But Jeremy didn’t move as I fitted the key into the lock . . .
T minus 2 minutes . . . and counting . . .
Why wouldn’t the Captain tell me what the order was? The fire knew, but it couldn’t tell. My head ached from the pulsing, but I couldn’t read the words. “Tell me tell me tell me . . . ” I begged.
Then I realized that the Captain was asking too.
T minus 90 seconds . . . and counting . . .
“Tell me tell me tell me . . . ” the Horsemen begged. And the words I couldn’t read were a fire in my brain.
Duke’s key was in the lock in front of us. From very far away, he said: “We have to do it together.”
Of course . . . our keys . . . our keys would unlock the words! I put my key into the lock.
One, two, three, we turned our keys together. A lid on the console popped open. Under the lid were three red buttons. Three signs on the console lit up in red letters: ARMED.
T minus 60 seconds . . . and counting . . .
The men were waiting for me to give some order. I didn’t know what the order was. A magnificent orange fire was trying to tell me but it couldn’t get the words out . . . Robed figures were praying to the fire . . .
Then, through the yellow-blue flicker that hid the words I had to read, I saw a vast crowd encircling a tower. The crowd was on its feet begging silently—
The tower in the center of the crowd became the orange fire that was trying to tell me what the words were—
Became a great mushroom of billowing smoke and blinding orange-red glare . . .
T minus 30 seconds . . . and counting . . .
The huge pillar of fire was trying to tell Jeremy and me what the words were, what we had to do. The crowd was screaming at the cloud of flame. The yellow-blue flicker was getting faster and faster behind the mushroom cloud. I could almost read the words! I could see that there were two of them!
T minus 20 seconds . . . and counting . . .
Why didn’t the Captain tell us? I could almost see the words!
Then I heard the crowd around the beautiful mushroom cloud shouting: “DO IT! DO IT! DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!”
What did they want me to do? Did Duke know?
9
The men were waiting! What was the order? They hunched over the firing controls, waiting . . . The firing controls . . . ?
“DO IT! DO IT! DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!”
8
“DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!” the crowd screaming.
“Jeremy!” I shouted. “I can read the words!”
7
My hands hovered over my bank of firing buttons . . .
“DO IT! DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!” the words said.
Didn’t the captain understand?
6
“What do they want us to do, Jeremy?”
5
Why didn’t the mushroom cloud give the order? My men were waiting! A good sailor craves action.
Then a great voice spoke from the pillar of fire: “DO IT . . . DO IT . . . DO IT . . . ”
4
“There’s only one thing we can do down here, Duke.”
3
“The order, men! Action! Fire!”
2
Yes, yes, yes! Jeremy—
1
I reached for my bank of firing buttons. All along the console, the men reached for their buttons. But I was too fast for them! I would be first!
0
THE BIG FLASH
Norman Spinrad is the author of over twenty novels, including Little Heroes, a definitive rock/sf novel, and the latest to be published in the U.S., He Walked Among Us. He has a long history as a song writer and sometime performing and recording vocalist, having co-written about half the stuff on the Heldon album Only Chaos Is Real, recorded on the Heldon album East/West and the album Home of the Page, among others, performed live in Paris, New York, Bordeaux, the Transmusical Festival, etc. Other novels include Bug Jack Barron, The Iron Dream, Child of Fortune, Pictures At 11, Greenhouse Summer, The Druid King, and Passing Through the Flame, the title song for which he was recorded, as vocalist, by Schizotrope. It can be found on YouTube, along with the title song of Only Chaos Is Real.
About the Editor
Rock On is Paula Guran’s sixteenth anthology; her seventeenth, Season of Wonder, will be published about a month after this one. She serves as senior editor for Prime Books. A volume of her Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror series appears annually. She edited the Juno fantasy imprint for six years from its small press inception through its incarnation as an imprint of Simon & Schuster’s Pocket Books.
She often leaves her biography out of anthologies altogether, and never says anything personal if she includes one. But this time, she is.
The idea for this anthology came out her love of rock and roll, science fiction, and fantasy. Guran’s one of those editors who knows she doesn’t have the imagination to write fiction, so she wisely avoids trying to. That only enhances her admiration of those who do write fiction. The same is true of musicians. She’s hopelessly unmusical, never accomplished much with an instrument of any sort, and can’t carry a tune in either a bucket or vocally.
Although she passed her love of music on to all four of her children, Erik, her youngest, was particularly talented. The beginning of the introduction to this anthology is a near-verbatim conversation with him.
But he didn’t much like reading fiction. So, when his mother came up with the idea for this anthology, she thought she might finally produce something he might read.
Now it is done, but he won’t be reading it.
Erik died in his sleep on June 9, 2012 at age twenty-two.
The editor really wishes you could have heard him sing.
OTHER BOOKS EDITED BY
PAULA GURAN
Embraces
Best New Paranormal Romance
Best New Romantic Fantasy
Zombies: The Recent Dead
The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2010
Vampires: The Recent Undead
The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2011
Halloween
New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird
Brave New Love
Witches: Wicked, Wild & Wonderful
Obsession: Tales of Irresistible Desire
The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2012
Extreme Zombies
Ghosts: Recent Hauntings
Acknowledgements
All stories are published with the permission of the authors.
“Hobnoblin Blues” by Elizabeth Bear © 2008 Elizabeth Bear. First publication: Realms of Fantasy, February 2008.
