A hungry bear does not dance
Patriarchal Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky, created in 1913. The city of Sofia went through changes according to the vicissitudes of Bulgarian history. Many rulers ruled it and each of them left their special stamp on the soul of the city. The large Jewish community that lived in the city also left evidence of a glorious past.
The Bulgarian people are one of the oldest peoples in Europe, with a cultural continuity of 1300 years. Information about Jewish settlements in Macedonia dates back to the time of Gaius Caligula and in the Nicopolis district a Latin inscription was found that testifies to the existence of a Jewish community in the 2nd century. There are not many other peoples on the European continent that formed so early and preserved their language, their religion, and their national tradition. The English, for example, completed their consolidation into one nation only after the Norman conquest in the XI century, and the Germans and Italians in the XIX century. The formation of the Bulgarian people was the first swallow that heralded the golden age of the Slavic peoples and kingdoms; In Russia a century later the inner Principality of Kyivan Rus was created, and in the Balkans two centuries later the kingdoms of the Bosnian Serbs and Croats were formed. The word Bulgarian itself means "to do good". Bulgarians have three important characteristics according to their own myth - from the Thracians they believe they received the sympathy for mysticism, from local Turks they bred with their fighting ability, courage and determination, and from the Slavs - patience as a way of life and mutual guarantee to each other and to other Slavic nations.
However, this wonderful cultural continuity was disrupted with the Ottoman occupation in the 14th century - which succeeded in destroying the local aristocracy, destroying the cities and fortresses, and deeply damaged the original organic Bulgarian culture while preventing for a time the formation of the Christian urban culture that developed in the same period in Western Europe. Therefore, unlike in Italy, England and France, ancient cities from the Middle Ages were unfortunately not preserved to modern times. In addition, Bulgaria did not experience the Renaissance, the Baroque, the Enlightenment period, and only in 1878, upon gaining independence, did it begin to rediscover its powerful roots.
In the years following independence, Bulgaria became increasingly militaristic and was often referred to as the "Prussia of the Balkans", in regards to its desire to change the Berlin Treaty through warfare, when the division of territories in the Balkans by the Concert of Europe regardless of ethnic composition led to a wave of discontent not only in Bulgaria, but also in the nations who were her neighbors and Bulgaria strived with relative success to manage the power relations compared to the other Christian countries of the region.
The defeat of the Ottomans in the Turco-Italian War, and the feeling that this was the time when Christian territories could be conquered from the Ottomans, led some of the Balkan countries to create the Balkan League, in which Bulgaria served as a central player. The First Balkan War began when Montenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire, and a few days later the other members of the League officially joined the war. During the war, the Allies managed to conquer large parts of the reminder of Ottoman Europe, with Bulgaria in particular suffering huge losses in combat operations.
These territories were taken from the Empire in the Treaty of London that ended the war. However, League members failed to reach an agreement regarding the division of the various territories, and against this background, the Second Balkan War broke out.
In the second war, Bulgaria fought against the other members of the league. The war against Bulgaria was even joined by Romania, which was afraid of a large-scale Bulgarian sphere of influence. At the end of the war, in the Bucharest Agreement, all of Bulgaria's gains from the previous war were completely erased, except for a coastal strip near the Aegean Sea that remained in its hands. Part of the Dobruja region passed from Bulgarian control to Romania, Greece received the territories of Thessaloniki and Serbia received Macedonia. As a result of these changes, the main power in the Balkans shifted from Bulgaria to Serbia.
Thus when the Great War began Bulgaria joined the German Alliance with the hope of receiving territorial gains, and indeed it was generously rewarded by the Germans following the end of the war – with most of Serbia being transferred to the Bulgarian Tsardom and the entire Black Sea coast taken from Romania back to Bulgaria at the International Peace Conference of the Hague. The new territories brought new hope to the Bulgarian people, who prospered in these post-war days due to an economic alliance with Mitteleuropa, and as result, the Bulgarians did not bother to hide their sympathy for the Germans, even after the 1929 German economic crash and when it seemed that the established world order was beginning to crumble as more and more powers became Integralist and avowed anti-German. At that time, the reported German pogroms did not affect the Bulgarian domestic policy - which continued to allow a rich cultural life for Bulgarian Jews.
As a token of gratitude to the Germans and out of fear of a non-German Europe that would be hostile to them, the Bulgarians quickly and almost automatically joined the German side in World War II. In retrospect, contrary to the results of the Great War, the Tsardom got the short end of the stick and suffered a colossal defeat.
Although the Bŭlgarska armiya was relatively well equipped for the Serbian and Albanian threats and even advanced directly to the Serbian city of Niš, difficult terrain conditions soon made the front static along with reports of abuse of Serbian prisoners of war. The Greek declaration of war on Bulgaria which concerned many was merely only the beginning of bad tidings, each one greater than the other.
Eventually Romania declared war as well almost a year into the start of World War II. The Bulgarian army simply could not deploy on so many fronts and received encirclements one after another, as the Romanian invasion was unrestrained and ruthless. In less than a month and a half afterwards, all of Bulgaria was conquered. With no other option, the Bulgarian government announced unconditional surrender to the Pact of Iron.
