Category Archives: Sci-Fi

Episode 103: Poikani

Flash and Lem sped along through space, and nothing really changed all that much. On one occasion, though, Lem opened her eyes after sleeping by Flash’s side.

Something was different. Yes, something had definitely changed. She just stared, unsure what to make of it. Something hovered above the control panel. It floated there, and Lem couldn’t be sure if the thing was glowing, or if it was just backlit, hanging, as it was, in front of the viewing screen. She didn’t move a muscle as she watched it, and actually began to wonder if it was really there. Maybe she was not quite as awake as she thought.

It rotated. So slowly as to be almost imperceptible, it turned on its axis. By the time it had made one quarter turn, Flash opened his eyes and saw it, too.

A thrill went through him as he remembered the arrival of his daughter in that very spot.

Do you see it? Flash asked.

Yes.

What do you think it is?

But Lem already knew.

It is my son.

Flash got up and took the tiny creature, cradling it in his arms as he brought it to her.

The universe knew how to form its entire existence from a tiny particle, so why shouldn’t it be able to create children like this out of seeming nothingness?

Lem was content, and Flash looked on, feeling a mix of joy and longing.

He looked like her, down to the spots that migrated across his body.

Poikani, Lem whispered to the sleeping baby.

Flash was happy for Lem, and happy to have this new life join them.

Naturally, he thought about his own daughter who had come unexpectedly and then grew up so fast.

He understood that she could not be content, as he was, aboard the mothership. She was drawn to the mountains of Olo, and he savored the safety and familiarity of his home.

Oh, but how he missed her!

I want to do this again, he mentioned to Lem one day.

She looked at him, and said, Do what?

I want to have another child, he answered.

Do it! came her unexpected reply.

Flash Meridian drew a blank. His daughter’s arrival had been so unexpected, he wasn’t sure he could conjure up another child.

What is meant to be, will be, Lem said.

His daughter hadn’t come from wishing or begging.

Since she left, the cells of his heart had been heavy. He could never replace her. She had filled a vacant place in his spirit that he hadn’t even known was there. How many other open places did his heart hold, unaware?

Lem’s words came back to him. Your heart was open.

Flash had initially pictured a welcoming heart with doors swung open, a cozy home filled with love. He now pictured a heart with open spaces … voids that had always been there, or empty areas that had been eroded by loss.

Either way, his heart had room available, and enough love to share.

His heart mirrored the infinite vacuum of space, and he did not know the secret to filling either one. Perhaps, like the universe, his heart already contained everything, it was just expanding.

Like the crystal shards of Olo, or the molecules in the table of elements, the universe already had all the pieces.

He could hardly wait to see how they fit together.

Episode 102: Microcosm

Life aboard the spaceship was very different than life on Earth.

There was no up, no down, and no orbit to measure time in segments of day and night. That manufactured grid of Earth “reality“ was obsolete. Within the mother ship, Flash still thought in terms of up and down. He was used to it. Toward the cockpit sole was down. But when he was in the pod, that same direction became “up” again, nestled, as it was, on the “underside” of the spaceship. Artificial gravity allowed him to sit without strapping himself to the seat. It also allowed him to drink from a cup, and set things down. These were side benefits to the real purpose of manufactured gravity, which was the ability to exercise his muscles.

He could turn it off and on at will, allowing him to float about, and access hard to reach equipment. Lem preferred to keep the gravity on.

All the water on Earth was said to have been there since the very formation of the planet. Similarly, all the water aboard the mother ship had been there since Flash began his journey. Those oxygen and hydrogen atoms kept coming together as pure water, regardless of the many functions they performed along the way.

The mother ship was a microcosm of Earth. Like the Earth, it had limited resources, which were sufficient to sustain the lives of those aboard. These resources however, had to be respected in order for life to continue.

The Earth itself had become stressed by greed and overly optimistic beliefs about its power to heal.

Lem’s planet, Ino, was an example of what could happen if such attitudes went unchecked.

Episode 101: Anything Is Possible

Flash and Lem cruised through space with everything they needed, and they both felt that this was a very good life they lived.

At the same time, Flash was often nostalgic about his life back on Earth, particularly his childhood.

He told Lem stories about life on the farm with his parents and brothers, more for his own enjoyment than hers, although she enjoyed them, too.

Part of him longed to reconnect with something from his past. Some tangible item that he could hold, and reconnect with.

Even the cells of his body changed. Old cells were constantly being replaced with new ones, and he began to wonder if there was anything at all left of the child that he had been.

Perhaps a facsimile would suffice. He could ask the table of elements for anything. Why couldn’t it make an exact copy of a relic from his past? But what should he request?

This became a major topic of conversation between Flash and Lem… an old book that he had read as s child… perhaps a toy.

What is it that you miss the most? Lem asked.

My cat, Flash answered without hesitation. You remind me of her.

But why would you want a dead cat?

No, I want her back alive, of course, he mused.

He was sure that this would be crossing a line.

You said I remind you of her, Lem thought aloud. What if… her voice trailed off. What if the cells of her body somehow came back together… those basic building block elements… reunited to form… me?

That sounds pretty unlikely, Flash admitted.

Oh, we’re already unlikely! Said Lem, but you have to admit, it’s possible!

She was right. Cells are recycled. A body goes into the dirt. It comes up again in grass. The grass may be eaten by a cow.

