Pets

Ralph and Marie were enjoying sitting out on the lawn, having their coffee. It was not the coffee which they remembered, the flavor profile was different; it was bound to be different. After the upheavals in the past few centuries, the hybrid plants developed never quite matched up to the original stuff.

It was a quiet evening. They watched the sunset in quiet. The scene was incredibly beautiful, they saw the rings of a large Gas Giant as it spun slowly in the gathering twilight; the colors seemed to be arranged for their viewing pleasure. Marie stood up and stretched as she told Ralph to get going with the chores. Ralph nodded and got up, picking up the small kitten from his lap and placing it on the manicured lawn.

They were many light years away from Earth where they were born, but this was now their home for a long, long time. Their life was fulfilled. Ralph was a designer with the planetary design committee  which was operated and run by General Universal and he loved his work. There was no real reason to work other than to maintain their home. The planet paid for everything. Power, amenities, quality of life was common to all. Marie considered it communist. They joked about it often, she liked painting and had a serious body of work.

The Future was General Universal, and they owned everything, took care of everything and enjoyed the benefits of space. Governments were passe.

The kitten Shaza purred and followed Ralph as he walked into the house and started clearing up the place. It was the weekend, a time of rest and relaxation. They did not really require any of it. Their bodies had no parts which were prone to fatigue. It was a hangover from the days on Earth.

The only fully organic creature on this planet were the Pets, and they too had been modified to breathe the methane atmosphere which would kill any Earth organisms.

Idyllic Summer

Lucy was happy that Nerex had agreed to meet her. It had been a long dark winter, and the time had come for them to meet and maybe have a short pairing. Nerex was wise and smart, an ideal mate for her. But he also lived so far away! Nevermind, this summer would be different. She felt happy about it as she went about her daily chores.

Felix swam in the deep waters of the channel. He was one of the fastest swimmers in the group. He dove in and moved in deep looking for fish. It was a treat to watch as Felix moved in the water, his body streamlined to meet the waves, he dove in repeatedly, just coming up for air just once in a while.

Felix left his friends at the channel and headed home. He was Lucy's progeny, and he was a strong young specimen. He made Lucy proud.

With the Summers, the whole area took on a festive look. The main markets were crowded with produce and shoppers. The main articles on sale were enhancements. Each new enhancement was greeted with surprise and astonishment. This was a society dominated by biotech and each and every individual was involved in its development.

Lucy visited the markets in time to catch Nerex looking for a new floating Island. The Island was small, but it served multiple purposes. It also had a minimal personality and insisted on showing off, using it's filppers to move around. It told Lucy it was happy to meet her.

Nerex and Lucy left the market together. They were paired from time to time. This year, they would celebrate the new year together. It was a time of idyll.

Felix was being taught about his history. He flapped his tail to stay still in the water as they explained about how humans had become extinct. He was also told that his species were called "Dolphins" by the humans. How odd. Considering that Felix always thought of himself as Seten. He bobbed his head in the water to indicate that he was paying attention. It would not do to annoy his teacher.

Migration

The sun beat down on the baked ground as they walked on the small paved road. It was hot. Hotter than they had felt in a long, long time. The days were longer and the heat was unbearable. Sean remembered a time when his grandfather told him stories of a cold season. Now it was hot and wet. The tropical weather was rain forest weather. He hacked at the vines that clung to everything around him.

The time was late afternoon. He was trekking with his small family through the once-great city which had stood on the banks of the river which passed through it. Now it was in a ruins and he stopped to stare at the growth which had overtaken the city. Already the signs of the city were disappearing.... roads were overtaken by mud and filth and the city had become a vast jungle. Something screamed from the top of the vines and he gave a silent signal to his family to keep quiet.

The small rooklets were hungry. They were everywhere. They would kill all of the travellers if they managed to spot them. The travellers froze in place, waiting for the rooklets to disappear. In a while it was clear again. They were trekking North, where it was cooler. This season, they would carry out their annual migration. Follow the old paths and find food and shelter from the Sun. Next season, they would come south again. It was the endless migratory cycle to survive. They followed the food.