A new puppet government was established which received all administrative dictates from Paris and Bucharest while the Tsar was found dead by suicide, in a clear indication of the national situation.
Pact soldiers were allowed to loot whatever they needed, and Bulgarian national historical works were transferred to other countries. It was the darkest period of the Bulgarian people, who experienced quite a few tragedies in the past.
And an even darker period for the Bulgarian Jews, when in 1944 the government approved the request of Russia and Romania to transfer 11,343 Jews to "labor camps" after a preliminary "deportation" of 9,000 other Jews (the extermination of the Jews in the Holocaust often received such titles, although those who ''discussed'' the request knew what it was truly about – an extermination camp).
However, hope can be found even in the most difficult moments. As the Germans eventually got closer to Bulgaria, the Bulgarian people revived the guerrilla action against the local Pact forces. Bulgarian public figures protested after the expulsion of the Jews of 1944, among them the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, bishops and parliamentarians and managed to prevent the deportation to extermination camps of about 48,000 more Jews before the liberation of Bulgaria by the Kaiserliche deutsche Armee while the survival rate of the Jewish population in Bulgaria was among the highest of controlled Pact nations. On February 1, 1945, hundreds of Bulgarian Pact collaborators were executed by German forces in an event that received international condemnation and Bulgarian silence. Bulgaria emerged from the war with a terrible sense of loss.
The brief period of complete German military occupation ended sooner than expected, when both the Americans and the Germans reached agreements on the re-creation of the Tsardom with Macedonia once again returned to Bulgaria in the Treaty of Aachen. In those days, Bulgaria still needed German economic and military support to prevent anarchy and enable basic functioning and so it suffered after Operation Halfmoon despite not being classified as an enemy nation for the purposes of the operation. Therefore, it did not show any opposition to the American soldiers who came to manage and start the rehabilitation of the region, and cooperated with them as Secretary of State Grew was able to finally settle the territorial disputes that led to almost a century of tensions and wars in the region with virtually all (devastated) Balkan countries signed the Sofia Agreements in exchange for participation in the ''Grew plan'', as they formally committed to ceasing and ending any territorial claims and opened full diplomatic relations with each other.
“Efectul știrii este mai important decât adevărul ei.”
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In 1901, the Italian Guglielmo Marconi reached his great achievement – a telegraph transmission from Europe across the Atlantic Ocean to America.
The German-Jewish Gustav Ludwig Hertz has already proved that electricity can pass through electromagnetic waves, those waves whose frequencies span across the spectrum from X-ray waves to UV waves, microwaves, and radio waves. Hertz conducted an experiment on the subject, got the frequency unit named after him, and has been able to transmit sounds not only through an electric cable (ie telegraph) but through the air (wireless telegraph). The last breakthrough was made by a Serbian genius named Nikola Tesla who demonstrated the system to the public in 1903.
A wireless telegraph does what a cable telegraph does – it transmits a message from point to point. What will make it a world changer is the human understanding that this technological ability can be used not only from a transmitting point to a receiving point, but from a transmitting point to dozens of receiving points at the same time and later tens of millions of receiving points. This is how the radio was born. The radio and the wireless telegraph are technically very similar and thus the radio was a natural continuation of the telegraph with the help of inventors and entrepreneurs (a famous story is of David Sarnoff, an American Jew who worked for Marconi's telegraph company that also sold radios and insisted despite his boss's refusal to broadcast the 1920 World Series, which became the largest and most successful mass broadcast of that time and helped for the public to get used to the radio. It is also worth noting that he already suggested in 1915 that the company change its branding to the ''Radio Corporation of America'' and sell music boxes to consumers, but the process took place only after General Electric bought the company).
Telegraph connected points; The radio connected audiences. Those who sat on an isolated farm, those who worked in a factory, those who relaxed in the living room of their homes, suddenly everyone had the ability to hear at the same time leaders’ speeches, classical music (and later rock and roll), they heard dictators, declarations of war and peace. Historical events were reported as quickly as possible on the evening news. The world with the radio will become more accessible to the masses.
In 1925, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird managed to produce a device that transmitted images of moving figures clearly and not just voices. In 1937 the RCA conducted its first television broadcast, while the first television receivers sold were physically large and took up space in the home living room like a piece of furniture and the viewing screen was small. During this period there were still no long broadcast hours and on certain days there were only special broadcasts. These broadcasts content was scarce and included mainly news and coverage of special events, such as various sports events.
World War II significantly slowed down the development of the television broadcasting industry. All technological effort was directed to the war effort. Only after the war did the industry begin to gather momentum again. Starting in 1947, a dramatic development can be seen in the amount and variety of commercial television broadcasts in the US and, along with it, in the rest of the developed world (together with a significant reduction in the price of the television compared to the pre-war world). A variety of comedy, drama and thriller programs aired alongside editions of news, entertainment, and other leisure programs. The American people began to buy televisions in droves, and this only encouraged the industry to invest in more reliable models and more continuous broadcasts.

