Justin’s Comments (group member since Mar 13, 2016)

Justin’s comments from the Science Fiction Microstory Contest group.

Tom wrote: "Justin wrote: "My story is up! Whew!!! After a week's vacation Boeing recalled us back to work. I'm still working remotely at this point. We'll see how long it lasts now that they are putting volun..."

Thanks Tom, much appreciated! I'm glad this month brought out so many contributors!

C. wrote: "Great to hear you're back in the saddle, Justin!

Best of luck with the 737 software rewrite. Maybe next month I'll write about the annoying new flight control system AI Boeing rolls out in 2025.
..."

Thanks C. Good to be paid again. I'm not on the 737 program, I'm at the Everett Delivery Center, which delivers all of our widebody aircraft. That mess is someone else's problem!!!

Jot wrote: "Still hoping to make it to Seattle in August."

Thanks Jot. Hopefully we'll be able to get together then!

Paula wrote: "Justin wrote: "My story is up! Whew!!! After a week's vacation Boeing recalled us back to work. I'm still working remotely at this point. We'll see how long it lasts now that they are putting volun..."

Thanks Paula! As do I! One day at a time... which is how it works even when there isn't a pandemic!

My story is up! Whew!!! After a week's vacation Boeing recalled us back to work. I'm still working remotely at this point. We'll see how long it lasts now that they are putting voluntary layoffs - and most likely involuntary layoffs after that, into effect.

Fantastic stories everyone! I'm so glad you were all able to use this month's prompt to good effect.

Paula, nice to see an entry from you!!!

Alone in the Dark

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…” John 1:5

“Sword Base this is Normandy Station, comm check, please come in…”
I closed my eyes and listened intently to the static filling the command center, trying to parse intelligent speech from the raging interstellar white noise.
Nothing.
I waited my standard two-minute interval, then continued.
“Juno Base this is Normandy Station, comm check, please come in…”
More nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero.
“Gold Base this is Normandy Station, comm check, please come in…”
I savored my coffee and worked through my morning routine.
“Omaha Base this is Normandy Station, comm check, please come in…”
Two minutes was really beginning to feel unreasonably long, but as the station commander I felt it necessary to follow standard operating procedures. If someone was out there, they’d be depending on the constancy of procedure – I know I would be anyway. Procedure meant stability, and stability meant life out here on the ragged edge of Union space.
“Utah Base this is Normandy Station, comm check, please come in…”
The static flared, faded, and I swore I heard something.
“Aurora boost the signal and clean it up please.”
“Working…” said Normandy’s AI, in her usual terse manner.
“This is Normandy Station, we are receiving you. Please repeat your last transmission, over.”
Silence reigned briefly, followed quickly by the onrush of static.
Maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part.
“You know the drill Aurora, keep trying at regular intervals. I have to make my rounds.”
“Yes Commander Wilem. Your standing order is on file.”
“Very well. Carry on then.” I shook my head. I didn’t remember giving that order – and it bothered me. Nevertheless, procedure would continue, regardless of circumstances.
I left the command center and it went dark in my absence.

***
It had been 37 days since the last crew left the station. I can still remember their faces and playful banter as they entered the airlock to board the shuttle. Each was excited to return home after their three-month tour. As the only permanent station crew member, I felt attached to this deep space light house and planetary communications hub. Its massive, rotating, fusion-powered beacon pierced the sea of darkness in which Normandy Station floated at the heart of a black nebula.

The five small bases on a nearby constellation of habitable planets provided temporary crew on a rotating basis. Yet for some unknown reason the next supply shuttle was severely overdue. It didn’t worry me at first, and so I let the departing team go using Normandy’s reserve shuttle. It wasn’t procedure, and in retrospect, perhaps unwise.

What did concern me was the complete lack of communications, outgoing or incoming, from any of the bases and beyond. First, all Union comms traffic from outside the system had gone dark. You have to understand how bizarre that is, considering the billions of petabytes of data passing through Normandy Station at any one time: vessel status reports, personnel orders and postings, classified flash traffic and of course all the usual civilian media. All of it just stopped without warning. Aurora assured me all sending/receiving equipment was nominal and diagnostics confirmed that. Then each of the bases went dark one by one, the silence spreading like a virus from the outermost, inwards – rampant, insatiable and incurable.