“Arise” by Poppy Z. Brite © 1998 Poppy Z. Brite. First Publication: Are You Loathsome Tonight? (Gauntlet Press).
“Stone” by Edward Bryant © 1978 Mercury Press Inc. First publication: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 1978.
“Rock On” by Pat Cadigan © 1986 Pat Cadigan. First publication: Light Years and Dark: Science Fiction and Fantasy Of and For Our Time, ed. Michael Bishop (Berkley).
“Mercenary” by Lawrence C. Connolly © 2012 Lawrence C. Connolly. First publication, original to this volume.
“We Love Lydia Love” by Bradley Denton © 1994 Mercury Press Inc. First publication: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October-November 1994.
“The Erl-King” by Elizabeth Hand © 1993 Elizabeth Hand. First publication: Full Spectrum 4, eds. Lou Aronica, Betsy Mitchell & Amy Stout (Bantam Spectra).
“Mourningstar” by Del James © 2012 Del James. First publication, original to this volume.
“Last Rising Sun” by Graham Joyce © 1992 Graham Joyce. First publication: In Dreams, eds. Paul J. McAuley & Kim Newman (Gollancz).
“Paedomorphosis” by Caitlín R. Kiernan © 2000 Caitlín R. Kiernan. First publication: Tales of Pain and Wonder (Gauntlet Press).
“Then Play On” by Greg Kihn. © 2002 Greg Kihn. First publication: Horror Garage #5, Spring 2002.
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br /> “Wunderkindergarten” by Marc Laidlaw © 1992 Marc Laidlaw. First publication: In Dreams, eds. Paul J. McAuley & Kim Newman (Gollancz).
“That Was Radio Clash” by Charles de Lint © 2005 Charles de Lint. First publication: Taverns of the Dead, ed. Kealan Patrick Burke (Cemetery Dance Publications).
“Voodoo Child” by Graham Masterton © 1992 Graham Masterton. First publication: Shock Rock, ed. Jeff Gelb (Pocket Books).
“At Budokan” by Alastair Reynolds © 2010 Alastair Reynolds. First publication: Shine: An Anthology of Optimistic Science Fiction, ed. Jetse de Vries (Solaris).
“Odeed” by David J. Schow © 1992 David J. Schow. First publication: Shock Rock, ed. Jeff Gelb (Pocket Books).
“ . . . How My Heart Breaks When I Sing This Song . . . ” by Lucius Shepard © 1985 Davis Publications, Inc. First publication: Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, December 1985.
“Jeff Beck” by Lewis Shiner © 1986 Davis Publications, Inc. Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, January 1986.
“Freezone” by John Shirley © 1986, 2012 John Shirley. First publication, original version: Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology, ed. Bruce Sterling (Berkley). This version: original to this volume.
“The Big Flash” by Norman Spinrad © 1969 Norman Spinrad. First publication: Orbit 5, ed. Damon Knight (Putnam).
“We See Things Differently” by Bruce Sterling © 1989 Bruce Sterling. First publication: Semiotext[e] SF, eds. Rudy Rucker, Peter Lamborn Wilson & Robert Anton Wilson (Autonomedia).
“The Feast of Saint Janis” by Michael Swanwick © Michael Swanwick 1980. First publication: New Dimensions 11, eds. Robert Silverberg & Marta Randall (Pocket Books).
“Flying Saucer Rock and Roll” by Howard Waldrop © 1985 Howard Waldrop. First Publication: Omni, January 1985.
“Bob Dylan, Troy Johnson, and the Speed Queen” by F. Paul Wilson © 1992 F. Paul Wilson. First publication: Shock Rock, ed. Jeff Gelb (Pocket).
Footnotes
[1] Henry Morrisseau, “Diamonds & Diesel: A Candid Interview With Loki,” Tracks, August 1972.
[2] Frank Randall, album reviews, Bontemps Magazine, April 1972.
[3] Eric Greg, Playing with Fire: The Unauthorized Biography of Loki, London, Plasma Publishing Ltd., 1998.
[4]The Last Ultimate Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, New York, New American Library, 2009.
[5] Henry Morrisseau, “Diamonds & Diesel: A Candid Interview With Loki,” Tracks, August 1972.
[6] Henry Morrisseau, “Diamonds & Diesel: A Candid Interview With Loki,” Tracks, August 1972.
[7]7 Hugh Carter, “Loki, Unplugged,” Melody Monitor, May 1982.
[8] Associated Press Newswire, 12 July 1976.
[9] Hugh Carter, “Loki, Unplugged,” Melody Monitor, May 1982.
[10] Liner notes, Kill the Horses: the Loki Retrospective, 2002.
[11] Robert Slavish, “The Unlikeliest Centerfold: An Interview with Loki,” Badger for Men, December 1983.
[12] Clikipedia entry: Loki (singer).
[13] Clikipedia entry: Loki (singer).
[14] Lyrics from “Ride On,” off the album Radiant, 2003.
[15] Anne Westfahl, “Rock Star Bones,” Groovecutter Magazine, March 1985.
[16]Hugh Carter, “Loki, Unplugged,” Melody Monitor, May 1982.
[17] Clikipedia entry: Loki (singer).
[18] Cassandra Hutchinson, “The Day The Music Died,” The Patuck Reader, November 2006.
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