short story – Tiffany Shearn

Baxie’s Adventure

Here is a short adventure in honor of live creative day.

Homecoming

Baxie grew up sheltered in a quiet neighborhood. She was adopted at a young age by a nice couple during a time of widespread illness. It had been challenging to connect with potential adoptees because they did not come in often. Some of those with her were shy and didn’t interact much with the people who came. She was one of the lucky ones, to be adopted.

Her new parents introduced her to her favorite person in the whole world when they arrived home. His name was Peter, and they had adopted him so many years before he was practically a grumpy grown-up. Initial attempts to invite Peter to play with her were met with derision and more than a little sniping at her, but she could tell he was lonely and kept poking. Eventually, he pounced back and ran around with her. They would snuggle up together for naps after their races.

People visit the family. While Peter loved meeting and talking to the guests, Baxie remained scared of them. She preferred her quiet family to herself. Those strangers could stay in their own homes as far as she was concerned. However, as she stared out their back window into the vast woodland surrounding their home, she wondered if something in nature might offer her more.

The Wild OutBack

Her parents and Peter roamed around in the back woods. She watched them from the doorway, listening to the tweeting of birds and the chittering of squirrels. Oh! How she wanted to go out and romp with the forest animals. It seemed safe enough for the rest of her family, but every time she started to paw outside quietly, a louder sound reverberated through the trees.

Winter turned to another spring, and the days grew warmer with the sun peeking out between the clouds and the rain. It was her third year with her new family, and Baxie knew she wanted to take a risk. She wanted to – finally – bask in the sun and chase bugs or birds in the fresh air.

Baxie stepped forward onto the back stoop. Her nose twitched at the scents assaulting her senses, and her ears flicked fore and back on alert for the slightest sound of danger. The world was quiet. A gentle burbling of water and a breeze rustling the leaves. She kept moving, slipping between two trees flanking the perimeter of the open area where the family cooked.

The tree smelled good, so Baxie stopped to take a nibble. It tasted different than the food she normally ate, and the branch was still connected, so it whapped her in the nose when she let it go. The feeling of it against her whiskers made her huff a breath before continuing.

Freedom!

Exiting on the other side, she froze in place. Massive trees rose above her. Water rushed to the left, and a small hill trailed to the right. A rush of wings above claimed her attention, and she crouched low as her eyes narrowed on the object of her desires. Her heart rushed, and she felt her jaw move, making a quiet clicking. The bird sang, oblivious.

Baxie crouched. She wiggled her back legs, positioning them perfectly to pounce in an instant. The bird sang, then fluttered its wings before grooming them with its beak.

So close, she thought, I just need a step to get up there.

The thought was no sooner in her head when the bird took off from its perch and flew toward the water. Without hesitation, on instinct, she bolted after it. Their chase lasted mere seconds. It disappeared between the leaves of another tree, so she halted her fast pursuit and took up a stalking position. In the distance, someone called her name, but she ignored whoever it was, intent on her prey.

Step.

Another.

Soft paws. Quiet paws. Slowly.

The bird took off again for another tree, and she threw herself forward after it. Her name was called louder this time, but she again ignored them. Behind the waterfall and across the field, her claws dug into the soil and she bolted forward like a supreme hunter. Excitement flared in her chest as she pulled up beneath the next tree. She stalked at the base, assessing her best path to the top.

“Baxie, you crazy cat,” Mom said as she approached.

No! No! No! You’ll scare it away!

Her pleas fell on deaf ears as she was plucked off the ground and into welcoming arms.

“You can’t chase birds, silly. You’ll run out of the yard and get lost.”

Baxie had no idea what the words meant, but she stared back at the bird as she was carried back inside, her eyes narrowing on her prey. I’ll get you next time, she promised.

Keesoo’s Plan – Short

I’ll put this one in the short story section of my website. It’s a small snippet of a character I have planned from another realm and for a far-off day in another series.

Keesoo’s Plan

Keesoo maneuvered the pack carefully from his back as he balanced on the leafy branch. The seeds inside had been painstakingly harvested from one of the first cones of the season, packed up, and carried out to this portion of the forest. It was a prime nesting area for the tree rats, and he wanted a ride. Keesoo was on a mission.

Today was the day he would ask Mish for the honor of trial as her partner. Mish was strong and beautiful. Her claws were sharp, and her mind focused. He had no doubt they would make a fearsome pair of hunters for the clan. But he wanted a trial offering worthy of Mish, which meant making his way to the upper canopy in the honey zone. The one where more birds gathered and defended their colorful nests full of blooming flowers.

