tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136529272024-03-23T14:09:18.729-04:00Spontaneous FictionShort stories, flash fictions, and other miscellaneous dispatches from an overactive imagination. Updates randomly.Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.comBlogger114125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-4608668152131738552014-08-13T10:47:00.001-04:002014-08-13T10:47:09.360-04:00The Machinists' Gospel (a partial chapter)<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jora trudged through the mud toward the light of a domed city. The rain was coming down in sheets, but this was not such a concern for her. She was a Journeywoman Machinist, soon to ascend to her Mastery. If she could not manipulate the physical world in such a way as to keep the rain off her, she needed to go back with the apprentices. One booted foot became stuck in the mud, and she scowled. She briefly considered just stopping the rain altogether and drying up the road, but she contented herself with drying only that mud that held her boot. Any machinist past the first year of their apprenticeship knew how to alter simple weather patterns. It took the wisdom of the higher ranks to know they shouldn’t.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-bb3d2f51-cfd5-69e6-9ee7-5fee38877c46" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The universe was a complex machine, or so the Machinists believed. Each aspect of the universe -time, space, etc- was simply a cog in the machine. God, that vast omniscient and unknowable intelligence, was the universe’s operating system and information was its fuel. More appropriately, the exchange of information, and the complexity of that exchange, provided the universal machine with its fuel. This exchange could take the form of communication between sentient beings, instinctive autonomous warnings between animals, or even the passing of genetic information between one cell and another. From the very beginning of their training, Machinists learned to take the machine apart, to understand how all its moving parts worked, and to manipulate those parts by adding, however small, their own code to the God OS, and introducing new information to the fuel mixture. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As a Machinist learned to manipulate each aspect of the universe, a symbolic cog would be tattooed on their arm. Once an apprentice showed their understanding of God itself, and could grasp the underlying source code of the universe, a final tattoo was added - the symbol for God they saw at their moment of revelation. Jora’s God symbol was the triple-moon and pentacle of the goddess-worshippers. It had been her faith as a young girl, and many Machinists used their primary faiths to decrypt the God Code. Of course, all Machinists knew their old myths and dogmas were just that - stories and rules to enable the common folk to touch the smallest measure of Universal Truth. So, while she may have the Goddess’ symbol tattooed on her arm, Jora did not actually believe that God was a woman who lived on the moon, blessing the crops and the wombs of young women. One of her fellow Journeymen, a man named Carthas, had the crossed spikes of the Tortured Messiah as his symbol, though he did not believe that God was a magical shepherd who died under torture to redeem the sins of humankind. They were just stories and symbols. The real truth was found in the Code.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The road changed from mud to a metallic alloy made slick by the rain. She walked the rest of the way to the towering double doors built into the base of the massive dome. The dome indicated one of the scattered cities of the Robotmen, that strange race of silicon people from beyond the stars that had attempted to conquer their world many years ago. The Machinists were instrumental in resisting the invasion, as well as the tense negotiations that established a still-fragile peace between humanity and the remaining robotic colonists. This, combined with a similarity in their belief systems, created a strong rapport between the Machinists and the Robotmen that lasted to this day.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jora paused before pressing the button that would alert those within the dome of her presence. The cities of the Robotmen were all domed, due to the fact that the atmosphere preferred by the Robotmen was toxic to humans, and vice-versa. Robotmen donned protective armor when leaving their cities, while humans simply stayed out of the domes. The Machinists were the only humans capable of surviving within the domed cities of the Robotmen, but not without certain modifications. Jora concentrated, and felt a thin silicate film cover her from head to toe, under her clothes, over her eyes, and inside her ears, nose and throat. The film would enable her to endure their environment without suffocating or having her skin and tissues dissolve. She gagged slightly as the film made its way down into her stomach and lungs. It would process the poisons of the Robotmen’s atmosphere into breathable air, and would break down any particulates she might swallow by accident. She would not be able to eat until she left the dome and removed her protective film, but she did not anticipate a lengthy visit. She would have preferred not to be here at all, but it had been many years since the Robotmen had granted an audience to any humans, and far longer still since they had sought one out. Jora was convinced they’d sent her as a final test for her Mastery, so she was determined to make a good showing of herself. Taking a deep breath, which hurt slightly through the film, she pressed the button.</span>Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-45199470385081425552014-08-12T07:32:00.001-04:002014-08-12T07:32:23.685-04:00Chapter One (of a potential novel)<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The late 24th century was a time of much upheaval and uncertainty for the Solar Republic. For the first time in over a hundred years, the core system was at the mercy of invasion and piracy, the planet Earth herself being occupied for more than a year by the Sliurne Imperium. With its territory reaching far and wide across the galaxy, even into parallel dimensions, the Republic was stretched far too thin for even the mighty Galactic Fleet to hold. Revolution was common, with at least one outer colony being seized by its governor and forced into secession. It is during this time of looming chaos and potential collapse, that the Magi began to take a larger role in the affairs of state, a role that would eventually lead to the Magi Regency.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-99217948-c9fc-fb67-c91f-abdfdb309255" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The hovercab came to a stop before the airlock of the Thoris estate, a sprawling mansion of chrome and plastic on the moon's light side. From her seat in back, Arden pinged her access code to the estate's security AI. A voice made of music spoke through her wristcom.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Ms. Thoris," it said. "Welcome home."</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Just visiting, X9," she replied. "Though it's nice to hear your voice."</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The voice on the other end hesitated before speaking. "It was... appropriately familiar to receive transmission of your code earlier."</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arden laughed. "Thank you, X9."</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The airlock opened and the cab entered. After a few moments, Arden heard the hiss of the door's vacuum-lock opening. A robot designed to resemble a smartly-dressed man hurried down the steps to open the door. Arden smiled at him as she stepped out. "Hello, Mr. Servo," she said.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Ms. Thoris," he bowed. He directed some members of the staff toward the trunk for her bags, and another to the driver to pay Arden's fare.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"I can pay my own cab fare, Mr. Servo." She hefted a large pack out of the back seat and flung it over her shoulder. "And I've just the one bag."</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Of course, Ms. Thoris," he answered, waving the staff away from the trunk. The cab drove off and the two walked through a secondary airlock toward the house. "But as Lady Thoris has been most put out all day due to her only daughter, if I may, 'slumming it across the galaxy on public transit only to lower herself into a hovercab', it is perhaps best you allow his Lordship the honor of paying your fare."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arden bent knee in the formal curtsy of the upper class. "I bow to your superior wisdom on the subject, sir."</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mr. Servo held open the door, a crackle of static conveying, in Arden's mind, irritation. "You have changed little, Ms. Thoris."</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arden kissed the old butler robot's cheek as they went their separate ways. "Likewise, Mr. Servo, thank all the gods of space."</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She was still smiling as she entered her former bedroom, which was much as she'd left it years ago. She tossed her pack on a sofa near the window and sat on her bed. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Arden?" A voice at the door made her look up.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Hello, Mother."</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Arden, dearest, why wouldn't you let your father send his yacht?" Lady Thoris emoted her way across the room. "Honestly, to reduce yourself to public transit..." She was a tall woman, and slender, traits she passed on to her daughter. A mid-life obsession with maintaining that figure had left her gaunt and hunched, as though she lacked the muscle needed to hold her frame upright. Her fine features and impeccable wardrobe still rendered her a beauty in many people's eyes. The eyes of her daughter saw only the mother she knew grown old.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Mother," Arden sighed, "I booked first-class passage on a luxury starliner. That hardly qualifies as public transit."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lady Thoris waved her hand dismissively. "It is still public, dear."</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Of course, Mother."</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arden's mother noticed the full pack on the sofa. "I'll send Yslene to unpack your things as soon as--"</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Don't," Arden shook her head. "I won't be here long enough for unpacking."</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A wave of irritation passed across Lady Thoris' face before finally settling into mild disappointment. "Oh, darling, why not? You've only just arrived."</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Can't be helped," Arden said. "I'm expected on Marros within a few days. I was only able to stop because my course passed by so close and it's been so long since I was home last."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Her mother clicked in disapproval. "Ah," she said. "Magi business."</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arden sighed. "Yes, Mother. What other business would I be in?"</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Any number of them, if I'd had my way," came her mother's retort. "Honestly, a woman of your breeding gallivanting about the cosmos with all manner of common riff-raff--"</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"That's enough, Deering," Lord Thoris scolded as he walked through the door. "Any father would be proud to have a full Magi in the family." He beamed at his daughter. "There's my little Magi princess."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arden fought the urge to roll her eyes. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ever since I passed novice training</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, she thought. "Father," she said, sounding more irritated than she felt.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"What?" He held his arms wide, protesting his innocence. "You used to love it when I called you that!"</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"When I was six! I'm nearly thir--"</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Twenty-nine, dear," her mother said primly. "Women of our society may turn twenty-nine as often as we like."</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arden and her father both stifled a sigh, then glanced at each other and laughed. Arden gave her father a hug and a smile. "Hello, Father."</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Hello, sweetheart."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Later, as the family sat out on the domed terrace watching night chase day across the Earth, the subject of Arden's future came up.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"So, how goes the Ronin's Road?" her father asked.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Well enough," she answered. "I've been spending the last few years roaming the frontier worlds. Raiders are a huge problem out there, where some oaf with a ship and a crew dumber than he is can land on a sparsely populated colony world, steal a whole lot of what people can't spare and be gone before anyone can call the Patrol." She grinned. "Of course, there's a lot less of that since word got around there's a Magi wandering the outer planets."</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"I wish there were Magi here," he grumbled. "Marauders don't always stick to the outer planets, and the Patrol isn't always quicker in the core." He switched to a grin, saying, "So, no chance of calling you Paladin any time soon?"</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arden grinned at her father. "Why? are you offering me the Ellisport living?"</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Her father met her eyes and asked, "Would you take it if I did?"</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She thought a moment. "I might," she said, "but not for a while. I've walking yet to do on my Road, before I can take my Orders."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lady Deering Thoris busied herself ordering refreshment via her loungecomm as she offered her comment. "Well, I suppose Paladin is a perfectly respectable profession, if one acquires a living of some merit. But really, couldn't you have used your influence, dear, to let her skip this dreadful Ronin business?" She turned a plaintive eye to her husband.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Some things in this universe cannot be 'influenced', my dear." Lord Thoris rose from his chair and walked back toward the house.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The two women were silent a moment, then Arden spoke.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Thank you, Mother."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lady Thoris scowled. "Well, pardon me for--"</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arden held up her hand. "No, no. I'm sorry. That wasn't sarcasm. I was genuinely thanking you."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Her mother calmed, then looked at Arden, confused.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arden smiled. "I recognize worry when I sense it, Mother. I </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">am</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Magi."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lady Thoris smiled, her eyes wet. "I never meant to disparage, or-or to make you think..." She dabbed at her eyes, regaining her composure. "I've always been proud of you, please don't doubt that."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arden touched her mother's hand. "Not for a moment."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lady Thoris nodded. "It's just... most Magi..."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"I know, Mother." Arden patted Lady Thoris' hand.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"...most Magi die... when they..."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"I know," her daughter whispered.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"They die as Ronin," her mother said softly.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arden nodded.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"I can't promise I won't die," she said finally, "but I can promise when I leave this Road for the life of a Paladin, I'll take the living here."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lady Thoris smiled, sitting quietly with her daughter.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The following morning started earlier than usual, with a loud siren that brought Arden awake instantly. She leaped from her bed, dressing and donning her boots before she reached the door. She was down the hall in an instant, meeting her father in his study.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Pirates," he growled. "At the port, and a small band here." The estate shook. "They've forced their way through the airlock and are nearly into the house."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Where's Mother?"</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Safe," Lord Thoris replied. "I planned for this years ago. I don't suppose you'd be willing to--"</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Don't be daft."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Right. Sorry."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"So, they're coming in through the front entrance?" Arden looked at the screen in her father's desk, tracking the movements of the pirates through the estate.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"As we speak," he replied, glumly.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arden grinned, energy emanating from the pentacle tattooed on her left palm and flowing between her hands. "I'll be back in a moment." She ran out of the study toward the stairs. The pirates would have to come up the stairs to raid the house. The downstairs could not be accessed from the entryway. What had been one of the great annoyances of Arden's childhhod was a blessing to her now, so long as she could reach the stairs before the pirates were all the way up. As she arrived, she saw they were nearly to the top. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The lead pirate fired at her, but she waved the bolt away with one glowing hand as she jumped up on to the railing of the balcony that overlooked the entryway. She ran toward the pirates, dodging their blaster fire, then leaped off the railing and kicked the lead pirate in the face, completing her spin and landing in a crouch, looking down toward her attackers. The pirates rushed forward, but with a wave of her hands, she erected a barrier of solid light at the top of the stairs. She held both hands up, maintaining the barrier, then pushed one hand forward, causing a light-spike to jut out, skewering the lead three pirates. As the remaining invaders struggled to hold their positions on the stairs against the falling bodies of their comrades, Arden dissolved the wall, jumped up into the air, and let fly a barrage of glowing darts that pierced the skulls of all but one of the pirates. She landed gently at the foot of the stairs just as the last remaining pirate tumbled down. He looked up at her from his place at her feet. She glowered down at him.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Magi," he gasped.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"You talk," she growled, "and I turn you over to the police. You tell me what syndicate you're working for, and you get to live out your sad little life on an asteroid somewhere. Refuse to tell me, or worse, lie to me, and I'll trap you in the event horizon of a black hole, where you'll spend eternity dissolving into void."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The pirate swallowed hard, blinked, then nodded. "I'll talk!"</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arden smiled. "There's a smart boy."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"It was one of the Earth syndicates," he said later, tied to a chair in Lord Thoris' study, "he wouldn't say which one."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"He?" Arden glared. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"The guy who gave us the job. He said he was Earther, but wouldn't say what boss he worked for."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"And who were you lot?"</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Smugglers and killers, most of us. We're who you called if you wanted something stolen, and wanted the thieves to be ugly about it."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arden scowled. "But not you. You're going to tell me that you're just a hapless smuggler, got mixed up with the wrong gang?"</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"No, ma'am," said the pirate. "I'm one of the worst killers of the bunch." He smiled. "I work mostly with knives." He stood, severed ropes falling away, and brandished a small knife. "Event horizon of a black hole," he said with a laugh. "Please. I've fought Magi before." He moved to throw the knife, but a glowing spike through his brain caused it to fall from a limp hand. The spike withdrew, and the pirate's corpse fell to the floor.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Arden!" her father shouted, aghast.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"This is the Road I walk, Father," Arden said calmly. "Yes, it is a brutal one, often far worse than this. When it stops being so, I can begin to consider the life of a Paladin." She gestured to the dead pirate. "This one knows nothing. My spike read his thoughts before it killed him." She turned and walked from the room, calling back to her father over her shoulder, "I'm taking one of the speeders to the port. Call ahead to the guards there, let them know a Magi is coming."</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; margin-top: 4.5pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lord Thoris was quiet and still for long moments after his daughter left. </span></div>
Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-76278104921026081362014-01-04T12:28:00.000-05:002014-01-08T11:38:17.125-05:00Long Haul to the Outer Planets<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“It is too goddamn early to be going to work,” he grumbled, stomping to his car and huddling in his jacket against the pre-dawn chill. His car was on one of the upper decks, those reserved for parking, so he had a very wide view of the surroundings. He could see the Manhattan Arcology in the distance, a massive gleaming edifice, rising up from the woodlands and parks of its island to tower over everything else. He’d heard its own parking decks even pierced the upper atmosphere and were exposed to the vacuum of space, but he wrote that off as bullshit. His own arcology, where he lived with his fiancee and millions of other people, was a nearly perfect block of glass and steel that rose somewhat less than majestically out of the swamps of what was once central New Jersey. The smell could be almost murderous on some days, but this was the cheapest arcology with available housing, unless he wanted to live down south, and he most certainly did not. Eventually, they wanted to get a place in one of the western towers, but that’s what everyone wanted, so they tended to stay full, and most vacancies were prohibitively expensive.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-128879f1-72b7-d55c-2b6f-66bebe841f27" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With one last look for Manhattan’s glittering spires, he got in his car, tossing his bag on the passenger seat. He input his code, let the computer read his fingerprint, then flipped the ignition switches. Switch number three flickered and the ignition sequence faltered, but all he had to do was punch the dash and it all worked okay. There was a short in the switch’s wiring, which he kept forgetting to get fixed. He put the car in gear and lifted off the parking deck, shooting straight up into the sky toward one of the myriad orbital stations.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It took less than an hour to reach the one he wanted, a small trucking depot in high orbit. He was a driver for Spark n’ Breath, a company that provided industrial batteries and oxygen to various off-world settlements and industries. He parked his car in his slot, waited a few seconds for pressurization, then hopped out and made for the dispatch office, hoping Rej wasn’t working today.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Soldier Boy!” Rej was working today. Because of course he was.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Hey, Rej,” he said, trying to keep his tone light.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Got a great route for you today, Soldier Boy.” If there was one thing about Rej he really wanted to punch (and there was more than just one thing), it was the special little smile he had when handing out the really shitty routes. That smile was in full effect today.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He closed his eyes, willing himself to stop thinking about murder. It was beginning to depress him how often he had to suppress thoughts about murder. Yeah, it was usually only when Rej worked dispatch, but still. That greasy little fuck must live behind that desk. Opening his eyes, he forced a very cheerless smile. “What route is that, Rej?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Outer Planets,” Rej said, holding out the route chip.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">His smile didn’t just slip, it jumped right off his face to its death in a pile on the floor. He stood there, looking from the chip to Rej and back again. He couldn’t seem to make his arm move to take it. “Outer Planets,” he repeated in the flattest of tones.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah,” Rej said, gesturing with the chip. “And if you could get on with it, that would be great. You’re not the only driver looking for his chip this morning.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“But I was on Outer Planets twice last week,” he protested, still not taking the chip. “What the fuck is this?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I don’t make the route assignments, Ralph, I just hand them out,” Rej said with his punchable little smile. “Now take the fucking chip.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ralph growled and grabbed the chip, turning to stomp off toward the trucks.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Oh, hang on,” Rej called out after him, in a voice that Ralph would happily stomp all over after he was done punching his smile. “Don’t forget your keys.” He tossed a set of keys and Ralph caught them. He glanced idly at the number on the fob, then stopped in his tracks and turned right around. “What the fuck is this?” he demanded, waving them at Rej.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Looks like a set of keys,” Rej responded, pointedly not making eye contact with Ralph as he handed out the other chips. “You still here? I’d think you’d want to get going. Outer Planets isn’t exactly a short run.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“No, it’s two days at least,” Ralph said, desperately fighting his temper. “Which is why I have to wonder why you just gave me the keys to a day rig.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah, sorry,” Rej said in a voice that made it clear he wasn’t. “Most of the long rigs are in for maintenance, and the ones that aren’t have been taken by the oldtimers. You wanna go ask one of them to trade, be my guest.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ralph stood and seethed. Any driver with less than five years had a better chance of breathing in space than getting an oldtimer to trade rigs. “Well, how the fuck am I supposed to make a deep space haul with a day rig?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I don’t know,” Rej said, “or care. You’re a resourceful guy, Soldier Boy. Figure it out.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ralph made the herculean effort to resist beating Rej to a bloody smear against his desk and turned around and walked out to the trucks. “Fine,” he muttered. “They want me to make the Outer Planets with a day rig? I’ll make the route with a day rig. And I’ll do the whole thing, perfectly, in a fucking day. Then I’ll come back here, whip my dick out, drop it on Rej’s desk, and they can all take turns sucking it. And then they can say ‘Oh, Ralph, King of the Fucking Deep Space Haulers, we will never give you anything but your most preferred routes again, because you are the greatest, and we are but ignorant fucking peasants’.” A low chuckle to his right made him stop short. He turned to see one of the oldtimers leaning against the wall, having a smoke.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Hey, Jack,” Ralph said with a wave.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Hey, kid,” Jack said. Jack knew Ralph’s name, but oldtimers never called newkids by name. You had to have at least ten years on you before you got called by name. Ralph had less than two. “I hear you got stuck in deep space with a day rig.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah.” Ralph didn’t bother asking how Jack knew. Jack knew everything. He’d been driving space freighters since before Ralph was born.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You gonna put up with that?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Not much else I can do, right?” Ralph asked. “It’s the job. I don’t do it, someone else will. No shortage of people looking for work these days.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Eh, that may be,” Jack put out his cigarette and dropped the butt in an atomizer. “Don’t mean you gotta let dispatch fuck you in the ass whenever they’re horny, though.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ralph laughed. “Yeah...”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“So, what are you gonna do?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ralph sighed. “I’m gonna do the job,” he said. “I’ll take it up with dispatch when I get back.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jack nodded. “Yeah, okay,” he said. “Listen, you got my comm number?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ralph nodded.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“A day rig can get you through a run like this,” Jack said, “but it ain’t fun, and it ain’t easy. You get in any trouble out there, you call me.” He eyed Ralph up. “I’ve been watching you, kid. You got the grit for this job, no mistake about that, but you need to remember that no job is worth your life. You get in trouble, you call. No shame in it.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ralph smiled. “I will. Thanks, Jack.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jack shook his hand. “Good luck, kid.” As Ralph walked off toward the trucks, Jack called out, “Hey, why’s Fuckface in there call you Soldier Boy?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Long story!” Ralph called back.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You can tell me when you get back!”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ralph waved and made for his truck.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">About an hour later, he was halfway to Venus. He had to admit, if he was going to be stuck in a day rig for this route, at least it was a nice one. It was almost brand-new, had a sweet engine, and all the latest gadgets. True, there was no habitat cab, and the seats were going to suck to sleep in, but it was sealed up tight and had its own nutrimat. He wouldn’t freeze or asphyxiate, and the nutrimat meant he wouldn’t starve, either. He keyed the rig’s entertainment system in to his music library, punched up some decent driving music, and set the autopilot for Mercury. While in transit, he read over his itinerary on the rig’s computer screen. As he scrolled through his stops, he made a face.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Aw, fuck me,” he said. “Port Ellis? I have to go to Port fucking Ellis? Shit.” Port Ellis was an old spaceport on the moon’s dark side. There hadn’t been an official launch from Ellis since Vonnegut Station went online decades earlier, but people still lived and, more or less, worked there. Still, it was a slum. Not much in Port Ellis these days except black market space launches and jump clubs, which meant he had to deal with gangsters and pulsepunks whenever he delivered there. Pulsepunks were no big deal, especially if there were only a few of them. A pulsepunk’s idea of a good time was to go to a jump club and fry his or her brain with a localized electromagnetic pulse. Apparently, the high was fantastic, but excessive use led to long-term memory loss and a significant drop in intelligence. Pulsing was also highly addictive, so pretty much all use ended up being excessive. Most pulsepunks barely remembered how to dress themselves or what their names were, so they were easy enough to deal with in small groups. It was the gangs that controlled the few functioning launch docks that were the worst. They ordered big, but hardly ever paid their bills, and figured a gun in your face was enough to settle the matter. A few years ago, Spark n’ Breath tried refusing delivery, and wound up losing a third of their fleet to conveniently timed “accidents”. Needless to say, no one liked delivering to Port Ellis. But, at least it was early in the route. After Ellis, there were a few stops on Mars, but the majority of his route was the outer planets. The Jupiter gas mines, the orbital Saturn shipyards, research stations and colonies on most of their moons, as well as a few deep settlements around Neptune. He called up a system map and tried a few different route variations. He didn’t have any of the asteroid mines on this run, which was good, as that meant he could take the transway and bypass the Belt altogether. The transway was tricky, though. It used the new transtunnel technology, which was able to get vehicles up to just shy of light speed. It was really tricky to maneuver at those speeds, though, especially a truck loaded with powerpacks and oxygen tanks, but he’d done it once or twice. If he could get a clear run through the transway at top speed, he might actually be able to do this in a day. An exceedingly long day, to be sure, but he was willing to give it a go. “Provided,” he muttered, “there aren’t any problems.” That made him laugh. The way his day was already going, of course there were going to be problems. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There were, and they started almost immediately. First were the usual docking issues. Given Mercury’s proximity to the sun, gravity was always tricky. Combined with the fact that he was docking with one of the massive rolling cities of the Mercury terminator, he had a hell of a time just bringing his rig in. He was much better at it now than when he started. He’d stopped crashing into things, at least, and could sometimes bring his rig into the Terminator City One docks in one go. Today was not one of those days (it took three tries), but he finally docked without incident and went to see the loadmaster. That’s when his troubles really began.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah, the powerpacks look right,” she said, comparing his manifest to hers, “but your oxygen numbers are way off. I got twice as much here for you as you say you’re taking.” This was typical. Spark n’ Breath had been bought out by Interplanet about ten years prior, which meant they were part of the Interplanet industrial network, and that included the Mercury solar harvesters. The harvesters were the main reason Mercury had been colonized in the first place, and comprised the majority of the rolling terminator cities. They towed huge arrays of solar collectors, keeping just at the edge of daylight, where the temperature was habitable, and from those collectors charged batteries for power plants throughout the system. Interplanet owned these, and thus had few discrepancies with their various subsidiaries.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The oxygen farms were another story. Smaller by far than the harvester cities, the oxygen farms were rolling homesteads that scooped up dust from Mercury’s surface and extracted breathable oxygen from it. The farms were independently owned and operated, usually granted as pensions to veterans by the government. Unfortunately, not being part of Interplanet, they each had their own methods of bookkeeping, which led to issues like the one faced today.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Hell with it,” Ralph said. “Load ‘em up. I’ll figure it out later.” He wasn’t going to get held up just loading the truck, especially not to haggle and argue with some old homesteader. Just his luck, he’d get some veteran of the Alien Wars, and after Rej’s “Soldier Boy” bullshit, he wasn’t in the mood for some grizzled old bughunter giving him a hard time.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You sure?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah. I’ll work it out with corporate on my way.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You’ll need to sign off on the discrepancy,” she held out a tablet and stylus, and he scrawled his name at the bottom of the manifest. She pointed over to a small lounge off the dock area. “May as well grab some coffee or something,” she said. “Gonna be about twenty minutes to a half hour before you’re loaded up.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He checked a sigh. It wasn’t her fault. “Yeah, okay,” he said.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She smiled at him. “I’ll make it quick as I can.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Thanks,” he said, returning the smile. He went to the lounge and ordered up a coffee and a breakfast sandwich from the nutrimat. He hadn’t eaten yet, and figured this was better than anything he’d get from his truck unit. When he sat down, he noticed someone else in the lounge with him. Ralph guessed he was an oxygen farmer, and from the look of him, an ex-marine to boot. He glanced over at Ralph.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You running freight?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Spark n’ Breath?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ralph nodded. The logo was on his jacket. Tentatively, he asked, “You a veteran?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The other man held up his forearm, displaying the logo of the Interplanetary Marine Corps tattooed there.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Right.” Ralph ate his sandwich.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You?” the man asked.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ralph shook his head. “I tried to enlist during the last war, but I was too young.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The man shrugged. “They need soldiers on the Tau Ceti mission,” he said.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah.” Ralph wanted to kick himself. Why the hell had he started this conversation? Well, he was in it now. You didn’t just blow off a marine vet. “That’s deep space, no return type stuff. I got a fiancee.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“What does she do?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Medic, Second Class.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Mission needs medics too. Hell, her being a medic and if you sign on as a soldier, you’d get a damn sweet stake in the colony once you got there.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I know,” Ralph forced the last of his sandwich down his throat, washing it down with the bitter and greasy nutrimat coffee. “We talked about it, but she wants to stay in-system. She has family here, and...”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah, I get it,” the veteran said, not unkindly. He even favored Ralph with a smile. “I faced down all manner of bug-eyed bastards in the War and didn’t blink,” he said, “but I ain’t never met a woman couldn’t tie me in knots just by lookin’ at me. You love her?” he asked.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ralph grinned. “More than anything.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The veteran nodded and stood. “That’s my check ready,” he said in response to a name being called over the loudspeaker. As he left, he clapped Ralph on the shoulder. “Good luck on your run,” he said.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Thanks.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The conversation still rang in his ears later as he approached Port Ellis. He’d been keeping up with reports of the Tau Ceti mission. The first convoy had left a few years back, with another scheduled to go in a few months. Reports came back sporadically from the first convoy, and they were having a bit of a rough time of it. The treaty that ended the last war kept the aliens out of the solar system, but any interstellar ships were fair game. They were suffering near-constant attacks from marauders.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“And here I am delivering fucking batteries and air,” he muttered, locking in his docking beam and cutting the ion drive, “while across the galaxy, space marines bleed and die for our people.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He was in no mood for the crew of pulsepunks that jumped him when he stepped out of his truck. They surrounded him instantly. These weren’t too far gone. Just pulsed-out enough to be mean and dumb, but not so much to be incompetent.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You got packs, man?” one asked. Pulsepunks went for the batteries. It could run their personal jumpers for a while, and that was cheaper than hitting the clubs.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Not for you,” he growled.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Oh, I think it is for me,” the punk replied, drawing a knife.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You think?” Ralph snarled. “That’s a bit beyond you assholes now, isn’t it?” Without waiting for a reply, he reached out and grabbed the hand that held the knife, breaking the wrist. The punk screamed and dropped his knife. Ralph took his head and slammed it in the door of his truck, then dropped him, where he lay twitching in the dirt. Ralph took his meanest glare and threw it around the rest of the group. “Anyone else?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The punks scattered, leaving their ostensible leader to die of a cracked skull on the loading dock. Ralph locked up the cab of his truck and went to unload.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was fairly straightforward. A young woman had bought a run-down ship launch and was trying to get a legitimate charter business off the ground. “Been flying a while,” she said. “I’ll do freight if I have to, but I really want to run a passenger service.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Out of here?” Ralph looked around skeptically. “Good luck.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah, I know,” she grinned. “I’m gonna need it. Eh, it may not be glamorous, or even remotely safe, but I gotta do something, right?” She signed the invoice and thumbed her credits into Ralph’s tablet. He wished her luck again and returned to his ship. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The pulsepunk was still there, moaning. Ralph stepped on him as he climbed into his truck. Soon, he was on his way to Mars. Mars was quick and uneventful, and he was soon back on his way again. It was a few hours until the Belt, so he set the autopilot, lowered the music, and leaned back for a nap.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He was roused from his nap by the insistent chime of the alarm and the crackling, vaguely feminine voice of the navcomputer.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Approaching Transway One. Manual operation required. Approaching Transway One. Manual operation required. Approaching--”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah, okay. Shut it.” The voice stopped, and Ralph grabbed the controls, Laying in a straight line for the entrance to the transway. Suddenly, the navcomputer started up again.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Warning. Incoming asteroid storm. Warning. Incoming asteroid storm. Warning. Incoming aster--”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I see it! Shut the fuck up!” Ralph quickly donned a pair of navgoggles, which would give him a heads-up tactical display wherever he looked. He saw the asteroids coming in from the upper left. It was a big storm, and he was going to hit it just before the transway. “Shit,” he muttered, flipping a few switches and pulling a lever. The engine settled into a lower hum, and a repeller field activated around the truck. The field would keep the asteroids from damaging the truck too much, but they could still knock him around, and a big enough rock would plow right through the field. He sent off a quick note to dispatch. They’d send someone out to look for him after the storm cleared if he didn’t call in. He stroked the dashboard of the truck. “Okay, baby,” he said. “Let’s just get through in one piece. Nothing fancy.” He took a deep breath, switched the music over to a Venusian speedcore band he liked, and turned the volume way up. He took another breath, ignoring the thudding of his heart in his chest, and punched the drive, speeding toward the oncoming storm at maximum velocity.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The field handled the smaller rocks with no problem, and he was avoiding the larger ones. He banked and rolled, using the gravity of the larger rocks to move him around them and through the storm. He was just beginning to think he was almost out when a large asteroid clipped the back of his truck. The field prevented any damage, but the impact still caused him to spin wildly.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Fuck!” he shouted, shifting the drive lever down, and maxing out the inertial dampeners in the cargo area. He wrestled with the wheel, struggling to bring the careening truck under control. He almost had it, when another rock hit him and sent him spinning off in another direction. “Fuck fuck fuck!” He pulled the axis lever and dropped down through the field. This was only a temporary measure, as he was now at the wrong angle for hitting the transway. If he passed it, he’d have to loop around through the storm again. “No fucking way is that happening,” he muttered. Getting the truck under control, he slammed it into gear and punched the accelerator. He had a few more close calls, but made it through the storm with no further mishaps. As he approached the entrance to the transway, he did a quick status check.