Temporal Incursion. Stellar Flash Book Three. By Neil A. Hogan
Available in Digital and in Print Formats from Amazon
Episode 1: The Hand Continued
Chapter 3
“27 scientists have
disappeared, and Victoria has a date. Interesting.” Patel leant back in his
chair with a curious look on his face, and steepled his fingers. “Very
interesting.”
“Putting aside Victoria’s
personal life for a moment, John, Proxibee is your jurisdiction. It’s my
understanding that the Secret Services has a gravity and frequency research
base there in association with the F.R.I. I realize you can’t personally
monitor all S.S.’s 100 billion projects, but 27 scientists?” Zhou paused and
leaned forward, looking Patel in the eye and smiling slightly. “You must be at
least a little curious. With me now in charge of the station, perhaps you
should check it out? You’re probably the best person for the job.”
Patel frowned. “Young
lady, you might now be my superior on this base, but I’m over 150 years old. It
is not possible for you to use subtle persuasion targeting my curiosity to get
me off this space station quite so easily.”
Zhou grinned. “Only
looking out for your best interests, of course. Your I.Q. is off the charts.”
She leant back in her chair. “This station must be incredibly boring for you.
You know. Really, really boring. After all, you did originally hire me so that
you didn’t have any excuse to stay.” She tapped her chin. “I know, maybe you
could go spelunking on Enceladus again until we find out some more information.”
Patel blinked. “Wait. You
are doing it again!”
“Then, tell me why you’re
still here? You’re practically maintaining all of human occupied space. Why hang
around Space Station X-1a?”
Patel allowed a slight
smile, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. He then turned to the center of
the room. “My turn to supply a recording, it seems. A.I. Display Saturn orbit
survey 15th February 2129 video stream. Reference: Temporal
Incursion. Slow the video to a speed we can comprehend. Authorization vibration
Doctor John Patel.”
“Confirmed,” said the
A.I. “Accessing. Displaying.”
An image materialized of
Saturn and its rings, blurred and seemingly frozen. A green, circular target
moved across the image then snapped at a tiny spot towards the center. It
zoomed to show a floating object shooting away from them, leaving a black line
through the rings in its wake.
The image shuddered as
the drone adjusted its position, flashing closer. What previously looked like a
glowing light now looked like it contained multiple stars flickering in and out
of it.
“Is it alien?’ asked
Zhou.
“One moment.”
The drone shot forward several
times as the light flashed further away from it, but it quickly lost it.
The recording turned off.
“So, maybe it was a drone
from another civilization,” offered Zhou. “You know, Earth has been visited by
billions of drones from other civilizations in just the past thousand years. As
UFO traffic officer monitoring Earth’s intersection, I should know.”
“Not exactly,” said
Patel. “It was a piece of time. In fact, a piece of reversed time. When we
retrieved the drone, we found it had become several minutes younger, just by
being near it.”
“But, time doesn’t usually
travel around in chunks. You can’t have time without space, or matter. They’re
inseparable. And it looked nothing like a rogue, hyperdense black hole.”
Patel leant back. “An
unsolved mystery. What concerns me is that, at that time, it wasn’t the only
one. There were several occurrences of these pieces of time in the Solar system
in 2129. Admittedly, most of them were on either side of the Oort cloud, apart
from one we suspect caused something similar to a Tunguska event in Bimini. But
one thing we know for sure is that they were all heading in one direction at
close to the speed of light.”
Zhou thought for a
second. “The date was just over four and a half years ago? And from the stars
in the background…”
“They should be arriving
at Proxima Centauri B any day now,” finished Patel. He got up off the chair.
“Which might even explain the missing scientists. So, I hope you don’t mind if
I hang about the station a bit longer?”
“But, what can we do
about Victoria?”
“Well,” Patel said as he
dissolved the door and exited. “I’m sure she can look after herself. And if she
runs into a micro time particle, I guess she’ll get a bit younger!” He nodded
goodbye to Zhou, and the door reformed behind him.
