Sci-fi Flash Fiction Double Take

Here’s two pieces I wrote for Flash! Friday, inspired by the photo below. They turned out to be two very different stories.

Homecoming

Everyone who had money, the right connections, or drew the short straw had left for the colonies. No one cared about the moon or mars when there were other planets. When you could get away from the war.

Tattered family photos were stuck on the workshop’s walls. Faith wiped her hands on a greasy cloth.

“It should work now.”

Her grandson flipped the switch and the beacon started transmitting.

“They left us here on this planet and now that they want to return you’re playing them music to welcome them? You’re daft, and they’re not worth my spit. They’re worse than the aliens.”

Faith fiddled with the switches to keep from hitting him.

 “You know how we survived the war? My parents sold my brother to the colony mines. And they kept him there forty years.”

The music played louder.

 “You look me in the eye and say he’s not worthy. You look him in the eye.”

Gemini V, August 29, 1965. Public domain photo courtesy of NASA

Research Topic: The Space Travel of Primitive Species on QW3491 (Working title)

Three students watched on a screen as the pod descended into the ocean. Their scanners assessed the passengers’ vital signs and took footage of the smiling faces.

“So… they survived?”

“Yup.”

“That’s a shame. Someone dying would have made the data interesting.”

“We weren’t supposed to mess with their instruments in the first place. You’re not supposed to intervene in societies, no matter how primitive. That’s the first thing we were taught.”

“Relax, it was just a bit of fun. This. Is. A. Boring. Place. And we’re not even allowed to set foot on the planet in case they see us.”

“So… as long as they don’t see us…”

“Hey, I’m not getting dissected in their primitive labs.”

“Please, that’s a campus legend! Look, we just camp in the desert somewhere for a night or two. No one will know. If I don’t get out of this research centre I’m going to go crazy.”

“Fine. I’ll bring the field kit.”

#453469289 / gettyimages.com

Book Impression: Lost Languages

Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World’s Undeciphered Scripts by Andrew Robinson (McGraw-Hill)

In LostLanguages, Robinson gives the reader a clearly written study of some deciphered and undeciphered scripts. The book is divided into two parts, the first of which tells of “Three Great Decipherments” – the Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Linear B, and Mayan glyphs. After this he turns to various scripts which are partly or completely undeciphered. These scripts are taken from across the world and includes:

•        The Meroitic Script (Sudan)
•       The Etruscan alphabet
•       The Proto-Elamite Script
•       Rongorongo (Easter Island)
•       The Zapotec and Isthmian Scripts (Mexico)
•        The Indus Script
•       The Pahistos Disc

Lost Languages by Andrew Robinson

Ongoing study of these undeciphered scripts is also covered, showing the remarkable work that goes into this field of study. The book is lavishly illustrated with photos and line drawings and, although it is a hefty volume, is not only suitable for academics. Rather, it is a treasure trove for anyone interested in the subject. I really enjoyed it and can highly recommend the volume.

Robinson, A. (2002). Lost Languages: The Enigma of The World’s Undeciphered Scripts.McGraw-Hill.

Some websites of interest:

Andrew Robinson's website

Ancientscripts.com – “A compendium of world-wide writing systems from prehistory to today”

An Interesting TED talk by Rejesh Rao about the Indus Script

Sometimes You Just Need Cheap Tea

Or, a Wednesday musing

I love tea. I also appreciate the differences in different teas even more after reading For All the Tea in China by Sarah Rose a while back. I try to keep a few different types in the house – I love English Breakfast, but sometimes need something a bit stronger. Or I go in the opposite direction and drink Darjeeling. And I really need to cut down on my caffeine, so I also drink a lot of rooibos. Some would probably say I drink tea completely wrong by adding milk and sugar to everything. But this weekend I found myself wanting one specific tea and only that tea. It was, in fact, the one my grandmother always had in the house – and the one I drank before I even knew you got stuff like Darjeeling and Assam.* And this weekend I felt especially nostalgic.

Doctor Who mug by Ophelia's Gypsy Caravan

I needed that tea. It’s a strange thing when you sit at a place you haven’t been to in years and then suddenly bam! Everything that ever happened there suddenly hits you between the eyes – the good, the bad, everything. You start to think about everyone you haven’t seen in years, the ones who passed away, the ones you left with your heart breaking in a million pieces. And the only thing I wanted was comfort tea.

I guess it’s a good thing the tea we always drank wasn’t an expensive one and that you can find it in every supermarket. So, when I picked up some cat food (because Sir T now decided he only wants to eat that specific flavour of food and nothing else) I decided to get a pack of the tea as well. Because, you know, it’s silly to go all the way to the shops when you already have tea in the house...

And somehow, curling up with that and a book, it made me remember the good times. And even the bad times suddenly didn’t feel quite as bad. Sometimes you just need a cup of cheap tea.**

* I grew up in my grandparents' house.

** I’ll rather not give the brand name – they may not take too kindly to me calling it “cheap”.