a 8 inches with a jig saw I bought for less than 5 bucks! Score! Carved out the cradle and drilled the hole for the cord with a rotozip. Inserted the end of the cord and hot glued it in place. Found some key slot hardware and screwed into place around the end. Filled in the hole with wood putty.

I should really sand the cradle for a better look.

NES Mod

The idea for the project began when my friend may have had an extra NES (turns out he couldn’t find his original) for me to buy/acquire. I’ve always wanted to mod a Nintendo after seeing pictures and videos online.

I just recently bought four “broken” NES consoles. I put broken in quotations because the only thing wrong with them, that I could see, was the connector and they were dirty as all hell. After cleaning connectors and polishing up the system I got three of them to work. I’m awaiting new connectors for the forth one.

I took the best of the “broken”, now fixed, systems and set forth converting it to a megaman themed NES for my project. Blue bottom half of the case, white top and a blue stencil helmet for the top. Similar to this:

I’m not going to paint the eyes and mouth. It’ll basically be an empty helmet.

 One thing you should know, during the beginning of the project I was unemployed and had plenty of free time to learn and tinker.

Now began the search for the right paint. I read online that Krylon Fusion is great for plastic, but I couldn’t find it at local stores and ordering online was way too pricey. I set aside a budget of $100 for the project. Shipping and pricing was something like $8 for one can. Instead I bought this (except for the small model spray paint, my buddy gave those):

The Krylon Maxx did not go on very well. Very drippy and uneven. See here:

The last shot doesn’t look too bad. But the first two were rough and I had to sand out the bumpy, drips. Also note: I was painting in a 40^oF garage. Probably more like mid 30^o’s. Don’t do that. Once the paint hits a cold surface it wrinkles and ruins the coat. Stupid me for starting the project in winter.

Despite the low temperature the blue paint (Rust-O-Leum) came out pretty well:

                                                      

I used painter’s tape to cover up the serial number and other stickers on the bottom of the case. Also I peeled off the first layer of rubber feet and set them aside. Then I taped up the feet. I removed the expansion cover and painted it white:

It needs another coat.

Case assembled it doesn’t looks too bad. Everything still needs gloss and the top case needs another coat. I think I’ll try out the model paint I got from my friend.

Now on to the mods. I wanted to replace the power light LED with a blue one:

Looks pretty nice. Hopefully it will do because it’s a 3mm 20mA LED. The standard red one is 5mm. So far it’s working great and hasn’t been fried.

Then the last project is some interior lighting for the consoles. I ordered some 5mm white LEDs and respective resistors, based on this calculation:

http://ledcalc.com/

Very useful.

I started the project by taking an old cell phone charger cord, because I needed wires. Cutting and soldering on LEDs. They burnt out because I didn’t have resistors, stupid me again. I’m learning. Here are the wires. I plan on having two LEDs wired in parallel with resistors on the positive wire. It should work.

That’s where I’m at so far. I’ll update periodically. As of right now I’m waiting for the weather to warm up and parts to arrive.

Month and a half later it's pretty much done. Waiting for some paint to dry. Had a little connector hiccup but replaced with a clean one and now games are working and looking great.

                                                                                       

A collage of final result pictures. The underside with tape pulled off revealing cool stickers and serial number. I like the red repair shop sticker, haven't seen that on other systems before.

The mega man helmet came out a little blurry but I like the effect. Haven't sprayed gloss and I probably won't. Looks good without.

Using the cell phone cord from above with two 5mm white led's wired in parallel with resistors I added some interior lighting. They're not bright enough to shine through the vents but my idea was to play with the door open.

The finishing touch was the nice, metal Nintendo decal I bought from somebody in Denmark, random I know. Not too bad for a first mod.

The Engine of Time

A group of soldiers come across a crashed space ship and rummage through the objects strewn across the landscape. A cube filled with unusual food, dead, mangled bodies, scrap metal and a completely intact engine. The soldiers fashioned a stretcher to carry the engine back the two hundred miles they walked. They were on a routine patrol of the empires border lands. They didn’t see any action, most of the land was a great desert. The only possibly inhabitable land was the forest that they spent the last two days traversing until they came across the crashed ship. Their time was up and it was now the moment to come back home, hopefully their emperor will be pleased with the engine.

The trek back was hard work. The men stopped several times in the forest to rest and hunt. Carrying a three hundred pound engine was hard work for even four men. The extra seventy five pounds apiece was tough especially with all the other gear, tents, maps, water, food and everything else necessary for survival.

They averaged twenty miles a day. The woods were a tough place to navigate considering how dense the foliage was, although food was plentiful. The better of the hunters would go out for small, easy to catch game like rabbits and squirrels. The other two would sit back and build a fire. They tinkered with the engine but just for a bit, they didn’t want to break it. The two soon found they could use it to create a fire. The friction from the moving parts soon sent tinder ablaze. They could conserve their flint and fuel.