Night time was to their advantage. The cooler weather was wonderful for travelling, except they had to keep an eye out for the numerous predators - mostly insects who preyed on humans. They were impossible to stop if they were able to isolate them. At night, they would burn torches to ward off the hungry insects. It was the only thing which stopped them.

Sean and his family camped out in the ruined city in the day and some of them slept. His wife took the time to rest her weary feet and his children were made to sleep while he kept guard. When his wife woke, he would take the time to sleep and get some rest himself.

Finally it was dusk and they broke camp to trek north. Exiting the city, they crossed a signpost which said "Welcome to Montreal".... they did not look back, none of them could read.

Mistaken Identity

Reet and Gert watched the aliens on the planet with interest. It was what they had expected. The aliens were bipedal as per reports they had recieved from the advance scouts who had travelled to this area of the galaxy. They stared at the images. They had been watching the aliens for some time now, it was more out of scientific curiousity rather than from any interest in the alien's planet.

Reet looked at Gert and asked if they should report back to their commander. Gert indicated that it was not necessary as the alien planet held very little intrinsic value, both from a viewpoint of acquisition and from a technology viewpoint. Gert turned away and began the sequence for exiting the space around the galaxy 3663; it was another dead end.

The two explorers were the advance guard for the main imperial fleet. They were high ranking officials, unlike the scouts, whose job it was to search for signs of life and intelligence. Though they had found a great many alien species, it was not always worth the time and effort to contact species which had not progressed beyond a certain level. In many cases, it was counterproductive. Gert was already mapping a course to the next planet as indicated by the scouts. They had twelve scout vehicles moving in tandem, marking out inhabited worlds for their perusal.

There was an incoming communication from the fleet commander "Please get moving, we have other planets to visit. We need to scan all the planets in this galaxy by the next few cycles." Reet acknowledged and sent a null report, they were on the move.

Their ship was spotted by the alien radars - they were beaming something incomprehensible: it looked like it was their number system. Gert ignored it.

Back on Earth, the SETI was informed of the UFO by the Griffith observatory. It seemed to vanish. They rechecked their observations. Maybe it was an error. They had no other observations to check against. The SETI official decided against informing anyone on priority. It could have been a mistake.

Mining the Asteroid

Sentine ran the length of the narrow walkway from her Spaceship to the space station. After a long time, she would have to deal with artificial gravity. It seemed strange. Sentine was a miner with Nokiaexxon, one of the premier companies involved in the mining of asteroids in Near Earth Orbit.

She walked gingerly as she held on the ropes in the walkway, it seemed she would fall. She knew it was an illusion, but up and down were concepts alien to her nature now. She was spaceborn and had never been planetside.

Her life was spent on her Spaceship, The Driller contracted to Nokiaexxon for the next 50 years - renewable at their option, and closed to negotiation. She forced herself to pay attention as she approched the airlock which cycled out the air and opened to the vaccumm of space.

Getting in the airlock, she pressed the button in sequence for closure, and waited patiently for repressurising. She stood silently and stared outside reinforced porthole, waiting for the alarm to sound the all-clear. The moon stared back at her and she noticed the Earth just beyond, the blue planet a mystery to her. Why would people want to live there? Space was her life.

Her mother and father ran The Driller with her. They were an amazing spacer family. She was the third generation of miners on the asteroid belt. But the Near Earth Orbit mining was so much more lucarative. She heard a hiss and the alarm sounded. She took off her space suit and climbed out of the airlock on the other side. The Nezzer who greeted her was short and stocky. He spoke in a gruff voice "You have new orders after you complete work on this asteroid. You are to go back to the asteroid belt on Saturn and mine the asteroids there." He passed her the coordinates and looked away. She knew there was no point arguing with the Nezzer. They owned all the companies which managed the mining in this Galaxy. She took her time savouring the soft carpeting and luxury of the station. The Nezzer turned away, he had no time for some inconsequential human.