Zhou knew Patel was being
cryptic again. If the drone only had to be near the object for less than a
second to become a few minutes younger, she was sure Heartness wouldn’t just
gain a few years.
She could be quickly reduced to a fertilized egg.
Temporal Incursion. Stellar Flash Book Three. By Neil A. Hogan
Available in Digital and in Print Formats from Amazon
Temporal Incursion. Stellar Flash Book Three. By Neil A. Hogan
Available in Digital and in Print Formats from Amazon
Episode 1: The Hand Continued
Chapter 2
Admiral Victoria Heartness got up from her desk at the darkening interior of her space station office and scratched at her newly extended long brown hair. Something was wrong, if the raised hair on the back of her neck was any indication. The shadows in the room were lengthening, and it had nothing to do with the reflected light from Saturn just beyond her window.
Unless it was more to do
with science, she thought. Static electricity? An increase in electrons causing
eyes to perceive a slight darkening of the environment?
She looked down at her
arms and could see the hair on the backs of them rising as well. What could
cause that? She walked around the room. Was it getting lighter in the center?
The only thing possible
was the controlled formation of an isolation field of a personal flash jump. And
the slow speed suggested a longer jump
Then everything became clear to her.
Someone was about to flash jump into her secure office, from outside the Solar System, illegally!
Florans coming back to
get revenge?
Higher frequency aliens
not realizing there are laws in Frequency Zero?
Doctor John Patel
forgetting to forewarn?
Who or what else could it
be?
Even her date had to meet
her at the bar, and no one else was scheduled.
She went back to her
monitor and quickly closed the file she had been working on, a secret services
logo appearing on it before it disappeared. She briefly imagined white noise
across her thoughts to erase anything related to the file, then she got up from
her desk and walked around the room.
“Alright. Where are you?
It doesn’t usually take this long to materialize. What are you waiting for?”
There was only one group
that might be able slow the manifestation this much. The Frequency Research
Institute. Those corporation types were highly likely to send a representative
to beg. Nice of them to ring a doorbell first, she thought. She wondered who
they would send. She hoped, if it was a he, then he’d be handsome.
She shielded her eyes as
a bright oval of white light wiped the color from the room for a moment, and a
chunky, one-meter-tall blue robot appeared.
To be more precise, a
corporation’s leased robot officer.
She looked at it with
dismay. Talk about a disappointment. “You sent a boff?” she said to whoever
might be listening. “I guess you need to learn a thing or two about impressing
someone.”
The robot swiveled its
round eyes and cube head towards her. “Admiral Victoria Heartness identified.
Your presence is required.”
“No. I already turned
your request down. I have much more important things to do right now. There are
plenty of other people in the System who can h…”
A piercing alarm began to
sound across Space Station X-1a, and probably soon on the nearby bases on some
of Saturn’s moons. Heartness swore as she remembered this kind of incursion
would immediately activate any number of potential anti-foothold strategies. She quickly ran back to
her desk and swiped her finger on the panel inset, canceling them. Then she
spoke to the ceiling. “A.I. Broadcast the false-alarm message.” As she stomped
angrily back over to the robot, she barely heard the placating message of the
A.I. echoing throughout the station.
“Why are you here?” She faced down the placid face of the boff with her hands on her hips. “What possible situation could have occurred just over four light years away that needs my personal attention right now? You’ve broken quite a number of laws coming here already.”
The boff stared
impassively forward. Like an ancient robot toy for children, its cube-shaped
head with round metal eyes, a wide mouth with painted teeth, and even white
marks on the side to indicate ears, suggested something that no one could take
too seriously.
A spring of antennae
stretched across the top of its head, and its head sat atop a rectangular body
with additional oversized buttons and dials. When everything the boff needed to
be able to function could fit into a few thin cylinders on stilts, this bulky
dysfunctional throwback was almost laughable. Despite herself, Heartness
marveled at the retro construction, and especially liked the large off-switch
on the back.
The boff’s simplistic
communications system began to explain in a tenor lilt, even echoing apologetically.
Heartness frowned at the program’s attempt to appeal to her emotional side.
