Layers. Science Fiction Weekly #31: Short Reads Series

Available for Kindle: Layers

When an ethereal voice begins calling Karol from her bed, she has to investigate. She quickly finds herself in a hidden underground cavern being shown images of the past by a ghost.

What is really going on?
Why does the apparition need her to see this?
And what is she going to do when she finds out the real truth?

Find out more in Layers. #31 in the Science Fiction Weekly Short Reads Series.

Available for Kindle from Amazon

Temporal Incursion. Stellar Flash Book Three. Chapter 5. By Neil A. Hogan

Available in Digital and in Print Formats from Amazon

Episode 1: The Hand Continued

Chapter 5

Heartness and the boff appeared next to a large window looking out onto a wide starscape. Resignedly, she stopped struggling and looked out. Her years in space meant she recognized the view. The constellation of Cassiopeia. It was the same image that might have been visible from her station at a point in the orbit around Saturn, but with an additional star near the middle.

Sol.

She sniffed the air and almost choked. Stale and recycled. Not a single whiff of perfume. Gravity felt slightly lighter than Earth normal. Possibly Proxibee normal. Proxibee was larger than Earth but its mass was made up with more low atomic weight elements, so there wasn’t as much gravity. But the humming below her suggested that she wasn’t on Proxibee. She was on a ship of some kind.

The boff released Heartness and stepped back, allowing her a moment. Heartness rubbed her arm but there wasn’t a mark. The robot had gripped her firmly, but gently.

Was it possible to escape? She looked about. Far away, on the other side of the room, was what looked to be the pilot’s area. A tiny flickering dot from where Heartness was standing, but filled with a massive view screen. Any pilot sitting there would think there wasn’t a ship, and that they were just in space. Heartness decided the pilot section was probably for emergencies. Still, it was an option.

While Earth council ships were quite conservative with their space, with every centimeter used and accounted for, corporations could be excessive. The room was at least a kilometer wide. Even with her augmented eyesight, she could barely make out the other side of ship in the distance. A prismatic point finished the ceiling far above her. Was the outside of the ship like a pyramid? The floor seemed to suggest it, stretching in an almost perfect square shape, apart from some exits to corridors on her right.

The entire one kilometer-edged triangular ship, the Stellar Flash, could fit inside with some room to spare. Was this a mother ship of some kind? She accessed data through her newly installed lobe system under her left ear, but expected it would be a while before it retrieved the information she wanted.

And then she remembered her date tonight, and sighed. Zhou would have simply told him she’d been called away on urgent business. At least it was better than telling him she had disappearing ring ice to watch.

 “Alright, boff. You’ve brought me here. I’m sure your corporation couldn’t care less about the potential fine and jail time, if I was to complain, so now what? Champagne?”

The robot officer slowly turned its retro cube-shaped head to Admiral Victoria Heartness, then lifted up its plastic four-fingered hand. “What I’m about to show you is private and confidential.” A bluish hologram began to form above it.

Heartness glared at the image taking shape. “If you’re going to tell me I’m your only hope, I’m going to have words.”

The boff remained silent as the hologrammatic video became more defined, then began playing.

It was not what Heartness was expecting at all.

A macabre image of an indistinct human hand rotated in the air in front of her, tiny waves of electricity sparking and cascading across its surface. The skin looked alive, with faint veins swollen in mid throb near the wrist. The nails were chipped and dirty, with shadows of dust in places. Dark oil marks on the finger tips, and the general blurriness of the blue image disguised its owner.

“What is it?” asked Heartness, fascinated, as the hand continued to turn. “A piece of artwork?” For a moment, she had thought it had simply been cut off by the edge of the visual reference. But then the wrist had faced her, showing a cross section of the marrow in both the radius and ulna, surrounded by muscles, veins and skin perfectly sliced through as though separated from the rest of the body at the molecular level. There was also a flickering field right at the edge, suggesting that whatever the hand was attached to, was accessing some other dimension.

“A human hand,” answered the boff, anticlimactically.

Heartness sighed, her curiosity changing back to annoyance with the robot. “I can see that,” she growled. “What happened to it? Who’s it from?”

The boff pointed at the hand above his hand. “This was found at the Proxima Centauri B Frequency Research Center, inside hexicle 18.” It turned the image off and the bright light of the field faded away, revealing the expansive room once again.

“My leasor has not informed the interstellar military yet,” the boff continued. “She wants this to be discrete. She sent me as soon as she realized some delicacy was required.”

“And so, you decided to strongly encourage me to come.” While she hadn’t taken any private gigs for some time, thanks to her work with Earth Council and the Interdimensional Coalition, she knew from experience that initially, most private organizations and government parties required some secrecy before announcing the solved problem to the world.

