The Light Between Stars

The Light Between Stars

Edited by

Catherine Fitzsimmons

Milton, Ontario

http://www.brain-lag.com/

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, events, and organizations portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Brain Lag Publishing

Milton, Ontario

http://www.brain-lag.com/

Copyright © 2020 Brain Lag

All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced, displayed, modified or distributed without the express prior written permission of the copyright holder. For permission, contact [email protected].

Life in the Universe © 2020 Dale E. McClenning

The Coward and the Thief in Paradise © 2020 Gary Girod

Tinker’s Toxin © 2020 Stephen B. Pearl

Battling Old Dragons © 2020 J. R. Dwornik

Nowhere to Nowhere © 2020 Hugh A. D. Spencer

Other London: Ella’s Birthday © 2020 Erynn Q

John Davis at War © 2020 David Rae

The Rapture of Baatoon Hayes © 2020 JD DeLuzio

Falling Feathers © 2020 Catherine Fitzsimmons

Awakening © 2020 Simon A. G. Spencer

ISBN 978-1-928011-35-4

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: The light between stars / edited by Catherine Fitzsimmons.

Names: Fitzsimmons, Catherine, 1981- editor.

Description: Short stories.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20200187562 | Canadiana (ebook) 20200187570 | ISBN 9781928011354

   (softcover) | ISBN 9781928011361 (EPUB)

Subjects: LCSH: Heroes—Literary collections. | LCSH: Courage—Literary collections. | CSH: Short

   stories, Canadian (English) | CSH: Canadian prose literature (English)—21st century.

Classification: LCC PS8323.H47 L54 2020 | DDC C813/.0108352—dc23

To all current and future Brain Lag authors

I can’t tell you how honoured I am to bring your stories to life

Contents

Cover

Introduction

Life in the Universe by Dale E. McClenning

The Coward and the Thief in Paradise by Gary Girod

Tinker's Toxin by Stephen B. Pearl

Battling Old Dragons by J. R. Dwornik

Nowhere to Nowhere by Hugh A. D. Spencer

Other London: Ella's Birthday by Erynn Q

John Davis at War by David Rae

The Rapture of Baatoon Hayes by JD DeLuzio

Falling Feathers by Catherine Fitzsimmons

Awakening by Simon A. G. Spencer

Brain Lag: Books by the authors

Introduction

I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up.

As a kid, and admittedly to this day, I had many interests—art, writing, video games, science, animals, etc.—but none of them quite appealed to me as a career.

I wasn’t good enough at art.

I didn’t want to rely on writing for income.

The only answer I got from studying computers in college was no.

A series of temp jobs in the corporate (and occasionally government) world culminated in a serious case of quarter-life crisis.

Then, during my brief tenure working on nuclear power plants, I released my first book under the Brain Lag imprint. My only thought at the time, after some modest research on submitting novels to publishers and/or agents, was, as a first-time author, if I have to do all the marketing myself, I might as well just publish it and not deal with the hassle of submitting it over and over again. Right? Right.

So, I called on my experience in document formatting to lay out the interior of the book, my years of practice in art to create the cover, along with much more comprehensive research to take care of all the other details about book publication that most people don’t notice, and published my novel.

And then it hit me.

I enjoyed doing it.

I had fun with every step of the process. The layout, the cover art, the editing, even picking the right fonts for the book. And, I realized, I would love to do that for other people’s books, too. Finally, here was something I would enjoy doing for a living.

So, Brain Lag as it is today was born. A somewhat unexpected genesis, but then, isn’t that how most good stories begin?

That was ten years ago now. I didn’t really know where that decision would take me; all I knew was that I had read some really amazing indie fiction published online and that I would love to help bring stories like that to print. The stories were out there.

I hadn’t planned to start accepting outside submissions until a few years later, but I was convinced to start a little earlier than I’d intended. I’m glad I did. It may have been difficult to pull off with a preschooler still at home with me, but I’m thrilled at the stories I’ve been able to bring to print and the authors I’ve had the opportunity to meet over the last ten years.

In honour of this anniversary, I decided to put together this anthology, showcasing the work of the authors I’ve had the privilege of working with. When I solicited my authors to contribute to this book, I gave the theme as Reach for the stars. However, I didn’t want to restrict the authors, and instead offered it more as a prompt than a strict guideline. It seemed loose enough that many stories could be shaped around it, and in any case, the true theme was this selection of authors themselves. As with their books that I have published, the stories I received exceeded my expectations.

We open this volume with Life in the Universe by Dale E. McClenning, a delightfully entertaining bit of space opera with charmingly quirky, yet painfully ordinary characters who find themselves in the midst of a situation they are woefully unprepared to face.