Sentine knew it would be a long trip back, she had almost got used to the good life here close to Earth.

New Frontiers

Deep in the middle of the galaxy was the Gessett. They had been created in the hot initial periods of the creation of the Universe. Due to their evolution from the exotic matter in a superhot, superdense period of the history of the Universe, they had virtually died out. Only the white hot searing temperatures of a white hole sustained them.

They clustered around the white hole, dark specs which were highlighted against the incredibly dense gas from which white hot radiation bathed them. They fought for space, jostling and shoving as they seemed to flutter for more of the heat - always more!

The Universe had got so cold. In their senses, it seemed to be dark and lifeless... it would not be able to sustain them. Many had died trying to live in areas which did not burn brightly, even white dwarf stars were not able to sustain them. They were voracious, and they needed energy.

The Gesset was the oldest species in this Universe. They had to achieve enough energy to propagate. In the initial hours of the creation of the Universe, they had the energy to make the jump and they multiplied. They had traversed Universes; and they were unstoppable.

The Gesset clustered around the white hole, and they would die here. There was no other place for them. 

Until they had spied a white hot energy - it had been far away, but it was life-giving. They could make the transition. They could jump from this Universe. It held a promise that would not be denied.

In the supercollider the reaction was incredible. The new supercollider made the CERN particle accelerator look like a toy. It was built underground. They were so close to the answers which it would give them. Ralph and Suzanne were working on the new equipment which spanned a whole continent. This was the future!

The Gesset had no malice. They needed the power they had seen. They attacked the supercollider structure hungrily. They fed on it. They made the transition. 

Jet Lag

Jen was a chemist, and by virtue of her profession, she automatically linked all biotechnology to chemistry. She was also one of the top people in her field. She worked with some of her colleagues in the University of Science and Technology in Hawaii.

Her ability to think out of the box was one of the reasons that Denny had called her over to Tokyo. She liked the place, but the crowds bothered her. It was a very busy city and the feeling was very similar to any big city she had visited. She was not a big city person, and it irked her to be living in the small berth they had allocated to her in the Research Facility. But she was here for a purpose.

Denny knocked and peeked into her small living quarters "You will get used to it. You're not here for very long anyway, I used to have similar problems." She smiled at him wanly "No it's okay. I guess I'm just tired. A little lagged from my flight." He nodded "Let me give you some time then to unwind. Come to the mess when you feel like, we all meet there when we are not in the lab."

She stretched out and slept. The tiredness took over immediately and she dreamt of her project. They were working on the newly discovered XNA structure. It had replaced their DNA research; and the biologists and geneticists were excited about the possibilities, especially as it showed the trait of natural selection. She dreamt of the structure and it spun wildly in her dreams, twisting and melding.

When she awoke, she realized she had slept for over six hours. She freshened up and walked down to the mess hall where a large group of people were relaxing. They fell silent when they saw her. She looked around but Denny was nowhere to be seen. After some time, they opened up to her and discussed her work. She realized she didn't fit in, but held her silence. They went down to the lab and she began working. It seemed natural to her. The protein receptors needed to attach to long chain peptides - it seemed so logical to her. She worked all night. In the morning she was done and she walked out the lab. Denny was there to see her.

He hugged her "You know what you did?" She was a little taken aback "Not really, its been a little overwhelming, much of it is a haze. Did I screw up?" He grinned "You created new life - a new species. We are still looking at it, but we didn't want you to stop, you were working like you were possessed."

She wondered if she had been dreaming. He told her that she would meet her creation tomorrow.

New Moon

Night was the time Jake started to work. He sat at his small desk and began to compose the summary of his project. It was times like this that he felt accomplished. Otherwise, he seemed to lurch from one thing to another on a daily basis. He was a project analyst and liked the feeling of quiet and calm.