The engine sparked something in one of the men. He recalled from his school days about the age of electricity, before the world fell into the second Iron Age. Engines similar to this one were built to power farm equipment, factories and space ships. However, this engine was quite different, there didn’t seem to be an intake of fuel. Maybe it drew energy from the air, or from the earth that it sat on top of. The man couldn’t figure it out, maybe their emperor could.

The hunters came back from their journey with two rabbits and some wild roots. They cooked the food, ate and talked. They each took swigs of their mead, surprising it has been un-drunk for this long.

The next day the men made it to the desert. They caught lizards and snakes along the route for sustenance. They camped together in one tent at night to conserve heat. Night in the desert reached as much as ten below zero. The sand retained some heat from the day which created a nice bed for the men. The engine also provided heat.

A week later the soldiers made it back to the kingdom. They were greeted by the towns people and other soldiers; everyone was curious about the unusual looking engine in which the men returned with. Quickly they went to see the emperor who said to them: “what took you so long, and what is that thing?”

“We’re not too sure, some sort of an energy creating device. I believe they have been used extensively during the Electricity Age to power wagons and the planet exploring ships.” Said one of the soldiers.

“Interesting let me have a look at it.” Said the surely emperor. He spent the next few hours studying the engine and brought several specialists to his quarters to inspect it. They concluded that the machine is a perpetual energy machine that does not need fuel.

The men enlisted the help of the best engineers to harness the engine. Soon the electricity was back on, the first time in six hundred years. The empire created more engines and sophisticated weapons to conquer the planet. There was much warfare and conquest. The engine brought with it much death and ruin along with glory and triumph.

The emperor found a way to harness the engine for his own immortality. He passed on the gift to a select few men and women. He wanted to conquer another planet, so a spaceship was built, powered from the engine which his soldiers found thirty years ago.

The crew set off in search of a habitable planet. They were one hundred million miles from the closest atmospheric planet; the trip would take a year. The time was used for combat training, food generation, and astronomical study among other things.

Eventually the ship made it to the surface of the planet, however the breaking device malfunctioned, crashing the ship and killing everyone on board, including the emperor.

A roaming band of soldiers noticed smoke in the distance. They reached the crashed ship and set down their weapons, swords and shields. There were bodies strewn over the landscape, equipment, supplies and machinery, everything destroyed except one engine. The soldiers didn’t know quite what to do with it, so they fashioned a device to carry it back for their king.

The men camped in the wilderness and eventually reached the castle walls. They presented the engine to their king. He was pleased. They all were unknowingly pleased.

Moon Dust

Moon Dust

                The day the moon exploded was a dark day. A meteor struck the celestial body at high speeds, completely unforeseen by the earth dwellers. The worst part about it was that the day stretched into years. Dust from the disintegrated moon hung in the air like a lumbering mist and it would not leave the atmosphere. The perpetual night continued for years.

                The only people who seemed to benefit from it were the crime syndicates. They continued all of their unsavory transactions under the cover of darkness.

                Food production was down. All vegetables were grown under artificial light, needless to say they didn’t taste as good.

                The government had two problems to deal with, the growing mafia problem and restoring sunlight to the planet. There was a constant war between the mafia and the government.

                People were becoming zombie like since their sleep cycles were disturbed. They demanded ice from the mafia, and they got it.

                A high speed chase ensued one ghastly night, a high ranking capo was pulled over for a routine traffic stop when the FBI searched his trunk and found thirty pounds of ice. The capo ducked into his Porsche and zipped away. The agents were temporarily blinded by the dust storm kicked up by the mobsters tires, giving the advantage to the capo. The agents regained their vision and piled into their modified cruiser quickly gaining on the mobster. The agents called for reinforcements and soon chased the mobster down a back road blocked off by a line of police officers. He crashed into their barricade, injuring two. He crawled out of his Porsche with a machine gun in his hands, blood leaking out of his cracked skull. He opened fire at close range but his aim was off due to his injuries. The agents fired into the chaos, killing the capo.

                Dangerous encounters, like that, happened constantly throughout the country. There was definitely a crime epidemic and no one seemed to have the vaccine.

 As far as the mafia knew they didn’t want daylight to return. Night was perfect for carjacking and the seedy night life of many cities.

Sam the Scam was an up and coming member of the New England chapter of the La Cosa Nostra. He was only eighteen, but his skill and violence supersede his years. Sam has already carried out hits on three government employees. He has carjacked over a thousand cars and shipped them over seas for processing. He made his manager proud, and rich. Sam was the second highest earner in his crew. He soon took over the gambling sector of his crew and ran in beautifully.