“I apologize, Admiral
Victoria Heartness, ma’am. But my licensor says that it is urgent. 27
scientists have disappeared from our base on Proxima Centauri B. Your presence
is required.”
Heartness looked at it,
exasperatedly. She was tired of corporations leasing robot officers, then not
programming them correctly. “Find the answers. Fix the problem. That’s what
you’re programmed for. You don’t need me.”
The boff stood silent. It
had delivered its message and now it was waiting on a response to that message.
Nothing else.
A simple machine.
Heartness hmphed, then
walked around it, while she thought. What was she going to do with it? Would it
leave when she said no? Would it hang around until she said yes? Maybe she
could get Watanabe in to look at its programming. Was there anything special
about it? No weapons. That was a good sign. Soft plastic, though it looked
metal. She could see the slots where its arms and legs were connected, and
easily detachable.
Everything was easily
replaceable, and some of the parts could even operate by themselves in an
emergency. Heartness knew the boff also contained some organic components to
ensure that at some point it would have to break down. All robots had these
fail-safes to make sure there was no chance of a permanent robot takeover. Even
so, it was likely an army of these mechs might just temporarily win, as
everyone attempting to fight them would be doubled over with laughter.
There wasn’t enough
memory or software for the boff to become sentient, and it just did what it had
to do. She stared thoughtfully at the off-switch on the back. Should she…?
No.
“Go back to where you
came from, and tell the F.R.I that I’m responsible for over 1000 beings and
their families here. I can’t leave every time you can’t do your jobs.”
“This is your final
answer?” asked the boff.
“Yes. Tell your people…”
Like lightning, the
boff’s right hand snapped out and grabbed Heartness’ arm, then its left slapped
an override on Heartness’ flash band.
“What?” she yelled. “You
can’t do this.” She smashed her fist down on the arm, but it just bounced back.
She tried to pull the arm
off from its side, but the boff was already activating the return journey.
“No!” Heartness yelled,
as the flash field enveloped them, and they disappeared.
Temporal Incursion. Stellar Flash Book Three. By Neil A. Hogan
Available in Digital and in Print Formats from Amazon
Temporal Incursion. Stellar Flash Book Three. By Neil A. Hogan
Available in Digital and in Print Formats from Amazon
Episode 1: The Hand
Chapter 1
2133/10/18/08:45 Sunday
The violet underside of
the twelve-meter-sided, triangular interdimensional ship passed through the
ceiling of the North Australia Space Port monitoring center in Darwin, and
continued obliviously on its way. Admiral Wei Zhou watched it with awe, then
smiled at the circumstances that had brought her there.
She had joined the Earth
Council long ago and worked her way up the ranks. But as is the habit of Earth
Council, once you’ve been a captain for ten years, you’re offered a promotion
to allow the next recruits their chance at a captaincy.
She did miss it, but now
she was monitoring the interfrequency and interdimensional ships that crisscrossed
Earth’s orbit, ready to offer assistance if anything Earth was doing interfered
with their journeys. If she couldn’t go out into space, then at least space
could come to her.
Billions of ships passed
through the Earth every day, and it was rare for one to pass along the surface
of the planet, let alone through the actual monitoring station in Darwin. Most
went through the upper atmosphere or through the crust of the Earth itself.
Since Frequency Shift in 2033, most of these vehicles could be seen by the
general population, and had long since become part of the background. But,
occasionally, like this one, they were worthy of attention.
Now that it had faded
through the wall, it was time to return to answering her staff. Admiral this,
Admiral that. Sadly, that wasn’t as exciting, and she was tempted to flash back
to Guangdong province for a quick cup of tea.
“Admiral,”
called one of her assistants. Zhou looked up and recognized the brown hair,
weathered skin and long beard. Bruce Jones, one of her Australian staff.
“Yes, Bruce, what is
it?”
“Another delivery of
powdered iridium from Saturn, just flashed into the base. Begging your pardon,
ma’am, but, don’t you think we have enough now?”
Zhou raised an eyebrow.
