Forest dreams

I woke twice from sleep last night. Somewhere around 4 am I woke from a dream in which I was in Fort Garry on the recess ground of Viscount Alexander. I was a 30 years younger.  We were talking and walking and looking up we saw sleek long war planes in groups of three, thin, barracuda shaped.  I had my old Nikon and was about to take a picture when Marion tried to stop me. The planes passed but a warthog type army machine passed in front of our group. I took a picture of them and they stopped so I walked over and showed them my camera offering the SIM card. « Nice camera, » the fellow said and took it.  I was naive and we’d all been supportive but this camera incident seemed to undermine my patriotism. 

Later I’d come across an older man saying a younger woman was having trouble orgasming and he was trying to help her.  She was rubbing her clitoris furiously and he was there offering assistance.  I was passing by and wondered what this dream had to to with the futuristic war planes and war machines.  It’s all metaphor.

I always thought Marion was sophisticated, early as a mother, learned to protect her children  and foliage.  I was always idealistic, a dreamer, a poet, an adventurer, healer, explorer. I didn’t relate well to those men who needed to win, who wanted to be number one and would cheat or kill for that.  I liked a good game but didn’t lust for dominance.  Like most people I was happy enough.  I remember the crowd of us looking up at the barracuda air machines.  We were like that vast playground and playmates. I was often fighting mostly defensive. We were boys then.  The old men were competing for world dominion.  Paranoid I suppose.

I imagined my war machines were for off world war. I’d read Foundation by Isaac Asimov as a young man and recently begun watching the series on Prime tv. I was reading sci fi book of men fighting in the future, a group of men called the ‘dog’.  Not a very good book, I’m skimming.  I liked the discussions of healing medicine and futuristic care in found in the Jungle in the book but the fighting and killing is terribly repetitive. The science fi is the romance with man and EI and new baby being born for some future superhuman cyborg race.  I finished the history of Iran and the war themes and dominance and fighting dominated .  The Irag Iran war of Iman Khomeini and Sadda Hussein was interesting as I’d forgotten that and now must wonder about the failure of Saddam Hussein in that war and his later defeat by the Americans.  One could think the CIA had put him up to that for the Iranian oil which the British and the Americans were into .  Around the same time Iran nationalized it’s oil fields from Britain, Pierre Trudeau, the communist, was nationalized the Canadian Oil Fields from the province of Alberta and giving the profits to Quebec which was hoarding it’s own hydro electric power and selling it for profit to the US.  The media story was always what seemed like a fairy tale version for the low brow. The reality was far more complex.  

Meanwhile I’m in heaven. This forest is like the old forest of Vancouver Island, the forest that Emily Carr made famous with her painting. The northern rain forest with moss and fungus and ancient plants and evergreens.  It’s been raining while we’ve been here.  Drizzling or spitting. No sun. I made a fire yesterday.  Madigan wasn’t whining for Laura last night so we had a good sleep. I was up at 4 am for the dream but then fell back to sleep.  I remember enjoying feeling a stiff morning hard on and thinking the apparatus is still functional but then Laura was asleep .  

I prayed instead. Our father prayers.  Thy will be done prayers.   Morning prayers and falling back asleep to luscious dreams.  Madigan began windging and whining at 7 am our normal wakening time. I’m now on my first coffee and will have to walk up to see if I can get another day her at Alice Lake Provincial Campground.  Though there are empty sites, reservations aren’t available, only day by day for this spot.  I had an idea of swimming thinking the cold water would be good for my aging body, invigorating, but without the sun I’ve been loathe to get in the lake and swim. Walking Madigan often and throwing the ball is all I can manage. I’ve barbecued at night and Laura has made sandwiches in the day.  We’ve read.  It’s been truly relaxing. No tv. No calls. No wifi.  A smidgeon. We get messages but can’t phone out or load pages but we get a little bit of the outside world .There seems a ‘bit’ of wifi and a ‘bit’ of cell service at times . I ordered a booster for wifi and for longer trips this summmer will take my Starlink.  The Starlink Satelite wouldn’t work here because there’s too much foliage ‘obstacle’.   It will take some choosing of the space setting up to get it right.  I like the challenge looking forward to adding the wings lift to carry the motorcycle or towing the quad. I’d meant to bring the folding electric bike but if I’d remembered I’d not have had the long walks with Madigan.  I need to lose weight and I’m out of shape.  This whole camping thing so far has been terrific for that with so much movement compared to my being at my desk at home and watching tv at night. I walk the dog and swim but this outdoor thing is not pavement and there’s just a lot of moving and lifting and pulling.  Healthy.

