Check out my mini review Battle Masterz #1 by the Broussard bros.
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Check out my review of The Harlem Shadow #2 by Brian Williams
Just a quick marketing note, the sample chapter for ABR is now available to Amazon Kindle Device users for free. If you are a Kindle user, please take the opportunity to take a look and tell us what you think.
Thanks - Moorsgate Media Team.
Only recently I discovered the Science/Entertainment show 'Through the Wormhole: with Morgan Freeman'. Though the man is an outstanding narrator, there's no attempt to reference his 'God' roles. Instead there's a sober but enlightened view of various topics from 'How did the Universe Begin' to 'Is there a Creator?' Each show though viewed through the lens of science doesn't discount intersecting spiritual beliefs, instead often correlating scientific evidence is presented showing that there just may be something to our myths, legends and doctrines.
The best thing about the show is it's been backing up a lot of the science I've put in my stories and fuels me with info for future ones! If you're writing in the sci-fi or pseudo-science genres, Through the Wormhole is definitely worth a look. Of particular interest is the episode: 'Is There Life After Death?' The discussion on current development of 'AI' (artificial intelligence') is worth watching on its own.
Through the Wormhole: 'Is There Life After Death?'
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| Credit: Columbia University |
Pulsars are neutron stars—remnants from supernova explosions. Neutron stars have immensely huge magnetic fields (think ~1012 times Earth's magnetic field). These fields accelerate charged particles, and in the course of that acceleration, light is emitted. But because of the nature of the fields, the light is emitted in a rather narrow cone. Because neutron stars rotate, this cone is scanned like a search light across the sky. So we only observe pulsars if the powerful beam happens to sweep across the face of the Earth.
This pasta has a distinctive property: it changes the way energy is dissipated and transported within the star. The magnetic field generates currents in the pasta region, which provides an intermediate step in converting magnetic energy to rotational energy. Hence, the crust changes the way the star spins down. In a series of models that take different neutron star masses, different crust diameters, and differently pasta region sizes, researchers from Spain showed that without a pasta region of some kind, a neutron star continues to spin down indefinitely, and we should observe X-Ray pulsars with periods that extend out past one minute.
The pasta, however, disrupts the magnetic field, stealing energy from it. In the end, that energy is transferred to rotational energy, keeping the spin period up. This is not such an efficient process, though, so for the early stages of the neutron star's life, it rapidly spins down. This continues until the additional energy from the magnetic field counters the losses due to other processes, stabilizing the rotational period at the cost of the magnetic field. The exact period at which this occurs depends on the mass of the star, the thickness of the crust, and the fraction of impurities in the crust.
Ars Technica: X-Ray pulsars boil “nuclear pasta” to keep spinning
I can not tell you how many times I have to watch people either already in the biz, working their way in or trying to get started have their eyes glaze over when they start talking about making their movie with a 'RED ONE' or some other crazy high-end camera.
Forget the fact that the camera itself whether rented or purchased outright often blows a huge hole in an Indy production budget by itself. Then when you add all the support gear needed to get the full value out of so large a camera sensor, there goes another significant chunk of the budget and you haven't even started shooting yet! On top of that, I've seen folks get such high-end gear and then not have enough money to have the footage properly stored and then edited because most of the money went for the gear. But at least they can say they shot their film on the (blah, blah, blah!)
Of course you don't want to shoot on a rickety PoS camera because a worn out rig will cause you numerous other problems that will also cost money. However, you'd be surprised at how good a film you can shoot visually with some ingenuity, a good eye and lots of creativity! So what if you can't get a RED or a high-end rig from Canon, Sony, Panasonic, etc. All you actually need is one or more smaller rigs that can shoot at 720p and with good production values, good direction and tight storytelling, few people will be able to tell (or care) that you didn't shoot with a 2k+ camera!
Here's a good video by Ken Simpson that breaks down the question of, 'Do I need a high-resolution camera to make my movie?' Whether you're about to go into production or already undergoing principle photography, those of you involved in filmmaking should take a look at this as it may well save you some pain in both the purse and backside!
http://vimeo.com/63404537
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| In this rendering, never-before-seen magnetic excitations ripple through a high-temperature superconductor, revealed for the first time by the Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering technique. By measuring the precise energy change of beams of incident x-rays (blue arrow) as they struck these quantum ripples and bounced off (red arrow), scientists discovered excitations present throughout the entire LSCO [lanthanum, strontium, copper, oxygen] phase diagram. |
UPTON, NY—Intrinsic inefficiencies plague current systems for the generation and delivery of electricity, with significant energy lost in transit. High-temperature superconductors (HTS)—uniquely capable of transmitting electricity with zero loss when chilled to subzero temperatures—could revolutionize the planet's aging and imperfect energy infrastructure, but the remarkable materials remain fundamentally puzzling to physicists. To unlock the true potential of HTS technology, scientists must navigate a quantum-scale labyrinth and pin down the phenomenon's source.
