James Pyles's Blog, page 197

Time Storm

Captain Toni Blair stared up in awe as did her officers and troops as the Forerunner scout ship landed on the exact spot where it had launched so many days ago. It’s landing legs had extended. The ship touched down. It’s vibrations and shuttering ceased, and then it seemed as inert as it did when […]

Left Behind

She hated the arrangement in the vase but loved the smaller flowers in the low pot. It was sweet that anyone sent flowers at all. Moving day. All the boxes were packed and sitting there waiting to be picked up. Everything was going except her. She’d seen people come and go for decades and she […]

My World is Blue

“Travis. Darling, wake up.” Travis Fox opened his eyes and saw his wife Cassie. “Good morning, beautiful. How…?” Then he realized he was in the wrong bed. Why was his wife leaning over him instead of lying beside him? He wasn’t at home. He never made it home last night. Wait. How long had he […]

Missing

Their equipment sat quietly on the beach next to a placid sea. There was no sign of danger, no storm clouds, no menacing fog, nothing to say that Brad’s and Cheryl’s disappearance was the result of foul play or misadventure. The two kayaks, life jackets, and oars were left abandoned when they should have been […]

The Palace of Heaven, Part One

The Nineteenth Story in the Adventures of the Ambrosial Dragon: A Children’s Fantasy Series The young sorceress Yao Jin, eight-year-old Landon, and the mighty Ambrosial Dragon stood on a ridge overlooking a valley in what they knew to be ancient China. By some mysterious magic, the trio had been taken backward in time rather than […]

The Synthetic Men of Mars

“So why bring me here to see a bloody fake alien head, Ian?” “It’s synthetic Dolores, not fake.” “What’s the difference?” “The difference, you silly twit, is that fake means it’s totally not alien. Synthetic means it’s an artificial head made by aliens.” “Now that’s just stupid.” “No it’s not. Listen. I was talking to […]

Not All #MenAreTrash

“Mommy, I don’t want to grow up to be trash.” “Oh my sweet boy, you could never be trash.” “But isn’t that what those women are saying about Daddy?” “Daddy made terrible decisions, Denis.” “They say he killed those women, other women say that makes all men trash. I don’t want to hurt anyone, Mommy.” […]

Lunch at Antiques

Jeremy wanted to think of someplace creative for his first date with Clare. They met at an online dating site and she said she felt more comfortable having lunch with him. “Antiques” was both a restaurant and an antique shop. They served “retro-cuisine” styled for the ’50s and ’60s. He hoped she’d like it, that it […]

Europa

The four time travelers who had become reluctant astronauts aboard an alien spacecraft now sat at their stations in that ship awaiting takeoff. Ross Murdock activated the manual control panel in front of him and opened the large hatch that had been covering the landing bay exposing the ship to space. The tube connecting their Forerunner […]

The Encounter

The temporal field in the alien time gate sparked and cracked for several seconds before anything came through.  Then it appeared, a single Forerunner, an Orange. “Watch out!” Murdock sounded almost panicked. “It’s a Forerunner weapon.” It looked like the same race as the Blues. Skin color was a little darker, but everything else was […]