Oh well another coffee and I’ll get back to reading.  If we can stay I’ll make another fire and use up the wood i have today.  It’s actually supposed to be sunny so a swim may yet happen. 

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

The Young Ones, (Bad Land: Road to Fury) movie

The Young Ones, directed by Jake Paltrow is a western science fiction movie released in 2014 but which just came out on Netflix.  We watched this Irish South African production last night and really enjoyed the spaghetti western with a twist flavour.  Placed in the future after a drought farmers struggle with the lack of water and the high cost of irrigation. I thought the movie was about the American Mid West. It has that John Steinbeck 30’s barrenness about it.  Characterization is its strength.  The young rebel without a cause character takes the old man with an achilles heal’s land and daughter. But his son sees through the deceit.  A classic Western of the  Louis L’Amour genre unfolds.  It’s a Shakespearean plot.  But the robot that replaces the donkey keeps the whole show grounded in the future. I loved the robot wagon.  The injured mother is further able to walk because of modern robotic assistance. But the gun is an over and under, rifle and shot gun, not dissimilar to one I’ve owned myself.  Laura and I were mesmerized by the movie, loving it to the inevitable but twisting intriguing end.
Nicholas Hoult  plays Flem Lever the motorcycle riding woman’s man bad guy with a gift for character transformation like that of Jack Nicholson.. He starts out as a misguided youth and evolves to a truly psychopathic character whose reasoning and words are so believable yet not.
Elle Fanning plays the daughter, Mary Holms in a totally believable way.  Early her character is so down to earth and adolescent it holds together the family that is spiralling out of control with events of the day. But her tour de force performance  in the ending shows a grit as great as Nicole Kidman’s frontier women portrayals.
Michael Shannon plays the father Ernest Holm, whose achilles heel is alcohol. It’s cost his wife her legs but she still loves him deeply.  It will be his undoing but he tries desperately to fight against this disease, his personal demon, in a quiet wholly believable way.
Aimee Mullins plays the mother Katherine Holms.  Despite her invalidism and the futuristic high tech solution she comes across as almost saintly.  Amazing personal actress.
Kodi Smit-McPhee plays the son Jerome Holm and is quite simply amazing.  He is the movie. His characterization and transformation and Hitchcock surprise developments and twists make this a movie of all time. He is like a young Laurence Olivier or Richard Burton. A man for all seasons.  Still waters run deep.
The rest of the cast were excellent and the unHollywood European pace was superb.  The stark otherworldliness of Giles Nuttgens cinematography will probably haunt me.

Jake Paltrow is a great writer.      

Star Trek - Into Darkness

I saw Star Trek - Into the Darkness last night at the Silvercity Coquitlam VIP 3d theatre.  I'm a trekky but even if I wasn't I think I'd love this movie. The characterization and relationships were as good as the visuals and action scenes.  I was tele transported to a galaxy far far away.  What I loved most was the young new characters who seemed almost like they were the grandsons and granddaughters of the old cast. Incredibly refreshing.  Chris Pine made a great Kirk.  Zachary Quinto was perfect as Spock.  Zoe Saldana was a new generations heartthrob Uhuru.  Benedict Cumberbatch was a major intellectual improvement on the old Khan.  I loved the slickness of this show. There was a lot of brawn and bashing in the original Star Trek.  Chris Hatfield is a real astronaught and these new series of characters are in a way like him, athletic, lean, but sensitive and very intelligent.  The women were naturally gorgeous with character. Simon Pegg was priceless as Scotty and Karl Urban was a really good Bones.  Anton Yelchin made Chekov shine as did John Cho as Sulu. Alice Eve was definitely brilliant candy while Peter Weller was thoroughly believable as Marcus.  Bruce Greenwood was a perfect Pike. He's a consumate actor and his eyes appear 3d without my even wearing the glasses.
I love Star Trek and I loved this glorious romp. Hats off to writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman and the genius J.J. Abrams. The audience was very old and old with lots of young and very young.  Makes me think that Star Trek will be coming to us until we actually meet the Vulcans and Virgin gets beyond tourist space hops and actually takes us to the stars.
After the movie I got on my Harley Electraglide with 1600 power beneath me and loved the ride.  It could only be improved on with a hover function like one of the great city machines in the movie.  Now that would be even more cool.  It always astounds me that the world I'm living in today with internet, cell phones, jet flight, international space stations, missiles and solar power is all 'science fiction' of my childhood with Dick Tracy communicators and all the other innovations we have today but take for granted.

