Part 2 to the Jaime Conrad Story

Part Two: Breakfast at Frosty’s

            Six minutes and forty three seconds later, Jaime Conrad whipped his wife’s maroon mini van into the first open spot he could find at Frosty’s. He started to jog towards the front door before he realized how dumb that would look, not to mention all of the unwanted extra attention it could possibly attract to a situation that needed no such thing. He had to stop and take a deep breath; he was sweating profusely, which made him irate with himself.

            “It’s only been five years and already I’ve lost it completely. That’s pathetic, come on man get it together, what is with you?” He said to himself not quite as quietly as he would have liked, which caused him to be the recipient of a rather dirty look from the elderly couple that he held the door open for prior to walking in.

            He spotted Jimmy immediately, he looked very different as compared to the last time Jaime had seen him. This really wasn’t saying much since the last time they were together Jimmy was missing his left ear.

            “What’re you waiting for an invitation? Sit down Hank, I already ordered you a shake.” Jimmy’s voice caused Jaime to cut short his trip down memory lane, a blessing really, those weren’t memories he cherished by any means.

He again shook his head as if to clear out whatever thoughts were still lingering in his mind. He wasn’t sure when he picked up this nervous habit, but he could not afford to trouble himself with thoughts about that right now. More important things were now at hand. He at last sat down and waited for Jimmy to do the talking. This wasn’t the sort of conversation that required the usual pleasantries and small talk, and Jimmy didn’t waste any time getting right to the point.

“Alright Hank, listen up and listen good.” Jimmy began with his right index aimed at Jaime, thrusting it towards him with every syllable, a technique that was most effective in making sure Jaime knew how important this conversation was about to be.

(I’m going to switch to a more script type format for this conversation, to save time and just get some more practice at writing dialogue. In order to avoid confusion, Jaime, the main character, will be under the name Hank, which of course is the name Jimmy knows him by.)

SCENE: “Hank” and Jimmy are sitting at a booth along a window at Frosty’s. Jimmy is roughly the same height as Hank, but quite a bit older; he has a small beer gut, a goatee, long slicked back dark grey hair, and massive scarring around his left ear, where a replica now sits. Jimmy speaks calmly but with a purpose. Hank is obviously flustered and does a poor job of hiding this.

Hank: Yeah, ok I’m here I’m listening. Go ahead Jimmy; tell me why I’m here.

Jimmy: Good. Okay, here’s what’s up; as you well remember, we did a job a few years back together. You do remember that don’t cha Hank?”

Hank: (rolls his eyes and leans in towards Jimmy and hisses under his breath.) Of course I remember that Jimmy, would I have busted my ass getting over here if I didn’t remember who you were? By the way Jim, if you don’t mind me asking, can we get on with this already? I mean come on man, come out with it already.

Jimmy: (grinning) There’s the old Hank I know and love! Hank buddy, how ya been? I thought you was dead! (Chuckles to himself and continues) Glad to see you’ve finally shown up. Now, where was I? Oh yeah, that’s right, that little job we took care of a while back. How long has it been anyway Hank?

Hank: Five years last I checked.

Jimmy: Yeah, that’s right Five years. Now let me ask you something Hank, and I’m gonna need you to try and think long and hard on this before you answer, ‘cause this is real important big guy. (He makes eye contact with Hank and waits for a nod from him before continuing.) As best as you can recall, how did that job turn out for us?

Hank: (chuckles to himself a little, for the first time, the tension eases in his face a bit.) Well, from what I remember, I got out a little better than you; I mean a ‘job well done’ pat on the back, early retirement, and all my scars healed. (Looks and nods towards Jimmy’s new ear.) That does look nice though, quality work.

            Jimmy responds to Hanks attempt at humor with nothing but a stare, the blood once again flees from Hanks face, and he begins to speak nervously.