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Humans are Weird – Storm Watching

Original Post: http://www.authorbettyadams.com/bettys-blog/humans-are-weird-storm-watching
“Why did we even bother building a base on the land anyway?” Rollsaround asked as he absorbed the dim light filtering through the wide windows of the base.
The windows gave an impressive view of what the humans in their generosity called a “coastline”. Instead of gently undulating coral beds easing down into the water the glittering volcanic rock dropped abruptly from the graminoid covered highlands and dove down dozens of meters to where it usually met the heaving surface of the water below. Today however the water had seemingly decided to express its objections to the separation and was attempting to scale the cliffs in massive waves. The base vibrated from the force of a gust of wind and Rollsaround hunkered deeper into his mineral bath.
“Do you require another introduction of thermal-loaded water?” Tenth Cousin asked from where she perched on a Shatar couch, reading something that was supposed to be very masculine poetry from her homeworld.
“I do not,” Rollsaround reassured her. “I was just reacting negatively to the storm.”
She tilted her head to examine the weather conditions with a thoughtful set to her antenna.
“I think it is a pleasant change,” she said. “The harsh, unfiltered lights of the suns here means that we have no real night. The clouds at lest allow the illusions of dusk, and the wind overhead is not entirely unlike breezes in Father’s canopy if you can focus your attention on some pleasant task.”
“Well if we can’t go outside during clear weather without protection due to the radiation,” Rollsaround grumbled, “and we can’t go outside in stormy weather due to the, well, the storm, I say we should have just built a floating base that we could submerge during storm weather.”
“There is perhaps logic in that,” Tenth cousin agreed, and very deliberately tilted her head back to the poetry.
Rollsaround drooped his leading appendages over the edge of the bowl and absorbed the storm light in a slightly sulky mood. The airlock cycled open and Third Sister stepped in with the brisk stride that Rollsaround had noticed that high ranking sisters only used when they were looking for someone who had committed some infraction. Tenth Cousin brought the poem up closer to her face and started moving her mandibles as if she was completely focused on sounding out the words. Third Sister tilted her head the examine the cousin and then abruptly swiveled her body to focus on Rollsaround.
“First Ecologist,” she began, “do you know First Mechanic’s current location? The exterior vents in my lab require percussive maintenance.”
“He is off shift by now,” Rollsaround said. “You should check the washrooms and his quarters.”
However even as he offered this sound advice Rollsaround felt a ripple of unease. Human Friend Conner almost never went to his quarters after his shift. He was highly social, even by human standards and usually came to the main room to chat first thing.
“I have already checked both of those locations,” Third Sister stated. “He is not there and he is not answering his comm.”
Rollsaround mulled over that. Clearly Third Sister needed to find the human. An improperly vented laboratory in such a base as theirs was a serious health risk.
“Have you checked the storage areas?” he asked.
“I did a ping for his comm,” she replied, “but it is not reading as in the base at all so I could not locate the room he was in. I was surprised as I didn’t think we had any shielding strong enough to block the comm signal in the base-”
She cut off as Rollsaround suddenly surged up out of his mineral bath and crawled out of it.
“What is the matter First Ecologist?” Third Sister asked in confusion.
“He has gone out for a walk,” Rollsaround said, forgetting in his rush to add emotional undertones to his words.
“Out?” Third Sister demanded, her antenna going lax with confusion.
“Out to watch the storm from withing the wind currents,” Rollsaround explained.
“How do you gather that?” Third Sister demanded.
