I've recently learned that I’m a somatic empath, which is a third layer to empathy, meaning that I physically sympathize with those around me. Along with ADHD, I have no idea what to do with severely toxic personalities.

Even my Aunt agrees that I need to get away from this situation. I’ll be leaving on foot, and in the next few days. I don’t like asking for help, but I need it.

Please help if you can.

Ko-fi

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CashApp: $minus1digit

This image is AI and is not meant to represent how the finished product is to look. Just to give you a rough idea.

Pocketbooks for Kids

A tentative title for an idea I recently had. It started with a funny poem I read by Tim Forsythe on Wrizzit (click here to read it). It inspired me to write the poem below.

The Eternal Kernel

The eternal kernel,

The corn that wouldn’t pop.

They tried to fry it in a pan,

But it melted and they had to stop.

They used a Japanese machine,

It applies pressure that causes heat.

But what came out in the end,

Was nothing you’d want to eat.

It was blackened now,

And the smell was unpleasant.

So they shot it into space,

To become a cosmic present.

It wasn’t long before the idea struck me, and I knew I was on to something. The ideas quickly flowed, and I’ve brainstormed over forty titles and have written over twenty poems.

I even created an event on Wrizzit that others can join and help to write the poems. The plan is to have around 100 or so, and then wittle them down to 60.

The idea is not just little pocketbooks, but to also make them into a simple trading book game. You’ll have to go check out the event to learn more.

There I have listed most of the titles I’ve brainstormed, but you can also just come up with your own. I know I can’t write them all….[[|:-)

Please consider supporting my work at Ko-fi

Thank you so much for reading. Please like, comment, and share. I hope you have a wonderful day….[[|:-)

A New Writing Site

In this day and age, where new things aren’t always really new, it’s no surprise to see another writing platform. The difference here is, it really is brand spanking new. It launched on Groundhog's Day.

I’m honestly not going to try and convince you to join since I’m quite biased by my newfound toy, but hopefully after you read this article, you’ll be convinced enough by what it has to offer.

What is Wrizzit?

“Wrizzit–for everything, down to the scribbles.” I’ll admit, it’s a catchy slogan, and I’m at that age where ads and slogans typically make me groan. Especially those latest Super Bowl ads; what a joke, right?

As I’m writing this, it will be my fourth day on the site. I was truly impressed with how feature rich it was at the start, and even more impressed with how quickly more features have been arriving. It’s been daily, and ‘Feature Request’ is literally a direct message to one of the two creators who is a lovely and very dedicated person and actually engages with users and likes their scribbles.

What is a Scribble?

If you’re from Substack, you’ll know it as a note. If you’re from Medium, it’s like a tweet, or whatever they call it on X now. I’m not on there anymore. However, I feel like it’s an important feature, and like all the other features on Wrizzit, it has been functioning seamlessly.

Scribbles have been fun, and even though I know the numbers are quite skewed, I’ve actually been getting engagement as opposed to on Substack. They also have a thousand character limit because, like a picture is worth a thousand words, ideas and thoughts are worth a thousand characters.

I have yet to see gif and video support, but I imagine that will be on its way soon.

Long Form Posts

Of course, there is a feature to post articles, blogs, and stories, and as a fiction writer, I’m very happy to see serial functionality, giving you the ability to connect chapters and allow your readers easy navigation. Something I’ve longed to have on Medium and Substack.

The form has all the features you expect and copy and paste actually works like you expect. The only thing I found to be different was how links work. You have to place the cursor where you want it, then click the link button and fill in the link text and address. Since I’m having to use my phone right now, I like that I don’t have to highlight the text first. Literally the most frustrating thing to do on a phone.

Another nice feature is. that you don’t have to post your post as a scribble. The form itself gives you three options for its style of display and automatically posts it as a scribble when you’re done. One less thing to do when you’re done writing your post. It’s the little things, right?

Unique Features

Like I said before, this site is feature rich from the start, and that also includes a few unique ones like rizz.

What is Rizz?

Rizz is a score that keeps track of likes on your posts and scribbles. It's a nice quick way to see how popular you're becoming. However, my favorite way of knowing how well I'm doing is how many badges I've earned.

What are Badges?

Arguably the most unique feature, badges are a way for you to show why you like someone or why you like what they've written, for instance, if they’re actually funny, there’s a badge for that. If a story gets you right in the feels, there's a badge for that.

The badges only last 24 hours, but while they’re active, you can choose which one is displayed next to your name along with five others that show on your profile. I think they’re temporary to keep people more engaged with others beyond just liking scribbles and posts, plus it forces you to go to their profile or post to apply it.

What is The Digest?

This is a very interesting feature that has three parts, all focused on getting writers to collaborate with one another.

Magazines

Like real magazines, a topic is chosen and writers request to join and submit to the magazine. The creator then goes through the submissions and chooses which ones get put into the issue. It lets you set a deadline for the submissions along with when the issue is to be released.

Events

These are essentially identical to magazines except that they only occur once.

Open Prompts

This works like magazines with reoccurring issues, but instead of a topic, the creator chooses a prompt, for instance, the one I created is, “What if?” The first issue’s prompt is: What if men carry the babies? Writers request to join and submit their works according to your guidelines, and like with magazines, you choose the deadlines.

Other Reasons to Join

Beyond your personal reasons for wanting to join a new writing platform, these might just be the most convincing.

1. You are getting in at the very beginning and will receive the ‘Founder’ badge as a result.

2. Like the meme mentioned, the username you’ve always wanted is probably still here.

3. It’s a clean slate, and with low member numbers, it shouldn’t be hard to develop or be a part of a strong community that shares interests. There are a lot of different voices there already.

4. The learning curve is low right now, and it should be easy for you to transition.

5. There is a way to connect to Stripe.

6. It has Dark Mode!

7. The app is being tested and on it's way!

Summary

All in all, this site has a lot of potential, and a lot of potential for you to succeed being in on it early. I, for one, am doing my best to get it right this time after so many flops.

Like me, I think you’ll be impressed with how much it has to offer right off the bat, and new features are showing up everyday. I didn't mention them all, so there's still a chance for you to discover more of them.

The creators are very dedicated like, I can attribute to seeing them on there when they should probably be sleeping. Parents of newborns don’t get much sleep, and it’s no different there.

I’ve only found one bug, and after reporting it and hearing back the same day, it got fixed by the next day. Impressive, no?

Furthermore, the few hundred (I’m guessing) that have joined have been very positive, no doubt looking for a safer space than Substack, and if you’re joining from there, the only big differences are, there’s only followers and so far no group chat, unless you're part of a digest.

Lastly, what are you waiting for? The chance to be a part of a social medium at the beginning doesn’t come every day. Oh, and don’t forget to follow me. I’ll totally follow back!  [[|;-)

Thank you so much for reading. Please like, comment, and share. I hope you have a wonderful day….[[|:-)

Author’s Note

A couple of things to note. My partner and I will be moving very soon. I won’t be posting as much for a while. As I’m typing this, we learned that the street we live near is the most dangerous street to live on in all of Washington. We are very anxious to move and could use your help.

Please consider buying me a coffee or donating directly via Cashapp: $minus1digit.

Lastly, I’m also writing a side story subtitled, Ebbing Tide. Think of it like a run-on preface, though it’s a way for you to learn more about this densely populated setting. I was posting it in Notes, but the character limit got nerfed so I posting it on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/minus1digit/794538899127009280/ebbing-tide-part-1?source=share

Go to Starbrood: Chapter One: https://minus1digit.substack.com/p/starbrood-chapter-one?r=1n9sxx

Starbrood: Chapter VII

Sidian breathed out a quiet and long sigh of relief as he settled into his pilot’s seat. He took a moment looking around at his monitor, the yokes, the keyboard. His focus then brought him to the ‘New Line’ key, and he stared at it for a few seconds before touching the monitor to pull up a view of the engine room. “Everything going okay in there, Zeegoo?”

Zeegoo could be seen using a small device in his hand while standing near the cryon intake valve. Sidian got a sinking feeling in his gut just as Zeegoo responded. “Looks like everything is set. No need to adjust how you fly except that you’ll be going twice as fast.”

“Well, I’ll take your word for it. Are you sure you still don’t need a seat?”

“No need to worry about me, Sidian.” Zeegoo said with a convincing smile.

Sidian simply gave him a thumbs up which is protocol for this kind of communication. Not only to affirm understanding, but given visually in case audio malfunctions at the end of communication. Sidian swiped that screen away to pull up the map of Starbrood. He then looked up into the mirror facing the navigator’s seat behind him where Ann was sitting. “Would you care to set the path?”

Her look had a bit of shock at first, but then it softened into an almost unnoticeable smirk before looking at her monitor.

Sidian smiled as he watched her work, hoping she understood that he was flirting with her. He knows it’s subtle, but he’s typically too nervous to try anything more definitive. One of the reasons he fell for Minxie–someone who makes the moves for him.

Ann smirked inwardly when she saw him watching her in the mirror. She had no intention of getting involved with someone, even just for a quickie. She has more pressing matters, including but not limited to a certain bounty hunter with a personal grudge. For once, she’s not wanted anywhere and she really wants to keep it that way. She enjoys the hunt, not the chase. Even still, she does enjoy flirting. “What do you think of this?” She asked while swiping the flight plan his way and not giving him any clues with her expression. She flirts by playing impossible to get.

Sidian pursed his lips a bit as he nodded at her, disappointed in her lack of expression. He was not surprised to see the same path he would’ve set, but he was impressed with the added slingshot around a small, dense moon of Kor’s Eye that would reduce the setup time for the slingshot around Kor’s Eye. He tried not to let it show, but he did raise an eyebrow. He lowered it before looking at her in the mirror. “It’s very good.” He quickly looked away to continue the preflight check.

Ann lightly harrumphed and smirked at Sidian’s frustration. She knew there was no better path. “You know, I’ve never seen a vessel like this outside of a museum. I hope twice as fast is faster than mine.”

“Oh, she’s fast, alright. It’s a factory engine, but it’s been modded heavily, especially for subspace.” Sidian said, giving her a quick glance in the mirror before starting on coding a flight program to assist in the first slingshot.

“So, if you didn’t go to an advanced school, where did you learn to fly?”

“Uh, well, one of my dad’s pilot friends took me under his wing.”

“Wait, does that mean you're the son of Quedon Rein?”

Stripe doesn’t want to help me, so if you’d like to support my creativity, or help me on my transient journey, please consider buying me a coffee. You can also donate directly:

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Sidian paused and looked at her. He could see both the surprise and admiration in her eyes, but there was something else–something he couldn't read before she looked away. “I am. Yes.” He didn’t wait for her to look back at him before he got the vessel underway, though they both felt the inertia way more heavily than they should and it plastered them into the back of their seats.

“Woah. You weren’t kidding that she’s fast.”

“Uh huh, but the inertial dampeners must be malfunctioning.” Sidian quickly pulled up a view of the engine room. “Uh, Zeegoo?” He asked, not seeing him initially.

“I’m on it. Your dampeners got overloaded, but I’m fixing it.”

“Oh. Good. That’s good.” Sidian altered their course slightly in case he doesn’t. He then muttered quietly, “The sooner the better.” Sidian looked at Ann with an upward glance, not raising his head. She seemed to be busy doing something on her monitor and he then focused on adjusting the flight program he coded. He gave a nervous glance to the engine room view, still not seeing Zeegoo, before putting his focus back on programming.

Soon after, the inertia could be felt reducing heavily, but not quite all the way. “That should do it,” Zeegoo began as he popped his head up to be seen on camera, “You’re dampeners are pretty old, but they should hold up.”

“They may be old, but they were perfectly calibrated for this vessel.” Sidian said with a bit of annoyance which was interrupted with correcting the course again.

“Sorry.” Zeegoo said dejectedly. His face brightened quickly to say, “I can restore it later. I have your settings saved.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

“By the way, where is your lavatory?”

“Oh, yeah, this vessel was built by Ergers, so it’s called a ‘Water Closet'. It’s up here by the cockpit.”

[Ergers - Short, Terran-like humanoids. Some grow stout like Dwarves, while others are skinny like Halflings.]

“Thank you.” Zeegoo said, quickly going off screen.

For Ann, she was now struggling. She had every intention of getting her job done, and then never seeing these people again, but now she has become fascinated with Sidian. She knows something about his father, but she’s afraid to tell him, worried that he might end up hating her, and she has enough enemies.

