Alien in Annapolis: Crustacean Catastrophe

My latest flash fiction story, appreciation of feedback, and more...

Jan 25, 2024

∙ Paid

Greetings, humans!

It’s been a pretty amazing couple of weeks. Partly that’s because my latest novel, LUNAR LOGIC, was released last week!! Remember that part of being an Indie Author is not just writing the book, but producing and marketing it as well. So of course it’s the first thing I gotta mention today before I present my latest flash fiction story and talk about all the other things…

If you like thinking about the philosophical sides of AI, in a book written for adults but that is “kid-safe”, check out some of the reviews on Goodreads, and order your copy on from Amazon or your fave place today! Or get an autographed paperback from me at my Shopify store!

(The only other place to get autographed copies are by finding me at one of the conventions I speak at… like the upcoming Farpoint!)

(Oh - and don’t forget I also have the 4-book Robot Galaxy Series that starts with Crazy Foolish Robots!)

Last newsletter, I presented the flash fiction piece, “Alien in Apopka: Early Edibles.”

And then in the nearly two weeks since—

Wow! I can’t tell you how happy I am with all the emails and feedback I received. Many of you emailed me to tell me your thoughts on the story, questions you had, events in your own lives that the story reminded you of (like your own experiences with American food here in the US), and even more questions.

No less than three people asked a version of the following: Would alien’s such as Kim and his kind be freaked out that many humans eat meat?

I wonder if this means a lot of my readers are vegetarian or vegan? For the record, I’m somewhere between a vegetarian and pescetarian and can go stretches of time eating vegan until I decide I’m ready for cheese or ice cream again. I think the term these days is “flexitarian.” But don’t give me any beef. I just never liked it! So the BBQ that Kim eats in the last story? Nope! Not for me!

If I find myself in a restaurant offering East Coast US Southern comfort food, I’m diving right in to a classic baked macaroni and cheese. And biscuits. And a good cornbread (OMG - I had some delish cornbread last weekend with butter and honey…). Basically I’ll eat all the carbs.

But back to the story and your feedback. First, it makes me SO happy that you’re reading Kim’s stories! And enjoying them! Second, you’re giving me great bits of things to consider in future stories as I tease out more about Kim and the culture he’s from. Thank you!

It does make me a little nervous that with the two “Alien in *” stories so far, I’ve set a standard to live up to—like, what if I write one and ya don’t like it? Over the full year, I’ll have written 26 of these stories and odds are, you’re not going to like every one of them and that makes it even harder… or maybe not.

One reminder about “flash fiction.” While there is no official legal definition of “flash fiction,” it’s generally accepted that flash fiction is a word count of up to 1500 words. However, to make this an interesting challenge, I’ve told myself that these stories will be no more than 1000 words. (Today’s is exactly 1000 words, by the way!)

There’s a few reasons for that, to include the fact that this platform limits the length of these posts that will show up in email. The rest gets truncated and you *have* to go to the website or app to see the rest.

But, more than that… 1000 words is a challenge, and it’s a challenge that I really enjoy. My first draft usually comes out to 1100-1200 and then I have to go back and evaluate each sentence—and each word—to see if it’s worthy of inclusion. There’s something very analytical about it, and I have fun doing it.

I hope you’ll enjoy this next one!

If you want to know more about how this story came about, that’s all in the “Beyond…” section for paid subscribers below. (Paid subscribers also get to suggest elements and get their name used in a future story!)

Alien in Annapolis: Crustacean Catastrophe

Getting to Earth wasn't the hard part, although it wasn't the most pleasant, either. Kim traversed the intergalactic network before, twice, on vacation with his mother after expressing a desire to "have more experiences."

But he had no idea how it worked, and the pilot of his tube only talked to the passengers to let them know that the congestion at the intersection of the 71st and 13th wormholes, also known as the Twinkle Interchange, for reasons that were never perfectly clear, was entirely normal.

Getting to the surface of Earth was the tricky part, but that was one of the many reasons for the early scout team. They had worked it all out and it wasn't too different from how it had worked on a dozen other worlds with similar abilities to monitor the space around their planet and moons, although Earth only had one moon. More moons would have resulted in a different entry point.

The best way to get to the surface was to look like a meteorite. But, apparently, humans liked meteorites, so it was best to land where humans couldn't go searching for them easily: the ocean.