“We have sealed hexicle 18 until you are able to have a close look at it.”

Heartness had no idea how getting closer to the floating hand would help her be any the wiser. “Any other records? What about others on the base? Do you have any other evidence of the missing 27?”

“Updates received. The hand is the only living thing that has been found so far. Though, our benefactor is not sure about something else nearby, which she plans to show you. However, only 17 of the 54 hexicles have been explored. Investigation has now been paused while we await your response.”

“The hand is alive?”

“Still. It hangs there, not dying. The hand could not be shown to you on your station. Now that you have seen it, you are free to decide. You have your flash band and can leave from this point in space at any time. Please let me repeat that 27 scientists have disappeared, and your presence is required.”

Heartness knew this was her field. She was contacted when there was anything the bot officers, A.I. detectives, or government organizations couldn’t solve. With her extensive experience in multiple dimensions and realities, there weren’t that many in humanity’s sectors that could do what she did. She smiled ruefully. She would be happy to give them a hand. “You know my price.”

“Yes, Admiral Heartness. Labor credits are ready to transfer to your charity the moment you sign.”

Heartness moved some hair out of the way, and touched her implant. It was still searching for information on the ship, but the work contract had already been transmitted directly to her. It displayed in front of her eyes. Her analysis software did not detect anything unusual, so she sent a simple thought, and her brain wave vibration signature was transmitted via flash communication to the authorization department in the main brokerage on a satellite orbiting Proxima Centauri C. Within a couple of seconds she received the confirmation back via flash satellite relay that the first 100,000 credits had been transferred to her charity. “Boff. As you can now independently confirm, the contract is signed, and I will help the F.R.I find a solution. Please advise Space Station X-1a that I am fine and that everything is under control.”

“I’m sorry, Admiral Victoria Heartness,” said a voice in the air near her. “We must keep this a secret for now.”

“Have you been standing there invisible the whole time?” Heartness asked the air.

“The boff alerted me that you have signed, so I drifted over.” Then there was a click, and a woman phase-shifted into reality next to them, taking a couple of steps to reorient herself with the floor. She looked at Heartness seriously. “The hand you saw isn’t the only problem we have. We moved to an outer orbit to collect you more safely. The moment you arrived, the ship began moving back to the closest point we can get. We can’t flash jump closer due to the disturbances, but we’re only a few million kilometers from Proxibee.”

Heartness was unfazed by the woman’s phase-in, and briefly noted the boff had shut down as she appeared. But she had to know more. “What sort of disturbances?”

“It’s better that I show you,” replied the woman. She walked towards an exit in the distance, expecting her to follow.

Heartness sighed to herself. Well, if the woman wasn’t going to go through the introduction niceties, or at the very least say her name, Heartness would look it up herself. These outerworlders assumed everyone used facial recognition as a normal part of socializing and business, but Heartness was still a bit old school.

Her lobe storage unit had finished downloading anything related to Proxima Centauri, decades of data, and had accessed the most relevant information, predicting Heartness’ needs. The woman was Doctor Vilanna Szuki, born on one of the envirostations circling Proxima Centauri D. 37 years old. Seven PhDs. Her father was from Japan and her mother from Ghana, so her features were almost movie-star like. High cheek bones, blue eyes, mocha skin, and a lithe movement that could probably break a few hearts.

Heartness guessed her model looks might be one of the reasons why the woman was hiding away on a massive ship in another star system. Every media outlet from here to Sirius would want a piece of her. Though, if she ever got her back to the space station, that moodhair would have to go.

“I hope you don’t mind if I ask a lot of questions,” said Heartness.

“Of course.” Szuki smiled demurely as Heartness caught up to her. “But there are some things that can’t be explained and will need to be shown.”

“But what about this space? Why so large?”

Szuki laughed, her frizzy hair flickering with gold highlights. “Oh, daddy had this built for me for my 16th. You know, on Earth, parents used to give their children houses or cars. My daddy gave me this spaceship. Big enough to enjoy an almost infinite number of worlds in. I call it the Traverse.”

“Isn’t that a verb?”

Szuki touched her flashband, and the room was transformed into a mountainous terrain with a corral of horses. One of them whinnied and came over to her. She stroked it affectionately, though to Heartness it looked like she wasn’t quite touching it. “Hello stony. See you again soon.”

Szuki clicked her band again, and the entire paddock and animals disappeared, replaced by towering fluid rocks, three suns, and a group of large spikey aliens gathered around an upturned-mushroom-shaped table. “Hey, Sharpie, congratulations on your new spores!”

A slapping sound came from one of the spiny aliens, which was quickly translated to “Hello Vilanna. Thank you. Good to see you again.”