Hank: Sorry, ok back on point now. (Takes a deep, loud breath) Ok, so I remember, as far as I know, I saw you take one in the head, thought you were finished, I popped out from behind cover, hit the target right between the eyes. (Pauses and winces as if feeling some sort of pain from this memory.) Then I took that shotgun blast to the chest, played dead for a second, took that guy out. (Pauses again with a puzzled look on his face.) And the next thing I remember after that is waking up in a hospital room next to you. That’s all I remember.

Jimmy: (looks down at his milkshake, he has his right thumb and index finger around the base of the glass and he proceeds to spin the glass a few times before finally looking up at Hank to speak) Alright, and in your debriefing, they told you that everything went smooth after that and the job was a success?

Hank: (still looking very confused) Yeah, gave me some big speech about being a hero and service to my country, you know; it’s probably the same garbage they told you.

Jimmy: Not exactly Hank, you see I’ve been in this business a lot longer than you and I had been in it for quite awhile before running into you on that job way back when. So in other words, I was let in on every detail of the job, while most things were on a ‘need to know basis’ with you.  I hate to bring that down on you but it is what it is. You were young and raw, and pretty damn violent when you needed to be. You see we had to keep you in the dark for the first job; to make sure we could trust ya; you know how it is. Only you got lucky, there was never a second job for you. I tell ya kid I was so happy to see them send you off, knowing that you’d never have to know what we really did that day. Now, it breaks my heart to have to tell you the truth.

Hank: so come out with it already Jim!  I can’t take this build up any more, just tell me what’s what then so I can have just a little peace of mind?

Jimmy: Kid, what I’m about to tell you ain’t gonna bring any peace to that mind of yours; hell, it’ll probably make ya go half insane.

Hank: Either way.

Jimmy: Ok, in that case, I think we should go for a walk. I don’t wanna talk about this sort of thing here. Not the place for it. I’m gonna use the facilities; meet me at Otter Park in fifteen minutes. Third gazebo, under the giant willow. Got that?

Hank: No, no, no, what is it with all this? Just spit it out now man there’s like three people here.

Jimmy: (gets to his feet and leans forward, putting his face right up to Hank’s, who looks baffled. Jimmy speaks in a hurried and angry whisper) You just don’t get it do ya kid? Let me spell it out for ya real quick. The broad you shot ain’t exactly who you thought she was and the broad you thought you had killed is now coming here, to the U S of A to kill you and anyone close to you. And I don’t wanna talk here, wise guy, without knowing for sure whether or not you’ve got a tail. So let me lay it down for ya one more time and I’ll be sure to speak nice and slow for ya this time. (Speaks slow and emphatically now, almost mocking Hank.) I am gonna go to the little boys room, YOU are gonna sit here, count to fifteen, and waltz your ass out that front door right there and I’m gonna follow you to the park and look for a tail. If there is no tail, I swear on my grandfather’s grave that I’ll tell you every last detail of this whole damn situation. Now, do we understand each other?

Hank: (Looks very flustered, takes a second to collect all this information, then responds somewhat feebly.) Yeah gothcha Jimmy, No problem.

Jimmy: (Gets up and walks towards the restroom, stopping to pat, almost slap Hank on the shoulder and says) Good. That’s more like it. See you in a few Hank. Keep that phone close just in case. 

Jimmy walks into the men’s room. Hank sits there and counts to fifteen, with his head bobbing forward with every second he counts in his head. He takes a deep breath, shakes his head side to side, then walks out of the front door, heading for the mini van.)

