A few extracts of my (distantly) upcoming works
BEYOND THE LINE
Eri'tha looked around at the strewn bodies of her victims. ''These scum raid our camp to take our women for rape and slavery. There are more fallen injured and dead outside with strange small holes in their bodies. Is that your work Patrick Hewitt?''
''Yes, it was my work.'' Patrick reached for the survival rifle and tugged again at the cocking handle.Perversely it now came free, ejecting an unfired round from the breech. He chambered the next cartridge and tilted the rifle skywards before experimentally squeezing the trigger. The weapon fired and cycled correctly, the small bullet making a neat hole in the tent roof. Eri'tha watched his actions without either comment or surprise, as if she had seen a firearm in operation every day of her life.
''Are you and your strange killing device ready?'' she asked calmly.
''I think so,'' he replied.
She raised her scimitar, blood still dripping from the blade. ''Then let us make haste, and kill our enemies.''
LAST RUN
John Kemble took a sip from his plastic cup of lukewarm coffee and shifted a little, moving his eye line up beyond the planetary terminator toward the barely visible stars. His reflected image in the glass stared back, mimicking his hand movement, the illumination from the side lamp enhancing the lighter tones seeping into his dark hair. But going grey before he was forty was not the only thing to set Kemble aside from the romantic and fictional version of the resourceful star ship commander. He was certainly not a tall or imposing figure, nor was he either particularly handsome or memorably ugly. Anyone asked to describe the commander of the SS Amazon Queen would probably settled for the old fall-back of average height/build. And his job role was in fact more in the nature of a line manager than the decisive presence of popular fiction, a facilitator and admin jockey starting to put weight on around his middle, rather than a hard-as-nails action man. He certainly didn't pack a fearsome-looking sidearm, quote Shakespeare freely, or drink Earl Grey, hot. John Kemble was instead very much his own man. And he was going grey.
EMPOWERMENT:
Benny held out a large black and white photograph. "I downloaded this from the ancestry files. The caption says it was taken in May 1940 after the Germans invaded France. It shows the locals watching the Germans entering their town. Your guy Lambert is the one wearing the suit and fedora and looking pretty damn happy, unlike the rest of the French dudes. Guess he was glad to see the Nazi's arrive, given his political sympathies. And as titled nobility, he probably didn't have to worry much about local opinion.... Hey Jenna, are you okay?"
No she wasn't. She felt suddenly light-headed, as if she'd just been hit by the effects of a massive shot of whiskey. 'It couldn't be.' She felt rather than actually saw herself extend a distinctly trembling finger, pointing out the figure standing at the rear of the military types, a small, slim, dark-haired woman in a retro-style polka-dot dress. "But that's her, that's Eve-Marie Lambert."
"Your lady friend, the one who made you the job offer?"
"Yes it's her, I'm sure it is."
Benny did a nice little double-take. "No, no; it can't be. Didn't you hear what I said? This photograph was taken in May 1940, over seventy years ago. That can't be the same woman. Even if she'd only been in her twenties then she'd be well over ninety now. But you said this Eve-Marie was forty at the most."
"Yes."
"Well then, unless she's got a real smart plastic surgeon this can't be the same woman. It just isn't possible."
GLITCH
''For four and a half centuries, the Royal Thurian Navy has guarded our great empire, fought and defeated our enemies, and protected our trade across the great gulfs of interstellar space. It has done so in the name of our home planet and of our people, holding to its traditions and oaths no matter what form of government might be currently in charge. But while empires rise, so also do empires fade. Time brings change and we of Thura must learn to change also. To attempt to cling to the old ways of powers by any means, to use violent suppression against even your own people when the tide of events turns against you, is to my mind one of the greatest crimes of all. I write these words in my private log in the full knowledge that should they ever be revealed, I would be tried for treason and executed. I will obey my orders because I am a loyal servant of the Navy and of the Empire, and because I believe that my mission, fantastical though it is, may yet prevent a war and save billions of lives on both sides. I just hope my moral scruples can survive the completion of it."
Commander Aliana Jacquetta Delenya RTN
Commanding Officer, Royal Thurian Warship 'Vengeful'
Benny held out a large black and white photograph. "I downloaded this from the ancestry files. The caption says it was taken in May 1940 after the Germans invaded France. It shows the locals watching the Germans entering their town. Your guy Lambert is the one wearing the suit and fedora and looking pretty damn happy, unlike the rest of the French dudes. Guess he was glad to see the Nazi's arrive, given his political sympathies. And as titled nobility, he probably didn't have to worry much about local opinion.... Hey Jenna, are you okay?"
No she wasn't. She felt suddenly light-headed, as if she'd just been hit by the effects of a massive shot of whiskey. 'It couldn't be.' She felt rather than actually saw herself extend a distinctly trembling finger, pointing out the figure standing at the rear of the military types, a small, slim, dark-haired woman in a retro-style polka-dot dress. "But that's her, that's Eve-Marie Lambert."
"Your lady friend, the one who made you the job offer?"
"Yes it's her, I'm sure it is."
Benny did a nice little double-take. "No, no; it can't be. Didn't you hear what I said? This photograph was taken in May 1940, over seventy years ago. That can't be the same woman. Even if she'd only been in her twenties then she'd be well over ninety now. But you said this Eve-Marie was forty at the most."
"Yes."
"Well then, unless she's got a real smart plastic surgeon this can't be the same woman. It just isn't possible."
GLITCH
''For four and a half centuries, the Royal Thurian Navy has guarded our great empire, fought and defeated our enemies, and protected our trade across the great gulfs of interstellar space. It has done so in the name of our home planet and of our people, holding to its traditions and oaths no matter what form of government might be currently in charge. But while empires rise, so also do empires fade. Time brings change and we of Thura must learn to change also. To attempt to cling to the old ways of powers by any means, to use violent suppression against even your own people when the tide of events turns against you, is to my mind one of the greatest crimes of all. I write these words in my private log in the full knowledge that should they ever be revealed, I would be tried for treason and executed. I will obey my orders because I am a loyal servant of the Navy and of the Empire, and because I believe that my mission, fantastical though it is, may yet prevent a war and save billions of lives on both sides. I just hope my moral scruples can survive the completion of it."
Commander Aliana Jacquetta Delenya RTN
Commanding Officer, Royal Thurian Warship 'Vengeful'