Sci Fi

Cycles, Chapter Two
Harbin’s contrivance towered above the tribal trappings from whose midst it had been raised, turning Dylan’s vehicles to tiny toys as they slewed to a stop at its foot. It was not a dome, though it was easy to see how it might have been mistaken for one.
By Doc Sherwood5 years ago in Fiction
Cycles, Chapter One
They hit the road as one, churning stone-strewn flatland to a dust-storm behind them as the Grindotron freighter which had dropped them there climbed back for the stratosphere. Dylan, letting his massive rig’s six-wheel suspension take the strain of landing with barely a check in its stride, powered on to assume the head of the convoy with unspoken determination and purpose. Flanking him on either side his company skimmed above the dusty disordered planet-crust, Phoenix in her streamlined star-fighter, the two Mini-Flashes astride their rocket-bikes, and 4-H-N surfing upright on her robot companion Micro-Mallet.
By Doc Sherwood5 years ago in Fiction
Decency
Considerably more of Schiss-Zazz’s physique than anyone might have wished to see hung at rest above the maximum-security cell-deck. His lithe muscular bare arms and legs were robustly manacled and splayed. Forcefield balls began at his wrists and englobed both hands like giant glowing balloons, lending additional assurance that the deadly shears Schiss-Zazz wore would not be put to use.
By Doc Sherwood5 years ago in Fiction
Code, Chapter Four
Outside of the Junkyard Belts the nebula’s green glow receded, such that the slab of stone that was the Neetkins sisters’ rendezvous-point with the alliance sat against blackest space. The only illumination came of harsh sodium-lamps mounted on the Toothfire prison-ship, which idled fortress-like with bulkheads suggestive of forbidding iron walls. In and out of a white groundfog brewing from its rocket-engines a handful of Mini-Flash assistants scurried busily, but most of the reception-committee were Vernderernders. These, shaped like huge scavenging birds made of motorcycle pipes and rods, hunched their numerous glinting bodies upright atop rocky perches and surveyed the scene in cold motionless satisfaction.
By Doc Sherwood5 years ago in Fiction
Code, Chapter Three
Phoenix Prime’s burning hand was aimed once more at Scientooth’s throne on high. “So,” commenced her clone Phoenix, to the solitary unprotected mechanism which sat therein. “Zat is what you would ’ave us do, while my loved one lies ’elpless on ze life-support? Zat is ’ow you occupy our time, when all we ask is your aid?”
By Doc Sherwood5 years ago in Fiction
Code, Chapter Two
Moltron, a brawny humanoid whose rippling musculature glistened like slick liquid, was first among Scientooth’s bodyguards to stomp growling forth and begin swatting at the Neetkins sisters with heavy hammer-blows. After taking a fall or two courtesy of this powerhouse our heroines were quick to serve out the counterattacks, which knocked Moltron down only for him to rise again each time. Nor did this thick-headed aggressor confine himself to fisticuffs, for at intervals his whole torso would burst open in a tidal barrage that ripped across the stage and cast all four girls spinning at once. Sometimes in addition he would mutate his hand into a huge amorphous cocoon which swelled and swallowed Neetkinses without warning, at which Moltron would adopt swaggering postures and raise his enveloped victim above his head to apply a squeeze before flinging the prisoner aside.
By Doc Sherwood5 years ago in Fiction
Code, Chapter One
The whole thing was like something out of a computer game, if you asked Carmilla Neetkins about it. Maybe that was only to be expected when you and your three sisters went into battle against a computer, or maybe Carmilla had just spent too much time hanging round arcades in her teenage vampire days. But right from the start, she pictured their Grindo starship in full profile on a side-scrolling screen as Scientooth’s high-speed interceptors, ignoring all hails for a peaceful conference, brought herself and her sisters crashing aground somewhere deep in the Junkyard Belts of Nebula Seven. An introductory sequence straight out of the sixteen-bit era, though Carmilla was aware she was starting to sound like he whose life they had ventured here to save.
By Doc Sherwood5 years ago in Fiction
Castle Jaw
It was a square expanse of overgrown grass like some neglected park, hemmed in by tall reverse-sides of surrounding buildings which one of the suns was at present throwing into shade. Alien weeds and herbs rambled unchecked, and from the centre of the meadow jutted a few broken stubs of wall which clearly belonged to a very different era. Even the noise from the city beyond seemed somehow subdued. One or two dusty rays from the nearer sun slanted across the scene.
By Doc Sherwood5 years ago in Fiction
Close Encounters at Taco Bell
It’s late at night. Nearly midnight, in fact. I’m tired. No. Exhausted. And I’m hungry as hell. There’s food at home, but I’d have to prepare that myself. I just want to shove something hot and edible in my mouth and make my stomach stop its infernal growling. As I muse on these thoughts, I see a Taco Bell sign glowing like a beacon through the bleak and endless night. The decision is made. I pull into the driveway, but I’m dismayed to find a line of cars packing the drive-thru like it’s the Exodus and rather than a column of flame by night, God sent a great luminous bell to guide us. Oh well. Even a little wait means I don’t have to put in the work of cooking.
By Jacob Fike5 years ago in Fiction
The Forest Mind
When I wake, I wake in a bed of fog. Cold fog, like my skin were made of steel, with ice frozen over the surface. Waiting to crack, to shatter away. The haze seeps into my skull, feeding the storm clouds which rage within. It’s lighting courses through my veins, leaving the metallic taste of adrenalin on my tongue. Do I dare open my eyes?
By Jasmine Duff5 years ago in Fiction
Apex
My wife’s face lifted as if a great weight had been relieved. It happened too quickly for me to react, so I froze instead. She was no longer looking at me in that guarded way she always did. “I can’t do this, I’m sorry...” Sarah said weakly. Her lips moved, but I couldn’t comprehend the words as she sheathed the wet, red scalpel back into the utility bag at her hip. I finally understood why her eyes never looked into mine with what I thought was love, what I thought my eyes were looking at her with, but could see now I recognized as pity. The same pity we extended to the poor Apes we relieved. “You’re an Apex, just like this one. It is not real. We are not real.” Sarah said.
By Sean O’Banion5 years ago in Fiction
Intelligentsor
The holographic image was that of a man, one who would have been tall and hefty even divested of the containment-suit which muffled him whole. A space-helmet with a one-way mirrored visor likewise hid his features, but Joe noted that for Flashtease there was no hiding the nostalgic pride that fairly beamed from him the minute this masked titan muscled into view.
By Doc Sherwood5 years ago in Fiction