It's back! Sekrit Santa 20.

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have received another one.

"First Contact" -- Starting with the tension of an espionage thriller, this imaginative tale soon develops into a combination of whimsical fantasy and serious social comment.

“Are you recording this, Dave?”



By way of an answer the uniformed security guard waved a hand vaguely at a small black box and gave a thumbs-up. His eyes were fixed unblinkingly on the monitor and a doughnut packed out his left cheek, unchewed. Channing saw a small, green light flashing on the front of the Secure Data Archive Host, an indication that live recording was in progress. Good: there would be evidence to show the Director if necessary.



He returned to his own monitor and pressed the ‘live rewind’ button so he could watch the incident from the beginning without disturbing the recording. The image quality would be much lower than on the saved data, but it would be good enough for his purposes: to confirm the evidence of his eyes.

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

Thanks @Victoria Silverwolf , I think I have @Jo Zebedee & @cyprus7 sorted ...can we just guess here as we go @Phyrebrat ?

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

A couple more:

"Chopin's Music Box" -- Three men fishing make an incredible discovery. This story is filled with an unusually bright and cheerful mood, augmented by its pastoral descriptions.

It was the first morning of my holiday and I was staying at Schronisko na Przystopie near the river Vistula. After having a hearty breakfast and wearing my hiking clothing with eel pole, fishing gear and a day’s provisions all packed away, I started my long hike from the schronisko down the shallow valley towards the river. With walking staff in hand and pack slung over my shoulder, I followed the winding hiking trail through the pines as I took in its fresh aroma and enjoyed the sights of wildflowers and the music of the local birds of the region. The hike proved to be most enjoyable when at last I cleared the woods and was now at my destination, the river Vistula.

"The Dolphin of Table Rock Lake" -- A man who suffered a terrible accident that also cost the life of his brother receives highly advanced prostheses as well as therapy for panic attacks caused by the horrible experience. But will that be enough to allow him to face his fears when a crisis strikes? An intriguing combination of hard science fiction (biotechnology) psychological depth, and suspense.

Cody pushed off from the wall in the training pool as his physical therapist, Jason, swam alongside. The cool water flowed across his body with each stroke his prosthetic arms made. Oxygen levels and gas exchange data shown on the micro-screen display built into his full-face swim mask. Despite the mask having a built-in breathing snorkel, small puffs and hisses would occasionally be heard coming from the prosthetics as each came out of the water and into the air, oxygen and CO2 being exchanged as each limb also acted as a miniature lung before plunging back in.

 

[Provincial]

My guesses, all of them more-or-less random (and with appropriate gaps, because I don’t think all the stories are in yet):

Jimmy Jolly’s Christmas Wish - Mon0Zer0
Ghosts in the Machine - Sule
Home Again, Home Again - Luiglin
The Restroom at the Bend of the Universe - Dan Jones
Flight - emrosenagel
For Where Your Treasure Is - Swank
The Rooster of Moscow - Victoria Silverwolf
Long Day’s Gobbling Into Night - BigJ
The Inner Citadel - THX1138
First contact - genelewis
Chopin’s Music Box - Luiglin (I’m guessing he’s done two)
The Dolphin of Table Rock Lake - cyprus7

 

[cyprus7]

My guesses, all of them more-or-less random (and with appropriate gaps, because I don’t think all the stories are in yet):

Jimmy Jolly’s Christmas Wish - Mon0Zer0
Ghosts in the Machine - Sule
Home Again, Home Again - Luiglin
The Restroom at the Bend of the Universe - Dan Jones
Flight - emrosenagel
For Where Your Treasure Is - Swank
The Rooster of Moscow - Victoria Silverwolf
Long Day’s Gobbling Into Night - BigJ
The Inner Citadel - THX1138
First contact - genelewis
Chopin’s Music Box - Luiglin (I’m guessing he’s done two)
The Dolphin of Table Rock Lake - cyprus7

Alas, nope, ha ha!

Awesome Cyprus7 Releases Original Story To Incredulous Chronners

 

[THX1138]

The Inner Citadel - THX1138

Sorry, not me...

