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.

Reality (comedy)

Thud, thud, thud.

Mr. B, my anonymized brother (blog fully GDPR compliant) enters the room while I am watching tv.

“You still awake?”

“Why yes, Mr. B I am fully awake.”

“What shite are you watching now?”

“I am watching a physics documentary about the tiniest of particles that could form the basis of reality.”

“Why do you care? Ya don’t live in reality anyway.”

Well Mr. B never ceases to amaze and he always starts such interesting conversations. Mr. B really is a closet genius.

“Very good point Mr. B I think you are alluding to the fact that as two independent observers we might not share the same reality. Or maybe you are alluding to the fact that there is a multiverse and I am both watching and not watching the tv.”

Mammy enters the room

“Tell Mark to stop bullshitting.”

“Stop Mark, leave Mr. B alone.”

“I love it. Is this like the triple slit experiment?”

They exit the room.

All so very fascinating.

Later that day, I am talking to the auld fella.

He asks, “Do you believe in the afterlife?”

“Well interesting question. If there is a multiverse, there is an innumerable number of yous and countless versions where you are still alive.”

“But what about the me in this life?”

“Oh no chance, you’ll rot.”

Well, he didn’t seem to be overly upbeat about this.

Guess you just can’t please everybody.

The Dirty Pants Dilemma (Comedy)

Something shocking happened recently. The auld people went on a foreign trip recently leaving me and two brothers behind. To maintain anonymity, we will call one of my brothers Mr. B and the other Mr. T. Suddenly, we had to do some “adulting”. Like we’re only in our thirties and okay, maybe fortyish.

“Children are not just for Christmas,” we said. “Why can’t we come?”

The only response was some funny looks and something about us being old now. Old!? Imagine that.

They didn’t even warn us not to have parties. It’s like they knew we’d have nobody to ask to come.

All seemed to be going okay till Mr. B realized he had run out of clean underpants. Then Mr. T washed his clothes only. Mr. B flummoxed by the washing machine wanted a written guarantee that Mr. T wouldn’t mess up his clothes. This was a step too far for Mr. T.

So, there was a stand-off and the wearing of some dirty pants.

Fortunately, they were only gone for a few days so we thought it best not to ring Childline and report them for child neglect.

Apparently, they had a great time. They weren’t worried about us at all. We didn’t have the heart to tell them about the dirty pants.

The Droid Apocalypse (Part 1)

Dr. Lenz thought that he would never again want to set foot on an alien world but he was wrong. The Danu was a large ship, but he still found it somewhat claustrophobic. He missed the company of other scientists too. There were few of his intellect to converse with on the ship, a life of loneliness appeared to await him. It had never crossed his mind that he would feel this way in his fifth century.

He spent his free time in the holo-decks, virtually visiting cities that no longer existed admiring their magnificence. Sometimes, he would pass Candace on the corridor. She was always sweaty, perhaps using the facilities for combat training. Occasionally, she would give him a warm smile. She was beautiful and he would think of holding her dark body in his hands. A thought that probably never crossed her mind. It had been many years since his last relationship, he had immersed himself in his work and casual sex had only ever been a few clicks away. Now, he longed for human connection.

Two time cycles ago, the Captain had told him that the latest planet with negativum had been located. The doctor had been trying to gather as much evidence about the system on long range systems. The Captain didn’t want any more surprises but supplies were running low. At first, there didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary. Then, he realized they would once again be going to a planet in the habitable zone of a star. The odds of this being a random occurrence were quite remote. But things were to get far stranger once they entered the star system. It was a planet very similar to Earth, with just slightly more gravity and an oxygen rich atmosphere. They would find it easier to breathe here than on the former polluted Earth itself. Then, as The Danu entered orbit, it became clear that it was a world of ruined cities on a planet that had healed itself from civilization, an alien civilization. This would have been first contact had they survived.

There was no time for sentimentality and the doctor once more found himself on one of six landers heading to the planet with Candace and what was now considered her squadron. There was little of the boisterous chatter of the previous occasion.

“So what can we expect to see this time Doctor?

“I have no idea.”

There was no other conversation, only nervous jitters.

The lander landed with a thud and they quickly exited.

The doctor had never seen anything quite like it. They were surrounded by collapsed buildings, with vegetation now taking over and slowly engulfing them. The sky had a beautiful purple colour. It was hot and humid. The squadron had immediately staked out a defensive perimeter. The negativum they were tasked with collecting was close by. Candace led the way and Doctor Lenz instinctively followed her.

Only a few minutes passed, before reports of other squadrons coming under attack. Not from aliens but from machines.