“He has described storm watching on his homeworld to me,” Rollsaround explained as he opened the hatch to the sub floor currents. “He also mentioned what he thought the perfect storm watching spot would be on these cliffs. That spot is behind enough rocks to block the signal. Now if you will excuse me I am going to go fetch him.”
“He has broken regulations!” Third Sister clicked, her frill flashing red with alarm.
“That on a secondary vine,” Tenth Cousin interjected as she came up to them. “The same regulations apply to you First Ecologist! The wind-”
“I am rated as fully wind resistant under these conditions,” Rollsaround said with a dismissive wave, “one of the perks of not being built like a windmill.”
“Your thermal mass-” Tenth Cousin tried again.
“I am fully warmed at the moment and I will turn back if my core temperature drops too low,” he interjected again. “Now if there are no further objections?”
Without waiting for their objections he dropped down into the sub-floor current and tapped the control panel to direct the current to the main outlet. He bundled his appendages and let himself be swept into the cold, but fresh exterior water. He bumped up against the smooth rise of the outlet and edged up out of the water. The wind was powerful. He could feel it tug at him if he raised a gripping appendage high, but at least over the main path there were eddies along the ground that were so comparatively we that he couldn’t even feel them. He began shuffling at top speed along the path. A the crest of the first high spot the winds did hit him, shoving his body sideways. However, as he had expected it required barely a fraction of his strength to grip the path firmly with his set appendages as he moved the free appendages forward. It barely even slowed him down, the roar of it was rather disconcerting when it wasn’t muted by the base walls however. He did wonder how the human had made it this far. After a long steady shuffle he rounded the corner that was blocking the signal and spotted a tall figure down at the cliff’s edge that wasn’t normally there.
Rollsaround activated the comm he was holding pressed against the ground. There was a significant delay before the human responded.
“Human Friend Conner,” Rollsaround said, trying to put firmness in his tones. “Come now and carry me back to the base. I am at the crest of the hill looking down at you.”
There was an odd sound from the comm that suggested the human was trying to say something back, but human speaking organs were not optimized for shielding the microphone of a comm while speaking so the human simply gave two short radio bursts and the tall figure on the cliff’s edge began swaying back and forth as it moved towards the path. Rollsaround anchored himself more fully against the blasts and watched in grim interest as the gusts blew the tall human form to one side and then the other as the human struggled up the path.
When Human Friend Conner finally did reach him the human didn’t bother speaking. He just reached down with a grin and tried to lift the Undulate off of the path. For one long moment Rollsaround hung on to the ground in a show of strength. He wasn’t sure if it would impress the human but a little dominance display did seem called for. He let go when the look of perplexity fully formed on the humans face but before he could give a more powerful tug and they headed back to the base.
Being carried over a meter above the ground in this wind was another experience altogether. The swaying of the human in the wind felt far wilder than it had looked, and Rollsaround found himself clutching tightly to the human’s coat as the wind tried to rip him away. They finally made the base airlock and stepped through to the blessedly still air. Rollsaround dropped to the floor and shook the cold water off of himself.
“I think Third Sister would like a word with you,” he said.
Granted she would probably want a word with him too, but Human Friend Conner didn’t need to know that.
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Science Fiction Books By Betty Adams

