Aibork
by Roger Crow
Four: A Matter of Time and Tides
Kate had spent the last 45 minutes searching the 'net for answers to her question.
None were forthcoming.
Bob Jones was staring out of the window when there was a knock at his door.
"What's on Earth is the Cascade of Mercury?"
"Hello Kate, you must have a series of numbers somewhere."
She nodded, unrolled a map, put it on his desk with the coordinates scribbled on it.
"The thing is, when you use an unreality device, it may knock out the immediate threat..."
"But it creates new ones?"
Bob nodded.
"The pearl created a shock wave which largely went unnoticed in space... except for a lump of rock en route to Earth."
Kate masked her mouth with a hand.
"What happened to the rock?"
Bob handed her a buff envelope with a series of glossy photos, each one a magnified version of the last.
The first three were fuzzy and non-descript, but the fourth was clear as day.
"Is that...?"
Bob nodded.
"Oh my."
"The Cascade of Mercury was a response to such an occurrence."
"Will it work?"
"Unknown."
Kate ran a hand through her blonde locks and looked to the sky.
Somewhere, up there, an object was heading to Earth, and it could spell disaster for every living thing on the planet.
"No pressure then."
"Do you have any idea what that will do to the Earth?"
"I can't even begin to comprehend."
"Okay, so how do I get to this Cascade of Mercury?"
Two hours later Kate's helicopter touched down.
"So, this is it then," she said.
Bob Jones nodded.
Aibork was waiting for them.
"Nice of you guys to show up," he remarked.
"Why does this thing look like a giant teacup?" said Kate.
"It's part radar, part weapon."
"Does it hold tea?" she asked. No one said anything, so she pressed on, while stepping over assorted bottles of helium. "Who created something like this?"
"Actually, I did it," replied Aibork.
"Why am I not surprised?"
"I designed this when I was 22, what were you doing?"
"Graduating from MIT I think."
"No you weren't, I checked."
"Oh really? What was I doing then?"
"You graduated top of your class in some backwoods University. Two years later you went to MIT."
"Wow, you have been doing your homework."
"I hate to break up the party you people, but you might want to look at that."
Bob Jones was pointing at the dark mass that started to block out the stars.
It started spinning lazily, that large dark mass as it approached the Earth's orbit.
"I meant to ask you, what was it that you gave the President?"
"Let me ask you a question... have you checked the numbers that came up on your grandma's lottery ticket?"
"What is this? Answer questions with a question?"
"Ask her what numbers she won with."
"I feel like I should be doing something more important than asking my granny about her lottery numbers."
The mass started to smoke as it entered the earth's atmosphere.
"Hi, yes it's me, Kate."
Parts of the object started to break off as it rocketed through the skies.
"Is it my imagination or is that heading for us?"
"Go on, ask her."
"Hello dear, yes I've got them here. 6 17 21 28 36 42."
"Now check the coordinates you were given," said Aibork, fiddling with the controls on his device.
Kate took out her phone, thumbed through the photos and found the shot she taken of her hand.
"2463 821271 6"
Kate didn't know what to be more amazed by - the fact that the lottery numbers were the same as the coordinates, only in reverse, or the large shape that was careering towards them.
"Is it my imagination or is that…"
He nodded.
Kate wasn't sure how much damage it could cause, but it would be one of the most remarkable phenomena in human history.
Just then, it started to rain pink candy floss.
Aibork took out a collapsable cane and started to draw a line in the sand; before long it was a square.
The box was 23 ft². Aibork stood in the centre of it.
Twenty feet from the falling object, an Earth ship approached silently. Sat in the pilot's seat, Fe, a woman in a grey jacket sipping a protein shake gently adjusted her controls. Behind her, the pearl started glowing.
On her heads up display, crosshairs aligned with the square in which he stood.
Ripples surged through the ship's skin and made their way forward to the falling object.
"Do you want to give me any idea of what is going on?"
On the shimmering horizon a woman appeared, walking slowly, Omar Sharif-style across the dusty landscape.
The object started slowing.
It was still moving forward, but the descent had been coaxed from its inexorable drop.
Aibork waved.
She waved back.
"This is Meg," said Aibork.
Bob Jones embraced the newcomer, and she lightly slapped his face affectionately.
Then she embraced Aibork and nodded at Kate.
Raising binocs, she examined the slowly falling mass.
"How long have we got?"
"I've done the maths. We have about three hours."
Meg nodded, produced a table and a gas stove, and slipped a collapsable kettle on the top.
"I never knew you could get kettles like that," remarked Kate.
"Inflatable aluminium." Meg remarked. "Your man here designed it.
Aibork looked smug.
The craft continued to slow the falling mass, and at the same time, the White House staff filed out of the Oval Office.
The president ran a finger over the bag he'd been given, and was about to open it when the phone rang.
"We have about three hours sir."
"Good man. Keep me posted."
Meg emptied the boiling water into four disposable cups.
Aibork, Bob and Kate took one each.
"Looks like it's shrinking," remarked Kate.
The others nodded.
Bob started constructing a lightweight aluminium ladder, 12 feet long.
Aibork gave him a hand while Meg started to inflate a helium balloon.
"Start the clock."
Meg produced an over large alarm clock from a rucksack and pressed a button.
The sound of ticking seemed excessively loud for the size of the timepiece.
If the slowly falling mass was a thing of ridiculousness, then it had to be challenged with equal amounts of stupidity.
It seems the unreality pearl needed a boost from the very real owner.
The phone rang.
He ignored it.
After a minute it stopped ringing.
"Mr Aibork. It's time."
He nodded, downed his coffee, and slipped on his jacket.
He was mumbling under his breath an old Richard Harris number from the 1970s.
"McArthur Park is melting in the rain. Ahh Jimmy Webb..."
