Another world, another war

Another world, another war
- by William Hay
The two suns were high in the sky, a great yellow orb and another smaller  shimmering distant  light. One of three moons still hung in the sky near the horizon.  Darkness was never complete. Not like on earth.  Here there was always a surreal quality.  The greens not quite right with more purple colour in the vegetation. The water tinged red by the local algae.  Animals were peculiar too. And the people had scales like somehow snake DNA had failed to change to skin. They were that much more ruthless too.  Armed with the latest weapons but lacking the coordination of Earth Corp.
“We’d not be here if they hadn’t come to earth blasting and raiding.”  he said.  He was tall and red haired.  Big muscled. Huge grin.  “They thought they were Vikings I guess and didn’t count on meeting the real thing.” Sven was the resident giant.
“That’s about right. The whole Mediterranean collapsed with the first assault.  Europe went next.  Africa didn’t stand a chance.  Middle east was outright murder.  South American held out.  So did northern Asia. Mountains gave advantage."
“The Indians and Pakistanis patched up their differences and actually stood their ground.  Canada joined the US and even California got on board. That’s when the defence got righteous. Russia was always ahead of the game.  Their alliance with Britain and Norway made all the difference.'
“I just liked when we started taking the fight to them.'
‘That’s for sure.
‘Best defence is an offence."
“Thanks to that Israeli kid we learned where their homeworld was."
“The space agency had the ships but it was something to outfit them for war. Thanks to the forethought of Canadian miners who built the underground hangars with the Americans back in the cold war era.  Those places really served their purpose.  Power from the Candu reactors.  Lots of raw material and industrial 3d printers.  When we got the skies back we were ready to launch."
“I appreciate the rehash. On Mars we didn’t have that much news once the ships attacked earth.” The combat troops had linked up in space for this one of a kind mission.
“The grid stayed up on earth.”  Charlie was a swarthy black haired powerhouse sort of guy, squat like an underground miner. All muscle. He carried the rocket launcher as his favoured weapon, not heeding at all the string of missiles he wore around his neck like a string of garlics
There was a girl with them.  She was there because she was the best sniper. She also could carry her 50 mm  Barrett M82 with the special enhancements by herself despite the weight.  She never complained.  No man or woman offered to help her with her heavy rifle and ammunition pack more than once.
Henry had a portable force shield generator.  The force shield had been developed by Cal Tech years past but the problem was making one portable and making one that snapped on and off.  Nothing got through but nothing got out when the force sheld flashed in place.  All the initial ones took too long to come on and too long to power down. This was just right but given the still tricky motherboards and physics Henry came along to carry the weight and to work it’s magic. He didn’t have a rifle as a result but trusted his Glock 9 mm with a shit load of ammunition.
“You can never have enough ammunition,” he was fond of saying.
“That’s supposed to make the rest of us feel safe when our force shield generator guy keeps saying that.” Charlie joked.
“We’ve never let you down yet,” That was true. The patrol had never been overrun since Henry had joined them  Before that they’d been other insertion units that had just disappeared when the enemy swarmed. You had to give it to the tech scientists. Without them this would have long ago been a one sided conflict. No one made jokes about nerds these days.
Not even Rodger. He carried the heavy mortars.  A defensive tackle in college football he dwarfed everyone else.
“Incoming!"
Everyone was already dug in but they dug in deeper.  Enemy artillery hadn’t found their position yet but it wouldn’t be long before they had a lucky hit. Then they’d pour all hell on their location.  That’s how they did it.  Lobbing shells all over till something exploded or flew up then massive continuous strikes before they sent out troops and mech to see what they’d blown up.  It had proven an effective tactic for them to date. The force shield could stop it but once that was turned on as a last resort the whole guerrilla insertion to get close and lethal went out the window.  Then it was swarm and guns till ships came in to rescue or the force field generator’s power ran out.  It was a hell of a way to fight a war. Especially with a whole lot more of them and that sense they didn’t care about how many bodies they sacrificed.
Now the bombs were exploding a half mile to the east and behind them.  They’d been falling in front earlier.  Some sort of grid system.  The platoon kept moving and digging in, moving and digging in.  No one wanted to be out in the open when a bomb struck.  Something worse than napalm  Ate right through the armor and kept on eating. Alive. Organic.  The scientists hadn’t found an answer. "Get naked as quickly as possible and pray,” they’d said.
“They’re getting closer."
“They don’t know we’re here. it’s just their grid system exploration.  You know how it works. Now move out.”
Tony was their leader.  He was a straight shooter but bad ass.  Good to his friends and you only wanted to be his friend.  A lieutenant colonel.  You’d think his rank would get him out of the hands on up front war but he liked to lead from the front. This was his idea. This whole guerrilla insertion into the centre of their command right here on their world.  Intelligence had identified this fortress as their headquarters. From an earth point of view it didn’t make sense, isolated as it was but the underground systems connected all their cities and out posts.  None of the worlds Earth had encountered lived above ground.  They travelled there. Vacationed there, picnicked there but everything that counted for work occurred under ground.  Invulnerable to invasion.
“Just like the Irish and English moved away from the coast during the Viking era.  Made it all the more tough for my people to pillage them, “ Said Sven.  So the alien worlds appeared to have learned to put their vulnerable bits beneath their surface hundreds and thousands of years ago.  Earth was only now catching up.  A whole lot of people and equipment had simply been swept away before the world turned to the miners and listened.
They all had ear wigs and heads  up displays. The minaturization technology had become such that they could have put the visuals  on a contact lens. It had been tried. But the old fashioned half face mask used by riot police remained the standard soldier fair. The night vision technology had improved too so the face shield could adjust to any light manually or automatically all the while given a faint display of platoon position enemy positions, time, heat signatures, ammunition reserve. heart rate,  Just blinking changed the screens.  It had changed the response times and accuracy of individual soldiers immensely.
No one knew what her name was. The Aussie had called her Sheila that first day and it had stuck. She was good natured that way.  Now she’d turned it around and her real name was a mystery to all but the Colonel.  Sheila was a Captain and was already moving fast across the terrain.  She ran really low and fast and mean like a jaguar.   They were in range and she’d seen a place she wanted to provide oversight from.  She was there in minutes, risking enemy fire trusting to speed and terrain, staying in the galleys. .  Now she was climbing up the protected side of the hill. .
Mac was moving forward with a half dozen other guys.  They were carrying a variety of armaments but everyone was packing Colt rifles.  Same ammo.  A variety of platforms.  Some with grenade launchers. The M16A6 would not be recognized by anyone who knew the A2.  Lots of advances made in the Kitchener facility after the American’s had taken their losses.  The scientists had scurried north and the weapons war escalated exponentially. There were now laser and flechette functions.  The modern M rifle was like a swiss army knife version of a weapon but with incredible simplicity that worked like brail.  Practice with it made perfect and the troops had confidence in their individual stopping power. As long as the enemy didn’t develop anything like what they had with their bombs the kevlar ceramic plate vests had become so light weight and flexible that they stopped everything else they enemy so far threw at them.
The up close war was still bullets and flames.  Each soldier carried a 10 minute oxygen tank and wask for retreat purposes only.  The new grenade was a fraction of the size and weight of the old grenades with 10 times the kill radius.  The programmable self propelled features on some were even more ingenious.