Now, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and other collaborating institutions have discovered a surprising twist in the magnetic properties of HTS, challenging some of the leading theories. In a new study, published online in the journal Nature Materials on August 4, 2013, scientists found that unexpected magnetic excitations—quantum waves believed by many to regulate HTS—exist in both non-superconducting and superconducting materials.
"This is a major experimental clue about which magnetic excitations are important for high-temperature superconductivity," said Mark Dean, a physicist at Brookhaven Lab and lead author on the new paper. "Cutting-edge x-ray scattering techniques allowed us to see excitations in samples previously thought to be essentially non-magnetic."
LightSource.org:
Scientists Discover Hidden Magnetic Waves in High-Temperature Superconductors
Dear Black Science Fiction Society,
Heroes Like Me Entertainment is proud to announce the making of their first movie, The Alien Ambassador.
The movie is based on the creation of Christopher Love author of John Henry 2.0 and the publisher at Heroeslikeme.com, a website which publishes on a monthly basis short stores of superheroes like the The Mysterious Maestro, The Fiery Furnace, Buffalo Soldier and The Human Pearl.
Heroes Like Me Entertainment is a small entertainment company looking to bring ethnic characters to the mainstream public and geekdom.
A prequel novel called The Alien Ambassador:Sticks and Stone is available in paperback and kindle ebook to introduce the characters of The Alien Ambassador.
Sales from the books and donations by Internet viewers will help fund the project.
The movie will be released in July 2014.
Presented is a teaser trailer for the movie.---Click Here.
All who support this project will receive special updates and bonus material as the movie progresses.
FUll Synopsis
Mr Stone, a substitute science teacher, is reflecting on how he came to Earth hoping to stop Earth from being colonized by a warlike galactic armada. He has been trapped on Earth for over one hundred and fifty years. He has been waiting for Earth technology to become advance enough in order to adapt it to his alien technology. He has been working on a formula in order to make all tech work together.
Enter Nathan Turner, a 13 year old, who always stays in trouble. He is sent to afterschool detention for fighting. There he meets Mr. Stone as he is assigned as a detention monitor. All of a sudden, a alien female blast her way into the classroom. She is an alien who is marooned on earth as well and she needs the Power Bolt that Mr. Stone possesses in order to leave Earth.
For Nathan's protection, Mr. Stone takes him to his planeterium. He remodeled it and made it his home away from home. It possesses all the alien technology that survived the crash. Nathan figures out the formula that will activate the Power Bolt and power an alien craft. There destination is beyond Pluto to an relay space station that is used as an homing beacon in order for the alien armada to find Earth. But the dangerous alien female and the defenses of the space station impede Mr. Stone and Nathan from destroying it.
Nathan is forced to don the guise of The Alien Ambassador and use his new found alien super powers and the Power Bolt to destroy the space station and keep Earth from being discovered.
But he learns that once he dons the guise of The Alien Ambassador, he is in an adventure of a lifetime.
Rep. Rush Holt, an astrophysicist, was managing a Princeton University lab trying to harness the power of nuclear fusion when he won a seat in Congress in 1998. He ousted the incumbent, in part, by attacking the Republican’s decision to sing a mock lullaby — “Twinkle, Twinkle, Kenneth Starr” — on the House floor in praise of the special prosecutor investigating President Bill Clinton.
Rush Holt Holt’s supporters display bumper stickers that read, “My congressman is a rocket scientist.”
* On himself:
"I've always been an unusual member of Congress, partly because of my background, partly because of my approach to problems, partly because of my philosophy of governing. … I have a real commitment to the basic principles of equality and liberty."
* On helping the poor:
"The idea that somehow we had to guard so strongly against misuse of food stamps that we will deny hungry children food is not just hardhearted, it's cruel. … We have to get beyond the mentality in Washington that says we're a poor nation. We are not. We are the wealthiest nation in the world. … We have to get beyond the idea that the role of government is to provide ever more privilege for the already fortunate.
* On climate change:
"This is an urgent problem. … Climate change has to be dealt with by removing our emphasis on fossil fuels. … We are ruining our planet and killing people by the millions. … How do we do it? We have to keep presenting the facts. Presenting the evidence. And confronting those who would deny the evidence until they would deny it no more.
North Jersey: Senate Candidate Holt a fusion of physics and politics
PBS: Congressman vs. the Machine: Rocket Scientist Rep. Rush Holt Bests Watson
Well, it finally happened.