“You do know how much this stuff is in demand on Earth, right? All those people
getting their mindview systems removed. That’s a lot of medical equipment.”
Jones frowned. “I do.
It’s just that, there’s no more room in storage. Would you like me to organize
storage in Sydney?”
Zhou had had no idea that
they’d already filled all their storage areas in Darwin. The Stellar Flash ship
must have brought back quite a lot. But she’d promised she would take it off
their hands, and a promise is a promise. “Very good, Bruce. Yes, Sydney for the
rest of it. Was there anything else?”
“Going to go fishing on
the weekend. Was wondering, you know, if you’d like to come along?”
Zhou could tell he was
trying to be casual about it, but his voice went a bit high at the end. She
gave him a winning smile. “Thanks for the offer, but I’m strictly an indoors
gal. Steel walls, lots of conveniences, and an A.I. not far away. Not sure what
I’d do in an outdoor area. Probably get sunburned. I can’t even swim!”
“No worries!” he replied.
He was about to turn away when he noticed something and pointed at Zhou’s left
arm.
Zhou looked down to see
that a light on her flash sleeve was blinking. “Oh! Thanks, mate.”
He smiled shyly, then
turned back to his hologram.
She knew he had a thing
for her. Not her type, though. She preferred her men to be a bit more feminine,
thinner, hairless, and spend much of their time in space.
But now she had something
else to attend to. She looked quizzically at her flash band. She usually got
messages at her station stand. Why did it come directly to her sleeve? And who
has that channel, anyway?
She quickly opened the
message.
“Admiral Zhou, Admiral Heartness has disappeared. Please
meet me at Heartness’ office on Space Station X-1a asap.”
Victoria had disappeared?
Again?
It was like anyone on
Space Station X-1a would eventually disappear for one reason or another. She
was beginning to think that the station was bad luck. Especially as it was
being constructed with the number 1 on it during a snake year.
But she knew what she had
to do, and quickly began getting ready.
She noticed the message
was from Doctor John Patel and quickly understood the secrecy. He didn’t like
to do things that were too public.
She checked her
appearance in the mirror. No makeup smudges. Foundation was holding, short
black hair shone healthily and didn’t need a comb, black jacket fitted well, long
black pants were unlined. Should she put some bright red lipstick on? No. She
grinned quietly to herself. She didn’t want to distract anyone else.
She quickly gathered some
essential items into a handbag, set up a ‘called away on urgent business’
message at her console, then hit the relocation button at the bottom of the
message.
A bright white light
enveloped her, and moments later she was one billion kilometers away, inside
one of the corridors in Space Station X-1a circling Saturn. She quickly stepped
out of the way of a bloated blue balloon-shaped alien that floated past her,
and did her best to adjust to the slightly different gravity, air pressure, and
smells.
The coordinates she’d
been given were directly outside Heartness’ office. She waited until another
blobby alien squirmed and squelched past her, then reached out and tapped the
door.
5:30pm in Darwin
translated to 8:00am on the Space Station. Flashlag was going to be a bitch,
she thought. Then she fell into a sneezing fit as her nose began to react to
all the differences.
The door dissolved, and
Patel appeared, standing in the center of the room. He handed her a tissue.
“Wei, so good of you to come!”
Zhou took it gratefully
and wiped her nose, before putting it in a pocket. “Sorry. You know it’s thirty
degrees Celsius in Darwin. What is it here? Twenty?”
Then she realized that
Patel was holding his hand outstretched indicating Heartness’ seat.
“Please,” he said,
as though expecting no debate.
Immediately annoyed, Zhou
threw her bag down on the table and turned on him. “Cryptic message, and I
flashed here quickly, as agreed. But you can’t just expect me to take over the
station at a moment’s notice every time. I have other responsibilities at the
Space Port!”
Patel carefully lowered
his arm and frowned. “Wei, I’m sorry. With Heartness gone, we need you
here. You’re the best for this position.”
Zhou put her hands on her
hips. “I’ve done research since then. Admiral Rasskator is best for this
position. Pull her out of retirement.”
Patel shook his head.