The whole platoon was coming up now on the walls still undetected, moving fast along the gullies and behind the purple shrubs.  Above their drones were now converging and would soon leash hell fire missiles on the fortress opening it up to the invaders.
He was running full now now.  No different than medieval knights and peasants. Making that last surge hoping against hope the timing of the drones was exact. His heads up display showed the first coordinate and time fast approaches. Minutes. A shot came from the wall.  A lone scaled head with shark like mane going down almost immediately the projectile left the barrel, Sheila’s oversight on the mark. The man next to him staggering and strightening, his armour taking the shock.
“Alright, “
“Sure,”
They kept running.
The drone strikes hit then. Six missiles from the first three drones had struck at different points in the defence.  The area a thousand yards in front of them was rubble as was the diversion wall further along.  The sprint was all out now as the second wing of drones came in taking out all heat signatures that began to swarm where a wall had been.  The lazers laced the sky, bright despite the surreal light of early day.
He was crawling over the last of the wall when he began acquiring targets.  Two legs and three arms.  Best hit low. Their vitals functions were there.  His rifle cracked over and again.  Tony had no problem killing. It was a job to him.  He knew from the bios that these soldiers were just like him in some ways, family, kids, games but their leadership had taken the offensive.  And if things went well he’d get up close and intimate with the real threat to peace.  The acquisitive bastards who were directly below him had launched the attack on earth. That’s what intelligence had said. Now they were here.  More bodies went down before his accurate three burst fire even as he saw Mac off to the side spreading out  with more troops in front of him.  Above a drone dropped the bomb beyond them where intelligence deemed the ‘stair case to hell’ existed.  A few thousand meters to go and fewer combatants than they’d anticipated or the drone strikes had done better.  Now he saw the opening.  Just like Intelligence had said.  A regular 11 lane highway heading deep into the surface.  Once the building had been blown away above they had access.  He didn’t think they’d expected their perimeter to be breached so successfully.  Again thanks to the nerd in Texas who’d figured out a way to jam the eyes and ears of the fortresses massive electronic defences. .
Even as his heads up adjusted for the declining light as he and a dozen men began their descent down, the other teams were removing air defence. Earth ships, those amazing transports that left the orbiting ships above  to blast through atmosphere and land on a dime next to the battle field were already enroute. They were bringing in the mounted calvary, tanks and troop transport.  With the surface to air defence knocked out they’d be safe to land.
Tony’s heads up display messaging box declared the first craft landing as he and his men continued mowing down the enemy as they descended into the dark, slower now, taking advantage of cover, along the wall and in the centre, strange equipment that served some purpose they didn’t need to know but which served them if only psychologically as cover from incoming shots that so far their body armour had stopped long enough for the soldiers to take out the source.  A couple of grenades flashed ahead of him. He pulled the hand drone out of his vest and set it off. The cavern was huge.  That’s when the artillery took out two of his team.  Great explosions that completely took out one guy while the other was now  standing stripping right there in the middle of a battlefield.
Jamie’s rocket launcher worked it’s wonders then.  Hearing the screams of the man who hadn’t got his equipment off fast enough, Jamie wasn’t satisfied with one rocket but sent a second into the artillery position that had been hidden in the wall taking out the already dead just as laser fire came down from ceiling defences that would have been hard to hit except that’s what the self propelled grenades did best.  Curve around corners. Better falling ceilings than incoming laser. The massive mounds served as cover as they kept moving forward maintaining the momentum even as the display said that mech was already entering the fortress and soon would be backing them up.
Through the huge cavern they encountered the shafts.
Sheila had some how caught up now and was just another trooper in for the close in combat her rifle on her back and latest version of H&K VP70 in her hand.  “Do you think it’s going too easy."
“No and don’t jinx it.”
“Well I like dropping bombs in shafts.” She said helping him drop all the ordnance they each had carried for just this purpose. Other troopers were doing the same further along.  “  We used to throw grenades in lakes back home and catch the fish that floated to the surface.”
“Let’s hope it’s like that.”  He said. “I hope where we’re standing doesn’t go down when the bomb explosion comes up.”
The earth rumbled then as the bombs went off, the troopers staggering. The shafts were deep. Air conduits, intelligence had said.  For some reason the enemy didn’t think to protect their air flow or recognize them as vulnerable to bombs. Each species seemed to have blind spots like that. Vulnerabilities that could be taken advantage of until the other developed the necessary protection. Like earth’s surface factories that had been taken out by the enemy ships strafing and bombing that first day.
Now the mech was in and heading down the deep highway  behind them.  Their job had been to breach the first defences and drop the bombs in the shafts. They held a few minutes more till mech was passing.
“Catch a ride.” Tony called to the  first tank commander head up above his great machines
“Hop on board.”
The patrol was happy to be  jumping on the tanks and joining the following troop  transports. They’d done their bit going ahead and now weren’t going to miss the finale. Better to ride to glory on a tank  than walk or run.  Breath catching time.
There was more artillery lower but the tanks took that out quickly.  They threw a partial force up shield ahead of them. The turret was free. The men were protected even riding on the sides.
Deeper and deeper they went till they got to the swarm.
Then it was just blood and bullets. Fire and slippery ooze.  It was clear that the bombs they’d dropped had taken a terrible toll. What they did here was mainly mopping up. This last cavern was already full of dead bodies when the mech arrived.
When it was over Tony and his patrol  were resting in this  last cavern with alien bodies 5 and 6 high around them, stacked like cord wood.  It was something out of the British and African wars a couple of centuries back.  Intelligence had come in after that and said they’d got some of the leaders. The leaders had a different colour to their scale manes.  They wore some kind of special jewelry  tech too.  The speed of assault had trapped them in this last cavern.  The shaft bombs had blocked their escape and let off a gas that had killed many.  The final mopping up wasn’t a cake walk by any means but with our mech and a numbers advantage the enemy had never faced before we had won rather quickly.. No combat is won easily.
Tony looked around at his men.  They all looked haggard. Lots of far away stares.
No one smoked.
A few took sips from their suit reserves.
Henry was lying flat out on his back.  His was a tough job for a nerd.
“Round up.” Tony said , standing.  “Good work.”
The patrol with three  men less loaded on the transport for the surface.
“I guess we have to get off this planet before they can organize a fitting response,”
“Suits me.”  said Sheila.  She always looked the most fatigued after an insertion.
“Can’t wait to get into your bath,” Mac laughed.
“You can say that.” Said Sheilagh.
Soon they were lifting off in the transports with drones covering the troops departure.
Once everyone was back in the mother ship they were out of there.  Earth command wasn’t  ready for an all out invasion but they’d done what they set out. Intelligence said it was a complete success.  The alien  leadership was some sort of communist religious dictatorship which  had never been compromised before. They were good at sending out soldiers but intelligence didn’t think they’d be too quick to carry on now they knew they themselves were vulnerable.  Confusion reigned on the alien  surface which was why the earth ships  were getting away so lightly.  That suited everyone.
Especially Tony.  He’d only lost three men but earth didn’t breed like they did and it took years to gain the training and experience of his team.   The fact was his men and Shiela were like family. Family was earth’s strength. The feelings that it gave to soldiers.  It had been good to be on the offensive too. Tony didn’t like playing defence even if he was good at it.

