Unfinished Shorts by Paul Groffry Swanson (beautiful books to read txt) 📕

it. “Fire one, Lancer Imagery.” A little green missile shot out and exploded after it traveled for a second. A resonating purple flash was all that was left of the missile. A translucent shockwave shook his ship, but the enemy was now visible. “Sucker…some good that cloak did ya…loser. Hiro track him now!”
“Thanks…” Hiro’s ship flew past Deus with a small twirling wine, guns blazing the whole while. “I’ll take care of this one!” The enemies ship spray painted tin can was doing it’s best to avoid being shot. Hiro lost sight of him once or twice but managed to tail him just the same. He was originally going to chase him off after destroying his or her stabilizer. At the time Hiro could’ve cared less about the aggressors gender. The spray painted spacecraft he was chasing clipped the main ship and made its lights flicker till they went out, that’s when Hiro went and hit the missile button out of frustration. “I JUST fixed that not even two days ago!” He yelled it utmost fury at the target. The missiles chased away a made contact. And that’s that, as they say.
A moment later Deus confirmed that he had taken care of the two he was following. Abruptly Hiro realized that the ship he had just blown up looked tremendously like the one that had crashed into him.
Then…September 16, 3263
“That’s twenty thousand, for your troubles.” The lady handed him a pack of crisp new bills. He took it smiling and pocketed in his tux it with a firm grin of satisfaction. He took his notice in the firmness of the money and told that money had just been delivered that morning or didn’t he hear her the first time.
“Great,” He said. “Been chasin those weirdoes for weeks. Just got the lucky break yesterday. Found’ em in five hours.” He gave a little whistle of amazement and took a step as if to leave, but pulled back quickly and glanced at her nametag. “Hey, Linda, if you hear anything about the Leon boys let me know, Kay?”
“Sure thing, Mr.?”
“Derkins, Hiro Derkins.” He got up trotted out of the private stall. He knew that they weren’t supposed to help the bounty hunters track down their prey but he had to ask anyway. He stopped in the middle of the lobby and glanced over to the IBF listings and scrolled down with his eye; found the mans name and watched it change to captured status, and then watched his name blink next to it. “Ah it’s great to work alone. All this is mine.” He tapped his pocket with pride and did a little hand gesture and put his fingers through his black hair. It fell back down over his eyes. I Suppose I need a haircut he thought without even trying. Hmm, that was my fifth bounty return. What now? Suppose the chart’ll tell me…but it’s so weird. He walked toward the screen footsteps echoing on the empty lobbies clean tile floor. He stopped three feet away and stood akimbo with a doubtful look on his face. Silently he watched as the screen kept scrolling spinning off names of hunters he had never heard of. He stayed there for what seemed like an eternity but then finally his name showed up, it said his next target had yet to be determined. “WHAT!” His voice echoed down ever hall in sight. “I SIT THROUGH TEN LISTS OF NAMES FOR THIS BS! I’m ready now!” He realized that he was yelling and decided to shut up before he got himself into trouble. Hiro’s badge dinged. He pressed it and was called to his boss’s office on the third floor. “Figures…probably about me sending my bounty through that sausage grinder. I mean it was an accident.” He charged up the stairs to his right.
Hiro never was afraid of being scolded or even fired in the past and why would that change now? He always charged headlong into situations with his head held high if it was someone important, or if it was a dangerous situation he ran boldly with his pistol drawn, righteously named Dud Eye. He was always apt to encounter the bad guys even since he was a child, once he had run across a group of men in the process of raping a girl less than half their age. He did what he felt was right and picked up a loose pole and brought it down upon one poor mans head. Unfortunately it hadn’t knocked him out as was intended. In fact it was so utterly useless that he was beaten to a pulp in exchange for that head wound and then nailed to the wall of the local church till the next morning.
He had had always been a troubled kid after that always getting into fights, trying to prove that he was stronger. His old psychologist said that it was an unconscious decision based upon his once righteous failure of attempting to help that girl, who was by the way found dead shortly after he himself was pulled off the wall. He was told that she was found crucified with her insides hanging out of her chest and a single bullet hole between the eyes. They were never caught. After being told that he had sworn an oath to always try to help the world improve. He would visit her grave everyday for three years without even knowing her name. Hiro had always felt responsible for what happened that day.
That third year he had gained enough courage to become the bounty hunter, that year was the end of the beginning of his life. The bar code that was now imprinted on his forehead was proof of that dedication. He had it put there so he could tell the world you-better-watch-out-big-badass-Hiro’s-in-town-ready-to-kick-ass-and-chew-bubble-gum, and he was all out of gum, to bad for them; or at least that’s how he evaluated it when he began.
Hiro continued up the flights of stairs until he reached long marble hallway, probably not even real he would learn to think every time he took this five hundred foot journey from base level to the mercenary captains’ office.
Now…January 13, 3265
“Hiro!” Dues had a habit of yelling rather than simply talking even though he was right beside him.
“Huh…what?” He yawned they had been sitting in the middle of an asteroid field since yesterday. The engines had blown out on the Blackguard again and Hiro didn’t much feel like fixing the lights at the time and they were still out flashing and blinking randomly. He supposed they were lucky that they didn’t need the lights. Often he would sit by the windows staring out into the abyss wondering what he hell he was still doing alive. One can only experience so much before the soul loses track of itself in the shroud of life’s mystery.
“It’s coming on again!” Hiro shrugged, got up, and snapped his fingers once to get the jazz going again, but jazz didn’t come on instead some other genre of rhythm pulsed through his ear drums.
“What the heck?” He heard snickering, “Deus!” The snickering stopped. “Just record it. I’ll watch when I’m done with the repairs.”
They all thought he would die, but no not Hiro. His soul was so strong that even a falling spacecraft couldn’t kill him. His reputation was so what astounding to the general public, a lot of people regarded him as some sort of modern holy symbol. A modern Jesus-Moses if you will. He had never even been much of a holy man to begin with. He supposed they only called the Friendly-Neighborhood-Evangel because of the scars that he bore since his childhood.
It may have been on Saturn that he had aquired the scars of a stigmata but word travels fast even across planets even if they’re a million miles apart. He hated being called an Evangel, the term sounded odd, not hateful just odd. Humanity, with its many sins always looking for someone to lay the blame on or for someone to listen. Well, who really has the time for that, let alone carry enough will power to avoid yelling at them to shut up? Certainly not the so-called Friendly-Neighborhood-Evangel.
And so he had done many times already. He hated his title with a passion. He had gone so far as to backhand a beggar that would not leave him alone. Nonetheless even after people had heard this that they still continued to pour by the dozens to his door. It was exhausting. So he had to do something.
He ended up taking the backdoor one-day and found himself and the space port being bar-coded. Now he would have a new title. The kind that would allow him to release an inner fire, hopefully just the opposite, as he was unwillingly known for. Looking at this opportunity as a chance to rebel against the general public. He grabbed a big brown ship and bought a small racing jet from an old man that was just happy to get rid of it. And so on the day he getting ready to escape to the void of darkness he found a curious fellow sitting in the ship he had just fixed up.
An escaped asylum patient was sitting in his pilot seat. The guy just waved and bobbed his head to some silent tune. This struck Hiro as funny so he laughed. The guy opened his eyes and just glanced over to him, then closed them again.