The cells get shared around.

Theoretically it could happen, Flash agreed.

His mind presented all the obstacles to such a thing actually happening. If there was one thing he had learned, however, it was that anything is possible. She did remind him of that black and white cat he had had as a child. The more he considered this idea, the more like her Lem seemed to become, and he realized that this is why he had loved her all along.

I’ll call up one of my favorite toys, he said.

A wizzzer? Lem asked.

Flash smiled. She had been listening.

He asked for the wedge in green and yellow. Soon, the toy appeared.

What does it do? Lem asked.

It’s just a toy, Flash explained, but it demonstrates the conservation of angular momentum and gyroscope stability.

He glanced around the cockpit and realized there wasn’t sufficient space with a flat surface to demonstrate it.

Let’s try something else, he suggested, and ordered up a view master.

What is it? Lem asked.

it’s a special-format stereoscope.

Lem only looked at Flash, and then glanced at the high tech viewing screen that was built into the ship.

He had forgotten to ask for a set of reels, and as Lem appeared unimpressed, Flash didn’t pursue it further.

It didn’t matter. He hadn’t wanted to play with these items. He only wanted to hold them. For the nerves in his fingertips to reconnect with a memory. The plastic toys felt cheap, and were much smaller than Flash had remembered.

After a few flicks of the view master lever, he looked at Lem and sighed.

The sigh turned to a giggle, and soon Lem joined in laughing.

I should have asked for a book.

One nice thing about the table of elements was, whatever it produced, could be broken back down into its component molecules. Even plastic, unlike the plastic that clogged the oceans and continents of earth.

And so the Wizzzer and view master could be reabsorbed if Flash decided to send them back to be dismantled again in the system.

Episode 100: Fish In A Tree

For Ian. From one fish in a tree to another.

Flash thought back to some of the wonderful things he had seen, and how those visions had changed him. He only had five or six ways of putting information into his brain. Sight was one of them. And every single thing he ever saw had changed him. Some had changed him a little bit, other things had changed him a lot. Sometimes he didn’t realize the significance of things until much later.

He found himself mentally returning to the hologram in the castle suite.

Everyone feels out of place in the world… in the universe at one time or another. Flash was no exception.

Things didn’t always come easy to Flash the way they seemed to for other people, and yet he persevered through difficulties to find himself looking back from this unique moment.

He was like a fish in a tree, not only because he often felt out of place, but also because he had risen above the expectations anyone had had for him.

Those fish he had seen swimming among the treetops looked right at home, the way he felt now.

In a similar way, everything Flash heard changed him. Every word, every beep and every click reverberated through his neurons, causing a reaction that changed him. Changed his brain. It added to the information that was HIM. Physically and mentally, he was changed forever.

The same was true of the rest of his senses. Touch, taste, smell and hearing. But there was more.

There was another sense that seemed to inform Flash. Perhaps it was the collective unconscious that was born into him. That unseen river of shared experience that ran deep, at the very core of his humanity.

Perhaps it was the ability to merge the tangible information transmitted from outside his body into his brain with his imagination. He didn’t just take in facts about the physical world and spit them back out the way they had been received.

Cold facts were interpreted. Pieced together.

Just as his brain was expanded ever so slightly by each new splinter of information, those electrical pulses had gone through the filter of him, to be enriched by everything else he knew and was.

Flash Meridian was not his body. His body was merely a vehicle for the invisible spirit that inhabited and animated it.

Just as Flash had parted ways with everyone he had known, other than Lem, who still shared the highway of life with him, he would one day part ways with this body that gave him the gift of physical senses to interpret the universe.

for Kurt and Sandy – an aside

Mr. Pumpkinhead awoke early one morning, when the sunlight was just beginning to kiss the top of the tallest pumpkins in the patch. There was a chill in the air, and his vines felt a little stiff from laying on the cold ground. He didn’t usually get up this early, but this was not just any day. He had something on his mind.

The convenience store opened early, and he wanted to be one of the first customers. He rose up, and stretched his limbs. He wiped the pumpkin juice from his eye, and started down the path, through the woods, to the convenience store.

I know what you’re thinking. He was going to buy Kraft Deluxe Macaroni and Cheese Dinner. Good guess. But this time, you’re wrong.

He had to be very careful, running along the path in the low light of early morning. If he were to trip on a root, his rind would shatter, and that would be the end of him. So He lit the candle inside his head, and a soft glow lit his way.

Rocky saw him running by, and called out to him, but Mr. Pumpkinhead only yelled, I can’t stop today! I’ll see you later!

Finally, he reached the store.

A little bell rang when the door hit it, and his friend, the clerk said Good morning Mr. Pumpkinhead! Kraft Deluxe Macaroni and Cheese Dinner is on sale today! Ten Percent off! But Mr. Pumpkinhead went right to the card section and looked for what he was sure would be a popular category.

He thumbed through the cards. Birthday, no. Anniversary, no. Retirement, no. Valentine’s Day, no. Aah, he found it. One Hundredth Episode cards. They had such a wide selection.

He grabbed one with bold text on the front, happy that there were so many to choose from. This is why he had gotten up so early.

He also had an errand to run. He wanted to deliver the card in person.

You can read about Mr. Pumpkinhead’s adventures on his blog at http://misterpumpkinhead.blogspot.com