Meg finished attaching the ladder to the balloons and as it started to rise upward, Aibork stepped on the last rung.
Hooking his elbow over the fourth rung, he waved and smiled at Meg and Kate.
"Goodbye for now ladies. Bob, keep an eye on them please."
Bob Jones nodded and thumbed the Bluetooth ear unit.
In the Whitehouse, the president watched Aibork's progress.
"What's he doing? asked Kate.
"He's going to create a black hole in the centre of that mass."
"Actually, it's more like a semi-black hole," replied Meg.
"So What's your story?" asked Kate.
Meg downed her coffee.
"We go way back."
Kate was hoping for a little more of an explanation, but in her heart she knew she was not going to get it.
Bob Jones sidled over to her and nudged her lightly.
"It's a long story that one," he said.
His ascent didn't take long at all.
The ship which had followed the falling mass opened its cockpit, a hand threw an object at him, and he caught it
Aibork thumbed a button on his jacket and a light flared.
Meg pressed a button on the Cascade of Mercury and it fired up.
A beam of light shot into the sky, hit the mass square on and created a hole.
Aibork's balloon ladder vanished inside.
A minute later there was a crack of thunder and the mass vanished.
"I guess that it works then", said Kate.
"I guess you are right," said Meg.
"But what happened to him?" asked Kate.
"Ahh, he'll be fine. Dinny worry."
Aibork felt sick, elated, dizzy, excited and nervous. He was displaced, set adrift in a dimension of eccentric space.
There were three possible galaxies open for business. The other two were the Hyperion anomaly, in which space was white and stars were black, and a designer universe called Plaid Fantastic, a chequered world in which the wealthy had lavish parties on silver hemispheres which hovered over lakes of mercury.
Fire licked across the sky in eccentric space, flames born and died in reverse, born of smoking ash.
The Cascade had created this bubble of the surreal, drawing energy from the sun, sucking photons into the saucer and pumping them up and into the slowly falling mass. The semi black hole hungrily fed on the former rock, reducing its size and very slowly its mass. However, the flavour became more dense.
Some rocks were igneous or sedimentary, but this was another phenomenon.
As blue green streaks of light whirled around his face and body, Aibork realised there was something very important missing.
The whirling vortex threatened to consume him, but it was held at bay by the circle of chaos, his pocket black hole.
"MacArthur park..." He whispered. Throat dry. "Is melting..."
Designing a unit which generated mini universes was perhaps his greatest achievement. Forget mastering the controls of stellar cruisers, hyper barges and Quadrillion Skiffs. Anti-grav buggies had been a challenge, but he'd managed to get the hang eventually, and as for super light unicycles, there was nothing to them.
Aibork inched his way toward the pulsing purple beam that beckoned.
Flipping a panel on his wrist scanner, he watched the countdown.
"Burn baby burn." He whispered.
The Boston-sized mass was now a mere three feet across, cooked, baked and ready to serve.
Aibork touched his headset.
"Thanks Fe. I'll take it from here."
The ship hovering outside the anomaly obliged, jetting away in search of fuel.
He nudged the smallmass and it lazily floated through the tear created by his black hole device.
"There's a rift in time; not very big, but wide enough to fast-track an egg-shaped thing back a century."
His words washed back on him as the time tides came in.
'If you want to exploit a rift in time, sometimes you've just got to give things a little nudge,' he thought.
Time tides do wait for one man it seemed.
Saturday, 29 June 2013
Aibork -4
Aibork
by Roger Crow
Three: The Cascade of Mercury
In a canyon on the moon, surrounded by bubbling lava, the pod emerged. Buried on the satellite for 100 years, it started glowing a radiant blue.
As the small party started to climb the enormous staircase, the skies grew dark with rain.
Stretching away into the clouds, the team saw the orb on the horizon.
In the blink of an eye the pod rocketed to earth and arrive atop the staircase.
It looked like a silver egg, mottled colours rippled across its surface.
Aibork took a whistle from his pocket and started to blow a two-tone note.
Kate looked at him and cocked her head, waiting for an explanation.
"Sub-sonic lock. That egg is a lunar probe. Been up there decades, waiting to be released."
"And how do you know that?"
"Because I put it there."
"How old are you?"
"How old do I look?"
"About 45".
"That's about right. There's a rift in time; not very big, but wide enough to fast-track an egg-shaped thing back a century."
"Would that transport a person?" asked Kate.
He shook his head. "Inorganic matter only. And no, you couldn't send lottery number back to your granny. I tried. Doesn't work"
"You tried sending lottery numbers to my granny?"
"Yep. Err, no." Kate was smiling for the first time in an age.
Just then there was the sound of a ripping sheet across the heavens.
"That's my cue."
Aibork approached the egg, put his thumb in a small indentation, and a few seconds later it rocketed into the rift that tore across the sky.
Kate was slack of jaw.
Aibork took her hand and placed the whistle in her palm.
"If anything happens to me, you'll know what to do," he smiled.
The tear in the sky healed, and slowly the staircase turned into a hillside; the battle lizard; the cobbled streets of teeth; the random candy floss manifestation all vanished.
Kate felt her stomach lurch; a hump backed bridge sensation.
"I need a lie down," she said.
Alexandria started returning to normal. The Torpedo Factory art installation shimmered from the ice sculpture it once was and became bricks and glass again; the picturesque streets and shops were as before.
Kate gingerly tested the street for a reaction, but it was solid. Dull. Reliable.
There was no trebuchet, lizards were nowhere, and as for vegetating samurais. All gone.
It was all just a little dull.
That's what concerned her.
Kate was bursting with questions and Aibork knew it.
"The unreality pearl creates shock waves. Normality is a thin miniscus which can be punctured really easily."
She was confused.
He took a half-drunk glass of water from a nearby table and put a stirrer in it.