Story 3 Undiscovery

It was finally time to send the first colonists onto the newest planet discovered. The atmosphere was perfect for human inhabitation: plenty of oxygen and all the other required elements of life. It was called Planet Noke. The planet surface was rich with trees.
The team that would explore and set up camp consisted of four biologists, ten ecologists, six geologists, and twenty civilians. The leader’s name was Core Élans. The team’s shuttle was dropped from high orbit. The team saw the similarities to Earth even before they landed. Clouds rushed past them and moisture tried to collect on the windows. At the rate of speed they were falling, it was all but impossible and it ran up the windows instead.
As they watched the fauna rise up towards them, a message ran though the shuttle telling them to attach their safety harnesses and be cautious immediately upon disembarking. The shuttle landed with a lurched thud. The forty passengers quickly got out, all too happy to be back in gravity. Not long after everyone sat down and looked around in awe at the surroundings, they discovered other beings.
‘Very much like a chicken robot’, is how Core described them. They eventually became known as Cybyr.
His meeting with them was very much like a surreal dream in which one has no conscious ability to change the outcome. He had walked some thirty meters away from his team in order to empty his bladder. Thinking very little of encountering anything, he trotted without care through the brush on the ground. He heard the brittle leaves crunching beneath his weight. Quite suddenly, his foot caught on something and he sprawled on his face. As he fell, he heard a warble, such that had never been heard before by human ears.
He rolled over and sat up quite vexed; but also puzzled when he looked back at what he had tripped on. It was some kind of bizarre bird just over a foot long. A metallic sheen covered it from head to toe. It got up just as startled as he was, and began to run in circles warbling all the while. Tiny slits on either side of its head served as its eyes. Each of its joints had a distinct glowing circle running around it. Core doubted it was an organic creature