- Working at KSC
- NASA Old Headquarters building on KSC destroyed.
- Flintknapping points
- On going writing projects
- Vampires of Kennedy Space Center and the O&C
- Demons of Kennedy Space Center
- Demons of Kennedy Space Center, corpus callosotomy
- Ghosts of Kennedy Space Center, End of Spiders
- Dreams of Kennedy Space Center, lovers and pyramids.
- Witches of Kennedy Space Center
- Cave Bears of Kennedy Space Center
- Aliens of Kennedy Space Center, uninvited guests
- Remembering Kennedy Space Center
Starman of Kennedy Space Center
A surprise trip
This is another tale of the Kennedy Space Center's multiverses, both in the distant past and the far future.
Follow ghosts, demons, gods, AIs, tourists, DNA experiments, vamps, and witches as they travel the multiverse only to discover their interconnections as allies and enemies across an endless history or future.
Every story is the true story.
Starman, a surprise trip
"Let us see what follows or waits for us?" she had said.
In the blink of an eye, Ophelia moved them from the feted breath and fangs of some giant ice-age cat, both wearing caribou furs for clothing, to a spaceship.
A spaceship.
"Are you done playing with me yet," snapped Marcus, the space shuttle astronaut. His hands were still cold from gripping a rock-tipped spear in a land of towering glaciers and towering mammoths—that impossible cat.
"Now you are just torturing me, right?" said Marcus.
"My love," purred Ophelia. "A little surprise."
Ophelia buckled in next to him, wearing an unfamiliar uniform and helmet.
Glancing at his arms and legs, he realized he was wearing the same strange white space suit with black trim.
The cinnamon hair hung in her eyes, and she smiled, saying, "Three, Two, One....."
The vibration was familiar-there was no denying the power felt in his bones and soul as rocket engines came to life and pushed against the gravity well.
It had been so long; it was so good, the best roller coaster in the world, and the danger was real. Death was a possibility every second in space.
It was impossible to speak as the ship lifted into orbit, his face pushed back into the headrest. However, an overhead camera showed Cape Canaveral shrinking and cheering from unknown speakers.
He felt a rocket stage fall away and was able to hiss, "But the Space Shuttles are retired; Atlantis is bolted to that stand at the visitor center."
The secondary rocket roared to life, and he could not talk or speak the name of the other space shuttle, which had disintegrated around him and Ophelia.
"Did you put us in that Apollo again?" asked Marcus.
"Ophelia looked hurt. "My love, did you not enjoy the trip around the moon with oxygen shrinking?"
The sight of the moon viewed from the antique spacecraft had been breathtaking.
"Well, yes," admitted Marcus. "What in the hell are we in this time? That secret USAF mini-space shuttle?"
"A present, my love," purred Ophelia. "A reward for you getting me that seizure medication." Sometimes, the mortals can do magic.
Voices came from hidden speakers, but Marcus could not find a transmit toggle or button to talk with mission control.
"We are riding first class in a Falcon Heavy, my love. A Falcon rocket to honor you, my falcon-headed god."
Marcus tried to recall the Falcon Rockets, some small bottle rocket start-up company. Why not a Delta Heavy or Atlas rocket? Something with power?
"This rocket is special; just wait," explained Ophelia.
Marcus chuckled, forgetting Ophelia could read his thoughts, and sent forth images of what he would do to her later.
"Marcus! Oh! You are so.....manly! I cannot wait," laughed Ophelia.
Suddenly, the Falcon Heavy shook as the fairings fell away, exposing the stars and the firmament in all its glory.
Marcus realized they were sitting in a sports car mounted above the Falcon. He twisted to the side to watch the blue-green earth, the bioluminescent planet behind them, getting smaller.
Why not? He adjusted the mirrors so he could watch the shrinking blue. There is no need to ask any questions when around the red-headed sorceress. A surprise every moment.
Don't try to understand; go with the flow.
Because the next instant, their space suits were gone, Ship of Fools was playing on the car radio, and they were dressed in civilian clothes from an indeterminable timeline. The seventies?
"I fixed the air, so we do not need the spacesuits," said Ophelia. Her eyes were half-closed and dreamy. "Kiss me under the stars, Marcus, and those images you teased me with? This car is going around the sun, so take your time, my lord Horus."
Below them on the blue-green bioluminescent planet, on Kennedy Space Center, where crowds cheered the twin sonic booms of the landing Falcon boosters; Eileen, once known as Aileen and Artemis or Dianna, but was actually far older than the upstart gods Brahma, Shiva, Ra or the one-eyed Raven god Odin, older than humanity itself; raged in jealousy, shooting arrows and slings at the departing rocket.