The FBI set up a raid on Sam’s gambling house. He was abducted, without incident, and was taken to headquarters. They were watching Sam for years and had big plans for him. The agents left him in an interrogation room and watched through a one way mirror. Knock out gas was pumped into the room:

“Hey, what the hell are you doing? What’s that smell?” Sam said before he fell asleep in his chair. A government doctor walked into the room and looked Sam over. The procedure began; Sam was strapped to a chair and was injected with a robotic virus. The device attacked, opening up truth regions of his brain. The virus also deleted selected sections of his brain that controlled his affiliation to the mafia. Sam was then questioned for hours, answering in a monotone voice. Sam will be studied and questioned for several more hours. The government soon had enough information to, potentially, take down the mafia and work on restoring peace.

 

                 

Unity

Unity

                The problem of overpopulation hit a new high. The entire solar system was populated to the maximum with numbers of humans stretching into the hundred trillions (by scientific estimates). The gas giants were the last to be populated mainly due to their absence of a solid surface. Floating platforms were developed in which cities could be built and the atmosphere of deuterium and helium was converted into breathable oxygen. It was a feat of engineering and scientific immensity. The day the solar system was fully populated was approximately 5000 AD. Now food production will soon reach it’s limit. Potable water is becoming scarce.

                Still on Earth a group of two scientists and two engineers work together to perfect human fusion. The previous team developed a combined human, but the size of him was that of two humans, not helping the overpopulation problem. The new team must be able to fuse two or more humans into one normal sized person. The team was finally ready to test their hypotheses. A group of subjects were brought to the lab, their collective name was code name Jom, a mix between Tom and Jane. The group consisted of ten individuals, five men and five women.

                The test subjects were crowded into a fusion tank and subjected to uranium at a high atmospheric pressure. Two hours later they emerged as one, androgynous looking person, who, remarkably, was only five foot nine and 165lbs.

                Tests were performed for months to see if there were any health risks to Jom as a result of the procedure. Jom  broke all records for the fastest sprint, marathon and longest jump. It had the highest documented IQ of any human to date, and for some reason, unbeknownst to the team, Jom only needed approximately 2,000 calories of food a day. The team observed Jom in public. It could carry on several conversations at once, remember everyone’s name.

                Soon it was brought to the workplace. Jom could perform the job of ten people and multitask with ease. Quickly it’s superiors realized the value of Jom and paid it ten times an average person’s salary.

                When all experiments were complete and Jom appeared healthy, the team of scientists and engineers installed fusion tanks across the planet, to start. Once the success of them was established, they were soon installed throughout the solar system.

                The human population was condensed to one tenth of it’s size. Over the years the condensed humans were condensed even more, with seemingly no side effects.

                Years later Jom was scheduled for a checkup to see if there were any long term risks or complications for it’s survival. However, researchers found that Jom died the year previous to their check up. Apparently when ten individuals are combined they take a toll on the single heart, thus reducing life span.

                That means the combined humans who are already fused will die exponentially sooner than the individuals who are fused only once. The team quickly performed more tests and have yet to find an answer.    

Generation Ship

Generation Ship

We had to leave our planet, pollution became ubiquitous and air quality was very poor. We had the technology for a housing ship, the size of a small country. These ships couldn’t travel very fast, but that was okay. We started a new civilization on the generation ship. Originally the inhabitants were both men and women but soon space became an issue and the men had to be sent off. Reproduction was performed through artificial insemination. The population slowly grew over time but was highly regulated. The ship could only contain one million individuals.

The first boy opened his eyes. He was in the hospital sector, born only seconds ago. His mother, a servant, breathed hard through a layer of sweat. The nurses and doctors carried the baby away for tests and health screening. The room was very bright to the baby. He could make out the white walls and equipment, even though he didn’t know that what he saw was the color white.

The media was in the hospital too, documenting the birth of the first male. Video cameras filmed the baby with his mother. Wirelessly the information was sent to the populations’ tablets and laptops. Outside the hospital people gathered in the parks and gardens. Roses climbed trellises; thorns were trimmed for the safety of everyone. There was very little crime on the generation ship. Women tended not to resolve their conflicts with violence.

The emperor of the ship was a very old woman who was appointed the position one year ago, while the ship was still grounded. She was tall and charismatic. She marked the day of the boy’s birth as a holiday and the triumph of the generation ship over the rigors of civilization.

The ship was on a slow course to a nearby star where it could gather light to recharge the ship’s batteries through the miles of solar panels covering the ship. The course was previously untraveled which led to several surprises. Soon the ship was in an asteroid field, the large, floating rocks came into view. The ship’s controllers called the emperor and told her the news. They could use the guardian lasers the blast the asteroids, but that would just make smaller asteroids.

After conferring with the emperor, the controllers used the remaining battery power to erect a force field which protected the ship. The lights on the generation ship cut out. People began to panic. Soon the emperor came over the speakers and reassured everyone:

“We have encountered an asteroid field. To protect the ship and all its’ inhabitants we had to create a force field which meant depleting most of the ship’s energy. Based on estimations from the controllers we should be out of the field in two hours. Then it should only be another two hours before we reach the star.”

The boy was awake in the pitch blackness of the hospital room. For a second he thought he was back in the womb, but wasn’t too sure. He didn’t like the darkness. He closed his eyes and pictured the asteroid field. He wished it away. The asteroids disappeared.

