Category Archives: science fiction

October 25, 2016 · 2:40 pm

Stardusters… Canto 18

galtorr-primex-1

Canto Eighteen – On an Over-Large Fireball Falling Out of Orbit

The orbital station was really no longer able to be classified as orbital. Flames licked up all around the perimeter of the vehicle, and looking out any porthole or window let you see instantly that they were all minutes away from burning up.

“What is the next step, Sizzahl?” asked Davalon with a hint of panic in his voice.

“You have the two coils in place? One inside the other?”

“Yes.”

“Turn it on. The coils should then spiral in opposite directions. That is what will provide the antigravity field, the inner and outer coils pulsing with opposing electro-magnetic energies. It should begin almost immediately to interact with the planet’s magnetic field and slow you to a stop.”

Davalon nodded to George Jetson, and the somewhat cocky Telleron boy instantly flipped the power switch. The light show that started made a prickly sensation run up and down the spines of everyone on board.

“It’s working. I think you have saved us, Sizzahl.”

“To be honest, I didn’t do it to save you. I really needed the plants on board that station. And I was really lucky that you had Earthers on your ship when you crashed. I need some of their genes, too.”

“You didn’t mean to save us?” asked Davalon. “So… are you going to eat us after all?”

“I would if I were anyone else from Galtorr Prime. We are a carnivorous race, you know. But you lucked out. I am probably the only vegetarian Galtorrian in existence… even before the wars wiped out ninety per cent of the population.”

“Are there other Galtorrians with you?” asked George Jetson nervously.

“No, I… I’m all alone here. I have been since the armies of Senator Tedhkruhz overran our facility and… and… killed my parents.”

“Sizzahl?” said Davalon. “Are you crying?”

“Yeah… I mean, no!” she sniffed loudly. “What makes you think that? Galtorrians are too mean to cry.”

“I know our intelligence reports on your planet suggest Galtorrians are much less sentimental than Tellerons, and Tellerons are so bad that they ate their own children until recently… when the Earthers taught us to love each other.”

“Tellerons are just too stupid to know better. Every intelligent species tries to preserve themselves, especially through family units.”

George and Davalon were the only tadpoles hearing this from Sizzahl. Davalon made a promise to himself that he would discuss it with Alden and Gracie Morrell later. Perhaps Galtorrians could become better people in the same way that Tellerons had through exposure to Earth humans.

“How did you get this technology?” asked George Jetson while studying the spiraling coils. This is tech level twelve at least. We thought Galtorr Prime was just like Earth, only at tech level nine.”

“Ha! That shows how uninformed you superior-minded idiots really are. Alien races from advanced worlds have been visiting and living on both Galtorr Prime and Earth for millennia. Probably even longer.”

“Alien races?” said Davalon, “like who?”

“You know about the Utopians, right?” said Sizzahl.

“The who?”

“The Utopians from the Zeta Reticuli systems. The Earthers call them the Grays.”

“That’s creepy,” said Davalon. “That double-star system is well within the borders of the Telleron Empire. How is it that we don’t know about what they are up to?”

“Are they a part of your so-called empire?”

“No.” admitted Davalon. “We have never really conquered any star-faring races who tried to resist us.”

“Yeah,” said George Jetson, “we are better at conquering little fuzzy critters and bug-people.”

“Are you referring to Kriitians?”

“Um, yeah. Why?” asked George.

“We have some of them here on Galtorr as well. I’ll bet the Utopians took a few of them to Earth as well. Much the same way that Galtorrians were established in underground bases on Earth.”

“How can all of this happen without Telleron knowledge of it?” asked Davalon.

“Simple. You guys are really pretty stupid.”

Sizzahl’s lack of respect and constant insults were beginning to grind at Davalon’s gizzard. Of course, Tellerons didn’t have gizzards… hopefully. That was just an Earth expression from some old western movies Davalon had seen. But it fit. His gizzard, whatever that truly was, was feeling very, very ground down.

