After Professor Usir solved human mortality by inventing a pill that froze you on a cellular level and stopped ageing, he had more money and time than god himself. While the former was useful, the latter was critical to his ultimate goal: time travel. In the background, the initial boom[…]
Read moreAuthor: Keith McLachlan
A writer by early morning/later night, and a Fund Manager on the JSE during the day (running the www.smallcaps.co.za blog).
The Hunger in the North
He had been following her for three months as her trail cut across the country. She had started by the coast, moved inland, hit the other coast, and then veered North in what began as a zigzagged-dawdle that steadily picked up pace, intent and ferocity. He had started about a[…]
Read moreMr. Rupert
The tendrils of space stretched around Ronald Rupert like the limbs of a lover interrupted only by fragments of his ship’s wreckage floating by. Great tails reached out from galactic gas clouds like curtains on a cosmic stage, curling around the endless blackness filled with countless twinkling balls of fusion.[…]
Read moreAstronought
“Initiating Zero Sequence,” the lab-coated scientist announced to the tense room, military presence lurking behind him, “Space-time is stabilizing on our induced micro-ergosphere…” The room was filled with all manner of blinking lights and buzzing machines, white lab-coated scientists staring at screens and measuring things while a small group of[…]
Read moreBeginning & End
She looked up at him, tears streaming down her face and matting her auburn hair against her face. The blue light behind his head encircled him like a mournful halo, the background room fading away. Then the moment passed. The flashing blue lights outside the window revealed the weapons and[…]
Read moreDarkness in the Land of Lights
She regained consciousness slowly. It was an uncomfortable process. At first, it was just a sense of light but then the light grew piercing and painful. She groaned. Gravity, weight and something else all appeared, pinning her naked form down. The seam of a velvet carpet was cutting into her[…]
Read moreWhat Was Pulled from the Sea
In all the dusty annals, sidenotes and forgotten addendums of history, there are few stories stranger than that of ‘Miss Daisy of Blackpool Bay‘. I now reside far inland and, after I have repeated this tale to you, I suspect that you will too. But, I digress. Apologies. The poppy[…]
Read moreThe Machine That Forgot Its Purpose
Peter had sacrificed everything to become a cosmic archeologist. His youth for years of study, his adulthood for years of travel, and any possible family or friends for a solitary existence. He was sure there were many other things he could list if he had time to do so. It[…]
Read moreWhen You Look Away
“The monsters win when you look away,” he said soothingly to her as she lay softly crying on her bed, her eyes tightly closed and her face buried in her pillow. Outside, rain steadily fell as dark grey skies stretched forever, “You cannot look away. You must be strong and[…]
Read moreThe Cobweb Way
Far from the civilized Inner Galaxies, buried deep in a fast-spinning, dead neutron star lies a series of inorganic servers. No human or other life-form could survive the gravity of this dense celestial body but an army of immortal bots maintains its lair. Lurking deep in these dark recesses, the[…]
Read moreCosmic Nectar
The plumes of cosmic gas stretched for light-years across space and, from this distance, appeared majestic in their reach. This was the illusion of scale. He knew that closer to the nebula the sheer weight and violence of the gas would consume anything down to an atomic level. It would[…]
Read moreThe Quest
For the last time, he checked his own pack, the pack on his horse, his horse and even his armour and sword. Everything was ready but him. “You will be just fine, my dear,” his wife cooed to him, kissing him gently on his lips, “Don’t worry about it, it[…]
Read moreThe Lady in the Painting
If you look at me now you will struggle to realize that I was once the esteemed Curator of the Old Museum in Blackpool Bay. I was dignified, respected and well-funded amongst my peers. My current circumstances in this institution seem as pitiful as my constitution but I feel I[…]
Read moreFreya’s Field
It was Friday. This was normally her day but she hardly noticed. The sun shone warmly down, the birds were tweeting and insects buzzing around her as she lay in her open field, but she hardly noticed any of it. Laying her head right down on the field, the grass[…]
Read moreBlack Hole Theory
Norman liked space. It was a cold, distant infinity beyond our minor planetary shores; like a great, cosmic ocean with us as passengers clinging to a random twig of driftwood. The cosmos did not care nor judge, nor even consider such brief, inconsequential things like the lives of humans, let[…]
Read moreThe Age of Leaves
This is not a tale of doom or despair, nor is it one of pain and misery. Much like life, this tale does indeed have despair and misery along the way, but those aspects do not define it. Likewise, this tale also has much pain and a creeping doom. But–as[…]
Read moreBayen Boulevard
Come up from the cold docks, down Blackpool Bay’s Main Street and by the old, creepy Athelard mansion with its weathered gargoyles silently screaming out to all that pass on the street. Keep going by the Old Museum and beyond the Gypsy Market with its smoky shops. If you keep[…]
Read moreIn the Shadow of the Rainbow
Her father had brought a toy Tesla home from one of his trips when she was five years old. He had arrived home late that night. She had heard the old, rusty gate at the bottom of the garden squeak as he stomped inside, kicking the gravel from his boots.[…]
Read moreHell
Goddammit but I need this, he thought suddenly realizing that he could not remember beginning the massage. The thoughts were soon pushed out of his mind as his shoulders ached and his neck felt like it had daggers sticking into it. The music in the Thai spa was soft but[…]
Read moreThe Black Pool
He woke up in his bed screaming, covered in cold-sweat and his heart pounding in his chest. He sat up straight, gasping for breath as if he had been drowning or swallowed. What a strange thought, he thought to himself, swallowed? And just then a single isolated and arbitrary memory[…]
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