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    Interplanetary Tales
    Interplanetary Tales
    Interplanetary Tales
    Ebook109 pages1 hour

    Interplanetary Tales

    By George Watson

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    About this ebook

    Twelve Science Fiction tales that span the galaxy;
    From a plague-ravaged London to the Galactic Core.
    A besotted husband who must share his wife with a long-lost spacefarer, a small town in a post-apocalyptic Oregon populated by ancient robots.
    A strange supermarket filled with horror where people enter but not exit and a cold icy waste called England populated by a few survivors and many ghosts.

    'Interplanetary Tales' will take you to strange futures on Earth then to alien worlds and give you a taste of the fear that dwells between the stars

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGeorge Watson
    Release dateAug 2, 2015
    ISBN9781311472458
    Interplanetary Tales
    Author

    George Watson

    After a long, career in engineering, where I worked on merchant ships, in various factories that produced Pharmaceuticals, Chemicals, Long Playing Records (yes those black plastic disc thingies about the size of a dinner plate and yes, I’m that old!) and latterly in Aircraft Design at Boeing and BAe, I was lucky enough to be able to retire to Spain.A great admirer of the older (of course) science fiction writers of the 50’s to 80’s I thought I would like to try to emulate them.As my wife likes to say, and does often, “At least it keeps you off the street corners and out of the Spanish bars...”

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      Book preview

      Interplanetary Tales - George Watson

      INTERPLANETARY TALES

      By George H. Y. Watson.

      Copyright 2015 by George H. Y. Watson.

      Smashwords Edition.

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Cover Design by G.Watson.

      Cover Illustration 'Space' by Steve Bidmead.

      CONTENTS.

      DODRASP TOWN.

      THE EARTH HUSBAND.

      THE GALACTIC SUPERMARKET.

      LOS LADRONES DE ALMAS (The Soul Stealers).

      THE SAVIOR.

      LOOKING FOR ELVIS.

      THE SEEDING.

      SILVER LININGS.

      PENSIONER PARADISE.

      DEATHS RETURN.

      ALBERT HALTWHISTLE: ICE WARRIOR.

      THE RECYCLERS.

      OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR.

      About George H. Y. Watson.

      DODRASP TOWN.

      DAY 45149.

      Kyra-EOB3489 lay in bed eyes open, wide awake. This was unprecedented but she had heard her father’s voice in her dreams. Kyra. Kyra. Time to Become. Initializing.

      She just knew that there was something different about today! The alarm clock would ring at 08:00hrs in exactly 5 seconds. In one fluid movement she cancelled the alarm and swung her legs out of bed. Ignoring the thick dust that had flown into the air when she disturbed the blankets, she paused for a moment thinking ‘Should I wake Billy Bob? No, let him sleep.’

      He lay at the other side of the bed snoring softly.

      She tippy-toed towards the chair where her dress lay, then stopped to look into the bathroom and her reflection in the mirror. The silver had begun to flake off the glass all around the edges and quite badly until all that was left was a head-sized oval portion in the centre.

      It really should be replaced, she thought, But it’s been like that forever!

      Deep in her memory she seemed to recall a new, pristine mirror and a Billy Bob laughing and dancing around the bedroom.

      She turned her gaze to the faucet and knew no water would flow. Looking back into the mirror she thought something wasn’t quite right but no answer came from her foggy thought processes. ‘Still pretty,’ she thought and smiled at herself. Long blond hair flowed down to her shoulders over the smooth fair synthiskin of the left side of her face and over the grey cobalt-steel of the right side.

      She dressed quickly and quietly so as not to disturb Billy Bob. The dress was her favourite, covered with multicoloured flowers but very faded and worn now. Again, in the depths of her memory she saw the dress as it had been when it was new. But how long ago was that?

      Slipping out of the apartment block she walked along the sidewalk of 3rd Avenue towards the Town Square with its wooden bandstand.

      Stopping at the Baker Street crossing she waited. There was no traffic visible but she knew that in 23.5 seconds at 08:15hrs exactly, a yellow school bus would turn the corner from 1st Avenue.

      On time the bus appeared and slowly trundled down Baker Street. The driver waved to Kyra as he always did and the six children, always the same six, stopped their playing and stared at her.

      Crossing the road Kyra quickly reached the end of 3rd Avenue as the pavement disappeared into a jumble of shattered concrete and a wall of sand that stretched to the horizon.

      Suddenly, inside her head Father’s voice spoke again, Initiating signal for Electro-Organic Legacy Data Update.

      Kyra walked back, re-crossing Baker Street to reach the Town Square. Some people walked slowly clockwise around the bandstand path nodding and smiling at those coming the other way. She had seen this countless times, only now noticing how worn the path was.

      As if people have been walking there for ages, she thought and prepared to join them.

      Suddenly she felt herself compelled to turn around and look at the Dixie Movie Theatre on the other side of 3rd Avenue. Knowing that there were no sand-sweepers due for 3.4 minutes, she crossed to the pay booth and stood in front of the Teller, not knowing why.

      The Teller was totally devoid of synthiskin. Time and sunshine had degraded it to a point where it finally crumbled into the dust that covered the ticket machine.

      One for the auditorium Kyra-EOB3489. the Teller said, shoving a faded ticket though the dust towards her.

      Kyra entered the auditorium. No one had collected her ticket. A few dim lights glowed in the ceiling and she heard the squeaking of small rodents amongst the seats. The ticket said Row H, seat 12.

      Locating the row, she shuffled along disturbing dust from the ancient seats and the detritus that covered the floor. Seat 12 proved to be in better condition than most and she sat down. Again she heard Father’s voice, Seat Pressure-Sensor activated. Connecting umbilical.

      A sensation at the back of her neck almost made Kyra stand up, thinking the rodents had found her.

      Downloading legacy data. said Father.

      To Kyra the cinema seemed to suddenly be devoid of light although she suspected what she was seeing was being directly sent to her brain via the umbilical. The screen was suddenly ablaze with moving titles informing the viewer that the following was Industrially Sensitive Data produced for the E.O.C. Corporation of Seattle, Washington.

      Then she saw Father standing on Third Street near the Bandstand. Behind him in the distance, the street turned and ascended via an onramp onto the I-5 freeway. In the distance green fields went on and on. Where had all the sand gone?

      A caption opened at the bottom of the screen, ‘William Roberts (Billy Bob?) Professor of Organic Chemistry. University of Washington.’

      Father began to speak, Today, the Electro-Organic Computers Corporation of Seattle is proud to open this new state-of-the-art facility in Southern Oregon. A replica of a typical small American town, it is built under the Department Of Defense Robotic Awareness And Sentience Program. ‘DODRASP’ in short. Indeed, here he laughed a little, Some are already calling the facility ‘Dodrasp Town!

      As you all know the new Organic Robotics Programming has been a great success. The performance of humanoid-shaped Robots, governed by our outstanding Electro-Organic Computers has been exceptional in a pre-programmed environment.

      At this point, Father paused and wagged a finger at the camera, But the robots remain just that. Robots. The purpose of DODRASP is to provide an environment of Repetitive Normality where the Electro-Organic Computers, the Robotic Brains if you must, of our robots will be constantly monitored and updated as they gain in physical experience.

      "It is our fervent hope that the end result will be Sentience

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