The nests were not his objective, but the flowers were. They grew high up where they could reach beyond the thick forest leaves to the sun shining down. Birds would eat and poop out the seeds, littering the upper branches and their nests with the leavings where the plants could sprout and grow successfully.

Keesoo could physically climb up there on his own. It would take him more than a day, but the feat could be accomplished alone. The problem was that the birds would see him as one of the insects they frequently crunched on and gobble him up. He needed the tree rat to return before the day was out and for camouflage.

His plan was not without risks, but Keesoo was a talented rat rider. Better than most, he guided the rats where he wanted to go instead of hoping they would head in the direction he needed. The trick was knowing what the rats were interested in and what could entice them to act. Hence, the seeds in his pack.

Blinking his large eyes and scanning the area for predators, he took a few steps closer to the thicker, vertical branch where the rat’s nest sat cradled in the crotch. He grabbed one of the seeds, clutching it between two of his sharp claws, and deliberately flung it into the nest opening.

Sniffing sounds, then a soft crunch. The rat’s searching, twitching nose poked out of the hole and then back in. Up a bit more. Back down. Up again, and Keesoo could see its eyes that time, so he plucked up another seed. The rat watched intently as he took slow steps forward, placed the seed on the branch where it would not fall, and then backed up.

With every step back, another seed. Keesoo left a short trail in his wake, and the nose twitching intensified. The rat looked from the seeds to Keesoo. Seeds. Keesoo. It snuck further out of the nest until it picked up the first seed in its own clawed paws and started munching.

Keesoo’s mouth curled up in pleasure as the rat continued forward, and he held out a final seed in his claws. Just a bit further, then he could mount and get them started on their journey.

Almost…Almost…Ready…and…BOOM!

The rat froze, and the last seeds on the branch rattled and fell to the forest floor far below. Another BOOM sounded, shaking the earth, followed by a screeching, bellowing roar echoing through the forest. His potential mount fled back to the relative safety of its nest. Birds squawked in fright and took to the air.

Keesoo mashed his lips together in a grimace and sighed through his nostrils. He held back a curse at the horrible luck. He should have had another month. Why, of all the years, was this the one? Why had the dragon woken early?

Ship in the Void – Pt. 8

Welcome back to my sci-fi short story! If this is your first time visiting, I recommend starting with part 1. You can find all of these posts on the Dream Journal page.

The story continues…

My search for corresponding time stamps in the system logs came up empty. Not only “empty,” but telling in the absence of ANY findings. The problem I now faced was that I had no idea what the missing data might be telling me.

When looking for a simultaneous trigger for the light turning on and the door unlocking, there were zero corresponding occurrences. In the sixty seconds before and after, no one from my unit, on any floor, in any section, passed by a sensor.

“If no initiating signal was sent, then why was one received?” I asked myself as I headed back to the malfunctioning-light room.

My heart kicked up a notch as I entered the hall in which I first saw the light and mysteriously cracked door. This time, I saw no light, and the door remained locked until I reached the appropriate distance to trigger the automation.

Despite the perfect system response, the click of the lock made me jump. I muttered under my breath about fools and movies.

Taking a bolstering breath, I stepped into the room with my toolkit and got to work dismantling the two problem areas, starting with the door lock. I tested circuits and traced connections back to the motion sensors. I was hoping—and not hoping—to find a faulty piece somewhere along the line.

Finding it would provide an answer, a specific issue to explore further. Unfortunately, with the breadth of the documented problems, faulty hardware would mean a quality issue of disastrous proportions. The entire ship would be deemed unsafe, and the initial flight would be delayed until a complete retrofit could be executed, perhaps even indefinitely.

As much as I wanted to find the cause of the glitches, I didn’t want it to be a pervasive hardware issue. This ship, this mission, was the foundation upon which my dreams were built. I grew up watching the idea become a reality. Without Inspiration, I’m not sure what I would be doing with my life now.

I traced the lines, hoping as I did so I would find nothing.

The door came back clean, then the light. Sitting in the center of dismantled panels and electrical parts, I breathed a sigh of relief before realizing I found myself back at square one. My head tilted back, knocking against the wall.

I made a mess and still found nothing!

“Bitsa,” came a voice over the coms, “Isis here. Flash asked me to set up the watch-bot you requested.”