“Where did they go?” Asked a controller.

“Very strange, they just disappeared.” Said another controller.

Soon the force field was turned off. The power was back on. The baby opened his eyes as the lights came flickered into life. He liked the bright lights.   

Pretty Good Little Saturday

I may have just used a line from "Old School" but it's fitting. I haven't posted about something non-sci fi for awhile so it's time for an entry.

Today was awesome. Got a lot done, saw some people, had lots of fun. Here's a quick rundown:

- Went out for breakfast with my wife
- Bought some soil for the gardens
- Bought new floor mats
- Cleaned out the car
- Picked up my wife's number for her race tomorrow.
- Went to the library
- Read about the universe in the backyard with my wife and our dog
- Picked up some trash near a marsh around town. Plastic bottles aren't going to recycle themselves.

Let me know if my list of seemingly mundane things is boring. Either way, I enjoyed myself (writing this and spending my day). I hope you had a good day too.

Another Dimension

Another Dimension

Main Character: A cool-headed god who can open a gate to another dimension.

Setting: A fantasic cathedral within a different dimension, where legislative disputes are settled by duels to the death.

Plot: Thwarting the forces of darkness

                Today is the day for job shadowing in present day Olympus. The lesser god Seamus is following the cool-headed god Osiris around to learn the lay of the land. Osiris, the current king of the gods created Seamus from his own gold blood and spoke to the puddle to animate it. He is the king’s son, created to watch over a newly discovered dimension, where things are handled in a most barbaric fashion.

                “Seamus, now that you have met all the gods and goddesses of Olympus I need to show you something that I just learned. If you come over to this boundary and watch as I place my hand on the celestial wall you’ll see something amazing.” Seamus followed and watched as Osiris opened a door in the barrier and they soon entered an ancient cathedral in another dimension. “Watch what transpires here.” Said Osiris as a group of toga clad men held some sort of a council. They could not see the gods, who watched from the side of the large room. Gods allow people to see them when they want. Sometimes they take other forms, but on occasion they appear as they do to other gods.

                The men argued about some new type of legislation and soon they drew swords. “What are they doing? We can’t let this go on!” Shouted Seamus.

                “We must, it is their way.” Said Osiris.

                There was a brief sword fight until one man stood over another, he pushed his sword into the man’s heart and killed him. Just then Seamus made himself visible to the men and with a snap of his fingers turned them to stone. Osiris looked to him and smiled.

                “They cannot move, but their minds will still function. They will stay like this for twenty years. Only then will they consider their actions leading up to this moment and my decree. The citizens will discover the men and will adopt a different form of government, because if they fall into the same way of resolving differences then they will be turned to stone as well. This is for the better.” Said Seamus, out of breath. His work took much energy out of him.

                “Congratulations, you passed the test. If you let the men continue without doing anything then I would have killed you instantly, but you made the right decision. Now you will watch over this dimension and be king of the gods. I will return to my dimension. You cannot open the portal, only I can. We will never see each other again, but fear not, you have everything you need. Good bye Seamus.” Said Osiris.

                “Goodbye Osiris. Fare thee well.” Said Seamus.

In A Perfect Circle

In A Perfect Circle

 

     The crew set off from their home planet of Isis on a direct course to the unexplored, by their standards, planet of lush fields and pristine ponds and lakes known as Cartore. The ship traveled faster than the speed of light for three months until Cartore was within range.

     During the trip the all male crew exercised, ate, slept, read and cleaned their equipment and probes. When the planet was within range the captain announced to the crew:

     “The time has come, this is what we’ve been waiting for. Now we’re minutes away from touching down on Cartore. I hope you all are as excited as I am.”

     The crew watched through the cockpit window as the ship hit Cartore’s atmosphere. Suddenly the layer of sulphuric acid, mistaken as clouds by the men, started melting the ship’s hull. The men scrambled around trying to repair the damage but they were quickly sucked out of the ship through the gaping holes and dissolved in the acid atmosphere. All except for one man, Artel who recalled something he learned in high school. The great Albert Einstein theorized that if you travel in a perfect circle at the speed of light, then bisect that circle (basically taking a short cut) then you will actually see yourself. Artel had to try this while the ship was still functioning.

     He took hold of the controls and turned out of the acid cloud, then he drove the ship into a complete circle, he hoped it was perfect, set it to cruise control and increased the speed to beyond light speed. Art wondered if Einstein contemplated what could happen at beyond light speed. The lights of the ship went out for a second and when they came back on the rest of the crew were present with the captain speaking: “I hope you all are as excited as I am. Hey, Art, what are you doing at the controls?”

     “I had to get us out of there, we can’t go to Cartore, the atmosphere is all sulphuric acid, it will burn holes in the ship and kill us.” Said Art. Adrenaline pumped through his body as he looked around to make sure everyone was safe and sound. He couldn’t believe it worked!