The Slug Storm

The Slug Storm
-- by William Hay

The light streaked across the night sky, followed by a deafening boom as the tank exploded.  Flames shot from the place where the tank had stood.
“Incoming!” the green recruit screamed at the top of his lungs.
There was no need. Everyone heard the noise. Everyone knew what it meant. Those watching the sky had seen the lightning flash.  No one saw the vessel. It was already elsewhere.  More destruction could reign down from the sky or not.  It had been comforting to have the tank’s presence.  It had been a weapon that would have worked against ground ships. But such weapons attracted the aerial support.  We were outmatched in the skies by a long shot.
Now the slugs appeared before us
“Slugs.” The new recruit shouted. This time it was important.
If you weren’t wearing you night vision glasses looking in the direction the slugs were
Coming from they tended to blur into the background at night. You'd not have seen the things moving into position.  In the night vision glasses, the devices that gave their wearer the appearance  of a cyborg, the slugs looked iridescent green. In daylight they were bright purple with blue and orange stripes and dots. One could only imagine their colours were camouflage for a different world. Here they were plain to see in daylight but at night not so. Maybe they were nocturnal.
“Hold your fire,” he said.  John was the most senior soldier here.  Home defence.  He’d served in the regulars but an injury had left him on pension working part time at the garage.  He’d never let go of his weapon.  Like a lot of his era vets they kept their personal stock of ammunition, rifles and hand guns.  They’d been off world. They knew what was out there. The locals hadn’t thought anything could get through their defences.  Not John. Not the other veterans.  Unlike the recruits they lacked enthusiasm.  There was no cowardice. Just experience. They'd  hunkered down and waited,ready to be there for the long haul. All had said a prayer alone.. Now they’d see what grace would bring.
The Slugs, there were three of them, rose up to their 8 foot height.  Thick fibrous creatures with some sort of breathing apparatus at theirhead.  A harnsss was belted around their upper body and to that a shining silver disc was attached at the centre. That was their weapon. A ray gun of some sort.  Pink light and things disintegrated. It was best to avoid letting the slugs get to their full height.
“Fire,” John called out.  A dozen weapons converged on the vulnerable lower half of the creatures. It was always a dicey bit. Their shells were impervious to fire but this place right below the disk was not.  If the Slugs could fully extend up their ray gun was a deadly force to reckon with. A lot of men and women had died before the tactics John and his men utilized now were learned.
“How to kill a slug!” had been broadcast all over the planet on the internet.  That was in the second week of the arrival. After that things began to improve on the ground front.
Except when their land vehicles accompanied the Slugs. These were massive fortified weapons platforms whose rays could scour a neighbourhood leaving no life and no buildings and no cars.  All that remained was flames and destruction.  The tanks and artillery were effective against these. But the best infantry solution to these to date was run like hell.
The slugs went down almost in unison.  Loud body falls.Their entrails gushing while their heads gave off that shrieking sound so reminiscent  of Cats in heat.
“Let’s move,” called John even as the three veterans and the 9 new recruits began to follow his direct northerly lead.
“How much time do we have,”  Able asked.  He was closest to John and walking now alongside as they headed out of the suburban cul de sac into the trees beneath the mountains.
“Never enough time.”
“They’re always so quick to respond. You’d think their life support telemetry was somehow connected to some central command. Deaths trigger the back up. There's no time to get out a distress call."
“Smart buggers for slugs.  Never follow up with more infantry. Just Those monstrous land vehicles.
“It would be worse if they followed up with their air craft but they only seem to use those before an attack ,to remove thanks and artillery."
“Do you think the slugs are them.?"
‘
“I don’t think so. The little ships could be drones, the one’s that seem too small to hold a slug but who knows.  The xenobiologists haven’t been living long enough to get samples  No saucer pilots have yet been found. I heard on the net the main idea is that there’s probably a dominant race with subordinates."
"No different from Roman citizens in the old days and their barbarians. "
"Something like that.  "
The squad was all in the woods moving along the rocky stream making distance,putting natural barriers like the river and trees between them and what was coming.
Protocol said they should spread out as far apart as possible but most were doing like John and Able.  Coupling up , talking as they hiked. Feeling less alone after encounter with alien invaders