Amazon (Kindle, Paperback, Audiobook)

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Check out my books at any of these sites and leave a review! "Flying Sparks" - a novel set in the "Dying Embers" universe is now avaliable on all sites!
Please go leave a review on Amazon! It really helps and keeps me writing becase tea and taxes don't pay themselves sadly!

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Humans are Weird – Storm Watching

Original Post: http://www.authorbettyadams.com/bettys-blog/humans-are-weird-storm-watching
“Why did we even bother building a base on the land anyway?” Rollsaround asked as he absorbed the dim light filtering through the wide windows of the base.
The windows gave an impressive view of what the humans in their generosity called a “coastline”. Instead of gently undulating coral beds easing down into the water the glittering volcanic rock dropped abruptly from the graminoid covered highlands and dove down dozens of meters to where it usually met the heaving surface of the water below. Today however the water had seemingly decided to express its objections to the separation and was attempting to scale the cliffs in massive waves. The base vibrated from the force of a gust of wind and Rollsaround hunkered deeper into his mineral bath.
“Do you require another introduction of thermal-loaded water?” Tenth Cousin asked from where she perched on a Shatar couch, reading something that was supposed to be very masculine poetry from her homeworld.
“I do not,” Rollsaround reassured her. “I was just reacting negatively to the storm.”
She tilted her head to examine the weather conditions with a thoughtful set to her antenna.
“I think it is a pleasant change,” she said. “The harsh, unfiltered lights of the suns here means that we have no real night. The clouds at lest allow the illusions of dusk, and the wind overhead is not entirely unlike breezes in Father’s canopy if you can focus your attention on some pleasant task.”
“Well if we can’t go outside during clear weather without protection due to the radiation,” Rollsaround grumbled, “and we can’t go outside in stormy weather due to the, well, the storm, I say we should have just built a floating base that we could submerge during storm weather.”
“There is perhaps logic in that,” Tenth cousin agreed, and very deliberately tilted her head back to the poetry.
Rollsaround drooped his leading appendages over the edge of the bowl and absorbed the storm light in a slightly sulky mood. The airlock cycled open and Third Sister stepped in with the brisk stride that Rollsaround had noticed that high ranking sisters only used when they were looking for someone who had committed some infraction. Tenth Cousin brought the poem up closer to her face and started moving her mandibles as if she was completely focused on sounding out the words. Third Sister tilted her head the examine the cousin and then abruptly swiveled her body to focus on Rollsaround.
“First Ecologist,” she began, “do you know First Mechanic’s current location? The exterior vents in my lab require percussive maintenance.”
“He is off shift by now,” Rollsaround said. “You should check the washrooms and his quarters.”
However even as he offered this sound advice Rollsaround felt a ripple of unease. Human Friend Conner almost never went to his quarters after his shift. He was highly social, even by human standards and usually came to the main room to chat first thing.
“I have already checked both of those locations,” Third Sister stated. “He is not there and he is not answering his comm.”
Rollsaround mulled over that. Clearly Third Sister needed to find the human. An improperly vented laboratory in such a base as theirs was a serious health risk.
“Have you checked the storage areas?” he asked.
“I did a ping for his comm,” she replied, “but it is not reading as in the base at all so I could not locate the room he was in. I was surprised as I didn’t think we had any shielding strong enough to block the comm signal in the base-”
She cut off as Rollsaround suddenly surged up out of his mineral bath and crawled out of it.
“What is the matter First Ecologist?” Third Sister asked in confusion.
“He has gone out for a walk,” Rollsaround said, forgetting in his rush to add emotional undertones to his words.
“Out?” Third Sister demanded, her antenna going lax with confusion.
“Out to watch the storm from withing the wind currents,” Rollsaround explained.
“How do you gather that?” Third Sister demanded.