Yesterday I went to Walgreens to refill a prescription, and upon locating my name from my birth date, the women behind the counter asked, "Do you write books?"
I said that I did. She then said, "I thought so, I recognize your name."
Okay, no big deal to a Stephen King, or a Jackie Collins, although I can't imagine her picking up her own prescriptions (don't really know why). But a first for me!!
No big deal in the grand scheme of the universe, but it was my first time; thank God she was gentle...
WmH
SCIFI SCHOOL by Odis Chenault
EP.4 the Powers of Aliens
Last time, we looked at Aliens appearance and forms; now let’s discuss the powers and abilities they might possess.
Aliens capable of traveling to the Earth, start out with a huge technological advantage over Earthlings. It follows that they’re technology would allow them to develop their minds and bodies as well. They could have evolved psychic abilities or engineered them into their species. It’s also possible that they could use implanted or external tech to get the job done. Aliens mental powers could include telepathic (accessing someone else’s mind with their own), psychokinetic (moving things), empathic (feeling what another feels) and more.
Aliens could have the ability to fly, project force fields, emit energy blasts and just about anything else you’ve ever seen a super hero or villain do in comics or movies. The level of power could range from the ability to use one of these powers once in a while to any or all of them whenever they choose to. The powers could be natural for a species or a result of some chemical, radiation or mechanical enhancement.
One very tricky alien ability is shape shifting. Aliens with this gift are hard to defend against. They are like living Transformers.
Most of this has pertained to sentient aliens. Unfortunately, even alien animals could have any of these powers. Writers will often create giant alien monsters that behave like dinosaurs from space. On the other hand, I’ve see everything from alien virus type beings to a tiny crew inside a people shaped space ship.
Science fiction is known for fancy invasions by aliens. Whether they come in blasters blazing or steal our bodies while we sleep, the idea of fighting aliens is pretty silly. I keep on saying that if hostile aliens can get here at past light speeds; they can do whatever they want to us from orbit. We would only still be alive if they wanted us that way. Slave labor, host bodies or food.
Hostile aliens make great protagonists in Sci-fi stories, but there’s a 50/50 chance that aliens could be friendly. Hopefully, the direction of evolution is towards more peaceful pursuits.
This has little to do with the marathon bombing, nor giving celebrity to its perpetrators. Let me state that upfront.
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| Source: Engineering dot com |
I couldn't help notice Boston along with Silicon Valley is one of the top Innovation Clusters around the globe. My suspicion is this isn't an all-inclusive list: just a highlight of the "major players." Sobering is the US has only two of the eight clusters. Somewhat frightening is these sites may be where most of our new technological, information system ideas may ultimately come...for the rest of us as consumers and not FROM us as producers.
Meaning: STEM careers may become the narrow apex of a pyramid with a widening base. We may be reaping the whirlwind of our insistence on debated "controversies" of tested theory versus shouted, banal opinions (Climate Change, Big Bang, Higgs Boson, Evolution, Standard Model - the antithesis the shouted, banal opinion). The world is leaving us in the dust...quite literally.
The idea of 'Meat' grown in a petri dish may sound unappetizing, but it may just be the answer for not only feeding the potential billions more of mouths to be born on this planet, but also the solution for animal protein in space.
Here's an article discussing this new and innovative solution for growing 'meat' via cultured muscle tissues rather than harvesting an entire animal....
When we look up at the night sky, space is black as far as the eye can see. Yet, when we read novels about it or watch something on TV or in the movie theater, it is white beyond all comprehension.
When watching a work of science fiction on the big or small screen, people of color often find themselves asking:
"Where did we go?"
"Did some melanin-devouring plague attack all humanity?"
"Do zombies only like the dark meat?"
But that's Hollywood. While studio executives continue to show the world's multi-hued population through its monochromatic lens, the literary field of speculative fiction has become more diverse than ever. Whether it's horror, science fiction, or fantasy, steampunk or steamfunk (and let's not forget sword and soul), writers of color are producing quality works and accumulating accolades and awards every day.
Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond is a speculative fiction anthology celebrating this talented field with stories focusing on people of color.
Currently, we are running a fundraising campaign on Indiegogo to support the writers who are included in the anthology (Junot Diaz, NK Jemisin, Victor LaValle, Charles R. Saunders, Nisi Shawl, and more). Please check out the campaign, help fund, and/or spread the word. Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
Mothership Support the Writers Indiegogo Campaign
Meet the Writers:
http://mothershipconnect.com/mother-authors.html
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Bill Campbell
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| See "(source here)" in text below |
...been in a Latin mood lately.