I said I loved you in the space port

I said I loved you in the space port
-by William Hay

“It’s true I said I loved you in the space port”,  she said.  I was standing close beside her feeling the heat of her body through the light tight fabrics of our body suits.
“But I thought we were going to die,” she said.
The aliens with their long fibrous tentacles had been everywhere in the hallways.  Breeching the walls of the command centre they’d spread out in seconds. I’d hardly had time to pull out  the the laser rifle from the locker before going to  her in the adjacent room. She had strapped on an old fashioned particle pistol.  She was wearing it on a holster on her hip, like some kind of old west cowgirl gunslinger.
“My father gave it to me, a sovenier, he’d picked up at  Old World Earth. “  she’d once told me.
Together we slipped out of our cabins, silently but quicklymaking our way to the space port.
“The station’s over run ? ,” she asked
“I think so.”  I ‘d accessed the camera leads and saw these things everywhere,. The only escape off the station. There were escape ship pods outside every space port.  Each port had  space suits and propulsion packs. . With the way the air in the hall tasted it wasn’t going to be long before we weren’t able to breathe.  All the hulls were self sealing but the scrubbers or the air source itself had somehow been harmed.  The aliens appeared to have suits over their bodies and heads but they had at least 6 tentacles each 3 or 4 feet long extending uncovered from what passed as a suit.  The helmut was like ours but bigger. Big bulbous affairs. It was hard to tell but they appeared to just have one eye and an opening below which must serve as a mouth or air hole.  They carried packs on their backs.  In one of the tentacles they had a tube like weapon that belched flecthetes. I’d seen it take down a crew on the vid even as I was fetching the laser rifle from the locker.
There were three of them slithering down the corridor when I opened with the laser. She plugged one with her pistol. The slug breached the big helmut and passed right into that one eye splatting the inside of the helmut with putrid green blood.  Surprisingly she pulled out another  clip when we’d finished firing together and three aliens lay dead leaking green pus like blood  I  pressed the ‘access’ on the panel at the space port with her covering my back.  We moved togehter into the outer lock, the door closing behind us. .
We  donned our own glass globe helmets.  Her long arms were above her head rolling  her long brown hair into a bun with one hand while the other was holding the helmut above her head ready to slip down. That’s when she said it.
“I love you, you know.”  The helmut was over her head then.    I turned away to look back down the corridor. I pressed “decompress" on the inside panel.  A large octopus black head in glass bubble poked around the bend, tentacles slithering forward towards the door.  One great bulbous eye appearing on a stalk  stared straight forward at me.   I didn’t wait longer.  The outer door open. We kicked out.
Holding the torpedo pack in front of her with me holding her belt we thrust across the space to nearest pod ship. The outer hatch automatically opened as we closed.  There had been no reason to believe there was any threat here. We were in Home World space.  The outer perimeter was protected by destroyers and mines.  The station was a research facility developing minuscule creatures for an ark  journey. It would one day be incorporated into a major transport ship and the expedition would set off. . We were scientists not warriors.  We’d both had our Navy Seal training. Everyone assigned to the mission had.   But this wasn’t a combat mission.  We’d just been studying the effects of low gravity on hybrid zebra sexual function. The idea was to have an ark of tiny creatures which could be moved across galaxy at low cost in propellant and sustenance to be able to grow in an abundant world to former size. The problem however was the smaller animals needed to be reproductively robust for the journey.  That’s what was paying our  way.  I was a veterinarian xenoiologist and she was a computer analyst specializing in DNA.  At least  until the aliens arrived.
“I’m just not into lesbianism,” she said.
“It’s not like I’m a woman. I”m trans. I have male parts.”
“But I don’t know if I can get used to your breasts. I’ve always liked hairy chested warrior type men."
“You’ve always said they treated you badly. We both know your record. You said I was your best friend."
“Friend yes, but I don’t know about having you as a lover."
‘We could try."
“That’ s what all the guys say. Your nano tech and hormones haven’t changed that about you.” she laughed.
I’d got the tiny pod ship away from the station and lucky for us the things hadn’t followed. She’d radioed central command who had no knowledge of the invasion.  It seemed a discrete insertion of the station.  A destroyer was on the way even as we were thrusting towards the nearest  planet surface. Looking back we could see the oblong shape of the alien ship already moving away from the station, thankfully in a direction opposite to us. .  She’d connected the feed from the station into our visuals so we could see the empty corridors.  It wasn’t easy looking at the dead bodies of friends.  At least there were a few more alien corpses like the ones we’d left to show it wasn’t only a one sided fight.  It wasn’t clear yet what they’d wanted.
The Destroyer engaged them further out.  An exchange of fire appeared with silent explosions through the view port.  At a distance it didn’t seem like much.  Not spectacular like entertainment vids showed.  Just a couple of units of light and some sparks. Then the oblong shape was gone. It had warped or somehow accelerated away.  The destroyer  chose not to follow but headed  towards the station.
“Should be go back?, “ she asked.  We were at the point where we could have entered the planet atmosphere or returned to the station now that the destroyer was coming up alongside it.
“Go on. That’s protocol.  We can return when there’s an all clear. I’ll feel better on the planet after that,” I said.
After docking we’d been debriefed. The word from the station was there were other survivors but many too had died. The breach in the wall of the command centre had killed quite a few. . A few like us had had weapons and escaped to the floating pods that surrounded the ports.  As yet there was no explanation.
We were on the nearby beach. Both of us in skin suits. Military black. Her’s a bikini. Mine a one piece.  There was no regulations about covering breasts. Others on the beach were naked.  Some were topless.  Children and teens were in the ocean. We’d chosen discretion.  Now I was sitting beside her looking down at our legs inches apart enjoying our towels on the sand our hands and arms supporting us.  She really was beautiful. Aquiline nose, high cheek bones, full lips and that long antelope neck.
“When I look at you I see a sister, not a mate,” she was saying.  We’d continued our conversation while waiting for more word on the aliens and the space station.  The repair ship was already there with detectives. The miniature animals were appeared altogether safe, their compounds in the inner part of the ship protected from hull breach.  The computer programs had been accessed though. That was all that could be told.  We’d have to go back and catalogue everything just in case.
"What were they after?” she’d asked.
“I don’t know but I’m sure glad I got you out of there.”
“Yes, I am thankful for that but I might well have got out alone."
“True. That eye shot and the spurting green muck was forever memorable.”
“It’s not that I don’t find you attractive,” she suddenly said, placing her hand on my cheek.
“You said you loved me,” I replied.
“That’s when I thought I was going to be strangled by one of those tentacles or  have my body juices sucked out till I was dead” she laughed.
“You can’t expect me to wait for another alien attack before I hope you’ll  ravish me."
“I guess not,’ she said, her blue eyes twinkling as she twisted about and pushing me back in the sand,  her incredibly sensuous body pressing against me.   She began to kiss me fully on my mouth,  her tongue probing mine inside to tangle with my own now very happy and alert tongue.  The feelings were exquisite.  All of her, her weight, her smoothness, the kiss, her hair on my shoulders, all of it was just as I’d  hoped .  Her mouth was sweet  perfection as her tongue probed mine exciting me beyond anything I’d ever known.
It was not like either of us  were virgins.
We’d both been married and divorced. She’d had children, now grown.
But that’s what they say about chemistry. The heat was so intense that when she lifted off me her breasts grazed my nipples and  I was just awe struck.
“For a first go that  was pretty impressive.” She said smiling down at me. "I may just have to consider you as more than a friend. I could even get used to ravishing you if what you have down there is more than just show.” She was eying the lower part of my bathing suit where some definition had suddenly appeared.  She sat up.
"But not now.” She said jumping up. Kicking sand all over me, she rushed  off to where water met beach wading forward.
“Catch me if you can.’ she called then dove straight into the sea. Her lithe muscular body knifing the little waves as her arms began a powerful crawl her legs and feet thrashing the water behind her.  I wasn’t far behind. Alien invasion or not I wasn’t going to be left behind by the most beautiful,  accomplished, sensuous, intelligent woman in the galaxy. She did look good in a bikini.   We were both in fine  shape. The military demanded it whether we were scientists or warriors first class. I don’t think I would have caught her if she hadn’t wanted to be caught.
Treading water, she mocked me.
“You wouldn’t have had a chance at keeping up with me without those great bulbous water wings of your. They give you bouyancy.  That increased your speed, don’t you think.”  she asked smiling.
I didn’t know what to say. I was sputtering and still catching my breath. She was even more beautiful with her water running down her cheek, her magnificent breasts appearing and disappearing about the surface as she tread, and all around us beautiful calm seal blue sky and snow topped mountains on the distant shore.
“As a woman, if I had what you have down there,I’d never be able to swim naked. Always afraid a fish would take it for a worm.” she laughed, eyes glancing down..
“It would have to be a very big and very brave fish even now,” I said, catching myself masculine defensive at a feminine aside.  I’d like the shrinkage before.  More and more I thought of it as a clitoris.  But the hugeness of the thing had been hard to conceal.  Noow as she spoke of it I rather missed the expansile rapid onset fullness.There was a certain sensation though there in the warm water as our bodies tread water together so close..
“I’d like to look,” she said.
 I was glad for the one piece. She was the kind of girl that I know if I was wearing shorts she’d have ducked under and pulled them down.
 “Oh, I’ve wanted to see you naked for a long time.
“I know. Of course you would. And maybe you will. But I just want to see that, “ she said , glancing down with her eyes.”You can keep the rest clothes on.”
That’s when the sky erupted. Three Saucer like craft, the kind we call flitters,suddenly appeared out of nowhere.  Great sheets of flame rained down on the beach where we’d just been. Screams pierced the air. Flaming bodies dove into the water.  Craters appeared as bombs drop.  One  flitter flashed right overhead ignoring us.  If we’d been on the beach we’d have been vaporized.  There were three of them and they’d concentrated their fire where the most people were.  One after another they flashed over the beach,  their weapons systems targeting the largest groups. We treaded water watching in horror .  As quickly as they’d come They passed on at supersonic speeding towards the city.
“Let’s go,’ there was no need to say it. We were both front crawling at maximal speed to the beach where flames and  destruction reigned.  The screams continued.
