Many years ago there was a new thing out there called the “Internet.” In the beginning only the intrepid messed around with it. I was fortunate to be among that number. The amount of information available, the ability to communicate with people around the globe just blew my mind.

At that time you needed an Internet Service Provider that would connect using your telephone (you know what a telephone is, right?). Transfer speeds were incredibly slow compared to what we have now; a 100,000 kb jpeg would take a couple minutes to download. Among early Internet Service Providers were The World, Prodigy, Netscape, Oracle; some are gone now, some still remain.

The people’s choice, however, was America Online and subscribers to that service skyrocketed to millions in a few short years. High-speed Internet was still in the future and the best modem you could get was 56kbps.
AOL was pretty cool when it was ramping up in those days. They offered classes in a wide range of subjects. I took a creative writing course led by Robert Pollack, a published British mystery writer. I got a lot out of it.

Kids these days think they have a proprietary line on “texting.” Ha! A plethora of chat rooms dealing with nearly every topic under the sun, where everyone texted in group conversation, became a significant hub of the online community.

One chat room I visited regularly was a fan chat about Bablyon 5, a popular Sci-Fi television program. Emoticons, arcane text strings, and text pics proliferated through the conversation and, with wit and aplomb, everyone had a great time.

Some of us from that group got together and decided to write an ongoing story, taking turns. I thought it would be interesting to see where it would go so I pitched in.

The other day I was digging through my files looking for an article on Pythagoras and stumbled upon “Gathering Clouds,” a segment I had written for the group.

I did ultimately find the Pythagoras article but only after I had read through Gathering Clouds and decided to publish it here. What follows below is Hawk’s introduction.  You can find “Gathering Clouds” under “Hawk Tails” under “Modern Fairy Tales.” I hope you like it.   😆

Let me introduce you to Hawk:

Hawk is a supreme martial artist, having belts in every major form including several non-human ones. He acquired his expertise at the Galactic Martial Arts Dojo on Betelgeuse IV under Master Sensei Erok Velatnin and was one of the top students of his class. (Several of his competitors for top honors we’ll meet later—some are cool, some aren’t.)

Hawk thinks of himself as a “natural” man having no “super” powers or cybernetic augments. While he likes stealth and edged weapons, he’s proficient with a wide range of projectile and energy weapons up to and including the gargantuan Masur planetary defense cannons.

He’s had many adventures throughout the known systems and finally, after meeting the SuperSoldiers during a little affair on a moon of Deneb III, decided to settle down with a group of peeps (sic) he could trust to watch his back.

Hawk makes his way about the star systems in his state-of-the-art, super-hardened Mercedes “Cigarette” Fighter—almost all engines and guns. A beautiful ship, the sleek and graceful lines of its design belie its deadly nature. Polymorphic wings can be extended or retracted, in various configurations depending on circumstances, for flight in gas or liquid, even plasma. The burnished plastanium skin of the vehicle can be programmed to reflect or absorb various energies: light, electromagnetics, sound, J and T waves, and even quantum fractionals. This allows Hawk to be very stealthy indeed.

The Artificial Intelligence that controls all navigation, tactical, weapons, jump, and maintenance functions is named “Talon”. A self-programming intellect eventually develops a personality and Talon’s developed as counterpoint to Hawk’s over the years, settling into the distaff side of things. Though Talon is sometimes stubborn and willful she has pulled Hawk’s bacon out of the fire many times.

Hawk has a direct neural connection with Talon and, when they’re in a scrap, the Mercedes, with it’s dual triple tap fusion drives, is a match for any vessel in the galaxy—more than a match—to which his sad and sorry opponents would attest if they were still around to do any attesting!

Hawk is dedicated to the SuperSoldiers because of their code of honor and duty. He especially likes their slogan, taken from the Old Earth marines—Always Faithful!