“He has described storm watching on his homeworld to me,” Rollsaround explained as he opened the hatch to the sub floor currents. “He also mentioned what he thought the perfect storm watching spot would be on these cliffs. That spot is behind enough rocks to block the signal. Now if you will excuse me I am going to go fetch him.”
“He has broken regulations!” Third Sister clicked, her frill flashing red with alarm.
“That on a secondary vine,” Tenth Cousin interjected as she came up to them. “The same regulations apply to you First Ecologist! The wind-”
“I am rated as fully wind resistant under these conditions,” Rollsaround said with a dismissive wave, “one of the perks of not being built like a windmill.”
“Your thermal mass-” Tenth Cousin tried again.
“I am fully warmed at the moment and I will turn back if my core temperature drops too low,” he interjected again. “Now if there are no further objections?”
Without waiting for their objections he dropped down into the sub-floor current and tapped the control panel to direct the current to the main outlet. He bundled his appendages and let himself be swept into the cold, but fresh exterior water. He bumped up against the smooth rise of the outlet and edged up out of the water. The wind was powerful. He could feel it tug at him if he raised a gripping appendage high, but at least over the main path there were eddies along the ground that were so comparatively we that he couldn’t even feel them. He began shuffling at top speed along the path. A the crest of the first high spot the winds did hit him, shoving his body sideways. However, as he had expected it required barely a fraction of his strength to grip the path firmly with his set appendages as he moved the free appendages forward. It barely even slowed him down, the roar of it was rather disconcerting when it wasn’t muted by the base walls however. He did wonder how the human had made it this far. After a long steady shuffle he rounded the corner that was blocking the signal and spotted a tall figure down at the cliff’s edge that wasn’t normally there.
Rollsaround activated the comm he was holding pressed against the ground. There was a significant delay before the human responded.
“Human Friend Conner,” Rollsaround said, trying to put firmness in his tones. “Come now and carry me back to the base. I am at the crest of the hill looking down at you.”
There was an odd sound from the comm that suggested the human was trying to say something back, but human speaking organs were not optimized for shielding the microphone of a comm while speaking so the human simply gave two short radio bursts and the tall figure on the cliff’s edge began swaying back and forth as it moved towards the path. Rollsaround anchored himself more fully against the blasts and watched in grim interest as the gusts blew the tall human form to one side and then the other as the human struggled up the path.
When Human Friend Conner finally did reach him the human didn’t bother speaking. He just reached down with a grin and tried to lift the Undulate off of the path. For one long moment Rollsaround hung on to the ground in a show of strength. He wasn’t sure if it would impress the human but a little dominance display did seem called for. He let go when the look of perplexity fully formed on the humans face but before he could give a more powerful tug and they headed back to the base.
Being carried over a meter above the ground in this wind was another experience altogether. The swaying of the human in the wind felt far wilder than it had looked, and Rollsaround found himself clutching tightly to the human’s coat as the wind tried to rip him away. They finally made the base airlock and stepped through to the blessedly still air. Rollsaround dropped to the floor and shook the cold water off of himself.
“I think Third Sister would like a word with you,” he said.
Granted she would probably want a word with him too, but Human Friend Conner didn’t need to know that.
https://i.redd.it/a6z7gwsc390d1.gif

Science Fiction Books By Betty Adams

Amazon (Kindle, Paperback, Audiobook)

Barnes & Nobel (Nook, Paperback, Audiobook)

Powell's Books (Paperback)

Kobo by Rakuten (ebook and Audiobook)

Google Play Books (ebook and Audiobook)

Check out my books at any of these sites and leave a review! "Flying Sparks" - a novel set in the "Dying Embers" universe is now avaliable on all sites!
Please go leave a review on Amazon! It really helps and keeps me writing becase tea and taxes don't pay themselves sadly!