Sidian noticed her staring off. “Are you doing okay?”

Ann quickly hid her expression behind a smile as she looked at him in the mirror. “I’m fine. Just thinking about how everyone else is faring after that pulse.”

“Huh. Hadn’t thought about that yet.” Sidian then went quiet for a moment as he looked at his mother’s photo. “I can only imagine that it’s chaos out there. I just hope my mother wasn’t on a ship at the time.”

“Unfortunately, I know for a fact that my mother wasn’t on a ship at that time. No, she is safe and sound on her little rock.”

“I bet she’s worried about you.”

“Pfft.” Ann nearly laughed. “She’s more worried about breaking a nail.”

Sidian gave her a sappy smirk. “I’m sor–” he went to say, but was cut off by a loud rumbling noise, not unlike the Scream, shaking their seats. This sound was more localized and lasted for several seconds.

Sidian and Ann both looked at each other in confusion, and both were quick to run and investigate the noise. They didn’t have to go far to, not only smell, but see the sewage seeping out of the water closet.

Ann stopped in her tracks and covered her nose. “Ugh,” was all she could manage, suddenly feeling very nauseated.

“Skrit! I… may have forgotten that the waste management system was offline. You okay in there, Zeegoo?”

“Uh, not so much!” Zeegoo said.

For some reason it made Sidian giggle, and when Ann joined in, it evolved into laughter. Soon, they both couldn’t control it, but Sidian was the first to get himself to stop. “Hold on, Zeegoo. I mean, hold on to something because I’m going to flush the room out, okay?”

“Okay.”

Sidian shot Ann a glaring look as she was still giggling. “Make sure you hold your breath, too!” He commanded before opening the control panel next to the water closet hatch. “In, three-two-one.” He then pulled a hand-sized lever down, which quickly filled the tiny room with water. Ten seconds later it quickly drained the water, although plenty spilled out of the bottom of the hatch as the seal had worn away some time ago.

As the hatch opened upward, Zeegoo was able to fully lay prone having been propped up by the hatch a moment ago. He blinked his eyes and rubbed them as he let out a long exhale before saying, “I hope you have good soap.”

Sidian and Ann both giggled a bit as he had her return to the pilot’s seat while he helped Zeegoo with some anti-bacterial soap and turned on his ergbot to finish cleaning the mess.

Thank you so much for reading. Please consider recommending my Substack. I hope you imagine having a wonderful day….[[|:-)

Starbrood: Ebbing Tide is a side story following along with the main series you can read for free here. Starbrood is not only a science fantasy space adventure series, but also a setting in my WIP TTRPG.

Starbrood is a meta-star system–a trinary star system with three supermassive stars orbited by eleven Earth-sized star systems, ten of which are inhabited by one or more fantasy races. There is no magic or pantheon of Gods and Goddesses, but there is faster-than-light travel, psionics, as well as other fantasy elements.

Ebbing Tide is like a run-on preface, not meant to be a required read for the main story, but allows you to learn more about this incredibly densely populated setting.

Because Substack Notes has a more strict character limit, I’m going to continue this side story over on Tumblr….[[|:-)

Ebbing Tide: Part 1

Starbrood is a special star system–a meta-star system. Three supermassive stars orbited by eleven Earth-sized star systems, ten of which are inhabited by several races. There is no magic nor pantheon of Gods and Goddesses, but there is faster-than-light travel as well as other fantasy elements.

On Terakala, a world in the second star system, Vagen Rootrutter, a Tarpan fisherman, and his son are walking along the beach that they walk every day. Unlike most other worlds, many still live pre-FTL lives as Tarpans are the most reluctant to want to travel in space. They walk it not only to fish and for fun and relaxation, but also to reach the town North of theirs along the highcliffs that parallel the coast.

[Tarpan - Mole-like humanoids similar to gnomes.]

It’s a sunny early Autumn day, and as they come around a bend, they both notice the severe erosion that had to have occurred the night before. They had fished that spot the evening before. Vagen’s son, Edem, quickly ran over to the exposed root of a tree, looking as though it’s holding on for dear life. Edem vaulted himself up onto the top of the biggest part of the root now running parallel above the ground. He turned around to face his father. “Where did all the sand go?”

Vagen furled his brow as he slowly approached, not only in consternation, but also in a bit of annoyance at his son’s careless question. He should know it must have gone out to sea. He glanced out at the ocean for a moment before getting close to his son. “Looks like the ocean was hungry.” He said with a giggle and a playful nudge, nearly causing his son to fall off of the root.

Edem giggled and then said, “Woah,” before grabbing his father’s arm. “What do you think happened?”

Vagen once again looked out to the ocean. The tide was calm, giving no clues. “I’m not sure, son. The Ebon Moon isn’t full right now. I don’t know what else could cause such rapid erosion.”

“If you can’t see the Ebon Moon, then how do you know what phase it’s in?”

“Well, when the black daisies are blooming, that means it’s full, which occurs every 27 days.”

“Do you think it could’ve been a starvessel?” Edem asked as he mimicked the sound of one while jumping off of the root and pretending to fly for a brief moment, then running around with arms spread.

“That’s a good question, but I think a starvessel would’ve destroyed this root. This is very concerning. I think we’ll have to report this to the Rootmaster.”

Edem stopped in his charades with wide eyes. It had been months since they visited his great uncle Winder, the Rootmaster. “Really? Can we go now?” Anything but fishing.

“Now, son, you know we need to catch dinner first. We’ll go after breakfast tomorrow morning.”

“Okay.” Edem said, extremely dejectedly.

“Besides, this will be an excellent spot to fish right now.”

It was, too. They ended up catching enough fish for dinner and the next day’s meals.

Deep in the highcliffs, Vagen and Edem slowly travel down an ancient torch-lit lava tube. Twisting and turning, they eventually reach the Rootmaster’s chamber. A large magma-carved hole in the earth, now riddled with tree roots that the Tarpans have coaxed to grow through the chamber. After many decades, a Rootmaster can read the roots and can tell you about things going on all over the highcliffs and the forest beyond.

Edem couldn’t control his elation and tore himself away from his father’s hand to run and greet Winder. “Grunkle!” He exclaimed as he launched himself into the old man’s lap.

Winder quickly wrapped his arms around the boy, spry for an old man. “Ohhh, how is our future Star Captain, hmm?”

Anyone can be a captain of their own starvessel, but a Star Captain commands an entire fleet. “I’m good, Grunkle, but we saw something on the beach yesterday.”

“Oh? And what did you see?”

Vagen interrupted as he got close, “I wish you’d stop egging him on. We all know he’ll most likely never become a spaceling. It’s much easier to just be a Broodling.”

“No harm in the boy having dreams. Now tell me, what did you see?”

“There was some heavy erosion that occurred overnight by Walker’s Bend, and the Ebon Moon is still waxing right now.”

“Yes, there was a strong disturbance the other night. I did not get very much useful information as all of the roots screamed that night.”

“What do you think it was?” Vagen asked seriously.

“Considering the evidence, I can only imagine that it was otherworldly. I’ve heard rumors that the Traeon also Screamed, and we are very close to the Traeonic Eclipse. Still, something doesn’t add up. The other Rootmasters are on their way now for a meeting. Perhaps you’d like to join us, Vagen?”

“I would like that, yes. How about you, Edem?”

Edem’s face brightened slowly into a big smile as he looked at both of them back and forth a couple of times before exclaiming, “Yes!”, while pumping his fist into the air, garnering a chuckle from Vagen and Winder.

Stripe doesn’t want to help me, so if you’d like to support my creativity, or help me on my transient journey, please consider buying me a coffee. You can also donate directly:

Cashapp: $minus1digit

Ebbing Tide: Part 2

Jrbsh awoke with a fright, scrambling from laying on his backside to his hands and knees. He was on the metal grate flooring of a passageway. It was hazy, but the smells quickly had him realize he was still on his ship.

Jrbsh is but a slave on this Orkk vessel. An enfeebled Hoblyn that does the same duties an ergbot would normally have. He may have what most would consider a miserable existence, but compared to most Hoblyn slaves, he gets treated well.

[Hoblyn - Wingless, bat-like humanoid similar to a goblin.]

It took him a moment to really come to. The air felt light, but due to the implant in his lung, he can breathe when there’s no air at all. At least, for an hour. There had been an accident that punctured his left lung, and after having been decompressed in the portage bay one too many times, his captain and owner chose to give him a false lung he’s had to have refilled twice now.

Jrbsh rubbed his stinging eyes, now tearing up and making it even harder for him to see. The emergency lights are on, and with the haziness, their light does little to help him. He still felt a bit woozy, but he managed to stand using the railing that lines every wall. He had to steady himself and it took him a while to focus on the navigation panel to understand where he was. Jrbsh doesn’t know how to read, but has learned many symbols and letters he sees while working.

After a moment he gathered that he was on the bow of the ship on the third deck just below the bridge that spans two decks. His head started to pound as he made his way to the bridge to assess what’s happening. He thought it odd that he had yet to see anyone as he made his way to the ladder in between the lifts. He took a deep breath as he grabbed on and looked up. It seemed like so far to go, and as he climbed, he could feel the strain in his muscles as though he was somehow depleted.

He didn’t take the ladder because he knew the lifts weren’t working. He took the ladder because he’s not allowed to use the lifts, and it was hard for him to understand why it was so hard for him to climb the ladder he has climbed an innumerable amount of times. As he neared the second deck, he noted how quiet it was. There were alarms sounding off, but not the hustle and bustle of a crew trying to correct them.

Jrbsh got a sinking feeling as he got to the bridge that was even hazier, and then the feeling sank even lower as he saw his captain face down on the deck. He gasped lightly before rushing to her side that her head was facing. Luckily, he could see that she was still breathing as it fogged up the shiny, metallic uniform on her forearm laying close to her face.

He quickly shoved her on her upper arm, but she didn’t stir. Not even after he called out to her. The panic struck hard as he strained to look around to see that the other bridge crew were slumped over their stations, or also on the deck, unconscious. He began to hyperventilate until it made his throat hurt from breathing unscrubbed air that his false lung is filtering.

It was all starting to get to him. However, since he managed to calm his breathing, he was able to consider what he could do to fix this. The problem is: he doesn’t know the first thing about how to run a ship. Laundry, no problem. Cleaning the deck with a hand brush, child’s play. Buffing the handrails, easy as pie. Other than his duties, it’s all literally rocket science to him. Still, he was willing to try.

He walked up to an unmanned station, but wasn’t tall enough to reach any controls let alone see the monitor. Kelvaran starvessels are designed to have you stand at your station with the exception of the captain and the pilot. The pilot looked dead, and Jrbsh often faints at the sight of dead bodies. He took a careful breath as he searched for a way to climb up onto the station.

He managed to climb the light fixtures on the front of the station and inadvertently pushed several buttons and moved some levers as he got close enough to the monitor to touch it. To his delight, it was working. Unbeknownst to him, all Kelvaran vessels are protected against EMPs despite that weaponry being outlawed. Even still, it wasn’t strong enough to protect all the systems, most importantly the environmentals.

Jrbsh carefully studied the screen. There were a lot of red marks and numbers, including one that he recognized which was the symbol for air. He pressed that line, but what came up was unreadable to him. He tried to study it, but other than the ‘X’ in the top corner, none of it made sense to him. He touched the ‘X’ to back out, and as he rested that hand to the side of the monitor, he pressed another button. He noticed this one light up and blink with a dull orange color. He was a bit mesmerized by it for a brief moment until he felt a rumbling, threatening to knock him off of the console.

Another alarm suddenly blared as the protective cover over the bridge windows began to open, slowly showing him that they are in orbit of a beautiful blue and green planet.

An androgynous voice suddenly sounded off, “Bridge separation in 30 seconds.”

Jrbsh was wide-eyed. Not only in wonderment, but now of fright. It had him frozen in place until he felt the launch of the bridge separating from the main hull and, not only catapulting the bridge toward the planet, but also Jrbsh off of the console. He managed to land on a crewmate and he quickly scampered off and over to the captain.

He wrapped his arms around her exposed arm, closed his eyes, and prayed for their survival.

I’m an indie writer with ADHD, HSD, gastroparesis, and a hyper-sensitive nervous system. I post everything for free since I make everything for free. If you’d like to support my creativity, please consider buying me a coffee or donating directly via Cashapp: $minus1digit.

