fantasy
Celebrating the fantastical. Let your imagination run wild.
Alex The Inventor-Chapter 12
Read Chapters 1 - 11 at: Deep Sky Stories Chapter 12 (Part 1) - Belated Truth and Secret Nobility It was an educational time for Alex during the half hour he spent in Rainah's, "Resting Room", as she liked to call it. It was also a time for healing. Miss Vee gently immersed Alex's burned hands in a basin filled with a cool, healing gel compound. After only a few minutes soaking in the gel, Alex withdrew his hands to discover that the throbbing pain had subsided considerably. Bandages were then wrapped around each hand to prevent infection.After the shock and strangeness wore off, seeing Rainah put her prosthetic legs on was quite fascinating. As Miss Vee put it, "Any challenge or hardship in life can be overcome with a determined mind and a little ingenuity."The legs were very interesting because they not only performed perfectly as replacements for the ones that were lost during her hibernation, they also provided Rainah with several distinct advantages. The first and most obvious was that she could literally run the legs off anybody and barely break a sweat. The legs, which had ‘Fluid-Motion High-Speed Servo-Motors’, were powered by high-powered, rechargeable ‘Tritium-Cell’ Batteries, and had ‘Endo-Nerve Ganglia’ sensors which amplified her normal nervous system's electrical impulses.The resulting normalized feedback from her brain mirrored all the proper movements and reactions that any biological legs would have. But because of the nerve amplification and the extreme power output that Tritium-Cell batteries allowed, short bursts of higher than normal strength and speed were possible. But there was more, much more than Miss Vee or John Faraway had expected when they gave Rainah new life with the new legs. Because of the thinner atmosphere on Mars, Rainah's people not only adapted to it, they also learned telepathy because of it. This eliminated the need to waste precious energy (and breath) talking. Because of the two-way biofeedback connection with her nervous system, the new artificial nerves amplified not only Rainah's physical but also her telepathic abilities. A mind could not just be spoken to, she could also read it like a book.Under ideal conditions, such as a mental exercise (like a geography test) Rainah could even find and mentally pull the appropriate memories to the forefront of a person's mind. It was like opening a facet wide and letting the information spill out of the person so fast, that they would have no comprehension of what was happening until it was finished.The first time it happened, Miss Vee was in her kitchen, trying to remember an old cookie recipe that her mother had taught her years ago. She wanted to make enough for both Rainah and Alex, since she was caring for both of them at that time. Before she knew what was happening, ten minutes had elapsed and a fresh batch of oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies was baking in the oven. Miss Vee was completely befuddled and Rainah had a secretive, mischievous grin on her face. The legs had one more distinction: they grew in perfect unison with Rainah‘s natural growth.With the aid of ‘Omni-Balanced Molecular Silicate Growth Plastics’ the bionic legs constantly mirrored their own growth with Rainah's. They were, for all purposes and appearances, her legs. The only time she had to take them off was during the night or any time she needed some rest in her little room. Her prosthetics were then placed into a specially designed recharging container attached to her bed. All Rainah had to do was shuffle over, drop down onto them and then walk away after opening the small container doors.During their time together, the mood in the little Resting Room had soon changed to an upbeat and happier one. And so, after Rainah had had a short rest to allow her prosthetic legs to recharge, Miss Vee called a brief but serious meeting with both of them. During that time, she discussed important matters with Rainah about the Biosphere. A particular issue they focused on regarded the routine operations in the habitat and how well each successive crop was growing in the artificial Martian environment over the past twelve years.Soon, however, the topic began to shift back to a familiar worry that was always on their minds: how much longer they could remain hidden from the Others. Alex soon was forced to realize that there very little time left at all. But out from that ominous train of discussion flowed another topic from Rainah which immediately captured his attention and left him wanting to know much more. Yet, it was how she said it, how she turned to the subject, as though on cue from previously scripted lines that gave Alex his first hint that all was not quite as it should be.
By G.F. Brynn9 years ago in Futurism
A Primer for Modern Mancy
In the world of Escotera, the dominant force, The Central Empire, mostly ignores the rest of the continent (the only one known). Inside the Empire peace and prosperity rein, research into every aspect of science and technology has accelerated their knowledge far beyond the rest of the world. The government mostly lets the people be, so long as they are not threatened. Beyond the borders, it is wild and untamed, mysticism reins, small bands of self-reliant Prides, and buccaneering packs keep things… interesting.
By daniel morris9 years ago in Futurism
In a Gathering of Crows
'…The dream is a dark lagniappe. The crows are in flight. There are hundreds of them…hundreds of them…flying in a circle. It’s early…early in the morning…or evening… I can’t be sure of which… the cloud is touched with gold and steel. I see their three lobed eyes blink with slick greasy ease… their dark wings stretch out…causing the wind between the feathers to sound susurrus…'
By Andrew David9 years ago in Futurism
Rewatching... Doctor Who: The Faceless Ones - Part 4
Saturday 29 April 1967 The production team on Doctor Who clearly like pilots at the moment. The last story (The Macra Terror) had a character called Pilot and there weren't even any aircraft in that one. This story however has an airport, aircraft, and is therefore chock full of air-based staff.