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The Rooster of Moscow - Victoria Silverwolf

Incorrect.

 

[BigJ]

Long Day’s Gobbling Into Night - BigJ

'Twas not I, though I must commend you on actually making some guesses. So far, I've only been able to narrow down my list of suspects to people who've participated in this thread, which doesn't sound like much, but I've eliminated a little over 8 billion suspects.

Awesome Cyprus7 Releases Original Story To Incredulous Chronners

This looks like it could be a clue, but I'm too tired to decipher it.

Also it initially led me to the story you requested (and thus couldn't have written), so, drat. Unless you're in cahoots with our host to throw the rest of us off and wrote your own story. Is cahooting allowed?

 

[THX1138]

That is the fun thing about this. We are familiar with each other's Flash Fiction styles here on Chrons, (Fingers crossed.) or even not if we don't invest into them. Now here, the reins are gone. So, now we see the true capabilities of that author... Think, think, think...
Oh bother, Chistopher Robbins. I have a rumbly in my tumbly.
Great stuff!

 

[Provincial]

Well, I tried to do it properly and went back over some of the past stories of the participants, but I realised after a while that they all sounded as if they had been written by me. Not much help there, then.

On the other hand, knowing that I wasn’t going to be able to work it out conventionally freed me to do what I normally do - wing it! So here I am, proudly strutting my stuff as the first person to actually submit guesses for all the current stories, and helping all you lightweights out by eliminating some of the possibilities for you. If that isn’t magnificently generous of me, I don’t know what is. Yay me! Provincial rocks!! All Hail Empress Provincial!!!

 

[Swank]

I'm going with "Flight" by @Victoria Silverwolf and "For Where Your Treasure Is" by @Jo Zebedee. I honestly don't know anyone else's writing style enough to guess, and I'm utter unsure of those two. (Jo might be the Rooster, instead.)

@Provincial, you are missing multiple contestants from your guess.

 

[Provincial]

I'm going with "Flight" by @Victoria Silverwolf and "For Where Your Treasure Is" by @Jo Zebedee. I honestly don't know anyone else's writing style enough to guess, and I'm utter unsure of those two. (Jo might be the Rooster, instead.)

@Provincial, you are missing multiple contestants from your guess.

Yes, but I think that Jo Zebedee, for one, said that she would be submitting her story in January, and I also thought that people were not being sent their stories until they had submitted their own. Is that wrong?

Also you might have noticed that I haven’t accepted responsibility for any of the stories myself.

 

[Swank]

Yes, but I think that Jo Zebedee, for one, said that she would be submitting her story in January, and I also thought that people were not being sent their stories until they had submitted their own. Is that wrong?

Also you might have noticed that I haven’t accepted responsibility for any of the stories myself

Oh, I didn't notice that about Jo.

 

[Provincial]

Oh, I didn't notice that about Jo.

Well, I could have misunderstood, or missed an update.

 

[THX1138]

I'm going with "Flight" by @Victoria Silverwolf

I think so too...

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Well, I could have misunderstood, or missed an update.

I never miss a deadline (mostly )

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

Three for three:
Jimmy Jolly's Christmas Wish & Chopin's Music Box are both by @Jo Zebedee
The Restroom at the Bend of the Universe was by @cyprus7

This is a spoiler but hopefully no harm done as my own effort seems to have accidentally gone MIA (no panic at all). @Dan Jones bonkers request involved too much head scratching to hit delete though, so I've narrated it below. It's also up on the Irish Science Fiction Spotify thingy for anyone who wants to inflict a half hour of madness onto themselves.

 

[Provincial]

Are we supposed to be confirming or denying attributions ourselves, or is some wiser head going to do that for us?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Are we supposed to be confirming or denying attributions ourselves, or is some wiser head going to do that for us?

I think it’s probably better to allow a but more time for guessing and for @Phyrebrat to advise where it’s all at. He’s the evil mastermind he’s always hoped up be

 

[THX1138]

as my own effort seems to have accidentally gone MIA (no panic at all)

PM @Victoria Silverwolf, mate!