Thanks, Le Ministre! I’ll cast a vote, then. I just have to find the dialogue box that lets me say how many votes I’m casting on [del]my[/del] a certain story.
What?
Yeah I’m glad we can vote for more than one story. Otherwise choosing would be way too frustrating!
Three’s always seemed like a good number. I usually find my favorite three, and then vote.
Mmm. I thought I sent mine last week. I don’t see it posted. did I make a mistake?
Dear GIGObuster, no , you did not make a mistake. The fault is entirely mine; I flag the entries as they come in, and somehow yours was missed. I apologize profusely and unreservedly.
I have been in touch with The Mods, asking for their help in fixing my mistake. I will do my utmost to make amends.
Again, I’m very sorry.
“Ever heard of digital watches Professor? They are not a very good idea nowadays and that watch belongs to a different century!”
“Well, now don’t be insulting young lady! This is a fine time piece, so unlike other pretenders out there we turn what one man can imagine into reality.” The professor with an air of contempt put the anachronistic timepiece in his pocket. And so was he, he was dressed like if it was the 19th century. “Now, it is time, follow me to the airship.”
This was really infuriating to Dorothy, but she always obeyed him, the Professor was a legend already as he had advanced aerogel technology to unexpected levels, and now he was applying it to airships, but she began to realize his steam punk mania was not just a passing fancy for him. Following the professor Dorothy glanced at his library (who has a library these days? She thought) full of books on old mechanics and Jules Verne.
[spoiler]Dorothy had been contacted already by the corporate forces that were also behind all these efforts, the funding members of the research institute knew that she had gained the trust of the professor; her task now, besides completing the project, was to convince the Professor to at least tone down the Victorian act, they feared that investors instead of looking him as an eccentric he could appear to them as a mad man and sometimes she also wondered if that was the case.
However, to tell him to change was easier said than done as he was already wealthy and he could order many of those members around.
Part of Dorothy’s troubles were that to come to work for the professor the uniform he demanded for the ladies consisted of Victorian camisoles, petticoats and bloomers; much to her relief, at least he did not demand that his female assistants wear a corset! The boots, while fancy, were a pain to wear.
Following the Professor, Dorothy finally arrived to the old greenhouse, modified to be a functional hangar for airships. Although she did not like the style, the ship was really impressive, if it had propellers the Atlantis, as he called the ship, could had come from the pages of “The Master of the World” by Verne.
“So, is the airship ready?”
“Fully functional Dorothy!”
“So you say this sucker is full of helium now? Haven’t you heard of the Hindenburg?” she said with sarcasm, as she already knew of the materials used.
“Heh, very funny” the professor said with even more sarcasm.
The trick to make it safer was to go almost at the atomic level and use aerogels. Several decades ago inventors filled aerogel with nitrogen to show how it was possible to make a chunk of the stuff float in the air, now hydrogen is harder to contain in aerogel, but the new process invented by the Professor made possible the use of hydrogen in a safe way in an airship.
The airship looked like a cross between a dirigible and a spaceship, the weight of the engines and the structure meant that it did not float on its own but came close to it. And there was some unwanted drag that came with all the trimmings around the airship that made the ship have a steam-punk look, but one could still make it hover and fly with very little power, as the hydrogen was contained almost at the atomic level, there was little chance to get the nasty fires one would get if hydrogen got into contact with oxygen and an ignition source, so small but strong engines could be put inside the airship and make it more maneuverable and faster than the dirigibles of the past.
“So Ms, ready for the big test drive? As promised we will go to your Desolate Islands. All the items and provisions needed for the exploration are already loaded in the baggage area.”
Taking the co-pilot seat Dorothy put on her head set and reported, “All communications are set, and all automatic fly-by-wire engines activated.”
The airship began to leave the hangar and after moving a few meters forward over the ground the ship began to increase speed and rise up. After getting the all clear signal from the air traffic control, the Professor set a course to the desolated islands. After so many tests it was a great feeling for both of them to see the air ship be used for a long trip.
When the airship began to travel over the Pacific ocean the Professor activated the autopilot and gave the order to relax using an old communication tube, Dorothy then began to take off her boots. His seat now turned to face Dorothy and the Professor finally noticed the unintentional strip tease she was doing, as she had her eyes down or covered while removing other pieces of old fashion clothing.
“Now, Professor, we are outside the lab now, I’m also going outside your uniform requirements and as it was arranged before hand you will follow my instructions for a change as I will be in charge while we are in the islands.”
“Uh, yes, but you should be in your room as you are now at your bloomer level”…
Finally looking up and with a very red face, Dorothy stood up and grabbed the bag with her change of clothes and left to her room.
“By the way, nice red ones!”
Now she was even more blushed, but she was glad that he had noticed.
The trip was a long distance test of the capabilities of the airship, it took 3 days to reach their destination, virtually at the other side of the world.