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“No significant damage detected, to vehicle or cargo,” the computer informed him.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Ok, good,” he breathed a sigh of relief. “Now, on through the--”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Warning.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Oh, what now?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Velocity exceeds recommended safe maximum for transway entry,” the computer announced.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He looked up and saw the entrance approaching much faster than he’d expected. “Oh, fuck me,” he muttered. “Fuck me sideways.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Prepare for sublight transit,” the computer warned, “in 3... 2... 1.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The stars blurred around him and he was slammed back in his seat.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was not the easiest of rides through the transway. At the speed he was going, it was nearly impossible to keep the truck straight. It bounced against the walls of the transpace tunnel, and, since those walls weren’t actually solid, but made of something called “exotic energy”, that meant his repeller field did absolutely nothing to protect the truck. Shockwaves boomed through the truck as it shook from one side of the transway to the other.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Warning,” the computer droned. “Structural integrity compromised. Warning. Structural integrity--”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I get it!” he yelled. “I broke the fucking truck!” He growled deep in his throat. “Status of cargo!”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Cargo is undamaged.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Well, there’s some good news.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Driver compartment has sustained significant damage. Structural integrity reaching life-threatening levels.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“And there’s the bad.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He shot out the other end of the transway, just at the edge of Jupiter’s gravity well. An alarm sounded.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Warning. Driver compartment compromised. Prepare for cabin depressurization. Warning. Driver compartment compromised. Prepare--”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“How long?” Ralph asked. He was already digging around under the seat for the emergency suit. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Cabin depressurization in thirty seconds.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Oh, awesome,” he said, tearing open the case that held the suit. “Just fucking awesome.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Cabin depressurization in twenty seconds.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Fuck you.” He unpacked the suit and began pulling it on.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Cabin depressurization in ten seconds.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Suck my di-ick,” he said in a sing-song voice, zipping up the suit and attaching the helmet. He turned a knob to pressurize the suit.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Cabin pressurization in five, four, three...”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He strapped himself in and gripped the wheel.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“...two, one. Cabin depressurizing.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A loud hiss filled the cabin, then nothing. Ralph switched on his helmet speakers, which automatically keyed in to the truck’s systems. He flipped a switch to turn off life support. No sense wasting heat and air on empty space.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“How much damage has been done to the driver compartment?” he asked.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A display of the driver compartment came up on the dashboard screen, flashing red in multiple places, many of which could only be repaired from outside.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Shit,” he muttered. “You know, a long hauler wouldn’t have cracked open so easy. A long hauler could have handled being knocked around a transway a few times.” He growled. “Fucking day rig.” He closed his eyes a moment. These emergency suits had maybe a few hours life support at most. If he didn’t get the truck fixed, he was dead. “Okay,” he said, popping a hatch in the ceiling. A repair kit slid out, and he attached it to his suit. The suit was built for modular additions and the kit attached easily. he reached for the door.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Warning,” the computer chimed in his ear. “Emergency suits are not rated for extra-vehicular activity.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah, well, my lungs aren’t rated for the vacuum of space,” he retorted. “So, my suit rating can suck it. It’s just missing some mags on the boots. I’ll be careful.” He reached for the door again.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“By exiting the vehicle, you knowingly and willingly absolve Interplanet and its subsidiary companies of all liability in the event of your death.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah yeah,” he said. “Don’t worry. No one’s gonna sue the boss.” Without waiting for more arguments from the computer, he opened the door and left the truck.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was rough going. With no magnetics on the suit, he had to hold on tight with one arm or his legs while he patched up holes and fixed hoses and wires. He managed to finish the repairs and get back into the truck with a half-hour of life support left. He did a quick system check, then repressurized the cabin and brought life-support back online. Everything came back green, and the cabin filled with air and heat again. He kept the suit on until the cabin wasn’t so cold, then replaced it in its case, making sure to log in the computer that it needed maintenance.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He checked the time. He’d been out on this run for ten hours, and he still had most of his deliveries to go. “Oh yeah,” he muttered, voice dripping with sarcasm, “this is so much better than fighting aliens on a deep space colony mission.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He made it to the Jupiter gas mines with no trouble, dropping off their shipment. One of their mechanics looked at his truck before he left.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah, you didn’t do too bad, for doin’ it in space with just an emergency suit and a repair kit.” He nodded respectfully. “Yeah, definitely a solid job, all things considered. Still, you’re gonna want a proper repair and replace done on this thing sooner than later.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah,” Ralph said. “You think it’ll last me the run?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“What’s left?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I got the Europa research station, a colony on Ganymede, then the Saturn shipyards and a quick drop on Neptune.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Then back to Earth?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Hmm,” the mechanic gave the work another going over. “Well, I think you should be okay. If I had the parts, I’d do something for you here, but we got shit.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“No, it’s cool, thanks,” Ralph said. “I appreciate you checking it out for me.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Why the fuck they got you this far out in a day rig, anyway?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ralph rolled his eyes. “Ah, you know how it is, man. Corporate bullshit.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The mechanic nodded. “I hear that. Well, you be careful, man. Drive safe. Take it easy through the transway.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Thanks.” They shook hands, and Ralph made the quick hop to Europa. He was about to dock, but a quarantine warning came up on his dash.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Quarantine warning. Docking prohibited.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Why are they under quarantine?” He loved quarantine warnings. It was a free pass to totally blow off a delivery.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Quarantine logs show a mindworm infestation.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Ugh,” Ralph said, making a face. “Fucking mindworms.” Mindworms were telepathic brain parasites, that infected their hosts and turned them into hive-minded slaves. All off-world settlements, particularly those on or around the outer planets, were equipped with sensors to detect mindworm infestations and initiate quarantine. All ships were grounded and all incoming traffic warned to stay away, until a special team could arrive and clear out the infestation. He was about to move on to Ganymede when his comm system beeped with an incoming message. It was the head of the Europa research station. He appeared on the dash screen and started talking.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Quarrrrantine cannnncellled,” he slurred. “F-f-faaaalllsse alarrrrmmmm...”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah,” Ralph snorted derisively, “that sounds convincing. Nice try, wormhead.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Therrrre isss noooooo mind-mind-mindworrrrmmm innnfesssstaaaaaationnn...”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Uh-huh,” Ralph answered, plotting his course for Ganymede. “Then why are you bleeding out your eyes?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Uhhhhh...”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah. That’s what I thought. You folks have fun, now.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“N-n-noooo! Wait!”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ralph cut the line and took off. “Poor bastards,” he muttered.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">His stop on Ganymede went smoothly, and he even managed to get more solid repair work done by one of their mechanics.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“There you go,” she said. “That should last you a little while.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Thanks.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“No problem. You got much left on your route?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Nah,” he said. “Quick stop on Neptune, then I’m headed home. Good thing, too. I’m fucking beat.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Long day?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Been going about twelve hours now,” he said. “I had a nap back between Mars and the Belt, but it didn’t help that much.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Damn,” she said. “You want to crash the night here? We got plenty of spare quarters.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“No, thanks,” he said. “Bastards gave me a day rig for a two-day job, I’m gonna get it done in a day.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Right.” She nodded. “Well, you’re all set. Safe trip home.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Thanks.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course, his final stop couldn’t go smoothly. When he arrived, he found Neptune was in the midst of open revolt. The colony sought independence from the solar system, and the revolutionaries took him hostage the minute he docked with their orbital station.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Oh, you people are fucking kidding me,” he said.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“We will not be mocked!” their leader screeched.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah, well, too late for that,” he replied.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Enough! We will force the government to take us seriously! They will agree to our demands!”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Honestly?” Ralph laughed. “You have a fucking zap gun to my head and even I can’t take you seriously.” He shook his head. “I mean, come on. You think the fucking government of the entire solar system is going to care because you took one delivery driver hostage? Most of the time, the rest of us forget you’re even out here. Hell, most of the time, we forget this whole planet is even out here. You want it? It’s yours. I doubt the system is going to miss a big frozen ball of farts out at the ass end of space.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The leader looked down at him, aimed his zap gun, then, with a sigh, lowered it. “Yeah,” he said, “you’re right. Sorry, man.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Nah, it’s cool.” Ralph shrugged. “I knew you weren’t going to shoot me.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah. It’s just...” the leader stared off into the distance. “It’s just, we’ve been out here so long, and no one cares, you know? It’s like you said, no one even remembers we’re here. I mean, everyone cares about Jupiter and Saturn, with their gas mines and shipyards and...”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Ah, shit!” Ralph swore. “Damn it!”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“What?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I forgot Saturn. I had to make a delivery to the shipyards. Crap.” He sighed. “Ah well, at least I remembered here and not halfway back to Earth.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Wait,” the leader said, “you forgot about Saturn?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah. Look, it happens. No need to rub it in. I’ve been going for over twelve fucking hours out here...”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“No no. It’s just, you remembered us, but you forgot Saturn. Saturn and its big stupid rings and fancy shipyards.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Uh, yeah,” Ralph said. “Okay. If that makes you feel better.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“It does.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Awesome. Congratulations. Now,” he held out his tablet, “if you could just authorize payment, I’ll be on my way.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was another quick stop at the shipyards in orbit around Saturn. Most of the drydock space was taken up by the work being done on the second interstellar colony ark for the Tau Ceti mission. The ship itself was complete, and it was larger than anything Ralph had ever seen. It easily dwarfed even the largest space station, and in many ways resembled a small moon. He flew around it once, then docked.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Quite a ship,” he said to the receiving manager of the shipyards.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah,” she said. “Just about done, too. This shipment of packs and tanks was one of the last things we were waiting on.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You mean, this is all going on the ark?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She nodded. “Anything goes wrong out there, folks are going to be real glad of some spare batteries and breathable air.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Huh,” he smiled. He was glad he hadn’t completely forgotten this stop.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Anyway,” the receiving manager said, “everything looks good.” She handed back his tablet.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Alright then,” he said. “Good luck with the launch.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Thanks.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And then he was back in his truck, ready for the long haul back home. He yawned and his stomach rumbled, reminding him he hadn’t eaten since his quick bite on Mercury. He set a course for the transway and switched on the autopilot. As the truck made its way toward the Belt, he turned on the nutrimat. It was a pretty basic system, just nutrient bars, water, and caffeine solution. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Blargh,” he made a face. “They can’t even call it coffee. But, I’m hungry and tired, so...” He dialed up a bar and a cup of caffeine, large. He also dialed up some water to wash it all down. He was glad he did. He wouldn’t have been able to swallow it otherwise. Still, he’d definitely needed it. By the time he reached the transway, he had a bit more energy.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He switched off the autopilot, and as there was no storm this time, made a smooth passage through the transway. It was still a struggle to keep the truck steady, but there were no collisions, and he emerged from the other side in one piece, for all that he was utterly exhausted. He was at almost twenty hours now, and was in dire need of his bed. He set the autopilot for high Earth orbit, and was just able to finish his log before nodding off.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The alarm woke him from a deep sleep, and he groggily took the wheel with a jaw-cracking yawn. He brought the truck in with no issues and was pleased to see that Rej was not working dispatch.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Hey, Bev,” he said, yawning.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Hey, yourself,” she said. “Didn’t expect you until at least tomorrow. Something wrong?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He shook his head, tossing the route chip and keys on her desk. “It’s all in the log. Had some issues, but made all my stops. Well, except Europa, but that’s in there too.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Okay, hon,” she said with a smile. “You in tomorrow?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Nope,” he said, stifling another yawn. “Off the next two days.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Good,” she said. “Get some sleep.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You know it.” With a wave, he was gone.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The drive home was a blur, but he made it to the arcology without mishap, parked his car, and took the elevator down and over to his apartment block. He was barely able to walk by the time he entered the apartment, and fell into bed half-dressed. His fiancee was already asleep and she rolled over, curling up in the crook of his arm, laying her head on his chest.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I didn’t expect you until tomorrow,” she said.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Disappointed?” he grinned.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“No, jerk,” she said, punching him playfully. “Pleasantly surprised.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He smiled.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I’m glad you’re home,” she said, closing her eyes.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Mmm,” he said, already half asleep. “Me too.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">END</span></div>
</div>
Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-19802594285533649802013-07-20T14:45:00.000-04:002013-11-21T16:23:42.437-05:00The Star Builders<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The creature growled, deep in its throat, attempting to ward off the similar creature on the other side of the door.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b id="docs-internal-guid-1d2564d5-fd65-2eb7-dd35-e312419d8508" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Oh, stop it,” he scolded. “I closed the door, it’s out there and you’re in here, what more do you want from me?”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The creature looked at him, inscrutable eyes showing just enough comprehension to be unnerving, then turned back to the door. The growl persisted, but was quieter, at least.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Fine,” he said, turning back to his work. “You sit there.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">His partner approached, a spinning stone globe floating between her hands. “Leave them be,” she said. “They just miss the Outer Dark.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Well there isn’t going to be an Outer Dark for much longer,” he said, indicating a spot close to the star he’d just finished building. When she put the globe in place, it began to orbit the star. The globe became hot, and fire spilled out across its surface. Similar globes revolved about the star, at varying orbits.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“How many more?” she asked.</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“A few gas giants,” he said idly. “Hang on,” he held up one finger. “Watch this.” He held another molten globe in one hand. Without warning, he threw the globe into a similar orbit as the latest addition, albeit moving much faster. It slingshot around the star, smashing into the first globe with a great explosion of fire and rock.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“What was that for?”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I’m making a moon for the planet you brought,” he said, indicating a swiftly condensing ring of debris that orbited the surviving planet.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“There are other ways to do that,” she said.</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“This way is more fun,” he said with a smile.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Mm.” She gathered up the remaining debris from the orbit of her planet and threw it toward a cold rocky planet further away from the star, shattering it into billions of pieces, which formed a massive stone ring in a distant orbit around the star. She glanced over at him. “You’re right,” she said. “That was fun.”</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yes, but you ended up obliterating the planet.”</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Nonsense,” she sniffed. “I was making asteroids.” She pointed. “Here,” she said, “we can put the gas giants out beyond the ring.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The gas giants took longer to make. The first two were difficult, and the third was much smaller, with an icy planetoid as a partner in its orbit.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I think that’s done,” she said.</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Agreed,” he said, spinning it out across the room toward the others. He heard the creature playing with something and looked down. It had gotten hold of one of the other solar systems, and was batting it across the floor, occasionally shaking it in its teeth.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“No no no!” he yelled, grabbing at the tattered system. He righted the star a bit, and rearranged the planets back to the way they were, though one or two had to get chucked in the bin. They’d make new ones out of what they could salvage. Dimly, at the edge of his mind, he became aware of the sentient beings on the third planet. They prayed to some omnipotent savior to protect them from the ravenous demon who savaged their star system.