Especially with what I term "representative reality." I've had yet another unpleasant encounter with someone convinced the Apollo Moon Landings were faked. (OK, this was only my second one in two tech companies.) It was with gentlemen that up to that point in our shared occupations, I had a lot of respect for their intelligence (still do): just not on this subject nor their conclusions. However, I've come to find merely working in an industry doesn't make you immune to dogma and propaganda. The first posited his theory with a You Tube video.
This particular gent mentioned discussing the subject with "real NASA scientists and engineers" of whom he could not (or, did not) name in his diatribe. These real NASA personnel also don't have New York Times bestsellers blowing the lid off "the game" if the jig is truly up (and, nine-year-old Trek fans are still dreaming of becoming astronauts, I'd bet)! It was one of those break room conversations that started on one subject and went left rather rapidly. I'm quick to call BS on anything without the facts, but it tires me nonetheless.
1. I was there, and I'm afraid gents you weren't on the planet yet.
2. RedOrbit gives latest third-party evidence for the Apollo Moon landings.
3. Radiation shielding/Van Allen Radiation belt dilemma: debunked here on Clavius.
4. How do you fake something SIX times and NO ONE talk about it? (see unnamed "real NASA scientists and engineers")
5. It doesn't help the current state of affairs we find ourselves in as a nation: climate change, our credit rating and/or threatened default, economics, education, governance, income disparity, the middle class, the national debt, outsourcing, teen pregnancy and how NOT to prevent it; wars and rumors of wars are factual, REAL problems we have to grapple with. Facts and data are the only means I know of solving any problem; an appreciation of the reality that data is telling you and ACTING on that reality.
Our current state of affairs is moribund: we simultaneously complain about the same congress we keep reelecting - it's like political codependency. The mayors race in New York, the sexual deviant in San Diego (ELECTED mayor!) and the possible feud/field of GOP candidates for 2016 (we're already discussing 2016) ranges from the lucidly mundane to the blithely insane and looks more everyday like the conclusions in the study of celebrity chimps!
We have in the halls of congress one chemist, six engineers, one microbiologist and one physicist pulling up the rear in House and the Senate (source here). Not a single one - excluding the nine aforementioned - would be caught dead debating any science issue (few of them are clergy, but they seemingly have an endless, extemporaneous riff on that subject), hence they make up the science they want to believe. We have lawmakers - if they weren't "job creators" - getting their life and governing philosophy listening to bloviating college drop outs on AM and satellite talk radio, for the most part were lawyers that by training are not interested in finding truth or deeper meaning in a subject...
...just winning an "argument."
And in that stance, we're all losing.
CNN: Could moon landings have been faked? Some still think so
NYT: The Vocal Minority - The Moon Landing Was a Hoax
Time| Conspiracy Theories: The Moon Landing Was Faked
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| In the multiverse scenario a vast and diverse array of bubble universes fluctuate into existence inside a larger vacuum. A small fraction of the universes have physical properties conducive to life. |
On an overcast afternoon in late April, physics professors and students crowded into a wood-paneled lecture hall at Columbia University for a talk by Nima Arkani-Hamed, a high-profile theorist visiting from the Institute for Advanced Study in nearby Princeton, N.J. With his dark, shoulder-length hair shoved behind his ears, Arkani-Hamed laid out the dual, seemingly contradictory implications of recent experimental results at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe.
“The universe is inevitable,” he declared. “The universe is impossible.”
The spectacular discovery of the Higgs boson in July 2012 confirmed a nearly 50-year-old theory of how elementary particles acquire mass, which enables them to form big structures such as galaxies and humans. “The fact that it was seen more or less where we expected to find it is a triumph for experiment, it’s a triumph for theory, and it’s an indication that physics works,” Arkani-Hamed told the crowd.
However, in order for the Higgs boson to make sense with the mass (or equivalent energy) it was determined to have, the LHC needed to find a swarm of other particles, too. None turned up.
With the discovery of only one particle, the LHC experiments deepened a profound problem in physics that had been brewing for decades. Modern equations seem to capture reality with breathtaking accuracy, correctly predicting the values of many constants of nature and the existence of particles like the Higgs. Yet a few constants — including the mass of the Higgs boson — are exponentially different from what these trusted laws indicate they should be, in ways that would rule out any chance of life, unless the universe is shaped by inexplicable fine-tunings and cancellations.
In peril is the notion of “naturalness,” Albert Einstein’s dream that the laws of nature are sublimely beautiful, inevitable and self-contained. Without it, physicists face the harsh prospect that those laws are just an arbitrary, messy outcome of random fluctuations in the fabric of space and time.