    “I doubt it, we’ve come this far, there’s no way we’re turning around.” Said the captain.

    “It already happened, I went back in time to prevent it from happening again.” Said Art.

    “How did you take us back in time? Time travel is impossible.” The captain said as he looked around to the men, who appeared to be laughing.

    “It is possible and I did it. You have to believe me, or we’ll all die, again.” Said Art.

    “I think Art might be on to something. I’ve heard theories about time travel. Maybe we should scan the atmosphere before we land, just to be sure.” Said one of the crewmen.

     They scanned it, pure sulphuric acid, Art was right. The mission was soon aborted, they were going home.

The Sorians

The Sorians

Main character: A promising ambassador with a cold demeanor

Setting: A miltocratic country where humans live in complete luxury served by aliens that do all the work

Plot: A powerful forbidden technology and the cost of using it.

 

                Following the Sorian war, and the victory of the humans, the planet took on a new resident, the enslaved Sorian aliens. They wait on the humans, trained to pamper them and work for them. From what I could tell the aliens took well to their new roles, they made excellent slaves and almost enjoyed it. They were well treated servants, given a section of the house to live in and all their food and needs were taken care of. I’ve been living as a slave for one year, although my real job is ambassador for the Sorian people. We feel like the time has come and we deserve some more respect. We’re not willing to fight the humans again for we would surely lose, but we need to reach an agreement, somehow, no cost is too high.

                I’ve been looking into some darker technology, communicating with native Sorians through telepathy (humans are not aware of this ability of ours). We are a smart race, but not the best soldiers. They told me about the dark ray weapon, a device buried in Earth’s crust, put there thousands of years ago so that it would never be used again. But we unearthed it at a construction site and did some research. Ancient dolphins developed and used it two thousand years ago to destroy the whales who were consuming their food sources. The ancient dolphins were an extremely intelligent race that developed many weapons, but the dark ray was their most effective. However, modern dolphins have no technology, it’s almost as if their intellect disappeared. This could be why the technology is forbidden, it could have some massive draw backs, but we’re willing to adopt those if it means we can have our freedom again.

                I continued working at the construction site until I felt as though the time came for an agreement. I took a video of myself demanding the freedom of the Sorians and if the demand was not met, then I would activate the dark ray. I then sent it to a major news station, they played it that night for the viewing of millions of people. I was summoned to the white house and sat down with the president.

                “So, you’re the one who was sent here to make a change?” Asked the president.

                “That’s correct, I’m an ambassador of the Sorian race and we want our freedom. I’ve been living in slavery for the past year and I’ve studied your race carefully, searching for weaknesses. Little did you know you had a weapon of mass destruction lying under the feet of your people. I unearthed it and now I have it with me. Such a powerful little weapon this is.” The ambassador said as he played with the gun in his hand. With a sudden movement the president reached for the gun. The ambassador was quick and pointed the weapon at the president. “Oh no, you can’t have this, now you must die for your stupidity.” The ambassador said as he pulled the trigger. “No! You fool, you don’t know what you’re doing.” Shouted the president, but he was too late. A sudden white light filled the room and spilled out the window. When the ambassador opened his eyes the president was gone, but the importance of this did not cross the ambassador’s mind. He was small, about the size of a turtle and his mental capacity was greatly diminished. The humans were gone, the Sorian’s could inherit the planet but they had more competition now. They no longer had their telepathic abilities and their intelligent was on par with a common mouse. The dark ray effectively got rid of the humans but the side effects were huge, they paid the price for freedom.    

 

The Curse

The Curse

Main character: A cocky mercenary who pilots a building sized starship

Setting: A place where machines have integrated with human society

Story: A handgun and the strange fortunes of those who touch it

                “Okay, here we go, time for a smooth landing.” The mercenary says as he enters the atmosphere at an alarming rate. Clouds cruise by as he can see the ground expanding in all directions. He’s pulling the huge ship up but the landing destroys most of it. Somehow the mercenary is unharmed through the ordeal. The ship accordions but stops at the cock pit. “Phew, I really am a great pilot and an even better mercenary. Now, time to look around this primitive planet.”

                The mercenary is currently in between wars. He wasn’t hired by any kingdom as of yet, so he decided to go exploring. Using the money from various kings the mercenary purchased a sky scraper sized star ship, almost completely destroyed now.

                He crash landed on the highly populated planet of Sorg. He just so happened to settle in the trees of one of the planet’s only parks. Joggers looked up as the massive ship crashed on top of the tall maples. He got out and climbed down the trees. He noticed a strange machine pruning some nearby plants while another was walking four dogs at the same time. “This really is a strange place,” the man said to himself. He made his way out of the park, saying hi to the few humans he saw. “Now time to find some work, I bet I could fetch a huge sum protecting this fine town. They would be foolish not to hire me, I’m the best.”

