Friday, June 20, 2014

Wide Open Anomaly (steampunk fiction by Bob Eisenstein)


From the Top Secret Interdimensional Time Travel Police files:

Commander Bob Eisenstein: Guitarist and leader of the Steampunk band Victor Sierra, which is his daytime cover for his secret career as The Hydrogen Queen’s Commander (interdimensional time traveling armed and armored mercenary zeppelin). 
He doesn't like to be disturbed when flying high in the currents of inspiration. Likes Bourbon and conversations where questions are the answers to questions
Likes to convert improbable ideas into impossible visions. 
His lyrics remain obscure because the obvious is boring. 
Highly unpredictable.

Commander Bob has decided to tell us of the adventures of the Hydrogen queen's crew. He will weave his magical yarns of derring do over the coming weeks. He begins today with how it all began so pay attention my dears pull up a chair... pour yourself a drink... settle down and prepare to be amazed!


Wide Open Anomaly (From here to eternity)
by: Commander Bob

Reprinted by permission of Commander Bob
Originally presented on
Victor Sierra Official Facebook page


April 1958… Scientific publications from around the
world comment on very special events that occur in "Area 52" in Arizona, USA. UFOs, flying saucers, soviet spy-aircraft? No one knows but people talk about three strangers who were seen there. One woman and two men disembarking from a gigantic unidentified airship or what could be one.
The weather forecast had warned of a huge blizzard. It was almost impossible to see what was really happening.
Later an elder from the neighboring village said he heard brass from the military base calling one of the men, the tallest one: "Commander Bob! Please this way…" Others talk about the woman they call "some kind of Princess" and the other man "looking like a Cyborg"…
Then suddenly everything had disappeared. As in a dream…
Three days later the sky was much clearer and from behind the barbed wire fence one could see a portal carved in a rocky hill. But no traces of the airship nor of the three people.
Foreign reporters kept asking around and little by little villagers proved unable to hold their tongues and told them numerous stories involving those three individuals… Each week expect a story some will amuse, some will shock some may even terrify but prepare always to be thrilled!



2-Wide Open Anomaly
(Аргументы и Факты - Argumenty i Facty)
by Commander Bob

The joint is crowded with locals of all ages. None of them blinked when Arthur Morgan came in from the cold outside although he is obviously from anywhere but the neighborhood. Part-time investigator and part-time journalist, he's one of those modern bounty hunters and over the phone he convinced a former US Air Force pilot to meet him. He left the choice of the place up to him and now they sit face to face in a booth in the background of the deep brown walled bar.
The old man puts his glass back on the dark oak table. He's preoccupied digging deep into his past. He speaks with a deep gravely voice. Morgan can't place his accent.
"It was in 1958 right after we lost Alaska one night I was having a shot of … at Lost Souls Bar and then they stood. The tall guy… the one the others called "Commander Bob" was obviously in a bad mood. It was almost dusk and the light in the bar was very weak because of the power limitations we had at the time and I couldn't see them very well. He and the woman had been arguing about something… but tell me Sir… what did you say your name was?"
"Arthur Morgan"
"Didn't you give me another name over the phone? Hmmm…. Forget it. My hearing is pretty bad now. Sorry about that. "
Arthur leaned forward scribbling on his writing pad then casually ask the former pilot:
"And the argument? what was it about?"
The old man looked like he plunged into a deep pool of scattered papers and photographs that is his memory. He frowns and his left index absent-mindedly rubs the rim of his glass. He is remembering an encounter one that has left him for so many years with unanswered questions.
"Ah… it looked like it was about the band they use to have together or something like that… Their language was scattered of strange words I didn't know… except when they used the aviators code: like "victor" and "sierra". You bet I know these terms after all these years handling the control stick! Commander Bob seemed to be a heavy drinker! Bourbon that is… Believe me I know what I'm talking about! A very unpredictable man, take my word…"
He winks at Morgan who smiles in return to encourage the pilot to keep talking.
"…All of a sudden he switched languages! I recognized Spanish because I learnt it in Barcelona during the Spanish war and then another one… perhaps Old German with bizarre words in it…"
"And the woman, how was she? who was she? "
The old man grins and his eyes sparkle.
"Ah Mister Morgan… the others called her the Legendary Converted Princess… She was wearing Chinese Red Lipstick. I know that for sure because my first wife wore it as well. And actually she looked like a real princess with what she was wearing… Red hair, green eyes, few people could stand her gaze… a hell of a woman!"
"And the third man?"
"What? the Cyborg? We all called him that because of his mechanized right arm all made of cogs rivets and rods… Though he was massive it was hard to see his face. He didn't wear a mask but it was as if he was there and somewhere else at the same time, as if parts of him disappeared and came back to sight. We were frightened of him."


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