The Coward and the Thief in Paradise by Gary Girod brings us into an ironically-named facility where individuality is suppressed and isolation is enforced, yet it is all supposedly in the name of bringing out the extraordinary.

Tinker’s Toxin revisits the post-apocalyptic southern Ontario of Stephen B. Pearl’s Tinker’s World novels, bringing yet another deadly relic of an age of excess into the present for a lone tinker to deal with, along with all the limited equipment and local prejudice that brings up.

Battling Old Dragons by J. R. Dwornik follows up his Ruins of Change by returning to the life of one of its main characters, when a figure from his past sets a new course for his future.

Nowhere to Nowhere by Hugh A. D. Spencer continues his wonderful tradition in his long, short fiction career of blending the absurd with the thought-provoking, the very weird with the utterly down-to-earth, taking the suggested theme of this anthology more literally than I anticipated.

Other London: Ella’s Birthday by Erynn Q introduces us to the world of their upcoming novel and Brain Lag’s first middle grade title, Other London Volume One: Welcome to the Other London, in a version of modern-day Ontario where magic is commonplace and three very unusual off-worlders are faced with a dauntingly ordinary task.

John Davis at War by David Rae presents a haunting and mysterious version of World War I, in which a regular infantryman is drawn into a strange, underground world.

The Rapture of Baatoon Hayes by JD DeLuzio tells the story of an old man in a strangely unfamiliar version of southern Ontario where gods once walked the earth, people could fly and some creatures are far more than they seem.

Falling Feathers by Catherine Fitzsimmons reveals what happened with a particularly mysterious character in book two of her Sisters of Chaos trilogy, The Unseen Force.

Finally, Awakening by Simon A. G. Spencer closes out this book with a gorgeously sombre view of the tribulations of a generation starship in the midst of its voyage, when it seems all of humanity lives within its hull and will never know anything else.

Each author has also included insight into their creation of the stories, providing some fascinating and entertaining information on their writing process.

If there is any theme that all of these stories have adhered to, it is the idea of the magic in the mundane. None of these characters are muscle-bound superheroes, unparalleled genius scientists, nor even the top figures in their respective fields. Their stories are like ours, if told in a more fantastical world.

Because in the world where we live, there are no true heroes. There are only ordinary people who are willing to step up for the good of everyone. And I think that’s the most important story to tell.

These last ten years have only solidified my joy in this work and my desire to keep this going. The books I’ve published have surprised me, made me laugh and cry, swept me into beautiful new worlds and illuminated our own in harsh, blinding focus. I’ve made friends and found inspiration. And, with several more books already in the works, I’m looking forward to what the next ten years brings.

I hope you’ll join us on our ongoing adventure.

Catherine Fitzsimmons

Milton, ON

2020

Life in the Universe

Dale E. McClenning

Here’s how it went.

Wake up everyone, system-side coming up fast. Navs, you there? I asked through the intercom as we came out of FTL.

Yeah, I’m here, a woman said in a voice that sounded like someone who had just turned off their alarm. Coffee, must have coffee.

You can hardly blame Kwila for sacking out. Space had been a huge disappointment. With all the stories, television shows, and movies that had been written, the expectations for space had been pretty high when we were finally able to travel between the stars in hours instead of decades. Huge ships, manned by crew, scientists, ambassadors, and the military of course, were commissioned for space exploration. Mankind was going to find amazing planets, new life forms, and other intelligent beings to share the cosmos with in friendship.

The military?

Don’t worry, they got bored the quickest and stayed home. Who’s asking that, anyway? I don’t remember the voice. Oh well, the name must have slipped my mind.

Okay, brain-juice ingested, I’m fine now, Kwila said after a minute. Give me a couple to check things out.

So what did we find ‘out there’? Nothing!

Since we were so far out, the information for the third system on our survey schedule was still general. The sun was yellow, a good first step, and there were six planets in orbit. Not that I expected to find anything of real interest. Once the ship displayed two rocks, two gas giants, and two ice balls, any hope that showed its head quickly disappeared back into the black hole it called home. The outer-most planet was busy traipsing around the other side of the system, but the other ice ball was close enough to be our first stop. The computer plotted the order for exploration without my even asking—5, 4, 2, 1, 3, 6.

Nothing?

That has to be a member of the crew, but I can’t place who, which is strange, seeing how small the crew is. Was I speaking out loud and don’t know it?

Of course, when I said ‘nothing’ I don’t mean it in the ‘absolutely nothing’ sense, but in the sense of nothing that we couldn’t find in our own solar system. Except another Earth, that is. Planets like the ones in this system, whose name I hadn’t bothered to look up, were in abundance. What we didn’t find after more than four hundred systems was anything that you could call life. Nothing from intelligent being down to bacteria had been found. No primordial ooze bubbling away with life-making building blocks, no exotic algae, nothing. It felt like the first person to walk into the desert had come back and told us that, yes, there was only sand out there.