Ebbing Tide: Part 3

“Edem, come along now.” Vagen said with annoyance in his tone. Edem had been lagging behind a lot this morning as they made their way along the beach. They were almost around Walker’s Bend and Vagen was anxious to see if anything had changed, not to mention if the fish were still biting there.

Vagen looked out to the ocean as he heard Edem jogging to catch up to him. He pulled on his backpack strap to reposition it a little as he turned his head to watch his son slow to a walk by his side. He smiled at Edem, but Edem’s smile was quite lacking.His smile waned to a lip curl as he roughed up his son’s hair before putting his hand around his outer shoulder. “You know, son, one day you will pray for a simple existence such as we have.”

Edem scoffed and then blew a raspberry making Vagen chuckle a bit.

“Go on,” he said, giving his son a slight nudge forward, “go see if that spot has changed any.”

Edem got a big smile as he ran off. They were nearing the end of Walker’s Bend marked by a large and tall boulder that sits on the edge of the beach and the thin forest that lines the highcliffs. Vagen smiled as his son eagerly ran around the end of Walker’s Bend and disappeared around the boulder. He regripped the fishing poles in his hand and let out a joyful sigh as he caught up.

Vagen smiled again as he rounded the boulder and could see his son pretending to be a starvessel flying and ducking under the exposed root they had inspected the day before.

Instead of getting closer to his son, he diverted toward the shore, wanting to get started fishing sooner rather than later. He waved to his son to follow him, and after slumping his shoulders and visibly sighing, he did as he was told.

Vagen walked up to where the morning tide had reached earlier and set the fishing poles and his backpack down, then kneeling to get a few things out of the backpack. Edem soon reached his side with a solemn step.

“Now, Edem,” Vagen said, giving his son a calm look, “how come you don’t like fishing?”

Edem curled one side of his lip and looked down and away as he answered, “I don’t know. I guess it’s just boring.”

“So, then, when you crashland on a watery world, how do you think you’ll survive?”

Edem shot his father a defeated look before looking out to the ocean. “By fishing.” He said defeatedly.

“That’s right, son. If you plan to be a Star Captain, then it would be important to know how to fish, and how to fish well. Don’t you agree?”

“Yes, father.” Edem said, again in a dejected manner.

“Good, then I have a proposition for you. I want you to first hook and bait the rods, then I want you to take this sketchbook and draw a stellar map of Starbrood with an itemized list of each star. Your stellar cartography skill will be tested far more often than your ability to fish.” Vagen smirked as he watched his son’s face brighten up as he pulled out the sketchbook and a small pouch of drawing charcoal.

“Okay, father.” Edem said with a smile.

He smiled bigger as his son set the book and pouch down to grab the rods to prepare them. He then handed him the tackle box, and after his son opened it to grab a hook, he grabbed the reel he had planned to respool.

Vagen then sat and began to unwind the reel, watching how his son tied the hooks and then attached a lure to each one. He was proud to see how efficient he had become at the young age of 8. He worried about his son’s aspirations. To him, there’s no job more dangerous than flying in space. However, he and his wife both have noticed something special in Edem.

Edem brought the rods to his father and smiled at him as he picked up the book and pouch and ran off back over to the exposed root, using the outermost part as a back rest.

Vagen smiled again as he set the reel down and grabbed the rods to cast them then shove the handle into the wet sand. Then it’s the waiting game, and he grabbed the reel and sat closer to the rods to be ready.

After about twenty minutes, Vagen could hear his son running up to him as he was nearly finished respooling the reel. He was disappointed that there had not been any bites yet, but he was happy that his son finished in a sufficient amount of time. He had just graduated writing school the year prior. He waited until his son was close and slowing to a stop before asking in a faux surprised manner, “Finished already?”

Edem waited until he was at his father’s side before responding, “Uh huh.” He then presented his father the sketchbook, open to his rendering of Starbrood.

“Well, then, let’s see.” Vagen said as he inspected the drawing. Vagen took a moment before saying, “This looks pretty good, son, except that the asteroid belt is outside of Kelvar, not Terra, but otherwise, you nailed it.”

“What is that?” Edem asked.

“Well, you’d have to tell me. You’re the one who drew it.”

“No, father, look. What is that?” Edem asked, pointing not far above the ocean’s horizon.

Vagen strained to see a small object heading their way, but definitely losing altitude at the same time. It took him a moment to realize that there was smoke trailing behind it, and after a moment, he could see that it was a heavily windowed aircraft of some kind. It was growing in size fast and so he told his son to grab what he can and run behind the large boulder.

Vagen could feel the adrenaline and fumbled with one of the rods and decided to leave it behind as he took off just as they were able to start hearing the craft, and it definitely sounded as though it was crashing.

Edem was safely around the boulder and Vagen got to it just as the craft hit the water a few hundred yards from the shore. As Vagen turned, he saw the craft had skipped off of the water and then landed again right at the shore. They both ducked behind the boulder as sand and water had been flung in all directions as the craft burrowed into the beach. The tremor nearly knocked them off of their feet.

Afterward, they both slowly crept up to the craft. Neither of them recognized its style, but they both froze in fear when they could see its occupants.

If you like this story, be sure to check out the side story I’m writing in Notes. It’s not a required read, but it’s in the same setting and timeline. Think of it like a run-on preface….[[|:-)

https://substack.com/@minus1digit/note/c-151866959?r=1n9sxx

Thank you so much for reading. Please consider recommending my Substack. I hope you imagine having a wonderful day….[[|:-)

Starbrood: Chapter 6

When reality came back into view and presence, it felt like a ripe slap to the face to Sidian, and it caused his entire body to jolt like when you wake up from tripping in a daydream. The suddenness caused him to sit upright quickly, but he paused there as he’s never witnessed anything so devastating. He once saw a large freighter explode from quite a distance, but witnessing a planetary collision and feeling the gravity sheer really shook him to his core.

He was so caught up in his fear that he didn’t notice Ann sit up next to him. He jolted again when she spoke. “Looks like you saw the same thing. Why did you make us see that?” She asked as she turned to look at the little blue alien with consternation.

“Sorry, but…it was necessary for you to understand the brevity of your situation.”

Ann then continued, “So, what? Is that supposed to be our future?” she asked with obvious sarcasm.

“I’m–I’m afraid so, but it’s an avoidable future.”

Ann scoffed and turned back to Sidian, leaning into his view a bit. “Are you okay?”

Sidian finally moved his eyes to look down and swallowed hard before looking at her. One eyebrow raised in delight of seeing her beauty, yet he was still quite shaken. “I’ll be fine. But I think the little guy is right. I’ve had recurring dreams showing me similar fates. I thought it was about personal turmoil, but now…”

“Now is a funny time. It’s always happening, like, right now.” The little blue alien said, pointing to the ground with a smile, but then its face went serious when no one laughed. “Sorry, I never seem to know when to make a funny.”

Ann scoffed again before speaking to Sidian quietly, “I don’t know what you want to do with Little Boy Blue over there, but I’m on a tight schedule with a delivery to make and I’ll make it worth your while if you can help me make it on time.”

Sidian couldn’t help but sigh and droop his head, closing his eyes and rubbing his face with his hands. His plans never seem to go according to plan, and he was already cutting it close with saving his mother in time.

“Yes, please help her deliver the package.” The alien stated.

Ann shot the alien a confused mixed with annoyed look before turning back to Sidian. “Will you, please?”

“I will, but…it has to be after I rescue my mother.”

“Yes, rescue mother.” The alien stated.

“Okay, what is your deal, little dude? We’re not interested in your faerie tales.” She then looked at Sidian with concern.

“If only I had a subspace drive. I could rescue my mother and deliver your package in like, a week.” It was a bit of an exaggeration, but he was making a point. It’s the only time he does exaggerate.

“Subspace is not safe.” The alien said matter-of-factly.

“I know,” Sidian replied, “It’s always a risk.”

“No.”

They way it had said, “No,” made them both think it was going to say something else, and they both turned to look at it.

“You will blink out if you fly in subspace right now. You’ll have to wait for the next Scream.”

“The next what?” Ann asked, truly perplexed.

“Soon, The Traeon will Scream again, and then subspace will be safe to fly again.”

“You mean, that noise came from our suns?” Sidian asked incredulously.

“Yes, and it will happen again.”

“Great, but what does that have to do with us?” Ann asked.

“Well, if I help you, then you’ll help me, right?”

Ann scoffed with a wry smile. “Help you with what?”

“To save The Traeon, and thus save all of Starbrood.”

“This little guy is just too cryptic. What do you think, Sidian?”

Sidian looked at her with a slightly furled brow. He was silent for a moment, surprised that Greywollf would ask of his opinion. “Hmh, well, he seems to know what’s going on, and he also seems to be quite powerful. By the way, what is your name, little man?”

“I am Zeegoo Galastar, First Born of The Traeon, Defender of The Shroud.”

“It’s nice to meet you, I’m–”

“I know who you are Sidian Alistair Rein, and you, Ann’D’Lynn Greenwood. We have been fated to meet, and I have been tasked to help you rescue your mother and deliver your package.”

“If you know so much,” Ann started, “then what’s in the package?”

“You are not to know for good reasons.”

“Skrit. I’ve been dying to know what’s inside. I don’t normally care so much, but the person I’m delivering it to has piqued my interest.”

“Ah, the courier life.” Sidian painfully remarked.

“So, you think we should team up with that thing?”

“I get the eerie feeling that we’re supposed to. I mean, he wants to help us achieve our goals.”

Ann breathed in and sighed out as she looked at the cute little alien. It was surprisingly calm for what seemed like a child. “Yeah, I get the eerie feeling that we don’t have a choice.”

“Choices are what matter.” Said Zeegoo.

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Ann side-eyed Zeegoo before looking back at Sidian who was giving her a bit of a dreamy-eyed look. “I wonder if he has a decryption mode along with that translation mode.”

That made Sidian smile and exhale a quiet laugh that relaxed his forehead. He finally shifted his position to sit facing Zeegoo. “So, when is the next Scream supposed to happen?”

“I know many things, but that is not one of them. It has to do with what you call, The Three Body Problem.”

Sidian huffed. “Yeah, I never went to advanced school. I let the computer do the maths.”

Ann giggled as she, too, turned around. “I just never went to that class. May as well be philosophy to me.”

Sidian smiled at her before turning back to Zeegoo. “So, you said something about helping us? How did you mean?”

“Well, I first went to school for engineering, and I know a few things that can get your ship to fly twice as fast.”

“You mean, you’ve been to more than one school?” Ann asked incredulously.

“Yes, I went to what you call, ‘advanced school’ four times. First for engineering, then for physics, then theoretical physics, and finally, I studied superspace.”

“Huh, so you’re like really old, huh?” Ann asked.

“In your Broodyear, which is an average of 342 days, I am almost 589 years old.”

“Wait, what is superspace?” Sidian asked with a curious expression.

“Hmm, how can I explain? Let’s see, what you call, ‘subspace’ is where I'm from, and your reality is superspace to us.”

“You mean there’s more of you?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“But, according to our leading minds, there’s nothing in subspace.”

“That’s because you’re not shifting your corporeal polarity. If you had the technology, you could visit subspace like I'm visiting your space.”

Sidian was speechless for a moment until he remembered a story his father once told him. “My father once told me a story about a time when he somehow went unconscious while flying through subspace early on in his career. He then had an incredibly surreal dream of a blue-skinned alien woman that nursed him back to health and helped him get back home. He didn’t remember much and he awoke not far from the space station he had been flying to, but he said it was the most realistic dream he had ever had.”

“It wasn’t a dream. When you fly through our space, you occasionally collide with our celestial bodies. Most blink out into our existence, but a few blink out to somewhere even we don’t know. It’s what drove us to create the necessary technologies to bring you back when it occurs, that is, the ones we find.”

Sidian shifted his position to sit on a foot before responding, “And that’s why you know our names. We’ve blinked out before, yes?”

“According to our records, you have blinked out only once, while Ann has blinked out six times.”

“Why so many?” Ann asked with an insulted look.

“We think your AI assistance program has a bug in it, plus it has a lot to do with chance as much as your flying skills.”

Ann scoffed as she looked at Sidian who seemed lost in thought. “You're remembering, aren’t you?”

“Like a dream you can barely remember, but yes. Not much, but I’m remembering a feeling like I didn’t belong.”

“Yes, polarity sickness is quite awful, and we do our best to make you forget, but some minds are stronger than others.”

