James Pyles's Blog, page 191

Incident on the Dover Bridge

President Trump declared a state of Martial Law for the affected areas of the Eastern Seaboard, including New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware, for lack of any better idea. The impossible was happening. Groups of Native Americans, along with their houses and towns were appearing at random in different geographic areas, replacing whatever and whoever had […]

Incursion

Kelgarries wanted the job done in a month, but he was a soldier, not an engineer. The construction and precision placement of twin temporal gates, one at the highest point on Vila do Porto, one of the smaller islands of the Azores, and the other at the epicenter of the Tunguska Event, some 65 kilometers north-northwest […]

Threshold

True to his word, Major Vasnev Romanovich of the Russian Ground Forces did not get drunk until well after the debriefing of the Atlantis mission at Project Retrograde’s Arctic base. When Romanovich had been assigned to Retrograde, it had been called an “Operation” and he had been a Major of the Soviet Armed Forces. However, […]

Prologue: Key Out of Time

From space, the Earth looked very different from what modern humans would expect today. For one thing, the Panama isthmus did not connect North and South America, allowing direct low-latitude circulation between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. There was no Drake Passage separating South America from Antarctica and the Arctic was also more restricted. It […]

Interlude: What Lies in the Deep?

Lief Erikson was only a child when his renowned sire Erik the Red had disappeared at sea. Before him, legends tell of Gunnbjörn Ulf-Krakuson being bold enough to drive his ship into the icy waters west of their homeland. “For Erik,” he muttered under his breath. He was determined not to have he and his […]

What Lies in the Deep?

Lief Erikson was only a child when his renowned sire Erik the Red had disappeared at sea. Before him, legends tell of Gunnbjörn Ulf-Krakuson being bold enough to drive his ship into the icy waters west of their homeland. “For Erik,” he muttered under his breath. He was determined not to have he and his […]

The Prison

Gravity. It’s pulling me down. I feel so heavy. I can barely stand. No, I’m being pulled down now. I’m on my knees. Who are these creatures scampering around me? What are they doing with those chains? How come they are so light and fast when I find it so hard to move? The weight. […]

At War with the Lord of Chaos

The 26th Story in the Adventures of the Ambrosial Dragon: A Children’s Fantasy Series Arioch, Lord of Chaos and Duke of Hell was displeased. He had placed the ancient Emperor Dragon’s spirit into the sword Demonslayer for good reasons. The first and most important was to maintain the balance between Chaos and Law. Without Law, […]

Life in Ruins

I like it here. I know, there are more reasons to tear this place down than to preserve it. And yet I find the aging, crumbling walls have their own beauty, especially in the way that nature has chosen to integrate herself in this place. I have a confession. I like it here because it […]

How Can We Get You To See Us?

“You really think this will replace the statue in Columbus Circle, Sky?” “Of course not, Corey. I created this in protest. The city still won’t remove the Columbus statue, in spite of our petition. Seattle, L.A., even Phoenix for Christ’s sake have changed Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day. When will New York wake up?” […]