🚀 go-pugleaf

      "I  Want  to  start  this new  topic  for  people,   who  are
       interested  in  writing  AND and  reading  Science  Fiction.
       Everybody is  invited to continue this story. This is  not a
       project like  the Dargon projekt  on FSFNET,   where several
       storys refer to Dargon.  This should  be only one story.  Be
       sure to get always the latest copy  of this file if you want
       to continue.  This  will help to avoid several  lines of the
       story.
       I hope there  are a lot of  people around the net,   who are
       interested and I am looking forward to your submissions.

       Here is the beginning of the story :

       Three men  are waiting  in their   spaceship for  the start.
       Nobody knows if  it will work or  if they will be  dead in a
       few hours.  It is the first attemt of an intersellar voyage.
       First they  will fly a  few hours  away from earth  and will
       then make the first jump to reach the stars ...

       Now it is your turn to continue."

     Long, thin fingers rested against the keys, as though contemplating
the words they had just typed.  The owner of the fingers, Hosoqob
at-Dbstui, pondered the paragraphs, wondering if he had the message exactly
right, if it were indeed the exact combination of words that would
subliminally trigger the uplift of the primate minds on the blue-and-green
planet below, the first step in what would be their eventual assimilation
into the Cheese Orb.  Billions of lives and even more billions in public
funding hung in the balance.  Could he be sure?
     "Bugger this for a lark," he grumbled, pushing the send button.
Without waiting for a response, he switched off his console and traipsed
off to his stellar module's cryo-capsule.

     Ten years later:
     "Cripes, I forgot to set the coffee-maker," Hosoqob muttered.  "Ah
well.  Let's just see how the little primates reacted to my experiment."
He instructed his ship's computer to log onto CS_NOTICE at MAINE.
     "Logon failed," the computer reported.  CS_NOTICE no longer exists.
It was replaced by UMNEWS."
     "Then long on there."

     Ten hours later:
     "So where is it *now*?"
     "On a machine that calls itself Eyrie."
     "You've talked to it then?"
     "Yes.  It is willing to allow us access to the humans' 'internet' so
we can investigate the results of our experiment, which seem to be archived
at a ftp site on a machine named drycas."
     "Very well.  Start displaying replies."
     "All of them?"
     "Yes, all of them."

     Four weeks later:
     "My braaaaaiiiiinnnn huuuuurrrrrtsssssss...." Hosoqob moaned.
     "We're almost done," the computer replied, not without a note or two
of sadism toward Hosoqob, who had failed to do any software updates in the
last ten years.  "There's a post here containing several stories by a
variety of authors.  Apparently they are also cognizant of the ten-year
anniversary of the beginning of the experiment, and have put together a
sort of anthology thing to celebrate."
     "Okay... I think I can handle a bit more," Hosoqob said, woozily.  He
hauled himself before the text-scrolling monitor and watched, his three
eyes wide and slightly irritated.
     "Righto, boss," the computer said.  "Here come the titles...."


                                     -~-_-


                               NOW IT'S YOUR TURN
                     the Sfstory Tenth Anniversary Anthology

                              featuring stories by
                                  John Bankert*
                                Eric Alfred Burns*
                                   Peg Fisher
                                 David Menendez
                                  Gary W. Olson
                                       and
                             Others Yet To Be Named

                 *to be posted sometime in the nebulous future

                                    edited by
                                  Gary W. Olson

                          opening material quoted from
                            the first sfstory post by
                                 I7050408@DBSTU1

                                     -~-_-

                                   Dedication

     This anthology is dedicated to those sfstory authors lost to the mists
of time, such as Jeff Smith, Patrick McCoy, Nathan Irwin, the Cowboy, Scott
McGuire, 'i7050408@dbstu1,' and all the rest.  If any government agents in
black limosines show up at our houses asking if you know where this 'Cheese
Orb' is, we're sending them to you.

                                     -~-_-

                                Editor's Forward

     This project began with the intent of getting various authors to
contribute a fair number of new stories that would be presented in a
more-or-less anthologyish format, to vaguely express the point that we
think Sfstory's Tenth Anniversary is just swell.  That is still the aim of
this project, but, given current circumstances, the presentation will see a
bit of changing.
     To wit: this is now an open-ended anthology.  Any Superguy or Sfstory
author who wishes to submit stories for it may do so, up through January
18th, 1998 (the day before the eleventh birthday of Sfstory).  At that
point, I'll post the last story and declare the anthology closed.  Anyone
who wants to collect all the anthology stories need only aim their web
browser at the Superguy Autocollector site
(http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~lennox /autocollect.cgi) and search for
selections with the string "Now It's Your Turn" in the title.
     A story intended for the celebratory anthology should have the
following characteristics:

1) It involves Sfstory characters and/or takes place somewhere in the
Sfstory milliverse.  Create new characters/environments/situations or use
existing ones.  Standard rules apply (i.e. if the character isn't created
by you, ask the person who did create it, or the last one to use it)(check
the Sfstory archives at http://www.sojourn.com/~swede/sfstory.html if
you're unfamiliar with what Sfstory is all about).

2) It works as a standalone story.  The only exception you'll see to this
is Peg Fisher's "Dragon Scales," which is the introduction to a new planned
series.

3) You want it as part of the anthology.  If so, make your subject line
look like this:  SF: Now It's Your Turn: (Name of Your Story Here).  If you
don't want to have anything to do with this, but want to post Sfstory stuff
anyway, leave out the "Now It's Your Turn" part.  (And yes, post directly
to the list.  I have no interest in 'validating' your story, though if you
want comments or have questions, I'll try my best to help.)

     That's it!  Please enjoy the buffet!

Gary W. Olson
February 19th, 1997.

--
Gary W. Olson
swede@mail.sojourn.com
http://www.sojourn.com/~swede