Sidian lightly sighed as he turned his head to look at Ann. “What do you say, Ann? Shall we save The Traeon?”

Ann squinted at Sidian for a moment before letting out an audible sigh. “I’m at least in until my package gets delivered, and maybe a ride back to my ship as I’m assuming that I need a new initializer to fix it.”

“I guess that means we’re in, Zeegoo.”

“Yes!” Zeegoo exclaimed, punching a fist straight up into the air with a small jump and a wide, toothy smile.

Go to Chapter VII: https://substack.com/@minus1digit/note/p-174453499?r=1n9sxx

If you like this story, be sure to check out the side story I’m writing in Notes. It’s not a required read, but it’s in the same setting and timeline. Think of it like a run-on preface….[[|:-)

https://substack.com/@minus1digit/note/c-151866959?r=1n9sxx

Thank you so much for reading. Please consider recommending my Substack. I hope you imagine having a wonderful day….[[|:-)

Starbrood: Chapter Five

(In case this image didn’t show up in the last chapter.)

“What in Kor’s Bowels is that?! And how did it get on my ship? Did you bring that thing here?!” the woman asked angrily as she had turned her focus back to Sidian.

Sidian was stunned and speechless. Between her paranoia and having seen what he can only describe as an alien, Sidian’s mind struggled to put one and one together. The woman’s eyes pierced him like ice shards in the tail of a comet. His mind stammered and he felt like he was silent for too long before they both heard the creature speak again.

“Weekoo.”

Neither of them had time to look at it before they both felt a slight wave of euphoria wash over them and they both sort of crumpled in place, feeling fully relaxed.

Sidian felt very relaxed, but he was not comfortable being half bent sideways, though he didn’t seem to care somehow. Still, he forced himself to twist and sit properly. He really didn’t feel like any more action was necessary and felt at complete ease as he watched the small creature fiddle with something on its vest.

He could no longer see the woman, but he called out to her, “Are you okay?”

There was a slight pause as he heard her shift and then there was a slight giggle. “I feel great. How about you? Sidian, was it?”

Sidian let out a very relieved sigh. “That’s good. I’m doing great as well. So, what’s your name?”

“My name is Ann’D’Lynn Greenwood, but those that know me call me, Greywolf.”

Sidian’s eyebrows slightly raised upon hearing that name. They would’ve raised higher had he not felt so relaxed. He was well aware of some of the escapades of Greywolf. “Wait, you’re Greywolf? I suppose it makes me sound sexist, but I always imagined you as a male.”

That made her laugh out loud a bit before responding, “Yeah, I get that a lot. I can be a bit reckless now and then.” There was a momentary pause before she spoke up again. “What did that little blue guy do to us? I’m not even worried that I told you my real name, and now I’m embarrassing myself. What gives, little blue dude?”

Sidian had kept watching the little alien as it continued to fiddle with something on its vest, occasionally shaking its head. “I have a feeling it won’t understand you.”

“So, you really didn’t bring that thing here?”

“Definitely not. Do you have any idea what it is?”

He heard her shift again, most likely to get a better look at it. “I’m not sure. It looks a bit like a Hoblyn, but I’ve never seen one with blue skin or such Terran-like eyes. It’s pretty cute, and Hoblyns are not cute.”

“So… if you don’t know what it is or how it got onto your ship, then it must have arrived while we were all unconscious. I can also assume that it wasn't a coincidence that your digital environmental systems didn’t fail during that EMP event. I also get the feeling that this is all somehow related to the Traeonic Eclipse.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m not sure, really. Just putting the pieces I have together to see if they fit. This little guy is powerful, but so far not deadly, and so far, the signs are pointing me in the direction of epic prophecy at work.”

“Oh, don’t tell me you believe in all of those faerie tales. No one controls my destiny but me.”

Sidian felt the confidence in her statement, but considering their circumstances at that moment, they did not have much weight. Their new friend had the upper hand. He then heard her laugh and replied, “Yes, I almost giggled at your irony.”

Her laugh roared again before she asked, “So, what do we do now? I can’t seem to muster the motivation to do anything.”

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“Yeah, me neither. It’s kind of nice, though. I don’t get to relax very often.”

“Ugh, me too. I’m always worrying about something or other. I’m not even worried that I’m not worried about this situation.”

Sidian laughed but didn’t respond. He was really wanting to see her again, but he felt as though getting up to walk closer to her was too much trouble. He had only but a glimpse of her from before and he really wanted to gaze upon her beauty some more. He wasn’t trying to, but it took over like an obsession in his mind. He couldn’t believe how badly he wanted to see her, and then he heard her gasp.

“Woah, what’s happening?”

Sidian was confused until he saw her begin to rise above the pilot’s seat, still in her prone position, but now levitating. He couldn’t help shake the thought that he was somehow telekinetically moving her. It was proven when he made her come closer and spin and flip into a position to where he could see her face. She still floated above him, but now they were eye to eye. “Hello,” he stated with a wry smile.

Her face was filled with wonder, but had a slight smile. “Are you doing this?”

“I… I think so?”

“I thought only Idolons had psionic powers.”

Sidian couldn’t explain it. As far as he knew, she was right. Then, suddenly, they both heard the little creature speak out.

“There it is.”

As soon as they had heard it, Ann fell from her levitation and they both were no longer feeling euphoric relaxation.

Sidian cried out as Ann landed on him with her knee landing on his crotch. His face went red as he bit his lip. “Please move.” he demanded in a very breathy tone.

Ann was quick to get herself to her feet and turned to the alien. It wasn’t until he stopped wincing in pain that he noticed that she was suddenly wielding a dagger pointed at it. “What do you want from us?”

“Please don’t.” it stated as it put out its hand.

Ann gasped as she was forced to let go of the dagger, and before it hit the ground, it flew over and behind the little creature.

“Please, stop and listen.” the little creature stated as they were both now frozen in place.

Sidian’s gaze was stuck looking to where the dagger had disappeared into the darkness. He didn’t like this sensation, but he couldn’t say anything. He could only think until the creature began to speak again, and then he could only listen.

Before when the creature spoke, its voice was small and child-like, but this time, its voice took on that of an adult with a powerful tone that could be physically felt. “I am the Child of Traeon. I am beholden to your destiny. I am the Key to the Past.”

Before Sidian could get over the creature’s voice still reverberating throughout his body, his vision was replaced with rapidly changing scenes. Each one including a different race in the same situation that slowly morphed into more and more dramatic scenes. What was a family morphed into workers, then into soldiers, then into starvessels in a massive battle.

He then felt a pulling sensation as he was thrust into a scene with his mother and they were on the balcony of a high rise apartment complex. He and his mother kept changing into different races as they both turned to look into the sky at a strange planetoid crashing into the planet. There was no time to react as the shearing of the gravity wells was already laying waste to the city and the planet’s surface.

Before he could think to scream or run, there was suddenly nothing.

Go to Ch. 6:

Thank you so much for reading. Please consider recommending my Substack. I hope you imagine having a wonderful day….[[|:-)

Starbrood: Chapter 4

Sidian bolted out of his chair and hurriedly put his helmet back on until his environmental systems could push the atmosphere through to the other ship once the docking hatches are opened.

Sidian had to take a few breaths before opening his hatch. Partly from nerves, but mostly from trying to run in the spacesuit with the deck being magnetized. After opening his hatch, he took another deep breath before stepping forward and opening the other.

He had expected to be pushed forward from his atmosphere rushing into the other starvessel, but, instead, he was slightly pushed back as though the other ship’s atmosphere was a bit thicker. It was very dark inside. Not even their emergency lights were running, but it seemed that their environmental systems were still active. He used his suit’s scanner just to be sure.

This sent a slight chill down his spine, though, he still pressed forward. The portage bay was empty, and the slightly larger starvessel had a ladder leading up to the cockpit. It wasn’t a tall ladder, but he groaned in displeasure at the thought of having to climb it in the spacesuit.

When he reached the base of the ladder, he took off his helmet and set it down, then climbed up slowly. The boots of the spacesuit were almost too large to fit in between the rungs. He felt as though it was designed for those of a smaller stature, or, at least smaller feet.

Sidian stopped when he could see above the ladder. He wasn’t sure what to expect at that point, but he was relieved to see only one person passed out in the pilot’s seat. They looked to be female with a tall and slender form. She looked too tall for the seat as she was slumped in a funny way. From that point of view, he didn’t see anyone in the navigator’s seat.

He took a short breath before climbing the rest of the way. He was a bit more nervous, worried how the woman would react to seeing him after waking. Terrans tend to be quite a mixed bag compared to most other races, and so you never know what to expect from them.

Sidian sighed at the possible reactions running through his head before he stepped closer to get a better look at her. The cramped architecture of the cockpit forced him to turn sideways to get in between the pilot’s seat and the two large center consoles that jutted from the ceiling and the deck.

It forced him to shuffle his feet as he was trying to get to the front of the seat. With the spacesuit on, however, he didn’t notice that he had bumped her elbow while moving by. He stopped and, just as he was turning his head to look in the other seat, he saw a flash of the woman stand up in the corner of his eye and he immediately turned his attention back to her.

Sidian’s lights blinded her, but she had already drawn her double-barreled laser pistol which she kept trained on his head as she shielded her eyes with the other. “Who are you, and what do you want?”

Sidian flinched his hands into the air, almost instinctively. He has lost count of how many times he’s been held at gunpoint. He was momentarily speechless, shocked by her agility, but also in awe of the metallic dye in her hair that glinted heavily from his spotlights.

Her eyes had acclimated to the light and so she repositioned slightly to put both hands on her pistol. “Well?”

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Sidian was struck by her beauty. Such angular features that included several small metallic tattoos that also glinted, sometimes hiding portions of her face. He quickly snapped himself out of it and responded, “Don’t shoot. I was trying to rescue you.” he began, then noticing the pin on her collar of a winged boot. “My name is Sidian Rein, and I’m a fellow courier. There was a strange noise that knocked us all out, including our ships, although, it would seem yours has a good failsafe.”

Her hazel eyes glared at him for a moment before her expression softened a bit, though her resting expression was not very different. “Well, you’re not an Orkk. What happened to them?”

Since her ship was facing toward the way they had come, Sidian nodded his head in that direction and pointed a finger with his right hand while still raised to get her to look out of the window at the Kelvaran starvessel and shuttle now floating adrift.

She barely glanced at them before looking back at Sidian. “Hmh. Serves them right, but that still doesn’t mean that you’re not here to kidnap me or steal my ship. You say you’re a courier, but I don’t see your pin.”

“I, uh — “ Sidian then cleared his throat even though he didn’t need to, “I don’t always wear it, but I could show you my courier pass if we go over to my ship. I’m sure it’s in there somewhere.”

“Yeah? Cause that doesn’t sound like a trap.” She then turned her focus onto the main console and began to push buttons and flick switches while keeping the pistol trained on him. “If you’ll kindly leave, I’ll get my ship back up and running and we can forget this ever happened.”

Sidian stopped himself from rebutting, and resorted to watching her fail to get her systems back online. He had seen the data recorded by his magnetometer. It was over a million volts per meter. No purely digital system would be able to withstand that. He was lucky to have a ship from the Millennial War as targeted EMP weapons were the fad of that war. They have since been outlawed throughout all of Starbrood. “I seriously doubt your systems will come back online. I’m surprised that your environmentals are working. Are they failsafed through an analogue system?”

She gave him a momentary glance before trying more buttons and switches, now going along the overhead console. “Actually, no. So, let me guess? Your ship is still functioning, and you want me to believe that you’re not here to kill me?”

Sidian let out a long sigh out of frustration. He was starting to think that there was no way to convince her of his innocence. “Look, my ship is an old tender refurbished from the war, and so it was built to withstand EMPs. Please, just let me show you my pass, or maybe you can stop pointing your gun at me, and I’ll gladly take my leave. I’m in even more of a hurry now.”

“What? So you can tell your friends that I’m stuck here, and then they’ll raid and rape me?”

The situation was getting very heated on her end, and this made Sidian even more nervous. He rarely does well in these situations and he could feel his hands begin to tremble. He really had to think about what to say to that. Then he saw her put a hand to her head and grimace in pain. “Are you okay?” he asked, lowering his hands some, wanting to put them forward to catch her if necessary, though she quickly put both hands on the gun and refocused it, forcing him to put his hands up high again.