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Humans are Weird – Storm Watching

Original Post: http://www.authorbettyadams.com/bettys-blog/humans-are-weird-storm-watching
“Why did we even bother building a base on the land anyway?” Rollsaround asked as he absorbed the dim light filtering through the wide windows of the base.
The windows gave an impressive view of what the humans in their generosity called a “coastline”. Instead of gently undulating coral beds easing down into the water the glittering volcanic rock dropped abruptly from the graminoid covered highlands and dove down dozens of meters to where it usually met the heaving surface of the water below. Today however the water had seemingly decided to express its objections to the separation and was attempting to scale the cliffs in massive waves. The base vibrated from the force of a gust of wind and Rollsaround hunkered deeper into his mineral bath.
“Do you require another introduction of thermal-loaded water?” Tenth Cousin asked from where she perched on a Shatar couch, reading something that was supposed to be very masculine poetry from her homeworld.
“I do not,” Rollsaround reassured her. “I was just reacting negatively to the storm.”
She tilted her head to examine the weather conditions with a thoughtful set to her antenna.
“I think it is a pleasant change,” she said. “The harsh, unfiltered lights of the suns here means that we have no real night. The clouds at lest allow the illusions of dusk, and the wind overhead is not entirely unlike breezes in Father’s canopy if you can focus your attention on some pleasant task.”
“Well if we can’t go outside during clear weather without protection due to the radiation,” Rollsaround grumbled, “and we can’t go outside in stormy weather due to the, well, the storm, I say we should have just built a floating base that we could submerge during storm weather.”
“There is perhaps logic in that,” Tenth cousin agreed, and very deliberately tilted her head back to the poetry.
Rollsaround drooped his leading appendages over the edge of the bowl and absorbed the storm light in a slightly sulky mood. The airlock cycled open and Third Sister stepped in with the brisk stride that Rollsaround had noticed that high ranking sisters only used when they were looking for someone who had committed some infraction. Tenth Cousin brought the poem up closer to her face and started moving her mandibles as if she was completely focused on sounding out the words. Third Sister tilted her head the examine the cousin and then abruptly swiveled her body to focus on Rollsaround.
“First Ecologist,” she began, “do you know First Mechanic’s current location? The exterior vents in my lab require percussive maintenance.”
“He is off shift by now,” Rollsaround said. “You should check the washrooms and his quarters.”
However even as he offered this sound advice Rollsaround felt a ripple of unease. Human Friend Conner almost never went to his quarters after his shift. He was highly social, even by human standards and usually came to the main room to chat first thing.
“I have already checked both of those locations,” Third Sister stated. “He is not there and he is not answering his comm.”
Rollsaround mulled over that. Clearly Third Sister needed to find the human. An improperly vented laboratory in such a base as theirs was a serious health risk.
“Have you checked the storage areas?” he asked.
“I did a ping for his comm,” she replied, “but it is not reading as in the base at all so I could not locate the room he was in. I was surprised as I didn’t think we had any shielding strong enough to block the comm signal in the base-”
She cut off as Rollsaround suddenly surged up out of his mineral bath and crawled out of it.
“What is the matter First Ecologist?” Third Sister asked in confusion.
“He has gone out for a walk,” Rollsaround said, forgetting in his rush to add emotional undertones to his words.
“Out?” Third Sister demanded, her antenna going lax with confusion.
“Out to watch the storm from withing the wind currents,” Rollsaround explained.
“How do you gather that?” Third Sister demanded.
“He has described storm watching on his homeworld to me,” Rollsaround explained as he opened the hatch to the sub floor currents. “He also mentioned what he thought the perfect storm watching spot would be on these cliffs. That spot is behind enough rocks to block the signal. Now if you will excuse me I am going to go fetch him.”
“He has broken regulations!” Third Sister clicked, her frill flashing red with alarm.
“That on a secondary vine,” Tenth Cousin interjected as she came up to them. “The same regulations apply to you First Ecologist! The wind-”
“I am rated as fully wind resistant under these conditions,” Rollsaround said with a dismissive wave, “one of the perks of not being built like a windmill.”
“Your thermal mass-” Tenth Cousin tried again.
“I am fully warmed at the moment and I will turn back if my core temperature drops too low,” he interjected again. “Now if there are no further objections?”
Without waiting for their objections he dropped down into the sub-floor current and tapped the control panel to direct the current to the main outlet. He bundled his appendages and let himself be swept into the cold, but fresh exterior water. He bumped up against the smooth rise of the outlet and edged up out of the water. The wind was powerful. He could feel it tug at him if he raised a gripping appendage high, but at least over the main path there were eddies along the ground that were so comparatively we that he couldn’t even feel them. He began shuffling at top speed along the path. A the crest of the first high spot the winds did hit him, shoving his body sideways. However, as he had expected it required barely a fraction of his strength to grip the path firmly with his set appendages as he moved the free appendages forward. It barely even slowed him down, the roar of it was rather disconcerting when it wasn’t muted by the base walls however. He did wonder how the human had made it this far. After a long steady shuffle he rounded the corner that was blocking the signal and spotted a tall figure down at the cliff’s edge that wasn’t normally there.
Rollsaround activated the comm he was holding pressed against the ground. There was a significant delay before the human responded.
“Human Friend Conner,” Rollsaround said, trying to put firmness in his tones. “Come now and carry me back to the base. I am at the crest of the hill looking down at you.”
There was an odd sound from the comm that suggested the human was trying to say something back, but human speaking organs were not optimized for shielding the microphone of a comm while speaking so the human simply gave two short radio bursts and the tall figure on the cliff’s edge began swaying back and forth as it moved towards the path. Rollsaround anchored himself more fully against the blasts and watched in grim interest as the gusts blew the tall human form to one side and then the other as the human struggled up the path.
When Human Friend Conner finally did reach him the human didn’t bother speaking. He just reached down with a grin and tried to lift the Undulate off of the path. For one long moment Rollsaround hung on to the ground in a show of strength. He wasn’t sure if it would impress the human but a little dominance display did seem called for. He let go when the look of perplexity fully formed on the humans face but before he could give a more powerful tug and they headed back to the base.
Being carried over a meter above the ground in this wind was another experience altogether. The swaying of the human in the wind felt far wilder than it had looked, and Rollsaround found himself clutching tightly to the human’s coat as the wind tried to rip him away. They finally made the base airlock and stepped through to the blessedly still air. Rollsaround dropped to the floor and shook the cold water off of himself.
“I think Third Sister would like a word with you,” he said.
Granted she would probably want a word with him too, but Human Friend Conner didn’t need to know that.