Once in the ocean, boats escorted them to land.

"Annapolis," said the guide, pointing ahead. The guide had dropped anchor and was preparing a dinghy to take Kim to shore to meet his handler, Sam. Other members of the group would disembark in different places up and down the coast. Less likely to draw attention this way.

All the time to get to this point wasn't wasted. It gave Kim time to adjust to his altered body. For some species, surgery was involved. But to blend in with humans, only a series of genetic adjustments were required.

Early training included what to do in case of a medical emergency. Showing up in a human hospital was the last thing anyone wanted. Basic things would appear human: blood pressure, temperature. Even blood samples would reveal nothing out of the ordinary.

But if a human doctor performed an interior scan, they'd be incredibly confused, and a clean-up team would be summoned. And the unlucky person... well, the good part is that they'd be sent home. The bad parts were not openly discussed.

Sam was exactly where he was supposed to be as the dingy approached. Kim stepped onto the dock.

"Careful. First few steps on land can feel a little weird. Let's take it slow," Sam said. "We're heading that way."

‘That way’ was a building marked “Mike’s Crab House.” Kim could read the words but didn't understand the meaning.

"It's a restaurant," Sam said. "They're all over. You'll be in them often. I'm going to show you how they work; how you get your food, how you compensate them for the food and so forth."

Kim nodded and let Sam lead the way.

There was a lot more to it than Kim imagined. He'd spent a lot of time in holo-simulations, but they didn't do the real experience justice. He turned on his neuro-recorder, as instructed, to save his first impressions.

"Crabs," Sam said. "I never thought I would like them, but they have a way of growing on you. I ordered you the crab cakes. Better introduction to them this way. You can work your way up to these."

Kim stared at Sam’s tray. Nothing was moving, but the things on it looked like they could get up and walk away at any moment.

Looking at his own plate, "Sandwich," he declared out loud.

"Exactly," Sam said and whacked one of his crabs with a hammer.

Kim picked up his sandwich and bit into it. A dozen individual flavor sensations attacked him all at once. Kim took a second bite, thankful that at least one similarity he had with humans was the way they ingested food. That wasn't the case with all species.

Then he put the sandwich down and looked at his wrist. Small bumps were forming. He showed them to Sam who shrugged.

“Is the genetic modification wearing off?” Kim asked.

“Not possible,” Sam said while eating, utterly unconcerned while stuffing more crab meat in his mouth.

Kim continued to stare at his wrist and then felt something on his abdomen. He lifted his shirt and the same welts were all over his skin. He had to labor to get his body to take in air.

“That man is going into anaphylaxis!” someone shouted. It was a human female sitting at a nearby table with several human younglings. A waiter stood nearby, transfixed.

“Do you keep epi-pens around?” the woman asked him. “He needs one!”

The waiter shook his head, and the human urgently said to a youngling, “Grab Morgan’s epi out of my purse,” and then to the waiter, “Call 911!”

That got Sam’s attention. “No need to call, he’s okay,” Sam said.

“He’s clearly having a reaction,” the woman pleaded. “I know! My kids…”

Sam clenched his jaw, but let the woman stick something into the side of Kim’s leg, then stick something into the side of his other leg.

After a moment, Kim could feel that it took less effort to pump air through his body, and the welts began to disappear.

“He needs to go to a hospital,” the woman said. “That’s what our allergist always tells us. Epi, then hospital for follow-up.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll take him now,” Sam said and started to guide Kim out of the restaurant.

Once outside, Sam said, “obviously we’re not going. I’m not letting you get sent home on the day you arrived. We’ll get you to the local medic to see what went wrong. Maybe even send for a genetic re-application kit.”

Kim nodded, clearly unhappy about his first day on Earth.

“I won’t be sent home?” Kim asked.

Sam laughed. “It’s going to take a lot more than that to get out of your first assignment. You’re stuck here until the entire team decides to leave. From now on, no crabs for you.”

What did you think of the story?

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Beyond…

Now for all the behind-the-scenes stuff. Today, I’ll explain how even though today’s story takes place a year early than last time, how my brain went from Apopka to Annapolis with a sneak peek at what’s coming. I’m using keeping up with the planning and accountability section.

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