She ran ahead of me to life guard station. We both grabbed a couple of emergency suitcases. All were identical first aid trauma kits for emergency use.  All over the planet, the same suitcases were available for just this kind of attack and anything else as well.  In minutes we were injecting morphine, tying tourniquets,  slapping on healing suave and non adhesive bandages.  The burns would have been worse were it not for the nu skin biologicals. Ripping the packages open we slid the skin over the area of burn, the disenfectant , anesthetic and antibiotic coated surfaces of the patches instantly relieving the pain and hugging the wounds.  Previously these would have caused such suffering and scarring. Others were working as quickly as we were. All of us trained today in worthwhile information long after the days when schools were used soled for propaganda organs.  Every citizens was emergency ready. The world had once been such a place of  waste of bubble heads and ego. Now it managed by competent folk.  Industry was for ever startling. Genius was celebrated.   It was hard looking at the tourniquet limbs knowing they’d be lost but the artificial limbs today were thought by some as better than their own.    All manner of scientific advances had been made when the political abuse of science had been stopped. But what had happened to the  alien sensor array. It was supposed to be the first line of defence. Nothing could get through without alarms.  Obviously that would need improving..
The attack on the space station wasn’t a solitary event. This was a full on assault. . In the distance the flitters could be seen bombing and strafing the city.
“We’ve helped a couple of dozen. I think that’s all we can do.  Others are coming now. ” she said. The supplies from the cases were all  gone but emergency vehicles were arriving..
“Time for us to get out of here.” I agreed.  “The ambulances can take these folk to the underground hospitals’.
As she ran across the sand ahead of me I watched her  long hair like a lion’s mane..  When you’re in love you can’t not see such things.  Despite the horrors all around, now more subdued, the screaming stopped, the flames all but out, she looked even more beautiful bounding ahead of me like a young gazelle.  I felt my own breasts bouncing as I wondered if I shouldn’t try for long hair again. It looked lovely on her.  I preferred my shorter bobbed cut. More functional by far.
Our hover craft was waiting.  The AI asked as we took our seats,  “Where would you like to go?"
I looked at her.
“Military Space Compound #53”  she said.  I nodded.
“Top speed,” she added.
Military Space Compound #53 was an underground weapons research facility mere miles away.  Our research project was running out of there as well.  If we could get there we’d not only be comparatively safe but also we'd probably be able to take our place in the military defence. .  Looking up I saw a patrol of navy jets streak overhead  Back at the city behind us missiles were striking  the alien craft still strafing and bombing.  We were going high speed parallel to the action hopeful we’d not be attacked by any of those flitters.
“Are the weapons having any effect.”  she asked, looking as I did at the distant air battle.
“I can’t tell.  So far none of the flitters I’ve been following has gone down.  They’ve definitely taken hits.  One of the jets we saw pass overhead has already gone down. At this distance it’s hard to tell but there doesn’t seem to be force field around the aliens.  There shells just seem tough and impermeable to our missiles and munitions..  I don’t know if they’re doing damage. They're certainly using their speed and maneuverability to avoid the fire from our ships and the ground."
“i’d love to get a look at their propulsion systems.” she replied anger in her voice.
Our craft came up on Compound #53. There were lots of craters all around the area but no rifts. The ground didn’t open automatically. I had to key in my military encryption code.  As I was wondering if it was still in effect the ground began to open.. We got lucky. The concealed ground parted and our AI hover craft descended rapidly even as the small port was closing behind us.  We settled into a vast underground garage.  The AI automatically switched from hover mode to ground transport whisking us across the tarmac to the elevators at the end.
Leaving the vehicle, still dressed only in black bathing suits, carrying  the packs we’d left at the beach in the car,  both of us now with advanced laser combat rifles.  We’d increased our weapons when our escape pod ship,  first landed. Walking quickly now leaving the AI to park,  we joined what seemed like throngs of others heading forward on the moving high speed passenger belts.  The usually spacious  now maximally crowded down elevators descended rapidly opening at various floors to let people off. .
The politicians in a past era had spent  trillions of dollars in committee meetings claiming they were preparing for climate change and doing science. Nothing ever came of that but when a larger than normal meteor did strike the earth causing a few catastrophic tsunamis and earth quakes some real leaders got the funding for this and other such underground survival systems.  Great under ground cities had developed around what had first been military installations which ranged for miles under mountains. Once they’d been prepared only for Presidents  and military commanders the basic idea had expanded to what was now were a truly mixed bag habitat. The cutting edge military research facilities were here but ranging out in all directions was a whole city like any above ground city ever was. Only this one was impermeable to weather anomalies and hostile attack.  It was amazing how far a trillion dollars went when it wasn’t just feeding ego and  hot air.
Today the military were at the exits on every floor directing people to the various stations.  As space researchers and part time warriors they unloaded us at level 23. There we took the high speed train to the science section associated with space exploration and defence.
“Glad to see you two. Sorry your R&R was interrupted but glad you got back safely. “ Harry said, directing the incoming people like a symphony conductor, arms moving every which way.
Harry was the second in command of their unit, a brilliant scientist who was also a competitive athlete, sometimes going to other Home Worlds to do some crazy endurance feats for which he’d won countless medals. HIs girl friend, one of the nano tech lab assistants always seemed on the verge of purring suggesting  his athletic prowess wasn’t solely used for competitive sport.  Now he was seriously into leadership mode.  His remarkable mind  was racing through all incoming data scanning a half dozen wall feeds all the while he directed returning team members to their desk. Talking to us and to earbuds and a head up screen he passed along the latest information.
‘The detectives at the station actually found the aliens did take something. Just put your rifles and your packs over there. It wasn’t apparent at first but forensic analysis of the computer showed exactly where they looked at  Following the digital trail the detectives learned they were only interested in the octopus and snake DNA .  “Their people on site say that the compounds with the miniature octopi and some of the snakes had been breached and some of those appeared missing. Can you get right on that. Find out what they took.  Sort out exactly what they were after. You said they looked like octopus themselves."
“Yes, big single eyed bulbous head  but their tentacles were scaled like a snake.” I reflected.
“Do you think they’re some how related to our earth forms. That might explain the  theft but it doesn’t explain the all out attack on the earth itself.”  She said this while  throwing on  pink t shirt and pulling  purple slacks over her bathing suit.
“We don’t have enough data to speculate yet.  Let’s just find out exactly which species they were interested in. The word from above is the jets are scoring some hits.  The skin of the ships is tough but not impermeable."
 I had just pulled on a black t shirt  and slipped into some some slinky stretchy black slacks.
As we took our place at our computer screens Harry was directed more incoming personnel to their workstations with specific questions. Everyone like us  had weapons and packs with them.  Soon almost half of our old team was on site and working.
I had a list of the snakes that had been taken. We'd had live feeds from the station and could see the octopus was gone.  Only three of the snakes were missing.  A viper,  a rattler and a cobra.  Nothing made sense.  Harry said the war overhead was winding down as the flitters were heading out to space.  More destroyers from the outer rim had come in to join the small earth defence that had been all but overwhelmed by the alien sneak attack.  Nothing made any sense yet.
“Let’s go,” Harry suddenly called out.  “Central command wants us up on the station STAT. We’re taking some of the experimental weapons they’ve been working on with us too. We’ve got some weapons tech. The navy patched up the breaches and the detectives have cleared the station to go. Lets move.  Everyone bring your rifles and pistols.:.
Next moment I had my pack and rifle and was wedged up close to her smelling her hair as we shot upwards in the high speed elevator.  Squatting on the tarmac was one of the new jump ships that looked as close to a stubby beer bottle as a ship could get .  Conveyor systems were carrying electronics and tube devices  high speed into the hull.  Hulls had long lost any projectile mounts all being clean and smooth for travel  through atmosphere. But once they got into space the modern war ship would bristle like a porcupine with all manner of instruments, cannons and antennae appearing .   This ship was special too.  One of the latest nuclear powered high speed highly manoeuvrable fighters it had been designed as a weapons platform for experimental systems. .  We were passengers but everyone was trained for service in the navy.  The regulars were there managing everything but we were now assigned cabins and service locations .I would join the artillery crew in the outer ship  She would be forward. For now we were strapped side by side in acceleration chairs   The ship carried a hundred of us.   We were underway almost as fast as we had our gear stowed.
The earth above us opened to blue sky. Then we were blasting up through the atmosphere everyone strapped into acceleration chairs.  Great view screens looked out from all around the ship.  The smoke above the city was obvious.  Some areas still burned but great fire engine water tanks were gathering  last around  the last of those sites
 “Sill love me,” I asked.
“It’s not what was on my mind,” she said.
“I know.That’s why its my job to remind you.”
She laughed.  The g force against us with the acceleration was increasing.
“Like those puppies now on your chest,” she smiled turning her head to see my expression.
We could hardly speak as the ship shook and more g’s pressed down against us.
I would have liked to have a witty comeback but I was wishing I’d peed once more before this ascent.  The chairs could absorb any manner of human waste, including blood. They contoured to the body and were self cleaning as well. But I didn’t think wetting myself would impress the lady.  Also at these g’s talk was nearly impossible. Best to ride it out. .
“I should have peed once more,’ she said through a grimace.
Then as suddenly as the g force weight had bore down on us it began to let up.  We were through the atmosphere.  The earth had released us from it’s gravity.   We would have floated now  if we weren’t strapped in.
In the distance we could see several destroyers . There were just there.  None of the oblong silver ships were about. I was definitely goose necking around for any  enemy presence.
Artificial gravity kicked in just about then.  She was out of her chair like a shot and headed for the loo. I was only steps behind.   As I waited cross legged in the hall expecting the others would be in use too, I said,”I”m glad they didn’t take the little zebra."
As she came out, she gave kissed me a brushing kiss full on the  lips,  “Me too, “ she said.
I really did love her. But first I had to piss like a race horse and didn’t have time to sit.