“I don’t want to sound sexist, but some delicacy is involved. And you have
proven yourself time and time again that your feminine energy is superior when
it comes to mediation. We haven’t forgotten your help with the Mars-Earth
treaty. Basically, I need you to take care of this station of families, and any
cultural conflicts that may arise. In fact, it is why I usually recommend a
female for this role. I’m really not good at looking at anything other than the
big picture, and males can be, how shall I put it, a bit too logical? We forget
to allow our emotions to have a say.”
Zhou lowered her tattooed
brows and stared at him. “Get that fabulous Admiral Klimova from the
Russian outpost near Barnard’s star, then. He’s more feminine than I am! Even
my muscles are bigger than his! And you should see his dance moves!”
Patel held up his hands.
“I need you here. The station needs you.”
Zhou frowned, then walked
around the table and slowly slid into the seat. “Fine. I’m here, again.”
She sighed. “Fill me in. What’s happened to Victoria?”
Patel took the seat
opposite and grinned as though the exchange never happened. “Excellent! Now,
changing the subject. You know, I’m always tempted to take advantage of my
power here, but I do my best not to let it get out of hand.”
Zhou almost laughed. “Really?
Did you disable to cameras on the way here, again?”
Patel opened his mouth,
then closed it again. “How did you… Never mind. Yes.”
Zhou smiled to herself. A
point to her. Patel was the most intelligent person in the Solar System, but he
allowed his hubris to get in the way – a lot. He did his best, but he could
forget the little things. She’d feel sorry for him if he wasn’t so obliviously
arrogant about it.
She took a deep breath,
relaxed, and focused on the task at hand. “I guess the reason you needed
me here so quickly is because you need something from this room before Earth
Council sends its investigators. Something that only I can give as the admiral
now in residence.”
Patel nodded again.
Zhou snapped her fingers.
“You want me to officially access her files first! See if something is
there that could tell you where Victoria went without Earth Council knowing you
had looked!”
Patel sat back in his chair
and steepled his fingers. “I’m impressed. You should be a detective.”
Zhou smiled, despite
herself. “I might have been, if the A.I.’s hadn’t already taken all the
detective jobs. Holographic scan of the crime scene, evidence analyzed in
seconds, images sourced from recordings of wall reflections, DNA, fingerprints,
faces located in the database in minutes, maybe two to locate the criminal,
five minutes to arrest her, him or them and lock them up. That’s if the crime
hadn’t already been predicted, or caught in the act first. Detectives
disappeared decades ago. Not to mention the drop in crime since Frequency
Shift.”
“Still, there are
cold cases that the A.I.’s can’t help with.”
Zhou shrugged. “It’s
all moot, now. In any case, Secret Services man. What are you hoping to
find?”
Patel was silent, but
raised an eyebrow as if to say, You’re
smart. You work it out.
Zhou touched her chin
with a finger. “Assuming Victoria was kidnapped from this room, and the
investigation hasn’t started yet, then there might also be a recording.”
“Bingo!”
exclaimed Patel.
Zhou looked at him
quizzically. “Bingo?”
“Oh, sorry, it’s an
old 21st century term for a gambling game. Before your time.”
“I see. So, like
‘Mahj!’”
“Mahj?”
“Oh, it’s from an old
game from 2,500 years ago.” She waved a hand dismissively in the air. “Before
your time.” Zhou looked at the screen, and it immediately unlocked for her. She
peered at the processes. “The last complete room recording was half an
hour ago. The current one is…disabled.”
She squinted at Patel and
he shrugged. She let it pass, then looked up at the ceiling. “A.I. Replay
room recording from the previous hour. Authorization Admiral Wei Zhou.”
“Confirmed,”
said the A.I.
For a moment there was
silence, and then a shimmer filled the room. In the center, a short, pale,
dark-haired woman in a blue, short-sleeved jumpsuit, appeared to be looking for
something while circling the floor.
“Can I get everything?”
asked Patel.
“Pause playback.
Everything?”
