A prominent scientist has been murdered. Police suspect either her husband or one of her three children did it. Tomorrow News Network reporter Talie Tappler comes back in time to interview the family and expose the truth. According to Talie, “This is one of the strangest stories I’ve ever covered, and I bet none of you can guess who the killer was.” Click here to start reading “Tomorrow’s News Today.”
Seventeen-year-old Leo June has a crush on the Tomorrow News Network’s most popular reporter: Talie Tappler. Now his ultimate dream is coming true. He gets to meet her! All because his mother was brutally murdered, and according to Talie someone in the June family killed her.
Be sure to check out May’s short story, “Tomorrow’s News Today,” coming out on Thursday, May 10th.
It’s only natural to assume aliens are bad guys. When the Hykonians discovered Earth, they’d never encountered creatures so frightening as its ugly inhabitants. Though the Earthlings were savages, their rapid advancement suggested intelligence equal to or greater than that of Hykonians. Located within fifty light-years of the Hykonian home world, Earth posed a serious threat.
The Hykonian Technocracy, the council of scientists who ruled over all of Hykonian space, sent survey ship after survey ship to study Earth. They watched from a safe distance, occasionally collecting specimens for closer examination, and observed both human violence and human compassion. Their research reports warned that Earthlings were unpredictable.
But the most alarming news came when the Hykonians developed chronotheory, the science of time travel. Hykonian chronotheorists found signals broadcast backwards through time by an organization called the Tomorrow News Network. Through these broadcasts, they learned of the mighty Earth Empire, which would one day spread across the stars and wage war against the Hykonians for thousands of years.
Still, the Technocracy would not act. According to the chronotheorists, any attempt to change the future might cause the very war they wanted to prevent. So they continued to send survey ships and continued to study. They watched the humans grow stronger and smarter until one day in the Earth year 1947 there was an accident. A Hykonian survey ship crashed near a village called Roswell.
The events which followed, as depicted in “99 White Balloons,” would teach Earthlings to fear and distrust the Hykonians as much as the Hykonians feared and distrusted them.
An entire opera has vanished from history, and Talie Tappler is determined to find out why… even if it could cost her her job. Click here to start reading “The Opera of Machines.”
According to the rules, Tomorrow News Network employees are not allowed to change history. But time traveling journalist Talie Tappler doesn’t always play by the rules. She is prepared to risk her whole career so that a great musician can finish an unfinished opera. Her cyborg cameraman, Mr. Cognis, is the only one who can stop her.
Here is a preview from “The Opera of Machines.” The full story will be posted on April 16th.
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Once inside, Cognis made his way to the newsroom, the pulsing heart of the Tomorrow News Network. Full of sleek, aluminum desks and computers, lit by pure tungsten light and the glow of approximately 900 holographic viewlink screens, the newsroom utilized the most advanced technology in the known universe. Yet surrounding this high-tech facade were other machines, far older, tucked in shadows, built into walls, hidden in the darkest corners–cogs and gears, wheels and pendulums–keeping track of time in ways only ancient technology could. Quietly, the giant clockwork turned, following the backward and forward journeys of time travelers, compensating for them so that as history shifted the newsroom remained unchanged.
Writers and producers bustled about, checking sources and typing scripts while technicians edited video. A reporter and cameraman vanished in a burst of light, rushing off to cover a story in the past. They returned an instant later, their work complete.
Cognis turned when heard the distinctive clicking of high heels. Talie Tappler arrived a moment later, her skirt swishing around her long legs. “Mr. Cognis,” she said, “we are in a hurry.”
“Mr. Cognis!” Macnera cried. She ran across the newsroom, the joints in her legs buzzing and whirring, her pace out of alignment with her normal, steady gate.
“Cognis,” she said, staring at her feet. “My dear, sweet Cognis. I love you.”
A quick glance confirmed all the switches on her arm were in the off position. Something was wrong, but before Cognis could say so Macnera flung her arms around him and pressed her lips to his. The kiss proceeded so randomly, so unpredictably that it alarmed Cognis’s electronic mind.
Macnera pushed herself away. “I’m sorry,” she said, moisture gathering under her biological eye. “I must have overdone it.”
The whole newsroom had stopped. Hundreds of journalists–members of species from all over the universe–watched Macnera run off toward the maintenance department. Talie leaned against a desk, her arms folded across her chest. Her golden hair partly obscured her expression, but Cognis recognized it anyway. It was the one that meant she knew something he didn’t.
“What?” he inquired.
“You’re blushing,” she said.
Cognis checked. “My heart rate and blood pressure are within normal parameters.”
Talie smirked. “Are you sure you don’t want to go to the maintenance department too?”
“I am functioning normally.”
“Maybe you should show her how well you’re functioning,” Talie said, heading toward the spiral stairs leading to the News Director’s office. Following her, Cognis observed Talie checking her pocket watch.
“I apologize,” he said. “I’ve made you late.”
“I’m never late,” Talie said, twisting the dial on her watch. The world around them swirled in impossible colors then settled ten minutes earlier. Talie glided through time without the slightest disorientation. She had natural talent. Cognis, on the other hand, felt out of sync whenever he time traveled. His cybernetic brain depended too much on the constant durations of hours, minutes, and seconds.
When I decided to write this series, promising a new story every month for ten months, I knew it would be a daunting task. In addition to writing the stories, I have to do the illustrations and web design to go with them. Fortunately, so far I have managed to stay on schedule and I can announce that April will bring a lot of exciting new material.
On Monday, April 2nd, I’ll be adding a new profile to the Meet the News Team section. This character was already mentioned in two of the previous stories and will play an important role in the story for April. I think it’s time you met Talie’s boss.
Later this month, I’ll also be posting a little more information about the human race’s nearest neighbor and greatest enemy, the Hykonians. They crashed at Roswell in “99 White Balloons” and still held a grudge against us in the distant future of “The Orion War.” So who are these people and why do they hate us so much?
Most importantly, April’s story will come out on Monday the 16th. It is entitled “The Opera of Machines” and will give us our first look at the Tomorrow News Network’s headquarters. You can expect a brief preview scene on Wednesday, April 4th.
In the meantime, if you haven’t already done so please check out the first three stories in the series by clicking on the links in the Table of Contents section of the home page. Comments are always welcome!
In the distant future, religion is illegal. Commodore Isaac Matheson leads a fleet of exiled Christians to find a new home in the far off Orion Nebula, a swirling cloud of gas and dust where brand new stars and planets are forming. But when the fleet is attacked, the search transforms into a long, bitter crusade.
Source: Hubblesite.org
Time traveling journalist Talie Tappler comes to interview Isaac. She’s not supposed to interfere with history. She’s not supposed to do anything to change it. And yet she drops subtle hints, warning Isaac that he will have to do something terrible to bring this holy war to an end.
Click here to read “The Orion War” or click the link in the table of contents section on the right side of your screen.
