Little did I realise what ICE were going to be doing in American cities. I was looking into the future:
The camps were full to bursting. Rows of prefabricated huts extruded from some strange alienplastic-like material extended into the distance like some battery hen egg-producing factories. Inside was just as orderly and mechanised in the most sterile manner imaginable. The huts were crammed full of bunk beds made of the same alloy, each equipped with a mattress, single pillow and sheet. The amenities were shared – toilets and wash basins all made of strange alien fabrics. Everything was very basic and austere. They worked and did the job but that was all.
The lack of a perimeter wire was the camps only redeeming feature. The inmates, all dressed in the same single-piece tunics, were contained by an invisible containing barrier. There were no entrances or exits visible. Nothing could come in and nothing went out through that undetectable partition. The alien craft landed vertically into a central reception area. That was the only commerce.
Each massive block was managed by a single lizard who paid scant attention to what was going on inside their domain. Their function seemed largely ornamental. They were there to register a presence and perhaps record what went on. Their one task was to oversee a delivery of bland untextured alien food three times a day. Otherwise they ignored the inmates and what they got up to. In the event of fights they would appear and wait for it to be over, watching with interest. The injured would be removed without any repercussions for the offenders. Even when horrible weapons were constructed and inmates killed nothing was done about it. Law, rules and regulations were left to the inmates to implement. The inmates were left to organise themselves, no attention was paid to the distribution of food, condition of the toilets and wash areas or any form of entertainment. That was also left to the inmates. Once a week bedding was changed, apart from that it was a free-for-all that rapidly descended into a survival of the fittest. A recipe for disaster.
Almost as if someone had designed the kind of pressure cooker likely to explode.
Most of the guards were nine foot Giforians with a smattering of slightly smaller Drefs. They seemed impervious to physical attack, brushing assailants away like flies, and equally impervious to cries for help. If anything they found the antics of their charges either amusing or repulsive. They made no attempt to indulge in any interplay.
Inside the huts no distinction was made between the inmates – rich, poor, famous, criminal, male, female they were all heaped in together, supplied with the same tunics and left to organise themselves. It proved fertile ground for squabbles, baiting, bullying, rape and intimidation that broke down into regular nasty fights. Some huts were orderly otherswere run by various factions who organised things for the benefit of a ruthless minority. The strongest and meanest prevailed.
Every few minutes more craft would arrive to spill out their cargoes of furious or bewildered people who were crammed in to the over full huts. The strange glassy bunks were pushed closer together and more crammed in. Feeble attempts were made at privacy with sheets pinned up and ‘inmates’ with nothing to do sat listlessly or dozed on their bunks. The basic, tasteless food was picked over and only consumed out of hunger. Entertainment was restricted to a stroll between huts and gossip with fellow inmates. Some tried to keep themselves fit through a fitness regime but most lazed around listlessly and grew increasingly despondent. There were three main topics of conversation: why had they all been singled out? Where were they going? What was going to happen to them?
An air of anger, violence and fear hung over the camps. It was waiting to ignite.
On arrival the newcomers were processed by big lumbering Leff who scanned, cross-checked DNA, chipped, vaccinated and sorted them in a perfunctory manner. They were then roughly led to their new ‘homes’. Most were so stunned by what had happened that they moved through the process in a trance. Occasionally someone would break down into a fit of hysterics or resist, arguing fiercely, shouting, ranting, beating at one of the reptiles or attempting to run away. They were roughly manhandled and brought back into line. It was soon apparent that the lizards were faster and stronger and seemed completely impervious to pleas or attacks. Resistance was futile. The troopers had a job to do and they intended to do it. They carried out their role dispassionately.
The boredom did nothing to lift the air of hostility that gripped the place. There was nobody to turn to for help, nobody to ask, no questions answered. They were left to stew, to wonder why they were here and what was going to happen to them. Conspiracies festered.
I wanted to tap into the wave of populism that is sweeping the country and identify some of the nationalistic patriot tropes. I also wanted to explore the emotional and political dynamics of relationships.
