Man Becoming More: Second Chance

By Fred L. Bond

This book of short Science Fiction stories was written with my ideas of the
direction mankind might take to avoid extinction as a spices. Over the billions of years
that life has existed on this planet millions of life forms have evolved and passed into
the dust of history because of the constant major and minor extinction events through
out Earths history that wiped out each new creature that had evolved in the past. Each
new form that survived possessed a more and more complex nervous system. The
development of a central nervous system, a brain, that became more and more complex
which gave each new spices a better chance to survive and so it was with mankind. These stories suggest some path ways that men might follow on the ultimate
goal of become a species capable of exploring and emigrating into this vast galaxy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 16, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469180687

Fred L. Bond

I was born in Ogden Utah and raised in southern Oregon. All my relatives are Mormon but I was not raised in the faith. I went through high school and then joined the Navy in 1957. I served four years aboard the air craft carrier Midway as a electronics specialist responsible for maintaining the radar which targeted the 5 inch guns. After I was discharged I went to Salt Lake City, Utah and studied Aquatic Entomology and water pollution Ecology at the University of Utah and was Married. After my BS I was hired by the Department Interior to help study the waters of the Eastern coast aboard the research vessel Clean Waters to determine the level of pollution of our coastal waters. I was based two years near Newark NJ. I returned to the University of Utah and obtained my MS in Aquatic Entomology and Microbiology. I joined FDA in 1970 and was based in Denver CO as a Microbiologist and specialized in the analysis of antibiotics. I was in charge of all 50 states for the analysis and detection of antibiotics in animal foods and feeds. I Retired in 1996. My home is currently in Aurora Co with my wife of 49 years.

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Copyright © 2012 by Fred L. Bond.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2012904755

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4691-8067-0

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4691-8066-3

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4691-8068-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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CONTENTS

Second Chance

Second Chance Part II

Immune

Soul Mates

The Sphere

Gods Match

SECOND CHANCE

Ben Banks stared out of the single port hole of his control cabin into a infinite black field of stars trying to find his target visually which showed weakly on his radar screen. The old style range finder’s screen showed that the object was 1,000 yards ahead of his survey ship but this should not be. His collision alarm which should have been sounding loudly, to warn of an obstacle directly ahead, was silent? He blinked at the screen with his near sighted eyes not convinced that the object was real but there it still was well within the set 10,000 yard safety zone. Shit, Ben grunted what the hell is wrong with that dammed alarm now? He immediately reached out to the engine control lever and eased it forward activating his two forward rocket engines which killed his ship’s forward momentum coast to zero miles per hour relative to the target. Wow, that was close we could have been splattered all over space if the radar hadn’t detected it in time, he muttered to himself, worriedly picking at his nose a habit that got on the nerves of his wife Diana to no end. They were getting on each others nerves a lot these days after weeks of searching and spending more and more time away from each other as much as they could in their small prospector survey ship. Diana, get your butt up here we have a problem, he said, on the ships intercom. Diana, who was preparing lunch in the ship’s mess replied, what the hell do you want? She had felt and heard the engines firing and wondered why the idiot was using fuel that was in short supply. I am right in the middle of cooking lunch and my soufflé will fall flat if I leave it. It better be dammed important. I have a sold object of unknown mass a 1,000 yards dead ahead and it doesn’t set off the collision alarms, he shouted. Shit, how the hell did he let that happen, she muttered to herself, as she sprinted for the stair way leading to the upper control cabin, her soufflé forgotten still wearing her pink kitchen apron. She entered the control cabin and ran to her control chair and sat down. She activated a deep pulse laser beam that probed ahead illuminating the unknown object on their screens.

It appeared to be egg shaped but the outlines of the egg shaped object were fuzzy and indistinct and seemed almost cloud like in its appearance. The mass indicator read, Zero? The radar unit said it was solid. They both stared at it in amazement, they had never seen anything like it before.

Ben and Diana were a husband and wife team. They were prospecting in the astroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The year was 2315 and they had invested their last New Era dollars on a down payment for their Metal Processing Ship or MPS. They had a huge mortgage to pay off when and if, they struck it rich.

They had left New Mars to seek their fortune in space. The astroid belt contained millions of astroids. Many contained valuable, elements, such as gold, silver, copper, water ice, and numerous other elements that were in great demand, on Earth and Mars. They had been searching for months and had not found an astroid that contained much more than iron or titanium now processed and stored in the hole of their ship, which would help pay the fuel bills but not make their fortunes. They had not made the Big Strike, like a large solid gold or even better uranium astroid that could help pay off their ship’s mortgage and put them on easy street, for life like others of their kind had done.

Ben slowly maneuvered the ship toward the egg shaped object until it was in range of their grappling arm. Diana could now reach out with the the ship’s arms to capture it. There was a flash of intense light the second the magnetic claspers touched the fuzzy surface of the object, "crap what