</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Oh well that’s lovely!” he scolded the creature, who sat on a vacant chair, idly cleaning itself. “You stupid..!”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Oh, stop it,” she said to him.</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He brandished the chewed-on solar system for her inspection. “It’s become part of their religion now!” He said. “They’ve started praying for salvation, and I think they’re praying to us.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Wait,” she said, “why has intelligent life evolved in that system? It isn’t even part of a galaxy yet.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Well,” he said testily, “if someone had finished the black hole template on deadline, the planets wouldn’t have had time to grow smart animals.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Oh, no no no,” she said, waving her finger. “YOU insisted on building the black hole yourself, remember? Got the boss to make those of us on the actual project halt our work, just so you could get out of Stellar Formation.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I just want to move up,” he said. “Do you really want to spend eternity making solar systems epoch after epoch?”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Hey, I started out in the clerical pool sorting souls,” she said. “Stellar Formation is a definite step up for me.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I guess,” he said. “It’s not bad, it’s just...”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She smiled and shook her head, busying herself igniting nebular gases into a new star. “You want Species Management?”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“At first,” he said, pumping hydrogen into the new star. “Management track will definitely help me get where I want to go.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“And where’s that?” She pulled a large gas giant out of a satchel, adding more material to it until it was nearly one-third the size of the star. “Been wanting to try this,” she said.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Try what?”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I’m making a brown dwarf for this system,” she said.</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Why?” he asked. “That will make the orbits of the other planets highly unstable.”</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She shrugged. “Anyway,” she said, “where do you want to go, Mr. Promotion?”</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Top floor,” he said, pointing up. “I want to be an Executive, maybe in the Architecture Division.”</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“An Architect?” she blinked. “You don’t have the pedigree for that promotion.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Not yet,” he said, grinning. “I figure if I can crack this black hole project, creating an actual astronomical phenomenon should get me in with Species Management, or at least a slot on the Galactic Distribution team.”</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah,” she said, giving her brown dwarf a spin as its orbit brought it past her. “How’s that all coming along?”</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You know,” he said, “fine. Should just need another day or two to work out the--”</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The brown dwarf spun by her and she gave it a shove, sending it spiraling toward its parent star. The two large bodies collided, their immense combined mass collapsing in on itself in a spectacular act of devastation, leaving a black hole behind.</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“There we go,” she said, grabbing the singularity and tucking it into her satchel. She made her way toward the door, on her way to their boss’ office. As she opened the door, she turned to smile at him and say, “I’ll call you from the top floor.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With a sigh, he went back to work, gathering up more nebular material to start a fresh build.</span></div>
Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-59004613907118828932012-09-17T17:24:00.001-04:002013-12-05T15:44:02.812-05:00A Reading from the Sacred Text of a Lost Universe<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b id="internal-source-marker_0.8076952316332608" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Aael, the All Knowing, Ever Present. The One that is All, the Cosmic Omnisoul, Source of all Power and Majesty. </span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Azel, the Malevolent, the burrowing Undersoul, Source of all Temptation and Ruin.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Celestia, Children of Aael, Bringers of Wisdom, Arbiters of Divine Justice.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Among the people will come Saints, the Hands of Aael, sacred Instruments of the Divine.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From the people will be chosen Prophets, speaking with the Voice of Aael, blessed Messengers of Divine Truth.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the last will come the Messiah, to save </span></b><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the World</span></span><b id="internal-source-marker_0.8076952316332608" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> from the Greatest Evil</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">**</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Praise Aael, it is said, from Her Love is born Creation. Fear Aael, it is said, for in His Wrath is found Destruction.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Defy Azel, the Wise admonish, for the Dark One brings only ruin and death.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Heed the Celestia, we are told, as They come from above to be Teachers among the people, so all might know and be wise.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lend always your ear to the Prophets, and at their feet be shown the future.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Offer your hand to the Saints, they will lead you in service to the One.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Look toward the Coming of the Messiah, when all shall be granted Salvation.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">**</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before the Beginning, in the Nul-Time, when all was naught but semi-real waveforms of collapsing probabilities, several waveforms collapsed into each other, creating Energy, from which came Aael, Mother of Time, Father of Space. From Aael came the Universe, and from the Universe came the World, with the World giving rise to the people.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From Aael came forth the Celestia, the Divine Offspring. The Star Children sent down to the people with Knowledge and Wisdom. For a time, only those deemed Wise by the Celestia were granted Knowledge. And so for that time, life was good. Knowledge was tempered with Wisdom, and the people lived in Peace, content to follow the Wise, in service to Aael’s Plan. </span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But, Azel the Vile, Azel the Contemptuous, Azel the Unholy, stole the secret Knowledge from the Celestia, giving it to all the people, Wise and fool alike. Knowledge without Wisdom brought chaos to the lands of the people. The Celestia hunted Aael’s Shadow for eons, at last imprisoning the Dark One on a broken copy of the World in a broken copy of the Universe.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Aael sent the Celestia among the Wise, empowering some as Saints, enlightening others as Prophets. And they in turn were sent out among the people, in the hope they might spread Wisdom that would once again temper Knowledge. </span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many of the people saw them as threats, come to take away the fruits of their Knowledge, while others saw them as Gods in their own right, and began to worship them. Few among the people actually accepted the Wisdom they’d been offered, most preferring the comforts of Faith and Fear. After a time, some among the Saints and Prophets spoke less of service to Aael, and more of service to themselves, forgetting their oaths and allegiances in favor of their pride. As worshippers flocked to them, great cities and nations rose in their name, and these would-be Gods became Kings and Queens among the people. Those Saints and Prophets who held true to their oaths were killed, their own followers martyred, the first to fall in the Wars of the Divine Kingdoms.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Great armies of the people clashed in bloody service to the God Kings, whole cities destroyed by the order of Divine Queens, and so great was the horror, so terrible the chaos engulfing the World, Aael sent the Celestia against them, to strip them of their prophetic visions and miraculous powers. But the power of the Divine Royals was too great, the devotion of their followers too strong. The Celestia were struck down, their bodies desecrated so the Divine Royals could strip more power from their corpses.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And so, with a Wrath that shook the very firmament of Creation, Aael cast Judgement upon those who had defiled their Divine Gifts. The World split asunder, fire rained down upon the land, and all were swept before a great burning flood.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">**</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For one hundred times one hundred generations, the World lay desolate and lifeless, until at last the Fury of Aael cooled, and life began again upon the World. Soon, the people rose up from the beasts once more. This time, there were no Celestia sent among them with Knowledge and Wisdom, no Saints and Prophets to guide them. Aael wanted no part of the people this time, removing them entirely from the Plan, and so they were left to find what knowledge they could on their own. </span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But in the rage and fury of the War, all had forgotten Azel. When the Wrath of Aael had fallen upon the World, the very walls of the Dark One’s otherworldly prison shook hard enough to crack. As the Wrath cooled, and all lay bare, Azel crawled out of the dying Universe and into the World. Azel was waiting when life returned again, hidden even from Aael, the All-Seeing. And when the World gave rise to the people once more, Azel was there to greet them. It was then, in their infancy, when the people were still little more than beasts, that they were granted the fullness of the Knowledge Azel had stolen. Savagery met Knowledge bereft of Wisdom, and all was engulfed by War. The people very nearly broke the World before killing themselves to extinction, and it was many hundreds of centuries before the World would give rise to the people again.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">**</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was in this time between time that Aael directly confronted Azel, igniting a War that set fire to the very Universe itself. It was a War that lasted the lifetime of a star, and one that ended with Azel the Malevolent chained to the heart of a spiral galaxy, far out at the edges of Entropy.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">**</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the third rising of the people from the World, a new breed of Celestia were sent to guide them, dispensing Wisdom and Knowledge to all who could learn. As the people grew, and their civilization flourished, Saints and Prophets were once again sent among them, but these were made to pay for the sins of their forebears. Among the people, it is forbidden for any to worship a Saint or a Prophet as they would Aael. Among the Wise, it is forbidden for any Saint or Prophet to accept such worship, under pain of death. Further, no Saint or Prophet may serve as ruler of a city or nation, acquire wealth, or even own property, lest they find themselves powerless. Saints and Prophets exist solely on the charity of the faithful, the price paid for the power they wield.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But even these commandments were not enough to curb the pride and ambition of some. Saint Moragh of North Telladd and the blind Prophet Riya’el, raised an army of the dispossessed and laid siege to the holy city of Beraat, for forty days and nights. As it was not forbidden for Saints and Prophets to lead armies, and since neither owned property, nor received worship, they were spared the Doom of Aael. But doom came to them at last, after a summer of bloody war and conquest, when their Beggars Army turned on itself, the ragged soldiers tearing each other to shreds before turning at last on their commanders.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was then that Seraphel, First among the Celestia, Chosen of the One, Hand of Aael, descended among the people, delivering Aael’s new edict, prohibiting the taking of arms or raising of armies by the Wise. From those remaining Saints and Prophets, Seraphel withdrew the Divine Gifts, announcing to all the people that Aael would bestow each Gift only once more, and never again upon the Wise. Two from among the people were chosen, and from them would come the Last Prophecy and the Final Miracle.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">**</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was many generations of the people before those Two came among them. Some had begun to doubt Aael would grant Her Gifts again, while others proclaimed He had never existed at all. The Wise had long fallen into corruption and vice, while Knowledge festered, Superstition growing from its rot.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the distant province of Sheaal, a merchant awoke to the knowledge of what was yet to come. He spoke of the Coming of the Messiah, born of Aael through a man and woman of the people, destined to save all from the Greatest Evil. In the holy city itself, the Crown Princess of Beraat raised her beloved mother, the legendary Warrior Queen, from the dead. The merchant was called mad by the people, and blasphemer, and was felled by a rain of stones. The resurrected Queen was called abomination by the people, and her daughter branded a witch, and so both were burned alive in the center of town. </span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And when the Messiah came, born of man and woman blessed by Aael, she came possessed of strength greater than that of a hundred strong men, with Knowledge long denied even the most venerable of the Wise, and a purity to rival that of the Celestia themselves. She came among the people, speaking Prophecy and working Miracles, preparing the World for the coming of the Greatest Evil, when all the armies of the people would rise up behind her, to drive Evil from the World forever, and to restore order to the Plan of Aael.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But, from deep within the heart of a lonely spiral galaxy, far out at the edges of the universe, Azel plotted and planned. Though bound, the Malevolent One was not powerless, and the dark spirit of Azel descended upon the cities of the people, slithering and oozing among the corrupt and debased, possessing those without the will to resist its temptations. And so did the minions of Azel spread lies and half-truths about the Messiah, turning the people against their savior, stoking the flames of Superstition, dimming the light of Knowledge, so that the people knew not what was best and what was right, instead giving over their lives to indulgence and base lecheries. The armies of the people disbanded, and the Messiah was left alone in the face of the Greatest Evil.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So the Messiah became wrathful, and went again among the people, and was known as the </span></b><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Flame</span></span><b id="internal-source-marker_0.8076952316332608" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b> </b>of Aael. All who succumbed to the charms of Azel were cut down, and only the Righteous were spared, to be taken up to the Celestial realms in Salvation. In the end, none remained. The World was cleansed of the people, the Greatest Evil destroyed. And Azel, the Deceiver, the Malevolent, wailed at the center of that lonely spiral galaxy, dying at last in the face of Aael’s Plan, finally come to fruition.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And in the death throes of Azel, that spiral galaxy imploded, pulling in the rest of the universe, so that all Creation collapsed into the Nul-Time, and all became naught but semi-real waveforms of collapsing probabilities.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And several waveforms collapsed into one another, creating Energy.</span></b></span>Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-46250771796238592502012-09-17T16:20:00.001-04:002012-12-17T00:15:57.789-05:00On Duty<span style="color: #444444;"><b id="internal-source-marker_0.9298359218519181" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Michael sat in the chair, feet up on the table, scrolling through a book on his phone. He sipped his coffee and thumbed over to pause the song he was listening to. He pulled out the earbuds and left them on the table with the phone as he rose from the chair. Picking up a long cane, he moved to bar the narrow hall.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You know you can’t, Gabriel,” he said.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I will inspect all corners of Creation, Michael,” the primly-dressed angel said, tapping at a handheld device. He raised </span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">his hand and said, "hold on</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,"</span></span><b id="internal-source-marker_0.9298359218519181" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b> </b></span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">then </span></span><b id="internal-source-marker_0.9298359218519181" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pressed a finger to his ear. “Hello? Yes, I’m in the southern wing, near the edge. No, I haven’t. I was just about to-- no, I just need to-- but you said-- yes, but you-- no, I-- no, sir. No. Okay, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. I will, sir.” He pressed his ear again, then tucked the handheld into his jacket. “He said to tell you hello.”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Michael nodded.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gabriel cleared his throat, looking around. He took the handheld back out and tapped at it some more. Then, “So, no issues or concerns to report?”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Nope. Everything’s fine. Tell him thanks for the coffee and the phone.”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Of course.” A lengthy pause, then more tapping at the handheld. “Well, I should be moving along, then.”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Probably.”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Right. Yes. Well, keep up the good, um... hrm.” Gabriel stared awkwardly at Michael a moment, then abruptly turned on his heel and walked away.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Michael stood a little longer. He heard a soft tapping of footsteps in the hall behind him. They stopped a few feet </span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">from the entryway</span></span><b id="internal-source-marker_0.9298359218519181" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You’re out of your room,” the archangel said, not turning around.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Oh, stop it,” the devil replied, leaning against the wall. “You enjoy these little visits.”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I really don’t.”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“So send me to my room.”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Michael grinned and returned to his seat. The devil remained where he was. Michael removed the earbuds from his phone and plugged it into a slot in the table. He tapped the screen and soft music began to play. </span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“So I can stay?”</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><b id="internal-source-marker_0.9298359218519181" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“It’s either let you hang around a while or call a few seraphim.” Michael waved his hand dismissively, “and Gabriel is seraphim enough for one day.” He took another sip of his coffee.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The devil sat on the floor of the hallway and leaned back against the wall. He pulled a flask from his jacket and drank, then tucked it away. “Gabriel really wants in here. No one volunteers for Creation Census THAT many times.”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“That’s only because he doesn’t know what’s in there.”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You don’t know all that’s in here, either.”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I know enough.”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I suppose.”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But, since you bring it up, how <b>are </b>things inside</span></span><b id="internal-source-marker_0.9298359218519181" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">?” Michael asked.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Fine.”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Need anything?”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Plenty. But that’s kind of the point, isn’t it?”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Michael smiled. “I guess it is.”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Still,” the devil said, “thanks for asking.”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Michael nodded. The devil took another pull from his flask. As he put it away, he cleared his throat.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Urm, I don’t know if I should say anything, but... well...”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“That pack of beezlebubs?”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yeah. And they’ve got a few of the azazel with them. They’re looking to break out.”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Michael grunted and tapped at his phone. “Why tell me?” he asked.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Because if they break out, I’ll have to break out,” the devil said. “And if I break out, I’ll have to make another try for the throne.”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“And you don’t want to?”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Heck no,” the devil said. “You only have to get your ass kicked by God once. But,” he sighed, “if it gets around that I’m afraid of God, then I lose control of Hell and I’m just another demon. Or worse, I keep control of Hell but spend millennia fighting some wretched war against rebellious demon factions. No,” he shook his head, “better they think I’d invade again in a second, if only you didn’t have the only way out sealed up tight.” He shared a quick smile with his jailer, then stood. “Well,” he said, “it’s time I turn in. Thanks for the conversation. Next time he simpers by, tell Gabriel I said hi.”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Of course. Good night, Lucifer.”</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Good night, Michael.”</span></b></span>Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-34319927445234997522012-06-27T00:20:00.004-04:002012-09-17T16:14:17.149-04:00The Carnival GraveyardIt was dusk when the boy climbed up and over the chain-link fence, jumping down into the overgrown lot filled with rusted bumper cars, broken Ferris wheels, and other abandoned rides and attractions. He looked around, then at the locked gate behind him, suddenly very aware of his surroundings, and of being surrounded. He took a tentative step forward as the last wash of blue chased the last light of day to the horizon. He shivered and rubbed his arms against the chill. The day had been warm and sunny, requiring no more than a t-shirt, but unlike many nights that summer, when the heat of day far outlasted its light, as the sun went down today, it took all the day's warmth with it. The sky was purple by the time he was halfway across the lot, the first stars of the evening casting little light on his gloomy surroundings. He began to reconsider the worth of this short-cut. After all, he still had the train station to cross before he reached the back fence of his apartment complex, and it occurred to him that perhaps it wasn't his best idea to try this for the first time at night. It was as he was considering just turning around, hopping back over the fence, and taking the long way around to the front of the complex, that he heard the creak.<br />
