12-31-20 - Kill That Baby!

 Kill That Baby!

IDEA - 12-31-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

After losing his mother, Jared inherited an old radio that had frequencies well above the typical radio dial. He secretly wished to be given money as he was in debt and had a tough time finding work.  One afternoon while playing with that old radio, he unintentionally switched it to a frequency aligned with 1845 AM and heard a voice. "Hello, this is the Alliance Powers desperate for anyone who hears this to go to the University building on Union Street, go to the basement, and radio back to us. With the war not going well, and the alliance needing every advantage, we are calling for your support."  Jared put his hands in his pockets and went for a walk down to the University building; there was an old AM radio station only broadcasting sporadic updates to the ten residents still listening. A security guard is standing in front of the elevator. Jared asks,  "I got a message…" the security guard, completely apathetic, just points to an elevator that looks like it hasn't been serviced in decades.  When in the basement, there is some white noise coming from a room down the hall. Jared talks into the microphone, and the white noise ceases. On the other side, a man's voice emerges, surprised to hear someone. "Hello, I can't believe we finally got someone.  What year is it?"  Jared tells him the year, and the speaker explains that they are broadcasting from 48 years in the future where a dictator has taken over the presidency in the United States.  Civil war broke out when the tyrant introduced a new election law that they developed to ensure a third term. Unfortunately, millions of people have died. For those in the other political party, life is an unending hell. People who take part in protests have been jailed without charges, executed for speaking out against the government and thrown into a death camps, where they're forced to starve to death, and mauled by dogs. The speaker explains that their only hope is for someone from the past to kill the dictator, so they don't destroy the world.  According to their calculations, the dictator just had their first birthday.  Her name is Kate Thomas, and she is the daughter of Senator Roger Thomas and lawyer for the wealthy, Carolyn Thomas. "Think about it, the one time-travel question everyone asks; if you could go back in time, would you go back and kill baby Hitler?"  As an incentive, the speaker offers to give Jared stock tips that will make him and his heirs billionaires for generations; he just has to kill one baby.  At this moment, there is a lot of confusion and fear in the United States. The United States is about to dissolve, millions have lost their lives, and the fate of the world is in the balance.  Without Jared, they don't have a prayer.

12-30-20 - Where is Your Daughter?

 Where is Your Daughter?

IDEA - 12-30-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

Alice and Frank have just finished breakfast, and they are cleaning up the kitchen. Now that their only daughter is off to college, they are now into an empty nest life. There's a loud knock; as Frank opened the door, a man, burnt to a crisp, walked in. Frank backs away as the burnt man yells the same words over and over. "Where is your daughter? Where is your daughter? Where is your daughter?" Once he's cornered Frank and Alice in the kitchen, he attempts to pull a gun from his waistband, but the pain is excruciating, and he collapses to the ground. They call the police, and it turns out the charred man in the Lucas breakfast nook is the leader of the 42nd street gang, the largest and most dangerous gang in all of LA. He ended up dying on the floor that morning, and everyone was baffled. The terrifying and disturbing thing that no one knew was that Frank and Alice's daughter, Vanessa, was a psychopath, manipulating men with sex and built her own loyal gang of foot soldiers. Her newly formed crew partnered with the 42nd Street gang to sell drugs on campus. Until a low-level drug dealer skimmed $100 from money owed to Vanessa. Furious that she was being cheated, she figured out where the 42nd street gang leadership all hung out, chained the doors, boarded the windows, and then set the entire block on fire. About fifty innocent people were killed. She also took pleasure in blowing up 15 cars and killing an additional 21 gang members by sending them an assortment of deli sandwiches laced with arsenic as a token of goodwill towards their new partnership. Venessa is 19 years old, impulsive, immature, and now heads the largest drug gang in LA. Oh, and don't forget, she is bat-shit crazy when she doesn't get her way.

12-29-20 - Diomede

 Diomede

IDEA - 12-29-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

 In 2012, Henry Coates was elected to Congress from Alaska for a fifth term. With Republicans also taking back the majority in the House, Coates has also been nominated to be a House Intelligence Committee member. Elected on his conservative values, as he has been consistently strong on ethics, morals, and loyalty, one night could damage a lifetime of moral behavior! The Congressman's cell phone number was a contact in a dead prostitute's phone. To make matters worse, the only person the prostitute contacted that night was the Congressman. DC Metro landed the case, and a tenacious deputy is hunting down the clues. The pressure starts to build as the forensics experts begin to uncover additional details that link the Congressman to the murder investigation. Considering his resignation, Henry is contacted by Russian hackers who agree to make the whole thing disappear. All he has to do is download various spreadsheet files from the House Intelligence Committee's server and deliver them to the hackers. The Congressman can't send the files digitally, and international travel is red-flagged by the department of defense. However, being from Alaska, Henry is familiar with unmonitored islands off the coast of Alaska and Russia called Diomede Islands. Little Diomede is part of Alaska, and Big Diomede is part of Russia; two miles separated them. The hackers and the Congressman will meet halfway between the two islands. Everything goes as planned, and DC Metro's case starts to unravel.  If everything went as expected, why is the Congressman still paranoid? What happened on the evening of the prostitute's death? Is there more to the story?

12-28-20 - Shortfall

 Shortfall

IDEA - 12-28-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

In a town that has been in an energy crisis for nearly ten years, a solution arrives out of nowhere. Isaac Epstein and the formula for room-temperature fusion came along just as it was revealed that there is only one year of fuel left for cooking, driving, heating, and technology. Epstein's fusion process works by creating muons, a heavy electron that shortens the gap between nuclei, causing fusion. The town is saved. However, unknown to the town, to generate a muon requires more energy than the amount that fusion ultimately makes. It's a scam; Epstein is looking to take the remaining fuel from the town and sell it for a substantial profit on the black market. That's until a 12-year-old catches Epstein loading the fuel into his truck. The kid was fascinated by the fusion process and extensively researched the ins and outs. The kid has some questions for Epstein, and until they're answered, he's not going anywhere.