Earth
In the year 2136 CE, Hiram Eugene Gellar invented a mass-drive engine capable of tremendous power. The prototype Gellar Star Drive was a massive affair, combining thirty-meter-wide scoop with a mass converter tunnel. Gellar built his pioneering starship around his mass tunnel, and christened it the Lever de Soleil. The Gellar Drive not only generated tremendous power, its’ negative-energy drive field enabled ships to penetrate the subspace field barrier, resulting in trans-light speeds. Indeed, the nature of the mass-tunnel drive was such that a large ship could attain higher speeds than a small one.
Gellar’s first ship was a private yacht, and it was in the Lever de Soleil that the first interstellar jump was made by Gellar and his partner Edda Jean Fauvier. In 2138, they left Earth orbit for the Alpha Centauri system, returning fourteen days after their departure to report two rocky planets, supporting no life but holding a rich variety of mineral resources.
The Peebles Mining Company Inc. subsequently purchased the patent to the Gellar Star Drive for the record sum of 2.1 billion dollars. Gellar and Fauvier were married and retired to an estate in the south of France.
Within five years, the entire face of human life changed. Peebles swiftly re-organized as the Off-World Mining & Exploration, Ltd. and built the first commercially owned and operated Skyhook in Peru, providing an inexpensive transport of raw materials to low Earth orbit. From this base, a floating space-dock was built in high orbit. In this first major space-bound naval architectural platform was built the StarShip Blue Giant, a colossal mining and exploration ship built around a two-kilometer-long Gellar Star Drive tunnel.
The SS Blue Giant left Earth orbit late in 2165, with a crew of 16,000, 48 mining shuttles and a thousand tons of specialized mining equipment, bound for the Alpha system. Two other major mining ships and four smaller exploration craft were already under construction.
But the sensation caused by the ability to mine planets in other systems was quickly eclipsed. In 2167, the SS Demeter, an OWME exploration ship, discovered the first habitable world orbiting Tau Ceti. The planet, later named Caliban, was a temperate world of oceans and continents, forests and mountains, with gravity slightly higher than Earth’s and a variety of native flora and fauna. The Demeter returned to Earth with the exciting news, and OWME Ltd. quickly began construction of colonization ships. Within three years, four more habitable planets were discovered. The next great phase in Man’s evolution had begun.
One of the first thirteen worlds to be settled was Forest. While Forest lacked mineral wealth, colonists were attracted to the mild climate and rich soil. OWME intended Forest to be an agricultural world, and began recruiting farmers, hunters, and pioneers to settle what promised to be a difficult new home – Forest’s flora and fauna being strikingly similar to Earth’s Jurassic period.
But the difficulty only began there, as it was on Forest that humanity first encountered the hostile, militaristic Grugell Empire.
– Morris/Handel, “A History of the First Galactic Confederacy,” University Publications, 2804CE
One
”Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
– Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, 1901-1909
October, on a trail in the Salmon River Mountains near Challis, Idaho.
The last few golden aspen leaves were clattering in the breeze as Michael Crider and his hunter-client climbed through the grove on their way to a high drainage. The Idaho sun was bright, but the air chilly and, at 3500 meters altitude, very thin. Mike was used to both, his lungs and muscles hardened by a life in the mountains. He paused, looking back and wishing the same were true of his client, an overweight security consultant from Atlanta who’d had an urge to try elk hunting. The heavy, balding man was struggling to reach the small bench where Mike waited.
“Just another kilometer or so,” Mike assured the red-faced, wheezing man, “and we’ll break out into the big drainage I told you about. It levels out some up there, and that’s where we’ll find the elk.”
The client, Jeff Davies, pulled a drab green handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed the sheen of sweat from his forehead. “Steep,” he puffed. He managed a grin at Mike. “Y’all aren’t even breathin’ hard. Must be great to be young.”
“Well, Mr. Davies, I live up here. Makes a difference.” Mike couldn’t help taking a liking to the man, out-of-shape as he was. “We can rest here for a few minutes, but we’ll want to be up in that drainage before very much longer. There’s been a bull in there about an hour before sunset most days I’ve been up in here.”