*****

394296_101511925005491881_n

1 Comment

Filed under aliens, humor, novel, NOVEL WRITING, Paffooney, science fiction, Uncategorized

Tagged as humor, novel, Paffoonies, science fiction, Stardusters and Space Lizards, Tellerons

October 18, 2016 · 2:15 pm

Stardusters… Canto 17

galtorr-primex-1

Canto Seventeen – In the Lizardman’s Stronghold

Biznap, Farbick, and Starbright all had their hands resting against the helmet crests that contained their Telleron head-fins. It was not easy to hold your hands above your head while wearing the heavy environment suits, but the large, nasty-looking slug-thrower the little lizardman held in his hands gave them extra encouragement. Farbick was fairly sure the weapon worked like an Earther machine gun and could fire a steady stream of hot metal projectiles.

“You are the most pukingly repugnant set of miscreants ever produced by your inferior amphibianoid race,” said the huge, obese lizardman sitting on the throne, the one, it turned out, that had the girly voice. The reptile wore only loose-fitting robes over his elephantine body, and his small, atrophied legs made it obvious the prodigious bulk could not even walk by himself.

“Will you eat one of them now, master?” asked the little lizardman with deep, dangerous-sounding voice. He was tiny compared to the Tellerons, and microscopic compared to his master, but Farbick could tell by his scowl and his cold yellow snake eyes that he was by far the most dangerous creature in the room.

“The female looks delicious,” squeaked the fat one, “but they killed Grakknarh. We can’t afford to eat them while they are still useful to our plans.”

“Grakknarh was the lizardman who attacked us outside?” Farbick asked.

“Yes. And he was the one keeping the scabbies out of this facility.”

“What are scabbies?” Starbright asked.

The little lizardman grimaced as he spoke. “Survivors of Tedhkruhz’s bacteria weapon are mindless monsters now. They are covered in scabs from the disease, and they attack and eat anyone they see.”

“Don’t give them too much information, Stabharh,” warned the fat one. “They are our prisoners now, but they have superior technology that we want.”

“Yes, Bahbahr, I yield to your wisdom.”

“What technology?” asked Farbick.

“The space ship you came in on, for one,” squealed Bahbahr greedily. “We need it to get to another base where we can continue to try to fight off Overlord Rekhpahree, and evil Senator Tedhkruhz. They have been trying to force my business empire out of business and killed most of my employees.”

“Giving a space ship to Galtorrians is totally out of the question,” said Biznap. “We have no intention of unleashing your reptilian hordes on the galaxy.”

“What hordes?” asked Stabharh. “Most of the population of Galtorr Prime is now dead or diseased. There are barely any uninfected males left alive, and no females that we know of.”

“Too much information!” shouted Bahbahr. “You need to leave some things for them to figure out on their own.”

“But you told me they were stupid,” said Stabharh.

“Yes, but you are telling them everything!”

“Oh. Yeah. Sorry, Bahbahr.”

“Commander Biznap is right in saying that we would rather die than give you the space ship,” said Starbright.

“Whoa, now… I didn’t actually say that.” Biznap took his hands off his head fin. “You don’t know how to fly a starship, do you?”

“No,” admitted Stabharh, “but we can learn.”

“Stabharh!”

“Oh, sorry again.”

“We would be willing to transport the two of you to this new base you wish to move to. After we deliver you, you will let us fly back to our people.”

“We let one of you go. And we keep the other two, along with all of the weapons you used to slay Grakknarh.”

“You can keep one of us, and the weapons,” countered Biznap. “You will need someone to show you how to use the weapons properly. By the way, do you have mirrors on your world?”

“Of course we have mirrors,” said Bahbahr in disgust. “How else can I admire my beautiful figure and emerald scales?”

“Good,” said Biznap. “I know a special trick with our weapons and a nice mirror.”

“We will think about your deal on the way to Galtorr Nine.”

“We will need a decision first,” said Biznap.

