Awaiting Procreation & For Mother

By Adriaan van Garde

This free e-booklet by Adriaan van Garde contains two short stories.
In Awaiting Procreation you will learn about the evil that could befall humanity in the coming decades. It is a Pandora's Box kind of story that paints an apocalypse not caused by stupidity and barbarism, but rather by good intentions and unfathomed trust in science. The story is told in a style that reminds of classical misinterpretation comedy.
For Mother is a modern soldier's story which describes the mother of all battlefield traumas. Big chance that at the end of the story every reader will draw to the same conclusion, with the exception of generals perhaps.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Adriaan van Garde
• Release date: Jan 4, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310977329

Adriaan van Garde

Adriaan van Garde was born in postwar reconstruction year 1951 in the old town of Dordrecht, a former seaport. After discarding the usual boy's dreams about occupations like nuclear physicist, foreign currency arbitrager or spiritual healer, at the age of sixteen he decided that he would be a writer. At first glance an understandable decision, since his creative mind produced a plentitude of ideas. However an illness from his childhood had drowned his mind in a strange blanket of mist which prevented the translation of these ideas into stories. The result was that he suffered from a writer's block the very moment he decided to be a writer. This tragedy has led to his ever increasing withdrawal from public life.Awaking one morning in the autumn of 2007, he discovered that the mist blanket in his mind had suddenly gone. Shortly after this discovery he met an old friend from his youth whom he showed his notebook full of ideas for stories. His former townsman was immediately thrilled by these ideas, and he encouraged Adriaan to write down his stories. The friend also offered his help in finding publishers and in promotional activities. Reluctantly at first, but later with growing confidence and enthousiasm Adriaan commited his stories to paper. Finally, after forty years, he could realize his dream of becoming a writer.Adriaan writes fiction of all sorts; he does not confine himself to a single genre. On the contrary, he prefers to mix elements of different genres in his stories. His favorite genre however is science fiction.Adriaan van Garde werd geboren in de oude havenstad Dordrecht in het wederopbouwjaar 1951. Na de gebruikelijke jongensdromen over beroepen als kernfysicus, valuta-arbitrageant of gebedsgenezer besloot hij op zijn zestiende levensjaar dat hij schrijver zou zijn. Aan materiaal had zijn levendige geest geen gebrek, maar een ziekte uit zijn jeugd had een tot heden onbegrepen sluier over zijn geest gelegd. Dat hield de verhalen die hij bedacht bovenkamers, zodat hij direct na zijn besluit met een writer’s block werd geconfronteerd. Deze tragische omstandigheid heeft ertoe geleid dat hij een steeds teruggetrokkener bestaan is gaan leiden.In het najaar van 2007 echter ontdekte hij opeens dat de mist in zijn hoofd was verdwenen. Tijdens een toevallige ontmoeting met een oude jeugdvriend kort daarop liet hij deze zijn aantekeningenboekje met verhaalideeën zien. Zijn voormalige stadsgenoot overtuigde hem ervan nu echt een begin te maken met het opschrijven van zijn verhalen. Eerst voorzichtig, maar gaandeweg steeds enthousiaster begon hij zijn verhalen aan het papier toe te vertrouwen. Met het resultaat dat Adriaan zich nu dan eindelijk echt schrijver mag noemen.Adriaan schrijft fictie in de ruimste zin van het woord. Hij beperkt zich niet tot een bepaald genre; het liefst mengt hij de kenmerken van genres door elkaar. Zijn favoriete genre is echter science fiction.

Book preview

Awaiting Procreation & For Mother

Adriaan van Garde

Published by Cave Diem at Smashwords

Book Awaiting Procreation & For Mother © 2016, Adriaan van Garde

Awaiting Procreation © 2013, Adriaan van Garde

For Mother © 2011, Adriaan van Garde

Cover design © 2015, Arie Lodder

Robot ‘The Guardian’ by Jonnte (Jonas Eklund)

Grass by Predatron

English text editor: Charlotte Visser

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photo-print, microfilm or any other means without written permission from the publisher

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you want to share this book with others, please encourage them to download their own copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

First edition: January 5, 2016.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Awaiting Procreation

About Awaiting procreation

For Mother

About For mother

About this book

Introduction

Hello reader,

I'm glad you've made it to my first 2-story e-booklet. Don't expect the likes of space opera, galaxy-wide conflicts or eons of galactic empires. My main focus is mostly everyday life in the not too distant future (or on a distant planet). That's not only much more realistic, but it also gives me the opportunity to suggest what could happen to us if we don't change our behaviour. This old warning function of SF has stayed in the background too much the last decades. I strongly feel that it should return.

If you finish this little collection with at least a bit of satisfaction, please spread the word. It's very difficult to get noticed in the endless sea of self-publication.

Enjoy reading,

Adriaan.

website: www.avangarde.nl

twitter: www.twitter.com/adriaanvangarde

facebook: www.facebook.com/adriaan.vangarde

Awaiting Procreation

High above the planet a space station rotated in a Clarke orbit. It consisted of a large sphere with a long tube extending from it, which carried solar panels near the sphere and further outward half-open rings at fixed intervals. From almost every angle the construction resembled the skeleton of a giant flying dinosaur. Harsh sunlight, falling through small round windows in the rotating sphere, lightened up a control room. A human figure was visible, sitting in a chair in front of a control panel with dead screens. It did not move. In fact nothing moved, not even dust. Suddenly however there was a slight shift