“You mean to say y’all walk up here every blessed day?”
“Well, not every day. Only three or four times a week.”
“Your Dad said it’d be hell keepin’ up with you.”
“Who do you think showed me this place?” Mike grinned. “Dad could walk the legs off a mountain goat.” He turned to squint at the sun. “We’ve got another hour or so to cover that last klick. We’ll take it kind of easy, Mr. Davies.”
“Well, Ah sure do appreciate ya’ll not tryin’ to kill me,” Davies replied. He unzipped his bright orange jacket and adjusted the sling of his expensive Hooper Super Magnetic rifle, settling the weight of the eight-pound piece more comfortably on his shoulder.
“So, boy, where are your folks, anyway?”
“Dad decided to check into some land in Africa, and Mom went along for the ride. Getting pretty crowded around here,” he pointed back down towards the rapidly growing city of Challis, “and Dad heard that the big plagues and the war over there left an awful lot of land empty. Hard to find a quiet place anymore, you know?”
“Don’t Ah know it,” Davies answered. “They’ll be takin’ the semi-ballistic, then? Rough way to travel, but fast.” Mike nodded.
Semi-ballistic intercontinental flights were fairly new. The ship itself was deceptively simple. Each SB was a passenger compartment grafted to the front of what was, for all purposes, a huge ballistic missile. Following a rocket-powered launch and ascent to the very edges of the atmosphere, folding wings deployed for a controlled but unpowered plummet to the destination. The New York – Nairobi semi made the trip in an hour and thirty minutes, providing fast passage for any passengers that could stand the six-gee takeoff.
The hunters turned to stroll up the rest of the slope at a more leisurely pace.
***
As he hiked, Mike represented an almost lost picture of the Old West. Tall and rangy, a large gray Stetson perched on his head, a gray and black flannel shirt, leather vest, jeans and lug-soled boots, Mike was an authentic character of a type that was all-too quickly disappearing. As he was guiding today and not hunting, he was armed only with a wickedly sharp skinning knife – Davies had seen him shave hair with it – and, most fascinating, an ancient Colt .45 caliber single-action revolver that had to be three hundred years old, hung low in a leather holster secured with a hammer loop. Mike’s face was hard, angular, his eyes blue as a mountain lake, his close-cropped hair the pale blonde of winter hay. Even now, at eighteen, the corners of his eyes showed the crows-feet placed there by a hundred bright sunny afternoons.
He moved with a brisk economy; a hunter born. Mike had killed his first deer at age ten, his first elk at thirteen. He was not a creature of the growing cities, but rather of the disappearing wilderness, and like a wolf or grizzly bear, he chafed under the pressure of the expanding urban areas. Mike liked nothing better than roaming the mountains, on foot or on horseback, with only a bedroll, a rifle, and a minimal set of camping equipment. Many a summer, he’d spent weeks on end in the wildest reaches of the Salmon River Range in just this fashion. Every year though, the wild places grew fewer, the houses and condos grew thicker, the whistle of skimmers louder. Mike was a child of the wilderness, and his wilderness was shrinking by the year.
The last kilometer was covered slowly. The sun was still a hand’s breadth from the mountainside to the west when they arrived at a huge, open basin. Mike was pleased to see that Mr. Davies had almost caught his breath.
“Quiet, now,” Mike whispered. “We’ll sneak along this tree line to the right and find a spot up on that little rise to watch from.”
Davies nodded as he unslung his rifle to carry it in at port arms. Mike was surprised to learn that the heavy man could move quietly through the firs and spruce that edged the drainage. He said as much, and Davies smiled. “Well, Ah may not be as young and tough in these blasted mountains as y’all, boy, but Ah have been huntin’ deer in Alabama swampland since long before y’all was born.”
Mike chuckled. “Well, sir, you’ll do fine then. Here’s our spot.”