To be continued

A Week of Worry in the Cloud of Unknowing

If one has to whine, worry and kafetch one should be a master of it. To demonstrate professional capacity in this regard I have chosen to review the week for those who are mere amateurs at complaining and moaning and doom saying.
1) We are all going to die.  This temporal physical slow energy moving mass life is terminal.  No matter what vegetarian gluten free probiotic diet you ascribe to you will still die.  It will be like falling asleep and if you believe you will most likely wake up in a new life. If you don’t believe then this may be all you get.  If you are guilty then the laws of karma may well apply to those believers in after life who by their thoughts and actions want a personal hell.  I don’t think anyone can tell you what you’re going to get.  There’s no religion that has certain vision of the future.  I loved the book, “Cloud of Unknowing’.  It’s a mystery.  But I believe.  I also believe that it will be good, this afterlife journey.  I know it’s easy to see the negatives and that all children know when things are crap and cry and whine and whimper and sometimes take the fetal position. While this is happening the adults in the immediate vicinity are addressing the crap and trying to make the best of a bad lot.  This has been going on for 80,000 plus years from when our worst fear were large cats and thugs to today when it’s still environmental dangers including occasional large cats escaped from zoos and thugs.  That said most cats are small and most people are fairly good.  Otherwise we wouldn’t have survived on this planet en mass and risen to be the prime protagonist.
2) Aliens have landed. They may be controlling the minds of our politicians.  They may be the ultra rich people no one sees. They may be Saudi, Chinese or American.  They no doubt have stealth technology to conceal their vampire like features or their second heads. They may be nanodes in our intestinal tracks.  They may be cats.  Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson were likely aliens.  Miley Cyrus is definitely an alien and Justin Beiber is a wannabe alien.  They may or may not be friendly. They may indeed be computer keyboards that take their energy from our fingertips.  They are not going to do what Hollywood says.  Hollywood is a disinformation centre.
3) Vaccines cured the world of smallpox.  Small pox killed a half million annually going back to 10,000 BC.  Probably killed more people than all the wars put together.  Medical science has reduced suffering and extended life.  Science has contributed to allowing 8 billion people to live on a planet that was thought to be over crowded when Columbus left Europe in 1692.  I am a scientist. I’m also an artist. I’m also a minister of divinity.  You can believe in God and Science and Art and that’s okay because it just makes you trinitarian.
4) Feminists are sexist.
5)  Racism is an attack on white people. White people are dominant. When Blacks are dominant we get to call them racist.  You can only call other people racists. Racists never admit to being racists.  Except me, I’m freckled. I’m racist against white, and brown and black and yellow and red. Spotted people united. Throw off your chains.  Fight for your fellow spotted folk!!  Our first instinct is survival and our next is to form a group of ‘us’.  This is family then it’s a trash euro american biker gang in the west or an eastern militarist junta gang in the east.  Guns and sex and drugs are the principal money makers in the world.  Food and commodity transfers are basic and rather boring in general compared to the sexiness and excitement in the sale of guns, sex slave and mood altering drugs.  There is white collar crime and blue collar crime.  There are white collar gangs and blue collar gangs.  Much of the confusion in the world is comparing apples to oranges.
6) Last week the Chinese market crashed.  I believe that it didn’t founder as much as the Western world’s did a few years back because the bankers are learning how to manage the mass amounts of money that have surpassed any previous time in history. As an analogy when the world had TNT it was initially surprised but could handle it in time but then the Atom Bomb came and there was a stiff learning curve to management of nuclear weapons. We’re learning how to handle biological weapons of mass destruction, gene manipulation, and all manner of skyrocketing hyper accelerated learning. The bankers were never the brightest in the group. Most people who go into money management are pedestrian. Salesman, like those on commodity floors, they’re the nutbars. I’ve seen salesman selling family members overseas. They’re sell anything. Salesman and gamblers are two sides of the same coin. They’re the rabbits.  They're pushing the edge everywhere.  By contrast bankers and accountants are the tortoises.  I think it’s simply possible that the whole bank thing got a head of them like nuclear weapons got ahead of the equal slow witted generals.
Now it’s also possible that diabolical demon infested bankers, people with the mentality of the media ascribed to Bush and Clinton equally , the way the media describes these otherwise mediocre entertainers in the political circuit, that these kind of folks, learned how to steal obscene amounts of money from the world collectively with truly ugly evil devices for which God and Murphy will castrate the sons of bitches and all their putrid insectoid spawn because they think they got away with it. Evil loses, goodness wins.  In the long run.  That’s why psychopaths like to deny the afterlife.  Sprinters always want to win the race in the short run.  The life expectancy of assholes is decades less than the life expectancy of the mediocre.   The assholes in the east are the Fanny Mae and Goldman Sachs groups.  Better still, the unnamed folk jealous.  Sjealoo having done this and almost got away with it but got sort of caught by excessive gouging, they made the the imitative Chinese Totalitarian dictators jealous. Known for their collective stupidity and lack of innovation as communists the world over are, however having great chameleon lizards skills ,and the brain of a thieving squirrel they stole the ideas from the west.  Their slut girlfriends wanted more cocaine and jewelry. And paranoid they want bigger guns and better security systems.  So they are trying to steal mass amounts of money by manipulating their stock exchange  for personal benefit without getting caught.
It’s really matter of perception.
7) I’m from Vancouver, British Columbia Canada.  The Vancouver Stock Exchange lost it’s license because the Vancouver businessmen were worse than Goldman Sacks and the Chinese military put together. . Their low level of scummyness is unprecedented in the world. I just mention that because I wouldn’t want to point fingers without admitting that my city and province and country are the greatest of all scoundrels when it comes to white collar crime.
8) The Chinese market stabilized but again we were collectively threatened by the government controlled mainstream media with economic poverty.  This threat is pre election here in Canada and Greece remains our object lesson. The ’System” requires there to be a lot of really ugly losers and a very few very beautiful winners.  The losers can’t afford augmentation mammoplasty, penile reconstruction and liposuction and face lifts.  That’s all that makes the rich look good.  Lots of expensive medicine. And Betty Ford clinics.  By contrast the poor are given places to shoot up heroin, drug pubs, that don’t interfere in the profit of the blue collar gangs, like the Hells Angels.

9) Anyone can be cynical.  Nihilism is simply weak thinking.  It takes genius and adulthood to remain happy in face of dying daily.
10) We are on a planet spinning around a sun in the armpit of a distant galaxy and don’t even know where we are except by some kind of relative consideration. There are no absolutes. Except maybe God.  But most peoples God is too small. So it’s a mini me God and not the absolute God.
11) My job is to maximize my pleasure and joy in life without directly harming others.  I’m not concerned about all the urban activists getting on about big things like Climate Change  and Montsanto or oil spills or highways or television.  These are adolescent considerations. Adolescents know as well as mainstream media how to solve all the world’s problems but they have hemorrhoids and because of their hemorrhoids makes the world around them seem shitty.  They can’t wipe their butts clean.  Consequently they have a skewed outlook on the world and are always looking for someone else to blame.  Preferably a corporation or another country or an ideology.  They carry a stinky smell about them.
12) I don’t like abortions.  I don’t like radical feminists because most of those I’ve known have been monsters of the likes of Eva Brawn. I believe radical feminists hate men and lack a sense of humour and are the cause of so much of the world’s political problems these last decades. By contrast I love women and I have even admired Hilliary Clinton at times despite her man aping ways. Warren by contrast is one smart lady. But then I loved my mother and my mother and father together were an economic unit.  Individualism is a ‘construct’ that allows ‘corporations’ before the horrendously incestuous pedophilic laws to maintain me and a multi million company are equal except I can’t afford a lawyer.  And as the judges are only there to ensure that the people in power remain in power I at most can hope for crumbs.  The rich are above sexism and racism and only interested in money and power. These ‘divisiions’ of “political correctness’ better called ‘social communism’ have ensured that the courts can at any time arrest someone if they are at any time a real threat to the status quo.  All the activists who whine and complain are the ‘paid government critics’.  If a person is telling the truth in our society they will have been in jail or a psychiatric asylum or bankrupt unless they are Warren Buffet or Soros and they can ‘make whatever truth they want’ because the media is the spoke engine for the powerful.
Ultimately I have to ask my self the question am I really talking about this plane of existence or arguing with God.  Is God , the all powerful, to be loved  or feared.  Is religion the opiate of the masses or is politics the true opiate and spirituality the salvation that stupid wrong Marx simply couldn’t see because he hated Isaiah and Moses so much.  Identification with the Aggressor has always been a real bitch for the Jews. Thanks to Freud we know about identification with the aggressor and I may well worship God because She’s been such a bitch putting me in this ‘life of suffering’.
Anxiety is a measure of my distance from God. And if I see God as evil then I will see the biggest government and biggest corporation and the wealthiest as evil.  But I’m not at the bottom of the food chain. There are those below me and as I see those above me so those below me will likely see me because "as above so below".  So the paranoid fears those above and below.  The activist believes naively that they are representing the proletariat as they fight the czar or warlords or modern corporations. The rebels have been worse than those they deposed.  I’m just trying to get through this day.  No bombs have fallen on my head but I’ve heard about bombs falling on peoples heads all my life. I have been bullied and extorted by the media with news that is chosen to create the maximum fear and subservience in me and those around me.
Meanwhile I’m living in the world at one of the greatest times of innovation and progress with people living, the billions more on the planet in relative wealth and for decades longer than their forebears, with really neat love stories and incredible science fiction type toys. We’ve motorized wheel chairs which no one had for 99% of the life of man on this planet. Last week they developed a bionic eye for those who suffer from macular degeneration.  We’re living in  a sacred and amazing world.   But I must take my head out of my ass to celebrate the wonder of my fellow man and creation. I am so thankful for this moment being here, witness to this all.
Now that is how a professional whines, moans and kafetches after a week of worry.    