I felt truly alone despite Aurora’s company – if you could call it that, and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. Procedure didn’t exactly cover this scenario. So I focused on my duties and make-work to occupy my mind… and yet…the specter of silence haunted me wherever I went.

***
“Commander Wilem.”
I sat upright in my darkened quarters, startled awake and briefly confused.
“Commander Wilem.”
“Yes Aurora?”
“There is a message for you.”
I nearly fell out of my rack.
“Well what are you waiting for?! Put it through!”
“The sender wishes to deliver it in real time. Please report to the command center.”
And then, on the seventy-seventh day of my isolation, humanity made first contact with the Tel’veserans.
As I entered the command center, I was met with blinding light and forced to shield my eyes.
“Aurora! Reduce light levels to nominal!!”
“I’m sorry Commander, I’m unable to comply. The unknown ship is reflecting our beacon light back at us. They say the message is urgent.”
“Put them through!” I said through gritted teeth and covered face.”
“Please forgive. Unknown virus we gave. Last human are you. We protect…”

(750 words in story) Justin Sewall © 2020
Reviews/critiques welcome

Thanks Jack! We are fortunate to live on 1.5 acres, have a full sport court in the backyard for the kids to play tennis, badminton and basketball on, room to ride their bikes on the property, a play structure to swing on, and of course - video games. We are all doing okay here. We pick up our groceries after ordering them online, sanitize and quarantine them all out in the garage building, and wash all produce thoroughly. I'm getting good runs in on my treadmill and as the weather gets nicer I'll get out on the road again. We are doing okay, especially compared to many people. With Boeing work on pause, I can get PHM finished and off to ACX quality control. You wanted it in May and by golly you'll have it! :) Thanks again!!

Thanks C, much appreciated! First I have to finish Jack's audiobook! I'm almost done editing and want to get it out into the world. After that... the sky's the limit! :)

Hello everyone! What a fantastic group of stories! C, I had a good laugh at yours. Marianne, what a touching story! Really a standout crop this month. I'm percolating with some ideas, but Boeing has been hanging over my head and finally dropped Mjolnir. I'm not unemployed, just not paid until they decide to reopen the Everett site. At least I still have my insurance benefits. I've got savings and I'll use some paid time off, but I'm going to apply for unemployment to help slow the savings drain. I don't know if I want or should look for another communications job in the meantime. I only have a 15 mile commute, which I really hate to give up. I know a lot of people are in the same boat and worse off than me so I'm not complaining too loudly. It was nice to escape reality for a bit with your stories. Great job everyone!!

Kalifer wrote: "Mine's up. Very Asimovish. Justin lit a light bulb in my brain. It's short on elaboration since the story mechanism took so much room to explain. I think I will turn it into a short story later and..."

Yes, great story Kalifer!

Tom wrote: "Mine's up. Excellent theme, Justin. And, timely."

Thanks Tom! I think that must be a record for how fast you got your story done! Nice work!

Justin

The following rules are from Jot Russell, moderator for this contest:
To help polish our skills and present a flavor of our art to other members in the group, I am continuing this friendly contest for those who would like to participate. There is no money involved, but there is also no telling what a little recognition and respect might generate. The rules are simple:

1) The story needs to be your own work and should be posted on the goodreads (GR) Discussion board, which is a public group. You maintain responsibility and ownership of your work to do with as you please. You may withdraw your story at any time.
2) The stories must be 750 words or less.
3) The stories have to be science fiction, follow a specific theme and potentially include reference to items as requested by the prior month's contest winner.
4) You have until midnight EST on the 22nd day of the month to post your story to the GR Science Fiction Microstory Contest discussion. One story per author per month.
5) After, anyone from the LI Sci-Fi group or the GR Science Fiction Microstory Discussion group has until midnight EST of the 25th day of the month to send me a single private vote (via GR or to author.jotrussell@gmail.com) for a story other than their own. This vote will be made public once voting is closed. Voting is required. If you do not vote, your story will be disqualified from the contest. You don't need a qualifying story to cast a vote, but must offer the reason for your vote if you don’t have an entry.
6) To win, a story needs at least half of the votes, or be the only one left after excluding those with the fewest votes. Runoffs will be run each day until a winner is declared. Stories with vote totals that add up to at least half, discarding those with the fewest votes, will be carried forward to the next runoff election. Prior votes will be carried forward to support runoff stories. If you voted for a story that did not make it into the runoff, you need to vote again before midnight EST of that day. Only people who voted in the initial round may vote in the runoffs.
7) Please have all posts abide by the rules of GR and the LI Sci-Fi group.
8) For each month, there will be three discussion threads:
a) Stories - For the stories and the contest results only.
b) Comments - For discussions about the stories and contest. Constructive criticism is okay, but please avoid any spoilers about the stories or degrading comments directed towards any individuals. If you want to suggest a change to the contest, feel free to start a discussion about the idea before making a formal motion. If another member seconds a motion, a vote can be held. I will abstain from voting, but will require a strong two-thirds majority to override my veto.
c) Critiques - Each member can provide at most one critique per story, with a single rebuttal by the author to thank the critic and/or comment to offer the readers the mind set of the story to account for issues raised by the critique. Critiques should be of a professional and constructive manner. Feel free to describe elements that you do and don't like, as these help us gain a better perspective of our potential readers. Remarks deemed inflammatory or derogatory will be flagged and/or removed by the moderator.

9) The winner has THREE days after the start of the new month to make a copy of these rules and post a new contest thread using the theme/items of their choosing. Otherwise, I will post the new contest threads.
**********
Theme: isolation (self-imposed, involuntary, solo, as a group, etc.)
Required elements: a virus (computer, biological, something that replicates exponentially), unexpected help

The following rules are from Jot Russell, moderator for this contest:
To help polish our skills and present a flavor of our art to other members in the group, I am continuing this friendly contest for those who would like to participate. There is no money involved, but there is also no telling what a little recognition and respect might generate. The rules are simple:

1) The story needs to be your own work and should be posted on the goodreads (GR) Discussion board, which is a public group. You maintain responsibility and ownership of your work to do with as you please. You may withdraw your story at any time.
2) The stories must be 750 words or less.
3) The stories have to be science fiction, follow a specific theme and potentially include reference to items as requested by the prior month's contest winner.
4) You have until midnight EST on the 22nd day of the month to post your story to the GR Science Fiction Microstory Contest discussion. One story per author per month.
5) After, anyone from the LI Sci-Fi group or the GR Science Fiction Microstory Discussion group has until midnight EST of the 25th day of the month to send me a single private vote (via GR or to author.jotrussell@gmail.com) for a story other than their own. This vote will be made public once voting is closed. Voting is required. If you do not vote, your story will be disqualified from the contest. You don't need a qualifying story to cast a vote, but must offer the reason for your vote if you don’t have an entry.
6) To win, a story needs at least half of the votes, or be the only one left after excluding those with the fewest votes. Runoffs will be run each day until a winner is declared. Stories with vote totals that add up to at least half, discarding those with the fewest votes, will be carried forward to the next runoff election. Prior votes will be carried forward to support runoff stories. If you voted for a story that did not make it into the runoff, you need to vote again before midnight EST of that day. Only people who voted in the initial round may vote in the runoffs.
7) Please have all posts abide by the rules of GR and the LI Sci-Fi group.
8) For each month, there will be three discussion threads:
a) Stories - For the stories and the contest results only.
b) Comments - For discussions about the stories and contest. Constructive criticism is okay, but please avoid any spoilers about the stories or degrading comments directed towards any individuals. If you want to suggest a change to the contest, feel free to start a discussion about the idea before making a formal motion. If another member seconds a motion, a vote can be held. I will abstain from voting, but will require a strong two-thirds majority to override my veto.
c) Critiques - Each member can provide at most one critique per story, with a single rebuttal by the author to thank the critic and/or comment to offer the readers the mind set of the story to account for issues raised by the critique. Critiques should be of a professional and constructive manner. Feel free to describe elements that you do and don't like, as these help us gain a better perspective of our potential readers. Remarks deemed inflammatory or derogatory will be flagged and/or removed by the moderator.