TO BE CONTINUED

Taxis Prolouge

OK while I finish up on part 2 I figured I'd but this up here to have a little prologue I wrote for a novel my friend Eric and I are working on, we decided a prologue wasn't exactly needed, so I figure knowing this gives away nothing huge for the novel. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

-Kev

SHIP JOURNAL ENTRY: U.S.F. EDEN (Terra Class)

1^st Gunner Lt. Shawn Dunst

July 3^rd, 5616

       I simply cannot contain my excitement for tomorrow’s take off, just the idea of being a part of something that has the potential to save mankind is enough to make anyone writhe in anticipation. I fear I may be getting a little ahead of myself. Since this is the first recorded journal entry of mine on this ship, perhaps I should provide any future discoverers of this with an adequate amount of background information. To completely understand the beginnings of our upcoming quest for a new planet I would have to give a 2,000-year history lesson, and given the circumstances, I lack the time to put together such a lecture. Therefore, I feel a quick synopsis will have to suffice. I have always been a bit of a history buff, so anyone reading this can be sure that I’m not blowing smoke up your chimney, I know my stuff.

       Earth was torn to shreds in search of oil when the supply started to reach alarmingly low levels. Eventually, as with all things, oil became no more.  The transition into the nuclear power era was not smooth to say the least, multiple accidents at various power plants left some of Earth’s major cities charred and ruined in their wake. To make an extremely long story short, I’ll leave it at this; we can no longer safely and efficiently produce enough energy to sustain life on Earth for much longer. Pair that with the irreparable damage done to Earth’s wildlife and we find ourselves in quite the predicament.

       After all of these events fell into place, global unification went from a radical thought to our only hope of survival. The government had to control the energy supply since many felt that competing energy companies and their constant bidding wars and efforts to best each other led to Mother Earth’s eminent demise.

       After unification, we searched the stars far and wide for a planet close enough to our own to rebuild life for ourselves, with the plan being to send a small group to colonize the planet and given advancement in our Terraforming technology, turn that planet into a second Earth, complete with all the fauna deemed necessary by the Amalgam (the name chosen for our new unified government- it is literally another way to say unification, the lack of originality in this confuses yet deeply amuses me.)

What is Terraforming you may ask?

Unfortunately for any of my future readers, I have been told that the process of Terraforming is unique and far to complicated for explanation, which I took to mean that it was simply above my pay grade and if they told me, they’d have to kill me. No skin off my nose though, I’d rather not know all the details, as they say, ignorance is bliss.

       The Revelation Act set the wheels in motion for our current plan. A fleet of 5 ships was sent out about a century ago, each in search of a planet in our Milky Way galaxy with a planetary and atmospheric structure similar enough to our own. Of course, Mars was the first attempt. After a few months of setbacks, it was determined that the atmosphere of the Red planet would not suffice. Humans still had hope however, in the other 4 ships, of which 3 had found planets that were determined worthy of a Terraforming attempt. Unfortunately, after a decade of failures, the Terraforming plan was all but scraped, with the Amalgam deeming it impossible to find a planet in our galaxy that would be a proper fit for the technology at the time. The ships were told to come home.

       The next events that would unfold caught everyone by surprise. The U.S.F. Omega, thought to be lost in space, or worse due to a failure in the communication system, came back to Earth about 6 months after the rest of the fleet. The crew on the Omega returned with great news of a planet that was an almost perfect atmospheric match with Earth.

       The Amalgam were skeptical to say the least, that is until the Omega’s crew members had all been debriefed and told corresponding tales that not only explain the ships loss in all communications, but proved beyond reasonable doubt that this planet could harbor our Terraforming technology when no others in our galaxy would.

       The answer was simple, this planet, later to be named Taxis, wasn’t in our galaxy at all. The Omega accidentally went through a warp hole (Named the Taxis warp hole- apparently unification and originality do not go hand in hand) during their search of the Milky Way. Being sucked into a warp hole is something that no one had ever experienced before, so it was to no surprise that the last transmission from the Omega back to Earth was one of chaos and panic, ending abruptly in static. One can see why the Amalgam thought this to mean the ship had encountered some sort of unfortunate end.