As it turned out, by being preoccupied with all the planning, the professor did not pay much attention at the secondary objective of this trip, early on the day of the arrival he asked:
“So, why are we going to this place? It is interesting that we had to reach the invert or inverse of out point of origin on earth, but why…”
“Well, during WWII…”
“Huh, I would like think those times never took place!”, he interrupted with disdain.
“Well, they took place, and we have to deal with them. You seem to want to literally be in the era before technology made mass slaughter possible, I should had not been surprised when I noticed that you did choose your assistants because they had the same names of characters from the Verne novels.”
“Uh, no, that may had been in the past.”
“I know, at least ‘Dorothy’ was a character in the movie of ‘The Master of the World’ interesting that in virtually all Jules Verne movies of those days they added female characters when the books were virtually an all men affair. But, maybe Hollywood was onto something”, Dorothy approached the professor then and with heavy sultriness she said, “don’t you think?”
The professor was going to tentatively put his trembling arm around her when a signal beeped in the front panel, without missing a beat, Dorothy moved away from the professor and closer to the front windshield, “ha hah! Here we are! The desolated islands.”
Sitting down and taking over the controls she continued while the Professor was stunned by her blatant tease: “Well, professor, I have the theory that your obsession has one important element that seems to be common among the ones that follow this Steam punk mani… I mean, aesthetic; and it is to imagine a world where Victorian sensibilities reign and the evils of the 20th century were avoided, it is interesting to notice that “The Master of the world” was one of Verne’s last books and it was really a warning to all regarding the tyrants that he correctly predicted were coming in the 20th century”
The Professor was getting impressed with her even though he tough she was getting insulting and personal. “So, Dorothy, I hired you for your knowledge in Nanotechnology, was there a minor in Psychology?”
“No, history, but I dabble in matters of the mind also. I think that we need to modernize your outlook and make you a better inventor (really, all those trims on the ship are cool but they make the ship a little bit inefficient) you need to deal with your fears and learn first hand that while the tyrants came they were vanquished and the future is not that bad. So, care to hunt and remove some Nazis?”
…
The grave of the German sailor from WWII was found over a small peninsula in the island, it’s location and the information in the documents found by researchers friends from Dorothy in Russia, allowed Dorothy and the Professor to locate a lost Nazi submarine base.
The old base was to the disappointment of Dorothy, abandoned, but in great condition. The professor wondered if she was upset that the special stun devices she added to the mini floating probes were not used at all. Still, after checking the base with the probes, it was found that it had rooms that could still be habitable and after parking the airship in one of the huge submarine pens, they took the place in the names of the allies.
Well, not exactly accurate now as it belonged in to the French anyhow and the Germans are in the European Union.
Inside one of the control rooms Dorothy set a portable lab to photograph and catalog the documents found, a mayor historical find. As they had very little time they set also a portable sleeping tent in the room with the documents, the Professor’s watch chimed reporting that it was time to sleep as it was hard to figure out the duration of the days this close to the Antarctic. “Now, professor, this is embarrassing, I’m usually well prepared but I made a mistake, this special sleeping tent-bag is very small, and there is only room for one or a coupl…” She stopped in mid sentence when she realized what she had just said.
Looking slyly, the professor said: “Well, you did not say that I needed to confront my fears alone didn’t you?”
…
After a few days the Professor and Dorothy contacted the french researchers and technicians in the satellite communications base to let them know about the Nazi base location and the documents. The French were very surprised to miss that submarine base all these years and thanked the crew of the Atlantis, they admired the airship and remembering the old writings of Verne they nicknamed the Professor “Robur the conqueror”.
After a few toasts the Professor and Dorothy climbed into the airship and headed back to America, with the old watch now in his cabinet the professor was relying now on the one appearing in his cell phone, and he was using the proper head sets for communications.
“Now was that so hard? We should be able to make a new more effective version of the airship and commercialize your invention better, you just need to be aware that not all are lovers of ancient technology.”
“Well, but as we are getting back to my lab, you should be more respectful of your captain young lady!”
“Who do you think you are? Robur the Conqueror?”
[Getting closer at Dorothy and remembering last night] “In more ways than one… and I feel like I’m the Master of the world!
“You men always like to brag huh?” she said, letting him believe that he had conquered her, and not the other way around.
But she did not want to argue with him now because some of the records found and translated automatically gave her hints that something bigger and sinister could still be active in Antarctica…[/spoiler]
GIGObuster
I would like to make a special note - this is a story that was submitted within the time frame, and it is entirely my fault that it is published outside the body of the other stories in the Anthology. It will be added as one of the voting options, and I ask everyone to give this story their consideration along with all of the others.
Wow. Thanks for the amazing stories, everyone. Fantastic work!
I wish I’d seen this challenge last month! This is an annual thing?
Tough decision, but I voted. (I waited until GIGO’s submission was posted.) Great work by everyone!
Every other month. Sometimes there’s a poetry one too. Ministre can notify you if you like.
Nope. Every other month, aproximately, since mid-2010.