Sci-fi for me is about the life we are living. I just create a different setting within which to explore it.
Chapter 9 – The Meeting
‘Bloody hell,’ Denby squawked as they approached the Ashley. There were crowds outside and it was twenty minutes before they were due to start. He turned to Billy with a look of incredulity on his face. ‘They can’t fucking be here for our meeting, can they?’
Billy shook his head in shock. ‘I wish I’d made a few notes.’
‘You’ll be fine, you daft sod,’ Charlene remarked. ‘You never usually have any trouble spouting your head off. Just tell them how it is.’
Billy had turned puce and looked far from convinced.
‘We’ll all be right behind you,’ Cheryl said, frowning as she looked at the milling crowd outside the pub.
‘Yep,’ Foxy added, ‘a long, long way behind!’
They managed to squeeze in through the door and push their way through the crowd to the bar where they were hemmed in and turned to face the crowd. Billy nervously stood at the front flanked by Charlene and Billy with the others pressing in around them. They had no option but to be squeezed together; the crowd was that tightly packed. There was a loud babble of noise with everybody talking at once. You had to shout to be heard.
‘Right Everyone!!’ Billy shouted. Nobody took the slightest bit of notice. ‘Hello! Can I have your attention?’
‘Up on the bar,’ Charlene hissed in his ear, shoving him towards the counter. Nobby reached over and Denby and Foxy gave him a hoist and Billy found himself up on the bar looking down at the crowd below. It did not take long for the people to notice him. The noise died away.
Billy peered round at a sea of faces packed like a bag of jelly beans. A great wave of nausea welled up inside him but he battled it down.
‘Hmmmph,’ he cleared his throat. ‘Thanks for coming.’ It came out like a squeak. ‘Thank you. Thank you for coming,’ he stammered, his voice stronger. Then, miraculously the panic inside him subsided and he found his voice. ‘Bloody hell! I didn’t expect so many of you.’ A big cheer went up and he felt himself relax.
‘We’re all here because of the same thing,’ he went on more confidently. ‘We’re here because of these bloody lizards.’ A great roar went up that buoyed him along. ‘They’ve been dragging people away, terrorising families. It’s a bloody tyranny of fear!’
A roar went up. They unanimously agreed. You could see Billy visibly swell as the crowd boosted him.
‘They tell us that it’s for our own good,’ he told them while making it clear that he did not believe a word. A disgruntled boo went around the room. ‘I reckon it’s nothing short of control!’ The crowd liked that. A roar went up around the room. He jabbed his finger accusingly in the air. ‘These bloody lizards are trying to control us! They want us to shut up and for us to roll over!’
By now the crowd were baying. They were lapping this up. This is just what they wanted to hear.
‘I say, enough!’ Billy jabbed.
‘Enough!’ they roared back. ‘Enough! Enough! Enough!’ Punctuating each jab of Billy’s finger.
‘We want our country back!’ Billy shouted.
‘WE WANT OUR COUNTRY BACK!!’ they roared back at him. Billy looked round at the animated crowd. He couldn’t believe it. In no time at all he’d worked them into a frenzy.
It went on with more of the same. He fed them his gripes in short punchy one-liners and they amplified it back at him tenfold. It flowed out of him like lager out of Nobby’s taps.
‘Bloody Ada!’ Charlene exclaimed as they walked back. She was looking at her phone. She looked across at Billy with a startled face. ‘There’s over two hundred thousand hits on the site I put up!’
‘Might need a bigger venue for the next meeting,’ Foxy jested.
Billy looked across at Denby. What the fuck had they unleashed?
‘I reckon we need to be watching our backs,’ Bob remarked dourly. ‘Those fucking lizards are going to be taking a dim view of all this. They’ll be pulling us in with all them others. We’ll be the ones brainwashed!’
That sent a shiver through all of them. Debbie glanced up at the sky as if expecting an alien craft to swoop down out of the heavens and Charlene flashed Billy a worried look. Bob was right. They were putting themselves in the spotlight.