“I’m fine.” she demanded strongly, but then he saw her look to his left, and before he could turn his head to see, she had split her handgun into two, pointing one at him, and the other at a small blue-skinned humanoid that looked at both of them with large, soft eyes. It vaguely resembled a Hoblyn, although Sidian had never seen anything like it. His immediate thought was that it was a Hoblyn-Maren hybrid of some kind, but, the last he knew, those two species were not compatible in that way.

Then it spoke a language neither of them could understand in a very tiny child-like voice. “Rigu dekku tikoo.”

Go to Ch. Five:

Thank you so much for reading. Please consider recommending my Substack. I hope you imagine having a wonderful day….[[|:-)

Starbrood: Chapter III

It had been a long time since Sidian had gone through the procedures necessary to start his ship’s systems manually. Trying to thumb through the instruction manual with the starsuit’s very thick gloves was frustrating him. He couldn’t seem to get to the next page and so he threw the thick, covered booklet to the deck as he had restored gravity.

Sidian sighed as he put an arm against the engine housing and rested his head on it. This only frustrated him further as the capaciousness of the starsuit’s helmet didn’t allow him to actually rest his head. He let out a slight growl as he whipped himself upright and turned to kick the booklet.

His lack of familiarity with the starsuit caused him to just skim the booklet with his boot, and when he looked at it more closely, he could see that it had turned to the page that he wanted. Literally, the final page of instructions for this procedure. He let out a short chuckle before crouching to pick it up.

Sidian sighed as he read the next instruction, but then soon got a chill down his spine as it was instructing him to open the cryon fuel line. His brow furrowed with concern, and he could feel his stomach starting to become upset.

“C’mon, Sidian,” he demanded of himself with confidence, “you can do this.” As confident as it sounded to him, it did little to motivate him. Even still, and even without the imminent rescue he was planning, he had no time to waste. He would already have to make a large roundabout maneuver just to get into the right trajectory and speed to attempt another slingshot around Kor’s Eye.

As infinitesimally small the risk is that something tragic could occur while simply turning a valve to open a fuel line, cryon always sends Sidian’s anxiety through the roof. It never fails to give him that tingly feeling throughout his extremities, and most times, upsets his stomach as well.

He even unconsciously put a hand to his stomach as he walked to the back end of the engine to turn the valve. He had to swallow hard to push back some reflux just as he put his hand on it. The junction itself is housed by an anti-cryogenic alloy. If the cryon were to escape, it could cause instantaneous frostbite.

Sidian took a deep breath as he turned the lever style valve handle ninety degrees to the open position. He was grateful that the automatic shut off sequence was able to close the valve. He had bought that emergency system from Zerk, and it was one of the rare times that its functionality was suspect.

With no mishaps, he sighed in relief and gave a quick thought about his father, remembering a time he had spent with him at a park. It would be a mundane experience to most, but it was rare for him to get that much time to spend with his dad.

He didn’t allow himself to reminisce for too long before continuing to finish up the procedure. He had but to prime the engine before turning a rather large crank that would start it up, and in turn, provide power to the other systems provided they didn’t get fried from the electromagnetic pulse.

Sidian headed back to the front of the engine and set the booklet down to put both hands on the crank handle. It seemed too easy to turn at first until it met with some resistance, and even with the rotary gears that amplify the power and speed, it took nearly all his might to get the crank up to a high enough speed to ignite the engine.

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To his delight, though, it started on the first try. He half expected there to be some sparks flying, but there are no light bulbs to burst as most lighting utilizes a white liquid bio-luminescence farmed from algae that is found in the Vragor System. Alas, there were no foreign sounds, and for once, it seemed like things were going his way.

The cramped room soon filled with a deafening cacophony only slightly muted by the starsuit. It only added to his anxiety, but he didn’t allow it to affect him this time. He was quick to exit the engine bay to get back to the cockpit, anxious to assess the damage.

Going through this reminded him of the time that he was in the Tizhian System where the Maren live. He was just leaving orbit of the second planet when their star had a rather sudden and large coronal mass ejection, and Sidian had delayed in turning on his shields. Except, that time, his ship was tumbling, and he hadn’t gotten his deck magnetized yet. He was definitely thankful for that this time around.

As Sidian reached the top of the ladder leading into the cockpit, the monitor was just turning on and several quiet alarms were beeping in tandem making a strange but patterned melody.

He quickly sat in the pilot’s seat and pulled the monitor and keyboard closer. The system was already doing a systems check as it was rebooting. He entered in some code functions to prioritize checking the life support system and smiled as he saw that it was at a nominal level and that the air had already been scrubbed.

Sidian relaxed in the chair with a sigh as he fumbled for the helmet release. He wouldn’t consider it a phobia, but really tight or crowded spaces raise his anxiety. He was grateful to breathe the air tinged with greasy metal. It was familiar to him, and it brought some much needed peace to his mind.

“System initialized,” his computer spoke, “Overall performance at seventy-one percent.”

“Well,” he responded, “seventy-one percent is nominal enough.” He then checked each system. Only two were offline: the weapons control system and the waste management system. Neither are critical for flying, and so he ran through an abridged pre-flight check as the person in the other ship will no doubt have very little to no oxygen left, and that’s if they haven’t frozen to death already.

Even though life support had already warmed the environment to a comfortable enough temperature, Sidian got a chill thinking about how he had just narrowly escaped death yet again. Not something he would normally allow himself to think twice about, however, as he gets older, he finds that it happens more often.

He blames it a bit on Minxie with how she’s always talking about settling down somewhere and raising a bunch of kids. Something his mother always nags him about as well. He’s not looking forward to that rant.

With the half-ass pre-flight check done, he snatched the yokes and pulled them into a comfortable position and quickly got his ship turned in the right direction, as all of the ships had begun to be pulled in by the strong gravity of Kor’s Eye. He had to make a slight adjustment to get around the Orkk shuttle that was headed his way, but now came the tricky part.

The other ship was tumbling faster, as though the pilot had tried to make a getaway at the last second. Sidian’s ship is not equipped with an attractor beam, and the ship is tumbling too fast to attempt locking on to its portage bay. There is a solution that Sidian has done before, but it does have risks.

There was a time when a fellow courier had had a critical systems failure, and they didn’t have time for an easier solution than for Sidian to write a program for the artificial pilot to match the tumble of the ship, and with its assistance, would allow Sidian to fly in closer and touch hulls to slow the ship’s tumble enough to lock bays.

It works, although not without considerable damage to the outer layer of the hulls that are made of mostly overpriced alloys. Zerk believes that it’s a conspiracy to keep the average broodling from being able to afford their own starvessel. He claims that there is no scarcity of metals, and that proprietary alloys matter not when it comes to the singular process necessary to make them space-worthy.

Sidian doesn’t normally buy into Zerk’s often outlandish theories, however, he has seen several forges that do the same exact process that creates the incredibly dense patina necessary to block neutrinos and other cosmic rays. He’s also seen some of the bigger mining operations and has discovered that there is quite a lot of ore to go around. Especially in the asteroid belt in the Greddeck System, which is the largest star system in Starbrood.

He set the auto-pilot on so that he could type and set up the program to execute from one of the triggers on a yoke. To make this work, he was going slow so that the reverse thrusters won’t affect the other ship, possibly making things more difficult. The artificial pilot will be using the inertia generator by itself, which is usually used in tandem with thrusters.

Sidian took a deep breath as he typed in, ‘execute’, and then pressed the, ‘New Line’, key. As the artificial pilot took over, slowly matching the speed and tumble of the other ship, he took the opportunity to do a close range scan to find that there was only one pilot; a female. There was some kind of interference keeping him from getting a more detailed scan to know if they’re still alive or not.

Sidian raised an eyebrow. Not that it’s unusual to see a female pilot, but she’s all alone in Orkk space. He was nervous enough being here, and he would be even more surprised if she’s an orkk herself as it’s quite rare for them to be found outside of the house.

He was watching the monitor and could see that the ships were almost lined up for the approach. He could easily have the artificial pilot do this part as well, but his ego wanted this one. He’s been told that he has a surgeon’s touch. Sidian put his hands on the yokes and did not hesitate to begin simulating where the controls needed to be to maintain mirroring the other ship.

It didn’t take him long to find it and he immediately began to use the reverse thrusters. He didn’t use much thrust but a dorsal thruster was somehow getting powered and was causing him to spin on his z-axis. He had enough inertia to get into locking position, but he would have to make a last minute adjustment, but not before shutting down the malfunctioning thruster.

“Ten meters and closing.” The computer suddenly announced. Even though Sidian knew it would do that, it still made him jump a little. He took a deep breath to calm himself as he waited to be within five meters.

“Five meters until impact.”

Sidian watched his monitor closely, waiting for what he was calculating as the right moment before firing a keel thruster just enough to line up the ships all while maintaining mirroring its speed and tumble that was slowly accelerating.

There was a brief moment that he thought he had gotten it wrong just as the two ships met with a moderate collision as his auto-locking system engaged upon impact. He quickly typed in a command to get the ships outside of orbit. Sidian took another deep breath in relief and let it out slowly. He was a bit nervous, worried that they might already be dead.

It was only months ago that he had seen his first dead body, and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. It had left him with a chill that revisits him every time it comes to mind. He took a much deeper breath as he put on his gloves and helmet to prepare entering the other ship.

Go to Ch. 4:

Thank you so much for reading. Please consider recommending my Substack. I hope you imagine having a wonderful day….[[|:-)

Starbrood: Chapter 2

There was a time when Sidian felt that he had it all figured out. He was only 19, but he had been a tender pilot, also known as a provisioner, for the better part of five years ever since he ran away from home. Provisioners, couriers, and emissaries are the only pilots trained to fly through subspace. It is the only flying done with the assist of an artificial co-pilot, as flying through the quantum realm can be quite tricky. Any mistake could cause you to blink from existence and no one knows what happens to these victims.

His father had been a highly skilled emissary and was escorting a high profile ambassador at the Battle of Goran Resh where both were killed by the cryon explosion. There had been a cease fire at the time to allow for talks, and many to this day still believe that it was an assassination with Sidian’s father being nothing more than collateral damage. There has been no evidence to suggest it.

For Sidian, it came at a tumultuous time. He was barely 13 and was exhibiting your typical rebellious behaviors of which his mother couldn’t handle on her own. They had had only a few months to deal with him leaving yet again, and although he won’t admit it without severe inebriation, it heavily traumatized him. He no longer had someone to look up to — when he was there — and his psyche was not ready for a leadership role, at least not in their household.

His mother had no skills with which to provide for them, and so their ability to obtain vital resources began to dwindle quickly after going through the money from the life insurance policy. It forced Sidian to try to find a way to make income, but at such an early age, he too did not have the necessary skills to do so. Fortunately for him, his father had a lot of friends among the emissary community and just before Sidian began to fall into the wrong crowd, a former co-pilot of his father’s came for a visit unaware that his friend had passed.

He felt for Sidian as he had lost his father around the same age. He had had someone take him under their wing and now he had the opportunity to pay it forward. It was obvious from early on that Sidian had talents that his father most likely passed down. It was his knack for flying through subspace and his tenacity for wanting to learn the ropes of his lineage that landed him the job as a provisioner. As tenacious as he can be, however, he does not have the heart of a warrior.

Fifteen years later, the post-Millennial War economy caused the need for provisioners to wane quite a bit, but in reciprocation, the need for couriers spiked. The job is essentially the same, but the risks involved with hauling materials other than your standard supplies can vary greatly. It’s also more common for a courier to be an independent contractor, which has given Sidian a freedom that he has never known. A freedom that has allowed him to develop quite a mixed reputation among the many worlds of Starbrood.

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When Sidian awoke, he found it hard to breathe, and as he sucked in, the cold air caused him to cough. Each cough forced him to gasp for what little air was left in the cabin of his small starvessel. At the same time he was realizing that that foghorn sound must have been some kind of electromagnetic pulse. It was very dim inside with the only light being provided by the reflection of the sun in the rings of Kor’s Eye.

If he had had time to appreciate it, he would’ve noticed the shimmering quality of the light, vaguely similar to that of a disco ball. Instead, Sidian was forced to think about how to get some oxygen and fast. He managed to calm the tickle in his throat by breathing more slowly through his nose, but he could really feel the strain on his blood vessels as they all fought for oxygen in tandem. His vision would dim occasionally, but he forced himself out of the chair and began trying to walk to the cargo bay to get to a starsuit.

