Ear Vu, a Sci Fi Horror story - Part 1 - Beginning

Last week I posted that today I would start a ten part series through this week of my latest short Horror/Science Fiction story, "Ear Vu" (7,185 words).

So, with this being an election year and more importantly, the Halloween season, I thought we could use some entertainment and a brief aside stretched over a week's time. Also, I'm planning on opening up my book, Death of Heaven, on Friday for free for one day in celebration of the release of this latest tale of my macabre tales. What the heck, I"ll also set up my novella, Andrew on Amazon for free on Friday and Saturday.

So, let's get going....

"Ear Vu"

Image by Marvin Hayes

I woke up late. But then I hadn't slept very well. So when I got to work I wasn't exactly on time. As it turned out, no one really noticed. The building was empty when I got there; except of course, for the Guards. Several hours later, still no one had shown up for work and I had to wonder. What happened to Garrison and Johnson? Johnson hadn't come in yesterday, either. No one seemed to be at home when I called later. No one called and no one answered their cell.

If there is no word by tomorrow, I’ll have to assume something significant is at play here. Could it be some kind of industrial espionage, kidnapping? If so, then why was I still here? Or, was I next? Certainly, this research is important enough. But for people to-- disappear?

If that’s the case then why one at a time?

About midday I spoke in the hallway with one of the Guards making security rounds. He told me that Johnson hadn’t signed out the night before last and it was the same for Garrison last night. So, where were they? I had left a little early yesterday for a dental appointment so I didn't know when Garrison might have left. Then the Guard said that still there were no signs of my coworkers today. I thanked him and he continued on with his rounds throughout the rest of the facility; our lab being only one of eight buildings in the complex that they canvassed on a semi-hourly basis.

Back in the lab, through the windows I could see the facility’s octagonal shaped center court with its eight encompassing buildings. Others were visible working in those buildings across from ours, quite oblivious to my concerns. There was nothing else to do but return to the day’s research. Actually, it was mostly paperwork today and most of that was number crunching.

Hours later, dusk began its quick decline. Those across the courtyard had mostly left for their homes and families. Though I was alone, I kept feeling a presence and I began to look over my shoulder from time to time. Tired, I had tried to take a nap at lunchtime, I just couldn't relax long enough to sleep. I stopped my review of the data on my monitor and looked around at the empty lab with its five walls and various offices and supply rooms.

`Where the hell are they?' The thought kept nagging at me. Who should I call?

I picked up a pack of Garrison's cigarettes that were sitting on one of the lab tables and absent mindedly removed one. I scouted around for a lighter. Finding none, I suddenly realized I had quit smoking years ago. My temper flared momentarily, inexplicably, until I remembered that it had after all, been my decision to quit. My nerves were on edge. I picked up my pen and tried once more to write the thoughts which these past few hours had continually eluded me; but I only found myself doodling, again. So I dropped the pen once more.

The lab seemed to grow quieter, emptier.

My thoughts drifted as I wondered what this new technology would bring. I found myself staring at the front lab door. Looking around I saw scattered bits of hardware, wires, fiber optics, microfluidics, and all the other junk we found easy to play inventor with. We had found a way to redirect residual heat into power which was redirected into cooling. The more it heated, the more it cooled and the faster the CPU cycles ran in an ever growing loop that increased in power until finally, it hit a plateau. But at that level of processing, the speeds were incredibly fast.

Applications of this technology alone would revolutionize computing power. But that wasn't what we had been working on. I looked around suddenly feeling very alone; yet, not feeling alone. Like someone was there in the room with me. It was eerie, bordering on fearful.

"Hello?" I said, feeling tired, finally giving in to the feeling. No one answered.

I went to the main door. Grabbing the knob, I turned it. Then I turned, looking back around the lab. Of the eight doors in our rather large lab, three of them went to offices for the bachelor scientists, us. This door led to the main hallway, several others to storerooms and one to a vault. There were “ALON” windows looking out on the center court of the complex. Each building was sealed off from the rest for security and safety.

‘Security, as well as beauty,’ I thought. It was a dramatic effect.

“Rats in a beautiful cage,” we called it among ourselves.

“Dynamic design,” the architects had called it.

I opened the door to the hall. Nothing, no one in the hallway. I closed the door, hesitated, then went to Johnson’s office. All the offices faced the main lab and had glass walls with curtains bordering them in the event there was any need for privacy, or darkness; but there seldom was. I tried the doorknob. It was unlocked as it naturally would be. After all the lab was well secured so we had no need to lock our offices within the secured room. There was nothing interesting inside.

