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John Anthony Alvan Nichols
a book bubble about
The Cosmic Lifeguard and other stories
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author Insight
The old man and the weir
Quite clearly this man (David Stafford) is hundreds of years old and we will soon learn how he has managed to survive so long and establish himself on an alien world. Of course, it would be useful if Earth colonists on an alien world could benefit from current research that promises to treat ageing as a disease and allow humans to live longer healthier lives giving them a chance to make an impact on this new world. But to what real purpose? This raises some ethical considerations. As David Stafford later says, "It's OK to mess up your own back yard but you shouldn't mess up someone else's back yard." So who would claim Franton03 as their own back yard? He soon finds out.
Book Excerpt
The Cosmic Lifeguard and other stories
It was nearly a hundred years after Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid and during the school holidays when the water in the weir was flowing nice and slow, the weir pool would be full of black, brown and white children splashing and shouting. His boss Arny Jonker was like a benign grandfather watching on and keeping the peace when needed. His short grey beard jutted forward and his ample belly was held in by a thick leather belt. Around his neck hung a whistle that he would blow when he saw any misdemeanour. Meanwhile Stafford’s eighteen-year-old self would be carefully making his way along the lip of the weir pulling out debris and checking for damage that would need to be repaired later.
That was 300 years ago and here he was on Franton03 gazing across a river that he had named Jonkers River after his old boss and the weir he had built across it soon after he arrived on the planet fifty two years ago. As he gazed across the weir pool the water sparkled in the light of the alien sun and where the water tumbled over the lip of the weir it formed eddies in the lower pool before the river flowed on toward an alien sea.
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