“We could eat you all now and figure the weapons out for ourselves…”

Biznap nodded meekly. Farbick wondered if it might not have been better to get the devouring over with.

*****

dscn7228

1 Comment

Filed under aliens, humor, novel, NOVEL WRITING, Paffooney, science fiction

Tagged as humor, novel, novel writing, Stardusters and Space Lizards

October 11, 2016 · 2:35 pm

Stardusters… Canto 16

galtorr-primex-1

Canto Sixteen – Falling Out of Orbit

Alden and Gracie Morrell, along with all the Telleron tadpoles were gathered around the communicator.

“We welded our ship into the side of the space station,” Davalon said to the voice on the speaker.

“Why the Hrrasskattoon did you do that?” said the angry female voice.

“Hrrasskattoon?” asked George Jetson.

“It probably means blogwopping,” said Tanith.

“Blogwopping?” asked Gracie Morrell.

“You don’t really want to know,” said Davalon.

“Oh,” said Gracie, suddenly realizing.

“We crashed into the side of the station and there were holes in the bulkheads of both vehicles. We would’ve eventually had explosive decompression if we hadn’t made the two vehicles into one.”

“Resourceful,” said the angry voice, “but you are trespassing on my property.”

“Are you somewhere here on board?” asked Davalon.

“Of course not! I know better than to be aboard an unaerodynamic space vehicle when I am trying to salvage it and bring it down to the surface through the atmosphere. I might burn up.”

“You are crashing the station?” Brekka was horrified. “We’ll all die!”

“You’re lucky you are not dead already,” said the voice. “But since you are there, you can do some repairs for me that will help me bring you down safely. I’d rather not burn the station up if I can help it. Especially now that I can see you have Earth humans with you. They might be worth a lot to me if I can get them down here alive.”

“Tellerons are not worth anything to you?” asked Menolly.

“Of course they are. But I could still eat a dead Telleron, couldn’t I?”

Menolly and Brekka grabbed each other around the necks and did the hugging thing they learned from humans. Both girls began shivering violently.

“So you are planning to eat us?” asked Gracie in an angry tone.

“No. I can use all of you if you live through this. You may have noticed that my world has been devastated. I am trying to save what is left of it. I’m not ready for the reality of planetary extinction.”

“How can we help?” asked Davalon.

“I need the anti-gravity coils repaired so I can float the whole thing down. That will keep the whole station from burning up on re-entry.”

“What if we don’t know how to repair anti-gravity coils?” asked George Jetson nervously.

“I will guide you through it step by step. You don’t think I would rely on Telleron intelligence, do you? We often refer to your people as Space Clowns. There’s a reason for that,” said the voice with a sneer.

“A good reason,” Davalon said softly to himself.

“Say! How is it that you speak English?” asked Gracie.

“The same reason your Telleron friends speak it,” said the voice. “Television. I particularly like the Brady Bunch. It is my favorite show. It’s how I know you two Earth people are mere children. I especially like when Marcia bosses around Greg and Peter. They almost act like Galtorrians sometimes, though much funnier… and less killing and eating each other.”

“My name is Davalon,” said Dav. “I am the leader of this expedition. Can I ask what your name is?”

“I am called Sizzahl. But we need to be getting to work before your orbit degrades any further. As far as any of you are actually concerned, my name, for the next few hours, might as well be GOD ALMIGHTY.”

“Oh, good,” muttered Alden Morrell, “a religious lizard-woman.”

*****

sizzahl2

1 Comment

Filed under aliens, humor, novel, NOVEL WRITING, Paffooney, satire, science fiction

Tagged as aliens, humor, novel, science fiction, Stardusters and Space Lizards

September 27, 2016 · 3:10 pm

Stardusters… Canto 14

galtorr-primex-1

Canto Fourteen – Aboard the Orbital Station

In Gracie’s opinion, Tanith was a natural leader. Gracie was the older, wiser head, even though she inhabited a little girl’s body now. But she had no trouble with letting Tanith give the orders, and being herself the resource they could call upon when needed.

