The Gwen pt. 5 The Void

by | Apr 12, 2021 | Fiction | 140 comments

The Void

 

(memory access2552) As a child I read sci fi, all the classics, Niven and Pournelle, Heinlein, and wanted to take my place among the stars, but me as a ne’er do well in a rich family, Pops was already pissed I didn’t at least  join the Military, A hereditary Rank looks good on the Family Seal, but that wasn’t to be. After I met Gwendy and started school in earnest, he became more receptive to my ideas (close memory access) . A strange sensation comes over me, like a mind probe, as if I’m being picked apart…..

 “Weapons, stop cutting, this thing isn’t happy” Sir? “ just stop, since when did my orders become optional?” Aye Cap.

 Telepathy of some sort, it had to be, it showed me how to unlock it’s Chrysalis, Their term, in our language, I think, then it showed me the Bridge, I was stunned, it was built for Humanoids!

It didn’t understand WTF? At first, but as I learned how to communicate with it ,it  understood and appeared to laugh, if you could call a High pitched squeal laughter. It told me we were taking a voyage, that we would learn, and share our knowledge with our worlds, and that this was the only way, and gave me a choice…

 Cap! You’re Alive!  Bless me the Guds! “ Get me Tycho, tightbeam, as soon as we clear”

But Cap, you’ve been dead for 2 days,  now it was my time to ask WTF? I spoke with it for 10 minutes, no more, Dead? I feel quite fine, but no time for this nonsense, 

 “Tycho, this is Yusef Adama, Captain of the UMC Gwen, declaring Right of Salvage for the Black, we have hard dock and full control, there is a life form aboard, and they want to take us for a ride, I’m taking them up on the offer, and suggest you don’t try to stop me”

 Adama, what’s going on out there? No comm for 2 months, now this? You know Your Father wants us to revoke your charter right? “Dick, we have been friends for a long time, this may change our entire worlds, just tell Dad I’ll make him proud, and rich beyond his wildest dreams, Yusef out”

 (memory access 2552) It has no name, nor a concept, I ask it questions and get muddied, vague answers, then it happened,(close memory access)

“Well I’ll be Damned, Boys, I think we’re FTL, or close, look at the stars” ahead, the Universe was shifted, Red to Blue, and were in a tunnel, twisting through the Void,

To be continued

 

About The Author

Yusef drives a Kia

Yusef drives a Kia

Punctually illiterate But never late

140 Comments

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      some real pretty Redheads, Thanks Q,

    • kinnath

      31 is still my favorite

    • DEG

      No face diapers. Good.

      Both are good galleries, but I think the redhead one is superior.

    • Ownbestenemy

      19/24/31…ok just any with those damn cute freckles. Let those shine ladies! They are adorable!

  1. Yusef drives a Kia

    in other news, after work I Played some Temporal Disc Golf today, I hit a personal best of 242 Light years, but my buddy Mark spun his disc up and hit light speed, 300 Light years! Now that’s Golf right there,

  2. DEG

    As a child I read sci fi, all the classics, Niven and Pournelle, Heinlein,

    🙂

    I pick up a Clarke’s “2001” vibe from a few parts of this entry.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      I developed a nuance for this Tale, didn’t intend to to, but You’ll see,

      • DEG

        OK. I’ll keep reading.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Think Comic book,

      • DEG

        I used to have a subscription to “Heavy Metal”. I let it lapse because I thought it started to go downhill when they changed the format to have lots more little stories and no more big series.

      • Bobarian LMD

        I’ve got a box somewhere around the house with original issues 1-24 of that.

        Fucking great stuff.

      • DEG

        Whoa! That’s long before I got my subscription.

      • Bobarian LMD

        I think my Uncle actually bought them, but I would read them right away and ended up with them in my comic collection.

      • Chafed

        That’s got to be worth some decent money to a collector.

      • Bobarian LMD

        They’ve been read a lot, so not in great condition, which really kills the value.