Davies eased himself to a sitting position, extended the bipod from the fore-end of the Hooper, checked the batteries, and took a glance through the scope. He looked up at Mike and nodded.
The two hunters sat for over an hour, while the shadows lengthened and the air grew chillier. Chipmunks frolicked in the leaves around them. Once, a gray jay glided to perch on Davies’ boot tip, drawing a smile from both men.
Then, the elk were there.
“Look,” Mike hissed, pointing. On the far side of the drainage, some three hundred and fifty meters distant, two cow elk nosed slowly into the open, nibbling on the lush grass as they went. Two more cows and a yearling appeared a few moments later.
“The bull will be the last one out,” Mike whispered from just behind Davies. “Get ready, he’ll come out behind the cows. The rut’s been over for a month, but he’s still hanging with the cow herd.”
Davies raised the butt of his rifle to his shoulder but kept his finger off the trigger. He touched a stud on the wrist of the plastic stock with his thumb. There was a barely audible whine as capacitors charged.
Mike raised his battered old binoculars to scan the far tree line. “There,” he whispered, “Right there, just to the left of that big cow with the split ear, he’s a big five-by-five.”
The bull was just inside the tree line, edging with agonizing slowness into the open. Davies lowered his head to the stock, sighting now through his riflescope. “Ah got him,” he whispered back. “Hey, he’s a dandy.”
The seconds passed like hours, as the bull examined the clearing meticulously. Finally, he took a step into the open.
Davies placed the crosshairs just behind the bull’s front leg and pressed the trigger. The Hooper Super discharged with a loud crack, the firing electrets sending a magnetic pulse down the super-conducting barrel, driving a plastic-coated steel projectile at over 1500 meters per second out of the rifle’s muzzle. Struck in the chest by the hyper-velocity projectile, the bull staggered a few paces and dropped. The cows scattered, barking in alarm, back into the trees.
“Good shot,” Mike applauded as Davies let out an exultant whoop. He carefully cleared his rifle before picking it up to sprint across the drainage to the downed bull.
Mike walked along behind, enjoying the moment. At least this guy sprung for the retrieval droid, he reminded himself. All we’ve got to do is dress it out.
It was almost completely dark when the bull was field-dressed, but that didn’t matter to the retrieval droids. Davies fished the beacon out of his pack and pressed the activation stud. A small red light on the top of the oblong metal box began flashing.
“Well, boy, that bull’s a dandy.”
“He sure is, Mr. Davies.”
“Ah sure hope I’m gonna be able to get a head mount of him listed to take on my ship.”
Mike raised an eyebrow in an unspoken question.
“Ah’m goin’ off-Earth, boy. Took a job as a security chief with Off-World Mining and Exploration. This here’s mah last Earthside vacation, and Ah sure do appreciate y’all makin’ it a memorable one.”
“I’m glad to do it, Mr. Davies. You know where you’re headed yet?”
Davies shook his head. “Nope. Depends on where they need me when the departure date pops up, six weeks from now. Ah’m sorta hoping for Caliban, it’s at least part-way civilized, but Ah reckon Ah’ll get posted to some pioneer backwater. Well, the money’s good, anyway. You ever thought about headin’ out there?” He gestured at the stars that were now twinkling overhead.
“No, not really. Dad and Mom would never go for it, and I’d hate to leave them here, never see my folks again. Besides, I like it here. If it just wasn’t getting so crowded, though…” His comment trailed off as the whine of the droid swelled out of the east. Within moments, the large, flat silver platform glided in over the trees and settled into the grass a few feet from the downed bull.
Five minutes later, the bull has been manhandled onto the platform and tied down. Davies went to the front of the droid’s cargo platform and flipped up two plastic seats. “Sit down, boy, and buckle up. We might just as well ride as walk on down there in the dark, wouldn’t you say?”
“Sure thing, Mr. Davies,” Mike grinned. If it were his own elk, he’d have to backpack the quarters out in the dark by himself. It was illegal to use artificial conveyances to pursue game, but once the game was taken, any hunter that could afford to do so was welcome to use a droid to take his game and himself out of the woods. Mike wasn’t one of the ones who could afford retrieval droid service.
