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    Off-World
    Off-World
    Off-World
    Ebook124 pages1 hour

    Off-World

    By Terry Hayman

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    About this ebook

    Imagination flies, and sometimes its stories are just too wild to be contained on this earth as we know it. So leave this muddy backwater with Terry Hayman in 5 tales of distant worlds, life forms, and adventures. In “A Time of Leaving”, get inside the heads of an alien species fighting to not be “collected.”. In “Millipede Lessons”, charge into the terrifying alien tunnels on another world to capture a nightmare renegade. In “Upgrades” figure out exactly why a nameless slave is being upgraded, body part by body part. Then figure a way out of a space station hell in “The Girl Who Left” and a species imperative in “The Last Angel.” Your time dilation begins...now!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFiero Publishing
    Release dateJan 13, 2011
    ISBN9781458142153
    Off-World
    Author

    Terry Hayman

    Raised in five different countries and currently living with his family in one of the most beautiful places on earth, Terry is a full-time writer and actor who accepts struggle, believes in goodness, and seeks truth always.

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      Book preview

      Off-World - Terry Hayman

      OFF-WORLD

      Terry Hayman

      Copyright © 2011 Terry Hayman

      Published by Fiero Publishing

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      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 person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Author foreword

      A Time of Leaving

      Millipede Lessons

      The Girl Who Left

      Upgrades

      The Last Angel

      Afterword

      Acknowledgments

      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

      Foreword by the Author

      Imaginations fly, and sometimes the stories they bring up are just too odd to be contained on this earth as we know it. And, sure, we could imagine massive environmental changes or undiscovered micro-climates and societal changes into which we could slide our stories, and that has been done, but sometimes it’s more fun to just posit insterstellar travel and let her rip.

      And I’d like to say that each of the following stories uses the full breadth of that epic future we’ve long imagined, and puts a mind-boggling spin on where we’re headed and what we’ll find when we get there. But no, actually. While some of the following stories take a stab at that, their main purpose is to have fun exploring humans in new places, with new challenges that might just resonate with some of the challenges we all face right here and now.

      Specifically:

      A Time of Leaving is a simple ecology tale that had me noodling with the trope of scientific explorers not recognizing intelligent life when they encounter it. Because I didn’t want to get too ‘out there’ and inaccessible, I made the hero a boy who was actually raised by this unfamiliar form of intelligence.

      Millipede Lessons came out of a kick-ass mood and a personal hatred of little crawly things. Tossed together with, I hope, a little exobiological understanding and compassion.

      The Girl Who Left.is a story not for the squeamish. I’d been reading way too much stuff in the news about child trafficking, and my cynical brain told me that such things were never going to go away; they’d just get pushed more to the hidden fringes of a future society. In this case, to a space station. It’s also a wish-fulfillment piece for me, envisaging how the abused kids could rise up with the right leader.

      With Upgrades, I honestly can’t remember what the original impetus was, though I’ve always been freaked out by the idea of other people making changes to my body without my consent. Somewhere in the course of writing the story, the old Arthurian legend of Lohengrin snuck in and I got to explore what has always been one of the more confusing elements of that tale.

      Finally, The Last Angel. On one level it’s another encounter with aliens in which, once again, humans are a tad too quick to rape, pillage, and claim a new planet as their own. On another level, I was imagining that attitude rolled into what is essentially a storming of heaven, a callous destruction of God’s army.

      So away we go. Out of Earth’s atmosphere and it’s boggy rules, into space, the future, aliens, soldiers, courageous kids, and more. Your time distortion begins...now.

      --Terry Hayman

      North Vancouver, BC

      January 13, 2011

      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

      They’ve pillaged Ehan’s adoptive planet, but the plant-spirit Jayanti will not let her people be destroyed so easily.

      A Time of Leaving

      Terry Hayman

      Copyright © 2010 Terry Hayman

      Be calm. Jayanti is wise.

      The boy, Ehan, told himself this as he crouched, heart pounding, in the shadows of the cargo space. The caged monkins to his right screeched, the tolly birds hooted, the collection of slugs and buzzers beat at the walls of their cases. And of course Jayanti’s children, their fronds and stems trapped in the twelve tall, egg-shaped containers opposite Ehan, wept into his head that he was the savior. He must rescue them all.