Great, thanks you guys. I’d love to participate.
Do we vote for one? The poll said "what are your favorites?
A lot of people vote for multiple stories.
I’ll add you to the list of people who get notifications when these contests happen. (Would you be interested in the Poetry Sweatshops as well? Let me know, if you get a chance.) I aim for one a month, alternating between poetry and short fiction, but in actual practice, the contests end up being whenever I have enough free time to spend online.
I have to add that for this one, I never got the chance to send the notifications around; it was a crazy 3 months for me from the end of October until, well, today! That level of real-life busy-ness is my only excuse for my faux pas, missing The airship of Kerguelen until this morning. A simple mistake to have made, but the simpler the mistake, the dumber a person must be to make it.
It is intentionally set up as a multiple choice poll. In general, I’ve found that people are a little more inclined to vote if they don’t feel that they must pick only one and reject all the others. As I said a little earlier, it is strangely difficult to get people to vote in these contests.
Great work everyone. Very enjoyable stories, all around. I love seeing the differences (and similarities) when stories are inspired just by 3 random words and a picture.
I will go ahead and make some comments on each story, starting from the bottom and working up.
“The airship of Kerguelen” Post #26
Correct me if I’m mistaken, but I believe this author has mentioned in the past that he/she uses English as a second language. There are some grammar issues and awkwardly phrased sentences that would indicate this. An example can be found in the first paragraph. “The professor with an air of contempt put the anachronistic timepiece in his pocket. And so was he, he was dressed like if it was the 19th century.” I get the meaning here, but it sounds awkward. You could do it a hundred different ways, but one suggestion might be: “The professor, with an air of contempt, put the anachronistic timepiece in his pocket. The professor himself seemed from a different time as his dress resembled that of a 19th century politician.” Obviously, I took some liberties there, but I hope you get the idea.
All that said, the story is very interesting. It’s a fun little sci-fi trip, which is also typical from this author. The descriptions of the characters and the airship itself were well done. I also enjoyed the technical information regarding the ship’s means of levitation and the references to Jules Verne. Overall, nice job.
“House of Regret” Post #16
This was a really cool story. Yeah, I saw the ending coming, but that didn’t detract from the great suspense the author managed to create. The word “corporate” was somewhat forced in there, which took me out of it a bit. But the scene that caused our main character so much guilt was very well put together, very well described. I’d be interested to know what kind of town these people are living in. Is it some future distopia or just a modern, demented place? Anyway, very nice prose and great story telling.
“Time and Time Again” Post #15
So, when I saw the picture for this anthology, my mind immediately went to that episode of the Twilight Zone. I imagine this author’s did, too. As for the story, I found it a little slow going until the watch is discovered. Then, the dialogue picks up and the meat of the story becomes apparent. From there, things get quite interesting. What I like most about it is, unlike the Twilight Zone when the watch breaks, we get some kind of an idea about what’s happening to the main character year and years after his watch is lost. It would have been fun to hear more about his antics using the watch. Did he use to do any good or bad or just for peace and quiet? (Also, if it was finally activated by the wife, why wasn’t she the unfrozen one at the end?) Even if the idea wasn’t completely original, this story was well-written and featured a great scene where we find out what the watch actually does.
I’ll be back with more later…
I suspect part of the problem is that it’s a lot of reading - I think it took me over an hour to get through all of them. And then, if there are several you enjoy, you might want to go back and review them so you can decide which ones you like best. It’s totally worth the time it takes, in my opinion, but it’s a bit of a commitment.
But seriously, so worth it! Everyone: on your lunch hour today, read and vote!
hey, thanks, Barkis! Yeh, I said earlier in the logistics thread, I wish I had another 1000 words or so to explore that last leg. I might actually write more into it for better practice, and I’m curious myself what the character does when it’s in his possession. You’re right in that that Twilight Zone Episode was the first thing that popped into my head, so I didn’t fight it, and just rolled with it, seeing if I could give the idea a new twist. To answer your other question about the final activation:
Thinking back I would’ve edited some more of the setup to explain that once he depressed the button, it would only work for him, unless someone else physically pressed the button. In this case it was activated by accident as Ellen tossed it into the hole.
ETA: planning to offer some reviews myself, soon!
I agree with this. It took me a few reads over a couple days to get through the whole list. And as one of the authors, I was probably more motivated than a non-participant to do so. I’m not sure how you could increase voting without offering an incentive (like a gift card to a random voter, etc.) and even then, I’m not sure of a good way to make that work.
Hopefully people see how great a deal it is to get to read several good short stories for only the cost of telling us your favorites.
I have started doing the same and have finished with comments on the first nine stories and hope to finish later today or tomorrow to post them. I am using my scorecard again. I really like getting notes from others, and although you can obviously take mine with a grain of salt, hope my comments might help others or at least start some feedback.
And yes, voting is nice and wish more people would do so, I think the short comments are actually more valuable to see what people liked/disliked about your story.