Moving Pictures

  Space Colony Jupiter By Bob Carlson Part I: The Long Fall Inward Jupiter had been growing for thirteen months. Not suddenly, not dramatically—not like the vids back on Earth where gas giants rushed toward the viewport in cinematic time-lapse. No. Jupiter grew the way mountains grow when you hike toward them day after day. Imperceptible at first, then undeniable, then oppressive. Desmond Hale stood at the forward viewport of the Transit Vessel Huygens , hands clasped behind his back, watching the bands of cloud slide and twist in colors no artist had ever fully captured. Rust reds. Burnt ambers. Pale creams like old bone. The Great Red Spot was visible now, no longer a feature on a screen but a living storm large enough to swallow continents. It churned slowly, patiently, as if Jupiter itself were breathing. Thirteen months ago, Jupiter had been a coin held at arm’s length. Now it filled half the sky. Another week and it would dominate everything. Desmond exhaled and let...

  This Asteroid Mine is Mine Bob Carlson Part 1: Iron and Silence The bridge of the Ardent Vale was cathedral-quiet, the kind of quiet that only existed when hundreds of machines were working perfectly. Captain Elias Rourke stood at the forward viewport with his hands clasped behind his back, boots magnet-locked to the deck. Ahead of him, the asteroid filled most of the view—a jagged, metallic continent floating in black nothing. It rotated slowly, patiently, as if it had been waiting a few billion years for this moment. Inside it, the Ardent Vale was eating away at it. “Processing efficiency at ninety-eight point seven percent,” the control robot said. Its voice was smooth, neutral, and utterly devoid of pride. “Material separation remains optimal.” Rourke didn’t turn. “You said that an hour ago.” “Efficiency has not meaningfully changed in that time,” the robot replied. That figured. The ship was enormous—nearly two kilometers from bow to stern—and yet it felt small so...

 So what have I been doing in the many years since I last blogged here? In 2017 I set a goal to write a series of 10 sci fi stories. They actually started as screen plays but I didn’t do very well in that format. I decided to write them as short stories instead. And rewrite them dozens of times over the years. Well I finally got a little AI assistance to critique them and fix them up a bit. All 10 stories are now done. I posted them to Substack over the last 3 months. Apparently no one is reading them there.  So I’m doing some last minute quick edits and posting them here. Not sure they will find a dedicated audience other than me but we shall see.  

  A Simple Merger Bob Carlson Part One: The Room Where Nothing Is Renegotiated The room was too large for the number of people in it. That was deliberate. Space created silence, and silence created compliance. The meeting chamber occupied the top three floors of Arbitration Spire Nine, a structure grown rather than built—its walls extruded molecule by molecule from a self-healing composite that absorbed sound, light, and most forms of human bravado. The ceiling curved upward into a translucent dome, through which the hazy glow of orbital traffic painted slow-moving arcs across the room like the passage of indifferent stars. A single table dominated the center: obsidian-black, perfectly oval, without seams or visible supports. It was long enough to seat fifty, though fewer than half that number occupied it now. On the eastern side sat the representatives of Helios Extractive Systems , the larger company. Eight humans, evenly spaced, posture-trained into stillness. Their cl...