“Tanith, dear, how do these weapons work?” Gracie asked. She held the ray gun in her two hands and studied the Buck-Rodgers-looking thing. The end of the pistol-looking part had a silver ball thingy on it surrounded by a concave reflecting mirror.

“You point the end you are looking at towards your target and pull the trigger,” Tanith answered. “It’s simple, really. But I want all three of you to let me have the first shot if we have to defend ourselves. Like Dav said, the consequences of missing the target could be fatal.”

“What do you mean?” asked Brekka while pointing the silver ball end at her own face. Tanith grabbed the gun before Brekka could accidentally pull a trigger.

“Just think what would happen if a stray shot hits a station wall and disintegrates it. First the space station goes pop with catastrophic depressurization, and then each one of us does. It would be a horrible way to die. And we would be killing the boys too.”

Menolly began holding her skortch pistol by the tail end using only two fingers. She wouldn’t be much help in a shootout. Neither would Brekka, it seemed. But Gracie had gone squirrel hunting and pheasant hunting in the winter with her dad back in Iowa. She knew how to hit a moving target with a regular gun, even a pistol. She would definitely be the back-up Tanith would need in case the poop hit the fan blades.

“Follow me,” said Tanith, heading deeper into the mysteriously dark and quiet space station.

“Oh! Tanith!” cried Menolly. “There are bodies over here! Dead bodies!”

Menolly was right. There were lizard-people piled in one corner like they had been trying to claw their way out through a space station bulkhead. They were scale-covered, possessing a tail, and they were definitely in a state of being deceased. Deader than a door nail as Gracie’s father would’ve said thirty years ago.

“What killed them?” asked Brekka.

“I don’t know,” said Tanith, a little bit shakily.

“They haven’t been bitten or chewed on by an animal,” said Gracie, “though they appear to have been trying to get away from something. There are no bullet holes in them, either.”

“What do you think it was, Gracie?” asked Tanith.

“Well, look at the way their eyes are filmy and cloudy-looking. And the crust under their nostrils. They may have been sick with some disease. People with fever can sometimes imagine things, even things they are afraid of.”

“How do you know so much without ever being programmed in the egg?” asked Brekka.

“I’ve seen a lot of farm animals in my day,” said Gracie, nodding, “and cows, pigs, and especially sheep often get sick. Don’t they program you with knowledge like that in your eggs?”

“We are specialized by our programming,” said Tanith. “The computers try to match our training to the genetic markers we exhibit that indicate what natural skills we probably possess.”

“My, my…” clucked Gracie, “Earth children would never be able to say a sentence like that at your age, much less perform some of the skills you are gifted with by your egg programming.”

Tanith smiled in answer to that. Gracie was truly impressed by these wonderful alien children, and she was coming to love them more and more as she got to know them.

“Do you think we will find anybody alive here?” asked Menolly. Menolly was the child more easily moved to happiness and glee than either Tanith or Brekka, but she was also the one more quickly terrified of things, especially unknown things.

“There’s a special room over here,” said Brekka. “It looks like it has a lot of plants in it.”

The other three girls followed Brekka into the room.

“It’s a hydroponic greenhouse,” said Gracie.

“How do you know that?” asked Brekka.

“Look at all the plants growing in hanging baskets. And there is no dirt under any of them. They are growing out of some wet, spongy material. I was a farm girl, born and bred. And a farm wife after that. It is only natural that I would know about plants and growing them.”

Suddenly a voice came on over the intercom. “What are you doing in my space station?” said an angry female voice. “Especially Tellerons? Don’t you know we Galtorrians eat Tellerons for breakfast?”

All three Telleron girls suddenly wet their pants.

