Author: markswritingcorner

Mark Ahern was born in 1979 and is from Ireland. He attained a Degree in Commerce from UCD in 2000 and a Masters in European Studies in 2001. He has written three novels to date encompassing science fiction and thrillers. At times Mark has used his experiences as an individual with a disability to write from a truly unique perspective. "Chronicles of Martan" which is his sole science fiction work to date, is an epic space odyssey inspired by his love of Star Wars. This was followed by "Not the Usual Suspect" and "Paradigm". His current project is called "The Irish Ripper" and should be available late 2019.

Pegasus Part 40

Eventually, someone pointed at me and told me that I should go clean myself up. That there was water down a narrow ravine. They were correct, if I was going to comfort people I needed to look the part and not remind them of the horror.

So I made my way down. It was steep and at times I had to resort to climbing down. There was a time not so long ago when this would have made me fearful but no longer. I had been through too much.

After a few minutes, I finally made it down to what was a large pond with a sand embankment. I went to get in but then froze in fear remembering a program about Earth and its crocodiles. If I remember correctly, it stated that some of its species had been around since the dinosaurs. They could be in this pond.

I scanned my eyes over the water but there was no movement. A wall of rock lay on the other side. Slowly, I took steps towards the water before taking off my top, and then trousers and dipped them into it. Slowly the blood came out. Then I splashed some on my face. It felt nice to the skin and had no foul odor. Feeling parched, I knew I needed to drink. Fortunately, I had figured out that it wasn’t stagnant water. It was dripping into the pond in a mini waterfall through a crack on the opposite wall and draining slowly away somewhere underneath. It was never going to be perfect, I just had to risk it. I lurched forward on his hands and knees and sipped voraciously.

Wheelchair Wars Part 3 (7)

It only takes the Robocarer a few minutes to get Timothy up, much faster than his father ever could. Of course, it is devoid of any love or banter. It is method, mechanical in doing what is required before it places him in his battle chair.

It gives him time to think about his drunken conversation. Something about it fills him with foreboding. The General will do the will of the Emperor no matter the cost.

Now sitting in his chair, he dreads what the future may hold.

He drives out of his room and it into the turbo life. It is a fluorescent white, as if valiantly trying to will hope itself into existence.

The door opens and Timothy enters the command centre. The first thing he notices is the stench from the commander. It is all pervasive. There a myriad of computers with flashing screens manned by people in white suits. In the centre is a translucent screen showing a blue and green planet. The odd large city on its surface was visible in places under its clouds.

“Good, you are here Timothy. I wanted you to see this. This planet Anubis 1034z is the next target of the Tyranid. A huge chunk of their armada will shortly arrive. As you can see it is lush and green, a hyper habitable planet with a large populations. For weeks, I have pondered how it could be successfully defended. Now, from our conversation I know that it cannot.”

No Timothy thought. This was not how he envisaged it being interpreted.

Galway Girls Part 16

As I made my way to the bed, I was happy that she hadn’t fallen asleep in the darkened room. I drove my wheelchair up parallel to the bed, pulled back the sheets, and using my hands and arms stood up. Suddenly, I felt nervous, realizing I had to pull down my pants in front of her but what the hell. Then I swiveled and fell back into the bed.

“God, I thought you were never going to get in here.”

For a few seconds, nothing happened.

“Guess it’s up to me,” she whispered.

Then she got on top of me and started to rub my firm chest with her soft hands. She opened her top and then her bra leaving her breasts dangling in front of me. Slowly, I move my hand up and touch them. They are soft and tender.

She is in total control. I feel strangely vulnerable, an unexpected feeling.

She begins to lick my nipples before sucking them, sending me into ecstasy. My pulls down her pants, and my heart races. Then I enter her. She grinds back and forth as I close my eyes. I feel her sweat drip onto me.

Then I climax and a few seconds later she falls off me. There is so much I want to say and yet nothing comes out.

Pegasus Part 39

The scene only became more horrific as we drew closer. Different body parts were strewn here and there. The smell of now rotting flesh agitated your sense of self in the heat. The survivors, who had never seen me before just looked blankly into space as if in a daze.

It must have been that monstrous creature that we had just managed to avoid earlier. Perhaps, we hadn’t. It had simply satiated its hunger already. The thought sent a chill down my bones. Maybe it would be back.

I looked over at my companions. Tears were rolling down their faces at the devastation. I was thankful that I hadn’t known these people like they had.

Looking around I knew that I had to do something but it was difficult to know where to start. I went from place to place. Some people just wanted someone to hug me even though I was covered in blood myself. For others, I helped salvage their possessions. Some were relatively fortunate in that their tents were still intact.

For many, there was simply nothing I could do. Their loved ones were slain and everything they had was destroyed. It was easy to tell them apart. They were on their knees and their eyes a raw red.

Wheelchair Wars Part 3 (6)

Timothy awoke in a bed many hours later, His head was aching and his stomach felt like convulsing at any moment. It was a small, sparse room enclosed by steel. His robocarer had been diligently waiting for him to wake.

“Do you want to rise, Sir?”

“No, just push me over in the bed onto my other side.”

Timothy almost lurched as he was gently moved. That was some great ale, he thought to himself. The general had not spared the good stuff and that was a good sign of respect.

He tried to close his eyes but it made him feel worse, like a motion sickness from feeling the ship traveling through the warp.

“Are we in the Warp? he asked his robotic company.

“Yes, the ship entered it shortly after your return,” came the reply.

Eventually, though he could no longer keep his eyelids open.