                The mercenary approaches a busy street just as a robotic taxi parks next to him. “Do you need a ride?” The machine asks. “As a matter of fact I do, take me to the mayor’s office.” The mercenary demands. “Yes sir, right away.” The car says as it speeds off. The man looks around the city as he’s driven around. He notices other robo-taxis with people inside, talking on cell phones or reading books. “Hmm, it’s almost as if machines have totally integrated into human life, very interesting.” The man says to himself.

                The car slows down and parks directly in front of city hall. “That will be $50.” Says the car. “See, the thing about that is..” and the man quickly bounds up the stairs and runs inside. He finds the office of the mayor and casually walks in. “Can I help you?” Asks the mayor. “What you should be asking is can you help me?” Says the mercenary. “I don’t follow. Who are you anyway?” Asks the mayor, starting to get a little ticked off. After a long talk the persuasive mercenary convinces the mayor that he should hire him with a massive annual salary for the job of city protector.

                “Allow me to show you the fire arm you’ll be assigned. He walks over to a gold box and opens it. With a gloved hand the mayor removes an antique colt .45 and gives it to the mercenary. “Now I have to tell you about this weapon, something very important.” The mayor says to the man. “Oh I know how a gun works, where am I assigned to tonight?” The man asks. “You must patrol the park tonight, there have been reports of some undesirables harassing people in the area. But about the gun…” Just then the mercenary leaves without listening to the mayor.

                That night the mercenary covers every square foot of the park and only arrests two kids for smoking weed. “Undesirables? I could do this job in my sleep.” Just then the man notices a figure with red eyes shining in the moon light. It races towards him and bears it’s teeth. The mercenary is caught off guard and doesn’t draw his weapon fast enough. The beast tackles the man as a shot gun blast rings thorough the park. The beast runs off limping into the ground cover and past the trees. The mayor walks over from the right of the mercenary, holding a twelve gauge. “Are you alright?” The mayor asks as he helps the man to his feet. “Yeah, that thing surprised me. What was that?” Said the mercenary. “What I was trying to tell you earlier is that that gun is cursed. I was hoping that you would be able to lift it and destroy the beast.” Said the mayor as he reloads the shotgun. “What do you mean by cursed?” Asks the mercenary, unable to catch his breath.  “All the other owners of that weapon have been gruesomely mauled by the beast. It’s cursed. Now it is up to you to kill the beast and lift the curse.”          

Spider Like

Spider Like

Main Character: A widely known android with a hooded cloak

Setting: The last days of the world, in St. Petersburg Russia

Plot: A mysterious occurrence that would reveal yet-undiscovered truths about the origin of mankind.

                Here I am with probably more than a thousand nuclear warheads buried under my feet. I raise my hood over my head to shield my identity, they know me here. I tread carefully, trying not to set off a chain reaction, but they’re miles deep so I have nothing to fear. I’m in the heart of half of the Cold War, St. Petersburg Russia. What I’m doing, not sure, but I am drawn to this city to find something out about the humans, me not being one of them. Yes it’s true, I’m an android built by super computers, so I basically have no allegiance to humans, even though I care for them. I’m known as a god droid, created to oversee the progress of nature and technology. I also have the ability to predict the future, but I’m powerless to stop it. I can’t change the future, only view it. My quest is to uncover any secrets about humans, so I start where life begins.

                I’ve been to local hospitals to view newborn infants to see if they can change the future that I see, so far they cannot. But my trip is not fruitless; I’ve witnessed unusual birth defects. Some of the infants are born with eight legs, like a spider. The children are surprisingly mobile and can climb around and onto the ceiling, completely upside down. They are quick too, easily out running the nurses and parents. At one point my hood fell from my head, but no one seemed to notice, I quickly righted it.

                The future I see is a strange and frightening one, I have not yet understood it, but I don’t have much time. The future is all around us, it is constantly happening. First I must figure out this spider problem. Some of the babies are born completely black or brown; some have yellow or red spots. Some of the premature babies were screened for other abnormalities, tests showed they have traces of poison in their bodies, but do not seem to create harm to the host, as if they’re meant to have it, like a defense. I made notes in my CPU and recorded video footage to view later.

                I left the hospital and ventured out into the streets, it was a frenzy. People were running and screaming. I heard someone say “all the missiles have been launched” that’s when I figured out the thing about the spider babies. They are devolving! Reverting back to the closest evolutionary relative, the spider! That’s it, humans evolved from spiders! I have to pass on this information to the super computers. Just then a war head landed close by, the droid saw a bright light, then nothing.

                He awoke on the streets in a ruined Russia. How he survived, he will never know. What he did before the massive launch of nuclear war heads was send his information wirelessly to the nearest super computer. Even though humans are now extinct, due to a malfunctioning computer in St. Petersburg which launched all of the buried nukes, their origins will be documented forever.     