"What do you see?"
"A stirrer in water. Slightly displaced because of the water... Oh, you're saying it's a bit like what happened just now?"
He nodded.
"And the pearl created that to stop the alien ship doing any more damage?"
More nodding.
Aibork took a step back and steadied himself. Kate regarded him with concern.
"I need coffee and cake." He said.
"Effects of the anomaly?"
"Low blood sugar."
They followed a beckoning Bob Jones who took them to a cosy cafe with a Tolkien theme.
Aibork ordered coffee and cake; Kate had water and a sorbet; Bob Jones had tea. One sugar. No milk.
"We need to know the state of the probe by Jupiter," said Kate.
Jones nodded and handed her a tablet with the latest intel.
Scanning it, she breathed easier.
"Dormant."
Aibork also relaxed a little.
"This cake. Mmmm."
Kate showed him the report.
He nodded.
Five minutes later they paid the bill and took to the streets.
"That it then?"
Aibork nodded again.
"No more threat?"
He shook his head.
Kate's happiness soured a little. Alexandria was beautiful again. And just a little dull.
"Post anom-blues?"
She nodded.
"It's normal. Always happens with level threes. Post-Christmas comparisons are the best ticket for explaining it."
"So I'm suffering January blues?"
He patted her on the head. She didn't know whether to feel appreciated or insulted.
"Err, What was that for?"
"Takes your mind off the January blues."
Bob Jones hurried behind them and handed Aibork a bag.
Kate eyed it with suspicion, and waited for him to tell her what it was.
He kept quiet.
The suspense was killing her.
He smiled as they walked down the street.
A waiting limousine opened its doors, they got in and it whisked them away.
Within the hour, they were back in Washington DC. The Reflecting Pool was still being repaired; it was still incredibly hot, but the air smelled of ozone like rain after a hot spell.
"Well, this is where I leave you."
Bob Jones stepped from the vehicle, entered a neighbouring car and was driven away.
"Well, he was a nice guy."
"Yes, for a G-man," replied Aibork.
They arrived at the White House, and were debriefed for an hour by some very serious looking presidential agents.
As the debriefing finished, Aibork handed the president the bag.
"I want to thank you for your excellent work out there."
"Aye, you're welcome sir."
"Would you mind staying in Washington a few days?"
"Is that a rhetorical question?"
"You know it isn't, but you are free to go any time you would like."
"I'm guessing with a few friends in dark suits watching me on every street corner?"
"No, not at all… They dress much more casually these days."
The two men smiled, the president whispered in his ear, they shook hands and parted ways.
Kate bowed before the president, turned on her heel and left the room.
"What did he say to you?" She asked.
"Ah, that would be telling."
On the hot and clammy street, they said their goodbyes.
"Well, it's been a pleasure". He said
"Yes, I guess that's one way of looking at it."
Kate kissed him on the cheek, found her bike locked to a nearby rail, unlocked it and set off.
The ride up to Capitol Hill was hot and clammy. She pressed buttons at the traffic lights, wondering whether it made a difference; cycled across the road and back to her hotel.
After locking her bike, she entered the lobby pressed the button and waited for the elevator. Once more, it took an age to arrive.
It seemed to take even longer to take her back to her room.
The room was 23 ft². Dark except for a single white blinking light.
Kate lay on the bed staring at the ceiling while the answer phone message winked in the gloom.
It was too hot to sleep, and she was too excited to snooze anyway.
The weird memories of what had gone on over the past 24 hours haunted her. She had no visual scars from the experience, and started to doubt whether it had happened at all.
Swinging her legs out of bed, she went over to the window and looked down the street below.
How could life go on as normal, when so many unusual things had rocked the universe and the day before?
In the world where everything made sense, she started to wonder whether she preferred the anomalous alternate reality.
The world of samurais, trebuchets and strange battle animals.
She pressed the button on the answer phone, and the message played again.
"Kate, it's your grandmother. Oh, I hate using these things. Anyway, I've come into some good news. My lottery ticket came up with six winning numbers. Call me, when you get this mess…"
The message had been peppered with beeping every few seconds. She didn't know whether to laugh, or burst into tears.
The next morning Kate went downstairs to breakfast, turned left followed the street for a minute, turned left again and entered the breakfast annexe of the hotel.
At the next table, a man in his twenties, dark, handsome, slim addressed her.
"Morning Miss, and how are you today?"
"I'm okay, I think."
He looked familiar.
She regarded his glass of water and stared at the stirrer.
She smiled and took his hand.
"My name is Kate," she said.
"I'm Jeremy," he replied. "Jeremy Kwaith."
She noticed he was wearing Kevlar body armour.
"How about that?" she smiled.
"I have a message for you."
He handed her a silvery slip of paper inside an envelope.
'The Cascade of Mercury.'
She thought about it for a minute, searched her memory banks, and realised she hadn't got a bloody clue what that meant.
Jeremy Kwaith took a pen and wrote a series of numbers on the back of her hand.
He tapped a teacup, turned on his heel and left.
She wanted to go after him and ask him more, but there was something about him that made her realise that was not going to happen.
Next...
by Roger Crow
Three: The Cascade of Mercury
In a canyon on the moon, surrounded by bubbling lava, the pod emerged. Buried on the satellite for 100 years, it started glowing a radiant blue.
As the small party started to climb the enormous staircase, the skies grew dark with rain.
Stretching away into the clouds, the team saw the orb on the horizon.
In the blink of an eye the pod rocketed to earth and arrive atop the staircase.
It looked like a silver egg, mottled colours rippled across its surface.
Aibork took a whistle from his pocket and started to blow a two-tone note.
Kate looked at him and cocked her head, waiting for an explanation.
"Sub-sonic lock. That egg is a lunar probe. Been up there decades, waiting to be released."