I punched up the time schedule for the planets and was reviewing what the computer promised would allow the fastest information from the instrumentation when Kwila came over the comms again. Hey, want to hear something unusual?

Yes! Tell me, please! I’m sure I sounded desperate, but who cares, something of interest was a real treat.

The fifth planet, the ice ball we will be going to first, and the fourth planet’s orbit are in sync for about a quarter of their orbits. The fifth planet has an elliptical orbit exactly twice as long as the fourth planet so that during both of the semi-minor axes, the planets travel together, or mostly together, that is. It’s almost like someone planned it that way.

Wait! I said, sitting straight up in my chair. You’re not saying someone changed one planet’s orbit to coincide with another’s? My mind reeled. A race who could do that could do just about anything.

No, of course not, Kwila said with a high-pitched emphasis. Just saying it’s really unusual, that’s all. Guess you see enough systems, you see just about everything.

Guess so. I deflated. The amount of disappointment I felt surprised me. Then another thought came to mind. If Kwila was messing with me just to get a rise out of me, I would make her pay big time. Send me the orbital projections.

The holographics confirmed what Kwila had reported. I increased the speed of the orbits to watch the planets spin around the sun. A few of the larger moons were included by now. I ordered the computer to include the calculated flight plan through the system and then made a decision.

Ship, include some extra orbits around the fifth planet. I think we might want some extra time studying that one.

As you wish, a voice replied. The ship had a friendly voice, but knowing that there wasn’t a real person behind it canceled any comfort it might have given me.

Kwila, I’m going to give you some extra time at our first stop.

Do they grow coffee there?

Highly doubtful, I replied with a small laugh.

Then I will make our stop as fast as possible. Why waste one’s time where there’s no coffee? Kwila was a real character at times.

The ironic thing about space travel is that the trip into the system takes as long or longer than the trip between stars. Unlike those old movies where people ‘warp’ right next to the planet, we make sure we are well outside of the system. I think whoever wrote those stories forgot that everything in a system moves. Besides having very little to no idea what is in a new system, do you know how much computing power it would take to keep track of the location of every planet, comet, asteroid, moon, satellite, etc. in every known system at any given time? It’s much safer to stop outside the system and take your time getting in-system. If the system is well regulated and busy like Sol, you could get a lot closer, but those were the exception. Thus we waited again as we flew our way into the system.

Several hours later, Kwila’s voice came over the comms again. Here’s another strange one for you. Check your models.

The number of ‘strange’ things were only up to two, but they were starting to worry me. This job was normally so routine that more than one strange thing could make me nervous, much less two of them. Strangeness got people hurt, dull and boring got you home in one piece. I came out here to get away from something, or more precisely someone, not run into more trouble.

From who? that voice asked again.

Let’s worry about that later.

Looking at the model, I had the ship zoom in on the fifth planet. It had no moons, which wasn’t unknown, but it did have a ring. A ring wasn’t unusual either, but no moons and a ring was. The ring also looked different from others I had seen.

What am I looking at? I said into the comms.

If I had to guess, Kwila started, which I don’t, I would say that the planet originally had two moons and both now make up the ring we are looking at. See the two concentrations about sixty degrees from each other?

The planet tore up both moons? That was Lucjan, our geologist. Isn’t that pretty rare?

As far out as the ring is, it’s, like, unheard of. Trust Kwila to be dramatic.

So, I joined in, are you saying someone blew up the moons?

Well, I doubt someone blew them up. Then the remains wouldn’t be in a ring, they’d be all over.

They wouldn’t have to blow it up, Lucjan added. They would only have to crack it enough for the planet to do the rest. It would take time, of course, but you would eventually get a ring just like that. That assumes that the moons were solid to begin with.

Crack a moon? I said, emphasizing the last word. How would you do that?

Precisely placed atomics is the only way I can think of. Some of the pieces would end up radioactive, but most would be safe. He said it so matter-of-factly, you could almost forget he was talking about blowing up moons.

Wait a minute, I said, placing my head in my hands with my elbows on the armrests of the chair. Are you seriously saying someone broke apart two moons? Why would you do that?

To make it easier to get to the minerals inside would be the most obvious reason, Lucjan replied.

That was too much for my brain. A survey ship, with nothing better to do, can be a place of wild speculation, but we had been talking about someone changing the orbit of a planet and cracking moons. In other words, we were talking about a civilization that could customize a solar system. The thought staggered my mind. Was that really possible? Humans were barely travelling the galaxy.

People! I think I was shouting. Are we really talking about someone cracking moons to mine them?

