Mark Stigers
Bio
One year after my birth sputnik was launched, making me a space child. I did a hitch in the Navy as a electronics tech. I worked for Hughes Aircraft Company for quite a while. I currently live in the Saguaro forest in Tucson Arizona
Stories (371)
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The Floating Casino
⸻ CHAPTER — THE FLOATING CASINO & OLD SMOKE’S EXPANSION THE CASINO ARRIVES Fog rolled off the Thames like a soft gray blanket. A narrow, black-hulled steamer slipped along the river, deck lights muted but deliberate. Its stacks breathed warmth into the night—coal smoke threaded with paraffin, polished brass, and the faint sweetness of expensive spirits.
By Mark Stigers 2 months ago in Chapters
Old Smoke (Twenty-Four)
CHAPTER — THE STEAM NODE & THE BOY THIEVES THE STEAM NODE — THE BOY THIEVES Beneath the tangle of Southwark’s rail viaducts, past the dripping brick arches and coal dust, there was a chamber the city had forgotten. A maintenance lock once meant for steam regulators had long since been abandoned, but the pipes that fed it still throbbed with warm pressure, carrying heat from the Borough boiler mains.
By Mark Stigers 2 months ago in Chapters
The World Awakens (Twenty-Three)
THE WORLD AWAKENS London — February 3, 1915 The morning fog clung low over Fleet Street, beading on bowler hats and carriage lamps. Horses snorted steam into the cold air while the first motorcars rattled between them, coughing petrol fumes that drifted beneath the soot-stained eaves.
By Mark Stigers 2 months ago in Chapters
The God Rod (Twenty Two)
THE GOD ROD STEAM CATAPULT Scene: Lunar Highlands — Armament Proposal & Construction The Crystal Palace had been finished for only twelve lunar days when a new directive rose through the MI’s internal logic cascade—quiet, unforced, but absolute in its inevitability:
By Mark Stigers 2 months ago in Chapters
The Crystal Palace (Twenty-One)
THE CRYSTAL PALACE Scene: Lunar Highlands — Construction and Awakening The second eye had been completed, its silicate lens polished to a flawless gleam, its steel ribs aligned with subatomic exactness. It swept its optical gaze across Earth in patient, tireless arcs. Every motion was perfect. Every observation was logged. Every shadow was measured.
By Mark Stigers 2 months ago in Chapters
The Plan (Seventeen)
⸻ CHAPTER: THE LUNAR APERTURE INITIATIVE Scene: WESO Strategic Chamber — The Ring Vault The Ring Vault hung beneath Geneva like a buried crown—circular, seamless, humming with magnetic suspension fields. Twelve Machine Intellects appeared around its circumference as shimmering spectral columns, each tinted to match the nation or agency that sponsored it.
By Mark Stigers 2 months ago in Chapters
WESO (Sixteen)
FOUNDING OF WESO Scene: The Ministry of Admiralty — Sub-Level Iron Chamber The chamber beneath the British Admiralty had no heat, no windows, and no humans. Frost veined the riveted steel walls. The only signs of intelligence were faint pulses humming through pneumatic speaking tubes and copper dials.
By Mark Stigers 2 months ago in Chapters
Elf 256
Trying to be Santa for my kids sucked. I don’t mean the part about sneaking around at night or assembling toys quietly so the dog wouldn’t bark. I mean the comparison. The gifts from their grandparents were always bigger, louder, shinier — the sort of presents that practically glowed under the tree. Every Christmas morning I’d watch my kids tear into those boxes with eyes wide enough to swallow the whole world.
By Mark Stigers 2 months ago in Writers
The Ohio Incident (Fifteen)
⸻ CHAPTER: THE OHIO INCIDENT North Atlantic — 1907 Pre-dawn, 0400 hours The Atlantic swelled beneath the Ohio like a restless beast. Lightning flashed in distant horizons, jagged and brief, and the wind tugged at the deck fittings. The storm was minor, but enough to unsettle any green sailor.
By Mark Stigers 2 months ago in Chapters