‘Gotta be done,’ Billy stated resolutely, walking with a defiant swagger.
Chapter 10 – Consolidation
Ron was in a quandary. Being rushed off to New York and told he was running the show had thrown him into a complete daze. He felt like he was awake in some weird dream that he couldn’t fight his way out of. Was any of this real? Had the lizards really come? Were they really putting him in charge? Or was this some strange hallucination? Probably someone had slipped some acid into his drink and all this was some great fiction served up by his overheated brain? Perhaps he was really stuck in some kind of Matrix? He was half expecting Keanu Reeves to walk in at any moment. It was too preposterous for words. Anything was more likely than the scenario he was being served up with right now. Yet it seemed real. It felt real. He found himself sitting down and shaking his head to clear the absurdities out, as if a few shakes of the head might bring everything back the way it was before.
Gradually it felt as if he was emerging from a narcotic haze. It was real. He really was here. As Chameakegra began to prime him on what they were going to do it slowly began to dawn on him that he really was here, it really was happening to him and he was being presented with a programme by a bunch of alien lizards, a programme that he actually approved of, from what he had seen of it. He was being asked to take control of a scheme to improve the world, a vision that weirdly aligned itself with his own ideals. Uncanny. Though it was totally ridiculous he was going to have to go along with it. What else could he do? Go and admit himself to the nearest mental asylum?
‘We are prepared to work with you Hydrans to create a better society,’ Chameakegra was telling him. ‘We will supply the means to enable the alterations – the scientific and technological expertise – but it requires a Hydran government to back and implement the changes.’
‘Whoa,’ Ron said, coming out of his trance and raising his hands to slow her down, ‘what changes? What changes are you after me implementing? All I’ve got to go on is that speech you delivered on the TV. I need details.’
Chameakegra’s iridescent green eyes seemed to glow. Ron got the impression that she was finding this amusing. ‘Right,’ she said slowly as if addressing a child. ‘We are looking to generate a global Hydran culture that is well-adjusted, non-violent, compassionate and tolerant. A single global culture that incorporates the richness of the different cultures that are incorporated but one that operates under an overarching philosophy based on equality, fairness and justice. We want a culture that retains the vibrancy and creativity of your species but is rid of the destructiveness. That global culture would set up a new zeitgeist and alter the way Hydrans develop and think.’
‘All very well,’ Ron remarked sceptically, playing along with the illusion as if it was real. ‘That all seems too good to be true. Very idealistic. I’m not even sure it can be achieved.’
Chameakegra studied him with an unflinching gaze. ‘That is what we are hoping to find out.’
Ron peered back at her, no longer intimidated by her size and ferocious appearance. ‘I’m all in favour of non-violence, equality and the rest.’
‘We know.
Ron peered at her questioningly.
‘We’ve carried out the tests. That’s why you are here. You have the qualities and ethics that we are looking for.’
‘But why me?’ Ron bleated.
The Giforian made a mannerism that Ron recognised as a chuckle. The more he was around these lizards the more he was beginning to understand them At least on a superficial level. He was certain that the lizard was amused.
‘I am concerned that Beheggakegri and Grrndakegra are doing their best to undermine your efforts,’ Judge Booghramakegra messaged.
‘I suspect the same,’ Chameakegra messaged back. ‘In fact I’m certain of it.’
‘I would suggest that you look to take charge of the rehabilitation process as soon as possible and look to have an input on the rounding up of the reprobates.’
‘I have limited power. We have a joint command which means that I cannot greatly influence what Grrndakegra is doing and how she is doing it. The lunar facilities are coming along but will take time. We will have to house millions.’
‘Can’t you at least begin to process some of them?’
‘Not really. I have the team of psychologists and psychiatrists you have sent all ready and prepared. They are fully up to speed on Hydran psychology. As soon as I am able I will initiate the process. But until I get the go-ahead that the facilities are ready to receive a batch, my claws are tied.’
