A New Start: This was a writing competition entry back in 2017. The competition was sponsored by X-prize and ANA (All Nippon Airways). The premise is you are on ANA Flight 8 from Tokyo to San Francisco and your plane flies through a wormhole that sends you 20 years into the future. Yup 2037.

“Whoa” I said when we hit the last of the turbulence. The lightning was terrible, the entire cabin was lit up and people were yelling. The last thirty minutes was pretty bad, enough to shake the nerves. Luckily, things were calming down.

I looked around the business class area and noticed the others were settling back in as well. Seasoned travelers we are. A few tightening of the seat belts but for the most part crew and passengers were getting back to our normal routine.

The further we continued pass the storm the brighter things got. The sun was trying to fight through the clouds to show a beautiful dawn sky ahead of us. The wave tops below sparkled like tiny diamonds in a sea of golden azure. It was a calm view to see after the last 30 minutes. The last hour would prove to be very relaxing and then San Francisco...........................

At War with Ourselves: Written back in 2016, right after the elections in the US.

John sighed, That’s done, I am home now. He opened the door and was about to call out to his wife and son, when two men grabbed him. They pulled him through the doorway and slammed him against the wall.

“Traitor!” One of the assailants yelled into his face as he knocked the wind out of John.

The other assailant smashed his elbow into John’s jaw. John heard a loud popping sound and wondered if his jaw was broken. A salty taste flooded his mouth.

Not able to think about that taste too much because in came another punch to his stomach and an elbow to the shoulder. Driving him down to the floor. In the background, he heard his wife and son screaming and another person yelling at them............................

Detection Lost: With the innovation that allows us to detect gravitational waves, new things will be discovered. Maybe

2052 AD The mission control room was silent. Everyone was watching the main monitors, as the last of the Cosmic Interferometer Gravitational Directional Array (CIGDA)nodes was to report taking its position. This node was the furthest out, at 80 million km. The other eleven nodes had already reached their position. The last a few hours before this node.

The feed the controllers were watching was almost five minutes in the past due to the distance light had to travel. Government and civilian officials were on hand besides the mission control room team. These worthies were up in the visitor’s box. Out of the way of those that actually worked but near enough to see when the last node linked up.

Doctor Tanya Hirano was extremely nervous, staring intently at Jay Garrett’s back. He was the Director of Node Communications, responsible for ensuring the direction finding system actually worked. From a technical perspective. Doctor Hirano was the brains behind the use of gravitational waves to detect space object movement...........................

Time to Come Home: What if we meet a race millions of years more advanced than us?

“Mr. President, we have General Finder on the line.”

“Thank you Colonel. General Finder, it is time, we are going to Defcon 1. We need to launch immediately.” Said President Crue.

Gasps around the command center, as most of the operators stopped talking.

Colonel Mendez was ashen white. “Mr. President, what are you doing? There is no immenient threat.”.......................

Navajo Dreams: I was asked to write a story about the Navajo in 2015. So I did some research and, of course, took some liberty with the actual story.

Zalani was happy that she and Jay were finally at Monument Valley. She always liked the Navajo culture and now she was getting to visit. Her boyfriend, Jay, had just had a book published and their reward was to go on an educational, romantic get-away.

Zalani was a singer and met Jay through a friend. They hit it off great and took an interest in each others work. Him a writer and her a musical artist. They thought this would give them some time alone but also a chance to share new songs and stories together. It was their dream to collaborate and create music or stories. This was to be the beginning of that journey together.

Their tour guide, Susan Nez, knew Zalani when they were in Orlando together. There, Susan got Zalani interested in Navajo culture and made it her dream to come visit.

“Zal, I have arranged for you and Jay to view a sand painting ‘sing’ or ceremony, tonight. This is a great honor because normally non-Navajo people are not allowed. This is part of the Night Chant ceremony or Tseh’nn-jih Hatal’. Tomorrow is the main and final ceremony but we will go watch tonight too.” Said Susan.....................

For Me?: Created in 2015. An attempt at something sweet but maybe too juvenile???

