Ted Archives

January 30, 2008

Ted: Tempered

Jake stood at the head of the stairs and called for his wife.

"Honey, where did you go?" Panic made his voice crack. Ever since her 'attack' while vacationing abroad, Sheila hadn't been the same. He was afraid for her safety, but didn't want to have to have her committed. Lately, her bizarre behavior made him think that was the only way he could keep her from hurting herself though.

Or from hurting the upstairs girl again.

He had searched the entire cottage before he heard the scratching coming from the basement.

As the strange blade descended, he remembered India.

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January 31, 2008

Ted: Marking Time

Day and night didn't matter. That was just local time. A 'day' to this band was the time between dying and being rejuvenated.

Col. Davis looked over the pers files of his troopers, looking for the most senior man present.

Armor Sergent O' Reily. Civilly convicted of sixteen rapes, twelve murders, eight arson with intent to kills, and two unnatural acts.

Rejuvenated: 99 times. Sentence: 100.

Damn, Davis liked O'Reily. He was a solid man in a valuable position. The next time he bought it, he would be buying six inches of wall. His name would go right Col. Brandt's.

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February 1, 2008

Ted: Ill Gotten

Jack looked again, emotionally unconvinced. The enormity of his find shook him to the core.

No more would he have to worry about the mortgage, or the kids college, or even Magda's doctor visits. He had found it.

When Phillips Petroleum surveyed out here in the twenties, they capped the proving hole because the volume to cost ratio was too low.

But now that oil was up to a hundred bucks a barrel, maybe it could be worth pumping.

He reached to touch the semi-buried pipe stub and was bitten by a rattlesnake.

The oil would wait another eighty years.

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February 4, 2008

Ted: Repeating the same thing and expecting different results has a name...

The Morningstar stood at his brother's door.

"Let me in. We have things to discuss."

The Lamb opened the door. "Shhhhh. Dad's asleep."

"And that's the damn problem, ain't it. He has been asleep for a fucking century. Did you see what the fucking ragheads did? They blew up a pair of retarded girls at the market. What the hell kind of father is he to allow that?"

"Brother, you know they have free will."

"Bullshit! Wake Him up. It's time for a change. What they do, He guides or allows, for they do it in one of His names."

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February 6, 2008

Ted: Cover Fire

Convicted Soldier Private Jeffery Phelps did not like his new duty station. They told him he would have the chance to make up for his crimes if he agreed to this assignment. They told him that the rejuv process was painless, just like waking up from a deep sleep. They told him he would be cured and returned to polite company by the time he was finished.

He was learning that they were lying mutherfuckers.

He pondered these things while he crawled for cover as the Slin marksman was trying to send him back into the tank.

Lying. Mother. Fuckers.

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February 7, 2008

Ted: Spool Up

She awoke in a panic, the stress on her body more than any woman should ever have to endure. She wondered why she felt so heavy. She wondered what alarm was she hearing.

She awoke again to silence, this time weightless. She remembered trying to punch the button, trying to make the noise stop.

She remembered now, she had to get the supplies to Ganymede. Women pilots ... higher G-forces. The plague...

The torch spooled up, and she blacked out.

She awoke in free fall, blind. She and the computer coupled her ship at the ring.

She never woke up again.

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February 11, 2008

Ted: 2009

He pulled the cartridge out of its pouch.

Depleted uranium was a dull gray on that cloudy gray morning.

His friend from 2109 smiled and nodded his approval. "Go ahead," he seemed to say. As always, he couldn't hear any sound from his friend, he could only try to interpret his friend's wishes.

He chambered the slug. It had taken him almost a year to hand make the titanium shell casings and high explosive chemicals for his homemade ammo. Five hundred and thirty seven rounds.

"Once you start, you have to be ready to finish." He remembered hearing that somewhere.

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March 3, 2008

Ted: The New Gods, Part Eleven

Sulek was sick, broken, in his mind, and nothing the Abbot tried could heal him. In his grief about his mortal family's rebuke, he broke his vows, fled the abbey, and took a wife to attempt to reclaim his lost humanity.

He Changed her enough so that could accept his seed. He Worked Changes on the plasm, then on the embryo. Changes that were forbidden. The highest Law of the Order was that one must never force a Change.

But Sulek wanted to be God among gods. Of course the birth killed his wife. Inconsequential.

Sulek named the child Tool.

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March 4, 2008

Ted: Facing the Enemy

In all the time that Col. Davis had been serving, he had never actually seen one of the Slin alive unless it was shooting at him. So when one appeared at the door to his quarters, unarmed, unarmored, with empty hands in the air, he froze in wonder.

The Slin looked like the elves of Old Earth legend; slender and fair, pointed ears and green tint to the skin. When Free Traders first came in contact with them over a century ago, they made the mistake of thinking that just because Slin were small of stature that they were weak.

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March 9, 2009

Ted: One for the Road

Jack was just getting ready to leave the bar when he met the frog. Now usually, Jack wasn't the kind of guy talk to frogs, but this one met him at the door and started croaking at him all the way to his car, hopping frantically the entire way.

"What is your problem, little guy?" Jack asked the tiny green and red frog.

"Croak," said the frog.

"Fuck this. I only had one lousy beer, I can't be this drunk."

"Crooooooaaaaak!" replied the frog, louder than any two inch frog had a right to be.

Then Jack saw the crow.

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