ColumbusGuy

A whole week to wait?! Okay, I'll try to be patient my friend. The Old Man is intriguing in his own right, but that he has powers Kieran can't fathom makes him a source of potential training, and maybe a suitable King in his own time.... I can't help but think that the current one has gone wrong and his advisers are to blame. 😸

Hmm, high school, athletes, red-heads...a rusty truck. This sure feels like home! Great to see Jasper again...when's the shirt coming off? OH--and a fun chapter too min ven.

See, I'm being cautious about my readers' mental health! How considerate of me--but I'm easily distracted by shiny stories, and that's my own downfall...I'm pledging to moderation in my own devouring of treats, so I'll try to get things posted more frequently. Several scnes in my head for tihs next chapter or two, and some for my farm boys too.

A lot of questions raised...have I thought of them in my plot? :X Maybe there'll be some answers in the next fragment...unless the GA intervenes....

Well, these certainly aren't the normal bikers that come to mind....Rob again shows the considerate side of his nature. Here's a question maybe someone can answer: when I try to use an emoji from the drop down list, it shows up at the beginning of the post rather than were I want it...whatu's up with that?

Oh my god, that never occurred to me! Bravo my dear!

Is it a program, or could it be something in the code itself? Oh wait, only the first run failed.... Who is behind this mystery? Was that Hartmann's original plan? Of course, would the same thing happen if Ernst uses one of the old machines--somehow the files on it were updated. Curiouser and curiouser.

Ponder away--speculation is free. If I wrote faster, I'd be illegible--oh wait, that doesn't apply to pixels.

“What the hell is that?” The medtechs stared at the analyzer screen in surprise. He was using a system unconnected to anything in Tycho Deep so far as he knew—and yet, the screen had just gone blank after a swirl of colors. There had been two confirmed genetic lines in the subject’s genome, and he’d been attempting to identify a third with some hope of success until the technical glitch had occurred. A normal genetic profile combined two sets of DNA of course, one from each parent…so why w

I'm thinking this isn't really the barren world unless their last 'jump' went extremely far. This old man will hopefully be an ally against the King and his advisors, and will clue Kieran in on what's going on. Cats will be cats, even giant-sized ones. :)

Glad to see you're still with us, Def! Yeah, there's something coming up that is biggish--it was a real event from my high school years, but that's all the hint I'll give for now.... Remember way back when I said there was something real in every chapter? Well, some were events and others were things from my world--this one's an event.

Judging from the morning banter, Nelson is a good fit into this family--just makes me wonder if Eric will be able to cope with all the wordplay he's in for each morning. There are no half-wits in this family. :) Oh by the way min ven--I hate you! Pancakes was always my favorite food along with eggs, and I miss them so much now that they're harder to make for me....:(

I'm glad we went with a toy cat, and maybe Theo will go for a Siamese... :) I have no favorite type, though I've owned some of each of the three models: Traditional, Classic and Modern. The modern ones are so overbred to show standards that they are unhealthy due to the growing wedge-shape of the heads and thinness of the skeletal structure. Classics were popular in the 50s-60s when I was little, and we raised them for a time--not skeletons and the heads were just right and tails were still kinked and eyes crossed. Healthy and svelte. The Trads were the original model that came from Siam in the 1880s and were sturdy, muscular, with the blue crossed eyes and kinked tails that were said to prevent the loss of rings put on them while the owner bathed. The one in my avatar is a Trad, Genghis, and I had his sister Bortai at the same time. He was a Seal and Bortai was a Tortie-Seal. The most recent Classic I had died in 2008 and was a Seal. Before that and when I owned Genghis and Bortai, I had taken in a Modern Lilac point from a neighbor who found him on the street. Enough on Siamese, except to say that mine were always friendly to me and my friends, and only the Lilac was very talkative...the others meowed occasionally, but mostly purred. The Lilac who I called Kublai, loved to meow when I talked to him and when I'd get home from work before settling down to purr at me. He was on the message of my old answering machine until it died and I had no way to copy the micro tape. He died of kidney failure at age 21 just before I got Genghis and Bortai. Can't wait to see what the tattoo says!

An old man...giant cats...is one of them Macavity? Perhaps the man is named Possum, or Eliot. :) Now we have cats, the story has reached the highest plane of existence....

Hmm, I'm envious. In a few lines you've summarized the point of my 57 chapter story dealing with the recovery of pains from my past...and I'm not done yet. Sigh. Mucho hugs my dear.

