Keira tells tales

I sat down at the piano and began.

Elizabeth looks at her wife as she walks out of the bathroom. Her belly has gotten big since she became pregnant. The two eggs that had been artificially inseminated had split. Now, they were going to be a family of six, instead of a family of four.

She couldn’t believe that Sara was going to have four babies. Neither one of their family’s had a history of twins or any signs of multiple births in their family line. How the egg she gave Sara had split and Sara’s own egg split was a mystery to them.

I smiled sadly. “Perl was a good friend of both John and I.” I could feel the tears welling up again. When Gina hugged me, I was tense. She refused to let go, however, and I eventually relaxed. I’m sure it had to do with my distrust of Paul and Fred. Gina was Rhoda’s wife, and Rhoda was Paula’s daughter. I guess anyone in their family was subject to my distrust. I hated that, but it was what it was.

“The winner of the auction must promise to allow Devi to go home through the portal as soon as they figure out how the cabinet works.”

The records said that Fred demanded no more than a two millennia term for a president, but then he married the next president after she became Paula.  She had been the commander of this ship for over a hundred millennia. In essence, he had power as well.

I didn't know what to think.  I sat up, feeling the sleepless night, but absolutely unable to rest at all.  I wasn't sure I would be able for awhile.

New Contract
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I used to believe that the two most valuable things that I had were my custom-made CZ 75B and my penis. Now I have only one of those. My CZ 75B is my tool of trade, after all.

In addition to a good weapon, the other two ingredients for a success career in my chosen profession are a total disregard for human life and total anonymity. You lose either of those and you are no use. In fact, as far as my handler would be concerned, you are worse than useless - you are a liability.

Through the corridors, I could hear screams and panicked voices. A light went red. Thunk! Another light went yellow, while two more went red. Thunk! Thunk! I glanced at, then couldn't look away from the screens showing the bays. The first one, our home, seemed to be crumbling away as it slowly pirouetted, the distance between us growing.

I stared, and everything seemed to be happening at the end of a dark tunnel. The next thing I knew, I was waking up on the floor with Carla beside me, making sure I was alright

"Perfect," Paula told her daughter as she saw the course come alive on the screen. It took her a moment to order it, however. While it ended with them intersecting, this would be dangerous. The course was theoretically possible, but it was closer than any sane person would want to get to a star. Hell with it, she thought. "Do it."

Rhoda committed them by pressing a button, and the engines fired. The ship slowed allowing their fall around the star to become stronger. A moment later, the thrusters realigned them, and the engines fired again, making them accelerate their fall while at the same time, angling them to where they would miss the surface and just barely skim the edge of the sun's atmosphere.

Suddenly,we received a message from Colleen. “Rashda, we have something up here that you need to see.”

Smythe looked around at us all. “John and Rose, will you come with me? Winston, figure this out please.” Then he touched a button that put his voice through every intercom on the ship. “Mr Dodson, would you please come to the command center?”

Then we were off.

Births Deaths and Marriages
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Allan Bingley was not the sort of man who you might think of as a criminal.

He has a small open and honest looking face on a small non-descript body, slightly flabby. He had very little hair on his head. Alopecia rather than pattern baldness, had robbed him of his hair when he was not yet thirty. His mother assured him that it would grow back. It never did. And now she was dead.

“What are you two doing here?” she asked, dumbfounded.

“Staying with you and Dad,” Gina told her. “You don’t think we’d abandon you, do you?”

“Who’s commanding Centaurus?” Paula asked.

“I transferred command to Rick Johnson,” She told her mother-in-law. “Right before I transferred to here.” She stepped over to Paula and asked the old question of seafarers. “Permission to come aboard?”

Normally the artificial gravity would compensate for any thrust, but Rhoda hit the retro engines hard. A few people stumbled, and the things on Vlad’s screen seemed to jump close.

“Oh, no!” said Vlad. Gina and Paula hurried over and gave the screen a look. “Check it out, now,” Gina shouted.

Paula sat down at a spare computer and called up historical records. “It’s them.” Her voice was completely devoid of emotion.

What do I do now?

Cross dressing is like a chigger bite. Once bitten, you can ignore it only so long. Eventually, you have to give in to the itch. The first scratch feels like bliss. Every scratch afterwards can lead to complications.

An cryogenic experiment, A brave volunteer starts to dream about being the opposite sex. Is it malfunctioning equipment or intentional or something entirely different all together.

“Do you want me to show you how to sew?” Pasyala asked. “Or has your mother already shown you?”

 

“No,” Devi said at first. “Girls do sewing and knitting and stuff.” But then he reflected: People go into other worlds to learn valuable lessons and have adventures and stuff. The portal made me a girl, so maybe it wants me to learn about girl stuff before it will let me go home and be a boy again? “I guess I’m a girl now, so I can learn how to sew and stuff.”

The two women on the other side of the room were screaming for the men to stay away from them. For their part, the men got as far away as they could. Fred jumped away from his friend, terrified, and Paul turned and ran from the room. Part way down the hall, his pants could no longer stay up, and he, or rather she, had to pause to pull them up, then she headed for her office. She slammed the door shut and locked it. With a deadbolt and combination that only she knew.

She let out a sigh of relief, then stopped and wondered what the hell had just happened.

In the stories, kids who go through portals to other worlds need to learn something from it. Maybe there’s something I’m supposed to learn from being a little girl. And there’s definitely got to be something I’m supposed to do here, but I don’t know what yet.”

We were called to the command center to find a very grim faced Smythe there. “I’m very sorry for this,” he told us. “I’m able to see Earth now, even to zoom in and see cities.”

We watched as the scopes were brought online. All of the cities were seen through an orange haze, that billowed like smoke. There were no people to be seen although we could see what we thought might be the remains of many. There were craft that appeared to have once been smoking ruins. Some buildings were present, in a very decayed condition, but the vast majority were piles of rubble.

It appeared that Caesar was not happy being the only one gone.

We’ll have to take into account the mass of the people from N21 for our return fuel consumption. We will not accelerate too much that we don’t have the fuel to stop relative to Earth when we arrive back.”

Paul nodded. He wasn’t a ‘rocket scientist’ but he understood enough to realize what Smythe was saying. His last question was, “Who’ll command N22?”

“I will,” Smythe responded.

Fred considered for awhile. “Very well. How long until you launch?”

“I figure we can get the missiles taken care of in about six months, and by that time, I believe we’ll be in the correct position for our launch window.”

Fred nodded. “Go to it.”

[The three friends are meeting up once again in London]

The girls laughed themselves silly when Phoebe said that she was not going to go on any more blind dates but that she’d signed up to a speed dating evening.

“But Pheebs…?” exclaimed Lana.

“But what?”

“But… you are just putting yourself… out there.”

“Isn’t that the aim of the game? To go out with some men in the hope that I find someone for a long-term relationship?”

“She’s right Lana,” said the third member of the trio, Sky.

Trapped as a shapely French maid and hiding out from the mob, a smart-mouthed rogue must prevent his family from unwittingly being drawn into a criminal scheme even as he is confronted by his two most remorseless adversaries: Mom and Dad. It's a twisty whodunit with a thrilling hovercraft chase that--wait. No, it's not. It's a spirited comic romp with snappy banter, money laundering, and unspeakable acts with a ripe pineapple!

The Black Kestrel: A Witcher Tale

Kade is apprenticed to be a Witcher