       It turns out that Taxis was the first planet encountered upon exiting the warp hole. You see, when the Omega first exited the warp hole, their only thought was to turn around and reenter with hopes that it would take them back to our galaxy for a safe return home. However, the Omega’s captain had the perception and fortitude to order his crew to do a full scan of the galactic region they had discovered. He would later say in an interview that he judged it to be a complete waste of all their time if they didn’t at least take the chance to make some sort of discovery that could save mankind.

       Once again to make a lengthy story less so, the Amalgam sent out a scout ship to continue the research that the Omega was forced to cut short for fear of not having enough fuel to make it home. After finding that Taxis atmospherically was almost an identical twin to mother Earth, as well as having a planetary structure featuring 98% solid land, we had our perfect candidate for a new home.

       Fast forward a decade or so of work to prepare for this, and mankind has put its collective self into a situation in which survival is a great possibility. Which brings us to tomorrow, the launch is scheduled for 11 am tomorrow morning. Our fleet is much too big for a single take off area; in fact the entire fleet will be taking off simultaneously from all the major spaceports in the world.

       Well, its time for me to get the wife and kids packed and ready. Its hard for the young ones (and the wife) to contemplate packing up all their belongings for a permanent trip. This I can completely understand because its something that took me months to come to grips with. It’s almost unfathomable to consider that everything we decide not to bring with us will be lost to us forever. One of the perks of this launch is that every crewmember of every ship is permitted to bring his or her immediate family; this means husbands, wives, parents, brothers, sisters, and their spouses and children. Only my wife and two boys will be accompanying me on my journey because my parents are dead and my brother says that the day he and his family leave Earth will be the day that the Lord comes down from heaven and gets them. I quickly decided he would not be shaken from his decision so I chose not to argue.

       I can’t wait for take off tomorrow so I must step away from this keyboard or I fear I will be here all night.

       Until next time,

                            Shawn

July 5^th, 5616

       Yesterday was a tragic day. Although our take off went flawlessly, not every continent was so lucky. Every take off went well except for the Chinese effort. Each city had 5 to 8 ships taking off simultaneously. In China, a malfunction in the fueling system of one of the ships caused it to explode mere seconds after liftoff. This explosion would in turn cause the surrounding ships to explode. Of course, we carried on with the mission as planned, because the Amalgam had provided us with more ships than we would need in order to make sure we would be fully supplied.

Our fleet originally contained 30 ships. It is now down to 23. In order to make up for the missing ships, we are all being asked to do much more work than we were originally assigned. Although only 15 of the ships are required to completely rebuild Taxis according to our calculations, the fleet commander (former captain of the Omega) has said that we simply cannot bank on those numbers being exact and we must reach Taxis with the rest of our fleet intact. He also has demanded a recount of everything each ship has in stock; just to be sure he knows exactly what we have to work with. Although I am unhappy about the extra hours I have to put in doing work that as a gunner I was not required to do or even briefed on. However, I respect the commander, who also captain’s the Genesis, enough to trust his judgment and know that if he thinks something should be done than it is in all of our best interests and I damned well better get it done without so much as a sigh.

 Another downfall of this disaster is that I will not be able to keep a day to day record of our travels on this journey as I had planned, for I barely have enough time in each day to visit with my own children and wife. In fact, I have been writing for too long all ready and in all likelihood have earned a lecture from both Captain McNulton and my lovely wife. I must go now but I will be sure to record any major occurrences of this voyage, however briefly I may have to describe them.

      

       Shawn

November 10^th, 5616

       I cannot believe it has been months since my last update. We have been so busy weaving through asteroid belts and giant rocks in the Milky Way and things were really going smoothly as we traveled in our own galaxy. The day came when we could see the Taxis warp hole. We made our last transmission to Earth proudly announcing that we had run into no problems and didn’t foresee any taking place once through the warp hole. The Commander told the Amalgam that as soon as we had landed on Taxis and begun terraforming the atmosphere a scout ship would be sent out to the warp hole to inform Earth of our current status and give a date for the take off of the civilian ships.

