Always looking forward.
[A short story written in 15 minutes and based on a collection of four random prompts: From a great height, “It’s a boy!,"Grace the born-again Christian, 'Jack “White Baby” Lindenburg, head of the [insert] guild'. Enjoy!]
[The prompts were "handful of bright red berries", "Martian vix championships", "identity" and "there's a storm coming..."For reference, "vix" is a twist on the original rules of table tennis, invented by me and my housemate!]
Of all things futuristic and infeasible, spaceships steal the hearts of sci-fi lovers more than just about anything else. From the stalwart flagbearers like the Millennium Falcon and the Mothership to fighter craft and faster-than-light travel, spaceships—along with their Captains, crews, and missions—have always enraptured fans.
The liberty to set a story anywhere, in any time period, and in any of our infinite realities gives sci-fi an uncanny power to reshape, or at least cause us to re-examine, our perception of the world. These brilliant authors can take the bare bones of a story, flesh it out with compelling characters and unique settings, and weave a plot whose pattern delights readers; but then go further.
OMNI magazine aimed to provide content on "all realms of science and the paranormal." The platform on which OMNI was built went beyond any regular sci-fi magazine, including an examination of the stunning—yet sometimes bizarre—artwork which permeated its publications.
Earth is a beautiful place. Rolling dirt-tracks through forests fill us with wonder; a fresh fall of snow brings out the pearly whites of our smiles and anyone who has ever climbed a mountain to gaze upon the sprawling, living lands below knows the uplifting gratification of that sight. Earth is also more deadly than we can fathom: natural disasters like tsunamis and earthquakes are unavoidable, unforgivable, and will always decimate populations without care or notice, but many troubles we cause for ourselves. We’ve created ghost-towns, cost the lives of millions, and been ravaged by the tumultuous venom of Mother Nature. The hubris of war has rendered many places on Earth unfit for humans, from Bikini Atoll destroyed by nuclear testing, to the Anthrax-riddled Soviet island of Vozrozhdeniya. But it doesn't take Cold War weapons research to render a place completely barren. Sometimes industries can wreak havoc just as permanent as war.