Revelations

By Pam Crane

'Revelations' is a collection of futuristic and thought-provoking science fiction stories by Pam Crane. Two of them - 'Clouds on the Horizon' and 'Never' are written out of her decades of experience as one of today's most adventurous astrologers. 'Desert Island Disks' came out of her love of the long-running BBC radio programme - but there's a real castaway with a surprise in store! 'Pioneers' and 'Celebration' take us off-planet into other worlds; one is Mars, where there has been a catastrophe, and the second is a mysterious world that challenges its human visitors' tenacity and entire belief-system. Back on earth for the other four stories and four end-time scenarios, 'The Happiest Day of my Life' takes us into a post-Solar-Flare world - in stark contrast to 'Silver' where everything has frozen, 'The Greening of Terra' and the restoration of oxygen to a largely deforested landscape, and 'The Future of Fish' in which one tiny baby proves to be the future of humanity as the oceans rise and drown the continents. 'Intervention' could be set in any time - its superhero saves the world by terrifying the terrorists.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pam Crane
• Release date: Apr 28, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370618842

Pam Crane

Pam Crane has been a poet since she was seven years old; it was only when she joined her local Writers' Club that she found she could also write short stories. She has also been a Christian astrologer for most of her life, is well known in that community, and is the author of two books plus many articles in the Astrological Association Journal (for which she compiles the regular Cryptic Crossword.) You can find her website at http://revpamcrane.weebly.com.

Book preview

REVELATIONS

Ten Science Fiction Stories

by Pam Crane

Published by Shoestring at Smashwords

Copyright 2017 Pam Crane

Smashwords Edition, License Notes:

Thank you for downloading this free ebook.

Although it is a free book, it remains the copyrighted property of the author, and therefore may not be reproduced, copied and distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy at Smashwords.com, where they can also discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

CONTENTS

Desert Island Disks

Clouds on the Horizon

Never

Pioneers

Celebration

The Happiest Day of My Life

Intervention

The Greening of Terra

Silver

The Future of Fish

DESERT ISLAND DISKS

It was one helluva challenge. The BBC had been ruthlessly faithful to their brief: one celebrity, one unpopulated island, and the precise accoutrements of the regular castaway. Except that this time the island was uncompromisingly real, under the watchful eye of a GPS satellite, and in case of emergency their 21st century hermit would be issued with a digital beacon. Once this was activated there would be no going back; the Desert Island experience was over.

Adam had matured as a scientist and a popular presenter. He also fulfilled the other part of the brief - the DG wanted an Adam; symbolically it seemed apt for a man cast alone into his personal Eden. Several Adams had been considered - an eccentric scientist (too old and thus an insurance risk, though an excellent lateral thinker), a US pop icon (wouldn’t last five minutes without an audience, though a bell and a mirror had been suggested), an outstanding batsman (certainly possible but less motivated, and solo cricket is no fun), a comedian (short-listed but a touch too fastidious), a musician, really keen to chuck himself into the unknown and so nearly chosen simply because ‘maroon’ was the name of his band, and finally an ageing rocker ... but his name wasn’t really Adam, he had a history of instability, and was now too long in the tooth. Adam Winsford however was the right age, fit as a fiddle, highly intelligent, super-motivated, and ready to become his own socio-biological experiment.

Adam would be cast away with only the clothes he stood up in; so these had to be chosen with care. Did it matter if he got wet? Would he need extra warmth on a tropical island? Did he need clothes at all? In the end he opted for rugged linen chinos and a bush shirt, his most comfortable walking boots, a storm jacket and a Tilley hat.

The set books were going to be an encumbrance. Came the recording, and the last bars of Tom Lehrer’s Elements, and he was about to ask Kirsty, might I take the very smallest editions of Shakespeare and the Bible? when he had an idea - if instead he asked for a couple of really old books, those heavily bound Victorian family volumes that weighed a ton and never fell apart, they could be pressed into use as bench or table supports. His third book was a no-brainer. "Lofty Wiseman’s SAS Survival Guide, please, Kirsty." It was tiny. He could stick it in a shirt pocket as a constant companion. And his luxury would have to be a knife. Without a knife he was a dead man.

Three sweltering months had passed. He missed his nightly dram and had foraged unsuccessfully for jetsam to make a still. He was getting skinny and had let his beard grow. Ten mind-numbing weeks infiltrating the Alpha Course back in 2009 had put him right off religion, so all the poetry, wisdom and drama of the KJV was propping up a makeshift table in the hillside cave he had made his home. The bats he was sharing with made regular suppers; the messiness of distant coastal communities meant that here and there drift-nets washed up on his beach and he was able to use these to catch fish and small game. There was no shortage of containers for water collection - every storm brought a fresh pile of plastic gifts, along with useful timber, rope and salted bottles - but metal was scarce. His cooking had to be done amid hot stones. One day he found a lorry tyre and at last he had a comfortable seat.

He was rocking there now, shirtless, in the mouth of the cave as the rapid tropical twilight brought