B. Morris Allen's Blog, page 8
June 14, 2019
Beginnings 075 – Fetch
She had died from overheating. It was an unlikely death, in the star-spark darkness beyond the atmosphere, where the outside temperature measured in single digits. Yet temperature in space flight was a tricky thing. In Laika’s case, a part of the ship had failed to separate. Torn insulation and a compromised control system had cooperated to simulate an intolerable summer day. She had died in hours.
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“Fetch”
About the story: The story of Laika is one of the cruelest and most heartbreaking i...
June 13, 2019
Beginnings 074 – To the Wild Sea
The tide seeped away, grey water into black sand. It left her lime-green boots uncovered, anomalous. Just as well, thought Sarosh, turning her back on the sea. This planet could use some color. As it had used Richard, used her dreams; swallowed them whole, and left nothing but little grains of sand that stuck to everything, fell off everywhere. She kicked the sand as she walked, and it spurted grudgingly before her feet.
At her back, the little love-lorn birds took up their plaintive cries,...
June 12, 2019
Beginnings 073 – Graven Image
It’s about impressions. First impressions, last impressions, the creased and corrugated impressions that life leaves on our skin as it wears us down to our essentials, and eventually to nothing. I know about impressions; I’m in sales now.
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“Graven Image”
Metaphorosis
Published 07-Sep-2018
About the story: Sometimes all an alien needs is a little maintenance. Or is it?
June 11, 2019
Beginnings 072 – Blush
I’ve been down in the heart of Wrinkletown, stood in the Blemish itself, with unmasked people as far as the eye can see. You get used to it. Eventually, you realize that wrinklies aren’t so bad. In fact, they’re just like normal people — just more open about it.
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“Blush”
Capricious
Published 29-May-2017
About the story: Who are we beneath the masks we wear every day?
June 10, 2019
Beginnings 071 – I Don’t Care About Clifton Clowers
They say, “Don’t go on Wolverton Mountain if you’re looking for a wife.” Old Claude says that, anyway, and he don’t have a wife, so maybe he knows. He’s been up the mountain, he says. When he was “young and handsome”. So he says.
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“I Don’t Care About Clifton Clowers”
On Spec
About the story: Why go up on Wolverton Mountain?
Inspired by the song.
June 9, 2019
Beginnings 070 – Dragons I Have Slain
I collect dragon tears. It isn’t difficult; they’re insidious and subtle, and they seep through my armor and into my skin like ink, leaving me stained, soiled, sorrowful — a human map of misery. The Dragon Atlas, I call it — marked with the precise locations of honor and shame.
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“Dragons I Have Slain”
Metaphorosis
Published 02-Sep-2016
About the story: When you have to kill dragons but you don’t want to.
Inspired by a Jon Lord song.
June 8, 2019
Beginnings 069 – Crying in the Salt House
The Salt House is built on tears, not of them. That is only a little joke the Bracque like to play. They tell to visitors that the blocks of pure, clear salt are the crystallized tears of children, and the rougher, grayer stones are the tears of the parents who lost them.
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“Crying in the Salt House”
Cirsova
Published 22-Nov-2018
About the story: A fortune built on salt, a future built on courage.
An SFF homage to Richard Llewellyn.
June 7, 2019
Beginnings 068 – Revenge of the Snakefish
Paul Xanthus looked at the crumpled, lightly steaming wreckage of his scoutship and frowned. “Born for trouble,” he declared. “The only habitable planet in a cluster full of rocks, and I manage to crash. At least I chose a nice spot for it.”
The yellow sun sent reflections twinkling off rippled water as he turned to survey the nearby lake. The water was clear, blue, and cool-looking. Little waves lapped on the pebbled shore, signs that something big and loud had recently passed close overhea...
June 6, 2019
Beginnings 067 – Nightmantle
Pro: unmatched tool for dark-cloaking and umbral manipulation
Con: availability issues.
Bottom line: The greatest darkside tool since night itself
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“Nightmantle”
About the story:
June 5, 2019
Beginnings 066 – Crash Boom Bang
Crash. Boom. Bang.
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The ship crashed and exploded. Afterwards, the base collapsed.
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“Crash Boom Bang”
BMorrisAllen.com
Published 24-Feb-2013
About the story: The same story at several different lengths, but different each time.
