Category: Short Fiction

A Near Future Science Fiction Vignette: Another Plot by Torn MacAlester

A  Near Future Sci­ence Fic­tion Vignette: Anoth­er Plot by Torn MacAlester

Anoth­er Plot
“Milt,” said Mary, tired of the con­ver­sa­tion. “You didn’t real­ly want to be an astro­naut?” “No, it was a means to an end. Noth­ing more.” “I wish you wouldn’t antag­o­nize our broth­er. He scares me.” “Mor­ris is a fool,” Milt said. “A dan­ger­ous one. “True, we can­not under­es­ti­mate him.” “Then why all this mess­ing around with the fake iden­ti­ty and the trip to the Moon?” Mary asked. “I took some­thing that he didn’t deserve to have.” “The arti­facts?!” “Yes,” Mil­ton said, nod­ding slight­ly. “They dis­ap­peared from his vault a lit­tle over two years ago.” “Broth­er, I real­ize you want to […]

 

Now Available

Torn MacAlester’s Fabulae Lunae

The Lunadyne Incident  and Other Stories

 

 

Available Now

 

Fabulae Lunae 1

Thunder Moon Tussle

Coming in 2025

 

Fabulae Lunae 2

Mask of the Joyful Moon

A Near Future Science Fiction Short Story Collection: The Lunadyne Incident and other Stories

 

Available Now

Torn MacAlester’s Fabulae Lunae

The Lunadyne Incident  and Other Stories

 

 

Available Now

 

Fabulae Lunae 1

Thunder Moon Tussle

A Science Fiction Vignette: Decisions by Torn MacAlester

A  Near Future Sci­ence Fic­tion Vignette: Deci­sions by Torn MacAlester

Deci­sions
Deci­sions Y+13 Nils heard Katie enter the room as he fin­ished typ­ing the let­ter and sent it to the print­er. He’d been using the back bed­room as an office ever since they had moved to Hous­ton. He’d set up a com­mu­ni­ca­tions cen­ter in the room so that Katie could keep in com­mu­ni­ca­tion with him when­ev­er he spent some time in space. At one time, he thought it would not have been nec­es­sary. It turned out it became unnec­es­sary, but for a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent rea­son than he imag­ined. “What are you doing?” asked Katie with her heavy Texas drawl. “I’m writing […]

 

Nils & Katie Carmike strug­gle with the moment he decides that his cho­sen pro­fes­sion is lead­ing no where. Check out this near future sci­ence fic­tion vignette. Deci­sions is part of a greater sto­ry arc that plays out in var­i­ous sto­ries includ­ing Thun­der Moon Tus­sle and The Luna­dyne Inci­dent and Oth­er Sto­ries. I hope you enjoy this near future sci­ence fic­tion vignette: Deci­sions by Torn MacAlester

 

Coming Soon

Torn MacAlester’s Fabulae Lunae

The Lunadyne Incident  and Other Stories

 

 

Available Now

 

Fabulae Lunae 1

Thunder Moon Tussle

Science Fiction Vignette “Sins of the Son” by Torn MacAlester

Now on Audio

Sins of the Son is a Sci­ence Fic­tion Vignette by Torn MacAlester

It is a sto­ry about Mark Mason, who appears in my near future sci­ence fic­tion nov­el Thun­der Moon Tus­sle, avail­able for Kin­dle or Paper­back for­mat at Amazon.com.

 

Sins of the Son Audio
Sins of the Son By Torn Macalester “Did you hear it?” The patient asked over the cacoph­o­ny of emer­gency equip­ment as the doc­tor worked on him and six oth­er patients that were near­ly as bad. “Hear what?” The doc­tor asked, plac­ing the gauze pads over the burns. “Make sure we clear his lungs. We need a scope in him as soon as pos­si­ble.” “She’s singing to us.” “What is she singing?” Doc­tor answered, look­ing at his eyes. One seemed burned, but the oth­er remained clear. Triage put him in the urgent cat­e­go­ry, but […]

Available Now

 

Fabulae Lunae 1

Thunder Moon Tussle

A Science Fiction Vignette from Torn’s Timeline of Events: Commander

A science fiction vignette by Torn Macalester:

This is a sci­ence fic­tion vignette deal­ing with Nils Carmike’s dis­cus­sion with his Commander.

science fiction vignette from Torn's timeline of events: Commander by Torn MacAlester
Com­man­der
Image by Torn MacAlester using Open­Sim By Torn MacAlester   The events in the crater weighed heav­i­ly on Nils Carmike. He near­ly killed his com­man­der, Mose. It was an acci­dent. Though, he felt defeat­ed as he stared out the Moon-ship win­dow, look­ing at the crater where it occurred. “I need to put you on this new mis­sion,” said Mose. “I’ll need some­one expe­ri­enced and you’re the one that I will choose.” “What are you talk­ing about? We can’t go back down there.” “Yes, this mis­sion is over. What don’t you get about that? We made it. Now, you need a […]

 

 

 

Available Now

 

Fabulae Lunae 1

Thunder Moon Tussle

From Torn’s Timeline of Events: Golf and Outgassing; a Science Fiction Short Story