So, I went to Garrison’s door and entered the plush office with its electronic debris scattered everywhere, pretty typical of all our offices. I walked over to the desk and plopped down in the chair. Garrison’s diary was in the middle of all the confusion there on the desk. He loved writing with pens and used a digital pen so that whatever he wrote into his journal was automatically transcribed into his laptop and then onto the lab’s NAS drive.

He had gotten us all into using those pens. They were pretty cool, actually. I kept mine in my jacket pocket. They would store a certain amount of data buffered that would transfer wirelessly as needed and as it could be configured for. There were many of these types of devices around the lab: digital whiteboards, iPads, etc. We were fully stocked with the latest and greatest.

I looked Garrison’s journal over more closely. The last entry was for last night.

"Will make a mag tape of the things for all to see. Interaction is affirmative. Johnson had said he would try. So, where is he?"

There had been a tape beneath the top of the journal. I picked it up, but it was unremarkable. It just said, “test” on it in Garrison’s handwriting. Looking around the lab through the glass wall of his office, I decided I might as well read the journal. After all, no one was around to interrupt me and besides, maybe there is a clue as to where everyone went.

Later today, Part 2

Last note before Monday's Ear Vu story release

Happy Friday! Well, this week has been fun putting together all this background on my story.

This will be my last note before the actual release of my macabre new Horror / Sci Fi story, "Ear Vu".

In a week from Monday I'll publish my original draft of this story. Then you can see how it had changed between the original concept  notes that I wrote a couple of decades ago and my by then, released story.  I will also offer a gift at the end.

But first a bit about my "process".

I've always had a strange way of writing drafts. When I was a technical writer I would have to gather all my resources, talk to the SME's (Subject Matter Experts), then write a draft up; write another draft, show it to my manager, make corrections; then write another draft, show it to the manager at which it was usually about 90% done, make final corrections and usually then, turn it in. I've had more than one manager question if I was going to get the paper done on time or completed fully and correctly. But for some reason, the change from the second to the last draft to the final, was usually quite remarkable.

One new manager I worked with was very concerned but I said not to worry, it's just my process. When I turned in the final draft, she was surprised at how well it all came together and incorporated so many changes so quickly and had became so polished.

"Ear Vu" by Marvin Hayes

It was just my "process". In tech writing there were frequently massive amounts of information needing to be compiled from a variety of individuals that all needed to be drawn up and finalized in a very short amount of time. Sometimes, to get the information from people, some of whom wanted nothing to do with talking to you, you almost needed to be a therapist to draw out what you needed from them. At times you needed to sooth their own time concerns (or ego), in order to get what you need to write the piece.

Why do I bring all this up here, and now? Because all of this had a lot to do with my writing process now. However in this case I'm now the SME. I'm using my mind, my past experiences, my remembered research all leading up to putting "pen to paper" (fingers to keyboard just doesn't have the same ring, does it?), for the current story I was writing, along with some new research and the story developed.

My transitions now from draft to draft are somewhat smoother than when I was tech writing, but those past writing experiences have still all added up to how my stories come together now. I did a lot of research for this little short story leading to a foundation for what exactly the "Ear Vu" technology is.

One recent reader/reviewer remarked how, "this technology actually sounds, reasonable." Which is a big compliment to the work I put in trying to support the contention of the tech for this story.

"Ear Vus" by Marvin Hayes

So. All that being said, just what IS "Ear Vu" technology?

Well, you will only have to wait till next week to find out....

Monday's Ear Vu story - characters

Monday next week will see the release here of my story, "Ear Vu".

I thought perhaps you might like a little non invasive back story on a few of the main characters. There are three scientists working in the lab together at the Sonni Facility. Dr. Michaelson, the protagonist and narrator, Dr. Verne Garrison, the lead Scientist and inventor of "Ear Vu" technology, and Dr. Johnson, their final teammember and fellow scientist.

Michaelson has had a diverse background in physics and quantum mechanics. He worked at NASA, and then JPL where he was loaned out to the CIA for a while. He then went to Bell Labs working on charge-coupled device (CCD) semiconductor imaging sensors. Then he worked at Great Britain's National Physical Laboratory and most recently came to the "Ear Vu" project directly from a Quantum Information Visiting Fellowship at the University of Queensland. Since he has been outside of the US for so long, neither Garrison or Johnson have met him. But they had heard of him and he is highly qualified. Personally, he has had multiple and somewhat disastrous relationships partly because he has moved around so much and partly because he simply can't settle down.