        A mint #1 is worth $100, last I looked, but mine was probably $10-20.

  3. Hank

    OK, as I understand they’re travelling with a giant telepathic space-insect of unknown intentions, to an unknown destination.

    Forgive me if I missed the nuances, but the concept seems intriguing.

    • Hank

      Now, there’s plenty of friendly aliens in sci-fi, plenty of “*you’re* the aliens!” twists…but insect-aliens, according to the literature, don’t always have a human-friendly reputation. And I’m not sure I like the odds with these particular insects. But that could merely be xenophobia.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        You’ll see, I’m writing a Pulp tale, Space Opera, the twists will come, hope you enjoy it,

      • Bobarian LMD

        Best Giant Space Insect?

        Lexx or Moya?

      • Bobarian LMD

        Up to the observer. Lexx can destroy a planet, but Moya had a lot better stories and characters on board.

      • Chafed

        Moya. She also had a far more interesting crew.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      I’m just getting started, the Concepts……

    • Hank

      Hey, it worked!

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Who wrote for him? Fredrick, I forget, he was big,

  4. pistoffnick

    Needs more sex.

    Or maybe I need more sex.

    IDFK

    Thanks for the trip, Yusef.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Not done yet, sex included, Don’t Forget Kerry, my Sexbot, I don’t,

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        /Based on a Real Woman,

  5. Ownbestenemy

    Thanks Yusef. I got ideas in my head but too chickenshit to put them down and submit. Enjoying your read. Mondays are awesome here. Off to make some smashed burgers and fries.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Yummy! enjoy Brother Glib!

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Rolling Static X, Bad Boyz!

  6. LJW

    Looks like there’s gonna be more rioting tonight…

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      It’s America

  7. Yusef drives a Kia

    In too local news, I have enough Manistee Players to try to start a Club, we are OK, and ready to represent, should be fun ,
    Represent!

  8. Brochettaward

    The Bro hurt his back. But The Bro must press on. There’s always some new, young and hungry Firster coming up for me. I can never rest. Never sleep soundly.

    • UnCivilServant

      So what actually happened to you back?

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Damn, hope your OK, Back pain suck’s

  9. Hank

    You can be nostalgic about *anything* –

    “Bill, a young boy living on the outskirts of London experiences the exhilaration of World War II. During this period, Bill learns about sex, death, love, hypocrisy, and the faults of adults as he prowls the ruins of bombed houses.”

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093209/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

    • blackjack

      Can I be nostalgic for the future?

      • blackjack

        Because I really miss the things that might happen then.

    • DEG

      I have a vague memory of seeing that movie.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Boorman… Boorman… why does that name sound familiar…?

      (?)

      • rhywun

        LOL it actually did sound familiar and then I remembered.

    • Q Continuum

      “Bill learns about sex[…]as he prowls the ruins of bombed houses.”

      I’ve seen that one on PornHub.

      • Hank

        Incidentally, I have my own guess as to what those Pacman-ghost eyes of yours are supposed to resemble, but maybe I simply have a dirty mind.

      • Chafed

        The pupils would need to point up for you to be right.

    • rhywun

      Post WWII lit was some of my favorite in German class. Depressing AF.

      • Brochettaward

        Well, they kind of had it coming to them.

      • Hank

        But did poor rhywun have it coming?

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Great flick; was on TCM the other day.

    • Tres Cool

      Still the best Bruno.
      And a cameo by Luiz whats-his-name

  10. straffinrun

    Very oddball in a good way.