“You too!” Szuki smiled and clicked her band again, and the tableaux disappeared, revealing the empty space once more.

“So, it’s a hologram room. A gaming place,” said Heartness.

Szuki pursed her lips and her hair changed to a light green. “Not exactly. Follow me. I’ll tell you on the way.”

Heartness frowned. Getting information out of people here was going to be harder than she thought.

Temporal Incursion. Stellar Flash Book Three. By Neil A. Hogan

Available in Digital and in Print Formats from Amazon

This is the last of the preview chapters. I hope you enjoyed them. Thank you very much for reading.

Temporal Incursion. Stellar Flash Book Three. Chapter 3. By Neil A. Hogan

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. Now Available. A Science Fiction, Fantasy, Aliens and Time Travel Space Opera Adventure.

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.

First Interdimensional Contact by Neil A. Hogan. Science Fiction Weekly #19: Short Reads Series

First Interdimensional Contact. Science Fiction Weekly #19: Short Reads Series

Available for Kindle

The pod members on the inside of their bubble world roll back and forth in fear as the strange triangular shape breaks into their universe, and reveals something horrifying inside.

What is this long creature made of lines?

Why is it frozen in the air above them?

And what will happen if it touches the energy skin of their world?

First Interdimensional Contact is #19 in the Science Fiction Weekly short reads series. A short story of about 4500 words.

Oh My God. It’s Full of Stars. By Neil A. Hogan. Science Fiction Weekly Short Story #16

Oh My God. It’s Full of Stars. By Neil A. Hogan. Science Fiction Weekly Short Story #16

Available from Amazon: Oh My God. It’s Full of Stars.

When Captain Dhead’s ship appears near a black hole binary system, his alien first officer Khyrks eagerly tells him that there is treasure in a tear in space-time, right in the center.

Slightly uneasy at being in such a dangerous part of space, Dhead sends a drone into the tear to investigate.

And finds something incredible.

‘Oh My God. It’s Full of Stars’ is #16 in the Science Fiction Weekly Series. A short reads story of about 4200 words.

Alien UFO Disclosure: Science Fiction Weekly Short Story #15: Short Reads Series

Alien UFO Disclosure: Science Fiction Weekly Short Story #15: Short Reads Series

Available in Digital Format

When Kamryn Jones’ houseboat is destroyed by a black drone, she is contacted by a mysterious woman who sends her across the country to locate evidence of a UFO. Determined to uncover the truth, she follows the trail.

But what she finds is a lot more disturbing that she would ever have expected.

And how is the President of Australia involved in all this?

Alien UFO Disclosure is #15 in the Science Fiction Weekly Series. A short story of approximately 7700 words.

The Hydrofluorons of Krakon 7

The Hydrofluorons of Krakon 7

Available in Digital Format from Amazon

When a wormhole to another dimension opens up for Dravo, he is surprised to find highly advanced aliens on the other side eager for tourism.

But just being in the same room as them could kill a human being within an hour.

Can Dravo convince the Space Council that trade is still possible?

Find out more in The Hydrofluorons of Krakon 7. #14 in the Science Fiction Weekly series. A short story of about 5200 words.

Science Fiction Weekly is Back!

Science Fiction Weekly is Back!

Yes, great news! A new series of Science Fiction weekly has begun. I’ve created some new stories, and rewritten some recent stories to be released on a weekly basis from this week!

Stories 1-13 were released last year, and I’ll release stories 14-26 this year.

The first story in the new series is out – #14 The Hydrofluorons of Krakon 7, with #15 Alien UFO Disclosure to follow next Tuesday.

I’ll post each time a new one becomes available.

Many thanks for reading!

The Andromeda Effect. Stellar Flash Book Two by Neil A. Hogan – Now Available in Digital and Print

The Andromeda Effect. Stellar Flash Book Two by Neil A. Hogan

Now Available in Digital and Print

Sent back 2.5 million years in time to the Andromeda Galaxy to investigate why there’s a record of them having been there, the Stellar Flash crew encounter a creature so powerful that it has taken control of the entire galaxy by thought alone.

With most of the crew unconscious, Captain Jonathan Hogart is in a race against time to defeat the plant-planet, save the galaxy, and find a way to return to 2133.

But another force is attempting to take control, to use the power of the creature from the past to take over the Milky Way Galaxy in the present. And, for this, Hogart has no defense.

How is the creature controlling an entire galaxy?

Who has the technology to transmit the creature’s power from the past to the present?

And will the Stellar Flash crew and the Space Station team be able to save both galaxies?

Available now at –

  

Amazon Digital  Amazon Print

Barnes and Noble Digital

Rakuten Kobo Digital