HNMNBM Book One

XXX wasn't ready to get up yet, still woozy rested, it was another hour till sunrise; why hurry.  However, he needed to pee so he swung his legs over the side of the bunk. He had scored one of the outside apartments at Bagno, window and all. The windows came with strings attached, they were used to help vent the buildings in the complex. This time of year, the outside air was a consistent 15.5° a natural cool and a hedge against the 26 to 30 at the peak of the day. By 4 AM it was cool enough in the apartment that XXX really appreciated the two soft carbon fleece queen sized blankets topped with his forrest issue bedroll.  He made short work of the trip to the john being careful not to turn on any more of his brain than necessary; sleep was a luxury he didn't get to enjoy often. The blankets were still warm when he crawled into his soft real bed. Gone, nothing more until his phone summoned him with the familiar strain of Angelito by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Joanne...

= = = Preparation = = = When the outposts were first established, each of them knew they had to be responsible for their own safety and defense. Other assets were days away, maybe more. Every settlement had an incident response steering committee and considered the likely problems. Number one on the hit parade was fire. One result of climate change was less stability in the atmosphere, more storms, leading to more lightning strikes and more fires. This was one of the primary reasons for observation towers and automated spotters. As part of preparation was the concept of keep your side of the street clean, combustible material was harvested and as often as not, the carbon was sunk into fiber. Fire was not the only possible incident of course, but it was the one a Northern outpost like Broch Viavek was most focused on. Who would have guessed it was a bunch of riffraf on a flotilla that would put their readiness to the test. = = = Identification = = = The eye was nothing special, ...

Odds are, if you walked into the Wisscasset Carbanado X/C dealership you would find yourself face to face with Camilia, the receptionist. At least that is what her business card said, though the title did not do her justice. A New York City raised pure blood Puerto Rican, passion, grace, competence in equal parts, uncanny ability to multi-task, handling counter walk up customers, phone and Internet inquiries with seeming ease. Keesha valued her daily contribution to the extent that the "receptionist" was the highest paid employee in the company if you ranked by salary, (several sales people on commission had larger take homes). Today, was a bit different though, we would be talking about it for years. Jamie walked into the dealership, just as it opened, sliding across the pristine floor, looking, but not really, at the floor model, (there was only one, part of the Carbanado X/C marketing statement). Ball cap pulled low, jean jacket unbuttoned ignoring the 6 ° C September mo...

France Telecom just reported that 3 major underwater cables were cut: “Sea Me We 4” at 7:28am, “Sea Me We3” at 7:33am and FLAG at 8:06am. The causes of the cut, which is located in the Mediterranean between Sicily and Tunisia, on sections linking Sicily to Egypt, remain unclear. One suspicion is a ship anchor. But what is amazing is the amount of damage, check out the loss of service: * Saudi Arabia: 55% out of service * Djibouti: 71% out of service * Egypt: 52% out of service * United Arab Emirates: 68% out of service * India: 82% out of service * Lebanon: 16% out of service * Malaysia: 42% out of service * Maldives: 100% out of service * Pakistan: 51% out of service * Qatar: 73% out of service * Syria: 36% out of service * Taiwan: 39% out of service * Yemen: 38% out of service * Zambia: 62% out of service France Telecom deployed a maintenance boat, the “Raymond Croze”, to investigate and do repairs. Part of disaster recovery is triag...

Forty years ago when Grapevine Auto and Tire went up for sale, an out of towner, Keesha Orne Jewett bought the business. Keesa told the relator that she liked the location over on RTE 1 near the Ford dealer. She cleared everything out, paved the property and opened a showroom for that electric carbon fiber SUV, the Carbonado X/C. They signed the purchase contract over lunch at Sarah's. They ordered the Mashed Potato Pizza and coffee, service was slow, but they weren't in a hurry. As Keesha looked over the paperwork, she noticed the Canadian dog breeder, what is this? Well, it is part of the business. Apparently there is some Intuit blood in the family some ways back. They specialize in pulling dogs, sled, I don't know the details, but they use German Shepherds instead of Malamutes, but of course the Huskies bring the speed. Where is it? Not sure, somewhere in Eastern Maritime Canada, I could try to look it up on my phone, Rankin Inlet, looks like a lot of water. Any...