The four-hour hike they’d made since lunch was replaced by a fifteen-minute flight back to where Davies’ expensive Cross skimmer was parked at the trailhead. As soon as he and Mike hopped off, Davies pressed another stud on the beacon, and the droid obediently rose back above the trees and headed off for the meat processing shop in Challis.
A red light was blinking on the skimmer’s dash when they climbed inside. “Humph. Message. Don’t they know Ah’m on a vacation?” Davies grumped. He picked a handset off the dash, punched three buttons, and listened for a moment. He turned to Mike with a curious expression.
“It’s for you, boy,” he said. “It’s the Sheriff’s office.”
Sheriff Gordon Lichter’s office, Challis
“But I thought those things were supposed to be so safe!” Mike was in shock.
“They are, son, they are,” the Sheriff tried to console the boy. “I know it doesn’t do you any good hearing that now, but they are. You know nothing is a hundred percent. This one apparently had a liquid oxygen leak right at the top of the launch burn, and she went up over the north Atlantic. I’m sorry son, but lots of people lost family on that semi. If it’s any comfort, nobody on that ship had time to know anything was wrong. She went up that fast.”
Mike slumped in the chair, staring at the wall in disbelief. His parents were gone, vanished in a puff of flame at the edge of space. He was alone, orphaned at eighteen. He had no other family. What would he do now?
“All right,” he announced, getting to his feet. He used his sleeve to wipe his eyes dry and braced himself in a taciturn tradition that went back as far as the history of the West. “I’m going home.” He placed his gray Stetson squarely on his head and strode out into the night.
To see more of Animal’s writing, visit his page at Crimson Dragon Publishing or Amazon.
Another great story.
OT deaddrag because I was at a dentist appointment 🙂
He really likes dogs, especially intelligent ones. And unlike King he’s not a flaming lefty.
Wasn’t Caliban a deformed mutant rapist?
Caliban was an Imperial Death World and Feudal World located in the Segmentum Obscurus to the galactic north of the Eye of Terror that was once the homeworld of …
That one got blowed up.
Seems like a paltry amount for such a big deal.
Agreed. A functional interstellar drive that also happens to be very fast sub-light — you’re talking trillions assuming today’s dollars.
“We had a successful deflationary drive.”
I also read too much military SF — I’m wondering what happens if you try to engage this inside of a planet’s gravity well and if you can make relativistic (or trans-relatavistic) cruise missles (the “payload” is simply the mass converted at impact from that velocity — you’re talking about a drive that would let you make missiles that could rip out good chunks of stars, much less destabilize them… this is why a lot of SF has superluminal drives only work / only discovered outside a given range from a solar gravity well — and why the “Bird of Prey goes to warp in atmosphere scares the shit out of most Trekkies in The Voyage Home… that should have done some amazing shit to the atmosphere at a bare minimum…)
Or a market value of zero, once it is seized by the government as a national security risk and the inventors, err, invited to assist the government with its inquiries.
RC — Yeah, that thought also crossed my mind. Given how public it was, that probably saved him — every other government on the planet would have had to come after the government that nabbed him before any benefits could be realized and they were hosed.
“We hold the world ransom for one million dollars.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJR1H5tf5wE
And thus begins a life of …..slaying Grugells and alien dragons?
Sean: Those are New Dollars. The old ones had long been inflated into irrelevance.
Space Bucks!
Useful if you’re going out to Pizza the Hutt.
Probably a 1,000:1* exchange ratio, which would make the purchase price $2.1TT OldBux.
*Consider, on the Tree of Woe, that gold was $21/oz in 1925, and is currently north of $2,800/oz, for an inflation/devaluation rate for the dollar against that benchmark of 1,300%.
Yes. If you want a true measure of inflation look at the price of gold. Gold’s value has stayed pretty steady since the Middle Ages.
Gold was historically 20 times more valuable that silver.