"And how do you know that?"
"Because I put it there."
"How old are you?"
"How old do I look?"
"About 45".
"That's about right. There's a rift in time; not very big, but wide enough to fast-track an egg-shaped thing back a century."
"Would that transport a person?" asked Kate.
He shook his head. "Inorganic matter only. And no, you couldn't send lottery number back to your granny. I tried. Doesn't work"
"You tried sending lottery numbers to my granny?"
"Yep. Err, no." Kate was smiling for the first time in an age.
Just then there was the sound of a ripping sheet across the heavens.
"That's my cue."
Aibork approached the egg, put his thumb in a small indentation, and a few seconds later it rocketed into the rift that tore across the sky.
Kate was slack of jaw.
Aibork took her hand and placed the whistle in her palm.
"If anything happens to me, you'll know what to do," he smiled.
The tear in the sky healed, and slowly the staircase turned into a hillside; the battle lizard; the cobbled streets of teeth; the random candy floss manifestation all vanished.
Kate felt her stomach lurch; a hump backed bridge sensation.
"I need a lie down," she said.
Alexandria started returning to normal. The Torpedo Factory art installation shimmered from the ice sculpture it once was and became bricks and glass again; the picturesque streets and shops were as before.
Kate gingerly tested the street for a reaction, but it was solid. Dull. Reliable.
There was no trebuchet, lizards were nowhere, and as for vegetating samurais. All gone.
It was all just a little dull.
That's what concerned her.
Kate was bursting with questions and Aibork knew it.
"The unreality pearl creates shock waves. Normality is a thin miniscus which can be punctured really easily."
She was confused.
He took a half-drunk glass of water from a nearby table and put a stirrer in it.
"What do you see?"
"A stirrer in water. Slightly displaced because of the water... Oh, you're saying it's a bit like what happened just now?"
He nodded.
"And the pearl created that to stop the alien ship doing any more damage?"
More nodding.
Aibork took a step back and steadied himself. Kate regarded him with concern.
"I need coffee and cake." He said.
"Effects of the anomaly?"
"Low blood sugar."
They followed a beckoning Bob Jones who took them to a cosy cafe with a Tolkien theme.
Aibork ordered coffee and cake; Kate had water and a sorbet; Bob Jones had tea. One sugar. No milk.
"We need to know the state of the probe by Jupiter," said Kate.
Jones nodded and handed her a tablet with the latest intel.
Scanning it, she breathed easier.
"Dormant."
Aibork also relaxed a little.
"This cake. Mmmm."
Kate showed him the report.
He nodded.
Five minutes later they paid the bill and took to the streets.
"That it then?"
Aibork nodded again.
"No more threat?"
He shook his head.
Kate's happiness soured a little. Alexandria was beautiful again. And just a little dull.
"Post anom-blues?"
She nodded.
"It's normal. Always happens with level threes. Post-Christmas comparisons are the best ticket for explaining it."
"So I'm suffering January blues?"
He patted her on the head. She didn't know whether to feel appreciated or insulted.
"Err, What was that for?"
"Takes your mind off the January blues."
Bob Jones hurried behind them and handed Aibork a bag.
Kate eyed it with suspicion, and waited for him to tell her what it was.
He kept quiet.
The suspense was killing her.
He smiled as they walked down the street.
A waiting limousine opened its doors, they got in and it whisked them away.
Within the hour, they were back in Washington DC. The Reflecting Pool was still being repaired; it was still incredibly hot, but the air smelled of ozone like rain after a hot spell.
"Well, this is where I leave you."
Bob Jones stepped from the vehicle, entered a neighbouring car and was driven away.
"Well, he was a nice guy."
"Yes, for a G-man," replied Aibork.
They arrived at the White House, and were debriefed for an hour by some very serious looking presidential agents.
As the debriefing finished, Aibork handed the president the bag.
"I want to thank you for your excellent work out there."
"Aye, you're welcome sir."
"Would you mind staying in Washington a few days?"
"Is that a rhetorical question?"
"You know it isn't, but you are free to go any time you would like."
"I'm guessing with a few friends in dark suits watching me on every street corner?"
"No, not at all… They dress much more casually these days."
The two men smiled, the president whispered in his ear, they shook hands and parted ways.
Kate bowed before the president, turned on her heel and left the room.
"What did he say to you?" She asked.
"Ah, that would be telling."
On the hot and clammy street, they said their goodbyes.
"Well, it's been a pleasure". He said
"Yes, I guess that's one way of looking at it."
Kate kissed him on the cheek, found her bike locked to a nearby rail, unlocked it and set off.
The ride up to Capitol Hill was hot and clammy. She pressed buttons at the traffic lights, wondering whether it made a difference; cycled across the road and back to her hotel.
After locking her bike, she entered the lobby pressed the button and waited for the elevator. Once more, it took an age to arrive.
It seemed to take even longer to take her back to her room.
The room was 23 ft². Dark except for a single white blinking light.
Kate lay on the bed staring at the ceiling while the answer phone message winked in the gloom.
It was too hot to sleep, and she was too excited to snooze anyway.
The weird memories of what had gone on over the past 24 hours haunted her. She had no visual scars from the experience, and started to doubt whether it had happened at all.
Swinging her legs out of bed, she went over to the window and looked down the street below.
How could life go on as normal, when so many unusual things had rocked the universe and the day before?
In the world where everything made sense, she started to wonder whether she preferred the anomalous alternate reality.
The world of samurais, trebuchets and strange battle animals.
She pressed the button on the answer phone, and the message played again.
"Kate, it's your grandmother. Oh, I hate using these things. Anyway, I've come into some good news. My lottery ticket came up with six winning numbers. Call me, when you get this mess…"
The message had been peppered with beeping every few seconds. She didn't know whether to laugh, or burst into tears.
