Saturday, September 01, 2007

Alien Transmutator (WT 26)

The basic idea is that a half dozen soldiers are offered the chance to pilot a spaceship and accept. What happens afterward, well now that would give the story away.
POSTED September 1, 2007

ALIEN TRANSMUTATOR

10 comments:

Dave Fragments said...

Here's a short preview:

“Well Ben, what else are we to do while waiting for Professor Deporabati? Play with our dicks?” Gunnery Sergeant Johnson said. The soldiers giggled and kept poking and prodding the equipment. Ben grabbed one of the soldiers when he started to remove the screen and another soldier who picked up a piece of laboratory glass used for exotic distillations.
“Don’t move that. We’re not allowed to move that screen,” Ben ordered. He grabbed at both the screen and the glassware. The two soldiers shifted just enough to trip Ben and make him land flat on his ass with a thump and a loud oomph. The screen fell on top of him. Behind it lay a half-snake, half-human alien – scale-bejeweled human shoulders, human chest, human arms, yellow eyes, slit-like pupils, no ears, no nose, a flat head and a serpentine body. It rose up like a cobra and folded its arms.
“Just couldn’t resist looking, could you soldier? Do you touch wet paint just to be sure? What’s your human saying about curiosity?” the snake spoke English with sibilant S’s. Various profane expressions of disbelief filled the room.
“I’m sorry Prospero,” Ben pushed the screen away and stood up. He brushed the dust from his lab coat.

Bernita said...

"The soldiers giggled ???
Lost me right there.
Smell an "idiot" stereotype coming on.

Dave Fragments said...

oooh, that was surgical! Thanks.
I am removing the word "giggled" from my spell checker so it flags it anytime I use it.
It should be more like:
"The soldiers -- older than Ben, inquisitive and having no reason to respect his admonitions -- ignored him and kept poking and prodding the equipment."

This story is floating between the first final draft and major revision. I have to set stories aside for a few days and work on something else. Then I can come back to the story with fresher eyes.

Anonymous said...

i like the idea.. interesting transformation idea.

ps were do i find berita's frog story

Dave Fragments said...

Bernita Harris's story is located at
Wild Child Publishing www.wildchildpublishing.com/ but to read back issues (it was in September 2006), one has to register and then log in to read.

Bernita has a blog here - http://bernitaharris.blogspot.com/

Bernita said...

That's more realistic, Dave.
Thank you.

Anonymous said...

cackle, chortle, chuckle, guffaw, laughter, snicker, snigger, titter

Dave Fragments said...

This is the current revision of the opening (first 270 words):

Gunny Sergeant Johnson marched three naked and muscle-bound soldiers through security checks and into an ultra-secret laboratory.
“Welcome to astronaut training.”
“Uh Gunny, this hardly looks like astronaut training.” Bo Johansson, an over-muscled, blonde pointed to a cylindrical device fitted with energy pumps, field generators and a control panel. Carlos, the demolitions expert agreed.
“More like a tanning bed.”
“This doesn’t resemble any rocket I’m familiar with,” Rick Neville said, fingering the controls. Two lab techs pushed through the four men.
“It’s not a tanning bed. It’s a transmutator. Don’t touch. It’s sensitive, delicate and you can break it. I’m Ben your technician.” His admonition prompted the soldiers to touch and handle everything else in the room.
“Give us a break guys, Professor Dipshit will have us scrubbing bottles for weeks if you screw up the equipment,” the other lab tech spoke up. Ben caught an expensive glass distillation column and reached for a large folding screen at the same time. The soldiers tripped Ben letting him land flat on his ass with a thump and a loud oomph. The screen tumbled on top of him. Behind it, an alien snake-man sat, arms folded over its chest, coiled on a bejeweled body covered with golden-green scales, yellow eyes glaring.
Profane expressions of disbelief filled the room.
“Just couldn’t resist touching and groping, could you soldier?” The snake-man rose up like a cobra. “Do you finger wet paint just to be sure it’s wet? If a sign says don’t walk do you walk anyway? Tell me, young man, what’s your human saying about curiosity and felines?”
“I’m sorry Prospero,” Ben said.

Chris Eldin said...

Hi Dave,
I enjoy reading your comments on EE's blog.
Your post about the Midpoint query gave me the idea for today/tomorrow's post on cloaking devices. Would you have a few minutes to pop in and comment?

Thanks!
Chris (Church Lady)

Dave Fragments said...

Sure