*****

1 Comment

Filed under aliens, humor, novel, NOVEL WRITING, satire, science fiction

Tagged as artwork, humor, novel writing, paffooney, Stardusters and Space Lizards

August 30, 2016 · 3:13 pm

Stardusters… Canto 10

Galtorr Primex 1

Canto Ten – Aboard Golden Wing Sixteen Near an Abandoned Space Station

Looking for interesting places to explore, the tadpole crew of Wing Sixteen spotted the abandoned orbital station before sensors could detect it. The sensors were set to find life-forms, lizard men in particular, and the instruments all said that none existed on the space platform. In fact, it was apparently devoid of all life but a few plants.

“Can you dock with that thing?” Tanith asked George Jetson.

“Of course I can. I am programmed to be the best wing pilot you have ever seen.”

“And you are programmed to be the most modest Telleron we have ever seen too,” said Brekka.

“Or maybe the one with the biggest gonopodium and the smallest brain,” said Menolly.

George just laughed as he focused his instruments on the docking bay.

“What’s a gonopodium?” Alden asked Davalon.

“Father, you would call it a penis on a human,” said Davalon.

“Oh.” Alden’s forty-year-old sense of propriety turned his twelve-year-old face a bright crimson red.

“Why do you suppose there are no personnel on that station,” Tanith asked everyone in general.

“Maybe there is something wrong with it,” suggested Gracie Morrell. “Maybe they had to abandon ship.”

“Maybe,” said Davalon, looking carefully at the sensor monitor. “But I don’t see anything wrong with the on-board systems. They are all operating like they work perfectly. That station has air we can breathe, water we can drink, and no alarms are going off anywhere. It’s as if they abandoned a perfectly good station.”

“Well,” said George Jetson, “we can find the answer by going in and taking a look around.” He said that just as he pulled a control lever that thrust the wing forward to meet the docking ring and impacted the station so hard that everyone on board was knocked senseless.

“George! What did you just do?” Davalon asked from his new position prostrate on the floor of the control pit.

“Um, I meant to dock with the docking port, but it appears I may have embedded the wing in the side of the space station.”

“Oh, this can’t be good,” moaned Tanith, rubbing the greenish-brown knobby bruise that now blossomed on her pretty forehead.

394296_101511925005491881_n

3 Comments

Filed under aliens, humor, novel, NOVEL WRITING, Paffooney, science fiction

Tagged as humor, novel, novel writing, paffooney, Stardusters and Space Lizards

August 28, 2016 · 4:25 pm

Like Herding the Wind (A Book Review)

25967846

This is a review I did on Goodreads of a book by an Indie author I met through PDMI Publishing. It is the first book of hers that I have read, but I couldn’t help but try to promote it. So here is what I wrote on Goodreads (hoping that I don’t make her beautiful story into an instant worst-seller);

Good science fiction is usually based on an engaging premise that makes you think about it long after the story is finished. Cindy Koepp’s book is like that. The Eshuvani race of aliens crash land their generation ship on the planet Earth in 1612, in the region of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire. They encounter the human race with weapons drawn. But a brave and dedicated human cleric defuses the situation and convinces two peoples to learn about each other peacefully. The Eshuvani are converted to Christianity and with their superior technology, choose to try to peacefully share a planet rather than go to war as an alien invader.

But an even more fascinating thing about this book is that it doesn’t choose to be about that first-contact event. It is a hard-boiled police procedural novel set in 1965. Two police forces, one Eshuvani, and the other human, are faced with the problem of alien terrorists attacking the human police for reasons unknown. It leads to a story filled with suspense, murder, kidnapping, and racial tensions blooming into violence between two different races.

So this book is a murder mystery and a story of anti-terrorist police procedure at the same time as it is a form of science fiction known as alternate history. It leads you to want more stories set in the same alternate reality. And it is filled with engaging characters about whom you want to know more.

Amaya, the kiand or captain of the Eshuvani law enforcers, is an instantly likable character whom you can’t help but root for as she struggles with loss of her family and her former partner, the inexplicable difficulties and road-blocks put in her way by her own government, and the need to form a new functioning department out of young and untried Eshuvani officers… all while being hunted and attacked occasionally by the terrorists.