To explain this absurd bit of luck, the multiverse idea has been growing mainstream in cosmology circles over the past few decades. It got a credibility boost in 1987 when the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg, now a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, calculated that the cosmological constant of our universe is expected in the multiverse scenario. Of the possible universes capable of supporting life — the only ones that can be observed and contemplated in the first place — ours is among the least fine-tuned. “If the cosmological constant were much larger than the observed value, say by a factor of 10, then we would have no galaxies,” explained Alexander Vilenkin, a cosmologist and multiverse theorist at Tufts University. “It’s hard to imagine how life might exist in such a universe.”
Simon Science Quanta Magazine: Is Nature Unnatural?
Kelon Productions
SCIFI SCHOOL by Odis Chenault
http://www.kelonproductions.com/category/scifi-school/
EP.2 the Size of the Universe
Hello and welcome to the second installment of SciFi School.
One of the things that make scifi so great is the scope of it all. Scifi authors have an infinite canvas on which to create their masterpieces. What scifi fans take for granted is that most people rarely think about how vast the universe truly is.
Let’s be clear. No one knows its exact size! It’s infinite. Geniuses keep trying to calculate the size of the universe. All I know is that every time our best telescopes look deeper into space, we just see more galaxies.
Let’s talk size. In scifi, size matters. When I break this down to people, I like to start small and build out. So you’re in a in a city. The city is on a continent of a planet. The planet is orbited by a moon. The planet and moon orbit a star (or sun) named Sol. Sol is also orbited by seven other planets (used to be 8), their respective moons, an asteroid belt and some comets. This star or solar system is part of a Galaxy. Besides star systems, galaxies have black holes and nebula (huge clouds of gas). There are an infinite number of galaxies. Now, add in quasars, dark matter and dark energy and there’s your known universe.
Now we have an idea of what’s in the universe, but how big is it? Again, let’s start small. The Earth is around 25,000 miles in diameter. The sun is one million times the size of the Earth. There is a Hyper Red Giant Star (VY Canis Majoris) that is 7 Billion times the size of our sun. Our galaxy (the Milky Way) has over 300 Billion stars.
In between all this visible stuff is space and lots of it. We use light years (6 trillion miles) to describe distances in space because we need a huge unit of measure. The closest star to our sun is Proxima Centauri. Proxima Centauri is 4 light years away. When we look at it, the light reaching our eyes has been traveling 186,000 miles per second for 4 years to get here. There are stars in our galaxy that would take us over 10,000 years to reach at the speed of light. That’s one galaxy. The next closest galaxy is the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy. This small galaxy is 25,000 light years away. Andromeda, the next closest spiral shaped (like ours) galaxy is 2.5 million light years away. There are galaxies over 13 billion light years away.
Here’s some fun with distance and light. When you look at a star that is a hundred light years away, you see it as it was then. If it exploded 50 years ago you wouldn’t see the explosion for 50 more years because the light from the explosion is only half the way here. If you look into the night sky and find a dark area, stare at it and you will soon see a star. Your eyes act like telescopes in an observatory. Sometimes the light is so faint; your eyes need time to collect enough light to register an image.
So let’s recap. The visible universe is endless. It’s mostly empty space (calm down dark matter and dark energy super geek nerds, we’ll talk later). Things are super far apart and getting farther every day. Now you see why it’s a big deal in scifi when aliens arrive from another star. The mere fact that they covered the distance alone speaks of their superior technology. You can only imagine what else they are capable of. Why have they come? You get the picture. Isn’t scifi wonderful?
700th post on BSFS: enjoy!
They did a run of "Trek Nation" on the Science Channel (as I'm apt to watch). What Rod Roddenberry (Gene's son) didn't cover in the biopic was his father's declared atheism as I guess it didn't matter towards finding out about his father post his demise. Gene and his mother, Majel Barrett in an interesting contrast to Gene's declarative were married in a Shinto ceremony, and he spent a large part of their marriage (his second, and like Einstein) in the beds of other women.
However, Gene described himself an "eternal optimist." He was an observer of the 60's, the loosening mores on sex; the beginning of diversity and racial strife; riots, assassinations of people striving to make the lives of others within their group and the nation as a whole better: Chavez, Evers, Kennedy (JF and RF); King, Shabbaz (Malcolm X). Some southern markets refused to play the space opera, even before Kirk and Uhura's famous forced-by-aliens first televised interracial kiss; Richard and Mildred Loving were anomaly, controversy and topic one of fire and damnation sermons.
His optimism was an eschatology: his belief that humans would eventually evolve from and resolve the older conflicts that had plagued it. A view of of the world from World War II, Korea and Vietnam that made it a little less bleak. Though Gene was not a scientist or engineer, the show inspired many of us into STEM fields. The series "created" things to tell the story of humanity: warp drive was so they wouldn't have to deal with lifetimes of thousands of years; astronauts having to deal with the loss of loved ones decades or centuries in the past would get old quick. Automatic doors are now a product of optical electronics; tricorders are reality; the communicator is now an I-phone; 3-D printers are the closest thing to "tea: Earl Grey, hot!"