Conversation came to a halt for a few moments. Maybe I scared them. Either that or they were laughing with their comms off. When Lucjan came back on, he sounded calm.

No, I’m just saying that the data would be consistent with that scenario.

I took a breath and slowly let it out. Fine, let’s just keep the wild speculation to a minimum, okay?

It was too early in the mission for me to be so stressed. Not having worked with any of the crew previously, I began to wonder if they were always like this. Had being in such a hurry to leave the station been a good idea? Bad things tend to happen when you rush. Thanks, Rogers, something else you screwed up for me.

Rogers?

I am sure you want details. The relationship had started during a mission and continued back at the station. What else is there to do with all your free time in space? Finding a good looking guy with a great launch tower sounded ideal. The guy’s last name was Rogers so everyone called him ‘Buck.’ Unbelievably, he let people call him that. That’s his decision, but when people started calling me ‘Buckie’, I put a stop to it right away. This upset Buck. Why, I don’t know. Shouldn’t I be the one to decide what people call me? During the ensuing fight, I informed him that I was not going to change my last name to Rogers, I would not be called Buckie Rogers, Becky Rogers, or even Mrs. Rogers like I was some kid’s show host. Mrs. Rogers was a dumpy old lady with gray hair and glasses who looked nothing like me.

We were close enough to know that the fifth planet had a twelve degree tilt and a day of three standards, a slow rotation. It was also completely covered in ice.

Any idea what that ice is made of yet? I asked. I could have asked the ship, but I was feeling irritated and wanted to make the crew work.

Spectral shows ammonia, carbon dioxide, and water, Lucjan offered. That’s a pretty useful mix.

Useful for what? I asked.

Between them, you have nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen—all the basics, he replied.

The Mars developers would have loved to have that planet around when they were reconditioning the planet, that’s for sure, I replied. Scans finished yet?

General information only so far, Kwila put in. We need to get closer for details.

Is the thing solid? I asked.

Don’t think so, but the crust might be pretty thick. I’m talking dozens of kilometers at least. Reading this far out can’t distinguish crust that thick from a solid core, but I’m not seeing a radiation belt. At least Kwila had checked.

"So dead in the water. That’s such a surprise." The irony wasn’t hard to hear in the blandness of my voice.

Without a warm core, any liquid would be too cold for life, Lucjan said.

We figured that out already, thank you very much.

I watched as the planet got closer. It was a nice-looking planet, an almost purplish blue streaked with white. The asteroid ring looked like two gangs of rocks chasing each other around the planet, throwing smaller rocks at each other in the process. I found the thought funny, as if the moons blamed each other for coming apart. The planet was the parent trying to calm the situation down by separating them, sending them to their corners, so to speak.

And why do you want to cause me so much trouble? I asked the planet.

I wish you no trouble, the ship responded. I ignored it.

The entire trip to planet-side, I waited for more surprises to come over the comms, but none did. Soon enough, the planet filled most of the outer view. The asteroid ring was too far away to actually see individual rocks but provided an occasional glint of reflected light. It was all so peaceful. I hoped it stayed that way.

We started toward a polar orbit, our standard procedure since it gave the best overall view of the planet and was the easiest to achieve when approaching out-of-plane, as is standard. While we were still coming in from below, Lucjan’s voice came over the comms.

Hey boss, can we do an equatorial orbit instead?

Sure. What’s up? I asked.

Well, not an equatorial orbit exactly. There are some features along the solar horizontal plane that I would like to check out.

Anywhere in particular? I asked with a hint of annoyed parent voice.

They seem to be scattered along the whole plane so, no, not really. Hmm, cup is empty, excuse me.

I hoped Lucjan didn’t steal any of Kwila’s coffee. I hated to see what would happen if she found him taking it.

Ship, take us into an orbit in the solar plane, twelve degrees off equator.

Sure thing, Captain. The ship was too perky for me. I made a mental note to see if I could get it changed.

Watching the ship automatically glide into the requested orbit made me wonder why I was around. Why did we have crew? The ships could be fully automatic. Were we really still worried about first contact and if so, would it be better to have people along?

One trip around the planet didn’t take long. I was prepared for Lucjan to ask for the ship to slow down so the instruments could get better readings, but that wasn’t to be.

My turn for something unusual, Lucjan’s voice said in a distracted way.

Now what? I said, trying to keep the nervousness out of my voice.

Look at the display. My holographic model updated with data from Lucjan. See those points scattered along the horizontal plane? I wanted to check to see if their placement had any significance and they do. Each of those spots corresponds to a location that is lower in one chemical compound than the surrounding area.

Lower? I asked.

Lower, Kwila asked with an encouraging lilt to her voice, as if they mined the missing compound?

That would be one conclusion, Lucjan