Neil A. Hogan Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer
Space Fiction Writer Author Editor
By
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
By
Science Fiction Weekly is back. The first five or so stories you’ll have read in Alien Dimensions or Fantasy Short Stories, or even in Hoganthology. This will be the first time they’re released individually. I’ll be making each one free for 5 days starting with #27.
Drago and the rest of the scientific expedition are on a mission to investigate an underwater temple in the Bahamas. But a sudden storm appears throwing their little boat off course.
They soon figure out that the question they should be asking isn’t ‘where’ they are, but ‘when.’
Now available for Kindle, and in Kindle Unlimited – Download here: The Secret of Bimini
By
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 4
The triangular shape flickered green along one side, then settled into a new stable orbit around Saturn, just above the rings. The Stellar Flash was the flagship of the Earth Council fleet, and the best that human and alien engineering could provide. It was the ultimate in interfrequency and interdimensional travel, and also had the ability to travel in time, given the right coordinates.
The Stellar Flash had recently returned from 2.5 million years ago in the Andromeda Galaxy. Unfortunately, it had had to come back the long way around, and it was a bit worse for wear as a result.
The alien crew of 300, with a main Center crew of 8, were mostly on leave. Having taken a space-fold time jump back to the present, and found their cabins full of pieces of iridium, some had returned to their planets, some had decided to visit Space Station X-1a, and some, like Captain Jonathan Hogart, had decided to do what he could on the ship.
Hogart was a pinkish-white, muscular man in his early-to-mid 40s, with short, dark-brown hair, and a sparkle in his eyes that suggested he was always about to make a joke. A few days ago, he had moved to the Stellar Flash, intent on doing things that robots, other crew members, the A.I. and various software programs were capable of doing without him.
“Jonathan, just go to Earth,” Heartness had said. “Hug some trees. Smell some flowers. Take a break.”
“After my recent experience on the Floran homeworld, plants are the last things I want to see.”
His look had been enough, and Heartness hadn’t said another word. But now, after a day on the ship, he was beginning to think he had made a mistake.
“So, A.I., you’re sure this console needs my help?”
“Yes, Captain,” came the soft and feminine Japanese-accented tones of the A.I. “Analysis indicates that the bolts holding that screen to the floor are loose. In fact, all the bolts are loose on all the stands in the center. Please tighten them.”
Hogart held the wrench and stared at the consoles. “I don’t know, A.I. Surely there are other more important things that need to be done.”
“Other areas are about to be fixed by the repair system. Center bolts are at the bottom of the list, so they won’t be done for a couple of days. Your help will enable them to be done faster.”
Hogart smiled. “Well, if you’re sure. I’d be happy to help. This is a lot better than watching over Raj’s shoulder as he unlocks another door.”
The A.I. remained silent.
“Right, then.” He lay down next to the first panel and set to work.
Just then an alarm began blaring.
Hogart sat bolt upright and hit his head on the side of the panel. “Ow!” He yelled. “A.I. Did I activate something?”
“It is a false alarm from the space station a short time ago. Disabling now.”
“Well, that’s a relief.” He looked about the Center Control room, not quite wanting to lie down and tighten bolts.
Eight panels on stands were arranged facing outward to the wall and dome-ceiling screens. In the center was the flash drive – two columns like a stalactite and a stalagmite stretched downward and upward, not quite meeting. The space in the middle generated the flash drive field. Three exit doors were arranged equidistant around the circular area, and the surround screens were currently showing where they orbited above Saturn’s rings.
Hogart grinned at the sight of the colorful planet. It was hard to believe how huge Saturn really was. Even though Saturn’s day was a mere ten hours or so, it took them days to orbit it, and there was always something new to see.
Newslets and Mindshorts had indicated another of Saturn’s rings was about to disappear – the effect of their recent conflict with the Florans, or perhaps simply the aging of the rings. He supposed there would be an observation party at some point, but it meant Saturn continued to be interesting.
Just then, the door to corridor two dissolved, and a young-looking man with thick black hair and brown skin skipped into the Center. “We got door 347 open!” said Officer Raj Kumar, excitedly.
Hogart groaned. “Must you come running in here every time you get a door open? I mean, it takes at least seven minutes. Couldn’t your time be better spent? Besides, aren’t you supposed to be going back to Lahore for the reunification ceremony? It’s a Sunday in Punjab, as I recall.”
