Take a Journey BEYOND CENTAURI

Canary Islands' Teresa Tunaley provides cover art

 

CANARY ISLANDS, ATLANTIC OCEAN [SDP] -- Sam's Dot Publishing announced the release of the October 2007 Beyond Centauri.  Featuring outer space cover art by Teresa Tunaley, this issue of Beyond Centauri presents tales of rescues in outer space, pirates, djinn, and visitors from other worlds who wonder what cars eat.  In addition, because this is the Halloween issue, there are a couple of stories about spiders, including one very unusual tale of Franny, who likes to spin frosting.  Don't touch those cupcakes!

          There's also a short story by David Kopaska-Merkel about what happens when the Grim Reaper comes for Granny.  Whoa, is he in for a surprise!

          This announcement is presented by Rick Novy's twisted short story, "The Artifact," which has a bit of a Halloweenish theme to it.  Rick's work has also appeared in Beyond Centauri, most recently in the July 2007 issue.  He hopes you will think of this story when you vote for your favorites.

          To order a copy of the October 2007 Beyond Centauri, please click on the cover icon below.

 

 

 

The Artifact

by Rick Novy

 

 

“I just finished preparing the sample.”  The scientist set it into the sample chamber of the mass spectrometer.   “Did they teach you about mass spectrometry in university?” he asked.

The intern was nervous.  He wanted to make a good impression.  “Yes, they did.” 

The scientist closed the door to the sample chamber.  “Explain to me how it works.”

“Well,” the intern said, “in this spectrometer, the sample is first vaporized, and then ionized inside the chamber.  After that, the constituent ions are accelerated through a magnetic field.  Each type of atom collides with the detector in a different location, depending on its mass.”

“Excellent.”  The scientist pressed the button and the mass spectrometer hummed to life.  Turning to the intern, he said, “A red light will flash when the cycle is finished.  When it is through, please use the comparison routine in the computer.  There are over four million standards in the database.  See if you can find a match for this material.”  With that, he left the room.

 

*        *        *

 

There was a knock on the scientist’s office door about an hour later. 

“It’s open.”

The intern opened the door and handed a piece of paper to the scientist.  He studied it for a moment, and then he looked at the intern over the top of his glasses.  “You are aware that this sample came from one of Jupiter’s moons, yes?”

“I realize that,” the intern said.  “That’s the match the computer spit out.”

“It must be wrong.”

“I ran the algorithm three times, and each time produced this result.”

The scientist sneered.  “You want me to believe that the artifact from Ganymede is made of bamboo?”

     “I’ll check again.”  The intern took the paper from the scientist as he left the room, closing the door behind him.

The scientist snickered.  “Bamboo, indeed.”  He leaned back in his chair before putting his feet on the desk.  He then lit his pipe and took a few rapid puffs to get it going.  As he watched his smoke ring dissolve into the air, he said to himself, “These kids are easier to bamboozle every year.”

 

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If you would like a copy of the issue of Beyond Centauri that feature's Rick Novy's work, just click on the cover icon below.