The Vacuum Catastrophe – Part V continued

There were shouts of agony and then cries to evacuate. It came from two different landing posts. Candace suddenly felt nervous. She ordered her squadron to hold their positions, that they would have the package in just a few minutes but that they were to maintain vigilance. She looked across at Herbert. She could see the fear in his eyes.

“Dr, return to the lander immediately. I will look ensure we get the Negativum.”

He looked at her somewhat perplexed and unsure what he should do.

“Go now!”

He scurried back to the lander.

Then squadron alpha said that a mass of brown creatures were approaching. A second later she could see them herself.

Helmet – magnify

With that she could see what was coming. They had large threatening mandibles about half a meter long that looked like they could easily slice through a human and were encased in a hard shell. They were coming from every direction darkening the distant landscape.

They were definitely a threat and Candace knew what was required.

“Prepare to fire, Set to maximum damage.”

She paused for the briefest of moments.

“Fire!”

The laser cannons opened up at the mass but it barely stopped them approaching. The dead were quickly replaced by the living.

“Keep firing!”

Candace ran over to the excavation point and there was the Negativum encased in a capsule

She quickly picked it up.

“Cease firing. Everyone back to the lander immediately!”

As the last squadron member frantically buckled his seat, the lander took off. They just managed to evade the swarm.

Candace looked straight at the Doctor.

“Next time, you have concerns. Do tell me.”

“I will, promise.”

Review of “The First Lady” by James Patterson and Brendan Dubois

Well, readers what can I say. This is the first novel I have read by either of these authors. It won’t be the last. There is so much of the writing style that I want to emulate. The short, fast paced chapters and the exquisite use of language. The cliffhangers that make it so difficult to stop reading. Hopefully, these are the kind of things I can integrate into my own story telling.

This is an exciting quasi political mystery thriller, which has many twists and turns about a fictional First Lady of the United States that goes missing. The cause of her disappearance is muddied by the fact that her husband, has been caught out having an affair in the full glare of the media. You are left wondering has she just sneaked off somewhere to be by her own or has something more sinister happened? Is she kidnapped or even murdered?

In line, with more modern novels and despite being written by two men, it is filled with strong, memorable female characters. The kind of women who get things done. The male characters are more of a mixed bag. For instance, The First lady comes across as strong. A woman who stands by her moral code and ethics. She works tirelessly for disadvantaged kids and had an intrinsic sense of what was right and wrong. The President, on the other hand, comes across as quite weak and pathetic. Not at all like how The President is usually portrayed.

Agent Sally Grissom becomes the main person tasked with finding her. She is my favorite character; strong willed and never prepared to give up no matter the obstacles are put in her way. And there are many. The irascible Chief of Staff concludes that it would be better for The President’s upcoming elections if the First Lady was to have an unfortunate “accident”. The sympathy bounce could propel him to be re-elected and that was what really mattered. He places his faith in a female assassin who enjoys her work.

Some other reviewers have stated that it was far fetched but no for me. In this crazy world we live in, it seems more than plausible. A must read.

It probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise that I give it a score of five stars out of five.

The Vacuum Catastrophe Part V (Sci-fi)

Candace couldn’t help but notice that Dr. Lenz was constantly fidgeting beside her. As if she wasn’t nervous enough already, she had never landed on an actual terrestrial planet before. She had always intended to visit Earth at some stage, “the cradle of humanity” but had never gotten round to it. There had been so much to see in the Solar System. He had personally requested that she was to go on the lander with him, she hadn’t decided to thank him yet. They were accompanied by six other marines plus the pilot. All, except Dr. Lenz were armed with heavy laser cannons and ultra dense armor plating.

They would be the first of ten landers on the planet. The atmosphere had been scanned, it was breathable. They were on their way to a desert area around the equator. The planet very likely contained life but this was not a biology excursion. They were to establish a parameter and then send a probe into the crust to obtain Negativum, which was vital to faster than light travel. For unknown reasons, to date it had only been found on terrestrial worlds where life had at least once existed. A huge statistical anomaly.

The lander started to rattle. They were entering the atmosphere. It was time for her to take charge of the situation.

“Right marines, you know the drill. Once we land we need to create a perimeter with defensive strong points. The mission is resource extraction but no harm must come to Dr. Lenz.”

Candace saw him squirm. He didn’t like being placed above others, an admirable trait.

Then they landed with a thud. The overhead green light began flashing and the hatch began to lower. The first thing to hit them was the putrid smell of rotting eggs from the methane rich atmosphere. The sky was crimson and the land mostly rocky. The laser felt light in her arms from the low gravity.