Ed Osborn is her human counterpart, and also her “urushalon”, her inter-species adopted child. He has the difficult task of trying to fight off the Eshuvani terrorists who seem to have his men in the center of the cross-hairs of their weapon-sights, while at the same time trying to teach his men about an alien race and culture that they are trying to work beside and integrate with.

This novel is definitely worth the read for science fiction lovers, and people who like to think deep thoughts about how we would react to an entire race of beings forcing us to share our planet, just as their journey was also interrupted with difficult choices forced upon them.

3 Comments

Filed under book review, science fiction

Tagged as book review, Cindy Koepp, Like Herding the Wind

August 23, 2016 · 2:20 pm

Stardusters… Canto 9

Galtorr Primex 1

Canto Nine – Aboard Wing One Under the Cloud Cover

“What do we know about the place below us?” asked Biznap.

“The continent is called as a whole Pincara Bolo,” said Starbright, reading from her monitor. “In Galactic English that means the deadly wastelands. According to the Pathfinder’s Geophysical Guidebook it is one of the most densely populated places on this high-population world. The city directly below us is the regional capitol known as Kabiss Pincaralay, the Ruined Palaces.”

“Why do they call it an awful name like that?” asked Farbick.

“If they are like us, they call it that because they were too stupid to call it by a better name,” answered Starbright. “The Guidebook says they are a very warlike people and their mega-structures in this city have had to be rebuilt and repaired more times than anyone could keep track of.”

A break in the orange-brown cloud-cover revealed the city beneath them. It was an endless maze of gutted structures, craters, and smoldering ruins. There really didn’t seem to be a habitable structure anywhere.

“Life signs?” questioned Biznap.

“Scanners indicate there are only a scarce few small life-forms. None seem to be any larger than a Skoog Monkey,” said one of the two crewman whose names Biznap had not bothered to learn. Skoog Monkeys were small furry primates from the planet Misko Skoogalia, a part of the Telleron Empire that had been easily colonized because it had no intelligent creatures on it. Skoog Monkeys were green-furred and just smart enough to make pleasant pet animals. They also came in handy as a quick snack on long journeys.

“Odd,” said Biznap. “One would expect a capitol city with so many buildings to be better inhabited than that. Surely they are masking their presence from our scanners, somehow.”

“Really, I doubt that,” said the stupid cadet. “This planet is listed as Tech Level Nine just like the planet Earth. It is a society just beginning to discover the capability of space travel. We are Tech Level Fourteen, and should be invisible to their primitive detection devices. They can’t have developed much beyond primitive sonar and radar capability.”

“What?”

“Sound waves and radio waves bounced off objects for the purposes of detection,” supplied Starbright to the Commander.

“There! Straight ahead!” said Farbick. “I see a big, intact, domed structure with what appear to be electric lights. That has to mean some kind of people.”

Biznap looked and saw it too. It was an impressively large structure, larger than things like football stadiums back on Earth. Usually Tellerons tried to avoid such things as population centers, but if they had any hope of finding a population at all, it would probably be there.

“Okay,” said Biznap, “Land near there. We have to risk contact sooner or later. It might as well be here and now.”

*****

1 Comment

Filed under aliens, humor, novel, NOVEL WRITING, Paffooney, science fiction

Tagged as artwork, humor, novel, paffooney, science fiction, Stardusters and Space Lizards, Tellerons

August 2, 2016 · 2:14 pm

Stardusters… Canto Six

Canto Six – The Tadpole Nesting Quarters

Unlike the other tadpoles, Davalon put on clothing all over his body as they returned to their sleeping chambers and assigned areas. Alden and Gracie Morrell also dressed, of course, but they weren’t Tellerons whose skin needed to stay moist and open to the mists. Drying out was bad for Telleron health. Still, when they saw Davalon put on his cadet uniform, Tanith, Brekka, Menolly, and George Jetson all found their Mickey Mouse Club jackets and put them on. Naked otherwise, but covered on their upper torsos.

