Teaser Two

The following is an excerpt from MoriaVaratu, Book One of the Morian Trilogy.

 MC walked towards the time-worn statue in the center of the room. Gene turned and followed her curious to what she had seen. There in the flickering torch light he saw them. Four crystal skulls neatly lined up at the base of the statue.

"Whoa!" He said under his breath. "Unbelievable."

"Gene,” she asked in a reverent tone, “do you know what these are?"

He answered her question with only with a slack jawed look. He just stared at the
artifacts on the floor in wonder.

Dr. Sullivan bent over and picked one up. It was obvious that the skulls were solid throughout from their sheer weight. She handed the first skull over to him. He expected it to be cool to the touch after sitting in the darkness, but to his surprise, it was warm and seemed to vibrate slightly in his hands.

All of the sudden he wanted to know what they were and realized Dr. Sullivan was doing something he had come to hate over all the years they'd worked together. She was pausing for dramatic effect, building suspense. He had learned to counter this move by pretending not to be interested which he could not do in this case. Gene gave in quickly.

 "Mary Catherine?" he shrugged impatiently prompting her with a hand gesture almost dropping the skull he clutched.

 "These are the four skulls of wisdom," she said excitedly.

 "Do you mean the holy relics supposedly used by the Incan Sun God?"

 "No, the Sun God is Inti," she answered shaking her head. "Viracocha, he that came before Inti. These skulls were said to be the source of all his power. A power that was said to bring enlightenment and death, depending on the god’s mood. It was written that Viracocha used these to bring down fire from the sky and vanquish the enemies of his people."

 "It seems there is still power over fire still left in these skulls," he replied. "Check this out."
He moved the skull he held in his hand further from the torches' flame and it sputtered out plunging the room into complete blackness. He then moved it back toward the torch and it leapt to life again.

 "Incredible," she breathed. "Gene this is the holy grail of pre-Incan beliefs."

 "And WE are the ones who’ve uncovered it!" Gene said excitedly with giddiness. "This is absolutely amazing."

"Apparently these pre Incans,” Gene added reverently, “were more advanced than anyone has ever imagined."

"You may be more right than you know Gene." she bent over and picked
up an object that was tucked behind one of the remaining skulls hiding in shadow. She blew a layer of dust an inch thick off the object.

"What the Hell’s that?" he gasped.

In her hand Dr. Sullivan held a very peculiar object having a metal casing with a flat crystal mounted on one side resembling a display screen about two inches square.. It fit in the hand much like a small sleek cell phone having three crystal buttons set just below the screen. She turned it over in her hands and noticed the metal was stained with rusty blood.

 

Want more? Check out the Morian Trilogy available on iTunes, Amazon, BarnesandNoble and Lulu.

Brief Encounter

Today is a teaser for my own trilogy of Sci Fi thrillers, The Morian Trilogy. I hope you folks out there enjoy.

The Professor fought exhaustion as he leaned over the specimen that lay splayed out upon his examining table inside the main lab of the Department of Anthology at the University of Arizona. He had spent the entire evening exhuming the undamaged part of the brain and intently studying it’s tissue, now he was anxious to discover more as he trained his attention upon the stomach.   A pungent smell emanated from the creature’s abdominal cavity as the man carefully cut away thick hide and layers of skin to expose the inner organs. His excitement staved off any nausea as he used a probe to inventory the beast’s insides.

“Fasinating,” he breathed through his surgical mask with eyes wide behind the lenses of his spectacles.

“Dr. Radford,” his young dark-haired intern’s voice echoed around him as she spoke into the intercom on the other side of the tempered laboratory glass. “There are two gentlemen here to see you.”

“Tell them I’m extremely busy and can’t be bothered,” he blurted irately without taking his focus from the cadaver.

The sudden opening of the door made him turn as two impeccably dressed men barged into the room without having scrubbed or donning masks.

“You can’t come in here!” Radford shouted standing abruptly sending his metal chair scraping across the tiled floor. “This is a sterile examining room! Just who in the hell are you?!”

“I am Agent Valdstar from the United States government,” the lead man said flashing a smile and a badge. He ordered over his shoulder, “Mr. Daemlind, will you please take Dr. Radford’s assistant outside.”

The second man nodded and grabbed the young lady forcefully by the elbow wheeling her around exiting the room.

“So, my dear Professor,” the agent said still smiling approaching the table and scanning the beast, “El Vampiro de Moca, captured at last. Tell me, what have you discovered about the Chupacabra so far?”

“I-I j-just finished” the college professor stumbled, “finished studying the b-brain. I b-believe the specimen is part h-human.”

“Really?” the agent wheeled around still smiling setting the professor at unease. “What made you draw that conclusion?”

“I was just about to send a sample to the DNA lab,” Radford stopped in midsentence and turned asking skeptically through squinted eyes. “Just what department of the government are you with?”

Fear gripped Dr. Radford’s heart as the smile before him broadened and two fanged teeth grew on its fringes.

“The Department of Unexplained Phenomenon,” was the response. With lightning speed the agent lunged forward planting two needle sharp teeth deeply into the professor’s neck and hungrily gulping the man’s blood until the spectacled eyes glazed over in death. He then unceremoniously threw the dead body to the ground as he swooned within the moment of euphoria that followed every feeding.