      But how?

      The white-haired woman stepped back from one of the containers. Florapod contents look healthy, she grunted.

      But...?

      A feeling, Major. Like we...missed something on this planet.

      The bluff man, ‘Major’, shook his head. Nothing to miss, Doc. He banged his knuckles on the cage of screeching monken. Nothing intelligent.

      Hm. ‘Doc’ did not seem convinced and reached out to touch the clear fronts of the florapods. Ehan held his breath. Could she hear them?

      Major tapped the square on his wrist. Time to go. One more scan then we lift off to rendezvous with the ship.

      The woman nodded distractedly and followed him out.

      Finally. Ehan slipped out from behind the screeching cages and leapt, barefoot, to the florapods. Each was roughly man-sized and full of plant prisoners who wept in Ehan’s head, smelling of rot and fear. He shoved his fingers around the sides of the first one, which held Ankur, and desperately tried to find an opening. Finally he sprang up to the top and, to the cheering screeches of the monkins behind him, began to rock it back and forth.

      It groaned, creaked, then something snapped and the florapod holding Ankur toppled forward. Ehan jumped backwards off it as it crashed. Dirt powdered out through the air holes to dance its grit in Ehan’s mouth, but the pod did not break open. We live, gasped Ankur from inside.

      Strong for a phantom, said a voice behind him.

      Ehan spun around and saw the woman, Doc, blocking the door to the rest of the bird. "Phan-tom?" Ehan said, eyes darting.

      Our scans showed the blip of something human-like that disappeared whenever tracked. ‘Scan phantom’ the Major decided. You, obviously. She stepped toward him.

      Be no! Ehan shouted and leapt backwards onto the downed florapod. He began scrabbling for an opening again.

      Hurry! Jayanti’s children wept at him. Hurry!

      Major entered. What’s—? He saw Ehan and the downed florapod, and jerked out the thing he’d pointed that morning to make a monkin burst into flames. He aimed it at Ehan.

      "Stop!" ordered Doc, grabbing the weapon from him, as Ehan ducked his head and hugged the florapod to protect it. When Ehan looked up, Major had stepped back and Doc forward.

      Are you alone? Doc asked. Did anyone else survive the plague?

      Ehan jumped up to a squat. Jayanti’s children, he breathed and stomped the florapod. Open. Let Jayanti’s children free.

      "What is this? Major cut in. Mowgli raised by trees?"

      Doc turned to him. You wanted intelligent species, Major. This one clearly is. And if I’m not mistaken, — she looked intently at Ehan and the way Ankur’s fronds stroked the inside of the florapod where his hands touched it — he’s not be the only one.

      The kid’s just—

      The last of his kind, Major. But possibly the ambassador for the whole of this world. Do you understand? She turned back to Ehan as she asked it.

      Ehan curled his fingers into two of the florapods air holes and bounced up and down on his heels. I...ambass-dor. Let free.

      Not stinking likely, said Major. We got orders to bring back samples....

      Open your eyes, snapped Doc. The samples were to develop vaccines.

      Crome. The kid. We take the kid.

      Take, no. Invite, yes. Doc turned to Ehan. You come with us up to the sky. Meet our people.

      No! screamed Jayanti’s children all around him until Ehan shook his head to stop the pressure.

      But the bluff man had already stepped forward and gripped Ehan’s arm. C’mon, Kid.

      Ehan’s head snapped sideways. He yelled and threw himself at Major, clawing his face kicking at him with his feet. The man threw him back and Ehan rolled. He sprung to his feet by the monkin cages. Inspired, he spun around and started lifting latches. The monkins scrambled out as Ehan went for the insect cages. He flipped them and they shattered when they hit the floor.  The cargo bay was suddenly full of flyers, crawlers, and monkins screeching off the walls, looking for a way out.

      Now, Ehan thought, Jayanti’s children.

      But as he leapt through the melee, he saw Major jerk off a monkin that had wrapped itself around his head and raise his weapon. Ehan slammed an empty cage down hard against a florapod, Major fired, and Ehan felt the side of his head explode.

      ~~~~

      When he awoke, Ehan was inside one of Jayanti’s children, Ankur. The plant’s cool, spongy pulp wrapped around every centimeter of

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