He was grateful that he had Zerk magnetize his deck. He has had a lot of problems with his artificial gravity generator, and it was cheaper to magnetize his deck than get it fixed or get a new one for that matter. Still, the lack of gravity only added to his current misery. If it weren’t for the metals in his clothing, he would have no bearings.

As though his knees were jelly, he crumpled to the ground with a grunt. The pain seemed ten fold as he gritted his teeth and began to crawl. The metal grated floor felt like it was bruising both his hands and knees. As he neared the hatch, he grabbed a handle of a cabinet along the wall, only to have it open causing him to spill to the floor along with some of the metallic contents of the cabinet. He was not the best at keeping things stored properly.

He was really having to breathe hard and gasp for air through his mouth when his dimming vision caught sight of a can of air. A can of air from Nirvana Beach on the Sylvan world of El’Uaa (ell-way-uh). It was going to be his first present for his mother to make her think that he had gotten nothing else, when in reality, he had procured a courier pass for her that would allow her to leave the Greddeck System.

Sidian felt like the blood vessels in his eyes were about to burst, and his energy was nowhere to be found. It was all he could do to reach out to it, but of course, it was out of reach. It felt like every gasp would be his last one as his vision had become very dim, and if it weren’t for the colorful display on the can, he might not have been able to see it. His muscles burned, and he could even feel the muscles in his fingers as he tried to pull himself closer using the grated floor.

Just as he felt like he would pass out, he gathered what strength he had left to use both arms to pull him toward it. He was now close enough and quickly shoved the built-in mask to his face and breathed.

Once he had taken a few breaths, he began to laugh. He had been swindled. The can of air smelled like nothing, and it was supposed to be air from that beach. He laughed because he knew his mother would lie and tell him that it did smell like her favorite beach just to make him happy.

Sidian knew that there wouldn’t be much air in it, but he rested for a few moments. He felt as though he had run three marathons back to back. His trachea burned along with every muscle in his body. Even though he was breathing air, he felt like he had to yawn. He resisted it, and it further motivated him to get to a starsuit.

He began to shiver as he made it to where the starsuits are stored. Luckily for him, his outdated internal combustion style engine had kept his ship warmer than the other ships nearby. They both use a cryogenic engine that uses a freezing and thawing method to produce energy. An engine that never gets warmer than thirty-three degrees Fahrenheit.

Unlike most technologies that are becoming more digitally based, starsuits are simple and analogue, much like a diving suit. Without protection from the freezing cold of space with a proper shielding technology, electronics will not work. Because of this, the oxygen system relies on your body heat to maintain its function and must be donned first before the starsuit which is a bit like donning a suit of armor. With so many stars in close proximity, there are quite a bit more neutrinos on the loose, and the armor on the suit is designed to help deflect them away.

Sidian has never been a fan of spacewalks, nor does he like the claustrophobic feel of the starsuit. He wasn’t planning to walk in space, but he dreaded this process nonetheless. On top of that, he would have to hold his breath this time as there was no way to strap the can of air to his face, and the suit doesn’t start pumping oxygen until all the pieces are connected.

Often when he was younger, he would dip his head under the water while taking a bath and exhale his breath and then just relax for a few seconds before resurfacing to take a breath. He wasn’t trying to kill himself, but enjoyed that brief calming moment before the urgency of needing to take a breath would force him out of the water. Something he thought would never be useful outside of that, but with practice, he was able to go for longer, being able to resist those initial urges.

As he donned the suit, he was grateful that he had taken it that far. Thirty seconds, forty seconds, one minute. He lost count after hitting one minute but would later be timed by a friend at two minutes and forty-seven seconds. It’s been many years since he last did it, and he was pretty sure that he had passed that mark just as he was getting the helmet in place. However, he didn’t hear the familiar hiss of the oxygen. This sent him into a bit of a frantic panic to find where the suit was not connected properly.

He felt the strange pull of his diaphragm which desperately wanted to function involuntarily. He was getting frustrated as he knew that it had to be something so simple that would take him out. He then kicked the frame of the locker where the starsuit had been kept, and then he suddenly heard the hiss of air coming into the helmet. Sidian forced himself to breathe in slowly and it agonized him.

Only after several breaths was he able to feel calm again. He then let out a long sigh with his next exhale. He would now have to go through the lengthy process of restarting the analogue systems manually. It’s enough of an effort without a starsuit on, but he was concerned for the nearby pilots and had to see if he could rescue them, knowing that their digital systems would most likely not restart.

Go to Ch. III:

Thank you so much for reading. Please consider recommending my Substack. I hope you imagine having a wonderful day….[[|:-)

Starbrood: Chapter One

“C’mon, Zerk, you once told me that you can find anything provided the price is right.” Sidian was growing impatient, and he could tell that Zerk was getting fed up with telling him, ‘no’ so many times.

Sidian [Rein] then reached into his vest pocket and retrieved three 5K dockets. Each is a self-contained blockchain of Zuridian bitcoin worth 5,000 dollars; Zuridian bitcoin being the current intrastellar reserve currency. He then set them on the worktable next to the ergbot on which Zerk was working. “I’m telling you. The price is right this time.”

Zerk continued to use the oil can fitted with a zerk, oiling several microservos in his ergbot, but he did shoot a glance at the dockets, noting the unique sound of the tungsten-encased blockchains as they rested on the table. His oculus allowed him to see the hidden hologram of the Zuridian coat-of-arms and the amount held within them. He let out a sigh that hissed a little through his mole-like mouth. He finished oiling the final microservo before putting the oilcan down and straightening up, putting his tiny hands to his lower back. “All the money in Starbrood isn’t going to change the fact that you’re flying a scuzbucket that should’ve been decommissioned with its cousins twenty years ago. Like I said before, scrapyards are your best bet.”

[Scuz — a term that refers to the patina caused by prolonged proximity to stellar objects. A blackening caused by direct exposure to solar radiation that sometimes shows a hint of blue, red, or purple depending on the alloy.]

Sidian then put his hands on the edge of the table and straightened his arms to rest that way. “I checked Rimmy’s, and it said that if they don’t have it, then most likely no one will. There has to be someone with a showcase model.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t know who that is. With the regime change in the Greddeck System, my access to their databases has been limited to Civ Level 0, and that would be the most likely place to find one. At the moment, I can’t even access my refinery’s database on Bravvin Secundus until I put in the paperwork, and that means actually flying over there, which I don’t have the time to do right now. With the Traeonic Eclipse occurring next month, I am swamped with work.” Zerk held out his thin arms as to show off all of the bots and appliances lying around waiting to be fixed.

“Look, I’ll throw in a free ride since I’m headed that way, and I’ll help you get whatever you need done to access those databases. I really need that part so I can fly in subspace. My ionic engine only goes so fast.” he added with a smirk.

“Yeah, well, not with the Kelvaran Patrol out on the prowl. I’ve heard rumors of them being sighted in this system.” Zerk then began to close up the panel that gave him access to the internal mechanics.

Sidian let out a silent sigh through his nose as he stroked his long chin and mindlessly looked around the workshop. “Skrit, Zerk, I don’t think you’ve ever let me down before. What gives?” He had a look of severe consternation as he turned his gaze back upon Zerk.

Zerk sighed heavily as he looked at Sidian’s face. “Look, Sidian, I wish there was something I could do to help, but there’s not even any tenders headed out that way due to all the security threats along the route. If you only have ionic drive, then I wouldn’t fly that route if I were you. You’ll most likely get searched, and knowing you, you probably have some kind of contraband hiding somewhere in that scuzbucket.” Zerk then turned his focus back onto the ergbot, opening a smaller panel that revealed several analogue controls.

In a mild state of shock, Sidian watched as Zerk first pushed a primer button before yanking on a ripcord. A tiny engine could be heard puttering each time he yanked it. It wasn’t until the fifth pull that the little engine quietly rumbled before going near silent as it idled. He then watched him flip a switch and saw the eye open, but there was no other movement. “How come you haven’t upgraded to digital robots yet?”

Zerk gave him a look that said, ‘Are you serious?’ “Why do you fly a floating mothball?”

Sidian smirked and chuckled once. “Fair enough. Well, I guess I have no time to waste then. Til next time, Zerk.” he stated as he grabbed the dockets and turned to leave.

“I know there will be,” Zerk mostly mumbled while still concentrating on the ergbot.

“Right you are,” Sidian laughed as he was almost out the door. His tall terran frame awarded him with a quick pace.

Once he exited, he again took on a look of consternation. A face he makes quite often. Not that he is slow, but often finds himself in these sticky situations. This is really a testament to his skill at conquering these situations, considering that he is still alive and kicking. Although, Sidian would tell you that it’s mostly luck.

It was unlike Sidian to just up and leave a place without at least one last hurrah. He knew, though, that time was of the essence as this trip would take nearly six months using only the ionic drive, pushing the envelope for when his courier pass would expire. He didn’t even turn to look to see if Minxie was dancing in the window at Club Super as he passed by. When focused, Sidian can resist any temptation, but Minxie is one of the hardest for him to resist.

Not only is she an exotic dancer, she is a ferren, or cat-like humanoid species of a rare white panther type. He has never felt for her more than a fling, though, it is obvious that she is a lot more smitten with him. She often talks about finding a way out of her lifestyle. He would love to find a way to help her, but after the Millennial War that ended only ten years prior, terrans and ferrens have had a difficult time honoring the peace treaty. It is even taboo in some places for them to mingle.

Stripe doesn’t want to help me, so if you’d like to support my creativity, or help me on my transient journey, please consider buying me a coffee. You can also donate directly:

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Upon walking through the portage bay of his ship, he thought about closing the large hangar-like door, but then remembered that he would need more provisions for such a long trip. He sighed as he took his hand away from the panel by the inside door and made his way to the cockpit. He sighed because he will have to order more cryon, which is a highly volatile gas that only stays in gaseous form at well-below freezing temperatures, and is used in most ionic drives.

Sidian’s father died from an explosion caused by it during the Millennial War, and ever since, he has had an undiagnosed phobia of it. He was not looking forward to bringing more on board, but he pulled up the launch zone’s provisioner anyways and began to order food, fuel, and water.

An androgynous voice said, “That will be 9,958 Z-Bs.” Z-Bs being a slang term for Zuridian Bitcoin.

Sidian watched as several arrows flew across the screen and eventually pointed toward the bottom right of the screen where the docket port is located. He sighed with a long breath as he pulled out the dockets. He took one and kissed it before putting it back into his vest pocket. He left a $42 tip to wipe the second docket clean before beginning his pre-launch sequence.

His outdated ship is a large narrow-winged delta flyer. A refurbished tender that was refurbished from an old bomber type during the war. As with most terran military vessels, the core systems are analogue, which have since had digital systems put in place to control them.

As the engine began to whir, Sidian looked to the picture of his mother that was pinned to the side window. “I will get to you as soon as I can, Mom.” He was well aware of the regime change in the Greddeck System. It had caused his mother to become trapped upon the moon that she has been surveying for several years now. It was now his mission to rescue her.

He looked to the monitor and could see the drones dropping off the crates, and he closed the portage bay door before calling into Launch Control for permission to launch. He did not hesitate to take off once it was given. He set in an autopilot sequence to get to just out of orbital range before pulling up the map of Starbrood.

Three super-massive suns being orbited by eleven solar systems with more normal-sized stars; ten of which have one or more habitable planets and moons. He pressed, ‘Location’, and the map quickly zoomed in on the Uldran System as a small, red triangular indicator showed up in the center just outside of the orbit of Uldra, the home planet of the talpans, which are a mole-like humanoid species; Zerk being one of them. This system is one of the three central systems.

“Plan a trip to Greddeck IX,” he told the computer. The map then zoomed out and plotted a course to that particular planet. A long, wavy blue line connected the red triangle with a small, green square marking the planet. His experience allowed him to see a more efficient path if he were to add two slingshots. With the systems almost lined up for the eclipse, and his adjustments to the path, it showed his trip taking just shy of five months.

Sidian let out another sigh just as his ship was exiting the atmosphere and into the placid quiet of space. “I hope that will be soon enough.”

*****

Three months later, Sidian was now in the heart of Kelvaran Patrol territory. Surprisingly, he had not seen any patrols. In fact, he hadn’t seen anyone outside of haulers that carry sensitive materials that can’t be flown through subspace. Even they seemed less frequent than usual. It was unsettling enough to be in their space, let alone with how quiet it had been.