The next morning Kate went downstairs to breakfast, turned left followed the street for a minute, turned left again and entered the breakfast annexe of the hotel.
At the next table, a man in his twenties, dark, handsome, slim addressed her.
"Morning Miss, and how are you today?"
"I'm okay, I think."
He looked familiar.
She regarded his glass of water and stared at the stirrer.
She smiled and took his hand.
"My name is Kate," she said.
"I'm Jeremy," he replied. "Jeremy Kwaith."
She noticed he was wearing Kevlar body armour.
"How about that?" she smiled.
"I have a message for you."
He handed her a silvery slip of paper inside an envelope.
'The Cascade of Mercury.'
She thought about it for a minute, searched her memory banks, and realised she hadn't got a bloody clue what that meant.
Jeremy Kwaith took a pen and wrote a series of numbers on the back of her hand.
He tapped a teacup, turned on his heel and left.
She wanted to go after him and ask him more, but there was something about him that made her realise that was not going to happen.
Next...
Aibork 3
Aibork
by Roger Crow
Two: A Matter of Samurais and Candy Floss
Aibork was looking forward to a long bath. He knew the Pearl had done its work. The alien ship hung lifeless in space near Jupiter's red spot, a floater in the eye of the storm.
Kate regarded the readouts on the ship. They were the same as before the chaos.
She sipped her lunch through a straw. It was supposed to be full of vitamins and minerals, but it just tasted like cold ash in her mouth.
It all seemed rather normal.
The base was as it should be.
Fellow shuttlecraft were all present and correct.
Maybe the Pearl hadn't worked after all.
They touched down and ground crew saw to their every whim.
Since Houston had been levelled by a freak tidal wave, Virginia had been turned into America's new space base.
"Something isn't right," remarked Aibork.
"I know. Isn't that the point?"
"No, that's not what I mean. The Pearl should have created an alternate reality, but this isn't it."
And then, as they entered the cobbled streets of Alexandria, it all made sense.
Strolling down the high street, was an enormous lizard. Or rather it looked like a lizard.
"That's perfectly normal. The unreality pearl is known to create lizards out of thin air."
"I can never tell when you are joking," replied Kate.
Taking a handheld device from his pocket, he started to scan the reptile.
"Yes, that's perfectly normal."
Kate had expected a few changes since she got back, but nothing had prepared her for this.
The lizard was wearing battle armour. It glinted in the noonday sun.
"Is it me?" Kate remarked. "Or is that lizard wearing battle armour."
"It's not the battle armour i'm worried about," he remarked, pointing at the rocket launchers on its back.
It looked like a fire-breather. And if that was the case, they were in deep trouble.
As it took a deep breath to incinerate them, a large metallic thud hit the side of the reptile.
They looked to the left, and saw a huge trebuchet firing at the beast.
"His name is Kwaith".
The warrior approach the duo and knelt before them.
"He is the battle lizard."
Aibork nodded.
"What do you think happened here?" said Kate.
"I'm guessing it may have been an EMP."
"That would account for the lack of technology."
The warrior rose and shook hands with the duo.
"Bob Jones, former CIA Langley Director."
"What happened here Bob?" said Aibork"
"A level three alternate reality. It's one of the worst ripples we've ever experienced."
Kate stepped forward. "Is this likely to go back to normal any time soon?" she said.
"It is possible, though we may need to give it a bit of persuasion."
Just then the ground began to shake and a 15-foot tall pink Samurai thundered into town.
Raising an enormous sword, it was about to slice the lizard in two. However, the reptile responded by firing two missiles into its face plate.
The Samurai took a step back, clutching its face.
In the space of three heart beats, the lizard was upon him. The Japanese warrior collapsed into a pile of rotting vegetation.
Kate stared at it in disbelief.
"I'm really starting to lose my grip here," she said.
"Samurais that turn into vegetation. Well, that's a new one on me," Aibork remarked.
"So Bob, where can I get a decent cup of coffee around here?"
Kwaith turned its attention to the trebuchet.
Just as it was about to attack, the ground collapsed beneath its feet.
The cobbles of the road had turned into teeth.
"Okay, now I'm really disturbed," said Kate.
Just then the sun welcomed a dark shape.
"We need to get to the ladder," said Bob Jones.
Aibork and Kate followed him across the street, round the corner and up a back alley, where a huge tower rose into the clouds.
"So let me get this straight," said Kate. "The ground has teeth, there are battle lizards with the missile launchers, and now there is a ladder stretching into the sky. Did I miss anything?"
"Sorry I can't react to that." Aibork was busy removing candy floss from his head.
"I never thought I would be so desperate for a sense of normality."
Kate was desperate to see what happened next.
More...
by Roger Crow
Two: A Matter of Samurais and Candy Floss
Aibork was looking forward to a long bath. He knew the Pearl had done its work. The alien ship hung lifeless in space near Jupiter's red spot, a floater in the eye of the storm.
Kate regarded the readouts on the ship. They were the same as before the chaos.
She sipped her lunch through a straw. It was supposed to be full of vitamins and minerals, but it just tasted like cold ash in her mouth.
It all seemed rather normal.
The base was as it should be.
Fellow shuttlecraft were all present and correct.
Maybe the Pearl hadn't worked after all.
They touched down and ground crew saw to their every whim.
Since Houston had been levelled by a freak tidal wave, Virginia had been turned into America's new space base.
"Something isn't right," remarked Aibork.
"I know. Isn't that the point?"
"No, that's not what I mean. The Pearl should have created an alternate reality, but this isn't it."
And then, as they entered the cobbled streets of Alexandria, it all made sense.
Strolling down the high street, was an enormous lizard. Or rather it looked like a lizard.
"That's perfectly normal. The unreality pearl is known to create lizards out of thin air."
