First Contact is a multidimensional narrative connecting centuries, continents and sub/cultures, unravelling coincidences and conspiracies, computer viruses, and viruses which infect your mind. It details a kaleidoscope of revolutions and counter re...
The boy on the swift red BMX bike relaxed his pace, allowing his slower companion to catch up. David White pulled up on the uneven edge of Parkes Street, and asked <<So, where is this cubby of yours?>>
<<Not far ahead>> was Joshua's curt reply. He was an average sized boy of 10, with short dark hair and cobalt eyes. David was a year older, a little taller, and with brownish hair. They were riding through the late afternoon sun towards Yarrabandai Creek and the stretch of land they called "the scrub", on the outskirts of Trundle, some 400km west of Sydney. Home to 300 odd souls, it was famous for having the widest main street in Australia, while the town's mudwalled hotel boasted the longest wooden verandah in the state. Roughly 50km to the east could be found the 64-meter Murriyang radio telescope, which helped to track the Apollo 11 mission to the moon, and broadcast to the world Neil Armstrong's first steps on the lunar surface. Everything was big out here, apart from the population of course, and everything was larger than life. There were enormous sheep and wheat farms, biblical mice plagues, and huge duststorms/flocks of rampaging pink galahs that roared out of nowhere and sometimes clouded out the entire sky. The main street of Trundle was apparently so wide that you could drive two herds of livestock down it in opposite directions and they would never come to blows. These days, however, the bullock trains were gone, and most sheep or cattle were transported by truck.
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Although David was too young to realize, in many ways Trundle was a ghost town and a faded version of its former glory. There was a train station which never got used by passengers... the line was still there, but it was just for hauling grain. While there were not exactly tumbleweeds rolling through the wide and barren streets, they would not look out of place either. There was tussocky grass and reddish soil, dust devils and tough shearers who wore blue singlets and drank at the Trundle Hotel, or gambled at the races, and occasionally got into a fight.
Grim fare indeed for cultivated adults who enjoyed opera or shopping for designer clothes, but what did kids care about culture and the high life? In fact, all that empty space was a blessing, the freedom to ride your BMX as far as you could in any direction, with only the occasional bully or grumpy farmer to give you no grief for it. Back at his bank home they a video player and VHS videos of Grease, Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, and Flash Gordon, and a Texas Instruments computer with 16KB of memory. He also possessed a Donkey Kong Junior handheld console, made by Nintendo in Japan, and a Rubik's cube. What more could you want?
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