       None of us ever saw it coming. As soon as we exited the warp hole, we were right in the middle of an asteroid belt. The space rocks were so congested that shooting any of them would most likely have only caused a greater damage to the fleet as pieces of giant rock crashing into other giant rocks would have made maneuvering around them nearly impossible.

       I sat anxiously at my gunner station awaiting orders to blast any of the rocks in front of me to ensure a safe journey for my crew mates, and more importantly, my family. But no such order came and I was forced to sit there and pray that our captain could safely guide us through this labyrinth. Praise the lord; we made it through without a scratch.

       Six of our ships were not so lucky. I haven’t slept for about a week, and every time I dose off, the sounds of my colleague’s screams echo throughout my nightmares. The fleet had an open communication system so that all ships could rely information and ship status. Unfortunately, it also brought to our ears the panicked voices of people that had realized that their lives were about to come to an end only days from reaching their goal. Then came the screams paired with the shrieking sounds of metal twisting and of oxygen being sucked out of ships.

       Hearing this one time was enough to cause some of my crew mates to vomit. Now imagine the state of our crew after hearing this 6 times.

       That’s all I can speak on right now, we are all physically and emotionally drained right now, and our captain has given us the day to spend with our families.  I fear that this voyage may be cursed and I’ve doomed my loving wife and young boys. I need their strength now more than ever.

       -S

February 8^th, 5617

       Today’s entry is thankfully one of joy rather than tragedy. After three whole months of endless work, the scientists have finished their work on the atmosphere. We can finally land on the planet and begin creating the necessary fauna and begin to create buildings and start our new life. Its hard to be ecstatic given all the lives sacrificed in order for us to live out our dreams. Even though, its still exhilarating to think about first setting foot on this new home and begin to go to work. I will work tirelessly to make sure that those people who died will not have done so in vain.

              I must leave now as the Commander has prepared a speech for all of us who have withstood this voyage. He is a great man and an even better leader. I cannot wait to be inspired by his words.

       -S

January 3^rd, 5618

       It’s been almost a year since we started to go to work on making Taxis our new home. It only took a few months to realize that the projected numbers we had established before we left were way off. We were able to create two major cities, one near each of the two major bodies of water. They are about 250 miles or so apart so traveling between the two hasn’t happened too much. We have really grown into separate communities, which is sad considering all that we have been through but I understand it completely.

       To get back on point here, I have been chosen to go along in a fleet consisting of 10 of our remaining 16 ships to go back to Earth and get the supplies that our scout ship had requested about 5 months ago. We had a stockpile of supplies back in what used to be the United States. Some of my crewmates have brought their families with them on this trip so that they can see Mother Earth one last time.

       I chose not to bring my family, as I could not bring myself to ask them to brave the same dangers that they were forced to on the way here. Besides, I’ll be gone for 3 years at the most and while everyday away from them will kill me inside, I had to do what was best for them.

       We take off tomorrow and I must admit that I lack any of the enthusiasm I had on our first voyage. I know what is at stake however and I will do my job to the best of my ability. The Genesis has been left in the flotilla with the 5 other remaining ships that float just outside the atmosphere to make more room for our construction on the surface. This has led to the Eden being the flagship of this voyage and Captain McNulton has stepped down unto second in command to allow the Commander to captain the ship.

       I cannot complain about being forced to go back home when the man who has inspired and led us all, a man who has more than earned the right to stay behind and oversee construction on Taxis, has volunteered to lead us back. I will undoubtedly be looking to him for strength and endurance during this difficult voyage and I know that he will be steadfast in his efforts to console and motivate us all.

      

I must go now and spend my last waking hours with my beautiful wife and pray that my God and my captain will deliver me safely to her arms again.

-S

January 8^th, 5618

As a religious of a man that I am, I truly believe that God never wanted us to come to this forsaken place. Three of our ships were destroyed in the same asteroid belt that had already claimed six of our ships before.

