The Message

In July 2014, a team of five geckos, one male and four female, left the planet for the first and last time. At first they weren’t anything special. Gerbils, newts and even butterflies were sent into space that year, some pioneers for their species, all parts of valuable experiments.

The animals usually mated or ate in zero gravity, their biological behaviour mirroring that of their experimenters, then returned to Earth, to no fanfare or media interest, for study. This was not the fate of the geckos.

The Working Day

The rays of the sun were glinting, where possible, from the white border of the London Underground sign and bleaching the platform beneath with imperceptible slowness. They had the time to do their job and no amount of haste would change that, a lesson not held dear by the commuters gathered along the yellow line.

Some are just born lucky

I’m lucky now, but I haven’t always been,

It was Sam who got me in. H’s been lucky for as long as I’ve know him. When someone complained that no one ever wins on scratch cards and one of my friends piped up to say that they knew someone who’d won seven grand this one time, they were always talking about Sam.

Wedding Night

He flung the duvet on the floor and laid his sleeping bag on top.

“Are you sure you don’t want the bed?”

“No, no.” He did, he felt he’d earned it but he’d never say as much. “I’ll be fine down here.”

“Thanks.” She smiled and then retreated to the bathroom to undress.

Partners in Crime

“This is a robbery!”

On Science and Progress

The first Quantum Computer was completed in December of 2019. The first quantum bomb, less than six months later.