“I want to access her
brain waves, thought processes, everything. I want to rule out any chance she
has been mentally taken over. We have been working on something together that
is still top secret. If whoever took her read her thoughts…”
“Accessing recordings of
any person’s thoughts is usually reserved for extreme cases.”
“When not on a mission.
All thoughts are recorded as standard on vehicle that has a flash system. We’ve
got years of Heartness’ thoughts on record as Captain.”
Zhou stared at Patel with
a look of distaste.
“Now, I know she’s a friend of yours,” he continued. “But flash jump records indicate a robot officer has taken an Admiral. If this is the start of another robot uprising, the whole of humanity could be affected.”
Zhou frowned at this new
piece of information. “A robot? Any other nuggets I should know?”
Patel shrugged again as
if to say, I don’t know what information to give you that you need to know.
She looked up at the
ceiling. “A.I. Access entire recording of the appearance and disappearance of
the boff and Admiral Heartness. Overlay reality with a holographic version, and
give mental access to Heartness’ thoughts for me and… my guest. Brain wave
vibration authorization Admiral Wei Zhou.”
“Confirmed,” said the
A.I.
“Thank you, Wei,” said
Patel.
Reality around them blurred and changed, and the recording began.
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A bright object cut
across a section of the Kuiper belt, broke apart a tumbling two-piece
proto-comet, then shot out of the Solar System at high speed. Explorer
satellites in the area reported it as traveling close to the speed of light.
*
An explosion rocked the
little island of South Bimini, flattening palm trees, shorting out power
cables, and collapsing buildings. A group of factories dissolved into a crater,
then sank under a tsunami. A tiny object exploded from the center of the
carnage, climbed quickly into orbit, then blasted past the moon. Luna
satellites recorded a white streak but were unable to determine origin or
destination.
*
Drone 478 detected the
intruder as it sped past Saturn and immediately activated its staccato flash
drive, materializing further along the tiny object’s estimated path. The drone
recorded it as it passed, predicted its trajectory, then repeated this several
times before the object entered the Oort cloud. 478 quickly flashed back to
Monitoring Station Z and delivered its composite video.
*
The images faded to black,
and the lights came back up to reveal a small, oval room, with a tiny porthole
looking out onto a section of Saturn’s rings.
“Interesting, don’t
you think?” Doctor John Patel scratched his short, graying moustache, and glanced
across the leafy table at his colleague, Admiral Rasskator, an attractive,
green, mantis-like being from the planet Preyos.
Rasskator remained
silent, a slight movement of one antennae the only sign she had heard him.
“We’ve since been able to
confirm the objects are heading to Proxima Centauri B,” Patel continued.
“They’re mostly moving at light speed but pause whenever they encounter
something. Best estimates suggest they’ll arrive in just over four and a half
years’ time.”
Rasskator chirped
quietly, and her translator Englished. “They will be in the F.R.I.’s
jurisdiction, then. Why see me about these?”
Patel smiled thinly.
“Admiral, you plan to retire in four years’ time. If these objects are
likely to cause a problem around then, I’d like there to be a faster transition
between you and the new person here, so that we have time to prepare for
anything that might eventuate.”
“Always planning
ahead, John. Don’t you ever get tired? Live for the now!”
“Not a detailed plan,
just a, well…”
“You’d like a
recommendation for my replacement in 2133?”
Patel nodded.
Rasskator, rubbed her
claw across one of her long green antennae, twisted her bulbous eyes a few
times, then chirped. “Well, firstly I recommend building a new and more
powerful Space Station. I doubt this throwback is going to last much longer.
Certainly, if there are going to be more of these particles passing through, we
need to have some kind of research center nearby.”
Patel sighed, looking
about at the tiny space, knowing the monitoring station was barely 500 meters
across. “It’s in hand. The project will commence at the end of 2132. We’ve
received enough complaints from, ahem, your station, to bring things
forward.”
“Acceptable. I do
recommend Captain Victoria Heartness. She will have been working as a captain
for ten years by then. An ideal time to be considered for promotion, and as my
replacement.”