When I explained my theories to Flash, I asked if he could arrange for a programmed bot to watch for any additional instances of “incoming calls without a corresponding “outgoing call.”

“Hey, Isis,” I said. “Thanks for setting that up. Would you let me know if you get any hits?”

“Yeah,” she said, drawing out the word, “that’s why I’m calling. Your bot just pinged.”

I bolted upright. “What’s going on?”

“You caught a big one. Every docking-bay door just received orders to seal and lock.”

“All of them?” I asked, sitting forward to grab hold of my datapad and see for myself.

“Every single one,” Isis verified. “I’ve confirmed no orders were issued to the bay doors.”

“Can you countermand the orders?” After a brief pause, her voice came back on sounding concerned, “Negative. Controls are locked to the core. Bitsa, I’m bringing in Flash and Tryss.”

As Isis brought our leaders up to speed, I dug into the orders received by the doors. They were simultaneous and all contained the same order code.

I felt light-headed when the details on the code came through, the blood draining until my face felt numb. Before I could say anything, Isis cut through again.

“We have a second ping on the watch-bot,” she said. “Inertial dampeners are initiating centralized gravity.”

I dropped the datapad, levered myself up, and took off running.

“All hands, “Tryss said over a universal comm channel, “brace for gravity shift.”

“Tryss,” I shouted as I ran, “you need to get to central command! Now!”

“On my way,” she replied, then followed it with, “Bitsa, explain.”

“The orders have a common command code this time, “I said, not yet winded. “It’s for the sequence to initiate the interstellar drive!”

Tryss swore, using words of which my mother would not approve, but I understood the sentiment.

“HUD shows me fifteen minutes out from central command,” Tryss reported, then I heard her mutter, “Why is this ship so big?”

“Isis said reversal commands unresponsive,” I noted.

“I heard,” she said before addressing another member of our unit. “Carnival, you’re our drive expert. How long do I have?”

“Not long enough,” came Carnival’s voice, full of resignation. “Once confirmed, the whole sequence takes ten minutes, and we’re already almost three into it.”

“How did this get initiated in the first place?” asked Flash.

I took a corner too fast and bounced painfully off the wall, stumbling back into a sprint. Get to the stairs, ten floors, then another half mile, through a coded door, across the room to a control console to enter the code. In seven minutes?

One of us could probably cover the distance flat out, but stairs and doors would slow us. We still needed to try. Tryss could give someone the code if they made it.

“It shouldn’t be possible,” Carnival answered Flash. “Initiating the sequence has the same restrictions as shutting it down. I’m looking at the footage, and there is no one there to enter a command code.” A pause, “Interstellar core is powering up.”

“Interstellar core is powering up.”

“Block Head here,” another member cheeked in. “Ground Control cannot override. They are working to reestablish control.”

“I’m trying to hack it from here too,” Flash called out. “No luck yet.”

“Seven minutes out,” Tryss said. I looked at my HUD, impressed to note she had made up close to three minutes. Checking my estimate, I said, “Bitsa here, two minutes away.”

My breathing became labored, I had a stitch in my side, and my shoulder throbbed, but I kept running. One more long hall to the door.

“Sixty seconds to drive initialization,” Carnival called.

No, I thought, breaking out of the stairs into the final stretch.

“Forty-five seconds.”

I hit the door, punching in my code.

“Twenty-seconds.”

The door didn’t open. “It is not taking my code!”

“Fifteen seconds,” Carnival said at the same time Try ss called out, “Forty-five, eighty-two!”

My vision tunneled and my hands wanted to shake as I entered her code. The keypad light blinked off, then back on.

“Ten seconds.”

“Red,” I said. “It’s still locked.”

“Five.”

“Four.”

“Three.”

“Two.”

“One…”

Vertigo. I felt it in my head and gut as the drive kicked in, but there was no additional g-force like a shuttle take-off.

Tryss arrived, sweating and out of breath, and tried multiple codes in the door with no results. It was not until the twelve-minute ride ended that the lock disengaged and allowed us into central command.

“Let’s find out where we are,” she said with more calm than I could muster, striding to a consol and initializing the hologram display.

At first, it showed only the ship. Tryss zoomed out.

An enormous nebula, darkness radiating with blue and purple, served as the backdrop for an alien solar system. A red gas giant swirled with storm clouds, while its blue partner appeared to flow like an ocean. Two of the planets had rings. One of these had multiple sets of rings orbiting the planet on perpendicular planes.