‘From what I am seeing the rounding up process is causing a great deal of animosity.’ Judge Booghramakegra seemed very annoyed.
‘That was always going to be the case in the best of circumstances,’ Chameakegra reflected. ‘But I am sure that Grrndakegra is not making it run as smoothly as it might have.’
‘Some of those scenes look dreadful.’ Booghramakegra asserted. ‘Do you want me to press for you taking overall command? I can put some pressure on Beheggakegri.’
Chameakegra considered this. She knew that, despite the judge’s power, there would be a process and Beheggakegri would certainly throw some flujes in the werbez. By the time they got that through the damage would likely be done. The round-up would likely be over apart from minor mopping up. Open conflict with Beheggakegri and Grrndakegra might prove do more harm than good. ‘No, No, leave it for the moment. I shall see if I can’t sort things out.’
‘If you need help just ask. I think this experiment is of the utmost importance.
Connected
We are connected
An interlinked web
A matrix of life
We are all connected
We are connected
A flow of energy
A vibration
Runs through us all
We are connected
Throbbing protoplasm
Touching, caressing
Reliant on each other
We are connected
Radiating out
From a single source
Changing, evolving
We are connected
A web of consciousness
Permeating the essence
Radiating through
Through rock
Gas and liquid
Blood and sap
Leaf, fur and scale.
We are connected
Opher 30.1.2026
Through science I am rediscovering the mystical spirituality I used to believe in back in the 60s. Not a concept of god and certainly not any religion.
It was sparked by a strange scientific paper I read that suggested that consciousness might be an intrinsic quality of the universe right from its creation. Everything was conscious.
It felt like a door opening again. No god creating everything but some spiritual consciousness permeating everything.
It opened the door to all that latent pantheism – the wonder of rocks, stars and planets.
We are all connected. Enjoy.
A pair of likely lads in uniform looking young and happy. They were stationed near Naples in the war – of fighting fascists.
If they only knew that the very fascist ideology they were risking their lives for was sweeping through the USA, UK and the rest of the world.
Right now the most obnoxious rump of the Tory party is finding its home in Reform to bring Trump’s divisive politics of hatred to our streets with the blessing of louts like Tommy Robinson.
I reckon Elon Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos and the rest of the billionaire exploiters are orchestrating the mindset of the gullible with their fear of immigrants.
It’s not the immigrants who are destroying the world. They are the sad debris, the fall-out from the way Musk, Zuckerberg and Bezos are running the world for their own profit. Trump, Brexit and immigrants are being used as they deflect from what they are really up to.
We’re in the time of greed and austerity as they suck us all dry.
My Dad and Jim were fighting for a better, fairer world. It didn’t work out, did it? Who could have foreseen? Only Orwell!
ICE IN THE SOUL
Wearing masks to keep themselves hid
So no one can blame them for the things that they did.
Harassment and terror the tools of the trade
Deployed by the state to shake down and raid.
Sent to the blue states to stir everything up
Trump’s own militia – with the devil they sup
Recruits from the Proud Boys, purveyors of hate
Under the pretext of making America great
Blood on the seat, blood on the snow
Lies in the air from those in the know
First it was Good, then it was Pretti
Executions in the heart of the city
Life ended with bullets from the hands of a goon
Lies from the White House but soon changed their tune
The truth was recorded on many a phone
Lies seen through cutting straight to the bone
Faceless and mindless full of great hate
Zombies of fascism deployed by the state
Executioners, killers let off the halter
Eager and obedient, they never falter
Heartless and cruel as a glacial device
The thumbscrews of Nazis, the workings of ICE.
Opher – 29.1.2026
I felt I had to write something. I really could not believe what I was witnessing on the streets of what is supposedly a free democratic country.
Trump has divided the country and whipped it up into such hatred that it teeters on the edge of civil war. The battle lines are drawn. His rhetoric is accusatory and divisive. He is free with his labels and hateful with his language – quick to blame others and laud himself.
