Just give that last Macabre Macaroni to the dog

I had one story left. It didn’t seem to completely fit the Halloween idea.

I felt inspired by NASA’s abandoned space gun project, and the new Navy rail gun.

Message in a Bottle

“Commander Allen, this is Houston. We’re going to need you to switch to a secure network before describing that debris.”

“Roger, Houston. Switching now…Houston, Commander Allen here. How are you reading me?”

“Loud and clear, Commander. Now what did you say it was made of?”

“Houston, it appears to be made from some kind of brass, or bronze. It’s about the size and shape of a watermelon with Fins, it has an antenna out the aft end.”

“Is it still transmitting?”

“Affirmative, Houston. Just a single ping about every ten minutes or so, like someone wanted us to find it. There’s a door in the side and I’m going to open it.”

“Make sure you can jettison it if something goes wrong.”

“Roger that, Houston. I’m still in the cargo bay and the doors are open. I’m turning the screws loose right now.”

“Try to get us a visual, Commander. We suspect it might be Korean. We want pictures in case you have to deep six it.”

“Suit cameras coming on now. It appears to be a piece of paper inside- No wait, it’s a big leaf, but it’s not like any leaf I’ve ever seen before. Kind of like leather.”

“Roger that. What are those marks on it?”

“It says, Hamburg, 1943.

“We listened to the Allied bombers every day and night, praying they would get closer. We needed cover to fire the space mortar and the bombings were as good as we were going to get.

“We’d been hunted by the Nazis for over five years. Getting caught meant certain death. Leaving was nearly certain death. We elected to take the small chance we had left and risked our very lives on a narrow escape. We didn’t know what we would find and doubted our supplies would last.

“We are alive and well at the time of this message. This tiny vessel is made from the last working parts of our ship. We are marooned, but happily so. The soil here is good for farming and we have domesticated some of the local fauna.

“There is life among the stars, if you know where to look. Come in peace or don’t come at all. Signed Ernst Cohen.”

The Idea Mill # 5

For newer readers, I save articles I find in a folder. These are articles that make me scratch my head and think about the fiction I write. When I have enough, I post another idea mill article. Let’s all speculate, shall we.

The first one is based on the eyesight of the mantis shrimp. This is a beautiful, but strange ocean creature with no real value to humans, beyond the esthetic. This story shows why the world’s odd creatures should be protected, and what might be lost when a species goes extinct.

It seems the mantis shrimp sees the world a bit differently than humans. It has to do with the way his eyes interpret polarizing light. Using this special skill, the mantis shrimp is capable of seeing human cancers. Cool, but how useful is that?

Scientists have built a camera that replicates shrimp vision. Rather than create another $10,000 procedure for insurance to pay, they seem to think it can become a smart phone app. This restores my faith in humanity, to a degree. Part of the article said shrimpie sees neurons. Since I’m a speculative fiction writer, this trips my trigger.

What about an app that goes down the police state path. Check someone out with your camera, and know whether they are a child abuser, rapist, or terrorist. Can you imagine picking your girl up for a date, and having to pass muster for her father under these circumstances? What if dating became more like qualifying for a loan. “Sorry bud, you have a predisposition for osteoporosis. I can’t inflict that on my future children.”

Read about the mantis shrimp here.

Our next story is something that could add some spice to a science fiction story. In fact, I may redesign this and include it in my current manuscript. Someone has designed, and built, a tiny camera drone. This one can snap around your wrist, like a bracelet. Read the article here, then we’ll speculate.

The design seems to indicate availability to the general public. What might happen if a pervert gets one of these? What if they start clusters of these on a pattern through our malls, schools, and airports? Maybe your amateur girl detective needs one of these to get herself into trouble. Could these cruise our workplaces and watch over our shoulders at every move we make? Maybe your bad guys want these locked in a safety deposit box, only to deploy after closing time. What would you write about these?

Next, it seems the U.S. Navy has built, and is about to deploy, a rail gun. This gun fires a projectile at seven times the speed of sound using an electro magnetic pulse. It has a considerable range and appears to be capable of pinpoint accuracy. This will allow replacement of million dollar missiles with $25,000 projectiles. Good news or bad news depends upon which end of the gun you happen to be on. Read the article here.

I recall a failed attempt to build a space gun. I may have posted this article in a previous Idea Mill. The U.S. tried for years to build a gun capable of launching items into orbit. The original is scrapped and rusting somewhere. The rail gun might see this become reality. What if we could launch a satellite for $25,000? Even a relatively small business could have a satellite in space. Could this mark the end of the cellular network? Would we all get satellite phones? What would this do to the Internet?

What if organized crime had its own satellite network? Would there be multiple internets forcing us to subscribe to several, like cable TV?

I have one of my Macabre Macaroni stories coming soon that references a space gun, only mine is a mortar.

The last one today is about Ebola. This one includes charts to show just how fast this disease spreads. Read about it here.

Ebola could become the Black Death of our era. Others have written about this, but if you write about a zombie virus or any kind of dystopian settings, you really ought to be watching this unfold. How is the world reacting and responding? Is anyone making money here? Does anyone want it to spread? Are the terrorists watching? Are we watching celebrities as the world crumbles?

PS: I changed my background early. I’m off to Coeur d’Alene for a week, and wanted access to my Mac for this.

Speculate with me people, what would you write?