Science Fiction Microstory Contest discussion
Please help me in congratulating Jack McDaniel, Champion of the Science Fiction Microstory Contest
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Congratulations Jack. You wrote a very good story.
Great job, Jack. I enjoyed your story very much!
Nicely done, Jack. I do wonder if anyone remembers that Apollo 10 almost failed, they came within seconds of an unrecoverable roll https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_...
What effect this might have had on Apollo 11 is anyones guess, although the Soviets had shifted their program by this point, they might have been able to retask their landing mission with a live crew. http://fas.org/spp/eprint/lindroos_mo... which is a very interesting history of the Soviet moon programs.
Piling on here Jack, great story. Having just watched "Bridge of Spies" and remembering how the Soviet Union was so feared at that time in history, this alternate history does not seem so far-fetched. Nice work!As this month's winner, I'm happy to send you copies of my two sci-fi novellas if you'd like. Either way just let me know.
And congratulations from me too. A good story.
Wow! Thanks to everyone. I'm on vacation with horrible internet access (it literally took 10 minutes to load this page!). Anyway, such appreciated!
Congratulations Jack! That was a lovely piece.
Congrats Jack! I've been lately reading a lot about the history of the Cold War, it is a fascinating era. The story was a good flip-side to the real history. You never know, your story could be the real history in some parallel universe. I wish I could've gotten a story in for June. I have a half done story maybe I can finish and post as comment later this week.
I like the July topic you've posted, Jack. It's quite stark, compared to some themes we've had. (I've liked the other themes, but a contrast is good too.)I see this month's topic as being a good vehicle for exploring something I want to try out, in order to grow as a writer: viz., to go further into 'pure science fiction' than I have so far ... but also to do that in combination with exploring a philosophical question more deeply than I have so far in my other stories in the contest.
I'm thinking that to do that, I'd like to delve into the distinctions between creative integrity, scientific integrity and moral integrity in a pure sci fi adventure environs.
Mod
Jack McDaniel
“The moon holds a nearly impossible perch in the human experience,” said the old man at the podium, “an odd history of folklore, myth, and Godliness all shrouded in mystery and imaginative suppositions. Lovers and poets have called to it in their ecstasy and angst. We've celebrated it in song and art. Ancient Mariners gave thanks for its luminescence and companionship. It is the progenitor of transformations and evil, and an omen for seed-sowers. It pulls invisibly at each of us, and it is the regulator of our tides, a rhythmic pulse that prefers its influences subtle in nature and loud and vociferous in our lore.”
He took a sip of water, slow and deliberate. The crowd remained quiet and still, entranced by what the greatest of legends - the demigod - was sharing with them.
“I ask you this in all sincerity, is there anything so dangerous as a sliver of moon? Can anything entangle the heart, or pull at our emotions, or unravel our sanity so easily, so subtly, as that watchful orb that constantly hovers above us? Look what it has done to us, to our world.”
He looked around the large crowd that had gathered in the park, straining to see the faces of individuals, at least of those closest to the stage. He had grown so much more tolerant and soft with age, so accommodating, he realized.
“It has been fifty years since I touched the moon,” he told the crowd, his voice was wistful, as if he were reliving the moment. “In fifty years we’ve only grown more divided. One country in that race has climbed to unimaginable heights while the other has crumbled under the weight of its failure. One is the largest economic force on the planet and the driver of culture. But shouldn’t my landing on the moon have been an event to unite all of humanity? Shouldn't it have been a joyous occasion for all mankind? Why does the pride of one people have to inflict so much pain on another?”
The old man ran his hand through his thinning hair. “These are questions I ask myself every day. And I ask others, as well.”
Some of the crowd grew restless, shuffled around. In the background, still miles away, the low rumble of thunder could be heard.
“For instance,” he continued, “I ask myself if we were really better, smarter, more capable. Or were we just lucky. I wonder if we didn’t get to the moon first just because we put more resources towards it.”
Murmurs coursed their way through the throng of people. The elderly clung to their pride, to their memories. Some were terrified by the old man’s words. Some were growing angrier with each passing minute. This wasn’t what they had come to hear. They came to celebrate. They came to puff out their chests and to smile upon the world that they had made. It was the largest of national holidays, after all.
“Do we not owe them for pushing us so hard, for making us better?”
“Owe THEM!” Someone from the crowd exclaimed. And someone else shouted, “Are you going crazy, old man?”
“Were they not our partners in this? And look at them now: food lines, shortages in electricity and poor health care. Are we not in some way responsible?”
An orange was tossed from a few rows back, landing several feet from him. People shouted out, discarded their reverie and turned angry against the old man. Someone could be heard screaming above the cacophony of the thousands in attendance, “Screw them! They got what they deserve. Our way of life is THE way of life. You should be more patriotic!”
Cheers went up from all around.
As the first drops of rain began to fall a state official rushed to the podium and took the old man by the elbow and began escorting him off the stage. The crowd quieted momentarily when they saw this, saddened, their anger quelled by fifty years of respect. He was, after all, Yuri Gagarin, first man on the moon. They all knew the silly song he had sung when he stepped from the Soyuz capsule onto the lunar surface. Mothers the world over sang it as a nursery rhyme. And then someone in the front row began singing it. Slowly others joined in until everyone became a chorus of one.
"I touch the moon,
the moon touches me
A comrade on the moon,
For all to see."