Patel leant back in his
chair and steepled his fingers. “Interesting choice. We’ll see how she
goes, and maybe I’ll put in a good word. Anything else I should know?”
Rasskator pointed a claw
at the time stamp at the bottom of the last video. “You might have missed
something with the last recording. Hard to see tiny Earth numbers in a
hologram.” Her proboscis twisted back and forth in amusement, knowing Patel
knew Preyosians had much better eyesight than humans. “Let me play the images
forward for you again. Watch the clock.”
The composite drone
footage played again, and Patel’s eyebrows raised as he realized what he was
seeing. “The image is forward but the time stamp is running backward? How
did I not notice that?”
“You have billions
of projects on your mind. Impossible for you to notice everything. That’s why
you are always happy to get a second opinion. In any case, whatever that object
is, it is surrounded by a reverse time field. If that hits a populated area,
there are going to be many beings in a lot of trouble. You saw what happened to
that island in your Bermuda area. You were lucky it wasn’t a lot worse.”
“Well, let’s hope it
passes safely through the Proxibee system and keeps going,” said Patel.
“Otherwise, it won’t just affect one world, it’ll wipe out the entire
flash ship project.”
It is the year 2133, just one hundred years after Alien Shift. Humanity can now perceive the trillions of alien races that live in the galaxy, having finally increased their frequency speed to Zero. Now a member of the Interdimensional Coalition, humanity works with alien races from all over the universe on Flash ships, exploring realities on higher level frequencies, and instigating First Contact with new alien races. The Stellar Flash Frequency Ship is the newest addition to the universal mission.
Available in Digital and in Print Formats from Amazon
Available in Digital and in Print Formats from Amazon
Temporal Incursion: Stellar Flash Book Three
By Neil A. Hogan
Dangerous temporal disturbances are appearing throughout the Proxima Centauri system, and 27 scientists have gone missing from the Frequency Research Institute’s base on Proxibee.
When Admiral Victoria Heartness declines the request to help, she mysteriously disappears, too.
Doctor John Patel quickly enlists Admiral Wei Zhou to manage the station, and look into Heartness’ disappearance. But with builderbot’s going rogue and attacking some of the station’s residents, Zhou’s hands get full pretty quickly.
Captain Jonathan Hogart would be the next best person to help track down Heartness, but then the Stellar Flash ship goes offline, internal doors stop working, and rooms start being erased. With just Raj Kumar and the ship’s Japanese avatar available, and no access to communications or flash jumps, Hogart is unable to even get his crew on board.
In desperation, Patel requests Commander Sue Lin of the Proxima Centauri Space Force to investigate the F.R.I hive,and find Heartness. But with her soldiers being wiped out by a crazed energy cloud, it’s all she can do to stop herself from destroying the base from orbit.
With micro time particles converging, a deadly alien entity expanding, a robot uprising spreading, and flash ship problems increasing, can the Stellar Flash crew get to Proxibee in time to not only rescue Heartness, but also prevent Commander Lin from making a mistake that could destroy the entire universe?
Temporal Incursion is Book Three in the Stellar Flash series. A self-contained story of about 63,000 words.
One of the characteristics of a good Space Opera is opening the story with an explosion, a kidnapping, a death, a war, or some other instantly engaging scenario that catapults the reader/viewer front and center into the action, and encourages them to want to know what happens next.
Star Wars did this well by starting the movie right in the middle of a laser conflict with massive battleships. Doctor Who sometimes did this with a preview before the episode started.
TV shows that want to get people into the action know this works, but episodic shows usually follow the basic three step formula of introduction/conflict/resolution. Unless a viewer is a fan of the show, the opening of an episode doesn’t usually pull people in quickly enough to stop them from hitting the channel surfing button. So, starting with a preview from about twenty minutes in, or even just before the resolution, can hook someone in, and they’re more likely to continue watching.
I had hoped to avoid this idea by starting Temporal Incursion with a robot kidnapping Admiral Victoria Heartness.
I know. Robot kidnappings are an old trope, but I haven’t personally done one yet, so it’s new for me!
