FIRE!! (Space truckin' chapter three)

The fire claxon on Swift Arrow is the loudest, most distinctive alarm aboard. With good reason. A fire aboard the closed enviroment of a starship can be deadly, even catastrophic very quickly. It consumes precious oxygen, releases any number of toxic gasses that could overwhelm the crew, and the danger of damaging critical equipment being the three primary concerns. Not to mention tons of rocket fuel, and ordinance in the defensive magazines that would turn the ship to atoms if the fire got too close.
Awake instantly I scanned the "threat board" on the bulkhead of my cabin. The fire was aft, down in engineering..wonderfull.I could already smell smoke. In just underalls, and shipshoes I scrambled down ladders, and passageways sealing emergency bulkheads behind me. When I reached engineering I found my "passenger" already fighting the fire with an estinguisher.
"I was awake reading when the alarm sounded!" She yelled over her shoulder. "It's in the wiring!" And oh god! It was. The heat, and smoke in the small access corridor was incredible! I joined her with another exstinguisher, and we quickly gained the upper hand on the fire, reducing it to a hideous smelling hiss of steam, and smoke.
"Come on!" I said dropping the heavy cylindar, and slapping her on the back. "Your hired if you want to sign on as crew." "Let's get out of here." I sealed engineering, and vented atmosphere. When I turned to look at her she was standing with the other extinguisher still dangling at her side un-noticed.Looking right through me. I could almost see wheels turning in her head. She was making a major decision. Before the smoke had cleared the ship I had a crew.
We made our way back up to the flight deck discussing our situation, and our future. We had a lot to talk about, but first we needed to assess the damage to the ship. Depending on what had burned in that wiring harness, our future could be cut very short. As if on cue The lights went out, colors flared..sagged, a blur of futures played themselves in our minds. The stardrive had failed...

Hang on!

HERE IS CHAPTER TWO OF MY SCIENCE FICTION SERIES..ENJOY.....
I flipped up the red saftey bar, and hit the ignition sequence for all four engines simultaniously. the whine of the turbo pumps vannished in the full throated roar of the huges rockets. Each engine bell is fifteen feet in diameter, and the pumps injected enough fuel into them to fill an olympic sized swiming pool in minutes.

We left the launch rail, and I pulled back on the stick. Swift Arrow rotated nose up. I stopped her at forty degrees, and we climbed out picking up speed, as the g's built. We were out of the tundra of the space port, and over the ocean. I could see the coastline out the forward windows as I banked steeply to stay in my launch window. In no time I could see the horizon start to become curved as we streaked through the atmosphere. We were minutes from orbit.

I was a busy beaver, make no mistake, but I still stole glances at my passenger as we made our assent. She was no stranger to spaceships, I saw that right off. She knew how to breathe so the g's weren't so over powering. She was totally alert, her eyes scanning the displays. swift Arrow was giving us a magnificent ride. We made eye contact, and she smiled. It wasn't girlish, or come hither, it was the smile of people sharing an exhilarating experience. I was glad she hadn't stayed in her cabin during lift. Even if it was a rule of mine. no passengers on the bridge during lift or landings. I fully expected her company on touchdown.I wondered why?

We were at m.e.c.o. (that's main engines cut off), and the silence was accompanied by the thrill in the belly of free fall.I hadn't bothered with the usual passenger warnings about zero gee, with her beside me. She was no stranger to it either. Good.I hate people barfing on my bridge. I got busy at the nav computer, and shortly the gyros whined as they rotated us onto hyper space tajectory. I gave a short countdown, and hit the engines again. we had to boost out of the gravity well of this system's star before I dared make the jump to hyper space. It plays hell with the navigation. You can end up anywhen, or anywhere.

And then it was time. I dreaded this. I looked at Ms Keeley. I knew she dreaded it too. The star drive produces some short lived, but sometimes un-nerving effects. Extreme dizzyness, and a bizarre multitude of deja' vus. As if all the possible pasts, and futures were flashing through your mind. I gave another short countdown, and keyed the stardrive sequence. Colors sagged outside the view ports, as the stars became lines, and vannished. She was my best friend. She was my enemy. She was my wife. I was alone. I was rich. I was a soldier. I was a coward... I was back! I wondered if I looked as plale, and shaken, as she did. The stars were long rainbows flashing by. The red shift. We were on our way.

