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Last updated: 10-12-2001. Welcome to the writing section of the Dome of Oddness. Here you can find various songs I've written, and some short stories.

Those Days (song) - Pretty Good

"Alpha Zero
The End of Nowhere Llai V

Those Days [VERSE 1]

Tripped into nostalgia
just the other day,
travel to my past so odd
made me lose my way.
[CHORUS]
Those days were fun,
we'd play and run.
We never cared about who or how,
so tell me why we should all care now.
[VERSE 2]
Other night I felt so weird,
pick me up and drop.
Crazy things, they happened there,
will my mind just flop?
[REPEAT CHORUS]
[VERSE 3]
One thing I won't write 'bout this,
why we even care.
'Tis some knowledge found yourself,
reveal if you dare.
[REPEAT CHORUS]
[ENDING]
We never cared about who or how,
but I get why we may all care now.
We never cared about who or now,
but we care now, we care now.
We care now, we care now.

"The End of Nowhere"

    Segra woke at dawn to the sound of his snoring father. He had slept next to King Artenna last night, and had expected the roar of a chainsaw mouth to wake him up. Segra wanted to wake his father up so he could get back to sleep, but such a thing wasn't considered princelike on Quoventar. So instead, Segra changed into his 'informal' clothes, as his Mother called them, and picked up his menophine rifle, preparing to head out hunting.
    Leaving his father behind in the small stick-built hut, Segra stepped out into the morning sun. Quoventar has the best sunrise in the universe, he thought. I could look at it for hours. Then it struck Segra that he should probably be hunting for breakfast, so he went on his way. After about two minutes of walking, he saw something.
    It was a small, rabbitlike creature, with brown skin like a frog's everywhere except the ears, where the brown fur was. It hobbled along strangely, like a duck. Of course, there was nothing wrong with it -- creatures like this were common on Quoventar. What were they called? Hurats...that was it. It seemed not to have noticed Segra or his menophine rifle, so Segra took cover in a bush and aimed for its head. The head was a good spot to aim for because it took the creature out quickly and most people didn't eat the head anyway.
    Segra fired the rifle, bringing a small yelp from the creature's mouth. The hurat collapsed, a small bit of blood flowing from its head. Menophine rifles were among the cleanest weapons in the sector. Walking over, he picked up the dead creature by the ears, and continued one his way.
    After about ten more minutes, he saw a bird up in a tree. The bird was rainbow-colored, except for its long, black beak. This'll make a good meal, thought Segra. Setting the hurat he'd shot earlier on the ground, he raised his rifle and prepared to fire. The bird, however, noticed the gun and flew off into the sky. Oh well, there's always next time, I suppose.
    Segra turned to pick up his previous kill, only to see it in the mouth of a wolflike creature that had blood-red fur and large claws. A esaal, as Segra remembered. The creature ran off, and Segra followed it. "Come back here, you!"
    The esaal led the prince through the trees, and across a small creek. After about fifteen minutes, Segra was losing sight of the esaal, and made a last-ditch effort to get his hurat back by shooting the esaal that had stolen it. His shot must have missed, for he heard no cry from the esaal. Segra's morning had been a loss... Or had it?
    He noticed a slight gleam of silver in the brush. Clearing off some of the plant life, he uncovered what seemed to be the top half of a spaceship. Wonder why the bottom half would be buried in the ground, he thought. Segra searched around for an entrance, and found a hatch covered in vines. He considered blasting his way through, but decided to try it the hard way first, because anything could be inside the ship. After about two hours of untangling and tossing vines aside, the hatch was uncovered. Segra picked up his rifle with one hand, opened the hatch with the other, and crawled into the ship.
    As soon as Segra set foot on the floor of the ship, it lit up, spooking him. From the looks of things, he was in the cockpit. Buttons flashed all around, and screens went on and off. Segra checked out the consoles, and tried to figure out how they worked. Shutting his eyes, he pressed a button at random. When he didn't blow up, and there wasn't a voice counting down numbers, Segra opened his eyes again.
    The image on the screen startled him. It was a blonde woman in a green and black shirt speaking. "This is Alpha Zero. We are running low on supplies and are in desperate need of help. We can't last much longer in this state." The image went off the screen, and Segra stopped to think for a moment.
    Okay, Alpha Zero...of course! The...oh no... Segra was shocked for a second, and then calmed down enough to think again. Okay, they sent Alpha Zero out two years ago. According to our records, it was destroyed during the Defilation...that may explain why nobody answered these distress calls. Segra worked some more at the console, trying to find anything he could about what had happened. Eventually, he learned how the system worked, and what had happened.

Y342-23-2 Chances are that by the way things must've looked to them, everybody on Quoventar thinks we're dead now. We made an emergency base conversion, at the same time we hit the ground, so the ship has been damaged some. We're going to try and send out some distress signals...not like it'll do much good if everyone thinks we're spacedust.
Y342-23-3 The distress signals didn't get any answers. We've got enough food to last about a month, but we can't go outside because this part of Quoventar has poisonous air. Degee is getting sick-- she may leave us soon.