“Well, communications are still not that reliable. And, besides, why would I run? I just flash to the entrance and skip in! And in regard to Lahore, I sent a boff to rep me! I’ll watch it later.”
Hogart sighed. Sometimes it was fun hanging around people in their twenties, and sometimes it was just annoying. Raj was, what, 26? He shook himself and refocused. “What was the alarm about?”
“How should I know? I’m the door opener!”
Hogart put the tool he was holding in a box near him. If Kumar had not been assigned by Patel, Hogart might have had words about respect for rank. As it was, he just sighed again. “Just a moment.” He turned to the center of the Center. “A.I. Avatar please.”
An early thirties Japanese woman, in a T-shirt tied at her waist to reveal her midriff, and extremely tight blue pants with holes in them, appeared near the floor and ceiling columns. Hogart raised his eyebrows. “What happened to your kimono?”
The avatar grinned a big smile, her heavily coated eyelashes fluttering. “Costume program. I thought I’d try something from the 80s. Do you like it?”
“2080s?”
“1980s. I think it suits the shape you programmed. What do you think?”
Hogart looked at her clothes, quizzically. The blue pants looked difficult to wear, and made of some extremely thick material. Camping material? “Is that canvas? Like, for tents?”
The A.I. nodded.
“Well, it’s, um, nice, A.I.”
Why would she even think about changing? He had been reading some of the history that had gone on with a clone of himself in the Andromeda Galaxy, and the evolution of the ship’s avatar. While his clone had fallen in love with the previous incarnation of the Stellar Flash ship A.I., he wasn’t going to explore that option.
Perhaps the new A.I. had also read the reports, and was considering a future with him, or maybe he was just being narcissistic. He shuddered. He wasn’t ready for a digital relationship yet. “Back to my original topic. What was the ‘false alarm’?”
The avatar placed a finger on her cheek and closed her eyes. “Accessing,” she said, sweetly. “Official message from Admiral Wei Zhou. Nothing that should concern you. Continue with getting the Stellar Flash ship ready for her next mission.”
Hogart frowned. “Admiral Zhou is back on 1a already? It must be important. Tell me the details, unofficially.”
“You won’t like it.”
“A.I!”
“Confirmed.” The A.I. became unofficially official, staring directly ahead. “Admiral Victoria Heartness has been kidnapped by a robot officer owned by the Frequency Research Institute. She has been traced to a ship several million kilometers from Proxima B in the Proxima Centauri system. The corporation that has obtained her had previously offered several thousand…”
“Enough. I had heard about the bidder. I thought she’d turned it down. A.I. How quickly can we get the Stellar Flash to the system?”
“Flash drive inoperative,” the A.I. shrugged.
“Escape pods?”
“Storage centers still contain iridium stones. No escape pods have been maintained for over a million years. Hangar 27 will be the first, scheduled for tomorrow.”
Hogart stared at the almost empty Center, struggling to work out what to do next. A robot had taken Heartness. Was it a robot uprising, or was the F.R.I. seeing how far it could push its powers? Either way, tightening bolts wasn’t going to get him there faster.
“Ahem,” said Kumar.
“Are you still here?”
“Room 347?” Kumar stretched his arms out as though to say, ‘Are you coming or not’?
Hogart frowned. “I need to work out a way to save Victoria!”
“Admiral Zhou said not to worry. A robot officer took her to a corporation. Admiral Heartness is probably sipping champagne by now. Captain, the panels will fix themselves. Please, come with me.”
Hogart straightened his blue jumpsuit. “Why is 347 so important?”
Kumar danced back and forth on his feet. “Oh, come on Jonathan. Come and see. Live a little. You’ll love it.”
“I think I’m more likely to regret it,” muttered Hogart, but he followed after Kumar. As they exited into the corridor, Kumar clicked his flash band on Hogart’s, grinned winningly at him, and then they both disappeared.
Temporal Incursion. Stellar Flash Book Three. By Neil A. Hogan
By
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
By
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
By
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.
By
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.
By
No time for reading? Pass the time on your morning or night drive with the first 10 chapters of The Andromeda Effect, read by a robot!
It’s available via Youtube, so you can load up the video here:
Please note that this video just contains the first 10 chapters. There are 77 chapters in all.
You can find out more about the book here: The Andromeda Effect
NB: Just checked the recording. No idea why the last couple of minutes have been cut off. A problem with Microsoft Movie Maker, I expect. Here’s the missing section:
The Hangar was reserved for visiting craft, so was quite bare, apart from various biorepair stacks and parts cabinets that lined the walls. Hogart put his hand to the window and peered closer, getting his bearings, then moved towards the door to wait.