Clarissa was in the kitchen, and the question just popped into his head, "Mom, why did you and dad name me Wonk?" You will have to ask your father, he pushed for it. Wonk decided to do just that. He walked into the living room, as usual the lights were out. His dad was in his easy chair, he was there a lot of the time, pretty much all of his waking hours unless Clarissa was jamming, he would pick up his bass, he seemed very at peace. His jacket was hung over the door of the cabinet to his right, he always had his shoes on, he could be out the door in 10 seconds, but mostly he sat. Wonk knew the basics, dad was a sub driver, a Navy captain, respected, medals, not a blemish on his record, then something happened. He had a retirement from the Navy, from time to time a car would come to get him and he would go to the Navy Yard a couple kilometers away to consult, those were the blue checks. Between mom's record payments, dad's retirement, and the blue checks, they l...

Proximity alarm, turn right, turn right. Gizmo shoved the stick to the right, added a bit of throttle, up or down he wondered. Wham, something hit the left wing of the plane, losing control, looking for a landing, any landing. There, freshly plowed field. As busy as he was trying to maintain control, Gizmo had the time to cross himself, for some ridiculous reason the pilot's prayer flashed through his stressed mind, "our controller, who art in tower." The Gulf Stream was trashed. Any landing you can walk away from. Gizmo was OK, except for the spots in front of his eyes and the searing pain along his shoulder blades. Damn harness, never did care for them. His go bag was strapped in as always, reached in, pulled out the red case, opened it, put his ID, phone and anything in his pockets inside. Carefully, very carefully, set the incendiary bomb for 30 seconds, laid it on top of his phone, sometimes you gotta go, this is one of them. Too bad, that was a really high quali...

For most of us, the telling of the woe of being a millionaire has a three-wish genie with a disheveled turban and a bad hair day feel. Wonk had seen this in person; “if no one will pity me, I guess I’d better get to it,” in his solo visit to a focus group for people with absentee fathers. Wonk’s dad wasn’t absentee exactly, he was physically present, executive functions were fine, he just didn’t respond to much of anything while sitting in the dark. No answers, no intelligent statements, Wonk felt the minutes passing by, didn’t want to be rude by leaving, or even obnoxious by diving into his smartphone and synching with his AI. During sharing time, one lady, muck boots, fur lined black coat, wearing it all inside, building heat on, shared a quotation from the source of all knowledge, the Internet, “I try to live my life like my father lives his. He always takes care of everyone else first. He won't even start eating until he's sure everyone else in the family has started e...

The loose alliance of the people that formed HNMNBM goes back over 20 years, but the event that took the movement viral was a party that Traveler threw. He meant it as a joke. Things were so ludicrous, politicians that were known pedophiles and knew nothing about the issues of governance, law enforcement driven to know the innermost secret of every citizen, the breakdown of religion becoming a political party that he thought it might be funny to postulate a secret society, a resistance. He had HNMNBie bumper stickers, (remember the secret society was a joke), had a HNMNBie manual printed, a key signing party for access to HNMNBNet and so forth. To his amazement and consternation people believed, signed up, started living as HNMNBies. Thus, Traveler was the father of HNMNBM, but is not in fact, a HNMNBie.  The HNMNBM code: The  first rule  of HNMNBie is to minimize harm. Actions of commission, choices of omission, all have impacts. Live accordingly, choose well. The...

Elevator Pitch: This is science fiction, HNMNBM is book one, there is a rough outline for a trilogy. Starts the day after tomorrow. Above all, these are the stories of three young men, Wonk, Traveler, Guy, coming of age and each in turn taking a leadership role on the world stage. The challenges they face include a world of increasing surveillance by governments that have lost the sense of right and wrong, a nervous disorder growing among the young, declining opportunity, violence in the streets, natural disasters relating to climate change and pollution. There are also strong positive forces in each of their lives: individual prosperity, (doing well while doing good), technology especially AI and bots and while different for each man, a faith in God. Fictional artifacts, or story building blocks, include: AI, driverless cars, pilotless planes etc A cheap source of carbon fiber that is an anti-pollutant WTG tacticals, bullet proof clothings BlendIT, light aware camo Blue Circle...

Gizmo's Gulf V was flown in from the mainland. The pilot landed in XXX Maui and refueled. After a couple days, she took it to Princeville. One of the Circle companies at LIH was involved in aircraft maintenance and was able to fill up the back of a truck bed with Baritainer 10L Jerry cans with jet fuel to top it off. The operating instructions for a Gulf are pretty clear, it needs 1500 meters to take off. Princeville is closer to 915m, a bit of a shortage. However, some guy in Switzerland, (think cold day, lower altitude, denser air) in a little over 305m. Stripped down to one pilot, Gizmo, no cargo, flying gas can like the old days, enough fuel for a safety margin, early in the morning in the winter time, roaring the two Rolls-Royce BR710A1-10s to their upper limit, (hey, they are great engines), it was marginally possible to take off with no errors. That was what Gizmo called, good odds.