Popping back into the room the other suited man wiped blood from his chin with an expensive silk handkerchief while staring at the body on the table.

“This one was one of your offspring, was it not?”

“One of my first attempts,” agent Valdstar nodded, “at mating with the humans.”

“These animals are becoming too cleaver,” Daemlind responded pensively. “We need to be more careful or they could disrupt our plans.”

“Humanity is too unintelligent to grasp what is on the horizon,” the first agent responded indignantly. “They are but mere sheep put here by the Universe for us to herd.”


All three volumes of the Morian Trilogy are available on Lulu.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Amazon.com and iTunes. For links visit: www.darksideplanetpress.com

 

 

 

 

 

Clash of Class

The year is 2154 and life for the residents on an impoverished and over-populated planet Earth is tough. Deplorable slum-like conditions have bred disease, pollution and misery diminishing the value of life of the race of humanity on the surface. There are two classes of what is left . The lucky few of the higher class have established an antiseptic utopian society on a massive orbiting space station that can been seen from the urbanized ghettos on the planet far below. Called Elysium it has become a symbol of social unrest for those who have nothing... and nothing left to lose.

While disease and unrest run rampant on Earth the citizens of Elysium live in excessive wealth and health. All disease has been cleansed for every home upon the orbiting station possesses a healing chamber. The impoverished peoples on the planet risk everything to escape the gritty life to immigrate to the station. Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster), a government official, will stop at nothing to enforce anti-immigration laws and preserve the luxurious lifestyle of the citizens of Elysium. She will also stop at nothing to take over the governorship of the high class society as she plots against the powers that be.

Matt Damon plays a reformed deviant, Max, striving to survive the harsh conditions in the ruined urbanized overpopulated slums of Los Angeles. He finds himself backed into a corner after an industrial accident exposes him to a lethal dose of radiation and he is given only five days to live. His only hope of survival is to get to one of the Med Bays upon Elysium and is unknowingly pulled into Delacourt's take over plot. The Secretary sends her henchman Kruger (Sharlto Copley) to stop Max.

Fast paced action and excellent special effects make this movie a pretty fun ride. Copley plays his role as Kruger ruthlessly and becomes one of the more memorable bad guys in recent Science Fiction film history. I found it a bit unsettling to see Jodie Foster in the role of villain, because I have pulled for her as a character for good on so many occasions, but she pulled it off superbly. Matt Damon has always been a favorite (I picture him as my main character Dr. Brandon Jordan in the Morian Trilogy).

Sadly though, as the movie came to fruition, I found it falling a bit short of being great. While the special effects and fast pace make it worth the view, the plot fails in several areas. There is not enough perspective given on life of the actual residents of Elysium. It is as if director Neill Blomkamp
 in World War Z fashion rushed the ending of the movie (see earlier post World War Z ip). Though the movie is worth seeing once for its special effects and social commentary it falls well short of BlomKamps break-through Sci Fi epic District 9. 

I give this movie 3 1/2 stars

Fast Paced Drama

ALMOST HUMAN is a high-tech, high-stakes action drama set 35 years in the future. The uncontrollable evolution of science and technology has caused crime rates to rise an astounding 400%. To combat this, the overwhelmed police force has implemented a new policy: every human police officer is paired up with a lifelike combat-model android.

Last week I tuned into the pilot episode mainly because I was curious. What drove me was the fact that Karl Urban portrays the main role of the troubled police officer John Kennex. I am a huge trekkie and I loved this actor's portrayal of Dr. Leonard McCoy in the latest generation of the series. He brings every bit of the same witty, sarcastic style to this new character. I was immediately hooked. Now, a week and six episodes later, I am completely caught up.


Kennex has a deep seeded hatred for androids because two years previous in the story's timeline he and his partner were abandoned by one of these mechanized police officers resulting in the death of his comrade and the loss on his own leg.  He awakes several months later abandoned by his girlfriend and sporting a prosthetic leg.

Urban's character is then recalled to the force by Captain Sandra Maldonado (Lili Taylor), and partnered with a standard-issue MX-43 android, which he promptly throws from his squad car while traveling the freeway. He is assigned a replacement android, an older DRN model originally destined for the scrap heap. Created to be as close to human as possible, the DRN androids have trouble dealing with some emotional responses, which was the reason they were replaced . Kennex's unit, known as Dorian (Michael Ealy), immediately proves himself unique, with a clear dislike of being referred to as a "synthetic".

The formula of this series has been tried over and over throughout television history, but what sets this futuristic cop drama apart from its predecessors is the report between Early and Urban's characters. Think Riggs and Murtaugh from the Lethal Weapon franchise. The pairing of these troubled characters is a perfect fit and the relationship forged within the partnership is witty and delightfully entertaining. Throw in a haunting soundtrack reminiscent of the movie Blade Runner and a plot incorporating non-stop action and superb special effects and you have a captivating television series hit. I have truly become a fan of this show. I give it 4 1/2 stars.

ALMOST HUMAN airs on FOX Monday nights at 8:00PM Eastern