Leader of the team, Verne Garrison, taught for a short time at MIT and then worked at Sandia labs and then, CERN. Having done well in the stock market in the dotcom boom of the late 1990s, at that point he simply built his own private lab at his home which is situated on some beautiful and remote acreage. He finally hit a point where he needed access to equipment that he could never afford, so he shopped around and found a home with the immensely powerful Sonni Corporation. Personally, he had once been married and had a family with three children. Though he hasn't seen them in years, he stays in touch with his adult children, all of whom have prestigious positions in the sciences.

Finally, Johnson has a solid background in astrophysics, magnetic and string theory. He knew Garrison before their current work together and had studied under him at MIT. Personally, he has no relationship outside of his work. He is your basic nerd/geek type who finds all the emotional needs in his life supplied by his science and his work. What no one knows is that he put himself through college by making drugs, though he never himself used them. The fact that he compartmentalized well enough that he never got caught and never had a file built with the police, is a sign of his ability to remain calm and manage highly stressful situations.

This is the team that Garrison put together. He has always been absolutely sure of his ability to look into someone to see if they would be trustworthy and dedicated and, up to this point he's never been wrong. He fully believed he had put together the exact team he needed to complete their work. Loyal to one another,  tight lipped, nothing they were working on would be getting out. Security was supplied by the Sonni corporation in a secure building and so, all they needed to do now, was finish their work.

At this point Garrison was quite sure there will be nothing ahead but the joy of working out puzzles in quantum mechanics and building the electronics to play out the puzzles they would all solve together.

His planning had been impeccable. There would be nothing going forward, he was quite sure, but smooth sailing....

Next Monday - More on Ear Vu story

A little on my "Ear Vu" story series being posted starting next Monday.

In the story there is a company called the Sonni Corporation. This is not supposed to be the Sony Corporation. It is an invented company for the story and is not a hidden statement about Sony, but a conglomerate company reminiscent of some other real companies. They are diverse in high end electronics and other subsidiaries intimately tied into the military industrial complex.

by Marvin Hayes

Dr. Michaelson, the protagonist/narrator and one of the scientists, did not choose them as their benefactors, that was the choice of the inventor of the Ear Vu technology, Dr. Verne Garrison. Whether that was a wise decision or not, is up to the reader. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. You be the judge.

Find out next week. Maybe....

Tomorrow, I'll give a little more on the main characters.

Just what is Ear Vu technology?

I just wanted to mention that when I release my new short story, "Ear Vu", here next Monday, it is being released in pieces,  in ten installments, twice a day for five days. It is free and it will hopefully, be intriguing and fun to watch over the week. Of course you can simply jump on here on Friday after 9AM Pacific time and read it all at once, but I think it might be a lot more interesting to check in on it through the week.

Check it out, you might find it entertaining.

Who is this guy in the story, what is going on, where is every body and why is this happening? And what is this "Ear Vu" technology?

Tune in next week to find out....

Watch here next Monday for my newest H/SF story: EarVu

Many years ago, many, many years ago, I came up with an idea for a short story. I wrote down only some journal entries by a scientist. The story was about a guy who came up with a new, revolutionary technology that was so astounding, mind-boglingly disturbing that once word slipped out that it even existed, his life was pretty much forfeit. And he knew it.

Once word of it got out, industries, scientists, governments the world over wanted it. And at any expense. Not many heard of it, but enough, and of those were the powerful and dangerous so that he immediately realized he really had only one choice: sell it, and to sell it quick.

Originally the story was basically just about industrial espionage where he tries to sell it and doesn't get to finalize a meet he sets up where he would exchange the technology for money and be done with it. And he's right because there are already several other groups after him on his way to the meeting.

Anyway, jump to 2012. There used to be a Sci Fi magazine called Perihelion that had ceased publication back in the 80s. It has now been revamped and it relaunched this past weekend. The editor 

Sam Bellotto Jr. had put out a call for short stories under 7,000 words. So I looked through all my saved and unpublished writings and ideas and finally decided that this story that I've indicated, would be a good choice. Perhaps its time had finally come to make use of it. There were other idea and stories I could have used but I'd always wanted to make use this idea. So I opened the file and took a look.

