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    Let Sleeping Gods Lie
    Let Sleeping Gods Lie
    Let Sleeping Gods Lie
    Ebook57 pages46 minutes

    Let Sleeping Gods Lie

    By John West

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    What happens when reality TV ventures out into space and awakens ancient gods who would really rather be left alone?

    ⛥♠⛥

    Watch the human race tear itself apart in the face of cosmic forces unleashed after millennia.

    ⛥♠⛥

    Science-fiction horror, written during Corona lockdown as part of the 2020 Zombie Pirate Writing Week Challenge. And yes, I was influenced by Lovecraft. Always have been. Always will be.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBurning Books
    Release dateJul 20, 2020
    ISBN9781393737292
    Let Sleeping Gods Lie
    Author

    John West

    John West is a technologist and writer, currently reporting the news with code at the Wall Street Journal, where his work has won multiple awards and been a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. Previously, he worked at the MIT Media Lab and the digital publication Quartz. He holds an MFA in writing from the Bennington Writing Seminars and degrees in philosophy and music performance from Oberlin College. He lives in Boston with his partner, their daughter, and a cat.

    Read more from John West

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      Book preview

      Let Sleeping Gods Lie - John West

      Let Sleeping Gods Lie

      They had just passed Jupiter when the dog went crazy. Barking, running around in circles. Trying to catch its own tail.

      Ken threw a tennis ball. It hung too long in the air, confusing poor Ozzy, who misjudged the bounce and went racing off towards the sleeping area.

      Not really, Steve. Did you see that ball, for instance? That’s the kind of gravitational distortion we experienced. Little things here and there, just enough to make us spill the milk, or trip on a step.

      Thanks, Ken. Now we have a question for your better half.

      The other half of the Aphrodite’s crew leaned towards the microphone. This wasn’t necessary, but it was an old habit. Shoot.

      We all sat through Ken’s boring technical explanations, waiting to get to the juicy stuff. He chuckled, playing to the cameras. But Barbara, many of our viewers are wondering about your plans to start a family while you’re out there. What was that controversial quote when you launched? ‘Conceived and born beyond the reach of any government’? So tell us. Any luck? Will we be seeing our first extra-terrestrial baby when you guys finally come back to Earth?

      Barbara put on her happy face. She knew that millions of fans worldwide expected it, if only during the daily chat session when they were able to communicate indirectly with their favourite celebrities.

      No luck yet, Steve. Everyone. She waved. That’s my other dream, though. It’s no secret. This voyage, it’s awesome. Something nobody can ever take away from us. But starting a family... As an orphan who never knew her biological parents, that means the world to me. She put her hand on Ken’s leg and winked into the camera. We’ll just have to keep on trying.

      Steve laughed. It even sounded real. Thanks, Barbara. Well, that’s the last viewer question for tonight. I’ll let you guys get some shuteye. To everyone watching from home, this is the Aphrodite signing off. Catch them again tomorrow, same time, same place.

      Cheers, Steve.

      Bye, y’all.

      When the flashing red light above the screen had dimmed, Ken turned to Barbara. ’Y’all’?

      She pouted. Thought it might add some colour. Keep the folks at home interested after all these months of watching us do the same things over and over again.

      Her husband stood and stretched his arms above his head, ruffling his short brown hair and yawning. An athlete since she had met him in high school, she still admired his build, the way he never put on weight, even after months in a tin can with no exercise equipment. The standard black uniforms they’d been given were not the most flattering outfits, but he made his look scrumptious.

      Babe, you don’t have to add any colour. The viewers love you. Hell, if it wasn’t for you and the dog, they certainly wouldn’t be paying good money to watch me babysit this thing from one end of the solar system to the other.

      Barbara shrugged. I don’t know. It just seems like we’ve done pretty much everything there is to do up here. I mean, one planet looks very much like another, you know? Sure, this last one was bigger than that little red one, but it looked the same to me.

      Ken kissed her blonde curls, still warm and damp from the shower, inhaling the sweet scent of eucalyptus. A head shorter than him, he often told her that was because the angels had run out of beauty when they made her. And that’s exactly why they love you. You are them. The human perspective. Not just another scientist giving them a guided tour of their own back yard.

      She hugged him,

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