It is now closer to 100 times.
The market in precious metals is fucked.
Challis is the largest city in Custer County, Idaho, United States. It is the county seat and its population was 1,081 at the 2010 census. The 2020 census showed 902 residents, a 16.6% drop.[5][6] And as of 2023, the population increased to 924
the specialty coffee scene cannot be that good there
On the plus side — they probably have great sacramental wine in the Challis.
For Animal and the more Nostalgic Glibs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsTMaI4okr8&pp=ygUFZGFta28%3D
and: http://www.steveearleproducts.com/fraser.html
In case you are at a loss as to what to spend your megamillions winnings on
And then there is this guy: https://lugerman.com/luger-45/
Available in 9mm, 38 Super, 10mm and 45ACP – Stainless and Blue
I gotta admit, a .45 ACP Luger sounds interesting.
It also seems kinda sacrilege
Eh, if* I’m going to drop coin on modern repros of obsolete German handguns, I’ll go here:
https://p7pro.com/
*I am not.
I’ve never heard of them before. And they’re in my county.
NGL, a stainless Luger would be sweet.
For grins I built a 3D printed model of the the 9mm Luger.
Gripping the pistol one handed it seems like an extension of your hand a points beautifully. With a two handed grip it is quite awkward to me. You can tell it was designed before that became the common grip.
Only a $600 upgrade for a titanium frame (on the P7, not the P08).
I’m just curious how LugerMan managed to be bitten by a radioactive pistol.
And yet not available in a Peter Parkerized finish.
Well, I’ve heard of Glock Bite before, I suppose he got caught in the mechanism.
“…Peter Parkerized finish…”
I once said to my father “All of those comic superheroes in spandex are gay.”
He said “Really? All of them. What about Spiderman?”
“Papa. The character’s real name is PETER. PARKER. His spandex might as well be all pink.”
I saw the wheels spin for a few seconds before he said “Well, I never thought of that.”
Looks like there’s a reason the UK PM said 100 years and it wasn’t to invoke Hong Kong…. I won’t repeat my thoughts on it — y’all already know them.
Ukraine has always been a corrupt country, and Zelensky a corrupt politician, but they got attacked by Russia so now they’re the good guys and we’re supposed to forget all of that.
Quick update….made it to a local pizza place last night that was pretty good. Another one to revisit to try more of the menu. Waitresses with better english than my italian, and pretty cute too.
Will try another sandwich/beer place tomorrow night. Got stuck with all weekend duty again this month – but I should be mostly unpacked/organized by the time Friday rolls around. Also figured out how to get amazon.it to deliver to the package lockers a block away – pretty handy for quick household good stuff. (water filters, vacuum bags, etc).
Of course…I think I’ll have to discuss some upgrades with my landlord (in addition to getting some air conditioning units installed this month). Probably just because it’s been pretty windy the last few days, but the hot water heater keeps needing to be reset. Wouldn’t be as big of an issue – but aside from the cold water in the tap – you can’t confirm the status without opening the floor to ceiling shutters and going out onto the balcony to manually reset it.
Also…turning on my stove apparently pops the fuses – guessing it might be because I have a larger US-size fridge on the same circuit, but I’ll have to ping some folks tomorrow to confirm. With my current schedule, I could probably go to using a slightly smaller fridge…but it’s still on the list of irritations.
Only the first time to use the stove…because I’ve been using the microwave and gas cooktop. (and I actually unplugged the microwave one time to confirm – and the fuse still popped).
Stupid question, but did you buy your appliances from Italy or bring them with you? 120 vs 220V etc.
Having the stove (electric not gas) and fridge on the same circuit likely a problem for the wattage requirements. Stoves and heaters are usually on dedicated circuits in the US, so I imagine they are in Italy as well.
Didn’t bring any appliances. Navy supplied microwave and “US size” Euro fridge. Apt already had stove and fridge (not currently plugged in). Everything is 220v – but I have some transformers to use with my personal A/V gear, etc. It would be irritating if I pop a fuse in the living room since it shares the circuit with the kitchen.