In excerpts of the afterword to Orwell's "1984," Eric Fromm wrote this:
This hope has its roots both in Greek and in Roman thinking, as well as in the Messianic concept of the Old Testament prophets. The Old Testament philosophy of history assumes that man grows and unfolds in history and eventually becomes what he potentially is. It assumes that he develops his powers of reason and love fully, and thus is enabled to grasp the world, being one with his fellow man and nature, at the same time preserving his individuality and his integrity.
One of the most important ones is a new form of writing which developed since the Renaissance, the first expression of which was Thomas More's Utopia (literally: "Nowhere"), a name which was then generically applied to all other similar works. Thomas More's Utopia combined a most penetrating criticism of his own society, its irrationality and its injustice, with the picture of a society which, though perhaps not perfect, had solved most of the human problems which sounded insoluble to his own contemporaries. What characterizes Thomas More's Utopia, and all the others, is that they do not speak in general terms of principles, but give an imaginative picture of the concrete details of a society which corresponds to the deepest longings of man. In contrast to prophetic thought, these perfect societies are not at "the end of the days" but exist already -- though in a geographic distance rather than in the distance of time.
So, Gene's writing of Star Trek is an extension of this thought, perhaps our reaching towards it an unspoken need to seek hope from hopelessness.
The other observation of Trek Eschatology: the need of Old-School Trek to do plays; Will Riker playing jazz trumpet; Spock on Vulcan harp; Data, Geordi, Picard, Worf on the holodeck: living and working for months/years in space probably drives one kind of stir crazy: your world is literally a tritanium "can" separating you from the cold and sure death of space. It's also a clever way to showcase the actors' other talents, as Trek isn't guaranteed a long run.
I'd like to also think in some cramped future confines - warp core, or sleeper ship - one lesson we should take from art is never surrendering to technology what makes us "human" in the first place...
Six years ago I discovered that hell really exists and that demons are real. That was the day I stopped straddling the fence and became a full fledge atheist.
At the same time I found out that aliens are real. Aliens from outer space that is. You’re probably wondering how the two are connected. My name is Darren Skye. Let me give you a glimpse into my life and you’ll find out.
Another uneventful night. At least that’s what it started out as. I’d had this security gig for two months. Nightshift, eleven pm to seven am. I was posted at a residential site, an apartment complex in a rough area of town. It was the type of area the undead wouldn’t have been caught…well…dead in, if they could help it.
Contact reported volatile readings emanating from the building…readings consistent with a high concentration of paranormal flux.
Traces of sulfur in the readings left no doubt that a gateway to Hell existed somewhere in the building.
Where there was a gateway, a demon was bound to be present, whether entering or exiting. If demons were only entering a Hell portal, I would have been satisfied to leave the thing alone. After all, they were going to Hell. Literally. Their home. But demons exiting a portal to walk the Earth, mingle with unsuspecting humans was no good. Demons tended to do more than mingle. They enjoyed indulging appetites that included killing unsuspecting humans in the most horrible ways possible.
I’d settled into my shift after signing in and beginning a daily report. The guest log-in computer was functioning well, as was the CCTV monitor. Six digital displays on the monitor showed coverage on all sides of the property. A brief perusal of the monitor revealed no signs of demon activity. What else was new?
I reached into my black duffel bag, which I kept at the desk and pulled out a scanner. It was a dark blue unremarkable looking device, shaped like a computer mouse, but slightly smaller. I pressed a tab at the bottom of the device and set it in a corner of the desk away from curious eyes. The scanner sent tracking signals throughout the building, searching for portals.
You see those hell readings vanished shortly before I began working at the complex. I kept the scanner active every night for the duration of my eight-hour shift.
I decided to call Contact in the morning and have him pull me off this assignment. With no Hell readings in two months, chances were the portal had vanished, its usefulness expended. Frankly, I thought that my time would be more productively spent elsewhere.
*****
Damn, it was hard for me to stay awake at night. No matter how much sleep I managed during the day, drowsiness inevitably fell over me like a comfortable blanket.
My eyes were half closed when a tenant entered the building at two twenty. He was a tall distinguished looking gent probably in his early fifties with a salt and pepper goatee. Immaculately groomed, he wore a well-tailored dark gray suit with polished black shoes. A flashy watch blinged on one wrist, a gold bracelet on the other. We exchanged nods as he strode past my desk to the elevator bank.
“Good evening, sir,” I greeted with an ebullient customer service smile.
He smiled in turn. “Good evening to you.”