"I can never tell when you are joking," replied Kate.
Taking a handheld device from his pocket, he started to scan the reptile.
"Yes, that's perfectly normal."
Kate had expected a few changes since she got back, but nothing had prepared her for this.
The lizard was wearing battle armour. It glinted in the noonday sun.
"Is it me?" Kate remarked. "Or is that lizard wearing battle armour."
"It's not the battle armour i'm worried about," he remarked, pointing at the rocket launchers on its back.
It looked like a fire-breather. And if that was the case, they were in deep trouble.
As it took a deep breath to incinerate them, a large metallic thud hit the side of the reptile.
They looked to the left, and saw a huge trebuchet firing at the beast.
"His name is Kwaith".
The warrior approach the duo and knelt before them.
"He is the battle lizard."
Aibork nodded.
"What do you think happened here?" said Kate.
"I'm guessing it may have been an EMP."
"That would account for the lack of technology."
The warrior rose and shook hands with the duo.
"Bob Jones, former CIA Langley Director."
"What happened here Bob?" said Aibork"
"A level three alternate reality. It's one of the worst ripples we've ever experienced."
Kate stepped forward. "Is this likely to go back to normal any time soon?" she said.
"It is possible, though we may need to give it a bit of persuasion."
Just then the ground began to shake and a 15-foot tall pink Samurai thundered into town.
Raising an enormous sword, it was about to slice the lizard in two. However, the reptile responded by firing two missiles into its face plate.
The Samurai took a step back, clutching its face.
In the space of three heart beats, the lizard was upon him. The Japanese warrior collapsed into a pile of rotting vegetation.
Kate stared at it in disbelief.
"I'm really starting to lose my grip here," she said.
"Samurais that turn into vegetation. Well, that's a new one on me," Aibork remarked.
"So Bob, where can I get a decent cup of coffee around here?"
Kwaith turned its attention to the trebuchet.
Just as it was about to attack, the ground collapsed beneath its feet.
The cobbles of the road had turned into teeth.
"Okay, now I'm really disturbed," said Kate.
Just then the sun welcomed a dark shape.
"We need to get to the ladder," said Bob Jones.
Aibork and Kate followed him across the street, round the corner and up a back alley, where a huge tower rose into the clouds.
"So let me get this straight," said Kate. "The ground has teeth, there are battle lizards with the missile launchers, and now there is a ladder stretching into the sky. Did I miss anything?"
"Sorry I can't react to that." Aibork was busy removing candy floss from his head.
"I never thought I would be so desperate for a sense of normality."
Kate was desperate to see what happened next.
More...
Aibork - 2
The room was 3 ft². Dark except for a single white blinking light.
The sole container was at the heart of the ship. A ship that was one mile square.
It had drifted through space for the past 14 years. There were no markings on the hull. It didn't appear in any logbook of any Earth system.
To the observer it looked like it was made from black glass. Although it had no visible markings, electron microscopes would have revealed an intricate filigree on the skin of the ship.
As it entered our solar system, the filigree started to crackle like lightning.
Passing Jupiter's red spot, the lightning turned into a storm. A shaft of light, brilliantly white, emanated from its hold, forming a blinding laser.
Within 30 seconds, it had hit the moon, superheating its core and turning the rocky surface into glass.
All scientists would have said this was impossible, but it happened regardless.
On Earth, systems went wild. Scientists tried to figure out what had gone on. There was no explanation.
This was unknown science.
The super-heated core of the moon started to produce lava deep within the satellite.
"No sir, we have no idea what it is."
The White House. Pearly in the moonlight.
Decades of waiting for some random occurrence suddenly came to an abrupt halt. Within 30 seconds, history books had to be rewritten. There was one underlying fact: If it could do that to the moon, imagine what it could do to the earth.
Panic in DC.
"I need to find out what we're dealing with."
"Yes sir, we understand that."
"Well have you got your best man on it?"
"Yes sir. Aibork is the only one that thought this would happen."
"Where is he?"
The President's aide entered the code 2463 821271 6 into a tablet, and a cgi grid revealed a blinking icon approaching the depiction of whatever that thing was.
Twenty feet from the alien probe, an Earth ship, callsign Bronx Rat, approached silently. Sat in the pilot's seat, the man in a crushed velvet jacket sipped a Martini while gently adjusted his controls. Behind him, the disco ball revolved.
"You said this was going to happen!" Kate masked her mouth with a hand.
"I hate it when I'm right."
Aibork felt dizzy, excited and nervous.
"So what do we do now?"
"Whatever’s inside that ship, looks deadly."
The pilot drained his Martini and put the glass at the side of his console.
He found a button to the right of his joystick, and compressed air filled the room. Revealed in the fog was a small metal cylinder.
Aibork found a button on the side and the door opened with a satisfying sound.
Inside was an orange pearl.
"If this doesn't do the trick, we're all doomed."
On Earth it was chaos. Shops looted; banks raided; the stock market crashed.
The tides kissed the world's shores in an unusual fashion - instead of lapping, they had a zigzagging effect.
It was known as the Unreality Pearl. The stuff of myth and legend that one day become a very real thing.
Found in an Italian volcano 120 years ago, the Pearl attracted the interest of the planet.
Stolen, lost and found again, it was eventually blasted into space.
The Pearl did one thing, and it did it rather well. It created an alternate reality.
Many went crazy trying to figure out why or how it worked, it just did.
More than 13.7 million years of galactic evolution, and this tiny thing rewrote the history books.
If the alien craft was a thing of ridiculousness, then it had to be challenged with equal amounts of stupidity.
It seems the unreality pearl was being returned to the impossible shell.
Kate slipped into her spacesuit, snapped the helmet closed around her neck, and it sealed with a satisfying hiss.
It sounded like a word.
"Meltredssst".