9) The winner has THREE days after the start of the new month to make a copy of these rules and post a new contest thread using the theme/items of their choosing. Otherwise, I will post the new contest threads.
**********
Theme: isolation (self-imposed, involuntary, solo, as a group, etc.)
Required elements: a virus (computer, biological, something that replicates exponentially), unexpected help

The following rules are from Jot Russell, moderator for this contest:
To help polish our skills and present a flavor of our art to other members in the group, I am continuing this friendly contest for those who would like to participate. There is no money involved, but there is also no telling what a little recognition and respect might generate. The rules are simple:

1) The story needs to be your own work and should be posted on the goodreads (GR) Discussion board, which is a public group. You maintain responsibility and ownership of your work to do with as you please. You may withdraw your story at any time.
2) The stories must be 750 words or less.
3) The stories have to be science fiction, follow a specific theme and potentially include reference to items as requested by the prior month's contest winner.
4) You have until midnight EST on the 22nd day of the month to post your story to the GR Science Fiction Microstory Contest discussion. One story per author per month.
5) After, anyone from the LI Sci-Fi group or the GR Science Fiction Microstory Discussion group has until midnight EST of the 25th day of the month to send me a single private vote (via GR or to author.jotrussell@gmail.com) for a story other than their own. This vote will be made public once voting is closed. Voting is required. If you do not vote, your story will be disqualified from the contest. You don't need a qualifying story to cast a vote, but must offer the reason for your vote if you don’t have an entry.
6) To win, a story needs at least half of the votes, or be the only one left after excluding those with the fewest votes. Runoffs will be run each day until a winner is declared. Stories with vote totals that add up to at least half, discarding those with the fewest votes, will be carried forward to the next runoff election. Prior votes will be carried forward to support runoff stories. If you voted for a story that did not make it into the runoff, you need to vote again before midnight EST of that day. Only people who voted in the initial round may vote in the runoffs.
7) Please have all posts abide by the rules of GR and the LI Sci-Fi group.
8) For each month, there will be three discussion threads:
a) Stories - For the stories and the contest results only.
b) Comments - For discussions about the stories and contest. Constructive criticism is okay, but please avoid any spoilers about the stories or degrading comments directed towards any individuals. If you want to suggest a change to the contest, feel free to start a discussion about the idea before making a formal motion. If another member seconds a motion, a vote can be held. I will abstain from voting, but will require a strong two-thirds majority to override my veto.
c) Critiques - Each member can provide at most one critique per story, with a single rebuttal by the author to thank the critic and/or comment to offer the readers the mind set of the story to account for issues raised by the critique. Critiques should be of a professional and constructive manner. Feel free to describe elements that you do and don't like, as these help us gain a better perspective of our potential readers. Remarks deemed inflammatory or derogatory will be flagged and/or removed by the moderator.

9) The winner has THREE days after the start of the new month to make a copy of these rules and post a new contest thread using the theme/items of their choosing. Otherwise, I will post the new contest threads.
**********
Theme: isolation (self-imposed, involuntary, solo, as a group, etc.)

Required elements: a virus (computer, biological, something that replicates exponentially), unexpected help

Thanks again everyone! I'll have the April prompt at some point today.

Best,

JSS

Thanks Tom!!

Thank you very much everyone!! I really appreciate it!

Marianne wrote: "Everyone did a great job this month. Across the stories, it was interesting to me how folks played with the concepts of Infidelity and Jealousy and how they placed the various matriarchal societies..."

Very much a stretch!

Really a great batch of stories and outstanding reviews this month! I've been working from home for Boeing, and we just had our first death of someone on the 787 line in the factory. All my kids are home (that's 5 boys and one diabetic girl) and we have them on a good schedule that they are keeping. It's been sunny out so they've been able to play outside (we're on 1.5 acres) so that's been great.

I've enjoyed all the creativity here as I always do, and appreciate the time people have been putting into reviews.

Best wishes to all!

Wow Tom...thanks for the detailed and very thorough review. The time it must take you - I really appreciate it!!!! So glad you saw my vision!