  11. straffinrun

    Got around to seeing the witness testimony from yesterday in the Chauvin trial. It’s been a parade of slime balls that, to me, appear to clearly have an agenda to push. Also, everyone has their own quirks, but these expert witnesses are showing traits which are quite repulsive. Motivated thinking on my part? Maybe, but I don’t really care if Chauvin gets fried.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Meanwhile Life goes on in America, No one really gives a Shit, trust me my Japanese Exile friend, we are Alright tonight

      • Hank

        What’s that word which sounds better than “exile”? Expatriate. Sounds more sophisticated.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I’ll stick with Exile, sounds more Glib, and cool,

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      In a sane world, there is more than enough reasonable doubt to sweep murder and manslaughter charges away. Maybe Chavin is a first-class dirtbag, I do not really have enough information to lean me one way or another. However, there is not enough evidence to firmly establish that he was even the primary cause of St. George’s death.

      • straffinrun

        I may be wrong, but I think they only have to show his actions were a contributing factory (and, of course, that his actions weren’t lawful).

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        He worked to the existing procedure, he gets off, the City pays, nothing new…..

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        I dunno, I think given the information regarding the toxicology report creates enough doubt, to my lay eyes, that there is a greater than 0% chance that he died because he decided to eat an inhuman quantity of drugs because he didn’t want to get arrested for possession (Standard Libertarian Disclaimer re: War on Drugs) vs. what the police did or did not do.

      • straffinrun

        People want to see that Chauvin kneeling on him at a minimum contributed to his death. The prosecution has “experts” saying he wouldn’t have died were it not for the restraint. Reasonable doubt doesn’t really have anything to do with it because if the jury feels he’s guilty, they won’t care about what amount of doubt they have.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        That was what my qualifier, “in a sane world,” was about.

      • Gustave Lytton

        I’d caveat that the standard is reasonable doubt not no doubt.

      • straffinrun

        They aren’t gonna let Chauvin walk if they are more than 50% sure he’s guilty.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Yeah. What OBJ said above too.

      • Grumbletarian

        Do you think that Floyd would have died at the same time and in the same manner as he did even if nobody had been around? I have to admit I find that a stretch.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Over-charged. Does MN have a reckless indifference statute, or is that covered in Murder 3?

      • straffinrun

        Minnesota has some weird standard for felonious murder, but I don’t remember exactly.

  12. Yusef drives a Kia

    Fuck I’m tired, see you all in 5 hours, sleep for me,

    • UnCivilServant

      Good night, and thanks for reminding me, I need some sleep too.

  13. The Bearded Hobbit

    Helping the wife make the bed tonight

    “Hope you have a restful night!”

    Gotta love a woman with a sense of humor. I haven’t had a restful night in so long that I have no idea what one is.

    I call the bedroom “the torture chamber”. Here in a bit I will take off my clothes and lay in darkness until the sun comes up.

    Insomnia sucks.

    • Hank

      Oh, dear, I’m sorry to hear that.

      • The Bearded Hobbit

        I’ve been in a foul mood all day and I don’t know why. I can’t blame lack of sleep because it is a normal condition. Maybe my biorhythms are off or something.

        Sorry about the vent.

        Onward through the fog with Oat Willie.

    • Chafed

      Sorry Hobbit. Though I will point out if your clothes are off and the wife’s clothes are off….

  14. J. Frank Parnell

    https://twitter.com/TitaniaMcGrath/status/1381603353952681988

    UPDATE FOR WHITE PEOPLE

    Attraction to black people is racist.

    Attraction to mixed race people is fetishising their proximity to whiteness.

    Marrying a black person is minority sex slavery.

    BUT only sleeping with other whites is sexual racism.

    This really isn’t difficult.

    • Chafed

      That would be hilarious if wasn’t completely true.

    • Tejicano

      I’m sure they have a set of rules like this for Asians just as certainly as I DGAF. If anybody ever voiced something like this in my presence they had better be comfortable with me being about an inch away from their face in a foul mood and expressing my opinion.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Oh, with the Asian victim narrative growing, that version is already here.

      • Tejicano

        I know that train left the station long ago. I ran into this “whiteboy wants a submissive Asian wife” attitude decades ago from a lefty white female. Luckily somebody else stepped in and shut her down before I got rude.