Star Trek

I am of a generation that embraced space travel as children. At my childhood birthday party we had space cadet hats. Star Trek, Captain Kirk and Spock were all part of that. The race for space with the Russians. The One small step for man. I was at 1967 Montreal world fair and the Russian space ship was the attraction as much as Buckie Fuller's geodesic dome. NASA was all things scientific and genius.
I've seen all the Star Trek movies. I've always liked the philosophy. Exploration without interference. Some one asked if Star Wars compared and really, no. It's a war story whereas Star Trek has always been Discovery. It was 90000 leagues under the sea in space. It was Columbus and yes there were fights but the fights weren't as important as 'going where no man had gone before.'
So I've got my tickets to Into  Darkness, the latest offering. I've enjoyed all the television shows from Captain Kirk, (Star Trek - the Original Series)  to Captain Picard (Star Trek - the Next Generation)  to Captain Janeaway (Star Trek - Voyageur)  and I 'm sorry I forget the name of the really good looking captain. (ah--Jonathan Archer) .  I liked Deep Space Nine but it's a whole different experience to the ships.  I liked the xenoraces   in that Enterprise Star Trek series.
Of them all I've loved Seven of Nine and the Borg most.   What a powerful metaphor!  The Betazoid are another metaphor, the intuitive counsellor. And the great Scottish engineer. Then the hologram doctor. I liked the gorgeous woman doctor of the Picard  series too but most of all I liked Bones of  Captain Kirk era. I'm most a fan of Kirk and Picard but I like the Janeaway and Chicote too.
There's the flying apartment building theme  with Data, the crew and all the different species they encounter and have a board. It's got a kind of 'Friends' tv flavour to it. At times the humor, especially with Spock and Data, is Seinfeld at it's best.
Q is fabulous: a god gone rogue.
And so many of the Star Trek series are explorations of the ethics and ideas of science and philosophy and even theology.  The movie really celebrates diversity and tolerance. The paramilitary 'ship captain' theme appeals to me as a 'ship's captain' but it doesn't translate well outside to the greater world.  That's a limitation and an asset.
Oh well, I've got the tickets for the first weekend of this latest Star Trek movie. The movies have been always stupendous. I'm teletransported. My imagination is stretched. I'm excited.
Already friends and family have gone and are waxing poetic. Everyone is afraid to tell because there's so much mystery and suspense. I've avoided trailers and such. I'm going to see this free of influence.
Just me and my love of all the folk who bring me Star Trek , the ultimate space wagon train.

Addendum - the movie was spectacular!!!!!!!!  Best part is the cast was like the blood grand children of the originals.

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Farscape

I have been thoroughly enjoying the television series, Farscape, from Netflix. It's an Australian science fiction television series that's a weird mix of Startrek, Dr. Who and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It was created by Rockne O'Bannon, directed by Tony Tilse, Rowan Woods, Geoff Bennett, Ian Watson, Andrew Prowse and others. The writers include O'Bannon, Kemper, Monjo, Manning and more. Ben Browder is the central character, a space shuttle scientist whose experiment propells his craft through a worm hole into a distant galaxy. There he is rescued by criminals of different species. Virginia Hey, a gorgeous model, plays a blue priestess. Claudia Black who was so outstanding as an actress in Stargate plays a renegade peace keeper in this series. Jonathan Hardy plays Dominar, more comic relief, as a de throned dwarf. Lani John Tupu who is also a very weird looking dude, plays the pilot of the organic ship. Anthony Simcoe plays an odd cross between Warf of StarTrek and a Viking raider. Other characters naturally participate in this amazing visual display of iconic characters and surreal backdrops akin to the Star Wars series. Farscape has the originality of all these best of Sci Fi features and has plots and sub plots that sustain each 50 minutes of sheer escapist entertainment. Well done!


