Call of Cutolo

     Our platoon had been in the alien rain forest for a little over five days. We were all worn out but in decent spirits. The planet’s gravity was a little more than 1G, but it wasn’t that bad. Some guys complained of headaches, others felt apathetic. I’ve always been a bit squeamish, and it wasn’t long before I felt like I had altitude sickness. I told the medic, and she gave me a small white pill. It worked well enough.      The planet was E-Class, one of the best we’ve ever visited. It had all the variables, including one large moon that was created from a collision with the next planet over. It had tectonic plates. It had Icecaps and a tropical equator. It had a huge number of lifeforms. Animals, reptiles, fish, birds, flora, fauna and everything in between. There were quintillions of insects worldwide. We all refrained from swatting too hard when things landed on us. We were there to experience the environment, plain and simple. After a month, t...

UNCLASSIFIED DOCUMENT NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE PRESIDENT WARREN G HARDING III'S FINAL STATEMENT      I had no idea I was the Anti-Christ. Nobody knew! It didn’t start out like in the movies. I wasn't killing people with my eyes. I grew up in a normal family. My dad was in middle management at a textile plant. My mom was an English teacher. I got along with my siblings. I had a totally normal, if not vanilla, upbringing.      After college, I didn't want to get a job, and I didn't want to keep going to school for post-graduate crap. What was I to do? Get into local politics, of course. After a long journey through local, state and national politics, I became the Last President of the United States! The whole thing took 23 years to carry out.      When I assumed the highest office in the land, my demeanor, humor, and attractiveness were at a peak. I was personable. People wanted to be near me. I remembered everything. Names, faces, places, ti...

    " Ah, sir? I, I think he’s still alive. Jeeziz!” The officer paused to hold back a visible retch. “I’ll get some EMTs up here, ASAP.”      The detective was middle-aged and in shape. He looked focused and present. He moved over to the officer and stood him up. “What? Are you some kind of an asshole?”      “I…uh,” was all the uniform could muster in response. 1      An hour ago, a bike officer called in a possible stolen vehicle. It matched a vehicle of interest in the Cassandra Heights abduction. Detectives Carlito and Messina met up with the bike cop about a half-hour later.      Carlito pulled his vehicle next to Officer Francis. He rolled down the window and let in the humidity. “Hey, beautiful. Where you been?”      “You want to hop in?” Messina quick glanced at the bicycle. They were in a non-descript area of the port district. “Throw it in the back.” He wiggled his eyebrows at Francis.  ...

     Julianne was lying on the rug in the foyer, sunning herself. She was a Golden Retriever, and she was about 6 years old. Her eyes are closed, facing the setting sun. She lets out a little phlegm garble, smacks her lips and opens her eyes. She squints and blinks away her sleep in the burnt orange glow.      Nearby, a bright blue spider, the size of a tarantula, sits on thin black rectangle on an end table. A small red light turns to green on the outside of the charger. One of the spider’s legs does a quick tap, tap, tap.      Julie gets up and arches her back, stretches and then does the dog shake. When she settles, she looks directly at the spider robot. A few of its limbs move randomly, as if they were also stretching.      She barks twice, sharp and high pitched. The robot tarantula springs to life. It scurries down the table and click clacks onto the hardwood floor towards the dog. Julie sits down and begins to happy pan...

     Bill looked like a simpleton, mouth agape and his bathrobe was stained and askew. He had on his visor, sitting on his couch. He’s “watching” a live broadcast that only he could see in his mind’s eye.      What he saw was an attractive (albeit a computer-generated) woman in a shiny outfit delivering the news “… researchers are experimenting with quantum communications, using ‘spooky action at a distance.’ NASA scientists are extremely optimistic that they can achieve some sort of real-time communication with the colonies on Io and in the asteroid belt.”      In the outside world, Bill says, “Wow.”      Full Immersion is a misnomer. It’s mostly full immersion. Full immersion could be dangerous, as you might imagine. Bill could still hear, feel, and smell things normally while he was plugged in.      Today, it was Buster. Buster trotted down the stairs and looked out the window. He barked a clipped soprano, fol...

     The ships arrived a few hours ago. Some are gigantic. I went home and closed the blinds. I watched a little bit more of the news, but I had to turn it off. I paced around a bit and decided to go upstairs to roll a joint. When I was up there, I could hear the emergency service klaxons of police, fire and ambulances. I also could hear at least one burglar alarm somewhere in my neighborhood.      I came downstairs and lit it. After taking a few hits, I had a coughing fit. As I was hacking up a lung, something incredible happened. A glowing cube about the size of a Rubik’s Cube fell right through the ceiling. It stopped in mid-air and silently rotated. Shocked, I stared at the glowing tesseract and started to hyperventilate. It seemed to be in more than one place, often looking like it had more than six sides. The rotating, glowing and pulsating cube had no markings. I looked at the ceiling where it fell through, and there was no hole. I looked at the flo...