Path of The Bearers and Other Stories – Available Now

My latest book Path of the Bearers and Other Stories is available now on Amazon as eBook or Paperback! Here’s a sneak peak of the title story:

Alvin climbed over the back of the couch as he headed for the door.
“How many times have I told you not to do that?” Mom handed him his sandals.
Alvin didn’t answer; he could tell by her tone it wasn’t a real question. He strapped his sandals, imagining they were the big, powered boots he was about to be wearing. After sliding the corrugated metal door open, he skipped down the stairs. Mom let out a sigh and a call after him, but he was already at the ground floor and ready to punch in the code to exit the apartment complex. He still wasn’t allowed past it without one of his mothers, but today he’d get to go further than he’d ever gone before.
The apartment complex was in the old style: sturdy metal walls with atmosphere locks in case of emergency. The living quarters inside were newer and made of scavenged hardware to increase the number of rooms, and families, the building could hold. The new style wasn’t as sturdy, and he couldn’t climb on the walls, even though there were so many good footholds.

When Mom made it to the bottom of the stairs, he punched in the code as quickly as possible. He mistyped the five to be a four, and the door wouldn’t let him out. By the time he retyped it, she was standing behind him. The door opened with a swish, and he looked out at the bustling streets of Balteras.
The dome overhead shimmered as power flowed through it. Large buildings in the smooth and shiny metal of the old style sat like boulders in the street. Newer buildings, mostly shops and restaurants, were littered between them. The newest buildings used wood, barrels, and canvas sheets to make their walls and furniture. They had to use anything the scouts brought back. Groups of people walked along the streets, some laughing, others with their heads down, trying to navigate the river of people.
Alvin headed toward the dome’s edge, but Mom called after him.
“We’re going out today to see the Bearers,” he reminded her. Mama always joked that she might accidentally forget his birthday, but Mom would never forget something so important.
“First we have to go to Otler park.”
Alvin groaned as his shoulders deflated. This wasn’t supposed to be another day at the park. This was his birthday, his fourteenth birthday, and he was supposed to go see the path of the Bearers.
“We’ll head out soon, but we have to go there first.”
Alvin loved the jungle gyms of Otler park. He would stand above them and felt like he was on the top of the Balteras dome, or at least he was taller than both of his mothers. The playsets seemed to be shrinking though because now he could reach the monkey bars with a small jump and didn’t need much more than the bottom step of the stairs to be taller than Mom. Plus, his other friends, even the ones who hadn’t seen the Bearers, were bored of it. They wanted to play Titan Clash, a trading card game that Alvin could never learn all the rules to. Whenever they got engrossed in that, he pulled out his sampler and recorded the battle sounds they made or other sounds in Balteras.
Alvin realized something and ran back to Mom. “I forgot my sampler!” They’d have to go back to the apartment for it. He didn’t want to miss the opportunity to record the sounds from outside the dome for the first time.
Mom pulled the device out of her pocket, the old-fashioned microphone cord wrapped around the device. “You’ll have to be careful with this. Mama will be upset if you lose it.”
“I know. I’ll be careful.” Mama had found the device on a scouting mission and brought it back for him. There weren’t many pieces of equipment like it, and a tinkerer had to do special work to get it to communicate with their family’s terminal so Alvin could make music with the audio samples he recorded during the day.

They arrived at the center of Otler park, at the statue of William Otler. It was Alvin’s least favorite part of the park because it was the one thing there he wasn’t allowed to climb. A small fence surrounded the statue and the Eark it held. He couldn’t climb it because the Eark powered the whole dome of Balteras. The dome was necessary—as Alvin had learned in every history class he ever sat through—to keep the air in and the monsters of their planet, Thachit, out. The Eark was transported by the Bearers from Paltov, the original city, to Balteras.
“Why do you think we started here?” Mom sounded like a teacher, and Alvin wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.
The Eark glowed purple in the center with sparks of lapis flowing up into the sky and creating dark streaks on the city’s dome. A metal cage rotated around the purple core, ignoring gravity and drifting at its own leisure. A shallow dome like a satellite dish rested on the statue’s shoulders, and Alvin knew it was key to keeping the Eark in place.
“I don’t know,” Alvin replied.
The Eark gave off a faint buzzing he’d tried to capture a few times, but his microphone wasn’t sensitive enough.
His mother gave him a look that encouraged him to try harder. He didn’t want to get the journey outside the dome taken away.
“Because Otler was the last of the Bearers.”
“And enabled the Eark and city of Balteras to continue on,” his mother continued. “What does the sign under Otler say?”
The statue wasn’t really a statue, but the platform it was on had been added after Otler’s suit took the kneeling stance, holding the Eark on his shoulder and hands. The shallow dish was still wired into his suit, although power had left the suit generations ago when Balteras was founded.
Alvin read the inscription. “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” He squinted at the next word. “Anony…” He wrinkled his eyebrows; this was one of those dumb words that he didn’t know.
“Anonymous,” his mother finished. “Do you know why it’s there?”
“Because the Eark went from shoulder to shoulder of the Bearers.”
“Very good,” she said, “Do you want to play before we head out?”
Alvin shook his head and started down the road that led to the dome’s edge. He was ready to head out on the day’s adventure.

Path of the Bearers and Other Stories is a collection of 17 futuristic fables by Nicholas Licalsi. Explore worlds advanced beyond belief but eerily similar to today. Everyday characters face otherworldly challenges and are forced to embrace new and uncomfortable realities. One wrong decision could ruin humanity’s chances of surviving among the stars.

In “Crystal Ball Computing”, a computer has the potential to predict the future but only if it can uncover its creator’s inexplicable disappearance. In “Path of the Bearers”, alien bugs, cosmic beasts, and frozen exo-suits await young travelers on their journey. In “How the Patron Navigates”, the limitations of a high profile project must be reveled while joyriding through an asteroid field. In “Swinging Sticks”, a pocket dimension promises time to focus, but the neighbor’s drum practice doesn’t make it easy.

Artificial intelligence becomes combative, alien intentions are unknown, and humans hinder each other for personal gain. Take a glance towards our future in the stars. The Path of the Bearers and Other Stories is a collection of virtuous and thought-provoking tales.