“Timothy, Timothy. You must rise. Your presence is being sought on the bridge,” the robot said in an almost manic repeating cycle.

Timothy realized that he had dozed off once again. Hours must have passed. At least, he was feeling much better save for a thirst.

“Yes, you are authorized to get me up.”

That was all that he had to say. The robot knew how to do the rest and quickly too.

Galway Girls Part 15

I knocked on the door of the hotel and waited. A few moments later the door opened.

The valet looked at me and then at her.

“Residents?”

Fuck, he’s not going to let her in. This can’t be happening.

“I am and she needs to help me get to bed.”

There was a moment of silence, well apart from the drunks shouting at each other in the distance.

“Otherwise, someone in the hotel will have to help me.”

That did the job.

“Come on in.”

As I went down to the lift I was relieved to feel her holding onto the back of the wheelchair. I quickly pressed the button in case the valet had a change of heart.

Once safely inside the lift, we both started to laugh.

“So, I’m your carer now, am I?”

“I think assistant is the more pc term for it these days. It was quick thinking though, wasn’t it?”

“It sure was, not just a pretty face.”

The lift opened and we continued down the narrow corridor to my room. A quick turn of the keys and we were in.

Now came the challenging part, transfer onto the toilet, then back on the wheelchair, and then into the bed. All the time hoping she didn’t fall asleep waiting.

Pegasus Part 38

As we rounded the corner of the hill, we heard a loud explosive roar. It was unlike anything I had heard before visceral, primal. It stopped us dead in our tracks. Then the acrid smell hit us.

“Don’t move,” Tabitha whispered, “if we stay perfectly still, it won’t register that we’re here.”

Then the monster appeared. It was huge, with large teeth, and relatively small front claws covered in large feathers.

I don’t think that I could have moved even if I wanted to, I was frozen with fear and a sickly feeling life was coming to an end.

It slowly moved its head to the left and then to the right. Fortunately, it didn’t sense our presence.

“Come on, get moving,” Tabitha demanded, “it’s gone now. We were very lucky that we were upwind or it would have smelled us.”

Grudgingly, I put one foot after another and began to move wondering how I ended up in this crazy situation knowing I had nobody to blame but myself.

Trudging up and down hillsides, sometimes traversing small streams. It was arduous. My feet were sore from walking around my hands were getting cut.

It took another hour to reach the campsite. and it was Tabitha who saw it first.

“No,” she roared out.

It lay in a valley between three peaks and most of it lay in ruins. The tents that provided shelter lay scattered around. Many were tainted an ominous red.

Wheelchair Wars Part 3 (5)

It entranced him. The sheer scale of the human empire and all the different career opportunities in the army. So, he joined the Imperial Fleet and longed for war. At first, he thought that it would never happen, that all the battles were happening on the far edges of the Empire.

“But Trachtus five changed everything for me Timothy. Did you hear what happened there?”

“No, I didn’t,” Timothy replied, listening intently.

“A hole opened in the warp just outside the planet. The voices of chaos swayed the people and the 41st quadrant army against the Emperor. They were quickly reinforced by chaos marines. Such an abomination could not be allowed to stand.

We were sent to take back the planet. It was a very bloody experience, the resistance was fierce and durable. I lost so many good friends. I didn’t really understand war till then. Ninety percent of the population were against us.

As you will appreciate they all had to die. It was not something I had ever envisioned, killing women and children. other soldiers didn’t bother me. But it was the Emperor’s will.

I never hoped for war again because now I truly understood what it meant.”

Timothy noted the ominous tone in his voice.

Galway Girls Part 14

It’s true, I had. A drunken tendency to tell my friends I loved them. And I did. But things change. I had a woman and my reptilian brain was telling me to lose the friends and fast.

“Oh, you don’t want us now. Forgotten about for some woman,”

It was Sean and he loved it, grinning with a wide smile across his face.

“Are you even going to introduce us?”

Fuck no, I thought to myself.

But then I realized I needed help getting down the step.

She took the initiative.

“It’s Leslie.”

Remember Leslie, Leslie is her name.

“Sean.”

“Ronan.”

And with that, they shook hands.

“And what am I to do with Ronan,” Sean asked as he helped me down the step.

“He’ll be grand. Shur, he can stay on the boat.”

That’s right, Sean had a boat and would occasionally stay the night.

“Oh, thanks. The two of us in a little boat.”

With that, we went in different directions. Myself and Leslie going in one direction and them in the other.

“Nice friends.”

“Yeah.”

“No really, I can see they really care about you.”

She must still be drunk.

It took us only a few minutes to reach the hotel. It was starting to feel cold.

Pegasus Part 37

Tahir led us up a steep mountainous slope. Higher and higher we went. I looked down and wondered if I was in more danger of falling to my death or from one of those creatures munching on me.

As we carefully placed one foot in front of the other, the conversation restarted though I was minded to just concentrate on my footing.

“So, how did the dinosaurs get through? What happened to the sonar defense? Tabitha asked.

“One words – Pterodactyls. They were released into the habitat only recently. The sonar defense affected them in flight so we had to switch it off. It would be too obvious that we were here. They are the worst, a terrible menace. That’s why I have one eye on the atmosphere above us. Fortunately, their numbers are still small but that will change with time.”

Fuck. That was the last thing I wanted to hear. Now, I couldn’t decide whether to look up or down.

“That’s not good news, what are the plans now?”

“They haven’t decided yet. It will be so hard to find somewhere like this again, if not outright impossible. These are dark days for the movement.”

The talking stopped.

It soon became clear why they were so downbeat.