His mind wandered as he wrote. The ink pen he favored made him feel good, he couldn't explain it. His wife walked in "Jake you were supposed to put out the garbage." He remembered and made an apologetic face. He had forgtten. He kissed his wife "I am getting really absent minded."

He went out the back and looked at the clear night sky. He suddenly noticed there was a new moon - it was small and seemed distant, but it glowed with a ruddy pale pink light. He gawped at it. For a full minute he was frozen, before he ran inside and switched on the telly "Maud, you have to see this." They listened as the announcer said "The new moon appeared ten minutes ago in the sky. We have no official confirmation of the event from the authorities, but it is expected to cause widespread flooding and changes in the weather. If you are located near the sea, try to get to higher ground or inland."

Maud sounded shocked "What does this mean?" Jake shrugged "I don't know, they don't seem to know either." They watched the rest of the emergency broadcast in silence. The neighbours were all out in their backyards, a hubbub was growing.

With each passing moment, it seemed to take on a new urgency. How could a moon just appear? It was impossible. There were some experts on the telly, opining of the possibility of this occurance. They seemed to suggest it was impossible. Jake went out again to see the new moon. He had to for some reason. Maud came with him, and they watched it as it just hung there in the sky, about half the size of the older moon. It should have been doing something, not just hanging there. Was it a prank?

Late at night, the President was on the telly. He seemed confident, but that was his job. Jake didn't know what to think. The President was saying that his people were on it. Jake was unable to sleep.

In the early hours of the morning, they landed. It was pandemonium. The moon was a spaceship, It was a habitat. It was the mother ship. Jake's world had changed forever. He sat and stared at the telly.. 

Who knew?

Night had fallen on Hetex. It was actually a moon, but for all practical purposes, it could be called a planet, purely based on the size. Seezen was not impressed. She had been to much bigger planets, some which made you feel like crawling instead of walking, but at a little over Earth size, it was considered to be quite the experience to visit.

Seezen was not here to visit. She was here to change this moon. Get rid of the cold, warm the atmosphere and get rid of the liquid methane all over the planet. She did not like variety, she was a terraformer, and her job was standardization. There would be some alien life for sure, but it would be inconsequential enough to trample. All alien life so far discovered had been microscopic. Struggling to make the jump from unicellular to multicellular to complex animals. They had a long way to go. Time that she had no time to waste watching little litchen-like blue creatures. She fed in the data in her notepad. The notepad directly started to analyze the data and fed in subroutines into her command module.

It would take years, but the destruction could begin now. She walked over the ice-encrusted landscape and took readings directed to her notepad, which made some more adjustments to the command module.

The command module took a full hour to sort and build in the action plan. She got into her tiny flitter and flew upwards to where her space ship was waiting. The command module greeted her 'Shall I commence the sequence Seezen?' She replied in the affirmative. The command module commenced shooting rays at the poles, blowing up mountains of frozen methane. The moon would soon be rid of the methane. 

In the depths of the methane sea near the largest landmass, two large squid-like creatures spoke to one another. They decided to attack the invading vehicle. War was being thrust upon them.

Sequel or not to sequel...

Do take a look at my books on amazon.com Orange Rock and The Final Colony. While Orange Rock is a longer story, The Final Colony is my first published work. Both are very different, so it's unlikely that a comparison can be made. Thinking of starting a sequel to The Final Colony. Would you like Xen to make a reappearance? Let me know!

Time for Fun

Children ran around in the courtyard. It was fun to play and enjoy the noontime on Qaxis. An ancient planet from an ancient time. It was all fun and games. The hot midday sun beat down upon Extine and Rudi as they played an ancient game. It involved a stick and a ball. It was liberating.

Noontime on Qaxis was their favorite time. It also gave them time to learn about History. The other children played an ancient game called "catch". It was silly, but it was part of the learning process. It was also fun. It had been some time before the controller had learned of the concept of "fun". But now it understood. It meant time spent doing meaningless things. Without a goal. Useless processor time. But it served no one anymore. Humans were extinct. It was bound to happen someday. The controller was the sum total of the pinnacle of human achievement. It's only goal was to exist and survive. Of course, it had to have "fun".