Since he wasn’t a long legged beauty in a tight skirt, I didn’t give the guy a second glance. That is until my scanner whirred softly. I sat up straight, unsure at first that what I was hearing actually came from the scanner. I’d become long accustomed to its silence.
I picked up the device, felt its tingling vibration in the palm of my hand and set it back down. Adrenaline spiked through me and suddenly I was fully awake. The scanner detected something. I tapped the scanner, and its upper half peeled away in strips, revealing a display screen. The words Sulfur Detection. FifteenYards scrolled horizontally across the screen.
Fifteen yards. I looked up. The elevator bank was approximately that distance from my desk. The gray suited tenant just entered an elevator. When the doors closed, I pulled a blaster and a wickedly lethal eight-inch blade called a Shiva out of my bag.
I wasn’t allowed to leave my post. Doing so was grounds for disciplinary action. I slipped my knife in a torso sheath concealed beneath my blazer, grabbed the scanner and headed for the elevators. After tonight, I wasn’t expecting to come back to this place.
I stepped into an elevator and rode up to the 6th floor. The scanner’s vibration intensified. Cautiously, I exited the elevator. An arrow on the scanner’s display pointed the way, guiding me toward possible confrontation with Evil. My heart pounded louder than a chorus of drums. I advanced down the corridor gripped in the throes of feverish anticipation. I was less nervous than I should’ve been, certainly less so than on my first outing as a demon slayer. A hundred missions into this career gave me enough confidence to override the worst of my fears. When you have the right training and the proper tools, any opponent can be faced.
I slowed when the arrow light blinked, signaling that I had reached my objective. I stopped in front of an apartment door with the number 667 on it. Acting on a hunch, I backtracked toward the previous door I passed and saw the number 665. There was no apartment 666.
The sulfur reading emanated powerfully from 667.
I suppose if I was a demon and I couldn’t find a pad under the three sixes, the closest number would have to do.
I reached into my blazer’s inside pocket and took out a Dollar charge. It was actually a neutronium explosive. I called it a Dollar charge because it was roughly the size and shape of a silver dollar. Small as they were Dollars packed a hell of a punch. I kept at least five on me at all times, on duty and off.
The scanner’s display elevated from a blinking arrow to a crimson alert screen. The words Portal Event filled the screen in ominous bold lettering. A gateway just opened up in 667. Either our well-dressed demon was going home, or his friends were arriving for a visit.
No time to deliberate. I activated the Dollar’s adhesion function and slapped it on the door. I crouched, half turned and waited. Within three seconds a fiery detonation obliterated the door. I burst through the shattered doorway, my blaster raised.
A glowing blue iris occupied the apartment’s living room. The beauty of the phenomenon never failed to captivate me. That’s what a Hell portal was meant to do, captivate, entice, seduce; give the impression that what existed on the other side was not so bad.
Five demons occupied the room, including the gray suited tenant. Gray Suit had revealed his true colors so to speak. He no longer appeared human. He whirled, glaring at me with typically demon features: Illumined, beady little red eyes set deep into a leathery gray serpent like face. Moist, throbbing nostrils formed vertical, parallel lines just below the forehead. Rows of razor sharp teeth filled a wide lipless mouth. Thumb size horns covered his head like cornrow braids.
Gray Suit’s companions wore no clothes. They possessed the leanly muscled bodies of distance runners. Other than clawed hands and feet, their physiques didn’t differ that much from humans. They weren’t particularly big, but they were frightfully strong…strong enough to rip a head off.
The naked demons lunged at me.
I fired off a series of blaster bolts.
Two demons tumbled to the floor with sizzling holes in their bodies. The third one cut left, avoiding a spear of plasmic energy. The forth demon dove beneath my shot, managing to barrel into me.
I should also mention that demons are incredibly fast.
The demon’s impact reverberated through my body as if I’d been hit by a bull. Despite bruising pain, I kept my composure and focus, allowing the demon’s momentum to carry me until we both crashed to the floor. Hot Demon breath washed across my face like a forge’s breeze. Demon teeth snapped inches from my neck, threatening to tear out a chunk of flesh. I still had my weapon. Drawing strength from desperation, I struggled to keep those teeth at bay with a forearm beneath my opponent’s chin. I jammed my blaster’s muzzle into the side of the demon’s head and pressed the trigger. A muffled blast blew away most of that head.
I shoved the demon’s body off me, and tried to target the third one. The demon swiftly came within arms reach, swatted the blaster out of my hand and grabbed my throat. I whipped out my Shiva and plunged it into the demon’s gut, stabbing repeatedly with piston rapid strokes.
The demon’s grip loosened enough for me to wrench away. Howling in pain, the hell spawn stumbled backwards, brownish ichor oozing out of multiple stab wounds.
