The gravitational pull of bad decisions The graviTaTional pull of bad decisions T ha n o s Ka l a m i da s Thanos Kalamidas Ovi ebooks are available in Ovi/Ovi eBookshelves pages and they are for free. If somebody tries to sell you an Ovi book please contact us immediately. For details, contact: ovimagazine@yahoo.com No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the writer or the above publisher of this book An Ovi eBooks Publication 2025 Ovi eBookPublications - All material is copyright of the Ovi eBooks Publications & the writer C The gravitational pull of bad decisions The gravitational pull of bad decisions Thanos Kalamidas Thanos Kalamidas An Ovi eBooks Publication 2025 Ovi eBookPublications - All material is copyright of the Ovi eBooks Publications & the writer C The gravitational pull of bad decisions T he universe, it must be said, had a sense of humour. Mostly a dry one, like an ancient liz- ard that’s just realised it’s sunbathing on a bar- becue grill. Somewhere between the fourth and fifth spiral arms of the galaxy, floating like a cosmic after- thought, was the planet Quarxon-9, a world where gravity was more of a hobby than a rule. On this peculiar lump of rock and cloud, five mer- cenaries stood huddled behind a boulder that was trying very hard not to float away. “Let me get this straight,” said Runk, the group’s weapons expert and part-time philosopher. “We’re risking our lives for a weapon that lets you control gravity?” Thanos Kalamidas “Yes,” replied Vex Malloran, their leader, whose de- fining trait was an unshakable belief that luck was a skill. “And it’s not a weapon. It’s an ancient artefact of unfathomable power.” “Which someone wants to use as a weapon,” added Caeli, the medic, who had treated more ego bruises than bullet wounds. “And we’re recovering it to stop that,” Vex said. “By delivering it to someone else who’ll absolutely definitely not use it as a weapon,” Runk muttered. “Correct,” said Vex, adjusting the collar of his coat, which flared dramatically even when there was no wind. A pause. “Sounds like a Tuesday,” grumbled Tharn, the mus- cle of the group, whose idea of subtlety involved a brick and someone else’s head. Their fifth member, Greebs the hacker, who looked like an anxiety attack had been stuffed into a boiler suit, was chewing nervously on a ration bar that tast- ed like guilt and glue. The gravitational pull of bad decisions “Look,” Greebs said, crumbs floating gently around his helmet, “the satellite scans show the Vault is un- derground. About three hundred metres down, in the Temple of Inverse Dynamics.” “Inverse dynamics?” asked Caeli. “Isn’t that when your butt falls up instead of down?” “Yes,” said Greebs. “Also, it’s a gravity cult temple built by people who thought Newton was a party crasher.” Vex clapped his hands together. “Right then! Into the temple we go! Let’s not keep fate waiting!” * * * * The Temple of Inverse Dynamics looked like some- one had designed it using dreams, nightmares, and a sugar crash. The doors opened upwards into the ground, the staircases wound sideways, and the light- ing was provided by what could only be described as bioluminescent regret. Runk peeked around a corner and yelped as his boots drifted off the floor. “I don’t like this place,” he grunted, pinwheeling midair. “It feels like the laws of physics are on their lunch break.” Thanos Kalamidas “You get used to it,” said Vex, who was upside down but walking normally due to pure confidence. They pressed deeper into the Temple, past gravity wells that tugged at their backpacks, and anti-gravity zones where Tharn floated gently, fists clenched in confusion. “WHO MAKES STAIRS THAT GO UP AND SIDEWAYS AT THE SAME TIME?” he bellowed, headbutting a hanging stalactite. “They’re called Escherians, ” Caeli muttered, “and they were banned from most architectural confer- ences.” Eventually, they reached the Core Chamber, where the Graviton Spear hovered serenely in a vortex of implausible energy. It looked like a ceremonial javelin had made a deeply intimate connection with a black hole. It shimmered, it pulsed, it did vaguely suggestive things with spacetime. “Oh, it’s beautiful,” Greebs breathed. “It’s humming,” Runk noted. “In D minor. That’s the key of ‘everything’s about to go wrong.’” The gravitational pull of bad decisions “Alright,” Vex said, stepping forward. “Nobody touch anything until I say so.” Naturally, everyone touched something. Alarms began to yodel. The chamber twisted. The floor forgot where it lived. Gravity went on vacation and left magnetism in charge, who was drunk. “We have got to stop taking jobs that begin with ‘nobody’s ever come back,’” Runk wailed, clinging to the wall like a clingy limpet in a tumble dryer. “Greebs, shut it down!” Vex shouted, spinning like a heroic pizza. “I don’t know how! The control panel’s in an alien dialect that appears to be composed entirely of inter- pretive dance!” “Then improvise!” Greebs stared at the panel, squinted, and waved his hands vaguely in a motion he remembered from a dream about yoga. Miraculously, the chamber stabi- lized. “I did it?” he gasped. “You did it!” Caeli cheered. Thanos Kalamidas “I have no idea what I did!” “Classic hacker success story,” Runk said. Vex grabbed the Graviton Spear, tucking it under his arm like a really dangerous baguette. “Right,” he said. “Let’s leave before something weird happens.” * * * * Two hours later Their ship, the Mostly Harmless , soared into the stars. Behind them, Quarxon-9 began to collapse into a wormhole shaped like a sneezing duck. “That was close,” said Tharn, nursing a bruised ego and a piece of ceiling. “So where are we taking it?” asked Caeli. “To the client,” said Vex. “And they’re the good guys, right?” Runk asked. There was a pause. A long one. “Well,” Vex said, “they paid in advance. That counts for something.” The gravitational pull of bad decisions “What if they use it to bend the galaxy to their will?” Greebs asked, wide-eyed. Vex leaned back, feet on the console. “Then we steal it back. ” And somewhere, across the galaxy, a distant bu- reaucrat dropped a pen and muttered, “Oh no, not them again.” * * * * final log entry, vex Malloran “We came, we saw, we defied physics, and we may have doomed several star systems by accident. But on the bright side, we got paid. And that, my friends, is the gravitational pull of bad decisions.” [Transmission ends.] Thanos Kalamidas The gravitational pull of bad decisions Thanos Kalamidas Ovi eBook Publishing 2025 Ovi magazine Design: Thanos The gravitational pull of bad decisions Ovi ebooks are available in Ovi/Ovi eBookshelves pages and they are for free. If somebody tries to sell you an Ovi book please contact us immediately. For details, contact: ovimagazine@yahoo.com No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the writer or the above publisher of this book An Ovi eBooks Publication 2025 Ovi eBookPublications - All material is copyright of the Ovi eBooks Publications & the writer C Thanos Kalamidas The graviTaTional pull of bad decisions T ha n o s Ka l a m i da s Thanos Kalamidas , a multipublished writer, cartoonist and illustrator; born and grew up in a picturesque neighbourhood on the moun- tainside of Hymettus in Athens, Greece. Then his life took him to Berlin, Germany and to London, UK for studies. After a brief stay in Yorkshire he moved his life to Paris, France while working in Tokyo, Japan and in Cape Town, South Africa. In the last 25 years he became a permanent Scandinavian resident and recently, in his glorious sixth de- cade, he moved to a scenic village in the Växjö area.