Extine and Rudi were it's concepts - virtual extensions of itself. The controller excelled in creating and recreating simulations from all the inputs it had got over the millennium. It had run the whole gamut of the simple simulations in the past, and it now had moved over to creating fantasy situations. That made it more "interesting".

The controller was self-repairing. It was actually as big as a small moon. And it orbited the Earth, the birthplace of humankind. It had learned and learned. One day humankind would settle the stars. But they never did. They built the controller to house information, and the controller was now sentient. It had a huge burden.

Extine and Rudi were suddenly attacked by drones in a parody of the timelines. Their swords were useless against the laser weapons of the drones. They died quickly. The controller moved rapidly to his next simulation.

 Paradise

Night fell on Xitic abruptly. It always did. It was the nature of the moon, which had a higher rotational speed that most planets she was used to. Netine dismissed the queasy feeling which overcame her every time she thought of the fast spinning moon.

She was a one of the bunch of 'settlers' who had landed on the moon. The authorities had said it was very Earthlike. They had said it would take some 'minor' terraforming to transform this moon into something close to paradise. They were right; except it would take thousands of years. And Netine was here now.

She surveyed the bleak landscape. It would require them to melt the polar caps, release the trapped Carbon dioxide and create moonwide warming. It would happen, but not in her lifetime.

Netine tested the strength of the rocks underfoot as she climbed up a steep cliff face. She was tasked with finding usable minerals. Her 'bot was strapped to her back for analysis and for retrieval of rock samples. She cursed under her breath as she adjusted her breathing apparatus.

Xitic was as close to hell as she could imagine. Dark and dusty landscape stretched before her as she climbed steadily. Standing on the lip of the cliff, she surveyed the unwelcoming landscape. She pined for home - it was too far away for them to ever return.

The prank call


Sontam surveyed the desolation around her.She was responsible and she knew she would have to answer for it. It had all started with a conversation on her communicator. She was quick to answer it. The caller had been peculiar....oddly sexless, or she couldn't tell if it was a man or woman. There was no inflection of the voice on the line. The caller said "We wanted to ask you to inform the authorities to set up a welcoming committee". She said "Who's speaking?". The caller had continued as if she hadn't spoken "It is of vital importance. Life and death of many people hang in the balance". 

She asked them to repeat the message.... no reply. She asked "Where should the welcoming committee meet you?". The voice had said "In your house". She blanched. Who was this? What did the caller want?. She said clearing her throat "I need to know more, or I can't keep speaking to you". The voice said "We got your message -the authorities will know. It included your location". Sontam had to keep from screaming "What message?. You are not being clear!". The voice seemed to be disembodied "The one you people sent out. What did you expect?". 

She decided since it was close to April 1, this was probably a prank call. She said "I'm sorry I can't help you. Please call the authorities yourself". She shut her communicator with a bang, angry with herself for being drawn into this prank conversation in the first place.

Huey, her husband, had called her some time later..... There had been some UFO which had blasted the police headquarters and administration buildings downtown. The UFO had moved closer to the outskirts and blasted buildings systematically. There had been no attempt at communication. She knew then, she should have said something. It was all her fault. She shivered as she called the President's office, her hands trembling .......

The Circle - Flash Fiction
The first night on Certys was something Kelso was not looking forward to. He was already sick of this planet, and he had barely been here for 20 hours. The long day made it seem even longer as he fiddled with his backpack, it was time to set up camp at last.


The trip from the Hygens system had taken longer than expected. Running into a ship which was clearly alien in construction had been unexpected and caused him quite a headache. Besides a busted fuel line, his ship had careened off while moving at FTL. The results were dramatic. The ship unpeeled like a ripe fruit.