It was all so foreign. I had no idea where we were. Light-headed, a little in shock, I slid down the nearest wall, staring into space.

The End (for now).

This is the point where I woke up. Much of the detail presented in these stories has been me embellishing the dream fragments into a more cohesive story, but I have a rough idea of where I might take Tryss and team in the future.

As there has been limited interaction with these posts, I’m probably going to put additional installments on hold for the moment. If you have enjoyed them as they have been released, or you find them randomly in the future and want more, feel free to drop me a comment to let me know.

As always, thanks for joining me on this journey!

Ship in the Void – Pt. 7

Welcome back to my sci-fi short! If this is your first time visiting, I recommend starting with part 1. You can find all of these posts collected on the Dream Journal page.

The story continues…

I spent hours in front of the terminal sifting through data pulled on both the light and door glitch and the gravity shift. The initial conclusions Flash relayed held up under deeper scrutiny: all systems reported normal operations. Everything came back clean when reviewing the programming, and it was the same story with the interfaces. All systems appeared fine and responsive.

“I’ve run through the life-support logs for this section for the last month,” Magic said, breaking our companionable silence. “There are no recorded anomalies.”

“That’s encouraging.”

“I would find it more encouraging if we knew what caused the other issues,” he said, tilting his head for emphasis before stretching his arms out and back.

I was feeling the strain of too long at a comp screen myself, but the sling prevented me from executing a similar move.

I huffed out a laugh, “You and me both.”

“What about you? You got anything?”

“Maybe,” I said, twitching my nose in consideration. “Come take a look at this. It might help me to talk through it out loud.”

As Magic settled in behind me to look over my shoulder, I tried to organize my thoughts. Some things were not lining up, and I wasn’t sure which version of events to believe.

“This is the log from the automated lighting,” I said, pointing to a few lines of the data records. “You can see here how the light receives a signal to turn on from the motion detection system, here.” I flipped through to another wall of data. “Same here for the door. Aaaand here for the gravity shift from the docking bay terminal.”

“But no one was in those locations to initiate the signals from our team,” he said. “Do we have a stow-away intruder?”

“See,” I said, pointing a stylus in his direction, “I had the same thought along with wondering about aliens.”

Magic snorted as I continued.

“Until…” I pulled up yet another dataset. “I looked at the records for the systems where the signals originated and cross-referenced the timestamps.”

“And?” he asked as I paused dramatically.

“No input received, “I said with a smug grin. “No signal sent.”

He shook his head and peered at me sideways. “What do you mean? You just said those were the sources of the signals.”

“Yes, The signals were received and recorded with all relevant data, including source, but there is no record of the signals being sent. We have incoming calls with no corresponding outgoing calls.”

“Huh,” he said, leaning back in thought.

“Exactly,” I agreed with the sentiment. This was basic operating stuff. Send, receive. On, off. We both frowned at the comp screen, thinking.

“So, what are you looking for now?” Magic finally asked.

I sighed and bit my lip before swiveling around to face him.

“I have two current theories,” I began, holding up a finger. “One, an unknown entity or entities is aboard and has messed with the systems or data to cover their tracks. I need Flash to look into that one. The skill needed for a hack so nuanced is beyond me.”

Adding a second finger, I continued, “Second theory, there is something like an electrical short connecting in ‘TBD’ ways triggering signals. Somehow, those ‘TBD’ ways are mimicking what would be sent by the alleged source systems.”

Magic gave me a teasing grin. “It sounds like you’ve narrowed it down to either aliens or robots.”

I blinked, momentarily distracted by the smile, and felt a blush blooming on my cheeks.

He is so yummy.

Pushing that unnecessary thought aside, I cleared my throat and responded as though I was not imitating a cooked lobster. “Har-har. while aliens remain a possibility, I’m putting it far down the list. I also think an intruder is a less likely alternative. There is little reason for someone to hide their presence in the area where I found the light on.”

“That leaves you with ‘TBD’ option,” he said, making the air quotes.

“Yes,” I said with concern. “And the ‘TBD’ is unlikely to be easily determined because of how the signals are recorded. We need to manually track down the source, which fits the definition of needle-in-a-haystack. It means we need to find an electrical short in a robot the size of a small moon.”

“So, what’s your plan?”

I took and released a deep breath. “First, I’m turning Flash onto theory one. He can figure out who is checking the programming for manipulation. I will hunt for the short, beginning with a thrilling search through timestamps!”