But, then I thought, if I start with Heartness being kidnapped, it’ll be like Hogart being kidnapped by the Florans in The Andromeda Effect. I don’t have a set formula for how each book should develop, but two books in a row where a main character is kidnapped at the beginning, might suggest I do. But, besides the other trope of a friend in danger, Heartness has been written into her semi-retirement position on board Space Station X-1a, and there’s no other reason to get her into the action. (Okay, she could get a flash band malfunction, ordered by Earth Council, gets drunk and takes the wrong flight, falls through a wormhole, etc) but I want to create a subtle underlying mistrust of all robots from here on out, to set things up for Book Four: The Robots of Atlantis, due out in 2020.
Eventually, I went back to the old idea of a prequel, prequel. Something that happened over 4 years ago (2129) that would affect the situation in Proxima Centauri B in 2133. So, rather than a disaster which started Book Two, this one starts with more of a mystery.
Book One is a straight out First Contact story with a twist.
Book Two is a high tech defeat the invaders story.
Book Three is a mystery horror story with a deadly alien.
Temporal Incursion Book Three is due out on the 5th March.
Here’s the new cover:
The image of Proxima Centauri B featured on the cover has been released by the European Southern Observatory under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ and originally comes from the video: ESOcast 87: Planet found around closest Star. Please visit: eso.org/public/announcements/ann16056/ to watch the complete video.
When Raj Kumar investigates Pluto for possible life signs – standard procedure before adding a manned space station – he is surprised to find them. He’s even more surprised that they want to communicate with him.
What do they want? Why him? And what does Doctor John Patel of Space Station X-1a have to do with all this?
Find out more in Splinter. #26 in the Science Fiction Short Reads Series, and a prequel to the introduction of a character at the end of the Stellar Flash novel The Andromeda Effect. Splinter is a short story of about 4600 words.
In August I released The Andromeda Effect. Book Two in the Stellar Flash series. You can find out more at the link. One of the story lines explored the Floran race, a race of intelligent plants that made use of biomechanoid plant appliances. The metallic plants would scuttle about, or sit still and be holographic screens or monitors using gases to generate images.
While we have poked a few electrodes into plants over the years to use their electricity, I never thought we were even close to getting a biomechanoid plant.
When Mera leaves ProxiBee’s seventh moon in a huff, Jasper is surprised to find she has left behind a bill that had made its way to them through the nearby wormhole.
The troubling thing is, the bill is continuing to increase, and he can’t figure out a way to stop it.
If Jasper can’t find the solution to the sudden drain on resources, it could not only mean the end of his company, but also the moon itself.
Time Sheets is #22 in the Science Fiction Weekly Series. A short story of approximately 4200 words.
In October 2016 the first issue of Alien Dimensions was released. October was chosen with the idea that, if the series kept going monthly, then in October 2017 issue #13 could be released to have the number 13 associated with Halloween. Also, it was expected that the actor to play the 13th Doctor would be announced by that time, and some stories for the issue were commissioned months in advance. In that sense, Alien Dimensions Issue #13 took a year of planning!
When Jodie Whittaker was announced to be the first female Doctor in July 2017, commissioned and submitting writers were encouraged to write either strong female leads playing doctor-esque characters, or a story with a Halloween theme or both. So, Issue #13 has a bit of both! (It was also the First Anniversary issue, so a bit longer than usual.)
Issue #13 will be removed from sale within a few days, so if you haven’t had a chance to get it, here are the details and the links:
Inside issue #13
Aura Who by Aric Merchant
One to the Left by Isaac Teile
Charger Nine by K. L. Hallam
One Chance by Sam Honour
Under the Surface by Alison McBain
Rejuvenation by Neil A. Hogan
Promises Kept by Patrick S. Baker
Sacrifice by Nicky Martin
The Ghost Haunter by Martin Roy Hill
If you haven’t already, please check out Alien Dimensions Issue #16. Our 2nd anniversary issue. Find out more here: Digital | Print
Also available from Kindle Unlimited
Many thanks for reading.
Neil A. Hogan
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