A science fiction short story by Torn MacAlester

From Torn’s time­line of events, Golf and Out­gassing is a sci­ence fic­tion short sto­ry deal­ing with the first mis­sion return­ing to the Moon after many years:

Golf and Outgassing
Graph­ic By Shan­nan Albright A six­ty-year-old Moon mys­tery prompts Colonel Annie Mac­turn­er to make a risky deci­sion. Intrigued by an inter­view designed to manip­u­late, Mil­ton John­son, a can­di­date that con­flicts with her high­ly dis­tin­guished mil­i­tary back­ground, is select­ed as her crew-mate. Can Annie solve the land­ing site mys­tery and unrav­el Milton’s enig­ma before a life-threat­en­ing col­li­sion with the past occurs? Join Annie on every bound­ing step of her jour­ney as she tra­vers­es the Lunar sur­face and keeps you on the edge of your seat! Golf and Out­gassing by Torn MacAlester Annie Mac­In­turn­er glanced at the space-suit­ed fig­ure mov­ing toward her […]

 

Golf and Out­gassing: A Sci­ence Fic­tion Short Story

 

 

Available Now

 

Fabulae Lunae 1

Thunder Moon Tussle

From Torn’s Timeline of Events: Y+1; A Science Fiction Vignette

A science fiction vignette by Torn Macalester:

This is a sci­ence fic­tion vignette deal­ing with a radio talk show and a sur­vivor liv­ing near dev­as­ta­tion of the Yel­low­stone caldera.

science fiction vignette
Y+1
by Torn MacAlester This morn­ing on the Night Watch Live AM, we are speak­ing with Nick in Mon­tana, who’s been liv­ing inside of the blast zone of Yel­low­stone since the explo­sion last year. Nick, we have a caller on line two, are you ready for ques­tions from the audi­ence? “Go ahead Sam,” I said, pour­ing myself anoth­er cup of cof­fee. “I’m ready.” I’ve got Coot­er from Texas on the line. Coot­er, you’re live with Sam Dean on Night Watch AM and Nick from Mon­tana. “Hey yeah Nick, this is Coot­er. Ya doin’ all right?” “I can’t com­plain Coot­er, what is […]

 

 

 

 

Available Now

 

Fabulae Lunae 1

Thunder Moon Tussle

From Torn’s Timeline of Events: The Mountain

The Moun­tain
By Torn MacAlester   Orig­i­nal Pho­to by Jose Vega from Pex­els. Mod­i­fied to grayscale and blurred using GIMP.     I sighed, look­ing at the grey land­scape, try­ing to esti­mate the direc­tion to the cab­in. I aban­doned the moun­tain, like every­one else, when the ash fell. They didn’t expect us to get a lot, but they encour­aged every­one to move south if they could, and I could. I loaded the jeep and head­ed down the moun­tain and head­ed south to New Mex­i­co with a rel­a­tive. After about six weeks, I’d worn out my wel­come, and I returned home. Now I […]

 

 

Coming Soon

Fabulae Lunae 2

Mask of the Joyful Moon

By Torn MacAlester

Available Now

 

Fabulae Lunae 1

Thunder Moon Tussle

From Torn’s Timeline of Events: Drive to Houston

Dri­ve to Hous­ton by Torn MacAlester
Time to go, the alarm indi­cat­ed. Jacob Con­ner dread­ed the announce­ment, regard­ing it as a hor­ri­ble turn of events. It meant he need­ed to get to Hous­ton to sup­port the space sta­tion for NASA. As a lead Astro­naut, it was his job, forc­ing him to make the com­mutes from his home in Dal­las. I hate this dri­ve to Hous­ton, thought Jacob. The trip from Dal­las to Hous­ton had always been dif­fi­cult, but now, in the falling ash of Yel­low­stone, it neared impos­si­ble. The ash was every­where since the explo­sion. Noth­ing escaped it. Ash wreaked hav­oc on cars, clog­ging up windshields, […]

 

Coming Soon

Fabulae Lunae 2

Mask of the Joyful Moon

By Torn MacAlester

Available Now

 

Fabulae Lunae 1

Thunder Moon Tussle

From Torn’s Timeline of Events: Sins of the Sun

Sins of the Son
Pho­to by Brett Sayles from Pexels 
Sins of the Son By Torn Macalester 
“Did you hear it?” The patient asked over the cacoph­o­ny of emer­gency equip­ment as the doc­tor worked on him and six oth­er patients that were near­ly as bad. “Hear what?” The doc­tor asked, plac­ing the gauze pads over the burns. “Make sure we clear his lungs. We need a scope in him as soon as pos­si­ble.” “She’s singing to us.” “What is she singing?” Doc­tor answered, look­ing at his eyes. One seemed burned, but the oth­er remained clear. Triage put him in the urgent cat­e­go­ry, but the bil­lion­aire made everything […]

Coming Soon

Fabulae Lunae 2

Mask of the Joyful Moon

By Torn MacAlester

Available Now

 

Fabulae Lunae 1

Thunder Moon Tussle