Roman Bunnies

Roman Bunnies

Main Character: A noble lion tamer’s child who is plagued by fluffy bunnies

Setting: The days of the Roman Empire, in a strange lost city within a different dimension

Plot: A narrow escape from a fiendish trap

                The boy’s father walked to the boy’s quarters and opened the door. A wave of white fluffy bunnies over took him and then ran away into the floating house. He fell to the floor and brushed off his shirt, small paw prints riddled the fabric. He didn’t think anything of it when he yelled to the boy: “Cladius, it’s time to wake up.” The boy wriggled in his bed with a bunny on his head and slowly opened his eyes. “Yes father, I’ll get up soon.” “No, you get up now! Today is a special day, we have some important quests. Caligula will be landing on the house in two hours, along with his trusted horse.

                Cladius’s father is a noble lion tamer who spends his day doing exactly that, taming lions. He sells the lions to customers who pay a hefty price for them. The Serbian lions are the flavor of the month; African lions are still very popular. He has a special taming room, within his floating house, where the lions meet him and feel at ease. He uses a collection of scents and massaging to tame the lions. This is his passion, he’s been doing this for the past twenty years. The income from selling the lions has paid for Cladius’s education. He’s a young boy, but a very good student.

                Cladius emerged from his bed and brushed off the fluffy white bunny. He dressed and walked down to the kitchen, a trail of bunnies followed him. Father served the boy eggs and wine, along with bacon and sausage. The boy could barely eat when a helicopter landed on the roof. “Yes, that must be Caligula and the horse, his second in command!” The boy watched as his father ran to the attic, a cluster of bunnies ran out of the way and piled on Cladius, he fell over and laughed uncontrollably. The bunnies have plagued him since his birth, but they’re friendly and harmless.

                Father led Caligula and the horse into the kitchen to meet Cladius. The emperor’s face was all distorted and angular, much like everyone else, but his was more pronounced. Then he talked: “Thank you sir for letting me into your home and meeting your child. I have but one request; let me see you tame this lion I brought. A surpise! Wonderful. Father loves challenges. “Perfect, into the taming quarters we shall go.”

                Father released the lion from his cage and stood back in anticipation. The beast lunged for Claudius with large teeth bared. Father jumped in front of him and wrestled the beast to the ground. Caligula and his horse soon disappeared, leaving in his helicopter. Father killed the beast with his bare hands and ran over to his son.  

                Previously that day, Caligula injected the lion with a rage virus and conditioned it to attack the young Claudius. He is the next in line to be emperor. Caligula was hoping he would be killed by the lion. His plan, however, failed. Claudius will grow up to take over the role from the mad Caligula and rule the empire.  

Space Port Part Two

Space Port Part Two

                Little Pete’s body drifted off to the burning star known as the sun, soon he was incinterated, to become nothing but a Carbon collection consumed by nuclear fusion.

                Big Cretch nursed his superficial wound and carried on with his business. He bandaged it up, still flummoxed by what happened. This particular Saturday night was like any other, drunken patrons and an empty tip jar. People are pretty cheap at the Chatsubo Space Port. As always they moved like zombies, speed not being a particularly popular drug, the denizens of Space Port stuck to their depressants.

                The next night the Skull’s bar was visited by a rather shady man. He dressed all in black; back suit, black vest and black tie, a rather ominous figure. He wore a silver mask, ominous indeed. Big Cretch approached him, as a bouncer should.

                “What’s your business?” Asked Big Cretch with a snear.

                “Just wondering the where a bouts of my friend Little Pete, he seems to be missing.” Said the man in black. His body language did not give any indications of his mood. The man appeared cool, calm and collected.

                “Haven’t seen him.” Said Big Cretch as he puffed up his chest.

                “I find that hard to believe, he was here last weekend, I know, I was in communication with him.” Said the man in black.

                Little did Big Cretch know, Little Pete reported to some very important people. The entire conversation took place in a dreary back drop. The hazy night barely concealed the dealings of the night. Drugs, Stim, rare spices not seen in any part of Chatsubo, all the color of a murky green. The haze always had a greenish tint.

                As a bouncer it was Big Cretch’s duty to do away with any unsavory folk. He lunged at the man in black and struck him in his silver mask. The man backed away slightly and met the force of the punch.

                “Nice try, my face plate is made of the strongest metal known to your solar system. You can hit me all you want, I’m ready for you. I see you prefer to fight hand to hand, I’ll meet you.” Said the man in black. He reeled back and struck the big man, his blow did little damage, much like the wind pushing a dragonfly. Big Cretch struck the man in his guts, he then pulled his glass knife.

                “Ah..you wish to fight me in that style, with a weapon. I’m afraid I have the better. “ Said the man in black as he removed a silenced pistol. Big Cretch stepped back and dropped the knife. He was visbly shaken, never seeing a gun before, but knowing what it is.

                “Now will you tell me the whereabouts of Little Pete? I do not wish to kill you.” Said the man in black.   