“So, Dav,” asked Menolly, “What was it really like to live on the Planet Earth?”

“I don’t think I can tell you what it was really like. I was only there for a couple of weeks. That isn’t long enough to really know. You should ask my new mom and dad.”

The little green faces all turned to Alden and Gracie.

“Well, I only lived there for forty years,” said Alden. “I don’t think that is long enough, either, to really know.”

“Oh, you old fuddy-duddy!” said Gracie. “You kids can ask me. Go ahead, ask me anything.”

“Tell us about sunshine,” said Tanith. She was the prettiest of the Telleron girls, as far as Davalon was concerned, even though, as a nest-mate and daughter of Xiar, she was technically his sister. For Tellerons incest had never really been a “thing”.

“Ah, sunshine,” said Gracie with a twinkle in her eye, “it was yellow and warm and… gorgeous. You could bathe in it. It made you feel loved by God.”

“Until the UV rays cooked your skin and gave you bright red sunburn,” added Alden.

“Yes, well… there was that,” admitted Gracie. “But I always loved sunny days, and the bright blue of the Iowa sky. Oh, and sunsets… sunsets were beautiful in ways that are hard to describe.”

“And rainy days,” said Alden, “dark and overcast with thunder and lightning rumbling on the horizon.”

“Ah, you’re just being an old poop,” said Gracie with a frown.

“No, I mean it. I’m a farmer, remember? A farmer needs the rain. And it cools things off… and rainbows. You remember rainbows, Gracie?”

“Ah, yes.”

“But,” said Brekka sadly, “you both gave those things up to live in space with us.”

“Yes,” said Menolly. “Will you miss those things?”

Alden looked at Gracie, and they both nodded to each other. Davalon could feel the sadness. And that in itself was something new. Before they had met Earth people, Tellerons had not really known strong emotions. Tadpoles were programmed while still suspended in their gelatinous egg sacs with years’ worth of technical knowledge, math, and science. But nowhere in their training had they ever learned how to love, or laugh, or have empathy, or feel remorse. Those things had come from Earther TV broadcasts and actual contact with human beings. It was hard to be around human beings and not get a bit infected with human emotions.

“We’ll experience those things if we colonize a planet,” said George Jetson. “There could be sunshine and rainbows on Galtorr Prime.”

That brought smiles to every little green face, even Davalon’s.

“But we hear that Galtorr Prime is a very dangerous place,” said Gracie. The little-girl twinkle was gone from her eye, replaced by a sad longing, a remembered pain.

“Yes,” said Menolly, “I’m scared of Galtorrians. They eat meat, and would eat us if they catch us.”

“That would not be so nice,” said Brekka.

Gracie, in the frilly dress she had put on, moved to put an arm around each of the two female tadpoles. She looked like Shirley Temple to Davalon, the girl in that old black and white movie with the orphans that needed comforting. Was it Animal Crackers? Or was that a Marx Brothers’ movie? Dav didn’t remember.

“Maybe we should be brave explorers and go down there to find things out,” said George Jetson. “We could be like Davalon, and help out our entire race.”

“That’s not wise,” warned Davalon. “We could get into trouble we could not get out of.”

“You could be our leader, Dav,” said Tanith. “We have faith in you.”

Davalon didn’t like the fact that they were all warming to the idea so quickly. It was a scarier world than Earth. They stood to lose everything they had gained from the Earth adventure.

“None of us know how to pilot a Golden Wing,” warned Alden. “And we can’t all stow away on the adults’ missions.”

“I was programmed with pilot skills,” said George Jetson. “And you and Gracie are really adults, just in child bodies.”

“I think they may have a good idea here,” said Gracie to Alden. “If we are going to be star-explorers, we need to start somewhere.”

To Davalon’s utter horror, it was decided at that moment. There would be a secret tadpole mission to the surface of Galtorr Prime.