“Take up your positions!”

It was flat, there were no good defensive point but they could see reasonably far into the distance through the murky atmosphere. There were no signs of life apart from the odd dark leafed tree here and there. However some of the other landers had found themselves surrounded by giant herbivores who were throttling down pockets of dense vegetation.

Dr. Lenz got straight to work and began assembling the probe. Once she was confident, the situation was secure, she went to the scientist.

“Well that went well so far Dr. Lenz.”

“You can call me Herbert. Let’s just get this done and get out of here.”

“My name is Candace. What makes you so nervous?”

“Just different theories I heard over over the years. What sort of predators hunt these large herbivores we’ve been hearing about and why are there none around here?”

It wasn’t a nice line of thinking but she nodded in agreement.

Hours passed. The probes had now penetrated the crust, acquired their prize and making their return.

Then the first sign of trouble came over the comms.

(To be continued)

The Vacuum Catastrophe Part IV (Sci-fi)

Captain Sheppard sat down and waited patiently in his office for Dr. Lenz. Just an hour before, he had informed his crew that everything and everyone that they had ever known was gone. Not just the things and people they loved, but everything in its totality. Some took it reasonably well, perhaps because this ship was already their existence but most of the mass of blue uniforms sobbed uncontrollably. Not that he could blame them, pat of him wanted to do likewise.

The door opened and Dr. Lenz entered.

“Dr. Lenz?”said the Captain with wide, bemused, eyes.

“Yes, that is me. Nice, spacious office you have here. I know I look younger that what you probably expected, but it’s the nanabots. In reality I’m probably even older than you expected. Dare I say I may be the oldest human left.”

The Captain not wanting to be distracted immediately focused the conversation.

“What happened Dr. Lenz? What caused this catastrophe?”

“I’m afraid I know no more than you. Theoretically there was always a possibility that this could occur. It was always just calculated to be an extremely low probability event so people projected that it would take billions of years to occur. Obviously, they were wrong. But what really matters is what happens now.

Once we have completed our first jump, we must immediately scour our surroundings for resources. I have been studying the long range radar. There is a terrestrial world that looks promising. If it is, we must scan and strip it of resources as a matter of urgency. We won’t have long between jumps before the wall of non existence reaches us.

“Prepare a Team Dr. Lenz. You have have been given access to our Personnel Database. Select who you need for the away mission.”

“But I’m just a scientist!”

“We all have to step up. Now go. We don’t have much time.”

The Vacuum Catastrophe – Part 3 (Sci-fi)

Captain Luke Sheppard paced up and down the deck of the Danu, waiting for confirmation that Dr. Lenz had finally arrived. Around him, he was surrounded by his most trusted crew, each at their control station. Men and women who would die for him and he would do likewise for them. Tucker Murray was the head of Engineering, a genius but fiery and temperamental. Yvonne Gilsenan was in charge of defensive systems to name but a few.

Captain Sheppard had only been informed of his mission in the previous time cycle in a video call from his superiors. All he had ever known was about to be obliterated into non-existence. He knew that he had to keep his head even if all those around him lost theirs. It was still top secret and none of the rest of the crew knew yet. He was planning on telling them after the first jump.

Reports of disorder were reaching were reaching them from throughout the solar system. Riots were breaking out on Earth, Mars and the moons of Jupiter. In some space habitats , there was open warfare. With each new report arriving in faster than faster, Sheppard’s palms were growing increasingly sweaty.

“That’s odd, communications from Starbase A+ have stopped!”

It was Aurelias, the Communications Officer with a deep frown.

Starbase A+ was less than a jump from the system. The anomaly had almost reached them.

“Ignore that, any sign of Dr. Lenz?”

“Yes, sir. They are in the holding bay.”

“Excellent! Prepare to jump on my command Tucker with the coordinates already inputted.”

“Are you sure? That’s uncharted space?”

“That’s an order.”

A siren rang throughout the Danu. Then the jump began. Sheppard told Aurelias that Dr. Lenz was to be brought straight to his ready room.

The Vacuum Catastrophe – Part 2 (Sci-fi)

From the moment Lieutenant Candace Winchester opened her eyes, she had a strange feeling about the timeline in front of her. Not in a warp could she have guessed what was about to happen, just a general, malevolent feeling. Not that many would have listened to her. At just sixty years of age, she was considered far too young to know much about anything by most. At times, it felt that the gerontocracy would prefer no young people whatsoever but there was always new space that needed colonizing, and hence a need for new humans. Still, she had managed to excel, and was now in charge of her squadron.

