A funny science fiction story by David Tombale: Interruption

Interruption

Sam had decided that he was never leaving the house again, and the robot butler had fully agreed with him. Not that it had a lot of choice, but Sam wouldn’t let a little thing like a lack of free will deprive it of an opinion. That only made the pounding at his door that much more annoying.

‘What?!’ he yelled yanking the door open.

Standing there with his hand still poised to knock again was the landlord. He lowered his hand, his face flushing red with embarrassment before he drew himself up, ‘Mr. Weiss I do not allow robots in my building, not that I know why someone like you needs one.’

‘Someone like me?’ Sam quirked an eyebrow.

‘You know someone who clearly just sits on his butt all day. You probably get all your money from your parents or the government. Look at you still in your boxers.’

Sam quite openly reached under his white vest and scratched his stomach. ‘You’re boring me here Mr. Samuels, and there’s nothing in the lease that mentions robots.’

‘Forget the lease. I make the rules here you little punk,’ he shot back.

‘Goodbye Mr. Samuels,” Sam said slamming the door in the landlord’s face.

He was just sitting down in front of his computer, when the door startled rattling again under someone’s knuckles.

‘Unbelievable,’ he muttered under his breath.

He opened the door again, and this time found himself looking down the barrel of a sawed off shotgun. He raised his head and met a crazy pair of eyes; they were red with huge pupils like they couldn’t get enough light but the hallway outside was well lit.

‘Where… is.. it?’ the face behind those eyes stuttered.

‘Where..is..what?’

‘The merch….the drugs….the rock.’

Sam ran a hand through his hair and yawned, ‘Oh, you want the apartment down the hall, 305.’

The man holding the gun looked confused for a second, then nodded his head, ‘Th..anks.’

‘No problem,’ Sam said closing the door again.

He returned to his chair, and began loading a single player war game, when his door started vibrating again. He turned to look at it, then at his computer screen then back at the door before sighing and getting to his feet.

‘What?’ he asked, opening the door.

A middle aged man with a salt and pepper beard and wearing a blue suit waited outside. ‘Hey Sam get dressed we got a case. Apparently there’s some junkie running around offing dealers for their drugs.’

‘Really?’

‘Yeah, the boss wants us on it,’ the man answered trying to peek past Sam into his dark apartment.

‘Give me a second, I’ll be right out,’ Sam told him before closing the door. ‘Giles get my clothes out,’ he called out to his butler.

A science fiction short story about genetic manipulation by David Tombale: Unnatural selection

Unnatural Selection

Victor could see the streetlights from his window, their yellow glow picking out a white cat that ran out between two houses and quickly out of sight. He rolled over until his feet hit his carpeted floor and he could pull out the back pack he’d hidden under his bed. Grabbing his favorite blue sneakers from the wardrobe he put them on as silently as he could.

With bag in tow, he snuck out of his room into the hallway outside, listening carefully for any sounds. The house was quiet. Charles’ door was the second on the right and as he passed it Victor paused. Some nameless urge forced his hand to turn the knob. He opened the door as quietly as he could and looked in on his younger brother. He could hear him breathing softly in his sleep with a blanket laid over his head. Charles was his younger brother and had been perfect since the day he was born, as perfect as modern genetics could make a child. He stood at six foot two with a chiseled jaw and a three digit IQ. All of which explained why he’d become the star of the track team and student body president while his older brother’s successes on the chess team had barely drawn their parents’ attention.

Victor couldn’t even blame them for calling the Proctors to take away a failure like him. After all he could only manage to get in the way of their perfect son. Victor closed his brother’s door as quietly as he could and turned around. When he was in the living room, he grabbed a framed picture off the mantel and put it in his bag. It was the only thing he was taking with him aside from a change of clothes and some money he’d saved up from working a job at the mall. Grinding his teeth together, he slowly punched in the alarm code, each beep shaving off a year off his life and when it finally flashed from red to green Victor opened the front door and walked out. He picked Charles’ red mountain bike off the lawn. Standing by the house’s chain link fence he paused and took one last look at the house he’d grown up in. He turned his back on it and opened the gate wheeling the bike out into the street.