Certys was a haven on the way back home. He had expected better facilities. But he had got none. People seemed completely uninterested. Then there was the Circle - the alien ship which had attacked him without warning. It was composed almost entirely of gravity waves - exotic stuff which he could only have detected on the sensors. The alien ship was responsible for all the damage to the fuel line and the compounding effect due to travelling at FTL.


He would have been dead if not for his high density carbon body. It needed no suit or repair or comfort. He giggled inanely as he thought of the advertisement "Resistant to death and destruction". It had been a close call.


But the scenery in Certys could have been better!

Dinner on Cassitos - A Flash Fiction story

Three days into the invasion, humans were exhausted and repelled from what they had seen. After they had annihilated most of aliens on Cassitos, it was relatively easy mopping up the balance civilian population. What they did not realize was that the aliens were very unlike humans.

It all started when they had sent a peaceful mission planetside. The aliens had been very welcoming and friendly. Things had progressed rapidly after that until some of their customs became apparent to the visiting human delegation.

Xenophobia had spread on Earth; the aliens had actually eaten the ambassador and his entourage. It was their custom on Cassitos to make sacrificial offerings of tribesmen from another clan, and they had just assumed...

The response by the humans had surprised and shocked the aliens. It had repelled them. Things had taken a nasty turn after the first wave of attacks. The aliens were intelligent enough to realize it was a cultural mistake. They had apologized. It was already too late....

Sands of Time

Opening the blisters of his ship Jester looked at the landscape around him. He was in a time machine. Or more accurately in a faster-than-light ship. Bending spacetime made it such an amazing journey that it made his head spin.

He jumped off his ship and wondered if he could think of a time when he was born. He remembered this life as far back as he could. He adjusted his dark suit, built for the incredible accelerations and the cold vacuum of space.

He was the last of his kind. Humans. When the solar system had got annihilated by another wayward star, he and his ilk had ridden out of the black hole - a convoluted sense of history enveloped them all. Of those who would survive, they would have to figure out a way to breed. Any other outcome was unthinkable.

He waited for Sera. She was in a similar ship. He had no way to communicate with her, but she was his only hope. He looked at the center of the Galaxy spinning wildly. The moonlet he was on provided an incredible vista. Spacetime was running out. Praying that his journey was not wasted, he sat on the rock and stared blindly at the cold beauty of the universe.

My Flash Fiction Story (Nine Lives)

The path turned treacherous as Kat flew along it in her stolen Druux freighter. It was strewn with stars. Billions and billions of stars. And in the center was the angry supermassive black hole Vartax. It seemed to glare out at her, the only clue to spoil it's perfect disguise were the steams of matter pulsing out of the center which pushed away other stars like so much confetti.

At the center of the whiteworld galaxy Vartax seemed to call to her. The Druux freighter seemed to urge her onwards, accelerating rapidly as it swept along the path, using the gravity wells of stars on their path, eating greedily from their bounty. Sweat beaded her forehead as the ship moved into the most crowded part of the galaxy. Here stars jostled for space, often cannibalizing one another as they fought for dominance.

She held the joystick for dear life as she noticed the stars spinning close to her, their orbits around Vartax were rapid - too rapid. At some stage she would be annihilated. Her options were limited, she couldn't turn back, a Druux squadron was close on her heels. 

She pressed on, drawing ever closer to her death.

Orange Rock

After over 4 months, my next book "Orange Rock" is out. It is an adventure - and you will find amazing plot twists and turns even though its set in the near future. I truly believe that this is a book which will resonate with my readers . Do take a look and let me know how you like it!

Comments recieved on my book

Recieved your comments on my book 'The Final Colony'. Thank you for your comments. Nothing gives an author more pleasure than to know that readers have enjoyed the book written for them. Look forward to hearing more!..... LP

The Power of Google +

As a first-time author I've been looking at creating a strong social network. I happened upon Google + and was astonished at the response I got. The people I have added to my circle have been extremely supportive and amazingly fun to correspond with. A big thank you to all! ..... LP