She had never known her parents as was the case for most of her generation, and was birthed or manufactured biologically on one of the many space habitats in orbit around the Earth. The rest of the batch became her surrogate family. It was a joyous childhood but short. She matched that cohort of intelligence and athletic ability that was assigned to the military.

This ultimately led her to being assigned to the Danu just a few months prior. She remembered the first time she took sight of it. It was giant, majestic with the large circular warp engine far off in the distance to the rear. However, nothing could have prepared her for the inside of the ship. Despite having a crew of over one thousand, one could walk its corridors and chambers for hours without meeting another soul. Parts of it were barren and cold, other parts luxurious with every conceivable manner of entertainment. At times, she would love to lose herself in one of the many virtual worlds.

Her squadron had only been informed of its mission two hours previously. To extract Dr. Lenz from the nearest star-base and to expect trouble. It was a high priority mission and space marines were to be fully armed. This was all very strange to her considering it was a friendly vessel.

However on disembarking from the Supply Vessel – nicknamed Maria and onto the floor of the Space Port, she was sure happy they came prepared. There were screams far off in the distance and the air smelt rotten.

Then she saw a man running towards her with a brief case. He was lean, athletic with blonde hair and shouting “Lt. Winchester!”.

“Dr. Lenz? Where is your security detail?”

“Long story, here is my ID. We better be off!’

The Vacuum Catastrophe – Part 1 (Sci-fi)

It had been going just like any other time cycle but it was one that Herbert would end up never forgetting. It was on Star Base 1580, which at that time was on a wide orbit of the dwarf planet Pluto and its moon Charon. He had spent many hours peering through his telescope at the beautiful white landscapes and the majestic cities that peppered them. He had always intended to visit and had always presumed that he would at some future date. Time had never entered his mind as being some sort of problem. He was already over four hundred years old and the horde of nanobots coursing through his veins should keep him going for many more years. And to worry about existence itself, well that would have just been daft.

Herbert was an expert in the field of negative energy. At times he had to pinch himself. Only two-hundred years prior the thought of a human being an expert in any field would have seemed totally ridiculous. But a small droid rebellion in a simulated world changed everything. The consciousness never realized that it could simply be plugged out. After that, a cap was placed on machine intelligence. Then, shortly afterwards with the invention of warp technology, that required negative energy, his field exploded in status.

Herbert was walking through the main corridor when he heard a familiar ping in his trouser pocket. It was bustling with people going to their work stations and just hanging around in conversation. He lifted it up to see where he was required – Epson Suite 16. The other end of the station. Now that was unusual and he quickly broke into a brisk walk.

His mind raced with what it could be about. As far as he could determine production was on track. He got on an empty rail-car to hurry himself along. It wouldn’t do to be late and anyway it gave him a chance to look up at the stars.

He heard his name being called just as he got out of the rail-car.

“Herbert Lenz?”

Much to his surprise, it was a soldier that was looking for him. His palm grew sweaty.

“Yes?”

“Please follow me.”

A few minutes later, he was led into a side room filled with generals and the civilian leaders of that space quadrant, all sitting in a semi circle. Fear and dismay were etched into their faces.

“Please sit down.”

The room fell silent. It is was President Azin. She had short, grey hair something very unusual in these times. The atmosphere was tense.

“Do you know who I am?”

Her voice was both piercing and authoritative.

With so many colonies and different tiers of government, most might not even recognise her but Herbert always made sure to stay on top of such things.

“There isn’t much time so I’m going to get straight to the point. You’re a learned man so you will probably understand this better than me. During the twenty-first century it was discovered that the Higgs field was at a point of instability, and what we considered to be The Universe was in the state of a false vacuum. Therefore, a quantum tunneling event, though thought to be very unlikely could bring the Universe into a new quantum state. It was thought that this would spread at the speed of light destroying everything it reached,

We were wrong.”

“Wrong?”

Herbert was unsure where this was going and why The President would want to discuss Science with him.

“Wrong.”

A holographic display of the Milky Way galaxy appeared over the table.” Yes, we were wrong. The effect is spreading far faster than the speed of light but not exponentially. Unfortunately, it has happened right in our galaxy. An expanding red circular area suddenly appeared and began to spread outwards.

There is only one hope for humanity – the spaceship Danu. Due to the accelerating expansion of the Universe, if you get far enough away humanity will be saved. You are to join the crew in Space Port One in six hours. Your expertise will be required. Now go, there isn’t much time.

With that, Herbert rose from his seat almost knocking it over in the process.