The Distances Involved

Merry Christmas Everyone!

My story The Distances Involved is published today at 365 Tomorrows.

The Distances Involved
by Kenny A. Chaffin

“What is it you would want to know?” the synthesized voice asked. Johnson scanned the cryptic and stonewall faces assembled around him and the computer screen before typing. “Who are you? Where are you from? How do we know this is not some prank, some hacker?”

“You know where your antennas are pointed. You know the region we are from.”
....

http://365tomorrows.com/2016/12/25/the-distances-involved/

Enjoy!

For the Good of the Country

For the Good of the Country

We become a nation of bigots

a nation of Fascists

by turning the other cheek

by accepting a Racist as our president

in a smooth transition of power

because that is the Democratic way

Kenny A. Chaffin – 11/15/2016

Sheep

Sheep

When Dolly had babies they were all exactly like her.

The scientists had somehow locked her genome.

No one knew how or why, but the world

would never be the same.

Kenny A. Chaffin – 11/15/2016

Joy

Joy

(from Prosthetic Amalgams II)

by

Kenny A. Chaffin

All Rights Reserved © 2015 Kenny A. Chaffin

 Joy was shunned by society. She chose therefore to spend much of her time alone; in her room, in her cubicle at work, listening to music on the bus, eyes downcast to avoid attention or conversation.

For her mother it was a difficult pregnancy with morning sickness, back and pelvic pain, near miscarriages, and bedrest which pushed her to the brink. When the nurse brought Joy in for her first feeding her mother said, “This is not my child,” and turned away. Despite reassurances from the hospital staff she refused to accept that Joy was hers. They never bonded. Joy was provided for, but there was no love.

In childhood, even before being ostracized by her classmates Joy began creating elaborate scenarios, languages, people and societies in her mind. She saw them, felt them, touched them, and even smelled them. To her they were more real than life. She felt as if it was where she belonged. There were multitudes of detail in her mind. The blue-green grass was thick, lush. The stucco-like textured walls of all the buildings were something soft instead of hard and caused a tingling in her palms when pressed against them. The people there were nice and friendly. They accepted one another, relied upon one another, helped one another, something she’d never really experienced. The languages they spoke were elaborate and detailed with nuances of meaning that were perfectly clear to her. Nothing like the crude English she had to speak in real life. Joy never told anyone of these wonders in her mind, never spoke of then, never wrote of them, not even in the detailed daily journals she had kept since teaching herself to write at age four.

When the aliens approached Joy knew it before anyone. It was weeks later that the president announced on national TV the approach of an interstellar ship. He said they were attempting to communicate with the ship but were so far were unsuccessful. The news media played a clip of the transmission and Joy immediately knew it said, “We come in peace.” She didn’t tell anyone.

Joy knew they would be landing in western Wyoming. She got in her old beaten-up car and drove, hoping to make it, hoping to meet the aliens. She drove through the night and the entire next day to reach the spot where she knew they would be landing. It was nothing more than a simple crossroads of two state highways outside of Big Piney.

They landed silently and slowly a few hundred feet from her car with no smoke, no fire or rockets. She loved them even before they lowered a ladder and two of them in protective suits clambered down it to the Earth. Joy approached and spoke to them in their own language. “Welcome to Earth. We are pleased to have you.” The larger of the two aliens spoke, its voice muffled by the suit. “Thank you. We come in peace.” Joy was at a loss for what to say next. The alien filled the silence, ‘We would like to enjoy your company, to have you join us.”

“Yes. Of course,” Joy said.

They climbed the ladder into the ship and were gone long before the F-16s arrived.

The Morning After

The Morning After

America is at a Crossroads
we are a Gathering of fools
we have given the reins
of power to a madman.

Kenny A. Chaffin – 11/9/2016

Alone (from Prosthetic Amalgams II)

(since writing this last year there has been talk and science journal articles discussing this possibility)

Alone

(from Prosthetic Amalgams II)

by

Kenny A. Chaffin

All Rights Reserved © 2015 Kenny A. Chaffin

We built the dishes and listened. We scanned the skies seeking others, not knowing if we were alone or if we could even know. We launched probes, built silver orbiting machines to watch, to seek, to search from above an atmosphere growing more deadly with each passing day.

We studied fossils, physics, and chemistry to learn how life came to our lonely watery planet. We studied the universe for clues, for answers. We created computers, robots, and AIs and upon realizing our fate set them free. Others were yet to be. We would never meet. We had arrived too soon.

The Spark of Life (from Prosthetic Amalgams)

The Spark of Life

(from Prosthetic Amalgams)

by

Kenny A. Chaffin

All Rights Reserved © 2014 Kenny A. Chaffin

            After days of surveying, sampling, testing, analyzing and finding nothing Sam took the shuttle down for direct observations, not expecting to see anything new. He stepped out of the airlock into the fresh air he knew was breathable and filled his lungs. It was almost like an elixir compared to the recycled, reprocessed air of the ship. It had a sharp somewhat cinnamon-like aroma. He scanned the barren wasteland around him and shook his head in disgust before spitting into the dirt. “What a piece of shit planet.”  He turned, climbed into the shuttle and boosted back to the ship. As he did the static microbes in the soil flashed into overdrive, taking what they wanted from his DNA, using the liquid and nutrients to fuel their nascent metabolism.

            Scenario I

After a few million years the planet was covered with Sams all stomping around, bumping into each other, spitting and proclaiming, “What a piece of shit.”

            Scenario II

A billion years later the planet resembled nothing more so than a giant turd.

            Scenario III

A few billion years later intelligent life had developed, space had been conquered and they were spreading it thick throughout the galaxy.