<br />
It was a loud creak. Deliberate. It had a sound that made it impossible for the boy to pretend it was just some loose metal swaying in the wind, or some pile of rusted metal settling. No, this was--<br />
<br />
He heard the creak again, this time louder, and much closer. He spun around, willing to leap the fence in a single bound if necessary to escape this creepy old junkyard, but found the way blocked. The battered remnants of three separate tilt-a-whirls lay strewn across his path. To either side, towers made of rotting wooden gaming booths loomed over him. There was another creak behind him, and as he turned, a pile of metal tent-poles clanged and clattered to the ground, forcing him toward the only open space left, a gap between the gaming booths and the tent-poles just large enough for a man to fit through. He moved toward it, coming up short when a tall, thin man in a top hat and tails appeared in it. The man walked silently toward the boy, a cold grin on his face, dead eyes meeting the boy's terrified gaze. The boy shrank from the gangling dandy, backing into a woman.<br />
<br />
He cried out in shock and jumped away. The woman's main face smiled, the shriveled and dessicated infant face on the side of her head hummed and drooled and grinned stupidly.<br />
<br />
"He's the barker," she said. The boy jumped again, not sure if speaking made her more or less disturbing. "You've probably never been to a carnival with a barker, have you?"<br />
<br />
The boy shook his head.<br />
<br />
"No. Well, he won't talk," she said. "Used to talk all the time. Hell, that was his job, to get the rubes in front of the games or into the freak show. I bet none of the carnivals these days have proper freak shows, either."<br />
<br />
Another shake of the head.<br />
<br />
"Right. Anyway, the barker here, he never used to shut up. Now, since he's here, he doesn't make a sound."<br />
<br />
The barker loped up and put his hand on the boy's shoulder. The boy began to shake, cold sweat breaking out across his forehead.<br />
<br />
"Oh," she smiled wider, "he likes you." Her dead infant face said, "buh" and giggled.<br />
<br />
A magician stumbled out of the shadows. He was drunk, with old sick and dried blood crusted on his filthy tuxedo. He staggered over to the boy and vomited up a great number of colored handkerchiefs, which then hung there, tied together in long fluttering ropes all extending up and back down his throat. He looked up at the boy and tried to speak, managing only guttural noises. The boy's shaking intensified. <br />
<br />
The barker put his other hand on the boy's other shoulder. The boy felt something warm spread out from his groin and trickle down his leg. It cooled quickly in the chilly night air and an acrid odor wafted off him.<br />
<br />
The deformed girl laughed and her infant face giggled. The magician laughed as much as he could with a mouthful of handkerchiefs. The boy felt the barker shove him, and then he was face-down on the hard-packed earth of the lot. The girl stood over him and pointed down to where he huddled in the dirt.<br />
<br />
"You stink, pisspants!" she yelled. The face of the dead infant cried "pisspants!" The girl shoved him with her foot and he flinched. "Don't be scared, pisspants," she said. "There's nothing here to be scared of."<br />
<br />
The barker walked over to the space between the old tent-poles and rotting gaming booths and held out his hand to escort a ragged, aging whore over the threshold. A troupe of jugglers followed, dressed in torn, fraying tights and tossing a set of cracked bowling pins back and forth. After the jugglers came the tumblers, three young girls and an older man. The girls all had sunken eyes filled with fear and bruises on their arms. The man wore a soulless grin and track marks.<br />
<br />
"This is the Carnival Graveyard, boy," the girl explained, "filled with castoff entertainments and unwanted amusements. We are dead and undying, eternal detritus of a faded era," she leaned over him, "from which we can never leave." She smiled as the others gathered round. "And now," she said, "neither can you."<br />
<br />
"Well, look at that," she laughed and her dead infant face cackled, "it seems there is something to be scared of after all."Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-74951602601433803212012-06-13T22:06:00.003-04:002012-11-12T20:37:34.440-05:00The Man Who Broke Sunday<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b id="internal-source-marker_0.9033520319499075" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He appeared in the room, and it seemed he had always been there, but also somehow wasn’t there yet. He flipped up his goggles and flipped open a small pocketwatch, studying it briefly. With a snap, he closed it again, looking around. “Well, I’ve done it,” he said. “I made it as far as 1873.” He smiled. “I made it past the 20th Century.”</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“How inspiring,” a woman said from across the room. He looked up, and saw her lying atop a made bed. “Now please stop,” she said.</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Why?”</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Because you can’t travel through time,” she said, sitting up. “Well, you can, obviously, and I do it all the time.” She stood, though she leaned against one of the bedposts. “But time takes things from you, when you travel through it. It eats at you.” She looked hard at him and he swallowed uneasily. “But not you. Time can’t touch you.” She approached him slowly. “You backflipped over an entire century and it cost you nothing.”</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He cleared his throat. “Well, I, um, I hadn’t realized that I...”</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You have a machine, I take it?”</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yes.”</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She stood directly before him, holding his eyes with her own. “I’ve known plenty of geniuses with machines, who ended up the way I am now, became what I’m becoming. What’s so different about your machine?”</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“N-nothing. I mean, I...” He looked down, then up again. She was still staring at him. “What... um, what are you becoming?”</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She held his gaze a few more moments, then looked away herself. He looked down again. She was hard to look at. She wasn’t always there, even though he knew she was.</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Living time, that’s what I’m becoming,” she said. “I’m what’s left of all that time’s taken from me, over and over.” She sighed, a weary sound. “I can step from yesterday to tomorrow and exist simultaneously across myriad todays, but sometimes I forget my own name.”</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“What </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">your name?”</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A long pause, then a slight whimper followed by another sigh. “I don’t remember.”</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I...I’m...”</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I’ll tell you what I do remember,” she said. “I remember another genius, with his machine. From 500 years away to 1000 years ago and back again, he stomped across time like it was his backyard. Eventually he got what was his. Time ate his life, one year at a time, until there was nothing left of him but probability, a living deja vu, but not before his blundering about the past caused the death of my great-grandfather. I should have ceased to exist,” she shrugged, “but instead I stepped outside of time, and when I stepped back in, I was years in the past. I found I could move through time at will -with a bit of help, at first- and discovered the time traveler who’d caused all my problems. I raced to the date he killed my great-grandfather, but even after I’d stopped him, time had changed enough that when I returned to my present, I found I was already there. Though I existed in this new timeline, I also did not. So, I left my other self alone and began to wander the timestream, each journey losing more and more of myself, until one day I’ll be little more than a living day of the week, or a sentient appointment in someone’s calendar.” </span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“That’s horrible.”</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She shook her head. “You don’t get it. Time </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">has </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">to do this.” She fixed him a stern glare. “Every time one of you idiots hops in his machine and goes wandering about outside the flow of history, time gets broken. And the only way time can repair itself, is by using all the potential days in the life of a time traveler.”</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Which creates a sort of equilibrium. A time traveler breaks time, then is cannibalized to fix what was broken,” he said.</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She nodded. “But you throw everything out of balance. The more you travel, the more time will take from people like me, and once we’re gone, time will break even further, perhaps stop working altogether. Every era in history will collide with one another. Humanity will cease to exist, save for people like me, lost and wandering a broken timestream through eternal now. Is that what you want?”</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He rubbed the back of his head. “Well, no. No, not as such, but...”</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Please,” she said, “stop traveling. Return to your era and stay there. Time can still recover without too much...”</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“No,” he said. “No, I think I’m going to keep traveling. I’m sorry, but this is my life’s work. I can’t...” his face hardened. “I </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">won’t </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">give it up.” He pulled out his pocketwatch and clicked a small button. Immediately he disappeared, though it was more like he was never there.</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He rematerialized over a century later in that same room, next to the machine. He flipped a few switches, pulled a lever and turned a few dials, reducing the whine of the time machinery to a low hum.</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Oh, I see,” she said, standing behind him. “The machine acts as an anchor. You stay tethered to it in your present, allowing you to remain within the flow of history, while at the same time removing yourself from it. Clever,” she nodded. She grabbed the back of his head and smashed his face into the side of the machine. “A bit too clever.” She pulled him back and took his pocketwatch, tossing it on the floor. “Now, your tether’s been unhooked,” she said, “you should be fair game. So, off you go!” She shoved him, and he vanished, swallowed up by the timestream.</span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Only moments later, she vanished as well, and the room was quiet. It was said that for years after, anyone attempting to spend the night in this room would be visited by dreams of every opportunity they'd ever let pass them by, and all the lost glories of their wasted potential. </span><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Few ever make it through the night.</span></b></span></div>
Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-46453390218689234012012-04-05T16:34:00.001-04:002012-11-12T20:37:55.024-05:00A Balanced Prophecy<b id="internal-source-marker_0.9074490210041404" style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anne Price sat back in her chair among the Inner Circle. Before that august body stood a boy, power practically radiating off him. He was stronger with the Spark than any of the novices and Adepts she'd seen in her long years as a Paladin. The boy had been found on some planet in the Far Reaches by a Ronin and brought before the Circle. The Ronin, one Twilya Borensz, was speaking.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Surely you see what I see," she said calmly. It was best not to lose one's temper in Circle chambers, though Anne observed the effort she made. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This one has been wandering the path of the Ronin too long</span><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, she thought. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> It's past time for her to start the Paladin's road.</span><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Ronin persisted. "You must know what every Ronin and Paladin I met on the journey here knows. This boy is one of the Five Prophecies."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Which?" asked a member of the Circle. "The Instrument of Balance or The Indefensible Victim?" Only two of the Five involved individual people, the rest pertained to groups or events.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"The Instrument," Twilya said, as though it were obvious. Anne studied the Ronin's young charge. He was older than the average novice, but not by much. His eyes held wisdom far beyond him and Anne could see, even without reading his thoughts, that he knew how the Circle would react. </span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Indeed, it was Thella Dars, ancient matriarch of the Circle, who said, "Though this boy may be the Instrument, the Victim or neither, he is not to be trained. He is far to old to begin."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"He doesn't need to start at the beginning," Twilya said. "Give him the Adept's Test. I say he'll pass and then he doesn't have to take the novice classes. I would also say he could have only minimum Adept training before he was taken by a Paladin--"</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You</span><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> say, " the matriarch looked at the young Ronin sternly. Twilya swallowed and said nothing.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"I will tutor him, brethren," Anne said with a smile. "Child of Prophecy or no, he is powerful and should be trained. And I agree with Ronin Borensz. I'll need to see his scores on the Adept Test, but he shouldn't need the full four years. He's already old enough, he has the power and has presumably demonstrated ability. A solid grounding in the Tenets is all he lacks."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another member of the Circle glared at her. "Paladins do not train Adepts, they take Squires. Only Masters may train Adepts."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"I sit within the Inner Circle," Anne said. "That entitles me to certain rights of Mastery."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The matriarch raised an eyebrow. "You are new to this Circle, Paladin Price."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anne nodded. "So I am. Therefore, if any respected elder can provide a compelling argument against training an obvious prodigy, I will gladly withdraw my tutor's petition."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There was silence. A telepathic conference ensued, followed by the matriarch speaking. "Your petition is accepted. It will be recorded that you are this boy's tutor."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anne offered a slight bow.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Later, Anne and Twilya walked through the bustling corridors of the Magi sanctuary. Novices and Adepts went about their lessons and duties, while Magi from Ronin to Master walked its halls.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Thank you, Anne," she said. "I knew you would see his potential. If you had seen him, on his planet..." she smiled. "I was surrounded by tigerhawks, bleeding out from a gash across my gut. I was barely able to render basic thought-forms, my concentration was shot. I poured all my will into making myself indestructible, hoping I'd be able to keep the shields up long enough, when that kid came diving in out of nowhere. He was a blur - a blur with the strength of ten. He took down the most vicious predatory hybrids in the galaxy with nothing but his body and a metal staff."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"So he performed what any new Squire fresh out of their Adept's colors could do. He used the Spark to enhance his own physical attributes."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Twilya smiled. "How easy was that for you to learn, during your Adept training?"</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anne grinned. "Not very, I'll admit."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Well this boy taught himself how to do that, and more beside."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"And discipline? Was he teaching himself that, as well?"</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She shook her head. "He's more driven than disciplined. Which is why his training is so important, and why I'm so glad he has you to--"</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Did you tell him about the Fell?"</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She scoffed at this. "Enough so he knew who they were and what they did. I didn't focus on them much. So few remain, it's unlikely he'll ever meet any, let alone have to face one."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anne nodded and moved ahead to talk with the boy.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They walked in silence for a while.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Did Ronin Borensz tell you what she thinks you are?" Anne asked at last.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The boy nodded.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They walked a while, not speaking again. Anne studied the boy. Then, with a grin, she reached out for a handful of the universe and used its energy to build a floating geometric shape from solid light. "What's your name?" she asked.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Brin," the boy said. "Brin Darkstar."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Darkstar," Anne repeated. "That's a Far Reaches name."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Brin nodded again. "Grew up on a cargo ship, running the old merchant spaceways with my family. We come out of the Colonies, generations back, but I spent some time on the Capitol worlds." He watched the spinning shapes -for there were more of them now- a look of awe on his face. "Will I learn to do that?"</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anne smiled kindly. "Soon enough. I'm to train you."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"You are?"</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"I am. But there is testing to be done yet to decide where I'm to begin."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Testing?"</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Standard among the Magi, to determine placement within the Order." Anne waved the question aside. "But there is the matter of your Prophecy to discuss."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"So, you think I am..."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"The Instrument of Balance, yes."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Well, that's good, isn't it? Ronin Borensz says it is." The thoughtforms danced and spun around him. He caught at them and grinned as they slipped through his fingers, grinned at the thought that the Paladin was making it happen, that someday he would make it happen. Maybe make other things happen.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Balance is neither good nor evil," Anne said, her smile turning thoughtful. "That's really the whole point. My concern is how you’ll actually bring about this balance."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Brin looked quizzically over at the Paladin.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"You know the Fell, yes?"</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"The Ronin told me. They use the Spark for evil, perverting the Magi way."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Yes," Anne said, "that is the Fell, essentially. They have all the power of the Magi and none of the discipline, none of the control. They rose to power a thousand years ago, enslaved half the galaxy and slaughtered most of the other half. It took centuries to bring them down, but over those centuries we became so successful at hunting them, and cleaning up their collateral criminal activity, that the Magi have become the de facto law enforcement for most of the galaxy. Our numbers grow as the Fell diminish to nothing."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"But isn't that good?" Brin was confused. The thoughtforms pulsed and changed and moved slowly about his head.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"It is," Anne nodded. "I won't ever be truly happy until every last Fell is dead." She paused. "Which brings us back to the matter of the prophecy."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"I don't understand."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anne stopped walking and turned to face Brin. "If you are to bring balance between the Magi and the Fell, then you're either going to make a great deal more of them or a great deal less of us." She favored the boy with a sympathetic smile. "I’m sorry Brin, but I'm afraid I find neither option terribly appealing."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"I don’t underst--hnk!" The Child of Prophecy's last words ended in a choked grunt as the brilliant shimmering shapes became deadly glittering spikes that drove simultaneously through Brin Darkstar's brain.