The first faster than light ships carried inorganic cargo. The time dilation field was hazardous for regular organic material. But eventually, we invented a shielding system that worked. Colonizing the planets, and then the stars came soon after. Communication methods were performed by a fleet of Messenger drones. It was weird hearing about catastrophic experiments with fusion on a star. You could clearly see in the night sky, but knowing that some scientists bungled the math and set off a supernova. Well, we won’t see it for another few thousand years, but still, it’s pretty to look at out there.
Category: My stories
Triage
We bandaged Herman‘s left leg and had him stand up. He was a little wobbly at first, but eventually he was able to take a few steps, nod and head back out the door. The painkillers we infuse in bandages aren’t that strong, but they tend to do the trick. The door opened again, and a woman was holding her arm. I checked for a possible broken wrist. I did a few reflex tests before opening up another bandage and wrapping her arm. She moved her fingers and we got her in a swing before sending her out the door.
Elevaterror
There were three elevators in the Montgomery building. You could get into the elevator on the left and when you got to your floor, you were coming out of the elevator doors on the right. Terry tried this a few times and sure enough the strange phenomenon transported her to a different elevator door. It was always the right floor. Just a different set of doors on that floor. She asked others and they said yeah, it’s a little weird, but the stairs are a lot weirder. We lost people that way. It was… bad. Terry kept to the elevators.
Eldest
Bonnie came from a big family out on the farm four brothers and four sisters. She was the oldest, and when her mother died of tuberculosis, she became the glue that held the family together. Getting all the kids out into the fields, and then out to school. She was the one who milked the cows. Her father never said thank you. She couldn’t do everything though so every kid had a household chore from laundry to sweeping to cooking. Some fought back, draining her energy. She lit the fire that burned the place down, everybody tied into their beds.
Bookworm queen
Nancy Whitcombe was the prom queen by default. Everyone else had dropped out or was too sick to go, or worse. There’d been a horrible bus accident after the football game where most of the senior class ended up dying in a flaming wreck. The ones who had been too sick from food poisoning in the cafeteria to go to the game, consider themselves lucky. And Nancy had been a total bookworm. She never went to games or parties ended up as prom queen. She also graduated at the top of her class. It looks good on her college applications.
Sea of grass
The neighborhood was a nice wooded place with houses and driveways and all that. You got lots of shade in the summer from the tall trees. Every now and then you’d have to cut back a branch or take out and hold dead tree, but for the most part, it felt like living in forest. Then people moved away or died, and we were the only original family left, and people started coming in, knocking down all houses, cutting down the trees and putting up their little mini mansions and we’re the last tiny forest and a sea of grass.
Lich mayor
Gartham the Witch King has been a really good mayor these past 300 years. Our little town is quite self-sustaining. And when we need occasional injections of goods and cash, we just put out the call for heroes to come save us from the lich that lives in the caves with his undead army. Nobody comes close to defeating him, and the more fresh souls we provide, the fewer towns people he needs to harvest. It’s a pretty good arrangement, and every year we hold a festival in his honor, and he waves his bony hand to the adoring crowd.
Lert
In my family, whenever we saw a sign that said be alert, we’d ask what is a lert. So, that Halloween, I wanted to dress up as one. We fashioned a rubber suit with masses of writhing tentacles and blinking rolling eyeballs. And a huge gaping maw of dripping fangs. Which doubled as my candy bag. They sprayed me down with slime and then we went out. From house to house, spreading horror and fright. It was when we got back home, and I looked in the bag to find a trove of chocolate bars and a severed human hand.
Helen
Helen of Troy‘s sister Bertha also had a face that launch 1000 ships. However, it wasn’t her beauty that urged 1000 ships of warriors to come fight to capture her, because Bertha was really ugly. Despite Royal decrees ordering man after man to marry her, her unwilling suitors fled by the boatload. Eventually, the kingdom was empty of marriage material. Even the blind would flee her presence. That’s how ugly she was. She ended up marrying a wooden mannequin. But in the middle of the night, it threw itself into the fireplace. Archimedes invented the paper bag for her head.
The crown
I can’t remember the word for it, but sometimes a word represents a greater concept. Like saying, the crown rules, a kingdom. In the kingdom of the Westlands, the Crown literally rules the kingdom. It is a sentient powerful artifact that takes over the mind of whomever wears it. It has passed down through the royal family. With some rulers, is satisfies it’s lust for blood, engaging in wars and purges. With others, it’s satisfies it’s colonel lust with orgies and banquets. As the body succumbs to excess, a coronation is planned, and the crown prepares to rule once again.