      • slumbrew

        submissive Asian wife

        *thinks of buddy’s Taiwanese wife, starts laughing hysterically*

      • Gustave Lytton

        Not just white chicks. Also ABCs and equivalents.

      • Tejicano

        What’s funny is how they usually back off when they hear me speaking with my wife in Japanese – which I’ve never bothered to parse exactly what they think that changes about it all.

      • Hank

        I haven’t been married to any asian or asian-American women, but those I’ve met, married or single, have never struck me as submissive.

        I think that certain feminists think of assertiveness as meaning “behaving like a neurotic lunatic,” and so any woman who *doesn’t* behave that way isn’t being assertive, ergo she’s submissive. Ergo, a man who doesn’t want his wife to be a neurotic lunatic must be in search of a submissive doormat, QED.

        It’s like guys who think women who want a man who’s solvent are “too materialistic.”

      • Hank

        I prefer the words of John Donne (or is it Andrew Marvell?):

        Girls are fakin’, goodness-sakin’
        They want a man who brings home the bacon
        You got no money and you got no car
        You got no woman, and there you are

      • Tejicano

        Ha ha ha! If you did the financials on my wife and on me you would think that I was the gold-digger. Not that I don’t pull my own weight and together we put away a nice little nest egg but she has been set up quite nicely by her parents.

    • Tejicano

      “BLAM! Whoopsies! Where’d I put that taser?”

      I’m hoping they don’t believe this is in any way something in the direction of an excuse.

      • straffinrun

        It was an honest mistake.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Well…

        I have grabbed the wrong test leads, used the wrong probes, inserted RF into the wrong port (I know…euphemisms/phrasing), reached into areas of high voltage, etc in stressful situations. Police shouldn’t fail this bad, but it happens and it is overall shitty if this ends up being the case. Shitty for the dead, shitty for the cop that thought they were just jolting a dude.

      • Ownbestenemy

        To note – if I did any of those above that resulted in death, I would lose my job and possible be under investigation if I followed my safety procedures and the technical manuals. That cop and her life is over at this point unless she moves to an island that she owns.

      • rhywun

        Well, she’s probably innocent of the greater sin of racism than, you know, killing a person.

      • Gender Traitor

        Nah! If she’s white (I haven’t checked,) she’s GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY!!!

    • Plinker762

      San Fran all over again.

  15. hayeksplosives

    It’s 12:30 AM, April 13. I’m in my husband’s hospital room. His night nurse his me here after visiting hours were over at 8:00pm.

    She’s a good nurse; she wants him to go home to recover. She knows he didn’t sleep well after I left at 11:30 pm last night. He woke up confused again this morning, not hallucinating or combative but just not helping contribute to the cause of leaving. He just won’t eat more than a spoon of anything; feels like hurling if he does. So they won’t take the feeding tube out of his nose. It’s a catch 22.

    He thought he was going to get to go home today (confused again), but he won’t eat and apparently he refused his physical therapy this morning since he was too tired. He regressed apparently in his tests too. Can’t tell the difference between a point like a pencil or a pressure of a finger on his left leg.

    This is uncharted territory for me. Every hour he wakes up I cajole him to eat one more bite of applesauce or a saltine. He’s like a 3 year old who won’t eat. But otherwise he makes sense, comments on the NFL network etc.

    I don’t want to come across as needy; I’m not looking for comments. This is acting as my diary.

    I am pretty sure life as I knew it is over. I wonder what this new chapter will bring?

    I’m very glad not to be living in the tundra anymore. No ice for us.

    They want me here for physical therapy today so I can see for myself. They want him in a “skilled nursing facility.” I do not. I have to get him home if I’m going to continue working and not leave him in “lockdown.”

    Diary worked; I’m about to nod off. Night all.

    • hayeksplosives

      Well, so much for that. I was just about to fall asleep when his heart zoomed to 130 bpm in the middle of his sleep. Now there is a flurry of activity.

