Short Stories of a Frustrated Author

The Long Hum What began as a handful of unexplained livestock deaths soon becomes impossible to ignore. Ranchers across the Great Plains report the same disturbing pattern after massive AI data centers come online nearby. Prize breeding bulls become sterile. Pregnant mares miscarry without warning. Dairy herds stop reproducing. Wildlife abandons traditional migration routes. Veterinarians find nothing infectious, nothing toxic, nothing genetic. Every laboratory result comes back normal. The only common denominator is proximity to the world's newest generation of AI supercomputing facilities. At first, government agencies dismiss the claims as coincidence. The technology companies point to environmental studies proving their facilities are safe. But as the radius of infertility spreads from one region to another, food production begins to collapse. Farmers who have spent generations building bloodlines watch them end in a single season. Conservationists discover endangered species s...

A "Devil Doc" is one of the highest compliments a U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman (HM) can receive. It is an affectionate and deeply respectful nickname given by United States Marines to the Navy corpsmen who serve alongside them. The term combines two traditions: "Devil Dog" (from the German Teufelshunde, a nickname associated with U.S. Marines from World War I), and "Doc," the universal military term for a medic or corpsman. A Devil Doc is much more than someone who hands out bandages. In Marine units, a corpsman is expected to: Treat wounds under fire. Keep Marines alive until they can be evacuated. Share the same hardships, patrols, and dangers as the Marines. Often be the only medical provider with an infantry platoon. Although they are Navy sailors, corpsmen assigned to the Marine Corps frequently adopt Marine customs, wear Marine combat gear (with Navy insignia), qualify with Marine weapons, and endure the same deployments and combat conditions. Marines...

Chapter 1 The deck under Captain Elara Venn’s boots gave a long metallic tremor as Argosy Wake settled deeper into the current, not a violent shudder but a steady, living strain that traveled up through the soles of her boots and into her spine. Somewhere below the bridge, the current-sail assembly flexed against charged dark matter and the whole ship answered with the familiar submarine chorus of hard-used machinery: cooling pipes ticking, bulkheads muttering, a low reactor hum held just beneath hearing. Ahead of the bow, the forward screens showed the conduit as a braided river of pale electrical haze threading a blackness so complete it made the light look painted on glass. Silver static drifted over the display in soft waves. At the helm, Mara Quill kept both hands fixed on her controls and made a correction so slight it barely moved her wrists, yet a run of warning chimes answered from navigation like something annoyed at being touched. “Current wall is thinning again,” Quill said...

Chapter 3 In the Warehouse The warehouse remained silent. Tucker Nash sat slumped in the metal folding chair exactly as he had been left. His head hung slightly forward, shoulders drawn back unnaturally by the ropes binding his wrists to the chair frame. The position forced his spine into a slow ache that had settled deep into muscle and tendon hours ago. He did not move. He had awakened long enough ago that the fog of the tranquilizer had fully burned away. By his internal reckoning—counting breath cycles, measuring the dull progression of muscle fatigue, tracking the intervals between the faint water drips echoing somewhere across the concrete—at least three hours had passed since he had regained consciousness. Possibly four. Without sight or useful environmental cues, exact time was impossible. The hood that had covered his head until recently had removed the last fragments of orientation the human mind relied upon. Darkness erased spatial reference. Silence erased movement. The bra...

The armory smelled like the inside of a spent casing—burnt powder, CLP, hot steel cooling on racks. Fluorescents buzzed overhead, harsh and white, bouncing off cinderblock walls and steel cabinets. The mood was quieter now, post-evolution focus settling into the familiar rhythm of teardown. Delta Team moved through the space in practiced sequence. Doc sat at the bench, HK416 broken open in front of him, bolt carrier in his hands, patches darkening as he ran them through. Boomer leaned over the M240’s receiver with a bore light, lips moving silently as he counted passes. Keys worked with methodical speed, MP7 laid out in precise order, every part where his brain expected it. Rip’s big hands looked almost gentle guiding a cleaning rod through the SR-25 barrel. Breaker knelt beside Ceasar, wiping carbon from the dog’s vest hardware, the Doberman’s tongue lolling between lazy pants, ear muffs hanging loose around his neck. “Slide that solvent,” Doc said, hand out. Keys nudged the bottle hi...