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Three Masters of the Inner Circle approached, the matriarch among them. "What is this?" she demanded.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"A dead child, Masters."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Why did you kill this boy, believed by many, including yourself, to be one of the Five Prophecies?"</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Masters," Anne bowed, spreading her hands in reverent supplication. "I humbly submit to you, that I only acted according to the will of the most venerated Prophets."</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"The last of the Five Prophets rejoined the Spark over three thousand years ago," the matriarch said. "How do you presume to know their will?"</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Still retaining her submissive posture, Anne smiled. "Most honored Masters, I would think it obvious," she said. "Balance between the Magi and the Fell would bring disaster upon our order, would it not?"</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"While of course true, that is irrelevant," a Master scolded. "One does not seek to thwart a Prophecy. Would you do the same to the Indefensible Victim, were she found and brought before you?"</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"As the Indefensible Victim is said to usher in the next age of barbarism, then yes, I would drive a spike through her brain as readily as I did this poor bastard." Anne was calm, standing and meeting the gaze of each Master in turn. "Truly, Masters, do you hold to dogma and ritual at the cost of all reason and sense? Can you not see the only logical course?" When she was met with silence, she turned and continued down the hall, throwing one final thought to her ancient brethren over her shoulder.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"What purpose should Prophecy serve," she said, "save to provide the means to thwart its outcome?"</span></span></b>Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-38522120739145226072012-02-10T21:30:00.008-05:002012-02-26T20:11:23.416-05:00The Broken Tomorrow of Josephine SundayOf course, Sunday wasn’t her real last name. People didn’t have days of the week for their last names, not real people.<br /><br />But then, she wasn’t a real person any more, was she?<br /><br />Josephine closed her eyes, willing her normal life - Josephine <span style="font-style:italic;">Watley’s</span> normal life - to be there when she opened them. But no, it was just the same train station, the same bleached-out colors and insubstantial people. She flipped the hood of her ragged coat up over her head. It was starting to snow.<br /><br />A few minutes later, the train pulled up. Josephine climbed the steps, turned right into a car, and sat against the window of a two-person seat. The car was nearly deserted, so she set her bag down next to her. The conductor approached.<br /><br />“Ticket?”<br /><br />She flashed her pass, and was putting it back in her bag when the conductor’s voice brought her up short.<br /><br />“Hold it.”<br /><br />She looked up.<br /><br />“Let me see that.”<br /><br />She handed up the pass.<br /><br />The conductor scrutinized it. “Don’t normally see these stations on a pass.”<br /><br />“Why is that?”<br /><br />“Well, Tomorrow Station is a one-way trip. People usually buy single tickets for that one. And I didn’t think we even had service to Yesterday Station any more.”<br /><br />She smiled. “I wanted my pass to be comprehensive.”<br /><br />The conductor smiled back, returning the pass. “Where you headed?”<br /><br />“Tomorrow Station is always where I’m headed, but I am unfortunately getting off long before then.”<br /><br />“And where would that be?”<br /><br />“I believe you're supposed to tell me.”<br /><br />“Ah, right.” The conductor fumbled with a map, studying it. “ Let's see... ah. Here it is. You’ll want to get off on a Saturday afternoon in the spring of 1987.”<br /><br />The train lurched and the conductor stumbled, then began stammering, looking quizzically at the map. “Um, what? No, I’m sorry. That’s ridiculous. You’ll want the West Idleston station. The one after next.”<br /><br />“Thank you.”<br /><br />“And I’m so sorry for that... um, whatever that was. I don’t even really remember...”<br /><br />“Not at all.” Josephine smiled up.<br /><br />“Must be one of those days.”<br /><br />“It always is.”<br /><br />The conductor walked on, and Josephine put her pass away, rummaging through her bag. She took out a small journal and began writing. She was finding it harder to put her thoughts on paper, but she forced herself to write at least two pages. She knew she would one day lose writing, just like she lost her proper name. Eventually, even Josephine would be gone and she’d just be Sunday, a living day of the week. After that she would become woven into spacetime itself, a barely sentient waveform of shifting probabilities.<br /><br />Soon, the conductor announced West Idleston. Josephine put away her journal and zipped up her bag, slinging it over her shoulder as she left the train. Her phone rang and she answered it.<br /><br />“Sunday.”<br /><br />“Josephine, this is Calendar. Are you then?”<br /><br />She looked around, had a good chuckle at some of the fashions on display, and said, “Spring. 1987. Feels like a Saturday.”<br /><br />“Good. Now, where are you?”<br /><br />“Town called West Idleston.”<br /><br />“Perfect!” Josephine held her phone away from her ear. Calendar was still going on. “Dispatch got you on the right train for once. Okay, you want to get to a highway overpass about... three blocks from where you are.”<br /><br />She started moving. “So how is visiting some overpass in 1987 going to help me stop being erased from existence?”<br /><br />“Well, West Idleston was your grandfather’s home town, and you’re at the day after his junior prom,” Calendar said. “But, more importantly, it’s also the day he’s going to kill himself.”Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-19975236180533125392010-03-03T22:07:00.002-05:002010-03-03T22:08:57.825-05:00Deliverance (a sermon)<p>In the old time under the Green Men, those vicious monsters of space, the last of Earth’s authority came together. The armies of the world were long since made rubble and corpses, human science a thing of legend, so the only avenue left those former kings and merchant princes was religion. Clergy from all faiths urged their people to join in prayer, a fervent appeal to their Higher Power to deliver them from the invaders. This global clergy, united for the first time in history in the face of this universal Other, poured over their texts and sacred books, seeking the means to call down that deliverance. <br /></p><p>It was a Muslim cleric and a Wiccan high priestess who found the incantation, in a book buried deep beneath the Vatican; an incantation that would summon a holy warrior, one that would bring the great and terrible Wrath of the Divine. With the incantation they’d found, humanity could call down God’s Worst Bastard.</p><p>And when he came among the last humans, he was known as Pope Adam the Destroyer. His was a hunger of infinite measure, satisfied only by the souls of aliens. With each soul devoured, Pope Adam the Destroyer added one more mindless drone to his growing army. They swept across the globe, the remaining aliens fleeing before such a fate. When the last of the invaders had gone, humanity’s savior presented them with the God Factory, a vast industrial complex fueled by the souls he’d taken, worked by the bodies those souls had once inhabited. The God Factory made the machines that made everything the recovering human race could need, bringing about a paradise from their blasted and blighted Earth. </p><p>And so it is, in this, the year of the Destroyer 117, a century since our deliverer had left us, that we are recovered enough to think on vengeance. We go now to the God Factory to build new machines, sacred machines that only the Mechanics of the Holy Order can operate; machines to find the aliens’ homeworld and machines we can use to kill everything we see once we get there.</p><p>Blessed, blessed, thrice blessed are the warriors in the Destroyer’s armies, for theirs is the right and the power of the Divine.</p><p>Praise Be.</p>Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-39126684242402214812009-12-30T00:05:00.003-05:002010-03-01T00:51:58.350-05:00The Last BastionHe floated out among the Transient Spaces, too exhausted to even rebuild his vessel. He reached out his hand, sparing energy he didn't have to rejuvenate a dying galaxy. Here at the very fringes of the Edge Zones, where the battle was waged, the physical realm was sparse and even more sparsely populated. A distant arm of the galaxy in God's hand contained the home of an ancient sentient species. They'd moved their galaxy here to observe the battle, knowing the slim chance of survival, but desperately needing to record the event. Their scanning instruments focused on the deity that had saved them and they offered up a hymn of thanks, engaging all sentient life in that galaxy to add their prayers, knowing what focused worship could do for a supreme being. That worship brought strength back to God's weary presence. He used that energy to send the galaxy far away, then fortify the barriers for the next attack. <div><br /></div><div>Far off into infinity, across the great emptiness, darkness roiled and swelled. He had cast it out, so many eons ago, and so had been able to tame the universe and populate it with beings of his own creation. Now the dark had returned, threatening his universe with the devastation of pure chaos. Fortunately, God had seen the darkness coming when it was still thousands of millennia out and engineered a species designed to combat and nullify the dark. He'd stayed with them as long as he could, then, forced to confront the darkness directly, left his people to develop on their own, sending messengers with knowledge and technology just before he left. <div><div><br /></div><div>It had been a couple thousand years since he'd activated the Savior protocol. Through a half-mortal proxy, new technology and abilities should have been granted to his little super-hominids beyond the simple tools and philosophies his first messengers had given. Over a few centuries, his proxy should have expanded their minds to hold the knowledge they'd need to make war on the dark, teaching them the illuminated language of God. Further instructions passed on during the Prophet cycle should have allowed them even greater understanding of the vast powers granted by the Savior protocol. He'd been broadcasting specific instructions relating to the coming war against the dark via sensitives over the centuries, and if his people had followed them, they would be prepared for the worst.<br /><div><div><br /></div><div>Then the last of God's barriers broke and the darkness invaded the universe in a great rushing wave. God raced ahead, outpacing the darkness by mere decades, arriving on Earth with less than a century until the darkness overwhelmed them. He stood mighty in the sky, his countenance spanning the horizon. In his own language, spoken first by the stars when they were young, God rallied his people to him.</div><div><br /></div><div>After a pause just long enough to be unsettling, humanity looked up at God and said, "Huh?"</div><br /></div><br /></div><br /></div><br /></div>Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-23348884353232202062009-08-14T22:06:00.001-04:002009-08-14T22:06:45.213-04:00Old OnesHers was the light, the radiant beam from heaven that shone down upon us. She was the herald, the voice, the emissary. She would lead the First Ones home, so our Makers could walk among us again. She told us all of this, in our own languages, using imagery and myth from our own religions. She sang scripture from the skies above sprawling cities, healed the sick with a kiss, sanctified the desert, making it fertile. All flocked to her, seeing a savior. There were none who disbelieved. The most fundamentalist zealot knelt beside the most cynical of atheists in worship of her. She loved us, she said, filling us with joy. But hers was nothing to the love of the First Ones. The First Ones are love, she would tell us, they are love incarnate. Her miracles had been wrought, she explained, to make the world holy enough for its creators to return to.<br><div><br></div><div>The First Ones came among us as solid light. Walking prism-men that dwarfed the tallest skyline strode across the surface of the world and called it small. They convened in a crystalline structure that folded space in 10 dimensions and a man approached their merged hard-light forms, proposing to meditate upon them. At the 10th second of the 10th minute of the 10th hour of the 10th day, he finally saw past the humble 3 dimensions of human perception, first seeing time become solid around him, then the latter 6 opened with increasing impossibility. When he unlocked the 10th dimension, his mind went, drawn from him, peeled off from his soul as it uploaded to the vast hypercomputers of the Third Ones.</div><div><br></div><div>And so did all the great thinkers and holy people come to the First Ones, gazing deep into their 10-dimensional geometry. As with the first, they all become operating software for the machines that map the multiverse, as one with the precision devices of the Third Ones. Their still-living bodies were guarded by those left behind, those who remained to prepare for the coming of the Second Ones: living nightmares, a failed god experiment.</div><div><br></div><div>And then she rose again, her light once more a beacon, no longer dimmed by the radiance of the First Ones. Her light split the Second Ones asunder as they came, casting daylight into the shadowy murk that sustained them. Their shades were captured among their creators' prism bodies, to be returned to the edge of the universe that spawned them.</div><div><br></div><div>We are the Tenth Ones, the Last Ones, called the Empty Ones by the uncharitable among the shimmering choirs. </div><div><br></div><div>None will come after us.</div><br>Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-74270649217771792892009-04-05T01:46:00.001-04:002009-04-05T02:09:50.809-04:00The Wizard's LamentThe wizard sat in his tower, gazing out the window toward the horizon. The sun had set a few moments ago, but it's light still lingered just enough, a guttering candle at the edge of the world. At last even that final remnant of day faded and night settled in. The wizard sighed and stood, crossing the small bedroom to the stairs that led to his library and observatory. As he climbed, he smiled wryly. At least the job afforded him the luxury of books and instruments. He'd lived in enough hermit's caves during his career to appreciate a warm bed and a place for a telescope. <br><br>The sky wasn't clear enough for stargazing, so he took down one of his older spellbooks and set to memorizing a chapter. A wizard was always studying, or so his old masters taught him. And it was true. Any wizard who wanted to be worth a damn was always studying. With another sigh, he put the book down and closed his eyes, leaning his head back in the big comfortable armchair in one corner of the library.<br><br>He remembered when he'd been worth a damn, back when the world needed wizards, when creatures from the Outer Dark threatened all humankind and only the wizards stood to bar their way. He remembered that last battle, his victory leading him to this job, that of the Court Magician for the Ch'Ten Empire. The wizard shook his head. He who had once wrestled a demigod back down into the netherworld now spent his days making jeweled light for courtiers and children. He had saved them all from everlasting darkness and they made him their pet, demanding pretties and amusements because they couldn't comprehend what he'd saved them from. If they'd known what he'd sacrificed, at what price he'd bought their salvation... He shook his head. No, they'd have done nothing different.<br><br>He rose from his chair, crossing to the balcony outside the observatory. He looked out over this world he'd saved, the one he'd given up his dearest love for, and he wondered why he bothered. Most of the world really wasn't worth saving, and the parts that were became fewer and smaller each year due to the efforts of those that weren't. Just six months prior, the Merchant Princes leveled a sacred wood, the sentient trees of its Hidden Grove falling to axe and saw. When the wizard went before the Princes, and then before the monarchs of the Seven Kingdoms, to protest the slaughter, his listeners just smiled politely. They made many deep and grave pronouncements, lauding his honor and his bravery, his skill as a wizard, all while mourning the loss of such venerable trees.<br><br>"But the land there is fertile," he mimicked the corpulent Chief Executive of the Merchant Princes, "perfect for farming. And with the way the peasantry breeds these days..."<br><br>"And of course," King Borach of Ch'Ten -his own monarch- had said, as though it justified everything, "the Merchant Princes do own the land."<br><br>And so the wizard went away, back to conjuring pretty lights for pretty fools, all while living through the casual suffering they caused. Then, as night fell upon the kingdom, a creature of the Outer Dark flew in through the wizard's window. It was a small black winged creature, a minor demon of little consequence or threat, but alarming in that the Outer Dark was supposed to have been sealed.<br><br>"Pay me no mind, pay me no mind," the demon said, doffing a miniature hat and offering a rough bow. "Me and mine is all can come through to this plane, the biguns all still stuck behind your wall."<br><br>The wizard raised an eyebrow. "So the wall still holds some of you back," he said. "How is it you made it past?"<br><br>The demon chuckled self-depricatingly. "Aye, you set your wall so's 'none from the Outer Dark could ever threaten the world'," he quoted the spell that built the wall, "but me and mine ain't a threat to this world. Hell, a thousand of me and mine wouldn't threaten this world." He shrugged. "We can pretty much come and go as we please. Good many of us decided to just escape to this world, but was some of us decided to make ourselves handy to the biguns as messengers."<br><br>"And you have a message for me, I take it."<br><br>"Aye," the demon nodded. "From one Skargk the Pestilent. You know him?"<br><br>The wizard's jaw tightened. "I know him."<br><br>"Good. Says he has an offer."<br><br>"What is he offering?"<br><br>The demon smiled. "Your one true love, of course. Returned to you, body and soul, whole and healthy and unspoiled."<br><br>The wizard tried to hide the stabbing pain in his heart at those words. Alive? She was alive? All these years playing the fool to these spoiled dandies and she suffered among the Dark! He forced his voice to be calm. He'd show no weakness to this thing. "And I suppose in return he wants me to hand this world over to him," he said.<br><br>The demon smirked, looking around. "From what I've seen of it, you're better off trading it in for the girl." He shook his head. "But no. No, you don't have to just hand the world over, you just have to give the biguns a shot at it. Just open the wall. You can fight them all tooth and nail after that if you want, they just want the wall down."<br><br>The wizard considered the offer, stroking his chin and pacing slightly. "So," he mused, making his tone much lighter than he felt, "all I have to do to get the one great true love of my life back is open the door and let things go back to the way they were?"<br><br>"That's about it."<br><br>The wizard smiled. "Are you familiar, demon, with the mortal adage that cautions one not to shoot the messenger?"<br><br>The demon nodded.<br><br>The wizard raised his hand, uttered a few syllables of an ancient and dying language, and a bolt of crimson lightning charred the little demon to its bones. A quick banishing spell sent them back behind the wall to the Outer Dark. The wizard made his way to the Wastes, where he would open the only gate in the wall.<br><br>Once there, he spoke the words and made the necessary gestures to open the gate. Darkness swirled beyond it, a seething pulsing darkness that screamed for its release in tortured whispers.<br><br>"You come," it said.<br><br>"I'm here."<br><br>"You come for your woman," a dark chorus rasped, "and to free us."<br><br>The wizard held up his hand, a glowing orb causing the darkness to cringe back from the gate. "A couple of things I thought I'd mention: One, I don't honestly believe you'd give her up to me just to return to the status quo. You'd figure you owned me, and I'd rather be their lapdog than yours. Two," he held up two fingers, "no matter how vain, selfish and empty a lot of those people are," he stepped through the gate, locking it behind him, "they don't deserve you." He set his feet in a fighting stance, energy crackling around his fingertips.<br><br>"So yes," the wizard said, grinning his challenge in the face of that roiling hate, "I am indeed here for my woman, but you aren't going anywhere."<br><br><br>Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-1150335969316789282009-01-04T15:04:00.000-05:002009-04-05T01:49:15.843-04:00What is Spontaneous Fiction?The old Storyteller chuckled, indicating his curious visitor should sit.<br /><br />"Well," he said, settling down for the telling, "Some say Spontaneous Fiction is a bizarre occult ritual, practiced only by the mysterious Fantasy Monks of the Unreal Territories. Some," he gestured with his hand, in a way that suggested he was somehow directing the visitor's attention to the nebulous "some people" currently under discussion, "Some say it is a naturally occurring phenomenon that afflicts storytellers who have too many tales cluttering up their heads."<br /><br />The old Storyteller pointed to an earthenware jug sitting next to a clay cup, "The drink dispenser is in the wall just above the jug. Bring me a bottle of the Europa water," he leaned in conspiratorially, "and I'll tell you what Spontaneous Fiction really is."<br /><br />The visitor rushed to do as he'd been asked, sliding the wall panel open, and telling the dispenser what he wanted. It gave him a small plastic bottle of water from one of Jupiter's moons, which he brought back to the old Storyteller, who continued his tale.<br /><br />"What it really is," he said, taking a long pull on the water bottle, "is the result of an experiment. An attempt to start a blog and post only fiction for a year (more or less)." The Storyteller gestured to the visitor's right with the bottle. "Look there to the right. The fruits of this experiment have been collected in a single volume, called <a href="http://www.lulu.com/content/243374">The Spontaneous Manifesto</a>. Of course," he smiled, "you can also read through the archives whenever you're here."<br /><br />The visitor thanked the Storyteller and rose to leave. At the door, the visitor turned and asked one more question.<br /><br />"More stories?" the Storyteller chuckled. "I suppose there might be the odd new tale of Spontaneous Fiction, from time to time. In fact, should you continue past here, you'll find a few new tales waiting to be read."Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-4307112118862542192008-10-31T23:45:00.002-04:002008-10-31T23:47:38.133-04:00Executive PrivilegeHe couldn't change them.<br /><br />He looked at them, studied them and thought he really knew them. He was so very scared for them. They didn't know what they were doing. They didn't seem to want to know and that scared him even more.