"Are you ready for this?" He asked.
"How is anyone ever ready for what we are about to do?" She frowned.
"Do you not think that drinking Martinis so close to the end of the Earth's possible existence is a little strange?"
"Yes, it is a bit odd for me," he remarked while securing the fastenings on his own suit. "I prefer a Piña Colada".
He tried to take his mind off the visions, so he thought of all the vehicles he had driven over the years. The stellar cruisers, hyper barges and Quadrillion Skiffs. Not forgetting the Anti-grav buggies, but the pianos still appeared in his vision regardless. Booze wouldn't erase the sense of doom he felt.
On the alien craft an airlock of impossible geometry received the improbably perfect fitted collar released from the earthship. Not so much a square peg in a square hole. This was some random configuration perfectly knitted together with something of a equal ridiculousness.
In the universe where nothing seems to make sense, this marriage of alien skin and Earth technology seemed to make perfect sense.
Aibork and Kate wandered around the seemingly endless corridors. Lights illuminated the gloom as they walked.
The duo regarded their scanners with intent.
As the soft thrumming of their devices intensified, they knew they were getting into the heart of their destination.
There was no sound on the ship except for electronic cheeps, like birds tweeting.
It was strangely peaceful.
After 11 minutes of hard walking, they finally found their goal.
Aibork thought about the pearl, and how he'd found it drifting in space.
It felt good to be able to return this bizarre thing to its equally unusual host.
Gingerly he took the Pearl from its holdings, and slipped it into a niche in the alien skin.
It scanned the pearl, memorised its DNA, and he removed it.
Kate stood closer to him.
She said with a whisper, "You realise now that we've done this, life on Earth will never be the same?” Aibork nodded.
"Maybe it was always supposed to be this way," he said.
"Melt Red." A voice spoke.
Kate looked around. Nothing there.
That name again. Eerie. Prescient.
As ripples surged through the ship's skin, they made their way back to their own craft.
Like a stone dropped in a pond, the ripples that emanated from the alien craft made their way to Earth.
However, the first thing it passed was a meteor the size of Boston.
Aibork and Kate left the ship and set course for their home planet.
"So, what's your story? You married?”
Aibork shook his head. “Was once. Didn't last. We drifted apart; I fell for a girl born from an alien seed pod.”
“Ah, right. Where was she from?” asked Kate, rolling with the clearly comedic answer.
"Call it a plane of existence; call it a galaxy, whatever it is, it is far away."
He pointed at a galactic map.
"Here is our galaxy."
The image rippled as though made of oil and the view became a white sea with black stars.
“This is hers.”
Kate looked confused. The gag had no punch line so she thought the best thing to do was to keep quiet.
“You should know this place.” He said.
“Why?”
“Shouldn't have to ask,” he smiled.
Kate was more confused than usual, but the worrying thing was, in her heart she felt he was right.
At sub-light speed, they arrived back at the outer atmosphere in a little over an hour.
The sole container was at the heart of the ship. A ship that was one mile square.
It had drifted through space for the past 14 years. There were no markings on the hull. It didn't appear in any logbook of any Earth system.
To the observer it looked like it was made from black glass. Although it had no visible markings, electron microscopes would have revealed an intricate filigree on the skin of the ship.
As it entered our solar system, the filigree started to crackle like lightning.
Passing Jupiter's red spot, the lightning turned into a storm. A shaft of light, brilliantly white, emanated from its hold, forming a blinding laser.
Within 30 seconds, it had hit the moon, superheating its core and turning the rocky surface into glass.
All scientists would have said this was impossible, but it happened regardless.
On Earth, systems went wild. Scientists tried to figure out what had gone on. There was no explanation.
This was unknown science.
The super-heated core of the moon started to produce lava deep within the satellite.
"No sir, we have no idea what it is."
The White House. Pearly in the moonlight.
Decades of waiting for some random occurrence suddenly came to an abrupt halt. Within 30 seconds, history books had to be rewritten. There was one underlying fact: If it could do that to the moon, imagine what it could do to the earth.
Panic in DC.
"I need to find out what we're dealing with."
"Yes sir, we understand that."
"Well have you got your best man on it?"
"Yes sir. Aibork is the only one that thought this would happen."
"Where is he?"
The President's aide entered the code 2463 821271 6 into a tablet, and a cgi grid revealed a blinking icon approaching the depiction of whatever that thing was.
Twenty feet from the alien probe, an Earth ship, callsign Bronx Rat, approached silently. Sat in the pilot's seat, the man in a crushed velvet jacket sipped a Martini while gently adjusted his controls. Behind him, the disco ball revolved.
"You said this was going to happen!" Kate masked her mouth with a hand.
"I hate it when I'm right."
Aibork felt dizzy, excited and nervous.
"So what do we do now?"
"Whatever’s inside that ship, looks deadly."
The pilot drained his Martini and put the glass at the side of his console.
He found a button to the right of his joystick, and compressed air filled the room. Revealed in the fog was a small metal cylinder.
Aibork found a button on the side and the door opened with a satisfying sound.
Inside was an orange pearl.
"If this doesn't do the trick, we're all doomed."
On Earth it was chaos. Shops looted; banks raided; the stock market crashed.
The tides kissed the world's shores in an unusual fashion - instead of lapping, they had a zigzagging effect.
It was known as the Unreality Pearl. The stuff of myth and legend that one day become a very real thing.
Found in an Italian volcano 120 years ago, the Pearl attracted the interest of the planet.
Stolen, lost and found again, it was eventually blasted into space.
The Pearl did one thing, and it did it rather well. It created an alternate reality.
Many went crazy trying to figure out why or how it worked, it just did.
More than 13.7 million years of galactic evolution, and this tiny thing rewrote the history books.
If the alien craft was a thing of ridiculousness, then it had to be challenged with equal amounts of stupidity.