I retrieved my blaster and delivered a single coup de gras shot to the demon’s chest, killing him instantly. I turned on Gray Suit without hesitation and fired.
Gray Suit ducked and my blaster bolt lanced into the kitchen, exploding against a wall.
The demon tossed something at me…some kind of disk.
I dove out of its path. A deafening pop clap, assailed my eardrums, followed by a scalding release of pressure that swept me clear across the apartment. I hit the floor hard, but maintained my bearings. Through a filmy haze, I spotted Gray Suit dashing for the portal. I lifted my blaster, pumping bolt after bolt at the fleeing creature, but it was too late. The demon leapt into the iris.
I hopped to my feet, firing into the gateway until it shrunk to a shimmer and vanished.
“Dammit!” I kicked part of a mutilated sofa in frustration. Killing a thousand demons never constituted a successful operation in my book, if just one got away. I didn’t waste time agonizing. Quickly, I ran out of the apartment, deciding to take the stairwell instead of an elevator. My next task on the agenda was to have Contact send a team to detox this location. That meant saturating the building with Hawking radiation to inhibit the formation of portals. After all, Hell portals were nothing more than artificial wormholes. When that task was done, I planned to file a mission report and await my next assignment.
My scanner doubled as a communicator. I sent a transmission to Contact.
*****
It was a half hour drive from the complex to my apartment. That bit of quiet time allowed me to decompress from the strains and exertions of recent combat. Five minutes from home, Contact replied to my message, warning me to stay away from my building. My location had been compromised. So much for leisurely time at home.
I lived in a high-rise, situated on the corner of a main street. I parked my car a block away, crossed the street and took up position at a bus stop. From there, I observed my building’s entrance through a pair of hi res binoculars. Dishearteningly, Contact was right. Two behemoths, painfully conspicuous in dark suits, dark glasses and crew cuts stood at the entrance. More Crew Cuts undoubtedly were in my apartment, rummaging through my things.
Had I ventured into their net, I would’ve been snared and whisked off to some undisclosed site for interrogation. I’m considered an HVT (High Value Target). Not so much because I’m good at what I do, but because I’m Contact’s top operative and as a result must be privy to all the former’s secrets.
Those ‘men’ weren’t humans. Neither were they demons. They were members of Contact’s species; aliens who called themselves Vrondak. They came from another part of the galaxy.
The Vrondak recruited me six years ago to be part of a demon fighting army. My military background and weapons expertise made me a qualified candidate in their eyes. The Vrondak planned to invade Hell and wipe out every demon. They revealed that Hell was not this broiling place of fire and brimstone where the wicked were sent to suffer for all eternity. It was instead a separate dimension inhabited by malignant lifeforms that were not spiritual but very much corporeal.
What the Vrondak failed to divulge was that they had Earth in their sights as well. Their intent was to conquer Earth and enslave humanity. I found this out from Contact, a dissident Vrondak who opposed his people’s wars of aggression against other species…so he claimed. I never entirely trusted him. He might have a hidden agenda.
Anyway, Contact led a network of dissidents whose goal it was to arm humans to resist their warlike brethren.
I was among Contact’s first batch of recruits. His network equipped me and a thousand other humans with Vrondak weapons and other nifty gadgetry. After undergoing intensive training, Contact put us on standby.
The Vrondak were presently engaged in a conflict elsewhere in the galaxy. According to Contact, his people weren’t ready to move against Earth, yet.
Sitting around waiting for an alien invasion grew tiresome fast. I had kick-ass alien weapons in my possession and I was itching to use them. So I approached Contact and told him I wanted to kill demons. He met my suggestion with some reservation, before giving it his full support.
It only made sense. We hunt demons, put a few notches on our belts and when the Vrondak do invade, a well-armed and blooded resistance will be on hand to turn back their tide.
Now to answer the question that’s hanging over this tale like an 800-pound gorilla. What about Heaven?
Well, yes, the Vrondak did confirm Heaven’s existence. Initially that was encouraging news. We’d have allies.
Not really.
The problem is, the beings that rule Heaven haven’t been involved in human affairs for thousands of years. They’ve isolated themselves, becoming apathetic to human needs, allowing suffering to fester and demons to run amok, terrorizing humans.
Will the Vrondak invade Heaven as they plan to invade Hell? I don’t know. I almost hope they do. Maybe that’ll move Heaven to action. Maybe not. Either way, war on a scale unimaginable is coming to Earth. For those of us who work for Contact, we’ll be facing two opponents: hostile aliens and murderous demons. The thought made me hunger for enemy blood.
I could have snuck up on those sentries in the doorway and blasted them. But that would have been totally pointless.
Casually, I walked back to my car, got in and drove away. It was time to find another place to live.