By Nick Brown9 years ago in Futurism
This Earth Is Hell
“And death shall have no dominion” -Dylan Thomas I’m sending out this message to anyone in the proximity of this planet in the hope that people will stay clear. I... I am all that’s left of our crew. I’ve made contact via a light beam so I am planning to make the jump to safe space and the shar’eel station as soon as our drive can be enabled. What happened…we seem… to have been…trapped…in a-a space- time vortex…our on line communication and holo-instrumentation… failed… and we have been out of contact with home-world now for six weeks… when we managed to get our instruments functional and the server-hybrid controls stable we found ourselves in the proximity of a planet very similar to our own; but as we descended our ship as struck by… metallic slugs. We… that is officers Gorn, Ludlow and I, Tenarish… lost control… of the flight systems the ship. It bucked and was buffeted by winds that span wildly in the upper then lower atmosphere. We fought to get some control but failed. Slamming into a vast desert. We would have died there. If it were not for the creatures of the planet. They are tall, far larger than us, also of the bipedal design and what appears to be in the 4th stage of evolution. As you know the most complex stage of existence; the teenagers of the universe so to speak. Most of the crash is not known to me. I had the impression of a being looking down at me, sensing danger and malignance from it, even though it stared at me with gentle eyes. I felt lies and mistrust… From here, I remember nothing until I found myself alone in grey green room. I was lying flat on a resting station. It felt warm, but the room itself was cool.
By Andrew David9 years ago in Futurism
The Summoning
Lord Armitage glided down the stone steps to the cellar of Armitage castle. The hem of his black velvet robe swept the ancient dust from the steps as he descended. The robe was embroidered in eldritch symbols with threads of precious and rare metals. If one were to stare at the designs they would seem to shift and move as the viewer struggled to bring sense to the design. His seamstress had committed suicide soon after finishing the garment, screaming about the ‘great writhing ones’ as she flung herself from the cliff.
By Edmund de Wight9 years ago in Futurism
The Upstairs Room
Sergeant Wilson stood hunched against the blowing snow outside the Victorian home. Two dozen other cops huddled in the shadows near doors and windows preparing for the go signal. According to the Fed running the show there was some kind of Satanic cult in the house. They had a kidnapped girl and were probably going to kill her or worse.
By Edmund de Wight9 years ago in Futurism
Venus-Fall
The circular door shuddered violently with an uncustomary blackboard scraping “whhhirphhiss” in its desperate attempt to open. It stopped halfway; giving off a grinding squeal and a hiss of petulant steam. The sound set Alex Brant’s teeth on edge, forcing his face -o crust over into an angry grimace, from his usual morose sour sneer.
By Andrew David9 years ago in Futurism
Right of Return
The sun shone in a brilliant blue sky, as SS Obergruppenfuehrer Karl Dietz stepped smartly up the broad white marble steps that led to SS High Command. He smiled as he looked at the red and silver banners that hung from the lampposts on either side of him. They marked the 100th anniversary of the final triumph over the plutocratic Western Allies and their traitorous Japanese lackeys. He stopped at one swastika-and-eagle tipped lamppost, where a foreign guest worker—a South Slav by the cast of his brow—struggled to hang one of the banners.
By Michael Cnudde9 years ago in Futurism
Miraculous Escape
It all started with running and climbing and scrambling. The sheer trauma of what she had witnessed was enough to send anyone into shock but with the coldness now biting at her extremities the process began to escalate. The fear and adrenaline of escaping from the Red Skull had provided her with the energy and drive she needed to save herself and her son. She had observed the cataract of water cascading over the cliff edge as they had been herded onto the ice with the tens of thousands of refugees displaced by the war with the Red Skull. Bethulia had been in a period of extensive peace until the day the Immortal Remes marched upon their peaceful land. She sat and watched the powerful flow of water beside her as she hid in the crevice of the cliff hoping they would not see her, hoping they would move on before the cold gripped her beyond what she could cope. The fall dropped into rapids, she considered the possibility of jumping into this and surviving if all other options were removed. It had several layers or steps, it was not a plunge pool. Survival would be unlikely. One pool was half frozen and only remained unfrozen due to the constant turmoil of the water flowing into it. She heard noises from below, it was the troopers searching for her. She couldn't be that important, surely they would give up their search soon. She looked over the edge it was a five hundred foot drop all the way down. Her foot slipped on the ice, her son reached out and held her, helping her to regain her balance. She would wait patiently until the troops left. The old wire rope she had used to climb down was still there, to climb back again.
By Allan Marshall9 years ago in Futurism