All I can say is that this is one of the most imaginative and intriguing tales in my five decades of reading science-fiction. Once I picked up reading in first grade, the Dick and Jane books got boring and by third grade I was ordering books from Scholastic Books Services then, and the first was one called 'The Runaway Robot'. I forget the name of the author, but I was hooked on the genre from that moment on. By fifth grade I was trying my hand myself with bad short stories in longhand on notebook paper. I won't go into the alien invasion by a canine species who are tamed on first contact by being petted. Sigh, I was ten or so...gimme a break. I've gone through all the classic authors from Asimov to Heinlein and Sawyer, but Mike Arram's world has combined my love of futuristic drama with history which has always been my second major interest. Early Modern Europe wasn't my favorite era, but through this story I could appreciate the intricacies and contradictions very well, and I hope he'll do another book in this universe. Well crafted, Mr. Arram!

I like all your suggestions min ven, except the kitten one--a stuffed one rather than a real one is good until they can be parents to the real thing. I'm not fond of using animals to placate hurt feelings or children--they're living things with emotions and not something that can be discarded when you get tired of them, or the giver. Will Sablo know the extra bicycle is for their apartment? Bike racks aren't usually specifically numbered for such things if I recall from my youth. Still, the 'evil imp' idea is intriguing, but I hop e you don't do that to our couple. That could be extended to Ayil possibly being in league with one by lending the bike.... Mehr, bitte!

I'm glad your health problem is better, and good luck with the new job and computer! Bastian sounds like the only 'iffy' newcomer so far...lets hope he hates Larry who seems to be a recurring problem.

Seems I missed this chapter until now, so it's on to the latest next. It'll be nice to find out what was happening outside.

When I began reading this story, I was confused by the appearance of so many royal traditions, thinking it was alternate history rather than a science-fiction story. Once the erdbeesten were mentioned it started to come clear, and the evolving mystery of the colony and its history was enthralling. I know things have been resolved in the broad events, but I'd love a sequel involving more about the future as it will unfold, and perhaps see if other colonies exist in the records. And what of Earth? 'Unrest and plagues' sounds like a war or at the very least a regression, but it would be interesting to find out--maybe some people on one of the colony ships could go back? However it might go, I'd love to read more of this world. Thank you Mike!

Hmm, I'm torn for a new word to describe you....poet isn't suitable in my opinion because the genre is so often a hodge-podge of things you can't classify. Blank verse to elegiacs...rhyming couplets to work-a-day song lyrics. No, where is the hint of skill and craft in that four-letter label? Lessee, 'wordsmith'? infers much hard labor and tortuous toil for a result...and that's often true, but dulls the sense of beauty and joy these works provide.... I think I prefer 'word-wright', as that implies a long-learned skill and artistry that appears lacking in the smith. I like to think of poems as crafted things much like a painting with words, or a vessel to convey our emotions from one person to another. Okay--let's give a cheer for our Gary, respected Northern Wordwright!

Thanks Tonyr. Did you read the Christmas story with Jay and Jerry? I've been wanting to have him show up for ages, but he's sorta locked in to coming for Linda's graduation in a month or so...some things will happen at her big day. Gotta get her to the Prom of course, first so she can do the dance for JM. Since I didn't get to the event I wanted in this one, the next one is 'planned', so it should be here soon.

Hmm...I think the boys have repaired the damaged figure from the earlier dream--and what's up with the comm-center that might have caused the earthquake? Kristijan's mind in the Overworld, and Felix has passed over...what is the Baron up to? And that aged Patriarch is making pretty good time for a near octogenarian.

Thanks Richard, I'd love to think this sounded believable in terms of Native religious practices, I did a fair amount of research to get my facts right. Oh dear--perhaps you missed my other short stories too? On the front page of this story there is a section called 'Other Stories by Columbusguy' that lists my stuff.. Click on 'View All Author's Stories' for the complete list. In particular, there's a Christmas one with the Beckels called 'Jay's Special Gift', and a neat one called 'Dragon Quest'. I'm not trying to boast here, just think you'd like those if this one and Jay pleased you. I'm still trying to see how the next bit of this little story will go--got some ideas but the how of it eludes me just now.

Well, things are moving right along...and Vincef is going to get his due at last. Kristijan is teetering on the edge, but it remains to be seen which way he'll fall. I wish Felix could have lived.