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    Off The Face Of The Earth
    Off The Face Of The Earth
    Off The Face Of The Earth
    Ebook57 pages46 minutes

    Off The Face Of The Earth

    By Robert Jeschonek

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A mind-blowing science fiction thriller from an award-winning Star Trek and Doctor Who author! Can a crackhead save his missing son from a twisted abductor? The outlook seems grim until a strange visitor from the future lends a hand. Armed with high-tech gadgets from beyond tomorrow, the future man might just help the crackhead win the race against time to save the child. But even if father and son reunite, little Sean has a destiny that could take him away forever. To save the world, must he make the ultimate sacrifice? Or will the fate of all mankind hinge on the choice of his good-for-nothing crackhead father?

    This scifi thriller will race you out to the edge of reality, blow your mind, and kick your ass. Don't miss the uncut version of this short novel, available here from Tsetse Press for the first time anywhere.

    Reviews

    "Robert Jeschonek is a towering talent who doesn't see the world quite like anyone else." – Mike Resnick, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of the Starship series

    "Jeschonek ́s stories are delightfully insane, a pleasure to read..." – Fábio Fernandes, Fantasy Book Critic

    Contents

    Short novel plus novel preview

    About the Author

    Award-winning science fiction author Robert T. Jeschonek has written Star Trek and Doctor Who fiction and futuristic stories for books, magazines, websites, and podcasts around the world. He won the national grand prize in the Strange New Worlds writing contest from Pocket Books. He is one of a handful of authors chosen to write stories in the Star Trek: New Frontier universe. DC Comics, Simon & Schuster, and DAW have published his work. His young adult urban fantasy novel, My Favorite Band Does Not Exist, is due July 11, 2011 from Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and is available for pre-order from Amazon.com.

    Visit Robert T. Jeschonek online at The Fictioneer website, www.thefictioneer.com. You can also find him on Facebook. Follow him as @TheFictioneer on Twitter. For news on his latest online projects, visit the Tsetse Press website at www.tsetsepress.com.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRobert Jeschonek
    Release dateAug 12, 2011
    ISBN9781466019003
    Off The Face Of The Earth

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      Book preview

      Off The Face Of The Earth - Robert Jeschonek

      Off The Face of The Earth

      Off The Face of The Earth

      A SCIFI STORY

      ROBERT JESCHONEK

      Blastoff Books

      Contents

      Also by Robert Jeschonek

      Off The Face of The Earth

      About the Author

      Special Preview: Six Scifi Stories Volume Four

      OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH

      Copyright © 2023 by Robert Jeschonek

      www.bobscribe.com

      Cover Art Copyright © 2023 by Ben Baldwin

      www.benbaldwin.co.uk

      This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

      All rights reserved by the author.

      Published by Blastoff Books

      An Imprint of Pie Press

      411 Chancellor Street

      Johnstown, Pennsylvania 15904

      www.piepresspublishing.com

      Subscribe to the Blastoff Books Newsletter: http://newsletter.blastoffbooks.net

      Also by Robert Jeschonek

      100th Power Book 1

      100th Power Book 2

      100th Power Book 3

      Blastoff!

      Cosmic Conflicts

      Gray Lady Rising (with Annie Reed)

      In a Green Dress, Surrounded by Exploding Clowns and Other Stories

      In the Empire of Underpants and Other Stories

      Battlenaut Crucible

      Scifi Motherlode

      Sticks and Stones: A Trek Novel

      Off The Face of The Earth

      As the life pours out of me, faster faster with each beat of my heart, I know at last that my son has truly gone to a better place.  In the shimmering window that floats above me, I see him smiling, surrounded by loving faces and outstretched arms.

      A better place.  A place away from me.

      Still, it’s hard to let go.  I’ve come so far since he first disappeared, changed so much...and yet so little, I know, deep down.  I couldn’t go all the way, couldn’t become the father he needed no matter how hard I tried.

      This was the best I could do for him.  Killing and being killed.

      I hope it’s enough.

      Mike the Future Man crouches beside me, and I wish so bad he’d give me one last human touch, just touch my head or pat my shoulder or something, but he doesn’t.  Maybe he thinks I don’t deserve it, or maybe he’s afraid he’ll catch something. Whatever.

      But at least he says one last thing to send me on my way.  Kind words, and I’m grateful because I know it’s the only epitaph I’ll ever have.

      You did the right thing, Sonny, says Mike.  Rest in peace.

      I have one more look through the window, and I see my boy lifted high and carried off toward gleaming towers of gold and silver, radiant with light.  It’s not Heaven, but it looks like the next best thing.

      Not that I’d ever see him again if he was in Heaven, anyway.  I know better, after the life I’ve lived. One right can’t undo a million wrongs.

      Not even if what I’ve done is save the world.  Not even that is enough.

      Thank you, says Mike the Future Man, getting to his feet.  We’ll take good care of him.

      It’s...his birthday, I say, my voice so hoarse it doesn’t sound like me anymore.

      I know, says Mike.

      Tell Sean...I love him, I say.

      Mike takes a last look at me and turns toward the shimmering window.  That I won’t do, he says, and then he leaps through the window and is gone.

      And so is the window.

      And so am I, through a different window...one that opens in my mind, giving way to silence and darkness and emptiness.

      My boy disappeared while I was stoned on crack, passed out in the bed of some woman whose name I don’t even remember.

      I left Sean alone in our apartment, if you want to call it that.  I didn’t think anything of it, even though he was just five years old...or I guess it’d be more

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