“You have fun with that,” Magic slapped the back of my chair. “I have plenty of life-support system records of my own to review.”

I smiled and shook my head as I called Flash to report my findings. Then, I started a run on all system activity with the same timestamp of that first anomaly.

To be continued…

Ship in the Void – Pt. 6

Welcome back to the ship! If this is your first time visiting, I recommend starting with part 1. You can find all of these posts on the Dream Journal page.

The story continues…

I floated in cotton. My mouth was dry, and my head stuffy.

Muffled voices drifted toward me. “Do… any leads… shift?”

“No, sir.” That was Flash, so the muffled person must have been Tryss.

My hearing cleared up at the same time the pain returned. It was only an echo of what put me out, but I groaned as my eyelids fluttered in wakefulness.

A hand rested gently against my forehead. “Easy, Bitsa. How are you feeling?”

I blinked my eyes open to see one of the most cherubic baby faces on or off the planet. With big, blue eyes and a cap of golden-blonde hair, Magic Hands appeared like a grown-up version of a Rennaisance painting angels.

He was the unit’s medic, and I had the biggest crush on him. It was no secret among the unit. I’m pretty sure even Magic was aware, but we kept things professional, and both ignored my uncontrollable blushing.

“Arm hurts,” I said, smacking my parched lips.

He held a cup and straw to my mouth. “I can give you a stronger pain killer, but it will put you off duty for 24 hours. That’s my recommendation, but it’s up to you.”

Pain and help the team, or get loopy and bored for a day? I thought.

This latest glitch increased the threat level. Too much more risk and we would need to abort the mission. If I went off duty, we would be stuck until my status changed. In the end, it wasn’t a tough choice.

“No.” I shook my head slowly. “I’ll stick.”

Magic sighed and pursed his lips. “I can’t say I’m surprised. Let’s get you up and put the sling on.”

My head spun only once before settling, and I looked over to where Tryss and Flash stood watching.

‘Did you find Juicy? What happened to him?”

“Juicy is fine,” Tryss answered with a smile. “He was clinging to you when help arrived, but Party and Block secured you both with anchors, giving us time to correct the gravity shift.”

I let out a gusty breath and felt tears well in my eyes. In my head, I failed him. He fell to his death when I couldn’t lift him high enough or stay conscious long enough to save him.

My breathing was shaky as the relief flooded through me.

Tryss squeezed my free hand, “You did good, Bitsa. You saved his life.”

I closed my eyes against the tears and nodded sharply. Letting out a deep breath, I was relatively calm again when I opened them to look back at Tryss.

“Do we know what caused any of the malfunctions yet?” I asked.

She turned to Flash, who had already shaken his head in response.

“No.” He released a frustrated breath. “All preliminary tests are returning ‘systems normal’ responses.”

“But the gravity shift was recorded and responded to commands to revert to the prior settings,” Tryss added. “which indicates the errors are not related to reporting or interface assets and programming.”

Flash shook his hand in a “maybe”‘ gesture. His twitching eyes meant he interacted with his HUD as he spoke to us. “Likely, but it does not eliminate the possibility of problems with those systems. I’m pushing them down the priority list for now though.”

Magic finished hooking up my sling as Triss acknowledged Flash’s point. Her focus then returned to me with enough intensity to have me leaning back slightly.

“I reported our situation and initial encounters to Command. Our mission stands, but they’ve authorized a medical drop if necessary. It’s up to you.”

“My recommendation as your doctor,” Magic offered, “is to take the drop.”

“Can they do anything for my injury you haven’t already done?” I asked him.

He pursed his lips and snorted in frustration. “No, but with your injury, you are most at risk of further harm up here.”

Regulations required at least five people in a medical drop to ensure optimal assistance for the injured person on the descent. It would mean Tryss would lose more than me, and we would not even be on the ground to assist for twenty-four hours. It was not an option.

“Noted, but I’m staying.” I stood before my unit leader, pretty sure I hid the wince of pain as I rose. “Where do you want me?”

She pointed to a terminal across from where Magic worked. “Right over there,” she said with a jaunty wag of her eyebrows. “You get to keep Magic company in the infirmary. The data from your prelim runs is on the terminal. I want your assessment on those glitches.”

Lovely, I thought. I’m benched and given homework. Well, at least I would get to spend the day with Magic. Maybe I could finally convince him to fall in love with me.

“Yes, sir, “I said, and got to work on both missions.