      Apparently a-fib is pretty common after the surgery he had. But they just said “junctional tachycardia”’ so I asked to see the ekg plot. (Not forcefully, just incidentally.) The nurse is really never going to let me leave now because I asked some pertinent questions about heart rhythm and signals.

      Nice not to be in the dark. Unprovoked heart racing is Not terribly reassuring though.

      • Gender Traitor

        hay, I tried to send you an e-mail yesterday just to alert you that Tom T had finally weighed on in the guitar-as-PT issue (not until after 5 p.m. EDT, Had his phone on “shaddup” and missed my text.) I may have sent my message to the wrong “dot” – realized I didn’t know if you were a “com” or a “net.” Sounds as if all that’s on the back burner at the moment, though. His $0.02 is back there in yesterday morning’s links. I sincerely hope you get back to the point where you need the info ASAP. Take care!

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Shit. I hope the setback is brief.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I should have refreshed…

        I hope it’s treatable with Xarelto (as a relative of mine with tachycardia takes) or similar.

        You must be sleeping very little.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        (I myself am here because of insomnia; Hobbit is correct that it sucks.)

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        How about a Body clock that won’t let me sleep past 4 AM, no matter what time I go to bed, and nowadays I just run, miles and miles……

    • Sean

      *hugs HE*

    • rhywun

      Oh no 🙁
      Nose tube is the worst. I got kind of delirious after a couple days of that last summer.

  16. Yusef drives a Kia

    Tuesday, Hello my Glibs Friends, is it too early to say nice Day?

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Sunrise at 7, eh? So probably yes. Oh look, snow for you Thursday.

      Debating either Benadryl or doing quiet Stuff.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Snow? Don’t say that around here, We are happy with the rain, I hate Snot,
        How’s it going T?

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Snot, the Wet snow that Manistee just leaves on the roads for us to slip around on,

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Remember, 1 task at a time, don’t look at the big mess all the time, bite off chunks,

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        The Cilantro is going in next week, we’ll see how it does, thanks again, I haven’t forgotten,

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Oh good!

  17. Yusef drives a Kia

    39$ gas bill for last month, that ain’t bad, in Cali it would be 150$

  18. Yusef drives a Kia

    And thanks to you guys that actually read my Comic book, I hope you enjoy it, I think it’s a fun romp through
    the Stars,

  19. Yusef drives a Kia

    Back at Mycopia, hey T, it may snow later, buts a clear sky dawn, a gorgeous day ahead, ha!

    • Gender Traitor

      Partly cloudy and a predicted high of 66 degrees American down here today. No precipitation in the forecast until “drizzle” Thursday.

      Hope you can skip the flakes and get in a good golf round today, Yu! (TO’G, I hope you’re finally getting some ZZZZZZZs!)

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Thanks. No (obvs) but I do like the quiet of the middle of the night. “We all feel better in the dark.”

      • Gender Traitor

        A song for you. A particular favorite of mine – one I’ve been able to relate to off and on through the years.

  20. Yusef drives a Kia

    Peace out for now Mein Froinds,
    I serve the mushroom, it beckons…

  21. Gender Traitor

    Well, crap! If sufficiently pressured into it by my employer, this is the one I’d have held out for. Fortunately, so far that hasn’t been an issue, even though I’m the one who runs around taking everyone’s temperature every morning and thus am in contact with everyone in the building.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Yeah, it sounded the least bad.

  22. Sean

    https://www.rt.com/news/520836-hospitality-protest-rome-covid-lockdown/

    Hundreds of protesters have traveled to Rome from all over Italy to vent their fury at Prime Minister Mario Draghi and his government’s strict Covid-19 measures, which are making life tough for small businesses like restaurants.

    At least one protester was injured as a 500-strong crowd gathered in the capital on Monday, some of whom hurled stones and bottles at police, while others let off fireworks, Rome-based newspaper Il Messaggero reported.