What I found surprised me. I remember having written more about it than what I found in the file on my hard drive. I'm sure there is a file around somewhere detailing the scientist's concern and his trip to the meet to sell his technology and how it all went so very wrong. But I couldn't find that file. I had started to put it into a novel format, so it may be laying around somewhere in that pile. All I could find was the file with the journal articles in it.

Which was strange because I didn't remember writing it that way. But that is part of the fun of dredging up these old ideas and story pieces. I actually have several folders labeled "Ideas" under my short story, novel and screenplay folders and it's always entertaining going back over them when I'm looking for a new idea (or, an old idea no one else has thought of).

So decided, I got the story out and read it. Then I started rewriting it and in no time I was pushing the two pages of under 1,000 words up to 7,000 words. And so it evolved into something new. It went from it being one scientist to being several. It went from an inventor working in his garage to several scientists working in a state of the art corporate facility with a slightly different orientation on who the bad guys were and what the bad elements would be. It quickly fleshed out and became no longer a Sci Fi/industrial or government espionage story, and morphed into a Horror Sci Fi story (you see, I've been writing so much Horror lately that those elements just crept in).

So I finished it, had it read, made some updates and finally sent it off to the Sam at Perihelion. But, regretfully Sam turned it down because he thought it was too heavy on the Horror for what he wanted to be a "Hard Science Fiction" publication. Which was a judgement call on his side that I respect and after all, I knew that might happen. I had been hoping that having leaned so heavily on the technical, scientific side of things that it would balance out the Horror elements. But as I got turned down, obviously it hadn't. He did comment that he liked it a lot and offered for me to try again (and even offered me to write a Sci Fi movie review (I almost got to review, "Looper" but it fell through) and maybe I will get something in the second issue as he already had the first issue wrapped up by that time. And maybe I will write another Sci Fi story. After all, I started in Science Fiction way back in my youth.

I grew up on Horror and Science Fiction in films and on TV and later reading those genres. My first novels were of Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and other venerable first generation Science Fiction writers. Anyway, the story isn't getting published in Perihelionsf.com. I do recommend visiting the site, if you like Science Fiction. Give them a look. I'm all for supporting ANY Science Fiction anywhere in any format, as long as it is good. I really believe that we need Science Fiction. Human kind needs it.

The number of modern astronauts and scientists who were affected by shows and films like Star Trek and Star Wars years ago in their youth, is amazing. Science and Speculative Fiction give us respite from our lives and allows us to project possibilities into the future, offering a path, change, evolution, ways to better the lives of all people everywhere.

Okay, getting back to my story. I had put work into finishing it so then I thought, "Well, I have this nice little story and the few who have read it really liked it, including the editor of the Sci Fi magazine (and how many can say that?). So I might as well send it off elsewhere. I had already put it into my Anthology of Evil II that I am putting together as a follow up to my previously published, "Anthology of Evil" (I).

And then I had an idea. I'd heard other writers do this and the journal article aspect of the story could lend itself nicely to this idea; why don't I just release it here, on my blog, in piecemeal fashion over a period of a few days or a week?

And so, that is what I have decided to do. Starting next Monday, I'm going to publish my story, "EarVu" here on my Blog. Just be patient, the title will make sense. I will publish the first part next Monday at 4:20AM at my normal Blog publish time. Then I will published sections at Noon, each day next week until it is fully published.

I hope you enjoy it.

Romney for Nuclear War?

Consider This Scenario, think ahead, speculate a bit:

Romney gets in as president. Eventually they manufacture a war.

Couldn't happen? Really? Remember "W" Bush? Remember Iraq? Remember what never existed? Remember the, WMDs?.

So Romney gets a second term (again, remember Bush?).

Then they manufacture a second incident allowing Ryan to become President. A new and far worse situation evolves from the manufactured incidents over the previous eight years so that it is obvious to everyone what the next step has to be. Almost the entire world agrees. Then it suddenly becomes "necessary" to launch a nuke against a middle eastern country (or North Korea, or someone new).

Pre-emptive nuclear war will then become the new policy.

It will be a "New World Order" that the right wingers were so afraid of. Funny how that New World Order would come from those you least expect it from: those who were most afraid of it (afraid that is, only if it isn't them).

Obama won't seem to have been so bad, then. But by then it will be too late.

So, be very careful who you vote for in the next election. You could end up doing the wrong thing thinking you can't be wrong, and never have a chance to do anything to fix it.

Just remember, if that happens, you were warned.

NPR article, read between the lines, project into the future, use, your imagincation: 
Debate Preview: Romney Aide On How GOP Nominee Would Confront Iran