Issue Ten, Volume Four

From the Desk of the Editor;

Hello and welcome to a very exciting issue of Larks Fiction Magazine--the science fiction extravaganza issue! In this edition, we explore the intricacies of modern pulp writers.

In news, my wife and I survived a twenty-hour car ride to Colorado to visit family for the weekend. This means no news on our new office.

Make sure to check out Geek the News for a story about fellow Oklahoma small indie press Literati.

Thank you and good reading,

Daniel J. Pool

LFM Editor

Foul Invaders

By Gary Clifton 

            Murzak swung her patrol unit to the curb.  Much had changed in the last thirty years, including upgraded police vehicles - now anti-gravity rigs operated by electromagnetic force field.  The brass said it saved on road repair and equipment costs, like they rarely knew anything about anything.

            The two citizens were not actually in a fight...more of a cussing and threat contest. 

The presence of her uniform and a code one ass-chewing broke up the fracas.  She had simply placed a hand on her Mark V laser-taser and the argument instantly disappeared.  In the old days, police had actually carried much more lethal hand weapons.  Murzak hoped she would never have to seriously hurt anyone with her service weapon.

            The debris-strewn streets of the city showed signs of the financial and industrial decay common around the entire planet those days.  A couple of inopportune and very expensive wars by the government, who should have known to use the money for medical research and to help the poor, had caused great decline in the big population centers and the land in general.  Crime was rampant, mostly a result of hunger and fear.

            Murzak had earlier heard radio chatter of unidentified aircraft circling the city.  When she re-entered her unit, the dispatcher sent her directly to Sector J to back up officers now in visual contact with those aircraft.  "Have you fools called in the military?" she asked, but received no reply by radio.  Her superiors would speak to her about rough language on the transmission system, but she didn't really care.

            Society was already in danger of collapse and now a foreign enemy was invading.  She slid the cruiser among a glut of others and joined several officers who'd taken temporary shelter behind a granite wall.  Murzak could feel the danger on the air like a weighted glove. 

            In the distance, two sleek, silver-metallic aircraft whizzed to and fro, apparently assessing the situation.  The aircraft were alien, of a type and construction she'd never seen nor imagined.  The street had been alive with sightings of "flying saucers" for years.  Now, they were real.

            "We aren't gonna shoot down space men with these little tasers," she said to patrolman Bolev, a long time associate and friend. 

            "Murzak," he peered over the wall, "you know the bleeding hearts who've filtered to the top of government.  We need to blow these freaks out the sky.  But the honchos say we wait and determine their intentions."

            "Easy to say when you're not out here actually looking down their gun barrels," Murzak said uneasily.  "And those appendages bristling on the wings sure look to be weapons."    

            "I ain't sure those anti-carbon magnetic IV units the army is usin' these days will actually bring one of them babies down," a grizzled sergeant said.  "Maybe they'll land and not shoot.  Man, rather a prisoner than vaporized."

            Murzak, embarrassed at his show of cowardice, bit her tongue and remained silent.

            In minutes both aircraft slithered in closer and landed in a roar, dust flying.  A sliding hatch opened on one craft.  The other machine remained locked down, probably as fire-cover.  "For Heaven's sake, don't anybody take a shot at these guys," the sergeant's voice quivered.   "They may be from Jupiter or Heaven knows where.  Everyone stand down until the army shows up."

            Three monsters with shiny silver skins climbed gingerly down a ladder and turned to face the small crowd of very frightened police officers.  One carried a megaphone-device.  He removed his head, then Murzak realized it was a helmet and that all three were wearing some form of space-suit.

            The alien was horribly ugly - two small, oblong eyes with an ugly protruding nose.  The helmet-less one opened his mouth but couldn't talk.  He could only make horrible, strident, animal-gibberish sounds which made no sense.

            "One ugly dude," the Sergeant said.

            Murzak studied the second aircraft closely.  The massed weapons were all trained,  so it seemed, directly upon her.  "In the name of The Almighty, hold your fire," she shouted to the crouched cops. 

            The grotesque alien raised the megaphone device  and continued making horrible, foreign sounds.  Suddenly Muzak realized the machine was intended to translate off-world tongue into something regular citizens could understand.  After several failed attempts, the megaphone spat out  a variety of strange, distorted words, like screaming in whispers. 

            Suddenly, the alien reached a tone she could understand:  "Citizens of Planet Gronk, we are emissaries from Planet Cyritius of the Eighth Galaxy and we come in peace.  We will not fire our weapons unless fired upon."

            Relieved, Murzak felt like a million Sorussas...a of a lot of money.  She'd heard since childhood space invaders hailed from the war-like planet Earth, not a passive tribe like the Cyrithians.  God of Gronk was good.

 The End

About the Author;

Gary Clifton, forty years a cop, has over thirty short fiction pieces published or pending with online sites.  He has an M.S. from Abilene Christian University and is now out to pasture on a dusty north Texas ranch.

 Cloud Kingdoms

By Katelin Pool

08/20/2019--Star Heart by Andy Lex Bain was removed at the request of the author for an upcoming publication. We wish Andy best of luck. Read about them below.

 Andy Lex Bain is a 29-year-old writer who resides in Tasmania. He enjoys writing, reading, bushwalking and aspires to be a full-time published author.  His writing career began basically whilst watching classic fantasy movies such as The NeverEnding Story and Labyrinth, and playing old roleplaying games like HeroQuest. He was then inspired to create his own fictional world and write stories to take place within it.

Thank you for reading and join us next week for works of existentialism, love, and lost.