Carrymore Megalithic Graveyards and Virgins, Ireland

We came across the sign for these leaving Sligo on the way to Galway. They were only 15 minutes off the main road.  I was really glad we made the effort to see them.  Nothing so humbling as to walk among the stones of prehistoric man, laid out 3500 BC.
It was raining while we walked about the field.  It really made us  feel like we were in Ireland.  We’d consistently had sunshine.  Yet the locals said, and the glorious green of grass spoke of the constant rain through winter and this time of year in spring.  Now we were truly experiencing the drizzle I remembered from London.  Not a downpour like one gets on the West Coast of Canada but this pleasant wet rain with a hefty breeze.  The sheep with lanolin in their fur were perfectly adapted to this.  It was the weather I’d read about in James Joyce. And here we were walking over the ‘moors’.  I think moors is a Scottish term but it felt like that.
We had a map from the central office of the Carrymore Megalithic site which we’d got when we paid admission. It told us that a pile of rocks which we’d have thought nothing of was indeed a grave and with the map we could see what they meant. Like when a person points out a dog or a face in a cloud formation. There was that aha moment then.  Which was fun in itself. The big structures were obviously self evident. And quite uncanny.  Making the whole idea of space ships and aliens visiting thousands of years ago seem more  reasonable as an explanation than ancestral gravesides. Not that Laura and I had anything against graveyards.  We were becoming graveyard connoisseurs with our various adventures in ancestry.
By any standard this was a most splendid graveyard, if it was a graveyard.  It might have been  a bunch of rocks in a circle with a fire and a Monty Python Flintsone character in the raised bit in the middle doing jokes,  beating on skins, or haranguing the tribe that the world was going to end,  or climate was going to change. Alternatively maybe people decided to clear a field for a dance or crops and decided to pile all the stones in the centre just for the fun of it.  Thousands of PHD thesis had been written about this very idea or some thing similar. There were academic factions who thought it was part of a Stone Henge franchise.  Mostly since agriculture and planting times were so important it was thought to be a big calendar astronomically oriented to the stars, because prehistoric folk were poor and couldn’t afford iPhone calendars.  Academic food fights broke out routinely in university cafeterias between competing factions.
Alternatively some really short smart guy who wanted to be taller than everyone else, because he’d been bullied as a child, somehow convinced everyone to make him a pedestal. Maybe he  scared them and said  that the dinosaurs were extinct and the mammoths had moved on because they masturbated. He was probably telling them to stay away from the sheep too. Don’t eat bacon.  Don’t wear lipstick.  Don’t paint their bodies blue like the Scots. Irish don’t do that sort of thing.
In the biggest mound they had an inner circle with a rock table. The priests probably had a party there and after  they sacrificed virgins, ate them, or got into necrophilia.   Pre Christian pagan priests got up to whatever they wanted to because there wasn’t any ‘oversight’.  Whistle blowers were still at the bag pipe stage.   There’s little known a bout the Druids except they did have sacrifices like the Mayans.  For all the bad press Christians and Jews get they stopped child sacrifice.
That the  map said this was where some King was laid to rest could be just a way for this heritage site to keep  from getting a restricted ‘adult’ rating.  They probably aren’t telling you everything they know.    No one really knows why the Druids were so secretive. Transparency still isn’t popular with the leadership.
Laura and I had a bit of laughter walking about in the rain looking at the rocks.  There was obviously  a bit of awe thrown in.  Maybe that’s why I was joking.  Laura and I were laughing. But the place was kind of spooky  too.  The place could give one that feeling someone was watching.  Whoever or whatever they were,  they’d  been doing it for a very long time.
Eventually Laura and I stood silent in this sacred place.  

Story-police head quarters and aliens

Police Headquarters was a 5 story building built in the 70’s but rather along the familiar lines of high schools built in the cold war era.  There was a heavy functionariness about it  There was little glass on the first floor but quite enough on the floors above it.  Police cars with their distinctive black and white colouring were parked about the base.  A sort of human factory place.  Lots of activity with no apparent purpose.   Busy.  Lots of people mulling about at the entrance.  Quite a few sitting in the waiting room.  Lots of open area desks, themselves made of steel, heavy.  A faint human odor pervaded.  The lighting was florescent. Unpleasant.
“I’ve looked up everything we have on killings and there’s no similarity. Not that there’s any pattern but I just thought I might check the records."
“Good try."
“I doubt we’ll get anything from the crime scene. Fairly cut and dry. "
“Interviews then."
“Yes. Might turn up a lead."
“Do you have the address?"
“Yes."
He took his jacket from the back of his chair. His police 38 was in his shoulder holster.  The jacket concealed it well enough.  She followed him to the car.  It wasn’t much of a drive. They didn’t talk. There wasn’t anything to say.  So much was a waiting game.  Patience was critical in ambush and stalk.
The house they were looking for had an ornate metal fence around it.
“Must be worth a million in this neighbourhood."
“I’d say."
Two white Doric columns framed the door.  He rang the bell.  Shortly a flicker of movement appeared in the eye hole before the heavy door was opened a crack.
“Can I help you?"
“Are you Mrs. Jones-Whitaker?"
“Yes."
“We’re from the police."
“Yes”.
“Might we come in."
“Certainly."
She opened the big door and invited them into a large foyer where they all stood awkwardly for a bit.  She was dressed in a white robe. No jewelry. She was beautiful in a fragile way.  The thought of “porcelain looks” came to mind for the female detective.  The male detective was looking beyond the foyer into a rather elegant sitting room of mostly white furnishings offset by a large reddish toned persian rug.
“Could we speak to your husband?"
“He’s not here. He didn’t come in last night.  I was actually getting worried and considering calling you."
“I’m sorry to say there’s been a shooting."
“Yes”.
“We believe your husband was the man who was shot."
“Ooh."
She went quite pale which was itself extraordinary because she was already so pale to begin with.  Walking away from them she moved into the waiting room and sat down on the settee.
“I know this is quite a shock and I really am sorry to bring this news but could you tell me when you last saw him.” he said
“He really is dead?” she asked.
“Yes."
“Last night I guess.  He came home from work.  We had dinner here. It wasn’t much.  Just some left overs I cooked up. He said he had to return to work for a bit.  Some sort of unfinished business.  He left.  I stayed.  I fell asleep watching tv and awoke this morning. I was just getting dressed."
“Was he concerned about anything in particular.?"
“Not that I know of. He’d been a little distant.  Distracted by his work.  That’s not unusual. He had a lot of responsibilities."
“What was his work?"
“Guidance systems.  He built missile guidance systems."
“Was there anyone you knew who might want to hurt him."
“No. This really is appalling. I must get dressed and call his father.  HIs father is still alive if this doesn’t kill him.  His mother died only last year.  Will I be able to see him."
“Yes we could take you there now."
“I’ll just be a minute then.  Please make yourself at home. I just made a pot of coffee in the kitchen.  Help yourself."
She ran up the stairs, a faint sob, echoing down as she scurried up.
The detectives wandered into the kitchen deeper in the direction she’d waved.
“She took that well enough."
“She did. Nothing seemed awry though.  She certainly showed surprise. "
“That sob just now was  something."
“Grieving widow.  Didn’t sound faked by any means."
“She tried to remain composed if anything.  Breeding some might say.”  He was pouring the coffee, 2 cups, opening the refrigerator to find the cream and pouring quite a dollop. She took hers black.
“They’ve got a child.” he said
“How do you know that.”
"The pictures on the fridge. And a photo of the three of them.  A girl, must be early teens.”
“I’d guess she got herself off to school on her own today.  Likely won’t be happy to hear her father died."
“Could she be a suspect."
“No.  It’s not a teen crime by any means.  Almost professional.  Ear markings of a hit, if anything.  Maybe to do with the missile business."
“Very good coffee."
“It is.”
A  short while later the wife came down the stairs dressed in sensible shoes, nylons, a black skirt and blouse.  She had tucked her blond hair into a scarf. Some make up had been dabbed about her eyes which were still red from what appeared a private cry she’d had upstairs, alone.
They drove back to the station.
She gasped when she saw the body at the morgue.  Death does that to loved ones. Especially when they’re not the shooter.  The detectives looked knowingly at each other when they heard that sound. It was like the earlier sob.  Sounds of innocence.
Before leaving her back home at her front steps they acquired the names of his employer.
A NASA and Boeing collaboration.  He’d looked them up on his iPhone while she drove.
“It was a very large building situated on an industrial complex at the south of the city.  Everything was new and neither could remember hearing anything about the building or the major contracts that wickipedia said were being developed here.
Aliens watched their car as it pulled into the long driveway that lead to the first security check point.  They had eyes in the trees.  Humans would have taken them for nests.  They were but in addition they were sensors that relayed visual auditory and sensual contents of the whole region back to the mother ship cloaked and orbiting the earth at that very moment. This complex was indeed one of their interests.  A glutinous creature wasn’t very happy with the way the day was unfolding.  The glutinous creatures looked oddly like a bowl of jelloThey’d had a minor interest in the man who had been shot.  No one really thought it would change things except the bowl of jello. The bowl of jello was quivering and this caused its colours to change. Right now the orange was evidence of interest and maybe fear.  Even the jello had difficulty with self reflection.  Watching the sensors wasn’t a particularly appealing position.  It would rather be in the meeting right now that was taking place down what otherwise might be called a hall.  Odd sounds and flashes of light emanated from that region further on and if the truth be known the jello was trying to make sense of what was being communicated.  It had something to do with this whole complex.
The police car had passed both check points and pulled into the parking lot.
“It’s quite impressive,”
“Yes, in that glass and steel sort of way."
They walked through the glass doorway across the reception floor to the information security station beside the elevators.
“We’re hear to see, Mr. Rogers,” she said showing her id.
“He’s on the 15th floor. You can take the elevator there, the smiling ex military sort replied.  She wondered which service he’d served in. Likely marines she guessed as they headed for the elevator.
The main concern of the aliens was the progress the humans were making.  They weren’t quite ready for earth to learn of what they were using her solar system for.  Once they were in space their property would naturally become theirs.  But in the meantime they really weren’t in a position to object to the pilfering of saturn’s rings or mining on Nepture.  But once they established a presence in their space the rules simply were that they were to be left alone to make the next leap to the galaxy.   All new races were left with just enough propellant to get to the nearest star.  They’d be poor for a millennium or so but it wasn’t other races fault they’d not hurried up and got ahead with space travel when they first thought of it.  The longer a new race took the more their resources were depleted.  Intelligence sort of flashed about the galaxy and that attracted theives. Not that jello though of their expedition that way.  They just knew that where intelligent life blossomed there were usually excessive deposits of the means of travel across space. Some called it intelligent design. Others called it coincidence.  Jello didn’t speak.  Quivering was its sole means of communication and such ideas didn’t seem to have a place in a glutinous body of desire and need with loosely linked purpose and telekinetic capabilities.