Where Rolls the Ore-Tron

Where Rolls the Ore-Tron

Where rolls the Ore-tron over the mountains silently picking up matter and spitting out the undesirables. Out of the smoke stacks black smoke billow out. Through the barren landscape many more Ore-trons harvest, picking up metal deposits and storing them for refinement. Together they will harvest enough metal to build the hull of a new space ship, running off of the Doomesday Drive, named after its inventor, Chuck Doomesday.

Chuck began his day as a mortician in the place of his employment, the morgue, where the dead gather. He had a voracious imagination, performing experiments on his subjects. He found that the human brain contains more energy, even when dead, than the most powerful computer of the day, in the year 2101. They contained even more than gasoline.

The flight of years began as Chuck harvested and refined the liquefied, human brain. Oh how the years went by. He tuned the fuel for his hovership and never needed to visit the gas station. He graduated to rocket ships and soon to the nebula crossing long range space ship, which is currently being constructed.

He did have a strange interaction during one of his trips to the morgue. He was driving his hovership, running off of brain fuel, when he heard a voice:

“Chuck…..are you there?” The voice said.

He didn’t hear it at first, then it echoed through his head. Another voice called out:

“Doomesday…you didn’t let me rest.” The voice said.

This voice was clearer than the first. Like the other, this one echoed in his head. As if it crept into his soul. That’s when he realized, these are the souls of the deceased talking to him! They want him to join them, in purgatory. What he did was wrong; he should not have taken away their brain, their thoughts, their memories. He ignored their cries and drove on. They pestered and bothered him until he gave in:

“Your souls are no more! There is nothing left of you besides the fuel that I harvested. You need to accept this.” Doomesday said.

They did and soon became his friends. He didn’t need to listen to the radio because his friends would sing for him. A thousand piece chorus sang as he drove. One by one, the souls would tell him about their lives. Eventually the voices died off as the fuel became used up. Even his favorite phantom deteriorated to a whisper and then nothing, he knew it was time to refuel.

He started to feel like god, or maybe the devil, playing with the afterlives of many, for his own benefit. He eventually tried to market it, but there were still a few bugs to work out. He spent many hours in the lab, a small room in the morgue that he dedicated to his work.

Chuck’s research continued, but he couldn’t get rid of the voices. He eventually started selling his product but couldn’t explain the voices. He came out and told the truth. The fuel is made out of human souls. His purchasers laughed and called him crazy, but they heard the voices too. It became a novelty, soul fuel, the stuff that lives are made of. Chuck became a wealthy man overnight. He was awarded man of the year for his invention. Soon interstellar travel was possible. People soon inhabited all the nearby planets thanks to his soul fuel. Even the solitary star jumper had friends to fly with.      

Paradise

Paradise

                In a garbled voice the alien said to his crew mate while trying to stay calm: “We’re approaching the surface too fast, there’s no way we can make a smooth landing.”

                The other alien responds with: “Initiate padded landing, we’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

                The ship crashes at high speeds. The path the aliens took was too close to the surface of Earth, they were trying to find the planet Prizen but were caught in Earth’s gravitational pull and couldn’t escape it.

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                Three soldiers trudged through a field and come across the crashed ship. They slowly entered the mangled craft through a giant, gaping, hole and look around, scanning the large interior. There were many wall mounted instruments, far more advanced than anything created on Earth, but the soldiers didn’t seem to understand the full impact of their find. They crouched down in order to enter the cockpit. Their sleep deprived state didn’t allow them to take everything in; they didn’t see the two, approximately four foot tall, aliens dead on the floor. The aliens’ blue skin was punctured by  airborne debris as a result of the crash. They had two severe head injuries, green blood was spilled on the floor. The soldiers left the ship and continued on their mission. They made it into the nearby woods and were caught in an ambush; the three weary soldiers were killed instantly by gun fire.

                The field and nearby woods were soon saturation bombed by enemy air craft, destroying the space ship along with everything else.

                Stowed away in a hidden compartment, in the disintegrated ship, was a map. Not just an ordinary paper map. If recovered and studied, the map would lead the way to a perfect, serene paradise. The aliens were on their way to such a place but made a wrong turn.

                The war of man clouded the invaluable find lodged in the ship. It was almost comical how the war for a better world shrouded the map to an already perfect civilization, no one needed to die to find it, maybe just the aliens who tried to follow it. The paradise planet of Prizen will not be found for many more years, until some other being will find the maps planted throughout the universe.

                The creatures of Prizen realized their good fortune while the planet was initially built. That’s right, built. The builders were a humanoid species who thought of just about everything. Large enough surface area to accommodate millions of generations of organisms, and plenty of food and sunlight. The builders didn’t think to recruit extra planetary organisms to their paradise planet. The inhabitants of Prizen thought of that all on their own. They realized their good fortune and sent out maps for others to find their home. Little did they know of the fate of other, naturally occurring planets. War consumed all, or almost all. The natural path of civilization was to succumb to war to resolve one’s differences. If only there was better funding for other habitable places. The creatures of Prizen retained their hope. Eventually someone will find their paradise and they will be rewarded.