After buckling himself in, Sidian switched to manual control as he was approaching the lone gas giant — known as Kor’s Eye — of the Kelvaran System. The target of his final slingshot. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves as he pulled back on the throttle to reduce his speed to half drive. There’s no reason for him to do it manually except that he really enjoys the challenge. Not only is it a tricky maneuver, but the real challenge comes from flying while the gravity compensators get maxed out and you can experience upwards of ten or more Gs.

He began to line up his ship with a close orbit of Kor’s Eye, and just as he was lined up and about to throttle up again, he heard a ping on the sensors, and a small, yellow arrow showed up on the screen, pointing toward just left of the ‘0’ mark.

Kor’s Eye has several large rings, and as he zoomed in, he could see two small ships. A Kelvaran Patrol ship had another ship under its attractor beam as evidenced by the soft, green glow emanating from the Kelvaran ship and enveloping the other; a scout-like ship of a design with which he’s not familiar. Sidian thought about aborting, but instead, he figured that they were busy enough. He pushed the throttle all the way forward and grabbed the two yokes and prepared himself for the slingshot maneuver.

Just as the two ships began to show up on the screen being marked by two blue triangles, Sidian saw the communications alert light up. He glanced at it nervously, but kept his eyes on his instruments. He knew that the Kelvaran ship was trying to hail him, but he figured that he would be going fast enough by the time he’s passing them that they wouldn’t be able to catch up. It’s well known that the Kelvaran ships cannot fly through subspace. Something about the alloys that they use that causes an often fatal radioactive feedback.

He desperately wanted to turn off communications to remove the distraction, but on these old military vessels, communications and sensors are part of the same hardware unit. There’s no way to perform the slingshot maneuver without sensors. He huffed a little as he was preparing to enter into the close orbit needed to slingshot. Once inside that orbit, he should be safe from the Kelvaran Patrol. Sidian truly hates orkks. Not only from their role in the Millennial War, but also because he doesn’t like their ugly, brutish faces. Their bumpy, ochre skin reminds him of vomit and makes him want to do that just from seeing it.

The yokes began to vibrate as the gravitational forces of the gas giant was overcoming the ship’s compensators. Sidian took another deep breath, but then sighed as he let it out as, just then, everything powered down and his ship quickly slowed to an almost jarring stop. A soft, green glow slightly obstructed his view out of the cockpit. “Skrit!” he yelled as he threw his hands off of the yokes and pounded his fists on the armrests.

Completely powered down, he could feel the slight pull of inertia as the attractor beam pulled him closer to their ship. It had also turned his ship to face away from theirs as a security precaution, but also to line up the portage bay as they will soon be sending over a shuttle with a small troop of orkks and a surveyor to search the ship.

Sidian huffed again before impetuously unbuckling himself and standing. He took a deep breath to calm himself and relaxed his furrowed brow which had caused his eyebrows to be seen in his periphery. Despite furrowing his brow often, he gets annoyed when he sees his eyebrows like that and it forces him to relax his expression. It also forced him to take another deep breath which did nothing to calm his nerves. Although he knows how to fight, Sidian has always been a run-first-ask-questions-later type. There’s no running from this situation, however.

He began to pace around trying to figure out what to say when they would eventually interrogate him. He then became distracted by the thought of taking a look at the other ship. Sidian climbed the side of the front console and looked through the furthest back window. He was just getting a full view of it as he was still being pulled in by the attractor beam. It had a sleek, almost trapezoidal shape. Definitely a scout ship of some sort, but it must be a design of a private or civilian company. He didn’t even recognize its coat-of-arms; a gryphon encircled upon a shield.

He took a long look at it to burn it into memory before stepping back down. He turned the pilot seat around and sat in it for a moment, but then stood and took a step away from it. He then stood akimbo for a moment before crossing his arms and letting out a sigh of frustration. He truly hated these types of moments where there’s nothing to do but wait for inevitabilities. Just as he was noticing his eyebrows in his upper view again, everything got really bright for a fraction of a second. His brow furrowed more heavily as he whipped around to look out of the cockpit.

There was nothing to be seen except for the red gases of Kor’s Eye. Just then, an incredibly loud sound, like a galactic foghorn, rumbled every cell in his body. It lasted for almost an entire second as his view went incredibly blurry and everything felt fuzzy like when your arm goes numb. Everything also seemed to slow down as everything went black before he could cover his ears.

Go to Ch. 2:

Thank you so much for reading. Please consider recommending my Substack. I hope you imagine having a wonderful day….[[|:-)

Long ago, when I lived in Iowa the second time, I had three really good friends, two of which were my roommates. We lived in NW Iowa, and to do anything fun, you typically had to drive ten or more miles.

We played a lot of Magic: The Gathering together, but when we drove somewhere together, music was never enough for us. We tried playing several well-known car games, however, the four of us are all quite intelligent which led us to develop our own game that would challenge us.

You’re most likely familiar with the traditional license plate game that has to do with the state it’s from, but it’s really for kids and teens. So, we made our own.

In most states, there are three letters and three to four numbers on their license plate. We thought of a game where you use the letters in their order to create words. For instance, if the letters are ‘CNG’, you could start with ‘clang’. 

When playing the game, one person looks for a license plate and calls out the letters. The next person in clockwise fashion then starts with a word, then the next person, and so on until someone can’t think of a word.

Originally, we just claimed them the loser, and then they were the next to call out letters. Eventually, we started to score the words, but in a not-so-straightforward way. It’s been too long, so I can’t remember what the base score was, but you would get so many points for your word, and each letter beyond the called letters subtracts 2 points for consonants and 3 points for vowels.

So, for the example above, let’s say you get 10 points for the word, but ‘L’ would subtract 2 and ‘A’ would subtract 3, and so your score would be 5.

An easier scoring option would be to just score like golf where each letter beyond the called letters would just add points to your overall score and the lowest score would win in the end.

We also added several optional rules that could be called upon after calling out the letters. With the example above, we would normally exclude words ending in ‘ing’ to limit the amount of words and increase the challenge.

Another common rule would be no plurals, but for more difficult letter combinations on the license plate, we would sometimes add one of the numbers in letter form to help give more options for words. Sometimes we would include well-known names. Typically, we would avoid difficult license plates like, ‘ZBZ’.

One other optional rule I can remember was to exclude words that repeat letters out of place. With the ongoing example, if this rule is in place, ‘clanging’ would not be an acceptable word.

I remember having a lot of fun with this game. We all have excellent vocabularies, and only one of us had gone to college.

In any case, I do plan to put together a rulebook, but I think it will have to wait until I can get a PC again.

I’m sure this isn’t an original idea, but it was new to us then, and I haven’t met anyone that knows a similar game some twenty or more years later.

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I also have an Amazon wishlist.

Thank you so much for reading. Please consider subscribing for free and/or recommending my Substack. I hope you imagine having a wonderful day….[[|:-)

For some context, I am a believer. I’m always skeptical at first, but now that disclosure is in the works, I’m more confident in sharing this. Not as confident as the first time I shared it. It got over 5,000 views on Reddit, but the majority of comments all said the same thing: They’re just birds. Even the nice lady that interviewed me from MUFON eventually concluded that they’re just birds.

I know it doesn’t matter what I say, but if you watch the full video, you will see real birds fly by first.

When I decided to record the video, I saw it as an opportunity to show off the unique architecture of the park next to our apartment complex. There’s a shallow wall in two semi-circles, and it’s designed so that if you stand on the metalwork nautilus shell in the middle, it creates an amphitheater effect. A lot of people questioned why I was so far from the camera, but if you listen, you can hear me from that far. I should’ve spoken a bit louder, but I was at normal speaking level. I had planned to record it again until I watched it back.

The UFOs show up right before I start walking back to the camera, coming in from the top and disappearing into the distance. I will admit that the one that comes in on the top left actually looks like a bird. It’s a static bird, perhaps gliding, but it moves just as fast as the silvery one, and it seems to have been headed to the same spot. I have a theory that that spot is Bitter Lake as I’ve heard about USOs being spotted going in and out of it.

The first one definitely looks like a classic saucer-shaped vessel. There was no noise, and I didn’t notice them until I looked at the footage. I’m surprised since I was facing the way from which they came, but my eyes were very focused on the camera. My guess is that they weren’t visible to the naked eye. I have excellent vision as well as excellent peripheral vision. Their speed should have easily alerted my periphery.

All in all, I’m convinced as to what I captured. I have seen some other things that I would classify as UFOs, but nothing as definitive as this. You can read about my first UFO sighting here. I know there’s a new acronym [UAP], however, I’m sure that these were flying objects.

I am curious to know what more discernable minds might think of this. And, yes, that is the original video. If you’re wondering why it hasn’t gone viral, well, I have poor luck with social media. I even sent it to a handful of YouTube channels with no response from any of them. Even the ones that tell you to email them. I even tried Slapped Ham and Nuke’s Top 5. We watch them daily.

Anyways, please let me know what you think. You won’t hurt my feelings if you think they’re just birds.

I’m still heading out on a transient adventure. On top of helping to support my creativity, please consider buying me a coffee. You can also donate directly via Cashapp: $minus1digit.

I also have a wishlist on Amazon.

Thank you so much for reading. Please consider subscribing and/or recommending my Substack. I hope you imagine having a wonderful day….[[|:-)

What can I say, it’s America’s pastime. A sport more than a century older than American football. It will likely forever be America’s game. A game with a very rich history, and despite this, it still manages to surprise you now and then.

“Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too.” — Yogi Berra

Baseball was the first organized sport that I played, and it was one of my favorites to both watch and play when I was younger. I have different favorites now, but I do still like baseball. I just don’t have the time to watch it anymore. Also, I’m not a big fan of the Moneyball metrics that it has turned into lately.

I talk about some of my greatest baseball moments in Carney Park Adventures.

As of late, I have been watching the highlights on YouTube, and occasionally I like to play Out of the Park Baseball on the PC. Both of which have called up a bit of brainstorming. In case you’re curious, I’m an Orioles fan having grown up with Cal Ripken Jr. while I lived in Glen Burnie, but I’m also a fairweather Mariners fan. Cal Raleigh is rippin’ it right now!

Health & Safety

First, are a couple of simple things. I would like to see first base become flat like home plate. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen people get injured trying to beat out the throw. Major Leaguers are not immune to this ankle-breaking berm. I understand that there would be a transitional period as first basemen would need to learn the new curve. However, I think it would be a small price to pay for less injuries.

Next, I would like to see helmets get a strap to hold them in place. The other day I remember watching a baserunner begin to lose his helmet and the small delay he took to grab it and put it back into place cost him the out. It also just might improve hitting, as sometimes you see a batter have to blink as their helmet shifts into their face while they show the replay in slow motion. I remember being frustrated by this when I played, and our helmets were one-size-fits-all.

New Statistics

Despite my love for the purity of the game, I am a big fan of analytics. Now, I want to begin with the fact that I’m still learning all these new metrics, and it’s likely there is one that already incorporates this one. I’m calling it, Run Assist, and it’s to account for moving runners either by hit, walk, sacrifice, etc. that later score a run.

This stat would help to improve how we look at batters that may not have a high RBI count, but in some way have helped to move runners into scoring position that would later count as a Run Batted In for someone else.

In contrast, Allowed Run Assists, could be a stat to look at pitchers more in depth, although the way that they calculate ERA might make this one moot.

Anyways, there you have it. A few simple ways to improve America’s pastime. I’m sure I’ll think of more right after I publish this article.

“This is like Deja vu all over again.” — Yogi Berra

Thank you so much for reading. Please consider recommending my substack. I hope you imagine having a wonderful day….[[|:-)

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Hello Readers,

First of all, I wasn’t planning to write anything for today, but I’m dealing with gastroparesis symptoms, and it’s just too interesting not to. Second of all, the above photo was taken by me like fifteen years ago when I was in Portland, Oregon. It was the parking lot at which the food cart I worked at was parked. I chose it because everything kind of feels upside down AND tilted.

So….my partner and I went to the store together. She’s recovering from open heart surgery, and although she wasn’t feeling well, she wanted to get out of the house. I had her sit at one of the few bus stops along Whore-ora….excuse me, I mean Aurora Ave., that doesn’t get a lot of vagrants hanging out smoking fentanyl or sorting through all the stuff they just stole from Walgreen’s or wherever.