Tanya, a beautiful white swan, swam casually on the calm lake. Not always in the company of the other swans, Tanya liked to go her own way. She loved to go to the burbling pond on the other side of the lake because it was peaceful and many animals came there to drink. She loved to watch the other animals, wondering what their life was like.

Gliding effortlessly into the burbling pond, Tanya saw a duck, fish diving in the pond. Smiling and curious she moved towards the duck.

“Hello, friend duck, you are wasting your time, there are no fish here.” Merrily she said.....................

Daddy, where do you work?: Created in 2015. I was building my WormHole Universe idea and thought I would start writing some shorts for it.

“Daddy, where do you work?”

“Far, far away honey.” Jim said as he sat on the edge of Cindy’s bed. He was tucking her in while Sasha waited for her turn.

Sasha said, “Is that were the giant spiders live?” slightly scared. Sasha didn’t really care for some of the aliens that the Empire was friends with. Then again, she was not happy with the little normal spiders either. Even miles underground hundreds of light years from Earth, those little guys found a way to make their presence known.

Looking at Sasha, “Sweetie, they are Murans and they are our friends.”

“I don’t care, they are yucky.”.....................

Man Cometh: Created in 2015. I was building my WormHole Universe idea and thought I would start writing some shorts for it.

The Gutar were quiet this evening, thought Womaka, looking at holy Suza and her smaller sister Zasu. They were in their cycle of Kota which means they were closest to the radiant ones abode. Usually when that happened, the radiant ones would come forth and visit the Mado, Womaka’s people.

Womaka was chief among the warriors of the Mado and had won many Tsuga challenges against the Tonda, Meipu and Rosu peoples. He was very crafty and strong but he knew he was no match for the radiant ones. When they come, even mighty Womaka will make Koza to them.

Windaka strode up to Womaka and bowed his two heads to the greater warrior. The talking head lower than the seeing head, as was custom for another Tsuga champion to greet a greater Tsuga champion. “The radiant ones will come soon.”.....................

The Truth Behind the Memories: Created in 2014. Part of the WormHole Universe idea, Jana will probably have a novel or three about her someday in the future based on this and "First Contact."

The Dream

Jana woke up in a sweat. Luckily, she lived alone because she would probably have scared the hell out of her partner, with her yell. “Lights” she said to the house computer “Harvey”.

“Are you okay Jana?” Havey asked her. She liked this newer version of the house computer. They built in more empathy and emotions. Not crazy ones, but enough that it gave comfort when she really felt alone. She was not really into the “master” or “ma’am” naming. Too cold.

Like now. “Yes, Harvey, Thank you. Could I get a coffee and toast, please.” Looking at the clock, it was 5am standard Universal. All planets in the Empire sync up to standard Universal, like the old earth Greenwich Mean Time. Even the Union of Eta Leporis used it.

“Would you like an egg with that?” it asked. As Harvey turned on a soft instrumental mode music. Of course, he was monitoring her vitals and knew what she liked when this condition hit her.....................

First Contact: Created in 2014. Part of the WormHole Universe idea. Sorry, I could not paste (due to length) into my blog then, so I had to save it into a PDF file. This is a story about Jana on duty with the Explorer's Guild.

Jana woke with a start, the high pitched beeping from the console told her that the scan was complete. Stretching, she rose from her chair and walked over to the "tub," as the Panoramic Virtual Display Suite was called.

A fairly new invention over the last twenty years. It allowed the ship's sensors to scan a system and then provide a holographic representation of the system that allowed humans to "play" with the images. The Galaxy class explorer "Fiery Sun" was 63.7 light years away and entering the system called, Gliese 710.

Jana paused for a second to smile at the thought, if they just wait another million and a half years they could get to this system in a few months. Gliese 710 was moving in the direction of Sol and would be under a light year away, at its closest point; for several thousands of years.

Not that it mattered, since the worm holes or just Rings, as most people called them, could make travel to this system instantaneous. If there was anything worth plopping a Ring on. Of course, all systems get the space ring to allow ship travel but there could be other rings dropped off to allow people to travel there. Usually that only occurs when there is something interesting.....................