An Adventure of the VK Obsidian
Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4 • Part 5

Part Six: The War

“Watch the left side!” Fetu shouted, shifting around and leveling its rifle at the hills to the south. It fired three shots and ducked back into the trench. “Watch the left!” Something flew past its head and exploded behind the squad.

Dactyl shook as he tried to peer over the hill. Smoke and noise was everywhere. He glanced at his rifle. White, compact, with the black Wandjina logo on the side. He looked down at his armor; white panels of…

I recently experienced a crisis of despair. Without going into tedious details, I once again tried to gain approval from the Gatekeepers of Culture™, and once again I was rejected. This exhausting and painful pattern has repeated itself for years, and my soul is crushed a little more every time it happens. I like to joke that as a married man, I try to get published in order to experience the rejection I used to get from dating. I love my job as a high school English teacher, but I yearn to be celebrated also as a brilliant author.

To…

An Adventure of the VK Obsidian • Part 1 here • Part 2 here • Part 3 here

Part Four: The Return

Fetu drew a weapon and blasted toward the rear of the cargo hold. A shriek went up as Khopesh and the others jumped to their feet and ran toward it. Fetu shot twice more, calling out whisper-words with each blast.

“Woah,” Dactyl said, grabbing its hand. Fetu barely glanced at Dactyl before flinging him to the side and firing again.

“Cease fire,” Khopesh yelled. Fetu held the blaster aloft and stared at her with a puzzled expression. She threw her hands up…

No Code’s 2020 thriller-puzzle game Observation seems like it was made for me. Science fiction, in the vein of Philip K. Dick and Stanislaw Lem? Check. Puzzle game using polished graphics, intriguing locales, and interesting control schemes, like MYST and Ico and Portal? Check. Fun? Good story? [ANGRY LOUD BUZZER]

I’ll admit right up front that the game does many things well, and some elements just aren’t my cup of tea.

“I believe that dreams — day dreams, you know, with your eyes wide open and your brain machinery whizzing — are likely to lead to the betterment of the world. The imaginative child will become the imaginative man or woman most apt to create, to invent, and therefore to foster civilization.”

L. Frank Baum, Introduction to The Lost Princess of Oz (1917)

I have always been a creature of creativity and imagination. My parents raised me in a world of books and games and movies filled with fascinating lands and weird characters and wild possibilities. They bought me art supplies…

An Adventure of the VK Obsidian • Part 1 here • Part 2 here

Part Three: The Pickup

Chirwa gnashed his teeth and cursed and banged on the control panel. “Dammit,” he shouted. Khopesh jumped in her seat and glared at him. “How many hoops do we have to jump through?” he asked.

She shot a look at Dactyl, who shook his head and returned to the map of the Nu Fornacis system on his screen. “It’s fine,” she said to Chirwa. “We just have to …” She paused and scowled. “This is backward,” she said, and pointed to him. “You’re supposed to be…

Story #1 of 3: In 1999 I was a graduate student at the University of Florida. (Go Gators!) I needed a lit class, so I took a course on African-American literature. I didn’t know anybody — most of the other students were undergrads — but I ran my loud mouth as usual during class discussions, bashing white supremacy and the obliviousness of white people throughout American history.

One day the professor told us to sort ourselves into study groups and prepare a presentation for the class. …