*****

There you have it, Canto Six of the extremely alien-based goofy sequel to Catch a Falling Star that I call Stardusters and Space Lizards. I would apologize for inflicting it upon you, but the truth is, I really like it. I did a good job of telling what really happened… um, errr… Well, I mean, telling it just as I once imagined it.

1 Comment

Filed under aliens, humor, kids, NOVEL WRITING, Paffooney, science fiction, Uncategorized

Tagged as Catch a Falling Star, character development, exposition, humor, novel, novel writing, paffooney, Stardusters and Space Lizards

August 1, 2016 · 2:57 pm

The Story Continues…

1467375240_stranger-things

I find myself caught up in the story once again. Netflix put a new monster-movie series out there with eight episodes starring a Dungeons & Dragons-playing group of middle school kids, a psychically powerful girl-experiment named Eleven, an assortment of dysfunctional adults, star-crossed teen romantics to use as potential monster food, and a creepy mouth-headed monster from the “upside down” to eat them all. How could I not binge-watch such a thing?

maxresdefault

stranger-things

4793

This binge-watching addiction comes at a time when I have other things on my mind. My aging parents are in poor health and have a critical doctor’s visit coming up this week. Bank of America has decided to experiment on me to see what happens if they sue me for the total amount of my debt, plus court costs, plus additional fees for betraying them by going to Wells Fargo, plus additional additional fees just because they don’t like me and think I’m ugly. I am awaiting a call from a potential lawyer-advocate to help me even as I am writing this. I am also planning how to live without money until the total is payed off in garnished pension, seized property and bank accounts, and whatever other way they can squeeze more money out of me. Some monsters are all mouth. This of course comes after I completed a program of debt resolution and paid off all my other creditors. When I called Bank of America, they didn’t seem to know what happened to the debt, so they did not participate in that. Were they plotting evil, or just that stupid? Such questions go into the making of a monster. Perhaps a monster movie television series on Netflix was precisely what I needed.

strangerthingsposter

The only episode I haven’t watched yet is the last installment. Potentially the monster gets its comeuppance. That’s what the lawyer, a consumer rights attorney, promised me in his letter. It also is what the kids in Stranger Things are promising as they prepare to enter the monster’s lair.

Why do I need to see the ending of the story so badly? Because when we reach the end of our life course, the happy ending, in real life, does not overcome death and endings. We live our time on Earth, reach the end, and then we are no more. Only the story continues. New lives and new adventures begin, only to proceed relentlessly to their ending. Even when the human race’s story comes to end and there is no more life on Earth, the story continues. You have to be caught up in that. There is no other choice. The things you dread stalk you and eventually catch you, and the happy ending is bound up in how you handle it along the way.

1 Comment

Filed under angry rant, autobiography, commentary, ghost stories, horror movie, humor, monsters, review of television, science fiction

Tagged as bankers and other villains, humor, monster movies, movie review, Netflix binging, Stranger Things, televison shows

July 31, 2016 · 3:24 pm

What Do Martians Look Like?

As Catch a Falling Star was a science-fictiony sort of comedy, one of the questions that I have pursued in internet research is the one I have presented here in the title of this picture-and-Paffooney-filled post. Seriously, the image search of Google’s answer to that question is enough to make you snort milk through the old nostrils as you sort through them while stupidly drinking a glass of milk. The milky nose-snorts are the reason I have not sited picture sources on this post. Cleaning the computer screen took too long. I have merely randomly snatched and pirated pictures. The only picture of a Martian presented here created by me are these two;

525618_101512273421galtorr84841_1986651460_n

I admit to being surprised by my actual research into the whole question of whether or not we have ever been visited by intelligent life from the stars beyond the sky. While I have not found proof that aliens exist, I have discovered there is actual proof that the government, and NASA in particular, have covered something up. And it goes beyond Area 51 defense research. But now that I have got the attention of the NSA and the Men in Black, this post is only filled with a collage of the unreal, made-up, and mostly silly.

Malevolent Martians;