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Space Doctor

Space Doctor is a novel by Lee Correy published as a Del rey book by Ballantine Books in 1981. It's the story of the first solar energy array in space done as an industrial project, no different from other industrial projects like the South American oil pipe lines.  What's amazing about this story is that it begins with a country doctor, friend of the magnate entrepreneur whose privately developing the overall project.  The doctor is approached as a friend to build and man the first industrial space hospital with paradmedics and nurses for the high man power site.  I was fascinated as a doctor reading this book having not thought of so many of the obvious problems that can arise in 'space medicine'.  In an emergency in weightlessness the doctor can't get the bubbles out of the syringe, just for an example.  When he goes to intubate the patient, they fly in opposite directions.  To get to an emergency industrial explosion site the paramedics have to go through each of the locks in the complex all resulting in too much time lost to save the lives of the welders.  The story is written as fiction and moves like episodes of ER.  It's the backdrop to the exciting reading that's fascinating and so realistic. I kept thinking that this should be on the required reading list for every medical student, nurse and paramedic today even though it was written thirty years ago. All that's somewhat outdated are the medications used. Otherwise the book is a beginner's guide to frontier medicine at it's finest. Nothing in Star Trek or Star Wars came close to addressing the essence of the industrial and occupational medicine considerations as well as this book does.  Not surprisingly Lee Correy is the pseudonym for G. Harry Stine, a rocket pioneer, futurist and expert on space industrialization. Having read some of the research papers from NASA by psychiatrists and psychologists regarding colour and sound I was really impressed to read these very ideas being addressed in the 'wardroom" of this first 'space hospital'.  It's a great story but it also raises all the issues doctors will have to contend with when doing surgery, deliveries, and handling emergencies in space.  I enjoyed to the conflict with beaurocrats, regulators, the struggles with project finance, the problems arising from design errors.  All of it was just fascinating stuff with the background of space emergencies and tight quarter romance.

Containment

I downloaded Christian Cantrell's ebook Science Fiction thriller from Amazon kindle books for 99c to read on my iPad. I feel "almost" like I should send someone the full price of a hardcover, now that I've read it. it was that good of a read. At 99c it's an unbelievably great 'deal' .

Reviewers compared Cantrell to Azimov and Bradbury. It was that kind of well written engaging fast moving science fiction writing. I really liked how contemporary the politics and science were. The world is deteriorating so the Space Agency colonizes Venus and apparently that's what it's about to those dealing with the problems in the colony. However that's just the story within the much bigger and much more engaging real story. Terrific twists and turns with a bit of Enders Game thrown in.

I loved it and look forward to reading more Cantrell since I probably read all of Azimov and Bradbury years ago.


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Location:W 13th Ave,Vancouver,Canada

Pandorum

"This is from the same folk that made Resident Evil," she told me at Rogers Videos. Written by Travis Milloy and directed by Christian Alvert, starring Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster. I trusted the Rogers girl on science fiction and thrillers given her peircings and tattoos. I'm not sure she'd be as right on if I'd asked her for something to calm the kids. Pandorum was a thriller of a space ship city in space gone bedlam. Horror story, kick ass fights, skinheads gone real bad, mystery and lots of thriller with great twists. I was riveted. I've seen a lot of space movies. This was something different and worth the whole ride. What an ending. Incredible. Loved this movie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandorum

District 9

A patient whose opinion on movies I appreciate recommended this Science Fiction thriller movie to me last night. "I didn't know what it was going to be like from the beginning but then it turned out to be an incredible movie I can't stop thinking about." He told me. So I picked it up last night at BlockBusters Video and sat back to a distinctly different movie in the Science Fiction genre. This was no Star Wars or Armageddon but rather a very down to earth everyday people portrayal of a very different kind of alien invasion. What it spoke to in human terms was moving and profound. Metaphors galore in the great tradition of science fiction from masters like Heinlein. Yes it was a romp with high tech and exciting guns and soldiers and all that but the personal level as something very much more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_9