I’ll check tomorrow, but I may need housing to take the large fridge back and then plug in the landlord’s fridge. Presumably it wasn’t an issue with the previous tenant – but apt has been empty for a year before I got here (also my suspicion re: the hot water heater gas issue). It will free up a bit more space in the kitchen too.
There’s a special fuse box by the front door and alarm panel – only 3 fuses. There’s a master fuse box under the apt, but I think that’s more for if everything in the apt blows at once.
One of my fond memories of a trip to Italy was asking a waitress if English or French was easier for her to understand. She was much happier with English!
Guy I talked to at the pub on Friday night had worked at a resort in Sardinia – his English is pretty good. Nice to have stuff really close by – compared to my house in VA – since I walk so much to/from train station, etc. Definitely getting some workouts just from the walking – will hopefully figure out a gym schedule in the near future too for my dead lifts, etc.
LCDR_Fish pictured out and about…
Once again you can never reach peak Guardian.
‘The basis of eugenics’: Elon Musk and the menacing return of the R-word
That’s…
…gay?
Proving I can find a song for any stupid news article.
This is a band I bought an album from based only on the band and album name. I was pleasantly surprised.
https://youtu.be/LSfoDsBojSE?si=XkXon-V6NChdYWe1
Obligatory.
What an Rtard….
This from the people who have came up with, always supported and are supporting the practice of eugenics today. I am not sure what to make of that.
Especially since they are deriding a guy who is mildly retarded himself. What the hell?
I’d call that Guardian writer retarded, but that would be an insult to honest hard working retards. He’s more of a village imbecile.
The word you’re looking for is fuckwit.
But what about the cheap Russian natural gas and the protection of the US nuclear umbrella and large military presence within Germany?
Trump’s Embrace of Russia Rocks NATO Alliance
These retards lust for a nuclear war.
Baerbock might just have to go bareback.
She fundamentally misunderstands Article 5 (note: she actually does understand it, she’s just lying in public statements for politics’ sake).
“We must take responsibility for our own interests, our own values and our own security“
Such statesmanship. Truly, a giant for our times.
Although I wonder why they are worried about getting invaded all of a sudden, when they have been eagerly facilitating an invasion by people more inimical to their societies than the Russians.
https://www.mlive.com/news/2025/03/elon-musk-calls-social-security-the-biggest-ponzi-scheme-of-all-time.html
As Elon Musk continues to slash the budgets of government agencies at the behest of President Donald Trump, Social Security appears to be in the billionaire’s crosshairs. During an appearance on comedian Joe Rogan’s podcast last week, Musk criticized Social Security benefits, which are received by an estimated 72.5 million Americans.
“Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” Musk said.
When pressed by Rogan to explain what he meant, Musk went on to claim that the future obligations for Social Security benefits “far exceeds” tax revenues that fund the program.
We’ve known this since the 70s
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/27/britain-defend-itself-us-military
The question no one dares ask: what if Britain has to defend itself from the US?
All the talk now is of how we might defend ourselves without the US. But almost everyone with a voice in public life appears to be avoiding a much bigger and more troubling question: how we might defend ourselves against the US.
oh my
Finally some justice for 1812!
Dear Britain:
You wouldn’t.
Signed — The US.
PS — You’re also assuming we’d bother. Other than taking Canada on general principle, we’d more likely just continue to ignore you. Which likely irritates your sticky wickets even more, doesn’t it?
PPS — At this point, you might as well ask yourselves “What if Britain has to defend itself from Argentina?” More likely scenario — you’re likely just as screwed.
You don’t want to conquer them and take all their Jaffa cakes?
What exactly does Britain have that we would need? We already have all the child molestors we want, I believe.
“what if Britain has to defend itself from the US?”
You’d lose badly. Next question.
Eeeeewwwww
W. T. F.
“Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” Musk said.
*imagines circus clown fire brigade hook and ladder truck with clanging bells frantically driving in circles*