Author: Martyn Winters

The call of the void. By Martyn

Published by Martyn Winters on November 12, 2024

The Gnome Office squad room is unpretentious; two ancient partner desks set at not quite right angles to each other, atop a threadbare carpet, which has seen better days, three one-way windows facing Number 8 Downing Street’s thronging protestors waving their “Gnomes Go Home” banners, and a surfeit of briefing papers covering every surface, each emblazoned with “Urgent: Office of the Prime Minister” and stamped in red with “PLEASE IGNORE – Office of Queen Flaxmain.”

The noise of disco music coming from the Serious Frog Office in the adjacent room seeps through the walls as a dull thrumming, just loud enough to create compression waves in Ironbell’s Bracken-Tea.

“Umros, could you ring the frogs and tell them to turn that racket down?” Inspector Camden Ironbell says as he plumps his flattened seat cushion for the third time that morning.

Dark Sun: The Dawn of Earth’s Twilight

Published by Martyn Winters on November 5, 2024

Chapter 2: Part 1. The Explorers

They call it the Million Year Rain. It is the clearest example of how the Zjheek implement their plans: they plan for eternity.

To the Zjheek, eternity is not a long time, as one of their most esteemed philosophers, Arkmontic Adamant Halting, says, “Eternity is right here and now. It does not have anything to do with time. Eternity is the part that cuts out time. It’s an experience of the moment. If you do not get it now, you will never feel eternity.”

When the Zjheek decide upon something it is literally for now and forever.

Which is why, when the Exploration Group enters System 7992, surveys it, and finds a planet orbiting slowly around its primary within the zone which allows liquid water to exist, they are very excited.

“The planet is arid,” says astro-biologist, Tattooed Windpipe. She pulls her feathers back from her face, where they fell while peering into her long-range telescope, and refastens the agate clip she uses to hold them. Wiping her upper hands on the front of her tunic to clean off the oil from her feathers, she bobs to the mission leader, Taupe Colouration and waits for his nod of approval to continue.

Dine – a Dune Parody – by Martyn

Published by Martyn Winters on October 29, 2024

I’m aware that my previous effort might be too schoolboyish, so I’ve written something else. This is an attempt at parodying Dune. Let me know what you think. Mart

PS. I’ve edited it down to 849 words.

The banquet was singular in its magnificence. It wound around corners, crossed planetary horizons, and hosted everyone with even a scintilla of regard in the Atreides court of Caladan. But it was not without its ambiguities. For the Atreides were about to depart Caladan, the very basis of their burgeoning power, for lands unknown.

“More beer,” demanded Gurney Halleck, his beard and grinning teeth vying for attention in a large face covered with enough scars to simultaneously attest to his bravery and underpin the notion his skill as a swordsman had been a steep learning curve.

A gravy new world by Martyn

Published by Martyn Winters on October 24, 2024

I’ve chosen “Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.” It’s a bit potty humour, so I have my doubts. A Gravy New World Chapter 1. A SQUAT grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over the main entrance the words GRUMP TOWERS NY, and, in a shield, the motto MAKE AMERICA WHITE AGAIN. The small room on the ground floor faced towards the north. Not that the solitary occupant would know it, for this room lacked windows of any kind, just a ceiling ventilator. And a can of deodorising spray. The light bulb has expired, which is a metaphor for the willingness…

Dark Sun: The Dawn of Earth’s Twilight by Martyn

Published by Martyn Winters on October 21, 2024

Chapter 2: Part 1. The Founders

As Tenvoice Desire made first dayfood behind the soft-fence surrounding the Zheek science mission’s compound, he listened to the morning cries of the flying creatures inhabiting the forest in which they pitched their laboratory and marvelled at the wealth of diversity their small expedition brought to fruition. In less than a Long Thought (8 x 10^7 orbits), his companions transformed the flora and fauna of their study world, elevating ferociously mindless, land-dwelling plate-backs into semi-intelligent avians, who were doppelgangers of the Zheek’s own evolutionary precursors, and carpeted the floor of the world with brightly coloured flowers. He hopped from foot to foot, joy spreading through his hearts, as their children zipped and zoomed through the canopy, chirping and cawing their delight at being alive.