<br /><br />He thought he could change them with inspiration. Others had effected great change by inspiring speeches alone. So he spoke, at length, about what they could be, what they could aspire to. The speeches were well received, but no one changed. No one reached for more than what they were. They wanted change, but not to them. They wanted to go on exactly as they had been, while he changed the world around them to better suit their needs.<br /><br />So he decided to show them. Where inspiration failed, example would carry the day. He would live his words and do his considerable part to make things better, to be more than he was. And things changed, but not all that much. His efforts alone would do little beyond the short-term. He needed them to follow his lead, do their own work to make things better. <br /><br />But they didn't.<br /><br />The changes he made were just enough that everyone got to be comfortable again. He tried to explain that what he'd done wouldn't last, that he was merely patching a flawed system, and if the system was to change, it was they who would change it. But he was scoffed at, tuned out, derided and ignored. Opposition turned his words against him, telling them all what they wanted to hear, despite that it wasn't what they needed.<br /><br />He offered them money, turned the change he needed from them into jobs, and that seemed to work for a while. But the pay was necessarily low and the work was hard, and there were jobs by then to be had for higher pay and less work. These other jobs were unstable, he tried to tell them, an effect of the patch and no less impermanent. But they left his jobs in droves, chasing easy money and paper wealth.<br /><br />He hadn't wanted it to come to this, it must be understood. But he'd tried everything short of this and none of it worked. If they had just changed on their own... but no. No, they couldn't be bothered, so now it was down to this. He sighed and put down the saw, wiping his brow on his sleeve. Then carefully, gently, even respectfully, he slid the top of the skull off the head, revealing the brain. He picked up a scalpel, his face grim.<br /><br />Time for change.Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-88822291595663950482008-10-26T23:19:00.002-04:002008-10-26T23:21:02.602-04:00The DeconstructionistThe man walked casually through the vast halls of the lunar fortress. They gleamed with an otherworldly iridescence, their alien alloy shedding the by-products of its chemical reaction with oxygen into the visual spectrum. The man grinned slightly, and a young photographer in a bustling metropolis was blind due to this previously harmless display. The walls changed as the man walked, becoming simple titanium, then steel, then the slick concrete of an underground bunker. The man pushed open a rusting metal door, entering an austere yet still somehow squalid, living room. A costumed superhero sat on the couch; he looked up as the man entered.<br /><br />"This isn't right," the superhero said, staring down at his hands. "This," he looked around the room, "this isn't my fortress."<br /><br />"Of course it is," the man said. "It's always been this."<br /><br />"But, I--" the superhero shook his head. "No, you're right. I dug this out with my bare hands, then used my powers to make the concrete out of rocks and sand. It's useful, I guess, as a headquarters... but I could have done so much more with..." He kept shaking his head, as though to clear it. The man grinned again. The superhero blinked. "My homeworld... there was technology there that was millennia beyond what Earth has. I..." he looked helplessly up at the stranger in his fortress. "I should have access to that, shouldn't I?"<br /><br />"No," the man shook his head. "Why should you? Your father destroyed your planet and everything on it. If your mother hadn't launched you into space when she did, your father would have destroyed you too."<br /><br />"But, my ship--"<br /><br />"Exploded once you were removed from it. It killed your Earth father instantly, and left your adopted mother a cripple, addicted to pain killers and vodka." The man smiled. "Don't you remember how you discovered you were invulnerable?"<br /><br />The superhero touched his cheek. His bright costume was gone, replaced by tight leather. "She hit me," he whispered. "It was her wedding anniversary, I should have remembered that, and she always drank more than usual that day."<br /><br />"Yes," the man said, "she was usually a reasonably functional alcoholic."<br /><br />The superhero glared at the man, his eyes glowing red. "She was a good mother," he growled.<br /><br />The man just continued to grin. "Except when she wasn't."<br /><br />The superhero shuddered. "Except then."<br /><br />"But you put a stop to that."<br /><br />The superhero looked defensive. "I didn't mean that," he insisted. "The powers were brand new, I couldn't control them and I--"<br /><br />"And you were really angry at her."<br /><br />"NO! No, I... yes." the superhero sank back down on the couch. "Yes, I was angry. But I've done so much since then, so much good. Do you," he looked up at the man, his eyes haunted, "do you think she'll forgive me now?"<br /><br />"She might have," the man nodded, "if not for what you've been up to lately."<br /><br />The superhero looked confused, "I haven't been up to anything." Then both men looked toward the closed door leading to the bedroom. The superhero shook his head. "But she's just spending the night. She often spends the night here in the..." he shook his head again. "No, no, that's not right." He looked back at the door, a squint indicating he was looking through it. "I thought she was someone--"<br /><br />"Someone else?" the man cleared his throat. "But that isn't possible, is it?"<br /><br />The superhero shook. "No," he whispered. "No, I definitely didn't mean to do that to her. I loved her." His look was one that begged forgiveness. "I told her the serum was experimental. I told her! But she insisted on taking it. Wanted to be with me so badly that--"<br /><br />"That she swallowed a serum that burned her from the inside out," the man said. He gestured toward the door. "And that poor girl..."<br /><br />The superhero was on his feet again. "But the serum worked on her! It worked! I watched bullets bounce off her, I..."<br /><br />"Yes, the serum worked perfectly on her," the man agreed. "But then, all those experiments you used her for when you were kids likely helped. Did she ever remember what you did to her all those years ago?"<br /><br />The superhero was silent.<br /><br />"So yes, it worked," the man agreed. "But then you went and lost track of time. It was late when you got back to your little fortress bunker, and by the time you two were well into things..."<br /><br />"It wore off." The superhero's voice was a mere whisper. Then he looked up again, suddenly really noticing the strange man in his inner sanctum. "Wait," he said. "Who are you?"<br /><br />"I'm just a man," the man said. "A man with a special power." He smiled. "Nothing so grand as your impressive abilities, but quite potent in its way." His smile deepened. "I can reach back through time," he explained, "and alter key events in any person's history. I can change the very continuity of someone's life."<br /><br />"Did you change mine?"<br /><br />The man nodded and laughed. "Oh yes."<br /><br />The superhero snarled, leaping at the man. "Change it back! You change me back to whatever I was right god-damned now! Or I'll--" He fell to his knees, muscles atrophied and bones brittle. His words were choked off in a dry rasping cough.<br /><br />The man laughed, shoving the dessicated superhero onto the floor with his foot.<br /><br />"You'll do nothing," he sneered. "I'll retcon your radiation poisoning away after I've left," he promised. "I want to keep you around like this a while." He checked his watch. "Ah, yes, well. I must away. I've a brooding man in a cave to visit and grant his fondest wish." He smiled and exited the bunker, stepping into the razed slums of a once-vibrant city.<br /><br />"Be seeing you."Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-43463680607428836342008-01-22T21:32:00.001-05:002008-05-20T22:29:52.608-04:00The Unkillable BastardHe walked slowly, slipping through the doors as they swung open and drifting into shadow. In each hand was a black-handled revolver. A hood obscured his face and a long coat settled around him as he waited.<br /><br />He did not have to wait long. He heard his quarry approaching, noisily chasing some drunken harlot down the hall. It was the third this week, for the target was a creature of habit. The hooded man grinned, spinning his revolvers about his fingers. At exactly the right moment, he stepped from the shadows, pointing one of his two guns at the pair of revelers. The woman stumbled back, bumping into the wall and falling with a giggle. The target's eyes narrowed, making him seem far less drunk than he should have been.<br /><br />"So, you're who they sent," the target said softly, a wry smile on his lips. The realization that the target, a noted unrepentant alcoholic, would be sober upon returning from the bar caused the trickle of sweat running down the hooded man's spine to chill.<br /><br />From the depths of the gunman's hood came a low even growl. "I am."<br /><br />"You must be good." The target still hadn't moved, but his eyes had taken in the entirety of his surroundings.<br /><br />"I do okay."<br /><br />The target nodded. "Ever blow a hit?"<br /><br />The question made the hooded man blink. "Um, no," he finally answered.<br /><br />"Not once?" A teasing smile.<br /><br />"Never." A firm answer.<br /><br />"Well," the smile turned languid and the target stretched in a yawn. "You're going to blow this one."<br /><br />The hooded man tightened his grip on the gun and his trigger finger twitched. "Think so?"<br /><br />The target's attention was drawn by his companion, who was crawling to her feet, looking blearily at the hooded gunman. Raising his index finger, the target said, "Excuse me a minute," then bent to help her to her feet.<br /><br />"Whasssee doin' withat gun?" her slurred tones were tinged with worry. "He ain' gonna shoot you issee?"<br /><br />"Shh," the target cooed, "don't be silly. He's just an old friend having some fun. He's probably drunk. Go on in here," he led her toward the door to his apartments, "and wait for me. I'll be along. I just need to talk to my friend here." He opened the door and she stumbled inside. He drew it closed and locked it again, finally smiling up at the hooded man, who'd kept his gun trained on the target the entire time.<br /><br />"Thanks," the target said, pointing toward the door, "for waiting."<br /><br />The hooded man gave a brief nod. "I prefer to minimize the collaterals where possible," he said.<br /><br />The target smiled again. "Smart guy. No wonder you're still in the game." He chuckled. "I should call and thank them. Sending someone like you shows me respect."<br /><br />Another hooded nod. This was getting old. He should just kill the target and go. But the target was talking again.<br /><br />"You really want to shoot me, don't you?"<br /><br />"I don't get paid if I don't."<br /><br />"Fair enough," the target nodded and kept smiling. "So why don't you?"<br /><br />"I don't know," the hooded man was forced to admit.<br /><br />"I do," the target replied. Then, seemingly at random, he asked, "You live alone?"<br /><br />"Yes."<br /><br />"Ever married?"<br /><br />"No."<br /><br />"Any kids?"<br /><br />"None that I know of." The hooded gunman laughed derisively. "You trying to play on my sense of loneliness? Come on. You just got done praising me. You think I'm going to fall for an amateur psych job?"<br /><br />"No," the target stopped smiling. "You're going to stick that gun in your mouth and pull the trigger."<br /><br />"I'm what?" More laughter. "Why the hell would I--"<br /><br />"Because you really really want to," the target spoke bluntly. "You've been wanting to blow your brains out since the first time you picked up a gun. But you're scared, so you've been making others your proxies for years and drawing a nice paycheck doing it." His eyes became kind and his voice comforting. "But all you want, all you think about, all you fantasize about is what it would feel like when the bullet drills up through the roof of your mouth and into your skull. You wonder if you'll get to feel your brain explode."<br /><br />The hooded man staggered back a step, the gun shaking. "How did you..." he stammered, "H-how..."<br /><br />The target looked deep into his eyes. "I think it's time you find out, don't you?"<br /><br />The hooded man slowly raised the gun to his mouth, taking the barrel between his teeth.<br /><br />"That's it..." the target's voice was quiet and very soothing. "That's it," he said. "It's all going to be okay. For the first time ever, things are going to be okay for you. Now," his voice turned to one of command, "pull the trigger."<br /><br />The hooded man's face split in two as the top of his skull erupted in a gout of blood and brains. The target crouched down and took the second revolver, looking it over appraisingly. As he walked toward his apartments, he tucked the gun in his jacket and removed his cell phone, placing a call.<br /><br />As he slid his key in the lock, he said, "Ah, sergeant! It seems a young man has committed suicide in front of my home again. Would it be possible-- thank you. I really do appreciate it. What's that?" There was a pause, then he laughed. "Yes. Yes, I do think you should bring it back to them." Another pause and another laugh.<br /><br />"Oh, I'm sure they'll know who it's from."Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-12520584282864551472007-11-21T22:21:00.003-05:002010-03-01T23:18:07.346-05:00The Armageddon CogHe sat across from her, halfway through his second drink, gesturing for his third. He'd be damned if he was going to handle this thing she had sober. From the look of her, she felt the same way. The problem was, she'd been handling it for the past week.<br /><br />Her body slung forward in that state of advanced drunkenness where remaining upright was a near-insurmountable challenge. Her head didn't so much weave as swivel and lurch. When she managed to bring her face up, her bleary eyes were a watery blood-red. Her hair was a ragged tangle, and the last vestiges of makeup blended into an ashy ochre smeared down her face. An arm swung wildly to point at him, then flop down on the table. She knocked a double vodka back and dropped the glass on the floor, giggling as it shattered. The giggle became wet sobbing and she tried hard to force words from numb lips.<br /><br />"You godda take it," she said for the tenth time. "I promissa steal it, but I donwanna keep it. Can't." She shook her head and it dropped to the table with a loud thud. She forced it back up, to stare at him, bleary-eyed. "Didda buncha ninsha shit t'get it. Fuggin badass's me. 'swhat I do. Badass shit an stealing an stuff." She reached into her pocket with a hand burned nearly to the bone and threw it at him. "Take it."<br /><br />He took it in the hand that wore the specially designed glove, then placed it in the reinforced briefcase. The song of madness had erupted in his brain the moment he touched it, but subsided once the case was closed. He finished his drink, further muffling the dread song. He looked on the sodden mess with new pity. She'd been carrying it around in her pocket. He held out a thick envelope.<br /><br />"Well, you've earned every penny of this."<br /><br />She lay sprawled half across the table, not even bothering to look up. "Fugyer munny. Fuck you." He started to put the envelope away and her uninjured hand opened. "Gimme," she said.<br /><br />He placed the envelope in her hand and left. At the door, he turned and looked back. The kind old man that ran the bar had come to her and, with the help of his round little wife, essentially carried the drunken spy to what he presumed was a back office. Let her sleep it off, then. If she could.<br /><br />The limousine pulled up in front of the bar as he exited, the back door opening.<br /><br />"Get in."<br /><br />He obeyed.<br /><br />Once seated inside, he immediately handed the briefcase to the thin gentleman with the wispy blond hair. The man did not bother to open it, merely closed his eyes briefly and smiled.<br /><br />"Well done," he said. "I trust she was sufficiently compensated?"<br /><br />"Yes."<br /><br />The thin man clicked sympathetically. "Such a shame. She was the best we had, the only one who could do the job. She knew it would ravage her," he pursed his painted lips thoughtfully, "but I don't believe she really understood how much."<br /><br />"What happens now?"<br /><br />Thin shoulders shrugged. "She drinks away all the money you gave her and dies in a gutter somewhere, most likely."<br /><br />"No, I mean with..." he gestured at the case. He could still feel its pulsing song.<br /><br />The man laughed. "Oh, that. Yes, well." He patted the case. "I'll put it where it belongs in the machine."<br /><br />"What machine?"<br /><br />Another laugh. "Oh, you darling little hominid. This is the final piece of my infernal siege engine, the one I'll use to finally batter down the gates of Heaven." A shrug, then, "It will require fuel, obviously." He smiled, his teeth a foul yellow.<br /><br />"But that's what all you people are for, isn't it?"Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-37853862967719991132007-05-09T16:52:00.000-04:002007-05-09T22:54:19.447-04:00The Waverider<p>The stars sang to her. </p><p></p><p>The planets and comets and nebula clusters sang to her too, but it was the voices of the stars she loved listening to most. If she focused, she could pick out individual songs, like the languid ballad of a red giant many light years away. It sang of a long life that was coming to a close, of its brilliant youth and the myriad civilizations it nurtured on its fourth planet. It sang a bittersweet lament of that planet's death and a sad dirge for those who didn't escape it. Then she turned her attention to the sprightly tune of a new yellow sun, full of hope and the promise of life amid the swirling gas and rock of a young solar system. Its song was an anthem, vibrant and infectuous. She nodded her head to its rythmn for a while, smiling.</p><p></p><p>She pulled her awareness back, so all the songs blended to a single harmonious one. Starsong was beautiful, but to give oneself over to it completely was to ignore one's duties. And the duties of a Waverider, particularly one of the Justice Class, were of the highest importance. Few there were indeed who could master the complexities of the Wave with sufficient clarity to assemble the enigmatic Wavesuit, that near-mystical garment that allowed its wearer to channel the energies of the Universe itself.</p><p></p><p>The Wave. That omnipresent energy infused everything and everyone. All were aware of it, to the point where it was almost mundane and it did, indeed, serve many mundane functions. The mighty starships of the Galactic Fleet would never have left their home systems without the powerful Wave Engines to bend interstellar space. Even the primitive races knew of the Wave, though most who knew it confused it for some form of deity. Only the Waveriders, however, had that rare quality that allowed a living being to act as conduit for the Wave, bending the Universe to their will to work miracles. To do so required beings of incorruptible integrity possessing an iron will. A dedication to justice and the preservation of life was a Waverider's paramount mission, and in that a Waverider was ever vigilant.</p><p></p><p>Thus did Kae Starr, Justice Class Waverider, hear the merest whisper of a failing distress call. A passenger liner, traveling too close to a restricted system, ran afoul of a black hole and was being pulled inexorably toward destruction. With nary a second thought, Kae focused her perception to the signal's origin point, bending space about her so all the millions of light-years between them fell away in the span of a single step. As she approached the distressed liner, she felt the black hole's persistent tug. Against all instinct, she dove further into that maelstrom of gravity, grabbing hold of the liner and straining with all her prodigious might against the singularity's pull.</p><p></p><p>As she felt herself steadily losing ground, she channeled the Wave into a shield of pure force that would hold the sinking ship together. Gritting her teeth, she renewed her efforts. She was a Waverider. She would prevail.</p><p></p><p>Though a little assistance would not go amiss.</p>Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-1156816522396271562006-10-15T21:52:00.004-04:002009-09-03T10:22:07.871-04:00On Her Wedding Night<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman';"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; "><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Maryann sat patiently through the ceremony. The priest droned on, sermons building upon sermons, that she very nearly forgot what she was there for, her mind drifting far from her surroundings.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br /></span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">It was then the good Father bid the bride and groom to stand, and she returned to herself.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br /></span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Ah. Yes. That was it.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br /></span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">It was Maryann Barton's wedding day, and she could not possibly have felt less joyful. Her husband-to-be was an oafish man of business. His was an old family, their fortunes long in decline, until he discovered the veritable gold mine to be found in the trade of human beings. It was to his newfound wealth her father had sought to wed himself by wedding her to this aging and lecherous slaver. That she might be utterly repulsed by this corpulent oaf was of little concern to her father. Of course, Maryann had always been of little concern to her father, save as a bit of decoration, or as bait with which to entice wealthy men. The Bartons were also an old family, with similar fortunes to those of Maryann's erstwhile husband, prior to his lucrative business venture.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br /></span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">As the older man leaned in for the kiss, his vacant leer told her she would be of little concern to her husband as well, save as a source of offspring and a means to sate his trite and simple lusts.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br /></span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">She could bear it, all of it, for her new husband was a fool. A wealthy, foolish braggart who had, in his heavy-handed attempts to woo her, shown her his next scheme. He was poised to take control of a floundering textile business after divesting himself of most of his current holdings. The slave trade was not as respectable a profession as his ambitions required, and had therefore outlived its usefulness.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br /></span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">The formal ball was typical of its type, with food and wine in abundance and all the latest dances. She was partnered by several other leering old men and one dashing young soldier. She paid little attention to him, for all his rakish good looks, bestowing the favor of her fluttered lashes and empty giggles for the others. They would be of use to her later, the soldier would merely be a complication.