February Morning

Another miracle morning.  Awakening. Gilbert whimpering at the door.  Needs to be let out.  I dress before following.  No rain.  Not like yesterday's downpours but not like the day before sunshine.  Just a dreary February morning with low hanging clouds obscuring the mountains.  The air is fresh though . Spring fresh with sea air scents and sounds of seagulls overhead.  There's spring in the air.  I saw my first crocus on Sunday.  Promises of summer and heat returning. Reading Peter Newman's Company of Adventurers there are bits of journals from the 17th and 18th century by Churchill.  42 foot walls and alcohol that freezes.  This is the horror of the north, post scurvy.  When drinking pine tea keeps one's teeth from falling out but the winter freezing 80 below temperatures are perhaps a bit better than the flies and mosquitoes of spring and summer that block the sun and filling the nose and throat.  What horrible  conditions to live in and I'm whining with a bit of chill and drizzle.  I lived in Churchill even stayed in igloos but was thankful for my modern parka and off course the mosquito repellent I smeared myself with all spring, summer and fall.  Here, the cold is English in it's chill and the rain no more deplorable than Scotland.  We're just another northern clime habitable and growing more so with global warming apparently.
It's another day.  I'm thankful for these, more with age. I take less for granted. Pleased with health and friendship.  I'm glad to work. I've devoted my life to work and sacrificed so much to study and knowledge.  I've served and been served in my living, breathing and imbibing my profession and career.  It's consumed me and been all consuming.  The times changing and knowledge suspect, work abhorred, learning denigrated. Politics is all.  We huddle in groups of insiders and outsiders. It's high school all over again.  But we are the teachers. The principal and vice principals are somewhere in our midst but even they know that that Death is above all.  I'm am seeking God while there is time.  A life spent healing bodies and minds I prepare to meet my maker.  This third of life a legal mire of last minute shenanigans with the real wonder of what lies beyond.  This can't be all despite the propagandists. I wake each morning and it's the most powerful metaphor for life after death ever to be given. But those that deny and lie and lie and lie won't even accept their daily resurrection. Mine's a blessing though I wonder when the rapture will come. I'm such a heathen and my work undone.  So long I've thought that this life of being a healer and forgiver was a product of a last life's karma where I 'm convinced I must have slaughtered many to necessitate the patience and fortitude I've demonstrated this time round.  Orubunga.  My ass bit by myself and I'm so quick to say I'm not the biter. Such a silly world we living in.  DNA shows our differences as minuscule but everyone celebrates the smallest variation of uniforms like adolescent girls.
I'm the fool and the king of my own existence. I'm the alpha and omega, Jesus says in Revelation. I am all says God.  I'm reading A Secular Age by  Charles Taylor and the history of the Picts.  It's the new Pax Americana and I'm fascinated by the parallel concerns of empires and how those who are beurocrats and others in the grand scheme lack any vision of the whole thinking their details upper most.  I'm  at least away of what is above my pay grade and know I'm the gnat on the elephants ass scream left , right, left and then taking credit for a turn in the path.  We spend such time bowing to other gnats. Significantly significant insignificantly significant.  Free will in the determinism of fate.  My thoughts a voice over on this cartoon of life. The real world that other place of dreams where I gather in groups with ancients, young and old and meditate.  There are picnics there and flying.  I had a boat there last night. Unusual craft, rested hidden beneath the surface only to come above when I put on full throttle, then sank beneath the surface when I stopped.  I believed my computer was water proof yet when I went to work in the morning the office computer mother board suddenly died. The ins and outs having strange Carl Jungian synchronicities.
But I must live in 'group think', the shallowest of Kardashian reality tv pleasure seeking pain avoiding status revelling money grubbing hollywood sensationalism. If I step outside this world even a tad there is a scream and I'm surrounded by the aliens of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. So many of us identify with zombie movies. Those are the road rage incurring fools we meet daily on the road without the rocket launchers of Falling Down.  Vampire wars with Buffy as protagonist are celebration of light and dark encounters.  The 'Lightness of Being,' the great Chzeck novel comes to mind as with ever greater lightness we leave the gravity and seriousness of pompous pretensions.
I'm am drinking coffee and boiling eggs.  Todays sustenance for the morning.  It's a wonder of the modern world that I have produce from half the globe away and fresh farm fare when I want it.  I 've heat in the form of propane and diesel and light from electricity, clothing from a variety of sources and will walk to a car that joins a veritable hoard going into the city where more and more create and play.  Industries devoted Xboxs and entertainment.  There is so much leisure for so many. Though I work 60 sometimes 80 hours a week the average work week is 30. On the books its 40 but I'm talking billable hours and those in major corporations and government have extraordinary benefits and pensions that kings could not afford a hundred years past.
Last year I studied in Mexico, Athens and Florida and visited Ottawa for family.  Thousands of miles on jet planes alone travelling with my little cockapoo, Gilbert on a West Jet.  Other than that I was sailing in the straits, driving into Northern BC and back and forth to Seattle.  99% of people, as Buckminster Fuller was fond of saying, travelled no more than a hundred miles from their birthplace at the turn of the 20th century. Jared Diamond in his latest book about Traditionl Societies describes the tribal folk as killing all strangers and avoiding change because of superstition and safety.  Today I am meeting strangers daily and haven't killed a one while I've friends I've known since childhood and regret I have so little time from work to enjoy their company.
it's a truly amazing world we live in. My little dog greets the day with enthusiasm.  We've walked.  I've meditated and he's napped again.  Now there are eggs and a shower and fresh clothes and the invariably rush to get to work.  Thank you Jesus for this day.  May the God of all saints be celebrated in all today. May I remember always that I'm creation and co creator but not the centre of the universe or the end.  I am beginning. I am process.  Jesus is alpha and omega.  Today I'll be a good Tuesday hopefully.  Praise and thanksgiving. Help me be more forgiving and loving and wise and serve you and all I meet with greater tenderness and respect.  Thank you for this day.