Of course, we thought we would be more than ready for the rocks this time, but they were drastically closer to Taxis then they were before. It was as if they were eerily edging their way towards our planet. Luckily, we again defied death and made our way towards the warp hole.

The Commander chose to keep the Eden in the back of the fleet in order to make sure that the other ships made it through without problems. The first 5 got through just fine. It was when the U.S.F. Kremlin went through that the worst event in a long line of terrible events in this dreadful journey took place.

The warp hole suddenly closed with only the front half of the Kremlin inside of it. The scene was devastating. People were falling out of the front of the ship, already dead the very second that the front of the ship disappeared before our very eyes.

The commander ordered an immediate return to Taxis, saying that we are now going to be forced to make due with the unfinished project of Taxis with no way of being able to contact Earth again.

McNulton made an attempt to contact the Genesis to let them know of the terrifying early conclusion of our voyage. But there was no response.

It was then that we saw why. The asteroid belt had turned into an asteroid shower. As earlier mentioned, the rocks seemed to be heading towards Taxis, and eventually the gravitational pull brought some of the smaller rocks down on the planet, taking with it all the remaining ships in the flotilla. Fortunately for the citizens on the ground, the majority of rocks and remaining ship parts landed in the desolate part of the planet. We could see it all from out ship. Little did we know that this ship, this death trap, would be the next victim of the shower.

A small rock plummeted into our engine system just as we were about to enter the atmosphere. Our brave commander chose to stay with the ship. He forced McNulton and a few others into the remaining escape pods that weren’t affected by the crash. I chose to stay with the ship. Not out of bravery or bravado, but because I simply do not wish to continue living. I have seen nearly everyone I know and have worked with for many years die. I chose instead to write about our final moments so that way someone can find this someday and realize what we went through to create this life for the future generations.

All my thoughts now focus on my family. I will leave this computer station now and stand in the main deck next to my commander and do my best to help make sure we don’t crash into either of our cities.

Whoever finds this; give it to my wife and children so they can know how much I loved them. I want them to know I will be holding a picture of them as we free fall to our demise.

May Taxis prosper, and may God have mercy on our souls as we head towards his pearly gates.

1st Short Story

Okay, here is my first attempt at a short story, which is actually part one in a small series of stories that will tell the tale of one man's desperate search for answers. I know that this starts off rather slowly, but keep in mind that i'm attempting to introduce characters. I feel like it gets a little better towards the end. I tried to cut out parts I thought to be boring or over detailed. I assure you that part two of this story gets really intense and will be much more exciting.

   Also I have received my 1st story attempt and the person who made the suggestion is actually gonna join up with me and attempt to help with the writing process, I strongly encourage anyone else who thinks they have a good idea to do the same.
  

  Alright her it goes, hopefully it doesn't suck, but if you think it does feel free to let me know.


Thanks for reading,

Kevin

Project Post 1: Introduction

Hello to everyone reading this!

  My name is Kevin Massing and if you know me at all then you know that I am an aspiring Writer/Director and in an attempt to make myself a better writer while still in school,  I am creating this blog to challenge myself to write every day.

  In order to ensure that I keep up with this goal I will post at least a short story or scene a day on this blog and my facebook page. I am inviting family, close, trusted friends, and anyone who may randomly stumble across this blog to post comments, and please be honest with me and tell me what you really think of my work.
  
    I am also encouraging anyone who is interested to post a comment with an idea for a short story to write, it can be anything, give any setting, characters, time period, etc. Any topic is fine I welcome all challengers. You can be give me as many or as few details about your desired story as you like, but I warn you that if you are very vague with your description, do not be upset if I take some liberties with unspecified details.

 I will also eventually post links to some of my larger writing ideas for anyone interested.

My first story will be posted sometime within the next 24 hours, and i will attempt to do it for 365 days, it may not be possible to do continuously, but I think I'll be able to handle it.

Wish Me Luck....

KeM