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br /></span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">She smiled, however, in the early hours of the morning to think back on her dance with the young soldier. She smiled as she looked down at her dead husband, the last of his poisoned brandy soaking into the carpet. It would appear that he drank himself to death, upon any examination by a physician, and his excessive consumption at the ball would provide the necessary evidence. Yes, she smiled to think of the soldier, but laughed out loud to think of the look on her husband's fat face when he'd realized she was murdering him.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br /></span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">"No, my darling," she'd said softly, "do not try to speak. I am told the poison makes such a thing painful." She'd smiled, settling languidly against the plush pillows of the bed. "I have been told," she'd said as he fell to his knees, face red and eyes bulging, "by my mother, since my earliest memory, that a woman's greatest and only ambition is to marry well. That all we have is by leave of men, and all we do is by their will." She'd shaken her head then. "This did not sit well with me." The oaf's throat had swollen closed at this point and he'd gone beyond hearing, but she'd continued talking, "I resolved to prove her wrong." She'd laughed as his eyes rolled back in his head, "Thank you, dear husband," she'd said, kissing the reddened forehead, "for the assistance you are about to offer me in that regard.</span></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">"And have no fear, I will make much of the fortune you leave me," she assured him, "more than you ever could."</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br /></span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">With a last glance for her departed husband, she rose from her bed and made for the bell that would summon the staff. She had to work herself up a good cry before they came, to be convincing enough as the shocked and devastated widow.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br /></span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">If only she could stop laughing.</span></span></span></p></span>Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-1136000238713298032005-12-31T23:59:00.001-05:002010-02-27T23:10:53.630-05:00The Time Jumpers ClubDani slid the fusion rods into place, griping at Henri to start cycling the chronotron.<br /><br />"Seriously Dani," he warned her, "relax. It's four hours to the jump, and our gear is just about set up. What are we supposed to do until then? Hit one of the parties?"<br /><br />"No," Dani admitted with a sheepish smile. "I guess not. I'm just, y'know, excited..." She looked down and started fiddling with the buckles on her straps. Henri smiled.<br /><br />"Ah, look at you," he said, shaking his head. "When we first got together, you thought I was insane to do this. Threatened to break it off if I didn't stop doing it. Now you're busting your seams to get to your first jump."<br /><br />They smiled at each other, and Henri tucked an errant lock of her hair up into her skintight agesuit. "Wouldn't want just that strand turning grey, would we?"<br /><br />"That's enough of that, the both of you. I didn't agree to let girls into the club to watch you two make out at every available opportunity." A rakish young man entered the room, futzing with his palmtop. "If I wanted to see that, I'd start going to class again." He waved his hand at them and slid the palmtop into a sealed pouch on his belt. "And put your masks on, unless you want your faces to be older than the rest of you."<br /><br />"Well, doy."<br /><br />"Shut up, Henri."<br /><br />"Up yours, Doug."<br /><br />"Wait," Dani said, mask halfway to her face. Henri already had his in place, sealing him into his agesuit. Dani looked between him and Doug. "Don't we still have, like, four hours?"<br /><br />Doug grinned with one corner of his mouth. It wasn't quite a smirk, and Dani was convinced this was simply the best Doug could do with regard to a smile. "I assumed you'd be excited about your first jump," he said, "so I slid us all forward to just about midnight."<br /><br />"I didn't think we could do that," Henri said, surprised.<br /><br />"Tonight we can," Doug answered. "Time travel is easier at the fulcrum between years. It's why Dani waited until New Year's Eve to make her first jump."<br /><br />"Oh yeah," Henri said, laughing. "Man, remember that jump we had in 2000? Made it to just a few millennia shy of the Big Bang on our third jump before the tether snapped us back."<br /><br />"How far do you think we'll be able to go?" Dani asked as Henri made one final check of their gear.<br /><br />Doug scratched his chin, pondering the horizon. "Hmmm. I'd say, what, a couple of million, both ways, give or take?"<br /><br />Henri nodded. "Yeah. I'd say that's about right. Though I'm thinking of going forward first, if no one minds."<br /><br />"Feeling optimistic?"<br /><br />"Just adventurous."<br /><br />Henri and Doug attached each other's calendar-packs, then Henri approached Dani with hers. "Here," he said, offering to attach it to her harness.<br /><br />She turned her back to him and he set about inserting tubes and wires from the pack to her agesuit and back. "What is this again?" She tried to keep the nervousness out of her voice.<br /><br />"It's a motor Doug and I built, that moves through 4th-dimensional space, keeping itself anchored to the time of its 3rd-dimensional origin."<br /><br />"What?" Dani looked at him, lost. She'd read the research, but her Masters was in history. She only knew as much science as she absolutely had to.<br /><br />Henri smiled. "Essentially, it has a safety feature built in so you can't get lost. Once I turn it on," he flipped a switch, and Dani felt an odd tug at her back. It was slight, and not uncomfortable. "You're tethered to this time and place." He and Doug turned theirs on, and Dani thought she could see, out of the corner of her eye, a long spiraling cord linking them to the main part of the time machine. When she turned to look directly at it, there was nothing.<br /><br />"Ready?" Henri asked her, taking hold of her hand.<br /><br />She squeezed his hand tight and nodded, grinning from ear-to-ear. "Yeah."<br /><br />"Then let's go."<br /><br />The future opened up before them, and they leapt into it. Tethered to the now by a strand of solid time, they fell swiftly toward tomorrow.Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-1136163095764126862005-12-31T23:57:00.001-05:002010-02-27T23:13:46.841-05:00The Infinite WomanDani soared through the future, riding the furious currents of the timestream. Henri had said that jumping in the past was a calmer ride. Histories tend to be static, with alternate branches clearly marked, and the timestream was easier to navigate. The future, with its cascading waves of probability, ran rougher and harder and was nearly impossible to navigate. It was also the most fun, according to Henri, though Doug preferred the more orderly jump into the past.<br /><br />Dani laughed as winds of time buffeted her and tossed her about. She saw humanity's greatest civilization fall into barbarism, only to rise and fall and rise again. She saw a future where an alien occupation interrupted the steady flow of human civilization, and another where humanity's fall into barbarism tore the planet itself asunder.<br /><br />She was coasting through the utopian futures when she felt the tug on her calendar-pack. She felt herself jerked backward through a few decades of a Golden Age, the tug on her pack getting stronger until...<br /><br />Her tether snapped. And she was freefalling toward realtime in an era far removed from her own. From the corner of her eye, she saw the glistening chronofilaments of her tether spiraling back toward her present. Then she hit the future face-first.<br /><br />"Are you hurt?"<br /><br />She looked up from the dusty hard surface she'd landed on. Her agesuit was still intact, including the helmet, which was good, since her visor was reading a highly toxic atmosphere. A smoky fume lay low about the area, casting the sunlight in a strange hue, and everywhere she looked were buildings, elaborate vehicles, factories and what appeared to be power plants.<br /><br />A tall hairless man looked down at her with some concern. He seemed human, save for a leathery hide around his nose and mouth. His clothing was of alien appearance and the lack of any hair was a bit disturbing, but he spoke flawless unaccented American English, as did the others who'd begun to gather.<br /><br />"Is she all right?"<br /><br />"She looks okay, if a bit odd."<br /><br />"Hmm. She is at that. Odd."<br /><br />An older woman crouched down by Dani and held out her hand. "Pay them no mind, dear. You just come along with me and we'll get you looked after."<br /><br />Dani nodded, rising slowly to her feet, and followed the woman. The others watched after them for a bit, then went back about their business.<br /><br />"You're a time traveler, ain't yeh?"<br /><br />Dani was a bit shocked by the question. How could this woman know that?<br /><br />"Uhh..." she looked around.<br /><br />The older woman smiled and waved a hand. "Nah, it's okay. I know you are. But don't worry. You're safe. Despite the look of the place, we're actually rather advanced from what you're probably used to."<br /><br />Dani learned from the other woman, who's name was Alice, as it turned out, that at some point in her relative near future, the leading minds would decide that, rather than preserving a livable environment, they would instead work on adapting humans to thrive in an industrial environment.<br /><br />So, a number of chemicals were added to the various immunizations and pre-natal treatments and within a few generations, humans found their organs augmented, or new organs grown altogether, to survive on polluted air and heavily-processed food. Their new lungs could glean even the smallest amount of oxygen from whatever was breathed in, and would condense everything else into a tiny globule that was coughed up later.<br /><br />There were certain side-effects to this genetic manipulation, such as a surge in brain capacity. Humans now used nearly 60% of their brains, and had learned to communicate without words, mind-to-mind, even over great distances. It was how Dani was able to understand them so easily. It had also created a global consciousness, along with a greater awareness of their place in the universe and their responsibility to their planet. Over the last couple of generations, there had been significant work done at rebuilding some of the planet's ravaged ecosystem. Technologies had been created to explore the galaxy for new worlds.<br /><br />"And we've got time travel too," Alice said with a wink. "So we can get you home."<br /><br />"How did you know I was lost?" Dani asked.<br /><br />Alice chuckled. "Because if you weren't, you would have made a more graceful entrance." She gestured for Dani to hurry. "Come on. I'll show you our machine."<br /><br />Meanwhile, hundreds of centuries in the past, Henri and Doug were frantically trying to locate Dani through the vast maelstrom of the future.<br /><br />"Well? Did you find her signal?"<br /><br />"Not in the last 10 seconds, no, Henri, I didn't. If she were lost in the past..."<br /><br />"Oh, don't start Doug. Just because I wanted a future jump, doesn't make this my--"<br /><br />Doug waved him quiet, staring intently at his screen. "Shut up! I think I have her."<br /><br />"What? Well, get her! Bring her back! Bring her ba--"<br /><br />"I said, shut up." Doug fiddled with a few dials, flipped a switch or two, typed furiously at his keyboard and then pulled a lever on the side of the time machine.<br /><br />Dani was secured to the frame of Alice's time machine, a series of cables running into and out of her calendar-pack. Alice fiddled with some dials on her control panel.<br /><br />"Your calendar-pack seems to be a similar design to my own machine, so I shouldn't have any trouble getting you back where you need to be. Presumably, there's a base machine in your proper time and... ah. There it is. Hold on." She toggled a switch, and chronal energy flowed through Dani's pack.<br /><br />Just as the tether from her present tried to latch on.<br /><br />The chronal energies merged, overloading the pack and Alice's time machine. Dani screamed as raw time arced unimpeded through her body, surging up her nervous system directly to her brain. A wave of pure time exploded out from Dani, rippling through the multiverse and touching every conceivable timeline. Every single version of Dani that existed found themselves aligned at that moment, in body, mind and circumstance. Infinity coursed through her veins, and her consciousness spread across every one of her variant minds. She knew everything, she was everything, as each version of her collapsed into a singular Dani.<br /><br />Dani floated along the timestream, sailing its currents with instinctive ease. She could no longer exist in realtime. This chaotic realm was her only home now, and she would ride its rapids through eternity and back.<br /><br />She told all this to a grieving Henri during one of many jumps he made in an attempt to find her. She told him she was lost to him, and that he should look for her no longer and find love with another.<br /><br />But Henri would not listen, jumping again and again into tomorrow and yesterday. Until the day he jumped without a suit, and was torn to dust by the ravages of time. Veteran jumpers would come to tell their pupils Henri's tragic tale.<br /><br />The tale of the broken jumper, his soul scattered amid the currents of time, forever lost in his search for the Infinite Woman.Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-1135886491703476712005-12-29T14:44:00.000-05:002005-12-29T16:16:51.496-05:00New Year's Morning AfterHe woke, slightly groggy, and made a vain attempt to figure out just where he was. He was in a very comfortable bed, though not his own, in a tastefully, yet eclectically, decorated bedroom, also not his own. He didn't recognize the room, nor the woman in the few photos near the bed. She was cute, though.<br /><br />And then she was in the room, standing next to the bed clad only in what he recognized as one of his dress shirts. A foggy recollection from the previous night suggested he had worn that shirt to Kim's party. Kim's party... is that where he met this woman?<br /><br />"'Morning, babe," she purred, handing him a mug of coffee.<br /><br />"Thanks," he croaked through his incredibly dry mouth, taking the mug. He sipped it cautiously, and found it was exactly the way he liked it. "Mmmm," he said. "this is delicious. Thanks again."<br /><br />"Don't mention it, sexy," she said with a sly smile, sliding into bed next to him. She lay down, her tousled red hair splayed across the pillow, and his shirt open to reveal most of two perfectly formed breasts. They, too, seemed vaguely familiar. The woman stretched and sighed, lying up against him with her head on his shoulder. He smiled and drank his coffee. He may not know who this woman was now, but he clearly knew her very well last night. He briefly regretted how drunk he must have been the night before. He had a feeling last night was one he'd want to remember. He finished the last of his coffee and set the mug down on the end table next to him.<br /><br />"Um, listen," he said, as the woman began nuzzling his neck. "At the risk of insulting you, I was wondering, uh...ohhh..." She'd begun doing something with her hand that was making it very hard for him to think straight.<br /><br />"Forgotten my name, have you?" she murmured, kissing her way from his neck to his chest, then back up his neck to his mouth. "Don't worry about it, baby. I never even bothered to ask yours."<br /><br />"Mmmm," he kissed her back as she crawled up on top of him. "Oh-okay..."<br /><br />He kissed her mouth, their tongues twining together, then kissed her neck. She moved up, pressing her breasts against his face. He took one and then the other into his mouth, sucking them until he heard her moan. He grabbed hold of her and threw her down on the bed, where she landed with a gasp and a giggle. From her breasts he kissed down her stomach, stopping between her legs, inhaling the delicious scent of her before kissing and licking and sucking her to multiple sustained orgasms.<br /><br />Then she kissed him, licking her juices from his lips, and said, "My turn." She smiled and winked, and began kissing her way down his chest.<br /><br />They had sex five times that morning, once with her on top, once with him on top, twice with him behind her and once with her pressed up against the wall. She came, screaming, that final time, collapsing on top of him, their bodies entwined in a pulsing, sweating knot of glistening limbs.<br /><br />"That was... that was..." he panted, feeling his heart pound in his chest.<br /><br />"I know," she sighed, content. "Amazing." She climbed on top of him, straddling him, and smiled. "Time for breakfast," she said.<br /><br />"Oh hey yeah, that sounds--"<br /><br />The rest of his words were cut off with a wet gurgle as she tore out his throat with her teeth. For a while, he struggled to breathe through the ragged hole in his neck. By the time she'd stripped the flesh from his chest and most of one arm, he was dead. She ate a while, but was interrupted by the phone.<br /><br />She wiped her arm over her mouth, smearing his blood across her cheek as she answered the phone. "Hello?"<br /><br />"Oh, hi Kim. No, he stayed over. Yeah, twice last night and five times this morning. I'm really going to miss this one, but you know how it goes."<br /><br />Her eyes widened at the words coming over the phone. "What? No, you didn't tell me. No. No, you didn't. Well, okay yeah, I was pretty drunk, but shit, Kim. I would have remembered that."<br /><br />She sighed, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, okay. Okay! God! I'll remember for next time." She said goodbye and hung up the phone, returning to the half-eaten corpse on her bed. She looked down at him and shrugged.<br /><br />"If she didn't want me eating her friends, she should stop trying to set me up with them."<br /><br /><em>A Happy, Safe, Healthy and appropriately Drunken New Year from Spontaneous Fiction!</em>Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13652927.post-1136256878135864142005-12-28T00:30:00.000-05:002007-05-27T21:10:18.238-04:00Rocket MomKathryn closed the cabinet door, flicking a toggle that placed its contents in perfect stasis and looked around her kitchen. She couldn't recall it ever being this clean. Her whole house had an eerie quality about it that the word "spotless" couldn't begin to cover. It disturbed her, but she knew why it was necessary. No sense in all their bits of precious getting smashed to hell during their ascent. Of course, they didn't have to then scour the entire house to the cellular level... but, they were a thorough bunch.<br /><br />And it had been tough, building a spaceship around a house. No one had really understood why she'd gone to all the trouble, but since she was the star of this little show, there wasn't much anyone could do about it except what she told them to. In the end, her innovative use of materials and revolutionary design concepts had created a model that was now being imitated at a furious pace. Within months of completion on her own house, she'd found herself starting up a multi-billion-dollar corporation, just to make sure the companies selling her ship conversion designs to Jane and John Q Everybody were selling quality merchandise. The last thing she wanted on her conscience were shiploads of suburbanites exploding in the upper atmosphere.<br /><br />Bad enough she couldn't stop thinking of the ones who weren't coming. The ones who couldn't even buy passage on the retrofitted cargo carriers euphemistically called "cattle busses". She cried a little every day when she thought of the ones getting left.<br /><br />And it wasn't as though they were being left to die, she thought. Then she could console herself with the fact that they wouldn't suffer too long. No, they were just being left to fend for themselves on a planet bereft of resources, under disintegrating ozone and a poison sky. It's likely they'd live, and that the planet would start to fix itself within a few generations after most of the humans left. But life in those years, and many to follow, would not be at all pleasant.<br /><br />She left the kitchen, crossing the living room to go and stand on the back porch. She looked out at the dying landscape through the thick glass enclosure and sighed.<br /><br />But her son would be safe. She was taking him away from all that. And she was taking him in a spaceship made out of his house, the only home he'd ever known, so he wouldn't be too scared. She felt a little guilty at the extravagance, but she didn't care. Since she'd joined the top-secret Project Exodus team and had seen the real data, her sole motivation had been getting her son off this planet as quickly as she could.<br /><br />Once she and Brenner made their breakthrough with the transdimensional engine, the governments of the world were eating out of their hands. Corporations threw money at them to build cheap efficient spacecraft to use for a planetary evacuation, and all of a sudden, they were billionaire celebrities. Kathryn had just taken the money and poured it into her research, determined to also make her son's escape as painless as possible.<br /><br />Brenner, on the other hand, had started acting like a rock star. He did the talk shows, the awards galas, the parties... Two years into the final phase of the Project, and Brenner was dead, having spent all his money on hard drugs and expensive hookers. Much of the early team had similar breakdowns. The enormity of their task, the weight of the knowledge they had borne in secret for so long, they cracked under its pressure.<br /><br />But not her. Within a year, she had completely reinvented spaceflight from scratch. The year after that, and the prototype Homeship conversion, hers, was finished. Her son thought the whole thing was incredibly cool, especially how he was going to live in space. He couldn't quite get over that. At 5, he had no real understanding of the larger global issues, or the terrible destiny awaiting their homeworld. To him this was all a grand adventure. Not for the first time, his mother envied him that.<br /><br />And so, tomorrow. Launch Day. Turning, she walked back through the living room toward her son's bedroom. She'd caught him playing with his new gravity controls that afternoon, and she wanted to be sure he wasn't floating up out of his bed.<br /><br />Though she and her husband had made good use of the gravity controls more than once since they were installed. She smiled to herself. Maybe once she was sure Andy was asleep, they might again. If she could tear her husband away from his pilot's chair long enough. She shook her head. She knew it was a mistake to put flight control in his den. A quick peek in the door told her Andy was fast asleep, so she shut his door quietly and went to find her husband.<br /><br />It was a long flight ahead to their new planet, but as Kathryn walked down the hall to her bedroom, she took solace in the fact that they'd already be home before they got there.Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333221047600488068noreply@blogger.com4