It seems the unreality pearl was being returned to the impossible shell.
Kate slipped into her spacesuit, snapped the helmet closed around her neck, and it sealed with a satisfying hiss.
It sounded like a word.
"Meltredssst".
"Are you ready for this?" He asked.
"How is anyone ever ready for what we are about to do?" She frowned.
"Do you not think that drinking Martinis so close to the end of the Earth's possible existence is a little strange?"
"Yes, it is a bit odd for me," he remarked while securing the fastenings on his own suit. "I prefer a Piña Colada".
He tried to take his mind off the visions, so he thought of all the vehicles he had driven over the years. The stellar cruisers, hyper barges and Quadrillion Skiffs. Not forgetting the Anti-grav buggies, but the pianos still appeared in his vision regardless. Booze wouldn't erase the sense of doom he felt.
On the alien craft an airlock of impossible geometry received the improbably perfect fitted collar released from the earthship. Not so much a square peg in a square hole. This was some random configuration perfectly knitted together with something of a equal ridiculousness.
In the universe where nothing seems to make sense, this marriage of alien skin and Earth technology seemed to make perfect sense.
Aibork and Kate wandered around the seemingly endless corridors. Lights illuminated the gloom as they walked.
The duo regarded their scanners with intent.
As the soft thrumming of their devices intensified, they knew they were getting into the heart of their destination.
There was no sound on the ship except for electronic cheeps, like birds tweeting.
It was strangely peaceful.
After 11 minutes of hard walking, they finally found their goal.
Aibork thought about the pearl, and how he'd found it drifting in space.
It felt good to be able to return this bizarre thing to its equally unusual host.
Gingerly he took the Pearl from its holdings, and slipped it into a niche in the alien skin.
It scanned the pearl, memorised its DNA, and he removed it.
Kate stood closer to him.
She said with a whisper, "You realise now that we've done this, life on Earth will never be the same?” Aibork nodded.
"Maybe it was always supposed to be this way," he said.
"Melt Red." A voice spoke.
Kate looked around. Nothing there.
That name again. Eerie. Prescient.
As ripples surged through the ship's skin, they made their way back to their own craft.
Like a stone dropped in a pond, the ripples that emanated from the alien craft made their way to Earth.
However, the first thing it passed was a meteor the size of Boston.
Aibork and Kate left the ship and set course for their home planet.
"So, what's your story? You married?”
Aibork shook his head. “Was once. Didn't last. We drifted apart; I fell for a girl born from an alien seed pod.”
“Ah, right. Where was she from?” asked Kate, rolling with the clearly comedic answer.
"Call it a plane of existence; call it a galaxy, whatever it is, it is far away."
He pointed at a galactic map.
"Here is our galaxy."
The image rippled as though made of oil and the view became a white sea with black stars.
“This is hers.”
Kate looked confused. The gag had no punch line so she thought the best thing to do was to keep quiet.
“You should know this place.” He said.
“Why?”
“Shouldn't have to ask,” he smiled.
Kate was more confused than usual, but the worrying thing was, in her heart she felt he was right.
At sub-light speed, they arrived back at the outer atmosphere in a little over an hour.
Sunday, 23 June 2013
World War Z - The Review
Glasgow, or is it Philadelphia terrorised by zombies.
Ooh, then its Korea, on bikes, then Jerusalem, then, er, Wales.
Brad Pitt's zombie travelogue could have failed had it not turned into an episode of Torchwood in the third act.
Pretty good, more for the tense finale than epic bits.
Ben Seresin's photography is a bit too polished for the chaotic tone; the script isn't great, or terrible, and the cast work well together.
An added bonus is the score by Muse.
It's like a serious Roland Emmerich's 2012, with our heroes catching 747s like they were jumping in a taxi. The CG isn't bad, and there are enough physical fx to make it semi believable.
If you've seen the trailer then you'll have seen where the money went.
However, there's a difference between what that suggests and what the movie is.
For the most part its a series of epic set pieces peppered with the odd cosy bridging scene where Brad and his family respond to the chaos.
By the half way mark i'll admit i was tiring of the huge scenes of mass carnage; it's most effective in the cheap finale when Brad and a few survivors try to stay quiet while searching through the corridors of a Welsh research base.
Glass, cans, and doors all sound like they're rigged up to huge speakers, while our heroes try to get to a crucial part of the complex.
It's open ended enough to warrant a sequel, and if there were more small scale thrills in that potential project, it wouldn't be too bad a project.
7/10
Ooh, then its Korea, on bikes, then Jerusalem, then, er, Wales.
Brad Pitt's zombie travelogue could have failed had it not turned into an episode of Torchwood in the third act.
Pretty good, more for the tense finale than epic bits.
Ben Seresin's photography is a bit too polished for the chaotic tone; the script isn't great, or terrible, and the cast work well together.
An added bonus is the score by Muse.
It's like a serious Roland Emmerich's 2012, with our heroes catching 747s like they were jumping in a taxi. The CG isn't bad, and there are enough physical fx to make it semi believable.
If you've seen the trailer then you'll have seen where the money went.
However, there's a difference between what that suggests and what the movie is.
For the most part its a series of epic set pieces peppered with the odd cosy bridging scene where Brad and his family respond to the chaos.
By the half way mark i'll admit i was tiring of the huge scenes of mass carnage; it's most effective in the cheap finale when Brad and a few survivors try to stay quiet while searching through the corridors of a Welsh research base.
Glass, cans, and doors all sound like they're rigged up to huge speakers, while our heroes try to get to a crucial part of the complex.
It's open ended enough to warrant a sequel, and if there were more small scale thrills in that potential project, it wouldn't be too bad a project.
7/10
Wednesday, 19 June 2013
Tuesday, 18 June 2013
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