School was For The Birds

It would still be dark when we would start to hear them. The birds signaling the end of another long night.Daylight a pale blue glow on the horizon. That was our cue. It was bedtime.
Two transplanted yankees in the rural south of nineteen sixtey-six.Outcasts. Strangers. Outsiders. The tiny little town of Monterey, Tennessee was a very closed comunity in those days. Everybody knew everybody, and half of them we're related to the other half. My sister, and I stuck out like strobe lights in a coal mine. We we're not voted most popular at Monterey high.
It was too much for us a lot of the time. We stayed home as much as the truant officer would allow. Our Mom, bless her soul, wasn't strong enough to make us go. I went from being an honor roll student in Wisconsin to being in the special ed. class in one year.
It wasn't that I could'nt do the work. I just became so withdrawn from the blatent hostility of my classmates, that I just quit participating. So I wasn't really there even when I was.
We would sit in my sister's room all night, talking, daydreaming of "home", and listening to WLS in Chicago on the radio. We would tell mom we couldn't sleep, and were exhausted. After this worked a few times it became the routine, and we would miss two, sometimes three days a week. Safe in our isolation.

And Now For Something Completely Differen't....

This is the first chapter in a science fiction story I've been doing on 360. I hope you enjoy it. Betty, what do you think of the video?
"LIFT OFF!!"

Lift day is always a hectic time for me, but I've never lost the excitement of it either.
I spent the last week getting ready for this day. Port clearence paperwork, flight plans,
visas, medical, and my pride, and joy...Ownership papers! I own this beast. And beast
she is too. I'll fill you in more on that later. A starship! my second, thankyou very much.
(yeah that's another story too.) The I.S.S. Swift Arrow will roar into orbit with me in the
cockpit at exactly 12 noon local planet time.
The ship is a living thing coming to wakefullness. The deck vibrates when shes
sitting on the tarmac. Fans whirr, machinery whines, and the flight deck is a muted
symphony of hums, clicks,bleeps, and communications traffic. I never tire of this. My
boyhood dream realized. I am a happy man. Check list time.
I have a green board on the star drive. powerplant green. Anti-matter reactor is
online. Reaction drive is good. Magnetic drive at idle. life support is good. Navigation
platform good. Com is good. Weapons...plasma cannons good. Lasars good. 50.
caliber machine guns good. 20 mm rapidfire cannons go. torpedos go. ( Hey..some of
the places I go you better be able to walk softly, and carry a real big stick.) Electrical
buss a is good. buss b is good. Buss c is good. Ok you get the idea here right?
I spent a month putting together this cargo. Postal deliveries. Machinery . Dry
freight. Medical supplies(nothing biological). Lots of refrigerated, and frozen food items.
And her. I know i know, you would think i'd learn, but no. My human cargo was a mystery.
She had the money for passage. She was going my way. And, yeah i like redheads.
Her business on Rigal 3 was her own affair, and since she wasn't wanted by the local
heat (yep I always check) i saw no reason why Ms Betty Keeley shouldn't join my Motely
crew for the trip.
"Starship I.S.S. Swift Arrow to Aero-space control request departure clearnce at
11:59 point three niner-mark, over?"
"Roger Swift Arrow. You are cleared for departure at 11:59...and counting...."
"I see no reason why I should have to spend lift-off down there in that stuffy cabin
with such a splendid view from here." And there she was buckling in the right hand
seat. The look on her face booking no argument.
"Uhhh... Yesmaam" I said, not for the last time, And hit the rockets.....

He's Dead Jim

I recently went to the doctor with a couple of issues, and next thing I knew they were drawing blood, putting on rubber gloves (eep!), and handing me perscriptions. Yes I have made that old fart rite of passage into pillville. Soon I'll have so many I can put them in a bowl, with milk, instead of cereal. I have blood pressure pills,thyroid pills, colesterol pills, and multi-vitamin pills. Oh yeah and let's not forget my prozac. Jesus. I knew I should have never went up there.

ME AT NINE...

What a joyous ,magnificent,bittersweet thing life is.

The soaring heights...

The depths of dispair...

moments apart.

We float Timeless through the decades..

In a blur.

And find ourselves.

Watching our children.

Through our parents eyes......

joe