She could feel the pull of quantum distortion in the heliosphere, the heavy rocket opening another crack, leakage, and seepage from the other.
"When the rocket comes around the sun, I will make her pay," swore Eileen. Her eyes blinked a furious carmine. "Marcus is mine."
She had nothing but time.
A green shimmer and another god stepped through, drawn to Kennedy Space Center.
"I'm getting very good at that," said the Green-Skinned god Osiris, shouldering his lever action rifle.
His gaze traced the rocket trail, the rip in the space-time continuum healing quickly to normal.
"Of course, Eileen, you know she is his wife."
"Well, not at this Kennedy Center timeline," said Eileen. "And you, Osiris, know better than most that consorts come and go."
Eileen immediately regretted her words, the look of pain on the green man; her sharp words a stabbing reminder of his quintessential consort, Isis-the bitch; she ran away with adoring fans when she became popular across the Roman world.
Osiris quickly hid his pain; the past was the past. He even avoided Isis in the other timelines.
Eileen recalled this god upstart in the Riverlands, all muscle, pride, and terrified of caves and crypts. Nevertheless, all muscles sheathed in vibrant, healthy green skin.
One of the new gods of Riverland, a family of fecund mutants leaking transposons. His son with the hawk-head is one of the most beautiful sights of all creation, but the family feud had laid waste to the delta.
"Want to go pig hunting?" asked Eileen. She flicked her long honey braids that trapped both men and women and, on occasion, gods.
"Are avocados green?" said Osiris, stroking his pharaoh beard.
"Spears only allowed on the space center. They are sort of touchy about your rifle," said Eileen.
"Touchy lot? With their spears that shoot flame to the stars?" said Osiris.
"Spears that cast a long shadow," said the blonde woman, flicking her hair again.
She produced an old spear burnished with intertwining ivy patterns but mostly licked clean of the brown stains.
"My stand-by spear. Do you want a buzz? We can lick the spear and hunt feral hogs."
"Why, of course," smiled the green god. "But in moderation. Cinnamon snaps without the hangover! Last time, well, you know what happened with Seth."
Athena, Aileen, and her bloody spear thought Osiris.
They smiled together because they both knew there would be no moderation.
"Maybe, unload your lever-action rifle?" said Eileen, and she placed her tongue to the old spear.
Other tails of the Space Center:
Vampires of Kennedy Space Center
Demons of Kennedy Space Center
Demons of Kennedy Space Center, corpus callosotomy
Ghosts of Kennedy Space Center
Dreams of Kennedy Space Center
Aliens of Kennedy Space Center
Director of Kennedy Space Center
Hitchhikers of Kennedy Space Center
Witches of Kennedy Space Center
Cave Bears of Kennedy Space Center
Chimeras of Kennedy Space Center
Gods of Kennedy Space Center and the Nile
Dinosaurs of Kennedy Space Center
Kayakers of Kennedy Space Center
Remembering Kennedy Space Center
Shadows of Kennedy Space Center
Starman of Kennedy Space Center
Gate Jumpers of Kennedy Space Center
Allies of Kennedy Space Center (Pt 2 of Gate Jumpers
Savants of Kennedy Space Center
Gene Splicers of Kennedy Space Center
State Security of Kennedy Space Center
Rescuers of Kennedy Space Center
Ferals of Kennedy Space Center
Return HOME from Starman of Kennedy Space Center page
For pet lovers around the globe, "It's a Matter of Luck" is a collection of heart warming stories of horse rescues from the slaughterhouse.
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by Kim Ryba & Lina T. Lindgren
Warning: This book may cause your eyes to water in a good way. (speaking from experience after reading it)
Please give Kim and Lina a heartfelt review on Amazon!
Author Bruce Ryba at Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39B & Artemis 1. "We are going to the Moon!"
Author's discussion (that's me) on You Tube of a book review on Amazon
For the video versions of information, please check out my YouTube Channel (Turkeys, Flintknapping, dive stories etc.)
My fictional series/stories on Florida history:
Freedoms Quest (book one)
Struggle for the northern frontier and other lost tales of old Florida.
Available on Amazon
Desperate times call for bold action.
In a desperate move to retain Florida and protect the treasure-laden galleons on their dangerous return journey to Europe, the King of Spain issues a royal decree offering refuge to all English slaves who escape Florida and pick up a musket to defend the coquina walls of Saint Augustine.
In another bold gamble, the King offers refuge to the dissatisfied Indian nations of the southeast who will take up arms against the English.
Clans, traumatized by war and disease, cross the Spanish Frontier to settle the cattle-rich land and burned missions of Florida.
Follow the descendants of the conquistador Louis Castillo in remote Spanish Florida, a wild and swept by diseases, hurricanes, and northern invasions.
Book Two: Available on Amazon!