“You look happy,” mate Timeless Wanderer said. She was leader of their clade, and the visionary mind behind their project to re-establish the slowly dying Zheek as the galaxy’s pre-eminent species. He glanced up from his preparations and noticed her back feathers were flat and the two red patches near the intersection of her hard-lips and wattle were vivid. She was in a mood to mate, albeit fruitlessly.

Defeat by Martyn

Published by Martyn Winters on September 22, 2024

“Defeat, when it came, was like a pall of smoke hanging over our heads, lowering our horizons,” Yeltsin said, sitting back in his chair, one boot on the boxwood table in the centre of the otherwise empty room. He lit a cigarette and took a deep draught, the livid scar near his mouth pinching into a white line as he inhaled. “That’s why we did the things we did. You would too. Anyone would.”

Dark Sun: The Dawn of Earth’s Twilight – the real effin prologue – by Martyn

Published by Martyn Winters on September 16, 2024

Prologue: Sede Vacante

When the dust of the universe finally settled, Father Vincente Mariani looked back at this day and realised he was mistaken. What mattered to him at the time would prove trivial, and what seemed trivial would in fact be a harbinger of peractum est. And the events of the day, as devastating as they seemed, were just the beginning of a long trail through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

The day began brightly enough, with sun and fried eggs on the small patio at the rear of his cottage, a bracing walk around the shops; chatting and blessing as he wove through the women in their faded best, laughing with the men and artists in frock coats and football shirts; and penultimately, but gloriously, a celebration of Mass in his small church high in the Italian hills, just fifty kilometres north of Rome.

Inspector Ironbell and the mystery of the Frozen Fae by Martyn

Inspector Ironbell and the mystery of the Frozen Fae by Martyn

Published by Martyn Winters on August 26, 2024

Chapter 1 – Part 1

S’tan, the Lord of Darkness, removed his cans and in a voice like lava flowing over a geology professor – smooth but with a shriek in the background – said, “What does ‘Smack my bitch up, like a pimp’ mean?”

Shadows flickered in the light of a thousand fires, as dark, rodent-like figures scurried through labyrinthine passageways to the Books of All Knowledge chained to serried ranks of desks stacked high with ancient tomes in the high galleries above the Hall of Kur. Trails of sulphur billowing in their wake as they ran, their red eyes flashing as they flicked through whispering folios of arcane script, the Librarians of Perdition sought the answer to their master’s query in a flurry of searching, their bladders weakening with every turn of a page.

Dark Sun: The Dawn of Earth’s Twilight by Martyn

Published by Martyn Winters on August 13, 2024

In this part, I’ve updated Captain Alois to Captain Cloutier. MW

Part 5 And by night he was a pillar of fire

S. Maribel’s mess, typically filled with animated conversations, was eerily muted that night. The off-duty crew, jaw muscles stretched tight, reflecting their anticipation of a critical day in prospect, ate their meals with their eyes fixed on the surface of the small grey table, folded out from the deck, midway between the processor stripes on the aft wall, and the forward console, which controlled the level of magnification available to viewers in what doubled, in the limited space of the craft, as an observatory.

It was Elias’s first time there, and he spent most of his time gazing, mouth open, at the vista he saw through the bubble of stretched-diamond composite which sat atop the ship. The scene on which his eyes rested was the wide band of the debris ring, set against the backdrop of the galactic star field, and intersected by the slow, tumbling comets, rich in blues and greens reflecting in Maribel’s lights, preparing for their descent into the gravity well like icy migratory whales readying for their swim to the calving grounds. Its magnificence almost caused him to break out into songs of praise, and he wondered if perhaps he should, if only to lighten the mood. Before he could, the compartment door swung open and Lieutenant Bright, followed by Doctor Wildbird, climbed through.

Dark Sun: The Dawn of Earth’s Twilight. Chapter 1 – Part 4. By Martyn

Published by Martyn Winters on August 5, 2024

In this scene, our protagonist sees the Redlines for the first time, and gains understanding of Dr Jane Wildbird’s name. I’ve also changed him from Fr Ellis Simpson to Fr Elias Banks. Part 4 Let there be light “Elias is here to see the Redlines,” Bright said, interrupting Banks’ thoughts. Alois nodded and tapped at the console adjacent to his chair, bringing the forward screen into glowing life. Elias stepped forward, peering at the displayed star-scape. As a child he would often run up the hill at the back of his parents’ farm after dinner and chores, and lie, spreadeagled,…