Category: Science Fiction Vignette

Clash of Titans by Torn MacAlester 27 OCT 2024

Clash of Titans
Pho­to by Vale­ria Bolt­ne­va from Pex­els Clash of Titans by Torn MacAlester . “I see you’ve bought K‑Systems,” said Mor­ris Mason to his son Mark as he raised a glass in a mock­ing toast. “I thought this was a casu­al din­ner, not a busi­ness meet­ing.” Mark growled, wip­ing his scarred chin with a nap­kin. “I’m under­stand­ably curi­ous. You’ve been even more eva­sive than usu­al.” “We oust­ed you from your role as CEO. The answers to your ques­tions can be summed up in five words: none of your damn busi­ness.” “No call to get testy. I’m just curi­ous,” said Mor­ris. “Why? […]

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

Diamonds by Torn MacAlester 20 Oct 2024

A Near Future Science Fiction Vignette by Torn Macalester

Dia­monds by Torn MacAlester
Nils depart­ed Con­rad Lunar Sta­tion, dri­ving his pres­sur­ized crawler. He imag­ined the sta­tion would become the hub of lunar activ­i­ty asso­ci­at­ed with the Luna­dyne Cor­po­ra­tion. His hab wasn’t far off, allow­ing him to be away from the cen­ter of activ­i­ty and on his own. The whole point of his being here had been to build up the Moon. He knew Luna­dyne was an excel­lent group to be asso­ci­at­ed with, but he didn’t work for the com­pa­ny. He was an independent–one of the first. The crawler was the cen­ter of his life on the Moon. He knew it was nec­es­sary for […]

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 Vignette: Directors and Malcontents

A  Near Future Sci­ence Fic­tion Vignette: Direc­tors and Mal­con­tents by Torn MacAlester

Direc­tors and Mal­con­tents by Torn MacAlester
“I’ll say it one more time. John­son and Carmike are not com­ing back!” the Direc­tor said. “They left the space agency. It’s over. Why are we even hav­ing this con­ver­sa­tion about them? I can’t believe I will spend my Sat­ur­day mak­ing a case for us to try lur­ing back two mal­con­tents that have no desire to be part of our mis­sion. What con­ceiv­able use do we have for them?” The Assis­tant Direc­tor said, “They have flight expe­ri­ence and are qual­i­fied. They’ve both been to the Moon and done all the things we asked of them.” “The deci­sion is out of […]

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 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 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