Science Fiction Books By Betty Adams

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Robber Tries to Rape Cellphone Store Worker
https://preview.redd.it/p2rcid9l090d1.jpg?width=1235&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0386b37ef41e67561456d7853fb121ba7da0fbde
https://manhattanvoiceny.blogspot.com/2024/05/manhattan-voice-man-tries-to-rape-woman-in-cellphone-store.html
By Dan Gesslein
Manhattan Voice
May 13, 2024
MANHATTAN - Cops are looking for a brazen attacker who tried to rape a woman inside a cell phone store in broad daylight.
At around noon on May 12, a man walked into the Verizon store in the vicinity of Madison Avenue and East 108 Street in Harlem. Cops said the man approached a female worker and threw her to the ground.
The man threatened the worker with a knife and tried to rape her, cops said.
The attacker grabbed three cell phones and fled the store. He was last seen heading eastbound on East 108th Street towards Park Avenue.
Cops said the cellphones are valued at around $1,000.
The victim was transported to a local hospital by private means.
The NYPD released cell phone images of the suspect. He is described as a male between teh ages of 25 and 30. He is 5 foot 8 and 160 pounds. He has a slim build, short black hair and a black beard. He was last seen wearing black colored clothing.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at [1-800-577-TIPS](tel:1-800-577-TIPS) (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/ or on Twitter @NYPDTips.
All calls are strictly confidential.