The roads were usually deserted around midnight so there was no one around to see the sixteen year old ride his bike all the way to Mountain View High School where the others were waiting. Victor saw Laurie’s eyes nearly bulge with terror behind the silver frames of her glasses when he rode up. She visibly relaxed when she recognized him and standing next to her was Chase, his freckles invisible in the darkness but Victor knew they were there. The last one was Roger who shared the same red hair as Laurie, which made sense since they were brother and sister and who probably had an inhaler somewhere in his clothes and that was the entire crew. Each one of them had a reason to be despised by their families and each one of them was in danger of being erased from existence by the all powerful Black Proctors.

The others had brought their own bikes and carried a bag with them.

“Is it time to go?” Victor asked.

“Yeah. The people from the shelter said they’d pick us up in the next town,” Chase said.

“Laurie, you okay?” Victor asked noting the way she was hugging herself.

“Are we really going to do this?” she asked.

“Well me and Victor are but if you two want to wait for the Proctors to come get you that’s fine by me,” Chase said.

“No way, we’re going,” Roger said looking at Laurie.

Laurie wouldn’t meet his eyes letting her hair fall in front of her face. Laurie had never been able to say no to her brother so Victor wasn’t surprised when she eventually nodded her head and got on her bike. Chase took off first and one by one they joined him. They had no idea where they’d end up but Victor knew, they all knew that they could never go home again.

A short story about love and future space travel David Tombale: To the moon

To the moon

The sun was just coming over the horizon when Alice reached for Tyson’s hand. He gave her fingers a little squeeze. He imagined for a second that he could feel the shift as the train connected to the stellar bridge.

That was impossible of course; these trains were designed so well that the transfer was often seamless.  It was one of the few pleasures this trip would offer him. Alice nervously ran a hand through her fiery auburn hair as she tried to be brave for the both of them.

“It’s okay you know,” Tyson said.

“Nothing about this is okay,” she shot back.

Tyson couldn’t help smiling at how concerned his woman was about him. It meant even more to him that she let him see it.

The other passengers snuck glances in their direction, amazed at the sight of a tall tattooed tough guy sitting across from such a petite woman. He couldn’t blame them, with his Mohawk and the large spider tattoo on his neck he looked exactly like the gangster he was. Despite the censure in their eyes the only person who mattered was staring at him sadly, a universe’s worth of love in her beautiful blue eyes.

“This train will be coming into the station in exactly 15 minutes,” a female voice announced over the speakers.

“That was fast,” Tyson joked.

“How can you be so calm about this?” Alice asked him.

Tyson tried to reach out his hands but the chain securing his handcuffs to the table stopped him short. Alice stood up in her seat so that she could close the space between them. Tyson caressed her face with the back of his fingers and smiled when she closed her eyes and leaned into his touch.

“I’m calm because I have you with me,” he told her.

There was a slight shudder as the high speed train slowed down then came to a complete stop.

“We have now arrived at the Lunar Settlement. Passengers may begin disembarking. Thank you,” the voice over the speakers informed them.

“That’s our cue,” Tyson said.

Alice reached into her jacket and pulled out a titanium chip. She ducked under the table and inserted it in a lock at Tyson’s feet. There was a soft click and when the small light on the side of the lock turned green the chain fell from the handcuffs.

Alice stood up and reached for one of Tyson’s arms. She gently pulled him forward as he hobbled weighed down by the other set of cuffs around his ankles.

“Do you think they’ll make me wait before they execute me,” Tyson asked with a smile in his voice.

“No,” Marshall Alice Locke said, the first of many tears beginning to fall, “no I’m sure they’ll do it right away.”

She could see the Lunar State Prison officers waiting on the platform in their purple uniforms. She tried to draw strength from Tyson’s peaceful aura but all she could feel was panic and an overwhelming fear that was squeezing at her heart.