    Segra looked away from the screen for a second, thinking again. He decided he'd better tell his father about what happened. However, turning around, Segra saw that the hatch was closed. For some reason, it wouldn't open. After a few guesses at opening the hatch with the consoles, Segra was stumped. He decided to try the one button he had been avoiding the whole time-- the one he feared most was the self-destruct button.
    For about thirty seconds, Segra felt himself going up. The floor shook. He realized that Alpha Zero had gone back into flight mode. Segra pushed the button again, hoping to put it back down to the ground. This simply resulted in more shaking. Segra sat down in a chair that was next to the consoles and strapped himself in. Oh no, he thought, what's happened now...?
    Segra looked at the screen in front of him, and it showed a bunch of stars and the like. He unstrapped himself from his chair, and felt himself float up and around the cockpit. After getting used to zero-g and taking a few minutes retrieving his gun, Segra maneuvered himself to a hatch leading down further into the ship. Luckily, there was a warning printed on the hatch that led to the outside, so there was no chance of a mix-up if one kept alert.
    The bottom half of the ship was a different story than the top. The lights on top went off when he went down, but the lights on the bottom didn't come on. Segra had packed a small green wristlight in case he got lost in the woods at night, so he turned it on. It illuminated a fair portion of the room. It appeared to be only half the size of the cockpit, but there was a door which presumably led to the sleeping quarters. Nobody was sitting at the chairs down in this room, so he continued into the next.
    As he expected, the other room was the sleeping quarters. There were five beds in all -- they could all come out of the wall and go back into it when the time was right. Segra had seen beds like that before, which was how he knew. Two of the beds were out. The woman who had been in the distress signal was in uniform on one, with a blanket covering her. Her head was turned to the side, and half of her face was green. After checking her pulse, Segra knew she was dead. Segra looked to the other bed. A man, who looked like he could be the captain, was laying there. He was burly and muscular, with tanned skin and a rough face decorated with black hair. His shirt was blue and silver, and he was covered by a blanket as well. Segra checked his pulse as well, and found that the man was dead.
    Segra went back up to the cockpit and strapped himself into the chair up there. He reached out and tried to set a course for his father's palace. Unfortunately, he hit a wrong button somewhere along the line, and the words "Course set. Headed to Llai V at 978. Alpha Zero will arrive at Llai V in an hour. Segra tried to change the course, but he was panicking too much to do much of anything.
    About an hour later, Segra was calm now, but had given up all hope of getting the ship to turn around at this point. For all he cared, the ship might as well take him to the end of nowhere. He felt the ship jump around as it entered the atmosphere of Llai V. When the ship got too close to the ground for comfort, Segra hit the same button that had put the ship into flight mode. Alpha Zero ground itself into the earth, and its hatch opened. Segra passed out in the chair. It had been a long day.

"Llai V"

    Segra woke up on a cot in a tent. Whoa, strange dream I had last night, he thought. Wait a minute! Where's my...oh no.
    A tall, darkskinned man dressed as a ninja walked in. "Hello, sir. Did you sleep well last night?"
    "I'd have slept a lot better if I wasn't a planet away from home."
    "Ah... Well, sir, I should probably get Zeye -- she'd know more about you than I would." With that, the man turned and walked out of the tent. About five minutes later a woman walked in, wearing similar dress, but with a brown cloak around her.
    "We found your ship. The Alpha Zero, is it not?"
    Segra raised his hand a bit and began to get up, his mouth widening. "And you would be Prince Segra, would you not?"
    Segra was so dumbstruck that all he could do was nod his head. The woman explained things in greater detail. "You see, we of the Llai tribe have been having some difficulties recently with the Robotics on this planet. We have, several times, requested assistance from our allies on Quoventar. However, they presented us with the news that the Robotics are stronger allies, and thus they must support the Robotics rather than us."
    There's only one person in the kingdom that can make a decision like that, Segra thought, my father. Segra was getting concerned at this point, and made it known. "So, what are you going to do? Hold me hostage? Who are you anyway?"
    "Zeye is my name," the woman chuckled, "And let's hope it doesn't come to holding hostages. I don't enjoy that sort of work much."
    "Well, what's the alternative?"
    "Segra, I know how difficult this would be for you, but we think Alpha Zero would be a great addition to our military. Will you aid us in driving off the Robotics?"
    "I'd rather do that than be held hostage. What would you need me to do?"
    Zeye's face became excited as she let out some of her plans. "Well, you may be familiar with Alpha Zero's base and flight modes. We're going to need Alpha Zero as a makeshift base. We're planning on equipping it with extractors-- with those, we can mine materials needed to make our weapons. Also, Alpha Zero has superior weapon capabilities for a ship of its kind."
    "So, basically, it's going to be your ninja tribe and Alpha Zero with me in it, against the Robotics and maybe even my own people?"
    The excitement faded from Zeye's face. "Yes."
    "Ow."
    "Ow indeed. That will make it very tough. Are you sure you want to do this, Segra?"
    Segra's face was solemn and serious. "Yes."