Anyways, it has a nice bench and a shelter if needed since it was overcast and super windy, not to mention still cold. I left to go to Petsmart and Amazon Fresh since they have $4 eggs. Safeway’s did go down to $5.99, but you’ll have to keep reading to know why I know that.

While I was gone, however, an old man pulled up in a sedan in the parking lot behind the stop and got out to sit on the curb by which he parked. She was sitting on the wooden bench that is perpendicular to the road and so they could see each other.

He then said, “Hi, you’re the first person I’ve smoked a cigarette in front of. Would you like to join me? I’ll give you a cigarette.”

Both of us are pretty nice to a fault most times and so she agreed and went and sat on her cane/chair combo on the curb on the other side of his car so that she wasn’t too close. He would go on to explain that he just quit being a Jehovah’s Witness and had drank a beer for the first time, too. He then mentioned that he wanted to buy a porno mag, at which I laughed about pretty hard. He’s just like those Amish teens that get their two weeks of liberty.

It was around this time that my partner realized that he might be autistic to some degree. He then asked her if she had a boyfriend, and she quickly retorted that I was to return soon. He was visibly dejected, but then followed with, “You know, if you didn’t have a boyfriend, I’d hit on you. Would you like that?”

Her memory hasn’t been that great and so she couldn’t remember how she answered that, but soon thereafter she happened to mention that we smoke weed, and he just left at that point, lol. It’s legal here, but I guess that was too much for his list of new experiences.

By that time I was on my way to Amazon Fresh across the street from Petsmart only to find out that they no longer allow masks in their store. I’m surprised because COVID is on the rise in our area. Our friend’s adult son got it last week.

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THEN, while we waited for the bus, we saw a hooker walking down the street on the other side. She was Mexican, and we know this because some rival pimps came out of nowhere and started harassing her causing her to turn around and walk the other way. They looked dangerous, and the homeless guy waithing for the bus with us told us that they have guns and have been regularly harassing hookers with some of them running for their lives.

In any case, we had to go to Safeway to get $6 eggs. My partner waited at the front while I did the shopping. I went to go down the aisle and three mid-twenties people were standing in an obstructive way where I had to pass between two of them at first. I passed behind the woman and she suddenly walked back into me, and as she did, her hand crept along my crotch as I helped to keep her from falling. My thinking is that she might have thought it was her friend or boyfriend standing behind her. He was big and tall and reminded me of that fluffy guy on Lost. Was his name Hector? Need to watch that again.

Anyflirt, she knows the size of my package now whether she intended that or not. It’s been a while since I’ve been felt up like that, but we’re laughing about it. I’ve seen them around a few times, so maybe I’ll get an answer one day, I mean, there’s no apology needed….[[|:-D

Now, for a bonus story. The other day when we went to the weed store, which happens to be in a more sketchy area than where we live. I was waiting outside with my partner’s walker while she went inside. After a moment, a twenty-something black guy and Mexican gal walked up. She gave him money and very specific instructions on what to buy and then sat next to me on the cement barrier they have in front of their store since someone crashed into it last year.

I guessed that they were homeless, and I ended up being right. She had on headphones, but she kept saying things quietly and then would look at me. I just nodded and smiled not really having heard what she said. After we left, we were smoking a cigarette by the bus stop, and they started coming our way. It all seemed normal until they separated and she started yelling at someone, who I think was her friend now standing by the gas station wall, facing it, which is behind the bus stop.

This rant was in English, but then she quieted for a bit. We then saw her crossing the street with another man who looked to be Mexican, but the traffic was going, and it’s a highway, aka Aurora Ave. The man was able to get traffic to stop for her as she was now ranting in Spanish while they slowly walked across the street.

He tried to get her to follow him down that way, but she stopped and continued to yell in Spanish, and then when traffic stopped, she walked half way back and stood by the thin median in the turn lane right by some cars wanting to turn and was even louder as she yelled. It seemed like she was looking at us, along with another man next to us who was commenting on her behavior.

She was making my partner nervous, but luckily the bus was due, and we left her ranting in Spanish in the middle of the highway.

There’s rarely a dull moment on Aurora Whore-ealis, especially when you live right next to the Methodone clinic/halfway house most of these vagrants frequent, if not for Methodone, then for some kind of drug deal. I’ve been wanting to take a video, but I’m nervous about it. Some of them obviously have many screws loose like the one guy who always wears a poncho—as in a real one—and he blatantly walks around and checks all of the parked car doors.

It’s getting really bad here. In fact, one of our new neighbors had his truck stolen from our parking garage, and that’s after they updated all of the fob sensors and gave us all new fobs. He’s even more pissed because he had recently bought about $2,000 worth of parts he was planning to put on it.

So, yeah, we really need to get the actual fuck out of this place and we could definitely use your help….[[|;-)

Thank you so much for reading. Please consider recommending my substack. I hope you imagine having a wonderful day….[[|:-)

Everything in my Gumroad shop is 25% off if you use the promo code: PRIMETIME

Hello Readers,

I hope your Spring has been warmer than mine. It’s been almost a constant 55°F here in Seattle, and, of course, it’s been rainy. We’ve been struggling pretty hard and I got soaked and frozen panhandling the other day where I walked away with one penny I found at the bus stop.

These days kind of remind me of that movie, Things Are Tough All Over. Yup, that one with Cheech and Chong.

Plus, my gastroparesis has been acting up more lately, which is due to stress mostly, I know. I have a hard time with being debilitated, not only from my ADHD, but also my hyper-sensitive nervous system which doesn’t allow me to sit still for very long.

Anyrut, I’ve managed to put together some fun things for this issue. No new Wrdos, but there are some Guess the Title images and some memes, including some unpublished ones. Warning, one of them is NSFW!

Guess the Title

I’ll start off by saying, yes, I do make AI art, but you will never see AI in my writing. I don’t even use it for research because it’s limited to what it has access to.

With the following nine images, I’ve made them in a way that they have a two word title that rhymes and it’s your job to guess it! Good Luck!

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Wrdos: A New Word Puzzle

Like I said before, there isn’t a new one for this issue, but for the newbies, I’m at least putting the link to the dozen I’ve made thus far. They’re free to print out from Google Docs, and with your support, I’ll be able to make more for a booklet I want to publish. Please, go check it out and tell me what you think.

Memes

I try to make a meme everyday, but not as of late. Still, here are some new ones, and a second warning about the last one which is Not Safe For Work!

Would that be a pair-ody?

And I was walking through a valley when I took this photo.

He’s riding it out.

That’s certainly penful.

He writes at a round table.

“Don’t push me, bro!”

That might be a double entendre.

Thank you so much for reading. Please consider recommending my substack, though it’s not for everyone, lol. I hope you imagine having a wonderful day….[[|:-)

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Hello Writers,

It was my birthday the other day, and it went okay. We froze our butts off going on our monthly outing to Denny’s. That was the extent of the celebration; no cake or gifts this year since we’re in a jam trying to make this move happen.

I’m constantly feeling overwhelmed, but something is telling me to post this today. Luckily for you, this is all stuff that I wrote a little over a year ago, so it shouldn’t sound like I did it half-assed. Does that make it a waning or waxing gibbous? [[|:-D

Elements

Benthium — An extremely dense metal that has a melting point of 27,116°F. It was discovered on Venus and it bonds well with titanium, making an alloy that can withstand most solar temperatures but still retain its integrity. For reference, our sun is about 10,000°F.

As with the image above, I imagine it having a deep blue hue. Just remember, some stars are so enormous that most ships would not be able to withstand the gravity before having any trouble with the heat.

Carnelium — A powdery sulfur-like element found on Mars or perhaps at a significant volcano in a fantasy realm. It’s an extremely good source of fuel for fire that burns very slowly, but also makes it able to be struck anywhere to be lit. This substance also makes very efficient torches. It creates a more reddish-orange flame that is harder to see from farther away.

It burns without odor and its reddish fumes are non-toxic, but are also statically active and will adhere to statically active surfaces; much like how rubbing a balloon on your head makes your hair attract to it.

Story Ideas

Translation Recreation — I could see this idea being more fit for an episode or chapter more than a full story. The idea here is that your main characters, or at least some of them, have been captured and are forced to work in a labor camp where there are certain signals being broadcast that make it impossible for you to determine what each other is saying, including with telepathy.

They are constantly being watched, and so any attempts at writing, charades, or sign language is met with severe punishment, but nothing that would interfere with their capability to do work.

This scenario would have to be overcome either by others performing a daring rescue, or perhaps your characters know each other well enough to not have to speak to one another except with certain looks and can coordinate an escape. It’s possible that — if they’re not human — that they have complex pheromones that can speak volumes to one another, or at least alert them to emotional states. Maybe your characters know how to share dreams, which would be a good way to communicate.

I’m still having trouble with Stripe, so if you’d like to support my creativity, please consider buying me a coffee. You can also directly donate via CashApp: $minus1digit

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Image Prompts

What’s eating Gilbert’s Grape?

What if art starves too?

What if the key to success is an actual key?

Free Images for You

As always, all of the images in this post are free for you to use. They did rule that AI-generated imagery can’t be copyrighted, so have at it. Here are nine more.

Names

First Names

Wyspra

Wraegon

Wyndrid

Wlael

Worrel

Last Names

Haghlenfeld

Friervund

Laudelsuppen

Ullfengard

Ypstreck

Place Names

Verrekeen

Yddelspragg

The Vaultwood

The Torpid Tor (aka The Sleeping Hill)

Vayadreigen

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Thank you so much for reading. Please consider recommending my substack. I hope you imagine having a wonderful day….[[|:-)

My birthday is coming up in two days, and I thought I’d give you all an update since I’ve been so quiet.

I don’t think anything could’ve prepared me for my partner having open heart surgery. Every day is a new kind of struggle.

If you missed my chat messages, we’re trying to move out of this hellhole slum. We found out the other day that this place almost got shut down. Can’t imagine what stopped them from doing it.

We’re also working with some pet rescuers to take on a good portion of our guinea pigs. It’s hard enough with two people to take care of so many, and now it’s just me.

I wish I had the time to write more, but I honestly don’t. In fact, all of my projects are on hold.

Please consider getting something from my wishlist, otherwise, you can always buy me a coffee, or simple directly donate via CashApp: $minus1digit.

Thank you so much for reading. Please consider recommending my substack. I hope you imagine having a wonderful day….[[|:-)

Hello Readers,

I guess laser tag was only fun in the 90’s huh?

So, big things happening in the near future. We are working with a few other rescuers to help find homes for all of our rescued pets. Well, most of them. My partner finally got hooked up with a lawyer that’s going to help her get more of her VA benefits. She’s been at 20% of what she could be making, and should soon be getting 100%, at least for a while.

This will be the boost we need to finally make the move that we keep talking about, and desperately need to do. Please consider buying us a coffee or two or twenty hundred.

Oh, and I finally quit nicotine! [[|:-)

Games

Games have been a part of my life since I can remember, whether it was board games, or the Nintendo Entertainment System I got when I was 7 that got me hooked on video games, to Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering and beyond.

I now make games just as much as I play them. Either simple games like Guess the Title below and Elevens that I designed during the COVID lockdowns, to big ones like the TTRPG I currently have on the back burner. I also have a module that I designed for the board game Risk that I titled, CivRisk. It’s designed to make it play a bit like the PC game series Civilization by Sid Meier; one of my all-time favorites.

Guess the Title

Below are nine AI-generated images that each have a two word title that rhymes that you get to guess. Good luck!

Puzzles

Unfortunately, I don’t have a new Wrdos puzzle this week. If you haven’t checked them out, there are the first twelve I made that are free to download and print on Google Docs.

Memes

I also didn’t get around to making any new memes, so here a nine old ones.

Jokes

Finally, I’m adding a few jokes that I’ve written. I would love to hear your feedback, too.

Joke #1

Jack's wife got mad when he laughed before she delivered the punchline to her joke.

It was premature Jack elation.

Joke #2

What do you call a big hole full of metal deposits?

An ore chasm.

Joke #3

met this guy who had, 'STUPID' tattooed to his forehead in all caps. I was like, "Yes, it is."

Turns out, his name is Stuart Piddleston.

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Thank you so much for reading. Please consider recommending my substack. I hope you imagine having a wonderful day….[[|:-)

Go back to Part 1

Please let me know what you think. Also, I’d love it if someone could design a better set symbol….[[|;-)

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Thank you so much for reading. Please consider recommending my substack. I hope you imagine having a wonderful day….[[|:-)