In the window reflection he saw his two chosen companions appear not far away and quickly clack and inch up behind him.
“Hangar Bay 27 decompressed. Attack ship on reverse thrusters, and slowing. Front cone drill active.” The A.I’s voice echoed around them. “The vessel is adjusting its speed for careful penetration rather than ramming.”
“Sounds like it knows what the Stellar Flash is made of,” said Puppy, as they reached the transparent metal of the Hangar bay door. Energy shields had been erected inside so that, as soon as it happened, the ship wouldn’t be able to move any further.
Hogart trusted the A.I. would do what she needed to do at the right moment.
“Impact in 5…4…3…2…”
Moments later, the roof of the hanger phase-shifted, and the nanite shield split and rushed apart, creating a hole large enough, just as the enemy ship was about to hit the outer surface. With nothing to land on, the artificial gravity quickly pulled it through the ceiling, and it crashed to the floor, spinning awkwardly, as hard-light beams began to slow it and hold it in place.
The A.I. reactivated the ceiling, repressurized the room, then released the door. Hogart, along with his security guard and translator, stalked in, nanite suits on and guns at the ready.
“Ready to attempt translation, Cuddly?”
“Yes, Sir!”
The light beams slowed the ship to a stop, and positioned it the right way up. With a clang, the entrance door hit the ground, and to everyone’s surprise, a Floran in military regalia stood in the opening.
Hogart immediately noticed that the Floran was wearing 22nd century decorations.
He briefly looked back at Puppy and Cuddly, and shrugged. Cuddly waved an upper proleg in understanding. No special translation was necessary.
Their language systems would work just fine.
Hogart took a step towards the Floran. “I see. You thought you could come back in time and recapture me here, did you?”
The Floran looked at him coldly with its stamen-like eyes and orchid-flower mouths. “I don’t know you, and I have only two objectives. You have prevented objective one. Speaking of which…” Then the Floran turned to the ship. “Computer. Self-destruct.”
The Floran’s ship complied. “Self-destruct initiated. Stellar Flash sterilization program commenced. Power and energy build up, confirmed. Goodbye Commander Skrgypst. Six… Five…”
“Noooo!” yelled Hogart.
Not that yelling would do any good.
By
Over the previous 30 or so years, I’ve been involved in quite a number of projects. So many, in fact, that I’ve long lost count. From magazine subscription services to video tape network exchanges to fan club newsletters and a lot more. Some of these have made money, most of these have lost money. But money was never the true intention behind any of them. Usually it was to help someone or fulfill an unspoken need, or simply to fulfill one for myself which I then shared with everyone.
One of those was Plan Forever
Ten years ago I could not find a simple online calendar that could help me find the correct days of the week for dates in the future.
The far future.
So, I got onto a website called Odesk (now Upwork) and hired a gentleman in Indonesia who worked with me to create a php platform that would enable me to check the day of the week for dates up to the year 9999. It took a lot of planning but I wanted an easy way to jump to a hundred years and a thousand years into the future, with drop down menus and more. To make it more accessible, I also wanted a century planner, so you could plan out the next hundred years.
Perfect for time travel stories!
After several months and hundreds of dollars, the program finally came to fruition, and I could launch PlanForever.com for planners and time travel writers.
I was so excited by this site, and promoted it everywhere. Spent some money on Adwords, added it to lots of publications, and included it in some emails.
Sadly, there wasn’t much interest. Within about a year or two, Google had made their calendar service a lot more user friendly. And, even though you can’t jump to the year 9999 on Google’s Calendar without clicking on the forward button for hours, it was a lot more popular than my Plan Forever site.
Still, I have kept the site running. I like the idea of knowing the exact day of the week that a character might land in the future (the site can also take you back to the year 0, though it doesn’t have an adjustment for the missing 11 days in 1752) and it gives me the incentive to work on some other time travel stories. I hope there are many science fiction book and script writers visiting the site to double-check their days and dates.
So, if you plan to write a time travel story, and you really need to mention the day, check out the calendar at Plan Forever , and get a more accurate fix on the day of the week.
Enjoy!
If you prefer the printed version, I also released a blank diary in 2014 with a century planner in the back here: Weekly Planner Diary. 52 Blank Undated Weeks. Lined Note Pages & Century Planner.