ICE has become his private militia deployed to wreak revenge upon those who did not support him or his brand of extreme fascism.
This conman is piling billions into his vaults while giving more power to the wealthy and religious fanatics.
It’s like watching a child play with immense power that he doesn’t understand – tariffs, threats, war.
He thrives on chaos, undermining experts, science, the media and the world order. He shits on allies and cosies up to enemies. Out of the fear and chaos he can gain wealth, power and satisfaction – gloating and preening on a stage, not seeing that others see him as a disgustingly bad smell.
Never have we witnessed such crass behaviour, such bad taste, such odious behaviour. He is destroying the glue that held us together for personal gain or emotional catharsis – like a child destroying his own toys.
He pardons murderers and crooks and has set loose an army of mindless, rabid goons to upset and enrage his ‘enemies’.
But life is precious. We should cherish every moment. I detect that he and his sycophantic extremists actually enjoyed the executions of Renee and Alex and the fury it unleashed.
Dictators and despots are all held in place by the cruel sadists that masquerade in uniforms. Whether it’s the Stasi, Gestapo, Morality police or ICE. They’ve propped up totalitarian regimes in Germany, Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, South America and now the USA.
A curse for the torturers and executioners who enable evil. A curse upon the despots.
Who would have believed that the USA could get so bad!
Murder is condoned by evil people.
Trump doing great?? US Debt – now $38.6 TRILLION.
The United States is facing a growing fiscal challenge as its national debt reaches unprecedented levels, prompting serious concerns from economists, watchdog groups and financial leaders about the long-term sustainability of America’s finances. Once a source of global confidence, the U.S. government’s $38 trillion-plus debt burden is now under scrutiny as it threatens to outpace economic growth and strain government budgets.
So if someone is shot and killed, in any circumstance, shouldn’t there be an unbiased investigation? Shouldn’t the law apply to ALL people – especially law enforcers?
Is it right for the killers to simply be given a holiday and full anonymity?
Shouldn’t there be a transparent legal process with full justification and accountability?
In Britain Jean Charles da Silva de Menezes was illegally killed. There was a full investigation and accountability. We didn’t have the Prime Minister making up lies or obfuscating.
All concerned in the shooting, lies, cover up and stupid justifications should be held accountable!
It may take a year or two, but Trump will be gone and the GOP will pay the price for allowing fascism and totalitarianism to blossom and flourish in the USA. Trump, with the sycophantic, opportunistic, cooperation of the GOP has empowered all the most obnoxious elements of American society from the KKK and a multitude of previously marginalised white supremacist groups to the conspiracy theorists, flat earthers and religious fanatics of the hard right and the Neo-Nazis and fascists of Project 2025. This unholy bunch of QAnon lunatics coalesced as MAGA and were united by their hatred of blacks, browns and liberals.
Trump has reached the heights through division and chaos. He deliberately undermined the established order, experts, science, institutions, media and law and order in order to project himself as the only truth and saviour of the world. He personally prospered enormously (wealth and power) out of this unholy alliance.
But he is an old ailing man. He never was either intelligent or learned. He doesn’t read or understand. And he is rapidly declining. His power is waning with his abilities. Soon he will die, be impeached, be locked up for his multitude of crimes, or simply ousted. Soon MAGA will rupture and the GOP will be unelectable for decades. Soon sanity will return.
When Trump is gone and MAGA becomes the rump of illiterate scum it is based around, sanity will return, science and experts will once again be seen as the basis of reason, the media will be freed, institutions (though imperfect) will be valued and stability brought back. Law and order will ensue.
Then there will be a period of accountability. Those in charge, like Kristi Noem and JD Vance, will be brought before the courts. The thugs and goons of ICE and MAGA will be dragged before the courts and tried for their crimes against humanity.
This new swamp will be drained.
Soon Renee Good and Alex Pretti and many more will receive justice and be lauded as the heroes they are!
Soon – justice will be done and we’ll emerge from the dark days of this fascist nightmare. Soon. Soon. Soon.
